#they work very well together when they’re not annoying each other to no end

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

Hi thank u for opening asks! Can I request headcanons for the male companions (and or gortash Raphael and the emperor) having a mute s/o either because they can’t talk or they’re very shy

A/N: Here ya go! Managed to get everyone to stay mostly in character. Please be warned there are hints of nsfw for each character, although nothing graphic in nature. And that the entries for Gortash and Raphael describe abusive relationships, so heed the trigger warnings below. 

🔇 Mute!Reader HC x BG3 Males: 🔇

TW: Domestic Abuse & Vaguely NSFW Content

(Abuse and Manipulation for the Gortash & Raphael ones. Also allusions to sex throughout each entry.)

Astarion: 

He’s suspicious of you at first. Even more so that you don’t talk. But if you prove you’re  not a threat in other ways, he doesn’t actually mind it all that much. He talks to you about the same. A good amount of what he says is either posturing or complaining- and that doesn't change just because you can’t talk back. If anything, he complains even more, knowing you wont tell him to shove off like the others. He greatly enjoys how dramatic he gets to be around you. He’ll lean against a city wall and dramatically lay the back of his hand over his face: ‘I tell you Darling, it’s like these people don’t notice me at all!’ You blink at his outburst, your expression unchanged, clearly unamused. 

Still says lots of witty comments under his breath, and subtly looks over at you to see if you’ve smirked or blushed in response. Gets really good at reading all the little reactions you make. He makes a mental catalog of every half smirk, every eye twitch, every shoulder shrug, so that he knows how you feel about something he or another has said.

Appreciates the fact that you’re unlikely to repeat anything he says to you, which makes him feel all the safer confiding in you about his condition and his past, knowing you can’t go sounding the alarm. 

Ends up going on tangents or rants about the others while you just sit there and kind of grimace, empathetically. He knows it can get annoying to just have to listen, but he’s extremely grateful for the outlet. Cazador certainly never cared what he was feeling. Nor did any of his ‘siblings’. But with you, he can bitch about his day only to turn around and find you still there, listening intently. 

Becomes a lot touchier. Like a lot. He switches from checking to verbal confirmation to physical confirmation. Takes your hand, or pulls you close, squeezes your shoulder- those sorts of things. 

Personally takes it as a challenge to see how loud he can get you to be when you’re intimate together ;) 

Gale: 

Doesn’t notice immediately lol. He’s too busy being overjoyed at the fact you don’t interrupt his long winded, pun-filled speeches to even consider it’s due to a disability or something similar on your part. He just thinks you’re the most wonderful listener. And of course, this makes him fall head over heels for you lol.

Once he does get it, he just sort of goes, ‘Oh.’ And lets that sit in the air. (He’s a bit awkward around you for a while, unsure of how to apologize, so you’d probably need to approach him and make your forgiveness known.) 

Once that misunderstanding is over, he immediately becomes occupied with finding spells to help you talk. If that’s something you want, you appreciate the effort, and let him know you’re in no rush. If that’s something you’re not interested in, you tell him as much. He’s a little disappointed and taken off guard. He explains he’s always used magic to solve his problems. You raise your brow and give him a look that says ‘And that’s been working well for you, has it?’ He relents after that. 

The two of you get really good at reading each other’s faces. And Gale takes it upon himself to talk less as well, even though you explain he doesn’t have to. He insists, saying he wants to understand what your life is like. He lasts like two days lol. 

Becomes mostly competent at understanding what you’re saying either via sign or body language, but occasionally Tera has to translate for you. Thank the gods for tressyms.

Wyll: 

Is momentarily taken aback, embarrassed by his concern he was being rude to you before, assuming you could talk to him but were choosing not to. Apologizes, profusely, for the misunderstanding on his part. 

Learns to communicate with you through other means, be it writing, or by whatever the Faerun equivalent of sign language is. He’s not the best at it, but he tries really hard to learn. Picks up basic phrases like greetings, and moods. Does request that you slow down if you’re fluent, to give his brain time to catch up. 

Doesn’t let anyone in the group make petty or passive aggressive comments while giving them a look or chewing them out. He’s very serious about it. The next time Astarion says something off the cuff, Wyll responds with, ‘Well, Astarion, I’d assume you of all people would be used to it being quiet. Having only the other rats of Baldurs Gate as friends for years.’ He’ll go for the jugular- he doesn't give af! No one gets to make you feel bad about it.

Considers going to Shadowheart or Halsin, or even Gale and asking them if there’s something they can do to help you/your condition, but that’s only with your blessing of course. He wants to help you, but doesn’t want to overstep. 

Comes to appreciate how honest you are in your other reactions- your eyes and your body language. Wyll is used to being deceived- by demons, humans, and the like- so he thinks it’s so special he can read you like a book. Whether you’re strolling through Baldur’s Gate, or enjoying your marital bed, it matters greatly to him how you truly feel and think. He’s glad he’s able to share your truth with him. 

Halsin: 

Catches on fairly quickly, although he doesn’t bring it up to you directly. He figures you will bring it up when you are ready to discuss it, and in the meantime, he would not want to pry. Listens intently when you tell him by checking in with your facial expression as he reads your writing. 

Tries to find ways to help you with what you can do. Suggests maybe enchanting a feather pen and scroll or some chalk and a small board to write out what you’re thinking so others can understand how it is you feel in real time. He offers his druid magic to do whatever you need. Hell, he even considers mentoring you to see if you feel nature’s calling. If you were a druid, perhaps you could develop a relationship with an animal companion, say a bird, or an awakened rat, or a giant eagle and get them to speak for you. 

Similar to Wyll, Halsin will try to learn sign language if that’s something you speak. However he isn’t the most adept at it. He’s very used to spellcasting, which requires at least one free hand, often his dominant hand. So he tries learning sign with his nondominant hand, but that makes it all the more difficult. He knows the alphabet, but that’s about it. You will have to slowly spell out your sentences word by word in order for him to get the gist. 

Makes sure you’re either safely hidden away at camp, or stay within his sight during a battle. He knows you cannot cry out for help, so he wants to make sure he can keep an eye on you throughout any conflict. 

Loves just being close to you. Swears he can hear the intention of your heart when the two of you are so close. He wants to assure you, your difference doesn’t make him love you any less. If anything, he is impressed with how much you continue to adapt to and overcome. He’ll say, ‘You need not speak for me to know your voice, my heart. One look in your eyes, and I know, it is an internal melody so beautiful, all of nature could not compare.’ He’ll place soft touches to your skin and face, and check your reaction before progressing any further. He thinks being intimate with you is the best way to express your emotions as a couple. After all, sex is the most ancient language of all.

Minsc: 

He doesn’t get it until Boo points it out to him lol. And even after being told, he still forgets from time to time. 

Minsc loves to talk. Well brag. And boast. And speak in the third-person. So he’s not thrown off by you having to refer to yourself with body language or with possessive pronouns in Common writings. 

He will ask you lots of questions, all throughout the day. Some are obvious and others are seemingly random, and difficult to explain with your words limited to being written down as fast as you can before Minsc’s mind wanders and changes the subject. It’s a workout for your wrists honestly. 

He will loudly announce that you’re mute every time you meet new people. ‘This is (Y/N), my dear love, she cannot speak. So (Y/N) will write her answers for Boo. And Boo will tell me. Then Minsc may tell you.’ You keep trying to tell him, the system doesn’t need Boo and him to interpret for you, especially if you’re already recording your answers in Common for others to read. 

He will never let you apologize for not being able to speak. He refuses to see it as a problem. ‘Minsc speaks loud enough for both of us, no?’ He thinks you’re the most wonderful person around. He could have his pick of the crop, and yet he chose you. Trust him, you’re the person he wants to be with more than anything. 

Gortash:

Actually kind of prefers lovers who don’t talk back, lol. He’s a very insecure man when it comes to his character. He’s cunning and wise, but clawed his way out of hell (quite literally) and the self-critical voice in his head never silences. So he’s oddly comforted that you can’t demean his temperament. 

He won’t try to fix it, nor will he allow you to try and change it in any sort of way. He doesn’t want you to go babbling on about his plans or how he is behind closed doors. That information cannot be getting out. So no, you will not be allowed any magic or spells to help you communicate. 

He will open up to you on occasion in private. The longer you’re together, the more safe he feels like confiding in you. If you feign sympathy, or if you are in fact sympathetic to his backstory, he’ll feel something akin to love for you. It’s not quite love. It’s much more logical, more calculating and pragmatic than that. But it’s about as close as you’d get with him. 

Likes how you have little to no choice other than to stay at his side and listen to him intently. He loves watching all your little apprehensive reactions when beckons you closer and pulls you into his lap. How your pulse races, how your breath quickens, he knows how his proximity makes you feel, even if you can’t open your mouth to speak the words. Besides, he’s very sure your mouth will be good for, let’s just say, other things. 

He will allow you to write him little notes here and there, but only in his office, and only when no one else is around. He’s rather paranoid that way. But he’s also rather pleased how it means you must keep seeking him out during his working hours. He’s under no false impression that he's the kindest lover. But you can’t leave him. You need him. He’s the only one who’s allowed to understand you. And he intends to keep it that way. 

Raphael: 

Like Gortash, Raphael feels a sort of sick satisfaction over the fact you can’t talk back to him. But then on the other hand, he feels a sort of sick disappointment that he can’t torture you into making all those sweet pathetic noises for him. So it’s 50/50 with him. 

He will consider giving you a voice via deviant magic if it means he can hear you beg. It drives him absolutely wild, and he refuses to go completely without it. Takes said voice away if you venture too far into brat territory, or you directly insult him. It’s a privilege for you to even look upon him, how dare you use the gift he gave you against him?

Has Harleep babysit you when he isn’t there. You can’t exactly call for help, and Raphael’s house isn’t safe for you to be wandering about unsupervised. 

Enjoys the look of pure frustration on your face when you try learning to write in Infernal, only to fail miserably. He thinks you’re adorable all revved up. He will read the notes you write in Common, he just doesn’t always respond to them. Despite his refusal to acknowledge most of them, you can tell he understands them, based on how large that vein on his forehead gets lol.

He will let you choose whether or not to have a voice during certain moments of pleasure; well, mostly pleasure. He loves the little gasps and moans you make, it fuels his lust for you even more. Then again, he doesn’t need to hear the sweet cries of your pretty voice to know whether he’s on the right track. ‘I can sense your heartbeat, little mouse,’ he'll whisper to you. Your body reveals to Raphael all there is to know, whether you want it to or not. 

The Emperor: 

It literally doesn’t matter. Dude’s telepathic lol. 

Wishes you’d become an illithid so you’d be telepathic too. Almost doesn’t take no for an answer on that one. 

Ultimately ends up relishing in the fact he alone can understand you- your wants, your needs, your dreams, and hopes. It makes him feel all the more powerful. 

Will give you the play-by-play about the Nether Brain and the Chosen Three because he’s been dying to tell someone, and he knows you can’t go running in the streets telling everyone and ruining his hopes of manipulation. Mainly because you don’t talk but also because he’s not letting you leave his realm lol, no way in hell. 

If you really don’t feel at home here, ‘You could always,’ he’ll suggest coyly, ‘Become one of us.’ You don’t even have to shake your head to tell him ‘no’. Your facial expression does all the talking for that one. 

[immortalmrwavell]

Mr Wavell Is Back!!

Getting Terminated, My Brand New Account and How Things Will Be Moving Forwards. If you were a fan of my content please stick around and read what I’ve got to say ❤️

So as some of you may have already noticed, my original account MrWavellSwaps was terminated. This was very recent so a lot of you who followed me on there may not have even noticed yet but you can go see for yourselves. Obviously this was not my choice and was completely out of my control and when I found out I was frustrated to say the least. This account that I’d worked on for over 3 years had just been snatched away from me in a way that I personally feel was unfair. Initially I had been censored back in July this year for posting content that Tumblr believed to be against their guidelines. Or at least their automated bots thought so as what I posted that got me the censor was in a grey area at most. But despite that I tried to do right by correcting and even deleting any and all posts Tumblr had flagged even if I didn’t believe they were against guidelines just to play nice. Following which I appealed my account’s censorship only to be met with silence for months on end. That is until September 3rd where I chased up the appeal for the third time after receiving no response or updates. I was hoping to receive a turnover on the censorship but was expecting them to just say no and keep it censored. But they did the one thing I didn’t except

The email I got the next morning could be summed up like this. “You want a response? Okay. You’re terminated. Goodbye.” And I was. I tried going on Tumblr and my account was gone. Great.

I’ll be honest in the past I would’ve said that if something like this ever happened that I’d just give up with writing these stories and move on. But I don’t feel that way anymore. I think I’ve just grown so fond of this community and writing as a whole that I just don’t really want to leave yet. I’ve met so many friends through being a writer on here and even more than that I met my Boyfriend! I never could’ve expected that writing these silly gay TF stories would change my life in the ways that it has. And that said I think I’d be doing a disservice to just give up and throw it all away.

So here I am. Back again with a fresh new account.

Where am I gonna go from here you may ask. Well of course I have a large catalogue of stories already from the past couple of years and the majority of those stories are actually still floating around Tumblr thanks to all the reblogs. So it’s not like they’re gone forever which I’m glad about. However with my old account gone it feels like they’re all scattered apart. No longer together in one place. And most importantly they no longer feel like mine. Of course I still wrote them all but with this new account I no longer have any control or ownership over those posts and honestly that annoys me. Not to mention with them all coming from my terminated account, there will always be the chance that they’ll just end up getting completely wiped from the platform eventually, reblogs included.

With that said, I’ve made the decision to re-upload each and every single one of my stories to this brand new account. This way I’ll have complete ownership of these new posts. I’ll be able to edit and change them as wish and overall I believe it would just look a whole lot cleaner than if I were to just hunt down reblogs of my old stories to reblog again over here. However I genuinely see that as a positive as not only will it be better for me that way but it can also give all of you a chance to rediscover some of my older works that were perhaps buried under so many other before. And to spice things up I might even update a few of my old stories to add extra scenes and new images to go with them!

On that note I’m gonna be trying to adhere to Tumblr’s guidelines as best I can so I don’t give them any reason to pounce on me again. This means no risqué imagery from now on even if I personally believe it’s within guidelines. My writing style will remain the same however if a story is particularly steamy I may add a community label just to be safe. If you wanna learn more about community labels and how to make sure you’re still able to view labelled posts check out this post. All that said I do have a plan in mind to bring you all versions of my stories that have more explicit imagery but more on that in a moment.

For the next couple of weeks at least I plan on gradually re-uploading all of my content to this blog like I said. I may do one story a day or more than that depending on how I decide to do it. I’ll continue doing this until everything is back up under this new blog. Once all that is done I’m going to try and create a new master list where you can find links to all my posts just like before. And once that’s done I might give myself a breather for a few days and then I’ll see about posting some brand new content. Content of which I’ll be writing up while doing the re-uploads so that it’ll be ready to go once everything is caught back up. After that everything should hopefully be back to normal with my usual schedule of posting new stories and reblogging stories I enjoy!

Now. On top of this I also have plans to create a new blog or website completely outside of Tumblr. One that I can be allowed to do anything that please with and not have to tiptoe around any guidelines. This is where I’ll be uploading alternative versions of all my stories. Some of them may be exactly the same as they were on Tumblr while others may have secret images and gifs that otherwise wouldn’t have been allowed on Tumblr. I haven’t decided on all the specifics yet but once I figure it out I’ll let you all know.

And one last thing before I sign off. Recently I’ve been considering the possibility of turning this hobby of mine into a job. Now don’t worry I’d have absolutely no plans to paywall any of my content. I want everything to remain accessible for free. However I was considering opening up a place for people to leave donations and maybe even kick my Patreon off again. But most importantly I’d be considering opening up commissions. If I were to go down this route I’d likely be able to post much more consistent content for you all and make this my full time focus. It’s just an idea for now and I probably won’t set it into motion until early 2025 if I decide to go through with it but I wanted to at least share it with you all. I was actually just about to post about it on my original account until… you know hahahah.

Well I think I’ve said everything I wanted to say. Please can I ask that if you liked my stories that you please share this and my upcoming re-uploads around and let everyone know that this is my new blog. It would help a ton in getting me back on my feet on I’d really really appreciate it.

Can’t wait to get back on track and continue delivering stories to all you wonderful people out there. I love all of you and I’m so grateful to you all for following my journey so far and I hope you’ll all find me again so we can continue this together! ❤️

- Mr Wavell

[waldau-archived]

congrats on your new milestone!! i really enjoy reading your work♡ could i please request mingyu+'we're in completely different leagues'+'i'm not sober enough to talk about this'

just the two of us — kim mingyu | 7,009 words | hurt/comfort, fluff

i typed up a mammoth sized story (to me, at least) because i had so many thoughts. behold my longest fic ever written, patiently beta-read by the wonderful @tomodachiii. thank you for your help, tomo! ily <3 and thank you, anon, for your request!

gender neutral reader. warnings: reader has massive self-doubt, gets drunk halfway through the story.

“the next time i even think of going on a date, just take my phone and force me to go out on a walk. reconnect with nature. touch some grass, maybe,” you say, kicking your feet against mingyu’s cupboard from where you’re sat on his counter.

“did you have a bad date i wasn’t aware of? was it the guy with the blue streaks?” mingyu asks, pushing the bowl of cake batter towards you. he never shies away from reminding you of the repercussions of having raw dough — that too in excruciating detail. salmonella. e. coli. things he could skip but doesn’t, just because he likes annoying you.

he lets it slide this time. you’re allowed just one big spoon, and the next time you’ll see the rest of it is when it’s baked and topped off with handmade frosting. courtesy of kim mingyu. your best friend as well as part-time chef.

“…no.”

“don’t lie to me,” he says, tilting his head. “you wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise.”

“ugh. it’s just that…every time i even think of going out on a date, i have to reset my expectations. because men can’t clear the bar, no matter how low it is.”

you take a nibble from the spoon, and it tastes so damn good. it’s crazy how mingyu manages to find time to make new recipes and perfect them despite being a world-famous model that’s modelled for almost every major fashion house. you’ve lost count of how many magazines he’s been on.

it started out as a joke when you complained about all the magazines for his first ever gig having sold out. he’d taken it upon himself to get you a very special, signed copy that you have on display with the rest of the books in your glass bookcase. just the one, though. the rest of them are all piled up under your coffee table, much to mingyu’s chagrin. at least they’re in chronological order. and you’re making sure they’re not collecting dust.

that first edition is pretty much the only thing mingyu ever teases you about, tattered as it is, and on display for whoever comes to visit you. but you’d never get rid of it, not even for a new copy. it’s a milestone mingyu deserves to be celebrated for.

“does it taste good?” he asks with a small smile and a nervous smile. as if you’d have anything except praises to heap on him. this isn’t even the first time you wonder if he’d talk like this to you if you were together — endless smiles and warm cuddles under the covers and conversations about the most random things and stolen hoodies because you’re actually dating, and not just you being a guilty friend whose imagination runs a bit wild sometimes.

he does all of those with you. but he just doesn’t like you the way you like him.

how would he be, when he’s the kim mingyu? he has his fans falling to their feet if he so much as posts a picture of his hand. he’s the most charming human being you know. he’s tall not just because of his genes but also because of all the love he holds for everyone he knows.

you’re another moon that gets to orbit in the path of the admirable planet that he is.

sometimes you don’t even know how you managed to remain friends with him after university ended. the two of you started off as being part of the same friend group, having a few shared classes and some interests that kept the two of you together apart from your friends. by the time you graduated, both of you knew enough about each other to be able to hang out without needing your mutual friends. and it was hardly your fault that you felt drawn to how warm mingyu was, how easy it was to talk to him, and how happy you felt just by being around him.

so when it came to the topic of finding a place to live, the two of you decided it would be better for you to be roommates than find a complete stranger to share a living space with, and you went from friends to best friends soon after that.

mingyu’s always been your support system for whatever you’ve wanted to do, encouraging you to do what you wanted, regardless of how it would turn out or what others would think of it. in the same way, it wasn’t anything when you encouraged him to try out a modelling gig he’d signed up for and was unsure of how he’d fare.

long story short, the shoot was a pretty good success, and soon enough he got multiple gigs, managed to earn enough money to move into a bigger house, and even offered to pay your part of the rent because he wanted you to live with him — something that made you smack him.

you no longer live together now, mainly because of mingyu’s insistence on not wanting to disturb your sleep and your daily routine with all the schedules that keep him flying over the world. you did miss the breakfast he’d make for the two you every morning, and you’d managed to work out a compromise where mingyu became your personal chef on saturdays just so he’d have some time to spend with you.

it’s far from the worst arrangement in the world, and moments like these — him putting icing on your nose — make you realize how lucky you are to have him. you generally watch movies together, or he teaches you recipes, or he listens to you talk about your life, reciprocating with his own stories. things haven’t changed that much, even though you don’t live together anymore.

but part of you wishes things did change. that mingyu would, just once, look at you the way you look at him. it’s a wonder he hasn’t once caught you staring at him, because you’ve done that more times than you can count. but you can’t help it, because he just so happens to be your whole world.

but how long is this utopia going to last for? when is he going to realize you’re just plain old you, and that maybe he’s suited for more glamorous company? people who can probably pronounce the names of all his fashion houses correctly, people he models with, people that can hang off his arm and look like they belong there? not people who like wearing shorts and an old shirt as pyjamas and have bouts of self-doubt strong enough to crush entire mountains?

