#they are literally drawn 2 months apart

[mud-muffin]

The Family, all of the DC-comic-universe deserves!😤💗

(so beloved that bruce checks in on them now and then, without their knowing 😅)

[uglypastels]

omg what about Logan being like the softest with a sensitive/shy reader. Idk in what context like maybe she’s just overwhelmed with life and kinda closed off in terms of voicing what’s wrong and you know he’s usually very stoic but he’s the BIGGEST softy. Totally not projecting btw.

YEsss Logan is such a fucking softie, no matter how hard he'd want to try and hide it. thank you for being my first request for this fandom i hope i can do it some justice 🫶 and pleeease, we love to project here so please, go right ahead.

warnings: darkness. anxiety. loneliness. alcohol. fem!reader. reader's mutation specified. mentions of past [implied toxic] relationship. so some angst but also bunch of fluff at the end. also please don't come for me if he's a bit out of character. this is my first time writing Logan so it will be trial and error.

~ X-Men Requests Open ~ Masterlist ~

It was the dead of the night. Quite literally. All around you was so quiet and dark that the rest of the world might as well have ceased to exist. All you heard was the floorboards creaking under your footsteps as slivers of moonlight illuminated your path through the corridors of the mansion. It was the rare instance that you felt at peace. 

Yes, you knew almost as soon as you stepped inside the large building and saw all these mutants walking around happily and carelessly that you had found a true safe haven, and yet, months later, you still had not found your bearings. It did not help that you were not exactly in the age bracket of most of the residents here. Having the mansion double as a school meant most of the mutants were in that school-going age range, and while they were lovely (for the most part), you had no desire to befriend children. Then, those who you felt more drawn to socially, like Storm or Jean, were all apart of that special ops team, which always left them busy, if not completely absent, while away on missions. 

Thus, most of your days went by in solitude. Something you had gotten used to throughout your life. Over the years it had become natural for you to simply disappear into your surroundings. Wether you wanted to or not, people simply overlooked you. In hindsight, it explained your mutation perfectly… or was that just an aftereffect of it? You had always wondered if it was one’s personality that influenced the mutation or the other way around.

Either way, for you, it all merged into one dark abyss. 

By now, you had gotten a hang of all the floor plans of the giant building, especially the route between your room and the kitchens. 

You hadn’t checked the clock when you got out of bed, but it must have been around 2 am, if not later. You didn’t expect anyone to be up at this ungodly hour. Especially not walking out of the dark kitchen exactly as you were coming through the threshold. The two of you bump, chest to chest, and the contact immediately made you burst out in a high-pitched scream. From the other side of the impact, you heard a muffled grunt and the sound of a blade being pulled. That was enough for your flight or fight mode to activate. You almost choked on the deep breath you took. The blade swung in your direction, but it only slashed the air where you once stood. 

‘Who’s there?’ it was a male voice. Hard and deep, almost wild. In your other form, your eyes adapted much better to the dark, and so you could see him looking around himself wildly. You counted the sharp appendages in his hands— no, they were coming out of his arms— six long claw-like blades ready to impale the very first thing that’d move. 

There was no doubt about it that this must have been the infamous Logan everyone around the mansion talked about. From what you had heard, he had been away for almost a year on some top-secret assignment for the Professor, but now he had apparently returned.

And what a comeback he has made, nearly stabbing you in the hallway.

‘Who’s there?’ he repeated his question louder, still looking around.

‘Just me.’ Your voice came out as the exact opposite of his, soft and weak, and you immediately regretted your words. Just me, as if he was supposed to know what that meant.

But it must have done the trick, as Logan retracted his claws. His shoulders visibly slacked at the lack of imminent danger.

‘Well, Me, you can come out of hiding. I’m not gonna hurt ya,’ he grumbled, ‘let me just turn the light on–’ 

‘Wait!’ You squeezed your eyes shut and let the cool air of the night brush over your bare arms. When you opened them again, all you could see was Logan’s large frame standing inside the kitchen, most likely hovering over the light switch, surprised at your sudden call.

‘Sorry, you can uhm– turn the lights on now.’ And like that, with a quiet flick, the kitchen illuminated with a soft orange glow. 

Logan’s eyes were immediately on you, scanning you up and down for any sign of recognition, but you already knew there would be none. Even if he had ever seen you before, there never was.

‘Do I know you?’ he cocked his head with the question, and all you could do was shake your head. 

‘I doubt it.’ No one knew you, but that didn’t feel like a smart response.

‘Care to introduce yourself, Bub?’ He leaned against the wall with the light switch, and maybe it was his overall greatness as he practically towered over you, but you felt a rush of heat fall over your face as he looked down at you in expectance. Awkwardly, you pushed out the sounds that formed your name, with a bonus of an extended hand for him to shake. 

‘And you must be Logan, right?’

He confirmed your suspicion with a grunt as he took your hand, squeezed firmly, but not painfully, and shook it once. Then, silence fell between you. 

Two strangers who met in a complete, nearly fatal accident. It was only to be expected you would have nothing to say to one another. But you were, after all both awake this late in the night, and that was enough to compel you to talk. 

‘Couldn’t sleep?’

‘Just got back, actually.’ His eyes glanced to your side and that is when you noticed the duffel bag that lay in the corridor. Then, only when you looked back at him did you take in what he was wearing. Not the expected gym shorts or sweatpants with an old shirt. Instead, Logan was dressed in a black button-up under a dark motorcycle jacket. With that, he had a boot cut-jeans and the boots to match. From the tiny dark dotted pattern on his shoulders and the light pitter-pattering that was occurring outside, it was visible he had just come from out of the rain. 

Immediately, a parade of questions entered your mind. Where had he been? Why did he come back so late? What was he doing in the kitchen? And so much more, though none of it would leave your mouth as you doubted he would talk to you about his secret mission. 

‘You alright?’ His brows furrowed as he looked down at you, and you realised how you must have looked. Staring up at him with wide eyes, not saying a single thing. Another heat flare hit your cheeks.

‘Yeah, I’m fine.’

He cocked his head in an examinatory fashion. The disbelief evident in his eyes. 

‘You’re new here, aren’t you?’

‘Relatively,’ you shrugged. ‘Got here a few months ago.’

‘Parents kicked you out?’ He assumed the most common backstory that comes with the residents of the mansion.

‘Not exactly,’ you kept your response short. After all, you could hardly tell a stranger you just met that your boyfriend had kicked you out of your shared apartment when he found out about your genetic abnormality. You had never been sure how he would have reacted, but the events that unfolded were even beyond your imagination. But the past was the past, and you didn’t want to dwell on it. The important part was that not a day after this conversation, you were crying in your car with nowhere to go. It was by chance that weeks after your break-up/eviction, you stumbled into some other mutants who told you about the Professor. You weren’t too sure about going to seek shelter at a school of all places, but in reality, the Academy was much more than that. Though it did give you the perfect opportunity to safely train your abilities.

That and so much more was what went through your head, but you didn’t say any of that to Logan. Why would you? He didn’t know you. He didn’t care about your problems, and you didn’t blame him for it. 

On the contrary, you appreciated that he didn’t press you for more details. When you answered the way you did, he simply nodded in understanding and made his way over to the fridge. The blue glow illuminated his tense features. Strange, for a man who had been a year on the go on some secret spy adventure, you would have expected him to return at least a bit beaten up. But besides maybe some signs of a bad sleep schedule, no form of strain was visible on his face.

‘You want something?’ he looked over at you, making you realise you had been, in fact, staring and not very subtly either. 

‘I’m good, thanks.’ 

‘Suit yourself,’ he went back to inspecting the contents of the fridge before sighing with disappointment. ‘They still don’t have anything stronger around here?’

‘Oh, if you’re looking for beer–’ you walked over to a cabinet at the other end of the kitchen. You tapped a corner, and a small code pad appeared. You tapped in the code, and the cabinet opened to reveal a fully stocked mini-bar. ‘Scott had it installed over the summer,’ you explained when you saw Logan’s confused expression.

‘Explains the babyproofing.’ He walked over, and you handed him a cool bottle of beer.

‘Well, it is a school after all.’ You held in a smile as the thought occurred to you that the kids might not have been the only ones who weren’t supposed to know about the secret compartment. The rivalry between Cyclops and the Wolverine was known all too well around the whole campus, even for newcomers such as yourself.

Logan smirked, taking his beer. You were about to offer a bottle opener, but he hit the neck of the bottle against the edge of the table and with a pop and a clink, the cap came right off. 

‘Here,’ he exchanged your bottles, giving you the open one. You watched him repeat his actions with the second drink. Your eyes were still on him as he chugged down half of the beer in one go. He probably could have downed the whole thing if it wasn’t for his look down at you, most likely noticing your entranced look.

‘That staring a part of your powers, too, then?’ he commented, and the acknowledgement immediately made you turn your head in the direction of the window.

‘Sorry. I just— I tend to do that, I guess.’ You wrinkled your nose. Being on your own around so many people, you had gotten used to people watching, observing them from a distance like a show on TV that you kept on for the background noise.

‘What do you do, anyway?’ He asked bluntly, ‘I thought I had done you in good back there.’

‘You would have,’ you chuckled, remembering just how close his claws had come into contact with you. ‘It’s hard to explain. I just kind of—’ You noticed the shadow that fell over the floor from the table and lightly grazed it with the tip of your toe. With a deep breath, the world in front of you changed. Except the exact opposite was the truth. ‘Disappear.’ You finished the sentence, punctuated by your new state.

Logan’s eyes widened as you disappeared in front of his eyes. Where the shock came from, he couldn’t explain. He had encountered these sorts of mutants before. But this felt different than regular invisibility or teleportation. With his heightened senses, he could always detect those sorts of hijinks. No one ever disappeared to him. But you— as soon as you had faded away, it was as if you had completely fallen off the face of the earth. Not a single trace of you lingered behind. When you spoke, just as you had in the hallway, your voice didn’t seem to be coming from one place. It was all around him, almost like a whisper, a voice inside his own head.

With a blink of an eye, you reappeared before him. Just as you had stood there moments before.

‘There’s not really a name for this, I think; at least no one around here could come up with anything that made sense.’ Not that you had any conversations that made people interested enough to do the research. ‘But from my own understanding, I kind of become one with the shadows.’

‘And what about the light?’ he recalled your yelp when he had tried to turn on the light.

‘I merge with the dark, and so when new light sources interfere… it’s not pretty.’

Logan simply nodded as he took the last swig of his beer.

For a moment, the two of you stood there in silence, you leaning against the counter and he against the large table. 

‘You’re doing it again, Bub.’ He smirked, calling out your lost stare. 

‘Sorry,’ you hadn’t even realised you were doing it. You had just been looking around the room and may have, perhaps, accidentally lingered a look at his frame for a few seconds. And then you caught sight of his hands. More specifically, his knuckles. There was a faint pink glow on the skin, but besides that, you would never be able to tell that deadly claws could grow out from there. You blinked. ‘Sorry.’ You were doing it again. Quickly, you drank the rest of your beer. The bitter taste lingered in your throat, suffocating the burning questions that you wanted to ask.

‘Spill it out.’ He hit you by surprise with the command.

‘Uh–what?’

You knew there were plenty of mindreaders around, but you had not thought it was one of Logan’s abilities. ‘How did you–’

‘It’s all in your face, sweetheart. You think just ‘cause you’re quiet, you’re hard to read, don’t you.’ His assumption left you a bit stunned. It wasn’t that you had thought exactly that, but more so that you never considered that you were making any expressions that were that easy to interpret, as you never really had anyone pay that much attention to you to point it out.

 ‘If you want to say something, just say it.’ Logan said the corner of his lips lifted in a small smile. ‘If you’re wondering if it hurts,’ he looked down at his knuckles, ‘it hurts just as any other one-foot-long knife cutting through skin.’

‘That’s awful.’ You gasped, considering what it must be like to have such a mutation that inadvertently harmed you any time you used it.

‘You get used to it after a while.’ 

Another round of silence. This time, the longer it went on, the more you started thinking how you must be inconveniencing him. With the beers drank, there was little for you both to still be doing here, but also didn’t want to be rude by just up and leaving. After all, you didn’t know Logan very well. 

‘You sure you’re alright?’ He asked, coming out from behind the table.

‘Yeah.’ You tried to smile but could tell it probably did not reach your eyes. Logan moved with a sense of apprehension, unsure of how to approach you. Being a year on the road, not to mention the years of solitude before he had joined the Professor’s team, had not exactly prepared him for these kinds of situations. He didn’t know the right things to do or to say. But to you, just his presence was enough. Just him being there, talking, or in this case, just seeing you, was more than you could have asked for. ‘I’m good.’ 

