#writing hooray

[doctorsiren]

give this angle another tri

[mitathemita]

the shining sun!! ☀️

[nevlartery]

18. Split

[ID: A black and white sketch of Jason Todd wiping blood off his mouth, his helmet broken on his face]

[stevie-petey]

episode five: the nina project

His confusion is adorable and you can’t help but press yet another kiss to his nose. “Wake up, honey.” “Five more minutes?” “Nancy seemed pretty alarmed–oof!” Steve’s arms wrap around you and pull you into his chest. He’s overly warm from sleep, his cologne is faint, but still it feels like home.  Steve nestles against you and sighs, content. “Much better.”

Summary: you and dustin steal pancakes to spite ted wheeler, steve just wants one morning of peace, nancy takes you to a haunted house, cobwebs are surprisingly intimate to remove from someone, and vecna decides to play flashlight tag with everyone. hes so sweet :)

Rating: general, some swearing

Warnings: mentions of blood, panic attack, , swearing, fem!reader, use of y/n

Words: 7.2k

Before you swing in: hey gang ! i present chapter 5, aka my least favorite ep of season 4 </3 however, she was very fun to write and i enjoyed twisting some scenes together ;) enjoy, thank yall for waitin !

–

“Hey, bee.”

The line is quiet.

You sound tired, you know Jonathan will hear the exhaustion in your voice, and he’ll worry. 

“I, uh. I miss you.” And you do. 

You’re in the Wheeler’s kitchen, Nancy and the others are down in the basement, trying to pretend that tonight they’ll fall asleep. The reality is that you’re all too afraid to fall asleep. The terror of what could happen in the dark ensures this. 

Steve sits on the counter across from you. He stares down at his hands, picks at his nails. He doesn’t want to be here, he doesn’t want to hear whatever you have to tell Jonathan. When you demanded to call him, Steve had originally denied you. He didn’t understand why you’d want to talk to him or why you’d risk not having your walkman on after what happened with Max. 

But then you’d broken down into tears and Steve gave in.

“Listen, I know we haven’t talked in a while.” To think that four days without hearing Jonathan’s voice is now considered a while saddens you. For years you couldn’t go more than a few hours without his voice. “But, um. It’s been… it’s been awful, without you.”

I could die tomorrow and I can’t remember what your hand felt like within mine.

A tear falls down your face and you wipe it away. You’re so tired of crying. “I don’t… I don’t know how much you remember, the last time we spoke. I just-I’ve had the worst week of my life and I could really use your voice right now.”

Jonathan is still the one you run to. He always will be. 

The line remains quiet. 

“Please, can you just… call me? I–” breath catching in your throat, you choke on the words that simmer on your tongue. “I’m really scared, bee.” 

This is the first time you’ve ever spoken the words out loud. They’re whispered, they come out hushed, as if afraid someone will overhear and call you weak. 

The voicemail line beeps, indicating that you’ve used up all your time to record the message. Numb, you place the phone against the wall. 

Steve looks up, sensing the conversation as drawn to a close. He stands up and wraps you in his arms. You’re cold to the touch. It unnerves him. You’ve always been so warm, so full of heat. “Did he… what did Jonathan say?”

Your head drops against his chest. “He didn’t answer. Voicemail.”

“Oh.”

The silence drags on a painfully long time. You reside in Steve’s arms, seeking comfort in whatever touch you allow from him. Your headphones, which rest against your neck, dig into Steve’s uncomfortably. Clearing his throat, he taps them with his finger. “Music?”

You nod, too tired to fight him. Ever since the cemetery, Steve and Dustin have insisted that you never take your headphones off. Music is what saved Max; they’re convinced they can keep you out of harm’s reach if you listen to your favorite song as well. 

“The tape, please?” You mumble softly to Steve, slowly lifting your arm to point to the kitchen table.

Understanding what you’re asking, he quickly lets go of you to retrieve it. Grabbing the old tape, his fingers find your walkman buried in your pocket. Steve puts the tape inside, eyes skimming over the writing that resides on it.

For bug.

“Will you ever tell Nancy?” He finds himself asking, unaware that the question had even been on his mind. 

It was only days ago that Steve’s biggest problem had been Jonathan’s vague question of “what if”. Now he stands in Nancy’s kitchen, cradling your body, wondering just how many more hours he has left with you. 

You rub your head tiredly. “I will, it’s just…”

I could be dead by tomorrow.

The words go unsaid, hanging in the air between you and Steve.

He stares down at you. Guilt twists in his chest. He’s caught between you and Nancy, between saving you and sparing you. A strand of hair falls in your eyes. Steve brushes it aside, his cracked lips press against your forehead. 

“Hey,” Lucas stands awkwardly by the kitchen counter. He looks between you and Steve, a sad, yet nervous look in his eyes. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but Max told me to come get you, Y/N.”

“Is everything okay?” You ask worriedly, stepping out of Steve’s arms. 

Lucas sees your worry and immediately raises his hands. “She’s fine, she’s just five seconds away from murdering Dustin. He keeps trying to turn her music all the way up and it’s hurting her ears.”

A ghost of a smile crosses your face. In his own, albeit flawed way, Dustin is trying to show how much he cares for you and Max. “I’ll talk to him.”

While Lucas nods with relief, you kiss Steve’s cheek and wish him a soft goodbye. The two boys are left alone in the kitchen. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler have long since gone to bed. Holly, too. 

Steve clears his throat. Lucas hasn’t left yet, and Steve doesn’t really know what to do. It’s been an exhausting few days. All he wants to focus on right now is you; already your absence makes his body weak. 

“How do you do it?” Lucas is so quiet that Steve almost doesn’t hear him at first. 

“What?”

“How do you do it?” Lucas asks again, this time with more urgency in his voice. He’s looking at Steve, his body stoic. There are tears in his eyes, though Steve doesn’t say anything. “How can you love Y/N and not want her to die?”

The question stuns Steve. 

Lucas stares up at him and for a moment he looks like the twelve year old kid he met all those years ago. Only now he’s fifteen, taller than ever before, and he’s experienced more loss than any kid ever should. 

Steve forgets, sometimes. How young they all are.

He sighs. “Look, Lucas–”

“I don’t think I can do it.” The boy leans against the counter, his entire body weight threatens to collapse. “I just, I love Max so much. And seeing her today… she almost-she almost–”

Lucas inhales suddenly. He doesn’t allow himself to cry, he doesn’t want Max to see the tear stains later. He shakes his head, instead. “What do you do, when the person you live for is already set on dying?”

Steve wants to tell him that you and Max aren’t dying. He wants to tell the teen that they’ve faced worse monsters than Vecna. They’ve escaped Russian lairs and navigated tunnels rooted with poisonous particles. They saved Will, closed a gate that was an endless abyss. 

But none of it amounts to the loss they’d feel if you and Max died; Lucas is the only one who truly understands this. 

So Steve doesn’t lie to him. 

Instead, he says, “You hold their hand.”

And that’s all they can do. 

–

Everyone takes turns watching over you and Max that night. It was Nancy’s idea, one you were entirely against. 

“Max is the one who had the vision, I don’t need you guys–”

“Shut up, Y/N.” 

The argument was over before it even really began. Dustin had shoved your headphones back on and turned the volume so high that you nearly winced. Steve laughed before dragging you over to the couch and forcing you to lay with him. 

“I’ll be first watch for Y/N.”

Robin had rolled her eyes. “I know death is like, totally evident. But you disgust me.”

Soft laughter rippled through everyone, but soon the shadows fell and night took over. Despite your protesting and insistence that the Beatles would keep you up all night, you somehow fall asleep against Steve’s chest. 

It’s the first time you’ve slept through the night in weeks.

– 

You wake up to Nancy shouting at Dustin.

“Then where is she?” She exclaims, shaking his shoulders.

Still half asleep, it takes you a few moments to understand what’s going on. “Where’s who?” You ask through a yawn, rubbing your eyes. 

“Max!” Nancy glares at your brother. “She isn’t down here, Dustin was supposed to keep watch.”

Your heart stops. Immediately you sit up, ignoring Steve’s groaning as you forcefully shove against his chest to stand. Even though you roughly pull from his grasp, he’s back asleep in seconds. “What do you mean she isn’t here?”

“I swear I just dozed off for like…” Dustin looks down at his watch, worried and guilty, and his face pales when he realizes what he’s done. “An hour.”

“Dustin!” You screech, now panicking as well. Before he can say anything else, you’re already running up the steps to find Max. Nancy follows close behind. “I swear to God, if she’s hurt–”

Max sits at the dining room table, head down with her headphones on. You and Nancy let out heavy sighs of relief while Dustin rolls his eyes in annoyance. 

Mrs. Wheeler greets you in the kitchen. “Good morning, guys!” When she notices you holding your chest, she frowns slightly. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Nancy breathes out, her own nerves finally settling. “Everything’s… okay.”

“Very okay.” You chime in, forcing a happy smile on your face. Pointing to the pancakes on the stove, you hum with gratitude. “Especially now that I know you’ve made your famous pancakes, Mrs. Wheeler.”

“Aw, you’re very kind, Y/N.” The woman gushes. She grabs a plate and starts piling the pancakes on. “Here, take as many as you’d like. You know, I think it’s sweet that you guys are sticking together like this.”

Mr. Wheeler flicks his newspaper with a huff. “Could try sticking together at a different house for a change.”

Nancy ignores her father and walks towards where Max is sitting. You and Dustin share a look, both of you despise the man. Shoving a pancake into your mouth, you moan dramatically. “But where else would I get such fantastic food, Ted?”

He glares at you while Mrs. Wheeler chuckles. “You know you kids are welcomed here anytime.”

“Totally, you’re like family.” Dustin smiles kindly at her before pointing to the remaining, untouched pancakes. “May I?”