“…is it that good? you zoned out a bit there,” mingyu says, snapping his fingers in front of your eyes.

you blink out of your daydreams. it’s not even his fault that you’re so head over heels for him, although it kind of is. no one asked him to be so good looking and polite and so damn lovely that it became easy to imagine a future with him. just like lee youngji can imagine having a future with hong jisoo because he opened a carton of milk for her, you wonder how you haven’t yet succumbed to those thoughts when mingyu is such a big part of your life. you wonder at what point you knew you were fucked.

maybe it was when you and mingyu became friends, although you’ll never know for sure.

“no.”

“are you sure?”

“your ego doesn’t need to get any bigger,” you quip, finishing off the rest of your spoon.

he just laughs. “good to know. let’s just wait for an hour till it finishes baking, okay?” he hands you a baking sheet to line the pan with. you work in silence as he fiddles with the knobs on the oven, ladling out the batter into the pan and sticking it inside once the oven’s warmed up enough.

“want to do something while it bakes? watch a movie?”

“i was thinking we could go for a walk,” mingyu says, taking off his apron. he looks ridiculous, a hulking six foot two man wearing an apron that’s comically small for him, but he takes kitchen etiquette very safely. he hangs it up on the hook behind the door. “the weather’s good, and i don’t think i’ve been out for a walk in a while.”

“what about all those texts you sent me about missing bobpul? i wonder what your fans would’ve thought of that.”

“you’re not supposed to bring that up,” he whines, and you can’t help the giggle that makes its way to your face. he’s a grown man. and he’s the most adorable one you know. “that was a moment of weakness.”

“and you trusted me with it.”

“because i trust you.”

“i…fine,” you sigh, because what can you really say to that? “it’s cute, that’s all.”

mingyu wiggles his eyebrows. “you think i’m cute?”

“i swear—”

“kidding!” he walks you out of the kitchen, hands on your shoulders, and you love it as much as you wish he didn’t do it. “we’ll be back within the hour. the cake should be ready by then.”

he hands you one of his hoodies that’s lying on the sofa before you head out. you look up at him when he presses the fabric into your hands.

“it’s cold,” he explains, but it’s muffled by the messy way he’s pulling his hoodie over his head.

“and i can deal with the cold just fine.”

“no, you’re going to stick your cold toes on my legs when we sit down to eat, and i’m not going to bear that. even if you’re my best friend.”

and no matter what excuse you make to avoid wearing mingyu’s clothes, it’s never enough. he has to see you bundled up to make sure you’re not going to freeze in front of him, although that’s a tad bit dramatic. this is one of his newer hoodies, and you can tell by the way it doesn’t smell like him just yet. maybe it’s a good thing. maybe you can stop thinking about him like that. one step at a time.

“some best friend you are,” you mumble, wearing your shoes. you look up and mingyu’s frowning at you. not the usual way; there’s a tiny frown that would’ve been imperceptible if you didn’t know him the way you do, but you’re not going to ask what’s up. he tells you things if they’re really bothering him, so you’re going to let him let you know in his own time.

he wasn’t wrong. it really is windy. you’re glad he made you wear the hoodie. you pull the sweater paws over your palms, loving the way your palms instantly become warm. mingyu flips the hood over your head and you’re about to thank him for it before he draws the strings together and ends up blacking out your vision. he finds it funny for about two seconds till you stumble blindly and end up jostling him in the stomach.

he's still wincing when you undo the strings, and you can’t help but laugh. “sorry, gyu.”

“are you, though?”

“…no.”

“thought so.”

“was it my fault?”

“no,” he says, and smiles, and you feel your heart flutter again. “not your fault.” it’s so pretty. even his smile’s so pretty. you love his canines, his little fangs that he feels weird about sometimes. if it were up to you, you’d do anything to make him love them just as much as you did, even if that something were kissing.

whoa. not again. not when he’s with you.

“so, about failed dates,” he says, looking at you. “are you actually looking for something, or do you just…go on them to pass your time?”

mingyu does this thing where he can read you to filth without even trying. it’s like he knows what’s running in your mind, or at least has the vaguest idea of it, and he says things that are basically truths you don’t want to admit to yourself out of fear of not knowing what to do about them.

“why does it matter?” you ask, a bit defensive.

he frowns. again, that little frown. you wish you could remove it. “because there’s so many other things you could be doing to spend time instead of creeping yourself out every time you go on a date. and you don’t need to keep getting yourself hurt like that if it isn’t leading to anything.”

“are you dating someone?”

mingyu pffts. “what, i can’t have advice for you without being in a relationship?”

“no,” you say immediately, backtracking. of course he can. “sorry. i know you didn’t mean anything by it, but…”

“but?”

“i just wish i—”

you’re cut off by the sudden bark of a dog. you look around to find the source of the sound only to see a dog running around in circles with its leash in its mouth. it looks adorable.

“hey, buddy,” you say, crouching down in front of it. it looks up at you and barks. a happy little yip! before it continues running along in circles.

“are you lost?” mingyu asks softly, crouching down next to you. he reaches out a hand to pet its head, and the puppy leans into his touch completely. it looks familiar for some reason.

“do you have any idea whose dog this is?” mingyu asks. you shake your head. maybe you’ve seen a dog like this, not the dog itself, but you’re really not sure. he’s in the process of searching the dog’s collar, but someone yelling in the distance makes him pause. he gets up and tugs the dog by its collar. it has the name tag jamie inscribed on it.

the person yelling out for jamie is none other than one of your neighbours. you know her well. as well as you can for someone you don’t interact much with. not if you can help it.

she’s the kind of neighbour that always pokes her nose into matters that don’t bother her, the neighbour that outright shows she’s not interested in something if it doesn’t get her anything. the two times you tried to initiate a conversation with her as you waited for the elevator to reach your floor are a stark reminder of the fact that she’s not the kind of person you’d ever be friends with. you don’t know what you’ve done to rub her the wrong way, but she doesn’t look like she’ll even give you a chance.

you watch as mingyu hands over the dog to her, and once she’s done making sure jamie’s okay, she looks him up and down.

you don’t blame her. you’d do the same, a bit more subtly, but it does sting to see the way she’s probably the kind of person he should be hanging out with.

“thanks for finding jamie,” she says, all smiles. she really doesn’t need to be smiling that much.

“no worries,” mingyu says with a smile of his own. “and it wasn’t me who found jamie, by the way. it was them.” he points to you with a jerk of his thumb. you smile at her, but feel icy inside when she looks you up ad down.

“oh. are they your…” she trails off with a smile on her face that screams no fucking way. you suddenly wish you could just run back to your apartment and leave the two of them down here.

“partner? you think so?”

“just…you two look like opposites, that’s all. sometimes opposites don’t attract, but you never know. life’s funny sometimes.” she simpers a little, and your hands ball up into fists by your side.

what you don’t expect is for mingyu to throw his arm around your shoulders, pulling you into himself. “yes, actually,” he says, leaning into you in a way that most definitely exaggerates your height difference. “you could call them my better half. and don’t they look good in this hoodie? it’s mine, by the way,” he says, and you can recognize the smile on his face — it’s a fake one, the corporate one he adopts when he’s in a situation he doesn’t like.

his words keep buzzing in your mind as you walk past your neighbour and back upstairs to your apartment. he’d said you were a couple so easily, even though you were not. better half? really? the way he’d leaned into you so easily, the fact that he told her it was his hoodie. it’s…weird. and too much for you.

you don’t speak much as you help mingyu remove the cake from the oven, getting it ready for frosting. he manages to get an indignant sound when he manages to get some on your cheek this time, but the rest of the evening is spent thinking about the interaction you had.

is it really so unbelievable for people to imagine the two of you together?

“hey,” he says, bumping your side with his. except he miscalculates his strength (or does it on purpose) and ends up making you stumble a few steps away from him. you don’t even have it in you to be mad when you see the giggle on his face. “you good?”

“yes. sorry,” you say, opening the refrigerator to take out the food mingyu had made last night. he cooks enough to feed a family of four even though you’re the only one that lives at your place, so it’s useful for when you don’t feel like cooking.

“who was she?” mingyu asks, setting down the plates on the table. “a friend?”

you shudder at the thought of her being your friend. “a neighbour. she lives in the flat down mine. she’s not really the kind of person i’d be friends with, but jamie’s cute. i keep seeing him around sometimes.”

“hmm.” you get the smell of reheated noodles as mingyu works at the stove. “she was…weird.”

“that’s an understatement.”

“is she always like that?”

“rude?”

“yeah. that’s not something you’d say to a couple you see, even if you don’t like them.”

“she certainly doesn’t seem to care,” you say, a bit more forceful than necessary, setting down two glasses as well.

“well, i think we’d make a cute couple,” mingyu says, a little smile on his face as he reaches out to ruffle your hair.

you swear your heart dies a little right then and there. you stare at him unblinkingly. “do you ever hear the stuff that comes out of your mouth?” you ask, regaining your bearings and filling the glasses with water.

“sorry,” mingyu says, sheepishly. “i just don’t like the idea of anyone talking like that. especially with you. especially when you’ve done nothing to deserve it.”

your heart warms at that. “thank you, gyu,” you say, reaching out to squeeze his arm. bad idea. you’d forgotten how much he’s been working out recently, and how big he is. “i’m glad i could one-up her this time.”

“just call me the next time you want to do it again.”

“yeah, sure.”

the rest of the night is spent watching this show that’s been on your watchlist for a while, and you don’t mind if mingyu conks out in the middle of it.

sure enough, you hear his soft snores after you finish your dessert, and you turn to see this big man that’s also your best friend craning his neck on the sofa as he tries to keep himself in the blanket that’s certainly not big enough for the two of you.

sometimes you wonder if he’d cuddle with you to save space and keep himself warm, and this also happens to be one of those times. You get up and reposition him as gently as you can, so that his back doesn’t hurt in the morning. His nose twitches when you rest a hand on his hair, wishing him a silent goodnight.

It's not the first time you wish you could kiss him, dangerous as that thought is.

you can’t stop thinking about the interaction you had a few days ago. sure, your neighbour isn’t someone whose behaviour you’d count on to matter, but was she right when she said she can’t see two people like you together? people as opposite to each other as you and mingyu?

sure, you’re not the usual kind of crowd he hangs out with, but is it so bad to imagine something between the two of you? was that just the sign to stop thinking about mingyu, get over him and resign yourself to a life without love?

as much as you complain about going on dates, there’s something that’s your fault too — you look for mingyu everywhere. none of the men you’ve gone on dates with are mingyu, and that’s the crux of the problem. none of them smile the way he does, none of them give you their jacket when you’re feeling cold, and it’s unfair for you to expect them to understand everything about you.

you can’t have mingyu, and you’re going to have to learn to accept that.

Which is why you’re at this party with your friend seungkwan. it’s not your usual scene — you’d much rather be curled up in bed with a book and some takeout, or cleaning your bookshelf while listening to music on the television — but you’re not complaining. seungkwan was right. you need to let go once in a while, just enjoy yourself before you inevitably spend weeks together keeping to yourself, immersed in your work.

“dance with me!” seungkwan yells out to you over the din of the crowd.

“i can’t dance! not like you!”

“that hardly matters! let’s have some fun, come on!”

seungkwan is nothing if not persistent. finishing off the last of the drink, you let him lead you out onto the dance floor. he rests his hands on your shoulders as he sways you to the music. it’s fast paced and something you’d be caught doing in the privacy of your own house, your own little concert, and for once you don’t care about the fact that people can see you. you’re lost in your own little world with seungkwan, and more importantly, you’re happy. the stress of whatever the fuck happened last week between you and mingyu, with him calling himself your boyfriend without knowing how down bad you are for him, is pushed to the back of your mind as the beat changes. seungkwan starts clapping to the rhythm, making you realize you’re dancing by yourself.

you’re not half bad at this. a little under confident, sure, but not bad. you could try making this a monthly thing and having fun with it.

eventually you end up too exhausted to dance to another song, and seungkwan guides you to a seat, your shoes in his hand as he asks you to catch your breath and wait for a while more till he finishes dancing with some other people.

you’ve ordered a basic drink for yourself when someone slides in next to you. you don’t pay them much attention, focusing on relaxing a bit and finishing your drink, but you have to turn around and look at them when you can actually feel their eyes piercing into your side and— boy, is he a sight for sore eyes.

he looks boyishly handsome, completely in place in this club as he watches you with his chin resting in his hand, eyes glinting in the light of the fixture above the two of you. he’s pretty, and just as handsome, and his eyes are the loveliest shade of brown you’ve ever seen.

“saw you dancing out there,” he says, his words a bit of a drawl, and accented. “you were pretty good.”

“you don’t need to lie if you’re trying to flirt,” you jest, finishing your drink.

“i’m not in the habit of lying,” he says, smiling at you. “you looked like you were having fun.”

“i…was, actually,” you say. he’s still smiling, looking at you like he’s searching for something in your eyes. you feel warm. gosh.

“can i get you another drink?”

“no, thank you, actually. i need my head to remain intact if i want to get home in one piece.”

“suit yourself,” he nods, and asks the bartender for the same drink you had. the bar is in hell, but you’re impressed he backed off immediately. you watch as he makes quick work of his drink.

“so, you come here often?” he asks, wiping the back of his mouth.

“not really. my friend dragged me out tonight because he felt i needed a break from my life.”

“just a friend?” he asks, eyes following your line of vision to see seungkwan still dancing with some strangers, looking like he’s having fun.

“why, you interested?”

“depends on who you’re talking about.”

“him?”

“cute, but no.”

“me.”

“maybe.”

you trace the ring of condensation your drink’s left on the table. “but i’m not looking for anything, honestly. i’ve sworn off dating for a while.”

“that’s fine. we could just…talk.”

you look up at the man. you don’t know if this is his way of trying to get you to go home with him, but it’s the most genuine someone’s been. “you never told me your name, by the way.”

“me? vernon. nice to meet you.”

you give him your name in return, and like the way it rolls off his tongue.

“so…can i ask why you’ve sworn off dating?”

seungkwan’s still going to take a while, going by the previous times you’ve been here, and vernon definitely seems interested in talking to you.

“you ever…had a crush on your best friend?”

vernon winces — an actual wince, like he’s seen something terrible, and it makes you laugh. “yeah…once. it sucks.”

“exactly.”

“you’re trying to get over them?”

“trying being the keyword, yes.”

“then how are you trying to get over them if you’re not into dating?”

you sigh. vernon’s a perceptive one. “trying to think of other people even if i don’t necessarily go home with them. just anything to get my mind off him.”

“anything? how bored would you be if i started talking about why i think star wars is excessive but also misunderstood?”

you don’t find vernon boring, in fact. you find yourself drawn to him speaking, the way his eyes light up and his hands get a life of their own as he lists out every single point in aid of his stance, and encourages you to contribute to the conversation. it feels like he’s an old friend, and not someone you met hardly an hour ago. it’s fun.

“…so maybe we could go out to watch that movie? it’s coming out next week.”

“go out?”

“as friends, of course. i’m not looking to take someone home, either. if anything, i came here to keep my friends company, but…i think i lost them in the crowd.”

you look around, and seungkwan’s sitting at a table surrounded by a bunch of girls, and it makes you grin. he doesn’t need you sticking with him anymore.

“you were saying?”

“does next week work—”

“it doesn’t,” says a new voice. a familiar voice. there’s two hands on your shoulders, a familiar weight. “we’re hanging out at my place next week.”

“mingyu!” you exclaim, pulling him out from behind you. “don’t scare me like that.”

“sorry,” he says, not sounding the least bit sorry. “you have no idea how much time i spent searching for you only to find you hidden here.”

“why were you looking for me? how did you know i was here?”

he looks at you like you asked him something stupid. “because it’s late, and because seungkwan’s most definitely not driving you home.” ah. seungkwan must have asked mingyu to pick you up, given that he was your ride here.

“well,” you say, directing him towards your conversational partner. “this is vernon. my new friend.”

“hi,” he says, curt, and you frown. mingyu’s generally nicer.

“hey,” vernon says coolly. then he turns back to you. “can you give me your number? i’ll text you about it later, when you’re free. think i’ll search for them now.”

you hand vernon your own phone, given he’s had less drinks than you have, and it hardly takes a minute for him to enter his details before he saves his number and claps your shoulder, wishing you and mingyu a good night.

you find mingyu watching vernon making his way through the crowd. “so, who was that?”

“new friend. vernon. like i said.”

“a new friend? seriously? he just asked for your number.”

“so? he wasn’t hitting on me or anything. he just asked me so we could go see this movie we’ve been wanting to watch.”

mingyu’s eyebrows rise. “a movie? together? doesn’t that sound like…a date?”

you frown. “two friends can go watch movies, mingyu. don’t we do that all the time?”

“Yeah, but that’s because you know me. he’s just some random guy you met today. at a club.”

either mingyu’s being obtuse, or you’re not thinking correctly. “are you saying i don’t know how to read people’s intentions?”

“you’re drunk,” he says bluntly, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around your shoulders. “you don’t know what he wants.”

something about his tone makes you angry. he wasn’t even here the whole evening. “as if you do. you didn’t speak to him at all, mingyu. you don’t even know what we talked about.”

“didn’t you say you wanted to stop going out on dates?”

the coldness in his voice makes you freeze. you’ve never heard him sound so hostile, not with you. “what do you mean?”

“why did i have to find out from seungkwan that you were out here at this club just a week after you asked me to make you touch grass if you so much as thought of a date?”

“but it wasn’t a date!” you exclaim, feeling more and more annoyed. to your horror, you feel tears stinging the corners of your eyes. “are you saying i’m—”

“you’re drunk. you don’t know what you want. did you seriously expect to make friends at the club of all places?”

this isn’t your mingyu. he’d never judge you the way he’s doing right now. you take his jacket and throw it on the counter, turning around and marching out. you’ll call a cab to take you to your place. you don’t need him dropping you home.

“hey,” mingyu calls out, jogging towards you, jacket in his hand. “it’s cold. take this, please?”

“i don’t care about what you have to say,” you sniff, wrapping your hands around yourself. “don’t talk to me.”

“listen, you can be angry with me all you want, but just take my jacket. i don’t want you freezing out here when you don’t need to be.”

“maybe you should’ve thought of that before saying all that shit to me,” you spit. “why do you want to talk to me now? just insult me some more, why don’t you?”

mingyu huffs, but says nothing. he just looks at you.

“come with me.”

“where?”

“to my car.”

“why should i?”

“i won’t leave you here by yourself. i want to make sure you’re safe. let me drop you home and you can be mad at me all you want. please.”

“what, your night’s going to be a waste unless i come with you?”

“no,” he says quietly, and it makes you pause. mingyu is anything but quiet. “It’s never a waste. but it’ll just put my mind at ease if i know you’re safe, okay?”

you see the logic in his words, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. “fine,” you say, taking his jacket from him and slipping it on.

“thank you,” he says, opening the passenger door for you.

the drive to your place is quiet. you can tell mingyu wants to say something, start a conversation, but you keep your eyes resolutely fixed ahead.

“come on,” he says, unbuckling his seat belt and getting out when you reach your building. you follow him upstairs to your apartment. he unlocks the door for you and makes way for you to step inside first.

“do you need water? food? anything i can get?” he asks, taking off his shoes.

you turn around to look at him. he’s big, as always, but for once it feels like he’s taking up all the space in your apartment.

“i’m not that drunk,” you say finally.

he stands up straight to look at you. “but—”

“yes, i had some drinks, but i know my limit. i had my last one just before i started talking to vernon. i hate that you thought i wasn’t capable of making my own decisions.”

he swallows. “i didn’t mean to undermine—”

“but you did! and you don’t know how terrible it feels. i’m not a baby, gyu. i know what i want and what i’m doing. i’m hurt. and,” you say, taking in a deep breath, “if you really want to know something, know this — we’re in completely different leagues.”

mingyu frowns. “what do you mean?”

“i—” there’s so much you mean. you can’t possibly recount all the thoughts you’ve had about feeling inadequate, all the nights you’ve spent wondering how long it’ll be before he realizes you’re not as cool as you should be. “i’m not sober enough to talk about this.”

“you just said you weren’t that drunk.”

“this is my home,” you say, a bit harsher than needed. “you got me here safe, and that’s all you wanted to do. this is me being mad at you, so if you respect me, you’re going to let me sleep. okay? goodnight, mingyu.”

