#usually lab exams go well for me but now all 3 exams in a row went absolutely terrible & it's the FINALS 😔

[cheekblush]

this week has been absolutely awful and it's only thursday 🥲

[caspercryptid]

So consider jayvik viktor is teaching a class, jayce interrupts says heimerdinger wants him but it’s fine he can cover, proceeds to realise he doesn’t know shit about the subject and says to a class of gossipy, nosey teens ‘you can ask me about just about anything that isn’t x subject as long as you don’t tell viktor’ chaos ensues jayce is forced to confront his feelings (sorry if this is too long/specific!)

You're gucci <3 on the record, detailed Premises are usually a-okay, the problem with details is giving me Plot, that's harder! Anyway, hope you like this one :)

___

Jayce’s first warning really should have been the fact that he had no idea what Viktor was saying when he entered the room.

Sure, those were words. Those were words he’d heard before, even. Or half of them were. Maybe a third. His problem was that he assumed his lack of comprehension was less a loss of grasp on the subject matter and more getting lost in Viktor’s eyes, which were. Fixed on his. Again. Shit. He was supposed to be talking. “Heimerdinger.” He says, lamely, but thankfully, that’s enough. Viktor rolls his eyes hard enough that there’s a little ripple of laughter across the lecture hall.

“Really.” he says. “Well, that’s going to be all period–”

“I can cover.” Jayce offers. “Sorry to all you kids who want to go home but we all need to indulge Dean Heimerdinger in his facade that he’s capable of having a short meeting or he gets his feelings hurt.”

Viktor snorts and just hands Jayce his lecture notes on a clipboard. “Have at it.” He says. “I’ll be back in.... anywhere from twenty minutes to three hours. Stand vigil for me.”

“I’ll do my best.” Jayce says, smiling at him, getting a little lost in how Viktor smiles back for long enough that when he looks back up other students are exchanging glances. Shit. He looks down at the notes as Viktor leaves the room, and that’s.....about when it clicks.

“Hm.” He says. “Alright, new lesson plan.” he looks back up. “Some of you are in some of my class for mechanics, and if anyone wants to ask questions or do homework right now, you can absolutely do that, just don’t tell Viktor.”

“What kind of questions?” asks a kid in the front row, and Jayce. Gets the distant sense of something hanging over his head. There’s a kind of gleam there. But like a rat in a trap, he darts forward anywhere.

“Whatever questions you want.” He says, assuming the price he has to pay is going to be giving away his answer key for his next exam, which would frankly be worth it to not have to admit to Viktor that he has no idea how biology functions beyond metabolizing alcohol. Which he had specifically looked up to be able to drunkenly argue with Viktor better.

“What’s your relationship with Professor V?”

Jayce pauses. “–pardon?”

The kid looks at him like he’s stupid. “You just checked him out.” he says. “We all saw that.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“You kinda did,” calls a girl from the back, “What gives?”

“I– well, we’re friends.” Jayce realizes it sounds kind of lame, and that he’s kind of red, and another kid chokes down a laugh with a cough.

“Old friends,” Jayce adds, with emphasis, which doesn’t get a more impressive reaction, and he puts his hands on his hips.

“Oh, come on now. Isn’t he a good teacher? Isn’t he impressive? I mean, look at him, objectively, who wouldn’t stare at him? You’re all capable of recognizing that he’s pretty, imagine having known the guy for years and having seen him all dressed up for presentations or messy when he’s pulled an all nighter at the lab or all lit up from having gotten published or–”

Jayce hears himself about the time that he spots the expressions on the teenagers faces, and he stalls as it hits him.

“Shit.” He says, and there’s a proper ripple of laughter at that. “Shit. Okay. You’re all sworn to secrecy, right?”

“Of course.” A kid in the front row says, doe-eyed, and Jayce is too thrown off to question that as hard as he should.

“Great.” he says. “Now, does anyone want the answer key to my next test?”

A lot of faces light up, and he thinks he’s dodged the subject with everyone but himself.

Shit.

[pain-somnia]

A Rhythm That Guides

Rated: M Pairing: SasuSaku Disclaimer Day’s Notes: This fic is an exclusive on Patreon. At least Part 2 and the soon to be posted Part 3 are. I wanted to surprise everyone by releasing the first part if Biden won the election. A Rhythm That Guides is my Incubus AU which has art created by ceejss that you can find in this links: part 1 & part 2 Part 2 is only a sneak peek but you can find the High Res versions on her Patreon and also in PDFs on mine for special tiers.

I hope you enjoy my Incubus AU. Part 1 can be read as is with no continuation if you like...but there are more parts of it if you want to follow Sakura and Incubus!Sasuke’s journey.

Part One

It was happening again.

Lately, in his afternoon lecture class, he was getting a painful empty feeling in his lower stomach. He wasn’t eating as much as he used to during his lunch break so that could have explained the empty feeling.

But the throbbing between his legs was making Sasuke consider that perhaps, something else was going on.

The lecture would barely be halfway through the hour and Sasuke was finding himself adjusting himself in his seat to discreetly hide the rising tent in his pants.

Luckily he sat in the back row, but it was getting ridiculous how often it was happening.

Nearing twenty and in the beginning stages of adulthood, Sasuke realized—a little later than he should have considering how obvious it was—what exactly was to blame for his predicament.

Or more specifically, who.

Turning in his seat, Sasuke created more space between himself and the girl sitting just a single space down the row from him.

Sasuke had been affectionately labeled a late bloomer by his mother when his father had expressed concern in his disinterest in humans of either gender.

“He’s going to have to feed eventually,” his father had grunted, not at all pleased when his mother pointed out the decrease in his consumption of human food she regularly made to feed him and herself.

“Meal times will be lonely once I’m the only one that needs to eat,” she had grumbled, taking his half eaten dishes away.

Sasuke wished he took after his human lineage instead. It would have been so much easier if he didn’t have to worry about how he was going to be getting his meals for the rest of his life on top of all of his course work.

Sighing to himself, he turned a page in his notebook and continued taking notes. He would just have to suffer through the ache.

.

.

Bending over slightly, Sasuke picked up his sports drink from the bottom of the vending machine. He could do without the sweetness of it but he desperately needed to replenish his electrolytes.

As soon as his class had ended he fled the lecture hall and put as much distance as possible between him and the source of his problems. He knew he would start to hunger for a different energy source but it made it all the worse that temptation sat with only a space between them.

When the new semester had started, Sasuke did what he always did: he found the seat farthest away from other students. It wasn’t that he disliked other people. He just didn’t want any distractions.

Sasuke had always been like that, studious to a fault. At first it was to impress his father, but he learned later on that he quite enjoyed having his name at the top of the board with all of the exam scores. He moved away from trying to make his father pay more attention to him and worked to make himself happy.

And his road to happiness required a degree in engineering.

He knew he could have picked another school, one that catered more to those of his kind, but he didn’t want to go to just any school he wanted to go to the school. Even if that meant attending a school with a high human population.

I have so many regrets now, he thought as he took a big swig of his sports drink.

Sasuke wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and sighed. He was going to have to stop by a canteen for snacks if he was going to survive the rest of his day.

Eating usually sustained him for a few hours. It did nothing to fill the empty feeling in stomach but it allowed him to focus more on his lectures and labs until he could get home and try to sleep away the ache.

At least that’s what he hoped would happen. It was getting harder and harder to quell the hunger.

.

.

Sakura buried her nose into her textbook, pretending to be deep into her reading. Peering over the top she caught hold of heated dark brown eyes and quickly averted her gaze back to her textbook.

What did I do? She wailed inwardly and mentally flipped through the past few days searching for the offensive thing she may have done.

She couldn’t recall a single moment that she had even spoken to her classmate. Why was he so angry with her?

He probably figured me out…

Although she had never spoken to him, Sakura couldn’t help how smitten she had become over her classmate.

Uchiha Sasuke was a quiet boy. He didn’t seem to be a part of any of the circles and mostly kept to himself and his studies. If she didn’t see him in class, she would usually find him in the library or in the computer labs.

Sakura mostly made her own lunches and snuck them into her bag when she went to the library but when she visited the cafeteria she would find him grabbing some onigiri to go. She wondered how he kept going with their long days if he only ate rice and snacks. Humans couldn’t live off of sports drinks.

Sakura had been considering joining a study group but had been procrastinating. She had started to drift from a circle she had joined in a previous semester because of an extremely flirtatious upperclassman.

He was too touchy for her comfort but it was mostly the fact that he took any opportunity he could to complain about Uchiha Sasuke.

I guess an incubus wouldn’t like to share the attention.

Sakura shrugged off his comments and made sure there were at least two of her human upperclassmen in the same room. They were already used to the circle hopping incubi and succubi that used the campus as their hunting grounds and usually helped the underclassmen steer clear of them when they weren’t interested.

She guessed, in a way,  it made sense why the incubus upperclassman felt threatened.

Uchiha Sasuke was quiet and polite but mostly he was really attractive. And it helped that he didn’t flirt with anything that moved.

An herbivore maybe? Sakura had joked to herself once.

Well now her quiet classmate was glaring daggers at her and she had no idea why.

And yet he is still beautiful while angry. The gods are so unfair.

Sakura kept her head down and she waited for the professor to arrive. She hoped he got there soon.

.

.

It was irritating how dangerous a blush could be.

Haruno Sakura was fair in coloring with pale skin that colored easily.

Sasuke had wondered if she was a regional dryad when he first saw her hair and eye color. Humans had a tendency to dye their hair but her eyebrows and pale, untouched lashes proved her to be a natural rose gold haired person. There was a chance of her being descended from a cherry blossom tree nymph.

But she was obviously human—or at least too far down the family tree from any possible nymph—without him having to ask.

“Is this computer taken?” Sakura asked, pink dusting the apples of her cheeks.

Glittering sea foam green eyes cast to the side shyly and the biting of a plump lower lip was just a reminder that Haruno Sakura was an above average beauty, even when compared to incubus standards.

It would be difficult to find a tastier looking meal.

What the fuck?

Disregarding that passing thought, Sasuke looked around the room for an available computer station. Even if there wasn’t one she could still switch computers with someone that wasn’t working yet.

“You should find a different computer,” he snapped when she reached for the chair. He gripped the top of the seat’s back and attempted to stare her down.

Pale green eyes went wide and the trembling of her lower lip made Sasuke’s stomach drop. He instantly regretted his behavior despite the fact that he needed her as far away from him as possible. Sasuke opened his mouth to ease the situation when, with more strength than he had expected, Sakura yanked the chair out from under his hand.

“Unfortunately for the both of us, this is the only available computer station,” she said hotly, face flushing red. She sat down and propped her textbook up so that she could reference it for notes.

A side effect of his awakening incubus nature was a heightened awareness of the emotions of different creatures. Sasuke could feel her irritation and her anger rolling off of her in hot waves. Her anger did nothing to quell the ache in his lower abdomen. Instead, heat pooled lower and a familiar twitching had him exhaling deeply through his nose.

“Shisui likes to get Izumi angry on purpose,” Itachi━who had lucked out and had taken after their human mother━━had explained once when he and his spouses were visiting. “Something about more flavoring.  He never gets me angry like that but then again, I’m more likely to withhold if angered. It affects him more.”

