#they'd been keeping them in the outside fridge

[steddiebang2024]

how to wake a dead boy. | M |  33.7k

Author: @punkslovepoints

Artist: @bleedingoptimism

Beta Reader: 100_Thrown_Out_Speeches (AO3)

[Link to fic] | [Link to art]

Pairings: Stever Harrington/Eddie Munson

Characters: Eddie Munson, Steve Harrington, Dustin Henderson, Robin Buckley, Nancy Wheeler

Tags: Childhood Sweethearts, Childhood Friends, Time Jump, Angst with a Happy Ending, Mutual Pining, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Apocalypse, Steve Harrington Has Powers, Alternate Universe - Pushing Daisies Fusion, Inspired by Pushing Daisies, Necromancy  

Trigger Warnings: Parental Death, Child abuse, Neglect, Some horror elements, Blood, Mild Gore, Some lingering Stancy

↳ Keep reading below for a summary!

They pull up outside the funeral home. An austere building masquerading as homely, it reminds Steve of his own house. Dustin looks nervous as Steve turns off the engine, sits with his hands on the wheel, just waiting.

Dustin has removed his hat and is tracing his fingers along the words, muttering to himself as he does.

“You don't have to go in, you know.”

Dustin snorts in response.

“I mean it.” Steve leans towards him, forces Dustin to look at him. “I know it may feel like giving up to not go in now, but it's not. We can do something else, throw a party in his memory or something. You don't have to punish yourself.”

Dustin continues to trace the outline on his hat. “No. I want to.” He looks up then, makes eye contact. “If you're given a chance to say goodbye, a real goodbye, you've got to take it right?”

Steve stares at him in shock, Dustin’s words forming an idea in his mind. A very, very stupid idea. Dustin continues to talk, explaining that this'll be his last chance to see Eddie. That he needs to do it, for closure.

“Wait here.”

“What?”

“Just,” Steve opens the car door, steps out and leans in, “I need to let them know we're here, there'll probably be paperwork. I'll come back and get you when they're ready.”

He closes the door before Dustin has a chance to respond. Walks the short distance from the sidewalk to the driveway as if his heart hasn’t started to pound and his legs don't feel like jelly.

He hasn't used his power in years. After working out the rules, he’d gotten good at hiding it, thinking of it as more than a curse than a power. And on the odd occasion he’d been forced to touch something dead, he'd perfected the old double tap method. Even Dustin hadn't noticed the split second of alive-again-dead-again back when they'd stuffed the demodog into Joyce Byers fridge.

By the time he reaches the entrance, he's made up his mind. He’s going to wake Eddie.

One minute.

A chance to say goodbye.

Properly this time.

The funeral director gives Steve a look of annoyance when he steps through the door, refuses to shake his hand, and just grunts a curt, “This way,” as he leads him through the building. Steve has gotten used to it over the past week, those who believed the stories, who see Eddie as nothing more than the murderer the press make him out to be. Steve tries not to care, just lets the guy lead him through to the back, thanks him as he waves a dismissive hand towards the door and returns to the desk mumbling that he doesn’t understand why they didn’t let Eddie rot in the hell he created.

Steve watches him go, steps into the room, closing the door behind him. It’s quiet. Steve doesn’t know why he expects anything else, just knows it feels strange to be in a room with Eddie and it be silent, not when Eddie himself was so loud. 

The room isn’t large, just a table with a vase on it that should contain flowers but doesn’t. The casket is sitting closed on a raised platform. Steve steps closer, his heart hammering in his chest, he’s muttering to himself how this is a bad idea, a bad idea, a bad idea.

Still, he opens the lid of the casket and there he is.

Eddie.

He’s paler than he’s ever looked before, make-up smeared across the worst of his facial wounds, but done without care or precision. He’s glad that Dustin isn't seeing him like this, he looks barely better than the day he died, although at least the shirt he’s wearing isn’t covered in blood.

He gives himself a moment. Steadies his breathing before reaching out and with a delicate touch, places a finger on Eddie’s cheek.

[boyjoan]

I suppose i should mention....

[beforetimes]

amusing myself with a post-dofp, pre-apocalypse fix-it wherein peter goes back to the x mansion much earlier and gets to help in fixing it up. because, like, as lowkey traumatizing as erik's speech probably was for peter in the moment, i can't imagine he'd want to squander the opportunity to take a look back at these ppeople who had brought him into the fold of this new world they'd introduced him to before anyone else knew about it. i think it's plausible that he didn't go back to the school after that speech because, maybe he wanted to lay low so his little sister and mother wouldn't get dragged into whatever mess he'd been complicit in unleashing on the world. but i don't buy that he wouldn't go back earlier, either, especially with all the time in the world to think [agonize] over these strange people who were like him when he didn't know any mutants before, either.

so! let's say peter goes back to the mansion following erik's news broadcast to keep distance from his family to keep them safe. what next?

well when he gets there, it's obviously a dump compared to what it used to be. charles hasn't bothered to fix it up when he was on a ten year bender and hank was busy keeping charles from self-destructing and logan was there for a day at most

peter, however, is armed with superspeed and is an overzealous teenager who was challenged ("how fast do you really think you can clean all this? what, half a day?" "half a day for one room? you're kidding, man��") and now he has his pride on the line so obviously he commits to clearing out dust to prove he's the best duster to ever step foot in this stupid mansion

and he's maybe, like, halfway through the first room before he's realized what he's been roped into but also he doesn't really care because he's so bored and by now he'd probably have ramsacked a grocery store near home for more food he doesn't need but his heart squeezes a little at thinking like that—thinking about using his powers so openly after seeing this guy threaten to kill the president and now everyone knows about mutants and their only examples are 'terrorist' and 'not terrorist' and he really doesn't want to think about his sweet little sister still small enough to sit in his lap watching him step outside to break the law like that man did and phew why does being associated with this guy he broke out of prison make his chest hurt so much? whatever he'll just ignore that and keep cleaning because if he's cleaning he's not putting his family in danger and who knows maybe other kids will find their way here

and then he imagines little gap-toothed mutants about five or six years old running down the empty halls of this forboding sad mansion and the dark hallways make him feel a little more sick so he runs through and opens every curtain in about two seconds and feels less like throwing up and wow he doesn't think he's ever felt this lopsided in his life

and so peter works through about two floors by the end of the day and crashes in a bed to sleep for five hours before immediately raiding the fridge for about three thousand calories worth of food and makes his way through most of charles' newly restocked perishibles before the man even makes his way into the kitchen looking for some coffee or whatever

and peter isn't really mad but he is feeling a little off-centre about the fact that this was the guy who brought him to the pentagon to break a terrorist out of jail and even though it was really cool and he had so much fun doing it and it was the first time in a while he wasn't bored for an entire day he still feels a bit cheated because he didn't know he was breaking out a terrorist but charles definitely did and he was mad but he kind of didn't care and he left peter with a car to drop off and nothing else even though he dragged peter into this mess and was now pretending nothing happened

so peter leaves the room before charles can blink and spends the next week dodging him and hank is stressed and charles is stressed and the woman from the cia who visits, like, once, can feel it too because peter can tell she's stressed by the look on her face he snags a glance at when he's rooting through her wallet in superspeed and everyone is tense and stressed and peter is kind of regretting this because he could just hide in his basement until he's absolutely sure no one from the pentagon remembers his face and the fbi won't break down his mother's door to take him away from his family

and one night he's really not feeling it so he calls his mom and he doesn't really look at the date but he guesses it's important because the moment the phone picks up and he says "hello?" his mother is just spilling out so many things to him like one secret after the other and peter can usually notice everything because he's always got time to look at the details but everything feels syrupy and goes in one ear and out the other until the next morning when he sits down at the table and is in the same room as charles for the first time in weeks and all he can think is my mom knew someone who could do that

so now he's got this whole mess to think about so he doesn't have any time or energy left to be mad-not-mad at charles and hank which is crazy because he has so much energy all the time and he guesses that the pair of adults are taking their blessings without questioning them because they continue on as normal and peter only gets one day of things being sort of not entirely awful while the news settles in before he opens the door at eleven in the evening and finds magneto from the news on their porch with blood all over his side

and peter kind of blanks out or he stares too long or something because magneto says something and then all of a sudden peter's rushed the two of them down to hank's lab where hank pretends he wasn't listening to black sabbath because he's distinguished or whatever and there's a lot of yelling and panicking and peter stays at the side while charles joins them a few minutes later to talk calmly while everyone yells and eventually no one is yelling and magneto is fixed up and charles is staring and hank is glaring and peter opens his big dumb mouth and trips into the worst situation of his life entirely by accident

which is where he invited magneto to stay until he's feeling better

and everyone looks at him and even he's not sure why he said it because he doesn't know how he feels about magneto because he's been dreaming about having a father for years and years and he always imagined him as a boring old man who wasn't particularly anything special at all and the type of person who would float from city to city just working as a placeholder for a lot of other women instead of specifically screwing over peter's mom

and he didn't think his father would be a terrorist and he doesn't know if he wants to imagine magneto and father in the same sentence but all he's really thinking about is that new animated robin hood thing he saw with his sister and how that marian wondered if robin remembered her and robin wondered if marian remembered him and they were both thinking about each other without knowing it and peter doesn't know if his—magneto—remembered his mother but he can't stop himself from offering anyway

so now after a lot of silent conversation between charles and hank where peter is left out of the loop because his brain makes charles nauseus, magneto is given a room to stay in under the condition he doesn't try to, fucking, blow up the school or whatever the hell he wants to do to make everyone think mutants are evil. peter paraphrases the rules to sound like that in his head because charles is much more formal aloud

and if he thought the stress and regret and everything else that made him want to throw up was bad before, then phew he had no idea what was lying in store with him when it came to magneto because that guy is a perpetual storm cloud over a bright and sunny day no matter what happens, somehow

and peter knows he probably has a tragic backstory because he heard as much from charles late one night when they both couldn't sleep and peter couldn't help but ask what magneto was like when he was younger and charles looked so sad peter almost regretted asking but didn't because curiosity was going to eat him alive before he got a chance to blink

so peter doesn't know all of it but he knows it was bad and magneto is allowed to be upset but also it isn't cool he tried to murder the president and that's the one part that keeps screaming in his head every time he reconciles with the fact that he invited this guy to stay at someone else's mansion when the only reason peter was here was to keep his family and by proxy himself safe from this type of stuff

so he's proven to himself he's the dumbest person alive about three times over and he's still helping with renovations in that stupid mansion and he's wiped at the kitchen table when someone slides a glass of orange juice to him at ten in evening and he looks up and hey it's magneto he knows that guy

and that guy is like, terrifying as fuck so peter kind of chokes on his thanks which makes magneto's eyes look stormy and kind of sad and wow he didn't know that was a thing that could happen he sort of throught terrorists were above feelings especially after attempting to kill presidents

so peter kind of says sorry and magneto says sorry and no one says anything until magneto says its very impressive how much he's been doing to help out around here and peter is like wow really you think so because he still loves praise and people seeing how cool he is and it bugged him the tiniest bit that magneto walked by without saying anything when he broke him out of the pentagon btut he's glad that dusting and sweeping and mopping has impressed this guy so much

and magneto says something about how he's greater than he knows and that his gift is something that no one else possesses or something like that all peter knows is it's verging into territory he doesn't like and he keeps thinking about how much magneto hates humans and he keeps thinking about how his kid sister and mom are humans and he wonders if his dad hated his mom and thats why he left and he zooms upstairs to grab his walkman and put on his headphones before coming back downstairs while magneto's mid sentence to make him go away because peter was here first

magneto kind of blinks and goes blank and peter sort of welcomes it because magneto is frightening when he gets so into this whole mutant supremacy thing he has going on and peter is regretting asking him to come by at all before the guy stiltedly asks what he's listening to, which, like, what?