“goodnight,” he says, and you hate how small his voice sounds. “sleep well.”

and you do sleep well. well enough that you sleep through your alarm, and wake up almost when it’s ten. at least it’s a saturday, so you’re not freaking out as you brush your teeth. you have some work to do today. and hanging out with mingyu is on the agenda as well, but you’re not sure if you’re keen on going through with it, especially after what happened last night.

if you were delusional, which you’re most definitely not, you’d say that mingyu had been jealous that you and vernon had exchanged numbers in front of him. except there’s no reason for him to be jealous. like he reminded you, you’re not looking for any relationships. there’s no one he has to compete with, so to speak.

so why was he that upset last night? and what about the things he’d said to you?

you’ve had fights before, fights that ended up with both of you not wanting to speak to each other, but this was different. he’d never been angry like this.

you’re the one who’s upset, you realize, as you walk to the kitchen to fix yourself some breakfast. you’re going to talk it out with mingyu once your head is clearer, and you’re going to see what he has to say for himself.

except mingyu’s already here. you can smell the delicious scent of tteokbokki wafting through the room. mingyu’s set out two plates, two glasses — the usual. you’re feeling woefully under dressed in front of him in your pyjamas, despite the fact that he’s seen you like this multiple times before.

“morning,” he says. his voice is hesitant. It’s never hesitant.

“hi. morning.”

“slept well?”

“yeah, better than…what exactly are you doing here?”

“cooking you breakfast,” he says, waving his spatula around.

“i can see that. i meant here. in my place. didn’t you go back home after dropping me off?”

“no. i felt too tired to drive back home, so i decided to crash out on your couch. and i’m making you breakfast now. isn’t that a win-win?”

you can see one win, but you’re not sure what the other is. you take a seat at the table and pour yourself a glass of water, wearily trying to assess the situation. mingyu had pretty much scolded you last night. like a parent who didn’t trust you to make the right choices despite having free will. and now he’s cooking you breakfast like last night just didn’t happen.

“can i ask you something?” mingyu says, pushing a plate of tteokbokki towards you along with a pair of chopsticks.

“don’t think i can stop you, can i?”

mingyu huffs. “hey. if you’re upset with me, just say no.”

“what is it?”

“what did you mean by yourself being out of my league?”

you set your chopsticks down. “you’re serious? you’re really asking me that?”

he frowns. “yes.”

“mingyu, you called yourself my boyfriend a week back. your…better half.”

“that was to make your neighbour leave. she was being weird.”

“sure. and then we went back to life like nothing had even happened.”

“because…it hadn’t? i thought we talked it out that night itself? what happened now?”

“i don’t think you understand how that made me feel. especially when you said—” you say, voice trembling. “you called yourself my boyfriend last week. like it’s something you throw around naturally. and last night you acted all…weird, as if i wasn’t allowed to have a normal conversation with someone who wasn’t you. why are you so confusing?”

“would you hear me out if i said i had a reason?”

“you’d better have a damn good reason.”

mingyu sets down his glass and looks at you. “i’m sorry for everything i said yesterday. i truly am. i didn’t mean any of it. i was just…jealous.”

that catches your attention. “jealous? of?”

“that guy. vernon. you seemed like you were having a good time talking to him and i thought about how if you got together you’d probably leave our relationship behind because you liked him so much.”

“whoa. slow down. i told you i wasn’t looking—”

“you weren’t. i know that. but the way you looked at him made me feel something.”

“what?”

“i’m saying…” mingyu takes in a deep breath, and focuses on something past your shoulder. not meeting your eyes. “i’m saying i like you.”

you blink. “i’m sorry?”

“i like you, and i was jealous because you seemed to be having so much fun talking to him. if you have to know, there’s no guy who possibly deserves you. i’m not saying i do, either, but i’ll try my best to be the guy you deserve.”

it’s still too early in the day for this. “stop joking, mingyu. i don’t want to go through it again. just—”

“i’m not!” he exclaims, coming over to your side of the table. “thinking i could be with anyone i wanted is a bold thing to say. how do you think i feel every time i go out for company dinners but all i want to do is spend time with you? have you as my plus one every time?”

your heart’s fluttering very fast. you feel almost breathless. “i wouldn’t even look that good by your side.”

“says you. have you ever seen yourself?”

“i have, actually, and i look—”

“so gorgeous,” mingyu cuts you off, eyes twinkling as he says so. as though he’d been holding onto it for so long and finally found the right time to release it. “you look exactly like the person i want to spend every single day of my life with.”

you almost expect cameras to pop up out of nowhere and film your reaction to what he’s just said. “the…rest of your life? you do know that’s…a long time, right?”

“i do. and i’ve already spent four years with you. eight, if you’re counting the time before we became best friends.”

it’s everything you’ve ever wanted to hear. what he’s offering is so close to you, just an arm’s length away, but you can’t convince yourself to reach out for it. you hide your face in your hands. “gyu…”

“i’m serious,” he says, gently peeling your hands from your face. his hands are so warm as he holds yours, and his boba eyes are so close to yours. he’s adorable. “give me one chance?”

“what if we…mess this up? what if you realize i’m not that fun to hang out with every single day?”

“what if you realize everything you're thinking is wrong? what if you realize there’s no way i’m going to let things go wrong, especially when it comes to you?”

you don’t know what to say. you don’t know what the future holds in store, and you have no answers to your questions just like you don’t have answers to his.

“i know you think…not so greatly of yourself sometimes,” mingyu says, squeezing your hands. “and i want to be here to tell you that everything you think in that regard is wrong. i like you because you’re you. why do you think you’re the only one who’s been my best friend for so long? you’re the only one i can be myself around completely. tell me you know that.”

“i…didn’t know that.”

“then i clearly didn’t do a very good job at being your best friend. maybe i can fix that now.”

now. now that mingyu likes you. now that you have the chance to see your relationship blossom into something more.

“you’re not even going to ask me if i like you?”

a slow blush spreads across mingyu’s face. “shit, sorry. um, do you…like me?”

“of course i like you, gyu,” you smile, feeling giddy at the way he gets redder.

“good. can i, um, be your boyfriend, then? would you like that?”

“you’re not taking me out on a date first?”

mingyu’s eyes shine and he leans in till his nose is inches away from yours. “hi,” he whispers, and you actually whimper when his lips brush yours the slightest bit. embarrassing. mingyu doesn’t seem to mind, though.

“g-good morning, gyu.”

“the best, actually. even better if you let me take you out on a date today.”

taglist: @bookyeom @wootify @strnsvt @cloudycaramel @thepoopdokyeomtouched

@minnieminshi @nonononranghaee @hrts4hanniehae @viewvuu @bewoyewo

[leclsrc]

sweet pea ✴︎ cl16

genre: friends to lovers, dad charles/pregnancy au, fluff!, humor, super slight angst

word count: 4.6k

“I thought the puking was food poisoning,” he says. “Jesus, you know how many takeout places I’ve avoided lately?” “Well, it’s not Panda Express. It’s your alien sperm.”

Or: you finally reap what you sow after fooling around with your best friend. The reaping in question is a kid.

notes... some nsfw allusions, nothing too bad. if pregnancy isnt ur thing this is all about it so.

auds here... i hated this for a long time so i thought id never post it hahahah but i will now bec i just redid some scenes and its okay in my eyes... also this is a bit overdue. i hope u like it everyone! :) title from this

It’s an hour before the race and you’re absent from your usual spot greeting friends and guests along the paddock. Instead, you’re leaned against the wall of the tiny motorhome bathroom, silently digging your toes into your sandals. Charles knocks twice before trying to open the door and succeeding. He beams when he sees you, goes, “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

He offers a hand, but you let your eyes shut, refusing to take it. You fail to even make eye contact, holding up the plastic stick that’d been in your clammy grip for about twenty minutes. It’s an omen, a portent, a cursed thing, casting your best friend into silence.

It’s cold and sterile in the bathroom—a stark contrast to where other families might find out they’re pregnant for the first time. You imagine a lemon yellow room bathed in noon sunlight and a happy balding doctor going “It’s positive, mama!” You picture a white family SUV in the parking lot, a happy blonde couple jumping into each other’s arms with unadulterated happiness.

Instead, you get: “Do you have COVI—oh.”

“Yeah.” You say, pursing your lips. You swallow. “Oh.”

“I thought the puking was food poisoning,” he says. “Jesus, you know how many takeout places I’ve avoided lately?”

“Well, it’s not Panda Express. It’s your alien sperm,” you counter, lifting yourself from the wall and bumping past Charles on your way out and into his room. He follows, brows knitted together, muttering something French under his breath. 

“By that logic, that’d mean you’re an alien now, too. See, your kinks have finally met their match.”

You turn, effectively stopping him in his tracks. He almost collides with you, his eyes trained determinedly on the positive pregnancy test in his hand. You cross your arms and narrow your eyes, annoyed. “Seriously. Jokes? Right now?”

“I mean—”

“Whatever,” you say, waving him off. “Just go and drive. We can talk about this later.”

“I’ll dedicate the race to the little alien.” He giggles, mimicking a champagne spray, waving the invisible bottle back and forth toward your still-not-showing stomach. His accent switches to a measly English one when he goes, “Oh my Gawd! And there goes the alien Leclerc! Wins in first! From pole!”

“Get out. Or so help me God this baby is growing up without you.”

He ends up winning. (“Should I dedicate every race to the ali—” “Stop calling it that.”)

—

This is nothing but a final culmination of your very layered relationship with Charles. For years, you two had comfortably gone by the “best friends” label, with a hidden “with benefits” clause. You’d grown up together, separated only when you went to university in New York. Your re-arrival in Monaco, coupled with the both of you having grown older and more independent, marked the start of the sex.

It works like clockwork. To relieve stress, to celebrate, to cure boredom. At some point, both of you just inwardly admitted there was a certain weakness to it. A glass of wine, a stick of tobacco, and you’d give in to the temptation easily. Then, in the morning—sometimes in Monaco, other times in foreign countries where your body feels like it’s still three a.m.—you come to a mutual agreement to never do it again.

But you always do, laughing in between kisses, mumbling whispered nothings between the sheets (or in the bathtub, or against the wall, or—that one time—on the balcony.) And now there’s proof of it. Well, barely any yet, you realize, staring at yourself in the mirror of Charles’ hotel room. You turn and flop yourself onto the bed, but face-up. You inch yourself toward the headboard and lean against it in a half-seated position.

“I can’t believe I’m…” You sigh. Finally, the jokes fizzle. This is the real talk.

Charles burrows himself next to you, shirtless and in a stupid pair of boxers with red hearts all over them. You’d gotten them as a Valentine’s Day gag two years ago, but now you’re thinking of the future, of telling this kid their dad has a pair of heart-decorated boxers. Momentarily, and temptingly so, you weigh the options of telling Charles you were joking and running away before sunup.

“Penny for your thoughts?” He asks. He’d learned the phrase from some obscure American rom-com, if you recall correctly. He uses it constantly, and for many years, improperly.

“I’ll give you them for free,” you say, breathless with worry. “We’re having a kid.”

A hand places itself on your knee. You almost jerk away, but you relax. “What do you want to do?”

“With?” You ask, emptily. There’s so much to do. “The baby?”

“Well, I mean, yeah, but also us.”

“We’re not dating,” you say, a bit sharper than intended. 

“We could.” He pauses. “For its sake.” He pokes your abdomen.

“I don’t—” You inhale, trying to reorganize all your thoughts. “I don’t want people thinking we’re suddenly dating and engaged and happy just because I’m about to pop a Charles Jr. out. I mean, what are you going to do with your racing? With a kid on the way, how’s travel going to work? My job? My masters?” 

“I think… I think you and I are lucky enough,” he says slowly, “to be able to weigh all these options without losing too much time or resources. I will support you no matter what, and you know that. And really, who cares if people think we ‘date’ because of the baby? You and I have been ‘dating’ since we were eleven.” 

You don’t realize you’re crying until your laugh is mixed with a sob. You don’t know if you’re sad, pissed, overwhelmed, loved—or all four. “Okay? So… let’s both think about it. More you than me. And tomorrow, we can weigh this all over again. Let’s sleep on it. Remember? La nuit—”

“—porte conseil,” you finish tearily. “Okay.”

—

It’s two weeks later. Charles gets stuck in the paddock doing something or other for Sunday, so you’re left to your own devices in the parking lot. Five minutes of waiting turns to fifteen, then a half hour. That’s the catalyst for your mid-evening freakout—suddenly you’re thinking about all the times you and this weird thing inside you might be alone, left for work, by an athlete dad.

“Are you okay?” A voice asks when you’re heaving out another dry, panic-induced sigh. You turn, finding it familiar, and see Seb behind you. He may have been Charles’ teammate, but he’s a friend to you, too, and you find he’s always the most grounded in heated discussions.

“Seb,” you croak, caught off guard. “I’m fine.” Your voice breaks on the ine, and suddenly fat tears roll quietly down your face.

You tell him eventually, when he asks you again if you’re okay, making him the second person to know; still, the telling doesn’t get easier. You didn’t even tell Charles, you think. You merely shoved a Clearblue stick in his face and waited for the goofy reaction that would undoubtedly meet your ears.

“A baby,” he says softly. Happily. “Congratulations. This is a big step… but you don’t sound excited.”

“I mean,” you say in between waves of tears, “I am? I am. But—it happened so fast—we’re not even officially together—and Charles is—”

“Do I need to talk some sense into Charles?” Seb asks suddenly, concerned. 

“No. He’s—he’s being great. Really supportive.” You wipe the tears and fresh ones come. “He’s happy. You know him. I think I’m just overwhelmed. I mean I’m the one who’s toting this baby around.” 

“Take it one step at a time,” he muses. “See a doctor, work out non-race schedules with Mattia, get everything in order. If I know you, this baby will be in the best hands. And that’s not even counting Charles.” He pulls you in for a hug that lasts ages, one that says thank you and I love you better than words. You inhale, find the tears have stopped. You realize what comes after this—it’s telling everyone else. Lily, your best friend. Carlos. Charles’ family. Your family. The fans, oh God you’d forgotten about the fans. The social media announcements. 

Charles strolls into the parking lot—runs, more like, with apologies spouting out of him, just two minutes after Seb leaves. He presses a delicate, apologetic kiss to your forehead, a hand on your stomach. “Hey,” he says. Then, to your abdomen, covered by a sweatshirt, “Hey there, alien.” You wonder what this will be like in two months. In seven. In nine.

—

You tell your families over lunch on a lucky off day. There is little surprise—just tears from both your moms and Arthur teasingly asking you to recount the details of conception. You’re in a sundress serving crostini when Pascale pulls you aside to the back of the yard.

She presses a kiss to your cheek, one of conviction and faith. “I always knew,” she says. “You’re going to be a wonderful mom.”

—

The drivers all find out one way or another, news trickling through the grapevine like honey. You share it to Lily first, and of course she tells Alex. You tell Lewis, too, over spring rolls that he claims will power up the baby when it’s born. Charles tells Pierre, who tells Yuki, and Carlos, who tells Lando. You tell Mick, who hugs you and says, “Oh my god! I already knew, Seb told me. I kept wanting to say congratulations.” 

It’s a matter of two weeks before everybody knows. You know because you’ve barely taken a step into the dimly lit Ferrari motorhome when you halt and bolt back outside, harboring yourself a few metres away at a safe distance. Charles, who had been walking beside you, arm looped around your waist, turns, puzzled.

“What’s going on?” He asks.

“No. Nuh-uh. It smells in there.”

He sniffs the darkness, fumbles for the light switch. “No it doesn’t.”

“It smells like”—you grit your teeth, trying to identify the stench—“cheese. And champagne.”

“Why would it smell like che—”

He bangs the light open and illuminates a surprise party. The entire grid starts cheering, having unheard the entire conversation. There’s a huge banner that says CONGRATULATIONS PARENTS, and on a makeshift table in the centre, an assortment of cake slices, cheese, and flutes of champagne. Charles laughs with delight at the surprise, and then turns to find you squatting on the ground, trying to quell your stomach. 

“Give me five,” you say, waving him off.

He returns after ten to find you still trying to calm the waves of nausea. You hear his footsteps and heave yourself up, standing to face him. “I asked Esteban and Max to evacuate the place of cheese and champagne. It’s just coffee and cake now. I even got three fans going.”

“Desolée,” you say, miserable. He wraps two big arms around you, nestling his chin atop your head. “I feel like a high-maintenance monster.”

“Don’t be silly. You’re not the monster. The alien is.”

“I told you to stop calling it that,” you say, shutting your eyes and leaning into his touch. “Before it catches on.”

“Okay. E.T.? Spock? Open to suggestions.” Hand in yours, he walks you gently to the party, arising loud cheers again. In between sips of hot water, he says, “How about Chewy?”

—

The sense of smell proves to be useful in endeavours elsewhere.

“You never clean your car,” you say, lying horizontal on the leather seat and picking bits of dirt off. “I can smell month old Cheetos.”

Charles watches you obsessively nitpick at the detailing. “Last time you looked like this, I gave you a baby.”

“One more word,” you warn sharply. 

“But seriously, be careful. The alien might get stressed.”

You brace yourself for the stupid words that will indubitably follow.

“Don’t worry. If it falls out I’ll plop it in a race car and it’ll be the next Hamilton. Imagine how light it’ll be.”

There it is.

—

Your first trip to the doctor’s is interesting. Charles insists on wearing a wig because he’s so easily recognized in Monaco, so now you look like you’re conceiving a baby with Weird Al Yankovic.

The doctor wheels in a cart with a monitor and all the necessary equipment, and even if it suddenly feels all too real, Charles squeezes your hand and you’re calm again. “I’m back,” she says, sliding into a wheely chair beside you and gelling your stomach.

“Hi, Back,” Charles responds in a crude, twangy Texan accent. The dad humor starts early, you suppose.

You grit your teeth to try and excuse his embarrassing behavior, but suddenly the monitor clicks open and there it is. It looks like the ones in movies, print-outs from friends, but at the same time it doesn’t. It looks different. Special. Yours. You zero in on it, breathless. That’s yours. The doctor says a couple minor things—nothing worrisome—and when you turn to relay it to Charles in case he’d zoned out, you find his face splotchy.

“Are you crying?”

“That’s ours,” he says, dipping down to press a kiss to your forehead.

“It’s mine and Charles’, not mine and Bob Ross’,” you say, but you pull him closer anyway. 

You order two printouts. The week next, you discover that Charles snuck back in to order an extra eight and has mailed them out to friends and drivers. You find out because Kylian Mbappe messages you “Due in April? Make me godfather!” on Instagram.

—

Gradually, you fall into a pattern of being queasy constantly. You get nitpicky with meals, and not irrationally—Charles had fed you a spicy hotdog and you’d gone half a bite before hurling it, and your breakfast, into the nearest toilet. You find solace in your cravings—all of which happen to be the same everyday.

Chinese takeout from just about any restaurant ends up being your best friend. You somehow can’t stomach anything but that specific cuisine, much to your own surprise. You find new ways to combine them with each other. Rice paper wrappers with chow mein. Hotpot with fried rice. If you’re not eating Chinese, you reduce your appetite to crackers or hot tea to avoid becoming too nauseated.

It’s poetic almost, the way he sets out the food carefully, in the order you like them. He always presses a kiss to your forehead after. 

Around this time, you develop a crazy sex drive, waking Charles up at numerous points of the night, begging into his neck for something, anything. You last an hour before you’re asking again. This proves especially difficult before races, where Charles gives in a bit too easily and Carlos has to knock on the door, going “You have to finish somewhere else too, Charles!”

—

You insist Charles hold off on telling the fans, for a few months. It goes okay until your outfits on the paddock evolve into the variety of “Charles’ hoodies” to hide the increasingly evident bloat of pregnancy, and nosy fans start speculating all over Twitter. That’s when he sits you down and gently tells you he thinks it’s time you both announce it.

You’re sitting beside him in his hotel room, after two calls with his bosses, trying to formulate the proper announcement. You download PicsArt to make it pretty and clean and formatted—because the poor guy was about to post a Notes app screenshot—and then it’s on the Internet. 

“She’s truly MOTHER,” one fan comments. Despite yourself, you press the heart icon beside it. It’s your bit of comfort when you catch sight of the nastier comments under the post.

—

You’re ironically gifted an ancient 80s aerobic exercise DVD for mums by Lily and Alex. You’re sure it’s older than you. Charles, though, in his valiant effort to connect with you and Chewy, does the routine everyday. You wake up to the electronic synthpop and Charles doing booty squats in the living room.

The permed instructor smiles through the scratchy 80s quality and goes, “You are rocking it, momma!”

“You hear that?!” Charles pants. “I am rocking it!”

—

Your first parenting fight ends up being one over the baby’s name. Yeah. Of all things. You don’t know why you’re so worked up about it, considering you don’t even know the gender of the baby yet. You arrive in Monaco to mark the first of five off days and Charles makes some random, offhand joke about naming the baby Daryl, and you suddenly start rambling on and on about how it’s too ugly, even if you’d never thought about names before now.

“It’s not going to be Daryl. It won’t be Daryl,” Charles says, hands on your shoulders. You heave another sob. “Please stop crying. You never cry. I’m a bit freaked out.”

“It’s—just—that,” you hiccup, “I—don’t—want to name a—our—baby—Daryl.”

“Yeah, yep,” he says, soothingly. “I got you. It’s not going to be Daryl. Never. We don’t need to decide anything. You gonna calm down for me?”

“I can’t—stop—crying,” you snivel desperately, burying your face in your hands.

