#and only have a tomorrow to refuel

[tenrose]

The conclusion of this fiasco weekend is that I'm perfectly fine living on my own and if I could live without having to interact with another human being for the rest of my life I will be too.

[luvwestwood]

"Thank You For Your Service" - Toji Fushiguro, Ryomen Sukuna

4,341 words.

warnings. nsfw, firemen! toji/sukuna, food-play, oral sex, p in v, mildly dubious con, double penetration, unprotected sex, throat fucking, rough play/sex, praising kink, creampie, degradation/dumbification (slut, whore)

notes. as an owner of your own independent bakery, you deliver your local firemen some sweet treats as a 'thanks' for their service. although a few of the men at the station decide to have a little fun with you. aka toji and sukuna fuck you silly and stuff you with their cum like a profiterole. also this has been in my draft for ages and I wanted to post it before I get back to classes 😭💀

banner cred. @/yunonoai on twt/ig

After successfully balancing the cash register, you glance over to the clock on the wall that reads sharply, '4:30' in the afternoon.

The rest of the staff, aka the young students you've hired to work in your bakery were long gone, as you had let them off quite early today.

You walked over to the display fridges to see what's remained of the cakes from today. As expected, there were a good few things left such as profiteroles and small dessert cakes.

"Mmm, maybe I should give these to the firemen down at the station."

You smiled as you came up with the sustainable idea to gift the local fire station a box of sweet treats as a thank you for their service. I mean, who wouldn't want free cakes?

You hummed as you tied the pink ribbon over the box. Hopefully you put enough in there, you knew that those working at the fire station were hardworking people, so they needed a lot to refuel.

Glancing to the clock again, only fifteen minutes have passed. You decided it was time to make your way to the fire station. You made sure everything was left prepared for the opening staff tomorrow. Grabbing your coat from the staff room, you took the rest of your belongings, and the nicely wrapped box, making your way to the fire station.

The walk wasn't long, as the station was only located down the avenue. They put the station in a place to make sure it was accessible for everyone. It was convenient for you at this moment too.

Coming to the front of the fire station, you were met with the garage shutters open. You weren't sure if you should just walk in through there, or go around to the visitors entrance. The lights were on though, and you could hear a faint chatter coming from the inside.

Deciding to take a peek, you could see two men sitting in chairs and talking, which you assumed were the firemen on duty today.

You couldn’t really make out their faces, but you could tell one had coral hair, the other, a dark black. At the same time, you mentally slapped yourself for freezing in one spot, wondering why you were unable to move.

Your eyes scanned their bodies, the muscular physique they owned had only been complimented by the fitted navy shirt they were wearing. You could tell both had put in the work at the gym. For once, you wished you were in a burning building right now.

Suddenly, the coral haired man looked in your direction, and by now you could make out some strange tattoos on his face. You gasp, startled at the fact he had caught you staring for awhile like some idiot. Curious, the raven haired man turns his head as well, and speaks.

"Well.. what do we have here?" he continued, "You lost, doll?" his voice so deep, it only went straight through your ears, down to your pussy.

By now, you had the attention of the two men, and it sort of felt belittling in a way. Part of you wanted to turn around and leave, as if nothing happened. Or maybe you could act like you walked into the wrong place.

Gulping, you clutched onto the corners of the box out of nervousness. "No.. I work at the local bakery down the block. I came here to uhm...” Your voice trails off, you had forgotten what to say.

The coral haired one butts into the conversation.

"Oh Toji, you've made her all nervous. She's so soft spoken now." He motions his hand for you to come closer, the so called 'Toji' rolling his eyes at what the other had said.

Hesitant, you stepped through the garage entrance, now hearing it close behind you as you walked closer to the two men. I guess there’s no turning back now..

You still didn't know what the coral haired one was called.

As you finally stood in front of them, they respectfully did the same, standing from the chairs they were just on.

Your stomach churned as you noticed the difference between your heights, the men now towering over you had only made the nauseous feeling worse. It had caused you to look up at them, like some lost puppy. Am I really this sex deprived?

You could have sworn that you felt something purr down there as the so-called Toji crosses his arms, his massive biceps on show. His navy fitted shirt practically sculpted over his muscles.

Begging to get out of this place that made it more difficult to withstand each minute, you spoke first.

“I work at the bakery down the street,” you continued after a breath, “..and I just wanted to give you these goodies as a thank you for your service to this city.”

Wanting to compensate for discomforting you earlier, Toji speaks. “Ain’t that sweet? S’kuna, take the box and put it behind me on the table.”

Sukuna, gently takes the box from your grasp. You felt your face warm up as his more bigger, calloused hands made contact with yours. He smiled at you, possibly for a silent thanks. You couldn't help but do the same.

Tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, you blushed. Flattered that these men were praising you. “Oh, it’s nothing really..” you slowly took a step back. “Anyways, I better get going.”

Toji had only kept his eyes on you, as if he were to devour you at any moment. Leaning against the table behind him, Toji didn't dare to look at anything else in the garage. Sukuna was busy on the other hand, toying with the pink ribbon on the box.

“..Leavin’ already? Isn't that a shame, I thought that you yourself came with these desserts.” Toji snickered, looking at Sukuna behind his shoulder for a response.

Your lashes fluttered, in utter shock you were speechless.

Sukuna, could only laugh at Toji’s cheeky joke that was laced with filth. His own eyes watched you as he sucked the cake’s cream off his fingertips.

Awkwardly laughing, you brush off what just happened. “..I really.. need to get going. I have a bus to catch.” You lied, thinking that it would be able to get you out of here.

“C’mon, it’s not everyday we get the opportunity to share these cakes with a pretty girl. Right, ‘kuna?”

“Yeah, today’s our lucky day.” Sukuna hums, his sentence ending with a smirk.

Biting your lip, you thought about it for a moment. I mean, there wouldn’t be anything else for you to do as soon as you come home.

You knew you were going to regret this, but part of you wanted to stay. I mean, what could go wrong? “Mmm, okay fine, I guess I have a few minutes to spare..”

Toji grins, the scar on his mouth moving with his lips as you walk back closer to the two. "I promise, we'll make the most of it."

He stands back from the table, casually grabbing you by the waist and swiftly setting you atop the table as if you were a doll. You could only hiccup, taken aback by his sudden gesture. You immediately tug down on your skirt due to it rising up just now.

Flustered and warm, you made the sensible decision to take off your coat. Toji only takes it from your possession, setting the coat down on a chair nearby.

Your legs dangled off the edge of the table, slowly swinging back and forth, taking a few breaths to calm your nerves as you watch the men’s next move.

Toji stood in front, facing you, almost between your legs as he reached over to the box of desserts on your right side, grabbing one of the few cream cakes.

Sukuna on the other hand, makes small talk with you. “You make these yourself, beautiful?”

“Oh no, not just by myself. I have a few other staff at my bakery who of course help out.”

He nods slowly in approval, wiping the rest of the ganache off his hands using the pants of his cargo overalls.

You bit your lip, asking a sudden question out of curiosity . “Can I ask, where’s the rest of your crew?.. Is it just you two?”

Toji, busy taking a bite of the cake rolls his eyes. “That doesn’t matter right now,” the question stays unanswered as he changed topics, “God, the cream in this- whatever the fuck this is- tastes great. What you call these again?”

"It's called a profiterole," You watched as Toji took a huge bite, licking the cream off the corners of his mouth.

He uses his finger to swipe a small dollop of the cake’s cream onto his fingertips, bringing it closer to your mouth.

“Here, try it for yourself, It’s the best thing I’ve had.”

Does he expect me to suck it off his finger just like that..?

You knew better, this man was a stranger. Should you really be going around casually sucking on men's fingers? “Oh, I don’t know if I should-”

“Don’t leave me hangin’ doll! creams gonna slide off my finger..”

You shyly gabbed onto his hand, sucking the cream off his fingertip. Toji would be lying if he said that a tent didn’t just form in his cargos. He could feel his cock straining against his pants, begging to come out.

"'Atta girl.." Toji purred as he felt your hot mouth wrap around his finger.

He could only imagine what it would be like if you were to suck your own juices off his fingers after they had just been inside you.

This whole time, Sukuna was quietly watching everything unfold. He could feel a tinge of jealousy wash through him, angered at the fact that Toji was all handsy with you, and poor Sukuna couldn’t get a turn.

His index finger left your lips with a pop, his eyes never leaving yours. You heard Sukuna shuffle around with the box, his footsteps coming close to both where you and Toji were.

He gently pushed Toji aside, and unfortunately the raven haired sex fanatic took offense to that, Toji stabbing daggers into the back of Sukuna's head as he replaced his spot.

You shivered as Sukuna slithered his one hand onto your bare leg, the other hand holding another one of the cakes.

"How 'bout you share this one with me? Say ahh.." He brings the cake closer to your face, your face heating up from his hand slowly caressing the velvety skin on your thigh.

You grabbed onto his hand to stop it, "I'm really full, thank you th-"

Sukuna's hand suddenly moved down to your chest, smearing cake all over your blouse. The rest of the cake falling onto your skirt.

You jittered as you felt the cold cream manage to dribble down your sternum behind the fabric, a high pitch gasp escaping your lips out of discomfort.

"Oh my.." he continued with a devilish grin, "My hand slipped."

You gasped, your blouse now all ruined with red velvet cake and buttercream. "It's.. okay.. I'm heading home anyways."

"No, no-“ Toji behind him stepped in, "We gotta do something about that."

You tried to reassure them; using your hands as support to try hop off the table, "Guys, I promise it's nothing seriou-" but unfortunately Sukuna grabs the side of your thighs, setting you back on the table.

"Yeah no," thinking, Sukuna crosses his arms. "We gotta take that top off. In fact, take everything off."

Toji smirked, and let out a laugh. "I agree,"

Sukuna's large hands reached for the buttons of your blouse, pulling the top apart, the remaining fragments thrown to the other side of the garage.

The tiny buttons fly everywhere as you wince at the sight that unfolded before your eyes. You were able to see the evident change in the two men's demeanor as their eyes landed on the black lacy bra that was now on show.

"Ah-" Sukuna cooed, "She got some between her tits. Get this girl some tissue."

Toji walked around the garage in search of a tissue roll, and you watched him like a hawk, using your arms to cover your chest. "Can't seem to find any 'round here.."

Unable to form a sentence, you gape your mouth open at Toji, then to Sukuna.

"Well that's too bad.." he reaches for your arms, pulling them apart to expose your cake-stained chest back to him. “I wouldn’t mind licking it off.”

“Wait- I don’t think that’s-“ you’d be lying if you said you didn’t want this badly right now.

“Shh…” His hands snake down your chest to your abdomen, gently pushing you to lie against the table.

Your nipples go hard due to the contact of your back with the table’s cold surface, luckily they weren’t able to see that.

You felt as Sukuna’s wet tongue touches your stomach, slowly gliding up towards your cleavage that was stained with cream. You gasp, a breathy moan escaping your lips. That was enough to tell them both that you wanted this as much as they did.

You immediately grab onto his hair, and you could feel the smirk form against your skin.

You heard Toji’s footsteps come closer to your side of the table, he was suspiciously quiet for the time being.

Sukuna would only look up at you as he licked off the creamy residue all over your chest. The warmth from his tongue was ticklish, but this scene arousing enough to have a pool form between your legs.

“Think we gotta take this tiny skirt off too..” you felt him roughly grab on your skirt to slide it off, but not strong enough to rip it apart.

You could only clamp your thighs together, as the rest of your garments were stripped of you, the outcome being you all flustered that you were so exposed in-front of the two men.

Sukuna uses his hand to force your legs open, his head moving between your legs.

Until you felt another pair of hands clutch onto your panties and- rip!

You shudder as your bare pussy was met with the cold air of the garage, hoping to feel Sukuna’s warm, wet mouth but you were mistaken.

It was more cake.

Toji had smeared a Victoria-sponge dangerously below your lower abdomen.

Toji could only palm himself through his pants as he watches Sukuna devour the cake that was making its way towards your clit.

His tongue made its way to your dripping hole, slowly fucking into you back and forth.

“T-that feels.. so good..” you breathe out, Sukuna’s cock straining against the fabric of his pants as he heard this.

Unable to watch anymore, Toji stops palming himself through his pants. He makes his way to the box of desserts, disassembling a jam donut, scooping the strawberry glaze into his hands.

Horny, and jealousy filling his body like mad, he walks behind the table where your head was almost hanging off.

He eagerly unzips his cargos with an unoccupied hand, grabbing for his cock that has been nothing but a nuisance to him these past few minutes.

Too busy moaning in pleasure, you looked up to Toji, your vision of him upside down as you were laid against the table.

You could only watch as Toji’s heavy, thick cock slaps against your forehead, his jam covered hand wrapping around the base and making a mess of it on his length.

You felt his hand smear the strawberry residue all over your chest again, which was most likely for Sukuna to be able to lick.

“Better open wide you slut, or else it won’t fit.” You felt Toji’s hand grab onto your jaw, forcing mouth to open wider.

You moan as his cock fills your mouth so full, the sweet jam from the donut coating your taste buds. Toji wraps his hands around your neck, his two thumbs caressing your throat as he fucked his cock into it.

He groans, “Fuck, just like that..” throbbing as he felt the outline of his cock form against the skin of your throat. Squelching noises could only be heard as he staggeringly rut his hips back and forth.

You could hear Toji grunting above you from the sensation of the vibrations going to straight to his cock as you moaned. You felt Sukuna on the other end lapping at your clit, fucking you with two fingers of his fingers at the same time.

Taking a minute to close your eyes, you indulged in the pleasure you were receiving at both ends. At the same time, you were unable to tell who ripped your bra off you.

Toji pulls his cock away from your throat, leaving you to gasp for air. You shut your eyes tightly, disappointed at the empty feeling you were left with. Warm spit trickled down your face, Toji caressing your cheek but only to slap in after.

