#“I'll start a fandom in his name”

[orphicmeliora]

Secret identity au

You're what people call a walking disaster. You walk into a room, down a street, through a building, hell, even a park bench—anywhere at all—and it's almost guaranteed that someone, somehow, is getting hurt. Maybe a potted plant falls on a passerby. Maybe a toddler accidentally kicks you in the shin with a toy truck. Maybe a scooter mysteriously careens down a ramp and knocks over a vendor's hotdog stand. Either way, pain is usually involved, and statistically speaking, it’s either you or some other poor unfortunate soul caught in your gravitational field of chaos.

The worst part? Most of the time, it’s not even your fault. It’s like the universe itself has you on speed dial for comedic misfortune. Things just happen around you—doors swing open, drinks spill, ceiling tiles fall. Some say you’ve got a black cat’s luck. Others whisper it’s your evol to attract chaos like a lightning rod. Like some sort of cosmic magnet for near-death experiences.

Enter this Lumiere guy who shows up out of nowhere every time you need help. The masked man with a heroic streak and perfect timing. He always seems to be there the second you're dangling from a balcony, caught in a runaway shopping cart, or about to be squashed by a suspiciously fast-moving food delivery drone. He’s graceful, mysterious, and efficient—like if Batman had a Pinterest board full of soft lighting and silk capes. Naturally, you’re halfway in love. Because who doesn’t catch feelings for the guy who literally saves your life every 48 hours? The mask only makes it worse, honestly. What does he look like? Why won’t he take it off? Why does his voice sound like a lullaby dipped in espresso? It's all very stressful.

Anyway, fast forward. You're back from a long shift of not dying (you tripped, a ladder fell, long story), and you’re practically vibrating with excitement over your latest Lumiere sighting. So you do the most obvious thing: call your bestie to fangirl.

You're pacing in the hallway, phone pressed to your ear, animatedly relaying every detail ("I swear, his cape glowed when the sun hit it—no, I'm not exaggerating! And then he caught me—like, full-on princess-style caught me, I thought I was gonna die, but no, he just—ugh, the way he looked down at me, I swear—") when the elevator finally dings and the doors glide open.

That’s when you notice him.

You falter mid-sentence. “Hold on, I think my neighbor wants to murder me with his eyes.”

Xavier doesn’t even blink.

He’s standing a few feet away, waiting to get past you into the hallway, staring like you’ve personally offended his ancestors. As your words trail off, he levels you with the kind of look usually reserved for gum on expensive shoes.

You lower the phone slightly. “Uh…hi?”

Nothing. Just a sharp exhale through the nose and that judgmental, soul-piercing stink eye like you’re the human equivalent of elevator Muzak.

The man is wearing a plain white hoodie and sweatpants like he walked out of a moody fitness ad, and yet he exudes the same intensity as someone plotting world domination—or at the very least, filing a very strongly-worded HOA complaint.

You step aside as he brushes past, muttering something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like “loud.” The nerve.

Okay then.

You resume your call, lowering your voice only slightly. “I don’t know what this guy’s deal is. I’m not that loud. Maybe he’s allergic to joy?” Okay, maybe your voice carries, but you’re excited! You could’ve died! Again! Some people journal. Some people drink. You cope with high-volume storytelling and minor public disturbances.

And you’re just about to get over it when something weird happens. Just for a second, Xavier's hoodie sleeve slips up as he adjusts the grocery bag in his hand.

There’s a flicker of something silver peeking out from under the fabric. Thin, intricate. Almost…mask-like?

Wait.

No.

It can’t be.

Can it?

[flaming-toads]

So what if I go back to s1e10 of 911 and I enjoy Bobby's little dating profile and think about silly cute ideas about it hmm?! HMMM?!

[catatombi]

.

[asgardian--angels]

....idk in a fandom this gigantic how are people already coalescing onto a handful of popular headcanons and scenarios that just become the baseline now, when the source material gives us literally limitless possibilities to work with

[lieutenantselnia]

Because my new f/os made me wonder about this ...

If you have an f/o who's not usually referred to by their first name, but instead their last name, a nickname, or something like a title or honorific, how to you refer to them? This can apply both to how they are addressed in-universe in their source material and/or how they are commonly referred to in the fandom.

[rachelazegler]

okay i need like a few more weeks then i'll probably be in the right headspace to start making bobby death edits.

[ofstarsandvibranium]

Mom of the ER

Fandom: The Pitt

Pairing: Dr. Robby x F!Reader

Summary: You and Robby are labelled as the Parents of the ER. You do nothing but fuel those allegations.

The Pitt Masterlist

Due to a large group of college students getting into an accident, Robby gives you a quick call that he has to extend his shift. You hear the exhaustion and defeat in his tone, so you immediately know what you have to do. You make a large pot of strong coffee and pour it into a large thermos. You also go by a donut shop and buy two dozen boxes for him and his team.

When Ahmad sees you, he lets you in, "It's crazy in there so be quick," he says while grabbing a donut for himself.

"Will do! Thanks, Ahmad!"

"Yeah, and thanks for the donut!"

You walk further into the ED, getting closer and closer to the central hub of it all. You see doctors and nurses scrambling left and right.

"Woah," is all you can say amidst the chaos.

Robby spots you and quickly excuses himself from a speaking with Perlah, "Something happen?"

You shake your head, "No, um, I brought you coffee from home and some donuts for you and the team. Looks like you're going to have a long night."

His eyes soften, "Thanks. I know everyone will appreciate a treat after all this chaos," he says, crossing his arms over his chest.

You can already see how exhausted he is. You reach out and pat his cheek, "I'll put it in the breakroom," you tell him.

He nods, "Thank you. I'm sorry I can't-"

"DOCTOR ROBBY!" Dr. Collins calls for him. The call of his name has him sigh and hang his head low.

You shake your head, "Baby, it's fine. Really. Go save lives," you quickly peck his lips, "I love you."

"I love you. I'll let you know when I'm coming home," he says as he starts heading to a room where Samira is shouting for him.

"Sounds good!" you give him a wave and head to the break room. You set his thermos by the coffee maker. You place the donuts on the small table, writing on the lids: 'For your late night cravings. Keep up the good work, everyone!' paired with your name.

When you step out of the break room, you nearly run into Frank, "Woah! Robby know you're here?"

"Yeah, just saw him briefly. Brought some donuts for you guys," you gesture to the break room.

Frank looks over your shoulder, "Godsend! So happy Robby married you! Truly, the mom of the ER." he says before heading down the hall.

You scoff, "Thanks?" your eyes follow him confusedly. You shrug and head back towards the entrance.

You salute Ahmad, "Have a good night, Ahamad!"

"Stay safe out there, Y/N!" he says with a wave.

"I'll try!"

Later that night, you receive a text from Samira, it's a selfie of her with Collins, some of the residents, Frank, and Princess. They're all posing with donuts in their mouths. The text along with it says, "THANK YOU FOR THE FUEL, ER MOM!"

You text back: anytime! <3

Ever since you and Robby got married, his colleagues and residents have been jokingly calling two to the Parents of the ER. Robby was the stern, tough love parent while you were the very loving and caring one. More often than not, you'd swing by with food for him and his department. You kept up with everyone's lives, would hang out with them even if Robby couldn't make it. It was nice though, feeling like his department was your family.

Your phone then rings in your hand and you smile seeing Robby's name, "Hey."

"Well, that was a shitshow, but your donuts and coffee definitely make up for it."

"Yeah? Any casualties?"

Robby lets out a long, tired, deep breath, "Three. It's...been a long day."

"But you're coming home soon, right?"

He sighs again, "Yeah, in a bit." he pauses, "Got some paperwork to fill out but I'll be home. Thirty minutes, hopefully unless Gloria comes to chew my ass again."

"I'll leave you to it then."

"Wait."

"Hm?"

"You know I love and appreciate you, right?"

You snort, "I know, Michael."

"No, sweetheart, I'm serious. You've taken all of this in stride even before we got married. And you treat my team so well. I just want you to know that it doesn't go unnoticed by me or anyone here. Thank you for not only taking care of me but everyone who works in my department."

You shrug even though he can't see you, "You guys take care of everyone else, someone has to take care of you guys, right?"

Robby chuckles, "Spoken like such a mom."

"God, I thought you hated when they called us that!"

[ckret2]

So a while ago some friends were talking about fans who claim the Same Coin theory is canon. And I made the mistake of saying:

Do you know who also has tons in common with Bill? Mabel. Yet nobody claims Bill reincarnated as Mabel. …wait now I want a "same coin but it's Mabel" AU. Funniest Bill reincarnation option. The all-seeing arsonist is making macaroni glitter art. The omnipotent tyrant is crying because a unicorn called her a bad person.

And then I overthought it for two months.

So—AU where after death, Bill's soul shoots 13 years into the past and reincarnates as Mabel. I'll call it ✨ Sparkly Coin AU ✨

Don't leave yet. Lemme show you why it works. Behold the eerie amount of parallels in their personalities, dialogue, behavior, mannerisms, tastes...

I could have kept going but my attention span ran out. All right, we all on board now? Convinced we could segue from one personality into the other? Great. Now here's why you should be interested: the juicy post-Weirdmageddon angst potential.

As long as a small fringe of the fandom still thinks Weirdmageddon is Mabel's fault, why not amp that up x100 and have some fun with it?

Is everyone sold now? Great. Let's get into the details. I've got 8 more pieces of art under the read more.

So the AU starts the instant Bill dies. Thanks to invoking his deal with the Axolotl—one way to absolve his crime, a different form, a different time—the Axolotl gives him a new shape and shoots him thirteen years into the past. Apparently, the Axolotl thought it would be very funny to stick Bill in the family that defeated him.

Which probably made for a jarring transition.

(It's fine, she's like 10 minutes old, she probably can't even tell who she's looking at. Not being able to tell who she was looking at is what got her into this situation ayyyy)

When Dipper & Mabel come back from Gravity Falls complaining about this triangular jerk Bill, their parents mention that Dipper's name was nearly Bill. See, after they knew they were going to have a boy, one night their mom dreamed about a visitor—some kind of magic pink salamander??—calling her child "BILL." Then at the next sonogram they found out they were having twins, the girl must've been hidden at a weird angle the first time, and they wanted matching names, so they thought, Bill and Bell. But they didn't really like Bell; but eventually they stumbled on Mabel, so to keep the names matching they switched from Bill to Mason. Isn't that the darnedest thing?

(Of course, Mabel and Dipper assume Bill harassed their parents to try to trick them into naming a kid after him. To be a jerk.)

When Bill meets Mabel, he's unaware that she's his future self—Bill's notably bad at doing things like, say, double-checking to see whether he's going to die anytime soon—but like... he can tell something's up.

Naturally, before visiting Gravity Falls, there were echoes of who Mabel used to be—but nothing anyone would be able to identify without context. All her Bill-ish quirks either smoothed out with time (see: how between second grade and fourth grade Mabel went from being the "freak" to the popular girl in class), or else they were accepted by her family as Mabel-ish quirks.

After they meet (and kill) Bill, they have the context to understand some of Mabel's behaviors... and unfortunately, some of Mabel's latent Bill-ness starts surfacing after she's been directly exposed to her prior incarnation.

The part of the Pines family familiar with Bill thinks the worst case scenario is that maybe Bill's survived and is slowly possessing Mabel; but far more likely, they think this is just some weird way of trying to subconsciously process last summer. Mabel doesn't think she's being weird, you guys are being weird, stop giving her weird looks. They get attacked by one triangle and now she can't wear yellow or pick up macrame as a hobby??

(It's not all red flags and uncomfortable triangle imagery, though. When Stan asks her what she'd like as a gift for some important event, she shyly admits that she thinks she's starting to outgrow her plastic gem jewelry and maybe she's old enough to get her first piece of real gold jewelry, if that's not too expensive? And Stan's never been so proud of her. Thirteen years old and already thinking about buying gold!)