Mrs. Wheeler readily offers your brother a plate and he eagerly starts stacking as much as food as he can. You grab a few more pancakes for yourself; they’ve always been your favorite. Mr. Wheeler notices you grabbing more and he narrows his eyes. “Yeah, why not? Take us for all we’re worth.”

“You heard the man.” You nod at Dustin, catching his eye.

Understanding immediately, your brother smiles even wider. “Okay!” 

Together, the two of you grab the remaining stack of pancakes and throw them onto your plates. Mr. Wheeler watches in disdain, his coffee cup raised just before his mouth. Seeing the mug, you gasp. “Oh! Mrs. Wheeler, could I possibly bother you for some coffee as well? I know Mr. Wheeler really values his expensive roast, but with everything happening this week…”

You stare up at the woman, eyes wide and innocent. Mrs. Wheeler places a hand against her heart and coos at you. “Oh, of course you can have some of Ted’s coffee, honey. Let me fix it right up for you.”

“You’re too kind.” You thank her, shoving yet another pancake into your mouth. Speaking through the food, you turn to her husband. “Thanks, Ted!”

Dustin snickers while the man clenches his jaw. Satisfied, you make your way over to the table and join Max and Nancy. 

“Holly let me borrow some of her crayons.” Max explains as you sit down. There are papers scattered all over the table. “We’ve been having fun all morning, right, Holly?”

The young girl hums in agreement, not looking up from her Lite Brite. “Hi, Y/N.”

“Hey, Holly.” You pinch her cheek, causing her to giggle. It’s rare to see Holly outside of the Wheeler house. You’ve babysat her a few times over the years, and she enjoys the cookies you make, but your interactions have always been limited. She seems to like you though, which pleases you. “Can I draw as well?”

Holly nods enthusiastically and quickly hands you a crayon and paper. “Here!”

“Thank you,” you accept the blue crayon and start to doodle something, keeping the girl distracted. As she colors with you, you finally look at the drawings that litter the table.

When your eyes land on them, you forget how to breathe for a moment. They’re horrible, filled with blood red. Ruined landscapes surround bodies wrapped in vines. The figures are twisted, disjointed. 

“You drew these, Max?” The thought terrifies you. 

“Is this what you saw last night?” Nancy asks softly, her expression mirrors your horrified one. 

Max shifts uncomfortably. “It’s supposed to be. I, uh. Thought it’d be easier to draw it out than to explain it, but… not so much.”

“I’m so sorry,” you breathe out, reaching across the table to grab her hand. 

Nancy touches one of the drawings, this one depicting Fred’s and Chrissy’s corpses. “Is that…?”

“It was like they were on display or something.”

You nearly gag. “Oh, my God.”

Max doesn’t look at you. “And then there was this red fog everywhere. It was like a dream. A nightmare.”

Nancy asks if Vecna could just be trying to scare her, but Max doesn’t seem sure. She explains how he originally used Billy, but last night felt different. “He seemed surprised, almost. Like he didn’t want me there.”

You frown at this. “Then that would mean Fred and Chrissy never made it to wherever you were. That Vecna didn’t take them there.”

“Maybe you infiltrated his mind.” Dustin offers as an explanation, now joining at the table. “He invaded your mind, right? Is it that big of a leap to suggest you somehow wound up in his?”

“It makes sense,” you bite your lip, abandoning the drawing you were working on with Holly. 

“Like Freddie Krueger’s boiler room.” Dustin adds, oddly excited about the idea. When Holly doesn’t understand the reference, your brother readily explains. “He’s a super burned-up dude with razors for fingers.”

“Dustin,” you try to get his attention, worried he’ll frighten the kid.

But of course he continues. “And he kills you in your dreams–”

“Dustin.” It takes smacking his head to finally shut him up. He yelps in pain, cowering, but you glare at him. “You’re such an idiot sometimes.”

“She wanted to know about Freddie Krueger!”

“She’s a kid.”

“But–”

You hit Dustin’s shoulder this time. “Apologize and tell Holly that Freddie Krueger isn’t real.”

After begrudgingly apologizing to Holly and explaining that it’s all just a movie, Dustin adjusts his hat and continues the conversation from earlier. “Anyways, just think about it. What if Max somehow unlocked a backdoor to Vecna’s world?”

“You mean, like another gate?” You’re so tired of goddamn gates.

Dustin shrugs. “Possibly? Who knows, maybe the answer we’re looking for is somewhere in this incredibly vague drawing.” He stares down at the picture he’s picked up and scowls. “God, we need Will.”

“For his artistic abilities or his connection to the Upside Down?” You ask, looking around the table. “Because either way, I agree.”

Max shakes her head, annoyed. “I tried calling them again this morning, but it’s the same busy signal.”

“I wasn’t able to get through last night, either.” You admit, watching with slight curiosity as Nancy starts compiling all the drawings. “Anything catching your eye, Wheeler?”

“Is this a window?” She asks Max, who quickly says yes. “Stained glass with roses?”

Max perks up. “Yeah. See? I’m not so terrible after all.”

Sipping your coffee, you wave the mug at her, unconvinced. “Your composition could use some work.”

She glares at you, but Nancy doesn’t pay attention to any of it. Instead, she starts sorting through the drawings with vigor. “Well, it helps that I’ve seen it before.”

Before anyone can question what she means, Nancy starts folding pieces together and arranging them. At first you’re confused. You don’t understand what she’s trying to do. But as the pieces start to take shape and you recognize what she’s doing, you drop your crayon in shock.

“It’s pieces of a house.” Max realizes as well.

“Holy shit…”

Nancy grabs a marker and outlines the house’s shape. She fills in the windows, adds details that she shouldn’t know about. “Not just any house.” 

She folds another drawing, careful with its edges. The drawing becomes a clock, its center the rose stained glass. Nancy drops the folded up grandfather clock in the center of the house she’s created. It lands with a quiet, yet final, thud.

Seeing the house unnerves you, and you shiver slightly. Nancy notices your unease and her eyes soften with dread. “It’s Victor Creel’s house.”

You suck in a breath and Nancy is already leaving the table. Dustin looks at you, confused, before calling out to her. “Where’re you going?”

“To wake the others.”

“I just wanted pancakes,” you mumble sadly, quickly shoving the breakfast aside so that you can follow after Nancy. 

She’s already shaking Lucas awake by the time you catch up. Robin is slouched against the coffee table and you take pity on her. Nudging her softly, you ease her awake. “Hey, rise and shine, sleeping beauty.”

“Why does my neck hurt?” She groans, eyes still closed.

You laugh. “Because you decided to sleep against a table, dummy.”

“Why’d you let me do that?”

“Blame Steve, not me.” You kiss her forehead, leaving her to wake up more on her own. Nancy has finally managed to rouse Lucas, so you turn to where Steve still sleeps soundly on the couch. He looks so young when he sleeps. His delicate features aren’t clouded by the worry he always seems to carry with him.

The morning sun seeps through the only window in the basement and basks against Steve’s face. He’s a warm honey-orange in the glow, and your chest constricts in a sickly sweet way that you’ve come to love. Walking over to him slowly, you press yourself against him and litter kisses across his face.

Steve scrunches his nose, surprised by your sudden body heat. “Y/N?”

“Nancy may have connected Victor Creel and Vecna.” You tell him in lieu of good morning. 

He opens his eyes, blinking a few times as he yawns. You don’t think he’s heard you, he’s never been a morning person. “What…?”

His confusion is adorable and you can’t help but press yet another kiss to his nose. “Wake up, honey.”

“Five more minutes?”

“Nancy seemed pretty alarmed–oof!” Steve’s arms wrap around you and pull you into his chest. He’s overly warm from sleep, his cologne is faint, but still it feels like home. 

Steve nestles against you and sighs, content. “Much better.”

You know that Nancy will be upset you’re taking so long, you know you should be next to Max, making sure her headphones are on, but you can’t bring yourself to pull away from Steve. You know you’ve asked so much from him lately; expected more from Steve than you know he’s willing to give you. And so, for now, you indulge him, risking a kiss before the others see.

Steve kisses you back; he always kisses you back. His lips move against yours, languid and slow, and for a moment everything is okay again between you.

– 

“Nancy, you know I trust your judgment,” you poke your head through the trunk’s gap and find the girl’s eyes in the rearview mirror. You’re in the back of the car with Steve and Dustin while Nancy drives. “But do we really have to do this?”

“It’s the only way we’ll get answers.” She sighs, although she also looks uneasy as her car comes to a stop. Nancy parks and everyone silently gets out. 

In front of you is an old, dilapidated house. Its shutters are boarded up, the blue paint has long since chipped away and rusted over. The yard before it is a mess; weeds grow everywhere and old debris litters the green. No one has touched this house in years, maybe even decades.

“The Creel house,” you murmur to yourself. The wind around you picks up, a chill hangs in the air. Every nerve inside your body stands on edge, screaming at you to run away. There’s something ominous, dangerous even, about this house. 

You don’t like any part of this.

“Yeah, that’s not creepy.” Steve voices what everyone is thinking.

Max sees your discomfort and she nudges you softly. “Hey, it’s just a stupid house.”

Shame washes over you. Max shouldn’t be the one offering comfort. It should be you reassuring her, not the other way around. Swallowing thickly, you nod at the girl before following the others. 

When you get closer to the house, it becomes clear that you’ll have to break in. A padlock rests against the boarded up door. Nails are rusted into its wood, sealing the horrors within the house. Steve groans. “Oh, joy.”

“I brought hammers, we can try to pry the nails out.” Nancy says, as if it’s perfectly normal to bring hammers with you to a haunted house.

“Of course you brought hammers.”

Nancy ignores you and runs back to the car, quickly returning with the tools. She hands one to Steve, who wastes no time digging into the nails and pulling them out of the wood. Nancy joins him, but it’s an achingly slow process.

“What exactly are we supposed to be looking for in this shithole?” Steve grunts, pulling off yet another nail.

