#weird way to come out publicly but hey that's neither here nor there

[goliathgastropod]

Happy pride month !!

[nat-20s]

what’s poppin everyone please have this fun lil writing warmup/short story inspired by me thinking “Dancing in the Moonlight” was definitely 100% about werewolves

~*~

“So, this your first transformation?”

The counselor? Leader? Tour guide? Asked this with a perfectly jovial tone, as if the typical social mores surrounding, ugh, lycanthropy, didn’t apply to her. They didn’t know what exact title to call her, and her name tag just said “Luna”, which, reflecting on it, either was a joke on her part or a reflection of her parents’ sense of humor.

Picking at the scabs from last month, they cringed and replied, “No. Uh. Second.”

Luna lets out a low whistle. “Oof. That sucks. Guessing you got bitten rather than inherited the ol’ wolfman gene?”

“That’s...kind of personal?”

Unlocking the front door of the log cabin that served as King Harvest’s Headquarters, Luna shrugs and says, “Shit, sorry. Forgot the whole weird stigma around your source of the once monthly nightmare, as if it fuckin matters. Also, I know, I know, ass out of you and me. Hey, you got any dietary restrictions? Gluten, peanut allergies, the like?”

Voice flat, they tell her, “I’m vegetarian,” and waits for the obvious response.

As they wander through the cabin towards the kitchen, Luna flipping on the light switches, generic club music starts to filter in. Instead of the obvious response, Luna asks, “You like veggie burgers? Or maybe pasta? I’d offer salad, but that’s really not gonna cut it for tonight.”

“I ate before I came.”

With a snort, she tells them, “Oh yeah? Did you have about 4000 calories?”

“No? Why would I have?”

Sweeping out her arm, she gestures at the food laying out on the counter and tells them, “Then eat up! 4000 is really a minimum for the night if you don’t want to feel like someone physically beat out all of your energy in the morning. 6000 is more the target area, but we got, hmm, about 15 minutes before things get uncomfortable, and half an hour max before things get dire.”

They glance down to the food, and, admittedly, the broccoli alfredo does look pretty appealing. Still, they have to ask, “Is this a cult?”

Luna lets out a bark of a laugh that has nothing to do with her (maybe) being a werewolf. “Okay, first of all, what kind of cult is like ‘fuck yeah, we’re a cult’? Secondly, despite the first thing, I can say that we’re not a cult. I know how “King Harvest: Center for Movement Therapy” sounds, both clinical and vague enough to be suspicious as hell, but I didn’t come up with the title, blame my long deceased dad for that one. Plus, ‘King Harvest: Bitchin’ Wolf Dance House’ probably wouldn’t look good on the grant applications.”

“Grants?”

“Oh yeah. This bad boy’s been publicly funded since its opening in 1972. Hence no membership fees.”

“Is that why animal control is giving out your business card? Are they one of your sponsors?”

“Nah, that’s just Jack. Me ‘n’ him go way back, hell, to his park ranger days.  I mean, yeah, I think he’ll campaign for us, but mostly I think he just hates capturing a wolf in the night only to have a naked, trembling human in the morning, and he knows that our program significantly reduces the odds of that happening, at least in this neck of the woods.”

They let out a hum, then glance back down to the food. As appealing as it down look, they’re still about..30% convinced this is an elaborate organ harvesting operation. Or sketchy sex thing.

Apparently sensing their hesitation, Luna says, “You got a favorite chip?”

“Salt and vinegar.”

Grabbing a sealed family sized bag from the overhead cabinets, Luna tosses it to them. “If you come back next full moon, either eat enough in advance or have a real meal here. That being said, excuse the turn of phrase, you should wolf that down. It’s sure as hell better than nothing.”

They catch it, and the bag opens with a puff of air that speaks to a reassuring lack of tampering. As they toss a chip into their mouth, Luna grabs a water bottle from the fridge and places it down next to them. “So? Any questions for me? We’ve still got about ten minutes before we have to go out there.”

Rolling their eyes, they tell her, “No. None at all.”

“Great! Soon as you’re done eating we’ll get you started.”

“I was being sarcastic.”

“Yeah, no shit, smart-ass. Seriously, what are your, we haven’t got much time.”

“I don’t know? The whole..thing? I mean, how is it supposed to..work? Like? At all?”

“You ever see Amok Time?”

“Is that relevant?”

“It’s a yes or no question babe.”

“And if I say no?”

“Then the explanation is going to be a lot more technical and take a lot longer, ultimately to likely make less sense.”

“...I’ve seen it.”

“Great! So, Pon Farr is basically this chemical blood imbalance that results in fuck or die disorder, yeah? But then Spock neither fucks nor dies, and eventually the vulcans get their shit together and find out that an intense fight can serve the same function, and the blood fever chills out. Lycanthropy operates on a similar enough basis for comparison. You’re compelled to act out on energetically heavy base instincts, returning to the ways of the wolf or whatever. Traditionally, that’s done through running and hunting, which has, historically, been a crapshoot at best. Theoretically, sex can also get the job done, but I’m sure you can imagine how that gets extremely dicey extremely quickly. Either restraints or isolation has been implemented for a while, but, c’mon, they’re bandaid solutions, and they’re far from foolproof. Luckily for us all, my grandmother decided to connect back with her ancestors, and there was a handful of stories having huge festivals to deal with ‘moon violence’. She tried it out, and, yeah, dancing works.”

“That sounds…”

They don’t know how that sounds. Made up, mostly.

“Like a bunch of hippie bullshit? Yeah, it kind of is, Grandma Josephine was a huge hippie, but it’s hippie bullshit that works. In fact, let’s go see the others, it almost always makes things clearer.”

Figuring that whatever they’re about to see can’t be worse than their transformation last month. They head through the sliding glass door out the back, the thump of the music suddenly loud enough to be felt in their chest. The sight that awaits them makes them drop their chips and let out a gasp. Barely able to speak, they exhale out, “None of them...they’re not wolves. How..how??”

Indeed, the roughly forty people jumping to the pulse of whatever they’re listening to (some to the in house DJ, some, apparently, to what’s playing over the large headphones they have adorned), resemble the image of a wolfman much more accurately. They bare claws, fangs, elongated snouts, upright ears, and  serious amounts of hair, but they’re on two legs, and moving like humans. Some of them are even singing along to the lyrics, which really shouldn’t be possible.

Luna grins, making it obvious that she’s used to this level of shell shocks. “Ultimately, you do have to give into some damn rigorous instincts. But dancing is a human instinct, not a canine one, so you end up, well, humanoid. Pretty nifty, huh?”

“And they all..they all keep their minds? I didn’t...they don’t blackout?”

“Not since we banned alcohol in the 90s! Here, watch this.”

Luna nods her head at the DJ, and the DJ, obligingly, turns down the music for a moment. The members of the crowd not listening to their own music pause, then look towards the door. She cries out, “Hey gang! HOW WE ALL DOIN’ TONIGHT?”, and gets a mix between a howl and “WOO!” cried back. The DJ then turns the music back up, and the general movement of the crowd resumes.

They should be more skeptical. They want to be more skeptical, they were just minutes before, but it’s hard to disagree with something right in front of you. “This will work for me? I just..have to dance?”

“Well, it’s not guaranteed. Few things are. But we have yet to have someone turn violent on us. If you start to fell yourself slipping from consciousness, though, I do ask that you start heading further into the woods, as to not hurt other guest. If you find yourself just getting tired, there’s beds inside, and a fair amount of pillows around the edge of the quote unquote dance floor, if you end up in more of a nesting mood. Also, I recommend taking off your shoes before you start.”

“What? Why?”

Luna gives a pointed glance at the dancers’ feet, which, ah. They’re about twice as large as normal and at least twice as sharp. The converse on their feet would be no match. “Ah.”

“Ready?”

They shove off their shoes and place the remainder of their chips aside. “As I’ll ever be.”

Good thing, too, as they’re starting to feel an uncomfortable pressure in their chest that was the prelude to disaster last month.

Luna strides to the center of the dance floor, which is really a plush lawn surrounded by forest. The crowd naturally moves around her, and she yells out, “Aiyana! Play my song!”

Aiyana gives a nod, and the opening notes of “Dancing in the Moonlight” start to sound out. “Seriously?”

Luna shrugs, grinning like a fool, and says, “It’s a classic!”

“It’s cliché at best.”

Luna shrugs, and then begins dancing. She’s hardly elegant, but she is dazzlingly joyful in her uncoordinated movements. As the song reaches the first chorus, she gives a twirl, and in the split second it takes, she’s transformed. They blink in shock, not knowing you could transform that seamlessly, that quickly, that painlessly. Luna in half wolf form is just as expressive as the human Luna, and she gives a nod over her shoulder as if to say Come on.

Feeling somewhat foolish, they start to bop their head to the tune. Luna lets out a huff and grabs their hands, spinning them around and forcing them to get moving. At first, it’s them indulging Luna, but as they let themselves get lost in rhythm, they feel a stretching sensation in their face and limbs. It’s not unpleasant, more like when you wake up and work out the tension in your spine. They open their eyes and look down at their hands, now covered in fur in and made for slashing. It didn’t hurt. It didn’t hurt, and they’re still themselves, and they had no idea that full moons could be like this, maybe for the rest of their lives.

They turn their head to the night sky, and their body can’t help but continue to dance. Despite all their fear, all their dread, “movement therapy” worked, and they can admit, at least to themselves, that they feel warm and bright.

[really-sleep-deprived-nerd]

I dreamt an entire hurt/comfort Bakudeku Fantasy AU:

Okay, so it kind of was a Medieval/Fantasy BNHA AU? Basically Bakugou was a disgraced barbarian prince that had to run away from his kingdom because the queen, his own mother, thought him too dangerous because of his power mixed with his overall awful temper and, therefore, unfit to take the throne, so, she wanted to kill him so there would be no backlash from their people when she put someone who didn't have royal blood as the next in line. People can’t riot and demand for their “Rightful ruler” if there isn't one to begin with, right?. So, Bakugou, being 11 when this shitshow happened, flees.

He takes refuge in a neighbouring kingdom and is taken in by a very kind woman that finds him, battered and bruised, shivering on the streets.  

The woman, whose name is Inko, has a son named Izuku who due to undisclosed circumstances is, secretly, the King’s apprentice and very close to him. Bakugou suspects some Bastard Son shenanigans but wisely keeps his mouth shut because, hey, these people are being nice to me when they don't have to! And they don't want anything in return! That has never happened before! (Well, except for Kirishima, but he wasn’t human so he didn’t count. Wonder what he is up to these days.)

At some point Izuku introduces him to king Toshinori, who is incredibly saddened by Bakugou’s situation and, because he thinks he is an incredibly brave young man for having made it this far, promises him a place between the Knights the moment he reaches 18. Bakugou accepts the offer gleefully because he honestly misses training with others and a good fight. 

So, the years go by and of course Bakugou and Izuku fall for each other because I am predictable even in my dreams. The worst thing is that it was just full of pining, both of them saying Nothing about their obvious feelings because they didn't want to scare the other away.

