#thought my lights broke but thankfully i was just stupid

[hybbat]

S'just one thing after another this year...

[calcifiedunderland]

Shrimply Yours~

In which you invoke your shrimp privileges to cheer Floyd up.

Floyd x GN Reader! Enjoy, shrimpies!!~

—————

“Y’know Floyd, I’d say you’re the shrimp, not me.”

Maybe you really did have a death-by-squeezing wish. Or maybe your plot-armor protection had finally worn off. The eel in question lifted his head slowly at your words and side-eyed you, his golden eye glinting ominously in the Mostro Lounge kitchen’s light.

You’d been washing the dishes after asking Azul for a job in exchange for a little extra madol on the side. For the most part, your day had been as peaceful as it could’ve (the life of a magicless prefect was always maniacal), until you heard arguing from outside the kitchen. You all but jumped when Floyd slammed the door open and wordlessly stalked to the stove, and you spotted Azul walking off shaking his head to himself. Floyd shoved pan on the heat and began frying something, completely ignoring your presence. Was it even possible to fry chicken so aggressively?

In any case, Floyd seemed a little more volatile than usual at the moment, even considering it was him. The other students who’d been in the kitchen with you before had scuttled out before Floyd could snap at them too. But in any case, you knew that Floyd’s mood flipped faster than Crowley leaving all his work to you. So, you thought you’d try to lighten the mood.

At your words, Floyd slowly brought his head up from his deep-frying, golden-and-olive colored eyes zeroing in on you, baring his sharp, shiny teeth at you in a scowl. And in that split second, you suddenly remembered that Floyd was, in fact, a mer-eel. Moray, specifically. A predator. A predator that probably ate shrimpies like you. Who was now looking at you predatorily.

“What did ya just say, shrimpy?” His pupils were practically pin-pricks, and for a moment you swore you could hear the Jaws theme song in your head. You could remember, time and time again, your friends and upperclassmen telling you not to engage Floyd when he was in one of his moods. Even up until now, you’d never been on the awful end of his anger, especially alone. But you weren’t called beast-tamer for nothing, damn it, and maybe that title could extend to taming angry Floyd’s too. An angry Floyd that was still your friend.

“I said, you’re the shrimp, not me.” You maintained eye-contact with him, almost challenging him, ‘come at me, bro.’ You tried to keep a straight face, although you were deflating rapidly by the second because by Sevens this was so stupid but-

“Because you’re shrimply amazing.”

One second passed. Two. Three.

Then Floyd broke into a wide, sharp-toothed grin. He surged towards you, completely forgetting the frying food. “D’awww, SHRIMPY!!!”

He swooped behind you, wrapping his arms around you and picking you up. Your legs flailed around and now your arms were locked in as Floyd spun around the kitchen haphazardly with you in his arms. “Shrimpy knows just how to cheer me up! I knew this is why I kept you around!” He laughed cheerily, bobbing you up and down.

“FLOYD!” You cried, “PUT ME DOWN-“ the kitchen swirled crazily around you, as Floyd babbled some song or other cheerfully. Thankfully he’d stopped spinning, but began shaking you side to side while humming, “Shrimpy’s so brave n’ nice, all the other guppies left when they saw me but only Shrimpy stayed!”

He started pouting, and squished his cheek into yours. “Azul was bein’ mean to me, making me work now. Just ‘cause I roughed up a few customers doesn’t mean it was my fault! They shoulda been nice to me~”

Even though you were basically suspended in the air by him, you smiled at Floyd’s words. “Glad I could help Floyd, that was so mean of Azul,” you consoled him, hoping he’d put you down. He bent over until your feet were safely on the sweet, sweet ground, but didn’t let you go from his arms. The two of you swayed together, basking in each other’s company in the subpar lighting of the kitchen, until you frowned.

“…Hey, is something burning?”

“Ah shit, I burned the chicken.”

———

[a-b-riddle]

Continuing this idea.

You should be scared. Very scared. Instead you were just stupid in thinking that this person who had repeatedly broke into your home, admitting to watching you, and completely invading your privacy didn’t mean you any harm.

Your logic that if he wanted to, he would have. You just hoped to god that your intuition about him was right. You had met monsters before. They didn’t make themselves known until it was too late.

But he was different. The small things he did to make your life easier weren’t things men intent on hurting you did. And it wasn’t like he didn’t have the opportunity to.

You had gotten a dog and a cat. A bonded pair that had been left when their family moved away, leaving the partners stranded.

When you came home with the adorable mutt you sent your shadow a cheeky text.

Don’t worry. I made sure he was good with men. Just not sure if he cares for masked ones.

More worried about the cat.

This little guy? Cheese is harmless. You attached a picture of your new orange cat sleeping peacefully on your couch.

You named the fucking thing Cheese?

Dog’s name is Mac.

That only earned you a thumbs down emoji.

It had been three weeks and you were certain he hadn’t been back into your apartment. You had to do mundane tasks again. Take out the trash. Get your mail from the box. You weren’t sure how he was managing that one.

It wasn’t until you got held up at work that you sent him a text. You felt like you were asking too much, but thankfully he had crossed the line from breaking into your place.

Could I ask a favor?

Almost instantly he sent back a reply.

You could

Can you take Mac out? I’m not gonna be out of here for another 3 hours. Another waitress quit last minute and I’m stuck here. 😭

You added the crying face for effect.

Could test out that biting theory.

He won’t bite you.

Wasn’t talking about the dog, Love.

Forty minutes later you got a picture of Mac looking up. His pink tongue hanging out of his mouth, looking up in excitement.

Be careful if you pass by the guy who hangs out back by the play area. Mac dislocated my arm this weekend being a little asshole and lunging after him.

Thought you said he wouldn’t bite.

Wouldn’t bite YOU. He’s a good judge of character.

He’s a good boy.

The following shifts, your shadow would send you photos. All of Mac. All outside. None giving you the slightest idea of what he looked like.

You gave him a heads up that you’d be able to take him out yourself. You don’t know how you’d react to finally meeting him. You could have easily stalked him as he had done you, but there wasn’t any fun in that. And he had made this fun.

You didn’t however count on Mac scratching at the door at 10 pm that night.

Or the next.

Or the next.

His entire schedule was thrown off. The vet said it was a UTI and your only options were keep letting him out as needed or he will try and hold it in and risk his bladder getting inflected. Or even his kidneys.

You were standing in the flood light at the edge of your apartment building when your phone buzzed.

You need to stop going out this late. Not safe.

Why? You text back, grinning. You’re out here too. Not anything to be afraid of.

Careful. Sounds like you like having me around.

Who says I don’t?

He didn’t respond. You try again.

Am I ever gonna be able to meet you?

Three dots appeared after moments of silence

Don’t think so pet.

What’s the point then? Isn’t a hunter’s goal is to get close to their prey?

Is that what you think you are to me? My prey?

You couldn’t tell if he was actually offended. Fuck. How do you make this better?

Is it bad if I want to be?

What the fuck? Your reaction was to turn things sexual? But you weren’t lying. You often found yourself imagining him, a masked stranger coming into your room while you slept. Looming over your defenseless body until the exact moment he decided to strike.

In an instant he would have your hands restrained and a palm covering your mouth. He’d tell you to hush. The fantasy hard to imagine in that moment when you wondered what he would sound like.

I’m not actually afraid of you, you know?

Oh really? Someone is feeling brave tonight. Going out into the dark. Taunting their stalker.

You swear your could feel your heart trying to beat out of your chest. He was into it. Just as much as you were. You thought maybe given the initial cute acts of service it was more of a guardian angel kind of thing.

It wasn’t until you noticed underwear missing did you know he was just as filthy as you hoped him to be. Even though you never brought it up. Too afraid to get in too deep with someone who could be a sociopath.

You could come and see how brave I am.

He didn’t respond immediately and Mac was done dribbling out the last hit of pee. You were in the stairway when your phone chiroed.

Fine. See you soon.

A picture followed. It was dark. So dark you had to turn up your brightness. When your eyes focused, your stomach dropped.

It was you.

A stilled image of you walking into the building your back turned. The image too clear to be taken from a distance. If you had to guess it was no more than ten feet away.

Ten feet away and you didn’t hear a fucking thing. Completely oblivious to the danger close by.

That night you had came so hard you had half a mind to text him a thank you for being the inspiration behind your bliss.

[withahappyrefrain]

opening the door for them or pulling their seat out before they sit down with bob would be delightful!

You had only been at the bar for ten minutes and already regretted all the decisions you made that led to this moment.

Why did you agree to a blind date?

First of all, it was with your friend's coworker. And no matter how much Natasha said it was fine, you couldn't help but be nervous.

You had heard stories of the squad Nat worked with, some good, some…not so good.

"It's not the Hangman guy, right?" You asked her when she first brought it up.

Nat pretended to gag, "You're my friend, not enemy. It's my WSO."

So there you were, awkwardly shifting in the chair at the bar as you looked towards the entrance for the sixth time, anxiety building up in your stomach and threatening to come out like bile any moment.

This was a horrible idea.

You tried dating, you really did. Various dating apps, going to different bars and strike up a conversation, but nothing seemed to work out. Sometimes you'd get ghosted, other times it would end with you curled up in a ball on your couch with a pint of ice cream while some stupid romantic comedy played in the background. You quickly learned that it didn't matter how great the first or second date went, folks will change their mind about you at the drop of a hat.

At least with Hinge or Tinder, you could see a picture of the person and speak before meeting them. With a blind date, you didn't have that, only the information your matchmaker had given you.

He went by Bob. He was a WSO. From the Midwest, specifically Montana ("Don't refer to his accent as Southern, he will go on a spield '' Nat warned you). Very sweet, but shy at first, which was why he supposedly had trouble finding someone.

He sounded nice. Potentially lovely. But you knew better by now, after years of failed attempts and broken hearts.

Sounding nice didn't guarantee anything.

You wondered what Nat had said about you. Probably that only your parents called you by your full name. That you and Nat met through college was also a given. She's had shit luck when it comes to finding someone, hopefully you can change that?

You checked your phone for the upteemth time. 7:12. He was supposed to be here twelve minutes ago. Surely he wouldn't stand you up, considering he had to work with Nat the next day?

The idea was surprising, but not shocking. Despite the intention of dating, some folks were quite careless when it came to a heart that wasn't theirs. You had been on that receiving end more times than you'd like to admit.

He probably thought the idea of going on a date with his coworker's friend was too risky, too weird. Perhaps he looked you up on social media and found an aspect of you that he didn't like. Thanks to numerous assholes, you could list off several potential reasons. Not pretty enough, not interesting enough, not affectionate enough, too affectionate, too clingy-

The list could go on and on. Thankfully it didn't. Thankfully, the sound of your name, said by a soft voice broke you out of your thoughts and made you turn around.

Oh.

He reminded you of the male love interests from those Old Hollywood films you watched with your grandmother as a small child. Sandy brown hair that was tousled in waves, piercing blue eyes that stood out against his sharp nose and rosy cheeks.

But above all, he looked kind. Truly kind. Maybe it was the lopsided, assuring grin or the way his cobalt eyes shone against the soft lighting of the restaurant.

"Bob?"

His thin lips formed into a saccharine smile as he stepped forward, extending a long arm out.

Holy shit, he brought you flowers.

You couldn't help but stare, wide-eyed and open mouth at the beautiful marigolds and orange sunflowers. You didn't know people still did that-no date had ever done so for you.

"I-I'm so sorry for bein' late. I swear, I'm always on time, I just wasn't sure which flowers to get ya. I-I mean, I knew you liked sunflowers, Phoenix told me that but I wasn't sure if yellow was overdone or if I should do something different and I'm really sorry-"

"You're perfect," your eyes widened at your own words, "The flowers I mean! The flowers are perfect and beautiful and traffic happens, it's okay!"

His smile widened at your reassurance and you swore it melted your heart. Heat rose to your face as you accepted the bouquet, your fingers brushing against his.

The two of you walked to your table. When Bob pulled out your seat for you, your heart fluttered.

There was no way this guy could be real. Why was he single?

Often, the conversation on a first date was awkward and full of long pauses.

Not this one. Not with Bob.

He asked you questions about yourself. Hell, he even asked follow up questions. And they were thoughtful.

Bob felt the same way.

Yes, he found you stunning. But you were much more than that. You were insightful, passionate, kind.

Why on Earth were you single?

Bob was determined to make everyone else's loss his gain.

"Would you want to go get ice cream?" His fingers were tapping the table, a nervous habit that you found adorable, "I mean, I get it if you're tired but if you're not, I'd love to continue?"

A downright dopey smile overtook your face as you nodded enthusiastically.

"I'd love to continue!"

You couldn't hide your surprise though when Bob all but jogged in order to hold the door for you.

"Oh, thank you! But you don't have to do that," you explained. His brows knitted together in confusion, the corners of his lips slightly downturned.

How could one man be so cute?

"Do what?" He asked, confusion all over his voice.

"Oh, um, holding the door?" Was it wrong to have brought that up? Oh God, was he going to think of you as rude?

Instead Bob smiled as he shook his head, "Nonsense. You should never have to hold the door."

Oh no. You were going to be down bad.

As the night went on, your nerves disappeared, giving Bob a sweet smile when he held the door open or pulled out your chair.