“We’re not sure,” Nancy admits, wincing slightly at a particularly difficult nail. “We just know this house is important to Vecna.”

“Sure, so let’s bring Max and Y/N to a place from Vecna’s red soup mind world.”

You flick Steve’s head, sending Nancy an apologetic frown. “He’s just upset he couldn’t sleep in today.”

“Maybe the house holds a clue to where Vecna is.” Dustin suggests. “Why he’s back, why he killed the Creels. And how to stop him before he comes back for Max, or before he tries to go after Y/N.”

“We’re stopping him before he comes back for Max.” You remind everyone, an edge in your voice.

The group is quiet for a moment. Steve and Nancy share a concerned look with one another, something unspoken passes between them. The look upsets you, but you don’t have time to care. Eventually the silence becomes too much for Lucas, and he hesitantly asks if anyone thinks Vecna is actually inside the house.

“Guess we’ll find out.” Max says, looking at you briefly. The last nail falls, and together Steve and Nancy pull the board off the doorframe. It lands with a loud thud on the porch, sending fallen leaves and dirt into the air. 

You cough. “Christ.”

“Sorry, angel.” Steve looks remorseful, but you wave him off. He faces the door and twists the knob. It doesn’t budge. “Should I knock, see if anybody’s home?”

“No need,” Robin calls out, and it’s only then that you realize she’s no longer beside you but rather halfway in the front yard. She’s holding up a brick, a wicked smile on her face. “I found a key.”

“Oh dear God.” Your eyes widen. Steve tugs at your jacket as soon as Robin throws the brick. You fall against his chest, heart pounding. The stained glass shatters. Poking your head through the broken glass, you breathe out. “Nice, Robin.”

She bows. “I try.”

Steve gently pushes you aside so that he can reach his arm through the hole. He’s careful not to touch the jagged edges of the glass. Finding the knob on the other side, he twists it roughly, unlocking the door.

He’s the first to go in, and he lets out a low whistle. “Jesus.”

You follow after him, turning your flashlight on in the process. The stench of mildew is what you notice first. It’s poignant, intermixed with the scent of dust and discarded furniture. The house is filthy, covered in cobwebs; it’s practically frozen in time. 

Lucas tries to turn a light on, but it’s useless. Everyone turns their flashlights on, and Steve looks around, bewildered. “Where’d everyone get those?”

Dustin turns to him and lets out a surprised huff when he realizes Steve doesn’t have anything in his hands. “Do you need to be told everything? You’re not a child.”

Steve stares at him and you roughly hit your brother’s chest. He can be such a jerk sometimes, you don’t understand where this shift has come from. “Don’t be such an asshole.”

“Thanks, Y/N.” Steve accepts the spare flashlight you hand him while Dustin rubs the spot where you hit him, tossing his bag to the ground. 

You walk deeper into the house, scanning your flashlight over the furniture strewn throughout. Draped cloth covers them. A mirror stands before you, its frame a rusted gold. You find a girl in its reflection, and for a moment you almost don’t recognize that it’s you. 

“Hey, guys?” Max calls out to everyone, catching your attention. She’s standing in front of something, an uneasy look on her face. “You all see that, right?”

She’s pointing her flashlight at a grandfather clock. You stumble back when you see it, breath catching. The bones in your body scream at you to run away. “Is that…?”

You can’t bring yourself to finish the question, but Max understands anyways. She nods, eyes never leaving the grandfather clock, silently confirming that it’s the one she saw in her vision. 

“I don’t like this.” You turn to the group. None of you should be here, you had no right to enter the abandoned house. 

“C’mon, Y/N. I mean, it’s just a clock, right?” Robin shrugs half-heartedly. Before you can stop her, she steps closer to it and wipes her hand against its glass. Dust smears away. “Just an old clock.”

Steve isn’t convinced. “Why is this wizard obsessed with clocks?”

“Please don’t call him a wizard.” If you’re going to die, you’d rather it be at the hand of some dangerous, other dimensional creature. Not a wizard. 

“Sorry, but what if he’s like, I don’t know. A clockmaker or something?” 

Dustin breathes heavily through his nose. “I think you cracked the case, Steve.”

“All I know is that the answers are here.” Nancy looks around, not sounding as convincing as she’d like. “Somewhere.”

“You really want us to stay here?” You ask her, slight resentment in your voice. You trust Nancy, you always have, but something feels wrong about all of this. There’s this voice, screaming in your head, to get out. To leave, never return; the voice won’t leave, and you’re afraid it’ll rip your skull to pieces soon. 

Nancy offers you a reassuring smile. She understands your fear, that she’s asking a lot from you and Max right now. She’s placed you in the heart of the monster that wants you to die. “Everyone will stick together, no one will be alone. We’ll stay in groups. I promise.”

“But–”

“Robin, upstairs.” Nancy instructs, pointing towards the steps for the girl to follow her. They’re gone in seconds, already off on their own adventure yet again. Your throat feels gummy with fear. 

Max grabs Lucas’ hand and rushes off without another word. Steve and Dustin are left with you. They exchange words, bickering about something, though you don’t process what they’re saying. They wander off somewhere, unaware that you’re lost in your panic. Breath spiking rapidly, your muscles tense together, prepared to run. You need to leave. This isn’t safe. You’re going to die.

Light headed, you blindly fall against the stairs behind you. You’re struggling to breathe, the room spins. Desperate, your head falls towards your knees. Curling into yourself, you try to steady your breathing. You think you’re having a panic attack.

In through your nose. 

Out through your mouth. 

Except your breath gets stuck in your throat and blood drips from your nose. Frantic, you harshly wipe at your face, smearing the blood even more. 

Your first nosebleed. Another one of the symptoms. No one can know about this. 

The grandfather clock looms over you; it taunts you. 

“Hey, Dustin. You there?” A voice breaks through your panicked haze. “Remember me?”

They’re familiar. You know the person, you know you do. Carefully, you lift your head up. Looking around, you try to find the source of the voice. 

“Hey, if anyone’s there, I really think I might be in a bit of trouble here.”

It’s Dustin’s bag. 

“Wheeler? Anybody?”

“Eddie?” You rasp, barely able to pronounce his name. Your mouth is numb, your body still stuck in its terrified state. You have to press the walkie close to your lips, too weak to say anything else. 

“Henderson?” While Eddie is relieved someone answered him, he’s surprised that it’d been you. “Can you-can you get your brother? I’m kinda in deep shit.”

Your stomach twists at the anxiety in his voice. “He’s not with me.”

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Jason–” Static comes through, cutting off whatever Eddie is trying to tell you. “They-it’s not–”

The static intensifies. You hit the walkie, frustrated. “Hello?”

“–Boat and I think–” Eddie cuts in and out in a dizzying manner. “Here, and they’re–holes!”

“Holes?” None of what he’s saying makes any sense. “Boats? Are you-are you trying to tell me that there are holes in the boat?”

“No!” Eddie screeches, but then the broadcast goes out completely. 

You stare down at the walkie, brows knit together in confusion. “What the fuck?” 

But Eddie doesn’t respond. It’s quiet again. 

With a huff, you toss the walkie back into Dustin’s bag and sling it over your shoulder. At the very least, the bizarre conversation with Eddie was enough to pull you out of whatever spiral you’d been in. Steve and Dustin will be looking for you soon, probably even send out a search party if you don’t follow them upstairs. 

“‘The world is full of obvious things,’” Dustin’s horrible British accent greets you when you finally find him upstairs. He’s standing with Steve in a random room, though the older teen doesn’t look particularly pleased. “‘Which nobody by any chance ever observes.’”

Steve looks at your brother as if he’s grown a second head. You lean against the doorway, smiling slightly. “It’s a Sherlock Holmes quote, Steve.”

Both boys whip their heads around to face you. Dustin looks shocked, while Steve looks like he’s seconds away from strangling you. “Were you-were you alone?”

“Dude, how could you?” Dustin shoves his chest, already blaming him for abandoning you. “You know we can’t just leave her alone, she’s practically patient zero!” 

Steve slaps Dustin’s hands away and reels back to yell at him, but you step between them. “Okay, first of all, I’m cursed. Not infectious. Second of all, you both wandered off without me, but I’m not a goddamn child. I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, but–”

You hold up your walkman up to Dustin’s face, shutting him up. “I also have this, in case you two idiots forgot.” 

“That’s great,” Steve responds sarcastically, rolling his eyes. “That’s real great. Totally reassuring that your life rests in a walkman.”

“Take it or leave it, Harrington.”

“Actually, can we go back to you knowing Sherlock Holmes? I’m dating a nerd. That can’t be good for my image.”

Dustin snorts. He pats Steve’s chest, already walking away. “Yeah, okay, buddy. Your ���image’.” 

Steve scoffs at him and you pull the two boys away. “Stop being annoying, we’re supposed to be looking for clues or whatever the hell Nancy told us to do.”

No one argues, and the three of you split up. Dustin wanders towards one side of the room, you make sure to keep an eye on him as he looks around. You go with Steve, following him to the other side. 

A vent catches Steve’s eye. He nods towards it, alerting you of it as well. You shrug, indifferent. He bends down, opening it to reveal a collection of jars with twigs and debris inside. You make a face. “Gross.”

Steve reaches inside, picking up one of the jars. He brings it closer, aiming his flashlight to illuminate its contents. When the light reveals dead spiders inside, your heart lurches fearfully. You’re fucking terrified of spiders. 

And then, naturally, one begins crawling up Steve’s arm.

You scream, your fear alerting him of the insect. Steve drops the jar and quickly swats at his shoulder, stumbling backwards. He’s freaking out, so are you. You’re hitting his shoulder as you scream, stuck between wanting to help him and wanting to leave him for dead. 

“Stop!” You screech, falling backwards as well.

Steve doesn’t hear you, breaking through the doorway, before the two of you collide into another body. “Woah!” 