But of course, the real fun starts when Mabel finds out.

That's the face of a girl who's just discovered that she tortured her great uncle. Now imagine running into the brother she possessed.

But I've already spent a million words and thirteen images on this post. If enough folks are interested in the AU maybe I'll expand on it later. Let me know what y'all think.

[haunting-hufflepuffs-basement]

Genuinely one of my favorite things about the maruaders fandom that is widely agreed upon:

Regulus is trans. Everyone assumes Remus is trans because werewolf behavior can look suspiciously similar to having a period. Shenanigans ensue:

*During 1st Year*

Sirius: *discreetly giving Remus chocolate during his time of the month*

Remus, in his head: HOW DOES HE KNOW? HOW DOES HE KNOW I'M A WEREWOLF? HOW DOES HE KNOW CHOCOLATE HELPS? WHY IS HE NOT SAYING ANYTHING? WHAT IS HAPPENING?

*Quidditch Locker Room*

Marlene: FUCK!

Sirius: What's wrong?

Marlene: I started my period and don't have anything on me!

James, who started carrying extras because he's a mom friend: Oh, here you go.

Marlene: *intensely stares at them* Okay if James carries the tampons and Remus is the one who uses them, why the FUCK is Sirius named Pads???

James: I. . .what?

Sirius: Abort Prongs. There's no right answer to this one.

*During a Study Session*

Regulus: Ugh, I'm so jealous of you sometimes Lupin.

Remus "Low Self-Esteem" Lupin: Why?

Reg: It's just that. . .well, if your mood is any indication, your time of the month is so CONSISTENT! Like, every 28 days like clockwork. You've never had 2 in one month or anything!

Remus, in his head: . . .is. . .is Regulus a werewolf too? Is this how Sirius was so accepting?

Remus out loud: You get it TWICE sometimes, how is that even possible?

Reg: I know right, it's so unfair!

Regulus: . . .

Peter: . . .

Regulus: So is there a REASON you've been stalking me or---

Peter: Are you a werewolf?

Reg: The fuck? No? Why---

Peter: KAY THANKS BYE!

*later*

Remus: oh my God Peter I didn't mean ASK HIM

Peter: Well how the fuck else was I supposed to find out?

Everyone start milking the comedy potential, or I'll have to write it myself! This is a threat! There's enough angst in this fandom, we need more pure comedy fics!

[queers-gambit]

Daddy's Girl

prompt: coming off an emotionally draining stunt at work, Bucky's looking forward to a little downtime with his family. only, the kids seem to forget they have two parents.

pairing: Mafia!Bucky Barnes x Stark!mom!female!wife!reader

fandom masterlist: Marvel

word count: 8.1k+

note: the Stark thing kinda accidentally happened, please roll with it!

warnings: very docile angst. family angst. some relationship angst. Stark!reader, mom!reader, wife!reader. author misses her grandparents so this has threads of nostalgia (kinda). probably Lord's name in vain, briefest of child injury, briefest mention of blood, lotta fluff, lotta exposition, cursing! not really Mafia but i'm claiming it as a Mafia!AU, girl!dad!Bucky.

"Hi, my beautiful babies!" You beamed, arms opening as you dropped to a squat in front of your car parked along the curb. Two little girls, bright-eyed with toothy-grins, bounded over the front stone courtyard and directly into your arms. "Oh," you cooed, "there you are - there're my girls, hi, hi, hi," you volleyed between their cheeks with kisses as you spoke. "Who's ready for the official start to summer?"

"Me, me, me!" Your 4-year-old, Juniper, cheered as she bounced in her spot after you released them. Daisy, being just 3, didn't truly understand the concept of summer and just began cheering with her sister.

"Okay, okay, all right," you grinned, standing to offer both hands and escort them to the back of the sleek sedan. "Okay, my beauties, how're we feeling? Daisy? You okay, baby?"

"'M tired, Mommy," Daisy rubbed her eye as you settled her into her car seat.

"Yeah? That's okay, baby, it's been a long day, huh?" She nodded sleepily. "You hungry? Wanna nap before dinner?" She just nodded, already dozing off. "Okay, hey, Junie, can you strap in - good girl, thank you," you praised when she did exactly as you'd asked. "What about you, baby, anything you wanna eat?"

"Cheeseburgers!"

You chuckled, "Uh-huh, what's with you and cheeseburgers lately?"

"Papa makes them."

You hummed knowingly, shaking your head while situating Daisy safely. "Well, maybe we could ask Papa if we could have some burgers later, huh?"

Her little feet tapped together in excitement, "We're going to Papa's? Can Daddy come, too?"

"Oh, well, uh, Daddy's - "

"At work," she finished for you sadly, making you sigh as you double checked her safety belts.

"We'll ask him, baby, 'cause at work or not, Daddy's still gotta eat," you assured softly. "And hey, I'll ask Papa when a good time to visit is," you grinned before climbing in the driver's seat. The drive home wasn't anything special, just Junie telling you about her day and all she wanted to do for the summer; from swimming to riding bikes to playing soccer with her Daddy to catching fireflies to lighting off fireworks to working on her terrace-top vegetable garden with you. She might've been the one kid who ended the whole spiel with being excited for school to start again, but she was very proud to be starting kindergarten. Though nicknamed a "cousin", her aunt, Morgan Stark, was only about a year older and told her alllll about how much better kindergarten was, so naturally, your little girl was rearing to "catch up".

You knew by the time next year started, Morgan would have a whole list of why 1st grade was better and the cycle would continue until Junie understood what was happening.

You carried a napping Daisy into the private apartment penthouse with Junie on your hand, nodding at the doorman as you passed; kind enough to follow after you and use his keycard to call the elevator for you. Arriving at your private floor, you assured Junie you'd call Grandpa Tony after you laid her sister down for a nap, gasping when a shadow moved in the living room. Immediately, you yanked Junie by her hand behind you and switched Daisy to your far hip, but deflated a fraction when Bucky appeared clearly in the doorway.

"DADDY!" Junie shrieked, rushing forward; little sneakers clearing the glossy floor to leap into his open arms.

You seethed silently, readjusting your 3-year-old in arm when she whined and buried into your neck.

Bucky greeted his daughter happily, pressing rapid kisses to her cheek and forehead, lifting her in arm while looking at you closely. He slowly stalked forward, muttering to his excited daughter before pausing to face you. "Hi, Mommy," he greeted gruffly, voice rumbling.

"Hi, Daddy," you replied softly.

"Mommy doesn't look happy t'see Daddy," he pouted at Junie, who pouted at you.

"Why aren't you happy to see Daddy, Mommy?"

"Mommy's very happy to see Daddy, baby, but we don't wanna be too loud, right? Your sister's sleeping."

"Well," Bucky proposed, "what if we let her sleep in the car a bit longer?"

"What?" You asked dully, Bucky understanding there was something underlying to your tone.

"I thought we could head upstate for the summer," he revealed, watching you with an excited grin as Junie gasped and nearly reared out of his arms.

"Really, Daddy?"

"Yeah, baby, how 'bout it? You wanna go to Papa's?"

"I was just telling Mommy about the cheeseburgers!"

"Well, Papa makes the best burgers," Bucky agreed.

"Can we go swimming?"

"Of course, baby."

"Can we play with the animals, too?"

"If Papa says it's okay."

"Is Morgan gonna be there?"

"I'm sure she will, yeah, baby, how 'bout it?"

"Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah!"

"Yeah?" He grinned, kissing her cheek. "Hey, do me a favor. Go get your toys ready, okay? Hey, hey, look at me, hey, look at me - only three stuffies, okay? Hear me? Three."

"Ten!"

"Three."

"Daddy!" She whined with identical blue eyes. You were sure any child Bucky sired would be cute as hell, but mixed with your genetics and these kids were objectively adorable.

"Fine, five!" He caved, making her giggle and agree; wriggling from his arms until he set her down and let her take off for her toy room. "That girl's gonna be a lawyer," he mused, watching her run off before facing you - smile dropping when he clocked your unimpressed expression. "What?" Your head shook in disappointment. "What? Mama, hey, what's wrong? You're not happy to see me?"

You scoffed, "I gotta put our daughter down for a nap."

"Let me - "

"I got her," you snapped, and if you were an animal, your upper lip would've been snarled in threat to give him reason to need a second prosthetic hand.

In the shared bedroom, you laid Daisy down gently, set her favorite stuffie to her arms, then covered her up. After flicking on a light and starting your timer, you silently stepped from the room and made your way towards your bedroom but paused at the toy room. From the doorway, you warned Junie, "Baby? Hey, hey, Mr. Bunny counts in the five. Okay? All your bedtime stuffies count in the five."

"Oh," she deflated, looking around the mound of options she had. She was very attached to any stuffed animal; this was her Sophie's Choice. "I can only bring five?" She worried, pouting.

"Daddy said five, baby."

She looked like she wanted to argue but just nodded, "Okay, Mommy. Do you think Duckie or Hammie would like Papa's house?"

You smiled softly, "They both would. Narrow down some contenders, baby, I gotta talk to Daddy, okay? I'll be back."

Junie was distracted by the task at hand, basically dismissing you, and when you arrived in your bedroom, Bucky was waiting on the edge of the bed. He leaned his elbows on his knees, wiping his flesh hand down his face when you silently entered with a stormy expression.

"Doll - "

"No," you refused, pointer finger held up in the air, warning him; shutting the door and trying to create the illusion of privacy. "No, you don't get to talk first."

"Peach - "

"Don't!"

"You gotta let me explain," he rocketed to his feet. "Baby, please, you don't understand - "

"What I understand is you went to work ten days ago, Bucky - TEN! Ten! You haven't called, texted, no - "

"I know," he rushed, "and baby, that's what I'm tryna explain. It was a set up."

"What was?"

"The meeting? With that Countess? I've been tryna get home ever since," he rushed. "I didn't leave you, abandon you, I didn't - "

"You kinda did though!"

"My job - "

"You disappeared!"

"We went to London - "

"No!" You warbled. "Fuck, Bucky, what I mean is, your daughters deserve to live in a world where their father leaves out the same door in the morning that he walks through again in the evening - safe. You just up and vanished and I had to keep telling them everything was fine - but was it? No, everything was fucked! I didn't know where you were, you didn't call, text, send me anything, I didn't hear from Steve, Sam kept saying he hadn't heard anything! Fuck you, Goddamnit, it was so scary - not knowing!"

"I know."

"Oh, you know?"

"I know. And I agree."

"You agree?"

"I do."

"Well!" You snapped. "It's kinda hard to be mad at you when you agree with me!"

"Listen, Mama, I want us to use this summer as time to really just be together - no devices unless an emergency, just pure, unfiltered, unimpressionable family time. I told the guys I was taking the summer off, I had everything sent upstate - all our 'scripts, my suits, whatever we need - and I left Natasha in charge while I'm away - but she might come visit us, I don't know - "

"Bucky!" You snapped, hands on your hips. "For fuck's sake, you could've called me with this grand plan! Could've called me and said you were alive - you didn't have to spring this all on me all of a sudden!"

"When? When did I have time to call!?"

"How about just now? Before I got back from pick-up!? So that I wasn't walking into all this!"

"Oh! Well!" He paused, nodding, "Yeah! That would've... Been smart..."

You scoffed, trying not to laugh as he surveyed the area between the pair of you. You calmed yourself and evenly spoke, "Buck. I was really worried. You usually send word, send something - anything - as a sign, but I didn't know or hear anything. Baby, I was worried. And then you stand there and say we're spending the summer upstate? At my father's?"

"It's technically my house," Bucky reminded, making you groan with your hands tossed in the air with exasperation.

"You're never fucking serious when you need to be!"

"Hey," he smirked, reaching for you to wrangle in front of him, "just - I'm sorry, baby, no, hey, listen. I am. I'm sorry. I should've called, you're right - I know. I know, it gets stressful for you, I know it gets bad. But after everything," his eyes glazed with memories he's never let you know, "I just need us all to be together. Please."

