#they come first cause screw y’all

[inlovewithpandora]

ᥫ᭡ — Change of Heart

Artists — Rafe Cameron x fem!reader

Genre — Oneshot

Lyrics — In the past you weren’t ready to have a child with Rafe due his signs of immaturity and irrational behavior but now that he’s transformed his life and made all the improvements you wanted him to now you’ve had a change of heart, now you’re ready for a baby.

Music Advisory — Father’s Day themed fic, smut (17+), p in v, unprotected sex, established relationship, mention of drug dealer!race and use of drugs

Duration — 1.1k words

Words from Artist — Since yesterday was Father’s Day I wanted to post something that could have something to do with the holiday so this is my vision of a “Father’s Day” for Rafe, showing the first steps in him becoming a father. Always feel free to comment and reblog, I love reading y’all reactions! I hope you enjoy!!

Current Platforms — main m.list・obx taglist・navigation

Rafe knew very early on in the relationship that you were the one for him. The one he wants a long lasting relationship with, wants to become his wife, and most importantly the mother of his children so when he thought the time was right he brought up the topic to you assuming you would feel the same way but he was wrong. You weren’t ready to start a family and you didn’t feel like he was either despite what he was telling you. He was showing signs of immaturity, thinking irrationally and doing things without the thought of the consequences, getting into fights and coming to you with a busted lip or worse, him dealing and consuming hard drugs, and sometimes his decision making skills weren’t the best.

It’s been almost three years since you told him the reasons why you weren’t ready to have a baby and the man has made a complete turn around of his behavior since then. He’s stopped selling and doing drugs and has taken over the family business and is doing very well as the CEO. He's more mature and taking things more seriously, thinking with his brain and how his future actions can cause unwanted problems. And even though it’s a miniscule change and has nothing to do with your boyfriend's abilities or skills, you just love the way he wears his hair now. You liked him when he had his middle part with bangs but the style he has currently, his beautifully blonde buzz cut truly makes you weak in the knees for the man.

Things have surely improved for Rafe, he’s finally morphed into the man he’s always wanted to be, the man he wanted to show you that he was capable of becoming. Rafe’s happy and confident in his transition and you can see it in his attitude, all the insecurities and pent up rage he used to bottle up inside has finally melted away, making you feel so happy and proud of him for changing his life around for the better.

Seeing all his improvements and new way of life helped you come to the conclusion that you want more in your relationship, you want to bring new life into the world, something that’s a product of the love you both share. When Rafe came home from his last meeting of the day it wasn’t long before he had you stripping in front of him and pushing you onto your back against the mattress, giving his dick a few quick strokes before sliding into your already dripping heat. He was finally able to make the business deal he’s been working on sealing for months so this is the way he wants to celebrate, fucking you until tears are streaming out of those pretty eyes of yours.

“R-Rafe— fuck!” You scream out while dragging your freshly done nails across his back, feeling the coil in your stomach about to snap for the third time tonight. His mouth attaches to your skin, pressing wet kisses against your neck while obsessing with the way your creamy pussy is just deliciously sucking him in, pushing him closer and closer to his peak.

“Love this fuckin’ pussy.” He mutters barely above a whisper as he increases his pace, using his strong and thick biceps to lift him up so he can watch the way your face screws in pleasure and look down at the magnificent sight of you milking him for everything he has.

You know he’s close, you can tell in the way his abdomen is spasming and the sensation of his dick throbbing around your walls. You’re already anticipating the feeling of his cum decorating your insides, the thought of him doing his part in making you a mother is making everything so much more attractive and passionate in your eyes. Your body begins to override your thoughts, your legs wrap around his waist and you cross your ankles together, locking him in position so he won’t have the ability to pull out and spill his load on another part of your body. “Come inside.” You whisper in one breath, making your boyfriend's eyes lock with yours and his head to turn slightly to the side.

“Huh?” Rafe’s never heard you speak like this before during sex, he doesn’t know if you’re being serious or if you’re just dick drunk and saying whatever your pussy tells you to. While he’s trying to figure out if your statement has any true meaning behind it his pace doesn’t decrease, giving you the opportunity to attempt a move you’ve never done before.

You begin to roll your hips and tighten your legs around him, bringing him closer to you before clenching around him with all your might, trying your hardest to squeeze it out of him. “Nut in me, Rafe. I wanna make you a father, wanna give you a baby.” You whine, tears filling your eyes with shuddered breaths, feeling yourself growing frustrated that he hasn’t filled you up the way you want him to yet.

“You serious? You sure you wanna do this now? You weren’t ready for a baby before and if I do this there is no going back and I just wanna make sure—”

“Yes, Rafe I’m sure! Just fill me up already, please!” You move your hands to his hips, trying to make him start moving again since he stopped when he was trying to figure if you were okay with the decision of doing what it takes to have a baby. The desperation in your voice is so thick, it’s clear you truly want this and Rafe feels like that if you're ready for a baby then he is too so it doesn’t take much more convincing for him to comply with your request.

“If my baby wants to get knocked up then I'll do it.” It only took a few thrusts, some moans to spill from your lips, and your hands to run through his buzz cut for him to fill you to the brim with his seed, hot spurts of his cum filling your womb and the excess oozing out of your fluttering hole. Rafe must’ve had the thought of impregnating you before because before you could place yourself in the position to ensure his seed takes he’s doing it for you, placing his hands on the back of your thighs and pushing your body upwards towards the ceiling, wanting to keep you elevated so not even a drop is able to escape.

“It’s gonna take, alright? Gonna make you a mommy real soon just like you want.”

Fanbase — @ietss @shimmeringana @ims1 @anything4yooongi @oatmealisweird @ilovechickfilasauce @brooklynadoresdior @jordscosplay @taylormarieee @rivivie @shadyshadyy @m-mally

[itsmeoculi]

16!Dazai x PM!reader smut where:

Reader was on a mission with him and since he's stressed as fuck he got more stressed since he saw you(his lover) flirting with someone(even if it's a mission). Once you got home he did the thing and overstimulated you.

Ty! Take your time ♡

Tiny but important note:In one of my posts I did put that I wasn’t on board with doing minors (16 yes is close but still not really comfortable) but since Dazai does have a canon adult age I’ll make it 19 cause I’m not comfortable doing ages under 18. Thank you, I hope you understand and I don’t think it affects the story that much.

Let’s get a move on now!

“𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝓀𝓃𝑜𝓌 𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒹𝒾𝒹..”

Pairing: 19!A bit of Dom!Dazai x Sub!AFAB(FEMALE)!PM! Reader

TW!: SMUT, NSFW CONTENT, MAINLY FOR THOSE OF MATURITY, eating out, overstimulation, and y’all already know Dazai is a bit of sadist but I don’t think that’s in there much

Synopsis: It’s been busy in the Port Mafia, so busy that Dazai l hasn’t seen you in a while. Lucky for him Mori sends you two on a mission, he was happy at first but you seemed to not give him the attention he craved. Now, you’re getting punished.

Mori sent you and Dazai on a mission. Of course, Dazai, being Dazai, was more focused on being with you than the actual job. But here you are now sitting at a table in a fancy diner waiting for a specific waiter by the name of Ruki Satō (not a canon character just made it up) Ruki Satō was one of the best performing waiters, but he screwed over the Port Mafia after not repaying a debt and killing two of the Mafia’s men. Mori sent you two to kill him, and lucky for you he was your server tonight.

Dazai was ecstatic to see his lover again, but unfortunately for him his belladonna was paying more attention to ANYTHING but him. You would hear him go.

“Bella…” “Come on (name).. look at me.” “Love, let’s chat, the waiter isn’t even here yet~”

“Not now ‘Samu.. we have something more important than what your trying to do right now.”

Now, Dazai would usually laugh it off.. but the way you said it wounded him. You were cold and it was like a dagger to his heart when he heard your tone. This whole week had been a mess for him, and now his belladonna? The love of his life had became part of that mess…

He stayed quiet

You no longer heard the sweet nothings he’d say, only silence.. Awkward silence, until Ruki broke it.

“Oh hello I’m Ruki Satō and I’ll be your server tonight. What can I get you two~?”

You proceed to order something light

“Awesome, that will be it for the lovely lady? How about him?”

Dazai looked painfully at the waiter ‘What did he just call (name)..’ he thought, he didn’t answer the waiter in spite of how pissed off he was with Ruki hitting on you.

But you took the Ruki’s flirtatiousness as an advantage and proceeded to flirt back.

“He’ll have the same thing. Thanks sweetie for being so polite tonight. And forgive my friend, he’s tired.”

You blew a kiss at the waiter before he left. Dazai did not like this one bit. ‘Friend?? What the hell is that kind of excuse?’ He stayed quiet though, because he had plans for later.. on his revenge.

A few minutes passed and Ruki brought your food. Of course wanting to seduce him more, you asked him to stay and chat.

The waiter liked this and at this point Dazai wouldn’t be surprised if you two made out already.

Dazai’s hell of you two basically asking each other to fuck, goes on for about an hour. When it’s finally over you say this.

“Dazai, please meet me in the parking lot. I want to give our waiter here’s special tip in the alleyway~”

He was scared now, he thought if you were about to do what he thinks your about to do he’s done with you. He left for the parking lot, reluctantly, as you guided Ruki to an alleyway.

“This might be the best customer I had tonight~”

“Hehe, let’s have fun.” The waiter was vulnerable now, and you start shuffling at the back of your pants, which made him think you were gonna remove them.

..but instead, you pull out a gun.

“Wait! You- know don’t do this don’t-“

Bang..

You used a silencer.. to of course cause less commotion. Now the job is done.

You leave the alleyway and go to the parking lot. Dazai waiting at the car, engine ready. Once you enter, it’s straight home, he has some matters he needs to.. deal with.

Once you get home, he slams the door and locks it, removing his coat. “I’m gonna go change ‘Samu.”

You said, heading for the bedroom not even taking a single look at Dazai. But this was perfect for him, because he had a plan.

Ignoring your “warning” he swung the bedroom door wide open and pushed you onto the bed, you were already half-nude. Bra off, and the only thing covering you was a pair of lace underwear, and your hands.

“You look pathetic, belladonna.”

“Dazai- I told you I was- MGH!”

He cut you off by inserting 3 fingers into your mouth

“You’re gonna have to be punished for your whole act, back at the diner.”

He said as he removed his white dress shirt, revealing his bandaged body.

“I should’ve left you at the diner y’know.. but now your helpless. Who knew the cold and fierce (name) would be so quick to submit.”

You whimpered but he removed his fingers from your mouth.

“Quiet now belladonna. I need you to lay back for me.” You followed his orders.

“Great now open your legs wide for me darling.” You tried to do so, but you were so intimidated so you could even move an inch!

“You can’t do anything right, can you?” He leaned forward, resting himself on the bed, and then harshly opened your legs wide. You let out a slight whine from the sudden movement. He placed his face in-front of your sopping cunt. The wetness bleeding through your underwear.

“Gotta get rid of these somehow~” He said, immediately ripping the under garment and throwing it to the side. (too bad you bought those last week 😬)

“You’re soaking wet already? Such a slut (name) such a slut!” He said deviously, as he prodded his tongue around, and circled around the outer lips of your cunt. “You still taste as good as last time, but how you spoke to me in the diner may have ruined it~”

You wanted to sock this little bastard into a duffel bag. He was being such a jerk right now.. he was probably gonna edge you, or that’s what you thought. Until he said..

“Don’t worry belladonna, you’ll get your sweet release, but you will have to pay for stressing me out so badly.”

Your fucked..

Dazai inserts his tongue, deep inside of you. Then, he started to make more friction and lapping up your insides like a dog. The more he licked, the more wet you got. He hit all those sweet spots that made you see stars.

You reached your high and a loud moan filled the room. Dazai made a stifle grunt, pleased by the *honey* you made, he licked all up like it was maple syrup.

“Fuck! ‘Samu.. so good. H-hey wait I’m not-” your sentence was interrupted by a groan, as he started to abuse your cunt, with that silver tongue of his. He went back to eating you out and muffled “I don’t like it when my meal gets interrupted.” The vibrations of him speaking against your pussy made you arch your back beautifully.

“Beautiful, belladonna..” Dazai said, while adding in one of his slim fingers to run around your clit. This caused you to gasp in the immense arousal you were feeling. His free hand wandered, massaging your breasts. That’s when you came a second time, but instead of a short pause he kept going, lapping you all up.

“Wait- Osamu! W-wait-mhgh~”

You could barely fabricate sentences at the overstimulation. Your 2nd orgasm just happened, and he didn’t even pause!

Tears started forming in your eyes, and you were a moaning mess.

“Shh, belladonna I need to hear your moans not you sobbing.” He said harshly, you nodded. Yours eyes like a puppy’s big and.. “innocent” not you in this case, a better word would be helpless.

Dazai was abusing your sweet spots and your his tongue hitting exact one with such accuracy. It was like he saw inside of you.

You had your 3rd orgasm, still no stopping.

You were fucked silly, like it was some sort of euphoria coming over you. This round however was the fastest pace.

Cunt, puffy. Clit, swollen. Sweet spots BRUISED. And your throat hurt from your high pitched gasps and moans coming out of you. At some point you felt part of his teeth, but he was unstoppable. You were whining and sobbing. Tears streamed thinly down your eyes. You were pretty sure you were trying to say “Too much! Too much!” But it came out as a bunch of gibberish.

Then his tongue finally hit that special spot that made you see stars, and your 4th orgasm came. Thank god he stopped at that. He took his hand that was playing with your clit, and licked it clean. He proceeded to give you a few kisses before going to the drawer.

“What are you- doing?” You said, catching your breath.

“Just the finale of my punishment for you.” He pulled out a vibrator.

Dazai proceeded to place it near the entrance of your cunt, and set it to the weakest level.

“Have fun~!” He said, while sitting in a nearby seat smirking at you as you struggled

What a cruel asshole.

Hii this the end I hoped you kinda liked this. I’m not awesome with smut but I’m willing try yk.

[winchesterwild78]

The Mistake

Master List

Characters: Soldier Boy (Ben) x Reader

Warning: language, Ben being Ben, mention of sex, robbery,

A/N: Just something I cooked up while falling asleep the other night. Possibly a short series. All stories are my own and does not follow The Boys timeline. It does use the characters, but is not associated with the series in any way. 

Minors DNI 18+ 

You’d worked with Butcher and The Boys for a few years now. You were a supe and at first you were reluctant to work with Butcher, but Annie convinced you to join. She’d been friends with you since you both were little. 

So here you were, part of the boys. Butcher was a bit of an ass at times, but nothing prepared you for when Ben, AKA Soldier Boy joined the team. 

He was more than an ass, he was condescending, a chauvinistic pig, an alcoholic and drug addict. 

You were with Butcher and the team when Soldier Boy was found and released. Part of you thought Butcher released him on purpose, but you never said anything. 

Fast forward a few months later and you’re sitting in the office waiting for everyone else to come in. Ben was already there, but he was rolling a joint in the corner just staring at you. 

“Do you have a problem I can help with, Ben? I mean Jesus, you’re going to stare a fucking hole through me.” Ben smirked and looked at you “Just taking you in doll.” You rolled your eyes and went back to what you were doing. 

About half an hour later everyone started showing up. Annie walked over to you and y’all chatted for a few minutes. “Hey Y/N, how’s your morning been?” She was too cheerful in the morning. “It’s okay, Ben won’t stop staring and it’s starting to piss me off.” Annie looked over her shoulder, and sure enough Ben had his eyes locked on you. 

He licked his lips and smirked. “I think he’s got a thing for you, Y/N.” You scoffed, “Yeah right, like I would ever be with him. He’s an asshole and a pig. Besides, I’m too young for him. You saw him at Legend’s house and how he was screwing the maids. They were in their 60s.” 

Annie looked at you and smiled, “You like him too, this is great!” You whipped your head to look at Annie, “What the hell are you talking about?! I don’t like him.” “Okay, Y/N, whatever you say.” 

Annie stood up and walked away smirking at you and over at Ben. She walked over to Butcher and Hughie and they started talking. 

I don’t like him. He’s a complete asshole and thinks women are only good for fucking, cooking and making babies. Fuck him, and fuck you too, Annie for thinking that. God! You were getting pissed sitting and thinking so you grabbed your jacket, “I’m going for some air.” You barked and slammed the door behind you.

Once outside you took a deep breath and leaned against the brick wall in the alley. Your heart was pounding and your face was flushed. Lost in thought you didn’t hear someone walk up beside you, “You okay, darlin?” You looked up and met Ben’s green eyes looking into yours. “Just fucking peachy.” You said through gritted teeth. 

Ben stepped closer, causing your pulse to quicken, “You sure about that?” You huffed, “Of course I am, I think I should know if I’m okay or not.” “Well, your tone, body and your heart rate tell me otherwise.” Ben stepped even closer. So close you could feel his body heat and smell his cologne. 

You instinctively licked your lips and pulled your bottom lip in, biting it. “Ben, I…” Ben cut you off by pulling you by your hips flush with his body and placed a searing kiss on your lips. At first you tried to break loose, but soon you surrendered into his hold and kissed him back. 

His hands ran up your body and into your hair, your hands went behind his neck and your fingers played with the long strands of hair at the back of his neck. Ben deepened the kiss and you moaned into his mouth. You felt him smirk against your lips. 

The need for air became too much and you both pulled away panting. Your eyes locked on Ben’s and he smirked, “I’ve been dying to do that for weeks. The way you lick and bite your lip when you’re reading or thinking has been driving me wild.” He leaned you back against the brick and you felt his arousal through his suit. 

“Ben, I don’t know what to say.” “We don’t have to talk, Y/N, we can let our bodies do all the talking.” He flashed a smile at you that had you weak in the knees. “Ben, I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I’m not looking for a fling. I’m looking for something long lasting, and I know that’s not your thing.”

You started to walk away, but Ben grabbed your arm, “Who says I can’t do a relationship? I’ve done relationships in the past.” “Yeah, with Crimson Countess, I know, you were in love with her but you haven’t been in once since and things have changed. Men and women are equal partners in relationships. I refuse to be with someone who thinks he can control me. I’m not a fuck toy or a breeding machine who will cook your dinner every night, meet you at the door naked with a whiskey in my hand waiting for you to impregnate me.”

“Well, doll, that sounds like a great night to me.” Ben chuckled but you looked at him with a hardened stare. “That’s what I’m talking about Ben. I’m sorry, even if I wanted to, I can’t be with someone who doesn’t understand what women really bring to a relationship.” 

Ben stood there, jaw on the ground as you walked away. He ran his gloved hand through his hair and let out a hard sigh. Ben wanted to be with you, but he couldn’t help feeling the way he did. He loved women and their bodies. He was a man’s man and craved the female form. He appreciated a good meal and being taken care of. The thought of having a child of his own was something he had always wanted. Ben had thought him and Crimson Countess would have children together, but she betrayed him. The sting of her words still echoed in his head and heart, “I didn’t love you, I hated you. We all hated you.” That broke his heart.