You didn't say anything when he held the car door open to drive you home, just that smile that made his heart flutter.

But when he opened the car door after arriving at your home, you stood instead of walking forward.

"I....I had a really good time tonight," the nerves came swelling back. You couldn't recall the last time you had clicked with someone so quickly.

"I did too," his smile warmed your body, "Maybe...if you'd like, we could-"

"Do this again?" God, you really hoped that's what he was going to say. You didn't think your heart could handle it otherwise.

"Yeah," he let out a nervous chuckle, "I'd love to do this again."

Your heart soared. Nat now had rights to the biggest "I told you so" but you couldn't find it in yourself to care at this moment.

"I'm not doing anything this Friday," containing your excitement was difficult. You were positive that big, dopey grin was plastered on your face right now.

Bob loved it.

"I'm not either." That was kinda a lie. Fridays were usually when his squad went out to the Hard Deck to celebrate the end of the week.

But Nat wouldn't mind and that was all that mattered.

You two exchanged phone numbers, hands clumsily typing as you both tried to sneak glances at one another.

Once your respective phones were back in your hand, it seemed like the front door was calling your name.

Not that you wanted to leave.

Offering him coffee at this hour would be silly, no one did that anymore.

"Can I walk you to the door?" His voice was timid, unsure.

"Please." It came out abruptly, as though you had lost control of your mouth, "I mean, yes. I would like that."

When Bob offered his arm, you accepted, linking yours with his.

"This is my stop," you motioned to the front door, earning a chuckle from Bob. God, he was so handsome. And his hands were so large. What would it be like to hold them?

"I had a really good time tonight. Probably the best date I've had in...a while." The dusting of pink that spread across his cheeks was downright darling.

"Could I-"

"If you don't kiss me, I might explode."

Normally you weren't one to be so bold. But the ache inside you was threatening to burst at the seams.

"Oh thank God," was all Bob could get out before pressing his lips to yours.

[avocado-writing]

Hi bestie. I would love some angst with Astarion and Tav(reader) where a shape changer turns into one of them to hurt the other and the aftermath of the hurt and the victim convinced it was real until they talk it through and make up? Sorry if that didnt really make sense

notes: none! just some angst set start of act 3. rating: T

pairing: Astarion x reader

You have a horrid feeling in the pit of your stomach as Astarion appears before you. Withers senses something in the air, something loaded, and decides to turn and count his coin; he doesn’t want to interrupt what’s about to come. 

Or more likely he doesn’t want to get caught in the crossfire. 

The way Astarion is staring at you… gods. You feel a tight grip in your chest as a thousand emotions flit over his face. Hurt. Betrayal. Anger. Confusion. Before you can open your mouth he shoves past you, making a beeline for his tent. 

“Astarion, wait - !”

He doesn’t, so you have to jog a little to keep up. Go to put a hand on his arm, think better of it. Don’t want to upset him any further with unwanted physical touch. 

“Please - ”

“Oh, now you want to talk? Suddenly changed your mind after treating me like a bloody pincushion? I thought you were…” he trails off for a second, before finishing with, “I’ve got nothing to say to you,” he sneers, eyes solidly focussed in front of him, acting as if you weren’t even there. 

That stings. But of course he’s angry, he doesn’t know the whole story. You battle through the hurt and manage to stand in front of him, blocking his path and finally getting him to meet your gaze. 

“It wasn’t me! It was a gods-damned Doppelganger!”

He stops. Good. That got his attention.  

Your mind flits back to the other night, the horrid scene as your adventuring party for the day made it back to camp, when you figured all your companions were asleep - a horrid, faux-copy of you with a deadly blade sunk deep into your vampire’s neck. Given the secluded nature of the spot, the “two of you” may have been in the middle of a private moment. He was ripped open from several stab wounds, pale body bathed in garnet blood, and after a loud fight woke the rest of the camp… 

Well. After that everyone worked on bringing him back as quickly as possible, even though you were shaking from shock and sobs. 

Astarion searches your face. He’s looking for a tell. He’s looking for the slightest indication that you actually were the one tearing him to pieces. You want to tell him how stupid that is. Of course you’d never hurt him, change your mind and try to dispose of him in the worst way you could (and if you did, why bring him back?) You’d hoped he’d trusted you more than that. But, being in Baldur’s Gate, with Cazador so close… well, it’s no wonder that nerves are frayed. Logic has gone out the window until he can be forced to hear it.

“It must have been Orin. You know how she’s been hounding us. She probably saw how close we were, and decided to… well, try to hit us where it would hurt. And I hate it. I hate that she used my body to trick you like that.”

Ah. That he understands. You can see Astarion turn this over in his mind, and with a small exhale he releases all the tension in his body. The obvious relief is quickly plastered over with a light laugh and the affectation of his usual laissez-faire attitude. 

“Oh. Well. Don’t I look like quite the fool, hmm? You know what they say about assumptions. They make an ass of you and… well, I’d say me, but usually that’s usually a rather difficult accomplishment.”

He’s trying to hide how genuinely hurt he was. The idea that you could turn on him broke him a little, you think. That you’d use him and discard him so casually… it breaks your heart. Carefully you reach out to take his hand. You feel him flinch just a tiny bit but he accepts the gesture. 

“I’m so sorry she got to you. I won’t let it happen again. I’d never, ever hurt you, Astarion. You know that I…”

The end of that sentence hangs between you, heavy, pregnant. But thankfully, rather than chasing the end of it, Astarion pulls you to him. His arms wrap around you and you feel the softness in his embrace. 

“I know. I know you do.”

And you hold him. Knowing you’d move the cosmos to keep him safe. 

[m-jelly]

Can you please do another version of "Unholy thoughts" where they aren't in a relationship and she is just his subordinate? :)

Surprising thoughts

Most CEOs and bosses were harsh and obsessed with money, they seemed to have this huge ego and felt like they were unstoppable, but not Levi. Levi understood how fragile things could be and that anyone could stab you in the back. Thankfully, Levi didn't learn the hard way but came across it by his power to read minds.

Sometimes he used his ability to listen in to what his workers were thinking. Often people thought he seemed a bit unapproachable, or a bit reserved, they didn't like that they couldn't approach him and talk to him. However, there was one person who worked below him who was always so friendly and sweet.

You.

Levi rather adored your company when he got the chance to be blessed by it. There was something about you and it moved him to seek you out often just to talk. While he spent time with you talking about work, he got a little curious about what went on in your mind. He had promised himself he wouldn't read your mind of all people, but curiosity got the better of him.

He had a meeting with the advertising department and you were part of them, you made him wonderful designs for his tea company and he adored the black cat and bunnies you made. He was listening to the meeting and decided to look over at you and listen in on what you were thinking.

'Levi's so handsome. I don't know why people are so scared of him. He's like a cute cuddly cat. I just want to kiss his chubby cheeks. He's adorable. I bet he has no idea I've liked him for so long. Sigh...there's no way in hell he'd want me. I mean, I work under him. I guess I can keep making him things just to make him happy.'

He felt rather flustered. He'd never even considered himself as attractive but here you were singing his praise. Knowing you saw him in an attractive light, it broke his walls and all his feelings came rushing in. He felt himself getting flustered as he observed you, you had such beautiful lips, figure, eyes and an incredible mind.

'I'll get into trouble asking him out, right? Ah, this is stupid. Why would he want me? I'm nothing to look at. Oh, he flexed his hands. Damn, his hands are so beautiful, I just want to kiss them all over. He's just so wonderful, so smart and so handsome.'

He glanced down at his hands and started to see them in a new light. He was curious as to what else you thought was attractive, so he sat back in his chair before loosening his tie with one hand.

'Holy shit! Oh fuck! Look at him! So handsome! Does he know what he's doing? That's so attractive, the slow drag down of the tie...I wonder what he'll do next? Roll his sleeves up to show off his arms? Push his soft hair back? Will he smile? I love his smile.'

Levi hummed and made a comment about the designs, as soon as he heard it was you again he gave you a smile that you were craving. "Thank you. I can always rely on you."

You squeaked a little. "Th-Thank you, Mr Ackerman."

You looked so cute and adorable to him, he wanted to see that so much more. He wanted to make you smile, laugh and feel pure joy in life. Reading your mind really opened new doors for him in life.

'Oh my god, he praised me! He really caught me off guard doing that, he made my heart race like shit! He's just so sweet. I feel so special. I just need moments like these with him, that's all I need. I know he'll never want me as anything more, so I'll enjoy the little things like this.'

Levi called your name. "Do you mind staying after the meeting?"

You gasped. "A-Ah, sure."

He waited for people to walk out before speaking. "I really admire your work and I was thinking of working closer with you, this would mean a promotion."

Your eyes widened in such an adorable way. "Th-thank you, Mr Ackerman. I'm honoured."

"Levi. Please, call me Levi."

You nodded and smiled in such a cute way. "Yes, Levi."

@ladycheesington @levisbrat25 @nyxiieluna @li-anne @galactict3a

@youre-ackermine @thebobaprincess @2moth-anon2 @cypidity @nbinairyn

@bts-spnlvr12 @darkstarlight82 @emilyyyy-08 @levistealeaf @pelicanpizza

@hideandgopeep @notgoodforlife @demonic-bird @searriously

[dilutedconfusion]

Lost Star

Eustass Kid x F!Reader (Part 1) Real World AU

OH and this is going to be angsty. Angsty with a sprinkle of stupid dialogue if you will.

Summary: You and Kid are long time best friends but you just so happen to find yourself in a risky situation, curtesy of your bladder and too much alcohol. Most of this story takes place over a phone call between you and Kid. One where one of you is crying, until both of you are crying. Enjoy <3

Warnings: None I think??

Word Count: 3.5k

Part 1 Part 2

On a late Wednesday night, Kid didn’t expect to be getting so many calls. By the blaring white lines cast in a blurry glow, he managed to make out the number 12:22 am on his alarm clock. The insistent buzzing of his phone against his nightstand nearly making him want to tear it apart with his teeth.

What does a guy have to do to get a little fucking sleep around here?

He could nearly feel the weight of his eye bags tugging on his pale skin. The warm embrace of his bed feeling more and more like a tomb he’d be comfortable dying in.

But of course, once the ringing had stopped once, which earned Kid a hearty yawn and the closing of his eyes, it started up again. That same persistent buzzing was rumbling against the wood. It felt so invasive Kid nearly thought a swarm of bees had crawled into his ears. Nesting for the night or maybe having some kind of buzz off where one had to be louder than all the rest. But if this was a buzz off he knew his phone would win by a landslide.

Using his forearms he bent them to prop up his bare chest off the soft bed. Not willing to fully sit up he just slapped his hand against the nightstand in a lazy attempt to pick up his phone. But instead of picking it up he knocked it right off the table, the small rectangle of light falling to its doom and crashing against the wooden floor.

“Goddamn it,” Kid mumbled under his breath, brushing his tossed hair out of his eyes and sliding closer to the edge of the bed. The phone was still ringing. Now buzzing loudly against the floor and most certainly pissing off his neighbors below. He managed to lean off the bed just a bit, his long arms coming in handy to scoop it off the floor.

Rolling onto his back with a content sigh he stared at that small rectangle of light that had thankfully stopped buzzing. He read the caller's name in his notifications with little tears of exhaustion naturally pricking the corners of his eyes.

“Y/N?” He mumbled out to himself, his frown of annoyance now turning into one of mild confusion. You were known to blast his phone with multiple calls at a time. You had done it when you swear you saw a dog that looked just like Kid and to Kid's utter dismay, it did indeed not look like him cause that dog was fucking ugly. You had done it when your car broke down nearly a thousand times. Using your ‘my friend is a mechanic’ card to get his free help. You had done it on nearly every holiday that you weren’t together and though he feigned annoyance on those calls, he secretly liked it.

So basically without a doubt, you would weasel your way into finding any excuse to call him. Kid didn’t think that this night would be any different though he made it very clear he wouldn’t answer late-night calls. He wasn’t about to give up his precious sleep to hear your languorous ass talk about the meaning of life or what kind of cheesecake you would be if you were a cheesecake.

But still, he opened up his phone to check if you had texted him, which of course you didn’t. Scrolling through his notifications he noticed 15 unanswered phone calls from you in the last 20 minutes.

Eyes widening in a mix of shock but mostly annoyance he spoke, “What the hell is this woman thinking??” He looked over each call, they seemed back to back from what he could tell which only ticked him off further. But before he could even think it through you called him yet again, his phone vibrating loudly on the soft metal of his prosthetic.

He didn’t want to talk to you. Hell, he was about to put his phone on sleep mode and roll over without a thought. But it was the fact that you’ve never called him this fervently before that made him hesitate. You usually just quit around 4 unanswered phone calls. But this time was different which meant either you were drunk or something bad was happening.

So with a half-asleep limb, he clicked the answer on his phone. Putting it up to his ear as he let his back sink deeper into the mattress below him. “What do you want?” Was the first thing he said without hesitation. His voice much lower and more gravelly than usual due to the late hours.

Though of course, he didn’t hear your voice respond on the other end. Instead, he just heard what he could only assume was a light wind breezing against the microphone and the sounds of footsteps thudding softly in the background.

Did she buttdial me? Was the first thought that rang through his mind but it couldn’t be. You called him consistently for the last 20 minutes. You just hadn’t noticed he answered.

