#this is why i need to stop befriending nerds

[cookiekitkat8484]

It has come to my attention that people who haven't read the comics don't realise Wallace was the one who harassed scott into being his friend. Like he saw that nerd at uni and went oh yeah that's my guy now. This bitch would not shut up and showed up at his house uninvited to hang out till scott gave in and befriended him, then they got suuuper drunk and scott let him crash at his. He comes to family dinners, is best friends with his sister, and chats to his mum.

He despises envy more than anything and is furious when she tries to mess with his life again and scott gets hurt, so he cooks him breakfast and comforts him. He coaches scott in fighting and helps with strategies so he doesn't get his ass kicked. He bullies him to leave the house because there's a heatwave and he wants to make sure he doesn't get heatstroke. Like they're close enough Wallace walks around in his underwear (though scott whines about it).

I've seen people assume Wallace supports scott out of pity but that man is a bitch and morally questionable (affectionate), I do not think he would put up with it at all if he didn't want him around, especially given he can barely afford to support them both. When they stop living together he doesn't just kick him out it's because their landlord kicks them out, he actively enchorages scott to move in with Ramona out of care for him and offers to stay with him if he needs it, though ends up signing a lease with his boyfriend (in his defence scott didn't ask for him to stay and decided to try make things work with Ramona) but still let's him stay at the new apartment with them when Ramona kicks him out.

Yeah he's mean to scott sometimes and makes fun of him/is brutally honest but he basically became part of Scott's family and part of that is calling people out when they're being a total jackass and teasing them, he's that kinda guy and scott knows that he doesn't actually hate him or something. Yeah scott will do puppy dog eyes if he wants something but wallace is frequently nice to him on his own initiative and scotts not a suck up to Wallace, he can be a bitch right back at him.

They're a really important part of each other's lives. though I can understand people not familiar with the characters who watched the show thinking Wallace doesn't care about scott being gone, literally all the characters reacted super casually. Bryan has tried to clarify his way of trying to cope is him "being a jerk"/disconnecting/acting apathetic. Also in the show o'malley basically confirms Wallace had feelings for scott and that was why he had the affair with Todd and you can quote him on that, aswell as scott admitting how they became roomates was "somewhat gay" in the comics, so there's definitely some weird more than friends emotional mess tied in there.

comic panels i reference under the cut

TLDR wallace lives with him because he cares about him, whether you read that as still somewhat romantic or now platonic, with either interpretations fitting better with different versions of the story

[onepiecestarry]

Katsuki Bakugo Fluff Oneshot

I've had this bouncing around in my brain for a few days and just needed to get it down :) This is lowk based off of my life so I apologize since its a niche situation. But enjoy some Bk fluff and lmk if you want another part to this!

Katsuki x Reader

2.3k words

Most days you wake up, go to class, study, and train late into the night. You are a busy person, with many priorities, but this didn’t stop you from making many friends. You got particularly close to Mina and Sero, and along with that the rest of the bakusquad- besides Bakugo himself of course. You had tried many times to befriend him but to no avail. You decided to give up since you were already a part of his friend group. 

You tried your best to make time for your friends but most weeks you wouldn’t join the nightly hangouts. On any days off you went home to help your mom, only Mina truly knew why you were never in the dorms. 

-

“Alright class, today we are-” Aizawa started his long speech about your new upcoming project. You start to zone out, but quickly focus again to get the project details, jotting down any important notes you might need. 

“I am going to randomly assign partners for this, please do not ask to change because there will be no exceptions this time.” Mr. Aizawa says in his regular monotone voice. 

He starts to list off the groups and eventually says your name. “Y/n and Bakugo” 

“Not that fucking nerd!!” Bakugo yells slamming his fist onto his desk.

“Shut it Bakugo,” Mr. Aizawa says activating his quirk on the rowdy student. 

The rest of the day went by normally, you finished classes and began packing your stuff to study and train. 

Around 1 am you get a text.

Bakugo

“Where are you dipshit”

Y/n

“Training, why?”

Bakugo

“Tf you training so late for, gts”

Y/n

“Dude leave me alone, what do you want”

Bakugo

“Friday at 11 am common room”

Y/n

“The project?” 

He likes the message and the conversation ends. You look at the time and realize you should be going to bed soon, you do a few more reps before heading back to the dorm. 

It's a cool night, as you walk a chill runs up your spine from the cold. You shake it off and continue to your dorms. As quietly as you can, you open the door and make your way to your room. You fall asleep to the crickets and cicadas chirping outside your window. 

The week goes by quickly as the weekend approaches. You completely forgot about having Friday off, but Mina reminded you on Thursday to text your mom to remind her. 

What everyone in the class doesn’t know is that your mom moved with you when you came abroad to study at UA. She and your little sister rent a small house not too far from campus. Your step-father refused to move with them, so on any days you have off you go home to watch your 2-year-old sister while your mom works. The only person who knows about this arrangement is your best friend Mina. She covers for you whenever you are there. 

- 

You wake up to the loud beeping of your alarm, as you look at it to shut it off it displays “4:30 am”. You groan and move to get up. Your mom starts work at 6 on the days you have off so you have to get to the house early so your sister isn’t home alone. 

You grab your prepacked bag and school backpack and start your walk home. The sunrise is barely a sliver when you get there. 

As you take care of your sister throughout the day, coloring, watching movies, and playing dress-up, it doesn’t matter what you do as long as she’s happy. Once you put her down for her nap, you throw yourself onto the couch half asleep. Then your phone starts going off over and over. You grumble something about a group chat and open your phone to see it’s Bakugo. 

Bakugo

“Where are you dipshit”

“If you aren’t here in the next 3 minutes I’m blowing your ass up in your dorm”

“Why aren’t you in your dorm”

“ANSWER ME”

Bakugo has requested your location. 

“Oh boy” You mumble to yourself

Y/n

“Chill dude, I’m sorry I forgot we were supposed to work on the project today, can we do it Monday?”

Bakugo

“NO, dumbass it's fucking due Monday”

“Where are you, answer the fucking phone now”

Y/n

“I can’t answer the phone rn”

Bakugo

“Well then SEND ME UR FUCKING LOCATION”

Y/n

“Will u chill tf out if I do?”

Bakugo likes the message.

Y/n started sharing their location with Bakugo

You huff and turn your phone off falling asleep on the couch. Not long after you wake up to three aggressive knocks on your front door. Knowing Bakugo you jump up to stop him from knocking more and waking your sister. 

“Chill tf out, I’m right here,” You say as you open the door. Bakugo pushes past you walking into your house and turning to look at you. 

“You are so fucking useless, we were supposed to have this project done today! I fucking should’ve done it myself” He says with his fingers on the bridge of his nose. 

“Look, I’m sorry but Aizawa would know if you pulled that shit AGAIN” 

“YOU FUCKING RATTED-”

You slam your palm on his mouth as he begins to yell. Shock is written across his face when he suddenly pushes you off him. 

“What the fuck” He spits at you.

“You have to be fucking quiet dipshit” You whisper.

“Why wou-” He gets interrupted by your sister crying and running to you. 

You pick her up gently and start to soothe her from her startling wake call as you glare daggers at Bakugo. He stands there in complete shock, this time not hiding it at all. You nod your head in the direction of your dining table and say, “Go set up there, we can work on it now.”

He doesn’t say a word while he gets his stuff out and sets up. You put your sister down to start making some lunch for her. 

“Did you eat?” You ask not looking at him.

“What?” He asks snapping back to reality.

“Did you eat lunch?”

“Oh um no”

“Ok,” You say, silently making another serving more. 

As you continue to cook and Bakugo silently sits there trying to think of what to say, he blurts out. 

“So, who’s the father?”

You turn around from the stove and stare at him blankly for a second processing what he asked, then you see how serious his face is. You burst out laughing- “BAHAHAHA, WAIT,” you say wiping a tear forming in your eye from laughter. Bakugo glares at you to stop laughing. After you take a second to compose yourself you answer, “Bakugo, meet my sister, y/s/n.” You say as y/s/n goes up to Bakugo and hugs him. He has a horrified look on his face realizing what he just asked you. 

He tries to jump away and get her off unsuccessfully. He accepts his fate and allows her to hug his leg. 

The next few hours went by awkwardly, you served lunch and while your sister was busy eating you spent your time working on the project, allowing Bakugo to have a break and eat too. But as soon as your sister was done you were up and taking care of her again. 

Hours go by and you realize you have to figure out dinner. 

“Fuck” You whisper so your sister can’t hear. “What do you want for dinner Bakugo?” You ask from your sister’s makeshift playroom in the living room. 

“I don’t know, don’t care.”

You look at him exasperated as you sigh and ask your sister.

“PIZZA!!!” Your sister says excitedly. You pick her up and gently whisper how you can’t afford to order pizza right now, and how you can make her something at home. She begins to sulk and goes back to her toys. You get up walk to the table and look at Bakugo to ask again. 

“Wha-” You begin.

“I already ordered it.” He says not looking up from his notes.

“What?” You ask baffled.

“The pizza, I already ordered it.”

“Oh, you didn’t have to do that, seriously.” 

“It's fine. She said she wanted pizza.”

“Okay, how much was it so I can pay you back.” You ask getting your wallet out.

“No.” He says not sparing you a look.

“What?” You ask again. 

“I said no. Don’t worry about it.” 

“Oh, okay, well thank you.”

Once the pizza arrives you all sit down to eat, but once again you don’t eat so you can work on the project. As you sit at your laptop across from Bakugo eating his pizza, your laptop suddenly shuts. 

“Wha- What the fuck man?!” You half-yell at Bakugo. 

“You haven’t eaten all day, so eat the pizza and then I’ll watch your sister so you can work.” 

“But-”

“No. I said what I said.” He stares at you, silently telling you that you won’t win any argument with him. 

He kept true to his word, he took care of your sister while you worked efficiently on your project. Around 11:30 you come back to reality and close your laptop, realizing that you should have put your sister to bed long ago. You walk into the living room to see Bakugo and y/s/n on the couch watching her favorite movie, Totoro. Y/s/n being asleep on Bakugo you decide to sit on the other side of him and continue the movie. 

“Everything is done, we just need to make the slides and practice.” You whisper. 

“Alright cool, that should be easy.” He says continuing to watch the movie. 

You look over and admire how calm he is. His arm wrapped around your sister, her head in his lap fast asleep. You had to admit, he was great with kids. While you were working he was playing dress up with her, you managed to snap a few photos of him with a tiara on before he noticed. He was so sweet and gentle with her all day, the opposite of his regular personality. He didn't call her a brat even once, not even one time?!?

He notices you staring and looks over, “What?” He says annoyed. 

“Nothing,” You say silent for a few seconds, “Just- thank you for today.” 

He lets out a scoff, showing you he was listening.

“Is this where you disappear every night?” He asks.

“What? Oh. no, I actually do train every night since I’m here on the weekends. I usually get up at 4:30 and either stay here or go back at 2 am.” You answer. 

“You do this only on two and a half hours of sleep?” He asks with confusion and shock hinting in his voice. 

“Yeah, I don’t have much of a choice. No one else can watch her.” 

The conversation fades as you both focus back on the movie. Eventually leading to you falling asleep on him as well. 

Bakugo sits there on your couch, with your sister asleep in his lap and you asleep on his shoulder. He quietly watches the movie until your mom returns from work. She opens the door and hears the T.V. on, so she goes to the living room to check and she sees all of you there. Bakugo’s head swings at the noise and sees her. 

“Oh my, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to startle you. I didn’t know y/n had her boyfriend over!” She says quietly moving to sit on the adjacent couch. 

“Oh- um, I’m not-” He starts.

“Here let me move her to bed, they both sleep like rocks don’t worry.” She says with a wink, picking up your sister and taking her to her bed. She returns to see Bakugo hasn’t moved with you still asleep on him. 

“How long have you been here? I’m so sorry for any trouble they’ve caused.” Your mom laughs.

“I got here around noon. Me and y/n were supposed to work on a school project but she forgot so I came over to work on it.” He starts

“Oh! I’m so sorry about that dear.” 

“It's okay.”

“So how long have you two been together?” She asks excitedly. 

“We aren’t dating,” Bakugo says quietly still trying to not wake you up. 

“Really? Huh, I swear I’ve heard y/n talk about you before.” A light shade of pink finds its way to Bakugo’s cheeks.

“Well, thank you for helping take care of my girls, I really appreciate it. You should stay here tonight, it's too late for you to go back to school. Y/n’s room is there and there are blankets in the closet.” Your mom says getting up to go to bed. “And thank you again Katsuki Bakugo.” She finally says before disappearing into her room. 

Bakugo tightens up at the sound of his full name, knowing well that means y/n has talked about him enough for her mom to know who he is. 

He decides to stay on the couch, not wanting to disturb your peace. He pulls a blanket on the both of you and shuts his eyes. He thinks about all the times he couldn’t spot you at parties or hangouts. Or how you would vanish off the face of the earth on weekends. It all made sense now, you were working yourself to the bone to take care of your family. 

Bakugo always had a soft spot for you, which is why everyone would always make you ask him to hang out with them, even if you weren’t going to be there. He never knew why he was murder-y with you but it scared him so he pushed you away even more. Hence you trying to be friends with him but ‘failing’. 

But now he’s here, lying on your couch with you on top of him asleep, coming to the realization that maybe his soft spot for you isn’t all that bad. 

[heartandfangs]

NOT IF IT'S YOU— PART ONE.

GENRE University AU, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Romance, Angst, Smut, Fluff 

PAIRING Nerd!Heeseung x f!Reader

WARNINGS 18+ ONLY MDNI, Jealousy, Cursing, Making out, Arguing, Anxiety, Depression, Flirting, Mentions of food, Brief violence, Brief mention of alcohol, Brief mention of somnophilia, Crying (all sorts), Degradation, Breast worship, Multiple Orgasms, Squirting, Coming untouched, Heavy spit play, Light BDSM, Edging, Spanking, Oral Sex, Unprotected Sex, Cream Pie, Dry humping, Praise kink, First-time blow job, Ball sucking, Fingering, Cum eating, Ear licking, Biting, Public Sex, Light bondage, Dom!Heeseung, Brattysub!FemMC, Sub!Heeseung, Softdom!FemMC, Other OC’s

SUMMARY Befriending a nerd who wants nothing to do with you in a coding class you want absolutely nothing to do with becomes the challenge of the semester— and you’re determined to ace that shit no matter what.  WORD COUNT 29k (Fic Total)

AUTHOR’S NOTE Long time no see— it’s P, the romantic at heart! This one’s for the people who play otome games, whose favorite spot on campus is the library, and who are afraid to be loved but want to love as hard as they possibly can.

Enjoy my contribution to the tropey Uni AU genre! Also wtf thank you for 1k followers (If you’re a minor please unfollow me. Idc if that puts me way back under. If you’re not, thank you, and stay tuned bc I will do something to celebrate… once I get through 6 months worth of notifications rip)

See end of part two for author’s note cont.

Masterlist, Part Two

© 2022, Heart and Fangs. All rights reserved. Do not translate or post anywhere.

“Have you ever gotten the random urge to give someone a blow job?”

You lifted your head from your notes, eyes wide and scrutinizing. Why did your friend have to be so damn loud in the library, of all places?

A scoff barely escaped your mouth before you dived back into your textbook, “There’s not a person with a dick on this university campus that deserves one from me. Why? Have you?”

“All the time, but especially when I’m on my period,” Rin confessed, “Hormones.”

“Oh, I bet.”

I don’t know how Rin finds the time to think about these things… 

Your friend pouted while drumming her pencil against the communal library table as if she could hear your judgemental thoughts. There were more important things for you to worry about, clearly. 

You sighed as you began to pack up your backpack to catch your most dreaded class of the semester, coding. 

It was an elective you immediately regretted taking, but you swore to yourself to see it through to expand your skill set. Unfortunately, it was just a week into the semester, and the horrid feeling that you would fail a class for the first time was way too real.

Rin continued to spew nonsense, “Maybe I should check this dating app—”

You slung your backpack over your shoulder and ruffled Rin’s hair on your way to the elevators, “You are a slut, aren’t you?”

