#this is seriously a great fic

[glucosegaurdian]

Sabaody arc fanart from a maybe-hopefully-please-ineedthis-future chapter of ‘Boy with a scar’ by @syluksky

seriously I love this fic and couldn’t stop myself from drawing a hopefully-future scene!

also a close up and another sketch but with Luffy’s scar visible

please read this it is beautifully written and I have re-read it 3 times already!

[oh-no-its-bird]

I feel like @sloaners fic, Akatsuki Babysitter's Club is such a classic naruto fic, definitely up there in "the fics most ever" but I can recognize Im possibly biased and projecting my own experience w the fic onto the fandom

Either way, it's a classic in my heart <3

Anyways I re-read it yesterday, and it was just as much of a riot as the first time I read it. Then I laid down to sleep and stared at the ceiling then shot up and immediatley went to my tablet and the next thing I knew it was 8 am and I hadn't slept at all, but I did make this cute comic for the fic, so !!!

[chinelacanta]

i love putting dragon in Situations <3

BIG FAN of the ‘dragon is xebec’s son’ but i can’t decide if i like it in a funny way or a sad way 😭. do you think dragon thought he’d lose his father’s love if he knew he was taken in by a marine. do you think he mourned garp’s favor when he also failed to be a ‘good man’ and turned to revolution, that he wasted garp’s life efforts in saving a child from evil and a life lead to a death sentence. do you think dragon grieves that he managed to disappoint both his fathers. do you think that when he held luffy for the first time he realized he was no different then xebec, that he’d condemned his child to the stake for the crime of existence, a life of loneliness if he lived, a forced marine career and shackled dreams from his only ‘relative’. hey man what if i cried real hard abt it

[fabbyf1]

to everyone who is concerned about lestappen fics going away now that kelly is pregnant... how many fics is she actually even mentioned in? she has been around for so long and we just pretend she doesn't exist when we write fanfic. (my ao3 word count is 659,152 and she isn't mentioned ONCE.) nothing has to change. it's all fiction and make believe. let's continue to be delusional like the veteran larry stans we are, okay? 😂😂😂

[spider-dreamland]

Redemption and Legacy┃┃┃A Singed x Reader ONE SHOT

Redemption isn’t a single moment. It is the sum of choices made for those we hold dear. A wholesome one shot about Singed x Reader. Contains themes of childbirth. And an amusing scene of Singed meeting your family :)

❤️ Enjoy ❤️

Singed had never imagined the possibility of turning a new page. For the past several decades, his life had been nothing but a downward spiral, consumed by the single desperate cause to undo the past, to reclaim what had been taken from him. The idea of starting anew never existed. But now, he sat outside a delivery room, waiting for you to give birth to your second daughter. His hands resting on his knees, his scarred fingers twitching slightly with every muffled sound from inside.  He’d heard screams before. He’d been the reason behind screams before, more times than he could count. Agonized wails, desperate cries, pleas for mercy, each one carved into the darkest corners of his memory. But this was unlike any of that. This wasn’t the sound of fear or suffering he had inflicted; it was you, his wife and his light, crying out in pain, and he couldn’t escape the gut-wrenching helplessness of it. It clawed at him, an unbearable weight pressing against his chest, louder than any laboratory explosion or battlefield roar. He wasn’t the cause this time, not directly anyway, but he wasn’t the cure either, and that terrified him more than anything else.

He had been low. So low the thought of ever crawling back out never as much as crossed his mind. Dragging others into his descent had been a necessary evil, or so he told himself. Emotions were for others, for the weak. He didn’t feel. He calculated, hypothesized, and executed. That’s what it meant to be a scientist.

Until you.

He had met you on a particularly grim evening in Zaun, having a drink in a dimly lit, greasy bar with some friends of yours. He wasn’t there to revel in the fleeting comforts of alcohol but to dull the gnawing ache inside him, which, despite years of carefully bottling his emotions, sealing them away like dangerous chemicals in an unmarked flask, sometimes resurfaced, clawing its way out. 

Yet, as he stared into the amber depths of his glass, a woman’s voice broke through the static.

“You look like you could use another.” A drink, placed before him. He looked up and saw you. A woman who didn’t belong in this world. Young, vibrant, glowing with a light that felt blasphemous in the grimy, muted tones of the filthy Undercity. At first, he thought it a jest, some cruel joke among the youth you were with. But you stayed. And for reasons beyond his comprehension, he let you.