And yet, ironically, though you had actually meant it for once, you really did feel alright, but something about the situation caused tears to prickle in the corners of your eyes. Maybe it was the sleep deprivation that made you overly sensitive. Or the alcohol. 

You blinked the tears away and smiled awkwardly. ‘It’s just been a long day.’ or week. Month. Year. How about your entire life?

‘Yeah, tell me about it.’ There was that quirk in his lip again, that ghost of a smile. And you couldn’t figure out if his response was just a sarcastic quip, understandably referring to his past days, which you were sure did not consist of a walk in the park. Or did he actually mean it, and he did want you to tell him more? Well, your moment of contemplation brought on another wave of silence, and the heavier it fell, the worse you felt to go back to your problems.

The sudden sound of footsteps pulled you back into your world. People must be slowly waking up; meanwhile, you hadn’t had an hour of sleep yet, and the effect of that started to hit.

‘I should— should probably go.’ You muttered, taking small steps in the direction of the door.

‘Well, the offer always stands.’ Logan followed you with his eyes, turning in his spot as you passed by him. See you around, Nightshade.’

‘What?’ the nickname caught you off-guard, stopping you in your tracks. 

‘Sorry,’ Logan winced, ‘I don’t know—’ that’s what he gets for trying to be cute. 

‘No, don’t apologise. I like it.’ Your smile finally found its full form. A “thank you” almost slipped past it, but you held yourself back. It felt too cheesy to get all sentimental about something as silly as a nickname. Especially since he didn’t know what it meant for you. He didn’t need to know didn’t think you’d ever belong amongst these people enough to get a moniker. 

And maybe it didn’t mean anything at all, maybe he had just said it as a mindless comment on your powers. Or maybe not. Maybe he had really tried hard to put that smile on your face. 

You would never know.

Unless you took that one small step. Because, of course, all you had to do was ask, just like he had told you, but maybe another time. For now, you just bid him farewell, hoping for that next opportunity to certainly come sooner than later.

the end.

thank you for reading 💗

if you enjoyed the fic, please consider reblogging and leaving a comment. or send a message via my inbox. requests are also more than welcome. 💗

[frvnkcastles]

WANT YOU SO BAD ➵ F. CASTLE

Summary: You’re Matt’s best friend and you don’t much care for how Frank treats him — but you do end up caring for the man himself.

Warnings: Language, mentions of wounds, mutual pining

Word count: 1.8k

Author’s note: Ohmygod this request is literally 8 months old, I feel so bad it took me so long but here it finally is. Anon, if you see this, I hope you enjoy it, I’m thinking of you today <3

It was no easy feat being best friends with a vigilante — as much had been proven to you ever since you had bonded with Matt Murdock. You were constantly worried about him and for someone who had no prior experience, you sure found yourself doing a lot of stitching and nursing. Sometimes you wondered what it would be like to only know the lawyer side of him, but since he had saved your life as Daredevil and you had pieced his identity together all on your own, there was no changing the facts of your friendship. And those were 1) you were scared he was gonna get himself killed one day, and 2) you were going to do all you could to protect him, just like he protected you.

So, when a certain second vigilante made his debut in your city and Matt found himself in trouble yet again, you made the big bad Punisher someone you kept your eye on — for Matt’s sake, of course.

You weren’t in their little group, so you didn’t cross paths with him too quickly, and you doubted Matt would have introduced you to him. But as fate would have it, you and Frank frequented the same diner near your apartment, and on a Saturday night just like any other, you found the man sipping coffee in the corner booth of your favorite place to get French fries.

You placed your order and then, defiantly as ever, strutted your way to Frank and sat down across from him with a stern stare etched onto your face. His own expression spoke in volumes — who the Hell were you to invade his personal space and alone time? Still, he didn’t say anything, only stared back at you, trying to figure out why you looked so familiar. Had he killed someone close to you?

”You don’t know me, but I know you”, you started, inhaling and exhaling heavily to keep your anger at bay. ”You shot my best friend in the head, you asshole”, you seethed, keeping your voice quiet to avoid other patrons overhearing you, but it was still obvious you were pissed at him.

At that, Frank chuckled. ”You’re Red’s friend”, he put two and two together, and as he reached for his coffee mug again, you snatched it away from him, evoking a frustrated glare from him.

”Damn right I am. He’s just trying to protect the people in this city. He did nothing to deserve your… your shitstorm”, you ranted, pointing a blaming finger right at his chest. He lowered his eyes to your hand, but eventually looked right back up at you, leaning in to close the distance and whisper his counter-argument over the table.

”Yeah? Tell your friend he’s a fuckin’ coward. The criminals in this city… they don’t deserve a second chance. He ain’t makin’ any difference. I put a stop to ’em”, he growled, his eyes a bottomless pit as you made contact with them, and something about the sincere fury in them made you swallow. You were angry, but so was he, that much was obvious.

Before you could say anything more, the lady working at the diner brought your bag of food over to you, and gave you a reason to leave Frank alone. As you got up, you clenched your jaw and gave him one last look.

”I’ve got my eye on you”, you warned him, and as you walked away, Frank couldn’t help but chuckle. You were a force, and as much as he tried to resist, he felt drawn to that.

The next time you and Frank were in the same orbit, you were having a night out with your two best friends. It wasn’t the classiest bar, and maybe that was why it had attracted lowlifes to its pool table, but the drinks they served were cheap and the music they played good enough to dance to — that was why you were there, and that was exactly what you told him when he found you by the counter.

”This place ain’t safe”, he spoke quietly by your ear, trying to warn you, but you were feeling stubborn and a little drunk, so his attempt to get you out didn’t go too well.

”Screw you, who are you to tell me I can’t enjoy a night out?” you spat at him, loud enough for the gang members by the pool table to turn their attention to you. You were nobody to them, but Frank? He was far too easily recognized, and before you realized it, a full-blown gunfight had broken out.

Frank hauled you over the bar counter and you crouched onto the floor to shield yourself from the gunfire. Screams filled the night as people ran out of the bar, but Frank ran towards the danger, reminding you all too much of Matt. But when you peeked over the counter, you saw him in all his glory, and in that moment, he wasn’t like your best friend at all. Whereas Matt was graceful and precise in his movements, Frank was brute power, using his fists when guns didn’t do the trick. Blood coated his knuckles and he didn’t stop even when the men were down — only when they lay dead and he could catch his breath over their bodies.

You stood up and stared at him in some kind of wonder and amazement, but the words that tumbled out of your mouth were far from appreciative. ”Way to ruin girls’ night”, you scoffed, and rolling his eyes, Frank looked you over to make sure you were okay.

”They get you?” he rasped, and shaking your head, you smoothed your hands over your dress.

”I’m good.”

Nodding, Frank wiped his hands against his jeans and then offered one to you. ”Aight. I’m walkin’ you home. Don’t even try and protest, sweetheart.”

Reluctantly, you took his hand. ”I’m not your sweetheart”, you muttered under your breath, but he heard it, anyway, and it made him crack half a smile.

For such a big city, your circles seemed to be quite small. You ran into each other almost habitually after that, and without fail you managed to lecture him about treating Matt better and he argued back. But in between those little spats, you had both developed a liking to seeing each other, even if neither of you would admit it. Still, you couldn’t stop thinking about him, and you were doing a hell of a job distracting him from his mission, just by being you.

Undoubtedly, you had gotten under his skin, because not much time had gone by when he was actually working with Matt, not against him. Of course, you only learned about this when the two men appeared at your doorstep in the middle of the night.

You opened the door only to find Matt struggling to support Frank’s weight on him, a pool of blood soaking through the latter’s shirt. ”What the fuck?” you breathed out, stepping aside to let them in, and Matt didn’t waste any time in getting Frank to your couch.

”He took a knife for me”, Matt explained vaguely before turning to you and placing a hand on your shoulder. ”I need to go back out and make sure they didn’t follow us here. Can you handle him?” he asked you with genuine concern behind his words, but you didn’t hesitate.

”Yeah, I got this. Go, get out of here”, you urged him, and with that, he fled the apartment and left you alone with a groaning Frank. You glanced at him before heading for the bathroom where you quickly grabbed your first-aid kit and then stepped back into the living room where you crouched in front of him.

”I can do it myself”, Frank tried, but you slapped his hand away and gave him a glare.

”I got it. Take your shirt off”, you commanded, and for a second, Frank simply looked at you, but eventually caved in. With a huff, he struggled to get his shirt off but soon enough it was tossed onto the floor and you could get a good look at the gash on his abdomen. ”Okay. Definitely needs stitches but you’ll live”, you assessed the situation before taking out the disinfectant and getting to work.

You were both silent for a moment, with you focusing on Frank and Frank looking around the apartment, taking in all the details. It was so you. You had turned the place into a home, something he hadn’t been in for a long time, and against his better judgment, he relaxed. With you, he felt safe, like he could breathe again.

”So, you were protecting him, huh?” you asked finally, not looking up from the wound but the teasing tone in your voice was obvious.

Frank snorted. ”It ain’t that deep. You look after the people on your team, ’s all. I wasn’t gonna be outnumbered like that”, he explained it away, and now, it was your turn to chuckle.

”You sure you didn’t get attached? Maybe it started out as a rivalry, but then you realized he wasn’t so bad, after all. In fact, he’s kind of nice. Just what you needed. And now you can’t imagine being without him”, you theorized, right as you completed the final stitch.

”We still talkin’ about Red?” Frank asked in that deep voice of his, and your heart skipped a beat. You looked up at him, your eyes locked on each other, and suddenly you were painfully aware of his shirtless state. It was truly a sight to behold — he was sculpted like an artist’s handiwork, and now, with your neatly applied stitches on him, maybe he was.

”I’m done now”, you evaded the question while reaching for his shirt and handing it back over to him. Frank shrugged it back on, and you made a move to get up from the floor, but he stopped you with a gentle hand on your wrist.

”I did get attached”, he admitted quietly, avoiding your eyes for a beat before looking right into your soul and tilting his head at you. You were situated right between his knees, resting on top of your own, and it gave him the perfect angle to lean down and seal the distance between your lips. His landed on yours like a magnet was pulling them together, soft and sweet, not at all as rough or intimidating as he was. With you, he was gentle and tender, and your heart fluttered when he pulled away.

”Red’s gonna be so mad”, he whispered, and you couldn’t help but giggle, both of you chuckling before he kissed you again, a little more determined and heavy this time. Your eyes closed and you brought both hands to his face, cradling him and holding him close to you, all the while you breathed each other in.

”I guess he’s just gonna have to deal with it.”

[yarrystyleeza]

Happy birthday tomorrow Yuna! Hope you'll have an amazing day ❤️❤️

As for a request... When I saw you would write for Daryl, I knew I had to send you something. Season 1 and 2 Daryl lives rent free in my mind, so can I please request:

"when they tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear while you talk" and "brushing against each other, even if there is enough room"

Thank you in advance and again, Happy birthday 😁❤️🎉

Awww thank you my love, sorry for answering this late, hope you didn't mind it, it was stupid of me! 😅💖💖💖

I was stuck with the plot of the request for the last two months until last night, I literally wrote this in less than 10 hours lol 🤣🤣🤣 hope you enjoy it, though, and sorry for keeping you hanging! 💖💖💖 You're so welcome and thank you for dropping this request and for the birthday wishes! 🥰🥰🥰

Little Things (D.D)

Requested by @munsonownsmyass

Pairing and dynamic: Daryl Dixon x female! reader, idiots in love

Prompt: fluff, s1!s2!Daryl, tucking hair behind ear, brushing against each other even if there's enough room + petnames for the cherry on top!

Word count: 1.4k!

Writer's note: I loved writing this one so much! As you lily, season one and two Daryl is my favorite Daryl era (beside S8). Not 100% proofread but I hope you really enjoy it, have a great day! <3

"Hurt y'self, little thin'?" He teased, watching you lying on the forest bed after your foot faltered and slipped you into the bottom of the hill. Your brows knitted, you rolled your eyes, he chuckled at the face you made, "alright, I'm comin'."

He slides down, smoothly, and a little bit pompously—with a smirk on his face. You can't lie—he made you smile though you desperately wanted to punch him right in the face.

He offered his hand to you and you accepted his help. At first, he let you wrap your arm around his neck as he walked you towards the hill exit—but as it turns out, you sprained your ankle so bad it was impossible for you to take another step. He scooped you in his arms and carried you back to the quarry.

And that's how you met Daryl.

You can't admit he wasn't a pain in the ass most of the time—if not always, getting on your nerves and driving you up the wall, it was so constant you started thinking he was doing it on purpose.

It kinda was. Daryl had serious troubles with conveying his emotions, and that idiot had a sickening crush on you ever since he saw you at the camp with the girls. He wanted your attention and he only got it when he drove you mad, so he tooled it in his advantage.

You were his favorite. You're the only one he talks to—other than his brother, Merle—and you, too, are the only one who wants to talk to him.