You walked back into the office and told Butcher you weren’t feeling well so you were heading home. No one questioned you, but they knew you were full of shit. You were a supe afterall, and supes don’t get sick. Butcher knew something happened between you and Ben, but he didn’t push. 

As you got to your car Annie came running up and stopped you, “Hey, Y/N, what happened. I know you’re not sick.” “Ben and I kissed.” You said matter of factly. Annie grinned, “So, what’s wrong? Was it terrible?” You sighed, “No, it was amazing. I wanted more. I would have let him take me right against that wall if I could. I just don’t think he’s relationship material. He was in love with Crimson and she betrayed him, now he bed hops. I can’t be another notch on his belt. I really like him, Annie, and I’d want to be with him and only him, and he be with only me. I just don’t think that’s possible.” 

Annie pulled you into a hug, “I understand. Maybe talk to him. At least if you did you’d know one way or another.” “I know, I just don’t know if I could handle working with him after a rejection. I’ll call you later, I’m gonna head home. Bye, Annie.” “Okay, bye, Y/N.” She hugged you and you climbed in your car and headed towards home. 

As Annie started to head back inside, Ben came around the corner. After hearing the conversation between the friends, his heart ached. “Annie, what can I do to make her see I want to be with her?” Annie was shocked, she’d never seen Ben vulnerable before. “Just talk to her, and when she opens her heart to you, don’t fucking break it or I’ll be forced to kick your ass.” Ben chuckled. “Seriously, Ben, she’s an incredible person and when she loves you, she does it with her whole heart. Please don’t break her heart.” 

Ben nodded and thanked Annie. Ben then left, determined to talk to you and convince you to take a chance on him.

You pulled in your driveway and gathered your things before heading inside. You opened your door and fell on the couch. Laying your head against the back of the couch you let your mind drift to the kiss you and Ben shared. I’d give anything to be with him. His lips on mine felt so good and the way his touch made my whole body tremble. God I bet he’s amazing in bed. 

The sound of someone knocking pulled you from your thoughts. You grumbled and stood up to open the door. When you opened the door you weren’t expecting to see Ben standing there. 

“Ben, what are you doing here?” “I came to talk to you.” You bit your lip and stepped to the side, allowing him to come in. You shut the door and sat on the couch, tucking your feet under you and turned towards Ben. 

The two of you stared at each other for a few minutes before Ben started talking, “Y/N, I understand your hesitation but I want to prove to you I can do a relationship and I want to do one with you.” Your eyes softened a little. You knew he was being genuine, you could feel it. Thanks to your supe power, you had empathic abilities, could read minds, and communicate telepathically if you needed to. 

It didn’t always work on other supes, but when they were vulnerable it usually did. “Ben, it’s not that I don’t think you could do a relationship, I’m just not sure you could do one with an equal partner. Not someone who would drop to their knees at your command. I’m not like that, nor will I ever be. I’ve been on my own since I was 16 and I don’t depend on anyone else but myself.” 

Ben looked at you with his green eyes shining. His features, usually hard and tense, were soft and relaxed. He took your hand in his, it sent a shiver down your spine. “I’m willing to try if you are. Please, give me, us a chance.” 

You took a deep breath and your exhale was shaky. “Okay, Ben. I’m willing to take a chance.” Ben’s smiled stretched to his eyes, he jumped up and pulled you up and into his strong arms. His body was strong and solid against yours. 

Your heart quickened with the contact and you felt arousal coursing through your body. Ben’s lips pressed against yours in a feverish kiss. 

The kiss that sealed your decision was almost a year ago. The two of you have been inseparable since then and Ben has been surprisingly modern as he puts it. He supports you, and helps cook and clean.

Ben can still be a complete ass, but he’s getting better. His alcohol consumption has decreased, and he’s all but given up the drugs. Well, he still smokes weed, but he’s not snorting oxy anymore. 

You had fallen in love with Ben but you hadn’t said it yet. Neither of you had fully admitted how either of you felt. You were worried how Ben would react to you saying you loved him. Ben still had so many walls up, and he was very proud. He refused to let his heart be broken again, so he couldn’t bring himself to say those three words. 

When the two of you were alone his softer side would come out. He was gentle with you in bed and took his time exploring your body. The touch of his calloused fingers was always soft and gentle, but his grip on your body was always strong. He held you like he was afraid of losing you. 

Ben loved to dominate you in bed, but there was something about you being on top of him, taking control, that had him completely falling apart. He loved watching you. It didn’t matter what you were doing. Everything from washing dishes to coming undone under him. You were his favorite drug and he couldn’t get enough of you. 

Everyone was sitting in the office and working out the details of the latest situation you’d found yourselves in. You sat at your computer absentmindedly biting your lip while reading something. Ben sat across the room watching you and feeling himself get aroused. You smirked because his thoughts were so loud you could hear them across the room. Ben quickly realized you were hearing him so his thoughts turned vulgar in the best way. 

I want to stick my cock in that pretty little mouth of yours and fuck my cock down your throat. Lift up that skirt and stick my fingers in that wet little pussy of yours. Maybe bend you over that desk and fuck you right here in front of everyone. Fill your cunt up with my seed and fuck a baby into you. 

Your heart raced as heat filled your face and you clenched your thighs together. Ben smirked when he saw your reaction. “Oi, what’s got you all flustered?” Butcher’s voice pulled you out of your head. You looked at Butcher, “What?! Nothing. What do you need?” Your voice was almost an octave higher than usual. 

Ben smirked as he heard you. “I need the directions you were supposed to be pulling up,” Butcher barked. You handed him a paper and he looked at you and then over at Ben. He shook his head and walked away. 

Ben sauntered over to your desk and you looked at him, your y/c/e eyes darker with lust. His green eyes were just as lust filled. He smirked at you, “Something bothering you sweetheart?” You smirked at him, “You know damn well what you did.” You laughed. “Yes I do, and I meant every word of it too.” You looked at him and bit your lip, “Every word of it?” Ben leaned down and whispered into your ear, “Yes, every single word.” His hot breath on your skin sent a shiver down your spine. 

You mustered your courage and locked eyes with him, “Then do it, fuck a baby into me.” Ben’s eyes went wide. His heart sped up and the anticipation was killing him. He’d never wanted a baby with anyone except Crimson, but now all he wanted was a baby with you. The two of you had never talked about children, so hearing you say that sent a wave of excitement through his body. 

He grabbed your hand and was going to take you to the back office, but Butcher came back in the room and told everyone to gear up. Ben growled and looked at Butcher. “Oi! What’s got your panties in a wad?” Ben’s jaw clenched, “Fuck you, Butcher!” You looked at Ben and placed your hand on his chest, “Later, baby. I promise.” You placed a soft kiss on his lips and his jaw loosened. 

Later that night at home Ben took you in the living room, on the kitchen table, in the shower, and then again in the bed. He was an absolute beast and was doing his best to “fuck a baby into you” as he so delicately kept telling you. When the two of you finally collapsed in the bed, Ben pulled you close to his body and kissed your forehead. You laid your head on his chest and drifted off to sleep listening to his steady heartbeat. 

The next few days Butcher was working everyone to death. He had a lead on how to rid the world of Homelander and his band of cunts, as Butcher called them. All of you piled in the van and headed for an abandoned barn Butcher said was a meeting place for his informant. You tried to push back and told him you didn’t think it was a good idea, but you lost the argument. 

Annie and Hughie were behind you giggling like a couple of teenagers in love. You heard Hughie tell her he loved her and she said it back to him. A twinge of sadness filled your heart.

You longed to hear Ben say he loved you. Annie told you this morning before you all headed out that her and Hughie were engaged. Everyone was excited for them. Ben however, just kept quiet. 

About an hour into the drive your heart couldn’t take anymore of the “I love you, no I love you more” and you snapped. “We get it, you fucking love each other. Fuck! Can you two please just shut the fuck up?!” Everyone looked at you shocked. You’d never spoken to anyone, let alone Annie like that before. Tears streamed down your face, you quickly turned your head and wiped them away. 

There was an uncomfortable silence that filled the van after your outburst. So when Butcher announced you were there everyone let out the breath they had been holding. You jumped out of the van before Butcher came to a complete stop. Ben came storming after you, “Hey, what the fuck was that?! I thought you and Barbie were best friends?” “Ben, please just leave me alone. I don’t want to fight with you or anyone right now. We have a job to do, so please let’s just do it.” “Oh hell no, you don’t get to act like that and not expect me to ask you why.” 

You kept walking towards the barn but Ben wouldn’t let up. “Y/N! Talk to me dammit! Don’t fucking walk away from me when I’m talking to you woman!” You stopped in your tracks and turned to face him. Your jaw tight with anger, “What the fuck did you just say to me?!” Anger rolled off you like a Summer storm rolling into town. 

“I said don’t walk away from me!” “Fuck you, Ben! I thought you had changed, but I was wrong. You don’t get to order me around. I’m not a child!” “The fuck I can’t! You belong to ME!” Your eyes went wide and your jaw fell open. By now the team was standing around you two and stood in disbelief of what he just said. “Hey, guys. Why don’t we just calm down before we say something we might regret. Come on Y/N, go with Annie, and Ben come with Butcher and me.” Hughie said, trying to defuse the situation.

You were holding back tears, “No, Hughie. Ben, I can’t do this anymore. I don’t belong to you, because I’m a person, not an object you own. I’m not your property. I’m sorry you couldn’t see how much I love you, because I do, Ben, I love you. I’m sorry you were so hurt by Crimson you can’t bring yourself to fall in love with me. To love me, to really want to be with me. You’re free Ben, free to drink, do drugs and fuck yourself silly with all those women who would love nothing more than to be used by Soldier Boy. Good bye, Ben.” 

You turned to walk away and Annie tried to stop you. “Y/N, please don’t go. We can all work this out.” You hugged her, tears streaming down your face, “No, we can’t. Good bye, Annie.” 

Ben stood there watching you walk away and did nothing. Butcher, MM and Frenchie all tried to convince him to go after you, but he refused. Instead he pushed his hurt down and watched you walk away.

Weeks turned into months and you didn’t come back. Ben slipped back into his old habits, drinking, snorting anything he could, and sleeping with multiple women a day, sometimes at the same time. Everyone knew he was hurting and was trying to bury the pain with the booze, drugs and women. Nothing he did could erase you from his mind or his heart. 

Butcher, MM and Hughie had all tried to reach out to you, but you wouldn’t take their calls. You had moved out of your place and hadn’t stepped foot in the office since that day. Annie was the only one who had spoken to you and had seen you. She refused to tell them where you were, just telling them you were okay.

It was a chilly October day when Annie came to visit you. It had been about 7 months since your fight with Ben. Seven long months without the love of your life, the man you saw a future with. You’d ask Annie how he was doing, and all she would tell you was “not good”. You knew he was back to his old habits. You’d snuck back in town a few times to see how he was and each time you’d see him with his arm around another woman it ripped your heart out all over again. 

“Hey, sweetie. How are you doing?” Annie asked as she stepped into your house. “I’m okay. I saw Ben again the other day. This time he was with some red head. I’d seen him with her a few other times. I guess they are a thing now.” Annie’s heart sank. She didn’t have the heart to tell you Ben had introduced her to the group as his girl. You could feel her sadness so you tried to read her thoughts. “Y/N, please don’t.” She begged. It was too late, you saw “girlfriend” in Annie’s head and your heart shattered.

Tears streamed down your face, “I still love him so much, Annie. How can I do this alone? I shouldn’t be doing this alone.” She took you in her arms and hugged you, “You’re not alone, honey. You have me, and Hughie if you let me tell him.” “It’ll just complicate things more than they already are. I’ll get through this, I mean it’s not like I’m the first woman to raise children by herself.” You placed your hand on your pregnant belly. 

You got pregnant that night 7 months ago, when Ben took you all over the house. You didn’t know you were pregnant until you had left, and by then Ben was already moving on to the next woman. A few months into your pregnancy the doctors confirmed you were pregnant with twins. You were excited and so sad. Ben should be here with you, he should be here with his children.

“I know, Y/N, but you three are not alone, you have me. You’ll always have me.” She hugged you and helped you to your feet. The two of you were going shopping for baby furniture for the nursery and you weren’t going to let the news of Ben and his “girl” ruin that. 

About an hour later the two of you were picking out the cribs, car seats and double stroller. You were exhausted and hungry. Annie had the store set up the delivery of the purchased items, so you two didn’t have to carry them in the house. “Alright, let’s go feed you and those babies.” Annie laughed. You nodded and placed your hand on your belly. Your supe ability allowed you to communicate with the twins, so you were very intune to their emotions. You could already tell one was going to be stubborn and grumpy like his father, the other was more laid back and relaxed. 

Annie took you by the hand and the two of you walked into one of your favorite diners in town. When you walked in your senses were instantly bombarded with an overwhelming sense of fear. Annie froze and you looked up. The place was being robbed and the gunmen had their weapons pointed at you. 

Annie stepped in front of you trying to shield you and the babies. “You’re making a mistake, put the guns down and you won’t get hurt.” She said. They scoffed at her and kept their guns pointed at the two of you. “Both of you get in and shut the fuck up!” One of the men shouted. 

You were shaking and scared. Annie tried to convince them to let you go. “Why, so she can run and get the police? I don’t think so. Now move it!”

You and Annie took a seat at the booth near the door. You pulled out your phone and hid it under your belly, you dialed Butcher and moved your hands back up. You looked at Annie and told her you called Butcher. Well you telepathically told her. 

Butcher and the guys were at the office talking about the next case when his phone rang. He looked at the screen and saw your name. “Oi, shut it, it’s Y/N.” Ben’s eyes widened and everyone got quiet. “Hey love, long time. How are you?” There was no answer, Butcher could hear voices, but didn’t hear you. “Love, you okay?” Ben stood up and walked over to Butcher. 

You figured Butcher had answered by now so you started talking to Annie, “What do you think they want? This diner can’t have a ton of money, right?” Butcher realized you were at the diner and it was being robbed.

“Let’s go! Sounds like the girls are in trouble.” You knew if Butcher heard he would be there, you weren’t sure if Ben was going to be there or not, but right now you didn’t care. All you cared about was keeping Annie, your babies and everyone else safe. 

A few minutes later the guys pulled up to the diner. Ben, MM and Hughie went around the back, Frenchie and Kimiko alerted the police, and Butcher strolled in the front.

“Oi, what the fuck do we have here. A couple of cunts robbing the joint? Can’t do any better than a little diner?” Butcher distracted the gunmen long enough for Ben, MM and Hughie to enter through the kitchen. The four of them disarmed and subdued the robbers.

When you saw Ben your heart ached and fear filled your body. Annie took your hand, “It’s okay, Y/N, you don’t have to talk to him.” Butcher was the first over to you and when you stood up he saw your swollen belly. He pulled you into a hug. MM and Hughie were next, Ben hadn’t seen your belly yet, but he saw you. 

Butcher walked over to Ben, “I’m not sure this is the best place for a reunion for you two. Maybe we should head back to the office.” “No! I want to see her.” Ben pushed past Butcher and when Hughie stepped to the side he looked at you. His eyes taking you in and seeing your swollen belly. 

You bit your lip and tried to steady your breath. Ben walked over to you, “Hey Y/N, are you okay?” You nodded yes, not trusting your voice. Your hands instinctively went to cradle your belly. Ben’s eyes not leaving your growing belly. He reached for your hand, but you pulled away and walked away. 

Ben stood there heart broken. Annie walked up to him, “Ben, give her some time.” Ben’s eyes flashed with rage, “How long have you known?!” “What?” “How long have you known, Annie?! How long have you known she was pregnant?!” “What’s it matter, Ben? It’s not like you fucking cared about her. As soon as she left you started fucking your way through every woman you could find.” “Fuck you, you stupid bitch!” “No! Fuck you you stupid jackass. She loved you. She accepted every part of you, the good, the bad and the ugly. Yet she still loved you and wanted to be with you. So fuck you for hurting her!”

Butcher came over and told everyone to head back to the office, this was not the place to talk about this. Annie and Kimiko convinced you to come by even if it was for a little bit. They promised to keep Ben in check. So you reluctantly went. 

You sat on the couch cradling your belly as everyone fawned over you. Even Butcher was a little excited for the babies growing in your belly. You felt Ben’s eyes on you from across the room. You looked up at him and saw so much pain, regret and anger in his eyes. Your sweet, soft Ben seemed so gone. Tears pricked your eyes, so you looked away. You knew you were responsible for some of his pain and it broke your heart. 

Butcher asked you if you needed anything and you told him you were hungry, so he and MM went to grab you some food. Frenchie and Kimiko left shortly after to head to an appointment she had with her speech therapist, Annie and Hughie decided to stay around, but to give you some space in case you and Ben decided to talk. 

Annie walked over to Ben. He met her gaze and glared at her. “What do you want Barbie?” “Ben, please just go talk to her. She loves you still, even if she won’t admit it now. She’s carrying your children for fucks sake.” Ben’s eyes went wide, “She’s having twins?” “Yes, both boys.” Ben smiled at the thought of you having his boys. He took a deep breath and walked over to the couch.

“Can I sit down?” You looked at Ben and nodded. “Ben, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was pregnant. I honestly didn’t think you wanted me or would want our child. So I was fine with raising them on my own.” Ben’s eyes softened, there was your Ben again. Your heart fluttered at his soft green eyes. Your boys must have felt his presence too, because they were very active and their thoughts were running wild with excitement. You smiled softly and touched your belly. 

Ben looked at you and took your hand, “Sweetheart, I will always want you and our children.” You let out the breath you had been holding. You threw your arms around his neck and pulled him into a hug. It felt so amazing to be in his arms again. As you hugged him, one of the twins kicked really hard. Ben felt it and chuckled, “That’s my boy.” He placed his hand on your belly and the kicks became frantic, like they couldn’t wait to let their daddy feel them. You smiled and placed your hand on his.

“I love you Ben. I know it’s hard for you to say and I’m okay with that, I just want to see if we can make this work, and not just for the boys, but for us. We both deserve to be happy.” Ben nodded and his lips hovered over yours. You leaned closer, your breath mixing with his. Your lips inches away from each other. 

The door to the room swung open, “Benji, guess what? I’m pregnant!” You pulled away and looked up. It was the red head. Ben stood up and looked at her. She looked at Ben and then at you. “Who the hell is this?!” She seethed. 

You pulled yourself off the couch and looked at her and then at Ben. Annie came running over. “What did she just say, Ben?” You asked not believing your ears. “I said I was pregnant. What’s it to you?! And who are you?” “Apparently I’m nobody.” You looked at Ben as the tears fell. “Annie, can you take me home?” Annie nodded and Hughie followed the two of you out. 

As you walked out, you realized you forgot your bag. Walking back in you saw the red head and Ben kissing. You softly gasped. Ben pushed her away. “Benji, you’re going to be a daddy. Oh I love you so much.” Ben looked at you as you turned to walk away again. 

