#you get a pouty jason face because he's confused

[jadeylovesmarvelxo]

18+ mdni. Smut and jealous reader deciding to cause a little chaos.

Popular bitchy reader grows annoyed over Eddie's attention being directed at the new girl in Hellfire.

🎀✨

You were used to Eddie's attention being only on you, the both of you driving each other crazy and continuously trading barbs and witty banter.

Robin was deadly serious when she told Steve the latest gossip about you two, that she was sure that your arguing was some weird form of foreplay. Both of you for sure got off on it.

Now though? now you were bored, upset and very pouty. The latter which Eddie secretly loved and it was all because of her, the new girl at Hellfire.

Her name was Kimberly and she was your mortal enemy, or as mortal enemy as one could get in senior year at High School.

At least for this week.

Eddie had of course noticed how pissed you were at him hanging and paying attention to someone other than you. He knew you were jealous and he was waiting for you to admit it.

Meanwhile if you heard Eddie laugh at Kimberly's joke one more time you were going to lose it.

So instead of whining and crying about Eddie being so focused on someone else you decided to distract yourself.

Distraction came in the form of Jason, much to Eddie's fury which made your flirting with Eddie's enemy all the more sweeter. Eddie's rants against the dark side escalated by the day and he takes particular care in calling out Jason, and the "balls he throws into laundry baskets being bigger than Jason's own balls"

It's thrilling watching him be so jealous, serves him right for trying to make you pissed and envious over whatshername.

Eddie finally cracks on Friday and walks over to you all dark eyes and clenched jaw, tense and seething.

"What the fuck are you doing with Carver?" He demands and you take your time answering him.

"Oh, I think it's called flirting" you reply and if it's possible his eyes narrow even more, you peer up at him and act confused.

"Why do you care so much, when you have Katie at your beck and call" the anger leaves his features and he smirks.

Shit you gave away too much. "It's Kimberly, she's new to Hellfire sweetheart. I was just showing her the ropes. Not my fault you're a jealous brat"

You glare at him, gather the things from your locker, take time to apply some lipgloss and watch Eddie grow irritated once again.

"Jason's so much nicer to me than you, I don't know why I even like you so much Edward" you reply to him and he huffs in frustration.

"Are you happy now my attention is back on you princess?, incase you haven't noticed, you're all I think about" He seethes, furious he's confessed his real feelings for you.

Elated you grab your bag and his gaze follows you as you walk out of the school and make your way towards his van, for some privacy.

"Oh I've been so awful Eddie, maybe you'll need to teach me a lesson?" you add in a pout for maximum effect and his control snaps, and he pulls you too him, kisses you until the both of you break away panting from the intensity.

"You are the only person I want. Is that what you want to hear?" Eddie demands but his gaze is a tiny bit softer. Thrilled you kiss him again and tug him inside the van.

...

You're so lost in finally being with Eddie, both of you fucking each other until you're both babbling, incoherent messes, that you don't here the knock on Eddie's window.

His van door opens, there's a shriek and you peer up, Kimberly blushes as she takes in the image of you sitting astride Eddie, tits bouncing up and down, both you and Eddie's faces full of bliss.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry, I didn't..." she trails off mortified. You roll your eyes at her babbles and squeeze around Eddie tightly, causing him to moan.

"Eddie's a little busy right now, in fact he's going to be busy with me a lot from now on, so cut the cutesy uwu girl act and back off, kay?" You add sweetly and Kimberly nods rapidly and rushes off.

Eddie is gazing at you torn between amusement and exasperation. "Princess" he chides and you shrug and begin to rock your hips in a way that makes Eddie's eyes glaze over and soft swears leave his mouth.

"Now, where were we?"

[amomentsescape]

Hi! I love your stuff, especially for the slashers. Wanted to ask for them (the slashers, specifically including michael, bubba, jason and stu) with a reader who wants to join them in killing/wants to try it with them? Out of curiosity or wanting to help them or some morbid desire, the reasons up to you. If you end up doing this then thank you! <3

Slashers with Reader Who Wants to Kill with Them

A/N: Thank you so much! I’ve included the specific Slashers you requested. But I wasn’t sure if you were asking for just them or if you wanted all of them. If you’d like to see the others, feel free to pop in my inbox again, and I’ll make a part II! :)

Michael Myers

Michael was drawn to you for a reason

There had always been a bit of darkness brewing in you, so being with a serial killer only brought that out more

When you brought up the idea of you joining along, Michael was unsure at first

He felt that you may be too fragile to risk the danger

Although terrible at showing it, he didn't want you to end up dead

But when you kept insisting, he finally gave in

You were just forced to not leave his sight the entire time

He doesn't like you getting to the target first

He'll let you finish the job (sometimes), but he wants to be the one to knock them down

He would also want you to use a knife during the killings

Anything loud would be an immediate no

When he realizes that you may like killing as much as he does, this soon becomes a regular thing for you both

It's as romantic as Michael will ever get

He teaches you different areas on the body to target

Shows you shortcuts along the paths so you can always get to your target

But he'll be there to help you out if things go south, of course

Just don't expect him to share all of this secrets

He enjoys having that advantage over you

If you get badly injured though, it's game over

Jason Voorhees

He's pretty iffy about this at first too

His mother is the main driving force behind his crimes, so although he doesn't mind killing, it's not pure passion that drives him

So when you shared that you were interested in doing what he does, he felt a little confused

Your safety is his number one priority, so he would be pretty adamant to not let you do it at first

However, if you put your foot down, he'll give in

Will give you your very own weapon (something quiet) and teach you how to use it

Would probably bring home some random victim for you to try to kill the first time around

He wants to make sure you really want to do this (and being at home meant you were safer)

If you tell him that you truly enjoy it, then he'll take you out with him

But don't leave his sight

He'll become very pouty if you run off

He's very sweet to you after everything either way though, carefully using warm water to wipe off the sweat and blood from your face

Bubba Sawyer

The hardest one to convince out of these

You just wanted to help him and his family out, but he continuously refused

Bubba doesn't even really kill for enjoyment

He does it because it's how his family survives (or so he's been told)

So you wanting to join is mind boggling to him

It's way too dangerous anyways

But he is quite a softie for you so if it's really important, he'll eventually give in

Always has to be there and helping you though

He won't let you do anything on your own

Will give you a run down of the land and help you memorize the layout

Sounds of joy whenever you kill someone yourself

He's very sweet with cleaning you off after too

But if he sees even one scratch or bruise, he will not let you outside for a long time

You basically have to repeat the begging and reasoning with him all over again before he considers letting you help him after that

Stu Macher

Hell yeah

Stu is all over this and is basically over the moon

Killing wasn't exactly in your things to do, but the more you watched Stu come home with a high, the more you wanted to try it out

He starts rambling about what your outfit should be, where to get the best knife, who would make the best target, etc.

Wouldn't let you do any killings on your own at first

He has to make sure that he is just a few steps away so that he can help you if things don't go as planned

Seeing you in blood is an immediate turn on

He will definitely make out with you over the dead bodies

Constant praises over what you did right and how hot you looked doing it

Raiding the victims' pantries and eating their food after everything

He especially loves to shower with you at the end of the night and hold you close

All of this gets to the point where he doesn't even want to go on a killing spree unless you're there by his side

[multi-fandom-friend]

“Let’s do something fun, yeah?” “Like what?” “Let’s go to a rave” “You’re Joking”

COME GET YOUR FOOD UOU SIMPS. so I got this idea from an artist named @razorsystem on here. They had art of Jason and crew in rave outfits, and being a part of rave culture myself, and the little voice in my brain annoying me until I wrote this, this now exists. Enjoy loves! TW FOR FLASHING LIGHTS AND BRIGHT COLORS ON THE DIVIDER AND FOR THEMES OF DRINKING AND BIG CROWDS

🦇Bruce🦇

🦇 when you first asked him to go? It went a little like this

🦇 “Hey Brucie?” “Jesus, I know that tone. You want something.” “Can we pleaaaase go to a rave?” “Absolutely not” “why?” “I’m too old for that. Drinking? Dancing? Flashing lights? Not my thing.” 🦇 you being you? You convinced him. And he got outfits. Pretty expensive ones too but he’s a hot millionaire what did you expect?

🦇 Once you got there he was a little uncomfortable but once he had a drink and started dancing with you? He was fine. He kept his guard up, of course, but he was fine. 🦇 on your way home he stopped and made you two get pizza and everyone in the pizzeria was looking at you two. A 6 something foot tall scary dad aged man and his partner sticking onto his arm as they giggled together in a bright colored rave outfit

🥀Jason Todd🥀

🥀 when you first asked him he was so confused as to what a rave even was

🥀 “Hey Jaybird?” “Yes, love?” “There’s a rave tonight, wanna go?” “What the hell is a rave?” “What’s a— Jason? How have you never heard of a rave? It’s basically a party with a bunch of bright colors, lots of loud music with even more bass in it, and good vibes. Wanna go?” “Will there be lots of people” “…..yeah?” “I dunno. Maybe.” 🥀 Just like his dad he’s hesitant, but he goes eventually. He probably had more fun than you did if we’re being honest. 🥀 y’all got there and he was having the time of his fucking life. And he didn’t wanna tell you but he loved the outfits you two were wearing, but he hated the thigh high latex boots with a small heel that you made him wear. It’s not that they were “too girly” or anything because he doesn’t think clothes have gender he just didn’t entirely understand how to walk without looking like he had a pole up his ass, so you had to teach him. 🥀 once he got the walking down pat, he could dance with you. He didn’t wanna drink because he still had to keep his guard up and walking in these shoes are hard enough sober just in case. 🥀 he made you two leave a little early but you had fun nonetheless. He ordered takeout and you picked it up on the way home.

💎Dickhead Grayson💎

💎 Immediately said yes.

💎 “Hey bluejay? Wanna go to a rave toni-“ “yes. A thousand times yes.” 💎 and then he showed you a photo of him at a rave when he was younger. 💎 You couldn’t believe your eyes. Your Bluejay in short shorts, a latex shirt and leather harness with platform boots and glitter coating his body was in that photo. 💎 then he got dressed and jesus fuckin Christ he looked awesome. Glittery, but awesome. He helped you get dressed and then sprayed you down with iridescent glitter spray that got in your mouth and everywhere glitter probably shouldn’t be

💎 once you got there, he grabbed drinks for you both and started dancing with you immediately. He had so much fun

💎 he still made you both leave early, just for safety reasons. 💎 he also got pizza with you and you two were standing there like two giddy hyenas. Like seriously. You both couldn’t stop laughing for a good 25 minutes.

🐍 Damian Wayne🐍

🐍 it took so much convincing and so much prodding but you got him to break. 🐍 “But Damieeeee!” “No.” “Come on! I promise you’ll have fun!” “Nope.” “Pleaaaase?” 🐍 you did your pouty face and he broke. 🐍 he got his dad to buy you both outfits and you went

🐍 hated how many people there were. Hated it. So much. But you started dancing with him and he calmed down instantly

🐍 you both left after about an hour and went home, he needed a good pair of very loose sweatpants and a very loose shirt, and a good long cuddle session and he was all better.

A/N hi y’all! If you could follow me or even like this post that would be highly appreciated. Thank you!

[halothenthehorns]

Chapter 2: THE BRONZE DRAGON

Magnus saw that last word and just stopped. Just sat there frozen and looked like he wanted to cry. Why? Why was Percy's life like this?

"Magnus?" Under any other circumstances, Magnus would have been equally confused and delighted why Alex sounded so concerned over him.

"The, Bronze, Dragon," he slowly drug out every word like he was trying to suck the water off of a rock. A very pointless and disgusting task.

"Whatever nice things were said about Hephaestus need to be revoked right now!" Percy agreed with every dreaded line on Magnus's face.

Nico made a little yeep noise as well, his first thought being Bianca leaping into that thing's mouth and making it do the chicken dance as well.

"Please let this be an adventure about you getting shrunk down and fighting an armadillo lizard*," Jason was the only one who sounded excited. Then Percy considered for a moment and even nodded like that could have some fun before Magnus read on in dread before anybody else got crazier ideas.

One dragon can ruin your whole day.

"One dragon can ruin someone's whole life Percy!" Magnus groaned. He begged of the following words to please be something like Peleus with a stomach ache! An actual, made-up bad dream? A very oddly themed birthday party for some kid not cursed by the universe?!

"Surely that's why I'm there, to make it go from one to the other," Percy offered with half-hearted hope of his own he just had to help a dragon egg hatch or something cute and innocent... like his life was ever that easy.

Trust me, as a demigod I've had my share of bad experiences. I've been snapped at, clawed at, blowtorched and poisoned. I've fought single-headed dragons, double-headed, eight-headed, nine-headed and the kind with so many heads that if you stopped to count them you'd be pretty much dead.

"Nobody was ever going to ask you to reminisce about the hydra Percy," Thalia sighed. Why couldn't that have been his worst dragon experience?

"Frankly all that just made me think to ask you, again, how are you alive?" Jason nodded.

"Luck and some mild skill," Percy reminded.

But that time with the bronze dragon? I thought for sure my friends and I were going to end up as Kibbles "n" Dragon Bits.

The evening started simply enough.

"It always does with you," Will nodded without surprise. He alone seemed to have a pretty good idea what this one was about, and aside from rubbing Nico's arm to help chase those shivers away he didn't want to spoil the fun for anyone.

It was the end of June.

"Oh," Percy said in surprise as he did a double take. "This happened, before that thing with Clarisse though! That explains the weird smell!"

Nobody else had a clue what he was talking about, they just all kind of assumed Clraisse smelled like motor oil.

I'd come back from my most recent quest about two weeks before, and life at Camp Half-Blood was returning to normal. Satyrs were chasing the dryads. Monsters howled in the woods. The campers were playing pranks on one another and our camp director, Dionysus, was turning anyone who misbehaved into a shrub. Typical summer-camp stuff.

Magnus stopped cold like he'd been the one turned into a shrub. Which was ridiculous, he didn't have a single leaf on him.

"He turns them back Magnus," Will shrugged.

Magnus counted to ten in his head before deciding against asking for further details.

After dinner, all the campers were hanging out at the dining pavilion. We were all excited because that evening capture the flag was going to be totally vicious.

The night before, Hephaestus's cabin had pulled off a huge upset. They'd captured the flag from Ares – with my help, thank you very much –

"Nobody was thanking you Percy," Thalia scoffed.

"Well maybe more people should," Percy tried to give her big pouty eyes, but it was ruined by everybody laughing to much and he couldn't begin to hold it.

which meant that the Ares cabin would be out for blood. Well... they're always out for blood, but this night especially.

On the blue team were Hephaestus's cabin, Apollo, Hermes and me – the only demigod in Poseidon's cabin. The bad news was that for once Athena and Ares – both war god cabins – were against us on the red team, along with Aphrodite, Dionysus and Demeter. Athena's cabin held the other flag and my friend Annabeth was their captain.

"I need politics and details stat!" Jason turned and pleaded to Percy like he was going to fall on his knees.

Will lit up, clearly all for going into the latest drama that had caused such shifts in dynamics to occur, but Thalia and Percy groaned in sync, quite loudly. Seems as if unless they were the ones running the teams they weren't going to happily sit around and play back who had pranked whom, what revenge was needed, and the height of impressing others.

Jason sighed but reluctantly gave in that could take hours just to get caught up on a week's worth, but gave Will a very obvious look as if book marking him for later.

Annabeth is not somebody you want as an enemy.

"Which is why Percy seems to make a life goal of it!" Alex chuckled with a very pointed gesture at him like they'd missed her target.

"I only aim for the best," Percy puffed his chest up with pride and swooped back his hair.

Thalia smacked him in the stomach, causing him to deflate and the gray strands of hair to fall back in place as she smirked, "in everything except grades."

Right before the game, she strolled up to me. "Hey, Seaweed Brain."

"Will you stop calling me that?"

"I didn't call you anything," Will said innocently.

Only Nico laughed while the others groaned even louder at the terrible pun. Though Magnus ignored them all with interest. That was, in fact, the first time he'd heard Percy wanted her to stop that, and as far as he could tell from the light-hearted smile on his face now and the passive eye-roll, Percy hardly meant it.

She knows I hate that name, mostly because I never have a good comeback.

"The worst atrocity I could name," Alex sighed.

"You should never be brought to a comedy show," Percy said with a hint of dread. She'd heckle anybody and get herself thrown out...though Percy wouldn't believe that wasn't her goal going in.

She's the daughter of Athena, which doesn't give me a lot of ammunition. I mean, "Owl-head" and "Wise Girl" are kind of lame insults.

"Lame but classics," Alex nodded contemplatively. "Surely you could get creative with all the world of nerd insults. Poindexter might suit her, or-"

"We are not going to sit around and make up insults about her, or her cabin," Thalia sighed.

"Just trying to keep the playing field even," Alex said, though raised her hands quickly in surrender.

"You know you love it." She bumped me with her shoulder, which I guess was supposed to be friendly, but she was wearing full Greek armour, so it kind of hurt.

"Both," Jason snorted.

"Definitely both," Percy agreed as he rubbed his shoulder with the biggest smile.

Her grey eyes sparkled under her helmet. Her blonde ponytail curled around one shoulder. It was hard for anyone to look cute in combat armour, but Annabeth pulled it off.

"Cute, huh?" Will's little laugh was so infectious even as he rolled his eyes hard. "How, on earth, Travis ever bet against me that you two would end up together I'll never know when you literally had these thoughts running through your brain."

"Why were there bets?!" Percy seemed to be missing the teasing part of that as he once again frowned at Will. "Where is this magical bulletin board?"

"Right next to the one with play tryout dates," he said saintly. "Up in the Big House, don't know how you've missed it."

Percy didn't seem able to close his mouth to properly get anything back and Magnus took pity on him and moved on before he'd have to.

"Tell you what." She lowered her voice. "We're going to crush you tonight, but if you pick a safe position... like right flank, for instance... I'll make sure you don't get pulverized too much."

"Retreat! Re-treat!" Jason enunciated very clearly. "This is a trap! Percy, please run for your life!" He said it in a pretty bad imitation of a robotic alarmed voice for some reason like a crappy fire drill.

Probably because it would have had as much effect on Percy then as it did now, who was to busy grinning at the challenge to hear a word.

"Gee, thanks," I said, "but I'm playing to win."

She smiled. "See you on the battlefield."

She jogged back to her teammates, who all laughed and gave her high fives. I'd never seen her so happy, like the chance to beat me up was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

"Percy is doomed," Thalia agreed casually. "Apparently even without fighting with me he can't avoid screwing up these games."

"I helped win the last one!" He spluttered, breaking out of his delusion of her hair escaping its helmet to glare at Thalia non-effectively. "You could have a little faith in me, I know her, her tricks!" He ended with a pretty sad stutter and crossed-eyed concern if this was a trick in a trick to make that any kind of believable.

Beckendorf walked up with his helmet under his arm. "She likes you, man."

"Sure," I muttered. "She likes me for target practice."

"Both," Jason said again with absolute confidence.

"Definitely both," Alex chuckled.

"I almost believed you that time," Percy sighed.

"Oh we're serious," Jason and Alex assured.

"Nah, they always do that. A girl starts trying to kill you, you know she's into you."

"What is this, playground rules?" Magnus sighed. He was no fool, he knew full well his cousin liked Percy back, but it was clearly complicated with her for several reasons and he assumed that's why she didn't act on it more. Who was this ding-dong, whose name he only vaguely recognized, trying to assure Percy of anything?

"Makes a lot of sense."

Beckendorf shrugged. "I know about these things. You ought to ask her to the fireworks."

Percy sighed. He'd really been wanting to talk to somebody about this back then, and Beckendorf seemed like the guy all of a sudden, but now that the moment was here...it felt like a waste of breath. What could he say Percy didn't already know?

I couldn't tell if he was serious. Beckendorf was lead counsellor for Hephaestus. He was this huge dude with a permanent scowl, muscles like a pro ballplayer, and hands calloused from working in the forges. He'd just turned eighteen and was on his way to NYU in the autumn. Since he was older, I usually listened to him about stuff, but the idea of asking Annabeth to the Fourth of July fireworks down at the beach – like, the biggest dating event of the summer – made my stomach do somersaults.

Then Silena Beauregard, the head counsellor for Aphrodite, passed by. Beckendorf had had a not-so-secret crush on her for three years. She had long black hair and big blue eyes, and when she walked the guys tended to watch. She said, "Good luck, Charlie." (Nobody ever calls Beckendorf by his first name.) She flashed him a brilliant smile and went to join Annabeth on the red team.

"I think she was beckoning to him," Alex said with a brilliant smile. Will and Nico both laughed hard at the pun while Jason and Magnus joined the groaning this time.

"Uh..." Beckendorf swallowed like he'd forgotten how to breathe.

I patted him on the shoulder. "Thanks for the advice, dude. Glad you're so wise about girls and all. Come on. Let's get to the woods."

Percy laughed along loudest of all. Finally, somebody else's girl misshaps wasn't at his expense!

...it felt a tad forced in his throat for some reason though he didn't like. A nagging idea in the back of his mind that had sporadically been cropping up. Now here, thinking of the beach, talking to Silena, the thought tried so hard to crystalize into something- but the idea was gone as his stomach pitched in pain and his skin felt a great flush of heat. He knew that feeling, he knew better than to mess with a memory like that.

Naturally, Beckendorf and I took the most dangerous job.

"Naturally," Will repeated in a very posh, british voice.

"Because if we gave Will the most dangerous job he'd stop to sniff the oranges to much," Nico smirked.

"We all have our strengths," he agreed without batting an eye.

While the Apollo cabin played defence with their bows, the Hermes cabin would charge up the middle of the woods to distract the enemy. Meanwhile, Beckendorf and I would scout around the left flank, locate the enemy's flag, knock out the defenders and get the flag back to our side. Simple.

Why the left flank?

"Because Annabeth wanted me to go right," I told Beckendorf, "which means she doesn't want us to go left."

"Please tell me you at least considered a double cross? Then a triple cross. Then a quadruple cross-"

"Jason!" Percy groaned. "I'm well aware Annabeth's going to pull one over on me, but I had to pick a lane! I'm sure I threw off her whole plan by just showing up."

Jason just shook his head at him, but then, he also would have been interrogating Annabeth about every layer of her plan if she were here and refused to tell him, so Percy didn't feel that bad about stopping him from pitching every way he was going to be wrong.

Beckendorf nodded. "Let's suit up."

He'd been working on a secret weapon for the two of us – bronze chameleon armour, enchanted to blend into the background. If we stood in front of rocks, our breastplates, helms and shields turned grey. If we stood in front of bushes, the metal changed to a leafy green. It wasn't true invisibility, but we'd have pretty good cover, at least from a distance.

Alex threw her head back laughing. "Somebody got jealous of Annabeth's hat!

"Ooo," Thalia said with interest. "Where's mine?"

Percy had some half-baked remark about her doing extra chores for him to help get Beckendorf's favor, but he choked on the words and nothing really came out except some spit while Thalia patted him on the back with a troubled smile she tried hard to look real.

"This stuff took forever to forge," Beckendorf warned me. "Don't mess it up!"

"You got it, Captain."

Beckendorf grunted. I could tell he liked being called Captain.

Thalia was still listening with great interest, and clearly decided she had her own turn at co-captain with him stuck in her craw more than letting him dwell on why he kept pressing his thumb between his eyes.

"Oh sure, him you just conceded the throne to! I was born to be a righteous, mighty warrior to lead armies, but this guy you just hand the crown."

Percy's shaking hand fell, a teasing smile instantly back. "Try getting accepted into college Thals, then maybe I'll watch you run your own team right into the river."

They even started bartering back and forth about who would get which cabin before Magnus bravely cleared his throat and waved the book around before they realized Annabeth would have to pick a side. That was a blood bath waiting to happen.

The rest of the Hephaestus campers wished us well, and we sneaked off into the woods, immediately turning brown and green to match the trees.

We crossed the creek that served as the boundary between the teams. We heard fighting in the distance – swords clashing against shields. I glimpsed a flash of light from some magical weapon, but we saw no one.

"No border guards?" Beckendorf whispered. "Weird."

"Overconfident," I guessed. But I felt uneasy. Annabeth was a great strategist. It wasn't like her to be sloppy about defence, even if her team did outnumber us.

Jason was over there muttering, "trap, this is a trap," and even spelling it out under his breath repeatedly while Thalia was still smirking and muttering about Percy botching this up like he had to hers. Percy sighed again about what great faith his friends seemed to have in him, but at least the headache was staying at bay.

We moved into enemy territory. I knew we had to hurry, because our team was playing a defensive game, and that couldn't last forever. The Apollo kids would get over-run sooner or later. The Ares cabin wouldn't be slowed down by a little thing like arrows.

"What about trick arrows?" Alex asked with interest. "Tip them in all kinds of fun stuff, or attach any number of things to activate-"

"I think we should just ban Alex's desert privileges before she even gets there," Percy grinned.

"Take away my chocolate, dudette, see what happens," she smirked.

"That sounds like a Chiron problem," Percy shrugged, picking at the hem of his shirt without concern.

We crept along the base of an oak tree. I almost jumped out of my skin when a girl's face emerged from the trunk. "Shoo!" she said, then faded back into the bark.

"Dryads," Beckendorf grumbled. "So touchy."

"Am not!" a muffled voice said from the tree.

Magnus was pretty proud of himself for laughing along at the mild moment instead of, say, freaking out the tree's could decide to kill them all in their sleep. Again.

We kept moving. It was hard to tell exactly where we were. Some landmarks stood out, like the creek and certain cliffs and some really old trees, but the woods tended to shift around. I guess the nature spirits got restless. Paths changed. Trees moved.

"They what?" Magnus yelped like his tail was on fire. "They just, move their whole tree, and roots, and plant them, and, they what?"

"It's pretty funny to watch, they just hike their leaf skirts up and their branches get top heavy sometimes so they-"

Thalia finally smacked Percy to get him to stop while the others couldn't stop snickering at the look of miserable acceptance on Magnus's face when he couldn't decide if Percy was telling the truth, or worse, nobody had any clue how or why the dryads did that and it was just another level of crazy.

Then suddenly we were at the edge of a clearing. I knew we were in trouble when I saw the mountain of dirt.

"A child of the ocean's worst enemy," Thalia snorted. "Take notes Nico."

"I've never tried just throwing soil around," he admitted with a smile that didn't mean he wouldn't be willing.

Percy narrowed his eyes contemplatively who would beat whom, earth-shaker versus child of the Underworld. He'd just have to challenge him to a digging competition to prove it later.

"Holy Hephaestus," Beckendorf whispered. "The Ant Hill."

"Do you all take your parent's names in vain?" Jason startled in surprise.

"Well it would just be weird if he said Holy Aphrodite, now wouldn't it," Percy shrugged.

"So who should Jason pray to? Merlin's Mankini," Alex smirked.

"If I've ever dabbled in witchcraft Alex, I would use whatever spell I could to burn that image from my mind," Jason sighed.