You too had a crush on him. His silly fights and bickering became more amusing to you—sometimes you couldn't even contain the smile drawn across your face when he's mad about something so stupid and could be fixed in complete silence, and when you gave him your smug face—it always drove him insane. You learnt he's quick-tempered, but these ones were visibly made up just to get a chance to be with you.

Daryl reminded you of those little boys in the playground when they used to ruin the girls' sand castles or pull their braids and ribbons just to get their attention. Ever since you came up to this conclusion—life has never been easier!

But things changed a little bit after the attack on the quarry. Daryl turned from only being a hot-headed idiot to be completely protective of you, but that doesn't mean he stopped getting angry—God forbid he does! But he got more reasonable and collected—around you, at least.

As soon as you got to the CDC, he grew closer to you, more friendly, more worried, more caring. He barely slept the night you spent there, checking on you every thirty minutes to make sure you don't need anything—despite you being a wall apart. It was adorable, and it stirred something in you.

Same night at dinner, right before you went to bed, he sat beside you as you dined, he made sure your plate was full and that you'd eaten well because 'it's been a while since you got a decent meal', he says.

And in the middle of the chaos the following morning—he solely cared for you, and not a thing was going to stop him from smashing Dr. Jenner's head that morning if it wasn't for you calming him down.

The two of you escaped in his pickup truck. But despite the horror you had just fled, you couldn't stop stealing glances at each other, Daryl was focused on driving but you spotted him staring at you with soft eyes a couple of times. Both of you blushed, multiple times—vividly, but you couldn't stop. Something was so amusing and sweet about the way he was looking at you, and you were so tempting to him he couldn't stop staring at you even if he wanted to.

Now, staying at Hershel's farmhouse, Daryl turned out to be that sweet lovey dovey guy who'd absolutely melt under your touch—in complete opposite to the face he's been showing to everyone.

As you went out to search for Sophia, Daryl offered to accompany you. He kept brushing arms with you, pumping into your side, and gently holding your biceps to guide you as you walked. He kept putting himself between you and any threat, not letting you shed a drop of sweat—you were almost a passenger princess, but on foot.

But it was very obvious the night he got shot—your heart dropped when it happened, and when you learned it was your Daryl and not some misinformation. You couldn't watch as they took the bullet out, you couldn't watch him screaming in agony—yet you heard him from behind the door. It tore your heart into pieces.

The night fell as you sat on the chair next to his bed, your head dripping every couple minutes as you drifted in and out of sleep. Your head was heavy as a rock sinking in the ocean—yet you kept fighting Mr. Sandman back, shaking your head and rubbing your eyes and patting your face.

"Go to bed, pet," he softly demanded, "ye're tired from sittin' here all day," he extended an arm, gently placing it on your thigh and squeezing it chastely, "ya need some rest."

You shook your head, "I'm fine, Daryl," you shrugged, "it's not like it's the first time I stay up late."

Both of you stay silent, staring at each other with soft eyes. "Climb up in 'ere," Daryl says, his voice was tinted with plead "at least you won't have to keep droppin' yer head like a sippy chicken."

"No, Daryl," you shook your head in utter refusal, desperately trying to show him how awake you are despite craving a warm bed, "you need your own space. What if I accidentally hit your wound--"

"Come on, pet, you know you won't..." he softly smiles, shaking his head. You sigh and climb into the bed with him and he shares his blanket with you. He turns to face you, the moonlight is perfectly casted upon your faces, his blue eyes sparkled and reflected you like a looking glass. He grazes your cheek, tucking your stray hair back behind your ear and his fingertips linger on the skin of your neck.

"Get some sleep, love," he caresses your hair, "I won't need nothin' when ye're right next to me."

You woke up tangled up in his chest, it was warm and peaceful. You never wanted to slip out of his arms—if it wasn't for Hershel coming over to check on him and the men accompanying him.

Daryl got better as the days gone by. You started to see him in the kitchen fetching some biscuits or chips, he'd pump into you on his way out, brushing arms with you and glancing at you with his blueies and a smile. And if he's in the right mood, he'd take you off guard and peck your cheek, and you'd turn red and try to bite your smile. He caught it had quite the right effect on you, and he's been doing it ever since.

"Let it down, pumpkin," Daryl flirts as he snatches the scrunchie out of your hand as you tried to tie your hair, "love it when it's coverin' yer pretty face, gives me a reason to keep tuckin' it back."

"But we're going on a mission," you protest, "it would be dangerous for both of us!"

Daryl takes a run around the golden field and you chase him—but he overpowers you and you stop running, panting and clutching your chest as he giggles. He mischievously walks back closer to you, so you try to take it back, but he's taller than you, stretching his hand up with your scrunchie and shaking it to tease you. "Ya ain't tiein' it today, darlin'."

"Give it back!" you giggle as you jump to reach for your scrunchie, but he keeps stretching his arm above his head.

"Ye look so cute like that, pumpkin," he pulls a smug face as you lean forward against him, your chests compacting and you're an inch away from kissing.

"You could've told me you wanted to kiss me," you tease, not minding that he lowered his hand back down. He tucks your stray bangs behind your ear, ending up doing what he wanted to do all along.

"But it's more fun to watch ya tiptoe and lean on to me like that," he rounds you with his big arms, pulling you deeper into his chest with a Bastard smirk on his face, "it makes you even prettier, pet. These little things you do."

Likes and reblogs are appreciated, thank you for coming to my birthday sleepover celebration! 💞💞💞

[dark-overlord-of-rainbows]

Mostly memes because what's a fandom without them 1: Drawn Nov 13 2024. "You're telling me a shrimp friend this rice" & "Apartment complex? I find it quite simple" 2: Drawn Nov 16 2024. "it is pride month, walter. you know what that means" literally just hastily edited this one before posting because Ididn't want to put too much more effort in this silly meme but I drew the directors body really badly idk why. 3: Drawn Nov 15 2024. "The smart kid, not understanding how he's losing to me/me, who's been eating his pieces when he's not looking" + I attempted a tiger cub and housecat saber. I'm not that good at drawing animals but I thought it'd be interesting to attempt comparing their proportions I think I've been preemptively "apologizing" about my art a lot again lately, I do mostly like my art now! but y'know how it is. I'm not gonna rewrite this Nomads is by @captain-juuter

[thewulf]

Who are You? || Jake Seresin

Summary: After breaking up with you lovely cheating fiancée you find a place to stay at your Aunt Penny's house in San Diego. You might just get more than you bargained for when you meet the Jake Seresin.

A/N: First attempt at Top Gun, loved writing for him!

Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x Y/N

Word Count: 4,700+

Part 2

Life came at you fast. One moment you were planning your wedding with the supposed ‘love of your life’ Aaron, the next you were on the floor of your shared apartment wondering why he had to go and ruin everything. You and Aaron had met back in college when you were both studying engineering. He swept you off your feet, quite literally. A mishap in a chemistry lab had him picking you up so you wouldn’t get burned. From then on, the two of you had been inseparable.

Aaron was everything you wanted in a man. He was sweet, kind, funny and just an overall good person to be around. At least, that’s what you thought. The two of you moved to Michigan after graduating, both of you securing well-paying engineering jobs. You thought you were happy, you thought you’d start a life in Michigan but apparently Aaron had other plans.

You stated noticing odd behaviors from your fiancée five years into the relationship. His once calm and kind demeanor changed ever so slightly. He snapped at you often, something your Aaron wouldn’t have dreamed of doing even just a year prior. He wasn’t fun to be around anymore, you tried to make jokes that would have made him laugh and crack one back with you, but he just rolled his eyes at you instead.

You weren’t sure when it all started culminating but you were damn near a breaking point. Five years into a relationship and his personality changed so drastically over the last six months. You tried taking advice from both your mom and aunts, but nothing worked.

All the tension came to a head when you were out one night with a friend, Mandy, heading to the local bars. Aaron was supposed to be gone for the week on a work trip. He was indeed not on a work trip. Mandy spotted him and excitedly tried to drag you over to him. Your eyes widened and you yanked your arm away from her. She didn’t know Aaron was supposed to be gone. You quickly ducked your head and walked to a side of the bar you were sure he couldn’t see you from. Mandy was clearly confused but followed you anyway.

“He’s not supposed to be here Mandy.” Y/N said while quietly sipping on the whisky sour you had ordered earlier.

“Where’s he supposed to be then?” She asked with confusion laced on her brow.

Y/N took a slow and drawn-out breath while closing her eyes knowing something wasn’t right. Mandy was looking at you expectantly when you opened your eyes again, “Minnesota, for work.”

She bit her lip trying to come up with any excuse for him in the book. You gave her a sad smile while shifting around a few people trying to get a better line of sight on the liar.

Your heart sunk when a beautiful girl seemed to appear out of thin air wrapping her dainty arms around your fiancée. You bit the inside of your cheek hard, trying to will the tears that were threatening to spill to stay put. You continued to watch half hoping it was just a friend, God willing it’d just be a friend. Your heart shattered when he placed a soft kiss on her lips smiling like the fucking idiot he was. Your teeth clenched down harder drawing a metallic taste from your mouth.

“Oh, Y/N, let’s go.” Mandy softly grabbed at your arm attempting to pull you away from the bar. Your legs felt like lead as she tried to drag you away. You couldn’t hear anything nor process what you saw. You heard your heart beating slow and not so steady. Closing your eyes again you swallowed the blood that pooled in your mouth.

“I should go up to him.” You mumbled ignoring Mandy’s protests.

This time Mandy squeezed your arm trying to get you to snap out of whatever daze you were in, “That’d be an awful idea Y/N. Take some pictures and let’s go home.”

You nodded taking another sip from your sour, nearly hissing when it hit the open wound from your cheek bite. The fucking loser was continuing to hurt you without even realizing it. Mandy snapped a few more pictures making sure to get everything.

That’s how you landed on the floor of your shared apartment silently crying. The gravity of the situation finally hit you, your life you wanted to start was over. Aaron ruined it before it could really begin.

You sent the pictures to your mom and aunts who, of course, were nothing but supportive. They helped to get you out of the situation. Your mom flew in to help you pack your things and your Aunt Penny offered to let you come out to San Diego and live with her for a while. You worked it out with your boss, he agreed to let you work from home rather than lose you completely. You were free to go to San Diego for the next six months.

The actual breakup was heartbreaking yet again. Aaron almost looked relieved when you ended it only confirming your worst nightmare, being used in a relationship. It was a blessing in disguise you kept telling yourself as you made the 35-hour drive to your Aunt Penny’s. It certainly was the biggest blessing in disguise for Y/N.

You pulled up to Penny’s blue home three days after starting your cross-country road trip. You smiled taking in the views around you, smelling the salty ocean air that was unfamiliar to you. The air was warm and refreshing and the ocean front views went on for miles. Penny and Amelia ran outside to greet you, more than excited to have you come stay with them.

“Y/N!” Amelia yelled running up to you throwing herself into your outstretched arms.

“Meals!” You enthusiastically replied, “you’ve grown.” You whispered into her hair as you held her closely.

“You would have known that if you visited.” She stuck her tongue out at you after getting a better look at you.

You ruffled her hair sighing, realizing just how much you missed out because of Aaron. “I know, that’s on me. Don’t let stupid boys make decisions for you.” She nodded her head smiling while backing away, giving room for Penny to sneak in.

“It’s okay,” Penny cooed pulling you into a hug, “we’ve got plenty of time to catch up.”

You nodded your head feeling very good about the decision to stow away at the Benjamin household for a while. “How’ve you been Aunt Pen?” You asked while grabbing a suitcase out of the back. Amelia came around and started unloading the contents with you.

“Been wonderful.” She grinned ear to ear.

“Moms got a boyfriend.” Amelia giggled while wiggling her eyebrows, “A pilot boyfriend.”

“Really?” You asked your aunt, eyebrows raised in curiosity.

She nodded, “I do. He’ll be around tonight.”

“What’s tonight? Anything happening?” Y/N asked nobody in particular.

Amelia ran inside with your items leaving you alone with Penny.

“Nothing major. I’ve got to close the Hard Deck tonight. He usually stops by to say hello. Along with a few other aviators.”

You smirked at your blushing aunt, “A boyfriend huh? Is he cute? What’s his name? Can I come tonight?”

She laughed at your rapid-fire questions, “Of course he’s cute! Very handsome. His name is Pete Mitchell.” Penny smiled thinking about him. “And yes of course you can come on by, it’s always a good time on a Friday night.”

“Oh, so you’re in love love.” Y/N smirked grabbing the last of the items from your car.

Penny shrugged, “A bit.”

“How do I look Amelia?” You asked your cousin as you walked down the stairs.

She grinned setting down the book she was reading, “Beautiful, as always.”