He presses a firm kiss to the corner of your quivering lips, and you tug him in for a real one. You calm down when you pull away, exhaling. You gaze at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“Blame the alien,” you sniff. 

He kisses your stomach, which shows signs of pregnancy more and more as the days pass. “Hear that?” He whispers into the skin. “She’s blaming you, Chewy.”

—

Your next trip to the doctor’s is with your appointed private physician, Dr. Davies. Two minutes before the doctor walks in, you make a serious and compelling order for Charles to remove the Weird Al wig, which he does—but stores in your bag, “just in case.” It’s also his opporunity to play teacher’s pet and showcase how involved he is in your pregnancy, which, judging by the amount of weird cultish pregnancy books he’s burned through, is very much so.

“It’s gonna be a boy,” you declare while you’re being gelled up. You’re past the point of denial and bloat, now showing way too obviously. “Mom’s intuition.”

“Well, all the books say it’s a girl,” he says proudly.

“Yeah, they also say drinking lemon juice while trying to conceive gives you a girl. I’m sure scientific accuracy was their greatest objective.”

“Girl.”

“Boy,” you say dismissively.

“Girl.”

“Boy.”

“Girl.” It’s not Charles this time, it’s the physician, with a small smile on his face.

You squeeze Charles’ hand so hard you’re half sure it’s chipped off and fallen to the tiled floor. You’re having a girl. Normally Charles would turn and make some petty statement about he’d been right, but—you’re having a girl. A pretty baby girl. You almost can’t believe it. He totally can’t, pressing kisses to your hair and face.

You let him buy pink paint later that day.

—

You predict it, but it comes—fights and squabbles over nothing at all.

First it’s about work, then housing, then his job, then the danger of his job. It’s petty, and usually you storm off in an emotional cloud of irrationality, brought down after a talk, a play-by-play, compromise, reassurance. It’s hard when you’re carrying around a human being, you want to say. Try being in my shoes.

“Can we talk?” Charles says, in the thick of another fight. You’re on the balcony of your flat, mulling over nothing at all. Your stomach is heavy, you’re always exhausted, you never feel pretty anymore even if Charles is always unfailing at telling you you are. 

“Okay,” you murmur, turning. You’ve already developed a habit of placing your hands on your bump always.

He inhales. “I’m scared.”

This is a first. And you realize—in these six months of being pregnant, Charles has been your rock, but has never expressed much fear until now. He’s always been good. Great. Supportive. “Of what?”

“Of—becoming a dad.” He pauses, as if to weigh his words. “I don’t have… a blueprint anymore.”

It dawns on you what he’s talking about. You accept the hug when it comes, holding the nape of his neck. He isn’t crying, but is close to it. His voice is shaky when he continues, whispers against your ear. “What if I don’t know what to do?” 

“Baby,” you say, weakly. You push him gently so he’s looking into your eyes. “If the way you’ve taken care of me the past how many months is any indication of how you’ll treat this alien, I know she’s in good hands. You’ve got so much of your dad in you. You’re caring, sweet, you even got a headstart on the dad jokes.” He laughs. “I want this. And the only reason I ever did was because I knew you’d be with me, being an amazing dad, and an even better…”

“Boyfriend,” he says. His eyes hold hesitance—but you quell it with a nod.

“Boyfriend,” you echo. “For now.”

—

The nursery looks like a nursery in February. It was a storage room in Charles’ flat that had really, at some point, become yours, too. Full of boxes and old suits and memories, it’d taken weeks to properly store everything and make way for the furniture. Charles, of course, insists on painting it himself, with the shade of pink he purchased especially for the room.

He hits his head twice and touches the wet paint. There’s a handprint embossed above the bassinet. (Yours is next to it, at his insistence.)

—

You’re a yoga ball by mid-March, having trouble sleeping and dealing with everything being swollen. Charles helps you through it all, turning the heating up and down every time you get even a bit scratchy with the temperature in the flat or motorhome. Your cravings also morph again at this point, into rigatoni that Charles cooked sometime over winter; he requests Ferrari add an induction stove to every race weekend motorhome that you can make it to so he can cook it at your beck and call.

The season begins. Every race is dedicated to Chewy, and every race is won.

—

It’s early morning in late March when Dr. Davies sends you an email with a one-liner that sounds firm enough to set you and Charles in place after two races that involve you being flown around.

Absolutely NO more air and long car travel for Mommy. 

“Can we manage?” You mope, rereading the email, genuinely distressed as you watch your boyfriend pack for Australia. It’s a long haul flight, with only one stopover in Zurich, and you’re filled with anxiety. There isn’t a compromise—until you’re popping the baby out, Charles needs to try and score the title.

“You know I can always drop out of races,” he says softly. “That’s what reserve drivers are for.”

“It’s not the same,” you argue. “I’m just worried.”

“You’re not due ’til the 12th,” he assures you. “I’ll be back then, even if it means dropping a race.”

He leans down and kisses you softly, rubbing your shoulders and ankles. “I’ll be back before you know it. Get some sleep first, okay?” He repeats the sentiment to your stomach, adding a kiss and a bye bye Chewy. You drift off to a sorrowful sleep when he departs, a slow ache in your lower back blooming that feels just like many of the other slow aches lately. 

You’re up after a half hour with discomfort. You suppose something is just up with your sleep position, and readjust yourself. The discomfort sharpens, then melts. You sigh with relief, a long whistley exhale, and sleep again.

Bliss lasts about three hours, then you’re up again, groaning. You’re not due for a prenatal yoga class until four in the afternoon, and your body isn’t used to being awake. Hell, it’s not used to being this pained. You shift once, twice, trying to sleep with fruitless and exhausting attempts. It takes a while, but in between shifting positions and trying to make yourself yawn, it registers.

“Chewy.” You groan, cupping your gigantic bump. “Seriously?”

—

The first person you call is Charles, naturally. He should be in Zurich, but maybe signal is spotty or something, because none of your texts or calls ping. So you move down the list to the person you know will be in Monaco and not off racing, like everybody you know is—and it just so happens to be Dr. Davies.

You always thought Charles would be nowhere but beside you when you went into labor. But you’re here clutching the straps of your overnight bag being driven to the hospital, exhale, inhale, try Charles, try Carlos. Exhale, inhale. Try Charles. Try Carlos. Your contractions don’t quell; they only grow in intensity and you wince the whole ride through.

“Looks like it’s going to be a fast labor,” Dr. Davies says when he’s done checking you in and making sure everything is in order. You nod, breathless and flushed. You’ve called your mum here and she’s on the way with Charles’ but—Charles is the issue.

“I will weld myself shut if it means I’m giving birth without the dad,” you beg. “Without Charles.”

Charles, who picks up after forty-five minutes of radio silence. He’s in the jet. Give him an hour. “I will pilot this plane myself if I have to. Don’t do anything—don’t make any decisions without me.”

“Too fucking late.” You say, wheezy with labor. “I’m putting N/A on the certificate.”

“You carry Chewy around for nine months and I don’t get to meet her first?” He asks, in a last-ditch effort to cheer you up. You tear up, splotchy and red all over.

“We can’t call her Chewy. We never discussed names. And oh God it can’t be Daryl,” you say, whimpers turning into half-sobs of overwhelm and yearning. You’re scared. You need Charles, who’s been with you for every week, every milestone, every kick, every rigatoni craving. But he’s not here. You have Dr. Davies, and in five minutes you’ll have your mum and Pascale, but they are not Charles. You breathe heavy into the phone.

“I love you,” you say finally. “Please, I love you.”

“I love you more,” he says gently. “I love you. I’ll be there, okay? Just—just wait for me.”

—

Lil 3s ago

does it hurt?

i know it does but i’m trying to make u feel better

love from houston. i will call you ASAP.

You 1s ago

yeah it hurts so bad

apparently they don’t do epidurals

fuck europe

—

In between quiet periods and intense ones, you finally reach your peak. A nurse takes one glance and nods and your bed is disengaged and wheeling around again. Pascale squeezes your left hand, your mum the other. “Wait!” You pant, voice spent, totally tired, flustered.

The nurses exchange a look. “Ma’am—”

“No, you don’t understand. The dad, my—the dad—he’s out—and I don’t.” You pause, the onset of a cry coming on. Pascale takes the lead, firm, asking for a few more moments of patience.

“I can’t do this,” you say hopelessly, throwing your flushed head back. “No. Not without Charles.”

“I’m here,” Charles says, bounding through the door. He’s in official Ferrari gear and his hair is disheveled and he's clearly been crying. Had Chewy not been wedging her way out, you would’ve kissed him right then. You feel nothing but love.

“You’re a sneaky fucker,” you say instead, and the rest is a blur.

—

It’s an hour before the race and Charles is absent from his usual spot greeting friends and guests along the paddock. Instead, he’s leaned against the wall of the motorhome, silently digging his toes into his shoes. You knock twice before trying to open the door and succeeding. You beam when you see him. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

His two girls.

Julia stretches out a chubby hand, but he smiles teasingly, refusing to take it. He holds eye contact, holding up the ring that’d been in his clammy grip for about twenty minutes. It’s a symbol, a sign, a blessed thing, casting his girlfriend into silence.

It’s a bit dark—a stark contrast to where other guys might propose for the first time. He imagines a Caribbean beach bathed in sunset. He pictures a Jeep in the sand, a happy blonde couple jumping into each other’s arms with unadulterated happiness. He figures if you don’t like this, he’ll pay for that.

Instead, he gets: “You’re a doofus—oh.”

“Yeah.” He says, pursing his lips. He swallows, gives you the biggest smile of his life. “Oh.”

It’s perfect.

[were-wolverine]

my take on the Reverse Robins au

damian - bruce met talia and trained with the LoA a few years before becoming Batman. a couple years into being Batman, talia leaves a 7-8 year old damian on bruce’s doorstep. he has to help damian unlearn years of violence and lets him become Batman’s sidekick as an outlet. not sure what his hero name would be yet tbh but i’ll probably just go with Batboy. he becomes a vigilante at 9 y/o

duke - he’s 10 when his parents are jokerized, and he runs away from foster care. he uses his powers to try and become a vigilante but he’s still ten and untrained. batman finds him losing control of his powers and helps him calm down (he works with the justice league, he knows how to deal with super-powered beings). bruce takes him in and while at first damian (14) is wary of being replaced, duke grows on him rather quickly. bruce takes him to the JL and barry & clark help him learn to control his powers. eventually, after being trained by bruce and learning to control his meta abilities, he becomes Signal (at around 13 y/o)

tim - once bruce wayne officially has two kids, the drakes ask him if tim can stay at Wayne Manor whenever they’re out of the country. the boys know each other from galas and get along well, so bruce agrees (he can also tell tim doesn’t have very many friends and is quite lonely). so tim ends up spending a lot of time at the Manor and ofc connects the dots of bruce and his kids disappearing whenever Batman and his partners appear. he basically just tells them he knows and asks if he can do anything to help. so they give him access to the Batcomputer and he directs them on missions and helps with cases. he starts staying at Wayne Manor when he’s about 10 (damian is 16 and duke is 12) and figures out their identities a year or so later. over comms he goes by ‘T’ and later ‘Rumor’. eventually his parents die in a plane crash and he (15) is officially adopted by bruce

steph - she starts out as Spoiler at 13 (damian is 19, duke is 15, tim is also 13). damian has become his own hero at this point: Leviathan. steph works with Signal the most but will work with Leviathan on occasion. damian is a reluctant older brother figure to her and pretends to find her annoying but is secretly very protective of her. she tended to avoid Batman until damian pestered bruce into reaching out and offering to train her which she happily accepted. when they reveal their identities to her she finally meets tim (who is usually just on comms with them) and befriends him immediately. they become besties and an unstoppable duo

cass - same origin of being raised a weapon and running away. she shows up in gotham one day and stays in hiding for a while before letting Batman see her and confront her. she ends up going home with him and the others just accept that they have a sister now. her and damian are the closest because they understand each other best, but tim is her favorite sibling. she is a few years younger than tim and steph. she is 14 when she arrives in gotham (tim and steph are 16, duke is 18, damian is 22). she goes by Orphan and later Black Bat

jason - same origin of stealing the batmobile’s tires at 12. he is three years younger than cass (15). damian (23) has been his own vigilante for years now so jason takes up the Batboy mantle (duke is 19, tim & steph are 17). he is killed by the joker at 15, and returns as Red Hood at 17

dick - same origin of parents death and bruce being at the circus. he is 9, jason is 13, cass is 16, tim & steph are 18, duke is 20, damian is 24. jason and cass are dick’s favorite siblings (and the only ones who still live in the manor). jason is Batboy, cass is Black Bat, tim is Rumor, steph is Spoiler, duke is Signal, and Damian is Leviathan. dick becomes Robin at 10

babs - dick’s friend from school, they’re on the mathlete team together. she is a year younger than him, but they are both very smart. has yet to get into the vigilante business but probably will eventually. knows dick is Robin. her and dick once hacked into the pentagon because they were bored. absolutely terrifying duo. they become friends in middle school- dick is 12, babs is 11

[hurts2think]

Hook × morgie- it's saddening how little of them their is in this world :(

🏴‍☠️Young!James Hook x Morgie Le Fay Dating Headcanons����

Pairing: Morgie Le Fay x Young!James Hook

Plot: Just dating headcanons of them getting into some shenanigans!

Extra: Hey guys! I'm still sick and haven't been able to write. I've been resting but I feel horrible so I did this for you all! Hooksie one of my favorite ships🫶

- They have one singular braincell that they share

- Black cat x orange cat dynamic

- A couple months before they started dating, most people already assumed they were dating because they mostly acted like it and they were both just oblivious

- Hook always tries to find ways to annoy Uliana and Morgie always tries stopping him. Uliana is annoyed either way

- Hook always suggests they study together, knowing damn well they will not be studying and just goof off the whole time

- Neither of them are used to emotional intimacy so it was very awkward when they first started dating

- After the initial awkwardness they easily became the most annoying couple in school

- They set up a bunch of candles and flowers and make the mood very romantic just to play Uno and yell at each other

- They’re both very romantic but a little tone deaf

- They argue but most of the time only one of them is arguing and the other has no idea

- “You know what? I’m done arguing.” “We were arguing?”

- They’re banned from most public spaces. Restaurants, parks, grocery stores, malls, pretty much anywhere

- ^ usually banned due to their dates and getting in trouble. Whether it was intentional or not

- Always doing stupid dangerous teenager stuff in the middle of the night and calling it a date

- ^ climbing fences, pushing each other down hills in a stolen shopping cart, trespassing, graffiti, TPing houses, ect

- They often trespass into this field that gives the perfect views of the stars. There’s a little stone bench and some animals and they just hold hands and point out the stars.

- They sneak into movies all the time.

- The one place they aren’t banned from and don't have to sneak into is the arcade

- ^ They’re lovers but become rivals the moment they step into the arcade. Always trying to beat each other’s highest scores. They’re definitely regulars there

- They record mixtapes for each other on cassettes like every other month. Listening to them 24/7

- ^ These playlists definitely have Guns n Roses, U2, Queen, AC/DC, and more

- They do movie nights with movies they'll think they'd make fun of but end up loving it

- ^ The Princess Bride and Heathers is definitely one of those movies

- Hook is more affectionate than Morgie but Morgie loves the affection. They're still both very clingy

- Hook always pulling in Morgie for kisses

- They both fluster each other so much. Hook usually does flusters Morgie on purpose and Morgie usually flusters Hook on accident but finds it adorable

- They have attempted to start a band with the other VKs multiple times but it has never worked out

- They cuddle 24/7 and kiss and hold hands and are literally piling on each other, trying to be as physically close as possible

- If one of them is out from school because he's sick, the other will skip school to take care of him

- They always do cringey obscure couple Halloween costumes that no one understands

- When they goof off in class and the teacher is lecturing them, they definitely keep looking at each other and have to hold in from busting out laughing

- ^ Detention buddies

- Morgie leaves little sticky note drawings and letters for Hook just throughout the day.

- ^ Hook keeps a couple of them in his wallet

- Theatre kids and definitely make jokes about their chatacters dating each other in the show

- Overall they just get into so much trouble with their shenanigans and are very clingy

[kimsohn]

in each other's arms

pairing . roommates! mingi x gn reader about . 3k+ words, fluff warnings . i have an unhealthy obsession with writing when i’m sleep-deprived take this as you will. i also don’t write long fics so i’m super sorry in advance. reader has a thing for mingi’s arms (who doesn’t), there is cursing involved, slight mentions of alcohol, reader calls mingi annoying and stupid a couple of times but it’s endearingly, this is not proofread yolo

synopsis . you don’t understand why your roommate is suddenly afraid of the dark, but maybe offering him space to sleep next to you wasn’t the worst idea you’ve ever had. note . wrote this for a secret santa fic and decided to post here as well! i don't really stan ateez but writing this has definitely made me some sort of mingi stan 😭 also this was inspired by this episode of curious george, not crucial to understand the fic but definitely helpful

You’re not quite sure how your roommate grew so accustomed to watching Curious George episodes every night, but it’s become a, to put simply, very distracting routine.

Returning home from work to find Mingi, part-time barista and your personal full-time teddy bear, watching a TV show wasn’t uncommon. Heck, customer service jobs were so horrible that even you would settle in front of the screen for the remainder of the day. You’d often walk in on a new Netflix series and even indulge in them with him, humming soundtracks while you both made dinner together or fall asleep cuddling to the end credits of each episode.

It was all fine until he found a Curious George playlist on YouTube with all 15 seasons, and being a nonsensically endearing child at heart, he’d made it his personal mission to cycle through all of them. Initially, it was nostalgic for you too, but after one too many times of seeing the stupid monkey and his yellow-adorned caretaker, you’d opt to crash in your banana-less bed after dinner instead.

Nights often end like this one, with you drifting into slumber and the glaring light of the TV screen peeking into your room underneath the door. Neither of you was that bothered by the change in routine anyway; you got more sleep and he got his screen time. Being roommates, understanding each other was key in your relationship, and although things were slightly different, the silent compromise was enough to keep the peace between you.

Or at least, it was enough until you hear three knocks on your bedroom door and a slight knob turn.

“Y/N? Are you awake?”

The whisper takes a while to register in your half-asleep state, and at the realization of his scared tone, you force yourself to shift into a sitting position before responding.

“Mingi? What’s wrong?”

He tiptoes into the room, turning on the light. The bright contrast from your previously dark room makes your eyes close instinctively, your pupils adjusting to Mingi’s blurry figure.

“Promise you won’t think I’m stupid?” he asks, an attentive gaze in his eyes.

The comment makes you laugh as you patted your bed, beckoning him onto the soft surface.

“You’ve been stupid to me, dumbass. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

He shuffles on the pillows, leaning in closer to whisper to you despite no one else being in the house.

“I think there are monsters in my room.”

“Okay, let me get this straight. You watched a Curious George episode about him seeing shadow monsters in his room, and now you think they’re in your room too?”

You can see the pout on his face intensify as he turns all the lights on while walking to his room. You knew the episode he was talking about, the one where the monkey started envisioning oddly shaped shadows as monsters only to later learn they were just figments of his imagination, but you didn’t think it would affect your roommate that badly.

“No! Don’t turn on the light,” he exclaims as you screw open his doorknob, despite the rest of the house being engulfed in light because of his phobia.

“Why not?” you question, watching the door creak open and stepping into the room, pulling him along with you so he won’t run away.

“Look,” he points at an oddly shaped lump, “you can’t tell me that isn’t some evil slug out to get me.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s just—”

“And over there,” he beckons to a tall, conical structure, “that is literally an evil Christmas tree. I’m 100% sure we’re about to die.”

You sigh as you flick on the lights, your suspicions being confirmed.

“Did you even think to turn on the light? These so-called ‘monsters’ are just your pile of dirty laundry that I’ve been begging you to wash and your coat rack that I still can’t comprehend being in this room and not the doorway.”

“You’re right but,” he moves to turn off the light again, “why do they look so different in the dark? They’re shapeshifting! I’m not insane Y/N, just trust me.”

At this point, you’re too mentally and physically exhausted to even care about his antics. In some other period of time, you would’ve indulged his nightmares, but right now it’s far past your bedtime and the only thing on your mind is a long, relaxing sleep.

“Fine. You can sleep in my room tonight. I don’t have stupid coat racks or dirty laundry in my room for you to be scared of, and we can turn on the little night light I still have from third grade. Got it?”

You pretend not to notice the silent cheer he lets out behind your back as you make the trek back to your part of the building, killing the lights as you go. Mingi keeps an arm on your shoulder, and you notice he keeps his gaze on the wall beside him to avoid any potential shapeshifters in the living room.

After a thorough inspection of your room, Mingi deduces that there are indeed no shadow monsters. By then you’re already half asleep, curling into the right side so his hunk of a body has room.

“You sure this is okay?” he questions, stretching his arms and yawning.

Your tired gaze glazes over the ripples of his lean muscles illuminated by your snowman night light before answering with a nod, and you grumble when he flops on the bed and steals too much of your blanket.

“C’mere,” he voices, making grabby hands, “I miss cuddling with you.”