He had told himself to keep his distance, that you didn’t know what you were inviting into your life. Yet, with each passing encounter, you, a Piltover woman who saw beyond his sins and scars, pulled him closer.

You had made him want to change.

It hadn’t been easy. Decades of habits couldn’t be erased overnight. But the moment you told him you were carrying his child, everything shifted. He had looked at his hands, stained with the past, and had no other choice but to. For you. For your child.

He remembered the day you introduced him to your family. He, Singed, Zaun’s pariah, Piltover’s exile, had tailored a suit, his scars hidden beneath layers of fabric and freshly-washed bandages. Meeting your father, a man his own age, was a peculiar sort of torment. For him and your father, it was an unspoken battle of wills, and the stakes couldn’t have felt higher. And you loved them both dearly, but watching them silently stress themselves. 

He remembers you just floating through the evening with an amused grin, pouring drinks, cracking jokes, and watching them both squirm, “Dad, I think you’ll like him. He knows a loooot about chemistry,” you added fuel to the fire with a grin, earning a sharp side-eye from him and an even sharper fork stab into your father’s potatoes.

He had spent the entire evening waiting for rejection, for the inevitable moment when your parents would denounce him.

And when your mother and grandmother saw him at the potluck they’d hosted to “meet the one who’d finally captured their daughter’s heart”, they nearly passed out. Their polite smiles faltered, their eyes darting over his scarred face and weathered demeanor, desperately trying to reconcile the man before them with the man they’d imagined. 

But what choice did they have? He’d already given them a grandchild. Such bright and beautiful baby. And now, with another one on the way, nobody’s reservations had any room to grow. They also couldn’t deny the way you looked at him with devotion that spoke louder than any words ever could, or the way he stood by your side, as though ready to destroy anyone who so much as thought of causing you harm.

That day every glance, every word seemed laden with judgment to a tangible extend, and though he hid it well, you could see the effort it took for him to stay composed. You found it almost endearing, and surely beyond amusing, though he’d probably never forgive you for not taking it seriously. 

Returning to Piltover had been surprisingly uneventful.

And yet, through it all, he found solace in fatherhood. He hadn’t expected to be good at it, but you had shown him otherwise. Your first daughter had quieted in his arms before she had even calmed in yours, her tiny fingers wrapping around his scarred ones.

That day, for the first time in decades, Singed willingly indulged himself in emotion. 

The sound of a door creaking pulled him from his thoughts. A nurse stepped out, her face paling slightly as she took him in.

He stood immediately, his heart pounding so loudly the nurse could likely hear it. This stress couldn’t possibly be good for his age, he had mentally noted, though the thought was fleeting. You didn’t want to be apart from him, not now, not in your most vulnerable moment, and he would never tell you no. Not to this. Not to you.

Sweat clung to your forehead, your face strained with exhaustion, but you smiled when you saw him. “I want you here,” you whispered, your voice trembling.

He would do anything for you.

Moving to your side, Singed repositioned you gently, his knowledge of anatomy guiding his hands.

Hours passed, but he didnt waver. The tension in the room ebbed and flowed with each contraction, but he remained steady amidst the storm of pain and anticipation. When the moment finally came, he moved with precision and calm, his hands as sure as they had ever been in the laboratory, though this time they were bringing life into the world instead of unraveling it.

You’d insisted he deliver your second daughter himself, so he did, catching her tiny, wriggling form. The first sound she made was a piercing wail, her lungs announcing her arrival with ferocity. Her tiny fists flailed, her face scrunched in indignation at the cold air of the world outside the warmth of the womb. For a moment, everything else, the chaos, the exhaustion, the years of doubt, all faded away, and the room was silent save for her cries. It was a sound that filled the space with hope.

He handed her to you carefully, his breath catching as he watched you cradle her to your chest. You were exhausted, your eyes heavy with sleep, but you looked up at him and smiled.

Singed knew, with absolute certainty, that he would tear the world apart piece by piece, leave it smoldering and broken at his feet, if it meant keeping you happy. Nothing, no force would ever stand between you and the life you deserved.

Not while he drew breath.

[faislittlewhiteraven]

Fais fanfic rambles: Introduction to my 'Selkies by Starlight' ISaT AU

Note: Not to be confused with @looped-140-and-counting / Soren_793's wonderful Selkie AU oneshot series 'The Northern Islanders are Selkies' which was hugely inspiring for this if potentially VERY different in vibe (we got very into talking about cloaks! XD)

Basic premise/summary:

In an alternate version of the precanon adventure, the party lead by Mirabelle to stop the King freezing Vaugarde in time, recruit Siffrin as per usual.