By this point some nobles have found out about the king's protegees and while they can tolerate the commoner (He is a very bright young man and they also suspect Bastard Son Shenanigans), they cannot stand the disgraced prince. They are deeply wary of him because of his power and, hey, there has to be a good reason about WHY his own mother wanted him gone, and with that temper and violent attitude of his they seem to understand why. 

The King´s health has always been shit, but it started to get even worse recently and so he has to leave the capital for a couple of months to get help from a healer that lives in a far away village. The journey just to get there is at least a week long. He leaves the kingdom in the “Capable and trusty” hands of his number two, who while he is technically good at running a kingdom when the king’s away, is also a huge piece of shit, and knowing that the king wouldn't be here for awhile thought that, hey, wouldn't it be a shame if someone reached his mother to tell her where that disgrace of a son of hers is so she can end what she started? It would truly be terrible if something happened to that monster while the king was too far away to do shit to stop it!

So, yeah, he sends a pigeon to the Queen and asks her for advice on how to, hypothetically speaking of course, one would neatly get rid of a runaway barbarian prince, to which she replies with a recipe to imitate the explosions Bakugou can make and a letter that says something along the lines of “I am unable to give you advice on how to do that, since its something I myself failed at, however, I reckon that if he went on a rampage, exploding people's homes, then you would be able to publicly execute him with very little issue.”

While this is going on, Izuku notices how the nobles have been giving Kachan nastier looks than usual, coupled with also some very evil and sharp smiles and immediately suspects that they are planning some shit. He tells Kachan this and they both agree that just to avoid any possible poisonings, it would be better for Bakugou to just kind of spend the entirety of the King’s absence inside Inko’s home and not leave for anything. After that, while Izuku is visiting the castle because he needed some books, he sees a messenger hawk carrying a letter with the Barbarian Kingdom’s emblem and immediately freaks the fuck out and runs home to send a pigeon to the King because, Heeey, Toshinori? I know you are busy and stuff, but I think your nobles are planning to kill Kachan?? I saw a hawk with his kingdom's emblem and if they actually try to do it we won't be able to stop it without you here.

So, yeah, it seems that those explosives were harder to make than they originally thought because 5 days pass before, in the middle of the night, a couple of houses in the lower town erupt in flames with a loud BOOM. There are a lot of casualties that night, both from those that were asleep before the explosion and both for those that were trying to help people get out.

The sixth day was spent in mourning and cleaning up, the seventh day was spent on the funerals, the eighth day was spent with people pointing their fingers at Bakugou while they demanded his head on a stick. They protested outside Inko’s home and outside the castle, saying that they wanted justice for what this monster clearly did.

Bakugou feels like shit for those three days, because he thinks it's his fault those people died. He knew his mother wouldn’t rest until he was dead, but he had figured that he was safe as long as he was under the King’s protection, but no, innocent people died because he was too comfortable, too attached to a home, to his friends, to Izuku, to leave like he should have.

The Noble Piece Of Shit, makes an announcement that the people have been heard and that they will get their justice. He sends some knights to retrieve Bakugou from Inko’s home, so they can bring him to the court, where he would be immediately hanged for his crimes.

The knights are very much reluctant to follow this order because they know Bakugou and the brat would never do something like this. The brat wanted to be a knight to save people, for goodness’ sake! But, if they didn’t comply, it would have been their head on the chopping block, so they go get him.

When they get there Izuku is a broken mess. He is sobbing his eyes out while clinging to Bakugou for dear life, who is just hugging him tightly and, in a surprisingly soft voice for him, reassuring Izuku that it would be okay, that this was bound to happen at some point, that he shouldn't cry for him. Izuku just tightens his grip and cries harder.

The knights ask Bakugou to come with them, and he does, but neither the knights nor the prince have the heart to drag Izuku away from him. Inko follows after them, her sobs more quiet than her son’s but still just as noticeable.

When they get to the court/plaza and Izuku sees the gallow, he lets out such a heart-wrenching wail that it makes people pause in their clamoring for blood. What gives them pause is less the wail itself and more of the way Izuku has his head hidden in Bakugou’s neck, his arm is tightly hugging Izuku’s shaking frame while the other one is resting on Izuku’s hair, gently carding his fingers through it. What gives them pause is the eyebags under Bakugou’s eyes and the unshed tears in them. What gives them pause is just how utterly young Bakugou looks when he doesn't have his typical scowl on his face.

Muttering starts among the crowd, because suddenly they aren't clamoring about the death of a monster, but instead the death of a child, and there isn't a single person present who is entirely comfortable with that. The crowd is no longer bloodthirsty as much as it is wary and nervous.

Once Bakugou stands in front of the gallow, surrounded by knights and Izuku still by his side, the Noble Piece Of Shit, standing in a balcony overviewing this entire thing with a wicked smile explains why they are here today and what Bakugou is going to be executed for.

Inko can’t take anymore of this shit and just. Snaps. She screams that they are going to kill an innocent, that the night of the fire she SAW Bakugou fall asleep with her son in front of the fireplace, that it was IMPOSSIBLE for him to have done this. That they are going to kill a 14-year-old innocent CHILD because they are to incompetent to think things trough, or worse, they are going to do it on purpose.

 The NPOS (Noble Piece of Shit) demands that the knights subdue that crazy woman and take her to the dungeons and do the same with that wailing child. By this point, the entire crowd has gone “Cool, cool, on second thoughts, after much deliberation, let's hang that piece of shit instead of the innocent child.” The crowd Riots, starts demanding that they investigate things properly instead of rushing a kid to the gallows, which, hey, kinda hypocritical of them but you won’t see Izuku complaining. 

The chaos finally ends with the King entering the court riding on top of a FUCKING DRAGON and demanding Silence. The king angrily demands someone explain to him WHY are they trying to kill one of his protegees. The knights take a moment to answer because, uh, that is a Dragon and-uh, okay, its shapeshifting into a red haired man that is running straight at Bakugou and Izuku to hug them- cool, cool, uh, ah, the king asked a question? Ah, yes! The question! The knights explain to him what happened and that it was the NPOS orders, who by this point has made the wise decision to make himself scarce. The King is fuming, but while he announces that he was going to be having Words with his second in command, that this is ridiculous, the kid had an alibi and, while difficult, it's possible to create a serum that acted similarly to Young Bakugou’s sweat when ignited, so this is clearly someone trying to frame him. 

After this, the crowd that was warily eyeing the former dragon that was excitedly chatting with a grinning Izuku and a softly smiling Bakugou, decide that this has been enough weird shit for today, take the word of the king as the truth and finally disperse.

[beacon-lamp]

hey! i know you're more interested in the stats and math of the discourse, and that's its practically over at this point, but i wanted to ask a question. i've seen people saying that dream paying the mod team for the anti cheating client thing was manipulative? i really don't see it? he's doing it specifically to make it easier to find cheaters. even if he did cheat or if they think he's an ass, wouldn't that be a good thing? make sure neither the team or suspect get hated unfairly?

hi anon!  

to elaborate a bit, he didn’t specify anything about the “anti-cheat mod” besides just proposing it at the end of his video.  and it doesn’t make much sense.  i’ve mentioned this before but this whole dream speedrunning discourse has also negatively impacted the integrity of the speedrunning community as a whole, as the mods’ reliability of verifying speedruns has been Publicly called into question by a CC with 14M subscribers.  minecraft speedrunning has been around since the game was released over a decade ago and was further solidified by the addition of The End and the Ender Dragon.  there has Never been a big issue with verifying the speedruns before or a need for an anti-cheat mod.

until now, apparently.  in my opinion, these are just empty promises.  dream’s not going to code an anti-cheat mod, nor do the moderators need one.  thousands of previous runs have been verified/denied by the moderating team without a problem.  to answer your question more directly, here’s a quote from the post lilac made that i helped write that kinda sums it up nicely:

“Secondly, offering to fund an anti-cheat mod at the end of his response video simply isn’t productive to the conversation and is misleading. It comes across as bribery and functions as a moral get out of jail free card. How could he be a cheater when he’s willing to pay so much money to stop people from cheating? It also makes the mods look bad because it frames them as fighting against someone who is just trying to help the community. Since his anti-cheat mod idea is proposed in the part of a video where Dream is defending his reputation, it necessarily comes across as being a part of his defense, and it just doesn’t look good. Particularly, this way of “buying” credibility can be viewed as crossing a line and puts a weird amount of moral pressure on his critics to let their criticism slide.”

i hope this helps reframe the situation a bit.  if you want to read the rest of the post we wrote, here it is.

[scandalsavagefanfic]

did you see the tagging discourse yesterday? they really went after whumpbby

Hey there. I did see it. I wrote up a response to it but I wanted to sleep on it before I responded. I wanted to make sure I come across as informative and dispassionate as possible because emotions are already high and tempers are flaring and the last thing I want to do is fan the flames.

As far as I can tell there were three issues mentioned.

1) Explicit Content in Summaries

I think not putting explicit content in a summary is a valid suggestion. Frankly, it’s not an angle I’ve ever considered (even though I’m pretty sure none of my summaries are explicit. I’m not giving away the milk for for free. You have to click on the cow to get it 🤣). 

But I do think it’s important to remember that asking the fanfiction community as a whole to embrace this as a community standard isn’t a miraculous fix it. For starters this is an additional courtesy and I’m not sure how much fic it will actually affect, particularly in this fandom (I pretty much only read explicit fic and while there’s definitely summaries that are explicit, it’s not a particularly common issue and the OP’s example is actually not explicit and is exactly the kind of thing that should be in the summary so that you know whether the fic beyond that will trigger you or not). I’m happy to pay a little extra attention and make an effort but that by no means ensures that you won’t see explicit content in the summary. I mean, tv shows give you the rating and tags in the beginning of the episode but you still might see something explicit if you’re flipping through the stations. It’s not possible for content providers to account for every person’s individual needs. The individual has to do some of the work.  There’s not really any reason for someone to be reading an explicit summary if they’ve seen the fic is rated explicit and seen the ship is one they’re uninterested in and seen that the tags contain content they’d be uninterested in for that ship (if there are any, because people forget that further tagging is another courtesy that creators go out of their way to do to make life easier for readers - I don’t know a single writer who enjoys tagging) before they ever get to the summary at all. But still. Fine. I think that’s a good point and I’ll be going through my 80+ fics over the weekend to make sure. It’s just that readers should never expect things that are courtesies to be strictly adhered to by the entirety of the community. 

2) Tagging All Batfamily Ships as “Incest”, Regardless of Actual Content

This seems to be predicated on the misconceptions that 1) the fan-dubbed Bat “Family” is an actual family by any metric that could be considered incestuous, and 2) that this is obvious and not up for discussion.

Both of those are untrue. The Batfamily are not canonically a family whose interpersonal relationships can be considered incestuous, by blood, law, or anything else. 

If you want to interpret the text that way, there is certainly room to do so. But it is neither a fact, nor an obvious one.

The Pre-Flashpoint canon, especially for Batfam, exists in a nebulous state of “maybe applicable”. One of the few things we can be sure of, is that Dick and Tim at least, were never adopted. Tim’s parents are alive and well. Pre-Flashpoint, Dick was adopted as a gesture in his late 20′s. He’s early to mid 20′s in N52/Rebirth (for some reason people seem to think that N52 and Rebirth are different continuities. They’re not. Rebirth is a continuation of N52.)

