#we have him quarantined in the bathroom rn...

[mugenloopdalove]

Is anyone up

[bonkwosher]

hi me again 👋🏾 i had the idea with benoit where basically he’s having a hard time during the pandemic (what we saw in the movie) but his partner—although worried about him— knows it’s his way of dealing with this so they’re not angry or upset, they just want him to be alright. when Helen comes and Benoit has the idea of going to Greece, he suddenly gets all excited again because he has something to work on. And when he comes back, that’s when he realizes he’s been “terrible” to his s/o and he just goes and apologizes/thanks them for putting up with him even though they didn’t have to. i saw you reblogged a prompt list as well so maybe you could use n.28? he brings a small souvenir from Greece and he’s just all cute and very very sorry but his s/o is just glad he’s okay and loves him no matter what ❤️‍🩹

Warnings: Angst I guess

Word Count: 1.6k

A/N: This is the one shot that I lost & had to rewrite so I'm sorry if it's shit or whatever (I'm peeved rn & trying to remember everything before I forget it.)

You woke up again, still surprised by waking up alone. Benoit must've woken up early & rushed to the guest bathroom before you could catch him. Deep down he knew it upset you but he was distracted by his mind traveling a mile a minute with nothing to focus on. So he read, book after book surrounding the bathtub. You decided to make both of you some breakfast & headed to the kitchen. You heard Benoit rambling about the latest mystery novel he was reading. You opened up your recipe book & started breakfast.

After things started cooking you pulled out your phone, opening the group chat you had recently made. It was comprised of you & some of Benoit's recent friends. You couldn't get through to Benoit but they chatted sometimes so it was your only way to check on him. Admittedly, you liked the support you were lacking from Benoit. It was small but it helped so much to know you had people that cared.

Y/N L/N: Guys, day 7 in the bathtub. I don't know what to do at this point.

It took a minute for them to reply, in the pandemic that amazed you. But soon the chat filled with text bubbles.

"Benoit's Kareem": Oh god, don't worry we'll call him. We can get him to play some games or something.

"Benoit's Natasha": Yeah how about quiplash? I love that game.

"Benoit's Steve": Or Among Us, Benoit has to be good at that one.

"The Miss Angela Lansbury": Oh yes, that sounds wonderful. Let's call on zoom right now.

"Benoit's Natasha": Alright, I just need a minute.

Y/N L/N: Thank you guys so much, it means a lot that you do this for him.

"The Miss Angela Lansbury": Of course, Y/N. It means we get to hang out with your wonderful partner more. How could we say no to that?

With that you closed your phone & let out a sigh, turning to put the now-cooked food on a plate. Over quarantine, you had decided to take up baking & cooking. It kept you sane. You would make every meal by yourself, listening to music in your headphones or humming to yourself before delivering a plate to Benoit. You'd set it down beside him then sit out in the hallway against the wall waiting for him to try it. Each time he'd murmur about how it was delicious & perfect. If you ever tried to sit in with him he'd get upset saying 'he can't focus with your eyes on him' so this is the best you get. You opened the bathroom door & gave Benoit a warm smile, plate of food in hand.

"Good morning, baby," you spoke cheerily.

"What- oh, mornin' Y/N," Benoit set his book down, "Thank you."

You leaned in & placed a light kiss on Benoit's forehead, which was currently adorning a fez for whatever reason, "I love you."

"Mm, 'love you," Benoit sounded like his mind was elsewhere so you decided to let him stay there.

The sound of a zoom call ringtone played as you walked out of the bathroom. He answered that's good at least. He gets to talk with his friends. You sat down at the kitchen island & pulled out your phone to doom scroll. It must've been around ten minutes when a knock at the door pulled you from your thoughts.

"Get that would ya?" Benoit yelled.

You hummed a short 'mhmm' as you walked towards the entrance to your home. You grabbed a mask off the desk before opening the front door. It was a weird sight. A small woman with a large, black box.

"Hello... how can I help you?"

"Is this Benoit Blanc's residence," the woman asked.

You decided to press for reasoning considering you are with a man who has put many dangerous people in prison.

"Why do you ask?" Well his office was closed & I really need to speak with him. It's urgent, please."

With that you caved, she couldn't be dangerous & the box all but scared you. You led the woman who introduced herself as Helen to the balcony where she could wait, leaving a couple baked goods on the table. After that you found yourself standing in front of the guest bathroom door. You knocked a couple times.

"Oh- Y/N, not right now. I-"

"There's a woman here that needs your help, Benoit. She said your office was closed & she needs to talk to you."

"Oh!" You hear Benoit hang up his call & scramble behind the door.

That feeling. Jealousy, hurt. You were upset that Benoit so easily got up to talk to someone else but not you. The bathroom door opened & Benoit appeared in one of his robes.

"Where is she?" Excitement laced his words.

"The balcony."

Benoit ran off towards the balcony & greeted the woman with the flair of swinging open the double doors. You sat at the kitchen counter once more & told yourself you weren't staring... but you were. Although through glass, this was the most you'd seen him in the past week. Within minutes he quickly rushed inside & towards your bedroom.

"Helen, we should get ready now! Do you need a suitcase?"

'A suitcase?'

You followed Benoit to the bedroom where he had already laid out luggage & began picking out outfits. He held a blue & white striped bathing suit against him & smiled, "Oh this is exciting."

"Benoit?"

"Oh! Y/N, I didn't see you there. Want to help me pack?"

"Pack for where?"

"Greece, of course!"

He spoke like you were present in his previous conversation. For some reason, he was upsetting you more & more in this moment alone. You clenched your first feeling like you were ready to blow. Deep breath. Your eyes fluttered shut & you let out a sigh. He's happy, & that's all that matters right now. You know this is all because he feels trapped in this tiny apartment & you can't blame him. You walk over to the closet & pull out a sweater & some pants.

"This would look good on you," you point out.

"Yes, this will do wonderfully! Thank you so much, Y/N! God, I love you."

Benoit pulled you into a hug & in that moment, you almost cried. It felt like forever since you had hugged or even heard those three words grace his lips. Maybe this will fix things. Benoit changed then left with Helen. You would be alone for a couple days, he said. Only a couple more days. You wished you could go with him. Benoit withheld the detail that it wouldn't be safe, not wanting to worry you. Making the excuse that he wouldn't want to risk you getting sick, he convinced you to stay. Plus, maybe he just needed his own adventure.

Benoit watched as Miles Bron was taken into custody. A smile crept up onto his face as Miles argued with the police. Helen walked up behind him & glanced at her watch.

"Ready to go home?" She asked in her real voice.

Home. You. Benoit realized everything he had been doing. Locking himself away hurt you. He brought his hands to his face as each time he shooed you away played in his head.

"What's wrong?"

"Y/N- my boyfriend. I wasn't the best partner after the pandemic started."

"You better make it up to him, that man is an angel. I tried one of those muffins he made before we left- perfection."

"Yeah," Benoit's mind was already racing thinking about the perfect gift.

You were watching (insert tv show) when a knock hit the door.

"Leave packages at the door please!" You yelled, not wanting to get up from your spot.

The knocks persisted. You sighed before pausing the tv & got up out of your little comfy spot on the couch. You slipped on a mask & opened the door talking before looking up, "Benoit isn't here right n-"

You paused when you saw him standing in front of you, a bouquet & gift bag in hand, "Speak of the devil."

Benoit wordlessly pulled you into a tight hug. You forgot you two could even be this close. You wrapped your arms around his neck & let out a soft chuckle.

"Where'd this come from?"

"Speaking of the devil, I have been one lately. Haven't I?"

You guided your boyfriend inside, "Benoit, no-"

"Y/N you don't have to lie. I was in a rough place but I shouldn't have shut you out. You keep me happy & I'm such an idiot."

"I understand, okay. Did your trip give you your much-needed break?"

"Yes, darling. I-I got you a gift online but it wasn't coming in time so I grabbed you a small gift. It's stupid, I- just take it."

Benoit shoved the gift bag in your direction & his cheeks turned beet red. You opened the pretty black bag to see a mug with greek characters on it.

"What does it say?"

"I tried to find one in english but it was this little mom & pop shop & who I presume was the 'mom' kept yelling at me in greek. I couldn't understand anything. Someone told me it says 'World's Best Boyfriend.'"

"Awe, thank you."

"You are the world's best boyfriend, Y/N, for putting up with me."

You chuckled, "If that makes me the world's best boyfriend I have a pretty easy job."

You pulled Benoit in for another tight hug. You were glad to have him back.

Note: I totally think after this Benoit would bring you "World's Best Boyfriend" mugs in every language from his trips.

[lonelyloverz]

i’m not kidding when i say i have no reason to be depressed

i have two parents, my mom is a stahm ( i love her sm and she loves me too) and my dad has been able to provide for my siblings and i

although we used to move every 3/4 years we’ve always lived in somewhat suburban areas and as great of an education you can get at a public school

i’ve never known hunger, i’ve never been abused, never have been explicitly bullied, somehow (luckily) escaped racism, idk i’ve just never went thru anything worth calling trauma as a kid. the most traumatic experience during my first 18 years might be the pandemic and whatever quarantine was

and yet i’ve been feeling this sadness for years now. i’ve gradually felt it grow from my middle school years (which i lowkey think it was puberty until quarantine rammed it up to 100) during quarantine i was so sick of my family and myself i tried to strangle myself in the bathroom with a hair tie (🤣please laugh) obv didn’t work. getting out of quarantine, junior year i had no friends, i moved across the country then and i am a super quiet person and didn’t bother reaching out to others

forgot to preface this but i should prob explain my whole issue with friendships

so i had a ton of friends in middle school, i miraculously attended the same middle school from 6th to 8th grade and i got to know a lot of people as little kids do. me being the little shit i was went thru a i hate pink and anything girly phase (ik people use the term pick me/not like other girls but i feel like tiktok has completely simplified the phenomenon to girls putting girls down to attract guys when it was so much more complex than that) and tried so hard to hang out with these guys that played video games. they clearly didn’t like me and yet i hung out with them until fresh/sopho year in hs. like dude told me “you’re always just kinda there” and ik he was such a sweet guy and meant that in the nicest way but i couldn’t take the hint bcuz i liked playing games with them ☹️ it keeps me awake every damn night. but yeah that line just summarizes my whole personality. unless i’ve known you for years or you know me as this chronically online anime obsessed bl loving freak, im just kinda there. and it’s fine i’ve accepted it. but i’ve accepted it for so long that my English has just deteriorated atp, like im just throwing up words when i speak now (bro the tears in my eye rn) so now i have to keep quiet

i hate the look people give me when i talk and the way they have to cut me off because my ramblings don’t make sense. it hurts ik and it’s my own fault. it’s my own fault and im too embarrassed to do anything other than to die

i’m not lonely i just hate being awkward

i just wanna die

yeah i said it

it’s not like anyone other than my two baby siblings will miss me

i don’t really do much at home. i mainly do chores that only pertain to myself and my other younger sibling does the heavy work. somehow i get dismissed from doing chores simply for being a girl and “having more hw” so i get called princess since i never help. which rightfully so i guess. but yeah i have no presence in the outside world or in my home. ik my brother hates me. i wish he would lash out at me like i used to lash out at him when we were younger.

i can’t anymore

i can’t

i can’t

icant

this feeling is probably never going away

goodbye

[k-eudia]

I have like zero ideas but I need to think about renga bc life is not a vibe rn

Anyway

I think it's a widely accepted headcanon that langa steals reki's hoodies. Imagine him in the purple hoodie with the purple converse.

Langa with reki's headband.

Reki knows how much langa loves food so he looks for nice places to eat at, like different types of restaurants (cuisine from all around the world) for their dates.

The idea of them going to canada and langa teaching reki snowboarding lives in my head rent free. Reki complains about how cold it is all the time so when they get back to the house langa wraps reki in a warm blanket and then laughs at how cute and ridiculous he looks and reki pouts. But the blanket smells like langa so he secretly loves having it around him. Alternatively, langa holds reki's hands between his palms to warm them up.

They often stay out at the skatepark until it's really late at night and it's just the two of them and after they get tired they just lie down to the ground and stargaze until one of them gets sleepy so the other says they should go home

Mechanic star reki decides to make them tiny matching skateboard keychains. Reki has langa's board on his backpack and langa has reki's

Miya tells reki about how langa was like 'have you seen reki' at s when he wasn't there for hours and days, ignoring everyone else just to make fun of him. In turn shadow says something like 'as if you didn't want to run to him and make sure he was okay because you missed him so much' and miya retorts with 'stfu you missed him too Mr 'things are off balance without him' and so miya and shadow start fighting while reki turns to an embarrassed langa to ask if he really was looking for him all night long and langa tells him he was, of course he was, everything around him felt meaningless without reki

Ppl like to think of langa as some cool prince but it quickly spreads in school that he's just as much of a dumbass as reki. They never pay attention during class because they're watching skating videos or they're secretly texting or passing notes and ofc always get caught so their classmates start to call them 'two halves of a whole idiot'. And then the whole school. Especially when they see them running from teachers for skating inside the school building

Reki goes over to langa's place and while langa is in the bathroom or something, his mom meets reki and she tells reki how she's really grateful for him bc for the first time since langa's dad died, langa found something he could enjoy just as much as snowboarding. He was smiling and going out a lot and sometimes he was rambling about skateboarding and about how amazing reki is for hours and she was so scared he'd close off completely but he didn't thanks to reki. Reki says that he's the once who's grateful for langa, for having a friend like him who shares reki's passion and happiness. Who understands him.

Once reki and langa are in langa's room, reki hugs him tightly and langa asks why, surprised and reki says it's just because he's glad they're friends. He also tells langa that his mom is the nicest woman he's ever met but doesn't explain why.

They try to have study dates at a café or smth but obviously it doesn't work at all because they always start talking about something else and forget about their homework.

Hey langa, you've seen that new video on yt that's recently blown up, it's about a person doing some insane trick. I've never seen anything like that before.

No reki but I'll check it out once we've fin-

Oh look it's already opened on my phone, let's watch it now

Okay, I suppose we can have a short break

And they watch it and look at eachother and without another word start packing up and going to the skatepark

Langa sends reki cheesy love songs in an attempt to flirt but it flies right over reki's head. He's always like 'haha that's a catchy song langa, you have a nice taste in music' and langa internally screams 'my taste in music is your face'. He's close to actually screaming it at reki

Langa has definitely done that thing where someone asks anything literally anything and langa without missing a beat goes 'reki. ... Wait what was the question?'

'hey langa what type of weather is your favourite?' 'reki. ... Wait what was the question?'

One time someone was dumb enough to try and flirt with langa. They left after like five minutes bc langa couldn't shut up about how amazing reki is. Langa has this power where he can transform any type of conversation into a convo about skateboarding and with that reki

Reki ruffles langa's hair but get this: langa wakes up with terrible bed hair and reki combs it out for him

Back to that purple hoodie stuff. Langa permanently stole it and one day his mom notices it while washing the clothes and asks langa about it and he says some dumb shit like 'it's my emotional support hoodie' 'okay dear but where did you get it?' 'from my emotional support bastard'

Imagine, just imagine it's corona time over there and it's pretty bad so they're in quarantine and that hoodie is the only thing keeping langa sane.

They're the type of dumbasses to fool around in a shopping cart at the parking lot of a grocery store. At first langa is hesitant to sit inside but then quickly gets a taste of that adrenaline and reki is behind him pushing the shopping cart smiling widely and langa thinks it's worth it for that smile alone

They fall and get tangled up and injured and langa says reki is a dumbass and reki says they're both dumbasses and they kiss.

They build sandcastles at the beach with miya. Miya at first says he won't bc it's childish but then sees that reki and langa don't care about what's childish and what's not so he joins but says it's only because 'i can make a better castle than y'all anyways, guess i have to prove it'

Reki helps langa practice his writing and tells him to write anything, first thing that comes to mind and langa writes smth like 'i really like you' and once again it flies right over reki's head. He's like 'hmm yeah so it could help if you tried to...' and langa's like ffs

Boardgame nights with reki's family. Bonus point: they invite nanako too

[honey-hippie-harper]

Infrangible

AFGHSAGHJS THIS IS SO LATE IS NOT EVEN FUNNY ANYMORE LMAO

In my defense, I stopped being a person long ago and now, in all the ways except physical, I happen to be a potato. BUT ANYWAY :’) This is for the Renegades Ship Week hosted by @greasicookies <3 (Thanks again!), for day 5, which is Maxpie. The prompt is “secrets”! <3

I had a tough time writing this because I’m going through a lot of stuff rn :’) still, I hope you can enjoy it x’ddd.

Tag list: @healing-winston-pratt @obsidianfr3sk @the-wee-woo-rita and afsghagshja @all-weather-is-bad (because this is a very...me fic lol and I think you’re already used to my sad attempt at humor haahahaah i’M SORRY AGSHJAKL) AND @lackadae because agshjs I made a reference to one of your drawings, hon :’) (I promise once again, to catch up with your content once I feel better afsghjak).

