#yeah the tension is a bit wonky but that's what I get working with a rayon yarn

[yarning-with-em]

never posted any progress photos of this blanket I'm making for friend but here we are

111 rows down, 39 to go

[rarityroo]

Obviously Jax is bad at feelings; even worse with apologizing. He and his girl have their first big fight and she just gives him the cold shoulder to the point he’s frustrated. He’d definitely say something “Come on, doll face, I said I was sorry! What else do you want from me, woman?!”

Fumbling apologies

(Jax x Fem!reader)

Hi! Im sorry this took a bit, I sadly have strep and feel like I ate a cheese grater lmao. This isn’t proof read so please forgive me if this is wonky, I honestly really like writing for Jax so I’m very happy I got this request! If you like this please lmk, Enjoy!

You didn't mind Jax's crude nature, more often than not you found it funny. Sure his jokes and such were mean but he had a certain air about him you found so enjoyable. Until this moment at least...

"I just don't get what the big deal is!" Jax says in a dismissive tone. Your eyes flashed with frustration, was he serious? "It's not just about saying sorry, Jax. It's about meaning it! You can't just toss around apologies like they're nothing. I need to feel like you actually understand why I'm upset." Jax crosses his arms, a stubborn glint in his eyes. “Come on, doll face, I said I was sorry! What else do you want from me, woman?!” Jax said exasperated, he just wanted this to be over.

You shook your head, unbelieving. "I want you to acknowledge why I'm upset! I want you to understand how your actions hurt me." You were so sick of his insensitive jokes, or dismissive attitude whenever you try to talk about how you feel. He was so mean sometimes, but you still loved him.

Jax's frustration finally boils over, and he snaps, "Well, maybe if you weren't so damn sensitive, we wouldn't be in this mess!" "

Your eyes widen, hurt flashing across your face before it hardens into resolve. "Y'know what, fine. Jax, if that's how you feel, maybe we need some time apart." You started to regret those words, you didn't want him to go, you didn't want space but you were so exhausted from the constant back and forth. This has gone too far.

For a moment, silence hangs heavily between them, tension crackling in the air. Then, Jax's expression softens, regret seeping into his features. He knows he messed up. He knows he needs to make things right.

"I... I didn't mean that," he says quietly, his voice tinged with remorse. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't-." Jax was struggling to find the words, he doesn't like apologizing, he thinks it's a waste of his time and that it's below him although he knows he's wrong for what he said. You look at him, maybe he finally says a decent apology instead of brushing it off, maybe it was different this time.

You meet his gaze, your expression softening slightly. "Do you really mean that?"

Jax nods earnestly. "Yeah, I do." He said his eyes earnest, he looked embarrassed. "I know I'm not great at this stuff, but I want to try. I care about you alright? I don't want you to be all sad because of some dumb thing I said, I care about you or whatever." He finalized with a huff. You internally softly smile at that.

You take a deep breath, calming yourself, "I care about you too, Jax. But we need to communicate better. I don't want this to happen again."

He reaches out, gently taking your hand in his. "I promise I'll work on it. Starting with this." And then, with a tenderness he didn't know he possessed, Jax leans in and presses his lips to yours in a sweet, apologetic kiss. In that moment, the tension melts away, replaced by a warmth that spreads through you both. You may not be perfect, but you were willing to try, together.

[lycanlupins]

┌─ “ „ EYES LIKE SKY ─┐

Roy Harper x F!Reader - Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Cam Girl Au! [+18]

Same warnings apply as Chapter 1 ♥️ ALSO!! This chapter is LONGGGGGG

Your blaring alarm had been going off for the better part of 5 minutes now and you couldn’t be bothered to wake up enough to turn it off. Fuuuuuck. It was so early, too early in fact, and you didn’t want to get up to start your mundane little morning tasks. But you had to, especially because this morning you were expecting your hot neighbor to pick you up. So you begrudgingly make your way to the bathroom, going through the motions of your normal routine.

You make sure to finish off your morning shower with an extra layer of perfume, the kind that you reserved for special occasions and the like. It wasn’t overpowering in the slightest, just a simple perfume that would turn heads if they were lucky enough to get close.

Knock, knock, knock. Shit. He was here just a tad too early.

“In a minute! I’m getting my shoes on!” You call from your room, struggling to tie your sneakers. You rush to the door, slightly disheveled but putting on a smile nonetheless. Opening the door you give him a quick once over. Jesus he’s huge.

“You ready to go?” He smiled, and by god it was infectious. He had the most gorgeous dimples you weren’t able to see the night before. You were floored, how was anyone allowed to look so effortlessly hot. And in gray sweatpants no less.

“Hello? You there?” He waved his hand in front of your face to try and get your attention.

“Sorry, I guess I’m not awake just yet.” You sheepishly reply.

“Yeah I can tell, let's go get you that coffee.” He moved from in front of the door to give you room, your mind barely processing how to move your legs forward. You locked the door to your apartment and took a deep breath, hoping the coffee would take your mind off of things.

In the time that you locked your door and turned around, you caught him staring at your hands. Embarrassingly, you hadn’t done your nails in a few weeks and they looked sort of wonky, chips on the polish and gems missing from the design.

“Oh god, I’m sorry, they look awful right now. I have an appointment to get them done, don’t look.” You quickly hide your hands away in shame.

“No you’re totally good I just…they look so familiar. I’ve seen that design recently somewhere and I can’t put my finger on it.” He shrugged after a few moments of deep thought and started to lead the way outside and toward the coffee shop.

Your face instantly lit up at the sight of the shop, you had been there so many times before, you even had a favorite barista. But alas, he wasn’t working that day, something about a family emergency. Oh well, you could still enjoy coffee with the hot man at your side.

“Shit, I gotta take this call. Can you order for me, I just want a black coffee.” He looked desperate to take the call so you obliged, a bit sad but you weren’t on a real date so it didn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter, but it still did in your mind.

You ordered and waited by the pickup area, watching him as he excitedly answered the call. He even turned on facetime but you couldn’t catch a glimpse of who he was talking to, again not that it mattered…but it did. Once the call ended, you could tell he was a little sad when he walked back into the shop.

“You okay?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, I’m fine!” He completely ignored what occured on the phone, grabbing his coffee once it was placed in front of him.

“Wanna get a seat?” He asked. You simply nodded, pushing his phone call to the back of your mind. The rest of the “date” went without a hitch, some light flirting here and there but nothing too serious.

You could sense tension on the way back home, what kind you weren’t sure, but you fully intended to find out if it was the kind you could get behind.

“It's still kind of early, don’t you think? Do you maybe want to come inside and hang out?” You unlocked your door, standing under the door frame.

“Uh…” he looked down at his phone, texts from someone undecipherable to you rolled in at a steady pace.

“Sure, I’ve got some time.” Something didn’t sit right but still, you pushed through. A bad feeling wasn’t going to get in the way of you getting what could be the best dick of your life.

The second you closed the door you rushed to your bedroom, forgetting the state of disarray you had left it in from last night.

“Give me a few minutes!” You slam the door, assuming he’d find something to keep him busy while you cleaned. And find something he did, he got to work fixing a few stray wires hanging from your TV.

Once you were done changing the sheets and packing your cam setup away in a bin, you headed back out to the living room where he had somehow managed to fix the TV connection.

“I’m not even going to ask how, but thank you. The repair guy was supposed to have come by weeks ago to fix the issue.” You plop down on the large sofa next to him.

“Consider me your new repairman.” He chuckled, handing you the remote and placing both arms behind his head. Oh Jesus Mary and Joseph his arms were massive.

You were practically drooling at the sight, they were perfectly flexed and distracting you from your task at hand. Not that it mattered anyways, you were just putting on a movie.

“Eyes on the screen doll.” He shook his head and smiled, not once did he take his eyes off the TV. How the hell did he notice you staring? You couldn’t think straight so you put the first thing that came to mind; a horror movie. Nothing in particular, something that just popped up on your suggested tab.

“Horror huh? I didn’t pin you as the type.”

“It’s the first thing I could think of honestly.” You scooted a bit closer to him, trying to gauge his comfort.

“I know what you’re doing, just come here.” He relaxed his posture, giving you room to curl up by his side. His smell was intoxicating, something akin to fresh rain and cold air was the best you could describe it. It comforted you deeply, enough to lull you into taking a quick nap.

When you came to, the movie was still playing and he was also fast asleep. Fuck he’s cute when he sleeps. You thought, his brows scrunched just slightly made him look like he was pouting in his sleep.

But, you didn’t stay for long, you had to get up and change into something more comfortable. You grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a large tee out of the clean clothes basket by the hallway closet. You figured since he was still sleeping you could quickly get back in and snuggle once you were done.

As you bent over to pull your pants back up, you heard a shift and a groan behind you. Shit. You froze immediately, what else were you supposed to do when you were half naked?

“Ain’t that a sight to wake up to.” He chuckled. You could feel your face heat up, trying to pull your pants up as quickly as possible.

“There's no use, I already saw everything. But, I’ll cover my eyes, scout's honor.” He immediately covered his eyes, giving you time to finish changing. But now you had a choice, two little beings on your shoulder telling you what to do. Take the safe route and finish changing, or…who were you kidding, you knew what you were going to do.

You quickly ripped off your top and immediately straddled him, taking his hand and placing it around your neck.

You watched him for any sort of reaction, a smirk playing on his lips. You could feel him getting hard under you and that only served to make you emit a light moan.

“Shit, you look good enough to eat.” He let his other hand ghost against your skin, grabbing and pulling at the mismatched lingerie you had underneath.

“Do you want to spend the night?” You could see his gears turning, his hand stopping at your ass.

“Fuck it, why not.” He picked you up with one arm, your legs immediately straddling around his waist. He only got a few steps before he needed to pin you against the wall. He was desperate, you could tell from the way his cock was throbbing through his sweats.

“I wanna be a gentleman, fuck you on your bed like a proper man should, but I can’t even think straight. I just want to be buried inside you like it's a necessity.” He growled in your ear, his whole weight pinning you against the wall, your breathing in sync with his. Both of you were taking big heaving breaths as if you had run a marathon.

He used one free hand to quickly undo your bra, sliding it off with ease. The sight of your exposed breasts was enough to send him over the edge. He slipped your underwear to the side and pressed a finger against your slick cunt. Your brain was going haywire, not one coherent thought forming.

“In…put it in please.” You could barely form sentences but it was enough to give him consent to touch you the way he wanted to. He slipped a thick finger inside and immediately you saw white. How the hell does his finger feel that good, not even your vibrator could do that.

“You still there princess?” He tried to bring you back to consciousness. When he started to pull his finger away you whined, giving him the okay that you were still there mentally.

“Had me scared for a second there. Thought I hurt you.” He chuckled, teasing a second finger. You wanted it, you wanted it bad, but he wouldn’t give it to you. He pulled away, bringing his fingers to his mouth and licking them clean, only to kiss you right after.

Fuck fuck fuck. Why was that so intimate? That was the single most hot and intimate thing you’ve ever experienced. But you couldn’t focus on that anymore, not when he was pushing his boxers down and exposing his cock.

“That’s not gonna fit inside me. There’s no way.” You said plainly. It's not that it was insanely huge or anything but you were used to 6 inches, that’s the size of your dildo anyways. He was somewhere far beyond the usual thickness of the plastic you were used to and you were afraid nothing would ever compare.

“We’ll make it fit, won’t we?” He lined himself up at your entrance, his head sliding in with ease, slowly pushing farther and farther until he was fully pressed against you.

“Oh my god.” That’s all you could say, your mouth wouldn’t allow for anything else. You could feel your walls stretching and squeezing around him, forming to his size. You fit together like perfect puzzle pieces and you both knew it. After sitting in silence for a few brief moments he started to move, slowly at first.

“Shit doll…you’re sucking me in.” He could barely pull out, not that he wanted to anyways, he was feeling pure bliss. Your plush walls felt like heaven to him and he never wanted to leave.

“Don’t…Don’t leave please. Stay.”

“I’m not going anywhere, I’m gonna stay right here.” He replied, his thrusts slightly speeding up. He wanted to fuck you relentlessly, it took all of his strength not to put you down on the floor and fuck you like an animal. But he resisted, he knew he wouldn’t last if he gave in.

Your hands found their way into his hair, pulling every time he managed to hit that lovely little spot that sent what felt like electricity through your body. The sounds in your apartment would put porn to shame, the skin slapping, his moans mixed with yours, it's surprising no one came knocking to tell you to shut up.

You felt his hips stutter for just a second, you knew what that meant. He was getting sloppy, he needed his release and you were damn sure you could feel yours brewing.

“I’m on the pill, you’re safe.” You reassured him. That only served to make him chase his release more, thrusting into you relentlessly. With every thrust you felt that coil within your lower stomach grow tighter and tighter until—

“Oh fuck! Roy!”

You felt your whole body tighten, his cock buried all the way inside you as his warm, thick cum coated your walls. It slowly dripped from you as he pulled out, leaving you empty.

“Let me uh…clean you up? Where do you keep your towels?”

“In my room, there’s a basket by my bed, just grab one from there.” You slowly slumped down against the wall, catching your breath as he ventured to find a towel.

Wait. Your cam stuff was under the towel by your bed. Shit shit shit. You quickly hop up to your, wobbly, feet and run into the room only to find him staring at the stuff beneath.

“You didn’t tell me you were into some kinky shit.” He said. Oh thank god he’s dumb.

“Ha, yeah. It’s just fantasies of mine really, nothing that would come into fruition.” You quickly pushed the basket under your bed and tried to clean yourself up the best you could.

“Shit.” He looked down at his phone, and sighed.

“Raincheck on the sleepover, I have to head home.” He kissed the side of your head and cleaned himself off before getting dressed.

“We should really get coffee again some time.” He said, just before heading out the door. You smiled, albeit a sad smile. You watched him leave as you changed back into your sweats and tee. Something in you wanted to watch his window, see what he was up to after what just happened. Complete and utter silence. No movement. Until moments after he got back home he bolted to the door, figures appearing as shadows in his window. A woman.

“Oh.” Was all you could muster before turning away from the sight. Surely he hadn’t played you right? You tried to put it out of your head, it was mid-day after all, there was no point in sulking for hours on end. You gathered yourself, turned on another movie and logged on to your cam chat. A new user appeared, someone you had never seen before.

[bigred]: hi there, i usually lurk around your shows but i decided to stop by and see if you were coming online today.

[seraphicsiren]: i'm not too sure i will, sorry.

bigred bought a private show.

Shit.

[chacusha]

Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal

I'm late but I finally watched this. Some thoughts:

My partner after watching the first episode: "Like, it's not just me -- nothing the characters were saying made any sense??" Me: "Yep, that's just how the game is. 😎"

The opening is a bit meh but I love the ending credits (both the music and the visuals).

Aww they missed the opportunity to have Inspector Boyd demand that "Sandra" take that hat off. In general, Boyd seems quite a bit toned down/more serious in this anime.

My partner in the second episode: *pauses it and points to Rubens in his first appearance* "Okay, but that is a SUPER Jumi-ass-looking guy..."

My partner responding to Shiloh doing nothing to intervene in Sandra and Rubens' conversation: "I don't get it. She's a petite lady with a tiny knife and he's got abs made of concrete."

My partner: "Inspector Boyd's right to wear that hat is revoked because he was so surprised the guy named 'Basket Fish' turned out to be the basket fish guy they met earlier."

Me and my partner: "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I ship Sapphor and a literal basket fish??? 😭"

Me whenever my partner complains about how useless Pearl is: "She is. ☺️"

My partner: "Elazul is kinda a little bitch." Me: "He is. ☺️"

I like seeing Esmeralda and co. wandering around the world together. The anime really cut/downplayed the whole "Elazul/the protagonist is Esmeralda's knight!" aspect of the game, which I don't mind because I never really liked it.

More thoughts about the finale/ending because this got long:

Grudgingly, I accept the "pick Elazul" version of the end of the Jumi arc (but I think the "pick Blackpearl" path is canon/makes more sense in a lot of ways).

I'm not sure how I feel about the Shiloh/Seraphina plotline. As a player of the game, it feels kind of selfcestuous but then is not played that way at all in the anime itself. IDK, it just feels like a weird choice!

I like the extra backstory for Sapphor, being the leader of the Guardians in the Bejeweled City. I wonder if he's gotten any new fic from it? Hm... doesn't look like it, on AO3 at least. Sad. 😭

I'm not sure if the Jumi arc climax really works without the space whale fight. The reason is that I thought it was important that the protagonist (and Elazul or Blackpearl) make the opposite choice of Sandra and choose to ruin the ability of the Lord of Jewels to form a teardrop crystal in order to get back the cores of their former comrades. Like, I thought they essentially punched all the Jumi cores out of him, but then of course this makes no one happy because the Jumi are near-extinct. Hence why the protagonist weeps for them.

My partner: "Yeah, I didn't get what was up with the Lord of Jewels. Like, was he just a scam artist? 'Oh no, just one more core... Seriously this time!'" Me: "I don't think that was the intended read of him in the game, but I see where you're getting that..."

(Seriously, why did they change it from exactly 1000 cores to just approximately that?)

The Sword of Fate(?) gets a little more narrative significance here... but not much. I always wondered what is the point of having it in the story at all. I guess no one knows. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My partner: "Omg, Sandra walked away from Omelas!"

Okay yeah, the ending here is a bit wonky. I think at least the director's cut did the ending better (I think it's important that you have the scene of the Jumi on-screen coming together in order to try to form a teardrop crystal to heal Shiloh and co. in order for the ending scene to have tension. And then the fakeout "bad news" delivery). But there were still the issues of (1) no space whale, and (2) the weird Shiloh/Seraphina scene -- I think this subplot muddies up the point of the Jumi arc, which is about the distrustful relationship between Jumi and non-Jumi. Having Shiloh be already mortally injured when he turns to stone diminishes the sacrifice he makes by shedding tears for/feeling sorry for the Jumi. Making Shiloh and Seraphina both sad at Seraphina's betrayal and wishing they had more time together also introduces a source of emotional sadness that, again, isn't about the Jumi. Both of these things super undermine the emotional weight of the Jumi arc, which is ultimately about being willing to open your heart to the troubles of outsiders, even if this exposes you to harm. The way they handled incorporating two protagonists into the anime was overall interesting throughout the rest of the episodes, but here is where it really fell apart.

Anyway, overall, I enjoyed it. The Jumi arc is my favorite plotline in Legend of Mana and I think it translated pretty well to a self-contained anime series like this.

By the way, would anyone like some LOM anime icons? I would like to make some, now that we have like a treasure trove of high-quality anime screencaps. Let me know!

[elrhinochtone]

Clan Clock : Toreador

Notice the title change :/

Yeah, turns out I can only summon limited energy for things I'm not going to use in a game soon. Oh, well. I guess I'll just leave it at two until motivation strikes back.

Characters : Two local Toreadors ('Abby' and 'Breta'), two local human surgeons, a nonlocal Tzimisce ('Carl'). Note : the clock gets wonky if you have a Tzimisce just... on hand.

Plot : Two Toreadors enter into a one-upmanship contest of fashion and sexiness. They do that by mutilating themselves into smaller waistlines or apparent abs, and then just... not healing that damage. Obvious TWs are obvious, but you know. Trigger warning for self-harm and body image issues.

