#yeah okay some people definitely read a lot of books because they just want to show off a ridiculously long list of finished books on

[coffeeworldsasaki]

Just saw a post that it's like "reading challenges are a thing because of capitalism pushing you to buy more books" and a reply to it that was like "yeah and all the jokes about being unable to control yourself when buying books are also because of that and didn't exist before 2010" and I mean. Capitalism is definitely shaping this industry too but I'm pretty sure 10 years old me (before 2010) didn't go to the bookstore and made their parents spend around 100€ in it every couple months and read all of those books very fast because of capitalism. Sometimes people just really like to read, that's also a thing that happens

[lesbianraskolnikov]

he lives in my brain.

[leviathanlazarus]

In Your Fantasy

Pairing: Jake Kiszka x (F) Reader

Word Count: ~5300

Warnings: semi-public sex (like...very low-key), oral sex (F receiving), unprotected PIV sex. 18+ only ~

This took me forever to finish because I started it before my stupid tonsillectomy and I was totally useless throughout most of the recovery. Also, it's been absolutely ages since I wrote a Jake x Reader fic so I'm not sure how I feel about it...I really enjoyed writing this regardless of my trepidation though. I loved the idea of falling in love with him at work and him being so cheeky...hope you enjoy it too <3

P.S. also ages ago, I wrote a Josh x Reader fic that also took place in a library which you can read here. Links on my desktop masterlist aren't active for some reason...but I found it using a certain tag lmao. If you know, you know.

---

You were finishing up fixing the order of some art books in the back of the library when you felt Jake come up behind you. “Wanna hear something kind of crazy?” he whispered in your ear, his chin nearly on your shoulder, his hair brushing against yours. Without even seeing him, the closeness and warmth of his body and the low, husky whisper sent a tingle up your spine–he certainly added a level of intrigue to working in a library. 

“Always,” you said, slipping the last book into the correct spot. It was a quiet Thursday afternoon–you’d thought it’d actually be busier given the rain that kept bucketing down outside, creating an even cozier atmosphere, but maybe people just wanted to stay home with their books instead. That was fine by you. You liked it when it was nearly dead silent throughout the building and Jake was there to occasionally break through, his voice a river through your thoughts and his subtle touches all shockwaves to your heart. 

When you turned around to face him, Jake looked like he was holding back a hilarious joke or something, eyes all eager and a grin tight on his lips like he was bursting at the seams. “So I just went to the bathroom and guess what I heard?” he went on, raising his eyebrows. 

You scrunched up your nose, already worried. This wasn’t what you were expecting when he’d said ‘something crazy.’ What sort of craziness happened in libraries anyway? “There are a lot of things I can think of. Is this a gross story?”

Jake chuckled. “It depends on your definition of ‘gross.’ Okay,” he said, looking around to make sure you two were still alone in the section. Then he looked into your eyes again and lowered his voice even more to tell you, “There were people fucking in there.” 

You scoffed, offended on behalf of the library–the sacred, beautiful space where people went to relax and read, not deal with lewd conduct. That wasn’t crazy, that was just offensive! “What, like two guys?” you questioned, tilting your head, a little irked at Jake finding this all so funny. 

“No, a guy and a girl.”

“Ugh. That’s even worse. Women shouldn’t have to deal with getting laid in a men’s bathroom,” you said, then were momentarily distracting yourself with yet another out of place book on the shelf.  “I’d never do that. I can’t believe someone else is. I mean, kids go here.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Jake said slowly. He leaned against the bookshelf and looked at you pointedly, his dark eyes even darker in the dim light. “Then again–”

Before he could finish, you had another thought. “Wait, Jake–did you say anything to them?”

“No. What could I say? I just high-tailed it out of there as soon as I heard.”

You sighed. The whole thing would be far more redeemable if your boyfriend had at least tried to throw out some warning words to the perpetrators. “You should have told them to stop. I would have.”

“I’m sure they finished soon after I left.” He smirked. “It sounded like they were pretty close.”

You groaned quietly and turned away, preferring to find another thing to busy yourself with now. “Gross. They should be banned.”

Jake followed along right at your side as you whisked through the rest of the art section and back to the cart you needed to empty. “I didn’t see who they were, so no chance of that.” At the cart, he put his hands on it, keeping it in place. “I actually thought you’d find it sort of amusing, Y/N.”

You leaned over, almost close enough to touch your noses together. “You’re such a guy. Only a guy would think it’s amusing and not disgusting.” 

“I don’t know about that. Maybe you’re just a little stuffy,” Jake replied, tilting his head up as if he were challenging you. “Although maybe I shouldn’t be surprised, considering we’ve never done anything like that.”

You scoffed again and leaned back, surprised and still a little irritated, but also genuinely curious. “Oh, so you want to fuck around in a public place? That’s something I didn’t know about you.”

Jake’s challenging stance turned crestfallen, and he lifted one of your hands to press a kiss to. “Forget I said anything about it. I mean, I suppose you’re right–it is kind of gross.” He kept your hand clasped in his for a few seconds as he said, “But I’d never make love to you in a public bathroom. I’d hope you know me better than that.”

You looked over your shoulder at the sound of a man clearing his throat, settling down into a chair with a newspaper. He wasn’t paying any attention to you or Jake, but you gave the cart a push anyway, cajoling Jake off it so you could navigate to where you needed to go next. 

“It’s really the fact that it’s the bathroom that makes it so gross,” you whispered as Jake kept following you. You couldn’t deny you’d had some secret fantasies about getting it on in the library–after all, it was where you and Jake had met and where you continued to spend the most time together. But none of your fantasies included the restrooms in the hall, or the utility closet or that little corridor tucked away across from the restrooms where the vending machines were. Too grody, too cramped, too obvious.

“At least our bathrooms are clean.” Jake parked himself right next to you once you were in the biography section, and when you stepped away from the cart, he wrapped his arms around your waist and held you in place. “But if I’m being really honest, I have thought about us, well, fooling around here. I think it’s quite surprising we never have.”

“Jake,” you said in an attempt to protest, but his sweet, pretty face and ticklish touch on your waist made you giggle, and his confession that echoed your own secret thoughts lit a little spark. “We work here!” 

“So? All the more reason. It’s always been our special place.” Jake smiled as he got even closer to kiss you; you kissed him back, looping your arms over his shoulders. He was smiling even bigger when you both broke away and he said, “You know, it’s just me closing tonight. You should stay after with me.”

“God, and do what?” you replied, but, despite yourself, you were growing more intrigued. 

“Well, don’t you think the study rooms here are nice and cozy?” Jake questioned, still latching himself to your side as you started to put more books away. “There aren’t any cameras in any of them either. No one would know.”

You looked up at him from your crouched position, sliding a book into place. “Someone would know. Someone would find out somehow.” You were quickly finding even more perfectly good reasons in your mind not to do this, to not even really toy with the idea, but the more you thought about it, the more you thought, why not? Could the risk make it more fun? Even just the new, ill-fitting, sort of scandalous environment? 

Besides, Jake really did look hot today. He looked hot every day, but the second you’d seen him after he’d come into work earlier, he’d lit a fire in your belly that was more intense than usual. His hair had the perfect level of slight messiness and the relaxed black button-down shirt was perhaps one or two buttons shy of being overtly inappropriate for work; the smooth tan skin of his chest exposed and acting as a lovely backdrop to the long silver chain dangling, the pendant hitting his sternum. You could imagine tugging on that chain, grasping the pendant in your palm, to pull him closer while he pressed you against one of those thick wooden tables. You’d run your fingers through his hair and kiss him in the frozen silence, and maybe no one would ever know after all.

“I can practically hear the wheels turning,” Jake remarked, tapping your forehead once you were standing again. “You know you want to.” 

You let out an inadvertent nervous giggle and rolled your eyes. “Yes, I’m thinking about it.”

Jake stepped closer, pressing you back against the cart of books. “I’d love to hear some of those thoughts,” he said, putting his hands on your waist.

“You’re lucky it’s dead here today,” you said, keeping your voice a whisper despite the, indeed, dead library around you. You rested your arms over his shoulders, twisting a strand of his hair between your fingers; Jake just kept looking at you with that sweet, silently begging gaze until you giggled, relenting. “Okay. I was, um…thinking about you pushing me down on one of those big tables.”

Jake’s eyebrows rose. “What else?”

“Well…” you began, looking down at his dark jeans rubbing against your skirt. “You’re giving me some more ideas now.” You lifted one foot off the floor to rub your calf over his, the delicate material of your tights creating subtle but scintillating friction against his denim. 

Jake ran the tip of his nose up your cheek and whispered in your ear, “Same here.” 

Just as you were closing your eyes and allowing yourself to let your environment fall away around you, to forget about all the risk of being caught right there, and just as Jake’s hand was sliding down between your legs, a person’s incredibly soft–thanks to the clever carpeting job–footsteps headed your way yanked you right out of the moment.

Jake, too. He shot back and cleared his throat, ran a hand through his hair and looked in the direction of the footsteps; you did too, and soon enough an older woman with her nose already in an open book trotted past the shelves. 

“See?” you whispered, gesturing at the passer-by who was already out of view. “It’s so easy to get caught.”

“Please, that lady didn’t notice a thing. Alright,” Jake said before he stole one last hurried kiss. “I should let you keep doing your job and I should carry on with mine. But will you stay after with me tonight?”

You pursed your lips as you looked at him, considering, but it wasn’t long before you said, “Alright, Jake. I’ll stay after and we can play out your little fantasy.”

“It’s your fantasy too, baby doll,” Jake said with a wink before he half-turned, beginning to step away. “I think we’ve established that.”

-

There wasn’t a whole lot to keep your mind occupied as the afternoon carried on. The rain kept coming down, hammering hard against the roof and windows, and the sky outside was pure gray, all flat and blank. It reminded you of your first day working here, as a matter of fact–that morning in the previous late October, when autumn’s chill was officially in the air. A fine layer of frost had even been on the ground that morning; your shoes had crunched over it on the short walk to your car and you’d had to use your defroster once you turned the key, your anxiety peaking as you had to wait even longer to start the new job. 

How could such a quiet, peaceful place encite so much anxiety anyway? You remembered wondering that very question as you walked over the sidewalk to the library entrance for the first time since being hired, the concrete slick with that morning frost and the beginnings of a gentle rainfall. And just when you’d been settling in and getting comfortable, Jake had showed up and introduced himself, all casual and easy like he didn’t know he was the most beautiful man you’d ever seen.

Thankfully, Jake was also the sweetest man you’d ever met. It didn’t take long before his beauty and charm stopped intimidating you and instead just made you feel all light and full of joy–you were simply happy to chat with him whenever you both could spare a few minutes. Those few minutes steadily turned into shared breaks; then, shared lunches where you’d sit out back on the one picnic table when the weather permitted. Then he started bringing you special treats sometimes, things he knew you liked because he actually listened about what you liked, and then after that he started bringing you whole lunches packed with love and care that you’d never experienced before. 

So, after all that, was it really such a big deal to make love inside the place in which you fell in love?

None of your other coworkers even seemed to notice that you were staying later than planned this evening. But, just to be safe, you also made a point to hide out in the kid’s section when closing time crept up, busying yourself with cleaning up stray crayons and markers and then browsing through some of the newer picture book additions when you were done with that. 

When you were sliding one picture book back onto the shelf and reaching for another, you noticed the part of the library beyond the kid’s section dim; you stood up and walked out into the main area, and there Jake was behind the checkout counters flipping switches.

“Despite almost always being the one to close,” he said, flipping another switch. “I still sometimes forget which lights actually get turned off and which ones stay on.”

A path of yellow light led the way past the checkout and reception, past the few rows of public use desktop computers. Jake held your hand as you both stepped through the library, your heartbeat speeding up a bit with nervous yet delightful anticipation; a few more steps and you were further into the very back of the library, just about there. Four study rooms were staggered just beyond the teen reading section, two on the left and two on the right with a wall of windows in between. 

Jake opened the door to the last study room on the right. A large window was in there too, soaking in the deep sunset that was resting beyond the grass outside and the trees, and the mostly-bare branches of all the trees were throwing shadows across the library grounds. Then Jake flipped the light on, making it all disappear.

“Oh no,” you said, reaching behind him to flip it off again. “It’s sort of magical with the light off. Look at that sunset.”

Jake followed your gaze out the window to the wash of deep blue painted across the sky, nighttime so early in autumn that only a slight sliver of golden-orange remained just on the horizon. The rain had stopped a few minutes ago and had left a lingering mist on the ground, its faint haze trailing along just outside the windows–the whole scene was so much more peaceful than what was going on inside your head. You couldn’t shake the possibility of getting caught even though Jake was right about there being no cameras back here, and there was no one else around, not even any of the custodial staff, and not a soul out there in the fog. Just you and Jake in the little dark study room, his hand still warm around your own.

Your thoughts started to drift away, making space for your mind to comprehend the shadowed image of Jake before you as he gently turned you to face him. He smiled with the slightest bit of white teeth gleaming between his full lips, and you instinctively smiled back, pulled under his charm again. So, now effortlessly charmed and put at ease, you wrapped him in your arms and pulled him close, caressing his shoulder blade with one hand and the slight curve of his waist with the other as both of your smiles disappeared into a kiss. 

“You were making me crazy all day,” he remarked between the kisses that accelerated with both of your lips parted and the wet meeting of tongues. 

“Really? You kept it well-hidden.” Of course Jake did–you never doubted his affection and passion for you, but he kept everything so private. It was one of the many things you liked about him. You cupped the back of his head, sinking your fingers into his hair, scratching his scalp with your nails just the way he liked it, and kissed him again.

“God, your ass in this skirt,” Jake said, voice a little rough, and he reached down to grab you there. “The way your hips move.” He licked his bottom lip as he took a moment to just look at you, his eyes scanning your face. “So unbelievably pretty.”