Thing is, Siffrin is a Selkie.

A very skittish selkie without a cloak of their own, who openly wears the cloak of another, and due to Reasons is under the impression that the party know all both of those things and the Implications about them, and for whatever reason have decided to welcome him into their group anyway.

Which er, he's completely wrong about as the party know absolutely nothing.

Mira and Isa like most Vaugardian humans think 'shifters' are just fairytales, Odile knows shapeshifters are real but is only really familiar with how foxes like her father work, and Bonnie is actually able to sense some pretty major things but is a preteen dealing with a lot and hasn't even joined the party yet, so this pretty major misunderstanding is sustained for quite a while...

Cue the AUs' main focus being on the resulting party dynamic shifts as more and more canon divergence due to Sif's 'selkie stuff' (both cute and serious) comes into play, the party slowly realising something is up, and all of it hitting an eruption point right around the time of the 4th Orb/the loss of Siffrin's eye...

Some key world building notes: (Note: very summarised from my docs. I have like 20k+ words on this stuff XD)

The Island - Probably the most drastically different thing from canon here, the Island was not forgotten or erased here. Rather it is hidden away and permanently shrouded in Wish Craft generated fog from 'those without cloaks'. Side note: Sif is still unable to return home and continues to have some very plot critical memory problems but those are due to unrelated issues, which means yay I get to have Sif talk 'home culture' with the others in this =D Also idk why the King is freezing Vaugarde still. I've got a few ideas I'm not sure about and he's not in focus enough for it to even matter really, but random suggestions -especially those with possible selkie motivations- would be very much appreciated.

Selkie powers in my setting - Went into something of a deep dive regarding selkie folklore for this and did you know they have an absolute ton of seer/oracle based stuff going on?

From selkie being summoned by their human lovers shedding seven tears into the ocean, to a selkie man telling a former lover that he and their child will die at the hands by her genuinely good and loving future husband, to a selkie woman forseeing her fisherman husband about to die out in a storm just in time for her to swim over there and rescue him, etc.

So... Yeah. This AU has a lot of plot relevant sensory/seer stuff going on as well as the standard seal shapeshifter stuff (Islander selkie traditionally believe it to be the Universe talking with them, in the same way Wish Craft is talking to the Universe), and going off all the stuff I read decided it'd be most fitting if the general rule for how it all works is: - Selkie always passively have a bit of it going on (aka Sif's canon 'you sense someone nearby' stuff) which like most things can be enhanced with Craft use a bit. - Near perfect understanding of all 'connected' bodies of water (aka they know EXACTLY where the tasty fish are/will be and can probably get a general sense of location for most people on a boat) - Potentially get strong 'visions of the future' and/or instincts on what they need to do to avert an outcome when it comes to loved ones being in danger/distress.

They also maybe get to pull very fast, high power Wish Craft 'curses'/miracles' at idk, the cost of something major like their cloak or lives (mostly based off of the The Legend of Kópakonan where the whole island of Kalsoy was cursed with death by a selkie in retaliation for her husband and children being murdered) but not super attached to this idea past it being in 'seal shifter' stories in-setting.

Other non humans in setting and regional differences in shifters - Pretty much only selkie and selkie issues are in focus here, but just as a general thing, all non humans in setting are shapeshifters and originated from human ancestors who went crazy with the the Body Craft and/or used Wish Craft in some way.

Ka Bue in particular has a ton of them since yokai, with their origins being various sects/clans back in the warring eras going so nuts with trying to weaponize Body Craft (super soldiers, enhanced life spans, infiltration, exploiting attraction to furries, etc), that after some particularly high profile incidents (for an idea plz see: Kiyohime, Tamamo no Mae, Kachi-kachi Yama) and 'Body Craft misuse leading to shut down of the brain/vital organs' being the most common cause of death for 10+ years once peace time was established, eventually Ka Bue's authorities set their foot down and banned Body Craft altogether.

Currently the shifter population in Ka Bue is around 30% of the population, shifters are required to have ID regarding their forms (or potential forms if they're merely 'half'), and it's considered distasteful for a shifter to be in non human form outside of private settings/necessity and even ruder to ask a shifter about their non human forms if they haven't brought the topic up yet first (kinda like seeing/asking about someone's underwear or something XD).