So he spoke again, using a bit more effort so you would hear him. “Do you not hear me? Put the phone to your ear dumbass.”

Kid immediately heard a light yelp come from the other end, followed by a pausing of footsteps before your haphazard ass finally spoke through the phone. “Kid?”

“Who the fuck else would it be? You’re the one who called me bolts for brains.” Kid grumbled, rubbing his hand along his face to try and wake himself up just a bit more.

“Ah…um yeah yeah I umm called you.” Kid noticed right away your voice sounded a bit more slurred than usual. Like you had a gobstopper in your mouth preventing you from saying something coherent. He squinted his eyes as he stared at the ceiling, trying to piece together what the hell was going on.

“Are you drunk and calling me late at night? What the hell Y/N?” He didn’t feel like he needed to be mean. But if you were seriously about to say you spam-called him for the last 20 minutes because you were bored and drunk he was going to throw his phone across the room.

It took you a second to reply and he could hear the way your breath hitched at that question. “Ah umm maybe. I don’t know Kid, it's just that something spooky is happening and I’m scared and I’m cold and I missed you.” Again you sounded like your brain was hollow at the moment. Though your words made Kid slightly concerned hearing the whole ‘I’m scared and cold’ bit.

“I swear are you fucking with me right now? What do you mean you’re scared and cold?” Kid was about to roll his eyes hard if you complained about something stupid. You being drunk wasn’t something he saw often especially considering how shitfaced you sounded. But his sass was palpable at this point despite all the flashing red signs that should be telling him something was wrong.

“I don’t know. Ask the forest. Who knows why these things are always so cold and spooky? It’s just like…natural law or whatever.” And with that, Kid paused.

The forest? What the hell does this girl mean by ‘the forest’?

“Is the forest a euphemism for something? What are you, sitting on your bathroom floor complaining about how cold it is?” He was trying to piece together a scene in his mind. One where you were bored and drunk for whatever reason so you called him in your bathroom. Hopefully, you weren’t drunk because you were depressed over something stupid again. But by the soft sound of your voice, you sounded more scared than sad.

“I wish the forest was a bathroom. I just peed by a tree and a little bit of it got on my pants. That…doesn’t make me a piss baby does it?”

Kid's face contorted into a mixture of disgust and complete confusion. It woke him up a bit more to his annoyance but it couldn’t be helped. What you had said was just too much for him to even remotely understand. But what worried him more was the fact that you weren’t giving up this whole ‘I’m in a forest’ joke.

“Y/N…where are you right now?” Kid's voice dipped into something more serious. His lower register rumbled in his chest as he nearly growled out that answer.

“The forest. Have you not been listening to me? I peed on my pants and I’m cold and I’m scared so I called you.” You sounded like you thought he was stupid. Like it couldn’t be more apparent where you were and Kid was just letting the facts fly right by him.

But as he pieced together not only what you said but the sounds coming through his phone it slowly started to make sense. The howling wind hitting the mic. Your footsteps sound a bit crunchy as if you were walking on grass. He could even make faint creaking sounds and even a few birds in the air around you. Chirping in the late hours of the night as the rest of the predators came alive.

“Y/N…please don’t tell me you’re actually in a forest right now.” Kid didn’t want to believe it. Because if this was a prank then it was a mean one. He couldn’t believe he missed all those background sounds earlier. Him and his tired brain lacked all the sense of keenness it usually held.

“Yes, I’m in a forest dummy.” That made his stomach sink fast like a pound of lead that somehow slid down his esophagus and gut-punched him from the inside. He sat up in his bed immediately, his spine cracking loudly and his vision blurring around the edges.

“Why are you in a forest? Actually, why the fuck didn’t you tell me sooner?! You’ve been talking out of your ass this whole time!” He yelled at you, his voice raising drastically in concern. “It’s midnight you dumb fuck. Why in the world are you out there?”

“Gosh Kid don’t yell at me! I just needed to tinkle and this was the only place.” Your voice went an octave higher and became increasingly whiny as you spoke. Kid nearly wanted to crawl through the phone and wring your neck.

“The only place you could pee was a forest? Have you never heard of a bathroom fuck-nut?! Why the hell are you in a forest in the first place?” Kids anger was making him get ahead of himself. Each word that left your slurred and intoxicated lips was not what he wanted to hear.

This is why I hate it when she gets drunk. She gets stupid and makes me clean up her mess.

“Fuck-nut? What kind of insult is that? I’m not a fuck-nut.” Your voice became more strained as you spoke. It sounded like you were on the verge of tears. Though the reception for some reason was getting more and more hazy as the call went on so Kid paid no mind.

“Y/N!” Kid was nearly gripping his sheets out of pure anger from this conversation. He shouldn’t be yelling this late at night, he knew that. But his stupid best friend was becoming more stupid by the second.

You took a second to respond. Leaving Kid to just listen to your soft sniffles on the other side. It made his muscles freeze in realization.

I’m screaming at a drunken and vulnerable Y/N right now. What the fuck Kid?

“Don’t yell at me. I-I’m already scared as it is. I just wanted to call you 'cause I didn’t know anybody else that could h-help me.” Your voice sounded so frail. Kid could nearly see your tear-stained face painted on the blank wall across from his bed. It made his heart lurch in the cage of his chest.

“I…I won’t do it again. Just tell me what’s going on. No more deflecting or talking about something else. I need to know why you are in the woods this late at night.” Kid used the most reassuring voice he could muster up. He’s dealt with your crying self a couple of times. Like when that guy who in Kid's opinion was a complete waste of space rejected you. Or when one of your relatives died a few years back. He had been there to awkwardly try and pick up the fragile pieces of your heart. So he could only hope he could use that learned sympathy now.

“I was…at this party. It this whole bonfire next to the lake thing. There was like…a lot of booze and it tasted really good. Like really really good Kid, it had lemonade and sliced fruit in it. Oh, and they had these speakers strapped into some guys' truck bed. I was twerkin' up a storm ya shoulda seen it.” Your voice still sounded sad and strained as you spoke. As if you were emotional about how ‘awesome’ this party was to the point of tears.

Kid's hand instantly smacked against his forehead. Rubbing his face and stretching the deep lines of his eyes bags and permanently frowning corners of his lips. Forcing himself to just groan and hold back all the fiery frustration lumped in the back of his throat.

God, how much did she drink? She’s usually never this emotional. Or this stupid.

“Y/N quit talking about the booze and the party. I get it. It was good. Tell me why you called me. Like exactly how you ended up in this forest alone. And try to calm down a little. I can’t handle the crying.” Kid couldn’t help but sternly push you off the topic of the party because if he heard you talk about twerking one more time something in his brain would short-circuit.

You sniffled softly into the mic once more as if you were swallowing down a well of tears. “O-Okay…I can calm down. The party ended a little while ago. People started packing up and driving home for the night. I called an Uber because ya know…alcohol. There’s a main road close by so I just needed to walk down this trail to catch my ride. But I needed to piss like SOOOO BAD. I was seconds away from shooting a piss rocket down my legs from how bad it was. So I went off the trail a good bit. Ya know, so nobody would see my lady bits. But I think I got like…turned around on the way back to the trail.”

The whole time you were talking Kid could nearly feel his blood pressure rising. A cold chill ran across his spine as his body twitched and went rigid. It was like he was hearing the most idiotic yet horrific joke in the world. But the problem right now was that it wasn’t a joke and it was happening to you of all people.

Oh no.

“Y/N…how long have you been walking around aimlessly?” Kid almost didn’t want to ask. He didn’t want to know because if you said what he was thinking, then there was a high probability you were dead lost.

“Ummm…I think about 30 minutes? I don’t know exactly when I left to go piss but it's around that amount of time. Plus I fell over a stupid log and got a boo-boo on my leg.” Your voice sounded so ignorant as you said that. As if you didn’t realize how bad your situation was. Kid couldn’t even respond right away. He was too lost in the questions of how the hell you were going to get out of this mess.

“Kid…you there? I…uhh have a backpack. I brought water and a flashlight. Plus I’m wearing that jacket. Ya know the one you bought me for my birthday with the little skull on the sleeve? It’s my favorite.” Kid felt his heart sink once more.

She’s wearing that jacket? While lost in the woods?

“I didn’t buy you that jacket just so you could get lost in the woods with it you asshole.” Kids voice became void of all frustration. Just grumbling and low as he contemplated his life for a moment. “Did you try yelling so someone could come find you? Maybe shine your flashlight through the trees?”

“Yeah, but I think everyone already left.”

Well, shit.

And with that Kid started to get up from his bed. Letting his wide feet land on the cold wooden floor below him he turned on his bedside lamp and started making his way towards his closet. Letting the closet door softly swing open before he quickly put the call on speaker mode.

“Kid…what are you doing?” Your quiet voice floated up to him. He set the phone down on a shelf in his closet before yanking out a gray hoodie and some black sweatpants to cover up his mostly naked body.

“Coming to get you. Now find a place to sit and stay there. No more walking. You’re getting yourself more lost the more you walk around.” He grumbled out, shoving his leg through one of the pant holes. He could feel the ghostly chill of goosebumps crawling all over his skin. As if bugs or the cold hands of ghosts were tracing the lines of his scars. And even though he was hating every second of this, he supposed you were hating it a lot more.

Though with the amount of jokes she’s making maybe not so much. But she always makes jokes at the worst of times.

“But shouldn’t we call the authorities? Or maybe even Killer? I just called you cause…I missed you but you don’t have to do this alone Kid.”

There was a softness in your voice that dragged his attention away by its heels. He paused in his closet. Frozen still for just a moment like a statue of disarray. “No. Just me. No cops. I don’t need them seeing my face and I don’t need their half-assed help. Plus Killer works early shifts, I ain’t dragging him to help me on this one. So quit questioning my abilities and let me help you.”

His voice was so stern you could’ve sworn the foundation he built those words upon was made out of solid gold. There was no changing his mind on this one. No matter how much you tried to erode his logic with your tears of worry. So you just feigned a smile that no one could see and spoke, “Okay. I trust you, Kid. Always have, always will.”

Kid could feel those words echoing in the caverns of his mind. As if they were being written on his flesh itself. But he paid no mind or at least that’s what he wanted to believe. He had more important things to do such as saving your helpless ass.

You looked around at the forest engulfing you. It was thick in all directions. No tower, mountain, or really anything to give you a point of reference to where you are. The little flashlight you brought was doing an unsurprisingly half-assed job. The dark was almost too dark. The moon barely peeking through the tops of the trees leaving you amiss in a world of darkness seemingly built for your own demise. The wind was howling and you could catch the far-out hoo of an owl doing little to subside your fear. Though everything was green and lush so it looked soft enough sit down on.

“Okay…I’ll sit down. I’m ummm…by Lake Folsum. Ya know the one off the highway going towards the South? There’s a little dirt road you can take but it cuts off to that trail I was talking about. I gotta be somewhere around there.” You mumble, taking small steps forward and looking at a rather tall oak tree in front of you. You leaned over and felt the dirt, trying to make sure it wasn’t too wet before settling down on it and leaning your back against the tree.

”Alright. It’ll probably take me 40 minutes to get there. 30 if I break a couple of laws. Just wait for me okay?” You could hear Kid shuffling around on the other end. His breath hitting the mic and floating into your ears. You heard the faint jangling of what you assumed was him picking up his keys. Followed by the door of his apartment opening and closing with a subtle lock.

“You’re not gonna hang up on me right? Don’t leave me alone out here Kid. I need you.”

Kid let out a little grunt at that. Your voice sounded so delicate it made his throat tighten. Both of you have been friends forever but if anything insults were more regular then whatever the hell you were doing right now. It made him feel weird. All this ‘I need you, I missed you’ bullshit sounding so strange coming out of your mouth. But he wanted to believe it was the just the alcohol talking. That you were scared and had called the first person you could think of which was him. He wasn’t special by any means and he didn’t expect you to ever rely on him like this. But here he was, about to come to your rescue and he was going to do it all by himself. To try and be the strong reliable friend he wishes he was. He just couldn’t let another person down.

So he picked up his pace just a bit. Forcing himself to go down the stairs two steps at a time to make it to the parking garage. His mind a brewing storm of worry and fear though he would never say it out loud.

It's up to me to help her. I can’t break. Not right now.

“I would never leave you. Don’t ever assume that.”

A/N: I already said this shit was going to be angsty…which can lead you to assume a lot of things. So uhhh yeah be prepared for that cause I already have a mild outline of what this story is going to be and just thinking about it makes me sad. But I’m VERY excited for said sad so it’s okay. When the time comes we can cry together in the comments <3

[the-final-sif]

Sixteenth Day Event Prompt:

Dream and Ponk discuss their experiences with Sam

@sixteenth-day-event "What happened to your arm?"

The question came out of nowhere. It was an impulse. A stupid one. Dream wasn't really expecting a response.

Surprisingly, Ponk's eyes blinked open. They weren't red anymore (thank god), but they were fuzzy and unfocused still. Several seconds ticked by before Ponk managed to rasp out a response.

"Sam."

It was just one word, but it was the most that Dream had gotten out of him so far. He would dismiss it as a quirk of timing, but from Punz's recounting, talking about shit had helped ground him and pull him back from the Egg. Alright. So Dream just needed to keep this going.

"Weren't you two dating?" He could swear he remembered that. Ponk huffed a dry laugh.