Jason’s adoption is never explicitly addressed in current canon. So you can pick your poison.

None of them grew up together in either continuity so that argument is out.

You are welcome to read the Bats as this kind of family if you want.

But no one else has to, and there is very little evidence in current (or past) canon to suggest they are. What evidence there is, is vague and ambiguous. NOT obvious and damning. There are a million different ways to consider someone family, including both platonic and romantic.  

Finally, since it was specifically pointed out, with the lack of blood ties, if I write an AU where they one or more of them has no ties to Bruce, that’s not incest and no one should be tagging it as such.

It’s pretty weird to ask someone to tag their fic as something it’s not. It’d be like asking me to tag my angst “fluff”. I might as well tag DickKory or SuperBat “incest” while I’m at it.

Hopefully this helps clear things up. Hopefully this will help people who are triggered by incest to be able to see batfam ship tags without being triggered. If the clarification that they are not a legal or blood family in canon does not help, I am truly very very sorry and I genuinely hope you can discover what it is about those ships that actually affects you so that you can better protect yourself. But I have to tag my ships. I can’t not tag a ship so that you don’t see it, because then you might accidentally stumble across it and get much further than the tag before you know what’s happening. And I can’t tag incest because it literally is not then readers will think that I’ve written a verse where the characters are blood/legal family in some way, where the fic treats them like they have familial bonds and sexual relationship, and some of them will likely avoid it.

Appropriate tagging is important so that people who don’t want to see things don’t AND so that people can find the content they’re looking for. It’s pretty unfair to expect people to use inappropriate tags and potentially harm more people by making tags meaningless and expecting readers to guess.

(small aside, “batcest” is not an ideal tag. From personal experience, coming here from comics and having no history with this kind of fandom, I avoided things tagged Batcest because I thought, with the combination of Bat + incest, it was the ship name for Bruce/Damian and I wasn’t interested in that.)

3) Inconsiderate Reader Comments

Inappropriate comments left on fics by readers, is also a valid issue. It is also an entirely separate issue that has nothing to do with the very clearly stated primary concerns. Inconsiderate comments are an unfortunate reality of creating and sharing those creations. Unfortunately there’s no, non-fascist way of forcing people to be considerate. We all have to live with that.

We can absolutely complain about publicly on our blogs. And if you’re a gen author, with no history of certain ships, I will defend that it’s rude to pop on your fic and ask if it’s going to be that ship. Just like I will defend that it’s rude to pop on my perfectly tagged Bruce/Duke fic and try to tell me that it’s incest because Duke lived at the Manor for two weeks before moving in with his uncle. I’m sorry you have to deal with it. I’m sorry I have to deal with it. I’m sorry we all have to deal with it. But it’s not something we can stop or the people who came before us would have. So it is something that you have to be able to cope with.

As for whump, I thought she handled it well, especially in her clarification posts. The OP was obviously very emotionally invested in the subject and came off very antagonistic. I know OP doesn’t consider their suggestions unreasonable but that’s because they’re based on a fundamental misconception of canon. If DC writes a continuity where the Bats are a family in any way that would make sexual relationships between them incestuous, and if I write something for that continuity, then of course I will tag it accordingly. Asking me to tag a fic as something it isn’t, is unreasonable. It instantly makes tagging in general completely useless. Asking people to apply a catchall tag or keep explicit content out of the summaries is not intrinsically unreasonable, but expecting the entire community, regardless of how immersed in fandom the creator is, to abide by that standard in a way that provides meaningful protection for you (in that you can lower your guard in any meaningful way when you have content you need to avoid) is..... well, it’s just impractical. 

[sugarandspice-games]

I guess this is becoming a trend... I’m popping in before the actual intro to clarify-- if the text is in italic, it is me (Sugar) talking and regular is Spice. Alright? Cool. And so--

So, one night I’m going through youtube and I come upon this one shitposty video about some random anime that I’ve never even heard of. After doing some research, I discover that it’s actually based on a dating sim that I’ve also never heard of. As a joke I was like “Hey Sugar wanna watch this as a joke, it might be funny” and so we did. And uhm. Well.

Today we’re gonna be reviewing Brothers Conflict, aka Sweet Home Alabama 2: Electric Anime Boogaloo aka the anime that ruined our lives. [Again, disclaimer: neither Sugar nor I condone incest and/or pedophilia, two themes which are uh, very rampant in this anime which is why I cannot recommend it in good faith. It’s not good, don’t get me wrong. I can’t really say that I liked it even if watching it and ragging on it was kind of enjoyable, and I did get attached to some of the characters because that’s the kind of idiot I am. Also, we’re not shirking our duties to write I swear please don’t kill me--] Anyway, an obligatory SPOILER WARNING though this probably isn’t going in the main tag bc I do not want the fans to publicly stone me. Why are we reviewing this? Bc we need to talk about it somewhere. Though I say review lightly bc this... is really more of a critique.

ALSO we only watched the anime, idk if things are different in the game. There is no full english translation for the games and most of the LP channels have been copyright striked, so please don’t come at us for not knowing anything. I also know that otome games and dating sims don’t tend to translate well to anime, and I will be addressing this later.

So, dear god, where do I begin.

Where do we begin indeed? How about the fact that her name is Ema and I had to google to remember the heroine’s name? Also, she is seventeen.

Our plot, or well... what you COULD call a plot, I guess, if you REALLY wanted to give this anime that much credit, focuses on the aforementioned seventeen year old Hinata Ema, who has an absent father who apparently FOUND THE TIME TO FALL IN LOVE AND GET MARRIED BUT NEVER HAS A SECOND TO SPARE FOR HIS ONLY CHILD, RINTARO I SWEAR TO GOD I AM TAKING CUSTODY OF YOUR CHILD. HAND HER OVER-- Anyway. He’s getting married to a woman who has 13 sons (jesus christ ma’am have you ever heard of a condom?) and he decides to move her in with them because... I guess he has less braincells than I have balls, which is to say, zero. Hi, I’m trans.

So, Ema moves in with them... along with her talking grey squirrel, Juli. Juli is... interesting and by interesting, I mean-- ABSOLUTELY PUZZLING. He, apparently, has seen the majority of Ema’s life from babyhood to teenagerhood and can talk but is only understood by Ema (who he calls Chii) and Louis, the eighth son in the Asahina family. It is never explained why, or how Chii came across him or how in an episode, a single episode, he becomes human because why the hell not, I guess??? (Also, he is pretty. YES. I said it. Fight me.) [Quick Spice intervention, this squirrel can talk to people, transform into a human, enter dreams, and live way longer than a squirrel should since the average lifespan of a squirrel is like 6 years in the wild. Juli is apparently a god as none of this is EVER explained.]

And when she meets the Asahina family, it’s pretty much immediately chaos because these heterosexual (I guess? They look like a bunch of twinks to me but there goes anime trying to convince me that straight people are real and not a lie made up by Trump) men have NEVER and I mean NEVER known a woman in their entire lives, since they seem to want to bang their stepsister immediately. And most of them are GROWN ASS ADULTS. Only three of them are actually minors (though Iori is 18 and only one year older so I guess??? It’s okay??? But still weird) and one of them is a 13 year old who looks and acts like he’s 8.

Oh, and did I mention that out of these boys, only the adult triplets and the abusive asshole 16 year old get any kind of characterization AND character development? I mean, Subaru gets an “arc” if you can call it that, but really, they don’t give him much... personality. You could replace him with a cardboard cutout and it’d be the same. I feel bad for him (but not really because dude you are 20 and she is your sister, what the fuck--)

But if there’s anything good about this anime, it is the characters themselves. Several of the boys have redeeming qualities and interesting personalities and quirks, as well as interesting relationships and dynamics with each other. Yes, some of them are lacking in the plotline department while others may have decent plotlines and lack personality, and then some of them are just given absolutely nothing (COUGH Masaomi COUGH Ukyo COUGHCOUGHCOUGH Iori, and by the way, what the fuck is that game plotline bc I read the wiki since I wanted to know more about him. We don’t have time to unpack the mento illness luv. But you’re telling me they had all this meat to work with and they threw it in the trash and gave him nothing? What the hell?) And if anything, I feel as if the characters themselves are crippled by the plotline. If given a different story, perhaps, they may have room to shine, because a lot of them are compelling if not lovable (though some may not be... lovable. COUGHFuuto, at least not for me.) If you want to see our review on the characters, we’ll put out another post.

Iori... Iori has a hell of a plot in the game, according to the Wiki but I can’t blame the writers for not exploring all of it because whoa. It is dark and not in a good way. But back to the subject at hand... I agree with Spice. I do/did like quite a lot of the characters... provided the entire romantic plot is taken away but we will go into more of why the plot is problematic below. All I can really add is: There is a baby in this dumpster and canon has been taken out back to be shot like a lame horse.

This brings me to a point in which I would like to pause the character discussion and bring up a glaring flaw with this anime in general (aside from the... plot. Look, I’m not a huge fan of weird stepsibling stuff but I think that if you want to do something like that, there are ways to do it and ways not to do it. This was the way not to do it, which I’m getting to). The biggest thing that made this anime so uncomfortable was the imbalance of power dynamics. Why is the protagonist 17 when most of the love interests are 18 and older, and I mean much, much older? And she’s not any 17 year old... she’s a lonely, neglected girl who is starved for the love of a family. This makes her easily manipulated by the brothers, who clearly desire her for less than wholesome reasons, and that makes it skeevy. I’m not sure why there’s such a fetishization of nonconsent in media, as if it’s fine for as many men to lust after female protagonists as the writer desires BUT the woman can’t want a single one of them in return. It’s creepy, and quite frankly, I am very much over it. I also get that the age thing is probably a product of the protagonist of a teenager oriented dating sim not translating well to an anime (because really, all otome game MCs are meant to be a neat little pair of shoes for the player to imagine themselves in), but why are we fetishizing a teenager being groomed by adults anyway? Especially adults who have this much power over her to begin with? The power dynamics bring this plot from “Oh, this might be kinda trashy but it could be entertaining” to “This is extremely creepy and rapey and kind of a dumpster fire.”

This is also true. If we were to take age into consideration, Fuuto, Yusuke, and Iori would be the three candidates left for Chii. This is taking out the youngest as well, who is... thirteen, I think? But anyway, (I know I am probably going to get some hate for this but go for it), I am into stories that explore the stepsibling thing and it can make a good narrative-- but before everyone gets uppity: There is a line between FICTION and REALITY and I do not condone real life incest but a story is a story and there are ways to frame it that make it clear that it is not a romantic thing, or acceptable. This anime does not do that in it’s dynamics because some of the brothers do start off in that very firm caregiving, family role and it is a sharp turn into romance that makes you go, “?” or in Fuuto case, a blending that does lean into fetishization.

All in all I think the plot maybe could have been okay? I’m not saying it isn’t problematic, because we all know it is, who are we kidding? But I don’t think it’s wrong per se to explore family dynamics with romance and to understand where the line should be drawn, and maybe exploring the definition of family itself. I have seen fanfictions with similar tropes ask those questions and explore the concept beautifully without romanticizing or fetishizing incest and unhealthy power dynamics. It could have been good, and I get that perhaps I’m barking up the wrong tree by expecting mature themes in an anime based on an otome game, but it also could have been a lot less... creepy (I have used that word so much that it looks wrong now) even if it wasn’t the greatest thing ever. But again, what was I expecting? I watched this whole thing as a joke and ended up attached to the characters like a fool... That tends to be a trend here, and this is why we are so salty all the time. So anyway, stay tuned for our review of the characters! We may not cover all of them since some of them don’t really get anything, but we’ll cover what we found interesting.