You nodded slowly, narrowing your eyes, "You mean, like, an actual summer?"

"What's that mean?"

"I mean, no work."

"I have a couple meetings, but I can save that for early mornings, late nights, it won't impose on us. I'm serious 'bout this, baby, I want this, all of it - you, me, the kids just being kids. Summer fun and memories and shit, you know?"

You considered his proposal, "I have some PTO saved at work. I took the next two weeks off to spend with the girls, but I can see about extending."

"Yeah... Yeah, I'd actually really appreciate that, sugar, thank you. I just need us all t'be together. And like I said, I had some things sent ahead of us so we can stay there for the summer, uninterrupted."

"So you've said..." Something in your stomach prickled, so you pet his jaw and asked softly, "Hey... You okay?"

"Hm? Yeah, baby - "

"No, hey, what happened to you?"

His head shook, caressing the side of your face, "Nothing I wanna talk about yet. I just need to feel... I don't know, uh, normal? Feels like I need some kinda recharge."

"I'll call Papa, see if he's up there - "

"I already did. He's throwing cheeseburgers on the grill for us."

"Oh, my good God," you snorted, Bucky grinning. You easily folded into his chest, leaning into his full embrace. "What'd you tell him?"

"We work together, baby, your father's aware of what happened. He offered we spend a normal summer up there together. With the kids... Our wives."

You stared into his eyes as his crooked finger pet down your cheek. "How convenient I am both his child and your wife."

"It's why I married you, doll," he whispered with a smirk, "for convenience."

"Fuck off," you playfully grit, squeezing around his ribs and making him jolt and tighten his grip on you.

"All right, you," he leered, lips pecking yours. "Why don't you sit down," he proposed, then kissed you again, "relax a bit," another kiss, "and I'll," kiss, "make sure," kiss, "we're packed," kiss.

"The girls - "

Another kiss. "I'll pack them after."

"I can help, Buck. But does it really have to be today?"

"Kinda jumped the gun on that one, huh?" He winced.

"Big time, Daddy," you mused, pecking his lips again.

With the obscene amounts of money Bucky's organization raked in annually, it made sense the administrative members fluffed their portfolios with real estate purchases. Bucky owned a great deal of real estate in the city mostly, but still enjoyed the luxury of owning multiple homes in multiples states and countries. Your father's real estate portfolio saw the ownership of multiple city-dwellings and privately rural homes; but also expanded north to undeveloped areas.

Tony and Bucky went into business developing areas for affordable housing - an idea that Bucky insisted upon once you pitched it. It was never supposed to happen, your father was anally careful to keep you as removed and divided from his line of work for almost 3 decades - but successfully failed. You and Bucky knew each other from both your father's businesses, a specifically niche and unique sort of life experience that bonded you, and developed a sort of indescribable relationship that blossomed into marriage after Bucky's father passed and left him the business.

The upstate house was on one of Bucky's properties in Tony's development; so, naturally, it was a sort of safe house for them both. Tony had his lake house, sure, but this was 100% neutral home, somewhere for your families to simply exist without the pressures of the outside world. It felt almost like a rental, not one of your most frequented properties that felt too homey yet; a gorgeous place on a gorgeous plot of land with farm animals, a private pond, private access road, and even while squinting, there were no neighbors in sight. However, Tony frequented the house so often, the girls thought it was his house.

The SUV was packed, the kids loaded, and for the sake of their innocence, headphones placed over their ears to watch their iPad movies. Bucky insisted he was okay to drive, so you curled up in the passenger seat for the almost 3 hour trip with your playlist fully loaded and snacks at the ready in the tote bag at your feet. Glancing to the girls in the back, you decided to try prying into Bucky's behavior; and since the little ones were good and distracted, the two of you were able to speak candidly about why you felt you were fleeing north.

Bucky assured there was nothing nefarious at play. He just had a long, stressful few months with work and wanted a break somewhere safe he could recharge. You had to admit, Bucky wasn't the type to deplete easily so if he was this adamant on getting away, you knew it was a long time coming and least you could do was respect his desire for rekindlement.

The sky was a painting of oranges, yellows, and pinks against baby blue as the sun moved into position to sink just as you were pulling into the driveway of the upstate house. Lights were on, the garage open, chickens wondering around, and as Bucky slowly rolled up to unload at the front door, it ripped open to reveal your father, Tony Stark. He had a bright grin, wiping his hands on a tea towel from his shoulder, making the girls stir to life.

"Papa!" They cheered happily. You spared Bucky an amused look as Junie tried wriggling from her seat.

"Hang on a second, baby," Bucky told her, but she kept clawing at the straps. "Junie, hey, it's not safe - let me get that."

"Junie," you warned, her hands quieting as her little legs kicked impatiently, "wait for Daddy to get you out."

"But Papa's right - "

"Just wait for Daddy."

She whined in the back of her throat and just fisted the shoulder straps over her, Tony descending from the door as you and Bucky got from the car. You missed the blank expression on Bucky's face because you were too excited to get out and hug your father.

"My girl," he chuckled, "happy summer."

"Hi, Pops."

"Oh, I hate that one."

You just chuckled and pulled back to smile fondly, reaching for the backdoor, "Hi, Dad."

"Hi, peach. How was the drive?"

"A relative breeze," you smiled, Bucky setting Junie free as you reached in to unlock Daisy's straps.

"Papa!"

"June Bug - oh!" He grunted when he caught her, lifting her to his arms and on his hip. "Hi, baby girl - woah, Nellie!"

"Daisy, watch Papa's knees," Bucky scolded from the trunk, unloading the luggage. He kept an eye on her, but she didn't move; just clung harder to Tony's legs as he chuckled and let her. You moved to help Buck as your father set Junie down to properly hug Daisy - who insisted on being picked up, too - and offered his hand to Bucky in greeting.

"Buck."

"Tony."

"Gross," you teased them, passing by with your hands full of totes and backpacks and your purse. Bucky chuckled and followed you, bicep flexing to carry all the luggage; entering the home and spying Pepper in the open kitchen. "Hey, Pep," you called, moving to set everything down in your usual bedrooms.

"Hi, honey!" She called. "Oh! My girls! Hi, babies!" She cheered when Tony came in with Juniper and Daisy. You grinned to yourself and entered your bedroom first, both you and Bucky dropping everything in arm.

"Jesus," you sighed, looking it over, "are we moving in?"

"For the summer," he nodded, smirking and letting his flesh arm hook around your waist and tug you into his chest. His lips landed on your temple as you snuggled into his embrace, "It's good, baby, right? It'll be okay - being here."

"It'll be really good," you promised softly. "Do you feel better now that we're here?"

"A little," he admitted. "Might have a couple other feelings, too..."

"Keep it in your pants, Sarge, I'm starving," you groaned, but still tightened your arms around his waist to give a playful squeeze. He immediately reciprocated, metal hand lifting to caress the back of your head, other anchoring around your lower back. You hummed into his neck, inhaling his musky and cedar scent while laying a few lazy kisses to his flesh; unable to fight the smirk when his hand dropped to palm your bottom. "Buck," you warned into his pulse point, knowing the fire it lit in his belly.

"What?" He chuckled, licking over the shell of your ear as his prosthetic fingers thread in your hair to hold the base of your skull.

"We don't have time," you wheezed, his fingers dangerously curling close to your cunt from where he gripped you.

"Hm?" He mused, easily lulling your head to the side to expose the meat of your neck to him. "C'mon, baby - "

"No, no, no, nope, no, you devil," you squirmed out of his hold, giggling the whole time as it was all too easy to rile you up. You held his hands firmly in both of yours, stiff-armed to your sides. "Let's just get the girls set up and go eat, please."

"You know, with Tony and Pepper here, might be okay to treat this like a little getaway for us, too, huh?"

"Oh, so cute of you to think parents ever get time off," you teased, pecking his lips before pulling back completely in order to grab the girls' bags.

He grabbed their suitcases and followed after you, "C'mon, baby, we're allowed a date night or two. Maybe we can go to that vineyard?"

In the spare room, you set Juniper's bags to her bed and then Daisy's to her own. "Maybe, yeah," you considered.

"It's about us reconnecting, right?"

"It is... But it's about all of us."

"Mhm," he helped you unpack the girls; settling their belongings into the dressers and drawers for them to access.

Once done, the pair of you washed up for dinner and joined the others in the living quarters. Pepper was buzzing around the kitchen, preparing side dishes and appetizers. "Hey, you two," she greeted with a glass of wine handed to you.

"You read my mind," you gushed, accepting the glass before hugging her tightly. "Mh, did you two run up here, too?"

"We were already up here, but Tony called and said we were extending our stay with you two," she smiled, hugging Bucky in greeting. "How was the ride up?"

"Easy," Bucky assured, glancing around.

"Oh, Tony's grilling - the girls wanted cheeseburgers, I'm told," she sent you a knowing smile, "so they're out there helping."

"Well, anything in here we can do?" You asked, rubbing Bucky's back with your free hand. His own planted on the island's counter after rolling his button-up up his forearms. "Want something to drink?" You asked.

"Whiskey's now over there," Pepper smirked, pointing to where a liquor cart was stationed against the dining room wall. "Sorry, I was rearranging."

He teased quietly, "She reads my mind, too, apparently."

You hummed with a smile, nudging him on his way. Almost too easily, you were assimilating into the groove of the kitchen with Pepper; giggling and stepping to the beat of the music she had connected to the speakers. Bucky leaned on a counter and watched with a small smirk, sipping his whiskey on ice before pushing up.

He caught you on a turn and easily joined in a lazy two-step with you. "I'm gonna check on your dad and the girls," he told you quietly, spinning you under his arm.

"Hm, take those to him, please?" You nodded at the tray balanced at the edge of the counter. Bucky nodded in agreement but didn't let go yet, Pepper grinning to herself as she watched the two of you dance for a couple more beats before he was spinning you under his arm again, but releasing you to your separate tasks.

With a small smile, you eased back into chopping vegetables for the salads as Bucky picked up his drink and the tray. You peered across the kitchen, watching Bucky slip out the backdoor onto the porch.

"He seems... Chipper?" Pepper mused, sipping her wine.

You followed suit, quipping, "Chipper, really? You think?"

She hummed, narrowing her eyes, "He's something."

"Think he's just happy to be here, shut himself off for a while. He's had a rough go at work lately," you pouted.

"Tony said it's been... Rougher than usual," she frowned.

"Something like that, yeah. He wanted to get away from the city, reconnect with family up here, said he wanted to recharge."

"Tony said something similar."

"Think they're lying?"

"They do for a living, why wouldn't they to us?"

You didn't like that answer, but didn't push it; just finished your glass and let her refill it while talking aimlessly about work. Things were going well for you, Pepper was loving her current workload, the two of you happily trailing into how the kids were and what summer plans you might enjoy together.

There was discussion of a family camping trip when a sudden clash came from the open doors followed by shrill crying. You and Pepper immediately made for the backyard, revealing Tony and Bucky on-scene where it looked like Morgan and Juniper had collided together on their bikes in the yard.

"Oh," you both tutted, locating Daisy in the yard between you and the girls, sitting in the grass and tugging up tuffs of grass. Pepper called, "Everyone okay?"

"Mommy!" Juniper wailed, pushing Bucky away and sprinting over the grass for the porch. You descended the stairs and met her in the yard, catching her underarms and swinging her onto your hip.

"Oh, baby, what happened? Huh? Lemme see, lemme see your lip, Junie," you cooed, caressing her dirt-smudged cheek to gently thumb her fat bottom lip; trying not to panic at the sight of blood on your child. "Oh, did you bite it?"

"Mhm," she nodded, tears still streaming and sniffling. Tony was holding Morgan in a similar manner, but Bucky was frozen, looking shocked where his daughter had pushed past him in favor of you. "An-And my arm," she whimpered, showing you the gently-weeping scrape. "Mommy, my arm and my head hurts."