You held the side of his face. “You are too, Jakey.” He really was, and even in the dark–perhaps especially in the dark, actually. The shadows enveloped him in even more mystery than normal, but you could still so plainly see the angles of his face and the smoothness of his skin in the faint, distant glow of the lingering sunset. Jake smiled at the sound of that little nickname coming from you, then disappeared as he pressed his lips to yours again and pushed you back against the table just like in your little fantasy. 

You felt the warmth of his hand travel around your hip then slide down over your skirt; you kissed him harder and spread your legs a little wider when his fingers skated effortlessly up your thigh over your tights. Jake purred against your mouth as he traced the seam of those tights, and subsequently the crotch of your panties beneath, with one fingertip, and your own hands hurried down his body with much less grace to squeeze his ass and feel the hardness between his legs as reciprocity. 

Before you could do much more than that, he was pushing your skirt up all the way with one hand and continuing to use the other to tease you. Your breath caught in your throat as you were finding yourself trying to stay silent despite the library being completely empty; Jake carried on with longer, deeper touches over the crotch of your panties and tights. The steady back and forth of his fingers over the two thin layers of fabric sent a delightful tingle of pleasure up your spine but you couldn’t forget his either–you kept that one hand of your own on his crotch too, gently squeezing his erection through his pants.

Jake huffed softly and kissed you again; you clutched his arm with your other hand, squeezing his bicep. Maybe other people didn’t mind getting caught–maybe there really was some sort of thrill to it. Maybe other people actually sometimes wanted others to witness their most intimate moments but you didn’t. You couldn’t imagine doing this with the lights on in the middle of the day, with the soft noises of people beyond the walls and the risk of someone catching a glimpse from opening the door or from outside the windows. You were perfectly happy with having Jake all to yourself in the shadowed little square study room, his skin so perfectly warm, his kiss so perfectly molded to yours.

“Was this part of your fantasy?” Jake questioned as he slowly sank to his knees, keeping your skirt bunched up over your hips with both hands now. But it was obvious what he was doing, so you took their place to keep it out of the way while his hands squeezed your thighs as he pressed his face between your legs.

The scant sharpness of his teeth over your crotch made you gasp. “Maybe,” you answered, thighs quivering against the table behind you.

“Oh, come on,” Jake beckoned, looking up at you with a sweet but slightly mischievous gaze, his eyebrows raised just enough to display teasing curiosity. 

“Seems like you already know,” you replied, stifling a giggle at him struggling to get your tights down from beneath your skirt. 

“I don’t know how you wear these things,” he remarked, which made you actually let out a laugh.

“Just rip them for fuck’s sake,” you instructed, eager now, already wet for him. “They’re not expensive.”

Jake didn’t hesitate. “If you insist,” he said as he grabbed a fistful of black nylon in each hand and ripped the tights right open, then quickly pulled your panties to the side next, giving you no time to think at all anymore. Whatever words your mind may have found merely turned to shaky breaths as you watched Jake’s face disappear between your legs again.

He gave a little hum just as he went straight in, the bridge of his nose rubbing up against your clit while he dove his tongue into your center like he really did want to eat up all the arousal that had been conjured up just for him. Your fingers found his hair again, knuckles curling to tug the long strands while your nails scratched his scalp again and he let out a little pleased sound, almost like a gratified laugh, and dug his own blunt nails into your inner thigh as he kept you spread open. 

One word finally emerged from your lips–Jake’s name, simply spoken in a soft tone as the ministration of his tongue and lips had you squirming and quivering even harder, your heels digging into the carpet below as you slightly struggled to stay upright. The repeated flicks of tongue over your clit disappeared for a brief moment, then slowed to one long drag of his tongue over your center just to start that quick pace again. Sighs and whimpers were dragged out of you with each lick; when Jake slipped two fingers in, the slow but easy stretch made you tremble and clench your fingers into his hair even harder.

“You’re so tight,” he commented when he pulled back just enough for you to look down again and see your own wetness glistening on his lips and chin. You could feel it too, how much tighter you were clenching around his fingers as he gently thrust them and teased, curling them and now rubbing your clit with his thumb.

“You’re so good,” you told him breathlessly, closing your eyes again when the sensations had you arching your back. You hissed and bit your lip when Jake’s mouth found you again, his tongue teasing your clit more while he slid his fingers in deeper.

You had thought it would take more of a conscious effort to relax in this space and just let go, but it was easy, so easy–you just let your body respond to Jake with each tremble and moan and gasp and tug at his hair until your legs were outright shaking. Panting, the peak rising deep inside, you pulled him closer and he obliged, sucking on your clit as his fingers curled and gently tugged deep inside you too as if he was literally trying to pull you right to the edge you were already rapidly careening to.

His name from your lips once more wasn’t a soft little sigh; it was a sharp, long whine that seemed to boom in the little study room. Your ferocity surprised you even more when the overstimulation came on so soon and you yanked his head back with one hand and shoved him away with the other, your hand gripping his shoulder. Panting, eyes still shut, you could feel how much wetter you were with his saliva and the rush of your orgasm, the fluid soaking your panties that were pulled to the side and even the very inside of your thighs. 

Jake pressing a kiss to your thigh made you look down but he was getting up on his feet now; your gaze followed the steady movement of his rise and then you were whisked away into blissful darkness again when he closed in and kissed you–close-lipped because he was so polite. But you parted yours and slid your tongue over his and gripped his waist tight for a moment before hastily getting those buttons on his shirt undone, fingers trailing all the way down to get his pants undone next. 

He tentatively pushed you back onto the table a bit more so your feet were off the floor, legs still spread wide around him and dangling when he pulled his pants and underwear down just enough to reveal that heated hardness. His cock leaked just a bit as he stroked it once, looking at you, and a blip of that old insecurity born from adoration and fascination stroked your brain, because Jake was just so beautiful and his beauty was so much more stark in contrast to the plain white walls behind him. 

“That was intense,” Jake said with a chuckle, leaning in to kiss you. You sighed against his lips as he slid the head of his cock all through your wet center, making a point to rub longer and harder over your clit. As he slid in, taking your breath away entirely, he sighed too and you watched his shoulders drop and his chest flush and he asked, so casually, “Is your fantasy being fulfilled?”

Even with the impact of Jake’s cock filling you so perfectly, you had to laugh. “You're a fantasy, Jake,” you told him, wrapping your arms around his shoulders to bring him closer, to make the head of his cock hit so deep inside you that you gasped again as if you weren’t expecting the feeling. “What about–” You had to pause when Jake gave his first thrust. “What about your fantasy? This was all your idea.”

“It was a shared idea,” he reminded you with the cutest little smile. How could anyone be so sexy and adorable at the same time, especially during the actual act of sex, especially when that sex was taking place inside a public library? But he was, and you kept your eyes on him as he steadily sped up with his hips and his hands explored your body over your clothes, one squeezing your breast through your shirt and the other smoothing down your waist, your hip, traveling around your thigh.

“Oh god,” you chirped when Jake’s fingers made contact with your still-sensitive clit; but he was gentle, clearly deliberately being slow with the little circles he was making. With your arms still a loop around his shoulders, you sank your fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck and held him there for a minute before the soft pink of his chest became too tempting not to touch.

“Fuck yeah, that feels amazing,” Jake said in that deliciously hazy, husky voice after you slipped your hands past his open shirt to toy with his nipples. Bringing more attention to him put your lingering overstimulation in the background–you continued to tease with one hand while the other skated over the other side of his chest, feeling his warm, soft skin, up to his neck. You caressed him there, your fingers lightly touching the tender skin along his throat and then up to his ear, and Jake moaned softly and tilted his head to try and get more contact.

That was fine by you. You lightly scratched behind his ear like he was a cat and he sort of purred like one anyway, making you giggle; Jake giggled too and surged forward, picking up his pace as he whisked you away with another series of kisses that were deep but just sloppy enough for your mutual moans to be voiced. 

But, also to your surprise, Jake began to voice more thoughts between increasingly ragged breaths: “Remember when we first met?” he asked, his fingers over your clit sliding down to get slick again from your own arousal. “That was–fuck, that was such a good day.”

“It was,” you agreed, playing with one of his earrings as your other hand squeezed his pec. “I’m lucky I even got the job here. For a lot of reasons.” You stole another lingering kiss before adding, “You’re the biggest reason.”

Jake smiled. The sunset that had been just barely clinging to life when you’d both began was gone now–the only illumination was coming from a parking lot light that was too far away from the windows to see, but the pale yellow glow was scant enough to see that alluring, mystical beauty that your boyfriend possessed. Just looking at his face was enough to make you come again.

But Jake’s skilled fingers and the heat, weight and stretch of his cock still thrusting into you certainly helped. You buried your face against his neck now that you had access to all of him; a thick sob was muffled as you tightened and spasmed around him, and you heard him let out a quiet “wow” as the second orgasm rolled through you. 

His fingers on your clit, thankfully, moved away. He gripped your thigh again instead; his pace was now messy and fierce, and you had to fight to stay in place not only from the harsh movements and how the table you were sitting on was skidding a bit across the floor, but also from that second round of intense bodily excitement. 

“God,” you huffed, stifling another laugh. Apparently it didn't matter where you were–if you were with Jake, he just gave you the giggles. “You’re really going for it.”

Jake cradled the back of your head, messing with your hair a bit. “And I’m–hmm–almost there.”

You kissed him softly and sweetly, from his collarbone and up his neck to his ear. “Good boy,” you whispered there, giving his ear a nibble. Jake moaned wordlessly in response and gave one last deep, solid thrust that jostled you backwards and made the table creak, then he went slack over you, his whole upper body all loose and so hot that warmth was radiating through his shirt.

When Jake lifted his head, you leaned back and waved the back of your hand over your forehead with a silly “whew” motion; Jake laughed and nodded, then slowly pulled out. He collapsed forward again, resting his head on your chest, and you wrapped your arms around him once more. 

“Well, we’ve done it once. Do we ever need to do it again?” you asked, petting his back.

“Like, um, sex?” Jake asked, mumbling against your chest. “Or sex in the library?”

“In the library, duh,” you said with a chuckle, and kissed him when he lifted himself up and looked at you. 

“Where else should we do it?” Jake replied, his tone and little smile making it obvious he was kidding–finally. You were glad to have played out this little fantasy and do something new and a little risky, but you’d be even more glad to just go back to the way things were. Nothing wrong with a classic. 

“Our bed, definitely,” you said, and Jake smiled and nodded again; you began working on buttoning up his shirt. “Our couch. The floor. Maybe the shower.” 

“Maybe?”

“Last time we tried the shower, you nearly cracked your head open,” you reminded him, lifting a hand to cup his jaw. “And nearly broke your perfect teeth.”

Jake’s smile grew wider. “That would be terrible, wouldn’t it?”

“I’d never forgive that stupid shower.”

Jake patted his hands from your shoulders down the length of your body, stopping at your ankles. “Well, babe, we’re both in one piece now, aren’t we? Time to close up?”

“Definitely. The custodians are probably going to be here any minute.”

“Oh my.” Jake held your hand to bring you off the table. “That would have been quite the show for them.” 

“No more shows,” you said as you both put the finishing touches on getting yourselves decent before Jake opened the door. “I should be the only one looking at you when we fuck.”

---

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[bloodibambiidoll]

Sugar and Spice: Part 1

(E.M. x Fem!Reader x S.H.) Part 2 Series Masterlist.

Summary: Steve has massive crush on you, Eddie’s childhood bestfriend who just came home from collage. The only problem is you despised him in highschool and he’s pretty sure Eddie’s in love with you.

Warnings: Eventual smut, pining, love triangle, no upside down, eventual steddie x reader, angst with a happy ending, hurt/comfort, fluff, no use of Y/N so definitely a billion pet names. There’s not really any for this chapter, it’s mostly setting the scene for the rest of the story. Mentions of sex and some swearing. I will add additional warnings each chapter! But still my work is always 18+MNDI

A/N: Okay I found this in my docs and I was reading over it and got inspired to keep writing it. I’ve had this idea in my head for a long time about a Reader who has a kind of like pastel goth type of aesthetic. Like she plays D&D and loves horror but also really loves chick flicks and pink. She listens to Black Sabbath but then will turn around and listen to Blondie in the same 10 minutes. Collects Care Bears but has read every Anne Rice book. I feel like both Eddie and Steve would lose their minds over that. There will be no physical descriptions of reader besides the outfits she wears, which will be things like big chunky goth boots and fuzzy pink sweaters. Ngl it’s kinda self indulgent of me but I hope there’s others who can relate to her.🤭 divider I used is by: @firefly-graphics

Steve wasn’t obsessed with you, at least he tried to convince himself that was the case. He hadn’t seen you since you graduated and moved to the city. But ever since you’ve been back it’s like he sees you everywhere. You come into his work sometimes and rent horror movies, or on rare occasions you rent something totally cute and left-field like The Little Mermaid. You wore outfits that were somehow the hottest and cutest thing he’s ever seen at once, his favorite he’s ever seen you in was this short little black skirt and a pink button up cardigan that you replaced the buttons with little skulls all brought together by the big platform boots you’re usually wearing. That contrast just made him more infatuated with you. You were like sugar and spice wrapped up in one really beautiful girl.

But there were TWO major problems, one being that you hated him In highschool. He was an arrogant asshole who thought he was better than everyone, could do whatever he wanted and looked down on the kind of people you hung around. You were pretty quiet but outspoken and opinionated when you wanted to be, kept close to the few friends you had and always had your head in some kind of horror or vampire book that Steve would definitely not understand but would’ve totally listened to you talk about all day just to hear you talk about something you loved. He always thought you were pretty, even in highschool when you used to dress a lot more reserved. Mostly ripped jeans, the occasional Care Bears tee, and shirts of bands he didn’t know. He even asked you out once Junior year before he got with Nancy and you laughed in his face and said “yeah fucking right Harrington, good one” But now? You’re always wearing those little mini skirts, low cut tank tops, and ripped up fishnets. Steve literally feels like he can’t think around you.