Nancy’s arm steadies you, concern etches her face. “What’s wrong?” 

“There was a spider,” Steve speaks for you, panting. He knows your fear of the creature. He brushes at his jacket, as if he can still feel it crawling upon him. “It was a black widow.”

Your heartbeat is in your chest. Looking at the door you crashed through, you topple forward and slam it shut. “Fuck this room.”

“That bad, huh?” Nancy can’t hide her laugh. She feels bad that you had to experience a black widow, but your almost childish reaction amuses her. 

“Fuck spiders.” Is all you can say. 

Nancy starts to laugh again, but stops mid-way. “Oh, oh no.” Her hand reaches towards Steve, her fingers find his hair. 

Steve flinches away, both from shock that she’s even touching him and from the idea that there’s something residing in his hair. “Is there something? Shit, okay.” He instinctively moves towards you, freaking out, but Nancy gently chides him. 

“Stop moving, come here.” She stands behind him now, her fingers still in his hair. Softly tussling the strands, you watch as she gently plucks a cobweb. “I got it.”

It’s the way her voice softens when she speaks to Steve, the delicate way her fingers course through his hair as if she’s always done this. You suppose, in a way, that the delicacy comes from practiced ease. She used to do it all the time. 

Unable to stop yourself, you raise your eyebrows. Something twinges in your chest. An icey, red hot feeling that you despise. 

Nancy must sense that she’s upset you, because she awkwardly clears her throat and snatches her hand away. “I’m sorry,” she mumbles, fearful she’s crossed a line.

Steve steps away, already back by your side.

“If there’s a spider in Steve’s hair, you’re never gonna find it until it lays eggs and the babies spill out.” Robin suddenly appears, cackling at her own joke. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Steve hisses at her, patting his head, now slightly paranoid. 

Robin leaves just as suddenly as she arrived, her laughter echoing in the hallway. Steve looks at you, and you merely shrug. “It’s Robin, what can you expect?”

“She’s got problems.” He huffs. When Nancy agrees, Steve jumps at the opportunity to lessen the iciness he feels between you and her. He wishes things were how they used to be, back before feelings complicated everything. “It’s, uh. Cool that you and Robin are friends now.”

Nancy doesn’t say anything, and you busy yourself with running your hands over the expanse of Steve’s back. You do it because you’re worried Nancy may have missed a few cobwebs, though a part of you knows that you also do it to show her that you can. That Steve allows your touch, leans into it. 

“Maybe after we find Vecna, kill him, save the world and stuff, maybe we can all go out or something?” Steve knows it’ll never happen, but he still says it anyways. It’s his way of extending friendship to Nancy, proving to her that there aren’t any hard feelings. “A long overdue double date, you know? You, me, Y/N, and Jonathan when he’s back.”

Jonathan’s name slips from Steve’s mouth before he can stop it. He knows he’s made a mistake.

You look away from him, the guilt of remembering Jonathan’s words. His dangerous reminiscing, how you still haven’t told Nancy.

And Nancy looks away because she’s reminded of her problems with Jonathan. The distance that has grown between them. How it feels like they haven’t been on the same page for a long, long time now. 

“I’d-I’d like that.” You finally say, the words bitter.

Nancy nods, her own uncomfortable expression mirroring yours. “Yeah, totally.”

Neither of you sound convincing. Neither one of you can look the other in the eye. You can’t bear to look at Nancy because of the overwhelming guilt. Nancy can’t bear to look at you because you’re Jonathan’s best friend. 

“We can bring Robin on the date!” Steve is desperate to break the tension. He hates it, he hates that Jonathan has created a chasm that he can’t cross. “I’m sure she’d love to join.”

Thankfully Nancy laughs. “Why would she want to third wheel?”

“Who says Robin would be the third wheel?” You say, relieved by the change in topic. “She’d be my date, obviously. Steve would be the third wheel.”

“Obviously.” Steve rolls his eyes, though there’s fondness in his voice that Nancy doesn’t miss. 

You pick the last of the cobwebs off of him. Running your fingers through Steve’s hair one last time for good measure, you poke his cheek. “You’re officially cobweb free, by the way. We should probably get back to searching the house.”

“‘The obvious things are not what people observe,’” He catches your hand as it falls, squeezing it. “Or-’don’t observe’?”

Steve’s cute little frown warms you. He’s trying to impress you, quoting what your brother had only a few minutes ago. You squeeze his hand back, your cheeks warming as you smile up at him. “‘The world is full of obvious things by which nobody by any chance ever observes.’ You were close.”

“Thanks, angel. I would’ve gotten it eventually.”

“You would’ve.” 

The tenderness that Nancy sees in Steve’s eyes burns. The way you’re smiling at him, the softness underneath your voice. She sees the way you squeeze the other’s hand. It makes her ache; she misses holding Jonathan’s hand. 

– 

You stand underneath a chandelier, its lights flickering. The sight is a familiar one. Flickering lights have become a part of your nightmares. 

Max and Lucas had called everyone over to where they were. They’d found the lights that way. 

“It’s the Christmas lights all over again.” You don’t know why you’re whispering, but it feels wrong not to. 

Nancy nods in agreement, but Robin leans forward. “Christmas lights?”

“When Will was in the Upside Down, the lights… came to life.” Nancy explains, staring up at the way the chandelier flickers now. 

“It’s how we knew he was alive.” Your chest tightens at the memory. You’ll never forget the dread you felt, realizing that Will was alive, yet trapped somewhere you could never reach. 

Lucas clenches his fist. “Vecna’s here. In this house. Just on the other side.”

Steve grabs your hand, protective. He doesn’t like the idea of Vecna being so close to you. When the lights stop flickering, he pulls you closer to him, on edge. Equally as scared, you turn to Max to make sure she has her headphones nearby. 

“Max, get your headphones on.” You command her, but she doesn’t listen.

“I think Venca just left the room.” Robin announces, looking at the group surrounding her.

Max frowns. “Did he hear us?”

“Can he see us?” Steve asks, hand skimming the walkman that resides in your coat pocket. Your headphones dangle from your neck. He positions himself so that if he needs to, he’ll be able to grab them as fast as possible.

“Headphones.” Lucas echoes your prior command, only this time Max doesn’t hesitate to put them on. He looks at you, too. “Y/N.”

You shake your head at him. Not yet. You’re scared that if you play your music right now, you’ll somehow miss any signs of danger for Max. You can’t be distracted, you can’t risk it. 

“Everyone turn off your flashlights and spread out.” Nancy orders. There isn’t any time to argue, she recognizes that. You’ve made your choice. 

Steve protests not having any lights on, and you can’t help but agree. The idea of running around the house without any sense of guidance makes you incredibly uneasy. It makes you easy targets.

But no one listens, already spreading out as Nancy told them. Steve groans, knowing you have no choice but to follow along as well. “Jesus Christ.”

“We’ll be fine.” You promise him, but Steve refuses to let go of your hand.

Robin is the first to find Vecna. 

“I got him!” Her flashlight is pointed in the air, illuminating for only a second before the light dies completely. She slowly lowers it, defeated. “I… I had him.”

Then Steve’s flashlight turns on. He holds it away from him, though quickly he realizes that the light is following something. “He’s moving. I-I think he’s moving!”

Steve makes it to the top of the stairs before the light dies once more. He curses in agitation. But before he can complain, your flashlight turns on. 

“He’s back,” you whisper, too afraid to raise your voice. Steve tries to snatch the flashlight from you, he doesn’t want Vecna anywhere near you, but you push him away. “He’s taking us somewhere.”

“Up here,” Max says, pointing towards a door. It’s cracked, faint light seeps through. Shoving it open, she reveals a separate staircase. 

“It’s an attic,” Robin’s voice pitches an octave. “Of course it’s an attic.”

No one says anything as you make your way upstairs. Your light shines brightly, growing stronger and stronger with every step you take. Dustin tries to warn you guys that it could just be a trap, but his protests go ignored. 

He’s probably right, but you’re already cursed and you have nothing to lose. 

When you reach the attic, a single lightbulb hangs from the rafters. It flickers wildly, growing dimmer and stronger in stuttering patterns. Your flashlight begins to mimic the light’s pattern, before everyone else’s flashlights flicker on. 

You all stand around the lightbulb, flashlights now joined together. 

“Okay, what’s happening?” Steve looks around, anxious. 

No one answers him. No one can answer him; but you can. The hair on your arms stands up. Static swirls around you, your body shivers at the sensation. 

You’re standing where Vecna’s standing.

“He’s here.” 

No one asks you how you know this.

A searing pain rips through your head. It’s so sudden, so jarring, that you can’t mask the pained sound you make. Everyone looks at you, terrified that you’re next, before the lights go haywire. The flashlights reach a burning capacity, energy exceeding their limits. One by one, they explode. 

Glass flies everywhere. One piece cuts your cheek. The cut isn’t deep, it’s only a superficial wound, but Steve has your head in his hands before the blood can even begin to drip down your skin. 

The lights go out. Steve tends to you in the dark.

The entire car ride back to Nancy’s, his hand never leaves yours.

-

⌑ series masterlist

⌑ i am no longer doing a taglist, my apologies ! however, please feel free to like, reblog, and comment instead :)

[lucasandlily]

Rui x Reader who is really affectionate, but can't touch him because of The Curse.

A/N: I'm alive!! Rui my beautiful beautiful tragic boy. I've actually been having a lot of brainrot for this game, particularly an isekai AU that made me contemplate making RP blog (I love you guys btw. This is probably my first fandom where they're so active, I've been really well connected with this fandom somehow and it's so fun!!), so I figured I might as well be writing it down now. This is an idea I've had spinning in my head for a while, so it's VERY self-indulgent/insert, but enjoy!! AO3 link here

Rui's POV. Second-person pronoun "You" is used. Angst! But also fluff!! (825 words)

You’ve always been an affectionate little thing. It’s something Rui finds adorable about you, staying optimistic despite all that looms over you, not letting any of the ghouls he KNOWS can be more than a little much sometimes destroy your positive attitude. It’s as if you decided to be the light in a place that literally has dark in its name, and he lov admires you for that.