I wanted to back up and run. I'd never seen the Ant Hill before,

Why is Ant Hill capitalized, Magnus let the stray thought flit through his mind without interrupting to point it out. He just wanted a few more seconds of delusional peace this was just a sacred place and they were in awe of all its nonlethal help.

but I'd heard stories from the older campers. The mound rose almost to the treetops – four storeys at least. Its sides were riddled with tunnels, and crawling in and out were thousands of...

"Myrmekes," I muttered.

"Oh this is bad," Jason already realized. Percy never remembered the name of a monster otherwise.

That's Ancient Greek for "ants", but these things were way more than that. They would've given any exterminator a heart attack.

"Me too," Magnus promised with an opener like that.

The Myrmekes were the size of German shepherds. Their armoured shells glistened blood-red. Their eyes were beady black and their razor-sharp mandibles sliced and snapped. Some carried tree branches. Some carried chunks of raw meat that I really didn't want to know about. Most carried bits of metal – old armour, swords, food platters that had somehow found their way out here from the dining pavilion. One ant was dragging the glossy black hood of a sports car.

Magnus face planted the pages and groaned with misery. He'd been expecting a dragon, he'd been trying to mentally prepare himself for scaly beasts that could eat them! Now there were two, or more likely two thousand more deadly things running around! Why was Percy's life like this?!

"Now those are the kind of bugs that can take over the world, survive the apocalypse and become our new lords of the land," Alex grinned with wild delight, wondering if she could turn into something metal.

"They have to work on their infrastructure before I'd consider it," Percy said, resisting the urge to plug his nose through memory.

"They love shiny metal," Beckendorf whispered. "Especially gold. I've heard they have more gold in their nest than Fort Knox." He sounded envious.

"Don't even think about it," I said.

"Now that's a roll reversal if I've ever heard one," Nico chuckled in surprise. His stomach was pitching in disgust at the idea of mounds of treasure, he could all to easily picture Bianca in there picking up a hair pin and his old figurine again...so it was much more fun to imagine Beckendorf holding Percy's straps back at the idea of these things getting their jaws on a gold skateboard.

"I was not one of those weird kids who tried to drown and burn ant hills," Percy sniffed.

"Dude, I won't," he promised. "Let's get out of here while we..."

His eyes widened.

Fifteen metres*50 feet away, two ants were struggling to drag a big hunk of metal towards their nest. It was the size of a refrigerator, all glittery gold and bronze, with weird bumps and ridges down the side and a bunch of wires sticking out the bottom. Then the ants rolled the thing over, and I saw a face.

Magnus was about one word away from throwing this book in that trashcan that vanished things to nowhere. He'd give Percy better memories, he'd make up ones that didn't involve...all of this.

I just about jumped out of my skin. "That's a –"

"Shhh!" Beckendorf pulled me back into the bushes.

"But that's a –"

"Dragon's head," he said in awe. "Yes. I see it."

"So it's only his head," Magnus sighed in relief, the book's saving grace. "I can live with that."

"Right, buddy, you keep thinking that," Will muttered low enough Magnus only squinted suspiciously at him. What on earth made the poor guy think the rest of the body wouldn't come with the head?

The snout was as long as my body. The mouth hung open, showing metal teeth like a shark's. Its skin was a combination of gold and bronze scales, and its eyes were rubies as big as my fists. The head looked like it had been hacked from its body – chewed by ant mandibles. The wires were frayed and tangled.

"Robot dragon," Magnus sighed, trying to decide if that made this horror better or worse. On one hand he could imagine Tyson punching it in the face a little easier. On the other...robot dragon!

"I bet Percy sticks his head in that and tries to scare Annabeth," Alex snickered.

"I'm worried where the rest of the body is," Jason frowned how a camp had a whole dragon buried somewhere in there and what else was just under their feet.

"Hey, I just realized," Magnus looked a little extra miserable now for some reason. "Where's Tyson? I'd feel better with a fire-breathing machine around if he was."

"He went back to the Cyclops forges the week before," Percy said reluctantly. "Trust me, I was missing him right about then too."

The head must've been heavy, too, because the ants were struggling, moving it only a few centimetres with every tug.

"If they get it to the hill," Beckendorf said, "the other ants will help them. We've got to stop them."

"I take it back," Nico said with a puzzled frown. "Everybody at your camp is just nuts."

"So glad to not be the exception for once," Percy nodded his agreement.

"What?" I asked. "Why?"

"It's a sign from Hephaestus. Come on!"

Magnus dropped the book in his lap and pressed his hands to his ears. "I never want to hear of another sign from your parents!"

"This is a good one," Will tried to soothe, though his voice hitching a bit gave away the lie, so he finished, "eventually."

Magnus gave him a baleful look and wondered how many people the robot dragon killed just by stepping on them before that eventually happened. There really was just no point arguing though he should skip to that, Percy's reaction was probably going to be worse than whatever the dragon did.

I didn't know what he was talking about, but I'd never seen Beckendorf look so determined. He sprinted along the edge of the clearing, his armour blending into the trees.

I was about to follow when something sharp and cold pressed against my neck.

"Surprise," Annabeth said, right next me. She must've had her magic Yankees cap on because she was totally invisible.

"I guess that makes sense," Jason chuckled. "She'd know better than to take her eyes off of you."

"She just wanted to jack that armor for herself," Alex smirked.

"She doesn't need it," Magnus said blankly.

"But I'm sure she has a whole speech ready about Percy stealing her thing," Alex insisted.

I tried to move, but she dug her knife under my chin.

"You've been held at knifepoint enough in your life," Nico shook his head, "I think I'm with Alex, she's just jealous she never got her turn at that too."

"I'm sure Annabeth has a list somewhere of what she wants revenge on Percy for and this was just a convenient outlet," Will chuckled.

Silena appeared out of the woods, her sword drawn. Her Aphrodite armour was pink and red, colour coordinated to match her clothes and makeup. She looked like Guerilla Warfare Barbie.

Thalia laughed way to hard at that one, but she'd been making Barbie jokes about that cabin for years and was probably just mad and appreciative of Percy getting to that one first.

"Nice work," she told Annabeth.

An invisible hand confiscated my sword. Annabeth took off her cap and appeared before me, smiling smugly. "Boys are easy to follow. They make more noise than a lovesick Minotaur."

Magnus looked newly traumatized at that sentence. "Who, who would he be lovesick after?"

"Geryon probably, he's the only monster with enough heart and a love of cattle," Alex said slyly.

Most of the others didn't seem to know whether to laugh or gag at that input and Magnus decided to read around her for it.

My face felt hot. I tried to think back, hoping I hadn't said anything embarrassing.

"You did not actually," Jason said helpfully, for once. "Though I'm sure it's just a matter of time."

There it was.

No telling how long Annabeth and Silena had been eavesdropping.

"You're our prisoner," Annabeth announced. "Let's get Beckendorf and –"

"Beckendorf!" For a split second I'd forgotten about him, but he was still forging ahead –

"Right towards the deadly ants," Will sighed.

"Annabeth truly will block out any other thought," Nico sounded grudgingly impressed.

straight towards the dragon's head. He was already twelve metres *40 feet away. He hadn't noticed the girls, or the fact that I wasn't behind him.

"Not the, greatest backup," Jason frowned.

"Credit for determination," Thalia shrugged.

"I bet he invents something that forces people to eat his dust," Alex chuckled.

"Come on!" I told Annabeth.

She pulled me back. "Where do you think you're going, prisoner?"

"I imagine her dragging you all the way back to Alcatraz and throwing you in the cell Braries used to be in just to prove her point," Magnus admitted.

"Labyrinth or no Labyrinth," Percy agreed.

"Look!"

She peered into the clearing and for the first time seemed to realize where we were. "Oh, Zeus..."

Beckendorf leaped into the open and struck one of the ants. His sword clanged off the thing's carapace. The ant turned, snapping its pincers. Before I could even call out, the ant bit Beckendorf's leg, and he crumpled to the ground. The second ant sprayed goo in his face, and Beckendorf screamed. He dropped his sword and slapped wildly at his eyes.

The collective shudder that went around the room may have knocked a few more support beams off their hinges. That went from zero to a hundred real quick from a friendly game to a death sentence. If this kid died, or even was maimed from these horrible injuries Percy was going to take that very personally...

I surged forward, but Annabeth pulled me back. "No."

"Charlie!" Silena yelled.

"Don't!" Annabeth hissed. "It's already too late!"

"What are you talking about?" I demanded. "We have to –"

Then I noticed more ants swarming towards Beckendorf – ten, twenty. They grabbed him by the armour and dragged him towards the hill so fast he was swept into a tunnel and disappeared.

Magnus was left sitting there shivering for several moments at the brutality of that. Bianca's and Zeo's deaths had been blunt, but not so much an out of the blue considering who they'd been fighting and the quests they'd been on. They didn't even know this guy, and it had just shot out of nowhere, like all those shrouds at camp were still waiting to float up.

"No!" Silena pushed Annabeth. "You let them take Charlie!"

Jason took an uneasy breath, trying to keep well off his face he wasn't sure how to take that. She'd saved Percy and Silena's life by doing so, but the cost felt ruthless.

"There's no time to argue," Annabeth said. "Come on!"

I thought she was going to lead us on a charge to save Beckendorf, but instead she raced to the dragon's head, which the ants had momentarily forgotten. She grabbed it by the wires and started dragging it towards the woods.

Percy's mouth was a fantastic showing of his feelings for that. She had never once shown an inclination for stuff over somebody's life, she hadn't even blinked at throwing Deadlus's wings away, she was as much a figurehead in that camp as him for kids to look up to. He'd follow her lead, but not exactly without hesitation when she was going to be crazier than an automaton about it.

"What are you doing?" I demanded. "Beckendorf –"

"Help me," Annabeth grunted. "Quick, before they get back."

"Oh, my gods!" Silena said. "You're more worried about this hunk of metal than Charlie?"

"Did that sign from Hephaestus involve some part of saying a child of Athena would become addicted to dragon heads?" Magnus asked in absolute concern for her mental health.

"You'd be lucky if a sign from a god had a message that clear," Thalia scoffed.

Annabeth spun around and shook her by the shoulders. "Listen, Silena! Those are Myrmekes. They're like fire ants, only a hundred times worse. Their bite is poison. They spray acid. They communicate with all the other ants and swarm over anything that threatens them.

"I liked my world better when I didn't know all of that," Magnus huffed, doing a poor job of ignoring Alex grinning in fascination and studying her hands like she was already imagining them with feelers.

If we'd rushed in there to help Beckendorf, we would have been dragged inside, too. We're going to need help – a lot of help – to get him back. Now, grab some wires and pull!"

Will watched as Percy clenched his hands and prepared to do as asked. He'd been about to follow Beckendorf without a clue. As much as everyone at Camp considered him a leader, it was really they all followed Percy's lead. Annabeth keeping Silena's head on was something to be proud of, Percy was the camp's beacon of who to shine the light on.

I didn't know what Annabeth was up to, but I'd adventured with her long enough to figure she had a good reason for what she was doing. The three of us tugged the metal dragon's head into the woods. Annabeth didn't let us stop until we were fifty meters* 55 yards from the clearing.

Magnus whistled in appreciation. "You drug that thing half a football field!"

"Almost a full blue whale," Alex grinned.

"At minimum as long as these books are laid out," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"It felt as long as the Jersy Turnpike," Percy groaned as he rotated his shoulder in vivid memory.

Then we collapsed, sweating and breathing hard.

Silena started to cry. "He's probably dead already."

"No," Annabeth said. "They won't kill him right away. We've got about half an hour."

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"Is she an entomologist too?" Jason sighed with envy.

"She's a Greek-ologist," Percy reminded with pride.

"I've read about the Myrmekes. They paralyse their prey so they can soften them up before –"

Silena sobbed. "We have to save him!"

"What Silena's siblings are probably thinking of her being in Annabeth's company for to long," Nico muttered. That girl didn't have an ounce of tact...and he was kind of annoyed he probably would have gone into details of their eating habits too without realizing that wasn't helping.

"Silena," Annabeth said. "We're going to save him, but I need you to get a grip. There is a way."

"Call the other campers," I said, "or Chiron. Chiron will know what to do."

"I don't think an exterminator has enough bug spray for this problem, let alone him," Magnus shivered.

"Where's a monster ant eater when you need one," Jason agreed.

"Why would you want Echidna back right now?" Will looked at him strangely.

Annabeth shook her head. "They're scattered all over the woods. By the time we got everyone back here, it would be too late. Besides, the entire camp wouldn't be strong enough to invade the Ant Hill."

"Then why is it there?!" Magnus cried in exasperation, he looked very near tears. "I demand an explanation why you and your entire nutjob of a family feel the need to have this in your backyard!"

"Lots of monsters got in before Thalia's tree was blessed," Will shrugged, completely unphased by his minor tantrum. "As you just read, we can't exactly kick them all out even if there was a reason to."

Magnus sighed and muttered an apology, reminding himself there was just no point in arguing any of this.

"Then what?"

Annabeth pointed at the dragon's head.

"Okay," I said. "You're going to scare the ants with a big metal puppet?"

"Annabeth does love taking part in our play, she's nearly always the star," Will snickered.

Percy gave him a long-suffering sigh. He was not going to strangle Will, he promised himself. He was just having fun, that was overkill, he would not strangle this idiot because of a joke...

"It's an automaton," she said.

That didn't make me feel any better. Automatons were magical bronze robots made by Hephaestus. Most of them were crazed killing machines, and those were the nice ones.

"What does that make Daedalus?" Alex mock whispered.

"The best of the worst," Percy snorted.

"So what?" I said. "It's just a head. It's broken."

"And sadly, I think the mermaids realize that, considering they dragged it there," Magnus sighed.

"Myermeks," Thalia corrected.

"Not if they're going to kidnap people back to their lair and drown them in acid they're not," Magnus sniffed.

"Percy, this isn't just any automaton," Annabeth said. "It's the bronze dragon. Haven't you heard the stories?"

I stared at her blankly.

"How to sum up these books in one sentence," Nico smirked.

Annabeth had been at camp a lot longer than I had. She probably knew tons of stories I didn't.

"Percy, you really don't have to keep repeating yourself," Jason shook his head.

"We just assume Annabeth knows every story ever, she's read every book and probably sleeps on a throne of them," Magnus rolled his eyes.

"I bet her favorite is probably still something mundane, like Star Wars," Alex said with a little wrist wave.

"Star Wars has a book?" Percy asked blankly.

"Would you guys stop trying to confuse the poor guy," Thalia said with a tragic expression as she moved to cover his ears, "you're crumbling his entire worldview!"

Percy smacked her away and called them all clowns and a few other choice words.

Silena's eyes widened. "You mean the old guardian? But that's just a legend!"

"Whoa," I said. "What old guardian?"

Annabeth took a deep breath. "Percy, in the days before Thalia's tree – back before the camp had magical boundaries to keep out monsters – the counsellors tried all sorts of different ways to protect themselves. The most famous was the bronze dragon. The Hephaestus cabin made it with the blessing of their father. Supposedly it was so fierce and powerful that it kept the camp safe for over a decade. And then... about fifteen years ago, it disappeared into the woods."

"Ooooh," Nico said in surprise. "Beckendorf's reaction actually does make sense now."

"Better than some other ancient prophecy about the end of the world," Percy agreed.

"And you think this is its head?"

"It has to be! The Myrmekes probably dug it up while they were looking for precious metal. They couldn't move the whole thing, so they chewed off the head. The body can't be far away."

"But they chewed it apart. It's useless."

"Not to mention, um, why did its batteries run out?" Magnus frowned. What did these things even run on? He'd never thought to ask.

"I'm pretty sure Annabeth could make a toadstool useful," Percy reminded.

"Not necessarily." Annabeth's eyes narrowed, and I could tell her brain was working overtime. "We could reassemble it. If we could activate it –"

"It could help us rescue Charlie!" Silena said.

"Hold up," I said. "That's a lot of ifs. If we find it, if we can reactivate it in time, if it will help us.

"I'm surprised that has you pausing," Thalia said. "Your life is a big series of what if's."

"What if I die, what if I die, what if I die?" Jason repeated, throwing up a finger for each.

"The day I stop worrying about that is the day I get cursed with immortality," Percy reminded with nothing but dread.

You said this thing disappeared fifteen years ago?"

Annabeth nodded. "Some say its motor wore out so it went into the woods to deactivate itself. Or its programming went haywire. No one knows."

"Do they hibernate?" Alex grinned. "Did it go off looking for a mate? Maybe he wanted to go on a better adventure where some poor farm boy finds him and saves the world."

"I need you to keep your ideas far away from Cabin 9," Will frowned at her. "If they make these things any more realistic, I will cry right along with Magnus."

"I'm just trying to foster encouragement and creativity," but Alex batted her eyes in a purely menacing way, a clearly deep want to have a robot dragon that she could ride into battle and slay the entire planet.

"You want to reassemble a haywire metal dragon?"

"I want Annabeth to have normal hopes and dreams," Percy sighed.

"Sorry Perce, wanting to date you doesn't fall on that list," Jason smirked.

Percy considered for a moment if the trade would still be worth it for his bladder's sake, but he didn't get the chance to linger on it.

"We have to try!" Annabeth said. "It's Beckendorf's only hope! Besides, this could be a sign from Hephaestus. The dragon should want to help one of Hephaestus's kids. Beckendorf would want us to try."

"Never have I yet heard being related to any of this stuff has made it more friendly! With the exception of Tyson!" Magnus balked.

"Exactly, I think some of the other kids are due for some," Thalia shrugged.

I didn't like the idea. On the other hand, I didn't have any better suggestions. We were running out of time, and Silena looked like she was about to go into shock if we didn't do something soon.

Will had a very unpleasant bubbling feeling in the pit of his gut. Wondering at Silena's decisions, if she'd been considering calling Luke for help in some deluded idea. He'd gotten a first hand look at the kind of despair that had been on her face for days and had no wish to keep thinking on all this in the slightest, but it's not like he could boot her out of Percy's memories.

Beckendorf had said something about a sign from Hephaestus. Maybe it was time to find out.

"All right," I said. "Let's go find a headless dragon."

"Maybe if you don't attach his head back he'd be less scary?" Magnus sighed.

"I hope they name him Reid!" Alex grinned.

We searched forever, or maybe it just seemed that way, because the whole time, I was imagining Beckendorf in the Ant Hill, scared and paralysed, while a bunch of armoured critters scuttled around him, waiting for him to be tenderized.

"To bad you can't start a bucket brigade from the kitchens," Jason frowned, "dish soap and lava would probably clear this problem up easier."

"We'll call that plan B," Percy shivered, well aware they only had one chance at plan A for Beckendorf to live...and there was a really horrible feeling deep inside him that made him worry if he even did...

It wasn't hard to follow the ants' trail. They'd dragged the dragon's head through the forest, making a deep rut in the mud, and we dragged the head right back the way they'd come.

"Talk about going around in circles," Percy sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck, "this head's doing full 360's."

"And somehow still making more progress than you on your capture the flag game," Jason muttered, well aware that wasn't on anyone's radar right now, but a part of his mind that never stopped working regardless.

We must've gone five hundred meters* over 500 yards – and I was getting worried about the time – when Annabeth said, "Di immortales."

We'd come to the rim of a crater – like something had blasted a house-size hole in the forest floor. The sides were slippery and dotted with tree roots. Ant tracks led to the bottom, where a large metal mound glinted through the dirt. Wires stuck up from a bronze stump on one end.

"You just know that thing would have some crazy rumors about it if you didn't know what it was," Alex chuckled. "Zues's wifi hotspot, tree that used to house a magic tree house that went evil, flying fish spawn from there."

"I am convinced you are the child of whatever god of stories is out there," Thalia shook her head in pure endearment of her.

"And I love it!" She threw her arms wide and smacked Magnus in the face while the others got a mild laugh from her antics.

"The dragon's neck," I said. "You think the ants made this crater?"

"Ant's are great at excavating their own mounds, but how well do they dig up stuff?" Magnus agreed in surprise that sounded kind of deep in the earth for them to have just found.

"Annabeth would know," Percy frowned he had no clue what was really going on, as usual.

Annabeth shook her head. "Looks more like a meteor blast..."

"Though now I am absolutely over here wondering if Hepeahsuts's big sign was his recreation of the dinosaur event or something," Nico grumbled if he'd thrown a meteor to take this thing out and his kids were just uncovering the remains.

"Hephaestus," Silena said. "The god must've unearthed this. Hephaestus wanted us to find the dragon. He wanted Charlie to..." She choked up.

Jason winced, that didn't seem very in line with these gods he'd heard of. Heaphusts hadn't even flinched when told the camp might be overrun, but he wasn't going to argue the point with anyone right now.

"Come on," I said. "Let's reconnect this bad boy."

Getting the dragon's head to the bottom was easy. It tumbled right down the slope and hit the neck with a loud, metallic BONK!

"I wonder if he enjoyed the ride," Thalia chuckled.

"That had to have been better than getting dragged away from his body," Will nodded, while Percy shivered at the idea of this thing being awake while all that happened.

Reconnecting it was harder.

We had no tools and no experience.

Annabeth fiddled with the wires and cursed in Ancient Greek. "We need Beckendorf. He could do this in seconds."

Alex took a deep breath before saying, "The man who built it doesn't want it, the man who bought it doesn't need it, the man who needs it doesn't know it."

"Are you seriously invoking the freaking sphinx right now?" Percy groaned. "One monster at a time isn't enough?"

"Oh, I know!" Jason waved his hand.

"Poor timing Alex," Magnus agreed while Jason was still glaring at Alex with his hand raised.

"I just thought it particularly appropriate right now," Alex said with the whole hope it didn't actually come true. "And since when do you need permission to talk around here Jason?" She shot at him in exasperation.

"The answer's kind of morbid, just making sure I should," he finally lowered his hand with a shrug.

"No morbid jokes until after the person is rescued," Thalia said swiftly as Percy started looking a little gray around the edges again the longer this dragged on.

"Isn't your mom the goddess of inventors?" I asked.

Annabeth glared at me. "Yes, but this is different. I'm good with ideas. Not mechanics."

"There's an I in both of those words though, so I'm kind of surprised to hear that," Jason chuckled.

"Annabeth's never claimed to be a solo act," Magnus reminded with a hopeful smile. "Even from Percy's first quest she knew she needed someone to get her out of camp rather than trying to go it alone."

Percy grinned with delight at that nugget while Jason nodded his agreement in mild apology.

"If I was going to pick one person in the world to reattach my head," I said, "I'd pick you."

I just blurted it out – to give her confidence, I guess – but immediately I realized it sounded pretty stupid.

"Well at least you finally realize the stupid shit that comes out of your mouth," Thalia chuckled. "Progress."

"Will it stop him from doing it? No," Nico smirked.

"Stop me from doing what?" Will asked innocently.

"Stop encouraging him Nico! You did that on purpose!" Percy groaned in protest to every word of this. Nico was to busy snickering to even pretend otherwise, and it was so far removed from the depressed little kid Percy only had memories of he didn't have the heart to act on that strangling threat again.

"Awww..." Silena sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Percy, that is so sweet!"

"Was it?" Nico asked blankly. Well crud, he clearly had no idea how to flirt.

"Annabeth wasn't impressed, so it's anyone's guess," Percy sighed, a slight blush still on his cheeks.

Annabeth blushed. "Shut up, Silena. Hand me your dagger."

I was afraid Annabeth was going to stab me with it.

Causing very unfair laughter around the room while Percy hung his head. He already had no clue what was going on, did he need a live audience for it?

"Does she kiss you again?" Alex asked eagerly, leaning on the edge of her seat.

"Then we'd have to call her out on bad timing," Magnus shook his head. "Beckendorf's about to die, not him."

Percy was rubbing his lip with a mosh pit of butterflies in his stomach, he couldn't make himself speak or they'd all come out. It's not like he was opposed to the idea, though that was ten times more morbid than even Alex could probably ever be if it was some odd new tradition like holding his hand underground was...

Instead she used it as a screwdriver to open a panel in the dragon's neck. "Here goes nothing," she said.

And she started to splice together the celestial bronze wires.

It took a long time. Too long.

I figured capture the flag had to be over by now. I wondered how soon the other campers would realize we were missing and come looking for us. If Annabeth's calculations were correct (and they always were), Beckendorf probably had five or ten minutes left before the ants got him.

"I trust Percy's internal clock pretty accurately too," Thalia shivered for that poor guy, even knowing the other Huntresses would consider her a traitor for doing it. "He always gets to the microwave right before it goes off."

"The one thing I've never managed to explode, it was to vital to my life," Percy agreed.

Finally Annabeth stood up and exhaled. Her hands were scraped and muddy. Her fingernails were wrecked. She had a brown streak across her forehead where the dragon had decided to spit grease at her.

Percy's fingers curled tight around his camp necklace to try and hide the fact his heart skipped a beat. How was it possible the worse she looked the more he couldn't look away?

"All right," she said. "It's done, I think..."

"You think?" Silena asked.

"It has to be done," I said. "We're out of time. How do you, uh, start it?

Alex frowned and paused and sighed. She knew she shouldn't get offended at them calling the dragon an it, but she'd have preferred if they just kept referring to the creature as the dragon, or even used they, them pronouns. This was a machine though, and she didn't want to start picking fights about that kind of topic right now.

 Is there an ignition switch or something?"

"I really hope nobody left the key in their pocket, we don't have time to find out where the hotwire is," Nico frowned.

Annabeth pointed to its ruby eyes. "Those turn clockwise. I'm guessing we rotate them."

"Are we sure she doesn't have a manual shoved up her sleeve somewhere," Jason looked fascinated how she'd found that out from some wiring and was probably going to be picking up a new hobby soon...hopefully not specifically of the metal dragon variety.

"If somebody twisted my eyeballs, I'd wake up," I agreed.

"Good to know," Thalia nodded to Percy's eyeballs great concern. "My next course of action was to start cutting out teeth if you didn't soon."

"I wake at the drop of a hat," Percy tried to defend.

"When your life's in danger," she completely agreed while Percy looked pleadingly at the ceiling.

"What if it goes crazy on us?"

"Then... we're dead," Annabeth said.

"I always admire her confidence!" Will burst out laughing.

"Yeah, because you've never been on the receiving end of it," Nico muttered.

"Great," I said. "I'm psyched."

"Psyched as an ADHD kid in a filing cabinet," Thalia snickered.

Together we turned the ruby eyes of the dragon. Immediately they began to glow. Annabeth and I backed up so fast we fell over each other.

"Awww, the first thing it sees is what we all put together in the first five seconds too," Alex said with a posh wave of her hand. "So sweet of you guys not to leave him out!"

"You're lucky that dragon's probably color blind Alex, or you'd be his dessert," Percy rolled his eyes.

The dragon's mouth opened, as if it were testing its jaw. The head turned and looked at us. Steam poured from its ears and it tried to rise.