It was something that he had absolutely no interest in knowing about his older brother and his in-laws but it had explained a lot about Shisui’s behavior on certain days. Shisui was like his father, faithful. It was a strange trait for an incubus but it was one that ran in the Uchiha family. They married their partner━or partners like in Shisui’s case━and fed from them exclusively. It was interesting to watch how Shisui and his spouses functioned in comparison to his more traditional father.

But at the moment he was just irritated to know he shared a similarity with Shisui of all people.

The sound of fingers pounding down on the keyboard next to him lightened to a steady stream of light tapping. Sasuke chanced a glance from his peripheral vision at his neighbor.

Something glittery caught his eye when Sakura tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. The shorter strand curled around her ear and revealed a trio of silver studs along her lobe. His eyes trailed from her ears to her cheeks, the color had faded out as her temper cooled.

Her eyes squinted, a crease forming between pale brows as she contemplated her next keyboard strokes. Eyes drifting from the wrinkle between her eyebrows, Sasuke eyed the way she bit her lower lip at the right corner.

As she worked the scent of desire had diminished from her direction. Her anger hadn’t quelled it but her focus on her assignment had overcome the secondary feeling. It drifted to a quiet buzz, the way a few humans got when they were near someone they were innocently attracted to.

Sakura continued to work, not bothering to try and chat with him, like she always did in their shared lectures. That was the part Sasuke never understood. She never bothered him outside of handing him the exit slip for their lectures or to get around his seat.

And yet her existence was hard to ignore.

She wasn’t the only human at their university that was attracted to him. He wasn’t oblivious to the stares and to what people assumed was subtle brushing against his body.

So why exactly was she such a problem?

Sakura sighed and pushed her keyboard away from her. The action caused her propped textbook to slide upwards  against the monitor and system unit and fold in on itself.

“Oh, shoot!” Sakura hissed under her breath as the book began to fall. She fumbled with it as it slipped off of the desk.

He hadn’t intended to reach for the textbook. It was mostly reflex that had him making a grab for it. It hadn’t even occurred to him until after it was safely in his hands that catching the book would give away the fact that he had been paying far more attention than he should have been. He shouldn’t have been paying any attention at all.

“Thank you,” Sakura murmured as he handed back the book. Her face did the thing again where it colored easily, pink spreading across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.

Great.

Sasuke sucked in some air to try and distract himself from the heat pooling in his groin. It wouldn’t do for his hunger to manifest itself as a lump in his jeans.

Quickly logging out, Sasuke grabbed his belongings and made a swift exit.

He needed to get as far away from her and her dangerous blushes as possible.

.

.

It was odd. He could still taste the slices of tomatoes his mother had chopped up. They slid across his tongue, still tangy and cool from having just been taken out from the refrigerator, every bit as tasty as it always was but it didn’t hit his stomach the same way.

“Is everything alright?” Mikoto stopped in her stirring as she eyed the way Sasuke’s mouth twisted and he pushed away the plate of his favorite fruit.

“I ate like three tomatoes worth of slices and I’m still hungry.”

“Oh.” Mikoto looked down at the pot on the stove and frowned. “Should I make more or…?”

“I don’t think it would matter if I ate more or not at this point.”

Sasuke’s jaw clenched as the ache in his stomach stung sharply. He was running out of time.

He had hoped he would never have to deal with this problem. His older brother Itachi never did—he turned out to be human, no matter the fact that he was almost perfect in everything he did, he was human through and through.

Sasuke had figured if his brother ended up being human then he would get passed over as well. Unfortunately, genetics weren’t on his side on this one.

Clearing his bowl and wiping down his spot at the kitchen table Sasuke bid his mother goodnight, calling it in for the night.

Without bothering to turn on the lights for his bedroom he peeled off his shirt and kicked off his house slippers before collapsing onto his bed. He yanked his duvet out from under him and pulled it over his head.

“I don’t even want to touch anyone like that,” he sighed.

As soon as he had the thought, his mind flashed him an image of pink hair and red blushes clashing with jade colored eyes.

I’m not entertaining that.

Sasuke curled into a ball and clutched a pillow to his chest. Maybe tomorrow he would be less hungry.

.

.

It was like he hadn’t eaten in days.

There was nothing that could have distracted him from the pain in his lower stomach. It was pride that had him struggling to get to class. That and an exam later on in the day that he couldn’t afford to miss.

Traveling by train was a hassle due to the amount of attention he was attracting.

“Never let yourself starve,” Shisui had warned him weeks ago when the signs of transition were revealing themselves. “Your body will go into starvation mode and release pheromones that attract nearby humans that you can feed on. That may sound helpful, but it gets chaotic in public spaces.”

Sasuke was forced to exit the train five stations away from the university station and call a taxi company that specialized in otherworldly patrons. A pair of high school girls were inching closer and one middle aged man had already brushed his back against Sasuke’s chest much too often to be blamed on the rocking of the train car.

He wouldn’t survive the rush of travelers that would hop on the train at the central station.

“You don’t look good, kid.” A single horned demon cab driver turned in his seat to look back at him. “I could drop you off somewhere you can get easy prey.”

What, did he have a sign on his forehead that read “Starving Incubus?”

“Take me to K Uni,” Sasuke growled out more forcefully.

Incubus physiological issues weren’t going to get in his way of passing the semester with top marks.

The demon gave him a disapproving look before pulling away from the curb. He muttered something derogatory that Sasuke chose to ignore.

Sasuke was dropped off as close as possible to the building he needed to get to but it still wasn’t enough. He weaved through campus, taking the least crowded hallways to get to his destination.

“Fuck.”

Sasuke ducked under a stairwell and slid down against the wall to the floor. The hunger pains were getting worse.

Exhaling deeply through his nose, Sasuke resigned himself to missing his two lectures for the day and then braving his way to his exam. He would just have to hide out. Luckily he was in a part of the building no one used, choosing instead to use the staircase and elevators on the opposite side of the building than the ones that faced the cafeteria.

Unzipping his jeans to make more room for himself without actually whipping his penis out Sasuke sighed out, grateful for the few centimeters of relief.

Sasuke rubbed his forehead with the heel of his palm. Unlike erections from his youth, he was having difficulty willing his current predicament away with meditation. It wasn’t arousal, it was hunger. And it wasn’t going to be going away just because he wanted it to.

Closing his eyes, Sasuke leaned his head back and tried to focus on the cool cement wall behind him.

“Uchiha-kun?”

Oh, no. No. No. No!

“Uchiha-kun are you, okay?”

Of course Haruno Sakura would be the one person that chose to walk in a secluded part of the building. Of course it would be the last person he wanted to see him in such a state.

“Do you...need assistance?”

Or maybe...she was the perfect person to find him?

“Uchiha-kun, do you need me to get someone? Or something?”

Her voice was warm and full of concern and just so inviting. The tone promised she would do anything to help him. Anything.

Opening his eyes, Sasuke let out a groan. This just wasn’t his day.

Sakura squatted so that she was eye level with him and tossed her bag on the ground. The hem of her blue button down shirt dress rode up her thigh, revealing more of her legs than he had seen before.

“You look a bit feverish…” she mumbled, placing a cool hand against his forehead before sliding the back of it against his cheek. “You’re really—“

Her sentence was caught off when she gasped. Her skin was so cool and he was so hot that he had leaned into her touch and pressed a kiss to her wrist.

“Um, Uchiha-kun?” Sakura squeaked and Sasuke took advantage of her shock to take hold of her hand and press an open mouthed kiss to the inside of her wrist and dragged his lips up her palm.

He wasn’t sure of what he was doing, but something inside him was telling him to take her slim fingers into his mouth and nibble at the tips.

“Uchiha-kun…?”

Already in his presence for too long, Sakura’s green eyes glazed over and she was beginning to pant. Sliding his left hand up her thigh over her dress, Sasuke gripped her hip gently and tugged her so that she would fall on to his lap.

Sakura’s breath hitched when Sasuke pressed his forehead to hers. His glasses slid down the bridge of his nose and lightly tapped against her face. Nudging her nose with his, Sasuke pressed his lips against hers, guiding her into opening up for him with hesitant movements. Sakura returned his kiss, running her tongue along the seam of his mouth.

Every sigh and moan lightened the ache in his stomach. Sasuke rolled his tongue against Sakura’s and brushed the underside of her right breast, gently strumming his fingers against her ribs.

“Mmh!” Sakura made a sound of surprise as he gave a small breast an experimental squeeze.

Sasuke groped around with his thumb, circling a hardened peak through the cloth of her dress. Sakura grunted in frustration as he avoided the places she longed for him to touch.

Irritation rolled off of her in waves as she bit down on Sasuke’s lip, tugging it as she pulled away from him. Sasuke couldn’t help the upturn of his lips as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and puffed out an exhale to blow hair out of her face.

The more frustrated she got the more her arousal spiked. Her body was demanding release and as much as Sasuke’s hunger clouded mind wanted to give it to her, there was another part that wanted to prolong the moment.

Since the start of the semester, Haruno Sakura had been a nuisance. Every shared lecture she would distract him with her not so subtle glances and the smell of fresh linens and apples whenever she passed him to get to her seat.

So he wasn’t in any particular mood to just get it over with.

Slowly, as not to frighten her off, he slid his hand up her thigh under her dress. He pulled her in closer by cupping the back of her neck and thumbed smoothing circles along her jaw.

Sasuke was sure lack of experience would cause him to stumble, but apparently being an incubus did have its perks. His heightened senses guided him and he was sure he was moving exactly the way Sakura wanted him to. Not a single intake of air or moan was hidden from him.

“Oh!” Sakura buried her face in the crook of his neck as his fingers slipped into the front of her cotton boy shorts.

With two fingers he lightly traced the velvet soft nether lips and hummed in delight at the way Sakura trembled at the slight touch. He wondered how much of it was the exposure to his incubus pheromones and how much of it was her own sensitivity.

Stroking inward, Sasuke groaned at the moisture pooling between her legs. His stomach clenched, cramping with a sudden pang of pain. He slipped his middle finger inside and curled it, feeling her walls and stretching her a bit. He pumped slowly, keeping alert for any signs of distress, and then with his thumb circled around a curious, knobby bit of flesh right above her entrance.

It was almost instant the reaction he got out of Sakura. She gasped and curled inward on herself, clutching his shoulders.

“Please…” she begged, swiveling her hips hesitantly. “Please, oh, please!”

Sasuke gave in and pressed his thumb directly on her clit, massaging it and rubbing circles, adding pressure to it and listening to the change in pitches of Sakura’s moans. Slipping in his ring finger as well had Sakura letting out a strangled cry. Sasuke paused, worried that he had hurt her when she whimpered.

But then Sakura grinded her hips against his hand and he resumed pumping his fingers and twirling his thumb in the way she seemed to enjoy.

“Hm!”

Sakura caught him off guard by taking his face in her hands and lifting his face up to hers. Their teeth clanged together from her eagerness, but Sasuke allowed her to relax and settle into a languid meshing of lips all on her own.

A moan rolled into his mouth and it caused a delightful shiver to run down his spine. Sasuke increased the pace of his pumping fingers and the rubbing of his thumb, coaxing more of Sakura’s little moans. He shuddered when one particular moan of hers hit at the same time the walls of her core fluttered and clenched around his fingers.

That was good…

Sasuke pulled his fingers out, smirking at the dejected whimper that fell from Sakura’s lips. He slipped the fingers that had just been inside of her gathering her fluids and sucked on them. His stomach growled, needing more.