Which brings him to problem number two…Eddie. You and Eddie are bestfriends and have been since middle school, he’s part of the reason you never liked Steve because of the way he and his friends treated Eddie. Even though Steve was never directly mean to YOU, his friends were and that was enough. But Steve and Eddie had a recently developed… acquaintanceship due to their mutual friendship with Dustin. It took some time and convincing but once they got past their preconceived notions of each other they were able to be civil. Eddie being in the group meant when you came back naturally you were integrated in as well. Which means Steve has seen you in an actual social setting multiple times now.

You think that would be great, right? Wrong. Eddie was constantly touching you. Holding your hand, putting his arms around your waist, you sitting IN HIS LAP. It drove Steve fucking crazy, especially because he knows that Eddie loves you and he feels just a little bad about it because he had actually started to really like Eddie and maybe even began to see him as a friend. But seeing him all over you drove him insane and made him have a bad taste in his mouth every time he heard his name. He was pretty sure you loved Eddie. The way you looked at him and the gentle way you handled him and spoke to him like he wasn’t the resident metalhead drug dealer but a giant teddy bear that needed to be hugged and cared for.

Steve would’ve given up in an instant if you said you were Eddie’s girl, but you always said you guys were bestfriends despite the fact that Eddie definitely called you his girl on multiple occasions to the entire group. You definitely had feelings for him. He could see it but there was also something keeping you from making it official and that gave Steve hope. Especially once you warmed up to him and started sitting on HIS lap sometimes. You would just come and plop down across his knees looking at him all sweet like it was the most casual thing and you didn’t just make his brain short circuit. You started calling him cute little pet names and kissing his cheek every time you saw him.

Again, these things would all be fantastic IF you didn’t do all the same things and more with Eddie. Every time you sat on Eddie’s lap he literally wanted to rip you off of him and kiss you right in front of Eddie’s smug face. He was always smirking at Steve over your shoulder because he knew Steve liked you. He confronted him about it last week when they were at the arcade with Dustin and Mike.

“So. You like her don’t you?” Eddie just asked him out of the blue. Steve looked at him with a confused look on his face not really registering what he meant at first “Huh? Like who?”

“Don’t play dumb man, you know who I’m talking about” Eddie scoffed and rolled his eyes

“Why would you think she would ever like you back? You treated us like shit in highschool and just because she’s more confident and can stand to be in the same room as you, now you want her? Fuck that. She deserves better than that, she is so much more than how she looks.”

Steve was kind of taken back at first, knowing he wasn’t exactly wrong “You don’t think I know that Munson? I don’t just like her because she’s hot. She also has this confidence and energy about her that’s just really attractive. She’s fucking funny and not afraid to be herself. She’s got that whole sugar and spice thing going on where she’s so sweet and gentle one second and the next she’s cussing like a sailor going off on these cute little tangents. I thought we established I’m not the guy I was in highschool anymore. I’m not some player trying to go through women. I like her.” he kind of didn’t mean to say ALL of that but it just kept coming out once he started talking about you he couldn’t help it.

“Okay I get it, you actually like her. Either way she’s never going to go for you, you aren’t even her type.” He grabbed the sleeve of Steve’s bright blue crew neck “I’ve never seen her be into a pretty boy like you, she likes dudes who look like they’re part of the lost boys clan or the dudes she sees on MTV.”

Steve couldn’t help but roll his eyes “Sooo, you then? If you love her so much then why aren’t you with her?” Eddie flushed and his face fell slightly “because man, she’s the most important person in my life. Imagine if we got together for real and then we broke up? Things wouldn’t be the same between us, I might lose her entirely”

“When you say ‘for real’ what does that mean?” Steve asked him, hoping it didn’t mean what he thought it meant.

“I mean we do a lot of couple things, we go on bestfriend dates, we are super affectionate with each other, we fuck sometimes, but both of us are scared if we decided to be together for real it would ruin it” Eddie shrugged like he didn’t just metaphorically punch Steve in the chest with that information.

“So what? Are you guys exclusive or what? Because if you’re not, I’m going to ask her out.” Steve just shrugged trying to play it off.

“Dude. Are you seriously going to ask out my girl after what I just said!?”

“Yeah, DUDE. You just said she wasn’t yours so is she or isn’t she?”

“Now that I finally have you around without Eddie I can ask the question I’ve been dying to ask, what’s the deal with you two? Are you like, together?” Robin suddenly asked you out of the blue.

Her and Nancy finally convinced you to have a girls day with them. You went and got mani pedis and picked up lunch so you could eat it back at Nancy and Jonathan’s apartment while you watched some movies Robin got from work.

“I mean… Technically? No. You could say we are like bestfriends with benefits I guess? We have kind of been fooling around off and on since sophomore year of highschool when we lost our virginity to each other.”

“And you’re… okay with that?”

“Yeah Robin, I’m okay with it. We decided a long time ago that us being together for real wasn't really an option. Imagine if we broke up? I couldn’t handle losing him.” You bit your lip, just the thought of losing Eddie made you anxious.

Now you had Nancy curious “So have you ever been with anyone else? Or are you guys like exclusive friends with benefits? Because if you’ve only ever been with him I’d say you’re pretty much together anyways.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve had hookups and flings, so has Eddie. I had a few guys I went on a couple dates with when I was gone at school but I’ve never had an actual relationship really. Neither has he.”

“So you’re telling us, you’ve been fucking on and off and on for almost EIGHT YEARS, never had a real relationship, and yet you guys still aren’t actually together? Don’t you think that’s maybe the reason neither of you have ever had a relationship? You’re stuck on each other?” Nancy, always the voice of reason.

“I absolutely know that’s why, I compare every guy to Eddie and no one has measured up. He treats me like a princess, why would I want a boyfriend who treats me anything less than that?” You shrugged and took another bite of your egg roll.

“Okay but what about when you do find that person? Or he does? What then? Things will change either way.” Robin questioned. She had her own reasons for bringing this all up in the first place. She knew Steve liked you, and he made her promise not to mettle but just asking if you were single isn’t meddling, right?

“I don’t know Robin, we’ve never talked about it. We will cross that bridge when the time comes.” You hoped they would let it go after that. It’s not that you necessarily didn’t want to talk about your relationship with Eddie, it’s just whenever anyone brings up that it probably has an eventual expiration date you feel like your whole world is crashing down.

“So there’s really no one you’ve ever thought you really really liked?” Okay, maybe she was reaching meddling territory now.

“Nope. Never. Can we just watch dirty dancing now?”

You didn’t feel like elaborating more than that, especially since recently there was someone you’d started to like. It was confusing and very much against your will but you had started to develop a small crush on Steve. You tried really hard to give him the cold shoulder when you first got back, you spent years with feelings of animosity towards him but if even Eddie could give him another chance you figured you could too. Then of course he had to be just so sweet, and such a gentleman, always telling you that you looked pretty and he smelled so good. It honestly made you want to punch him in the face. Or kiss him. Or both.

Robin narrowed her eyes at you but decided to drop it for now, even though she could tell there was definitely something you weren’t telling them with how quickly you decided to change the subject.

“Yeah okay, let’s watch the movie. But I’m not letting this go forever.”

“I didn’t even think for a second that you would.” You laughed and pressed play on the VHS.

Your love life wasn’t brought up anymore after that but that didn’t keep you from thinking about it. What would happen if Eddie got a girlfriend? You and him were never exclusive but the thought of him actually loving someone made you feel sick. Did he feel the same way? You hoped he did. Does that mean you want things with him to be exclusive? You’d never really allowed yourself to have those thoughts but now you were starting to wonder.

Then there was Steve, who just added to your confusion. Something about him just drew you to him, even back in highschool when you felt nothing but negative feelings toward him it was like he was everywhere you looked. Maybe you always had a small crush on him but would’ve never in a million years admitted it to yourself back then. It’s not like you would’ve ever had a chance, he treated everyone like you like dirt under his shoe. He never bullied you directly but him picking on your friends was enough to tell you how he probably felt about you too. Then you remember that one time Junior year when he asked you out, did he actually mean it? The thought that he might like you made your insides heat up and you felt like one of those girls you used to make fun of in highschool for swooning over him.

Robin could practically see the gears turning in your head, it was very obvious you weren’t watching the movie at all and she knew she told Steve she wouldn’t involve herself but she just had this feeling…

“You like Steve don’t you?” Robin’s voice snapped you out of your cycle of spiraling thoughts and you whipped your head around to look at her.

“What!?”

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

HI RAVEN!!!! 🤔 kinda a random thought not really but would you consider ace and sebek to be like? RIVALS? or to have a strong dislike towards eachother compared to other first years/students? 🤔🤔 haven’t read much sebek stuff or book 7 so maybe it’s just the way I interpret things……..

🤔🤔 for me at least I feel like ace brings up sebek especially a handful of times? and to bash on him too or at least poke fun at him. can’t think of a lot off the top of my head but in ace’s birthday jacket vignette he picks at sebek specifically when going thru dorm choices. WHICH LIKE……. I DUNNO ITS GIVING VERY “I BEEF W HIM” VIBES. I figured it could just be because he’s a fellow first year but ?? jack or epel don’t get mentioned when he was talking about their dorms so i’m not sure 🤔

👁️👁️ but I wanna hear your take on it!!! are ace and sebek ACTUALLY beefing or was it all just a headcanon??? 😭😭 hopefully I didn’t yap too much. btw

Sorry for the lack of screenshots; I don’t own all the relevant cards in EN and didn’t want to include screenshots sporadically 💦

But!! I did my best to cite where I’m pulling my information from (main story, vignettes, etc.) and directly quote from the official localization. Hope that’s okay!

I mean… Sebek is pretty much always pissing off his peers because of the condescending way he talks to them. It’s no wonder why he rubs people the wrong way. As for Ace, he has indicated that he finds Sebek to be a pain in the ass. I don’t know if I would personally call it “beefing” though?? I see it more as Ace just wants Sebek to shut up and chill out (though Sebek would definitely shout at Ace and fight him) 😂

Point is, I don’t see Sebek having a particular disdain for Ace (he is abrasive toward everyone), but I do see Ace having a particular dislike for Sebek. They aren’t “rivals” in the same way that Ace and Deuce are, as Ace and Sebek don’t really compete for anything or get into many instances of bickering—at least not from what we see. That might just be a product of Sebek being formally introduced later than the other first years, but even counting vignettes and event interactions, it’s still pretty one-sided; often we see Ace commenting on Sebek but not the other way around.

According to Ace in 7-11, he knows Sebek because they’re in the same Magic Analysis/Enigmics (EN writes this class as both of these so it can get confusing) elective. He also implies (in 7-34) sharing other electives with Sebek. This means Ace has regular direct experience with Sebek compared to the other first years (except maybe Deuce?)… ie more opporunities to be annoyed by Sebek’s arrogant loner attitude.

Ace reports (again, in 7-34) that “[Sebek] insults people like, all the time. He even says stuff right to my face when we're in the same group, like, 'Don't you dare slow me down, human!' And he always finds some way to make every subject about Malleus, then drones on and on about how great he is." In regards to those intense feelings about Malleus, Ace says "[Sebek] takes it to a whole other level [...] I can see why people would idolize [Malleus]. But, like, you don't have to make it your entire personality, y'know?" Ace repeats these ideas in his Birthday Boy vignettes. “[Sebek]’s always yelling something or other about his precious Malleus. Oh yeah, and he talks down to us for being human. Dude's a total fae fanboy.”

In Sebek's School Uniform vignette, Sebek yells at Ace for running in the halls. Ace responds by calling him an "uptight nag" whose yelling will disturb other students. Ace also points out how pathetic Sebek comes across as after witnessing him trip over himself to apologize to Malleus. “Dude, nothing you say's gonna impress anyone after that sorry sight.” When Ace tries to leave the scene to make it to class, Sebek shouts at him. “You wait just a minute! I'm not finished! COME BACK HERE!” It should be noted that Ace is someone who always tries to find shortcuts or ways to get out of work whereas Sebek is strict and diligent. Their mindsets and values naturally clash.

This, I think, is a very good summary of most people's problems with Sebek. Ace is just saying what's on everyone's mind--and this makes sense for Ace's character, as he has consistently been the type of guy to call others out. He also encourages Yuu to do the same (in his Birthday Boy vignettes). This detail at least implies Ace finds it amusing on occasion to tease Sebek for his shortcomings.

We see Sebek’s behavior in class for ourselves in his Dorm Uniform vignettes. Ace actually appears in them too, remarking that Sebek is a “loudmouth”. This is something he echoes in his Birthday Boy vignettes; “Loudmouth doesn't even begin to describe him.” When Sebek starts arguing with his group members (some mobs) and refusing to work with them while simultaneously extolling Malleus, Ace says “Here we go again with Sebek and his ‘liege’… Man, imagine being grouped with that guy who […] All he had to do was play nice and let [the mob students] help. He CHOSE to make things harder. How does that guy even function in society?” Side note: In Ace’s Suitor Suit vignettes, he calls Sebek the “number-one worst contender” for a groom. Ace clearly thinks Sebek is unfriendly and annoying in areas extending beyond academics or school life. This is, of course, in addition to Ace finding his loud voice grating.

Later in the same vignettes, Ace and Deuce are forced to sit close to Sebek in the crowded cafeteria. Sebek insists to Lilia that his classes are going well, to which Ace starts snickering and reveals the truth: “Dude... No problems whatsoever? You've got nothing BUT problems, bro! Haha!” Deuce pitches in: “He got into a loud argument with some classmates during our defensive magic lesson. He called his groupmates ‘burdens’ and insisted on doing their entire project by himself.” Ace then says Sebek must think highly of himself and gets annoyed when his words are taken literally. “Do you not understand sarcasm either?” He tells Sebek to fix his attitude, but it doesn’t seem to work. Ace sighs and says he’s just wasting his breath on this.