[alonely-dreamer]

The Valuable Sun | Chapter 6

Summary: Brooklynne Stackhouse is Sookie and Jason Stackhouse’s little sister. Like her older sibling, she is a telepath, but her powers are far more stronger and far more uncontrollable than her sister’s. After a series of murders in Bon Temps, Sookie takes it upon herself to investigate, taking her younger sister with her in a club called Fangtasia, where they meet vampire and sheriff Eric Northman.

Pairing: Eric x OC

Warnings: 18+ (language, violence, blood)

A/N: Please, note that I am French so there might be some mistakes here and there.

Words: 4860

Schedule: A new chapter will be posted every Monday. Chapter 7 to 10 are available on my Patreon for early and instant access.

Masterlist

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

Brooklynne had never left Louisiana. She thought she’d be happy to visit another state, but it seemed the silence in her head was heavier than she would have imagined. Her lonely voice wasn’t as pleasant as she’d have thought, especially since she was beating herself up for blindly trusting Eric despite her sister’s advice. Sookie hadn’t mentioned it and the two sisters had barely talked as they were getting ready to leave for Dallas.

They left in the late afternoon, the plane having been delayed for a couple of hours. Bill didn’t feel comfortable leaving Jessica alone in Bon Temps and had taken her with them. The two vampires were resting in their travel coffins while Sookie and Brooklynne enjoyed the private plane Bill had booked, with Eric’s credit-car.

‘Enjoyed’ wasn’t a word neither sisters would have used, however, since neither of them talked to the other. Brooklynne was second guessing herself. What if Sookie were right? What if Adele had had a good reason to keep her inside the house? Maybe she was too naïve to be trusted to make decisions for herself, especially if those decisions led her to another state with a psycho vampire like Eric Northman.

“You’ll get used to it,” Sookie said suddenly, and for once, Brooke had no idea what she was talking about. “Being alone in your head,” she clarified once she saw the confused look on her sister’s face.

“It’s weird. Now it requires effort to listen to other people… I don’t know what to do with my thoughts.”

“Do you still get distracted?”

“Sometimes,” she shrugged.

“Everybody gets distracted sometimes,” Sookie said with a smile. “I still can’t believe you finally managed to control it.”

“I don’t think I did… I think I blocked the voices, but I didn’t control it. I don’t.”

“It will take time. You’ll control it eventually.”

“Can you even control it?”

Sookie sighed. “Sometimes.”

When the plane landed, Sookie was half drunk. She took a bottle of whatever alcohol it was every time the flight attendant asked if she wanted one. Brooke watched as she emptied the small bottles one after the other.

Flying wasn’t as scary as the youngest Stackhouse had previously thought, but she was still relieved to be on the ground once again. She straightened her dress, a white lace skater dress her grandmother had gifted her for her birthday but had never had the occasion to wear. She had borrowed pastel pink pumps from her sister, shoes Sookie hated because of their color and the height of their heels. But Brooklynne didn’t mind standing a little taller, even though her 5’4 sister was shorter than her by 2 inches. She was still no match for the intimidating 6’4 vampire though, not even with the five-inch heels.

Sookie was looking as bright as the sun in her yellow dress and white pumps. She almost tripped as she walked down the stairs, though it could have been the alcohol’s fault more than it was the heels’, or maybe it was a combination of both. Their heels clacked on each step of the metal stairs, but their steps became silent as they reached the ground.

A bald man was waiting for them with a ‘Compton Party’ sign in his hands. The black limo contrasted with the bright white of the room but matched its driver who was also wearing an all-black suit. Brooklynne thought he looked nervous, but Sookie was too inebriated to notice.

“Yoohoo,” she said as she waved at him with a big smile, “that’s us!”

Brooklynne watched as the airport employees took Bill and Jessica’s coffins out of the plane. She wondered how they traveled before they came out to the world and all of these services were publicly available.

“You’re two hours late,” the driver told them, and that could have explained his nervousness. “You were supposed to be here before sundown.”

“We got delayed for takeoff,” Sookie explained.

“Why don’t you go in the limo? I got the A.C cranked up.”

“No, thanks, I’m fine. I’m waiting for my boyfriend to wake up,” she said with a smile as she pointed towards the two coffins behind her.

“Well, you can wait inside, there are cokes in there,” he insisted.

Sookie frowned. She now noticed the pearls of sweat sliding down his temple. She looked up at her sister who had no idea what the man was thinking and liked it that way. For once, however, her uncontrollable ability would have been very helpful.

“Get in the limo, you stupid bitch.”

Sookie gasped as the man’s thoughts resonated inside her head. He then seized her, making Brooke jump at the sudden movement.

“Let me go!” Sookie said as she tried to free herself from his hands.

“Stop it!” Brooke ordered, but for the first time in her life, it didn’t work. Confused by her failed attempt at helping her sister, she didn’t have time to see nor avoid the hand that met with her face violently. A cry of pain escaped her.

“Hey! Don’t touch her!” Sookie snarled.

She was about to kick him somewhere he really wouldn’t have liked but Bill, sensing her fear, appeared suddenly, removing the man’s hands from his girlfriend and seizing him by throat.

“Make a noise and it’ll be your last,” the vampire warned, showing his fangs to prove how serious he was.

Both Sookie and Brooke jumped as a loud noise resonated in the airport. They turned around to see the top of Bill’s coffin bounce on the floor.

“Hey! How the hell does this thing open?” Jessica asked from inside her coffin, which fell off the platform and found a place next to Bill’s.

“Are you okay?” Sookie asked her sister who had a hand on her reddened cheek.

Brooke frowned, ignoring the question. “I don’t understand why it didn’t work.”

“It’s gonna leave a nasty bruise,” Sookie said as she inspected her sister’s cheekbone.

“Do you want me to heal her?” Bill asked.

“No,” she grimaced. She probably didn’t want her sister to have odd dreams about her boyfriend, which they both understood.

“I don’t understand why it didn’t work,” Brooke repeated in a whisper and Sookie ignored her again.

Bill glamoured the man to get in the limo in silence before he helped Jessica out of her coffin. Brooklynne and Sookie sat at the opposite of the car, facing their assailant who was sitting wordlessly as Bill had ordered. Jessica joined them in the car, sitting next to the driver/kidnapper. Bill sat in front of him, ready to glamour his answers away.

“Tell me your name.”

“Leon.”

“Alright, Leon. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Brooklynne watched, still upset by the fact that her power hadn’t worked on Leon. She wondered if that wall she had built inside her head was not only blocking the voices from coming in, but also her powers from coming out. She didn’t know how to feel about it.

Bill slowly moved his eyes from Leon to his progeny, asking her if she wanted to try glamouring him. By the surprised look on her face, Brooke deduced she had never even tried it before.

“Lean in close so you can catch his gaze,” Bill told her as she positioned herself in front of Leon. “Then just let everything go. Let yourself be dead. You are empty. A vacuum. Now you can pull his mind into yours.”

It sounded very different from what Brooklynne usually did when she tried to control herself. She couldn’t let herself go or else who knew where she’d ended up. Physically or mentally. Though, now that she was empty, it seemed that she couldn’t pull anybody’s mind into hers anymore. And she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Bill left Jessica have a little fun with Leon and came to sit beside his girlfriend. Bill always looked worried, but this time he had a good reason to be.

“This man was sent to abduct you,” he told both sisters. “Which means somebody knew you were coming.”

“Who do you think’s behind it? Vampires?” Sookie asked.

He shook his head. “Too sloppy… Maybe that church?”

“Bill, they may be crazy but they’re still a church. They’re not gonna kidnap anybody.”

The vampire chuckled. “Sookie, churches have done much, much worse throughout history.”

“Eric said he thought humans had taken Godric,” Brooke told them. “Maybe it’s the same humans that tried to take us.”

“It’s possible,” Bill nodded. “I’ll glamour Leon to drive us to the hotel. I’ll inform Eric of what happened when we get there.”

Brooke sighed as she leaned against her seat. She didn’t want to see Eric. Now, she had the clarity of mind to be scared of him. As she should be.

***

The hotel was bigger than any other buildings Brooke had ever laid her eyes on. It was a rectangular big old thing that had just been renovated, or maybe it was brand new and it was designed to look that way, Brooke couldn’t tell. The design inside would give anyone a headache, especially because of the lights. Everything was red, black and golden, but the lights, for some reason, were blue. The walls, the floor, the décor, everything was as similar as it was different. It was all very elegant though somewhat ridiculous. Maybe because they tried to make it appealing to both humans and vampires and it ended up being all nonsense.

Everything went well at the reception, putting aside the room with no bed Eric had booked for Bill and Sookie, which they ended up changing. Brooklynne had a room of her own, which surprised all of them, however Sookie was more than happy to have a room alone with her boyfriend and didn’t complain about it. Brooklynne’s room was bigger than her living room and the bed was gigantic. The design was the same in every room, black and red, no windows, a giant TV on the wall and a bathroom big enough for a shower and a bathtub so big it could have been a hot tub.

Leon’s interrogation didn’t answer all of their questions, but at least answered the biggest one. Who was behind the attempted kidnapping. Bill was very angry at Eric for not letting him know the Fellowship of the Sun was involved in Godric’s disappearance, though there was nothing he could really do about it. The vampire had glamoured Leon to forget they ever arrived at the airport before he let him go.

Alone in her quiet hotel room, Brooklynne decided to do some research on the Fellowship of the Sun. They were a church created by Reverend Theodore Newlin which had just died in a car accident with his wife and their baby daughter. His son Steve was convinced vampires were behind their deaths and took over the church, and resumed spreading his father’s message of hate towards the creatures of the night. The church, which was based here, in Dallas, seemed like a cult to Brooklynne, who wished she could remember why that church sounded so familiar.

She fell asleep a little after midnight, the laptop sliding from her lap and onto the red silk sheets. She had changed into comfortable sleepwear, a pair of pastel blue shorts and an old white crop top which was a little too tight for her now. She was woken up less than an hour later by someone entering the room. She jumped awake as she heard footsteps. Her eyes grew big as she saw Eric standing at the end of the bed. She felt her cheeks redden as his gaze traveled from her bare legs to her exposed belly button to her face.

“Well, don’t you look happy to see me,” he chuckled as he saw the fear in her eyes.

“Wh-what are you doing here?” she asked, enveloping herself in the bedsheets.

“We share a room, didn’t you know?” he said as he took off his black leather jacket, leaving him in his white sleeveless shirt.

“What? Why?”

“It’s cheaper,” he shrugged, though she knew he was lying. He could have booked the entire hotel if he had wanted to, according to Bill. “Besides. You’re in Dallas now. The vampires here are no joke.”

“And you are?” the sassy remark escaped her.

Eric raised an eyebrow, perhaps impressed by her unexpected reply.