and peter finds out that magneto has never listened to like, a single band that wasn't playing on a radio he accidentally happened to be in the vicinity of and peter blinks and all of a sudden he's bugging a terrorist who hates humans to listen to his vinyls because he's somehow convinced himself in a moment of hysteria or delusion or psychosis that if he woos magneto with human music he'll decide that he doesn't want every human dead, just the bad ones and peter won't have to try and kill him or something and wow that's a lot to think about because peter doesn't think he'd ever murder someone but his dad murdered a lot of people or tried to and if they're blood related there must be some of that in him or something but thinking about that makes his chest twisty and he's only like eighteen or nineteen so he throws that worry aside but doesn't do too great of a job at it

because he's sitting in his room and they're both listening to queen and peter's mind can't stop going in circles and circles and circles and his mouth is open and he's asking magneto hey do you think you'd kill a human even if you loved them once before he can stop himself and magneto's staring at him and peter's staring at the ceiling and his chest is this tight ball of frizzy hairs of anxiety or something gross that feels like a million pounds

and magneto very slowly says why do you ask before he continues like he's peter and he can't bear to be interrupted and says something or other about how no humans are trustworthy and peter can't shut his dumb mouth so he asks more directly if he's loved a human before

and now magneto's staring and not saying anything and peter's kind of hoping and kind of not hoping that this guy who he's spent the past few weeks bonding with over late nights and vinyls and breakfast-for-dinners will either put the pieces together or say no and prove peter right and peter will make sure he never knows that peter's kid sister and his mother even exist

but magneto surprises him and says he's loved someone once and it would be a lie for him to say he hasn't loved humans when they didn't know what he was and when people found out what he was there was always a problem and that's why humans are a problem

and peter wonders if finding out that someone was pretending to be something theyre not would make magneto as upset as it did humans because he thinks he's going to go insane if he keeps pretending he's not magneto's kid and he's still kind of hoping for magneto to be more outwardly evil about hating his mom and kid sister so peter can just mentally disown him and get this weight off his shoulders

and he keeps waiting and waiting and waiting and magneto doesn't say more and peter doesn't say more but now this thing is sitting in between the two of them and peter's given away more of the game than he wanted on the last day before magneto's supposed to leave because of his fully healed wounds—which he had many of

except when he goes back to down to breakfast the next day he finds a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee and magneto is sitting at the table reading the newspaper that charles somehow gets delivered here and when peter finishes his glass and has four more magneto tells peter to call him erik

so now it's peter charles hank and erik living here and peter waits and waits and erik doesn't leave and they don't talk but he doesn't leave and peter is still waiting for erik to leave when charles wheels in a few days later and says they're going to go look for students and when erik just hums and says he'll come with peter stares and charles stares and hank stares and no one says anything

and then the days pass and they get a longer and longer list of students and peter's run out of places to clean and erik is still here and they don't talk about it but they listen to vinyls and erik is still here

erik is still here and peter is still here and nothing is really fixed but nothing is broken either and peter is content to sit in this space of being and not being until he's sure that there's more erik in magneto than there is magneto

and erik is still here. and peter is glad. secretly

[poppy-metal]

too sleepy sorry if this is incoherent but exes to lovers!jordan to simp!jordan pipeline is real i think :( they're all angry make up sex, possessive and rough and good but but you're just their little princess at the end of the day :(

once they're done with you they can't shut up, mumbling about how much they missed your sweet cunt, how much they missed you, while they clean you up. tell you they thought about you every day n they don't know how they managed without you :( all "never letting you go again, baby. don't know what i was thinking.", putting you in their warmedt hoodie, laying back against their pillows and pulling you into their lap :( holding you close nd kissing you, running their fingers through your hair and tracing soft patterns on your back. let you sleep if you're tired or maybe you guys just talk for a while. you both missed a lot, after all.

jst been thinking abt them alort 😔😔 maybe its a little bit of a problem

-🦸‍♀️

u make me SICK.

its so fucking angry and possessive, the way they fuck you, they have to do it twice, in both forms just to feel you in every way possible. have to fuck you on their dick, mold your cunt to their shape again - "you feel that, baby? that's my dick comin' home." when they slide it inside and make you watch how they split you apart.

fills you up with their cum and then shifts yanking your shaky legs apart because they aren't done. they've been starved of you for too long, groaning witb relief when they sink their warm pussy onto yours, the cum they'd pumped inside you leaking out and making the slide of their flesh on yours slick and wet and lewd. string of of their cum clinging to your cunt when they lift up to look at the creamy mess. "god, that's fucking hot," before they're bringing their pussy back down, rutting against you hard, clits bumping and kissing and your eyes are crossing ready to slip into subspace but before you go jordan grips your chin, "tell me this is mine - this wet fucking cunt - who owns it?"

"you! you do, jordan - fuck-"

"yeah? you gonna run again?"

"no!"

"dont fucking take this pussy away from me ever again, i swear to god-"

"i wont! please, daddy, fuck - s'your pussy, s'all yours, promise-"

they shut you up with a kiss, tribbing you to fucking tears and by the time to you come to they're pressing a water bottle to your lips. "drink", they make you take a few sips before giving you your favorite drink. a reward for taking your water like a good girl.

something about jordan keeping your favorite drink stocked in their fridge even though they dont drink it themselves - all this time. makes you weepy and soft and you're clinging to them like a koala soon after, kissing their flushed skin.

"i missed you so much, j."

you feel their hand run soothingly down your back, "yeah," they huff, always more for actions than words (outside of sex anyway), you can hear the crack in their voice though, how they grip you tighter, "me too."

[virtualvault]

Love You to the Moon and Back

Pairing: Moonknight System x Gn!Reader

Summary: The Boys are away for Valentine's day but they make sure to leave behind some thoughtful gifts to show you how much you mean to them.

Warnings: just fluff and a brief mention of the boys touching reader's butt at the very end (Just couldn't help myself)

WC: 1.2k

A/N: thought I'd try writing some fluff with valentines day around the corner. Enjoy :))

You awaken to a cold, empty left side of the bed. You rub your hand over the indent left behind and sigh. Being apart was hard enough, but on Valentine's Day especially, their absence was glaringly obvious. You knew they'd be gone, but it didn't stop a wave of loneliness from washing over you. You had spent the previous evening together, knowing they'd be gone for the actual day. You had worked late, so you only really had a few hours to cuddle on the couch and fool around a bit before you had to head to bed. You agreed to celebrate properly when they get back, but you don't want to endure the wait. All you want to do is wrap them in your arms and spend the day in bed.

Before the melancholy can completely consume you, your nostrils are filled with the scent of freshly made breakfast. You get up and make your way into the kitchen and are immediately taken aback at the sight. The counter is covered with an assortment of all your favorite breakfast foods. The quantity is impressive, and it looks like a little buffet.  Alongside the food there is a note that reads, 'Enjoy!' and informs you of fully prepped lunch and dinner in the fridge. You immediately know it's Jake's doing. He takes care of you in so many ways but keeping you well fed has to be his favorite.

 At the center of the counter, you notice a beautiful white orchid. You smile. That was surely from him as well. You had mentioned your interest in getting one a while back and his eyes lit up. He’s a plant dad through and through and he's been sharing his hobby with you, showing you how to nurture and care for a variety of plants. It initially piqued your interest just seeing how committed he is to them. His gentleness and attentiveness when it came to his beloved flora warms your heart. You noticed it mirrors his care and devotion for you.

 As your eyes scan the various plates down the counter, they land on a pink heart shaped cloche. You lift it to reveal a Swiss roll with hearts decorating the outside. This, you know, is from Steven. He knows you enjoy baking and he had asked you a while back to give him lessons. Now every time you step into the kitchen, he’s at your heels, soaking in all the knowledge you can offer. You’re quite impressed with his roll, something you didn't teach him, so you know he went out of his way to learn by himself. The thought of him venturing out on his own to learn how to do it widens the smile on your face.

 Alongside his treat, he also got you a teddy bear. The little name tag on the ribbon reads, 'Little Steven' and you giggle. Every time they come home you always mention to him how much you miss his cuddles and how you resort to snuggling up with their pillow as a substitute. You cherish that sort of physical intimacy with all of them but especially with Steven. Sometimes he'll read to you, or you'll just chat about anything and everything. Other times you just lay there in silence, completely enveloped in the warmth and love of one another. It’s a time for connection and to be present with each other. It brings you closer together not just physically, but emotionally and it's hard to go without it for extended periods of time. So, he decided to gift you something as a sort of place holder to snuggle up with until he can get back to you.

 As you reach the end of the counter, you notice Marc hadn't contributed to the buffet, but that comes as no surprise. Marc is a disaster in the kitchen. Whether it's cooking or baking, or even making a cup of coffee, he's completely clueless. Just last week he tried to make you Ramen and almost burned down the house. Although there is no treat from him, what he left you was better than anything you could have asked for. He wrote you a letter, expressing his love for you. He talks about how you hold a very special place in his life and his heart and how he is grateful for you every day. The note itself was touching and it made you tear up, but the gesture meant just as much. He had been the hardest nut to crack amongst all three of them. Jake was quicker than him to open up, which surprised you.

Marc had been very closed off, emotionally, but you understood. You had been very patient with him, not wanting to pressure him and push him away. So, you were determined to let him go at his own pace. This eventually started taking a bit of a toll on your relationship and you voiced that concern to him. Your gentleness and understanding was enough for him to feel comfortable to start to make the effort. He speaks about this in his letter, saying you help him be more in touch with his feelings and not just shoving them deep down inside and shutting everyone out.

 Through your tears you start to chuckle as you eye the homemade “coupons” that accompanied his letter. They ranged from offering a massage, a cuddle session, trip to the farmers market, picnics, and a few other sweet offers. These are all things he would more than happily do with you anytime you asked but the gesture was appreciated.

 As you go to grab a plate, your eye lands on a small black box that sits next to the teddy bear and orchid. Feeling like you already got more than you could've hoped for, you reach for the box hesitantly. You can tell it's jewelry, which isn’t your typical type of gift. You prefer just spending quality time with your boys. When you open the box, you let out a small gasp. It is a simple but beautifully delicate moon pendant on a thin gold chain. The box is engraved with, “To the moon and back”. Tears, yet again, threaten to spill from your eyes. You immediately put it on, and you feel so full of love, even in their absence.

 As you begin eating, you open the card they got you. It had a sweet inscription, “Sorry we can’t be here to shower you with love like you deserve, but we’ll make it up to you when we return.” It's very sweet but what catches your eye is what's written on the bottom of the card. The boys left their own personal 'P.S' and you giggle as you read each one.

P.S. “give that cute butt a squeeze for me” -Steven

P.S.S “and a slap from me"- Marc

P.S.S "and a bite from me…oh wait…guess I'll just have to do it myself *wink*”-Jake

 You’re still missing them terribly, but you’re grateful to have their sweet words and gestures to keep your heart full until they come home.

[captainsophiestark]

Office Most-Eligible

Daniel Sousa x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for Fictober 2023!

Fandom: Marvel

Day 20 Prompt: "This better be good."

Summary: When Jack ropes Daniel into eavesdropping on the telephone ladies' breakroom, they both might hear a lot more than they'd bargained for.

Word Count: 2,387

Category: Fluff, Humor

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

Daniel's POV

I sighed as I shuffled the papers in my hands, mentally running through the million things I had to do today. Peggy, Jack, and I had managed to stop Leviathan from leveling New York City and destroying Howard Stark, but that didn't mean the last six months since then had been any more relaxed. If anything, it had gotten busier than ever before.

There had even been talk of opening another branch of the agency in LA, which was a whole other insane possibility fluttering around in my mind. It was enough to distract me to the point that I didn't notice Thompson, half-hidden by the entryway to the agency, until I ran into him.

"Thompson? What the hell are you-?"

"Sh!"

He raised his finger to his lips and glared at me. I glared back.

"Why are you-"

"Sousa! Shut up and listen," he hissed, jerking his head towards a grate in the wall. I frowned and made a demanding "what?" gesture, but he just nodded towards the grate again. I sighed, so long-suffering it wasn't even funny, but shuffled closer.

"This better be good," I grumbled. Jack just waved his hand at me.

Through the grate, I could hear voices talking and giggling loudly. It sounded like all the ladies who sat outside the entrance to the agency, guarding the door and keeping up the front that this was a phone company, talking together like they were in the break room. I paused, curious enough to entertain Thompson's nonsense for another ten seconds.

"-saying is, there's a definite ranking of all the guys in this office. And yours ain't it."

The girls dissolved into another fit of giggles, and I scowled. I grabbed Thompson's arm and yanked him away from the grate, out of earshot.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I demanded, keeping my voice low just in case. "You're eavesdropping on coworkers in their breakroom? Instead of working? You're the Chief!"

"I don't know if you caught it, Sousa, but they're talking about us. Specifically which one of us they'd most want to date. I'd call that research and intelligence work for future opportunities."

Jack gave me a smirk as he drifted back towards the vent. I scowled and followed to drag him away and make him do his damned job, but froze when I heard the ladies welcoming our newest addition to the agency, the second female agent in SSR history. She'd been here a little over five months, had become instant best friends with Peggy Carter, and had me head over heels within a week of knowing her.

And apparently she'd just walked into the breakroom.

Jack gave me a knowing smirk and raised an eyebrow, and I glared right back. But I couldn't quite manage to drag myself away either, no matter how much my brain told me I should.

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

Y/N's POV

"You came at the perfect time!"

I pulled a snack out of the fridge and looked suspiciously at Mary, one of the switch operators who worked outside the SSR. In the short time I'd been here, I'd gotten to know her and Rose pretty well, since they mostly alternated shifts for our main door guard. Rose and I had quickly bonded over our mutual feminism and desire for independence; Mary and I had bonded through being troublemakers, and I had a feeling I was about to see some more of that.

"Why?" I asked, drifting halfway to the door now that I had secured my snack. Mary smiled.

"We were just talking about the boys in the office. We have a few different opinions about who would make the best boyfriends and husbands, and since you know them all so well... I mean, I can't think of anyone else with a better reason to chime in."

I scoffed. "Nice try Mary, but no way am I engaging in this conversation. See you all later!"

The rest of the women in the room booed playfully, but I didn't turn around as I reached the door. Mary, however, knew me well enough to figure out how to stop me in my tracks.

"Well, I guess that means Jack Thompson is the definitive winner!"

I narrowed my eyes and stared at the door in front of me, hand on the half-turned doorknob. I'd come so close to avoiding this nonsense, and it still wasn't too late for me to take the exit. I scowled and scrunched my nose, then turned around to squint at all my coworkers looking back at me.

"Be completely honest, I'll be able to tell if you're lying," I started, still only half-turned away from the door. "How many of you would put Jack Thompson at the top of your 'SSR's Most Eligible Bachelor' list?"

A few hands shot into the air, followed by a few more tentative hands that must've heard the disgust in my tone. All in all, about half the room had their hands up for him. I sighed, long and heavy.

"And the other runners up were...?"

A few people called out names of other men in the office, most of whom were barely better (or definitely worse) than Jack. I looked up at the ceiling and shook my head.

"You all have terrible taste in men."