Sebek’s Dorm Uniform vignettes illustrate Sebek’s general struggles to get along with all of his classmates, not just Ace or Ace specifically. Deuce notably also calls Sebek out for causing trouble for his peers, even stating “[…] as an aspiring honor student, I can't condone your behavior. Having confidence is fine and all, but you shouldn't make things harder for others. That's just being obnoxious.” Sebek pisses off the other first years in 7-34 too, calling them “shallow” and making a terrible first impression. Ace, who is also present, says that no one wants to be chummy with him anyway—not if he’s going to act like that.

In conclusion, Ace has explained his rationale for disliking Sebek many times over. Rather than saying Ace has a problem with Sebek, I think it would be more accurate to say that Ace has a problem with Sebek and is simply relaying the opinions that everyone else holds directly to Sebek’s face. (He gets annoyed that Sebek takes none of it to heart though.) As for the other party, Sebek chides Ace no differently than he would anyone else stepping out of line, not appreciating Malleus, or… just existing as a human 💀 He doesn’t seem to have issues with Ace other than his lax attitude (which could also apply to many other characters such as Leona).

In my opinion, Ace and Sebek are not rivals (at least not major ones), nor do they have specific beef with each other outside of one-off instances or whenever Ace is in the mood to lay down The Truth and embarrass Sebek. I see Ace and Deuce as your classic rivals and Sebek as like… a villain of the week who cameos here and there after his first appearance to cause shenanigans.

[hannigramislife]

Question: What's your opinion on all Dazai ships? I personally think that literally everyone could do better <3

Omgg anon, I love this ask so goddamn much!! Okay, let's get into it-this is gonna be long.

Two things before I continue. One, I'm a Hannigram fan, make of that what you will. Secondly, shipping does not mean "oh, these two are definitely canon, they have feelings for each other," shipping has always meant "I love their dynamic and can see a world where it could be romantic." That's why we have more than one.

Soukoku (Dazai/Chuuya) - Obviously this was gonna be my first choice to start this conversation. I think that soukoku is textually supported. I'm sorry, but there's just some things you don't write if you don't want people to ship two characters. These two are written for each other, therefore a perfectly valid ship. I myself do not ship skk, don't care about them as a ship at all, but I can certainly see the appeal. They have a history, and they're now on opposite sides, but still every bit the lethal team-up. I don't get the emotional side of it though – they inspire no such feeling in me, and I do believe Chuuya could definitely do better XD

Kunizai (Kunikida/Dazai) - This one I actually like quite a lot. I don't necessarily ship them in canon, but I believe they're good for each other. Kunikida with his rigidness and morals and Dazai with his carelessness and disaster that seems to follow him. I also like how Kunikida has a book where he jots down the best way to live, and Dazai has a book he carries around on how to die. I believe they're very different, but the sincere trust and care they have for each other, as well as the easiness of their partnership is something they both rely on and need. 10/10 ship.

Dazatsu (Dazai/Atsushi) - The age gap here is the biggest problem for people from what I've seen, but I don't think this is a proship or a bad ship that should be discouraged. Again, I don't ship it, but I feel it's perfectly fine if you do? "Oh, there's a power imbalance-" bitch, what power imbalance?? Like, you do know they're coworkers, right? Yes, Dazai saved him and Atsushi is grateful, but Atsushi is not stupid or blindly devoted or whatever. What he is, is mentally ill, but then again, so is Dazai, and if you think Dazai would take advantage of him, then that says more about Dazai as a character than it does the ship itself. Atsushi could definitely do better, and to me, that better is Akutagawa XD

Morizai (Mori/Dazai) - Well, I don't think I have any thoughts on this, other than the obvious ones. Dazai was a child in the Mafia, and they do seem to have a more guardian/ward relationship, fucked up as it is. Mori was definitely at least mentally and emotionally abusive to Dazai, from what we've seen. I don't think anyone would actually ship this? Unless you're talking purely fanfic scenarios. In this case, Dazai could do better. So yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and "nope" this.

Odazai (Oda/Dazai) - Now listen. Again, I don't ship this (I don't know if I ship anything that has Dazai, I hate the man), but if you think Oda and Dazai had a father/son relationship, you're delusional. Dazai cared so much for Oda, and upon reading Beast, I refuse to believe there was no universe where Dazai developed feelings for him. I think of them every time I listen to any Adele songs. "Them" being their Beast version. I'm so serious. This is a valid ship far as I'm concerned.

Dazaku (Dazai/Akutagawa) - This one is a ship that I get so riled up about. Because of the fandom. I honestly never gave this ship a second thought until I saw how hated it was. Then, I realized it's hated for all the wrong goddamn reasons. I don't ship it, because I hate Dazai on principle, but sometimes, I feel like I'm shipping it out of spite. It's like people can't make up their minds about the dynamic of these two. When you want to say Dazai abused Akutagawa, they'll be like "Oh, Dazai was a child, too!" Then you say they both grew and are healing – and maybe Dazai cared after all? – and it's all "You can't ship him with his abuser!" Well, which is it now? Is Dazai a bad guy still? Is it so wrong to want Dazai to care? To imagine Dazai pulling Akutagawa into the light with him? When people vehemently hate on this ship, I take that to mean "Yeah, Dazai is the worst, how could you ship Akutagawa with him?" Which, great take, I'm all for that. This ship is overhated in my opinion. Both Dazai and Akutagawa are two important pillars of what makes Bsd what it is. Their relationship is complicated and messy and important – so yeah, I'm not surprised people would ship this. Sometimes, toxic yaoi is where it's at, and you just wanna fix them. Akutagawa can DEFINITELY do better.

Souheki (Dazai/Ranpo) - I think they're besties. Absolutely nothing romantic here for me. I cannot see it, but I love them both, so I'd read fics at least. They're both geniuses who hold deep respect for each other. They may be able to understand each other much quicker and on a deeper level than other people, but I think they'd be a disaster if they were to date. Absolutely not. Plus, I'm a huge Ranpoe fan, so I'm biased.

Fyozai (Fyodor/Dazai) - They have a lot of tension, I'll give them that. They're two pretty, genius bitches playing 3 dimensional chess while everyone else plays checkers. Plus, being on opposite sides?? I can appreciate some enemies to lovers when I see it. I think if I were Fyodor, I'd definitely be interested in this young man who can match my intellect even as I've been alive since Jesus Christ was born. Also, don't ask me why, but they feel so gay when they're together – just, not for each other? I think in a no powers au, they'd definitely experiment together lmao. So, valid ship in-universe? I'm going to allow it. They could both do better.

Sigzai (Sigma/Dazai) - I don't know how this ship got popular?? I mean, sure?? Great ship?? Genuinely don't know what to say. I mean, they're there and they're both pretty?? I guess? Honestly, Sigma reminded me of Akutagawa, it was kinda funny to see. But go off XD??

I think that was it, lemme know if I forgot any major ships!

[ozzgin]

Dear Ozzgin,

Is your new addition to the repertoire, the yandere android, a Mixture of Experts like GPT-4.5, or something else entirely? Would his performance / 'humanness' degrade if he were talking to another machine (an inhuman one, not designed to be Spacer-ly human) for a long time?

Any random lorebits on Spacers you did not include but would have had you felt less constrained?

Hah, okay, I see you've gotten into the technical aspects. I'm about to go on a ramble so I'll do a cut here for everyone else to not clog your feeds. Feel free to read if you're into this kind of stuff. :D

First, I just wanted to point this out because I've read your hashtags and comment: the CCD sensors were a bit of an asspull because it's one thing I'm more knowledgeable about, but I don't feel like it'd be a realistic choice, if I am to be nitpicky. They're expensive to produce and are mostly used for really high performance work (telescopes), but a humanoid robot wouldn't need such advanced digital imaging for daily life use. So, you know, it's arguable whether or not there are better alternatives when it comes to a mass-produced agent processing the immediate environment.

Now to your actual question: I've used the machine learning approach because this is currently our most advanced way of developing AI, but it would not be enough to explain the Android's perfect understanding of human speech. ChatGPT analyzes sentences and their meaning purely based on grammar and associations, but there's many examples of it struggling against anything more intricate than literal context. So yeah, that kind of sarcastic dialogue and implied meaning is wishful thinking of times far away sadly. I'm only wildly guessing he wouldn't struggle with today's impediments. There's a black box somewhere in there that fills the gaps and variables we don't have.

If at some point you find yourself with time to spare, I'd recommend reading the book directly. It's very interesting to see how people viewed the "future" back then, and you will detect a lot of optimism regarding computers - such as Daneel (the original Android) being a flawless human. Funnily enough, the book was published shortly before the Dartmouth Conference, so Asimov was this close to discover that language recognition is, in fact, a terribly tangled business and not as simple as they had originally expected.

I think I covered the basics when it comes to Spacers, but then again I cannot tell how easy it is to follow for someone that isn't familiar with the original work. I also didn't want to reproduce every fact, mot a mot, from Caves of Steel, especially since this is less about politics and more about romance. I'd suspect the people reading the story are not too bothered by the only briefly mentioned murder. Cause is less important when the effect is a tall robot boy with a crush on you 👀 if you feel me.

Anyways, I'm very glad you like the story, every now and then I'll insert little facts and technical details - as it usually is when you study Physics and CS but have no friends in the field - so it's definitely nice to have someone recognize the stuff! :)

[needtoloveoutloud]

Just... let people do with fictional characters what they want?

Idk if this is a hot take of mine or something but:

I just saw a TikTok that was like: OMG guys do you remember the dark times of the MHA fandom when the following things were a thing:

Chloe Takami

Bakugo Poster

DabiHawks Video

Dekubowl

"How do you feel about your ship with Eri?"

TodoBakuDeku

Todoroni and Cheese

"Somebody once told me it's your power, Todoroki"

Deku x All Might

Yagami Yato

Erin Clover

"Hey UA, Bakugo Katsuki is NOT a monster!"

"Todoroki is a real person!"

Angry pomeranian

Ship Wars

Todoroki gives birth series

"Kacchan, we were five"

Smol bean deku/Broccoli boy

"It's bigger than All Might's!"

Layla Todoroki

And, like ????

Okay, first of all, I have no idea what they mean with like half of that stuff, tbh - must have completely went past me

I don't know what DabiHawks video they're referring to, what/who Chloe Takami, Erin Clover, or Layla Todoroki is (I assume they are OCs?). I have no idea what "Todoroki and Cheese" is about or what "Somebody once told me it's your power, Todoroki" is about. Same with the "Kacchan, we were five." Or "It's bigger than All Might's".

The thing I definitely agree with that's crossing a line is when that one person, during a comic con panel, asked the VA of Midoriya what he thinks about "his" ship with Eri. That's involving a REAL person and made the Voice Actor very uncomfortable. That is not okay.

The Bakugo Poster incident is also... yeah, well, very unfortunate.

The thing about Todoroki being a real person was satire in my eyes? But I could be wrong about that lol

So first of all (I'm going on a little rant here, please excuse me):

If people make fun of other people's OCs, that's absolutely appalling. I get that OCs aren't for everybody, that's completely fine. But just let people do and write whatever they want? As long as it doesn't hurt you, literally: what's your problem? Don't like, don't read?! Simple as that. People put in a lot of time and effort for creating content with OCs and coming up with them and literally, they do it for FUN. To COPE. Or simply because they felt like it. What the hell does that have to do with you? Just, like, grow up and chill out?

About the ships: DabiHawks, Dekubowl, TodoBakuDeku, All Might, etc. - again: don't like, don't read?! I get that not every ship is for everyone, but nobody is forcing people to read stories? So, if you don't want to... just... don't? Just look at the tags, think "Oh, mhm yeah that's not my cup of tea" and move tf on? Find a story with a ship that you DO like and be happy people are sharing their thoughts, stories, fanart, content, etc. with you FOR FREE? I truly don't get it. The amount of fanfic authors that leave fandoms because they literally get bullied in the comments (and receive death threats, like ???) is scary. I swear, every other day someone in the AO3 subreddit feels so incredibly disheartened by the vile shit people comment on their stories simply because the commentor doesn't like the ships or think they're wrong? I get it when it makes people uncomfortable when it's a ship that involves, let's say teacher x student relationships or something. But then again: don't like, don't read. Move on with your life. Nobody has to like everything. Also, some stories literally exist to make people uncomfortable. To make them think. To help cope with something that might have happened to them (looking at the dub con/noncon tag here). I mean, has media literacy taken such a downfall in the past few years that people lack critical thinking skills? Some books solely exist for the purpose of giving you an icky feeling — take Lolita for example. It impacts your life in no way whatsoever, that stuff exists that you don't like if it does.not.hurt.you. IT IS FICTION ffs

Same with Yagami Yato. Don't like, don't listen, don't engage. Don't make fun of her/them or the people who like the stuff. Simple as that? Why do people have to shit on things that bring other people joy or a form of escapism? I truly don't get it.

"Hey UA, Bakugo Katsuki is NOT a monster." Okay, we get it. I get if you think that video kinda came out of nowhere (saw it for the first time a few months ago, so I was late to the party) but that creator just had some fun with a story and even created a fan video of it including their OC in the video. People bullying someone simply because they have fun doing something they deem as "cringe" is not okay, and I have no idea when people started thinking it was?

Just... in general. I don't get why people bully people about stuff that literally has NO IMPACT on their own lives. Especially if it's about a fictional story, with fictional characters, in a fictional setting? Just... have some fun, be creative, and have a good time? I can promise you, the people who make fun of others for things they deem "cringe" do plenty of shit others think is "cringe", too.

