#why she went with vanilla frosting instead of chocolate

[favroitecrime]

god send the flood they’re on twitter and tiktok calling people pleasing harmful manipulation and comparing icing in a cake to sexual assault. and they’ve got licensed therapists agreeing with them. no no, they’ve got licensed therapists making these analogies for them. i hope that man chokes on the next cake he bites into.

[fruitcoops]

Cake Off

Happy birthday, Finn O'Hara! Here's to hoping all your wishes come true <3 SW credit goes to @lumosinlove!

Marlene waved to the camera as she wove a small whisk into her bun; behind her, five young men sat in front of a well-lit industrial kitchen. “Hello, Lions, and welcome back to Lion Pride! I’m your host, Marlene McKinnon, and we’re here today to celebrate someone we all love very much.”

“Some more than others,” Leo corrected.

“Today is Finn O’Hara’s 25thbirthday,” Marlene continued. “And my gift to him was letting him pick what our next video was going to be. Being the agent of chaos we know and love, he chose to force his friends to make him birthday cakes. Cap, Knutty, I know you two are feeling pretty confident about this. Tremzy, Kasey, and Loops, how are we feeling today?”

Logan’s expression was rather pained. “Can I apologize in advance?”

“I have…a history with ovens,” Kasey said carefully. “Kind of like Britain’s history with the rest of the world, except I’m the rest of the world and the oven wins nine times out of ten.”

“I don’t bake,” Remus sighed. “This is going to be an adventure. Can I leave if I already got him a present?”

“Nope!” Marlene chirped. “To your stations, everyone!”

The five of them trooped to the countertops, which had been covered with a colorful assortment of baking supplies; Logan’s smile grew even more nervous. “Is there a guidebook, or something?”

Marlene ruffled his hair as she passed. “Where’s the fun in that? You have two hours to make a unique birthday cake. On your marks—”

Kasey went pale. “Wait—”

“—get set—”

“Marlene, please,” Remus begged.

“—go!”

“Oh my god,” Logan muttered. “Uh, I don’t have a recipe.”

Marlene’s grin was wicked. “That’s the extra bonus fun.”

Leo paused from where he was measuring flour into a sifter and raised his hand. “Finn’s not actually tasting everyone’s cakes, right? ‘Cause making him sick on his birthday seems a bit mean.”

“He only has to try one bite of each,” Marlene assured him as she stopped by Sirius’ station, where he was gathering his ingredients in a line. “Cap, what are you making today?”

“Vanilla with chocolate frosting. I know the recipe by heart, but I only make it when I’m stressed.” A furrow appeared between his brows before he straightened up and raised his voice. “Hey, someone stress me out!”

“Playoffs!” Kasey shouted from across the room. All five men immediately hurried to knock on the wooden cabinets.

“Thanks!” Sirius gave him a thumbs-up and Kasey winked.

“And somebody won’t be sleeping tonight,” Remus muttered, flicking sugar at Kasey. “Thanks, Bliz.”

Logan was still bracing himself against the countertop when Marlene arrived at his table. “How’re you feeling, Tremz? I see you haven’t chosen any ingredients.”

“There’s a very fine line between making your boyfriend a birthday cake and poisoning him,” Logan said after a moment. “And I think I’m about to find out where it is.”

“What are you making?”

“I don’t know yet. Whatever happens, happens.”

“Fair enough,” Marlene laughed as she moved on. “Leo?”

“I’m gonna make a lemon cake,” he said with a proud smile as he mixed the dry ingredients. “And it’s going to be delicious.”

“Do you bake at home very often? You sound confident.”

He shrugged one shoulder. “For special occasions, yeah. I vaguely know what I’m doing, so I feel pretty good.”

“How do you think Logan’s cake will turn out?”

Leo paused and glanced up. A beat of silence passed before he bit his lower lip. “I think it’s a really good thing that Finn has two boyfriends that are making him cakes.”

“Rude,” Logan grumbled as he dumped another cupful of flour into a bowl to Sirius’ obvious horror. He stuck his tongue out. “Don’t give me that look, Cap, this cake is going to be fucking amazing.”

Sirius raised his eyebrows and turned back to his own batter. “If you say so.”

Logan stood on his toes and poured the next cup directly over Sirius’ head in a poof of white. The studio went silent. With a cough, a bit of flour puffed from Sirius’ mouth. “Cap?” Kasey ventured.

“Hmm?”

“You okay?”

“Mhmm.” He slowly took a towel off the oven door and wiped his face with it, then whipped around and snapped it at Logan’s thigh—it connected with a sharp sound, followed by a yelp as Logan shoved Leo in front of him as a makeshift shield. “You can’t hide behind him forever!”

“Remember, you only have two hours!” Marlene called as she dodged a patch of flour on the floor. Sirius scowled and put the towel back down on the counter; Logan backed away to his station with a suspicious glare. “Loops, how are you?”

“I’m minding my own business,” he said innocently. “Staying in my lane. Paying no attention to the idiots behind the curtain, if you will.”

“Impressive. What are you making for our wonderful Harzy?”

“Spite cake.”

“What?”

“Spite cake,” he repeated with a shadow of a smile. “It’s carrot cake, but with no special ingredient of love or appreciation, because he knows how much I hate baking and he’s been making fun of me over text all morning.”

Leo frowned. “Weren’t you two bonding over how much you hate carrot cake when we went to lunch yesterday?”

“Hence the name,” Remus said as he pulled a cheese grater out of the lineup.

“And last, but certainly not least, Kasey.” Marlene leaned against the edge of his table. “How’s it going over here?”

“So far, so good.” He eyed his batter and poked one of the lumps with a fork. “Does this look ready to you?”

“Seems a bit wet, to be honest.”

“Yeah, I thought so. Do people put milk in cake batter?” On the other end of the kitchen, Sirius and Leo shared a look.

Marlene patted his arm. “Good luck, Bliz.”

The camera cut for a moment—when it returned, the three bakers on the far end seemed to be even more flustered than before. “You have one hour left!” someone off-screen announced.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” Logan held his spatula up. The batter remained stuck to it in a doughy lump. “Is this supposed to happen?”

Leo’s eyes flickered between Sirius, who was clearly shocked into silence, and Logan, who was growing more distressed by the second. “Sure, honey.”

“Baby, it looks like jello,” Remus called as he shook his mixing bowl with a nervous glance to Sirius. “Why does it look like jello?”

“Mon dieu,” Sirius muttered as he crossed the room; the second he looked over Remus’ shoulder, his eyes widened. “How did you…?”

“I don’t know.”

“You put flour in, right?”

“Hey, no helping!” Kasey protested, swatting Sirius on the shoulder with an oven mitt. “We all fail on our own merit here. Tremy’s making concrete, Loops has jello, and I’ve got soup, so you and Knutty can fuck off back to your perfect batter and let us suffer in peace!”

“Jesus, Bliz, did you put water in that?”

“No! I put butter and milk in!”

“Why?”

“Because!”

“One hour left!” Marlene shouted.

“Fuck it, it’s good enough.” Remus grabbed the nearest cake pan and dumped his batter in, then put it in the oven. He turned the heat on and faced the camera guiltily. “Harzy, I know this was meant to spite you, it really was just meant to be a carrot cake. Not…that.”

Logan sprinkled a handful of chocolate sprinkled into his mixing bowl. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he singsonged. “But I know I’m doing it poorly!”

“Oh my god,” Remus said suddenly as he licked some of his batter off his finger. “Oh my—oh my god.”

Kasey looked up from pouring his batter into a pan in mild alarm. “What?”

“Oh my god, that’s terrible. Here, try it.”

Kasey put his cake in the oven before swiping a bit off and tasting it. His whole face scrunched. “What?”

“I know,” Remus laughed, passing the spatula to Logan. “It’s like getting punched with a cinnamon stick.”

“I can feel it in my nose,” Logan coughed. “Here, try mine.”

Leo regarded them with a healthy amount of disbelief. “Why are you all tasting it if you know it’s bad?”

“Because Marlene needs workable content.”

“Do it for the vine.”

“Because I’m a dumbass, rookie.” Kasey lifted the spatula up. “Cap, your fiancé made toxic sludge in cake form. Want some?”

Sirius hesitated, then sighed and headed over. Leo threw his hands in that air. “You, too?”

“What else am I supposed to—” Sirius faltered with a harsh exhale and braced his hands against the counter, licking his lips. “How many eggs did you put in that?”

“Four? Five?”

“How much cinnamon?”

“A teaspoon?”

Sirius took a fortifying breath through his nose. “Teaspoon or tablespoon?”

“Tablespoon,” Kasey answered for him. “Definitely a tablespoon. Try mine.”

“You two are never allowed in a kitchen again,” Sirius said, though he swiped his finger along the inside of Kasey’s bowl and tasted his batter with a grimace. “Ugh. It’s just melted butter.”

“How did you make it taste like salty butter and nothing else?” Logan asked, sounding genuinely interested.

“Well, Tremzy, I put salt and butter in it.”

Leo’s phone timer went off and he opened the oven door; four faces turned toward him in shock as he pulled a golden cake out and checked the center with a toothpick. Logan closed his eyes and bent closer, taking a deep inhale. “I wish the viewers could smell this, because it’s heaven.”

“Can it be my birthday instead?” Kasey asked. “Please?”

“Get back, you hyenas!” Leo whacked him lightly on the hand with a spoon when he reached out to poke the cake. “That oven was 350 degrees!”

Sirius glanced up at the camera. “That’s 177 degrees, for all you smart people out there.”

“Boo, Celsius.” Remus kissed his cheek. “You smell like sugar.”

“How much time do you all have left on your cakes?” Marlene asked from her perch next to the sink.

Logan, Remus, and Kasey shared a look before Logan turned back to her. “I don’t know?”

“You can’t answer that with another question,” she laughed.

“Ten minutes,” he guessed.

“Whenever it starts to smell good,” Remus said. “Though I doubt that’s going to happen.”

Kasey cocked his head and scanned Leo’s cake for a second. “When it starts looking like that.”

“It won’t,” Leo informed him.

“Damn, Knutty, okay.”

Marlene shook her head. “We’re going to cut filming until everyone’s cakes are out of the oven, but in the meantime we’ve got some special messages for our favorite redhead.”

A banner reading Happy Birthday, Finn! appeared on the screen with a burst of confetti before the usual studio replaced it, with its white walls and folding chairs. Dumo crossed one leg over the other with a soft smile. “One thing I admire about Finn is his tenacity. When he wants something, he’ll go for it with his whole heart.”

“I love his humor,” Leo said in the next short video. He was smiling as well, and had a faint blush on his freckled cheeks. “And the way he makes breakfast in the mornings. All the little things he does to make the people he loves happy. And he really does love with his whole heart. There’s no holding back with him.”

“Finn?” Sirius thought for a moment. “He’s a good person. I know that might sound lame, but he’s one of those people that you meet that always makes you feel happy, and confident, and supported. Anyone who meets him should count themselves lucky.”

Logan’s face was filled with nothing but affection. “I love his patience and his kindness. Whether that was helping me work on my English in college, or making the rookies feel welcome, or even the way he talks to complete strangers when they ask for directions on the street. Everything about him is kind.”

“Ah, jeez.” Remus bit his lower lip. “I think—I think what I admire most about Finn is that he never lets anyone else define who he is. He’s comfortable in himself and makes everyone around him feel safe. It’s sappy, but it’s true. He’s one of my best friends and I’m grateful for him every day.”

“He’s one of the most reliable people I’ve ever met,” James said. “Both on and off the ice. He will be there to support his friends in any capacity and I think we all need to be a little more like Finn that way.”

“Great player.” Arthur nodded. “Great player, and an even better teammate. I can put O’Hara anywhere on the ice and he’ll throw everything he’s got into doing his best. I can’t think of a single Lion who doesn’t love being on the same shift as him.”

Talker grinned, leaning back in his chair with a shake of his head. “Finn just loves hockey. He takes it seriously, of course, but he loves being out there with us and I’m always happy when we’re on a line together. He goes out there every night and has a blast. I admire a lot about him, but especially that.”

“It’s hard to pick one specific thing that I admire about him,” Kasey said, shifting in his chair. “He’s Finn. He’s annoying as all hell, and I love him for it. I’m not sure. Can I make a list?”

“Harzy is very cool,” Olli laughed. “Very cool and very fun to be around. He has a quick wit and truly cares about all of us.”

Kuny raised his eyebrows. “What I like about Harzy? Oh, everything. Everything. He is good friend, good teammate, always there when we need him. Good for Tremzy and Knutty, too. He would turn red like fire engine if he heard me. Don’t tell him I say that.”

The video changed to a wide view of the whole team as they waved to the camera. “Happy birthday, Harzy!” they chorused. “Bitch ass moves!”

The kitchen was much cleaner when the video resumed; all the cooking supplies had been taken away, leaving five hockey players with their cakes in front of them. Leo’s cake was a bit lopsided, though the yellow frosting was cheerful and even—next to him, Logan’s cake looked more like a squished loaf of bread. Sirius’ was plain and elegant, while Kasey’s frosting was still dripping as the camera zoomed in on it.

“Wow,” Finn said after a moment of silence from his seat at the main table, where five slices of cake had been placed on small plates with a label for each name. “Just…wow.”

“You can start with whichever one you want,” Marlene told him.

“I think I’ll save Cap and Leo’s for last. Uh, Kase, what happened here?”

Kasey sighed. “I wish I knew.”

Finn gave it a wary look, then took a bite; his chewing slowed to a stop almost immediately and Logan’s shoulders started to shake from his suppressed laughter. “You know it’s burnt on the outside and not cooked on the inside, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Just checking.” With great effort, he swallowed. “Why is it wet?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, man.”

Finn took the next plate, then paused. “Re, I love you, but…”

Remus shook his head. “I know.”

“I’m genuinely afraid to try this.”

“You should be.”

The second it touched his tongue, Finn started laughing. “Jesus, it’s a straight shot of cinnamon. Why is it crunchy?”

“It’s carrot cake!”

“You know I hate carrot cake!”

“Look, I gave it my best shot. It really wasn’t supposed to do…” He gestured at the plate. “That.”

“Lo, baby, please tell me yours is better than the last two.”

Logan thought for a moment. “It was made with love and that’s all that matters.”

Finn took a deep breath before taking a bite. A range of emotions washed over his face—pleasant surprise, then confusion, then horror, and finally disbelief. “I…what?”

“I don’t even know.”

He swallowed, then ate another bite. “Oh, bad idea. This—are there chocolate chips in here? And almonds?”

“Yeah. You like those, right?”

“Usually, yes. It’s kind of got the texture of fruitcake, but—” Finn broke off and picked the slice up, giving it a shake. Not even a crumb fell out of place, and the rest of the boys burst out laughing. “Lo. Logan. Light of my life, what the fuck?”

“Happy birthday?”

“This is the best birthday present ever. Alright, Cap, your turn.” He took a piece of Sirius’ cake and nodded. “Yep, that’s cake.”

Sirius blinked at him. “And?”

Finn shrugged. “It’s cake. Classic flavors, good texture. I like it. Definitely tastes like a cake you would make.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“He’s calling you basic,” Kasey said, patting Sirius’ shoulder sympathetically. “But hey, at least yours was cooked all the way.”

“And now for boyfriend number two,” Finn continued.

Leo rolled his eyes. “Boyfriend number two.”

“Oh, that’s so good,” Finn groaned around a mouthful of cake. His eyebrows pitched. “I love it.”

“What about it?” Marlene prompted.

“For starters, it’s cooked all the way through. The lemon is freakin’ amazing, and the frosting isn’t melting off the sides or anything. I can’t even taste everyone else’s anymore. It’s a helluva cake. Happy birthday to me. Will you make this every day?”

“No,” Leo said, though there was a pleased flush on his face. “But maybe on the weekend.”

Finn scraped the last of the crumbs off his plate. “Alright, everyone, come get a piece of this magic. Thank you for doing this, by the way. I know three of you hate baking.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” Logan admitted as he settled himself on one of Finn’s thighs with a slice of his own and kissed his temple. “Sorry for almost poisoning you. Oh, that is tasty.”

“I love you anyway. I think Loops and Bliz were actually the closest to doing that, so you’re all good.” Finn raised his eyebrows and craned his neck over Logan’s shoulder. “Speaking of…”

“Lasagna or chicken piccata?” Remus asked. Sirius took advantage of his moment of distraction by stealing a bite off his plate and received a playful glare in response, though it was soothed by a kiss on his cheek.

“Lasagna, please.”

“Does Friday work?”

Finn gave him a thumbs-up. “Sorry, Harzy,” Kasey said as he carefully got the last bits of frosting off his fork. “I have no marketable skills to apologize with. You don’t want me anywhere near a stove or an oven.”

A gleam lit in Finn’s eye. “Will you get in all your pads and play chicken with Knutty and I?”

“For the twentieth time—”

“It’s my birthday,” he wheedled, pouting his lower lip out with the Bambi eyes turned to full blast.

Kasey sighed. “Fine.”

“Hell yeah.”

“Thanks for joining us for our birthday celebration,” Marlene said with a smile. “The best estimations of these recipes are linked on our website, with a few tweaks to make sure none of your loved ones get food poisoning this August. Have a great day, Lions!”

[spencerreidslove]

Angst but maybe no spoilers bc I’m only on s1😅

A/N: You are BOLD for reading fanfic when you’re in season 1. I could never. I was actually really excited to write this beacuse I’ve never written anything with Elle before and I love her. I tried not to spoil anything but we’ll see if I did a good job.

————

He was drifting. You could tell.

Three phone calls and no answers to any of them. You thought about calling Penelope and asking her if Spencer was ok, but you didn’t want to bother him if he was in the middle of the case.

It was dark outside and he still wasn’t home. Spencer said that they would be celebrating his birthday at work, which they did a few days ago, but then they got called out on a case.

Earlier today, Spencer had briefly called you and said that he would be home tonight. It was nearing 2 am and and he still wasn’t home.

You sighed as you looked at the cupcakes you had baked and put them in the fridge. Vanilla with chocolate frosting. Spencer’s favorite.

Maybe they ended up getting delayed with the case or the weather was bad and they couldn’t fly. It didn’t matter.

You went into your bedroom and slid into bed. You had work tomorrow and it wasn’t worth it waiting up for Spencer.

-

The next morning when you woke up, Spencer was in bed beside you. He was fast asleep, and you didn’t want to wake him, so you quietly slid out of bed and made your way to the kitchen.

You stood there for a moment before pulling out boxes of cereal and started making coffee. You were going to make waffles, but if you started now they wouldn’t be done in time for you to leave for work.

As you sat and ate your cereal, you flipped through the pages of a book. A little while later, Spencer came out from the bedroom, rubbing his eyes.

“Mornin’” you said, glancing up from your book.

“Hi.” Spencer said. He opened the fridge, and looked at the cupcakes that were sitting there. On the top in purple frosting they spelled out “Happy Birthday”

“Did you get delayed last night?” You asked, going over to the sink and rinsing your bowl.

“Yeah. Bad weather.” Spencer said quietly. You sighed. For being such a good profiler, Spencer was a horrible lair. Whatever had kept him last night it wasn’t weather.

“Well, we can celebrate tonight, right?” You asked.

“Yeah, unless I get called away.” Spencer said. You went back into the bedroom and got dressed. A few minutes later you were leaving to get to work.

“Bye, Spence! Love you!” You called out to the bathroom where Spencer was showering. You hoped the silence on his end was due to the water.

-

Over the course of the last few weeks Spencer seemed to grow more and more distant. His calls were brief, conversation short.

You knew deep down it was coming to an end, but some part of you just hoped it would all go back to how it was.

When he said “I love you too.” Instead of ignoring you or hiding away in the bathroom so he didn’t have to answer.

Today you were hopeful. Spencer was gone on a case, but he had been gone for three days, so you hoped he would be back today.

Around three, you got a phone call. It was from Elle. Even though she worked with Spencer, you, her, and Penelope had become fast friends.

“Happy Birthday!” She said as soon as you answered.

“Thanks!” You said, laughing. “Are you guys done with the case.”

“Yeah, we’re headed to the airport now and it’s a long flight so don’t expect Reid to be home til late.” Elle said.

You chatted for a few more minutes before she said she had to go because Morgan was bugging her.

Later you got calls from everybody but Spencer saying Happy Birthday to you. You hoped that was just beacuse he had a surprise planned, but deep down you knew that wasn’t it.

You stayed up on the couch watching your favorite movies and TV shows until nearly midnight. You decided to get ready for bed and then give Elle a call ask if they were off the plane yet.

You got an answer after a few rings. “Hey.” Elle said when she answered.

“I just wanted to know if you guys were off the plane yet.” You said.

“Yeah, we landed two hours ago.” Elle said. “Is Reid not home yet?”

Your silence was the answer.

“I’m sure he’s just planning something for you. You know the kid, he probably just got carried away in Party City or something.” Elle said, trying to reassure you.

“Yeah, I’m sure he’ll be home soon.” You said. After a few more minutes, you hung up and grabbed a book and sat down on the couch.

You read for a little while before you fell asleep.

-

Around 3 am, you woke up to Spencer leaning over the couch and pulling a blanket over you.

“What are you doing out here?” Spencer asked with the most care in weeks.

“I was waiting for you.” You said, waking up. You took in his appearance. Spencer wasn’t holding any bags, or anything special, he looked how he normally looked.

“Why?” Spencer asked. “You shouldn’t have waited.”