When it found it couldn't move, the dragon seemed confused. It cocked its head and regarded the dirt. Finally, it realized it was buried. The neck strained once, twice... and the centre of the crater erupted.

The dragon pulled itself awkwardly out of the ground, shaking clumps of mud from its body the way a dog might, splattering us from head to toe.

Percy had gotten some in his mouth and he spat nothing out in here in disgust. Silena had looked more like Mud Bath Barbie, and Annabeth seemed to have gone brunette there for a strange moment she was so caked down.

It was, by far, the least important thing to be happening in this memory, but struck Percy as strange all the same why he couldn't get the idea out of his head.

The automaton was so awesome, none of us could speak. I mean, sure it needed a trip through the car wash,

"Which Percy has ample practice in," Jason chuckled.

"I still might need a few test runs to make sure I get the settings right," Percy gave him an obvious look. "Are you volunteering?"

"Only if you promise no flesh eating horses or robot dragons are in there at the same time," he sighed because he knew he wasn't getting out of it now.

and there were a few loose wires sticking out here and there, but the dragon's body was amazing – like a high-tech tank with legs. Its sides were plated with bronze and gold scales, encrusted with gemstones. Its legs were the size of tree trunks and its feet had steel talons. It had no wings – most Greek dragons don't – but its tail was at least as long as its main body, which was the size of a school bus. The neck creaked and popped as it turned its head to the sky and blew a column of triumphant fire.

The longer the description dragged on the quieter Magnus's voice got, until he was sunk far enough back into his seat it looked like it was eating him and he was whispering.

Alex sighed and had no other clue how to get him out of this silly funk, it's not as if a dragon was going to appear in here. So she leaned very close to his ear, he didn't even notice as his eyes never left the page, and casually said, "boo."

Magnus startled, fell out of his chair still hugging the book to his chest, and then lay across Alex's feet for several moments glaring up at her before raising the book to hide her face and continuing to read in a normal volume like nothing had happened.

"Well..." I said in a small voice. "It still works."

"Thank you Percy!" Magnus jabbed at him, letting the book fall against his nose for a moment without care.

"Here to help man," Percy nodded, studying him in concern what they were supposed to do if Alex stepped on his face.

Unfortunately, it heard me. Those ruby eyes zeroed in on me, and it stuck its snout five centimetres* an inch from my face.

Magnus shivered from head to toe, probably causing a new crack in the floor where he lay. He was likely to curl up into the fetal position in moments, and Percy couldn't blame him as he gagged on the remembered smell of gasoline and tabasco filling his nose and the pitiless hunger in those ruby sockets.

Instinctively, I reached for my sword.

"Dragon, stop!" Silena yelled. I was amazed her voice still worked. She spoke with such command that the automaton turned its attention to her.

Silena swallowed nervously. "We've woken you to defend the camp. You remember? That is your job!"

The dragon tilted its head as if it were thinking. I figured Silena had about a fifty-fifty chance of getting blasted with fire.

"The other half is getting her head ripped off like a real Barbie," Thalia informed in case they'd missed that.

"Nah, she's got this," Will grinned. There was a lingering sadness to his smile nobody else understood, but he had full knowledge she could lead anyone into battle, even a dragon.

I was considering jumping on the thing's neck to distract it

"Percy!" Thalia smacked him upside the head. "Why, in the gods names, is that, your, first, thought?" She started smacking him repeatedly on the arm.

"Because I'm pretty sure it would work," Percy shrugged, watching in mild fascination as it seemed to hurt her hand more than he felt it the longer she kept going.

when Silena said, "Charles Beckendorf, a son of Hephaestus, is in trouble. The Myrmekes have taken him. He needs your help."

At the word Hephaestus the dragon's neck straightened. A shiver rippled through its metal body, throwing a new shower of mud clods all over us.

The dragon looked around as if trying to find an enemy.

"We have to show it," Annabeth said. "Come on, dragon! This way to the son of Hephaestus! Follow us!"

Just like that, she drew her sword, and the three of us climbed out of the pit.

"For Hephaestus!" Annabeth yelled, which was a nice touch. We charged through the woods. When I looked behind us, the bronze dragon was right on our tail, its red eyes glowing and steam coming out its nostrils.

It was a good incentive to keep running fast as we headed for the Ant Hill.

Magnus's voice was pitching in and out like bad reception now, ignoring the glitter of Alex's toenails in the corner of his eye easily enough as he still wasn't as convinced as Percy seemed to be that dragon probably wasn't so much as following them but chasing them.

When we got to the clearing, the dragon seemed to catch Beckendorf's scent. It barrelled ahead of us, and we had to jump out of its way to avoid getting flattened. It crashed through the trees, joints creaking, feet pounding craters into the ground.

It charged straight for the Ant Hill. At first, the Myrmekes didn't know what was happening. The dragon stepped on a few of them, smashing them to bug juice.

"Good dragon," Alex crooned.

Then their telepathic network seemed to light up, like: Big dragon. Bad!

"Somebody get me a magnifying glass!" She yelped.

"Alex, it was dark out when this was happening," Nico reminded.

"I can use the moonbeams, I'll get creative," she promised.

Nobody was really sure how that was going to start or end, and they were kind of scared to ask. Magnus, however, finally sat up and leaned against his seat now that at least the dragon's focus wasn't on Annabeth and Percy anymore.

All the ants in the clearing turned simultaneously and swarmed over the dragon. More ants poured out of the hill – hundreds of them. The dragon blew fire and sent a whole column of them into a panicked retreat. Who knew ants were flammable?

"Every psychopath I've ever met," Magnus scoffed.

"Guess you meet more interesting people than I do Magnus, and that's saying a lot," Percy said with a raised brow. The place had been lit up like a bonfire in seconds, how the rest of camp hadn't come running was an honest mystery.

But more kept coming.

"Inside, now!" Annabeth told us. "While they're focused on the dragon!"

Silena led the charge; it was the first time I'd ever followed a child of Aphrodite into battle.

A hiss of pain fell from Percy's lips this wouldn't be the last, but though he rubbed his temple he was almost smiling at the bad feeling too. It was kind of cool to realize in the moment this was Silena coming into her own, getting a chance to realize a memory was so awesome the first time doubled.

We ran past the ants, but they ignored us. For some reason they seemed to consider the dragon a bigger threat. Go figure.

"Their mistake," Jason scoffed.

"I'm not arguing the point," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Because you're an idiot," Thalia chuckled with nothing but affection.

We plunged into the nearest tunnel and I almost gagged from the stench. Nothing, I mean nothing, stinks worse than a giant ant lair. I could tell they let their food rot before eating it. Somebody seriously needed to teach them about refrigerators.

"Would Chiron and Mr. D be okay with them piggy backing off their electric bill though?" Nico smirked. "I already don't think they're holding up their share of the rent."

"It smelt worse than Smelly Gabe," Percy insisted. "I would donate- okay, I don't even get an allowance there, but if this is a recurring problem I'd flip the breaker switch or something!" He smiled at the others getting a laugh out of this while he fought the urge to gag. He was happy for them, truly, they only had to hear about this and not live it...though it only made him miss Annabeth more every word she'd be plugging her nose same as him.

Our journey inside was a blur of dark tunnels and mouldy rooms carpeted with old ant shells and pools of goo. Ants surged past us on their way to battle, but we just stepped aside and let them pass.

"To bad they're not all storming out to argue which is better, Antz or Bugs Life," Alex sighed.

"I'm sure they'll go back to their clubs and debats as soon as their home isn't under attack and the kiddos are full of goo," Nico said with her level of chipper, which was kind of starting to concern Percy. He hadn't sounded depressed in hours.

The faint bronze glow of my sword gave us light as we made our way deeper into the nest.

"Look!" Annabeth said.

I glanced into a side room, and my heart skipped a beat. Hanging from the ceiling were huge, gooey sacks – ant larvae, I guess – but that's not what got my attention. The cave floor was heaped with gold coins, gems and other treasures – helmets, swords, musical instruments, jewellery. They glowed the way magic items do.

"That's just one room," Annabeth said. "There are probably hundreds of nurseries down here, decorated with treasure."

"That's kind of cute," Magnus grudgingly admitted, all of his long, messy blonde hair still mostly on one side he was ignoring and reading through. "I wonder if they burst out and pick a favorite toy or something."

Alex resisted the urge to run her hand through the mess and straighten it out for him as she instead hummed in agreement.

"It's not important," Silena insisted. "We have to find Charlie!"

Another first: a child of Aphrodite uninterested in jewellery.

"I bet if it was cursed jewelry she'd at least hesitate," Jason said in mild defense.

"Nah, she'd find a way to work that curse with her outfit, it's their own magical gift," Percy sighed.

"Right up there with yours getting into trouble," Thalia shook her head.

We forged on. After six more metres* 20 feet, we entered a cavern that smelled so bad my nose shut down completely.

"I'm going to be sick," Percy promised, his stomach rolling at the memory alone.

"This is not class Mr. Jackson," Alex said in a snooty voice. "You were not excused!"

"Does anything get us out of your class Miss Fierro?" Will asked curiously.

She thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. "Nope, you will all sit and listen to my brilliance or so help me you will get homework!"

"You're not even reading," Magnus frowned up at her accusingly, giving her the excuse to swat his bangs into his face and watch him for a moment shake his long hair out to fix it.

"You're more evil than Mrs. Dodd's," Percy frowned, though his hand fell lax from his stomach at the distraction.

"I'm not the one forcing you to read this," she reminded with a touch of hurt, "and the homework is encouraged to be worked on together."

"Okay, just as evil as Chiron," Percy chuckled.

The remains of old meals were piled as high as sand dunes – bones, chunks of rancid meat, even old camp meals. I guess the ants had been raiding the camp's compost heap and stealing our leftovers. At the base of one of the heaps, struggling to pull himself upright, was Beckendorf. He looked awful, partly because his camouflage armour was now the colour of garbage.

"Damn, I don't even think Silena could find a way to match shoes with that," Jason heaved a tragic sigh.

"Hospital gown," Thalia said flatly.

"Charlie!" Silena ran to him and tried to help him up.

"Thank the gods," he said. "My – my legs are paralysed!"

"It'll wear off," Annabeth said. "But we have to get you out of here. Percy, take his other side."

Silena and I hoisted Beckendorf up, and the four of us started back through the tunnels. I could hear distant sounds of battle – metal creaking, fire roaring, hundreds of ants snapping and spitting.

"What's going on out there?" Beckendorf asked. His body tensed. "The dragon! You didn't – reactivate it?"

"Afraid so," I said. "Seemed like the only way."

"But you can't just turn on an automaton! You have to calibrate the motor, run a diagnostic... There's no telling what it'll do! We've got to get out there!"

"I'm now imagining him with seven kinds of wrenches having a fit over a monkey belt or something," Nico admitted.

"Think it's just called a tool belt Nico," Will offered. Nico smiled as he imagined Will pouring over car manuals to try and impress his dad, and then Will showing him a few.

As it turned out, we didn't need to go anywhere, because the dragon came to us. We were trying to remember which tunnel led to the exit when the entire hill exploded, showering us in dirt. Suddenly we were staring at open sky. The dragon was right above us, thrashing back and forth, smashing the Ant Hill to bits as it tried to shake off the Myrmekes crawling all over its body.

The sudden blast of air and light felt like a second rise out of the underworld. Percy remembered gaping up at that monstrosity, fire and smoke setting its golden face like the sun of a new day, sparks flying from every scale as it roared in pain. That dragon had saved their life, and he was once again just left wondering if Grover would want a hug from it or would consider that a first class meal.

"Come on!" I yelled. We dug ourselves out of the dirt and stumbled down the side of the hill, dragging Beckendorf with us.

Our friend the dragon was in trouble. The Myrmekes were biting at the joints of its armour, spitting acid all over it. The dragon stomped and snapped and blew flames, but it couldn't last much longer. Steam was rising from its bronze skin.

Even worse, a few of the ants turned towards us. I guess they didn't like us stealing their dinner. I slashed at one and lopped off its head. Annabeth stabbed another right between the feelers. As the celestial bronze blade pierced its shell, the whole ant disintegrated.

"Great, another thing to lug back," Alex huffed.

"We did not need a trophy of this event," Percy groaned.

"Slackers!" She sniffed.

"I – I think I can walk now," Beckendorf said, and immediately fell on his face when we let go of him.

"There's a right and wrong place for a pratt fall man," Jason said with a nervous laugh.

"Nobody ever said to Percy," Thalia finished for him.

"Charlie!" Silena helped him up and pulled him along while Annabeth and I cleared a path through the ants. Somehow we managed to reach the edge of the clearing without getting bitten or splashed, though one of my sneakers was smoking from acid.

"What is it with your bad luck and shoes?" Jason frowned.

"I was destined to be bigfoot in another life?" He shrugged.

Back in the clearing, the dragon stumbled. A great cloud of acid mist was roiling off its hide.

"We can't let it die!" Silena said.

"Awww," Alex grinned. "Don't ever let someone say I never agreed with a child of Aphrodite!"

"How I wish that would have been her mother's response," Thalia nodded along sternly. The goddess of love was probably up on Olympus somewhere watching and applauding at all the drama instead of actually swooping in to help, if she wasn't engrossed in a hollywood celebrity magazine first.

"It's too dangerous," Beckendorf said sadly. "Its wiring –"

"Charlie," Silena pleaded, "it saved your life! Please, for me."

Beckendorf hesitated. His face was still bright red from the ant spit, and he looked as if he were going to faint any minute, but he struggled to his feet. "Get ready to run," he told us. Then he gazed across the clearing and shouted, "DRAGON! Emergency defence, beta-ACTIVATE!"

The dragon turned towards the sound of his voice. It stopped struggling against the ants, and its eyes glowed. The air smelled of ozone, like before a thunderstorm.

Thalia gave a not-so-quite chuckle at the rare power she allowed to course through her. It was a heady feeling she wouldn't ordinarily enjoy sharing with a dragon for a moment, but this one had saved a camper's life.

ZZZZZAAAAAPPP!

Arcs of blue electricity shot from the dragon's skin, rippling up and down its body and connecting with the ants. Some of the ants exploded. Others smoked and blackened, their legs twitching. In a few seconds there were no more ants on the dragon. The ones that were still alive were in full retreat, scuttling back towards their ruined hill as fingers of electricity zapped them in the butt to prod them along.

Magnus snorted fantastically and threw his head back laughing.

"Are you done acting like the world is ending again?" Alex asked as she watched the nerves twitch around in his throat. He had a really strong jawline usually obscured but for this angle.

"For now," he agreed as he hoisted himself back into his usual seat.

The dragon bellowed in triumph, then it turned its glowing eyes towards us.

"Now," Beckendorf said, "we run."

This time we did not yell, "For Hephaestus!" We yelled, "Heeeeelp!"

Magnus immediately groaned again, eyeing the floor as if considering how much less he'd looked like a dragon sized snack from down there.

"Don't even think about it," Alex huffed as she grabbed the back of his shirt.

"I am being punished for a crime I did not commit!" He huffed.

"The two kind of sound the same," Will offered in a not at all helpful kind of voice. "Maybe the dragon just thinks they're charging off again to a wasps nest next."

"Will, that's worse," Magnus yelped. "You hear how that's worse, right?!"

Percy finally cleared his throat and reminded him to either get it over with or give it up, because, you know, he'd already lived through it.

The dragon pounded after us, spewing fire and zapping lightning bolts over our heads like it was having a great time.

Jason couldn't help a little snort of laughter he tried his hardest to pass off as a muffled sneeze. He couldn't help it, that dragon had been through it and sounded more like a puppy having fun without yet realizing his playmates weren't squealing with delight.

"How do you stop it?" Annabeth yelled.

Beckendorf, whose legs were now working fine (nothing like being chased by a huge monster to get your body back in order)

"There's a whole world of self-motiavting posters and workout videos missing out on this dragon marketing," Thalia nodded.

"One that the mist should keep them very far away from!" Percy frowned accusingly at her.

shook his head and gasped for breath. "You shouldn't have turned it on! It's unstable! After a few years, automatons go wild!"

"Would he have rather they left him for dead?" Nico asked conversationally.

"Not a hundred percent sure being rescued into a dragon chase is what I'd call great," Magnus reminded with exhaustion in every syllable.

"Good to know," I yelled. "But how do you turn it off?"

"Someone really needs to tell Hephaestus it's a design flaw not to be voice activated shut down with a secret password," Will would give them that.

"I'll do it," Percy said without hesitation, which was pretty much the worst person to be sent to do it and also the only one who would tell a god to do it.

Beckendorf looked around wildly. "There!"

Up ahead was an outcrop of rock, almost as tall as the trees. The woods were full of weird rock formations, but I'd never seen this one before. It was shaped like a giant skateboard ramp, slanted on one side, with a sheer drop on the other.

"You guys, run around to the base of the cliff," Beckendorf said. "Distract the dragon. Keep it occupied!"

"That, is the worst sentence, in the English language," Magnus looked pained he'd said those words together.

"Followed very closely by, look, I didn't want to be a half-blood," Percy actually nodded his agreement.

"What are you going to do?" Silena said.

"You'll see. Go!"

Beckendorf ducked behind a tree while I turned and yelled at the dragon, "Hey, lizard-lips! Your breath smells like gasoline!"

The dragon spewed black smoke out of its nostrils. It thundered towards me, shaking the ground.

"Maybe that's a compliment in dragon?" Jason asked bemusedly.

"You are way to calm about this man!" Magnus groaned.

"Percy's not freaking out," he reminded, throwing a thumb at him. "He just kind of looks annoyed at this, I'm betting because he lost his chance to win capture the flag more than this."

Percy smiled his automatic reaction was to agree with that...but it didn't erase the insistent strain on him through all of this. There was something he was forgetting about all of this, something about Beckendorf and Silena, but the circumstances didn't feel right. This did feel like just another day at camp, so it wasn't bothering him to much.

"Come on!" Annabeth grabbed my hand. We ran for the back of the cliff.

"So we can now put underground, and being chased by a dragon on that list," Thalia snickered.

"I, have a minor preference," Percy said, smiling like a dope and not like someone who was being threatened by a dragon. Magnus really felt alone that should be a bigger concern than it was.

The dragon followed.

"We have to hold it here," Annabeth said. The three of us readied our swords.

The dragon reached us and lurched to a stop. It tilted its head like it couldn't believe we'd be so foolish as to fight.

"No, no, like a baby unsure what to do next," Jason grinned in delight. "Think a puppy waiting to see if he gets treats for doing a good job."

"Jason, you are not adopting the electric murderous dragon," Will sighed.

"Aw, come on!" Jason frowned. "He sounds so cool, and I bet Beckendorf keeps him in great order."

"Mrs. O'Leary has a playmate her size," Nico couldn't help but chuckle along.

Alex whooped in delight and loudly seconded that, well hiding Will's wince and no actual answer.

Now it had caught us, there were so many different ways it could kill us it probably couldn't decide which to use.

"Well the fire's obviously his go to, but he probably used up all that on the ants," Magnus said with dripping disdain.

"Stomping you means he'd have to dig out Percy from between his toes, I don't know if they like to groom themselves as well as cats," Thalia nodded along.

"I bet his bite force is, the best, he might want to slice you up just for fun so you don't go down in one swallow," Alex said seriously.

"I am going to find a way to bury this dragon back where he came from," Percy frowned.

"Aww," they all mock groaned like Sally had just threatened to take their new toy away before busting out laughing.

We scattered as its first blast of fire turned the ground where we'd been standing into a smoking pit of ashes.

"Still think this is cute Jason?" Magnus shot at him.

"Like a puppy who doesn't understand he shouldn't bite," he agreed with a sunny smile.

Then I saw Beckendorf above us – at the top of the cliff – and I understood what he was trying to do. He needed a clear shot. I had to keep the dragon's attention.

"Yaaaah!" I charged. I brought Riptide down on the dragon's foot and sliced off a talon.

Its head creaked as it looked down at me. It seemed more confused than angry, like, Why did you cut off my toe?

"Percy, that was just rude and a complete overreaction," Thalia couldn't help but play along with Jason's joke now.

"I got Mrs. O'Leary already trained," Percy said deadpan. "I'm sorry if I hurt the murder-happy dragon's feelings!" He finished in complete exasperation at the pair.

Then it opened its mouth, baring a hundred razor-sharp teeth.

"Percy!" Annabeth warned.

I stood my ground. "Just another second..."

"Percy!"

And just before the dragon struck, Beckendorf launched himself off the rocks and landed on the dragon's neck.

The dragon reared back and shot flames, trying to shake off Beckendorf, but he held on like a cowboy as the monster bucked around. I watched in fascination as he ripped open a panel at the base of the dragon's head and yanked a wire.

"I want that engraved on the cabin's door," Alex said in awe.

"That's, not a bad idea," Will agreed, his tone as light as usual, but a little more wistful than it should have been.

Instantly, the dragon froze. Its eyes went dim. Suddenly it was only the statue of a dragon, baring its teeth at the sky.

Beckendorf slid down the dragon's neck. He collapsed at its tail, exhausted and breathing heavily.

"Charlie!" Silena ran to him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "You did it!"

Annabeth came up to me and squeezed my shoulder. "Hey, Seaweed Brain, you okay?"

"Fine... I guess." I was thinking how close I'd come to being chopped into demigod hash in the dragon's mouth.

"You were great." Annabeth's smile was a lot nicer than that stupid dragon's.

"We all have our own idea of beauty," Jason snickered.

"I'm more surprised he's not thinking, monkey see monkey do?" Thalia rolled her eyes at where he kept touching his cheek as if Annabeth had abandoned him on a real reward.

"You, too," I said shakily. "So... what do we do with the automaton?"

Beckendorf wiped his forehead. Silena was still fussing over his cuts and bruises, and Beckendorf looked pretty distracted by the attention.

Percy huffed and grumbled for a moment he wouldn't know what that would feel like, since Annabeth had gone to studying the dragon like it was another Parthenon she'd need to know every detail of. At least he'd been a part of this story, he realized with a surprised smile. Now next time some idiot kid didn't know the story of the bronze dragon, Percy would get to enlighten them for once.

"We – uh – I don't know," he said. "Maybe we can fix it, get it to guard the camp, but that could take months."

"Worth trying," I said. I imagined having that bronze dragon in our fight against the Titan lord Kronos. His monsters would think twice about attacking camp if they had to face that thing. On the other hand, if the dragon decided to go berserk again and attack the campers – that would pretty much stink.

"Or we could host cowboy events to see who can wrangle it into submission again," Alex offered.

"Chiron will make you sleep in the strawberry fields if you suggest any such thing!" Percy tried to splutter and protest, but some part of him worried their activities director would go for it as some kind of communal practice.

"I can live with that," she grinned in delight, and Percy felt a smile tugging at his lips in admiration. Nothing scared Alex, not a threat even Mr. D could try to put against her would dampen her.

"Did you see all the treasure in the Ant Hill?" Beckendorf asked. "The magic weapons? The armour? That stuff could really help us."

"And the bracelets," Silena said. "And the necklaces."

"There it is!" Thalia nodded like a heavy weight of concern had been lifted away.

"What would you do with all your free time at Camp if you didn't have a feud with them?" Will snorted.

"Be very bored I'm sure, probably help Alex bring more fun into that place. You boys could use the practice," she grinned a smile worthy of a dragon that made all of them silently weep a bit.

I shuddered, remembering the smell of those tunnels. "I think that's an adventure for later. It would take an army of demigods even to get close to that treasure."

"Maybe," Beckendorf said. "But what a treasure..."

Silena studied the frozen dragon. "Charlie, that was the bravest thing I ever saw – you jumping on that dragon."

Beckendorf swallowed. "Um... yeah. So... will you go to the fireworks with me?"

Percy still vividly remembered the first time he'd gotten a compliment from Annabeth, after he'd run that bus with the furies off the road. It was a feeling of such power flowing through him, like he could do anything in that moment.

Sadly, Annabeth was rather stingy with her compliments, or he probably would have been able to defeat Kronos by now.

Silena's face lit up. "Of course, you big dummy! I thought you'd never ask!"

Will savored the laughter that blasted through the room with his eyes closed for several moments. It was probably the last laugh Silena and Beckendorf would ever get. Even Nico and Thalia probably didn't know in detail what was about to happen. They knew she was the traitor, but they probably didn't even know Beckendorf as more than just another name in a long list of people they'd lost in the war, they just weren't around camp enough to know as he did what was soon coming.

Beckendorf suddenly looked a whole lot better. "Well let's get back, then! I bet capture the flag is over."

I had to go barefoot, because the acid had eaten completely through my shoe. When I kicked it off I realized the goo had soaked into my sock and turned my foot red and raw. I leaned against Annabeth and she helped me limp through the woods.

The laughter increased ten-fold, Will's always somehow had the power to do that as Percy's tapered off with a flush of embarrassment. "It, it really hurt guys, have you ever walked on twigs barefoot, and um, there were rocks around-"

"Just stop Percy," Thalia was rubbing a stitch in her side, her eyes swimming with delighted tears.

"Yeah," he agreed with a shameless sigh. He'd been trying to find any excuse to pluck up the courage and ask her, having her to lean on so close just like always felt like a comfort rather than a hindrance.

Beckendorf and Silena walked ahead of us, holding hands, and we gave them some space.

Watching them, with my arm around Annabeth for support, I felt pretty uncomfortable. I silently cursed Beckendorf for being so brave, and I don't mean for facing the dragon. After three years, he'd finally got the courage to ask Silena Beauregard out. It wasn't fair.

"Some things never change," Jason said with a shake of his head that didn't suit him, he had that tone like one speaking twice his age again. "You'll be fifty and still stumbling over a compliment for her again."

Percy smiled at the dream he was painting, he found it hard to imagine he lived another birthday, let alone so many compliments later, but it was a nice idea.

"You know," Annabeth said as we struggled along, "it wasn't the bravest thing I've ever seen."

I blinked. Had she been reading my thoughts?

"Um... what do you mean?"

Annabeth gripped my wrist as we stumbled through a shallow creek. "You stood up to the dragon so Beckendorf would have his chance to jump – now that was brave."

Percy's mind froze...and then went more haywire than a dragons. Wait, she had been talking about him, right?! Not some other doofus who stood up to a dragon and cut its toe off? Did she want him to ask her out or was she just mocking him? Had she ever called Luke brave? What if he asked and she looked at him like he was covered in ant goo-

"Or pretty stupid."

"Percy, you're a brave guy," she said. "Just take the compliment. I swear, is it so hard?"

We locked eyes. Our faces were, like, centimetres apart. My chest felt a little funny, like my heart was trying to do jumping jacks.

"I really thought reading the rest would help him break out of, that," Magnus said, gesturing at his sagging face.

"Guys, I think we broke Percy," Alex announced grandly.

"It was bound to happen eventually," Thalia sighed, waving her hand in front of his face. "I half expected this back when she kissed him in the volcano."