Toji doesn’t forget to plant a wet kiss on your lips before pulling away. You whimper as he leaves your side, but only this time he starts walking over to Sukuna’s end.

Sukuna pulled away from your dripping holes too, you wince and moan, praying that this isn’t the final moment that they’d have hands on you. You were too scared that the fun was cut short.

Using your elbows to prop yourself up, you watch the two men, speechless. You try to use this opportunity to catch your breath, but your head only falls back down onto the table. You stay sprawled out on the table, looking up at the bright lights of the garage.

“Feel like it’s time to stuff some cock in that pussy, don’t cha think?” Toji speaks, voice raspy from groaning.

“I think so too. But I’m fucking her first,” Sukuna replies.

A disagreeing Toji snaps back. “Nah, I want to.”

“Aren’t you forgetting we can both fuck her at the same time?” Sukuna suggests, your eyes widening at the thought of two men stuffing you full of cock at the same time.

You could almost predict that they could break you into two, and you have no idea how big any of them are yet. You use your elbows to prop yourself up again, your face showing an expression of disbelief. “I- I can’t do that.. I don’t think I can.”

Of course, they'd hardly take that as an answer. “We’ll see that for ourselves.”

You felt Sukuna grab onto your thighs once more, his fingers digging into your flesh as he pulled you towards him. He effortlessly picks you up, carrying you over his shoulder and walking towards what seemed like one of the fire trucks.

You heard a door open, Sukuna placed you onto a longer leather seat that was behind the driver in the truck cab.

Hearing a door open behind you, Toji follows inside, crawling onto the same leather seat. He lays back, hands pumping his cock as he watches you from the other side of the seat.

Dazed, you could only immediately crawl onto Toji’s lap, straddling him. He grins, his hands squeezing onto the soft skin of your tits and fondling as you waited for Sukuna to join.

Sukuna climbs onto the seat but this time behind you. Toji slightly moves his head to the side, taking a peek at Sukuna. Too bad, Sukuna was already busy fucking your ass with one of his fingers, making sure you were ready to be stuffed of his cock.

Jealous, Toji grips onto the doughy skin on your hips, aligning his tip with your dripping cunt before slowly sliding in.

You let out a long string of moans and curses, as you felt his thick length stretch you out as you sink down onto his cock.

“God, you feel so good around my cock. ‘S like your pussy’s made for it.”

Hearing a zip behind you, you disregarded it, as you were still trying to adjust to Toji’s size. This was cut short as you were caught by surprise by Sukuna filling you up with his own cock, this time in your ass. He was thick, but not thick as Toji. Although the length made up for it, you would think that he was all the way in but in reality it was only half.

Your eyes rolled to the back of your head as both of their cocks were stuffed deeply in both of your holes.

Your hands clutched onto the fabric of Toji’s compression shirt, wrinkling it all together.

Toji placed his soles flat onto the seat, using this support to harshly thrust into you upwards more faster than before as Sukuna behind staggered into you at a more slowed pace. Although he wanted you bad, he made sure to be gentle. He just wanted to indulge every inch of you.

Toji on the other hand, bottomed into you balls deep, his thumb cheekily creeping over to your clit, rubbing in continuous circles as they both fucked into you.

“Fucking slut,” Sukuna spits out, voice shaky as the plush flesh of your ass only clenched around him. “Both holes stuffed full of men’s cocks who you don’t know?”

Sukuna reached for your hair, grabbing a handful and pulling you back against his chest.

You whimpered, snaking one of your hands behind to his nape. Sukuna leaned in for a kiss, only to pepper more down your neck to your collarbone.

Toji kept his pace, which as quite impressive. You moaned back into Sukuna’s cheek, feeling a knot twist and form in the pit of your stomach.

“I-It’s too much- I can’t…” Your hand leaves the back of his neck, moving up higher to clutch on his coral hair as the immense pleasure had only washed through you.

Toji below you speaks, “You think we should let her cum?”

Slapping your face as he started to slow down, he could see you were drunk of their cocks. Fortunately, Sukuna was unable to see this as he was busy behind.

Toji thrusted into you balls deep each time in a consecutive pattern, bullying your cervix as your body jolted up and down along with your tits.

Sukuna moved his hands back down, away from your hair to be able to spread your cheeks apart. Groaning as he watched his cock slip in and out of your ass, he makes a decision. “Fuck, I think so. She’s been such a good girl this whole time.”

Toji grins, his hand moving to your cheek but this time roughly caressing your lip with his thumb. “You hear that doll? He says you were such a good girl.”

You were unable to form a sentence, your brains were fucked out at this point and Toji, wasn’t happy with this.

“Fucking answer me you whore,” surprised, you came back to your senses as Toji slapped your cheek harshly, leaving a red mark on your face.

“..Please, let me cum..” you hiccuped, “I can’t take it anymore.”

You watched Toji flash his same old devilish smile through your tear filled eyes, both of their paces picking up again.

Your moans turned shaky, the slapping of balls against your skin and wet noises filling the taxi cab.

Toji went back to lazily rubbing circles on your clit as both of them fucked you, making sure that you would cum on time with them.

This time, Sukuna’s hand wrapped around your throat, bringing your ear close to his mouth. “You want us to breed you? Is that what you want?”

Lost in a trance, you just went with whatever. You didn’t care anymore, you just wanted to be stuffed full of them forever.

You could only nod, but Sukuna couldn’t take it as an answer.

“Use your words baby, tell me what you want.” His warm breath tickled your ear, Toji’s thrusting making it difficult for you to speak.

You held onto Sukuna’s wrist around your throat, “I want.. both of your cum.. in me..”

Although your hand fell back onto Toji’s shirt as Sukuna gently pushed you back down. You sighed out loud, sobbing quietly as you felt his cock slide out of you.

Toji’s deep thrusts were the only thing you could feel, “Fuck, I’m coming.” He grunted beneath you, until you felt Sukuna’s cock entering the same hole Toji was in.

As you moaned out louder than before, the pleasure too hard to bear. You could feel yourself turning into jelly, your hands wrinkling the fabric of Toji’s shirt once again.

Your voice strained as you felt both of their cocks shoot warm, ropes of cum into you. Your orgasm comes crashing down on you, your chest heaving as Toji’s grip on your waist remained, but Sukuna’s hands slowly lost grip on your hair.

Both of them filled up your hole with seed to the point that it leaked out of you in no time.

Your eyes completely rolled back for tenth time this hour, feeling them both twitch inside of you, the white fluid leaking onto the black leather seats of the truck cab.

Sukuna leaves your hole first, moaning at sight of the generous amounts of cum that dripped down his length to his shaft as he slid out.

Followed by Toji, you could feel his cock slip out too, until his finger made its way back inside, making sure to fuck the escaping load back into you.

Both of them had left their mark in you, stretching you out so fully that no cock in the future can impress you but theirs.

You felt like a total cock sleeve, and your body yearned for more. But honestly, it felt like you were gonna break apart. So maybe next time.

All three of you stayed in the same spots, the windows were now fogged up to the point the entire truck cab smelled of sex.

“I can definitely point out one thing you and ‘em profiteroles have in common.”

⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⤳ © luvwestwood ‘24. all works are owned by me, and originally come from my own head. please do not re-post on a third party platform without my permission!

⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⤳ as always, thank you for the love on each and every one of my posts. 🎀🩷

[urbanallegory]

prompt: highway, may 14

@wolfstarmicrofic 812 words

Remus leaned wearily against the grey concrete facade of the 7-Eleven they had stopped at. Holding his motorcycle helmet under one arm, he contently munched the pizza slice he’d just purchased. From across the petrol station—or the gas station, rather, as he should really say since they were in the US now—he watched Sirius refuel his motorcycle.

It was a task that Sirius was always excited to do. Any kind of muggle mechanics was something he found endlessly fascinating, and Remus watched with amusement as he pulled the pump out of the motorcycle, looking at the petrol meter curiously. No matter how many times Sirius used the pump he never ceased to be surprised that it worked, that muggles had a non-magical way of fueling vehicles.

Remus explained it to him one time: “Petrol. It‘s mined deep from out of the earth. The engine in Dusty—” (which was what Sirius had taken to calling his lilac motorcycle, after muggle musician Dusty Springfield) “—burns the petrol, and that gets th….” Remus explained the basics and then Sirius read a heap of manuals until he easily knew more than Remus regarding the specifics of muggle mechanics, gaining a wealth of knowledge that he became eager to impose on anyone who’d listen. Which was usually only Remus.

Sirius’ long black curls were falling out of the bun he’d hastily pulled his hair in. His leather jacket was unzipped, a dark blue handkerchief tied around his neck to keep out the sharp chill of the wind. He sauntered towards Remus in his indigo checkerboard jeans and heavy black boots, fussing simultaneously with his pockets, pulling out their contents as he rummaged impatiently—an undetectable extension charm rendering their capacity ridiculously large: he pulled out spare clothes, a bottle of wine, three books and a souvenir cowboy hat he’d bought for James—before at last he found the map he’d been looking for and waved it at Remus.

Remus sighed. They could only bring one trunk on the motorcycle—Remus’, which was packed with some of Sirius’ things too—but Sirius had decided that illegally charming his muggle jacket was the best solution to carry the rest of his belongings.

“Wanna check the route?” Sirius offered, holding out the map lazily. He eyed Remus’ pizza.

In exchange for Sirius being the one who drove them—long hours on the road as they crossed the US, Remus’ arms tucked tight around Sirius as they sped along highways, Sirius having insisted on doing everything the muggle way—Remus was in charge of the directions and planning.

Remus shrugged. “We stay on the motorway—I mean, the highway—that we’re on.” He didn’t take the map from Sirius’ hand and instead continued to eat his pizza slice, ignoring Sirius’ unsubtle glances.

“Hmff,” said Sirius, unfolding it himself until it was completely open and his arms were held out wide, clutching it. “Interstate 376, right?”

“Yes,” replied Remus. “Which is the one we are currently on. Like I said.”

“Okay,” said Sirius diligently, used enough by now to Remus’ bluntness to be unoffended, folding the map back up with only a small amount of difficulty. He leaned into Remus’ side with a sigh.

They stood like that for a few minutes, enjoying the reassuring solidity of the other next to them. Sirius rested his head on Remus’ shoulder: “We should really get going, y’know.”

They were aiming to make their way through Pittsburgh and up to Allegheny National Forest before tomorrow’s full moon, where Remus could transform safely and Sirius could join him as Padfoot. A two-person wolf pack.

Remus ignored the curious stares of the gas station clientele as he pressed against Sirius: prolonging the moments before they’d be back on the road.

“We really should,” said Remus, and yet neither of them moved.

Eventually, Sirius pulled away from him. It was a sudden but slight step back to stand face-to-face with Remus as he reached near the end of eating his pizza slice.

Sirius was still and unmoving—until he looked down. The quickest of glances, the smallest of smirks: Remus realised too slow, and before he could pull away, Sirius leaned in and bit half of the remaining crust right out from Remus’ hand.

“You bastard!” Remus yelled, but it was half a chuckle, smiling wide as Sirius sped away laughing: a comical rendition of guilt. He slid his denim-clad leg over the motorcycle, looking back to Remus with a grin as the engine whirred to life with a tap of his fingers.

Remus merely rolled his eyes, quickly swallowing the last part of his now-cold crust. He followed Sirius and slid behind him onto the seat, smiling into his shoulder as they drove off.

The rest of their trip awaited them: running wild through seemingly endless forests; postcards sent home to James and Lily; more 7-Eleven pizza slices for Sirius to steal a bite of.

[thepenultimateword]

The Worst Kind of Medal

The war had left more scars on the nation than it had Umbra’s body, so she wasn’t surprised that the airship came in 6 hours later than the schedule had claimed. She was more surprised that she was still standing on the platform, bold-lettered sign locked in her fists at either corner, when it arrived. No one had told her she needed to be at the port when Prince Waylon arrived in Graybourne, only that he was to be her lifelong charge forever after. She probably should have left a soldier here in her place and enjoyed her last few hours of freedom at home.

A bit of guilt pricked her insides. That was unfair. No one had forced her into this marriage arrangement. She’d accepted it–maybe only for the promises that came along with it, but still an acceptance. If she was uncomfortable now, it was her fault.

Several men leaped from the ship deck, ropes coiled under their arms. They rushed to knot the tethers to the docking posts as their feet touched the ground. It was complicated to get a ship back in the air once grounded, so most docks were constructed on cliff faces or in Greybourne’s case on towers. This allowed the ship to remain airborne yet steady for boarding and exiting; the same went for inspections and refueling. The only real reason for a ship to land was in case of major repairs.

The plank dropped, and a surge of people rushed onto the platform. Umbra scanned the crowd, with rapid scrutiny. She wished she’d asked for a photograph of her potential husband before the royal family shipped him here. The monarch probably wouldn’t grant her another reward if she lost him on the very first day. 

“Ser Umbra!”

Her gaze shot to the deck where a man with long silvery hair braided crownlike around his forehead and then draped loosely over one shoulder waved over the crowd. Another man, hair-slicked and face creased with a long-suffering frown, reached out to grab him, but the prince was already bounding down the plank. He was more petite than she had expected, his head bobbing in and out of sight as he weaved clumsily through the crowd, bumping shoulders every few steps. As he darted around the last mozying couple, he nearly barreled straight into her chest, but he managed to catch himself just short, tipping up onto his toes in the process.

“Ser Umbra,” he repeated, panting up at her with a broad smile. “I-it’s really you! You came yourself! I really wasn’t expecting to see you straight off the ship! Ryann told me I probably wouldn’t see you until tomorrow morning because of your duties!”

Umbra blinked at him. Her heart felt like it had been seized and clutched hard in her chest.