You took a long look at his face. “Spencer what was yesterday?” You asked.

“Tuesday. The 18th.” He said.

You shifted so you were sitting up. “What else?”

Spencer didn’t answer.

“You have an eidetic memory and you don’t remember what yesterday was?” You said, getting a little upset.

“No? Should I have?” Spencer said.

You scoffed. “It was my birthday, Spencer. Everybody remebered but you. I even got a message from your boss telling me happy birthday but you couldn’t bother to remember!”

Spencer paused, before realization dawned on his face. “I didn’t mean to forget! I just...with the case, I only got back half an hour ago!”

“I know you’re lying. I called Elle to ask when you had landed. You got back at 10. Where were you?”

Spencer didn’t answer.

“Where was so important that you couldn’t be home on your girlfriend’s own birthday?”

“I was at JJ’s for dinner. I lost track of time and fell asleep there. I meant to be home sooner...but.”

You paused, trying to collect your thoughts. “Is that where you’ve been going recently? To JJ’s?”

Spencer’s silence was the only answer you needed.

“You don’t love me anymore, do you?” You asked.

Spencer didn’t answer.

“Do you?” You asked, needing to hear him say the words.

“No.” Spencer whispered. “I don’t know how it happened. I loved you until I didn’t.”

“Get out of my apartment.” You said quietly.

“Y/N, what?”

“Be glad we never moved in together, and get out of my apartment. I will bring you your stuff tomorrow. But for now, get out.”

Spencer grabbed his bag and quietly left. The moment you heard the door close, you broke down and sobbed.

Your heart was broken in two. You loved Spencer more than you had ever loved another person, and just like that he was gone.

He didn’t love you anymore.

Maybe you were never meant to be together from the start.

Tags! (Open)

@rexorangecouny @magnificentmgg @rachelxwayne @itsmyblogandillreblogifiwantto @andreasworlsboring101 @just-damn-bored @zhuzhubii

[littlerockerao3]

Prompt 47, if you have time

I know I’m late but here it is!