1' : Scandal ! Breta finally managed to upstage Abby during the latest Kindred social event - and by a lot, at that. Abby is presumably seething, and Breta incredibly smug.

Advance when the next Kindred social event happens.

2' : Abby and Breta keep one-upping each other. They do so through crude surgery - Abby does it first, but Breta follows suit. They have each ghouled a surgeon in order to "work on" their body before every social event, and only heal the damage afterward. To be perfectly clear : they are cutting bits out of themselves in order to better fit into their designer pants, or sculpt themselves a perfect ass.

Anyone who spends some time in their company will notice the changes with a D3 roll - they are discreet, but vampire bodies just don't change normally. It stands out. Any local Toreador elder knows exactly what's happening : they have seen this before. They treat it like a rerun of a good but not beloved movie.

If the coterie has nothing to do with either Abby or Breta, consider using the surgeons as an 'in' instead - they're keeping strange hours, are restless and moody... human friends and family are getting worried.

Advance this plot when they have had this little back-and-forth a couple of times.

4' : If the PCs have any rapport with either Abby or Breta, they are hired by them to go find a Tzimisce : it's time for a more permanent solution. For something daring. If the PCs come into contact with one of them by investigating the surgeons, then they are asked to do so in exchange for freeing them from the blood bond. If the PCs are in contact with both Toreadors, then they are hired by both.

Advance this clock when either Carl is found by the coterie, or some weeks have passed (they have been found without their help).

6' : Carl has the bright idea to launch a bidding war between the two clients - they have heard of their kind being used for these purposes, and are confident they can deliver, but are looking to have some fun in the meantime. Tensions between Abby and Breta escalate further.

Advance this clock when this information has reached your players.

8' : If the PCs have any rapport with either Abby or Breta, they are hired to go take photos of the other being cut up before the next social occasion (both of them realized quickly that the other was doing the same thing). If the PCs have rapport with both, they are hired by both. If they weren't contacted for the photos, or refused, or whatever : roll a dice for both Breta and Abby. On a 6+, that one obtained photos of the other (if the PCs warn one, then getting the photos becomes impossible and you'll only make one/no roll).

Advance this clock when the next social event happens.

10' : Abby and Breta enter in open conflict over Carl. Unless the PCs have contrived to make this impossible, it starts with the circulation of the photos (of both sets if both have been collected). No physical violence is yet involved - they use blackmail and scandal. Both may hire the PCs once again to dig up dirt on the other.

If the coterie isn't involved, just seed rumors of scandal and blackmail.

Advance this clock whenever you feel either Abby or Breta has been pushed to their breaking point, or whenever you need something distracting to happen if the PCs aren't involved.

12' : One of the two Toreadors flips out and attacks the other during the next public gathering. If nothing is done to prevent it, they will be executed the following night. Carl will fulfill their end of the bargain and leave having had a jolly good time. Whichever Toreador survived probably still ends up with a ruined reputation. The greater Kindred community moves on, bored once again.

A note I should have provided earlier : any clocks I post here are something to be used alongside your "main" plot or whatever. These are meant to provide some dynamism to the local scene, make sure that things are happening whether the PCs get involved or not (obviously you want them to get involved, but you also want to intersperse things that would've happened with or without them in your world to give it life).

[thefreakymunson]

Would i maybe be able to request an eddie x reader where the reader is newish in town, moved into trailer park and needed a new weed dealer so robin sent her to eddie. After meeting a few times they realize they have a lot in common and there's obvious sexual and romantic tension. So when the reader gets locked out of her trailer in the pouring rain she ends up at eddies and spicyness or fluffyness ensues?

Your combat boots trudged through the mud as you walked to the only other trailer you know - Eddie Munson's. Thankfully, his van was out front and there was a light on in the back room. He was home. He was your escape to get out of this hellish downpour that came out of nowhere.

You rushed up to the porch and knocked rapidly, your body shivering in the cold rain. It took a few moments before the door swung open and there stood the freak himself, looking at you as if you had a second head.

"What are you doing, Y/N? It's pouring." Eddie said, pushing the screen door open for you.

"I forgot my key," you said, voice quivering as you stepped inside of the warm trailer, "And my moms not home...I didn't know where else to go. I'm sorry to barge in like this. We - me and my mom got into a argument and I left in a hurry earlier. I didn't think to grab my keys. I just - I -"

"Hey," Eddie shook his head, "It's okay. You're fine. Follow me."

You done as he said, following him just past the kitchen to the little bathroom situated just past the refrigerator. He pushed the door open for you and nodded, "There's towels in there. I'll get you something to wear, okay?"

"Yeah," you nodded, giving him a small smile, "Thanks, Eddie."

"No prob," Eddie said, fingers drumming against the side of the wall for a moment before he pushed himself back and walked off.

You pulled your soaking wet shift off over your head, forgetting for a moment to shut the door. All you had on your mind was standing in the warm shower. You were working on pushing your jeans down your legs when you heard Eddie's footsteps get closer.

"Hey, I found - Jesus," Eddie stood dumbfounded at the bathroom door, his eyes glued to your near naked body in shock, "Shit. I'm sorry. I should'nt have barged in."

"It's okay," you said, cheeks burning red as you covered your chest with your hands, "It's my fault. I should've shut the door."

"Uh..." Eddie said, finally able to move his eyes to somewhere else other than your body, "I uh...found a shirt and a pair of sweatpants that might fit you."

"Thanks, Eddie." You said, nodding to his shower, "Is it okay if i take a quick one?"

"Yeah. Go ahead." Eddie nodded, still refusing to look at you, "But uh...the nobs are a bit wonky. Let me turn them on for you."

He past you, ever so lightly brushing against you in the tight space. You pushed your wet jeans off and draped them over the sink as he turned the water onto a decent warmth for you.

You took a moment to study him, watching as his hair fell in his face as he fiddled with the nobs. You had been buying your weed from him for the last six months - as long as you had lived here, at least. You always thought he was cute. He stood out with his long, wild hair and his grungy clothes. He was everything you wanted in your life.

"Hey Eddie?" You bit your bottom lip.

"Yeah?" He mumbled, standing up straight.

"You want to get a shower with me?"

He looked back at you over his shoulder, "What?"

"You heard me," you said softly, "I seen the way you were looking at me...do you want to get a shower with me?"

"Y-yeah," Eddie nodded, too stunned to say anything else. He watched as you dropped your hands that had been shielding him from fully seeing your naked body and stepped into the shower.

Within no time, he was naked and stepping in behind you. You leaned back under the hot spray of water, the heat stinging your skin in the most welcomed way. He watched you with ravenous eyes, taking the sight of your naked body in.

You took his hand in yours and pulled him closer, leaning up on your tip toes to kiss him. You were slightly surprised when he kissed back, but he seemed to be as eager as you were. His hands rested on your hips as you pressed yourself against him, the feeling of his hard warm body against yours causing a soft moan to escape your lips.

"I uh...I just need to feel something, Eddie." You whispered against his lips, "The fight we had...it was huge. And I'm not feeling the greatest right now...I need out of my head."

He nuzzled his nose against yours and whispered softly, "I can do that."

Your fingers wrapped around the back of his neck as you kissed him, pulling him down against you. He turned you so your back was against the tiled wall, the coolness of it stinging your once warm skin.

You gripped his cock, feeling him get hard in your hand as you stroked him. His lips trailed from your mouth down to the side of your neck, attacking it with nips and bites to mask his groans and gasps.

He gripped your right thigh and pulled it up around his hips as he slid inside of you, both of you gasping at the sensation. His fingers gripped the back of your thigh for leverage as he slid entirely inside, pausing a moment for you to relax.

All the stress of the day melted away and you were overcome with pleasure. For the first time in awhile, you felt whole, warm, and...full? It was an odd feeling you had only ever associated with being near Eddie. He radiated warmth and happiness despite how everyone else often viewed him.

"You okay?" He asked softly, nuzzling his nose against yours again.

"Yeah," you nodded, giving him a soft smile, "Make me feel good, Eds...please. I need you."

He pressed his lips against yours as he thrust into you, swallowing your moans and graons.

"Fuck, Eddie..." you panted, nails digging into his shoulders as he ground himself against you, creating a delicious friction against your clit.

He pressed his lips against your forehead as he nearly fucked you through the shower wall, his thrusts coming hard and fast. Just what you needed. All you could do was hold on tightly to his shoulders and take what he gave.

His fingers quickly found your clit, metal rings clinking together as he rubbed quick, short circles over your engorged nub. The metaphorical band in your stomach tightened further with each thrust he gave and snapped when you heard him moan your name lowly in your ear.

You came with a loud moan, unashamed of anyone hearing you. Your legs trembled as you tightened your grip on him in every way.

"Turn around," Eddie mumbled, pulling out of you for a moment.

You weakly done as he said, brain still buzzing from your orgasm. He spread your legs wider with his knee as your hands came up to rest on the tile wall. He stood behind you and entered you swiftly, your loud moans only letting him know to keep going.

One hand rested on your hip as the other came up to clamp around your mouth. He knew how thin these trailer walls were. The last thing he wanted was the entire trailer park to know his true business.

"Look at you," he panted in your ear, "Soaking wet and begging for me, aren't you?"

"Mmhmm," you said, voice muffled by his large palm. You could taste the metallic twang of his rings against your lips.

"God you're so fuckin tight," he mumbled, jaw slightly slacked as he pressed his nose into the side of your face, "So fuckin' wet for me, Y/N. Good girl...good fuckin' girl."

His words and actions was enough to make you nearly cum again. The way he was moaning in your ear was enough to let you know that he was close too. Your free hand dipped between your legs, rubbing your clit quickly as his thrusts got sloppier and harder.

The two of you came together, a grunting and sweaty mess. He tightened his grip on your mouth as he came, trying to keep from being loud himself.

"Fuck," he panted softly after a few moments. He pulled out of you with a content sigh and playfully slapped your ass.

"We just did," you smirked back at him, earning another spank.

You two finished your shower, taking long enough that your fingers started pruning. He helped you wash your back and you finally got to wash his hair, much to his dismay.

"You know," Eddie said as he followed you into his bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, "I know it's a bummer that you lost your keys or whatever...but damn...you can lose them a lot more if this is the outcome."

[cayofdreams]

Down with the Monocracy

(Bratty!Fem!Reader x Bakugou)

Summary: Reader has had a FWB relationship with Bakugou for the past 4 months due to her monstrous sex drive. This relationship however, comes to a brisk end when reader seems to get a boyfriend. Frustrated at your now weird behavior towards him, he decides to get to the bottom of it...in his own way. 

Words: 7.5k

Rating: 🌊 Explicit, Smut

Warnings: cursing, bratty/stuck-up reader, implied cheating, heavy orgasm denial, fingering, dirty talking, spanking, degrading, slight breeding

Notes: Hello! This is the first fanfiction I’ve wrote in close to ten years. Its much longer than I intended for a first fanfic but I was desperate to get this out of my brain. I’ll probably chill out and do drabbles for a bit lol. Feel free to give me feedback as I’ve become more-so used to writing research and analysis papers, I wouldn’t be surprised if my fanfic writing is a bit wonky. Anyways, enjoy :-).

*H/N – Hero Name

 Harsh pants filled Bakugou’s dorm as the both of you tried to stay quiet.  Kirishima, Kaminari, and Sero were in the next room playing video games. You could occasionally hear them shouting at one another, a signal that one of them had lost or died in the game. Uraraka, Tsuyu, and Yaoyorozu were in the commons watching some sort of K-drama. You’d hear one of them let out surprised gasp or a giggle in reaction to whatever romantic scene transpired on the screen.

But these outside noises would leave your mind just as quickly as they’d come in due to the pleasure that was currently surging through your body. You were seated in Bakugou’s lap, faced towards his desk, grinding away at his cock trying to chase that pleasure to the maximum. Your hands clutching at the notebooks and flailed papers on his desk. A reminder that once again you guys could not study together for 10 minutes without needing to exhaust the filling sexual tension. Bakugou’s hands were grabbing at your hips, his grasp getting tighter as he got closer and closer to his climax.

“Oi…hurry up and cum..I have somewhere I need to-“ You couldn’t finish your sentence as Bakugou suddenly thrusted upward into you. Immediately you clasped your hands against your mouth to stifle your moans. He smirked at your weak attempt of rushing him.

“Surely…you’re not rushing me.” He lifted you up by your hips so that only the tip of his cock was inside you, before slamming you back down. “When your insatiable pussy is the one who started this.”

You didn’t know if he was talking about your lewd relationship in general, or just today’s scandalous activities. You assumed the latter. Waiting until you could stifle you moan enough to make a sentence, you responded. “…wasn’t me. You kept-“. He slammed into you again. You paused as you held back a groan that so desperately wanted to escape from your throat before continuing. “Kept…feeling up my t-thighs.” You flattened your palms tighter against your mouth as Bakugou increased his pace.

“Hah? So a little graze against your thighs…” He began as he traced his fingernails up and down your thighs. “Gets you like this?” A chuckle escaping him as he watched you struggle to keep your voice down as his cock continued to roughly glide in and out of your trembling walls. You didn’t respond. If you opened your mouth now, there’s no doubt that your classmates would hear the voice that represented the erotic things Bakugou was doing to you in his dorm.

“If your highness wishes me to cum, you better fucking start putting in better work than what you’re doing right now.” Bakugou slapped your thigh as if he were slapping a horse to get them to go faster. You winced as you gripped at the edge of Bakugou’s desk to better stabilize yourself. As soon as you started riding him at a more fierce pace his hands slip up to cup your breasts under your bra. He pinched at your nipples, making you let out a lewd noise that had you worrying if your neighboring classmates heard it.

Bakugou noticed you shoot a glance toward his door, listening to see if you’d been found out, and sucked at his teeth. “You worried about those dumbasses hearing you?” He got up, still inside you, and pressed his hand on your back so that you’d be face down on the desk and ass up in the air. Jutting his hip toward yours, you grunted behind gritted teeth as he leaned over so his lips traced just over your ear. “Hearing what I’m doing to your pussy?” His fingers massaging into your scalp before gripping tightly into your hair. “Fuck those extras. Let them hear.” Moving the hand that was on your back toward yours that were still tightly pressed against your mouth. He pried them away from your face, bringing your arm back so that he could use it as a reign when he began to fuck you. He straightened back up to steady himself firmly on the ground.

“Wait- Baku-! Hnngh!” Bakugou started to rhythmically jam the entirety of his cock inside you. Laughing at you as you struggled to not add on to the lewd noises your sopping mess was making.

“Fuck! L/N!” A hard slap came down on your ass cheek. The pleasurable pain causing your slippery walls to quiver against Bakugou’s cock. Your free hand roaming around the surface of the desk, now crumbling up homework papers under your fingers. “You like this? You like almost being found out by those shitty extras? Fucking pervert. Why don’t you just scream like you want to? I know you’re about to fucking cum.”

Your lips curling in under your teeth, grunts becoming louder and louder as your orgasm approached. The growls of the man behind you adding on to your auditory pleasures, drowning out the yells and cheers of your neighboring classmates. But it was getting harder and harder to hold your voice back, and Bakugou seemed to not give any care as his thrusts got deeper and more forceful.

“Fucking scream, L/N. I want to hear it. Imagine those dumbasses’ faces when you walk out there. Knowing what lewd shit you were doing with me.” He let go of your arm and reached around to wildly circle your clit. “And you portray yourself as some kind of princess. Fucking bullshit.”

You couldn’t hold back anymore. Even as your hand quickly went back to cover your mouth, it wouldn’t be able to hold back the suppressed groan you’d soon let out. “I said fucking-“ Before he could let out his demand the loud exclaims from the adjacent room poured into Bakugou’s. Another loss. Or win. Who gives a shit? All you knew is that those yells allowed you the opportunity to loudly moan Bakugou’s name to your heart’s desire as you finally reached your orgasm.

Bakugou would’ve called you out on cheating if the quivers of your orgasming walls wasn’t forcing him into his own intense wave of pleasure. “Oh shit…L/N…gonna cum. Fuck-“. He let out a couple more rough thrusts before spilling his seed inside the condom. You felt his cock pulsating, a weirdly pleasurable feeling as you were winding down from your own orgasm. Bakugou slipped out of you and slumped back in the chair and you soon followed, falling back into his lap.

Seeing that you were exhausted, he lifted up your leg so that he could reach down and slip off the used condom. Tying it in a single knot at the end and tossing it into the trash nearby. He let his hands softly feel up your thighs and squish your stomach, comforting you as you regained your breaths.

“You imbecile. We could’ve been found out, for real.” You said, pinching his thigh, too tired to hit him.

“Shut up. It doesn’t fucking matter.”

“It WILL matter if there’s ever a headline of us. ‘Upcoming pro-heroes, Ground Zero and H/N CAUGHT fornicating in the dormitories.’ You waved your hands in the air, mimicking a hysterical news reporter.

He chuckled into your back. “You fucking wish you could be in an obscene headline with me”. You sucked your teeth at him.

“Whatever.”

“Are you still going somewhere”

“Are you sane? Like I can move right after that.” You turned to look at him. “Make me some ramen. And don’t add a deadly amount of spice to it, either.” You got up and grabbed some tissues and started to wipe away the seeping wetness off your crotch and thighs.

“Like I’m making you shit! Make it yourself!” Bakugou got up and repositioned his shorts around his waist. Before he could grumble anymore, you placed a kiss on his cheek causing him to turn a deep shade of pink.

“You shouldn’t rebel. It just takes away from energy that’s better spent making that ramen.”

“Honestly, just shut up!” He turned away towards the door but you could still see the pink on the back of his ears.

You chuckled at the slam of the door, your smile widening as you heard him fumbling around in the kitchen.

But the time Bakugou returned with two hot bowls of ramen, you were knocked out asleep.

“…Fucking stuck-up vixen”

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

You sat in the karaoke room with Mina, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Jirou, making you the 5th wheel. But only temporarily, as your friends had supposedly invited a cute guy from a rival hero school to be your date for the evening. You loved being courted by attractive guys, you were a queen after all, so naturally you didn’t turn down the blind date. Though you must admit, since starting your friends-or rather, rivals-with-benefits relationship with Bakugou, you didn’t go out with guys much. You didn’t really see much of a need since your sexual appetite was being satisfied. Bonus points in that since it was no-strings-attached you didn’t have to frolic in romance, leaving you time and energy to concentrate on your hero studies.

“Are you excited, Y/N!? He texted me saying he’s on his way!” Mina was definitely more excited than you were, but you were waiting in anticipation none-the-less. Apparently Kaminari knew the guy, which worried you a bit since Kaminari was a dunce when it came to most things. But after Mina and Jirou reassured you the guy was definitely your type, you became more okay with date.

“Yeah, I suppose. Tardiness deducts points, though.” You playfully declared as the door to the karaoke room slowly opened.

“Aww…don’t be so strict with me, L/N. I’ll cry before I even properly meet you.” You heard a young man say as he entered the room. As soon as you looked at his face, you felt heat rise to your own. He was nothing less than exquisite. You’d never seen hair so soft-looking and flowy, skin so smooth and obviously baby-soft. A piercing pair of eyes that you were scared, or maybe hoped, could see straight through your clothing, into your soul.