Sasuke laid Sakura down on the linoleum floor and tugged on her panties, dragging them down from her legs. He kept an eye on her face for any signs of protest but instead what he got was Sakura shimmying her hips to assist in helping him peel away her undergarments.

“Huh?” Sakura blinked her unfocused eyes as Sasuke adjusted their positions so that her upper body was lying on the ground and her legs were lifted onto his shoulders. “What are you━?”

She cried out in shock as he cupped the pert rounds of her backside and pulled her up to his mouth. Sasuke let out a breathy chuckle before flattening his tongue against her core and giving it one long lick upwards, flicking her clit at the end of the stroke.

Sasuke groaned, pressing open mouthed kisses to her core as Sakura covered her mouth with her hands to reign in her moans.

No matter how hard she tried to keep quiet and hide her reactions, Sasuke felt them all as they warmed his lower stomach, easing the ache he had been suffering through for weeks.

I wouldn’t have been avoiding this if I knew how good it felt to feed.

Sasuke wrapped his lips around the bundle of nerves that caused the most delight and sucked on it. He adjusted his hold on her to slide his right hand around so he could slip his fingers back inside and thrust them in and out in tandem with the oral attention he was giving her clit.

It didn’t take long for Sakura to tense up, thighs squeezing together around Sasuke’s head as she held on tight to her orgasm. Sasuke licked languidly at her core, letting her ride it out as long as possible.

The better she felt the less empty his stomach felt. The only problem was the throbbing between his legs.

Sasuke laid Sakura back down on the floor. Her dress bunched up around her hips, showing off her bare pale legs and the tuft of glistening pink curls at the peak of her thighs.

She was so pink everywhere. Her hair, her flushed face, even down below she was just so pink.

Sakura peered up at him from beneath wet, pale lashes. Her chest rose with each harsh pant as she tried to settle down her breathing. Sasuke was just about to call it off—perhaps he had reached the limit as to how much Sakura could take at once—when she lifted the hem of her dress further up, dragging it to bunch up at the cinched section below her breasts.

Swallowing hard, Sasuke sat up on his knees and tugged his jeans lower on his hips.

“Holy…” Sakura shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut. “That’s not going to fit.”

It was a part of the incubus anatomy that Sasuke hadn’t considered causing him any issues before. Sakura was petite, much smaller than he was. The size difference would be a challenge.

Especially considering incubi had much, much larger members than humans.

“It’s going to be fine,” he assured her, kneeling in front of her.

He spread her legs wider and pulled her up so that she was propped on his lap. It was a move that had his cock brushing the entrance of her core and he groaned at the heat radiating from her.

Sasuke pressed the head of his cock and watched Sakura’s eyes as they widened when he inched further in.

Sakura whimpered as he stretched her further. Even with all of the foreplay earlier, Sasuke was still much too big for comfort. Sasuke soothed her by stroking her thigh. Sakura reached up and took his hand in hers and intertwined their fingers.

“Keep,” She panted, “going.”

Gripping her hip with his other hand, Sasuke steadied her as he pulled out and thrust back in. He kept his thrusts shallow, hoping to get her accustomed to having him inside of her.

“Oh!” Sakura tightened her hold on his hand when he sank further in, finally able to slip past the tight passage of her core.

It’s still not much inside though…

Sakura arched her back, clearly ecstatic at the new sensation as Sasuke picked up the pace. Her face was no longer pinched in discomfort, much to Sasuke’s relief.

But maybe it would be better if I…

Sasuke slipped out and Sakura sobbed at the loss of his girth inside of her. He knew that his pheromones and body fluids acted as an aphrodisiac but he didn’t realize that humans could become so desperate once they came in contact.

Sasuke turned Sakura over so that she was lying down on her stomach. Realizing what he was up to, Sakura braced herself on her forearms and arched her back so that her ass was in the air.

Sitting up on his knees, Sasuke took his cock in his hand and guided himself back into Sakura’s wet heat.

He groaned aloud at the feeling as he sank even deeper than he was able to before. He waited for a moment as Sakura got used to the new position. A high pitched cry had gotten caught in her throat as he had stretched her out once more but it had turned into a moan as he slipped further inside.

Using a two handed grip on her hips to anchor himself, Sasuke pulled out and drove back in. His pace was slow but the thrusts were harsh and deep as he soaked in the blissful energy radiating from Sakura.

Sasuke began to increase his pace when a door opened up from a floor above them. A loud set of girls had flung the door open and were giggling to each other as they made their way down the stairs.

He instantly halted his movements and strained to listen to where the people were heading. He was reluctant to pull out; partially because he was almost well fed, partially because Sakura had turned her head to look back at him, face scrunched up in a pout, silently pleading for another release.

He was pleased to hear their voices carrying upwards, going in the opposite direction of where he and Sakura were hiding on the first level.

A sigh of relief caught in his throat and choked him as Sakura began to push back against him, grinding her hips.

“Oi,” Sasuke chastised, tightening his hold on her hips to still her grinding. They still weren’t in the clear until he heard them exit the stairwell through one of the doors.

Sakura whined low in her throat but settled when he leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her nape. She sighed dreamily as he continued to lavish her with sweet attention. He trailed more down her spine until he heard the clanging of a door shutting.

As soon as they were alone again, he pulled out and rammed back in. He couldn’t drag it out any longer or he would risk them almost getting caught again.

Snaking a hand around Sakura’s hip and down between her thighs, he reached for her clit and pinched it. Sakura squealed and the walls of her core clamped down on his cock. He rubbed it in a pace to match his thrusting.

Sakura mewled in delight as he swiveled his hips, grinding deeply. One good thrust and she came undone once again. Reluctantly, Sasuke pulled out at the last possible moment, ejaculating on the back of her thighs.

He could only compare the decision to pull out to the feeling of someone swiping away the last bite of one’s favorite dish before they could get to it but it would have been unwise to come inside of her without knowing if she were on any birth control.

He moaned softly as the last drops of cum oozed from the slit of his cock’s head. The act was so messy despite how pleasurable it was. It wasn’t going to be fun trying to clean up.

“Haruno,” Sasuke tried to get Sakura’s attention. She was face down on the linoleum, arms having finally given out from under her. “Haruno?”

Sasuke shook her shoulder and when he got no reaction he flipped her over onto her back. Her eyes were shut and her chest rose slowly with each breath she took.

Haruno Sakura had passed out right after her climax. Considering his starved state, he had drained her of more life force than was necessary.

Sighing to himself, Sasuke took out his handkerchief and got to work on wiping his ejaculant from where it was dripping on her legs.

So fucking messy.

.

.

Blinking her eyes open, Sakura yawned before turning her face into the comforting warmth she was leaning against.

A small cough drew her attention up to the face of her classmate Uchiha Sasuke.

“You missed two lecture blocks.”

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. He had just fucked her until she was unconscious and that was what he wanted to inform her of?

“You’re an incubus.”

If the abnormally large size of his penis wasn’t a dead giveaway, his eyes had shifted colors and glowed red when he had sucked his fingers clean of her fluids. When had they shifted back to dark brown? She had no clue. She had been knocked out by the sudden draining of energy he had consumed.

Sasuke glared at her before averting his gaze. He stared at the wall and muttered, “Unfortunately.”

Sakura took note of how he cradled her in his lap, his cardigan sweater covering her. She watched as he avoided looking at her even as his ears burned hot pink.

He was still Uchiha Sasuke despite everything.

“This might be a weird time to mention it, but I like you. A lot.” The pink on his ears spread down his neck. “And I usually have more stamina than that. I’m not kidding, Uchiha-kun. I was in my high school’s track club.”

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled deeply.

“How about you start with calling me by my first name and we’ll work from there?”

“I can do that.” Sakura squirmed in his lap, making herself comfortable. She was still exhausted from earlier despite taking almost a three hour nap.

Ah, shit.

“I had an exam during one of those blocks.”

“Shit. I have one in half an hour.”

Sakura burst out laughing as the color drained from his face. He really was still the same Uchiha Sasuke she had been sitting next to all semester.

“At least you won’t be hungry, huh?”

“Real funny…”

[whumphoarder]

D is for Diploma

Summary: Between all of his commitments, Peter’s grades start slipping, putting him in danger of losing his academic scholarship to Midtown. Stressed and guilt-ridden about the effect this will have on May’s finances, he ends up worrying himself sick and having a breakdown in Tony’s lab.

Word count: 3,759

Genre: emotional hurt/comfort, angst, hurt/comfort

A/N: Thanks so much to @xxx-cat-xxx and @sallyidss for beta reading and encouragement <3

Link to read on Ao3

“But how are you getting a C in gym class?” Ned balks at his friend. He’s peering over Peter’s shoulder as he scrolls through his quarterly grades on the school library computer. “Everyone gets an A. I’m getting an A. All you gotta do is show up and at least look like you’re trying and boom, automatic A.”

Peter rubs a hand at the back of his neck sheepishly. “So, remember after the Rhino dude attacked me, how I had all those bruises that didn’t heal right away?”

“Yeah...” Ned recalls, frowning. “But you said they didn’t hurt.”

“They didn’t! Not really, anyway,” Peter says quickly. “But like, I didn’t really want everyone to see that, so I kinda didn’t change into my uniform. And apparently if you don’t change, Wilson just marks you as absent.”

“Ah.” Ned gives him a sympathetic wince. “Yeah, that’s lame.”

“What I don’t understand,” MJ pipes up, glancing up from the book she’s had her nose in all afternoon, “is the D in Spanish. Rodríguez isn’t even a hard teacher.”

Peter’s face flushes with embarrassment. “So… I might have forgotten to submit a couple assignments.”

She quirks an eyebrow. “You forgot? He reminds us what’s due, like, three times every class period.”

“I mean, it was just the take-home quiz...” he mumbles. “And some of the homework sheets. Oh, and that cultural essay thing about the ancient Mayans.”

“Peter.” She blinks at him. “That was like, twenty percent of our grade.”

“Well, to be fair, I did have a concussion,” he defends. “It was a little hard to remember stuff that week.”

Ned rolls his eyes. “Oh yeah, that makes it so much better.”

Peter huffs out a laugh. Honestly, between all the hours he’s been logging lately as Spider-Man, his frequent internship nights with Tony in the lab, the increasingly demanding decathlon practice schedule as their team moves toward regionals, and the weekend shifts he’s started picking up at Delmar’s (because, let’s face it, the vigilante life isn’t the most lucrative career path—the occasional free churro notwithstanding), Peter thinks he’s been doing quite well juggling everything. Sure, his grades aren’t quite the neat row of A’s and the occasional B he’s grown accustomed to throughout his school career, but it’s not like he’s failing anything.

“I’ve just got different priorities now,” Peter says with a shrug. “I still show up and I’m passing all my classes, so what does the grade matter?”

MJ returns the shrug, looking vaguely impressed with him. “It doesn’t really. I’ve always been morally opposed to using arbitrary numerical values as a measure of academic success.” She shifts her gaze back to her novel before adding, offhandedly, “But you gotta admit, the tuition break is nice.”

And in those nine little words, she might as well have punched him in the gut.

“Oh shit,” Peter breathes out. Hurriedly, he starts gathering books together and getting to his feet.

“What?” Ned asks, looking puzzled.

“Um, I gotta go,” he blurts. And then before anyone can say another word, he’s out of the library doors.

X

The Parkers aren’t poor, exactly.