“You’re way too nice to me Meals.” You smiled sitting down next to her on the couch.

She shrugged, looking eerily like her mother, “It’s the truth.”

“We’ll thank you, you’re my favorite cousin.”

“I’m your only cousin!” She laughed punching you in the shoulder lightly.

“Precisely.” You winked getting up from the couch. “So, what am I walking into?” You eyed the fridge containing beer, you knew one would calm your nerves.

She peeked back over her book, “Lots of flyboys. All cute too. Some cool girls come around too.”

You nodded cracking open the beer, getting rather nervous hearing that, “Pretty cute hmm?”

She nodded her head enthusiastically, “I think so. They’re all very kind. Just twice my age. So, it’s more of a looking situation for me.”

“Not twice mine.”

Amelia giggled shaking her head, “Mom always says no flyboys. I assume she’ll say the same for you. Bit of a hypocrite she is.”

This time it was your turn to laugh, “Sounds like she knows something.”

Amelia nodded looking down at the time, “You better go if you want to beat Mav there.”

“Mav?”

“Maverick, it’s Pete’s callsign. They all have one.”

You nodded finishing the rest of the beer, “I have no idea what I’m getting myself into.”

“You’ll have fun! Go! Don’t think of that stupid boy either. Enjoy the night.” She shot up from her spot on the couch and began pushing you towards the front door.

You put your hands up, “Alright, alright! Have a good night, Meals.”

“You to! But not too much.”

You hesitantly walked towards the Hard Deck really regretting your decision to go out tonight. You just weren’t feeling up to it now. All you really wanted to do was grab a pint of ice cream and hang out with Amelia.

Sighing you pushed open the door to the bar taking in your surroundings quickly. Everybody appeared to be normal, no flyboys in sight. Smiling you walked over to the bar spotting Penny’s blonde hair.

“There you are, was beginning to worry you wouldn’t show.” She grinned grabbing you a beer and setting it down in front of you.

“Thanks Pen. Your daughter distracted me when I was leaving.”

She shook her head, “Pete and the crew should be here any moment.”

You nodded taking a big sip of the beer, hoping to feel lightly buzzed before meeting a bunch of new people.

True to Penny’s word a few people in uniform came waltzing through. All of them seemed to ooze confidence which sent you scrunching down in your chair trying to avoid any and all eye contact. It’s not that you didn’t like meeting new people, it’s just that they were all so intimidating. You snapped your head back to Penny with wide eyes.

“What’s the matter?” She laughed pouring what you assumed to be Pete’s beer.

“They’re terrifying.” You whispered leaning in close.

She let out an alarmingly loud laugh that you were sure grabbed the attention of the crew, “Hardly love. They may look it but they’re a bunch of hooligans.”

“I can attest to that.” A male voice spoke from behind sending you nearly jumping out of your seat.

“Jesus.” You took a breath and turned around to look at the very handsome man.

“Pete! This is Y/N. She finally made it in from Michigan.” Penny handed him his beer as he sat down next to you.

“Hello.” You smiled at him taking another good look at him while sipping on your own beer.

“Nice to meet you Y/N. Penny’s told me all about you.”

You turned to your aunt with a raised brow, “She’s always had a big mouth.”

“Hey!” Penny laughed hitting you with the bar rag, “Only good things I promise Y/N.”

“I believe you Aunt Pen.” You smiled brightly at your aunt.

“Alright, let me go serve the kids and I’ll be back.” She winked at the both of you before turning around to a ‘kid’ who was sporting a rather pornstache looking mustache. You noticed him pointing over to you and Penny looking back at you. Rather uncomfortably you turned your entire body to Pete and tried to distract yourself.

“So, Pete, are you good to my Aunt Pen?”

He smiled watching her pour beers and hand them to the kid, “Of course. I lost her once and I’m certainly not planning on doing that again.”

“Good.” You nodded taking another swig from your glass.

“And you? What’s your story kiddo?”

You sighed not really wanting to get into the nitty gritty details with Penny’s boyfriend, “My fiancée cheated on me. I needed to get away and Penny offered her place for a while.”

He nodded slowly taking you in this time, “Sorry kid. People suck sometimes.”

You bobbed your head unsure what to say to the man, “Indeed they do.” You said while sighing, finishing off the beer.

“Not all of them suck,” he smirked finishing his off at the same time, “Looks like somebody else has some eyes for you.” He set his glass down and stood up, motioning for that somebody to come over.

“Don’t leave me.” You pleaded seeing him start to walk away.

He laughed, “From what Penny tells me, you’ll be able to handle him just fine.” He winked and disappeared behind a few people. You sighed yet again scrunching your nose up, not too thrilled with the situation you had landed yourself in.

“Need another?” A new voice spoke from behind. Y/N turned around slowly shyly smiling at the aviator in behind her. 

“Uhh, sure.” You bit your lip turning back towards the bar cursing your inability to even hold a conversation with the handsome stranger.

“You mind?” He pointed to the chair.

You shook your head no racking your brain for anything to say to the man sitting beside you. He was beautiful Y/N thought. A far departure from her once fiancée Aaron, the stranger sported blonde hair and green eyes, stunning green eyes. Y/N took a breath and smiled again at him.

“I’m Y/N.”

“Beautiful name for an even more beautiful woman.” He grinned calling Penny over to refill both drinks.

You couldn’t stop the light blush that crept across your face, earning a chuckle from the handsome stranger sitting next to you.

“Don’t even think about it Hangman.” Penny spoke eyeing her niece and the serial player sitting close together, “Not my niece.” She glared at him taking both glasses.

He chuckled sticking his hand out to you, “Jake Seresin, callsign Hangman.”

You took his hand gingerly in yours shaking it briefly, “Nice to meet you.” You eyed him curiously waiting for an explanation that was never going to come.

“Hangman?” You questioned.

“Long story.” He nodded scooting ever so slightly closer to you.

“Like the kids game?” 

This time he laughed, loudly, drawing the attention of his fellow aviators. “Exactly like the kids game.”

You nodded, “That’s interesting.”

“Just like me sweetheart.”

You could feel another blush creep up, you mentally cursed your face for giving you away so easily. Y/N was flustered. Aaron wasn’t nearly as smooth as this beautiful man was before you. You didn’t know how to deal with this level of boldness, not quite used to the attention he was giving you.

Penny saved your racing thoughts setting the beers down rather hard eyeing Jake in the process. “I’ve got my eye on you Seresin.” She smiled walking away back over to Maverick on the other side of the bar. 

“What’s that about?” You asked sincerely hoping for an honest answer from the man sitting even more closely now, not that you minded.

“Nothing sweetheart.” he finally looked back up into your eyes stopping whatever he was going to say. 

This time it was his turn to sigh, “I might have a small reputation.”

Furrowing your eyebrows, you took a long drawn-out sip of your beer waiting for him to go on.

He ran a hand through his hair trying to figure out what to say to the beautiful woman sitting next to him. He wasn’t sure what had come over him, but her eyes stopped his usual spiel. It was like she was bearing her entire soul to him in just the way she was looking at him. He sucked in a breath before continuing.

“A playboy reputation?” He spoke timidly, grinning at her but he knew she could see right through it.

“Ahh, there it is.” Y/N clicked her tongue almost afraid to look back him. You knew you would get sucked back into his eyes, all green and perfect. It’s always the eyes for Y/N.

He gulped knowing his next words would dictate the way the rest of his night would go, “Come over and meet my friends. They’re a great group of people.”

You looked at him expectantly considering the options. He quickly pivoted away from that statement. Bud what else did you have to lose? You knew his end game now and you certainly weren’t going to let him take you home tonight.

“Sure.” You nodded standing from your seat. He grabbed your beer and led you over to the small group of people standing around the pool table. Jake cleared his through garnering the attention of the crew.

“This is Y/N, our dear Penny’s niece.”

“We know.” Pornstache guy smiled walking over to you, “Penny told me.” He winked at Jake before continuing looking down at you, “Bradley Bradshaw ma’am, these assholes call me Rooster.”

You smiled seeing the rest of the group groan telling him to shut up, “Nice to meet you, Bradley.” You opted for using his real name, not quite comfortable enough to use the nicknames just yet.

“These two are both trouble.” The lone female stepped up and pulled you away, “Natasha, or Phoenix.” She smiled snatching your beer away from Jake before handing it back to you. “Those two playing pool are Payback and Bob.”

You waved quickly turning your attention back to Natasha, “It’s a pleasure to meet you all, although slightly overwhelming.”

She laughed patting your back, “You just missed the big group. We just wrapped up a mission a few days ago. Everybody is getting reassigned. I luckily get to stay for a while longer with these smooth brains.” 

“Hey now,” Jake walked back over eyeing you subtly, “You love us Phoenix.”

She scoffed, “Love is a word you can use.” She spoke while rolling her eyes.

“So, Y/N,” Jake spoke in his oddly attractive southern draw, you turned you attention back to the man, “where are you from? What’s your story?”

You noticed the rest of the crew go back to what they were doing leaving you with Jake, Phoenix shaking her head used to Jake’s antics. 

You tapped your glass thinking of what you wanted to tell him, “From Ohio, lived in Michigan, broke up with a guy and now I’m here.” You nodded your head knowing that’s all you wanted to say.

He chuckled this time taking his turn to respond. Noting that Y/N was closed off. “You want to go for a walk darling?”

You eyed him curiously, “Are you going to murder me?”

You earned a snort from him this time, “Now why would I do that to the beautiful woman I’m trying to take out on a date?”

You shrugged, “Just something a murderer would suggest.” You smiled up at him charmingly, “Wait, did you say date?”

“I did beautiful.” Smirking he took a long drink from his glass. You gulped eyeing him, how could one be so attractive taking a drink of beer?

You hummed keeping your eyes on him as he lowered his glass, “Maybe. You’ll have to convince me though.” You shrugged as nonchalantly as you could muster, trying to form some sort of confidence.

“Well let me take you on a walk then darling.” He grinned setting his empty glass down on a table. 

“Alright,” you set your glass down and turned towards Natasha, “if I don’t come back though, he did it.” You pointed towards Jake.

She laughed, “Jake is many things, I don’t think he’s slick enough to get away with murder though.”

Jake rolled his eyes and softly touched your wrist, “May I?”

You snapped your body back around feeling his warm touch on your arm, “Okay.” You spoke while your brain short circuited from the contact. He pulled your arm gently into his side bringing you closely to him. You were sure your heart was about to beat right out of your chest.

The two of you walked slowly down the beach in a comfortable silence listening to the waves crash onto shore.

“From Ohio? And moved to Michigan?” He asked softly not wanting to startle you.

You hummed agreeing with his statement, “Got my degree and found a job in Michigan. It’s a beautiful state, just too cold in the winter.”

He chuckled, “It doesn’t get too cold in Texas.”

“That where you’re from?”

“Yes ma’am.” He spoke while rubbing his thumb along your forearm sending a wave of chills down your body. “Born and raised, Texas is home.”

“Never been.” You admitted.

He gasped, “Well I’ll be. I’ll take you there one day.” He squeezed your arm gently.

“Oh really?”

“If you let me that is.” He spoke sounding rather nervous, a far cry from his previous flirting.

“We’ll see Tic Tac Toe.”

He threw his head back laughing loudly, “Hangman darling.”

“I like Candyland better.” You looked up to him for the first time since you two left the bar smiling as his green eyes reflected the sunset on the horizon. 

“Well, I’ll tell you what darling,” he stopped abruptly which halted you in place, “you can call me whatever kids game you want if you let me take you out?”

Giggling you bit your cheek to suppress the grin forming on your face, “That’s a tempting offer.”

He nodded, “Then take it.” He winked down at you pulling you slightly closer to him.

You did want to take his offer. He was a beautiful man practically begging you to go on one date with him. Why were you so apprehensive? Was it the look Penny gave you before you went off with him? Was it the thought of even attempting to form a new relationship so soon after the last one ended? Was it simply because you were scared? You looked up at him biting your lip softly trying to form a coherent sentence with him looking at you so expectantly.

“What’s got you thinking so hard beautiful?” He asked while raising his eyebrow, curious to the girl’s apprehension. Jake wasn’t used to it. Sure, women have played hard to get but he always knew their end game. With you? He wasn’t so sure. You were shy, quiet and seemed uncertain. Something was stopping you and it was already driving Jake mad. You were simply different, as cliché as that sounds. You clearly wanted to entertain his advances, but he could not figure out the why, yet.

You hummed still trying to figure out what to say to him. Of course, the stupid blush you couldn’t hide crept back up onto your face. Should you just tell him the truth? You didn’t want to offload so much onto this nearly complete stranger, but he seemed so earnest, so eager to learn about you that you had the urge to.