“I guess not, or else you wouldn’t be scared of me,” he said with a smile as if he were proud of it.

He threw his jacket on the couch at the corner of the room before he leaned over the bed, placing a knee on the soft mattress, then the other, making his way next to Brooke. He rested his back against the bedframe as he sighed.

“I’ve had a long day. I could use a snack.”

Brooke swallowed as she tried to think of a clever answer, one Sookie would have come up with.

“I am not your dinner,” is all she said.

“No, but you could be my dessert,” he smirked which made her blush again.

She looked away from him, which is when he noticed the bruise on her cheek. He was so fast it made her jump. He seized her chin in his hand, firmly, though not hard enough to hurt her, and made her look at him so he could get a better look.

“What happened?” he asked, the anger in his tone worried her.

“Nothing,” she replied quickly in a whisper. “The man… Leon. He hit me when he tried to take Sookie.”

“And Bill let him go,” he said in disapproval, as if he would have done differently, which she knew he probably would have. “My blood can heal you,” he offered as he released her.

“Your blood can do a lot of things,” she muttered, remembering the side effects Bill’s blood had on Sookie.

“Indeed,” Eric chuckled. “It could lead to a lot of fun.”

“I’m not gonna have sex with you,” she told him, and she expected him to laugh at her, but he merely shrugged.

“Not tonight, maybe not,” he said as he leaned towards her.

She tried to move back as his nose reached her neck, but she was already at the edge of the bed.

“Dangerous walking around vampires not belonging to anyone,” he said with a deep and quiet voice, “my offer still stands.”

“No, thank you,” she told him with a trembling voice.

He chuckled, as if he had expected her to reject him. “Fine, then,” he said, leaning back against the bedframe, “I’ll let you sleep. You’ll need to be well rested tomorrow. We’re meeting with Godric’s people as soon as the sun sets.”

“Why do you care so much about Godric?” she asked, remembering he had once told her vampires only cared about their makers and their progeny.

“I told you, he’s my friend.”

“How long have you known him?”

“A thousand years.”

“A thousand years? Did you make him?”

He chuckled like it was a ridiculous thing to say. “No. He made me.”

Brooklynne wasn’t surprised to hear it. After all it explained a lot. She couldn’t imagine someone who tortured people in his basement would care about others.

“So, he’s your maker. That’s why you care so much about him.”

“Vampires are loyal to their makers. Godric is… the best maker I could’ve asked for.”

She saw he was sincere. It made her wonder. Was Godric as bad as he was? Or was he worse?

“Is he the one who taught you to torture people in your basement?”

He shot her a look and she wondered if she had gone too far.

“You’re still mad about your friend Lafayette?” he asked, like it was something she’d ever get over.

“Of course,” she said as if it was surprising he’d think otherwise.

“Your friend sold and used vampire blood. If I didn’t make an example out of him I would be seen as weak. And I can’t have that.”

“You could have called the police.”

“Yes, I could have,” he nodded. “But I had questions. Questions about Godric.”

“What does Lafayette know about your maker?”

“Nothing, as it turned out. But I still needed to ask.”

“You didn’t need to torture him.”

“No, but it’s always more fun,” he grinned.

Outrage ran through her as she fought back the want to slap him. She clenched her jaw, but then looked away. She slid under the sheets, turned her back towards him and laid down on the bed, indicating the conversation was over.

He chuckled again before he got off the bed. “And a good night to you too, Brooklynne,” he said before he left the room.

***

She woke up around 10AM and was surprised to find Eric sleeping beside her. He had kept his distance and the bed was so big another person could have slept between them without bothering either of them. She didn’t know what to do, she was afraid to move. She didn’t want to wake him up. She wondered how true what Sookie had once told her was. Vampires slept all day, from sunrise to sundown and it took a lot to wake them up. She put that to the test.

She ordered breakfast and Eric slept through it. She took a shower and got dressed and he was still sleeping when she stepped out of the bathroom. Sookie came knocking on her door around noon, to go get lunch downstairs, and he didn’t even move at all. She found it extremely creepy, especially since he looked dead when he was asleep. She didn’t let her sister see the vampire in the room, or else she’ll never hear the end of it, and she didn’t want her to wake him up. She couldn’t get used to the way he was looking at her, like she was his dinner or something he wanted, something he desired to own.

During lunch, Sookie was going and on and on about Barry, a man working in the hotel who happened to be a telepath like them. He seemed to be unable to control his ability, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been for Broolkynne.

“Can he order people around?”

“I asked and he had no idea what I was talking about.”

“I’m worried that… you know… now that I blocked it, I… I just made everything stop.”

“You can’t hear anything at all?”

“No, which is great! But…” she sighed. “I know if I focused I could do it, I just don’t understand why I couldn’t make Leon stop last night!”

“I think you just need to practice. You know, like, before everything was messy inside your head and you had no control over any of it so it kind of just happened, but now that you do, you just need to put more effort into it.”

“Like glamouring… I’ll have to look them in the eyes?”

“Maybe,” Sookie shrugged. “But at least now you can have lunch with me in a restaurant, surrounded by other people,” she smiled as she put her hand over her sister’s.

“I know, it’s weird… I keep forgetting there are other people around us… And then they’ll move, and they’ll scare the hell out of me,” she joked.

“Well, like I said. You’ll get used to it.”

“Maybe I could even get a job. You think Sam needs another waitress?”

“I think you’d be a better bartender.”

They laughed as they talked about the things Brooklynne could do now that she didn’t even dare dream of before. She wondered if the wall would be permanent, if it would stand forever, and what it would take to have it crumble down. She hoped she could at least find herself a job and have a semblance of a normal life.

Eric was still sleeping when she came back into the room. According to Sookie, she could watch TV right next to him and it wouldn’t wake him up. It proved to be true. She was still watching an old soap opera, which she used to watch with her grandmother, when Eric rose from the bed. Like a clock, he opened his eyes when the sun went down. Alerted by the movement behind her, she turned around to see him make his way from the bed to where she was sitting on the couch.

“How do you do that?”

“What?”

“Wake up as soon as it’s dark outside.”

“Habit,” he shrugged. “We can feel it.”

He took a bottle of Tru Blood from the mini fridge before he sat beside her. Brooklynne was surprised he’d drink from a bottle. He saw the look on her face and smirked.

“Unless you want to volunteer?”

“I saw there are people on the menu,” she said, not bothering to hide her disgust.

“Somehow I think you’re not going to appreciate watching me drink from someone.”

She frowned. “That’s very considerate of you.”

“You’re welcome,” he said before he brought the bottle of synthetic blood to his lips. “What are you watching?” he asked, clearly not happy with the program.

“It was Gran’s favorite show,” she explained. “She never missed an episode.”

“You know,” he said, as he put the bottle down on the coffee table before them, “there are more interesting things to watch here.”

“Like what?” she asked, not removing her attention from the nurse crying over her dead boss.

Eric moved closer to her, putting his hand on the arm of the couch, blocking her view to the TV with his face. “I’ll let you take a guess.”

She frowned, thinking about it for a moment before she rolled her eyes. “I’ve been hearing everybody’s dirty thoughts since I was a child. You want to watch porn, there’s a laptop on the nightstand.”

Her surprising response made him laugh. “I forgot how different you are from other humans. Though you do look better than the first time we met. I’ll take credit for that.”

Well, she couldn’t take the credit away. It was him who had taken her to his hellish club and forced her to face the crowd. It was him who had pushed her to try and take control of her powers. Where her entire family had chosen to keep her inside, away from people, he had done the opposite, and it had only taken one night for her to get positive results. Or at least, some results.

“How many vampires will there be at the meeting tonight?”

He looked down at her and saw how worried she was. Well, at least she wasn’t dumb. She was going to have to enter a room filled with vampires and she was right to be nervous. She was smart to be scared.

“Two,” he said, and he saw she was a little reassured.

“And they think the Fellowship of the Sun has Godric too?”

“They suspect, but we have no proof. That’s why you’re here.”

“Do they know… that we’re here to help?”

“Yes. You have nothing to fear from Isabel. I believe she has a human of her own. She is… reasonable.”

“But the other vampire isn’t?”

“You could say that. But if you don’t get in his way, he won’t hurt you. Especially since you’re with me.”

“Doesn’t he want us to help?”

“It would be in his interest if Godric was never found. Stan has ambitions to become a sheriff one day. Besides, he hates humans, and will find the idea to request human help appalling, but he has no power to stop it.”

“So… avoid Stan and trust Isabel, then?”

Eric nodded. “Sounds wise.”

A knock on the door interrupted them. It was time to leave for the meeting and, unsurprisingly, Bill was right on time. The vampire had a lot of qualities and, apparently, punctuality was one of them. When Eric opened the door, he met with a surprised Bill and an angry Sookie. He could already hear her tell him to stay away from her sister.

“Eric,” Bill said. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, it’s my room,” he grinned.

“No. This is Brooke’s room,” Sookie snarled.

“Yes, we’re sharing.”

“And are you sharing the bed too?” Bill asked, knowing it would put Sookie in a rage and already enjoying annoying Eric.

“Don’t worry, it’s a big bed,” Eric winked at the eldest sister.

“You’re getting anoth-“

“We should go,” Brooke interrupted them. It’s not that she wasn’t grateful for her sister’s protection, but she just wished she’d let her take care of herself for once. “We don’t want to be late,” she continued as she appeared next to Eric.

“No. We don’t want to be late,” he said, as he put his hand on her lower back and gently pushed her out of the room.

Sookie gave a “if you hurt her I’m going to kill you and Bill will help” look to Eric which only made the vampire smirk.

“Keep your energy, Sookie. We have a long night and a long day ahead of us.”

And he wasn’t lying.

Stan and Isabel were as different as Eric and Bill. One wanted to shoot first and ask questions later, and the other was smarter. The group from Bon Temps watched as the two underlings argued in Godric’s living room. It was a big house, surprisingly white and bright and with big windows giving a view of the streets. Eric was pacing as he listened to them yell at each other on how to proceed.

“We take them all out at once. Pre-emptive strike,” Stan said with a heavy Texan accent.

“Of course, so the federal government can bomb us back into the Middle Ages!” Isabel replied with a Spanish accent of her own.

Stan scoffed. “Things were better then.”

“Then go to Romania and live in a cave, you ranchero poser!”                      

Eric growled as he picked up a vase from the table beside him and threw it across the room. The sudden burst of anger made Brooke jump. She was standing next to her sister, who was also surprised by the vampire’s reaction.

“Godric has protected you, made you rich, and you stand here spitting and scratching like infants!”

“Don’t any of you care that there’s a traitor in your midst?” Bill asked.

“No,” Stan merely replied like he did, in fact, not care at all, or maybe he just didn’t believe it.

“Impossible,” Isabel rejected the idea.

“Someone tried to kidnap me and my sister from the airport,” Sookie told them.

“You were the only ones that knew they were coming.”

“Explain,” Eric ordered them as he placed himself near Brooklynne.

“Unless it was you,” both Stan and Isabel told each other in unison.

“Look, if y’all argue anymore, I’m either gonna fall asleep or start screaming so this is what we’re gonna do,” Sookie told them, ignoring the look her sister was giving her. Brooke didn’t imagine using that kind of tone was smart, especially if she were going to tell two vampires what to do. “We’ll infiltrate the Fellowship of the Sun.”