“Please stop acting like you’re not,” Rin rolled her eyes and raised her voice just enough to carry over the bookshelves and be heard by unsuspecting students, “There’s only so many otome games one can play!”

“Shhh!” You hissed at her to shut up, eyes shooting daggers at the snickering girl.

She must’ve been spying on you every time you pulled out your phone to take a break. What did she have against your little games? After your first relationship went up in flames, they were a pretty decent replacement for dating and soon became an addictive hobby. 

They were great time-killers, required minimum commitments, and had a plethora of eye candy to choose from. Even if you did screw up, you just needed to wait a few days to replenish your lives. Plus, they all fit in your pocket…

And they could never break your heart like your ex had. 

‘I’m gonna kill you’, You mouthed at her over your shoulder while slamming your fist against the elevator button. 

Rin tapped her lips with her middle finger and sent you a flying kiss. Deep down, she hoped you’d come across a sweet boy for your own good.

While you stared at the colored lines of code on the monitor in front of you, determined to at least figure out how to embed one damn photo onto your website for tomorrow’s critique, your silent tablemate on your left tapped away at his keyboard with ease.

Everything about the guy screamed overachiever; it was 45 minutes after class had ended, and he was still working away on his project after everyone else had left.

Meanwhile, you were pretending to know what you were doing by typing in some random characters and then immediately deleting them. Being the anxiety-ridden person you were, you managed to work up a nervous sweat, your palms going numb.

Fuck, this is embarrassing. I should just leave and figure it out once I get home.

The student next to you didn’t seem to have any issues, but then again, the course you enrolled in was actually a combined class with different levels, and clearly, this wasn’t his first course in the subject. It was definitely an odd curriculum; you weren’t sure why you hadn’t read the class description more thoroughly. 

“Hi! Mind if I sit here?” You asked the student earlier upon seeing the closest open seat available.

The boy didn’t say hello, he merely spared you a glance, adjusted his glasses, then resumed the staring contest with his computer screen.

“Okay…” You said with a touch of annoyance in your tone. His eyes barely shifted to your face in response, and then he was back to typing.

His standoffish attitude from the moment you walked into the class and took the closest open seat next to him irked you more than it should’ve. 

It wasn’t until you sat down next to him that you were thrown off by how big the guy actually was, but even more so, the faint scent of sweet lavender wafting off of him. You weren't sure whether it was cologne or detergent, just that it somewhat reminded you of your favorite macaron flavor.

How unexpected. Well, that ruins it, you thought. 

Even if the guy smelled pretty damn nice, he was snooty in your book. If he didn’t have such an aloof attitude about him, you might’ve befriended him just to reach out for notes in the class in case you got sick. 

Rin often called you a prideful bitch, and you’d brush off her accusations, but deep down, you knew her words had some weight to them. Prideful was a fair adjective; your strong desire to handle your own business kept others at bay, which was great for someone like you who liked to be left to your own devices.

Though pride paired with stubbornness wasn’t necessarily the most beneficial combination when finding oneself in a pinch…

Nearly two hours of the class begrudgingly swept by, and you were still stuck on the initial steps, your brain utterly confused by the jumble of lines and coding rules you had to adhere to. It was a huge struggle to keep up with the pace the professor taught, let alone ensure the material stuck in your brain. 

It also didn’t help that the boy next to you had the audacity to pull up a window of manga on the side to read while you were struggling your ass off.

You rolled your eyes and scoffed at him.

Now, the class was well over, and you still managed to convince yourself to stay even though the shit your professor covered in lecture went in through one ear and out the other. 

After such a long day of stacked classes, your facade slipped, and you dropped your head into your hands. If you were honest, some of your pride slipped along with it. Since you were so busy, the last meal you had eaten was yesterday’s dinner, and you were starving. There were tons of other class assignments you hadn’t even touched yet. 

You bit your lip and watched the boy out of the corner of your eye, debating for a solid minute if you should ask for help. At this point, you were just wasting precious time that could be spent running to the nearest McDonald's for a burger.

In the name of efficiency, you decided to reach out for help from the person you least wanted to ask— but just this once.

“Hey. Could you show me how to add an image to my site? I can’t figure it out even though I tried to follow the directions….”

First, you saw the boy’s brown eyes widen ever so slightly before he looked over you in consideration. 

If he says no, I guess I’ll go fuck myself. 

“Sure.” 

Oh.

Feeling your heart flood with relief, you replied gratefully, “Thank you.”

You were taken aback when you watched him slide off his chair and drop to his knees by your side. He leaned over the edge of the table to take control of your mouse and keyboard, his attention fixed on the debauched code on your screen.

Really, you two could’ve just switched seats, but you decided to let him do his thing while you tucked your hands under your thighs and watched. Your brain was beyond trying to make sense of what he was inputting into your code.

Funnily enough, the silence between you two was even more awkward than it had been before you spoke to each other. Still, you refrained from distracting him, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. 

After a minute, you decided to check him out instead.

Your eyes shifted between the computer screen and his calm, concentrated features since you hadn’t really gotten a good look at him before.

His black, wispy bangs hung just over his dark eyes, and his circular, silver-rimmed glasses sort of amplified their roundness. They held a touch of naïveté in them– but when you looked at him from the side, they were sharpened due to focus.

Admittedly, he had the softest-looking set of lips, the kind that anyone would easily be jealous of. The slope of his nose was just as cute, to your annoyance.

Your eyes trailed downwards to the pronounced curve of his throat, but just for a moment before returning your attention to the screen of code.

He was attractive in an unexpected sort of way.

It actually was kind of sweet that he’d be willing to kneel on the questionable floor of the computer lab to help you out. You wondered if he was trying to make up for ignoring you at the beginning of class.

“Is this the photo you want to add?” He hovered the mouse over the recent file in your downloads folder.

“Yeah.”

You must’ve really fucked up your code because the slowest five minutes passed before he clicked save on your program, and most of it you spent trying to act like you hadn’t been staring at him every other second.

The boy finally stood up with the slightest groan, and to your dismay, the sound went straight between your thighs.

Woah there.

“Try refreshing that,” He instructed while rubbing at his kneecaps through his jeans.

With the click of a mouse, you refreshed the program to see a jpg of your favorite Shrek meme pop up on your otherwise bare-bones-looking website.

“Wow— it actually works. Thank you,” You were unable to help yourself from beaming up at him, rather impressed at his efficiency.

He merely nodded, averting his eyes.

Was he older than you or younger? Did he work on the weekends? Have a significant other? A myriad of ridiculous questions bombarded your mind.

“What’s your name?” You asked.

That was a good, normal place to start.

“Heeseung,” he stretched his arms over his head and winced at the slightest crick of his shoulder. All your eyes could focus on were the sharp lines of his waist peeking out under the edge of his sweatshirt. 

You introduced yourself as casually as you could, “My name’s ___. This really isn’t my thing, so thank you.”

“Anytime,” He said simply, rubbing at the back of his neck.

In a flash of a second, the shameless part of your mind dared to imagine how that shy expression of his might twist into one of pleasure— how his breathy sighs would fill your ears while he was hunched over, bracing himself on the table. At the same time, you pictured yourself between his long legs, mouthing kisses over his bulge, watching him twitch above you all the while.

‘Who’s the slut now?’ You could already hear Rin’s ridiculous comments; she must’ve poisoned your brain with the thought. 

Feeling yourself starting to go slightly demented from the turn of events, you excused yourself and threw your supplies into your backpack to leave as quickly as you could, entirely oblivious to how Heeseung stared after you on your way out.

Heeseung meant it when he said, ‘anytime.’

From that day on, there wasn’t an instance where he didn’t hesitate to help when you asked him for it. Each day, you grew less and less hesitant to ask him for assistance which was… interesting.

What was even more unbelievable was that he never asked for anything in return, and you were so grateful, so smitten by him. The assignments you received were absolutely distressing, yet Heeseung didn’t appear to resent your requests and was always more than willing to lend you a hand. Based on your life experience, that was far from normal. 

There was a question that you just had to ask a few weeks into the semester when he was helping you work on one of your projects for the nth time.

“Honestly, do you like doing this?” 

Heeseung leaned back in his chair and appeared contemplative while stretching his wrists. “No. Coding is a tedious process, but if you’re referring to helping you,” He looked at you with an earnest gleam in his eyes and gave you a small smile, “Yes, I really like helping you.”

It was the first time you felt your heart skip in a while.

Right then and there, you could’ve dropped to your knees and let him use your mouth however he pleased. Fuck everyone else in the class; you would’ve done it.

On a serious note, it was unfortunate that you had nothing to offer him of value in the class.

Your creative mind worked so differently, and you two didn’t share any other classes you could help him with. So you often tried to make up for it by conversing and attempting to get to know him.

Emphasis on attempt.

The downside to your interactions was that he rarely engaged with you on the occasion, even when you tried to initiate a casual conversation with him.

“What are you always reading during class?” You glanced over at his screen curiously one day.

Heeseung was always quick to minimize the extra window when you caught him. “Nothing much, just manga. Need something?”

“What? I— No, I was just wondering,” You’d quirk a brow at him, and he’d return to his task.

Every time you came into class and took the same seat next to him, you’d greet him, and he’d greet you in return but left it at that. After assisting you with an issue, he’d always quietly turn back to his computer and pick up where he left off. Maybe you’d be able to get in a question or two, but he hardly talked up a storm.

Even when you probed him about his life, Heeseung merely gave short replies or shook off your questions. He was so difficult to get to know and apparently didn’t care to hold a conversation with you outside of coding. Still, you were insistent because you were a relatively private individual yourself. Really, you tried to understand where he was coming from.

“I’m so glad I don’t have classes after this,” a yawn escaped your lips as you covered your mouth with your hand.

Heeseung’s typing never ceased, “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” You stared at his profile, waiting to see if he’d continue the conversation. After a second too long of waiting, you asked, “Do you have any night classes?”

“I don’t. I have work.”

You perked up in your seat. “Oh? Where at?”

“I’m actually about to change jobs, so it really doesn’t matter,” Heeseung responded curtly. 

You sank back into your chair. “Oh. Sorry.”

He turned to look at you as if to say something, an apologetic expression nearly taking hold of his features, but he seemingly held himself back and returned to his work. 

Still, within the coming weeks, you grew curious about his family as well. One day your curiosity was at its peak, and you rattled off questions about any possible siblings he might have. That was less intrusive than asking about a significant other, right?

“So, are you an only child, or do you have any siblings?” You probed during a particularly long day and difficult class session. When one’s brain was already fried, it didn’t hurt to completely give up on figuring something out, especially if you had Heeseung. 

Just for today, you promised yourself as Heeseung was clicking away at your keyboard, helping you out as usual.

“... I have a brother,” Heeseung hesitated, “Stepbrother, actually. He’s a student as well.”

“No way? Same major as you?”

“No…” and he left it at that, making you wonder if they weren’t on the greatest terms... Or if he just didn’t care to share more of his life with you.

Nonetheless, your attempts to converse with him day after day eventually took a toll on you. Clearly, you were bothering him with the questions, but it’s not like you just chose anyone to put effort into getting to know. Why couldn’t he understand that? Most people would’ve loved getting asked about their life and would easily drone on and on about themselves. 

Rin would cackle at you now if she only knew of your circumstances. As if you would ever tell her with the shit way things were going. 

God, I should just stick to my little otome game apps with automated responses.

After several weeks of your relationship with him going nowhere, your savior became the source of your frustration.

Guys never helped you out without an ulterior motive or expecting something in return, so it was almost inconceivable to think someone like Heeseung existed. His caring personality subverted your initial expectations of him, and you knew his selfless actions came from a sincere place, but still…

This had grown beyond needing his help in class. All you wanted to do was get to know Heeseung because you had taken a genuine interest in him.

Was that asking for a lot?

The day you walked into class and plopped into your seat without saying hello to him, Heeseung knew something was up. The boy had gotten much too used to your greetings every day.

Barely able to contain your irritation with him, you stared straight ahead at your screen and got to work, despite feeling his eyes on you. 

Beside you, Heeseung was desperately trying to read your stoic expression. He’d glance at you meekly, and look back at his computer for a few seconds, only to peer over at you again. 

This cycle went on for the next few minutes until you heard him greet you first, for once.

“Hey, ___–”

“Hey,” You barely spared him a look and settled back into your workflow just as swiftly.

Stumped by your odd behavior, Heeseung drew his hands into his lap and fell quiet once more.

Just when you thought he’d leave you be, Heeseung pulled up to your side in his rolling chair, that signature lavender scent of his invading your senses. His knee bumped into yours but stayed there.

“Do you need my help with anything?”

“No, thank you,” you replied coldly.

You saw him wilt out of the corner of your eye, and something vengeful in you felt good about making him feel the way you’ve felt for the past months. The other part of you just felt plain guilty.

Feeling suffocated, you abruptly left the class to get some fresh air. You were hoping the open-air foyer filled with wooden benches would grant you a moment of reprieve.

Choosing the farthest bench from the entrance, you sat down and propped up your legs, pulling your knees close to your chin. The evening breeze swept across your flushed cheeks, and you were mortified to realize tears were threatening to spill down them.

It was childish of you to reject Heeseung’s attention once you finally got it, but… you couldn’t help it. You knew the attention wasn’t due to any sort of genuine feelings toward you; it was merely your petty behavior that provoked him.

Was this how it felt to be rejected while trying so hard to befriend someone? Is this how people felt when you made them jump through a hundred hoops to get to know you? 

You thought back to when you took the chance to let someone in for the first and last time. Had you just been too much? Or maybe not worth the trouble?

If that were true… maybe that was the reason your first love had cheated on you. 

Old feelings bubbled up in your chest, and suddenly everything really felt like shit. 

To make things worse, you were sulking. Even though Heeseung could tell something was up and was trying to diagnose the situation, he still infuriated you. If anyone had to deal with an aloof individual for as long as you did, you were sure they’d go crazy too.

Especially if they were as cute as Heeseung was.

Fuck. 

There was no way you were about to cry in public over a boy, the most angelic, frustrating boy you’ve ever met. 

Not everybody reciprocated people’s feelings equally, and it was simply life to deal with it. Still…

Once you buried your face into your arms, you released your pent-up emotions with a shaky breath, letting the hot tears fall and soak into your jeans. You decided to stay there for a while, long enough until you knew everyone in class would be gone, so you could rest assured no one would see your pathetic tear-stained face.

It was a good half hour after class ended before you made your way back to collect your belongings and catch the bus to head home. Somehow, you cried for the majority of it as quietly as you could.

It actually helped a bit, as it had back then. 

When you pulled open the door, you froze like a deer in headlights.

Heeseung stared up at you with wide eyes from where he was sitting; he was the only one left in the class, which you hadn’t counted on.

He wasn’t waiting for you, was he?

“Um…” You trailed off and slowly turned to leave again, but he was already out of his seat, making his way toward you.

Jesus—

You were hardly ever standing next to each other, so facing him head-on at his tall stature was intimidating, even with his cardigan and those nerdy glasses of his. Perhaps it also had to do with the unfamiliar look in his eyes and the intense concern in them.

“Are you okay?” He reached out to touch your arm, but you stepped back and caught him by the shoulders, holding him back at arm's length.

Unable to look at him directly, you stared down at your shoes next to his, eyes stinging again as if you didn’t just spend half an hour crying.

Just seeing his face and hearing his voice brought on a flood of confusing emotions.

“Yeah? I-I’m fine,” You insisted.

Even though Heeseung couldn’t see your face, he saw your tears fall onto your sneakers and felt your grip curl into his shoulders.

“___, if it’s something I said or did…” Heeseung’s voice went soft, and you nearly jumped when you felt his hands slide over yours, his thumbs stroking comfortingly over your skin, “You can tell me.”

His mere touch slowly brought your anxiety down, one stroke of his thumb after the other— at the same time, it sent shivers along your skin. 

It’s what you didn’t say or do.

Fear threatened to cut your voice off completely. You took several deep breaths, trying to sort out your thoughts so that you could properly convey how you were feeling. 

Here was your chance to be honest with him from the get-go. It was scary, but you needed to try.