Half the room, Mary included, started laughing, and the other half looked offended. I shook my head and turned to leave again, but Mary stopped me again before I could go.

"Who would you choose then, if not Thompson? You can't criticize our taste without giving us some insight into your process."

Her grin stretched across her entire face as she stared at me, waiting for me to take the bait. Her hand had been the first in the air for Thompson, but I could tell she genuinely wanted to debate me more than she wanted to defend him.

I sighed.

"Fine. But I'm going to make this quick and then I'm gonna go do my job, because I have a ton of stuff to do today," I said, finally stepping away from the door to stand in the middle of the room. Everyone stared at me, leaning forward in their seats a little, Mary most of all. "...I can't believe I'm about to engage in this."

Mary scoffed and I rolled my eyes, but then took a deep breath and dove in. What the hell, right?

"Okay, first of all, let me clarify: I can understand, from a surface level, why you might pick Thompson. He's handsome, and if you didn't spend much time with him, I can see why you'd think he might make a good partner. Honestly, in the five months I've known him, I've even seen a few glimmers of hope that there might be a heart of gold underneath all that arrogance, posturing, and chauvinism. However. In terms of best guy in the office to have as a partner? He does not even come close to touching Daniel Sousa."

A few people raised their eyebrows, half leaning forward and half leaning back and crossing their arms. I ignored them all (especially Mary, who beamed at me), and continued.

"Listen. Sousa is... kind of ridiculously attractive. He's handsome, with the warmest brown eyes you've ever seen in your entire life... and he's super strong. I've seen him one-handed lift a bunch of different things the other agents struggled with using their whole bodies. He looks incredible in a sweater vest, to say nothing of suits and non-sweater vest clothes."

I saw considering nods around the room as people took in my words. I paused and took a deep breath, then continued.

"More than all of that, though... Daniel is kind. He's strong in his morals and his character, not just physically. He's got a great sense of humor, and his jokes don't rest on being a mean, close-minded jackass. And, above anything else, he respects me. He respects Peggy. He treats us as equals. I don't know about you guys, but... that means everything to me. And finding a man who's kind, smart, strong, handsome, and will treat me as an equal partner? Come on. Daniel's got it all."

I hadn't been paying a lot of attention to the expressions of everyone else around the room while I was talking, but now I focused back in to see the majority looking thoughtful. I cleared my throat, suddenly feeling incredibly self-conscious, and started backing towards the door.

"Uh, anyway... long way of saying I'd put Daniel at the top of my list."

Mary grinned at me as I continued heading for the door, then pushed out of her chair and called out to the whole room.

"Hear that? Sousa's off limits, these two are going to be dating in the next month if we have anything to say about it."

"MARY!"

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

Daniel's POV

Jack and I stood in the hallway, stunned into silence as we stared into space. My brain had been telling me to stop listening a while ago, but I'd been shocked enough that my body had refused to listen. Now, my heart was telling me I was on the verge of a cardiac arrest.

"You go get him, girl!" Mary's voice continued through the vents. Then, with determination and glee dripping from her words, "I'm staying after Thompson. I'm gonna fix him."

I heard some light-hearted laughter, and then a door shutting. In a few seconds, the girl who'd just poured her heart out to me without realizing it would be coming into the office, a few feet from Jack and I's stupid hiding place.

"You look like you're about to puke," said Jack, a beaming grin on his face. I scowled.

"Why don't you? You just got called a couple pretty bad things."

"What? Like 'attractive'? All I was hearing were positives." He grinned at me, then sobered slightly before slapping me on the shoulder and taking a few steps away. "Don't psych yourself out on this one though, Sousa. She's a catch, and she's clearly in love with you. If you don't take a shot, I might have to."

I scoffed and shook my head. I knew Jack didn't really mean that; it was his own, terrible way of trying to be supportive.

I sighed and tried to brace myself as I walked over to the entrance to the SSR. Thompson was wrong about many, many, many things, but he was right about this: I needed to take my shot.

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

Y/N's POV

"Holy- Daniel!" I nearly dropped the snack I'd taken a detour to retrieve as I cleared the SSR doors and came face to face with Daniel, especially since I'd just poured my heart out about him to a bunch of our coworkers. "You scared the hell out of me!"

"Uh... sorry," he said, shifting his weight around a little and running a hand through his hair. He looked almost as comfortable as I felt.

"Is, uh, is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Well, sort of. I just..." He cleared his throat, then jerked his eyes away from the floor and the wall to meet mine. "I need to tell you something, and then I need to ask you something."

"...Okay?"

"First, I... I heard what you said in the breakroom. About me. And about Jack, which was fun too, but... It feels important that you know I heard the stuff you said about me."

My heart stopped in my chest, and I blinked a few times as black spots danced at the very edges of my vision. I was going to kill Mary.

"Uh..."

"Before you say anything, I'm sorry," he said, holding up a hand. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop, I just... I let Thompson suck me into something I should've known better about. I'm sorry."

"It's fine, Daniel," I said, a little breathless as my legs finally started working to move me past him. I could not deal with this a second longer. "Don't worry about it, I'll... I have to go-"

"Wait!" he cried. He put one hand on my arm to stop me, then quickly dropped it when I turned back to look at him. I watched him take a deep breath, my heart hammering a thousand times even though it only took a few seconds, then he continued. "Look, I know I might've lost a few points in your book for the eavesdropping, which is fair, but... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't head over heels for you too. Have been since the first few days you got to the agency. You're smart and strong and funny and... God, listen to me."

He looked down and shook his head, and I noticed a slight blush rising up his neck and cheeks. Slowly, my heart dropped back to a normal rhythm, and I started to smile.

"Okay, what I'm trying to say is... I feel the same way about you that you do about me," he said, finally looking up at me again. "And if you'd still be interested... I'd love to take you out to dinner sometime."

I beamed at him, unable to stop the smile completely overtaking my face. I looked down, and when I looked up again, Daniel's stare was still on me, a smile hopefully flickering in and out of place.

"Daniel, I'd love that," I finally said.

"You would?"

"Yeah. I really, really like you, eavesdropping and all."

He huffed a laugh, the shaky smile turning into full-on beaming.

"Great! How's tomorrow night sound?"

"Sounds perfect."

"Good. I'll pick you up at eight." He started to back away, so both of us could get to the mountain of work we had to tackle at some point today, then stopped. "If that works for you, that is?"

I smiled. "That absolutely works for me."

"Alright, great! I'll see you then. And, uh, around the office, I guess."

"I'll see you around the office."

We shared another set of dorky, ridiculous smiles as we backed away from each other, going to do our separate tasks for at least part of the day. Thank God Thompson wasn't around to see either of us.

At some point, he and the rest of our coworkers would probably catch on to the two of us dating, unless the first date somehow went so horribly there wasn't a second. But I'd meant every word I'd said to the rest of our coworkers about Daniel. And if a little eavesdropping had led to him asking me out, I couldn't bring myself to be too upset about any of it.

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

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury

Marvel Taglist: @valkyriepirate @luv-ghostie @songbirdcannabe

[thepenultimateword]

...Arranged Marriage for (Civilian Identities of) Villain and (heroic) Sidekick?

Disclaimer: I definitely know that arranged marriages are often happy and healthy and completely normal for many people. When Sidekick refers to their arranged marriage with Villain as not a "regular" marriage, it has to do with their own outlook of their situation, and not my personal views on the subject.

Sidekick noticed the bruise right away. A perfect shoeprint on their new spouse's cheek, suspiciously alike to the one Hero struck under Villain's left eye earlier that night.

Everything Sidekick had suspected and ignored over the last month came crashing down like a tidal wave, pressing down heavily on their shoulders, crushing the breath right out of them.

"What happened?" they managed through constricting lungs.

"Nothing." Spouse tugged their chin-length hair in front of their face as they slid off their shoes and workbag. "Is there dinner?"

"You have a shoe print on your face," Sidekick said, unsure why they were pressing for an answer they really didn't want. "That's not nothing!"

Spouse shot them a mildly annoyed glance before swiping past them and poking around the contents of their fridge themself. "If you want the truth, I'm being bullied at work."

Bullcrap.

But what was Sidekick supposed to say? Prove it? I know you're lying? I know who are you?

Anything they said could immediately be turned against them, and the last thing they needed in this already tense arrangement was for Spouse--Villain--to uncover their secret identity.

"Are you ok?" they said instead, surprised that it slipped out so easily. Even with a small semblance of worry. It was worry for themself of course, for a future where they shared living quarters with a villain who recognized them as an enemy. Needing to watch their back every second of the day, keeping one eye open while they slept.

It shocked them when Villain's face softened.

"Hurts a little." They closed the fridge door, hunger forgotten, and ambled a little closer.

Sidekick fumbled internally for the correct response. What would they do if this was a regular marriage? One where they hadn't each weighed the benefits to their families against their personal feelings. One where Spouse wasn't Villain, and Sidekick didn't know.

Sidekick ghosted the edges of the bruise with the back of one knuckle. "It's a nasty one. Do you need me to beat anyone up?"

Villain's eyes sparked amusement. "I'd like that. But I wouldn't like you getting into trouble for me."

"Since when do you care about that?" Sidekick said, a little harsher than intended.

Villain cocked their head.

Shut up, Sidekick!

"Is this about me exposing your late-night comings and goings to your parents during our engagement?"

Actually, in the wake of other problems, Sidekick had forgotten all about that incident, for as infuriating and stifling as it had been at the time. They had been unable to help Hero on their patrols for over a month. But Villain had given them an out, so they shouldn't squander it.

"I wasn't allowed outside past 10 until the day we were married. What did it even benefit you?"

Villain stepped a fraction closer. "At the time I was upset with our situation. My family's money for your's reputation seemed an unbalanced, unworthy trade for my life. I took it out on you. And that was wrong." Their fingers crept along Sidekick's wrists, holding them light and gentle in front of them. "Forgive me?"

Sidekick slid out of their grip and took a cautionary step out of the range of soft, green-eyed charm.

"You haven't given me many opportunities for forgiveness. We barely even see each other."

"Not all my fault is it?"

Sidekick's stomach lurched. They thought they'd been sneaky about their absences from home; if they weren't waiting for times when Villain was out of the house or asleep, they at least always had a genuine errand to complete with it to excuse them.

"I have... Zumba," Sidekick said and immediately cringed. Zumba? All the time? Even at midnight?

"Whatever it is you have...or I have, I think we should make some changes."

Sidekick raised a brow. "Changes?"

"Dinner, every night, and at least one date a week."

Sidekick stared, mouth agape. They hadn’t been married long, but this was the first indication they’d given Sidekick of wanting to try for any sort of amicableness.

“Why?” They knew it sounded strange, it was stranger continuing as they were, but they couldn’t shake the suspicion growing in their gut.

“Because like it or not, we are married. And I want to love my spouse. And…from what I know of you…that doesn’t seem an impossible feat.”

Sidekick had to resist the urge to counter. This was the best thing. Hiding their identity in a comfortable relationship was probably easier than in a tense one. That was how Sidekick discovered Villain after all, the constant questioning, distrust, and watching giving way to another all to familiar persona.

“That seems…reasonable,” they said.

Villain smiled. “Why don’t we pick a day for date nights? A day where we don’t make other plans.” They’re smile grew. “I’ll try to schedule around your Zumba.”

They definitely didn’t believe that lie.

Wait. This was an opportunity. If Villain was out with them, they weren’t causing arm to the city. Sidekick was still helping Hero, just…less conventionally.

“Fridays?”

Villain pondered that moment, probably thinking about how much they enjoyed ruining Fridays for everyone else with their chaotic schemes.

“Works for me.”

Sidekick nodded brusquely. “I'll get the first aid kit."

“You’re patching me up?” Villain said, sounding amused and thrilled for some reason.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“No reason. Thank you.”

The genuineness in their voice caught Sidekick off guard. They had to shake themself back into motion. “You’re welcome. Um…there’s some left over spaghetti in a bag on the bottom shelf if you want to warm it up. If you’re still hungry that is.”

With that, Sidekick retreated, trying hard not to think about how they were sharing food with a criminal, and how they didn’t completely mind it.

[queenofbaws]

Would love some Jossam feat the Washington siblings because I love them

It took every last bit of her self-restraint to keep from laughing as she stared forward at the tv, pretending to be too absorbed in the movie to notice the slap-fight going on behind her.

It had started innocently enough: The twins had invited her over to hang out for the day, to chill in the air conditioning while the sun baked the concrete outside, to raid the fridge while their parents were out, all that good stuff. Thing was, they'd managed oh-so-conveniently to forget the whole...thing going on between her and Josh (had, in fact, been conveniently forgetting it more and more often the longer that thing between them went on), and now that they were face-to-face with it, well...they didn't seem to be enjoying the day as much as they'd hoped.

Josh had whispered something to her while the movie loaded and Beth talked over him; Josh had gone to pass her the popcorn and Hannah had whipped the bowl out of his hands; Josh had maybe looked at her for a second to long and suddenly Beth's phone was up in her face as she showed her something funny that had happened in the group chat; and now, having made the unforgivable mistake of trying to put his arm around her shoulders, Josh and Hannah now seemed to be locked in a (not-so-subtle) slap-fight to the death.

Sam bit down even harder on her lip, but she already felt her resolve crumbling - this was what she got for dating her best friends' brother, she guessed.

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

[missredherring]

Let's Twist The Knife Again

Parings: Joel Miller x Tess Servopoulos

Rating: R

Warnings: canon typical violence, character death on and off screen, angst.

