#they invited me camping. when we went swimming they had me hold them while they wrapped their legs around me

[orcgirlcock]

do you think it counts as a toxic lesbian situationship if you didn't realize you were a girl yet?

[feeling-pushy]

The Early Years Shorts

Four little shorts that cover those early years spent with Montanha, Rosie and Asher as they traveled the world together, also a way to show the development of the future romance shared between Montanha and Asher :3

Anyways hope you like them!

Short 1: Montanha Doesn’t Like to Swim

It had been a couple of weeks since they picked Asher up, and so far he’s been an excellent addition to the team. Not only has he been incredibly helpful, picking up the slack when it was needed. But he had been providing another unique voice in the long conversations shared traveling down the long winding roads. Rosie and Montanha liked having him around.

The three of them were in what they believed to be the state of Mississippi at this point in their travels and had just found a place to rest for a few days. It was out, deep in the woods, where those Creatures wouldn’t really venture out. And there also just so happened to be a clean river nearby. An excellent place to fish and to swim on these increasingly hot summer days.

Montanha, Rosie, and Asher were quick to set up the camp. And once it was done, Asher decided to surprise his friends with a gift. Calling them both over to see. “I've been holding on to something real special!” he said, digging into his backpack. After a minute, he pulled out a dozen or so packets of powdered shampoo.

Both Rosie and Montanha's eyes go wide at the sight. “Holy crap!! Where'd you get those??” Rosie exclaimed, Asher smiled, “I found them in a storage facility while we were scavenging around. Probably just couldn't be put on the store floor in time before everything happened! But the good news is, we're not gonna smell like shit anymore!”

“Oh hell yeah!! I'm gonna go take a bath then! Don’t wait up!!” Rosie said as Asher handed her one and she went running off towards the river. Asher watched her go for a moment before turning his head to look at Montanha, “You and I can probably do the same after she's done, don't you think Montanha?”

Montanha, however, involuntarily flinched a bit when he said this, and his posture stiffened as he became a bit more guarded, “oh- uh- you mean together?”

“Yeah, I mean... Unless you're a more private guy? It doesn't really matter to me”

“Erm, yeah.... Sorry.” Montanha mumbled, not looking Asher in the eye as he said this, his hands unconsciously holding the front of his leather jacket together to hide himself. “Oh, dude. No worries! My brother was a private guy so I get that” Asher said quickly, seeing his obvious discomfort.

“Yeah....’ he then suddenly stood up, “I need to go... over there.” he said before somewhat stiffly walking off. As soon as he was out of Asher's sight and hearing, he let out a big sigh. He felt somewhat bad for lying about being a private guy, though in some ways he was. There were just certain, things, he didn’t want him to know about. He just didn't want Asher to end up treating him differently. With a tight-lipped frown, he decided to go make himself useful and go chop some wood.

Asher sighed as well as he left. Damn it, leave it to him to accidentally offend him. He'll have to make it up to him.

The first thing Asher thought to do was invite Montanha to go swimming. Perhaps if they could swim and have a bit of fun together , maybe Montanha would warm up to him. He waited a day to ask just to make sure he'd cool down enough

“Hey dude! I figured since we've got a good spot to hang for a bit we could go down to that river and maybe go for a swim! Cool down a bit, y'know?” Asher asked, approaching Montanha who was organizing their excess pile of wood. Montanha’s eyes widen a little at the question, “I uh, I can't swim.” he said rather quickly, too quickly really, as once again he unconsciously pulled his jacket front closed to hide himself.

Asher blinked, having not expected this answer, “Oh, um... Ok!”

“Ok...’ they both stand there for a moment before Montanha suddenly just turns his head, ‘Huh? What’s that Rosie?? I'm coming!” with that he ran off to the right, and into the brush. Not even a minute later Rosie came in from the left, eating a handful of blackberries she'd found, “what’s he running for?” she asked curious as she munched on a berry. She then turns her head and holds out a hand for Asher, “blackberry?”

Asher doesn’t go for a berry and instead just sighed, “I'm... Not sure actually. I think I might have offended him the other day on accident… I think he’s still mad at me.”

“Yah did? Wow, how'd you manage to do that?”

“I'm not sure, he didn't tell me or anything but just kinda... Ran off. After you went to wash yourself in the river I suggested going in together after you were done and he just got funny. I just didn't realize he was a private guy.”

Furrowing her brows, Rosie continued to nibble on her berries like a little squirrel before the realization struck her, “Ohhhhhhhhh.... Yeah, don’t worry about it.” she said after a moment. Asher just turned his head to look at her, forehead wrinkling, “You sure? He seemed really upset.”

“Oh he is, but it ain't because of you... Kinda. Anyways, just don’t sweat it. He'll get over it.” She offhandedly stated. Rosie then just placed some black berries in his hand, then patted his hand a little, “Well, I'm gonna go fishing, smell yah later!” As Rosie walked off again, Asher, hearing the word ‘fishing’ perks up a bit, “Fishing...”

The following day, Asher and Montanha both sat at the riverbank, fishing poles in hand. Fortunately, Montanha said yes when Asher gave him the invitation to go fishing with him and he thought now would be the best time to hopefully talk things out.

“So, uh… I wanted to apologize for the other day Montanha.” Asher said, getting the conversation started, “Hm? Oh! Uh... I-It's fine...” Montanha stammered, eyes glancing away. “No it's not. I shouldn't have made you uncomfortable but I'm gonna do my best to not do that from now on.” Montanha chewed his inner cheek a bit as he again pulled at his jacket, fingers fidgeting with the metal zipper teeth, “... It's not your fault. You didn't do nothin' wrong, it's cause of me.” He mumbled, still unable to look at him. “don't say that now. It’s never anyone's fault how they feel.”

“Still, I don’t want you to think you did anything wrong. You're a nice guy Asher.’ Montanha said softly, watching his hands as they found the zipper itself and he very quickly zipped it up and down the teeth as he tried to process his thoughts, he then let out a deep sigh, ‘Can... Can I admit something?”

“Sure man!

Montanha nodded, looking out into the water, “Look, I just... There is a certain image I know I project. Which is a big, strong, and manly man. The kind of man people depend on. And I care a lot about how people see me... So it's hard to admit that I'm-’ he hesitated, feeling a cold twisting in his stomach before he let out a sharp exhale, ‘I'm Transgender.”

Asher was silent for a second before speaking, “Oh! Ooooohhh! I totally get it now!”

“Yeah... That's why I got all weird about you suggesting we bathe together and the whole swimming thing. Cause I didn't want you to know and have it change how you saw me.” He admitted. Asher’s eyes softened a little and he looked out at the water as well, “I see... Thanks for telling me. I want you to know it doesn't change how I think of you.”

“You're just sayin’ that.”

“No I'm not, really! Hell, I have things I haven't told you about cause... Well actually cause of the same reasons.” Asher mutters.

“Yeah? Like what? If you don’t mind me ask’n.”

Asher didn’t speak for a moment as he swallowed dryly and took a deep breath of his own, he then turned to look Montanha in the face, “I'm actually pan...” he admitted.

“... Oh, like pansexual?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh.’ Was all Montanha said blinking a bit in surprise, he then quickly cleared his throat, “Well, if it helps, I'm also gay too. So it doesn’t matter much to me. It doesn't change how I see you either.” As Montanha said this, he finally fully turned his head to face Asher, giving the copper haired man a small smile. This was met with an equally warm smile as Asher gazed back at him, “Thanks man.”

As Montanha continued to smile at him, his face began to flush as his cheeks started to get warm. The only reason he looked away in that moment is when he felt a yank on his fishing pull, and on instinct, he yanked up in response before reeling it in. Cussing lightly as the fish fought back, yanking harshly against his poll. After a quick tussle with the thing, he managed to pull out a large Sauger fish.

Holding it up and away from both his and Asher's faces so they don’t get cut by its sharp fins Montanha gave Asher a wide grin, “Now, this is something I care a lot about! Woo! Look at the size of this one!” he joked with a laugh. Asher laughed and grinned just as wide, his warm brown eye sparkling, “yeah! That'll go nice on the fire tonight!”

“damn right!” As the two of them share this moment together, Montanha couldn't help but feel his heart swell a little.

Asher really did make a good addition to the team.

Short 2: Do You Wanna Build A Ground Blind?

As the cool autumn breeze rustled through the trees, Rosie and Montanha found themselves relaxing by the fire pit which was yet to be lit. The smell of the chilly midafternoon air felt good and gave Rosie a sense of energy.

Leaning back, Rosie looked up and admired the clear blue sky, seeing a few wispy clouds floating by. Just then Asher walked towards them, a grin on his face. "Hey guys, I just caught a couple of fish for lunch!"

Montanha smiled at that, but Rosie made a face, "fish again? Is that all we got?" she complained. Montanha chuckled, “We also have some dried fruits and nuts from our last supply run if your lookin to nibble on something else, squirrel girl."

Rosie met that answer with a punch to Montanha’s arm. Plopping down next to Rosie, Asher smiled as he watched their usual antics. Once Rosie was done hitting Montanha she leaned back on her log and let out a big sigh, "I'm just saying, some red meat would be suuuppppeerrr good right now." Rosie then turned her head to look at Asher. "maybe we should do some hunting?"

“That's not a bad idea. We could use a fresh source of meat besides fish." Asher agreed. Rosie then got a bit more excited as she sat up, “Hey you know what we should build??’ both men look at her with a raised brow, ‘a ground blind!!”

“a ground blind…?” Montanha asked slowly, confused. Asher, on the other hand, perked up, “Oh shit yeah! A nice ground blind would be perfect. Then we could go out early and set ourselves up to hunt deer instead of just looking around for them.”

“Exactly! Ugh been a long time since I did some good old-fashioned hunting in a blind.” Rosie said, Asher nodded humming in agreement. Rosie’s enthusiasm had been contagious as Asher suddenly stood up and stretched, a determined look on his face. “Alright then, let’s get started. We should scout out a good location for the blind first. We’ll need to find a spot where deer are likely to pass through. Somewhere near water or a game trail would be ideal.”

Rosie jumped to her feet, already buzzing with energy. “I know a spot! There’s a clearing not too far from here, near a creek. I’ve seen deer tracks there before.”

“Lead the way, Rosie,” Asher said, grabbing his gear. Montanha, wanting to help out, followed suit and the trio set off through the woods.

The crunch of leaves underfoot and the crisp air filling their lungs, Rosie led the way, her eyes scanning the ground for familiar landmarks and a smile on her face. After a short hike, they reached the clearing she had mentioned, just a small opening in the middle of the trees with plenty of grass and what few wildflowers were still stubbornly sticking around. This would be an ideal spot for deer to graze, and therefore an ideal spot to hunt.

“Here it is,” Rosie announced, pointing to the ground where several deer tracks were clearly visible. “This is where they come through.” Asher knelt down, examining the tracks. “Looks fresh. This is a good spot.”

Rosie looked around, noting the natural cover provided by the trees and bushes. “We could set up the blind over there,” she said, pointing to a cluster of trees that would offer a perfect vantage point. “Perfect,” Asher agreed. “Let’s gather some materials and get to work.”

They then spent the next few hours collecting branches, leaves, and other natural materials to construct the ground blind. Rosie and Asher both showed off their expertise as they worked to weave branches together, creating a sturdy and camouflaged structure. Montanha pretty much followed their lead, gathering what they needed him to gather or helping to lift things that needed to be lifted as both Asher and Rosie added their own little touches to ensure the blind was both effective and comfortable.

By the time they were finished, the sun was beginning to set, casting a warm glow over the clearing. The blind stood ready, and Rosie stepped back, admiring their handiwork. “This is going to be hella perfect! Tomorrow morning, we’ll come out here early and see if we can bag ourselves a deer.”

“Sounds like a plan, I look forward too it!” Asher said with an excited grin.

As they made their way back to camp, Rosie and Asher were both abuzz with anticipation as they talked about the upcoming hunt. Even as they ate by the fire pit, now lit and crackling with warmth, they continued to discuss what weapons to bring, what gear to wear, and whether they should pack thermos’s with warm drinks. Montanha was content to just listen along, even if he wasn’t all that into the subject matter at hand, it was still just nice to see his friends excited about something.

When it was time for bed the three of them got into their shared tent and got themselves situated in as they cuddled, Rosie being little spoon to Montanha, and Montanha being little spoon to Asher as he laid in the middle. It was ideal for keeping warm, as well as giving each other a sense of comfort and safety. As Rosie snuggled up, she didn’t look tired at all as she grinned all giddy, “Tomorrow’s going to be a good day,”

“Yeah,” Asher agreed. “It’s going to be great.”

“Try to get some sleep you too.” Montanha said, “especially you Rosie.”

“Ok Dad.” Rosie quips with a smirk, Montanha just rolls his eyes, “Shush. Go to bed.”  Asher chuckled, “Alright, good night you two.”

“Night.”

“Good night!”

With that, they settled in for the night, even Rosie did after some effort, the promise of a successful hunt fueling her dreams as she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, the first light of dawn began to creep over the horizon, casting a soft glow through the trees. Rosie was the first to stir, like the excited child she was, she started to shake Asher awake, “Ash! Wake up it’s hunting time!” she whispered loudly.

Asher stirred after a moment and he gave her a sleepy smile, “yeah, give me a sec, I’ll get suited up.” Rosie nodded as she then turned and shook Montanha, “get up big guy! It’s hunting time!” Montanha lifted his head to look at her, blurry eyed, “What time is it?” he mumbled.

“I don’t fuckin know’ she takes a moment to check her phone, ‘four A.M.”

Montanha stared at her for a long moment before putting his head back down, “Yeah ok you two have fun with that…”

“Aww come on Montanha! Monnnttyyyy!” Rosie said, trying to egg him on a little with his least favorite nickname, “Nope. I’m sleeping. You two can hunt…” he said waving her off. Rosie puffed her cheeks annoyed but decided to let him be.

Asher and Rosie then quietly get ready, pack up their gear and soon the two of them slipped out of the camp, the early morning air cool and crisp against their faces. The forest was still, the only sounds being the soft rustling of leaves and the distant call of a bird.

When they reached the blind, Rosie and Asher settled in, their movements slow and deliberate to avoid making any noise. The blind provided excellent cover, allowing them to remain hidden while having a clear view of the clearing and the deer trail.

Rosie scanned the area, her eyes sharp and focused. “This is perfect,” she whispered. “Now we just have to be patient.”

Asher nodded, positioning himself to get a good shot if a deer appeared. They sat in silence, the forest gradually coming to life around them. As the two of them sat back in the shelter, they let the quiet of the woods take over for a moment. The soft cool breeze of the early fall air making Rosie shiver a bit as her breath came out in small white puffs.

Rosie breathed in the chilly air and after a moment her expression morphed into a melancholic one as she gazed out into the forest, “I missed doing this. Last time I did something like this, it was with my dad.” Asher, blowing warm air into his hands, looked at her, “Oh yeah? You and your dad hunted?”

“yeah, ever since I was ten. He showed me how to use a gun and a bow and arrow. Hunting season was our season you know?”

“Yeah, I do... What kind of hunting did you guys do?”

“Mostly deer and pheasant. My dad said for my eighteenth birthday he was gonna get me a license to hunt elk and we were gonna go hunt one as a late birthday gift... We would've gone this year.” Rosie said, voice trailing off and her eyes looking down sadly. Asher looked down a bit, recalling his own memories, “I'm sorry Rosie...”

“I saw them one last time, or at least I saw their doppelgangers, the day it all went down.” Rosie mumbled, Asher quietly lifted his head, face unreadable as she spoke, Rosie had never shared this part of the story with him before.

“Montanha had been walking me to my home, then they called us and asked us to meet them on some desolate road. From the moment I saw them I knew something was wrong... But I didn't want to believe it was. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Montanha stepping in, I wouldn't be here.’ tears filled her eyes as she continued, voice becoming thick, ‘I try really hard, not to think about it. The fact that my last memory of them will forever be of them turning into those- those things. It fucks me up so much.”

“I know what you mean... I went through the same thing with my brother.”

“I'm sorry’ she whispered, ‘that sucks...”

“It does... But my dad always had a saying for things like this.’ Rosie glanced at him, curious, ‘You can't focus on what's behind you, you won't know where you're going if you do." Asher said with a small smile.

Rosie eyes drifted down once more, face contemplative, “... but where do I put her memory? When it haunts me night and day? I can't hide it in the closet. And Lord, I can't throw it away....” she said flatly. After a moment of silence, she glanced up at him and looked a bit embarrassed, “sorry that's a quote from a song.”

Asher, however, gives a light chuckle, “Nah, it's alright. When I first heard him say that, I was just as confused. But I know now that what happens to someone can't be changed... But it's not the only thing we can focus on... Besides, look at that view.” As he said that, he gestured out to the trees, as the sun began to rise.

Rosie looked out and watched as the sky turned that orangey-pink, washing the forest in a warm glow and even coloring the early morning fog on the ground, it was like a hazy watercolor dream. A small smile graced her lips as she gazed out. Rosie hesitated a moment, before resting her head on Asher's shoulder, “Thanks for coming out here with me. Montanha is my best friend. Hell, he's kinda like a brother, but there are just some things he doesn't understand. But I'm glad you do.”

“Well, I try. That's all we can do.”

They sat like that for a long time, before Rosie’s keen eyes caught movement at the edge of the clearing. She tapped Asher lightly, pointing to where a young buck had emerged, cautiously stepping into the open space. Asher sat up and slowly drew his bow, careful to remain silent and steady.

Rosie watched intently, her own breath held as she kept her eyes on the deer, as Asher released the arrow. It zipped through the air, striking the buck cleanly. The deer staggered briefly before collapsing to the ground. Asher and Rosie exchanged a quick look, “We did it,” Rosie whispered, her eyes shining with excitement, “Yeah, we did.” Asher replied, wrapping an arm around her shoulder in a side hug, smiling warmly.

Short 3: Celebrity Crushes

It was a warm enough evening, with summer being just around the corner, so the three of them decided to stay up late around the fire. Sitting there they watched as the fireflies glowed throughout the expansive grassy fields and listened to the crackle of the fire and the chirping of the crickets. As the three sat there, Rosie was the first to pipe up, “So, celebrity crushes. What’s everyone’s top three?”

“Oh that’s a great question. Hmmm… Gonna have to say Harrison Ford is one for sure.” Asher said after some thought. “Not a bad choice, he’s pretty handsome. Joel Miller is a ten for me, shame they’ll never get to finish that “Last Of Us” tv show…” Montanha said with a sigh.

“Of course you got a crush on a man from a zombie apocalypse show.” Rosie said with a small eyeroll. Montanha just shrugged, “I will not deny he only came into my radar because of zombie apocalypse media. But he was pretty good in the Mandalorian too.”

“What about you Rosie?” Asher asked, Rosie didn’t even hesitate in her answer, “Oh, Johnny Cash for sure.”

“Pfft, of course you got a crush on a country singer.” Montanha said, parroting back her previous statement. “Shut up! He wasn’t just a country singer! He did movies too!!” Rosie whined. Montanha tittered, “Ok, ok! Sorry.”

Rosie however was still pouty as she sat there crossed armed, “Why don’t we here another one from you then, since your tastes are so much better than mine?” she asked huffingly. “Hm, ok, I think Kurt Russel for sure. Specifically in “The Thing.” When he’s got that big beard.”

“Shit that’s actually one of mines too!!” Asher suddenly shouted, looking pleasantly surprised. Montanha’s eyes lit up, “Wait really?!?”

“Oh my god yes! Like normally he isn’t my favorite.”

“But something about that long hair, and that tired look…”

“and that attitude?”

 “ugh yes! It’s just so...”

“Sexy…”

As they spoke, they had leaned in closer and closer together, having a little moment. Rosie then stuck her face between the two of them, “Hello? We still talking about crushes or do you two need a minute alone?” Both sat back up again sharply, a dusting of pink on both of their cheeks, “Haha sorry I think we got a bit carried away!” Asher apologized.

Rosie raised a brow, but then shrugged, “Anyways, I just wanna say that Sam Elliot is also another celebrity crush for me.” 

“Oh really? He certainly is a handsome fellow.” Montanha says with an approving nod, “Yeah no arguments there… But you sure do like older celebrities, do you not like any of the modern ones?” Asher asked curiously. Rosie’s face turned a bit red as she looked away, “I… I may have watched a lot of MeTV…’ she mumbled, ‘O-Only cause my dad liked it!!”

“Oh yeah..? What’s that last celebrity crush then hmm?” Montanha asked, with a bit of a smirk on his lips. Rosie started pouting again as she turned her head, still blushing, “Well now I’m not telling you. If you’re just gonna tease me.”

“Aw come on.”

“No.”

“Would it make you feel better to know I got an oldies celebrity crush too?” Montanha offered up, Rosie glanced over for a moment, “Tell me yours first.”

“Duane Jones.”

Rosie’s eyebrows go up as recognition crossed her face, “From Night of the Living Dead?” Montanha smiled wide, “Oh hey, so you have seen a zombie movie!” Montanha joked. This brought back Rosie’s smile as she giggled for a moment, “Only cause it was on MeTV that one time…”

“Fair enough. But yeah, I think he’s real classy.”

Rosie giggled again, “Yeah… James Stewart or Jimmy Stewart as some people called him, is my last one. I would say my number one crush actually, I always thought he was charming and he always played real sweet but sassy guys, he was and still kinda is, like, the templet, for the kinda guy I wanna fall in love with…” she admitted as she tucked back her hair and blushed again. “That’s not a bad model to go off of… I liked him in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’”

“Oh hey, so you have seen movies other than zombie films.” Rosie joked, which made Montanha chuckle. There’s a bit of a comfortable silence as the fire popped and the crickets chirped.

“Scarlet Johanson is my third celebrity crush.” Asher piped up after a moment. Both Rosie and Montanha start nodding in approval.

“Oh that’s a good choice, she’s very pretty.”

“Oh yeah, I’m gay and I still can appreciate her aesthetically.”

“Like her best when she’s got red hair, like mines.”

“Oh yeah red hair is the best look for her, I love red hair.”

 Asher shrugs, “I personally prefer her blonde.”

“Eh, blonde is fine.”

“Blonde’s not my favorite.”

 Asher exhaled sharply threw his nose, before bursting into a loud laugh at them and their almost simultaneous response. Both Montanha and Rosie blinked for a moment before they also started to laugh. The three of them laughed together as the little speckles of ember drifted up into the night sky.

Short 4: The Biggest Little Spoon

It had been a cool late summer night, the perfect night to lay out and sleep under the stars. After spreading out a large tarp, Asher, Rosie, and Montanha piled on a bunch of blankets and pillows to make it comfortable. Once everything was set out, Rosie was the first to flop down into the cushions with a smile, “Ohhh yeaaahhh, this is gonna be awesome.”

“Hey, make sure you save room for us, okay? We have to share that thing,” Montanha pointed out. Rosie waved him off, “Yeah, yeah, I will.”

“So, are we actually going to cuddle then?” Asher asked hesitantly.

“I mean, yeah, if you still want to. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I mean, I got no problem with it. I guess I’ve never, like, cuddled with a friend before?” Asher admitted, his shyness making itself known alongside a slight blush.

“It’s not such a big deal. I mean, me and Rosie just like the company.” Montanha said. “And the warmth!” Rosie added. “Montanha is like a damn heater, great on a cold night.”

Asher smiled a bit, “Alright, wouldn’t hurt to try, right?”

Montanha nodded. “So, uh, did you want to be held? Because I guess I could hold you, and then you can hold Rosie, and we can go in that order. Or maybe you would rather have Rosie hold you? You two are closer in size, so that could be a good option, and then I can just hold Rosie.”

“Uh, well... If it's all the same, I'd actually be more comfortable just holding onto you.” Asher said, another small flush gracing his cheeks. Montanha blinked, eyes widening like saucers. “Wait. Me?” he asked stupidly as he pointed to himself. “Yeah. I mean, if you're chill with that. You don’t gotta if you don’t want too.”

“Oh. I mean, sure! I’d just, uh, never had anyone offer to spoon me, so I just wasn’t expecting that...” The blush on Montanha’s cheeks surpassed the red-headed man’s as he said this. Popping her head out of the cushions like a little prairie dog, Rosie gave Montanha a look, “Hey! I offered once!”

“Yeah, and it was literally the worst we’ve ever slept. You kept kneeing me in the back...”

“And you're a literal mountain, and I couldn’t even wrap my arms around you! But it was the thought that counted!” Rosie argued. “Okay, fair enough,” Montanha said. He then looked at Asher, “But uh, yeah, if you wanna give it a shot, I don’t mind it…”

“Okay, cool.” Asher said with a smile.

Montanha and Asher then joined Rosie in the pile of pillows and blankets, and the three of them lay on their backs for a while, just watching the stars. They then decided to have a bit of fun pointing out the constellations.

“Haha, hey look, the stars in Sagittarius look like a little teapot,” Rosie pointed out with a small laugh. Asher laughed a little as well, “Heh, yeah, I think I see what you mean.”

“I see the Little Dipper.” Montanha added.

“I see the Summer Triangle.” Asher pointed out, tracing the shape with his finger. “Oh, and I see Hercules!” Rosie piped up.

“… I see the Little Dipper…” Montanha said again. Asher turned his head to look at him and laughed a bit through his nose, “Do you not know any of the constellations?” he asked, the tone of his voice sounding amused.

“I know the Big and Little Dipper….” Montanha mumbled.

“Oh my god, Montanha, really?” Rosie asked, laughing. Montanha pressed his lips together in a pout, “What? I didn’t really go outside much before the apocalypse!” Asher laughed softly, “Well, hey, why don’t we make up our own constellations then?”

“Oh! Yeah! Okay, let me see… That star there, there, and there? I’m calling that ‘The Mountain.’” Rosie said, pointing out the stars and tracing them with her finger. “Oh, I think I see that. Hmmm, I think those stars right there make a little squirrel.” Montanha added.

“I think those ones there look like a little bowl.”

“Those ones right there are totally an acoustic guitar!”

“And those ones definitely make a little rose.”

The three of them continued to make up little constellations together for a while longer. But soon enough, sleep started to weigh their bodies down. The three then positioned themselves to sleep. Rosie rested curled up in a little ball, her back against Montanha’s chest as she enjoyed the warmth. Montanha draped one arm over her but tucked the other hand to his chest. Asher lay with his face resting against Montanha’s back and one arm draped over Montanha’s side.

That night, as they lay under the stars, Montanha was the last to fall asleep. But unlike most nights where he lay somewhat fitfully, he found himself relaxing rather quickly. His biggest fear had been that Asher would be a snorer and would snore right into his ear, but to his pleasant surprise, Asher slept silently. The steady rise and fall of Asher's chest against his back was actually quite calming.

Asher's arm, draped over him, felt comfortable and reassuring, like a warm blanket. Montanha also realized that while Asher was shorter than himself, he was just the right height; his knees didn't hit his back, and his head fit perfectly in the curve of Montanha's upper back. It was almost as if they were two pieces of a puzzle finally clicking into place. That realization made him blush a little as he lay there.

As he drifted closer to sleep, Montanha was surprised at how natural it felt to be held by Asher, and he found himself overwhelmed with an odd sense of appreciation. It wasn't just the physical comfort; it was the sense of security and trust that Asher's presence brought. He had always been the protector, the one who looked out for others, but tonight, in Asher's arms, he allowed himself to be cared for. For the first time in a long while, Montanha felt truly at peace. A small smile curved on his lips as he finally succumbed to sleep, wrapped in the warmth of Asher's embrace.

As the crickets played their quiet melodies and under the wide, starry skies, the three amigos rested together in peace.

[thatshithurted8]

Lake Chelan

Heyy💜 so i have a req for Vinnie😍 based on this tiktok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdaeQPS7/ So the readers that girl and they had like the most amazing date and for whatever reason vinnie forgot to ask her number so they never met again until years later the reader is actually a big tiktok star and moves in with nai. One day nai’s on live and vinnie’s watching and then the reader shows up on live and he’s like ???!!!!! And freaks out cause it’s the girl he’s never been able to forget. @canyoubuymetoast

Summary: An impromptu connection quickly turns into an unforgettable yet unrealistic one. Despite this a few years later Vinnie finally gets a second chance to reignite said connection. 

Warning: Tooth rotting fluff

Word Count: 3.4k

“You know your help would be great Vinnie.” Reggie says sarcastically while trying his best to figure out how to pitch their tent. Maria and Nate went off to scope the area since they already set up their tent, so it left the two Hacker brothers to figure out how to create their sleeping arrangements. 

“Yea yea one sec.” He responds placing his phone on the picnic table he was sitting on before looking up to see a German Shepard walking towards him. Vinnie’s eyes instantly brighten and a smile washes over his face as he calls the dog over. 