You make the meanest face possible and flip over to the other side, turning away from his seemingly shocked face.

“Wake me up for cuddles when you stop acting like a baby and grow a pair.”

And as you drift into slumber, despite your warnings you still feel the soft weight of his arm curl around your torso, sending you into the sweetest dreams full of fantastical butterflies.

The next night, Mingi is knocking at your door again, albeit a couple of hours earlier than yesterday. He doesn’t even have to speak before you’re glaring at him, hands crossed in annoyance.

“I’m not letting you sleep here again. You stole too much of my blanket last time.”

You don’t mention to him that you had the best sleep of your life.

“That’s why I brought a blanket!” he exclaims, holding up his polka-dot fuzzy bedspread, “I also brought some popcorn so we can watch a movie on your shitty computer.”

Screw him for being thoughtful, and screw him for wearing the same brand of tank top that he did yesterday. Were his muscles always this prominent, or was it your nightlight making you see things?

“Shitty computer?” you repeat, threatening to close the door in his face.

“No! No… I think you misheard. I love your classic, old computer.”

His grin intensifies as you let him in, snapping the nightlight on and setting up the movie on your computer that is indeed shitty. The overheating of the device makes you turn away from his knowing smirk, and as the starting scenes flash across the blue light screen, you reach for the popcorn, only for him to move it out of your reach.

“Can we cuddle now at least? I meant it when I said I missed it.”

You don’t say anything in response, keeping your eyes trained on the screen, but your hand does reach over to grab a kernel, giving him the green light to wrap an arm around your shoulder. You know that if you refused, he would bring up the embarrassing fact of how you woke up curled into his arm, and you weren’t really in the mood to fight a blush on your cheeks.

“You know, I don’t understand why you’re still scared of the dark when Curious George clearly overcomes his fear at the end of the episode.”

“He does?”

You turn to look at him, confused.

“Did you not finish the episode?”

“I haven’t touched the show since the beginning of that episode. I’m scarred.”

You still believe that this is some sort of sick prank Mingi has been playing on you because there’s no way a 23-year-old man would be this frightened over a figment of his imagination. However, it means you don’t have to bear the stupid ape’s squeaky voice as you fall asleep, so you take the win.

“You know you can’t keep sleeping in my room like this. Why don’t you just clear your room so you won’t be afraid anymore?”

“I like the organized chaos.”

“Oh yeah? The organized chaos that shapeshifts into your worst nightmares?”

“So they do shapeshift! See Y/N, I’m not crazy.”

He is crazy, but the way his arm feels around your shoulder is enough to make you stay quiet as you shovel popcorn into your mouth and watch the movie blur before your eyes.

You awake to find yourself in the same position, and although your head is awkwardly and painfully resting in the crook of Mingi’s shoulder, you find that you once again have garnered a good night’s sleep.

Although you can only see the side of his face, his frame is so beautiful that you can’t help but melt into a puddle of nothingness. The sunlight peeking in from the gaps of your blinds illuminates his face in rays so perfectly, and you have the urge to brush his orange-stained hair behind his ears to gain a better view.

Mingi has always been breathtakingly beautiful. You met him a couple of years ago in college, bonding over the uncertainty of where your future would take you. Ending up together in this small yet comfortable apartment together was something you hadn’t expected, but something you’re learning not to take for granted. His silly quirks and endearing behavior are like a magnet, and it’s hard to not have feelings for someone whom you’re so domestic with every day, but you both are busy with your own lives and have never had time to properly explore those feelings.

Falling asleep in each other’s arms is the closest form of intimacy you’ve shared with him, and you’ve learned to cherish and be grateful for it.

Knowing that both of you are bound to end up with a crick in your necks if you stay in this position any longer, you slowly shake him awake, pushing away your thoughts as you feel him stir underneath your palm.

“Mingi, wake up. You’re going to kill me with your complaints if you wake up with sore limbs.”

“I like sleeping in your arms,” he grumbles, and it’s a little too obvious how your heart constrains at the words.

“I know, but I promise you’d feel much better if you slept properly on the bed. I’ll reward you with an amazing breakfast, I promise.”

The mention of food has him relaxing in your arms, and you move so that he’s sleeping normally against the pillow. The thoughts of waking up next to him and cooking breakfast for him are all very normal, but they’re so domestic that it has your early-morning mind go haywire at the implications.

You tell your brain to shut up and get off the bed to make breakfast before Mingi cusses you out.

Mingi appears in your bed the next day, the day after that, and many more days after that. At this point, your room has now become a shared room, and Mingi has become a prominent figure in your sheets. Hell, your pillows have even started to smell like him, and you don’t know whether you find it annoying or endearing.

A smaller part of your brain, one that you choose to push aside, fears that you’ve grown too attached to this routine. Sure, before Mingi’s monkey infatuation you’ve woken up next to each other on an occasional morning, arms sore from accommodating each other on the sofa, but you’ve never continuously spent nights with him in the same space regularly like this. Now that the routine has become more frequent, the atmosphere has gone from friendly to something else, and you don’t particularly know if you want to uncover it yet.

Besides, sleeping in the same bed is normal for roommates… right?

“Y/N, sleeping in the same bed with an attractive bachelor that just so happens to be your roommate is definitely not normal.”

Okay, so San agrees to disagree.

“I’m being serious,” he says, shaking you by the shoulder, “you’re going to end up catching feelings, and it’ll either end up with you heartbroken and apartment-less or you getting a new boyfriend. There is a fifty-fifty chance. Don’t risk it.”

You turn to look at Mingi across the room, dressed up in a silk shirt and slacks. His hair is styled in that annoying not-so-styled-but-still-styled manner, and it makes you want to run your fingers through it. Badly. Seeing him sleeveless in the mornings is bad enough, but seeing him cleaned up at a mutual friend’s birthday party makes you want to go feral.

“You should’ve given me that warning before he started sleeping next to me,” you mumble under your breath, but unfortunately San is perceptive, and nothing escapes his ears.

“Great. I can’t believe you already have feelings for him. You’re done for at this point. What is he even so scared of anyway that has him crying in your arms every night?”

You explain the details with a frown on your face, not wanting to mull over any possible rejection you might get from Mingi.

“Oh,” San starts.

“Oh?”

“That changes everything.”

You stare at San with a perplexed gaze, prompting him to elaborate.

“Look, Mingi is stupid, but do you really think he’s that stupid? Come on Y/N, even if he was scared of the dark, he would’ve gotten over it in three days.”

You hit him on the shoulder, causing him to yelp.

“Don’t play with me San,” you berate, watching him clutch the area you just hit, “why else would he be sleeping in my room if he wasn’t scared?”

“The same reason you started having feelings for him! Because you both enjoy waking up next to each other and being together. He likes you Y/N.”

The words drift around in your brain, and you process them for a couple of seconds before glaring at San.

“If he liked me, he would’ve told me.”

“That’s what you think. But do you really know him that well if you couldn’t even figure out the reason he’s been sleeping next to you? What if he’s just scared to tell you?”

San has a point, but you don’t want to admit it. As you watch Mingi beckon you over to try some food on the counter and likely force you to shovel down a disgusting combination of food, you and San share a mutual glance to stop talking about the topic.

However, as you walk over, you can’t help your brain from overanalyzing everything that shouldn’t be. The way he smiles too brightly at you, the way he holds your arm gently as he tugs you over, and the way he keeps you hydrated throughout the night make your head spin. Everything normal suddenly seemed different, and you didn’t know if the change was welcome or not.

Later that night, when you and Mingi return exhausted to your apartment, your brain feels more tired than ever. You’ve never been much of a thinker, but currently, your head feels worse than a hangover, and you don’t want to mull over anything drastic. Keeping your distance from the guy who supposedly has feelings for you back is harder than it seems, but you’re not in the mood to confront him right now.

However, Mingi has other plans. He sits you by the bed, helping you take off your jacket and accessories and untying your shoes. You realize that he’s picked up on your exhaustion, and you feel extremely guilty for wanting to push him away mere seconds ago. He is so charming at this very moment, and you feel nothing but enamored for the love you’ve received from him tonight and all the time you’ve spent together.

The words are flowing out of your mouth before you can even stop yourself.

“Do you like me?”

He stops mid-shoelace, looking up at you. You realize how awkward and uncomfortable of a position this is for him, but it’s too late to turn back now.

“Did it take you this long to notice?”

You feel like you’re being shoved underwater. The world hazes before your eyes, and the words are muffled as they enter your ears.

“What?”

He laughs, and the loss of your senses makes you realize how beautiful of a sound it really is.

“You’ve always called me stupid, but I think you’re the one that’s actually stupid here. I’ve liked you for a while now, silly. Why do you think I help you make dinner when I hate cooking?”

‘Oh’ is the only word floating in your head right now.

“So, the Curious George thing was fake?”

“Kind of. I was a little scared the first night, not going to lie, but after finding out how much I missed sleeping next to you, I figured I’d use it to my advantage. I’m honestly surprised you didn’t figure out or kick me out sooner.”

He sees you bury your head in your hands, too shocked to internalize anything right now.

“Hey,” he says, holding your shoulder, “you don’t need to say anything right now. I know it’s probably a lot to take in, and I know you’re probably exhausted after that party. Just sleep on it, okay? We can talk later.”

He finishes untying your laces and gets up to leave, but you pull on his shirt, stopping him in his tracks.

“Don’t go,” you whisper, “I like it when you’re here.”

He smiles so gently, so so gently that you want to stare at him forever.

“Alright, I’ll stay,” he whispers back, despite no one else being in the house, “do you want me to continue sleeping next to you?”

“Yeah,” you breathe out after a pause.

“Yeah, I’d like that.”

[flowersdiceandlove]

WWX always wanted a family headcanon part 2:

Part 1

Before the war, people would always hand off kids and babies to WWX when they saw him and needed a babysitter for a little while. A Jiang disciple would look away from WWX for like one minute while they were in the market, and when they looked back at him, he had a baby in his arms and at least one toddler on each leg bc so-and-so needed to run into one of the shops real fast, and could you just watch the little angels for a second? The people of Lotus Pier and the surrounding town just knew WWX as the go-to babysitter—your kid would be safe and sound w/ that guy, no need to worry, he’d protect them to the death if need be 👍 Even so, WWX didn’t let his trailing kiddos get in the way of goofing off and causing trouble w/ his shidi and shimei. He just brought the kids w/ ‘em! It actually works out very well. WWX is amazing at taking care of everyone. As Head Disciple he also has to keep track of his shidi and shimei and make sure they’re all okay on night-hunts, so keeping track of a few little kids and keeping a baby secured to his chest and back is just more of that (multitasking king). His shidi and shimei do get annoyed by the fact that more often than not when they go out with WWX just to have fun, they end up w/ an entourage of kids and a few babies trailing their Xian-gege, but WWX handles the situations so well and doesn’t let it keep them from having fun that they can’t really complain. They do roll their eyes and sigh—especially JC—about their kid-crazy shixiong. JC thinks he’s insane for liking kids so much. WWX thinks JC’s crazy for not liking kids so much. That’s one of their disagreements that they can never seem to settle and come to an agreement on. JC is one of the only ones who always pokes at WWX for all the kid stuff, and they go back and forth in their playful arguments in circles, poking at the other’s like/dislike of kids. JYL has had to stop them from going back and forth on this matter bc there is no end to it and has them agree to disagree many times.

Now for a more angsty part of this headcanon: Bc of all this, it makes going back to normal after the Sunshot Campaign harder than WWX thought. Bc of his demonic cultivation, people are whispering and talking behind his back, wary of him and sharing scary stories of what he did in the war. They’re fearful of him and his new powers. During the massacre of Lotus Pier and the Wen’s occupation of Yunmeng, a lot of the people and merchants in the area scattered in fear of the Wen Clan. The massacre itself wasn’t completely contained to the cultivators either—civilians got cut down too in the chaos, the Wen’s not caring if the people in their way were cultivators or not (also hc the people of Yunmeng trying to hide some of the Jiang disciples who were trying to flee but got killed by the Wen for it)—leading to a lot of casualties and running of the people living there. After the war ended and the Jiang returned to Yunmeng and Lotus Pier, there was a lot of turn over of who set up shop there. Yes, there were still some of the merchants that WWX grew up with, but there were far more newcomers, both just younger generations taking over for their parents/grandparents and people new to the area all together. As such, many people didn’t know the pre-war WWX who people left their kids w/ all the time. They didn’t know the WWX who whined and bemoaned about Madam Yu banning him from volunteering w/ kids and babies, and who snuck out to do so anyway. They didn’t know the WWX who would sit down by the river w/ the women to play with the kids while the women washed the clothes and worked, ending up w/ a flower crown on his head every time and wearing it proudly bc some little girl made it just for him. They didn’t know the WWX who would go out of his way to help you w/ anything you needed, cultivation related or not, whether it was a package delivered or a roof fixed, WWX would figure out how to help you. They didn’t know the bright, boisterous, kind, helpful young man and only the one traumatized and weighed down by the war (and loss of his golden core). 

WWX could handle the adult’s wary looks and subtle steps away from him, but what really weighed down on him and hurt him further, was that parents would subtly pull their kids behind them like he was a threat to them. And the hurt worked its way further into his heart and mind when, influenced by their parents actions, the kids started avoiding him and running away from him even when their parents aren’t around. The fact that even the kids are acting this way towards him, makes the whispers that he’s a monster worm their way deeper into his mind, making him feel worse and weighing him down further. WWX doesn’t try to help out w/ the orphanage that has so many more orphans after the war or w/ the little kids and babies, thinking that if they don’t even want their kids near him on the street, they wouldn’t want him volunteering (the truth of this sentiment is up to you to decide). Even when the older residents of the town try to tell stories of the younger WWX and how good he was w/ kids, many still don’t trust the new WWX—too wary of the resentful energy wafting off of him to trust him w/ their kids.

After WWX gave up his golden core and did the whole demonic cultivation thing and people started being wary and talking behind his back during the Sunshot Campaign, WWX kinda gave up on the idea of getting married and having kids. He still held onto the dream, but it became much more of a distant fantasy (even more so than when he was younger which was already really distant). He didn’t want to subject a woman or his children to the shadow people were casting on him. This, mixed with the trauma of all that happened, made him basically give up on the idea of a family. The trauma really weighed him down, and the result of such didn’t help w/ the rumors and talking which didn’t help his gloomy mood—which weighed him down even more in a vicious cycle.

When WWX ran away w/ the Wen to the Burial Mounds and was able to help w/ A-Yuan, he was very happy about it, and felt that caring for A-Yuan like he was was the closest he would get to being a father. I also headcanon that the Wen up there in the Burial Mounds w/ him practically adopted WWX and doted on him constantly. He loved them and they loved him. They were totally down for the idea of WWX actually adopting A-Yuan, but WWX got weird whenever the prospect was brought up (and I hc that they did try), deflecting the conversation bc he didn’t think he was good enough. A-Yuan still loved WWX as a father figure and WWX loved A-Yuan as a son. Granny Wen loved WWX like he was just another of her grandchildren. If WWX was younger, they would have officially adopted him as one of them, so as it is, WWX keeps his Wei last name, but when they set up a family shrine for their ancestors, they make tablets for WWX’s parents there too. WWX actually starts crying at this. (Again, it’s bc as I put in part one, WWX only ever wanted a family that he could actually call his own, and by putting his parents’ tablet in their family shrine/whatever it’s called, they were acknowledging WWX as part of their family.)

[hoejosatoru]

How You Get the Girl

“Broke your heart, I’ll put it back together”

Pairing: Fem!Reader x Bonten!Rindou

Summary: Y/n and Rindou have been long time friends, both harboring their true feelings for each other. When y/n kisses Ran at a party, it causes unexpected consequences

Word Count: 5.3k

Warnings: Drinkin mentioned, angst, Rindou punches Ran in the face lol, oral (fem receiving), fingering, cream pie, not proof read bc I'm silly, MDNI

Knock knock knock!

“Well would you look who it is! The man who can’t tell time, apparently,” you not-so-kindly greeted Rindou. The two of you planned to have a movie night and catch up, but he was over an hour late.

“Sorry,” your best friend replied, not waiting for you to invite him in. “Got stuck at work.” He was already shrugging off his suit jacket, a soft blue that went well with his lilac mullet. You nosily looked at the label.

“Since when can you afford YSL?” you questioned. Rindou, much as like his brother Ran, had always been into fashion, but brand names were not something they grew up having access to. Nor did you, and as you looked over at him you reckoned his outfit probably cost more than your rent this month.

“Since I started working at Bonten,” Rindou replied. He followed you to the living room, where you already had popcorn, m&ms (his favorite), and drinks out. He felt his heart squeeze at the thought of you setting up for him, just for him to be late. “Fuck I’m an asshole for making you wait.”

“You are, but I forgive you,” you replied, settling on the couch. You tossed some popcorn in your mouth. “So what is this Bonten place? And what are you doing that they’re paying you so good?”

Rindou sat next to you, his thigh muscles straining his suit pants. You quickly pulled your eyes away. Those sort of views brought thoughts you were not trying to entertain right now. “We do... stuff.” He put a handful of m&ms in his mouth.

Your brow pique. “Stuff? What kinda stuff pays YSL money?”

“Stuff that is none of your business,” Rindou replied teasingly. He knew not knowing details got you annoyed. You and Rindou had known each other for years and knew exactly what buttons to push on the other. As luck would have it, button pushing was both of your friendship love language. The more you teased someone, the more you like them. Besides, you were admittedly nosey.

“Ugh whatever dude,” you rolled your eyes, “Whatever it is, it sounds seems shady as hell.”

“Did you invite me over to grill me about my job or watch a movie?” Rindou countered. He leaned back on your couch, unbuttoning the top two claps of his shirt. He rolled up up his sleeves revealing the tattoos on one side. His forearms, you noted, looked very toned. Rindou had always been into working out, but it looks like he put on some muscle recently. Another thing you definitely should not be allowing yourself to stare at.

“I can multitask ya know?” You huffed, clicking on the tv. You put on one of yours an Rindou’s favorite movie, just like always. It allowed the two of you talk without having to worry about really paying attention to what was on the screen.

Rindou cozied up to you, leaning into your body and resting his head on your shoulder. This was not the first time he did this, but it surprised you nonetheless. Yours and Rindous friendship always had… weird moments. Moments were the line of friends or more felt blurred.

Nothing has ever happened between the two of you beyond a hug. Yet there were moments like this where one of you lingered on the other. Where the air between you felt charged. Where your heart fluttered in your chest.

Maybe you were delusional. Or more likely, it was one sided, fueled by those feelings you refused to admit existed. Rindou was not a very serious guy, at least not with you. He probably thought nothing of resting his head on you, you were longtime friends after all. It was totally normal for friends to do, but the little twisting in your stomach made it feel like more.

After the movie ended, you went to move a little and felt Rindou’s dead weight on you. He had a fallen asleep. No wonder it was so quiet.

“Wake up idiot,” you gently shook his shoulder.

Rindou grumbled, “I’m up, I’m up.”

“Yeah now you are because I woke you up,” you replied. “Remind me not to let you have wine any more. Shit puts you to sleep.”

“You’re not wrong,” Rindou’s voice was gravely from sleep. His arms went above his head, stretching his body. His shirt lifted, revealing his lower stomach, the ink disappearing below it… Jesus you were really being tested today. “Can I stay over? Don’t feel like going home now.”

“Of course.”

“Are you gonna make me sleep on the couch again? I barely fit on this thing,” he complained.

“You invite yourself to stay over and now you’re trying to steal my bed from me?” You asked, with performed annoyance.

“Well you are shorter than me,” Rindou replied. “Or, ya know, we could just share your bed, dummy.” He flicked your forehead as punctuation.

“I should make you sleep on the couch just for that.” You rubbed the spot he flicked. “But fine, only to shut you up. If you snore, though, I’m kicking your ass out.”

“Deal.”

Your heart was doing that stupid fluttering thing as you walked back to your room with Rindou. He’d been in it before, of course, but never to sleep in it. The thought of sleeping next to Rindou all night got your pulse and mind racing.

“Got anything that would fit me?” Rindou asked.

You looked at him. “Probably not.”

“Mind if I sleep in my boxers then?”

You pretended to look for something in your drawer so he wouldn’t see you blush. “No. I’d think you were psycho if you slept in work pants anyways.”

You heard Rindou chuckle behind your turned back. As well as the telltale sign of clothes hitting the floor. You slipped into the attached bathroom so you wouldn’t have to look just yet. You were sure your face was red. You changed into your pjs- thank god your cute ones were washed- brushed your teeth then returned.

When you returned, you found Rindou sitting on your bed. “Really? Versace underwear?” Making fun of him was your best defense mechanism and you really needed it in that moment. Seeing Rindou near naked on your bed was enough to make your whole body buzz. Not to mention that he definitely has put on muscle, which only made his tattooed body look better. You tried not to stare.

“Shut up. They’re soft.”

“Yeah, so are the ones you can buy from Target,” you climbed onto the other side of the bed. You made sure not to get too close to him. Your bed was only a full, so there wasn’t that much room to play with. “Remember if you snore I kill you.”