Still stopped on the supposed walk you were supposed to be taking you finally garnered the courage to speak to him, “Jake, I just got out of a long and quite frankly heartbreaking relationship. I don’t know if I’m ready yet. I don’t want to string you along or hurt you.” You finished the last part of your statement quietly, so quietly you weren’t sure if he heard it.

There it was, he knew there had to be something. He also knew you were a total sweetheart just in the admission. You didn’t want to hurt him?

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.

This question made you think. Did you want to talk about it? You’ve only talked to your mom about it, Penny a bit but the nitty gritty details were left out. You did want to talk about it, but with Jake? You weren’t sure.

“I don’t want to unload on you like that, I hardly know you.” You admitted sheepishly avoiding his gaze that never seemed to leave your face.

“And how do people get to know other people Y/N?” He asked sincerely, not trying to sound like an asshole but really trying to get to know you.

You let a small chuckle escape your mouth nodding your head to his point, “They talk.”

“Exactly.” He grinned at you once you finally got the courage to look back up to him, “And I asked about that, I want to know. But if you don’t want me to know that’s alright. There’s many things to talk about.”

You shook your head more in disbelief than anything, “Who are you, Jake? My aunt obviously thinks of you a certain way yet you’re speaking to me like somebody completely different.”

He shrugged, “She sees a certain persona that I want everybody to see. I’m not just that person, that’d make me a pretty awful person.”

“Then why do you put that persona out there?” You questioned, genuinely curious.

“That’s a great question Y/N. One that I’m still figuring out.”

You nodded at his honesty deciding to air out your own baggage to him, “My fiancée cheated on me. I’m not sure how many times or when it started but I caught him out one night at the bar making out with somebody else.” You spoke quickly.

He softly squeezed your arm in comfort, “That’s no man, darling. Dodged yourself a bullet.”

“Spent way to long chasing and holding onto that bullet.” You sighed.

The rest of your walk with Jake consisted of you spilling every detail, to an extent, to him. Something felt so right talking with him. He was the first person who just listened and let you speak your mind. He spoke up when you needed him to, but he let you get it al out. You also learned quite about him in return, you weren’t going to let him get away knowing so much of your baggage without knowing some of his.

He talked about the ‘one that got away’ and how he fucked it up. How his insecurities let the best thing that’s ever happened to him walk away. He admitted to you that he didn’t want to do that again, to feel such sadness knowing it was from your own mistakes.

Before the both of you knew it you spent two hours walking up and down the now dark beach as the sun had set hours prior. When you finally got back to the Hard Deck your aunt was closing the place down with Pete sitting there patiently waiting on her. You didn’t see any of the other aviators as you looked around.

“Have fun?” Penny asked eyeing you curiously seeing as who you came back to the bar with.

You nodded walking to her, Jake in tow, “I did.”

“Me too.” Jake chimed in placing his hand at the small of your back. You could not stop the shiver that ripped down your body from the feeling. You could have sworn you heard Jake laugh softly in response.

Penny smiled shaking her head, “That’s good. What’d you two do?”

You noticed Pete listening in but trying to make it seem like he wasn’t, “Just walked and talked.” You admitted without admitting a single thing.

Penny smiled eyeing Jake yet again, “Just, be careful.” She spoke to you.

“I am, don’t worry Aunt Pen.”

“It’s not you that I’m worried about.” She answered truthfully earning a chuckle from the tall blonde pilot.

“I can promise you Penny, there’s no way I could hurt this one right here. If anything, she’ll go breaking my heart.”

You rolled your eyes trying to play it off cool, but the blush had another idea. Penny grinned like a Cheshire cat seeing your reaction to his over-the-top statement. Penny handed the two of you another round of beers, on her, before quickly turning her attention back to cleaning and Pete.

Gaining some confidence as he led you away from earshot you finally said what you wanted to, “So Jake, about that date?

Part 2

[kenposting]

New Guy Part 2! Ah!!!

Summary: Ken invites you over for dinner at his house - something you were greatly looking forward to! Until you noticed something was on his mind.

WC: 4.2k

AN: literally so many people asked me to write more and i just wanted to cry wtf .......... i just feel so silly like i just like him!!! and u guys like him too gosh i luv u guys!!!!!! wtf!!!

Read Part 1 here: New Guy

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀⋆˚✿˖°⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

Ken was off today and you really, really missed him. For some reason. He brought a sort of light to the diner that was just not there before he arrived. Sure, he made zero fucking sense 90% of the time, but he didn’t take himself too seriously, and that was incredibly refreshing. 

The girls you worked with snickered behind him often, though, and you did pick up on his face whenever he saw them laugh at a question he had or an encouraging comment he’d make. He really was trying his best, but it seemed no one took that into consideration. 

Perhaps that’s why he asked you to come over after your shift today. You never laughed at him, you always answered his questions no matter how simple they were, and you actually spoke to him like you respected him. Because you do! 

It was an odd feeling to keep looking up at the clock. You didn’t have class since it was now Summertime (and neither did he, as important as studying Beach was to him) and, upon realizing Summer meant a break from college, he very hurriedly asked if that meant he could “take you out sometime – but, you know, only if you wanted to, I mean, I don’t want to make you feel pressured or anything…” 

He was so cute for whatever reason and you found yourself unable to let that go – it’s like he wasn’t real; like he hadn’t been tainted by the rest of the world. He cried – literally cried – the last time you were late for a shift because he thought something bad had happened to you. You promised you’d make it up to him however he wanted and all he could think of was asking you to teach him how to ride a bike. You didn’t know why he was like… that… and you didn’t worry yourself trying to figure it out. 

The directions he gave you to his apartment were drawn in crayon on the back of a paper placemat from work. He made sure to include a tiny house and tiny diner and lots of arrows. He knew the way well, too; as if he had recited it to himself lots of times. Maybe he was scared to forget where he lived. Now that you thought about it, he never drove, only ever walked, and he did say he was new to town when you met him a few months back. 

His house was tiny and sweet, only six short blocks from where the two of you worked. You could tell he took great care tending to it, even just by observing the front yard. It was blocked off by a metal gate and seemed to be an older home, simple and freshly painted eggshell white. He had planted flowers around the outside beside the front step before the small patch of grass began. 

You couldn’t see it, obviously, but he had been pacing around inside for half an hour, nervous about seeing you. And you seeing him. Did he look okay? Was his house okay? He was just beside himself, which didn’t go away at all when he heard a gentle knock at the door.

“Hey, Ken!” 

He stood meekly in front of you as you opened the door, nervously folding and wringing his hands together, scared to do or say something that would make a bad impression. He was nearly hiding behind the door. This was silly since you worked with him almost every day (and hung out with him almost every evening). You noticed a shift over the last few weeks – like his bubbly demeanor had subsided a little. It was probably your coworkers getting to him. 

“Thanks for having me over. I like it so far!” 

He smiled sheepishly and looked at the ground, a blush arising on his cheeks as he seemed to regain a little bit of himself at your presence. 

“Thanks! I’ll show you the rest of my mo–” 

He stopped himself, brows furrowed, like he was going to say something out of habit, but remembered something and decided against it.

“My house, but it will probably only take, like, five seconds. It’s pretty small.” 

He stepped aside, holding the door open for you (something ‘gentlemanly’ he had learned from observing other couples at the diner – he was proud he noticed this). You saw his hands shaking, but you appreciated the confident gesture anyways. 

You stepped in beside him as he closed the door behind you, taking in the scenery. His house was… definitely… something. 

“My friend Gloria helped me find it and even paid for the deposit so I could live here and work! I paid her back, of course.” 

He was confident in his home, it came across in his tone of voice. He had surely made it his own. It was loud as hell. The walls were a bright pink color, but somehow it kind of worked. 

“They helped me paint it too! Gloria and her groom-husband and their daughter.” 

Brushing past his bizarre choice of words (but what’s new, it’s Ken), you surprisingly felt relief within yourself at hearing she was married. You hadn’t realized you were holding your breath on that one. 

Your eyes glanced around the place, taking in all of the little things that were so… him. It was like a frat house, but way nicer; cozier. He had shelving all around with little trinkets carefully placed everywhere, some of horses, some of small glass fish, and even some of tiny people. He had put so much thought into these scenes of humans just having fun, one shelf showing a scene of a bunch of friends playing beach volleyball and another showing guys in all black posed in various dance positions playing rock-paper-scissors. 

“Ken, this is so sweet. Did you make all this yourself?” 

He looked aside and blushed, shrugging off the compliment. 

The adjacent wall had framed photos of people dressed in what you assumed to be Halloween costumes. A scene of a fierce man in a gold tracksuit posed next to a blonde girl with a sparkly dress on, the framed photo sitting proudly next to a shot of a group of girls (and one boy) in a mock supreme court dressed in all pink jumpsuits. 

He opened his mouth to tell you about the people in the picture, but you watched as he teared up just thinking about them. It must’ve been a sensitive subject, so you thought it better to not ask. 

Above his (ridiculously messy) desk were tacked drawings on the wall. Crayon drawings. You saw him making them on his breaks. There were little doodles of horses, and some of people having fun at the beach, but mainly horses. You sensed a theme. 

“This section is for all the things people gave me when I came to the real world.” 

His voice was trembling a bit, like he missed them very dearly. Ignoring the ‘real world’ thing, you looked where he was gesturing to see a whole lot of unique and incredibly thoughtful gifts. A tiny disco ball, a small pink model car, a gag book called “Backflips for Dummies” where ‘dummies’ had been crossed out with marker and replaced with a handwritten ‘Ken’, a baby blue record player with matching pink headphones, a seashell, a tiny model campfire, a collection of various headbands, a pink first aid kit – it was just endless. He was clearly so very loved by these people. 

“And all of my furniture was made for me by carpenter Barbie!” 

The Barbie thing was ever-present in his descriptions of home. It didn’t bother you, really, but it was just… getting old. You knew it was just some bit, assuming he was calling his ex-girlfriends Barbies since his name was Ken. A classic joke, sure, but he had beaten it to death at this point. 

“Jeez, Ken, how many girls have you dated?” 

You were careful to come off playfully, never wanting to risk hurting his feelings. You got it, really. He was so sweet and charming, but it felt weird to hear about Carpenter Barbie and Lawyer Barbie – even Stereotypical Barbie. It wasn’t like him at all. His entire personality glowed with respect for everyone he's ever met, so why was he reducing his past loves to just their job title? 

“Oh… No, I haven’t ever… dated anyone before. Their names really were all Barbie, their careers were just how we’d all tell the difference when we were talking about them. I know things are different here. Even you – you’re not named Barbie.” 

You blinked at him. He knew you didn’t believe him, and it showed on his face, like he wanted so badly to just take your hand and introduce you to everyone. His genuineness was hard to pass over, but seriously? All of them were named Barbie? It didn’t make sense. And you supposed it didn’t have to. What did it matter – he lived here now, didn’t he?  

“It’s okay, Ken. Maybe I can meet them one day.” 

His ears pricked at that, stuffing that idea aside for later. It was Summertime, after all. Doesn’t everyone go on vacation for Summer? 

“Mmhm, I can take you!”

It was like he was trying not to fist-pump. He was always so animated. It was one of the very first things you noticed about him. “Anyways… I made dinner. I figured you’d be hungry after working so hard.” 

He stepped into his (tiny) dining area and for the first time, you got a good look at him. His house was kind of a lot – so much so that it had sort of overshadowed him, but as he stood there, the golden evening light from the window washing over him, you wondered how it had taken you so long to notice. 

He stood tall in the archway, wearing a gray pullover sweater, one you’d get at a university (but it had the Barbie logo embroidered on it). Light jeans were cuffed enough to show off his socks. He had swapped the usual white crew-style for patterned ones with little jellyfish all over them. His face was glowing in front of you and you felt yourself just wanting to leap towards him. He looked so cozy and soft and kind and handsome and – 

“I’m not sure what you like with it so I just kind of made everything…” 

You looked over his shoulder to see a rather extensive display of food. Still simple, though, nothing too extravagant, but it was clear he had put a lot of thought into everything. 

Most of his dishes were plastic (and heart-shaped) but you found that rather charming. He had made the same lunch your mom had made growing up, the one you had told him about just days before when he asked you what you’d be doing right now if you could be anywhere in the world. 

“Probably back home, but I’ve got rent to pay so I can’t travel for the Summer if it's longer than a day trip.” 

You remembered him looking so sad, like he was going to cry. The two of you were taking your lunch breaks together, as you did most days. You snacked while he drew horses with crayons on a napkin. He said he wasn’t hungry and that his head was hurting (probably because of the alcohol he’d ordered for the first time on your study date the night before). His cheek was squished, resting on his fist as he scribbled away, very focused. 

“What would you do at home?” 

“Have lunch with my mom at the kitchen table, soup and sandwiches. All the best things always happen at the kitchen table.” 