He ran over to you and grabbed your arm, “Please don’t leave again.” “Ben, I can’t do this. She’s your girlfriend and apparently she’s pregnant too. Go and be happy with her. The two of you have been awfully cozy out on the town.” Ben looked at you confused, “Yeah, I’ve seen you two. I’ve come back a few times wanting to tell you about the twins and how much I still loved you and I’ve seen you together.” 

Ben was gobsmacked. “Benji, come on baby, we have so much to do. I think we should push the wedding up now that I’m pregnant.” You looked at Ben, “Wedding?” She walked over and showed you her finger, on it was a single diamond ring, “We’re getting married and I’m having his baby. He proposed after a night of love making and confessing our love for each other.” 

You looked at Ben, shock and heartbreak filled your body. “You told her you loved her, and you asked her to marry you?” Ben just nodded. He couldn’t admit he said it thinking about you, and asked her to marry him after a night filled with alcohol, and heavy drug use. He hadn’t remembered asking her until she showed him the ring. 

You hung your head, trying to hide the tears, “I hope you have a good life, Ben. Good bye.” You grabbed your bag and headed out the door. As soon as you got outside you collapsed on the ground and sobbed. Annie and Hughie helped you up and into the car.

A little while later Annie was pulling into your driveway. You had fallen asleep in the car from exhaustion. She helped you out of the car and into your bed. You laid on your bed sobbing. Hughie felt horrible. “What can I do to help?” He asked Annie as he heard your cries. “Just run to the store and grab some food. We were supposed to go to the grocery store today. Here’s the list. I’ll stay here with her, and Hughie if he calls you, don’t tell him where she lives.” Hughie kissed Annie and left. 

Annie crawled in your bed with you and held you tightly. “Shhh it’s okay, Y/N. You need to think about your boys right now. All this stress isn’t good for them.” “He told her he loved her, Annie, and he asked her to marry him. I don’t understand why I was not good enough for him. Why aren’t we good enough for him?” “I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for all of it. Right now I just need you to relax and get some rest. We will figure everything else out later.” 

She laid with you rubbing your back until you finally drifted off to sleep. Annie was pissed. As soon as you were asleep she got up, closed your door and grabbed her phone. 

She dialed Ben’s number. He picked up instantly. “Ben, what the fuck happened?! How could you confess your love for Sherry and ask her to marry you?! Y/N deserved so much better than that. If you love Sherry and were engaged to her why did you try to kiss Y/N?! You can’t toy with people you fucking lunatic!”

Ben did his best to explain to Annie what happened. “I swear to you I don’t love her and I don’t want to marry her. Hell I’m not convinced she’s pregnant or if she is that the baby is mine. Annie, please tell me where Y/N is. I need to talk to her.” “Ben, I can't do that. I just got her calmed down enough to fall asleep. You know she asked me why she wasn't good enough, why the twins weren’t good enough for you. Fuck, Ben! She’s in love with you so deeply she’s willing to walk away from you at the chance of you being happy with Sherry, and at the expense of her own broken heart. I think you need to figure out what you really want, and if it’s Sherry then leave Y/N alone, and if it’s Y/N then you need to tell Sherry to fuck off!” 

“I don’t want Sherry. I don’t love her, I love Y/N! I want to marry her and raise our boys together.” “Then you know what you need to do, Ben. First you need to settle things with Sherry and then we'll talk.” Annie hung up and sat on the couch letting out a long sigh. How did this situation get so fucked up. I hate seeing Y/N like this and I hope Ben is sincere about loving her because I really don’t know how much more she can take.

Annie’s thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. It was Hughie with the groceries. She helped him carry in the bags and put away the food. 

A few hours later the smell of food woke you up. You stretched and crawled out of bed. Walking into the kitchen you saw Annie and Hughie cooking dinner together. The sight of the two of them so in love filled you with happiness and a little sadness. You were elated your friend had someone to love her, but sad the love of your life slipped through your fingers again. 

Hughie stole a kiss as he walked past Annie and she giggled. You smiled and cleared your throat. “Hey beautiful, how was your nap?” Annie asked as she pulled you into a hug. “It was good. Thank you for letting me sleep.” 

She nodded, “I hope you’re hungry.” You smirked, “Annie, I’m 7 months pregnant with twin boys, of course I’m hungry.” All three of you laughed. A few minutes later you were all sitting around the table eating dinner and talking. You were laughing at Hughie’s antics. Annie was beaming because she loved hearing you laugh. As the evening wore on the three of you were talking and having a great time. Deciding to watch a movie you all moved to the couch. Everyone got comfortable, well you got as comfortable as you could and Annie started the movie. 

About halfway through the movie there was a knock at the door. The three of you exchanged looks and Annie stood up to answer the door. When she opened the door her eyes went wide and a gasp left her mouth. You looked over at the door. “Ben, what are you doing here?”

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[vgilantee]

here’s a ghost thot i wrote for an oc but could absolutely be reader—friends with benefits, reader gets a hold of a pair of ghost’s boxers, stole them to be cheeky after a fuck and just forgot, wears them just cause not really expecting anything when the team goes out to a bar. reader and ghost end up going home early together and ghost stops when he sees, gets off on her fucking some other guy while wearing them. they’ve got his initials on the waistband bc you gotta keep track of your shit and he just loses his mind, gags her with them, cums on her face and makes her keep them on while he makes them the dinner they missed

oh. my GOD yes.

at first he’s fingerfucking you with his hand down the front of the boxers so hard and deep to prove that while you can screw some other guy, none will be as good as him when it comes to making you scream and writhe. ghost knows y’all aren’t exclusive but he Will be the best.

after you DRENCH the boxers, squirting around his fingers while you claw at him and scream, he finally takes them off, ready to once again prove that his cock is the best you’ll ever have. but then he notices the writing on the inside of the band. the messy scrawl in faded sharpie “SR. ghost.” and oh. oh you aren’t wearing the boxer briefs of some green rookie, or a sleaze you met at the pub for a quick fuck. no you’re wearing his boxers

it sends simon’s brain into overdrive. you’ve been walking around all day with his boxers on, “probably been leakin’ into ‘em all day, huh? gettin’ wet just wearing my boxers, lovie.”

he’s no stranger to shoving your panties into your mouth. hell on a couple of occasions you’ve shoved them into his mouth. but something about seeing you gagging on his boxers that you’ve soaked in your cum and been wearing all day does something to the poor guy.

there’s a renewed energy when he fucks you, now that he knows his initials have been on you all day, and you most definitely have fingertip bruises on your hips and waist the next day.

he doesn’t know where the thought comes from - he’s definitely cum inside you before - the as hell starts to feel the burning in his lower stomach and his balls tighten, he pulls out and shifts. granted, a good amount of it ends up all over your chest, but you do get plenty on your lower face, covering your mouth and makeshift gag in his thick cum.

and for SURE once he cleans you up, he slides on a clean pair of boxers as he dresses you (we Do Not willingly allow ourselves to get a UTI or thrush in this house) and pairs it with one of his shirts.

maybe he isn’t as okay with the non-exclusive as he though, because seeing your with sex hair, smiling dopily at him while wearing his shirt and his boxers… it has him smiling to himself far softer than he realised

[sammysficfactory]

Check That

eren yeager x black!femreader

summary: sometimes when family crosses boundaries, you have to remind them of their place. my excuse to write thanksgiving clapbacks

wc: ~0.5k

tags: fluff, comedy

warnings: mentions of food

notes: happy thanksgiving if you celebrate!, school is whooping me sorry i haven’t been posting often😭, beta read, inspired by those tiktoks, mostly centered around the reader, i feel like i’m just yapping in this👎🏾, feedback is welcome

Every year. You don’t even know why you come to your grandmother’s house every thanksgiving just to deal with your hypocritical family. You wish you would’ve just gone over Eren’s family’s house instead. Your leg bounces and Eren rubs your knee comfortingly.

“Y/N, why do you sneak off on us every other holiday? We are your family, you shouldn’t avoid us like that.” An aunt not-so-secretly judges you, her southern drawl making it all the more demeaning, but this year you came prepared.

“The same reason the repo man snuck off with that busted Nissan of yours.” You reply nonchalantly, causing your boyfriend to choke on his greens before covering it up by taking a sip of his water. Quiet snickers are heard across the large rectangular table as you continue to eat.

“Still ain’t got the car back yet either.” Your mother says under her breath, but loud enough for you and Eren to hear. You smirk, trying to keep yourself from laughing. You appreciate the fact that your parents have always had your back when you needed it.

That seemed to be enough to keep your aunt quiet for a good while. You bask in the warmhearted laughs and conversation now that your shady aunt has nothing more to say. The comfort of family is beginning to melt all the stress of your daily life away. That is until your aunt Jackie’s daughter Destiny decides to chime in on the topic of marriage. She’s been giving Eren bedroom eyes the entire evening.

“So cuz, this is the first time you brought Eren over for a family dinner. Are y’all a serious thing?” She twirls her fork in the spaghetti on her plate, making doe eyes at Eren that causes him to screw his face up slightly.

“Eren and I are just as serious as your fraud charges. Thank you for your concern, can you pass the yams?” You reply, rolling your eyes and feeling annoyed all over again. Your knee bounces a bit more intensely and just like always, Eren is right there to soothe you. He rubs your knee and places a kiss on your cheek for good measure. You exhale heavily, doing your best to keep yourself in check.

A few hours later with no further incidents, you and Eren say your goodbyes and leave out the door. You get in the passenger seat and let out a heavy and exhausted sigh. Eren turns your head towards him gently, just two fingers on your jaw and chin. He places a long, soft, and loving kiss on your lips.

“You did good today, I thought we were gonna have to get it poppin’ on thanksgiving.” He jokes, resulting in a chuckle coming from you. His eyes seem to glow a little when he sees you smile, a satisfied look on his face.

“There she is, there’s my lady.” He almost coos at you, his voice is just as soothing and warm as the smile on his face before he brings you in for another kiss. The two of you pull away slowly, taking some time just to stare at each other and decompress together.

The two of you make it home with plastic bags of takeaway containers in tow, setting them on the table before separating them into what the two of you would eat on your own, and what you would share. Ultimately stuffed, you and Eren lay on the couch tangled in each other’s limbs watching Charlie Brown movies.

[zaebeecee]

To Sever a Loveless Bond

••RadioDust Soulmate AU••

Part 21/?

First chapter | Previous chapter | Next chapter

Read on AO3

•••

I know it’s been over a month but to make up for it this chapter is nearly 10k words and a whole lot of stuff happens. Like… a whole lot of stuff. Thank you again for sticking with me, y’all, you mean the world to me.

I headcanon Alastor as having had hEDS in life. Also, in our house we call Vox’s assistant Blink in fanfic because we need to call him something

CW for violence, non-consensual/forced nudity, various forms of torture, slut shaming, Vox being a creepy fuck, blood ritual stuff, electricity super fucking Alastor up in the short term

•••

Alastor and pain were not, nor had they ever been, strangers to one another.

It was true, of course, that he quite enjoyed causing harm of both the physical and the emotional variety to those around him… and the psychological, when opportunity knocked. However, he knew pain much too intimately for such knowledge to come from base violence and chaos; it was a gift that life had begun to give him at a young age, his body plagued with a strange malady that neither his maman nor the few doctors they could afford were able to identify. It caused him pain most every moment of every day, and that, in turn, transformed the pain into something… else, something almost familiar and comfortable.

There even came a time that Alastor had convinced himself that pain was no longer a hindrance for him. Of course, there were different kinds of pain, but when one could never escape from it, embracing it became second nature.

The pain that jarred Alastor out of the nothingness of unconsciousness and into the wakeful dark was nothing like the pain of his life, nor like any other pain he had felt in the time since. An odd sort of tingling sensation lay across every inch of his skin, pervasive and just irritating enough to be impossible to ignore; it persisted until he tried to make any movement at all, at which point the fuzzy, staticky sensation spiked quite immediately into the pain of a thousand hot needles piercing through skin and muscle and deep into bone. His breath came in a sharp and ragged gasp as his eyes flew open, focusing on a neon-edged black abyss that stretched endlessly above him before he was forced to screw them shut again.

“You’re getting soft, Alastor.”

That voice, always an unpleasant intruder in his everyday life when simply heard through a television speaker, was more biting than the hurt that wracked his body as it seemed to slice into his eardrums with its brusque, smug self-satisfaction. Alastor gritted his teeth, lip curling as he forced one eye open again, attempting to look around through the red lens of his monocle only to find that it had been taken off of him.

“Not very hospitable surroundings, old pal,” Alastor hissed with all the venomous sarcasm he could muster in the moment. “Losing your touch at playing host?”

“Perhaps not hospitable, but certainly appropriate.” Vox wasn’t in his line of sight, and Alastor took a moment to try and figure out where the fuck, exactly, he was. He was lying flat on his back on a hard, unyielding surface, metal fastened about his wrists, his legs, and the middle of his abdomen. His clothing had been removed, and he could feel that something thin and sharp had been pushed into his flesh along most of his major muscle groups down his arms, legs, and abdomen, but he couldn’t tell what it was. And his strength… it felt like every ounce of his control over his body and his power had been siphoned from him. “Are you feeling proud of yourself?” Vox asked.

“Usually,” Alastor said, keeping his voice flippant as his grin tightened. “About what, specifically?”

Alastor heard Vox’s footsteps before he saw him. The other overlord stepped up to the slab he was lashed down to—bolted to, really—and stared down at him with that… look that he got when he was (as Alastor had always put it back in the day) ‘thinking like a capitalist’. It was something that was trying for cold and appraising, but was full of too much… greed? Hunger? Alastor didn’t know what to call it, but whatever it was, there was too much for his gaze to truly be called dispassionate.

Vox was maintaining his calm, a fairly impressive feat these days. “You actually allowed yourself to be baited. By Valentino,” the television overlord said with what sounded like every ounce of derision he possessed. “And you always fancied yourself above such base behavior.”

Alastor giggled as a pain stabbed his chest from the inside, like a knife shoving up through his sternum. “Says the one who’s simply let Valentino use him as a meal ticket for the past forty years.”

“I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you,” Vox snarled, a crack in that carefully-constructed image he so dutifully maintained. One of his hands hit the table beside Alastor’s head and he leaned forward to loom over the Radio Demon as Alastor turned his face away, still snickering. “You aren’t exactly in an advantageous position here, Alastor. Do you really want to push me right now?”

“Of course not,” Alastor said with a false contrition, his eyes cutting over to Vox while his face remained turned away. “These newfangled flatscreens topple so easily. I would be absolutely mortified if I broke your face again.”

Fury passed across Vox’s screen for a moment… but only a moment. It calmed, quite suddenly, as he raised his other hand and extended his index finger. Alastor had only a moment to wonder what the actual fuck was happening before Vox touched one of the somethings buried in his arm.

“FUCK!!” Alastor screamed, the word torn from his lips unbidden, as a horrific jolt of unadulterated and pure agony shot through his arm, down into his fingers and up into his shoulder and neck. His hand spasmed, joints cracking and claws gouging the metal table, as his head snapped to nearly lean his ear against his shoulder. The next moment, the overwhelming sensation of active torture vanished, leaving behind a throbbing hurt and the occasional uncontrolled twitch of his fingers and shoulder.

Alastor gasped for breath against the feeling of a heavy weight on his chest, his smile widening as he focused on Vox’s face, studying him as though he were a mildly interesting test audience for a new pilot. “What…” Alastor’s voice gave out, and his head twitched, before he managed to focus again. “…the fuck… did you do…?”

Vox raised an eyebrow. “You’re providing me with intensely useful metrics,” he said. “I had an idea for a new game show, but I hadn’t had the chance to actually perform any meaningful tests to determine what, precisely, would be an appropriate range. After all, it has to be painful enough to be entertaining, but not so painful that the contestants will either pass out or explode too quickly.”

Alastor curled his lip. “I am not your test subject.”

“You… are, actually.” Vox smiled at him, a smile that was nasty and cold and nothing like what he let most other people see. “Listen. Alastor. You are the one who elected to enter into my domain. You nearly tore the damn building down. If I let you go, you’d just proceed to destroy everything you could get your hands on.”

“Obviously,” Alastor hissed.

Vox ignored the interjection. “So, clearly, I can’t release you; it’s not in the company’s best interest. And, if I have you here anyway, I may as well make use of you.”

The word brought the taste of bile into Alastor’s mouth, and he jerked against his bindings, but his body felt… weak. It was as though it didn’t want to obey the commands of his brain. “I am going to free myself from this little contraption of yours, and the moment I do, I am going to fucking kill you.”

“I’m sure you’ll try,” Vox allowed. “But we both know that if you could kill me, you would have already done it.” He turned away, going back to whatever he had been doing out of Alastor’s line of sight. “To answer your question, I’ve inserted silver-plated wires into your muscles. Silver is the most conductive metal, so it will be the most efficient in transferring electricity directly into your flesh. I’m going to gauge your responses to different levels of electrical shock in different places. And you can try to break out all you like, but your nervous system and your brain aren’t communicating right now, and probably won’t be until long after I’m done here.”

Alastor found himself laughing, the sound high and weak as he struggled to breathe, as though the electric shock had flattened his lungs. “And you say I’m sick.”

“You are,” Vox said. “But I really do have to ask. How, exactly, was it that Val got you to come here?”

Alastor snorted. “Why so curious?”

“Because Val is an idiot. But you were so very upset when you arrived.” Vox returned to the table and leaned his hip against it, folding his arms as he looked down at Alastor once more. “I’m sure it will interest you to know that Angel Dust is with him again.”

Alastor wasn’t sure what, precisely, his face did when Vox said that. Whatever it was, though, it was clear that Vox wasn’t expecting it. The television overlord’s eyes widened for a moment before narrowing, his teeth gritting visibly and his left eye spasming briefly. Alastor kept his own voice as steady as he could. “You can’t keep me here forever, Vox,” he said, his voice low. “When I am done with you, and when I am done with Valentino, there will not be enough of you left to even whimper in the radio chorus.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing all of…” Vox’s screen glitched, and he shook it a little, clearing the image. “You’re endangering yourself, debasing yourself, degrading yourself, and for what? A common whore?”

Alastor’s smile sharpened. “The fact that you think he’s common shows how incomparably myopic you are, Vox.”

Years ago, Alastor had realized that he had never truly understood Vox’s mind or how it worked. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking at any given moment, and his motivations (particularly where Alastor himself was concerned) had always been downright unfathomable. That was why, Alastor supposed, he couldn’t predict Vox’s movements when he suddenly held up another silver-plated wire in his clenched fist and slammed it down into Alastor’s arm, piercing straight through the little spider in the crook of his elbow.

Alastor’s scream morphed into laughter that sounded unhinged even to himself, punctuating continued shrieks of agony as electricity shuddered into his soulmate mark. Eventually, it didn’t even sound like it was coming from his own mouth, his consciousness disconnecting and reconnecting as though trying to find a particularly weak station signal on an old radio.