He can’t help but feel the bitter green of envy though, when he watches you ruffle Lyca’s hair after he whines at you for treating him like a dog. 

He pointedly turns away from the look Ed gives him over your head when you relax into his chest after he leans over your shoulder.  

He just laughs along at your drunken antics when you nuzzle into Haru’s hand, somehow even more touchy when your cheeks are flushed with alcohol. 

He tries not to remember the flash of hurt, confusion, the first time he’d backed away from your hand when all you wanted to do was give him a pat for a job well done. He doesn’t know if it hurt more when your face morphed into regretful understanding, or when you apologised and told him you’d try not to do it again. 

Rui tells himself it’s for the better when he notices you’ve been avoiding him for the past week. He’d have done the same to you anyway, if he realised his feelings were starting to fester. He tries to not let it get to him when he hears you enter the Obscuary mansion, only to quickly patter up the stairs without stopping by the bar first, as you would have done previously. 

Maybe before, he would have made it a little competition to see who could mess up the other’s hair more. He’d watched you run your fingers through Lyca’s after you’d tousled it out of place, anyway. Maybe in another life, you’d gently hold his face as you showered him with kisses. He’d do the same to you anyway, if he wasn’t forced to keep his hands to himself. 

If he didn’t notice you hold your hand back every time you saw his mask slip. If he didn’t see your hand stop short before pulling it back to tell him he had a bit of hair out of place. 

It’s all just part of the cursed life, he tells himself. He should be getting used to it by now, he sighs as he walks down the hall over to his room. 

Behind him, he hears the jingle of the bell you like to wear on your keychain. He turns at the sound of your quick steps approaching. 

“Rui! Ruiruiruiii!!” You call.

“Ah, there you are! Haha, I’m not going anywhere you know~ though I guess I don’t mind being chased?” He teases as you approach. 

You smile up at him brightly, “I have something to show you!” You tell him, he notices now that you have a hand behind your back. 

“Hm? Aw, did you get me a gift? And here I was thinking you were hiding from me!” He regrets the words the moment they leave his mouth. Your smile falters a bit as you blink at his confession. 

But before he can backtrack with a “Just kidding!” your smile lightens again, eyes filling with some sort of resolve as you pull out… a glove on a stick? in your other hand.

He doesn’t pull away when he feels the simulation of a hand on his head. He can’t, when you look into his eyes with such unmistakable fondness. The awkward, stilted movements as you try to run the imitation hand through his hair communicates how long you’ve wanted to do this, and the tears that well up in his eyes betray how much he’s needed it. 

He feels the cloth soak up the tears when you move the glove down to hold his face. It feels soft under his skin, and he can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. 

“How long did it take you to make this?” He asks as you let him lace his fingers with your hand extension. He squeezes the plush hand, feeling the soft give before it reaches the stick inside, inspecting where the glove and stick are attached. 

“Um! A week? It took a bit of experimenting to get it to stay on… And they don’t really sell gloves on campus either.” 

Your eyes crinkle when you look at him, the corners of your lips pull up triumphantly when he lets go of the hand to let you pat his head again. 

“You deserve at least this much,” you tell him. “I know it’s not really the same or anything, but I don’t wanna leave you out, y’know?” 

“It was worth it though, if it made you happy.” You look into his eyes as you say this, and he can’t help but believe you.

Reblogs and Comments are appreciated! I love you (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)⁠✧⁠*⁠。

[marlynnofmany]

The Little Things

“It’s the unexpected stuff that gets me,” I said, swirling my drink. “Like, I’ll expect alien food on the alien spaceship, but the first time I heard offworld music, I thought the engine was about to fail.”

“Oh, I know, right?” agreed the other human, waving her own drink around. She hadn’t spilled it on the spaceport floor yet, but her ship had heavier gravity than this, and she was still adjusting. “And have you smelled what passes for perfume among the Mesmers? It’s like someone cut an onion and rubbed it in hot peppers.”

“Wow, I haven’t come across that yet,” I said with a glance back toward the spacedocks. “We’ve got two Mesmers onboard. Maybe they haven’t felt like getting fancy.” I tried to picture either of my exoskeletoned crewmates preparing for a high-class event, and my brain shorted out. Neither of them seemed the type. Zhee would stand by the punchbowl and complain about everything, while Trrili would hide behind curtains and jump out to startle people. Probably.

“It might be a courtship perfume,” the other human was saying. “Either that or it’s really expensive. I swear, if our navigator wore that on a regular basis, I’d have to invest in one of those high-quality personal air filters. It was bad.”

“Enough to make you miss the people who overdid the perfume back home?” I asked.

She set her drink down and leaned forward. “Enough to make me miss the body odor back home. And I don’t say that lightly!”

“I’ll bet!” I said with a toast of my own drink. It was cherry soda in a champagne glass. The Frillians running this restaurant were so proud of their Earth foods, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them that was anything other than a perfectly normal combination. And the fried-chicken-on-French-toast was actually good.

“It has been a while since I was home, though,” she said, picking at the remains of her macaroni and peas. “Earlier I saw somebody wearing a scarf like my mom’s, and now I keep thinking of all the things I miss. The tree outside my bedroom window, the cat purring, the sound of rain over an old TV show.”

I had a mild epiphany. “Well,” I said, finishing my drink. “I can’t help with all of that, but if you want to make a quick visit to my ship…” I leaned with a conspiratorial grin and whispered, “I’ve got kittens.”

Her gasp made people at three different tables look at us. “Oh my god, yes! Here, I’ll pay for your food. Where did you get kittens??”

“It’s a long story,” I said as she tapped at the payment interface. “I’ll tell you while they’re busy trying to fight your shoes.”