“I consider you as someone who I’m really grateful for, Heeseung. Especially after how much of your time you’ve given me this semester,” You sighed, glancing up at him even though your vision was blurry, “You’re a really talented guy. It’s just impossible to get to know you because you like to keep to yourself. I think I understand why you do. Even I don’t like letting other people in all the time...”

Something seemed to click in his mind at your words; you saw his lips part ever so slightly in realization, his eyes widening a fraction.

“... But it’s still hard to be on the receiving end of that. However, if that’s where you want me,” You pulled your hands out of his, letting them drop to your side, “Then there’s not much I can do about that.”

Quietly, you brushed past him and packed your backpack in a hurry to leave.

Heeseung fell silent behind you, and when you left him, you kept your eyes trained on the floor.

The next day, you remained in a foul mood as you chose to sit on the opposite side of your table to avoid the tension of being next to Heeseung for two hours straight. As you expected, the student who usually sat there confronted you about it.

“Hey, this is my seat. I’ve been sitting here all semester.”

You didn’t care to grant her your full attention and continued typing, “I don’t see your name on it.”

It was definitely a shitty thing to say, but you couldn’t bring yourself to give a damn at that moment. 

She was stunned into silence and subsequently stomped over to the next row to take her seat next to Heeseung. There was no doubt that he overheard your confrontation. 

Class sped by while you were laser-focused on completing everything you needed to get done for that period— without Heeseung’s help. At least one good thing came out of taking notes and watching Heeseung work these past several weeks; your evolving skill set. You were far from excellent, but you had gotten at least a bit better with the basics. 

This time, you didn’t plan on sticking around after class.

It seemed like Heeseung was prepared for you not to because the moment you stood up and bolted to the door, he was already out of his seat, hot on your trail.

Heeseung called out your name.

You ignored him, even as he easily caught up with your pace. His silence yesterday already confirmed all you needed to know about how he felt about you. 

He caught your elbow, and you stopped to look him dead in the eye. “What do you think you’re doing? Let go.”

Heeseung immediately released you, “Sorry, I just wanted to talk—“

A menacing force slammed into your back, propelling you straight into Heeseung’s chest. Someone halfway down the hall called out a sarcastic apology, but it barely registered— you were startled by how Heeseung steadied you against his hard body.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” You scowled, already shaking his hands off despite your body aching at the feeling of him so near, “What did you want now?”

Heeseung‘s eyes wavered, but he managed to hold your scrutinizing gaze. 

“Do you want to grab dinner?”

He really felt the pressure of an impending ‘no’ when all you did was stare at him.

You frowned, “What?”

Heeseung gulped but continued, “You don’t have any other classes for the day, right? There’s a really good Thai place just on the edge of campus, and their Pad Thai is the best— at least within a 20-mile radius.”

Was he doing this all of a sudden because he pitied you?

“You don’t need to do this.”

Heeseung looked like he was on the verge of panicking, but just as quickly, a sense of determination overcame him. 

He took a step forward, “But what if I want to?”

You looked off to the side, “I’m confused. Why all of a sudden?”

“I know it’s like I’m doing this out of the blue,” He sounded in a rush due to nerves, so he slowed down his speech, “I’m not good with words, and it’s true that I’m easily distracted by my classes. But I do care about you, ___.”

Your chest throbbed as he peered down at you from under his lashes with furrowed brows, “I know I’m usually pretty distant, and I can’t make up for everything in a night, but I really would like to talk with you over dinner… only if you want to join me.”

Heeseung’s expression appeared so hopeful, and his gaze held an amount of tenderness that had you shifting your weight under the unusual attention you were receiving. 

What was that look he was giving you?

He felt you brush by him, and he hung his head. 

Heeseung felt his stomach twist with guilt, he knew you wouldn’t give him a chance after how he’d been treating you—

“… Fine.”

Heeseung straightened up with wide eyes and turned to face you as you set off in the completely wrong direction. 

“It’s this way,” He eagerly called after you.

You came to a quick halt, then turned back around, crossing your arms, “Lead the way then.”

He smiled to himself when he heard the unmistakable sound of your stomach grumbling ever so faintly.

 

Walking across campus with Heeseung was convenient because the majority of people made plenty of room for the two of you, all thanks to the giant by your side. Usually, they’d have no issue bumping shoulders with you or overlooking you. 

Must be nice to be able to part seas of people, you thought enviously. 

Heeseung remained quiet for the majority of the walk except for mentioning a direction here and there. All the while, you were trying to anticipate what Heeseung might have to say to you once you got to the restaurant. 

The sky grew to be a deep orange by the time you entered the quaint Thai restaurant at the front of the campus. A simple aqua blue neon sign that read 01 Thai shone across asphalt above an old, cream colored building. While you considered their signature menu options, you turned Heeseung’s words over in your head.

“I do care about you, ___.”

Do you really?

“And what would you like to order?” The cashier asked you.

“Oh. I guess I’ll try the Pad Thai.”

“Anything to drink?”

“Just water, please,” You absentmindedly dug in your pocket to hand over your card, but Heeseung was already handing over his. 

Your brows drew together as you quietly glanced up at him, not wanting to make a scene.

He gave you a nervous smile, “My treat.”

You looked over your shoulder for seating, “I’ll Venmo you later.”

“No need,” He shook his head, guiding you to a corner table. 

“I will.”

Even from across the small wooden table, Heeseung sensed your lingering discomfort, understandably. He looked like he wanted to say something, but so did you, so he waited.

After a contemplative moment, you met his eyes and folded your hands on the table. “Heeseung, don’t tell me you're doing all this just because you feel bad.”

“No— I mean, in a way, yes. I know how I can be, and I’m sorry that you had to deal with that. I never meant to hurt you the way I did.”

I really did emotionally throw up on him yesterday, and his silence didn’t make it any better. Even now, I still feel high-strung about the whole ordeal, but he seems sorry about it…

“Listen, I get that you feel guilty, but if you really do just want to be friends, there’s no need for anything crazy. Just talking would be nice to start.”

“Right...” He stared right at you. 

Your brows knit together once more at the uncertainty in his voice.

“Right,” Heeseung repeated, almost to himself, “That’s doable. Although guilt plays a significant part in driving me to do what I’m doing… Please know it’s not my only motivator.”

Heeseung startled you when he reached out to take one of your hands in his. You still looked utterly confused, so he exhaled softly before squeezing your hand and running the pad of his thumb along your knuckles, just like he did back in class. 

Goosebumps immediately broke out on your skin from the heat of his touch.

Oh.

Behind his glasses, his eyes were intent; you had his full attention. “I’ve been really out of touch with people these days, and I regret it. However, I had some personal things I was working through. It’s not an excuse, but I do care about you, ___. I hope you can eventually find a way to forgive me.”

At his sudden admittance, your heart rate began to pick up. Immediately you hated how vulnerable his words made you feel, but that also meant that they were real. His forwardness rendered you genuinely speechless; even your mind drew a blank. 

It seemed like he could sense it.

“I-I see,” You stared at your daintier hand in his own, then looked back up at Heeseung’s keen gaze. 

His brows drew together, and his lips curled upwards ever so slightly, “Am I making you nervous?” He sounded like he was making a discovery. 

Heat immediately flooded your face once more, and you took your hand back out of embarrassment. 

He gnawed on his lip, his eyelids lowering a fraction, “Sorry.”

A waitress pulled up to your table with a tray of steaming bowls, and Heeseung thanked the waitress as she left while you reached for a pair of chopsticks.

“What kind of question is that?” You mumbled while you picked at your noodles. Your brain was failing to make sense of Heeseung’s feelings towards you.

He didn’t let up.

“You make me really nervous, ___,” Heeseung dared to reveal in a low voice. 

As he expected, his declaration drew your attention back to him. Your eyes narrowed at Heeseung, who wore a small yet knowing smile, clearly trying to get a rise out of you. 

Is this really the same guy who chased me down to grab dinner with him?

Little did you know the boy sitting across from you was attuned to your every movement— from the quickened pace of your breath to the twitch of your leg when his knee brushed against yours underneath the table.

Naturally, he would be after spending so much time at your side for the past couple of months, taking note of your little habits and mannerisms. 

He also knew you’d be skeptical for a while after this, that it would take time to prove his sincerity once more. Heeseung was willing to overcome that by any means.

When Heeseung realized he had stunned you into silence, he finally looked down at his own plate. “I’m sorry, I’ll stop teasing. Let’s eat before it gets cold.”

“Agreed,” You were grateful for the change of subject because you just barely survived his sudden undivided attention. Also, you were beyond famished.

All the while, your mouth was watering at the sight of the food, so you took a bite of the Pad Thai and savored the flavorful spices on your tongue. It was pretty damn good, Heeseung had taste. One bite of noodles, and suddenly, you felt as though you were gaining back your senses. 

He’s kind of flirty, isn’t he?

After several more bites and a nice gulp of cold water, you felt ready to hold a proper conversation.

“Don’t bullshit me anymore, Heeseung,” You commented, propping your chin up on your palm.

He chuckled softly, and you squinted his way.

“I’ll try my best, ___.”

Over dinner, Heeseung allowed you to delve into his mind, which was certainly a treat. 

Not without difficulty, of course. 

His answers remained vague unless you pressed further; it was like pulling teeth, but you could tell he was trying. With enough persistence, he divulged you.

“Do you just really like to keep a low profile?” You asked, referencing his deflection of your attempts at conversing with him during class, “I mean, I figured you just found me annoying.”

Heeseung slowly began, “I wasn’t in the best headspace this semester. Things at my old job weren’t going well at all, and those issues combined with the stress of my classes resulted in me feeling very closed off from my surroundings.”

You scratched your cheek. “I see. How does that usually affect you?”

“I tend to isolate myself under pressure, and it becomes difficult for me to connect with… well, those around me,” Heeseung explained, running his fingers back and forth over the grain of the tabletop. 

“Hm, that’s tough. Honestly, you always seem like you have your shit together.”

Heeseung shook his head, “It’s… a facade of sorts.”

“Well, a lot of people have one,” Your eyes wandered down to your plate, it had been scraped clean for a while. 

The shop was empty save for you two, it must’ve been growing closer to closing time, what with the moonlight shining through the windows. 

“Yeah? What’s yours?”

Ah, now it’s his turn to take a shot at me.

Being vulnerable was difficult, especially with all of Heeseung’s attention on you. Silence fell over you two, but he waited, even when it felt like you weren’t going to speak. 

“Probably enjoying being alone. Not that I don’t, but it depends on how I’m feeling that day. I see independence and loneliness as two sides of the same coin.”

It was the truth, to an extent. You enjoyed the benefits of being independent, but there was a fine line between that and being lonely. 

“It’s a normal human thing to go through,” You shrugged.

It’s how I’ve always been, and it usually keeps me safe. But I can’t believe I just admitted that to another person, let alone Heeseung. Though that’s the whole point of this conversation, isn’t it?

“Um, anyways…“

“I’m sorry if I ever made you feel lonely.”

Your eyes flitted to Heeseung’s expression; he seemed cautious yet sincere.

“Don’t be. It’s not your responsibility to make me feel otherwise.”

It was a difficult realization to come to, and as such, you gave a detached response. In due time you’d have to see if he meant everything that he said.

With an inward sigh, you felt disappointment replace the anger that had been slowly filtering out of your system for the past hour. Heeseung was willing to try to be friends, which was more than you could’ve asked for, so deep down, you fought your desire for him. You were being given the chance to take things day by day and come to terms with the reality of your situation. 

“Besides, being lonely is a good skill to have. It’s weird to say out loud, but I really think it is,” You stated, glancing out the window into the dimly lit streets, “It’s useful and easier than most people think.”

When Heeseung said nothing in response, you turned to look at him once more, wanting to hear his voice. 

Something from him, anything.

Instead, you met those dark brown eyes behind his glasses; they contained a mix of something you couldn’t place and a tinge of sadness, but most surprisingly– knowing.

You fidgeted with the hairband on your wrist. “What? What’s wrong?”

Heeseung spoke, “Nothing… What do you mean?” 

His question seemed hollow as if he feigned confusion; his eyes told you everything yet nothing, all at once– like he could see right through you. 

You shook your head, voice coming out as a whisper, “I don’t know… You’re making me nervous again.”

“Sorry,” Heeseung blinked and shifted his eyes elsewhere, and suddenly you felt like you could breathe, but just barely. 

He distractedly removed his glasses to pinch at his nose bridge, and that’s when your breath caught in your chest. 

A slight smile tugged at your lips, “Hey, you look different without your glasses.” You were apt to change the subject.

“Oh, really?” Heeseung moved to adjust them back in place quickly.

“Wait,” you leaned over the table and placed your hand on his to stop him, wanting a better look, “You look really handsome. Not that you don’t with them on, but….”

Heeseung noted how intrigued you looked, the fascination brightening your features. It was certainly a contrast to the way you regarded him just a moment before. “I’ve worn glasses my whole life. I don’t look odd without them?”

“No, but I think you’re cute either way—“ You curiously brushed a strand of hair out of his eyes, and his brows rose in surprise. 

Upon realizing what you had done, you promptly sat back in your seat and stuffed your hands in your pockets. 

“I— You just look different,” You tried to cover up your embarrassment with a smile. 

You hadn’t intended on getting touchy, but you just couldn't help it. Then again, he comfortably initiated way more physical contact with you today than he had all semester. 

Heeseung quietly glanced off to the side, and then his eyes were back on you without a moment’s notice, observing.

Ah, there’s that churning sensation in my stomach again.

Even though you could see his eyes clear as day, you couldn’t read him as easily this time.  

“Thanks,” His eyes flitted away as he fixed his glasses back in place.  

Uh-oh. Did I mess up? Did I turn him off by touching his hair? Or with my comments on his appearance?

“We better go, I think they’re closing,” You rubbed your cheek while throwing your backpack over your shoulder, “Thank you for dinner.”

“Sure. Thanks for hearing me out… and for sharing,” Heeseung led you to the door and held it open for you.

His voice sounded odd, almost tight. 

“Yeah...”

It had been a rollercoaster of a day so far; you weren’t sure what kind of note you were going to end it on. 

The brisk night air hit your skin and made you shudder. You turned towards the bus stop across the street, anticipating an arrival soon, “I’m headed over here. I guess I’ll see you in class?” 

When you glanced back over your shoulder, Heeseung was looking after you in such a way that caused you to freeze. His demeanor had shifted from the start of dinner to now like there was a barely tamed intensity about him. He felt unpredictable— he even seemed on edge. 

What was going on? Maybe you really stepped on his toes earlier with your comment about his glasses. It certainly wasn’t your intention; you meant it as a compliment. 

He could’ve been self-conscious about it, you idiot!

Heeseung gave you a curt nod, “Get home safely, okay?” 

You frowned. 

“Okay…” You paused before giving him a quick hug. 

Next to free food and a bit of communication, hugs diffused most escalating situations, right?

But even to you, it felt like a blur; you barely gave him enough time to return it, and then you were slipping out of his grasp just as quickly as you had drawn close. 

“Bye,” You whispered. 

Taken aback, Heeseung dropped his arms to his sides as he watched you jog across the street to board the bus that arrived a moment before and nearly took off without you. 

He inhaled deeply.

Now, his whole body ached. 

Oh, he hated you even more for that.

The cold suddenly seeped into his skin. It hadn’t affected him until you left his side. 

Your bus took off just as his phone faintly vibrated in his pocket. He lost count of how many times it had gone off during his dinner with you, but he hardly paid it any attention. He ignored it for the past two months but couldn’t bring himself to block the number. 

Finally, he decided to answer it. 

“Heeseung! Do you know how many times I’ve called you today? And the day before? Over the past eight fucking weeks? We were supposed to meet–”

“I was at dinner—” Heeseung immediately kicked himself for even sparing an excuse. There was no need to anymore. “Please stop calling me.”

His thumb hovered over the button to hang up and block her number; he should’ve done it earlier. 

“Don’t do this to me, love.”

Anger slithered up his veins, “How else do you expect me to act after all that you’ve done?”

“What you saw wasn’t what it looked like—“

Beep—

That’s what she’d said in the hundreds of voicemails she left, or so he guessed. Listening to one was sufficient. 