May works full-time at her job as a neonatal nurse, besides picking up extra shifts one or two nights a month to give them a bit of cushion. Between her wages and the social security checks that come every month from Ben’s pension, the two of them get by. Sure, Peter might not have name-brand clothes or the coolest tech or even a pair of gym shoes without a bit of duct tape on the soles, but there’s always been food on the table and a roof over his head, so Peter’s never stressed that much about their financial situation.

Maybe that’s how he managed to completely forget about his academic scholarship.

He’s qualified for it ever since he passed Midtown’s entrance exams in the top tenth percentile back in eighth grade. The money is substantial—slightly over two-thirds of the tuition cost is paid for him—and the scholarship automatically renews every semester provided he maintains a grade point average of 3.3 or higher, which has never been a problem for him.

That is, up until now. Factoring in his B in history, the C’s in gym and trig, and his D in Spanish, his GPA is currently sitting at 2.9.

Peter is going to lose his scholarship.

X

With less than two weeks left before finals, Peter starts cramming in all the studying he can manage. He stays up late, pouring over his trigonometry notes, trying to work his way through all the practice problems he’s been slacking on. He makes a point of showing up three minutes early to gym class every day, even if he has to use a bit of his enhanced speed to get all the way there from the chem labs on the other side of the building. On the train, he quizzes himself on the names of historical figures and the dates of battles long-since fought. Some of his teachers are willing to work with him, letting him turn in late assignments for partial credit or giving him additional projects to complete.

And then there’s Spanish.

“Isn’t there some kind of extra credit project I can do?” Peter begs. “Anything?”

It’s his study hall period and he’s at Señor Rodríguez’s desk for the second day in a row, desperately hoping for anything that could give his grade the boost it needs.

“I’m sorry, Peter,” his teacher says, sounding genuinely regretful. “But you’ve had countless opportunities this semester to get your grade up via homework and test retakes, all of which you neglected to take advantage of. Coming to me with less than ten days left in the semester requesting make up work for assignments worth significant percentages of your grade is simply too little, too late.”

“But… I had a concussion that week,” Peter argues. “Like, right when it was all due. And I would have done the work before, but…” He trails off, unable to finish his sentence without explaining his unorthodox extracurriculars. “I...I was busy,” he concludes weakly.

Rodríguez raises an eyebrow a little skeptically. “I didn’t receive any notes from the nurse’s office about this concussion.”

Peter glances down to his feet. “Well, that’s because she didn’t know, exactly…”

No one did—not even May. After getting all those bruises the week before, Peter didn’t want anyone to know he was hurt again so soon. Apparently Karen hadn’t deemed the blow to the head he took severe enough to override his wishes. He’d just dealt with the headaches and brain fog the best he could and sort of floated through that week on his own. In hindsight, maybe not his best plan.

“Well, I guess this is a good life lesson for you then, Peter,” Rodríguez says. His voice is firm, but not unkind. “Part of growing up is taking responsibility and learning to communicate with authority figures before you get into trouble.”

“Right, and I get that,” Peter babbles, “I just—”

His teacher holds up a finger, quieting him. “My job is to train my students for success in the real world, and sometimes that means reminding you that actions have consequences. ¿Lo entiendes?”

And Peter finds himself nodding. Because, despite the pool of dread growing in his gut, he does understand. He wants to be mad, wants to say it’s unfair and the universe gave him a raw deal and he doesn’t deserve this. But he can’t. Rodríguez is right.

And Peter’s still fucked.

X

By the time Friday rolls around, Peter’s barely functioning. Besides all the extra assignments and studying for finals, he’s had three days in a row of Decathlon practices, followed by some particularly eventful evening patrols that all went quite a bit later than his usual curfew of ten p.m.

He can’t get much of his lunch down today, which does nothing to appease his friends’ concerned looks. The food seems tasteless in his mouth and he’s so tired he nearly nods off into his cafeteria chicken nuggets.

When school finally lets out, he’s surprised and a little disheartened to see the sleek black car waiting for him in the bus circle. He’d totally forgotten it was an internship weekend.

Figures.

X

Peter groans as he disconnects the circuits he just switched out. He’s been trying to fix a bug in his suit’s heater upgrade for the last twenty minutes now, but nothing he attempts is working and his head is throbbing so much that his vision is hazy.

“Just try again, kid,” Tony encourages absently from across the workshop. He’s not looking up, fully engrossed as he is in his own project. “You got this.”

“Yeah...” Peter mutters under his breath. Blinking a few times, he rubs a hand at his eyes to try to clear his vision.

He connects a different wire. That one doesn’t yield any better results, so he unplugs it and tries again. Then again. Then again. He’s fairly sure he’s already tried the next combination, but he’s so tired he can’t remember so he does it again just to be sure. Nothing.

Peter is so frustrated now that his hands are actually shaking. He pauses and takes a deep breath before trying again.

This time, the wire sparks at him.

“I can’t do this!” Peter exclaims, shoving the suit away from him across the table. “I can’t do anything! Why am I so fucking stupid?!”

He’s breathing heavily now, tears clouding his vision even further. Within a few seconds he feels Tony’s hand rest heavily on his shoulder. It should be comforting, but it only makes Peter feel pathetic.

“C’mon, just take a deep breath and—”

“No!” Peter blurts, shaking away from Tony’s grip. “That’s not going to fix anything! I can’t fix this—don’t you see?!”

Stepping backwards, Tony holds his hands up in front of his chest, keeping his expression perfectly neutral. “Okay…” he says carefully. “I think you might need a break.”

Tears prick at Peter’s eyes and he instantly regrets snapping at his mentor. “No, no, I didn’t mean that! I’m s-sorry, ’m fine…” he says. It would probably sound a lot more convincing if his breath would stop hitching.

Tony lifts an eyebrow. “Yeah, no, I’m pulling rank here,” he declares. “It’s break time.”

“No!” Peter protests. His hands fumble back on the table for the wires.  “I gotta finish it! It’s so close, it’s just—” He cuts himself off as the images of the suit swim before his eyes, his head throbbing. “I, I need to finish…” he concludes lamely.

“Peter, just stop,” Tony says with an exasperated sigh. “You’re no good like this.”

Somehow, those words are the catalyst. Peter feels every emotion he’s been bottling up for the past week erupt inside of him. His breath hitches and his head pulses. “I, I know I’m not,” he manages to say, “but that’s why I gotta… gotta finish, then maybe—”

“Jesus, kid,” Tony breathes out. “That’s not what I meant at all. I was just saying—”

Peter cuts him off. “No, I… I know…” Tears are sliding down Peter’s cheeks now. He runs a hand through his hair, shoulders shaking. “’M sorry.”

Tony’s eyes are a mixture of concern and confusion. “Whoa, hey, what’s going on here?” Tugging the edge of his sleeve over his thumb, Tony uses it to wipe a few of the tears off his cheeks. “Talk to me.”

Honestly, Peter doesn’t even know where to begin. The frustration of his current project, the lack of sleep, his grades, the scholarship…

“I just… I-I have a headache.”

Peter doesn’t know why he says it—the pressure in his skull doesn’t even rank very high on his list of concerns at the moment, yet the simple physicality of it somehow makes it the easiest thing to admit. He rubs the back of his hand at his eyes, but his vision is still so blurry. “Can’t really see straight…”

Tony’s brows knit together. “Is it a migraine?”

“N-No,” Peter says between choked sobs. “Or... I don’t know, I don’t th-think so?” Despite never having had a migraine, he’s pretty sure that’s not what this is. The pain isn’t anything exceptional—it’s just that he can’t seem to stop crying and he’s so fucking tired.

“Either way, I think you’ll feel better once you’ve got a couple painkillers in you,” Tony reasons. “C’mon, let’s get you sorted out.”

Peter shakes his head in weak protest. “No, ’s’okay... “

“Nope,” Tony says, his voice a little more firm. “Trust me on this, you don’t want to work in a lab right now. It’s bright, and loud, and honestly, you’re a bit of a safety hazard at the moment.”

To Peter’s horror, a fresh wave of emotion comes over him and he finds himself properly crying now, his frame wracking with each sob.

“Okay, okay, alright…” Tony murmurs, and Peter feels a hand awkwardly patting him on the back.

It’s all so idiotic, Peter decides, standing in Tony’s lab, crying over things that are completely his own fault and a headache that isn’t even that bad.

“You’re okay, kid,” Tony whispers. “Just breathe.”

As Peter struggles to pull himself together, he feels the hand switch to rubbing circles on his back. It moves up to the back of his neck, but halts as soon as Tony’s fingers touch Peter’s bare skin.

Tony frowns. “Do you have a fever?”

“Wh-What?” Peter’s throat is thick.

“You’re really warm,” Tony explains. He flips his hand around to press the back of his fingers to Peter’s skin, first on his neck, then on his cheek. “Yeah. FRIDAY, can we get a read on that?”

“100.7, boss,” she supplies.

Tony hums a bit. “Yeah, that’s about what I thought…”

Peter doesn’t get it. “B-But I’m not sick,” he protests. “Just—”

“Exhausted,” Tony finishes for him. “When’s the last time you had a full night’s sleep?”

Sniffling, Peter gives a non-committal shrug.

“Yeah, that’s not good, kid,” Tony huffs. “Take it from a guy who has a bit of experience in this area—not sleeping enough will seriously mess you up.”

With a hand on Peter’s back, Tony starts gently ushering the kid out of the lab. Peter doesn’t even bother protesting anymore as he shuffles along, his lip quivering. He figures he’s caused enough trouble today.

Tony deposits him onto the couch in the living room and Peter immediately curls up against the arm rest, squeezing his eyelids shut in an effort not to think about what a fool he’s making of himself in front of his mentor. It doesn’t help much.

“You just chill out for a minute here, okay?” Tony says quietly, draping a blanket over Peter. “I’m gonna get you some meds.”

Peter nods and Tony gives his shoulder a final squeeze before stepping out.

The second he’s alone, the tears start streaming down again, hot and silent and totally uncontrollable. If he’s not working in the lab, then he really should be studying for these stupid finals, but he can’t bring himself to pull out his flash cards. He doesn’t think he can rest—not with so much hanging over his head—but he can’t work either. Tony was right; he’s just no good right now.

When Tony reenters with painkillers and a glass of water, he doesn’t say anything about how Peter is hurriedly sitting up and scrubbing his face with his hands in a pointless attempt to pull himself together. He just presses two pills into Peter’s palm.

Looking down at the painkillers in his shaking hand, Peter’s stomach twists and he’s suddenly not so sure they’ll be able to stay down. “I can’t. I feel sick,” he admits in a whisper.

With a quiet sigh, Tony perches himself on the edge of the sofa, right beside Peter’s tucked knees. “I think you’re just tired, kiddo. Sometimes that makes you feel a little sick.”

Peter doesn’t say anything so Tony passes him the glass of water. “Here. Humor me,” he says. “If I’m wrong, I’ll pay for the dry cleaning.”

It’s a stupid joke, but the corners of Peter’s lips twitch anyway. “Okay,” he croaks.

Peter slips the pills into his mouth and swallows them down with a sip of water. He’s queasy, but it’s not too bad. He goes to set the cup back down on the coffee table, but his mentor shakes his head.

“Drink the whole thing,” Tony instructs.

Peter obeys. It takes him a couple of minutes, but he manages to get the entire cup down and feels just the smallest bit better for it.