And that’s it. I hope you like it <3

When Max turned nine, he reached the conclusion that everybody forgot their early years at some point. Before, Adrian had already explained to him that wasn’t quite true, because he misunderstood Max’s statement and thought he was feeling bad about himself for not being able to recall certain things. He told him that, unlike what he thought –which was false because that’s not what Max meant- people usually couldn’t store those memories from when they were younger than three.

“Some people do.” He said. “But it’s normal if you don’t remember anything from when you were…I don’t know. Two.”

“Do you remember anything from when you were two?” Max asked him.

From the other side of the glass, Adrian scrunched up his nose. And then, obviously, he saw himself in the need to adjust his glasses.

“I’m not quite sure whether I was two or not. But I do know I was younger than five.” He started. “There was a small canal on the way to the apartment. When it rained, it would grow a lot. It didn’t have big torrents or anything, but it did grow a lot. The water usually went higher than my ankles. But the thing was…that every time  it grew, it became infested with turtles.”

He paused for a second.

“I really liked turtles.” He continued, shrugging. “My mother used to let me walk down to the water, as long as she was right behind me, obviously; one day, when we were coming back from the city, she stopped to attend a call. I got too impatient and went down alone when she wasn’t looking. The next thing I remember is that, just when I was getting up after catching a turtle, I felt her tugging me by the back of my shirt. The turtle fell on its shell.”

At that point, Max realized he had been staring at how he kept on fidgeting with his pen instead of looking him in the eye, but he continued doing so, because he didn’t like it when Adrian’s voice turned that serious.

“…She had never screamed at me like that.” He said, as if he were talking to himself and then, to erase the tension, he tried to scoff. “I don’t remember what she said, but I remember that she said it so loud I told her she was scaring the turtle. Then I started crying. Like, a lot. I think she was terrified too.”

In the end, everything turned too quiet for his liking, and Max did something his dad had advised him to do for times like these, when he just didn’t know what came next: Improvise.

“I didn’t know you liked turtles.”

“…Well, I did. I really liked turtles when I was younger.”

Max had seen a couple of turtles in his life, but not as many as Adrian had seen, he supposed, because Max had never stepped outside, except when he was a baby.

Which was exactly the point.

He didn’t have memories from when he was a baby, or a toddler. Most of the people who had come to talk to him had said they remembered events that were either too sad (like Adrian) or meaningful in their lives. Max didn’t have anything like that. In fact, his first –very blurry- memory was standing on the edge of the quarantine, with his hands pressed against the crystal, and then licking it.

According to his dads, he was between three and four (“He was three, Simon. What are you talking about?” “He was born in November.” “It wasn’t November yet.” “We had just celebrated his birthday. He was four.” “HE WASN’T FOUR, SIMON! HE WAS THREE! THREE! We were celebrating that his quarantine had just been built!” “IT WAS THE SAME EVENT, HUGH!”) and Aunt Tamaya, plus the both of them, were in the hallway. For some reason, the fact that his eyes were so huge (they were still big. But they were bigger when he was a baby) came off as odd to Tamaya. And the moment they made eye contact, he licked the glass.

Nobody knew why. Not even himself. The adults remembered it better than he did, of course, but none of them had ever been able to guess the reasoning behind it. They often expressed Max had been a very strange baby, mostly because of his lack of social skills. It’s not like he had chosen that, and it’s not like his fathers would’ve allowed it to happen if they had had any other option. But Max wasn’t willing to stand there and pretend that he knew what he was doing, either.

Most of the time, he didn’t.

He barely held any memories of the nurses that had ever been in charge of his care, but, for obvious reasons, he remembered Dad. It was always easier to remember the person who had taken care of you the most, he supposed. And Max knew, among a lot of things, that it wasn’t his other dad’s fault. Though, sometimes, he couldn’t help but blame him.

Again, he didn’t know why, but there were those days, when he needed he the most, where a voice inside of his head told him that, if Simon loved him enough, he would just sacrifice his powers to be with him. His powers weren’t that useful for combat anyway.

“Okay, but that’s kinda mean.” Adrian told him the first time he opened up about it, the night before he attended the Trials to choose the members of his patrolling team. “Pops might not have combat powers, but they’re as important as the rest of the members’. That’s why they work so well as a team, you know? Every power can be extremely helpful during a battle, as long as you know how to use it.”

Max wasn’t doing anything in particular that day. Nothing besides listening to Adrian and sitting on the floor , at least.

“But if every power is useful…” He said, tilting his head to the side. “…Why are you allowed to reject certain aspirants?”

Adrian frowned a little, not in the sense that he looked angry at Max. Rather, he was confused by the question and was trying to word the answer in a way that sounded rational.

“Because…” He gulped and clicked his tongue. “…Like I said…uhm…the Council is an extremely good team. They’ve been doing this for a while. Us, the patrolling leaders are…allowed to reject certain prodigies because we don’t have as much experience as them. And…we might not know how to use somebody’s powers, and that’s very dangerous. We don’t want people dying, do we?”

When he said that, something clicked inside Max’s brain, and he nodded in automatic. Obviously, a few years ago, a non-prodigy teacher had taught him how to read, and the moment Adrian notified him it was his year to be in the Trials, he managed to read the manual and the rules for the event, from a booklet and a pamphlet (respectively) he had asked his dad to bring for him. He didn’t get much new information, different from the one he heard on TV or the one presented in the posters. However, amongst the rules, there was a section that talked about banned powers, which contained only two categories:

-Complete telekinesis.

-Stardust modelling.

“Yeah.” Dad told him. He was bathing him in the quarantine’s bathroom (Of course. Where else?). “Stardust catchers…which….are able to model stardust, are extremely dangerous and there’s not much research about them. Nobody really knows how they work, and it would be pretty difficult for us to… handle a prodigy like that.”

“Like me.”

Dad had always had a pretty specific routine he had to follow when bathing him. If he missed or misplaced a step, he acted like would explode or something. Also, Max didn’t understand why, but ever since he started growing thicker hair, Dad became pretty strict on the fact they should take care of it so it would grow healthy. Hence why they had a full hair routine that they did in the bathtub. That day, the statement caught him so off-guard he grabbed the wrong bottle, and then, when he realized it, he was already pouring the dense liquid (that looked more like a paste to him) on Max’s head. Cursing under his breath, he placed his other hand in the middle so it would fall over his palm, washed Max’s head and started the routine all over again, before changing the subject:

“About complete telekinesis…there’s obviously a lot of research about that power. We know how to manage with that. But telekinetic prodigies are not …very accepted in our society. They’re pointed at…Frowned upon. In the worst of cases, other prodigies hunt them down and then kill them.”

In that moment, Max came to the conclusion that all that changing the subject thing had been in vain.

Because, from his part, the answer was exactly the same:

“Like me.”

And Dad didn’t like that, for he started scratching his scalp harder, accidentally.

“No. It’s nothing like you.” He said. “You’re not like that, Max. Society hates telekinesis because some evil dude decided to use his powers, his telekinesis, for awful reasons and stained prodigy’s names. You’re not like that. You’re not abusive, or selfish or evil. And I don’t want to hear you comparing yourself to him ever again. Understood?”

To this day, that was the most aggressive form of validation someone had ever given him, but Max took it anyway, because he trusted Dad, and if he had said something like that, then there had to be a clear reason behind it.

“Understood.” He whispered.

And he tried, he really tried, to believe it. But, like many other things, no matter how hard Max tried, he was still severely confused. Not that he didn’t know about the Age of Anarchy, or the parties involved in the Age of Anarchy.

The quarantine, needless to say, could get pretty boring most of the time. Max had to do a lot of things to kill time, and some of those activities involved reading books that children shouldn’t be reading. He did read some children’s books, but then he would find himself looking through history articles and books, and reading the chapters that interested him the most. For instance, he was confident he knew about the Age of Anarchy, but one thing was knowing about it, and another, different thing, was having an opinion about in regards to it.

Max didn’t know if he had something to say about the topic. If he did, it was a very incomplete idea, and it was very likely he wouldn’t be able to phrase it correctly.

The group of people Max talked the most to were adults, and those adults, especially the ones who had experienced the Age of Anarchy and somehow managed to make it out alive, refused to talk about it. As for the few children he had talked to…

Well, about them…

Long story short, they had lives.

They all had lives outside of a glass, unlike Max. Maybe they weren’t the most interesting of lives, but at least they for sure had to be more interesting than his’. They didn’t have a pre-established schedule, where a designated person would come in to feed him or extract blood samples from his body, to then take them to the laboratory. They didn’t have to hear a total of seven alarms to remind him what he had to do: Wake up and get dressed, have breakfast and brush his teeth, enter the virtual sessions with his teachers, take a shower, have his blood samples taken,  start doing his homework –if he had any- and do whatever he wanted once he was finished, have dinner, brush his teeth and go to bed, and then start all over again.

That moment, when he had spare time, would be the same one normal kids used to go out with their friends, like Adrian did. To go to the park and get themselves a scarily huge wound at the center of their knee. To live. To breathe air. To do…literally anything that wasn’t this.

Because Max was different from the many children he hadn’t yet gotten the opportunity to meet or talk to, because, obviously, they wouldn’t want to spend the whole day hanging out with a person…like him.

The only way Max could see two out of the three people in his family was through a crystal wall. And he couldn’t kiss them, he couldn’t touch them… sometimes he even wondered if he knew how their voices sounded, because, after all, Dad’s voice sounded the tiniest bit different once he crossed that infamous glass door.

He couldn’t walk through the streets of Gatlon, because, for starters, he didn’t know them. And if he dared to go out there, he would get killed on spot for having accidentally neutralized a prodigy who didn’t want to be neutralized.

Other kids had nannies whom they complained about when their parents couldn’t look after them (at least that’s the kind of things he saw on the TV shows he watched) but Max had patrol units that would move from one corner of the room to another, ready to attack anyone who came closer than necessary to him, because the only one who could take care of him in person, was Hugh.

Other kids could go out freely, without being scared of anything at all. They could get hurt while having fun with their friends and family. They could laugh until they cried with them. They could hug them, sleep in the same bed as them. They could walk their pets, go on road trips, go to amusement stores, water parks…

They could experience the current world; watch all the new events that were happening every day, in first hand.

They didn’t have to read about the past, or the people from the past to keep themselves entertained. They didn’t have the need to do that. At all.

They were living the lives Max couldn’t have, because he was too dangerous for that.

And obviously, that’s why he couldn’t just…go around asking other kids about what was their favorite bug, their favorite planet…or their opinions about Ace Anarchy, and if Pops (Simon) saying “Alec, with an A as in Abusive Swine” made them laugh.

Besides, he hadn’t even met that many kids his age. Or kids, for that matter.

He was aware Adrian wasn’t exactly a grown up, but he wasn’t a kid either, so, he usually didn’t make it into that list.

In fact, just like the banned powers in that manual, there were only two kids in Max’s list of acquaintances.

Aunt Tamaya’s first baby was born without powers, when Max was like four years old, and his dads were way too excited about it (Weird thing to brag about out loud, honestly, because all the recruits in the Headquarters were betting ridiculous amounts of money on which powers the Thunderbaby would have –Max could hear them- and one day they just heard The Dread Warden storming into the hallway, euphorically screaming “GUESS WHAT, MY LITTLE CHERUB BABY? YOUR COUSIN IS ABSOLUTELY FREAKING POWERLESS!”), for they thought Max would finally be able to have a friend who was more or less his age. Dad was the one who brought him in, two weeks after he was born. He was still tiny, red and chubby, and wrapped in his three different blankets that way, he looked like a bloated marshmallow.

Aunt Tamaya, her husband, Pops, Adrian, Aunt Kasumi and Uncle Evander were outside (as always) waiting to see what happened…and, it was extremely odd for Max to admit it, but he couldn’t remember much about that moment, even though he was already older than three. There was, however, a video taken by Uncle Evander where, if you narrowed your eyes hard enough, you could see the moment Max burst into tears right after kissing the baby’s cheek.

Neil was his friend.

At least, Max considered him to be his friend. Still, they had an age gap of four whole years, and a part of him was waiting until he was a little older so they could be on the same page. Because sometimes, when Neil couldn’t comprehend something semi-important that Max had just said, things could get pretty awkward, because there were occasions when, if Neil got too frustrated over anything, he would start crying, and his sobs often summoned his mother all the way from across the building. She never particularly tried to put the blame on Max. In fact, she hadn’t even glared at him not once, ever.

But she did choose to take him with her, into her office, or ask Adrian to babysit him while he calmed down.  Afterwards, he usually didn’t come back to the quarantine.

“It’s not your fault, Max.” Pops would tell him, always. “It’s just that…Neil...he’s younger than you. There are things that might be…easy to you, but that are super complicated to him. And you might be able to do things that he can’t, and he can’t understand why he can’t, so he gets super confused and angry and that’s why he cries and Tamaya has to come and comfort him.”

“That, and because she’s like a...very freaky bird mom who hears her children cry and comes around with her super sonic enhanced sense of hea—“

“Hugh, don’t be rude.”

Every time they had that discussion in front of him, Max could never understand why Pops said Dad was being rude. He was right, to a certain extent. Aunt Tamaya was just…being a mom.

And that’s what moms did.

At least, that’s what Max had read and seen on TV because families like his’ were…super rare to find in his cartoons or favorite books. In fact, the times when he had seen himself represented in any of the things were so few that, for the longest time, Max had this weird, messed up idea that biological men could give birth. He thought that Adrian, apart from the fact that he was the closest to him, looked more similar to Simon, and that had to mean he had given birth to him, while Hugh had been the one to give birth to Max.

One year, when Max was six, they finished Lady Indomitable’s gigantic golden statue, placed downtown. It was late June, and though the city had previously looked covered in colors, that day it just looked…white and golden. That’s the best way Max  could find to put it into words.

According to Max’s weather application, the heat was unbearable that day (good thing he couldn’t feel anything because the temperature in the quarantine was always regulated) yet, according to what he was seeing in one of his screens, a great percentage of the citizens of Gatlon were marching in the streets carrying floating lanterns, headed towards downtown where the event was being held.

The Council was standing in front of the covered statue. All of them except Blacklight, who had stayed to take care of the Headquarters, and Max could see him from where he was. They gave a speech about Lady Indomitable together, and as they started revealing the statue, Tsunami sang a song that was supposed to be one of Lady Indomitable’s favorite ones, and that Max was too young to recognize (he supposed). In his opinion, it was a cute event, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t utterly confused the moment he saw Adrian taking one step ahead to be the first one to let go of his floating lantern, which was different from the other ones, because his’ was bigger, and it had a big “I”. Besides, people waited a couple of seconds until it was stable above their heads to let go of their own floating lanterns.

It still looked cute to him, but now it looked weird as well. So he got up from his chair, and walked towards the edge, pressing his hands against the glass. He hoped that would be enough to magically catch Evander’s attention, who was, at the moment, using his chair as a swing, as he typed a number in his computer, copying it from his calculator and eating from his salad every now and then. Obviously, Max’s telepathic call wasn’t enough, and he had to knock on the glass a couple of times, loudly. Even then, Uncle Evander didn’t look up in his direction.

But he did hear him, because he did respond.

“It’s not gonna work, Maximus. I’m not getting you out.”

As a side note, Max considered telling him his full name was Maximilian and not Maximus, because that was way before he realized it was a nickname. Nevertheless, he just let it pass, for the simple reason he had better things to ask. That’s why he proceeded to knock again, instead of speaking.

“What is it?”

“I wanna ask you something.”

Evander tried to steady himself in the chair without falling on his back, and once he succeeded, he came closer to the quarantine, with his arms over his hips.

“Why is Adrian doing that?” He asked, just because he wasn’t able to find another way to phrase it, while pointing at the screen behind him; Evander narrowed his eyes following his finger, as if he hadn’t been watching the event himself from a livestream on his phone. A few seconds later, he seemed to realize what he was talking about, and bit his upper lip, before pouting barely a little.

Then, he clicked his tongue.

“Because that’s his mom. And today’s her birthday.”

And it’s not that Max was insensitive enough not to recognize that it was very sad, but at the same time those single words were enough to make the idea he had of his life fall apart. All the things he thought he had already managed to understand felt fake and incorrect, and it was so fast it almost made him feel dizzy.

“She’s not his mom.” He declared.

Evander opened his eyes very widely and, next thing he knew, was that, for some reason, he looked nervous. Which, to say the least, was very…unlike Evander. He was usually super…confident, and, in Dad’s words: “He walks with his back too straight for a person who says some dumb shit every time he opens his mouth”.

At that moment, his back wasn’t straight at all, and he kept on wiping the sweat off his palms in the suit.