The black and brown dog trots over to Vinnie with a wagging tail and almost immediately the friendly animal starts to leave slobbery kisses all over Vinnie’s face. Vinnie lets out a laugh as he moves his face out of the way, but continues to the pet the dog. 

“Who’s dog is that?” Reggie asks walking over to his brother, giving up on the tent. 

“I don’t know it just came up to me. It’s friendly though.” 

Reggie simply shrugs his shoulders and joins his brother in petting the dog. However, just as Vinnie opened his mouth to suggest that they should call the number on the dogs collar an unfamiliar voice calls out. 

“Zeus! Where are you boy?” 

Reggie looks up from the dog and his mouth almost immediately drops open when he see’s a gorgeous girl searching the area looking for something. He nudges his brother who was still petting the dog and cooing at it in a baby voice. Vinnie looks up at Reggie annoyed before he decides to look at what his brothers line of vision was fixated on. 

As Vinnie looks over yours and his eyes simultaneously meet. Albeit cliché, Vinnie could’ve sworn he had the air knocked out of him just by making eye contact with you. He’s never felt anything like it before. 

You on the other hand quickly glance down and relief washes over you as you finally spot your dog that wandered off of your families campsite. You quickly walk over to Zeus, your dog and the two boys that were with him. 

“Zeus I should’ve known you went to mooch food off of strangers!” You exclaim to your dog who quickly walks over to your side before you finally look back up and make eye contact with the boys. As you do so seemingly the same effect you had on Vinnie, he had on you. How did you not realize how attractive he was when you were walking over to them? 

 “I’m sorry about him he does this at every campsite we go to. You would think we don’t feed him, but he’s just a glutton.” You say, heat washing over your face due to the fact your dog wandered off and found the most attractive guys you’ve ever seen. 

“No no it’s okay we needed a break.” Vinnie says nodding over to the unpitched tent while smiling at how flustered you got from his gaze on you. 

Reggie scoffs looking at you then his brother. “We needed a break?” He asks with a raised eyebrow. “Vinnie, I’ve been trying to set up the tent for the last 15 minutes while you were trying to find service so you could make a tiktok.”

It was now Vinnie’s turn to be flustered. “Pfft, that’s not true.” The blond says obviously fibbing and you simply look at him amused. 

“Do you guys need help? My family and I go camping every summer so I’m basically an expert at setting up tents.” You suggest. 

“Yea sure that would be great.” Vinnie says standing up for the first time in the last twenty minutes while smiling at you. Without another word the three of you walk over to the unpitched tent with Zeus following along. 

“My name is Y/N by the way.” You say glancing at Vinnie before kneeling down to work your magic.

“Vinnie and that’s Reggie.” 

And that was how you and Vinnie Hacker met, all thanks to your gluttonous dog who loved showing off his puppy dog eyes to strangers in return for food. Little did either of you know how much this small interaction would have an impact on the other. As the Hacker’s camping trip went on the more your family and Vinnie’s bumped into each other and finally one night your dad invited the Hacker’s over to your campsite for a bonfire. Almost instantly yours and Vinnie’s acquaintance status changed to friends. Soon enough your family and Vinnie’s family spent the rest of the camping trip together, going swimming, boating, tubbing and more. 

That was no different for the last full day of your camping trip. In fact Vinnie finally gathered up the courage to ask you on a date despite the fact you two originally lived hours away from each other. 

“Thank you.” You say glancing up to the waiter that just took away your empty plates and placed the bill on the table. You look back up at Vinnie who was already staring at you with admiration, causing heat to wash over your face. 

Too flustered to look at the boy in front of you, you take in the scenic view. You two sat out on the patio over looking the lake with mountains, foliage and the sun setting in the distance. The restaurant Vinnie took you to was one of the fancy ones in town and the two of you stood out like a sore thumb due to your clothes. Showing up to the restaurant and sitting down to eat in a normal t-shirt and shorts was the equivalent of eating at McDonald’s in a prom dress and suit. Yet, the disapproving stares from other patrons made the whole experience even more memorable. 

“This is very nice thank you Vinnie.” 

“Anything for you.” He says softly, placing his hand on the table in which you take without hesitating, causing both of your heart beats to increase. 

“Do you want to hit O’Riley’s after?” You ask, referencing the ice cream shop the two of you went to seemingly every day of the trip to cool off on your walk back to the campsite after a day full of activities. 

Vinnie pulls out his wallet from his shorts to pay for the expensive meal while looking at you with a smile on his face. “Great minds think alike.” 

Without another word you two leave the fancy restaurant hand in hand while receiving glares from the regular patrons. Throughout your short walk to the popular ice cream parlor in town the two of you reminisce about the past week and a half together. It honestly felt like a dream. 

“You know I wanted to hold your hand on the hike today, but I couldn’t keep up with you and Zeus.” Vinnie says, recalling the hike you guys went on along with Reggie and your brother. 

“Clearly you need to work on your stamina, City Boy. That incline wasn’t even that bad.” You joke poking Vinnie in the stomach before leaving his grasp to wander over to the menu of ice cream flavours. Vinnie was infatuated with everything about you and he adored how you made fun of him for being from Seattle. The blond lets out a laugh and follows you, wrapping his arms around your waist and placing his chin on the top of your head as he analyzed the menu as well. Almost instantly you melted into his touch. 

“Okay Snow White.” He retorts back remembering how basically every animal or even bug seemingly gravitated towards you throughout the trip. 

“What can I say Vinnie. I’m just that captivating.” You say turning to look at Vinnie before winking. 

After a few minutes of waiting in line and you changing your mind on what flavour you wanted for the fifth time the two of you finally order and make your way over to a bench nearby. You weren’t a stranger to Lake Chelan and what you loved most about the small town was how close everything was. In fact the bench you and Vinnie decided to sit down on wasn’t too far from O’Riley’s, but it was close enough to the lake to witness the scenic view in full. 

Once you two sat down you guys instantly turned to each other and tapped the other’s ice cream cones, causing some of your ice cream to transfer to Vinnie’s and some of Vinnie’s to transfer to yours. You introduced this small practice to Vinnie on the third day of hanging out together. In which the reason behind it was simply because you’ve been doing it ever since you were little for good luck and to have a small taste of the other person’s ice cream. 

Vinnie watches as you taste his flavour, red velvet while your eyes light up, causing him to smile. “Holy shit yours is good.” You say before taking a lick of your flavour which was blueberry cheese cake. The blond laughs in amusement as your face of delight quickly turns into disgust. 

“Yea I definitely should have gotten yours or moose tracks.” 

Without hesitating Vinnie softly takes your ice cream cone out of your hand and switches it with his. “There you go.” 

“Vinnie, no this is yours.” You say reaching for your ice cream back, but he simply puts his hand above you and ultimately out of your reach. 

Vinnie laughs playfully as he watches you attempt to reach the cone with your original flavour from your spot beside him. “Y/N like I said earlier, anything for you.” 

You roll your eyes at the blonds cheesiness, but you end up sitting back down placing your head on his shoulder while heat washed over your body at how he made you feel.  

The sound of kids riding their bikes, crickets and birds splashing in the lake could be heard while the setting sun continued to reflect off of the water. “It’s so beautiful here.” You say after swallowing your last bite and taking in the view in front of you. 

“Yea it is.”

You turn to Vinnie and your heart begins to race when you notice he was already looking at you. Some may think this moment was cliche, but to you it was perfect. In fact your hopeless romantic dreams were being fulfilled. 

Vinnie’s gaze on you was intense and you couldn’t bring yourself to break it. Instead you found yourself flickering your eyes down to his plump lips and back up to his brown eyes. Vinnie follows your lead and his proximity causes your breath to hitch. 

Without wasting another second Vinnie finally moves in and acts on what he has been wanting to do ever since he got to know you. His lips meet yours and you instantly kiss back, wanting for this to happen for a while yourself. 

The kiss was short yet sweet and passionate while leaving both of you flustered. You place your head back onto Vinnie’s shoulder, your hand finding his and intertwining your fingers. A comfortable silence falls upon you two as both of you take in the perfect moment.

“I don’t want this trip to end.” Vinnie says breaking the silence while rubbing his thumb across your skin and admiring the scenic view in front of him. 

It scared Vinnie how fast his feelings for you developed and continued to do so and he was quite frankly disappointed that you guys live so far away from each other. Although you both lived in the same state you lived closer to Portland while he remained in Seattle. You two created a once in a lifetime connection throughout a camping trip and it seemed as if it was going to end just like that. 

“I promise I’ll say goodbye and give you my number before we leave tomorrow don’t worry.” You say lifting your head off of Vinnie’s shoulder before placing a kiss on his cheek. The whole trip you refused to give Vinnie your number or social medias simply because you realized their was more to life than the internet. You would rather be going hiking or playing in the rain than being on your phone, which Vinnie adored considering he was so consumed with his platform on TikTok. 

However, your promise would ultimately be broken when Vinnie woke up the next morning. The blond boy walked over to your campsite with a small bouquet of wildflowers he picked along the way. He could hear the beat of his heart in every step he took, knowing this would be the last time he saw you for a while. 

When Vinnie reached your campsite his heart and the bouquet of flowers simultaneously dropped at the same time. Your site was empty. In fact, it looked as if you and your family didn’t even stay there. The only thing that proved that you were there were the tire tracks of your families RV. Now the site was ready for the next group of campers to come in and make their own memories. 

Even though you and Vinnie only spent a week and a half together it felt like you two created a lifetime worth of intimate moments and memories. He doesn’t understand how he got so attached to you in such a short amount of time, but he did. The blond boy lets out a deep sigh before turning around to go back to his site, leaving the memories you two created and flowers he brought you behind. 

- 

Vinnie lets out a big yawn as he stretches in bed. He grabs his phone and checks the time. 2:43pm. The night before the blond streamed Valorant on twitch until 4 in the morning so there was no wonder as to why he was just waking up. Deciding to stay in bed for a little longer, Vinnie cuddles into his sheets and opens TikTok, Hera joining him a little bit later.

As he scrolls he likes a few and comments on some of his friends posts. However, his incessant scrolling comes to a stop when his for you page lands on a video of Nai’s. Vinnie watches it, but as he does so a familiar face is shown causing his heart rate to increase while butterflies erupted in his stomach. Who knew that one person could still elicit these feelings out of him two years later?

There was no way. It couldn’t be you in the video. Yet there you were in Nai’s tiktok showing off your gecko. You looked the same, but so different at the same time. Vinnie couldn’t help himself, but to watch the tiktok a few more times, every time his smile getting bigger and his heart fuller. 

Luckily for him Nai tagged you in the caption in which Vinnie took this opportunity to check out your profile and make sure it was actually you and his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him. Right away he knew it was in fact you. 

You had just under a million followers and were on the brink of getting verified. As Vinnie scrolled through your profile he finds your first tiktok that went viral and ultimately kick started your career. The video was of you eight months ago running and dancing around in the rain in the middle of the road. Vinnie smiles as he watches and he couldn’t help, but to feel flustered at the fact he finally found you after all these years. 

It made him happy to see that you seemingly stayed the same personality wise. From what he remembered you loved everything about nature and animals so there was no surprise to see your account full of videos of you enjoying what you loved. In fact your most viral videos consisted of your ring neck parakeet, Athena. 

Just as Vinnie was about to hit the follow button on your account a text from Alex popped up. 

I was planning on throwing a chill party tonight is that okay?

He clicked and stared at the message for a few seconds. Seemingly Nai would be invited which meant if you were with her still Nai would likely bring you as her plus one. 

Yea ofc. 

Vinnie spent the rest of the day going through your social media accounts. He wanted to follow you on every platform possible, but he didn’t want that to creep you out so he decided it was best to wait and see if you came tonight. After all his odds were looking in his favour as the time until the get together dwindled and you and Nai continued to post with each other. 

The blond walks out of his washroom freshly showered with a towel around his waist and into his large room. He could hear a bunch of voices and music coming from down stairs so the party must have already started. Just as Vinnie was about to drop his towel to get dressed a familiar voice is heard from the other side of his door. 

“Knock knock!” Nai shouts. 

“One sec!” Vinnie calls out quickly, throwing on boxers and a pair of black cargo pants before rummaging through his dresser for a shirt. “Come in!” 

Almost instantly the door flies open revealing Nailea in all her glory. Vinnie glances over to her in hopes you were with the brunette, but his hopes fall when he see’s you’re no where to be found. 

“You seriously need to stop making thirst traps in the shower we all thought you slipped and died with how long you were taking.” Nai says walking into the room and flopping onto Vinnie’s bed. 

Vinnie lets out a laugh while he continued to look for a shirt he wanted to wear, his mind being clouded with thoughts of you. Nai was wearing the same outfit she was wearing in the instagram stories she posted with you today so where were you? 

Just as Vinnie turns around, putting on a shirt with the intent to discretely ask Nai about you a familiar, but nostalgic voice could be heard in the hallway over Alex’s loud laugh from downstairs. “Nai?” 

“In here!” 

“Jeez this house is huge I need a map just to leave the washroom.” You say walking into the unfamiliar bedroom. As you do so your eyes lock with Vinnie’s and both of your heart rates increase significantly. Heat washes over you under Vinnie’s gaze and you couldn’t help, but to feel confused. He looked so familiar, but you couldn’t put your finger on where you recognize him from. 

Vinnie on the other hand felt as if his heart was going to beat out of his chest. Throughout the past few years he imagined scenarios where he would run into you back at home or at Lake Chelan, but finally being in your presence again caused him to not know how to act. 

“Y/N this is Vinnie the friend of mine I wanted you to meet.” Nai says looking at you. “And Vinnie this is Y/N. I think you guys will click instantly especially since you’re both from Washington.” 

“Nice to meet you. Can I sit?” You ask nodding over to Vinnie’s bed where Nai was sitting, petting Hera. 

“Y-yea of course.” The blond stutters out causing his cheeks to go red. However, a pang of hurt rings throughout the boys heart when he realizes you don’t remember him. 

Quickly you make your way over to Vinnie’s bed and without wasting another second you extend your hand out for Hera to smell before petting her. Vinnie watches as you do so. You looked even more beautiful than when he first met you two years prior, if that was even possible. Although you looked slightly different due to the fact you graciously grew into your features Vinnie could tell your personality stayed the same as you continued to gravitate towards animals. 

“What’s this cuties name?” You ask scratching under Hera’s chin, causing her to purr before you smile at Vinnie. 

“Her name is Hera.” 

You let out a gasp, “Did you know Hera was married to Zeus?” You say, recalling your past obsession of Greek Mythology. By now Nai was zoned out of your conversation and was scrolling on tiktok. 

“Yea I actually named her after a girl that I met at Lake Chelan, who’s dog was named Zeus.” Vinnie says with a toothy smile on his face. 

Your eyes widen and you look back over to the blond, your heart beating a mile a minute while you finally connected the dots. 

“City boy?” You breathe out. 

[rainydaydream-gal18]

(The Bad Batch) Camping: Tech's Ending

 Intro

“I guess I’ll go to the lake with Tech,” you said. Tech glanced up from the holopad at the sound of his name. You suddenly felt bashful as Omega nudged you. “Unless you mind the company?”

   “No, not at all,” he replied. The corners of his lips turned up in a small smile. “As a matter of fact, I’d like the company very much.”

   “Well then,” Omega said with a satisfied look. “You two have fun. I’m going to catch up with Hunter. Bye!” She waved and hurried away before you could even shoot her a warning glance. Tech was at your side, holopad tucked under his arm, and watching her go.

   “She seems excited.”

   “Yeah, it’s her first time camping and all,” you said. “The galaxy seemed enormous when I started traveling with you guys. I can’t imagine how big it must seem to her.”

   He nodded. “Indeed.”

   “So, the lake is that way?” You gestured before pulling your shoes on and tried to remember how the area looked from the ship. Tech confirmed your guess with a hum and started walking in that direction. Your eyes followed him, still getting adjusted to the sight of him in civies. You were used to seeing him in armor or his blacks, though you had to admit that the gray cargo shorts and blue button-down t-shirt suited him. A few buttons were left undone to show a white shirt underneath It really was a good look for him.

   The walk to the lake was pleasant. You and Tech maneuvered the forest plants together, and on occasion he’d hold a branch aside for you to pass by. There wasn’t a rush, but the pace was a little quicker since Tech had a task to do. Both of you talked about some of the things you saw on the way. He identified quite a few plants and animals.

   “Ah, careful,” he warned, resting a hand on your shoulder to keep you from taking another step. “Poison.” You followed his gaze to a lone green plant with purple leaf tips. “Let’s go around.”

   “Thanks,” you said gratefully. He was the first to step around the plant and then wait for you to follow. “How much farther?”

   “The lake is just ahead.”

   You emerged from the woods, face met with the warm sun right away. The grass in front of you sloped down toward the sparkling lake that rippled with blurry reflections of the blue sky above. “Wow, it’s so beautiful,” you sighed.

   Tech smiled. “It is, isn’t it?”

   As the two of you neared the water, you could hear the tiny waves lapping at the sandy shore. It was a rhythmic sound, and so inviting. Still, you remained on the sand while Tech detached a few devices from his holopad and put them together. Then, he took out a small test tube from his pocket and knelt down at the water’s edge to take a sample.

   “How long will it take to find out if the water’s okay?” you asked, kneeling down beside him.

   “Not long. A good two or three minutes,” he replied, swirling the sample around.

   “Oh, nice.”

   Neither of you spoke for a minute. Tech’s attention remained focused on the sample that he had hooked up to his holopad devices, and your eyes wandered to his hands which were occupied with the task. You marveled at every line and crease of those hands that could fix just about anything.

   “See something you like?”

   Your eyes snapped back up to his profile. “W-what?”

   He adjusted his goggles and met your mortified gaze. “You seem intrigued with the device. Did you want to know how it worked?”

   Of course he hadn’t meant it that way. Tech could be so oblivious, after all. Strangely enough, it made him all the more endearing to you. You wondered how many ladies have tried to hit on the trooper only to leave in disappointment when he didn’t catch on.

   You chuckled out loud at the thought.

   “Just thinking. I hope the water is alright to swim in. I was looking forward to that.”

   His brows rose as he gladly announced, “you’ll be happy about these results then. The water is in no way harmful to us.”

   “Really?” You immediately reached out a hand to scoop some of the lake water up and let it splash out between your fingers. “That’s great!” You stood to your feet, pulling your shirt off to reveal the swimsuit underneath. “Are you coming?”

   His lips pressed together as you discarded your shorts and kicked off your shoes. “I’m not wearing my swimsuit.”

   “Oh,” you paused. “Want me to wait for you?”

   “No, thank you.” He adjusted his goggles again. “You go ahead.”

   You gave a shrug and waded into the water, halting ankle-deep to admire the feeling of warm sun on your face and cool water on your feet before going in farther. By the time you were waist-deep, you turned around to see Tech kicking off his own shoes. He glanced up to meet your curious gaze, smiling hesitantly before unbuttoning the rest of his overshirt and folding it up to set it beside his shoes.

   “Changed your mind?” you called.

   “You could say that.” He waded in until he was only a few feet away. “Swimsuit or not, I refuse to let you have all the fun.”

   “Wrecker would be proud.” You grinned. “Just wait until he finds out we were the first ones in the water.” You relaxed your arms, letting the water ripple over them as you tipped your head back.

   “Oh yes, I’m sure we’ll never hear the end of it.” He sighed. “Perhaps it’ll be our little secret.”

   “Perhaps it will. Then again, perhaps not!” You splashed a little water in his direction and scurried away.

   Tech swiped the back of his hand across his lenses and shook his head. The tiny smirk on his face as his eyes locked with yours through the smeared droplets on his goggles made your heart skip a beat.

   “You shouldn’t have done that, _________.”

   You shrieked as he moved toward you, surprisingly quick, and tried to outrun him in the water. It wasn’t long until he caught up to you and scooped a handful of water in your direction, making you gasp. “Oh, it’s on!” You splashed again and swam away again. It was an effective strategy, to strike and retreat. Plus, it was admittedly fun to have Tech chase after you.

   The water fight came to an end when Tech could barely see through his goggles. He took them off for a quick cleaning, though his damp shirt didn’t completely wipe the drops away.

   You watched him put them back on. They weren’t perfect, but at least he could see better after the cleaning. You held his gaze until movement in the water beside you made you jump. Your hand gripped Tech’s arm as you pressed yourself closer to him, eyes wide.

   His other hand came up to rest over yours, concern etched on his face. “What’s wrong?”

   “Something brushed up against my leg. It startled me.”

   “I’d say it was most likely a fish.”

   “As long as it isn’t some weird creature,” you mumbled back, squinting at the water. One of the downsides of the lake was the inability to see very far into it. Tech’s hand moved from yours as his arm went around your form in a comforting gesture, and you were suddenly aware of how close you were. Suddenly aware of how your side was pressed into his, with one of your hands gripping the soaked shirt he wore. Suddenly aware of how soft his gaze was, even if it was only a fish that startled you.

   The warmth in your chest flared up and consumed your train of thought. It consumed your ability to think clearly, or else you might not have leaned in a few inches to capture his lips in a kiss. They were warm and still wet with lake water, molding blissfully against yours. Tech remained still as you explored those lips for a moment. You started to feel the subtle pressure of him returning the kiss ever-so-gently, uncertain, as if he were testing the waters. You paused, and he seemed to gain some confidence as he took the lead a little. Both of you pulled apart, you burying your face in his shoulder while he wrapped both arms around you.

   Neither of you spoke. Only the musical sound of the lake’s tiny waves turning in the breeze filled the air. The cool wind nipped your damp skin, and you hung onto Tech a little tighter as a shiver ran down your spine.

   “Maybe we should dry off,” he spoke quietly.

   “Yeah, maybe.” You pulled back to smile at him. His eyes fell to your mouth in consideration for a moment before he stopped the quiver of your lips with another soft kiss. “Hm, I could get used to that.”

   “Believe me, so could I.” Tech took your hand and began leading you to the shore. That was when you realized you hadn’t brought towels. He unfolded his shirt and placed it over your shoulders. “The others will be back soon.”

   “Yeah, everyone’s probably hungry by now,” you agreed. “We need to get a fire going.” his fingers laced through yours as the two of you headed back up the slope of grass towards the woods. There hadn’t been a rush on the way down to the lake, and there certainly wouldn’t be one on the way back. Not with Tech’s hand in yours, the smiles and chuckles you exchanged, and the way the sun shone through the canopy of trees above, creating golden rays that touched the forest floor.

   No, you’d take your time.

[appleciders]

Rachel + Leah + Water, the Director’s Cut!

Okay, so I made this gifset exploring Rachel and Leah and the ocean, but because there’s a ten gif limit and a major point of gifsets is for them to look nice, I had to sacrifice a lot of the behind the scenes thoughts and initial versions that came along the way. I still wanted to talk about them though, because I found a lot of them really cool, so I figured I’d stick all that in this post. It’s gonna get long, so you can find the rest under the cut!

So first up, we have Leah as we first see her in the water. (I’m using shitty screenshots because tumblr has a 2mb limit for gifs on text posts and I don’t feel like compressing these down lmao.) Here, she’s face-down, unconscious, floating on a fragment of the plane. This is the first time we see any of the girls in the water.

As Leah gives her dramatic speech talks to the detectives, we see flashbacks to the girl’s lives pre-island. There we see that one of them already has a very strong relationship with the water already, in her before-life: Rachel.

Rachel, as we know, is a diver. We see her take a magnificent tumble into the pool, but when she surfaces, her coach is sternly head-shaking. She corrects Rachel’s form, and after she walks away, Rachel echoes the correction, clearly frustrated with herself. 

Back to Leah. We next see Leah waking up on her lil chunk of flotsam. When she realizes what the hell’s going on, she does what we all would do and starts screaming in terror.

Her panic gets interrupted by Jeannette’s classic Raise Your Glass ringtone. (This was my alarm for two years in high school, and when I watched this for the first time I did have an out-of-body experience). She swims her way over to the Hello Kitty suitcase and—irrationally—unzips it, but we’ll cut her some slack because she’s in some serious shock. As she tries to get the phone, it slips through her fingers and starts spiraling down to the bottom of the ocean. She dives after it.

Unfortunately, she quickly runs out of air and has to give up. She then spots Jeannette floating nearby, checks her out, judges her to be “just a little roughed up,” and then sees land and has a big oh-thank-fuck moment. Because we saw Gretchen’s team placing all of the girls, we know that Linh and Leah were the only two that were put out in the open water. The other girls were put in the beach, or, in Martha’s case, near the shore. This was probably done to quell some of Leah’s suspicions about the crash, but it does give me a couple questions about how they got the other girls wet—did they hose them all down? Pour a couple buckets over their heads? Bob each of them up and down a couple times in a big net like fries in a fryer?? 

Anyway, not important. 

Next that we see, Leah has pulled Jeannette/Linh in from the water. (My Australian parents, who can never pass up an opportunity to give ocean safety tips, chimed in at this point in our first watch to say “See how she’s doing it! You always want to hold someone from behind and pull them in that way. Good job, well done.” So there’s some approval for you, Leah.) As Leah nears the shore, Dot and Toni come tearing in and they help pull the two of them out. 

The rest of the episode after that really only concerns fresh water—Toni and Shelby set out in search of it, to no avail, and Nora helpfully plugs Diet Coke reminds us multiple times that sugar’s heavier than water, so “sugar sinks.” We do set up a goal for the next couple episodes, though: Rachel says, “I'm gonna swim out to the plane tomorrow. See if I can find anything,” and Leah volunteers to come with. Rachel gives her a nod of respect.

Moving on to episode two, we have Rachel and Leah’s (iconic) first real conversation. Rachel says she’s still going out to the wreckage. Leah looks out and looks back at her, incredulous, and says, “Rachel, the water’s insane.” Here’s a big recurring association—the water and “insanity.” (I use insanity here because that’s the language they use, along with psycho/crazy. In no way does that reflect my actual beliefs about their behavior nor am I condoning the way they use those words.) Leah points out the rip current (“well done,” said my mum), and explains her very brief stint as a norcal surfer. Rachel still looks set on going, but then Leah says:

Turns out, Leah can be as ripe with foreshadowing as Fatin. This marks the appearance of their second main association with the ocean—death. After she says this, Leah turns Rachel’s attention inland, and the two agree to climb a big hill to scope out their situation.

Episode two is also obviously Rachel’s episode, so we see a lot of her relationship with diving. 

We see her plunge over and over and over again, drilling technique and form, but despite all her hard work, we learn her coach advised her to quit the team. Instead, Rachel throws herself in twice as hard, and ends up with an eating disorder. By the time the nationals come around, she’s too physically weak to dive safely, and she ends up hitting her head as she goes down. She surfaces in the pool with blood flowing around her.

She refuses to see that as the end of her diving career. She says she’s gonna “get back out there” and “be fucking great again” and she tells Nora at the end of the episode that she needs her to let her believe that.

In episode three, we finally see Leah and Rachel’s trip out to the plane! Nora comes along with them, her relationship with Rachel smoothed over after the events of ep two. “Nora’s a good swimmer,” Rachel explains as she invites her, “We were both water babies.” Water’s clearly been central to Nora and Rachel’s identities since they were really young. 

The three of them make their escape from the rest of the girls as the topic of building a shelter comes up. “Not interested in putting down roots!” Rachel calls. In keeping with the elements theme, Rachel isn’t looking to be grounded. She climbs super high into the air and she dives deep into the water, but earth isn’t her thing. (See: the quicksand scene. Whoops.)

Anyway, the three of them paddle out into the water. Rachel dives down, scopes out the plane, tells Nora she doesn’t expect her to “fucking free dive in open water,” and then looks to Leah and asks if she’s ready. Leah reluctantly agrees. 

We get our first shot Rachel swimming down into the ocean and our second shot of Leah (first the phone, second the plane). In the wreckage of the plane, they discover the black box, affixed to the wall. They keep trying to wrench it free, but it’s stuck, and Leah—who’s primary activity is, like, reading—keeps having to surface for air. Rachel gets frustrated and grabs her leg, holding her down. 

Leah screams and fights, but Rachel doesn’t let go. We cut away, and when we see them again, they’ve emerged victorious (Rachel) and drowned as dogs after a bath (Leah and Nora) with the black box in hand. Later, Leah mutters the above line to Fatin, calling Rachel a “psychopath.” For those keeping score at home, here’s where we refer back to the association between water and “insanity.”

In episode four, the ocean benevolently bestows a bag of takis upon Nora, and we have our whole shelter-building shebang. It’s all very land-based until Leah and Fatin go head to head, which ends with Fatin smearing her blood all over Leah’s face. Leah, with her usual flair, strips off her clothes as she walks into the ocean. She stays down there, passively letting the water wash the blood from her face.