“It’s okay if you cry. I like seeing cute boys cry.” You smiled with an obviously feigned innocence as you picked up your drink and sipped from it. He smiled seductively as he sat down right next to you, not leaving any space between your bodies.

“Seijirou!” Kaminari exclaimed, reaching over to fist pump your date. “Glad you could make it, dude!”

“Kaminari, long time no see. We need to have another jam session before we graduate.” The boy named Seijirou cooly stated, returning the fist bump. “Of course with L/N now joining us in the studio” He returned his gaze toward you. “I’m sure her alluring beauty and energy will inspire me with some great melodies”.

God, his coy smile could lead you straight into hell. How hadn’t you met him yet? You almost wanted to curse Kaminari for not introducing this stunningly attractive man to you before.

“Kyaa!! What a natural romantic!!” Mina shouted slapping her hand excitedly on Kirishima’s thigh. “Right, Eiji?!”

“Haha, yeah, babe.” Kirishima replied, taking Mina’s hand in his own to keep her from bruising his thigh.

Jirou reached over to grab the tablet that connected to the karaoke room’s TV screen. “Okay, guys lets get down to jamming.”

“Yeah!” Kaminari wrapped his arm around Jirou, pulling her into his chest as she picked the first song.

“I sure hope your voice is to the same standards as your face, Seiji.” You seductively challenged, looking him right in the eyes.

“I hope so too, I need to earn those points back.” Seijirou replied, his finger tracing slowly on your hand. You chuckled, holding his hand in yours now.

Jackpot, baby

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

After a long and tiring session of belching out everything from cute idol songs, to screaming death metal, it was time to head back home. Everyone was laughing and joking with each other as you all walked back. Everyone was also hand-in-hand with their respective partners, including you and Seijirou’s. In fact your hands had never left each other’s grasps since they first joined at the beginning of the karaoke session. You and Seijirou walked a few steps behind everyone, wanting to mimic any kind of privacy in order to soak in each other’s presence. Kirishima looked behind and noticed this, squeezing Mina’s hand to alert her as well. She grinned ear to ear at the lovely display of romance unfolding.

“Hey, F/N! Are you going home or….will you be continuing your date in private?” Mina winked at you, not at all trying to be discreet about her intentions.

“Oh. I guess I didn’t even think about it”. A total lie. You’d been strategizing how you’d cleverly get into bed with Seijirou since you first heard his pretty voice sing.  You wanted to know how he’d moan. How he’d make you moan. If he’d be better than Bakugou.

Woah, how did he cross your mind? You hadn’t even thought about him all night until the potential for good sex crossed your path. But thoughts of him dissipated with the sultry voice of Seijirou.

“I surely don’t mind the extra company. I’ve been dying to share my tea recipe with a worthy guest.” He squeezed your hand. “It’s a special recipe. Made especially for when my throat is sore from an awesome jam session..or when…” He looked directly at you. “When anyone’s throat is sore from using it…extensively.”

Your panties were drenched at this point. Not that they weren’t a bit damp the entire evening. You needed this mysteriously seductive man’s cock inside you. Now.

“Sounds like some delectable tea.” You bit your lip. Seijirou chuckled at you.

“Shame I didn’t bring my car, I’d hate to make you walk all the way back to my place”.

He has a car, too?!

You could throw your panties at him this very moment.

“I don’t mind walking with you, Seijirou.” You smiled up at him, squeezing his hand back.

Catching the mood, the group separated from the two of you, but not without the cheers of Mina encouraging you.

Of course, the two of you didn’t make it to his place. It’d take too long. You needed each other now. So you opted for the love hotel that was only a couple blocks away. As soon as you and Seijirou stepped into the erotically designed room, you jumped on him. He caught you, and you wrapped your leg around his waist. You drowned in each other’s kisses, wanting desperately to become one with each other. You for one, could not wait to see how Seijirou could maneuver his away around your body like he did with your mind.

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

Tapping your pen away on the notebook in front of you, you struggled to digest the information in the textbook. Not even knowing what to highlight anymore, words became more jumbled and muddled as you tried to continue reading. You couldn’t concentrate at all.

Sighing in annoyance, you got up from the common room’s table and went to make something hot to drink in the kitchen. Everyone was most likely asleep by now, but since you couldn’t seem to do so you decided to force yourself into exhaustion with some late-night studying. But unfortunately, despite feeling wide awake, it didn’t seem to help you focus any better in regards to studying. You were never a “studier” anyways.

As you waited for the hot water to boil, you scrolled through phone trying to find an entertaining distraction, settling for the digital magazine of your favorite fashion designer. You didn’t even notice Bakugou stroll into the kitchen

“Oi.”

So startled you almost dropped your phone, you turned around to see the owner of that voice.

“Fucking, hell, Bakugou. You scared the shit out of me.” Clutching at your chest, you tried to ease down the erratic beating of your heart. He always found a way to get an expletive out of you. Bakugou slightly pushed you against the counter to  get a better view of your backside.

“Nah, you’re good” Smirking, he went to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water as you rolled your eyes at him. “What are you even doing up anyways? Taking some dumbass selfies?”

“Well, if you’re so interested in the affairs of L/N F/N, I’ll have you know that I was actually studying, like the non­-dumbass that I am”.

“Sounds like something a dumbass would say.” Taking a swig from the water bottle, Bakugou took a glance at your side profile, also noticing how revealing your pajamas were. Your pajama shorts were barely covering your plump ass, and the flesh of your thighs slightly spilled over the tightness of your thigh high socks. What the hell were you doing walking around the common area like that? Surely you were waiting for him.

He took a last sip of his water and pinched at your upper thigh.

“Gyah! Bakugou, what the hell?” Your annoyed face being 110% worth the cute noise he was able to force out of you.

“Why are you studying out here? You know you could’ve asked me for help.”. His fingertips still lingering over your thigh, faintly tracing over your skin. You sucked your teeth and lightly pushed his hand away.

“No, I couldn’t’ have.” Your phone buzzed at seemingly the right time; before temptation would get the best of you. You smiled at the recent text message you received, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Bakugou.

Raising an eyebrow, he watched you with suspicion before he made another attempt. This time, he made a squeeze at the squish of your waist. “Oh yeah? And why is that?” You grabbed at his wrist in protest but it only made him dig his fingertips deeper into your flesh. “I know you have needs, Y/N. You haven’t met up with me in the past few days, either.”

The fluster showing on your face didn’t help your denying, but you still tried to step away from him; a fail. He completely closed the distance between you and leaned down toward your ear.

“…Baku-“

“It must be so hard to contain it right now. Those slutty impulses of yours.” He grinned at the way you bit your lip trying to fight off the urges his voice was erupting in you. He knew his effect on you. “So how about you just accept the favor I’m so greatly offering to you and drop those soaked panties and bend over the counter so I can ram this cock into you like-

“I’m seeing someone!” You exclaimed, possible a bit too loud. Bakugou glanced at you as if trying to see if you were really telling the truth or not. You met his gaze with a stern expression. “I’m seeing someone.”

Slowly Bakugou let go of his grasp on you and stepped back. “You fuckin’ serious?”

Slowly nodding your head yes, you straightened back up to continue fixing your drink.

“What fucking psychopath would want to date you? Are you sure he’s real?”.

“I know this may come as a shock to you.” A sly grin appeared on your face. “That I could humble myself enough to share my precious time and energy with someone-“

“Oh, just shut up, already.” Bakugou sat his water bottle down on the counter, looking at it as if thinking deeply about something. There was a momentary silence before you broke it.

“Are you mad?”

Bakugou scoffed at you. “And just what exactly is there for me to be mad about?”

“Well this commences the end of our relationship. You’re no longer a concubine. Perhaps you’re wondering what more to life there is? Oh, maybe depressed is the word I was looking for.” You put your hand to your chin, feigning concern.

“As much as I’d love to shut you up right now with a cock down your throat, I’m quite happy this is over.” He moved to put his water bottle in the refrigerator. “I can finally put my stamina towards training instead of wasting it on that monstrous sex drive you have.”

“And with that, the counsel dismisses you.” You smugly took a sip from your drink.

“Oh, shut up. I’m going back to bed before I commit regicide.” Bakugou put his water bottle back in the fridge and walked past you towards the hallway. “Good luck on your ‘studying’, your highness”.

When Bakugou was long out of your sight, you heaved out a long sigh.

“…Fuck.”

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

A couple weeks had went by and honestly Bakugou was beyond frustrated. He didn’t really think you had it in you to avoid his presence for so long. You usually couldn’t go 2 days without coming at him with some kind of ‘You agreed to be my concubine…so fucking perform!’ bullshit. With his pride, he’d pummel someone like you into the dirt. But immediately after saying something like that you’d palm against his growing hardness before lowering your head to his crotch. And you’d  adorn the most lustful gaze. A gaze that told him that he was the only one who could satisfy you.

‘You’re supposed to be pleasing me, but I guess queens have duties too…’

Honestly you were such a fucking brat. Acting all high and mighty and then becoming a filthy wench only moments after having a cock shoved up you. But he lived for it. The challenge of getting you to finally submit to him during sex would drive him crazy. That blissful face of pleasure. Those lips that would call out for him to go faster.

Maybe he’d be willing to let you go if you weren’t being so goddamn strange around him now. Not only were you being more distant around him, whenever he so much as brushed up against you your face rose with obvious arousal. Your lips would slightly part as if you’re about to let out a moan- but then you’d scold him for being so close to you.

‘Can’t you back up? I can barely hear my own thoughts with your vulgar presence around me’

That sort of thing would happen multiple times and especially during training sessions with him. Whenever you were opponents and Bakugou had successfully won and had you pinned to the ground, you looked as if you were on the verge of orgasming. And then as soon as Aizawa blew the whistle to end the round, you’d quickly run away with an annoyed look.

One time he had approached you, asking what the fuck your deal was, but you quickly dismissed him.

‘Maybe I’m just so pleased with my boyfriend that I literally can’t go a minute without thinking of him. I can’t help that you’ve never made a girl feel that way.’

Bullshit.

Were you teasing him? Did you even have a boyfriend? If you did, why did you have a face that seemed as if you hadn’t been fucked properly in years? If this boyfriend of yours was so bad at sex, wouldn’t you have dumped him? Before the start of this rivals-with-benefits agreement you’d told him of the time you kicked a guy out in the middle of fucking because he had “no idea how to fuck his royals”.  

He’d really think your boyfriend was fake if it wasn’t for the fact that one time while sitting beside you, he saw you receive a message from someone with a heart by the name. And then you’d smile to yourself before pocketing your phone.

Fuck. Maybe this guy really was that good.

No.

Impossible.

No one could please you the way he did. He knew it. It was an irrefutable fact. He’d get down to the bottom of this. He’d make you realize who you really belonged to.

Bakugou grumbled at the unfinished homework on his desk. He couldn’t concentrate due to your stupid antics. He pulled out his phone to send you a text.

“What are you doing?”

Five minutes had gone by and he was already starting to regret his act of impulsivity. You usually took a while to respond but for some reason this time it was really irking him. He got lost in senses of regret before he heard his phone vibrate.

“Getting ready for my date.”

He scoffed at your reply.

“Oh, with that fake boyfriend of yours, huh?”

A couple minutes went by before Bakugou received another reply. This time it was an image. Opening it, It was a selfie of you in what he assumed was your date outfit. You always dressed exquisitely outside your school uniform and he’d be lying if he said he didn’t appreciate your sense of style. But right now, that appreciation was manifesting into lust.

Fuck, you didn’t have that big of breasts but why were they looking so plump, now? The dress you were wearing teased your collarbones and Bakugou might as well had been drooling at this point. Not replying after a couple minutes, stunned by your posh appearance, his phone vibrated again.

“I don’t get dressed up like this for any commoner. Now why are you disturbing me?”

He wanted to reply with a “Fuck you. Nothing, dumbass”, but he held back.

“I want my fucking manga back.”

A silly demand, he knew. But it was the only thing he could think of to get you back within his grips. Hopefully you weren’t too suspicious as it had been a few weeks since you borrowed his manga to read.

“Ugh…I suppose I can take time out of my meaningful getting-ready time to drop off your little comic. I’ll be there in 20.”

A smirk shaped the lips of Bakugou’s before he brisked his way to the shower in preparation for his plans.

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

Bakugou had finished putting on his clothes and was now tidying up his room in waiting for a knock at the door. But you were always so rude so instead he was alerted by the sudden swinging open of his door. Before he could yell at you he became entranced by your appearance.

The dress you were wearing hugged you in all the right places and came to a seductive stop slightly below the round of your ass. The plush of your thighs were teased as the start of the top of your opaque socks once again molded erotically around your flesh. It seemed you also had a bit of makeup on as your e/c popped out beautifully from your dark eyeliner.

But you were also entranced by his appearance. You could tell he just took a shower because the smell of his soap traced provocatively under your nose. He wasn’t even wearing anything special, a black long-sleeve top that perfectly fitted his biceps, and a pair of black shorts. But fuck, it was driving you crazy right now.

“Your comic.” You coldly tried to hand it to him, trying to not appear as aroused as you felt.

“Can’t you fucking put it back on the shelf. That’s where you got it from, isn’t it?”

You clicked your tongue at him. “Troublesome.” As you walked past Bakugou to get to the little bookcase above his desk, he watched you. The stride of your hips as you walked had him licking his lips behind you. As you put the manga back on the shelf, he walked up to you so there was no distance between the two of you. Before you could protest his proximity he interrupted you.

“Put it in the right order.”

“What?” You looked back at him confused and irritated. Why was he getting so close to you? Why did his voice sound so intoxicating?

“I have my manga in order. If you pay attention, you’ll see there’s a number on the cover. I believe they teach little princesses how to count, don’t they?” Bakugou once again took notice of your look of arousal spreading across your face. You sucked at your teeth as you hurriedly turned your face away from him. Even after you put the manga in his preferred place, he hadn’t moved away from you. You were starting to get antsy.

“What are you trying to-“

“Where are you going?” His red eyes were fixed on your face, more specifically your lips.

“I told you, a date.” Your fingernails scratched slightly against the wood of his desk. You were overwhelmed with frustration. With desire. But you couldn’t give in.

“Yeah, but where?”

“A restaurant.” Still avoiding his intense glare, it was becoming clear to you that Bakugou had plans as well. And that those plans would involve you.

“Oh. Must be fancy. Considering you look pretty good right now.”

“Hah! I don’t need you to tell me something so obvious. Only someone with my caliber of beauty could make a cheap dress like this look so go- Mmmph!” Suddenly Bakugou had his lips smashed against yours. Damned be your libido, your tongue wasn’t denying him. Your desires were beginning to take over you as you swapped saliva with your rival.

After a few moments, your hands pressed harshly against his chest to get him off you. A chain of saliva still linked the two of you. He licked away the connection with a smirk before pulling you back close to him. He turned you around slightly so that your back was pressed against his chest. One of his hands holding you in place by squeezing at your waist, the other rubbing against your inner thigh.

“The hell do you think you’re doing?!”

“I don’t fucking get it.” His slipped under your dress to rub against your now dampened panties. His palm rubbing slowly against your wetness. “You say that your boyfriend is good at fucking you, yet here you are drenched from a measly kiss from me.”

A moan escaped you as your hands gripped tightly against his wrists trying to pry away from him. You wanted to give in so bad, but you had something to prove. You couldn’t disappoint your ego right now.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you haven’t been fucked at all since you ended things with me, your highness.” You whined at his sarcastic nickname of you before your pride came back.

“You’re wrong. I’d say that I hadn’t started getting properly fucked since ending it with you.”

“When was the last time you guys fucked, then?”

“Last night! He pleasures me every night! More than you to say the least!”. You were losing your dominance quickly, assuming you had any right now. The slow stroking of Bakugou’s palm against your covered folds had you letting out whimpers.

“Oh? Is that so? How about this? If you don’t beg for me to make you cum within the next-“ Bakugou paused. “When’s your date?”. You bit your lips between your teeth ignoring him. Not pleased with your silence he dug his fingertips into your waist. You shut your eyes and let out a loud hum in your masochistic pleasure. “I asked you a fucking question. When is your date, L/N?”

“Seven! Fuck, its at seven!”. He loosened his grasp as he checked the clock on the desk.

6:28 P.M.

“Oh that’s not that far away, but I like a challenge.” His voice rumbled against your ear. “Then if I don’t have you begging to cum within the next 20 minutes, I, Bakugou Katsuki, will get down on my hands and knees and kiss your feet.”

He was being completely unfair. 20 minutes? That’s a long fucking time to hold back an orgasm, especially when it’s this guy trying to get you to reach one. But the thought of him kissing your feet flared your insatiable ego. You’ve lasted without cumming before, and you’d do it again to see Bakugou be put in the place he so rightfully deserved.

“So what do you say, your highness?”

“-my whore.” Your breaths settled as Bakugou looked puzzlingly at you. “Say you’re nothing but a whore for the royal L/N F/N while you kiss my feet and I’ll agree.”

“Tch. Fi-“

“And! I’m going to record it.” You were testing the waters now. But if Bakugou could handle any of the game he was talking right now, he’d surely agree.

“Fine. Then we start right now.”

You nodded in a rare display of compliance. Slowly, Bakugou began to rub his fingers against the crotch of your panties. He was going achingly slow, but you weren’t going to complain. The slower he took, the more time would be ate up. Was this his plan? To just go achingly slow for 20 minutes hoping you’d ask for him to speed up?

Imbecile.

You tried to focus on other things while Bakugou slowly rubbed away against your now wet panties. Looking away towards the desk, you thought about math equations. Complicated math equations. Math equations that could help solve the mysteries of our galaxy. Bakugou noticed your attempts of distraction and grinned, placing a soft kiss on are the area that your shoulder met your neck.

“Whatcha thinkin’ about?” The coarseness of his voice vibrating against your neck, taking you out of your mathematical universe.

“Your face after I upload that video on the internet…” You gasped at Bakugou’s sudden increase in pressure against your clothed vulva. He was still going pretty slow but you could feel the pressure cause your clit to swell. “And how…everyone is going to see how pathetic you really are.”

“Tch. You sure are good at acting sadistic. Too bad I’m the only one who knows what a fucking pig you really are. I’ll be making you admit that in just a few minutes.”

Before you could retort, Bakugou’s fingers started making increasingly faster grinds against your underwear. It was starting to become a challenge for you to not give in to the pleasures.

But then it suddenly clicked. He only said you didn’t have to beg, not that you couldn’t cum. Smirking you let your pleasure take over you, now softly moaning into the air. Waves of an encroaching orgasm began to fill your stomach and when you were about to finally go over the edge, Bakugou retreated his now slick hand away from you.

You quietly whined at the lack of pressure before steadying your breaths again. You stayed silent, adamant about not begging to the man behind you to finish the job.

“Oh…you’re pretty tough, huh? Lets see, it’s-“ Bakugou took another glance at the clock. “6:33. You only have 14 more minutes to go, princess. I believe it’s only fair that we kick it up just a bit.”