"Were. Broke up af'er he cut m' fuckin' arm 'ff."

"That uh- makes sense." Great. A+ conversation. God fucking dammit. Okay, refocus here.

"Was there like, a reason? Or did he just get bored?" That sounded harsher than he meant for it to, but too late now.

Ponk's gaze went hazy for a moment, too far maybe? Before he managed to shake his head, bringing himself back down.

"Stole the prison keys. Wasn't eve' tryin' to do much. He'd been ignorin' me. Thought it was funny. Thought I might go visit you or somethin'. He freaked out. Never thought- Never thought he'd do something like this." As he finished speaking, Ponk managed to lift his good hand just barely and gesture at his stump.

Ah. Dream wasn't sure how he felt about that. Was it better? That it hadn't been just him. Who thought Sam could be trusted and was wrong? Or was it worse? That it all came back to Dream himself in the end. Something corrupting, corroding, ruining everything he came into contact with?

A question for another time maybe.

"That sucks." Okay, he winced at that one. "Sorry- uh, I didn't. I didn't think he'd do something like that either. Before."

It said a little more than he wanted to say. Ponk, of course, had recovered enough to catch on. Eyes now focusing in on him. Taking him in and judging. Dream clenched his jaw and tried to ignore the weight of an old friend's gaze. Tried to change the subject.

"You feel up for some water?"

Thankfully, Ponk let the topic drop in favor of nodding. Probably parched by now. Dream pushed himself to his feet and grabbed the spill proof bottle that Punz had left. They were ready for this.

He held it out carefully, trying his best to control the shaking in his own hands. From how Ponk's eyes narrowed, he didn't quite manage it.

The light in here was soft, and Dream had been hoping that would hide his scarred hands. Not from Ponk's eyes though, as the other carefully took the water bottle, drinking from it in long gulps.

By the time it was finished, Dream had returned to his spot on the far side of the room, right by the door so he could get out if he needed to. Not that he would need to. Ponk wasn't infected anymore, the guy could hardly lift a bottle.

The silence stretched out between them, until finally, Ponk spoke again, eyes watching Dream's hands far too closely.

"Is it fucked up if I'm glad it wasn't just me? That he- It was him. I mean, I knew he was the one that fucked up. He cut my fucking arm off over some fucking keycards. But- I mean- He kept trying to act like it wasn't a big deal. Like I should just ignore what he did to me. Like it was all my fault. I didn't buy it- but- I mean- God, I'm not sure what I mean."

Something inside Dream wanted to break. Wanted to shatter apart. Wanted to scream and cry and-

"It's okay." Dream replied, his voice far more shaky than he would've liked. "I get it." That might be a lie. Both statements might be lies.

"I'm glad it wasn't just me either." Dream said, because it was what he needed to say.

Maybe one day he'd be able to figure out if he meant it.

[dax-enfinity]

If you have any Natleo thoughts/headcanons, I'd love to hear 'em (I love these goobers so much istg)

Hey Ellie !!

Lmao I love them too, natleo so silly

Personally I like it when as a couple they serve as a direct contrast to Nicoby, but it’s also my guilty pleasure where Nicoby are actually together now and those two are THE SLOWEST SLOWBURN OF ALL SLOWBURNS.

I mean, imagine Nat going to Nico for advice and to ask him on how Leo’s like, then there’s Toby making it his duty to become Leo’s wingman to try and get the two of them together.

Those two are absolute STUPID for each other.

They like each other mutually, but the two of them are too scared to make a move on the other.

I can imagine some convo going like this:

Natalie (internally): What if he thinks I’m weird? What if he gets freaked out by my stitches if I ever tried to kiss him? What if he got grossed out over the whole ‘clock-eye replacement’ thing…? What if his friends think I’m weird and scary and—…!

Leo (suffering, ranting to Toby): What if she thinks I’m a loser?! What if she distances herself from me due to what she’s gone through…?! I mean, I’m just a regular guy! There’s nothing ‘hardcore’ or ‘edgy’ about me like you! There’s nothing special about me compared to her! What could she even see in me?!

Natleo would 100% be more healthier than Leo/Calypso, and I will stand by this wholeheartedly.

AND NAT IS A SERIAL KILLER…!

Okay, now onto headcanons:

Big Spoon Nat

Little Spoon Leo

Nat snores when she sleeps, but Leo doesn’t mind it, he actually finds it adorable and so cute

Nat has a bike, not a motorcycle, but a bike, and one time it broke down and Leo helped Nat with getting it fixed up

Do NOT bring these two idiots to karaoke, it’s even worse if you bring them to karaoke night together

Nat helps teach Leo how to cook, it’s a stress-free habit she picked up a while back, to get her mind off things

Leo drools when he sleeps

Nat finds it hilarious that Leo drools when he sleeps, and secretly, she takes funny photos of him while he’s asleep

Leo is a dog person

Nat is a cat person

Leo learns how to sew and he constantly worried on the chance that he’ll have to sew one of Nat’s injuries if she ever comes back with something like an open wound

Leo and Nat meet out of the blue, they end up getting closer after finding out that they both know Nico and Toby

Leo was HEAD OVER HEELS for Nat when they first met

To Leo’s demise Toby forcibly becomes his wingman, Toby makes it his mission to get Nat and Leo together

Leo helps Nat get over her insecurities

And viceversa

When they first met, Leo had an imaginary rivalry going on with Helen (Bloody Painter) in his head, on the other side of things, Helen had NO IDEA that Leo wanted to punch his lights out when they first met

For context on Leo’s imaginary one-sided rivalry with Helen, for a while, Leo thought that Helen was in love with Nat, due to them being close and all, but nope, he was wrong, those two are just friends thankfully

Leo is the type of guy to try to win Nat prizes and fairs and carnivals yet he fails miserably at it

Nat wins the prizes on her first try

When the rest of the seven/other demigods met Toby and found out about the CreepyPasta’s and what Nico was doing during those months he dipped, Leo was probably the first person to stand up for Nico in that situation.

He kept assuring the other that, yeah Toby’s got issues! But he’s a cool dude! Genuinely! Really funny and smart guy!

And then, when the rest of the seven/other demigods met Nat for the first time, Nico returned Leo the favor, and stood up for him.

These two are so cute together!

I love them.

I love Natleo so much, just like how I love Nicoby!!

[ciellunee]

Seeing him tonight, it's a bad idea, right?

Pairing- Nanami kento X reader

Chapter 2- And I know we're done, I know we're through,But, God, when I look at you

Synopsis- kento Nanami is your ex-boyfriend. He's cold, stoic, and more importantly, the crush of your new friend. Being the good friend you always are, you should keep your hands off him, but..... can you?

Chapter 1-

Nanami kento recently rejoined jujustsu high, and you couldn't understand your feelings regarding the news. Texting nanami was either the best or the worst decision, but thankfully for you, it didn't go that bad....

You knew nanami. This is exactly how he responds... he's a stoic man. You knew everything yet your stomach churned, as if expecting something different. "He moved on, and so should I," was your mantra. You kept chanting it. It was stupid, but it reminded you of the necessary.

Packing your lunch, you knew you'll meet him today since every teacher at jujutsu High shares the same staff room. You promised to compose yourself. You have to. You want to you need to.

It was quite a hectic day. Your eyes tearing and burning from working long hours in dim light. The autopsy was rather difficult because of the cursed technique used. Finally, after filling out the report analysis, you opened your phone, getting tons of messages from the group chat.

The idea of your co-worker and your ex-boyfriend together made you nauseous. You never thought about it, nanami with some other girl, it was made you break into cold sweat. You never got to move on. Why does he? He broke your heart. He made your life harder, every night you'd cry yourself to sleep wishing that kento would reverse his decision of leaving you and just come back to you after all, wasn't he truly happy with you too?

Pushing the thoughts aside, you checked the time. 3:25, the lunch was over, and you were starving. Since all your work for the day was finished, you decided to eat your lunch in peace in the empty staff room.

Your bento box had eggs and chicken with rice and curry in different smaller containers. Everything was freshly prepared by you that morning. You remember how kento loved having your meals because they just "tasted better and fresh."

Your peace was soon interrupted by the staff room door opening. The blond you didn't really wished to see standing in the doorway. He took one glance at you, his poker face doesn't show any emotion. You shift uncomfortably trying to focus on your food as you scroll through the recipe book on your desk.

The blonde took his seat at the corner of the table and took out a book himself. You couldn't help but look at him. His face was stressed yet somehow relaxed. His crisp suit had no crease, and you knew he smelled absolutely amazing. You missed being in his arms. The only thing you wanted was for him to pull you in his arms and let you marinate in the aroma of him and his cologne. A sigh escapes your lips.

No class? You ask

None. I thought taking a break to read would be nice. What about you? Didn't see you at lunch

Ah, I had a case, quite a difficult one. Was finishing up reports during lunch. I'm starving. You motioned to the bento box, "want some?"

He loved your cooking, but you were sceptical if you crossed a line asking him to eat.

Sure. He smiled. Goddamn that smile.

He came closer and took a seat beside you. Taking a pair of chopsticks, kento dug into your lunch. Smiling as he enjoyed the nostalgic taste. The vegetables tasted fresh and crisp. Chicken was well seasoned and rice was perfectly cooked. You just knew how to hit the spot.

"Delicious!" He commented, and took another bite of rice and chicken. I've missed your cooking so much. He said, not paying attention to your now reddened cheeks.

Suddenly you were too full to eat anything. In awe to see your kento delightfully eating. You loved that man and no matter how much time passes, you cannot let go.

A sudden click of door takes you out of your thoughts, it's Midori along with Yuuji Itadori who's carrying a bunch of papers for her.

"Sensei!" Little angel greets you before turning to nanami.

Nanamin! Ooh, gojo sensei was looking for you, I'll tell you you're here with y/n sensei.

Your chuckle makes nanami a little embarrassed. 'Don't call me thar itadori kun. And no need to call gojo San over. I'll contact him myself Don't worry.'

"But I think it's a cute name nanami San..."

Midori your newest friend and co-worker whined, placing the papers on her desk she sat on the edge of the table in front of nanami. Na-Na-MiN sounds adorable.

Midori's voice made something inside you snap but you had to keep your cool, after all, you guys weren't together or anything. Yuuji excused himself while nanami and midori went on bout their days. Jealousy wasn't even near what you felt. A part of you was sad seeing kento so happy and cheerful while talking to midori, he deserved it all but just why.......why couldn't it be with you???

[lunaslovelyrambles]

“you’ve got your products and reactants mixed up.”

you swear your eraser nearly rips a hole through your paper as you fix your mistake. who decided that organic chemistry had to be so goddamn hard? and complicated? and stupid, and-

“and the solvent is wrong, polar aprotic works better for SN2.”

and why did you decide to study with the world’s number one chemistry nerd?

“thanks, kuroo, got anything to say that’ll make me feel like i actually do know reaction mechanisms?”

he chose to not say that your skeleton structure was off by one carbon. or that the fluorine should be on a dash bond and not a wedge bond.

“well,” he pointed to the problem before that you had just completed, “this one’s right.”

you gave him an unconvinced look.

“mostly right.”

“ah, there it is,” you sighed and leaned back into your chair. you were tired. more than tired - exhausted. but ochem was your worst subject. it was even worse because there was no way that you’d actually use chemistry given your career goals.

it was merely one of those classes that you “needed to take” for your major. and it was brutal compared to the other chem classes you’d taken beforehand.

kuroo has been your friend for as long as you can remember. he was your neighbor growing up, and best friend ever since then. and now, your study buddy as you struggled with chemistry.

again.

“well. the product is only slightly off. you’re just not thinking about chirality when you’re doing SN1 reactions,” he narrowed his eyes at you as he watched you nod off.

“mhm. chirality, yup.”

“‘cause that can change your products,” he trailed off. your eyes had completely closed and he could’ve sworn you fell asleep because you barely noticed your chair tipping back further and further-

“ah-AH!” you lost your balance and felt yourself fall backwards, thankfully not hitting the ground due to the much more alert kuroo tetsuro.

“i think we should call it for tonight,” he went to go close your textbook. you sprung forward to stop him.

“no, no wait! i promise i’m awake,” you pleaded with him. he sighed and shook his head.

“you’ve done this before, y/l/n. with every other chem exam i’ve helped you study for. remember when i helped you study for your first gen chem one exam?” he had a teasing lilt to his voice.

“umm.. no?”

“exactly,” he full on smirked at you now, “you fell asleep for it.” you huffed, moving your arms to cross over your chest.

“well, it’s not my fault chemistry is so.. sleep inducing.” he mocked hurt and held his hand to his chest, as if the mere thought of chemistry being talked badly about was offensive.

“how dare you speak that way about chemistry?”

“oh come off it, deep down inside your science-loving heart you know this can get a bit boring.” he hummed in response, sliding your book off the desk and into your bag.

“maybe, maybe you just don’t understand how amazingly fun and super rad it can be.” that got a laugh out of you.

“but even with how fun it is, it’s not good to study for,” he broke to check the clock, “four hours? with rarely any breaks.”

“i know,” you sighed, head resting on the desk. even as you tried to relax your brain was still filled with ochem, and stupid reactions. your eyes fluttered shut and you sighed.

kuroo smiled affectionately at your sleepiness. it was cute, and he admired how much you effort you were putting into the class despite your hatred towards it.

he nudged your shoulder to jostle you awake slightly.