With a happy squeal that caused more than one wince from the aliens nearby, she swept our dishes into the recycler, then we were off to the spacedocks.

~~~

The ongoing backstory of the main character from this book. More to come!

[coffeeghoulie]

date night

a gift for @askingforthesun <3

The first time Aether has Swiss and Dew over to his apartment is the first time Swiss meets Lady. Both of them are nervous messes.

Takes place in the hockey au, but you don't have to have read that to read this; Swiss, Aether, and Dew are teammates on the Ghouls, and have just fallen into a relationship with each other. Takes place not long after Five Minutes for Fighting. 2.6k of fluff.

divider by @ghuleh-recs <3

Aether's nervous. He doesn't know why. It's them.

He steps up to Swiss and Dew as they're changing out of their practice jerseys and stripping out of their gear, the locker room filled with chatter from their other teammates.

Swiss sees him first, flashing him with that bright, warm grin. "Hey, Cap. What's up?"

Dew turns, unweaving the braid Aether had put in his hair a few hours ago. Aether feels his heart swell, swallowing back his nerves. His palms sweat like a fifteen year old boy asking his crush to prom. He's never felt like this in his life.

"Would the two of you like to have dinner tonight?" Aether keeps his voice as level as he can. "There's a Vietnamese place near mine that I think you'd like, get some carry out and watch a movie or something?"

They've been dating for a while, but they've never actually been to his apartment before. Even Dew, who used to live with him before they were called up to the major leagues, hasn't been. They've been going out to eat, sneaking into each other's hotel rooms while they're out on away games, but nothing as domestic as coming over yet.

Swiss seems to read past the facade, something warm in his brown eyes. He reaches for Aether's forearm, fingers just barely brushing over the sleeve of his button up. "I can't speak for Dewey, but I'd love to."

Aether's posture relaxes the moment Swiss touches him. He nods, his lips crooking up in a smile as he turns to Dew.

“Aether,” Dew grins, toothy and something bright in his eyes. "I will never say no to an opportunity to see my little girl."

Aether laughs, any last remnants of nerves crumbling to dust. Swiss's brow furrows, looking from Aether to Dew and back again.

"Oh, he means my cat," Aether laughs, rolling his eyes fondly at Dew. "Oh, you've never met Lady, that's right."

Swiss's expression relaxes, and he turns to throw a wad of tape into the trash can. "I've never really been a cat guy," he says, voice a little cautious. "But I'm sure she's nice. I mean, the two of you like her."

"Oh, she's the best," Dew says, zipping up his bag and standing from the bench. He turns to Aether. "She still play fetch with hair ties?"

Aether huffs a soft laugh. "Don't have any hair ties in the apartment anymore unless my sister's visiting. She loves that cat, but she's a little less fond of fetch."

"Little buzzkill," Dew says, knocking his shoulder against Aether's. "Anyways. I'm pretty certain you told me where you were when you moved out here. Let us run our bags home and we can meet you there?"

Dew glances to Swiss and back to Aether, the locker room emptying rapidly around them. Swiss nods, putting his helmet back in its bag. "That sounds great to me. Aeth?"

"Sounds like a plan."

Aether meets them there, the nerves returning. He hides the tremble in his hands by shoving them into his pockets. Swiss grins easy as he steps up to him, glancing around before kissing his cheek. Dew's changed into a leather jacket over a worn out band tee and tight black skinny jeans, Swiss into a cream button up and dark slacks, hands in his pockets.

Swiss waves, and the two of them follow Aether into the apartment building. They don't need words, Aether thinks. This is a normal thing that partners do. He takes them up the elevator and down the hall to his door.

The keys rattle as Aether turns them in the knob. He knows they're right behind him, almost hovering. He doesn't know why he's nervous. He loves both of them, trusts both of them, for fuck's sake, he's lived with Dew before.

He takes a sharp breath in as he opens the door and steps in. The first thing Aether hears is a quiet "mrrp" and a thud, and he smiles as Lady skids around the corner, having woken up from her nap on the couch. Her claws tap on the vinyl, tail curled forward in a relaxed arc.

Dew gasps in delight at the sight of her, but Aether doesn't turn. "Hi, sweetheart," Aether coos, and she meows brightly as she weaves through his legs, rubbing herself against his pant legs with her amber eyes squeezed shut. He'll lament cleaning red cat hair from his pants later, but he's used to the woes of cat ownership after so long. Lady purrs happily, blinking.

It's then she seems to notice the two men Aether's brought home with him. Her ears and whiskers flick forward, tail flicking at the tip.

Aether turns, eyes flicking from Lady to his partners, watching all three of them carefully. Dew grins, almost as toothy as Swiss's, and he drops to a crouch.

Lady chirps and rubs her cheek against Dew's outstretched hand. "Aw, she remembers me," he says, scooping up all nine pounds of cat into his arms easily. Lady purrs loudly, rubbing her chin against Dew's jaw as he stands back up.

Swiss watches, and Aether can almost see the slight apprehension past the facade of his smile. It's the one he uses for the press circuits after bad games, where he's exhausted and just wants it to be over with. "You good?" Aether asks softly, hand on his shoulder.

"Oh, yeah," Swiss says, leaning his head towards him. "Grew up with two Dobermans. Blitz and Bubbles. Was never really around any cats. Nothing against Lady, she's such a pretty girl."

Aether beams. "Yeah, she's a gorgeous little thing. You should have seen her when she was little. She really grew into those ears."

Swiss snorts, glancing over as Dew coos over Lady. "She warms up real quick to strangers, huh?"

Aether makes a face, and Swiss isn't quite sure what to make of it. "Not normally. She, uh, Lady knows Dew already. I got her two months before Dew got called up to play for the Ghouls."

Swiss snaps his fingers before pointing at him. "That's right, he did say something about the two of you living together."

"I did," Dew looks up from where he's buried his face in fur. "We should probably get out of the entranceway," he says, sputtering as Lady shoves the top of her head against his chin and he gets a mouthful of cat hair for it. The three of them laugh, and Aether rubs the back of his neck.

"Yeah, living room's this way," he says, leading them around the corner Lady appeared from into his living room.

There's a black L-shaped couch tucked into the corner, a large window looking out over the city, an ottoman that doesn't quite match on a rug. The opposite wall has a decent sized tv mounted over the mantle, various knick knacks and trinkets set underneath. A framed family picture sits on an end table by the couch, and Swiss sees faces that look vaguely familiar behind the glare of the glass, but he's too busy watching Dew coo over Lady to really worry about that.

He's in someone else's home. Even though Aether was the last to join the three of them, Aether and Dew have known each other longer. He stands at the threshold of the living room, watching.

Aether sees him floundering and reaches for him. "You want to say hello to her?" He asks, voice as gentle as it ever is, and it feels good as it brushes over Swiss's fraying nerves.

"Yeah," he breathes, meeting Dew's eye as he steps towards him and his armful of purring cat. He puts her down onto the armrest of the couch, and she meows up at him in betrayal.

Dew laughs softly at her. He leans in to Swiss conspiratorially, a mischievous look in his eye. "She likes scratches under her chin," he says, like he's disclosing state secrets. Swiss smiles, easy and genuine, knocking his shoulder against his.

"Let her sniff," Aether says, holding out his hand in example, fingers curled gently into a fist. "Just like a dog."

Swiss nods, mimicking the way Aether holds his hand. He offers Lady his fist, feeling hot little puffs of breath as she smells him, her whiskers held forward curiously. Swiss realizes he's holding his breath.

After a moment, she must deem him acceptable, shoving her head forward to rub against his knuckles. "Aww," Dew coos, stepping around them to find the Vietnamese place's takeout menu on the end table. "Little princess likes you."

Swiss watches enraptured as Lady starts to purr while she rubs against him. He flips his hand slowly, scratching blunt nails into the soft white fur under her chin. Her purring grows exponentially louder.

Aether grins as Dew leans into his side, a play pout on his face. "Aeth," he whines, batting lashes up at him. "Could we please get an order of bánh cam with dinner?"

He rolls his eyes, but he's smiling, and Swiss feels how warm it is even from the slight distance. "Fine, we can get bánh cam. Also, you don't need that, you've been eating there for long enough I know your order."

Dew sighs dramatically, offering the menu to Swiss, but he's too busy petting Lady. She's purring far loudly than he'd imagined a little cat could. He turns, a boyish smile on his face. "I, uh, I trust your judgment, I'm happy to try anything, really."

"Alright, so how does splitting an order pho and spring rolls sound?" Aether offers, pulling his wallet out of his pocket. "Dew's getting an extra spicy salmon bánh mì, as he does every time he eats here. So adventurous."

"So what?" Dew teases, knocking his shoulder into Aether's. "I know what I like. Nothing wrong with that."

Swiss laughs, moving to sit down on the couch. He runs his fingers through the long russet fur, darker along the line of Lady's spine. He's only half paying attention. "Yeah, Aeth, that sounds great."

He doesn't see it, so entranced with Lady, but Aether and Dew share a look over his head. "Alright," Aether says, setting his hand on Swiss's shoulder for just a moment. "Dew, I think I'll need two pairs of hands to bring everything back, you want to come with?"

"Oh, I'd love to." Dew perks up, and Swiss looks up with a glint of worry in his eyes.

Aether, perceptive as he always is, catches it, his grip on Swiss's shoulder tightening for just a moment. "I was going to ask if you wanted to pick a movie while went and picked up dinner. Remote's on the end table, bathroom's right down the hall."

"Oh," Swiss says, feeling something odd in his chest at the implications. Of being trusted with this place, with Lady, someone that's so dearly important to the two of them. "I- I will. Thank you."

Aether's brow furrows, and Dew pauses from where he's zipping up his jacket. He feels pinned to the couch by their gazes. "For what?" Aether asks softly.

Swiss swallows. His hand stills on Lady's back, and she meows, upset he's stopped petting her. "For, uh, man this is stupid, for letting me into all of this. After everything," he says, taking a second to remember all of the scrapes him and Dew had gotten into, the one where Aether had thrown him to the ice to protect his teammate.

He's been part of the Ghouls now for months. Been seeing Dew outside of the hookups for just as long. But this is still new, wobbly legged and fresh. One wrong move and-

There's a hand in his hair, just as tender as the one he'd been petting Lady with. Swiss looks up, shoulders slumping as he sees Aether looking down at him fondly. "We both love you, Swiss," Aether says. "And that besides, you are a dear and trusted teammate."

"And," Dew cuts in. "You and I both knew what we were getting into back then. Except for that one little misunderstanding, but we got that all cleared up. Aeth said it, we love you."

Swiss smiles, leaning into Aether's hand. Takes a deep breath. Continues to pet Lady, who arcs up into his touch. "Love you too. Thank you. I'll- uh, I'll find something to watch while we eat."

"It should be around twenty minutes. Miss princess will keep you company," Aether leans down and kisses his cheek. He beams up at him as Aether and Dew step towards the front door. Lady chirps, hopping down to try and follow them. "No, Lady-baby, you can't come with. Hang out with Swiss."

"See you in a bit," Swiss says, settling into the couch cushion.

"See you in a bit," Dew echoes, and they're both off to get dinner. Swiss swallows as the door latches, suddenly alone.

Lady waits at the door, meowing forlornly for several moments before padding back into the living room. Her tail, fluffy and soft, flicks back and forth as she trots back to the couch.