You can’t keep me here forever, Vox.

He knew that more he repeated it, the easier it would become to believe.

•••

Angel stumbled across the bare tile floor and slammed into the wall across from the doorway, unable to catch himself to cushion the blow to his shoulder and the side of his head. His teeth ground together as his socked feet slowly slid across the cold ceramic, his body slipping down the wall in what felt like slow motion until he landed on his hip in an inelegant, uncomfortable slump.

He could still see the agony on Alastor’s face as he collapsed, hear the soft buzz of electricity as he twitched involuntarily, like the moment now seared into his memory had happened moments ago when, at this point, it had to have been more than four hours. When Valentino had dragged him from the studio and into the nearest room with a surface flat enough to pretend to be a bed, he had proceeded to treat Angel like a rag doll, beating him and touching him, taking out what seemed to be every frustration he had built up since the 70s on Angel’s defenseless flesh. He had once thought he could never feel more worthless and disgusting, but Valentino had proven him wrong. Angel hadn’t even been aware of leaving the room, only vaguely registering that he was being dragged down the hallway before Valentino opened a nondescript door and threw him inside.

“I have given you everything you have.”

He tried not to let his pain show on his face. He really did. Even so, Angel could feel the corners of his eyes pinching with pain as he slowly opened them and looked up at Valentino, the overlord standing in the doorway, blocking it with his arms and the cape-like wings that twitched, threatening to open. Valentino would have almost looked dispassionate, were it not for the blood on his claws and spattering the front of his shirt.

Angel’s blood.

The same blood now smeared on the wall behind him, marking the path of his descent like the trail of a large and dying snail.

Angel didn’t answer, and Valentino took his silence as response enough, baring his teeth and digging gouges in the doorframe. “You were nothing before I found you,” he hissed. “Nothing. And without me, you would always be nothing. After everything I have given you, this is how you repay me?”

Angel had never felt so tired in his entire life. Something deep in his mind told him that this, right here, was it. This was going to be the rest of his life. Valentino was stupid, sure, but he wasn’t a complete idiot, and he must have grown his extra hands to make it easier to hold a grudge because the porn overlord had never and would never forgive what he determined to be a true betrayal. In Valentino’s eyes, Angel had betrayed him; no amount of apologizing or flattery or cocksucking would ever be enough to lift him out of the hole he had dug himself into. It wouldn’t be enough for Valentino to turn him out, of course—no, Valentino would much rather make Angel Dust’s life an active Hell for the rest of eternity—but it would be hanging over him for the rest of time, unless he threw himself on an exorcist’s spear during the next extermination.

Angel’s voice was flat in his own ears when he spoke. “Fuck you, Val.”

Valentino’s eye twitched behind his sunglasses. “You will eat those words, Angel Dust,” he said. Angel thought he might leave then, but instead, he said, “He will never love you.”

I know that.

Still, hearing it out loud, and from Valentino of all people, cut through Angel’s haze of numbness with a hot blade that seemed to slice into his core. He flinched, but he didn’t say anything, and because Valentino’s vision sucked, he didn’t notice.

He also didn’t stop.

“You’re more brainless than I thought, amorcito,” Valentino said with a remarkable level of control. “To believe that someone like you could be enough to sway the Radio Demon? You’re gutter trash, a filthy crack whore who would sell out his own family for a dime bag. He won’t look twice at the best this shithole has to offer. What makes you think something like you could change that?”

It would have been easier to take if Valentino had been yelling, but he wasn’t. No, it was that soft, mocking tone he took when he knew he’d found one of the flaws that made a crack in Angel’s psyche big enough for him to dig his claws into and pour his words in like poisonous smoke. Angel wanted to tell him to go fuck himself again, but he was so… tired.

Angel lowered his head. Valentino said something about not trusting him on his own while he checked on the status of the building, and then he left, closing the door behind him. Angel heard the click of the lock, the slow retreat of footsteps… and then nothing.

Slowly, Angel raised his head again, glancing around at where he had been left now that Valentino wasn’t around to observe his mild curiosity and trepidation. It looked like one of the many, many storage rooms VoxTek had scattered around the building; very few of them had a dedicated purpose, instead serving as a place to put furniture or equipment when rooms on the floor were being cleaned or the tech was being updated or any number of other reasons you might want bulky items neatly stacked somewhere out of the way.

This particular storage room appeared to be currently in disuse, the only other thing inside (besides Angel himself) being a bare, stark white lightbulb set high in the ceiling with no visible switches to turn it off. Outside of that, he saw nothing but bare off-white walls and bare white tile, both only marred by Angel’s blood where he had smeared it along the wall and let it drip onto the floor. It was almost blinding, and Angel screwed his eyes shut, letting his head fall back with a soft thud of impact that shouldn’t have hurt but sent pain shuddering all along his spine.

Now that he was alone, Angel felt nothing but pain. Cold seeped into his skin through his socks, the only clothing he had been allowed—and only because Valentino hadn’t bothered to rip them off—and he shivered, wrapping his arms around his bent legs and burying his face in his knees. The mark on his leg pulsed softly, like a heartbeat, and he realized he was crying.

This is so fucking pathetic, he thought, even though he was well aware that berating himself wouldn’t do shit for him or anyone else. All he wanted to do was get out of this room, find Alastor, and get both of them out of there. He’d happily break Vox’s screen if that was what it took.

No matter how badly he wanted to do something, to do anything at all besides sit uselessly in a closet trying to stop crying, he knew it was useless because even if he did manage to find Alastor and free him and even actually stand up to Vox, Valentino could use that fucking chain to stop him. It would be trivial. It wouldn’t help. It might even make Alastor’s situation worse.

Then again, you’re making a lot of assumptions. Alastor might not even still be here. How could Vox keep him? Why would he stay?

Why did he come here in the first place?

Angel sniffled, raising his head just enough to rub his eyes and listening to any sounds he could pick up coming from anywhere else in the building. Even though the power had come back on, it sounded like most of the systems weren’t currently running; more than likely, a ton of fuses had blown, and it would probably take a while to fix them. Since he couldn’t hear the omnipresent and overbearing electric hum that usually followed him whenever he was in this damn place, he was able to pick up the distant and muffled sound of voices somewhere below him, even more distant equipment banging and crashing as employees dealt with the aftermath of Alastor’s rampage, and a hollow sort of nothingness that came with the knowledge that he was alone and no one would be coming for him until Valentino decided to let him out.

Angel’s breath hitched in a sob and he cursed himself, pressing the heels of two hands into his eyes. “Stop it,” he muttered to himself, but it did nothing to stem the burgeoning tide of tears burning as they leaked out through tightly-clamped eyelids and soaked his palms. A third hand balled into a fist and struck the wall behind him, a sensation that did nothing but increase his frustration and make him wish he had something considerably more fleshy to rip apart. “Stupid,” he hissed, not even certain who he was saying it to anymore. He needed to think of something, but his mind was so—

A cold hand wrapped around Angel’s wrist and he screamed, jerking away and striking out at the sudden intruder. His hand hit nothing but air until his knuckles collided with the wall in a sharp snap that made him gasp with pain, yanking it back and cradling it to his chest. Nothing else touched him.

“What the fuck?” Angel whispered, rubbing tears from his eyes to clear his vision. There was nothing else in the room, just him, that blinding lightbulb, his blood, and his shadow.

No. Not his shadow.

Angel’s eyes widened as his vision adjusted and he could actually tell what he was looking at. Alastor’s shadow was on the wall beside him, back a couple of feet as though giving him room. There was something almost apologetic in the way the dark, angular, contorted figure held its hands and the way its mouth twisted into the sort of deep and worried frown Alastor’s own face seemed incapable of wearing. As Angel lowered his arm, raised on instinct to guard his face, the shadow seemed to relax minutely and return to a shape more familiar but no less off-putting.

“…Alastor…” Angel felt as though his heart was breaking at the same moment as the very sight of that shadow caused it to swell, two of his hands moving to the floor between his knees so he could lean forward and reach out a third hand. Angel rubbed his eyes with his fourth hand, sniffling wetly and clearing his throat. “Hey, Big Guy, come back, it’s okay,” he said, the words coming out as a rough murmur.

The shadow tilted its head, in a sense, before drifting across the wall back towards Angel. It reached out towards him, then stopped, twitching sharply like it was in pain.

“…!” Angel slid back over to the wall, placing his hands against the surface; as his fingers touched the blackness that formed the shadow, he felt that depthless cold again, the same that he felt every time Alastor had swept him into his own personal darkness. “What’s wrong?” he asked, pushing past the hurt of his ruined throat. “Are you— is he—…” He wasn’t sure how to ask what he meant.

The shadow’s twitching stilled, its form shifting in minute ways like it was actually catching its breath. Its face tilted down towards Angel’s hands before it moved its own arms, and as it did, Angel watched its shadowy fingers cascade across the backs of his own hands, like it was entwining their hands. The cold made him shiver, but he didn’t move away; even if his fingers had gone numb, he would have stayed right where he was.

“I’m so sorry,” Angel murmured. He reached up a third hand, but didn’t touch the wall. Instead, he watched his own shadow move closer until it touched Alastor’s. Instantly, as though it could feel his shadow hand like a real touch, it tilted into the touch and began practically nuzzling his shadow palm with the top of its head. Even though Angel wasn’t touching the wall, he could have sworn he felt the ruffle of hair, the hard ridge of an antler, and even the soft fur of an ear against his palm and fingers. “I don’t know what to do,” he confessed, watching as the shadow kept pressing its head against the silhouette of his hand. “Val locked me in here and won’t let me out until he comes back.” The shadow’s mouth twisted into a snarl, as if the very mention of Valentino had triggered some sort of rage within it. “And even if I…” Angel shook his head, moving his fingers to make his shadow scritch the manifestation’s ear. “…he won’t let me out of his sight. I know he won’t.”

At those words, Alastor’s shadow straightened, and as it removed its hands from Angel’s, it felt like he had suddenly dipped his fingers into hot water, so sudden was the return of warmth to his skin. The shadow hesitated at Angel’s surprised gasp, but it swept along the walls until it reached the door, and within moments, it had vanished through the crack at the base.

“Wait…!” Angel called, but the shadow was out of sight before he even thought of getting the word out. Slowly deflating, Angel had less than a breath to wonder what he was going to do now when he heard a tiny click from the door. Angel gasped, backing away, but it didn’t open. It didn’t sound like anyone was out there at all, least of all Valentino and his unbridled rage.

When he heard nothing else, Angel slowly got to his feet, placing his hand on the handle and pressing down. With another little click, the door creaked open, and Angel carefully peered out into the dim hallway. There was no one else, not even the terrifying and comforting shape of Alastor’s shadow lurking in the dark. The rooms sounded completely empty, everyone who normally would have been on the floor doubtless busy with the destruction happening far below him.

Angel glanced back at the closet, then made his decision and closed it behind him, twisting the lock with his thumb. He then ran down the hall, heading for the stairwell that would take him to a back hall he could use to reach his dressing room. Valentino wouldn’t check there first, second, or even third, and he had clothes in there that he could change into while he was thinking. He didn’t have a lot of time and he needed to make the most of the little he did have.

Alastor was somewhere in the building, after all, and Angel wasn’t going to leave him, soul contract be damned.

•••

It had been a long time since the vibe (that was the right word, right?) of the hotel had felt this… off. The Hazbin Hotel had its problems, just like any business, and the residents sometimes had their problems, but the atmosphere wasn’t usually this heavy. In fact, this was as bad as it had gotten since the evening after the last extermination.

Charlie had been yelled at for pacing, which meant she was now standing behind the front desk, watching everyone else. Niffty was still hanging out with Husk, who was doing his best to keep her occupied while they waited for any kind of news, silently validating Charlie’s own opinion that he really was a sweetheart under all of his grumpiness. Cherri was sitting with the guy apparently named Arackniss, who was also apparently Angel Dust’s brother, and Charlie would have eaten a whole pinecone for the chance to ask him just… so many questions if it wasn’t for the fact that this was definitely not the time. Moxxie, Millie, and Loona were only a short distance from them; occasionally, it looked like the five of them were interacting a little, but for the most part were just waiting for news (and, in I.M.P.’s case, for their boss to come back).

Charlie knew how they felt. She was certain everything was fine and there was no question that contract things could take a long time, but she couldn’t stand not knowing where Vaggie was. She pulled out her phone, but her girlfriend still hadn’t sent her anything since the text saying Prince Stolas was looking the contract over, and that had been forever ago.

The wait was driving her insane, and Charlie was trying to come up with something that she could do to pass the time (that wouldn’t end with Husk yelling at her to sit down) when the front door opened with an abrupt jerk.

Immediately, Charlie was alert, and she saw that awareness spread through the rest of the room as everyone diverted their attention to Vaggie and Blitzø as they came in, the imp shutting the door behind him. He pointed at Charlie as they approached, Charlie herself hopping over the desk and hurrying over to meet them halfway. “Your girlfriend flies like a fucking maniac,” Blitzø said, his voice winded.

Vaggie looked entirely unapologetic, and didn’t even look at him as she pulled the folded contract from her pocket. Charlie clasped her hands together in front of her chest as everyone else began gathering, some at more of a distance than others. “So? How did it go?”

“He found a loophole,” Vaggie said, offering the contract out for Charlie to take, which she did almost on reflex. “We just have to figure out how to get it to work.”

“How to—?” Charlie blinked. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to pretend I perfectly understood everything he said,” Vaggie said, glancing at Blitzø; he shrugged at her, and she turned back to Charlie. “But in a nutshell, the contract is still active because Valentino keeps increasing the value of his soul. Because of the wording in the contract, since he’s lived here for six months, you now have the power to do that. If you change the value to less than he’s made for VoxTek, the contract will end. But I don’t know how you’re supposed to do that.”

“He didn’t say?” Charlie asked.

Blitzø shook his head. “If he’d known, he would have told us. Soul contracts aren’t his bag, he’s not that kind of Goetia. Moxxie,” he added a little sharply.

Immediately, the other imp straightened. “Sir?”

“You’re good with contracts,” Blitzø said. “Go over it with the princess, see if you can’t help her figure out how it works.”

“Wha— um, yeah, sure.” Moxxie cast Blitzø an almost suspicious look, but broke away from Millie, crossing to Charlie. “If that’s okay with you?”

“Oh, yeah, please,” Charlie said. “We don’t deal with a lot of contracts here, and when we do— well. Alastor usually handles that,” she said a little sheepishly. It felt like every time something new cropped up this past month, she was faced with yet another thing she didn’t know how to do. Shaking off the feeling, she said, “Come on, let’s go back here.”

She led Moxxie through a hallway back behind the front desk to the management office, a place that she herself rarely used; though it was officially her office, Alastor and Vaggie got a lot more use out of it than she did, tending to paperwork or restocking orders and other more tedious work while she handled the face-to-face, public relations sort of duties. Charlie hesitated, then sat at the chair behind the desk, inviting Moxxie to pull a chair over and— “Oh!” Charlie blinked. “I didn’t hear you follow us.”

“That’s my M.O.” Arackniss leaned against the closed door, one set of arms folded across his chest. He had the same expression on that he’d had ever since Charlie first saw him, one that she had a Heaven of a time trying to read. “I thought you could use someone who’s got experience with Sinner contracts. Crimson don’t usually work with those, right?”

Charlie didn’t know what he meant, but apparently Moxxie did, because he stood up straighter. “How do you know him?” he asked, his voice immediately guarded and almost hostile.

Arackniss raised an unimpressed eyebrow, holding up one hand. “Cool your jets, kid,” he said. “I ain’t had the dubious honor of his acquaintance, but he has… entered my sphere of awareness, you might say. He don’t interest me, in any case.”

Moxxie was incredibly tense as he stood, watching Arackniss like he was thinking of… well, from what Charlie had learned after getting in on the ground level (as it were) in Hell society, it looked like Moxxie was thinking about shooting him. Instead, he said, “I didn’t really deal with Sinners there, no. And the contracts we do make with Sinners these days are a lot different and don’t have anything to do with souls.”

Arackniss walked over and placed two of his hands on the desk, looking at Charlie as she sat down in the office chair. “Right. So, let’s look at that contract and see exactly what it says.”

“Ah— right,” Charlie said, opening it up and smoothing over it with her hand to keep it flat against the desktop. The paper had that smooth, almost glass-like quality that paper tended to get when it was really aged; according to the date, it was more than fifty years old, by Sinner reckoning. She scanned over the words, looking for relevant passages, before her eyes lit on something likely. “Ah, here we go, maybe,” she said. “It says… The Contractee—” she glanced at the beginning of the text “—which is Angel Dust, hereby agrees to relinquish ownership of their quintessence to the Aheydrun, which I’m guessing is Valentino, for the purposes of manifest energy transference, defeasance of volition and percopacity and the supersedence thereof, and engagement in the vocation of indecorous dramatization in accordance with paragraph four until such time as the Contractee has repaid their determined value, the appreciation of which is subject to the Aheydrun’s discretion.” She hesitated, then looked up. “What’s an Aheydrun?”

Arackniss shrugged at her. Moxxie frowned. “It’s a Goetian word. It sounds archaic. I don’t know it, but I’m guessing that’s what Vaggie and Blitzø were referring to.”

Charlie nodded. “…so… Angel signed his soul over to Valentino and gave him the promise to perform in any film asked of him, all of the power his soul acquired during the span of the contract, and signed over his free will? …why?”

“Because he either didn’t read it or didn’t understand it,” Arackniss said. “Doubt most any Sinners would understand that shit, it’s intentionally worded to be confusing.”

Charlie nodded and looked down again. “The Aheydrun can determine the value… and Vaggie said that I can do that now, because he’s lived here for six months?”

Moxxie shrugged. “If that’s what Prince Stolas said, it’s probably right.”

“Okay,” Charlie said. “How, though?”

“That’s the question. May I?” Arackniss asked, holding his hand out. Charlie nodded and passed it to him, and he took it, looking it over quickly. “Sinner contracts ain’t as ritualistic as Hellborn contracts. You know, we took the concept and… capitalized it, you might say. Assumin’ Valentino followed those rules, it’ll be something kinda ritualistic, but more like a password of sorts.” He waved one hand, thinking, and Charlie was suddenly reminded of the way Angel flailed his arms when he was trying to process his thoughts. “…say if, when Valentino first set the price, he took a piece of paper and drew some kinda symbol on it, then spoke the new value and burned the paper. From then on, he’d hafta draw the same symbol on the same kinda paper and burn it in the same kinda fire every time he reevaluates Tony’s soul.”

Moxxie nodded. “…I guess that would explain why he doesn’t do it very often.” He took the contract from Arackniss and started looking not at the text, but rather at the front, back, and sides of the paper itself. “I only observed Valentino twice, but that’s all I need to know that he’s the kind to simplify things wherever possible.”

Charlie looked between them. “…blood?” she suggested.

Arackniss thought for a moment. “…it would be the most cliche, so… it’d make sense if he thought’a that first.”