His face furrowed and scrunched as he put his whole heart into his drawing. His tongue even poked out a few times before he proudly showed it off to you. 

“My art teacher wants to put these in the gallery this weekend! She told me that my drawings perfectly capture the nostalgia of childhood, but I don’t know what those words mean.” 

You looked at him now, standing in front of you in his tiny little house, having prepared all of this just for you, remembering and holding on to everything you had passively told him. It was nearly maddening how kind he was – like you were just waiting for the other shoe to drop at any moment. There had to be a catch. There was no way this guy was real. 

He pulled a (baby blue) chair out, allowing you to sit first. You thanked him for putting all this work in, but he shrugged it off like it was nothing. It was like he was created just to serve the people around him. Even the girls at work that were mean to him – he’d pick up their shifts the second they didn’t feel like coming in and he spoke so highly of them, noting how they’d helped him to get the hang of his job. If only you could figure out this whole Barbie real-world thing, maybe you’d understand him a little better, but right now it all just seemed a little ridiculous – both the stories of his hometown and his chivalrous behavior. There was no way he was real. You’d pinch yourself to see if you’re dreaming, but that didn’t work the last twenty times, so really there’s no point. 

Seriously, though. What was his deal? You liked him so much – it just snuck up on you. You weren’t looking to be with anyone but you just couldn’t figure him out, and maybe you didn’t want to. Every guy you’d known had some bizarre at the least or toxic at the worst trait that came up eventually and you so desperately wanted him to be different. Now was as good a time as any to get it over with, rip the bandaid off, and be free of this false hope. 

“Hey, Ken…” 

“Hmm?” 

His mouth was full but he looked up at you immediately with a great intensity, like he was so concerned to make sure you were alright. His eyelashes fluttered as he blinked at you, waiting (literally) on the edge of his seat. The seats were too small for him. He kind of towered over most of the things in his house, actually. It was like this was a little dollhouse and he had barely begun to outgrow it. 

“What’s with all of the Barbie and Ken stuff?” 

He just looked at you, confused at your question. 

You sighed. 

“I mean, you always say Barbies and Kens instead of just saying women and men. And you always talk about how this… place, this world, is different from your own. I really like you and I’m really trying to understand it but I just don’t get it.” 

He blinked at you, brows furrowing as he nearly choked on his food and tried to gather some sort of answer that wouldn’t further confuse you. 

“You�� you like me?” 

You realized what you had said just moments before. It came as a shock to the both of you. You did like him. You liked him so much it was starting to annoy you, actually. 

You nodded, frustrated, like you were searching for some sort of explanation that wouldn’t further confuse him. 

“I do, I like you a lot. I think about you all the time, you’re so silly I just love being around you, you’re ridiculously handsome it’s actually absurd, you’re so good at your job and so kind and you try so hard in school, I love your drawings, I love eating lunch with you, I just love… you. All of you” 

You watched as his lip quivered. He had been trying to hold it in all evening but he just couldn't anymore. 

“You like me?!” 

He bit down on the inside of his lip to stop the shaking. 

“I like you! And I’ve been wanting to tell you for so long but I’ve just never felt this way and… And I just feel like I never know what I’m doing. This place is so different than back home and I always want to take some initiative to show you how I feel but I’m just scared I’m going to bother you and that didn’t work back home and it’s so weird having my own house and–” 

He sighed, looking up at you. 

“This world – this place is so hard to live in.” 

You watched the look on his face. It’s the same face he makes when things get a little too overwhelming. You had seen it before, most recently after he walked right in to a sliding glass door, despreately trying to convince you that they just don’t have those where he’s from. Some things like that are just hard for him. 

You nodded, placing a hand on his. 

“This place is hard to live in. I’ve felt that way my whole life. Like I don’t really fit anywhere and everyone around me knows what they’re doing except me.” 

He nodded so desperately, like you were the first person to ever really understand him. 

“But… Ken, if this place is so hard to live in, why did you come here? And why did you stay?” 

“I came here to figure out why I did what I did.” 

There it was. He answered so quickly, like he had been waiting to tell you this since he met you. You knew it was coming sooner or later. There was no way he was as kind as he seemed, and he was about to tell you about some insane or horrible or creepy or despiciable thing he did to some poor girl before skipping town to ‘find himself’. You’d heard it all before. 

“I really liked this girl back home and she didn’t feel the same way. Not even like she didn’t like me, she just… it was like I was a bother to her, and I was. I waited for her to show up everywhere I’d go and I just wanted her to like me too, but not even romantically. Just like me, as a person, respect me, acknowledge me, validate me, reject me even. She didn’t even do that, she just…” 

He took a deep breath, steadying himself. Your jaw tightened, waiting to hear him say something he couldn’t ever take back. 

“Anyways… I didn’t mind that she didn’t like me, truly. I just hadn’t ever really thought about it before. Like we were meant to be together, but not in a good way – like it was planned and I couldn’t escape it. It was Barbie and Ken, there was no Just Ken.” 

Again, as bizarre as this whole Barbie and Ken thing was, his tone of voice was incredibly convincing. 

“But there is just Ken. I am Ken – and that’s it, that's good, but I didn’t know what that meant or who I was without spending my days just pining for her. After all that she came here to the real world and I wanted to as well. I didn’t come for her, I came for me. And I stayed for you.” 

He was crying now, tears slowly falling from his eyes, like he had been waiting for ages to find the words to explain all of this. 

“I mean… I came here to study. The first time I visited I learned about Patriarchy–” 

“The patriarchy.” 

“Right, the patriarchy, and I felt respected and seen, but I didn’t really get it. I tried to figure it out, I really did, but I couldn’t even do beach here and I kept getting arrested and I just... I just felt worse and worse so I…” 

His lower lip was really shaking now, like he had done something unforgivable. 

“I came home without Barbie and I let her get kidnapped by Mattel and I told all the Kens about what I saw and… and–” 

He was holding back actual sobs. 

“And I turned her dream house into a mojo dojo casa house for Kens only and I made Barbieland into Kendom Land Land of the Men and I made her listen to me play the guitar for, like, ever and ever and I just feel so bad about it all.” 

He took a shaky breath in, still clearly upset about everything. 

“But she was so nice to me about it when we finally talked. And then she came here, so I did too. I signed up for school so I could figure out why I did that and how to help other people realize what they’re feeling before they do something like that too. I know it was wrong and really mean, but I can also see that I was sad and I just liked her and I felt invisible and I didn’t even have a house.” 

He didn’t even have a house? 

“But now I do have a house! And I love learning about Beach and horses but what I really want is to do everything I can to help other people understand why this system doesn’t work, no matter who’s in charge. It didn’t work in Barbieland and it surely doesn’t work here either. It’s all ridiculous and it benefits no one, including those in power. It’s not fair, to guys or girls, to you, even. You can’t even go home during Summer because they barely pay you as much as they pay me just because you’re a girl, and I just started! You trained me! It’s absurd!” 

None of this was making any sense logically, but emotionally, all of it tracked. You felt the same way. You came here to understand the unhealthy behaviors in yourself and to try to help fix the system any way you could. 

“I love my house so much. I’m doing everything I can to figure out how I did something so crazy to all of the Barbies, but I won’t let it make me cynical or cold or mean anymore. I love being alive and even though people make fun of me for crying or blushing too much or asking stupid questions, I love being alive. I know it’s silly, but I love it, I love all of it. Every time you compliment me or help me with something or show me something new I just feel like I’m gonna explode. I don’t understand it, but I never even felt this way about Barbie – I don’t even know if I liked her, really, I think I was just programmed to act like it. I love seeing the older people that come in to work, they love each other so much and I just… I want that. That’s real and I want something real. I want more than a long-term long-distance low-commitment casual girlfriend bride-wife – I want what I see every day here. Like my friend Gloria and her groom-husband and everyone we see at work and at school. You know how people come into the diner every day – literally every day! – just to eat together? And hold hands? And look at each other for so long and just talk and laugh? I have no idea what that’s like, but I want to know so bad. I want to have that. And I want you to have that – even if it’s not with me! Even if you don’t feel the same way, you deserve a good groom-husband more than anyone I’ve ever met, it's absurd that no one is taking care of you!” 

He sighed, closing his eyes. 

“Sorry, what I’m, trying to say is, I just… I don’t understand it but all I want to do is spend time with you. I tried to ask some people at school what to do about... this feeling but their answers were so mean, like you were an object I was entitled to just take for myself. I tried to ask our coworkers but they told me you wouldn’t like me anyways and I believed them. I just… I don’t want to be... patriarchal about it and I have no idea what I’m doing.” 

A quiet fell over the place. You watched as little dust bunnies glittered around him. He had soup on his shirt. 

“Ken, I… I don’t know what to say.” 

You smiled, letting out a gentle laugh. He laughed too. You had been holding your breath at everything he was saying, a blush creeping over your ears. He was blushing too, mostly at himself for going off a little, but also at you. He could stare at you for hours. Most days he’s telling himself not to, straining his eyes away from you at work. His heart just ached when you spoke so kindly to customers or your coworkers or him. Gosh, when you spoke to him. He just melted every time, turning away from you as quickly as possible so you wouldn’t see him fall apart, just bashful. 

“I think you know exactly what you’re doing. And you’re damn good at it, too. If you’d asked me I’d say you’re the most experienced human I know.” 

Relief was painted on his face, a sense of calm falling over the two of you like a gentle, quiet snowfall. You really were the only one that understood him, but moreover, he was the only one that understood you. 

“I don’t know what I’m doing either, Ken. I don’t think anyone does. Everyone is just pretending, I promise. I watch the way those same couples spend their days just… existing together. It’s like they don’t have a care in the world when they’re next to each other and I feel that way when I’m with you. I also don’t know what I’m doing, but I can learn. We can learn. We can figure it out. And I don’t really understand the Barbies or Kens or Real World stuff you’re talking about most days, but that doesn’t mean you can’t show me.” 

He looked so simple, sat right in front of you, and you watched as he smiled – like all of a sudden he wasn’t so confused anymore. 

“Do you know how to roller-blade?” 

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀⋆˚✿˖°⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒

[jenniferjareauwife]

hi hi it’s me again😇

this is an oddly specific request of mine but i just really wanna be a cowgirl LMAO

what about something where jj brings r (girlfriend) to finally meet the team, and it turns out r is literally just a cowgirl from texas with a proper southern drawn and a twang in her voice n all. nobody expected that country girls would be jj’s type but when the team sees just how in love she is with r it all makes sense.

thank you sm babe, hope ur good, luv ya!🫶🏻

Southern

pairing: jennifer jareau x cowgirl fem reader

category: fluff

warnings: none

word count: 826

summary: you're jj's girlfriend from texas and you're meeting her team for the first time

a/n: hiiii i missed you 🫶🏼 i love you too and i hope you're doing ok! also...i kinda wanna write a part 2 with smut...let me know if you're up for that but i'm gonna assume it's a yes

"Are ya sure they'll like me?" I put my hands on my hips while JJ kissed my cheek.

"Of course they'll like you baby. You're amazing." I bit my lip and fixed my flannel a bit. The first three buttons were undone and the bottom of the shirt was tucked into my jean shorts. "Let's just go, ok?"

"Ok." I sighed as she grabbed my hand, pulling me into her friends apartment.

"Hey everyone! This is my girlfriend...y/n." JJ introduced me with an arm around my waist, keeping me close.

"Hi!" They all said almost at the same time.

"Hey y'all!" I turned to JJ with a rosy blush. "Now what do I do? This feels awkward." I leaned into her.

"That's because Derek is staring at your boobs."

"Don't get yourself all tore up about it. I know my assets." I pecked her lips, feeling her smiling into the kiss.

"Where are you from?" I pulled away from the kiss and looked towards a raven haired lady who had asked the question.

"Texas. Do y'all have any Coke?"

"Mhm. Right over here hon." A happy blonde lady led me over to the kitchen. I saw a bunch of soda cans sitting on the table so I picked up a Sprite. "I thought you wanted a Coke."

"Yeah. Coke. Soda is Coke where I'm from." I explained, taking a sip. "I've never been to the north."

"You haven't?" She crinkled her nose while smiling and I almost jumped when I felt a pair of arms snake around my waist but then relaxed when I realized it was JJ.

"If it wasn't for this girl I would still be down south." I took another sip of my soda, leaning back into my girl.

"She likes it up here." JJ kissed my cheek. "We're gonna go up to Boston next weekend."

"Yeah?" Penelope sat down on the couch and I soon realized everyone else had made their way into the room.

"Hey y/n. I'm Spence. It's nice to meet you." I shook hands with a tall lanky brunette. I had to tilt my head up to meet his eyes.

"I'm Derek. But people call me Morgan." I shook his hand and smiled. So this was the guy that was staring at my boobs, and he still was. I might as well put on a little show for him. I unbuttoned my shirt a bit further before looking back at JJ. She blushed before pulling me down onto a chair so I could sit on her lap.