“don’t fall asleep at the desk,” he gently helped you up and over to your bed where you finally felt your body decompress. kuroo tucked the blankets around your body.

he took one second to unabashedly admire how adorable you were when you got tired. kuroo couldn’t help the small smile that rose to his face.

but he soon turned, shutting off the light on the desk and gathering his stuff. he assumed you were asleep until you spoke up again:

“night, tetsu,” you yawned sleepily, the sound of the nickname from his lips made him smile.

“g’night y/n, try not to dream too much about chemistry.”

— • — • —

-> masterlist

[patchworkgargoyle]

oc fic: won't you stay with me?

Belatedly sharing this here, but this was written for my dear friend Read's (@amusingdisplacement) birthday back in August! Happy birthday again!! <3

The Cast Keziah: non-binary/GNC OC, Read's Dominik: transmasc OMC, mine Context: set in the very early days of the peace of mind verse, but you don't need to have read anything else to read this. Both characters are 17-18 years old. Please mind the content warnings, they come into play right away. Title from Call Your Mom by Noah Kahan, dividers by @/saradika-graphics. Rating: T || Words: 4,899 || CW: transphobia; misgendering; allusions to abuse, conversion camps, and suicidal ideation; So Much Angst I’m So Sorry

“I cannot believe the mouth on her–”

“You get back here right now!”

Dominik slammed the door to his aunt's house, the glass of it shaking, muting the shouting he was leaving behind with increasingly rapid footsteps. Blood and breath roared in his ears as he broke into a run. The soles of his chucks slapped against the sidewalk.

He needed to go. To run. To get the fuck away from here. It was that or listen to the terrifyingly calm voice that lurked under the furious mess of his thoughts. He bolted instead.

Driven by instinct alone, he veered onto the path that led between all the dull suburban homes and hoped his parents weren't trying to follow him. They would never go so far as to run after him, they'd never cause such a scene, but he wouldn't put it past them to patrol in their car around the neighbourhood he was running to. His head start would only get him so far, especially when he hadn't stopped to tie his shoes.

Dom felt the jerk on his foot too late. Laces trapped under his other foot, he went sprawling across the trail. He barely caught himself on bony palms and joints, managed to only graze his chin, teeth clacking, instead of his face. It forced up a sound he choked down, desperate to keep it inside until he could get to Keziah. Panting, he scrambled to his feet, shoved the laces down beside his ankles, and stumbled back into a run.

By the time he got to their neighbourhood his chest was burning. Every breath left his throat raw. His legs and feet ached. To run the whole way was stupid but he couldn't fucking slow down.

Before he broke out into the main street, Dom stalled in the gloom between houses. The yellow streetlights had flickered on moments ago, pools of buzzing light drawing moths to the quiet road. He could feel that awful buzzing under his skin. A car going by made him flinch, but, thankfully, it wasn't his parents’ sedan. Nothing else drove by, so he made one last mad dash.

The familiar houses were a blur. None of them even registered until he spotted the one he needed to see. He ran faster, nearly losing a shoe when he thundered up to the door, knocking rapidly before he let himself in with the key he'd been given.

Ma de Leon's confused voice could be heard from the living room. “Dominik? What's wrong?”

But Dom didn't answer, just kicked off his stupid fucking shoes gasped out, “Ziah?”

“In their room, sweetie, but what—hold on, what happened to your hands?”

Again he didn't answer. He was too focused, too panicked. He took the stairs two at a time and let his sore feet automatically carry him to the right door, cracked open enough for faint music to filter through.

Kez sat up in zir bed, already in pajamas and a bonnet, setting zir magazine aside and frowning as soon as ze saw him in the doorway. “Dom? Wh—whoa–!”

His legs nearly gave out from relief, but he cut them off by all but tackling them. As soon as Dom felt Ziah's arms around him, as soon as he could curl up into their body and tangle himself around the one person he loved and could trust, the unbearable, horrid weight in his chest finally cracked him open.

“Ziah,” he croaked, and that was it. The tears spilled over, his chest hitched and shuddered, and the sobs he'd locked away ripped out of his rough throat. Dom dug his fingers into Kez and clung so hard it must have hurt, but ve just held him tighter and pressed vir head into his. Fuck, he hated this. Hated all of it. Despised forcing Kez to hold his jagged edges together like this. But he didn't have anywhere else to go, and that voice was rising to the surface, and nothing felt right or safe until he got here. He needed Ziah too much to have done anything else.

Ze held Dom through all the shaking and sobbing and hiccups. He had no clue how long they stayed like this, wrapped up like they were one being, trying to be the thing humans were before Zeus split them in two. At one point Ma de Leon checked in and Dom heard a half-whispered what happened, and felt Kez shrug and shake their head. Later, the phone rang downstairs, but Kez ignored it, and Señor de Leon’s indecipherable voice echoed up the stairwell.

This whole thing was so stupid. He felt guilty for barging in on Kez’s night like this. Making such a big fucking deal out of something he’d known forever. It shouldn’t feel like he’d been slapped in the face by a bus, but his parents never seemed to run out of ways to rip his heart out and make it feel like it was his fault they crushed it in their hands.

When Dom finally wore himself out—sobs reduced to loud, wet sniffles—Ziah let out a long breath and kissed the top of his head. Their grip on his relaxed enough to start rubbing up and down his back. A shuddering sigh, and Dom went limp against them.

Quietly, his voice hoarse, he said, “Got snot on your shirt.” He felt Kez’s tiny laugh.

“Yeah, I can feel it,” ze said. “S’okay, though.” Neither of them spoke again for a few moments. Dom focused on breathing without his chest hitching, mostly failing. Now he could actually feel the places he’d scraped raw when he fell as his hands, arms, and knees throbbed. Kez just kept running their hands along his back. But then he felt Kez inhale like ze was going to say something, pause, and then do it again. He braced for it.

“What happened, Nikki?”

Dom grit his teeth, screwed his eyes shut against a fresh wave of tears and tightness under his ribs. “My parents happened, what else,” he forced out through the painful lump in his throat.

“I thought they were leaving you alone?”

Swallowing the tension down, he scoffed bitterly. “Nope. Turns out Aunt Linda was keeping them updated on every-fucking-thing I did all summer. I knew it, kinda, but…”

“What a bitch,” Kez spat.

He laughed hollowly. “Uh-huh. The haircut was the final straw.” Kez ran a soothing hand through his thick, dark hair, which they’d cut short a few days ago and their Mama had fixed up after. “She’d told them about it when I went to school yesterday and they ambushed me when I got back today. Said I should’ve gotten over this phase already, they’d been forgiving about the ‘boy’s clothes’ even if it was embarrassing for them, but this was ‘one step too far,’” Dom mocked with a sneer, but the disgust and anger fled quickly, leaving him feeling… empty. “They just fucking… screamed at me about how I should get my head on straight already. I–I yelled back but they wouldn’t fucking listen.”

Kez’s hands paused as he spoke, nails digging in for a second when he’d mentioned his parents’ embarrassment. “They’re fucking awful,” she said, voice flat but low and furious.

“I left the worst for last.”

“Is it going to make me want to kill them harder?”

“Yep.”

“Great. Fantastic. What did they do.”

As he worked up the energy to tell zir, Dom found himself feeling oddly removed, distant. The music from Kez’s stereo faded out, the pattern on zir pjs right in front of his face blurring. He felt like he was back in his aunt’s living room again, his mother slapping the pamphlet down on the coffee table between them and pointing at it with her tastefully manicured fingernail while his blood ran cold.

“She threatened to send me to a camp if I didn’t go home immediately and stop this nonsense,” he said tonelessly. Ziah went stiff in his arms. “So I told her she could shove that fucking pamphlet so far up her ass it’ll come out of her mouth covered in shit and ran.”

That got a short laugh out of Kez, but they were still tense, gripping the back of Dom’s too-large shirt. “You were right, I’m going to fucking murder them.”

“Yeah, get in line,” he joked, half-hearted.

“Was–” Ze paused, clearly debating whether ze should ask this or not. “Did they bring…?”

It took a second to realise what they were asking, but when it clicked Dom’s face twisted as he was shoved back into himself, only to feel every bit of guilt and grief and rage flooding back into his throat. “He looked at me like I was disgusting, Ziah,” he choked out, chest heaving around a shaky inhale, and he started crying again. Kez’s arms tightened almost painfully around him.

Ziah’s voice was thick when they said, “I’m sorry, Nikki. I’m so sorry.”

Calming down this time was faster, but only due to how exhausted Dom was. He felt hollowed out but heavy, leaden enough that Kez should be struggling to hold him. Their arm under his torso must have started to go to sleep by now, but they didn’t move or complain and he added that to the list of things he felt guilty about tonight. And he was about to add a few more.

“Could… could you drive me to my aunt’s so I can get all my stuff?” he asked.

“You have clothes here though. Or, are you going to actually stay here?”

He shrugged. “Might be easier to get it all while it’s dark. And if I wait my aunt might lock the window, if she hasn’t already. Or my parents might trash it all.”

Kez finally pulled away to be able to look at Dom, smiling with relief. Despite everything, they were excited by the thought of Dom finally staying with them. “Sure, let's go. I’ll tell Mama I’m borrowing the car.” They pressed a few kisses to his lips which Dom returned gratefully, both of them reluctant to let the other go. Outside the shelter of Kez’s body Dom could feel the tear tracks and snot making his skin tight.

They both clambered out of Kez’s bed, Kez linking their fingers with his to lead him downstairs again, socked feet a quiet staccato on the steps. The house was dark now, but there was a low glow of warm light from the kitchen. Dom didn’t think to look at Kez’s alarm clock to see the time, but he guessed they’d been up there for a couple hours.

Ma and Señor de Leon were talking in low voices in the kitchen by the light of the range hood, but paused when he and Kez came into view. “How’re you feeling, mijo?” Señor de Leon asked, a kind tilt to his head, and though the endearment eased something in his chest, Dom could only shrug, not quite able to meet his eye. 

“Come here and let me see those hands, Dominik.” Ma de Leon gestured with her own hand, and Kez made a noise of confusion. Pulling his hand up by their tangled fingers, ze bent his wrist to expose the raw, reddened skin of the heel of his palm, to motion making him wince.

“Nikki. What happened?”

Embarrassment coloured Dom cheeks and he pursed his lips. “I didn’t tie my laces…”

Rolling their eyes, Kez sighed and mumbled an oh my god before pushing him towards their mama. “You should have told me.”

He rolled his eyes in return as he stumbled towards Ma de Leon, who said, “Better now than never,” as took him by the wrist and guided him to the sink, an open first aid kit already waiting. She was firm, but kind, as she ran his hands under warm water, held him still while she sanitised the wounds, abraded skin stinging from the alcohol. “Your parents called,” she said after a moment. He tensed automatically, heart rate racing. “I know, but we told them we’ll take care of you, alright? You can stay for as long as you need.”

She tried to look at him, but Dom’s eyes flicked to the floor. She hummed.

“Mama, can we borrow the car to go get his things?” Kez asked. “We should do it before they lock him out or something.”

Ma briefly looked at Señor while she bandaged Dom’s hands, and whatever married people telepathy occurred had Señor on his feet with a groan. “Alright, but be safe. Don’t go climbing into windows if there’s a patrol car in the neighbourhood.”

“Yeah, we aren’t stupid,” ze shot back with a smile, following their dad to the foyer.

Dom’s hands were released, and Ma nodded with her chin that he should follow, so he scurried after them. He liked Kez’s parents, but they were so drastically different from his own that he always felt wrong-footed around them, afraid that if he did one wrong thing that kindness would vanish. It wasn’t like he’d ever done anything to deserve it.

Señor traded the keys for Kez’s bonnet while Dom slipped into his shoes and tied them. As Kez opened the door, Ma de Leon rounded the corner and held the first aid kit out to Dom.

He frowned. “Uh–”

“Just in case,” she insisted, one eyebrow raised at him. Confused as he was, Dom wasn’t about to refuse it, so he took it with mumbled gratitude and followed Kez out the door.

The drive was spent keeping an eye out for police, but they didn’t see any on the extra lap they took around his aunt’s neighbourhood. While all the lights were off at the house, and Dom’s parents’ car wasn’t there anymore, Kez still parked a few houses down, under a tree.

From there, sneaking in was easy. They’d done it so much that it was second nature to scale the wisteria trellis and wedge his window open. Dom could never tell if his aunt was aware they’d been doing this; it wasn’t like they were that careful about the plant, but she had never locked the window, and tonight was no different. When the window slid open, Dom sighed, let his head hang for a moment, before hauling himself in and pulling Kez in after him.

All he had to carry stuff—that they could still bring down the trellis—was a backpack and messenger bag, so Kez silently took his backpack and started filling it with some of his clothes, while Dom grabbed important shit. IDs, pictures of him and Ziah, the one picture of him and his brother, his secret cash stash, a couple books and knick-knacks. Last minute, he grabbed the cellphone that was still under his parents’ plan, but he was going to use that shit until they noticed and cut it off. Getting back out with the bags was harder, but they made it to the ground safely, and booked it to the car.