Tony takes the empty glass from his hand and sets it on the table. “Think you can sleep now?”

Peter just shrugs. He wants to—god, he wants to—but he doesn’t deserve it. Not when this is all his own damn fault. His voice is barely a whisper when he speaks again:

“I think I really messed up, Mr. Stark.”

X

Over the next ten minutes, it all comes tumbling out: the job at Delmar’s, the decathlon requirements, the late patrols, his slipping grades, his scholarship, everything.

“I just… I don’t want to change schools,” Peter concludes softly. “I like Midtown. It was the first place I really felt like… well, like I fit in.”

Tony’s been quiet for the whole time Peter was speaking, but now his brow furrows. “Why would you need to quit Midtown?”

Peter blinks at him; isn’t it obvious? “Because the full tuition is eight thousand dollars a semester. Without the scholarship…” he trails off. “I just can’t do that to May.”

A look of relief spreads across Tony’s face. “Is that all? That’s the whole issue?” He huffs out an amused breath. “Done. Consider it paid. Problem solved.”

Peter feels his cheeks flush. He shakes his head frantically. “No, no, I didn’t mean that you should pay! Please don’t do that!”

Now it’s Tony’s turn to blink at him. “Peter. I am a multi-billionaire. Do you have any idea what eight thousand dollars is to me?”

“But you shouldn’t have t—”

“Peanuts,” Tony cuts him off. “I’ve spent more on peanuts than that.”

“But—”

“And by that I mean actual, honest-to-god peanuts,” Tony continues over the kid’s protests. “There’s this company in Peru that slow-roasts them for twenty-one days in a secret spice blend. Happy’s obsessed with ‘em—says they’re god’s gift to mankind. So, for Christmas one year—”

“You can’t pay my tuition!” Peter blurts out.

Tony stops his story abruptly. His eyes narrow at Peter. “And why exactly is that?”

“Because…” Running a hand through his hair, Peter draws in a shuddery breath. “Because… If anyone should pay, it’s me. I-I’m the one who fucked up and lost the stupid scholarship. I should be the one responsible for fixing this.”

“But you can’t fix it,” Tony says bluntly.

Peter’s caught off-guard. “Wh-What? N-No, I just need to get my grades up, and, and…”

Tony’s voice is gentler now. “You can’t, Peter. You can’t get a 2.9 up to a 3.3 by next week, no matter how well you do on your exams. You’ve gotta know that.”

(Peter does know. He’s known for days. He’s always been good at math, after all.)

“So you can’t keep going on like this, trying to make up for what happened,” Tony concludes.

Tears prick at the corners of Peter’s eyes once more. He’s determined not to let them fall this time. “But I deserve it…” he whispers.

Tony shrugs. “If we always got what we deserved, I never would have made it through the 90s.” He huffs out a short laugh. “At least nobody has to bail you out of prison. Same can’t be said for all of us.”

In spite of Peter’s earlier resolve, the traitorous tears slip out anyway. He wonders how he has any left.

Tony sobers a bit. “You’re a good kid, Pete,” he says quietly. “But you’re trying to carry the whole world on your shoulders and that’s enough to break anyone. It’s okay to ask for help sometimes. Even if you fucked up.”

Peter swallows hard. “Okay.”

“So let’s try this again,” Tony says. He makes eye contact with Peter. “What do you need, kid?”

“Right now?” Peter exhales deeply. “I dunno. A nap?”

Tony smirks slightly. “I think we can manage that.”

X

Peter makes it through finals.

All his extra effort and studying does yield some results. His gym grade increases to a B after Coach Wilson grades his two-page extra credit report on the rules of badminton. The trig final is rough, but he pulls in another couple points there, and the art teacher accepts a few late sketches from the unit on perspectivism. With the help of the final exam, he even manages to eek out a C- in Spanish.

When it’s all said and done, Peter’s GPA sits at 3.1.

“That wasn’t easy to do. I’m proud of you, Peter,” May says sincerely. “You know that, right?”

Peter shrugs. “I guess so.”

They’re sitting together at the apartment’s small kitchen table, May’s open laptop in front of them with all of Peter’s end of semester grades displayed. Peter’s eyes drift down from the screen to the table where a check for eight thousand dollars signed by Tony Stark himself is staring back at him. He sighs.

May plants a quick kiss on the top of her nephew’s head. “Well, I know so. So for now, I’ll just know it for the both of us.”

Peter strokes his fingers over the crisp paper of the check. Besides covering tuition, Tony has now upgraded Peter’s unofficial SI internship to a paid position—something he says he should have done long ago, given how much time Peter spends working in the lab—and that will allow him to give Mr. Delmar his two-week notice.

He knows he should be grateful, but honestly, it’s going to take him some time to wrap his head around the concept of being taken care of like this.

Getting up from the table, May moves over to retrieve a small paper bag from the counter. “That reminds me—Mr. Stark told me to give you this.” She tosses the bag to Peter, who catches it easily.

Curiously, he opens it. He’s immediately hit with the aroma of exotic spices and roasted legumes. Peter can’t help but grin.

A note inside the bag reads: Enjoy your peanuts, kid.

A/N: If you enjoyed this story, you might also like: 

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Go Down Swinging

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[tizzabianca]

Just an update on how this week has been for me. I know it’s only Thursday but the amount of things that has happened during the past 3 days is overwhelming already but in a good way.

We had our Internal Medicine and *supposedly* Radiology exam on Monday. Internal Medicine started at 8 AM and Radiology was scheduled at 3 PM. Considering the long waiting hours, Lally and I went to Sambros Cafe to have our late breakfast and early lunch. But as expected, we watched one episode of Kim’s Convenience (which I am loving so much!) and went through our social media accounts before we started reviewing for Radiology. A few hours before the exam, we were both so close to giving up because all we see are black and whites unlike in Histology where it was easier to identify and point structures. I don’t know if it’s because I have no background in Radiology as compared with Histology but Radiology so far is my least favorite subject for this school year. Anyway, we went back to school and had enough time to take a nap before reviewing for the last time outside the HI lab where we take our exams ONLY TO FIND OUT OUR EXAM IS CANCELLED. The worse part is they didn’t announce it right away. They kept saying they’re just having technical difficulties and that the exam will push through but one of our liaison officers told us that our professor and his resident forgot about our exam and has left the institute already. Imagine the amount of time (almost 7 hours) we wasted that we could’ve used for resting and studying for the next day’s exams. UGH. I hated that day so much.

Come Tuesday, it was time for our OB-GYN and Surgery exam. I can’t confidently say I did well on both exams because I was still tired and pissed off from Monday’s schedule disaster but the moment I finished my Surgery exam at 2 PM, I knew I needed to go out and have a breather. Originally, I planned to go to Alabang to buy my toner and watch a movie by myself. As I was heading out of my dorm after changing clothes and all, I had this urge to text Anna, my college best friend who is now taking up medicine in FEU-NRMF, and ask if she’s free to meet up. Being the spontaneous pair of people we are, she agreed to meet up in Taft but after her class which ends at 6 PM. I arrived at Manila around 4 PM which was too early for our meet up time so I went to SM Manila first then Robinson Place Manila to buy the things I originally need and to kill time. Something happened during the hours I was at those malls but I prefer not to tell it here because it’s something I don’t want to have any memory from. Moving on, Anna and I finally met again after months! We had dinner at Samgyup with the usual catching up kwentos. Both of us didn’t want to go home yet so we grabbed a drink at Plato, invited Ivan who came all the way from Valenzuela, and video-chatted with our old college blockmates including Mau, Ju, and even Raj. As the night goes on, we ended up convincing Mio to join us in Taft who was back in Dasma at that time. He kept saying that I should’ve told him a lot earlier I was going to Manila but I kept saying, too, that everything was unplanned! I looove spontaneous nights and how my spontaneous friends are always G, too. By 12 midnight, Mio has arrived and our night has officially started. After drinking, we went to a KTV bar at Providence Tower then had early breakfast at Kanto Freestyle Breakfast La Salle which is a 24 hour breakfast-themed restaurant across Providence Tower. It’s a nice restaurant with really good food so if you’re around the area you should definitely check it out! As much as we all wanted to spend more time like old times, we all had to go back to our respective med student lives. Mio and I got back in Dasma by past 5 AM which was sooo late already but our morning classes for that day were just OB-GYN feedback and Psychiatry film showing. I honestly missed hanging out with my college friends. It made me want to go back to college (as always since we all left) even more. I missed Taft, I missed my friends, I missed La Salle. I miss the old times it made me so emotional even up to now as I write this blog. It’s one of those days you wish there’s a real life pause and rewind button. Oh, if only...

Yesterday was another “chill” day for us which was pretty much unusual but I’m thankful nonetheless. I’d like to take as many free time as I can before I drown from acads as another wave of exams hit us. I was supposed to jog after class before Lally and I’s night out but ended up watching the audition of Med Sounds though we didn’t finish it anymore because I got hungry and craved for Mang Inasal. My cravings were sooo intense because I was on my period and I made a promise to Lally that after my period I’ll start dieting and running again. We then went back to my dorm by 8 PM to change clothes before heading out for another drinking session but this time with Mark and Yani. It was our first time hanging out with Mark but he seems like a friendly guy who you can easily be friends with. Since Lally knew she couldn’t handle going home whenever she goes out to drink, she informed me beforehand she’ll sleepover at my place so I sneaked her in to my dorm and took care of her. Yup, the roles have reversed, lol. I slept later than her but we were able to go to class on time before the lecture started. Though we had a difficult time fighting of sleepiness...

Years ago, I wouldn’t imagine myself going out and drinking this much but just to clear it out, I’m not the “wild” type. I have control and I know my limits. I make sure I stay sober and that I’m with people I trust if ever I do get super drunk. But for drinking two nights in a row- cocktail on the first night and beer on the second, I am proud to say that I did not vomit nor feel a hint of dizziness during those nights. I absolutely believe I have high tolerance and I want to thank my genes for that! We don’t want to be that sabog friend during drinking sessions, lol. All I’m saying is don’t forget to have fun and loosen up from time to time but be responsible enough to know when to stop! Especially with all the stressors med school is giving us, it’s important to make sure we don’t reach that point where we get burnt out and if we do, I hope we all have the luxury to have the right company and fun activities to do as we recharge ourselves before facing yet another challenging day as a medical student.

To more spontaneous and fun nights! 

[speed-reiding]

Genuine Admiration

A/N: I’ve envisioned writing this as a series/long form for a long time but finally sat down to do it. Let me know if you have an idea for the title of the series. This is just chapter one.

Y/N had known she wanted to leave Connecticut for Washington, DC since she was 9 years old and learned about the government for the very first time. She had only applied to schools in the DC area and was thrilled with her acceptances to a few. She happily traded her large, well-decorated, private bedroom in her parents’ home for, first, a shared dorm room in college and then, when she continued at the same university for her masters degree, a small studio near the university’s campus. She loved it because no matter how little space she had or how much of her neighbors’ conversations she could hear through the thin walls, she was in DC. 

And of course, there was one thing DC had that Connecticut could never compare to: Dr. Spencer Reid. The young professor had 3 PhDs and worked for the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) of the FBI. While that meant he often had to miss a class or two a semester, his team was usually great about letting him assist remotely. He was the best professor Y/N had ever had. 