She’d wondered why the King had suggested Prince Waylon as her groom. It had seemed a very quick choice. She’d figured it was because he was fifth in line for the throne—the royal family wouldn’t marry a soldier to someone who could one day take the crown, no matter how much she’d done for her country. Now, looking at his peeking canines, golden eyes, and long, curling tail, it was abundantly clear this had been a careful act of strategy.

King Esmond had never been shy about taking wives, and as a result, many of his children came from foreign royalty, a way of securing many alliances at once. Not so with the Auskeran princess. Umbra had not yet been born when the marriage took place, but everyone knew that was where the tensions between the two countries had started. With the princess's death.

But now, with the war ended and Auskeran firmly independent from the rest of the world, no foreign alliances were waiting for a half-Auskerian prince. And keeping him around the capital was a liability in itself. His very appearance was a reminder of the recent horrors and a symbol of shame to the King. But he was still of royal blood, and banishments–no matter how merciful–had a habit of coming back to bite. So what did they do? They gave him to a local. Someone high enough to merit such a match but low enough that she couldn’t refuse. Someone who would take all the perks of having a royal spouse as appeasement for the inconvenience of his half-bloodedness.

Still, they had to have known her feelings about such a thing. The war had not ended so many months ago that an Auskerian, even half of one, didn’t bother her. Perhaps that was the very reason they’d said nothing. They wouldn’t want to risk her denial.

“How did you know what I look like?” Umbra said, forcing her clenched jaw apart. He’d picked her out from the crowd on sight. He couldn’t have seen the sign from that distance, could he?

The prince flushed a little. “Father showed me a photograph of the Greybourne division as soon as he told me about the marriage arrangement. He said you’re a general of high standing. You held the eastern front steady for two years before scouting over the border. You won us the war practically singlehanded!” 

Umbra was about to explain that it was far more complex than that but Prince Waylon carried on without pause. 

“And to think, of all the prestigious matches you could have received, Father chose me! I’ve been showing that photo to everyone for the last month! But it got sort of crumpled from carrying it around too much, so my sister painted your portrait for me as a wedding gift. See?” 

He pried open the locket around his neck and leaned forward to show her a very accurate, stoic miniature of her own face. She was dressed in her military uniform, her medal of honor–a medal that she’d really only worn twice, once when it was bestowed and again for a newspaper photo–pinned bold and gleaming to her chest.

 “She made one for you too, here!” He fished into his breast pocket and held out a matching bronze locket by its chain. 

Umbra watched it swing for a couple moments before she tentatively accepted it. “I, um…” He was staring at her so expectantly what was she supposed to do? She slipped the chain over her head, and the locket settled in the hollow of her chest. “Thank you.”

He continued to stare. Gaze flicking to the locket and back to her face again. He definitely wasn’t subtle. 

She picked open the latch and looked vaguely at the companion miniature. “Ah.”

It wasn’t much of a reaction but the prince immediately pounced on it.

“I hope it's ok. I wanted it to be more interesting or at least be smiling, but Isabeau said portraits are supposed to be serious. I’m lucky she let me be as expressive as that.”

“No, no, it’s very nice,” Umbra said. Lied. She hadn’t even noticed whether the portrait had been straight-faced or smiling. She should probably be more excited, or at least appreciative. Princess Isabeau was supposedly a real artistic talent—from the accuracy of her own portrait she had to agree—and her skill mixed with her status, made her paintings some of the most saught after in the kingdom. Now she had one around her neck and she couldn’t even give it a proper enough to look to give a specific detail of praise.

Luckily, Prince Waylon took her words at face value. He noticeably relaxed, and she snapped the locket shut again.

“Prince Waylon!” The other man from the ship shoved out from the crowd, a little more disheveled than he’d been moments ago and lugging two large suitcases. He let the cases drop heavily to the planks and tugged sharply on the ends of his black suit. “A member of the royal family does not fly off like that! You must conduct yourself with decorum! And that means staying with your escort!”

“I was with Ser Umbra, so it was fine,” Prince Waylon said.

The man’s attention flicked toward her, scanning her up and down with an unimpressed expression. As an employee to the royal family why would he be? 

“This is Ryann, my escort to Greybourne,” Prince Waylon said. “He’s supposed to return to Ashborough once he sees me settled.  

“Ser,” Ryann said with a short bow. “Unfortunately, the royal officiant was delayed, so the wedding will have to be postponed at least a couple weeks. I’m to stay until that point to be another witness.”

Great. The last thing she wanted was time to start overthinking things. She’d wanted this done as quickly as possible. And now, with the prince’s Auskerian features to unsettle her, she wanted it done even faster.

“You both must be tired,” she said, hefting up one of the suitcases. “My car is at the base of the tower. I’ll take you to the house so you can rest.”

“Oh, I’m not that tired–” Waylon began

“You drive?” Ryann interrupted as he grabbed the remaining case. “You don’t have a chauffeur?”

“I have drivers,” Umbra clarified. “For shopping and other errands. I simply prefer the autonomy of driving myself. Don’t worry, I don’t expect Prince Waylon to get along without a chauffeur.”

“Oh, maybe I could learn too?”

“Absolutely not,” Ryann snapped. “You’ll get yourself killed. Besides, who ever heard of royalty driving themselves? You’re not one of the working class.”

Umbra started down the first tower ramp, letting them fall into step beside her. Should she say something? Tell the prince he could try driving if he liked? But her drivers didn’t have time to keep an eye on him and she hadn’t planned on engaging in any extra responsibilities. She also didn’t think there was much point in ruffling the escort further. So she remained quiet.

Prince Waylon didn’t seem to take the denial too hard. He chatted a bit on the way down, pointing out the landscape and buildings as they went. Umbra nodded along, but didn’t listen much; she was more focused on the many glances the prince received from passersby, ranging from curiosity to outright disgust. Ryann must have been aware as well because he kept a protective hand on the prince’s arm the entire way down.

The car waited at the curb for them. A sleek green thing with three steam valves that she’d purchased shortly after the war’s end. It was easier traveling back and forth to the military headquarters this way.

“Here we are.” Umbra popped the door to the trunk, putting away the first suitcase and then taking the second from Ryann.

The escort dusted off his hands, as if the meanialness of the task were a visible smudge on his station. He then stepped back to survey the car’s body. “This is a handsome vehicle.”

 Umbra expected it was one of the only words of praise she was going to receive during his stay, but she still couldn’t find it in herself to use it to her advantage. “It does the job.”

 “Ser Umbra, can I sit up front with you?” Prince Waylon chirped from the side.

“You’re not going to address me as Ser Umbra our entire marriage, are you?”

His face washed a hot pink. “I wasn’t sure what you preferred.”

“You’re not a part of my regiment. Umbra is fine.”

“Then I’m just Waylon.” He smiled. A sweet, bright-eyed expression that made Umbra’s insides churn like someone was trying to turn them inside out. The officator had better get there fast.

She nodded curtly and circled around to the passenger door, holding it for him as he picked up the ends of his traveling cloak and slid inside. As she closed it behind him, she caught a glimpse of Ryann’s expression before he entered the backseat. Silent approval. Seemed she’d passed whatever test the employee had in mind for vehicle etiquette. She wasn’t look forward to any similar tests. Her rise in the military had granted her a title and a fortune, but she certainly could claim to be as well-bred as anyone in the royal court. Which for many was a sin in itself. 

The drive from the port to her small estate lasted only 20 minutes and was mainly quiet. Waylon ooed at every street and building they passed. Umbra couldn’t imagine anything here in Greybourne, a city on the very edge of the kingdom, could surpass Ashborough in all its capital glory. Perhaps he was only trying to be polite. However, as they pulled up the lane to the estate, his nose was almost pressed to the glass.

“It’s beautiful!”

Now Umbra knew he was being polite. The estate was a sturdy, grey-stoned building with two stories and several acres of surrounding meadow. A garage hid humbly and strategically around the back so as not to ruin the aesthetic view of the front or boast the ownership of two cars. It may have been larger than many of the other homes in Graybourne, and yes, it was rather pretty in the golden hour of evening, but it was nothing compared to the manors in Ashborough let alone the palace. Umbra had been dragged into several parties and ceremonies in the capital after the war’s official end, and extravagant was an understatement.

Waylon clutched his locket and mumbled under his breath. “It’s like a dream.”

A dream? What did princes have to dream about?

Umbra circled the drive and parked directly in front of the large oak front doors. Arlin and Madeline must have been watching from inside–she was impressed they stayed at the ready for the entire 6 hours she had been gone–because they rushed out the front the moment she stepped out of the vehicle. 

Arlin opened the passenger door before Umbra could make her way fully around, but to his credit, his surprise only lasted a moment. Raised eyebrows shot back down, parted lips promptly pinned shut, and he bowed his head as Waylon stepped down to the gravel drive. 

“Your majesty,” Arlin said, then moved on to Ryann’s door.

In the meantime, Madeline had made quick work of unloading the luggage. The bags seemed oversized compared to her small frame, but she showed no struggle as she carried them around. Her reaction to the prince showed more in an exchange of glances with Arlin than a change of expression. 

“Welcome back, Miss,” she said, “we were beginning to worry something had gone wrong.”

“Just a slight delay in the ship’s arrival,” Umbra said, passing the car keys to Arlin, who promptly took the car around to the garage. “Madeline, will you show the prince and his escort to their rooms? They’ve had a long trip, and it’s getting late.”

“Of course, Miss. I’ll let Henrietta and the others know that dinner will be served in the guests’ rooms tonight.”

“Thank you. Only tea for me tonight. Please have it brought to my office.” She didn’t think she could stomach anything else tonight. Maybe a cup of tea would settle some of her more turbulent emotions.

“Oh, Ser– I mean, Umbra,” Waylon said, the end of his tail flicking eagerly. “I’m really not tired, and I’d love to see more of the estate, and talk to you more. Maybe we can go for a walk–that meadow back there looks promising–and I can tell you–”

“My prince,” Ryann said firmly. The prince jolted, looking at Ryann with wide eyes. The escort gave him a subtle shake of his head.

Waylon looked down at the gravel, ears going slightly pink. “My apologies Ser Umbra. I overexcited.”

Oh no, she needed to say something didn’t she? Something smart and smooth that saved the prince’s feelings without backing down from her preference for a quiet night. She hated hosting. She especially the politics that came with it.

“I’d be happy to show you around the grounds tomorrow,” she said, hoping it didn’t sound forced. “The sun is about to go down soon and the view can’t be appreciated so well in the dark. Besides the meadow is riddled with rabbit holes; I wouldn’t want you to misstep and break an ankle.”

“Ah.” He raised his eyes toward her. Luminescence crept in at the corners. Once the sun had gone completely down, those eyes would be completely aglow. “That would be unfortunate. I…look forward to tomorrow then.” It was hard to read whether he believed her. His gaze showed some relief, but the wrap of his tail around his leg still spoke to some embarrassment. Nevertheless, some of his old exuberance slipped through the cracks in his politeness. “It was a joy–no, an honor–to begin making your acquaintance.” 

Umbra forced eye contact until he turned away, prompted toward the house by Madeline’s beckoning. A cold feeling had lodged itself in the middle of her chest. 

She hoped the officiator would come fast.

[xieyaohuan]

New flight horror story incoming. Literally the only good news is that I did not crash (yet): 1. My long 9 hour flight turned into a 15 hour flight because we diverted to Toronto, then waited there for the weather to clear up and to refuel and then flew back to the original interim destination (Montreal), resulting in a 6 hour delay. So even though I had generously given myself 5 hours to switch planes, I missed my flight. 2. The water in the bathroom wasn’t working for the full 15 hours. The flight attendants had thrown some wet wipes in the sink, but those were used up in no time. Everything was covered in piss and blood in no time, too, so I stopped drinking water two hours into the flight to avoid having to go in there. 3. I begged the flight attendants to let me off in Toronto after we diverted because I could have easily made my flight to Florida from there tonight. They refused and flew me back to Montreal. 4. I am now about to fly back to Toronto, where I just came from, to get on a flight to Florida from there tomorrow morning, with entirely uncertain prospects of making my next flight. 5. If the morning flight is on time and I manage to clear immigration, I *may* just make my flight to the Bahamas in time. I was supposed to be in Florida tonight, spend the night, then get on my other flight tomorrow. Since it was booked separately, I’ll have to buy a new ticket if I miss my flight. Tickets are currently going at USD2500. 6. Oh yeah, the airline just informed me they won’t pay for my hotel in Toronto, where they are stranding me for the night, since “technically, the delay wasn’t our fault.”

[anony-man]

Chubformers drabble #242!

Character: Starscream (TFP)

Word count: 1.2k

It was constant. The fuel, the anxiety, the fuel to stop the anxiety… it was a never-ending cycle, and he wanted to stop, he needed to stop, but he couldn’t stop.

The Nemesis had become a feeding ground for fearful interactions and anxiety-inducing discussions. No matter how hard Starscream tried to keep his struggles concealed, he just couldn’t stop it. He was nervous and on edge, constantly waiting for the next blow to strike while struggling to keep his fears contained in closed quarters. He couldn’t admit to the weakness, of course, but he couldn’t shake the creeping sense of dread that followed him down the halls and into the command room.

Starscream was already wringing his servos and rattling off the list of cubes concealed in his quarters when he rounded the corner and scurried far, far away from Megatron’s sight. There were big plans on the horizon—big plans and bigger opportunities, which meant he was being counted on just as heavily as he was being watched. His latest schemes had become the focus of Megatron’s latest interest, and though Starscream wanted nothing more than to stockpile and save as much as he could, his leader had grown… er… suspicious. Again. What else was new?

He couldn’t stop it. Truthfully, he couldn’t. He couldn’t help himself, as all his other aids had failed him yet. Snacking between shifts had become cathartic, and from there the sticky downward spiral was only growing more and more intense. He found comfort in fuel, and he found safety in the sensation of a warm, full belly. It wasn’t healthy, and it wasn’t good in the long term, but it helped. It stopped the fears, it soothed his anxieties.