"Oh, honey, you're gonna need a bandaid on this, huh? Your head hurts? Did you bump it? That's okay, you're okay, baby, just a bump and a scrape, right? And a little nibble."

"They smacked their heads together, but they had their helmets on," Tony told you, approaching with Morgan in his arms; helmets hanging by their straps from Bucky's metal fingers.

"You okay, baby girl?" You asked your much younger half-sister. She nodded, resting in the crook of Tony's neck. "Yeah? There's a brave girl." You rubbed Junie's back. "How about we all get cleaned up and head in for dinner, huh? Sound good? Yeah?" The girls quietly agreed, Tony nodding at you before heading up the porch for Pepper. You turned to your husband, asking quietly, "You wanna take her or for me to?"

"No, I want Mommy," Junie tightened her arms around your neck.

His throat bobbed harder than normal. "Uh, no, um, you can, baby, she wants you."

There was something happening, but you didn't know how to acknowledge it. What to do. How to approach what you knew was an otherwise sensitive subject. "Buck - "

"It's all right, you two go on," he encouraged, "Daisy and I will help get dinner ready - "

"No, I want Mommy, too!"

You both froze when Daisy climbed to her feet and raced for your legs, clinging tightly. You pet her head into your thigh, sighing sadly as these girls were your ultimate weakness - but so was Bucky. "Honey, Daisy, I gotta help Junie get cleaned up, okay? So, you stay with Daddy - "

"No, Mommy, I wanna come with you!"

Buck looked close to tears, but they wouldn't fall in front of his girls. "Daisy, you gotta stay with Daddy. I need you to stay with Daddy so I can help your sister, all right? Can you do that?" You encouraged her towards Bucky, but she sobbed harder.

"Just let her come," Bucky nodded, turning to head up the porch stairs. You were briefly irritated, where even when your husband was around, he sometimes wasn't around and still left you saddled with both children. But you recognized something was going on with Bucky and that this wasn't malicious, so you grabbed Daisy's hand and encouraged her up the stairs and into the house with you.

Unsure where Buck went, you took the girls to your room and set them both on the bed. "Sit tight," you instructed, ducking into the ensuite bathroom for First Aid supplies you needed. "All right, baby," you cooed, using a warm-wet washcloth to wipe her clean, "here we go, you're okay. Gonna get you nice and clean - there's a good girl. Hey, Junie?" You paused to catch her eye, asking softly, "Why didn't you want Daddy, baby, huh?"

She sniffled and shrugged, "I just wanted you, Mommy."

You nodded, "Okay, well, here, I'm gonna wipe your lip with this - it's gonna sting and taste funny. You ready?" Juniper nodded and let you wipe her cut lip with an antibacterial wipe, then tended her arm before checking her head. When she was good as new with a decorative scrape, you turned to Daisy, "Hey, you." She giggled when you tickled her belly. "Why didn't you wanna stay with Daddy?"

"I stay with sissy."

You cooed and hugged them both tightly, "My girls - so sweet. Okay, c'mon," you pulled back, "dinner time. Huh? Let's wash our hands, ladies."

They followed you into the bathroom and showed off their hand washing skills before the three of you were rejoining the family. You still didn't see Bucky. But to Tony, Pepper, and Morgan, it was like it never even happened. So, the three of you just joined them and set the table, the girls sitting and waiting patiently as the adults dressed the table for the meal.

After you all sat down to eat, you helped Junie dress her plate, Tony helped Daisy, and Pepper helped Morgan; your eldest asking, "Where's Daddy?"

"He's just taking a walk," Pepper answered. "He'll be back, no worries, honey."

"How about we thank Papa for the cheeseburgers?" You smirked, setting Junie's plate in front of her. There came a chorus of little voices all thanking Tony, Pepper refilling your wine glass, Tony playfully stabbing a stalk of broccoli from Morgan's plate. She had a bandaid along her hairline, by her temple, and three minuscule cuts on her wrist but still smiled mischievously at her father.

For the rest of dinner, the six of you asked the girls about their programs; hearing Morgan's rendition of why kindergarten was superior, why Junie was so over pre-k, and all about how Daisy got to paint all day with her friends. She was obviously very content in preschool.

You wrapped the knit blanket around your shoulders, shuffling out to the porch and approaching the figure sat on the back steps. Silently, you sat beside them and huddled into your lap and blanket, staring out to the slope of the lawn where two tiny bikes lay forgotten.

Unsure what else to say to break the tension, you mention, "You missed dinner."

Bucky sighed, "I know, 'M sorry. Didn't think I could stomach anything, darlin'."

"Where'd you go?"

"Just - a walk 'round the property. It's got enough acreage to lose yourself."

You just nodded. "Ready t'talk yet, Buck?"

His head shook, just staring towards where the banks of the private pond began. You reached out to thread your arms around his, head laying to his bicep; content to just sit together and let him organize his thoughts as you counted fire flies. Finally, after several long minutes, Bucky admitted, "They don't need me anymore."

Your head lifted, "What? Who?"

"The girls."

"The fuck are you talking about? They adore you, Bucky, and they'll always need their daddy - "

"They don't need me," he repeated, shaking his head as his voice trembled and broke. "I thought I had at least until puberty before that happened, but..."

"Buck - "

"She got hurt, Y/N. Juniper, she got hurt and I was right there, but she didn't want me. Ran right past me for you, she wanted mommy, not daddy. It was like I wasn't a thought, just someone there between her and her mother."

"Bucky, Junie got hurt and just reacted."

"Exactly - she wanted you. Not me."

"That's just - she equates getting hurt to mommies, it's not personal against you."

"Sweetheart, I know you're trying," his voice was quiet as it warbled, "and I appreciate it so much but our girls only know you as a parent. Even Daisy - both girls, they wanted you. All day, I noticed it. I tell them to do something, it's ignored or treated as optional. But you say it and - and they immediately respond."

"They're just more used to me, it doesn't mean they don't think of you as their daddy."

"I think it means, they don't necessarily understand that we're both their parents. They just know Mommy, not Daddy, as a parental figure of authority." He pulled his arm back, voice thick with emotion.

"That's not true! They adore you - are obsessed with you, even. Bucky, they miss you all the time! How can you possibly think, for one second, you're not their parent? Or they don't know you?"

"Because they don't need me. They don't see me as a parent, I'm just the spare that comes in and out. They get hurt, they call out for Mommy. They argue, it's Mommy they go to. If they need anything, it's you, and that's not a bad thing, doll - but it's like they don't know they have a father, too. It just kinda... Hurts, I guess. Confuses me. Makes me feel fucking inadequate."

"Is that... Is that why you wanted to come up here?"

"Kinda. I've felt it for a while, but got caught up in work to do anything about it. I realized... I'm the only one lost."

"What? Bucky, no - "

"You and the girls," he smiled ruefully, "have a routine. You know each other. There's camaraderie; something familiar, known, strong and unyielding. It's beautiful as a stranger on a different path, watching the three of you from afar."

"Bucky," you wrapped your hands to curl around his flesh arm, all but yanking him into you, "you have to stop talking like that. It's not true and I don't know how else to assure you. Your daughters love you - they love you so much and need their daddy, they just might need an adjustment period for those times you get real, uh, real busy. They're used to it being just me - and that's okay - so give them time to get used to you being back around."

"Don't say it like that."

"Like what?"

"Like, I'm some absentee father! A fucking deadbeat! Like I'm my father who values work and prioritizes that over family!"

"James Buchanan Barnes!" You snarled, ripping away from him and shocking him enough to look down at you in question - and perhaps mild offense. "That's enough! You know that is not what I was saying, what I was insinuating! What I meant! Don't piss me off or twist my words, nobody said that, nobody even thinks that. You are not your father, a man who forgot birthdays and missed holidays - you're better than he ever was."

"Doll - "

"No, shut up and listen. I know you're busy, I know what your job is - that's not the issue - and I am so sorry you're hurting over this, I can't imagine what you're feeling. But, baby, hey, look, it's just an unorthodox road we're all trying to navigate, right? You were adamant the girls shouldn't know the truth of your job, and I agreed - well, we gotta cut some slack because they're doing their best to adjust while not even really knowing what's going on. They don't mean to hurt you, they're just reacting as they know how to. This is all very new for all of us... We're trying, Bucky, we all are."

By the end, your anger had fizzled out with understanding, twinging with something bordering on sad. Knowing he was hurting made your heart weep and sting, stomach knotting as you weren't sure what to do. The entire relationship, you and Bucky had depended on each other to help navigate certain situations and remedy problems. Your kids were prone to injury and accident - just that age - so you were now a pseudo nurse; and when they had conflict in their social life, you were always quick with some life lesson veiled as a solution. But this? Bucky feeling rejected by his own kids? You didn't know what to do, how to help or fix this.

"I know, peach," he assured, stretching his arm around your shoulders then sink around your waist. "Think I'm projecting a bit, thinking I'm a deadbeat. I know I-I'm not, but I know I work a lot and I'm not around and I did this. I pushed myself away and had different priorities, just like - "

"No, hey, you have a very niche job, sweetheart."

"So did he. I could've bargained my time better."

"You could do that moving forward," you realized, scooting closer to his side so you were practically glued. "Yeah, yeah, hey, spend the summer reconnecting with them. We'll explain you have a very unconventional job and sometimes, you just get really, really busy - but you'll always come back. Then, in the fall, when they start school again and you go back full time, you can find a new balance. We'll have new rules, like, being home for dinner or you handle the morning routines or whatever works."

"We tried all that when Junie was little, but, yeah, guess we can try."

"Watch it, she's still little."

He snorted, "Not for much longer, huh? God, she's getting so big, so fast."

"She's always gonna need you, no matter how big she gets - they both are."

"Until they don't."

"Well, you know... Even when they start finding some independence, I'll be here, needing you, too."

Bucky arm tightened. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, you know I'm the biggest Daddy's Girl," you smiled, leaning in to rest your head on his shoulder; sharing a small snicker. "It's you and me, always. Through all of this."

"Thank God," he breathed against your forehead, leaving a sweet kiss.

"For what it's worth, I don't think you have anything to worry about. It's only day one, you only just came back, baby, it's okay. How about this week, we send Tony and Pep and Morgs out, I'll run some errands, and you and the girls can be alone. If I'm not there, nobody can default to me, so it's all up to you guys?"

Bucky sighed, "Worth a try."

"Sink or swim, baby. Now, can we go inside? The mosquitos are insane up here."

"Yeah, c'mon, sugar," he grunted, easily lifting himself before leaning down to scoop you bridal style in his arms.

Tony and Pepper agreed to spend the day out with Morgan, citing their need to get things from the Lake House. They were up early and on the road by the time you got up, nuzzling into Bucky's neck that made him moan and turn over to squeeze you in a tight embrace.

However, the sounds of little footsteps assured time in bed was nearing it's natural end. Juniper and Daisy rushed into the room, making you and Bucky groan comically as they stampeded onto the bed. They all too happily got between you and Buck, snuggling in tight and requesting "pamscakes".

"Oh, my goodness," you chuckled, "you know, if you tell Daddy whatcha want, he'll get you anything you want! I promise!"

Bucky grinned as Junie gasped and all but slapped her hands to his chest, "Daddy? Could we have pamscakes?"

"Are you sure that's okay, baby?" He asked, feigning genuine concern.

"Yeah," she nodded, looking confused.

"But my name isn't Pam?"

Junie dissolved into a fit of giggles, falling head-first into her father's chest. "You're so silly, Daddy," she accused, Daisy snuggling deep under your chin. It was torture, separating from the cuddle puddle, but eventually, you deposited Daisy onto Bucky's chest and got up to take a shower, beginning your day. After drying off and dressing, you stepped into houseshoes, fixed your hair and any make-up you wanted, then ventured back to the bedroom.