“Kill? I thought I was just got kicked out,” Rindou replied, slipping under your covers. What a strange, confusing sight.

“Yeah, well I changed my mind,” you replied. You turned away from him, unable to look at him like this any longer. “Goodnight, Rin.”

“Goodnight, y/n.”

As silence settled between the two of you, you were met with a heaviness in your chest. You could feel his warmth, even on this side of the bed. You wanted so desperately to move closer, to feel it directly on your skin. The space between you literally felt like a magnetic force, one you knew you had to fight.

You couldn’t deny it, those feelings you had. The stupid fucking crush you had on your best friend. It made you feel so stupid. And this situation wasn’t helping. The way Rindou had been so casual about sleeping next to you, boxers and all, told you he didn’t see anything romantic about your relationship. It was no different than sleeping with one of his guy friends. You already knew that, of course, knew that you were just friends. And you loved being friends, you really did, but it didn’t change the fact that every reminder of how he felt about you didn’t sting.

You pushed those thought away before they brought tears. It wasn’t easy, but ignoring them has become second nature to you at this point. You squeezed your eyes shut and waited for sleep to take you.

***

There was a moment of surprise when you woke up to the feeling of warmth pressed against you. For a half second you forgot you let Rindou stay over and you were glad it came back to you before you punched his sleeping body out of fear. Your back was still to him, but you’d both moved closer to each other in the night. He was on his stomach, squished against you.

Your face heated at the feeling of him against you. It felt so nice, you wanted to lay in it longer, but you didn’t want to push it. You tried to roll away quietly but Rindou stirred the second you moved.

“Morning beautiful,” Rindou chirped, his voice raspy from sleep. Your heart clenched at his words, but you knew he was teasing you. Your hair was always a mess in the morning.

“Oh, shut up,” you grumbled.

“Someone isn’t a morning person,” Rindou noted, stretching lazily. The sheets dipped lower, revealing his toned stomach.

“I’m usually in a better mood when someone doesn't hog my bed all night,” you replied. Rindou’s lips spread into a teasing grin. “I’m guess you want breakfast?”

“Please.”

“Only cause you said please.”

About 20 minutes later you and Rindou sat at your little kitchen table, eating French toast. Thankfully Rindou pulled his pants back on. There was only so much you could take. 

“How come you don’t wear your glasses anymore?” you asked. You’d always loved Rindou in glasses; you thought he looked really cute in them. In the past few months, though, it was rare to see him in them.

“Contacts. Ever heard of ‘em?” he replied, mouth full.

You rolled your eyes. “Yes, idiot, but contacts existed when were in college and you never used them then.”

“Trying a different look I guess,” Rindou said, “Ran said I’d pick up more chicks without glasses. They made me look like a dork.”

You ignored the pang in your chest at the thought of him with other girls. “You are a dork.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Just being hones,” you replied. Then, more quietly you added, “But I think you look good in glasses.” You kept your eyes on your plate, not wanting him to catch just how much you meant that. A silence passed before Rindou spoke again.

“You going to Sanzu’s party next week?”

“Yeah, are you?”

“Of course,” Rindou said, “I wouldn't let you go to Sanzu’s place alone. He's weird.”

“He’s your friend.”

“Yeah, but I have weird friends.” You laughed, unable to deny that. The people Rindou had been hanging out with recently were a bit... different. It all circled back to that damn Bonten company he was working for. You made a mental note to ask Sanzu about it after he had a few drinks. Everyone knew liquor loosened his lips.

Rindou helped you clean up the dishes, before getting ready to leave. “Leaving here in the clothes I came in? What will your neighbors think?” he asked with a teasing, boyish grin.

“Considering that there was no moaning or headboards banging on the wall, probably that you were a terrible lay,” you retorted. 

“That’s bad for my reputation,” Rindou replied, “Gonna need you to at least pretend to moan my name before bed next time.”

You snorted. “You’re so gross.”

Rindou laughed. “I’ll pick up at 8 next week.”

***

“How do I look?” you asked Rindou when he arrived on Saturday. Blessedly, on time.

Rindou looked you up and down, making you more nervous than you cared to admit. “Honest answer or polite answer?”

Your brows knitted. What the fuck did that mean? You suddenly felt self conscious, but couldn’t help yourself. “Honest.”

“Hot.”

Oh? You were expecting something bad.

“Then what was the polite answer?”

“I was just gonna say you looked nice,” Ridnou answered, “didn’t wanna make it weird.”

“Since when have you ever worried about that?”

Rindou chuckled. “Touché. And also you're welcome.”

“Thank you,” you emphasized your delivery.

The Uber Rindou ordered arrived and you were on your way. The ride wasn’t too long and you and Rindou chatted along the way. The party was already fairly full when you arrived, but Sanzu zeroed in on both of you when you arrived. He was already pretty buzzed.

“Drinks are in the kitchen,” Sanzu nodded the area. “If you don't mind, I need to borrow Rindou for a few minutes.” You nodded, slipping away to let them talk. Of course your nosy ass would be asking about the later.

“Hey y/n. Long time no see,” a familiar voice said from behind you. You spun around finding Rindou’s brother, Ran, smiling down at you.

“Hey Ran, what’s up?” You have only hung out with Ran a few times, though it was mostly in large groups. When you met Rindou in college, Ran was attending school elsewhere, so you didn’t know him nearly as well as Rindou. They seemed to get along fairly well, besides the normal brotherly quarrels. He’d always been pleasant to you, though.

As you chatted with Ran, you didn’t notice Rindou staring. His blood ran cold when he saw you were talking - laughing - with Ran. Rindou loved his brother, but he could be a total dick at times, especially when it came to girls. He liked to torment Rindou, even though he denied. If he saw something Rindou had, he wanted it him for himself just so he could exert power over him. It started with toys as kids and had progressed to women.

Rindou was very selective with the girls he brought around Ran. He almost never brought a girl he was talking to around Ran. The second Ran picked up on Rindou having feelings for a girl, he couldn’t help but sweep in and see if he could steal them for himself. Annoyingly, he was pretty successful. The only thing that stopped him was if Rindou was actually dating the girl; Ran wasn’t that much of an asshole.

Still, Rindou was self conscious. He felt he lived in his brother’s shadow in many ways, but especially when it came to women. He knew they almost always wanted him more. It sucked, but nothing came close to how he felt seeing Ran talking to you. All the other times Ran stole someone from him it was annoying, but you? That would be devastating. 

Rindou has had feeling for you since college, but he was too scared to tell you. It made him feel like a pussy. He’d promised himself he was goin to tell you soon, but kept chickening out. Especially since he often doubted you felt the same. He purposefully tried to keep you away from Ran and not show interest in you if he was around, but he knew Ran couldn’t resist a girl that looked like you. And oh god the way he was looking at you made his stomach churn. Rindou wanted to go over and interrupt, but he knew that would alert Ran. 

“Dude you’re not listening to me at all,” Sanzu complained.

“I don’t wanna talk work at a fucking party, Sanzu,” Rindou replied. Sanzu followed his eye line before he could pull them away.

Sanzu chuckled. “Looks like trouble. Better stop being a pussy and tell her how you feel.”

Rindou narrowed his eyes. He never told Sanzu much about you either, since they all worked together. He couldn’t trust him with that information with Ran around. “I don’t like her.”

Sanzu full on snorted. “Right and I don’t like alcohol.” 

“Whatever, man.” Rindou grumbled, stalking away. He decided he had to go over to you. At least scope out the conversation under the guise of getting a drink. 

“Hey Rin!” you greeted. He had to hide his smile, but he loved you were so happy to see him even though you were literally just with him.

He poured himself a drink. “How’s it going over here?”

Ran answered, “Good. I can't believe you’ve kept y/n hidden from me. She’s so funny.” Rindou gripped his glass a little tighter. Don’t react, don’t react, he told himself.

“Yeah, she’s alright.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, his nervous tick.

“Hey wait! I just realized you’re wearing your glasses agin,” you noted. You don’t know how that got past you before. He’d been waiting for you to comment on it, but in front of Ran was not ideal. “Is that cause I told you you looked good in them last week?” you teased.

Ran’s brow piqued. Shit. It was because of that, but he couldn't say that now. “I ran out of my contacts.”

Before anyone could reply, Sanzu’s voice was filling the room. “Spin the bottle in the living room!”

Ran smiled at you. “Sounds fun.”

Rindou grumbled, “What are we in fucking high school?”

You rolled your eyes at him. “Oh, come on Rin, it will be fun.”

“Yeah Rindou,” Ran said in a way that made Rindou wanna smack him. Despite his complain, Rindou joined the two of you in the circle of players. You watched as people took turns spinning the bottle and kissing who it landed on. Each time it was spun you held your breath, hoping it wouldn’t land on Rindou. Luckily you did not have to watch him kiss anybody yet.

Then it was your turn. You gave the bottle a good spin, your pulse drumming with anticipation. Maybe it was wrong, but you were willing it to stop on Rindou. The bottle moved slower, slower, slower and... Stopped. You looked up into a pair of violet eyes. But they were not Rindou’s.

“My lucky day,” Ran smiled. Well, it wasn’t Rindou, but it could have been a lot worse. You leaned across the circle, Ran meeting you in the middle. He kissed you longer than was required, his hand on your cheek keeping you there. You couldn’t complain; Ran was good kisser. You found yourself a little breathless when you pulled away. 

Instinctively, your eyes flicked over to where Rindou was sitting, but he was gone. You caught a flash of him storming out to Sanzu’s backyard. A pit formed in your stomach, feeling something was wrong. You excused yourself to go after him, hearing Sanzu say, “Trouble in paradise.” Followed by a chorus of “oohs.” It really was like you were still in high school sometimes with this lot.

You found Rindou in the backyard, lighting up a cigarette. You didn’t know what to say, so you blurted out, “I thought you quit?” 

“What’re you my fucking mother?” Rindou snapped. He’d said that to you tons of time in college when you were on his ass about quitting. It had always been playful, with no bite to it. This one was razor sharp.

“No, I’m your friend who you told you quit,” you replied. You were thrown off by his demeanor. 

“I just bummed one off Takeomi, okay? Sometimes I need one when I’m... in a mood.” Smoke flittered around his face as he spoke. He was certainly on edge.

“Okay...” you began carefully, “But why are you in a mood?”

Rindou sighed. “You really don’t know?” Rindou stared at you, searching your face for something, but you didn’t know what. 

“No, I don’t.” He looked disappointed with your response.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s fucking weird you made out with my brother in front of me?” he said icily. 

“Seriously? That's what you’re mad at? It’s a fucking game Rindou I had no control over it,” you replied. You were annoyed art his reaction, but also anxious about how mad he was with you. Had you just done something that would mess up your friendship? But it was a game.

“It’s still fucking weird,” Rindou said. He dropped the cigarette, grinding it into the patio.

“Well you don’t have to be such a dick about it,” you snapped. 

“How am I dick for not wanting to see my friend make out with my friend? It’s gross.”

“Jesus Rindou, I get it. It was a fucking game. Maybe you shouldn’t have joined if you were gonna be such a bitch about it,” you fired back. You were both heated and the rational part of you knew you should end the conversation, but your emotional side wouldn’t let you pull away.

“Maybe you shouldn’t throw yourself at my brother,” Rindou replied. “He’s just gonna wanna fuck you, you know. You’re wasting your time if you think he actually likes you.”

His words stung you. Not that you cared if Ran liked you, but he made it seem you like were inherently unlikeable. Unworthy of being the object of someone’s affection. Maybe that’s how he felt about you. You swallowed your angry tears. “Fuck you, Rindou.” You stormed back towards the house.

“Whatever go back to Ran,” Rindou grumbled behind.

“You know what? Maybe I will.” You slammed the door behind you. Anger clouded your sense. Who was Rindou to say that to you? He doesn’t care about you. Fine. You’ll go to the Haitani brother who did find you attractive. 

Ran’s height made him easy to find. His eye’s lit up. “Something wrong?” He asked as you dragged him over to a quiet hallway.

Your anger made you bold. “I wasn’t done kissing you.”

A wide smile spread across Ran’s face. “So finish what you started.” Your lips were on him in a second. You wrapped your hands around his neck as he gripped your waist. He really was a good kisser. His tongue sliding into your mouth and working you up with ease. You leaned into him more, you just wanted to go further, to get lost in him, to forget about your fight with Rindou. Forget what he said. 

Suddenly, Ran was torn away from you. Your eyes snapped open finding Rindou fuming at his brother. Before anyone could speak. Rindou punched Ran in the mouth. 

“What the fuck?” you demanded.

Rindou ignored you, speaking directly to his brother. “Fuck you, Ran.” Rindou stormed off as quickly as he appeared, leaving you thoroughly flustered.

Ran was rubbing his jaw, laughing. Wait, laughing? Why was he laughing. “I knew it,” Ran said. You stared at him, dumbfounded. “Rindou likes you.”

***

He likes you. Ran’s statement had been playing on repeat in your mind for the last week. After Rindou had punched Ran, you searched for him at the party but he was long gone. You had left then too, not really being in the party mood anymore. 

You were so confused by Ran’s statement. How could Rindou like you? Sure, there had been moments, glances, words, that made you think maybe, just maybe, your feelings were reciprocated. But the rational part of your brain always squashed that as wishful thinking. You were friends, nothing more. Right?

Ran seemed confident, though he was the type of guy who was confident in everything he said, truthful or not. To make matters more confusing you hadn’t heard from Rindou at all the entire week, which was strange. You wanted to reach out, but you wouldn’t even know what to say. You were still hurt by his comments, too.

The radio silence from Rindou made it all the more surprising when he showed at your door Saturday night. A storm was rolling through and his dripping hair indicating he got caught in it. 

“Jesus, what are you doing out in this?” You questioned, ushering him in. Your concern for him superseded your more complicated emotions. 

“I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t just show up but I had to see you,” his voice was shaking. From the cold rain or nerves you couldn’t tell. 

“Is everything okay?”

“I’m sorry y/n,” Rindou began, “I’m sorry for everything. What I said. How I acted. You were right, I was total dick. I didn’t mean any of it.”

His words lessened the sting inside you a little. You appreciated it, but you weren’t going to let him off without sharing how you felt. “Thank you. It honestly hurt a lot to hear you say that. I appreciate you saying all that I just… don’t get why.” 

Rindou gave you the same look he gave you in Sanzu’s backyard, though there was something deeper, softer to it. It made you shiver. “I’m sorry, I can’t say it enough. I- it kills me that I hurt you when all I’ve ever wanted was-“ Rindou paused suddenly his face lit with anxiety. You were on edge listening to him, leaning in as if ever cell in your body was urging him to continue.

Rindou swallowed and then continued. “All I ever wanted was to love you. I was so jealous seeing you with Ran. I thought I blew all my chances and now you were gonna fall in love with my brother. It killed me. But I shouldn’t have taken that out on you. I’m so fucking sorry, y/n. I ruined everything.” 

Your heart clenched at his declaration. You could barely process what he was saying. He loves you. He’d always loved you. All this time. Knowing that melted away any last bit of anger or hurt you felt. You’re forgave him completely in that moment. 

“I forgive you Rin.” You took a deep breath, ready to release the words you held in for so long. “I’ve loved you too, for so long now. I only kissed Ran for that stupid game… well the second time I did because I was mad at you and that was fucked up. I’m sorry.” Rindou shook off your apology. He’d been a dick and felt he deserved it. 

You took his hand in yours. “Ran could never make me feel how you do. I’ve only ever wanted you. Nothing is ruined if you don’t want it to be.” His eyes met yours, full of love and relief. You had no idea how much it meant to him to hear you say that.

“You’ll be my girl? For real?”

You wrapped your arms around his neck, “For real. Forever.” A heartbeat later your lips were together. Rindou pulled you close to him, as if he was scared this was a dream and you were going to disappear. The way he kissed you made your head spin. Like Ran, there was want and desire, but there was something deeper, more plush in how his lips moved against yours. How his tongue slid into your mouth. How his hands held your waist with fierce care. If his words didn’t convince of his love, this did. 

You both broke apart for a second, giggling and catching your breath. Your foreheads pressed together, not wanting to go too far. “We are idiots,” Rindou said.

“So dumb,” you agreed. “But if being stupid gets me kissed like that, then I’m okay with it.” Rindou grinned brightly before pulling you back in. You both made for your room, rarely ever pulling away from each other. When your calves hit the bed you fell back, taking Rindou with you.

His hands were on either side of your shoulders, smiling down nervously. “Are you sure want to... go further? We don’t have to yet if you don’t wanna,” Rindou said.

You laugh. “Rin, I’ve been wanting to get your clothes off for so long I’m not about to stop us now.” Rindou grinned wickedly.

“Guess I shouldn’t make you wait any longer then.” Rindou yanked his shirt off while you slipped off your own. “Let me.” Rindous pants were already on the floor as he helped you out of yours. He climbed back on top of you, both only in your underwear. He kissed you again, reaching back to clip off your bra. Blood rushed to his dick as he finally, finally, got to squeeze your boobs. “Fuck you have nice tits.”

You blushed but smiled brightly. You ran your fingers through his lilac hair, which was still a little damp from the rain, as his lips wrapped around your nipple. He sucked gently, rolling the other with his fingers. You gasped, arching into the warmth of his mouth, the pleasure of his touch. He repeated the action on the other breast, causing arousal to flood your pussy.

“Rin,” you whimpered. Music to his ears. “Need more.” You hooked your fingers into his boxers, pulling them down. Your cheeks dusted at the size of him. He was so hard and all for you. It thrilled you. Your eyes drifted over to his lip, tracing the lines of his tattoo you’d never seen before. “I’d always wondered if it was fully connected.”

Rin snorted. “What did you think there was an underwear sized blank spot?”

“Maybe.”

Rindou chuckled, slipping his fingers into your underwear. “You know what I’ve always wondered?” He slid them off you. You didn’t miss the breath he drew in, finally seeing your pussy all wet and need for him. “How you taste.”

“Rin!” you gasped as he dove into you. His strong hands kept your thighs apart. He licked long stripes up your slit, enjoying your taste and how you squirmed. He sucked on your clit, his eyes flicking up to watch you squirm and gasp. You made eye contact with him, light a fire in your tummy. 

You could feel Rindou smile against you as he continued. His tongue swirled over your  throbbing clit, his fingers slipping into your soaked heat. “Oh fuck,” you moaned, fingers tangling in his hair. He loved how you pulled it, making his scalp burn. Rindou was pressing into your g-spot hard and fast. “Nngh- fuck Rin right there.”

He responded to your cries instantly, pressing harder, licking faster. He felt you humming on his fingers before the first moan even escaped your lips. Rindou had secretly thought about this moment for so long, but nothing he imagined lived up to experiencing you cum on his tongue.

“So fucking sweet,” Rindou said as he licked up your release. The sweet, blissed out look on your face made his cock feel heavy. He need you now. 

“Rindou,” you whimpered, “Please, need you inside.” He was glad you agreed. He teased your hole with the tip of his flushed cock until he couldn’t help but sink into you. His head fell back, hissing through his teeth.

“So fucking tight,” he groaned, “Can’t believe I’ve missing out on pussy this good. I’m dumbest man alive.”

You laughed at his babbling. “Why don't you fuck me like you’re making up for lost time, then?” 

Rindou’s eyes burned with lust. He hooked a hand under your leg, pressing a knee up to your chest. He leaned into you, a wide smile on his face. “I might just be the luckiest man alive.”

With that he began snapping his hips into yours. His rhythm was deep and long, working you easily. The head of his cock hit your sweet spot with every thrust, making your pussy pulse and back arch. “’M so close Rin.”

“Cum for me baby,” Rindou urged, “Lemme feel you squeezing my cock.” His words sent you over the edge, eye rolling back as you were blinded by pleasure. You moaned his name, feeling yourself throb around his thick cock. Rindou cursed, his own orgasm washing over him as he watch you com undone. He slowed, letting himself milk out every last moment.

Rindou collapsed on top of you, both catching your breath. You pushed his damp hair out go his eyes. “If I’d known all it took to get you to admit how it felt was kissing Ran, I woulda done it forever ago.”

Rindou rolled his eyes, but smiled. “I’m just glad we’re done being idiots.”

“Oh we are definitely still idiots,” you replied, giving him a quick kiss. “But now we are idiots together.”

*

A/n: that corny ass hallmark ending lmfao. Ty for reading though<3

[roostersup]

Garreth Weasley Fest

my #garrethweasleyfest24 submission- a short story titled:

I Told You So.

My prompt was: -Modern College! AU Academic rivalry

word count: 1164

FULL STORY BELOW! I hope you enjoy!!

“A new transfer student? And why should I care?” Garreth carefully added the last drop of Horklup juice into the cauldron, and watched as the whole thing turned pink. He grinned as he straightened back up, turning towards his ever present friend.

“They’re in your department-” Leander continued, “And they’re supposed to be something of a genius.”

“Again, why should I care?” He removed his goggles from his face, watching his potion out of the corner of his eye to make sure it didn’t boil over.

“Well I thought you might be interested to know about your new competition-” The other boy said with a smirk.