“Sinners really are obsessed with the idea of blood sacrifice,” Moxxie sighed. “But it’s the easiest way to transfer energy, so that makes sense.” He tilted the contract again. “The back of the paper is discolored, like something spilled on it. But he clearly takes good care of it. If the paper itself is enchanted, maybe he just cut himself open and bled on the contract itself.”

“What if we’re wrong?” Charlie asked with a frown.

“Then the contract will have blood on it. That’s about it.”

“…right. That makes sense.” She opened the drawer and pulled out the letter opener Alastor had insisted that they have for their office (which was funny because he always just opened envelopes with his claw anyway), a thin and curved knife with a simple dark wood handle and an ebony blade. Moxxie put the contract down, and Charlie placed the blade against her palm, lightly closing her fingers around it. She took a breath, and— “Wait, how much am I supposed to say his soul is worth?”

Moxxie and Arackniss exchanged looks. “…how much has Angel Dust made in his career at VoxTek?” Moxxie asked. “Less than that.”

Charlie understood—she really did!—but she felt her eyes misting up anyway. “But that seems so mean,” she complained. “I don’t think Angel could be bought with any amount of money, he’s priceless!”

Arackniss made a sound like he was surprised. “Sweet as that is, Princess, it—”

“Charlie,” she interjected.

“Okay, sweet as that is, Charlie, him being considered priceless the problem we’re dealin’ with,” he said. “It don’t matter what you say. It ain’t what you really think and it’s just breakin’ the contract. And if you lowball it, he’s gonna think it’s real fuckin’ funny.”

“Yeah?” Charlie asked, then, “…yeah, that’s… that’s true. Okay.” She knew how sex jokes worked. Nodding once, she almost cut her hand open, before Arackniss held his hand out again. “Ow! What?” Charlie asked, quickly moving her hand away as the knick on the side of her palm, which the knife split when she jumped, oozed a drop of blood that only fell on her pants because she moved back.

“It has to be as close to what he did as possible,” Arackniss said. “That means we need his… blood, or his DNA, or something, in addition to yours. If this is how he did it, he imbued it into the contract every time.”

Charlie’s nose wrinkled. “Ew.”

Moxxie threw his hands up. “How are we supposed to get that? We don’t have time!”

Fighting past the thoughts that the phrase Valentino’s DNA conjured in her head, Charlie sat up. “Oh! Oh, wait, no, I know!” She scrambled up and ran to the door, opening it and calling out. “Niffty! Niffty, I need you!”

Both of the men behind her made confused mutters, but Charlie ignored them as Niffty came scampering down the hallway and slammed into Charlie’s legs. The little maid wrapped her arms around one of the princess’s calfs, staring up at her with an excited smile. “I love to be needed,” she said throatily.

Charlie chose to ignore that. “Do you want to help save Angel?”

Somehow, Niffty’s eye grew wider. “YES.”

“Then I need a little bit of your collection,” Charlie said. “Specifically, I need just a bit of the specimen you gathered at Consent.”

Niffty blinked once, twice, and then gasped before she started giggling. “Be right back!” she trilled, running off.

Charlie returned to her seat, Moxxie and Arackniss still staring at the door. “Her collection,” Moxxie echoed flatly. “Do I want to know what she collects?”

“Bugs.”

“…uh-huh.”

Niffty was nothing if not efficient, running back into the office and hopping onto the desk to offer Charlie a little tuft of white and black fur. “Is this good?”

“It’s perfect. It’s okay if I destroy it, right?”

“Sure,” Niffty said. “It’s only a little bit of my sample, and besides, if nothing else…” Her face turned downright terrifying. “I can always get more.”

“Thank you, Niffty,” Charlie said, thinking again how glad she was that she had so much time to adjust to the force of personality that was Niffty.

“Uh-huh!” Still looking genuinely thrilled to have been helpful, Niffty hopped down, running out of the room again.

Arackniss watched her go. “…bugs,” he said, not looking away from the door. “So then, what’s that fur?”

“She stole part of Valentino’s ruff,” Charlie said. “It’s apparently part of his body.”

“…she did that at Consent?” Arackniss asked, something that sounded almost like respect entering his voice. “…she really is some woman, ain’t she?”

“She’s great,” Charlie said, squinting at the back of Arackniss’s head. She didn’t have time to unpack that. Instead, she checked between them for any more interruptions, then sliced her palm open, gathering the blood in her hand and dropping the fur into it. She thought for a second, and then said, “I, Charlotte Morningstar, current Aheydrun of the Contractee named herein, have reassessed the value of the Contractee’s soul and have determined its worth to be sixty-nine cents.” She tilted her hand, the blood trickling onto the contract before the fur tuft landed with a small, wet splat. There was a strange, undefinable sound, and then the blood began to vanish into the words of the contract themselves, even dragging the blood-soaked fur along with it. When she looked up, she noticed the other two staring at her. “…what?”

Moxxie blinked once, slowly. “…sixty…” He trailed off, shaking his head.

“I do understand sex jokes, y’know, I’m not exactly single, and I wasn’t wasting his opportunity to get that printed on a shirt,” Charlie said. “So… how do we know whether or not it worked?”

“It looks like it did something, at least.” Arackniss took off his hat, then ran his hand back through the fur that made up his hair. “Guess we’ll have to wait an’ see.”

“Right.” Charlie closed her hand around the cut in her palm, staring at the contract again. She was getting so tired of waiting. “Can you two do me a favor?”

The response was hesitant. “I… guess…?” Moxxie frowned. “Will this get me beaten up?”

“No!” Charlie said, hopping up. “Noooo no no no, it’ll be fine. Just tell people I had to step out for a minute but I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” Arackniss said. “You didn’t tell us where you’re goin’, and we ain’t gonna stop nobody who tries to follow you.”

“That’s totally fair. Thank you,” Charlie said. “And… thank you, both of you. Seriously.” They both looked surprised, but she just grinned, offering them a wave before hurrying out of the office and down another hall to the service door.

I’m so tired of waiting. I’m not going to do that anymore. If you care about something, you fight for it, right? Right.

So that’s what I’ll do.

•••

It wasn’t ideal, but it was better than nothing. Angel didn’t keep a lot of normal clothing in his dressing room, but shorts and a tank top were better than nothing, and he pulled them on (skipping shoes, as they would be too loud) as he thought.

Vox had Alastor. Alastor was clearly in some kind of pain, judging by his shadow’s strange behavior and its disappearance. That meant Vox was probably doing something, and he wouldn’t be doing something just anywhere; he had an image to maintain, after all, and the only way he would publicly torture the Radio Demon would be if he was doing it for a television show.

I know Vox better than that. He wants this to be private. Personal. Intimate, even.

Angel snuck back out of his dressing room and took off, heading for the wall and quickly scaling it to disappear into the vents. He didn’t get to do this much, since he usually had eyes on him at all times, but one of the ways he’d become friends with Rocky over the years was finding opportunities to drop on the big lug out of nowhere. Angel had the building memorized, and he quickly traversed the vent system, heading up to the floor where the Vees kept their own private suites. He was familiar with Valentino’s, but he had never been in Vox’s, and when he pivoted direction he got his very first glimpse of the place.

“Okay, just— just stay here,” a voice said below Angel. God dammit. Vox’s assistant. Angel seriously couldn’t stand the guy and his sycophantic bullshit, and he barely even remembered his name even after knowing him for thirty years. Blink? Was it Blink?

Angel peeked in to see who he was talking to, and froze, though he shouldn’t have been surprised. Blink was holding his hands out placatingly and talking about how dangerous things were, while across from him sat… Vark. Enormous, sharp-toothed, wide-eyed Vark, Vox’s pet land hammerhead shark that had once gone everywhere at his heel until the creature grew too large to easily traverse the corridors. Now, Angel rarely thought about Vark—out of sight, out of mind, and all that—but of course he would be in Vox’s suite if he wasn’t swimming around in the giant fish tanks that seemed to stretch the height of several floors.

Vark made a noise somewhere between a dog’s yap and the sound a shark might make if sharks made noise, and Blink backed up sharply. “No,” Blink said firmly. “Sit. Mr. Vox wants you to stay here. He’ll be back. Okay?”

Vark tilted his head, and Angel smirked. It was the same look Fat Nuggets gave when he didn’t understand something, which was all the time.

Blink, like he was just satisfied that Vark was seated now, quickly hurried out of the room and locked the door behind him. Immediately, Vark stood up, then wandered to the door in a mild confusion before wandering back and then starting to meander around the room with no real destination in mind.

Angel took his eyes off the shark to, instead, look around the room as best he could from his vantage point. Vox’s room was exactly what Angel expected, all the same sorts of sleek style and dark colors accented with electric blue and red. It was clean and sterile in a way that put Angel on edge, and he knew beyond a doubt that this was not somewhere he wanted to be.

He was about to move away when something else caught his eye: a glimpse of red, so different from Vox’s that he couldn’t help stopping and taking a second look.

Alastor’s coat.

Not just his coat, either, but that was the first thing he noticed: Alastor’s coat, laid out on the corner of Vox’s bed near the foot, with such care that it looked like it had been smoothed over with hands. Next to it, his shirt and pants were folded with his standing collar, bow tie, and monocle, his shoes set on the floor nearby.

It was… almost reverent, and that made it fucking creepy.

Angel hadn’t found Alastor, but he had found his clothes, and he would think about how skeevy that was when he had even two spare minutes. There was no vent near the bed, which meant he was going to have to play this as carefully as possible, because otherwise he was losing an arm.

Carefully, Angel began unfastening the vent cover, but even with as quiet as he was being he attracted Vark’s attention. The shark swiveled and stared up at him with wide eyes, and Angel froze, staring back. There was no barking frenzy or any other noise; Vark just stared, his tail wagging back and forth slowly, looking for all the world like he was confused about how this visitor had come visiting but wasn’t too fussed about it.

“…you are, without a doubt, the best Vee,” Angel whispered. Vark wagged a little faster when he was spoken at.

Since there was no frenzy and it wasn’t like he could just hide again and make Vark forget he was there, Angel finished and pulled the vent cover into the vent itself before leaning out. Still, Vark watched him with concentrated interest, and Angel slowly lowered himself onto a round metal table and crouching before his socks could slip.

Angel looked around quickly, his eyes falling on a bag of treats. Picking them up, he showed them to Vark. “These yours, sweetie?” Vark perked up immediately. “Then I’ll tell you what,” he continued, keeping his voice as friendly and gentle as he could. He pointed at Alastor’s clothes. “I need those. You lemme get ‘em, and this whole bag’s yours. Deal?”

Vark blinked, following the line of his hand, then walked over to Alastor’s clothes. He sniffed the coat and then sneezed immediately, and Angel had to suppress a laugh; he knew he had gotten used to the Radio Demon’s intentional ‘stay away from me’ odor, but he couldn’t imagine how it would smell to something so hypersensitive.

Vark cast Angel a look that was almost plaintive. Angel snorted. “Yeah. Yeah, I need all that.” He would have sworn Vark sighed before he leaned forward and, to Angel’s shock, grabbed the sleeve of Alastor’s coat between his teeth. Angel almost told him to stop, but Vark wasn’t paying attention; he tugged it off the bed, then dragged it to the table, dropping the sleeve on the surface in front of Angel and wagging.

Angel stared at him. “…you’re a lot smarter than you look,” he said, pulling out a squishy meat treat that smelled like fish and tossing it gently. Vark immediately wiggled with excitement and snapped it out of the air, revealing his massive teeth and an incredibly terrifying snap of his jaw. Angel’s laugh was more nervous this time. “Oh my god you got a lot of… mouth… dontcha?” He cleared his throat. “Wanna get me the rest?”

It took longer than Angel would have liked, but it kept Vark happy and calm, so he stayed crouched while Vark brought him each part of Alastor’s attire in exchange for a treat until Angel had all of it gathered up and held against his torso in his third set of arms.

“Thanks, Vark. You’re a good boy,” Angel said. Vark leaned towards him, and Angel hesitated before carefully reaching out and rubbing him on the front of his head between his eyes. Vark purred, then wandered off, like he was happy to have done a good job and had officially lost interest now that he had been praised. Angel couldn’t be mad about it, and he climbed back into the vent, putting the cover back in place before anyone came in.

At least something went right.

It was harder getting around with his arms full, but Angel took his time to make sure he didn’t drop anything, carefully searching floors where he knew Vox did most of his work. His lack of direction and his desperation were just driving him into frustration when Angel didn’t see anything or hear anything, but he felt something… like the air itself was being disturbed by some kind of interference.

That, he thought. He didn’t know how he knew, but he did. He was sure of it.

Angel followed that strange feeling as it grew heavier, leading him to a strange room that seemed really big but only had an illuminated table and computer console right in the center. Angel assumed there was other equipment in the dark, but he couldn’t see a damn thing. It didn’t matter, anyway, because the interference had turned into the low sound of radio static that followed Alastor everywhere but was normally so quiet it couldn’t be heard over the other ambient noises. If it wasn’t for the fact that VoxTek was so silent right now, Angel never would have heard it.

Alastor was lying on his back in the center of that table, fastened down with metal shackles and either asleep or unconscious. Angel let himself out of the vent and, after ensuring there was no one around, hurried to the side of the table and assessed the situation. Alastor was bleeding from a series of thin metal rods that had been slipped into his body through incision that had been made in his muscles, the ends of those rods rigged up to wires that ran along the floor and into the console.

“Alastor…” Angel breathed, but the Radio Demon didn’t stir. He hadn’t really expected him to. He didn’t want to leave, but there didn’t seem to be a way to force the shackles open, since they were actually a part of the table.

Angel started moving to the console, but stopped, one wire in particular catching his eye. The skin around it was bloodier than the others, and it looked like it hadn’t been slid into an incision, but had instead been stabbed straight down into… into Alastor’s soul mark.

I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you, Vox.

Grinding his teeth, Angel went to the console and racked his brain with everything he knew about passwords around the company, and namely, the ones he knew Vox had used in the past. It took a few tries, but Angel finally got the proper combination of symbols Vox favored, a couple of sets of numbers that seemed to have some meaning, and the name Clifford that popped up in Vox’s security shit a lot (whatever that meant). With a beep, he got the controls loaded, and carefully combed the menus until he found the option to release the shackles with a metallic snap and the hiss of hydraulics.

Abandoning the console, Angel ran over to the table, carefully dropping the clothes next to Alastor’s legs and leaning over the other demon. “Alastor,” he whispered urgently, reaching out and gently stroking the deer’s hair. “Alastor. C’mon, Smiles, wake up.”

Alastor’s face twitched with pain, his smile strained even while unconscious, and it took him a moment to start opening his eyes. He jerked when he saw Angel over him, probably only registering a shape, and Angel moved back a few inches and waited. Alastor looked mildly unseeing for a few moments before his eyes slowly focused. “…am I asleep?”

“Why, y’feel like you’re dreaming?”

“…no,” Alastor said. He meant something else. Angel didn’t have time to ask.

“We gotta go, Smiles,” Angel whispered. “I gotta get these wires outta you. It’s gonna hurt and you need to not make noise. Okay?”

“Oh, goodie,” Alastor said weakly, immediately slipping into flippant business mode when he saw that Angel seemed to be focused and hurrying. He laid his head back and closed his eyes. “Quiet… as a church mouse, sha… I promise.”

“You ain’t never been in a church,” Angel accused, leaning down to slowly begin working the wires out of his arm.

Alastor hissed. “Well, they seemed very… quiet from… the other side of… town, in my… defense.”

“Pretty sure all mice squeak.”

“I… do not squeak.”

Angel threw down a second wire. “I got evidence that says otherwise.”

Alastor glared down at him. “You have no such thing.

Angel smiled at him, then went back to what he was doing. “I won’t tell. It’s my special knowledge, nobody else gets that.”

As another wire slipped out, Alastor drew a breath, then started speaking in a voice that was almost hesitant. “…Angel—”

“Don’t,” Angel cut him off, speaking as gently as he could but not looking at his face. “Don’t. Not right now. I know, we gotta— we’ll talk. I promise. But not now. Okay?”

Without looking at him, Angel couldn’t know what Alastor might be thinking. But, eventually, he just said, “…of course. You’re right.”

To Alastor’s credit, he did little more than hiss or grunt at the stabs of pain, and soon Angel had every wire removed except the one that had been stabbed into him. Angel moved up and laid one hand on Alastor’s chest, a second on his bicep, and a third on his wrist. “This is gonna hurt,” he warned.

Alastor turned his head enough to look him in the eye. “…I know.”

That sounded loaded.

Angel wrapped his fourth had around the wire and waited for Alastor’s nod before he pulled straight up, pushing down with his other hands to both hold Alastor still and leverage himself up. Alastor’s face contorted in pain, and Angel moved his hand from the Radio Demon’s chest to his mouth, clamping down over his lips to muffle his cry. As another hand wrapped around the bleeding soul mark, Angel leaned down, pressing their foreheads together. “Shh, Smiles, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.”

Alastor’s breathing was labored and stuttering, and Angel could feel the hot moisture of each exhale, the scrape of Alastor’s teeth, the occasional touch of his tongue…

“Come on,” Angel whispered before he could get any bright ideas. He had never seen Alastor so vulnerable, and this was absolutely not the time for anything but business. “I got your clothes. We gotta get you outta here. Can you walk?”

“Of course,” Alastor grunted, though he still needed Angel to leverage him into a sitting position. He then helped Alastor into his clothing as best he could, which ended up being slacks, shirt, suspenders, shoes, and monocle. Angel left the top two buttons of the shirt undone, and with Alastor’s current state, the collar, tie, and coat were out of the question. Alastor seemed to think the same thing, because he took them in his hands and hesitated before his face contorted in pain and they vanished into shadow.

“Okay. Come on, up,” Angel said, holding his hands out to Alastor. Slowly, the Radio Demon took them, clearly hyping himself up to stand.

“Where the fuck do you two think you’re going?”

Fear shot through Angel, and he felt Alastor stiffen. Angel looked up, and just at the periphery of the ring of illumination around them, he saw—

“Val,” Angel whispered.

He didn’t know how to describe the look on Valentino’s face. Angel had never seen it before. Slowly, he began to advance, his eyes on Angel. “You really have learned how to be slippery, haven’t you, amorcito? Can you imagine my surprise when I came back to your little holding cell and found you gone?”

“Val, I—”

“And then,” he interrupted, “I hear that someone broke into Vox’s room and removed a few… items. Did you think you were being slick, Angel Dust? Did you really think you would get away with it?”

Angel held his hands up, not looking at Alastor and silently begging him to run. “Val, don’t…!”

“Do not tell me what to do!” Valentino shouted. He reached one hand out, clenched his fist, yanked…

…and nothing happened.

Angel stared at Valentino, waiting for the feeling of a chain around his throat that would drag him to the ground… but it never came. It took a moment for Valentino to come to the same conclusion, and he murmured, “…the fuck…?” before repeating the motion.

Still, nothing happened.