You smugly chuckled at his challenge. “I was wondering when you were going to make this diffi- Hnngg!”. Bakugou had moved the hand around your waist to tightly grasp the locks of your hair, turning your head to face him. Taking a moment to look directly at your grimaced face he smothered his lips onto yours, ravaging your mouth once again with his tongue. The fingers at your drenched panties increasing to a much faster pace.

You moaned loudly inside his mouth as you felt immense pressure build up inside you once again. You tried to wiggle your hips away from him but he placed his leg between yours, locking you into place. Struggling to breathe, you gripped his bicep in preparation for the orgasm once again approaching you.

Bakugou released your mouth as he once again removed his hand from between your hips. You now whined louder in protest.

“You got something to say?” He asked as he nibbled against your ear. You shook your head profusely. “I guess you really do like challenges, eh? Probably more than me.”

Bakugou lifted up one of your thighs so you’d place your foot on the edge of the desk. You hadn’t yet came down from your first failed orgasm before he sunk his hand into in your underwear and viciously circled around your clit.

You were moaning uncontrollably now, not caring if classmates outside Bakugou’s room could hear you. Chuckling, Bakugou bit down on your neck before licking away at the bite marks.

“Fuck! Bakugou! I-I’m gonna-“ You whined loudly at the repeated lack of friction between your thighs.

“You’re gonna what now? I don’t fucking think so. You haven’t let out a single beg. You know the rules.”

Your eyes watered as you unconsciously rubbed your thighs together trying to get yourself off. Failing, you had no choice but to let your body come down from its high.

As soon as your panting softened, they picked back up again when you felt Bakugou slowly stick two fingers up your sopping pussy. His fingers curving just right to lightly massage against the sensitive sponge inside you while moving them up and down in a quick motion.

“Hahh… Bakugou…”You groaned in pleasure. Too lost in trying to chase an orgasm, you hadn’t cared when Bakugou used his other hand to rip open your pretty dress. He roughly massaged at your breasts while burying his head in your neck.

“No bra? No fucking way you weren’t prepared for me to fuck you today.”

Your constant moans prevented you from replying. Bakugou pinched at your sensitive nipples while sucking harshly at your neck, leaving a bruise.

“You wanna cum, princess?”

“Yes! Yes, please!! Please let me cum! Fuck!” You gave in to his challenge, but it’d be worth it. You knew this was going to be the most intense orgasm of your life. So what if you sacrificed a bit of your ego?.

Just when you thought you were about to enter heaven, the fingers that were inside you slipped out.

“Hnngh- Nooo!! Please, Bakugou. I’m begging, I’m begging!” The tears that were settled at your eyes, trailed down. Your thighs trembled as you once again tried squeezing them together to satisfy you.

Bakugou smirked silently. Instead answering you by dragging you to the bed and pushing you down. He ripped off the rest of your dress before he spread your thighs apart to take a good look at the mess he created between your hips. The way not only your voice, but your pussy was begging for him made him want to give you everything you wanted.

But, no. You needed to learn a lesson. You’d remember what happens when you fuck with him- or don’t fuck with him, rather.

His gazing taking too long, you called out for him again. “Please, Bakugou. I want to cum. I wanna cum so baaad…”. You placed your hands on his that were digging into the flesh below your knees, trying to get him to take pity on you.

“I heard you the first time. How do you want to cum? With my fingers, my tongue, or my-“

“Your cock! Please, I want your cock!” Your hands now gripping tightly onto his. “I’ve never wanted something so bad before, Bakugou, pleeease…”

“You’re begging for my cock, huh”. He pulled down his shorts so his cock could spring free.

You nodded with no hesitation. Deciding not to tease you for now, he sunk inside you in one swift thrust, thanks to your abundant juices.

“Hnngh, yes! I’m gonna cum so hard! Gonna cum all over your cock. Oh baby… Gonna cum so hard for youuu…” Your moans turned into gutteral groans as he plunged deep inside you with every thrust. He made sure the tip of his cock was stroking right at your g-spot.

As he picked up the pace, you swear you could sense your pupils dilating as an orgasm approached. You could see the pearly gates of heaven and then-

Bakugou slipped his cock out of you. Leaving you a whining mess.

“Whyyy?! ? Y-You said I could cum. You said if I begged I could cummm…”. You were sobbing at this point. “What do you want? I’ll do anything, Katsuki…”

His cock twitched at the first time of hearing you say his name.  “Say you’re a whore.”

You looked up at him as you hesitated. He coerced you with the teasing of his cock against your entrance. Sniffling, you did what you know your pussy would want you do to.

“I’m a whore.” Your eyes shut trying to hold on to the last bit of dignity you had.

“And? Fucking look at me when you speak.”

The intensity of looking into his vermillion eyes made you want to cower away. But you did as demanded. “I’m a filthy whore for Bakugou Katsuki.”

“And only me?” He dipped the tip of his cock into you and you forgot what even the meaning of dignity was.

“Yeess!! Only you! Only Katsuki! I swear it! I swear it on everything, I swear…”

“Your boyfriend?”

“I-I…” You trailed off and Bakugou started to slip back out again.

“You know I could do this forever. I made sure to jack off a few times in the shower. Let’s find out how long I leave you in this state.”

“Nooo! I don’t have a boyfriend! Fuck! Damn you!”

“Ahh…so he was fake?”

“He wasn’t fake…He was real. But h-he broke up with me after a week or so. He said he couldn’t keep up with my sex drive. Told me I was a-a nympho… So I yelled at him about y-“ You paused, hesitating to keep going. Bakugou just stared at you, not afraid of leaving you like this if you didn’t finish. “About you…”

“Me?” He leaned down to kiss your forehead, praising you for telling him all this. “And just what did your highness say about me?”

“I said if a rugged commoner like you could satisfy me, then he should be able to, too. So he called me a slut and left.”. You turned your head away, too embarrassed by the sharing of your breakup. “How dare he speak to me like that…”. Bakugou took hold of your chin to face him as he leaned down and kissed you on the lips. He wiped away your tears with his thumb and continued to stroke your cheek.

“You’re not a slut, F/N.”

You chucked. “I’m a whore but not a slut?”.

“I didn’t say you were. You did.” He slipped back inside you, making you moan once more. “Besides, you’re only like this with me, right? I doubt he was making you feel the way I do, anyways. Not with how pathetic he sounds.”

“Yeah…no one can make me feel this good.” Your mouth gaped open as Bakugou began steady thrusts inside you. Your ribbed walls clenched around him begging for more. “Lets cum together, okay?” You placed each of your hands on his cheeks. “I wanna cum with you.”

Entranced by your sudden displays of sweetness, he plunged his cock deeper and faster into you. You slipped your hands into his hair and tugged as you felt your high approach. Your moans sounded more high-pitch and angelic as Bakugou leaned down to kiss your neck. He could better hear your beautiful sounds in this position and it was pushing him closer to his own climax.

His thrusts became more erratic at his impending orgasm. “F-fuck, F/N. I’m gonna cum- I’m gonna cum so deep in your pussy.” He layed multiple kisses along your neck. “I might just give you a little prince.”

“Oh fuck! Katsukiii…Katsukiiii…” You tugged his hair tighter. Your long-awaited orgasm finally washed over you. It seemed like it could never end as your walls twitched violently against Bakugou’s cock, making him lose himself even more.

“Me too, F/N- me too. Fuck!” Bakugou pumped his milky seed deep inside you and you could probably cum again just from the hot feeling of it. When it seemed his cock was drained, he allowed himself to collapse on top of you.

You slipped your hands under his shirt, caressing your fingers along his back as you regained your breathing. “You didn’t cum exactly when I did. I’m deducting points.”

He chucked beneath into your neck. “Fuck your point system. I’m rebelling against your shitty monocracy.” You gasped, feigning offense. He kissed you on the lips before turning his body to lay beside you.

“We should..uhh…probably go get a pill, right?”

You sent a confused look at him. “Bakugou, I’m on birth control.”

He shot up from the bed with shock. “Hah?! So why had we been using a condom?” He frustratingly gripped at his hair. “I could’ve been fucking you raw this whole time?!”

“Well I figured you used them because you didn’t trust me.”

“What?” He looked at you before turning his face away trying to hide his blush. “Of course I’d trust my girlfriend.”

“Girlfriend?! This hasn’t been discussed with the counsel!”

Bakugou leaned over you, his forearms resting on either side of your head. “I believe I said I was rebelling against your shitty monocracy, F/N.” He pressed another kiss on your lips. “Who else is gonna put up with your stuck-up attitude and inhuman sex drive?” He layed back down beside you and pulled you into him, kissing the back of your shoulder.

You twisted your body to face him, looking directly into his eyes. “So you fell in love with the enemy?”

“Yeah, your highness. I fucking did. Gonna execute me?”

You shook your head and kissed his nose before burying into his chest. The up and down motions of his chest relaxing you, beckoning you to sleep.

“I did too.” You whispered softly, Bakugou had heard you though. Holding you tighter against his chest, the exhaustion and your comfort drifted him to sleep.

[duskholland]

thinking about a baker!tom kneading dough... i wanted to say more but honestly, what else could i possibly add

fuck it have an exert from my baker!tom wip that’ll never see the light of day ..... [context: y/n and baker!tom are in his bakery, getting close as they make some loaves of bread. this follows several weeks of teasing banter after y/n decided on doing a house swap w her sister, which has landed her (conveniently) in tom’s village...]

•••••••••

“My arms hurt,” you complain, coupling it with a grimace. “How do you do this every day?”

Tom chuckles. “I do this multiple times a day, love. You get used to it.” He stands back from the counter, flexing his arms, and fuck, the way his biceps curl against his t-shirt draws a shiver down your spine. “Makes me ripped, too.”

You chuckle. “You’re not wrong there,” you mutter, too quietly for him to hear. You continue kneading the dough, moving a lot slower than before, and he stares at the way you work it.

“Your technique is a little wonky,” Tom says, not unkindly. He walks around the counter and settles at your side, so close that you can feel the heat coming from his figure. “You want to be rolling your wrists a little more.” You try to follow his pointers, but he clucks his tongue in disapproval. “Almost, love, almost… It’s more like… No, uh, wait, um. Can I…?” He looks at you questioningly, and you nod your head, not entirely sure what you’ve agreed to do, too distracted by the sparkles in his eyes.

Tom steps behind you. You stay still as he slowly winds his arms around you, propping his chin on your shoulder as he peers over your figure down at the countertop. His hands come down over yours, fingers tangling with yours, and he very carefully and precisely starts to move your hands. He’s warm to touch, and he’s so close to you that you can feel his breath coming out across your cheek. You find yourself wishing he was holding you a little firmer.

“Like this,” Tom murmurs, voice quiet. It feels intimate as he guides you, and you’re breathing shallowly. “Gently, but with purpose. Give it a little force, don’t be scared. Coax it.”

He releases your hands but he stays in place, his chin still on your shoulder and his chest brushed up against your back. It isn’t quite a hug, but it’s teasingly close.

“Like this?” you whisper. You imitate his movements.

“Perfect,” Tom coos. “Exactly like that. There you go.”

You chuckle at his praise, biting your lip nervously as your heart flutters in your chest. “It’s looking good,” you say, finally able to bring it into an oval shape.

“Looks spectacular,” he praises. “I can’t believe you’re only going to be around for a few more weeks,” he adds, and you can almost hear his pout. “You could be a real asset to the bakery if you stayed, Y/N.”

You chuckle, knowing he’s just being kind but appreciating the efforts nonetheless. “I only live an hour away,” you tell him. You tilt your head to look at him, and Tom finally steps away. He lingers close though, both hands slipping to hold your apron-covered waist as he settles at your side. It’s a loose side-hug, and his palms are warm and distracting. “I’m sure I’ll be back. I, uh… I’d like to visit.”

“Visit the village, or visit me?” Tom asks, almost smirking.

You feel flustered under his stare, and your mouth runs dry, but something about the way his gaze keeps dropping to your lips makes you bolder.

“Maybe a little bit of both,” you admit, voice quiet. Feeling him squeeze your waist, you raise an eyebrow. “You gonna miss me, Tom?”

He hums, very softly. His eyes drift down to your mouth, and you feel him pull you closer. You turn in his arms to face him, letting your hands fall to your sides as he examines you, carefully.

“Yeah,” he admits. His gaze flickers between your eyes and your lips. “I will.”

It’s like there’s a gravitational pull between you as you slowly start to lean in, Tom doing the same. All the days of building tension suddenly overflow, and your heart pulses in your chest as you feel his lips, soft and gentle, pressing up against yours. It’s very innocent, just a very warm peck, at first, and it leaves you close to him, Tom’s cold nose pressing against yours. You push back into him, meeting his mouth again and kissing him with a little more force, smiling into it when Tom returns the enthusiasm.

Your hands move up to his shoulders and you hold on for dear life, the world spinning as you kiss him, and kiss him, and kiss him. His floury hands are on your waist, staining the apron, but you don’t care, because it feels like your hearts are slotting together, and you wouldn’t trade this feeling for anything.

After a while of exchanging soft, nervous kisses, Tom pulls back to look at you, almost bashful. It’s such a contrast to his otherwise confident disposition that you wonder how you’re able to affect him so much.

“That was nice,” he mumbles. Very slowly, Tom drops his head to your shoulder and deposits an innocent kiss to the base of your neck He looks up at you beneath his lashes, questioning in his eyes. “You…”

A timer goes off across the kitchen, and both of you jump.

“Oh fuck.” Tom jumps from you, running around one of the counters and pulling open one of the ovens. “Forgot about the fucking croissants,” he murmurs.

[treesnutsandleaveswrites]

Finding Home

Pairing: The Bad Batch x Reader (Polyam)

Summary: Your mission with the Batch is a success and you get time to relax

Warning: mentions of weapons, fluff, light angst

Word Count: 1582

A/N: Just a little relaxing chapter for you all xoxo

pt xiii, pt xv

XXXXXXX

You laid on the ledge, watching over the others through your scope.

“Lodestar, anything?”

“No movement whatsoever.” You responded, looking to your side where Omega was laid next to you with binoculars, “Omega?”

“All clear. Nothing.”

“I’m going in. Echo, cover me.” Hunter affirmed.

You nodded, looking through the scope of your rifle again. You watched as he and Echo made their way through the small valley, moving stealthily between the rocks. You then averted your attention to your surroundings, looking out for some unwanted company. Tech and Wrecker were on the other side of the valley, waiting just above also.

“Um… Lodestar?” Omega caught your attention, “What’s that?”

She handed you the binoculars and helped you look to the direction she was observing beforehand. You then saw the lizard-like creature stalking Hunter and Echo’s trail. You quickly gave the binoculars back before speaking into your communicator.

“Hunter, your 5 o’clock!”

He turned, pulled out his knife, and swiped at the creature. It moved back and hissed at him. You positioned your rifle and prepared to shoot, but then Omega exclaimed.

“Wait! Behind it! Look!”

You furrowed your brows before moving your scope to see a nest full of eggs.

“Hunter! Move away slowly! Put your dagger away!” Omega instructed. He hesitated, but did so, which also caused the creature to retreat.

“There’s an alternate path to your left.” Tech declared, “It’s fairly faster than the one you’re taking now.”

“Better timing next time, Tech.” Echo grumbled.

The lot of you made your way back to the speeder after retrieving what Cid’s client wanted. You helped Omega into the speeder before looking at Wrecker as he readied his bike. You smirked and signalled Hunter to drive the speeder while you made your way to the other speeder bike.

“Race you back, Wreck.”

He laughed, “Oh-ho, ad’ika! You’re on!”

You boarded the bike and nodded to him while starting it up.

“Do us the honors, Omega?” You insisted, which caused her to grin.

“Ready… set… GO!” She cried and you took off with Wrecker, who was whooping.

The both of you egged each other on, but then the speeder caught up and found its place between you two. You looked briefly to see the small smirk on Hunter’s face as he maneuvered the speeder. You laughed and revved the bike, overlapping both the speeder and Wrecker.

“Oh no you don’t, ad’ika!” Wrecker shouted, urging the bike.

You and him were at the same pace, but before you could reach the house, Hunter managed to outrun the both of you. You slowed your bike to a stop before hopping off it and laughing while Wrecker grumbled. Omega cheered as she got out of the speeder while Echo laughed at Tech, who’s hair was unkempt and goggled were dusty. Hunter patted Wreckers shoulder to comfort him. D-5 rolled out of the house, circling you.

“He-Hello! Home, home, home!”

You urged him back towards the house, “Kapu might be back in town. The sun’s not up yet, so we can go see him in an hour or so. Come on.”

Omega rushed into the house with D-5 while you all followed behind her. You and the Batch relieved yourselves of your armor, then you went into the kitchen to make a meal for everyone. Omega played with D-5 on the floor while Hunter was discussing some things with Echo, Tech was messing with one of his devices, and Wrecker was knocked out in one of the chairs. This was a sight you missed, it had something new in it, but was still missing a little bit of something else. You managed a small smile while going back to cooking. You then placed a large bowl down with the food along with some plates.

“Dig in.” You announced.

They didn’t deny the food being offered and started eating. It has been a long time since they’ve had a real cooked meal other than rations and Mantell Mix, so they cherished every bite taken. You stood, watching and admiring them. You were finally relishing that they were really here with you and it wasn’t some fantasy you would often have after the incident on Coruscant. Omega was a great addition to the Batch, but it didn’t fully fill the hole where Crosshair was supposed to be. If he were here, you knew the two of you would be yelling over each other, but then ended up in one another’s arms as if you hadn’t left. You felt a small bump and looked down to see D-5.

“Sad. Star sad.”

You shook your head and crouched down, “You keep bumping into people like that, your balance module will come out of place again.” You pushed him back towards Omega before making your way to the bed where Hunter was sitting, having finished eating. Echo had moved to the sofa where Tech was, talking to him about his arm or something like that. Omega was leaning against the chair Wrecker was sitting on, eyes getting droopy. You laughed gently before going over to her and picking her up.

“C’mon.”

“Not tired.” She murmured as you placed her on the bed behind Hunter, moving the covers so she could get under them.

“Wrecker used to say the same thing.” You whispered while tucking her in.

You turned back to the others while taking your seat again.

“You should rest too.” Echo insisted, “You haven’t since your last mission.”

You shook your head, looking down to your hands, “I… don’t sleep that often anymore. I’ll be alright.”

D-5 rolled in front of you, “Bad-bad dreams.”

You sighed, “Mind your business before I shut you down.” You kicked him gently.

“You sure it wasn’t you who made his balance module wonky?” Tech smirked.

You rolled your eyes, “Wow… when did you find your sense of humor?”

He tossed a pillow from the couch towards you, which you caught.

“Hey,” You whispered, “Omega’s sleeping!”

They all managed to chuckle, nearly all the tension off their shoulders.

“It’s been a while since you’ve all relaxed, huh?’

Echo nodded with a sigh, “We’ve had to deal with a lot… bounty hunters, jobs, even Crosshair…”

“This… is different than just staying on Ord Mantell and waiting for Cid to send us off on a job.” Tech admitted, “It feels almost… like before.”

You nodded, “Yeah… I was thinking the same thing.” You smiled gently, “I really missed this.”

“We missed you, mesh’la.” Hunter murmured, bringing you closer to him and placing a kiss on your head, “So much…”

You looked at them as they all nodded, which caused tears to come to your eyes. Hunter placed a hand on your face and shushed you.