A plan both sisters had agreed to at lunch. It seemed like the only way to make themselves useful and to actually get results.

“Absolutely not!”

Sookie obviously hadn’t shared her plans with Bill.

“Let her speak,” Eric said, to Bill and Stan’s dismay.

“Since Bill glamoured the kidnapper, no one there knows who we are. We’ll pretend we want to join the church and check out all their thoughts.”

“No. During the day, none of us can help you,” Bill told her.

“It’ll only take a little while. Really, Bill it’s simple.”

Stan shook his head. “Waste of time,” he growled as he started walking away. “I want no part of this.”

Isabel wasn’t sad to see him go. “There’s no easier way to find out if they’re involved.”

“If it leads us to Godric, we’ll do it,” Eric nodded. “The decision is made.”

Brooklynne already felt a headache coming as Bill and Sookie started to argue. But as the vampire had learnt to know, he couldn’t tell Sookie what to do, and he couldn’t stop Eric from getting what he wanted. Something Sookie was coming to learn as well since no matter what she said and how loud she said it, Eric wouldn’t agree to book himself another room.

“Your sister is quite annoying,” the vampire complained as he closed the door to their room, after Bill had pulled Sookie away into theirs.

“She doesn’t like you,” Brooke replied as she was looking through her luggage for better sleepwear, something less revealing than she was wearing last night. Unfortunately, she had only packed dresses and shorts.

“I’ve noticed.”

Brooke went into the bathroom without saying another word. She took a long shower, hoping that when she’d come out, Eric would be gone. And maybe he had read her mind, or he had important things to take care of, but when she stepped back into the room, he was gone. She slid under the bedsheets, relieved to be alone, and slept the entire night, undisturbed.

**********

Tags: @thepoet1975 @nerdysandwichqueen @catchmeupimgettingoutofhere @raegan-hale @colie87

[makknays]

hard to get.

“What’s his problem?” “I kicked his balls.”

genre: romance cuz idk how else to put this...

word count: 1.9k

Months and months on end, Jimin kept trying to get you into his bed for what he claimed to be a night you’ll never forget. Bull! Shit! He was just trying to fuck you after missing his chance back in high school; it’s not that he was desperate to be fucked, he had many girls for that, but he never got to experience what you were like and it bothered him immensely, especially after hearing rumours about how amazing you were at giving head.

“Why do you keep rejecting Jimin? He’s like one of the hottest guys around.” Hazel asked me as she sat down next to be on the grass, she would fuck him without a thought, most girls around would. Most meaning neither Kai nor me. We were the sane ones. “I don’t wanna be in his bed and be fucked by him. Chances are he’s shit, has an STD and is just a pretty face.” “You always say that. Wouldn’t you wanna know what he’s actually like? Don’t you get curious?” “Not really, there’s other options. Like his friends who seem like they’d be 90% better.” you told her. “That’s true, I’d fuck Namjoon in a heartbeat.” Kai interjected. “Anyway, you’re insane for not fucking Jimin.”

“Speak of the devil.” you muttered as Jimin walked over to the three of you. You were sat up with your left arm supporting you, while Kai laid her head on your lap and Hazel faced the two of you. “Hey, girls. Mind if I join?” before any of you had the chance to answer he sat down beside you and joined. “Damn, you don’t know what I’d give to be in Kai’s place.” he smirked as he turned to you. “Well I’m glad you’re not.” “If only you would give me a chance to show you how great I am in bed.” he chuckled. “Dude, you lost your chance in high school, you know when I still liked you.” “And I hate myself more and more everyday because of it. Anyway, you girls coming to Taehyung’s party tonight?” “Yeah but it’s also the ‘avoid Jimin at all costs’ party.” you replied to him, causing him to pout. “Aww, what a shame, it would’ve been a great time to prove what I say to you.”

Later that night you found yourself at Taehyung’s house, this boy was your best friend. “___! You came!” he screamed as you walked through the door. “Of course I did! I wouldn’t miss one of your parties!” “Here, have a drink. Enjoy your stay!” he smiled as disappeared into the sea of bodies. “Hey there, sweet cheeks.” Jimin smirked as he slapped your ass playfully. Without a thought you turned, raised your knee and targeted his balls. “KO!” Taehyung shouted as he watched his friend fall to the ground, clutching his crotch. “Don’t touch me like that again.” you said with a smile on your face before you made your way over to Kai and Hazel.

During your lecture, Jimin kept side-eyeing you. “What do you want?” you whispered to him. “An apology for kicking my balls.” “Nope, I had every right to kick you there.” you told him as you went back to writing notes. “I don’t think it was justified, you need to apologise or at least give me something nice in return.” “Knowing you, you’ll want me to blow you or something.” you muttered. “You read my mind, honey.” “Nope.” “But---” “Nope. I don’t owe you any form of apology. You slapped my ass, you should be thankful I didn’t report you.” “Fine, have it your way. Even though you threatened my future potential for having kids.” “Well you harassed me so keep your tiny hands to yourself.” you told him as you moved further away from him.

“Hey, Jimin, ___’s pretty mad at what you did, you know?” Taehyung asked me as he plopped down beside me with a red cup in his hand. “That’s her problem.” I told him as I grabbed for his drink. “You’re not having of this unless you apologise for being an ass hat to my best friend.” Taehyung told me as he moved towards the kitchen. “I’m not gonna apologise to her after she publicly embarrassed me!” I called after him. “It’s your own fault, you slapped her ass first, didn’t you? So, it’s your fault, dickhead!”

“But I didn’t embarrass her!” “You harassed her, you ruined your already stained image of yourself for her, if you hadn’t done that you would’ve had a somewhat higher chance of getting her. By the way, trust me, ___ isn’t the kinda girl who enjoys one night stands like you. She’s in it to commit.” Taehyung said as he threw away the red cup. “Well, what if I was as well? I’ve been going after her for months now I think I’ve developed something.”

“Have you? Or has your horniness? Sick bastard, don’t mess with my best friend!” “Fine, I’ll give it time and see how I really feel, how about that? Huh? Is it that better for your best friend?”, I asked him in frustration. “Ten times better.”

You were walking past Jimin on campus, a month after he confronted you, with Isla, who hadn’t heard about the events that occurred. “What’s his problem?” she asked as she noticed his glare towards you. “I kicked his balls.” “You what?” she laughed as you continued to walk towards the library. “Yeah, he slapped my ass so I kicked his balls as a reflex, a girl’s gotta protect herself.” you simply smiled as you entered the building. “What else has happened between you guys?” “Well there was this one time at Hoseok’s party where he was like:

““Hey baby, wanna make love?” and he wrapped his arms around my waist and I was already like hella uncomfortable at this point but told him “Sure, just not with you.” and obviously he was really salty about it and I’m guessing the ass slap was a kind of revenge thing so I kicked his balls as a return gift.”

“I can’t believe you get away with these things.” Isla laughed as she sat down at a table. “Neither can I, he’s just so desperate to get some, I don’t get why he doesn’t go after other girls.” you told her. “Maybe the rumours about you are just too good to pass on.” she joked. “Don’t even, I’ve slept with 3 guys in my life so I don’t even know how this rumour started.” “When was your last fuck?” “Like last year, dude. And I ain’t desperate for any anytime soon.” you laughed as you pulled out your expensive ass textbook to start making notes.

After your little study session with Isla, you decided to pack up and make your way to the nearby cafe that had just opened. However, as you left, not to your surprise, Jimin was waiting outside the building. He lookeddi fferent today, almost attractive. He wasn't wearing that stupid snapback that you hated and he was revealing his dark locks and his sculpted biceps were on show too. “Hey…” Jimin spoke nervously, he was nervous, why was he nervous? “Hi, what’s up with you?” you joked in order to prevent any unwanted awkwardness. “I was wondering if you wanted to go to the new cafe nearby, you know with me?” he awkwardly asked as he scratched the back of his head. “You’re serious? No jokes, no flirting, just as normal humans?” you questioned. “Yep, none of the normal shenanigans.” he chuckled. “You’re being weird today but I’ll go with you.”

The two of you started to walk towards the cafe that should have been around 5 minutes away, but it felt like much longer, especially with the silence between you two. Normally Jimin would be making some stupid comments or being cocky but today he was timid and almost shy. “Seriously, what's up?” you asked him as you held onto the straps of your backpack. “Nothing, just thinking.” “You're bad at covering yourself up, liar.” you teased as you hopped in front of him to stop him in his tracks. “Seriously, you don't have to worry about it, ___.” “You sure? You gonna act a bit more like Jimin and less like ‘I'm a shy mess’ Jimin?” you joked as you returned to your place beside him. “Yeah, I will. Is your bag heavy? I'll carry it for you.” you pouted at the sudden comment. “Now, this is ‘gentleman’ Jimin, rare, and a strange sight to see.” “I’m tryna be nice. Stop narrating which Jimin I’m being.” he laughed as you handed him your heavy backpack.

“What is in this thing? Bricks? The secrets of hell?” he joked as he swung it onto his right shoulder. “You can manage, look at the muscle you're packing.” you teased as you squeezed his left bicep. Anyone who didn't know the two of you would've thought you were together, the sight was not one to miss. The two of you were taking a shortcut through the park and genuinely laughing with each other, it looked so real and genuine, as if there was something there. “We're here? Already?” you asked, shocked by how quick time had actually passed. “We're here, baby.” he smiled. “First pet name today, nice one Chim. That's a record for you.” you told him as you entered the cafe. “After you.” you told him as you signed for him to lead the way into the cafe.

“So, what turned you to be a fuckboy was the fact that you knew you were hot?” you asked him as the waiter placed the chocolate muffin on your table. “You could say so.” he chuckled as he was handed his coffee. “Was it to get back at someone as well?” you curiously asked, not really thinking about how he would interpret it. “Yeah, it was. I wanted to get back at my ex, who said I only had a shot with her and I was lucky to even have her.” “That was my next question but also, why? You're like an amazing guy, cocky but nice, nonetheless and she sounds like a bitch.” you said as you took a sip of your latte. “I got angry at her for looking down on me, as if I was just like a tool; I guess I wanted to feel superior and messed around with too many girls but when I heard that you liked me back in high school, I kinda made it my quest to come after you. But you were much more persistent than I thought you would be, you made me want you more and I admire you now. Not as a one time fuck but as an individual.”

“I didn't ask for the confession but I'll take it. Cutie.” you smiled as you took his hand in yours and held it. “I hope you're not fucking with me, Taehyung will come for your fine ass if you are.” you joked. “Trust me, I know. It took me a while to sort my emotions out but I really do like you and I don't want to be with you for any other reason except that you are an amazing woman.” he said as he smiled at me. “And?” “And you seem nice to fuck.” “There's the fuckboi in you. Lose that and you're okay to actually fuck me but I think I'll make you wait a little longer.”

[marvelous-imagining]

Run

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

A/N: LAST PART. Hope you like it!

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Words: 3,624

Warnings: just a tiny bit of angst

Sitting inside a cafe while looking outside through the window, you watched people passing by, some in a hurry, some just taking their time, enjoying the warm sun shining upon them while striding along the street.