Word Count: 1.7k

A/N: I just really love time travel, you guys. This could be continued if there's interest. Thank you @agentofloveandcourage for beta reading for me. Any mistakes are mine. @boliv-jenta

Dialogue taken from S1E1 of TLOU.

Summary: When he feels the hard hit to his head, Joel hopes he doesn't wake up. But he does.

The only reason he doesn't kill the nurses is because they pulled a sheet up over her body. The surgeon is dead on the floor, the pool of blood haloing around his head a match for the one spreading on the sheet. He doesn't look at the tray on the table where a third pool of blood is forming. The rifle is heavy in his hands, so he lets it drop to the floor. He has nothing left to protect.

"Where's the lab?" He asks. The nurses don't answer. Maybe he hadn't said it clearly enough. All he can hear is the ringing in his ears; between working construction and the gunshot it's constant, but right now the sound is swallowing up everything else. "The lab. Where's THE LAB?"

"T-The next room over!" One of them pipes up and he's off. His anger and guilt have him moving quickly when he pushes the door open, but what he sees stops all of his movement.

It looks like something out of a high school chemistry lab. Even to his untrained eyes he understands it isn't enough.

Without much effort he tips the fridge over and when a puff of cool air reaches him he chokes on a scoff. This is what they'd cobbled together after twenty years of raiding and neglect, and they expected to create a vaccine when the fridge they were going to use to keep her brain -the only specimen they had- was barely colder than the rest of the room. He starts on the beakers and containers set out just so on the table. Glass shatters and liquid splashes everywhere. Blood, sweat, and tears mix with whatever was inside. The fumes are in his eyes, his nose, at the back of his throat.

He feels the rumble of running feet coming down the hallway and turns towards the door. He tries to take a deep breath to brace himself but ends up coughing instead. The ringing continues in his ears, his heart is almost beating out of his chest, and his fingers are trembling. They're going to take him out, but he's going to take them down with him.

When he feels the hard hit to his head, Joel hopes he doesn't wake up.

But he does.

***

"You mumble in your sleep."

Ellie's voice is distant. He can barely hear it over the ringing, even with her on his good side.

While he's straining to hear and trying to make sense of things, his autonomous body functions continue. A deep inhale makes him aware of how uncomfortable he is. Can the dead be uncomfortable?

He never put much stock into religion, but didn't they say that some version of the afterlife is being with your loved ones? Did he miss Sarah's wake up call? He'd never slept through one before.

There's an ache in his shoulder, his knees are stiff from being in the same position for too long, and all at once he remembers how busted that old couch back in the Boston QZ apartment was. They'd only taken it because it had all its cushions and the frame was solid.

Joel opens his eyes and takes in the dirty ceiling and peeling wallpaper. He slowly sits up and rubs at his shoulder. It's the QZ apartment he'd shared with Tess, down to the mildew smell they'd never been able to air out. He touches the back of his head, expecting to find blood, but all he feels is dirty hair. There's not even a goose egg.

"I've never been on the other side of the wall. Look how dark it is." Ellie continues in a low tone. She hasn't taken her eyes off the world outside. She doesn't see him staring at her, taking in her features.

"You guys go out there a lot?"

"I guess."

"When was the last time?"

"Maybe a year. What's it matter?"

"But you know where to go. So we're going to be ok."

His mouth moves before he can stop it, having the same conversation. She's looking at him now, using bravado to cover up the fear and uncertainty. The first time she'd asked him these questions he'd thought she was just being a brat, questioning his suitability. Her tricking the last part of the radio code out of him in the next breath hadn't helped the impression.

Looking at her now, her eyes large and dark in her still-round face, he confirms what had only been a hunch at the time: she was looking to him for reassurance. Marlene had entrusted her to them, said that they'd be the ones to do it, to get her to the Fireflies out west. He sees her lips twitch, a crack in her mask, and all he can say is, "Yeah."

Why is he going over this again? Is it some kind of purgatory where he relives all the sins of his life? Why start here and not with Sarah, or even before then? There's plenty to choose from.

Ellie follows the script, and while he could just tell her what the '80s music means, he wants to see her smug grin when she's being clever. It's been a while since he's seen it. He thought he'd never see it again.

Long neglected emotions roil in his chest and he takes a deep breath in.

"Listen-"

The door opens and Tess comes in, taking them in with a glance.

Tess. Seeing her again, face bruised and beautiful, is a punch to the gut that forces him to exhale whatever air he'd just taken in.

Her mouth is in a firm line and Joel can tell she's focused on the trip ahead of them.

"The spot under Lancaster looks good. You got a jacket in your pack?" She asks Ellie.

"Yeah."

"Ok. Get it. It's time to go."

He's next to her in two steps and for once he's glad of the apartment's small size. He takes his jacket from Tess, tosses it on the table, and kisses her.

She goes still, her own jacket hanging between them, as he cups the back of her neck to deepen the kiss.

"Gross." Ellie says from behind them and it's enough to bring him back to himself, to take just one step away from her. It's a kiss he should've given her last time, at least once.

Tess is eyeing him. He's forgotten how comfortable he'd been in following her lead, even in the bedroom. She'd tell him what to do and he'd do it. Him taking the initiative is odd. But if he's going to relive his sins, he's going to try to make up for what he could.

With just him and Ellie in the room it was easy to think this stroll down memory lane would be focused solely on her and just how badly he'd failed her. Tess's involvement suggests something else, but he doesn't know what.

Maybe he's bleeding out on the hospital floor and these memories are the last synapses going off in his brain. People say they see their lives flash before their eyes when they died, didn't they?

He allows himself one more press of his lips to hers before pulling on his jacket and swinging his pack onto his back. He feels Tess watching him, but she only nods in response when he says, "Let's go."

He doesn't bother locking the door behind them when they leave. He knows they'll never be coming back.

***

They move quickly and quietly. Joel bites back a smile when Tess has to yank Ellie down so she isn't caught in the spotlight. She's too busy staring at everything she sees to be smart about her surroundings.

The first time they'd left the QZ he hadn't remembered Lee's warning about the doubled patrols and staying in at night for a few days. It might've been a good idea to wait this time. But whether they waited or not, they needed to leave the QZ. They couldn't do anything within its walls one way or another.

This time he's more aware of the ache that's missing from his hand. The one he'd broken on Lee's face that night in the rain.

He knows what he's looking for this time and motions for Tess and Ellie to stay back and wait.

The rain and thunder hide the sounds of his approach as he comes up behind Lee. One large hand covers his mouth and the other takes hold of the back of his head. Lee inhales once, but doesn't make any sounds before Joel snaps his neck in one smooth motion.

Ellie looks at the body with fascination while Tess checks on the opening in the fence. He takes the rifle, and without the situation making him remember the last time he'd held Sarah in his arms or Tess yelling for him about Ellie's infected status, he takes the time to pat down the body for extra ammunition.

Joel doesn't think about what he did as they leave the QZ.

He doesn't feel any remorse in killing a man with his dick out. They might've been able to sneak by, but if they'd been seen it would've turned out the same as the first time. Lee had died that time, and he'd died this time. Dead is dead, even if it hasn't been applied to Joel yet. Maybe he's just walking towards his death again, and that's when it'll stick. Or would a third time be the charm?

Changing their encounter with Lee gives him some hope. Could he change other things? If they got there soon enough, could he help Bill and Frank? He tries to wrack his brain to figure out a timeline for them, but the details are vague. He had stopped paying attention to time after the outbreak. There was no guarantee of a future, and there was no use looking at the past. All that had mattered was the present.

Ellie stumbles over some rubble in to dark, swiping wet hair out of her eyes as she rights herself. Joel reaches out and tugs the hood of her jacket up over her head. She flinches away from his touch and he isn't ready for the sting of hurt he feels. He reminds himself that he hasn't earned her trust yet. Right now she's more likely to bite his hand than say thank you.

Tess bumps into his shoulder and they share a look. With Ellie between them, they continue walking further into the rotten corpse of Boston.

[tryingtograspctrl]

GLASS (PART THREE) SAM WILSON X BLACK PLUS SIZE READER

SUMMARY - You move from your small town in Louisiana all the way to New york and land yourself a job as the Avenger's personal chef, just when you think you've built a comfy life outside of your sister she finds her way in again and manages to turn your world upside down

A/N - Just for the story to be a little less confusing, your sister’s name will be Janet. I hate the abbreviations y/s/n (your sister’s name) and i’d much rather address her by an actual name.

Warning: Mentions of financial problems, and nasty comments made by fans.

Parts one & two: here and here

Months had passed and you quickly got comfortable being part of the team. Though you weren't out there kicking asses and saving lives alongside the hero's, you were still an important part of their lives and vice versa.

When they weren't keeping the world afloat they were home, doing everything they could to relax and unwind.

One of the ways they did that was an occasional movie night, usually it was set for Friday's but seeing as their schedules were almost always unpredictable they just had them whenever they could.

Everyone gathered in living room, blankets sprawled out on the couch and various assortments of snacks lined up on the coffee table. Tony preferred the theatre room but you argued that the living room felt more cozy so the living room it was.

You were in the kitchen, pulling fresh cookies out of the oven and grabbing a case of beer. You weren't a fan of the beverage but the guys liked to drink them occasionally so you kept them stocked in the fridge.

"I'll grab those for you doll." Bucky took the drinks from your hands walking back toward the couch.

"Thanks honey." You followed behind him.

You took your seat between him and Sam, spreading the blanket out evenly between the three of you. It was the best course of action otherwise they'd just bicker the entire time.

"What are we watching?" You asked sitting the popcorn bowl on your lap.

"Men in black." Natasha answered cracking open a soda can.

Everyone fell silent, waiting for the movie to start but just before it could Jarvis spoke.

“Unknown civilian requesting access to the main floor, performing facial recognition.” The robot spoke.

Everyone stood on high alert, if it was a threat they most likely would’ve forced their way in but they could never be too sure.

“Unknown civilian identified as Janet y/l/n, y/n’s older sister.” Jarvis informed them.

“What?” You dropped the bowl of popcorn, kernels spilling all over the floor.

“Jarvis let her in.” Tony commanded.

You put on your slippers, taking the elevator down to the main floor, the team right behind you.

Jarvis had no reason to lie, hell he was a robot he wasn’t programmed to lie but you had to see for yourself.

The elevator door opened and there she was, standing near the entrance fidgeting.

“Janet?” you called out to her.

“Y/n!” She walked toward you quickly squeezing you in a hug.

You stiffened in her arms, not exactly expecting this reaction from her considering that you weren’t on the best terms the last time you seen each other.

“Hi, what’s going on?” You pulled away from her studying her face.

“Why does something have to be going on for me to come visit my sister?” She huffed in annoyance.

“Janet.” You crossed your arms.

“Fine, fine.” She sighed.

“The lender foreclosed on the house.” She mumbled.

“What?!” You shouted in disbelief making everyone jump.

“How could that happen? I thought you were keeping up with the payments, i’ve been paying my half and you have too right?” You asked.

She swallowed thickly avoiding your eyes.

“Right Janet?” You asked her again, more firmly.

“No i haven’t, you don’t know how hard it’s been since you left, i lost my job and i could barely afford to keep food in the house let alone pay my half of the mortgage.” She confessed.

“You should’ve told me all of this from the beginning, i would’ve pulled your weight until you got back on your feet. That was our childhood home.” You frowned.

“I know, i know and im gonna get it back, i just need some time.” She bit her fingernails anxiously.

“So how’d you get here?” You asked quietly.

“Spent the last of my savings, i had nowhere else to go.” She said.

“Saw you all over social media, Avenger’s new mystery woman.” She joked changing the subject.

You were the number one trending topic when you were spotted out with the team, they did their best to protect your privacy but it was only a matter of time before you were discovered by the rest of the world.

There were a lot of mixed opinions of you, mostly negative, dozens of comments about how you didn’t deserve to be amongst so many good looking people, how you stuck out like a sore thumb standing next to them.

You didn’t let any of that get to you, you heard far worse than in your lifetime and you knew their words weren’t true. You were pretty and damn good at your job, you earned your place and you weren’t gonna let a bunch of losers behind a screen tell you what you did and didn’t deserve.

“Come on, you can stay here for a while until we figure things out, if that’s okay with you?” You turned to Tony who had been watching the entire interaction unfold along with the rest of the team.

“Of course, anyone that’s family to you is family to me.” He smiled.

Steve grabbed your sister’s belongings, the 7 of you heading back to the elevator, making your way back up to the living quarters.

“I’ll show you to your room.” You turned to your sister laughing as she took in her surroundings.

“You get used to it after a while.” You smiled leading her up the stairs.

You were dragging her bags in, placing them near the edge of the bed as she stared at you.

“What?” You finally looked at her.

“You really did find your way out here, i’m proud.” She smiled sweetly.

“Thanks, goodnight Janet.” You smiled too closing the door to her room gently.

Time jump

One week… one week had passed and she was already driving you insane.

The first few days she seemed timid, staying out of everyone’s way and keeping her head down. Completely out of character for her.

You later realized that it was just her observing, getting familiar with the environment before crawling out of her shell.

She had become pretty obnoxious, always talking loudly, commanding all eyes in the room be on her, needing her attention fix.

And she didn’t hesitant to show her attraction to everyone, shamelessly flirting every chance she got, wearing skimpy clothes around the house leaving little to the imagination, even Natasha wasn’t safe from her forwardness and your sister didn’t even like women, at least that’s the impression that she gave you all these years.