“It’s alright, cyare, we understand.”

Wrecker spoke up, “Are you… are gonna come back with us? To Ord Mantell?”

You took a moment to look at him before shrugging, “I don't have much here. This place was just… refuge. It was never home.”

“Kamino was home-”

“No,” You muttered, “Kamino wasn’t home. Not to me. Kamino was an escape from my past… Home was with you. All of you. That was home.”

“Are you ready to come home then, cyar’ika?”

You looked at them all before nodding, “Yes. Yes, I am…”

*******

You stood in the shop while Kapu talked to Cid through the holo device.

“Yeah, your boys got it. They’ll be back soon.”

“Good. Nice doing business with ya, Kapu.”

“Does that mean I get that date?”

Cid scoffed before hanging up, which caused Kapu to laugh.

“She loves me.”

You rolled your eyes with a smile before heading to him.

“Gonna miss me, Kapu?”

“I’ve been tryna get rid of you, girl!”

You laughed and set down a bag of credits, “Here.”

“What for?”

“Letting me stay here?”

He picked up the pouch and poured it out into his hand, then used another had to take half the pile before putting the rest of the credits back into the pouch and tossing it back to you.

“I ain’t no charity. And take D-5 with you so I don’t need to worry about smashing him with no door again.”

You nodded before walking out with the Batch. You hiked up your bag on your shoulder and looked down at Omega as she was holding D-5.

“Gonky will have a new friend!”

“Gonky still works?” You asked incredulously while Tech nodded.

“Surprisingly, yes.”

After a bit of walking, you all arrived at the ship and you stood there for a moment, taking in the sight of it.

“Wow… still looks the same.”

“Wrecker wanted to put Senator Amidala up there above the hatch.”

“I thought that was just a joke!” You exclaimed.

“He thought it’d cheer us up after Coruscant.”

You shook your head with a smile while boarding the ship.

“I’m glad you didn’t or else I would’ve turned back around.”

Omega rushed in with D-5, climbing up into the gunner’s mount. You furrowed your brows slightly.

“It’s her own little space…”

You nodded, “That’s good. It’s hard dealing with you guys all the time.”

“She’s used to it by now.” Echo laughed before making his way into the cockpit.

You placed your bag down and walked into the cockpit also, relishing the feel of it again. Omega rushed in and sat in the seat that used to be yours. You smiled and took the seat that was once Crosshair’s.

“Alright, setting route for Ord Mantell.” Tech announced as everyone settled in.

XXXXXXX

Taglist: @darkangel4121 @lightning-wolffe @alucas528 @rintheemolion @shadowfoxey @butch-medusae @gabile18

[there-must-be-a-lock]

Blind Spot

Spencer Reid x (Gender Neutral) Reader

Word Count: 2640

Warnings: Hair pulling kink! Bucketloads of sexual tension but no actual sex. Gratuitous facts about bird nests. Dorks being oblivious. Lots of fluffy heart-eyed banter. Accusations of intercourse with fictional tree-beasts. 

A/N: I saw a gif that made me want to pull Spencer’s hair. That’s it. I have zero shame. 

For the “friends to lovers” square on my @cmbingo​ card! Proofread by @fangirlxwritesx67​ because she’s the best. 

“You look like you fucked an Ent,” you commented cheerfully, stealing sideways glances at Spencer while you waited for the light to change.  

“Thanks, that’s helpful.” He grimaced, trying to tug another burr out of a snarled curl. 

“Oh my god, you’re just making it worse! I’ll help you when we get back to your place. Leave it, you goober.” 

“Did you just call me a goober?” Spencer asked, trying not to laugh. 

“You’re like the dictionary definition of a goober,” you said fondly. 

“I have three PhDs!”  

“I really wish I’d gotten a video of that tumble, Doctor Goober.” 

Spencer was blushing, grinning down at his lap as he shredded a piece of leaf. It was hard not to stare at him when he smiled like that. 

He’d essentially face-planted into a burr bush earlier, somewhere in the Virginia woods — he’d been so excited about explaining some wonky bit of Star Trek physics theory to you that he just forgot to pay attention to his feet — and he’d floundered out with half a hedge stuck in his hair before picking up exactly where he’d left off. 

In other words, Doctor Spencer Reid was a ridiculous human being. You knew that, objectively. It didn’t stop you from having a massive crush on him. 

Either he was pretending not to notice, to spare your feelings, or he was socially oblivious; you tended to believe the former, considering how well you’d seen him read other people, but you appreciated it. There was a chance you’d make it out of this — if you could just get over it already — with your friendship intact. 

You cleared your throat and told him, “You look like the bastard child of Grandmother Willow and the Wizard of Oz scarecrow.” 

“Even if they were real, the anatomical —” 

“You didn’t mention that when I brought up the Ents. Something you want to tell me about you and Treebeard?” 

“You’re ridiculous,” he huffed, trying to sound exasperated, but he could barely keep a straight face for a second before he was laughing, that scratchy sunny childish giggle that only came out when he was really relaxed and carefree. 

“Close the window before a bird sees you and decides to take up residence.” 

“How about you watch the road?”

“What, no facts about bird nests?” 

“Is that a rhetorical question?” 

“Nope.” 

“Well in that case… gyrfalcon nests are frequently re-used and passed along for generations. The oldest one that’s been discovered was in Greenland, and it was actually estimated to be approximately 2,500 years old.” 

“Seriously?” 

“Yes! In fact…” 

You had to remind yourself, yet again, to stop staring. 

Maybe someday you’d get sick of hearing Spencer talk, but you couldn’t really understand the way most of your teammates reacted to his rambling. Even if you didn’t care about what he was saying, there was something amazing about the way his eyes lit up and his hands fluttered around to illustrate his point.

You parked in front of his building and followed him upstairs. His apartment had become comfortingly familiar — ever since you and Spencer bonded over a shared love of sci-fi, you’d taken to driving him home and, if it wasn’t too late, sticking around for an episode or two of Doctor Who.  

He got his ancient little DVD player up and running, and you settled on the couch, fluffing pillows and shoving aside his nest of colorful crocheted blankets, getting cozy. There was something about Spencer’s space that always felt like home; maybe it was the smell of books, or just the general Spencer-ness of the whole place. 

Just being around him had always kinda felt like home, too. Sometimes you forgot you’d only known him for six months. 

He disappeared into his room for a second and came back with a comb. It was cheap plastic, missing a couple teeth, and looked like it hadn’t been used in a while. You looked from him to the comb and back again. 

“That actually explains a lot,” you said, grinning. Spencer rolled his eyes and sat down on the floor in front of you, leaning back against your shins, and after a dismayed glance at his curls, you commented, “We could always just shave it all off.” 

“I’m not going to dignify that with an answer,” he said primly. 

You started with a couple of the less tangled pieces, finger-combing carefully through one soft lock at a time. You half-expected some comment about primates and social grooming, or at least a few facts about the quantum theory behind the TARDIS, but Spencer was uncharacteristically quiet and still, his eyes fixed on the TV. 

You separated out one of the worst knots, and he tilted his head to the side to give you better access. You were being as gentle as possible, but you knew you were hurting him at the first tug — he sucked in a breath, knuckles going white as his fingers clenched on his knees. 

“Sorry, I’m trying,” you sighed. 

With his head tilted like this, you could see the muscle clenching in his jaw and the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. 

“S’okay,” he whispered hoarsely. “It’s not — not your fault.” 

He sat there stiffly as you worked. His hair was silky, where it wasn’t hopelessly knotted, and you were close enough that you could smell whatever clean, sweet shampoo he used. Something about it made you want to hold your breath; it felt like you were too close. Spencer rarely let you inside his little bubble of personal space. 

Maybe that was why he seemed uncomfortable. He was usually so fidgety, tapping out a rhythm or twirling a pen between his long fingers, and it was strange to see him motionless like this. 

You ran your fingers through a de-tangled section, slow and careful, and Spencer shivered, his shoulders trembling for a moment before he went unnaturally still again. 

Spencer blurted out, “Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

At the same time, you asked, “Are you cold?” 

You paused for a moment, surprised by the reaction, but after hesitating, Spencer just muttered, “Yeah. Cold.” 

You couldn’t shake the feeling that you were missing something. It was too warm, if anything; Spencer had a patchy flush crawling up his neck and over the sharp lines of his jaw and cheekbones. 

“Here you go, goober,” you said, awkwardly cheerful in an attempt to cover your uncertainty as you grabbed an afghan from the couch and draped it around his shoulders. 

“Thanks.” He pulled the blanket down onto his lap without looking at you. “But maybe I should just do this myself.” 

“You’re never gonna get this loose on your own, not without scissors,” you warned, plucking at the knot around the last burr in his hair. “I’ll just, um — I’ll try to be more gentle.” 

“Maybe just go for it,” he said. “Get it over with.” His voice had gone all high-pitched and strained, like he was on the verge of a panic attack. If this was how much he disliked physical contact, no wonder he always avoided hugging you. 

You tried to go quickly, figuring that one quick moment of pain was better than another ten minutes of making Spencer uncomfortable. In your nervousness, you ended up tugging the burr out much more abruptly than you’d intended, and Spencer let out this rough, low, choked-off sound. Before you could apologize, he was jerking away from you, curled in on himself with his shoulders up around his ears like he was worried you were going to hit him, and — 

“Sorry,” he said, voice cracking. 

— what? 

“Spence?” you said tentatively. “What—”

He was still just curled up on the floor in a ball of gangly limbs, but he half-turned to you, twisting around. He wouldn’t make eye contact, though; he was staring intently at the pillow that was on the couch next to you. It felt weird, looking down at him like this, so you slid down onto the floor, hoping it wouldn’t spook him. He shifted back slightly, but at least he didn’t flinch away. 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled. “I didn’t — this was a bad idea.” 

The profiler in you couldn’t help but notice a few details. He was blushing, for starters. His lower lip was red where he’d been biting it, and — this was the part that surprised you most — his pupils were huge. 

You knew what Spencer looked like when he was panicking, and this wasn’t it. 

“Oh,” you breathed. “Oh.” 

He looked down at his lap, frowning as he played with the loose thread in the cuff of his sweater. 

“Sorry,” he repeated. “I know you don’t feel the same way, I wasn’t trying to — I didn’t realize it would be like that, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, and—”

“Wait, what?” 

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable! I shouldn’t have asked—”

“I don’t feel the same way about what?” 

“I know you’re not attracted to me,” Spencer said, barely audible. 

“You’re… you…what?” 

He looked up, at that, genuinely startled. There was something sweet and vulnerable shining in his eyes, and your heart was racing. You slid a little bit closer, so that your knees were almost touching Spencer’s as you faced each other, cross-legged. 

“I thought you knew.” His hushed, croaky voice broke on the last word. “I thought I was being obvious.” 

You gaped at him for a second before letting out a sharp, hysterical giggle. 

He ducked his head again, hiding behind a curtain of hair, but not before you saw the hurt expression that flashed across his features. 

“No, that’s not—” you blurted out. “Spence. Spencer.” 

“Forget it,” he said sharply, his body going tense like he was about to bolt. “Can we just forget this happened?” 

Before you could think better of it, you reached out and pushed a few curls back behind his ear, and then you grabbed, twisting your fingers in his hair to tug him forward. You cut off the startled noise he made with a clumsy, eager kiss. 

The angle was all wrong, both of you leaning forward awkwardly, but it felt like sparks all down your spine.

You pulled away just far enough to get the words out: “I thought I was being obvious.”  

Then Spencer was surging closer on his hands and knees, crowding into your space, until you had a lapful of rumpled doctor pressing you back against the couch. He cupped your jaw with gentle spidery fingers, gaze locked on your mouth, and leaned in slowly like he was still waiting for you to push him away. 

There was nothing awkward about it this time. If the first kiss was sparks, this was fireworks — it was such a goddamn cliche you wanted to kick yourself for thinking it, but it was true. Your head was spinning. Every pillowy press of his lips and soft slide of his tongue seemed to steal the breath from your lungs. 

By the time you broke apart you were panting, but at least you weren’t the only one. Spencer’s chest heaved as he pulled away. He was still staring at your mouth like he couldn’t help himself. Part of you wanted to kiss him again and maybe never stop, but another part of you was paralyzed, trying to process the fact that this was actually happening. 

You just wanted to put the world on pause so that you could memorize everything: the way he licked his lips, the smell of his laundry detergent, the barely-perceptible movement of his pulse — you’d never seen that before because you’d never been this close to him before. You wanted to hold onto it, even the less-than-perfect details — the soundtrack of buzzy Dalek screeching in the background — the way you were folded together on the floor, all too-long legs and bony elbows, which was going to get uncomfortable fast.  

Spencer seemed to feel the same way. He grazed the pad of his thumb over your lower lip, then followed the curve of your smile out to your temple and traced the shell of your ear with careful fingertips. When he brushed his curled-up fingers along the ridge of your cheekbone, you turned your head and kissed his knuckles.  

His hand came to rest on your shoulder, and you wrapped your fingers around his wrist, holding it in place, feeling the blood and bones shifting under the skin.  

“You really didn’t know?” you whispered. 

He shook his head shyly and gave you one of those incandescent smiles that always made your heart race. “No idea.” 

“I thought you were just ignoring it to spare my feelings,” you confessed. 

“I thought you were doing that.”  

“I thought you were good at your job!” you laughed. “Aren’t you supposed to be a genius or something?” 

“I think I have a blind spot, where you’re concerned.” He was blushing again. “But I was so distracted by you that I walked into a bush! How did you not —” 

“I’m the one who stares at you all the time like a creep.” 

“You thought you were being creepy?” he said sheepishly. “As soon as you started touching my hair — oh my god that’s embarrassing.” 

“That’s not the word I would’ve used.” 

You tangled your fingers in his curls, tugging experimentally. His breath hitched. 

Both of you were utterly still for a moment, watching each other, and the tension between you seemed to fill the air like a living thing. You were excruciatingly aware of all the places your bodies were touching.

You considered all the places you could touch. It would be so easy. You could tug him in, kiss him, melt into each other… there were so many possibilities, suddenly, and there was something incredible about that: the electricity, the excitement, the moment of pure potential in the pause between certainty and action. 

Spencer sighed, long and shaky, and you were so close that you could feel the current of exhaled air. 

“I couldn’t think straight,” he murmured, with a twitch of a smile. “That doesn’t happen to me often.” 

“So you didn’t know…” 

You scritched your fingernails down his scalp, marveling at the way he shivered and swayed closer like he was hypnotized. He curled his hand around the side of your neck, thumb slowly stroking the hinge of your jaw. 

“I knew I liked it,” he confessed. “But — within a certain context? Not out of nowhere like that. I didn’t think it would be... like that.” 

“Like what?”

“Intense.”  

“Yeah?” 

“But I think maybe it’s just you.” His eyes had gone all glassy and heavy-lidded, and you could barely breathe. “Maybe you drive me crazy no matter where you’re touching me.” 

“I can think of a few ways to test that hypothesis.” 

You caught a glimpse of his grin, but then he pressed his forehead to yours and his features went blurry, too close for you to focus.

“Never really thought I’d be into dirty talk, but if you’re going to start quoting the scientific method…” 

“Funny, most of the time you never shut up,” you said, giddy and overwhelmed. 

The tip of his nose brushed yours. There was maybe an inch of space between your mouths, and you wanted to close that gap so badly it felt like a physical ache. 

“I mean, if you want me to start rattling off statistics—” 

“Spencer.” You fisted both hands in his hair, tugging sharply, and he shuddered. “Take a hint.” 

“Blind spot, remember?” he whispered, lips brushing yours as they shaped the words, feather-light and maddening. 

“You know, for a genius—” you started, but he kissed you, hungry and sweet like he was making up for lost time, until you’d completely forgotten what you were going to say. 

.

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There is now a sexy follow-up here! 

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If you enjoyed this, please reblog or leave a message! 

[plaidbooks]

Hey 🥰 could I request working with Sonny and you two used to date but broke up, you remained friends but never really got over each other and your end up going through a pretty bad time with work or personal stuff and you’re struggling mentally and not eating etc and when he realises he comes over to your place to check ur ok and you just breakdown and he tells u he still loves u and that it’ll always be u 🥺

Some Space

A/N: I am so sorry that this took so long! I was so burnt out of writing, but I'm here now! I hope that this makes up for the wait!

This takes place before Sonny joins SVU--and his timeline is a little wonky to make this fic work, but oh well.

Tags: death, shootings, blood, disassociation

Words: 2590

Taglist: @witches-unruly-heart @beccabarba @thatesqcrush @itsjustmyfantasyroom @permanentlydizzy @ben-c-group-therapy @infiniteoddball @glowingmess @whimsicallymad @lv7867 @storiesofsvu @cycat4077 @alwaysachorusgirl @glimmerglittergirl @joanofarkansass @redlipstickandplaid @reading--mermaid @dreamlover31 @averyhotchner @mrsrafaelbarba @detective-giggles @crowleysqueenofhell

“So, do you wanna move in together?” Sonny asked while you cuddled on his couch. You turned to look at him, and his face fell as he saw your expression. “…you don’t?”

You sighed. “It’s not like I don’t love you, Sonny, because I do. It’s just…I mean, we’re still in our mid-20s. I want a little more, uh, freedom before I settle down, you know?”

“I’ve known since we started dating in high school that I was in for the long term. I was thinking of maybe…I don’t know, getting married…having kids…. Now that we’ve settled into patrol, I thought it would be the perfect time to take the next step,” he muttered.

You sat in silence, debating. You loved Sonny, and you did want to marry him…someday. Not right now. You’ve barely lived any of your life; hell, you lived at home still. Sonny had his own apartment, but you didn’t want to go from living with your parents to living with him. You wanted space, time to figure out who you really were. And you didn’t think you could do that with Sonny. If he couldn’t give you your independence, if you both wanted different things, then you were going to have to break up with him, as much as it would break your heart to do it.

“Listen, Sonny, I need to live my own life for a little bit, discover myself. I-it’s nothing wrong with you, I promise—”

“Are you breaking up with me?” he asked softly.

Hearing the words out loud made tears form in your eyes. “I…yes, I guess I am. At least until I find myself…. I’m so sorry, Sonny. I’ll always care about you. We can still be friends?”

“Y-yeah…okay, sure. I…yeah…” he trailed off, unwrapping his arms from around you. You both sat there awkwardly, and the tension was thick. You stood, moving to grab your jacket, and Sonny followed you to the front door.

“This isn’t…goodbye. I promise you, Sonny Carisi. It’s just—”

“See you later?” he finished.

You gave him a smile, and a kiss on the cheek. “Yeah. I’ll see you later.”

*****************************

That was months ago now, and you had transferred out of Staten Island patrol, unable to see Sonny every day, those big, sad blue eyes trying to avoid your gaze. Now, you worked for Brooklyn, an officer in their Homicide department. You settled in quickly, and you found a cheap-ish apartment in Brooklyn.

It was nice living by yourself, and you highly enjoyed it. You missed Sonny dearly, but you thought it was too soon to reach out. Your heart still strained when you thought about the breakup, so you kept your distance. But it was getting easier and easier to let those feelings fade away in your new line of work. Brooklyn Homicide was a lot busier than Staten patrol, and you got along great with your partner, Drew Zimmer.