“Holy shit,” Dom laughed, running on the last of his adrenaline, “I can’t believe it worked!” He flopped back into the passenger seat and put his hands over his face. “You just pulled a heist in your pyjamas.”

“I did. Only for you, Nikki. If I put a hole in them I’m going to make you mend it,” Kez teased, sagging into the seat. “I’m so fucking glad the window wasn’t locked.”

“Fuck, me too.”

Dom turned to smile at Kez, his heart swelling at the sight of his best friend grinning back, gap-toothed and gorgeous. He loved them so much.

“Let’s get you home,” they said, smile widening, and Dom’s heart sank to the floor.

He was dreading this. And Kez saw it on his face.

“...Dom?”

Floundering, and after a couple false starts, Dom made himself look at Kez and whispered, “I have to go, Ziah.”

“No.”

“Ziah–”

“You can’t.”

He almost choked on the words. “I can’t stay with you.”

“Why?” Ziah’s face was a mess of anger and panic when they rounded on him. “Why do you always refuse?! You’d be safe and okay and I love you, Nikki, you can’t leave–!” Zir voice broke a bit and ze looked away, jaw muscles tensing and their hands gripped the steering wheel hard enough to make the plastic squeak.

Dom had never felt more like scum in his entire life. But he’d thought it through. His mind was made up.

“I–if I stay, my parents could still get me back, call the police on your parents or… or, I don’t know, something else shitty. And if that doesn’t work, my mother could probably bribe the hospital board to make Mama’s work awful, or get her fired.” He didn’t know if that would work, but she’d done similar enough things before that he could see it happening, and just the thought of being the cause of something like that made him feel awful. He couldn’t bear it. “They… if I stay, they’re going to do anything to get me back and… fucking fix me,” Dom spat.

Ziah stared out the windshield. When ze blinked, Dom saw tears rolling down their cheek, briefly catching the light like a tiny star winking out on zir dark skin. The corner of zir lips twitched downward, and they swallowed.

“Fine.” Their voice shook. Somehow, Ziah giving in just made Dom feel worse. “Where are you going?”

“I don’t know. Thought I’d bus to San Francisco. Or LA.”

At barely a whisper, Kez asked, “Does it have to be tonight?” And Dom’s heart smashed to bits.

“They might warn the police I’m a runaway risk if I wait.”

“You are a runaway risk,” they accused.

Dom grimaced, turning his gaze to the floor. “I’m so sorry, Ziah,” he said.

“If you were that sorry, you’d stay.” 

His nails dug into the strap of his seatbelt. Dom had no response, remorse sticking his tongue in place. The following silence in the car was oppressive and only interrupted by a sniff from Kez.

Then they started the car, got into gear, and pulled into the street. The drive was terrible, only because neither of them could speak. Dom couldn’t look at Kez, even when they came up to the four-way stop that led either to the city centre or to Kez’s neighbourhood and Kez paused for way too long before driving on towards the city.

The small, dingy bus station held a few tired people. The schedule above the ticket kiosk said a southward bus would be arriving in an hour. Kez hovered by Dom’s side and he paid for his ticket, and when they sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs, ze hit him in the stomach with the first aid kit.

“You forgot this in the car.”

Dom frowned at it again. “Mama didn’t give it to me–”

Scoffing, Kez crossed zir arms and glared at the man behind the kiosk for the sin of selling Dom his ticket. “Yes, she did. I thought it was weird, but I guess she figured you out before I did.”

The red canvas stood out against his blue jeans. He squished the sides of it, the zipper digging into the pads of his fingers. How had she known? Without another comment, he stuffed it into his messenger bag and sat back to wait out the hour.

“You… you don’t have to wait with me,” Dom said after hearing Kez huff.

“Fuck you.”

And that was all they said until the bus arrived. Eventually Kez had slumped sideways in vir chair so their shoulders touched and Dom leaned into vir, unable to resist hooking their pinkies together. Kez twitched like ve wanted to pull away, but instead squeezed his finger tight and did not let go, letting him feel welcome to hide his face in vir hair. The gesture both hurt and eased a little of the fear that he’d irreversibly fucked this up; Kez was pissed at him, but still loved him anyway. Even if he was leaving.

The loudspeaker fuzzed to life and announced, “Southbound bus 3095, destination Los Angeles, arriving in ten minutes. Please have ID and tickets ready for boarding.”

Kez’s pinkie squeezed tighter and Dom kissed the side of their head.

He didn’t want to go. God, fuck, he didn’t want to leave them and he despised himself for going anyway.

The other people in the station rose and started forming a line by the door to the bay, their quiet chatter filling the room. Dom tugged on Kez’s finger and got them both to their feet, holding hands as they joined the line. The bus pulled in, the doors opened, and Dom dully marched with Kez into the cool, early autumn evening.

“Text me every day,” Kez said hoarsely as the doors drew closer. “No. Call me every day. Text me every hour.”

Dom’s short laugh was tight. “Okay, I will.”

“Fucking promise.”

“I fucking promise.”

“Don’t get cute with me, that promise has to be real,” Kez sniffled.

“It’s–it’s a real fucking promise.”

Kez’s grip on his hand was getting painful. “Good.”

On the platform of the bus bay, people were dropping off their luggage and saying their goodbyes if they had someone to say goodbye to before the driver checked their tickets and let them climb the stairs to the bus. It was an organised commotion that Dom was hesitating to join. He fully stalled a few feet away from the driver, his bags a thousand pounds and threatening to drag him to his scuffed up knees. The people behind him grumbled and began to file past him.

“You can still stay.”

Kez sounded so small that he finally looked at them for the first time that whole hour. They were crying again, shoulders shaking as they tried to keep their misery under control, giving him a pleading look that completely broke Dom down again. He let out a small wounded noise, dropped his backpack and reeled them in, both of them wrapping each other up so hard it squeezed the air from their lungs.

“I love you, Ziah. I l-love you so much, I’m sorry,” he croaked.

Ze buried zir face in his neck. “I love you too, Nikki,” Kez managed to say, “even if you’re a giant idiot.”

Dom’s laughter was wet. He didn’t have a comeback, they were right.

“Last chance, kids,” the driver called out. Dom pulled back and saw that everyone had boarded, the luggage almost all loaded, and swore under his breath.

“One second.” Seeing the driver sigh, but nod, Dom cupped Ziah’s face between his palms and kissed zir. Their tears mixed on their faces and Kez dug zir fingers into his neck and kissed him back. It was a little messy, a lot desperate. “Love you,” he whispered, and Ziah could only nod.

Dom stepped back. They kept a hand on each other for as long as they could, but three steps and their hands fell away. He kept looking over his shoulder at Kez as the driver checked his ticket and ID with an amused smile, and he climbed inside, quickly finding a lucky seat on the opposite side of the bus. Kez jogged around so ze could still see him, and they watched each other as the bus rumbled to life, backed up, and began to pull away. Kez followed it along the platform, and Dom put a hand over his mouth to stifle his sobs, refusing to look away.

He watched the spot where Kez disappeared behind the building for a long time afterward.

did u know that mama put cash into the kit

I thought she might have

Probably knew youd be stupid about taking it

…

thank her for me?

I will

san fran is really cool

so many bars

You better be drinking responsibly

ok mom

F u

im being safe Ziah

made some friends too

not as great as u tho

No one is.

Dom if you don’t text me back in two days I’m calling the police

Dom

Nikki please

sry sry im okay im alive

guess the fucking parents saw i was using my phone finally

You can’t disappear like that!!!

couldnt afford new plan for a bit

might be hard for me to text evry day ziah

im sorry

…

Please text when you can

Love you

i will. love you too ziah

guess what

finally fucked someone with a dick for the first time

And?

it was fine

dude was weird about my tits

Gross.

ya.

but this way i dont have to pay rent

…That sounds really safe.

its fine!

anyway. he did this thing

im on t!!!

OMG

How??

found a clean reliable hook up

couple guys i know use their stuff

taking it slow

low doses

I’ll ask Mama for any tips or warning signs

Be careful

Dominik

Nikki

I miss you

i miss you so much

DRAG SHOWS ARE GREAT

Tell me everything

Jealous btw.

did u know  drag kings exist??

Yes, you goof, I did

LA fucking sucks.

miss you

Miss you too

School fucking sucks without you

im sry

It’s fine. Just miss you.

miss you too

any new rumors about me?

I started one about you joining the circus

that sounds fun

hows college apps going?

Uhg.

that good huh

youre gonna do great ziah

every college is gonna want you

Maybe.

Hate doing this without you though

this guy named kenny is letting me stay with him and his husband

Are they hot?

nah theyre old. like really old

kenny called me a lost waif. hes annoying. and rude.

So you’re getting along great then

>:(

UR rude

<3

whatever

theyre letting me work under the table at their bar too

So either they’re great people or they have evil plans

theyre good people

they do these burlesque shows at the bar

Nikki it’s been a Month please

Please be okay

DOMINIK

im alive im sorry i love you

Are you okay???

i love you too

ya

What happened??

got into something with someone

im fine now

he was a shitbag but im okay

What’s his fucking name?

ziah its over it doesnt matter

punched him so hard he fell over tho that was great

I love you Nikki

I miss you

love you too miss you too

fucking promise were gonna see each other again soon ok?

Okay. Fucking promise

A year was a long time, Dom decided. It wasn’t really. It had gone by fast. But it was a long time to be away from Kez. Too fucking long.

If he hadn’t left, he wouldn’t be lying on the sidewalk outside the shelter clutching at his ribs, his face red and sore and probably going to turn a beautiful shade of purple. Trying to sit up, he inhaled sharply, biting his lip but immediately regretting it when it pulled on the part that split open.

He was such a fucking moron. He should’ve kept his mouth shut. Should’ve stopped himself, because he knew it would get him kicked out of the shelter for misconduct and beaten by the assholes he’d shouted at.

Dom tried to get up again and grunted through the pain until he was on his feet again. At least they hadn’t mugged him. It’d be too obvious for them to go back to the shelter with his bass and amp in tow.

Fuck. There weren’t any more shelters open. This one had been his last chance at a good spot to hunker down at while the weather got colder.

He had to bite the final fucking bullet. He was 18 now, if he went back his parents couldn’t do shit about it.

He didn’t want to go back. Not like this. He was pathetic as fuck like this.

There were no other options.

Kez would be at college by now though. They wouldn’t have to see this.

Pulling out his shitty, busted up phone, Dom stared at it like it would magically have data again if he just glared hard enough. It didn’t happen, of course.

Shit.

Dom shifted his bag further up his shoulders and picked up the amp with his good side, picked up his bass in the other hand with a pained wince, and started walking towards the nearest pawn shop.

The familiar house loomed above him, silhouetted by the sun setting behind it. Though the curtains were drawn, he could still briefly see the silhouettes of the family inside, milling around as they set up for dinner.

Dom didn't want to be here.

This was such a dumb idea.

But he raised his hand to knock on the door anyway, hearing the voices behind the door but not fully realising who it was, because it couldn’t be them. Then the door opened, and panic and relief and shame and joy in equal, chaotic measure overwhelmed him. So of course, he said:

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

"...don't want whatever you're selling—Dom?"

The next thing he knew, he was on the ground in front of the de Leon’s house, a familiar weight on top of him, clinging to him, and through the ache in his ribs and the awful storm of emotions in his chest Dom finally felt a missing piece of himself click back into place where it belonged.

[greetings-and-salutations]

“Slightly More Anonymous Than Usual Karate Kids Getting Wasted and Starting Fist Fights”

Robby Keene x Reader Part 3

Day 6 of the 13 Nights of Halloween Spooktacular!!!

Masterlist | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

(Gif not mine)

Requested? No

Summary: (Y/n) really doesn’t want to go to the stupid Halloween Masquerade Ball. But, maybe Moon was right. Maybe she’d finally find her soulmate under the cheap streamers and disco lighting… (a cinderella retelling)

soulmate au: You find your soulmate when you touch for the first time and the date and time you met becomes engraved as a tattoo on your wrist.

Warnings: starred out swear words, underage drinking, I think that’s it? 🤔

Pairing: Robby Keene x Fem!Reader

“God, why did I come to this?” (Y/n) mumbled to herself in complaint, having been watching the party-goers from where she stood by the snack table, the kids in question getting drunker and drunker as the night went on, her little group of friends among the would-be alcoholics.

(Y/n) sighed dejectedly, as she watched the punch swish around in her cup. The longer she spent at the event, the more she regretted her decision to even come in the first place. Sure Moon and Yasmine would have been mad at her for a few days for flaking out on their big night; probably ignored her for a little bit too. But, really, was one week of Yasmine worth this never ending night of torture?

“It’s not so bad, is it?” (Y/n) was so startled by the sudden voice interrupting her thoughts, she almost spilled her cup all over her dress. Though, a small part of her wished she had; for, at least then, she’d have an excuse to leave. The much larger part, however, was more curious than anything about the boy who stood before her now, the same one Hawk had, not so subtly, warned her to stay away from earlier that very evening.

“Hey…” She said slowly, her eyes wandering over his figure, shamelessly taking him in. He was much cuter up close, she noted, decked out in his striped suit and a shiny white mask that kind of reminded her of the Phantom of the Opera, while, obviously, still concealing much more of his face than she’d have liked.

He was a mystery in every sense of the word, but there was something about him, something (Y/n) couldn’t quite put her finger on. She‘d never even see his face, but it was like there was something drawing her closer, like a pull that she couldn’t explain.