Not only that but she was just an awful guest, having no respect for the living space, leaving a trail of trash behind her everywhere she went, random articles of clothing all over and the amount of glitter you found on every surface would take years to clean. What the hell was her obsession with glitter?

Everyone was standing around the kitchen one day, just enjoying each others company. You chopped a few veggies, preparing lunch while the others talked amongst themselves.

Your sister was glued to Bucky, running her fingers up and down his metal arm seductively talking his ear off about something that you didn’t care enough to listen to.

He was clearly uncomfortable, a few short yeah’s and uh huh’s falling out of his mouth as he did his best to inch away from her.

Sam laughed loudly at something you said, placing a hand on your back and that seemed to get her attention.

Bucky silently thanked god as he was finally able to break out of her hold.

“I’m surprised you’ve gotten so good at cooking, remember that time you nearly burned down the house trying to make dad breakfast for his birthday?” She smirked clearly trying to embarrass you.

“1. I was 8 so i didn’t exactly know my way around a kitchen just yet but nonetheless he appreciated the effort and 2. You’re one to insult my cooking skills, you can’t even heat up a pot of water, need i remind you of the boiled egg incident?” You countered snorting.

“That was one time and they only burned because i walked away from the stove, if i was watching them they would’ve turned out just fine.” She huffed.

“Sure.” You nodded sarcastically.

She went quiet for once in her life, opting to just scroll mindlessly on her phone.

A few hours later

You walked down the hall toward your room, the scent of that night’s dinner clung to your clothes and you just wanted to take a hot shower and sink into your bed.

You were passing your sister’s room when you stopped, walking backwards a little to see Sam standing there.

His back was facing you, and your sister was standing in front of him, her eyes locked onto yours and she smiled sinisterly before pulling Sam into a kiss.

You stood there for a few seconds watching as they made out, your feet eventually caught up with your brain and you practically sprinted to your room, hot tears streaming down your face.

He didn’t pull away. The thought echoed in your mind.

You sat on the edge of the bed sobbing, trying to wrap your head around everything.

You liked Sam and you were sure he liked you too, if his actions were anything to go by, but he was just swapping spit with your sister less than five minutes ago. None of it made sense.

You stood up grabbing your suit case from the top of your closet, throwing basically your whole wardrobe into it and placing it on the bed.

You wiped your tears and did your best to make it look like you weren’t crying before heading down to the lab where you were 1000% sure Tony would working.

“Hey.” You poked your head through the door.

“Hey come in.” He opened it wider allowing you to enter.

You looked around in amazement at all the different gadgets, you’d only been in the lab once before and there were definitely way more things than there were last time.

“What’s up kid?” He asked removing his glasses.

“I’m gonna… take a few days off.” You spoke up after a while.

“Why did something happen?” He perked up looking at you curiously.

“No, no not at all, i’ve just been a bit overwhelmed recently and i need some time away, i shouldn’t be gone more than a week.” You lied.

“A week without your cooking is gonna be dreadful but i understand, take all of the time you need.” He gave you a comforting hug.

“Thanks Tony.” You melted in his arms.

You quickly headed back to your room, double checking that you had all that you needed.

You weren’t sure where you were gonna go just yet but you’d figure it out.

A/N - I haven’t proofread this yet so if there are any mistakes please bear with me, i’ll fix them in the morning. This series is nearing the end and i’ve never been more relieved. This takes a lot of energy to write and i just can’t wait for it to be done 😅. Don’t get me wrong i love it but it gets overwhelming from time to time. Part four, the final part should be out tomorrow. I’m glad you guys enjoy this thank you for showing so much love and support! 🌻

Part four : here

[oryu404]

Alrighty guys. I know a lot of us had hoped for Rei to get a cat at the end. It's obvious he has a soft spot for them, he deserves the world, give that man his cat, am I right? And there have to be plenty of strays where they live, too. A food establishment by the beach.

So how about this...

---

The first stray sighting happens shortly after they've moved. Kazuki sees Rei looking at the cat, hesitant but obviously wanting to approach it, and says something like

"Nuh uh. Not gonna happen."

They argue. Kazuki isn't thrilled about the idea of adding a pet to the chaos that is their life at the moment, but Rei did prove himself as a caretaker and responsible adult over the past year. Not to mention he's a lot better at fighting for what he wants than he was last time they had this conversation, and Kazuki finds it endearing enough to almost cave.

But pets aren't cheap, their daughter is going to get more expensive as she grows older, and they have a business to run. It's not really a no; it's a not now. They should get settled here first, see how well the diner fares. Maybe they can talk about it again in another year?

Rei begrudgingly agrees, because Kazuki does have a decent point there. He's pouty for the rest of the day.

For a while, Kazuki doesn't really notice anything different. They're way too busy building up their brand new life. But as the dust settles and their new routines start to become familiar, some things start to stand out.

Like Rei happily taking out the trash every night. Like, very happily, as if he'd been looking forward to it. He always takes his sweet time doing it, too. Surely dumping a few trash bags into a container wouldn't take that long. Not that Kazuki would ever complain or comment, because the guy was disabled, for fuck's sake.

Another thing is the strays he keeps spotting. Had there always been this many? Were they reproducing that fast? Kazuki shrugs it off. It makes sense, they're likely not getting spayed or neutered. And of course they'd hang around the diner. It's doing quite well, apparently drawing in more than just customers with its delicious smells. Ahhh the magic of good cooking.

It's not until things from their pantry and fridge go missing, that an internal alarm bell goes off. Leftover chicken or salmon, Hamburg steaks, sausages, cans of tuna. He barely dodges another fight with Miri when he assumes she's eaten them (what? She's a growing girl? He can't blame her for being hungry!) but manages a last minute save. Rei is awfully quiet during this whole conversation, but confesses to his crimes later that night when Miri is asleep in her bed.

"I have to show you something."

And Kazuki wonders if he should be surprised when Rei leads him downstairs, outside through the back, where he squats down and cracks the lip of a can of tuna with one hand. The sound summons what have to be at least a dozen cats from various different directions, all meowing loudly as they twirl around Rei and headbutt his hands and legs.

"I don't need to get a cat anymore," Rei says as if he hasn't officially adopted the whole neighborhood pack.

"I bet," Kazuki sighs, helping him open the can and dump the Tuna on the concrete. "Miri... Is she your accomplice?"

".... Maybe."

So a yes, then. Not that it matters, because Rei might be the closest to beaming he'll ever get, and Kazuki is only slightly weaker to his partner than he is to their daughter. Which is to say, he's totally screwed.

"They stay outside," is all he says, squatting down beside Rei to pet the cat closest to him.

A few days later, Miri's latest masterpiece–a donation jar with cat decorations– graces the countertop of the diner. After all, they'll need to help do something about the population control before they go broke feeding strays.

[therealgamble]

Brian turned slowly down the loop of campsites as Tabby watched for the number they'd been given. They passed by Campers and RVs, tents set up in the long grass, and small campfires burning even in the afternoon sun.

"This is it, babe." She could hardly hide her excitement, bouncing slightly in her seat as she pointed towards the right where an extremely long motorhome was parked. There was just enough room left in the long driveway for Brian to park the Corvette that Riley had gifted him a few years ago.

Tabby practically burst from the car the moment he had it in park, her excitement as infectious as always. He followed just as Riley came around from the other side of the motorhome. "You made it!" He grinned, giving Tabby a hug.

"I should have expected you'd go all out." Brian laughed, taking a moment to look down the long side of the house on wheels.

Riley gave a shrug. "These ladies deserve a palace. Come on, I'll give you the tour."

Brian rolled his eyes but followed anyways, walking around the car and the end of the motorhome. At that moment he and Tabby both got their first glimpse of the rest of the campsite and they stopped short, taking it all in.

"Holy shit." He breathed softly. Directly in front of the palace were the normal fire pit and picnic table. Riley had several bundles of wood ready at the firepit and a ring of comfortable looking chairs. The table had been completely taken over by Beth. She had surrounded it with a screened tent-like structure, keeping all the bugs out. On the table was a tablecloth and a vase of flowers. Strung inside were fairy lights and lanterns.

But that wasn't what made them stop short. Beyond the firepit and table was an expanse of grass, lined with tall pine trees blocking the view of the neighbors on both sides, and ending with an unobstructed view of the lake below. It wasn't close enough to walk to, but the view was breathtaking.

Riley let out a laugh and clapped Brian on the shoulder. "I told you, they deserve the best." Brian could see Tabby bouncing out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah they do." He replied, "Alright, show me this thing." He turned towards the door of the motorhome as Riley opened the door.

"You two can have the bedroom on this side." He stepped up inside and Brian and Tabby followed.

Brian was not prepared for what he saw on the inside. It was what he expected Aerosmith's tour bus looked like, but with less groupies. Everything was polished and clean, creamy tan leather and thick carpet. The appliances in the kitchen area were paneled with light colored wood.

Corinne sat on an overstuffed couch facing a window with the lake view, a sketchbook in her lap. Beth and Jay were playing cards at a polished table. They all looked up and smiled as the trio walked in. Tabby ran to give them all hugs and share her enthusiasm for the weekend.

"I brought our tent." Brian turned down the offer of the plush bedroom.

Riley sighed and rolled his eyes. "Tabs, you're welcome to stay inside with your own bathroom and a real bed while this caveman sleeps outside."

"Me like caveman, sleep outside." Tabby grunted with a low voice. Then her voice changed back to normal, "But I'll take you up on the bathroom part." She grinned, "And if the weather turns on us I'm totally sneaking in."

"Thunderstorm slumber party." Beth sang happily, dealing another game out on the table.

"Christ, man." Brian laughed, still looking around and taking it all in. "You don't do anything by halves, do you."

"Nope." Riley confirmed, opening up the fridge and grabbing a couple of beers. "Just wait until you see the boat I rented."

Brian let out a long happy sigh as he took the beer that Riley held out for him. "I fucking love you."

"I know." Riley answered automatically.

-------

Memorial Day Riley style - with all the crossed streams. @tabbyrp @corinnebaileyrp @morgansmornings @brooklynislandgirl @tarnishedhalo

[mal-urameshi]

Chronicles of Mama Okoye and Riri! VII

Friendships

Okoye and Riri walked hand in hand towards The Citadel. The Palace where the Golden Tribe resided and where her mother reported for duty. Riri had only been there a handful of times and usually she'd wait outside where the other Doras were while making conversation.

Riri was familiar with many of them, her mother being General and all.She knew while on duty they couldn't talk to her, but that didn't stop her from talking to them, though. When waiting for her mother, Aneka or Ayo to be relieved she would walk up and down the hallways where each Dora was stationed and list off random facts to keep them entertained.

"You know, four seconds is the perfect duration to keep your oreos dunked. Well, that's what the amateurs say. But 3.774563 seconds is the exact value. I checked." Riri crossed her arms as she made huge steps down the hallway again. She then walked in front of another Dora whose name was Ashei.

"You know when you go into a really dark room, it isn't really pitch black. It's really called eigengrau. Basically it's just a reeaaalllyyy dark grey! Personally, I think it's funner to say eigengrau, but to each their own I guess." She shrugged while doing a little spin.

Riri then grinned and looked at the line of warriors, "Does anybody want to see me do a flip? I bet I can do it better than you guys!" She was met with silence but she knew that they were paying attention to her.

Riri got into position before she maneouvered into a back hand spring. She repeated the action ten times down the hall before she held herself upright in a handstand and then dropped to her feet again with a smile. "Don't tell Mama, but I do it better than her. She gets dizzy after eight and she turns off her axis by 2.0032 degrees. It's not perfect but I'll allow it. Nobody can be perfect like me."

The Doras weren't able to stifle their smiles at Riri's antics. They loved seeing Okoye's child entertain herself and by extension them as well. Riri was too adorable for her own good.

"Fun Fact, my favourite snacks are Shuku Shuku these days, so if y'all feeling generous, you can send them my way via Umama."

Loud clapping caught Riri's attention and she bristled, "Ah, ah! Riri! What are you doing trying to weasel snacks from the Doras, hm?"

Riri gave a light shrug, "They love giving me snacks! It would be blasphemy if I didn't take advantage!"

This caused a collective smile to come from the Dora Milaje before Okoye shooed her off and waved goodbye.

Riri added a skip to her step as she entered the Palace walls and left to her own devices with the Doras in their leisure lounge. Okoye had informed Riri that she just had to make a report to the King and Queen and then they'd leave for their Mommy-Daughter date.

Riri was greeted with hugs and kisses from the Doras on duty and given a bag of treats to which she excitedly accepted.

"Okoye said she was stopping by, so we had to get our favourite lecturer some snacks." Ashei informed as Riri kneeled on the ground and rummaged through the gift bag with feral vigor.

"Yo!! You guys got me Spicy Bigfoot?! I always wanted to try these!" Riri excitedly ripped open the feet shaped snacks and munched into them. "They're so good!"

T'Mara opened the fridge and clicked her tongue to catch Riri's attention, "Heads up!" She threw a bottle of soda at her, which Riri expertly caught and cracked open immediately and chugged a few sips. Riri then let out a large belch which made everyone laugh.

"So Riri, what new inventions have you come up with now?" T'Haylet queried.

Riri grinned, "It's for my own leisure, but I made some water guns! But not that dumb super soaker nerf stuff. I'm talking about Pokemon style hydro-pump attacks! All the other kids like it so much! You full a pack full of water that's connected to the gun and you shoot! Pray you don't blast off like Team Rocket though." She snickered.

The pinging of someone's kimoyo beads caught Riri's attention.