In contrast the Vaugarde, Mwudu and Porteria region is extremely shifter sparce, with most of its original shifter population being the result of various Universe worshipping peoples (mostly small groups, like greek mystery cults) deciding to use a big Wish Craft ritual as some sort of religious rite and becoming shifters as a side effect of their primary Wish (usually stuff like 'we wish for us and our descendants to be one with You and the sea/air' or 'may we Change with the phases of the holy moon' etc) which granted them some pretty neat skills but also tended to come with some 'potentially nasty' drawbacks attached (see: selkie and swan maidens with their cloaks, werewolves Changing in both body and mind etc) Which er, lead to some issues born of lack of knowledge about this stuff, later some very nasty anti shifter sentiment in the region, and then around... IDK 200 to 300 years ago or so ended up exploding into violence and other very nasty things, with most shifters able to do so fleeing the region, and those that couldn't either enduring horrible conditions until they could escape/died or went deep into hiding, with the Island's Country being founded by the two later groups who used Wish Craft to hide their new home, erase awareness of their existence from their enemies (a short term, fully intentionally 'forgetting' blast centered specifically around shifters), and developed a LOT of culture and traditions regarding when, who and what can be told to 'outsiders' about themselves, Wish Craft, etc in order to keep their people safe.

There are shifters living in present in Vaugarde of course (anti shifter sentiment died back a LOT after most people stopped thinking they were real, and most modern day Change Believers are more likely to view these 'totally fictional/allegorical' beings as children/messengers of the Change God rather than 'evil demons who stole power by tearing apart the Change God's cloak for themselves and thus have to be hunted down and made to repent' propaganda take that was everywhere back then) but numbers actually living outside the Island as opposed to merely visiting remain low, since either the shifters know their history and stick firmly to their 'stay secret' traditions or quickly pick up on how oddly unknown shifters are around these parts and decide to err on the side of caution... Also 'trust worthy' humans who do learn about them (usually northern coastal folk, gee wonder why) tend to help cover them up so... Yeah =D

---

And... Yeah!

This is hella long as is, so will stop here and ramble about the actual 'how this all affects our beloved Sif and Co plot and culture wise' stuff that is the actual meat of the AU in another post later, but hope this made for an interesting/idea provoking read, know that I have no issue with anyone using any of this for their own works (just please, don't use the 'Selkies under starlight' same story name unless it's actually a fanfic/fanart of my 'hopefully soon has a chapter/one shot up' fic/Ao3 series of the same name so people don't get confused), and I would love to chatter with you about any thoughts/questions you might have so...

Wishing you a good day =D

(sighes in relief finally getting this post finished after literal months. Pheeeeww~)

[shadowbends]

“Huh. I wasn’t expecting you.” The yokai lowered his eyes to find he was no longer alone. A figure sat at the table, spectral and not entirely whole. The outline was there, but it was as if it had been scoured haphazardly with an eraser until key features were left blurred. Yet even with the top half of his face missing, it was still recognizably Leonardo. “Is that so.” Draxum arched an eyebrow. “Who were you expecting, then?” “Thought I heard…” The boy’s head lolled as if it was too heavy to be supported by his neck. Though Draxum could not read his expression, he seemed to be looking at a plate next to him, marked by a folded orange napkin. “Hm.” He patiently waited for Leonardo to continue, prodding only when a response no longer seemed forthcoming. “Yes?” “...Dunno.” The slider made a confused noise and shrugged his shoulders, one hazy and one not. “What’re we talkin’ about?”

Many thanks to @heckitall for his lovely work on this piece. I commissioned him to draw a scene from the sixth chapter of my fic, don't pay my ransom, and he did an amazing job with it. Thanks so much for bringing this scene to life, Heck!

[lynn-tged-posting]

hey guys,,, i wrote,,, and finished,,, A TGED FIC!!! YAY!!! FINALLY!!!

link below!!! i really really hope you enjoy!!! please have fun!!!

[final-milf-ratchet]

this is my piece for the transformers reverse bang!! @tf-bigbang :D hope you like it! it goes with @allsoundwavesarebeautiful fantastic fic -> here! its a very funny fic, hope you guys enjoy!