Bucky was still in bed with the girls, but they were sat up on either side of him, gabbing about their incredible dreams and why it was good luck to have "pamscakes" after such dreams. You smiled at the sight and approached the side of the bed to muse, "Hey, fruit with breakfast, please."

Bucky teased, "Yes, Mommy."

"Okay, well, I'm off, gotta run some errands today." Your hand fell to his to give a silent, supportive squeeze. "Girls, be good for Daddy, okay?" Your free hand directed Junie's head back so you could kiss her forehead. "I love you."

"Love you, too, Mommy."

"Hey, 'mere," you leaned over Bucky to pucker your lips at Daisy; who happily clambered onto Buck's abdomen to give a peck. "Love you, bug." She repeated the sentiment as your sights turned on Bucky; grinning as you hovered. "And I love you, too, Daddy."

He hummed as you left a lingering kiss on his lips. He growled when you pulled back, "Keep playin', I'll make us a family of five real soon."

"Get through today and we'll talk," you teased just as quietly, pecking his lips once more.

Once you were straightened, Bucky asked, "Sure you don't wanna join us back in bed, Mama? Can head out when we all get up."

"Yeah, Mommy!"

"No, no," you grinned, telling him, "you've got enough."

He hummed. "All I need is my favorite girl," he tried again, hands squeezing where they still held tight.

"You can't say that."

"I can when I have two daughters."

You snickered and lifted his hand, giving a kiss before laying it around your eldest. "Soak in these moments, Daddy," you encouraged softly, "they don't last forever." He offered a soft look as you pulled away finally to start heading out of the room. You called over your shoulder, "Okay, my little loves, any special requests for when I come back?"

"A unicorn!"

"A puppy!"

"And a trampoline!"

"Mommy, I need crayons!"

"And a race car!"

"Can we have noodles?"

With one last look at the cozy setting, you tore yourself away from getting sucked into the mundane homeyness of it all and forced yourself to change into appropriate shoes, grab your purse and keys, then set off for a day's worth of errands.

Since becoming a family of four as two full-time-working parents, life had felt overrun and chaotic - but it's not like that was a far cry from how it usually was. No, this was a much more familiar chaos; having an almost-kindergartener and preschooler at the same time was exciting, sure, but also exhausting and straight chaotic. The balance was fragile, time fleeting, but you developed little patterns, helpful gimmicks, and scheduled your days basically to the hour. Life was a perpetual jigsaw puzzle where the piece-count gets higher and the images more widespread and complicated.

But today was different.

Today, you were (temporarily) 'relieved' of being a parent in favor of just being an adult with normal errands to run alone. There was a strange sense of guilt, knowing you and the girls had your routines and Bucky was struggling to feel like he connected with the family. So, you tried the sink or swim method and left him alone for the whole day.

First, you picked up the dry cleaning because the shop kept odd banker hours - which reminded you to run to the bank. And if you went to the bank, you might as well hop down the block to the pharmacy and then down the strip for the post office. There was a local hardware store just a few streets away, so you grabbed the contents on the list shared from Tony's Notes app; and naturally, tried to just skim through the attached plant nursery but still ended up with your backseat full of new greenery. You were down the way from a liquor store, so you paused to restock for the house, and grabbed a bottle for your sister's upcoming cookout. At some point, you might've rolled through Starbucks. After, you went through a premium carwash, raided the sale section at a craft store, moseyed around Target, and because you deserved it, stopped at a nail salon as a walk-in. Your feet were rubbed and scrubbed, toes painted a new color as your fingernails were filed, shaped, and painted to match before being massaged and moisturized with palm and cuticle oils. The day was capped off with a run to the grocery store to grab all on your list - and then some. Before starting your return home, you filled the gas tank.

All without kids.

All without switching carseats or lugging a stroller around. All without an extra diaper bag strapped across your chest and your eldest's backpack hanging from your shoulders. All without the screaming, the crying, the complaining - but also, without the innocent little comments and wholesome moments, the infectious giggles and curious questions.

Naturally, as you spent the most time with your kids, you jumped at the chance to run errands 100% alone. It was a nice change of pace. It was rare. It was revered and savored. You could move freely and continuously forward, never needing to worry about anyone other than yourself. You could look at whatever you wanted when you wanted for as long as you wanted. You could listen to your playlists, and even indulge in a private sweet treat! Running errands alone was underrated.

Plus it gave Bucky his long-overdue alone time with his daughters. He remembered growing up with his parents and sister, a family of four; regaled memories of utter chaos and turmoil. Bucky suspected there would be a perpetual "adjustment period", but it needed to start somewhere.

So, you gave him that. Pure, 100% uninfluenced, uninterrupted time to spend with his girls.

While a workaholic, don't get it twisted, Bucky Barnes has changed his fair share of diapers; did every single night feeding; basically clocks out being the boss at work to being the #1 Daddy at home so you could rest. He runs errands when he can, he cooks when able, gets thrown up on, gives bubble baths, and "lays" in a child's size bed to read his daughters a bedtime story by light of a butterfly lamp.

With Bucky being incredibly busy the several months, you were left parenting two kids alone. So, he wasn't all too familiar with their patterns, routines, or the full spectrum of their needs, demands, and the attention, focus, energy required. He had a more glorified view point because his job meant he'd ghost in and out of the house, leaving you to shoulder the brunt of the childcare.

The day had been successfully spent getting done what needed done - with a little, light pampering. So, you grabbed your family's usual favorites from the local take out place before heading home finally. While you adored your highrise penthouse in the city, there was something homey and snug about the upstate house built on a lush, shamrock green lawn. You turned off the main road, down the lane, eventually turning onto the access road; then into the driveway and into the covered garage your car-mounted remote opened.

You took the groceries in first, entering the house through the garage and directly into the kitchen. "Hello?" You called curiously, not hearing anything. You weren't alarmed, the house looked lived-in, assuring there were signs of life; so you finished unloading the car.

In the kitchen, you were storing everything when Pepper texted, saying they were on their way back. You informed her about the take-out and she thanked you, leaving your phone on the charger in the kitchen to begin your search for your family. Then, you came upon your bedroom...

Thinning leather gently creaked.

You froze, balanced atop the decorative antique traveler's trunk used for bedding storage lining the bottom of the bed you were craning over. Daringly, you checked to make sure the occupants were still asleep and teetered - gritting teeth while flailing your arms in windmill motions to comically maintain balance. When recovered, you winced and stared at the three bodies beneath you and breathed a silent sigh of relief when they did not stir. Adjusting yourself, you angled the camera over them again and managed to get only three decent snaps before wobbling again.

Bucky was laid flat on his back, flesh arm behind his head while his prosthetic hand was protectively laid around Daisy - who rested on his belly. Junie was a little further down, gripping his thigh in a snuggle - drooling lightly into dark grey material. It was a picture-perfect moment you had to take advantage of.

Safe on the ground, you moved for your charger on the bedside table and froze when Bucky's voice crooned, "Wanna join us, Mama?"

After initial shock passed, you grinned, "Oh, absolutely, Daddy. You guys are practically right where I left you, huh?"

"C'mere," he encouraged, opening his arm for you into his side; careful to lay around Junie. "Hi, sugar," he whispered, hearing you almost desperately mewl before kissing him like a starving woman. He chuckled, keeping you as close as possible.

"How was it?" You were both mindful of your volumes.

"Chaotic," he lamented, "but in the best fucking way."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. These little troublemakers? They're really ours, huh?"

"They are - isn't that something?"

"Nice way of puttin' it. How was your day, baby?"

"Productive, I got everything done and then some. So, how're you feeling - you know, now?"

Bucky pondered a moment, then admitted, "Think we've all come to a sort of understanding."

"Well, that's good."

He nodded, but then winced, "Well... There might be one last thing, though. To complete everything."

You smirked, "Trying for a third?"

"Took the words right outta my mouth, Mama," he breathed, mouth vacuuming to yours in a soul-sucking kiss that made every pore prickle with heated anticipation.

requesting rules and masterlist

Marvel masterlist

[radioactive-earthshine]

Hello new Superman fans! Welcome to the fandom. We're SO glad you decided to show up, even if maybe your stay here is brief. Stay as long, or a little as you want to.

My name's Orla, I've been in the comics fandom for over twenty years, and I have been a comic reader for over thirty.

I'm here as your friendly guide to all things Superman from the comics perspective!

First off, I want to convey that the fantastic movie you just saw is referred to as an "elseworlds" story.

This means it is a story that takes place in a totally different universe from the comics, and it has no relevancy to the main comics at all!

Elseworlds are a lot of fun as they give creators an opportunity to explore comic characters, new teams, and even comic events, in a world that doesn't have decades or lore attached! Think of it as official fanfiction.

As a result, character origins, motivations, appearances, ages, team combinations, moral alignments, and even personalities might be drastically different from the comics, the source material.

Please do not think this movie is a full spectrum representation of the depth of comics.

But Superman has always been woke, that part is 100% accurate.

While you're puttering through tags here on Tumblr you might have come across a few things that I'd like to address with the truth.

Because in the Superman fandom, we care about the truth, that was one of the most poignant themes of the movie - getting the truth out there.

Unfortunately, the fandom is full of a lot lies and misunderstandings, or partial truths. So without wasting any more time let me deconstruct a few things.

Long post below.

1.) Kon El/Conner Kent

Fandom: "This is a Clex baby that Clark abandoned for his parents to raise and owes Lex child support, and his name is sometimes spelled Connor or Konner or Kon El Kent." The above is partial truth, but the only statement that is true is that he shares 50% of Clark's DNA and 50% of Lex's, making him on technicality a child of them both, but the comics use the word clone. This is not the first origin of Kon, in fact for the first 10 years of his comic lifespan he was a human cloned from a man named Paul Westfield, and his genes was altered to just look like Superman and he had meta abilities in the form of TTK. He was not a clone of Clark to start. Geoff Johns in 2003 retconned this origin to make him instead a Clex clone, and then launched off a hurtful eugenics narrative where Kon was written to believe there was a risk of him being evil because one of his genetic donors was evil (which didn't make sense because Paul was evil himself). Just coming from watching the film, I want you to remember what Pa told Clark - it's not up for parents to decide who their children are, that's up for the person to decide. Genetics do not dictate morality. And this is why this retcon put a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. This is not to say you cannot enjoy it and find it compelling, and it can be compelling, but please understand what this retcon is - a retcon. Clark never abandoned Kon ever in the comics. He never was "weird about having his DNA stolen". He never held him being a clone against him. He never purged him when he found out he was half Lex (Batman was the one that made a fuss about it but people don't want to talk about that, I'll explain more below). There is no child support. That's not even how child support works. Neither Clark or Lex raised him and Kon doesn't formally see either as a father. Lex isn't even on his radar as "family". Clark is family however and he is sort of caught in this nebulous space between an older brother and a parental figure but in all honesty, it's a nonnuclear role. Kon's name is Kon El or Conner Kent. He is like an immigrant who has a birth/family name, and a given name. His given name is Conner Kent, his birth/family name (even though he did not have it when he was born) is Kon El. They do not combine, yes a lot of people do this, they are wrong. Please spell them correctly. Kon meaning "abomination" was a thing in main comics only briefly, and it is now no longer canon.

Originally, it had no meaning when Clark gave it to Kon. Clark did not knowingly name him abomination. This is false. Kon is not dating Tim Drake, that is not canon, and he really doesn't care who Tim is dating right now. Sorry.

2.) Lex Luthor is a good dad to Kon.

No, he isn't. I cannot even begin to explain how little care he has for that boy. He does not care for him in the slightest and only ever thought of him as a tool and a weapon to serve him.

3.) Clark is a BAD DAD to Kon.

No, he isn't. I cannot even begin to explain how much care he has for that boy. He trusted him so much, he trusted him with the people he loved most and feared for the most: his parents. He is not without faults, and a lot of them have more Doylest than Watsonians explanations for why he failed Kon in various things, but in general he loves Kon tremendously.