You would have loved to go out and enjoy the warm sun but you were inside a cafe, waiting for a drink while keeping one of your hands in your pocket, feeling your phone between your fingers. The phone was like a comforter to you, you knew Bucky was one call or a text message away. Knowing you could get a hold of him that easily brought ease to your mind. Yet, you hadn't called him nor had he called you.

You took the phone out of your pocket and placed it on the table in front of you, looking at it with a frown on your face. You let your fingers rest on it for a while, pondering over whether to take it and call him or not.

"I think you need an upgrade on your phone." You heard the waitress say, interrupting your intense staring contest with the outdated piece of technology. You looked up and let out a sheepish chuckle, pulling your hand away from the phone and turning your attention to the drink she brought you.

"I really don't, but thank you."

"Really?" She asked, surprised. "You don't think you should get a smart phone? Everyone's got one nowadays."

You shook your head, smiling politely. "Trust me, this is all I need," you said and took the flip phone, showing it to the waitress, "At least for now."

The waitress gave you a questioning look but she shrugged. "Alright, then. Enjoy your drink."

So you were left alone again, now with a drink to accompany you. You wrapped your hands around it and took a sip, your gaze falling back down to the phone as you placed the drink back on the table. You brought your fingers to your mouth, biting your nails as you once again stared at the phone.

You hadn't heard from him for a few weeks. You were worried of what might had happened to him. You had seen the news after a couple of days since you had left Germany. They had interviewed Secretary Ross and he had told the world that Steve and Bucky had gotten away, also someone had gotten into the Raft and let out the others that had been put behind the bars. You had a strong feeling the two super soldiers had something to do with it but you hadn't heard more about it.

You knew the reason why you hadn't called, you didn't want to bother him. He had told you to call him if you ever needed to but... you didn't really need to. You weren't in danger, nobody had publicly said you were being looked for and you were laying low for the time being, made sure to dress so you could hide your face if you ever felt the need to, just in case. You took the advice Bucky had given you. You always had a cap and sunglasses, the "perfect disguise".

Of course you wanted to call him. You missed him a lot. The thing was, he had told you he'd call you when the time was right, when he had dealt with the situation he was in. He hadn't called you, not even sent a little text telling what was going on with him and the situation he was in. You had thought about calling him but never did. What if he was in a life or death situation? You couldn't just call him because you missed him.

Sure, he wouldn't have the time to actually answer if he was in a fight at the moment but he had problems to deal with, telling him you missed him wouldn't help at all.

It did make you think, though. Did he miss you?

A part of you thought, of course he missed you! You two had spent two years together, on the run. You two had grown very close and he really cared about you. You knew he did. You of course cared about him too. The two of you were great friends and neither of you could just throw all that away.

A part of you, a much smaller part, thought maybe he had sent you away and that he'd never contact you again. You knew that wasn't the case but the longer you had to go on with your life and not hear anything about him, the more you began to worry.

Just as your mind was starting to drift off to more reasons Bucky might not be missing you, your phone rang.

The damn thing had a ringtone so old and so loud it drew the attention of many people around the cafe. The vibrations practically shook the whole table and you quickly grabbed the phone in your hand. You answered the call and took a deep breath. "Hello?" You asked carefully, feeling your heart starting to race.

"Hey," You heard Bucky say from the other side of the line, "How does a trip to Wakanda sound?"

You got out of a car that you had come in from the airport. You shut the car door and looked up, seeing a giant stone panther standing, roaring above you. You let out a small gasp as you took in the sight, thinking how terrible it would be if it came to life. You quickly turned away, getting slightly weirded out.

You made your way inside with an escort and T'Challa was waiting for you in the lobby. You gritted your teeth and your jaw tensed as you remembered the last time you had seen him. He had been trying to kill Bucky.

Bucky had told you that T'Challa was helping him while talking to you over the phone. You trusted Bucky with your life and knew T'Challa was trustworthy but you still had a hard time forgetting your last encounter which also happened to be the first. Your first impression of him hadn't been the best.

"Your Highness," you said politely, giving a little neck bow. He nodded back as a greeting.

"I know we didn't start off in the best terms," he started and turned around, making you follow him, "But I hope we can put all that behind us. I want to help your friend."

"Well, yeah, you better," you muttered under your breath, thinking he wouldn't hear. Unfortunately he did and you gulped visibly. "I'm sorry, your Highness," you said, looking down at the ground to avoid his gaze.

You followed him around the facility until he came to a stop in front of a door to a lab. You looked behind him and saw that Bucky was sitting in the room, talking to Steve.

Not caring if you were being disrespectful to the Majesty of Wakanda, you brushed past him and walked through the door. Bucky's and Steve's heads both snapped towards you and Bucky smiled wider than you had ever seen him smile. You started running towards him, seeing him open his arms for you. As you were close enough, you jumped, wrapping your arms around his shoulders and your legs around his waist. You heard Bucky laugh joyfully as his arms wrapped around your waist. You buried your face in his neck, squeezing him tightly.

You unwrapped your legs from his waist and he lowered you to the floor. You still kept your arms around each other. "I missed you," you muttered out, still hugging him tightly.

"I missed you too," he said gently, running his hand up and down your back.

You finally pulled away after a few more seconds and you took a good look at him. His hair was about the same length, he had no visible new scars...

You took a step back and looked at his metal arm, seeing it looked different. It even felt different than before.

You grabbed Bucky's arm and turned him around, seeing no red star painted on it. Your eyes widened and you turned your gaze up to him again. "You got a new arm?" You asked.

"Yeah, the other one got blown off." He said, rubbing his shoulder that was connected to the new prosthetic.

"It... Blown off?" You yelled out. "What? How?" You turned your gaze back to the arm, seeing that the part where his skin connected to the metal arm looked a lot more healthier, not scarred and painful as it did with his previous arm. You reached your hand out to touch his skin and he flinched, causing you to apologize in panic.

"I've only had this for a couple of days," he said, wincing at the pain. "It's still very sensitive."

You nodded and grabbed his metal hand in yours. You played with his fingers, getting used to the new material. You noticed you had completely ignored Steve who had been there ever since you had come in and you quickly pulled away from Bucky, turning around. "Hi, Steve."

He sent you a small smile. "Hi," he responded. "How was the flight?"

"Long but... it was alright," you shrugged. "What have you two been up to?" You asked.

Steve looked at Bucky, waiting for him to talk. Bucky sighed and you turned your attention fully towards him. "I've been in cryo for the last couple of weeks."

"What?" You exclaimed. "Why?"

"I can't trust my own mind," he said with a sad smile. "I think until these people find a cure, I should stay in cryo. I only got my arm a few days ago, they've been keeping an eye on it, wanting to know if something was wrong so they could fix it."

"Wait," you said quietly. "You think you should stay in cryo?" You asked, confused. "You're going back?"

Bucky nodded and looked down at the ground, not wanting to look you in the eye and see your sad, possibly angry, gaze. "I just want to keep you all safe."

"No," you shook your head. "Don't you dare. You know how you could keep us safe? By being here with us, fighting with us if you need to, not running away from us."

"I'm not running away," Bucky said firmly, voice rising.

"Yes, you are," you said quietly. "Bucky, you're in control, alright? You hadn't had anything trigger you for so long until that asshat came along and used those words to trigger you. Before that, you had been doing so well."

"Y/N..."

"Don't leave me."

Bucky frowned at the pleading tone in your voice and placed a hand on your shoulder.

"Stay."

Bucky looked into your sad eyes, finding himself really not wanting to leave you after seeing you for the first time in a couple of weeks.

"I will be very mad if you leave me."

"Oh, I really don't like you when you're mad," he said with a ghost of a smile on his lips. "You're pretty scary when you are angry."

"I know."

"Even when you're angry at someone else. I would never want to be the one causing you to feel that way. Ever."

You chuckled lightly, shrugging his hand off of your shoulder. "Well, there's a way to prevent that from happening."

Bucky shook his head, the smile disappearing from his features. "I don't think I can do that," he said honestly, pain clear in his voice. "I'm just thinking about the others. I want them to be safe, who knows what might happen to me."

"You don't get it, do you?" You asked, letting out a groan. "You think about others too much, you're too scared about hurting them."

"Y/N, if I go back to the Winter mindset, somebody is going to die. You've seen him in action. He doesn't hold back at all," Bucky said harshly, wanting to get his point across and not tiptoe around until you may come to an agreement with him.

Your eyes narrowed, jaw tensed as you tried to calm yourself down. Anger was rising deep inside of you, fast. You didn't want to yell at him because a part of you knew he was making a good point. He wanted to protect other people, he was very concerned about hurting them.

What he didn't realize is that he was hurting you. Not physically, like the Winter Soldier would do to anyone who dared to step in his way. Knowing he wanted to go back in cryo, leave you all alone surrounded by people you hardly knew, it broke your heart. It felt like you needed him much more than he needed you.

You pursed your lips, took a deep breath before letting a shaky one out. "You know what?" You said as you tried to seem as carefree, as relaxed as possible. "Do what you want. Stay in cryo for the next thousand years, I don't care," you muttered before walking out of the door.

Bucky was left staring at the door as it was slammed shut. His shoulders slumped and heart wrenched as he turned back to Steve. "I wish she understood," he said quietly.

"Buck, I'm not the right person to talk to here. I'm with her on this, you know that."

"But at least you respect my decision. You're not trying to make me back out of it. You're supportive," he said and sat down on the examination table behind him. "Why can't she be supportive?" He wondered out loud, burying his face in his hands.

Steve exhaled through his nose slowly as he made his way to the table as well, sitting down beside his best friend. "I don't know," he said, looking over at his friend who was running his hands through his hair. "Maybe she just needs you here with her."

Bucky turned to Steve, brows rising. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, Buck. You two spent every day together for the past couple of years up until a few weeks ago. It must be hard to get used to not being around each other. Don't you feel the same way?"

Bucky was quick to nod but he let out a small groan. "It makes me ache," he admitted, not wanting to hide how he felt anymore. "I hate to leave her but I'm doing this for other people, for her. I—" He stopped to take a deep breath. "I really care about her, Steve. She's been there for me everyday ever since I escaped. She's been my rock, my anchor... She's kept me sane."

Steve sent a small, sad smile to his friend, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing it. "You might not see it but she feels the same way about you," Steve said, earning a questioning look from Bucky. "Why else would she have reacted the way she did? She really cares about you, Bucky."

"Yes, she does. I know that," he said and hung his head low. "I'll let her calm down first, I'll try talking to her later."

Punch, punch, kick, punch.

Left hook, right hook, low kick, knee strike.

Low kick, high kick, punch, right hook.

"How come everyone always goes to the gym to punch some bags when they're mad at someone?"

You stopped your little workout and placed your glove covered hands on the bag, keeping it still as you turned to look at Bucky who was standing at the doorway. You wiped the sweat off of your forehead and took off the gloves, unfastening the velcro tapes with your teeth before taking the first glove, soon doing the same to the other one. "Well, better to let your anger out on something meant to be punched rather than someone who's not," you said, smiling slightly. "I'm sure you wouldn't want me to punch and kick you."

"You might get tired rather soon. I know I wouldn't feel anything."