This shot parallels a couple things. First, the drifting blood visually parallels Rachel in the pool after her diving injury. Second, we have Rachel staring out at the water where Leah’s disappeared and going, “Man, that is some real Virginia Woolf-type shit.” Dot has no fucking clue what she means, so Fatin interprets: “It means that bitch is crazy. She said you were the psychopath of the group.” Now it’s Leah who’s done something in the water that’s been deemed insane. The water and “insanity;” the water and accusations of insanity within their relationship. 

Those accusations pop up in episode five, but the episode is pretty focused on the inland search for Fatin, and revolves around fresh water, not salt water. (That could be a whole nother post lol.) It’s in episode six where we again see these two return to the ocean. 

Rachel is diving in the ocean! For fun! She’s picking up pretty shells (which granted isn’t the safest thing to do in the pacific, cone snails are not our friends), and she’s grinning, and she’s generally enjoying herself. With the, uh, finale situation, we’re probably not gonna get to see her smile for a bit, which is sad, because she should get to do this more often! This shot visually echoes her diving for the plane and Leah diving for the phone, except she can be in a better mood because there is no end goal. 

So she goes diving, ends up finding a bunch of mussels, gathers ‘em up, and brings ‘em back to camp. They all chow down, but wind up with serious food poisoning. Martha and Toni ring death’s doorbell a couple of times. Rachel blames herself—she’s the one that went swimming out there, she brought the mussels back. Again, we see that connection between the ocean and death.

And that association comes back bright an early in ep seven! The tide surges higher than they’ve ever seen, taking down their shelter and leaving them all scrambling. 

While Leah convinces Fatin that her life is more important than her suitcase, Rachel is left with a decision: help Nora, screaming to her from where she’s clinging to a rock for dear life, or grab the black box. In a move that contrasts Toni’s immediate and unquestioning aid of Martha, Rachel picks the black box. 

After, when they’re debriefing, Nora’s quick to bring it up. She doesn’t hide her hurt. “It happened so fast,” she says, “we all acted irrationally. Like Fatin, who jumped into a rip current to save her toothbrush. Or Rachel, who left me for fucking dead.” I think this counts as a double whammy for the “insanity” and death count—I think “acted irrationally” is as close as Nora gets to calling anyone crazy, and is honestly a better descriptor of all the other instances of “insanity” that we’ve seen, and the ocean was the source of the very real risk to Nora’s life. 

(Honestly, I think Rachel thought she was making a rational choice here—just with some grim fucking calculus. Still, given that nobody’d responded to the black box by then, I think it was a decision fueled by the need to keep hold of hope more than actual rationality.) In a fun contrast to the rest of the episode, it’s Leah that keeps a level head in this situation. 

The rest of the episode is low on water scenes, though Leah’s paranoia about Shelby is fueled by her sneaking off to the water, which could fall under the “insanity” category. It also marks where Nora begins to take an active role in breaking apart Rachel’s fantasy about diving again. 

Ep eight has one of the best montages in a series of great montages, with the playing in the water scene! A plane has seen them, they’re gonna be saved, and they all get to get high and act like kids. 

I have this lingering and probably irrational concern that the entire water play scene is choreographed and that it’s chock-full of foreshadowing. Like I know to some extent they likely were just like “yeah guys go goof off in the water,” but like...the wave pulling Rachel and Nora apart here...I mean.... (Rachel is probably gonna get more blood on Dot in the near future, too. ) That aside, their horseplay gets interrupted when Leah notices some blood on Dot, which Rachel realizes is her own period blood.  

Fatin then chimes in with her ever-gleeful foreshadowing: “Shark week for Rachel.” So while this whole encounter with the water actually seems mostly good for a change, it’s colored by the tie-in to what we know is coming.

In ep nine, reality has set in that rescue isn’t imminent. Everyone’s starving, Leah has started to spiral, and Rachel’s unusually skittish. By the tide’s edge, Nora asks for her help fishing, but Rachel refuses, saying that she’s weak. Nora flicks water at her, and Rachel flinches, clearly scared.

Starvation seems to have triggered Rachel’s trauma around the water leftover from her diving accident. In response, Nora reaches out a hand and says, “Let’s go for a walk.”

Meanwhile, Leah’s spiral has reached critical. She starts ranting about the ocean and the water and pushes past Dot, sprinting into the waves:

And so she’s taken to heart the way they think Jeannette’s body “escaped” the island—the tide—and it’s been spun like cotton candy in her head. She’s right, technically—Jeanette/Linh’s body was moved off the island by boat, and there’s definitely an argument that if they really did all swim out Gretchen’s team would save them, or at least try to. This is also a very real suicide attempt. So it’s kind of a culmination of the threats of death and mental health issues that’ve been wrapped up in the ocean since the start.

On Rachel’s end, Nora has taken her up to a cliff. Rachel calls the whole thing “borderline insane,” walking up when they’re so low on energy, but Nora tells her she needs to make a truce between herself and the water. 

“You’re afraid of it now,” she says, and Rachel replies that, “All it ever did was make me sick.” Nora immediately surges forward to say “That’s not true!” Rachel, incredulous, says, “Isn't this what you want? For me to hang it up? For me to forget the whole fucking diving game?” Nora says, “No. I don't know. I don't want you to forget you.” She then tells Rachel she should dive off the end of the cliff, that she marked it to make sure it’s safe. Rachel says she can’t.

There’s a lot here. First, there’s the first time we’ve seen of Rachel explicitly call herself sick. In episode two, even in a treatment center, she still denies it, says she’s just an athlete who knows what it takes. But now she’s reached a place where she acknowledges her eating disorder—and also probably her recent illness with the mussels—and ties it directly to the water. It’s the reason she’s sick.

Nora’s fear that Rachel will forget herself also just hammers home how central the water has always been to Rachel’s identity. Cutting herself off from the water would be cutting off a core part of herself. (...whoops) And we’ve seen that it does bring her actual joy, when she’s allowed to relax with it, but she’s had such traumatic associations rolled up into it now. Nora doesn’t want Rachel to do diving as a sport anymore, because of how badly it’s hurt her, but she does want Rachel to keep diving and swimming as like, a form of unevaluated personal expression.

At the moment that Rachel’s refusing to jump, she and Nora hear shouts from the mainland. They see Fatin and Dot screaming after Leah. Confused, Nora asks, “Where is she going?” but Rachel understands immediately, with absolute certainty, without needing to be told—“To fucking drown to death.” Seven episodes after Leah called heading into the water a death wish, she’s finally proving it true. Rachel squares her shoulders, takes a few deep breaths, and sprints into a dive. 

Unlike all her other dives high altitude dives we’ve seen her do, this dive isn’t qualified based on aesthetics. This dive matters because of what it will do, not on how it looks. And what it does do is bring her into the ocean, where she needs to be for her friend. So with strong strokes, she swims out towards Leah.

When she reaches her, she takes hold of her, pulls her into her chest from behind. She begins to swim with her back to shore. This rescue directly parallels Leah’s rescue of Linh that we talked about above. It also, as the Out in the Wilds podcast insightfully pointed out, really calls Rachel and Leah’s relationship back to the beginning. Whereas Rachel had initially held Leah down in the water, putting her in danger of drowning, Rachel here pulls her out of the water, saving her from drowning. Together, they make it all the way back to the shore.

Finally (and, like, if you’ve made it all the way down here? bless you. thank you), we have episode ten. The ocean doesn’t really figure into episode ten until the very end. Rachel has had a long episode of healing—she’s happy to be full and she’s in a good place with her sister and things seem to be going pretty okay. She decides to heal her relationship with the water, too. She heads out, telling Nora that she’s “Just gonna float, Nor. Just float.”

Just floating. After all the times we saw her plunging into the water, purposefully, with frustration, with drive, with so much to prove and with so much sacrifice and self-abuse to prove it with, Rachel finally just wants to float. She wants to let herself relax. She wants to let the water carry her.

Of course, that means there has to be, like, a massive marine carnivore waiting to mistake her for a seal.

Visually, this shot really parallels the opening shot of Leah on the fragment of plane. Instead of being face-down, though, she’s face-up, and she’s conscious, just not of the threat from below. 

The shark bites.

In a horrible parallel to Leah’s Virginia Woolf moment and Rachel’s diving accident, we see blood pool in the water. Rachel is pulled under. The girls on the land start screaming and running toward her. We know Rachel doesn’t die, but this is still a near-death experience, one that probably cost her her arm. Leah, covered in dirt and her own blood after crawling out of the pit Nora led her into, can only stand and watch, shocked and horrified.

So that got! Way longer than I meant it to! And honestly most of this was condensed into very concise tags in a post I made a few days ago! But if you made it all the way down here, you’ve now seen everything I wanted to fit into that gifset but couldn’t. Thanks for sticking with me, friend <3

[silhouetteofacedar]

Fox Mulder, Closet Romantic Ch.3: Jesus Is A Pisces

Previous Chapter - AO3 - MSR, rated E

Mulder has forgotten Scully’s birthday every year but one. Actually, make that two now, since this year he’s determined to make the day special for her somehow. He’d asked her casually what her plans were, and she admitted that outside of a lunch with her mother and some church friends on Sunday the 22nd, she didn’t really have any intention to celebrate.

“It’s been a rough couple months,” she’d explained softly, and that’s all he needed to hear.  She’d gained and then buried a daughter within a few days’ time over Christmas, for fuck’s sake. He didn’t know how she managed to stay sane after that, and if he thought about it for too long the waves of powerlessness and guilt that rolled over him were debilitating.

So instead he focused on what he could do.

“You wanna do something after work on Monday? I promise to be as un-festive as possible,” he offered.

She looked uncertain, licked her lip. “Just us?” she asked.

“Just you and me,” Mulder assured her, the words giving him a tiny, shameful thrill.

She was quiet for a moment. “Sure,” she said finally.

Come Monday, February 23rd, it’s business as usual in the basement office. They finalize their reports from the previous week’s case, wrangle their receipts, argue over who broke the stapler (It was him, she insists; while he claims she jammed the staples in and made it impossible to use properly).

At three minutes to five o’clock, she clears her throat softly as she gathers her things, and he can feel her preparing to speak.

“Yeah, Scully?” he murmurs.

“We still on for tonight?” she asks, sounding almost cautious, and his heart fractures.

“I’ll pick you up at seven,” he confirms, leafing through a file. “Be sure to bundle up.” He looks up at her and gives her a reassuring grin.

She looks happy and… relieved? Huh.

“Well, I’ll see you then,” she says, shrugging on her coat as she leaves.

Mulder smiles at the door as it clicks shut behind her. He’s unusually giddy about what he has planned for the evening.

Over the weekend he had gone to the grocery store since his refrigerator was barren, then camped out in his building’s laundry room all day Sunday washing every blanket he owned. He even stopped at the little bakery around the corner from his apartment, purchasing a single chocolate cupcake and a loaf of rye bread.

After work he packs his car with a cooler, a duffel bag, a large thermos of coffee, and a pile of blankets.

He’s surprised to see that she’s waiting for him on the steps of her apartment, wearing a heavy jacket and thick turtleneck sweater.

“I got too hot wearing all this inside,” she explains, climbing into the passenger seat. She seems almost excited, and he strangely wants to cry. God, he’s so fucking glad he had the balls to invite her out again.

“Where are we going, Mulder?” Scully asks.

“It’s a surprise,” he replies.

Seven minutes and three wrong turns later, he reaches into the glove compartment and pulls out the map, handing it to her. “Rock Creek Park, please, Navigator,” he says.

“Aha! I thought the route we were taking seemed… circuitous,” Scully says with a smirk, unfolding the map.

“Just tell me where to go; I don’t need a running commentary,” he gripes, secretly relishing her needling.

In about twenty minutes, they arrive at the park’s nature center. Mulder pulls into the lot next to the field across the road and cuts the engine.

“We’re here?” Scully asks, looking around. “It’s deserted. Mulder, please don’t tell me we’re ghost hunting,”

“Ghosts? No,” he says, climbing out of the car and going around to the trunk. “Help me with some stuff?”

Scully comes around to the back of the car, where Mulder hands her the cooler and thermos. He slings the duffel bag over his shoulder and gathers up the pile of blankets. “Close the trunk, will you, Scully?” he says, walking towards the field. “My arms are full.”

They trudge out to the middle of the field, cold winter air biting their cheeks. Mulder stops abruptly and drops the blankets onto the ground in a heap.

“We’re here,” he announces, setting down the duffel bag. He picks up a heavy wool blanket and spreads it out on the grass.

Scully sits down on the blanket, cooler and thermos beside her. “What exactly are we doing out here, Mulder?” she asks.

“Well first, we eat,” he replies, reaching for the cooler. He opens it and pulls out two waxed-paper parcels, handing one to her. “Pastrami on rye,” he announces. “I went a little crazy with the mustard on one of them, we can trade if you want.”

“You made these?” she asks, unwrapping the sandwich and taking a bite. “Oh my god,” she groans. “Mulder, you’ve been holding out on me. This is delicious.”

The satisfaction in her voice makes him flush. “It’s pretty hard to mess up pastrami.”

“True,” she agrees, “but I was starting to doubt you could even make food. Your refrigerator is usually pretty sparse.”

Mulder shrugs, opening the thermos of coffee and pouring her a cup. “Cooking for one doesn’t hold much appeal,” he explains.

“Mm,” she agrees around a mouthful of sandwich, taking the proffered cup. “So Mulder, tell me; is there a reason we’re having a picnic in the dark?” She eyes the duffel bag beside him suspiciously.

“I’m glad you asked,” he replies, unzipping the bag and pulling out a tripod. “You know anything about constellations, Scully?”

It’s a rhetorical question, of course. He already knows.

“A thing or two,” she replies casually, clearly attempting to hide the smile sneaking across her mouth as she eats.

“Well that’s good, seeing as I lugged this telescope and a star map all the way out here,” he says, pulling the telescope case out of the bag.

Scully is enraptured, and Mulder thinks this might be the best thing he’s ever done for anyone.

“I haven’t done this in years,” she says, peering through the eyepiece as she adjusts the telescope’s position. “Not since…”

She doesn’t finish her sentence, but she doesn’t have to. He remembers her telling him once, on a long car ride to some anonymous, unremarkable town, about stargazing with her father when she was a child. Captain Ahab and his Starbuck, navigating the night skies by way of celestial markers.

The temperature’s dropping, and Mulder drapes the ratty tribal weave blanket from his couch around her shoulders as she searches the heavens.

“You want a turn?” she asks, drawing back from the telescope for a moment.

He shakes his head, plops down on the blanket and gazes at her instead.

They could be astronauts together, sailors of the stars. Dropping anchor in pools of the Milky Way, swimming through constellations and running their fingers through glittering strands of nebulae.

“I’m good,” he replies softly.

“Mulder?” Scully says from under a pile of blankets.

They’re lying on their backs now, side by side, eyes on the sky. Waiting for a meteor, or a passing satellite, or for God to wave hello.

“Yeah, Scully?”

“Do you give any credence to astrology, or is that too close to religion for you?”

“I appreciate its historical and cultural significance,” he replies. “Beyond that, I can’t say I have much of an opinion on it. Aren’t you a Pisces?” he asks, as though he doesn’t already know that she is, and that he’s a Libra, and that the shitty magazine he picked up in the dentist’s office says they’d be a tumultuous but passionate match. Not that he gives horoscopes any weight.

Passionate, though…

“I am. And I’m inclined to agree with you, though astrology’s link with early Christianity is fascinating. For example, did you know that Jesus is linked to Pisces? His birth coincides with the dawning of the astrological Age of Pisces, which spans from 1 AD to the year 2150. There are many scriptural references to fishermen, and early Christians used the fish symbol as a sign of their faith.”

“Huh,” he says, tucking a blanket more tightly around his shoulders.

“I don’t believe that the stars dictate my temperament, by the way,” Scully continues. “But there’s something beautiful about having a constellation in the sky that corresponds with your own birth. Missy knew more about this stuff,” she say wistfully. “She’d read me my horoscope every morning before school while we brushed our hair or whatever, in the bathroom where Mom couldn’t hear. It was fun,” she says with a sigh.

“Do you think she’s out there, in the stars?” Mulder asks and immediately regrets it. He didn’t mean the question to sound flippant.

Scully takes it in stride. “Is it crazy if I say maybe? There’s… there’s things I’ve seen and heard, Mulder, that I can’t explain. Who am I to say how God operates? Maybe He’s laid the stars out like a map for us to read. That’s probably wishful thinking, but life would be a hell of a lot simpler if everything was dictated by heavenly bodies.”

“Better that than by governing bodies,” Mulder agrees.

Their eyes drift along the razor-sharp curves of the crescent moon.

“My mom wants to set me up with one of her church friends’ sons,” Scully says without preamble.

“Huh,” Mulder replies, tracing Orion with his eyes. “Let me guess; he’s a dentist.”

“Emergency physician, actually,” she replies. “He’s nice.”

Mulder suddenly feels the weight of gravity pressing him down to earth. He can feel the rotation of the planet under his back, spinning him at a thousand miles an hour. “You’ve met him?” he asks.

“Yesterday, at lunch,” Scully replies. “He’s a widower, with a six-year-old daughter. I think… I think my mom thinks we could help each other.”

Mulder’s stomach churns, a facsimile of seasickness rolling through his body. “What do you think?” he asks, voice oddly hoarse. “Do you… agree with her?”

Scully pulls the blanket higher under her chin and sighs. “I don’t know, Mulder. I’m thirty-four today, and my career runs my life. I’m not sure how many chances at a family will come my way in the future. It’s not ideal, but maybe I’m past the point of getting to choose.” She pauses. “I’m sorry, I’m being fatalistic.”

Despite the near-freezing temperature, he’s got a cold sweat forming on his back. “You can always choose, Scully. As far as I see it. It’s-it’s important to me that you know that.”

She rolls onto her side, snaking a hand out of the blanket to prop herself up on her elbow beside him. “Mulder, I know you blame yourself for the things that have happened to me. But they’re not your fault.” He opens his mouth and she interrupts him before he can speak. “Don’t argue with me. It’s my birthday.”

He’s grateful for a change of subject. “That reminds me,” he says, sitting up and reaching over to open the cooler.

He pulls out a small pink bakery box and opens it to remove a single chocolate cupcake with a candle stuck in the middle. He digs a lighter out of his coat pocket and gives it a flick, igniting the candle.

“Happy birthday, Scully,” he says sheepishly, holding out the cupcake.

The single flame shimmers in her eyes as she takes the dessert. “Mulder,” she says softly, in a tone that makes his heart turn to liquid. “I don’t… I don’t know what to say.”

“Just make a wish and blow the candle out before the wind does it for you,” he replies. There’s only a bit of a breeze but he’s not taking any chances. She deserves a wish.

Her eyes fall closed, and she sighs contentedly, no doubt formulating her request. Suddenly she opens her eyes and locks her gaze with his over the flickering candle, and Mulder feels a thousand words rumbling in him like an approaching avalanche.

Before he can say anything she purses her lips and extinguishes the lone flame with a breath.

She pulls the candle out of the cupcake and pops the end into her mouth, licking off chocolate frosting, and Mulder thinks he might die right there on a blanket in Rock Creek Park. He’s been so good, keeping his feelings to himself, but in this moment his only thoughts are that he loves her and wants her; no, needs her. He needs to touch her, taste the icing on her lips, map the constellations of freckles hiding beneath her sweater. Shake the winter chill out of his bones, letting the flames of her red hair lick across his skin and light his whole body on fire.

She’s saying something to him, biting into the cupcake, chocolate crumbs falling onto the blanket.

“Hm?” he asks, returning to terra firma.

“I asked if you wanted a bite,” she reiterates.

Yes, his body responds. Please please please-

“It’s yours,” he says as a declination.

“Therefore it’s mine to share,” she declares. She holds it out to him, and his stomach flutters as he leans in and takes a bite. He thinks of his parents’ faded wedding photos, of them feeding each other cake in black and white.

Don’t date the doctor guy, he pleads silently as he chews. Stay with me. Show me galaxies.

She falls asleep on the car ride home with one of his blankets tucked around her, the car’s heater cranked all the way up. When he parks in front of her building she stirs, likely awoken by the sudden cessation of warm air on her feet.

“Scully,” Mulder says softly, “We’re home.”

“Mmm,” she responds. “What time is it?”

“Almost eleven,” he answers, glancing at his watch. “Can you walk or should I carry you up?” The question feels faintly suggestive, and he’s only being so bold because she’s drowsy and likely not registering the subtext.

“I can walk,” she says, sitting up and removing the blanket. Her hair is a fuzzy red halo in the glow of the streetlights.

“I’ll go with you,” he says, unbuckling his seatbelt. “Make sure you don’t pass out on your way up.”

“Thanks,” she yawns. “I don’t know why car rides make me so drowsy,” she says. “It’s like I’m five years old again.”

“Or it’s hypothermia,” Mulder suggests jokingly. “It got pretty damn cold out there.”

“Winter night picnics aren’t the most practical, it’s true,” she says. “But the blankets and coffee were a good idea.”

When they reach Scully’s apartment door she turns to face him. “Thank you for this,” she says, voice barely above a whisper. “I didn’t realize how much I needed it.”

He smiles softly at her. “Happy birthday,” he replies.

He’s mentally debating giving her a hug when she reaches out and pulls him in gently, arms looped around his waist. He wraps his arms around her and drops a light kiss to the crown of her head.

It’s over way too soon.

“Goodnight,” she says. “See you tomorrow.”

If he says anything else to her before she slips into the apartment and closes the door, he doesn’t remember it. His feet are firmly on the ground, carrying him out of her apartment building and back to his car, but his head is far above the atmosphere, adrift in space.

He’s so in love he feels as though he’s running out of air.

[noisyalmonddreamer]

Holiday special

Word count: Idk a lot  (a/n): Someone come save me I’m tired this took my soul away this is also unedited because I’m to tired for that

Percy:

-This boy LOVES Christmas

-He get's into the feeling like right after thanksgiving

-Decorates his cabin like there's no tomorrow

-But he wont spend Christmas eve or day at camp, he's with his family

-He also goes to his family's house to help decorate

-Snowball fights? you will not BELIVE how excited he gets for them

-He loves hot chocolate and demands his has marshmallows in it

-be careful if you guys make cookies together he WILL eat the batter

-"Percy stop you could get sick!"

- "but it's so good!"

-"IT HAS RAW EGGS"

-he wears Christmas sweaters and Santa hats

-He invites you to come to his mom's house for Christmas

-On Christmas day itself he's supper excited but from how he was acting you'd think he was an actual responsible adult

-but really he just really wanted to make it special for Estelle so he was just being giddy on the inside

-He gets you something that would remind him of you

-Something he finds beautiful

~~~Scenario~~~  (lowkey feel like I wrote him out of character I'm really sorry)

The sounds of soft snores filled your ears as you woke up. The sun reflecting off the bright snow seemed to magnify the sun's rays. You turned over to see your boyfriend, Percy, sound asleep with a little bit of drool sliding past his lip. You giggled as you took the blue blanket and wiped it away causing him to stir a little.

"Percy, It's time to get up" you nudged him lightly trying to wake him. He groaned pulling the cover up more. You rolled your eyes before an idea came to mind "Percy wake up it's Christmas."

The gears in Percy's head seemed to move for a second before his eye's popped open "OH MY GOD'S IT'S CHRISTMAS!" He popped up from his position. You smiled before leaning over and kissing him on his cheek "yeah it is, now you might want to put a shirt on before-" your sentence was cut of as Percy looked at the window.

"Oh my God's (y/n) look it snowed!" he got up from the bed and excitedly went to the window pretty much vibrating from excitement. He looked like a little kid, his eyes shining bright and a giddy smile on his face "I know Perce" you laughed as he pouted at your comment "As I was saying you might want to put on a shirt before Estelle comes in."

Percy laughed and threw on a sweatshirt before climbing back into bed with you "what are you doing?" He looked at you and smiled "pretended you're asleep she'll want to have woken us up." He kissed your head and laid back down.

Percy was, of course, right. Moments later you heard two little feet barreling down the hallway and tiny squeals of excitement. The door opened and a little girl hopped onto the bed trying to wake the two of you up "GET UP GET UP GET UP!!!"

Estelle shook the two of 'awake' and you yawned "good morning Estelle. What can we do for you." You smiled at her as the little girl squealed with excitement. "It's Christmas! Mama and Papa said we couldn't open present's till you two woke up! Percy Percy get up!"

Estelle dragged the two of you out of bed into the living room where Sally and Paul had hot coco waiting. You sat on Percy's lap as you watched as Estelle rip open her presents, along with handing everyone there's "here Percy this is yours and this one's yours (y/n)!"

Percy smiled at her and ripped open the present, quickly, ones he saw what it was his eyes brightened as another big grin decorated his face.

After opening all the presents up Paul, Sally and Estelle went down the hall for a few minutes so Estelle could give a present to her friend.

Percy pulled you into his room and got something from inside his cabinet. He handed you a small box rapped in blue rapping paper. "I know I already got you a present but I went out swimming a while ago and found this and I thought of you" he rubbed the back of his neck as he blushed.

You smiled and kissed him on the cheek before opening the present. You pulled out a necklace that looked similar to your camp necklace except it had a single pearl on it. You smiled and wrapped your arm's around him, pressing your lips to his, you were met with the slightly salty taste of his lips. He smiled into the kiss as he pulled away for a second "so you like it?" he asked looking at you.

"I love it thank you Perce"

"Merry Christmas (Y/n)"

"Merry Christmas Percy"

Jason:

-Again he hasn't had a 'real' Christmas in a while

-Mr. Series Roman Praetor  has watched over people for Christmas making sure no one get's to out of hand

-My boy hasn't gotten to have fun for so long

-So when you're like

-"TIME FOR FUN CHRISTMAS"

-He's trying hard! But that series 'gotten make sure things are running smooth' skin is hard to get out

- "Don't drink to much eggnog it has raw eggs you could get sick. Don't have more than a cup please"

- "FIGHT ME"

-I'm kinda kidding but he is kinda stiff about it all

-Sidenote: Someone *cough* Leo *cough* placed a mistletoe above his desk and put a stapler next to him so he was under the mistletoe with a stapler

- "You think you're so funny huh?"

- "Pretty much yeah"

- "It was pretty funny though"

- "(Y/N)!"

-I have said that I think he has a secret sweet tooth

-He drinks his hot coco super sweet

-No one can know though

-Except you maybe

-He decorates a tree with you

-straight up gets tangled in the lights while you guys are decorating

-Send some help for our very own blond super man

-He'll also probably get you something he had found during a quest

~~~Scenario~~~

You placed two steaming mugs of hot Chocolate on a side table. They looked quite nice, if you say so yourself, you had added chocolate shavings atop the whip cream and crushed up peppermint canes.

Looking up you were met with electric blue eyes looking at you intently, holding a Santa hat in his scarred callused hands.

"Do I really have to wear this?" He asked holding out the bright red hat. "Yes of course you do! We're decorating!"

He looked down at you again. "Okay okay I'll wear the hat sweetie but why the entire cabin? We already have a tree do you think decorating the whole cabin is.... excessive?" You rolled your eyes at him "I don't expect you have had that many fun Christmases because you're so,,, Roman so you have to do it! I didn't make the rules bub!"

You skipped over to him kissing him on the cheek than going over to the box of decorations you forced him to fly to camp half-blood. You also got him to carry a Christmas tree that you got from the Stoles, though they didn't tell you were they got it from.

You opened up the box and pulled out a few blankets and pillows.

"What are those for?" Jason stood behind you taking sips from his hot coco watching you. "Decoration! What do you think we're doing here right now?" You threw the pillows and blankets onto the couch

Jason rolled his eyes, walking up to you "I already have pillows and blankets but whatever." He said, his voice held a teasing tone, he knew what he was doing.

You glared at him "I will take away your hot chocolate and not make anymore." You pointed a finger out, trying to prove your point. Jason's eyes widened before he placed his mug on the coffee table and swiftly walked over to you.

"Alright so what do you need?"

"Just take these." You handed him some fake acorns and stuff, pointing at a wall "Place them like over there."

Jason took them into his hands and began working. About thirty minutes in he tapped you on the shoulder. "What about the tree?" You looked over at him "Oh yeah we do that last just give me a sec and you can start detangling the lights." You pointed at the box that had the Christmas lights.