47. “I thought it was a one-night stand… and now we’re married”.

~~~

Robb knows Theon was expecting this the moment he rolls his eyes at the sight of Robb entering into the kitchen carrying the cake on a paper tray.

“Happy birthday babe!” Robb happily sings, resting the cake in front of Theon’s seat and pulling a lighter out his pocket to lit up the candle. It’s a pretty cake: Robb and the baker had planned on how this cake should have looked like for days. In the end, they opted for a vanilla and strawberry cake with pink and red mousse roses decorating it all over. There’s a chocolate bar in the middle of it with the words “30s are the new 20s” written in frosting. A small red and white striped candle is right behind it, and now it’s lit up.

“Blow the candle, come on” Robb says, smiling widely at how Theon is trying his best to hold back a smirk.

“Yay!” he claps his hands like a little kid when Theon’s lips finally blow over the candle and set it off and Robb considers that the perfect time to kiss his cheek and sit on his lap. “Happy birthday, hon”.

“Thanks babe”

Robb rolls his eyes at that face and tap his index finger on Theon’s lower lip, “Oh, stop pouting. You’re cuter when you smile”.

Theon just huffs in response, looking so conflicted Robb almost laughs.

“I can’t believe I just turned… thirty.” He says, “That’s old. What’s next, grey hair?”

“Oh you have no idea how hot you’d look” it’s the first thing Robb says, cause he knows that’s true: Theon would look good with grey hair. It’s naturally black so it would turn to a dark grey, maybe it would start with just a streak and Robb’s sure as hell that would be such a turn on for him.

“Oh I’ll return the favor when you’ll be the one turning this old” Theon says, his pout still not daring to leave his face.

“Still got five years left though.” Robb winks at him and kisses his nose, “I’ll keep reminding you of how older and older you’re getting in the meantime”.

Theon rolls his eyes, slips his hands inside Robb’s back pockets and kisses his nose in return.

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” He says, then makes a weird face, “Why are you wearing jeans in the house?”

“I had to go and take the cake from the bakery” Robb explains.

“And you wore jeans?”

“Uhm yes?” He really wants to chuckle: Theon used to love wearing jeans. He still wears them, but not that often, only when they have to go somewhere special, otherwise he’ll just wear sweatpants everyday, says they’re comfier, which is true. A few years ago, though, he couldn’t help wearing skinny jeans cause he claimed they made his legs look good, which was true.

“Okay but why are they still on? They’re so uncomfortable, take them off” Theon’s hand try to unzip Robb’s pants but the redhead quickly swats them away. “Nope, we have all day for sexy times, let’s just enjoy this cake now”.

Theon glances at it, and finally smirks, “It’s too pretty to be eaten”.

“Oh so you don’t want it?”

“I never said that” he kisses Robb’s cheek and wraps his arms around his waist, pulling him closer and then rubbing his nose against his jaw. “Do you remember this day six years ago?”

Robb smiles, and caresses Theon’s hair: of course he remembers that day, he could never forget it, cause that’s where it all started.

“Oh yeah, we slept in and had brunch and we didn’t talk about how we had drunk sex the night before even though we’ve always been just best friends until the evening. And by the evening we had had sex like, three more times” he explains.

The memory is still vivid in his brain: he was nineteen, college was just starting to look normal, and Theon was his best friend. Five years older than him and with a job at a restaurant that had him wearing a black shirt that made him look adorable when it was all buttoned. The night before Theon’s twenty-fourth birthday he had asked Robb to come over to help him decide which alcoholic games to play at the party the following day. Then Theon asked Robb to stay for dinner and after a few beers they were kissing all of sudden. And all of sudden none of them was wearing clothes.

The following day they had ignored their respective headaches, though Robb couldn’t, at least silently, ignore the fact that Theon had made them something to eat: as far as he knew, Theon had never made his one night stands something to eat the morning after sex. Cause that was what it was right? A one night stand.

Well, it wasn’t.

“Can you believe it?” Theon says, “I thought it was a one-night stand… and now we’re married”.

He brushes Robb’s ring finger, where a small T is tattooed. It had been Theon’s idea to get matching tattoos instead of wedding bands and even though it hurt like hell, Robb has to admit he loves them.

“You were such a sexy twenty-four year old back then… not even in your mid twenties yet” Robb teases, laughing out loud when Theon rolls his eyes so hard they almost turn out completely the other way.

“Oh fuck off”.

Robb brushes some black locks out of Theon’s face, “Why are you complaining about getting older? You know I like older guys”.

Theon’s grip tightens even more around Robb’s waist, as he gently pulls him closer, chests now touching each other, “You don’t like older guys, you just like me”.

Their noses are touching, Robb’s thumbs are caressing Theon’s jaw as he presses his mouth on the corner of his husband’s lips.

“Untrue” he corrects. “I love you”.

Theon’s dimples aren’t exactly in the shape of a small circle, unlike the ones Robb has seen more often: they look more like a long line engraved in his cheeks, which looks just so good with Theon’s sharp features. They don’t make him look younger nor cuter (Sansa’s dimples are basically two little commas that make her look seven when she smiles without showing her teeth), they just make him look… sexy as hell.

And that smile is all Robb is staring at as Theon says, “I have to admit that even though I adored young Robb who still had baby fat at nineteen, I must say this older version of you in your mid twenties, is much hotter”.

Robb gently swats away the hand poking his side with a roll of his eyes, “Is it because of the beard?”

“And because you let your curls grow longer”

He smiles: if he’s obsessed with Theon’s dimples and legs, then Theon’s definitely obsessed with his hair.

“I used to be chubbier back then” Robb states at some point, and Theon nods right back, “You used to be adorable”.

Yeah, Robb knows he really thinks that: he remembers how Theon used to hold his hips, or thighs, and whispering how much he loved how soft they were.

“And you used to wear such skinny ripped jeans that made your legs look so sexy” he claims afterwards, bouncing lightly on Theon’s lap.

“My legs are still sexy”.

“I never said they weren’t anymore.”

They chuckle some more. Robb lays his chin on Theon’s shoulder, as he feels him playing with the curls on his nape.

“Actually how is it even possible that we didn’t hook up sooner?” Robb asks at some point, “I mean, I was totally into you”.

He can’t remember not being into Theon, not even when he was just a kid: Theon had always had this charming aura surrounding him, something that made it impossible for Robb to take his eyes off him.

“Cause we’re dumb and slow, babe.” The answer comes out Theon’s mouth not even after a second Robb asked his question. “Did you forget how much it took us to actually decide we were in a serious relationship after we hooked up?”

Robb loves how thinking about it now, years later, makes him laugh so hard, cause back in the days, not knowing what he and Theon really were drove him mad. He used to spend sleepless nights thinking about how he should have brought up a conversation about it, how to decide what they were, if they were something. When it was actually so easy to understand.

“We literally went on for months calling it a friendship with benefits when we just kept going on dates and cuddling all the time and talking about everything” he smiles.

Theon smiles back, “And everyone started screaming like we fucking won the World Cup for the first time in a century after we told them we were a thing”.

Oh yeah, he’s definitely never forgetting Arya running to the fridge to break out the sparkling wine as she yelled something like “it was about time!”

“Feels like ages ago” he whispers, and suddenly he realizes what Theon means when he says he’s getting old: when he was nineteen, the things he did at thirteen seemed to have happened just a few months ago to him. Now it’s a whole different story, cause he’s no longer a teen, and many things have changed.

“Yeah, back when Loras and Renly didn’t have to bring the baby on double dates cause they didn’t have a baby” Theon mumbles.

Robb nods, although it’s not a surprise that Loras and Renly were the first one becoming parents, in their crew: they’ve been together since anyone can remember, they probably lost count of how many years they’ve been together. Robb has to admit, he had always envied them for that.

“It’s funny cause every time I looked at them I knew they would’ve lasted forever, like, I just knew they would have always been together”, he says, “And I’ve always hoped it could have been the same for us too”.

Theon’s eyes are staring right into Robb’s, one hand massaging his thigh. He shrugs, “Well, look at us now babe. I am an old man and you are a hottie in his mid 20s”.

“You’re only thirty, for fuck‘s sake” Robb can’t help but lightly smack the back of Theon’s head.

“Yeah exactly!” Theon exclaims, like that can explain it all. “First I start getting old. Then I’ll grow grey hair. And then? Then what’s next?”

Robb shrugs, “Then I’ll get older too!”

“And then?”

“And then, I don’t know, then maybe we could have a baby or-“

Robb shuts up the moment he sees Theon’s eyes widening. He doesn’t know how he’s come up with something like this, they never talked about it. Well, Robb did think about it, but never too seriously. Why shouldn’t he, after all? They’re married, and Theon’s always been surprisingly good with kids, even if he says he doesn’t like them. And Robb would like to have a (or some) little munchkin to take care of.

But maybe that wasn’t the right way to bring it up.

“I’m sorry” he says, “I’ve rushed things, sorry. Let’s have some cake, shall we?”

He gets up, grab two small plates, two small forks and a knife and lets Theon cut the cake, since it’s his cake. He still sit back down on his husband’s lap, though, and Theon seems happy to welcome him back by wrapping his free arm around his waist.

“It’s delicious.” He says, after a few bites. Robb nods.

And then they stay silent. Robb’s tense and hopes his fuck up won’t make them fight. He just hope they can pretend nothing happened and eventually start talking about it some day, possibly in a better way.

But then, Theon rests the fork on the plate, cake still to be finished, and turns to Robb. “I would actually love to.”

Robb feels some weird, relieved, happy, feeling grow inside of him, making its way from his stomach to his throat.

“What?” he asks, just in case he’s all imagining this.

Theon rolls his eyes and smacks a hand lightly on Robb’s thigh, “Oh don’t play dumb. I’d love to have a baby with you”.

Robb has to blink a few times, smiling so wide his cheeks hurt, “You would?”

“Yes”.

He really wants to kiss him, he really does. He actually doesn’t know how he’s managing to stay this calm cause the one they’re about to take is a huge step, probably the hugest of their lives.

“Maybe we should take it slow and… try and figure a lot of things out.” He says, “Like, are we adopting or are we going to look for a surrogate or-“

Theon grabs his hand, nodding. He’s surprisingly calm too.

“There’s time for that” he agrees. “Let’s take it slow, of course. Just know that we’re adults, we have jobs, a roof above our heads… we can afford it. We can afford to do anything”

Robb nods, “So, we’re going to be parents at some point. We agreed on this.”

When Theon nods in return, then Robb does kiss him. Fondly. He can’t believe it, he can’t believe how this feels like the proof that Theon is and will always be the only one meant for him: cause Robb wants to spend the rest of his life with him, and their kid. Or kids. And he can’t believe that they actually decided they are going to be parents at some point.

It’s so unbelievable he can hardly imagine it: Theon holding a baby, wrapped in a small blanket. Theon and Robb raising a kid, for the rest of their lives. He wants it, and he loves that Theon wants it just as much.

“We’re really getting older, aren’t we?” he says when he pull away, as Theon reaches over to wipe a tear away from Robb’s cheek.

He winks, and starts whispering, “Yeah but… we’ll never be too old for sexy times”.

And suddenly Theon stands up so quickly Robb doesn’t even realize he scooped him up at first.

“Thee! For fuck’s sake I’m usually the one who picks you up!” He yells, as Theon quickly leads them to the living room. Sometimes he still feels like they’re just kids, though. And he loves it. He’ll still be loving it when they will actually grow old, cause he knows deep inside they’ll always be those two stupid kids.

“Turning thirty made me stronger babe” Theon says, as he lays Robb down on the couch.

Robb looks up at him, smiling. Funny how life works: they hooked up once and now they just said they want kids.

It all started with some drunk birthday sex and it’s still going on, it’s still evolving. And Robb knows, it’s also never going to end.

[fearfulkittenwrites]

“Just a normal night”

Inspired by @s-mscott​ - link for the art, please check it out!

Word count: 2832

Notes: HEY. THIS IS JUST BEEN SITTING ON MY FILES FOR THE LONGEST TIME AND I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT IT DKJFHAKJHAKJDFH. Anyway, it's a long time coming. The writing probs isn't as neat or as good as the latest uploads bc of that, but... idk. Hopefully it's good! I couldn't bring myself to edit it again, sorry about that. I hope you can enjoy it anyways and please go check out the artist, @s-mscott​!

“Guys?” Dick asked, on his tiptoes as he rummaged through every cabinet in the huge kitchen “Hey are we out of cereal? I can’t find my Lucky Charms anywhere.”

“I think so.” Jason answered “I ate the last of the Lucky Charms last night.”

“Yep.” Tim said, popping the ‘p’ as he slid through the countertop, landing a bit behind Dick “I had the last of the frosted flakes two days ago.”

“Froot Loops?” Dick asked.

“I had those.” Duke answered “Sorry.”

“Fruity Pebbles?”

 Cass raised her hand, looking at the ground.

“Reese’s Puffs?”

“I finished the box yesterday.” Damian announced, crossing his arms as he leaned against the marble sink.

“Damn.” Dick murmured and pouted as he closed the cabinet’s door “I’ve been craving cereal today.”

“We can always go get some.” Jason shrugged.

“At three in the morning?” Duke asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Actually, four.” Jason corrected, putting up a finger “And yeah, why not? I mean, we had a hard patrol tonight, and if Dick wants some cereal, I say let’s go get some cereal.”

“It’s four in the morning, Todd.” Damian said.

“I mean, the closest Walmart is open 24/7.” Tim interfered.

“You can’t be seriously considering this, Grayson.” Damian frowned at his older brother.

“Why not? I’m not sleepy anyways.” Dick crossed his arms and shrugged.

“Yes!” Jason hissed “Late night adventures with the baby bats. Let’s roll!” He clapped his hands once, and started to walk out of the kitchen, his siblings following him to the garage.

“Oh wait!” Dick said “Let’s ring up Bruce and see if there’s anything else we need.”

“Bold of you to assume he’d know what we need.” Tim interfered.

“Yeah, well, it’s worth a shot. Plus, do any of us really want to wake up Alfred to ask him?” Dick said, taking his communicator out of his pocket and placing it in his ear “B? Have a sec?” He asked

“Nightwing. What’s wrong?” Came the answer, Batman’s raspy voice flowing through the device.

“Oh, nothing’s wrong. We’re going to take a quick trip to the supermarket, I wanted to ask if you need anything.”

“... At four in the morning?”

“Yeah. Do you need anything?”

Bruce sighed.

“We’re running out of the coffee blend that Tim likes. Alfred the cat’s favorite treats have been gone since last week, and Cass’ favorite ice cream is done. Oh, buy Duke that soda he likes, I drank the last can. Also, Jason’s cookies and that brand of chips you like, we ran out of those. Oh, and buy something with Iron in it, I’m worried that Damian might not be getting enough.”

“Like spinach?” Dick said, writing it down on his phone’s notes.

“Yeah, that’ll do. Ah, and we’re a little low on milk.”

“Okay. Will keep that in mind. Thanks B, have a nice patrol.”

“Please don’t give the papers any headlines.”

“You got it, B. Bye.”

He placed the device back on his pocket.

“Okay, there’s a lot of stuff to buy, so let’s get going. I’ll drive.”

“Shotgun!” Jason yelled.

“We’re taking the S.U.V., one of you will need to ride in the trunk.” Dick said.

“I’ll go.” Cass’ eyes twinkled. No one could understand why she was always so fascinated with the idea of riding in the trunk, but she seemed to find it fun and all of them thought that her excitement was cute.

“Alright then.” Dick smiled, ruffling her hair. Her grin grew wider, and Duke set her hair straight again before they got into the car.

“Hey, can I play my music?” Tim asked from the backseat.

“Don’t force us to listen to the atrocity Drake calls music, Grayson.” Damian complained, arms crossed “Let me play something.”

“Uh, I’d rather not listen to Mozart and Bach while we’re in the car.” Duke protested.

“It’s called classic for a reason, Thomas.”

“Doesn’t matter, bat-brat.” Jason said “I’m with him on this one. Besides, universal car rules, shotgun DJ’s.”

“Since when?” Tim asked.

“Since now.” Jason said, plugging his phone in.

“Uh, I don’t think so.” Dick took the cord from him “According to ‘Supernatural’ rules, ‘Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole’. So that’s mine.”

“No one else watches this show Dickhead!” Jason pulled the cord back.

“Doesn’t matter, because I’m older!” Dick pulled it back again.

“Age is just a number!” Tim pushed himself to the front seat and took the cord back.

“Great point Drake!” Damian pulled him back by his waist, stealing the cord from him too.

“Hey, stop with the fuss, I’m gonna crash the car!” Dick said.

“Maybe we should just play Beyoncé...” Duke suggested. The car went silent for a while.

“Okay.” Dick said “Put on ‘Single Ladies’.”

“No. ‘Halo’ is her best.” Damian complained.

“Uhm, no way? I’m playing ‘Drunk in Love’, and that’s it.” Tim shot back.

“Are you crazy? Play ‘Formation’.” Duke interfered.

“I like ‘Run the World’...” Cass said quietly from the trunk.

“Yeah, okay,” Tim murmured “We’ll play that.”

The girl smiled as the first notes from the song filled the car.

There weren’t many cars in the parking lot, which was expected. They picked up two carts, and Dick hopped inside the one Jason was pushing.

“Dude!” Duke started “You’re in your mid-twenties!”

“Leave me alone, I nearly sprained my ankle today.” Dick stuck his tongue out. No one else questioned anything beyond that. The employees simply sighed, used to the two older brothers and their antics.

“Hey Parker.” Jason greeted the nighttime security guard.

“Hey. I see you two brought the whole gang tonight.” He answered.

“Yup.” Dick smiled.

“So this is a regular thing for the two of you?” Duke asked.

“Are you really surprised, Duke?” Tim shot back.

“No. Not really.”

“Okay. First stop, Bruce said we need to get Tim’s coffee.” Dick exclaimed, looking at the list.

Jason led the way, Dick grinning like a child on the cart, Cass quietly following as she pushed their second cart, Duke making friendly conversation with her while Tim and Damian kept bickering right behind them.

“Oh, wait!” Dick held on to the metal bars “We’re right next to the cookies and Bruce said we’re out of your favorites, Jay.” He looked up.

“Alright, a little detour then.” Jason turned them around, quickly grabbing his treats “Anyone wants anything else from this aisle?”

“But... We don’t need anything else from the aisle.” Duke pointed out.

“Um, we have a billionaire’s credit card?” Tim said “Bruce won’t freak out if we buy a few extra things.”

“Uuuh, they have those koala shaped cookies!” Dick hopped out of the cart “How many do I get?”

“I want one.” Cass said.

“Chocolate or strawberries?”

“Uh… I want both.” She answered.

“Okay, one each for the lady, two strawberries for me...”

“I want a chocolate one.” Tim said.

“Me too.” Damian asked.

“Oh, just take twenty boxes, ten of each flavor.” Jason interfered, dumping them on Cass’ cart “We’ll share later.”

“Oh my God, those are expensive!” Duke said, exasperated.

“Yeah. So?” Jason shot back.

“Bruce is a billionaire, bro. He won’t mind.” Dick said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, well, it’s easy for you guys to say it. You grew up like that. It’s kinda hard to accept this when you aren’t used to having so much.” Duke answered, scratching his neck.

“Hey, I get that feeling lil’ bro.” Jason tapped his back “I spent my childhood in Gotham’s streets.”

“Yeah. I mean, I grew up in the circus. I wasn’t used to the idea of getting brand new stuff instead of asking for hand-me-downs from our friends whenever I grew out of my clothes.” Dick interfered.

“But... Just think about it like this.” Jason got closer to him “We now can get everything we couldn’t in the past.”

Duke frowned. Jason nodded encouragingly.

“That... Doesn’t help.”

“I tried.” Jason shrugged. Dick hopped back in the cart “To the coffee aisle!” He exclaimed, pushing his brother around.

“Hang on.” Tim said “This is where they leave the energy drinks. Let me take some.”

“Why do you insist on drinking this crap, Drake?” Damian scowled, reading the label in one of the cans “If you have such a death wish, jumping in front of a train is a much cheaper, quicker alternative.”

“Shut up, little devil.” Tim picked up cans from his favorite brand.

“Jason, push me a little farther down the aisle, please.” Dick asked “They keep their iced teas over there.”

“Ugh, Grayson, you disgust me.” Damian rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be so judgemental Lil’ D.” He smiled, being pushed away by Jason.

As they examined the cans, Dick noticed he had attracted the looks of a middle aged man, a couple of steps from them. He was staring at his hoodie, that contained the frase ‘I love dick’ printed on it.

“Oh,” He exclaimed, smiling at the guy “My name is Richard. That’s why it’s funny.” The man nodded “I’m also queer as fuck, so that makes it better.” He added nonchalantly, and the man’s eyes widened “Okay Jay, I picked up all I wanted, let’s go back.”

“Alright you little shits, back to the coffee quest.” Jason said, leading the way once again. This time, they finally made it to the coffee aisle. Tim crouched down, looking for his favorite blend.

Cass got a little curious once she laid eyes on a colorful package on the top shelf. She picked it up and handed it to Dick.

“Read. Please.”

“This is an espresso roast. Here it says that it has notes of strawberry? Vanilla and... Sugar cane. Colombian coffee. Seems nice. Wanna take it?”

“Yes.” She nodded. Dick dropped it on his cart.

Cass wandered away, still looking at all of the coffee blends.

“Hey girlie,” A guy whistled at her, next to his group of friends “Nice ass.”

She squinted at them.

“Yo, asshole!” Tim screamed, getting their attention “That’s our sister!” He threw a bag of coffee beans at the guy’s face, causing his nose to bleed.

“Hey, who do you think you are?” One of them started to walk up to her brothers. Cass could tell that he wanted trouble, so she grabbed his arm and slammed his face against the shelf, so quickly and brutally that it barely budged, leaving the products unbothered, but the guy fell to the floor, disoriented. She stared at him.

“We are Waynes.” Damian answered, pacing towards them quietly, hands on his pockets “I suggest you apologize immediately for the troubles, if you wouldn’t want to get a hefty lawsuit for your harrasment.”

“Uh, sorry bro.” One of them started, a little scared “We didn’t-”

“Not to me.” He interrupted “To her.”

“We’re sorry, miss Wayne.” All of them mumbled.

“Now promise you won’t do it again.” Damian added.

“We won’t do it again.” They started at the floor, next to where their fallen friend laid down.

“Good.” He squinted “Help your friend up, and get out of my sight.”

They did as they were told, helping his friend walk straight again. As Cass headed back, Dick gently touched her arm, looking up at her.

“Hey, are you alright?” She smiled and gave him a thumbs up. He smiled back.

“Does this happen often?” Jason asked.

“Sometimes.” She shrugged “But they always say sorry after I break their nose.”

“Ayy, that’s our girl.” Jason praised “Alright, we got the coffee. Where to next?”

“Let’s see... Next item is Alfred the cat’s treats.” Dick said.

“Ha!” Damian laughed loudly “As if Alfred would eat the... peasant treats that this store offers. No. I’ve already bought the adequate brand from an online shop.”

“Okay...” Dick raised an eyebrow “Then... Cass’ ice cream is next, but I think we should leave that as the last item, so it won’t melt, which leads us to Duke’s soda because Bruce had the last can.”

“Let’s go then. I think that the cereal aisle is on the way, so we’ll get that first.” Jason said, pushing the cart around again.

“Which ones do we get?” Tim asked, looking through the shelf.

“Everything that has sugar.” Dick answered. His brother began handing him boxes, when they heard a small whisper.

“Oh my God, are those...?” A girl said to her friend, attracting the eyes of the siblings. The duo averted their gaze quickly. Cass frowned at them.

“Relax.” Jason smiled, placing an arm on her back “They’re probably just... Fans.”

“Fans?” She asked, still staring suspiciously at them.

“Yeah.” Dick shrugged “I mean, we’re not super stars, but we do hit the papers pretty often. A bunch of people know us here in Gotham.” The girls were looking again, and Dick gave them a small wave, making them giggle “See? Nothing to worry about.”

“Hum.”

“Hey there, ladies.” Jason greeted, a cheeky smile on his face “What brings you to this fine establishment tonight?”

“We ran out of energy drinks.” One of them answered “What about you?”

“Cereal.” Dick answered, lifting two boxes. They giggled again.

“Hey, um... can we maybe get a picture?” The girl asked “It’s just that... no one will believe us when we tell them about this.”

“Absolutely not!” Damian answered.

“Nah, don’t listen to the little brat.” Jason said “Go ahead.”

Dick held up the boxes again, smiling as Jason made a ‘crazy’ motion with his hands. Tim turned around as the photo was being taken, turning him into a blurr with tired eyes.

“Can we get some selfies too?” The other one asked, grinning.

“No!” Damian protested again.

“Of course you can!” Dick said “Duke, Cass, come here.” He called.

All of them gathered around the cart Dick was staying at, even Damian. He didn’t look so pleased as the photo was taken, but neither did Cass.

“Thanks. You guys really are nice.” The first girl said.

“Oh, you have no clue on how nice I can be.” Jason winked, making her blush “Tell you what, why don’t I give you my phone number and you can text me those pictures later, hm?”

“Sure.” The girl bit her lips as Jason scribbled his number on her wrist.

“You are such a flirt.” Dick rolled his eyes as the girls walked away.

“What, like you aren’t?” Jason snorted, pushing him away, looking for where they kept the soda.

“I think Cass didn’t like that interaction very much.” Tim whispered to his older brothers, who turned around to find a frowning baby bat. Jason chuckled.

“What’s wrong, sis?” She scowled at him “Oh, c’mon, don’t get jealous.” He threw an arm around her shoulder “You know you’ll always be our number one girl, but a guy has his needs. And sometimes, a guy needs a date.”

Cass pushed him away, rolling her eyes as Duke placed five soda cans on her cart.

“Why would you even drink this sugar filled monstrosity, Thomas?” Damian asked, reading the labels “Grandfather wouldn’t even feed his prisoners something as revolting as this.”

“Because, Bat-brat,” He said “We’re all entitled to enjoy at least one or two things that may ultimately be responsible for our deaths.”

“I suppose.” He murmured, lifting an eyebrow “You make much finer points than the rest of them. Father has been looking for heirs in the least suitable places, I assume.” He clicked his tongue “It’s a good thing I’m here to help.”