"Jareau, I didn't know cowgirls were your kind of thing." Morgan smirked before sitting down next to Penelope. I felt a twang of insecurity in my chest but I pushed it away, wrapping my arms around JJ's shoulders and holding her close. I was big on PDA and when I found out JJ's love language was physical touch I used it as much as I could, wanting to make her feel loved.

"Well I've never met someone as special as her. So she's definitely my thing." She gently caressed my waist with her thumb.

"So what's it like down in Texas?" Morgan imitated my accent.

"There's a lot of rednecks and shotguns down there." I said back with my souther sass. JJ squeezed my waist, telling me to back down a bit but I couldn't help it. Being from the south and dealing with jackasses everyday had sort of become a part of my personality. I crossed my legs on her lap, staring Morgan down.

"How long have you two been together?" Emily asked.

"Nine months." JJ and I said at the same time.

"Nine months...you guys met on our case in Texas?" Emily smiled as she put the pieces together.

"I met her at a bar, she was kicking them out after a fight."

"They got in a big hissy fit over who the girl was looking at." I rolled my eyes. "Men can be so fragile." JJ kissed my jaw, making me blush. I wasn't one to blush but I was a sucker for jaw kisses.

"Let's get out of here." She whispered.

"What?"

"You've met them good enough, let's go." She dragged me outside and the door was barely closed before she had me pushed against the wall, kissing me passionately. "You were so hot back there."

"Hey ladies-" I heard an unfamiliar voice and froze. JJ backed off of my slowly but leaned in to cover my chest. "Sorry...I was just wondering if you wanted some cupcakes?" It was Penelope.

"Yeah Pen, thanks." JJ took the plate from her and waited for her to leave before making out with me again.

"Jayje, not in the hallway, sugar." I pushed her away a bit.

"You're gonna be the death of me." She groaned against my lips before kissing all over my face.

"Well you love me."

"You're right. I love you so much."

"I love you more."

[a-dumb-sarcastic-bisexual]

Nimona trio house headcanons

So I said in a post that I cant find because I've made like 30 headcanon posts that the trio’s house is a perfect combination of them

But I feel like I’ve been purposefully vague about where they would live because I didn’t really have an idea before now but now I do 

Imagine literally any Disney cottage and you have it 

It’s a small three bedroom two bath single floor unassuming little thing 

There’s enough room for all of them and an office but if they hadn't been through Hell and back together it would feel stupid cramped  

They live in a heavily forested area that has a decent amount of houses around it with enough space between them to give the comfort of privacy 

When they bought the cottage they were really looking for qualities that they would all enjoy 

The cottage being surrounded by trees was actually really beneficial for Nimona 

It actually kept her from leaving for a very long time because she spent a solid 6 months mapping out the forest and discovering new things almost every day 

It was far enough from the city that Ambrosius felt like he could breathe 

This was the first time when paparazzi weren’t within arms reach and when he realized that he cried tears of joy 

And the house was enough of a fixer upper to give Bal something to do for at least 2 years 

The house was very old by their standards so he spent months figuring out how he was going to renovate it before they even signed the papers 

Their neighbors are also saints who know no one as high profile as those three move all the way out there for fun

They came over to offer housewarming gifts like food and other things but they mostly keep to themselves unless they need something or are explicitly invited

This was a breath of fresh air because for some reason the people in the city were unusually nosy 

You’d think it would be the opposite but no their apartment neighbors wouldn’t leave them the hell alone 

You’d also think that they would hate the trek to and from work and that it would be harder to lose paparazzi but again no

The three of them love long car rides and the heavily forested area makes it easy for them to lose them in the trees 

Their new neighbors also noticed that they did things like keeping the outside of their house as unassuming as possible 

Like Ambrosius planted flowers outside and they have some knickknacks that are too big for the living room 

But the house is painted a similar color to the rest of the area 

They also park their vehicles behind the house and make sure their names aren’t visible on the outside of the house 

And the curtains are drawn most of the time 

So the neighbors do little things like park their cars behind their houses so this habit doesn’t seem weird or text the boys when they see an unfamiliar vehicle driving down the street 

Or let them know to stay in the city for a little longer cause someone has driven back and forth down the road at least 10 times 

Every time they do this Ambrosius and Nimona bake them something or Bal offers to help them around their house 

Literally anything to show how undeniably grateful they are for all their help

And most of the time the neighbors turn down the help and share the food the trio made with them 

Because they’ve done more than enough already

[tellingusr]

STAN & KYLE HEADCANONS !!! :3

no one suggested it , i just simply wanted too lolz

stan: 

Had a short mullet in 8th-9th grade but dyes it blond over the summer out of nowhere lol. dyes it back to black his senior year

Listens to RADIOHEAD!!??

Plays the electric guitar 

Still apart of crimson dawn along with kenny

Butters and jimmy stopped playing - due to other school shit - so they held tryouts for a backup guitar player and a new drumist, eventually recruiting two freshmen

RAGING bisexual

Been kinda in love with kyle his whole life

Got braces in the middle of 7th grade and got them taken off at the end of 8th

Kyle eventually got braces too at the BEGINNING of 8th so throughout the whole year, him and kyle definitely matched bracket colors <3

5’8’’ ( 2 inches shorter than kyle )

Always been just a tiny bit shorter than kyle and has ALWAYS despised it while kyle relished in it lmao

Had his first kiss to wendy in 6th grade …. it was NOT good and they broke up like a month later 

They never got back together again, much to kyle's pleasure :D

To clarify, they did not break up bc the kiss wasn’t good, they both just realized that they were tired of eachother and that it was stupid trying to hold onto something from literal elementary school

They still talk sometimes but quickly get bored of each other

His style consists of pajama pants, baggy band t shirts, baggy jeans, blue hoodies, and converse

He totally has stickers all over his guitar along with “ k + s “ drawn with in silver sharpie <3

Pins and keychains decorated his school backpack

Sometimes paints his nails but gets mad or anxious and ends up peeling them off by lunchtime

Has wrote 16 songs all dedicated to kyle

HATES social media and only has accounts so that he could look at kyles posts and videos

Still uses an mp3 player .... he SAYS it's bc it sounds better but that's a bunch of bs. he definitely just uses it for the “look”

PLAYS HOCKEY

Was on the team for about a year in 9th grade but QUICKLY got sick of the practices 

Listens to radiohead, slipknot, iron maiden, weezer, and deftones

Favorite movies/tv shows are bojack horseman, mid90s, and shameless

Tried to learn how to skateboard with kyle and actually kept up with it for about the whole 10th grade

REFUSES to get a tiktok account

he would probably watch youtube shorts or instagram reels...... 🤠

He would send Kyle tiktoks that were funny like 7 months ago which he JUST got to see on ig reels.

He definitely had a fnaf phase

has car sickness totally

TOTAL dog person

both:

their houses are right next to eachother !!!

they definitely sneak into eachother's rooms at night

they got together sometime in middle school, after kissing on stan's roof and they both discovered that they were major fags for eachother

they go to the same college too!!!!

stan always joins kyle's tiktok or insta lives ( even if it's the most boring thing in the world )

"no homo dude" "oh yeah totally no homo lol" is their catchphrase most definitely

kyle:

Stayed on the basketball team throughout 8th-12th grade

5’10’’ 2 inches taller than stan

He loves being taller than him

gay gay homosexual gay

Didn’t really have to “come out” everyone kinda already knew he wasn't straight lol 

Had a little rebellious phase in 10th grade and ended up stabbing a needle through his nose and belly button at like 4 in the morning, the same night that stan bleached his hair ironically (not ironically as they had snuck out together lmao )

By 7am he had a nose stud, a belly ring, and his lobes pierced

Did them all by himself minus his bellybutton, which stan helped him with

It was literally just the piercing scene from thirteen LMAOOOO

Wardrobe mainly consists of sweatpants, green and brown hoodies, straight jeans, nike's, and ugg neumels. oh and lots of grandpa sweaters.

Listens to the cure, tyler the creator, radiohead, the smiths, and the offspring (sometimes ldr too)

Stopped wearing his hat in 7th grade, it just didn’t fit right anymore ( plus it kinda stunk )

Reads romance novels and hyperfixates over them definitely but he will NEVER admit this

ALWAYS live on insta and tiktok

Secretly LOVES stan's dyed hair (he totally thinks its hot)

His first kiss was with stan. at 2 am. on his roof.

Total grammer nerd

bullies ppl when they make grammar mistakes

Lowkey kinda popular on tiktok

STRAIGHT A'S!!!!! 

and REFUSES to get anything below a 85

fucking nerd

OH and he definitely cusses WAY to much ( its kinda a problem )

Gets into so many fights at school (mainly caused by cartman) but has developed kinda a bad reputation for himself

has such road rage

lowkey best friends with bebe

thinks elvis is hot

LOVES adult cartoons

when sheila isn’t home, him, ike, and gerald watch family guy

TOTAL cat person

[stayuntilthefoglifts]

Little rambling about Justice in the Dark/Silent Reading in 3..2..1...

To be honest, despite having read numerous novels that were later adapted into Chinese dramas, like Kaleidoscope of Death, Guardian, and Faraway Wanderers, which I consider my top three bromance adaptations, I never felt like these were the novels I would read more than one time, as I always do when I truly like the book.

When Justice in the Dark was released, the characters, the actors, and the scenography were reminding me of Guardian, so I gave it a go, and all I can say is that I was INVESTED. Then I saw that it only had 8 episodes, so I looked it up and found the novel and decided to read it as I wanted to know more about characters. Initially, I was hesitant about committing to a series with six books, and to be truthful, I kept putting off reading it. Yet a month ago, once I finally started, I was captivated. I never anticipated being so drawn to the plot, the characters, and the descriptions. The only long series that I was able to reread was Harry Potter, and whenever I heard people rave about other series, I often felt overwhelmed by the number of books and gave up early on. Yet, Silent Reading was a series I devoured in just three days, completely absorbed in the story. I was literally eating dinner and reading it because I wanted to know what comes next, what the characters will do in this difficult situation, and how their relationship will change. As I said, it was a long way when it came to actually reading it, but I don't regret it even a tiny bit. My friends know me as a devoted Potterhead, someone who could talk for hours about the characters and my affection for that series. Lately, I've been the same way about Silent Reading.

When it comes to characters, while it may not be evident in the drama, but Wenzhou is incredibly caring and loving; he would go to great lengths for his friends and for Fei Du, willing to break rules just to ensure their happiness and support them. At the beginning, he wasn’t the character that I would be truly interested in, but starting book 2, I fell in love with him as I started to understand why he is acting towards Fei Du as he is. I mention that this might not be apparent in the cdrama because a friend of mine was surprised to learn just how precious and nurturing Wenzhou is; he’s truly an angel.

As for Fei Du, I believe his portrayal in the cdrama is spot on, capturing his struggles with his parents beautifully, just as depicted in the novels. To be honest, I started watching Justice in the Dark just for Steven Zhang, my favorite chinese actor; his facial expressions alone can convey to the viewer the feelings that accompany the character he plays, and this has always been something that I loved about him. His casting as Fei Du was a brilliant choice; he masterfully portrayed the character's grief for his mother, his resentment towards his father, and the flirtation that might initially seem irritating but, upon deeper understanding, reveals his fear of loneliness. He has friends, don’t get me wrong, but were they truly friends or just people who he would spend time with just to be with someone? When I watched the cdrama, I first thought that he was an ass, a little overconfident boy, but then I understood why he did all that when I read the book.

I truly believe that if the drama wasn't canceled, it would be the best cdrama I've ever watched, as Silent Reading, apart from HP, was the best series I've ever read.

Little ss of the novel (I tried not to spoil anything) just a bit of how caring and cute they are.

[kurtmustdie]

caught up with cringetober because I literally forgot to do it, individuals and explanations under cut

Day 1: Heterochromia I’ve come to the revaluation that my sona is already cringe as hell considering not only can his entire body change color but he also has differently colored eyes as a staple of his design. They’re usually yellow and blue but this time I color picked the blue from the trans flag and the mint from the Vincian flag for this color palette, it turned out really pretty :)

Day 2: Self Insert Now she isn’t my self insert anymore, but back in the day when I was at “peak cringe” she definitely was. This is my warriors OC Icypelt and I have a post going over part of her story on my profile somewhere. She’s been through a lot and I think her modern design is very pretty :)

Day 3: Unnecessarily complex fit/design Spider scene is kinda infamous in my brain for having wayyy too much detail but I love them and I think this might be my favorite one out of this batch, super cute, the pose is really cute and the colors are nice and fits her really well :D

day 4: Angel x Devil inevitable MCR reference ik, Helena and Revenge, love them dearly. Poor revenge man this one is cute and looks like a sticker!!