Jason nodded and walked over to the box, pulling out a giant clump of lights. He looked at it, a bit concerned wondering how he would be able to detangle it all.

~~~time skip~~~

Jason ended up being right, he couldn't untangle them. Every time he thought he had gotten another tangle out it led to another, then when he thought to follow a single cored it was stuck in other cords. This is all to say that in thirty minutes Jason managed to tangle himself in the lights, yet he still didn't ask for help or even call out for you.

He didn't want you laughing at him so he decided he would get himself out. Which also didn't end up well because he fell with a loud thud.

You had went outside to hang a few more lights and decorations on the porch when you head it, a loud thud followed by a groan of pain. You hurried inside to see the son of Zeus himself, Praetor of New Rome, Hero of Camp Jupiter, laying on the floor tangled in Christmas lights.

"It's not funny!" He yelled when he had heard your giggling. This only turned your light giggling into full on laughter you clutched your stomach in pain as you laughed.

"It's so funny! How did you even manage to do that?" He looked up at you "Can you please help me?" You bent down to his level "of course on one condiction"

"Yes anything!"

"Let me take a picture."

Leo:

-Burns the coco because he's impatient

-He also puts candy canes into his hot coco

-Along with like 3 hand fulls of marshmallows and like a giant whip cream mountain

-He also lowkey doesn't like eggnog

- "It tastes like sweet eggs!"

-You can bet your ass he is going to force you to wear matching PJ's on Christmas eve

-While setting up the tree he get's very frustrated with the lights

-"THIS IS SO DUMB I'LL BUILD MY OWN LIGHTS!"

-He does end up doing that and they look very cool

-May or may not end up breaking some of the ornaments

-"What was that?"

- *Sweeping away a broken ornament* "Nothing babe!"

-He makes all his presents himself

-Like 2 months before he's haled ass up in bunker 9 making presents

-At some point he made a Christmas robot

-It's called that but it's main purpose is to peg snowballs at people

-He does bring a Christmas tree inside the bunker but forgets to water it then it catches on fire because it's dried out

-He will also pull mistletoe out at random time's claiming you have to kiss now

- "You just pulled that out of your tool belt. We're not even near ceiling"

- "Hmm? What? I don't know what you're talking about. But time for kiss! Who are we to break tradition?"

-You force him to dress up as an elf and give presents to kids

- "Why not Santa!? I'm making the toys!"

- "You're to short to be Santa plus your pointed ears!"

-He builds you something is that even a question

-It's a charm bracelet with a few different charms, one of them actually is magic and will pull out a shield  

~~~~Scenario~~~~~

You were stood outside bunker 9 on Christmas morning waiting for Leo to change. You shivered as a cold wind felt like it pierced your skin, both Leo and yourself had gotten up earlier then you normally would have but you two wanted to have your own thing before joining the rest of the camp.

You breathed out, a puff of smoke leaving your lips, as you turned around and banged on the door. "Leo come on! We're gonna be late and we still have to drag the presents to the bonfire!" you yelled through the metal. "This is ridiculous! Why am I dressed as an elf! I made the presents! This is humiliating!" His voice sounded whiny, you could practically hear him pouting.

"Come on Leo think about the children! They'll be so happy!" You heard a reluctant sigh leave him before the iron door opened reveling Leo in an adorable elf outfit.

"I feel ridicules." As he walked towards you the bells on his shoes jingled, making you burst out laughing. "Oh you have got to let me take a picture!" You grabbed Leo by the hand and pulled him towards the slay he had built. "Alright Mr. Elf let's go!"

"Don't call me that!" His whiney complains were only halted as you pecked his cheek quickly. "Now if you want more then let's go!" Leo's eyes widened, he grabbed the leads  and rushed towards the bonfire.

~~Time skip. Like only 5 minutes~~

As the slay slowed down to a stop you heard screams, you looked over your shoulder to see most of the younger camps, in their pajamas, running up to the slay with an excited look on their faces.

You looked over at Leo who had a bright smile on his face already grabbed a piece of paper with each kid's names and which toy they got. "You ready?" you whispered over to him, adjusting your hoodie. "Hades yeah I am!"

You hopped off from the slay in front of the kids, they all stopped and looked at you, pretty much vibrating from excitement. "Alright kiddys! Are you ready for your presents?" You question was only answered with shriek's of excitement and maybe one or two 'YES!'s.  

"Mr. Elf has each of your presents all the way from the north pole! But you have to wait to be called on can all of you do that?" The kids again in unison nodded their heads.

Leo popped up next to you startling you a bit, a big dopy grin still decorating his face "Alright I'm looking for a Gogo?" A little girl came running up to Leo, bouncing up and down with a plush in her hand, "Here you are Gogo" Leo handed the little girl a nicely wrapped present, the girl took it before bolting to her siblings yelling out a "THANK YOU!"

One by one Leo listed off the kid's, each one yelling out a thank you, and joining their siblings. As the last kid ran away Leo looked into the present sack. "Oh what do we have here?"

You looked at him with a questioning gaze "Did you forget someone? That was the last kid so I don't think you did." You looked around to see if there was any stragglers before Leo cleared his throat.

"Well why don't we have a looksie here and...Oh...it look's like this is for a certain...(Y/f/n)." You looked over at him again. "I didn't ask for anything..." you trailed off. Before you could say anything else Leo plopped the present into your hands, kissing you on the cheek. "Merry Christmas bebita."

Nico: -"Christmas is coming up?"

-Boy doesn't even realize

-I headcanon Nico secretly has a sweet tooth so I think he would like egg nog and super sweet hot coco

-I also think he can cook so he makes cookies with you

-But he will act like it's a pain and out of his way

-"Do I really have to?"

-"If you don't want to I'll just go get Leo or someone to help me!"

-"...Pass over the flour"

-He constantly has a candy cane in his mouth

-He legit eats so many you have to take them away from him

-Putting a Santa hat will anger him but he'll wear it because he loves you

-Unless someone comments on it then he'll take it off

-He really likes cooking with you, he finds it domestic like you guys are normal, so during the Christmas season he may act reluctant but you guys make stuff together a lot

-But baby boy also kinda has a sensitive mouth so hot food burns his tongue really quickly

-That combined with him kinda being impatient...he burns his mouth a lot

-He asks you to kiss it better

-He would probably get you something he found on his travels

-Or a stygian iron dagger

~~~Scenario~~

You finished tying up your apron, looking over to see Nico hadn't even tried, just letting the apron hang off his neck while he was reading a book he had found in an old library a few weeks ago.

You groaned walking over to him "Nico!" He only hummed in response, bobbing his head and continuing to read. You looked at him for a moment before placing your hand on his shoulder "NICO!"

Nico jumped slightly, looking up from his book at you. "What?" You glared at him for a moment, he rolled his eyes and booked marked the page, placing his arms around your shoulders.

"What's up il mio tesoro*?" He grinned stupidly down at you. "Oh don't 'il mio tesoro' me Mr! You're just avoiding what we said we would bring to the party in hopes we wont go!"

Nico laughed, raising his hands up in defense "Alright alright you got me! But I still don't get why we have to go to the party!" He pouted, crossing his arms.

You walked over to the counter rolling yours eyes "One, because we said we would and Two they're your friends and my friends it would be rude not to."

Nico slowly walked towards you, a small pout on his lips. "But I just want to spend the time with you!" He nuzzled his face into the crook of your neck, his vanilla scent filled your noise. You blushed pushing him away.

"Just help me with the cookies then we can make some hot chocolate!" Nico's eyes lit up at the mention of hot coco. He placed a gentle kiss on your cheek, tying the apron and rolling up his sleeves."

Ten minutes into cooking you almost regretted trying to cook with Nico. He was great at it but he was such a control freak! "No No! It said 2 cups of chocolate chips that's to much!"

You stared at him "It doesn't matter!" He groaned pushing you out the way "here let me do it!" You watched as he carefully folded the chips into the batter, wrapping the top with plastic wrap and placing it in the fridge.

"Alright it's gonna rest like that for 2 hours, it makes everything even more delicious!" He looked over at you with bright eyes. "Time for hot coco!"

You walked over to him, kissed his forehead before pulling the milk out the fridge. "alright just measure out the amount of milk we need." He nodded grabbing two mugs and filling them then dumping them into the pot.

He stirred the milk lazily "Why isn't it going faster?" He went down to turn the heat up "Nico no! You're going to burn the milk!" He looked at your tiredly "you don't like when it get's the skin on top and neither do I so lower the heat please!"

Nico rolled his eyes, lowering the heat to the second lowest setting then staring at you "happy now?" You nodded, grapping the whipped dream out the fridge and shaking it while Nico continued to stir the milk till it steamed.

The smell of warm milk filled the room as you heard Nico pour the steaming milk into the mugs.  You walked over to Nico, who was sitting on the couch you saw he had already stuck another candy cane in his mouth.

Grabbing the whipped cream bottle you made two small hills of whipped cream in each mug and waited for it to cool down. Nico, however, instantly grabbed his mug bringing it to his lips.

"Don't your gonna burn your mouth." You told him, watching him roll his eye. "No I'm not you're worrying to much."

He took a bug gulp then letting out a yelp, placing his mug down. He stuck his tongue out reveling a nasty red burn. You let out a small chuckle "see I told you!" He pouted at you "It really hurts!"

"Will you kiss it better?"

Frank: -Baby LOVES Christmas

-He takes you to canada

-He takes you to the Christmas market's and stuff

-He's also one who will get tangled in lights

-Along with that he isn't allowed to touch the breakable ornaments, like the delicate ones

-He also LOVES hot coco

-Frank makes like perfect hot coco's

-Like a nice whip cream swirl with chocolate and a few marshmallows

-It's very nice looking 10/10  

-Will also make maple taffy with you in the fresh snow

-But since you have to boil the syrup he isn't allowed

- "Frank baby, can you get the snow?"

- "Oh umm y-yeah!"

- "Alright here you are Frank, don't burn yourself"

- "I wont"

-He WILL wake up early on Christmas day

-He will also force you to go outside and have a snow ball fight

-istg he's just a nervous child in a giant's body

-Frank makes SUPER good eggnog also

-He LOVES getting a hot cup of coco and cuddling up with you next to a fire

-Especially after being out in the snow

-Also this boy really likes making snowmen

-and he's so good at it to

-Like he can make snowmen and like animals out of snow

-Hard to say what he would give you

-I want to say a sweater but that's not really like boyfriendy

-SO IM GOING TO SAY MATCHING SWEATERS

-More like a hoodie you had been wanting for a while and he got himself a complimentary one so you could match (And wear his because he knows you. You're not sly)

~~~Scenario~~~(Before anyone says anything I know he lives in Vancouver which is a city but just pretended you guys went to a cabin or something lol)

The cold winter air felt like it was ripping through your skin as the coldness from the snow made it's way through your boots and mittens that Frank at bought you the other day.

You looked over to Frank who was packing down snow on the last little bear cub, completing the bear family he was making. He smiled back at you, his nose and cheeks a light pink from the cold. You trudged over to him, the snow sinking slowing you down slightly, and wrapped your arms around his middle.

"Hey Frank I'm getting pretty cold can we head in soon?" You asked looking up at him. He smiled again, nodding his head "Yup! Just let me finish with these-" He grabbed the stick he had been using to adding details to all the bears and drew on some eyes and a mouth. "and done! Alright lets go in. Want to make some hot coco and eggnog?"

You nodded, grabbing his hand and pulling him back into the house. You pulled off your mittens, boots and socks and walked into the boiler room where they could dry.

"Hey Frank can you grab some wood? I'm gonna start a fire, it's kinda cold" Frank nodded, walking into the room where the wood had been put as you began getting the ingredients for eggnog and hot chocolate.

A moment later Frank walked into living room in his arms he held a few logs of cut, dry wood. He placed them on the hearth and began to collect kindling, starting the fire. "Hey I said I would do that Franky!"

Frank took his gloves off as he walked down the stairs "It's fine! I already had the wood so It's fine"

You pushed the hot coco ingredients to the side knowing it would take less time when you felt a pair of strong arms make their away around your waist and felt someone's chin on your shoulder.

"You got cloves honey. You need nutmeg" He placed a kiss on your cheek, grabbing the cloves and placing them into the spice cabinet, pulling out nutmeg. "Is there a difference?"

"Of course there is! I don't know it but you use nutmeg in eggnog, honey, not cloves." Frank stood next to you, grabbing the carton of eggs. "Can I separate the eggs?" He asked smiling brightly, jumping up and down a little. You smiled up at him, chuckling at his childish antics "Of course you can baby!"

About 10 minutes later you had unusable egg whites with pieces of egg yoke broken into them plus an almost empty carton of eggs. Of course you could just run to the store for more eggs but you had no interest in heading outside during a storm.

"Okay Fraky baby I think maybe I should crack the eggs but you can whip them okay?" He nodded, looking down and backing away from the counter leaving you 5 eggs.

Ones you finished with the eggs you began finishing up the eggnog without any other mishaps. You placed the eggnog into the fridge to let it get cold. You turned to start making the hot coco before Frank stopped you.

"You go put on some soft pajamas I can finish making this!" You went to rebuttal but he had already pushed you into the room you were sharing to let you change. You let out a sigh and pulled on some comfortable clothes along with the hoodie Frank had gotten you.

You walked into the living room and started tending to the fire. You sat down for a moment before you felt a blanket engulf you along with the feeling of being pulled into someone's lap. You felt Frank nuzzle into your neck, smiling.

"Merry Christmas honey"

"Merry Christmas baby"

Will:

-My oh my does this boy love Christmas

-During campfire this boy will sing ALL the Christmas songs

-ALL. OF. THEM.

-He also helps decorate around the camp

-He also really likes picking out Christmas trees

-Wears what he says are "really nice looking" sweaters...because sure they are

-Will also replaces the lollipops from his candy jar with candy canes

-He will scold you if you eat to much cookie dough

-Will also force you, and a bunch of others, to take vitamins during the winter

- "I don't want you getting sick!"

-"Fine I'll take them!"

-"But remember to take them everyday because if you forget to take one day then you'll forget like three days then you'll never take-"

-Kissing him gets him to shut up don't worry

-When he makes eggnog he makes sure that the eggs are pasteurized, so there's no chance of salmonella

-Also this sneaky son of a god will take you to places that he has hung mistletoe to get kisses

-He would definitely get you a music instrument he helped customize  

~~~Scenario~~~

You watched pearlescent puffs of smoke left your mouth, fading into the dark sky. You shivered as a cold wind hit, taking another sip of your hot coco.

Chiron rarely let it snow in camp, preferring to keep camp on the nicer side so everyone could train, save from the times he lit it rain. But today was a special occasion, Christmas eve.

You watched as Will stood in front of the camp, with his siblings, singing jingle bell rock a dopy grin on his face. Sure he looked a little tired, he had been working more than normal due to cold and flue season along with helping decorate camp, but over all he looked bright and happy.

You let out a cold sigh, pulling the hoodie Will had given you closer to your body. You stood up heading to the table with more hot coco, the song in the background had changed to some other song.

You were poring yourself another cup of coco when you felt a warm pair of arms around your waist, pulling you flush agents someone's chest. A small chuckle came from your lips as you put down the cup of coco, placing your arms over Wills.

"You feel cold." He placed a kiss on the nape of your neck, nuzzling there for a second before resting his chin on your shoulder. "It's cause it's cold dumb dumb" you ruffled his hair, glancing at him for a moment seeing a small pout on his lips. "You sounded good up there." You said turning around, plopping a handful of marshmallows into your drink.

"Thanks but I got a bit tired, plus I wanted to hang out with my adorable s/o, who I haven't seen all day." He placed a quick kiss on your forehead "You took your vitamins today right? I know you forget sometimes so I just wanted-" you cut him off with a kiss "yes yes mother I took my vitamins."

"Good " he smiled, lacing his fingers with yours, kissing you again "That hot chocolate is good I should get a cup" he turned around, his fingers still with between yours. "Your fingers are really cold." He looked over at you while poring a cup for himself.

"C'mon" he started pulling you towards the infirmary "Why?" He looked at you for a second before sighing and letting out a small chuckle, a smile decorating his face "We're getting you some gloves and an extra coat I left in the infirmary. C'mon"

Will walked ahead of you leading you to the infirmary. The breeze hit you like a knifes, hugging yourself to keep warm. "(Y/n) c'mon. It's really getting cold out" you looked up to see the open door to the infirmary, Will's voice calling from somewhere inside.

You stepped in, closing the door "Where are you?" you asked, dusting off the small bit of snow that you hadn't even noticed to have fallen. "In the back, hold on a sec I'm grabbing two jackets for us."

You sat on a waiting chair for a moment before Will's candy jar, filled with candy canes caught your eye. You smiled, standing up from your seat, quickly grabbing a candy cane and popping it in your mouth.

"Alrighty I got- Hey those aren't for you (n/n). You have already stolen half a jar." Will laughed as he watched you eat the candy cane. "What can I say they're delicious." You flashed him a smile, only to be crushed in a giant coat. "Don't want my sunspot getting cold now do I?"

You pulled the jacket around yourself and watched as Will do the same. He grabbed your hand pulling you out of the infirmary only to stop in the door way.

"Will what is it?" He smiled, pointing up towards a bundle of mistletoe. "Time for a kiss. It's tradition" he smiled brightly, placing his hands on your cheeks. You pouted, crossing your arms "You did that on purpose." Will laughed, pecking you all around your face "hmm maybe but are you gonna complain?

Magnus: -Boy hasn't had a real Christmas in so long

-so when you're like "CHIRSTMAS!!!"

-He's like lowkey uncomfortable

-But he does get over it

-He kinda doesn't like Christmas songs that much

-Mostly because Jack sings them 24/7 for like 2 months straight

-If he hears Jingle bells one more time he will loose it

- "JINGLE BELL-"

-"JACK I SWEAR TO THE GODS IF YOU DON'T STOP"

- "JINGLE BELL JINGLE ALL THE WAY"

-"(Y/N) PLEASE NOT YOU TOO"

-He LOVES hot coco, egg nog, cookies, pretty much any food really

-But he sucks at making them

- "I BURNT IT!"

-"YOU DON'T COOK EGGNOG!?!??!?!"

-ngl Christmas with him will be stressful but hella fun

-He SUCKS at ice skating

-Like this boy has no coordination or center of balance

-Falls every like 5 seconds

-Promise him some hot coco after

-Jack laughs at him after falling so many times

-For a present I think he'd make you matching bracelets with stuff he has collected on the hikes you guys have gone on

-He's saved a few things from each one, for the memories so he makes a bracelet out of them for you  

-I'm very series when I say that he straight up cherishes the little things he has saved

~~~Scenario~~~(If you're bad at skating....Shhhh)

You looked over to Magnus to see him struggling with tying the laces of his skates. You let out a chuckle before bending down and swatting his hands away. "How do you suck at tying your laces?" Jack's voice could be heard from above you, Magnus blushed "Shut up! The strings are really long! You don't even know how to tie laces!"

You laugh in amusement, looking over to see a few people watching Magnus in bewilderment. You tapped his shoes indicating you were done and he could stand. You stood up in front of Magnus, waiting for him to join you.

He shakily got up, grabbing onto you for support. "This isn't gonna be some cheesy romance movie scene about ice skating is it?" You laughed only to be cut off my Jack "OoOoOoO If It was I could serenade you to!-"

"NO" you both stumble slightly as Magnus yelled. Rolling your eyes you pulled Magnus towards the ice, stepping on was a bit hard as he refused to let go of you but he eventually let go, replacing you with a wall. "Magnus you have to let g-"

"No way! I'm gonna fall straight on my ass if I let go!" He continued to inch further along the wall as you stood still, watching him. About 3 minute later you got bored and decided it was time to take a lap or two around the ring.

"(Y/N)! Where are you going?" Magnus looked up to see you about 10 feet away from him. You turned around in time to see him fall straight onto his chest. "I was just gonna do a lap or two. I'll be back in a minute enjoy your date with the wall." You winked at him, wiggling you fingers, before skating up ahead more.

During the two laps you did you watch Magnus fall a bunch more times, he did at least try to get off the wall a few times, before fall straight on his ass and hanging to the wall again. You sighed, skating up next to him.

"Give me your hands" He looked up at you shaking his head rapidly like a child "no way I-"

"Oh my GODS Magnus just do it I'm trying to help you!" He pouted at being yelled at for a second then put his hands in yours. You pulled him away from the wall, his legs shook as he tried to stay balanced.

"Bend your legs, yeah like that. Have your feet kinda go diagonal, no the other way" He continued to wobble a little. A few minutes later Magnus was able to stand for a little on his own, he didn't get very far, but he could do it.

"(Y/N)! (Y/N)! LOOK IM DOING IT!" He waved over at you, even though you were a few feet away, causing him to fall. He groaned, rubbing the side of his jaw. You went up to him, bending down to his level. "Oh no Maggie, my baby! Are you okay?"

He pouted again, moving to sit normally. "Maggie?" He didn't move her look at you "If you continue to sit like that your pants are gonna get wet." Magnus's eyes widened before he scrambled trying to stand up, only to fall hard on to his hands, letting out a soft whimper.  

"Can we please go get hot coco now?" He stood up more cautiously, nursing his hurt wrist as he leaned agents the wall. Your eyes widened in realization that he was actually hurt. You skated to him, lacing your fingers with his. "Of course we can Maggie. We can even go to that cute little bakery we passed by on our way here and get freshly baked cookies! How does that sound?"

Magnus smiled and kissed you on the cheek "that sounds amazing."

"...can we get falafels after?"

Hearth:

-Again he doesn't really know what Christmas is

-Like he knows around winter people start buying stuff more and he sees trees, being sold but he doesn't understand why

-he's never really asked. Of course he's seen stuff advertised for Christmas so he makes the connection that they are connected

-So when you find out he hasn't had a Christmas like...ever you have to break that

- "here wear this!"

-"Why?"

-"Because it's festive c'mon! "

-You end up dressing him up like one of Santa's elfs and he feels really silly

-He's also lowkey offended when he sees what elf's look like in Santa world

-"This isn't accurate at all. Why are they all so happy and nice?"

-Helps decorate Blitzen's shop and the apartment

-Still doesn't understand the tree though

-"But....why a tree?"

-"I don't know babe but it's festive so come on!"

-He sucks at making cookies, its the sad truth

-He isn't good at picking presents lol

-He'd get you something you had been wanting for a while, a book or something

-Also would ask Blitz to help him make you a matching scarf

~~~~scenario~~~~

You walked into the apartment you shared with your boyfriend and best friend, the bag on your shoulder holding presents for the two. You kicked your shoes off and took of your jacket as you walked into the living room. A box of Christmas decorations was left waiting to be opened as you looked over to see the boys setting up the tree all three of you picked out.

"Hey!" your voice alerted Blitzen who turned around and saw you in the entrance "welcome back how was your shopping?" you sighed, shrugging your shoulders "It was alright I might have found a thing or two." The smile on your face gave away the bluff but Blitz laughed and rolled his eyes, walking into the kitchen to get a drink.

You walked up behind Hearth, hugging him around his middle, barring your face in his back. He tensed up for a second before turning around and seeing you. He smiled and placed a gentle kiss on your forehead.

"Hi sweetheart" he smiled at you, wrapping his arms around your frame and nuzzling your neck. After a few seconds you pulled away from him "Did you guys wait to decorate the tree?" Hearth nodded before pointing at the kitchen. "We also waiting to make cookies."

You turned around in Hearth's arms to see the ingredients of chocolate chip cookies and gingerbread waiting to be prepared. You kissed Hearth on the cheek before tapping his hands to let you go. Reluctantly he agreed letting his hands drop, only for you to grab one and pull him into the kitchen.

~~~time skip because shhhh~~~~

Hind sight you probably shouldn't have left Hearth by himself to make the cookie batter, but It was almost lunch and all three of you were hungry so you and Blitz went out to grab lunch and come back. Maybe on the way you bought Santa hats which delayed you but you didn't think about what could happen!

So Hearthstone stood in front of you, covered in flour, cookie batter in hand, the kitchen somehow relatively clean. Next to you Blitzen looked like he was about to die from laughter as you continued to stair at Hearth, your mouth a gap.

"What happened?" you slowly signed at him, still in slight disbelief. He blushed and put down the bowl , freeing up his hands "You said to follow the instructions, but I didn't know what a teaspoon was and then I spilled the flour on myself." Hearth stared at you for a for more seconds before you took a deep breath and grabbed his hand.

"Hey Blitz can you start up a new batch? I'm gonna get him cleaned up" Blitz nodded, still looking like he was holding in laughter, as you pulled Hearth into your shared room.

"Hearth go take a shower and I'll put your clothes in the wash, I'll also leave out some more clothes to change into alright?"  He nodded, blushing deeply still "I'm sorry about ruining the cookies"  you laughed, waving him off "No it's alright, Blitz is making a new batch now, just get yourself cleaned up."

You walked into the kitchen and started helping Blitzen make the cookies.

Ten minutes later Hearthstone walked back into the living room area, clad in a Christmas jumper and comfy pants you had set out for him. You walked up to him, kissing him on the cheek "You look cute now come here" he followed you to the kitchen bar stools, where you sat down and held a bit of cookie dough in front of him "You can have some it's really good."

After finishing up rolling out the cookies, and eating more dough then you should have, Blitzen popped them into the oven. You turned to Hearth "We can start decorating the apartment in a few minutes if you want" he nodded, pulling you into his lap, hugging you.

"Do you guys always have to be so lovey dovey?"

"Just wait till I hang mistletoe"

Alex: (I feel like I got Alex's characterization wrong for the scenario so I'm sorry about that :/)

-Alex hasn't really had a 'normal' Christmas even before being kicked out on the streets

-His/her parents were terrible to her/him

-So I doubt Alex has a really good Christmas

-But Alex still really likes the season

-Will do makeup with a green and read theme at least ones

-Also I feel like if there was a ugly sweater party on floor 19 Alex will straight up in a sweater dress that ISN'T ugly

- "Alex the theme was ugly sweater!"

- "I look hot as hell I'm not changing!"

-Never leave Alex alone if you guys make cookies together be s/he will eat ALL of the cookie batter

-You can't even get away with the 'You're gonna get sick!' because...

- "We're both dead"

-Also really loves hot coco

-drinks to much ngl

-and burns his/her tongue

- "Oh no I burned my tongue will you kiss it better" (Did I just use that twice? yes leave me alone)

- Will also hang up mistletoe and makes a big show of it if s/he get's stuck with someone other than you

- "I have to kiss T.J??? Why???? Oh Gods??? WHYY???"

- *T.J. legit just trying to go get lunch* "...But why"

-Will be even more extra if you get stuck with someone else under the mistletoe

-if you do you better hope to the GOD'S it isn't Magnus

- *EL GASP* "(Y/N)!! HOW COULD YOU! I'LL KILL MAGNUS ON THE BATTLE FEILD! YOU HEAR THAT CHASE??"

-Drag him/her away before s/he get's into a real fist fight

-S/he will take you on a slay ride

-Just because I think that Alex is secretly a hopeless romantic

-I could see him/her giving you two gifts

-Just because floor 19 opens gifts together and s/he doesn't want the others to know how whipped s/he is for you

-One gift, the gift s/he gives to you in front of the others, is probably something kinda mundane, a sweatshirt or something

-The one s/he gives you in private is actually really romantic

-It's a locket with a picture of the two of you, both your names in graved  

~~~Scenario~~ (he/him pronouns)

The sound of freshly fallen snow crunching under your boots as the sound of bells filled your ears. This place was quite beautiful, the pretty fairy lights strung up, the snow covered trees, the bonfire crackling behind you made you feel quite relaxed. Before you could get lost anymore in thought Alex tapped you on the shoulder.

"Hey where'd you float off to?"  You looked over your shoulder to see Alex, two cup of something steaming in his hands, bundled up in warm clothes.

"no where just thinkin'" Alex hummed handing you one of the cups. "Where did you hear about this place Alex?" Alex only smiled, placing a delicate kiss on your cheek.  "Why don't we keep that a secret." He winked at you, placing his arms around your waist.

"So you still haven't told me what we're doing here." You looked over your shoulder at him, a playful smile on his lips. He grabbed your hand and started walking towards the cabin that you both had walked through to get to this area.

Ones you both got into the cabin Alex guided you out of the front door where a burly looking man with a white beard stood in front of a wooden sled 6 deer at the front.

You looked over at Alex, mouth a gap, you where about to say something when the man cut you off "Ride for Alex to the frozen pond?"

"Yup!" He smiled brightly popping the p. The man nodded his head, heading to the front of the slay while Alex held your hand, helping you into the slay "my dear your chariot awaits" he said in a mockingly fancy tone. "Alex this is a slay." You laughed while climbing into the seat.

"Oh hush I'm trying to be romantic!" He climbed in next to you, cuddling into your side. You sat there for a few seconds before the slay began moving, almost sending you forward, only for Alex to grab you around your waist and pulling you towards him.

"You really are a klutz huh?" He laughed, rubbing his nose agents the side of his face. "Oh shut it" you smacked his hand causing him to laugh. After a few moments the slay went into a trail in the woods decorated with lights and ice sculptures, the freshly fallen snow decorating the trees.

You looked at the scenery in amazement "Alex isn't this so breath taking!" You smiled pointing at the tree that looked like it had ice drops hanging from the leaves. "Yeah it is" his voice sounded airy a light, you didn't even notice he wasn't looking at the forest.