“We keep making these busts, and we’re gonna make detective in no time,” Drew said, grinning at you.

You smiled back as you shoved a cuffed perp in the backseat of your squad car. “Then we get paid halfway decently for doing much of the same as we are now.”

“Plus, normal clothes! Not this suffocating police uniform.”

You agreed, then moved to the front seat, Drew sliding in behind the steering wheel. You and Drew were close, but you never crossed a line. He was engaged to his high school sweetheart, something that made you slightly sad. Sonny was your high school sweetheart, and you wondered how different your life would’ve been if you moved in with him.

*************************

As Drew predicted, you both made detective later that year. You were officially the youngest detective, having moved up the ranks so quickly. You both went out for drinks to celebrate, and you had the wild impulse to invite Sonny. It had been almost a year since you broke up, and you could finally think about it without tearing up. But would he be okay with it? You fought the idea, putting your phone back in your pocket.

“Everything okay?” Drew asked, seeing the look on your face.

You shot him a fake smile. “Fine, fine. Just…thinking. Don’t worry about it.”

He gave you a hard, knowing look, as if he could read your mind. You had told him about Sonny, but you didn’t want to bring the celebration down. Instead, you took your glass and cheers him before taking a sip.

You jumped when your phone rang, and you pulled it out of your pocket. Your Captain’s name flashed across the screen, and you answered with a brisk voice. Drew watched and listened, then sighed when you said that you were both on your way.

“What do we got?” he asked, putting money on the table and standing.

You pulled your jacket on, heading for the door. “Body found in Prospect Heights. You okay to drive?”

“Sober as a fox.”

*************************

You both showed up quickly, seeing the officers who called in the body. Drew parked, and you made your way over. One of the officers started walking you both through the details when a gunshot rang out from down the alley that the body was in. Instinct took over as you hid behind a wall of the building, grabbing the closest officer to you and pulling them with you. Gunshots echoed in the alleyway as someone—or someones—unloaded on the entrance to the alley.

Drew was on the other side of the alleyway, and one of the officers was flat on their back, blood leaking from a bullet hole in their head. You ordered the officer next to you to call for backup, then waited until the gunfire stopped. Taking a chance, you snuck a quick peak. There were three individuals at the end of the alley, making their way quickly towards you.

You motioned to Drew, letting him know, before you reached your hand around the corner, firing blindly in an attempt to at least slow their advance. With the cover fire, Drew came halfway around the wall, actually aiming his gun as he fired.

“You got one of them,” he informed you. He got a few shots off before a bullet went through his neck, knocking him off his feet.

“Drew!” you screamed before whipping around the wall, shooting with deadly precision. There was only one man still standing—Drew must’ve got one before going down—and you shot him quickly. Then you dropped to your knees by Drew’s rasping form. You ripped off your jacket, pressing it to the bloody wound.

“Stay with me Drew, do you hear me? You have a fiancée to go home to,” you ordered, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. “Call a bus!” you yelled at the officer, who was staring in shock.

Drew reached up, grabbing your wrist. “T-tell Steph I—I love her���please,” he gasped, voice weak.

“You’re going to tell her yourself when you see her, okay?” you said, trying to smile at him.

He shook his head. “Tell her…please. I-I—” Drew let out a death rattle before laying still.

“No! No! Live, damn you! You can’t die on me, Drew! W-we’re partners!” you screamed. But he was gone. Tears spilled down your cheeks as you leaned over him.

Time meant nothing as you knelt there. You had no idea when the ambulance arrived, nor when your Captain showed up. You’re not sure who moved you away from Drew’s lifeless body, and you didn’t notice how you ended up at the hospital. You were still covered in Drew’s blood as the nurses ran tests, making sure you were uninjured. Your Captain ordered you to take time off, and you didn’t hear him, didn’t argue. You blinked and you were home, sitting on your couch, a bottle of whiskey in front of you.

***************************

IAB had been delayed by your Captain, but eventually, you had to face them. You couldn’t recall what they asked, or what you answered. The first emotion you felt in days was fleeting anger; the body that you had been called to investigate was left as bait. The men who shot at you, who killed your partner and an officer, were part of a gang, attempting to become cop killers. It was all a ruse to kill whichever cops arrived on the scene. Drew, one of the nicest, most genuine people you’ve known, was killed for street cred. But your anger soon disappeared, just like everything else.

***************************

It had been a week since Drew died in your arms. You visited his fiancée—she had already been informed of her love’s death—but you had to see her, pass on his final words. You held her as she cried, but you had no tears left. You felt nothing; you were just a shell. You stopped eating, stopped showering, stopped drinking, even water. You stopped sleeping; you just passed out nowadays, at any and all times of the day, wherever you happened to be laying. Your Captain called you a few times, trying to get you into therapy, but you never left your apartment.

One night, there was a knock on your door. You moved on phantom feet, unlocking and pulling your door open. You felt a dull punch to the gut as Sonny stood on your doorstep.

“H-hey doll…. I heard about your partner, and I thought I’d check up on you,” he said softly.

You nodded, not even attempting to fake a smile. “I’m fine,” you said in a monotone voice, ready to close the door on him. But Sonny was quicker.

“No, you’re not.” And with that, he pushed into your home. “When was the last time you’ve eaten? Washed? Brushed your teeth? Anything?”

You had no answer for him, and he quickly went to your kitchen, pulling open your fridge. Normally, you’d follow him, but instead, you went and collapsed on your couch, your legs unable to hold you up anymore.

Sonny came out with a glass of water. “Drink that,” he ordered, then stood there until you did. “Most of your food has gone bad; I’m going to run to the store. While I’m gone, I want you to shower, okay?”

You didn’t nod, made no indication that you had heard him. He ran a hand through his hair, hating seeing you like this.

“Okay…if you can shower, please do. Otherwise, just at least…drink another glass of water, okay?” He took the glass from your hand, refilled it, then came back and handed it to you. “I’ll be right back.”

You were unsure for how long he was gone; you dimly heard him come back. Sonny went to your kitchen with full grocery bags, and soon, the sounds and smells of cooking emanated from within. He came out soon after—or maybe it was longer, who knows?—with a plate of food.

When he noticed the full glass of water in your hand still, he shook his head, then sat next to you. You didn’t fight him as he fed you small bites, nor as he raised the glass of water to your lips. You tasted nothing as you ate half the plate. Sonny was afraid to make you sick with too much food at once, so he put the rest back in the kitchen. Then, he pulled you to the bathroom. He undressed you, then himself, before guiding you into the shower. The hot water brought you partly to your senses, just enough to feel Sonny’s hands washing your hair and body.

“You may have to get your hair cut short—it’s pretty damaged from lack of care,” he muttered, trying to work the knots out with his fingers. You nodded gently, letting him care for you. Once done, he wrapped you in a towel, patting you dry. Then, he took your toothbrush and put paste on it before handing it to you, lifting your hand to your mouth.

“Brush,” he softly ordered, and you did.

After finishing up in the bathroom, Sonny tugged you to your room, where he dressed you in your pajamas. Then he pushed you down into the bed.

“Sleep, okay? I’ll stay here with you until you fall asleep,” he promised.

You laid on the pillow, and fresh tears came to your eyes. “He died in my arms,” you muttered.

Sonny’s expression softened. “I heard, doll. There was nothing more you could’ve done. Just rest now.”

As promised, he sat next to you until you drifted off, your hand in his.

*******************************

Sonny practically moved in with you after that, just until you could take care of yourself. He took you to a therapist, and a hair salon. He made you meals and made sure you drank water. At first, he would shower with you and made sure you brushed your teeth; those were the two things you started doing yourself the quickest. It took you a few weeks to break out of the shock-induced disassociation you were experiencing. Eventually, you started helping Sonny cook in your kitchen, and doing small chores around your apartment.

“Thank you, Sonny, for everything,” you said one night while you were eating dinner.

He smiled at you. “Of course, doll. I care about you.”

“I care about you, too. I—I should’ve called you earlier. I was just afraid that it was too soon.”

His smile faltered slightly. “I understand. I…it’s probably still too soon….”

“What do you mean?”

Sonny put his fork down, looking everywhere but at you. “Look, I’ve…I thought that enough time had passed, especially when I heard about your partner—” you flinched at the mention of Drew— “but when you opened the door and I saw how much it affected you, I realized that…I still love you, have always loved you. You were literally wasting away, and I couldn’t stand by and watch.”

You froze, not in shock at him, but at yourself. Because hearing the words out loud, you knew that you loved him, too.

“I’m sorry; you don’t need this right now. The last thing you need on your mind is—”

“I love you, too, Sonny. God, I love you so much,” you replied, throwing your arms around him, and leaning against his side.

He hesitated a moment before he wrapped an arm around your back. “Are ya sure? You’re going through some pretty traumatic stuff right now. Your emotions going a little haywire.”

“I’m sure. I-I was afraid to call you because I couldn’t handle seeing you. Because I never got over you.”

Sonny nodded. “I never got over you, either. Look, if you still want your space, I can live with that, as long as I don’t lose you again. I never want to lose you again.”

“I don’t want to lose you, either. I love you; I want to marry you one day. Let’s just…see how it goes, okay? I’ve learned a lot just in the year we’ve been apart—”

He cut you off with a kiss, his lips soft against yours. He felt so familiar, so much like home, and you realized how much you had really missed him. You kissed him back, holding him to you. He leaned his forehead against yours, lips brushing over yours.

“We’ll figure out the details later. Right now, I just want to get to know you again,” he breathed.

You nodded. “Please, yes. I want to remember you, Dominick.”

He pulled you closer, promising his whole self to you in a searing kiss.

[popculturebuffet]

The Owl House Reviewcaps: Mid-Season Finale!: Yesterday’s Lies: The Biggest Emotional Gonad Punch of All

Hello all you happy people and the day we’ve all been dreading has come: The Owl House season 2 finale. It’s been a hell of a season thus far, one of the finest of the year and also one long series of slow motion punches to my emotional gonad. Not sure why I picked that metaphor, maybe for it’s accuracy, point is it’s a hard and sad goodbye to one of the best animated shows of the year, possibly the best though ironically it aired on the same exact weekends as it’s biggest compettition, tuca and bertie. 

And what a shock for a season that’s been all good to amazing episodes, the finale is fantastic. Not what I expected, but something more.. and something that complicates things going forward, redeems Camillia and gives us conspiracy theorist sonic the hedgehog among a LOT of things I can’t talk about. So join me under the cut as we say goodbye, for now, to one of the best shows out there and say hello to a new friend, this is Yesterday’s Lies, TODAY. 

We open in Conneticut, where Fake Luz is living out Luz’s life all happy and shiny.. and is also throwing out all of Luz’s old stuff confident her web of lies won’t be discovered. She and Camillia help a rabbit out of a trap, Fake!Luz goes up to her room... and finds the consequences of her actions literally starring her in the mirror as the REAL Luz wonders what the fuck is going on via said mirror. Roll the opening. 

Turning back the clock a bit Luz tried her first attempt at a portal, with King and Eda helping. Said portal is.. horribly jury rigged, and even includes an abomination head. Amity you can’t just.. yank their heads off. Their like family. Gooey, purple and good at giving hugs. You just don’t decapitate your family unless they try to decapitate you first. Or it’s Odalia which in that case.. we get it. And I think it’d go something like this anyway...

So anyways the portal is clearly a bit... wonky and shoddily made but that didn’t stop Luz from using a portal last time so here she goes again.. despite the entrance looking NOTHING like the old door. Luz still has the sense to have King and eda put a rope around her to pull her back. Granted that RARELY works but it’s better than “Luz goes into door and hopes she gets out before it inevetibly collapses”

Honestly from the summary I did genuinely expect Luz to go home and for circumstances to yank her back instead of just getting to sorta visit if still drop the huge bombshells on her momshells via mirrors.. but it works.. it adds tension to Luz finding a way home as we’ll see, but dosen’t quite finish off that part of things JUST yet, as it would’ve felt unsatisfying given most of the work so far has been done off screen. 

So yeah the mirror thing: Luz finds a REALLY awesomely designed vortex world with a bunch of cubes, and upon using one after calling out for Eda finds they allow her to go into mirrors anywhere. After briefly musing summoning up amity’s cube for the expected reasons...

Luz finds her way to Camillia.. and finds someone ELSE wearing her face if in a slightly more stylish way, repeating the conversation from earlier and taking us to the whole hogan-esque mirror spot from before. 

Turns out though, shockingly, Luz isn’t really angry. Which does suprise me: Luz just found out SOMEONE has been imitating her for months while she was gone. But then again this is Luz: Her girlfriend is someone she forgave  pretty easily for nearly getting her disected and then launching a pretty serious duel over her own ego, and who is currently trying to befriend our resident bad-sad boy. She sees the best in people and likely wants to try and understand why this creature is doing this to her first before trying to tell her mom there’s an imposter. I admit to not being that strong.. though part of that is most instances of this the imposter is malevolent, something I honestly thought when she was first properly revealed. I did not expect her to be sympathetic.

I also didn't expect her to be voiced by Mikala Dietz of Steven Universe fame, who so far is one of the only actors to come out of the show with a career in voice acting. She’s popped up in quite a few things lately, making her easily the breakout of the cast (With Charlene Yi breaking out during the show’s tenure), as most of the other signifigant cast members who werne’t already names in voice acting have quitely gone back to doing other work instead. Unsuprsingly, she does a terrific job as the doppleganger panics and flees. 

The fleeing though takes said Doppleganger to a creepy shed, confident they have to run again.. only to run into a trap. Thankfuly a compact left there allows Luz to communicate and make it clear Luz can’t get her life back yet, and has no intention of outing this creature: she just wants to know WHY and wants to help. 

So the Doppleganger explains: her name is Five, or Vee as she prefers to call herself and she is a baslisk. And once again having missed a few episodes bites me in the ass as the last time we saw one was in the first day, when one disguised itself as an inspector. Because of course something MASSIVELY important to the show’s future was tucked in a throaway episode. 

We also find out why that one exists despite i’ts species apparently being extinct: turns out the Doppleganger IS Belos fault after all.... just not directly.  Vee was one of may baslisks created by the Emperor’s coven, bringing them back to study their magic sapping abiltiies. And while it does confirm to me that clearly Belos has some design to stealing magic instead of raising the titan or whatever, as usual finding out another piece of the master plan just leaves me with a nasty case of the...

Though it’s in a good way: while this season keeps piling on the mysteries, it answers JUST enough to make it clear we’ll get answers and each additional question the series asks makes me want to tune in for the answers. It’s okay to pile on the plot threads as long as your ready to weave them together and I have faith the show will. Again they used a one off villian from what’s mostly a throwaway episode to set up a MASSIVE plot point for the next season.  This is a crew that knows how to set up things for the long game. 

So Vee naturally ran but knew she’d never be safe... and it’s proven by the fact her flashback includes Belos having left the house. Dude NEVER leaves his house. LIke ever. We haven’t seen it all series. So the fact he was looking for them personally makes  me belivie it’s that important.. or his house guest just woudln’t quit hogging his couch...

I mean you can’t ask him to just get off he’ll sick his parademons on you.. then you have to clean up parademon blood i’ts a whole thing. 

Vee happened to see Luz at the human stuff stand during “The Lying, The Witch and the Warden”, and jumped in.. and thus ended up in Luz’s place for camp, deciding to stay since Camilla was so nice. And we do see more of her softer side here: In the earlier scene she was genuinely worried about Luz throwing her old stuff out, clearly just wanting the camp to help Luz straighen up a bit not destroy her personality and here she decides to take Luz!Vee herself instead of waiting for the bus, and let’s Vee pick the playlist. 

This episode does a VERY good job for the most part making up for the pilot which has left a series long bad taste in my mouth. While the episode did show Camilla as tired from both work and Luz’s shenganigans... her shoving her daughter in a camp instead of getting her therapy or anything else just didn’t read well, especially since the camp was specifically an analogue for a conversion camp and Luz is bisexual, which just.. added subtext Dana clearly didn’t think through till it was too late. This episode instead reframes Camilla as a pastionate carring woman who takes the time to bond with her daughter and just wanted her daughter to stay in school and be a bit more mature, and simply took a bad route to do so because no parent is perfect. I think the pilot simply stumbled by going too far with the camp, and making it into a possible conversoin metaphor via comparing it to the conformatorium, and thus making Camilla come off FAR worse than she really was all along. Now I can see why Luz want’s to go back so hard.

So Luz being a kind soul instead gladly helps vee escape the trap, getting that the poor girl was just looking for a home and found one with her mom. Luz even offers to cut a deal: Since Luz CAN’T get home having a doppleganger there whose not trying to cook her mom into a stew is really handy, and Vee needs a home. So Vee fills in till Luz can get back, and once Luz does, she’ll find Vee somewhere to live. Honestly I woudln’t be shocked if Luz just intedned to find some way for Vee to live with her and Camilla and simply needed to think of how the hell that’d work, and didn’ promise it upfront to avoid hurting the poor lizard monster. 

But there’s an issue: Vee can’t shapeshift without eating magic. And the human world isn’t exactly full of magic for her to snack on. Thankfully Luz is clever enough to think around that too spotting a newspaper that contains some ramblings about witches that will be important later.. but more importantly the other side: Eda, who was naturally nearly arrested fleeing a coffee shop. And since the portal was only destroyed about 2 months ago, given the timeline of this season, that means there should be something left from her. It also helps Vee can sniff out  magic. 

So first stop the Coffee place, where it turns out to no one’s shock Eda tried to pay with a live possum. Also her alias in the human realm is Marilyn.. which as man other fans noticed.. was the name of Stan Pine’s vega ex wife. It’s very clear Dana heard our fan theories and decided fuck it let’s make it canon.  And being a supportive boyfriend and king of all trolls Alex naturally agreed to that. Eda tried bringing crossants to life they had to throw them out, and now they have a new problem.. which vee finds when she goes back out to be intellegent rats who HUNGER FOR MORE KNOWLEDGE FOR MORE MOREEEE

I dunno though they COULD help beat Starro the conquerer, just saying. 

So Vee naturally nopes out so they decide to snoop around.. and find a hidden piece of Hatchetfield Gravesfield lore. 

Yeah.... so... not only did Phillip come from Luz’s very town and was clearly an important figure there... but he had a BROTHER. A hidden brother who probably died there. Or something.  That was shocking enough.. but as always my close personal friend and hunter superfan @jess-the-vampire​ naturally noticed something I did not: Phillip’s brother.. looks JUST like hunter. Similar hair same nose.... while Phillip, now we have more of a face, looks even MORE like Belos.  Which means... Belos modeled hunter after his brother. So either he’s using someone he molded after his brother as a human sacirfice or this is all a smokescreen to bring his brother back using an innocent child as a vessel.  Either way...

Why is it EVERY TIME I think Belos has sunken as low as humanly possible.. he finds another level. At this point he’s at the seventh circle of hell getting high with the french or whatever the 7th circle of hell is.