“…I mean…she’s not…alive anymore. But… that doesn’t mean that…”

“Noooo. I didn’t mean that.” Max cut him off. “She’s not her mom, because Adrian already has a mom.”

He stopped suddenly. Max could almost see his brain working at full speed, trying to process the data he had just received. Then, he blinked, arching his eyebrow.

“Who’s…who’s his mom?” He asked, getting closer to the crystal, and crouching down to be at Max’s height (Evander was almost too tall for his own sake). “Do Simon or Hugh…?”

“No. I mean she’s not his mom because Simon’s his mom.” Max stated, confident enough to move a mountain with his raw determination and his bare hands, which, needless to say, did nothing but make Evander even more confused.

Not that Max couldn’t understand why.

He was a brand new, redeemed person now.

But back then he wasn’t.

“…Simon is what, you said?”

“Adrian’s mom.” Max reaffirmed.

Still bewildered, Evander gawked. Perhaps he understood where that confusion was coming from but, at the same time, maybe he was too disturbed to ask for additional information. Max didn’t know which one of the two would make him feel more embarrassed, especially taking into account the next thing Evander said:

“That is the weirdest shit somebody has ever said to me, and I’ve talked to the Puppeteer an unhealthy amount of times.”

He wasn’t the one who explained to him the way his own family worked. On the contrary, he immediately told his dads about it, and next time the both of them came to talk to him, they tried to make him understand the concept of homosexual couples.

And they failed.

Miserably.

And he was using that term, because after that talk, Max went through life for a while saying that his ethnicity was Gay, because both of his dads were gay. Over and over again, they tried to correct him, but nothing seemed to work, and Max kept on spreading the information that he was gay (something he didn’t know yet) until Aunt Kasumi decided to intervene and, for his birthday, she got him a children’s book called All in Rainbow, which, according to the information in the first page, was actually a translation from a Latin American book written by two lesbians (one of them non-binary) and illustrated by the same woman who had made the Anarchists’ and the Renegades’ graphic novels and was also a Latina.

That book was something similar to a gay encyclopedia. It was narrated by this girl named Phoenix, because it followed her throughout her school and her daily life, where she came across different people and families. After every short story, there was an informative section explaining everything in regards to the new person’s identity, including their flag, the meaning of said flag, and the explanation of certain terms. Max really enjoyed it, and, in fact, he ended up going through it more than once. When he tried to persuade Adrian into reading it too, he admitted he already had, when he was younger,  and proceeded to make a comment about how pretty the name “Phoenix” was.

It was only then that Max was able to understand how his own family worked, and how freaking inept he had sounded when he decided it was a great idea to use it as an ethnicity.

That book was, in fact, the cue for all the grown ups in his life to start buying books for him, which he was grateful for, except for the one that he, ironically enough, had gotten from Uncle Evander. Sure, he appreciated that he had spent money on that,  but Max didn’t appreciate the fact that the plot was about a dog that was sent away to a school for dogs but made everyone believe he was in jail so he could escape. The drawings were cute, but he just couldn’t find the moral of the story and he didn’t like that.

His dads, from their part, got him a book about two frogs that, at least to Max, acted as if they were a couple; Aunt Tamaya was the one of the short books without drawings.

As for Aunt Kasumi…she usually brought a lot of educational books; every time she overheard him expressing something that was making him confused, she brought him a book about it, including that time she heard him asking Ruby Tucker “So, are you always bleeding?” completely out of context.

Max supposed that it had a lot to do with the fact that Aunt Kasumi was in charge of Child Services, and she spent a lot of time with children, especially because she liked to volunteer in orphanages, having been in one herself when she was a little girl. She usually moved in prodigy orphanages, for she was one to know the poor conditions they sometimes presented.

And…to say the least, she wasn’t a woman of many words. She was very reserved with everything she did. And, besides, it was none of Max’s business. After all, he was just a kid.

But, in this case, it kind of involved him.

Kind of.

For the simple reason that there were two names in the list of people his age Max had talked to. The first one was Neil (who wasn’t even his age. He was just close to that) and the second one…

The second one involved Aunt Kasumi.

Just like people were able to overhear his conversations through the quarantine, Max was able to overhear the conversations they were having on the outside, especially when he was trying to do it on purpose.

Every time he was too bored, in other words.

Some of the things older people said were confusing, but, over time, Max had learned to store that information, so he could comprehend it better in the future. He didn’t know at what level that was healthy, yet he still did it because, literally, he didn’t have anything better to do.

During extremely busy days, the Council chose to spend the night in the Headquarters, just in case, and while they could sleep in the common room, if Pops was too insistent on wanting to be close to the quarantine, they slept in the hallway.

In Max’s hallway.

Of course, Dad would sleep with him inside the quarantine but, in order to make it feel more like a pajama party, they slept close to the edge of the “room” (if it could be called that way), so close to the Councils’ inflatable beds, they could’ve touched them if there hadn’t been a wall in between.

When they were sleeping in that hallway, there wasn’t a patrol looking over Max, because they were the patrol and, every two hours, they changed turns to stay awake. All of them except Dad, who stayed the entire night with Max. The others often got up and started walking around the quarantine according to their ages. That is, Aunt Tamaya went first, followed by Pops, then Aunt Kasumi, and Uncle Evander at the end. However, since it wasn’t like they were too used to having many hours of sleep, Kasumi and Evander usually got up at the same time and patrolled together.

That night, Max was having trouble sleeping. Dad was hugging him, which made him feel very comfortable, but, at the same time, before he wrapped his arms around him, he had been moving way too much, and that had made Max feel uneasy, because a part of him, though he knew it was highly possible it wasn’t true, was feeding the annoying worm at the back of his brain that told him he was the one making Dad uneasy. That Dad was moving and couldn’t sleep because he didn’t want to be anywhere near him. Perhaps he would’ve preferred to be with Pops. Perhaps he would’ve preferred to be with Adrian, even. Anyone but Max.

Which, again, he knew things…weren’t like that. But that little, nameless, uninvited worm was always telling him that, over and over again, determined to repeat those awful words until they made so much noise they made him cry.

And even then, when he was already crying, the worm ate deeper into his brain and told him to stop because, in the end, who was he crying for anyway?

Who was he crying for, if nobody was here to see or hear him?

That night, of course, he didn’t cry, for the simple reason that…well, he did have somebody who would hear him cry, and maybe comfort him like Aunt Tamaya comforted Neil when he was crying…

But he didn’t want Dad to do that.

Not today.

Not because he were mad at him, but because he feared that, if he did, then Dad would be the one who would get mad.

Besides, that night he got extremely busy trying to overhear the conversation between Kasumi and Evander who, the moment they got up, started talking as they walked, first at a volume so low their voices could’ve been considered murmurs, but then, with every second, the issue started escalating.

And it wasn’t that they were arguing, it was that they weren’t exactly happy with each other, nor did they seem to manage to get to a mutual agreement.

Max felt like that time he was watching a movie with his earphones on, and instead of paying attention to the plot, he kept trying to identify which sounds were dominant in his left ear, and which ones were dominant in his right ear, because Uncle Evander and Aunt Kasumi were walking around the quarantine, and the echoes of their voices were floating right behind them, making it almost impossible for Max to decipher their messages word by word.

At least, until they stopped in front of him. That is, very close to the inflatable mattresses, too. And with just one eye open, he was able to tell Aunt Kasumi wasn’t amused, with her arms so tight across her chest that way, and with Uncle Evander standing more straight than necessary (because, yes, Dad was right about that...sometimes... because Max had read somewhere that tall people had to be really careful with their posture to avoid spine deformities or have less complications when they were older) waving his –as Aunt Tamaya would’ve called them- Hot Cheeto fingers right in front of her face, in a way so aggressive she sometimes had to lean backwards not to get one of her eyes poked out.

“…and it won’t look good for the organization. It won’t look good, Kasumi. You know why?”

“Yes, Vandy. I know why. I already knew before, yet you took the time to explain it to me another seven times. I mean, thank you, I guess, but—“

“If I kept on explaining it to you, it’s because I didn’t…and I don’t know what’s not clicking.”

“What do you mean with what’s not clicking?” And she tilted her head to the side. “…Are you still talking to me?”

“Don’t play dumb, Kasumi. Especially not in front of me, because I know you.”

“Right. But I still don’t get what you’re referring to. What’s not clicking about what, exactly?”

Evander laughed in a way Max would’ve just…understood if she had decided to punch him in the face so he would stop.

“We’re a big organization, Kasumi. People talk.”

“Of course that people talk. I mean, our citizens support our cause and our government system. In fact, statistically, more than half of the population do, but sometimes there are things that… are for their own good but they will refuse to understand and accept them anyway. And that’s normal. We might be the law, but we can’t control how the masses think, you know?”

“For their own good, you say. Beneficial.”

“Exactly.”

“Beneficial for who, if you’d be so kind?” Evander laughed again. “As far as I understand, we’re talking about one single problem, from a single person. It won’t bring anything beneficial, as you call it, for our organization, or for our system…if anything, it will damage it and make us lose credibility.”

“…Why?”

As a response, he started flapping his arms around, as if he were trying to point at something invisible. Or at something that wasn’t really there.

And this time, Aunt Kasumi didn’t try to pretend she was seeing it, and remained silent until Evander realized he would have to make himself understood.

“Because…” He clenched his fists, sighing loudly, almost like he was certain he was right and Aunt Kasumi wasn’t. “Our policy. Remember that? You know, a thing that actually exists and you helped write?”

She didn’t respond.

“Our policy as Renegades, it’s that we shall keep our people safe, and that includes prodigy and non-prodigy citizens. We shall preserve their lives no matter the cost, and create a safe environment where all can coexist and protect each other. That means that no prodigy individual with questionable reasons is to be allowed to cross that gate and disturb the peace or, worse, put somebody’s life at risk.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Yes, you should be, because we wrote it, for fuck’s sake.”

“Evander, please. There’s no need to curse or—“

“…But you know what that means? It means that we can’t just…go against that policy and expect our citizens, our recruits, even, to still take us seriously.”

“Oh, but I’m following that policy because, as you might remember, we also pledged to assist anyone whose life was at risk, and people who, day by day, have to live under very vulnerable circumstances. It is our job to intervene and take them to a safer place, where their quality of life can improve, isn’t it?”

“It is, but that applies for people who aren’t dangerous to society.”

At that point, Max had both his eyes open, and he was seeing the scene more clearly.

In fact, everything was so clear, that he was able to read the confusion in Aunt Kasumi’s expression, even before she said:

“…This is a kid we’re talking about.”

“She is dangerous.”

“She’s not dangerous, Evander. She's a kid. Sure, her behavior has caused her to go bouncing from orphanage to orphanage like a rubber ball but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be helped, that doesn’t mean we should just turn our backs at her, and that doesn’t mean she’s dangerous.”

“You know damn well her behavior’s not what I’m talking about.”

“Well, I am, because that’s the only thing that should concern us at the moment.”

“No, it’s not?”

“It is. Because she’s a kid…and, honestly, Vandy…” Aunt Kasumi sighed. “… I know we were raised thinking life is war, but… the truth is, people are not born evil. Or dangerous, for that matter. Take your time and think about it, and  you can talk to me again once you’ve calmed down, because you must be pretty much aware I don't appreciate this tone. Besides, it’s not like this little argument is going to stop me anyway.” She shrugged.

“…after all, I already talked to Hugh.”

“…And what did he say?”

“It’s not my place to tell you that. Ask him.”

Max never knew whether he had taken that suggestion or not but, knowing Evander, he just assumed he hadn’t. And, to be honest, he never asked Dad about it either. He just stood and watched how everything proceeded to go down and chaos unleashed.

Though, he had to admit, unlike what had happened with other “big” events, this one specific chaos was rather discrete. A kind of well-kept secret.

In fact, the only explicit hint that something would happen in the next few days, was the little disturbance caused by Team Frostbite (it was always Team Frostbite. Max had no idea why everyone was so…willing to put up with their…issues so much, and without hesitation) when it was their turn to patrol around the quarantine and Evander came around, holding his notepad, and muttered something to them.

“Whom?!” Genissa Clark, Frostbite, snapped immediately.

Evander frowned and, judging by the way his moustache moved, he also pouted, before turning at Mack Baxter, Aftershock, to start talking to him instead.

“Do you have any idea of what she’s talking about?” He clicked his tongue. “Like…okay, nevermind…”

When Max looked up, he saw the exact moment when Evander realized he was listening to the conversation, so he lowered his tone once again.  Yet, Max was still able to see the million ways in which Genissa Clark's face contorted and, in the end, the first second Evander shut his mouth, she declared:

“We’re not available for that. Perhaps that task should be assigned to Team Sketch or Team Peregrine. They’re always lollygagging around, it’s about time they get some real responsibi—“

“That’s a no, then. Alright. Thanks for your cooperation, Team Frostbite. Or, lack of, more likely. Do better next time, okay?”

If Max wanted to be honest with himself, it hadn’t taken him much time to realize he wasn’t fond of any of the members in Team Frostbite. Or Frostbite herself. In fact, he considered her to be almost insufferable, and, again, he couldn’t quite understand why they were allowed to boss everybody around. To a certain extent, they reminded him of the popular kids (who were also bullies) in every movie he had ever watched. They weren’t nice. Not even likeable.

Maybe Max was just very specific on the type of people he liked.

Or maybe he liked everyone and their mom, except Team Frostbite, because he didn’t know any better than that, while  at the same time he knew better than liking Team Frostbite.

But he didn’t know better than liking Margaret White, because…well…

She hadn’t done anything particularly awful for him to have an opinion as strong as Uncle Evander’s about her.

She came on a Friday.

Not that she exclusively came to talk to him.

She, in fact, arrived alongside Aunt Kasumi, who was wearing her civilian clothes –High-waisted jeans and a baby blue shirt, damp with sweat because it was hot outside- and kept leaving her car key on every table that came across her, before coming back to it to grab them.

At first, Max wasn’t able to see Margaret very well, mostly because he was distracted with his online classes, and she was taken straight to Dad’s office, along with Adrian’s entire team. And though Max didn’t see much, he was able to catch a glimpse on how Adrian kept on trying to grab her hand, and she insisted on pulling away.

At some point, he had read about that too.

The Renegades accepted recruits from ages 14 and up, talking about patrolling. However, they had a child protection program, where, basically, they assisted orphan prodigy children with behavioral issues or, though only few people liked to admit it, potential to be a part of the organization when they were older. Adrian didn’t like it and, strangely enough, out of everyone, Evander didn’t like it either. Nevertheless, Evander was one to get more aggressive when it came to child recruitment, which, thankfully, wasn’t common at all.

In fact, those cases were so rare, that they referred to them as “exceptions”. After all, children were not allowed into the Trials. As far as Max knew, they weren’t placed in patrol units. On the contrary, they were given small positions in the organization, and their paychecks were directed to their respective savings account, something that Pops was in charge of. However, they could use that money for their personal needs or something they wanted to buy, as the few children recruits resided in orphanages around Gatlon and went back there after their shift was over. Max supposed that sometimes their caretakers refused to buy them something because it wasn’t good for their health and it must be very satisfying to tell them it was their money (That’s what Adrian always did when Dad refused to buy something for him).

(That, or he went and asked Pops for that same thing).

Usually, they could have cash withdrawals just by presenting their Renegade Recruit ID because, obviously, they didn’t have an official ID yet.

And not only that. The children recruits were assigned a patrol unit with older members to look after them, or help them with anything they needed. Taking into account the conversation he had overheard, he supposed that duty had fallen on Adrian’s team (A theory that was later confirmed to be true by Adrian himself).

They were never left unsupervised, just like Max.

The day Margaret arrived, for a couple of minutes, maybe hours, Max was submerged in his own little world, and in the assignment his last teacher had told him to do. It was just him, his colored pencils, his paper sheets, his notes, his head, his hands, and the miniature planet Earth that his quarantine supposed, against the real world that he had never stepped on.

But every now and then, a little piece of the unknown, mysterious real world came running to his encounter and talked to him, sometimes in the most sudden, unsolicited way.

Sometimes it was Dad opening the door without calling. Sometimes it was Adrian pressing a new drawing against the crystal. Sometimes it was Pops, making a little “Psst” sound to get his attention.

Sometimes it was three little knocks, and the girl that was producing them with her knuckles.

Back then, Margaret’s hair was longer, to the point where she could tie it in a high ponytail, decorated with a blue bow, which combined with his orphanage uniform: A white polo, with the institution’s symbol by the right side of her chest, beneath a cobalt blue skirt with suspenders, long white socks and black scholar shoes.

He saw her and recognized she was real the first time, but Max still gave himself a couple of seconds to grasp the fact that she was really there.

Well, not there-there.

That she was there, as in, through the glass.