“Hi.” He responded with a smirk, clearly having noticed the way she was checking him out. (Y/n)’s face flushed pink.

“Sorry, it’s just… I saw you earlier.” She tried to explain, hoping that backtracking might dig her out of the hole she’d unintentionally made for herself. “None of my friends can figure out who you are.”

“That’s the point, though. Isn’t it?” He asked, the smirk still clearly evident on his face, as he made a valid point. (Y/n) shrugged in response.

“I suppose…” There was a silence after her words, not incredibly long in any aspect, but long enough to make (Y/n) feel just the slightest bit more awkward, which she hadn’t even thought was possible until then, though certainly wasn’t keen on having been proven wrong. Thankfully, it seemed the boy was undeterred by the quiet, and broke it with the same smirk still present.

“Does “you come here often” work in this setting, or should I up my game?” He asked, causing the girl’s eyes to widen in shock. Did he just…? (Y/n) sincerely hoped she had caught herself before he’d noticed her disbelief, as she didn’t think she was prepared for another one of his knowing smirks.

“I dunno.” She mumbled, before slapping on a smirk of her own, that she prayed he couldn’t see through. “You tell me. You come here often?” She asked confidently, or, at the very least, with the most believable fake confidence she could muster up. Thankfully, his grin only widened at her words, as he chuckled.

“That was… that was good.” He replied through the laughter that had (Y/n)’s heart a fluttering mess.

“Hey, you started it.” She complained, the pink tint of her cheeks having returned tenfold. But he just chuckled again.

“Fair enough… I’m Robby.” He held his hand out for a shake. (Y/n) was just about to offer up her own in return, a response ready on her lips, before loud voices from across the room suddenly and forcefully redirected her attention.

“God, you’re such an a*shole!”

“Yeah? What are you and your Miyagi-do p*ssies gonna do about it?”

Here we go…

+ + +

Robby knew he shouldn’t have left to go talk to the mystery girl so close to midnight. With everything going on, she should have been the least of his worries. ‘Should have’ being the key here. Cause, for whatever reason, that simply wasn’t the case. For whatever reason, there he found himself, not but a foot away from her. And the clock ticking away above them.

But Robby just couldn’t help it. He’d been watching her off and on all night and she looked downright miserable. It was painfully obvious she’d come to the dance alone, but he’d at least assumed at some point she’d hang out with the friends he swore he’d seen her with earlier. But, no. Every time his eyes wandered back to the mysterious cause of his heart palpitations, she was all by herself, practically glaring at the party around her. And the collection of lavish dresses and tuxedos he recognized her pretty green one as being a part of just an hour before, now could be seen mixed in with the rest of the chaos, the emerald beauty having been left behind to fend for herself.

Now what sort of guy would he be if Robby left her to such an evening? And, god, was she even more enticing up close…

“God, you’re such an a*shole!”

“Yeah? What are you and your Miyagi-do p*ssies gonna do about it?”

Unfortunately, he had to he brought back down to earth sooner or later, and, it seemed the universe had decided for him that it would be sooner. Robby almost groaned in annoyance. He didn’t even have a chance to get her name. But he would certainly make time to get her out of there before the real fight began…

“Hey, you should-“ Robby started to say, reaching out to gently direct her away from the skirmish, but, of course, the universe had another something in mind once again. This one, however, had thoughts of the fight brewing behind them thrown haphazardly out the window.

‘October 31st 11:58pm’

And with that small tattoo, things just got a whole lot more complicated for Robby Keene…

“Robby, c’mon! It’s go time!”

He made a pained expression as he looked down at his soulmate, the poor girl seemingly still too shocked to speak. He didn’t want to leave her. Especially not now. But… his friends needed him. But, so did his soulmate…

Could this night get any worse?

Tag lists are open!!!

Tags: @electriclcvewp @kaqua @lolawassad @imaslutforsstuff @nani-2305 @hawkinsavclub1983

[pussyterminator88]

Hospital Rave

I was going to take a car ride with my friends to this abandoned hospital, however we were to many people. So one of us had to sit on someone’s lap, which happened to be me. The oldest dude driving promised to drive carefully but he did not do that. So we got stopped by the cops and I was the one getting pulled away from the car because I sat in someone’s lap. The cop searched me and asked me multiple times, if I had things on me, I should not have. Obviously I lied and said no. Thankfully the cop didn’t find anything on me hihi, but because I was underage at that time the police had to call one of my parents and tell them where I was, and what I had done. The cop asked after my phone to call my mother however I realized I forgot my phone at that older dudes apartment (I’m so stupid lmao). So, the cop told me to get in their car, at that point I thought it’s over for me bruh. The police called my mother from their phone and I could hear the disappointment in my mother’s voice I just knew that I broke her trust to me which sucked, because I love my mother. Then the cop gave me the phone so I could say a few things to my mom. Basically, I said sorry for what I had done and asked if I should go back home. My mom answered with “I don’t care you get back on ur own”. That shi made my heart drop lowkey

So I was stranded in this city because I lived 1h and 30min away from home and no trains where going at 02:00 am to my city. The next train would be going at like 05:00 am. So when the cop released me, I thought fuck it I just got caught by a cop and my mother is disappointed at me, so I decided to go on that rave in the abandoned hospital anyway. However I said to myself that I’m not stepping foot in that car again because that was not the first time I was being stopped by the police and searched with this driver. So I walked by foot but I could do that because it wasn’t far.

Now I’m at the hospital rave and it was very cool like lights everywhere and people start to reel in the later it gets. There was a “guard” that check for tickets, we didn’t buy any beforehand so we could buy them at the door instead but it always costs more at the door. The older dude driving felt bad for what had happened to me so he bought a ticket for me, however the guard was so high that he couldn’t do simple math so we got a lower price for the tickets lol. When I went in it was surprisingly compact and well kept meaning no graffiti or vandalism, but the building was still old. Not many organizers knew about this place yet ig. There was cool lasers pointing up on the celling and walls. The stage was in the reception with cool neon decor and the place for chilling was at an operation room it had a bunch of mattresses on the floor and they had even dragged in an old couch in there, it was a very cozy room. I took a line and went to dance w my bestie to get the nerves out from the cop incident, later when it started kicking in I suggested to my friends that we should explore the hospital. The corridors were long like highways and sometimes by the wall there could be a couch standing, and because there was no electricity it was dark asf but it looked so cool with the lights they put up. All the doors where open and free to just walk into I remember that I tried to turn on the sink in one of the rooms but it didn’t work, then I found another friend out of nowhere, I had no clue she would be here. But she said that she was working here at this rave today and she showed me where the secret exit was in case the cops came. So that was cool. But we saw cool things while exploring like old hospital beds, tools for operating etc.

I was raving until the sun came up. Then I realized it was time to get back home I was so tired I didn’t even want to think about the consequences I would get when I got back home. Also for those wondering, I got my phone back, later during the day, but I never really use my phone on raves anyways, but that is what makes it fun when no one is on their phones just having fun fr.

Hope u enjoyed my hospital rave story, I’m sad I couldn’t get any cool pics I just have 1 video that I got from my friends phone. It’s a video of when me and my friend just got into the hospital and her suggesting to dance lol.

[inky2556]

Magix Ultra

Chapter 6

Chiara along Zero were currently on their way to a planet named Kirax after receiving a distress signal or distress signals from said planet. About a dozen distress signals were sent to the space garrison. When they tried contacting them all they got was radio silence. Initially Orb, Geed, X and Z were sent to investigate but what came back was an SOS in the form of an ultra sign.

As the two were flying in space, Chiara remembered something she was curious about.

"Hey Zero."

"Hm"

"Why were you so angry at Zett?" She asked. Zero flinched remembering the outlandish claim he told Ace that ended up getting to Taro and then to Mebius and then him.

"He...said something stupid." He didn't know why but he regretted calling it stupid.

When they arrived, what seemed to be remnants of a war greeted them. The structures were all on fire and crumbling. From their initial research, planet Kirax was similar to planet Juran. Both monsters and humans coexists with one another in harmony while being surrounded by thriving nature.

But what lay before the two ultras was a complete wasteland and massacre. Bodies of monsters were laying around after being brutally murdered. The lush greens of nature they saw from reports were reduced to ash and smoke. There weren't any signs of its human inhabitants anywhere.

Did they get here too late?

Out of nowhere a dark beam was fired their way. Chiara managed to put up a shield in front of them in time. Unfortunately for her the beam kept going and there seemed to be no end. The beam was powerful and she could feel the evil dark energy from it. Thankfully Zero took the opportunity to fly up and shot his ultra beam at whatever it was that's attacking them.

"Are you alright Chiara?" Zero asked as he landed beside her.

"I'm fine. I could do this all day." she assured him but truthfully if that kept going on for any longer her shield would've broke. Suddenly a dark laugh echoed around them. From the black smoke a figure familiar to Zero emerged.

"Ultra Dark Killer...DID YOU DO ALL THIS?!" Zero yelled angrily as he pointed at him.

"I merely used the lives of these lower life forms for a greater cause." he answered cooly, not at all phased by Zero's rage.

"Greater cause my foot! What could be worth innocent lives!?" now it was Chiara's turn to get angry. The air around them reeked of death. Seeing all the destruction and massacre made her blood boil.

"You'll find out in due time. That is, if you can survive this." Instantaneously another dark beam was shot from right behind them and they disappeared into the darkness. _________________________________________

Somewhere within the galaxy, a large planet sized ship floated in space. A woman decked in gold and blood red regal armour sat leisurely on her throne while she studied the holographic screen floating above the palm of her hand.

Just then a darkclops Zero entered the room. He walked up before stopping to bow before his master.

"Rise." The woman said boredly.

"My lady, Ultra Dark Killer has succeeded in trapping Ultraman Zero in the dark killer zone." the robot informed her. Hearing that she curved her lips into a smile that revealed a row of white and sharp teeth.

"Really now? And here I thought it might've taken a few tries before they sent him. Who else came with him?" She questioned.

"An Ultrawoman that goes by the name Chiara arrived with him."

"An Ultra...woman?" She said the word like it disgusted her. A large holographic screen materialized in the room and displayed the image of Zero standing close to Chiara asking if she was alright.

"Ultrawoman Chiara now was it?" She hummed while tapping her manicured claws on her throne. The more she looked at Chiara the more agitated she felt.

"Tell Ultra dark killer to proceed as plan and suck the light out of those ultras. But bring Zero to me alive." She ordered him. The Darkclops bowed before being dismissed. The alien woman turned her attention back to the holographic screen on her hand. She gazed at the image on it as she smiled again.

"Just wait a little longer darling and we'll finally be reunited..."

"And I found just the perfect host for you." _________________________________________

One moment they were on planet Kirax facing off against Ultra dark killer and the next they find themselves in a place filled with dark energy. The dark killer zone.

"Zero! Chiara!" They were surprised and relieved to see Orb, Geed, X and Z coming towards them.

"You guys! You've been here all this time? What happened?"

"When we arrived the planet was already in ruins. The next thing we knew, we were ambushed by Ultra dark killer and he sent us here." Orb informed them. Suddenly, several figures manifested from the dark void. Chiara darkness, Orb darkness, Geed darkness, X darkness, Z darkness.

"Not these guys again!"

They didn't have time to react as lunged at them at lightning speed. Each of them ended up disappearing into the darkness as only Zero was left untouched and alone. Just then Ultra dark killer appeared.

"You! What did you do to them?! Where are they?!" Zero growled as he watched Ultra dark killer walk around him in a circle mockingly.

"I simply sent them to different parts of the dark killer zone." On cue five holes tore into the void and showed Chiara, Orb, Geed, X and Z. Each of them were alone by themselves.

"I admit, you ultras a strong. Stronger when you're together. So that is why I'll make sure each of you perish alone in this darkness!"

Zero darkness emerged and attacked Zero. The others were in the same predicament. Each ultra was fighting dark versions of themselves and the fact that the dark killer zone was sucking away their energy only made things worse.

"It's still 20000 years too early for a cheap copy to beat me!" Zero shouted before landing another kick to Zero darkness. Out of nowhere, four more Zero darkness showed up and attacked him all at once. His color timer started flashing red as so did the others.

Zero felt weak from having his light diminish and in that moment the five Zero darkness managed to restrain him and pushed him down on his knees. He tried fighting back but it was no use.

"Unlike your comrades, my master has other plans for you." Ultra dark killer said.

"Master? Hah, ya can't do things by yourself so now you need someone else pulling your leash." The ultra mocked and got a kick to the gut as punishment.

"Let's see of you'll laugh once you see the death of your friends." Ultra dark killer spoke as one Zero darkness grabbed the Zero's head and forced him to look up.

To his horror Orb, Geed, X and Z had succumbed to the darkness and turned to stone. Only Chiara remained as she kept fighting off not only Chiara darkness but also Orb darkness, Geed darkness, X darkness and Z darkness. But weirdly enough, her color timer wasn't flashing red even after fighting for so long and in the dark killer zone nonetheless.

Although that didn't matter because the next thing he knew, all five darkness clones simultaneously fired their dark ultra beams at her. He immediately stood up but was jerked back down. Even in his weakened state Zero continued to struggle against their hold as Chiara's painful cries filled his ears. _________________________________________

All by herself in the dark killer zone surrounded by dark copies of herself and her friends, Chiara collapsed from the pain and exhaustion of battling all five dark ultras. The final nail on the coffin was being hit with their dark ultra beams all at once.