From that day on, Heeseung dialed back on the forwardness he displayed in terms of physical contact with you, and you couldn’t figure out why for the life of you. However, your conversations in class were plentiful and on friendlier terms, save for the interesting underlying tension that persisted through his frequent teasing comments and lasting stares. 

That’s not to say there was a complete absence of flirtatious touching, he simply wasn’t as outright with it. But you noted each subtle instance with amusement whether it was a tap on the shoulder, a bump to the knee or an accidental brush of hands when he’d reach for your mouse. 

He seemed somewhat back to normal compared to how you left him that one night, but something definitely changed between you two. 

On the other hand, you soon discovered the breadth of his sense of humor. The off-handed, dry comments he’d whisper about some odd gesture or explanation the professor would make had you snorting in your seat— turns out you weren’t the only one who occasionally got annoyed with the way your professor taught. 

Even so, together, you both managed.

Thai food after class became a routine for you both, a couple of times a week. Ever since Heeseung made an effort to open up, sometimes you’d talk up until the last bus was available for you to catch if he didn’t have work, and other times, you’d work on assignments together.

For every question you asked him, it tickled you that he had one for you of equal measure. These brief moments with Heeseung stood out from your otherwise mundane campus life. Unfortunately, things didn’t always go according to plan.  

One evening, a meeting with your advisor concerning your schedule for next semester ran over time significantly and you were 30 minutes late to your dinner at 01 Thai with Heeseung. 

The frigid air lashed across your face the moment you stepped outside the administration building causing you to wince. It was an evening filled with storm clouds, and the sun had long set; it was starting to get darker earlier in the day. You reached into your pocket to update Heeseung on your whereabouts but let out a frustrated grunt when you realized your phone had died on you. 

Fuck. 

The restaurant was on the complete other side of campus so you decided to cut through a back way that was a bit more obscure but quicker than usual. The first droplets of rain hit your skin before it turned into an outright downpour by the time you were half way across campus. 

Just my luck. 

There weren’t a whole lot of shaded areas along the buildings in the back route you took so you braced yourself through the chill until the droplets began to feel like ice pellets. It was too much so you chose to take shelter when you came upon the first shaded area that came into view near the back exit of a building. 

Something on the floor caught your eye as you quickly approached. A dog with soaked fur was curled up on its stomach and appeared to be breathing irregularly. On instinct, you kneeled down to run your hand over its fur, and it let out a thin whine. 

“Oh, you poor thing. Where’s your owner?”

You felt along its furry chin for a tag and found purchase in a sleek, black collar. However, there was no tag with an owner's contact to be found.

Maybe it’s a high-tech tracking collar? 

With your back against the wall, you slid down to sit for a moment, enduring the mist that the wind blew against you both, cradling the dog close. “I don’t think the rain will let up any time soon… You don’t wanna come with? You just wanna stay here and wait for your owner, huh?”

The dog merely blinked up at you. 

“Alright, then you need this more than I do. Hopefully they’re just around the corner…”

You shrugged off your jacket and used it to dry off the pup a bit before swaddling it in the fabric. After you finished and went to scratch its chin, it licked your palm non-stop.

“You’re welcome,” You stood up with a giggle and readjusted your backpack. Although it was storming, if you let Heeseung wait any longer it would give him the wrong idea. 

You received stares from other students the moment you stepped through the restaurant doors since the single layer of your T-shirt was soaked through. Immediately you crossed your arms over your chest but made a beeline towards Heeseung who sat in the corner. 

He looked you over with concern. 

You couldn’t help but stutter from the cold, “S-sorry. My meeting ran late with my advisor and my phone died—“

“It’s okay, I figured. Weren’t you wearing a jacket in class earlier?”

“I—I may have given it away…”

“To who?”

“To a dog I saw on the way here…?”

You realized how ridiculous it sounded once you said it out loud, but the soft spot you had towards canines made you do silly things from time to time. 

Heeseung raised a brow at that, “Did you just lose it?”

“Sure, I lost it on this awfully cold day, ” You rolled your eyes.

Heeseung shook his head with a snort, and tugged his hoodie over his head, “Well, why don’t you change out of that?”

A chill racked through your body but you brushed it off, until you glanced down to see your shirt plastered to your body and around the prominent outline of your black bra. 

“Um….”

“Here,” Heeseung deposited his hoodie into your arms before you could refuse, “I’ll ask them for a plastic bag to hold your clothing. Your food just came out, so go change.”

“Thanks.”

As you ignored the stares from others occupying the restaurant and clicked the restroom door shut, you gave yourself a once over in the mirror.

There really wasn’t a spot on you that wasn’t damp. You stripped out of your top and bra then proceeded to squeeze them out over the sink before tossing them into a plastic bag. You dried down as much as you could with a wad of paper towels then tugged Heeseung’s hoodie over your head. 

Immediately, you were enveloped by his scent; a light sweetness with new undertones of soft musk you hadn’t detected before. The fabric was still warm against your skin with his body heat which made you feel odd. 

You slowly tugged the collar up to your nose then dropped the fabric abruptly. 

Let’s not make this weird. It certainly beats being cold and wet. 

Heeseung eyed you once you remerged. “I ate already and was about to go looking for you to drop off your food.”

You plopped down across from him. “Yeah, sorry. Do you have to go soon?”

He glanced at his phone screen. “In about 10 minutes, for work. I’ll hang out for a while, though.”

“You don’t wanna work on an assignment while I eat?”

Heeseung pressed his cheek against his palm and leaned onto his elbow, his languid eyes on you, “Mm-mm.”

You stared at him before proceeding to shovel the tasty noodles into your mouth, “Okay.”

Heeseung chuckled, “How’d your meeting go?”

“Fine, I guess. My advisor thought he screwed up and almost made me think I had to take an extra two classes, but we straightened that out. I’m on track, and I’ll have a decent load to finish off next semester since it’s my last.”

Heeseung looked like he was in thought as you shared your schedule with him.

“None of those classes ring a bell.”

That fact bummed you out, more than you’d ever show. “Oh, really? What’s your semester looking like next year?”

“Hm, since it’s my last semester too, I’m thinking of going for an internship, it’s about time.”

You dabbed at your lips with a napkin, “That’s actually really good. I need to do that…”

“It’ll help when you apply for jobs, for sure.”

The impending doom of your future weighed heavily on your shoulders, and Heeseung seemed to notice you suddenly felt burdened. 

“So, you like dogs?”

You glanced up mid-chew, “I do!”

“Did you really give a dog your jacket?” Heeseung squinted. 

“Would you believe me if I said yes?”

“Maybe the second time around,” He was amused at how you pouted, “What breeds do you like?”

“I like all breeds. The funniest dogs are ones that are like humans. During last thanksgiving there was this one dog at my aunt’s that wouldn’t let me pet him at first. So, I let him be and sat in the living room alone, but every so often he would saunter in and get closer to me every time,” You laughed at the memory, “Then eventually he got so close, I just stuck my hand out and he pressed up against me for pets. Finicky but adorable…”

Heeseung cleared his throat, and wore a sheepish expression, “Sounds like it… You don’t own any dogs?”

“Not yet. I’m saving up and waiting ‘till I’m done with school. I want to be able to give it the attention it deserves.”

“I think that’s smart.”

You sighed, “Yeah… I wish I had one.”

As you finished your food, Heeseung finally said what was truly on his mind. 

“You should be more careful about walking around campus without a working phone. It gets dark faster these days,” He began. 

His scolding caught you off guard. 

“I am cautious, I’m not dumb,” You interrupted, “And I didn’t mean to. I would’ve charged it in the library or something but I didn’t want to keep you waiting—“

“It would’ve been fine if you left me waiting a little longer to do that. It’s such a big campus where anything could happen when you least expect it, so you should always have your phone on,” Heeseung motioned for you to hand over your phone, “And I know you know that.”

You pouted but dropped it into his hand, and he connected it to a portable charger he took out of his backpack, “Alright, mother.”

Heeseung sighed but gave you a small smile anyways. 

“Are you still at your old job or did you start your new one already?” You asked since Heeseung felt at liberty to say what he wanted. 

Heeseung’s eyes turned troubled. “Still there. Just for a little while longer.”

You pressed, “Where do you work?”

Heeseung’s lips parted to answer but he seemed to think better of it. 

“It’s not the greatest place,” Heeseung checked his phone and stood up, “Sorry, I’ve gotta go. See you.”

You bit your tongue. “Won’t you get all wet if you’re walking to work?”

“Uber,” was all he said with a tight smile, “Don’t worry about it. Get home safe.”

Heeseung left you his charger as he stepped outside into the rain, the deep slope of his shoulders inciting a sense of regret in you. Perhaps you shouldn’t have pushed him on the topic when it was clearly sensitive for him. He didn’t deserve your snappy attitude after he expressed his worry for you either… but you knew he wouldn’t hold you to it because that’s the kind of person he was. 

When you weren’t grabbing dinner with Heeseung, there were evenings when you would pour over your studies and meet Rin in the library, like you always had. 

“So, how are your otome games going? On to the next one?” She questioned. 

Oh shit. You’ve been neglecting your pixel husbands basically since the start of the semester—

“I actually haven’t touched any games in a while.”

“Really now?” Rin seemed unsurprised at such a revelation as she continued, “How about that coding class? These days you seem less stressed about it….”

“Yeah, I finally picked up a thing or two. There’s actually this guy who’s been—“

Rin jumped out of her seat and pointed at you accusingly, the screech of her chair drawing annoyed looks from other students. 

“I’ve been fucking waiting for you to bring him up!”

Your eyes widened, “Wait, how do you—”

“Shhhh!” Someone hushed. 

You both put your heads together and dropped your voices to a whisper. 

“How do you know Heeseung?”

Rin explained everything in detail, perhaps too much detail. Figuring out Heeseung consulted her the day you cried in front of him made your face burn. 

Apparently, he hung out enough in the library to recognize Rin as your friend, although you certainly had never seen him while studying. 

“Truthfully, at first, I was mad at the guy for upsetting you; the dude was too honest for his own good and actually told me he was in deep shit with you. I nearly caused a scene in here, but he seemed really apologetic and genuine about wanting to make things right with you. 

So, I told him food was the way to your heart, but I warned him you’d be a little stuck up about paying for yourself. Seriously, you have the weirdest eating schedule just to achieve ‘optimal efficiency’ and avoid ‘brain fog’ or whatever,” Rin grinned. 

Well, she wasn’t wrong. Free food definitely helped on top of everything else Heeseung managed to pull off since then.  

“I appreciate that, but I can’t believe you knew about everything the entire time,” You felt a tad guilty for not looping her in on the situation, having thought she would’ve teased you about it, “And that he actually went out of his way to ask you about me….”

You couldn’t help but look at him a little differently now. He was serious. 

“Well, I only knew what happened up until that day, but you seemed better these past several weeks, so it looks like my advice worked.”

You slid further into your seat and stared up at the ceiling, “Yeah, I suppose it did.”

“I didn’t want to ruin anything, so I stayed quiet. He’s very cute,” She grinned at you.

You paused, “We’re just friends.”

“What? All that drama for a friendship?”

“Hm…”

Rin rose an impeccably plucked brow at you. 

“Yes,” You sighed, patting her head. 

Your friend pouted, “I would’ve guessed otherwise, girl. There’s still time, though.”

Was there?

Soon enough, another month had flown by— finals were around the corner, and both you and Heeseung were typing up code for your class project when you ran into your first distressing issue in a while. 

You called to him without taking your eyes off the screen, “Hey, something’s off, and I can’t figure out what. I swear if it’s just an extra period somewhere, I’m gonna—“

Heeseung was at your side in a heartbeat, “Let me see.”

You scooted your chair over to make room for his, but he got comfortable on the floor. “Stop kneeling. You know you’re gonna permanently fuck up your kneecaps, right?”

“I’m used to it,” He said simply before he froze up as if he had said something wrong. 

Assuming that he was poking at you, you scoffed, “I don’t ask you for help that often anymore, Hee.”

Heeseung cleared his throat and got to work on your code, “No, I know.”

While you waited for him to finish diagnosing the issue, you secretly inhaled his familiar, comforting scent of sweet lavender out of habit.

You saw him smirk out of the corner of your eye. 

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously, what?”

He shrugged, “You’re doing that thing you do every time I get close.”

Fuck. When did he even– Fuck—

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The tapping of keys halted.

A mischievous lilt made its way into his voice as he faced you, “We’re gonna go that route?” 

“Yes. Yes, we are because you are not going to out me here,” You hissed under your breath. 

“Ha, so you admit that you do take a whiff—“

You took hold of his jaw and forced him to face your computer screen, “Focus.”

Heeseung eyes darkened, but he let out a chuckle. 

You were pressing two fingers to your temple and looking anywhere but at him, so you failed to notice. For the moment, you put aside your pride and stayed quiet until he figured out what the hell was wrong with your project. 

God, how embarrassing. 

A few keyboard and mouse clicks later, and Heeseung was settling back into his seat. “It was an extra period on line 976.”

“Of course it was,” You rolled your eyes and heard him laugh even harder. He was quick to figure out how often he could test your patience…

“Why do you always smell like pastries?” Your sudden question came out as an accusation. 

At this point in your friendship, you found yourself blurting out random things that were on your mind when with Heeseung, and he managed to learn how to go with the flow. 

“I bake in my spare time,” He said, clearly amused. 

You gawked at the new discovery, “I—I guess that explains it….”

“I’ve always baked, it’s sort of just a hobby I never thought to share.”

You swore there was always something to learn about the guy, even at the quick rate that you’d gotten to know him.

“Well, what do you do with all the stuff you make? Keep them all for yourself?” You jabbed at Heeseung.

“No, I just…” His voice quietly tapered off, so you were unable to catch his last words.

“You what?”

“I’ll just give it away to the homeless on the street if I deem it edible,” He muttered. 

“Huh,” You turned to Heeseung, “That’s actually really sweet.”

“It’s nothing,” He pressed his lips together and continued, “By the way, I just started my new job, and my shift is in the evening, so… we’re going to have to postpone Thai nights.”

“Oh. You started your new job finally?” Your heart and stomach dropped; you were so looking forward to it before you’d have to really buckle down for finals, “I guess we’ll have to postpone them. The timing, though….”

Postpone them until when? The two of you had completely different tracks from here on out. Would he even want to hang out with you next semester when there was nothing else to bind your schedules together?

Heeseung leaned over to rest his elbows on his knees, appearing contemplative while watching you cycle through the endless thoughts in your mind.

“I work at this new cafe about ten minutes away from campus. Do you want to drop by and check it out after class? If you want, you could study there until I get off, and then we can have dinner at my place.”

Dinner at his place?

He saw the way your eyes blew up, and he couldn’t tell if it was in shock or excitement. 

“Don’t feel pressured, it was just a thought,” Heeseung brushed off a piece of lint on your knee, his touch lingering, “I get off at around 10:00, so it’d be a later-than-usual dinner.”

“S-sure,” Your voice pitched unusually high, and you nearly threw up in your mouth. 

Geez, calm down! 

Heeseung looked pleased as he stood up from his desk and slung his backpack over his shoulder, “Shall we?”

The moment you stepped foot in the new cafe, your body appreciated the drastic change in temperature inside, the weather was extremely chilly these days. Didn’t change the fact that you’d order something iced, though. 

“Take a look at the menu, I need to get changed, and I’ll be right out to make you something to drink,” Heeseung ushered you further into the store, his hand at your lower back. 

“No problem,” You held Heeseung’s warm gaze and forgot to breathe. 

As Heeseung set off to the back, you exhaled and took in the bright, cozy interior of the cafe along with its high ceilings. Evening light filtered through the tall windows, casting the whole place in warmth. 

What a nice cafe to work at. I could study here more often too.

The aroma of ground coffee beans and sweet pastries filled your nose, causing your brain to perk up at the thought of caffeine even though it was evening. The people that occupied the space were relatively quiet– the seats were mainly filled with a few students and young professionals. 

An empty table was waiting for you in the corner, so you set down your belongings there and pulled out your wallet. Curious about their menu, you returned to the counter to consider the items. 

A handsome, light-haired young man eagerly approached from behind the bar upon seeing you, “Hi there! What can I get for you?”