"I'd just go ahead and finish man," Jason said without bothering to hide the laugh in his voice. He always was extra animated when a capture the flag game went on, and this seemed to have surpassed the others. "She'll call him an idiot here in a sec and things will go on like normal.

"So..." I said. "I guess Silena and Charlie are going to the fireworks together."

"I guess so," Annabeth agreed.

"Yeah," I said. "Um, about that –"

I don't know what I would've said, but just then, three of Annabeth's siblings from the Athena cabin burst out of the bushes with their swords drawn. When they saw us, they broke into grins.

"You're alive!" Jason mock cheered. "We already had the search parties assembled and everything with practice!"

Percy finally gave himself a little shake and looked around at him. "How terribly inconvenient of us, how about we skip back into the woods and play hide and seek next, oh wait, we just ruined that game!"

"The game probably wasn't ruined for everyone," Magnus offered, "I'm sure somebody had fun tonight." It just never seemed to be him.

Judging by the smile lingering on Percy's face though, they were pretty sure he was happy with his hour returned of seeing her covered in a new coat of mud, oil, and sweat as his arm stayed around her only in his mind.

"Annabeth!" one of them said. "Good job! Let's get these two to jail."

"Doesn't defeating a dragon and living through Myrmekes get him a get out of jail free card?" Magnus protested.

"I never even manage that in Monopoly," Percy sighed. She was as scary as Tyson, he usually went broke before he even got close to drawing his first card.

I stared at him. "The game's not over?"

"Damn," Nico said in surprise. "I really think Percy spaced out watching her a little to much, I thought much more time had dragged on too."

Magnus was at least laughing in surprised agreement again while Jason was looking at the book with a very calculating expression.

The Athena camper laughed. "Not yet... but soon. Now that we've captured you."

"Dude, come on," Beckendorf protested. "We got sidetracked. There was a dragon, and the whole Ant Hill was attacking us."

"Uh-huh," said another Athena guy, clearly unimpressed. "Annabeth, great job distracting them. Worked out perfectly. You want us to take them from here?"

Annabeth pulled away from me. I thought for sure she was going to give us a free walk back to the border, but she drew her dagger and pointed it at me with a smile.

"Nah," she said. "Silena and I can get this. Come on, prisoners. Move it."

I stared at her, stunned. "You planned this? You planned this whole thing just to keep us out of the game?"

"No way," Thalia sounded way to proud even if she shook her head. "No way she managed all of that."

Magnus didn't really think so either. As clever as she was, even she couldn't have put all that together.

"Percy, seriously, how could I have planned it? The dragon, the ants – you think I could've figured all that out ahead of time?"

"She did!" Jason gasped, causing a flare of jealousy in Percy at the look of admiration on his face. "She totally did! Oh my gosh, this girl is a genius!"

"Annabeth wouldn't put those two in danger like that," Magnus insisted.

"Not on purpose," he still had a wild grin in place, "but I'll bet you anything she somehow tracked down where that dragon was buried, unearthed it just enough to show the head, and then waited, hoping the ants would time it with her game."

"Her game?" Percy groaned. He thought Annabeth was a genius too, but she might believe someone as smart as Jason over him.

"That's a lot of if's," Magnus looked personally offended now if his cousin had decided to put a deranged dragon back into activation for a flag.

"It probably all didn't go according to plan," Jason was getting wound up now as he babbled excitedly. "I bet she planned on Percy and Beckendorf seeing this by telling them which direction to go and hoping Beckendorf would spend his time fawning over the dragon and forget about the game, not go charging the ants!"

"How on earth did she excavate a whole crater and find that thing and I didn't even notice?!" Percy demanded.

"Maybe she got Tyson and the forest dryads to help before he left," Jason shrugged, "maybe she-"

"Guys!" Thalia finally interrupted with a bright smile as Percy was clearly winding up to argue back. "One of these days, we're going to get out of here and you can interrogate Annabeth all day."

Jason still had a smug, 'I'm right,' look on his face while Magnus and Percy exchanged, 'I hate every minute of this' expressions, but Magnus was almost done with one more of these, and that was enticing enough for now.

It didn't seem likely, but this was Annabeth. There was no telling with her. Then she exchanged glances with Silena, and I could tell they were trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, I'm on Jason's side," Alex grinned along. The plan had probably gone to hell, but those two badasses had brought it back and still come out on top.

"Well don't look at me," Will reminded as Nico was watching him as if waiting to see if he was holding out. "I was on Percy's team! They weren't going to be sharing that kind of info with the enemy!"

"You – you little –" I started to say, but I couldn't think of a name strong enough to call her.

"Owl breath," Alex offered.

"Traitor," Magnus grumbled, she was the cause of this heart attack.

"Genius!" Jason crowed.

Thalia couldn't stop laughing at all of them, she had a pretty good idea Percy wasn't going to be the only one tackling Annabeth when they met now.

I protested all the way to the jail, and so did Beckendorf. It was totally unfair to be treated like prisoners after all we'd been through.

But Annabeth just smiled and put us in jail. As she was heading back to the front line, she turned and winked. "See you at the fireworks?"

Kronos might as well have appeared and trapped him in a time bubble. Percy froze with whatever expression was on his face. Had she just asked him out?! Like on a date!? The fireworks were on a beach, where they might just stumble into the ocean and, and... he sighed as the rest of the night's events swam easily to mind now. Still a little foggy around the edges, but with clarity that he was trying to connect two events that were not having it. The fireworks had been a spectacular show, he'd watched every color of the rainbow flash across her face that night and heard her laugh at the amazing designs their fellow campers created. She had gone down to the ocean and rinsed herself off, but there had still been mud creased into her skin and a streak of oil in her hair that nearly covered up her gray bangs.

She had been happy, on this night, but when Connor and Travis went racing past yelling in delight and throwing popcorn and hotdogs around from a stand no one seemed sure where it had come from, and Chiron announced how good it felt to have so many here on this night as he held a moment of silence for those they lost, Annabeth had bowed her head and clutched the beads on her necklace Percy had never been a part of. She wasn't there yet, with him or Luke.

She didn't even wait for my answer before darting off into the woods.

I looked at Beckendorf. "Did she just... ask me out?"

He shrugged, completely disgusted. "Who knows with girls? Give me a haywire dragon any day."

So we sat together and waited while the girls won the game.

Percy laughed along with everyone else. There was a relief in it, the tension in the room always just under the surface at being locked in here managed to vanish for just that moment that they knew they couldn't hang on to. Percy's life was hectic and chaotic, sometimes it felt like his closest friends made that worse rather than better, but it was his life being shared with them, and he wouldn't have it any other way...otherwise he might not ever find out how he got down here.

PJOPJOPJOPJO

Annabeth absolutely planned this and you cannot convince me or Jason otherwise.

Though I don't think she meant for Beckendorf to get captured. Most likely she expected Percy and him to try and find the dragon's body and for Beckendorf to fix it and wake it up while they followed invisibly to keep an eye on them and all that would have taken up time until the game was won. Annabeth only stepped in when she realized Beckendorf split off, but I don't think she saw or heard where he split off to.

*Not a goofy name I made up by the way, but a real animal. Go look them up, they're adorable!

[p0is0nvalz]

i can shut him up.

summary: you are the only one who knows the 3 ways to shut Eddie up <3

100th post special!

warnings: reader with big boobs, big thighs, chubby!reader, reader has tongue piercing, poc!friendly, reader is supposed to be in college but is living in eddies trailer instead, reader sits on eddies face, very suggestive but super fluff!

vals notes: to be honest i started working on this and just completely stopped. But then i found a reason to post it so i just did🤷‍♀️

 1. kiss!

“im just saying, that little shit is a liar and it just seems unrealistic! i believe he has a girlfriend but superpowers?” you rolled your eyes for what felt like the hundredth time, watching Eddie pace around his room and listening to his rants about some boys “girlfriend”, playing with the bead of the piercing on your tongue.

With a sigh you got up “so, instead of coming home and having sex with your super sexy girlfriend in may i add a lace bra which might snap at any second and boxers, you come home to your super sexy girlfriend and have a talk with her about some 14 year old boy his superhero girlfriend?” you tilted your head in fake innocence, batting your eyelashes

“yes, and i will continue to talk to my super sexy girlfriend all about my day because she loves me very much and i’m the bes- mph!” you cut him off with a kiss as he slowly melted into it, the mixture of your tongue piercing scraping his mouth and his ringed fingers crawling down the plush of your body sending your body aflame. When you pulled away he leaned in further “i do love you and id love to hear this story another time but i’m soo wet” you whined, bringing his hand down to your clothed cunt making him feel how wet you were

“well shit, how am i supposed to turn down my girl?”

“i’m not paying for new boxers by the way”

“me neither”

2. boobies!

when Eddie “the freak” Munson claimed he has a girlfriend, who just seemed to somehow never leave his trailer and was hotter than any person he’d ever seen, it was pretty extremely unconvincing for everyone, so when he came home from school with a pouty look on his face, you, his girlfriend, was determined to find a way help him.

a few days later, you were all alone due to Eddie being at hellfire and had a “cartoon lightbulb on your head” moment, you decided you wanted to go to hellfire. and maybe make cookies while you are at it.

"so it was thought my friends-" "Eddie ohmygosh finally I found you i saw like 6 couples having sex in classes, closets or bathrooms did we do that when i was a senior??" "hi y/n. oo cookies, and i beleive we were doing piercings in the bathroom, but we did have sex. Like. Alot " Eddie grinned at your sudden appearance and everyones shocked faces, giving you a big kiss, sparking the confusion and shock further in the room "WHAT!?!?!?!?" they all screeched as if they were birds going through puberty

"thats right, boys. I get this pretty lady aaaalll to myself. not you, but me. im honestly shocked and betrayed that you-" he immediately shut up as you grabbed him by his hair and smushed him between the plush of your breasts "sorry, he just needed to be shut up. i brought cookies! snickerdoodles and chocolate chip”

yeah, screw Eddie you were the hellfire leader now.

3.thighs!

“Eddieeeeeeee i NEED to tell you about all the drama that happened today!” You slammed the trailer door open and ran into his arms, laying on the bed with him, straddling his hips “Soo you know jason, right? The bitchy one who i always have to pick you up from fights with?” “Yes i do remember, and he sucks. A least favorite of mine” “jason dumped vals food on the floor then boom. Guess what? She fucked Jasons girlfriend!” You were sat on his chest, slowly inching up and hoping he wouldnt notice.

You plopped your clothed cunt on his mouth, having him lick at the fabric as you told him more about your day “honestly, im so glad val did that because shes been crushing on chrissy for years. She was always complaining about how ‘straight’ chrissy was like. Are you fucking blind?” You kept rambling until you felt him push the fabric of your panties to the side “hey. Dont get too close there, munson” “says the one whose soaking wet” “y’sure thats not from you drooling all over me like a damn horndog?”

“shut it”

[caught-in-a-seesaw-stigma]

Map of the Soul, Drabble #1

Drabble #1 - The Legendary Virginity Incident

Pairing: Taehyung x reader

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Smut

Word Count: 8K+

Warnings: NSFW 18+ cursing, fingering, hair pulling, hand job, oral sex (m/f giving & receiving), unprotected sex (please be safe), loss of virginity, consensual sex, biting, scratching, soulmate shenanigans, and just a healthy dose of derpyness from these two

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

10 years may not seem like a long time from some perspectives, but when you're 15 and you've known your soulmate for more than a full decade, it's an epic feeling.

You and Kim "Elizabeth" Taehyung were attached at the hip ever since you met in kindergarten, and the two of you ran into a little trouble when his family had to move away the summer before you started high school. Luckily, you’d been able to convince both your parents and his that he should come visit for a week during the summer. A year may not sound like a long time, but it felt like a lifetime to you and Taehyung.

Once he arrived, you dragged him out of the house as soon as he dropped his bags on your bedroom floor. The week wasn’t going to last forever, and you had a lot of catching up to do. You were both walking around downtown looking for something to do and trying to make the best of this short time you had together.

"We should go to the beach," you exclaimed. "We haven’t gone in forever."

"Beach?" Taehyung replied. "Really? Sand and saltwater? That's how you want me to spend my time here?"

"I want fun in the sun, Tae-bear," you whined. "Let's go out and do something, yeah?"

Taehyung pondered your request and made a big show of propping up tilting his head and holding his chin up. Once his gaze landed on your pouty lips, he grinned and pulled you into his arms.

"Ugh, why are you so freaking adorable, babe?" Taehyung cooed. "I can't resist you when your lips get all pouty and your forehead creases up like that."

“Stop picking on me,” you pouted. “It’s summertime and there is no school. We can finally go and do stuff without worrying about any of our usual responsibilities.”

“Ok, ok,” Taehyung relented. “What can we do that doesn’t involve sand or saltwater?”

“Well, I want something outdoorsy,” you explained. “I want to become one with nature.”

Taehyung rolled his eyes at you and his smile settled into a sweet rectangular shape. Lately, you were obsessed with nature and animals and plants and flowers because you were reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Taehyung just knew you were determined to follow Thoreau’s philosophical teachings of getting back to the simple pleasures of nature.

“Why don’t we go camping?” Taehyung offered. “There’s that awesome clearing near your house. We always said we were going to camp out there, but we never did.”

“Yeah, let’s do that!” you heartily agreed. “Want to go shopping for gear? I just got all that money for my birthday.”

“Absolutely!” Taehyung grinned. “Let’s go spend that bread, baby.”

Taehyung grabbed your hand and pulled you in the direction of the nearest sporting goods store and you started compiling a collection of camping gear for your upcoming adventure. Once you arrived home, your parents just blinked in confusion as you and Taehyung hauled several shopping bags and a large tent up the stairs to your room.

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

Once you’d organized everything into a corner of your room, you collapsed onto the bed and Taehyung joined you. You turned your body toward his and he tucked you into his chest by wrapping his arm around you. You played with the frayed patches on his shirt as he hummed a random tune.

“It feels so nice to be in your room again, ttalgi” Taehyung admitted. “There’s just something comforting about it.”

“Oh yeah?” you giggled. “Do all my collectibles and books lull you into a safe space?”

“Something like that,” Taehyung sighed. “You know, I thought all girls’ rooms would be the same, but yours is something different and I love it.”

“Just how many girls’ rooms have you seen, Tae-bear?” you probed. “You certainly never mentioned anything like that to me. Are you hiding things from your soulmate?”

“What? No!” Taehyung blurted out defensively. “Not really.”

You pushed off of Taehyung’s chest and narrowed your eyes at him. He couldn’t look you directly in the eye and you knew something was up.

“Ok, Elizabeth,” you spat. “Out with it. Why were you in another girl’s room and why didn’t I know about this? I thought we told each other everything.”

“We do, it’s just…” Taehyung trailed off. “It’s just something that happened before I came to see you and I didn’t know how to tell you.”

You gawked at the flush of pink spreading across his cheeks and you sat up, crossing your legs and bracing yourself against the headboard.

“What is it, Tae?” you prompted. “You know you can tell me anything.”

Taehyung sat up and mirrored your sitting position. He fiddled with his thumbs for a moment before taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly.

“Do you remember our last phone conversation?” Taehyung began. “The one after your Spring Break?”

“Yeah,” you said. “I told you about that asshole Jason who tried to force himself on me at the beach bonfire and how I broke his nose. Why?”

“Well, I didn’t break anyone’s nose,” Taehyung continued. “But something happened.”

“With who?” you demanded. “Was it with the girl you were talking to? What’s her name again? Madelyn?”

“Sadly, no,” Taehyung groaned. “Madelyn is 100% pure lesbian and she made that blatantly clear at our End of the Year Band Banquet. But I was a little bummed when she turned me down and her friend Ayla tried to cheer me up.”

“Cheer you up how, exactly?” you inquired venomously. “What did she do, Elizabeth?”

“She snuck me into her bedroom,” Taehyung admitted sheepishly. “Her parents were having a party in the backyard, so no one noticed. I only stayed for an hour.”

“A lot can happen in an hour, Taehyung,” you shot back. “Did you have sex with her?!”

“No, I promise,” Taehyung exclaimed. “No sex, just some hand stuff. It was my first time doing anything like that, so I was afraid to go any further.”

You sank into a deeply troubled pout at his words. Taehyung reached for your hand, but you pulled your hand back into your lap. Taehyung looked up to see tears brimming in your eyes.

“Please don’t cry,” he pleaded. “It didn’t mean anything, babe-”

“It’s not that,” you interrupted. “As long as we’re sharing, I have something I haven’t told you either.”

Taehyung’s frown deepened and he allowed you to collect your thoughts. Each passing second, he prayed that your tears would recede. He hated making you cry.

“I wasn’t completely honest about the incident with Jason,” you blurted out. “I wanted him to touch me, but he wanted more than I was willing to give. I only broke his nose because he was getting too aggressive, but I did consent initially. It wasn’t a random attack.”

“He still deserved to get hit,” Taehyung grunted. “No means no. Everybody should know that.”

“I know, Tae,” you sniffled as the floodgates opened on your face. “I just feel like I lied to you. I know we promised to always be each other’s first for everything, but I couldn’t help it.”

“Hey, hey,” Taehyung cooed while pulling you into his lap. “It’s ok, babe. It doesn’t matter. I think we can both admit that making that promise in the 5th grade was kinda stupid. I mean, we’re teenagers and we’re half drunk on hormones. Shit happens, right?”

“So you don’t hate me?” you mumbled into his neck. “We’re ok?”

“Of course,” Taehyung chuckled. “We’re always ok, my beautiful soulmate, no matter what happens.”

You wrapped your arms around his neck and leaned your forehead against his cheek. You had been worried about telling him the truth about Jason for months, but he seemed to take the whole thing pretty well. You could hear your mother calling the two of you down for dinner and you jumped off Taehyung’s lap to open the door to respond. Taehyung’s eyes were harboring hints of disappointment, but they quickly dissipated before you turned around to face him.

“Shall we head down?” you asked him. “I think she made Korean fried chicken.”

Taehyung stepped forward and offered his bent elbow to you.

“Well then, grab a wing,” he jested.

You rolled your eyes at his terrible joke, but still giggled as the two of you walked downstairs together.

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

“Tae-bear,” you called from your backyard. “Are you coming or not? We’re losing daylight.”

Taehyung bounded out the back door with a large ice chest and your mother waved as he joined you.

“Be careful, you two,” she smiled. “We aren’t too far away if you need anything.”

After she disappeared back inside, you gave Taehyung a questioning look and gestured at the ice chest.

“What?” he grinned. “She wanted to make sure we had enough snacks.”

You rolled your eyes and grabbed the handle of the fully stocked wagon. Without a word, you turned toward the wooded area behind your house and started walking away from his smug expression.

Ugh, why are you like this, Mom?

Once the two of you reached the clearing, you both started setting up the tent and organizing all of your supplies. Taehyung set up the lanterns around the campsite and started up the small BBQ pit your father had pulled out of the garage. It wasn’t enough to BBQ anything bigger than hot dog wieners or hamburgers, but it would make a great firepit for the two of you.

As you were arranging your snacks on the folding table, you opened the ice chest and gaped at the homemade sandwiches, bowl of pasta salad, and veggie and fruit trays inside.

Seriously, Mom? You never do stuff like this for me!

You spent the rest of the day snacking, exploring the woods, and playing games. You relished the purity of the woods and took a moment to absorb the peace and quiet and magic of nature. Taehyung trailed behind you picking up stray feathers, pebbles, leaves, and pinecones.

When you returned to the campsite, Taehyung decorated the ring around the BBQ pit with his treasures, and you sighed at how amazing and artistic your soulmate could be. The boy was an artist through and through, and part of you wondered whether anyone would be able to appreciate how incredible he was.

“Ready for dinner, ttalgi,” Taehyung called out after placing one last pinecone in his creation. “I’m thinking we should start the fire, roast some hot dogs and maybe some marshmallows? I bought stuff for S’Mores.”

“That sounds good, Tae-bear,” you agreed. “I’ll start the fire since I’m the Girl Scout. You get the food ready for roasting.”

“Hey,” pouted Taehyung. “I wanted to be a Boy Scout. I just couldn’t fit it into my schedule.”

“I know, baby,” you cooed while pinching his cheek. “My Tae-bear was too busy with his art and music lessons to be a Boy Scout.”

You kissed his pouty lips until they morphed into a cute little rectangle shape, and he giggled when you refused to accept his surrender. You continued to assault him with your lips while he pretended that your kisses were fatal. You both crumpled into a heap near the tent and your playful kisses started progressing into a heated makeout session. Soon, you were straddling Taehyung’s lap and slowly grinding your hips back and forth.

“Mmmm, you’re such a tease, ttalgi,” Taehyung chuckled. “Are you always this eager?”

“Just for you, Tae,” you murmured against his lips. “Your kisses make me crazy.”

Taehyung cupped your cheeks and smiled sweetly at your words. He knew you meant them, but there was still something gnawing at the back of his mind that wouldn’t go away.

It won’t always be me. There will be others.

Before the stray negative thought could coalesce, Taehyung pressed one last kiss on your forehead and patted your butt.

“Come on, babe,” Taehyung purred. “Food first, play later.”

You flashed him your signature Cheshire Cat grin and got off his lap to help him off the ground. Once you were both vertical, you began preparing things for dinner. Several hot dogs and S’Mores later, you both settled into your folding chairs and watched the cooking fire burn out slowly.

With twilight enveloping the campsite, the two of you snuggled closer together and just watched the small fire flicker against the imposing darkness around you. Only one lantern was left on inside the tent, and the rest of the campsite was enveloped in the coolness of the night. The sky was clear and full of twinkling stars and you released an exhale of pure joy.

“Penny for your thoughts, Tae-bear,” you murmured cutely.

He snapped out of whatever thought had possessed him and gave you a tight smile.

“It’s nothing,” he replied. “Just thinking about our conversation yesterday.”

You sat up in your chair and bit your lip nervously. You and Taehyung shared many firsts since your first kiss, but there had always been a hope deep in your heart that he would be the one to whom you would give your virginity. You were both already giving in to your growing sexual desires and it was a natural thing given your age. The hormones were weighing heavily on your brain, and it was difficult to differentiate that from what your heart desired.

The more you thought about it, the more you realized that this whole fantasy loss of virginity thing was just a childish notion. Real life wasn’t like that, not even close. In real life, you were just a girl who was attracted to all kinds of people, including Taehyung. In real life, Taehyung was just a boy who sometimes let his dick do the thinking for him, and that wasn’t his fault.

You’d played out the fictional scenario in your mind over and over again and the elements of the fantasy were just unrealistic. There was no way you could afford a fancy hotel suite with a massive tub and flower petals and bubbles surrounding your naked bodies while you entwined your hearts and souls together.

Real life is never like that.

As much as you wanted to wait until that fantasy could become a reality, you had to face facts and so did Taehyung. It was time to move forward, consequences be damned.

“Tae, listen,” you began. “I know we said we would wait until we were both ready, but I don’t think that’s realistic anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Taehyung gasped. “You don’t think I can wait?”

“It’s not that,” you sighed while looking down at your clasped hands. “I know you can wait. I would never question that.”

“Then what is it?” Taehyung probed. “Do you not want to wait for me anymore?”

“No,” you admitted. “I don’t.”

Taehyung inhaled shakily and you could see the hurt blossoming in his eyes. Before the first tear could fall, you quickly got up and kneeled in front of your crumbling soulmate.

“Tae-bear,” you cooed while cupping his cheeks between your hands. “I don’t want to wait because I want to do this now...with you.”

Taehyung’s breath stopped and his glazed eyes raked over your own. He could see the resolve in your pupils as they dilated and he felt a twitch in his cargo pants.

No, not yet…

Taehyung pulled you into his lap and wrapped his arms around your waist. The torrent of desire building at his center was kept a bay as he confirmed your proposal.

“Ttalgi,” he murmured against your cheek. “Are you sure this is what you want? I don’t want you to do anything that you might regret later.”

“Why would I regret this?” you asked. “This is you and me we’re talking about. I know we’re still young, but I don’t want to wander through the rest of high school worrying about who might or might not get into our pants first. I know I talk a big game, Tae, but let’s be honest. I’m dumb as hell when I’m attracted to someone, and so are you. I just want to make sure that I remember this as something momentous and not regret that it happened. I want to remember it as special. Who’s more special than my soulmate?”

Damn. She played the soulmate card.

Taehyung sagged back against the backing of the chair and tried to rub the broiling lust out of his eyes. Unfortunately, you saw the motion and thought it was linked to rejection and you quickly got up from his lap.

“Look, Tae,” you pouted. “If you don’t want to do this, that’s fine. I just thought that maybe we could share this experience together, just like we do with everything else.”

Taehyung groaned at your pouty face and hopped up from the chair to pull you back into his arms. You tried to resist, but you were no match for the bear hug Taehyung pulled you into. You burrowed your reddened face into his soft chest and whimpered, which pulled at Taehyung’s last heartstring. He really tried to convince himself that this was too soon, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that you were right.

You always were.

There was no telling what could happen over the next few years, especially since you no longer lived in the same town or went to the same school. You were miles and miles apart from one another and that distance was affecting your relationship, whether you both wanted to admit it or not.

How can I say no to my soulmate?

Taehyung reached up and pulled the scrunchie out of your hair and hummed at the silken tresses that cascaded across your shoulders. He slid his fingers into the luscious waves and leaned in to kiss your forehead. The scent of green apples assaulted his nostrils and he moaned quietly at the intoxicating scent of your shampoo.

“Why do you always smell so good?” Taehyung breathed out. “I swear whenever I smell something fruity, I think of you, ttalgi.”

“It’s apple scented, not strawberry, Tae,” you giggled. “Remember, I’m the apple of my parents’ eyes? That’s why my middle name is Eris, the bearer of the golden apple and Greek goddess of chaos and discord.”

“Enough mythology, babe,” Taehyung chuckled. “If we’re really going to do this, let’s get more comfortable.”

Taehyung pulled you in the direction of the tent and you both removed your shoes before getting inside. The stacks of blankets and sleeping bags made for a comfortable bed, and Taehyung was thoughtful enough to bring extra pillows for added comfort. You reached over and turned down the lantern to a dim glow as Taehyung zipped the tent shut. He shuffled back next to you and you both cuddled up in the middle of your makeshift bed.

“Hello, beautiful,” Taehyung smiled brightly. “Fancy seeing you here.”

You rolled your eyes, but you couldn’t stop the grin spreading across your lips. You took in the boyish features on Taehyung’s face and your breath caught when you saw him lick his lips. Taehyung’s eyes locked with your own and the sexual tension inside the tent escalated quickly.

He may look like a boy, but he certainly doesn’t act like one.

Encouraged by the hungry look in his eyes, you decided to break the tension by pressing your lips against his. What started out as a simple touching of lips quickly transfigured into a messy tangle of lips and teeth. You each tried to devour the other, and within a few moments, you found yourself straddling Taehyung’s hips and grinding your clothed center along his growing erection.

“Fuck, babe, slow down,” Taehyung whimpered. “If you keep doing that, I’m going to cum in my pants.”