Sorry for the rant. It just really rubs me the wrong way if people make others feel like crap for things they like. Just let people be, maybe?

And all the comments on that tiktok agreed, too.

If you ask me, making people feel like shit, publicly shaming them, and bullying them out of fandoms (which are supposed to be safe and fun!) is actually what's real "cringe" here.

[thorfemmes]

Now in Technicolor

part i: "Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams"

a/n: I've been thinking about the "seeing in black and white until you meet your soulmate" trope for a while now. I wanted to see if it would work with with two soulmates, giving us this steddie x reader au :). I hope you enjoy, and as always feedback and reblogs are greatly appreciated!<333

a/n 2: I'm sobbing because I've uploaded this THREE TIMES NOW and tumblr keeps glitching and fucking up my formatting. Let's see if this one works.

P.S. I did a stupid amount of research on tour dates, locations, and weather in 1990 LMAO please enjoy.

read part ii here

Rated 18+: fem!reader x steddie, eventual smut, an unfortunate usage of Y/N, gross humid Midwestern weather

Word Count: 2,113 words

May 24, 1990 was a grossly humid day. Illinois weather was always a bit spotty, but today especially was unforgiving. Y/N was in line outside of the Rosemont Horizon, waiting in line to see Madonna's Blond Ambition Tour. She had gotten there early, wanting to grab a good spot seeing as her ticket was for the standing room only section, but now that she was standing outside, alone, in the sun, she wished she would have prepared better. She maybe would've brought a book, definitely would have brought some water bottles. But alas, she was sandwiched between other hopeful concert-goers that were suffering the same fate as her.

She tried to subtly dab at the sweat accumulating around her hairline, accidentally making eye contact with the girl in front of her.

The girl raised her eyebrows at her. "Little bit warm today, huh?"

Y/N nodded and smiled, "Just a little bit yeah".

"Do you have any water or anything?" The girl asked.

She shook her head no.

"My girlfriend and I have a few extras if you'd like one?" The light haired girl started. "It's unopened, in case you were worried we did something to it. Not that you should be worried! I just know that some people would be worried -".

"Robin, it's okay," Robin's friend spoke up as she smiled sheepishly.

"It's okay, I appreciate the offer". Y/N took the bottle graciously and all but chugged it down. "I wasn't worried by the way. Not unless you're trying to weed out the competition for a good spot in the pit".

Robin and her partner laughed. "I'm Nancy, this is Robin, nice to meet you". The dark haired girl gestured between herself and Robin.

"I'm Y/N!"

The three of them got to talking, learning that Robin and Nancy had driven up from Hawkins, Indiana. The two were surprised to learn that she was in the process of moving to Hawkins.

"What made you want to move?" Nancy asked.

"I have a lot of family in the surrounding towns, and I'm planning on attending school out there. Hawkins lets me have a bit of independence while still being close to family".

The two girls nodded. "Do you have anyone moving with you?"

"No, unfortunately," She let out a small laugh. "No soulmate or anything yet". The two girls looked at her almost solemnly. "I'm assuming you two have met your soulmates already?"

The two grinned and linked hands. "Yeah," Robin spoke up. "We've been together for a few years now". Nancy cuddled up next to Robin and laid her head on Robin's shoulder.

"Well you're both adorable together".

"Thank you!" The two spoke in unison.

She turned slightly to take another gulp of water. It wasn't that her heart ached for a soulmate, it was that she had lost hope of meeting hers. Long ago had she accepted that black and gray scales would be her permanent point of view. High school, even middle school was filled with her peers' world blooming in color while she continued to see the dull shades around her.

They continued to make small talk until the line started moving.

"Hey in case we get separated, here's my phone number," Robin whipped out a sharpie and grabbed the girl's hand. "Call us when you get settled". And with that they parted ways, the couple heading towards the merch booth as she headed towards the barricade. When she got back to the hotel she quickly reached for the room's notepad and pen and scribbled the now smeared phone number.

Weeks had passed since the concert. Y/N had officially made the move to Hawkins. The few things she owned were shoved into a rented pickup truck and moved from her shared apartment in Chicago to a one bedroom all to herself.

The apartment was cozy; filled with fuzzy blankets and candles and warm art work. She hoped the colors at least complimented each other, but truly she was just thrilled to finally have her own space to decorate and make hers.

Her days were filled with exploring and familiarizing herself with the town. She visited every corner of Hawkins; wandering grocery stores, noting where the different shops were, even seeking out the record shop and video store for her future leisure.

It wasn't until her classes started that she started to feel the loneliness creep in. She glanced at her phone book every once in a while, debating on whether she should reach out to the girls from the concert. Surely it wouldn't be weird, right? Robin had given Y/N her number for a reason. Then on the first Saturday of July, when she was two glasses of wine deep, she used her liquid courage to reach out to Robin.

Double checking that it wasn't terribly late, she quickly pushed Robin's number into the phone and nervously squished the receiver against her ear. She picked up after the first ring.

"Hello?" Robin's raspy voice shouted over loud background music.

"Hey, Robin? It's Y/N from the Madonna concert". She winced, it had been so long ago, what if she didn't remember her?

"Y/N! Hey!" Robin must've covered the phone with her hand because she could hear a faint Would you guys turn the music down?

"Sorry, my friends are animals. How are you, are you in Hawkins?"

"Yeah, I'm finally settled. I was hoping that maybe you and Nancy would want to hang out sometime soon? I haven't really gone out with anyone since I moved".

"Yeah, that would be awesome! Are you free tomorrow morning? Some of my friends and I were planning on getting breakfast if you'd like to join us".

"I'd love to, you're sure I'm not intruding?"

"No intrusion at all! I'm sure everyone would love to meet you," Her voice called out a little bit louder. Voices in the background rang out in agreement.

Y/N giggled and set her plans in stone.

When the morning came, her stomach was in knots. Her nerves were slowly getting the better of her. Arriving at the restaurant 30 minutes early, she sat in her car and tried to hype herself up. You've got this, she thought. Robin and Nancy were friendly enough at the concert. This is you getting out of your comfort zone. And if you hate it, you can always leave!

Y/N watched as the restaurant slowly filled up. When she saw Robin and Nancy walk up hand in hand following a young man with long dark hair into the restaurant, she counted to thirty and took a deep breath before getting out of her car and making her way inside.

She met the girls by the host's stand, the man nowhere to be found. The girls greeted her with smiles and small side hugs.

"Hey! How are you doing?" Nancy said.

"I'm doing well! How have you guys been?"

"We've been okay! We're just waiting for a table to clear up. Steve couldn't make it this morning, but Eddie is here so you'll meet a part of the group! He's just in the bathroom, I think".

Y/N nodded and quickly fell into conversation with the two girls. The three were talking about the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour when Nancy looked past Y/N's head.

"Eddie! Nice of you to finally join us," She smirked.

Eddie grinned at Nancy, letting her shove him with her shoulder. "Had to sneak out for a quick smoke. What did I miss?"

Y/N looked at the young man, his long curly hair framing the soft features of his face. His large button eyes were so expressive and full of mischief. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but it felt like she knew him, he felt warm (which was crazy because she didn't know this boy from Adam). She was pulled from her staring by Robin's voice.

"So Eddie, this is Y/N. Y/N, Eddie".

Y/N snapped her eyes up and held out her hand, Eddie doing the same. When the two met eyes, Y/N took in a deep breath. The warmth she felt shot through their hands, sending small vibrations through her body. She held that breath as she looked at him, wisps of color blotting throughout her vision. Relief and joy and confusion flooded her system. She had met her soulmate! But why wasn't her vision completely flooding with color? Was he experiencing the same thing?

"Guys?" Robin's voice ripped them from their trance.

Eddie cleared his throat, "Sorry, um, nice to meet you".

She nodded in agreement, retracting her hand and looking at the ground. The tiles on the ground now boasted what could only be described as auras of color. Her vision still looked dull, but blobs of color distorted her normal palette of dark shades.

The four of them were then led to a round booth, Nancy and Robin scooting into the middle with Eddie and Y/N on each of their respective ends. They quickly fell into a comfortable conversation, Y/N looking and picking at her nails in favor of looking back at Eddie.

"So Y/N," Eddie's voice pulled her attention. "Nancy and Robin were telling us that you all met at the Madonna show".

"Yeah, um. It was ridiculously hot and Robin saved the day with a water bottle she swore wasn't poisoned".

Eddie laughed and leaned forward a little. "You've gotta be careful out there, you never know what Robin is trying to roofie you with".

"Oh fuck off, Munson," Robin laughed, throwing her straw wrapper at him.

The four of them stood outside of the diner and gathered around Y/N's car.

"This was so fun, we should do this again soon!" Nancy said.

Everyone smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Hopefully next time our resident dingus can join us," Robin added.

Eddie rolled his eyes at the name calling. He quickly took his keys out of his pockets. "Here ladies, go and start the a/c, I'll be right behind you".

Robin snatched the keys from him, quickly giving Y/N a hug and dragging Nancy away.

Eddie shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at his dirty Reeboks. He cleared his throat before starting: "Um, so -".

"Did you feel it too?" She cut in. "I'm really confused right now, and I just need to make sure I'm not hallucinating or something".

"No sweetheart, you're not hallucinating".

She couldn't tell if her face was warm due to the humid weather or Eddie's pet name.

"Can I ask why you're confused?"

"I... The colors didn't blossom like they were supposed to, I think. They didn't fully come through like I thought they were meant to. I'm only seeing little bits and pieces of color in between normal grays and whites".

Eddie nodded, recognition flooding his face. "I had the same thing happen when I met my partner, Steve".

"Steve, like dingus Steve?"

"Yeah, like dingus Steve," Eddie laughed. "Both of us actually experienced that. We were both really confused, but with a little research we learned that in rare occasions, some people can have multiple soulmates".

Her eyes widened. It makes sense in theory, but it was all overwhelming. Just yesterday she was sure she'd never run into her soulmate and now there's a possibility that she has more than one?

"When we made eye contact, color flooded the rest of my vision. All the black and white disappeared. I have never felt more comfortable meeting someone, not since I met Steve. I don't know what this means for any of us, but I know that you must be my missing soulmate".

She slowly took a step back, Eddie following with a step forward and his hands up, as if approaching a wounded animal.

"I just, please take some time. It's a lot to process. If you have any questions or want to talk, here's my number," He pulled out his breakfast receipt with his number scratched on it. "Steve and I have a lot to talk about too".

She nodded, looking down at the piece of paper in his hand. She plucked it with a shaking hand.

"Just give me a couple days to think everything over. I promise I'll call soon, I just need some time," She turned to unlock her car door.

Eddie nodded and opened the door for her. "Drive safely, and give me a call, yeah?"

She nodded and carefully pulled out of the parking lot. Eddie crossed his hands and cradled the back of his head as he watched her drive away.

Fuck, this changes everything.

Taglist/people who showed interest in this fic: @munsonology @alexxavicry @marvelous-musicals

[pjo-tvs-version]

I've seen a lot of hate for the previews of wottg with people saying that rick has just written this book for money, and the characters aren't accurate.

That he's just gone on a crazy tangent and isn't doing anymore fan service.

Especially hate towards annabeth for wanting to throw a party and to grover.

What's your take?

Love this ask soo much!! Thank you anon because now I have a reason to rant on the thoughts in my head and I promise you I didn't think I would write this much...

Percy's mental condition as shown in the first chapter is pretty well displayed in my opinion. My boy is fed up, requires therapy, a break and blue food but he has to face WEEKEND CLASSES (I have them and I can tell you that they are the absolutely worst way to torture your sanity). I'll give Rick points for this though. The entire episode with Hecate was also written well and IT DID NOT FEEL LIKE FANSERVICE TO ME ATLEAST. Percy feels like himself at least from the preview I can say.

HOWEVER I have my own set of issues too. Now I will tell you that I am a kind of person who refrains from the negatives of any situation before seeing the whole story BUT sometimes I have opinions which I will express now. To start off, I do not like they way Rick just made Grover and his hooves not appear because of the mist concept. This was actually a deal in tlt and have it just discarded away in one line in the book put me off a little. I love continuity in books and small errors are like pricking needles for me.

Now we come to the most controversial moment of them all: CHAPTER 3!!! See I love Annabeth having friends (happier because it fulfills my Annabeth being a social butterfly head canon). I love Hana loathing Percy (she definitely has a crush on Annabeth, fight me). But I have an issue with the way Percy sees himself when he is in the midst of her friends. He makes himself inferior and an idiot when he absolutely isn't and I have an issue with that because it isn't good!

Annabeth proposing to have a party is slightly out of character in MY OPINION but okay I can accept it and see how Rick wants to proceed with this so neutral on that till now. HOWEVER I hope he makes Annabeth and Percy have a fight on this because Percy has to let out his problems and their relationship needs to have some angst from time to time (also in my opinion).

Overall, I am extremely excited and hoping to read the book as soon as it arrives (curse you Amazon). I believe that you can't hate the book on the basis of the preview but there are few... unsettling things which can be set right if handled well later in the book. I do think sometimes Rick does not effectively utilise the potential but I'll read the book nevertheless. It's the very reason I look forward to live through my exams. So yeah I have no strong opinions and would most probably drop in a detailed analysis after I actually read the book.