Valentino was in shock. Angel was in shock. What happened? Where was his chain? Where had it gone? Why couldn’t he feel it?

After a breath, Angel decided it didn’t matter. Instead, he put his hands on the metal table, scrambled up onto its surface, and launched himself at Valentino. He heard Alastor shout something, but he didn’t look, and soon all he heard was an enraged scream as Angel dragged his claws through Valentino’s face.

•••

[showtoonzfan]

SPOILERS for Across the Spiderverse, ganna rant about Gwen’s character and the unnecessary hate she gets. 💀

After finally seeing Spiderverse, yeah…I don’t trust Gwen haters. Like holy shit, I have seen SO many people get on her ass. And I get it. She lied to Miles, she let him down, she screwed up. I think what just ticks me off is that people today just love making everything so fucking black and white. This film isn’t one note, it’s complex. You feel for BOTH sides, not just Miles. I never thought some people would need to have it spelled out but….Miles wasn’t the only character going through something. Gwen does too, and this film explores that, like it legit makes me wonder if people just…turned their brains off whenever the film focused on her, which was legit most of the first half.

Not only was she still carrying the weight of her friend’s death while also feeling guilt of leaving him, but her own father is a cop who is out to get spider woman, believing that she is a criminal who let Peter die. It isn’t easy on Gwen, the opening scene of her trying to get lost in playing the drums and shutting down her band mates shows that she wants to avoid her feelings. Miles was the ONLY friend she had, she didn’t make any other close friends other than Peter. She felt alone, she felt trapped, and once her identity was revealed to her father, the moment he tries to arrest her is her breaking point, it’s why she joined Miguel and the others. She had nowhere to go, she felt like she couldn’t go back and was utterly alone until the spider crew accepted her.

When it comes to Gwen and some of the other characters, some of y’all need to see their perspective. They all lost someone they loved, someone they cared about, and Miguel comes to them and tells them that their trauma happened for a reason. It made them stronger, it made them move forward and created who they are today. They all felt alone at one point, only to realize that they weren’t. They also know that you can’t save everyone, and wether Miguel’s point of view is morally corrupt or not, everyone felt they were doing what was right.

In Gwen’s case, she WANTED to see Miles, and she DID see Miles. She wanted to hang out with him so badly but couldn’t, and you eventually see her guilt for not telling Miles the full story, how he wasn’t supposed to be here, how his dad is going to die and he can’t do anything about it. She felt like she had no choice, Jessica was strict on her (for good reason) and Gwen knew she had a job to do, she like everyone else wanted to save the multiverse and protect everyone, even if it meant breaking Miles, and his dad’s death. I don’t want to make it sound like I’m excusing Gwen, but I find it so funny that people beg for complex and flawed characters, and then when we actually get them, they’re targeted for making mistakes. Cause yeah, god forbid a teenage girl feels alone, doesn’t know what to do, and makes a mistake.

And what’s even more insulting is that Gwen actually REALIZED her mistake. She knows she fucked up, she KNOWS she hurt Miles and let him down, her line of “we’re supposed to be the good guys”- is important because that’s her realizing just how far Miguel took it to a bad level. We all see how utterly broken she is when Miles tells her he should have never come, and broke her web off. In the end, she switches sides and decides to GO AFTER Miles. That’s her making a choice, realizing she was wrong and doing the right thing. Gwen is still a good person guys. She cares for Miles, she’s not a snake or malicious. She’s a troubled teen who wants to be a hero, but was split between two sides, along with the weight on her back regarding her father and her friend. This movie begs the question of saving one person or making sacrifices to safe others. You understand BOTH sides even if Miguel went about it the wrong way.

Speaking of Miguel, the last thing I want to talk about is the obvious sexism going on, cause I feel like that mostly stems from why so many people hate Gwen, cause MAN do people lose brain cells when they’re horny. Like…let me get this straight, y’all get on Gwen, a teenage girl btw….call her a bitch, a snake who doesn’t deserve Miles and a horrible person, but praise a grown man who ridiculed, chased down, clawed, and body slammed a 15 year old kid, calling him a mistake over and over again all because he wanted to save his father???? Yeah okay, if you’re someone who doesn’t like Gwen, fine…but if you hate on her and praise Miguel, a dude who needs therapy and beefed with a 15 year old……then you’re just sexist…I don’t know what to tell you. Same goes for Jessica Drew. Like so many people are quick to say Miguel is complex and that they get where he’s coming from, but when it’s Gwen or Jessica?? They’re just bitches apparently. 🫤

So yeah, regardless of if you like her character or not, Gwen deserves better fr. I for one can’t wait for the next film and to see her mend her relationship with Miles, because they do genuinely have a good relationship, they just need to fix it. That’s all I wanted to say…oh, and one more thing, the way the animators on the movie got treated was NOT okay and the film better be delayed. No way in hell is it coming out next year. Do better Sony/Phil Lord ect, treat your animators right. Kay bye.

[ddejavvu]

I just keep thinking about baby daddy!steve. he got you pregnant accidentally and y’all aren’t technically together but you kind of are

You open the door with a hand on your slightly swollen belly, and Steve doesn't miss it. He redirects his gaze back up to your eyes, and his own shine with measured excitement.

"Hi," He grins.

"Hi," You stand protectively in front of the door, eyeing the bag in his hand, "What's that?"

"Groceries," He holds the bag out for you to see, and there's tapes stacked on top of a cantaloupe, "And movies. I thought you might be tired of Sixteen Candles."

"Never," You try to tease, but he notices the way your hand reaches for the bag in his own.

"I can carry it," He tugs it back into his chest, "It's heavy."

"I can handle it," You promise, arms still outstretched, "Just give it to me, Steve."

His brow furrows, "It's fine, Y/N, I can do it."

"Steve, just-"

"No, I've got it."

"Give it to me!" You huff, and he freezes.

"Why can't I come in?" He asks, and you see a flicker of anxiety flare up in his eyes. His mind is spinning, calculating a thousand reasons why you don't want him in, the first of which happens to be another man.

"'Cause there's- nothing, Steve, no reason, I just- I just want to be independent. You know? Do stuff for myself."

"Y/N, I can do it! I want to do it," He huffs, "Because of me you're about to push 8 pounds out of your.." He hesitates, flushing red as if his dick hadn't been inside of them, "Y'know, nether regions."

"Nether regions? Steve, give me the bag." You tug at the paper, but he steps away.

"No! Come on, just- please, now I have to know."

Shame floods your body, seeping into the crevices of your brain and the dips between your toes. You take a single, deep breath, then step aside to let Steve in, stalking towards the kitchen in hopes that he'll do the same and ignore the glaringly obvious disaster in the living room.

Of course, he doesn't.

"Babe," He pauses, setting the bag on the couch and propping his hands up on his hips, "I said I'd assemble the crib next week."

Splayed out over your carpet is a very much deconstructed crib, wooden pieces strewn about and screws littering the floor. You're surprised you haven't stepped on one yet, and you see Steve nudge one out of a pocket of plush with the toe of his shoe.

"I wanted to do it myself," You attempt weakly, "I just.. I don't know, Steve. You have your own life. I don't want to derail it because I wasn't on the pill."

He gulps, you can see his throat dip as he stares at you, saddened.

"I didn't mean to derail yours because I didn't have a condom," He murmurs, his soft voice a perfect compliment to the dim lighting in the room, "But here we are. And- and listen, the last thing I'm gonna do is step away. That's not.. what parents do."

You try not to think of his house, giant and empty. His parents' room, that hasn't been slept in for god knows how long, and his, an island in the middle of the dead sea.

You decide right then and there, that independence isn't worth taking away his closure. He needs to be the father he never had, and you won't stop him just so you can feel impossibly strong.

You clear your throat, intent on changing the subject without having to tell him why. Your eyes flit to the movies in the bag, and catch the first title, "Top Gun?"

"I heard some girl in the store talking about a beach volleyball scene," He flushes impossibly redder, "I dunno, it seemed like something you'd enjoy."

"I hope it's not too distracting." The toe of your shoe brushes against the ground, scuffing the carpet and bending the fluff the opposite way, "Because we should try to finish the crib before tonight. I, uh, don't wanna trip over it in the dark."

The smile that blooms over his face has the potential to flood the dim room with blinding light, and for the first time since you'd held the pregnancy test in your hand, you're confident that you'll not only survive, but that you'll enjoy yourself along the way.

[idontplaytrack]

Speak of the devil

Janis ‘Imi’ike x fem! reader(+ big sis Regina & Cady ft. The Plastics & Damian)

Warnings: coarse language, fluff

After a wrong move to stay home in Chicago for the remainder of the summer, the gang is on the road again. To the Big Apple.

Read other parts here!

“Excuse me? You said what? We’re going to New York City?”

“Yep.” Regina shrugs, “Quick, you wanna come with or not? Karen and Gretchen are already there so we might as well join them.”

“I mean, sure. But are you…alright?”

“I have to be, my sister’s crying, her girlfriend is about to commit a fucking crime because— whatever. Make sure she doesn’t leave the house until we’re all ready.”

“What is going on?”

“For one we’re stuck in a lease for another three months, and dear June found out the address and can’t stop sending us letters and shit to butter us up. I cannot stand her fucking boyfriend— he just does not seem like a good person and is always getting suspiciously close to y/n.”

“Screw that bitch.” Damian gasped, “Has she been here?”

“Once.” Regina huffed, zipping up her duffel bag, “We’re picking up Cady on our way.”

“Are we flying there? Because —”

“Could not get tickets so we are gonna drive.”

“Sis, that is twelve hours at least.” Damian narrows his eyes at her.

“We’re gonna make stops along the way and stretch our legs, look at stuff, shop, eat. Whatever.” Regina sighs, “I mean, I’m not gonna spend much on myself but if y/n wants anything, she’s getting it. After this trip, I gotta really work my ass off.”

“Reg, let’s just stay home. Why are we avoiding her, running away from our home? Who the fuck cares what she wants?”

“Honey, we have more than two months of summer left.” Regina sighs, “It’s a break. I don’t want us to be here worrying about whether or not she’ll be over here. Once school starts it’s a different thing, we’ll only be home for like half a day, everyday.”

“I don’t want you to keep spending money. On me.”

“We’re driving. Gretchen’s family has an apartment in the city, she’s agreed to let us stay there.” Regina explains, “Are you packed?”

“Yes, but—”

“Good. Janis?”

“Yeah.” Janis walks out from your room with a backpack slung over her shoulder. “All good, not gonna do anything stupid.”

“I’m ready.” Damian shrugged.

“Alright, let’s go, guys.” Regina urged.

You, Janis and Damian sat in the back of Regina’s Jeep, leaving the front passenger seat open for Cady. Once in the car, you immediately leaned onto Janis and nodded off, you simply couldn’t be bothered to care anymore.

“It’s ridiculous that you guys go no contact and only then she’s so desperate to be in contact. Where was that eagerness when you two were wanting her to do that? Actually be there for y’all?”

“She’s always been doing too little, way too late. Been like this for as long as I can remember.” Regina grumbled, “It was little little things at first, but then we grew up and realised how messed up the family was. Then it was…the divorce. Which was the single event that caused things to go to shit.”

“Well, she sucks. And I’m sorry. But I’m glad y’all have a nice little place of your own now. Though we’ve hit a little bump on the road.”

“Exactly. This will just be a bump on the road. We’re doing so much better now. Granted we have shit we need therapy for but still can’t afford, but we’re not in that environment anymore which helps— a lot.”

“Good, that is great. One step at a time. Also, if y’all ever need to, feel free to come over to mine and stay for however long you guys need to. Need help? I’m there.”

“Appreciate that.”

“Look, I can take care of myself. At her age, she’s been through way more than I’d like her to have. Not-so-good things…I hate that. Maybe that’s why I’m so protective of her, making sure she gets the best possible care and things she wants. I know the family has money, but they neglected her. She was rarely ever listened to, she was too nice. She never pushed back. They made her terrified of them over time.”

Damian nods solemnly, “Janis? You good?”

“Yes.” Janis says, “Didn’t get much sleep last night so I’m tired but good. Angry, obviously but there’s no point in that.”

The drive was relatively quiet until Regina stopped to let all of you get out and walk around. You bought some M&Ms and an iced tea since you were feeling a little peckish. You didn’t talk to any of them, though. Not that they minded or bothered you about it, so that was good. Ten and a half hours to go.

“Anybody else need to pee before we get back on the road?”

“Nope.” You all answered in sync.

“Okay, back in the car.” Regina declared.

You shared your snack with them, not feeling like finishing the whole bag of the chocolates. They appreciated it, but could tell something was off. You were still in a bad mood. Now in between Janis and Damian unlike before this ‘pee break’, you could definitely feel him watching you. “Stop staring at me, will you? I’m fine.”

“Sorry, just worried.” He apologizes.

You bit back a sigh and chose to cling onto Janis instead of just properly staying seated in the middle of the both of them. Janis puts her arm around you then grabbed a few pieces of chocolate from you. “Still nauseous?”

You took a peek at Janis and said, “No.”

You didn’t even tell her, but you guessed she must’ve remembered from previous instances. Whatever it was, you were soon out like a light again, leaving Janis to hold onto and finish the chocolates since you didn’t want them anymore.

“Hey, where’s my phone?” Janis asks to no one in particular.

“Here.” Regina said, “In the cup holder.” Damian reached forward to help her retrieve it since she was holding onto you. “Thanks.”

He just smiled at her a little, then went back to reading on his phone. Janis checked her phone for messages— which she did get a couple of, from her Dad. Replied to them, then put her phone into her pocket before falling asleep herself.

“I’ll drive after the next stop.” She heard Damian offer before succumbing to sleep.

————

The five of you stopped at a random fast food place for dinner that evening, you were in a better mood and you had the nap to thank for it. It made you less cranky and forget whatever the hell it was that pissed you off.

“Almost halfway there, you guys.” Cady mentioned, sipping on her drink, “I’ll drive for the next four hours.”

Regina nods, “Then it’s back to me. Though we will arrive in the city at like one-thirty in the morning so that’s a lil…”

“What part of the city are we going to?” Damian asks.

“Chelsea.”

“We knew Gretchen’s family had money, but damn?”

“Well, people surprise you.” Regina shrugged.

“Oh, they absolutely do. Including you.” Damian stifles a laugh.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, I’m just saying— I get it now, your attitude that we hated so much. Has a very valid reason for being there. But also, more importantly, the fact that you and Janis are on good terms.”

“Good’s a stretch.”

“Don’t lie. Y’all spent two weeks on vacation in Hawai’i and neither of y’all burst into flames.”

Regina’s laugh came out as more of a scoff, “What I did, was the dumbest fucking thing ever. But then that had to stop, whether or not their relationship came into the picture. But y/n was even more of a reason for me to get my shit together. It’s been just me and her for a long time now, well— it feels like a long time. And she has a chance to be happy, to be loved the way she is now. So, I, as the big sister am not going to let some middle school beef ruin that for her. But, I’ll have to say, seeing Cady walk in on them was hilarious.”

“Oh, stop that.” Cady sighs dramatically, “That was— why’d you have to bring that up again?”

Regina grins, “We’re not any better, baby. If either of them walk in on us, the neighbourhood will hear it.”

Damian cackled, “Moving on.”

“Wow, these two sleep a lot.”

“As long as they’re fine, who cares what they do.” Regina chimed in.

“Was she really going hunt down—”

“Oh, no doubt about. Janis is more than capable of committing such a crime.” Regina replies as though it was the most normal thing ever. “But she definitely didn’t want to actually do anything because y’know, y/n. Which is good, because going to jail for that woman is not worth it.”

As expected, they arrived in New York City right after 1:30 in the morning. But with you and Janis being the most well-rested among the group, meant chaos. “I knew I should’ve woke you two up.” Regina grumbled.

“Oh, we’re way too late for that now.” Damian snickered.

“Hi, G! Come on in.” Gretchen answered the door in seconds, ushering you all inside, “Hey, guys.”

You were stunned by the size of the townhouse the second you stepped inside. If you weren’t wide awake, you would’ve gotten lightheaded. “Me and Karen are in the bedroom straight ahead over there. There’s three bedrooms left, however you guys split them is up to you. Fridge and pantry? Fully stocked. So are the bathrooms. Make yourselves at home, do whatever you want— just don’t burn down this place.” Gretchen explained.

“Thanks for doing this, Gretchen.”

“Of course! Happy to help and have you guys around.” Gretchen smiled, “It’s getting late and I’m pretty sure you guys drove like so many hours to get here. So, go get some sleep, okay? Good night!”

“Thanks, Gretch. Night.” Damian spoke up.

“Okay. Let’s get settled in.” Regina declared, “Let’s go choose our room, Cads.”

“Lucky me, I get a room all to myself.” Damian jokes.

“G’night, dude.” Janis chuckles, walking past him with you to go to the room opposite of his. You stood beside Janis as she shut the door behind you and herself. “So…this is kinda crazy.” You sigh.

“I know, a fucking townhouse? This place is gorgeous.” Janis says, brows raised slightly in disbelief as she nudged you to sit down.

“Can I say something?” You looked at her, hand on her knee.

“Yeah.”

“I’m worried about Regina overworking herself just to make trips like these happen.”

“I get it, but don’t, please. We were talking just the other day and she has like 4 thousand dollars in savings. I have about 2 thousand, we both have a job, you don’t have to worry.”

You nod, “I guess I just feel a little like I’m freeloading.”

“Honey, I get it but we’ve all talked about this, she’s okay if you want to get a summer job or a part-time job to earn some extra cash, but we don’t want you to do it because you feel bad.”

“I know, but sometimes I just get these moments, y’know?” You admitted, sliding down onto the mattress stomach first, “Shit these sheets are amazing.”

“Silk.” Janis felt them, “Impressed.” Her palm rubs your back soothingly, “Are you tired or just, laying down?”

“Just chilling. I slept like, five…six hours on our way here. That’s almost as much as the rest I get every night.” You hummed.

“Mm, yeah. You hungry? She did say we could do anything we want.”

“I could use a drink.” You shrug. Janis smirked. “Not alcohol.” You warned.

“Have you never been tempted to try it?” She asked, genuinely curious.

“Yes, but it’s late. And I don’t want to puke because I don’t know how much I can actually take. And after dealing with you being drunk, I don’t think I’d be confident that you won’t wake up the rest of them. You’re an emotional drunk.” You teased.

“Emotional? I’m not that emotional.” Janis’ face flushed slightly.

“Yes, you are. You literally cried over a teddy bear you chose to donate ten years ago.”

“Ah.” Janis seethed, “Ya caught me.”

You and Janis eventually made your ways back outside and to the kitchen and opened up the fridge. Janis grabs a ginger ale, you grabbed a bottle of sparkling water. “Ooh, bay window.” You noticed, “Let’s sit there.”

Janis happily trailed after you, sipping on her drink. Once you sat down, she followed suit. “Jan? Where are you planning on going to college?”