“Can’t stop,” you mewled desperately. “Feels too good.”

You increased the friction along your clit and Taehyung gripped your hips in an attempt to slow your ministrations. When he realized that you were on a mission, he did some quick thinking and rolled you over onto your back. Before you could protest the change in position, you felt his fingers dipping into your shorts in search of your throbbing core.

“Oh my gods, yes, Tae,” you moaned. “Please touch me.”

“Holy shit, babe,” Taehyung exclaimed. “You’re so fucking wet. Is this all for me?”

“Mmm hmm,” you hummed while bucking your hips against his exploring fingers. “All for you.”

“Then I better not let it go to waste,” Taehyung mused while shifting onto his knees. “Mind if I take these off?”

Taehyung’s other hand was tugging lightly on the band of your shorts and underwear, and you quickly lifted your hips so he could slide them down your legs. He tossed them into the corner of the tent and made space for himself between your legs. You tried to slow your labored breaths, but watching Taehyung hover over your glistening folds with a hungry look in his eyes was absolutely breathtaking.

“Babe, can I go down on you?” Taehyung asked sweetly. “I’ve never tried it before, and your scent is driving me crazy. I need to know what you taste like.”

You nearly lost all of the breath in your lungs at Taehyung’s words, and all you could do was nod dumbly and spread your legs even wider. The sight of your dripping center was unbelievably enticing and Taehyung carefully lowered himself closer to get a better look. After inhaling the musky scent, Taehyung growled softly and gave your clit a tentative kitten lick.

“Fuck,” you squeaked. “That feels so weird.”

“Good weird or bad weird?” Taehyung asked. “I can stop if you want.”

“Good weird,” you confirmed. “Definitely good weird. Please don’t stop.”

“Ok, because I really don’t want to,” Taehyung admitted. “You taste incredible. Like it’s sweet but also not. I can’t really explain it, but I know I want more of it.”

“Then what are you waiting for, Tae-bear?” you giggled. “Get to work.”

Taehyung wiggled his eyebrows at you and leaned in to kiss your nether lips. You gasped when you felt his tongue sneak forward and start lapping up the essence gathered around your center. You tried your best to writhe with each delicious pass of his tongue over your aching clit, but he was cleverly holding you in place with his upper body and giving you no room to escape.

“Ah, Tae,” you moaned. “That feels amazing.”

“Mmmmm,” Taehyung hummed against your clit, causing you to squeak. “Does it really, babe? Are you going to cum for me?”

“I don’t know,” you breathed out. “Keep doing that and I probably will.”

“Challenge accepted, babe,” Taehyung teased. “Don’t scream too loud though. Your parents might hear you.”

With renewed vigor, Taehyung dove into your center, licking and slurping and dipping his fingers into you with surprising precision and skill. Taehyung was always a fast learner and apparently that applied to everything in his life, including sex.

Taehyung’s fingers began curling as they reached new depths inside you and the sensation of them grazing against your vaginal walls caused you to clench with a mixture of discomfort and delight. Taehyung picked up on your body cues and began twisting his wrist slightly to create more friction as he pulled his fingers in and out. You felt a sharp twinge inside your vagina and a tightening in your clit and you gripped Taehyung’s wavy locks and pulled harshly. The pleasure was definitely overpowering the pain, so you decided to just go with it.

“Right there, Tae,” you whined. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing that.”

Taehyung moaned out loudly against your clit as you continued to pull on his hair and the vibrating sensation pushed you over the edge. You bit down on your lip to keep your screams from escaping as the most intense orgasm you’d ever felt broke out across your skin. You’d masturbated before, but the outcome had never been this intense. You turned your face into a nearby pillow and cried out as Taehyung helped you ride out the waves of your climax.

When you stopped twitching and started pushing his fingers away, Taehyung finally relented. You released your ironclad grip on his hair and he shivered as you extracted your fingers from his scalp. He shook the sensation out of his roots and gaped at you.

“I’ve never had anyone pull my hair like that before,” he admitted. “I think I liked it. I almost came in my pants, babe.”

You both started giggling at his newfound discovery. He collapsed next to you and tried to cuddle you, but your mind was swimming with lust and you switched positions so you could now hover over his crotch. The outline of his hardened cock was twisted across his thigh uncomfortably, and not even his loose cargo pants could hide his impressive size.

Taehyung shifted his hips nervously as you continued to gawk at him, and he had a sneaking suspicion that you were trying to reciprocate out of some type of misplaced duty. He quickly decided that maybe he should let you off the hook before he embarrassed himself.

“Babe,” Taehyung began. “You don’t have to. It’s ok.”

“Are you fucking kidding me, Elizabeth?” you retorted. “After what I just experienced, I have to know if I can do the same thing for you.”

Taehyung widened his eyes and snorted with laughter. He sat up to pull you into a sweet kiss and savored each brush of your lips across his own. You made little humming noises as he cupped your cheeks, but he chuckled and pulled away when you tried slipping your tongue into his mouth.

“If you really want to do this, babe, I won’t stop you,” Taehyung assured you. “Just go slow. I’ve never had anyone do this before, and I’m afraid that I won’t last very long.”

“Don’t worry, Tae-bear,” you sighed. “Just let me take care of you.”

You pushed at his chest until he laid back down against the sleeping bags. As you settled between his legs, you ran your fingers up his thighs and curled your fingers around the button holding his cargo pants together. You were gentle as you popped it open and pulled down the zipper. Taehyung’s bulging erection was poking at the top of his underwear waistband, and you nearly hiccupped at the sight of it.

Where the hell has he been hiding this monster?

Not being able to wait any longer, you leaned forward and started kissing and licking at his turgid length over his underwear. Taehyung hissed and pulled a pillow over his face to release a few shaky whines. You tugged his waistband down and wrapped your fingers around his stiffened shaft. The velvety texture and warmth felt wonderful as you squeezed it with your palm. The moan Taehyung released at your touch was music to your ears and you decided to test out a few things.

If he can learn on the job, then so can I.

After a few experimental strokes, you narrowed down the motion that brought the most delightful sounds out of Taehyung’s mouth. They were slightly muffled because of the pillow, but you could hear them nonetheless. You were about to try something else, but you noticed Taehyung clench uncomfortably and you realized that things were probably a little too dry for him.

He needs lubrication.

You licked your lips and smirked. You had all the lubrication he needed.

Brace yourself, Elizabeth.

You slowed your strokes and leaned in to sniff at the smears of precum spread across his bulbous head. The heady scent was certainly strange, but your curiosity got the better of you and you gave his slit a small lick.

“Oh, fuck,” Taehyung moaned loudly. “What are you doing, babe?”

Taehyung removed the pillow from his face and looked down between his legs to see your half naked form gripping his hard cock with your lips centimeters away from the tip. Your eyes met and he inhaled sharply when you winked at him. Before he could ask you anything, you pulled the head of his penis into your mouth and all sense of reality went out the metaphorical window.

“Holy shit,” Taehyung gasped. “It’s s-s-so w-warm...and w--wet.”

You continued to dip further down onto his solid length, stretching your lips, keeping your teeth hidden, and hollowing your cheeks, listening to each whimper and whine, figuring out the right combination of movements to bring Taehyung the most amount of pleasure.

“B-babe, s-slow down,” Taehyung begged helplessly. “I-I’m so close.”

Taehyung was so wound up from everything that he couldn’t hold himself together for much longer. His thighs were trembling and his fingers were clutching the sleeping bag beneath him. He wasn’t going to last if you kept up your current pace.

I've got him right where I want him. Let's see what pushes him over the edge.

In the spirit of exploration, each time you bobbed your head, you tried swirling your tongue around Taehyung’s shaft. After a few of those motions, Taehyung was clutching at your hair, trying to pull you off of his dick.

“Babe, wait,” Taehyung pleaded. “I’m gonna, I’m gonna-”

You grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands away from your head. As soon as he was distracted by that, you took him in as deep as you could. Taehyung released a deep throaty moan and warm spurts erupted into your mouth. You sucked and swallowed on instinct because, let’s face it, no one likes a mess (especially in a tent). When he started whimpering from overstimulation, you pulled back and wiped your mouth with your shirt.

Taehyung was gasping for breath, his glassy eyes wildly scanning the tent and his fingers reaching out for you. You nuzzled into his side and sighed happily.

“I can’t believe you just did that, babe,” Taehyung huffed out. “Not only did you give me the orgasm of my life, but you swallowed everything I gave you. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Are you kidding me, Tae?” you scoffed. “You know how much I hate messes. It just made sense to swallow.”

You allowed the temperature in the tent to cool, but the smell of sex in the air was intoxicating, as was Taehyung’s gentle strokes along your side and the sweet nuzzles along your forehead. Entranced by his affection, you allowed your own fingers to wander freely across his chest until hardened pebbles were poking through his thin shirt. Your hand slipped lower and you felt Taehyung’s dick twitch against your wrist.

“You’re hard again, Tae-bear,” you teased. “Haven’t had enough of me yet?”

“Not even close, ttalgi,” Taehyung chuckled. “There is so much I want to do to you.”

“So what’s stopping you?” you boldly challenged. “Show me what you got, Elizabeth.”

“First of all, don’t call me Elizabeth when we’re like this,” Taehyung admonished you as he nipped at your ear. “It kinda kills the mood. Second, I don’t want to hurt you.”

“How would you hurt me, Tae?” you asked. “You trying to get rough with me?”

“Not intentionally,” Taehyung affirmed. "But after fingering you, I'm not sure you can take me. You're so tight."

You stopped caressing him abruptly and sat up. Before Taehyung could utter a word of protest, you stripped off your shirt and straddled his hips. You had just enough time to unhook your bra before Taehyung sat up and stopped you. With the bra trapped helplessly between your bodies, you met Taehyung's concerned face with fiery resolve.

"You don't get to tell me what I can or cannot do, Taehyung Elizabeth," you stated firmly. "You learned that lesson when we were kids, or have you forgotten about the seesaw?"

Taehyung rolled his eyes at your reminder about an incident from elementary school and he began stroking your bare back in an attempt to soothe your anger.

"Babe, I'm not trying to tell you what to do," Taehyung claimed. "I'm just worried about hurting you."

"My body, my choice, Tae," you retorted. "I decide what I can handle, not you."

Taehyung opened his mouth to offer a rebuttal, but you shut him up with a kiss, slowly working your tongue past his lips. His self control crumbled when you reached up and tugged at his messy locks.

"Oh, shit," Taehyung whined. "I gave you a fucking weapon, didn't I?"

"Damn right, you did," you smirked while grinding your messy center against his throbbing cock. "You like it rough, huh, Tae?"

"Mmmmm, yeah," Taehyung groaned. "I'm as surprised as you are."

Taehyung's fingers found their way back to your creamy folds, and you moaned lasciviously as he plunged one and then two fingers into your swollen cunt.

The sharp lick of pain from earlier reappeared, but it couldn't compete with the waves of pleasure crashing and spreading across your nerve endings. You pushed back at his intrusive fingers, and your impatience was growing exponentially.

You reached down and wrapped one hand around Taehyung's fat cock and smeared the accumulated precum over the head and down the shaft. He felt so solid in your hand and you couldn't stop wondering about what it would feel like inside you.

It's time.

Without warning, you lifted your hips and brought one knee up. Taehyung was so focused on his own fingers that he didn't realize what you were doing until it was too late. You quickly angled his dick toward your clit and gathered up as much slick as you could. You slipped the head of his penis into your soaking entrance and immediately regretted your hasty decision.

What the actual fuck?! Oh, the pain…

In a slight panic, you tried to retreat, but it was too late. The warmth and wetness registered in Taehyung's brain and he bucked another couple of centimeters into you. You couldn't form any words, so you released a pained squeak at the intrusion and leaned in to sink your teeth into his exposed neck. Taehyung preened at your unexpected bite, relishing the sweet pain you inflicted upon him.

"Fuuuuuuck," Taehyung moaned loudly. "Oh, baby, you feel incredible."

Mistaking your squeak for enjoyment, Taehyung lifted your hips a bit and then pushed back in even further than before. You blindly clawed at his back and Taehyung reached down and tried to pull his shirt off, thinking that you wanted him more naked. In his haste, his limbs became tangled in the shirt and he began thrashing slightly to untangle himself.

Unfortunately, that just added to the assault his cock was launching on your swollen cunt. The stinging between your legs spread across your abdomen, and you clenched, clawed, and contorted your body, desperately trying to extract yourself from his clutches, but his dick was inescapable.

Somehow, you overcorrected your position and tipped sideways, drawing his thick cock out of you and earning a reprieve from the sharp pain ebbing from your dripping slit. You noted that although the pain was slowly subsiding, you felt an overwhelming emptiness inside.

Taehyung was still struggling to get the shirt off of his torso and head, so you reached over to help him. Much to your dismay, he was sharing your thoughts and leaned in at the same time, your skulls colliding harshly and drawing yelps out of both of you.

You both fell back against the soft pile of bedding and groaned with displeasure, your heavy breathing filling the atmosphere of the tent. The impact of his forehead against your own was reverberating through your brain, adding to soreness growing at your center. The entire situation was so epically ridiculous that you couldn’t even fathom your initial thought process.

Why did I think this would be easy and painless?

You huffed out in exasperation and considered posing the question to your soulmate. However, when you shifted your gaze in his direction, you realized that your adorable dork was still trapped in his shirt/straight jacket and he’d surrendered to its cottony grip. His soft belly was exposed, his chest was heaving with exertion and his erection was deflated in the aftermath of the heavy head butt you’d accidentally delivered. The bite on his neck was red and very noticeable and your ego inflated at the thought of leaving your mark on his perfect skin.

“Tae,” you giggled. “Would you like some help?”

Taehyung made one last attempt to disentangle his arms from his shirt, but ultimately gave up the fight.

“Please?” he begged. “My elbows are stupid and they won’t come out of the sleeves.”

“Well, you keep buying these tighter shirts,” you admonished him while pulling on the soft fabric. “Maybe you should go for a baggier look, babe.”

Once you pulled his shirt over his head and got his “stupid” elbows sorted out, Taehyung pouted at the mess you two made of your first sexual encounter. It was going so well until his shirt decided to betray him.

“Sorry about that,” Taehyung sighed. “I guess I ruined everything, huh? You were totally getting into it and I just had to play Houdini with my shirt.”

“Ummm, you may want to rethink that assessment, Tae-bear,” you replied. “I wasn’t getting into anything. I was trying to get away from you. I was in some serious pain and your shenanigans weren’t helping.”

Taehyung gaped at your confession and his frustration was quickly replaced by concern. He reached over and coaxed you into his bare chest.

"I was hurting you, ttalgi?" Taehyung murmured into your hair. "I'm so sorry. That was the last thing I wanted to do."

"You're not completely to blame," you admitted. "I thought I could take it, but obviously, I was wrong."

"Are you ok?" Taehyung asked sweetly. "Want me to check for any permanent damage?"

You giggled and slapped his chest playfully, and Taehyung only snuggled into your body even more.

"There's no permanent damage, you dork," you retorted. "I'm just sore. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

Taehyung sighed with relief and proceeded to trace little swirls onto your exposed skin. He began humming some unknown tune and the soothing baritone notes soon lulled you into a light slumber. You cracked an eyelid when Taehyung pulled away from you, but he was just gathering the fluffy comforter over your bodies to brace against the chill of the evening.

You sat up and turned out the dim lantern. When you rejoined Taehyung underneath the comforter, you both entwined your naked bodies together without hesitation.

Why does this feel so right?

The natural sounds of the forest and Taehyung's gentle snores coerced you to sleep, and visions of Taehyung's face contorted with pleasure wracked your dreams. You could almost hear the melodic moans and whimpers he'd released earlier, and you could almost feel his stiff rod probing against your sopping entrance.

Tae…

You gasped as you felt a hand at your breast, gently kneading and searching out your hardened nipple. You arched your back in response and a small moan escaped from your lips.

Such a good sex dream…

Or is it?!

The thought possessed your mind completely, and you tried to shake the slumber out of your mind in order to wake up.

Upon your exit from Dreamland, you found that Taehyung's hand was in fact on your breast, but he wasn't groping you. In fact, you could still hear the steady breaths behind you as the big spoon called Taehyung curled his smooth body around you. Your ass was sitting against his crotch and you could feel the heat and throb of a partial erection against you.

Still floating in an ocean of dream-induced lust, you unconsciously pressed your ass back into his crotch, grinding your growing wetness along his hardening shaft.

Fuck, that feels good. I'm still a little sore, but I seriously want his dick inside me again. Should I wake him up? Maybe we can try again? Maybe it won't hurt this time?

You tried rationalizing every possible scenario that would lead his penis into your vagina, but they all felt wrong. How could you even consider doing something while Taehyung was asleep and couldn't consent?

I can't.

You steeled your resolve and started to pull away from Taehyung, but the grip on your breast tightened and then pulled you back in. Taehyung's breath had increased in pace and it was husky and deep as he whispered into your ear.

"Why'd you stop, baby?" Taehyung grunted. "I was just about to get to the good part."

You released a throaty gasp as Taehyung's fingers slipped lower to circle your clit. The slick deluge he found only had his hips rutting against you with more enthusiasm.

"I can't stop thinking about your perfect little pussy, ttalgi," Taehyung hissed. "So perfect. So wet. So mine."

Two fingers found their way into your slippery folds and Taehyung was soon dipping both of them into your dripping cavern.

"Fuck, Tae," you whined. "That feels so good, don't stop."

"Wouldn't dream of it, babe," he chuckled. "Are you ready to try again? I'll be as gentle as I can, and this time, no failed magic tricks."

Taehyung moved his arm behind you so he could plunge his fingers back into you from behind. He drove them deeper and deeper, drawing out moan after delicious moan from your throat. The soreness was a distant memory now, and all you could think about was getting that fat dick back inside of you.

"Tae, please," you shamelessly begged. "I need you inside me."

"Ok, babe," Taehyung assented. "But you have to let me know if I'm hurting you, ok? I promise to stop and wait for you to be ready. There's no need to rush."

You looked back at his dilated pupils and pulled him into a smoldering kiss. After a few moments of stealing each other's breath away, you lifted your leg and gave him full access to the swollen sight between your legs.

"Ok, baby," Taehyung muttered while maneuvering his stiff cock to your entrance. "Here I go."

The head of his penis slipped in and you waited for the sharp twinge to return. There was a definite increase in pressure, but no overwhelming pain. Taehyung grunted against your shoulder and released a soft whine. You rolled your hips back against him and he slipped in a little further with an even louder whine.

"Fuck, babe," Taehyung whimpered. "You can't even begin to comprehend how amazing you feel. So tight and so warm and so fucking wet. I could do this all day every day and die a happy man."

"You're so big, Tae," you replied. "Give me a moment to adjust."

Taehyung nodded against your shoulder and waited. You pushed back against his hips and he slipped in a little more. After a few experimental attempts, you were getting restless. Taehyung's large slender fingers began circling your clit once more, enticing more arousal to seep forth and provide the necessary lubrication. You writhed in his grasp, and slowly but surely, Taehyung slid his dick in all the way to the hilt.

"That's it, baby," Taehyung coaxed. "Now, you're full of my cock. How does it feel?"

That was a damn good question.

How does it feel? I feel full and hot, but something's missing. What else could there be?

You leaned forward, pulling off of his lap slightly, and then ground your hips back against his. The tingle of pleasure that licked up your spine was all the answer you needed. Taehyung's throaty groan at your movement was so encouraging that you reached back and pulled at his hips.

"I think I'm ready, Tae," you cooed. "Go ahead and try moving. It doesn't hurt, I promise."

Taehyung pulled your chin over and placed a chaste kiss on your lips. You melted against his lips, but yelped when he pulled his hips back and thrust forward unexpectedly. The sensation was raw and unlike anything you'd ever experienced before. You both moaned out together and stilled your movements.

"Oh shit," you gasped. "I wasn't expecting that."

"Neither was I," admitted Taehyung. "I didn't think this could feel any better, but it does. I just want to keep doing this over and over again."

"Keep going, Tae," you pleaded. "Let's finish what we started."

The two of you proceeded to test out the waters of your sexual appetite. Taehyung discovered a fountain of stamina, you discovered new ways to bend your body, and you took turns exerting dominance over one another.

In the end, entwined in a sweaty heap of satisfaction, you and Taehyung sought out each other's lips, bringing the whole messy ordeal to a close.

"Well, we had a rough start," you giggled against his lips. "But I think we worked out the kinks."

"Speak for yourself," Taehyung grumbled. "I know there's more to me than hair pulling."

"Of course there is, Tae-bear," you confirmed. "You also liked it when I scratched your back and bit your neck."

"I guess I'm just a pain slut," he chuckled. "I can live with that."

You both settled into a comfortable position and pulled the comforter back over your bodies. The chilly night air was causing your glistening skin to erupt into goosebumps, so you snuggled together and drifted off to Dreamland with your arms wrapped around each other.

Perfect. -------------- "Babe, have you seen my laptop?" Taehyung yelled from downstairs. "I can't find it."

You unplugged the laptop and gathered all of Taehyung's accessories from the floor. Once you'd returned from your camping trip, you'd hunkered down in your room to chill and enjoy the last few days you had with Taehyung. You read your books, Taehyung drew on his laptop, and random episodes of your favorite anime shows played on your TV. It was absolute bliss.

Speaking of bliss, both you and Taehyung had a serious talk about your camping shenanigans before you made your way home. You agreed that although the whole experience was beyond amazing, certain rules needed to be set.

You both agreed that you were reckless by not worrying about protection. Sure, you were both virgins with almost no experience, but there were still precautions that should be taken. You decided not to engage in intercourse again until you had condoms and you were able to secure some type of birth control.

Teenagers can be so irresponsible.

That didn't mean you weren't engaging in other sexual activities behind closed doors. You both learned the value of pillows as a method of muffling moans and groans. You'd both experimented in your bed, and your parents were none the wiser. Things never escalated into the realms of intercourse, but neither of you cared. Pleasure was bountiful in other areas besides intercourse.

You also agreed that you needed to be completely honest with one another from now on. There would be no ill will if he or you decided to explore your desires elsewhere. There just needed to be open communication and no jealousy.

I am my own person and so are you.

The only other agreement you made was to continue your intimate relationship until one of you entered into some type of relationship. In the event of a relationship forming, all sexual shenanigans would immediately halt.

Soulmates just want each other to be happy. It's that simple.

You placed all of Taehyung's drafting tools and laptop back into his backpack and carried it downstairs. Your mom was lavishing Taehyung with homemade cookies fresh from the oven and a large glass of milk.

Ugh, spoiled brat.

You handed over the bag and he leaned over to place a small peck on your forehead. Your mother gushed at the small display of affection and made heart eyes at you when Taehyung walked away to place his backpack among his other belongings. You just rolled your eyes and grabbed a cookie from the plate.

Taehyung was going home today, but a part of him would never leave you. You became soulmates at the age of 5, but your actions at the age of 15 solidified your universal connection for eternity.

Whatever the Universe throws at me, at least I know I'll have my eternal connection to Taehyung to help me see it through.

#soulmates4life

Author’s Note: I really missed these characters. MOTS’ Kim Elizabeth Taehyung is one of my favorite self-created characters. I just adore him. I hope everyone enjoyed this as much as I did. Thank you to @xxxille-girlxxx​, my lovely Goguma, for Beta reading this for me. Borahae, soulmate!

MAP OF THE SOUL MASTERLIST

@caught-in-a-seesaw-stigma​‘s MASTERLIST

[okaybutlikeimagine]

(tumblr won’t let me respond to asks directly so we’re screenshotting them till further notice  🤷)(i had the WHOLE THING typed out w/ the italics fixed into the ask and i copied it so i wouldn’t have to go through and put the italics again and then my DUMBASS SELF went to copy a fucking SHRUG EMOJI and now i have to put the italics in again. good thing i do all this stuff on a separate google doc bc i’m a moron and would have lost the whole thing just now. anyway)

Hi!!! I’m crying bc you fucking KNOW that Billy would get so fucking embarrassed!!

Bc Billy is prideful!! I’m telling you, that boy has some Leo in his chart or something bc if anyone so much as smiles at a joke at his expense, he gets defensive. And that’s not to say that he doesn’t banter back and forth with Robin, and that’s not to say that he and Steve don’t give insults that sound like endearments, and that’s not to say that he and Jonathan don’t rib each other amicably… but it’s different. Pride is a very different thing.

Bc Billy is legit like a little lion cub. (AKA every Leo i know, therefore Billy has Leo in his chart, don’t @ me) it’s an almost juvenile kind of attachment to pride. Like a baby lion cub who’s just getting their mane in but holds their head like they’ve got the biggest one in the pride, it’s a little childish (as much as he may not want to admit it).

And it’s really not Billy’s fault. That’s what he’ll tell you. That’s what he’ll tell anyone. It’s not his fault he’s a brat and he’ll shrug his shoulders and he’ll continue to be rude/bratty and for some people (Steve) it’s charming and for others (almost everyone else) it’s tolerable but for Jim…. It’s…. It’s upsetting. Jim doesn’t like to be seen as “controlling” or a “hardass” or whatever but he’s not sure how he can just ignore when Billy is being disrespectful. Even if it’s only slightly. bc like…. He feels like he needs to be a good dad and good dads make sure their kids grow up to be good people, right??? Which isn’t to say he thinks Billy is a bad person but he worries because, like every parent, his biggest fear is fucking up. He didn’t get a whole lot of practice with Sara. and after her death he couldn’t help but think of every time he slipped up. Every time his wife soothed his hair and said: “We have time to get it right.” every day that passed with Sara in the hospital where he realized she was wrong.

And i’m SO sorry for getting into that but I think that really influences how Hop parents now! The man was broken and then just…. Acquired a 12 year old. And then a 17 YEAR OLD?? Like… the man would be Confused as to how to proceed. And then THIS happens…

Bc Billy has mood swings. Billy is a teenager and also the human version of a bratty little cat that puffs his chest out and ruffles his own fur and may leave a few scratches but is ultimately harmless (esp now that he has a nice, loving family!!) and so they’re at the dinner table and the boys are talking about their grades and whatnot and Billy may be a little pouty. Because maybe Billy didn’t study as hard as he should have for his last history test. He just thinks history is so stupid. He’d rather read a book or do 100 math problems. What’s history gonna teach him?? He doesn’t need to know any more about plagues.

So he says that.

Jonathan’s talking about how well he did on his essay and Will is talking about how he did on his math test and Billy’s pushing carrots around when Joyce asks: “How’s school for you, Billy?”

“Just peachy keen.” he sneers down at his plate. Hop tuts harshly.

“Hey.” Hop chastises, only serving to make Billy’s blood boil more.

“What?”

“Calm down.”

“I’m plenty calm.” Billy snaps back, but it’s quiet. He shoves a sliced carrot in his mouth.

“Have you had any tests or anything lately?” Joyce asks calmly, in that motherly voice she always gives that makes Billy’s mind swirl a bit.