Anyway, back to the plot as Vee finds some wayword teens with Luz not exactly happy about having to talk to them because of her insecurities. Vee on the other hand knows them from camp which they describe as prison. Hahahahahahaha it’s almost like Camilla shoudln’t of sent her daughter there and the episode shoudln’t be putting all the emotional baggage on one of the Noceda’s. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH

Again the episode does a good job smoothing that plot point over, I just wish they’d stop going around the side and come up front and knock about it. 

But yeah the teens are friends of Vee’s, who shockingly didn’t find the camp all that bad after spending her early life being forced to drain rats by a bunch of shady fucks.. one of whom is CLEARLY warden wrath. Dude. you have a precious darling baby boy who’s clearly eaten someone’s whole head right off their shoulders. You need to give him more heads to eat I get that, but this isn’t how you sadistic jackass. Get a dental job or something. Stop improsning folks and expermenting on innocent beings you brought back through the power of magiscience. 

Point is she’s seen worse and they Goth Girl clearly into vee, apparently Noceda’s have a type even if they just met this morning, found said cards at the local museum. So after predeicting osme stuff and casuing some more shapeshifting (which goth girl brushes off as cool contacts.. though really I think she’d been into a blobby lizard. Just saying Vee go for it), Vee runs off. 

So we head to the museum... sadly Robin Williams dosen’t come alive as Teddy Rosevelt here but there is a helpful desk clerk played by Sonic the hedgehog named Jacob.... because apparently I coudln’t keep my track record of Jakes in anmiation clean forever... least i’ll always have this guy..

Jacob is seemingly nice helping Vee out and gladly giving her some of the hexas holdem cards eda was just going to throw away. It’s here Luz tries to find Common ground with Vee both as runaways.. only for Vee to lay into Luz. Luz had a loving mother, a nice home why did she leave... even if Vee also admits had Luz not left, Vee never would’ve found this place or Camilla. But this works better than a lot of the shaming Luz for leaving moments, as Vee dosen’t have context: Vee dosen’t get the camp was terrifying to Luz, nor get that Luz had IMMENSE guilt over what she’d done, and only got stuck there beecause she did the right thing.. and as we’ve seen said right thing failed anyway as Belos has the door rebuilt and now the key. Not only that it’s now clear his plans have a specific time frame meaning they had time to get the door back... and now don’t even realize Belos still has it. The sad truth, and something the episode is keenly aware of is both Vee and Camilla, who we’ll get to, don’t have the full story: While Luz did fuck up by leaving and then choosing to stay, it’s more complicated than her running away and we know the harsh truth of that.. and so does Camilla but again getting ahead of myself. 

Like I said though Jacob seemed nice to Vee... until he leads her into a creepy room with a trap. Yeah turns out the guy trapping random animals and setting up a camera in the creepy shack on the Noceda’s property, was this douchebag.  The irony of Sonic the Hedgehog being the one to stuff animals and other sentient beings into cages is not lost on me. Maybe he took the breakup with sally harder nit his universe. I don’t know. I’m not his therapist.

Jacob is a conspiracy therorist, having succesfully found out witches and demons exist and have a rich history with this town. .but also beliveing their from mars and extracting our teeth. Dude.. you have it completely wrong.. the martians already visited my backyard of Missouri years ago. Specifically Blaine. 

So Jacob’s plan is to cut her up on Mewtube and get his account verfified. Okay first off this is apparently the earth from star vs.. the same one she crammed into another relaity. So either that hasn’t happened yet or i’m reading too much into this. I don’t know which. Second, dude, Youtube is horribly strict about everything. Their not going to let you put an autopsy video on there.  They don’t even let ACTUAL creators put videos within fair use on there, what makes you think “Me cutting this very real creature open” isn’t going ot get taken down in moments, let ALONE verified. Then again this is a man who sees a wonderous creature from another realm.. and wants to carve it up out of paranoid fears about mars. Which the mutants terriformed since the martians were wiped out leaving only John Jonns anyway after the blaine martian accidently brought the mind flu back. Get your facts straight son. 

Vee decides to get rid of Luz.. not out of anger.. but because she wants to kep Camilla safe.. and Luz, having realized Luz isn’t a bad person. So she breaks the mirror Luz was using to commuincate, the Compact having been lost earlier. Luz however. .has a backup plan. luz goes into Camilla’s phone, confesses everything and gets Camilla to follow. 

Granted Cam just thinks this is some elaborate stunt.. but once again shows she dosen’t hate the weirdo her daughter is deep down. She saved all of Luz’s things from the trash can, as i’d hoped but I missed it on first watch, and plays along with what she thinks is an elaborate large. 

Sonic the Douchebag easily busy Camilla is from the goverment and makes her sign a vocal waver saying he gets first dibs, because of course, before taking her to see Vee. He then rants about the towns history and stuff... and we get even MORE lore. Turns out long ago two brothers made a deal with a witch... one of whoms face is missing, the one clearly modelded after our boy and the other.. clearly phillip. While how much of this is fully true is uncertain, it’s very clear Phillip didn’t go alone, there’s more to this, we’ll likely get better. Point is this town is a nexus ponit for witches and while camilla is getting ab it disturbed she’s finally forced to face reality when Vee’s revealed to her, with Luz insiting it’s real.. and the video footage from the creepy shack of Vee transforming from Luz confirming everything.

Camilla is understandably stunned as hell, but Luz’s empathy shows again, with Luz insiting Vee isn’t bad.. just a lost child who needed a home. And one look in her second child’s eyes confirms this to camilla... Vee never INTEDNED to steal Luz’s life.. she just wanted A LIFE. And all those months of bonding and time together.. that was real. it’s an intresting take on a shapeshifter story... for once the being is’nt some malevolent villian.. they just wanted a life. It’s why the characters really don’t call Vee out: she didn’t have the capacity to realize what she did was wrong till the concsequences hit her in the face.. and Camilla is empathetic enough to see that. 

So Camilla naturally isn’t going to let disecty mcgee cut her baby open and demand he let this child go. Jacob naturally isn’t buying especially once Camilla let’s it go sh’es not from  the goverment.. and Camilla proceds to beat his ass with a shoe, after telling him to let them go, pointing out the fucker has been setting up illegal traps and survellince and given Vee can just be hidden, talking about a lizard person is’nt going to help his case.

So Camilla beats him with the shoe, leaves him in the cage and take sher daughter home.. and it starts to rain, allowing Luz to appear in gold. 

So ready to have your heart broken? Camila is still processing this.. but takes Luz trying to come home to heart. Then said heart gets stabbed when luz let’s it slip she CHOSE to stay. 

Camilla takes it poorly.. but the HOW makes it sympathetic. She talks abotu Luz living a witch “fantasy”.. not getting this was Luz’s real chance to live out something like that.. before blaming HERSELF. While I wish the camp was brought up directly.. this still works, with Camilla clearly IMPLICITLY saying she feels responsible and Luz having to tel lher no. That’s the saddest part: it’s clear now Camilla had no idea just how deeply unhappy her daughter was here. Luz had no friends, too scared to approach people actually like her, rejected by anyone she caught feelings for, by her very school and it’s draconian policy on otter costumes. Luz NEVER fit in here and all Camilla tried to do, while love her daughter and nurture her, was encourage her ot fit as a square peg in a round hole instead of finding out WHY her daughter was acting out. Luz matured in the boiling isles because she had the space to challenge her boundries while realizing while others were in place, to actually be nurtured and challenged by her school and mentors. Camilla is a good mother.. but like many mothers with Neurodivergient children she just can’t get that being normal.. isn’t something we really CAN do, and fitting ina nd getting people is just hard for us, hard for anyone. It’s something I hope she’ll realize in the future but get her not having a big breakthrough as her heart breaks. 

Luz promises Camilla wasn’t the problem and promises to get home.. and then Camilla makes a mistake again... like any parent.. and wants Luz to promise to stay as the transmission fades and she’s yanked out of the portal.. and Luz does... even though she knows she can’t possibly keep it and doing so would mean loosing EVERYTHING that’s made her a better person. 

Luz returns home, shellshocked, lying to her family as the door collapses... and utterly horrified about the choice before her. 

End of Part 1

Final Thoughts:

What a shock the final episode of this half of the season was excellent. As I said up top, this season has taken what was already a good show.. and made it truly astounding. Every episode this season has been great, and this is a great note to go out on, ironing out Camilla’s characterization from the first episode into a loving strong woman who simply dosen’t get what she’s gotten into, giving us a wonderful loveable new character in vee.. and a hilarous and horrifying antagonist of the week in Jacob. Seriously RCS does a HILAROIUS as hell job, while Elizabeth Grullon does an utterly gamechanging performance as Camilla.  This episode is a depressing, but awesome note to go out on

So yeah as for the season as I keep saying, it’s awesome so far. It just keeps getting better, giving us more great characters and a larger world. I have no real complaints or things to interject here, this season is the show at it’s peak and I hope in the future Disney gets better about their release schedule and let’s these episodes be released on plus once half a season endsd instead of waiting for the whole season so people can watch it faster. Though that itself just might be a broadcast thing left over. We don’t know. 

So that does it for these Owl House reviewcaps for the year. Thank you for coming, thank you for staying, thank you for reading the article. If you enjoyed this, I have more juicy articles 4-5 times a week, so check back in often. If you like me covering disney shows on a weekly basis, check back in october when Amphibia starts back up.

 And if your really enjoying my work kick over to my patreon, RIGHT HERE.  For one dollar a month you get A FREE REVIEW OF ANY SINGLE COMIC ISSUE OR TELEVISION EPISODE, to vote in polls, to pick shorts when I do clusters of them, and to access brucey bonus reviews like that time Scrooge McDuck got into wig related shenanigans, a bunch of scott pilgrim stuff or an episode of darkwing duck. It also gets me to review other stuff by hitting my stretch goals: each person that joins gets me to one and joining up alone gets me to review amphibia season 1 and tuca and bertie (both seasons). And if that’s not enough right now I have a membership drive going on through the end of august. if at least ONE PERSON jonis before the end of august, I will review quack pack, the ENTIRE series in two to four meaty posts. God help me. And if three people join up in addition to a bunch of other stuff, I will review ALL OF SEASON 1 OF THE OWL HOUSE in two meaty posts. So if you want to hear what I thought of season one and finally get me tow atch the peisodes i missed, sign up today! And i’ll be adding some other brucey bonuses as we get closer to the end of the drive so check back then!

[out-of-this-dimension]

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others.  We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox.  Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better.  Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all.  Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually.  However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular.  Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive.  I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64.  I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return.  I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies. 

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story.  I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars.  Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky.  Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it.  An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.  

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault.  Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure.  Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault.  This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids.  We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma.  We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma.  That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him.  While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels.  If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels.  Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are.  But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.  

- Revise the scene with Tricky.  I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done.  And why is he suddenly king now?  Did his parents die?  He seems not affected by this at all?  Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it.  Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big.  As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out.  Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously.  And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved.  I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again.  I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive.  This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids.  I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that.  Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask?  I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”.  Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest?  I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off?  They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back.  Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing.  Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning?  Or maybe back in Katina?  And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force.  It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival.  Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen?  I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission.  I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.  

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals.  Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies.  While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well.  While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray.  Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”.  As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion.  Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there).  But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this.  He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids.  Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo?  Are they safe somewhere else?  Where do they go?  How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs.  A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me.  While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out.  I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be.  “But why, Amalia?  Why are you disappointed by that?”  1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes.  2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy.  And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures.  Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later?  Where were the Krazoa in all of this?  Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers?  It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much.  Which I mean, sure.  Family, kiddo game.  I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant.  As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins.  Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations.  Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast.  Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened).  I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it.  I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria.  Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault.  Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible.  It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it.  Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion.  Why?  Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level.  Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team.  Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria.  The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short.  It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware.  I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place?  I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic?  Also where is my revised Adventures music?  Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t? 

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign.  I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints.  I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign.  Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels.  Self-explanatory.  Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.  

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points.  I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers.  It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good.  Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly.  I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it.  And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault.  But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot.  For variety’s sake.  

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind.  So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future.  I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading!  Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s?  Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

[oxbridge-quality-fanfiction-co]

The Lovelorn Monster

Welcome to my first Modern AU, which I wrote for @lovelyrita1967  It’s a Geraskier Romcom with extra suffering and gore! Also, it’s a Christmas fic as @booichiboo requested. 16k, M.

You can read it on AO3.

Summary: It's been many months since the mountain incident. Jaskier is alone on Christmas day. His lovely, old house has somehow become a monster-infested hellhole. Now it seems there might be a way to kill two birds with one stone. Only deciding what actually needs killing is much more complicated than that.

cw: blood, so much blood, also a lot of angst (although there’s a happy ending), suicide references, some Geraskier disagreements and heartbreak. No sex, but there’s a fair bit of angsty cuddling and some much less angsty kissing.

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When I am laid, am laid in earth, May my wrongs create

No trouble, no trouble in thy breast;

Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate.

Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.

Dido’s Lament, Henry Purcell, adapted from The Aeneid

Jaskier stared at his beautiful, tall, richly dressed Christmas tree with pride and a wistful smile. Each ornament was a souvenir or a gift. This tradition gave his decorations deep meaning, but also made him reluctant to come anywhere near the tree this year.

Memories. He had a cardboard box full of them. There was a delicately carved wooden heart covered in rich, red paint he received from Countess de Stael. Then his favourite - a perfect, tiny copy of his lute he had ordered to celebrate his first successful performance for the royals. He even had a little doll that a sibele, a demon who steals children, was using to lure a baby when Geralt cut off her head.

Geralt never approved of Jaskier keeping the toy, let alone using it as an ornament. ‘I don’t need keepsakes to remind me of the last time I killed something,’ his gruff voice would say.

Well, this year it’s going up. Jaskier picked a spot for the doll with a rebellious toss of his hair. It was quite a nasty, clumsily knitted thing. Seeing it on the tree succeeded mostly in creating an uncomfortable lump in his throat as he imagined Geralt sitting on his living room sofa, relaxed, with a snide smile, some acerbic remark already forming in his head.

Perhaps Geralt would ignore the doll. ‘You just love making yourself sentimental,’ he’d say instead, seemingly no connection, just a short, judgmental glance at the tree.

And Jaskier did, actually. No shame in that. It had its benefits. In his mind, Geralt could easily become just the memory of a perfect, lost friend, regardless of how he would feel about the prospect. He was the hero Jaskier once traveled with, no more, no less. They parted ways for perfectly rational reasons.

‘Just give me a couple of years,’ he said to the imaginary Geralt in his mind and smiled with pride. Being the storyteller meant being in control.

Then he noticed a little ornament shaped like a golden dragon lying at the bottom of the box. The sight made him freeze for a moment. He shook off the memory and ignored the draw towards his phone which has been intensifying over the last couple of days.

Everything was going fine. The phone was just playing music, lying perfectly innocently on the windowsill as it should. It was set on shuffle, and Annie Lennox’s “Dido's Lament” was on, a little bit ominous, but also somehow appropriate.

He hummed with the music while hanging up a few golden baubles. As he started to sing, another voice joined in, a distant echo of his hum, a gentle, female timbre following along quietly. It made him smile, eyes suddenly attracted to the window. It was already getting dark, and the Christmas lights he put up outside were reflecting in the glass. A weird glow by the evergreen shrubs made the snow underneath them shine delicately.

The decorations were nearly complete. There was a comforting smell of cinnamon and apples coming from the kitchen. Also, he still had some surprisingly successful homemade ginger biscuits left.

The golden dragon was the last thing he hung on the tree. He flinched a little as he did, but it was where it belonged. Then he moved away to admire his finished work. ‘Better late than never,’ he whispered to himself.

At that exact moment, the next song started to play. Jaskier instantly recognised it and stared at his phone as if it personally insulted him.

‘It's been a blue holiday since you've been gone,’ Aretha Franklin started to sing.

‘Oh, no you don’t,’ Jaskier whispered while walking calmly towards his phone.

‘Oh darling, won't you hurry, hurry home,’ she continued undisturbed.

He actually liked the song and was starting to wonder if he was overreacting.

‘It's been a blue… a blue holiday. And I'm all alone.’

No, he wasn’t.

‘My dear I need your love to keep… to keep me warm.’

Yeah, sure, like that was ever an option, he thought to himself.

‘I cry when I hear the chapel bells ring… And sometimes I cry all through the night.’

Fuck. Jaskier’s fingerprint lock was a little wonky.

‘Won't you please come home and make my… make my holiday bright.’

Finally, he managed to skip a couple of songs, and quickly discovered he actually preferred some silence this time. He took a deep breath and decided it was time to focus on cooking. That should be comforting enough.

As soon as he turned towards the kitchen he heard a weird, buzzing sound, and then a high, disembodied laugh. Lights flickered. There was a loud crash, a cavalcade of many little objects falling all at once, baubles suddenly bouncing off his furniture. A glass ball he bought at a little Christmas market in Vizima rolled in between his feet.

He swore under his breath and turned back. All the ornaments were lying on his wooden floor, and only the Christmas lights remained. A small dark shape with sharp horns moved along the wall and then disappeared behind the sofa, still giggling to itself.

Jaskier stared at the naked tree, feeling a bit hopeless. Then he climbed up the sofa pillows and looked into the tight space between the wall and the backrest.

Two small, red eyes stared back.

‘Proud of yourself?’ he asked with irritation and heard only a quiet hiss in response. ‘You know what? Fuck you. Sincerely, fuck you.’ He pointed at the thing, his eyes narrowing. ‘No more biscuits for you. You’re going down,’ he threatened, a surprising and, by all accounts, disproportionate amount of uncurbed fury in his voice, hand shaking slightly.

For a moment Jaskier seemed overwhelmed. He took a couple of very deep breaths, then coughed a little and his eyes watered. ‘Right,’ he said to himself, his attempts to calm down obviously failing. He stretched his neck, then rolled his shoulders, releasing the tension with a sigh. ‘Right,’ he repeated as his expression switched to resolve.

He squeezed his phone with newly found determination, and then fiddled with it nervously for much longer than he originally planned.

Finally, he clicked on his least favourite icon of all - the phone app.

The signal was ringing loud in his ears. Time slowed down. He was just about to hang up when he heard a deep voice on the other side. ‘Yes?’

‘Vesemir,’ Jaskier announced, jovially. ‘Merry Christmas!’ He listened to Vesemir return the greeting and massaged his temples nervously. ‘Yes, thank you. Erm… I was just wondering… No, no, I am not going to hang up. Whatever gives you that idea?’ He laughed nervously. ‘I do need help. It’s a dreadful emergency. No… Of course, I would have called otherwise. Yes, it’s quiet because I’m at home. No, I have not been drinking. I am most definitely sober. Yes, yes, yes… No, I do realise… I actually do have a monster that needs to be… witchered? No, it’s not just one, actually… It’s- it’s a couple of things, really. I know it’s Christmas. Yes, I see your point. But… isn’t Geralt working anyway?’

He waited as the line went quiet for a while. ‘Yes, I did just ask for Geralt,’ he confirmed.

No response. Vesemir must have moved away from the phone, and there was a sound of distant chatter. When he returned his voice was hesitant. ‘You’re sure about this?’ he asked.

‘Yes, I definitely want Geralt here. As soon as possible would be grand,’ Jaskier confirmed again, surprised at how confident he sounded.