And she was calling him, even if she wasn’t saying anything. In fact, she was just there, eating from a chocolate bar with puffed rice. Her free hand was still over the glass.

And she was waiting.

So, he figured he didn’t want to keep her waiting anymore, and leaving his task and his tools behind, Max walked in her direction. And like it always happened, he stopped right before bumping his forehead against the hard, translucent surface.

Margaret took another bite from her chocolate, with an arched eyebrow, but she said nothing. From afar, Max hadn’t been able to really appreciate her features, but now that he was closer, he realized she was taller than him; her small, brown eyes were making her lashes look bigger; her black hair looked thicker and he was able to conclude that her skin tone was more or less like Pops’, maybe a little darker. She had a mark over her cheek, and at first Max thought it was a mole or a birthmark…until, of course, he realized that moles weren’t (or, at least, shouldn’t be) purple, and realized it was a bruise.

He didn’t ask her about it. Adrian had once told him that there were people who might not want to talk about their bruises or open wounds, not because the stories behind them were painful to tell, but because they were too embarrassing and telling embarrassing stories was an inconvenience.

“…well… now that I think about it…” He said right after. “…That’s not it. No. Not really. Sometimes your wounds’ backstories are painful. Or sometimes…you just want to keep them a secret, you know? And secrets are…sort of important.”

He believed every word.

Hence why, instead of saying something too nosy about that bruise, a little slowly at first, Max started lifting his hand up, until he reached the spot where Margaret’s was, and pressed his palm there. When she stared at his palm in confusion, Max clarified:

“Hugh five. You know?" Max giggled a little." As in… the Captain? Hugh? ...No?"

She didn’t laugh. And that was odd because Adrian would’ve.

Margaret wasn’t Adrian, sadly. And, it seemed to be, she hadn’t had an older sibling to tell her that some things just…weren’t adequate as icebreakers to start a conversation. Because, like Adrian had said, there were certain things other people might not want to talk about.

“Are you sick?” She directly asked.

Max was still “pressing” his hand against hers.

Gulping hard, he felt his throat boiling hot, almost as if it were growing blisters.

“No.” He said in a hoarse voice. “Why?”

Not pulling away either, Margaret said:

“The other day, Sister Malinda brought a very tiny baby into the orphanage. They were so small they had to take them to the medical wing.” She took another bite from her chocolate, and kept on speaking with her mouth full. “I sneaked out of my room to see them, and they were inside this little glass box that helped  keeping them alive. Sister Tam told me so.”

Max kept quiet for a while. He would’ve been lying if he said he didn’t have a little curiosity about the name, but Margaret solved everything that had to be solved even if he didn’t ask her to.

“Sister Tam was named after Thunderbird. She’s younger than the other nuns.”

He guessed so.

Aunt Tamaya’s real name had been revealed to the general public on the 13th year into the Age of Anarchy, when she reappeared after being away for months thanks to an accident that involved Queen Bee and a cliff or something like that (Max couldn’t quite understand it, and Aunt Tamaya couldn’t remember much about it either. If she did, then she just didn’t desire to talk about it). It wasn’t a fun anecdote or anything like that but, according to his dads, the name Tamaya topped the lists for the most female-assigned names for at least a year, and the same thing happened in the 20th year into the Age of Anarchy...however, by the time she was buried, the world didn’t know Lady Indomitable’s real name, and for an entire month, people used Regina instead of Georgia. When Max asked why, Dad answered that, when attending public events, Lady Indomitable used to wear a pair of shiny golden R-shaped earrings that caused everybody in Gatlon to develop mass hysteria and made themselves believe that those Rs meant Regina, when in reality, according to Lady Indomitable herself, one of them meant “Rawles”, and the other “Renegade”. In fact, Oscar Silva (Smokescreen, one of the members of Adrian’s team) had once said that one of his cousins, who lived in Mexico, had been named Renata Regina (Though nobody knew what the heck that first name was, and Oscar had a really peculiar way to pronounce Regina) because she was born a few days after Lady Indomitable’s decease.

“I knew that.” Max lied.

“Sure, buddy. I bet you did.” Margaret chuckled. And there, Max realized she thought she was too clever.

Which, he didn’t doubt she was. He wasn’t in the position to state that. At least, not yet.

But what he was in the position to state, was that, if she thought herself to be clever, then it was his opportunity to think of himself as clever too. After all, he had been reading his whole life because he didn’t have anything else to do.

If Margaret was clever, then so was he.

“You’re talking about an incubator.” He said.

Margaret looked up out of a sudden (Max hoped she hadn’t gotten dizzy). He could still see the chocolate, that at this point should’ve been mush, stored in the inside of her right cheek.

“Uh?” She asked, struggling to keep her mouth closed.

Max gulped, and tapped the surface with his fingers.

“The thing where they put the little baby. It’s called an incubator. That’s where they put pre-term babies, because they’re not ready to survive outside of their mother’s womb. Sometimes their lungs don’t work on their own, sometimes their hearts are too fast or too slow…”

“You look too old to be a baby.” She observed. “Are your powers something related to that? Like, are you a baby who doesn’t look like a baby?”

For a second, Max thought about quoting Evander that time he had boldly stated that Simon was Adrian’s mom, but he didn’t because he wasn’t in the mood to curse.

“…No. First, this is not an incubator. And second,  I’m a kid.” He answered. “I’m not a baby.”

“Then why are you here?”

The short answer was that, honestly, that was none of her business. And the even shorter answer, was:

“I can’t tell you. It’s a secret. And secrets are sort of important.”

“A secret.” She repeated, as if tasting the word. “…You don’t look like you want to be here. Are you allowed to come out?”

The short answer was still that it was none of her business. But, if he wanted to be honest, for some reason, he didn’t want to give that answer. Because, to be fair, she would find out on her own sooner or later. Because, yes, people talked, and while his dads were kind of secretive about him, everyone in the headquarters knew him. Her being clueless was just a temporary event that would vanish into thin air in a blink.

And, for some reason, he wanted to enjoy it while it lasted.

Maybe tell her something that wasn’t real. Maybe… tell her something that wasn’t necessarily true but that he wanted it to be. Maybe something that was more interesting than what he was, in reality; maybe something that would make the worm in his brain go away for two weeks.

"I can't get out." He finally decided. "Because this glass is infrangible."

Then, he knocked on it three times.

"See?"

Margaret tilted her hair to the side, looking like a cat.

"What does that word mean?"

And dumb as it sounded, Max felt a twinge in his stomach along with a violent wave of pride. Because, even if it was hard for him to admit it, he was hoping she would ask that.

He wanted her to ask that.

"It means you can't break it."

Margaret's eyes seemed bigger. But just as she was separating her lips to speak, somebody behind her cleared their throat.

That's when Max spotted Aunt Kasumi leaned against a wall with her arms crossed. When Margaret looked over her shoulder, she found her there too. But while Max waved at her, Margaret remained inexpressive.

"You're very far from the restroom, Maggie." Kasumi said, in a serious tone. Afterwards, she massaged her temples.

"Please, darling. Just… help me here, okay? We have to go back to the office."

And she didn't seem mad, but rather disappointed.

When it came to Aunt Kasumi, that was enough. Max knew that, and Margaret knew that too. That's why they both removed their hands from the glass, and Margaret started going away.

However, before she was too far, Max asked:

"Why are you here?"

And Margaret turned around, smiling.

"If you're not telling me, I'm not telling you." She sentenced. Then, she proceeded to imitate his voice as she said:

"It's a secret."

And for a while, obviously, it remained that way. A secret. But it wasn't long before they both knew everything they needed to know.

Margaret was integrated into the janitorial team, but, for a while, people talked about her and her powers, and Max couldn’t help but remember what Dad had told him in the bathtub, and the conversation between Evander and Kasumi.

Yet, more than scared, Max felt… something he didn't know what it was. In fact, he wasn't scared of her. More likely, a part of him felt that he knew what it was like to be her, because maybe they weren't that different after all.

People were scared of them both.

But he wasn't scared of her. No, not really.

He hoped she wasn’t scared of him either.

Maybe they could've been very good friends, even through the infrangible glass that kept him from getting pointed at, frowned upon or killed.

[frogtanii]

It’s wind anon. I know I should react to the Kenma part, but I just went through the update, saw Meiko’s portion and I have feelings that I need to get out because I’m so far gone right now—

I swear, I can break down every single text what the flip is this BS. Meiko, dear, do you,,,have a concussion. Are you thinking. What,,, this is like the time you were underdressed at the restaurant and you ended up getting drunk as heck.

Okay, let’s do the breakdown.

Coming in hot, we see Meiko with “tooru!!!!!!” (Yes, I did count the number of exclamation marks) firstly, the usage of his first name after ‘exiled’ where she raged at him and used Oikawa instead... mood swing much because I cannot believe the audacity of this... and really. First name basis. Trying to be close and to get rid of animosity, but not offering up anything like “hey, I’d appreciate talking to you for a sec if you’re free?” Or an apology for blowing up at him because he did indeed have your back, it’s just that you were the one problem. But yes, the exclamation marks too. A bit childish, obvious excitement...mmmm, I’ll move on to the next section.

Oikawa’s “oh. hey meiko” shows that he really ain’t up for this. First is the obvious low energy. I don’t want to go into depth about that but the “oh” shows that he paused. He saw her message. He answered. And he didn’t expect her to talk to him. Especially with that sort of energy. Mixed feelings towards her. And his “hey meiko”. I would say he is one of the more energetic of the House. He probably would’ve done something like “meiko!!! <3” in response before or something like that. He’s a bit flashy in that regard. But no punctuation. Just a downtrodden “hey” in response.

“don’t sound so enthused” she says. I mean, at the very least it seems she understands and can grasp tone from messages? But I am like “it would be more surprising for him to be enthused? I’m in awe of how you were able to become so enthused after you got yourself crushed into pieces by YN...” Besides that, even if Meiko wasn’t physically hurt, a confrontation of this sort would not lead to anyone having a happy mood? Me glancing between Meiko and all the therapists that were mentioned before because I really hope that we can figure something out because she gives off so many different vibes I am like... “what even goes on inside her brain...”

“can you blame me? you yelled at me the last time i talked to you” and this is the truth. He shouldn’t be enthused. You yelled at him, you disregarded his concern and you showed that you didn’t care for him as a person. Even if there was a circumstance where she didn’t yell at Oikawa, he would reach out first and be concerned about her health. Meiko has no grounds to try and blame him for anything right now. Frankly, I don’t think Oikawa should have even bothered answering her because I don’t think he is in the best place emotionally to deal with her.

“im so sorry sweetheart!!!! i didn’t mean it :(” lemme just day, wind anon cannot believe the BS that this message is. First, she says she is sorry. But really? Really. I can’t even look at her. Look, I don’t know what it is but “I’m so sorry.” Has the weakest apology energy. “I’m sorry.” Fine, decent, the classic and simplest. “I’m really sorry.” Also good! Shows regret. “I’m so sorry.” Sounds like you when you just learn that a person’s family member has passed away. There is something about “I’m so sorry” that doesn’t sound sincere to me and it’s infuriating. Next, the “sweetheart” I might’ve gagged a bit internally. Does she,,, talk like that? Normally? Is that a thing? She’s younger than him...and I don’t know but sweetheart sounds so condescending I literally can’t even— and finally, the “I didn’t mean it” yeah, well, you don’t mean anything because everything you say is BS that’s what you mean. Stop excusing your behavior. There is no merit behind it.

“you know i was just beat up and i couldn’t control what i was saying”. Okay, let’s break this down too. First, trying to incur sympathy by the “I was just beat up.” I cannot believe this gal. And the “you know” for a reference to a person’s knowledge of the matter, it lets them be more susceptible to beliefs. But the “I couldn’t control what I was saying” is complete utter hogwash. I mean, Meiko can’t control any bit of her because she is just impulse. But she excused her inability to control herself by saying it was because she was just beat up.

I don’t know what to say for the next portion. Alone, it’s cute, but put into perspective it’s just manipulation and she doesn’t love him. I’ll just move on.

“what do you need that you can’t ask iwa-chan?” Okay, so he didn’t reciprocate with an “I love you too” so that just shows what type of mood and how effective her words were. It also shows that she always messaged Oikawa when she needed something, because he caught on super quick to that. The “Iwa-chan” is interesting though. I wanna know if Oikawa talks to Iwaizumi after this conversation with Meiko because she is clearly going behind his back right now.

“oh well hajime is being very rude rn. he won’t let me leave my room!!!!” Okay, he had best interests at heart and Meiko...I know every single one of your rooms has a bathroom too. They’re bringing you food. They are letting people go into your room. Meiko, you wouldn’t have lasted quarantine if you’re this petulant now. It’s literally going to be like, 3 days max if you work to get an actual solution. I don’t want to break this down, I feel this is self explanatory. She feels entitled still.

“i know, it’s for your own good” he replies, and that is true but I am also of the belief that it is (hopefully) better for the rest of the house to not be in contact with her so I guess that’s that. Anyway, this shows Oikawa placating her, next

Meiko...being...not pretty. “ugh!!! but i wanna go out!!!!!!” Yeah, she would not have been able to be safe throughout the pandemic. Please,,, you’ll have fresh air if you open up a window,,, I know for certain you don’t exercise,,, please Meiko, shut up already you are making yourself look like more of a pile of garbage than you depict yourself as please I cannot handle the idea that the guys fell for this act—

“you have a black eye babe” okay, the black eye is actually Tooru trying to refer to knowledge that she has. As in, she should be trying to rest and get better right now. (Just curious, who treated her? For the injuries? She raged at Iwaizumi and Oikawa so maybe Daichi?) the babe gives off the placating vibe to me, still low energy, not very affectionate, but it’s there so I’m like “hm”.

“so??? omg are you calling me ugly tooru???????” Well...he didn’t call you ugly. But I might? Because you have the ugliest personality of everyone here. But also, shifting blame onto him. Gosh, I give Oikawa some water. He’ll get a migraine from this.

“of course not. i would never”. Low energy, not elaborating, I think he sees that she is trying to manipulate him, or at the very least he isn’t going to play that particular game. But actually, he runs a fashion channel on YouTube. We know Bokuto runs a fitness one and his header message was something along the lines of everyone’s bodies are beautiful, so chances are Oikawa has the same sort of idea for his channel too. He may criticize fashion, but he would never criticize the people wearing it or the people who made it in a mean way. He would be respectful, and he lets people do what they wish because it’s their choice. I mean, there has to be a reason why Meiko’s fashion is how it is—he doesn’t intrude on matters that aren’t his to intrude upon.

Okay, Meiko. I’m gonna stop trying to format the messages exactly how they are, autocorrect is making my time with them a bit too much, but she says she wants him to take her with him. Okay, starting off, you are really under the belief that he will take you on to a trip he has planned when he didn’t invite you in the first place? Pushy... but yes, her petulance again... me flicking water at her, “you got super drunk because you were underdressed at a fancy restaurant and now you have a face that looks like roadkill, how much do you want to embarrass yourself before you get turned into a pariah?”

Oikawa not knowing how she knows that is clear concern. Someone knowing your schedule when it’s none of their business and not public knowledge is major red flag. The “uh” shows that he is clearly taken aback. The ellipses shows that he doesn’t know what to think.

Okay, Meiko—she is actually able to notice something??? Good golly gee, I am baffled by how she did that when everything else she does is on fire. But the consistency probably gave it in. She may have been looking for him at one point, noticed he was out, and saw the pattern then. But actually, wouldn’t she be good at noticing the patterns of the guys so that she always knows which one to go to and use? Thoughts.... but I’m curious about the fact she said the “same group of absolute losers”. I highly doubt they always go and meet up directly in eye view of the house? Chances are they meet up at a bar or something? This potentially could be a thing where Meiko was stalking them? It would be interesting if she saw them while she was out as well—and if yahaba and kyoutani noticed her around before too. Also, her saying “you ain’t slick” like,,, Meiko, have you looked into a mirror. Can you see.

Oikawa defending his friends, we stan. Let’s move on though: “they’re so much younger than you?? and yahaba is def not cute lmao” me, doing like the... monkey meme where they look away because I am just like??? Meiko, you’re younger than Oikawa. I bet Yahaba and Kyoutani are your age. And anyone younger than you is a loser huh? That’s why you look at Bokuto and YN like they are dirt beneath your feet. (And Yes, I do remember that you put Bokuto and YN as the babies of the house, this reoccurrence is very well done). And she went and insulted Yahaba directly like...you’re talking to his friend? What are you doing? Excuse me? I beg your pardon?