“Okay...” Duke answered, raising his eyebrows and averting his gaze. There was only so much strangeness that he could handle.

“Great, now we need to get my chips and spinach.” Dick stated.

“Spinach?” Tim asked “Why spinach?”

“B thinks Damian may have been needing more iron in his diet.” Dick shrugged.

“Aaw.” Tim said “That’s actually kinda cute. Do you think he ever worries about our diets?”

“Don’t be stupid Tim, of course he doesn’t.” Jason answered.

“He does.” Dick shot back “He worries about us, he just... Really, really, really, reaaaally sucks at showing it sometimes.”

“Potatoe, potatoe.” Jason murmured.

“Yeah, whatever. Keep me moving Little Wing, we have stuff to pick up and my tiredness is catching up to me.” Dick pointed forward.

“Sure. But the chips are in the opposite direction.”

“Well turn me around then, do you want me to look like an idiot?” Dick said, a little exasperated.

“I wish you had an off button sometimes.” Jason sighed as he made his way to the chips section.

An employee, mopping the floor with a bored expression, looked up from what he was doing when he saw the Wayne gang talking loudly. Dick tried to control his brothers from inside the cart, and had just told Jason to separate a fight between Tim and Damian. Duke and Cass snicker as they saw a bored, six feet tall Jason pushing his much smaller brothers apart.

“Yep.” The employee murmured to himself “Billionaires shopping at Walmart at four in the morning. Just a normal night.”

Hey! If you made it this far, please consider reblogging this? It helps with spreading my fics and it makes me very happy, hahahaha!

Regardless, thanks for reading <3

[beepomeepo]

the only two people who despise celebrating their birthday: you and bucky

warnings: none really but kinda angst?

bucky barnes x reader

reader speaking is in italics

🥺🥺 mom, I love him. 🥺🥺

your birthday was march 9th and no one knew about it except fury and nat. you hoped it would stay that way. coincidentally, bucky’s was march 10th. you didn’t know about it but everyone else did. and since he’s been with the avengers, they have only had small celebrations forced by steve of course.

march 9th, 8:50 am.

you and nat had training. as you met her on the mats, she told you “happy birthday”, to which u shushed her while looking around the room for anyone listening in.

“hey I was just tryna be nice but if you really want to pretend you aren’t a year older then I can’t stop you”

“sorry, just don’t want to celebrate it. i’m not into celebrating my birthday”

“i know that but you never told me why”

nat was the person you were closest to. you trusted her for obvious reasons, she was a world class spy. but more than that, she was the one only one that saw something in you when no one else did. she’s the one who took you into the avengers.

“It’s just- look, you know how it feels when you’re treated like nothing,” you said with a sigh. “that feeling is one of the worst feelings a person could feel, yet i had to feel it for basically my whole life. every birthday, I wished my life would change, that someone would treat me like I was worth something, but it never happened.”

“i’m sor-”

“my own mother didn’t even care enough to remember my birthday, so I decided from that point on i’d make my birthday mean nothing to me. if there’s nothing to look forward to, there’s nothing that can disappoint you.”

“y/n. i’m sorry. you didn’t deserve that to happen to you. but you have us. when I first started, i had nothing but now I have this. this job, this family.. you do too.”

“thank you nat I appreciate it, really i do, but it’s just better this way. that way, if anything were to happen, I wouldn’t have to feel the same feeling I felt all those years ago”

after that conversation, nat decided it was best not to argue with you because she understood, so you sparred. what you didn’t know was that bucky was listening in the whole time. he walked towards the gym til he heard your voice. he was intrigued by you, he couldn’t help but listen. after he heard that conversation, he went back to his room. he laid in his bed and thought. he thought about how you and him were quite similar, he thought about how he felt... bad for you? he didn’t like that you felt that way. he didn’t want you to feel that way. so he decided to do something about it.

7:30 pm

everyone was eating dinner. no one else acknowledged your birthday. that was a good sign. yet that feeling of disappoint lingered deep inside. you felt that way every birthday, because even though you say that you don’t want anyone to know about your birthday, a part of you always wanted people to know. to do something special for you, but you never got that. especially nowadays, how could anyone plan anything for you when you won’t even say that it’s your birthday!

11:55 pm

you were in your room listening to music. all the lights were off except for the rock salt lamps you had around your room and the lava lamp on your bedside. as you checked your phone for the time, you heard a knock. expecting natasha, you told friday to let her in. instead, stood one bucky barnes with a grocery bag.

“bucky?”

“um- hi”

“uh hi?... just in case, u do know this isnt ur room, right?”

“yea.. I wanted to um- I know it’s your birthday,” he said as he scratched the back of his neck.

“oh. nat told u?”

“no, i-i didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I heard u talking to her this morning in the gym”

“oh.”

“so happy birthday. here.” he walked to your bed and put the grocery bag down in front of you. you opened the bag and in it was a chocolate cake with purple frosting that read happy birthday.

a small chuckle left your lips, a slight tint of red forming on your cheeks. “purple is my favorite color”

“I know”

“thank you, you didn’t have to do this. i-i don’t even know when ur birthday is..”

12:00 am

“u don’t have to thank me, and it’s tomorrow,” he replied as he checked the time, “make that today.”

“oh. oh! happy birthday bucky. m’sorry I didn’t know.”

“it’s okay, I don’t really like my birthday either.”

he started to retreat from your room as he said, “again, happy bir-”

“birthday boy. u wanna join me? this cake isn’t meant for just one person”

“oh sure. thanks”

“you don’t have to thank me”

he walked back into your room and you patted the bed for him to sit.

he opened the cake as you grabbed a knife and two forks. after cutting the cake, you both ate in a comfortable silence.

“hey bucky, thank you. seriously. i know we both don’t like our birthdays but, this sorta kinda made my day.”

this time, he blushed.

“its nothin”

you continued eating the cake until suddenly you stood up and rummaged through a drawer. you pulled out a couple candles, stuck them into the half-eaten cake and lit them.

“happy birthday bucky. make a wish”

he closed his eyes for a couple seconds, then blew them out.

“watcha wish for?”

“i can’t say doll, or else it won’t come true.”

you looked down, that name bringing even more heat to your cheeks. when you looked up, buckys face was centimeters from yours.

then his lips were on yours. his soft, plump lips. you wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him closer. he wrapped his arms around your waist, the warmth engulfing the two of you. you could taste the peppermint chapstick on his lips. he could taste the vanilla on yours.

after what felt like forever, you broke away for air.

“and now my wish came true.”

[agentmarymargaretskitz]

Gary and Astra- I have never had a surprise party before!

“You have five seconds to tell me what is happening before I stab you.”

There’s a slight whimper ahead her from Gary. She really wishes that he’d just tell her what is happening instead of telling her to put on this stupid blindfold. Now he’s leading her somewhere on the ship for some reason. If it’s to see his damn rabbit in a new hat, she actually might follow through on her threat.

“Just give it a few seconds,” he tells her.

A few seconds pass and the light she can make out underneath the blindfold goes dark. Gary’s feet pass by and disappear out of sight. With a sigh, Astra pulls off the blindfold. It’s dark for a moment before the lights flick on and the whole team is jumping out from behind the tables in the galley.

“Surprise!”

There’s a banner strung up with ‘Happy Birthday’ emblazoned across it. Astra gapes at it. She knew today was her birthday yet she thought it would have been like any other day. In Hell, birthdays weren’t special. No presents or cake or parties. It just went on like any other day. Eventually, she just learned to stop expecting anything on her birthday.,

“Happy birthday!” Zari cheers as she comes up to her side and leads her forward. “Why didn’t you tell us this morning about it?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to do anything,” she admits, catching sight of the cake on counter. It’s frosted with chocolate and vanilla icing and adorned with strawberries. Looking at it makes her mouth water.

“You’re a Legend,” Nate tells her. “Family practically. Besides, it’s your first birthday on Earth since you were sent to Hell. Birthday parties probably suck in Hell.”

“They don’t even exist,” Astra explains, still taking everything in. They went all out for her. “Thanks. I’ve never had a surprise party before!”

“Well,” Behrad slings his arm around Gary. “You can thank him. It was his idea and he got all of us together to pull it off.”

Astra can’t stop her eyebrows from shooting up. She’s surprised that he would do that, but then she isn’t. Gary knows so much about all of them even if they keep him at arm’s length, but he still cares so much. With what she knows about his past, it would make more sense for him to do nothing. All the hurt she knows his mother inflicted on him, just like Lachesis did on her, and it just made him kind.

“Thanks,” she tells him.

As the party kicks off and cake is passed around, Astra promises herself that when Gary’s birthday comes around, she’ll repay the favor.

[lastbluetardis]

Chemical Reaction (19/22)

Summary: Though their chemistry class is now over, the chemistry between James and Rose is just getting started. Together, they navigate the highs of new love and the lows of coping with past trauma to forge deep and unbreakable bonds of love and commitment. Part 2 in the Catalysis series. Tagging @doctorroseprompts

This chapter: ~7400 words, teen

If you like my stories, consider leaving me a tip? I know these are trying times, but if you are able, I would really appreciate it xoxo. And as always, comments and reblogs are very much appreciated as well.

AO3 | FF | TSP

Ch1 | Ch2 | Ch3 | Ch4 | Ch5 | Ch6 | Ch7 | Ch8 | Ch9 | Ch10 | Ch11 | Ch12 | Ch13 | Ch14 | Ch15 | Ch16 | Ch17 | Ch18 | Ch19 | Ch20 | Ch21 | epilogue

James couldn’t believe his eyes. He blinked hard, thinking his exhaustion had caught up with him. No, the blonde woman on his porch had to be the night-shift nurse who lived across the street—she often liked to indulge in late-night baking on her nights off, and there were times she would come to James for an ingredient she was missing, or to give him a small sampling of her confectionery creations.

(He had the sudden, jarring, embarrassing realization that she may have been flirting with him the whole time… Is that why she hasn’t come around in months?)

“Rose,” he said again when blinking stupidly for at least ten seconds didn’t transform Rose into anyone else.

“Hi,” she said quietly. She looked exhausted; there were prominent shadows beneath her eyes and her shoulders drooped like a heavy weight sat upon them.

Her gaze flicked over his shoulder, and her face fell. “Oh. Sorry. Didn’t realize you had company. I’ll just…” She thumbed behind herself to the dark road. How did she get here? “Sorry.”

Before he could protest, Jack clapped James on the shoulder and announced, “No, no. I was getting ready to head out. Come on, get in out of the cold.”

Jack pressed a smacking kiss to James’s cheek, then muttered, “Talk to her,” into his ear. He then stepped forward and gave Rose a loose hug and kiss on the cheek before he walked to his vehicle that was parked on the side of the street.

They turned to watch Jack start his car and drive off into the night. James looked at Rose, then at the squarish plastic Tupperware container she held. She was absently flicking her thumb nail across the tab on the lid.

“What’ve you got there?” he asked, nodding to the container.

Rose chewed on her bottom lip and pushed her hair behind her ear. “Well. We’ve been playing a game all month, haven’t we? Time to celebrate.”

She popped the lid off the container and handed it to him. In it were half a dozen large, muffin-sized chocolate cupcakes, frosted in vanilla icing and decorated with pink and yellow star sprinkles. The words “Happy Birthday” were written in small, neat, glossy red letters across each cupcake. His stomach sank.

“It… it’s your birthday?” he croaked. Of course—of fucking course—today had been her birthday.

Rose nodded. “I… I didn’t want to let my entire birthday pass without spending some time with my favorite person.”

James nodded, swallowing the lump in his throat. “Hope you had fun.”

Rose raised an incredulous eyebrow, and the penny dropped.

“Me?” he squeaked, the knot in his chest loosening.

“Yes you, you numpty. Just because I’m angry with you doesn’t mean I stopped loving you. Do you not love me anymore because we fought?”

James’s knees weakened at the ‘l’ word. He took a step towards her, the arm not holding the cupcakes extended. Her face softened and she stepped into his proffered embrace. Her body was warm and solid against him. Heat prickled behind his eyes as he wrapped his arms as tightly around her as he could without upending the Tupperware container.

“I’m sorry, Rose. I’m so sorry. I…”

“Can we not do this on the front porch?” she asked, voice muffled. “S’cold.”

James was loath to let go of her, but he had to agree the night was getting frigid, especially for him, with his bare feet and thin pajama bottoms and t-shirt. With a sigh, he gave her a final squeeze and dropped his arms from around her waist, then stepped back to usher her into his home.

She toed off her shoes by the front door, and he could already predict her questions when she angled her head towards the hallway. “Did you paint something?”

James scratched the back of his neck. “Er. Yeah. Started repainting my bedroom.”

A small, sad smile tugged at the side of Rose’s mouth. “Needed something to keep your mind busy?”

“Something like that,” he admitted.

A more genuine smile crossed her face as she gestured to the Tupperware container he was holding. “Y’know, stress baking would've been cheaper.”

James blinked, then gaped down at the cupcakes he was holding. The font of the words was perfect cursive, the spread of the icing uniform and even. He blurted, “You made these?”

“Thanks for that vote of confidence,” she drawled. “Yes, I made them. Well. Elsa helped. She came over to my flat this afternoon. Bit of a girl’s night. Had pizza and wine, then made cupcakes. She’s actually really good at decorating; she’s got this whole set of frosting tips to make fancy designs. She did the lettering.”

“They look lovely. Very professional,” he said. He jutted his head to his kitchen, motioning for her to follow. She did, her quiet, shuffling footsteps falling into rhythm with his.

Rather than go into the kitchen, Rose peeled off to the living room, where Merry and Pippin were lounging on the sofa together, half-asleep. James watched her squat down in front of the cats and give them a bit of love before she returned to him.

“Should Jack have driven himself home?”

James glanced at Rose and saw her pointing to the kitchen table, where the mostly-empty bottle of wine sat. It had a few mouthfuls left.

“It was only half-full when we started,” James answered, picking up the bottle and hurriedly drinking the last of the wine. “This was from last weekend, when you and I… Anyway, he had one glass. I drank most of it. He should be fine.”

“Tell him to let us know when he gets home safely,” Rose said.

James snapped off a lazy salute then sent Jack a text, passing along Rose’s request. He set the Tupperware container of cupcakes on the counter before grabbing two clean bowls from the dishwasher he hadn’t bothered to empty.

“Oh, I really shouldn’t,” Rose said with a grimace. “I already had one after they came out of the oven. Plus pizza. M’gonna puff up like a balloon.”

She pinched her waist, and James frowned. “What are you talking about? You’re beautiful.”

Her cheeks flamed pink and she dropped her hand limply to her side. 

“I had a huge, greasy burger and chips for dinner. D’you think I’m gonna puff up like a balloon?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Well, no. But you’re…” She let her sentence dangle as she waved her hand vaguely up and down his body. 

“And you’re…” He mirrored her gesture. “Rose, I find you absolutely beautiful, and you losing or gaining weight won’t change my opinion. Not that my opinion should matter. If you don’t want a cupcake, or if you’re not hungry, that’s fine. And again, not that you need my approval.”

Rose sighed and twisted her hands in front of herself before she turned away from him and rooted in his freezer for ice cream he always made sure to have on hand.

“I had a minor eating disorder as a teen,” Rose said quietly, pulling out the ice cream and shutting the freezer. “Nothing too serious. I was obsessed with my weight, and was really careful with what I ate. I counted and logged calories. I grew out of it when I realized watching what I ate made me feel even worse about myself. Of course I still tried to eat healthy and to eat reasonably-sized portions, but I stopped being so strict with it. I obviously started putting on some weight, nothing too drastic, but Jimmy would often tease me and tell me to lay off the chips or whatever, because rock stars don’t date chubby girls.”

James’s ears were ringing with rage and heartbreak, and he was furious with himself for everything he had accused Rose of last night regarding Jimmy.

“Rose, I…”

“As I said, I’m fine now and I don’t really care about my weight or body image as much,” Rose interrupted, setting the ice cream on the counter in front of him. “But sometimes those thoughts pop up without me realizing it. Like they did just now.”

Unsure of how to respond, James instead took a cupcake out of the Tupperware container, unwrapped the paper from the bottom, and set it into the bowl. “Did I… did I say something wrong?”

“No. Quite the opposite, actually. You told me your opinion, but didn’t shove it in my face or try to force me to believe you. And like I said, I don’t often realize when I’m having these thoughts.”

He nodded and forced his lips into some semblance of a smile that he hoped looked supportive. He then returned his gaze to the bowl and the ice cream she’d retrieved.

“D’you want to share this with me?” he asked, gesturing to the bowl with a spoon.

Rose nodded. He scooped several large dollops of vanilla ice cream into the bowl then he went to his junk drawer. It overflowed with a random assortment of objects: scissors, several different types of batteries, notepads, pens, pencils, a ruler, a screwdriver, tape, glue, Band-Aids, rubber bands, paper clips, binder clips, thumbtacks, toothpicks, a ball of twine, a condom, a tampon, and so many other things James didn't remember throwing into the drawer.

He dug through the mishmash of objects until he found a small, half-empty box of birthday candles and a matchbook. He took out four candles and brought them and the matches over to where Rose stood at the counter.

“I would try to shove twenty-two of them into the cupcake, but firstly I don’t have twenty-two candles, and secondly, I’m pretty sure I would end up pulverizing the poor cupcake into a pile of crumbs. So use your imagination; two and two equates to twenty-two.”

He shoved two of the candles side by side into the left side of the cupcake, right before the H and B in “Happy Birthday”. The other two, he stuck into the right side of the cupcake, behind both Ys. Striking the match, he ignored the shaking in his hands as he lit the candles. He then promptly blew out the match and dropped it into the water-filled wine glass in the sink to let it stop smoking. However, Rose must have seen the tremor in his hands, because she reached over and threaded their fingers together.

“I don’t like fire,” he admitted. “For obvious reasons.”

“You didn’t have to light the candles then,” Rose said gently.

“Pfff. It’s your birthday. Can’t have a birthday without blowing out some candles. How else will you get a free wish?”

Rose cracked a small smile and squeezed his fingers. She leaned forward as though she were about to blow out her candles. James cried, “Wait!”

She pulled back with a start.

“It’s your twenty-second birthday. I would think you would remember how this goes by now,” he drawled. He then sucked in a deep breath and began to sing. “Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Ro-ooose. Happy Birthday to youuuuu.”

She was grinning by the end of it, especially when he intentionally sang off-key for the sole purpose of making her smile. He’d made her cry too much in the last twenty-four hours; a smile from her was a welcome sight.

“Right. Those candles are all charged up with birthday magic. Now you can make a wish and blow,” he said, bowing and gesturing to her cupcake.

Rolling her eyes at him, Rose closed her eyes and paused for about five seconds, before she blew out a short breath, extinguishing the candles with ease. He applauded her effort, then yanked the candles out of the cupcake and extended two of them to her. They licked off the cake crumbs and icing—cream cheese, he noted with delight—then dropped them into the trash.

“Let’s eat this before all the ice cream melts,” James said, gesturing to the table. “Want anything to drink? More wine?”

“Just water.”

He grabbed two glasses from the dishwasher and filled them with water from the pitcher in the fridge before plopping down at the table beside Rose. He noticed his phone had a new text notification; Jack had replied, letting him know he was home. James relayed the news to Rose, then gestured for her to take the first bite of her birthday cupcake.

For several long minutes, they sat silently together, trading off bites of cupcake and ice cream until the bowl was empty. 

“That was very good,” he praised, swiping his finger through the melted mess of ice cream and chocolate crumbs on the bottom of the bowl and licking the digit clean.

“Thanks. Elsa loves to bake but doesn't get the chance to do it as often as she likes because she lives in the dorms on campus.” Rose ran her fingertip along the rim of her glass. “When I invited her over to my flat, she said stress baking was a requirement. She didn’t know it was my birthday until we started decorating the cupcakes.”

“Do you have an aversion to people knowing it’s your birthday?”

She snorted. “No. But it just… it didn’t feel right to celebrate. Not when we’d…” She trailed off with a shrug. “All month I’d been looking forward to finally telling you it was my birthday. It didn’t feel right to tell anyone about my birthday if I couldn’t tell you.”

“I really buggered your birthday,” he sighed, chest tightening.

“Nah.” She pursed her lips. “Okay, well, yeah. But it wasn’t just you. I didn’t help. I wasn’t in the mood to celebrate my birthday today, so I kept it to myself. Anyways. Elsa knocked a bit of sense into me this afternoon. Helped put some things into better perspective.”

“I’m glad you have a friend like that to share things with,” he said.

Rose hummed in agreement. “She also called me out for being an idiot.”

James snorted. “Jack did much the same for me.” He paused, fidgeting uncomfortably for a few seconds before he blurted, “I am so sorry, Rose. I’m so sorry for snooping through your mail and reading that letter, and I’m so sorry for jumping to a conclusion that was absolutely ridiculous, and I’m sorry for accusing you of not trusting me. I’m sorry I twisted the situation and your words and actions to put the blame all on you. I’m sorry I let my own insecurities warp my perceptions of you and our relationship, and I’m so, so sorry for ever insinuating that you would want to go back to Jimmy.”

Rose was dead silent. When James chanced a peek over at her, he was horrified to see tears welling in her eyes. She blinked and they fell down her cheeks.

Sniffling, she wiped at them and whispered, “That really hurt. I thought I had told you enough about Jimmy to show you he wasn’t a nice person to be in a relationship with. And I thought…” 

“You did,” James interrupted fervently. “You did Rose. You were absolutely correct in saying I had selective memory. You told me more about him than I realized. I was too caught up in my own head last night to remember everything you’d said. I’m so sorry about that.”

Rose waved him off. “Forget Jimmy for a minute. Even if he wasn’t a wanker… It hurt that you would think I would be tempted into a new relationship with someone else when we’ve been so happy together. At least, I’ve been happy.”

“I’ve been happy, too,” James said. He covered her hand with his. “I swear, Rose. I’ve been so happy with you.”

He wished he had better answers for her. He wished he could explain what had triggered him last night, explain how his brain had disregarded nearly seven months of a friendship and four months of a relationship stronger than he’d ever had before. Why had he thought Rose would be tempted by an ex-boyfriend who had treated her so horribly? Why did he have the anxiety that Rose would see through his facade and realize he wasn’t as exciting as she’d thought? Why was he so fearful she would leave?

Because everyone leaves.

The realization crashed over him with the force of a tidal wave, pushing his head beneath the water until he could barely breathe. He was drowning, fighting a losing battle against the current, about to be swept away into the sea when he was thrown a lifeline.

Rose squeezed his fingers hard, grounding him, pulling him back to the moment. His chest was tight and tears blurred his vision.

Everyone leaves.

His mother, who had thought it more prudent to attend to their dogs rather than get herself to safety with her husband and son.

His father, who had rescued him from their burning house only to leave him on the street to go back inside. James hadn’t been enough to keep his dad by his side, and so he had lost two parents that night.

His aunt, who had never wanted kids, had never expected to have kids. She pulled long hours and travelled incessantly, chasing big news stories while James pretended he was fine with being alone, while silently wishing his dad had never saved him from their house. He knew without a doubt that, if his aunt could do it all over again, if she knew then what she knew now, she never would have agreed to be his godmother when he was born. He loved his aunt, and knew his aunt loved him, but he wasn’t so naïve as to be ignorant of the fact that he had upheaved his aunt’s life, and not entirely for the better.

The friends he had left behind in the UK and never heard from again after he and his aunt moved to America. People he had known since childhood who hadn’t bothered putting in the effort to stay in touch, despite claiming they would.

His previous partners, many of whom finding ways to end their brief relationship after realizing he didn’t want to have sex with them. Time after time, he had to listen to them say it was fine that they weren’t being physically intimate—with an unspoken yet dangling between them—only to listen to them make up excuses for why they were ending the relationship. Granted, he had broken off a relationship himself a few times, but over half the time, his partner had been the one to end it.

Over and over, people came and people went, and at the heart of it, James was hardly more than a spectre, unable to be seen or heard as his heart was left broken. And yet when Rose had joined him, had taken his hand and made promises and vows that nobody ever had before, he had jumped at the first opportunity to assume she would leave him, too.

Chair legs scraped across the floor a moment before a warm, familiar arm wrapped around his waist. He turned into Rose and rested his cheek on her shoulder, breathing in her scent, the subtle tones of amber and citrus, of warmth and love and home.