"Hey, pretty lady," Swiss coos. She meows, rubbing against his legs. He leans down to pet her, and she runs her tail through his fingers, before doubling back to rub her face against his hand.

"Oh, you're such a sweet girl," he hums, only startling a little bit when she hops up onto the couch next to him. "Oh, hi."

She's purring up a storm, much louder than he'd imagined a cat could. Lady stares up at him, pupils wide, leaving her irises a thin ring of amber. "They'll be back," he says, looking back at her. "They're getting dinner."

She meows, sharp and loud, before stepping up onto Swiss's thigh. He lets out a little 'oof' as she climbs up into his lap. For such a little cat, all of her weight on four concentrated little points is still a little more than he was expecting. She meows again, stretching up to butt the top of her head against his chin.

"Hi," he laughs, scratching under her chin. She purrs happily before turning in a circle and laying down right in Swiss's lap.

His eyes go wide, a soft little gasp escaping him. "Oh, Lady," he whispers, staring down in his lap in disbelief as she makes herself comfortable. She purrs even louder.

Swiss can't move. Can't lean over to grab the remote, because what if she moves? What if he jostles her and she darts off and hides and he never sees her again? He knows he said that he'd pick something to watch, but they can't blame him, can they?

He stares down at her, hand under her chest as she purrs, eyes shut and tail tucked around her body, a tiny red ball of cat. He stares and stares and stares until he hears keys turn in the apartment door.

The smell of savory and spicy food fills the air as Aether and Dew step back into the apartment, each carrying a big brown paper bag. "You pick something ou-" Aether starts to ask, cutting himself off as he takes in the position Swiss is in. He sets down his bag of food on the counter and walks over to the couch. "Oh, we're never getting rid of you."

"Hmm?" Swiss says, soft, still trying not to disturb the cat in his lap.

"She really likes you," Dew says, pulling a small baguette wrapped in wax paper out of the paper bag he'd carried. "Lady's real skittish with new people. She's known you for what, an hour at best? You can't leave now. Ever."

Swiss looks up at Aether, glancing over to Dew. He beams. "You'd have to make me."

[sheawritesstuff]

Today is my birthday so,,

Redacted Birthday Headcanons

✩ Sam has never had an actual birthday party and he intends to keep it that way - very few people even know when his birthday is. He prefers spending the day with Darlin and maybe going to dinner with Vincent rather than doing anything big.

✩ Asher has a shirt that literally just says “This Is My Birthday Shirt” that he wears on his birthday every year without fail.

✩ Aaron doesn't like birthday cake so he's gotten a cheesecake every year since he was about 15. Elliott used to make it for him, then he would just buy his own, and now Smartass makes them.

✩ Geordi likes baking and decorating his own cakes so it can be exactly how he wants. Cutie tried to help once, but he got overwhelmed and took over halfway through.

✩ Elliott always cries on his birthday. He doesn't even know why most of the time, it just happens.

✩ Ollie has a movie marathon with his friends to celebrate. They use it as an excuse to eat as much junk food as they want and ruin their sleep schedules - it's been a tradition since college.

✩ David has a small gathering with Asher, Milo, and all of their mates. Angel tries to make it a surprise party, but they always end up spilling the details. Davey pretends to be surprised anyway, just to appease them.

✩ Marie insists on making Milo's favorite dinner and sends him home with enough leftovers to last the rest of the week. He acts annoyed but really appreciates how much she does for him.

✩ Damien would rather treat his birthday like every other day of the year, but the D.A.M.N. crew always gets together to do something for him. Huxley lets him backseat plan to take away some of the stress of the whole ordeal.

✩ Huxley's moms send his presents a week early then video call him on the actual day to make sure he got it and to watch him open them. They also sing to him over the phone.

✩ Even though his coalescence day is technically his birthday, Gavin picked a different day to celebrate based on which zodiac birth chart he likes the most.

✩ Anton tries really hard to call My Love on his birthday. But if he can't, he holds the little plant and just hopes they can feel that he's thinking about them.

✩ Marcus spends his birthday flirting with AI bots on sketchy websites. The more viruses he gets the better.

✩ Lasko usually just buys his own birthday presents because gifts from his family were never just gifts, they were an expectation that something would be given in return. He's still learning to accept gifts without feeling guilty.

✩ Guy tries convincing Honey to give him birthday spanks every year. Sometimes he gets what he asks for, sometimes he settles for birthday kisses.

[opikiquu]

yalldont understand how stressediam for thsu mans bannerhELP me

[iknowwhereyousnoozeatnight]

dnkinktober day 6: medical play

[ramonag-if]

Crown of Exile Progress

It's official. My inbox is empty and I've done my best to answer the backlog 🥲🙃😬 I'm sorry if you've sent me an ask and I haven't responded to it. Quite a few were asks I have already answered. But now, I'm free 🎉

PS: This isn't to say don't send in more asks, just know that a weight has been lifted from my shoulders.

PPS: Chapter 9 should be completed by next week — as in, the entire Chapter 9 will be fully playable.

PPPS: Due to unforseen circumstances, the character portraits will be delayed.

[omaano]

SW Hades AU July Update

Other updates: May - June - July - August

I've made a lot more progress with my Star Wars meets Hades AU project than I'd imagined - and absolutely none in other aspects, so let's see how the past month has been!

I have finished the character illustrations both for Maul

and Omega, (look how cute she is in her pocket sized version! ^^)

and I have also finally rounded out my Din collection, so that I now have 6 variations on his character art (helmet on and off, with Grogu and the darksaber, and with and without Grogu and the beskar spear in hand).

Aphra has lines and flat colours too, as well as the very basic lighting layers on her!

I'm real hyped to start working on her! I'm very proud of the dynamic pose I picked for her, too. I'll likely up the red in her jacket and gloves for a bit of a pop in colour, because all this brown everywhere is growing a little boring tbh. Like with certain other characters...

There has been some progress with Obi-Wan, but it's going suuuper slow, and I continue to preemptively worry about how I should completely redraw him for after his reunion with Cody, too. (Iirc Patroclus is standing with his spear in hand after he's reuinted with Achilles in Hades, and I also very badly want to draw him with his lightsaber ignited, but I feel that wouldn't be very good for him just, you know, hanging out in front of his little house on Tatooine...)

And now I'm going to add my first ever poll for the next month in case anyone wants to weigh in on the order in which I add characters to this project:

I'm making no promises, but I thought this could be fun :)

This post is growing a little long, so I'm putting the rest about Obi-wan's background re-draw, and some musings on picking colours for Omega under the read more ->

There was no room for it in the previous update, but I'd fully redrawn one background finally for Obi-Wan's chilling spot!

It is the same setup as where you can find Patroclus in game, with the walls and the chasm and the doors out, but I added Obi-Wan's hut and a desert envisonment. (I've watched so many videos on how to draw in an isometric grid, because there was always something that just wouldn't work... I'd thought there was a trick to drawing squares and circles in this grid that I just couldn't figure out for the life of me - and it turns out that I was just careless and my grid wasn't tight enough so I had to eyaball distances and the width and length of things too much lol.) And now I'm faced with the difficult task of picking colours and figuring out if the character shading tricks also apply here or not.

For now these colours are more for just to block in certain elements in the background, but I have some more desert/desolate looking backgrounds saved from other Supergiant games (they've got some really vibrant and dark colours, like wow!) as well to hopefully help me out moving forward.

I'd redrawn those bulbs you can find over the door leading out of various chambers in-game, because I might as well go in full re-design mode bit by bit, and after some deliberation and googling I picked the Mandalorian Crusaders symbol as inspiration for it.

And now back to Omega for a bit:

While I was working on the character illustration for Omega and Batcher I became very aware of how weird it is to pick colours for me. (I very heavily rely on preexisting colour palettes; I have multiple saved just for the Hades project like for Rex, Ahsoka, Cobb...) I'd been working on Rex and Cody last (Maul doesn't count because he doesn't have very human colours, so picking reds and purples and browns for him wasn't so shocking tbh), and aside from the armor paint and hair colour they very much share the very same colour palette. That was easy, I'd picked the skintones off Boba and the little portrait icons already, upped the saturation a bit because seeing the base skintone laid down scared me, and off I went.

(Laying down the first layer of flat colours is always super scary because they too often seem too dark and too grey/green, which I know will change after the complete shading is done but it still looks very off putting...)

So. The way the colouring in Hades made sense for me is that it works with pretty desaturated colours, there is a lighter shadow colour that's a bit more desaturated and the hue is shifted cooler but is still pretty cool to the original base colour (so much that I'd often have to turn it darker so that I'd see it laid down if I'm not sitting right), and another darker shadow layer that is a tad more saturated and warmer in tone. And there is also (a possibly slightly cooler shifted) and lighter highlight, and another more saturated colourful highligt (in the skin that is the bright, peachy orange for example). (and the little super bright pops of colour at the very very end. I hate adding them so much, but they are very important!)

But while I could pick the skin tones off of Rex, the problem I'd tumbled into was when it came to shading her hair (it's very important to me that Rex and Omega shared all these colours). Omega has a lot more hair (shocking, I know), and so shading that required a lot more than Rex's simple two-tones, and the "shadow" colour from Rex just didn't work, it was too saturated and warm in a larger quantity. So I tried to find another blond character in Hades, picked some colours off of Theseus... and those didn't work too well either, because those colours looked too pale and washed out compared to how lively her skintone was. There had been a lot of adjusting - I'd colour picked all of Theseus' colours and watched like a hawk where my colour marker moved both in hue and saturation a couple times in every which way and tried to mimic that in comparison to my base colour... and then you already saw how she ended up.

Here is the visual representation of the process:

I do a lot of these swatches.

You can see them there next to Omega with the blues and the gold/metallic detail colours (the latter of which I'd ended up using in her crossbow), and up above with the Obi-Wan wip as well (I needed to pick a lot of colours from Chaos and Aphrodite to figure out how to go about his pale skin), but I also worked like this with Din and Achilles in the beginning, as well as trying to pick the greens for Boba's armor. Usually the first and biggest hurdle I run into is choosing my base colours... that's something I really need to work on; but after that this method really helped me feel a lot more comfortable with cell shading.

I hope it made sense to you, and it was at least a tad bit entertaining (or if I'd ruined the word "colour" for you for a while, I'm sorry XD, I know I'd used it a lot). This was really the first time I'd truly seen how I changed around the colours I worked with in a piece, and also tried to go a bit more consciously about shifting them around here (that's why I have all the screenshots XD) and thought I might as well share them here in this monthly update.