[wrongcaitlyn]

this is also not directed at anyone, but what i mentioned in the tags of one of my recent asks - i love love love hearing your ideas and hc's and theories in comments and asks!! however lately there have been a bunch of comments completely unrelated to tyt in the tyt comment section, or comments/asks that are outright telling me what should happen in tyt or phrasing song suggestions/opinions as if they are canon. some of these also vastly misinterpret some things i've said in the fic. and once again i do not mind if y'all want to switch out songs in your playlists, or come up with theories for how the fic is going to go, or even create alternate universes and canon divergences of the fic itself - but PLEASE do not tell me them as if i am now obligated to put them into the fic. this series has consumed me for years and i am very very attached to it and my plans for what will happen! and though i love hearing interpretations of apollo's backstory, or ideas for nico's fanbase, or song suggestions - i would greatly appreciate those to be phrased as what they are: suggestions, hc's, and theories. i am not a machine. i am not writing tyt for your sole entertainment. please do not request things from me as if i am.

[silversnowblossom]

I think what really gets me about kaveh's character story 5 is that a lot of people seem to think that alhaitham is cold. but like, the fallout of their friendship happened because he cared too much. because alhaitham was worried about kaveh and the self-destructive pursuit of his ideals/spiral he was trapped in thanks to his guilt, realized that this idealism would cause problems for kaveh in the future, and tried to warn him about it. and kaveh didn't take it well.

and yeah, he was probably too blunt about it as usual, but i'm sure kaveh telling him that he regretted ever being friends with him (considering they were best friends - also, that confirmation from mhy that is canon is great - and kaveh is likely alhaitham's first friend) must've deeply hurt alhaitham. because yeah, he's intelligent and rational and doesn't outwardly emote much when he's not arguing with kaveh, but he's still human. he still has feelings. and it's kaveh that crossed the line and destroyed what they had between them (which i'm sure he'd regretted later, something that probably only added to the immense guilt plageuing him). we all knew that whatever happened between them had to have been explosive, given the hints from alhaitham's character stories, but ouch.

honestly, poor alhaitham. and poor kaveh. </3

just. mhy really went all-in on the angst with kaveh's character stories, and it's delicious. absolutely adore what they did here

[foodsies4me]

So much fun to wake up to shitty comments on a fic that has a clearly stated « not beta read » tag.

[mirensiart]

you keep appearing on my dash and your art is GORGEOUS omg, so i'm popping in to say that you seem super cool !!! i love your link and zelda ocs!!!! and the pain sharing au!!! 🤩🤩🤩 hi its nice to meet u my name is bee!!! this ask is so incoherent, sorry about that. i hope you have a wonderful day!

Aaaaah 🥹💖 thank you so much!!!!! This is such a nice comment to wake up to aaah!!!

I'm seriously so happy that you like my silly zelda ocs!! And the au too!! 🥹💖

Hehe hii, bee! I'm miry and the pleasure is all mine!!! You're super cool actually, I've read some of your fics and they're just *chef's kiss* the cursebreaker is like, my favorite thing ever! 🥹💖

[nobodysdaydreams]

Nathaniel Benedict/Ledroptha Curtain (TMBS) and Count Olaf (ASOUE) are proof that mentally unstable former theater kids with sad backstories make the most entertaining villains, especially when their main adversaries are genius children they lose to every episode. And one of them is canonically a literal toddler/baby.

[thequietsrestricted-discussion]

I find it kinda funny (and really cool, tbh) that, while researching for more information about my post on BlogTheGreatRouge, I found a fanfic with over 300 chapters that had enough cool content that I now fully intend to read all of it. Honestly, I've gone ahead and started it while I wait for my research to be completed, and it's great so far. It really hits the nostalgia factor for me, and it just seems really good. (Plus I'm a sucker for angst and shit, and I can already feel is wafting off this fic in waves.)

Anyways, to the people working on @theinkymystery, kudos, it's looking great so far, and you're all wonderful. Everything I've seen regarding the fic so far (all good things, which is astounding, you'd typically find at least a bit of negative feedback with something so big, but I have seen nothing thus far aside from my actual research points) seems to absolutely be warranted, as this work is really well-done, and the art to accompany it is wonderful. Gonna get back to reading, but I wanted to show my appreciation to you guys. Keep up the great work. :)

[pizzaqueen]

I've had this scene in my mind of Eddie encountering Steve’s dad at the hospital post S4 for a while but I didn't know what to do with it. I've written it up, anyway, and I'm posting it here instead of letting it languish. Maybe I'll do something else with it one day?