Something deep in his chest cracked open, releasing the floodgates. For the past nine and a half years, he had been drifting, trying to make sense of how he could feel so alone when he was surrounded by people, able to make new friends and acquaintances at the drop of a hat. Yet there was always that disconnect, making him feel more like an outsider looking in. Like everyone else was aware of the punchline of a joke while he was left clueless.

Until Rose. With Rose it had been natural. Effortless. It was though his world had shifted into perfect focus, and at the heart of it was her. She had reminded him of what it felt like to belong, to feel perfectly at home with another person. And though he was desperate not to lose her and what they had together, part of him was holding his breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Yet in doing so, he had let his anxiety take control and had hurt Rose badly enough that he had nearly caused her to do exactly what he had been terrified of.

James’s shoulders shook as he wept quietly into Rose’s neck, dampening the collar of her shirt. She didn’t seem to mind. Instead, she held him closer, rubbing her hand up and down the length of his spine as he sobbed and gasped for breath.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped. “I’m so sorry for everything, Rose.”

Haltingly, through the juddering tears that cracked his voice, he explained his revelation to her. He hoped he didn’t sound like he was making excuses for himself, but he genuinely wanted her to understand the conclusion his big, stupid brain had come to.

“I let my fears take over,” he said, voice raw from crying and talking. “I didn’t realize what they were. And I didn’t realize how loud they’d gotten.”

“I understand,” Rose said quietly. “Believe me. I understand. Is there anything I can do to help you quiet them?”

James rubbed his hand beneath his clogged, stuffy nose and grimaced when it came away wet. He pulled away from Rose and stood, moving to the sink to wash his hands, then to grab a handful of tissues. He blotted his eyes then blew his nose before he sank into his seat beside her again.

“I don’t know,” he confessed. “I know this is a me problem, not a you problem. You’ve been wonderful, Rose. You and me… our relationship… it has all been wonderful. I don’t know why I was so quick to let ten minutes of screaming insecurities make me forget about half a year of loving you.”

Rose chewed on the inside of her cheek, contemplating. “If ever there’s a time those voices are getting too loud, I’d like you to tell me. Though I know sometimes they can go unnoticed. But if you realize you’re getting stuck in your head, let me know and I’ll try to help you out of it.”

James flashed her a grateful smile. “Same for you. If there’s ever a time I can help you with whatever’s on your mind…”

Rose sighed. “I need to get better about that. I’ve realized I have a bad habit of telling myself I will deal with something later, but later never actually comes.” She sucked in a big breath and blew it out again. “I’m sorry you saw that letter from Jimmy. Yeah, you were a bit of a twat for reading it and reacting like you did. But I’m sorry you were blindsided like that, and that I ignored how it made you feel. And I’m sorry for making you feel like I don’t trust you. I’m sorry I made you self-conscious for everything you’ve shared with me and that you feel like I don’t share enough with you.” She let out a sad little laugh that twisted his heart. “This is going to sound lame, but I honestly didn’t realize I wasn’t being as open with you as I thought I was. It feels like you know me better than anyone ever has, so I didn’t think to change anything. But now that I know how you feel, I want to work to be better at that.”

James shook his head and covered her hand. “No, Rose. I got caught up in my own head and in my frustration. You’ve shared more with me than I wanted to admit last night.” Jack’s words clanged around in his head. “I shouldn’t have expected the exact same level of sharing from you as I am comfortable with giving.”

“That’s not fair. I am comfortable with you…”

James cringed. “No, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not accusing you of anything, Rose. Merely stating a fact. I’m not trying to make you feel guilty or upset, I swear. I want you to be comfortable talking with me, and forcing you to talk about things you aren’t comfortable with is counterproductive.”

“Thing is, I was always going to tell you everything about Jimmy,” Rose sighed. “When he first texted me, it sent me into a blind panic and I sorta… shut down. I wanted to take the time I needed to get into a better place before sharing it with you. But I guess I didn’t realize how long it was since he first texted me.”

James stayed silent, letting her get her thoughts together. He twined their fingers together, happy to be able to sit and touch her like this, when for many long, heartbreaking hours in the wee hours of that morning, he had been sure that he would never be able to do so again. Her hand fit perfectly in his, and he knew that he would do whatever it took to make their relationship whole again, to make sure he could hold her hand for the rest of their lives.

When Rose began speaking, he gave her his full attention and tried to keep his emotions in check. He listened to her explain how Jimmy had texted her out of the blue, having gotten her number from a “mutual friend”.

“M’still not sure who gave it to him,” Rose said with a sigh. “He never told me and none of my friends claim to have done it.”

James listened to her describe the early conversations she’d had with Jimmy, from telling him that she needed time, to working through her anxiety with the help of Elsa and a counselor, to coming to the decision to let Jimmy say his piece.

“He was very important to me at one time. He was the love of my life. He was my everything. He will always be important and special because I genuinely loved him, and like it or not, my experiences with him shaped me into the person I am today. I don’t love him anymore, and frankly don’t miss him or want what we used to have, but if this would help him and me move on, I really wanted to let him say what he needed to say.

“He apologized to me, and it wasn’t even a terrible apology. Though he did make it sound like we both were at fault, but you know what, it was better than I was expecting, so I sorta took it as a win. I figured we were done, but then he wanted to know if he could repay me for all the debts he’d left me with. I can’t remember if I told you before, but he stopped paying his part of the rent at the end of our relationship. I got so behind on those payments because I had other bills to focus on that by the time I moved out, I was six months behind.

“I refused Jimmy’s offer. Told him everything was paid off and he didn’t owe me anything.” Rose sniffled and smiled ruefully, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “You know my money insecurities. I couldn’t stand the thought that he might use this as a way to control me again. So I shut him down.”

“Good for you,” James murmured, his first words in a while. “You don’t have to go on. It’s okay.”

But Rose shook her head. “I want you to know all of this. I want to come to you when—as Elsa puts it—shit ties up my brain. And my brain has been in knots for over a month. I want to be better with being okay about my thoughts sometimes getting tangled; I realized if I waited until my brain was calm to tell you everything, I would never tell you anything. I don’t want secrets between us, and I’m frustrated with myself that I unwittingly kept secrets from you. I can’t promise I will tell you immediately when something is on my mind, but I will make more of an effort to be more open with you. I wish I’d told you all of this sooner, but I can’t go back and change how I handled this, so let me tell you all of this now.”

James nodded and brought their clasped hands to his lips for a soft kiss.

“After I told Jimmy I didn’t want his money, I thought we were done. I didn’t hear from him for a few days, but then I got a text from him, a selfie with some of our old friends. A harmless group photo. Then he started sharing news from home. Or he would send me playlists. Stupid, innocent stuff we used to. He has really good taste in music and I’m always happy to have new songs or artists to listen to.

“We started chatting a little more regularly. Not daily, but a few times a week. A few messages at a time. He shared updates about his life, told me about going to drug and alcohol meetings, financial counseling, and so on. I told him about America and school. I didn’t tell him about you, though. It’s stupid, and I should have because I don’t think Jimmy realizes I’m not single, but you’re mine.” The word sent a thrill up James’s spine, and he couldn’t help but kiss her knuckles again. “You’re mine and I didn’t want to share you with him. I didn’t want anything of Jimmy to touch you. And I wasn’t trying to lead him on or anything. Or keep him a secret from you. But all of a sudden it’s been five weeks since he first texted.

“Then he sent me that letter. It came two days ago. I cried when I got it. I never gave him my address, so I panicked that he had somehow stalked me and found me, that he would be waiting at the university for me. And I was just… so defeated. I thought maybe he’d changed. Grown up or something. Stupidly, I thought maybe we could eventually be friends. But the only thing he wanted was for me to get back together with him.”

Rose’s tears dripped down her cheeks and her breathing hitched. James wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in for a hug. She willingly leaned into him and sniffled quietly for a long moment.

“Did you really think that was a love letter?” Rose croaked.

“Pardon?”

“What Jimmy wrote to me. Did you think it read like a love letter?”

James sucked on the inside of his lower lip. He tried to remember the content of the letter, but his memories were all tainted with the pain of their argument.

“I don’t remember enough of it,” he confessed. “I’m sorry.”

Rose lifted her bum off of her chair, reaching into her back pocket to pull out a piece of paper that had been folded into eighths.

“Here,” she said, giving it to him.

Tentatively, he took it. Rose pulled herself out of his embrace and grabbed a tissue from the crumpled pile he had brought over. 

As he reread the letter, his stomach twisted into knots when he picked out several words and phrases.

I’ve found a piece of myself…

I’m not complete…

I hate the person I am without you… 

…happiest of my life… 

…nothing more I’ve wanted…

…(our life?)… 

You make me feel like I can do anything… 

I love how I feel when I’m with you… 

I was scared about how much I needed you… 

…something I always knew would be there for me… 

I know I can make it work this time… 

…enjoy your time there, while you can… 

…we can work harder together to make us work… 

I will do whatever it takes to make this work… 

Over and over, James read the letter, his mind picking up more of the tone and the sheer selfishness in it. Everything Jimmy said was about him, about how he needed Rose, without giving a thought about whether Rose wanted or needed him. He plainly admitted to taking her for granted, and still, after all this time, he acted as though he and Rose were equally at fault for how their relationship had ended.

How must it have sounded to Rose, for him to go off on her about the letter?

“Oh, Rose,” James breathed, “I’m so sorry. God, I was a twat, wasn’t I?”

She let out a watery giggle. “Yeah, a bit.”

“Can I ask…? How did Jimmy find your address? I mean. Do you even know how he found it?”

Rose’s eyes welled with tears again, even as she scoffed. “My mum.”

“Your… mum?” That had not been what James had expected. “But… why?”

Rose shook her head. “Apparently Jimmy went ‘round the estate. Found my mum and told her we’d been chatting. Said he wanted to send me money to help cover the bills I’d paid. He said exactly the right thing—when I moved back home, my mum kept telling me over and over that Jimmy should cough up the money to cover his half of the flat and the expenses that had built up. 

“A couple weeks ago, my mum asked me if I’d been chatting with Jimmy. When I said yes, I guess she assumed I knew Jimmy wanted to repay me but I was being unreasonable.” Rose’s face crumpled. “I know my mum didn’t know how badly Jimmy had treated me, and that's my fault for not telling her. But what if he’d been a murderous stalker? What if he’d physically or sexually abused me? What if he used that information and showed up alone at my flat one night and broke in and…?”

She coughed out a wracking sob and buried her face in her hands. James nearly began crying at the sight of her distress. “How dare my mum give out my address like that? I never thought she’d do something like that. My mum called to wish me a happy birthday and I told her a little bit about why you and I were fighting, and she told me she was the one who gave Jimmy my address. I got so angry with her, and she was gettin’ angry with me. I’ve spent the day crying ‘cos I was fighting with my two favorite people.”

James tossed the letter onto the table and wrapped his arms around Rose, holding her tightly to his chest. He had never been angrier with another person than he was right now with Jackie Tyler. Well. Jackie Tyler and Jimmy bloody Stone. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Rose. I’m sorry.”

“Joke’s on Mum, though; Jimmy didn’t send a single quid with that letter.” Rose sniffled and scrubbed her hands across her eyes. “I hate this. I wish I’d blocked Jimmy from the start, I wish I’d told you when he texted, I wish I’d told my mum not to talk to Jimmy. I wish I’d handled everything differently, and I wish I hadn’t gotten so upset with you last night. I’m sorry, James. I’m sorry for it all.”

James tightened his hold around her, burying his face into her neck while she wept into his. “You have every right to handle situations however you think is best. I should have had more faith and trust in you and in our relationship. I was unreasonable. But I forgive you, love. Of course I forgive you. I love you. I love you more than you can imagine, and I’m so sorry I doubted it last night.”

Rose began crying harder into his shoulder. Her breaths came out in harsh gasps as she managed to reply, “I love you too. I’m sorry for putting the doubt in your head… when you asked if I was breaking up with you and I said I didn’t know. God, I didn’t mean that. I didn’t mean it at all. I got scared too, same as you, and my brain sort of shut down because it couldn’t stop thinking of everything Jimmy had said or done in the past, and twisting it to look like what you were saying and doing. That’s something I need to work on because that’s insulting for me to imply that you’re anything like him, but I didn’t know what to do, so I pushed you out, and I’m so sorry.”

James merely held her tighter, his heart breaking at her agony, yet filling with more love for her than he’d ever felt before.

“You’re the strongest woman I know, Rose,” he murmured into her hair. “The strongest. You’ve overcome so much, and you’re working to make yourself the best version of yourself that you can be, and that’s so admirable. I am here to listen to anything you want to tell me, but I am okay with not knowing everything. I trust your judgement, and I know you’ll tell me what you want me to know.”

He continued speaking quietly, a combination of reassurances, affirmations, and words of love. She shed more tears than he’d ever seen her shed, and he shed just as many. He was exhausted and overwhelmed, and he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a very long time tangled with Rose.

When her tears finally dried, he pressed a lingering kiss to the side of her head before sitting back in his chair. He grabbed a tissue for himself and passed one to her; they noisily blew their noses and wiped their eyes.

“Well. Wasn’t that cathartic?” he said cheerfully, holding his hand out for her tissue to throw in the rubbish bin.

She chuckled. Though her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were splotchy, he didn’t think there was a more beautiful person in the world than her.

He washed his hands after throwing away their used tissues, then he grabbed a few more, just in case. His nose was still a bit runny, and he was sure Rose’s had to be too. He plopped into his chair with a groan.

“First fight,” he mused. “Can tick that one off the list, I suppose.”

“Was it everything you expected it to be?” she drawled, rolling her eyes.

“Admittedly it was a lot more painful than I thought,” he said. “But now we can go back to how we were, right?”

Rose paused. In the silence, his heart sank into his stomach.

“I don’t know if we should,” she said carefully, and his lungs were suddenly out of air. Her eyes widened. “No, not like you’re thinking. It’s just… everything we fought about, everything we talked about, it changed us. It changed our relationship. Not in a bad way, but it’s different now. We’re more aware of some things that we weren’t before. I don’t want to go backwards with you. I want us to go forward. Together.”

James nodded, shoulders slumping in relief. He slid his hand across the table, slipping it beneath Rose’s so her palm rested against the back of his hand. He splayed his fingers, letting hers fall between the gaps. She curled her fingers around his hand.

“You’re right,” he said, caressing his thumb along the side of her pinkie. “Absolutely, you’re right. Guess this means the honeymoon period is over?”

“Probably.” She flashed him a cheeky grin. “Hopefully we’re not over the horny hump though.”

“You’re never gonna let me forget that I said that, are you?” he whined, grimacing.

“Nope,” she said, popping the ‘p’ as he often did. “It was such a dorky thing to call it.”

He pouted. “You never complained about my dorkiness before.”

“I love your dorkiness. Doesn’t mean I won’t tease you about it though.” Her smile slipped until her face turned solemn. “I’m really glad we talked this out, James.”

He squeezed her fingers. “Me too.”

“Any time Jimmy and I had an argument, we never did this. We’d shout at each other, curse at each other, and then ignore each other and not speak for a day or so. Then we’d have angry make up sex and pretend everything was fine in the morning. I don’t want to ever do that again. I want to communicate with you and to compromise with you, then grow with you.

“Staying in love is a choice, and it takes work. It shouldn’t be hard, but it’s not easy either. We need to choose to stay in love, decide that our relationship is worth making an effort for. I want to wake up every day and choose you, to choose us, and I want to put in the work because I wanna enjoy the payoff. Because being in love with you, James… it’s the best I’ve ever felt. You make me feel like I can do anything, like pass a stupid chemistry class or tell my stupid ex-boyfriend to fuck off. I love the way you make me feel. I love feeling like I’m home whenever I’m with you. And though this home we’re building with each other might have a leaky roof every now and then, I wanna fix it with you.”

James’s eyes were burning again. How was anything even left in his tear ducts? “Oh, Rose. You make me feel the same way. And I feel so inadequate because you just waxed romantic poetry at me, but my brain has stopped working. But please know I love you with every cell in my body, and I want to keep loving you with every cell, all the way down to each little organelle contained within, every day for the rest of our long and beautiful life together.”

Rose grinned at him and leaned over to press a light kiss to his lips. They tingled at the contact, and he wanted to pull her close to kiss her again.

“You’re such a science geek,” she said.

“Well. I’ve already shown you I’m rather fabulous with many types of chemistry and anatomy,” he drawled, flashing her an over-the-top wink as he clicked his tongue lewdly.

She burst into a fit of laughter that he echoed, feeling at peace for the first time in twenty-four hours. The exhaustion of all those hours suddenly overwhelmed him. His laughter morphed into a yawn, which spread to Rose.

“I’m knackered,” he announced unnecessarily. “Will you come to bed with me? My bedroom’s a disaster, but the guest bed is made.”

Rose nodded and stood up from the kitchen table. She took their bowl to the sink and rinsed it out before leaving it there for them to clean properly in the morning. She then flicked off the light on top of the stove before she followed him through the rest of the house, locking up and turning lights off as they went.

“Can I see what you’ve done to your room?” Rose asked.

“Sure,” he said, continuing down the hall rather than peeling off into the guest room. When he got to his closed door, he warned, “It’s a mess.”

They were hit with the stench of paint fumes as soon as he opened the bedroom door. He flicked on the light, and the room was bathed in the yellow glow of his lamps.

“Love the color,” Rose said.

“Yeah?” he asked, pleased with himself that, even in his miserable, depressive state of trying to not think about Rose, he had managed to pick a color she would like.

“Mhm.”

“I have to put on the second coat. I’ll probably do that tomorrow—I’m not really feeling like going to my classes, so I’ll probably ditch ‘em again.”

“You rebel,” she teased. “If you want some help, I don’t have anything important going on tomorrow. And I don’t work this weekend. We can take a few days to finish up the painting and reorganize your furniture.”

James smiled. “I’d like that.”

“It’s a date.” She wrapped her arm around his waist and tucked her face against his shoulder. “Besides, it’ll go faster with two.”

Leaning down, James brushed a kiss to her crown then rested his cheek in her hair. “Faster with two. Better with two.” He gave her waist a tight squeeze as he kissed her again. “Better with you.”

[bimboamyrose]

Unfamiliar - A Metamy Fanfic (Ch. 6)

Ch. 6: Instinct

First two chapters

Previous (Ch.5) CW: (mild) blood

NOTES: I posted this earlier but the tags were screwed up? Sorry if this is the second time you see this. More notes in the tags.

.......................................................................

“Okay, now add the eggs and vanilla,” Amy instructed. She was sitting at her kitchen counter watching her guests attempt to make chocolate chip cookies. Cream insisted that Amy just read out the ingredients and relax.

Cream reached for the amber bottle of vanilla extract. “How much is it again?”

“Two teaspoons.”

“Yes, captain!” Cream saluted Amy, cracking two eggs into the mixing bowl and splashing a little too much vanilla over them. “Oops…”

Amy chuckled, “It’s okay, just mix it.”

“You heard the lady. Let’s mix!” Cream pointed at Metal Sonic, who was reluctantly standing to the side gripping an electric hand mixer. He emitted a low chime and made a salute- this was also at the young girl’s behest.

Amy couldn’t keep herself from cackling at the sight of a sweet child ordering around a tall, formidable machine. It was the last sight she expected to see in her kitchen. Metal shot daggers at her as he mixed but it didn’t deter her laughter.

It was always easy for Amy to become comfortable with people, and having someone stay at her place for a week straight didn’t give her a choice anyway. She and Metal spent the last few days idling around, doing whatever Amy normally did on her time off- watching movies, sewing her spring garden, painting (or at least watching Metal attempt to delicately hold a brush). Not knowing how long her plan would take to pan out, Amy pushed the thought of explaining it to Sonic far back into her mind. He’d left town the day she and Metal visited Tails and was planning to be away for a couple more days, but Amy still hadn’t found the words to put together a convincing argument. They would have to cross that bridge when they got there.

Metal thought after his initial repairs that he should address his memory loss with Amy. He didn’t have any choice but to wait for the possibility that Tails could restore it, but he had known Amy in the past and wanted to understand how. Then he found himself enjoying his time with her. Another unfamiliar feeling. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to simply wait a while.

“Stop! It’s smooth,” Cream directed. The loud whizzing of the electric mixer died down and she turned back to Amy. “What’s next?”

Amy got out the last of her giggles and brought the recipe card to her eye level. “Sift in the dry ingredients.”

Cream dumped the pre-measured flour and baking powder into the sifter and carefully shook the airy powder into the rest of the mix. Amy was about to open her mouth to read the next step but was cut off by Cream shouting “Mix it!”

“No wait-” Amy pleaded too late.

Metal had turned the mixer up on high, sending most of the flour flying up out of the bowl. It caked all their faces and most of the counter before he realized his mistake and hastily pulled the mixer out. Then he frantically waved a hand in front of his face, blinded.

Amy rubbed the flour out of her eyes. “You’re supposed to go slowly,” she wheezed. The first thing she saw was Metal groping around the kitchen counter blindly. Cream burst into laughter a second later.  “I don’t know what you think is so funny- You’re the one who had to clean this mess!” Amy glowered.

“W-what?” Cream’s hooting was cut short. “But Metal’s the one who did it!”

“You’re the one forcing him! He can’t even eat cookies, why are you making him hold the hand mixer?”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t do it together,” Cream scoffed.

The aluminum measuring spoons clattered to the ground. Metal had continued fumbling around for something to clean his face off with, knocking them over by accident. Amy clicked her tongue and made her way around the counter, pulling a kitchen towel out of a drawer. “Hold still before you break something!” she clamored, reaching up to taking hold of Metal’s face in order to wipe the thick layer of flour off his eyes. “Don’t you remember where the towels are?”

He chimed indignantly in response. He was never in the kitchen, why would he bother learning where she kept the rags? When the layer of dust had been cleared out of his vision, he felt something akin to embarrassment at suddenly being face-to-face with Amy. She must have felt similarly because she turned away from him in a huff. There was color in her cheeks.

Amy’s communicator could be heard ringing from her bedroom. She turned to answer it. “We’ll clean it together, just get a head start while I answer this.” She could hear Cream sigh as she began wiping the counter.

Amy clicked the button on the large tablet-like device. Tails could be seen on the other side, waving. He looked nervous. “Hey, Tails. What’s up? Feeling okay?”

“I’m alright,” he shrugged. “Sonic wants to say hi…”

A knot suddenly tied in Amy’s gut. “Sonic? He’s back already?”

“Hey Ames!” the view suddenly shifted to the blue hedgehog. He was all smiles as he waved to her. “Sure am! How’s it goin’?”

Amy forced a smile. “Great! Just hanging out! Where were you?”

“Did a little scouting. I think Egghead is up to something as usual. We should all get together and see what we can do about it.”

“Oh, really? I’m a little busy-”

“And Tails said you wanted to talk to me about something! Just letting you know I’ll be right over. See ya!” he winked and the screen went blank.

Amy began to panic. For a moment, she was frozen. The tablet rang once more and Tails was on screen again. “Sorry! I was calling to warn you. He’s about to leave-”

“What did you tell him?” Amy interrupted.

“Nothing! Just that you wanted to talk to him.” Tails turned his head. “Uh, he just left-”

Amy hung up before Tails could finish. Sonic would be there in seconds. She ran back into the kitchen, startling her guests. “Cream, you have to go now. Metal, can you walk her out the back?”

Cream looked up from her cleaning. “Huh? But we’re not done baking these yet-”

“Go. Now!” Amy pointed to the back door. “I’ll explain later.”

The panic in her voice was obvious. Metal took Cream by the hand gently, nudging her out of the kitchen just as Amy whipped her head around. A loud knock came from the door. She wasn’t expecting to have this confrontation today.

Amy started toward the door. “I’ll call you later, Cream.”

“O-Okay…” the girl was led out through the back door by Metal. He was on high alert. Amy’s sudden change in demeanor was alarming, to say the least. He waved to Cream as she threw her jacket on and scuttled off the beach, shooting him back a worried look as she left. Amy wasn’t in the house when Metal re-entered.