His nervous habit was getting out of hand. Knock Out saw it. Breakdown commented on it in passing. Soundwave had watched him from afar, and Megatron was onto him—not onto him onto him, but… suspicious. He knew something was amiss, and he knew something was going on behind his back. It wasn’t good, and it sure as slag wasn’t ideal, but it—it… it helped.

Fuel soothed his fears and calmed his mind, but there were downsides to the habit. It put a dent in their rations like nothing else, and it clung to his frame like there was no tomorrow. He could see the changes from simply looking in the mirrors, and he could feel the added weight squeezing into place when he transformed. It was there, noticeable and growing, drawing attention from the outside and impacting his anxieties… and that, in of itself, was what kept the cycle going.

Starscream kept his helm down and moved quickly, his gaze fixed on the floor and his focus on getting to his quarters. He could see his reflection in the shiny walls surrounding him, and he could hear the rhythm thrum of his pedes clacking against the floor—louder anymore, louder than before, louder due to his weight or louder due to his fears—as he headed for the stash of fuel waiting for him.

“I have plenty of fuel stored out of sight,” he murmured to himself, his voice wavering as he turned another corner and headed for his door. “If I ration it out for tonight, I can… no, no, there won’t be enough. Unless I were to keep three for the morning, after our meeting…”

He hadn’t refueled yet that day, which meant there was plenty waiting for him just beyond the door. Starscream punched in the code and rushed inside, taking care to shut it tight and lock it down behind him before he dared to settle in.

In his quarters, away from the world outside and away from Megatron’s control, he was safe. Sound. Secure. He was hungry though, and still so very rattled. He headed straight for the berth and dove right into his energon stash, taking one cube, then two, then three…

“There are only so many here,” he spoke aloud, “maybe just one for the night, to ease my nerves… or two, perhaps, or maybe—maybe three…?”

He paused for a moment, his servo outstretched while the other held a few cubes close to his chest.

“Bah!” he finally spat as he reached in and scooped up the entirety of his stash. “Why not take them all? I can get more tomorrow. The vehicons will survive without a cube here and there, and Knock Out won’t mind if I drop by for another special order.”

Nothing beat stuffing himself until he was sore and swollen. Feeling bloated and achy was the goal, and in order to get there Starscream knew he had plenty of rations to drink. He settled in the center of his berth and held the cubes close, taking his time in polishing them off one after another.

His relief was immense, and the comfort was instant. Megatron’s threats and the prying stares of onlookers melted with each sip, and though Starscream dutifully ignored the mech staring back at him from the mirror positioned across from his bedside, his contentment was unrivaled. He was finally calmed, freed, and relaxed again. As always, the fuel did the trick, and his indulgence proved to be the perfect buffer.

“No one will mind a few extra cubes missing from the pile come morning,” he said to himself as he drained the energon one cube at a time. It was sweet, rich, and so warm in his tanks… the perfect solution to easing his mind. “No one will care, and if they ask? Hah! Good luck getting an answer out of your superior.”

Finally, he was back to his usual self. Confident, comfortable, and full… not at all ignoring the reflection glaring at him, either. Not at all. Starscream sniffed as he snatched up the last of his stash and took a sip, glancing out of the corner of his optics at the mirror standing against the wall beside him.

“And what are you staring at, hmm?” he sneered at its reflection, his servo dropping to rest the cube in his lap. “This is for the greater good! We need this. It helps us.”

As always, silence answered him. Starscream’s sour expression faltered as he caught sight of his frame in the mirror, slouched and curving and plumping up in places he couldn’t imagine. It was always a bad thing to observe himself from the berth, he reasoned, but the image remained the same no matter his position.

Sitting, standing, huddled in front of the mirror with his face hidden by his servos… it was all the same.

He sniffed again, then lifted the last cube to his lips. His servo shook; he was back to feeling anxious.

It was a vicious cycle, and one he knew he’d never fall out of. The fuel helped, though… it did. It really did. He could turn to it after Megatron’s worst punishments and find himself soothed by the very taste, the weight in his belly, and the comfort of something waiting for him in his quarters. Even now, as he struggled to look at the face staring back at him—his own face, the one softened and soured by fuel and anxieties alike—he found comfort in the cube he held.

It helped him. It fixed him. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something.

[shimii26]

Faz-Pocket Shenanigans: Chapter 2

“Goodbye friends, we can’t wait to see you all tomorrow!” Sun squealed, waving to the last of the children leaving the daycare.

“Nice job today Sun, you almost went the whole day without tripping over a kid!” Moon chastised, chuckling as he went to clean up a pile of noisemaker barrels.

“Hey! I can’t always see where I’m going when I’m six feet taller than the kids, Moon!” Sun pouted, crossing his arms.

It had been four weeks since Sun and Moon’s most recent upgrade of being able to convert food into usable energy. The Pizza Plex has yet to make any progress with convincing the city to provide them the necessary power they need to power their robots with electricity only, so all of the animatronics have had to adapt their schedules in order to be able to eat on time. Sun and Moon’s schedule in particular was the easiest to transition since they work in a night and day manner already, and they need to refuel at least once every twelve hours. The Glamrocks however took a bit longer to adapt; with their numerous concerts and birthday parties they needed to attend everyday, it was difficult at first to implement breaks for them to be able to refuel. Luckily, the staff found it was easier to have the Glamrocks partake in some of the party food when they got the chance, that way, they wouldn’t have to leave their post and continue entertaining the kids. Sometimes the children in the daycare would bring extra snacks that Sun could partake in if he was offered during his shift, but not every kid brings in a ‘clean’ snack, so it’s not always feasible for him to get ahead on his eating schedule. Since Moon handles naptime and the sleepover nights, the kids aren’t sharing snacks since they’re meant to be sleeping, so it’s very rare for Moon to have a bite to eat during his shift, but he doesn’t seem to mind much, especially when the only things the kids bring in tend to be on the messy side. As long as they remember to eat after their shifts, the artificial hunger didn’t seem to bother them.

Sun even managed to gain an appreciation of all the new flavors he’s never had before and learn about different cultures from whatever snacks the kids bring in to share. Sometimes if he was lucky, he’d take a sample with him and give it to Moon once he was done with his shift (If he didn’t eat the rest of it himself that is…). But now that they have been running on this new schedule for a month, it was time for the staff to check in on everyone. A Parts and Service technician walked in on the closing daycare door as the last parent and child duo had left, and he walked up to the two of them. “Alright you two, come with me. It’s time for your monthly check-up, gotta make sure your new upgrades are running properly.” the technician told them, tapping on their clipboard.

“A check-up?” Sun wondered, tilting his head. “But, aren’t we in charge of the maintenance of our new upgrades?”

“I don’t think they’re talking about the cleaning part, Sun.” Moon informed him. “Shouldn’t we spruce up the daycare first?” “Don’t worry, we’re going to have staff do that tonight, you two will be staying overnight in Parts and Service while we go through your calibrations and downloading some new updates to your software.” the technician explained.

“Overnight?” Sun mumbled, it was the first time he had heard of this kind of Parts and Service option. “Is that why the sleepover was canceled tonight?”

“Yes, it was to make sure we could work on you two at the same time in order to avoid a possible emergency malfunction and prevent the daycare from being unattended while the kids were here. Now c’mon.” they confirmed, heading towards the door.

“Okay.” Sun and Moon nodded, following the technician to Parts and Services.

Despite knowing that this was only a check-up, Sun was still a bit nervous. Ever since the threat of decommissioning the two of them when Moon had his virus, he had been wary of being anywhere near this place. He shuddered and held onto Moon’s shoulders for comfort.

“Relax Sunny, it won’t hurt a bit.” Moon reassured him, placing one of his hands on Sun’s as they walked.

“I-If you say so…” Sun replied, keeping his head behind Moon’s.

- - -

“Alright, we’re here, stay put until the mechanic is ready for you two. They should be almost finished with Monty.” they instructed them, shutting the door behind them.

Moon could feel Sun’s hands increase their shuddering the longer the two waited.

“...Sun, you alright?” Moon turned to Sun, bringing his gaze towards his.

“...I-I know we didn’t do a-anything wrong, but… I just d-don’t like being i-in here…” Sun stuttered, starting to shake a bit more.

“Easy Sun, there’s nothing to be afraid of. I’ll make sure of it, okay?” Moon comforted him, pulling him in for a hug.

“...T-Thank you…” Sun sniffled, leaning into the hug.

Suddenly the door behind them creaked open, it was the mechanic and an assistant. Their outfits were stained with various oils and dust patches, presumably from working on all of the other animatronics from earlier today. Sun jolted when he heard the door and hid behind Moon.

“Okay boys, we’ll need one of you to come with me and the other stays in here. We’ll shut one of you down to do the updates and talk with the other about any issues, then switch once the updates are done downloading, okay?” The mechanic informed them. “So, who’s updating first?”

Sun gulped. He hated the idea of being shut down for the updates, any lack of control put him at unease. Moon took quick notice of this and stepped forward.

“-I’ll update first, just… Want to get it over with, y’know?” Moon shrugged, turning to Sun and giving him a wink to show him his kindness.

“Alright Moon, come with me. Sun, you stay here with Miss Farnes and talk about any issues you may be having.” The mechanic nodded, leading Moon through the door. “I’ll be back, Sun, don’t worry.” Moon warmly smiled, stepping through to head to the other room.

Sun nodded, watching Moon head out the door. He turned to Miss Farnes, who smiled and patted the table next to her, encouraging him to sit on it. He hesitated, but did so, gripping the table as his feet barely dangled off the edge. Even though he was one of the tallest animatronics in the Pizza Plex, the table was still quite high for his height. Despite her friendliness towards him and Moon’s support, he remained a bit uneasy.

“Now Sun, let’s go over some of the issues you’ve been facing with this new upgrade first and go from there, okay?” she asked him.

“Well… Okay.” Sun replied, rubbing his neck. “It was a bit… challenging to figure out what I could and couldn’t eat. I had hoped the instructions were a bit more clear and precise, but some of the do’s and don’ts were a bit vague to say the least.”

“Oh, I see. Well, we can certainly get someone to give you a more extensive guide on what’s allowed and what’s not, does that seem reasonable?” she offered.

“...Yeah, I’d like that.” Sun smiled, relaxing a bit now that he was distracted. “A-And I think the new additions to our rooms have been really helpful… But I think we could use stronger utensils, Moon has a habit of snapping the plastic ones before he can use them.”

The two of them chuckled at that fact.

“Sure, we can get you two some silverware, but we’ll need to provide you with access to a nearby sink so you can wash them properly. We don’t want mold developing in your rooms afterall.” she nodded, taking down some notes about needed changes. “You two are able to clean the daycare by yourselves, some real silverware shouldn’t be an issue for you to learn.”

“Oh yeah, we’ve already had lots of practice in the play kitchen with the little ones in the daycare! They’re so smart, they even showed me how to use the play 'DishWasher’!” Sun giggled.

“Great, that’s good to know. Anything else we should know about?” She wondered.

“Hrmm…” Sun pondered. “...Do you think we can get some more unique foods in our fridge to eat? One of the little ones introduced me to Dim Sum, and it’s an absolutely delightful tasting treat! I’d like to eat more of it on my breaks!”

“Well, the pizzeria doesn’t sell Dim Sum, and I’m not sure if we can convince inventory to purchase food items that are only consumed by the animatronics, but I can put in a word for you!” she told him, taking down his food order.

“Thank you!” Sun squealed, excited for the chance to try more new foods.

“Okay, I think we’re all set with the questions, now we can get into the examination.” she told him.

“E-Examination?” Sun asked, his rays drooping a bit. “You mean, like, a tune-up?”

“Yes, I just need to check some of your internal parts for damage and make sure you’re cleaning yourself up properly, okay?” she informs him, reaching for his chest plate.

“W-Wait, don’t open-!” Sun tried to stop her, but-

FOOOOOOSH!

A massive cloud of black soot poured out from Sun’s chest cavity, covering Miss Farnes from head to toe. They coughed from the sudden dust cloud, both fanning the air to try and improve the visual field. “-that…” Sun groaned. “I uh… I haven't had a chance to clean that yet…��

“Oof, Sun…” she cleared her throat. “When was the last time you cleaned out your waste container?”

“U-Um…” Sun stuttered, twiddling his thumbs. “...Gosh, I-I don’t remember, maybe… fourteen days ago?” “Sun, you need to be more on top of cleaning yourself out.” she warned him. “We don’t want you trailing soot on the kids, or causing your body to overheat. If this can’t regulate your temperature properly, you might shut down during your shift.” “W-What!? Oh gosh, I-I don’t want to do that to the kids!” Sun panicked, locking his hands together. “I-I’ll make sure I clean up more often, I-I promise!” “That’s good to hear, now let’s get you cleaned up.” she smiled, taking his waste container out and placing it in the sink. “Would you mind lying down for me?” “Oh uh, okay…” Sun agreed and lied down, watching curiously at what she was going to do next.

She turned around and set up a brush tip vacuum, turning it on and began to clean Sun out. He giggled at the funny feeling the vacuum gave him, and was relieved that he wasn’t in much trouble for the mess he created.

- - -

“Alright Moon, lay down on the table and we’ll get the update going.” The mechanic instructed him when the two of them entered the computer room.

“Fine.” Moon grumbled, not looking forward to being shut down. “...Look, when you get to Sun… Can you try and be a bit nice to him? He’s not very thrilled about being back in Parts and Service, especially after you guys dragged him here to repair his neck weeks ago.”

“We did what we had to do to repair him, the least he can do is let us do the updates without a fight.” they glared at Moon, the two sharing an equal dislike of each other. “Just lie down and turn your head away from me.”

“As you wish, your majesty~” Moon mocked, putting on his best snotty servant impression as he bowed then lied down.