4.) Batman anything

Look. The Batman and BatFAM fandom is a huge monolith and a lot of the fans (not all) can be very weird, aggressive and outright vile to other characters without knowing that they are being unwelcoming to the greater fandom. That being said... Metas are allowed in Gotham, Batman has ZERO power to stop them from entering, and many (like many of his own rogues) live there. Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern, lives there. Dinah Lance, the Black Canary lived there. Ragman lived there. Duke Thomas, one of Batman's bat-brood lives there. Metas are allowed in Gotham. For some reason, many in the Batfam fandom, have decided that this trope is hilarious and fail to see the parallels of this and fascism, oligarchy, xenophobia, and in current events, ICE operations... Anyway this is not a thing that is canon, it was only canon in an elseworld's comic starring Barbara Gordon. Batman might not want other people in his city from time to time, and he claims to want to work alone, but he can eat shit and live, and he does. The comics call him out on this all the time. The Batfam are very frequently glazed in fandom at the expense of other characters by people in some pretty uncomfortable and sometimes vile ways. Example: the Green Lanterns are often painted as stupid or weak to prop up a Bat-character as better than them. Or a Super character is depicted as stupid an incapable of solving a mystery when Clark is an investigative journalist and has solved many mysteries on his own before. Or, in Young Justice circles, Bart Allen (a speedster character from The Flash) is an infantile child who needs his eyes covered in front of people kissing when he is the most punk of any of his team. My point here is, if you are NEW to the fandom and you see a lot of bat posts that use other characters to prop said bat-characters or their ships, have some extreme suspicion about how far removed this is from anything in reality and embrace it as CRACK FANFIC. Because that's what it is. If you ARE interested in the Batfam they are a compelling group of characters with a lot of depth and nuance, it is just a shame that much of the fandom space, fanon, has flanderized many of them down to basic tropes and their depth has been lost in many areas. If you like this, that's fine! It's your life, but please remember that there is more out there.........

5.) The comics are so confusing and contradict each other all the time and have rebooted so many times, every other year, there is no canon and no point in reading them.

This is a partial truth but there is nuance. The comics due to their nature have many writers taking on a character and when you have so many hands on one person, personality sometimes shifts and material is lost/forgotten/written over. But I promise you - you read enough comics you start to understand that barring something really unhinged, personality is consistent. There IS a canon. The comics do not reboot every other year, there have only been 3 major ones and once you know the DATES of these it's really simple. Comics really can be simple and many characters just start at #1 for reading. There are hundreds of fans that will gladly point you in any direction and will enthusiastically share their reading lists with you if you ask for help. We're desperate for comic readers and connections and love new fans. We are twirling our hair and kicking our feet when you ask for a reading list. Reading them is like reading a book, it's reading, it makes you think, it is good for you.

And finally

6.) Lois Lane doesn't do anything in the comics other than be a damsel.

Please. The movie you just watched provided you with one of the most breath taking takes of Lois I have seen. Lois Lane is a superhero in the comics where her curiosity, bravery, and passion for ending fascism is paramount to her character. She loves journalism and has a deep love and respect for the field and she is very, very good at it.

This is all for now I have for you. If you are curious about anything else regarding comics or source material, please reach out to me and I will love to help explain some things.

Note: this is not me saying fanworks with the above themes or tropes are bad or shouldn't exist, those are fanfiction where there are no rules, BUT, a lot of these themes have been confused for facts where new fans genuinely believe the above are real things that happened in the comics and are accurate depictions of characters and themes. I am here to sort out what is fanfic, and what is fact. Because we live in a world where respect for the truth, any truth big or small, is dwindling and that is a tool of fascism.

[skrunklemuffin]

This is my brother’s DCA AU, Honk I’m on a StarRail!

My brother isn’t into DCA or fan fiction in general, but I talk to him about the DCA a lot. I told him about the unique-ness of this fandom, that there seems to be an AU for everything. He listed off a bunch of things he thought would be odd or specific and I was able to name a bunch of stories based off of the prompts he came up with. Then, he hit me with:

“Is there a Thomas the Tank engine AU?”

I thought about it for a while, and I hadn’t seen one.

So he made this image in like 2 minutes:

We joked about it some and I told him he needed to give his AU a name. We went back and forth a bit because the DCA AU names always seemed so official to me, so it was important that he got his AU name right. He threw out "Honk I’m on a StarRail" and I lost it. I think I laughed for a solid 2 minutes. He argued that it was stupid but I thought it was perfect!

I thought the idea had ended there but once I went to bed he started working on official image for his AU. He sent this 3 hours later:

The rest of this post is the process and general things that happened while he was working on this image.

He used font that resembles the Honkai StarRail font, then edited it to be closer to the official thing:

For reference this is the logo:

He made his own Eclipse OC!

Then he started on Sun and Moon. He made a simple train model to get the proportions and angle right:

The whole time he is sending me updates and I'm filling him in on lore and what he should add.

Credit for image I sent him: https://www.tumblr.com/piowasthere/760517135721168896/wtf-is-suns-eye-color

He even came up with the Y/N's nickname when I was having a bad day.

We of course had to add moons hat

We almost forgot about the ribbons, but we got there in the end. They were hard to place because...train.

Overall, 10/10 experience! I'm glad I get to show other people his hard work.

If anyone wants to ask questions I'll open my ask box. He is also willing to talk about the process, but that all will still go through this account, so ask away!

[creatingblackcharacters]

Sorry to detract from any discussions, but I wanted to bring up something I feel is important and ask for anyone who experienced similar to speak out.

So I used to be in the Epic the Musical fandom. Left because of the anti-Black racism (especially towards the actors for Eurylochus, Calypso, and Ares).

Recently, one of the artists who worked on one of the official animatics for Epic (Liam, AKA Eldelta) had come out explaining how Jay had strung him along with the promise of a contract to develop a video game based on the IP, causing him to miss out on potential jobs and leave him unemployed for a year.

Currently, the fandom is writing him off and sweeping it under the rug. Ignoring it and hyping up Jay's next musical.

Which Jay posted a joke video/small update that he's only named the first song. Not even a genuine update on how far he is in the process. Just as Liam's video was starting to gain traction and spread in the fandom.

Which beings me to the reason I'm here in the inbox.

If there's any Black artists who worked with Jorge Rivera-Herrans and had a similar experience to Eldelta's, I want to ask if they'd be willing to speak out about their experiences. Because knowing how this fandom is and how Jay talks on social media, I sadly know there's a high chance that there is probably quite a few. And I don't want their voices to get buried in the excitement of a new project while the creator continues to exploit others.

Ah yes, The Iliad musical. I gotta hurry and finish my tenure in the Patrochilles fandom so I don't shoot myself from sheer boredom with White™ character design and "quirky" or "academic" racism. It's already bad enough on the Outskirts of the Greek Mythology fandom as it is 🙄

Here's the thing. You're asking Black creators to speak out if they've been mistreated by a popular creator, risking their own status and job opportunities in the field.... but you weren't even willing to send this off of anon. You are asking them to speak from a target of fear and threat and retaliation, that you yourself weren't willing to do for less 😅 And I'm not even saying that to hurt your feelings, but honestly to make you (and ALL of you reading) reflect- where are you going to be, if/when they make this statement? Will your voice be heard? Will theirs? Because Jorge knows that his fan base will accept anything, be damned the antiblackness in his content. They already did!

Who's going to support these Black creators and platform them when they speak? Who's going to take the brunt of the hatred and cruelty and racism and shield them from it, other than other Black people? I do believe speaking up is important (and they should, if they feel safe), but I also think we need to recognize that sending Black people into the mouth of the beast in order to "save themselves" is not the strategy we continue to think it is. Hell, I just dealt with that racist bitch last week, and for all of the people who she and her friends bully for creating Black characters, there were crickets when she was called out by an actual Black person. 😐 We can't all want someone else to speak (and everybody isn't me)!

If I see anything I'll absolutely platform it. I think that space is far too comfortable and I for one think you shouldn't get to be antiblack and comfortable! But secretly agreeing in backrooms that someone is racist has NEVER gotten them removed from a position of power or influence. Y'all are gonna have to respond with your chests, so your Black peers can hear you supporting them- otherwise, we need not ask them to speak up.

[badgalsasuke]

My thoughts on the Naruto ending

So I had said I was gonna post about my feelings and thoughts regarding the Naruto finale that might contain a few hot takes for some people, so here it is.

THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG POST.

The Naruto ending is universally disliked, there's not doubt in that. Veteran SNS shippers don't like it because Naruto and Sasuke end up with women they don't love and aren't attracted to, and believe Naruto and Sasuke could've end up "single" with no ships confirmed; younger SNS shippers that weren't there when Naruto was still coming out believe they should've ended up together even though that could have not been plausible due to the manga industry quite conservative practices. Het!shippers on the other hand, believe the ending is bad for two different reasons: the first being that some believe that Narusaku and Sasukarin would've made more sense than SS and NH (some say just Narusaku and Sasuke should've stayed single); the second being that although they like SS and NH and the potential they believe these ships have "but wasn't explored further", Kishimoto can't write romance so he messed up both ships, making them bland and barely romantic.

Another reason why the ending is disliked for non-shipping reasons and mostly by Sasuke stans, is that even though in the couple chapters before the 700th one Naruto and Sasuke talk about changing the shinobi system, we see in Boruto that the system has not been changed at all and instead Naruto and Sasuke are reinforcing it despite all the oppression and suffering they were put through it in its name. We even see Itachi, the man who committed genocide being lauded as a hero for his actions and zero reflection on Konoha as a genocidal State. Oh and the Hyuga clan still practices slavery.

So here I come to say the following: Naruto's ending makes sense.

Now before y'all tear me to pieces let me explain myself. The first time I read the finale I thought it was stupid, one reason being that the ships make no sense no matter the angle you try to look at them and the other reason being that Sasuke was now working for the same State that murdered his clan with Naruto now as the head of that same State and making no changes to the Shinobi system (not a very good look on him, right?), so I thought for many years that the ending sucked.

Then The Last, Boruto and Sasuke Retsuden came out and all I could think was "woah this is all really shit from the butt".

But then one day when I was thinking about the manga as a whole, mostly because I was starting to realize that Kishimoto was being intentional in his writing of Naruto and Sasuke's romantic bond and it wasn't accidental like most of the fandom thinks, I just started connecting dots and trying to make sense of the whole story and seeing how the ending fitted into that. I'm someone that whenever it comes to literary analysis and criticism always tries to think about what was the author intention before I label something as bad because it wasn't my personal preference how something was written.

And that's how I realized what there was theme to the Naruto ending is. It's all about conformity.

Now, don't get me wrong the Naruto ending still has flaws, two big ones in my opinion, which I'll point out further down the post, but what I want to do is show you the forest because I feel the fandom is mostly focused on a couple of trees when it comes to the finale. I want you to see the thread of events Kishimoto created and how he was trying to keep it as in character as possible.

So first things first. If you've read Kishimoto interviews over the years then you would know what was the ending he had envisioned: chapter 698. He talks about how he wanted Naruto and Sasuke to have their final fight, make ammends and change the shinobi system together. He achieved two out those three things he intended.

In a quite controversial interview that most of the fandom likes to ignore, Kishimoto stated that he had no emotional attachement to Naruto and Hinata as a couple and it was Studio Pierrot who had pitched the whole thing about The Last movie. He also states that he decided to make NH endgame after Shippuden had started and he had also considered Narusaku as well, but then in another interview that came later he started saying he had intended to make NH canon since the very beginning. He was constantly contradicting himself in these interviews over the years. Kishimoto has also expressed his distate for SS and Sakura's character in general in different interviews.

So what I personally believe is that Kishimoto's editorial, Shueisha, made him change his statements because saying he had no plans for NH and it was Studio Pierrot idea was quite damaging to the franchise (no wonder the interview got kinda buried too, lol).

I think the biggest challenge for Kishimoto was giving the editorial, the studio and most of the fandom the het!ships they wanted without compromising as much the characters the story of his manga revolves around, Naruto and Sasuke.