She had stepped out the front door the moment she opened it, greeting Sonic outside. Neither of them was wearing jackets. Sonic rarely did, but Amy immediately felt the air nipping at her. “Hey! I wasn’t expecting company today…” Amy leaned back against the door, making sure it was shut behind her.

Sonic was usually greeted with a begrudging hug, but immediately noticed his friend’s anxiety instead. “Hey, Ames. Everything okay? What did you wanna talk about?”

“Um…” she avoided his gaze. “Never mind that, let’s talk about what you found while scouting.”

He stood with his fists against his hips impatiently. “We can talk about that with the team tomorrow. What’s up? Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing,” she shrugged.

“Then how come we’re still standing out here?”

Amy was out of answers. She stalled by taking a deep breath, as if she was preparing to say something, but she didn’t know what that something would be.

Inside, Metal made his way across the house to listen at the front door. He heard a male voice that he instinctively recognized as threatening. He couldn’t explain why, but the voice outside sounded like his opponent. Was Amy in danger? The words weren’t menacing, but that voice…

Metal pulled the door open hastily. Amy struggled with the doorknob momentarily, but it was no use- the door opened inward and Metal was capable of pulling it with enough force to take it off its hinges. She stumbled backward, bumping into him from behind.

Metal’s eyes met Sonic’s. Enemy. Nothing about the blue hedgehog’s appearance immediately screamed “dangerous” or “threatening” but that was the only word that came to Metal’s mind. Enemy. He reflexively slipped an arm around Amy’s waist, pulling her back.

“Metal- wait!” she gasped. Sonic had seen him do this before. The context was different then, but neither of them knew that.

The shock that came across Sonic was enough to give him a rare, brief moment of pause. But the second Metal Sonic dragged Amy away, he knew he was in for a battle. “I don’t know how you got in here, but if you don’t let her go-”

“Sonic, stop!” Amy pleaded, still in the robot’s grasp.

Sonic. Metal heard her say his name when they’d met some days earlier. He recalled the search he’d made into his memory. The corrupt file. The one thing he could associate with Sonic was enemy. His only instincts now were to fight and protect.

Metal leaped backward toward the sliding door with Amy in his grasp. He slammed it open and pulled her out the back; it was a miracle the glass didn’t shatter. She was pleading with him to stop. “Please! Let me explain!” But he wanted to get her far away from the approaching battle. Amy knew that if she struggled and managed to escape, there would be nothing stopping Sonic from attacking. Metal took her in his arms and accelerated toward the sky.

Amy didn’t know what to do.  The cold wind stung her eyes and she held onto Metal tightly, dizzy from the sudden altitude. They flew up the hillside that formed a semi-circle behind the beach, landing on a grassy cliff that was wet from the melting frost. As Metal tried to put her down she folded her arms around him to prevent him from flying away. His engine whirred loudly and he reverberated a low note. He wasn’t going to let her prevent him from doing what he needed. He grabbed her arms and tried to force her off, sharp fingers digging into her delicate skin. Amy grimaced in pain but refused to let go. Realizing this, Metal softened his grip and tried his best to convey his confusion in his mechanical language. It stalled him long enough for Sonic to come running up the hillside and onto the same cliff.

“Get your hands off her!” Sonic looked for an opening to strike.

“Stop!” Amy held a hand out in front of her. “You need to listen to me, both of you-”

Metal slipped away from her, pushing her out of the way harshly. She lost her balance on the slippery grass and landed on her knees. He hadn’t meant to push her over, but Metal would have to find the time to apologize later. His long legs stepped around her coldly, approaching his opponent. They both stood offensively, each glaring at the other, unblinking. Metal was getting ready to take off into the air again to move the fight when they were interrupted.

Amy’s oversized mallet came down hard between them, ending their staring contest. The ground seemed to move beneath the three of them at the strike. Her scowl met Sonic first. “I said stop! Why don’t you ever listen?” she roared. Her eyes were twin volcanoes. “And you,” she whipped her head around to come face-to-face with Metal. “You idiot! You don’t even know why you’re fighting!” Amy’s shrieks echoed through the valley as she panted from the sudden exertion. Her throat felt as if she’d been breathing fire.

The other two seemed to realize at once that it was pointless to fight. Whatever instincts regularly guided them had failed in the wake of Amy’s intervention. Sonic knew better than to disregard Amy when she was fueled with this much rage. This wasn’t just her regular temper getting the better of her. The sudden charge frightened even Metal.

“Amy,” Sonic began.

“Shut up,” she shot back coldly. “You need to listen-”

“Amy, you’re bleeding.” he retorted, gesturing to her arm.

She looked at her right upper arm, where Metal had taken hold of her a few moments earlier. A small gash was beginning to send blood running down onto her forearm. She hurriedly covered it with her other hand and stood upright. “It’s just a scratch.” The chilly air, fierce anger, and shock of blood were enough to jerk Amy out of her adrenaline rush. She was shaking now.

Metal brought his rigid hands up to examine them. Blood capped the tips of the fingers on his left hand. Guilt came over him as he watched Amy’s white gloves turn pink.

Sonic took a step toward her. “Amy, just tell me what’s going on.”

“I will. Can we go home? I’m so cold.”

Sonic nodded, outstretching his arms to her. Metal put out his own hand but quickly stopped himself. He feared he would hurt her again. Amy turned back to him and nodded, as if to convince him that she was okay. Her pale face and shivering form were not so reassuring. “Meet us down there,” she told Metal as she took a seat in Sonic’s arms. Sonic knit his brow.

They sped down the cliffside and onto the beach. He slowed to a walk on the damp sand. “You can put me down,” Amy requested.

“Don’t be stubborn, we’re almost there. What’s gotten into you?”

Sonic carried her through the back door. Chilly air entered the house with them as it had been left open for the past several minutes. Amy was doing her best to ignore the mess in her kitchen and pulling a small first aid kit from her pantry when Metal lumbered in. He slid the door closed as slowly as he could control.

“Sit. Both of you.” It was like deja-vu. She wondered if this would end as well as it did with Cream.

The three sat at Amy’s dining table. Metal watched her silently clean the cut and running blood and stick a strip of bandage over top. It was more than a scratch but the wound wasn’t deep, Amy had stopped bleeding by the time she crumpled up the packaging from the bandage. Sonic didn’t take his eyes off the robot.

Amy held a hand out toward Metal. “Give me your hand,” she instructed plainly. He looked down toward his lap guiltily. “Hey, it’s okay.” She beckoned for his hand once again and he reluctantly lifted it over the table. Amy grabbed it and wiped the partially dried blood from his fingers with some cotton dipped in alcohol, all the while Sonic stared on tensely in confusion. “You’ll end up staining something if you don’t clean your hands…” she mumbled. Metal didn’t have a response but to watch. He wanted to be grateful that she wasn’t seriously hurt or angry, but the only thing he felt was remorse. There must have been a reason he was built this way, all sharp and armed. What was he still here for? He thought it was probably time he stopped loitering around her.

...................................................

Please follow my blog for updates! Thanks again for your sweet comments, reblogs, and tags. Put my rambling in the tags if y'all are interested.❤️

[imbuckysplum]

Now listen I know I’m not the best writer but this idea just wouldn’t leave my head so here you go I don’t really have a title for it so if you have ideas I’ll gladly accept them:) the plot is bacially you and Steve go to see Peggy and she tells Steve to finally make his move. It’s 1.8k words:)

There was a knock at your door. “Y/N, you almost ready to go?” Steve's voice flooded your ears as you stood in front of your mirror. “I’ve got donuts.” At the mention of food your ears pricked up like a cat. “Coming Steve.” You applied a coat of chapstick, grabbed your jacket and ever so dramatically opened the door. “I’m ready.” You said in a singsong voice. Steve gave you a little smile. “Ok so which ones mine?” You asked looking at the donuts in his hands. He just rolled his eyes, “pick.” You ended up choosing the glazed chocolate one, leaving Steve with a frosted vanilla. Donuts in hand the two of you walked down the hall to the elevator.

“Let me press the button!” But you were a little too late, Steve’s hand was already on the button. This caused you to grab his finger instead. You couldn’t see yourself, but you could feel the blush creeping up your neck. “Oh- um- I’m sorry.” You let go of his finger blushing harder than before. “I-t’s all good.” Steve’s face was bright red. You had basically given up on the idea of Steve liking you back. Every time you tried to show interest he would act all casual, like you were just friends doing friend things. And his blush before would have been a sign to anybody who didn’t know him that he liked you, but you know him. Steve is Steve, he blushes over everything. Plus you backed off once you found out Peggy was still alive. In fact that’s where you were going today, to see her. After the whole finger thing was over, you and Steve stepped into the elevator.

Trying to take your mind off of what a fool you just made out of yourself, you asked “are you nervous?” Steve looked at you. “How did you know?” You let out a small laugh. “Steve you're tapping your foot, and you have shifty eyes. A moth could tell that you're nervous.” His nose scrunched up. “That obvious huh.” The elevator dinged signaling for the two of you to get out. “It’s a good thing we have Natasha around to do undercover work, because acting isn’t your thing Rogers.” Steve just rolled his eyes, and tossed you a helmet. Hopping on his motorcycle behind him, you grabbed his waist. This part always made you blush. The way you could feel his muscles ripple as he breathed in and out. You had never actually seen Steve shirtless, but you imagined it a lot. If what people say is really true he’s built like a god, sculpted from the finest marble known to man. And that’s what, despite your best effort, you were doing right now.

“Earth to Y/N. Come in Y/N.” You blinked a couple of times. “W-what, I’m here.” You didn’t sound like it though, part of your mind still in your daydream. “Well I’m glad you're here, because we are here.” It took you a moment to realize what he meant. You guys were in the hospital parking lot. Already? That was really fast. Steve took off his helmet, it messed up his hair a little bit which was super cute. No Y/N you can’t think these things right now, you’re going to see the love of Steve’s life. You need to respect that. Over and over again you repeated that to yourself as you walked down the hallway with Steve down to her room.

“Steve I-” As if things couldn’t get any worse you tripped over your shoelace. The thing is the ground never came. Instead when you opened your eyes there was Steve holding on to your waist. “After all these years you’re still prince charming.” Steve helped you stand up right. Your eyes landed on the source of the voice. An elderly woman who even though aged was still beautiful. “Hey Peg.” Steve smiled sweetly at the woman. Oh lord, you just tripped into her room. That made things bad, you could feel another blush coming on. “And who might the princess be?” You were a little confused for a second, there was no other girl in the room, but then you got it. “I’m Y/N.” You said with a smile. “Such a pretty name for a pretty girl.” She gave you a weak smile. You blushed a little, and took a seat down in the corner.

This was Steve’s special moment, you were only here for support. You played with the hem of your shirt. It’s not like Steve was going to marry her, but it still kinda hurt you to see him with someone he loved so much that wasn’t you. And you know it’s wrong, he’s not yours, but you couldn’t shift your mind.

After about thirty minutes Steve got up from his chair, “I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick. I’ll be right back.” Steve left the room leaving behind a silence. That silence didn’t last long though. “Y/N come here would you.” You looked up surprised, but walked over and sat at the foot of the old woman's bed. “Steve is a very special man, and I know you know that. But I can also tell you’re a very special girl. I can see why Steve loves you.” You looked at the floor and then back at Peggy. “Love is a strong word, I mean we're frien- “ She cut you off. “No Y/N, when he caught you I saw the look in his eyes, the look of a man deeply in love. I know because he looked at me that way a long time ago.”

She smiled at you, her eyes lighting up her wrinkled face. Almost as if she could read your thoughts she said “It’s ok Y/N. I’m not upset. I’m proud of him. Of all the girls in the world he picked a woman. You’re strong, brave, selfless, funny, beautiful, all things I admire.” Wow, you were blushing so hard. “How did you know, all the stuff I mean?” She let out a low chuckle. “My dear this isn’t the first time Steve has come to see me. He’s told me so much about you.” That was a real eye opener for you. Steve told Peggy about you. It was a lot to take in. The old woman smiled at you again.

At that moment Steve came back into the room. “Peg are you trying to scare her away.” He said with a slight smirk. “Quite the opposite actually.” It was her turn to smirk when Steve’s face went red. “Listen Y/N we need to go, Tony is nagging me about training some new recruits. It was nice to see ya Peg, I’ll come back soon.” Steve bent down to hug her. She lifted her head up and whispered something into his ear. You couldn’t tell what she might have said, Steve was facing away from you. Whatever it was though must have been really important for you not to get to hear it. After all they were talking out loud with you in the room for a long time before this. Steve let her go. She waved at you, and gave you a little wink.

What that wink meant you thought about for the rest of the day, and again when you woke up to train in the morning. You liked to get up early so you could play music in the gym without anyone being annoying about it. Changing into legging and a sports bra, you grabbed your water and headed to the gym. You connected your phone to the speakers in the room via Jarvis. Selecting your workout playlist, you got to work. You were just about finishing up when My Love for You by Frank Sintra came on.

Weird, you have no memory of ever adding this to your playlist, but it is a good song. You left it on as you went about cleaning up. Shutting your eyes you started to hum along, and soon enough dance along. Steve was just coming in from his morning run. He was coming to use the punching bag when he saw you. Still kinda sweating from your workout, but nonetheless just as cute as you always are. He thought about what Peggy told him yesterday, to go for it with you. Steve wasn’t that good at being smooth, but he thought he could pull this one off.

Slowly making his way over to you, he started to sing along. “So it will be, far beyond eternity, Ever faithful ever true. My love for you.” You heard the voice behind you, and instantly spun around. “Stevie don’t scare me like that!” You pushed him playfully.

He didn’t say a word, he just put one hand on your waist and the other on your shoulder. You got the memo, and did the same thing. What had gotten into him you had no idea, but you never wanted it to stop. There you guys stayed for what felt like the best eternity of your life swaying back and forth.

“Stev-” He cut you off. “Y/N I love you, and I’m sorry if I never showed that I did. I’m sorry if I played with your feelings at all. It was never my intention. I just haven’t felt the way I do about you about anyone in seventy years.” You kinda figured what Peggy had told him and what the wink meant. “I love you too Steve.”

And with that your feet were off the ground. Steve lifted you up, and gave you what was probably the most romantic kiss you’ve ever had in your life. “I’m gonna show you how much I love you starting with tonight. How does dinner sound?” You just about died right there. The man you’ve had a crush on for years just kissed you, told you he loved you, and now wanted dinner. Now you knew what all those girls in romcoms felt.

“Dinner sounds great Stevie, now can you put me down, I need to shower.” You giggled, wiggling your hovering feet. “Sorry.” His ever so famous blush returned. He placed you ever so gently back on the ground. “I’ll swing by your room at seven?” You gave him a bright smile. “Seven sounds great.”

You grabbed your water bottle and started to head out. “By the way doll, you look good when you're done working out. I mean you do all the time-” Another giggle fell from your lips. You called back to him. “I think you look good after working out too Rogers.” That’s when the brick fell on your head. Did he just call you doll? Life can’t get better than this.

[rocksandrobots]

Of Rocks and Robots Ch.22 - Presents and Portals (Part 1)

“Hey, Miss Itamae, I hope you’re having a nice day. You, wouldn’t happen to have anything special today for someone's birthday, would ya?” Hiro asked the grumpy lunch lady before him with a nervous smile.

Miss Itamae only gave him her customary scowl and unceremoniously dumped a scoop of mash potatoes on top of his steak and gravy.

“Yeah...okay then.” He said wearily and moved out the line.

Varian slid into his previously held spot in line.

“Heeelllooo, Miss Itamae, looking lovely as ever! Did you do something with your hair? New hair net perhaps?” Varian flashed the woman his most charming grin but Miss Itamae looked as unamused as ever. Still Hiro had to admit Varian was far more confident in his attempts to butter up the lunch lady; maintaining his witty and suave demeanor even as she dumped his scoop of mash potatoes into his chocolate pudding. “Superb aim, as always.” He said with cheery sarcasm, before turning away.

“Let’s face it. She hates us.” Hiro whispered to him as they both walked away from the line.

“I think she hates everybody.” Varian observed.

“Then why bother with being so nice?” Karmi asked as they joined her at the lunch table.

“Oh, cause it annoys her.” Varian chirped.  

“Yeah, we’re trying to kill her kindness.” Hiro added.

‘Ooookaay.” Karmi rolled her eyes and then opted to change the subject. “Sooo, birthday boy, how's it feel to be fifteen?”

“Uh, not that much different from being fourteen, honestly.” replied Hiro, as he poked at his unappetising lunch.

“Got any celebration plans?”

“Well, Aunt Cass is holding a birthday party later today at the Luck Cat, if you wanna come.”

“I’d love to. What time?”

“It’s at six. It’s nothing special, just a dinner and some cake.”

“And I’m making the cake.” Varian excitedly added.

“And if it’s anything like his fish pie, you’ll want to skip dessert.” Hiro warned Karmi.

Varian looked offended. “Hey! I can bake a cake. Besides it can’t be any worse than these chocolate covered potatoes.” He gave a rueful look at his plate before taking a bite of the nasty connection anyways.

“Then why are you still eating it?”

“What!? And waste food?” He asked aghast.

Hiro rolled his eyes, “Anyways, how did your essay go, Karmi?”

“Great! I got an A, as usual, but I have to admit writing about bacteria’s evolving resistance to antibiotics isn’t nearly as fun as writing fan fiction.”

“What’s fan fiction?” Varian innocently asked.

Karmi’s eyes went wide with excitement and Hiro felt his heart stop as he knew what was coming next.

“Only the greatest thing ever! It’s when people write stories based on stuff they like, like books, or movies. I have this whole ongoing story about Big Hero Six that I’ve been working on!” She pulled out her phone and pulled up said story before handing it to Varian.

Hiro suppressed a groan. “Karmi, did it ever occur to you that maybe real life people wouldn’t appreciate you writing fiction about them?”

Karmi huffed, “Shows what you know. Captain Cutie himself said he liked my work.”

“Captain Cutie?” Varian asked, confused.

“He’s the leader of Big Hero Six, and he’s just the dreamiest.” Karmi explained with a wistful sigh.

Hiro felt like he was going to die of embarrassment.

Varian looked back and forth between Karmi and Hiro in surprise as he pieced together what was happening. Finally he burst out laughing.

“Cap..Captain, Cuuutieee!?” He wheezed, before balling up into more laughter.

Now it was Karmi’s turn to look offended. “You got a problem with that?”

“Nooo! Oh, no, no, N….not at all!” Varian tried to assure her between his fits of laughter. Once he had managed to compose himself, he looked her dead in the eye and said with the most sincere voice he could muster, “Captain Cutie, is the perfect name.”

He followed this up with a smarmy smile that told Hiro that he would never hear the end of this.

“Well, it should be, I came up with.” Karmi held her head up high to mask that her pride had been hurt.

“And it’s amazing !” Varian enthused. “If your story is half as awesome as that name, I’ll bet it’ll be even better than a Flynn Rider book!”

That was enough to placate her. In fact she outright blushed, knowing full well how much Varian loved Flynn Rider novels; though she herself had never read one.

“I promise to read every word.” Varian vowed.

“Weeell, in that case I’ll text you the link.” She took her phone back from Varian and stood up from the table. “It’ll be more than what Hiro does.”

“Hey, I’ve read all your stories.” Hiro defended himself. Karmi looked at him accusingly and he buckled under her glare. “I just... didn’t like them.” He admitted sheepishly.

And with that, Karmi turned her nose up into the air and stormed off in a huff. Hiro slumped down in his seat.

“Smooth move, Captain Cutie.” Varian teased.

Hiro kicked him the shin.

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

Hiro scrounged underneath the bed, reaching his arm out as far as it would go, but his hand grabbed hold of nothing but air.

"I did not find anything in the sock drawer" he heard a robotic voice proclaim above the bed.

"That's ok.. ouch… Baymax." Hiro crawled out from under the bed and rubbed the spot where he had bumped his head against the frame. He looked up to find Varian standing in the doorway watching him.

"What are you doing?" The other boy asked with a look of concern on his face.

Hiro was sitting in the middle of what was once Tadashi's side of the room. No one had bothered to touch his brother's things since his death, other than to occasionally dust or tidy up, so seeing both him and Baymax raiding the place was unusual.

"Uhmmm… just...looking for something."

Varian raised an eyebrow.

Hiro sighed.

"You'll think this silly, but, I was hunting for my birthday present."

Hiro searched Varian's face to see what his reaction would be. He blinked a few times in surprise, but other than that, the older teen was careful not to say or do anything that might upset Hiro. Instead he stood by patiently, letting Hiro have the space he needed to explain things on his own terms.

"Tadashi always liked to plan ahead for things. He'd gift stuff in advance and then hide it somewhere around the house until time to give it. I found one at Christmas, that he'd wrapped a year ahead of time, but, I don't know, I guess he didn't think that far ahead for my birthday."

Hiro looked forlornly around the room. He felt stupid now for having even bothered to look and self-conscious at having dredged back up bad memories on what suppose to be a fun day.

"Well, maybe he just hid it somewhere else." Varian reassured him. "Did you try the attic or the garage?"

Hiro shook his head.

"There, ya see? This a three story house and you haven't even searched a tenth of it. Once the party is over with I'll help you look. Okay?"

He offered Hiro a helpful smile and Hiro returned it.

"Okay."

"Speaking of which," Varian continued, "Megan called and said she's on her way and everyone else should be here soon. Aunt Cass sent me up here to get you. Also the cake's done." He flashed a proud grin at that last part.

"And what weird flavour did we come up with this time?" Hiro teased as got up to join Varian at the door. "Black pepper? Bacon? Licorice, again?"

Varian gave him an unamused look.

"It's vanilla with vanilla frosting, wise guy. Also I made sure to write in big bold letters 'Happy Birthday, Captain Cutie' on the top." He sneered.

Hiro rolled his eyes, not believing Varian's bluff, only to second guess himself as Varian gave a smug smile as he walked off.

"You..you didn't, did you?"

Varian didn't answer.

"Seriously, tell me you didn't." Hiro yelled after him as he rushed down the stairs.

Baymax was left standing in the bedroom as he watched the two teens leave. He looked around at the mess, unsure if to follow or to stay and clean up. If robots could sigh in frustration he would have just then. Eventually his primary programming overrode his cleaning operatives and he slowly hobbled after the boys.

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

Ding-dong

“I’ll get it!” Hiro yelled as he rushed to the door to answer it.

So far the only people to arrive at the party were Wasabi and Megan. They, along with Varian, were in the kitchen decorating the cake, which thankfully had no ‘Captain Cutie’ written on the front, while Aunt Cass busied herself with shutting down the cafe for the evening.

Hiro opened the door to find Karmi standing there, holding a present in her hands and shuffling her feet like she was unsure of what to do. Hiro stared at her in surprise, first, because he didn’t know if she would show up after getting mad at him during lunch and second, because she wasn’t wearing her usual sweater. Instead she wore a cute summer dress. It was purple with spaghetti straps and a flared skirt that cut off right above her knees. Hiro couldn’t help but feel his cheeks flush at the sight.

Damn it, why did she have to look so pretty? Why did he even care what she wore to begin with? What was his stupid body doing?

She gave him a nervous smile and held out her present to him. He took it numbly, eyes still fixed on her.

“I’m sorry for getting mad earlier today.” She said sheepishly. “I hope I’m not late.” After a slight pause she added, “You know, for the party.”

“Oh! Oh no. Not at all.” Hiro responded, finally snapping out of his stupor. “In fact you’re early. The party got pushed back to 6:30. Fred’s running late with the balloons. But there’s some of us already here, come on in.”

“Thanks.” She said with another small smile as she slid past him.

“Everybody is in the kitchen decorating the cake.” He pointed her down the hallway to the upstairs kitchen and was going to show her where to go when his phone rang.

“Hello.”

It was Keri.

“What do you mean stolen?” Hiro asked with concern as Keri blabbered on about missing project files.

Karmi paused and looked back at him questiongly.

“Look, do I have to come in now?” He tore the phone away from his ear as Keri started ranting instead.

“Okay, okay, I’ll be there soon.” He hung up.  

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“Uh...looks like I need to go into the office today, just for a bit.”

“But what about your party?”

“Oh, it shouldn’t take long.” Hiro looked at his watch. “Thirty minutes, tops.”

“Hey, Wasabi?!” He yelled and his friend poked his head around the corner. “Do you mind giving me a lift to Keri Tech?”

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

“Wow. So she was behind you the whole time?”

Hiro looked at the surveillance footage of the theft. A woman with short white hair, dressed in a red and black leotard with her face covered in matching makeup, flipped silently behind Krei, downloaded files to a flash drive off his computer, and then cartwheeled away unnoticed.

“Can we have a little less mocking and a little more solving, please?” Krei huffed in defense.