Thanks again for the ask anon! Loved answering it

[erithel]

Piggybacking off of your response to the previous ask, man can I just say what an utter clusterfuck the whole "gone" situation was follower-wise... i'm gonna make this about me so sorry about that, however i'm the kind of person that can't really articulate their thoughts, can't see through the layers as clearly as others and when people post a thoughtful analysis that reflects my feelings about the fic while the best thing I can come up with is something like "wow, fic good❤️" (which yeah I know is still fine but anyway) it makes me feel so much better because what is trapped in my head is articulated as I wanted to express it... that being said, seeing you explore ptsd and lance's grief like this stirred smth in me, I cried at times, so I was very excited to see people in your asks sharing their thoughts and all... And then they didn't seem to care so much about it (not all of them obvs) and at first it was like "hahah yeah.. we all want them to kiss xd lol" but then seeing you post about how people would essentially flood your asks for klance to KISS ALREADY™ plus with other general stuff... Idk if it was frustrating for me I can't even begin to imagine how it was for you, because this is like.. still a story, just in comic form, so yes it has an arc it need to complete. We could see the episode count from the beginning too if I remember correctly, so being so insistent about it was weird? Either way, it was a story and it was getting somewhere and spamming about when your ship will be canon is kind of annoying. So sorry this happened to you and so happy you pushed through! I binge it on the regular!

I feel like I could do a Ted Talk on the etiquette of commenting at this point, through my own experience, and also reading comments my friends have received on their work.

But essentially what it boils down to is two things:

Creators put a lot of work into their stories, and

They choose to write stories their way

The way that I write fan content (both fics and comics) is because these stories and these subjects are important to me. Some of them are very personal, too. And I know I am not the only creator who chooses to write this way.

Obviously the way I reacted to the "just kiss already" comments may have seemed like an overreaction from the outside (I thank you for being understanding in your ask btw).

But the message those constant comments were sending was a very clear one of:

All the thought/time/work you put into this story does not matter

Everyone who ever told you to "just get over it" was right

Grief can be a very physical and powerful thing.

Losing someone you love leaves you with this excess of love and affection that now has no where to go. You used to have a place to direct it, and when that place is suddenly gone, it takes a while to learn how to function again; to redistribute that love.

It's something that never goes away, it just gets manageable. And it's definitely not something you can "just get over."

I'm not saying I'm the greatest storyteller of all time, but I was tired of reading books and watching movies and shows where the characters never felt the aftermath of a loss. They all just moved onto the next episode or the next chapter like nothing ever happened.

And I do think it's important to tell stories like this in fanfiction. Because many readers are younger. Many readers rely on reading fanfiction because it's free. Many readers need hope and catharsis. And getting to read about their favorite characters go through terrible things but realistically come out on the other side is, to me, very important. Because the stories we read - no matter if they are free or published works - can stick with us for the rest of our lives.

This is why it was such a big deal for me. Because I was trying to tell a story that said "Please take your time to get over things. Please know that it's okay if you don't immediately snap back to the way things were. Please know that it's okay to feel whatever it is you are feeling." And getting comment after comment that said the exact opposite was honestly just crushing.

I would take a "wow, fic good" comment any day. Because it acknowledges what has been done, instead of demands things to speed up to suit someone else's needs.

And, on a slightly more petty note... it was a klance fan comic. It's not like they weren't going to kiss. They just weren't going to do it in the middle of an argument where it wouldn't have stuck!

(I do also think it's funny that there's a perfect comic example of a kiss happening too early, before communication which happened right around the same time as Gone. And for the record, she's gotten way more and way worse comments than I did, so that's something worth mentioning, too.)

The point is that some stories are very personal to the author and very important to certain members of the audience. Of course no single story will be for everyone, but just because it is not going a certain way does not mean it's okay to demand it be changed.

[felixsramen]

Y/n coming out of their room after a few hours and just cuddled up to skz on the couch is so canon since y/n is an introverted person and sometimes cant handle being with people but they feels bad for her bfs so they just come up with a book and cuddle up to them and read

Or y/n being already up since 5am becuase of trouble sleeping with a book in their hand and a coffee or tea sitting on the balcony and chan just coming up to them and sleep on y/n because he cant sleep comfortably in his bed rn

TELL ME THAT THIS IS TO 100% TRUE

It definitely is it's so canon that yn loves reading with Skz

You had been locked in your room for hours on end. You just needed a mental recharge from people. It took everything in you to even go out and do simple things of going out into public and getting groceries or even going to work because of dealing with people.

You weren't good at dealing with people at all and your boyfriends knew it better than anyone else. They knew that you weren't avoiding them. They knew that you just needed some me time. They knew that you weren't good at public interactions and couldn't use that against you instead letting you take your time.

You had been in your room for a couple hours now. Not ready to face your boyfriends or any conversations but you had begun to feel guilty. Guilty for not spending time with them when they rarely home in the first place.

Hyunjin had invited you in the living room to watch a movie with them which you denied but he had told you it was okay, to take your time and that'd they be out there if you needed them. Well currently you needed them. You needed to at least feel the warmth of your 8 boyfriends even if you weren't ready to talk just yet.

You grabbed the book you were currently reading and opened the door. You made your way down the dark hallway and to the living room. It was Jisung who had first noticed you smiling at you.

"Hi beautiful." Jisung says and that has the boys attention on you. You nod had your 8 boyfriends focused on you.

"Hi." You say back still not sure if they'd want you to come sit with them after you had denied the movie they were watching.

"Come to watch the movie with us?" Hyunjin says and you shake your head.

"That's okay." Hyunjin says as his eyes look at your hand that had the book in it now.

"Want to come read your book near us?" Minho asks and you nod.

"Come on then." Changbin says opening his arms for you. You walk your way in-between Felix and Jisung who sit on the ground and into Changbins arms.

"How are you feeling love?" Felix asks you as he looks at you as you adjust yourself on Changbins lap.

"I'm okay Lixie." You tell him and he smiles nodding at you.

He lays his head against Jisungs shoulder and you open your book.

"Here sweetheart." Chan says lifting your legs up across his laps. You can't help but smile as he smiles back showing off his dimples.

The movie seems to be long forgotten as they look at you. "Is the book good?" Seungmin asks you.

"Yeah. I really like it." You tell him as he lets you lay your head in his lap.

"You want me to get you some more books like that?" Minho asks you.

"If it's not too much trouble I'd like that a lot." You tell him and he smiles at you.

"It's never a problem." Minho tells you.

"I have some recommendations if you would want to read them." Seungmin says and you nod looking at him smiling.

"Okay I'll buy you them and then let me know if you like them." Seungmin says and that's when Jisung speaks up.

"I've never seen you read Minnie." Jisung says and that has Seungmin rolling his eyes with a smile and you can't help but laugh.

"Maybe because you don't pay attention enough." Seungmin says looking at his Quokka like boyfriend.

Jisung pouts. "Don't take it to heart love I'm just joking. It's because I'd rather read by myself." Seungmin says shrugging and that stops Jisung from pouting.

"So I could've had 2 adorable people laying on me and reading and I'm just finding this out." Changbin says pouting now. You and the boys can't help but laugh at the cute pout that sits on his face.

Seungmin shrugs smiling. "I can't believe I'm just finding this out now too. I've been with you guys for how long and I'm learning that Kim Seungmin, the guy who refuses to eat sweets after he brushes his teeth because he doesn't want to do it again, reads." I.N. says earning a slight blush from Seungmin.

"You didn't have to tell everyone." Seungmin mutters and I.N. just smiles.

"It's not like we didn't know." Chan says back smiling to him.

Seungmin mutters something else under his breath about Chan being more than halfway to 50 earning him a pinch and laugh from Chan.

"Stop being mean to the old man." Hyunjin says getting hit by Felix with a laugh.

You can't help but laugh at the jokes that's being targeted to Chan. "Why are you guys laughing? You guys are the ones in a relationship with me." Chan says laughing along.

"Good point." Jisung says leaning on Chans shoulder laughing.

"We're just joking love." Hyunjin says from beside Felix on the ground and reaching up kissing Chan.

"Y/N didn't come in here to hear us make fun of Chan. She came in here to read so lets just calm down so she can do that." Minho says smiling at you.

You smile at him too. You open your book as the boys eyes don't leave you as you start reading the book. The movie was now long forgotten and it was you who had their attention.

[simplydannie]

Fanfic on how Veneer Got his pet goldfish, and when the fish died??

:D❤️

Hi pookie! You got it! So Veneer had always wanted a pet. Since a kid he was fascinated by animals. In this particular story, he lives in Mount Rageous. Now if you come to think of it, it’s a very superficial and synthetic culture. Not a lot of nature going on. You’re lucky enough to have some sort of pet. Veneer has always wanted one, but has kind of an issue to where having one is hard:

Sparkles

“So having a dog or cat is not an option?” Vivian asked, the twins mother.

“Unfortunately, not. He has enough breathing problems already. The fur of the animal will only aggravate him more.”

She turned to her son. Veneer was sitting on the hospital bed playing tic-tac-toe with Velvet, a tube connected to his nose. He had another breathing attack. It was his sister that found him…lying on his bedroom floor, nearly blue. The doctor said if she was a minute too late, it would have been fatal.

“He….he gets lonely. Veneer can’t do much with the other kids at school. No one is patient enough to just sit with him, except his sister. He…” His mother began to break down in tears, “Doctor he doesn’t have any friends. As mother that just…that just hurts that he is over looked just because of his condition. While his sister can go to school some days, he stays home, he’s not invited to any parties, no one comes to his. What do I do?” She sobbed.

The doctor placed a hand on Vivians shoulder. She sighed and wrote on a piece of paper handing it to the twins mother, “They may not be a cat or a dog, but these types of pets should suffice for your son.” She smiled tenderly.

“Thank you.” She whispered to the doctor. Vivian composed herself before turning to her twins, “Alright guys! Time to go home.”

Veneer had to spend the next two days home from school…That Friday evening, Velvet had gotten an invitation to a birthday party from one of the girls in their class.

“Did she send one for me too?” Veneer asked sitting up on his bed, the tube still connected to his nose and hand, pushing fluids through his body.

“…No…No she didn’t. I asked her but…” Velvet looked away.

“But what?” He asked.

“She said you weren’t invited because she didn’t want you getting people sick.”

“Oh….” A moment of silence passed between the twins. Velvet looked at her brother, she saw the tears forming in his eyes. He tried fighting it, but he failed, one by one they fell down his cheek and on to his covers.

“Forget her. I’m not going to her stupid party anyway. She likes unicorns.” Velvet made a disgusted face.

“Vels…You like unicorns too.” He gave her a serious look.

“Yeah, but I like the cool unicorns.”

“There are no cool unicorns! Now dragons are cool!” Veneer exclaimed, a smile coming across his face. That’s what Velvet wanted to see. Did she want to go to the party? Yes, but not when it would hurt her brothers feelings. He NEVER got invited anywhere…and she hated it…..More silence.

“Vels, you need to go.” She looked at him quizzically, “You need to have friends. Don’t be alone because of me. Eventually I’ll make friends…for now I have you and mom, and dad! It’s okay Vels. Go…for me…please.” He pouted his lip and widened his eyes.

“No…no! Don’t do that!” But that made him pout his lip even more, “Ugggggh. Fine! But I’m definitely spitting into her cake before she eats it!”

That evening Veneer spent his day alone in his room. He read comic books, drew, watched TV, played video games. When his parents came up to see him, he was writing something…He was writing how he wanted a friend, it didn’t matter who or what, big or small, he just wanted a friend.

“What you writing about kiddo?” His father sat at the foot of his bed.

“Nothing!” Veneer held his journal near his chest, hiding it from the view of his father.

“Okay, okay. I get it. Big boy now has secrets.”

“I- no they’re not secrets.” Veneer looked away. His mother came in, holding something behind her back. Veneer grew curious, looking back and forth between his mother and father.

“Sweetie, now, you know why you can’t have a dog correct?” His mother asked him. Veneer nodded. “Well, the doctor said just because you can’t have a dog, doesn’t mean you can’t a little companion.” She brought forward what she was hiding behind her back. Encased in a pretty little bowl was a beautiful little goldfish…except, he wasn’t entirely gold. As he swam and hit the lights, his scales reflected red, gold, and yellow hues, shining and shimmering. He was beautiful.

“Whoa.” Veneer grasped the bowel gently in his hands, squishing his face on it. “Hi!” The small little fish took notice of Veneer and stared at him curiously, nearing him. “He’s so pretty!”

“He’s going to need a name.” His father stated. Veneer looked at the goldfish. He saw how his scales sparkled in the light…That’s it!

“Sparkles. I am going to call him Sparkles!”

“Welcome to the family Sparkles.”

Vivian saw a complete change in Veneer in the next couple of weeks. He seemed happier. He took his dedication to caring for Sparkles seriously. Veneer researched the best foods to give him to live a good life, he saved up his allowance money to buy the fish a bigger tank, toys, rocks he could hide in. His parents would walk in on him talking to the goldfish…what was beautiful, was that the fish recognized him, his voice. When Veneer was around, the tiny fish would swim out of hiding and swim around next to him. If Velvet or anyone else entered the room, Sparkles would go back into hiding.

The year went by, Veneer bought him a smaller bowel to take the fish with them to small outings or have him around during his birthday and holidays. Veneer would try to talk about his pet goldfish at school, but no one seemed to care. Lame, they would tell him.

“No he’s not! He’s really cool. He does tricks!” Veneer exclaimed.

“Fish are stupid, they can’t do tricks!” The kids would tell him.

He wanted to show them, he wanted to show them that goldfish were not stupid, that they were amazing. One day, he had planned to take Sparkles to show and tell. “We’ll show them Sparkles. They tend to over look little things like us just because we’re different.” He leaned his face close to the tank. Sparkles swam near Veneer in circles, booping his little face near Veneers. “Get ready for a show tomorrow buddy!”

The next morning Veneer woke early to get Sparkles ready in his travel bowel. He tapped the glass gently, “Sparkles. Come one out. I want to give you food before we leave.”…..Nothing. “Sparkles.” Veneer maneuvered around the tank to see if he could find the fish, but he couldn’t see him. Normally Sparkles would come out at the sound of his voice and that tapping of the glass. He kept looking and looking…

“Sparkles! There you are!” Veneer saw a tiny fin peeping out of the little rock he had gotten him. “Sparkles.” Veneer called out again…but he saw the fish wasn’t moving…he was just floating there. “Sparkles?” Again, no movement. “Mom! Dad!”