“Don’t call me that... Hold still, this’ll only take a few hours.” they told him, strapping Moon onto the table and taking out a USB cable to plug him into the mainframe.

“Damn, good thing I’m not going to be awake that long…” Moon yawned, beginning the shut down process.

“Yeah yeah, whatever…” the mechanic sighed, shutting Moon down and setting the computer up for the download once he was plugged in.

- - -

“Hehehehee, that tickles!” Sun laughed as Miss Farnes worked on his internal wiring.

“Hold still Sun, I just have to replace a couple more cables!” she chuckled, trying to keep her hands steady and pull out the right wires.

“S-Sorry, it’s just s-so sensitive there, hahahaha!” he continued, trying not to kick his feet.

“...Alright, that should do it! You’re all set for the update, then you’ll be ready for tomorrow!” she smiled, closing him up.

“Yeah! I-” he paused, remembering that this was only part one of his check-up. “...Oh yeah, t-the update…” “Don’t worry Sun, you won’t feel a thing. It’ll be just like playing hide-and-seek when you’re it, just close your eyes, count to ten, and you’re back! Nothing to worry about!” she reassured him.

“...O-Okay, I think I’m ready...” he nodded.

“Oh, but first, we should get you out of those soot stained clothes, we’ll wash them for you while you update.” she told him, giving his pants a tug. “Can you take ‘em off for me?” “Heh, oh yeah, can’t have them dirty for tomorrow!” Sun agreed, standing up and took them off. “Can I keep my wrist bells on though?” “Sure, they don’t appear to have gotten soot on them.” she shrugged.

Suddenly the door behind them opened up, Moon entering first looking a bit tired from being shut down for so long. The mechanic followed behind him, looking equally enthusiastic.

“Oh Moon, you’re back! Are you okay? Did it hurt!?” Sun concerningly asked, giving Moon a sudden hug.

“Heh, Sun I’m fine, there’s nothing to worry about. Now c’mon, the sooner it’s done, the sooner we can get back to work.” Moon reassured him, patting him on the back.

“Let’s go Sun, the computer’s ready.” the mechanic instructed.

“O-Okay…” Sun groaned, rubbing the side of his arm and following the mechanic to the computer room.

“Alright, and while you're here Moon, we can go over any issues you two have been having with your newest upgrade.” Farnes told him.

“Fineeee, I guess we do have a couple complaints…” Moon shrugged, shutting the door and sitting down on the table.

“Great, why don’t we go over some of the points Sun brought up?” she suggested to him.

“Aight, shoot.” Moon chuckled while crossing his arms and legs.

“Okay, Sun was hoping for a better instruction booklet that’s much more specific to help you two better learn what’s okay to eat and what’s not, he’s asked for stronger utensils in your room to use, and he’d like more new foods to eat, like Dim Sum.” she said going down the list.

“Yeah, I keep holding the forks too hard and the plastic snaps.” Moon explained. “..And I wouldn’t mind something new to eat, pizza does get a bit old once you’ve tried every topping…”

“Okay great, do you have concerns for yourself?” she asked.

“Hrmm…” Moon pondered. “...I want to try tacos.” Moon requested. “And I want more fruit snacks.”

“...Okayyy, anything else?” she asked, trying to redirect back to her question with one eyebrow raised.

“...Whole milk, not skim.” Moon responded.

“Any actual problems?...” she redirected again.

…He didn’t answer.

“Look, you don’t have to give me attitude.” she sighed, getting up from her chair. “I’m just here to help you two through this temporary upgrade… let’s just get to the tune-up.”

“Hey, this is just me at my best, I dunno what you’re talking about.” Moon mocked.

“Sure, just, shut up and let me work.” she rolled her eyes, opening up Moon’s chest cavity and examining inside. “...Okay, nice and clean so far, been keeping up with your maintenance.”

“Why thank you, Miss Farnes~” Moon chuckled with a toothy grin. “I do try my hardest afterall~”

“Moon stop it, I need to focus.” she remarked, taking out her stethoscope. “Let’s make sure your gears aren’t squeaking.”

“Umm…” Moon was about to say something, but...

CLICK CREAAK WHIIIIRRRR…

. . .

“Mooooon?…” she sighed and looked up at his face.

“Yeah?” he replied back.

“...Did you eat today?” she confronted him.

“...If I say yes, will you shut up?” Moon sleazily smiled.

…She gave Moon quite the staredown.

“Fine, no…” he grumbled, giving his stomach a pat. “I didn’t have time to eat…” “Moon, you should have plenty of time to eat while Sun is caring for the kids in the morning.” She scolded as she began to look through some of the cabinets nearby. “What could you have possibly been doing that whole time?”

“Duh, sleeping. It’s important to me.” Moon answered back, putting his arms and legs back in a criss-cross and turning his head away in a pout.

“Moon, you need to eat; plain and simple. Your gears are going to hurt you the longer you wait.” she explained, holding out a bag of cookies for him to take. “Here, eat this. We can check to see if your converter is working this way.” “Urgghh, cookies, really?” Moon groaned, taking the bag and opening it up.

“Eat it.” she demanded, bringing her voice tone lower.

- - -

Sun and the mechanic soon arrived at the computer room for his update. Taking everything in, Sun’s nerves started to get the better of him, and he began to shudder again. Shutting himself down made him uncomfortable since he lacked control in this state, just like when Moon had his virus in the past. But despite being in his own body and having full control of what he can do during the night, it still filled him with fear of the unknown.

“Alright, lay down and turn your head away from me, let’s get this over with.” the mechanic instructed.

“W-Wait! C-Can’t we just do this another way? W-We don’t need to s-shut myself down to-” Sun started, but was cut off.

“Sun, lay down. You will be shutting down for this update, no alternatives or excuses.” they ordered him.

“Y-Yes sir…” Sun stuttered, doing as he said.

As the cold table touched his back, he shivered a bit, keeping his head faced away from the mechanic. He felt their hands grip the back of his face plate, placing the USB cable into one of his ports. Sun gulped and turned to face him once the plug was in. “...I…I will… wake up, r-right?...” Sun whimpered.

The mechanic sighed, they didn’t have much choice but to comfort Sun just a bit.

“...Yes, you’re going to wake up in a few hours. Just relax already.” they sarcastically reassured him, switching one of Sun’s power switches.

“O-Okay…” Sun whispered, slowly shutting his eyes as he powered down.

“...Finally…” they rolled their eyes. “What a baby…”

- - -

“Aaaand that should be the last wire. Okay Moon, you’re good to head back to your room and get ready for today.” Farnes told him, closing up his chest cavity. “It’ll be a couple hours before Sun finishes, so you can take a nap beforehand if you want.”

“About time, I’ve been up all night…” Moon yawned as he sat up. “...Thanks for the tune-up, and don’t forget to let the staff know about our requests.”

“Don’t worry, I will. Take care!” she nodded, waving goodbye to him as he stepped out of the room.

. . .

Moon walked by himself towards the daycare, getting in a few stretches along the way. Despite being shut down for a few hours, he was still quite tired from the ordeal, and decided he would take advantage of the free time and have a nice long nap. Once he entered through the daycare’s double doors and stepped over to the play area, he hooked himself up to the fly rig that hung in place by the ball pit’s edge and lifted himself up to their room. Once he reached the wall stage, he then proceeded to unhook himself to store it on their own hook, and made his way inside, flopping right into his bed once he got to it. He rolled himself up with his blanket and grabbed a few pillows to snuggle up with. Soon his exhaustion combined with the warmth he began to generate overtook him and he fell straight to sleep, faintly snoring a bit.

- - -

“...Mnnnrgghh, wh- huh?...” Sun groaned, stirring awake from his shut down.

“Oh good, you’re up. You’re all set with your update, take your pants and head back to the daycare.” the mechanic told him while he unlocked Sun’s straps and handed him his freshly washed trousers.

“Oh, I’m… back awake. Whew, glad that’s over…” Sun sighed in relief, taking his trousers in hand. “Thank you for the work you do here.” “Mhmm yeah, just go, it’s almost time for your shift.” they said as they unplugged him. “Hurry on out.” “Oh my gosh! It’s already time for my shift!? I-I gotta go!” Sun panicked, jumping onto his feet and heading towards the exit as he tried to put his pants on at the same time.

. . .

Tying his tutu back into place, he rushed towards the daycare, seeing some of the kids already beginning to line up at the check-in. To avoid any of the kids running after him, he took the employees only path that led to the main door, luckily he had the code remembered in order to even use this pathway. As he sprinted down the corridor, he suddenly felt an odd twinge in his stomach…

CREEAAK CLICK CLICK VRRRRR…

“-Huh? What the?”

Sun slowed down to check what might have been causing the noise, along with the uncomfortable feeling. It had only occurred to him now just how much time had passed during his and Moon’s tune-up. Neither of them as far as he could recall were given a time reset with a snack, so he was due for a refueling.

“Oh that’s right! I’ve been at Parts and Services all night, I didn’t eat anything!... I-I can’t do my shift on an empty stomach!“ Sun told himself. “...I should have enough time to eat something quick before the kids come in…”

He eventually made it to the end of the employee path corridor and opened the metal door, heading for the main entrance of the daycare. He pushed the right door of the large double doors open just a crack to enter, stepping over to the ballpit’s edge where their fly rig is typically hung…

But the fly rig wasn’t there.

The fly rig is gone…” Sun gasped with concern. “Hopefully Moon is awake to throw me down the hook…”

It was 7:59, he only had one minute left to get upstairs and refuel. He stepped on the tallest play structure near their room entrance and called out to Moon.

“MOON!? YOU AWAKE!? I NEED OUR FLY RIG TO GET-” WOOOOSH!

The double doors flung open, and the morning daycare kids flooded in with excitement. Some kids jumped into the ballpit right away to join Sun, others began to crawl in the jungle gym, and a few began to create in the arts and crafts corner. It was immediately overwhelming to him since he wasn’t at the front to direct everyone to first put away their backpacks and shoes, as well as his focus was still on getting himself the fly rig so he could eat. If he couldn’t eat at any point during his shift, he could be in for a long day…

“-C’mon Mr. Sun, let’s play!” One child yelled to Sun, grabbing his attention.

“-Huh? O-Oh, y-yes of course! It’s uh, time to play, starlights!” Sun announced, his smile clearly on the artificial side today.

It was at this point he had no choice; with Moon unable to hear him in his sleep, there was going to be no fly rig to help him get back to his room to eat. He would have to wait until he could find the right opportunity to alert one of the guards to grab him a snack, but that was easier said than done. It seemed like the kids were riled up today, already looking like they want to play a very physically demanding game with Sun, hopefully he wouldn’t have to move as much as they were wanting to, the more he played in this condition, the more uncomfortable he would feel, and would soon be noticeable by the children. Always wanting to make sure the kids would never worry about him, he would have to be on top of masking his discomfort, and finding ways to distract them from the noise his body will inevitably make.

“So uh, what game do you kids wanna play first? That is, after we have you remove your-” Sun started, but was quickly cut off.

“We wanna play Color Tag, and we want you to be ‘it’ first!” One kid explained the rules, making sure everyone was on board, which they seemed to be. “If we call out a color before you tag us, we’re safe for 10 seconds, and you have to tag all of us out to win! We can only call out each color once, that makes it harder as we play!”

Great, Sun was it first? That amount of movement was surely going to put him through his paces. He would just have to bide his time and go along with the ordeal, hopefully the kids weren’t very creative with their colors besides the basics. Luckily since he towered over the kids in height, he didn’t have to run as fast to catch up with them.

“Ready!? Gooooo!” another kid shouted, causing everyone to scatter.

Sun got to work and began to chase the kids who were closest to him. Already his first attempts to catch even a single kid were futile, they knew their basic colors quite well thanks to all of the creative lessons he had given them over the months they’d been coming there. Soon they started to use more uncommon colors to escape being tagged, some colors he had no idea where they even learned their names, but luckily the younger ones weren’t as familiar, so they were the first to be tagged out. The strain of the physicality of the game was beginning to affect him as the hunger became more frequent and got louder with each kid he managed to tag out. Eventually there were no more colors the kids could think of, so this was Sun’s chance to finish up and alert a guard of his situation.

“I’m gonna get you!” Sun cheered as he got closer to the last child. “Aaaand, gotcha! Hahaha, I won!” “Yaaaayyy, Sun wins! Again, again!” many of the older kids shouted. “Again, again, again!”

Again!? No way was he about to play Color Tag again in this condition, but how to direct their attention away just long enough for him to slip away?

“U-Uhhh, ooooo new game! H-How about we play- um… Hide-and-Seek!? I’ll hide, and you all count to twenty! Cover your eyes now, cmon!” Sun cheekily smiled, thinking himself clever of his idea; if they couldn’t see where he went, he could get himself a snack from one of the security guards.

“Okay! One, two, three…” The kids in unison began to count.

Sun quickly scurried over to the front desk, where one of the employees was under the desk organizing which plugs should be connected to the only power outlet they had. He peeked over the edge and tried to get the worker’s attention.

“Pssst! Hey, I need your help…” Sun whispered, causing the technician to bump their head on the roof of the desk.

“-Aghh! Shit, that hurts…”

“Oh gosh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you…” Sun apologized. “L-Listen, I need to take a break, I didn’t-”

“TWENTY!” The kids shouted out loud. “READY OR NOT, HERE WE COME!”

They were already done counting!? Sun stuttered a bit trying to get his request for help out before the kids noticed he wasn’t really hiding, and sure enough, before he could ask, they ran to him.

‘Nuts, should’ve picked a higher number than twenty…’ Sun thought to himself before being dogpiled on by all the kids.

“FOUND YOU!” They all giggled, climbing over each other and tumbling off of him.