Your brain raced for an answer even though you were supposed to wait for Heeseung. “Um, I’ll try the iced matcha latte….”

“Perfect,” He gave you a thousand-watt smile, “Anything else I can get you? We have macarons that we bake daily.”

“Sure,” You considered the colorful rows of macarons behind the glass counter, “I’ll try a lavender one and a vanilla bean.”

As the boy picked out your macarons, you imagined how Heeseung might look like working his shift here, from his mannerisms to his barista skills and if he dealt with customers easily or not. It was something you’d never thought of previously since you had no clue about his work.

“I threw in a couple of other popular flavors on the house,” the boy gave you a wink, making you blush unexpectedly.

“Oh, thank you so much!”

The barista took a step to his right without taking his eyes off you and bumped right into Heeseung, who suddenly appeared. You noticed he looked especially cute in his work uniform, somehow fitting your exact image of how a barista would look in his white button-down and his chestnut-colored apron. A smile made its way onto your face; his glasses completed the coffee connoisseur look. 

“Sorry, man—“

“Hey, no worries. I’ll ring her up,” Your eyes widened at the slight insistence in Heeseung’s voice that left no room for argument, “Jake, meet ___.”

“Hey,” Jake gave you a little wave, despite looking a bit confused at why Heeseung intercepted. 

“___, this is my friend Jake. He also goes to our University,” He mentioned while tinkering with the cash register.

You took out your card and gave Jake a shy smile, “Oh, nice. Great to meet you.”

He winked at you, “Likewise.”

Apparently, only hot people work here, you surmised. 

You thought you saw Heeseung pout at the exchange between you and Jake, but whether or not he actually did, he ignored your card and handed over your bag of macarons, swiftly stepping away to prepare your drink.

“Wait, I need to pay—“

“I’ve got you. It’ll just be a few minutes,” he called over his shoulder and got to work.

Your cheeks grew warm. 

Why did he have to act so sweet sometimes?

“I mean, I knew you had a girlfriend, but you should’ve told me she was dropping by,” Jake chuckled as he pulled up by Heeseung’s side.

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“She’s not?” Jake questioned. 

“But I’m interested in her,” Heeseung clarified while frothing your matcha latte a bit too aggressively. 

��Aw,” Jake moped, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed, “That’s too bad, she’s kinda….”

When it went silent, Jake playfully glanced over at Heeseung, who was staring him down. He slapped him on the back, “Only messing with you, dude.”

“Right.”

Just as you finished unpacking and settling in at the corner table, Heeseung approached with your matcha latte in hand and set it down in front of you. 

“That was quick,” You felt giddy getting the special treatment.

“Give it a try, and let me know if it needs anything.”

You stirred the pretty green liquid with the straw and took a sip, glancing up at Heeseung as you did so. Heeseung bit his lip and tilted his head expectantly.

“It’s perfect.”

“Good, just let me know if you need anything,” He smiled, but before he could leave, you caught his sleeve.

“Wait, have a macaron before you go. Jake gave me a lot,” You randomly chose the dusty pink one that smelled like roses and held it up for him to take.

Instead, he drew close, placing his hand on the back of your chair to steady himself, parted his lips, and waited. You glanced up at him to check if he was joking, but the glimmer in his eye said otherwise.  

Woah—

Brain on autopilot, you fed it to him, and he took a bite out of the fresh macaron.

He licked at his lips and smirked at you, “Thanks.”

After he disappeared behind the counter, you dropped your forehead into your hand, flabbergasted. You just knew your face was so red. 

This crazy ass—

What, did he expect you to finish the remainder of the macaron? 

This was too much for you to handle– Heeseung was too much for you to handle today.

And, of course, you finished it.

Two hours flew by at your table while you were jamming to some nostalgic tunes in your own little world while studying for your upcoming finals. 

Feeling the urge to stretch, you took off your headphones and extended your stiff limbs with a wince.

Condensation ran down your empty glass of matcha, and you had finished nibbling on your macarons earlier. Besides the lavender and vanilla flavors you had chosen, the rose one was pretty aromatic, and the other strawberries and cream flavor Jake picked out for you was delicious. The snacks certainly whet your appetite, and now you were more than looking forward to having dinner with Heeseung… at his place. 

You peered at Heeseung over the top of your laptop as he kept busy behind the espresso bar; Jake was a very charismatic cashier, as you experienced first-hand, while Heeseung was rather efficient at serving up beverages and hopping in to take orders when needed. They seemed to handle themselves well as a team, as far as you could tell from the past couple of hours.

Girls and guys often wandered in to gawk at the two, and you completely understood why. Nonetheless, it didn’t help the surge of discomfort you felt when you caught two girls checking Heeseung out from behind. There was nothing you could do but seethe in your seat.

Relax. They’re not the ones headed home with him tonight. 

Ah, that reminder helped, sort of. 

Now you were feeling antsy about the fact that Heeseung had invited you over in the first place. There was no way you prepared in any way, shape or form with how little heads up he gave you, but you couldn’t have easily passed up the opportunity to get a look at his place and spend more time with him. 

And if he baked, he had to be a good cook, no?

The chatty girls ended up being the last customers to leave the cafe, except for you in the corner, partially anxious but mostly content because you were alone, and so was Heeseung. 

After a quiet period, you were drawn from your studies when a woman who stood out from the average patron strolled into the cafe. She was dressed well enough to convince you that she was a model or at least an influencer of sorts, especially by the confident way she held herself. 

Jake welcomed her warmly, and you were about to slip your headphones back on when you heard her speak, “Hello. Does Heeseung work here?”

“Yeah! Do you want me to get him for you? He’s prepping food in the back.”

“Please.”

Who is she? A friend?

Jake made his way to the back kitchens. “Hey, Heeseung! Someone’s here to see you!”

“One sec,” You heard Heeseung call. 

The woman stood calmly and patiently at the counter; she appeared to be in her mid-twenties and looked sharp in all-black fashion with a set of alluring, shadowy eyes. An uneasy feeling passed through your stomach at the way she suddenly rolled her shoulders and neck— you couldn’t put a finger on it, but if it involved Heeseung, you didn’t like it.

Heeseung emerged from the kitchen doors, and you became deeply concerned at how his face went stoic upon seeing the mysterious woman. Jake sensed something was off as well and looked back and forth between the two. 

“Hi. I hope I caught you at a good time. As you know, I’ve been wanting to chat,” Her tone was overtly sweet. 

Heeseung rounded the counter and approached her, dropping his voice to an inaudible murmur. 

Whispers were exchanged between them; you focused on trying to read their lips, but it was difficult. They were familiar with each other, that much you could tell. However, they couldn’t have looked like more complete opposites. 

Feeling that you were being nosy, you stopped staring and returned to your project at hand, not wanting to overstep any further. 

A sharp slap followed by a harsh clatter resounded in the empty cafe, alerting you.

Shocked, your head whipped towards the source of the noise, only to see Heeseung, whose face was angled away from you. Your sights landed on his glasses on the tile floor.

The woman standing in front of him took an easy breath, but the way she flicked her wrist gave away her rage.

Somehow, you were already standing from your seat, crossing the floor, “Excuse me. Did you just–”

The woman kept her eyes trained on Heeseung, “Mind your own business, love.”

Jake jumped in front of you, waving his hands, “Jesus— Easy, easy. I’ll handle this.” 

Red filled your vision once your brain registered what had happened, but you had enough sense to stand your ground a safe distance away— for that woman’s sake.

“Get her out of here before I do it myself,” you gritted out. 

Jake nodded and was quick to address the woman, “Miss, I’m not sure what’s going on, but you can’t just assault our staff. I’m going to have to ask you to leave immediately due to store policy.”

She eyed you, and her sharp expression slowly morphed into a feigned smile, startling you.

“Just one more thing,” She inclined her chin towards Heeseung, “Then we’ll chat back at my place after you wrap up here, alright, love?”

Heeseung’s gaze flickered at the woman, but he said nothing. 

She sauntered up to him, much too close for anyone’s comfort, and reached out to take hold of his chin, her sharp nails gauging into his skin. Stunned, you watched him shut his eyes tightly, how his brows drew together— and then he caught her wrist before she could get any closer.

Heeseung spoke in an extremely deliberate tone, “No. This is the last time I’ll be saying this to you. We’re finished. We’ve been finished. Do you understand?”

As the woman’s fingers curled into a fist, so did yours. 

“Leave. If I see you bothering any customers or staff who occupy this space, I’ll let the authorities deal with you,” He warned.

“I’ve taken care of you since we were children, Heeseung.”

The statement took you by surprise. 

“We’re done talking,” Heeseung tugged her past you and Jake towards the cafe entrance. She pulled back on his grip, but he remained unfazed. 

The two of you watched him take her outside and proceed to lock up the front of the store. Jake quickly followed and began to pull down the blinds as the woman pressed up against the windows. Her eyes slowly dragged over your form in the most demeaning manner. 

“Talk about a crazy ex,” Jake murmured to no one in particular, pressing his back against the covered window. You exhaled heavily, speechless at the turn of events.

When you bent over to pick up Heeseung’s glasses and inspect them, you noticed a lens had cracked. One could only imagine how much the slap must’ve stung. 

Heeseung touched the small of your back, “I’m really sorry you had to see that.”

Feeling left in the dark, you turned around and gave him a look of confusion, “Exactly how long has it been since you broke up with your ex?”

“Since the start of the semester,” Heeseung answered right away, “This is the first time I’ve seen her since. I don’t know how she found out about my new job.”

“And she still can’t take a hint?” Jake asked while cleaning up behind the register. 

“She will now because I’m not entertaining her games.”

You felt relief, but you immediately regretted the question. 

What a thing for me to ask after everything that just took place, you thought, ashamed. 

“Are you okay?” Your hand was shaky when you reached out to touch his cheek. 

His fingers brushed against the back of your hand in reassurance. 

“I’m fine. I’ll be better once we get out of here and grab something to eat back at my place,” He managed to give you a small smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

[jellycreamjammedart]

i LOVE LOVE LOVE your idea of post-bad end cassie sticking around to try fixing everything and befriending the ruined robots SOB. Do you have any headcanons for them in this setting?

oh boi DO I (post-bad end brainrot post here)

M.X.E.S and Helpi are BOTH sassy little bitches. They bicker at each other over things a lot like two geeky nerds. Unfortunately Cassie has to watch them bickering be it through the vanni mask or the implant. Sometimes either one or both of them ramble over something code/technology based to Cassie, essentially making her their "debuggy ducky".

They collect the Freddy-talk to make sure the Mimic can't use it again to trick Cassie again or trick future victims so easily with it. Cassie also claims Gregory's forgotten Glam Freddy backpack for herself for better inventory (and maybe anything useful inside if there's anything.) Finder's keepers, bitch.

After finding a blue spray paint can (many cans are seen abandoned through, having been used for the graffiti stuff,) Cassie uses it to paint Prototype Glamrock Freddy's endo claws blue, to match his casing hands a little. It's not much but boy does that make him feel fabulous! She does the same for Roxy's claws after finding a green one.

They find an usable old stroller to carry Monty. He's lowkey embarrassed, but he certainly prefers this accommodation over having to drag and crawl himself everywhere.

On their quest to reactivate the security nodes they all also keep on the look out for anything that could be used to fix one of them a little bit (like a spare arm for Chica or spare eye(s) for Roxy, things to help them fix Bonnie, anything that could help any of them.)

Speaking of, Chica donated one of her eyes to Roxy. One eye is better than none.

All the robots are equipped with some medical knowledge in case they had an emergency with patrons back in the PizzaPlex glory, especially the Daycare Attendant/Eclipse. They all try to help patch Cassie up from injuries caused by the elevator drop.

The mini Music Men follow Cassie like ducklings. They're also great at finding any goods due to fitting through cramped nookies and crannies and locate things the others wouldn't be able to reach due to being bigger.

Helpi and M.X.E.S seeing that Monty shrine through Cassie's point of view: "IS THAT MONTY'S FUCKING LEGS-"

You can bet they stop for a bit to play the Chica's Feeding Frenzy and Monty's Gator Golf arcades. They either take turns or gather around Cassie to watch her play and cheer her on it. Listen they all went through a LOT, they NEED a little harmless reprieve!

Roxy, Monty and Chica definitely still hold resentment towards Gregory for what he did against them in the past. They're also even madder at him now on Cassie's behalf after learning he sent the elevator plummeting down with her inside and trapping her, an indignation the others also share because "wtf bro what kind of friend does that shit???" The Daycare Attendant is mostly salty because Gregory's a RULE-BREAKER and his ass is still BANNED.

By the way, it doesn't really matter whether it was the real Gregory who betrayed Cassie or the Mimic putting up an act again. As far as they're all concerned, it was the real Gregory.

They pick up and collect plushies that are still in good condition (except ones that are child nodes in M.X.E.S' security, those only get hidden better.) Prototype Glamrock Freddy loves tucking a few plushies into his hatch, they feel soft inside! A few also get put inside Monty's stroller with him.

Despite M.X.E.S' hostility at Cassie back at the beginning, after understanding better why she was doing what she was doing, and watching her trying her hardest and giving it her all to make things better, it learned to hold a huge respect for the girl. The one thing M.X.E.S and Helpi agree with despite their bickering.

M.X.E.S: You're such a sassy little shit! Helpi: Hey don't cuss! The kid can see it through the mask/implant! M.X.E.S: M.X.E.S: OH FUCK, I FORGOR! Helpi: YOU DID IT AGAIN-! Bonnie: Hey kiddo, you okay? Cassie: Huh? Roxy: Yeah, you looked spaced out. Cassie: Oh, yeah I'm okay. M.X.E.S. just said "fuck". The entire squad in the real world: HE WHAT-

[squiddosss]

salutations fellow human being! if you are taking requests, may i suggest the aouv crew (there needs to be a better nickname for them) as children? idk just an idea

p.s. this is also a reminder that al had a bowl cut when he was 6-7 years old :) do what you will with that info :)))

I AM ALIVE! [insert 20 exclamation points here] ok but seriously sorry for dipping off the face of the planet :(

here’s the line up! i kinda forgot everyone’s exact ages. i’m going to go ahead and say the characters are in 3rd-5th grade right now. also isn’t elionor one of the oldest champions?? uhhh idk

additional headcanons:

we all know Reid is a huge nerd. he probably leaned into the nerdy-ness a lot as a kid. this kid wore starwars shirts every day. also glasses, (i believe this is canon)

Isobel was actually rather quiet as a kid. she preferred books over people, and liked talking to adults more than kids her age. she was still exceptionally clever and motivated, but she didn’t really learn how to be sharp-tongued and ambitious until she befriended Briony. she owes her people skills that got her through the months before the tournament and all the reporters to her best friend. 

Briony basically coerced Isobel into joining a thing called spell scouts. think like boy scouts or girl scouts or any other youth program but for a magickal world. things like nature and survival skills were taught, but also the basics of spellcrafting and ethics of spell using. (just imagine them in their little uniforms)

Finley was pretty athletic and played a few sports, but didn’t fancy working with a whole team. he attempted junior league soccer (wait… football??? i am american help) but found that he preferred scoring points for his team rather than with his team. he did summer swim at first and running, but wouldn’t discover fencing until he was older (i believe he is the team captain in high school) oh, he also totally did summer theater camps. 

Alistair TOTALLY had a bowl cut. unfortunately, he has curly hair. Marianne Lowe thought his curly hair (which he inherited from his father, whoever that could be) was unbecoming for an eventual Lowe champion, so Alistair’s mother would have to magickally get it to stay straight every day. this is part of why Al lacks freckles— whenever Al went outside, humidity would turn it back into a curly mess. so, under Marianne’s instructions, he just never went outside. he later stopped straightening his hair (and outgrew the bowl cut thank god) but the habit of staying indoors stayed with him. 

Elionor experimented with dying the ends of her hair when she was younger. the blues and pinks never really showed through because her hair was brown, but she liked it, so that’s all that really mattered. she also wrote fanfiction and posted it to online forums despite technically not being old enough to use them.

after losing their father and having their mother leave them, it was hard for Briony and Innes to feel noticed within the large Thorburn family. they went about trying to feel accepted in different ways. Briony, obviously, was loud and learned to announce her presence to feel heard. Innes preferred a more subtle approach, learning a particular relative’s interests and schedules to find a way to slowly do little things to win them over. stuff like doing their chores or completing their hair. 