I've also switched over to using CSP and a display tablet, in the hopes that I can familiarize myself with them without the pressure of needing some fancy or very specific brushwork and work process. No texture, little need for pressure sensitivity - I hope to slowly pspsps my brain into accepting working with these, and build up some success and good experiences before I try sketching and drawing on it and maybe trying out some new unfamiliar brushes as well ^^;

[emilyjunk]

Ship: Cady/Regina (Mean Girls) Rating: M Words: ~88,500; 5/5 chapters Summary:

"It's all so stupid, because she knows Cady came to visit her after the accident and walked away. She saw all the flowers her mom lugged up to her room. She saw the texts from all of them over the summer — even fucking Janis. But the fact of the matter is that they all hated her, including Gretchen and Karen, until the moment they thought she died. Then she spent the whole summer recovering in various doctor’s offices, including but not limited to Neuro, Ortho, Chiro, PT, and her therapist, who out of all of them, probably kicked her ass the most, and now she's supposed to just return to high school with everything all different. With her all different – this fragile, ugly, vulnerable shell of Regina George." Post-canon, senior year. Things are different. Regina is dealing. Or is she? Lol.

Prequel to grad school universe

For @erikahenningsen @shawtyidontmind and @gohandinhand

[zukkaoru]

risk it all ('cause i'll catch you if you fall)

Three times, Kunikida finds himself infatuated with people he should not want. Three times, he trips over the edge into the freefall people call romance. Three times, he is tugged beneath the waves and all he can do is hold his breath as he desperately tries clawing his way back to the surface. Three times, Kunikida breaks his own rules for falling in love.

on kunikida doppo, disrupted schedules, and falling in love

📗 8k words || kunichuuranzai, kunikida-centric 📗 written for / because of lena @littencloud9

[static-radio-ao3]

jegulus microfic // words: 720 // cw: mentions of blood (super minor though)

a halloween party gone wrong. or, if you ask james, a halloween gone just right.

“Ow,” James whines when Regulus presses the cotton pad to the scratch on his cheek.

Regulus’ eyes flit to James’ briefly, concern swimming in them, but his voice is cold when he says, “Stop talking.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Regulus mutters. “Be quiet.”

He succeeds, for a moment. Lets the only thing between them be the sound of their breathing, James’ more labored than Regulus’. The party filters in through the gap beneath the bathroom door, a song James doesn’t recognize and a tangle of voices.

Sirius and Remus’ bathroom is a familiar one, although James usually sees it from the floor with his head over the toilet, but the lights in here are too bright, too white, compared to the multicolored strobing outside.

He’d found Sirius and Remus on the makeshift dance floor dressed as Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, respectively. Terribly cliché of them. And terribly horny.

He’d found Regulus there too. But then again, James’ eyes always seem to find Regulus, whether he wants them to or not.

Regulus, dressed in all-white and white-hot fury coming off him in waves. James doesn't know what the other guy said but it only took him half a second to step in, guns blazing and arms swinging.

And maybe he should be at least a little embarrassed, but all he could think of at the moment was the twist of Regulus' mouth, hurt tugging at the corners.

The silence stretches about as long as it takes Regulus to pull a band-aid out of the first-aid kit he has balanced on his lap and to peel off the back.

“I’m sorry,” James tries again. “I know I shouldn’t have—”

He’s glad when Regulus interrupts him because he doesn’t quite feel like lying, despite the devil’s ears perched in his hair.

“No, you shouldn’t have. I can take care of myself, you know. Don’t need you throwing punches to defend my honor.”

James suspects Regulus applies the band-aid with a bit more force than strictly necessary, but beggars can’t be choosers and no one else seems to be jumping at the chance to patch James up.

“I know, but what else was I supposed to do?” He winces, the words tugging at the split skin of his lip. He lifts a hand to check if his mouth is still bleeding, and sees that his knuckles are covered in blood too.

Regulus impatiently bats James’ hand away and douses another cotton pad in disinfectant. It stings when Regulus presses it against his lip, but he knows better than to complain.

“You’re crazy,” Regulus mutters.

“And you’re beautiful,” James says without missing a beat. Because he is. Dressed like an angel, a halo resting atop his jet black curls and wings sitting crooked on his back.

Like he took a tumble out of heaven and right into James’ lap.

Regulus doesn’t dignify that with a response, merely shakes his head. It dislodges the halo a little, and James gently straightens it.

He leaves his hands in Regulus’ hair for a moment too long, the strands so soft under his fingertips that silk and satin seethe with envy.

“All patched up,” Regulus tells him, but he makes no move to get up from where he is perched on the edge of the bathtub. He’s sitting so close that his knees press into James’ thigh. That James could count his lashes if he wanted to.

(He wants to.)

“Kiss it better?” James asks, emboldened by the proximity and by the liquor in his veins. He is mostly certain he won’t get punched in the mouth all over again, but it really could go either way.

“You’re the worst.” But the words lack any real heat. Regulus’ eyes flutter. Not quite shut, but half-lidded and hazy. “I told you to stop talking.”

James’ gaze gets stuck on the way Regulus tucks his bottom lip between his teeth, the way his cheeks pinken and his pupils widen.

It takes him another second, maybe two, to get his brain to reboot enough to string together half a sentence.

The words spill from his mouth and he wants to swallow them back down immediately. Maybe Regulus was right. Maybe he should stop talking, but he can’t help it. Can’t help himself.

“Make me.”

And Regulus does.

[skyward-floored]

Maybe a snippet about wars and Sky and baby twilight?

“Come on Twilight! Come on!”

“You can do it!”

“Just once buddy!”

The baby stared between Warriors and Sky, tilting his head as the two smiled at him. He blinked, and Warriors and Sky held their breath as his expression screwed up.

Then he let out a huge sneeze, one that nearly knocked him over.

“Well, I guess he doesn’t want to right now,” Sky said with a frown, and Warriors sighed, leaning back on his knees.

“I’m starting to think Time is lying about the turning into a wolf thing,” Warriors huffed, and Twilight giggled as Sky pulled him into his lap and wiped off his nose. “How could neither of us have ever seen him do it?”

“Maybe he doesn’t feel comfortable enough around us?” Sky said, letting Twilight mess with some of his feathers.

“That’s ridiculous. We were there when he was born, how could he not be comfortable around us?”

Sky shrugged, and Warriors flicked some snowflakes up into the air, Twilight giggling as he waved a hand at them.

“All I’m saying is, he’s had powers for at least a month now, and we still haven’t seen him turn into a wolf. It just seems suspicious to me,” Warriors said, adding to the flakes. “I’m pretty sure Time is putting us on.”

“But Malon said it too,” Sky reminded him. “She was talking just yesterday about how cute he was as a wolf, remember?”

“Well maybe he got her in on it too.”

Sky gave him a flat look, and Twilight made a whining noise, squirming in his arms. They looked down at the baby, and Twilight whined again, moving his lips around.

“Guess its time to feed him again,” Sky said, and Warriors nodded, getting to his feet and walking off towards the kitchen.

“I’ll get the bottle. Malon didn’t move it around again, did she?”

“I don’t think so,” Sky called, rocking Twilight a little when he made a fussy noise. “Aw buddy, it’s okay, we’ll feed you in just a second.”

Twilight let out a louder noise of discontent, and Sky shushed him, looking out at the kitchen.

“Hurry it up Wars, he’s getting really cranky!”

“I’m trying, sheesh!” Warriors called back, voice annoyed. “Malon mixed up everything around in the fridge. Now why did she put the salad there of all places...”

Twilight sniffled, his lip trembling, and Sky patted him on the back, moving him so he had his head resting against Sky’s shoulder. The change in position calmed him down a little, but he was still whiny, and Sky winced as he grabbed a lock of his hair and tugged on it.

“Come on Twilight, it’s alright,” Sky shushed, “we’ll feed you in just a second, and your parents will be back soon! No need to be upset.”

Twilight looked at him as he spoke, and Sky smiled, Twilight’s blue eyes watery with tears.

Then his form was abruptly encased in shadows.

Sky yelped, nearly dropping him, but he managed to hold on to the shadows that Twilight had turned into, and watched in shock as they slowly fluttered away.

Leaving a wolf pup in their place.

Sky blinked, and the pup blinked back, and for a moment the only noise was the distant sound of Warriors rifling through the fridge.

Then Twilight whined, wiggling in Sky’s hold and licking at his chin.

Sky’s shock turned to delight, and he laughed as Twilight’s tiny tongue rasped at his chin. “Ha, well, Time was right,” he grinned, running a hand over Twilight’s head, delighting in how fuzzy he was. “A shifter! Buddy, that’s so cool.”

Twilight seemed to pick up on his excitement, and wiggled in his arms, letting out a yip as he licked Sky’s chin again.

“Alright alright, stop, you already spat up on me earlier, I don’t want to change shirts again,” Sky smiled, giving his ears a little scratch. A clatter rang out in the kitchen, and Sky sat up a little straighter. “Oh right— hey Wars! Get in here!”

“I’m still looking! Give me a break!” Warriors shouted back, and Sky huffed, getting to his feet.

“No, not that, you need to come see— oh, hey wait!” Sky exclaimed, shadows drifting around Twilight again. “Warriors hasn’t seen! Stay a wolf!”

“Stay a what?” Warriors hollered.

Sky ignored him, trying to get Twiligjt to stay a wolf, but despite his pleas, the shadows kept forming. And soon enough they’d dispersed, leaving a baby in Sky’s arms again.

Sky sighed, and Twilight set his head on his shoulder, yawning as Warriors finally came back around the corner.

“Look, I finally found it. Even warmed it up. Now what were you yelling about?” Warriors asked, tossing the bottle from one hand to the other.

Sky looked at Warriors, looked at Twilight, then looked back at Warriors one more time.

“Uh... would you believe me if I said he turned into a wolf while you were gone?” he said with a sheepish grin.

Warriors blinked, then snorted, shaking his head. “Riiight. Thought you’d get in on the joke, huh?”

“Aw Wars, look, I know what it looks like, but seriously, he did.”

“Uh-huh, sure. And when I went into the kitchen, I turned into a chicken,” Warriors said seriously, then laughed. “Nice try, Sky.”

“But—”

“Let’s just feed him,” Warriors said, and Sky grumpily took the bottle from his hands, shifting Twilight around and popping the tip in his mouth.

Twilight happily suckled onto it, and Sky looked at him, then exclaimed as he pulled a piece of fuzzy wolf hair off his shoulder.

“Here, see? Wolf hair!” Sky proclaimed, and Warriors took it, squinting at the piece of fluff.

“Sky, this is lint.”

“It’s not!”

“It’s lint.”

“It looks nothing like lint!”

Warriors squinted at the fuzz again, and hummed thoughtfully, rubbing it between two fingers.

“I guess you’re right... it looks like a bit like a moth ball too.”

Sky glared, and Warriors grinned. “Warriors if I wasn’t holding a baby I’d tackle you right now.”

“Well, so long as you don’t sic a wolf on me, I’m good.”

Sky hit him with one of his wings, and Twilight giggled at the sight, Warriors shaking his head as he walked away.

“Like he’d do it in the five minutes I was gone... sheesh,” Warriors muttered to himself, chuckling under his breath as he went to go get a snack of his own. “Yeah right, Sky.”

“Fine, be that way,” Sky huffed, and sat down in a chair, guiding the bottle back into Twilight’s mouth. He smiled down at his nephew, and Twilight snuggled up to him, happily suckling. “Doesn’t matter if he believes me or not. Just so long as he doesn’t come crying to me when you start teething and chew up all his shoes.”

“I heard that!”