And the ellipses strike again— and Oikawa is fishing for information because we have seen him—he listens to logic. And Meiko... her emojis... wind anon be flicking more water at her, she is too much. Also. Kyoutani. She is calling Kyoutani cute. This was the message that made wind anon start this long analysis. Kyoutani, cute? Listen. Kyoutani would take one look at this parasite hanging off his arm with her swollen black eye that was slathered with makeup and her lacking clothing sense, before looking at Oikawa who would be so haggard by then, and then Kyoutani would force her off his arm before grabbing Oikawa and running off with Yahaba following them. There is no way at all Kyoutani would involve himself with Meiko. I refuse to believe he would go for her.

Okay, the two messages after about wingmanning—I don’t want to do a large scale analysis of it. Oikawa really is shown to have good sense for Meiko’s intentions. His intuition is good. And we know that he cares and respects his friends and he focuses on their capabilities. He knows them. Meiko is just...childish in the worst of ways.

“You don’t see the issue with this”. Oikawa really digging in his feet. First, he wished to be in a relationship with Meiko. And here she is, asking for him to wingman to get her together with one of his friends, who may not even like her—and I bet that if it doesn’t go well, she would blame Oikawa for it like really—but I give Oikawa more water for the migraines Meiko induces.

“What?? It’s not like we’re actually together lol”. The laugh out loud at the end really shows how much of a joke she sees this as. She sees him as a joke. And she just crushed all his efforts and actions to try and get into a relationship. And actually...will Meiko ever get into a relationship with another? She has no loyalty. She definitely wouldn’t have ever got into a dedicated relationship with one of the guys. And she would be the type to get upset if they slept around, wouldn’t she? A hypocrite.

“Ugh don’t be like that!!! I’m sure you sleep around too!!” Okay, she is trying to defend herself while also potentially blaming him if he does. It’s just manipulation...I’m gonna move on...

Oikawa’s just done and his “I don’t” holds a lot of emotion. But Meiko’s response back I don’t believe at all. “Oh well that’s your fault, I don’t really give a sh*t if you sleep around hehe!!!” First, blaming him for his choice of only choosing you??? And I highly doubt the second part because she is shown to throw blame and ditch people for negligible reasons—I have no trust towards her words. I do not believe her. I believe she would care. I believe she would blow up at the guy before leaving him.

“Of course you don’t” And there is the utter doneness. He has given up on Meiko in this message. He doesn’t care anymore. He was already not in the mood for her when she first messaged him, he doesn’t want to see her at all anymore. He’s given up.

“So you get it!! Perfect!!!!” Please, wind anon has written so much already, her eyes are sweating everytime she has to look at Meiko being like this hhhhh. “I’ll be ready at like 9pm? Come by my room!! Actually no I’ll come by yours” and her usage of emoji. Get her away from me and everyone in PF. She’s toxic. Send her off with hazardous waste. Also, she deliberately changed from her room to coming by his. She is cutting off him so he has to go with her, he can’t just sneak out and not wait at her room (though she did offer a time so he could just go out now and ditch her presence completely). But it would be amusing if he did something like lock his door, (either after he’d go out or if he wold leave through window) and she would just be there waiting all decked out in her clothes and makeup pounding on his door. He wouldn’t answer and the others would see her out of her room (a misdemeanor). And then she would have to make an excuse. But it would be hard...because Oikawa has text evidence of Meiko going against Iwaizumi to just play like this.

“And if I say no?” Says Oikawa, who is testing the waters—very smart. We approve. “You won’t.” She replies, because she is terrible and we hate her controlling, manipulative, abusive self and we would all fight her. And she ends it off with a “great!! see you then!” Because she has to have her way and the last say.

Okay, wind anon is done

Completely. Utterly done with the analysis and reaction for that. Might not get to Kenma and YN analysis because I went off in this one but just know I appreciate it and I’ll try to get to it—just,,,not today.

I hope Oikawa sends these screenshots to like, Iwaizumi at the very least but it would be even better if he just drops it in a group chat with Daichi and Osamu instead and asks them to keep an eye on her for “her own safety” and ask her to stay in her room. She’s too daring and if she blows up on him after, he will receive more evidence of her being terrible. And of course, he’s smart. He’ll definitely block her number when he doesn’t want to bother with her anymore. Okay, wind anon is ending here. The ask is too long. I think it’s the longest ask I’ve ever sent. I wish you well fr0ggy. I hope your sleep is pleasant and you wake up very rested and refreshed!

WOO LONG POST!!!! i cannot nearly respond to all this!!!! but!!!! i am in Awe??? text by text???? i love this????? ur so amazing i <3 u

[violetnotez]

Class 1-A During Quarantine

This is just pure crack because I’m really hating social distancing rn

———————————

Alrightie so just imagine UA getting shut down and all of Class 1-A has to tolerate each other 24/7 non stop because their stuck together in the dorms

Idk if this would really happen or they would just be sent home but JUST IMAGINE KAY

All hell breaks loose at the news-

Some (Mina, Uraraka, Kirishima) are trying to optimistic about the whole thing (“At least we won’t be getting sick!” “It’ll be fun to hang out more and get to know each other better!”)

Some take it a little harder

Bakugo is flipping is SHIT because there is no way he is going to be around all these extras for who knows how long

There are two types of freak outs at the news that school is going to be having a slight break for a while-

All of Dekusquad is practically sobbing- no school?!? Will we get set back?!? What about hero training!!?

Immediately starts planning study and training sessions

All of Bakusquad is FLIPPING THEIR SHIT-NO SCHOOL HECK YEAH

Kaminari, Kirishima, and Mina are just pumping their fists in their air and screaming “YEAH!”

But they get SOOOOOO depressed when Aizawa says they’d have to do video lessons and that school would still be in session-at some point

Shoto really thinks this is all a hoax and has crazy conspiracy theories concocted about the whole thing

Will tell everyone and anyone who will listen

He will sit in his room surrounded by papers and his laptop on full brightness in the dark as he tracks the stats and pieces his theory together

Tsuyu and Uraraka takes this SOOO seriously

Sweet babies don’t wanna get sick!

Washes their hands, socially distances themselves

If you run out of any type of essentials-soap,tissues, etc-they got you covered tho they are more than happy to share

Iida takes it WAY TOO GODDAMN SERIOSULY

You would think he’s preparing for World War 3

He tries to ration out crap that really doesn’t need to be

What a shocker when you go to the bathroom and see that each individual square of toilet paper is stacked up near the toilet and not on the roll

The adjacent “Take only a few!” Sign makes you roll your eyes big time

Pretty much everyone in Class 1-A ignores Iidas annoying preaching about “social disntancing” and “washing your hands” and look to Momo for help

She is very educated about the whole thing and researches her crap all the time, giving everyone accurate tips and statistics about the disease

Kinda of the mama bear through all of it-also completely open to sharing, or if your feeling kinda anxious about the situation she is happy to sit and talk with you to ease your mind

Kirishima as well-he is a big softie and would do anything for his friends! If your feeling scared, this rock boy has got you!!! He’ll try his best to make you feel better

Kaminari and Sero are the biggest crackheads-they don’t see this as a pandemic but as an excuse to turn into hermits and play videogames all day

Their sleep schedules are JACKED

You once found Kamianri eating “dinner” at 5 o’clock in the morning

Honestly scared for those two-itll be past midnight and their rooms will be completely dark except for the lights of the TV screen coming from cracks under their doors and loud gun noises

Sato makes BOMB food though- all of the Class is eating nice and proper because of him

Also takes extra special measures to make sure he doesn’t spread any germs, so it’s honestly safer than regular food

Jiro is jamming to music the whole time-she is not saying hi to anyone, if you wanna say hi to her that’s chill, but she’s is not coming out of her room

Toru swears on her FUCKING LIFE she is going to die-but honestly nobody can see her and accidentally touch her so she’s okay, but she overrracts BIG TIME

Everyone knows where she is at because there is always a floating can of Lysol

Oh my god keep your doors locked because Mineta is going to use this time to try out every nasty perverted trick in the book

He’s lonely and horny what do u expect

Will sneak into rooms, try and set up cameras-really wierd stuff

Even Kaminari told him to chill out because his plans were getting kinda nasty

Bakugo-ohhh this BOI IS FUMING

Will wanna kick Corona in the face

He is SICK of everyone talking about it

His freak outs are hilarious- “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERES NO TOILET PAPER?!? WHY THE HELL IS EVERYONE WANTING TOILET PAPER?!? IF U RUN OUT JUST USE GODDAMN PAPER TOWELS!!!!”

Bakugo calm your tits

Izuku is the smartest one about it-uses his time to study, prepare for future exams, and keep his body in tip top shape

Calls his Mom like every other day along with Shoto and Kirishima

The ones getting calls from their families is Bakugo and Kaminari

Everyone knows Bakugo is on the phone with his mother is when he starts screaming “Old hag!” And yelling a lot more

Kaminari gets kinda embarrassed because his family always wants to FaceTime and everytime a girl enters the screen they flip their shit and start asking really loudly if their dating

Pray for Aizawa tho

His nerves are gonna be wrecked because he’s gonna be so worried about the class

He knows exactly which kids are gonna freak out about it so he makes sure to always drop by and tell the class that if they needed to talk he was more than willing to listen

Oh but the moment Skyping lessons becomes a thing-he is going to literally wanna rip his hair out the chaotic mess that is his class is going to destroy his patience

———————————-

Hope this made some of you guys feel a little better and pls-STAY SAFE AND HEALTHY!!! ☺️

(RULES | MASTERLIST| REQUESTS CLOSED)

[thiswasinevitableid]

Have you seen the post going around about the zoom class with one guy and his full streamer setup vs the guy whose just in the middle of the woods? I know you have a prompt list rn but I’m just saying there’s a sternclay fic in there somewhere...

It is! Here you go!

Life is better with order. Or, at the very least, with some attempt at patterns, organization, or consistency. 

Which is why Stern has carefully arranged his desk, his chair, and his equipment in the background. Streaming as a hobby and a side hustle means he has some (okay, a lot) of practice making his digital self look just right. He needs to make a good impression on the first day of the semester.

Unlike some people. 

“Holy shit man, are you in the woods?” Duck, the guy in a “Monongahela National Forest” shirt, grins as he asks this of another student whose screen consists of a forest clearing, a log, and the name “Barclay.”

“Yeah. Hang on, lemme finish getting the phone balanced.”

“Dude, that’s like, way better than my background” this comes from Jake, in front of a poorly rendered half-pipe. 

“Can’t really take credit for it, just where I ended up.” Barclay sits down, and Stern gets his first look at a man so tall he barely fits in the frame, with a short, coppery beard and an honest-to-god man-bun.

Damn west coast schools. 

“How is your battery going to last long enough for class?” Stern leans back in his chair, certain Barclay will have “battery trouble” halfway through as an excuse to cut out early.

Barclay smiles, lifting up a small green and black rectangle, “solar battery. Not everyone needs fancy gadgets for school.” He aims a pointed stare at Sterns set-up. 

“It’s important to have the right equipment.”

“Whatever you say, man.” He lifts a cup of iced coffee into the frame, sipping it through a straw. It’s the picture of relaxation, as if nothing is wrong in the world. As if this is all totally normal. 

Stern wants to reach through the  screen and slap some sense into him. Preferably while he’s shirtless.

He chalks that thought up to not having gotten laid since last December and pulls up his note taking software as Professor Chicane enters the room.

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

Private Chat 9/20/20

Duck (he/him): I timed it, we’re already at ten minutes of arguing.

Indrid (he/him): I know Ned enjoys their demonstrating the different modes of rhetoric, but this is a bit extreme.

Duck: To be fair, Joe does seem kinda uptight.

Indrid: Yes, but Barclay should know by now that zeroing in on him during our practice debates only results in this.

Duck: Yeah. Oh shit, are they for real wrapping up you think?

Indrid: We can only hope. Skype me tonight?

Duck: Of course, sugar.

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

What is Joseph’s problem? He’s got a set-up that would make a pro-vlogger jealous, what looks to be a well-lit apartment with some houseplants and the kind of coffee-cups that are weirdly lacking in personality. His clothes are immaculate, his hair slicked back as if he;s in a business meeting rather than an online class in the midst of a chaotic world. So why is he acting like everything is terrible? And why is he always arguing with Barclay, when there are plenty of other people in the class to disagree with?

“Now” Mr. Chicane’s voice booms through the tiny speaker on his phone, “if you all had a chance to read over the instructions, we will begin the first mock debate. Do we have any volunteers?”

He and Joe raise their hands at the same time. Mr. Chicane raises an eyebrow.

“While I appreciate your eagerness, gentlemen, I would like two other volunteers this time.”

That’s fine by him. It’s not like he likes listening to Joseph get all wound up and passionate, making everyone on the call sit up and take notice of him. It’s not as if he enjoys being the center of his focus. 

Nope, not at all.

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

Private chat 10/11/20

Jake (he/him): Dudes, did you see who got paired up on the final project?

Aubrey (she/her): Chicane must be getting them back for all the times they’ve hijacked discussions. 

Duck (he/him): Man, for their sake I hope it works out.

Indrid (he/him): This is going to be a disaster.

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

“Are you out of your mind!” Stern is talking before Barclay’s video is fully on. 

“Nope. And you don’t have to yell, my speaker works just fine.”

“You’re outside, for all I know there’s a ton of ambient noise.”

Barclay, phone obviously in his hand as he walks through the trees, groans.

“And don’t try to derail this; how can you possibly suggest I come out there so we can do the project in person? We’re supposed to be limiting travel and gatherings.”

“Look, Joseph, we both agree that trying to generate our own cryptid hoax is the best way to demonstrate all the techniques Ned wants us too, right?”

“Yes” he hides his answer behind the rim of his coffee mug. 

“We’ll do a way better job if we work in the same space. And if it makes you feel any better, I haven’t had any human contact in three weeks; all quarantined up, unlike whatever you’ve been doing in the city.”

He sets the mug down with a thunk, “I haven’t been out in a month. And before that was only for one grocery run and a hospital visit.”

“Uhhh-”

“I cut my hand cooking. So. Yeah.”

Literal crickets chirp, courtesy of Barclay’s end of the line, as the silence stretches on.

“If it helps, it’s real easy to stay isolated here, and I’ve still got utilities and everything.”

“And you’re not subsisting only on MREs or granola or something?”

A deep chuckle, the kind that makes his skin prickle, “Nope. That much I can promise.”

Stern glances around the studio apartment, clean and empty. 

“What’s your address?”

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

Look, all Stern is going to say is that he’s seen and read plenty of stories that start with a cabin in the woods and none of them end well. Which is why he’s still sitting in his car, parked beside a beat-up Subaru, rather than knocking on the door. 

Breathe in, five counts. Out for four. Repeat four times. 

Waiting for him on the door is a note.

Joseph,

Key under mat, make yourself at home. 

Barclay. 

He brings in his bags (a matching set of three, a gift from his aunt last year), placing them in the tiny guest room. It’s not much more than a bed, a dresser, and a tiny table. But there’s a heating unit below the window looking out into the woods, which is pretty pleasant. He’ll be keeping the blinds closed at night, though; he hates the thought of something being able to look in. 

Stern’s busy evaluating the laundry closet when the front door opens. 

“Hey, glad you found the place okay.”

Barclay stands in the doorway, a basket full of fruit in one hand. He’s remarkably kempt for a man living in the woods and that, combined with the deep voice being even richer in person and the fact Stern has to actually look up to meet his eyes, has him stumbling for words. 

“Your directions were very thorough. Thank you. Um. I put my things in there, should I, um-”

“I can give you the grand tour.” The taller man sets the basket on the dining table, notices Sterns puzzled expression “there’s a piece of property about a mile thataway that has orchards they don’t really use. They let me come and pick whenever i want, less for them to clean up.”

Barclay keeps up a steady monologue as he shows him the cabin. The lower level is the living room and dining area, a kitchen which leads onto the back deck, Sterns room, and a bathroom. As the cabin is A-frame, the upstairs is Barclay’s room, all dark wood and pine colored plaid. It’s as Barclay is telling him about the woodpecker that sometimes nests in the eaves that he realizes why he’s talking so much.

He’s nervous. 

Neither of their nerves improve when he gets to his last point of order. 

“Uh, so, the bathroom downstairs is only a half-bath.”

“So...if I want to shower, which I do, I have to come up here.”

“Yeah.” Barclay scratches the back of his neck, “sorry. I don’t, like, sleep naked or anything so we should be fine.”

“Disappointing.” Stern sighs, only to sail past sarcastic and land face first in sincere. 

Barclay blushes, then shrugs, “Trust me, after the first night, you’ll see why.”

Stern does. He’s warm as long as he’s in bed, but the moment he ventures into the bathroom in the middle of the night he’s cocooned in cold. 

The morning brings cinnamon and coffee on the draft coming under the door. He plods into the kitchen in search of caffeine, finds Barclay in an pron, the counter covered in trays of dough. 

“Morning!”

“Morning. Coffee-”

“Right there, sugar and stuff’s in the cabinet above it, cream and such is in the fridge.”