Sun knew he couldn’t just try to sit up when they were using him as a hill, he’d probably cause one of them to slip and hurt themselves, so he had to wait until they were done with the dogpile. But before he could notice…

CLICK CREEAAAK WHIIRRRRR…

His eyes grew wide as he felt a sharp pain in his stomach, he couldn’t even try to comfort the sore spot since there were about a dozen children stepping on him. But suddenly, the kids also grew aware of the strange noise, and shrieked in surprise and confusion, tumbling off of him and gathering in a group a few feet away from Sun. He managed to finally sit himself up, but now there was a problem. Every single kid was looking at him like one would look at an angry dog staring them down. They were scared, scared of what came out of Sun. He really didn’t want the children to be terrified of him, so a quick white lie was thought up.

“Mr. Sun, w-what was that?” One kid hesitantly asked.

“-Oh sorry about that! Don’t you worry, it was uh-” Sun fumbled his words together. “M-My bear impression, yeah! Like a mean teddy bear, and I’m gonna get you all and eat you up! Raaawwrr!”

“AHHHH, RUN! HE’S GONNA GET US!” The children playfully screamed and scattered, buying Sun some time to slip away.

While the children were distracted, Sun quickly darted back over to the guard’s station desk and pulled down one of the guard’s newspapers to face them.

“J-Jim! You gotta help me, I need to get upstairs for a break!” Sun begged. “I was in Parts and Service last night, and they forgot to-” “GET THE BEAR!” The kids shouted, carrying pool noodles and charging after Sun. “MAKE HIS HEAD A TROPHY!”

“Nooooo!” Sun whined, unable to get help again and was taken down to the ground by the rain of pool noodles smacking his back. “Owww, darn it…”

“YAAAYYYY!” The kids cheered, waving their pool noodles around in celebration. “WE GOT THE BEAR! NOW LET’S STUFF HIM!” Sun’s eyes widened. Stuff him? He could only guess what they meant by that as he was dragged away from the security guard’s table and back over to the play area.

There was no escaping it, today was going to be rough…

- - -

CREEAAAK VRRRR CLICK CLICK WHIIIIRRRR…

Game after mindlessly long game, and several agonizing moments of being pulled and tugged by the children, Sun was being pushed to his limits. His back ached from the strain of endlessly bending down to pick up kids over and over again, his neck was stiff from having to constantly dart around for any chance of escaping to refuel, he couldn’t catch his breath despite not needing to breathe in the first place, and worst of all, his stomach wouldn’t stop it’s stabbing pain and constantly alerting him to eat. Sun laid face up and sprawled himself out in the ballpit, he stared up at the ceiling, trying not to move much, every single movement he made caused his body to ache more. It was driving him up a wall, and it seemed like there wouldn't be an end to his shift. Until…

“Alright kids, snack time!” One security guard announced as others set up tables and chairs. "Grab your snacks from your backpacks and find a seat!” “YAAAAYYYY, SNACKTIME!” The kids squealed as they dropped their current toys and ran over to the cubbies.

“H-Huh, what?...” Sun groaned as he slowly sat up from within the middle of the ballpit. “S-Snacktime?... Ughhh, finally…”

He was grateful his schedule always included lunch, or ‘Snack Time’ as the kids called it, at the halfway point, so with most of the children distracted with their meals, now was the perfect time to slip away. As the security guards guided each kid to their designated spots for lunch, Sun stood up and slowly tiptoed over to their station desk, hoping to luck out and be escorted back to his room so he could relieve himself of the pain. But the instant he made it to the desk, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Sun grit his teeth before he turned his head to face whoever was trying to grab his attention.

“...What?” Sun snapped back at the guard before they could talk to him.

“-Jesus Sun, turn your volume down, you’re gonna freak the kids out with that attitude.” The guard warned him. “Listen, the kids have requested that you join them during Snack Time. You can try anything they offer you, ONLY if they offer anything to you.”

Sun’s teeth gritting stopped and he softly gasped. That’s right! The kids were always so generous with their treats! Cheesy animal crackers, fudgy brownies with sprinkles, mini blueberry muffins, shoestring chips, and those fruit snacks with the jelly inside, how could he resist? He quickly made his way over to the snack table and sat at the end, where they had reserved him a special seat. Since he towered over the children and the chairs were meant for them to sit in, his legs bowed out to the side when he sat down. His eyes immediately were drawn to the lunch bag of the children who sat next to him, staring hungrily at their food as they removed each item one by one from their bags.

CLICK CLICK…

Sun resisted the temptation to grab any of the food he saw, knowing that he wasn’t allowed to eat anything unless the kids gave him permission. But the pain he felt was practically unbearable to hide from the children, his smile slowly twitching from its highest position downward. He swore he could feel drool beginning to form at the corners of his mouth, like a dog waiting to be told to eat. His pupils shrunk as all of his attention was drawn to the food, his hands shaking in his lap, trying to keep them from touching anything.

CREEEAAKK…

It was becoming too much.

The pain was too much.

The headache was too much.

The back pain was too much.

. . .

“Mr. Sun?” One kid tried to get his attention by tapping him on the arm.

Sun turned his head rigidly and his pupils dilated as he turned his focus on what they were holding out for him. His expression lightened a bit as he noticed they were a little surprised at his appearance, and calmly tilted his head.

“We made this snack plate for you!” The kid offered Sun, smiling as all of the other children nodded and clapped. “Join us!”

He was in disbelief, a whole plate, just for him! Sun couldn’t help but smile warmly as he gently took the plate from the child and placed it right next to him. Finally, he could stop the pain once and for all and have enough energy to finish his shift! He scanned the plate to see what the kids had prepared for him; a little bit of everything, like every child had contributed to preparing his plate. He decided to start with the cheesy animal crackers, and he reached down to grab a couple, when…

“I WANNA TRY SOME!” one whiny child sitting next to him yelled, reaching over the table without much care, and smacked their hand on Sun’s snack plate. “GIMME GIMME!”

Someone touching HIS FOOD!? HIS. FOOD!?

Sun’s eyes darkened and his pupils glowed a dark red, his teeth curling into a snarl, a sharp scowl blanketing over his face as his programming tried desperately to override his actions, but his hunger was too severe to succumb to the override. With a swift and aggressive motion, he snatched the hand of the whiny child with his right hand and gripped it tight, causing their joints to crack.

“OWWWW!” the whiny kid cried out. “YOU’RE HURTING MEEEEE!”

“That’s MY plate- MY PLATE! DON’T TOUCH MY PLATE, OR YOU’RE IN TIME-OUT!” Sun barked. “I NEED TO EAT, YOU GOT THAT, RULEBREAKER!?”

. . .

“...Waaaahhhh!” the kid began to sob, pulling their hand away from Sun once he let go and holding it in their other hand. “You’re a meanie!” “SUN!” One of the security guards alerted him, the others quickly taking over chaperoning the lunch tables. “Come with me!”

Suddenly Sun was jerked from his seat by the head security guard by one of his sun rays, he stumbled standing up and struggled to keep his balance when his head was held so much lower than the rest of his body, like one would drag a child by their ear when they were in trouble. The child who he had grabbed was also led away to a nearby first-aid station in the daycare to make sure the injury to their arm wasn’t bleeding or didn’t leave a mark.

“Ooooo, Mr. Sun’s in trouble!” The other kids mocked, returning to their lunches once he was out of the area.

- - -

“-AGGHH -OOWWW! You’re pulling too hard!” Sun whimpered, the additional pain on top of the pain he was already in was too overwhelming to resist being dragged along.

“Are you out of your fucking mind!?” The guard scolded him, letting go of his sun ray once they had reached Parts and Service. “Do you have any idea what kind of lawsuit we could face if that child goes home and tells their parents that they don’t want to come to the Pizza Plex anymore because you hurt them!?”

“I-I-I didn’t mean to…” Sun stuttered, twiddling his thumbs. “I-I was just stressed, t-that’s all… I just couldn’t help it, I was so hungry I-”

“No fucking excuses, Sun!” The guard cut off his sentence. “I don’t get paid nearly enough to deal with your bullshit, okay? You HAVE to refuel at least once before your shift!... Look, if you’re really having trouble keeping yourself fed, we can just start cutting your work time short or even change the naptime schedule to start before your shift ends-”

‘-NO! No please!” Sun begged, even getting down on his knees and clasping his hands together. “Please please please don’t cut my hours! I don’t think I could stand spending even a minute less with those little angels! I-I’ll refuel on time, I’ll speak up for myself, I promise, PLEASE!”

. . .

CREEAAK WHIIIRRR CLICK CLICK!

Sun’s face glowed red with embarrassment.

“...Umm, heh heh, ouch… Mind giving me a hand now?...”

“...Urgghhh, fine…” the guard grumbled, finding a pack of cookies in a cabinet nearby and handing them to Sun. “Eat. We’ll sort out that kid’s incident report paperwork once your shift is over and the parents come to pick them up.”

Without hesitation, Sun snatched the cookie pack from their hands and ripped it open, wasting no time in shoving a few into his awaiting jaws. The cookie crumbs coated his tongue, and the brown sugar and the semi-sweet chocolate inside the cookies wrapped Sun’s whole head around the absolute ecstasy of delicious flavors he had been dying for. He couldn’t help but let out a small moan of pleasure as his motherboard translated the taste information in his mouth into emotional stimulation in his head, much to the dismay of the security guard. Once the cookies were sufficiently chewed, he swallowed the mouthful down to let the rest of his body take over processing the nutrients into fuel, which took no time at all since the demand for the refueling was quite high. In moments he felt an instant boost of energy, a lightening of his mood, and best of all, the fading away of the pain in his stomach.

“Mmmmm, oh man… I really needed that…” Sun sighed deeply, relaxing his shoulders. “...Thanks for helping me out, I… I should go say sorry to the child I hurt, I don’t want them to think I meant to do that…” “Yeah, probably for the best, but you should maybe refuel a bit more before returning to work.” The guard advised Sun. “You’ve probably burned through more energy than you should’ve, so the energy from that snack might not last the whole twelve hours.” “Ohh, good point.” Sun agreed. “Alright then, whatever you’ve got to offer, I’ll eat.”

- - -

After a bit under an hour, Sun and the security guard returned to the daycare through the massive double doors, where they saw one daycare substitute playing ‘Parachute’ with the kids. Once he was in their line of sight, they were pretty excited to see him return as most of them quickly dropped their corners of the parachute and ran over to give him a hug.

“SUN SUN SUN!” the children cheered. “Did you miss us!?” “Where did you go!?” “Did you die!?” “You missed snack time!”

“Hey everyone!” Sun answered back with glee. “Sorry about leaving you like that, I just got a little out of control and went to time-out, but I feel better now!”

“And now that you do, there’s someone here that is waiting for their apology.” One security guard announced, leading the child that Sun had injured, over to him. “Go on, Sun.”

Oh no…

Sun could see how crushed the kid’s face looked; they didn’t want to make eye contact with him, and were still sniffling from crying earlier. They had a band-aid on their arm where he had grabbed them, so it was obvious whatever damage he had done left a mark of some kind. The kid was clearly traumatized to an extent, and it was all Sun’s fault. He bent down to meet the eye level of the kid and held out his hands for the kid to take.

“I’m… I’m sorry I lost control and hurt you…” Sun apologized. “I shouldn’t have taken my frustration out on you, it wasn’t fair, and you didn’t deserve that… Can you… forgive me?...”

The child paused before giving Sun a hug back.

“...Okay.” the kid softly chuckled. “Wanna play house now?” Sun smiled wide. He was relieved that everything between them had been forgiven. He just hoped any future confrontation with this child’s parents once they read the incident report would go as smoothly as this apology. But for now, he had a job to do.

“House!? My favorite, sure!” he chuckled, taking their hand and skipping with everyone towards the playhouses. “Who wants to play the mommy and daddy?” “ME! ME! ME!” several children shouted, raising their hands for the part.

“Okay, this group will be the mommies and daddies, and this group will be their little angels!” Sun instructed. “And who should I be?”

The children took a moment to talk amongst themselves to come up with an answer.

“THE DOG!” they giggled, one of them pushing Sun down onto the floor, then on all fours. “-Whoa!” he stumbled, picking himself back up. “Umm, okay, I can play as the dog! Uhh, woof woof!”

“FEED THE DOG!” all the kids playing the children of the playhouses shouted, grabbing various snack pieces they had saved from Snack Time and ran over to Sun with them. “FEED HIM!” “-Wait, what-” Sun started before several pretzels were shoved into his mouth. “-Ommph!”

It was absolutely precious to him, the children had felt so bad for Sun that they worked together during Snack Time to make him a new snack plate, a little something from everyone. He had already eaten his fill in Parts and Service, but the children went out of their way to make it up to him, how could he say no?...

He couldn’t, he was playing the house dog, and the rules of house dog?

Eat anything they fed him.

- - -

The clock struck 7pm, it was time for the children who weren’t staying the night to head home, which today was surprisingly everyone, giving the boys the night off. Sun sighed in relief that his shift was over, which meant he could take the break his body needed, especially after going through such a tough few hours on low battery. He guided the children back to the backpack cubbies with a ‘Goodbye’ song, and got them ready to head home, the security guards handling the checkouts with incoming parents there to pick up their kids. One by one, each child met back up with their parents, many of them eager to relay the day they had to them, and hopefully keeping quiet about any trouble Sun caused one of them. Once every child was accounted for exiting, he made his way over to the ballpit, stepping into it a couple paces before turning around and letting himself fall flat backwards into the plastic balls. He let out a groan and shut his eyes, remembering that just because his time with daycare duty was over, his time of cleanup and maintenance began. But luckily he wouldn’t be doing this task alone. 

When his eyes reopened a couple minutes later, his gaze was met with Moon’s, who had just awoken from his sleep and descended from their room via the fly rig he had kept upstairs the whole time. Moon smiled cheekily at Sun’s expense as he hung upside down in front of him. He sometimes took a bit of pleasure seeing his sunny work partner in disarray as it was completely out of his character. He knew Sun had quite the stamina for handling the stress of a long day of caring for children, but even he had a limit, and seeing him cross that limit was amusing to him. Sun replied to Moon’s smile with a scowl, unimpressed with his lack of consideration with access to the fly rig.