~~~haha look another time skip~~~

The sun was already setting as the slay slowed down stopping at a clearing in front of a frozen over pond, a hot fire crackling with benches that looked freshly cut from wood.

Alex hopped out the side, holding his hand out to help you down. He scurried over to the fire, taking a log bench that was a bit more secluded yet still kept warm by the fire. "Other people will be here later but I wanted to be here first!"

You nodded at him, slipping your hand in is, bringing both your hands into your pocket. You leaned your head on his shoulder and began talking about random things a book you were reading, a new pot Alex was planning on making, killing your floor mates. That is until an interesting topic came up.

"What do you mean this is like your first 'real' Christmas?" You looked at Alex as he shuffled closer to you "Well I never really had a 'real' Christmas back with my family, then I was on the streets and everything and since being in Valhalla we've been kinda busy"

You looked at him shocked "If you told me I would have gotten you something more special!" He waved you off, kissing you on the cheek. "No no it's fine really." He pulled his hand away from yours, moving them to your face.

"I'm just happy to spend my first 'real' Christmas with you."

[knuffled]

Just Practice - Chapter 15

this is the most important chapter in the story so far since chapter seven, so i hope you enjoy this! if you could drop a comment and/or reblog to support all the hard work, it would mean a lot to me! 

here’s the ao3 link

The first thing that greeted Annabeth when she stepped out of her car was the sound of crashing waves and the smell of sea salt carried on a gentle breeze. She leaned against the side of her car and drank in the view of the ocean, relishing in the way the wind tousled her hair. The beach was packed with families and college students on spring break, and for good reason. It was late March, and the weather was absolutely perfect outside. The sand was pleasantly warm between her toes, and seagulls cawed overhead in a clear blue sky.

Coming to the beach for spring break had been Rachel’s idea. Her father owned a villa not far from the shore, and she had offered to let them all stay there overnight. It was exactly what Annabeth needed after the past month and a half. After Percy’s victory at state, Annabeth had been absolutely swamped with school work. Nearly every week there was some new project deadline, essay to turn in, or exam to study for, and by the time finals rolled around, Annabeth found herself running on fumes. She hadn’t realized how bad it was until she came home after her final exam and promptly passed the fuck out in her room only to wake up the following afternoon, seventeen hours later.

Annabeth gave herself some time to just stand barefoot in the sand until Piper texted her, informing her that she and Jason were setting up camp further down the beach where it was more secluded. Taking that as her cue to move, Annabeth leisurely made her way down the beach and found Piper and Jason a few minutes later, trying to set up a beach umbrella. The umbrella was an ancient red and white striped monstrosity that looked like it had seen better days. Annabeth watched her friends struggle for a while, amused by how frustrated they were getting when the base of the umbrella slipped in the sand, until Piper noticed her and scowled.

“Are you just gonna stand there and watch or do you plan on helping out?” Piper huffed.

“But you were doing oh so well without me,” Annabeth said innocently. “I wouldn’t want to get in the way or anything.”

Jason put a hand on Piper’s shoulder before she could snap and offered Annabeth a tired smile. “We could really use your help, Annabeth.”

“Well, since you asked so nicely.”

Piper muttered something foul under her breath, but Annabeth couldn’t help grinning anyways before she went to help Jason. It took longer than she would have liked, but eventually the three of them managed to get the umbrella to stay in place, just as Hazel, Frank, and Leo arrived.

Leo pointed at the umbrella and said, “That thing looks like it came straight out of the fifties.”

“Shut it, Valdez,” Piper snapped. “We just spent nearly twenty minutes trying to get that fucker to stay still.”

Leo held his palms up in surrender. “Ok, apologies. Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I get it. It’s cool.”

“That wasn’t an invitation to keep talking,” Piper warned.

Leo pantomimed zipping his lips, making Annabeth grin. Rolling her eyes, Hazel unzipped her backpack and handed each of them a bottle of homemade lemonade.

“Hopefully, it’s still cold and all the ice didn’t melt,” Hazel said.

Piper took a sip and moaned, “Hazel, you’re a goddamn lifesaver.”

“Don’t make noises like that in public,” Annabeth quipped.

Although she wanted to glare at Annabeth, Piper spotted Rachel and Percy further down the beach and called out to them instead. Annabeth’s heart suddenly began pounding harder in her chest, and she found herself involuntarily searching for him over her shoulder. They had barely talked or even seen each other since State, so she had expected to be more excited to see him, but she found herself strangely nervous instead. The nervousness only grew worse for some reason when Percy noticed her and sent her a warm smile.

“Sorry we’re late,” Percy said. “Rache forgot something so we had to drive back to her place.”

“Let’s not sweat the details,” Rachel said, waving her hand dismissively. “Now, I don’t know about you all, but I am dying to get into the water. Anyone know where the changing rooms are?”

“I saw some on the way here,” Hazel said. “Annabeth, did you want to join us?”

Annabeth cleared her throat and shook her head. “Uh, no, I’m wearing my swimsuit under my clothes already.”

With that, Hazel nodded and left with Rachel for the changing rooms. The boys went down to the water, but Percy stayed behind since he had brought some beach towels with him. He spread them beneath the umbrella so they wouldn’t have to sit on the sand. Piper left a short while later once she was done applying some sunscreen, leaving Annabeth and Percy alone. Annabeth borrowed Piper’s sunscreen as an excuse to leave after Percy did, but he plopped down beside her with a sigh instead.

Annabeth couldn’t help sneaking a quick sidelong glance at him. He looked good, really good. His unzipped black sweatshirt billowed in the breeze and stood in sharp contrast to the white shirt he wore underneath. There was a relaxed, easy smile on his face, and his sun-kissed skin made him look positively radiant.

“Hey, stranger,” Percy said, derailing her thoughts. “Haven’t seen you in a hot minute.”

Annabeth tucked her hair behind her reddening ears and said, “Y-Yeah, not since State, I think.”

“Glad to see you’re still in one piece,” Percy said.

Annabeth breathed a laugh. “Not entirely sure about that.”

Percy cocked his head to the side and studied her. “You do look a little worse for the wear.”

“Rude.”

“And who’s fault is that?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. “I distinctly remember warning you not to take three AP courses your senior year, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”

Annabeth scowled and said, “You don’t have to sound so smug about it.”

Percy laughed and leaned back on his elbows. “And what would be the fun in that? It’s not every day that you get to tell Annabeth Chase that you told her so.”

“Someone sure sounds awfully pleased with himself.”

“Oh, believe me, I am,” Percy said, grinning. “But I do suppose I can cut you some slack. You know, considering how we’re at the beach and all.”

“How magnanimous of you,” Annabeth deadpanned.

Percy made a show of clapping mildly. “Oh, well done. That sounded like an SAT word.”

Annabeth barked a laugh despite herself and shoved him, but that only made his grin widen. She was relieved to feel the awkwardness dissipating between them, but her respite was short lived because Percy suddenly removed his shirt and tossed it on the towel beside her.

“W-What are you doing? Why are you taking off your clothes?” Annabeth stammered, unable to hide the panic in her voice.

Percy looked at her like she had sprouted a second head. “It’s kind of hard to go swimming when you still have your clothes on.”

Annabeth looked away to hide the fact that her face was turning pink. “I know that! But can’t you go change in the changing rooms?”

Percy blinked in surprise and said, “Oh, sorry. You’ve seen me do this like a hundred times, so I didn’t think that you’d mind.”

He was right. She had seen him shirtless more times than she could count, so why was she suddenly being so weird about it? She needed to get a fucking grip. And yet, it was everything she could do not to stare shamelessly at him. Christ, at this proximity, the scent of his cologne was inescapable, and it only served to make her feel even more flustered.

“Annabeth, are you okay? You’ve been acting really strange,” Percy said.

“I-I’m fine,” Annabeth squeaked. “Just tired.”

“Alright, try not to push yourself,” Percy said, standing up. “I’m gonna head down to the water now. Let me know if you need anything.”

Annabeth nodded, still refusing to look at him. It was only after he was gone that she stopped holding her breath. She screwed her eyes shut and buried her face in her hands. What the fuck was she doing? Why was she acting so weird? All her feelings seemed to contradict one another. She felt a bizarre mix of exhilaration and anxiety, like thousands of butterflies fluttering about in the pit of her stomach. Her eyes were drawn to Percy even though she couldn’t bear to look at him. There was definitely something wrong with her.

Annabeth took a deep breath and forced herself to stand up and head down to the water. For now, she resolved herself to just make the most of her time at the beach instead of wallowing in her own awkwardness. Nevertheless, she did make a point of avoiding where Percy was to give herself a breather. However, in her momentary lapse of concentration, Piper snuck up on her and tackled her into the sea, sending salt water rushing up her nose.

She surfaced sputtering and discombobulated only to find Piper laughing uproariously behind her. Annabeth chased after her in a murderous rage, but Piper quickly retreated to the sea and put some distance between them. Piper had always been the better swimmer, so it took a few minutes before Annabeth finally caught her, but once she did, Annabeth dunked her underwater for a full minute as payback.

Eventually, Rachel and Hazel returned from the changing rooms and joined them in the water as well. They all splashed around together for a few hours under the midday sun, and Annabeth forgot all about how awkward she felt around Percy.

They broke for lunch after that and settled on a shack that sold burgers further up the beach. Unfortunately, the only vegetarian option on the menu was fries, so Piper had to drive herself to a nearby Taco Bell. Annabeth couldn’t help feeling sorry for her when Piper returned twenty minutes later, absolutely livid, because the rest of them had already finished eating.

“I can’t fucking believe there are still restaurants in this day and age that don’t have vegetarian options,” Piper fumed.

“Remind me to buy some stuff for dinner tonight so you don’t have to do this again,” Rachel said, yawning.

“How far away is your villa again?” Frank asked.

“Just a fifteen minute drive or so,” Rachel said, finishing her salad. “We’ve got a firepit out back, so we can have a bonfire tonight! We can make smores and everything.”

“Dibs on lighting the bonfire,” Leo said quickly.

“Abso-fucking-lutely not,” Piper said vehemently.

“C’mon, I promise I’ll keep it under control this time, Pipes,” Leo pleaded.

“The last time you were in charge of the bonfire, you nearly burned my fucking house down,” Piper snapped.

“That was like three years ago!”

“It was at my birthday last June.”

“I’ll handle the fire, Leo,” Jason interrupted. “You can help me out if you’d like.”

Leo sank in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. “You guys are no fun.”

“A bonfire sounds nice,” Frank said, ignoring him.

“Yeah, it’ll be chill,” Rachel said, nodding. “We’ll have a section of the beach all to ourselves. I think my dad probably has some alcohol stashed away somewhere in the house.”

“Percy, watch over us and make sure we don’t do anything stupid,” Piper said, throwing an arm around his shoulder.

Percy gave her a wary look. “I don’t recall volunteering to be a babysitter.”

“But you’re the only one here that doesn’t drink,” Piper protested. “Pretty please?”

Percy raised an eyebrow. “Buttering me up isn’t going to work, you know.”

“Annabeth, help me convince your boyfriend,” Piper whined.

Annabeth paused mid-drink and looked between them. “Don’t look at me. I’m not the one that’ll get black-out drunk and try to like hunt for mermaids or something.”

That got a laugh out of everyone, much to Piper’s chagrin.

After they finished eating, they returned to their spot under the umbrella. Hazel and Frank went back to laze around in the water while Rachel and Leo decided to go build sandcastles on the beach. The rest of them sat under the umbrella and talked amongst themselves for a while, but eventually Jason left for the bathroom. Percy joined him because he said he had spotted a shop selling snow cones on the way here, leaving Annabeth alone with Piper.

Once they were out of earshot, Piper turned to Annabeth with a wolfish grin. “Lovin’ the swimsuit, babe.”

“This is hardly anything special,” Annabeth said, rolling her eyes. She was just wearing a plain black two piece she’d found at Target the summer before.

Piper raised an eyebrow and said, “Percy certainly seemed to think it was. Boy couldn’t take his eyes off you.”

Annabeth blinked in surprise. Piper had to be trolling her. Sure, she had felt his eyes on her a few times, but that didn’t mean anything.

“You’re obviously fucking with me.”

“I’m being serious,” Piper laughed. “You look hot, Annababe.”

Annabeth looked down at her swimsuit and felt her face heat up. She didn’t really think she was much to look at honestly. It wasn’t like she had low self-esteem or anything, but her body had always been more of an instrument to her than a source of beauty. If you asked her, the only things she really had going for her were her height and the slender, toned physique that she had built over years of running long distance. Beyond that, Annabeth thought she was rather plain.

“Thanks,” Annabeth mumbled.

“You’re welcome,” Piper said, stifling a yawn. “I wonder what’s taking him so long.”

Annabeth shielded her eyes from the sun and scanned the beach for Percy, but she didn’t see him anywhere. Instead of sitting around and getting stuck in her thoughts, Annabeth decided to take her mind off things and search for him instead.

She stood up and brushed the sand off her thighs and said, “I’m gonna go look for him.”

“Ok, stay safe,” Piper said. “I think I’m going to take a nap.”

Annabeth nodded and made her way back in the direction of the parking lot. Percy had said that the snow cone shop was on the other end, but he still should have gotten back by now. Maybe he was having trouble carrying all those snow cones by himself or perhaps the line was really long. She made it all the way to the shop without running into Percy, and she couldn’t see him standing in line either.

She scanned the surrounding area for him without much luck and almost gave up on her search when she spotted the familiar outline of his back. He was cradling a carton of snow cones in his arms and talking to two college aged girls. Annabeth took a step forward, trepidation filling her chest. She couldn’t make out the look on his face because his back was turned towards her, but she thought she caught a glimpse of a polite, confused smile on his face, like he wasn’t entirely sure why the girls were talking to him.

Annabeth balled her hands in fists at her sides and clenched her jaw. It was obvious by the way the girls laughed sycophantically and twirled their hair, practically thrusting their tits in his face, that they were hitting on him. What did the idiot think would happen if he was gonna waltz around the beach shirtless like that?

She had half a mind to go over and interrupt them, but for some reason she found herself rooted in place. Annabeth wasn’t sure why she disliked them so much, but the more she thought about it, the less reason she realized she had to interfere. Percy wasn’t actually her boyfriend after all. Besides, he was free to leave at any time, but he hadn’t which probably meant he wanted to be there. In any case, it was none of her business to step in.

And yet, she couldn’t force herself to simply turn on her heels and leave either.

But then one of the girls, a haughty looking redhead, started tugging on his forearm insistently. Percy made a small show of resistance, enough to show he wasn’t interested, but apparently they didn’t seem to pick up on that because the other girl decided to help her friend by tugging Percy’s other arm.

Annabeth moved without realizing what she was doing and pulled Percy against her chest. A possessive thrill rushed through her when the look of discomfort on his face gave way to relief once he saw her.

She positioned herself in front of Percy and glared at the girls. “What’s going on here?”

The redhead’s eyes flashed with irritation, but she forced herself to muster a saccharine smile. “Oh, we were just inviting him to come have some drinks with us.”

“Can’t you see he’s clearly uncomfortable?” Annabeth asked. “I’m guessing he even told you he doesn’t drink too.”

The girls exchanged looks with each other. “I mean, he was obviously joking about that.”

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “Or maybe you just don’t know how to take no for an answer.”

The girls recoiled like they had been slapped across the face. Annabeth took the opportunity to whisper to Percy that they were leaving and led him away by the hand before the girls could react. The girls protested behind them, but the only thing Annabeth could focus on was the feeling of Percy’s hand in hers. Blood pounded in Annabeth’s ears, and something simmered in her veins like magma. It took her a while to realize that Percy was calling out for her to stop.

“Annabeth, slow down,” Percy said. “You’re hurting me.”

Annabeth dropped his wrist like she’d been burned and looked away. “Sorry.”

Percy set the snow cones down and rubbed his wrist. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Are you sur-”

“I said I’m fine,” Annabeth snapped.

Her tone was harsh enough to prove she was lying, but she couldn’t help it. Something dark smoldered in the pit of her stomach, making her restless. She didn’t know what it was, but the sensation was intolerable and she wanted it to stop.

Percy put a hand on her shoulder and forced her to face him. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Annabeth balled her hands into fists and stared at her feet. “I-I don’t know. I’m just- I don’t know, I feel really weird.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just hated it, seeing the way they were clinging on to you,” Annabeth said tightly. “Why didn’t you just leave? It was like you wanted them to fawn all over you.”

“I tried but they wouldn’t let me leave.”

Annabeth met his eyes for the first time. “If you really wanted to leave, they wouldn’t have been able to stop you.”

Percy blinked in surprise and furrowed his brow. “Are you- are you jealous?”

Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest, and her face began to prickle. “I-I don’t know. I just didn’t like it.”

Percy’s lips tugged upwards involuntarily in a smile, making Annabeth even angrier. “What’s so funny?”

Percy hid his smile behind his hand. “Oh, um, nothing. Sorry. I just wanted to say that you didn’t have anything to worry about. They were making me super uncomfortable.”

Annabeth pursed her lips and said, “I find that kind of hard to believe.”

“Annabeth, come on, you could tell that they were creeping the fuck out of me from a mile away,” Percy said exasperatedly.

That was enough to coax a smile out of her. “You mean you didn’t like getting eye fucked by total strangers?”

Percy gave her an incredulous look and said, “You know, having tried it, I can’t really say it’s for me.”

“Yeah?” Annabeth asked, grinning.

“Yes,” Percy said flatly. “Besides, I already have a lovely fake-girlfriend willing to save me when I’m a damsel in distress.”

Annabeth’s heart skipped a beat. “Sounds like a real catch.”

“Oh, she most definitely is.”

Annabeth knew that Percy had meant it as a joke, but it made her heart squeeze a little in her chest all the same. She turned away before her face turned red and fought the ridiculous urge to smile. Christ, she needed to get ahold of herself.

“You good?” Percy asked carefully.

Annabeth nodded. “Yeah.”

“We should get going then,” Percy said. “The snow cones are starting to melt.”

“And who’s fault is that?” Annabeth said, raising an eyebrow.

“Don’t be rude to the guy that bought you a strawberry-rhubarb snow cone.”

“A thousand apologies, your majesty.”

Percy hummed happily to himself. “That’s more like it.”

:::

After sunset, they finally left the beach and made for Rachel’s villa. The villa was massive, easily twice the size of Annabeth’s house, and designed in a Spanish style. Annabeth took a moment to admire the terracotta tiled roof, and the large windows that allowed for a generous view of the Pacific. The villa had six separate bedrooms, which she personally found a bit excessive, but it proved to be for the best since there were eight of them. After Rachel took a room for herself, the rest of them drew straws to determine who would have a room to themselves, and Annabeth somehow managed to win.

Annabeth’s first course of action after dropping off her luggage was to shower. She didn’t like having to shower after spending so much time in the ocean since it made her skin all dry and wrinkly, but it was still a relief to finally wash off all the sand that had stuck to her all day. Unfortunately, Annabeth had been forced to pack in a hurry, so she could only change into what she worn earlier that morning. She had only brought a single change of clothes with her and that was for tomorrow.

She took some time to admire her room while she towel-dried her hair. It wasn’t particularly large, but it was tastefully decorated. A large queen bed sat in the center of the room, flanked by a small cherry wood drawer. Sheer linen curtains framed a tall window that looked out over the ocean. Annabeth leaned against the open window sill and drank in the view of the Pacific. The full moon hung directly overhead and cast its pale, diffused reflection onto the dark water below.

Just as she finished drying her hair, there was a knock at her door. Percy peered into her room, fiddling with the zipper on his sweatshirt.

“Hey, ready to go? I think Jason and Leo are getting the fire started.”

Annabeth set her towel aside and nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”

The bonfire was nearly fully lit by the time they arrived. Jason sat atop one of the four logs circling the pit and kept a watchful eye on the flames. Off to the side, Frank was helping Leo dump some charcoal into the mouth of an expensive looking barbeque grill. Rachel and Hazel chatted to themselves and cut meat and vegetables at the outdoor kitchen countertop. Piper was the only one that appeared to be missing.

Percy noticed that Frank and Leo were having trouble and went over to help them with the grill, leaving Annabeth alone. She didn’t want to be the only one twiddling her thumbs so she figured she would go and help Rachel and Hazel.

“Need any help?” Annabeth asked them.

Hazel shook her head. “No thanks. We are pretty much done here, but we appreciate the offer.”

“Besides, not sure how much I trust you in the kitchen with a knife,” Rachel teased.

“I’m not completely hopeless. I made Percy chicken soup when he got sick, and he said it was pretty good,” Annabeth protested.

Rachel laughed and said, “You could literally make Percy drink poison, and he’d tell you it was delicious if you were the one that made it.”

Blood rushed to Annabeth’s face, making Rachel laugh even harder. She patted Annabeth’s shoulder benevolently and said, “Trust me. It’s for your own good, Chase.”

Annabeth shrugged her off and sat on one of the logs with a scowl. “Where’s Piper?”

“Rachel forgot to get her ingredients, so she had to go buy herself dinner again, the poor girl,” Hazel said.

Rachel looked repentant enough for Annabeth to feel sorry for her, so Annabeth tried to comfort her by saying, “She’s probably more than happy to have Taco Bell twice in one day.”

Annabeth started when someone swatted the back of her head. She turned and looked up with a frown to see Piper standing behind her, holding a burrito.

“Heard that, asshole.”

“You’re literally eating a burrito right now,” Annabeth muttered.

Piper’s face turned pink. “It’s from Chipotle! You can tell by the size!”

“Wow, someone’s getting adventurous,” Annabeth deadpanned.

Piper sat down at the log across from her, beside Jason, and narrowed her eyes. “Bite me.”

Annabeth was interrupted by Leo before she could respond. He skipped over to them with a manic grin and said, “We finally got the grill working!”

“You’re not gonna accidentally blow us up or anything right?” Piper asked dubiously.

“Pipes, charcoal can’t explode,” Leo said flatly. “I know you’re a vegetarian and all, but that’s literally second grade science class.”

“You can never be too sure when it comes to you,” Piper sniffed.

Leo rolled his eyes and waltzed over to Hazel and Rachel. “Looks like you’re almost done! I’ll start taking things over to the grill to get started.”

“Frank, make sure you keep an eye on him!” Hazel shouted when Leo took a plateful of meat and vegetables with him.

Rachel declared to the group that she would go find where her father had stashed his alcohol and returned a short while later with an assortment of liquor and a tray full of glasses. They all poured themselves drinks, apart from Percy, and sat around the fire.

Annabeth had helped herself to some fancy looking bourbon, mainly because she had never tried it before. Her first sip made her throat burn and forced her to cough. Percy gave her a worried look, but she ignored him and took another sip. Once she got over how strong it was, she had to admit that the bourbon was really good. It didn’t take long for that familiar warmth to spread through her body and soften the harsh edges of the world around her.

It took some time for the food to arrive, but it was well worth the wait. Frank had found an array of spices in the kitchen pantry to season the meat with, so even the smell was incredible. After an exhausting day at the beach, they all practically inhaled their food. Piper finished her food first since she had a head start and set up a smores station for dessert. It wasn’t long before they were fighting for spots to roast their marshmallows on the fire.

Later, Rachel disappeared inside the villa and returned with an acoustic guitar. She strummed a few chords and started singing softly, the sound of waves and the crackling fire providing an ambient backdrop. At first, she sang on her own and they were content to listen, but as they got more drunk and uninhibited, they would join in whenever she played a tune they recognized. Barring Frank and Piper, the rest of them were practically tone-deaf, so it sounded so bad that it would send them all into fits of laughter.

It was at times like this that Annabeth was struck by just how lucky she was to have such good friends. She didn’t have many good things in her life, but this was one of them and it wouldn’t last forever. There was no telling where they would all be in a years time or if they would ever be this close again, but that didn’t make her feel sad. Instead, an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude surged through her veins, compelling her to drink in every moment and seat it into her memory so that she would never forget.

But through it all, Annabeth found her eyes drawn to the boy sitting beside her the most. She unconsciously pulled herself closer to Percy over the course of the night and luxuriated in the way their elbows knocked together, a reminder that he was there. Annabeth would catch herself staring at him and the way the flames lit up his laughing face, making him all look every bit as invincible as she felt. At some point, she caught his hand and tangled his fingers between her own, and when he squeezed her hand, she smiled so hard it hurt.

As the night wore on, more of them left, unable to stay awake any longer, until eventually Percy and Annabeth were the only one remaining. The quietness was welcome change after all the noise they had been making, but it was hard not to fall asleep the sound of the rolling waves. Annabeth struggled to keep her drooping eyes open, but Percy looked perfectly fine, probably because he was the only one who hadn’t drank.

“You should go get some sleep,” Percy murmured. “Look like you’re gonna pass out.”

Annabeth hummed and rested her head on his shoulder. “Don’t want to.”

“If you’re expecting me to carry you, you’re going to be sorely mistaken,” Percy said, raising an eyebrow. “You’re too heavy.”

If she had the energy, Annabeth would have scowled. “Rude.”

Percy grinned and looked out over the ocean with a pensive, almost melancholy look. Annabeth poked his cheek with her finger to get him to look at her.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Percy said. “About everything, I guess.”

“Hmm, deep.”

Percy laughed and said, “Alright, smarty pants, I was thinking about the future and my friends and you.”

“Then why do you look so sad?” Annabeth asked, sitting up straighter.

Percy blinked in surprise and said, “I look sad?”

Annabeth nodded and pressed a finger to his brow. “You’re giving yourself wrinkles, like you always do when you’re upset.”

There was a pause before Percy said, “Remember earlier when you saved me from those college girls?”

“What about it?”

Percy stared up at the sky and smiled bitterly. “I never imagined you would ever get jealous over me.”

Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but Annabeth found herself saying, “Neither did I.”

Percy turned to her with wide eyes, making her frown. “What?”

“I, uh, wasn’t expecting you to answer seriously.”

Annabeth rolled her eyes and nudged him affectionately. “I’m taking this seriously because you are.”

Percy smiled softly and said, “Thanks, I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome, you dork,” Annabeth said fondly. “Honestly, since when did you become the serious, responsible out of the two of us. What ever happened to the kid that caught frogs during recess and put worms in Nancy Bobofit’s locker?”

Percy laughed and said, “Well, one of us had to grow up, so I figured it might as well be me.”

Annabeth half-heartedly jabbed him with her elbow. “Jerk.”

“You’ve grown up a lot too,” Percy said. “You just don’t realize it.”

“Yeah, how so?” Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow.

“You’ve learned to temper yourself. When you were younger, it was like fire ran through your veins. You acted like the world and everything were promised to you, not out of some sense of arrogance, but like it was your birthright. I remember how you used to argue with the teachers and stuff in front of the whole class because it never occurred to you that there were people you shouldn’t pick fights with. I was always kind of in of awe of how stupidly brave you were. I still am,” Percy said, softly.

A lump formed in Annabeth’s throat. Percy was right, about everything, but that wasn’t what was getting to her. It was the fact that his words were a testament to the fact that he had been there with her since the beginning. He had seen her as a bossy, bratty little seven year old and had stuck by her side all the way till now.

“We have been through a lot together, haven’t we?” Annabeth asked thickly.

The tender look in Percy’s eyes made her heart squeeze a little in her chest. “Yeah, we have.”

Annabeth screwed her eyes shut, unable to look at him. She didn’t want this to end, but the moment was beginning to get too much for her, so she stood up suddenly.

“Alright, enough with all the sappiness,” Annabeth said. “Race you to the beach?”

Without waiting for him to respond, Annabeth took off for the water’s edge, running as hard as she could. Percy started a moment later, humoring her like always, and quickly made up the distance. If it wasn’t for the sand and the fact that she was super drunk, Annabeth would have won, but it wasn’t long before Percy caught up to her and slung her over his shoulder. Annabeth shrieked and pounded on his back.

“You better not dump me in the water, you asshole!” Annabeth yelled.

Percy ignored her and sped towards the water, making her fear for the worst. She braced herself for impact, but it never came. Instead, he set her down onto dry sand and grinned down at her. Annabeth scowled and stood up, dusting the sand off her shorts, watching as he rolled up his shorts and waded further into the water. The encroaching tide was cold enough to make her jump when it tickled her toes, but Percy seemed perfectly fine going knee deep into it.