Blessedly, there’s heavy cream to be found, and soon he’s sipping from an enamel mug emblazoned with a UFO made of veggies. 

“Is this all for your job?” Barclay mentioned he was a cook during an icebreaker. 

“Yep. Way it works is I bust my ass baking once or twice a day, and Thacker, who works with Mama at the Lodge in town, comes and takes them over there. Normally I’d just be there but, well, y’know.”

“Everything is on fire? Figuratively, I mean.”

“Sometimes literally too, but yeah.”

As he’s turning to grab his clothes and head showerward, Barclay adds, “You a scone man, coffecake man, or a cinnamon roll man?”

“Coffeecake?” It comes out hesitant. 

“There’s no right answer, man.” Barclay sounds amused, “what do you want?”

“Cake, definitely.”

“Cool. I’ll save you a slice.”

Once he’s showered and on the wi-fi, his day runs like normal; one lecture, reading, a research paper, his initial half of their project, and working either his copy-editing or transcription job in between, and planning his next stream. Barclay comes and goes, stops now and then to see if he needs anything, leaves a sandwich in front of him around dinner time. Then it’s time to crawl under the covers and dream of a less-stressful world. 

The next day, just before one, Barclay taps him on the shoulder. 

“Ready for class?”

“Yes…” He gestures to his laptop and notebook. 

“C’mon, join me out here, it’s way nicer, and we can share the phone.”

“Barclay, it’s  a nonsensical way to attend class, just stay in here with me! Even this set-up has to be better than the woods.”

“This set up. You mean my house?” All the friendliness leaves hi voice. 

“Yes. Look, I agreed to come out because you’re right, if we want to ace this thing that’s worth sixty percent of our grade, this is the place to do it; I don’t have to go along with the whole self-sufficient woodsman aesthetic while I’m here. “

“Yeah, I’d say you’re pretty far from self-sufficient. See you in class.” 

Stern stews through the entire session, but where he’d usually find something Barclay says to latch onto, he instead gnaws on himself. Why didn’t he just go with him? Why snap at someone who’s been nothing but nice since he got here?

Whatever the answer, how can he fix it?

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

Barclay tromps back through the twilight, done with his second class of the day. If Joseph is in the main house, he plans to ignore him until tomorrow morning. That all goes out the window with the clank of dishes from the kitchen. 

Peering in reveals the other man bent over, pulling a casserole from the oven. He waits to announce his presence until Joseph is out of the danger zone, enjoying the view as he does. 

“Smells good.”

Blue eyes flick over to him as Joseph opens drawers, “it’s mostly cheese and chips, so I’m not surprised.”

“Servers are in that one.”

“Thank you. Nacho pie?” He scoops some into a bowl, holding it out. 

“Sure. Uh, look, Joseph I-”

Joseph holds up the server, “Wait. Before you apologize I, um, I wanted to say I’m sorry for my comments. And for being so...me-ish.” He sighs, staring at the utensil in his grip, “I’ve always been a little bit tense, tried to be polite and effective and friendly in spite of it. The last six months made that harder to do. I don’t love it when I can’t be organized, when normal systems go out of place. But that’s no excuse for being rude to you, even before you invited me here. You’re just so...you’re always so calm and relaxed, like nothing was wrong and I just honed in on that way more than made sense. I’m sorry.”

“If it makes you feel better, I kinda did the same thing. You’re always so put together, it looked like you had this organized life in the midst of this whole shitstorm. I feel lik everything is slipping away, like my world is just this cabin. I mean, I assumed you were seeing friends in the city, while I haven’t seen Mama in person since April. So” he sets the bowl down, rests his hand on Joseph’s shoulder, “I’m sorry too.”

Joseph laughs, softly, “turns out we both had failures of imagination, huh?”

“Yeah” he runs a hand over Joseph's back, “now come on, this dinner’s not gonna eat itself.”

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

“You sure you don’t wanna wear the bigfoot costume?”

“Positive. Besides, it suits you.” Joseph finishes styling the fur on the head of the costume to look more realistic, “I just hope we get this done before that storm comes in; as mush as the rain would add to the mood of the scene, that’ll be hell to dry and you’ll be miserable. So, go lurk over there while I finish up getting the camera settings where they need to be.”

“Yes sir” Barclay pops the head on, leaves crunching as moves to his appointed tree. He smiles as he watches Joseph fiddle with the camera; things have been so much better between them these last two weeks. They trade off cooking dinner, study side by side, and watch movies or play games in the warmth of the heater. They have a similar sense of humor and taste in books, and are tidy to boot.   Joseph’s even come with him to listen to lectures in the woods, the pair sharing a thermos of coffee under the astonished gaze of their classmates. There’s just one problem. 

Barclay’s buried crush is now blooming in every direction. Animated, argumentative Joseph was attractive. Joseph, in all his moods and mannerisms, is devastatingly enchanting. He’s come close to telling him this, but the other man is his guest and also only here for another two and a half weeks, so a confession is setting himself up for heartbreak at worst and awkwardness at best. 

He almost blew it last night when they were washing dishes (Joseph scrubs, Barclay dries and puts away). 

“Last one.”

“Thanks, blue eyes.”

“What was that?”

“Uh, blue eyes? Like a, uh, a nickname?”

Joseph laughs, “Sounds like something from a Raymond Chandler book. I like it.”

On the plus side, if Joseph thinks it’s just a nickname and not a pet name, maybe Barclay can keep using it.

“Are you ready?’

He sticks up a hairy thumb and calls, “you know it, blue eyes.”

That same laugh as Joseph takes up his position. Maybe it’s the weird film over the costume’s eyes, but Barclay swears he sees a blush.

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

Stern trawls through the search results. Their video is getting some traction, with two cryptid hunter sites claiming it’s credible footage. He’s making note of how the information spread, which threads lead to belief and which to doubt, when Barclay calls from upstairs. 

“Joseph? Little help?”

The other man is in the bathroom, and when Stern knocks he says, “Think the pilot light on the water heater went out again, all I’m getting is cold water. Can you go relight it?”

“Sure.” He gets to the stairs then, stops, “where’s the key to that closet?”

“Huh? Oh, shit, right, hang on” Barclay says at the same time as Stern’s “don’t worry, I can find it.” 

Which is why the instant he turns back into the bedroom is the same instant Barclay steps out of the bathroom, blue towel around his waist. 

Any blood that doesn’t head south goes instantly to Stern’s cheeks. 

“You okay there, blue-eyes?”

“It’s completely unfair how good you look without a shirt.”

He clamps a hand over his mouth.

“Idn’t ean to ay at out oud” The mumbled explanation makes Barclay smirk. 

“You like this, should see what’s under the towel.”

The unusually bold statement from Barclay kindles his own confidence.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, big guy.”

“Who says I won’t.” Barclay sits down on the edge of the bed, nonchalant and leaning back on his hands, “got plenty of time to make good on them.”

“We literally don’t. I go back in a week and two days.”

Barclay toys with the lint on the towel, “you could stay. Through break, through next semester, for however long you wanted.”

“Do you mean that?”

A shy nod, “I like having you around, Joseph. Even beyond the huge fucking crush I have on you I...everything is a little better when you’re around.”

“I, um, I guess it could work. We know next semester is online too, and so is work, so…” there must be variables missing, something he’s not seeing, some reason this is too good to be true.

“You want some space away from shirtless me to think about it?”

“That’d be great.”

Barclay stands, hesitates, then plants a quick kiss on his forehead, “take all the time you need, blue eyes.”

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

Private Chat log 1/11/2021

Barclay (he/him): Did you see the look on Duck’s face when we turned up in frame together. 

Joseph (he/him): Yes. Pretty sure Aubrey yelled something about him needing to pay up. I wonder what the bet was. 

Barclay (he/him): Whatever it was, pretty sure I came out the biggest winner. 

Stern snorts, trying not to blush on camera, and leans over to kiss his boyfriend on the cheek. 

[ainti-pretty]

anyway... angsty boys... in the quarantine land era...

tw: questionable eating habits, shitty mental health, (implied) self harm

ships: mentioned lambert/aiden

-so the boys are in quarantine right? geralt has left his room only to use the bathroom and get more pringles, eskels bored as hell, and lamberts spent most of the time sitting on the couch or facetiming aiden

-but you already knew that. in the last edition we went over the highlights of the Morhen household, but now, get ready for projection angst

-geralts been in his room for days (except to use the bathroom and get food, but thats at very late times, so no one sees him), and hes just. straight up not having a good time. he hasnt showered in days, and his room is a disaster. hes just been lying in his room in the dark, and vesemirs worried.

-eskels been worried about geralt, but he hasnt really felt anything but boredom since quarantine started, and hes not entirely sure if he has feelings anymore. hes just detacted from everything and is making more and more impulsive decisions. (making a catapult, purposely getting lambert and geralt into fights), he wants to feel something and vesemir knows this, but everytime he tries to stop eskel, he does something even worse. vesemirs not sure how much longer he cant stop eskel from actually hurting someone.

-lamberts. not doing great. theres a reason he spends most of the time on the couch where vesemir can see him, and its not so hes social. hes angry and explosive and misses aiden, and is always 30 seconds from hitting someone. vesemir knows that raised voices trigger him, but lamberts been pushing it and vesemir has nearly lost his temper multiple times.

-vesemirs patience is hanging on a string. hes worried about all his boys, and hes worried about the pandemic, and hes worried that somethings going to happen while hes not there and its all going to go to shit

-and to shit it all goes.

-one day, vesemirs at the store or smtg, bc. food. and hes managed to convince geralt to leave his room for at least a little while. when he leaves, the boys are on the couch. he hopes it all goes well.

-surprise! it doesnt

-eskel tries to start a conversation with geralt, bc he wants to talk to someone who isnt vesemir or lambert, and it goes something like this:

-”hey geralt, hows jaskier”

-“...”

-”oh. well uh. you should ask vesemir for a new flavor, you must be tired of sour cream and onion.”

- “fuck off.”

-and its just that over and over, and lamberts sitting on the back of the couch with his feet on the pillows, and hes getting annoyed bc he wants to ft aiden, but hes not allowed to be in his room alone for extended periods of time when vesemirs not there, so hes just. sitting there. 

-then, lamberts like. kicking his feet bc. annoying younger sibling vibes. and he accidently knocks a pillow over onto geralt, who looks like he was recently dragged through hell.

- “what the fuck lambert”

- cue lambert saying something bitchy in response. 

- “fuck off lambert.”

-“is that all you can say nowadays? fuck off?”

- “oh shut up lambert, and just go to your room.”  from geralt, who missed the argument between lambert and vesemir about why hes not allowed to go into his room.

- “i cant. vesemir will have my fucking ass if i do.”

- “since when have you cared about what vesemir says? youre being annoying, now go.” 

-the situation just goes downhill from there. none of them have been sleeping, and none of them are in a decent mental state (though they really didnt have that before qurantine)

- it ends with geralt slapping lambert and lambert (obviously) doesnt react well to this, and runs to hide in his room

-geralt immediately regrets it and tries to apologize, and turns to eskel, whos just been sitting there on his phone, completely zoned out, for help

-eskels like wtf. lets call vesemir. of course by the time they get ahold of vesemir, hes literally walking in. vesemir is Not Happy when he hears what happened, and goes straight to lamberts room so he can talk to him

-it doesnt work, but vesemir realizes lamberts talking to someone (he assumes is aiden) and is immediately relieved bc at least lamberts not actively hurting himself, and decides he’ll talk to him later

-but theres also the matter of geralt, who has once again, hid himself in his room.

-vesemir knocks on his door, and when he gets no response, he knocks harder. geralt keeps ignoring him, and vesemir loses his patience and yells at him to come out of his room.

-when geralt doesnt open the door, vesemir gets a wire hanger and picks the lock. 

-geralt doesnt even respond, hes just putting things into a bag

-vesemir tries to talk to him, but when he once again gets no response, he (carefully) puts a hand on geralts shoulder

-geralt doesnt look up at him but he at least stops packing

-vesemir sighs and tries to talk to him again, but he knows geralts not going to listen

-he gives geralt a hug but geralt just. sits there. 

-thats all i have rn tbh, sorry ydnksbiwsd enjoy the cliffhanger <3

[clumsyclifford]

bella i’m just SAYING if you felt like writing boyfriend jalex in LA like they are rn why are they there just vibing together why is alex there i’m hella emo just saying i wouldn’t be MAD about it 😘

well PAIGE you may have been ONTO something here. alex is in LA because he loves his boy next question

read it here on ao3

-

Death By Hug is not a bad way to go, Jack thinks. It certainly beats Death By Loneliness.

The longer he and Alex stand here, the more Jack wonders if they really are going to die here, holding onto each other like Alex is a soldier returning from war and Jack is his lover who's been writing constantly to the front lines. Or something. It's also possible Jack has watched too many war movies lately.

"We gotta move," Alex finally mumbles. They’re at the gate and people are stepping around them.

"We don't have to."

"Well, I can't kiss you with a mask on."

That is a very good point. Jack squeezes Alex one last time and finally steps back.

Los Angeles looks good on Alex.

-

Supposedly, Alex is here to write. It's not like that's a lie; they are going to take advantage of Alex's presence and log as many studio hours as possible, but that still leaves a lot of early mornings and late nights unaccounted for. Well. For Jack it does. He knows Alex has been dying to get back in the studio, to put words to music in a way that sounds less like a kid messing around on his dad's guitar and more like a professional musician making demos. But if Jack has to pull Alex from the studio by force, he will. 

He will do his best. He is definitely not stronger than Alex but he will try.

For now, though, they have the evening to themselves.

Even with a suitcase, Alex looks right at home in Jack's place. "I'm gonna put my stuff in your room," he tells Jack, and Jack just nods.

"I'm gonna have some cereal," he decides, because he's in the mood for cereal and it is his right as a grown-ass man to eat cereal at all hours. Alex just laughs as he heads towards Jack's room, and Jack grins.

He heads for the kitchen and spends a minute deliberating over what cereal to have before yielding to the eternal power of Fruity Pebbles. They’re practically calling his name. Jack’s strong, but not that strong.

As he’s pouring the cereal into a cup, arms snake around his waist, squeezing tight.

“Hello, cereal boy,” says Alex, tucking his chin into Jack’s shoulder. “Mm, Fruity Pebbles for dinner. You’re the master of health.”

“Yes I am,” Jack says. “This is how they do it in L.A., Al.”

“Who exactly is ‘they’?”

“Me and Bree.”

Alex laughs. “Man, L.A. has really changed.”

“Maybe you should spend more time here.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Alex says. “Next global pandemic I’ll be sure to quarantine here with you.”

Jack shakes his head, smiling a little. “That’s all I want to hear. Do you want some cereal?”

“I was thinking we could order a pizza.”

“Oh, pizza,” Jack says, hesitating with his cup of cereal in hand. “Pizza sounds good.” He shrugs one shoulder. “I can have both.”

“You’re the weirdest person ever,” Alex says as Jack sets the cup down and turns around, forcing Alex to loosen his grip. The moment hits Jack full-force; it hadn’t really sunk in until now, but Alex is here. Here. In Los Angeles. With Jack.

Alex is here.

“I’m so fucking happy you’re here,” Jack says. Alex’s smile grows, the way it always does following any kind of emotion from Jack. It’s been weeks since Jack has seen that smile in person, weeks since Jack has seen Alex in person, and he’d forgotten how good it feels to be the reason for it.

FaceTime is good, but nothing is as good as the real thing.

“Well, I’m really fucking happy to be here,” Alex says, pulling Jack closer with the hands around his waist. “I’ve missed you.”

“Yes,” Jack says. “Same. Me too. I feel like I’m going to wake up any second.”

“What, and this will all be a dream?”

“Yes,” Jack says emphatically. It could be. He’s had similar dreams. Granted, he’s never eating Fruity Pebbles in any of them, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. 

“Me being here?” Alex asks, sliding his hands up Jack’s sides and chest to come to rest on his shoulders. “Or the whole pandemic?”

“I wish I could wake up and have the pandemic be a dream,” Jack huffs. “Or nightmare. Worst nightmare of my entire life.” He’s gotten a little bit off-track, but to be fair, Alex is being very distracting, what with the brushing noses and hands under the collar of his shirt and everything. Jack has yet to build up an immunity to Alex Gaskarth. This is something he has in common with the entire rest of the world.

Alex kisses him. Jack stops thinking about whatever it was he was thinking about. The important thing is that Alex is here and it’s not a dream, and Jack has Fruity Pebbles and his boyfriend and potentially pizza on the way and several hours of nothing at all, to occupy themselves however they choose. The possibilities are endless.

“Doesn’t feel like a dream to me,” Alex says sweetly, pulling back.

“You’re so mean,” Jack says. “Are you saying I’m not your dream guy?”