Day 6 (I skipped day 5 because I didn’t want to open up ms paint today): neko i kinda hate this one but cat Gerard yay

Day 7: Pinterest base at first I wanted to draw hobie in place of Gwen but I remembered that I haven’t really drawn Mikey with her even though they’re supposed to be friends so I drew her instead. Idk. The height difference is not accurate because of that but Jumping Spider is small because he’s based on a jumping spider and those are tiny who would have thought

Day 8: tumblr sexyman i have never played undertale a day in my life i just know a lot of people wanted to jump sans’ bones

day 9: Crossover ship/rarepair OH BOY THIS ONE GOES KIND OF HARD AND IM EMBARRASSED ABOUT IT BECAUSE THEY KIND OF WORK FOR EACH OTHER UM MIGUEL OHARA X CLOTTED CREAM COOKIE IM INSANE OMG-

day 10: fursona i already have a fursona I already drew and yes I colorpicked from the lesbian flag how could you tell /j

Day 11: Yandere LYLA is technically canonically a yandere because spoiler alert she tried to kill Miguel’s fiancé via overheating her in the shower (essentially literally boiling her like a lobster) because she was “in love” with him (she said if she did have autonomy and had feelings the would be in love with him but she doesn’t but idk who knows I don’t).

day 12: niche interest ik MCR isn’t exactly “niche” but the black parades story in particular has always caught my interest and I have my own interpretation of it and a whole kind of story I’m still developing and character arcs and headcanons and interactions and yeah you get it, death in particular has evolved into god knows an OC on his own I just keep him attached to MCR because… it makes more sense that way, ig-

day 13: creepypasta does this count- whatever grimdark is just the same thing as a creepypasta- I’m not really in the MLP fandom anymore but it was my first ever “fandom” I was actually apart of. My first hyperfixation if you will. I wasn’t in the grimdark part of the fandom because I was too young for it but I was actually watching the izzzyzzz grimdark video and I was like “oh” and drew a rainbow factory Rainbowdash. Honestly I should draw ponies more they’re fun to draw

Day 14: candygore (?) im not good at drawing candygore and since I was rushing this o didn’t do it as well as I thought I can, but it still turned out pretty cool

Day 15: song lyrics aaaa inevitable hesitant alien drawing this one turned out so cute!! The colors and the sparkle eek so cute aaa action cat lyrics I’m breaking down right in front of you I’m sorry

planning on doing the rest of the month now, maybe not exactly on time since I’m still in school but I’ll try to get 31 drawings out by Halloween. Love the idea of cringetober because I just love all things cringe. Ack this is so good

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Yup, still at it) – May 1954

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

May 3, 1954

~tugs collar~

Yeah... About that.

May 9, 1954

Aw yeah, here we go! I was wondering when this would pop up.

May 15, 1954

1) That's not a joke

2) Yes, Violet. I got that from him kicking the radio.

Also I hope you enjoyed this strip because “Charlie Brown doesn't like coconut” is now a running gag.

May 16, 1954

This definitively proves that adults exist in the Peanuts Cinematic Universe, they just happen to be 20 feet tall for some reason. Or maybe the kids are like 2 feet tall? It depends on how you look at it I guess.

May 23, 1954

Oh man! What's going to happen!? I'm freaking out!

May 24, 1954

Lucy is so unbelievably awful to Linus in these early years. Granted, she's literally four(?) years old so I can cut her a bit of slack but god damn do these kind of interactions not endear you to her.

Weirdly enough though, I actually like that the strip doesn't punish her for doing stuff like this. Others have made this observation long before I came along but the fact that Schulz is willing to just sort of... let bad things happen without immediately having the universe make an example of the perpetrator or teach them a lesson is one of the things that sets Peanuts apart from the competition. Life just kind of be like that sometimes and it's OK to show it.

May 30, 1954

(No, really. That's the last one)

Thoughts:

The golf tournament arc is kind of notorious and nobody really knows what the hell is up with it. You have continuity in the Sunday strips (very unusual due to how they are made), weird off-model art, the cast acting out of character, and of course, on-screen adults. Then it all just kind of... stops. It's very odd.

I've heard people speculate that this might actually have been ghost drawn (is that a term?) by another artist but I'm not sure if I buy that. The art is a bit different but it still very much feels like Schulz to me, particularly in how he draws his backgrounds. I ~do~ think there might be something to the idea that this is a repurposed experiment from another project though.

What this feels like to me is Schulz experimenting with “bigger” stories, perhaps something intended to be sold as a proper comic book rather than just a collection of strips. The art looks different because he's trying to set it apart from the strips by adding more detail and action (kind of like when an animated TV sitcom gets a theatrical movie).

As for why it just ends like that? Well that's a sort of punchline Schulz does in a lot in his daily strips so it's not actually that weird if you think about it. I think he just didn't realize that this kind of anticlimax punchline works with a 4-panel strip but not a 4-page event comic.

There's no official word on the matter though so your guess is as good as mine.

[magnolia-miraculous]

F. Fathom (aka Argos) Headcanons :)

Haha he’s so stupid (affectionate). I honestly think of him as a pathetic little kitten sitting his butt out on the sidewalk in the middle of the pouring rain that is actively being picked up by Adrien and wrung in a towel and tossed a saucer of boiling hot milk when it comes to his social skills. Ok, dumbass speedrun 3, 2, 1, go!!

He likes oranges but not really the color orange.

Also, not a fanatic but he thinks sports cars look cool.

A naturally good swimmer. When around other people, he’ll often dive under the surface and swim around to where he wants to go that way to avoid disturbing anyone.

His kind of humor is watching Jaws for a night time pool party and diving under the water to pinch people’s ankles.

Honestly a big softie for his mother and the sweet blonde women in his life generally. Yes, this includes Rose.

He bites the middle of his lip and scowls when thinking.

He has drawn blood previously; now has a small linear scar.

Looking for it is one of the only ways to tell him and Adrien apart appearance-wise.

He has severe rbf that Adrien somehow avoided.

Really good at drifting. No one has yet unlocked his Backstory on this topic.

Talks rlly formally w/ his hands behind his back; will cuss you out tho.

Too Tired For This.

He gifts people w/ books/coffee when they meet up sometimes.

Rlly likes greco-roman mythology and astronomy.

“an orange warms the stomach.”

Likes classic/heavy rock + hyperpop. He gets his like for Jagged Stone from his mother.

He’s English, Italian, and American.

A committed polyglot by hobby.

English, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Greek, Latin, and German. Don’t ask how.

He watches k-dramas on the living room tv whilst eating chips and calling the characters cusses and cliche/cringy in Korean like that one meme of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing from his seat with a glass in his hand though, so there’s that.

No Shame.

Nearly aroace but not quite. He made an exception for Kagami :).

Also retconning the way they got together in canon bc that was fast and kinda weird idk. Let’s just say they take a lot more time than that talking at Rich Events ok.

He straightens/styles his hair every morning.

He likes ferrets.

He wakes up at nearly 5a every morning/early bird.

Theater kid trash.

Knows how to play basic guitar.

He takes like 1 college class every six months.

Still graduating in 4 years somehow.

Burnout hit him hard though. Now, he can only rlly ever focus on things if they genuinely interest him.

Unhinged. But, like, slightly (12%).

He likes crosswords and word games and stuff.

He’s got a Vibe Check system for talking to people. Don’t pass the Vibe Check? Bye.

So far, only a good nine people have ever really passed the Vibe Check—Adrien, Kagami, Marinette, Luka, Juleka, Rose, Alix, Nathanaël, and (strangely enough) Chloé.

(I guess she’s just persistent like that, idk, but he lets her hang around.)(She’s still an annoying lil whiny brat though.)

Auto Lila DNI. He can’t stand her tbh.

Don’t try to say they’re anything alike. At least he thinks of someone other than himself from time to time. Or has a personality other than being a nasty snake.

Expert gambler.

Firm believer that cream soda is to die for and has a designated spot in the fridge. Nerd.

He started eating a scoop of orange icecream covered in three scoops of mint to keep people *coughcoughchloécoughcough* from stealing it. He now eats it and enjoys it unironically.

He has tyramine sensitivity :(

He has outbursts similar to Adrien. Like Adrien, he too learned it from his father.

This guy is literally the best wingman.

(When he wants to be, that is.)

He does everything with such sleight of hand to make sure his ships sail.

Felix is the resident babygirl. Everyone calls him that, but if anyone new tries to he’ll slit their throat ok.

He’s incredibly good with young children; no one knows how or why he attained the knowledge he has.

Then they hit the age of three and he’s trying to teach them tax evasion. No.

Zero genuine social skills. He has them when he’s being fake and then he tries to do it for real and they go poof.

He’s just that good at magic huh.

Also has a deeply engrained fear of trusting people with knowledge of his interests thanks to trauma from his broken relationship with his father :)

You just have to understand that this man is a pathetic, sopping-wet-cat of a man. That’s, like, the message here.

Ok bye.

[zoroara]

April Lussuria Redraw 30 of 30!      

The final Lussuria~ I feel I’ve learned a lot about rim lighting at this point. Though it’s a bit of a simple send off I think it’s a good panel to end off on, he’s having a great time after all~ I gotta say he’s one of the most fun Varia members to draw. But of course he is he’s got style after all~ But also yeah I sure did add an ENTIRE BACKGROUND just to make it look good. In other news it’s literally so hard to keep track of what colour lussuria’s shirt is in this fucking chapter because amano gets funky with shading. pure black, grey, and in this image 90% white. I’ll see you all in June with Fran! I’m going to use may to rest.

Also if you’re interested in Submitting for other Varia members for me to redraw in their months you can check what I still need (here~)  

The Image I redrew is under the cut, just to keep the post small.

[ID: 1: A full colored digital fanart of Lussuria, from the manga and anime Katekyo Hitman Reborn.

He’s almost fully drawn, facing the viewer. He smiles widely and brightly, his hands apart and in front of him like he’s about to clap them, lights shining on him from above.

There’s a fence behind him.

2: The reference panel from the manga. /End ID]

IDs courtesy of @hopeswriting​

look at this dude, he looks so silly

[starryeyedreviews]

BIRTH - Full Review

Author’s note: My first review! Though I’d gotten this game a few months ago on my birthday (hehe), I thought it’d be a fun game to start this blog with because, well, the name, and also it’s not as popular as I feel it should be! Enjoy :) 

Birth is a game about, quite literally, making a friend. In this point-and-click/puzzle game, you look for spare organs and bones to assemble this friend by solving puzzles and exploring a gorgeous hand-drawn macabre world. I don’t use the word “macabre” lightly — nearly every scene contains hints of decay like bones, severed body parts, running insects and rotting corpses. They are admittedly some of the loveliest depictions I’ve seen of those concepts, but if that’s really not for you, this game may not be as great an experience.

There are a variety of settings in this little city, from bookstores and bakeries, museums and restaurants, to the individual rooms in apartment complexes. There’s a beautiful irony to be had, that a place painted with death could be bursting with such life. Madison Karrh, Birth’s developer, seems to have put a lot of love into each scene, giving the NPCs and rooms their own bits of charm and personality.  It’s really the little details that make the game a joy to play. ✨

Onto the gameplay itself! As a puzzle-lover myself, I didn’t find the puzzles very difficult, though sometimes I was a bit confused on what I was supposed to be solving in the first place. For the most part though, they were very calming to go through. Interacting with objects in the world was easy as well, since they would move as you hover your mouse over them. Unfortunately, as with many games of this genre, it lacks replayability, since the entire game has just one solution. There isn’t much I can say about Birth’s story, because there isn’t really one. There’s just the main premise (building a friend), and the journey towards it. But that’s okay! Like I said, the joy really comes from immersing yourself in the world, even if only for a couple of hours.

That being said, Birth is kind of a short game. I was able to 100% it in less than 2 hours, which, sadly, has led a lot of people to refund it after beating it. The game is a tad pricey ($10.99 on Steam) for its length, so if you’re running a little low on funds, I’d suggest waiting for it to go on sale. Or, if you want to keep scratching the itch Birth gives, Madison’s other games are either very cheap or free, and have the same type of gameplay and eerie humor! I’ll link them as well below. 🌠

Though simple in story and theory, Birth is undoubtedly a piece of art. It shows us the beauty in the process of life and death… and perhaps life again? Its morbid yet quaint style definitely sets it apart from other wholesome games, but I’d definitely consider it one regardless. I’m now excited for any other games Madison will put out, and hope she keeps them this wonderfully unique each time. 💫

Overall, 4 stars out of 5! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Buy Birth on Steam here! Check out Madison Karrh’s other games here!

If you have any questions/suggestions for me, please let me know! My asks are always open ✨

~ Gabi 🌙