"I have to go relieve Aneka from her post. See you later, guys!" K'Maria announced as she started to walk out the room.

"Aunty Aneka?! K'Maria! I'll walk with you to go see her." Riri swiftly got up from the floor an put her bag of snacks on the table before following the Dora out.

Riri followed behind K'Maria at a decent distance until she saw Aneka come into view. K'Maria stood in front of Aneka where they both gave each other the Wakandan salute before switching places and finally tapping their spears on the floor, which resounded through the halls.

Aneka the briskly turned away from K'Maria and started to walk down the hall in the direction of Riri.

"Aunty Aneka!!" Riri rushed forward with open arms.

"Umtshana!" Aneka closed the distance and scooped Riri up into a hug and spun her around, "Did you come all the way here just to see me?"

"Of course I did, Aunty! You know I'd never miss a chance to see you. You should really tighten security though. I was like a shadow behind K'Maria and she didn't even suspect a thing! I should be a War Dog at this point." She brushed invisible dust off her shoulder in a display of haughtiness before they both broke out into laughter.

"Well, I should inform the General of that then. No, would it be considered a plus that her daughter can infiltrate the palace in a show of her expertise? Or a negative that a little girl waltzes in without being caught?" Riri put her hands on her hip, "Definitely a plus, duh. It means General Okoye is doing something good."

Aneka rubbed her hands over Riri's cornrows, "Aye, aye. Watch the merchandise, Aunty! These are fresh from last night!"

Loud footfalls and laughter came running down the hall and Aneka turned around to see what all the commotion was about. But was nearly bumped backwards.

"Princess!"

Shuri grabbed her arms around Aneka's waist while her body shook as she tried to quiet her laughter.

"Princess, what did you do?" Aneka asked in a knowing tone.

Shuri pulled back with a smirk playing on her lips, "I may or may not have poured some slime on top of T'Challa's head while he was trying to make a move on Nakia."

Aneka gasped, "Princess! That's not nice!"

Shuri shrugged, "What! Nakia thought it was cute! She even wiped his face while he gave her googly eyes. Those two are so adorable it makes me sick." She faked a gag before laughing again.

Riri peaked out from behind Aneka as she regarded the Princess. She never interacted with Princess Shuri before, but her mother said that she was a sweet girl. And that she loved to invent stuff to boot.

Shuri caught sight of Riri and walked around Aneka to better look at her, "You're so small I didn't see you there. If you were any shorter you'd be squished." Shuri joked.

Riri looked Shuri up and down, "And you look like you'd topple over should the wind blow too hard."

Aneka folded her lips to stifle her laughter at the exchange.

Shuri laughed and circled Riri," Oh, really now?"

Riri smiled, "Yea, beanpole."

"Beanpole?! You have some nerve, half-pint!" Shuri snapped back, but there was no animosity in her tone.

Riri shrugged, "I just call it as I see it, Princess."

"What's your name?" Shuri inquired.

"Riri."

Shuri gasped, "You're Okoye's daughter! She talks so much about you!"

Riri smiled, "Yea, she does that a lot."

"I'm so glad I finally get to meet you! You're a scientist too! Kindred spirits!" Shuri grabbed Riri's hand in hers. "Do you want to come see my lab?" Riri's eye lit up, "I can?" She bounced on her toes at the offer.

"Yes! It's my own personal space! My brother helped convince Mama and Baba that I can have one, thank Bast! Big Brothers are great for something."

"I wouldn't know. I'm an only child."

Aneka looked on as the girls got lost in their own world, forgetting that she was there. They were so cute! "Riri, aren't you supposed to go out with your mother?"

Riri looked over at Aneka and then back at Shuri and then Aneka again, "Yea, but I think she's still talking with the King and Queen. It'll just be quick, right Shuri?

Shuri grinned and nodded, "Yea, Aneka! It'll be quick! I'll even walk her back to Okoye when we're done!"

Shuri didn't even wait for an answer as she pulled Riri down the hall.

"Woah!" Riri spun around and looked around at the lights overhead and then at the art painted on the walls. "You decorated yourself?"

"Yea! It's my space, so I did some personalization."

Riri smiled as she placed her fingertips along the tabletop of one of the work stations, "You're so lucky! I wish I had a lab like this to work in."

Shuri hopped on a vacant work station, "Where do you usually work?"

"I just build a bunch of stuff in my room, or the backyard, depending how big it is, or the living room. But Mama gets so mad when I do that. The amount of times her feet drew blood because of my scattered parts...I lost count." Riri allowed her eyes to wander again, marvelling at the apparatus that lined the walls along with unfinished and completed inventions alike.

Shuri kicked her feet and smiled, "You can come use my lab any time you want."

Riri almost gave herself whiplash with how fast she looked over at Shuri again. "You're being for real right now?" She ran over to the older girl's side and leaned on the table.

Shuri nodded, "But under one condition."

Riri shifted all her weight on her forearms and she balanced on the tabletop, "What's the catch?"

Shuri tapped her chin and hummed, feigning contemplation. She then looked back at Riri, "You have to be my friend."

Riri fist pumped. "Heck yeah, I can do that! We're friends now!"

They both high-fived each other before Shuri hopped off the table to show her one of the projects she was working on.

It wasn't even a proper hour before Okoye was ringing Riri on her kimoyo beads.

"Riri, where are you? I thought I left you with the Doras?"

Riri opened her mouth the answer but Shuri butted in, "I kidnapped her, Okoye. We're holed up in my lab, but I'll walk her back to the entrance."

"Oh and Mama, can you stop by the lounge area to pick up my snacks please? I don't want to forget it." "Hm, I can. But I'm taxing you one snack of my choosing for picking it up for you!"

"Wha! Mama!" Riri couldn't even get any other words in because Okoye had already cut the call.

"I'll race you to the entrance!" Shuri said before taking off out of the lab. "Yo! You're a cheater!" Riri gave Shuri chase as their laughter reverberated through the hallways.

They both were neck-a-neck as they rounded a corner but they both ran into someone.

"Shuri." Queen Ramonda's motherly tone was laced with silent warning.

Riri balled her fists at her sides as the Queen's gaze fell on her. Uh oh. Was she gonna get in trouble?

"Sorry Mother! I was just having a race with my friend, Riri! For someone so short, she's surprisingly fast!" Shuri lightly jabbed.

Ramonda smiled at the shorter girl, "Okoye's child. It's a pleasure to meet you again, Riri."

Riri smiled in return, "Hello, Queen Mother. It's nice to meet you again too."

Shuri spoke up again, "Mother, since I have you, I want you to know that Riri will be coming over more often. She loves my lab! And we already started building something! She's an absolute genius! Second to me anyway."

"Hey!" Riri shoved Shuri which caused the other girl to laugh.

Ramonda looked at the exchange between both girls and she clasped her hands, "The both of you seem to have hit it off really well." The Queen looked over to Riri, "Well Riri, you are welcome at the Palace whenever you like."

"Thank you, Queen Mother!"

Shuri held Riri's hand and walked off, "I have to get her to Okoye before she gets a spanking or something!"

"I do not get spanked. But if that's what Queen Ramonda does to you, I won't snitch or nuthin'." Riri teased.

"Oh, please! Do I look like I do anything to warrant spankings?" She faked an innocent face.

"Pray your brother doesn't tell your Mom what you did." "T'Challa isn't a 'snitch'. So I have nothing to worry about!"

Soon enough, both girls met Okoye at the entrance.

"Mama! Me and Shuri are friends now!" Riri ran up to Okoye and gave her a hug. "What? You are? That's good news!" Okoye smiled over at Shuri who looked proud of herself.

"Yea, she did it proposal style at everything. Talking 'bout 'Will you be my friend?" She snickered.

Shuri tackled Riri's ribs with light jabs of her fingers, "Hey! I let you use my lab and that's what I get?"

Riri giggled while trying to swat away Shuri's hands, "And the Queen said that I'm welcome to come by any time I want to hang out with Shuri, Mama!"

"That was awfully generous of her. Well, as long as Shuri's available, you can come over."

Riri turned to Shuri and gave her a big hug.

"Wait, wait, wait! Before you go, gimme your kimoyo ID! That way we can talk!" Shuri urged and held out her hand. "For sure!" Riri held out her own wrist and touched their beads together which logged the necessary data.

"I'll call you when I get home, okay?" Riri promised.

Shuri nodded and hugged her again, "I'm holding you to that."

Okoye smiled at the girl's exchange before waving Shuri farewell.

Riri and Okoye had sat down for dessert after they had their lunch, Riri scooped some ice-cream out of her mother's cup as she prattled on about Shuri, "And she's so hilarious, Mama! She's got jokes for days! And did I tell you she has plutonium? How come you never let me play with plutonium? I could do some serious stuff If I can get my hands on some plutonium." She gobbled up what was on her spoon before she went for her mother's cup again.

Okoye pulled away her cup, "You have in your cup, Riri."

"But Mama!" She whined, "Your flavour is better!"

"You should have thought of that before getting boring chocolate." She chided lightly but extended her cup towards Riri so she could have her fill.

"I called her a beanpole too." She laughed at the recent memory.

Okoye leaned closer to her daughter, "Were you being mean to her for no reason?"

"Nuh uh! She started it first, saying I would be squashed 'cuz of my shortness. So I just told her what it was." She stuck out her tongue playfully.

Okoye smiled and took a spoonful of Riri's chocolate ice cream, "I'm really glad that you found a friend in Shuri. She's a very nice girl. And bright like yourself, as you've seen."

"Definitely. She's trying to make a molecular Ant-Farm. I asked her if she liked bugs. She said not really, but she said that she could definitely do it better than the Pym-Particle guy. She's cocky, but I like it! She talks a big game and can back it up, that's for sure." She plucked the cup from Okoye's hand and pushed her chocolate ice cream over to her mother.

Okoye was happy that Riri had a new friend that could stimulate her mind as Shuri could, but she never realized how obnoxious it would have gotten. She would make sure Riri went to bed by 9 and she would hear Riri up talking and tinkering with her machinery at almost one in the morning.

"Riri!" Okoye pushed open the bedroom door to see Riri with thousands of sheets of blue prints lining the floor and a hologram of Shuri talking a mile a minute.

"Ma! This is important! I went to bed and the calculations just hit me like a bag of bricks! Shuri is helping me out." She quickly scribbled another sequence of numbers on a cluttered sheet of paper.

"Riri, you have school later. You need to rest."

"I'm already top of the class, I can miss a day." She muttered, half listening to her mother.

"Oooh smarty-pants doesn't need school." Shuri egged her on.

"I mean, the other kids are good of course, I'm just better." She shrugged.

"Bed, now!" Okoye gritted out.

"Mama, please! Just gimme 10 minutes!" Riri rummaged through her blue prints and told Shuri another series of numbers for her calculations.

Okoye wiped a tired hand down her face. "Five."

Riri nodded her head in understanding and continued her discussion with Shuri as her mother closed the door.

A few moments later Okoye came back through the door.

"You said five minutes!"

"Yes, and I gave you six! It's currently 1:38 am. Tell Shuri good morning and give me your kimoyo beads."

"What? Mama! No!" Riri cradled her wrist.

"Do not make me tell you again, Riri." Okoye said sternly.

Riri sighed and looked at Shuri, "I have to go but I'll talk to you when I wake up again."

Shuri smiled and waved, "Okay Riri, good night!"

The next morning, Riri barreled into Okoye's room and flopped onto the bed. "Mama! My beads! I need my beads! It's morning!" She jumped on the mattress until Okoye paid her some attention. Okoye deeply inhaled and took Riri's beads from her bra and handed it to her. She couldn't be too safe.

"Thank you, Mama!" Riri grabbed them and zoomed out the room.

Okoye finished making breakfast and Riri was on a call again with Shuri.

"What are you eating?" Riri asked as she bit into her eggs.

"I'm eating a bowl of mangoes." Shuri showed off a piece of the fruit on her fork.

"That's it?"

"Yea, what are you eating?"

"Pancakes!"

"What? Your Mama makes you pancakes?" Shuri marvelled.

Riri nodded vehemently, "Yea! I convinced her to try it some years back and she likes it." Riri shows off her own piece of pancake on her fork.

"What are you gonna do today though, Shuri?"

"I have lessons from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm. Then I'm free for the rest of the day."

"What! You're lucky! I have school from 7:45 am to 2:00 pm."

"Maybe we can talk during our break times today and then when we're done with our lessons!" Shuri offered.

"Okay, cool! We can do that!"

Okoye ended up having to confiscate Riri's beads every night so the girl could get a decent night's rest, much to Riri's annoyance.

But soon enough, they found a way to combat that problem!

"Mama! Mama!" Riri rushed into the backyard where Okoye was tending to her garden.

Riri smashed into Okoye's back and hugged her neck, "Mama! Shuri wants me to come over to have a sleepover."

Okoye looked over her shoulder and pressed a kiss to Riri's cheek, "When are you to leave?"

"She wants me to come over tonight!" Riri shook her mother's shoulder in excitement, "Can I go? Can I go please???"

Okoye smiled, "Yes, my love you can attend her sleepover."

"Yes!" Riri turned on her beads to call Shuri and ran to her room.

"Do you have your toothbrush, Riri?" "Yes, Ma!" "And your washcloth!"

Okoye smirked when she heard a loud groan and then Riri's rummaging through one of the drawers for a new washcloth.

Riri bounded out of her room with a backpack full of her essentials along with a few of her blueprints that she quickly spread on the table.