He gets an eyeroll for his troubles, but then Alex agrees to order the pizza, leaving Jack to eat his cereal in peace instead of having to deal with phones and Other People. Normally he’s a fan of Other People, but tonight it’s all Alex. 

(As far as Jack is concerned, as long as Alex is here, every night is all Alex.)

-

The pizza arrives as they’re half an hour into rewatching the first episode of The Mandalorian. This is the first and last time they pause until Alex yawns, and Jack realizes that midnight in L.A. is three in the morning in Maryland.

“Bedtime,” he declares. If Alex weren’t as nocturnal as he is, he probably wouldn’t have even made it to midnight. As it is, he drags his feet every step from the living room couch to Jack’s bedroom, including his detours to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Jack cleans up a little in the meantime, breaking down the pizza box to dispose of it and rinsing all the dishes for easier cleanup in the morning. The responsible thing would be to wash them now, but Jack can’t find any reason to be responsible. It’s his own home. He’ll wash dishes when he chooses.

By the time he’s turned all the apartment lights off and shuffled into his room, Alex is curled up under the blanket. His eyes are closed like he’s asleep but he’s breathing like he’s awake. Jack putters around, quietly putting on his own pajamas and brushing his teeth, before he, too, climbs into bed.

As predicted, Alex turns over. “Wh’time are we waking up?” he slurs.

Jack reaches blindly for his phone, plugged in on the side table. “Dunno. What time are we going to the studio?”

“Ten?”

Jack sets an alarm for nine, though it’s more for Alex’s sake than his own. “Okay. Done.”

“Love you,” Alex mumbles, burrowing into Jack’s chest. Jack smiles — he has his own stupid Alex smile for when Alex is being lovably, adorably, uniquely Alex — and pulls the blankets up over him. 

“Love you,” he hums, pressing a kiss into Alex’s hair. The quiet moment swells around them both. Jack falls asleep fast. He’s holding Alex close in his dreams, too, like even his subconscious can’t come up with anything better than this.

-

It’s hour nine in the studio, and Jack is ready to call it.

They’ve gotten a lot done. It feels good to be back, or as “back” as this is, back in the studio, back to writing music. Alex has obviously been overflowing with ideas from being cooped up at his farm in Baltimore, which has led to an extremely productive studio day. Hardly half an hour has passed without someone picking up a guitar. 

For the first eight hours, Jack is totally invested. This is his lifeblood, too, and by now he probably has a hundred separate voice notes of guitar riffs and chord progressions that he hadn’t wanted to forget. Getting those off of his phone and into real recordings is a big sigh of relief. 

Also, he and Alex are really good together.

This has been pretty reliably true throughout their career, but somehow it never fails to give Jack a thrill. Watching Alex’s eyes light up as Jack plays through Lead Guitar Part #37; his rapid “waitwaitwait play that again” as he pulls out his phone to scroll through lyrics jotted down in transient moments of thought; the spark that catches when somehow Alex has the perfect line to sing over this four-note riff that’s been echoing around Jack’s empty apartment for weeks. It feels a little like fate every time. Alex can drive a lyrical stake through an elusive melody like no other.

The progress today has been sufficient, so Jack thinks now is a good time to bow out, before they run out of steam. Quit while they’re ahead. There’s always tomorrow and the next day. Nine hours is a respectable studio day, and if today is any indication, they could have a song or two tomorrow at this rate.

It’s just, Jack wants to go home. He’s not going to say it — at least not yet — because Alex is still operating at full capacity. But he’s thinking it. If anyone asks, he won’t hesitate.

When Alex glances over, Jack is pretty sure it’s written all over his face.

“You okay, JB?” Alex says. His eyes soften around the edges when he smiles. It’s completely unfair. Just like Jack to have the most irresistible boyfriend on the planet. Perfect for being in love with, but extremely difficult for saying no to.

“Tired,” Jack says, biting his lip. The guitar he’s holding has been idling on his lap for about twenty minutes, ignored by Jack, who’s been on Instagram instead. Finally he sets it aside. “Just think I’m done for today.” As a compromise, he adds, “If you guys have another half hour, I don’t mind.”

“No, that’s okay,” Alex says. He glances at Zakk, who’s fucking with the levels or something. “Yeah? You think? Good for today?”

“Yeah,” Zakk says. He tilts his head bizarrely to flash a grin at Jack. “Man, it feels good to be back here with you guys.”

“Dude, don’t even start,” Jack says. “I think if I had spent another day alone at my place I would’ve probably, I don’t know, started trying to learn Korean or something.”

“Why fucking Korean?”

“Exactly.” Jack points at him, then at Alex, who jumps out of the rolly chair he’s been occupying and grabs Jack’s finger. Jack shakes his head, smiling, as Alex laces their fingers together and ducks down to kiss his forehead. “Is that a yes, we can call it?”

“I can call it,” Alex says. “Cervini?”

“Yeah,” Zakk says. “Let’s call it.”

And that’s that for the day.

-

The stupid TikTok they’d made on the way to the studio has, predictably, blown up. 

Jack can’t stop watching it; it’s a little bit cringey but that’s the point, and also, Alex looks insanely good in the red flannel and that yellow beanie. Maybe their merch is designed specifically to look good on Alex. Probably. Not that that’s difficult. Basically everything looks good on Alex.

“Stop watching it, oh my God,” Alex says, crawling into bed on top of Jack and flattening him against the mattress. Jack makes varying noises of protest as Alex pries his phone out of his hand, turns it off, and tosses it aside, forcing Jack’s attention instead to Alex’s face.

If he looks good onscreen, it’s nothing compared to real life.

“Lose some weight,” Jack grunts, shifting to tip them both onto their sides. They’re forehead-to-forehead, one of Alex’s arms trapped under Jack’s side and the other slung over his waist. “You’re not twenty-one anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, are you complaining?” Alex licks Jack’s cheek, and Jack’s protest of Alex, gross! is lost in Alex’s laugh. “Sorry. That was gross. I’ve just missed you.”

“Weird fuckin’ way of showing it,” Jack says, grinning. “I thought we kinda did this yesterday. We spent the entire day together. And I’ve missed you too.” He hesitates. “You could just stay here, you know.”

Except he couldn’t, and they both know that. Alex has a farm to tend to. He’ll be here as long as they’ve got time in the studio but then he’ll be gone, back to Baltimore. Growing up sucks sometimes. It means Jack has to be mature about Alex having a life of his own. If he expects Alex to respect his decision to stay in L.A., then Jack has to respect Alex’s decision to stay in Maryland. Which he does. He does.

But he also misses his boyfriend a hell of a lot. These days it’s worse than ever. They’ve never really been apart this long. 

“Come on,” Alex says, smile flickering. “Don’t.”

“I know. I’m sorry,” Jack says. He sighs. “I take it back. I don’t want you to stay anyway. I don’t even want you in L.A. at all. Who invited you here? What are you doing in my house?”

Alex laughs. He extracts his arm from underneath Jack and runs his hand through Jack’s hair, slotting their legs together. “Cheapest listing on Airbnb. I was told there would be free sexual services?”

“Uh, I don’t know about free,” Jack says. He smirks and steals a kiss off Alex’s lips. “You can repay me by doing household chores.”

“Then it’s just fucking prostitution.”

“That,” says Jack, “is true.” Alex scratches lightly against the side of his face, and the kiss he draws Jack into is so sweet that Jack contemplates never ever breaking it. This is all he needs in life, just Alex — anywhere, but especially here. Jack has never found his apartment to be bleak, but now that he knows how vibrant it can be, how warm and lively when inhabited by Alex, he suspects it will feel grim when he’s alone again.

Thinking about the future gets dangerous. He’d much rather stay in the now. Alex is still kissing him, drawing Jack nearer in such a familiar way that when Jack closes his eyes he can almost hear the rumbling of the tour bus and the low murmurs of conversation happening outside their bunk. They’ve found themselves in this position too many times to count over the years, using the excuse of a small bunk to press together like they didn’t do exactly the same in two-person hotel room beds. It’s been too long since Jack has had anyone to cling to in bed. Comfort settles like a talisman in his chest.

They’re not twenty-one anymore, but sometimes it still feels like they could be. It was easier for the years to blur together when they were spent largely chasing their way across the globe. These days, the contrast between then and now feels blindingly stark. It’s nice to sink into something this familiar. Almost like Alex is pulling him back in time, too.

Or maybe like Alex is pulling the past into the present. Jack doesn’t feel twenty-one. He feels thirty-two and still in love with Alex. Eleven years from now, he’ll probably feel just the same. The way that Alex kisses him, holding him close, has nothing to do with how old they are. It’s only familiar because nothing has changed; Alex loved him then and Alex loves him now. 

Their love grows, but it never wavers.

Alex doesn’t pull away so much as just tilt his head until they’re not kissing anymore, tucking his face into Jack’s chest. “I’m tired,” he announces. Jack could basically have guessed that. It’s only eleven, but in Maryland time it’s two in the morning. 

“I know,” says Jack. “That’s why we’re in bed. To sleep.”

“Really, you want to sleep now?” Alex sounds surprised. “It’s not even midnight.”

“I am capable of having a responsible sleep schedule sometimes, you know.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Jack I know.”

You haven’t been around for a while, Jack doesn’t say. “Shut up, you bully. I take care of myself.” He makes a face. “Also I want to sleep when you do. I don’t think that’s a crime.”

“I’d love that,” Alex says. His words come out muffled. “I love you. Have I told you today that I love you?”

“No,” Jack says, smiling.

“Liar. I’m sure I did. But I’m telling you again. I love you.” Somehow Alex’s grip on Jack becomes even tighter. Prying him off is going to be a difficult task, if Jack can muster up the willpower to do it. It won’t be easy. This is probably Jack’s favorite position to be in, tangled up with Alex. It doesn’t hurt to hear Alex repeating, “I love you, you’re my favorite, I’m so happy I’m here,” quietly, almost as if to himself.

“You need to put on your pajamas,” Jack says. 

“I don’t wanna,” Alex whines. “I can sleep like this. Tour life. Too busy for pajamas.”

“So rock ‘n’ roll,” Jack says dryly.

“Yes. Exactly. I’m too cool for school.”

“Yeah. Really badass of you to fall asleep in a flannel.” Jack kisses Alex’s shoulder over the plaid pattern. “Which, may I say, looks very good on you.”

Alex hums contentedly. “See, that’s why I love you. Ego boost.”

“You are the most lead singer to ever lead singer. Jesus Christ.”

“Damn right I am, baby! Own it. I gotta own it.”

“Everything you say just dates you more. You sound so old.”

“You’re exactly as old as I am, old man,” Alex says, trying and failing to kick Jack even though Jack has both of his legs trapped.

“Old men put pajamas on before sleeping,” Jack informs him. “The buttons on this thing will be so uncomfortable to sleep in.”

“Yeah, but consider this,” says Alex, in the tone of someone about to make an extremely good point. “I don’t care and I’m tired.”

Jack sighs. “Seriously, you really wanna sleep in your clothes?”

“Yes,” Alex says. He buries his face in Jack’s neck, softly humming. When he speaks, Jack’s skin buzzes. “Please? Just tonight? I’m sleepy. Being a grown-up is for losers.”

Jack smiles to himself. “You’re such a lazy boy.”

“Yes. I am a lazy boy. This sounds like you agreeing.”

“I can’t stop you, can I?”

“Nope,” Alex says cheerfully. “But you can support me.”

“I support you all the time. I am literally the lead guitarist of your band. How much more supportive can I get.”

Alex laughs. It’s a tired laugh, on the brink of falling asleep, and Jack likes that he’s managed to make it happen at all. “It’s our band.”

“Comrade.”

Alex snorts. “Comrade.” He kisses Jack’s neck. “I’m gonna fall asleep right here, if that’s cool.”

“Get under the covers at least,” Jack says. It takes a little bit of bitching and moaning, but eventually Alex concedes, unsticking himself from Jack like it’s a physical burden to do so and crawling under the blanket with Jack.

“Oh,” Alex says, fishing around on the mattress underneath him. He pulls out Jack’s phone. “This is yours.”

Jack plugs in his phone and sets the same alarm he used yesterday. Loudly announcing that “boy is asleep” cuts out the lights. In the dark and quiet of the room, Jack hugs Alex as close as he possibly can, pressing his nose into Alex’s neck. It’s easy when Alex is making the same effort. Jack wonders if Alex feels the same as he does, like he has to engrave this memory in his mind, the way he’d never gotten a chance to when lockdown first set in. It had never occurred to him, before, that they’d be separated. That there might once come a time when Jack would want to hug Alex and Alex wouldn’t be there to hug.

Now, the threat of knowing that their clock is already ticking down is enough to make him want to burn this sensation forever into his skin and bones.

“Goodnight, my love,” he whispers with a tight squeeze. “Did I tell you today that I love you?”

There’s a sleepy hum in response. “You tell me you love me every second of every day,” Alex murmurs. “But I never get tired of hearing it.”

Jack smiles. He breathes his own I-love-yous, softly enough that it’s almost white noise, and before Alex falls asleep he tilts his head towards Jack. His eyes are closed, so Jack closes the gap and brushes their lips together. 

Alex falls asleep soon after. Jack likes that, that neither of them have had the last word. The gentleness of the kiss soaks through his body and he drifts off with a smile, warm and content.

[belle-gaea]

The Gods during quarantine

Zeus: is probably swiping through Tinder rn or breaking social distancing to go hook up. He was probably really worried at first and followed all the rules, but then he got bored with it and therefore decided that it’s over. He was at the courthouse with an AK-47

Hera: is plotting Zeus’ murder after putting up with his bullshit for so long. She’s doing okay with her work, but she’s probably constantly having to babysit Zeus with no other contact, so the work is usually a little late or whatever

Poseidon: PRO. CRAS. TIN. AT. ING. Y’all know he ain’t doing his work, but at least the laundry’s finally getting done

Demeter: is what we all aspire to be. Her garden? On point. Her baking? Bountiful. Hotel? Trivago. AND, it’s summer so she’s got Persephone with her. Lucky bitch

Ares: is gaming until 3AM. CoD? Halo? LoL? Overwatch? It doesn’t matter. Just know that his only human contact is shouting at people on voice chat

Athena: was thriving, is now hella bored. At first it was great: no people, finally got to read all those books and watch all those shows. But now she’s read absolutely everything. Twice. She’s currently waiting for this to be over and gets mad when she sees people outside

Apollo: is on Grindr messaging guys, he goes to the bathroom every 5 minutes to take more nudes. He doesn’t actually meet up with anyone, but he’s on video chat almost constantly. He calls up randomly because despite him acting like he’s okay being by himself, he’s actually very unstable rn

Artemis: is doing amazingly. Apollo’s calling her up three times a day, but she doesn’t actually mind as much, seeing as she can mute him without him knowing. She’s breaking the rules slightly, by going jogging more than once a day, but if anyone comes closer than 6ft she yeets herself away instantly

Hephaestus: is keeping busy, he’s one of those ones that’s got a project or whatever. He’s fine, people suck anyway and machines can’t cough virus onto you. He has seen your call. No he will not pick up

Aphrodite: is doing okay... but not really. She keeps herself busy and takes care of herself. She does her make up every morning and video calls one person per day to justify it. She seems like she’s doing well, but secretly she cries every night. Pick up her call, okay: she needs it

Hermes: is a mess, and everyone knows it. He’s one of those people who thrive off of physical contact and is now going cold turkey. He will video call people, but it doesn’t really help, seeing as he’s not allowed to meet up with them in real life. Sleep schedule? Non existent

Dionysus: is drunk. He is unaware of the passing of days. He’s not exactly enjoying himself, seeing as that would require him being sober enough to process emotion. He won’t even leave his house to buy alcohol: he orders that shit online

Hestia: is trying. She does her work, and then she calls people to check on them, and then she supports them when they start crying. But she’s very unstable rn and is probably currently crying. Call her and ask her what’s going on with her. Please

Hades: is not leaving his room. He has Cerberus sitting on his lap and he’s eating ice cream, or frozen yoghurt if he’s feeling guilty. He only calls Persephone, and that’s always the highlight of his day. If you hear noises in the room at 2AM, don’t worry that’s just him singing Lana del Rey

Persephone: is missing Hades, and she feels really guilty that she’s actually doing quite okay. I mean it’s hard to be that sad when you’ve got Demeter’s baking on tap, but she won’t leave her room either. She cries whenever she sees Cerberus on call because he always runs to the sound of her voice

Hecate: is in her final form. She is not leaving the house, and she laughs maniacally every time she declines a call. She’s ordered precisely 37 things online, 19 of which happen to be crystals. She will be on Tumblr in the dead of night, sustained by Oreos and mocha. She too started binging shows, but unlike Athena, she’s more than willing to rewatch when she’s run out

Eris: is living to spread misinformation and discourse. She’s out here telling everyone that 5G towers spread the virus and that if you chug a litre of hand sanitiser a day you’re protected. She was the one that sent Zeus the link about going out to protest the lockdown. Do not be this bitch

Feel free to add!