The moonlight streamed down on him, illuminating half his face with its pale glow. Wind rustled his hair and billowed through his clothes as he stared out at the horizon. Under the moonlight, he seemed to age backwards and actually look his eighteen years - the hard lines of worry on his brow smoothened, and the tightness and frustration in his jaws released. There was something about his pale figure standing in the inky sea that made him look so beautiful and true that it made it hard for her to breathe. It reminded her of how Piper had said she had fallen for Jason, how he had seemed to glow, and she couldn’t help feeling like she understood exactly what Piper had meant.

Percy noticed her looking and raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Annabeth balled her hands into fists at her side. She wasn’t ready to say it. Not yet. “N-Nothing.”

Percy didn’t look convinced, but he shrugged all the same. Annabeth stared down at her feet so that she wouldn’t be forced to look at him, but her heart pounded in her chest urgently. She started when Percy draped his sweatshirt over her shoulders and stepped past her. It was warm, and it smelled like him.

“I’m gonna head inside,” Percy said softly. “Don’t stay out for too long, okay?”

Annabeth nodded, not trusting herself to speak. Percy lingered there for a moment longer before leaving. Annabeth waited till she heard him enter the villa before she collapsed down on the sand and hugged her knees to her chest. An explanation for her actions and feelings today were finally starting to dawn on her, which sent equal parts terror and exhilaration coursing through her as she stared up at the moon. Her inability to look at him conflicting with her desire never to leave him, the nervousness and exhilaration, the jealousy - all of it pointed to one thing. She was just having a hard time accepting it.

Whenever Annabeth had imagined falling in love, she had expected it to strike her like a bolt of lightning, illuminating her with a sudden, arresting, all-consuming knowledge.

She hadn’t ever imagined that it would be like this: soft and gentle, like an unfolding discovery, the way the petals unfurled when a flower bloomed. And yet, just as sure, just as certain.

Annabeth buried her face in her hands. Try as she might, she couldn’t deny it any longer.

Fuck.

She was in love with him, wasn’t she? She was in love with Percy Jackson.

[beewolfwrites]

And When I am Formulated, Sprawling on a Pin - Chapter Twenty-Four: And the Rest is Silence

And this is it: the final chapter! It’s been insane, but this is the only fanfiction I've ever finished before, and it wouldn’t have happened without all the support. Thank you so much!! I didn’t think anyone would read this, but seeing everyone’s reactions to each chapter has kept me going :D

I’m sorry for the essay, but I’m aware I didn’t post anything about this in the AIB tag. Yes, there will be a sequel!

I need to read the manga properly before writing it, so I don’t know when the sequel will start. But in the meantime, there’ll be a series of Chishiya one-shots of his perspective, and there’ll even be scenes that weren’t in this fic, plus an original game!

For the full fanfic, you can find it here on AO3. 

I’ll also be creating a master list, and I'll post the literature references after this for those who wanted them <3

Once again, thank you so much!! And I hope you enjoy this last chapter. 

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

By the time Kuina found us again, it was already late afternoon, and even though our visas had extended by ten days after the Witch Hunt game, there was something about the setting of the sun that felt foreboding.

We lit up the furniture shop with candles and changed into the clean clothes we’d collected. Seeing Chishiya wearing ordinary clothes felt strange. Aside from when we’d crossed paths in the Tag game, the entire time I’d known him he’d been wearing swim shorts and flip flops.

Now, he emerged from the bathroom wearing grey sweatpants and a variegated blue cardigan that suited him perfectly. When his eyes flickered to mine, I realised I’d been staring, and distracted myself with preparing dinner instead. It wasn’t much, especially since all I had was canned goods and a camping stove, but the vegetable stew kept us warm while we curled up in our makeshift living room. As evening turned to night, however, it became obvious that something was missing.

There are no games.

Kuina chewed on her lip, looking out of the window. ‘What d’you think will happen when our visas run out?’

‘It probably has something to do with the Ten of Hearts,’ I told her. ‘Maybe there’s no need for games anymore, since we’ve got all the numbered cards.’

It didn’t bode well for us. If there were no games by the time our visas ran out, there was no chance of us getting out of the Borderlands. At least not alive.

As the night wore on, Kuina was the first to go upstairs. Covering her yawn with her hand, she waved goodnight and winked at me. I tried not to blush. Not that it made a difference, anyway. Chishiya was busying himself over a scrap of paper, and barely reacted when I smushed up by his side.

I frowned at the paper in his hand. ‘Isn’t that...’

‘Ah.’ He held it out so I could see it. ‘I took it from the tagger’s pocket.’ It was a drawing of a circle with squiggly lines, clearly a rushed sketch of something. In the middle of a line, the pen had stabbed a hole straight through.

‘What is it?’

‘Well, I have an idea,’ he said, but never elaborated.

Fighting the onset of sleep, I leaned my head against his shoulder, paying no mind to the way he tensed beneath me. The fabric of his cardigan was soft as down and made for a perfect pillow. ‘Aren’t you going to tell me?’

‘And if I don’t want to?’

I pushed my face into the fabric, pretending to settle in for the night. ‘Then I’ll just stay here and annoy you until your visa runs out.’

‘I have a feeling that won’t happen any time soon,’ he said, looking out the window.

And that was when I noticed it too. Midnight had passed by only a few minutes ago, yet there were no lasers. Did that mean the Borderlands were at a standstill? Were we stuck here permanently now? I wasn’t aware of how silent I had become, lost in my own thoughts, until Chishiya spoke up.

‘I believe it’s a map.’

My eyes slid to the drawing again. ‘And that hole in the paper, do you think that’s where the others are? The dealers, I mean.’

He shifted uncomfortably and I sat upright, conscious that I might have been unintentionally hurting or bothering him. Looking at the map properly, the lines could represent different interlocking pathways. If the marked place was a hideout of some kind, it couldn’t be in the open streets; there was too big a risk that a player might stumble upon it by accident.

So where...?

As soon as the idea came to mind, the words slipped out of my mouth. ‘The subway....’

He hummed in agreement. ‘I went to the nearest subway station this morning to check it against the real map. It’s a loose fit, but it works.’

I thought back to the second tagger – the crying woman – and how she’d been forced to participate in the game, donning an explosive collar. ‘Maybe if we find the place, we’ll get some answers.’

‘Probably,’ he said. ‘But I’m curious to see if anything changes within the next few days.’

‘Do you think we’ll hear something soon?’ I asked, yawning into my hand.

‘I believe we will.’ He gave me that same half-smile I had grown so used to. ‘But right now, I think you should go to sleep.’

Chishiya didn’t complain when I crawled into his bed. Like the night before, he kept his distance, but I could’ve sworn at times, when my sleeping became lighter throughout the night, I could feel fingers lightly touching my hair, only to pull back the moment I stirred. Over the next few days, it became the norm, and every night I would curl up on my side of the bed, slipping into calm dreams under the blue light of the window.

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

Despite the sunshine washing over the grey of the city, the stairs leading into Minami-Aoyama station descended into darkness. We’d checked and double-checked the drawing against the official subway map several times, but the idea of entering an abandoned station to uncover who knows what wasn’t inviting.

‘Are you sure this is it?’ Kuina asked for the third time.

I looked at the route map hanging over the station entrance, my eyes tracing the shape of the lines. ‘Positive.’

Folding her arms, Kuina went first. I waited for Chishiya to take a small torch from his pocket before following behind. The station was truly submerged in blackness, and if not for Chishiya’s torch, we would have easily become lost. He shone the beam at the paper in his hand, then held it up against each train line.

‘This way,’ he said, and walked towards the edge of the platform.

We hopped down onto the gravel below, using the metal tracks to guide us further into the tunnels. It was disconcerting to see the subway so empty, but with Kuina and Chishiya here, I felt safe somehow.

Several minutes in, Chishiya stopped abruptly, and I almost walked into him. If he reacted at all, I couldn’t see to tell. But he seemed more focused on something else, as he pointed the torch at a door that had been busted open.

‘That must be it.’ Kuina’s voice echoed.  

Without hesitation, Chishiya disappeared through the door, leaving Kuina and I in the darkness.

Chishiya?!

I panicked, arms waving as I tried to find something to hold onto. I heard Kuina hiss as we stumbled into each other and bumped elbows. Feeling around for the door frame, we managed to make our way inside, where Chishiya held his torch at us from further away.

‘Hey!’ Kuina snapped. ‘Don’t do that again! You’re the only one with a light here.’

‘Walk faster then,’ he said, waiting impatiently as we jogged over.

He shone the beam in the opposite direction, where it bounced off something. It was still too dark to tell just what, but as we walked forwards, everything became clearer. A structure lay ahead, with tunnels and walkways all leading into a giant room. Overhead, wires were strung across the ceiling, all feeding into the same place. We entered through one of the tunnels, and my heart jumped.

Televisions. They stared, black and empty, in rows and columns up the walls. But what was even more surprising was the setup right in front of us. It was an office, with papers, pen pots and coffee-stained mugs strewn about on desks. It would have looked like any other workplace, if not for the bodies draped in chairs and across the floor.

‘What... is this?’ I crouched to inspect the body of a man in a suit. Judging from its state, he had only died recently, but more importantly, there was a singed hole running through his head. He had been killed by a laser. ‘They’re not the ones in charge of the games.’

Chishiya closely inspected a desk. ‘Evidently not,’ he said, picking up a folded piece of paper and passing it to me. It was filled with numbers, some ticked off. Whoever it had belonged to was keeping track of their visa.

They’re playing games too, I thought. Or at least, they were.

‘So, these guys were the dealers.’ Kuina gingerly held up a sheet of paper with scribbles all over it. Upon closer inspection, they appeared to be odds. ‘They were betting on us,’ she said.  

A shiver ran along my skin. Of course, they had been watching us this whole time, that was expected. But to place bets on our survival was a whole other story. If the dealers were playing too, there must’ve been a separate system for them to extend their days. Perhaps how many people survived each game had some kind of impact on their visas.

A finger lightly brushed the back of my arm and Chishiya appeared beside me. ‘Momoka’s friend,’ I said, ‘she died right after she told everyone she was a dealer. And the taggers died because we won. I have a feeling their visas depended on whether or not we cleared each game... or maybe how many people didn’t make it.’

From his expression, I knew he had been thinking the same thing. ‘It doesn’t explain why they’re all dead now.’

I glanced around at the stiffened bodies slumped around us. ‘Actually, I have a bad feeling about that too.’

At that moment, a tap of footsteps echoed from the entrance. Chishiya instantly turned off his torch and tugged me into one of the tunnels. Kuina joined us and we hid, waiting. The footsteps grew louder, closer, and two torchlights waved through the darkness. I kept my eyes trained on the tunnel opposite as the footsteps paused.

‘Where is this place?’  

‘Who knows?’

With a sigh, I relaxed instantly.

Those two.

It had only been a few days since I had made peace with Arisu and Usagi, but I was glad to see them again. Arisu was cleaned up, his wounds well on the way to healing, while Usagi stared in amazement at the television screens around us.

Chishiya grazed past me as he moved out from under the shadows. ‘You actually found this place,’ he said. ‘As expected from someone I have high hopes for.’  

‘We meet again,’ Kuina said, walking around the desks to lean against the wall.

Arisu and Usagi’s eyes scanned the two of them before stopping at me. They looked visibly confused, probably wondering what I was doing with them after I’d told them I wasn’t involved in Chishiya’s setup. In an attempt at diffusing the awkwardness, I smiled and waved.

‘You guys,’ Usagi whispered. Her voice bordered on distrust, not that anyone could blame her.

I couldn’t tell whether Chishiya was trying to make things better or worse when he held up the full deck of cards and smiled. ‘Thanks to you guys, I have all the playing cards with me,’ he said. ‘Thank you.’

Arisu only looked at him cynically. ‘How did you discover this place?’

Chishiya rooted in his pocket and pulled out the drawing. ‘It took me some time to realise this is actually a map. The route map of the subway.’ He sauntered around the desks. ‘As for what happens when we collect the cards... I thought I would know the answer if I came here.’ His eyes jumped to mine. ‘But there��s something else we discovered instead.’

‘They’re not the gamemasters,’ Arisu said, eyes fixed on the bodies around us.

I stepped over a hand strewn across the floor. ‘カードを集めたので、殺された.’ Because we collected the cards, they were all killed. I struggled for a moment, trying to think of the right words. ‘There must be someone above them.’

Chishiya translated, and Usagi turned to me with worry. ‘But who?’

‘Who knows?’ Chishiya shrugged. ‘They might be aliens... or even God.’

The idea didn’t sound as strange as it should have done. We were in a world where lasers appeared from the sky, and death games were the norm. Even when I first arrived here, I’d wondered whether this was a form of judgement. Nothing was out of the question anymore.

Suddenly, the screens burst into life and white light flooded the room. I jumped, flocking to Chishiya and Kuina’s side.

Have we been caught?

Music reverberated all around us, and the screens displayed all four card suits, along with a message I couldn’t read. It didn’t matter though, as the voice that rang through the speakers was one I remembered well. My stomach dropped.

‘Congratulations to all players!’

The screens blurred until Mira’s wild eyes and subdued smile came into focus. It was now obvious why the Ten of Hearts had taken place at the Beach at the very moment things had fallen apart.

She must’ve been feeding information back, I thought. But back to where?

‘How interesting,’ Chishiya said. Seeking stability, I slipped a hand into his pocket. There was a slight hesitation before his fingers laced around mine.

Mira’s voice shook with a quiet excitement. ‘With the exception of the face cards, you’ve all cleared the numbered games and emerged as victors. It’s a sweet victory, gained by sacrificing so many lives.’ Her expression turned wistful as she stood. ‘I wonder, how many of your comrades have died. Try remembering those who were shot dead with guns.’

A single screen switched to show footage from a miscellaneous game. A group were stood, clutching their guns as they inspected the scatter of bodies across the ground.

They’ve been recording us.

‘And that girl you burned alive.’

A second display opened up, revealing several players watching on as a girl, engulfed in flames, struggled and clawed at her skin and clothes. I held my breath, Niragi’s animalistic cries ringing through my memory.

‘Those struck by lasers, and those that drowned.’

My eyes widened, and I gripped Chishiya’s hand as the inside of the furniture store appeared on-screen. The fractured image of myself flinched, quivering with shock, as the first man and Green Shirt leapt from their seats, only to crumple to the ground, lasers piercing them where they stood.

Chishiya’s fingers squeezed mine, and I gasped, blinking away the image. He must’ve seen it too.

‘Those who’s heads were blown off,’ Mira continued, dreamily. ‘Those comrades of yours, the despair you’ve felt so far, and those dying moments you’ll never forget.’

The screen changed once more, and from the corner of my eye, Arisu winced. Following his gaze, I recognized his partner from the Tag game, his neck exploding around a collar.

I’m so sorry....

Meanwhile, Mira’s expression shifted into pure, childlike delight. ‘Everyone... I’m so touched!’ She held her hand over her heart. ‘All of you players, we’d like to give you a present.’

We?

Chishiya tensed slightly. He had noticed it too. If Mira wasn’t the only gamemaster, just who were the others?

Although Mira couldn’t hear us, Kuina mumbled, ‘Are you returning us to the real world?’

It seemed too good to be true, and sure enough, it was. Mira clapped her hands together excitedly. ‘There will be new games! Let’s play more games together and fight for the face cards this time!’

Aside from Chishiya, everyone sank with disappointment and fear. Just how much more would we have to deal with before we could go home? If we were competing for the face cards, did that mean there were only twelve more games in total, or would there be repeat cards like there were for the numbered ones?

Kuina groaned. ‘New games? You’re kidding.’

‘I don’t dislike the idea,’ Chishiya murmured.

I looked at him, curious. ‘What do you mean?’

His expression was guarded, but before he could reply, Mira’s voice cut in again. ‘The next stage will commence tomorrow at noon. Everyone, let’s have fun together!’

All at once, the screens shut down, leaving us all in the darkness once more. Everything was quiet as we came to terms with what had just happened. It was Arisu who first suggested that we get out of here. Him and Usagi disappeared back through the tunnel, and with one glance at Chishiya and I, Kuina followed.

My fingers were still interlaced with his, hidden within the warmth of his pocket. He was watching me, waiting.

‘These games,’ I said. ‘They’re going to be harder than the others.’

He was silent for a moment. ‘Probably.’

‘About what you said before...’ I began. ‘Do you remember that time on the rooftop of the Beach, when I asked you if you were okay, and you told me it shouldn’t matter to me.’

I could see him thinking back. ‘I remember.’

‘What I said then still stands. You might not care about your own life, and I can’t stop you from taking part in these new games.’ I bit my lip, unable to face him as my eyes began tearing up. ‘Perhaps this is selfish of me, but you need to survive. And if you can’t do it for yourself, then....’

He sighed. ‘You cry too much.’ When I looked up, his lips were curled into that same, familiar smile, only this time, there was nothing cruel or condescending there. ‘We should find the others.’

Wiping my eyes with the edge of my sleeve, I finally let go of his hand, following him back out and through the tunnels. As we climbed the steps of the station, emerging into daylight, a series of loud bangs resounded throughout the city. The others were peering up at the skyscrapers towering over us, and the fireworks that burst like flowers against the sunlight.

‘Let’s make a new deal,’ Chishiya said, idly watching the display. ‘I’ll survive, if you return the favour.’

I looked to him, admiring the way his hair shifted in the breeze, and how the reflection of the fireworks danced in his dark eyes.

Let’s go home together.

‘It’s a deal.’

[thiswasinevitableid]

76. it’s my birthday and you just fucking ruined my party and I don’t even know you

Danbrey, sfw or nsfw, please!

Here you go! I went SFW on this one

“Wow, dude, this is so fancy.” Jake takes in the dining room of Yosemite Lodge, “look, napkins!”

“Jake, we have cloth napkins back home.” Dani smiles fondly; while she’s more interested in the location and the decor, she agrees with her brothers overall enthusiasm.

The rest of Amnesty Lodge, where Dani lives and works, pooled their resources to surprise her with a weekend trip to Yosemite for her twenty-fifth birthday. She would have been happy camping, but they even went to the trouble of booking rooms in the main lodge and scheduling her a birthday dinner in the restaurant that looks out onto the valley.

Mama whistles at the menu from her seat at the head of the table, “damn, this is a good lookin dinner.”

Dani picks up the single sheet of paper, the silver writing informing her the meal with consist of a summer salad, shrimp scampie, and a strawberry rhubarb tart for dessert. When she glances across the table, Barclay is smiling down into his water glass.

“Oh my god, did you request a specific menu just for me?”

Her friend nods, blushing a little, “Head chef is an old friend from my line cook days.”

“Aw, you guys.” She sips the fancy cider Barclay ordered for the table, “you didn’t have to do all this.”

“You ain’t had a real party in years; seemed time to fix that.” Mama’s about to say something else when the fire alarm blares through the room and a server asks that everyone please exit through the side doors into the courtyard.

“Probably just a false alarm.” Barclay leans against a decorative rock.

“Uh, dudes? I smell smoke.”

Dani cranes her neck, tracks the path of the curling smoke through the lights from the windows to the main meeting room on the bottom floor of the hotel. A woman about her age, dressed entirely in red and black with, “The Lady Flame” emblazoned on her sparkly jacket, is talking and gesturing rapidly with disgruntled staff.

Two minutes later, the same woman steps onto the lawn with a sheepish smile.

“Hi everyone! It’s safe to go back in now. I, um, there was a tiny accident with some flashpaper. I think. Anyway, point is, I’m super sorry and there’s no more fire so please come enjoy my show. Oh, but, um, we have to move to the dining room due to some, um, ash.”

Just as she says this, one of the servers whispers in Barclays ear.

“Fuck. Sorry gang, sounds like we gotta postpone until tomorrow; whatever party booked ms fireball over there is gonna take up the whole restaurant.”

Dani sighs, resigning herself to a night of vending machine dinner as they head back inside. Then a hand settles on her arm and she’s locking eyes with the person who just ruined her evening.

“Hey, I always ask the cutest girl in the audience to be my assistant for the next bit. Do you want to-”

She pulls her arm away, “Yeah, hard pass, I’m not in whatever group decided to book you. I’m the person who’s birthday is getting turfed for your party.”

The magician cringes, “EEsh, I’m so sorry, I’ll, um, I’ll just.” She steps back, eyes glued to her black boots. As Dani continues into the lodge, she swears she hears the same voice go, “aw beans.”

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

The spring sunshine feels perfect, the breeze is gentle, and there are literal bluebirds calling around her. Dani feels like a dang disney princess as she naps on a rock near one of the meadows.

Something--a chipmunk, she assumes--munches the grass below her.

“Dr Harris Bonkers, no! This is a national park and I’m not letting my only son go to jail for vandalism.”

Dani rolls onto her side in time to see the magician from last night scooping a massive, orange rabbit from the ground. When she straightens enough to notice she’s not alone, the woman freezes.

“Um. Hi. Again.”

“Hi.” Not feeling like rehashing last night, she studies the rabbit, “should he really be running around out here?”

“Not even remotely. He was supposed to stay in my room, but he gnawed his way out of his carrier, hopped onto the windowsill, and decided to bounce when he saw all the plants out here.” She cautiously sits on the edge of the rock, rabbit in her lap, “I really am sorry about last night. I never used to have problems during my shows, but lately it’s like my flashpaper has a freaking mind of its own. I was kinda hoping it wouldn’t screw with anybody’s plans but mine.”

“It’s fine.” Dani shrugs, “we’re just going to do a dinner re-do tonight.”

The woman bites a matte black lip, “Could I, um, make it up to you?”

“How?”

“Well, it’s your birthday, right? You’re supposed to spend your birthday doing things you like, so I could, like, keep you company while you do them?”

It would be nice to have a hiking buddy. Mama is taking a well-deserved nap, Barclay is off for a swim, and Jake found some rock climbers to hang with. And while the Lady Flame looked good last night, today she’s downright gorgeous. The dyed-red streaks in her curly, black hair, the freckles, black shorts that make her butt look incredible, all of it adds up to someone Dani wouldn’t mind spending the day with.

“Do you have shoes you can hike in?”

She kicks up one leg, showing off her Doc Martens, “I once walked five miles in these with no problems.”

“Great. Let’s get the doctor” she rubs the rabbit’s ears, “somewhere safe and get on the trail.”

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

The hike’s only three and a half miles, but it’s taking them a long time to complete it. Not because they’re slow, but because Aubrey (as the Lady Flame calls herself) keeps stopping to look at or point out any interesting thing that catches her eye. It’s adorable.

Dani likes when she points out plants, because then she can show off a little.

“Dang, you really know your plants.” Aubrey stoops to take a picture of some Scarlet Monkeyflower.

“I run the teaching garden out back of the Lodge. Uh, Amnesty Lodge, where I live, not this one.”

“Coooool. I keep thinking about making Dr. Harris Boners a little garden when I finally find a place to stay put for awhile, but everything is always about how to keep bunnies out of your garden.”

“I mean, they can really trash it if you’re not careful.”

“I believe it, Dr. Harris Bonkers can take out a whole patch of rug in, like, ten minutes.”

“Herbs would probably be okay, clover too. I guess it depends on how much space you have.”

“Probably not much” Aubrey holds out a hand to help her across a creek, “traveling magicians don’t make much.”

Their talk turns to Aubrey’s life on the road, and her various misadventures trying to transport a fifteen pound rabbit on public transit. When they reach the waterfall that marks the trails end, they slip off their shoes and socks to dip their feet in the nearby pond, shoulders touching as they compare notes on growing up in sometimes stressful family situations.

It’s well after lunchtime when they get back, so they sit in the meadow and split a bag of chips, shooing away several overly ambitious squirrels. Mama joins them for a bit, and Dani smiles when she notices how quickly the older woman takes to Aubrey. Mama can never turn down a stray.

Dani’s already scheming for how to spend the last day of her vacation with Aubrey when the magician turns down her invitation to dinner. She’s a little disappointed, but Aubrey promises she’ll see her later.

Her birthday dinner redux is halfway into its second course when the lights at the front of the room brighten and the ones above her dim.

“And now, as an added, surprise treat for this evening's meal, the magnificent Lady Flame is here to dazzle you all with her astounding feats of magic!” The server at the edge of the room gives a thumbs up and Aubrey bounds into view, smile glittering brighter than her outfit.

To Dani’s delight, Aubrey is an amazing magician; her tricks are interesting, her patter is the same funny, energetic pace that their conversations were this afternoon, and her assistant is adorable. When she declares she needs a volunteer for her next trick, she’s holding her hand out to Dani before anyone else can raise theirs.

The trick turns out to be picking cards and showing them to the audience, though Dani notices Aubrey devotes as much sleight of hand to brushing their fingers together as she does to her act.

“And now, esteemed audience, I will produce a flower from my lovely assistant's hair!”

Dani smiles, then claps along with everyone else as Aubrey produces a spring of Larkspur from thin air. Literally, Dani cannot for the life of her tell where she was hiding it. Or how she was able to get what Dani said was her favorite flower on such short notice.

Aubrey finishes up her act (and doesn’t set anything on fire) to thunderous applause, and Dani spots Mama leaning over to whisper something to Barclay, who nods thoughtfully. It’s only after the magician has taken her last bow that Dani has a horrible realization; Aubrey went to all that trouble to make her birthday dinner memorable, and she didn’t get to eat any of it.

Her white sandals sink into the carpet as she carries a plate down to Aubrey’s room. When her new friend opens the door, she’s between worlds; sparkly jacket on top, red pajama pants on the bottom.

“I brought you some cake. Or, uh, I guess it’s a tart.” She holds out the plate and Aubrey takes it, cheeks going pink, “since you didn’t get the rest of the dinner.”

“Thanks” Aubrey steps back so Dani can join her in the room, “it’s chill that I didn’t get to join you all; I wanted to make up for ruining your dinner last night.”

“You already did way more than that. Aubrey, this was the nicest day I’ve had in months, and most of that is because I got to spend it with you.”

“I dunno, feel weird getting cake from a thing I crashed.” Aubrey is fidgeting with her bracelets, blushing harder every time she looks up and finds Dani still smiling at her.

“Can I give you something else instead?” Dani takes a half-step forward.

“Sure! What-” Aubrey’s words fade into a little sigh as Dani wraps her arms over her shoulders. Then her back bumps into the nightstand as Aubrey throws herself into a kiss.

“Hey” Dani teases, nibbling her ear as Aubrey holds her tighter, “you messed up my big reveal.”

“Aw dang, guess I’ll have to make it up to you.” Aubrey slips her hands down to the small of her back, “how does even more making out sound?”

Dani pulls her towards the bed, heart buzzing with warmth at the sight of her smile and the touch of her hands, “like the best birthday gift ever.”

[classic80sand90smovieloves2]

Meeting and Dating Jason Voorhees

(Not my gif)(Requested by @fandoms-are-my-friends-1321​)

(I’m sorry that the meeting part is so long but granted, the start of your relationship with a slasher is going to take a while.)

- You first met Jason when you were little and attending Camp Crystal Lake. You were a few years younger than him; and a girl, so you weren’t around him much, especially since his mother tried to keep him away from the other kids as much as she could.

- Even so, you would occasionally see him around the camp, specifically being bullied around the camp, and felt sorry for him. Anytime you saw him, you tried your best to be nice and make him feel welcome. You still remember how awful you felt upon hearing that he drowned. But you were young, years passed and you slowly forgot about him.

- When you were older, you bought a cabin near the lake, wanting to have a break from people. The whole week after you moved in, you felt like someone was watching you. You figured you were just paranoid since you were alone up there. Unbeknownst to you, you were being watched.

- Everything came to a head the second week that you were living there. It was late and you were walking home from the lake. A part of you knew that it was a stupid idea to have stayed out so long but you rationalized that no one was up there with you, you’d be alone and the most that would happen is you would run into an animal on the beaten path.

- A little ways into your walk, you could hear the sound of something nearing you. You ignored it for a while until you were sure that it was there and could hear that it had gotten very close. It sounded big, so like a rational person, without thinking, you began to run.

- At most you thought it was a wolf, maybe a bear, but your assumptions were proven false as you were gripped from behind and thrown to the forest floor. When you opened your eyes, you could see the person who had attacked you; a big man in a hockey mask.

- Letting out a shriek, you fought your way from him, managing to escape his grasp enough to take off running again. You could hear him following after you as you reached your home, slamming and locking the door behind you, though it did little to stop him.

- It seemed as though he struck down your door in seconds, pursuing you even further into the cabin until you reached the living room. You were backed against the wall as he raised his arm to slash at you, that was when he noticed the photos framed on the wall behind you.