Carby was like… basically a baby at this point. so… [insert toddler personality trait here]

Diya definitely did extracurriculars at school. she won the spell fair (like the science fair but… y’know… spells) three years in a row and was a member of the book club that included a tournament with other schools at the end of the school year (which she won, duh) she was pretty competitive with it, too. 

Gavin… thinking about his childhood makes me so not ok. he realized pretty early on he was basically a sacrifice to a tournament his family would never win. Gavin knew about the tournament, and realized he would be the champion, and had always seen how distant his parents were, but didn’t realize what that really meant until a bit later. 

OK BUT SERIOUSLY THANK U FOR REQUESTING THIS!

[fiveraccoonsinatrenchcoat]

Vincent Van Babe-Magnet

Eddie Munson x f!reader

Description: You run into an old childhood crush, and Eddie befriends a family of very dapper rodents.

Warnings: None! Other than the fact that this is very silly.

Word Count: 1956

My Masterlist!

"Why does it feel like this is going to be way harder than we thought?" Staring at the giant canvas drop stretched across Stage B in the Hawkins Community Theater building, you sighed.

Though you never would have believed it possible, it seemed as though Eddie's deep rooted nerd nature had extended to Dustin even more so than it already had: he convinced the kid to go do tech for the theater's spring musical, a production of Sweeney Todd. 'Just check it out, see if you like it,' Eddie had said.

Turns out, Eddie had been correct in thinking Dustin would like it.

How that somehow meant you two had to get roped into it too is beyond you, but nevertheless, there you stood on this Saturday afternoon in your nicest-worst overalls, eyes scanning across the project in front of you. Eddie seemed ecstatic; he had been in the school's musicals as a freshman and sophomore, until his grades started to slip and the school stopped letting him audition. You, on the other hand, thought the idea of performing on stage in front of the entire school and everyone's grandma (so, really, half of the whole town) seemed downright horrifying.

"Guys! Hey!" you heard Dustin call from behind you. "Thanks for doing this, seriously. We are, like, majorly short-handed right now."

"No worries, dude," Eddie assured him. "It'll be fun!"

You nodded with enthusiasm,. though the very large and nearly blank canvas in front of you had you worrying. Dustin and Eddie started on one of their many semi-nonsense sounding conversations as you turned away to look for someone who seemed like they might be in charge. You quickly spotted a familiar face (or rather, familiar back-of-head), which alleviated some of your nervousness.

"Mr. Jesperson," you greeted as you walked up behind the currently crouched over a small mountain of paint buckets. "I didn't know you'd be here!"

"Oh! Hey," he responded. He pushed himself off of the ground and was about to shake your hand, before he realized he had planted it right into a puddle of mucus green paint and pulled it back to wipe it across his jeans. They looked like they could be their own art piece, with how many paint smears and splatters littered the acid washed fabric. "Haven't seen ya in ages. Wouldn't'a pegged you as the performance arts type."

"I'm not, really. Eddie, he wanted to help, but I was coerced," you clarified and gestured to your boyfriend behind you, who seemed to have gotten into some kind of very dramatic debate with Dustin and another boy you hadn't met before. "Dustin said you guys really needed it."

"Yeah, that kid can be very persuasive," Mr. Jesperson said with a laugh.

"I'd say more like 'unendingly stubborn and mildly vindictive,' but yeah, persuasive works too."

Mr. Jesperson was one of the art teachers at Hawkins High. He'd only started during your sophomore year, but he quickly became a favorite among the student population. He was one of the youngest faculty members, he wasn't evil like his predecessor had been, and he was an out-of-towner. He had moved to Hawkins from Chicago to take care of his grandmother after his mom passed away unexpectedly, which meant he hadn't fallen prey to all of the gossip that spread through this town like wildfire: I.E. he never had it out for Eddie. In fact, he quite liked having your boyfriend in class, and Eddie actually liked being in them. He was, by far, the best teacher he had ever had.

Eddie and Dustin were done with their debate, and Eddie sidled up to you. He tossed an arm around your shoulders before pointing his attention towards your former teacher.

"Jesperson!" he exclaimed. He had a tendency to forget how loud he could be. "Dustin said you might be here."

"It's good to see ya, Eddie," Mr. Jesperson said with a nod. "How's the band going? Haven't heard anything bout you guys in a while."

"Jeff moved for school." Eddie said morosely. "Tried to figure it out, but it's looking pretty dead in the water."

"Aw, man. Sorry to hear that," Mr. Jespersen said as he crouched back down onto the black stage floor. "I'm sure you'll find something else, though. You've got more musical talent in your pinky than I have in my whole body."

"Eh, we'll see," Eddie did his best to deflect the compliment, but you could practically feel the blush inching its way towards his cheeks. You leaned just a little bit closer into him as you opened your mouth to ask how the two of you could help, before a crash in the wings interrupted you. Mr. Jesperson let out a sigh and brought a hand to the bridge of his nose. It left a little pink fingerprint right between his eyebrows.

“Oh, Jesus Christ,” he murmured. “Let me go make sure no one died. Or destroyed any more of my props.”

“Any more?” you prodded.

“Yeah, you can ask your friend over there about that,” Mr. Jesperson stood back up again and shot a glance towards Dustin, who was paying zero attention to what was happening and seemed much more interested in the gadgets he was messing around with. You and Eddie shared a look and tried to stifle your giggles. “You guys get started on this. Everything’s already drawn, all you gotta do is fill in the colors.”

“What colors do you want?”

“All the sketches are over here, you can follow the ones on those if you want to, but they’re not set in stone or anything. I trust you two.” Mr. Jesperson turned away from you two in a rush, and you heard him call as he walked away, “Matthew, I swear to god, if I have to fix that chest again, I’m locking you in it overnight!”

You and Eddie weren’t able to contain your laughter much longer after that. 

“I’m finding Dustin after this and making him tell me what he broke,” you stated as you sifted through Mr. Jesperson’s sketches. “I bet it was something expensive.”

“Should I be worried about him?” Eddie asked with a smug grin. You met his gaze with confusion. 

“About Dustin?” you questioned. “What do you mean? Kid’s having the time of his life over there.”

“No, not Dustin,” he clarified. “About Mr. Dreamboat.”

“Oh, God,” you groaned with an eye roll. “I really wish I hadn’t told you about that!”

“You’re the one who's in love with him!” Eddie teased. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I get it, I really do, but I feel like I might need to be a little bit concerned!”

“I am not in love with him!” you defended yourself, the sinking weight of embarrassment settling itself in your gut.

“Tell that to 15 year old you,” he said with a laugh. “I bet you she’s in there somewhere, probably drooling over his paint stained clothes and muscley arms.”

“I’m going to actually kill you,” you said, wielding a paint brush as if it were a knife. 

“Nah, you won’t, you like me too much.” Eddie grabbed a paint tray and a few brushes, and planted himself at the bottom left corner of the canvas. He was quiet for a moment as he started spreading brown paint within the outline of a small family of rats tucked into the corner of the scene. “Not as much as you like Vincent Van Babe-Magnet, though.” 

You let out a groan, but joined him by his side with your own paint and brushes anyway. You knew he was just teasing you, that any jealousy you might pick up from him is all fabricated. Besides, you knew for a fact that he had been head over heels for his freshman English teacher in ninth grade. 

The pair of you worked on your own little sections in relative silence, eventually sharing your paint trays with each other and occasionally asking for the other’s input on the shading or details of whatever it was you were focused on. While you were making a pretty solid amount of progress, Eddie had been pouring all of his attention of the last hour into the rat family, which now all had little eighteenth century outfits, complete with tiny silk tophats and lace parasols. 

“Eddie, I don’t think the rats in seventeen-eighty-whatever London were going to the tailor,” you said to him. You had now moved a few feet down the canvas, but you still had a good view of Eddie’s rodent noblemen. 

“You don’t think they're handsome?” he asked you, feigning offense. 

“They’re a very stylish family of rats, I’m just not sure if they really fit into the story all that well.”

Eddie let out a dramatic gasp and clutched a hand to his chest. He leaned down closer to the canvas, speaking to the painted rodents as if they were real and also understood English. 

“Don’t listen to her, guys. You belong wherever you wanna be!” he less-than-quietly whispered into the still wet paint. He turned back to you with that mischievous glint in his eyes that you didn’t think you could ever stop adoring. “Apologize. Right now.”

“Eddie.” Any other day you would have absolutely played along, but it was starting to get late and your back was aching from being crouched down on the ground.

“Not to me,” Eddie said. “Apologize to Ralexander.”

“Ralexander?”

“Yeah, and his wife MargaRat, and their children Ratbitha and SebRatstian.”

“Oh, my god.”

“Ralexander is a member of Parliament.”

“Ralexander, I am truly sorry,” you said, though you could barely keep a straight face while you did. “MargaRat, may I say, you look beautiful tonight.”

Eddie brought his ear to the canvas and nodded along to the imaginary rats’ words.

“MargaRat says thank you, but Ralexander feels as though you’re trying to make a pass at his wife.”

“Eddie, I love you, but can we please go home?” you asked. Eddie stood up and stretched with a face splitting yawn. the tiniest sliver of his tummy peeked through the gap left between his waistband and ripped up t-shirt.

“Yeah, I think I’m starting to go a little bit insane,” Eddie said.

“Starting?”

“Ha, ha.”

You helped clean up and said a few goodbyes (turns out Dustin knocked over and shattered a lamp on the second day he was there), including a very awkward interaction with Mr. Jesperson in which Eddie kept hinting towards you childhood crush, though thankfully it seemed as though your former teacher remained oblivious. 

 The pair of you were just five or so minutes into the drive back to your shared apartment when you started to nod off in the passenger seat. You were trying as hard as you could to keep your attention to what Eddie was saying, but it was late and you could feel the exhaustion slowly overtaking you.

“Dustin said they’re gonna do Rocky Horror for Halloween,” Eddie told you. You were much too sleepy to respond beyond a hum. “I kinda wanna audition.”

“You should,” you mumbled.

“I bet ya if we moved to L.A. I would make a great movie star,” Eddie stated.

“We’re not moving to L.A.,” you grumbled. “We don’t have any money and L.A. is expensive.”

“Well, my mad acting skills and rugged good looks would make up for our lack of funds,” he explained, as if it would be that simple. “I’d star in some blockbuster action-horror flick and make us millions.”

You were barely awake when you mumbled out an agreement, almost drowned out by the hum of the van's engine and the quiet music playing through the speakers.

“Yeah, you would."

[harmonyckrs]

Give Me Back My Wife, Grim Reaper - Part 8

???: Aktu, what are you doing?

Aktu: Trying to establish communication with this cauldron portal, Melony!

Melony: If you're that worried about Vidcund, then maybe you shouldn't have sent him back to your dimension and just gave him harder training.

Aktu: No, not him! I'm contacting someone who can help us. If this works, we'll be a step closer to defeating the Divine Harpist.

Melony: And who exactly do you know is strong enough to defeat her for good?

Aktu: The very person responsible for her creation.

Zoya: How long have you known?

Crystal: Since we met. Aktu looks a lot like you, Zoya. And Harper, you look exactly like the depressed and insecure nerd that would somehow still be able to beat Aktu in a fight.

Harper: Is that all he talked about?

Crystal: Well, he talked about other things. Like how he envied you for being able to befriend people easily, or how you don't have the weight of the world's expectations on your shoulders.

Zoya: He's never told us about that, did he?

Harper: Probably because he didn't want us to think he had problems. Do you know where he could've went, Crystal?

Crystal: No. Do you?

Although I knew that Pascal didn't trust her and that she had already let us down once before, Zoya and I decided to share information with Crystal.

And when we got home, right as I was about use the phone to call General Buzz, a confusing surprise appeared before me.

Aktu: Harper! Just the person I needed to see!

Harper: AKTU? Why are you a hologram?

Aktu: I'll explain everything later.

Harper: No, you need to explain everything now! We were all looking for you! Where even are you?

Aktu: No time to explain. Get access to a portal machine and set the coordinates to Dimension 221594. Get here as soon as-AH! SHE'S HERE! THE DIVINE HARP-

Harper: Wait, Aktu. I'm-

Harper: Well, great. He's gone.

Inigo: He has a tendency to do that. You think the two of you are finally friends, and then he pushes you away and acts like he's too dangerous to be around.

Zoya/Harper: ...

Zoya: ...You're Vidcund, aren't you?

Inigo: Who?

Zoya: The third Curious brother? The guy that everyone thinks is dead?

Inigo/Vidcund: What made everyone think I was dead? My brothers literally SAW ME get abducted by aliens!

Zoya: Rumors spread.

Vidcund/Inigo: Of course something like this happens. Well, I guess it's for the best. This is the easiest way to protect them both.

Zoya: This is the place, right?

Vidcund: Why are you taking me here? And why did you bring General Buzz with you? Let me go this instant!

Harper: I'm trying to stop you from being a hypocrite, and he's here for security reasons! You're doing the exact same thing that you're complaining about Aktu doing.

Vidcund: Aktu's just complaining about metaphorical danger! I'm destined to sell my own nephew to the government, and the closer I am to my family the more likely it's going to happen!

Zoya: So you're choosing to isolate yourself instead?

Vidcund: It's the only option! I'm an ACTUAL danger!

Pascal: Vidcund, calm down. You're not dangerous.

Vidcund: But...the fates...

Pascal: We'll figure something out in time.

Vidcund: You're not worried about what'll happen?

Pascal: I mean, I am. But I don't want you ending your life and isolating yourself from the world because of it. I'd like to have you in my life for the time being.

Vidcund: Well...

Pascal: I've already lost Lazlo to Crystal. I don't want to lose you too.

Vidcund: ...I suppose I can stay, for a bit.

It feels nice to be able to help someone, especially when that person is someone who saved you from possible death and torture at the hands of a serial killer.

Pascal and Velvet are reunited, and my mind suddenly felt more clear. I now know where my loyalties are meant to lie...and I feel like I'm getting much closer to Celeste and Gabriel.

Harper: Do either of you have a portal machine? Aktu said he needs me to help him fight the Divine Harpist.

Pascal: Crystal and Lazlo built one on the roof. We haven't used it, but it's a replica of the one they made at Crystal's place that actually works.

Harper: Great! Take me to it.

But as we went upstairs, we've noticed a surprise guest waiting for us...or rather, multiple surprised guests. But it was abundantly clear that out of everyone there, only one mind was fully functional.

The Divine Harpist: Hello, Harper. It's nice to finally meet you.

[thenightlymirror]

I feel so weird talking about these things here now. I’ve never had someone try to just jump into friendship with me immediately. Not in years. She asked if we could be facebook friends, and I said “Haha not so fast!” Because I’m an idiot and use facebook to post political things to annoy people I met, oh, about the time that facebook came out.

I’m waking up at 5am wishing I had some normal fake version of facebook for coworkers and other normies. That’s just was facebook is for! It’s for conformity! I should be a different person! (Oops.) I am not. I am this freak.

So, the receptionist totally loves the sales manager. He is very wiry and goofy and cringe. Loves South Park and SNL and Chris Rock and… you know. He’s a total sociopath that wants to be a zany guy. Honestly, he is extremely thin skinned and insecure and will use whatever power he has, which at our office is basically absolute, to make your life a living hell to punish you for not showing proper subservience to this guy. So I’ve basically decided to just never cross him. I’m sorry. But I just surrender. I don’t want to fucking deal with that every day of my life.

He went to Northwestern. He’s a very smart guy. Wishes he was Saul Goodman. Loves lawyers. And I walk in. I’m funny without needing people to laugh. He makes jokes in a very needy way, so he hates me for this (as if I’m not needy, let’s be real). Everyone identifies me as insanely smart. Who wouldn’t love that? Especially when I have done nothing to earn it. You work around a bunch of people that went into sales, and it’s fairly easy to be the smartest person in the room.