"Are you carrying all of that?" Okoye queried as she put on her shoes at the door.

Riri tapped on her kimoyo beads a few times as she scanned the blueprints, "Nah, these are the last of my designs that I needed to download for the thing me and Shuri are working on... Okay, done!" She grinned before running out after her mother.

Okoye threw an arm around Riri and hugged her closer as they walked, "I can't believe it. Your first official sleepover! Are you excited?"

Riri grinned and pumped her fists in the air, "Yea I'm excited! Shuri has it all planned out! We're going to eat a bunch of junk food till we pass out in the lab from burnout!"

Okoye shook her head, "And who has to take care of you when you make yourself sick, small girl?"

"You, Ma! That's what you're here for! I do stupid stuff and you scold me after and you make me feel better."

Okoye affectionately caressed Riri's neck, "Try to get at least some sleep, okay?" Riri nodded, "No promises though. We're scientists. So sleep is for the weak!"

Okoye and Riri arrived at the Citadel where Queen Ramonda and Shuri were waiting at the entrance. Shuri jumped and waved at Riri before Riri ran up the staircase to meet her friend.

Ramonda greeted Okoye with a smile. "She's in good hands."

"If she gives any trouble, don't be afraid to get her in line." Okoye reminded.

Ramonda waved Okoye off, "You know me. I won't hesitate. Now go home and relax or something. I can handle the girls."

Okoye nodded and called Riri over. "One more kiss goodbye."

Riri gave her mother five more kisses, an 'I love you' and a hug for good measure before running back to Shuri, disappearing further into the palace.

And thus began the start of an unbreakable friendship between the two girls.

Taggies: @somethingcleaverandwhitty @karimwillia @neptoons1998 @pantherheart

[what-if-queen-camilla]

Chapter 19

20th January 1993

Two days had passed and Camilla slowly but surely started to realise that it was not just a nightmare, that she did not have an accident and had fallen into some sort of a coma that kept her trapped in this absolute horror scenario. After she hadn't been able to eat one bite for the first two-and-a-half days following that… unpleasant incident, her basic human needs had finally taken over again and after the first few hours of sleep in days, she had even felt hungry again this morning and managed to eat a bit of porridge. She hadn't left the house and unplugged the telephone on Sunday after it hadn't stopped ringing for a second, even during night time, with all different sorts of horrible people calling, from journalists, who had seriously had the guts to ask her directly for an interview (which she had of course declined), to terrifyingly aggressive "fans" of Charles' wife, screaming the worst of names at her, some even threatening to kill her, to creepy perverts who only made disgusting noises. But the situation had reached another highpoint of cruelty when Monday morning several reporters and photographers had lined up along the driveway and between the trees and bushes in the garden - with obviously no intention to leave again so soon. In complete panic, Camilla had immediately pulled down all the shutters in the entire house and locked all doors twice. They had taken Thea out of school for the week and Andrew had promised to talk to her teacher to make sure they'd be sensitive and look after her when she returned but right now she didn't even know how she'd ever be able to step outside again. She was a prisoner in her own house. At least she had been able to keep it away from Thea as best as possible and her little angel was happy playing with her barbies and horses all day, but she'd surely start to ask further questions soon and she had no idea what she was supposed to tell her. On Monday, she had just told her that Sir and Mummy - of whom she knew that they were best friends - had been sharing a secret which unfortunately had been uncovered by some evil people and that many of them were now very angry with Mummy and they'd better stay at home for a little while until they'd have calmed down again. When Thea had asked what secret Sir and Mummy had been sharing, Camilla had lovingly reminded her that the point of a secret is not to tell anyone and that she therefore couldn't reveal it, but it had broken her heart because both she and Andrew had always been telling the children how important it was to be honest within their family, that they could always trust them and should never be afraid to tell anything because they'd always be behind them and now she was contradicting herself, acting like the complete opposite.

"Mummy, I'm hungry!", Thea said at around lunchtime and Camilla promised to go and make something for her, but opening the fridge she had a hard time finding anything she could offer her daughter. Of course, she hadn't been able to do the shopping in days and there wasn't much left apart from some rice and fish fingers. She had to try and call somebody tonight… Andrew had promised to come over on Saturday but she couldn't wait that long. Nevermind herself, she wasn't very hungry at the moment anyway, but she had a child in the house who needed food. God, what an impossible situation had she managed to get herself into. What had she done to her children, particularly to her youngest daughter who was still too little to grasp the whole thing? What an awful, horrible, terrible mother was she? This realisation hit her like a slap in the face and she felt tears filling her eyes again, but a heavy knocking on the backdoor distracted her from that and almost caused her heart attack. Fuck, who could that be? The press? Some angry supporters of Diana? The knocking became faster and louder and she really felt paralysed with fear. What if someone was going to go after her, or even worse, her poor little daughter who was playing next door? Instinctively, she grabbed a huge pan, hid next to the back door, and finally opened it…

"Milla?!" Fiona looked at her in a mixture of disbelief, shock and worry. Camilla was still paralysed, unable to speak or move or even breath, when suddenly all of her precious, remaining strength faded away, the pan falling out of her hands and onto the floor with an enormous slam, which she ignored, before powerlessly falling into her best friend's arms, desperately sobbing like a wounded animal. "Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry.", Fiona whispered as she assisted Camilla to sit down on the sofa in the living room. The atmosphere in the house was spooky, there was no daylight with all of the shutters being closed. "Where's Thea, darling?", Fiona asked, knowing that her best friend's greatest concern was always her children. Camilla was still unable to give a proper answer but pointed to the dining room, where her little darling had been playing so well all morning. "Okay, I will just quickly say hello to her and tell her that everything's fine and will be back in a minute.", she promised and was gone. Fiona, Countess of Shelburne, was the second wife of the Earl of Shelburne, known as Charlie to his friends, to whom both Charles and Camilla belonged as well. They had only got married in 1987 but Camilla had known Fiona much longer, she even was Laura's godmother and they saw each other frequently. Their family seat, Bowood House, was just about a 25 minutes drive away from her and Andrew's and, just like the Devonshires, the Shelburnes, too, had always been extremely supportive of them and had hosted them at their home over several weekends... Which had now been exposed to the whole world, as they had actually discussed the possibility of meeting at Bowood in that goddamn phone call from 1989. She didn't even dare ask Fiona whether she and Charlie were facing harassment, too, they most certainly were. "It doesn't matter, sweetie.", Fiona assured her once she had returned. "That's what friends are for. And now… you'll better get some things packed for the two of you. I'm not gonna leave you here, you can't stay. It's not safe. You'll come with me and stay with us for as long as needed." Though she was a few years younger than herself, Fiona had sounded so determined that Camilla didn't dare argue with her. She knew it was pointless. And she knew that her best friend was right. They couldn't stay here. It wasn't safe and safety was and had always been her first priority when it came to her children.

*Side note:

Bowood, family home to the Marquess and Marchioness of Lansdowne, what Charlie and Fiona are known as today, was indeed mentioned in the tapes, however it's not publicly known whether the former Earl and Countess of Shelburne did face harassment for their "involvement" with/support for Charles and Camilla's relationship. I think it's not unlikely though. Fiona has been one of Camilla’s best friends for decades: it's true that she's Laura's godmother and you might remember seeing her as one of two Ladies-in-attendance at Charles and Camilla's coronation in May (pictured below):

[jenukiart]

OC Stuff - BKW - Kisyku & Roombot

This is Kisyku!! (That's "Kiss-eye-coo" ^^,)

He's my main OC for a space story I've been working on, Bodacious Kisyku World (BKW for short). I've had this character for like.. 7-8 years now?? He's gone through so many changes and iterations, but I'm really happy with where he is now. ^^

Kisyku is a Celestial! They're a powerful species with the ability to channel something called "Cosmic Energy," which is sort of this universe's like "energy" you know the whole shonen thing

Cosmic Energy

Cosmic Energy is channeling the vacuum of space into a combustible dense "liquid" like blob. Think of their appearance like the dream blocks from Celeste, except you can sling it. Kisyku's main form of attack involves slinging this explosive space jelly around. CE also is used to sponge damage to his body among other things.

Channeling and using Cosmic Energy is incredibly dangerous though, so not many people can use it (like humans can't at all for example), so it's a pretty forgotten/unknown thing in the present day.

But Celestials are VERY good at it, like dangerously so.. the story mainly revolves around Kisyku's usage of it, and how he tends to push the limits to dangerous degrees..

Okay NOW Kisyku and Roombot!!

Yeah so Kisyku is a Celestial!! They're a pretty complicated species.. supposedly they can just take on any form they'd like, but Kisyku likes to keep it simple and just appear as human.

I think he messed up a few things though, like he's got pointy Hylian-like ears for one. Just a couple of small quirks like that. So he's not 100% human, but that's ok I still love him, he's doing his best.

I think it's very important to mention that he just has this transmasc energy to him though, I don't really know how to describe it. In earlier versions of the story, when he was just a normal human, he actually was trans. I wanted to keep that element of him in the modern story, by having the transness be more metaphorical through the way Celestials work. That will probably make more sense when I eventually get the official story rolling, but for now just know that he's this transmasc-energy little gremlin.

Despite his size (an outstanding 5'3"!!) Kisyku is a pretty loud, active, and rambunctious character. He's a little scrunkly who can get kinda cocky at times, but overall his heart is in the right place. He can be rather sweet at times, as long as you aren't trying to pick a fight with him.. or commenting on his height.

He also is totally that kind of person who will steal snacks from your fridge, i wouldn't be surprised if he does that a lot with the Brigade

Kisk spends most of his time chilling on Earth. He resides on the dock of a small n' quiet beach-side town. He also enjoys bothering his rent-debt collector, Emily. I'll share more about her and Earth another time though. All you need to know is that he's constantly in debt to her.

He really enjoys watching the waves of the shore sway, among other things as he explores more of the town and it's boardwalk and stuff. It's nice after all to have some quiet time in between the crazy action and antics he gets himself into.

Speaking of...

Outside of Earth-rest stuff, Kisyku likes going out into space and raiding the Cosmos. I like to call these hit and runs of his "rampages," as he seems to have this goal to cause as much destruction to the Cosmos as possible.

The animatic above is a little outdated with the Cosmo designs, but it gives you a good idea of the rush Kisyku throws himself into. In the animatic, they appear as this evil Star Wars-like space empire, but in the current story, Cosmos are very much different. Now they're kind of a secret "shadow police" that only Kisyku really knows about...

He seems to have beef with them, and they don't really like him either... maybe one day you'll learn about why...

But yeah finally, his little companion pal: Roombot. They're like an actual cat.. if it were a roomba.. and can fly.

It's kinda bitchy, sometimes snarky towards Kisyku. You won't really be able to hear their vulgar language though, since they speak in R2-D2 beep boops and whirrs.

Kisyku talks to them a lot though, and sometimes Roomboot puts the snark aside to really listen to him, especially for more emotional moments. They're kind of who Kisyku comes to the most about his problems in the early parts of the story.

Yeah, Roombot is rather silly. They can also float, and Kisyku can grab onto them to get some extra height. Kisyku also sometimes uses them as a stepping stool, but I don't think they really like it when he does.

Holding Roombot feels very buoyant, like as if you were holding onto a paddle board in a pool y'know? That kinda vibe. Despite not always enjoying it, they're always there to help Kisyku out in a pickle!!

But uhhh yeah!! That's Kisyku (and Roombot)!! Kisk really means a lot to me, since he's been around for so so long in my life now. I hope that someday I can really get his story out there for you all to enjoy haha.. but until then, I hope you enjoy the drawings I make of him and his world!!

[tparker48]

Request for Malemacrofics

It would be an hour after the broadcast of Friends as Matt Leblanc made his way to his dressing room. Mingling with the other cast members before turning into his hallway. "Heh-hey, It was a pretty good line for sure. We'll have to keep note of that for the next episode. But let me get changed and I'll meet ya out back." He said to one of his coworkers, closing the door behind him as silence filled the void. "Ooh what a day its been.." he stretched his arms. Scratching his back before approaching the mirror. Sitting down, he grabbed one of his waters from the fridge as he unlaced his shoes. Sliding them underneath the table before he got back up to walk. "These old dogs need a break. A little walk around wouldn't be too-"

**thud!** a noise came from the corner of the room.

"Hmm?" Matt looked at the wall, a box toppled over as it tilted to the side. Still shuffling around, it bucked toward the table before coming to an abrupt hault. "Must be the mice in this place. Must've gotten stuck in here during the broadcast." he thought to himself, moving forward as he approached the box. Reaching for it, he opened it to look inside, a pair of shoes sitting in them as they toppled against each others heels. Something wiggling out from the opening, a skinny twig of some kind as swayed back and forth between the hole. "What the.." He pinched at it, pulling it upward to the outside. With more of the object coming into the light, the figure started to take shape as the skinny twig he was holding turned into a foot. Revealing a little as they hanged upside down.

"Woah woah! Hey!" They yelped.

"A little guy? What are you doing in my shoe box?"

"Listen, I know what you're thinking. There is a little guy in shoe box in my shoes. But I'm simply lookong around."

"Inside a box?"

"..yes"

"I don't know. You look way more messy for someone to just be looking around" Matt noted, lifting a little bit of the little guy's shirt. Flakes falling off it as it scattered over the shoes below.

"I-I..just slipped is all"

"In a closed box? Come on, you can't expect to believe that." Matt replied, chuckling from the response before the door started to knock.

"Alright we're heading out" His coworker's voice said from the door. "Anything you need before we go?"