“Yup.”

“Billy-” Hop warns and it makes Billy sit straight up, but give a challenging look in Hop’s direction as he says, loudly:

“Yes, ma’am.”

Joyce stops asking, but she sends a look to Hop, who’s still caught in a staredown with Billy. Billy can’t see her look, but he wouldn’t understand it if he could, because it says: Hop, cut it out.

And the conversation shifts to significant others and then Joyce is smiling kindly at El and asking about her and Mike and maybe Hop is pouting but he’s not gonna draw attention to himself bc Joyce will just hit him like she always does when he’s pouting over their kids dating (specifically El). And Jonathan is smirking a bit into his dinner but Will is visibly uncomfortable as El gushes about Mike before complaining that he doesn’t come over enough and that she doesn’t go out enough and Billy gets irritated. Why should he and Will have to listen to this when they don’t want to??

And he mutters something, darkly. Something about Mike and El and “ungrateful little brats”.

And everyone hears. He only half means it, but they don’t really think that far.

And Hop shoots a look his way before chewing on a carrot rather aggressively.

“Somethin’ to say?”

Billy gives Hop a challenging stare, but he backs down as soon as he starts it.

“No sir.” He mutters harshly.

“Then behave.”

“How about you and Steve, sweetie?” It’s Joyce. Being sweet.

“Happy as can be.” It sounds bitter the way he says it because it is. They got in a fight today. A little one, but enough to make Billy taste something sour in his mouth when he thinks about it. He figures they’re gonna make up just fine tomorrow, no flowers or empty promises needed, just another heated conversation followed by a heated make out in the front seat of Billy’s Camaro. Maybe followed by a serious talk that’ll make Billy’s face heat up because he still can’t believe this boy has Billy wrapped around his finger so fucking tight.

“Yeah, well Officer Callahan says you and Harrington have-”

“You know his name.” Billy growls, resting his fork on the plate.

“Steve. You and Steve have been running around empty fields a lot lately.”

“And?” Billy’s vision is turning red. It’s tunneling a bit.

“And what’s that all about?”

“Don’t really wanna give you all the dirty details.” Billy shoves some meatloaf in his mouth. Hop’s looking at him like he’s a hassle and Billy’s proud of it.

“You guys shouldn’t be doing that. Someone’s gonna say something.”

“And?” Billy’s getting madder. He puts his fork down with a loud clang.

“And you’re gonna cause problems-”

“For you?” Billy seethes, leaning forward a bit, just willing Hop to say it.

“For yourselves.”

“Oh yeah?” Billy asks, leaning back in his chair, blood boiling hot. “Well what about the little twerps?”

Billy nods over to El, who makes a whining noise.

“Hey!” She calls, face pouting.

“What about them?”

"I just don't think it's very fair that it's safe for them and not us." Billy growls, gritting his teeth, eyebrows low.

"That's not true."

"It's safe for everyone else but us!" He’s mad. He’s mad bc him and Steve have argued about this before. Argued about how there’s no real point in being together if they have to hide all the time. That one time when they saw Cindy and Jason being grossly affectionate in public and Billy grabbed Steve’s ass and Steve got mad. They fought for a few days and it ended with them laying in Hansen’s big empty field, on the outskirts of town, talking in dreamy, far away voices about how one day they’d move to California bc “It’s not like this there… trust me, babe. It’ll be so much better.”

Billy’s vision tunnels more. All he sees is Hop in different shades of red. He forgets where he is. He’s livid, thinking about El and Mike and Cindy and Jason and Tommy and Carol and Nancy and Jonathan and he’s going to scream. His heart is racing with disdain.

"You know it's still dangerous for El to go out." Hop warns.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"Look... kid-"

"I'm not a fucking kid." Billy growls, leaning forward even more.

"Language!" Hop’s voice is booming and Billy’s had about enough of this. He resents being told off like a kid.

"Sorry! Excuse the fuck out of me!" He’s snarling and Hop seems about as livid as Billy feels.

"Go to your room!"

"Fine!" Billy yells, shoving his chair back and standing up, turning to Joyce for the first time all dinner and seeing her eyes full of… concern. He doesn’t know how to feel about it. Something in his chest heaves at the sight. His eyes flick over to Jonathan and then to El and then to Will…. And then his chest tightens. He looks away just as quickly.

He thanks Joyce quietly for dinner, mumbling it a bit but he thinks the sentiment is clear enough. He drops his plate off next to the sink and storms off to his room, slamming the door with probably too much force but everything’s on his mind and he has the right to be a brat if he wants.

It’s just that he hates just sitting here with nothing to do but think about everything. He doesn’t even have his stereo to listen to music with bc he gave his to El until she can get a new one bc hers broke and her nightmares have been bad recently. Listening to music before bed calms her down. Billy didn’t say anything about his own nightmares or his own need for music before bed. He wishes he had now that he’s laying in bed, about ready to rip his sheets to shreds bc he’s boiling. He feels like a storm but, to any outsider, he looks like a toddler- red-faced from a tantrum and fidgeting and bubbling like a shaken up soda bottle.

He’s so mad he can’t even do anything. The minutes pass in sticky but frantic moments of anger and thoughts and memories and the only thing his body will let him do is just sit there. Lay in his bed and pull at his covers and fall into thoughts and think about Hop reprimanding him like that and how awful it was and how red and angry he looked and how he sent him to his room like a kid and… and how Joyce looked so worried…. And how that same look was in Jonathan’s eyes…. And Will’s…. That same worried, concerned look. They all three have the same eyes- Lonnie be damned. Those boys share their mother’s eyes and all of the emotion that goes within them and it makes… it makes Billy mad he’s mad about it he knows he’s mad and-

And…

And he calms down a bit. Calms down enough to do what Steve told him to do when he gets angry and stressed and doesn’t know what to do with himself. Because Steve’s family is “well-traveled” and Steve knows all these weird little things from all these cool different countries.

So Billy takes out his notebook and rips a couple pieces of paper out (bc he saves the fancy paper Steve gave him for when he’s actually trying) and does some origami. Bc Steve said it’d help him to do something with his hands and this is something he can do quietly, in his room, without being destructive. ”It’ll help, I promise!”

The hardest part is making a perfect square, bc it takes too much patience and usually Billy doesn’t have that. But he’s just doing this to calm down so he eyeballs it as he cuts the paper and starts to fold what he knows, which is either a heart or a crane. Those are the only 2 things Steve has taught him that he knows off hand w/o the instructions or Steve guiding him through it.

There’s more crumpled paper on the ground than folded paper on his desk but Steve had assured him that was more than okay. It’s kind of the point, he figures. Crumpling and ripping up the paper is almost as nice as folding it to make something, and it makes actually making something feel even better when it happens.

He’s sitting there, on his 3rd heart, when there’s a small knock on the door.

“Go away.” He calls, realizing that the paper he cut isn’t a perfect square bc the corners won’t match.

“It’s Will.”

Billy pauses a bit. He goes back to folding his paper, not caring about the corners bc it’s not bad enough to start over. He doesn’t say anything.

He hears the door open.

“Do you think ‘go away’ doesn’t mean you?”

“Does it?” Will asks, voice earnest. Billy looks up to see his face matches.

Billy sighs, the harsh feeling in his chest softens a bit at the boy in his doorway. He turns back to his folding.

“What do you want? And close the door.”

“I wanted to ask if you wanna come listen to records with me.” Will says, closing the door behind him.

“I don’t think they want me out there.” Billy folds his paper with his fingernail to make it sharp. It burns his thumb a bit.

“That’s not true.” Will says, taking a few steps closer. “Mom told Hop… Dad he shouldn’t have done that.”

And that makes Billy mad. He’s not even sure why. It’s a heat in his chest and his face that feels like anger and he messes up his fold and he’s just… he’s confused and he’s red and all he can think about is Will saying “mom”. Not “my mom” just “mom” and also “dad” like he’s theirs and Billy can’t understand it still and he smashes the paper into a ball in his hand-

“I don’t need your mom defending me.” Billy says harshly, spitting the words out like he hates them, chucking the paper on the ground. He’s too aware of the way Will flinches a bit at his harshness. He takes a deep breath.

“Uh... “ Will’s fidgeting. Billy feels bad. He sighs.

“I don’t have my stereo.” Billy leans back, running a tired hand down his face. “Ask Jonathan.”

“But I wanna listen to your music.” Will says quietly and Billy believes him. Will’s been getting interested in Alice Cooper and Led Zeppelin and all of the fun bands that actually perform. Steve gifted Billy a VHS performance of Led Zeppelin and Will seemed to like the lead singer quite a bit.

“Well I don’t wanna go out there, pipsqueak.” Billy rips out another piece of paper. It’s quiet for a second, Billy eyeballing another square to cut. It’s so quiet, Billy thinks Will has left.

He thinks wrong.

“Can I still hang out with you?”

Billy puts the scissors down, exhausted, and looks up at Will.

“Alright, what’s wrong?”

Will shrugs. “Nothing. I just…. Like it in here.”

Billy’s confused, but he almost believes him for a minute.

“I don’t have music for you.”

“I can grab a book to read.” The boy’s so earnest, Billy knows he’s not gonna shake him.

So he waves him away with a nod and Will’s out and back quicker than Billy can think about how weird it is that this boy would rather sit in his room in silence than do something fun. Will’s closing the door carefully, latching it quietly and moving over to sit on the bed.

Billy has crumpled up 2 more pieces of paper before Will begins to pry.

“Are you folding things again?”

“Uh huh.”

“What’s it called, again?”

“Origami.”

“Cool.” Will scoots on his knees to the edge of the bed so he can see what Billy’s doing. “Do you need any help?”

“I’m good.” Billy mutters, unconvincingly.

“I can cut the paper for you. I’m good at making squares.”

And so Will is sitting criss cross on the bed, cutting perfect square after perfect square, while Billy sits backwards on his desk chair with his arms folding on the back rest and mind racing a mile a minute. Will’s so quiet and calm, willingly coming in here just to spend time with Billy, helping him now and… and something sick fills Billy’s chest. The only thing he can hear are his words at the dinner table.

‘Hey-uh…” His voice sounds weird to his ears and his tongue feels thick but he’s got Will’s attention now so he needs to get it out. “Sorry.”

Will’s eyebrows scrunch up. “Sorry for what?”

For being a dick? For ruining your dinner? For ruining your family?

Billy shrugs.

“I dunno. Just… not being a good example.”

“Whaddya mean?” Will asks, handing over a handful of squares before working on some more.

Billy shrugs again. “I dunno kid I just… I’m not like Jonathan. I’m not… I’m not a good example for you. It’s embarrassing.”

“What’s embarrassing?”

“Getting told off like that in front of you guys.” Billy turns back around so he can start folding again. He needs to do something w/ his hands.

“I told you, mom told him he shouldn’t have done that.”

“But he was right-”

“No, you can be upset if you’re upset. It’s fine.”

Billy falters a bit. He wonders if Will is quoting Joyce. The small boy keeps speaking.

“You’re a good example,” Will’s voice says, and he sounds so sure that Billy believes him. “You’re just a different one. You show me to stand up for what I believe and… and that it’s okay to be… to like boys…”

Billy stops folding altogether. Will’s voice gets quieter.

“You’re a good example. It’s good to let things out when you feel them.”

Billy’s mind is racing. He’s folding without thinking about it. Because the only thing he can think about is how he got accepted into this family so quickly. How Hop took him in and Joyce accepted that like she was accepting a package at the door. She took him in like he was her own son and not some bratty problem child being dumped on her. And now Hop reprimands him without his fists and Joyce chastises Hop for being too harsh even though he’s… doing his job, whatever that entails and it’s… it’s too much sometimes. It’s too much to think about but Billy knows he wouldn’t give it away for the world bc every moment like this reminds him that every passing day is a day further away from the pain he grew up surrounded by. The pain now doesn’t even compare to the pain then. This is so different bc this pain is laced with care and love.

He’s made a crane before he realizes.

“I’m glad you’re my brother.” Will’s voice sounds so far away but it crashes over Billy like a wave.

Billy nearly crushes the crane in his hand from the words. He’s so shocked at them.

He turns and gives Will the crane, not looking the boy in the eye as he gathers up the paper and the scissors from the bed.

“I don’t need any more paper. Thanks.” Billy mumbles, dumping everything on his desk.

“You’re welcome. Is this for me?”

“Yup.” Billy shoves the paper in a drawer and tosses the scissors into his pencil cup.

“Thanks!” Will’s so excited about it. Billy’s heart is fluttering.

“Wanna listen to those records now?” Billy asks, hands on his hips, fingers fidgeting bc this is a lot and he just…. He needs music now. Whatever. He realizes he shouldn’t be so scared. There’s nothing to be scared about. Will beams up at him.

“Sure!” Will gets up and rushes to the door as Billy grabs a folded heart and follows the boy out, aiming to give it to Joyce by means of apology. He thinks briefly about giving one to Hop as well, but he figures a spoken apology and a light punch on the shoulder and a promise to listen should do just fine to get the man smiling again. Bc somehow- somewhat miraculously -it always does.

[nefariouscryptid]

Peter and Jason, a mixture of 3 and 37, written, thanks!

3: awkward hug

37: catching someone

He was clinging onto Jason’s arm for support, becoming increasingly more angry at his lack of ability to even walk. It was like being shitfaced drunk constantly. His depth perception was completely thrown off, he had a migraine from his now one working eye desperately trying to do all the seeing and focusing, and he couldn’t stop stumbling and bumping into walls (or people). Peters grip on Jason’s arm tightened, enough to nearly rip his nice suit. His heart was pounding, which he felt both hammering in his chest and throbbing in his remaining working eye. The combination of pain nearly blinding him completely, and he began to slowly release on Jason’s arm.

“Hey, you need to hold on, you’re going to bump into something and fall.” Jason murmured, trying not to embarrass Peter further. He already knew that he was humiliated by needing to be helped walking and functioning as a human being, so he was always cautious on keeping his voice low so no one else heard. It was easier to explain he was just drunk instead of physically handicapped. Although both were pretty humiliating he’d rather take the first then the latter.

“I’m fine. Don’t patronize me.” Peter grumbled, stumbling forward a little bit as he walked. He was only mildly aware of how much he was pouting, but he didn’t care at this point. He was a grown man, not needing to be assisted until he’s at least 70. He’d be more okay with it at 70, being treated like the little pouty and frail princess he is, but right now he’s a grown man who doesn’t need to pay rent or have a mortgage, but if he was more normal and ingrained into society he would know how to, damnit. He tumbled forward again, realizing ‘oh my god I don’t even know how to pay rent.’ How much was rent now? Are landlords still pissy assholes who evict single pregnant moms who were 2 hours late on their payments? Now he felt like a little child. He can’t walk like one, and can’t pay rent like one. And in the back of his head he wanted nothing more then to be held like one, especially from a certain redhead that he will refuse to elaborate on just in case anyone is a mind reader, but he’s a grown man and can’t dwell on his desires.

Jason, trying to keep his voice from sounding a little annoyed, reached his arm out and making little grabby motions with his hand. “I’m not being patronizing, just get back over here and we can get to the car in a nice and normal manner to save your pride, which I’m taking way more into account then my own, apparently.” His eyes widened as he saw Peter bump face first into a tall white pillar, staggering backwards, and like a child/70 year old, tripping over his own feet, spinning him around to fall face forward. Jason raced quickly over to him, gasping a little too loud when he felt the weight of his friend crash into him, scrambling to wrap his arm around Peter to make sure he didn’t further humiliate himself and possibly break his nose on the ground, or break another eye.

Peter shouted in surprise, the sound being muffled by Jason’s chest. He wrapped his arms around the mid of Jason’s back, gripping tightly onto the fabric of his suit, scrunching the nice cashmere material, to which he only felt slightly bad for, not because he has any strong feelings towards the fabric, but the person wearing it who he knew loved this suit. God now, he was even more embarrassed that’s he’s leaning more towards little child behavior, pouting and ruining daddy’s clothes, but the embarrassment quickly shifted elsewhere and ten times worse when he realized the positioning of his legs.

Jason, now completely frozen, slowly looked down at to where his other hand was resting. To his horror, it was laid tightly on Peters ass, gripping it like a lifeline. And curse his body reflexes, because the emotional horror he was going through causes his body to tighten up, including the hand.

Peter seemed to be feeling the same form of humiliation, because he realized his own legs were semi-wrapped around Jason’s leg, and his dick was grinding right into his thigh and… Jason’s dick? He shuddered out a gasp again, absolutely petrified he was going to pop a boner in front of probably everyone he’s ever worked with for more then a day, because he’s a handicapped man child who gets turned on by being held, and can’t even move his body because he’s terrified that any form of friction is going to cause unwanted body responses that he hopes won’t be noticeable if he runs fast enough and never comes back.

Jason looked up to see a couple people staring at them with raised eyebrows, one man holding back a snicker. How long have they been holding eachother? It had to be too long to brush it off as just catching his physically and apparently mentally handicapped bro, so in true Byrne fashion, he promptly dropped Peter to the floor.

Peter gasped, a cross between a cough and a yelp as he fell to the floor with a dull thud, and scrambled to prop himself up, despite the now pain in his back. “Why did you drop me?!” He shouted, completely flushed red.

“I…uhhm…” Jason had stuttered out, now having a whole crowd look at them with both curiosity and confusion. Then, he heard snickering, whipping around to see who was laughing at them. Face red with anger (and embarrassment) he saw a short and stumpy woman giggling, pointing a finger in Peters direction. Jason slowly turned his head back to Peter, and the both of them slowly looked down, to see a hard on.

[zanesgirlfriend]

Number Neighbors | Part Two | Jeff Wittek

A/N: This picks up directly where the smut leaves off

READ PART ONE HERE

READ THE SMUT HERE

_____

"When are you leaving?" You slid off of Jeff, rolling onto your back, and attempted to catch your breath. That was undoubtedly the best sex you'd ever had, not only because of his physical blessings, but because of the already established emotional connection.

"You tryna get rid of me already?" He chuckled, his smile more beautiful in person. He sat up, his arms outstretched in front of him.

"No, the opposite!" You smiled as your hands locked with his. "I never want you to leave."

"You could always come with me." His words were slow and careful, which was weird considering how sarcastic he usually was.

"But I have a job here, I can't just pack up and leave." His eyes captured you, causing you to feel trapped in his gaze. You didn't mind though.

"You could get an even better one in LA. You've told me a million times how you want to do more."

"You never answered my question."

"You're changing the subject. We have to have this conversation eventually. I'm serious about this and about you. Now that I've held you I don't know how long I can go without you." His words tugged at your heart and you felt a deep sadness growing in you. You'd realized that he couldn't stay here forever.

"Can we talk about it tomorrow? I just want to appreciate the fact that you're here right now." You crawled into his lap once again, his arms wrapping tightly around you.

"Deal."

The two of you laid in bed talking and cuddling for a while before Jeff's phone rang. "It's David." He told you as he answered the FaceTime call.

"Todd said you have a secret girlfriend." David looked down at the phone as he exited a casino.

"Not much of a secret anymore, aye?" Jeff joked.

"Can we see her then?"

"She's not wearin' the most clothes right now, sorry." Jeff did that little high-pitched laugh you loved so much.

"Ohh, okay, well I wanted you to come film a bit with Jason." David laughed before getting to the point.

"I'm a little busy." Jeff started, not wanting to leave you.

"We'll be there." You peeked your head into the frame.

"Hey! I'm David!" David laughed as he looked at you.

"Y/n! We'll see you in twenty." You tapped Jeff's phone, ending the call before standing up and searching for a bra. Jeff was frozen for a moment, he'd never seen such an impulsive side of you. "Are you coming or am I meeting them myself?"

"You're crazy." His smile broke the silence before his words did.

"Not as crazy as you telling them I'm your girlfriend before you even asked me out." You stuck your tongue out at him before disappearing into the bathroom.

"Hey!" He chased after you, stumbling as he attempted to put his underwear on. "You weren't supposed to know about that!"

"Awe, is this our first fight?" You made a cute pouty face as your arms hugged his waist. "Kiss it and make it better?" You asked as if a joke fight was an elbow scrape.

"Always." He kissed you gently, smiling as you pulled away.

"All better!"

Before you knew it you were in your car on the way to David's hotel. The closer you got, the more nerves you felt creeping into you. Jeff was real, you were his girlfriend, and you were about to meet his friends for the first time. His fingers interlocked with yours, calming you down slightly as you got in the elevator.

"They're gonna love you." His deep voice was soothing.

"I hope so."

Jeff knocked on the door, barely interrupting all the voices behind it. David opened the door, introducing himself and letting you in.

"Hey, everyone, this is my number neighbor and girlfriend, y/n." Jeff showed you off to the room, a chorus of hellos jumping out at you. You smiled and sat down between Jeff and a pretty black haired girl as everyone talked.

"I'm Mariah." She introduced herself.

"Y/n." It wasn't long before awkward small talk became a real conversation. You learned that she was also from New York, and she was a dancer. You'd learned a few other peoples names, but Mariah was your favorite. You ended up exchanging numbers before joining the rest of the groups conversation.

"Natalie could only get flights back for Monday morning so we need something to do tomorrow." David said, listening for suggestions. You made a mental note of when they were leaving, sad that it was so soon.

"We could go to y/n's show." Jeff suggested. Your face became red at the thought of all of them watching you perform.

"You have a show?"

"Uhh, I'm a backup dancer. It's not like I have my own show." You corrected Jeff, still blushing from all the attention.

"Can we go?" David asked.

"Yeah, I can probably hook you up with tickets."

So it was settled. You ended up staying out with Jeff's friends until three in the morning. You went on a party bus, got a little drunk, went to a bar, laughed your ass off at one of the guys tripping over a rock, and had a wonderful time.

Your friends here were all work friends. Of course you hung out and had fun together, but these people were different. The Vlog Squad made you laugh and cracked dirty jokes and actually included you in conversations. The only time you were confused was when a few girls came up to the group and asked for pictures. Everyone had done this a million times, but it was new to you. Jeff pulled you over to the side and whispered some joke about being famous, quickly kissing your head before going to take pictures with the fans. It amazed you how quickly the group picked their conversation back up. As if their words were just on pause for a minute.

Jeff drove your car back to your apartment, your slightly slurred directions helping him. "I think I love you." You told him as you opened your door.

"I think I love you too." He gingerly crawled into bed with you, smiling and breathing in your perfume as he squeezed you tight.

You woke up only slightly panicked, not sure what time it was or where you were or who was holding onto you. Suddenly you remembered the events of the previous night and smiled to yourself. Jeff was here. You rolled over, your head laying peacefully on his bare chest.

"Good morning, beautiful." The sleep was evident in his voice and his eyes and that wonderful bed head.

"Good morning." It was so nice just to hold onto him.

"If I hadn't met you I'd probably be working out right now." Jeff stared at the ceiling as he thought about a different life.

"I'd probably be sleeping." You smiled and cuddled into him further.

It was these little moments and stupid conversations that made everything worth it.

Jeff's thinking about life without you had got you thinking of life in 24 hours.

"In 24 hours he'll be at the airport." You thought as you ate breakfast. "In 24 hours he'll be on the plane." You thought as you got ready for the day. "In 24 hours I'll be here and Jeff will be home." You thought as you danced on stage, his smiling face in the audience. "In 24 hours I will be alone." You thought to yourself as you hugged him for the hundredth time.

The closer it got to him leaving the sadder you felt. You'd dreamed about meeting him for a few months, and in two short days he was yours. Then what.

"I don't want you to leave." You told Jeff as you played with his hair.

"I don't want to leave you."

"Then stay." You begged him.

"I can't, I gotta get back to Nerf." Nerf's face popped into your head.

"I know." You agreed.

"Move in with me." He turned around excitedly.

"Jeff, I can't just leave. I don't have a job over there." Your fingertips made small swirling patterns on his shoulders.

"I can take care of you until you find one."

"I can't let you do that."

"This fucking sucks." He pouted.

"I know, but we'll figure it out eventually."

Another night of great sex and incredible cuddling left you so full of affection, but the next morning was draining.

You held in your emotions as you drove him to the airport, only to break down as you hugged him goodbye.

"I'll call you as soon as I'm at my gate, and then again as soon as we land."

"Okay." You nodded and sniffled, his large thumbs wiping your tears away.

"I gotta go." He squeezed you tight, tasting your salty tears as he kissed you once again.

"I love you." You told him before letting him go. You were sure now. The past few months and these past two days were all you needed to confirm your feelings for him.

"I love you too."

One last kiss and he was gone.

You were devastated as you drove home. You felt as if your pet had just died. Luckily you didn't have to work so the whole day was dedicated to you crying and looking at pictures of him.

Jeff is devastated.

Mariah texted you from the plane as soon as they landed.

I wish I could be there.

Maybe you can!

I have a job I can't just leave here.

Give me a few days.

A few days of falling asleep on FaceTime got the couple back in their old rhythm. It felt like before, like them meeting was a dream. Jeff already seemed to be planning his next trip to Vegas. You'd forgotten about Mariah's plan completely until she texted you.

Put in your two weeks notice.

_____

READ PART THREE HERE

[awkwardbluefish]

Blue, can you write something about batfam members sense of family to each of them? (That made no sense sorry im tired lol)

Welp I hope this is was what you meant! Have some mushy stuff <3

Bruce didn’t think he knew what family meant, not really. He knew this was his family though, this was his home. No matter how crazy and hectic it always seemed to be.

Family was this. Family was Dick sliding down the banister and slamming into a very not morning person Jason. Family was Stephanie and Cass playing with Tim’s hair as Barbara filmed them with that sly smile of hers. Family was Duke resting his head on top of Damian’s as he watched the boy draw Titus once again. Family was Alfred shaking his head at the chaos and refilling Bruce’s coffee.

If anyone one asked what Bruce thought family was, well, Bruce wouldn’t be able to describe it. He would look at the chaos his kids create and simply say; this. This was family.

It was different for everyone though yet they all had one thing in common. Each other.

Family for Cass was people with loyalty, unyielding trust and honesty. Family was the people around her who let her blood stained hands run though their hair and smack their shoulders and pinch their cheeks. Family was trust and honesty, people who cared and who would never lie to her. This was her family she decides as Jason let’s out a curse mixed with a pained grunt.

Jason groans from under his elder brother and threatens to stab him. Dick simply snickers and runs of, not before doing a summersault, of course. He rolls his eyes and looks at his family.

These people - stupidly - trusted him, pulled him back and refused to let him go. They wanted him, his family wanted him no matter what he did. He died and he has killed and yet they never stopped bringing him back, dragging him right back to this chaotic place. This was his family. He’ll never admit it out loud, he’d rather die again before that happens.

Stephanie cackles and wonders if she should get make up to complete Tim’s look. She gets a pouty face in return but simply grins and winds her arm around his shoulders as she pulls her phone out for a selfie.

She lets go and snickers at Tim’s confused startled look in the photo and her glittery lipstick shining bright with her grin. She swipes her thumb across the cracked screen of her phone to see the others and simply smiles.