‘Fine,’ Vesemir said finally, before hanging up right away, voice a bit more irritated than the situation justified.

Jaskier put the phone away and tried to force himself to breathe again.

You can read the rest on AO3.

********************************************

Extra thanks to @ohmybgosh @variousnoises

@thelastsock​ @jaskierswolf​ @rawrkinjd​ @katesierra​ @gilbert-von-kneecap​ @stinastar​ @carmillacarmine​ @ro-the-bard-writer​ @ikeptupwiththejoneses​ @purpleonionofsex​ @marvagon​ @fontegagrilledcheese​ @sarah-midnight​ @geraskierficrecs​ @renfribrooks​ @darknessyuu​ @comfortabletextiles​ @gosh-diddley-darnit​ @ohjules​ @short-potato​ @anie6142​ 

@valdomarx​ I know you don’t read Modern AUs but this one has a wyvern, a rusalka and Geralt is still a witcher. Also, I love you. That’s my argument.

[thewatermelloncat]

Safe House

Summary: After leaving the most boring party, Denali finds herself worried about a stranger.

Author’s Note: The Punk!Rosé fic that I promised a while ago. Kind of took a different direction and is a bit darker than I intended for, but that’s how it worked out.

WARNINGS: REFERENCED SEXUAL HARASSMENT/ADVANCES

Read on AO3

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Not that Denali had been to many parties but she was sure that they were supposed to be more exciting than this. Sure, she had been having a great time until her friends ditched her to go hook up with someone or another. Now she regretted offering to drive, figuring that if she had alcohol in her hand, it would make the night slightly more bearable.

Still, she tried to stay hopeful and friendly, attempting to make conversation with people until they starting speeling off about something she didn’t understand, or until they, like her friends, decided to go make out with someone instead.

Overtime it wore her down and that is how she found herself sitting on the tiles next to the pool, staring at her.

“Who is she?” she asks Olivia, a girl she only vaguely knows from her maths class. Interrupting her unsubtle flirting attempts with the self-proclaimed school weirdo, Utica. Looking over at someone across the pool.

“That’s Rosé” Olivia says as she giggles at Utica tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Stay away from her.”

Denali was about to ask why but Olivia suddenly laughs loudly at something that Utica whispers to her and follows her out of the pool.

Well, that’s another person lost. Denali sighs as she leans back on her hands. After closing her eyes for a second and debating whether she should leave, she feels someone watching her.

Opening her eyes, she finds the girl she now knows as Rosé staring back at her. She almost looks as bored as Denali feels. Her head leant against the brick wall of the house; pink hair tossed messily over one shoulder as she takes a long drag from a cigarette. She shifts slightly as she realises Denali looking back at her, almost with a smug confidence as she exhales slowly. The smoke curling out from parted lips.

Intrigue has Denali sitting forward, she feels like she knows her from somewhere around the school but she can’t place where it was that she’s seen her. Doesn’t even know where she sits at lunch or what classes she takes – maybe they’ve shared a few. Though she won’t go over to her and ask.

For now, she’ll keep her distance, locking eyes with her from across the pool. Then Rosé smirks and looks away, seeming to not be interested in her anymore. Denali looks away too, though with growing interest, she can’t help keeping on staring back.

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

More conversation attempts fail and Denali decides to pull the pin and call it a night. She moves around the rooms of the house asking if any of her friends she had driven want a ride home, but by the looks of things they’ll be riding home with someone else tonight.

Fishing her keys out of the pocket of her bleached denim jacket, she walks out to the road, unlocking her car when she gets to the curb. Hopping into the driver’s seat she sighs and leans back against the headrest, ready to head home. Her legs are tired from standing around and she just wants to change into comfortable clothes and climb into bed.

Sticking the keys in the ignition she gives it a twist and does her seatbelt up as the engine rumbles on. She lowers the volume of the radio as she slowly pulls out from the curb, sparing one last look at the house and the people still milling around outside. Then she turns back to focus on the road.

It’s about half a block down the street that her foot absentmindedly pushes on the break, slowing down as she sees a person with pink hair walking ahead of her along the footpath. Without thinking she pulls up beside them.

“Rosé” she says as she rolls down the window. “Get in. I’ll give you a lift.”

Rosé stops walking as she turns to the car. If she was surprised to see Denali, her face doesn’t show it. Then she blinks and keeps walking.

“Rosé” Denali eases her foot off the break, allowing the car to roll forward alongside her. “It’s late, you shouldn’t be walking home alone.”

“Who are you to know what’s best for me?” Rosé says flatly without looking at her.

“I don’t” Denali acknowledges just so she doesn’t annoy her. “I’m just trying to do something nice.”

Rosé’s pace falters as she judges that Denali truly is just trying to do her a favour with no strings attached.

“And I’m technically driving on the wrong side of the road here. So, if you could get in soon that would be great.”

Rosé chuckles a little as she waits for the car to roll to a complete stop before she rounds it to climb into the passenger side. “Thanks” she says as she shuts the door behind her. The word sounding broken and Denali suspects that she doesn’t say it often.

“Where do you live?” Denali asks when she starts the car again, pulling over to the correct side of the road.

“Not far from here” Rosé says before she starts to give Denali directions.

The directions she gives her worry Denali. As they drive down roads and turn corners, Denali recognises this area as the part of town that her parents always warned her to stay away from and never visit alone. A nervous glance to Rosé reveals nothing of uncomfort as they continue along until Rosé shifts in her seat.

“Just drop me here.”

Denali follows her gaze to an empty spot of curb with no driveway in sight. So, she slows but doesn’t stop. “I’ll drop you off right outside” Denali refuses, knowing what Rosé is doing.

“It’s not far from here” Rosé tries to insist but still the car doesn’t stop. She looks at Denali and sighs deeply, knowing by her expression that she won’t give in. “Five houses ahead, on the left.”

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

Satisfied with finding an actual driveway, Denali pulls the car to a stop. As far as the houses she’d seen around the area go, this one isn’t too bad. A rusted gate falling off of its hinges, a wonky gutter, and if the sun was out, she is sure she would see chipping paint, but the windows all seem to be intact and the lights are still on.

Rosé seems to recognise an extra car that is parked in the driveway, and flinches slightly back in her seat. If Denali hadn’t been watching her, she probably wouldn’t have noticed, but she did and now she’s hyperaware of the nervous expression across Rosé’s face. Though she seems to settle herself with a soldiering breath before she undoes her seatbelt and opens the door.

“Rosé you can get back in” Denali calls out to her when Rosé hadn’t moved far, stopping for a few seconds to stare at the house. “I can take you somewhere else.”

Rosé shuffles her feet for a moment before she turns to step back through the open door.

“Is there anywhere else I can take you?” Denali asks gently.

“Okay, yeah” Rosé says to herself, closing her eyes as she seems to assess whether her idea could work. Then she opens them and nods down the road straight ahead, “there’s a place a block that way.”

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

“Here?” Denali says pulling up to the house Rosé directed her towards.

Rosé doesn’t reply but her leaning forward, appearing to be searching for something out the window is answer enough.

“Fuck” she curses leaning back in her seat in defeat. Looking like she’s about to cry.

Denali hears her mumble something to herself but she can’t make out what it is and pulls out from the curb again, not bothering to ask about it. A wave of concern washes through her when Rosé doesn’t even question that they are moving again, instead just seeming to accept that she’ll get out wherever the car drops her off.

For the rest of the car ride Rosé is in her head, staring blankly out the window and not saying a word. The only thing that notifies Denali of her getting out of it is when the car stops in front of a modern looking town house and she pulls in a breath, her brows knitting together.

“Come on, let’s get out” Denali prompts. “You’re staying the night with me.”

“I…” Rosé falters as she starts to shake her head. “You don’t even know me.”

“Rosé. I think I’ve learned a lot more about you in the last half hour than I’ve learned about friends I’ve had for years” Denali says before she hops out of the car.

“Well then, I barely know you” Rosé raises but follows Denali out of the car anyway.

“Alright” Denali turns to her, walking backwards on the way to the front door. “I’m Denali. I love to ice skate, I sing overly loud to songs on the radio, and currently my parents aren’t home. Tonight, I went to the most boring party but I met a girl I’m worried about, and I want her to spend the night with me. Just so that I know she is safe.”

To that Rosé can’t find anything to say, but the tension in her shoulders relaxes and she follows at a quicker pace. And for Denali that is enough.

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

“There are extra blankets in the cupboard” Denali says as she steps back into her room from getting changed in the bathroom. Finding Rosé sitting cross-legged on the mattress she had pulled out for her, dressed in the darkest comfy clothes Denali could find her.

Rosé looks up from her hands on her lap where they are bunched in the sleeves of the hoodie that she had been wearing under her leather jacket, which now lies immaculately folded at the end of the mattress. Like she’s afraid that anything looking less then perfect will disrupt the appearance of Denali’s bedroom.

Denali sighs to herself as she continues straight to the cupboard to pull out a blanket, knowing that Rosé would never ask for one if she needed it.

Rosé smiles smally at her when she places it at the end of the bed, but she doesn’t reach forward to touch it.

“Let me know if you need anything, okay?” Denali says as she climbs into her own bed and Rosé does the same.

“Everything is fine, Denali” Rosé assures.

Something about the articulation of Rosé saying her name sends a rush of butterflies through her, and she smiles as she turns out the light.

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

Vaguely Denali becomes aware of the rustling of a sleeping bag. She would have thought Rosé would just be getting comfortable but the sound keeps going far too long for her to just be changing position.

Blinking her eyes open, curiosity has her hitting the lamp switch and pushing the covers off of her legs before crawling to peer over the end of her bed. Clarity settles over her when she sees the edge of the sleeping bag bunched tightly in Rosé’s hands and her breathing irregular as a nightmare plays behind her eyes. Denali chews at her lip and moves her legs under her to sit cross-legged, knowing to wait until Rosé wakes up on her own.

In films and TV shows she’s seen people surface from nightmares with a sudden scream and dramatic rise from the bed – it doesn’t happen like that. Eventually Rosé stills and her grip on the sleeping bag relaxes slightly. There are a few seconds where she breathes shakily before she opens her eyes. Then she lies there, seeming to gather her surroundings before she slowly pushes herself up into a ball, tucking her legs to her chest and resting her head on her knees.

“Rosé?” in the quiet of the room Denali’s whisper seems deafeningly loud.

“Go back to sleep, Denali” Rosé doesn’t look up from her legs, her voice quiet and fragile.

Not even considering to, Denali climbs off the end of her bed to sit next to Rosé. “I’m not going to ask if you’re alright” Denali introduces as she puts a comforting hand between Rosé’s shoulder blades. “But I would like to know what is going on, if you’d tell me.”

“I’ve just got a lot on my mind” Rosé looks up again, drawing in a deep breath.

“Do you want to talk about it? It might help you sleep better.”

At Rosé not immediately refusing, Denali takes it as answer enough. Reaching forward she picks up the blanket at the end of the bed that had remained untouched and wraps it around Rosé’s shoulders, hoping to stop her shaking.

Without any words, Rosé clutches the edges of the blanket tightly in her hands. She nods slightly but Denali knows she’ll have to lead the conversation.

“The car in your driveway. Who does it belong to?”

“Family friend” Rosé’s voice sounds heavy, like it’s hard for her to speak. “Didn’t know they were coming over.”

“They not very nice?” Denali asks gently.

“Wouldn’t know. Barely ever see them sober… But if you ask anyone else, they’re too nice. If you get what I mean?”

Denali isn’t quite sure she does, so she asks, “what do they do?”

“Flirt, stare, sly comments on physique” Rosé lists very quickly, her tone bitter.

“You?” Denali checks, her eyebrows knitting together.

“Of course, me” Rosé scoffs. “Every time I see them.”

Denali gasps smally and stares wide-eyed for a while until she realises that she should say something. “Do your parents know?”

“Yeah” it almost sounds like a sob, and Rosé chews at her lip. “They’re in the same room.”

“And they do nothing?”

“To them it’s all just a complement. Who wouldn’t want to be told how hot they look? How they’ll have boys fighting over them if the men don’t get to them first?”

“Have they – has the friend… tried to…” Denali can’t even finish her sentence.

“No, they haven’t touched me” Rosé says. “Maybe put a hand on my leg, or tried to hold my hand or something. But nothing more than that.”

“And your parents don’t care?”

“As long as I come home twice a week so that they know I’m still alive, they don’t give a single fuck about me” Rosé shifts to pull her hood up and Denali habitually moves the edge of the blanket back over her shoulder when it had slipped off.

“The other house you took me to?” Denali introduces as a means of changing topic.

Rosé nods, accepting the change of conversation. “A friend, Mik. He doesn’t go to our school, but we’ve known each other for a long time. Sometimes we’ll stay over at each other’s places if something goes rough for one of us.”

Denali nods in recognition as Rosé takes a breath.

“Except tonight his window was open, which means he’s out.”

“Do you go over there often?”

“A few times a month.”

“Rosé” Denali sighs sadly before she shifts closer to her. “Can I?” she asks, tilting her head towards her shoulder.

“Mhmm” Rosé hums with her jaw clenched shut, like she doesn’t want to admit she wants the contact.

Denali smiles smally as she leans her head against Rosé’s shoulder, wrapping her arm around the back of her waist. Needing to hold on to her more so for her own comfort than Rosé’s.

“I’m scared, Denali” Rosé’s voice is faint but it breaks the silence that had fallen between them.

Wordlessly, Denali shifts her head against Rosé’s shoulder to get a better look at her. A sign for her to continue.

“I know it’s going to sound ridiculous, but I’m afraid to sleep in my own house when he’s there” she shakes her head as she speaks. “I’m terrified that I’ll wake up and he’ll be standing over me.”

“It’s not ridiculous” Denali affirms as she lifts her head but leaves her arm around her waist. “You have every right to feel how you do and I’m so, so sorry that you have to think about these things.”

Rosé’s breath shakes as she breathes in.

“Is that what you dreamt about?” Denali pieces together.

Rosé nods, biting again at her lip.

“Do you want to talk any more about that?”

She shakes her head and Denali notices the tired lines under her eyes and wonders when the last time was that she got a proper night’s sleep.

“You should get some more sleep.”

“I” – Rosé starts and Denali knows she’s about voice doubts about whether she can.

“This is going to sound wrong” Denali introduces, cutting her off, “but you can come up to bed with me. There’s plenty of room for both of us. But you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Rosé looks hesitant but when Denali moves from her side, she follows.

“Do you want me to leave the lamp on?” Denali asks as she pulls the covers over both of them.

“I don’t mind” Rosé says quietly as she settles down next to her.

“I’ll leave it on” Denali decides as she settles down into the mattress as well. “Rosé?” she says hesitantly as she finds her hand and holds it under the covers.

“Hmm” Rosé hums without opening her eyes. Sleep taking her faster than either of them had expected.

“You’re safe here. I won’t let anything happen to you” she promises squeezing her hand gently.

As she closes her own eyes, she feels Rosé’s grip tighten back. Then it relaxes as her consciousness drifts away.

[pastpatientlywaitingforimagines]

Some thoughts on Zugzwang

A/N: This ended up coming in at just under 1k words, which means I consider this a drabble and not a full fic! It won’t read like my usual writing, it’s all in present tense and contains almost no dialogue. 

I wrote this as a part of my Galaxy Universe (MASTERLIST), it can also be read as a free-standing BAU!Reader x Platonic!Spencer drabble though!

WARNINGS: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR 08x12, regular CM things

Tossing it under the cut because of the amount of spoilers in this thing

You weren’t at Spencer’s apartment when he woke up. He had fallen asleep reading the night before after you had gone home. He was on his way to meet you when he stops to call Maeve because he had promised you he’d reschedule his date with her, and after the dream he had he knows he needs to do it then. He calls you as soon as he gets the message, he wants you to be there when he’s meeting with Hotch.

From that moment on, you’re essentially full Spencer support at the beginning of the case/presenting to the team because Spence is part of the victimology. You do what you can for the team to make up for the loss of Spencer’s brain, while simultaneously making sure he is not completely losing it.

Hotch sends you to the loft with Morgan and JJ. He reasons that if Maeve is there you’ll be the best person for her to talk to and also the best person to tell Spencer he’s right if she isn’t there. You want to stay with Spencer but can’t argue with Hotch’s reasoning.

As soon as the sweep of the loft is done and it’s determined to be an active crime scene, Morgan calls Hotch and you call Spencer. You try to be delicate and also stay honest about the fact that Maeve is actually missing, but Spencer’s anger about learning that Maeve was engaged is messing with his emotions about the whole thing. You go with Spencer, Hotch, Morgan and Rossi to talk with Bobby Putnam.

You get a weird feeling when Diane opens the door, but can’t sort out the cause before Spencer recognizes Bobby from the restaurant and Hotch is pushing him out the door. When Hotch comes back in he asks you to wait in the hallway with Spencer, and doesn’t explain further. You are the one who suggests you wait outside, claiming the older building is giving you the “heebie jeebies”.

You were going to tell Diane to leave when she comes outside but Morgan beats you to it, something you’re a little salty about because you’re still taking responsibility for maintaining Spencer’s sanity. You stay quiet while Morgan has his little heart-to-heart with Spence, it’s a Moreid bro moment that you decide doesn’t need interference. If Morgan had been saying something stupid though, you would have stepped in.

You’re with Spence when he makes the connection that Diane is the unsub. It relieves you a little bit, knowing Spencer’s head was clear enough to make the connections as well as the concrete direction the team now had to finding out where Maeve was.

You aren’t surprised or offended when Spencer picks Blake to do his cognitive interview. Alex is the most emotionally removed from the team just because she’s the newest, you know you would be biased and too wrapped up in making sure Spencer is ok to be effective if he had chosen you.

You stay with the rest of the team, trying to work on solidifying the celebrity stalker theory. It’s during this time that Rossi suggests you take a break- even just to drink a cup of coffee. You aren’t really given a choice, and as you’re standing in the kitchenette sipping at the hot liquid you realize the amount of tension you’ve been carrying all day (and hiding from Spencer). It’s a welcomed reprieve from the chaos, and you feel much better and ready to work when Spencer and Blake come back with their breakthrough.

You’re sent with Blake and Morgan to check out the Junior College that Diane works at. You’re still not super happy to be separated from Spencer, but both Rossi and JJ separately reassure you that he’ll be ok with them and they’ll call you if anything happens. Nothing turns up at the college, so you head back to home base to find Spencer building a geoprofile.

You agree with Hotch that Spencer shouldn’t be part of the takedown on account of his possible death, but as soon as Spencer explains his reasoning why he wants to be there, you’re strapping on your vest and very sternly telling Spencer not to take his vest off under any circumstances.

“Spencer,” you stop him right before you get into the SUVs.

“Yeah?” he turns around quickly, frantically.

“I trust you on this, but you’re the only you we’ve got. You deserve to have good things, and you deserve to live. Tell me we’re making it out of this in one piece.”

Spencer looks you up and down, obviously noting your sincerity by the way his breathing changes and his eyebrows raise, “we’re making it out of this in one piece.”

“That’s all I needed to hear,” you sigh, squaring your shoulders, “let’s go get your girl.”

(A/N round 2: This almost directly leads in to my fic Cosmos)

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