- He froze, there was something so similar about the little girl in the pictures, obviously they were you, but who were you? In an instant, his memories came flooding back, the little girl at camp, the one person who was nice to him, his first and only crush as a child.

- You stood still, terrified to even move until his arm lowered and his other hand came up. You winced as it approached you, snapping your eyes shut until you noticed that he hadn’t touched you. Upon opening them again, you saw that he had tore a frame off the wall and was looking down at it. You thought that perhaps this was your chance and quietly spoke.

“That’s me. In the picture, I mean. I was seven there.” He didn’t look at you for a long while before he glanced in your direction, heaving a deep breath.

- A wave of fear coursed through you but he didn’t move any closer. Instead, he dropped the frame on a table nearby, hesitated for a moment, and then walked out of your home. You made sure he was gone before calling the police. They combed the area but could find nothing of the man. Inexplicably, your mind flashed back to your time at camp. The boy who drowned; he was never found either.

- Still shaken up, you went into town and stayed at an inn for the night. In the morning, you went to the library and searched through their archives, trying to find out more about the area in an attempt to figure out what had happened. 

- A part of you began to believe that the masked figure was Jason. He was the proper age, seemingly knew the area well, and his body was never found. It seemed like a ridiculous idea but was it completely implausible? 

- Having bought the cabin; and having nowhere else to go, you had to return home at some point. He was gone, right? So you made the trip back and tried to put the encounter out of your mind. Even so, every now and again you could swear that you saw him; always in your peripheral or in something's reflection. 

- A day or so later, you found that the tires on your car were slashed. The situation confused you, why would he slash your tires yet leave you completely unharmed. What was the point of keeping you alive if he wanted you dead, he didn’t seem like the type who wanted to scare you before he finished you off. Deep down, some part of you knows that; for whatever reason, he doesn’t want you to leave. 

- It was some time later that you encountered him again. You were swimming in the lake when you felt eyes on you. As you looked around, you could see him standing at the tree line. He just... stood there, saying nothing, still as could be. 

- Were you scared? Yes, but you were also curious. This whole charade had to end at some point, right? Why not now? Seeing that he was empty handed, you stood in the water and slowly made your way over to him. He let you approach him until you stopped just a few feet away on your own accord. 

“You’re Jason, aren't you?” You asked tentatively, quietly. He said nothing. “I thought you were dead. We all did. I saw you.... How?”

Still, there was no reply and for the first time, you remembered that he couldn’t speak. So you asked a simple question, one that he could answer without his voice and one that could potentially ease your nerves. “Do you want to kill me?”

- He didn’t reply at first, looking at you for a long moment. You could see his eyes locked on your face from behind his mask. Then, silently, he slowly shook his head. 

- You see him more after that; he doesn’t hide as much though he still keeps his distance. A part of you knows that you should probably be wary, try to escape or call the cops or something. But another part of you tells yourself that if he wanted to hurt you, he could have already, and he probably would be carrying a weapon with him.

- The only times that he actually got close to you was when you tried to go into town, he’d appear quietly behind you, your face level with his chest, blocking you from going anywhere until he made sure you only had your purse with you. He didn’t want you leaving him; escaping, he liked you too much.

- Over time, you’re feelings of empathy got the best of you. His mother; his one true friend, was dead, he was alone in the world and alive when he should have been dead himself; he had no one, nothing. So after debating with yourself about it all day, you made your way over to him when he appeared and invited him inside your home. 

- You supposed you were more lonely than you expected since; after a few minutes of hesitance and awkwardness, you began to talk to him... and then talk some more and more until finally you realized you were recounting half your life to the masked killer. Trailing off, you apologized and asked if he was hungry. 

- Over the next few months, you started to interact with him more and more. It was normal for the two of you to spend time together and soon enough, you genuinely begun to enjoy his company. 

- Your relationship will definitely be a slowburn; I mean, it is Jason we’re talking about. So it could be a full year before anything of value happens between you. And when something does happen, it happens slowly as well. 

- After some time, you realize that there’s more to your feelings for the man and though it may not be the greatest crush you’ve ever had, you can’t deny that it’s there. So you decide to confess. You tell him that you like him, a lot, and ask if there’s any way that the two of you can be together.

- In response, he stays very still for a long moment before reaching out, stroking your face and hair, and clumsily pulling you into his arms. 

- You don’t exactly have dates so you don’t really have a first date, and you’re not sure if your first kiss even counts. It’s a quiet night, the two of you are sat beside each other on your front porch and you have the inexplicable urge to kiss him, even though you know he won’t even let you see what's underneath his mask. 

- Not knowing what else to do, you lean over, place a gentle hand on the back of his head and press your lips to his mask. He stiffens but lets you and moves just a bit closer to you once you’ve pulled away. It’s certainly not the most conventional relationship you’ve ever been in but you can’t say that you regret being in it. 

- The two of you have gone out in public together like five whole times so pda is a difficult thing to explain. He occasionally holds on to you but more often than not he’ll make a quick escape as people start to show up around you.

- He tends to keep a bit of a distance between the two of you, mainly because he isn’t sure of what he should do with you. He’s never had a relationship before so this entire experience is new to him. 

- He’s so not used to human affection anymore. It’s been a very long time since he’s interacted with anyone so he’s going to have to learn how to accept it again. He goes still and cherishes every touch you give him though; for a while, he’s going to be internally panicking the entire time. 

- If the two of you are going to be together, you’ll have to be innocent(at least on the outside) and kind; someone his mother would approve of since; even in death, she’s still affecting his decisions.

- He tries to be very gentle with you, not wanting to hurt you in any way, especially on accident. You feel like a little china doll with the way he holds and touches you. 

- Jason has never been kissed …but he deserves to be!!! He lets you kiss his mask without hesitation but is apprehensive when letting you see what's underneath. He may yearn to kiss you but he isn’t sure if he should since he’s completely inexperienced and; in his eyes, physically grotesque. 

- You make him nervous. Jason’s never really had any friends besides his mother and he’s certainly never had female company that he’s found attractive(and that's actually liked him) so being around you has an effect on him. 

- He likes listening to you talk. You could be rambling about nothing at all and he’ll still want to hear it. Most of the time, you’ll assume he isn’t even listening but then he’ll look at you once you’ve stopped, nod his head at something, or let out a noise that's the equivalent of a laugh for him; and you’ll realize he’s actually been listening the entire time. 

- Learning how to communicate with him. 

- Going on weekly runs to get all the supplies that the two of you will need. 

- Patching him up when he gets injured. You know that he heals himself but you still feel the need to do something about it. 

- Even though he has a really high pain tolerance, you still wince for him every time he gets hurt. He finds it sort of touching that you care or at least show empathy towards him, it’s also amusing in a way. 

- Receiving little gifts. Flowers, rocks, feathers, …bones. He sometimes steals things from his victims that he thinks you’ll like. You don’t ask where he gets his “proper” gifts from. 

- He’s honestly a big fan of pets/animals and; weirdly enough, they love him too. Doesn’t matter if you have a dog, cat, bunny, bird, or hamster; he’ll like them and they’ll like him.

- You once gifted him a teddy bear, mainly as a joke, but he genuinely adores it. It stays in his little shack where he can hold it when he’s away from you.

- Under all that murder, he’s really just sweet boy. You’re respected, cared for, and loved at all times. 

- Would you not fawn over him? Would you not act like a doting, proud mother as he stands there menacingly? Would you not boast about him over the phone as he sits and eats at your kitchen table? Don’t lie to me. 

- Whenever you compliment him, he sort of just stares at you for a long moment before going back to what he was doing. He doesn’t know how to respond and hearing your praise makes him flustered.

- You’re gonna have to take care of him a little. While he can, in theory, take care of himself and live on his own; if you call consuming foraged berries, squirrels and lake water living, you’ll have to provide him with a few essential's if you want to see him thrive. He likes being looked after anyways; it reminds him of when he was little. 

- Either learning how to sew or buying him new clothes every week. He most likely tries to assure you that its fine but only having like 60 percent of a shirt doesn’t seem very fine to you.

- Cooking for him. Don’t worry if you’re a bad cook, Jason could literally eat dirt and find something good about it. He sets the table and offers to wash the dishes which is …quite the sight to see. 

- Catching him up on what’s been happening in the world. He died and was suddenly thrown into a whole new world so there’s certainly a few important things that he’s missed. 

- Getting bridal carried or literally held on his hip like a toddler. Tired after a walk through the woods? You’re immediately in his arms. Injured in the slightest? In his arms. Just want to be carried? Fine by him.

- You’ll never have to worry about struggling with something heavy ever again; this boy could pick up a house if he wanted to.

- Comparing hand sizes. He’s amazed at how small you are compared to him and how much softer your skin is. 

- Trailing behind him as he goes lumbering through the woods. He usually doesn’t really acknowledge your presence besides occasionally stopping to make sure you’re following or that you can catch up with his long strides; or physically stopping you so that you don’t get hurt on something. Having a companion is new to him but he does enjoy it.

- His mother taught him manners so while it may be a little funny seeing a hulking mass of a man gingerly knock before he enters your room or pull out your chair for you or wash his hands before dinner; it’s pretty commonplace for you.

- Campfires when it gets dark. 

- Tight yet careful hugs. 

- He’s enthralled by television. When he was little, him and his mother had a black and white tv with like three channels on it so seeing a full color tv amazes him. 

- Taking photos with him is kind of hilarious. You’ve certainly took a few over the years and while you have different poses or faces in each one, the only thing that changes about him is his clothes. He just stands or sits there stoically, his mask still on as you position yourself around him.

- What's better than cuddling with a big ass boy? He loves being able to cradle you in his arms and listen to the sound of your steady breathing. 

- Swaying together while listening to music. 

- You kissed his cheek the first time he showed you his face and he nearly cried. Emotionless killer Jason Voorhees isn’t nearly as emotionless as you think. 

- Jason; above all, wants to make you happy. He can’t stand the thought of you being upset or not having everything you’d like. He always tries his hardest to provide you with whatever he can to make your life better and happier. 

- He never really questions you. You’re just below his mother on people and things he should listen to. it may take you a few moments to truly convince him to do something but more often than not he’ll listen, unless he really doesn’t like the idea.

- Reassuring him that you really do love him. There’s no way he isn’t insecure after everything that he’s gone through so sometimes he just needs to hear you say it.

- There’s not many instances where he has the chance to get jealous but if there is one then I assure you: he gets jealous. Even so, he doesn’t quite understand the feeling. He just knows that you’re his and whoever it is that he’s jealous of better stay away. 

- He’s incredibly protective of you; overprotective to say the least. You’re everything to him and he’s not letting anything happen to you. 

- He tries to keep you as far away from his killing as he can. You’ll never see any bodies if he can help it.

- He feels nervous when letting you touch his machete yet... inexplicably turned on. Excuse him while he prays for himself.

- It’s sort of hard to fight with him but whenever he get’s mad, he’ll storm off and not return for a long time. He gives you the silent treatment for a little while but will ultimately forgive you fairly quickly. 

- He cant stand it if you’re angry with him; he’ll do whatever it takes to make things better. God forbid you get up to leave; he’ll physically stop you, pulling you into his arms and all but throwing you away from the door. He can’t exactly say he’s sorry so he’ll sink to his knees and hang his head in apology. 

- It’s definitely going to take a while for him to show you what he looks like without his mask on whether you already know or not. He still remembers what the other children at camp thought of him and he definitely doesn’t want you to be able to look at him for too long. 

- When he is comfortable enough to let you see, He’ll allow you to take it off while he sits incredibly still. It’s the ultimate show of trust for him so don’t think of it as nothing. 

- Obviously, he can’t speak so he conveys his love through his actions and perhaps the occasional sloppily written note. 

- Well he’s pretty much bound to live forever so expect a long and loving life with him. He’ll steal a ring from someone he comes across and; in both your eyes, you’ll be husband and wife. 

[shaydeoffical]

Multi-Ending Haikyuu Camping Trip, Soulmate Au, Chubby/Insecure Reader!

Bio: In a world where your soulmate’s name will randomly appear on your wrist during a full moon. (Y/n) discovers that, not only does she know her soulmate, but he’s on the same camping trip with her.

Author’s note: Thank you to @alesipanic​ for helping me edit this one <3 . Also any tw are in the tags. 

Series Masterlist

Start Here

 “This was a great idea,” Kuroo finished staking down the tent, and I let the peg go. What was going to be Kenma, Kuroo, and I going on a small camping trip turned into a massive party. Kenma invited Hinata, Kuroo invited Tsuki (who has to bring Tadashi), and Bokuto was coming if Hinata and Kuroo were here, so of course, Akaashi also tagged along. I invited my best girlfriend from college who, wisely, declined. Bokuto and Hinata were on a small break from their team, and classes weren’t in session, so it made sense for us all to hang out. Though camping might have been a more significant task than we initially planned, it'd be fun.

   “I just hope we packed everything.” I stood up and wiped my brow, sweat pooling down my forearm. While I wasn’t in the position to complain, considering that Kuroo and Bokuto carried my bags up the mountain, the hike was grueling. Even Hinata was strained after dragging Kenma the second half.

   “Well, I did make a list,” Tsukishima pushed up his glasses and grinned. “If we don’t have something, it's not my fault. You’re the forgetful one here, (Y/n).” My mouth fell open, and I sputtered.    

   “Tsuki, don’t start a fight this early in the trip.” Tadashi sat down the firewood. The two soulmates were balanced out for sure, Tadashi kept Tsuki in line, while Tsuki kept him fired up. Still, Tsuki wasn't so easily persuaded.

   “Remember what happened the last time you made (Y/n) cry.” Kuroo draped his arm around my shoulders, squeezing my speechless frame to him. Kuroo's sweat mixed with mine, at least I wasn't the only one overheating.

   “If you are proposing a rematch, I’ll win this time.” Tsuki crossed his arms and was enjoying the banter. While they did that, I was mentally going over everything I packed. Of course, I remembered the bug spray, sunscreen, medicine, and extra batteries….my power box for my phone.

   “Just apologize, and I’ll school you after dinner.” Kuroo purred, squeezing my arm, resting his head on my shoulder.

   “I’m sorry, your Highness.” My eyes widened, sweat reappearing on my forehead. Tsuki conceded, but I didn’t care at that point.

   “Thank you, but I did forget something,” I admitted, biting my lip, looking at the dirt. “I need to check my bags.”

   “What was it?” Tadashi asked, following me to the pile.

   “I brought extra sunscreen, that’s the most important thing,” Kuroo assured me, helping me dig through my bags.

   “I forgot my charging bank. But I remembered all the stuff on the list.” My clothes were strewn all over the tarp we laid out for the bags. “Shit, I’m so fucking stupid,” I growled at myself undoing my nightgown, my undies rolling out.

   “Granny panties uh.  So you already gave up on finding your soulmate.” Tsuki loved to get under my skin, while Kuroo, Akaashi and Bokuto schooled Tsuki in my honor, I was his favorite target. Tadashi hit his chest, folding my clothes back as I rummaged deeper.

   “If my soulmate wants to buy me lacey panties, I’d still wear these. I’m Top enough to be proud of my undies. We all know Tadashi tops you when the doors are closed, so that doesn’t give you a right to judge.”  I smirked, twirling my panties around my finger before shoving them back in my bag.

   “Roasted,” Kuroo backed me up, shifting through the cans of bug spray, hoping to find my box.

   “At least I’m getting some,” Tsuki huffed, not letting it go.    

   “I could get it if I wanted,” I lied. Not only was I plus size, but I was awkward around strangers. This didn’t mean I couldn’t get some, it just was hard enough when I had to find a chubby chaser, someone willing to date before finding their soulmate and not be a shy mess. Being around Kenma and Kuroo brought my confidence as a child, and it opened the doors for me to have so many friends. Yet, I wanted affection and attention in that romantic way.

   “It’s fine, we are supposed to be disconnecting from tech. I’ll turn my phone off to use for emergencies.” Tadashi reasoned, changing the subject.

   “I’ll do the same,” Kuroo set up the cans of spray and sunblock on the little table we brought to make things easier. Before Tsuki started annoying me, he was setting it up in front of the tent. “(Y/n), do you want to go check on Kenma and Hinata?”

   Silently I thanked Kuroo for an out. “Yea, those two are probably halfway down the river right now.” Dusting off my knees, I adjusted my shorts and held my head high, walking into the woods.

   “Other way,” Kuroo giggled, knowing I was beyond hopeless.

   “I was just testing you two.” I fired back, keeping my hands to my side. “Ah, forget it.”

   The best part of camping in this spot was that it was secluded. Most people didn’t bother trekking up the mountain when there was a road a few miles down. That was the plus of having athletic friends, they were able to be workhorses and carry our stuff. While we hadn’t been camping together before, I knew that if Kenma and Kuroo could do it, the others could too.

   We were on the flat part of the mountain top, but down the other side of the mountain was a river. Kenma and Hinata were sent to get us some water for washing up and doing dishes. When I finally skid down the hill, I saw Hinata swimming and Kenma on his game station, the buckets filled with water on the side.

   “It’s not time to goof,” I caught their attention, giggling as Hinata jumped on the dock, his clothes swallowing him like a drowned rat.  

   “Hey, (Y/n),” Kenma motioned for me to look over his shoulder. He was playing Animal Crossing. “Where should I put this bed?”

   “I like the bed in the center of the room, it makes me feel rich.” I put in my two sense, squatting down and resting my head on his shoulder. He put the bed down, then went to another empty room.

   “That won’t go with the flow of the bedroom. But that gives ideas me an idea for your room.” He explained, opening the design tool going to the side room. He pulled out an elegant bed and sat in the middle then put down some pastel wallpaper and flooring.

   “Now look who’s slacking.” Hinata wrung out his shirt and joined me in watching Kenma decorate.

   “It’s not slacking, it’s interior design,” I giggled, loving how Kenma was adding my favorite in-game animals to the table. “Besides, what the other’s don’t know won’t hurt them.”

   “Don’t know what?” Someone leaned their head on my shoulder, and I bounced up and around, knocking into them.

   “Bokuto, eh we were,” I covered Kenma with my body so he could save and hide his game. Hinata scurried over to the buckets.

   “You three were playing video games while we were gathering supplies.” Akaashi clicked his tongue, but I could see the slight smirk on his lips. He was standing up on the incline and definitely had the high ground.

   “We got water,” Hinata shot back, pointing to the pails. “We were just helping Kenma design.”

   “It’s going to evaporate if you don’t get it back to camp, the sun is almost at its highest point.” Akaashi had a bundle of wood under his arm, and Bokuto had the ax leaned up against a tree not too far from us.

   “Not to mention you’re drenched.” Bokuto laughed, hands on his hips. There was a thick layer of perspiration all over his body. He was one to talk about being wet.

   “I was supposed to keep them in line, but I got distracted,” I admitted, helping Kenma to his feet. “Let’s all go back together, yea?”

   “Yea,” Akaashi agreed, eyes lingering on me for some reason.

   “Oh yea, yea.” Bokuto grabbed the ax and a bucket of water. The focus shifts from me to finish the trio of yea’s.

   “Oh yea, yea, yea.” I sighed, resting a hand on my hip. “I’m not Kuroo, but I tried.”

   “Let’s hurry back,” Hinata changed the subject, grabbing two buckets. Kenma took one, and I grabbed the last pail. They were three-gallon buckets and not easy to manage.  Still, we had to get it back to camp.

   As we commenced going back uphill, I began to fall to the rear, as usual, it was either that or start to pant like a dog. I wasn’t the only one struggling, but I was the slowest and most unsure of where I was stepping and what I was stepping on.

   “We don’t need to rush,” Kenma slowed down to be beside me and nodded in solidarity. Bokuto and Hinata were racing to the top, spilling water as they went.

   “You are wasting it.” Akaashi reduced his pace to walk with us. “Those two have one brain cell between them.”

   “That’s a fair assessment,” Kenma shifted his bucket the other hand, and I did the same. The plastic around the wire handle not doing much in terms of ergonomics.

   “How was the advanced lit class?” Akaashi and I were in a similar field of study in school, and we had classes together often. So we were regular study buddies, but not this past semester.

   “It’s was challenging but not as hard as 396.” I could see the camp just ahead of us. Taking a deep breath, I pushed harder.

   “So less papers about unrequited love.” Akaashi determined, pushing his hair back. A bead of sweat sliding down his chin.

   “In essence, but to be fair, the 396 professor was just bitter, their soulmate rejected them.” I sat the bucket down with the others by the table.

   “Who rejected their soulmate?” Hinata piped up, handing me one of the bottles of drinking water.

   “Our professor.” Akaashi also got a bottle and downed it with one long swig.

   “What a nightmare,” Tadashi chimed in, holding Tsuki closer on his lap. They both were cuddling by the fire pit.

   “Was he mean or something?” Hinata pushed it further.

   “From the rumors, it was a petty reason like he was already balding or she was in love with a model.” I summarized, applying more sunscreen to my shoulders. “It made him a bitter man, who had an affinity for assigning tragic readings. In one semester, we read more books about soulmates never meeting or breaking up, to make up for a lifetime.”

   “Hamlet was a hard one,” Akaashi added, stretching his back.

   “Ophelia deserved better,” I sighed, remembering Hamlet being too preoccupied with other things to love her. “To be or not to be my ass.”

   “Let’s have happier thoughts.” Tadashi clapped his hands, going over to grab the fire starting kit.  “How about we celebrate setting up camp by lighting the fire and cooking up some lunch?”

   “Sounds like a plan,” Kuroo grabbed the hot dogs from the cooler.

   “Let’s get a seat.” Kenma tugged me to the logs that had been left by other campers, and we took our seat. Kuroo sat by Kenma, both of us leaning over his shoulder to watch him fish in animal crossing.

   “So when are we setting up the net?” Hinata picked up the volleyball and swirled it between his hands.

   “After we eat, we can go to the river and work on that.” Kuroo was always worried about us, making sure we were eating and staying hydrated. Even as a child, he’d often split his lunch with me when my mom would ‘forget’ to pack one for me. Later on, he just started to bring another bento for me. He always had my best interests at heart. He also worried over Kenma, that’s why I hoped he’d be my soulmate. Kuroo cared about everyone and took excellent care of me. While I wasn’t stereotypically beautiful, he always made me feel that way.  

   If my soulmate wasn’t Kuroo, I’d want them to be someone like him. I’d be okay if my soulmate was Kenma too, we’d get along just fine and play games all day. Or Akaashi, he was a little shy like me, but I could learn to be the outgoing one. Bokuto would be an okay spouse, he had a lot of energy, and definitely made for an excellent dance partner, he was just passionate. Hinata, well he was the one I knew the least, but he reminded me of Bokuto, but stable. Why did this turn into me thinking about my soulmate among my single friends? It didn’t matter; my soulmate was probably miles away, dating a pretty girl and living their best solo life.

   Deep inside my gut, I knew I’d be single for life. Kenma or Kuroo would take pity on me and let me live with them and their partner. I’d grow old and write the tragic books I spent all last year reading. Still, there was a flame lightly flickering in my chest, I could still keep dreaming for a better ending. It didn't have to be so tragic.

[avengerscompound]

The Surrogate - Chapter 3

The Surrogate:  A Clintasha Fanfic

Masterlist PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Clint Barton x Natasha Romanoff x F!Reader

Word Count:  2213

Rating:  E

Warnings:  Blood and Injures, smut (FF, oral sex, shower sex, vaginal fingering)

Synopsis: A freak end of the world incident leads to meeting your two best friends, Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff.  While your friendship with the two Avengers is anything but conventional, they are your all-time favorite people.  When you find out that Clint and Natasha want to start a family but have exhausted all their options, you realize your powerset might allow you to give them what they want.  Having your best friends’ baby might seem like a good idea on paper, but when you are as close as you, Clint, and Natasha are, will doing something so intimate mean feelings get a little mixed up?

Chapter 3

Your induction into the Avengers had been long and not always the most pleasant.  The people were great, the training was excruciating.  It started with legal clearance.  Then they ran tests on you.  Those tests gave you a better understanding of your powers, but it still left them pretty useless to anyone other than you.  A blood transfusion with someone of the same blood type as you could heal them of anything minor, but it didn’t work on old injuries or scar tissue, and they couldn’t regrow missing limbs or organs.  It worked on illnesses too, but in the case of cancer, there would almost be a battle between your powers and the mutated cells, and the more cancer there was, the less likely your powers could help unless you kept donating blood.

With that understanding, you were asked if you wanted to train to be an agent.  You could potentially get into places that others couldn’t.  After all, poison couldn’t kill you.  Nor could bullets or knives.  You could also help others with minor injuries if they needed it.  You took a little while to decide but in the end, agreed.  That’s when the intensive training began.

Every day you woke up at four and went for a run.  The run was followed by boot camp where you’d do circuits or run obstacle courses.  That was followed by weapons training.  Then computer hacking, or field medicine, or behavioral profiling, or any of the other myriad of things you needed to learn to become a spy.

During the eighteen months you trained, you also formed bonds.  You dated a couple of other new recruits.  One of them for several months and when you ended up breaking up, it was messy and you both got in trouble for creating drama.  You made friends throughout the facility.  Most were people at your level but there were people in the medbay that you got close with too, along with receptionists and a couple of the avengers.  There was even an incident where you got drunk and made out with Sam Wilson at a Christmas party.

None of the relationships you formed were anywhere near as close as the ones you developed with Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton.  To begin with it seemed to just come out of Clint feeling responsible for you.  He was the one that dragged you into this life, he didn’t want you to feel alone while you were adjusting.

Clint was an easy person to like and it wasn’t long until you were both as thick as thieves.  Being around Clint meant you were around Natasha too.  While she took a little longer to warm up to new people, she was cool and protective once it happened and long before she had accepted you as one of her people, you had developed a kind of crush on her.  Once she decided you were one of hers, they both felt like family.

It was Natasha that you had your first mission with.  She took you another two newbies and Sharon Carter to break down some HYDRA bases.  It involved several raids of different warehouses, office buildings, and underground installations and your group and been going from country to country for over a week.

“How many more of these are there?”  Sharon asked, cracking her back as she walked through the door.  You, Mendez, Sharma, and Natasha all followed after her.

“Too many,” Natasha complained, heading right to the bathroom.  She was holding her side like she was in pain and you were worried she was trying to make her injury seem less dire than it was.

“Alright.  I’m ordering food,” Sharon said as Mendez flopped onto the couch and Sharma went straight to the minibar.  “Can you go check on, Nat?  Help her with the stitches if she needs some.”

You nodded and knocked on the bathroom door before letting yourself in.  Natasha had stripped her catsuit down so it was hanging at her hips.  The black of her sports bra contrasted against the pale cream of her skin, and as your eyes traveled down her body, looking for injuries they were drawn to the large gash on her side oozing dark red blood.

“Let me see,” you said, coming over to her.

“It’s not too bad.  Already started healing,” she explained, uncovering the part she was holding a washcloth against that was slowly turning from white to red.  “Stings though.  I could use some butterfly bandages at least.”

You looked it over. “I can help with that,” you said.  “I bet I could kiss it better though.  Given you heal faster than normal anyway.”

Natasha smirked at you and raised her eyebrow.  “You’d like that wouldn’t you?”

You chuckled.  “Fine, butterfly bandages it is.”

“No, no, no,” she said.  “You don’t mind?”

“Of course not,” you said.  “I kissed Clint after all.”

She laughed and winced at the pain in her side.  “It would be a vast improvement.”

You laughed and moved in, licking your lips.  Her hand went to your jaw and guided you in, bringing your lips to hers.  The spark between you happened instantly, seemingly starting in your core.  A moan escaped you, but was smothered by her lips, her hand pushed back into your hair, holding you in place as your lips caressed hers.  You darted your tongue out running it over the corner of her mouth and she brought her tongue out to meet yours, circling them together.

She pulled back, tugging on your bottom lips with her teeth.  “Bozhe moy…”  Natashas sighed, she put her hand on your hip and dragged you flush against her. “Now I know why Clint likes kissing you so much.”

You laughed softly.  “Yeah, he’s always injured.”

She started laughing too and kissed the corner of your mouth, her tongue flicking out as she did.  “How many times have the two of you been together now?”

“Like work kissing or actual sex?”  You asked.

Natasha laughed louder.  “Work kissing...”

“What?”  You said, breaking down into laughter with her.  “That’s what it is.”

She got control of herself and her fingers flexed on your hip.  “Actual sex.”

“Four,” you breathed as you ghosted your lips over the shell of her ear.

“Then we have some catching up to do.”

She captured your lips and kissed you greedily.  You submitted to her, snaking your arms around her waist and pulling her closer to you.  You felt like you were in some kind of dream.  You’d imagined doing this with Natasha and while you knew she and Clint were in an open relationship, you were too chicken to suggest it to her.