Her family was crazy and they fought. They argued but they never ever meant any of the mean words. They were never meant to truly hurt after all. They cared for each other and for her and that’s all Stephanie could ever ask from her family.

As Tim pouts and demands to see the picture Barbara adds the video to her blackmail folder. She really should just rename it to The Batfam and Their Antics. It was what the folder was full of after all.

She was lucky, Barbara would admit that. She had two families. She had her father, her intelligent and loving father. She had this family too. This family who was crazy and just a little bit stupid but that was okay. No matter how far apart they become they were always they’re for each other and that’s what truly mattered.

Tim gives Barbara a look and he knows she’ll send him the video. So what if he looked like a fool. He didn’t care because his family was here. His family was always right there or a call away. They always came back, no matter what. The never lied about that. Never.

Duke wisely burrows his snort into Damian’s hair as Dick crashes into the kitchen, shortly followed by a grinning maniac called Jason. Damian doesn’t bother hiding his smirk and Jason flips him off before spear tackling Dick.

Duke didn’t think he deserved this. How did he deserve this magnificent family when he was still waiting for his own? He didn’t think he did, he knows he doesn’t but they never fail to prove him wrong again and again. He truly didn’t deserve these people. He doesn’t think he ever will.

Damian rolls his eyes at his family, specifically the eldest rolling around in the floor. They were far from blood and Damian was proud to say he doesn’t have their idiotic DNA running through his veins. They are family nonetheless.

He learned harder than the others. He grew up believing family was blood and nothing more. This group of morons proved him wrong, and they proved him wrong hard. That was the only time Damian didn’t mind being proved wrong.

His blood didn’t mean family but he would forever be grateful for it running through his veins. If it hadn’t he would have never met this band of misfits and Damian has never heard of a worse crime to ever exist.

For each of them the term family meant different, but in the end it always led to each other. Every single time.

[slashiest-slasher]

the slashers reacting to swapping bodies with their s/o???

yaaayy my first new prompt done since coming back~! ೕ(⁍̴̀◊⁍̴́ฅ) i didn’t do freddy bc he’s been a troublesome muse to reign in but here you go!!

under cut bc i went off with this prompt, and it gets a little spicy, but nothing explicit

Michael Myers

- Waking up to staring at his own face isn’t exactly how he expected to spend his day. In fact, he was planning on going out to kill some people. But when he looks in the mirror, he finds /your/ face staring back at him. Which, like, isn’t ideal.

- You aren’t that much shorter than him, if at all (homie is 5'10’’, /which is a perfectly average height for a man in America, thank you very much/) So it isn’t all to much of an adjustment, but he still demands to wear his own clothes, so you get to watch him, frustrated, having to cuff the sleeves and pantlegs, and wear your boots because it’s your size 9 vs his size 11.

- Michael does put the mask on first and foremost. It’s a psychological and comfort thing, wearing the mask. If he’s wearing a mask, he can be alive, he can kill.

- He gets pretty pouty when you tell him (and God does he hate you using his voice, it’s been 17 years since hes said anything) that no, he’s not going out and killing until they fix this situation. You don’t know what’s up, but the last thing you want is for the police to catch him only to find you.

- Sufficed to say, Michael is not at all happy about anything. You walking around in his body without his mask on? Not a fan. He doesn’t like seeing his own face. You being so weak? He tried pushing you aside when you were body blocking him from going aside and it did /nothing/.

- Not a fan of you picking him up either. It’s the only chance you’ll get, and when he’s being petulant, you abuse that power. He’s just generally angry with everything you do in his body. But nothing tops when you left to go grocery shopping without telling him.

- Loomis had taken it upon himself to get a closer residence to town because of his mysterious disappearance, and all the killings in nearby towns. Which means when you catch sight of him in the grocery store, you have to drop everything and run. You resolve to order pizza and takeout until everything rights itself.

- (And Loomis swears he sees Michael without his mask, which is perplexing and concerning, so he follows the fleeing figure. He is certain that Michael “coma like for 15 years, rarely walking faster than a brisk walk” Myers is sprinting through the parking lot and speeding away in a car. He can’t prove it, but he knows!!)

- Killing people in a different body doesn’t stop Michael. It just gives him a bit of a challenge. He can’t just use outright strength since YOU can’t even pick up a fully grown man on a good day. So when a would be thief breaks in, and his stab to the spine does jack shit, he has to jump on their back to garrote them with a phone wire while they try shaking them off.

- So when you come home, the living room is COMPLETELY wrecked, and Michael is struggling to drag a body away. You just sigh and heave them over your shoulder and bring them to the basement until you can figure out what to do with them.

- Michael is completely off physical affection until he’s back in his own body. Kissing himself is just… it’s a weird thing to do. But he does play with you - himself, whatever, both sexually and non-sexually. He normally doesn’t bother taking a close look at your body, so he takes this as a chance to.

- When you guys are FINALLY back in your own bodies, he immediately takes his mask back, and acts like nothing happened. Except he deigns himself to use his strength against you a lot more often, including picking you up whenever he damn well feels like it.

Jason Voorhees

- Hmmm, when he first wakes up he panics at first. First, he thinks you might have taken his mask off while you were asleep, because he can see just fine out of both eyes, then at the giant figure in bed with you nowhere to be found. I mean, he’s a pretty beefy boy, so if there’s someone bigger than him in bed, and you’re gone, he immediately gets up and panics, reaching for his machete.

- But his hand! It’s tiny! Why is his hand so small now? He completely ignores whoever was in bed to look in the mirror (which he has to use the step stool, like you typically do, to reach), and *gasp*, his face is completely normal! He’s so confused, thinking it’s a dream until he realizes the face in the mirror is /yours/.

- And that figure in the bed? Taking a better look at them, he realizes that it’s him! That’s his mask, the same scars on his body, the same clothes he wears. He wastes no time in waking you up.

- Unlike Michael, his inability to talk is a mixture of speech impediments, thrashed vocal cords from nearly drowning, and an unwillingness to talk. So he talks a little bit in your body, but not much. He’s not really a fan of you trying to speak while in his body either, but communication is so much easier this way.

- He has no problem wearing your clothes at all, but chooses to wear jeans, and a sweater not unlike the one his mother used to wear. He has the urge to wear his mask, but realizes he has nothing to hide (not that he would want to hide your beautiful face anyways).

- Jason begs you to keep his mask on, and to try not to take a peek at his face. Which you completely respect, but that doesn’t stop you from inspecting the rest of his body. He can’t really blame you too much, but he gets flustered and embarrassed when he catches you.

- He, as well, isn’t not used to or a fan of not being as strong as he normally is. He tries to go and chop some firewood, and doesn’t even get the axe halfway through the log, let alone dislodge it. He gets a bit upset about that bit.

- And he really despises finding people in the camp, so when a couple’s car breaks down nearby, he’s fully ready for them to freak out when he comes to kill them. But what he isn’t ready for is them not freaking out at the sight of a large, hulking man carrying a machete until he remembers.

- It’s weird helping people out instead of killing them, but he figures this is what you would do. Not like he could kill them even if he wanted to in this body. They’d overwhelm him the moment he landed a slash with his machete, and no matter how much he wants to kill them, he holds himself back until they’re driving away.

- But when he gets home, he finds you gleefully chopping the fire wood and carrying logs around. He honestly finds it how cute you get at using your newfound strength.

- He also doesn’t complain much when you scoop him up in your arms, because no one has done that since his other would when he was a little boy, so even though it’s his body he’s hugging and hiding his face against.

- Jason is always nervous about being intimate with you. It’s taken a long time before he even let you two share a bed, and has only just gotten around to touching each other’s bodies. And this is no exception, and he wonders how you aren’t scared of someone so big!!!!

- He’ll just stick with kissing and cuddling, thanks.

- Speaking of which, you finally get your first proper kiss, since you can’t exactly see his face when he removes the mask. And even though that’s his own body he’s kissing, he gets addicted to it. Can’t get enough of you completely enveloping him.

- When you finally return to your own bodies, he still isn’t comfortable enough to let you see his face, but he can’t go back to not having kisses, so he will indulge in kissy time, but ONLY if he’s wearing his sack mask rolled up. If he trusts you a bit more, then with the mask off but you blindfolded.

Leatherface

- Baby boy also gets extremely confused when he wakes up with someone much, much bigger than him wrapped around him, but when he looks back it’s him! That’s /his/ sleeping mask. And when he reaches up to touch his own face, he finds nothing but smooth, unmarred skin.

- Home boy immediately jumps to pulling a mask - any mask - over his face. He ends up grabbing his old lady mask, but regardless of which one he grabbed, they’re all huge on your comparatively head.

- His inability to speak, and desire to wear mask, are pure psychological. Without any of his mask, he’s just a blank slate with no personality, and his inability to speak comes from not being taught to speak and developmental delays. So it’s certainly disconcerting when you wake up to Bubba squealing, but in your voice.

- Bubba has no issue wearing your clothes either, but he insists on wearing his apron and mask regardless. He doesn’t really care what you do or don’t wear, but oh boy does it throw Drayton for a loop when you come down the stairs not wearing a mask.

- And it gives him a bigger shock when you speak with Bubba’s voice, as croaky and unused to forming words as it is. He’s used to Bubba being on the emotional extremes of gleeful, angry, and sorrowful, mixed in with his obedience, so your sarcasm and sharp tongue come out of nowhere.

- Until this whole mess is sorted out, Bubba’s stuck on house duty, Nubbin’s doing all the killing and hauling bodies, and you, with your glorious strength, get to pick up the slack with the more physically intensive chores.

- Bubba is downright morose when he struggles to hold his chainsaw, or swing it with any accuracy. But oh boy watching you… it may be his body, but it’s not like he can’t admire how well you use it.

- And if it weren’t for him being in your body, it would have been down right adorable to watch him sprint after a victim size appropriate hammer, squealing.

- Drayton tries to get you to do some killing (“on account of you having the brains and brawn”, but he learned his lesson about trying to push you around like he does Bubba (and you when you’re smaller) when you hanged him on one of the meat hooks by his belt.

- Bubba is absolutely tinkled pink when you pick him up and carry him around. He became a hefty boy when he was fairly young, and after mother and grandma/great-grandma passed away, all that was left was Drayton, Nubbins, and grandpa, and it’s not like any of them were going to pick up a chunky toddler of their own free will.

- Even if they all believed that Bubba was the cutest kid.

- Bubba wraps his arms tightly around your neck and is squealing happily the entire time you have him in your arms. Drayton doesn’t know if he has ever seen Bubba this happy, outside of the time when you finally agreed to go steady with him.

- Intimacy isn’t really an issue for him, though he finally understands why you were so intimidated at first when you two first got intimate. But you know how to use body and he has no complaints. Bby boy likes being submissive and now’s his chance to TRULY be completely under your power.

- When you two find yourselves back in your own bodies, everyone is relieved. Because now Bubba can properly protect everyone (not that you couldn’t in his body, but not being able to do anything made him anxious). If anything, this endeavor only strengthened the bond between you and the Sawyers.

[marvel--queen]

Lucky People || Jason Todd || Song Fic

Fandom: DC Comics

Word Count:  2,136 (including lyrics)

Warnings: nudity, sexual mentions, theres like one or two swear words but thats it

Description: It’s Jason’s birthday and you give him his Rated PG present before the Rated R present. Plus you get a little surprise of your own

Song: Lucky People by Waterparks

Masterlist

A/N: (V/N) means vigilante name. Sorry it took so long but happy birthday to my baby bird Jason Todd!! Also recommend listening to the band Waterparks in general because theyre the fucking best

THIS IS NOT MY GIF. GIF CREDITS GOES TO THE OWNER

—

You close the door, thanking Dick for helping you throw Jason’s surprise party. All of Jason’s family came by to celebrate his birthday and even though Jason almost shot Tim at the start from startling him, it was a success. Dick was the last to leave, worrying about cleaning up the party but you told him you could take care of it. The minute the door closes, Jason’s arms are around you, nuzzling his nose into your neck. 

“Is there a reason why I didn’t get a birthday present from you at the party?” His voice was low. 

“Well.. yes,” You blushed lightly, “But not what you’re thinking about.” You turn around in his arms to look at his pouty face, "Not yet at least.”

You lead Jason to the couch and give him a nervous look. “Just, uh, give me a minute.” 

Jason looked confused as you hooked up your computer to the TV. You found what you were looking for and clicked on it. It was then where you returned to the couch and placed yourself on Jason’s lap. He wrapped his arms around you and snuggled into your neck. 

Grabbing the remote, you looked at Jason, “Happy birthday, Baby.” And pressed play.

The video starts with you in front of a camera with your guitar. “Hey Jay, right now you’re at the store grabbing me something and going on basically a wild goose hunt since Gotham doesn’t sell what I asked. But I’ll apologize later when you get back home.” You wink at the camera. “But when you see this it’ll be your birthday! So happy birthday Baby! I wrote this a while back but decided to hold off releasing it until after your birthday. Throughout this year, I’ve been randomly filming moments we had, I’m surprised you never asked but you went along with it and now you’ll finally know why.” 

You adjusted your guitar on your lap and spoke, “This one’s for you, I love you."

"Light us up until we pop I wanna burn bright 'til we're not Let's keep each other safe from the world.”

The recording stayed on you strumming and singing until the next line comes.

"I'll be your optimistic black hole Full of love I can't control Let's keep each other safe from the world From the world”

It changed to the two of you in bed laughing as Jason buried his face into your neck and blowing. You squirm away from him with a bright smile on your face before pulling his face towards yours for a kiss.

"Happy birthday, Merry Christmas To the one I call my Mr I'm leaving you love notes in the kitchen, say it all”

The video cuts to you making him pancakes in the morning before you leave for work. It zooms in on the note you placed next to the plate, reading ‘Good Morning my love, I’ll be at work by the time you wake up. Just wanted to let you know that I love you and that we’re having dinner at the manor tonight. Deal with it babe, XO (Y/N)’ 

"I know you said to mind my business But Cupid sent me on a mission It's got me sitting, wishing, waiting for your call Let's be lucky people, you and me”

You hobbled vicariously to the couch, hoping to not spill the wine you were carrying. Getting comfortable and making sure your leg is properly elevated, you open your current book and start reading. The video cuts to a later time, as seen by the darkness in the window next to you and your book soon was read through. Throughout the video, your face gets more worried and you check your phone more frequently than the start of the video. It’s the first time in a while where you weren’t out there with Jason patrolling Gotham but since you got in a bit of a scuffle last week with some of Joker’s goons, you were out of commission with a broken leg. The video cuts one last time to you almost asleep on the couch. Jason crawls through the window and takes off his mask. You jump at the sound but your startled eyes light up at the sight of your boyfriend and you open your arms wide at the boy. Jason gives you a tired smile and strips off his jacket and utilities before joining you on the couch. Careful of your leg, he laid with his head on your chest and your arms circle around him. One hand moves up to play with his hair and you see a dopey smile form on Jasons’ tired face as he falls asleep laying on you.

"My hourglass is in your hands You've got my time, you are my plans Let's keep each other safe from the world”

Your leg is fully healed and you’re on the roof of your apartment in your (V/N) outfit with Jason next to you in his Red Hood outfit. His mask is off, allowing his face to be seen with only a domino mask covering his identity. The sun is about to set behind you as you laugh swinging his arms with yours. You pull him closer to your body and started to dance. He gives you a look before giving in to your antics. The two of you are goofily dancing before it turns to Jason just holding you and swaying with the sun almost gone behind you both, casting a silhouette. You break from his grasp, giving him a sweet kiss and flipping backward off of the building. Jason is laughing to himself as he grabs his mask, placing it on and following you on patrol.

"You've got me writing sappy songs I used to laugh at on my own Let's keep each other safe from the world Because I know it's hard to let yourself be fine But I'll carry around our worried flurried minds But I'll let go if you do too"

You giggle as the bubbles from your bath tickles your skin. Your cat looks curiously at the bubbles from the rim of the bathtub and swats at some. You hear the front door open and close and Jason calls out to you. 

“In the bath!” You yell in response and you hear heavy footsteps. By the time Jason appears in the bathroom door, he’s already shirtless.

“Mind if I join?” You respond by moving forward in the bath creating space behind you for Jason. Doing this made some bathwater spill over the rim and your cat yowled in surprise before running off.

“Crazy cat,” You mutter to yourself as Jason climbs into the tub behind you.

“He may be crazy but you love him,” Jason tugs you into his lab once he settled.

“Seems as if I have a type.” You smile back at him as his face shifts into betrayal.

“You take that back!” 

“Nope,” You grab some bubbles and try and place it on his face, creating a beard. You giggle at how goofy he looks until he goes and nuzzles his face into your neck, tickling you. Screaming, you squirm in his hold as he starts blowing raspberries onto your neck. Once Jason stopped and you calmed down, you sink deeper into the bathwater and Jason places a kiss on your head. You tilt your head up slightly to look at your lover and he leans down to kiss you. It’s messy but it’s perfect at the moment. Jason tapped your nose lightly when the two of you pulled away from the kiss.

"Happy birthday, Merry Christmas To the one I call my Mr I'm leaving you love notes in the kitchen, say it all I know you said to mind my business But Cupid sent me on a mission It's got me sitting, wishing, waiting for your call Let's be lucky people, you and me"

You open the door to your new home and let your cat free from his kennel. He runs around the living room for a bit before losing interest and grooming himself instead. You laugh at your cats' reaction to the new house and jump when arms wrap around your waist. You turn your head to look at Jason and smile, kissing his lips sweetly. 

"My common sense is powerless And I'm convinced that you Caught me lucky, it's just the half of it The better half of me that I couldn't quit"

Jason is snuggled into your back, leaving kisses on your shoulder as you try and film. His hair tickling your neck as you giggle, trying to release yourself from his grip. Once he releases you, you flip him over so you're straddling his waist and the camera is poised on him. He pouts at you behind the camera and he looks sinfully adorable with messy hair from you pulling it earlier and dark bruises marking his chest from your kisses. You lean down into the frame and kiss his cheek. During then he catches you off guard and flips you over, taking the camera from your hand. You reach out to grab the camera but he dodges it and the shoulder of Jason’s shirt you're wearing falls exposing your shoulder. You scrunch your nose at him and make a goofy face at the camera, sticking your tongue out. It ends with you mouthing "I love you” to Jason before you covered the lens with your hand.

“ 'Cause now I'm flying across the country More than monthly for you You've got me more than clumsy But you're my yellow lovely"

For a month in the summer, you went home to visit your family. Sadly Jason couldn’t come with, he had duties in Gotham as Red Hood. During that month, you two must have facetimed at least once a day and you missed him so much, especially Larry, your cat. You couldn’t bring Larry along since your brother is allergic and the majority of your facetimes, much to Jason’s dismay, was you talking to Larry. Now the month was over and you were finally coming home. Immediately getting off the plane, you saw Jason. Looking like he just rolled out of bed, in one of your oversized yellow jumpers, he never looked better. Your smile grew and you dropped your luggage, running to the love of your life. He didn’t notice you until you were in the air jumping onto him. Luckily, Jason is used to this and he caught you with only a few stumbles. You litter his face with kisses and held on to him for dear life. 

“I missed you, I missed you, I missed you,” You repeat between each kiss before pulling away and looking straight into his eyes. “I missed you, Jay-bird.” 

“Sure seemed like you missed the cat more than me,” Jason muttered before squeezing your ass and kissing you hard. You smiled into the kiss and laughed at his comment. You may have missed your cat but you missed Jason even more.

"Happy birthday, Merry Christmas To the one I call my Mr I'm leaving you love notes in the kitchen and say it all I know you said to mind my business But Cupid sent me on a mission It's got me sitting, wishing, waiting for your call"

The video closes with you and your guitar and a kiss blown at the camera. 

“Soooo,” You drawl out peaking nervously at Jason. He had tears in his eyes and gaped at you. “Aw you big baby,” You cup his face and kissed his nose.

Jason looked at you with love in his eyes before trying to respond, “I- oh god. That was beautiful, (Y/N).” 

You blush and hide in his chest, “Was it really?”

“Yeah, it was. Just, uh, hold on for a second.” He picks you up from his lap and races towards your shared room. After a minute of fidgeting your thumbs, he returns and kneels in front of you. “This is not how I planned this going but after watching that there is no one else I’d ever want to marry. (Y/N) (L/N), I am so in love with you, will you marry me?” He opens the velvet box he had hidden behind his back to reveal a beautiful ring.

“Oh my god, holy shit,” You gasp, covering your mouth. “Yes, a thousand times yes, Jay.” He slides the ring onto your left ring finger and picks you up from the couch, kissing you. You break the kiss to look him in the eyes, “Now, for your other gift.” Somehow, still in his arms, you removed your shirt to reveal his favorite deep red lacy bra you own and he groaned loudly.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about,” Jason smirks before carrying you to your bed.

[puckinghell]

Valentine’s Day Disaster | Mikko Rantanen

Plot: Valentine’s Day is a disaster... But maybe it could be turned around Word count: 2126 Note: Happy Valentine’s i ate an entire chocolate bar by myself today cause nobody wants to love me

You know you probably shouldn’t be here, but it’s completely on accident that you find yourself in the hallway of Mikko’s apartment complex at 9 pm. There really wasn’t anything else you could have done; you weren’t going to give your date your address.

Three rapid knocks on his front door, and you hear stumbling inside. Instantly your heart lifts; you’d been worried he wouldn’t be home, with it being Valentine’s Day and all.

“Y/N?” his surprised voice sounds, as he opens the door. “What are you doing here?”

Normally, he wouldn’t have asked that question. Mikko has been one of your best friends since you met him in a supermarket two years ago, you trying to reach for the Honey Puffs on the highest shelf and him giggling to himself before finally coming over to help you. You’re over at his apartment a lot - his is a lot nicer than yours - and more often then not, you show up unannounced.

But he knew you had a date this evening, and he wasn’t expecting you tonight.

“It was a disaster,” you groan, as you push past his tall frame into the apartment, kicking off your shoes and draping your wet coat over the coat rack. “So, so bad!”

Mikko raises an eyebrow. “Bad enough for me to get the ice cream?” Ice cream isn’t really part of his athlete’s diet, and his nutritionist wouldn’t be happy with it, but he always keeps a pint of your favorite ice cream in his freezer.

“Bad enough for that, yes, but hold on, because I haven’t had dinner yet.”

“You haven’t had dinner? Weren’t you going to dinner with Jack?”

You roll your eyes. “Jared, his name is Jared.”

“Whatever,” Mikko huffs, and he crosses his arms. He looks a bit like a pouty child, but an extremely tall and muscular one, and you sigh at how good he looks in just sweatpants and a simple white T-shirt. He doesn’t look like he was planning to go out himself, and you praise yourself lucky, because that means he can just hang out with you.

Unless…

Your eyes widen. “You weren’t going to have a girl over, were you? I could go.”

“No, no girls,” Mikko says, and when you shoot him a questioning look, he shrugs. “Valentine’s Day is just another day, Y/N.”

“You’re such a guy,” you complain, and you fall down onto his couch. “It means something to us, Mik. Even if we say it doesn’t. Every girl wants a cute date on Valentine’s! But it’s such a disaster, every single year!”

He sits down next to you on the couch. “You’re wet,” he points out, and you can’t help but roll your eyes at him again because Mikko’s so good at pointing out the obvious. “Do you want some dry clothes? And then you can tell me about your bad date.”

You gratefully take the T-shirt and sweatpants he gets for you and even though you’re basically drowning in them, they smell like Mikko and that is enough to lift your mood. When you return, Mikko has folded himself into the corner of his couch and you take your place on the other side.

“So, why was it a disaster?” he asks, and his blue eyes stare at you intently, a hint of a smile on his face.

Because I’m in love with you. The thought flashes through your head quickly and you blink, trying to push it away as quickly as it came. That’s a demon you prefer to keep hidden in your closet. 

Instead, you focus on telling him the chain of events.

“So, Jared asked me if I wanted to go for a romantic picnic in the park.”

“But it’s raining,” Mikko butts in, and you shoot him a glare for interrupting you. He holds up his hands in surrender, then pretends to zip his lips and throw away a key. It’s cute and typically Mikko and you kick him against the shin as you snort out a laugh.

“I know it’s raining,” you say finally. “Why do you think I’m so wet?”

He doesn’t say anything, but wiggles his eyebrows, and you kick him again, harder this time. He yelps out and reaches for his shin in pain. “Are you going to let me tell this story?” you reprimand, and he sighs.

“Okay! Continue.”

“So, we’re already in the park when it starts raining, and we have to run back to the car and I’m drenched, and then he says, hey, maybe we should go to a restaurant instead. You wanna know where he takes me?”

Apparently, Mikko took your warning to heart, because he doesn’t respond, just lifts his eyebrows in question.

“A seafood place!”

He bursts out laughing. “Did you not tell him you’re allergic to seafood?”

“I definitely did! But he forgot! Which, sure, it’s not a big deal, but then I told him I couldn’t eat anything on that menu and he got all pissy and annoyed? As if it’s my fault that my throat will close up if I even look at a shrimp.”

“Asshole,” Mikko lets out, and there’s a little too much force behind it. You notice his furrowed brow and the tight set of his jaw, and lovingly pat his leg.

“Don’t get too angry, Mik. Believe me, it’s not the worst date I’ve been on.” But that doesn’t seem to help, because now his facial expression makes it look like he’s in pain, himself.

“So, anyway, then we get out of the restaurant and he just says, we should just skip dinner and go straight for dessert, let’s go to your house.”

Your best friend lets out a strangled noise in the back of his throat and you laugh. “That was my reaction too. So I told him he should just drop me off. But I didn’t want to give him my address cause, what if he’s a creep or a stalker? So I gave him yours.”

“Great,” Mikko says sarcastically. “Now I’m gonna get murdered in my sleep.”

“You’re a big tough hockey player, you can defend yourself. Jared told me he’s 5’11, but he’s definitely not above 5’9 on a good day.”

“I was just kidding,” he hums, sending you a small smile. “If it means you’re safe, you can give my address to anyone you like.”

His words send warm shivers through your body but you ignore them. It’s not like that, with Mikko, it never has been and you know it never will, but God, life would be so much better if it could be like that.

Because you know that even if Jared hadn’t been a complete jerk and the weather hadn’t ruined your night, you still wouldn’t have gone on a second date with him. Because he’s not the blonde, goofy, clumsy Fin that’s currently sitting opposite you.

“You’re cold,” Mikko speaks out of the blue and it’s only then that you notice you’re still slightly shivering. “How about you take a hot shower and I’ll order food? You can get one of my hoodies if you want, that’s warmer.”

“If all men were a little bit more like you, Valentine’s Day wouldn’t be such a disaster,” you say wholeheartedly, and his cheeks turn a little red.

“Oh,” he chimes, the high-pitched noise he uses when he doesn’t know what to say or needs a little more time to process the English bringing a smile onto your face. You can’t help but lightly touch his cheek as you walk past him, muttering a “thank you” before making your way to his bathroom.