She held her screams in when Chiara darkness pierced her gut with a dark saber. Since Ultras bleed light the blood that was spilling from her wound became the only source of light in this dark abyss.

Chiara darkness raised her saber once again ready to strike.

"Any last words?"

Chiara didn't hear what she said. All she could think about were the others.

"I can't give up...I can't give up..." she chanted in her mind.

"Orb, Geed, X, Z....Zero..."

Chiara thought about how the others might still be fighting while she was already down. Unfortunately for her, she was unaware of her friends demise.

Before Chiara darkness brought her saber down to strike, Chiara mumbled something she couldn't quite catch.

"What was that?" She questioned.

"I...can't..." suddenly Chiara's color lamp began to glow brightly making the darkness clones back away. Even with blood spilling out of her gut she still gathered all her strength to stand up.

With determination and power radiating off her, she clenched her fist and placed it over her color lamp as she yelled,

"I...I WON'T GIVE UP!!!"

Then a golden light burst throughout the dark killer zone and spread all while turning the darkness clones to dust. Not only that, the sudden wave of light recharged Zero and revived Orb, Geed,X and Z. The walls separating them were gone and they could finally see each other.

"Master!!!" Z tackled Zero as the others hugged each other in relief.

"Hey! Get off of me kid! Get! Off!" Zero kept swatting his back but Z wouldn't budge. And honestly after what happened, he couldn't bring himself to outright shove him away.

"But what is all this?" X said as he looked around him. The dark killer zone was no longer dark. It was just light all around. Light that felt oddly familiar to them.

"Wait, where's Chiara?" Geed asked after noticing they were short one ultra. Suddenly all five ultramans caught sight of something that shone brightly not so far away from them.

"That's..."

Slowly the light started dimming. It faded and revealed Chiara fist still on her color lamp. She swayed from side to side before falling to her knees.

"Chiara!" Zero rushed to her followed by the rest. Hearing her name Chiara looked up and saw Zero running towards her.

"Ze...ro..." she uttered as her vision became blurry. The red and blue ultra caught her just in time before she collapsed.

She felt a warm hand press against her still bleeding gut, probably to stop the bleeding. Even with her blurred vision and ringing in her ears she could still make out everyone's figures and voices while they frantically called out to her.

"She's bleeding too much!"

"We need to get her to Ultra Mother!"

"Chiara can you hear us? Chiara!"

Knowing that everyone was safe, complete happiness and relief washed over her. Her vision began to darken as darkness, not the evil kind, took over.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wattpad & AO3

[pbandjesse]

I wish I could say that today was excellent and I felt really good but honestly after last night I just felt exhausted all day and kind of emotionally worn out. And it wasn't a bad day but man was last night terrible.

The last thing that I wrote last night was that Brandon was there and that he had brought wedding videos. And that I was hoping that they would be really good. And objectively they're filmed beautifully. I only watched 2 minutes but I could tell that they were made very nicely. But I hate how I looked in it. Like viscerally I was shocked how horrible I thought I looked and I felt sick watching it. I felt embarrassed and disgusting and ashamed that anybody looked at me. I haven't felt that bad about myself in a very long time. And I could tell how much James was liking watching the trailer for the video. But I could not watch the rest of it. I tried to laugh it off but inside like if only my spirit broke I was so upset. I tried not to let it bother me but I felt horrible.

We laid in bed and I just could not stop thinking about it. I felt like I had had a lot of hard feelings about the wedding and the engagement and everything and I've dealt with a lot of that and I've worked hard to be okay with everything because the wedding itself was beautiful. And worked out well enough. But now I feel like all of my good feelings towards it were a lie. I felt like I had this idea in my head of what I looked like and how I experienced the day and seeing these two minutes just took all of those feelings and I just fell apart.

By midnight James was asleep and I was sitting in the bathroom just sobbing. Just absolutely heaving sobs. So devastated and like I said I felt embarrassed that anybody has looked at me. I didn't feel beautiful I felt like monster.

Actually I calm down and I texted Jess just cuz I had to tell someone. I tried to wake James up but they were very much out. And then I cried a little bit more and then around 1:00 James woke up enough to turn the light off and I was just laying there crying and they didn't notice and that just put me at hysterics and I pushed them really hard and they immediately sat up and were like what's wrong??? And then I cried even harder and I was hysterical trying to explain what was upsetting me and it was terrible. I cried for like an hour, I couldn't breathe, I felt like I was choking. It was horrible and I was so tired and it was after 2:00 a.m. and I had to wake up in the morning and it's just was terrible but eventually I calmed down enough to fall asleep.

I slept an extra hour because while I should be here at Camp by 8:00 I really don't need to be ready to go and tell him like 9:30 so it was okay even if it wasn't ideal. I gave James a hug before they left and I slept that extra hour. And when I woke up for real my eyes were very swollen and my body was just so tired. I didn't feel as horrible thinking about the video anymore. But if I thought about it for a few seconds I would start to tear up again and I just felt so bad about myself.

I got to camp at 9:00 and everything set up and went for a little walk just to try to get some of my sad feelings out. And throughout the day I would feel a little better. I'm still not interested in watching that video again because it just hurt too bad even if James says that my strong feelings aren't the truth. Like they loved watching the trailer and were visibly and energy-wise so clearly happy and I just felt stupid because I made something that they were clearly happy about into a bad thing. And I was trying to let it go. But it feels very hard.

Thankfully both of my morning groups work great and really helps distract me for how upset I was. My first group was top bar and they were really sweet and did a good job on their art. And then I had the new round of YLP counselors and they seem like a really solid group and are very nice. And they did a good job too. And while they were there and Ray told me that he's going to try to go into tattooing and he wanted some tips on shading and learning how light direction works so I gave him some charcoal and some instructions on how to make gradient boxes to practice. And I just tried not to think about how people look at me and my body or anything like that because every time I do I just feel horrible. And that's really hard on something I've been working to not think about. Like I've been trying to be positive and feel good about myself and I just felt like everything was cut right from beneath me. My self-esteem is kind of destroyed right now.

CJ would come right before lunch and be sad outside and I told her a little bit about what happened and she kept saying that I was beautiful in my wedding day and that while she understands my feelings they're not true and maybe the rest of the video would be okay. And I really hope that's true but emotionally I don't know when I'm going to be able to sit down and watch it because those two minutes were so incredibly jarring and upsetting to me. And I'm glad that I had my friend there but I did cry a bit and I can compartmentalize a lot of it but I also feel stupid for feeling this strongly and making it basically my entire day's thoughts. I don't want that to be the focus but man, was it.

The afternoon was fine but I was a little exhausted. After CJ and me talked for a while she went to go get some kids that were doing awards. And CJ, Katerina, and two kids doing tipis would spend the next half hour sorting string for me while I laid in the hammock and watched a video and tried to just be quiet for a bit.

And then my afternoon group was really nice. I had day camp and stockade and the stockade boys did casting and the day campers did the rock paintings and everyone seemed to really enjoy it and it was a really good time. Nothing super exciting happened We were having a lot of fun casting and I really enjoyed talking to the boys and lots of laughs were had and I did not burn myself which is always a plus. And I talked to Jorge about how me and James are thinking about having a kid and buying a house. And they were like that's wild and I said yeah it's so adult. And I just tried to be positive.

I did forget briefly that I was going to have horse girls, well horse campers ( there are four boys this week which is wild to me! ), And so I had one more break until they would come. And they were fine. I told Krissy about my upset feelings and she immediate was like no you are beautiful I don't know what you're talking about stupid stupid stupid. And at least that made me laugh and it made me feel a little bit better.

The worst camper struggled to clean up but they seem to enjoy project. And we found a butterfly that had just come out of its chrysalism was still all wet. And it's one wing wasn't unfurling properly so we found a safe place to put the baby butterfly and then I just kept knitting and trying to be positive.

After they left I had one of the beverage boys up here getting string and eventually I got him to go. I had gotten a little upset when all of a sudden a bunch of people from the field came up and didn't even ask me and just started taking string off the shelf and I was like nope absolutely not get out of here. And I probably could have been nicer but I also thought they were horse girls that were just not cleaning up and instead starting a new project that was all confused. But it's fine though forgive me in the future. I just wish the people would ask me before they start taking stuff. Especially because you were just cleaning it today and somehow it already got messed up so now I'm hiding cleaned bags in my clothing box. I just wanted to stay nice for a little bit longer.

Once the campers were gone I locked the doors and I clean myself up a little bit with cold washcloth and I got changed and it made me feel a lot better, more human. And then I walked down to the dining hall to see if I could help set anything up.

I told Charlotte about the wedding video and how upset it made me and she was like I'm sure in the rest of it there are parts that you'll like and I'm like okay I hope so. And then I told Celia and she said that she bets if she watched it as soon as I come up on the screen she would have been like nope you're beautiful and shut that shit down. Wish made me laugh and she also told me that she liked that I was wearing my hair in a ponytail and she thought that it looked cute. I think she was trying to be extra nice to me because I was upset and hurting still.

And honestly I think some of my heart is just tied to disappointment. Like a lot of it's tied to me being self-conscious and feeling like all the angles that this video was shot in were unflattering for me. And that again, only Jess really knows my angles well. But also it's kind of tied up and being disappointed that it's just another thing around the wedding that wasn't exactly what I wanted. While it's beautiful it's not the style I had imagined and I just feel kind of sad. I'm hoping this weekend that I can sit down and watch the rest of it and be in a place emotionally where I'm not going to just pick out every single one of my flaws and I can see it what it is and not have an absolute emotional breakdown but I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that. We'll see I guess.

After I helped count cups I made a salad. The salad bar was absolutely stocked tonight and that was awesome. There was even hard boiled eggs and croutons. I was thrilled. And then I would get mac and cheese which was only weird because they used ziti but they're still pretty good. And I had a nice conversation with Celia and we also talked about the end of the day snack issue with day camp coming to specialty with food with Annabelle and Cody. They all agree that it is not a good situation. But hopefully when the Gator gets fixed they'll be able to deliver snacks at a tents and not early. Because that was not fun today dealing with gogurts and Starbursts all over my building. Apparently the kids were told to not eat them until when they got back to their tent but they were already eating it when they got to the building so it's kind of hard to be like put that over the way that is half open. So it's fine but hopefully tomorrow I won't have to deal with that.

After dinner I walked to the office to steal their air conditioning. I said hello to Chris and lamented with him that there were no more mushrooms today. And we talked about how it was supposed to rain but it missed us and how it might rain again this weekend. And then I talked to Alexi for a minute before she headed home. And then I chilled inside.

I went up to the attic to see if there was any yarn but no luck. I did find nature and arts and crafts badges and I've decided that since me and Celia are working in those departments we can get badges even though we didn't do the coup. Celia did come over and I scare her real bad by accident cuz she didn't know I was coming down the stairs and then I would chill in the office and read my book until we got to the part where you realize that the Titanic was sinking. That's when I decided I was done with the AC and I would go back to arts and crafts.

On my walkover I got stopped twice where people gave me hugs. Which was very nice. I love getting hugs. I feel like the kids are not as huggy this year! It's fine I understand but usually kids are hugging me all the time. And then after chatting with Chloe for a little while about how I hit myself in the wrist with a book and fixed it. She thought that was very funny.

Then I just spent some time laying in my outside hammock reading and finishing my book. PJ came over to sit for a while cuz he just needed somewhere to be quiet. Apparently he's had quite a week with his campers. And after he left I finished my book which left me crying of course. Always does. And then I was just really ready to get into my painting.

I have not really worked on my summer painting much in the last few weeks. Just haven't been enjoying the paint that we have and I just have a lot of issues with perspective and sizing in what I already laid down so I really thought that tonight would be a good place for me to really layer a bunch of color in so then I can go back in with a markers and fill in more space.

I would spend about an hour working on my painting and it's definitely better than it was but it's got a lot of problems. Especially the wood that's in the front of the building is all wrong. The scale is all off there but I think it'll be fine in the end. I have a couple more weeks to work on it. I think tomorrow I'll probably go back in with more markers and see about that but I still have some places I want to layer more of color like with the red and the dirt areas out front of the building because it's like gravel and gravel is really hard to get the color right so I'm kind of just making it up as I go. I also have like no white paint left so that is an issue and that I'm going to have to try to resolve. At least I had a good time.

Now I am laying in bed, my hammock that is. My stomach hurts really bad and I'm very sleepy. I don't feel as emotionally fragile right now. I am emotionally tired. Me and James are talking about the video right now and James doesn't think that the larger one will upset me as much when we sit down and watch it and they kind of scrolled through it and they think that there are a lot of places where we can get screenshots to do prints when we do our wedding book. Wish I'm hoping to do soon. I just want to have good memories around it and not have this just taint and pull apart all of my positive feelings.

I hope tomorrow is easier. I hope it feels lighter and kinder and softer. I hope my stomach doesn't hurt and I hope that it's a beautiful day. It's supposed to be very hot the next couple days so fingers crossed that it stays fairly cool up here as it has been. I hope you guys sleep well tonight. I love you all. Be kind to yourself, kinder than I am to myself.