So we get to ch. 699 where I believe Kishimoto is laying the ground for the finale we ended up getting.

In ch. 698 it seemed like Naruto and Sasuke had been able to resolve their issues and been able to talk about their feelings for each other. Something Sasuke repeats in ch. 699, a chapter entirely narrated by him. However right at the end of ch. 699 we get what seems to be a regression of what we had seen in the previous chapter.

It is implied that Naruto and Sasuke had an argument off-screen hence why Sasuke thought Naruto would not come to see him and bid him farewell before his atonement journey. What was the argument about is never really explained, some fans speculate Naruto was upset about Sasuke going on an atonement journey considering Naruto had pleaded for Sasuke to not be imprisoned and saw no reason for Sasuke to go on a redemption trip. I personally believe it had something to do with Naruto failing to come to terms with his feelings for Sasuke because, as we see right away, Naruto gives Sasuke back his headband and Sasuke says he'll keep it until they have their real fight which is interesting, to say the least, because didn't we just see their real fight the literal prior chapter? basically, we're being told Naruto and Sasuke haven't been able to truly talk about their feelings and put into words what their relationship really is about hence why Sasuke keeps the headband. As long as Sasuke has the headband, it will mean Naruto hasn't been able to truly accept what he feels for Sasuke. In essence, ch. 699 is Kishimoto retconning ch. 698 to give way to what comes later.

After chapter 700 came out we started getting so much content, both filler and canon, that tries to explain how we got there. Let's start with The Last, the movie that tries to explain how the heck Naruto ended up with Hinata.

The Last is sort of a hybrid, it's written for the most part by Studio Pierrot employees who had the idea in the first place and Kishimoto corrected a few things here and there and is also what for me, makes the ending flawed for one big reason: Naruto's character assassination.

Naruto is a shonen manga that's more focused and concerned on it's emotional battles and communicates it to the audience through it's physical battles rather than the powerscaling stuff Naruto dudebros would have you thinking the manga is actually about. So this means that Naruto, its main character, spends the entire manga learning about his feelings and putting them into words. That's what his story is mainly about; learning to love and to be loved.

The Last undoes this in the stupidest way possible. To give Naruto an excuse on why he always ignored Hinata they intend to make the audience believe it's because "Naruto doesn't know what love is" by writing Naruto not being able to differentiate between loving someone and liking ramen. This is absolute nuts. We know that Naruto understands what is love, what is not love and that love doesn't come out of nowhere, we see that when Sakura fake confesses to Naruto, he's able to spot right away she's not being genuine because he understands those three things. So this is the first flaw of the Naruto ending for me.

The second flaw is the dismissal of Kurama and Naruto's status as a Jinchuuriki. I find the most embarrasing thing about The Last to be that they had to put Naruto through a genjutsu so he could hallucinate "memories of Hinata being there for him but he was too dumb to notice" but it's even worse once you remember that Naruto canonically should not be able to be put through a genjutsu in the first place. Studio Pierrot had to break rules of Kishimoto's universe in order to give NH some mediocre development and to me this will always be the worst part of the finale. If you can't make a ship work within the universe rules, then why make it a thing at all?

Some people didn't like that Hinata is totally useless in the movie, but for me this is not a flaw, as it is entirely in character with who she is in the manga. Making her a mary sue out of nowhere on the other hand, would be a flaw of the story.

Now that I've talked about what I think are the flaws of the Naruto ending, let's talk about the things that work in The Last (and I believe is where Kishimoto put his input) to make the finale make sense. The first one being that Sakura is the one that pushes Naruto to be with Hinata. In the manga we see several times Sakura is insecure about Naruto and Sasuke's bond and being jealous of Naruto's spot in Sasuke's heart. Even Hinata is baffled by Sakura wanting to help her and asks her why she's doing all that because she knows they're not friends. We then see Sakura think about Sasuke (who's also conviniently excluded from the movie) and simply say "we, girls, should support each other", she wants Naruto out of the picture so she can have Sasuke for herself and she succeeded. It's also important to note that once Sakura got what she wanted she no longer pretended to be a friend of Hinata, she didn't even kept close contact with Naruto either as we see in Naruto Gaiden, Sarada and Naruto don't know each other like that at all, if Sakura was being a genuine friend to Hinata and Naruto, she would've kept her family close to Naruto's but she didn't.

One more thing that I find works about The Last is that Naruto doesn't passionately fall in love with Hinata, but instead is constantly guilt-tripped into liking her, which is more true to his character. You have a man already struggling to accept his sexuality, who also has his deceased mother's expectation of marrying a girl and on top of that is a pathological people pleaser, of course he's gonna marry the first girl that tells him she loves him. It makes sense this all happened while Sasuke was not in the village. Naruto panicked about his sexual identity and rushed to marry an "acceptable woman" in the eyes of the people whose approval he craves, as we see in the special chapter Kishimoto wrote that came out after The Last: the villagers fawning over Konoha's hero dating the Hyuga heiress.

Likewise, Sasuke not attending Naruto's wedding helps the ending not be as contrived or out of character of them. Kishimoto never wrote anything on why Sasuke skipped the wedding as far as I can recall, but in the episodes that Studio Pierrot made dedicated to Naruto's wedding we see a Sasuke completely absent and detached from the event, something Naruto dudebros use to dunk on him because that made him a terrible friend from their perspective, but as usual they're not paying attention to the full narrative Kishimoto is creating here.

Making Sasuke be happy for Naruto and attend his wedding and give him a gift and all that crap, would've made het!shippers and Naruto dudebros happy but it would be at the expense of his character and the story Kishimoto was writing. Remember, Sasuke had kept the headband all these time until he could have his real fight with Naruto, meaning he was waiting for Naruto to be honest about his feelings for him, so him not attending Naruto's wedding is a way to communicate to the audience (at least the part that's paying attention) that Sasuke is heartbroken by the news.

I believe this is why Kishimoto designed adult Sasuke the way he did and makes him dress the way he does as an adult. All black and depressing. I also believe that Sasuke will stop dressing that way the minute he and Naruto have their real fight, if they ever have it, that is.

Additionally, Kishimoto nailed making NH canon before SS would be canon. Naruto, as I stated before, is the one that struggles with his identity and feelings for Sasuke and the one that has the expectations to marry a woman so it makes sense that he would be the one to marry a woman first. SS becoming canon first wouldn't make sense because not only is Sasuke more outspoken about his contempt for Sakura, whereas Naruto remains polite and neutral to Hinata's feelings, but Sasuke also has no reason to be with Sakura if Naruto is still available, in fact, Kishimoto making Sakura be the one to chase Sasuke after Naruto's wedding because Sasuke never came back, as we see it stated in Naruto Gaiden ch. 10, is also in character for both Sasuke and Sakura, instead of writing it the other way around like SS shippers wished, y'know their whole thing about Sasuke coming back to the village for Sakura and apologizing to her because he didn't realize how much he actually loved her because he was trapped in the darkness blah blah blah (I think this is what happens in filler novel Sasuke shinden lol).

If Naruto is not available, then Sasuke is in a very emotionally vulnerable position and Sakura took advantage of that. You see the narrative Kishimoto is creating here? There's a thread to follow on why stuff happened they way it did.

Now, I mentioned before that the theme of the Naruto finale was conformity. Here's where I explain how:

The first thing is Naruto's physical appearance. Kishimoto liked to draw a young Naruto all punk and grunge. He even had already made a design of adult Naruto where Naruto looks, well, cool and HOT.

Yet, for the actual finale he gave us an ugly Naruto, but also a Naruto that looks tired and exhausted. How does this tie with the conformity theme? when Naruto was young he used to go against the rules, defy expectations people had of him, tell authorities to fuck off. Like, when he was told to give up on Sasuke when he was 12, Naruto responded "If giving up on Sasuke makes me wise, I'd rather be fool my entire life", this man was a rebel. But as an adult we see him become the head of State that continues to reproduce the status quo that had once oppressed him. Naruto turned apathetic, his appearance reflects his attitude.

And this is consistent with the narrative Kishimoto's been crafting. Just in the same way Naruto conformed to society's expectation when he married a woman he doesn't love and barely knows, he also conformed and succumbed to the shinobi world status quo. It would *make zero sense* for Naruto to revolutionize the shinobi world while married to princess slaver Hinata Hyuga, that'd be an oxymoron, completely contradictory narrative wise. Certainly, Naruto always struggled to find an ideology, to put it in some way, when it came to Konoha and its ninjas practices and had a messed up perception of its villagers (see: the whole Dark Naruto mini plot) but he still wanted to change the shinobi world WITH SASUKE by his side, once the story established they don't end up together and Sasuke isn't by his side, Naruto doesn't care anymore.

This is why I don't find strange that Kishimoto wrote Naruto oversleeping in the eve of his name day as Hokage, a day Naruto had once dreamt about when he was a child. The spark is gone.

But the spark isn't just gone for Naruto, it's also gone for Kishimoto. Naruto didn't even attend his name day because he was knocked out by Himawari. This is Kishimoto being petty. He spent 15 years writing a story where the goal was to see Naruto become Hokage and he knew how anticipated this moment was and he still went and ruined it for the fans anyway. Naruto dudebros were furious about this, but not once did they stop to wonder about the implications of this, what it said about Kishimoto's relationship with his work if it had gotten to the point he went and "fucked it up".

Naruto cared about the state of the world before he became indifferent to it. This is why when Sasuke stans complain about Naruto not actually caring about Sasuke's trauma but can never really explain why Naruto is like that as an adult. They try to pretend Naruto never cared but this is a lie, kid and teenage Naruto was compassionate to Sasuke's trauma and pain even if he didn't always managed it in the best way possible. So, I always feel like they're missing this particular piece of the puzzle: if Naruto can't be his true self then he cannot change the world and neither can Sasuke.

Because the same thing occurs to Sasuke. One blog once posted that Sasuke not caring about his child is out of character, but Sasuke not caring about Sakura's child is very much in character and I feel that sums up Kishimoto's writing of both adult Sasuke and Naruto. This passiveness you wouldn't imagine from their younger selves, takes a hold of them once they become adults and gradually "get in line" to be a part of the real world. Sasuke doesn't care about his child because he had her with a woman he doesn't even like or respect. Sasuke is stuck in time still holding onto that headband, hoping he and Naruto will one day have their real battle.

Sasuke uses the forehead poke, a gesture he always hated, on his wife and child because he, just like his brother to him, wants to distance himself from them. Sasuke now serves the same village that plotted the mass murder of his clan and family because why not? his brother is lauded as a hero for killing his entire clan after all. Sasuke too, has conformed.

I actually wonder if this is in some way linked to modern Japanese culture. Japanese culture and society are deeply conformist with everybody is always trying to fulfill roles imposed in them, always trying to achieve what is expected of them. It could also be about how adulthood sucks the passion and hopes out of the youth (Kishimoto started writing Naruto when he was 24 and finished when he was in his forties). And of course, the closeting of queer people leading miserable lives as pretenders.

If Sasuke is meant to end up with Sakura and Naruto is meant to end up with Hinata then Kishimoto cannot make them happy marriages and give them happy families, he also cannot keep Naruto and Sasuke as revolutionary outcasts that stand up against the status quo, that fanservice would be out of character and out of theme.

This is what I mean when I say the ending makes sense, once you see the finale is all about conformity the thread of events becomes understandable and more heartbreaking too. You don't have to like it, but I do think we have to understand where is Kishimoto coming from when he wrote it the way he did.

The Naruto fandom wanted black and grey from Kishimoto and that's exactly what Kishimoto gave them, black and grey.

EDIT: I've written more on how the conformity theme starts to become present in the series as far back as in Neji's death, check it out HERE

[axolotl4days]

Batfam au angst :) also leading into (platonic) yandere batfam

What if Jason wasn't the first kid to die :)

And what if Damian wasn't Bruce's only biological kid :)

Au idea I'm simple terms: what if Bruce had a daughter in his early years of batman, who went missing and dead, but then years later reappeared and was found again, Bruce and the others won't make the same mistake twice.