“I have found a biometric match.” Baymaxed announced. “Celine Simard; a professional physicist from Lyontreal.”

Wasabi studied the read out on Baymax’s screen. “Says here she worked her way through college as an acrobat in the circus. Stage name, Sirque. I guess that explains the leotard.”

“It also says she’s wanted for theft in major cities from around the globe.” Hiro added. “Any idea what she took?”

“No idea.” Krei answered. “My personal computer has information on hundreds of top secret projects. It could’ve been anything.”

“And with a physics degree, that means she’s smart enough to use whatever it is she took.” Wasabi ominously warned.

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

Hiro and Wasabi arrived back at the Luck Cat just in time for the party. Fred and the rest of their friends had arrived and were just finishing decorating the cafe.

"Hey, so what did we miss?" Wasabi asked.

"Oh not much." Honey Lemon answered. "Karmi was just telling us the latest chapter of her story."

"Yeah the one where Captain Cutie and his girlfriend Lab Lady go on a romantic getaway. It's adorable." Varian mocked, and it took every bit of Hiro's willpower not to tackle him from across the room.

"Yeah, it's real interesting. I didn't even know ‘Capitan Cuite’ had a girlfriend." Megan got in on the teasing and Hiro wanted to sink into the ground and disappear.

Karmi however seemed to not to notice the meaning behind their words. "I'm glad someone likes my stories. Hiro doesn't think much of them."

"Oh he just doesn't know what's good." Megan encouraged her. "I think you're a great writer."

"Thanks."

"Yeah! I especially liked the cool new power ups you came up with." Fred added.

Fortunately Aunt Cass interrupted the conversation. "Food's ready!" She sang while carrying two trays of homemade pizza.

From there the party proceeded smoothly. They ate dinner and then played some games, with Hiro finally getting back at Varian with truth or dare. He dared the other teen to juggle some eggs, which all wound up landing on top Varian's head after only one attempt.

Next was cake and ice cream; which Hiro had to admit turned out pretty good. Even though he was loathed to stroke Varian's ego by saying so out loud.

Still, all went well, right up until time to open his presents. Hiro had opened most of them, save for Varian's and Karmi's. He got to Karmi's and had only just unwrapped it, when a loud booming noise from across the street was heard. Soon, the cafe shook as if hit by an earthquake.

Everyone ducked for cover as cups and dishes clattered off the table and shelves and pictures fell off the walls. Hiro though spotted a familiar figure run pass and duck into an alley. She was wearing a leotard.

As the shaking subsided, and before anyone could stop him, Hiro rushed out to see what had happened and hopefully to catch the culprit.

He saw the damage from, not an explosion, but an implosion. As if something had sucked everything inward with street lamps and a mailbox bent in on themselves towards a central point.

There was no sign of Sirque, but Hiro spotted some small metal balls lying on the ground in the center point of the wreckage.

"Hiro? What are you doing?" Megan came up behind him. "Usually people run away from explosions not towards them."

"And yet, here you are." He teased. She rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Also it wasn't an explosion that caused this."

He didn't get a chance to explain further as Gogo came up and told them to come back inside before Aunt Cass noticed they were gone. Hiro scooped up the clue he'd found and they headed back.

The cafe was a mess and the party was officially deemed over with. Everyone stayed to clean up but soon one by one they all left.

First Cruz picked up Megan. Then Wasabi offered Karmi a ride back to the dorms. Gogo and Honey Lemon took their leave next, both promising to go on patrol once they had time to get their gear.

Finally, once there was nothing left to clean, Hiro and Varian made up an excuse to Aunt Cass and rode with Fred to HQ to study the metal orbs Hiro had found.

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

"So..nice evening, hun?" Wabasi awkwardly tried to make small talk on the way back to the dorms. He didn't know Karmi as well as some of his other friends did and wasn't sure what to talk about.

"Yeah." Karmi dully said as she gazed out the window, chin in her hand.

"Yeah." Wasabi echoed in defeat.

He wasn't getting anywhere. He racked his brain for another point of conversation, when suddenly a swirling hole appeared in the air. It wiggled and writhed, crackling with energy, and a woman wearing a leotard jumped out and landed on the hood of Wasabi's car.

He slammed the breaks in surprise. She in turn responded quickly, nimbly rolling off the hood and running in the opposite direction of the portal.

Wasabi took a few moments to breath. His heart was racing. He looked over to Karmi who looked equally scared. However, her eyes were still fixated on the portal.

"Look out!" She cried.

Wasabi saw debris fly past and into the gaping mouth of the portal. It appeared to be shortcuriting, writhing even more erratically than before. Then, to Wasabi's horror, the wind picked up speed, lifted the car up, and hurled them into the portal.

Their screams were cut short as they entered and then the portal closed, leaving no trace that they had ever been there.

[cordytriestowrite]

Cupcake

Bucky Barnes x Reader

One Shot

Summary: All it takes is time and cupcakes (post-Endgame)

Cupcakes. You had awoken well into the night with the urge to bake cupcakes. This wasn't the first time you had shot up from a dead sleep with a rapid heartbeat and the need to whip up something sweet for the others to rise to. Sam said it was your way of processing everything post snap and as you pulled yourself out of bed and slipped into your slippers you thought about just how ridiculous that sounded.

No one else was awake, though there weren't many of you anymore. Your sleepy shuffle brought you past what had been Wanda's room up until two days ago when she had solemnly packed her bags and bid you farewell. You used to hear her around this time, gut wrenching sobs that would make you rush past her door lest you break down with your own despair. You still hurried to pass her open door and empty room. Your heart still squeezed with her sadness. 

The other doors were closed, as they always were at this time. You didn't know if the people behind them were asleep or awake but you compiled your ingredients as quietly as possible. Mixing bowls and pans you found easily by the light of the open refrigerator. Measuring spoons and cups sat clean in the sink, never put back to their shelf after you had made a bit too much noise bringing them down the first time. 

Eggs, milk, flour, sugar, and then a debate of flavor: strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, pumpkin? This was the part that didn't make sense to you when Sam said you used this time to process grief. Your thoughts never strayed to the five years you missed and if your mind ever even tried to dwell on Tony or Nat or Steve-

Pumpkin, you resolved with a firm nod. Pumpkin was in season and with the distinct lack of seasonal cheer within the house the smell of pumpkin cupcakes in the early dawn could be perfect. 

Cream cheese frosting too. Sprinkles perhaps, if you had any appropriately colored sprinkles. You could feel a bloom of energy open below your breastbone and flutter like wings at the base of your throat tickling you to smile.

You followed no recipe, having done this so many times now the ratios came naturally to you. You dipped a clean finger into the batter, curious to taste the pumpkin flavor and spontaneous pinch of cinnamon. Just as your lips were to close upon your batter covered digit you noticed a glint of metal in the weak light of the still open refrigerator door. Your body involuntarily spasmed with surprise, sending your finger across your cheek instead of into your mouth. Instinct brought your other hand to your hip to grab a weapon that wasn't there. 

The overhead light flicked on and your eyes clenched closed at the onslaught. It felt wrong to have the room so bright at this hour and once you took in the intruder you plunged both of you into darkness once more. 

"Jesus, Bucky, you scared the shit outta me."

Your words came out as a whisper as your eyes darted in the direction of the closed doors, except you couldn't see them in the dimness. 

Bucky was silent, his chin rested heavily in his metal palm. He looked tired, which made sense due to the hour, but it didn't look like he planned to move from the stool he now occupied on the other side of the counter. You shrugged and turned away wiping desperately at your face, then pouring the batter into tins once you were sure your cheek was batter-free. 

The process went all too quickly from there. As you slid the pan into the oven you felt a sudden drop in mood. Eighteen minutes you would have to wait for the runny batter to rise and thicken into a dense, moist cupcake. Eighteen minutes you would sit in silence and watch the clock, counting the seconds in your head as if you and the digital clock on the oven were competing for best capture of each minute. It was either that or falling asleep in the silence of the still hour and subsequently burning down the only home you had. 

You turned around, intending to sit yourself on a stool and begin your competitive time-keeping only to be suddenly reminded there was someone else in the room with you. Bucky had not moved an inch since you had acknowledged him. His bright blue eyes pierced through the darkness with an unsettling alertness and you shivered at the vulnerability he had thrust upon you. The hand that had shot to your chest was resting over a decelerating heartbeat. There was something instinctively you still feared about Bucky due to the lack of time you'd spent with him. It was in his eyes, you thought, or maybe the slight frown his lips came to rest in naturally. Maybe it was all in your head, your mind unable to separate the man before you with the Winter Soldier of HYDRA. 

Time did not stop even if you had your back turned to it. The stare that had you locked in place allowed you passage as Bucky glanced to the clock behind you. Your breath came out long and heavy and your lips tingled in gratitude at the influx of oxygen. Looking at the ground you crossed kitchen and around the counter to the stool beside him. Lips mimed the counting of seconds.

"How long?"

You lost count and the question sounded too loud in your ears. You glanced over to Bucky and quickly turned back to stare ahead, fidgeting in your seat as another sensation of unease rolled down your spine. 

"Seventeen more minutes."

It was too long. Too long to be spending with the man next to you. You swallowed and drummed your fingers against the counter. This minute was lost to you and you would have to wait for the next one to start counting again. The muscles in your neck cried for movement but you didn't dare spare yourself to turn your head in his direction. 

You wondered if Bucky knew you were afraid of him, if he knew how your body filled with adrenaline at his very presence. You wondered how it made him feel, if he cared at all. After so many sleepless nights alone in the kitchen you could not come to any conclusion as to why he was here with you this time. Unless you had made too much noise.

"Sorry if I woke you."

Your voice cracked. In your attempt to keep your voice low you had lost it all together. Despite this Bucky seemed to have caught the essence of your statement. You allowed yourself a quick glance of him. With his head down and eyes averted you felt safe to actually observe him.

His hair was short now making him look more handsome than feral. His strong jaw was on display to you now, clean shaven and marking an appealing path to his cleft chin and pouty lips. Bucky's profile sent a jolt through your system of a different kind, one that warmed you from belly to cheeks. He turned his unreadable eyes to you and that warmth abruptly faded. 

"Spent too long sleepin' anyway."

He might not have meant for the words to sound so ominous but the weight of them brought a cold sweat to your brow. The urge was there to comfort him, to wrap your arms around him and feel something from him other than wave after wave of detachment and disinterest. You stood slowly and like an out of body experience you felt you had no control over your actions. You watched your feet hit the floor between you and bring you ever closer to Bucky Barnes and in a last minute shuffle felt your mind gain back control.

"Want to help me make the frosting?"

Your voice was too loud again, the words said by you but not the way you intended. You were going to say 'I should make the frosting' with no 'we' involved. 

Bucky's eyebrows rose and with it the veil of intimidation. His eyes seemed brighter now that they weren't hidden under furrowed brows and the way his mouth parted in what could only be disbelief let the hard lines around his lips relax. With a single question he seemed younger and, with a sigh of relief on your end, less terrifying. The kitchen had shifted on its axis with both of you trying to right yourselves and adapt to its new position and maybe that's why Bucky decided to shift it all again and throw you both back to the ground.

"Sure."

He's off his stool, standing in the not-enough-space-for-the-two-of-you spot you were already occupying. Your chests were brushing, breaths mingling, eyes glancing then looking away again. You had no control and Bucky's eyes were so different now. So open and blue with a hint of astonishment pushing through anguish and anger. And those eyes, when they landed on you, it's like they were seeing you for the first time. It was all too much, making your breath swell in your chest like a balloon on the verge of bursting and you were afraid the loud pop of it would wake the house. 

"Ten minutes."

Air rushed from your lungs with Bucky's words and suddenly you felt very empty and stretched with exhaustion. You let out an undignified noise of confused to which Bucky reacted in a way so uncharacteristic of him your jaw would have dropped if it wasn't cradled in his hand. 

He was pointing your chin in the direction of the clock set into the stove. Ten minutes until the cupcakes were done. So much had changed in seven minutes making you momentarily suspicious that the clock had stopped. Nine minutes and everything was real again, including the fingers against your skin. You wanted to look at him, to see his expression and let him see yours, wanting him to see the confusion written on your face and receive an answer to how you had gotten to this point in seven minutes. Instead you kept your eyes trained on the clock and counted down another minute.

"We should get started."

You could hear the humor in his voice, a foreign lilt to your ears but a welcome song nonetheless. You smiled and nodded loosening what little grip he had on you. He moved away first and rounded the counter, standing to the side of it and allowing you to walk before him and take the lead. You tactically removed a mixing bowl from the crowded cupboard and grouped your ingredients to the side of it. 

You were used to working in silence and not so much used to giving instructions so you measured and dumped ingredients in without explanation, but Bucky didn't seem to need any. He stirred the contents of the bowl as you added more to it, working in a silent but effective tandem to create the smooth and fluffy frosting. With Bucky left to his mixing you glanced at the clock and excitedly donned the oven mits. You thought you might've heard a soft exhale of air behind you but paid it no mind as you opened the oven door.

The scent of pumpkin wafted in swells of heat and you breathed in deeply as you pricked the top of a few cakes with a toothpick which came out clean each time. With pan in hand you closed the door to the oven and turned it off, then set the pan on the stovetop. Smiling you turned to your unexpected, but not unwelcome, baking companion.

"Those will need to cool before we can- fingers out of the batter mister!"

Too loud, too demanding, too playful. If you could you would catch those words on your fingers and pop them back into your mouth the way Bucky was doing the frosting. His eyes were wide again and hopelessly blue but streaked with deviousness and guilt giving them a dimension you had never seen. His index finger pulled from his lips to give you a knee-weakening smile. 

"Sorry. Couldn't help myself."

He sounded anything but sorry. The smirk on his lips and the way his tongue darted out to gather a bit of frosting smeared across his bottom lip told you it wasn't safe to turn away from him again. You were afraid of him, but not for the reasons you were before. This wasn't the Winter Soldier who stared at you with empty eyes somehow seeing you and seeing through you. This was Bucky, the Bucky your Captain used to talk about, who flirts with all the dames and drags you on vomit inducing rollercoasters and is with you 'til the end of the line. He was there this whole time, under months of grief and mourning he was there, uncovered in only seventeen minutes, and you felt like a fool for not finding him sooner.

You felt it in your throat first. The bulge of a sob against your larynx that traveled up and out of your quivering lips. Too loud. Bucky was in front of your before the tears could spill so when they started to his thumbs were in place to wipe them away. Too loud. You were wailing like a lonely spirit, like you were watching it all over again on the battlefield, like the weight of your loss had finally slammed against your heart and cut it up, leaving it hurt and bleeding and expected to still beat. 

"I'm sorry, Bucky. I'm so sorry I didn't see you before."

He was shushing you, holding you. His heart torn and bleeding with yours. You could feel it in the way his chest convulsed with the sobs he was managing to keep at bay. 

"I miss them so much. I've missed so much."

Bucky guided your head to his shoulder but it was too late.

Too loud. Too bright. You weren't just wrapped in one pair of arms anymore. You couldn't see with your face buried in Bucky's shoulder but you could feel them holding you tight, sniffling, whispering. 

"Let it all out." Sam's voice cut through it all.

"You're finally letting it all out."

There was no clock to tell you how long you all stood together, no room in your brain to count the seconds. It was lighter outside and brighter inside, noises weren't too loud and voices weren't lowered. Your cheek rested against the tear soaked fabric covering Bucky's shoulder; he was the only one who hadn't drawn away from you yet. With tired eyes you watched Bruce pluck the edge of a cupcake liner in his large green forefinger and thumb. With his one good hand he maneuvers the cupcake upside down and proceeds to dip it into the bowl of frosting. You let out an indignant squeal as he raises it back up messy and dripping. A soft chuckle flutters the hair above your ear while a gentle palm stokes the back of your head.

"That's not how the frosting - oh forget it."

Arms squeezing a little tighter around Bucky's waist you rest your chin on his cold, wet shoulder, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and begin to count the seconds that you began to feel okay again. You knew you'd lose count soon enough, especially when you could feel the man wrapped around you extend a hand to dip into the mixing bowl again.

"Bucky, don't you dare!"

Permanent tag list

@just-add-butter @instantnoodlese @bambamwolf87 @dyanlzbb @sebstanhun @thoughtfullhuman @sbluehi @fanfictionrecommendations-com @spacezombiie @friendly-neighborhood-lich-queen @titty-teetee @morganhoran1671 @alt-er-love-er-alt @bornfortherainydays @alysawrites @venitia89 @wolffcur @always-irrelevant @morganhoran1671 @polaroid-idiocity @darkphoenixrisingwrites @drakesfiance @katzenwahnsinn @mywinterwolf @kcd15 @somewereinthegalaxi @justalilsad5 @becs-bunker @reading--mermaid @reviewfanfics @marvelousmarauderstrash @iamverity @evolving2deppression @youpenguinadonis @darlingtholland @700teacups @geekdorknerdfangirlblogger @eccentric-impulses @dark-angel-be-thirsty-af

[justlookatthosesausages]

I just have that random headcanon that Anna and Kristoff’s child ends up not liking the flavor of chocolate like the sisters do and prefers vanilla instead. It ends up devastating Anna and Elsa looks understanding but a trail of frost ends up following her as she walks away.

(This is just so silly but why not having a crack drabble sometimes? XD)

=======

“Papa, I think I broke them.”

Kristoff hid his nervousness with a scoff. “Nahhh, it’s alright, sweetie.”

She looked dubious, and bent her head like Anna often did when she was lost in her thoughts, and he realized that she got this mannerism from her for a while now.

“I think I did.” Insisted the little girl. “After dessert, they haven’t talked at all, and when I came back from my afternoon lesson, they were in the same state in the living room. I think they’re shocked.”

The King rubbed the back of his head, and gave his daughter a forced smile. “Really?”

“Yeah, really.”

He sighed. There was no point in lying to her. He stopped signing the delivery contracts he was working on and gave a nod to the merchants before walking to her, and he crouched down to be at his level. 

The little princess was toying with one of her dutch braids, a sign that she was feeling guilty. If Kristoff didn’t have the context, it would feel like she had broke a vase from the corridor and Gerda had just brought him to his and Anna’s study room to be scolded. 

He smiled sadly, and put a soft hand on her shoulder. “Sweetie, you did shock them earlier. By refusing the chocolate treat Mama offered you.”

The girl frowned. “But I don’t like chocolate. Chocolate is not even a big deal.”

He immediately slapped his hand on her mouth like she had pronounced the deepest profanation. 

“SHHHH! Are you CRAZY??”

She widened her brown eyes, surprised not by the gesture, but by her father’s tone. “Whht?” She muttered, her mouth masked by his palm, seeing how he was looking around in the room and peeking at the corridor with a panicked face, making sure that nobody heard her. 

“Don’t say that here!” He frowned, putting his hand away. 

“What? It’s a sacrilege to say it?” Asked the girl, lifting an eyebrow. 

He couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or if she genuinely believed that the castle was magically linked to chocolate devotion. 

Knowing she inherited both cynicism and gullibility from her aunt and her mom because of how much time she was hanging with them, it truly was hard to guess. 

“Listen.” He said, and he was whispering, so his daughter bent to him. “You really don’t want to make Mama angry and Auntie sad, right?”

“No.” Assured the girl, knowing well how things turned out when those two things happened. 

“Then it’s better that you don’t state out loud this kind of things.”

She groaned. “But I don’t like… You-know-what. I wasn’t going to accept the chocolate if I didn’t want to eat it!” 

Kristoff sighed, dropping his head. 

“You told me that I shouldn’t force myself doing stuff I don’t want to.” Pouted the girl. “I’m not forcing you to eat spinach!” She pointed out, because her father despised this food. 

He blushed. “It’s completely different!” 

“Yeah, you’re right. Because chocolate makes you put on weight.” Pouted the princess, thinking she did something wrong. “I should eat more vegetables.”

The blond chuckled. “No, it’s not that. Although… Kai is right when he says you should do. Anyway… You can’t say that you don’t like chocolate.”

“Even if it’s because I prefer vanilla?”

Her father smiled. “Yes, even if you prefer vanilla.”

She sighed, pouting again, and a strand of hair flew up as she did. “Alrighhhht. I’ll go tell them that I want chocolate, on second thought.”

“Perfect.” He said on a normal tone, beaming as he stood up and happy they found a compromise. “But don’t force yourself if you don’t want to…”

“It’s okay”, she said with a shrug as she walked out of the room. “I’m not a dog. I can survive.” 

She flipped around with a big smile. “Oh! Did you know that dogs can’t eat chocolate?!” 

“Uhhh… No.”

“Olaf told me once.”

“…Okay.” He smiled. He saw that she was still holding her trigonometry book from her afternoon class under her arm. “Hey, give me that if you want. I’ll put it back in your bedroom while you go talk to them.”

She was happy to get rid of it. “Thanks! My head hurt after that lesson. I don’t understand a thing at those triangle rules. If I bumped my head with the book, it would hurt less!” 

The princess giggled and Kristoff laughed at her humor, and shook his head. He rose his hand in a stop as she stretched both her arms to give him the heavy manual. 

“You know what? Bring it to your aunt. She’ll be able to explain you.”

She dropped her jaw. “But Papaaaaa…”

“Yes, I know, that lesson was boring and now it’s over. But she knows a lot about geometry! I’m sure she will help you understand. And if you talk about architecture with her, she’ll forget the whole chocolate thing. Trust me on this.” He winked. 

The little girl stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. “Okay.” 

She turned the book and put it back under her arm, and went to the living room where she hoped she wouldn’t find Anna and Elsa in the same muted shocked posture than before. 

As he watched her go, leaning against the door frame, Kristoff smiled.

[morethanaprincess-a]

@cadcnce​ said: Wylan’s a bit sneakier than having something delivered to her door, but who would expect anything less from the dashing rogue? Sonia would return to her condo to find an assortment of little things on the table in the living room. By this point she may have known how he was getting in, and the fact he did such should be less than a surprise.

Most notable of the assortment is a small personal cake with unlit candles (and a lighter next to it, he cant do everything himself if he’s not there! Nor is he a fan of fire hazards). The dessert is chocolate with vanilla frosting and a goopy strawberry drizzle to look like blood or something of the sort. There’s a little Jason figure on top with his victim laying in the source of the ‘blood’. Well.

You have to appreciate a little bit of creativity from someone with more humor than reason.

Surrounding the cake are an assortment of American candies. Nerds rope. Sour gummy worms. Runts. A really big Reeses cup, and other assorted candies that would make you ask 'uh, why?’ but look at the least to be appetizing.

Ah, but the crown jewel (in Wylan’s eyes) was the water gun staged on top of some of the candy boxes, a bow wrapped around it and a note resting up against it. Handwritten in English-

[ Happy BIRTHDAY. You may need this. Further instruction coming soon. ]

Wish Sonia a Happy Birthday today and send an ask/submit! - Accepting all day

It had already been a strange birthday so far for Sonia. Instead of a schedule, her only tasks had been shopping, lunch with old friends, and until she'd gotten a call at the restaurant, a three hour massage and additional spa services. All of which she didn't want to admit she needed, but the disappointment was written all over her face when her security phoned: her condo had been broken into and apparently vandalized.

With her car materializing even faster than usual, the princess bid goodbye to her old high school friends and was quickly whisked home, carrying her own gifts and shopping bags right into the only public-facing elevator that went all the way to the penthouse condo. Dropping the bags right in the foyer, Sonia held her purse and mobile phone close. If the perpetrator was still inside and her security had missed it, then it would be up to her to catch them. A prospect she didn't wish for, especially on her birthday.

But at least her fears could be put at ease as soon as she stepped into the formal sitting room. Sonia sighed, rubbing her temples with a smile as her shoulders drooped, the tension evaporating as soon as she saw a cake and a pile of American candy across the room. Only one person could be the culprit of such a spread, someone who could use the main elevator perfectly well. She'd cleared it with the front lobby desk and all of the members of her security. The problem was that, in her view, Wylan simply didn't find any amusement in getting into her condo legally: not when there was a service elevator, fire stairs, several balconies, and a roof at his disposal. He had a knack for complicating things, and entering her home was the least of Sonia's problems in that area. Still, she was reluctant to focus on the multitude of ways 'Mr. Green' had descended upon her life, turned it upside down, and now she was left with how to make sense of it all, of him, and of herself and how she fit, or at least felt she fit, in it all.