“Competition?! Please. You said the same thing when Cressida Bloom transferred to the Potions department, and look where she is now- gone. Back to Herbology where she belongs.”

“Which is also a great department.” Leander said, his tone a little hostile. He was in fact one of the representatives for his department. 

“Of course mate-” Garreth reached out and placed a hand on the other boy’s shoulder. “No one said that it wasn’t.”

He moved back over towards his work.

“But this-” he gestured to his work station “-this is where the real academic excellence is at!”

His potion had gone from pink to purple, and was now sending up waves of green smoke.

“Is it supposed to be doing that?” Leander asked, his nose scrunched up.

“Yup!” Garreth responded, putting his goggles back on. 

After putting his eye protection back on he stirred the mixture counter clockwise for a minute, and then added the 3rd to last ingredient. With a pinch of ashwinder egg dust the liquid turned back to pink, but with a much more vibrant hue. Then the smoke turned gray and clouded around them like a storm. This was turning out exactly as he wanted it.

“Well you should be careful nonetheless. Even if you think you’re above the new student you might find yourself slipping with a rival prodding at you from down below.”

Garreth ignored him, continuing to finish his work. Once he added the pearl dust and rose petals it would be just about-

“You shouldn’t add those two together-” a voice said from the other side of his work station. 

Both boys looked up, a person barely visible in the haze of his potions vapors. 

Garreth scoffed. “And who are you to tell me that? As far as I can see you aren’t a professor.” 

He was annoyed at this random person for trying to correct him, but honestly he hoped that it wasn’t a professor- he couldn’t really tell between the goggles and smoke. He only had one female professor though and he was pretty sure this random girl wasn’t her.

“Well both of those are very powerful ingredients when it comes to making a love potion- which is what I assume you are working on by the smoke. If you add them both it may not turn out how you would like it.”

He scoffed again. “Just because everyone else is too small minded to add them both doesn’t mean that it's not going to turn out. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish working on my thesis.”

“Suit yourself-” And he watched through the smoke as she grabbed a large tray and held it over her person. What was that all about?

Garreth shook himself of the annoying girl and focussed back on his potion. He was a little bit more annoyed though as he noticed Leander take a step back from him. Ugh, everyone here just didn’t understand his genius. 

He grabbed his ingredients again; one in each hand. Then he sprinkled each onto opposite ends of the cauldron just like he had read about. Adding them at the same time was risky, yes, but if he got this to work he would be able to create the strongest love potions in the world- theoretically. It's just that both needed to settle before they came in contact with each other. If they stayed separate then the potions would become twice as strong, but if they didn’t-

A huge BOOM sounded right before him, causing his ears to ring. Then immediately after the entire contents of his potions blasted out of his cauldron- spraying everything within a 2 foot radius. Garreth dropped to the ground, the failed love potion coating his entire person.  

He heard muffled screams of surprise from all around him, but his ears weren’t quite working yet. He tried to look around, but everything was just a big pink and sticky mess. Then he reached up to grab his goggles, slippery from the potions. He took them off, tossing them to the side in frustration.

Garreth was going to attempt to get up, when the person holding the now pink tray brought down their shield. His eyes went wide as he saw her clearly for the first time. She had curly black hair that was tied up in two buns at the top of her head, two strands pulled out and hanging at her face. There was a pair of goggles similar to his own (minus the pink) that she brought off her face and up to her head. Her eyes were a bright beautiful brown that perfectly matched the hue of her skin. She was by far the prettiest girl he had ever seen and she… was saying something to him.

“WHAT??” he called out, his voice sounding muffled in his own head. 

She rolled her eyes and he saw her pull out her wand and move it around above the pink goo that now coated his work station. He tried to get to his feet, but slipped around a few times before he got a grip on the edge of the table. By the time he was standing again she was already gone.

“I should have moved farther back-” Leander’s voice said from behind him. It was still more muffled than usual but the ringing had stopped so Garreth could make it out. Garreth turned towards him, seeing that his friend’s t-shirt had been sprayed pink.

“Leander-” he said, moving to grab onto his arms. The other boy made a disgusted face as Garreth’s pink hands made prints on him. “Who was that girl??”

“Girl?” 

“Yes! The one who was holding the tray!”

Leander smirked, and removed Garreth’s hands. He brushed off the handprints as much as he could before he looked back up at him. 

“Well funny enough, that’s who I was telling you about.”

“What?” Garreth said, his head tilted.

“That-” Leander pointed towards where the girl had gone. “Was your new rival.”

Garreth looked up with wide eyes and then quickly turned back to his station. He made his way over to his cauldron, slipping but not falling into the pink mess below his feet. He leaned over the top of the table, looking to where she had left her message. Then he smirked as he read aloud-

I told you so.

[acevid]

Hi!! I love your content! Do you have any arturose or areivid hcs maybe?

aww thank you!! i’ll go ahead and give you 10 for each, because why not!! ^_^ thx for requesting!! can’t say ive heard of arturose before, tho i don’t think it’s actually that bad!!! :D

!⠀♡⠀₊ areivid⠀⠀ׁ⠀ꔛ

★ — arei’s not that good at cooking while david can make a decent meal (but just doesn’t want to). so a lot of the time they order takeout 

★ — david ended up falling first (eden tried to be both of their wingman’s, but david absolutely DID NOT want her to do that. arei took the support happily though)

★ — diana and arei ended up getting along really well. (you know that trope where a character embarrasses a younger relative by showing a photo album? diana did that to arei for david)

★ — sometimes they’ll just sit in each other’s presence, calming down from whatever had happened earlier in their days. sometimes they’ll just be next to each other while other time they’ll hold each other. 

★ — arei forces david to buy her things because ‘he’s the super famous motivational speaker and therefore has to have a ton of money’. david sighs but puts up with it

★ — arei is very insistent on celebrating both of their birthdays together. typically david doesn’t care that much about his birthday, but he’s found he doesn’t mind when it’s with his girlfriend as company

 ★ — david has to deal with whit making couple jokes about arei. it gets even more annoying when arei adds onto this because of course she does.

★ — after david revealed himself to his class, he just stopped putting all that much effort into how he looks. he still has to do speeches though, so obviously he does have to do his hair and put on his clothes properly. arei ends up teasing him when he has to, but ends up kissing him on the cheek as apology

★ — eden and whit are the number one fans of the couple

★ — teruko ended up giving her condolences to arei when they announced their relationship…whilst david was right beside her. arei thought it was so funny (though she did defend his honor a little bit).

!⠀♡⠀₊ arturose⠀⠀ׁ⠀ꔛ

★ — arturo finds rose’s paintings to be beautiful, which is a huge factor as to why they began actually talking 

★ — veronika was all in arturo’s face when she saw that the other was actually blushing. at one of their classmates that wasn’t actually j.

★ — nico took one look at rose’s crush before turning to her and asking “why.”

★ — they didn’t bother to announce they were together. arturo did end up being rather obvious, and somehow their classmates still didn’t realize (except veronika.) whit started teasing them about how they should get together and rose just responded saying that they were together. (he was SHOCKED.)

★ — rose will sometimes end up leaning on arturo (which works out due to their height difference) and accidentally fall asleep

★ — they don’t do actions like kissing a lot, due to their height difference and also because it’s not something that appeals to either of them. instead arturo will praise rose, while rose will give arturo small gifts

★ — various people in their class (such as arei david and ace) have bet on how long they would stay together. let’s just say they all lost because the two went beyond their expectations.

★ — a lot of times arturo will end up giving rose ideas for her paintings. they’re typically people, but rose doesn’t mind much as at times they’re actors that she can simply get a background for from the show or movie they starred in

★ — arturo will defend rose to the DEATH if anybody insults her. meanwhile if somebody insults arturo, rose will just make a comment on why they’re wrong before moving on. arturo is offended, but whit thought it was so funny when he saw it in action.

★ — arturo went into PANIC MODE when he started thinking about rose as an actually decent person to hang around, and a decent person to look at. he ended up getting pushed to talking about it at a movie night with veronika and ace. (he was loudly berated by the latter.)

[aranarumei]

you listed gsnk as an option and my dopamine receptors lit up. What dyou think about mikorin and mayu

ask me about a ship and I’ll give my opinions + classify them as does / doesn’t make sense, does / doesn’t compel me

heyyy surprise for you. yeah i actually was cleaning up my notes app today and realized I'd answered this and never posted this lol. gonna start off with a does make sense, does compel me and continue under the cut.

okay. hear me out. for a period of time I genuinely believe mayumiko was the gsnk duo closest to being, like, romantic. in a sense. horikashi, nozachiyo, and wakaseo have sure got a lot of development since then (in ch 60, kashima avoids hori and we get a REALLY good moment out of it) but like. just one chapter before that, we have ch 59. one of my favorite chapters. and at that point, I feel like the main couples have had their setup and they're really fun and comedic, but there hasn't been much... advancement, in a sense?

and then we hit ch 59, where "mayumayu" (nozaki mayu, who's been conned into posing as a girl) and "mamiko" (mikoshiba mikoto, who's posing as a girl so that he's not a creepy guy commenting on mayumayu's blog, unwittingly using the name of the protagonist of let's love by nozaki umetarou under alias of yumeno sakiko without knowing that he's the inspiration for the character's personality) basically immediately hit it off over text. seriously, past the first couple of texts where there's a bunch of people commenting on it, all they say is that they'll instantly reply to any texts that come their way. what commences is a hell of texting, probably, but it is a LOT of texting that happens. and that's not something that can be empty! both mikoshiba and mayu seem worn out by the amount of time they spend on it, but they don't seem worn out by each other in the slightest, judging by the fact that in ch 89, not only is mikoshiba still regularly checking mayumayu's blog, he's getting texts with extra art and well-wishes for his exams! they talk to each other about their lives! and it's not something that exists only online, too... mayu and mikoshiba are genuinely and obviously good friends outside of their online identities.

I'm aware not everyone sees it that way, but like, to me, ch 59 was like the most outright romantic the series had gotten. so it's very special to me. so is mayumiko! mayumiko’s so fun because they’re both soooo cool and soooo uncool. but while the mayumiko situation is objectively hilarious, the way they're friends is like... surprisingly understated? it's just something that happens and it works for both of them, even when it seems like it shouldn't. like, let's be real, mikoshiba can be kind of annoying, and mayu can be kind of grating. despite that they end up being really comfortable with each other. like. no wonder they could keep up that texting chain. they just click in general.

so we meet mayu in ch 33, and in ch 37, mikoshiba runs into him, and they've got this fun chapter together where miyako both compares them to cats. then in ch 49, mayu gets mikoshiba to lend him his... questionable? sure. questionable manga. calls him mikoto-san. and it just kind of... happens, them being friends. since they both hang out at nozaki's place. it's neat. in ch 64, post-The Incident, mikoshiba's comfortable enough to ask mayu for help with working out. and mayu knows mikoshiba enough to shout out the specific name of the fake high school from one of the games mikoshiba likes (sure, it's a super popular galge, but that's a strange thing to know well! especially for a guy who's traditionally lazy about everything but judo)

then of course we get to the mayu chapters where he's just so. iconic. in ch 76, mikoshiba needs to bring a guy to the mixer and then after nozaki rejects him sakura's like, ask mayu, who's been on the floor this whole time. side note i think its cute that when mikoshiba asks mayu, he calls himself "mikoshiba-nii-san." and mayu rejects him at first (also using "mikoshiba-nii-san" lol), but he ends up going once he's told he doesn't have to do that much work. and then he grills a girl about her boyfriend bc she says he does judo. and then tries to get some guy's number because he's apparently strong. judo freak (affectionate). and then, of course, as mikoshiba's thinking that "ah, they totally think mayu likes guys, but i guess it's fine since he doesn't seem to care" and when he's surrounded by girls mayu jumps in and says "he's mine," just like nozaki's shoujo manga advice had told him to do. love that for them. in ch 81, though it's a pain, mayu goes along with the idea that all the stuff in the back room is his and not mikoshiba's (though maybe he thought it was more of a pain to explain) and when talking about dating sims, mayu says, "well, guys or girls, both are pretty similar." love that guy for real.

then, in one of the moments of all time that make me insane, in ch 94, seo's pinning mikoshiba, and suddenly goes, it's boring without waka (makes sense! he's normally the guy she pushes around like this) and mikoshiba's like. oh! that's right! I haven't gotten a souvenir for mayu yet! (makes... sense...? because. because he's getting PINNED??? and we KNOW that mikoshiba hasn't done judo with mayu because it happens for the first time in ch 135, where after some really nice moments, mikoshiba sheepishly asks if mayu wants to try throwing him around too. it's a weird expression of care and also the fact that they're still friends after this fact, considering the violence nozaki translates it as, is a testament to their friendship.)

also in the extras for that volume, we see mikoshiba got him a smartphone case, which sucks because mayu's got a flip phone (though it's better than the hairpin nozaki got mayu) but then when mayu figures out a use for that smartphone case, he runs to mikoshiba to give him the good news! 'cause mikoshiba was sulking before... they're fun.

i think I've already said this but they really are close. and i think mayu's kinda clingy. in ch 114 when kashima rei asks to talk to him again, he's like, "go through mikoto-san." in ch 128 we find out that mayu shows girls in his class photos of mikoshiba so they make sure he doesn't get caught napping. this begs the question: HOW did this arrangement exist in the first place? because there's no way I can think about it that doesn't involve mayu and mikoshiba being at some level of closeness. and there's no way mayu can get so many nice looking photos of mikoshiba without being close to him. and in that same fucking chapter when nozaki’s making posts for his blog and turns mikoshiba into a girl, people think that he and mayu are dating. like oh my god. even in gekkan shoujo nozaki-san, when the main cast is meant to be a bit older than the canon timeline, mikoshiba and mayu are hanging out together at nozaki's place. and when mikoshiba and nozaki are getting all chummy with miyoshi, mayu walks in and he's like. ah. a challenger emerges (because he presumably wants to be pampered instead). my point is that they're close they just hang out. it's comfortable, which says a lot for both of them.

in ch 59 mayu's friends are like. his type is 1) someone who's stronger than him at judo or 2) someone older who'd take care of him and. mikoshiba's not #1 but he is #2. those two can be pretty sweetly considerate actually. as we see mayu gets dragged into quite a bit of stuff and does it. in ch 101 he actually finishes up the chapter of let's love while everyone's fallen asleep. and in the vol 14 extras mikoshiba gifts a water plant to a guy he barely knows. just because. so I feel like they're both sweet people underneath it all. and extra fact about ch 59 i know you'll feel crazy about. kobayashi (the guy who actually runs the mayumayu blog) calls mayu maa-kun. i am not joking.

anyways to me mikoshiba and mayu are both this weird security to each other. mayu’s someone who doesn’t care abt social graces and mikoshiba’s someone who cares too much. but when they’re weird to each other it’s like they accept everything. and I just think. despite all of the mistaken identity drama it’s like. idk. they just like each other. they just get along well. and for mikoshiba who’s so awkward with girls, this works out well. also the way that in ch 144 his fav ever gacha character is this kind of gloomy and lazy girl… fascinating thing you’re being charmed by. what a taste you have.

so in the end despite all of the wild situations i think it’ll be simple. mikoshiba will think a little too much and mayu a little too little. but they've gotten along well for so long that I think this will go pretty well, too. it'll just be a feeling that grows kind of slowly until it works for the two of them.

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! Your blog has been incredibly helpful for me, thank you for doing what you do

Disability is a core theme of the stories I make, so accessibility is one of my most important goals. For reference, I write books but my main project is a show that’s sometimes semi-animated and sometimes similar to visual novel style dialog.

Some of the things I’m doing now are subtitles and narration that’s baked into the show itself, sticking to a simpler style of writing, and making it free to watch. It’s one part practicality and one part frustration at being told these things “ruin the experience” for others. Now they’re a core part of the experience.

But those are just the things I find personally helpful, I only have my own viewpoint. My question is what are other things I can do to make my story more accessible?

Specific things I’ve been struggling with are showing nonverbal communication (The narration covers a lot of this, but not enough) and conflicting needs. I know some things will help some people but hurt other’s experiences (ie, subtitles) which is a really hard thing to navigate! So advice on that would be helpful

Thank you!

- @interroblog

Hello lovely asker!

So I'm gonna throw out some ideas here at the start and these are in no way me saying "You have to do this". No, just me tossing some ideas out and maybe they hopefully help! 😁 Let's try this.

First off you also mentioned that it's part of your style in the way you're animating as well. I think if it's your style that you shouldn't have to change that either. It's both something that is unique to how you choose to do things and it also aids in accessibility. You shouldn't feel pressured to change it because some people find subtitles or Narration annoying. It ultimately comes down to how you want to do it, so again here are some things I could think of.

So if the site you're hosting your show on allows you to have toggle on subtitles and audio descriptions I would do that. If not what you can do is when you put your animation through you can have multiple. Kinda like with certain shows or movies you have a version in its original language and a version that's Voiced over with another language. If you want to accommodate your audience perhaps you can have a version:

Without any subtitles or audio descriptions

With subtitles

With audio descriptions

With both the subtitle and the audio description

Granted going this route may be more work than just doing it all together (I'm not 100% sure, I don't know animation very well) but it's certainly an option. I think the process of rendering and saving it at the end (having to do it multiple times) and in regards to space may be an issue.

Another thing you can do is write up a description transcript for each episode so that people can look at it for reference. Some people use screen readers or braille displays that read over this information for them if you're worried about the text itself. Here's a good example of one done from a DeafBlind film done in the 60's at Perkins [Warning for typical 60's language regarding disability]. It usually includes what an audio description would just typed out.

Another thing you can do is see and look around for anyone who is fluent in the local Sign language that your show is in and see if anyone could record and interpret it for you too, if you want to have that option for people as well.

You could also do kinda like comics and Manga do where they mark the sounds/actions on the panel/animation it self.

[Manga panel from the Manga "Shino-chan can't say her name"]

For instance in this manga panel there's no dialogue but the author gives us multiple cues which the translator also translates as well. There's the foot steps with the text getting bigger and bigger letting us know that the sound is getting closer and the direction, then in the next panel we have two exclamation points letting us know she's alarmed and aware. The text of the foot steps is now darker and bold and we see the streaks around the characters hands letting us know that she hurriedly wrapped up her box. Then we have the word "Sneak" in bold lettering against the wall where the character is pearing over.

Now I'm not sure what type of nonverbal communication your using so I'm gonna go over things a little vague.

Sign Language [Mostly in ASL because that's the sign language I'm most familiar with and can understand the most]

Here's two animations by @scoliwings and they're both in ASL and the way the person made them is with captions into the animation (also they're very cute and lovely). The show ThisClose also does this with their entire Pilot episode but then only does it with their ASL scenes moving forward in the series. The people who wrote and produced the show note that while they made the show surrounding the deaf community and about the deaf community they wanted the show to reach their hearing audience.

This scene that is with a translator has no captions whatsoever. While this scene between the two main characters using ASL does have captions. Then this one does have captions that go away when the characters communicate verbally.

This is a constant thing of multiple different medias is they kinda choose between which audience they want to pertain to. And whoever they choose, it usually ends up leaving the other out or not 100% involved usually at the fault of accessibility on streaming services/wherever the media is being hosted.

If someone Deaf/Hoh wanted to watch this show and there's no captions available on whatever platform is hosting it then it wouldn't be accessible to them. And if they are fluent in ASL, those parts have captions all the way through. For instance those videos on YouTube, not all of them are accessible because they don't have the toggle on Closed Captions. So the moments where there's characters who speak English and don't sign ASL, especially if the camera isn't on them when they're talking, it's just not accessible.

In the episode "Into the Mystic" on Supernatural, they introduce Eileen's character. This is the only episode that she uses ASL by itself, every other episode she is in uses SimCom and she code switches or uses English. Again captions are in the episode Everytime ASL is used except for scenes where she's signing in the background for instance this scene. From This Gifsets by @winchestergifs

[Gif of Eileen from Supernatural. She's sitting across from an older woman on a couch and she signs in American Sign Language "You" while pointing at the older woman, then she forms her fists into a 'S' shape one on top of another and moves them to the right, she then finger spells "Bait".]

It's never translated, not even in the script or the transcript. Even while this show is targeting their hearing audience they still gloss over things like this. (I also want to note that me and Mod Rock spent a while trying to figure out the second sign and came up empty handed as well 😅)

Now when it comes to Audio Descriptions, it's usually "[Character name] signs [dialogue in Verbal Language]". If it's the first time introducing the character or the character is switching languages, then specify what Sign language off the bat, ASL, BSL, ISL (SEE, SSE,) etc. It's the same as in writing that you write the character dialogue followed by "[pronoun/character name] signed". The shows that I know of that have characters using Sign language and have Audio Descriptions is The Boys (kimiko's scenes), ThisClose also has them, Bridgerton (episode 1 scene in s3, it's one scene in BSL but it's there!), and I'm pretty sure Echo does too (it should, I'm looking at you streaming service) but I've yet to watch that last one. Listening to them might help you with getting a grasp of writing them if you have any signing characters.

Ex. Eileen signs in ASL "You sure you don't want both?"