“Hm.” Janis hums, “I was thinking about community college, costs less, so I don’t have to rely on my Dad or work my ass off to pay for tuition. Unless, I get a scholarship elsewhere…then I might consider it if it’s my ‘dream school’.”

“NYU?”

“Yeah, you remember that?”

“I do.” You chuckled, tapping your fingers on the drink bottle.

“Have you thought about where you wanna go for college or what you want to pursue?”

You laughed humorlessly, “Nope. Which is bad, but as much as a cliché whatever I’m about to say is…I just know I feel at home here in this city. I hope I can be here, for college, maybe work here too and live here after but I also know how expensive it is. So my dream will just stay a dream. It’s so silly because I last came here with Regina and our parents when I was like 11 and I just fell in love with it.”

“Hey, the heart wants what it wants, honey. Can’t help it all the time.” Janis tilted her head as she spoke.

“You know the last time we travelled as a family? It was to Orlando, went to Disney World. I was 13, Regina was 15. They spent like one hour with us and then they just disappoint. They’d left me under Regina’s care with no warning.”

“Okay, that is so messed up.” Janis scoffs.

You nodded and continued, “We had fun, but it just sucked because they didn’t keep their promise. Seriously, from that day on...my respect for them went away. They didn't explain, they didn't apologize, they didn't give us a heads up. They left us there, assuming Regina and myself knew how to get around, go back to the hotel. Which we did— but, I was so pissed off at them and they could not get why."

"I think...we should go somewhere for a trip when you graduate high school." Janis says, pulling you closer. "But definitely, ignore your Mom. She's not helping with anything— she's been pestering you, if not making plans then canceling on you. She needs to make up her mind and get her shit together. Your sister's not supposed to be your mother, though she's doing a way better job than June."

"I guess I'm holding onto some hope that she actually wants to spend time with me again, but I'm definitely letting that go now. It's hurting me more than it hurts her."

"I'm right behind you on that, y/n. We got your back, we'll be great." "We are doing great, aren't we?"

————

“Any other plans for the trip?” Gretchen asks, looking at you first then everyone else in the group gathered around the table.

“We’ve pretty much did everything touristy, if you will.” Regina shrugs, “Don’t really have a fixed itinerary after two weeks here, honestly.”

“We have kind of seen everything that is a must-see, I hope.” Cady chimed in.

“Reg, can I ask when you’re planning to head back to —”

“Next week, most likely.” Regina smiled at you. Janis narrows her eyes at the blonde, suspicious of the random appearance of a smile. Especially in a setting like this one, in front of everyone.

After a long day of walking around the city, the gang’s decided to get some Chinese takeout and just eat at home, away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a bit.

“Mom keeps texting me. I blocked her but she changed her number, and texted me with the new one.”

“That is so annoying, what’s not to get?” Gretchen exclaimed. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Speak of the devil.” You scoffed when your phone screen lit up. You were going to ignore it when something compelled you to pick your phone up.

“When did that happen?”

“Like, just now.” You groaned, “What— fuck, she’s in New York. She’s coming here— she wants to come here.”

“She doesn’t know where here is, don’t click into the text.” Gretchen urged.

“Does she have any of y’all’s locations?” Damian reminded.

“No, I took myself and y/n off of her Life360 ages ago.” Regina confirmed.

“Then we’re good! Just put your phone aside and finish dinner in peace—”

The landline rings.

“I swear to fucking God if it is who it is, I will take her out myself.” Regina seethed. Damian waltzed over and picked up the receiver.

“Hello? Is this—”

Damian slammed the piece of plastic down. “Holy flying fuck because that is your m—”

Regina quickly stopped him, “Shush.”

“How did she get the fucking number for the landline?!” Janis whisper-yelled, “Is she some sort of crazy psychic?”

“Crazy. Just crazy.” Regina drops her fork, sighing, “y/n, your phone, please?”

You surrendered the device to her. She tapped away and held it to her ear, “You wanna talk? Let’s talk, right now.” After telling June the address, Regina hangs up first.

Dinner was finished in a hurry, and half of you all couldn’t even actually finish eating.

“Guys so what has she been doing that’s like—” Karen started, Gretchen tries to stop her but it was too late.

“Oh lot of things, most memorable ones would be ditching us at Disney World and going drinking. I was 15, y/n was 13. They were lucky we were paying attention and knew our way around.” Regina explained, “But most recently, y/n was sick with a stomach bug. She was so scared and got to the point where she was so uncomfortable and crying for our mom. She left us on read, then her phone was off. The next morning she mysteriously shows up at home but I had enough of her shit— she’d been away from home for a year at that point, leaving y/n under my care.”

“Oh, no.” Karen answered, eyes wide, “That is so terrible.”

“I don’t know what kind of shit she’ll continue to pull so if she winds up contacting any one of y’all, now you know to ignore her. Her very creepy boyfriend needs to be dumped before she can even try to reconcile anything.”

The gang looked at her, expecting her to elaborate on ‘creepy’. You wanted to hide you face in a hole in the ground. But you didn’t want to make things more weird by running away from the table, so you painfully decided to stay anyhow. Janis’ hand squeeze your thigh comfortingly.

“Creepy as in stare at our boobs too long, putting his arm around us and trying to squeeze our sides, trying to kiss us on the cheek even after we said no after the first time he did that.” Regina deadpanned. She then turned to face you completely, “Baby, you wanna go to your room while we settle that shit?”

“That’d be great.” You agreed, taking Janis’ hand and leaving. You avoided eye contact with everyone, even Regina.

You instantly went for the bed while Janis shut the door— French doors, damn.

“I just want this to be over.” You complained.

“Trust me, it will be after today.” Janis promised you. “We’ll be right out there, you just stay in here. I’ll stay in here until she gets here.”

Exhausted from the thought of chaos that was your mother, you sighed loudly. “If you need me call for me. I actually have a lot I wanna yell at her about.”

“Oh, you can count on that. Feel free to interject wherever feels right.” Janis patted your knee.

“But hey, being in New York’s been great, apart from getting cussed out one time the other day for walking on the left instead of the right.”

“Live and let live. We didn’t mean it, sometimes our brains just…glitch. The city can be pretty overstimulating.” Janis shrugs.

You hummed in agreement, “You wanna go back to that bagel place tomorrow morning?”

“Oh, yes.” Janis gasped, “Those were so fucking delicious. The guy working there was funny.”

You chortled at the memory, “He told us, ‘Take your time’, but when those people passing by left because the queue was too long he totally threw shade.”

Janis laughs, “You get what you give, eh?”

Gretchen opened the door and poked her head in, “She’s on her way up.”

“Okay. Honey, relax. Don’t worry that pretty little head of yours.” She got up, leaning down to press a kiss to your forehead. Gretchen went back out with Janis while you hung around the room.

“Oh, great! He’s here too, very good. Let me just say this one time. Stop being so touchy! We don’t like it, we don’t like him. I don’t like that you’re so touchy with my baby sister. I don’t like that you stare at our chests like we’re some kind of object. So, if you think that kind of behaviour is an acceptable one for a partner and a supposed father-figure for your children, we’re continuing our no-contact. And you, you can’t just show up back at home after such a long time and expect all to be forgiven. You haven’t done anything that shows me you’re here to stay, that you actually care. So the next time you try to contact us and want us to readily agree to meet you. Don’t cancel on her, don’t cancel on me. Prove yourself. Earn our trust. Believe us when we tell you that you want to distance ourselves, why we want to distance ourselves. You cannot just fucking claw your way back into our lives as if you haven’t done anything wrong. Because you have, starting from Disney World when you ditched us! Actually while we’re back in this city, you remember what happened when y/n was 11? You left me to look after her again during that broadway show. You went out not even halfway through the show, disrupting people around you, upsetting her. Upsetting me, time after time after time. Always— zero explanation, Mom. I don’t even think I should be calling you that considering I’ve been playing Mom for god knows how long.”

“She’s done so much more for me than you have.” You ran outside, unable to control your anger, “You pay us some money for bills, so? You have the luxury of time to spend time with us but you choose to avoid your responsibilities. Your obligation as a mother to care for us. She has been working her ass off, keeping her grades up while making time for me! Mom, how could you?”

“Okay.” June nodded, “I hear you, I’m sorry. I will not contact any of you until I get my life together. But Carmelo is not a b—”

“Stop.” Regina stepped between you and June. “Leave, we already said what we needed to say. If you still don’t see the problem with him, just fuck off. Don’t even bother trying to two-face us. Ever since you two started dating, we don’t even exist anymore in your life. If you still think he’s a good person, I have nothing to say. I see how he treats you! Like a toy for his pleasure.”

“We’re engaged.” Carmelo declared. You left the space before you heard more of the yelling, feeling your heart slamming in your chest and your breathing going heavy. Damian noticed first, and while Janis was basically cursing her and Carmelo out for every single one of their wrongdoings, she gets stopped by Damian. He nudges her to go check on you.

————

Janis opened the door to see you trying so hard to swallow your tears. You didn’t want to be crying over these two people. They didn’t have your well-being in mind. At all. You promised yourself that you wouldn’t cry, but your emotions still got the best of you. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” Janis instantly pulled you into a tight hug, rubbing your back, “It’s okay, honey. I’m so proud of you.”

Maybe your body needed this release. So you just let it happened anyway, albeit feeling quite embarrassed for sobbing into her shirt like this. Over people that hurt you, over people who didn’t deserve your tears.

After calming down, you were done. Done with crying. Done with crying over your mother and Carmelo. Her apology was so ‘I had to say it so I did’, so hesitant. So insincere.

Regina came into the room next, though she didn’t knock so you got startled and went into even deeper of a panic. “Shit, I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to open the door so quickly.” Regina apologised, crouching down then eventually sitting on the floor.

“Are they gone?”

“Yep.” Regina assured, “Won’t be seeing her again unless she gets her act together.”

You sniffled, sighing as you broke away from the hug. “Okay, I’m don’t crying over all of that. Let’s go out.”

“Go out?” Janis and Regina asked the same thing in different tones.

“It’s seven o’clock.”

“That’s early! And there’s plenty of things to do. This is the city that never sleeps.” You looked at them excitedly, “Please, Reg?”

Regina looked at you and pondered, “Alright, fine. Let’s all go out.”

A few knocks on the open bedroom door caught all of your attentions. “My mom’s here, she got all tickets to see Illinoise.”

“When?” Janis asks, intrigued.

“Tonight, you guys wanna come?” She asks.

“Yes!” You exclaimed, “I’ve always wanted to watch that show.”

“Looks like we’re going.” Regina says, “Let’s get ready and going, quick. We have less than an hour to showtime.”

🏷️Tag list:

@ashecampos @auliisflower @cheesysoup-arlo @frogs00 @ludoesartandstuff @pda128

[solarwynd]

Why are people acting like Hybe was abusing New Jeans or something? Did I miss anything? Cause from all that I saw Hybe was being kinda shitty but not that bad honestly. They might start screwing New Jeans over now after this whole mess, but were they mistreating them before? And I mean actual mistreatment, not the CEO not saying hi to you at the elevator. Cause New Jeans seemed to be doing pretty good prior to this. Most idols would've killed to be in their position. I think what's happening here it that MHJ wanted more than she already had and to get the girls on her side she convinced them Hybe hates them, even though Hybe was treating them better than fucking BTS. And it worked and now they are out here calling Hybe inhumane while defending a woman who talked shit about them behind their backs and tried to help cover up another woman's SA. And Hybe's still the one signing their paychecks. This is gonna go so bad for them and I can't even ask where are these girls parents to get them away from that disgusting woman cause their parents were on her side to. Even their fans are on MHJ's side. These girls really have no one genuinely looking out for them, it's sad to see.

No they haven’t been mistreated in any sense of the word and that’s the thing. Bang gave MHJ so many perks for that company in the beginning. Finances were never an issues, they live in a luxury dorm. Comebacks were always funded very well. I saw one of the girls is complaining that a manager of another gg in the HYBE building told them to ignore her and it upset her but like???

Y’all and MHJ are causing problems for everybody in the building and to act like yall are getting ostracized over nothing is crazy. Of course i think it’s natural to want to look out for your interest and group first, but they come off like they’re living in their own bubble and not paying heed to what’s going on outside of it.

And then of course kpop stans are trying to turn this into a “raging against the patriarchy.” situation, acting like this is about female empowerment, when this all started because mhj was tearing down a girl group accusing them of plagiarism because she thinks she owns y2k.

[life-winners-liveblog]

(( Hihi it’s me, the person who gave the “nicest threat” returns, just wanna say rq that everytime i come back to tumblr, this is one of the first things I check and EVERYTIME I DO, I KEEP GETTING JUMPSCARED BY MUCH HAPPENED SINCE I LEFT- Anyways You are amaaaaazing yes ik i already said that but that’s bc it’s true <3

Anyways I’ll actually interact with the winners for once ))

-[ Heeeellloo hello hello! Social anxiety is consuming me once again but nevertheless, y’all can call mee… *pulls out a list..* Nate. Y’all can call me Nate- cause this is my first time talkin to y’all but I have been observing for a while,,,

and FOR THE NEW GUEST BAD MAD SAD BOY JIMMY SOLIDARITYGAMING! our favourite canary, ima send him two whole packet of marshmallows, feel free to share them with everyone else! Or gatekeep it for yourself, up to you.. ima riot if the two observing steal them- aND also ima give Scott & Grian a bunch of plants/flowers bc i can, Pearl.. have a book & a pencil case full of stationeries And for martyn.. *gives him a note that reads* “you get nothing <3” *immediately after, another note drops* “ jk have these, choose your favourite! Share if you want but knowing you, you probably won’t “ proceeding to drop him a bunch of hair clips of different variants

Turning over to the two observers, don’t think I forgot about you even though I just mentioned you guys literally a paragraph ago.. Scar you can have my keychain collection, you seem like the typa guy to like keychains idk why, Scott you don’t get shit cause respectfully.. fuck you <3 ]

(( WOW THATS LONG! Sorry not sorry for that <3 but I am sorry if it’s difficult to read,, Im very tired rn & my brain is not braining! ))

(Aw thank you so much!!!! :D)

LimL!Jimmy: Marshmallows?!?! ✨✨

Scott:... Well that was an emotional 180, It's giving me quite a bit of whiplash... Also thank you for the flowers they are quite nice.

~~~~~~~

Grian: Plants? hmmmmm, we can use these on the base don't you think? Maybe if we put them over there or... Maybe up next to the lighthouse? We could make a garden somewhe-... Are you even listening?

Pearl: Oh, yeah sure.

Grian: What was I saying then?

Pearl:... Something...something...plants...?

Grian:....

~~~~~~~~

Martyn:... I am going to share them just to spite you because screw you.

[miniscrew-anon]

HSH Pumpkin Carving Headcanons

It’s spooky time y’all

Twilight - The traditional pumpkin carver. Can make absolutely perfect pumpkin faces that look straight off of pinterest. Happy, sad, scary, funny - doesn't matter, Twi can carve it. He can pump them out en masse, too. When it comes to pumpkins, Twi is in his element. 9/10 Only because he’s limited to faces. But damn if they’re not impressive.

Sky - Does not carve a pumpkin. He starts to but then loses interest as soon as the guts come out. He stalls when it comes to creating a face; he wants to do something more creative than just a generic face but he doesn't know what else to do. So he ends up as Twilight's helping hand instead. He’s very useful because he can magically carry twenty pumpkins at once. It's his Halloween party trick. 2/10 he’s got no pumpkin but he’s got spirit

Legend - He doesn’t make a face but a sigil. A very elaborate, carefully crafted sigil to ward off malicious spirits. Stuffs it with herbs and charms too. Also he uses a very large turnip instead of a pumpkin to keep tradition. But he also fucks up cutting the lid and it keeps falling inwards and ruining his candles, which he bitches about even though it was his fault. 7/10 very atmospheric and aromatic

Hyrule - If he can get some time off, Hyrule does enjoy a good pumpkin carving. He's not great at it so his faces are a little wonky. But he has fun and that's what's important. His little happy pumpkin is an adorable addition to the front porch and Time is sure to put it front and center. 8/10 the littlest pumpkin on the porch with the biggest smile

Warriors - Draws an ahegao face on the pumpkin with a sharpie. His pumpkin is the first to magically disappear from the front porch. Banned from touching all future pumpkins forever. 0/10 and someone stuffs pumpkin guts into his pillowcase in retaliation

Wild - Starts carving, gets distracted halfway through. He scoops the guts out and then comes up with a great recipe idea and disappears into the kitchen to roast some pumpkin seeds. Twilight happily finishes carving his pumpkin for him and enjoys whatever amazing pumpkin flavored treat Wild cooks up. Wild never realizes he forgot to actually carve his pumpkin. 3/10 another without a pumpkin but he gets more points because his comes with pumpkin spice cookies

Champion - Carves his pumpkin very professionally. Looks up "pumpkin carving ideas " and then literally just copies whatever he finds. He does it very, very well too. It comes out looking amazing, if a bit generic. He cannot be convinced to personalize it in the slightest, though. No, it's by the book or not at all. Does not hesitate to defend his gourd by force when Warriors comes by with that damned sharpie. 8/10 very professional looking

Wind - Doesn't care about carving pumpkins. He hates the icky feeling of touching the raw guts and he doesn't give a shit about carving a face. At best he'll draw a generic face on with a marker and at worst he won't even touch a pumpkin. He's the boring guy who just puts a plain pumpkin on his porch. -10/10 he doesn’t even have the spirit

Four - Uses this as an excuse to use all his favorite power tools. His pumpkin comes out looking like a fucked up little freak. A true frankenstein creature that's half flesh, half metal. A serious safety hazard with all the loose screws that have been drilled into it. It's a monstrosity. The blood in it is not decorative: it’s from all the ankles of everyone who didn’t watch out. God help any unsavory characters who show up to cause trouble because Time will use it as a projectile in case of an emergency and it will be a critical hit. 7/10 very cool but actually a safety hazard.

Time - This man has zero artistic ability. He can kill a man with a knife three hundred different ways but can't carve a fucking straight line in this goddess damned pumpkin. What the fuck is this? A cosmic joke? Why does his triangle come out looking like a square? Why does his smiley face look like a straight line? Why did the damn pumpkin split in half? He barely even touched it??? The dude goes through several attempts before finally coming to something that looks vaguely okay. Only to then realize that he forgot to coat the pumpkins insides with vaseline so the local squirrels eat it immediately. 1/10 all that’s left is an eaten carcass. Malon laughs at him.

Malon - Another master pumpkin carver. She's a little more artistic than Twilight and makes more than just faces. Entire scenes and landscapes. Skeleton animals, a headless rider on a motorcycle. She's got major talent. Plus, she's won the regional pumpkin growing competition ten years in a row. 10/10 This woman is Queen of the Pumpkin Patch.