Author's note before reading: Please keep in mind I'm new to this fandom, so I don't know much about what's canon. I simply get creative ideas really easily and have decided to share them.

If anyone else likes this idea, feel free to rewrite or add onto the concept, if you do please tag me I'd love to see what others do with this concept

I'm picturing reader to be the same age as or potentially slightly younger than Damian, but no specific ages are mentioned

Damian POV:

It was a day like any other, awful, Damian had to go to school. He didn't hate school, just the people there, loud, annoying, nosy.

He went about his day the same as always, reading in class and working on his work, until suddenly the principle came to class abruptly saying they had a new student, which the teacher promptly assigned to sit next to Damian. Great.

The teacher also informed him that he would be the one to show this new student around. So Damian braced himself for the extra annoying questions about him and his family, after all that's what people always want to know.

But to his suprised? This girl didn't care about any of that, simply asking questions about the class and school. She didn't even ask if he was really a Wayne, she looked a bit suprised but it wasn't the usual suprise most people had, and she didn't ask him any questions about it so it didn't matter.

As he showed her around he found out that they had the same classes, he heard her sigh of relief, but when questioned she said she was glad because it ment she wouldn't be alone in any of her classes and she'd have someone to turn to.

As the day went on they would go to class and work on classwork, it seems his new classmate was a lot smarter than the rest of them and he didn't have to constantly help her with work.

At the end of the day he made a mental note of a new acquaintance.

Later that day

"Ah, Master Damian, welcome back. How was your day at school?" Alfred asked, greeting the young boy

"It was alright Pennyworth, we had a transfer student today, but she seemed to be quite intelligent unlike the rest of those peasants" Damian replied

"Oh? A transfer student? In the middle of the school year? How odd."

"Yeah, I'll keep an eye out for any suspicious behavior, but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary, her name is Y/n." Damian said, but after saying her name he noticed Alfred looked pale

"Pennyworth? Are you feeling ill? Do I need to inform father?" Damian asked

"No no, I'm quite alright, it's just, I... used to know someone with that name, so I was suprised to hear it. That's all." Alfred replied, but he still looked pale

"If you say so. I'm going to head to my room and work on schoolwork before it's time for patrol" Damian said, and he was gone without another word

Alfred's POV:

'Calm yourself Alfred. It's a normal name that anyone could have, besides, it's been 20 years. Even if it was her she wouldn't be part of the young masters class. Still... I should inform Master Bruce, incase he mentions this classmate' Alfred thinks to himself before heading to the batcave.

There he finds both Bruce and Tim, working on the computer, searching for sightings of criminal activity, recently rumors of a new villain with unknown powers had started to arise, so it was the batman's job to keep Gotham safe

"Ahem, apologies for interrupting, but I need to borrow Master Bruce for a moment" Alfred says

"Did something happen Alfred?" Bruce asks

"No, not necessarily, it's nothing serious but we need to talk" Alfred replies

Bruce gets up and follows Alfred out of the room

"What is it Alfred? You look like you've seen a ghost." Bruce states

"Apologies Sir, as I said, it's nothing serious, however Damian informed me of a new classmate at school today" Alfred starts

"In the middle of the year?" Bruce comments

"That's what I said, however that isn't the point, I simply wanted to let you know before hand, incase the young master mentions this classmate infront of you.." Alfred pauses

"That's it? Why would you need to inform me of that" Bruce asks confused

"Well you see. He said that her name was... Y/n" Alfred states, and Bruce becomes just as pale as he is

"I see.... did Damian tell you anything else about this.... classmate?" Bruce asks

"No, he did not. But simply stated he'd keep an eye out for anything suspicious." Alfred said

"I understand." Bruce said with a deep sigh

"Are you alright Master Bruce? I know it's been a long time but-"

"I'm fine Alfred. I just... I'm fine. I need to head back to work now, we still don't know what this new villain is capable of, or what they're after." Bruce says, turning away

"Alright sir, if you insist. Please take care of yourself."

Alfred says, but he knows how Bruce is

The patrol went on as normal, and so did school. Nothing particularly interesting happened it was a week like any other, Damian and y/n would work on schoolwork together during breaks, since y/n joined late she had a lot of work to catch up on but she didn't have much trouble and Damian helped her when she did. The two had even become friends, turns out they had a lot in common, and some classmates tried to joke about how they were like siblings, but the two didn't mind. The jokes did make Damian aware of how... familiar y/n looked. He pondered the idea of her being a child from a one night stand, but the timelines didn't match up so he brushed the thought away, thinking it was a coincidence that she looked so much like Bruce. But nothing out of the ordinary happened of note, not until one fateful patrol where Damian made a discovery

Y/n POV:

Y/n didn't know where to go after waking up again, it was clear so many things have changed, and her dad taught her well. She needed more information before she made any decisions.

Unfortunately this ment she had no place to stay. After all, she couldn't go to an orphanage, she wasn't an orphan and she didn't have any documents or a story on where she came from. She knew better than to go to the police, what would she even say to them? So here she was. Sitting under a bridge hoping she won't get sick. But she was strong, she'd do what she'd have to in order to understand the situation better. Even if that means sleeping under a bridge like a troll, even if it means only eating the food provided by the school, even if it means-

"Hello there. Are you alright?" A voice asked making her jump

She turns to see, some sort of vigilante. She had heard in passing about how her dad Batman wasn't the only vigilante in Gotham anymore, so she figured it was one of them

"Oh um, I'm alright" she replied, she hadn't planned to meet any of them, she knew she might meet batman, which she kind of hoped for because then she could get some answers, but this was new territory this was- wait a minute why does he kind of look like Damian?

"Are you sure? Your sitting underneath a bridge at night, kids shouldn't be out here like this you could get hurt. Or worse. Why aren't you with your parents?" The vigilante (Damian) said, after recognizing his classmate, assessing the situation

"It's... complicated" y/n replies, before wondering how much she should tell him "I... can't really talk about it, but I can't go back home.. not yet at least, and I don't have anywhere else to go, so I've just been here" she states, hoping she didn't say to much

The vigilante just stays there for a moment, not saying anything, and she wonders if she said to much or if he thinks she's a criminal

"I see. In any case, you shouldn't be out here alone, the streets of Gotham aren't safe, however if you insist on staying out here may I suggest somewhere that isn't so easily spotted? You wouldn't want to be attacked. I know a few places that are safer than.. this" The vigilante says offering a hand

"Oh, uhm" y/n thinks for a moment, weighing her options "I'll take you up on that offer, it's not great down here" y/n replies, taking his hand

The two go to a more remote, slightly cleaner area

"Here we are, even if it's temporary this would be a better place for a shelter than where you were before. I don't know what's going on, but if you need assistance, im willing to help" the vigilante replies

"Thank you, you've really been more than enough help and I appreciate it a lot. If I need anything il let you know....."

"... Robin. My name is Robin." Robin says, noticing her pause

"Robin... thank you for the help, good luck with the rest of your patrol" y/n says

"Of course, you be careful now, always keep an eye out." Robin says, before leaving

'Phew.... he's gone. That was definitely him, and he definitely recognized me. Now what. He didn't say anything so they're definitely still doing the secret identity thing. I guess I'll just have to play it cool and hope he doesn't say anything at school. If any of the teachers find out I'm definitely gonna get investigated and then my whole plan will be thrown out the window.' Y/n thinks to herself 'Maybe this is a good thing, if he's Robin, it's likely that dad's still Batman too, which means I might run into him. What if he doesn't recognized me? What if he does recognize me?? What if- what if he didn't miss me.... no, no! This is dad, of course he missed me but it's been... so long... what do I do if he doesn't want me back...' y/n starts to worry about before she falls to the floor and starts to cry

Which, unbeknownst to her, Damian saw, he doesn't know why she's crying or why it makes him feel so... protective but he knows somethings up, so he goes off and reports what he knows to Batman

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aaaaand cliffhanger! Mwahahahaha

I would have kept going, and I know exactly what's coming next, but I've been typing for awhile and I have no idea how long this post is, and I don't want it to be too long

So I'm stopping it there,

This wasn't supposed to be this much but my creative brain decided to run with this idea, so there's gonna be a part 2 soon

Also I've decided to call this au

Batman Dead Daughter Au

Because.... idk what else to call it and if I'm gonna make a part 2 and potentially more depending on how this goes, I'm gonna need something to refer to it with.

As I said before, I'm extremely new to the batman stuff

Pretty much all of my knowledge comes from youtube and tumblr, so bare with me if things are out of character

I've also never written fanfiction before, it's always just been in my head, so the writing is probably a bit funny

Yes I'm a writer in the making but I haven't actually gotten to the writing part

And fanfiction is a bit different

Hope yall like the concept tho

Again, feel free to write your own version of this if you want to, just tag me so I can read it too lol

[reallyromealone]

jason todd x male reader please I beg you take my money

Title: surprise babysitting

Fandom: batman

Characters: baby bats

Fic type: fluff

Pairings: Jason x reader

Warnings: male reader, reader insert, reader and Jason are parents, good dad jason

Notes:

Summary: with a son going through sleep regression, the todd-lastname family is surprised by a visit from the inlaws and somehow got free babysitting for a night

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

A crime boss.

The nightmare of Gotham's underworld.

And most of all?

A devoted husband and father.

"Jay, your brothers are here...." (Name) Called out, voice aloof while holding their six month old who waved at Tim, something they had gotten really good at doing. "Hi (name)!" Dick said happily and (name) waved tired and wandered off "what the hell do you guys want now?" Jason barked out to his siblings while Duke somehow managed to get ahold of some Oreos and Jason didn't even bother questioning it "we brought snacks! We wanna do a movie night!"

"You assholes pissed off B didn't you"

"Mind your business!" Tim barked back while walking with a bag of snacks for (name) who smiled at his in-law "thank you, Tim" he whispered while the baby fell asleep in his hold "were dealing with sleep regression so it's less than ideal to be here" (name) mumbled while their daughter woke up and whined "shh" (name) immediately started to try and calm the babe "here, lemme take him" Jason took the baby and (name) sighed with a small sense of relief.

"How about this... We hide here and watch the baby and you guys go out?"

"We just wanna sleep...."

"Booked a hotel already, you two go and let the uncles handle this" (name) looked at Jason unsure and the crime lord sighed "fuck it fine" he handed the baby over to Dick "we'll send the list" walking over to his husband, he lifted the man up "Jason!" (Name) Barked out but was promptly ignored.

-

(Name) Fretted in the hotel while Jason stripped into his boxers "babe, Dicks there and (sons name) loves Damien, they got this" Jason walked over and pulled (name) close "how about we order food... Turn on that Jacuzzi and I remove any worry from that brain" the implications made (name) hum softly while Jason kissed his neck "frankly I just want to eat food and pass out" (name) teased, causing Jason to grin "I can definitely do that, you order the food and I'll grab more pillows!"

(Name) Ordered dinner and desserts, deciding to wear Jason's shirt and having taken his pants off the second he sat in the bed, trying to keep calm for Jason and not think about the baby that they adopted... "Babe, they have those good pillows!"

(Name) Looked over to see Jason hauling armfuls of pillows with a manic grin, causing (name) to Huff out a laugh "and! They send us an update!"

(Name) Immediately took Jason's phone to see a video of Dick rocking (sons name) and Damien playing the sound of a heartbeat while Duke sang lullabies "they're surprisingly doing well" he commented, less stressed while Jason plopped on the bed "whaddya wanna watch, babe?"

Jason was cuddled into (name)s chest, wanting to be the little spoon tonight while (name) played with his hair, kissing his head occasionally, eyes slowly fluttering closed with a content huff, unaware that the baby bats were currently trying to get Bruce to make (sons name) his own outfit.