Another thing with Sign language though is body language and expressions and even things like story telling are there also. So describing an action can give a lot of context of feeling and what is going on in the scene. Here's another ASL animation that is in the works and they go more in detail of how they are animating body motion, face expressions and such. Craig of the creek is an animated kids show that also has BASL and ASL in it (and I love how they go about the characters dialogue, the signs are so well animated, and the friend translating and the others learning for him too.)

There's also Pro-tactile & Tactile Sign language. Granted I've never seen or do I know of a show/movie/short with pro-tactile in it or Tactical Sign Language but if anyone were to do that the audio description would probably be like "[Character A] puts their hands over [Character B]. [Character B] signs [dialogue]". That would be for the Hand over method which is Tactile Sign Language.

For Pro-tactile, this involves other forms of communication such as back channeling, mapping, haptics. It should be translated much the same I believe because these certain elements of the language are used to portray emotional tone, contact/interaction, as well as directions.

Here's some examples of pro-tactile and tactile sign language since I know it's not largely known: (all ASL)

Pro-tactile: Video 1 (Captions & No Voice Over), Video 2 (Captions & Voice Over) and it goes further into specifics of Hand placement, Back channeling while Standing & Sitting, Video 3 (Voice over & Captions). Here's five vlogs in PTASL also, no captions or voice over so Fluency in ASL is needed.

Tactile Sign Language: I was having a hard time finding videos (for some reason) but Here is a segment in a video where they show it. Here is another short video too!

Of course you don't want to describe every movement when it comes to Sign language but you want to describe the base movement. If someones Tracking, (this is where a person holds the wrist area of the other person who is signing so that it's in their field of vision) you might describe that before the dialogue. "[Character] puts their hands over [characters] wrist" and so on and so forth.

Haptics/Mapping may also be very similar but they're mostly used in describing the layout of an area someone is in, directions to somewhere, how to navigate the surrounding area. This is gonna be just explaining how they are moving. The same can be said with Visual Vernacular. It's movement to describe something or to tell a story it's not Sign language but a movement of general understanding. Here is a video where an interpreter details Visual Vernacular alongside ASL. Here's the one without the voice over as well.

AAC

The movie Come Play is a horror movie centered around a non-verbal boy with autism who uses an AAC app on his phone. His device is the one where speech is generated from the different buttons that correlate with the words he clicks. I couldn't find an example of an audio Description for this movie anywhere but it might be similar to the next example.

The Boys again also has scenes with Kimiko where she uses her phone to communicate and such. And the audio description usually sounds like "Kimiko types on her phone, it reads [dialogue]". The only difference in Come Play would be that the Dialogue wouldn't be narrated because it's already done so by the AAC device in the movie, but subtitles would be needed.

Speechless gives a lot of examples between low-tech and high-tech examples. This scene in particular where all the characters are in one scene. The main character (JJ) uses a laser pointer and a word/alphabet board with the assistance of an aid. In this instance the aid reads aloud everything that JJ communicates. If you're one on one though, much like with sign language, you wouldn't really read aloud everything they say especially if it's a private conversation. Instead the pov would probably show the characters AAC method they use whenever they communicate. For the audio description it might be something along the lines of "[Character] points and says [dialogue]".

I've never seen other types of AAC in media so it would probably be the same when it comes to Audio Description when describing another method like print on palm. it might be something like "[character] grabs their hand and writes [dialogue]".

In the show In The Dark the scenes with braille are described as "[character] runs their fingers over the braille, it's read [dialogue/text]". And on that topic, In the show All The Light We Can Not See, it has a really (really really really) good basis of what an Audio Description should be like. It also has multiple featurettes and an audio introduction with it that goes more in depth to explain the costumes, settings, the characters, and other visual information that is often important but left out in the audio descriptions due to the pacing of the show/film.

Immersion was the goal, much like with the production of Romeo and Juliet in PTASL that was performed. Introducing your characters and settings in a little short animation before hand or at the begining as a little segment may be something you can do/consider.

This video details some other forms of communication that I may or may not have left out (Auslan & Voice over). Finger Braille (Video of one handed with translator), Lorm Method, Touch Glove alphabet Method, and some other methods I think can all be described relatively the same. You want to describe the base action of what they're doing (writing, pointing, typing, grabbing, lifting, touching etc) and then focus on their dialogue.

Also I don't use any form of AAC to communicate so if anyone who does finds error, please correct it. Or even if there has been a discussion on this before among the community please reiterate or link to it so we have first hand experience and voices as well.

Known problems with audio Descriptions

Here's a Small history and more in depth article written by someone who needs audio descriptions. They primarily talk about its lack of rush to be used in cinema and primarily the UK.

Describing everything but the characters race: I've heard that this is an issue specifically for Netflix that the audio descriptions are good but they never mentioned the race of the character which some people have made note about. (I don't know much about this I will say just I've heard it around here and there)

Here is a post that goes more into detail about Audio descriptions as well by @accessibleaesthetics. And here is an all around really Good source as well called The Audio Description Project.

Forgetting character entrances & exits: This is important because people need to know what characters are in the scenes. Much like in a play with stage directions you need to know who comes in and when they exit.

Over describing/under describing: I read a debate about the use of over describing and under describing when it comes to AD's. The example given was when describing facial expressions. Option one is to just say "[Character] is surprised". Option two is to describe the facial expression in all its little details "[Character] opens their mouth, their eyebrows raised and eyes wide". Under describing in general seems to be a issue but when it comes to things like body/facial expressions it's best to keep it simple and to the point for another reason that I list down below.

Forgetting small details: the audio descriptions of All The Light We Can Not See, and The Boys do a fantastic job of small details. For others some things are glossed over but then don't make sense later on in the scene. For instance, if the character picks up a knife and this isn't narrated but then the part of them stabbing another person is then, it's kinda like "Oh well I guess the character picked up a knife at some point" but the exact moment isn't specified. In this article, the person who makes Audio Descriptions tells that he had described someone as Smoking a cigarette when he was in fact smoking Weed. He says the reason he realized the difference is because these are two separate substances that change the perception of the character. The little details matter because of the implications and importance to who is doing it and why, when gathering all the information and understanding a character.

Misnaming/mixing up characters: The same article I listed right before also says how mixing up characters is an issue sometimes too.

For audio descriptions in general I think listening to a few different ones might help with getting a grasp on how to do them/better do them. AudioVault is one place that if you can't find audio descriptions of your shows or movies, they might have it there. In this instance, maybe listening to your favorite movies or shows with the audio descriptions on might help you. Most shows/movies that are original to Netflix have them, the same with other streaming services like Peacock and Amazon Prime.

I don't use audio descriptions a lot because my tinnitus makes it difficult but I sometimes turn them on (when available) to understand scenes that are confusing to me. Certain actions and how the cameras frame them don't make sense to me sometimes, or even I can't see because of the lighting of the show or movie and so I need to know what's going on. This brings us to that beside people who are low vision or blind, many other people use Audio Descriptions for different reasons too. The same points can all be made for people who use Subtitles/closed captions as well.

Issues with captions/Things that need to be more common with captions

Names: Some captions have the names of the characters next to their dialogue. A lot don't do this. I think it should be done because of many reasons but mainly it makes it easier to follow along for everyone who uses captions.

Tonal Cues: As I mentioned before Tonal Cues in Captions would be so very helpful for a lot of people.

Don't censor: Don't censor swear words, slurs, anything, write it as it's said. Unless it's actually censored in the audio (which is usually done for comedic reasons) then do that.

Lyrics/music/background sounds: So not only making sure to include the songs that are playing over certain scenes but also making sure to include the soundtrack and background music that is playing. Almost every movie and show uses music as an indication for tone, often times characters or certain situations have their own theme too. These are all important to note when writing captions. The caption writers of Stranger Things did amazing when it came to background noises, writing every creak and bang is important especially if it's being heard and reacted to by either the characters or the audience.

Include language changes: This has long been an issue when you're watching something in one language and then when they switch languages it just says "Speaking in [language]". Instead write out what they said in that language. So instead of "Speaking in Spanish", actually write out "Sana sana colita de rana". If the character knows what they're saying because they speak the language you can also put another set of subtitles under it translating it. If you're doing a sorta comedic scene where the audience needs to know what is said but the character doesn't, then do the same, write it out in the language "Ay dios mio!" And then under/above it put the translation "Oh my God!".

Include different speech patterns: If the character has a stutter write it, if they're slurring their words together write it.

Auditory/Visual Learners: Some people just do better retaining and understanding information when it's in an auditory form. For some people, they're able to retain information more by reading it rather than hearing it as well.

People Who Have Trouble With Social Cues: Okay so a continuation to the "Over Describing/Under describing" bullet points above. For people who have trouble reading body/facial cues, the audio descriptions help by describing it as The character is happy, scared, shocked, surprised etc. This is part of the reason why it's best to use those words instead of describing every movement that goes into a person's expression/body language. Like wise Closed Captions with Tonal Cues would also help and serve much of the same purpose but those are rarely ever seen (in my experience).

Help People Learn The Connection Of Words And Actions: a lot of people are always learning new languages and being able to connect the word to the action helps with the understanding of new languages. Again the same for closed captions, being able to look at how words are spelt while listening to them helps grasp a better understanding.

Overstimulation: For some people looking and listening to something at the same time can be too much and it becomes overwhelming. I know I often turn off the sound to a lot of movies I watch and just use subtitles because sometimes commotion/yelling especially in like action movies is a lot. For some people, a lot of visual movement and constant rapid actions can be overwhelming as well.

Dark Screens: As I mention, especially more recently in the media industry, things are a lot harder to see nowadays. The same can be said with dialogue and why a lot of people may opt-in for subtitles and captions because things are just so hard to hear now.

The Busy Bees: Some people just like to multi-task and much like an audio book, you can do something (chores, crafting, homework etc) while listening to the show and not miss any visual information. Multi-tasking also helps some people concentrate better on what they're working on too much like music helps some people.

People With Other Medical Conditions That Make Viewing Screens Inaccessible: If your having a migraine or headaches, a screen is the last thing you want to look at, and for some people, noise is a trigger for them. They're also a known trigger for many people with epilepsy/seizure disorders. People who have photophobia also may AD due to the light sensitivity. People with ADHD, autism, Prosopagnosia, Processing Disorders, and many many other things that I can't possibly list them all, all may use Subtitles or AD's for multiple different reasons.

Okay, that was a lot, got a bit long, but hopefully I covered everything! Things could be more organized but it works so hopefully this helps! I'm not very familiar with animation so anyone who is, please feel free to add on in a reblog to share a few tips and tricks!

~ Mod Virus 🌸

[deathnguts]

Spare some rabastan lestrange for the needy pls🤲 (i’m the needy and i’d like to know what you think about his dynamic with his brothers)

Sigh, fine I’ll guess I’ll spare some pennies. Thank you for the ask! This is kinda scatter brained and kinda focused on Rodolphus to like parallel/paint how the brothers are together with they are separate and yeah I dunno I threw up

So usually I internalize whatever @florsial (formal apology to you pookie, Im about to act out of line 🫶) says about Rabastan because we tend to agree on things surrounding him but I think we definitely view Rodolphus differently. Which is fine, he barely exists as a character and I think it’s just representative of how we fundamentally view sibling relationships differently. Like I don’t know what it is with me, but I feel the need ti make every sibling relationship I write for either fanfiction or my own work complicated as hell.

So Rodolphus Lestrange. I think he’s a lot like Orion Black. Like he probably even looked up to him kind of when he grew up, (which is kinda funny because Rodolphus probably isn’t much younger than him if at all considering my headcanon that both walburga and Orion were young when they had both their children to kind of get it out of the way) and you can see that in like a lot of how he just is. Hes ‘stoic’ but actually just doesn’t feel a lot of emotions and doesn’t pretend he does, he’s probably like a hair away from being an alcoholic but he doesn’t drink because he knows that (unlike Orion who is very much an alcoholic), hes antisocial and physically annoyed around people because he doesn’t understand why they are as ‘efficient’ as he is and looks down on all of them.

He’s very work oriented, so much so that he doesn’t really have a life outside of it at all. He’s always been the twin the family knew to count on and he always liked having the title so he never had a rebellious stage or any real anger towards his expectations beyond being tired at the end of a particularly grueling work day. I think the only work hes expected to do that he actively doesn’t work towards doing is producing heirs. He doesn’t like kids, he thinks they’re loud and messy and they get in the way of a schedule. It’s like the only thing him and Bellatrix agree on since she also wants nothing to do with kids. (Also quick note on their marriage, I think they pretty much ignore each other and that’s their idea of what they’ll be like forever. When in public together they put on the ‘better than you’ couple mask but in every other scenario they live completely separate lives and actively avoid each other or they’ll find something to fight about.) like the general vibe I could sum him up with is, yes he’s Rabastan’s twin, but everyone who’s ever talked with him assumes he’s like a decade older and just aged well.

So to contrast that with Rabastan, who was never really expected to be anything and never proved anyone wrong, he’s the sort of kid his mother defends no matter what but he father actively tries to forget about. The exact sort Rodolphus looks down on. He can’t help it’s his brother, he’s still below him. And that would be easier to accept if Rabastan stopped proving it over and over. He had to act out in school, he had to move where mother couldn’t find at seventeen, he had to preach to the family that they were ‘immoral’ or whatever, and then he had to preach it to a child, and then he had to marry the child. Like, Rodolphus isn’t a good man by many means, but his lack of feeling or empathy towards people gives him a more head on view of them. And his head on view of his brother is that he’s useless, dramatic, and so desperate to be anything he’ll lie to a little girl to get her to view him that way. And not to say Rodolphus is any better since he witnessed first hand what his brother was doing, he literally walked in on the two hiding away to make out in a corner when regulus was still fifteen and his brother was the same age as himself and just turned back around and never mentioned it to anyone. A truly good person probably would’ve done something. Good thing that’s not what he’s trying to be.

(Also unrelated but I wanna circle back to a point @florsial has that I love about how Rabastan and Regulus are a couple who tries to nuclear and domestic but fails, I feel like that’s a joke on its own especially in this context. The idea that Rodolphus is the nuclear working man so Rabastan must parallel him by being a family man, he just isn’t. Yes he’s closer with his wife than his brother is, and yes that could be something he has over Rodolphus but pretty much no one in their family is proud of Rabastan for his teenage wife and it’s not like their perfect or anything.)

Rodolphus has probably told Rabastan he thinks this only once since he’s usually content to be quiet about it. He probably broke and yelled about how Rabastan will never be anything ro even get his shit together and it won’t matter because no one has hope he will and it hurts because Rodolphus was never given that leeway and it must be fucking nice to have. Rabastan probably doubles back with how much it must be nice for anyone to give a shit about you, to not only exoect things from you but love you even more when you deliver. They probably kept fighting until Rodolphus, as always, gets tired and shuts it down and goes home.

Because even a man who feels nothing has breaking points, especially when Rabastan keeps fucking pushing for one. And that was their relationship a lot of their life, I think. Rabastan desperately wanting to be seen and Rodolphus who is willingly blind. When they were younger that was ok, little kids before hogwarts just played together until father came to take Rodolphus away, growing boys at hogwarts who slowly drift apart when one doubles down on academics and the other found there’s more to do (and not for lack of desperate trying on the seconds behalf.) and then they’re grown up and neither can place what really happened. They’re sure they used to love each other, at least they think so. And they don’t know what happened, because something must have happened. Right?

Yeah I dunno it’s hard to continuously explain but I think what’s tragic about them is that it’s needless. Rabastan could try ti be better and it would not only help his relationships but himself, Rodolphus could try ti be more and he same would happen to him. If either brother were better at being human then they would be better at loving each other. But they’re not, so they can’t.

[rainbow-femme]

I am absolutely loving the SJM posts! I have never been able to get into her books despite trying every series (I have Crescent City currently checked out from the library). Her characters are just.... Such shit people and I can't care about them 😭

My personal feeling about SJM is she’s good at writing dark sexy wish fulfillment, but she also wants to write regular fantasy adventure, so you get things like 365 Days but in a setting where there are real world morals and we’re told the main characters are genuinely very good people

Like the set up of Feyre and Rhysand with the Hewn City. You’re married to the hottest and most powerful high lord and also you’re hot and powerful and he rules over a court of monsters and you now rule over those monsters too? Sexy. It’s then established that a main character grew up there and actually it’s not all monsters and there are innocent people living under terrible conditions and the main characters react by going “Eat shit and die, fuckers 😜” when the people want to leave and also make it so even if those people get out the one safe city by law has to refuse them service? Suddenly much less sexy.

Hot foreplay in a fantasy library? Sexy. Establishing that everyone who works there suffered sexual assault and then having that hot foreplay near them? Less sexy.

Becoming super bad ass and powerful and taking down your ex? Sexy. Establishing that said take down resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent people and the entire time said ex was actually working under cover in a way that ended up saving countless lives by helping the war? Less sexy.

I feel like you can have dark fantasy and dark fantasy morals, and you can have main characters that do bad things, but when you include those things but then constantly be like “look how great and wonderful they are!” Then it’s like ok well now I’m just annoyed

If they did the same stuff but there wasn’t a constant attempt to tell us they’re all actually pure moral softboys and the books just were like “yup they’re assholes!” then I would have fun because I love stories about assholes who fight other assholes and they all suck. The Maltese Falcon is one of my favorite movies for that reasons, every character is the fucking worst and sometimes they work together and sometimes against each other and they all have different backgrounds and skills and that’s fun!

Or even just an Oceans 11 take where it’s like are they criminals/assholes? Yes. Are they doing this for selfish gain? Yes. Are they doing this for petty revenge? Yes. Are they very charismatic and fun to watch? Also yes, which is why people love it and love the characters

I also am someone who loves world building and hers has a lot of cool ideas but she paints herself into corners constantly because of the need to have both sexy wish fulfillment and engaging plots outside of the sexiness

Again it’s sexy to make all your main characters the most powerful people in the history of ever, but then there’s no tension if they can just easily solve every problem, so these supposedly super powerful people get their shit absolutely wrecked constantly because they’re only powerful when it’s not plot relevant

“Azriel and Cassian have way more power gemstones than any other Illyrian, meaning they’re so much more powerful than even the most powerful warriors” Ok cool so why do they get bodied every time they’re in a fight

It falls under the same umbrella as the House of Night books where you have a great world set up and then it’s full of powerful asshole main characters who the book tells you every two pages are the best people ever. Although SJM is miles better than P.C. Cast and ACOTAR is miles better than House of Night

[chaotic-starlight24]

headcanons!!

Steve x Evie shit bc they are cute and happy so fight me

Yay! Fellow Stevie shipper! I love them both so much :)))

Evie works with household appliances and Steve works with cars so they both share and study their love of machines with each other. Sometimes they’ll walk hand-in-hand at the junkyard and pick up salvageable parts. Then create small machines. Most of them aren’t exactly for everyday use but they really enjoy making them together.

Steve has a great fear of the cops and Evie knows this. She hates seeing him so terrified and it makes her cry. 

Evie has freckles all over her cheeks and shoulders and Steve tries to create constellations with them.

They are the ultimate, most ambitious power couple you will ever meet. Both very independent and stubborn. But they are also very lovey-dovey around each other. It’s almost sickening how much they love each other.

Steve is very strong and loves to carry Evie on his shoulder or carry her on his back just to show off. She loves it. She can’t lift him very high but she does bridal carry him occasionally.

Evie’s parents are very supportive of their relationship and always invite Steve to dinner. It kinda freaked Steve out at first because the only healthy relationship with adults he has seen are the Curtis parents. But he has grown to love them.

Evie has 2 younger brothers who also love Steve. Steve thinks they’re kinda annoying but he powers through those feelings.

They started dating when they were both 14-15ish. Beforehand they were childhood friends and Steve had the biggest crush on her. They met in 2nd grade after Steve saw her playing with toy cars and was just like :O

Soda and Evie get along really well and Soda is always welcome to have her. But he started getting a little upset whenever he saw her post-breakup with Sandy. Which frustrates Steve because he knows Soda is really upset but it’s not Evie’s fault.

You know the song “Hopelessly Devoted to You”? That's what Evie’s crush on Steve was like when it first started. Girly was CONVINCED that he just saw her as a great friend. Until literally everyone who knew them was like “He’s been flirting with you for like, the past 3 years.” And Steve was NOT subtle with it either.

Steve and Evie liked Sandy and loved having double dates. Which meant they were really upset and confused when she cheated. They thought it was so out-of-character for her. Sandy was an ok girlfriend, sure, but they never really saw her toxic side.

Steve constantly does the “THIS IS FOR EVIE!” and miserably fails. Backflips, basketball shots, etc. Evie loves his dorky self.

Evie has heard all about Steve’s dreams of his own car shop a million times. But she’s one of the few to have heard about his dreams of being a proper engineer. She’s told him that he has a chance but he never believes her.

Steve’s dad hates Evie with a burning passion. She’s the opposite of all his expectations for women so he just despises her. She has taken to purposefully annoying him.

Steve has a necklace with one of Evie’s favorite flowers on a chain. Evie has a bracelet that says Stevie.

They sit on the roof together every so often. Looking up at the stars, pointing out constellations. Though they both end up just staring at each other.