Anyways. The cringelord receptionist and him have the exact same level of humor, even if she’s not a comedy person. They both would LOVE to be something they are not. They should absolutely date. But I feel like he is sort of hot eurotrash who may be used to club girls. He lost the wife he was totally in love with by sleeping around. She is sort of a kookie nerd. She’s my type, not his. So she seems absorbed in trying to get my attention and he’s just “so funny” and her constant frame of reference for any conversation. They are peas in a pod.

I swear to god. I’m not saying it would be good, but if they had any fucking sense JUST DATE EACH OTHER. Leave me out of this weird work shit. Haha it’s already so bad that our new receptionist, who is supposed to be on our side of the office war is unconsciously in love with the sale manager. Two, why would I ever EVER be in a love triangle with this guy? Haha just fucking hilarious.

Offices are so incestuous. It’s like people get into an office and get the briefest intuition that it is like a family but you can fuck these people and they go insane! In my office they do anyway. And let me be clear you CAN’T fuck them! You’re definitely not supposed to. Stop it!

Anyways. He comes to me because he has some kind of sporting tournament this weekend and he wants to show me his trophy wall, and because I never sass him anymore, we’re chummy, so he goes “You don’t have facebook, right?”

“…no. No I don’t.”

“Well here are all my trophies here from the last 5 years yadda yadda yadda.” Do you think she told him that I denied her facebook privileges? Is this guy going through an elaborate thing because she befriended him and now he’s spreading out? Part of me feels genuine remorse. But facebook is not a place to be a person. It’s a place to be who you are at work, 24 hours a day. In the 4 square cm of your own skull. Get out.

Harper and I have an unspoken pact, which is that we don’t ask. And I’m okay with that. I’m not. Haha but I have to be and that’s better. God what a sad fucking life. I have one more friend from work that is friends with me there, my old trainer, and she never interacts. I’m sure she’s terrified. Haha god. I wish I was not so scary. But I am.

[hislittleraincloud]

I know this won't be a popular opinion anywhere, but I don't think cops are inherently bad/don't believe ACAB.

You don't have to agree with me on that, and that's fine. But I was essentially the target of a racist, homophobic cop when I was Wednesday's age, and it ruined my high school life. The case was bogus (I involved myself with a seriously unstable girl, and long story short, since her accusations were false, the case had to be dismissed...I will go into it all in a different post). The cop admitted to me that it was bogus, after it was all over and I needed to pick something up from the station. He was a shitty, shitty cop.

There was a campus cop at my university who I befriended. He was a cutie**, too (🫠💦💦💦💦💦 but he was married 😭). He helped me so much while I was there, especially after I'd gotten assaulted by someone I'd been seeing at the time. I hadn't transitioned yet and was still presenting androgynous, and he knew that I was seeing that abusive girl. He treated me with kindness and respect; he was LGBTQ positive (we had another baby transman that I knew of at uni, and he too was protected and unbothered). He made me and my other girlfriend feel safe, which is what cops should be doing (it's literally their job). And that was in 1992, two years after that bad cop from my town wanted to see me put away for a crime I didn't commit.

There are some good cops out there, just like there are bad ones. So to me, becoming a cop (or like others have written her as a 'private investigator', who yanno...would be working with the courts and cops sometimes) for Wednesday wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. In some places, in order to become a CSI, you need to be a cop, and Netflix Wednesday has obviously shown interest in that area (shadowing a crime scene photographer/CSI, pestering Donovan about the case, acting like a CSI cop by telling him to run the DNA on the claw and bloody rag).

I mean...there's a real basis/reason for why in Afterburn, Sheriff Galpin gives her the Deputy Sheriff star for her birthday. 🤷🏽‍♂️

**He actually looked like Deputy Travis Junior from Reno 911 💀 And he collected action figures, like I did at the time. He had a garage full of them because he was a comic book nerd. If he hadn't been married...👀 YUH DAMN RIGHT I would've ridden that one hard, and I wouldn't have cared that I was 18 and he was in his early 30s. 😭🫠💦

...Oh, and then there was the state highway patrolman who stopped me during a storm warning. I was speeding to get home and he let me go after I answered his questions about the miniature cat-o-nine-tails I had hanging from my rearview mirror. He let me go because of the storm, but if there was no storm and he would've asked, I would've.

[garlicandfish]

wondering why i cannot focus when I

just remembered that time i was talking to my stepmum in the last few weeks of working on my bachelor’s thesis in the Summer of 2021. She was like “oh yeah and after, you’re gonna relax”. And I had to be like “oh no, after, I will register for the master and look for a new side job”. So she was like damn, you need a break. I said “yea sure, but in the first semester break, I can relax!”

That first semester break of my masters, I had Covid, then finished my essay just in time for the deadline, and worked my side Job 40 Hours a week to save money. Oh yeah, on the side, I was already talking to other universities about other master’s programmes, because I was really disappointed in the one I was taking.

During that last summer semester, I applied for three masters. One of those applications was in Switzerland and they took a 100€ appliicaion fee. (They all offered me a place, by the way.) Then I took a long hard think about maybe starting another bachelor, started looking into Sociology, before admitting to myself I was gonna regret not attempting to go for Psychology.

That was June, I had just gotten back from my first music festival, my heart had just been broken, it would be broken again just a few weeks later. I was working 20 hours a week in that side job. And still in that master, I was doing 2 Modules, and lowkey ashamed of not doing more. Oh yeah, on that festival, I caught CoVid for the second time.

I used July to apply for psychology. I got my heart broken. I celebrated my (reasonably likely) move out of the city. Somewhere in-between, I had completed a B1-Level French Course and taken an oral exam.

In August, I fell in love again. I was at a 5-year-graduation-anniversary. My former classmates wished me luck in getting into psychology. The day after, I got the letter of acceptance. I still believe that those wishes of luck from the people I went though my formative years with helped. Thank you! So then I had to look for a room in the town I was accepted to, which turned out to be a nightmare, as it’s a student town with a limited housing marked. I got myself a room. All the while, I fought myself through the lists of documents they needed for my immatriculation. Oh yeah, and I had the most wonderful time with my lover whenever we could meet. I quit my side job, absolutely second-guessing myself while doing so.

I was sick with the flu before moving, which didn’t stop me from packing. Then moved in September. I was stressed about leaving my friends and getting my heart broken again. I was afraid that I was going to be lonely in the new town.

Uni began. I met punks in a youth center, befriended the most prickly of them. I fought through research article after research article and lecture after lecture. I tried to participate in the politics like my punks. I tried to pick up a sport. I managed to eat. Weekends hadn’t been a thing for years in my life, but my work week extended by hours. I was still anxious about not finding friends by the time christmas break came around. Then I went to see my old friends and realized I had changed to an absolute nerd and couldn’t identify with their life at all anymore. When I got back to my new home, I had a unlucky hookup because my friends had made me feel behind for not regularly going out and getting laid. What the heck.

The new year was rang in at a uni friend’s place. I went to party with one of the punks at a club after, which I only got into because I had met the DJ in a convenience store before. What a night. I finally felt like I had made the new city my own. The morning after the party I got news that one of the people at the friend’s gathering had Covid. My first year of the week was spent at home, waiting out wether I’d show symptoms.

January in its entire was spent studying at home, and texting people over dating apps. Ridiculously, I never felt healthy, but I went on several dates and had another unlucky hookup (with a person I’m still considering to see again). That was what I thought about in between lectures and studying. Exam phase was breathing down my neck, the 60 hour week went up to a 80 hour week, and I had my study plan at the ready. I had had a sore throat since the middle of January. It wouldn’t go away before the exams, because I wouldn’t take a break from the hussle which I needed to pass. So, couldn’t let that stop me.

February brought on less health and more exams, which led me to skip two exams and move them to the retaking phase in March. Knowing I effectively was throwing my two weeks of free time away to do a thing for my body felt very grown up. I didn’t get healthy though, and after the two exams I skipped, there were two more, which I took with two days of studying for each. Passed both with good B grades. I was still dating on the side, when I wasn’t actively bedridden ill. At that point, I didn’t know what not having a sore throat was like anymore.

March. I knew my health was going to catch up with me as soon as exams were done with, so I laid down in bed and waited. Really did feel ill for a few days, then woke up on my birthday to nausea so bad I had to threw up. Spent my birthday waiting for a doctor to see me, which took 5 hours, at the end of which I was sent home. The next day I got a diagnosis and medication, and the health advise to not study for a week and relax. Yea thanks. With the two retake exams and an essay hanging over my head, I knew that was going to be impossible. That same week I also saw a dentist routinely and found out that apparently I my stress-induced habit of treating myself with sweet drinks had ruined my teeth. The week after, I got back on track to write that essay. Got it done in a week like I was planning. The end of that week, I broke off with the person I was dating, because I couldn’t be available for him the way he needed. That Sunday, I had a positive CoVid Test. Third round.

This week, I am studying for the retake exams. I am perched up in my  room with CoVid, studying as best as I can. Had to take a break from my morning yoga because my body feels disappointed enough to just have to move out of bed.

For some reason, I’m finding it hard to concentrate?

[brain-rot-queen]

I’m getting ignored for Eldin Ring

This is a new personal low

[sepublic]

“I gave you the draining spell! I taught you magic stronger than anybody’s!”

All right so Ipad Kid is a funny reading of the Collector and also totally true, but! But! I don’t think that’s all there is to him. Because as we’ve all guessed, the Collector embodies a lot of ideas and parallels in this show, particularly the idea of an estranged kid who is seen as too dangerous or unpredictable, a lonely kid who just wants to have fun but gets carried away in disregarding others. Like early-S1 Luz, or King.

But a common thread amongst Luz and King and other ostracized characters is that they’re actually really smart and knowledgeable about certain subjects, and rather dedicated fans of them too; And it’s already canon that the Collector taught Belos some VERY arcane magic, of only which they were privy to; Why else would Philip seek them out, tolerate them, of all people? 

Not only did the Collector know about a spell capable of harnessing the power of the eclipse to commit mass genocide, but he likely gave Belos knowledge on all of the other weird and inexplicable spells we’ve seen him perform; Particularly, things like Belos’ unusual red magic, which is able to manifest an entire worm demon from scratch, grant clarity to Eda’s mind during the curse, and even bypass the magical protections of Luz’s witch’s wool cloak. And a lot of the Collector’s knowledge could just be attributed to being VERY old, but consider;

The Collector is a BIG nerd. They hyperfixate. They can ramble all day long about magic. They know various secrets of the universe and think they’re super cool. As another parallel to Luz, they wanted to learn a LOT more, though in the Collector’s case, they may have hurt or disregarded in others in messing around with magic and experiments. They’re like a young Eda; A precocious little kid yet INCREDIBLY talented and a prodigy breaking ground in many ways. 

Imagine them being so excited to infodump about magic to Philip, someone who’s finally asking to listen; Only to be a bit disappointed when Phil cuts him off at times, only focusing on what he strictly needs because he really does not like nor care for this kid. And the Collector is disappointed because why stop there? But all right, he’ll play by Philip’s ‘rules’ of the game and focus on the specific lessons that Belos finds relevant. 

Imagine the Collector possibly befriending Luz and the others, and if even if they lose their power, they might still retain their knowledge; And thus use it to teach and herald a new age of magic, unrestricted by Belos and boosted by the Collector. Knowledge that could help people overcome the coven bindings, or at least work around them; Knowledge as reparations for the draining spell that could’ve left permanent damage to bile sacs. The Collector isn’t Head Empty, No Thoughts; They’re very much a neurodivergent kid with a LOT of shrewd passion on the workings of the universe. 

They aren’t dumb, just isolated and naive, and even then they guessed at Belos and King using them for their own ends; They just consider otherwise because it’s the only option they can believe in. They ARE a kid after all, and underestimating the Collector like that is like underestimating Luz; And we see how someone like Belos suffers for that. And we might just see how our protagonists suffer, too... A lot of the Collector’s power may very well stem from just knowing things and how to use that knowledge, and not just raw inherent power. And there’s likely so much more even they don’t know, but are more than willing and eager to learn, alongside another if they cared about magic for magic’s sake!

[stormyaskgames]

Dark Academia: Where the Wild Things Are, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,Invisible Monsters,Blood and Guts in High school, The Book Thief

Light Academia: Greek Mythology, Irish Mythology, Norse Mythology, Egyptian Mythology; mythology is cool✨ Learning to speak different languages, learning about different cultures, gross/weird/fucked up things from history.

Punk Academia: Hyperpop, Gothic Country, Steampunk, Electro Swing,Bitpop,Horrorcore, Post Punk Revival, Gothic Rock,Celtic Rock,Bardcore,Horror Punk, Screamo, Death Rock, Cow Punk, New Wave.

Chaotic Academia: flashcards with friends, fake tests with music, lots of breaks

Cottage Core: Buzzy ( honey buns? Buzz buzz) Neku (tarts?) Wyv ( that hobbit bread stuff NERD love you though) Renee (Cinnimon roll ? Just feels right💀) Crowley (icecream the pupper is a icecream feeeind)

Warmcore: my best friend and boyfriend; love of my life✨ the best thing to happen to me✨my favorite person; always a joy to be around✨✨✨i loooooove you✨✨✨ my puppy, My friends, dad and mama, kristy✨

Grandparentcore: my antique juicer! Honestly its amazing! The machine does all the work!✨ i really wonder why they stopped making them!✨💜 Antique Apple Corerer: it peals! It cuts the apple and it gets the core out! And in a fun spiral pattern!✨💜 i love it✨💜 Also my typewriter! Typewriters are so cool and aesthetic.

Plant Parent: (hopefully) we have a lavender plant! I call her lavi✨ shes my first plant without real help and it’s going well!✨ she hasn’t died yet!✨ soon we might get some rosemary! And when me and Neku have our own house i plan to make it pretty! And i want fruit and nut trees!✨💜

Dazecore: Night Owl; honestly my sleep schedule is still a mess; but my bf makes sure i sleep every night.

Forestcore: Barns and Noble, That bundt cake shop, Boba shop, Candy store! Toy store! Hot topic!✨✨✨💜

Fairy Core: Spider Lily, Sunflowers, Black Delilah are all flowers my friends associate me with, Foxgloves have been my favorite since i was a small child

Angelcore: The Juniper Tree there was this stepmom with a daughter and a stepson, he ends up beheading and killing his stepson with a heavy chest gives her daughter trauma by making her think she killed her stepbrother, fed her husband his son. And then the daughter takes the stepson and burries him under the juniper tree and he turns into a bird going around singing and its basically everything that happens and after he sings he collects presents for his family (which i dont remember) but the last thing he got was a heavy mill wheel, and he came back to his house and sung; his stepsister came out he gave her her present. Same thing with the father, and when his stepmom came out he dropped the heavy mill wheel on her head and when that killed her he turned back into a little boy.

The Tale of the Tongue Cut Sparrow: there was a old farmer and his wife and they befriended a sparrow. And early every morning the sparrow would sing to wake the old couple up so they knew when they needed to start working. Their neighbor was a grumpy old lady who hated being woken up early; so she cut out the sparrows tongue and the sparrow flew away. The old couple was heartbroken went on a big journey to find their friend and when they found him the sparrow welcomed them. He fed and entertained them and by the end of the visit he brought out two packages a big one and a little one. It was a present and they got to pick which one they wanted; but the old couple didnt want to take to much from their friend so they chose the smaller one and headed home. And when they got home and opened it there was gold,silk, and jewels.

Their grumpy neighbor saw and wanted treasure too so she asked the old couple how to find the sparrow saying she wanted to apologize when she found him he was a nice host again and again offered the two packages. The mean lady took the biggest one and when she got home SNAKES! Spiders! All sorts of creepy crawlies that devoured her.

I also loved Edger Allen Poe as a small child and would ask my grandma to read me his stories for bed.