Just over 800 words, warnings for being in the hospital, I guess and maybe being a little angsty

The first time Eddie meets Steve’s dad, it’s at the hospital, after everything. He’s seen Steve’s dad before, of course he has, everyone knows the Harringtons. But it's always been from a distance, and Mr. Harrington has always seemed arrogant and out of touch.

Eddie waits until Wayne is asleep in the chair beside his bed to get up. Between the shit he's hooked up to and the tightly bandaged wounds, it's not easy, but he needs to do this.

He pulls back the edge of the curtain dividing his bed from Steve’s, then pauses. Steve is lying there, dark circles under his eyes, unconscious and pale and looking less like one of the heroes from Eddie's stories and more like a boy who's seen too many awful things, given too much of himself to them.

Guilt wells up beneath the cotton wool feeling of the painkillers that have been pumped into him. It’s not because it’s Eddie’s fault, but Eddie’s here, on his feet, and Steve isn’t. He will be, though. He has to be.

There’s a vague memory playing in Eddie's mind of Steve carrying him out of that fucking place, Steve's breathing labored, his arms strong but trembling. He'd barely made it out of there before he'd collapsed to the ground with Eddie still in his arms. Everything goes kind of dark after that.

Eddie’s about to step forward, say something—thank you, would be a start—even if Steve can’t hear him, but then he notices that Steve isn’t alone. There’s a man sitting by his side, in the twin of the crappy plastic chair Eddie’s uncle is hunched over in on Eddie’s side of the curtain. He’s wearing a gray sweater and he’s got a sweep of dark hair that looks like he’s been running his hands through it and his nose is the same sharp line as Steve’s.

"Jesus Christ, Steve," he says, voice small and broken, "what the hell did you get yourself into?" His hand rests by Steve’s on the stark white hospital sheet, his pinkie finger hooked over Steve’s.

Steve’s breathing is deep and steady and Mr. Harrington chews on his lip, watching Steve so intently he doesn’t seem to have noticed Eddie standing at the corner of Steve’s bed.

After a few minutes, Mr. Harrington sucks in a deep, shuddering breath and says, "C'mon, slugger, you gotta wake up before your mom gets back from terrorizing the doctors, okay? You know how much she worries…” He trails off, looks away, puts his head in his hands.

And Eddie knows he shouldn't be watching this, but he's frozen. If he ever spared a thought for Mr. Harrington, it was just to think of him as some rich asshole Eddie didn't give a shit about. He has no idea if he's a good dad or even a good person but, right now, Eddie feels bad for him. It makes him miss his own dad and then he feels guilty about that, too. Wayne is right there, sleeping by Eddie's bed because he didn't want to leave him alone and he's a better dad than Eddie's father ever was.

Mr. Harrington makes a small frustrated noise and Eddie finally comes back to himself. He goes to turn away, but, as he does, his foot catches on something and the sound is small but it's loud in the hush of the hospital room.

Steve’s dad looks over, brow furrowing.

“Sorry,” Eddie says, “I wanted to… Sorry.” He shakes his head, which makes it spin. Or maybe it’s the whole room that’s spinning. “I’m Eddie,” he says, and he doesn’t know why. “Munson.”

“The boy wanted for murder?”

“No, I— I hope not.” Eddie breathes out and it feels harder than it should be. “That wasn’t… I didn’t…” His legs feel weak and he should just turn around and go back to bed but he keeps talking: “Steve, he— Saved me.” And it’s only part of what happened and it’s more complicated than that but it’s the truth.

“He—” It looks like Steve’s dad doesn’t know what to do with that and then Eddie’s legs give way and the only thing stopping him from falling is Steve’s hospital bed. “Whoa, hey,” Steve’s dad says, pushing himself to his feet, “you should, um…”

“Dad?” Steve’s voice is croaky and confused. His unfocused gaze slowly moves from his dad to where Eddie’s slumped by his bed. “Eddie? You’re—” He coughs, then winces, and his dad forgets all about Eddie.

“Steve,” is all he says, leaning over his son, hand hovering.

And then there’s a hand at Eddie’s elbow, guiding him away. "C'mon, kiddo," Wayne says, "you shouldn't be up," and he gently helps Eddie up onto the bed.

On the other side of the curtain, there are voices—Steve’s dad, a woman that’s probably Steve’s mom, doctors—but it’s quiet on Eddie’s side. Wayne is there, awake now, watching as Eddie finally lets himself fall asleep again. At least he knows Steve’s awake now. And he’s not alone.