“Y’know you could’ve done me a solid before my shift began, Moon.” Sun grumbled, lifting his head up to address him better.

“It’s not my fault they didn’t feed you during your tune-up~” Moon chastised. “You should’ve spoken up and told them you were low.”

“I forgot, okay!?” Sun barked, plastic balls scattering around him when he lunged up and forward to be face to face with Moon. “Just- Help me with cleaning the daycare up for tomorrow, please? I’m… tired…”

“Hehehehe… Very well~” Moon chuckled, fiddling with Sun’s face rays. “Just give me a moment to prepare.”

“...Alright.” Sun sighed, standing back up and removing any plastic balls stuck in his pockets. “...Wait, you’ve had all day to yourself! What could you possibly need to do NOW to prepare!?”

CREEEAAK CLICK CLICK!

Sun stared at him in disbelief. No, he didn’t!

“I need to refuel!~” Moon sang as he ascended back up to their room via the fly rig attached to his back.

“MOOOOON!” Sun angrily yelled and stomped his feet. “GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW AND DO YOUR JOB!”

[girlactionfigure]

🟠 Latest Events from Israel  

ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

⚠️UNUSUAL MIDDLE EAST AIR MOVEMENTS NOTED, US & UK refueling tankers taking off - transponders then turning off.  Hints of possible Israeli attack.. or practice, or intentional fake to create pressure on Iran.

.. And the standard daily rumor: There is concern among U.S. government officials that Israel's attack on Iran will be carried out in the next few hours!

❗️HOME FRONT COMMAND.. There will be no classes in Krayot (north of Haifa) tomorrow.

❗️IDF LOCATES LEBANESE CROSS BORDER ATTACK TUNNEL.. IDF located and neutralized a tunnelfrom Hezbollah that crossed about  from Lebanon into Israel near Moshav Zerait. This tunnel was located a few months ago, but the info kept secret so the IDF could ambush Hezbollah if they used it.

♦️ISRAELI FLAG RAISED.. over the ruins of Maroon a Ras in Lebanon, a primary attack site for Hezbollah firing anti-tank missiles into Israeli civilian towns.  The IDF has demolished the village which was being used as an attack platform.

🎯TARGETED ELIMINATION - SYRIA.. next to the Iranian embassy!  Airstrike directly into 1 apartment within a high rise building in Damascus, Gaza neighborhood.  No info at this time on who was targeted.

❓FROM NEW BOB WOODWARD BOOK ON BIDEN.. Biden called Netanyahu a "s#%% son, a bad person, a bad fa%#^ person".  "Bibi, what the hell" he roared at Netanyahu on the phone after he found out that Israel had killed Fouad Shukar, Hezbollah's chief of staff who was a wanted man by the U.S. and mass murderer of American soldiers.

🇮🇱PM NETANYAHU TO LEBANON.. “Do you remember the days when your country was called "the pearl of the Middle East"? What happened? A gang of terrorists destroyed it. Israel left Lebanon 25 years ago. But the country that actually occupied Lebanon was Iran. Iran finances and arms Hezbollah so that it serves Iranian interests - at the expense of Lebanon.  Hezbollah has turned Lebanon into … a forward military base for Iran.

Today Hezbollah is weaker than it has been in many years.  Now you, the citizens of Lebanon, stand at an important crossroads. You can take back your country. You can put her back on the path of peace and prosperity.  If you don't do this, Hezbollah will continue to try to fight Israel from densely populated areas - at your expense. 

Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end and your country can prosper again.”

🔹FRANCE EVACS.. citizens from Lebanon by military transport.

🔹TURKEY EVACS.. citizens from Lebanon by ship.

🔹UNIFIL rejected the IDF's request to evacuate its positions near the battle space in Lebanon for their own safety and to prevent them from being used as human and political shields by Hezbollah.

▪️PM TO DM.. Netanyahu to Gallant: Your trip to Washington - only after approval of Israel's next actions in the cabinet and my conversation with Biden.

▪️IDF CHAREDI COMBAT BATTALION OPENS.. Hashmonaim Brigade: Recruitment begun and the first batch is expected in Dec. Base adapted for ultra-Orthodox Jews of enlistment age up to 32. All training on base, this way the soldiers will be guaranteed to maintain their lifestyle. The soldiers will serve full service, and the brigade will have a border patrol zone.

🔸HOSTAGE DEAL NEWS.. Sinwar demands from the Qataris to receive immunity from Israel during negotiations.

✡️A word of Torah: Remember that in a hall of perfect darkness, totally dark, if you light one small candle, its light will be seen from afar; its precious light will be seen by everyone. - The Lubavitcher Rebbe

[dertaglichedan]

Who is D.B. Cooper? New Evidence May Crack One Of America’s Greatest Mysteries

A parachute found in an outbuilding in North Carolina could be the new evidence that may crack the 53-year-old D.B Cooper case. It could lead investigators to the identity the man who jumped out of a hijacked plane carrying $200,000.

This is the first of a two-part series. Tomorrow, how new evidence could possibly identify the real D.B. Cooper and solve America's only unsolved hijacking more than a half century later.

More than five decades ago, a mild-mannered passenger in a business suit boarded a Seattle-bound flight in Oregon under the name Dan Cooper on Nov. 24, 1971. He ordered a bourbon and soda, and once in the air, handed a stewardess a handwritten note demanding $200,000 in cash and four parachutes under the threat of what appeared to be a bomb in his ratty briefcase.

The plane landed in Seattle, and authorities complied with the hijacker’s demand. After refueling, the airliner took off again. 

Somewhere between takeoff and Portland, the mysterious man jumped out of the plane and into the dark sky, attempting to hold onto the freshly acquired satchel of cash. 

He was never seen or heard from again, nor was the money ever found except for $5,800 in $20 bills that washed up on the banks of the Columbia River years later.

The only unsolved hijacking in U.S. history would lead to one of the most exhaustive investigations in FBI history as the agency vetted more than 800 suspects in one of the country’s most puzzling unsolved mysteries.

Learning the identity of the notorious hijacker who some consider a folk hero further inspired a cult-like following of hundreds of amateur detectives, all clamoring to ID the culprit while generating dozens of books, movies and even a 2022 Netflix series.

In 2016, after turning over every credible lead and suspect, the FBI seemingly threw up its hands and declared in a statement that it was rerouting resources to other investigative priorities pending any new information, particularly physical evidence such as parachutes or money.

Now the agency might have gotten a new break in the case for the first time in decades.

The Real McCoy

Retired pilot, skydiver and YouTuber, Dan Gryder told Cowboy State Daily that he may have found the missing link after uncovering the modified military surplus bailout rig he believes wasused by D.B. Cooper in the heist. It belonged to Richard Floyd McCoy II, and was carefully stored in his deceased mother’s storage stash until very recently.

McCoy has long been one of the FBI’s leading suspects after successfully pulling off an identical, butbetter-executed, hijacking in Utah just five months later.

“That rig is literally one in a billion,” Gryder said of the distinct parachute.

McCoy’s children, Chanté and Richard III, or “Rick,” agree with Gryder thatthey believe their father was D.B. Cooper, a secret that shrouded the family but wasn’t overtly discussed.

*** Side note, I use to follow Gryder on YT, but he kept getting in trouble for things he said. He did put out a YT a year or so ago, about this story, that was pretty interesting.

You can find them here on his YT Channel

[anonsally]

Days 19-20 in Australia

Flying back to Sydney and birthday!

We only had one night in Perth. Yesterday morning we got up pretty early and checked out of the hotel, went out for a nice breakfast (and I photographed a very cool bird mural on the way), and then headed to the airport.

There was some stress about that, though: many streets were closed for a cycling race, and we weren't sure we would be able to get the car out of the garage, plus the ticket for the parking garage was misplaced for a few minutes. In the end, it all worked out fine, but we were so distracted that we forgot to refuel the car on the way to the rental agency. We weren't sure there was enough time to take it back out to refuel and then return it, so we had to pay the exorbitant price for them to refill the tank, though luckily we returned it with 3/4 of a tank and they only charged us for the actual fuel they had to fill it with.

After a slight delay in checking our luggage due to some of the pieces being just over the weight limit, we had an easy time at the airport and boarded the plane uneventfully. This time my window seat did have a window, and I had good views of the mines in Western Australia, as well as some coastline along the south of Australia.

We landed in Sydney around 8pm and came back to Sister-in-law's house, where we had a small snacky dinner before going to bed sort of late due to jetlag.

Today was my birthday! We went out for "high tea" for brunch. It was nice but a bit discombobulated; the hot drinks came much after the food, and it was just all very slow. I think they may have been understaffed. However, the food was nice. We had 5 savory items and 8 sweet ones, plus they brought me an extra sweet one with a birthday candle in it! Which was totally unnecessary. I brought it home (and in fact, might eat it for breakfast tomorrow), but I managed to eat all of the other desserts, including a truly exquisite mini pavlova and a chocolate-cherry-gingerbread thing.

There was a view of part of Sydney Harbour, including part of the Opera House, and I could see the ferries coming and going as well as a giant cruise ship that left while we were there. So that was quite nice. Afterwards, we walked around a bit and bought a couple gifts to bring home, and then came back by way of a grocery store. It was very hot and humid out but the threatened rain never materialised.

Sister-in-law's husband's brother, his fiancee, and their baby joined us for dinner at a Thai restaurant where we ordered much too much food and ate a lot! The waitstaff sang me a very rambunctious happy birthday and I got to blow out another candle. They also gave the baby a balloon and she was very cutely fascinated with it.

We came home and packed. We fly home tomorrow, alas. But I will be happy to see the cats.

[mikhailwrites]

Soaring Ever Higher 2 - Ghoap/Ace Combat 7 crossover

Previous chapter | This Chapter on AO3 | Next chapter

Ghost met John "Trigger" MacTavish and after the pilot saved his life - at cost of disobeying a direct order - asked him out for a drink. However, Trigger stood him up...

John is on his way to change from his flight suit to something considerably nicer. Well, maybe not all that much nicer since he wasn’t exactly planning on going out during this deployment, let alone going out with someone. Still, a tan tee and black cargo trousers could be considered an improvement.

Just as he’s nearing the door to his room, someone is standing in front of them, hand raised to knock. Trigger makes another two steps before he pauses. He’d recognise the unruly mop of dirty-blonde hair anywhere. “Count?” he calls out his wingman, who turns around quickly.

“Ah, there you are! Come on, the boss needs you,” Count gestures. Trigger stops. No way. Do they really have to do this right now?

“Can’t he wait at least till tomorrow? He can chew me out then,” John shrugs, resuming his walk towards his room.

However, Count shakes his head. “It’s not about your stunt today, I think. There’s another mission, an urgent one,” he explains. “So, come on. It’s not like you have somewhere better to be.”

He does, actually, but doesn’t say it out loud. If Count knew about his plans, Trigger wouldn’t hear the end of it. “Aye, okay, lead the way.”

True to Count’s words, Long Caster is already in the briefing room, going over maps and documents. The moment Trigger and his wingman come through the door, their commanding officer looks up, eyes locking on John.

“Good thing you haven’t changed yet. You’re about to go out again. The station personnel is refuelling your aircraft as we speak.”

“What’s so damn urgent then?” Trigger barely hides his displeasure as he walks around to the table and looks at the mission intel.

Long Caster also turns to the table and pulls out a topographic map of the nearby mountain range. “We need you to do a recon sweep.”

John gives him a long, hard look as if to ascertain if he’s serious or not. “Excuse me? A recon sweep? Don’t we have drones for that?”

“We do. That, and insubordinate, obstinate SoBs that treat commands as if they were mere suggestions. Get ready. You leave in ten,” Long Caster nods at the fellow pilot. When Trigger doesn’t move an inch, he adds: “Dismissed, Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir,” Trigger grunts and leaves.

Count looks at the back of his friend and wingman before he turns to Long Caster. “With all due respect, sir, was that really necessary?”

“I don’t need you questioning my orders, Count. However, if you insist, I’m sure we can arrange some rewarding mission for you as well,” his superior cocks an eyebrow in obvious challenge.

“I think I’ll pass. Permission to leave?”

“As far as I’m concerned, you were never here,” Long Caster nods to the still-open door and Count excuses himself.

The flight path is long and utterly boring. Trigger has to fly low and slow for the radar and lidar to catch everything he needs. He’s bored. His jet is bored, too. It’s just a sea of green, stretching in all directions, and, even worse, the sky is still overcast, so it’s just the green below and dull grey above.

He returns after the nightfall. Taking off the helmet, the sweat-drenched mohawk sticks to his head. Trigger only exchanges a few pleasantries with the staff and engineers before retreating to his quarters to shower.

Only then, under the spray of lukewarm water to cool himself down, does he remember he was supposed to meet with Ghost and practically stood the man up. Great way to fuck up a promising start they had. John shortly debates if he should go to Ghost’s quarters and explain to him what happened.

No. It sounds like bullshit, and he’s way too beat to go anywhere, anyway. Even more so since the Strider squadron’s mission has been completed, and they will be returning to their home base tomorrow. Another long, boring flight. At least he will have his mates to chat with.

#

Ghost finds Laswell first thing in the morning. He’s not angry, and he’s willing to give Trigger the benefit of the doubt. Ghost knows better than most how quickly downtime can turn into active duty, especially for top operatives such as himself or Trigger.

Laswell is fully immersed in the display of her laptop. Ghost knocks on the open door and is given a lifted index finger – a universal symbol to wait, and that’s what he does. Full five minutes, actually. Only then does Laswell click a few times and finally nods at Ghost to come in. “What can I do for you, Lieutenant?”