Y/N had taken her first of Dr. Reid's classes during her first semester of her senior year of college. Accidentally. She had had to drop a class that conflicted with a required course and she needed another one if she was going to graduate on time. Enter International Criminal Law, a class that sounded fascinating and fit her international relations curriculum- even if criminal law had not been her particular area of interest at the time. That class had drawn her in immediately and had shaped her graduate school applications.

Dr. Reid was brilliant. It didn’t hurt that he was easy on the eyes as well. He always wore formal clothing- usually a jacket and slacks. He also had a beautiful, warm smile, kind eyes that displayed his emotions and- well his body was slim but muscular. His voice was soft but commanding; when Dr. Reid spoke, everybody hung on his every word. 

Naturally, Dr. Reid’s classes were not easy; he expected a lot from his students- a lot of reading, a lot of preparation for debates and discussions and a lot of application on his exams. He didn’t just care that his students could regurgitate information, but rather would be able to apply them to various situations and create solutions- or at least think them through. This meant that his classes started out at full capacity- due to his name, profession and reputation- but about a quarter of the class dropped out during the add/drop period. Dr. Reid seemed to enjoy weeding out those unwilling to work. Y/N liked the challenge.

Y/N had aced her first class with Dr. Reid, unbeknownst to her getting his attention in more ways than one. When she had approached him to write a letter of recommendation to the same university’s graduate program- one that he primarily taught in- he had agreed readily. When Y/N had showed up in International Human Rights Law the following semester, Dr. Reid had noticed as well. Y/N had thanked Dr. Reid with a beautifully hand-written card and a small gift- a small porcelain elephant that resembled one he had mentioned losing in passing. She didn’t know he had followed up with her application and had noted that she would be attending as a member of the graduate school class.

Y/N knew that most of Dr. Reid’s female students tried to flirt with him and expected that they would one day garner his affections. She knew of one specific student who’d had to leave the class after inappropriately offering the professor her contact information and an idea that she would happily perform for him should he raise her grade. She liked Dr. Reid more for not only not accepting such an offer, but for kicking the girl out of the class. While Y/N was not so delusional as to think the professor would ever play hot-for-teacher with her, she hated the idea of him spreading anyone else over his beautiful mahogany desk. 

God, she needed to get laid. Problem was, she wasn’t interested in just sex. She never had been, really; Y/N was a relationship or single person through and through. While this called for many ‘lonely’ months, she never felt the emptiness or regret her friends seemed to when a one night stand proved his intentions to be just that.  

Now, it was the first day of her first semester of graduate school and Y/N was getting ready for Dr. Reid’s class. She was taking 3 classes in total, while vying for a teaching assistant position and working at the university’s writing lab. She couldn’t deny that she was putting in more effort than she would for either of her other classes, but tried to justify it as a first day of class thing, instead of a Dr. Reid thing. She settled on a tasteful raspberry dress with short sleeves and a scoop neck that hit a couple inches above her knee paired with brown ballet flats. It was simple and didn’t look like she had tried too hard. She spent an extra few minutes blow-drying and tousling her dark hair- which had grown significantly longer over the summer- and spritzing on a little musky vanilla perfume. 

Checking her watch, Y/N realized she had less time than she had imagined and entered Room 211 with only a few minutes to spare that Tuesday evening. She chose a seat in the center of the second row of the small room and took out a notebook and pen. She much preferred paper to computer notes, especially when notes were only about conversation. Dr. Reid provided an outline template of all his notes as he believed attendance to be a personal choice for regularly scheduled lectures.

She was the only one in the room until Dr. Reid walked in. He was dressed impeccably- in a dark grey suit with a lilac shirt underneath. His hair was longer than it had been too, and less clean. He had a little bit of scruff on his face. Damn it, he was ever better looking now. He removed his jacket almost instantly and hung it on the back of the chair in the front of the room. Was Y/N making it up or was he giving her a once over.

“Good afternoon Y/N,” Dr. Reid said pleasantly and Y/N glanced over at Dr. Reid, figuring she had definitely been making it up in her head. 

“Hello, Dr. Reid! How was your summer?” she responded with a smile that Dr. Reid immediately returned. He took a moment to answer though. 

“It was lovely, thank you. How was yours?” he finally responded. In his own head, Reid had panicked for a moment. How could he say that he had spent all summer distracted by thoughts of Y/N in his head and that the time had passed painfully slowly as he had just been waiting for this day to see her again. How could he mention that he had spent the whole summer dragging his then-boyfriend to places that Y/N might be, just so that they might run into her, even though that’s where the plan ended. It sounded thoroughly un-genius of him and it had also probably cost him his relationship. How could he tell her that he didn’t mind that his now-ex, Jason, had noticed his odd behavior, given him an ultimatum and, eventually, left. That was not before class conversation. 

“It was relatively monotonous,” Y/N responded, “I was an intern at a small NGO and worked crazy hours. They were significantly understaffed. I think they may have held onto the hope that I’d push back grad school to stay on full-time but alas.”

“Definitely their loss, but I’m happy you chose to return,” Dr. Reid said before he could stop himself. By this time, the other 20 or so students had arrived to the seminar- Y/N supposed no one would actually miss the first day. She was surprised to see Ronnie, a girl she had met during a pre-college program, in the room and made a mental note to catch up with her. 

With that, Dr. Reid started the class. It was engaging as ever, though he spent the beginning discussing the syllabus, work load and expecations. As Y/N was used to, fear struck the eyes of some around her, but she supposed since it was graduate school, fewer than usual seemed likely to actually drop the class.

---

Y/N stared at her screen in surprise. She had, in fact, been chosen as a teaching assistant for an undergraduate course this semester. The class, however, was a writing-intensive course- all undergrads had to take two in their disciplines- so the class was capped at 20 students. And the professor was no other than Dr. Spencer Reid. Since the class met twice a week- Monday and Wednesday- she would be spending three days a week in the presense of Dr. Reid.

Y/N couldn’t deny how excited she was for it, but she was definitely confused. She had been in talks with the coordinator to serve as one of six TAs in a 200 person introduction to international relations course. In that setting, she would have had to lead her own weekly session and deal with freshmen. Now, her students would be primarily upperclassmen and her workload would be more intense, but less annoying. And the pay was higher. How had that happened?

Dr. Spencer Reid would not have admitted it if you asked him, but he had lobbied hard for Y/N as his TA when he’d seen the list. The first problem was that he hadn’t requested a TA- preferring to do his grading and teaching alone. The next had been that Y/N had already been assigned a class. The final problem had been the potential conflict of interest, which was quickly negated by assurances that Y/N had been his top pupil two semesters in a row and that all of his grading was completely blind. Nevertheless, Dr. Reid knew he was owed more than one favor and called that into play. One intense email thread later, it was confirmed. Even as the pull made itself more obvious, he refused to admit how he felt about Y/N. 

At their first “introduction” meeting in the TA coordinator’s office, Y/N was told- according to Dr. Reid’s instruction- that a scheduling conflict had changed her role. It was the following Monday, the week before the undergraduates would flood campus again. He had justified it to the coordinator as a means to take the pressure off the TA, and the lie sold easily. Y/N just shrugged.

“Sure you won’t get sick of me, Professor?” Y/N sing-songed as the meeting ended and they were packing up. The coordinator had left swiftly to attend another introductory meeting. 

“Sure you won’t get sick of me?” Dr. Reid shot back, mentally kicking himself for how flirtatious he must have sounded, “oh and Y/N?”

“Yes, Dr. Reid?” 

“You can call me Spencer now that we’ll be working together, Y/N,” Spencer said.

“Well then, Spencer, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Ah, but in that class, you can call me Dr. Reid,” Spencer laughed, raising his eyebrows. 

“Gladly, Spencer,” and with that, Y/N was off. Spencer wondered if he had scared her away but in reality, she sped off to stop herself from anymore foolish flirting. She was not about to get her heartbroken because she was making up signs of reciprocity. There was no way her brilliant, modelesque professor was interested in her. 

---

“There’s no way she’s interested, Morgan,” Spencer said over a beer with his BAU colleagues. They weren’t travelling that week but had gathered at a bar to catch up and unwind. 

“What makes you say that Pretty professor?” Derek Morgan smirked at his new nickname while JJ and Prentiss rolled their eyes. 

“She has this innocent, pragmatic way about her. Not the type to fall for a rousse, but she’ll believe the best in you unless you show her otherwise. She is truly the most beautiful person I’ve ever known”.

“Spence, you know I’m the last person to encourage sleeping with a student,” JJ started, and Spencer’s face fell, “but you never spoke this way about Jason. I know you were enamoured when you met him and I know you trusted in him, but you never talked about him like this. I think this girl is special.”

“Yeah, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a lovesick Spencer Reid puddle. It’s not a good look. Tell her how you feel,” Prentiss insisted, “and also, do a shot with me!”

And so the night continued like that, Spencer wallowing and taking a drink every time he did. Soon, however, the others had to head home. Spencer, renting a place nearer to campus now, had far shorter of a commute and found himself sitting alone in a booth until past midnight, just dreaming that Y/N would walk in. Around midnight, he paid his tab and poured himself into a cab. Luckily he didn’t have work until his evening class the next day because he knew he would be waking up to a headache. 

The real surprise came when he arrived home, made it to the lobby and the elevator opened to reveal a startlingly under-dressed Y/N. She wore short black flowy shorts, a tank top that exposed her midriff -without a bra- and her beautiful long, dark hair was piled on her head. For a moment, Spencer thought he must be imagining the entire thing, but Y/N appeared equally as surprised. “Dr. Reid! Uh, Spencer, what are you doing here?” she asked, subtly trying to use her arms to cover her exposed middle. 

“I, I live in this building,” Spencer said, glad he’d switched to seltzer once he was alone. He knew he looked tired but at least he wasn’t really drunk. “So do I,” Y/N said simply, “hold the elevator?”

Confused, Spencer did as he was told as Y/N dashed out. He told himself his eyes didn’t go straight to her ass but who was he kidding. He swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. Another minute later, Y/N was back in the elevator carrying a pizza box. 

“Late night cravings,” she smiled, blushing a little, “I’ve gotten a bit off schedule these days. Working into the night, sleeping in, you know?” Spencer could just picture it. He selected the button for the top floor where he lived, and Y/N reached across him to select the floor just below his own. Spencer wondered if the elevator always felt quite so warm.

“Yeah, happens to me all the time when I teach graduate school and work is slow,” he managed to get out, trying not to stare directly at her body. Y/N nodded and looked up at him. She must have sensed his lust and admiration for her, because she unwittingly drew her bottom lip into her mouth and rolled it between her teeth. Spencer must have been a touch drunker than he realized, because his eyes followed her lips like they were glued to them. Damn she was gorgeous.

“Oh screw it,” he heard himself say. Her eyes widened as he closed the gap between them, arm slinking around her waist. She stood on her tip-toes to meet his lips with her own. Then, they were kissing- all lips and tongues crashing into one other as they drew each other closer and closer in. And they stayed that way until the elevator reached his floor.