His parents came barging in fear that their son was hurt or having an episode, Velvet trailing close behind. Veneer was in tears standing by the tank.

“Something is wrong with Sparkles.” He cried. Their father moved close, he saw the small fish turned on its side..he was still, very still. “Daddy what’s wrong? Do we have to take him to the doctors?”

“No son…I…He…” He looked at his wife unsure how or what to say. Veneer glanced his at his mother.

“Mommy?”

She sighed. Walking up to her son, she knelt down to get at eye level with him, “Sweetie, I think Sparkles may have gone to heaven.”

“What?” Veneer walked over to the tank. He tapped it and called out the goldfishes name again. “But…but he was fine last night! He ate and was next to me the entire time! How..What happened? Was he sick like me?” Veneer gasped and began to cry uncontrollably, “Mommy did I give Sparkles my sickness! Mommy, Daddy is he dead because of me!” Veneer hugged the little bowel close to his chest, his forever empty little bowel.

“Oh, no, no, no! No that is not what happened.” She hugged Veneer tightly. “Sweetie, all our time here is limited, including goldfish. We don’t know how old he really was. What matters is that you made whatever time he had with you happy. You gave him a life worth remembering. That’s what you have to do now, remember the good times you had with him.”

Velvet couldn’t help but wipe some tears away. It hurt her to see her brother so distraught, especially after a stupid goldfish, but that little fish made him happier than he has ever been….

That day he didn’t go to school. He stayed home crying over Sparkles. Veneer gained enough strength to go outside and pick out a stone. He pained a small goldfish on it and wrote the name “Sparkles”. His father called in from to stay with him. He helped burry the small goldfish, placing the rock on top of the small burial sight.

“Want to go to the store tomorrow and buy another?” His father asked. Veneer shook his head. Yes, there was other goldfish, but there would never be another goldfish like Sparkles. Loosing something so small, Veneer didn’t realize it would hurt so much. After that he didn’t want another pet. This was a pain he didn’t want to feel ever again.

[cbrownjc]

Oh! You reblogged my reblog of your reblog and added 'wonderful addition' in your tags! Thank you so much! You're one of my very iwtv and dm blogs, so I'm very excited that you thought so. You always have such great meta (and made me feel unalone in the 'Daniel was dying of AIDS when Armand turned him; I don't care what Anne says' camp.. Overdose deaths... don't go that slowly and nobody who was overdosing could be that coherent. Even the most high-functioning addict couldn't have told such cohesive story re: the twins. Not even with their minds. If you have taken that much, you are either passed out or the words coming out your mouth are incoherent *or* your delusions are literally delusional and they tend to be really on a few things. Daniel would not have able to collect his like that. He just wouldn't have been. I didn't pick any of this up when I first read it because I was about 14 and didn't anything about anything. I have since grown-up and gained life experience I wish I did not have. I hope I don't sound like I'm being flippant about this. Or that I'm oversharing. Because I'm not trying to be. As I said, I take this from my own life experience as someone watching what this kind of drug use looks like and how it usually concludes. It's also just something that *really* stood out to me when I reread the Devil's Minion chapter very recently. I sat there and said holy shit, this is AIDS, right? I mean, it doesn't specify anything except Daniel destroying his body and I'm like, okay, well long-term drug use does destroy your body, but it's not all at once like this. This is a metaphor, especially with all the sexual encounters Daniel was having especially in that specific time period. Obviously, the first thing I did was hunt down posts on tumblr to confirm my suspicions only to find that, according to Anne, it was not meant to be a metaphor for AIDS. It was drugs? So, I sat there and went nope, not really how long-term drug use go, definitely not how overdoses on hard drugs go. Anne, I do not think you have been in the presence of a serious addict while they are scary high or even around one for any length of time if you think this is how it goes. I also thought that if it was supposed to be an overdose, then 500ish years-old or not, it should have still affected Armand. A longterm hard drug user like Daniel would have to have taken a lot of something very strong, particularly if we're talking about the drugs readily available to addicts in the 80s. This is one of those things in the books that I reject their canon and insert my own when I think about it. There are a bunch of outstanding arguments for why Daniel was dying of AIDS and then there's Anne's own words that she meant for it to drugs and I just feel like this is one of those occasions where death of the author must be applied. At least for it to make sense in *my* brain.

I am so sorry I just filled your inbox with a wall of text only very tangentially related to the original topic, which was to say 'thank you' and 'yay, one my favorite blogs said this was nice and now I feel less like all my commentary is unhinged nonsense! :D' But a wall text that no one asked for came out. I'm so sorry.

Hi!

First of all, don't worry about the wall of text, it's fine. It's nice getting message from people who just enjoy what I have to say and just want to say thank you! I will never have a problem with that. 🙂

I don't know if you've checked out my tag on the subject of AIDS on my blog, but I have some older posts there that discuss my thoughts when I first read Queen of the Damned and how Daniel was dying in that book. And, to be fair, Daniel wasn't really dying of drugs there, it was cirrhosis of the liver from drinking too much. Which I'm sure Anne chose it because she'd had a history of alcoholism and so could write from experience about it.

But yeah, it's still an addiction he was dying of. Which, by the time I read the book in 1995 was rather jarring that it actually wasn't AIDS, as I said in this post here. I can understand why it wasn't (given when Rice was originally writing that book), but it just can't help but be jarring now, when you read that book after the 1980s I feel.

Given that the showrunner and writers are playwrights, however, I think they well know they can't do Daniel's story in this day and age now without mentioning the AIDS crisis and tying his character into it in some way. It would just ring hollow not to, IMO. And I think they know that given that AIDS-related issues were some of the very first images we see in the first episode of the show, as well as the book we know in-universe he wrote about it.

Anyway, yes I really liked your post, and again, no apologies needed for the length or anything, really! The fact that you see me as a favorite blog to read is so nice to hear! 🤗

[crow-stars]

❝LET'S GO ICE SKATING❞

❦summary; ice skating can be such a fun time, though that may depend on whether you're new to the rink or have a bit of experience under your belt. ♪the characters in this story; heartslaybul; riddle rosehearts, trey clover, cater diamond, ace trappola, deuce spade, gn!reader ✎word count; ~1.2k words ❀what do the ghosts say?; ambiguous, school trip to an ice skating rink, falling chatacters, first times on ice, mentions of climates in respective twst characters homeland, fun times ☛the author's notes; nothing to note... ☪look at the catalogue?

❛RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS❜

❀ Riddle is so, so stumbly

❀ He’s trying to act all smooth, really he is! Even read a book on the proper techniques of ice skating. 

❀ Though, when the day of actually came, he was stumbling a bit. 

❀ There were many (emphasis on many) attempts from Trey, Cater, and many other classmates to help Riddle, yet he was so confident that he could do it himself, he was sure of it! He just needed a bit more—

❀ Oh dear, Riddle fell again. On his face, at that. You could probably hear Floyd’s laughter somewhere afar.

❀ Still, he’s going to keep trying

❀ I think that he would, at least, wear protective gear. He may be confident, but he’s not that confident in his ice skating skills. 

❀ It also helps when he, inevitably, falls again. 

❀ But you have to admire Riddle’s perseverance, getting back up with a huff time and time again. 

❀ (Please admire his perseverance and meager skills, he’d really appreciate it and would be trying much harder after that)

❀ Maybe, if it goes on long enough 

❀ I’m not sure if he’d do it again out of leisure. Depending on how many times he’s slipped and fallen. 

❀ Though I do think that he wouldn’t reject it if he got invited to ice skating again. 

❀ Just hold onto him, will you?

❛TREY CLOVER❜

❀ Okay, hear me out

❀ I think... Trey would actually know how to ice skate. 

❀ So, he has younger siblings, right? And the Queendom of Roses is like based off of England/London I think and in a northern hemisphere-ish area (basing this off of the map in Book 6 and Mimi rants ily), so the likelihood of things like lakes in the Queendom freezing over is high

❀ So, obviously, kids being kids, his younger siblings would want to go ice skating

❀ And, obviously, Trey needs to go make sure there aren’t any injuries or broken noses because nobody wants to be going to the hospital.

❀ So, obviously, Trey has to be there to make sure the younger ones won’t get hurt

❀ As such, he probably needed to learn how to ice skate so he can smoothly go over to his siblings to help. 

❀ So, on an ice skating trip, Trey would definitely be able to move around the ice smoothly. 

❀ He’s not one to show off, but, in my opinion, I think it’d be pretty damn impressive to a lot of people. 

❀ Like, Trey’s movements are smooth and steady. There’s no flair to it, like Rook’s though

❀ But just watching him is kind of nice to see. 

❀ I like to think he would be the type to like offer his arm if you need balance.

❀ Oh that’s actually kinda cute and attractive now that I think about it. Uuugh

❀ I don’t think Trey would ice skate outside of special occasions, (ie. going with his siblings or a school trip.)

❀ But yeah, Trey is actually pretty decent at ice skating.

❛CATER DIAMOND❜

❀ Oh Cater. Cater, Cater, Cater.

❀ He’s good, like, he can stay on the ice

❀ And you can bet he’s posting on Magicam about the trip and posting selfies and videos of him on the ice. 

❀ The second the camera is off, though, Cater is as wobbly as that one chair in class that every kid loved rocking back and forth on.

❀ He can stay on the ice, thankfully, and he’s stable enough that he won’t fall

❀ But... Cater’s legs just shake and tremble no matter what he does

❀ It’s not that he has bad balance. Cater’s spent a bit trying to figure out what the hell is actually going on with him. He brushes it off as performance anxiety or something like that 

❀ I’d like to think that his sisters probably did some skating/ice skating and brought him along for the ride. 

❀ And, as his sisters usually do, made him participate. 

❀ So that’s where Cater’s skill on the ice comes from

❀ If you needed his arm or anything like that, Cater would be happy to give it to you, and give you a few tips as well

❀ Though, he’d mostly be taking selfies with him and other students on the ice before promptly getting off off it to enjoy spicy hot chocolate or something 

❀ Ice skating isn’t an activity Cater would do for leisure, he’d rather be doing other things that isn’t shaking on the ice for five minutes straight

❀ I think he’d prefer to just watch and take pictures of what he sees

❛ACE TRAPPOLA❜

❀ Falls on his ass pt. 1 (+ pulls others with him)

❀ He has never been on ice in his life and never thought he would be

❀ Ace is flopping and falling, someone get this man a walker for the rink

❀ Except, he refuses to use any ice skate walkers or whatever they’re called (He called them granny walkers and said they looked dumb)

❀ Ace fully believes he has the ability to be able to do ice skating with zero skills beforehand 

❀ “It’s just roller skating on ice!” He said 

❀ He was wrong

❀ Ace fully believed he would be fine on the ice since he claimed that roller skating was easy

❀ He was wrong

❀ Ace was fully prepared for all this to go smoothly and didn’t get that expectation met. 

❀ Ace will do anything but use the tools offered to him. 

❀ Instead, he will cling to his other classmates and attempt to use them as support

❀ Though for half of them, he’ll end up pulling them down with him

❀ For example, Epel and Deuce. Jack actually has the stability to be kept upright and Sebek just doesn’t tolerate it whatsoever

❀ Please expect Ace (and others around him) to be covered in bruises by the next day 

❀ Ice skating is something I think Ace would want to try out, but more as a for fun thing

❀ Like, if he manages to go or gets invited, he’ll go, but won’t go by himself

❀ He needs people to use as balance

❛DEUCE SPADE❜

❀ Falls on his ass pt.2 (and feels sore for a good while)

❀ Deuce is a lot better with his balance, though he is a bit shaky on his feet

❀ He’s doing a lot better than his other dorm mates (see.  Trappola, Ace)

❀ I think that Deuce would get used to it after a while, though he will be falling a lot

❀ Help him please

❀ He’s stable, but he’s not exactly gracefully either

❀ But that’s okay, we love him anyway

❀ Deuce is definitely going to be hugging the walls when he enters, no doubt about it

❀ Slowly, yet surely, he’ll stray further and further from hugging the wall (or you) 

❀ And yes, he may be doing that weird pose where he has his legs apart and his hands sticking out but look at him! He’s trying! 

❀ Don’t be surprised if he falls again, he’ll be doing that a lot (Help Deuce up after he falls please)

❀ Also don’t be surprised if Ace is also there 

❀ You will watch both of them fall to the ground several times over 

❀ Please help both of them up

❀ Deuce will definitely be just doing small circles around the rink and nothing more elaborate (Unlike others)

❀ I think that Deuce will definitely want to come back again

❀ Like, sure, he was falling over his ass for like half the trip and sure, Ace was the reason for like half of those same falls, but Deuce had fun! 

❀ Go back with him again, you’ll have fun :)

[senashenta]

What Foxes Like

Title: What Foxes Like

Pairing: Sterek

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Summary: Stiles and Derek have been in a relationship for over a year and still none of their friends know about it. Because reasons.

Notes: Written for Poe, originally. This is actually the sequel to a fic I haven't finished yet. I fail. I tried to make sure it made sense anyway. Also, surprise Steve Rogers and Jaskier Pankratz cameos! (I just spoiled the surprise.) You can also read it HERE on AO3.

WHAT FOXES LIKE By Senashenta

“they take their shots, but we're bulletproof I know places (Hide) and you know for me, it's always you I know places (I) in the dead of night, your eyes so green I know places (Hide) and I know for you, it's always me I know places” - I Know Places by Taylor Swift

Derek had moved in with him several months ago and there were logistical problems right from day one. Not that Stiles didn’t love having him there, but the apartment was very small, probably too small to be hiding a wanted fugitive, and whenever he had people over Derek had to hide away in the bedroom for fear of being seen.