"Matt looked at the door as he pondered on the question. A smile peering off from his face as he looked back at them. "Well then, I gues I'm stumped. Maybe you did get lost in here."

"Yes that's correct! I was just-"

"However, this means I'll have to turn you into the services to let you out. And Im not too sure they would believe that you got lost in here. Tsk, they'd label it as trespassing."

"What?! I wasn't trespassing!"

"Oh I'm sure you were. But I don't think they'll believe that. I guess we'll find out.." He turned to the door.

"No no wait!" The little guy yelped.

Matt stopped at the door, his hand almost wrapped around the knob before he turned to the little guy. "Yes.." he replied, doing his best to hold in his laughter.

"I..was sniffing your shoes."

"Hah, I knew it." Matt announced, pumping his fist as his hunch proved correct. "So you were sniffing my shoes."

"Yes, Alright! But please, please don't turn me in. I mean no harm by it." The little guy plead.

"Matt? Is everything good in there. Who are you talking to?"

Matt paused for second as he stared at the little guy. Gazing toward the door, he finally answered. "Nah, no one's in here bud. Just me and my phone." He replied. "I'll catch up with ya outside. Im just gonna finish this episode."

"Hmm, alright. Well we'll see you put there." His coworker said, the sounds of his steps getting further away as silence filled the void. Alone, Matt turned back to the little guy dangling between his fingers. A smug look plastered to his face as he pondered on the answer they gave.

"So I got a little sniffer on my hands, imagine that."

"Yes yes, we established this. I only wanted to get close to it, that's all."

"Is that right?" Matt questioned, placing the the little guy down on the floor. Laying him softly onto the carpet before he reached for the knob once more. Creaking it open just enough to see the hallway. "well then, here's the door."

"Huh?!"

"You only wanted to have a closer look at what I got packing right? Well you got a sample of it all over your clothes. And now that you have it, you can just walk right of here with a tale to tell everyone." Opening it wider, he waved his hand to usher the tiny forward. "Best head out before it gets dark."

"No that's all that I.." The little guy paused as he held his words, Matt taking notice as he closed the door slightly.

"Ooh looks like we go some more secrets" Matt cooed curiously. Letting go of the door, but ensured it was closed enough to not let anyone see. "You seemed almost conflicted little guy. You don't have to hide anything from me" He leaned on one knee. Crouching as he observed them.

"..fine" The little guy sighed "I came here to experience what it was like being around you. Your body, your scent. It's what lead me in here."

"I see. So then what your offering is to take you under my wing correct. A musk checker if you will?"

"Y-yes!"

"Mhm-mhm, an interesting proposal. But I gotta know one thing first before I take you on" Matt paused, pulling over a chair as he sat down. Drawing his foot onto his lap, he pulled it off before tossing it to the side. Black dress socks covering them, he loomed a foot over towards the little guy. "How good of a rubber are you?" He asked, His soles arching down as they curled above them.

"I can show you!" The little guy said proudly. Marching over to Matt's foot as he planted his hands against the center of it. The large foot bending forward as it casted its shadow overhead. Scratching firmly at the surface, the little guy began to rub into the fabric. scrunching with each tug, the little guy rose his scratches higher before moving a hand away to rub between the soft pocket created by the ball of soles.

"Oo..okay, okay..i think I feeling it a bit. A little higher.." matted requested. the little guy nodding as he rose his arms upward. His fingers fumbling at the top of his foot. "a little higher" He requested again. The little guy nodding once more as he stood at the top of his toes. His hand now reaching into the crevice of the soles his fingers fumbled into his soles. Clasping around a single toe as he caressed over their sides. The sole beginning to wiggle as the tickling sensation stimulated them. "Oh yeah, right there. Riight there.." Matted groaned. Extending his foot closer to get more scratches. But felt the little guy move back.

"Ah-ah, sorry big guy but I can only give samples on what I can do. The rest comes after the offer." The little guy said.

"Huh, you drive a good sample" Matt commented.

"So whatcha think?"

"Pretty good to say the least. My foot did feel good with your rubs. But I can't let you onboard without asking this question.."

"What's that?"

"How many claps are in the friend's song?"

"Mmmm...4?"

""Hmhmhm.." Matt chuckled. Getting off the chair before leaning down. "welcome aboard, musk checker."

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

After recording a few lines from the set. Matt decided to take a detour route back to his room as he brought a few tissues with him from the stand. Closing the door behind him and locking before beginning to undress.

"Man this day was a busy one. But glad that my lines are finished with at least" He sighed in relief. Unbuttoning his shirt, he tossed it to the floor as his tanktop underneath was drenched with sweat. And between his armpit, little legs as they wiggled slowly beneath his bicep. "It's cleaning time again musk checker" He announced, lifting his arm to the air. There, sitting across the hairs in his arm pit, would be the little guy. His body a bit tangled in hairs as they wiggled themselves around them first. Finally slipping off, Matt caught them before lifting them to his face.

"Man you really worked up some sweat in there sir" The little guy said dazed.

"Hehe sorry, the directors had the heater way too high in there" Matt responded, winding his arms in place to dry himself. Lowering them to the couch, as he rested them along the arm on the furniture. "More of a cool conditioning guy myself." He added. Sitting down next to him, Matt laid himself sideways to face the little guy. His stretched out arm above him as the armpits hair presented themeselves again. Glistening as there scent flowed into the air. "You ready?" He asked them, bringing the stashed tissues from his pocket. Lowering them down just next to them.

"You got it!" The little guy saluted. hopping closer to matt, he grabbed a tissue as he burritoed himself into it. Adding a little twist to tighten it, he waddled over to Matt's armpit and jumped into its embrace. Rolling off the wet surface, but stopped when fingers pressed into him.

"That's what I'm talking about.." Matt responded, holding against the tissue the little guy was in. Proceeding to roll his body around his pits. Feeling the tissue soak up the sweat, its once dry surface turning damp as particles brushed into the hair. Making the salty scent become thicker with each brush he would make.

The little guy rolled around the armpit as his vision flipped constantly. His gaze meeting the ceiling as it tilted to the floor. Hairs rising beneath him as it shroud him into a damp space. The hairs bristling into his ears as few poked inside them. His face meeting the bare skin as sweat washed into him. He wanted to speak to Matt as he rolled around, but decided not to as he basked more into the pits scent. Rocking his head around to burrow himself into the skin. His face starting to become slicker, his shifts brushing more into the hairs as he darted into a knotted bunch. His head nudged underneath them as they pinned him against the pit.

"Heh, got yourself in quite the predicament." Matt noted playfully. Pinching softly at their body as he rotated him around like a Q-tip. Nudging him against his pit as he poked him higher into the the knotted hairs. Rubbing him heavily in the process to clear more of the sweat, Before retracting him as he shifted around. Raising his other arm to the air as he brought them toward it. "Got one more for ya.." He announced. Letting them adjust their head to get it comfortable, before plunging them to the bottom of the pit. Gliding him along the dry skin before it transitioned back to being damp. The little guy sliding quickly over the hairs as he plunged into the middle of it. The arm closing over him as Matt hugged it to his side.

Inside, The little guy was overwhelmed by hairs. Nuzzled up between a bush of it as it cushioned against his back. A portion of it toppling over his head as muscle laid ontop. Pulsing softly with each clench Matt would make. "This ones a little bit warmer" The little huffed, the area around heating his body with his musk. All the while feeling the cool air blow into his feet.

"How you enjoying it in there? Still comfortable?" Matt asked, softening his breath as he observed his armpit. A little shift signaling a nod as he smiled. "hmhm good" He responded, bringing his finger to the pair of feet dangling from under his arm. Fondling at them, he tapped at their soles as the pallet scrunched in place.

"Hehehe" a muffled laugh came from his arm. Their legs beginning to wave as the tickling feeling raced through his feet.

"Such a sensitive little fellow. I like that" Matt responded, grinding his arm slowly to feel more of their body against his pit. Finally Lifting his arm to air as he fetched the little guy. Bringing them back to his face as he gave them a little kiss. "Mm! You really do smell like now. I can smell the sweat and cologne all over you"

"Heh, I've got you to thank for that" the tiny responded. Matt giving him one more kiss before setting him down onto his chest.

"Hmhm, well I suppose that is true. But it's nothing compared the rubs you did." Matt replied. Looking down at his pants, a cylinder like bulge began to form along the side of his leg. "Speaking of rubs, I think there's one more thing I want you to tend to.." He said unfastening his pants. Undoing his button, he pulled the zipper down to the bottom. The bulge inside taking initiative as it slid across his waist in his underwear. Its form pulsing as bits of the fabric lifted off his waist

"You mean it!" The tiny said excited.

"Course I mean it" Matt replied. Widening more of his legs as his pants slide off. Fumbling with the flap as he pushed them to the side.

The little guy smiled upon his response. Getting from his chest as he walked down to his waist. Moving over the bottom of the crumpled shirt, he stopped when his feet touched bare skin. The hairs Stretching from the waist as they brushed into him. Caressing his shoes before a hand reached for the waistband. Ringing into it, he watched as Matt pulled them down. Air sucking into the underwear as it stretched to the air, blowing back slowly as Musk flowed over him. "Your scent is strong sir." The little guy noted, the smell of cologne and sweat washing over as he fanned softly at the air.

"I try to keep it toned down there, but even cologne won't help it." Matt replied, wafting the elastic waistband as it fanned more of its scent toward him. "Having second thought?" He asked playfully, the shaft ahead wiggling with anticipation.

"Are you kidding, no way!" The little guy said, waddling over the skin as he stepped inside the waist. The shaft scooting closer to him with a flex as it nudged into his legs. Picking it up underneath the puffy ridge as he heaved it into his lap. "man, look at how big it is.." He muttered. Feeling the pulse in his palms as the head continued to swell. Filling his palms with warm flesh as its body heat illuminated the air.

"Hehe, careful" Matt responded lightly, his shaft bobbing in place as the tip nuzzle into them "Im senstive down there. One small touch and I might just cave in."

"Oh.." The little replied, a light smile spreading across his face as he reached over the neck of the shaft. Sinking his hand into his foreskin as he tapped at the side. "You mean like this?" He asked, rubbing softly around the fleshy surface inside. Feeling friction as the sticky substance coating it slowed his hand's movements.

"Mm..well yes. But.." Matt paused, feeling the strokes glide over his cock. "I don't mind it at all" He moved a hand inside as he scooped his palm underneath them. Laying him flat as he lowered him deeper into his briefs. Wrapping his cock as he clenched around it. Its squeeze sending the little guy with it as it pinned him between his palm and the fleshy organ. "Let's say we turn things up" He announced, letting the waistband snap against his wrist. Slowly arching his hips upward as his hand stroked up and down its length.

Inside, The little guy was moved around the shaft. Cocooned by muscle as the the palm moved up along the shaft. The tip compressed underneath his chin as he skyrocketed upward, pulling back down as the smooth head pushed back up. Bits of sweat and pre from the slit scooping into his chin before the foreskin glossed after it. "Mph..mph" They huffed between each stroke. The heat around getting hotter, the cock's pulse becoming more audible in his ear. It was all he could focus on as he was caressed over Matt's cock. Feeling its stiffness become more harder as it stuck against his palm. He prepared to relax himself, but a sudden wiggle from the palm interrupted.

"Come on now" Matt's voice pierced through the air. A sense of playfulness in his voice as the shaft bounced from one side of the fabric to the other. "You don't think I'm gonna get off on my own now do you?" He asked softly. Fumbling his palm around the his shaft as he pushed its length upward. The little guy pushed slightly, but stopped when his thumb rested along his back. As it did, he pressed them up his cock. Lifting him til he felt their head cushion against it.

"Heh, well I suppose you have a point there." The tiny agreed, shimmying his head to nuzzle his head closer. His chin touching the corner of the puffed edge as salty musk from its skin filled his nose. He stayed there for a second, taking in more of the frowsty scent before lowering his head to align against it. Sliding his head upward as he rubbed against the warm tender flesh.

"mm..alright, Im feelin' it" Matt said happily. Feeling the light pressure against his cockhead.

The little guy smiled as he got approvement from Matt. Continuing his rubs as he pushed him up closer. Tilting his face upward as his tucked his face against the puffy edge. His vision becoming dim as dark pink skin blocked his view. The heavy pulse inside thumping into his body. Hearing the firm contractions inside as low squeaks echoed inside.

"Mmm pretty good. Now let's-"

A knock on the door would interrupt the two, a shadow casting behind. "Matt! We need you back on the set! The sirector wants a few more lines put in."

"Of all the times.." Matt muttered, turning towards the door. "Yeah, I hear ya. "I'll be out there in a sec" He said to them. The shadow at the door disappeared as the light returned to the panel. Matt giving a slight sigh, but looked down when a firm squeeze met his shaft.

"Duty calls?" The little guy asked plafully, rubbing his head into the tip.

"Heh yeah." Matt replied, bringing a thumb over their head as he patted softly against it. "I guess an actors work is never. We'll have to continue this later.." He moved his hand down his briefs til his fingers sunk underneath his sac. Scooping the orbs further up as their round edges rested against the little. With a confirm lift along them, he let go before retracting his hand. Letting the underwear snap back against him as he zipped back his pants. "For now you just sit tight. It's gonna be a bit before we do more" He assured, patting at his crotch before he went out the door.

"Mmm don't worry about me.." The little guy responded, laying across Matt's cock, the thighs around him moving around him as the balls rocked as his legs. "I'll be just fine" He huffed.