"Don't get cocky, Barnes," you warned and drank some water, wiping off some more sweat. "You know I can do a lot of damage, you've seen me in action."

He nodded, "Yeah, I have," he smiled, starting to walk towards you, handing you a towel that you had laid on the bench before starting your workout. "How long have you been in here?"

"Not too long, although I did punch a wall a couple of times before,", you said and took the towel from him, wiping your face before putting the towel on your shoulders, taking another sip of water. You started removing the wrapping from your hands and looked down at your knuckles. "Then someone was like, hey we have a gym and that's how I found my way here."

Bucky hummed as a reply and looked at you as you went over to sit on the bench.  You looked up at him, still trying to slow your breathing from the workout, the anger relief you had done. "You wanna talk or something?"

"Yeah, I feel like we should."

You moved further on the bench, giving him some space to sit down. "What's on your mind Buck Buck?"

Bucky gave you confused look as he heard the new nickname but decided to brush past it, not really wanting to postpone the discussion any longer. "Are you still mad?" He asked, wanting to make sure how to handle the situation.

"Yes but... I understand and respect your decision," you muttered, surprising Bucky. "I am still mad and for selfish reasons but I just..." You sighed, drinking from your water bottle again. "I missed you, Bucky. So much. I've been feeling so lonely and scared for the past few weeks. I'm not trying to guilt-trip you but that's how it is," you tell him, honest and straightforward. "I want you here. I need you here."

As Bucky listened to you talking to him in such honest manner, saw you with your head hung low as if what you had just said made you feel guilty, his heart ached in his chest. He reached out for you, placed a hand on your shoulder which made you glance up at him. He wrapped his arms around your shoulders and pulled you into his warm embrace. You wrapped your arms around his torso and nuzzled your head in his chest, feeling tears forming in your eyes.

Bucky's arms were securely around you as he laid his head on yours. He closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling slowly, breathing calmly, bringing you at ease as well. You breathed in and out, breathing pattern matching with his. You found yourself wanting to stay like that forever, the embrace was so comforting, it made you feel safe.

After pulling away, you looked at him and saw him look right back at you with a smile. "Well," you sighed, placing your hands on your thighs, "What do you want to do? I guess we should make this day memorable if you're going back in cryo, again."

Bucky shook his head as his smile widened. "I'm staying."

"Staying in the gym?" You asked, laughing. "I mean, sure, if that's what you want to do but it—"

"No," Bucky chuckled and placed a hand on your shoulder again. "I'm staying."

Your eyes widened and you find yourself letting out a quiet, almost inaudible gasp. "You are?" You asked quietly, earning a nod as an answer. "It's not because—"

"After you stormed out on me earlier, I talked to Steve and that got me thinking... Sure, I'm afraid for the others. Yes, I feel like I can't fully trust my own mind but..." he trailed on, looking you in the eyes, "I know people here are trying to help me find a cure, I know they will not let me hurt anyone and I sure as hell know that I can't leave you. I need you a little too much."

You smiled, "So, you made this decision on your own?"

"Well, you helped a little bit. Made me see things the way they are. I'll be fine as long as I'm with you."

You nodded, not being able to contain the smile on your face. "And in worst case scenario, we still have Kapel, right?"

Bucky nodded. "Yes," he answered simply.

You thought Kapel was the reason why you could bring him back down to earth when he was corrupted by the assassin inside his mind. You thought it was the snow, the sun, the droplets and the sounds of birds singing. You thought the surroundings, the image of the beautiful day was the antidote for the time being when he was in the Winter Soldier mindset.

Bucky on the other hand, thought otherwise. Yes, the surroundings were beautiful during a day perfectly described by one simple word that was Kapel. He enjoyed the sun, the melting snow that glistened under the rays of the bright sun, the icicles that were melting as well. He enjoyed it, found it breathtakingly beautiful but that wasn't what helped him snap back to reality. The antidote wasn't the image of the beautiful day, it was the memory. The memory of being with you to experience the day when winter had ended and spring begun. When Winter had been left behind.

You were the only one who could help him get through the toughest of times. He had reunited with Steve again, he was sure they would reconnect their bond but for the time being, you were the only one that could help him.

You were each other's cures. Being with each other may not have made all your troubles disappear but at least you helped one another.

You were right where you needed to be, with each other.

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[sethwriting-blog]

Chapter One — Seeking-Arrangement “Free”

word count : 1, 514 words

 Disclaimer : All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter One

Let me give some explanation on how I arrived in a hotel room, half naked.

FEW MONTHS AGO

Xenia’s P.OV

I watched people arriving in the garden by my window, people which were neither of my family nor my friends, people of “our class” said my mother. I couldn’t calm the anger which burned in me, this stupid party of “graduation celebration” is so useless, these 7 years of studies in law were a real torture. My family dreamed of seeing me taking back the law firm that my father opened around thirty years earlier. He built a small empire in the world of the justice, but he would not be eternal and as an only child I was intended to take back his firm.  Since I understand the senses of the words, I hear the same bullshit “You’ll take back the cabinet, my daughter and your children also… ” NO ! That’s not my dream. I always tried to follow the rules that my parents impose to me to the letter because I’m fucking naive and I thought that the only things of good in life were what they told me.

I was supposed to be ready fifteen minutes ago, my mother turned in ass and the governess didn’t stop tapping on my door.

“Mrs Phillips, your-,” Her small piping voice resounded in my room.

I left the edge of the window to open the door. The English governess jumped in the abrupt movement of the door.

“Tell to Victoria Phillips that I will not put a foot in this party, Mrs. McGeen.” I hissed by basing me in the doorframe.

A sad smile appeared on her face, I know this woman since my tender age. “You should go over there and speak your mind. If becoming an author is your dream…”

“You should follow it,” I continued with a slight smile.”You always say this sentence when it’s about my fucking of future.” I mumbled.

She’s a small woman, a blonde, with hazel eyes, she doesn’t look impressive but her character can be very authoritarian. Since I know her nothing changed with her: her low bun, her small pink polo accompanied by a grey cardigan, she always wears a long black skirt.

“XENIIIIIIAAAAAAA,” I heard the steps of my mother approached in a few seconds, she was in front of me. “HOW ?! What were you doing ? Everyone is waiting for you outside !” She yelled at me.

“I don’t wanna go there.” I argued. “I don’t know these people. What am I going to say to these people ? Oh I know, as always my dad and you are going to speak in my place.” I smirked by noticing that the lines of my mother face frowned more and more, her ebony skin contrasted with her clear eyes.

“No ! These are important people …

“I don’t give a fuck,” I crossed my arms on my breast. “I don’t wanna be a lawyer, I never wanted to be a lawyer,” I admitted.

She opened her eyes in big and covered her mouth. I had never managed to tell him, but in a moose of anger, it is going out alone. Mrs. McGeen had left, the steps of someone else listened and this time it was my father. The relation with my father degraded lately, we didn’t speak to each other anymore. He was blazing with anger, he held his jacket in his hand and his shirt collar was opened.

“I’ve had to lie to all the guests ! Why !?” he bawled.

“Tell him ! Tell your father what you’ve just told me,” my mom came back from her silence.

The look of my father had turned to my mother then to me. I felt that he could slap me if he had the opportunity to. No sound could go out of my mouth. My father intimidated me in a point that I couldn’t impede him. The scene was extremely weird, my two parents in front of me, on the landing of the door of my room, and a tension glided in the air.

“You’ve lost your tongue ! SPEAK !” my father yelled at him by getting closer to me.

“I…” I stammered softly, “I don’t wanna take back your firm.” I finally said it.

A sarcastic laughter brought out of my father’s mouth, “This is a joke, right.”

“No.” I replied firmly, he lost immediately his smile.

“Tell that’s a fucking joke Xenia, after all I’ve done for you ?” he stared at me.

“Why ?” my mom asked, tears in his yes, “Tell us why ?” she repeated.

“I want to a writer. I always wanted to be an author. Law, court etc… Isn’t my thing. If I studied to be a lawyer, it was to make you guys happy, but for once, I want to live my life in whatever way seems best to me,” My father rolled his eyes then he blew of nervousness.

“I worked like a dog in this cabin of a lawyer to offer you a future and you want to become a writer? You think that I am going to pay you studies to write books which nobody will read ?” He bent down towards me, “I give you a last chance to turn back Xenia: do you really want to be a writer?”

I cannot explain what passed in my head at this moment. So many things crowd but for the first time in my life, I had to make a choice, nobody can decide in my place. The looks of my parents were stuck on my lips.My mother had begun to cry and my father couldn’t stay in place anymore.

I nodded. Then my father stopped to move, he looked at me then he said, “Leave and never come back here,” he left and my mother give an angry then she followed him.

Now, I’m alone. But free.

Paul’s P.O.V

I filed paperwork with my partner and best friend, Shawn. Work was the only thing which managed to remind me something else, it is necessary to say that the atmosphere at my home was great.

“How are you man ?” Shawn raised an eyebrow by tidying up certain document in his briefcase. “Steph again ?”

“Steph again,”  I confirmed his mind, “This isn’t getting any better.”

He shook his head, “You should move on and have some fun too.” He advised by getting up from his chair.

“Well, If I move on, I also lose everything,” I said, swinging on my chair.

“Yeah but you can’t live like that…,” I got up to accompany him up to the door, he turned to me, “You already tried to fuck with a hooker ?” he asked.

I frowned. Or what was his point? “Shawn…” I began.

“It’s actually a good idea,” he shrugged.”There is a good website of hooker or escort, whatever. Wait, I am going to write it to you on a scrap of paper.” He took out a pen and cut a scrap of paper of mini pad of note. He writes on the paper then he handed it to me. “Check their website and don’t worry about your privacy.”

“I can’t promise you anything, mate.” I opened the door for him.

“If you try this, you’ll not regret it.” he winked at me then he left.

I wondered if he had already tried one of these escorts. I put the paper that he gave me in my pocket then I got back to work. I went back home, it was near 10:00 pm. The house was quiet, the girls doubtless slept.

I put my affairs on the sofa then I went in the kitchen, Stephanie was drinking a glass of champagne. She stared at me then she put her glass on the work surface.

“Hey.” I greeted.

“Where were you ?” she inquired softly, crossing her arms over her chest, “You were at work, as always. I had to put the girls in beds alone,” she complained.

“I’m sorry but…”

“I have enough Paul !” she ended my sentence, “I didn’t make kids to play the single mother.”

“Can you stop complaining please ?! I AM tired too, I HAVE problems too and I HAVE work too,” I answered by raising the voice.

“You know what Paul? Go fuck yourself,” she swore and left by pushing me.

I blew then I took her glass of champagne to end it sharply. I thought of our relation which degraded from day to day, and I didn’t understand why Stephanie blamed me so much. I left in the room that I occupied alone then I took my computer, I answered certain emails. When I felt a scrap of paper in my pocket, read it and I remembered my small conversation with Shawn. I hesitated before looking for this site on Google but I had nothing to lose. I signed up then I visited this website. The mounts which took these girls were horribly high. We could choose the girl according to criterion on the skin color, the eyes, the age etc…

“Bullshit,” I muttered.

I shook my head and closed my laptop.

A/N : Hope you enjoyed it. I hope the second will be more interesting.

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