There was a cake with Jason Voorhees on it. Complete with a murdered victim laying in their own, likely fruity-tasting, blood. "How adorable!" She cooed, examining the dessert close-up before noticing the specific types of candy surrounding it. "He's had his next kill on my birthday cake! Your mother would be very proud, Mr. Voorhees."

The candy was far more confusing for her, though Sonia finally recognized a few things. Like the small pastel squares covered in paper and the little fruity spheres with 's' printed on them. She smiled, leaving the sour crystal-coated worms be in favor of unwrapping several of the pink and red squares. When her cousins had gone on holiday to Disney World, they'd brought her back a few types of American sweets. The chocolate hadn't been terribly remarkable, but America certainly understood how to increase the sugar content in its fruit-flavored candies. And the strawberry and cherry squares did indeed burst with flavor in her mouth.

It was only once she'd eaten half a dozen more Starburst candies did she notice the only non-edible gift, topped with a giant bow and a note. Sonia reached for the note first, unfolding it and having her suspicions confirmed. Wylan had definitely been here. And furthermore, it seemed as if his present was going to terribly inconvenience the staff, beyond the break-in. But she could only laugh, setting it aside before untying the bow, freeing the water gun from its wrappings. "There's only two things left to do now," She spoke aloud, in case he had a mind to hide somewhere and wait for her return. "To fill up the gun and cover every bit of furniture and art that cannot get ruined. There are plastic tarps stacked in the hall closet." It wasn't worth aggravating home for just a small bit of fun. Though hopefully he knew better than to aim for the china vases, the paintings, the antique sofas, and especially every bit of horror memorabilia in her private office upstairs. Under no circumstances would her replicas of various Saw traps, Michael Myers' mask, or the life-size Annabelle doll she kept there be ruined.

[spooderson]

Tony’s birthday fic

For Tony’s birthday today, I decided to write a fluffy fic where Peter searches for the perfect gift for Tony and Pepper gifts him some amazing news. It’s just a lot of family fluff

Read on ao3

Tony’s birthday gifts

Tony’s birthday was coming up and Peter had a problem. He didn’t have any idea what to give to the man. He had asked Pepper for help, but she had just shrugged and told him that she’s sure he’ll figure something out. That wasn’t helpful to him at all. So here he was, three days until dad’s birthday, with nothing to give to the man who gave him so much.

He knew that Pepper had already planned something, but she said that he’ll find out at the same time as Tony and that it wasn’t something he could just say he helped with.

Currently, Peter was walking around the mall with Ned, going from one store to the other, searching for something the man might like. But, every thing they found they immediately dismissed, because it wasn’t personal enough or it wasn’t special enough. Eventually they ended up at an arts supply store.

“I think you should just make him a card, Peter. We went through literally the whole mall, and we found nothing to buy for him.”

“Ned, I can’t just give him a card and that’s it. He deserves more than a card!!!”

“Okay okay, don’t scream at me in the middle of the store. Then we can get him one of those silly shirts with those “best dad” prints on them, or like a science pun shirt, so that you can match-“

“He wouldn’t like them. He always laughs at my shirts! I don’t think he’d wear a science pun t-shirt, Ned”

“But consider this, he would wear it because he loves you and that shirt would be a present from you?”

“Maybe so...”

After this, Peter and Ned went to Target to buy a shirt that had a diagram with one axis saying bird and the other rabbit.

Of course, as one would, they got very distracted at Target and eventually stumbled into the aisle with all of the photo frames.

“Look, that one is Iron man themed! Peter, get it for him!”

“I can’t just give him an empty photo frame” screeched Peter

“Just put one of the pictures you’ve taken of him in it? You have millions of them on your phone and some of them are actually really good. Heck, most of your photography is very good. Or you could get a picture from FRIDAY with the both of you in it and put that in there. I bet Mr. Stark would love it.”

“Why are you coming up with all of the good ideas?”

“It’s because I’m your guy in the chair. That’s just how it is. Now will you listen to me or...”

“I am listening” with that Peter took the Iron man photo frame and went to the cash register.

                         

It was a day until Mr. Stark’s birthday and although Peter had the shirt wrapped and ready, he had no idea what kind of picture to put into the frame. At first, he wanted to put in a photo of just Tony, but then he started thinking it would be weird to gift the man a photo of himself, so he had scratched that particular idea. Then he had thought that he could give him a photo of the whole family, but none of the photos that he had of himself, Pepper and Tony were up to his standard and he didn’t have enough time to take a photo of them and get it printed and framed. Plus, Pepper was in LA and would only be getting home early on dad’s birthday. That left him with only one option – to frame a picture of him and dad. He had already selected a few contenders, but then he saw a picture on Tumblr, and it was everything he never knew he needed.

The picture was of Iron man and Spider-man. Traveling together, if you could call it that. In reality, you could clearly see, that Iron man was holding spider-man wrapped in his arms, and they were flying toward the tower that could be seen in the distance. Peter’s legs were dangling in the air and he looked like a petulant child, but the picture was cute and made Peter feel warm and fuzzy, also, Peter was sure that Tony will love it.

“Ned, hey, Ned. Look at this” Peter nudged Ned who was sleeping on the desk next to him.

“Whoa, what?” asked a disoriented Ned, before his eyes settled on Peter’s computer screen” You know were supposed to be learning about American history right now, not searching the internet for pictures of Iron man and Spider-man? Right?”

“Then why were you sleeping? Anyways, that’s not it. What do you think of the photo? I think this is it, I’m going to get this framed and give it to him as a present”

“Ugh, that was soo rude, Peter. I think this photo is great, the Iron man armor looks hella good in this” whispered Ned.

“That photo is good, I think Iron man would like any relatively embarrassing photo of Spider-man, to be fair.” piped in MJ.

“You know it’s creepy when you just randomly pop in to conversations, MJ?” said Peter while turning back to look at MJ who was sitting to his left one desk behind him.

“Whatever, losers” and with that MJ went back to drawing in her notebook.

                         

“See you Monday, Ned” Peter said after doing their handshake and went to get into Happy’s car before the man started grumbling about teenagers.

“Hey Happy!”

“Hey kid. How was school today?” asked Happy

“It was boring, like always, but me and Ned finally decided on what I’m giving Mr. Stark for his birthday tomorrow, so that’s good. I really think he’ll like it” Peter started to ramble.

“I think he would like anything you gave him, kid.” said Happy before sliding the divider up.

Once Happy released him in the garage below the Tower, Peter got into the elevator and went up to his floor.

“Friday, do you know if we have a photo printer in the Tower?”

“I believe a printer that suits your requirements is located on the 34th floor”

“Thank you, Friday. Also, is Tony home?”

“Boss is in the kitchen attempting to make lunch”

“That sounds dreadful” said Peter to no one in particular and then he was stepping out of the elevator and after discarding his backpack near the elevator went to the kitchen “Hey dad! Whatcha making?”

“Pete! How was school? Good? I’m making pasta, want some?” asked Tony while stirring the pot.

“Ugh, school was boring. And what kind of question is this? I’m always hungry, of course I want it. Unless you overcooked it, then I don’t want it at all”

“You know, my cooking has improved significantly since you started living with us. Plus, I’m following my mom’s recipe and she was an amazing cook, so I don’t think I could mess it up.”

“We’ll see” murmured Peter

Tony half sighed half laughed and went on stirring the pot. After a few minutes the pasta was drained and ready to be eaten. Peter and Tony sat at the barstools by the kitchen island and were discussing the newest upgrade to the spider-man suit, when Tony got a call from Pepper, saying that they needed to have a conference call with the people managing the SI tower in Tokyo.

“Well, bye kiddo. Don’t stay up too late if I’m still in the conference call by your bedtime, okay? And before you ask, no, you cannot stay up waiting for me. And if you go out to patrol please be careful”

“Okay, love you, dad”

“Love you too, Petey”

After Peter ate the rest of his lunch, he went to do his homework and then, instead of patrolling like he usually does, he asked Friday if the printer was being used and went down to the 34th floor to print, frame and wrap the photo he had found earlier that day. He spent a few minutes trying to figure out where to put the photo paper and which buttons to press, but not ten minutes later, he was sitting on the floor by the printer, putting the newly printed photo into the frame and fighting the wrapping paper that just wouldn’t stay in place when he tried to tape it.

                         

On Mr. Stark’s birthday, Peter was woken up unusually early by Pepper, who told him that she thought that they could make Tony breakfast and then they could give him their presents. Peter agreed, and after quickly taking a shower and getting dressed into the shirt that he was also gifting to Tony, he went into the kitchen.

There, he found Pepper in the middle of making a cake.

“Here you are, I was beginning to worry that you fell back asleep” laughed Pepper.

“And let you take all of the credit for the breakfast? On a Saturday?”

“I’ll give you twelve percent” smirked Pepper and started pouring the batter into the pans before putting them in the oven.

“Can I help with the frosting? Pretty please, I promise I won’t eat it all”

“Well, since you promise, I’ll allow it. Come, were making vanilla frosting”

“Yay!”

The rest of the time up to 8am, when Tony strolled into the kitchen was spent frosting the cake and trying to write “Happy birthday Tony” in readable letters on the cake. When Tony walked in, he found Pepper finishing cooking the chocolate chip pancakes and Peter setting up the dinning table.

“Hey, why are you both up so early?” questioned Tony

Peter and Pepper shared a look, and then “ HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!” both of them shouted at the same time, making the man jump a little.

“Is that why you’re both up so early? You didn’t have to do anything for my birthday, it would have been fine...”

“Daad, it’s your birthday, we wanted to do something special for you. Now come, we’ll eat breakfast and then you can open your presents from me and mom and later on uncle Rhodey is going to come over and it’s gonna be fun. Come”

Tony went and sat down to eat, but not before receiving a peck on the cheek from Pepper.

“Wait, you said there are presents?”

“Yes, but first, I think you should eat some breakfast” smiled Pepper.

With that, they all loaded their plates and began to eat. After all the pancakes were destroyed, Pepper and Peter went to the kitchen and came out holding a cake with almost illegible letters spelling the “happy birthday Tony”.

“Did you make that? It looks delicious. I love you two, you both know it, right?”

“Stop crying and blow the candles, Tony” laughed Pepper.

                         

“Ok, you ready?”

“It’s presents, Pep, how could someone not be ready for presents?” asked Tony, but it was obvious that he was nervous.

“Well then, Peter, I think you should go first”

“Oh, okay... Um... So, this isn’t much, but, I hope you like this... If you don’t that’s okay too...”

“Kiddo, you could give me a jar of dirt and I’d love it. Now give it.”

With that, Peter quickly gave his present to Tony and retreated to hide behind a pillow on the sofa, peeking through to look at Tony’s reaction.

Tony looked at the carefully wrapped gift, then he opened and read the card that was attached to it and his eyes seemed to get watery.

“Thank you so much, Petey. I love you too”

With that, Tony started to carefully unwrap the present. The first thing he uncovered was the t-shirt, the same that Peter was currently wearing and after staring at it for a few seconds he laughed.

“Now we’ll be matching, we need to get one for Pepper too” he got out.

” I’m glad you like it, dad. Now open the other one.” said Peter while getting out of his hiding place, meanwhile Pepper just smiled and clutched a small box that looked like it was the present for Tony.

“Ok, here we go.” said Tony and ripped the packaging off to reveal the back of the photo frame. He carefully turned it around to reveal a photo of him as Iron man flying an angry looking Spider-man home to the Tower.” I love this. Where did you find this? I’m going to put it in the entrance so that anyone who comes here sees it.”

“Do it if you want, it’s yours after all.” smiled Peter. Then “Now you have to open mom’s present. She didn’t even tell me what it is”

Pepper just smiled and quietly passed the small box to Tony, who untied the ribbon with shaking fingers.

“Is this what I think it is?” asked Tony, staring at the box.

“What, do you know what it is? Show me, I want to know too. Moom, daaad...” whined Peter.

Pepper just smiled, not answering any of their questions but silently urging Tony to finally open the box. He did, after a few more moments of searching her face for any clues. And then he dropped the box and was up on his feet pulling Pepper into a hug and crying.

“Is this real?” he asked. “Yes” smiled Pepper and then pulled a clueless Peter into the hug.

“Is someone going to explain to me what’s happening? Why are we crying?”

“Oh, Petey-pie. You’re going to be a brother” Tony got out.

“Wh-AT? Peppers pregnant?!”

“Yes, Pete” said Pepper before kissing the top of his head.

[ghosthunthq]

Icing on the Cake

For: @books-tea-ghosts

From: @samantha-girlscout

 Hello lovely, Lily! I’m sorry that you were the one ghosted this year. I thought about continuing Quality Ingredients (I swear I will some day), but nothing was coming out for that and instead this did. In a way it’s kind of a spiritual successor to that and A Small Reprieve (where the OC in this came from), But it’s also it’s own thing. It mostly came from your comment about how Naru deserves to be happy. I agree whole-heartedly. I hope you like this!

Naru knew something was up the moment he opened the front door.

It was just him and Ellen this Month. Mai had some business back in Japan and they’d decided it was better for the two of them to stay behind. It was the start of Ellen’s ninth grade year and Naru had work he still had to attend to at the main SPR office. It only made sense for the two of them to stick it out until she came home.

Currently, they were almost three weeks in, and they’d established a system. Unless Ellen wanted to hang out at a friend’s house, she would come home and work on homework until Naru came home with dinner. Occasionally, his mother and father came over to cook, but that was only about once a week. Otherwise, it’s easy, familiar, and routine.

Until today.

It had been a rough day at the office. One of their investors wasn’t happy with the results of one of the most recent cases coming out of the Japan office. It had taken far too much of his day calming the man down so that he wouldn’t pull his funding. Between the amount of time it took and just how demanding the man was, Naru was ready to call it a day.

But, as he entered the house, he gave pause. It smelled as though something were burning. Thinking the worst, he immediately dropped everything and ran into the kitchen. As he crossed the threshold he found Ellen, in tears, looking dejectedly into a baking dish.

“What’s wrong?”

His daughter started and looked at him with fearful eyes. She couldn’t hold his gaze for long, though, and cast them to the ground, her lip quivering terribly.

“I’m sorry, D-Dad,” She hiccupped.  “I wanted to bake you something, but now—”

“Are you hurt?”

“No… But the cake is ruined.”

That gave Naru pause. “Why were you baking a cake?

Naru gestured to the kitchen table and Ellen sat without much fuss. He then took stock of the kitchen. Ellen had cleaned up most of her mess, though it looked like there were dishes soaking in the sink. The ‘cake’ though was burnt to a crisp.

He turned on the fan above the stove and went about opening the kitchen windows as he waited for his daughter to answer.

"It's… It’s your birthday.” He turned and saw her fiddling with the table cloth, a habit she picked up from her mother. “I know you don’t like gifts. But I… I still wanted to do something for you.”

A pain went through him at the realization. He looked to the wall calendar and, yes, it was September 19th. How had he lost track of time so much so that he’d forgotten what day it was?

No matter how much time had passed, his grief was always strongest on his and Gene’s birthday. His brother had always enjoyed celebrating. Whether it was just the two of them, or then the four of them, or a whole slew of people, Gene thrived on the excitement and theatrics that came with it. Naru wasn’t all that keen on most of it, but he still usually found himself enjoying the time with his brother, regardless.

Knowing what day it was, Naru wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and sleep the rest of the day away. He was so exhausted already that he didn’t even have the energy to process his grief how he normally would, through self-reflection and writing a letter that he would never send and that his brother would never read.

But he couldn’t do either of those things.

“Now I’ve just ruined it,” Ellen said bitterly. It looked as though she was going to nearly tear the table cloth in her upset state.

Naru took a look at the cake. Now that he wasn’t fearful of his daughter’s well-being, he could see that the cake didn’t look nearly as bad as Ellen was making it out to be. It looked a little dry, and the sides were most certainly a little hard. But memories of his brother’s poor attempts at baking told Naru that the chocolate cake was by no means unsalvageable.

“Did you plan to frost the cake?"  Naru asked as he walked over to retrieve a bread knife.

Ellen shook her head. "I forgot to buy any.”

“Fortunately, your mother keeps us well stocked. Go get powdered sugar, vanilla, and butter from the pantry and milk from the refrigerator.”

Ellen looked up at her father, confused. “Why?”

“To make frosting.” Naru took out a cooling rack and placed it atop the baking dish. “And get milk and butter from the fridge as well.”

Ellen did as she was told, albeit with very visible confusion on her face. While she was scavenging for the necessary ingredients, Naru went about the task of cutting off the worst bits of the cake. It wouldn’t be a very pretty one, but he supposed that it would be fine for the two of them.

By the time that she returned, Naru had disposed of the worst of the cake and leveled it off as best he could. In that same time, Ellen had composed herself as well she could. Which he was grateful for. Because while his ability to comfort others had improved over the years, he still didn’t know what to do when someone was crying.

Ellen placed the ingredients on the counter. “What else do we need?”

“That’s it. Unless you’d prefer something besides vanilla. I’d have to consult a recipe for that, though.”

“Vanilla is fine…” Ellen watched attentively as he began mixing the ingredients with the mixer. “How do you know how to make frosting?”

“Your grandmother taught your uncle Gene and I when we were younger. Though, he always forgot to set a timer so he always burned whatever he was trying to bake.”

Ellen giggled.

Good. He hated when either of his girls were sad.

“Your grandmother and I always tried reminding him, but he’d always forget.” He sighed. “That left me to salvage whatever I could.”

“Do you miss him?”

Naru paused, staring at the frosting. He sighed and then nodded as he retrieved a frosting knife and went about the task of adding it to the cake. It was still a bit warm for his liking, it would most likely melt the frosting some, but hopefully that would help moisten the cake some as well.

A silence of sorts fell between them. He could tell that his daughter was trying to piece something together. She was just as easy to read as Mai was, though there were times when she adopted his mask. He was grateful that she didn’t do that too often, though, as it always worried him when she did.

“Did you want any toppings?”

Her look of concentration broke as she considered his question. “Do we have anything?”

Naru hummed as he went to the fridge. There was a package of cut strawberries from his mother. On top was a note reminding the two of them to not eat out so much. He retrieved it and handed it to Ellen.

“Put these on top however you like. I have to go get something.”

“Okay!”

Naru went to the entrance way and picked up the carry out that he’d dropped on the ground when he’d first entered the house. He shook his head at his own carelessness. Thankfully, after a quick inspection, he found the food to be alright. He locked the door and returned to the kitchen, food in hand.

Ellen raised an eyebrow at him.

“I left it at the front door.”

She laughed.

“It smelled like the house was burning down,” Naru grumbled as he set the plastic bag on the kitchen table.

“What’d you get?”

“Curry.”

Ellen’s face brightened. “Yay! Thanks, dad!”

“Of course.” He walked over to the cake and inspected it. The strawberries were a little unevenly placed around the top, but still looked carefully placed. “Looks nice. Let’s eat dinner first then we can see how it turned out.”

“Thanks.”

Dinner was mostly uneventful. They chatted a little bit about their days, but otherwise there was a comfortable silence that Naru welcomed with open arms. Before Ellen was born he’d have only found solace in silence with a book in his hands, but he’d begun to appreciate these small moments more and more as the years went by.

Once they were finished, Ellen pushed their disposable dishes aside and went to retrieve the cake from the counter. The frosting had held up surprisingly well. After setting it down he expected her to go and retrieve a candle or sing, but instead she just stood there, contemplative.

Over the years, most everyone gave him space on Gene and his birthday. Beside the gifts that everyone still felt obligated to give him, they didn’t ever plan any celebrations for him. They allowed him to retreat into himself and grieve the loss of his brother.

Except for Ellen.

No matter what either of them did to deter Ellen, she always attempted to force a small celebration, such as today’s, on him. When she was younger she would toddle behind him singing happy birthday. As she got older she mellowed out her attempts, but every year, without fail, she’d attempt to force him to celebrate. 

It usually hurt some, despite how adorable her sincere attempts to cheer her father up were. Normally, Mai would catch her halfway through and shush her or distract her with something else. Without her mother around to curtail her excitement, Naru was fully prepared to take the brunt of her excitement.

But, instead, she just stood there, looking at him.

It was obvious that she had something that she wanted to say, but was unsure of how to. A younger Naru might have lost his patience minutes ago, but he allowed his impatience to dissipate. Instead, he sat there, expectantly and waited for her to speak.

Eventually she took a deep breath and spoke.

“Do you hate celebrating your birthday because Uncle Gene isn’t around?”

Naru closed his eyes. He’d never said as such to anyone, but, considering her mother’s intuition, it didn’t exactly surprise him that she’d picked up on why the day upset him so much.

“Yes,” he said after quite a bit of time passed. He was sure that his face was pained, but he decided not to mask it. He was too tired for that right now. “It wasn’t supposed to ever be just my birthday.”

He opened his eyes and found Ellen looking at him, contemplative. After a few moments, she nodded and went to retrieve utensils and plates for the two of them. As she went about the task, Naru stood and made tea for the two of them.

As he waited for the kettle, he watched as she approached him. She was somewhat hesitant, but he could recognize Mai’s determination a mile away. 

“I don’t really know what it’s like to lose a brother. Or anyone really…” She trailed off for a moment and then continued on. “And, I never met him… But wouldn’t Uncle Gene want you to be happy?”

That gave Naru pause.

There was a part of him that wanted to immediately shoot her down. That, because she didn’t know anything about his pain, obviously she was wrong. That, because of his failures, what he deserved was to suffer.

That he didn’t deserve to be happy. 

But there was another part of him, a quieter part, that said she was right. That, he could grieve, but he shouldn’t torture himself in the process.

That of course Gene would want him to be happy.

Naru felt torn on which side to listen to. But as he stared at his daughter’s quickly deteriorating  face, there was only really once choice to make. If not for his own sake, but then for the sake of others.

He stepped forward and pulled his daughter into his arms and hugged her. It was awkward, as he was not nearly as well-versed in them as Mai was, but Ellen immediately returned the gesture.

“You’re right,” he said as he pulled away. “Thank you.”

“Of course.”

He went about finishing the tea as Ellen retrieved a candle and lighter from another drawer. They bantered a bit about making sure that she didn’t actually burn down the house this time. But, otherwise the kitchen was mostly silent.

Once the tea was finally done, and Naru was seated at the table, Ellen lit the candle.

“Happy Birthday, Dad.”

She didn’t sing, but he took the invitation to blow the candle out all the same.

“What’d you wish for?”

Naru stared for a moment.

“Don’t tell me you forgot to make a wish!” She sighed and lit the candle once again. “You have to make a wish when you blow it out!”

He sighed and rolled his eyes, though he didn’t work too hard to cover up the small smirk that was worming its way onto his face. Of course she’d insist on such a superstitious act.

“Alright. Fine.”

He watched the flame on the candle dance for a few moments. He had most of what he could wish for, aside from Mai being away from home. But perhaps…

He blew out the candle and wished for the strength to accept the happy days that may come.

“What’d you wish for?”

He arched an eyebrow. “Isn’t it tradition to not say the wish aloud for fear that it won’t come true?”

A bright smile broke across Ellen’s face. “So you do know what you’re supposed to do. You were just being silly!”

He crossed his arms. “Of course I know about it.  Gene always made me make wishes. I just thought that I’d be able to get away without this time.”

Ellen rolled her eyes. “Well, if I have my way you’ll never get out of it.”

“And there’s your Mother’s stubbornness.”

“You’re stubborn, too! And don’t make fun of Mom when she’s not around to defend herself.”

He sighed. “Fine. But just wait until the moment your Mother is back." 

Ellen giggled as she cut out two pieces of cake. She set one in front of him and took her seat as well. Naru paused before taking a bite. It was a pretty good. A little dry still, but nothing a little tea couldn’t help.

"I love you, Ellen.”

His daughter paused to smile at him.

“I love you, too, Dad.”