Dark - Enjoys pumpkin carving in a more freeform way. Draws cartoon "x" eyes and punches a hole through the pumpkin to make the mouth and exit hole. He stuffs a fake gun into the "mouth", guts spilled out onto the sidewalk out of the hole in the back of the gourd. Thinks it's hilarious. 4/10 His pumpkin is really ugly but he literally punched a hole through it so yeah that’s worth some points right there

Shadow - Doesn't carve but does steal. Menace to all gourds, taker of jack-o-lanterns. 0/10 Picks tricks over treats every time

[ms-cartoon]

a

Seen the few sneak peaks of some upcoming episodes of HB. We might meet Moxxie’s family (mainly his father). Sorry if I’m being nitpicky, but I was kinda expecting his father to be a little bit different from his son, as well as have a different voice. It’s like he’s a literal clone of Moxxie but slightly taller with a deeper and cunning tone in his voice. And from what I’ve heard, he’s supposed to be a mobster or just apart of some kind of dangerous gang (correct me if I’m wrong). So yeah, I think his appearance should be a little bit different, more tough if anything.

Blitzo stays an a**hole to his co-workers I see. Even after that DeEp and HeArTwArMiNg conversation, he had with Moxxie back in season 1 ep 6 (Which didn’t hit deep at all). You think that after he humiliated himself in episode 7, he’d dial it back with his behavior. But I guess Viv can’t have a comedy without someone unnecessarily being a jerk.

We finally get to hear Andre’s voice. He actually sounded exactly how I imagined; almost deep and haughty. I guess it’s made clear that he and Stella have a good relationship. I’ve seen some comics that show that Andre was possibly very mean to Stella during her childhood which probably would explain her behavior and why she acts so cynically. 

He and Stella are having a discussion with Stolas, and Andre brings up that Stella deserves something since Stolas cheated on her?? Which makes no sense to me?? Cuz, yes, Stolas did cheat, but why would Stella even care?!! The show already made it clear that she never even liked Stolas from the start. She didn’t even like being married to him and was only throwing fits and getting him killed simply because she was petty and liked tormenting him. What exactly does Andre and Stella hope to gain from this anyway? Neither of these two even out-rank Stolas. And what exactly has the divorce done that caused any harm to the Goetia’s. When Stella confronted Stolas, she made it seem like the divorce was gonna be a huge issue, but as far as I know... it did nothing. And they already had Octavia who’s in her late-teens, so what’s the threat here??

If they’re gonna keep bringing up the cheating, then maybe they shouldn’t have retconned Stella as a character and kept it to where she is only pissed about the affair. Maybe not have her be an evil b*tch since birth and hate Stolas for whatever reason?

Idk man!! Make it make sense!!!

We also finally get to see Barbie, Blitzo’s sister. I thought those two had a decent sibling relationship as most of us did, but it turns out... those two had a falling out as well. Barbie says, and I quote “Come on, Blitzo! Haven’t you f*cked up my life enough already??”

Jeezus!! Another one?? 

First, it was Fizz, then Verosika, and now his own sister!!? I mean, it’s expected, cuz Blitzo is an a** and he definitely deserves it, but is he seriously that much of a bad influence he screwed up his own sister’s life? Like, is she just over-exaggerating it?? What did he do that was so screwed up, she started to despise him? Hopefully, she won’t be like Verosika or even Stella; just straight-up petty and b*tchy for no reason. I know I’m wrong though.

Also, I see that she and Moxxie are fighting... wonder what that’s about. Probably something dumb.

And I also see that Blitzo and Fizz are having a talk. Not sure what it’s about. It was only a few seconds of Fizz talking. But from what I can assume, they might be discussing their relationship as friends (or ex-friends), maybe having a slight argument? Don’t know if those two are ever gonna reconcile in the end. All I know is that this kind of arc should’ve been explored way before we got into Stolas’s backstory with Blitzo (which we clearly don’t give the slightest sh*t about.) What happened with Fizz and Blitzo that caused the two to split up seems way more interesting than how Stolas and Blitzo met.

Here’s another thing that caught my eye (and y’all this one’s my favorite to laugh at). Stolas is shown being kidnapped by Striker, tied up n all, and even stabbed with a dagger!?

.......

I’m sorry, but are we just gonna forget that Stolas is a POWERFUL FREAKIN’ DEMON??? The same guy that can do this -

And this -

And even turn into THIS -

..... Like, are we sure he’s more powerful than Alastor??? What’s the point of him being a powerful demon prince if all he’s useful for is being a damsel in distress??? Less than 3 times Stolas is shown to be powerful when the plot says so, which is almost NEVER!!! It’s irritating!

Ugh! I just know I’m gonna go through hell watching this (no pun intended). And I’ve already seen the last few recent leaks to these episodes. This just adds on to the ridiculous bull.

[lec743]

FNAF Fanfic (Cherub AU)

Alright, nobody here take anything of this story as cannon to @starrspice’s Cherub AU. I’m just a big fan of the concept and I need to get the ideas that I have out of my system. Anyways, this is Y/N meeting Eclipse. Hope y’all enjoy and Starrspice, please don’t actually die. I don’t think I’m the first person that’s written fanfiction for you.

*******************************************************************************************

           You just got off work. You were tired but it wasn’t like one of your bad days’ kind of tired, so you have the energy to do some after work relaxing. Like playing video games, or maybe you’ll watch that one movie you’ve been putting off for a while. It’s dark in your apartment but you know where everything is by heart. You lock your apartment door before you switch the lights on. Then when you turn around you find that you’re in a room made of fluffy clouds. They were colored in rosy pinks, oranges, and reds like you’d see during a sunset and in the middle of the cloud room was a woman sitting at a wooden desk.

           At least, you think you’re seeing a woman. Her image wavered and warped in a way that made her look like she had a head like a setting sun. Or how the moon covers the sun during a solar eclipse. Her rays framed her face like jewelry. She had black sclera that made her yellow irises pop, and she had a soft smile on her face. She had white feathery wings poking out behind her and she was wearing a white turtleneck with a pink jacket, and you could see flowers embroidered on the sleeves.

           You turned back around but your apartment door was missing, all you saw was a wall of clouds. You turned back around when you heard the woman laugh.

           “You’re in a lot of trouble my little friend.”

           You sigh and say out loud, “Man, did I pass out before I could make it to my apartment again!”

           The strange woman called you by your full name, making you snap your attention back to her as she said, “You are perfectly awake,” your eyes widen as a second pair of hands come out of hiding behind the desk as she beckons you towards her with them while her other pair of hands start getting out paperwork from her desk, “We have a lot to discuss.”

           As you walk hesitantly towards her a chair materializes out of the clouds and you sit down in it.

           You leaned towards the woman and asked, “Am I dead?”

           “You’re not dead yet, my friend. You’ve just made a terrible mess and you need to take responsibility for it,” she said with an even smile as she lined up the paperwork in two of her hands and got out a pair of reading glasses with the other pair.

           “What did I do?”

           The woman read over what you did during the month and how it had royally screwed up the work her district does for humanity. How you messed up a breakup that should have happened already, but the couple decided to stay together because of you. How another couple still hasn’t gotten together because of you. You’ve messed up another person’s selflove and there’s a few people’s parental love you’ve damaged as well.

           As the strange woman continued to raddle off what you did that month and the people it affected, you find that most of the people she’s listing are people you know. Most of them you know pretty well and some of them you only know casually. You haven’t interacted with any of these people in months.

           “Hey! Wait! What do you mean, I’m messing up all these people’s lives!? I haven’t spoken with any of them for a month, some of them even longer than that!”

           The strange woman sat her papers down and took off her glasses as she looked at you with an even stare.

           “Well, it seems here, that your absence is the primary cause of all this.”

           You scoffed.

           The strange woman gave you a thin-lipped smile. Then she said, “My name is Eclipse. I’m the Head Cherub of the South-East district. You’ve done a lot of damage with your isolationist attitude. Now you have a choice. You can stay in your little apartment and wither away into nothingness all by yourself, or you can be a temporary Cherub and help us fix this mess.”

           You don’t believe that your absence in anyone’s life could actually affect them, but you do care about them. If they need help, you want to help them, but you also don’t want to be seen by them either.

           “If I become a temporary Cherub, will they need to see me? Will I have to talk with them?”

           Eclipse leaned back into her chair, making her wings splay out farther.

           “That will depend on the situation. Despite your stories of us, Cherubs don’t have arrows that magically make people fall in love or fall out of love at our whims. We are a gentle force that helps guide things along. Maybe you’ll need to talk with people. Maybe you won’t. It’ll depend on what the assignments you are given and what they’ll need.”

           You fiddled with your hands as you stared at your knees and thought about it. You’re sure you can keep yourself hidden if push comes to shove. And heck, considering you didn’t know Cherubs were a reality until this night, you might be given some magic cloaking thing that you’ll be wearing to hide yourself, if you work with them… It will be nice to see everyone again.

           With a sigh you look back up at the Head Cherub and said, “Yah. I’d like to help fix this.”

           With a wide smile and a loud clap Eclipse stood up and said, “Wonderful. Come with me.”

           You were slightly surprised by how tall she was, but you got up and followed her quickly. Granted, you didn’t think there was anywhere to follow, but the clouds bent and moved around her, forming a path that she desired. You two walked down a cloudy tunnel until you came into a room that had several displays of wings.

          Most of them looked like the traditional dove wings that you see Eclipse sporting on her back, but many were wings of other creatures too. Butterfly wings, peacock wings, ladybug wings, parakeet wings and not all of them were displayed for the back. Some looked like they connected to your heels, other’s looked like they were meant to be worn as a skirt or as a shirt, others looked like jewelry.

           You spotted a pair of dove wing earrings in a glass case and for some reason, you were drawn to them. They were simple, but a beautiful pair of dangly earrings that looked like they were made from real feathers, but the feathers were outlined with gold embedded in the feathers that made them shimmer.

           “Ah good,” Eclipse said, making you jump, “You’ve already found your wings. Go on. Try them on.”

           You lift the glass covering, and you take the earrings out of the velvet holding and put them on. Wearing them made you feel lighter and a little bit giddy. They made you feel good to have them on.

           “These wings are your Work I.D. Badge, so to speak. Your new coworkers will know you are one of them with these on, so always keep them on, okay.”

           You nod. You don’t feel like you’d ever want to take them off anyways.

           Eclipse pulled a measuring tape out of her pocket and said, “Now I’ll take your measurements for your work uniform. The uniform is less about looking like a collective and more about representing the type of love you champion. Do you have any ideas?”

           You stood still for Eclipse as she measured you.

           “Uh, can I get back to you on that?”

           “You may,” she finished measuring you, then said, “One last thing,” she pulled a white rose out of her pocket and pinned it to your hair, “This will help you and me contact each other quicker. Like if you’re having a rough day and can’t do a duty immediately, you’ll be able to use this rose to tell me so.”

           “Oh. Good. Okay then.”

           “Welp, that just about settles everything we needed to cover for today. Get plenty of rest tonight my friend, because you’ll be training on the job tomorrow and I know just the two Cherubs who’ll be the perfect teachers for you.”

           You nod uncertainly at the smiling woman. Then the cloud world and the strange woman faded around you and you were back in your apartment. You immediately head to your bathroom and take your medication. Then you stare at yourself in your bathroom mirror. Your eyes dance between your new earrings and the white rose still in your hair.

           “I’m not going to sleep well tonight…”

[goodwriterwithbadhabits]

Stray Kids Reaction: S/O has Somniphobia

Master List

Content Warning: This discusses Somniphobia, sleeping, and death. Reader discretion is advised.

Somniphobia is the fear of not being able to fall asleep, having nightmares or sleep paralysis, or even dying in their sleep.

Bang Chan:

Honestly, I feel like he does a bit as well. 

Super understanding and supportive

Encourages you to sleep in his studio while he’s working so he can keep an eye on you

Offers to let you sleep at the dorms whenever possible as well

Does a metric ton of research on everything from statistics to causes

Tries to use that to reassure you

When it doubt, he’s got the worlds worst sleep schedule, so he doesn’t mind watching over you. 

Plus, you’re cute when you sleep

Lee Know

You didn't even have to tell him

Probably figured it out on his own. 

He would notice that you weren’t sleeping and just asked what was up

Thinks you’re joking at first

Once he realizes you’re serious, he starts digging deeper

Is it nightmares?

Did it stem from horror movies?

Would offer to let you sleep next to him whenever possible so he can keep an eye on you

So attuned to your breathing patterns he could be dead asleep but still wake up the second you breathe weird. 

Maybe tries to get a service pet that’s trained to wake you up if your heartbeat changes drastically.

Changbin:

Wasn’t sure how to help at first

Did some research but made the mistake of watching Nightmare on Elm Street, 

Now he isn’t too keen on sleeping either

But he knows a healthy heart and body will help you live longer

So he would encourage you to join him at the gym

Plus, you would be so tired after, you wouldn’t really think about it once you fell asleep. 

Likes to sleep with his head on your chest or his face in your neck so he can monitor your heartbeat all night

You’ve definitely given him a new phobia

Spends at least a week trying to keep himself awake

When he realizes how much that sucks he tries to come up with something new

Sleep is super important for your physical and mental health

And getting sick is not an option

Would get you matching smart watches to track your heartbeats while you sleep 

That way if something happens, an alarm can wake you up

Would also invest in your heart and brain health

Vitamins, meditation, whatever the internet says is good for you he is going to try

Han:

New phobia part two: the electric boogaloo

Made the mistake of looking into it and now is thoroughly traumatized. 

Recruits the rest of 3 Racha for help

Would try to make jokes and play it cool for your sake

But he’s not fooling anyone

The other members have to remind him that sleep is vital for life

And also that you’re just as, if not more scared than he is

Similar to Hyunjin and Lee Know, he would want a way to keep track of your heartbeats

Or he just says screw it: y’all are sleeping in shifts now

Felix:

Guardian angel mode activated

He is understanding from the get go

Offers to sleep in shifts,

Or wrapped so thoroughly around one another that you can tell if something goes wonky

He knows that statistically you’re going to be fine

But he wants you to feel safe while you sleep

Even if that means messing with his own sleep schedule

Asks the other members to check in on the two of you every so often to make sure you’re alright

Does a ton of research so he can understand everything

Hes going to become a veritable expert in Somniphobia in a few weeks

Seungmin:

Would make fun of you for all of three seconds until he realized you were serious

Then still makes fun of you but is also thinking of a million things he could do to keep you safe

It’s not that he doesn’t believe that its real

But the rational part of his brain knows that its super unlikely to happen

Doesn’t really talk about it, but also doesn't feed into it

Death glares anyone who might try to tease you about it

Pretends to be chill about it

But if you fall asleep on him, he immediately grabs your wrist to keep an eye on your pulse. 

Another to sleep with his head near a pulse point just to be safe

I.N:

New Phobia part 3

He didn’t even know that was a thing

His first instinct is to go to Chan

Creates an entire sleep routine, so that everything is alright before you go to bed

Checks your heart rates, hand-eye coordination, memory, all that stuff

Does the same in the morning as well

Probably has alarms every few hours to wake himself up and confirm that neither of you have died. 

You’re not allowed to sleep without him ever again. 

Will call you from anywhere in the world to make sure you’re keeping up the routine. 

Probably tries to get everyone in his life to do the same 

No one is dying on his watch

[youngbuckisms]

Call Me ( Adam Cole x MJF ); drabble

Word count: 736

Warnings: Ship drabble! Mostly sfw, but there is a small nsfw mention at the very end when Adam mentions going back to his hotel.

Notes: Back on my bullshit. I cant stop writing these two and I have 3 other drafts I was supposed to do before this for other wrestlers. If any of y’all got requests or suggestions for ship or x reader or just little headcanons for your favorite wrestler, send them my way! Much love! <3

Maxwell was worried. No, not just worried, downright terrified that something was wrong. He wasn’t at the show this week and he knew he wouldn’t be a week ago, so him and Adam agreed to call right after the show was over with. And while he didn’t exactly watch the show, he knew when it was meant to be over with.

Well, Adam didn’t call. Maxwell gave him maybe fifteen minutes before he called first. Then again .. and again .. then one more time, before he tossed his phone aside out of frustration. Did something happen? Did he get hurt? Did something go wrong? Did he just forget that he promised Maxwell he would call and left his phone on do not disturb? A hundred questions and no answers.

That was until Maxwell started to scroll on Twitter. Now it made sense and as he watched the video posted by AEW, he was filled with a bundle of emotions, some of which he didn’t recognize but the most prominent one being anger. With a clenched jaw, he festered on those emotions for a moment, before the anger had shifted into a new emotion that Maxwell didn’t typically feel. A disgustingly heavy feeling of guilt on his chest.

Before he could do or say anything foolish, his phone screen lit up to a picture of Adam he had managed to take while they were at the steakhouse. He wasted no time in pressing the green button, slightly surprised to see a video call come through rather than a normal call.

“I’m really sorry I didn’t call when the show ended.” Adam’s words came out before Maxwell could even think of opening his mouth. Adam was aware how much Maxwell could overthink himself to death, so despite being in pain from the attack, he was more worried about his partner. Even as he was looking into the camera with his free hand pressed to his neck, brows furrowed slightly from the discomfort.

“Adam, shut up, are you okay?”

“Well .. I …” Admittedly, the words caught him by surprise, leaving him stumbling, looking at Maxwell like a deer in headlights. He expected him to cause this dramatic scene about not getting his phone call, to pout and whine and huff.

“Yeah .. yeah, I’m okay. Just sore, is all.” Adam confirmed with a nod and a soft breath escaping him, though he wasn’t sure if it was relief or not.

“Shit, Adam, I’m sorry. I should have been there, so I could have .. fuck, I don’t know, done something!” He felt awful, it gnawed at him that he couldn’t do a thing about it.

“Hey, hey, hey. Max, come on .. you have nothing to apologize for. Seriously.” Adam frowned, seeing just how distressed the other seemed to be, how his face screwed into one of guilt and worry.

“But I could have .. ”

“Max! It’s fine. I’m telling you it is okay. Please don’t feel bad or beat yourself up, okay? Shit happens, this is the profession, this is what we do, and sometimes that means taking a few bumps and getting a few bruises.”

“I know .. I know. I’m just worried about you.” Maxwell seemed, at the very least, a little more relaxed now and that was enough for Adam to smile.

“I know, and I appreciate it, babe. I appreciate you. Now, I have to go back to the hotel, but I’ll call you when I get there?” Adam offered, hoping Maxwell would want to.

He really did miss him today, being backstage with him, holding him, sparing kisses in the hall. He wasn’t aware how .. lonely he was until Maxwell wasn’t next to him. Now, he was all Adam had, it seemed.

“How about you video call me again when you hop in the shower at your hotel and after we’re done — you know what I mean — then we fall asleep together? Sound like a plan?” That cheeky smile showed on his face and Adam couldn’t help the blush on his cheeks as he quietly reminded himself to never have Maxwell on speaker again while still at work.

“Yeah, alright. Sounds like a plan. I’ll call you in thirty.” Blowing him a kiss through the phone, Maxwell would roll his eyes as he returned the same, before hanging up.

Hopefully next week, Adam wouldn’t be so lonely.