[thea-travels]

Recap-volunteering in dang

So did a really poor job of staying up to date many times this past year but I am determined now to finish the year so I am going to write a recap of the time I had in Dang nepal at Gurukul school. I left the day after I arrived at 6 in the morning to head to the bus station and got a bus which stupidly was technically the third class bus. I was told i shouldn't arrive later than 7pm so I got on and went on a long adventure at one point the road split either straight north or theee hours west before heading north and the faster way two people had died on the night before so we went the other way which added some time on the the journey which originally should have been around 10-12 hours and was 17.. so that was a real adventure but it was exactly that an adventure and an experience. And the guy sitting next to me was super helpful and I've we finally arrived in dang they brought me all the way to the street the school was on where I was received by Teeka the schon Principal. It was already 1am and so they just showed me my room and I went to bed. The first 6 days I was there were vacation for the school because of local elections. One day Teeka took me to a local temple and holy spot where they sacrifice goats and sheep and also a local place to bring your family and have a picnic with a dirty lake where the kids play. He drove me there on his motorbike slowly and carefully but it was fun. I was also invited to join four of the founders of the school who were there for the vacation(two of them because dang is their home district and they were also there to vote) to go to swagadori one of the most holy places for Hindu people. For them basically what heaven is for christians. It was a real adventure three hours with the car up and down windy mountain roads with four adult men who acted like little boys going to the candy store. Once we got to the bottom of the mountain we had to get into a different car a four wheel drive to drive another hour up a small, dusty, bumpy and rocky path up the mountain. Once we got to the top there was another 20 min walking up this large stairs and by the time we got there it was dark with the most beautiful view of the stars I've seen in a long time definitely best in Asia. We got up to the top which was a temple with a stable for lots of cows a building with housing and a cafeteria type room. There was a school on the top for children of all ages to become yogis and we had dinner and settled into our room which was just a bunch of beds and thick blankets I got a whole row of beds to myself and the guys slept across from me. The next morning we got up very early and they went from temple to temple each for a different god and I was allowed to watch and take pictures. Everyone stared at me with such bewilderment understandably because I think very very few foreigners get to go to this temple. Aanant, one of the guys, told me they think probably what is this creature from what world did I come from. Really fascinating. And after the adventure to the temple we went to a city where one of the other guys came from where some of his relatives were running in the election so he went to wish them good luck and such. So that was a nice little adventure out of the campus. Which is extremely nice. Clearly a privat school with a lot of money but they are trying to be the best school in all of dang and that shows. There's three school buildings, a Montessori kindergarten, elementary 1st-5th grade and a jr high building 6th-8th as well as a cafeteria building, boarding school building and another building with a chemistry lab and music room and the best of all a swimming pool! So the days before school started I spent a lot in my hammock and hanging out with the 14 kids who live in the boarding school. We also started to create a theater show which was a really fun and stressful process because they are all very energized and not so good listeners but it still turned out pretty awesomely. Than school started and I had a little bit more of a schedule. Mornings after assembly, which was different every morning sometimes dancing, karate, yoga or swimming, I would go to one of the kindergarten classes either pre 1 a or b or pre 2 so 4/5 year olds or 6 year olds and sang songs or did origami. They were so adorable. Everything in the school is taught in English except their Nepali class so they could all speak minimal English and it was so cute to interact with them. They all wanted to sit closest to me in the circle and tell me about it show me all sorts of things. Very cute. Than I ate lunch and after lunch had a English class with 7th graders and than with 6th graders. I did the same thing in both classes and at the beginning was asked for a teaching plan of what I was going to do which I did and when I finished it the coordinator who asked me to do it was so shocked and said oh you could just follow the teacher that was a bit frustrating but because I had a detailed plan I also followed it. Teaching things like vowel and consonant sounds, how to write a paragraph or essay, reading stories, how to write a script etc. in the end I only had 8 days where I was actually teaching because at the end they started exams, all students in Nepal had them at the same time every day a different subject so that was kind of unfortunate. The first day with the 6th graders I got cornered and asked by every single one of them for an autograph on their arm or hand or journal it was pretty crazy and funny. But than after the English classes I had some free time where I usually took a nap and went to watch and play with the really little ones in foundations/play group so ages 2-4 really cuties they also got let out at 3:30 so I would watch as they all waddled away with their oversized backpacks and waved good bye or all huddled under one big umbrella when it rained. Really adorable. Than there was snack which was always delicious and after school I would either immediately have rehearsal with the kids or wait until they finished their homework or play a bit before rehearsing. That was basically my time there. There were two Spanish girls who came for 5 days they were scouts and it was one of their final projects before becoming a scout leader and than her supervisor. One evening I was invited to Depti one of the lovely kindergarten teachers home. First we went to a different local temple and than to her home. That was a really awesome experience her family was so incredibly kind and even without English we were able to communicate and have a good time together. It was super interesting seeing how the locals really live and walking around everyone asked who I was and what I was doing and I said the couple words in Nepali that I know. It was really lovely. Also incredible to think she walks an hour to and from school everyday to teach. Another fun thing I did was help one of the teachers with his music video for a song he wrote and produced in his music video really silly but lots of fun and I'm excited for the end result. It's a quitchy love song and a lot of slow motion of me running or twirling or being serenaded haha it was really funny to me but super serious for him and I support it!! Also funny how at the beginning of filming we had like 5 or 6 kids watching and by the end like 30 minutes later there were at least 25/30 people watching the kids got their grandparents and parents and little siblings and neighbors and we had a huge fan base haha. I really enjoyed my time at gurukul it was entirely different than all the other times mainly because the only other white people I met in the three weeks I was there were these Spanish girls otherwise only locals and they were so incredibly kind and giving and loving it was so nice!! And the food from the cafeteria was so yummy I definitely got a little sick or rice but once I left I missed it. All in all a really incredible time.

[fireladybuckley]

Not Like This (Part 1)

Read: Part 2: Here Part 3: Here Part 4: Here Part 5: Here Fandom: Star Trek AOS (Soulmate AU) Pairing: Reader x Bones Word Count: 1,873 Prompt: A prompt from @bkwrm523​ a while back: “ So, academy era.  Soulmate Au where you can hear each other’s thoughts.  You and Leonard kinda chat sometimes, but haven’t met yet.  Leonard’s figured out that you’re both at the academy.  In the middle of one of his classes, he realizes from your thoughts that you were just in some sorta shuttle accident and badly hurt.  He leaves class immediately, gets you to tell him WHERE you are so he can call help.  Then, while rushing over, he coaches you through patching yourself up while waiting for help to arrive, all through thoughts.”  Warnings: Nothing much for this chapter, just scary scenes and a bit of blood Tag list: @outside-the-government @feelmyroarrrr Others who have asked to be tagged for this fic/expressed interest: @bkwrm523  @yourtropegirl @littlecarowrites @auduna-druitt @mccoymostly @nymphadora-blurryface  Author’s note:  This was turning into a really long one shot so I’ve decided to break it up into three (potentially four) parts.  I hope you like it!

               It happened on your first day at the Academy.  As though the enormity of starting your new life as a cadet wasn’t exciting enough, it was also the day you’d first sensed the thoughts of your soulmate.  You’d heard the stories of the few in your hometown who were fortunate enough to have been born within telepathic range of their soulmates, but you’d never expected that you’d be one of the lucky ones.  You’d dreamed of all the things that Starfleet Academy would bring you as you traveled south from your home, but you’d never imagined or really, even considered, that there was a chance of finding your soulmate.

                 It felt mostly like white noise, at first, and you’d thought that maybe your brain was just feeling fuzzy from all the excitement.  You’d pushed it away without really thinking about it, though later that day, actual words came through more than once, and you’d realized what it must mean.  You were so tired that night that you’d fallen asleep before you could really work it out, but for the next few weeks you tried harder to understand the jumble whenever you sensed it.  You remembered one of your friends from back home telling you that the thoughts are generally hard to decipher when the other person isn’t intentionally projecting them, or if they’re not feeling any particularly strong emotion.  You started to wonder if your soulmate was perhaps a bit emotionally unstable, considering the white noise was regularly punctuated with a few very clear sentences suggesting agitation, amusement or frustration.  You learned to how to handle these little outbursts of thought (they were quite startling at first), and start to wonder if your soulmate can hear you, too, though you’ve felt too shy to try and directly think at them.  

                  One night you are getting ready for bed after a particularly long day, when a very distinct thought about some kind of textbook bounces into your mind.  You get the idea that your soulmate has misplaced their xenoanatomy textbook the night before their lab, right when they need to look something up, and you chuckle to yourself as you lie down, listening to their frustration and hoping they can find it.  You listen to the white noise of their thoughts as the emotion fades, occasionally catching the odd word here and there, wondering, once again, if they can hear you.  You realize suddenly that you must have projected the thought without meaning to, because the white noise subsides and you receive your first intentional thought from your soulmate barely a second later.

               I can hear you.  Your heart stops for a second before it starts racing, and you stare wide-eyed at the ceiling as you wonder what to think back.

               Oh, you think, cringing as the thoughts leave you without your permission.  Hi. I… I guess I’m your soulmate?  You can’t hear them laugh, of course, but their thoughts have an amused tone when they reply.

               Oh, good, I thought I was just going crazy. You laugh nervously to yourself at their thought, chewing on your lower lip.  

               So… did you lose your anatomy textbook?  You ask them tentatively, not sure what else to say now that you’d made a connection.

               Xenoanatomy and Physiology, yeah. I swear I left the damn thing here in my room, but I can’t find it now.  Bet my roommate swiped it and didn’t tell me. Their thoughts have grown annoyed and frustrated, and you get the impression that they argue with their roommate a lot.

                 Which text is it?  I have the text for Xenoanatomy 1.0 right now, maybe I can help? You want to help if you can, though you have no idea if they’re in the same year as you.  You wait, absently playing with your hair, staring at the bottom of the top bunk above you.

                   I need version 4.0, so no, but thank you – I appreciate the offer.   You ponder the meaning of what they said – version 4.0 meant that they’re in their fourth year of training, the final year.  Older than you.  You feel a little flicker of excitement: you’ve always liked older guys.

                 I heard that.  Their thoughts are amused again.  Who says I’m an older guy?  Maybe I’m a younger, genius woman…  You flush with embarrassment despite being alone in the room;  you hadn’t meant to project that last thought, and now you feel incredibly flustered.   He senses your embarrassment and thinks: It’s okay, I’m just teasing.  I’m a guy. Don’t know if I’m older, though I probably am.

                 The two of you chat for a minute or two, mostly just about things happening at Starfleet, before you start fading, your exhausting day taking its toll on you.  

                 Goodnight, sleep tight, he thinks at you before you can even tell him you need to turn in, and you smile sleepily into the darkness.

                 Thanks.  Good luck in your lab tomorrow.  You barely manage to think the last word before you drift off into dreams and then a deep sleep.

                                             --------------------------

                   It’s been eight months since you joined Starfleet.  You’re close to finishing your first year and will soon start your second.  You’re feeling a lot more confident in your abilities and more comfortable with the Academy in general.  You still haven’t actually met your soulmate yet; every time either of you suggests a time to meet, something has come up, and your schedules are at complete odds with each other.  When you’re free during the day, he is in class.  When he is free in the evening, you’re on other duties or studying furiously. You’ve lamented not being able to meet him, but you know the day will come. It’s almost time for a brief summer break, and you’ve planned a tentative first date.  You’re nervous as hell but also excited: you can’t believe you’ll actually get to meet your soulmate!