[jungkookjaan]

I feel so strange. I'm not complaining, but in the last clip Robbe when mentioning Zoe looked more interested, than the whole other time, when Sander was present. Same vibes were in the scene, when Zoe checked Robbe's coming out of the bathroom. (He was looking at her intensively). It's such a lame, that an actor can't pull this energy, interest to the person, he is implied to play love interest with, showing unwantly more affection to the random character. Did you notice what I'm talking about?

Anon 2: I believe writers or the actor himself do not know how to show Robbe's feelings for Sander right now. Like he seems not affected by their unabling being together at all. There are two aspects: writers could make him do certain things, showing that he misses Sander a lot, they didn't; the actor could through the behavior, intonation and other phychological things show that Robbe misses Sander very much. I didn't see none of these things.

I suppose you're the same anon. It's okay if you feel strange. Let me help you a bit okay. (I'll say though the Zoë thing is completely invalid and a result of you thinking too deep. Zoë is just a friend robbe cares about a lot)

First of all, Robbe is not very out going with his words. He likes to translate his emotions through physical touch mostly. Through his actions. Through his face expressions. He misses Sander a lot, but he's not going to say it repeatedly. He's just not that kind of a person. And he also wouldn't want that longing to completely consume him rn. It's a very difficult time. Everything is not as straight. Robbe is going to try and make himself be as calm as possible.

Sander knows Robbe. Sander knows Robbe misses him. Trust me, he knows.

And Robbe has shown several times how much he loves and misses Sander. He has been the one to say I love you first in both their video chat clips. He told Sander he loves him literally during the cybersex with such a big, genuine smile on his face and if that's not the softest thing ever. His face immediately lights up at the mention of Sander in his clips with other friends like the one with Yasmina when sander sends him a text. He looks forward to Sander's lockdown vlogs so much and specially asks for them. He gathered all his friends only so he could do something fun for his boyfriend on his birthday during quarantine. You should pause and look at his face when Sander is saying best birthday ever and thankyou. He's so happy to have done something to make sander feel good. Despite being a shy baby when teased, he took off his shirt to join in on the fun. Only for sander. And when Sander took it off, too, he was cheering him so happily. He was just so happy that Sander was happy. And we don't talk about the cam sex clip in this house but you should look at robbe in that clip. He's genuinely so happy and he specifically says how he misses Sander holding him. He describes a partner as someone "he can tell his deepest thoughts to without feeling ashamed" to yasmina and obviously that's how he feels about Sander. He confides in sander about troubles at home. That's how much he trusts that boy. He stresses on the fact that he's so lucky to have Sander. Him having camsex wasn't for Sander. It was for him. It was him missing Sander endlessly. And literally focus on every look directed at Sander in every clip and you'll see the longing behind those eyes.

Robbe is not Sander. He's not big with words. You gotta focus on the little things and actions when it comes to him.

Yes, I'll agree he texts nothing like a teenager but that's how it is. Don't focus on that too much. Genuine advice. I genuinely hate texting in real life for this reason because it doesn't tell you anything about the tone. Ask my friends and they'll tell you how much i loathe it.

Most importantly, these are trying times. The writers are trying to make them better for us. Everyone misses everyone. That's a fact. There's no point in making everyone sadder by showing them both spiralling because of it. What they are trying to show is how they are both supporting each other through it and that's what matters more in my opinion.

[absurdthirst]

I’m the anon who requested Acessible and I’m??? Speechless. I’m in college + disabled since birth and the house I’ve grown up in isn’t even that accessible (bathroom is but not much else so I’m kinda stressed rn with being home b/c quarantine) so the idea of someone actually having me in mind when building a home so I can be as independent as possible while still having help, especially in a small space, makes me just want to cry happy tears. Good work!

I am so glad! I’m sorry that you are having to deal with a home that isn’t very accessible. I know someone who recently lost their legs and the journey to making their home accessible for him as been eye opening.

Hopefully we will be out of this soon.

[harryskalechips]

Yn cutting harrys hair during quarantine cause he can't get it done in a barber shop? 🥺💞

ugh this is so cute I can’t rn!! Enjoy 

Word count 453

~

“Wait, baby, are you sure you know how to cut hair.” Harry laughs as he sits in front of their bathroom mirror. He’s holding onto Y/N’s wrist as his heart beats a bit faster than usual. He’s nervous.

“Yeah, I cut my own hair all the time plus we’re only cutting a few inches off right?”

“Yeah.” He lets go of her wrist and straighten up his posture. His girlfriend rubs her hands on his shoulders as she eyes his butterfly tattoo in the middle of his chest.

“Relax love. I promise I won’t mess this up.” She laughs making eye contact with him through the mirror.

“You think Lou’s gonna get mad if she sees what you’ve done to my hair?”

“Think she might thank me.” Y/N grabs the scissors and finally plays with his hair. Her fingertips touching his soft brown curls. “You ready?”

“Mhm.” He smiles as he watches her focused on cutting his hair. “You look cute cutting my hair, you know?”

“Really?” She smiles as she finally snips his hair. “Guess I got myself a new career?”

“I just said you looked cute, we still have to see the results.” He tries to poke her hip as he teases her.

“Harry! Don’t move. I'm trying to give a nice haircut!” She giggled as her arms shook a bit.

“Wait a minute. You never cut hair before!” He accuses as he watches her smile grow wider. “Y/N!”

“Please let me practice! Don’t move!” She laughs harder as she cuts random strands of her boyfriend’s hair.

“Baby please have mercy on me.” He pretends to sob as he takes his phone out to record them.

“I think I’m doing alright. You’re looking hotter each minute.”

“If only we weren’t in quarantine.”

“After this, you’re going to be asking me for more haircuts shut up!” She lets go of the scissors and comb his hair. “You look so cute. I actually think I did great.” Harry puts his phone down and closes his eyes as his girlfriend finishes up the cut.

“Can I open my eyes now?”

“Yes!” Harry opens his eyes and runs his fingers through his hair as he looks at himself through the mirror. “Baby!” His girlfriend backs away from him and laughs harder.

“I’m sorry I thought I was doing it correctly!”

“I look like Lord Farquaad!” He shakes his head and chases after her into their bedroom. “You’re gonna pay for this.” He swiftly catches up to her and picks her up so he can throw her on the bed.

“What are you gonna do?” Y/N asks as she tries to catch her breath.

“Make you come until you beg me to stop.”

[canonicallyanxious]

not sure if you do anything like this, But what do you think MNC!IsakandEven are doing right now?

oh man anon i have to tell you it’s been ages since i’ve even thought about making new cliches but it’s IMMENSELY COOL there are still people thinking about this fic and these boys!! so bc i was just so irrationally pleased about this ask i dug up some [very old like from 2018 rip] notes of some post-canon hcs i came up with and using those i’m gonna come up with a new list of 2020 appropriate hcs - hope you enjoy them :’]

[side note but this made me realize that 2020 is canonically FOUR YEARS after the end of skam s3 as well as the mnc timeline????? fuck me sdkjfnsdkf]

hmm not sure what the norwegian uni system is like or what quarantine life looks like over there rn but if they’re still in school then Even probably applied to film school after a gap year or two and isak is studying idk compsci or something [for the job security yk]

Even’s friendship with balloon squad still going strong! he’s actually a pretty integral part of their yt channel now, helps them with bts stuff and editing videos and they’re twitch streamers now too so he helps with their stream set up bc none of them [except for maybe mikael] know what the hell they’re doing

mikael made him sit down and do film school apps with him so they probably are going to the same program. Even realized he was into more of the visual storytelling aspect of things so he’s probably leaning more toward cinematography/editing, mikael still on the director track. 

isak is of course subscribed to their channel and comments on all of the videos that Even appear in and Even pins every single comment which baffles the channel’s other subscribers bc it’s always shit like “wow what pretentious hipster came up with this shit” and “congrats on being the token white boy” [”Isak,” Even says, kicking at Isak’s ankle where they’re sprawled all over their couch, “you’re a token white boy too”] and “lol ur ugly” [to which even responds using the hei briskeby account “<3” and everyone is like ??????????????????????????????????]

if they’re still in oslo they probably regularly have lunch with each other’s parents. For holiday get togethers they trade off between Even’s parents’ new flat and Isak’s mom’s house, and whenever Even’s parents come to Isak’s mom’s house there’s always lots of jokes about the house they used to live in like “oh HATE what the new neighbors are doing with OUR YARD” or whatever

they probably moved into a flat together 1 or 2 years ago, idk how expensive rent is in Oslo but as they’re both students i’m gonna say they’re probably in a flatshare of some kind. isak insisted on having his own room so he can have a space to go when he wants to sleep without Even hogging the blankets [still a point of contention between them almost a decade and a half into them knowing each other!] so technically on paper they have their own rooms but let’s be fucking real at this point isak’s room is less his room and more the room that has his X-box

for the first like week [maybe even the first month] their roommates were so very confused as to whether they were actually together or just really really close friends [they’re constantly bickering but also spend all their time together but also spend all their time together playing mario kart????] and isak and even probably like forgot to tell them [like they’ve always been “isak and even” u know and now they’re “isak and even plus bomb ass sex and lots of smooches” but still isak and even but they probably forget people they’ve just met don’t know that] and probably had an ongoing debate about it 

”Even leaves Isak little drawings on the bathroom mirror in the morning, they’re definitely dating!” “Nah man they’re just friends why wouldn’t they share a room if they were together [worth noting at this point they don’t realize isak’s been sneaking into even’s bed basically every night but don’t worry they will eventually]” “okay if they’re not together they’re definitely pining and should get their shit together bc if I have to see Even give Isak another soppy look over breakfast when he’s not looking i’m going to fucking lose it”

Up until the day they’re sitting at the kitchen table and Even is like “okay i’m gonna get some groceries now” and isak leans over the table to give him a peck on the lips and says “kay love you” and their roommates are like “oh???? you two have finally started dating then??????” and Isak frowns and says “we’ve been dating for three years” and Even yells from the other room “BUT ISAK HAS BEEN IN LOVE WITH ME SINCE HE WAS SEVEN” and their roommates’ brains have completely short-circuited

later isak is still frowning like “didn’t we tell them??? i could have sworn we told them” and even is like “do you remember what you said when we first met” and isak is like “i said i’m isak and this is my boy even” and then he’s quiet for a second and he says “oh”

a year or two after that whole mess their roommates cannot believe they ever even doubted but for the most part they’re good roommates and keep the noise levels down so everything is chill [except it’s hard to hang out with them sometimes not because they engage massively in PDA although sometimes they do but because their conversations include so many layers of inside jokes, years and years of them, it’s hard for someone not well versed in the isak-and-even language to follow]

They probably have a dog. maybe two

as of this very second i hope they’re both asleep isn’t it like almost 5 am over there lol

hope this is what you were looking for anon =] thanks for the ask, it was fun to think about these boys again!

[bakutae]

bnha headcanons #1

today’s menu:

bakugou katsuki with a hint of todoroki shouto and a dash of kaminari denki

scenario:

where you try out a new hairdo

bakugou katsuki

you had spent quarantine time to try out some new hairdos instead of tying your usual loose ponytail everyday

when you first told bakugou of your idea, he was supportive, and told you to go for it

you were very appreciative of him and asked him for a hairdo that he wanted you to work on 

that was when you noticed a strange light in bakugou’s eyes as he asked for you to wait as he got a picture for you

he then showed you a picture that he got off google and your jaw dropped

it looked really pretty on the model, her long fringe was tied up in a french braid going towards the back and the lower parts of her hair curled 

but you didn’t have a hair curler, only a straightener; you had it but you never found the time to properly curl your hair as you were way more comfortable with your loose ponytail

besides, a straightener would work just as fine as a curler right?

bakugou told you in a teasing voice that you could drop it and go for a simpler hairdo 

once you heard that, there was no way you were not going to go for it and you reached for the hair curler recklessly from the drawer, causing bakugou to smirk as he watched you from the bed

you first gently grabbed your fringe and tried to tie it up into a french braid towards the back as you pictured the model’s hair in your head and continued

luckily, you knew how to french braid; it was another skill you picked up on a whim because you were really into braids for a period of time

it didn’t take long for you to get your fringe neatly into a french braid and with your hands shaking, you plugged in the straightener

you looked at bakugou from the mirror and you saw him flash you a supportive smile and you returned it

you picked up a chunk of your hair and curled it around the straightener as you pressed the two heated rectangles and waited

it looked horrible, needless to say

you curled your hair around it so tight that it somehow looked more like rectangles than curls

you looked at bakugou, only to find him curled up in bed, silently laughing at your failure

you pouted and stared at your own reflection in the mirror

‘well at least the braid is decent’

at the exact moment, the rubber band holding on to your hair broke and the braid slowly untangled and covered your face 

you groaned as bakugou came over towards you

“well y/n, turns out we have shitty hair number two here.”

kaminari denki

you didn’t really plan on ‘beautifying’ your hair during that weekend

it was a dare; you and denki were playing truth or dare and he dared you to dye your hair for your holidays

out of every color there was on earth, he dared you to do it rainbow

you weren’t the type of person to back out of a challenge so you decided to go out to get the dye required

you got each color on the rainbow but they were mostly different brands, since the shelves had limited colors and brands so you grabbed the only ones available

denki helped you dye your hair, since you were afraid that you would mess up (give denki the best boyfriend award of 2020 rn)

he assured you that he would try his best to make it look as nice as possible and not make it look like you just came out from a paintball match

you trusted him, but with your hair? you weren’t so sure

regardless, you sat there, watching denki’s every move as he carefully applied dye to your roots and you shivered

the dye was cold and it felt weird on your roots

watching denki apply dye to your hair was actually quite hot, you weren’t going to lie

you watched as denki scrunched up his nose as he tried to figure out how to ‘blend’ your hair so that it would look evenly spread out and you smiled gently

you wanted to turn over to hug him so bad to thank him for his effort, but you didn’t want to mess up the dye and cause it to dye unwanted parts of your hair

he spent a lot of time trying to dye our hair and you really appreciated it since you also got quite a view watching him work on your hair

after he was done, the bathroom looked like a mess; dye was all over the walls and even on his face 

you chuckled as denki realised the mess he had made and tried to convince you that your hair would turn out just fine despite the mess that was created because of it

at this point, you were quite unsure, yet you didn’t want to worry denki since he did spend a lot of time trying to help you, and you really appreciated that

you waited for the dye to sink into your hair according to the time stated in the box and then you rinsed out the dye

you wrapped your hair in a towel as you walked to your boyfriend, excited to see the results of his masterpiece

you carefully uncovered the towel and gasped

“oh my god, kaminari denki, forget about being a hero. be a hairstylist instead.”

Todoroki Shouto

you wanted to match with his hair, it was that simple

todoroki looked really good with his red and white hair and you wanted to match with him, wanting for you and him to get closer because of your matching hairs

so you dragged todoroki to the store, comparing his shades of red and white to the ones they had in the store and tried to get ones that looked similar to his one (give him the best boyfriend award of 2020 too)

he found it silly, he thought that you already looked good already with your natural hair and you two were already peas in a pod, inseparable

but he wanted to be supportive towards you, so he didn’t say too much about it when you told him about your ‘genius plan’, or so you called it

however, you couldn’t find the perfect shade in the store, which left you pretty disappointed

todoroki didn’t like seeing you upset, so he brought you to a hair salon and you thanked him, calling yourself silly for not thinking about that in the first place

you excitedly told the lady in the salon that you wanted your hair to match your boyfriend’s

todoroki’s face flushed as he heard you call him your ‘boyfriend’, he was still shy when you told people about it

the lady laughed and mumbled something about how it was great to be young and to be in love

she showed you some samples of fake hair that were dyed with different colors and told you to choose between the different shades

once again, none of them really did match the ones todoroki had, but at least it was closer to the ones they had in the store (todoroki is a special boy after all)

you excitedly picked out the two shades that looked most like todoroki’s one and the lady nodded and started to apply the dye to your roots

todoroki just waited for you, gently smiling at how excited you were to get matching hair colors with him and soon blushed when he heard you gushing about your amazing boyfriend and how he was so nice and supportive of you

you spoke loudly, to make sure that he knew how you felt and wanted everyone to know how much you loved him

the lady returned you energy as she was raving about how you two were perfect for each other and would make the cutest babies ever, which caused todoroki’s cheeks to turn three shades darker than it already was

after an hour, you were done, with your matching hair with todoroki and he smiled as he saw you 

you looked really good, and he felt himself fall in love with you more

you paid and left the salon, holding hands with todoroki, proud of your new hair

people talked about your hair negatively, but you didn’t care

you liked it, todoroki loved it, and that was all that really mattered 

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