Their friends wouldn’t turn Derek in, of course, but they hadn’t been exactly… open. About their relationship, up until this point. They had been together for almost two years and still no one knew about it.

It wasn’t like Stiles to keep secrets, especially from Scott, and in general he was terrible at it anyway. But it was really hard to tell your best friend you were in a steady, loving relationship with the man of your dreams when he was still pining for the girl he had tragically lost a handful of years before.

Besides which, the fox in Stiles privately liked that he had something special to keep to himself, no matter how inconvenient it was in reality. It was the part of himself that urged him to squirrel things away for himself, to keep all the precious things in his life close and safe. He was still getting used to those instincts, even years after the Nogitsune had left him with a bit of fox behind (okay a lot of fox behind.)

But also… there was a little bit of fear there, raw and animalistic, at the thought of being discovered. Something that he couldn’t explain or really even understand, but which was there nonetheless, and it was stupid . God, even Jackson was out! But Stiles had never actually told anyone he was bisexual before (aside from Derek, obviously) and the thought just… yeah. Yikes.

On top of that, his last relationship had been with Lydia, and after that had ended (badly), he just kind of… guarded his heart. What he had with Derek was good and going public was a risk he just wasn’t sure he was ready to take.

“You’re doing that thing where you stare at the ceiling like it’s got all the answers of the universe again.”

“Huh?” Stiles blinked out of his thoughts and turned his head to look at Derek, who was seated cross-legged next to him on the bed, hunched over his laptop, illuminated by the screen, working on either his newest article or his book. 

For obvious reasons Derek couldn’t hold down a regular job, so he wrote articles for publication online and was working on a novel in his spare time, all under the pseudonym “Tyler Shaw”, since he couldn’t use his real name. It didn’t bring much money in, but between that and Stiles’ job at the bakery cafe they managed to scrape by. (The FBI Academy? Well that… just hadn’t been a “good fit”, as his Dad liked to say. Apparently it was frowned upon for trainees to be as… insubordinate as he tended to be. The upshot of going , though, even if just for two semesters, was that he had met some of the most interesting people, a few of which Stiles figured he would be friends with for life.)

“Still staring, but now at me. And we both know I don’t have all the answers of the universe.”

“I– sorry.” Stiles shook his head, “just thinking.”

Derek grinned. “That’s always trouble.”

Stiles shot him a look with a frown, “not always .” (But often, definitely often.) “I was just thinking ,” he continued, ignoring the amused look in Derek’s eyes, “that I might invite Steve and Jaskier to come visit sometime soon. Just for a few days… I mean, if they can sneak away from the Academy for that long.”

“Mmhm.” Derek rumbled, and set his computer aside to ease himself up against Stiles’ side, one hand coming to rest against the younger man’s sternum, just feeling the rise and fall of his breath. “And where are we going to put them? This place is barely big enough for the two of us, never mind four .”

“They can sleep on the couch, it pulls out!” Stiles groused, “and besides, Jaskier has no concept of personal space.” Though he supposed Steve did , in all fairness. “Look,” a touch frustrated, he frowned up at Derek where he was leaning over him, “I know your werewolf possessiveness would love for me to just stay here alone with you all the time, but I…”

Trailing off, Stiles lifted his left arm and turned it over to show the pair of concentric circles that were tattooed on his inner wrist. The symbol of Scott’s pack– of his pack.

“You need more than that.” Derek finished for him, a tiny smile tugging at his lips.

Stiles looked up at him and, after a moment, let his True Eyes shine through, bright, almost glowing green. Derek responded by allowing his own eyes to shine, beautiful, luminescent blue, and then leaning down to kiss him firmly, decisively. “Invite your friends. We’ll squeeze them in somehow. But if they rat me out to the FBI, you’re the one that’s going to have to clean up the mess, deal?”

Stiles grinned and dragged him back down for another kiss. “Deal.”

~*~*~

Markets weren’t really Stiles’… thing. Farmers’ markets, crafters’ markets, seasonal markets, whatever. He found them innately boring (even if they were a good place to procure seasonal fruits and vegetables.) But Derek loved them and it was the time of year when they were popping up everywhere so Stiles relented and went to a few, just to make his boyfriend happy. And it did – make Derek happy, that is. He wandered around the markets they went to with a little, content smile on his face that could only make Stiles smile, too, and… okay. Maybe markets weren’t so bad after all.

It was funny, how things had kind of slowly progressed to Happy Derek over the course of their relationship. When they had first gotten together, he had been his usual grumpy self, and that had continued on, with a few short glints of lightheartedness here-and-there, for the months that they had been dating while Stiles had still been living in the dorms at the FBI Academy.

Then, when Stiles had eventually called it a day and moved back to Beacon Hills, Derek seemed to brighten and brighten until they were living together and he was just… happy. He smiled. He laughed. He genuinely seemed to enjoy life, and while Stiles was all for Happy Derek it was also somewhat befuddling at times. He wanted to ask, but every time he was about to he chickened out because he wasn’t entirely sure what the answer would be.

Now, though, Derek was looking through an assortment of decorative candles– some of which Stiles was pretty sure were made to look like zombie unicorns – with that little, contented smile on his face, probably browsing for Christmas presents (if Derek got him a zombie unicorn candle for Christmas Stiles thought he might scream.) and Stiles just. Watched him. Probably with the same tiny, happy smile on his own face.

Derek was humming and hawing over a particular candle– this time a cat with three eyes– and Stiles finally reached to catch his free hand, tangling their fingers together and tugging gently. “Hey.”

“Hm?” Derek blinked back to the present to look at him, and Stiles smiled, a real smile, and just leaned up to kiss him gently. Derek made a pleased little noise because Stiles was staunchly against PDA as a general rule, then tilted his head to kiss back with a hum.

Which was when Stiles felt eyes on him.

His hackles up, he pulled away quickly to look around the room–

–only to spot Scott and his mother two aisles down and one over. And Scott was staring at them hard , eyes wide while his Mom was completely oblivious to the entire exchange. Stiles’ eyes darted away, then back, then away again before he grabbed the candle Derek was holding and slammed it back on the table, and followed that up by tightening his grip on the older man’s hand and dragging him out of the vendor’s hall in all but a flat-out run.

“Wha– Stiles! ”

He didn’t even know if the startled voice calling his name came from Derek or Scott.

That was why Stiles didn’t do PDA.

~*~*~

“Did you at least apologize?” Steve seemed sympathetic, a few days later when he and Jaskier were crammed into Stiles’ and Derek’s tiny apartment, seated on the couch while Stiles lamented his story. Jaskier had no sympathy, instead grinning and giggling to himself because– well, because that was how Jaskier was, he supposed.

“He did.” Derek called from the kitchen where he had been working on dinner and incidentally eavesdropping, “apologize, that is. And we made up.”

Stiles had to grin at that. “ Vigorously .”

Jaskier snickered and Steve rolled his eyes and shoved at Stiles’ shoulder. Then he hesitated before asking, “okay, but not like, here , right, on the pull-out?”

“Who are you kidding, Stevie?” Jaskier laughed, “they’ve fucked on every surface of this apartment and you know it.”

Stiles just shrugged.

“Ew.” Steve commented, before adding, “and don’t call me that, Jask.”

“Ah, right, I almost forgot that dearest Agent Barnes is the only one permitted to call you that.” A grin, and Jaskier continued with, “how sad is it that all three of us have a passionate thing for older men?” Then, with a tiny pout; “and how tragic that you two have managed to snag yours, while I appear destined to pine away forever~?”

That got a quick look between Stiles and Steve because, to them , at least, it was incredibly obvious that Agent Rivia was interested. Jaskier just wasn’t seeing the signs, and neither of them knew how to tell him beyond literally smacking him up the back of the head. At this point it was kind of an unspoken thing between Stiles and Steve that they would keep their noses out of things and let Jaskier and Rivia work it out for themselves. (After all, everything had worked out for them , right?)

From the kitchen, Derek cleared his throat and interjected, “you could always start sending him random, weird gifts from the Internet in the mail.”

Jaskier and Steve both rolled their eyes, but Stiles grinned. “Worked for me!”

“I still have that shirt, too.”

“I know, you wore it last time I was mad at you.”

“Worked like a charm.”

Stiles found himself smiling fondly over toward the kitchen until Steve swatted his arm to catch his attention again. “Anyway,” The blond sighed, “what are you going to do about the whole…” Trailing off for a second, he gestured vaguely between Stiles and Derek before finishing, “I mean, you can’t keep it a secret forever… right?”

Stiles bristled for the briefest second. Then he sighed and looked down, picking absently at his jeans as he tried to come up with an answer that would satisfy his friends and not upset Derek at the same time.

“I’ve been thinking about that.”

Brown eyes lifted from the worn jean almost sheepishly. “Hm?”

Derek came out into the living room, wiping his hands on a towel as he did, to stand and look down at Stiles, expression worried and contemplative. “I’ve figured out by now that you’re not comfortable with other people knowing we’re together.” A pause, then; “except these assholes, for some reason?” He chuckled along when everyone else laughed. “But it’s been over a year since I moved in here with you, and we were dating– sort of– for months before that, too.”

Stiles wasn’t a hundred percent sure he liked where this was going, but he just nodded along anyway.

A sigh and Derek gave Steve and Jaskier an apologetic smile. “Could you guys give us some privacy for a couple minutes?”

Steve and Jaskier exchanged a glance– and then Jaskier popped to his feet and hauled Steve up with him. “No problem, we can go for a walk!” Dragging Steve over to the door, he added over his shoulder, “but we’ll be like, fifteen minutes, max, so we’d better not walk back in on anything gross!”

Steve squawked and barely managed to call out “We’ll knock!” before the door shut behind them.

And without them there, Stiles felt trapped. They were about to have a conversation that he had been avoiding for the better part of two years and he wasn’t sure he was particularly prepared for it now.

Luckily, Derek made it short and painful. He sat down next to Stiles and leaned to kiss by the younger man’s jaw gently. “The werewolf in me might want to keep you in my own pack,” he informed, and damn him for using Stiles’ own words against him; “but I also want to be able to show you off. You’re my mate, for all intents and purposes, and I want people to know that. I’m proud of it.”

Stiles stared at him, flabbergasted. When he finally found his words it was to blurt out “but I’m a fox !”

Derek snorted. “I’d noticed. But I knew that before we ever got together and it didn’t stop me. Also I scent mark you constantly ,” to make his point he leaned in to rub his jaw along Stiles’ with a rumble, “did you never wonder why I did that?”

“‘Cause you’re a weirdo.” Stiles grumbled petulantly. And then; “I didn’t say stop.”

Another little snort. Derek nibbled along his jaw and then buried his face in the crook of Stiles’ neck. “I’m possessive and I want people to know you’re mine. And Scott and the others, they won’t mind , you know that…”

“Do I know that? I’ve always been so into girls, like intensely into girls , at least as far as everyone else is concerned.” Stiles brought one hand up to card his fingers through Derek’s hair and the wolf practically purred at his touch, “not even Scott knows I’m bi.” Then, after a beat, “until a few days ago. I guess.”

Not that he thought Scott would run around telling everyone what he saw but it still made nerves squirm in his stomach at the thought.

“I think we should stop hiding.” Derek’s voice was muffled against Stiles’ shirt, “you know Lydia’s Christmas Party that we’re all invited to? I think we should go together, as a couple.”

Stiles stomach straight-up flipped upside down, but… Derek had a point. It would be nice to be out of hiding. And telling all of their friends at the same time would be convenient, at least. The party was a good idea.

“I guess… okay.” Stiles allowed after a moment’s thought, still playing with Derek’s hair, “but if it goes bad, it’s on you.”

He could feel Derek smile against the crook of his neck. “If it goes bad I’ll wear that shirt for you again.”

Stiles laughed . “Okay, deal.”

~*~*~

“Faith and Renfri are pissed they didn’t get to come.” Jaskier laughed without looking up from his phone as he texted back and forth between the two women in question. He was standing by the front door with his backpack slung over one arm, waiting for Steve to finish throwing his stuff in his own back so they could catch the next bus to Quantico.

“They can come next time.” Stiles bargained, “we can have a girls’ weekend.”

Jaskier feigned offense, “without me? ”

“Without~ you~!” Stiles singsonged, even as he was giving Steve one last hug goodbye and ushering them both out the door.

“Good luck!” Steve called over his shoulder.

Stiles smiled and waved. Yeah he was going to need it.

~*~*~

The night of the party Stiles honestly thought he was going to hyperventilate until he passed out and Derek had to calm him down on two separate occasions, once wrapping him up in a tight hug and the other staring into his eyes until the blue soaked right through him and eased him back to normal.

Eventually he did manage to get dressed and out the door, though the walk to Lydia’s place just amped his nerves up again until, by the time they arrived, he was nervous and twitchy– so basically his normal self. Derek took his hand, threaded their fingers together tightly, and tugged him along inside. 

When Lydia answered the door her eyes darted between the two of them, then down to their clasped hands– and then she just smiled widely and ushered them inside where–

–oh shit that was literally everyone, wasn’t it.

The party kind of ground to a halt for a second as everyone turned to look at them and Stiles began to panic, until Derek released his hand and slid an arm around him instead, his hand coming to rest on Stiles’ hip as they stood in the doorway and Stiles tried not to make eye contact with anyone. He resisted the urge to huddle into Derek’s side and looked around until he found– there. Scott. Scott smiling . Oh thank God. Okay.

And then from somewhere in the back of the room, Jackson’s voice called out “I FUCKIN’ CALLED IT! ”

“JACKSON!” Lydia protested loudly, “YOU DON’T GET TO TALK!”

And just like that, the tension melted away from Stiles and he did lean into Derek, just a little, before looking up at him with a smile. “Let’s go in.”

Derek leaned down to kiss him. “Yeah,” he agreed, “let’s go in.”