               Currently you’re on a shuttle back to the mainland after being aboard one of the starships docked in orbit for a few days, learning the ropes in the science labs.  The passengers seated around you are mostly other cadets, but there are a few civilians on board as well, mostly family members of the crew that are stationed on the orbiting ship that are unable to return to Earth for the time being.   You stare avidly out of your window as the shuttle makes its way back through the atmosphere, marvelling at the feeling of being in space and seeing the earth in all its glory.  You can’t wait until you actually get to go on a real mission, to entirely different planets, and your excitement at these thoughts bubbles over to the point that your soulmate picks up on them.

               Space is horrible, I wouldn’t recommend it. His thoughts are amused but you sense a genuine distaste for space – not something new to you, as you’ve come across this attitude from him a few times in the months you’ve been talking.  You chuckle quietly to yourself and watch as the earth creeps nearer.

                 Come on, why are you even in Starfleet if you hate space? You ask him, your tone teasing.  You can practically hear him sigh, and grin to yourself.

               I’ll tell you later.  Have a final exam in a few.  

               Okay. Good luck!

                 You doze a bit as his thoughts go quiet.  The shuttle descends to the height at which airplanes generally fly and continues on towards San Francisco, gliding nearly silently through the air.  You wake a while later as it begins its descent into the city, and you yawn, smiling at a young girl seated across the row from you with her mother, who peers at you for a moment before going back to her book.  They’d been visiting the girl’s father, who was the first officer and unable to take leave as his presence was needed on the ship. The girl, who couldn’t be more than eight, looks disappointed to be getting back to Earth, and you’re not sure if it’s because she misses her father or because she enjoys space as much as you do.

                   Your musings are interrupted as the shuttle lurches unnaturally and you look around, somewhat alarmed.  You haven’t been on too many shuttle rides yet, but from your experiences and what you’ve heard from others, they were usually very smooth.  Many of the cadets around you are looking a bit nervous as well, but you trust the pilot to keep everyone safe and assume it must be a fluke – some particularly strong air current, perhaps.

                 A few minutes later, as you’re nearing the heart of the city and close enough to see the Academy in the distance, the shuttle lurches again, more violently this time.  There are murmurs of anxiety spreading through the cabin and you look around, your heart quickening.  There are no monitoring devices or any equipment in the passenger area of this shuttle, so you have no idea what, if anything, is wrong.  The single crewman assigned to watch over the passenger area is looking startled himself, and unbuckles his seatbelt.  He heads towards the cockpit just as the shuttle tilts at a steep angle and begins to plummet towards the ground, prompting gasps of alarm and shrieks of fear all around you.  

                 The crewman stumbles and pitches forward, crashing into the cockpit door as the shuttle careens violently from side to side as it drops.  You want to help him but the gravitational force of the fall is pinning you heavily to your seat.  Terror washes over you and you can’t help but scream along with many of the others, clutching your seat handles so hard your knuckles are bright white.  You can see the ocean getting larger alarmingly fast and can feel the shuttle wildly fishtailing back and forth.  You can tell the pilot is attempting to direct the shuttle as close to the landing pad as he can, but you really don’t think you’ll make it that far. You can see the sand of the beaches now, and realize you’re only seconds away from crashing.  Your final thoughts of terror and regret are projected loud and clear to your soulmate without you realizing, but before he can even respond, the shuttle has smashed into the ground. 

                 The initial impact is so great that you feel like you’ve been hit by a car directly in the chest, and you gasp for breath as the shuttle skids along the uneven ground, snags on some rocks and flips.  People’s bags and other things burst out of the overhead compartments and become projectile missiles, injuring anyone they crash into as the shuttle continues to flip and slide.  Up to this point, you feel like you’ve been thrown into a clothes dryer and tumbled around, but just as you’re thinking that maybe you’ll manage to get through this mostly uninjured, a stray first aid kit sails across the passenger area and strikes you on the side of the head.  A large gash opens up in your skin from the sharp edge of the kit and you are instantly knocked out, going limp in your seat, your restraints holding you in place as blood drips down your face.

Read chapter 2 here

Please let me know if you’d like to be added to my tag list! :)

[mystic-muffin]

Green! <3

Today has been magnificent! Honestly, yesterday was the deepest of reds. I was running on minimal sleep, I had two exams back to back, one exam had a lab IMMEDIATELY followed after words, I was in class for over 6 hours..It was just super bad. I hit red around 3am or so, and boy did it stay that way all day. I also forgot to take my anxiety medication, and I completely failed my essay for English. Plus I had a migraine.

Yesterday was rough.

But today, I woke up in a wonderful mood, a full 9 hours of sleep, proper pronoun usage by a lot of people, did really, really well at work (a huge difference from the last time I worked), even got all my math done in time TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW NOW (WOOO!). I’m just generally happy. It was like my body was functioning as it was supposed to for once. I was like “neon green” today. My SO even noticed how happy I was and he was so thrilled that I had perked up. I mean yesterday I was a trembling mess of anxiety and then Bam! Good sleep! Meds taken! Homework done in time, no extension required! Snuggles! I was a brand new person when I woke up this morning.

I reaaallly should be working on my bio right now but I just wanted to post something positive today. I mean, it really has been a good day, even all the way up to the night. I had most of my dorm friends in my room and we laughed and ate pizza together and took these weird ass videos on snapchat and it was just so much fun. Even though I was a bit quiet at first (these four fuckwads followed me back all the way from the theatre to my god damn dorm so I was just a tad paranoid) my friends welcomed me with open arms. 

What a change. 

A year ago, I was pretty sure that I had maybe one or two friends. But now....I have more than what I can count on my fingers! And, one of my closest friends might be coming up sooner to visit me and I can’t wait! <3 <3 <3 

I’m becoming more comfortable with myself. I’ve let a few more people know that I no longer go by female pronouns (and they’ve been supportive for the most part) and I just feel really great. To my SO, I’m his companion/partner in crime <3 To my roomie, I’m “insert-name-here” and sometimes she says “Their” but usually it’s just my name. To my RA and my friends, I’m definitely “they/their” (except for the couple I haven’t told yet, one in particular....)

I’ve been following this one blog for a while now ( @trans-matters ) and the owner of said blog, Kyle, posts a lot of helpful advice. Literally, everything from packers to binders to “T” to coming out to be supportive, this guy has covered it 101%. Although I’m still confused as to what the difference between “pangender” and “non-binary” are, I’m like 99.2% sure that I’m NB. And I really like it that way. And kyle has posted so many resources and literally does anything for anyone so I recommend that everyone checks out his blog. #gokyle #fuckthehaters<3

I’m probably going to wrap it up here for the night. If anyone needs me, I’ll be lurking on the internet, attempting to do my bio. I love being a microbio major. not. really. but. okay. As usual, my ask is open on both this blog and my main blog (in the tags). 

Peace.

-Mystic Muffin <3

[suitcasetales]

Elvis, the Conqueror?

My job and an unhealthy dose of getting-older-yet-still-years-from-retirement, have really been wearing on me lately. I have never been one to take a day off here and there, instead opting for at least week long trips. But this year has been different. Trying to offset this quirky lapse in our vacation planning is our quest to visit a new-to-us Virginia State Park every month of 2018.

State park cabin rentals require a 2-night minimum except for high season when there is a one-week requirement. However, inside a month if a cabin isn’t reserved, it can be rented for a partial week. Merging my work calendar and Janet’s, I saw an opportunity to have three days off and after a bit of googling, I found us a one room air-conditioned cabin (not even a one-bedroom cabin but a one room cabin) at Douthat State Park. Just north of Clifton Forge, and about 35 minutes west of Lexington, it would be an almost 3-hour drive but since we could stay 4 nights, we didn’t mind. (Okay, full disclosure here: it ends up being more than three hours if you take a slight detour to Mrs. Rowe’s for a coconut cream pie. Don’t even pretend you wouldn’t.)

We would be in an area of Virginia neither of us had ever done more than just drive through on the way to white water rafting trips to West Virginia, we would be in the mountains so it should be cooler and we could do some hiking; there was a lake with a beach, we could relax and we could take Elvis. Sounds perfect, right? 

Well, perfect until a call to your trusted veterinarian results in him agreeing to squeeze Elvis in to his fully booked clinic because of the seriousness of what symptoms you are describing. In hindsight, Elvis may have been showing some signs and symptoms earlier than just this week — Elvis is such a quirky dog anyway — and we had just written off his lethargy as his summer hibernation (he much prefers cold weather) and his decreased appetite to not being very active. But then, Janet noticed his front legs didn’t match. His left leg was swollen from his toes to his armpit. He was not limping and when we physically checked him out, he did not flinch or wimper. But clearly, something was wrong.

Janet took him to see Dr. Bill Thursday morning for an exam, comprehensive lab work and a chest x-ray, all of which told us he does not have cancer and his liver and kidneys are functioning normally. BUT, his protein, albumin and globulin levels were extremely low. He had third spacing and pitting edema of his extremities.  So by process of elimination, Dr. Bill thinks he probably has PLE, Protein-Losing Enteropathy. (How common? In his fairly large practice, he sees about two cases a year.) Basically, his intestines are not reabsorbing the proteins that they should. When you read the symptoms of PLE in dogs, yes Elvis has several of them, but clearly not all of them. And the edema was not even listed as a symptom. A clear and solid diagnosis was not made.

However, the serious threat of him continuing to swell, which would lead to his lungs filling with fluid and him dying, was shocking and obviously, worrisome. The only thing to try was to put him on a huge dose of prednisone (30mg in the morning, 30mg in the evening, along with a Pepcid because it could upset his stomach) and hope that the fluid retention could be reversed. Janet told Dr. Bill about our trip plans and he sternly warned us that we “had better have a plan” and know where our closest emergency vet was located.

Elvis loves riding in my truck and we certainly like it when the three of us are together so we decided to carry on with our plans. We started the prednisone Thursday evening and crossed our fingers and toes. We left Richmond to come to Douthat on Saturday afternoon and his condition had not changed. He was peeing a little more than usual but not eating his dog food unless I hand fed it to him but he was still enthusiastically eating any of his favorite fruits and vegetables we offered him so all hope was not lost.

While sleeping Saturday night (our first night in the cabin), the prednisone finally kicked in and three times, one of us had to take him out for record-breaking peeing sessions! Might we have finally turned a corner? It was cool Sunday morning, and not humid at all, so we thought we would try to take him on a short hike that kept us fairly close to the cabin. Indeed, Mr. Independence decided he would hike and two miles later — albeit slow miles with him rarely leading — we were back at the cabin! We were over the moon when we took a good look at him while having lunch on the front porch of the cabin and his legs were back to normal!

Below, a photo taken Friday night.

In the cabin Saturday night:

Next, a photo taken after our hike on Sunday. See the difference in his legs?

It is now Tuesday afternoon. He would not hike yesterday but it was much more humid yesterday so that, too, was him being his normal self. We did not have to take him outside at all during the night. It is cool and not sunny today so we coaxed him in to hiking the perimeter of the lake which we estimated to be about two-and-a-half miles. We are clearly not out of the woods yet, both figuratively and literally, because his appetite is still low. We are doing as much as we can to encourage him to eat — this morning he had peanut butter on his dog food and had a scrambled egg — but needs to eat more.

A photo from Sunaday morning’s easy hike and one of the rare times he was leading!

We continue him on the prednisone and doing all we can to get him to eat. Dr. Bill wants to see him again after two weeks on the meds to conduct another set of comprehensive lab work and we shall see what the future holds for our hound dog. Meanwhile, we need to go buy some more fruit.