She pushed her thigh between your legs and you began to grind on it.  The way the spandex of your catsuit rubbed against your pussy as you rocked on her thigh creating a delicious burn through you.  Natasha’s hands slid up your sides and over your breasts.  Her touch almost making your skin vibrate under them.  When she reached your throat she held them there, her thumbs caressing the zipper, making you purr into the kiss.

She pulled back and unzipped your catsuit, taking her time so she could really appreciate the way your skin came into view.  “We should get into the shower so I can wash this blood off me.”

“How is it?” You asked, taking another look at her wound. It had scabbed over but still looked painful.  You knew after what you were both going to do it would be fully healed.

“Nearly there,” Natasha answered as she pushed the arms of your catsuit off.  She dragged the skin-tight fabric down your skin, crouching in front of you as she pulled the suit all the way off.

You started up the water as she stripped the rest of her catsuit off and began stripping you of your underwear.  You hummed and ghosted your lips up her neck as you removed hers as well.  When you were both naked, you took a moment just to admire her.  The enticing curve of her hips, and the soft swell of her breasts.  The way her nipples stood out, dark pink against cream.  You leaned down and flicked your tongue over one before pulling it into your mouth.  It drew a moan from her and she guided you back under the water.

The warm water washed down over both of you and as you suckled on her breast the warm water filled your mouth.  You moved further down her body, licking and sucking the water from her skin.  When you were kneeling in front of her she leaned back against the tiles and put her leg up on your shoulder.

You hummed as you came face to face with the thatch of red pubic hair, the smell of sex wafting from her, heady and inviting.  You licked your lips and nosed up her folds.  Your tongue darted our flicking over them, getting the first taste of her salty musk.  There was a small spark, like you’d touched your tongue to a battery.  She hummed and her hands went to your hair pushing you in tighter to her cunt.

“Don’t be a tease,” she purred, her hips rocking against your mouth.  You groaned and began to lap at her cunt.  Your tongue swept wide over her folds, exploring every part of her sex.  It dipped inside and there was a strong jolt between you.  Shy gasped and her cunt flooded, dripping onto your tongue.  “That is quite the side effect,” Natasha groaned.  Her hands tightened in your hair, making your scalp prickle.

You moaned and sucked hungrily.  Your head was swimming like you were getting drunk on her.  Nat tugged on your locks and you looked up, your eyes meeting hers.  “Focus now,” she growled.

Her demand sent a shiver through you and you began to suck on her clit.  You were rewarded with a low moan and more of her arousal dripped from her.  It began to run down the insides of her thighs, and was carried away by the shower.  You pushed first one finger and then another into her, and slowly began to fuck her with them.

“Deeper,” she moaned as you thrust them in and out and sucked on her clit.

You complied quickly, pushing your fingers deep inside her, and scissoring them.  The soft muscles of her cunt, squeezed around your digits and she moaned loudly letting her head fall back.  Her red hair was soaked and fell down her back, sticking to her skin.

“Deeper, dorogaya,” Natasha groaned.   When you complied, she moaned louder still and her hands tightened in her hair.  “Curl them.”

You did as you were told, and your fingertips touched on a spongy spot inside her. She cried out and her toes curled.  Her fluids began to run down your wrist and you lapped them up before going back to sucking on her clit.  “Right there,” she praised.  “Harder now.”

You stroked over that sweet spot inside her and she began to fall apart.  She got louder and louder, her cunt beginning to flutter around her digits.  With a loud cry she came, her hips bucking against your face.

You moaned and kept going but she put her hand on your jaw and guided you back.  “Your turn,” she purred.  “Let me show you how it’s done.”

She dropped to her knees in front of you and you braced yourself against the cool tiles lifting your leg and resting your foot against the wall.  Natasha slowly lapped up your folds.  The spark of your powers happened immediately and intensely like she was drawing them out with her tongue.  You both groaned loudly and you tangled your fingers in her hair and let your head fall back.  With the current already running through you, you knew you weren’t going to last long.

She teased it out, flicking her tongue over your clit and dipping it inside you.  She used her lips to ruffle the folds of your labia and nipped gently at your clit.  It was hard to keep your focus with that alone, but as she began to focus on your clit you lost control completely.

You moaned and bucked against her face.  You grabbed hold of the showerhead to keep yourself up as she thrust her fingers inside you and immediately began working them over your g-spot.  You had trouble holding yourself up as electricity coursed through your veins.  She hit your g-spot hard again and again.  Your legs trembled and your toes curled and with a loud cry, you came, gushing onto her.

She moaned and drank up what she could before getting to her feet.  She wrapped her arm around your waist and supported you as you came down from your orgasm high.  “Holy, hell,” she said.  “I love your powers.”

You started laughing and kissed her cheek.  “They’re pretty great.”

You ran your hand down along the spot where her cut had been.  It was now just clean, fresh skin with no trace of an injury happening in the first place.  Natasha grabbed the shampoo and started washing her hair.  “Come on,” she said.  “Better hurry up.  There’s no way they didn’t hear what we were doing in here.”

// NEXT

[rainydaydream-gal18]

(The Bad Batch) Camping:  Wrecker’s Ending

 Intro

    “I guess I’ll go exploring with Wrecker,” you said.  He grinned ear-to-ear and reached over to give you a high-five.

   “Yeah!  This’ll be fun!” he exclaimed.

   “I’ll see you two later,” Omega waved.  “I’m going with Tech to check out the lake.”

   “Okay, see you,” you told her.

   Even though you’d been a little embarrassed before, you were glad that she gave you that extra nudge to spend some time with Wrecker.  Time with him alone was pretty rare with a ship full of people.  Sometimes the Havoc Marauder felt like a clown car, fitting way too many inside.

   “I packed some rope,” Wrecker told you, walking over to the first tent and fishing something out of his bag.  “It’s a sturdy one, good to use for a swing!”

   “That sounds like an awesome idea,” you replied. 

   “Yep!  Now all we need is to find a good spot for it.”  He swung the coiled rope over his shoulder.  “Which way do you wanna’ go?”

   You glanced around and settled on pointing in a random direction.  “That way?”

   “Alright, let’s check it out.”

   The two of you were met with thick greenery as soon as you stepped out of the clearing.  Wrecker walked just ahead of you to stomp down a good portion of it so that you could walk through without much resistance.  It was nice and cool under the shade of the trees, which made the walk more pleasant.

   The forest was filled with chatter as you and Wrecker talked about some of the things you looked forward to on the trip.  He was excited to find out if the lake water was good to swim in.  You were eager to play some games with the group.  Both of you had a hankering for an evening around the campfire telling stories with the others.

   “I’ve got a good one about our mission to Yalbec Prime,” he laughed.

   “I’ve heard bits and pieces, but I don’t think anyone ever told me the full story.”

   “No worries, that’ll change today.”  He halted, and you walked straight into him, almost falling back onto the ground before catching yourself.  He twisted to look at you over his shoulder.  “Sorry, _________!  You okay?”

   “Yeah,” you nodded.  “What’s up?”

   He pointed straight ahead.  “I think I just found the perfect place for our rope swing.”  You peeked around his large form to see exactly what he was talking about.  Just ahead, there was a tree that was much taller and wider than the others.  Its branches looked more than strong enough to hold Wrecker, and they were a few that were far enough off the ground. A break in the canopy of trees above allowed sunlight in.   “What do you think?”

   “Wow,” you gasped.  “It is the perfect place!”

   He began tying one end of the rope into a large knot while you approached the tree, running your hand along the rough bark.  A soft moss grew around the base of the tree.  There was one branch right above that stretched out several feet, and it looked quite strong.

   “This branch here looks perfect.”

   Wrecker nodded enthusiastically and set to work on fastening the knotted rope.  He gave it a few good tugs to ensure it would hold his weight.  “Well,” he said, shifting.  “There it is.” 

   He stood there admiring his own work with his hands on his hips.  It was then that you noticed the twigs and leaves that had caught on his maroon t-shirt, most likely from the walk through the brush.  You stepped forward and reached a hand to swipe some of them off his chest and stomach.  His form was solid  like duracrete covered by a t-shirt, only warmer and more inviting.  It made you want one of his famous hugs.  Wrecker had gone quiet at the gesture, his eyes softening, while you took one last look and stepped back when you were sure he was clear.

   “Thanks,” he said gently.

   “You cleared the way for me,” you pointed out bashfully.  “Anyway, so let’s do this!”

   “Right!”  He turned and gave the swing one last tug before grasping it with both hands and backing up.  You gave him some space and watched with amusement as he got a running start and jumped onto the rope.  He went swinging pretty high on the first go, and the thrill was evident in the big grin on his face.  “Wooo!”

   “How is it?” 

   He jumped off the swing and held the rope out toward you.  “See for yourself!”

   You hurried over, and Wrecker backed up so you could give it a try.  To your surprise, he gave you an extra push that sent you swinging so fast that a shriek and laugh left your lips.  Wrecker burst into laughter at how you wobbled away from the swing once you came to a stop, steadying you with one hand.

   “Okay, that was pretty fun,” you giggled.

   “My turn!” he hopped on, and you tried to no avail to give him a push.  That only made him laugh even harder when you managed to get him to budge a little.  “You’re so cute,” he commented.  His own laughter died down as he said this, and suddenly he was looking at you with that soft gaze, like he was looking at something precious and small.

   “Me?  Cute?”  you tried to dismiss it.

   “Really.”  He hopped off the swing and folded his arms.  “You just seem so...small and cute.”

   “Yes, well, I’ve kicked some serious droid butt and revolted against an evil Empire with you guys,” you pointed out, though you were smiling at his comment.

   “Believe it or not, that just adds to the cuteness.  Especially that time you tried to arm wrestle me.”  He shook his head, chuckling.  “You really thought you were going to win.  I lift gunships, you know.”

   “I’ve seen it,” you nodded, recalling a few times he had unintentionally and utterly impressed you in the middle of missions with his strength.  “That’s part of the fun, I guess,” you admitted.  “You’re so strong and tough and…”

   His brow lifted, making you feel shy all of a sudden.  

   “...and you know, all that.”

   “All that?” he repeated.

   “Yeah, all that.”  You shrugged, avoiding his curious gaze.  “And you give the best hugs.”

   “I do, do I?”  He smirked, and you couldn’t help the smile that spread across your face as he scooped you up into his arms.  “Don’t you forget it.”

   “Never.”  You rested your cheek against the soft fabric of his shirt.  His chest rose and fell with each breath he took.  “Although, it wouldn’t hurt for you to remind me every now and then.”

   His hum of agreement came out as a chuckle, and it grew quiet between the two of you.  For a few minutes, you let your eyes fall shut as you enjoyed the warm embrace.  It felt like the sun was shining inside of you each second that passed when he didn’t put you down.  His breathing had slowed.  His heart was thudding steadily.  Finally, you pulled back a little to peek up at him, realizing that his chin was resting on top of your head.

   “You falling asleep?”

   He shook his head.  “No, but I could.  You’re so comfortable.”

   “So are you,” you replied.  “If you’re down, so am I.”  Not long after, he maneuvered himself to sit against the trunk of the tree, arms still enveloping you.  You breathed in his scent once more and sighed.

   “Hey, _________?” he murmured, hand running down your arm softly.  

   “Yeah?”

   “Can I kiss you?”

  The request was unexpected, though you had to admit it was one that you wanted as well.  You lifted your head from his chest to see him already watching you.  The sincere affection that shone in his gaze made your heart melt.  You nodded, and he leaned in the short distance to press his lips to yours.

   It was so gentle at first.  So tender.  Your lips tingled from the contact, and you were glad when Wrecker leaned into the kiss.  His lips were dry at first, a little chapped, but the roughness was quickly smoothed away as he moved his lips against yours.  The large arms that encircled you made you feel so safe and secure, yet caused your heart to thrum like hummingbird wings.  The hand that had trailed down your arm earlier returned to cup the back of your neck as Wrecker’s kiss became more eager.  You pulled away, exhaling softly.

   He rested his forehead against your shoulder, and you brought your hand up to caress the back of his neck.  “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he said.

   “And you don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that,” you countered with a kiss to his temple.  He lifted his head to grin at you, and you grinned back.  The butterflies were fluttering around in your stomach.  You wanted to kiss him again.  “You know, it’s probably almost lunch time.”

   “Yeah, we should get back,” he agreed.  With a grunt, Wrecker stood to his feet and set you down on your own.  “Can’t wait to bring the others here and how ‘em the swing!”

   “That’s true.”

   “But they can’t kiss you here.”  He chuckled.  “Only I get to do that.”

   You laughed as he took your hand.  “Agreed.”

[butter-egg-toast]

YouTuber Girlfriend ▶️

I got a bunch of requests for this one. . 👍

Requested by @dragonwolfs

Long post be prepared.

I'm so sorry I couldn't think of Albert, Kadea, and Aii

Enjoy 🤗

Haru: 🎨

🌙You're a mix media ArtYouTuber.

🌙You do various art forms like painting sculpture, Ink art, ceramics, etc.

🌙You're usually not on Camara, most of your videos are focused on your art work.

🌙On some occasions Haru would draws something for you

🎨" Look (y/n), it's a Mackerel sculpture"-Haru

🌙 Haru gives art tips on the channel for beginners.

🎨"Art and swimming are similar...just go with the flow"-Haru

🌙He goes shopping with you for art supplies.

🎨" We literally only bought 4 items and it came to 40 dollars?!-Haru

🌙You and Haru did a couple of drawing challenges like:

Draw with left hand challenge,

Draw each other challenge

Draw with your eyes closed challenge

🌙At the end of the day Haru secretly enjoy making art with you.

🌙You have a simple following of 50k

Channel name: HoneycombArts.

Matoko: 🐱

🌙You're an animal YouTuber

🌙You work at a pet adoption center. So you encounter different types animals like:

Cats, dog, rabbits, birds, and many more

🌙You invited Matoko to help you with the feral kittens and cats; immediately after hissing at you and the other employees they warm up to Matoko.

🐱"Wow.. they really love me!"-Matoko

😸" Woah Her fur is so fuffy and pretty"-Matoko

🌙You give tips about properly taking care of animals.

🌙Matoko usually not on Camara that much (he's kinda shy)

🌙But when he is on Camara, The videos with the most views are usually with Matoko washing kittens.

🐱"You want to make sure the kitty is calm and not scared of you. Make sure you talk to them to calm them."-Makoto

🐱"Its okay little guy, you're gonna be a nice and clean kitty"-Makoto

🌙 You have a simple following 80k

Channel name: PreciousPets

Nagisa: 🎬

🌙You're a movie/TV show commentator. Comedy skits, you comment on badly movie reviews or simple commentary.

🌙You and Nagisa something reenact scenes from movies and TV shows.

🎬" Oi!!! Look at me when I'm talking to you *bad acting*" -Nagisa

🌙Nagisa cant get his lines right and he always laugh. That's what makes it charming.

🎬" Dont go...I..ummm... *laugh* I forgot (y/n) chan.. what's the line again?"-Nagisa.

🌙Sometimes there are cheesy skits you do together for fun.

🌙 there are some occasions were both of you and Nagisa forgot your lines and you both had to improv.

🎬" Noooooo... how.. could you betray me? Nagisa fell to his knees. "Well...you shouldn't have took my... taco.." trying your best to hold in your laughter. Nagisa confused at your choice of words. "Eh?..."-Nagisa

🌙He Loves being on Camara most of the time

You have a simple following 50k to 80k

Channel name: Tomatometer

Rei: 📘

🌙You're a History YouTuber. Educational videos, learning , science, and technology

🌙 You go over the latest new technology and you have sponsors that send you laptops and phones

🌙You have a mini segment were Rei goes over interesting fun science facts

📘"The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue"-Rei

📘" People who speak two languages may unconsciously shift their personalities when they switch from one language to another.

🌙 You and Rei do a myth busting, where you answer questions from viewers.

🌙There was even a time were you both performed a chemistry experiment that failed.

📘" *cough * see this is why its important to have safety precautions"-Rei

You have a simple following of 50k to 60k

Channel name: Learn Something Today

Rin: 🛠

🌙You're a DIY YouTuber, building and create easy life hacks

🌙You build random projects you find on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or viewers suggestion

🛠" (y/n)? That a cool sculpture"-Rin

🌙Rin is never in your videos. The only time he showed his face is when you both did a challenge together.

🛠" Woah!! This looks complicated. But nothing's too complicated for me. What do we need ,(y/n)?"-Rin

🌙Rin sometimes goes shopping with you to find your supplies.

🛠 "Huh?! This is a lot of wood (y/n), what are you making today?"-Rin

🛠" what type of wood you need?"-Rin

🌙You sometimes give away or sell your projects depending on the occasion.

🌙Rin helps with your projects on his day off, because he's curious how the project will turn out.

You have a simple following of 80k

Channel name: Fix it Make it

Souskue: 🥙

🌙You're a cooking Youtuber

🌙Sousuke something does voice overs talking about cooking traditional Japanese food and giving cooking tips.

🥙" Okonomiyaki is a simple pancake that is cook with cabbage."-Souskue

🌙People always send you emails asking to show your boyfriends face because they love his voice so much.

🥙" They really like me? I dont think my sounds like honey"-Souskue

🌙You sometimes do food challenge and completions with your friends and Souskue. (Souskue always win)

🌙You make a variety foods all over the world

🥙"Can you cook pork cutlets?"-Souskue

🌙The meals you and Souskue cook, you both give to homeless shelters and orphanages.

🌙Every special occasion you bake a themed caked.

🥙"Is that a shark?! How did you make this?!"-Sousuke

You have a simple following of 70k

Channel name: Cookie dough gummies

Momo: 🎮

🌙You're a Gaming YouTuber

🌙You play a wide variety of games like horror, dating Sims, action,Platformers, 3D, and many more

🌙Multiplayer with all your friends (Among us)

🌙Momo definitely loves playing adventures and scifi games with you

🌙Momo likes to bring Puyysuke with him to the gaming sessions.

🎮"Puyysuke is good luck!!"-Momo

🎮"Puyysuke is just as excited as I am with this game. "-Momo

🌙You and momo sometimes compete with each other in fighting and racing games.

🎮"Awwww no fair (y/n) that's cheating !!"-Momo

🎮" Ahhh how you keep winning"-Momo

You have a simple following of 60k

Channel name: Beetle juice

Seijour: 💪

🌙You're a health and fitness Youtuber

🌙Health and fitness tips from professionals and Seijour.

💪"Having a perfect form is the most important and effective way of succeeding"-Seijour

🌙Breaking down the human body to benefit different bodies types.

💪" This exercise plan I used on the samzuka swim team. I guaranteed you will bulk up👍"-Seijour

💪No pain no gain. Keep pushing YOUR ALMOST THERE!!! You can do it!!"-Seijour

🌙 You and Seijour do couples yoga on sundays.

💪"Dont worry (y/n) I got you. Just relax your muscles"-Seijour

You have a simple following 80k

Channel name: You're lifestyle

Kisumi: 💄

🌙You're a beauty YouTuber.

🌙Hes pretty much on your channel 24/7. Everyone loves the both of you.

🌙You do make up challenges, skin care tips, and themed make up looks.

💄"Niacinamide and hyaluronic acid are the best together on your skin"-Kisumi

🌙 You and kisumi have challenges where you do each other's makeup.

💄" Eh? I used the wrong color?! Haha sorry "-Kisumi

💄"I hope I'm not too rough with your face. Let me know."-Kisumi

🌙Kisumi did a voice over on one of your tutorials twice.

💄" Now shes applying blush on...oohhwow that's a cute shade on her..its really cute (y/n)"-Kisumi

💄" wow that makes (y/n) eyes pop!"-Kisumi

🌙Kisumi loves to do seasonal makeup tutorials with you.

🌙He even let you do some makeup on him.

💄" Woah I look like a kpop male idol! How did you did that??!"-Kisumi

You have a simple following of 90k

Channel name: Velvet lips

Asahi: 🔎

🌙You're a Horror theme YouTuber

🌙Discuss Mysteries and Paranormal activity all over the world, Unsolved crimes. Mysteries death and conspiracies theories

🔎"That's interesting.. has the crime been solved?"-Asahi.

🌙Asahi is not into the paranormal because he doesn't believe in it. However, because you like, he's curious about the stuff you talk about.

🔎"wow that monster is 8 foot tall!! And it was seen in Japan??!!"-Asahi

🔎" mmmhh.. that picture is kinda convincing"-Asahi

🌙There was a time where you, Asahi, Hiyori And kisumi went to explore an abandoned house on the countryside that is known for huntings

🔎"oh... (y/n) do you want me to hold your hand if your scared?"-Asahi

🔎"huh? That noise? It may have been a rat"-Asahi

You have a simple following of 70k

Channel name: Mystery XE

Ikuya:💻

🌙You're a Anmaition Youtuber, sometime you animate your story times and do little funny Anmaition, and music video Anmaition.

*The time I accidentally pranked my teacher story time*

*Middle school experience * story time

*Worst family vacation ever* story time

*Creey encounter at work ft Ikuya* story time

*How I met my boyfriend ft Ikuya* story time

🌙Ikuya something gives you ideas for a Anmaition.

💻"How about do a little mermaid Anmaition?"-Ikuya

💻"This is cute a Anmaition, you think you can teach me how to do it?-Ikuya

🌙 You created a Anmaition for Ikuyas birthday with one of his favorite songs.

💻" I love ever bit of this. You really know what I like"-Ikuya

You have a simple following 60k

Channel name: Ms.Honbuns

Natsuya: 🗺

🌙You're a travel YouTuber/Vlogger

🌙 natsuya is on your channel 24/7

🌙You and natsuya traveled to various locations while site seeing, eating food, meeting local people, learning the language, learning the history, and having fun.

🌙You do 360 VR videos of each country, or city you visit.

🌙Sometimes you both camp and go on hikes.

🗺" ah Its so calming out here in the wild"-Natsuya

🌙Natsuya has his own little segment were you taste different types of beers and wines all over the world

🗺".. woah (y/n) you have to try this. The favor is out of this wolrd!!"-Natsuya

🗺"Where do you want to go for the spring? I was thinking 🇬🇧The UK or 🇲🇽 Italy."-Natsuya

You have a simple following 90k to 1M

Channel name: Lake side view

Nao: 🍀

🌙You're a Garden YouTuber

🌙you give gardening tips

🌙on the weekends nao helps with your garden and maintaining it.

☘"Wow!! (Y/n) your vegetables looks great "-Nao

🌙You harvest and Nao cooks the Vegetables.

🍀"Wow the vegetables this harvest is delicious"-Nao

☘"Next harvest, can we plant watermelons?"-Nao

🌙Time lapse videos of Fruits and vegetables growing and decomposing.

You have a simple following of 50k

Channel name: Growful love

Hiyori: 🛍

🌙You're a Fashion YouTuber

🌙 Discuss the newest trends and unboxing new clothes, shoes and accessories .

🌙Haul videos with Hiyori (sometimes)

🛍" These sweater feels amazing"-Hiyori

🌙You and Hiyori sometimes try on matching clothes.

🛍" Wow! We're definitely a cute couple!-Hiyori

🛍"This is something I'll definitely wear every day "-Hiyori

🌙 Most of your clothes are your choice of style. And Hiyori's is more like dark academia.

🌙 Sewing clothes for you and Hiyori.

🛍"woah!! You made this for me?! Thank you so much"-Hiyori

🌙 And some occasions you guys will go thrift shopping.

You have a simple following of 60k

Channel name: Exclusive Z

[erics-meep-morps]

When We First Met Part 3

A self-ship fic with Lapis and Peridot. Part 1 here and Part 2 here. 

Living in Beach City for almost a year felt both fast and slow. Some days it was a flash in time while other days seemed to drag on forever. Working at Beach City Public Transit Authority was pretty average. Like any job there were stressful days, but not an excessive amount where it would degrade my mental health. The pay and hours were good, and at the time it was honestly the best job I’ve had.

There were two particular days in the week I looked forward to most: Tuesday and Saturday. When Lapis, Peridot, and me first started hanging out it was usually random days and times, but eventually it became a habit to meet up on Tuesday evenings when I was done with work and they were done teaching classes. On Saturdays I attended either Peridot’s botany class or Lapis’s art class, but usually I didn’t have much time to talk with them since they were busy. After class however, I would stick around and hang out with them and a few other gems. It took awhile but eventually I got used to socializing with gems including Lapis and Peridot. 

As my friendship with Lapis and Peridot developed they introduced me to humans and gems they consider family. Naturally I was shy upon meeting them, but just like Lapis and Peridot they were very friendly and welcoming. Quite often they mentioned a boy named Steven, but it was a long time before I met him and learned about his importance in the family. 

Like any friendship we had some downs. Sometimes Lapis would drop hints that she wanted to be alone but I didn’t notice them, and it would get to a point where Lapis was frustrated with me. Peridot helped explain to me that alone time is very important to Lapis, and as someone who also highly values my alone time I could understand that. Also the three of us occasionally bickered about petty topics, such as our tendency to get too competitive during game night. However, the ups in our friendship more than made up for the downs. As time went on we learned to better communicate with each other.

Since Lapis and Peridot are in a relationship, I made sure to give them space whether they asked or if I just felt they needed it. Besides quick kisses and cuddles they weren’t romantically affectionate towards each other around me, but when they were I did feel slightly awkward. Peridot frequently gave me hugs, and at first I shyly hugged back but after awhile fully returned the hug. It was a long time before Lapis gave me a hug, and I remember feeling so surprised the first time she hugged me. I had assumed she only gave affection to Peridot as I hadn’t seen her give affection to other gems or humans. Like with Peridot, at first I was shy returning hugs to Lapis but after awhile I was used to receiving a hug from her and fully returned the hug. 

Through the late spring and summer we hung out more frequently, typically three or four times per week. A lot of that time was spent relaxing on the beach, but also doing stuff on the boardwalk and swimming. On one particular summer evening Lapis and Peridot brought me to the lighthouse and surprised me with dinner.

“We don’t know how to cook, so we just went to Fish Stew Pizza and bought food there,” Lapis said. She handed me a pizza box and upon opening it I was presented with my favorite kind of pizza from there: double-cheese, stuffed crust, sprinkles of bacon, and chunks of sea bass. 

“Awww, I still really appreciate this! And admittedly the most I can cook is an omelet so we’re nearly the same,” I said and chuckled.

Peridot handed me a soda, which was quite good with washing down the delicious pizza.

After finishing eating we looked at the ocean from the cliff.

“This was the first place we hung out. Almost a year ago,” Lapis mentioned.

“Oh yeah! I can’t believe it’s already been that long,” I said.

“There’s... actually a reason we invited you up here,” Lapis said, her tone noticeably becoming shyer. 

“Oh? What’s the occasion,” I asked curiously.

“Well, Peridot and I have been talking about this for a couple weeks, and we know so much about each other and enjoy each other a lot, and ummm, we were thinking... umm...,” Lapis was saying but as she talked the more nervous she became.

“Do you want to be in our relationship?!” Peridot quickly blurted out and then covered her mouth with her hands and blushed.

I was wide eyed and jaw dropped. “Y- you mean like... the three of us, in a romantic relationship together?”

“Yes,” Lapis replied and breathed a sigh of relief after bringing this topic out in the open. “If you want to of course. If you don’t that’s okay, we’ll still be friends, but we just wanted you to know that we would love to welcome you in our special relationship.”

“I- hold on, I need to sit down,” I said.

“Of course. Sorry, we kind of just dumped this on you,” Lapis said.

“Oh it’s fine. There’s not really an easy way to bring up this kind of topic. I just need a moment to process it,” I explained.

“Take your time Eric. We’re here for you, and no matter what you decide we’ll respect it,” Peridot assured me. 

I thought for a moment while Lapis and Peridot sat across from me. “I’ve never been in a relationship before, and to be honest for a long time I was worried about getting into one.” I paused for a moment thinking about what to say next. “With that said though, you guys are my best friends and... I’d like to give this a try,” I said and smiled at them.

Lapis and Peridot smiled back with small tears dropping from their eyes. They opened their arms and hugged me. 

Tears started to drop from my eyes and I hugged them back. “I love you Lapis and Peridot,” I said softly as we hugged.

“We love you too, Eric,” they replied. 

As we embraced each other the only noise to be heard was the ocean waves. I was overwhelmed by a sense of comfort that I hadn’t felt in a long time. 

When we finally let go we wiped tears from our eyes. Since it was getting late Lapis and Peridot offered me to stay the night at their place. Although I had work in the morning I wanted nothing more than to be with them that night. We watched Camp Pining Hearts until we couldn’t stay awake and fell asleep in each other’s arms.