The hot shower helps, both against the cold and your bad mood, and when you step out of the bathroom wrapped in one of Mikko’s hoodies you’ve completely forgotten about your disastrous evening.

When you step into the living room, expecting Mikko to be on the couch watching TV, he’s not there. A little confused, you go through the kitchen, and then the bedroom, but he’s nowhere to be found.

Then you hear a door opening and find the sound to be coming from the balcony.

“Oh, you’re done!” Mikko exclaims. He quickly moves so his body is positioned in front of the balcony door and you frown.

“Mik, what ya doing there?”

“Nothing.” The answer comes too quick and his voice is too high, and you cross your arms.

“You’re lying to me.”

Mikko lets out a frustrated groan. “You weren’t supposed to shower so quickly!” Confusion must’ve been written all over your face cause he sighs and steps aside, opening the balcony door in the process.

His balcony is covered, so the rain hasn’t been able to touch his masterpiece. And a masterpiece, it is.

On the floor is a blanket that you’re pretty sure Mikko just pulled from his bed, with some of the couch pillows laying around it. In the middle sits a bottle of wine and a few take out containers with Thai food.

“I was gonna get a candle,” Mikko says miserably, “but I realized I don’t have any.”

You giggle. “I’m pretty sure that would be a fire hazard anyway.” Your voice is soft with fondness as you reach over and hook your arms around his waist. “You did this for me?”

His arms tighten around your body and his chin rests on the top of your head. You feel, more than see, him shrug. “You were promised a picnic. You say Valentine’s Day is important for you, so I wanted to give you what you were promised.” He pauses, then chuckles. “But I can’t cook and I don’t have candles, so it’s probably not as romantic as Jason.”

You’re pretty sure that’s not your date’s name, but at this moment, you can’t really remember yourself.

“It’s perfect,” you whisper, and to your own annoyance, you can feel the tears burning behind your eyes.

Because as lovely as it is, you know it’s not real. You know he’s just being a good friend and you love him for it, but you hate your heart for fluttering the way it is, force yourself to remember that it doesn’t mean anything.

You pull away from him and decide that maybe a joke to lighten the mood is the best way to stop yourself from having a mental breakdown. “You didn’t even want a Valentine and here we are, I kinda just forced you into one. And with someone who looks like a drowned cat!” You ruffle through your own wet hair and laugh, but Mikko’s not laughing with you.

He leans casually against the door frame and looks awfully chipper when he speaks, as if his words don’t crash down onto you like a tidal wave.

“You look like the most beautiful drowned cat I’ve ever seen. And, for your information, I did want a Valentine, but you were already going on a date, so I figured I had to wait until next year. ”

Your mouth opens, but no words come out, so you snap it closed again, and you must look like a fish on dry land and now, he’s laughing.

“Sorry,” he hums, “too sudden?”

“No,” you bring out now, worried he’ll change his mind, “no, not too sudden at all, I just… I…”

Mikko steps forward, bringing his hands to your hips as he pulls your body flat against his, his face only a few inches away from yours.

“I’m gonna save you from saying something embarrassing,” he mutters, and you can’t help but let your eyes wander to his lips.

“How, exactly?” you whisper, and he grins.

“Gonna kiss you.” And before you can respond or even think about it, his lips are against yours and all thoughts and doubts go out the window cause it’s never felt like this, not with whats-his-name and not with any of your exes, it’s never felt this right, never felt like sparks of electricity shooting up your spine or like the world around you is disappearing completely.

You deepen the kiss and he returns the favor, but only for a little bit, before pulling away.

“Food will get cold,” he mumbles against your lips and for a second, you wanna tell the food to go to hell, but your stomach rumbles and he bursts out laughing. When he pulls away completely, he makes sure to keep one hand on the small of your back and he pushes you towards the balcony. “I’ve even got ice cream for dessert,” he teases, as you throw yourself down onto the blanket.

“Really?” You flutter your eyelashes at him in a - jokingly, but only kinda - seductive way. “I had something else planned for dessert.”

“What, cookies?” he plays dumb, and now you’re both laughing and his fingers are laced through yours and you can’t stop smiling.

Maybe Valentine’s Day isn’t such a disaster after all.

[bacon-neko]

I watched Cats (2019)

Highlights include:

Mr. Mistoffelees falling on his head not 10 minutes in (MY POOR MAGIC BOY)

Rebel Wilson unzipping her skin

The cats being 4 inches tall

Jason Derulo managing to be less horny than the musical (how?)

None of the cats being fluffy except for Judi Dench who has a human face pasted on a cat body

Judi having short legs and a looooong torso

Jennifer Hudson crawling away like a human woman (not to be confused with crawling away like a horny cat which she did not do)

Idris Elba kidnapping Rebel Wilson just as I was annoyed with her

James Cordon being kidnapped right as I was annoyed with him too!

Misto being so so so sad (his eyes are so red, his lips are so pouty)

The cats do not kiss (I feared this)

Ian McKellen standing in a dark closet drinking milk out of a plate

Horny cats wearing shoes and NOTHING ELSE

Judi being horny for Ian

Idris shouting “MACAVityyyyyy” after kidnapping Ian

SKIMPLESHANKS THE RAILWAY CAT

Audience: “is he gonna tap dance? yo”

Sparkly gold catnip that makes the cats even more horny

Skimbleshanks: TAP DANCE TO INTIMIDATE

Idris left naked on a statue

Judi staring directly into your soul for 5 minutes at the end

To all of the critics who say Cats (2019) doesn’t have a plot, try the musical. On that note, here are some musical specific notes (since I love the musical):

Cat dad Munkustrap: protector of the clan!

Doesn’t even fight Macavity

Macavity had to get him and everyone else high off their balls in order to kidnap their mom

Movie!Macavity does not engage in fisticuffs

Movie!Macavity is weak 

Tugger does not play the bagpipes at any point in the film

Tugger is not fluffy

Misto is too sad to be a beautiful sassy boy

Tugger does not sing about how magical and wonderful Misto is

(Tugger and Misto are not in love)

Not enough 80s rock!!!!

NOT ENOUGH FLUFF

I cannot stress this enough and it’s not just because they all have skin tight fur suits on

In general, it’s a bad movie like it’s not good, but I had a blast. If you’re gonna watch it, bring all your friends and just let loose. Sit back, relax, and don’t think about Rebel Wilson unzipping her skin, I’m begging you not to

Think about Skimbleshanks. Skimbleshanks is good.

[cordytriestowrite]

When I'm Miserable

Loki x Reader

Chapter One - All Other Chapters

Summary: Loki abandons his attempt to rebuild his relationship with Thor after realizing his brother will never fully trust or understand him. He finds himself drawn to a girl, now guardian of her little sister after their mother's sudden death, and tries to teach her the lessons of love, forgiveness, and acceptance before their differences tear them apart.

Salem, Indiana. When you first moved away from the small city and its six thousand residents you hated telling people where you were from.

"Oh, Massachusetts." They would say.

"No, Indiana." You would correct.

"I didnt know there was a Salem in Indiana." They would finish with a confused look on their face before going back to their more interesting California lives.

Now you were back and those conversations ceased to be a staple of introduction, but so many things had also ceased to be discussed. Food, art, culture, current events, all subjects thrown aside in the face of everyone's new favorite topic: what are you going to do?

"How are you going to handle raising your little sister?" They would ask.

"Did your mom leave you anything?" Inquired the snoopers.

"Are you okay?"

And were you okay? What a dumb question. Who would be okay being torn from the beginnings of a life they were building for themselves and coming back to a home without a mother? Who would be ready and to accept guardianship over their little sister and step into a parenting role no one had ever prepared them for?

You took a large sip of your beer, letting the carbonation tickle the roof of your mouth before swallowing around the bitter lump in your throat. It was 4pm on a Monday and you were on your second drink. Your bleary eyes glanced around the room, practically empty save for two older men further down the bar.

You hadn't been old enough to even enter a bar when you last lived in Salem. It felt odd to sit on the rickety wooden stool and think back to a time you desired this, the ability to legally drink in the O'Haimes Tavern and enjoy a Friday night with friends while listing to the live band. Had you been able to tell your teenage self you would end up here on a Monday afternoon to drown your sorrows all alone...

"Thanks for covering for me Rach." A frazzled looking women strolled quickly to your side of the bar, from the back room still trying up her long blonde hair. The other bartender, Rachel, you assumed, nodded sympathetically as she poured a set of double whiskeys for the men down the bar.

"No problem, I know how hard it is to adjust to Jason going back to school."

Your glass had only been a few centimeters off the bar top, which was lucky for you as your grip loosened and it wobbled dangerously before settling in its upright position. The noise brought the two bartenders' attention to you but you couldn't be bothered to care. You fumbled through your buzzed, sluggish movements into the purse thrown haphazardly into the seat next to you. You grasped your phone tightly and brought it to your face, throat seizing up fully as your sedated mind took in the unread texts and missed phone calls.

Where are you?

Did you forget about me?

Are you okay?!

You tried to keep an air of calm about you as you paid your bill and exited O'Haimes but you could tell by your slight imbalance that you probably didn't fool anyone. You hurried along the sidewalk as fast as your wobbly ankles would carry you, the edge of Salem High School's property revealing itself a few blocks later. You couldn't help but mumble to yourself as you made your way around the wide chain-link fence to the school entrance.

"Please be there. Please be there. Please be there."

And there she was, looking put out and pouty sitting on the blue bench just to the left of the front doors. She was on her phone and hadn't yet noticed you so you slowed down and straightened your spine. The walk had sobered you enough to put on that mask of calm you couldn't conjure at the bar.

As you got closer she still didnt notice you, too absorbed in her phone to look up. You shook your head and smiled. Her generation was so lucky to have cell phones to entertain them while they wait, all you had was-

Your thoughts stuttered to a stop as a tall man appeared from around the corner and sat next to your sister. He was close to her, his head bent towards her, and she looked up at him and smiled. He smiled back and you could feel a wave of protective instinct wash over you like a cold shower. Your pace quickened until you were in a full on sprint.

"Amanda." You said so loudly and forcefully you practically barked your sister's name like an order. Both your sister and the man next to her looked up in surprise. You raced up the steps, your once unreliable equilibrium steadied by an alert, on-edge version of soberness.

"Finally!" She exhaled dramatically, like your tardiness was exhausting. She tucked her phone into her back pocket as she rose from the bench.

The man next to her stood as well. He looked impossibly tall next to your little sister, all short and fragile looking. You took a step closer to the man and squared your shoulders. While you still had to tilt your chin to look him in the eye you were not at the same height disadvantage as your sister.

"Hello there-" he began before you cut him off with a solid, clear tone.

"Stay away from her."

"I beg your pardon?" He asked. His accent startled you for a moment, so unlike all the midwestern accents wriggling in your ears since coming home last month. You blinked twice to regain your focus and your resolve.

"Stay away from my sister. She's under age. Did you know that, pervert?"

"I'm well aware-" he started, adjusting his glasses, but this time his words were interrupted by Amanda's profuse apologies, her hand on your arm pulling you back down the stairs and away from the well dressed, bespectacled threat before you. You maintained eye contact, harsh and defiant, until you reached the first step down and were forced to turn or risk falling down the four concrete steps and make a fool of yourself.

"What were you thinking?!" Amanda shrieked as she continued to pull you by the arm. You turned back to catch a glimpse of the man as you turned the corner but he was gone.

"A grown man should not be hanging around a high school preying on teenage girls." You stumbled slightly but caught your footing. Looking back you found the block of sidewalk slightly raised. It had snagged the tip of your shoe as you took a step. You sent your glare down, ready to take a larger step upon arrival of the next uneven slab.

"He's the librarian. Hanging around the school is kind of his job. You would have known that if you weren't drunk."

You stumbled despite the level ground beneath you at your sister's words. She slowed down and finally let go of your arm, only to fold hers across her chest and glare at you with a disgusting amount of judgement.

"Is that why you were late? You were drinking in the middle of the day again?" She wasn't expecting an answer because she already knew what she was saying was true. You knew what would come next as well, it was the same argument as last time and the time before that.

"You're going to die on me too if you don't cut it out. You'll get in an accident or drown in your own vomit or destroy your liver and-"

"I know Amanda," you sigh heavily and pinch the bridge of your nose, eyes closed so you didn't have to see her face. "I know."

"And now you're ruining my life. Mr Loki is really nice and now he's going to look at me like everyone else does." While her voice began loudly and passionately it trailed off into quiet uncertainty. Your ears pricked up and your vision sharpened, a different kind of safeguard mindset than the one you had earlier against this Mr Loki. You had to protect her from herself now, those thought of self doubt that consume and devour from the inside.

"How does everyone look at you?"

"They look at me like my mom just died. Like I'm helpless. They all pity me." A sob bubbled out like a punctuation at end her statement. You reached for your sister, so young and fragile and in no way undeserving of the looks and the glances she must be catching, and pulled her into a tight hug. You rocked her back and forth so severely her feet had to lift and fall in time to your swings to keep you both from toppling to the ground.

"I'm sorry." You murmured into her hair, "I'm sorry for a lot of things."

She said nothing but held on to the back of your shirt like her life depended on it. You pulled her back by her shoulders so she could see your face with its reassuring smile and kind eyes.

"Tomorrow I will come pick you up on time and apologize to Mr Loki."

"Sober?"

"As sober as a judge." You promised. She reached her fist between your chests and extended her pinky. You wrapped your own around it and kissed your thumb. She did the same. Your journey home continued after that, side by side you strode leisurely and your mind wandered back to the front steps of Salem High School and its librarian.

"Amanda?" You started. She hummed in response to show she was listening.

"What kind of name is Mr Loki?"

She laughed loudly and it reminded you of your mom's laugh when she found something surprisingly amusing. Your stomach flipped at the similarity and at the fact that you would never hear them laugh at the same time like that ever again.

"Apparently he was named after some Norse god or something. It's a weird name right?"

You both giggled and ducked your heads against a gust of wind then walked the rest of the way home in companionable silence.

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[big-dick-grayson-energy]

Can u make a fanfic where choni is living happily in the future, and one day Toni proposes to Cheryl? I love ur writing btw!

I’m just gonna post it here and I’ll upload it to archive of our own when it’s back up and running. Sorry this took so long. I wrote most of it weeks ago and then finished the rest a little while ago. 

“Why do we gotta be on Skype for this part?” Sweet Pea asked from his little square corner of  Toni’s Ipad while he rocked his newborn daughter in his arms, his hair slicked back the same way it had been when they were younger, the only difference now being it was a little shorter.

“Shouldn’t you be whispering or something, bro?” Fangs countered their friend’s question from his corner on Toni’s Ipad, seemingly in bed. He’d been working on growing a beard for the past 3 months, and it was finally starting to be a little less than what Toni classified as a ‘struggle beard’, and she had to admit it looked good on her baby faced friend.

“Nah, see I figure if she learns how to sleep with noise then we ain’t gotta walk around the house on pins and needles.” The oldest of the three Serpents explained, softly patting his daughter’s back now as she squirmed.

“I don’t know if that’s how that works.” Fangs raised an eyebrow, “Tiny, you’re the deciding factor here.”

“He’s actually right.” Toni sided with Sweet Pea, “It’s solid, my aunt did that with all of my cousins so it’s not like you’re going to scar her or anything.” She told her boys as she applied eyeliner in her bathroom mirror. The idle conversation was good. They’d done all of the brainstorming, and she heard all of the pep talks she needed from them. Now they were the distraction that kept her from losing her shit before Cheryl got home.

“Whatever. I’m not planning on having kids anytime soon anyway. Toni’s next on the block for sure. The tune ain’t wrong: First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the ginger with a baby carriage.” Fangs grinned into the camera like a fox and Toni rolled her eyes, “Let’s get the marriage thing out of the way first.” Taking a step back, Toni surveyed herself in the mirror and then presented herself to the two men who would forever be her boys.

“A+ Tiny Toni.” Sweet Pea said with a smile, “And if Izzy was up she’d agree with me.” He told her as he rubbed her daughter’s back.

“Yeah, I’d say yes if you got on one knee. You look hot. You could ask me to knock a guy off and I’d say yes with you wearing that.”  Fangs agreed.

“Thanks guys.” Toni told them graciously, and for the 100th time, glanced at the clock on her Ipad. Cheryl would be due home in about 20 minutes.

“This is it, the last outfit you’ll be wearing as a single woman.” Fangs started, but Sweet Pea cut in, “She hasn’t been single since like junior year of high school, what are you talking about, you dope.”

Fangs sucked his teeth, “Technically a person is single until they are engaged and or married.”

“How can you be engaged and married?” Toni asked, the same hybrid of an confused and amused expression on her face as most times when she had a conversation with Fangs.

“You can ask my uncle Leo. He was engaged to Roxanne while he was still married to my aunt Pearl.”

The other two Serpents laughed, this one for Toni especially feeling like a release of nerves that built up as fast as she got rid of them it would seem.

“Come on, Toni. Tie breaker. Who’s right?” Sweets said when his laughter subsided, “Ummm I’m going to have to go with Sweets again, Fangs. That doesn’t sound so legit to me.”

“Eh, you two are in cahoots. I know what I’m talking about. Whatever. Let’s focus, we gotta get you engaged. Let’s see the bra.”

“Let’s not see the bra.” Sweet Pea argued, and Fangs countered, “Come on, man. We’ve given you the thumbs up on the make up, the outfit, the hair, we gotta make sure your lady is peeling off something worthy of the occasion later tonight, know what I mean? We’re grown ass men and there’s nothin’ on any of us the other hasn’t seen, don’t make it weird now.”

“I’ve got that covered, Fangs. Don’t worry. She will be very happy with what’s underneath here. If she says yes. There’s no guarantee.”

“If? Come on. We both know she’s saying yes. You’ve been together since we were literally teenagers, we’re 28, and Sweet Pea is like 80 or something.” Fangs told her, and Sweets narrowed his eyes, “If my hands weren’t full I’d flip you the bird.”

“It’s okay, buddy I can use my imagination. Back to you, Topaz. Don’t be dim okay? This is just you getting a chance to flex your romance muscles. You’ve got this. The next time we talk to you, you’re gonna be someone’s fiance’ and when the time comes for the cake tasting, remember you promised me I could come with.”

“How could I? You won’t let me forget.”

________________________________________________________________

Cheryl’s day had been a long one; not particularly tough, but time seemed to drag, so by the time she got home all she wanted to do was cuddle up to her girlfriend and spend the rest of their evening together being grossly domestic. She was running a little late (because of course she was) and anticipated finding Toni in sweats at her workstation touching up photos with a glass of wine while dinner stayed warm on the stove, or her girlfriend watching one of the many reality tv shows she dubbed as her guilty pleasure. The thought had the redhead smiling softly to herself, imagining what she anticipated seeing on the other side of the door.

In high school, (even before that, but especially after Jason died) Cheryl had too much bad happen to her that she didn’t have any real hope that things would change. She was a Blossom, and that meant she was cursed. When they were children, Cheryl and Jason made something of a joke about it, scoffed at it even, but by the time she was 17, she wasn’t scoffing anymore -- in her mind, the Blossom curse was all too real. At her very lowest, Cheryl felt so hopeless that the most logical solution was to end her life. She counted herself lucky that Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead had come to her rescue because it almost physically pained her to think that she could have missed out on the life she had now. Not only was she in love, in a happy and healthy relationship, but she was well on her way to being a legend in the business world, thriving in both her personal and professional life.

What she found instead of the mental images conjured when she walked into her apartment was dim lights, soft music playing, three boxes on the coffee table in the living room along with a bottle of champagne chilling in a bucket and Toni looking like an absolute dream. “Toni? Did I forget something?” Cheryl wasn’t one to forget things like anniversaries or birthdays so she was thoroughly confused. Her girlfriend walked over to her and handed her a champagne flute then greeted her with a kiss, “No, you didn’t forget anything. Except maybe that I like to keep you on your toes. Surprised?” Toni asked as she helped Cheryl out of her coat.

“Are those my favorite Belgian chocolate truffles?” Cheryl asked as she moved further into the living room and noticed the box that sat near two white, unopened and unmarked boxes.

“Yeah, they are.” Toni smiled proudly as she hung Cheryl’s coat up near the door, then joined her hopefully soon to be fiance’ in their living room. Cheryl picked up a truffle and took a bite, moaning instantly at the taste and brought the remainder to Toni’s lips, who accepted the confection happily.

“Are you sure you didn’t do anything?” Cheryl teased. It had taken her a long time to get where she was when good things happened to her, where she wasn’t waiting for the other shoe to fall. Cheryl from as little as two years ago would have been freaking out thinking Toni had done something that needed her forgiveness, buttering her up before she dropped life shattering bad news on her, but now she could just enjoy the good things in life instead of worrying about how long they would last.

“Not yet.” Toni answered cryptically, then took a healthy drink from her flute, nearly finishing it in one swallow, “Can we play a game?”

Cheryl raised an eyebrow, “A game? Is it the kind of game we play in the bedroom?” She asked, her voice dropping an octave or two in a tone that she knew made Toni weak in the knees every time.

“It’s the kind that leads to the bedroom.” Toni told her, heart picking up it’s pace for more reasons than one.

“Then I’m in. What’s the game?” Cheryl agreed and finished off her champagne before putting down the glass and sitting on the couch.

“It’s called three objects and a question. Don’t ask me how to play, it’s pretty self-explanatory so I say let’s just jump in. Object one.” Toni removed the lid of the first white box, and inside was Cheryl’s Serpent jacket, well worn and distinguishable from Toni’s because of the specially sewn crimson red interior.

“My Serpents jacket? You got it out of storage? Why?” Cheryl questioned while she picked up the garment and held it to her nose, a wave of nostalgia hitting her from the smell alone.

“I was so afraid for you when you decided to join the Serpents. So against it for so long, but then you told me why you wanted to join, because you wanted to be my family, because you wanted to be connected to me forever, because you loved me and who I loved and what I am and you were so adamant about it, so sincere and willing...you hadn’t even told me that you loved me before that and I don’t think there’s been a better way anyone has been told in the history of the world.”

“You were pretty pouty at first. But it didn’t suck having me as your partner in crime, did it?” Cheryl mused as she laid the jacket over the arm of their couch.

“No it didn’t. Still doesn’t.” Toni winked at Cheryl, the simple action causing the pale woman to blush a bit. Sometimes she swore even after years with Toni, she still felt like she had a crush on her girlfriend, she didn’t even know if that was possible or if it was just the power of Toni Topaz, but figured it was the latter.

“Object two.” Two moved on and pulled the lid off of the second white box, revealing a diary, more specifically, Cheryl’s diary from their senior year of high school.

“Is that…?” Cheryl asked, her jaw dropping slightly and she picked the pink book up with delicate care, first running her fingers over the front, then flipping through the pages, stopping at one in particular. Pressed inside the book were flower petals. The page chronicled Cheryl’s first date with Toni and the petals were a physical reminder of that night as even when they started to wilt, she couldn’t find it in herself to just throw them away.

“Yeah. You gave it to me after we had that huge fight.” Toni started and Cheryl picked up, remembering that time in her life all too well. When the redhead thought back to it, she classified it as still being caught up in ‘that darkness’. Life was getting better then, but there was still so much looming over her, and she’d wanted to ask Toni to move away with her, go to school in the same city if not the same university because she didn’t want to lose her, but she couldn’t so she lashed out and they fought. A few times. “I was having the hardest time expressing myself, but I couldn’t lose you, not over something like me not being able to tell you what I needed you to know about how I felt so I left this on the doorstep of your trailer. It was very ‘Cruel Intentions’ of me, but it’s not a secret I’ve always had a flair for dramatics.” She took a beat to just flip through the pages some more, skimming over words the girl she used to be wrote.

The redhead got caught up in her diary and when she looked up, brought out of her bubble by Toni’s voice and the words “Last object,” she was met with the smaller girl on one knee, a white velvet box open in her hand with Nana Rose’s heirloom ring inside, only with a noticeably larger diamond attached to it. Cheryl gasped in surprise, her chest visibly rising and falling, “Toni…”

“Cheryl Marjorie Blossom: Delicate as flower petals, tough as leather, I am so in love with you. From the first time we met I couldn’t get you out of my head. Granted, not for the best reasons in the world, but the fact still remains the same that you made an impression. For all of the time I’ve known you, you’ve been nothing less than sensational and my life is undoubtedly better with you in it. When we were teenagers you told me that you wanted to be my family and that’s exactly what we’ve become. Now I want to make it official. Will you be my wife? Please marry me, baby.”

Cheryl Blossom had long ago mastered the art of the silent tears. The skill was learned out of necessity, of fear of someone seeing her as weak or fear of her mother chastising her for showing emotion, but it was only ever with Toni that she found herself crying silent tears of joy.Cheryl nodded furiously and wiped the tears from her cheek.

“Yeah?” Toni asked, letting out a relieved breath as she waited for verbal confirmation.

“Yes! Yes! Of course, yes!” Cheryl confirmed, dropping her hands in her face and letting out an excited squeal before Toni pried her left hand away and slipped the ring on her fiance's finger.

They both admired the ring on Cheryl’s finger. Toni had always been a bit of a deep thinker, so the notion of marriage wasn’t something she entered into lightly, the ring and all it symbolized being an effective tool in choking her up in that moment, as it was a symbol of never ending love; their never ending love. There was no beginning or end to it.

“I love you so much, Antoniette Topaz.” Cheryl told her soon to be wife with a sobering amount of sincerity as moist light brown eyes looked into equally moist dark ones, “I can’t wait for you to be Antoinette Blossom.” She finished.

“Umm…” Toni started, and Cheryl cracked a smile as she slipped her arms around Toni’s neck, “I’m kidding, we can hyphenate, of course.” The redhead leaned in, teasing her lover by hovering her lips close enough to just not quite make contact, then caught Toni’s bottom lip between her teeth, sucking gently before she kissed her properly, wanting to make their first kiss as an engaged couple count.

“I think I remembering you mentioning that this game leads to the bedroom.” Cheryl reminded Toni, the look in her eyes impossible to mistake as anything less than one meant to entice.

“You’re remembering correctly.” Toni confirmed and bit her bottom lip as her eyes took in the sight of the woman she’d fallen so hard for and hadn’t stopped falling for since -- her fiance’.

“Then take me to our bedroom.”

Without hesitation, Toni grabbed Cheryl’s hips and picked the redhead up, who wrapped her legs around the smaller girl’s waist, while she crashed their lips together for a heated kiss, that particular display of Toni’s strength never failing to drive her wild.

“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Toni said rushed, not wanting to separate their lips for too long. As they made it to the threshold, both women could hear Toni’s phone vibrating incessantly on their coffee table, “That’s probably the engagement group chat wanting to know the verdict.” Toni explained in between planting kisses on Cheryl’s jawline.

With her index finger, Cheryl pushed Toni’s face up towards her by her chin, “They can find out later. We’ve got a game to finish.”  

The End.