Softcore: Tea, Baths, My bfs clothing/Blankets, the bottle of his cologne i bought (basically i want his smell) Candy, Meditation, Journaling, Video Games ( Fighting if I’m angry or need to get out energy Puzzle/Rhythm games if I’m upset. Basically the last two need a-lot of focus and are distracting)

Cyberpunk: love robots! They are cute and fascinating and if i wasn’t dyscalculic i would have totally joined the robotics club. However i HATE AI. I think people who make ai are jokes who want instant gratification and attention without doing any work or having any valid skills or any real things to offer. I also think they are lazy, just learn how to create like a normal person. So it kind of depends on the type of artificial intelligence

Vaporwave: Not even trying to be edgy here; but most of what i have is nightmares/night terrors (you know where i scream/cry in my sleep) they have been a chronic thing since i was a small child; typically stress triggered and i don’t feel comfterble sharing what their about but what i will say are they are trauma related. I drive people crazy talking about my “good nightmares” but i mean they’re fun! I enjoy them! Don’t get me wrong they still shake me up, but once i calm down it’s a good time. Like staring in my own personal horror movie with no real negative repercussions. And like i always die terribly and brutally but they are really pretty and interesting. Like the “dream” that looked like it was a painting, and i was on a stage being chased by a monster having to dodge falling sandbags and shit. And i died and it was graphic and then i was watching the cops as a ghost while they were trying to solve my murder and was kind of stuck there and the cops were SO DUMB.

Steampunk: i think it would be really cool if i had like tony stark computer tech. But use it for video games.

aesthetic themed asks

♡  post these and let your mutuals/followers ask you questions ♡

Dark academia- If you had to describe yourself/your life with book titles alone, which ones would you pick?

Light academia- What’s your favourite thing to learn about?

Punk academia- Which subgenres of music do you enjoy the most?

Chaotic academia- How do you prefer to study/work? Do you work in silence, with music, speaking to friends etc. 

Cottagecore- If your friends were baked goods, which ones would they be?

Warmcore- What makes you feel joyful?

Grandparentcore- What’s something that you love from another era?

Plant parent- Do you have a green thumb? If you look after plants, share a few pics/tell us about your plant babies.

Dazecore- Are you a night owl or an early bird? What’s your sleep schedule like?

Forestcore- You’ve been given $1000 and a free day to go wherever you like. Where will you go, and how are you spending the money?

Fairycore- If you were a flower or plant, what kind would you be?

Angelcore- Did you hear any fairy tales or myths when you were a child? Share your favourite one with us.

Softcore- If you’re having a rough day, how do you practice self care?

Cyberpunk- What do you think about artificial intelligence? Is it cool, scary, necessary to society etc. 

Vaporwave- Do you remember your dreams? If so, what was the last dream that you had?

Steampunk- If you could invent something right now, what would you make? For example, a machine that recorded your dreams or an oven that would always cook your food perfectly.

[anna1306]

Hey there it's me could you possibly write an poly! Lost boys x reader who is kind of like ella from the series lucifer (so hyper, sweet, protective, sensitive)

Poly!Lost boys x Very Emotional Reader

Hopefully I got close to what you wanted, as I haven't watched Lucifer yet and picture of Ella in my mind is based solely on couple of videos with scenes

Okay, they had to admit that was hilarious.

They just wanted to meet a friend of Star she talked about so much. Of course, the girl was hesitant about it. The boys were rude, noisy and killed people. She had every right to protect her friend.

But they finally convinced her of their capability of holding it in their pants. And fangs.

Seeing your friend, you smiled at her, not even phased by four bikers near her. You just hug her, blabbering your greetings.

What a cute friend you have here, - smirked David at you, looking you up and down. - So kind and- umph!

He didn't expect your hug. The others didn't expect your hug. Star only snickered at the image of frozen and shocked David, whose face just screamed "How dare you" and still he didn't resist. After her Paul laughed. It was hilarious.

I heard an awful lot about you guys, nice to meet you all, - and yes, you did hug all of them. Paul tried to lower his hands on your butt, but Star's glare stopped him.

This evening they got to understand why Star befriended you. And why she wasn't very fond of the idea introducing you to each other. You were complete opposite of the guys. If they were serious, broody, rude. You were cute, sweet and nice person overall. And it was very strange for someone like you to hang out with them.

But after that night you kinda clicked. Now you not only hung out with Star, you went out with everyone. Not that you minded that really.

With time they got used to your behaviour. How you get easily excited, how you can be oblivious to something, like the time you showed something, sitting on the floor right beside Dwayne's legs and not understanding Paul and Marko's giggles.

But at the same time you were smart. The second Dwayne touched the theme of your speciality - that's it. You are gonna correct him and tell them details they don't even think of. Well, Dwayne for most part, who is the brain of the group maybe David too. Paul and Marko just listen in awe.

They all kinda agreed that you are theirs. Even if they forgot to ask you if you want to date them - according to the way you all communicate, it is a logical outcome. Especially if you ask Star who walked in on you all cuddling in sleep.

David is fascinated by you. Just the right amount of purity, naivety, kindness and at the same time loyalty and ability to stand up for yourself. He loves it. Yes, he can be a little embarrassed when you suddenly hug him. He can question his reasons to be with you, when you tug him to see something cute in the middle of a conversation suddenly. He especially questions it, when you take him and Dwayne to church, saying they owed you one. It was a horrible idea, and their feet were sore for the whole night. But your smile and pleasure was more important then his own health, he could handle a little bit of burning. Plus he loves being held. Just don't tell anyone.

Dwayne is softie, there is no question about it. He loves your bubbly personality and how easily you can just change the mood of the whole scene. But at the same time you can be deep and behind all of this cute, smily face you are easily one of the most attentive persons he has ever known. You know when he feels down, when he's tired, when you should tell Paul off so he could have some rest. You know what to do to help him. If he needs a hug, a talk or just quiet. Dwayne returns the favour being attentive to you and helping you out with your emotions, when it is too much. And you are smart. So little brainstorms here and there and just the right amount of competition he needs. Dwayne is all for your chit-chats about new books.

Marko thinks you are nerd. Sometimes. But for the most part you are his cute lover. Who love hugs, love him and love to have fun. You appreciate his humour, you laugh with him and at his jokes! Even if you are a bit cautious when it comes to taking risks on dangerous attractions or some dark humour, with time you react to it better and better. He even teaches you to pull pranks. Innocent ones, but nonetheless. Trapping David in your double hugs - is priceless, even if he has his ass beaten later. And don't even start on protectiveness. If Marko deals with problems with fists, you are doing this with words (fists sometimes), and you are doing it so well, he just stands there watching the opponent's confidence and overall attitude dropping lower than the ground. He is in love.

Paul can't get enough of your cuteness. He is always on quieter tones with you, he is always listening. And remembering, even if you think it is a small thing - to him it is not. Paul loves when you just come to him and vent about your day. It makes him feel like you need him and for him it is important. Blonde likes to shit-talk with you too, but he is understanding if you aren't in the mood. Plus you are joking with him and Marko, and that is great, as David and Dwayne are more on the silent side. And no matter the style, he still gives you his t-shirts and compliments their style.

They have their doubts when it comes to you knowing the truth. Would you accept it? You are mortal, very giggly, funny, cute. And they are vampires, who kill people.

But your reaction is interesting. They sense the caution from you immediately. They almost hear your thoughts and doubts. But when you look at them, they feel like you aren't going anywhere.

Are you gonna hunt me? - of course not, they love you and Star would beat their asses, even if she is younger than them. - Are you in danger from all of this? - no, what stupid question is that? - Am I in danger because of you? Hunters or whatever, - there are no hunters or anyone who could hurt you in the area. And even if there were someone - they would protect you. - Oh... Then I guess it's fine.

The whole relationship with you is hilarious and they are living for every minute of it.

The Lost Boys Taglist: @minafromasgard @starmullet @iloveslasher @twistedharper @ichorixm @promptsforstuff @collieflower215

[ticklepinions]

Cold Feet, Warm Heart

A/N: Slowly running out of side stories so I inevitably will return to the original writing series. Maybe. Haha. Anyways, enjoy. Tagging @happyandticklish because I promised her a little something at the end. 

Warnings: Feet Tiggles

Word Count: ~900

There was no denying that Nick loved his boyfriend. There were just some times where he lived to "regret" befriending, and consequently, falling in love with the gay nerd. Like now, for instance, he was cackling and rolling on the floor, trying to evade Charlie's very cold fingers from "warming" up under his arms.

"CHAHAHAHAHAR- PLEASE YOUR HANDS ARE COHOHOHOLD"

"That's why I'm trying to warm them up Nicholas" 

It was like Nick became Charlie's personal space heater. Nick would be lying if he said he absolutely hated it. It gave him many excuses to be practically physically attached to his partner. Like that one time…

"I'm cold"

"You've gotten about a dozen blankets on, and not to mention my hoodie, how can you still be cold"

Charlie peered at him from under the blankets. 

"And how are you not cold? It's bloody freezing!" 

Nick smiled and shrugged. He then slithered his way under the massive mound of blankets and eventually found Charlie. 

"Hi"

"Hi- how are you so hot?"

"Must be my good genes"

"Shut up"

From that moment forward, Nick has been victim to Charlie's very cold appendages. The "worst" part was Charlie used it as an excuse to tease him. He knew just how ticklish Nick was, yet there he was, wiggling his wiry fingers under Nick's arms. 

Nick was practically in tears, one of his worst spots being so easily exploited. Nick didn't even realize that Charlie had stopped quite a while ago. He's just been there giggling like an idiot for the last 2 mins or so. Charlie sat there with a very smug smile on his face.

"Are your hands warm now?" Nick asked between breaths. 

Charlie nodded and scooped up Nick in his arms. Nick pursed his lips, awaiting a much deserved kiss.  

"You're so needy," Charlie teased, leaning in to kiss him.

There were other times where Charlie "Icicle" Spring abused his pretty privilege in exchange for some warmth. 

"I'm cold," Charlie whined, looking out the window.

There was a torrential downpour happening outside and the boys had narrowly escaped it. 

"Tell me something that's new" retorted Nick, handing the shivering lad a cup of hot chocolate. 

The two sat on the couch, debating on what movie they were going to watch. With Nick's back turned to grab his hot chocolate, Charlie got an idea. His hands were no longer cold thanks to the warm mug he was holding, but his feet were still in need of warmth. 

"Pirates of the Caribbean it is thEN- OH MY GOD CHARLIE! Your feet are cold"

"I know," Charlie pouted, his bare feet placed on Nick's very warm back. 

Nick promptly plucked the two offending appendages from his back and placed them on his lap instead. 

"Why don't you wear socks?"

"My mum has them all in the wash"

Nick started the movie, his hands now on Charlie's feet. They shyly rubbed each other as though they wanted to hide.

"Is this okay?"

"Mhm"

Nick's hands are so warm. And since when did he learn to give massages? Charlie thought. 

"Are you getting enough vitamins mate? Your toes feel like they're getting frostbite"

Charlie tensed feeling Nick's hand touching his toes. A pleasant sensation bubbled inside of him, causing a small smile to adorn his face.

"Yehehes" Charlie giggled. 

Nick gave his signature smirk as he eyed Charlie then his feet, putting two and two together. 

As the movie progressed so did Charlie's snickering. Nick's fingers were still softly caressing the ticklish skin. Charlie didn't even make an effort to pull away, only scrunching his toes if Nick got too close to them. 

Charlie laughed at something Jack Sparrow did and man, Nick felt like Cupid shot an arrow through his heart for the thousandth time that day. Charlie's laugh was just so soft and cuddly? Like a cold lemonade on a hot summer day, it just quenched this thirst Nick had. 

"W-what?"

"Hmm? Oh nothing"

"You were staring" Charlie said with an accusatory smirk. 

Nick blushed. Luckily another scene came on that distracted Charlie. Nick couldn't take his eyes off of him. There was nothing more than he loved. The way Charlie's curls delicately bounced across his face, or how his dimples deepened as the sound of his laughter danced through the room. Without realizing what he was doing, Nick scribbled his fingers along Charlie's arches.

"Nihihick!"

"Hmm?" 

Charlie didn't protest much after that, just covering his face with his hands.

"You're so cute y'know that?"

"Shuhut up"

"Gasp. Telling the love of your life to shut up isn't very proper now is it?" Nick teased, speeding up the tickles a bit.

"I'm sahahaharry"

"And you're saying the dreaded S-word?" Nick's fingers made their way to Charlie's toes, accidentally slipping between them because of all the squirming. 

Charlie gripped his stomach and fell back onto the couch. His laughter fell silent and he feebly kicked his legs. Nick was in awe; completely stopping the tickles and just watching the happiness emanating from Charlie. He was having a proper full on gay crisis. The good thing was he could actually do something about it. Charlie gasped as he was pulled into Nick's lap and subsequently pulled into a passionate kiss...

Tune in next time to see what antics Nick and Charlie get into. This has been "Cold Feet, Warm Heart", brought to you by Applebee's. Feeling hungry? Eat Applebee's!

Coming up next on the Family Channel, Charlie and Nick Do Gay Things™. After that join Tara and Darcy in their new show, Lesbi-Honest, featuring a special guest Elle, at 8/7 central! 

[ads-for-nothing]

this is the call I needed to finally drop my newly gained Maglor ...hc? wouldn't call it hc but like, a thingy, an idea that I might base a whole fanfic series on

so a few weeks ago I had an obsession with Feanorian hair colours. especially if red hair for three kids/black for three/celegorm who is somehow light haired worked

I did some 1 am research, hoping that someone who is a bigger nerd than me would put time into this and I was not disappointed

my genetics are up to date with 9th grade biology but that is all that I needed to understand the basics of how it COULD work (there are several ideas on elf hair colour genetics there and at least one of them allows it)

a bit further down in the thread someone mentioned that if they were to film-ify the silm, they would maybe think about giving Maglor silver-ish hair to further distinguish the Sons of Feanor and make it less confusing

because all the sources only say that he had "dark" hair

so what if Mags had some sort of darker/gradient dark-to-light (layered like some light brown haired/blonde people get in summer when the sun bleaches their hair) silver-gray hair that either

a) is not remembered in paintings and historical accounts because the old ones sank with Beleriand and the writers/painters of the second age and later never actually saw him

b) is not common knowledge because he dyes it for some reason (fave reason of mine: it's a symbol of Míriels Marred-ness and he low-key gets bullied for it, Celegorm doesn't give a fuck but Maglor cares about the opinion of the crowd, it makes Feanor really sad) but then stops doing that some time after the first age

so why is that interesting?

because it grants him anonymity, to some degree.

people that remember one of the Sons of Feanor might maybe suspect a certain likeness but immediatly abandon it because silver hair. I don't think that the reason for Celegorms "the Fair" thing and Míriels haircolour are commonly known, especially not among Sindar

they might not even consider that he might not be a Sinda aswell, because hair is quite a really important distinguisher between the tribes

so what if he's very much alive and actually doing stuff but people don't know that it's him and it just won't reach even their brains to suspect it because he has silver hair, he must be Sinda.

that one cavallry officer in the last alliance who is that experienced in war, he councils the King; and who spends his evenings lamenting to Gil-Estel? can't be Maglor, his hair is silver

Gandalf's wandering pipeweed buddy who always wears gloves and fights incredibly well? Gandalf immediatly suspects him to be more than it meets the eye but it can't be Maglor, his hair is silver

Bilbo befriends a strange elf on the road back to the Shire and he drops by to visit and tells stories and sings songs of the distant past every once in a while. When Bilbo eventually tells him about the quest to Erebor and the Arkenstone, the elf pales and excuses himself. Bilbo *suspects*, especially when he gets a glimpse the star-shaped scar on his hands, but it can't be Maglor, his hair is silver

Elrond gets a bunch of strange tales about a wandering elf who could be his father, but it can't be Maglor, all sources agree that his hair is silver

When Legolas and Gimli eventually sail they bring stories of the silver-haired wanderer that became a welcome and often-seen guest in Gondor, such an important person to the royal family that Arwen starts calling him grandfather. He eventually joins the Queen in her last journey to Lórien, but, surely, it can't be Maglor, his hair is silver

One night, sometime in fourth age Valinor, Gil-Galad tells an anecdote about that one funny thing Maglor once told him and that snowballs into everyone telling their story about their person who all turn out to be him, a puzzling but beloved friend. The only one present who does not know the silver-haired wanderer personally and has no story to tell about him is Elrond.

It all starts to make sense when Nerdanel excuses herself from the extended family dinner to fetch an old family painting from before Celegorms birth, when Maglor was but a grinning toddler, with silver hair.