“Do you know where Trigger is?” Ghost’s voice is steady, as is the rest of him. To anyone else, it wouldn’t sound any different than asking what’s for lunch, but not to Laswell since it’s her job to notice even the most subtle changes and details. She’s also damn good at her job.

“Yesterday, Flight Lieutenant was needed elsewhere, in a rather urgent manner, I’m afraid,” she confirms Ghost’s unvoiced theory, “as of this morning, Strider squadron’s mission has concluded, and they returned to their home base”. By mentioning Trigger’s rank, she also lets Ghost know that MacTavish actually outranks him. Interesting, if not exactly surprising. It’s good that John didn’t intend to leave him hanging. However, Trigger is now, quite literally, in the wind. Who knows how long before they run into each other again? Ghost tries to convince himself that he mostly minds the debt; he’s promised John a drink. “I could get you his phone number if you want.”

“No need,” Ghost declines her offer and pointedly ignores the knowing look on her face. Laswell doesn’t need to know everything, let alone the degree of interest Ghost has in MacTavish.

Ghost walks out, stopping on the tarmac and looking up. There’s the vast expanse of clear blue sky. If he’s honest, he never paid too much attention to it. His fight is and has always been on the ground. Now, he can’t help but wonder: how does being up there feel? There is no ground to support you, no cover to help you, no nothing, just you, the mission, and almost endless space. There’s something freeing in the thought but, at the same time, anxiety-inducing. No, Ghost is very much ground-animal, thank you very much.

If he gets to talk to MacTavish again, he will ask him what he sees in the blue. What does he feel when the jet leaves the ground? What is he thinking about, up there, among birds and clouds? And what’s with those three strikes on the tail? With a newfound resolve, he changes the initial if to when. When he gets to talk to MacTavish again.

[mayanneaa]

'golden cove' series - ᴊᴊ ᴍᴀʏʙᴀɴᴋ.

005. - just the heat

PAIRING : jj maybank x fem!kook!oc

WARNING(S) : swearing, kinda not proofread, if you spot any errors please lmk

A/N : cove's a certified 2016 music lover

WC : 1.4k

golden cove masterlist. | jj's masterlist.

I try my best to hide the excitement at dinner. I don't know why, but the thought of doing something—anything—that isn't a stupid kook party and not going further than to the beach has me buzzing. For once, I actually feel needed.

My parents sit by the table, the usual silence between us three. We're eating the chicken I made with Dad when I finally speak up, "I think I'll go shopping tomorrow."

My dad barely looks up, just nodding before cutting another piece. "Do you need the car?" he asks.

"Yeah," I reply quickly. "I promise I'll refuel!"

He hums in response, and that's the end of the conversation. We sink back into the silence.

It's an everyday pattern in this house. My dad is a good person, he works hard for us to be able to get anything we want, but he just does not listen or care. I could tell him I was pregnant by some random internet guy, and he'd just hum and go back to his papers. It was... tiring.

It got worse when Mason left for his 'big trip' with his best friend, Lukas. As much as I hate to admit it, he was the only person in this house who could listen to me.

I'd barge into his room and talk about the stupidest little things while he played some games or waxed his surfboard. And he would listen every time.

Of course, I had my mom. With her shifts as a nurse, when she came home she usually wanted to rest, and I respected that. But the sting was still there.

So, now, I was left to myself most of the time. It truly was a blessing in disguise. Most of the people in my classes would kill for a situation like this - being free all the time, being able to do pretty much anything you'd want.

I sigh as I finish my plate and get up, "I'll be heading to bed," I say while loading the dishwasher. "Goodnight!"

After my shower, I slip straight under my sheets.

Tomorrow's going to be a long day. With all the driving, I need a good night's sleep—or at least enough to survive JJ. Although, with him in the passenger seat, crashing might not be the worst option.

𓆉 ⋆｡˚𓇼 ⋆｡˚𓆟

I am ready to go when I get down, and the car's waiting for me in the driveway. Anxiety bubbles up inside me. I'm not usually the one driving around the Outer Banks—my bike is enough for me. Besides, the world doesn't need more CO2 emissions, so I'm basically doing everyone a favor.

I just hope JJ got the memo. Sure, plenty of people stroll through the museum in regular clothes, but we're not just tourists today. We need to get access to the deeper parts and to do that, we have to look like we know what we're doing.

I check my bag for the fourth time. Everything's packed. When I get outside, the breeze wraps me around, a momentary relief before the wave of heat hits. Thank God Dad fixed the car's AC already. Handling JJ and sweating my ass off in a metal box for a total of six hours? No way.

The car starts slowly, warming up. In the meantime, I connect my phone to the radio and shuffle one of my playlists. I drive off the driveway accompanied by Halsey, lowly singing along. The engine roars, and now I'm fully on the road. With both of the front windows rolled down, my hair is dancing in the wind.

By the end of the song, I pull up to the Chateau.

JJ's already sitting on the stairs, kicking some rocks. His brows are knitted together, golden locks hidden under a hat. Somehow, he managed to pull an acceptable outfit. He doesn't notice me at first, so I make sure he hears a loud honk.

The boy jumps up, and I can't help but giggle. JJ rolls his eyes and gets up, dusting off his shorts. The honk must've alerted the rest of the Pogues because Kie appears from the inside. I wave at her, and her eyes are thin splits.

"Hi." She carefully greets me, as if she's scared I bite.

"Hey. Did John B. tell you...?" I lean out the window, my voice trailing off.

She nods in response, "We should be back before the sunset. I can, you know, explain more then."

I feel the tension fog up the string of friendship we had, but it's not broken - not yet. At least I hope so. Her lips form into a shy smile, and I answer with a bigger one. She nods and retreats back to the house, and I hear JJ, "Can I drive?"

"No? You'll probably drive us into some ditch."

He groans but walks up to the passenger side and pulls the door open. "I wouldn't," he mutters under his breath and climbs on the seat.

I roll my eyes and start the GPS. The road stretches ahead, bathed in the sharp golden sunlight. Tourons are already wandering towards the beach, dragging their oversized umbrellas and chairs.

Through the music, I catch the sound of JJ's sigh. I glance over to find him leaning back on the seat, staring out the window. He is... quiet. Too quiet.

I can feel it's just the silence before the storm. And, of course, I'm right.

After his fifth sigh—louder this time—I grit my teeth. The noise grates at me, like a broken record. By the time he lets out the next one, I shoot my head in his direction. "What?"

His brows dart up when his eyes meet mine. "Nothing."

"I can hear you sigh."

JJ rests his head on his hand, "I'm pretty sure that's called schizophrenia-"

We didn't even make it out the Outer Banks. I groan and make a sharp turn, sending him flying across his seat. When the car stops on the side of the road, he looks at me deer-eyed. "Are you mental?!"

I'm already jumping out of my seat and walking around to his door. "Get out."

"Gonna leave me here alone?"

If murder was legal, I know who'd be first on my list. A whine escapes my mouth. "I wish," He's parting his lips, ready to say something but I pull him out of the car, "You'll drive. If I would have to listen to you sigh like an angry kid for the entire trip..."

I see the blue eyes light up for a second. JJ quickly switches with me, now sitting behind the wheel and adjusting the seat. "Just don't crash. My dad got this car like, two weeks ago."

His shoulders are a bit more relaxed now, but he holds the wheel in a strong grip. A smirk appears on his lips, "Nothin' to worry about, princess."

I roll my eyes as he starts the engine again. This is gonna be a long ride.

𓆉 ⋆｡˚𓇼 ⋆｡˚𓆟

Two hours pass, and the sun is now high in the sky. We are only an hour away from Chesapeake. I feel the hot air even with the windows down. I notice JJ stirring in his seat, sweat creeping up on his neck. I fan my face with my hands before I say, "Let's try the AC."

JJ steals a quick glance at me, "Well, not stopping you."

I click one of the buttons, but nothing happens. I do it again, and again. Nothing. Just as I raise my hand for the fourth time, his fingers wrap around my wrist—warm and steady and not tight, just enough to stop me.

For a second, my brain freezes, like it's lagging. Then he lets go, fast, like touching me burned him. He leans back, his gaze returns to the road. "This way you'll only break it. Are all Kooks like that with basic car assets?"

I huff, "I don't even drive that much. Why would I get a whole ass car ready for a trip to the store that'll take me five minutes by my bike?"

He shakes his head, and when he speaks up again, his voice is laced with amusement, "Ever considered just trying a different one?"

I grimace at him and smash the other button. Just like magic, we both feel the breeze hit us. Despite that, my cheeks warm up, "Oh."

JJ's lips form a weird smirk—I can sense he's holding a laugh. "Don't-"

But with the shake of his shoulders, I know it's a little too late. "Real princess, huh?"

He grins like he's savoring my embarrassment and leans back. I turn to the window, focusing on the passing trees and the distant sight of the ocean, ignoring the way my cheeks warm again. It's just the heat. Definitely the heat.

[factorialsotherfandoms]

for gift, liz and equipe e member(s) of your choice? thank you in advance, factorial friend

Merry Christmas Saga! And to everyone else!

This fic is exactly 1000 words, and more on Liz than Liz and someone, but the count pleases me. Hope you enjoy.

AO3 Link: [link]

Tuesday evening, and Liz still has her hair pulled up from work. The bun it makes is ridiculously small, but she would still rather be teased for the stupid bun than deal with a ponytail. Getting it into the hair nets is much simpler, this way, and she still has to attend enough cases each week.

She could pull it down at this point, but it is the lowest priority in her mind. She meant to do it earlier, but the bus was late, and well... She runs around her flat, ignoring Bolinho as he begs for a walk; Julia will come by in an hour or so and take care of him.

And the house.

Dear God, someone needs to take care of the house.

Speaking of, where are her gloves? They are not under the sink, where they are supposed to be. Not on the counter, not the bedside table, not under the bed...

Eventually, she finds them down the back of the tv stand. Only stopping to check that the box is full she shoves it in her bag; she'll be changing them all mission, if previous ones are anything to go by.

Gloves, glock, flare gun, flares, knife, first aid kit, suture kit, extra bandages, some burn cream... Roll of cling film, just in case...

Sample bags! Where are her sample bags?!

Those have somehow ended up at the back of one of her cupboards - not a sensible cupboard, mind, the one she keeps her pans in. She grabs them, shoves them in as well.

What else, what else...

Right, right, notepad, pen, her phone, some headphones, some light reading material, and she should probably bring a change of clothes. The mission is only supposed to be a few hours, but one instance of trying to refuel the car at three am covered in blood is more than enough.

Anything else...

No, not car keys; her car is in for repairs. Thiago promised to sort it, which means they might not be making it to the mission tonight at all.

House keys, though, she needs her house keys.

Just as she is grabbing them, her phone goes off. She checks it, and finds a whatsapp message from Joui.

Does she need a toothbrush? Probably helpful.

As she grabs both a pack of clean ones, and an old one she keeps for cleaning the sink, she checks her phone.

And soap. They always need soap.

"We are nearly here, Liz-senpai. See you soon."

Thinking it through... She is probably missing some things, but she has most of it; she tosses in a bottle of wine for good measure, then zips up her bag and heads out.

Liz locks up, double checks all of her windows are shut, then leaves; Julia has a key, it will be fine.

Just as she steps onto the street, a hire car pulls up. It is a little larger than her own, with Thiago at the wheel and Joui vibrating in the back seat. It pulls up, and stops.

Thiago gestures for her to get in beside him; she ignores it, and gets in the back with Joui.

"Hey Liz."

"Good evening, Liz-senpai."

"Hello to you both."

She jams her bag between her feet - she'll grab what she needs to hand when they get there, and leave the rest in the boot. The seatbelt takes a little fiddling with, and she ignores whatever Thiago is saying for a moment.

Once everything is in order, she flops back in the seat, stops keeping up even her head, and closes her eyes for a second.

"Liz-senpai?"

Joui's voice cuts into her brain more easily than Thiago's; something that needs attention, rather than the comforting drone of whatever drivel he has made up this time.

"Yes, Joui?"

She does not bother to open her eyes.

"You look tired."

"That, Joui," she knows her voice is sharp; Joui just needs to learn to handle it. "Is because I am tired."

"Oh."

She hums in response, enjoys a few moments more of nothing before Thiago raises his voice a little.

"Will you be alright for the mission, my dear?"

"Does it even matter?" She asks. "But it's fine, I'll sleep tomorrow."

"Not getting enough sleep is bad for you," Joui cuts back in. "And so is sleeping in. You should look after yourself."

She cracks one eye to stare at him, while Thiago snorts with suppressed laughter.

"Joui." she warns.

"And I don't like your hair like that," he tells her. "It makes you look old."

Liz tilts her head, ripping her hair out of the bun. She glares at Joui - both eyes now - and wraps the tie around her wrist.

She loves their trainee, but he needs to learn when to shut up.

"Joui," Thiago offers. "Why don't we let Liz nap a little? We can wake her up half an hour or so before we get there and go over the brief then."

Joui takes a moment, then, "sleep well, Liz-senpai."

"Get some rest, my dear," Thiago tells her.

Liz does not reply to them; she forces herself to breathe deeply, and to not listen to the words they use as the two men continue to talk in low voices. They sound calm, not stressed, bits of laughter cutting across.

They won't be laughing or safe soon, not once the mission begins.

But they are now.

She does not sleep - nobody could at a time like this, most likely - but lets herself drift in a dark haze.

Her Thiago and her Joui keep talking, the incomprehensible noise proof that they are safe.

Breathe in, breathe out, force her body to relax, drain the stiffness from herself and breathe.

It's at least a four hour drive to the mission location. Safe for now. Let Thiago take responsibility for a change; he's old enough for it.

Joui giggles, and Thiago laughs, and the noise has Liz cracking a smile even as she drifts in a drowsy haze.

[itsalmostavengers]

Steve quietly helping a “finally at the end of his wick&burnt out” Tony out of his suit and into bed

The button was sticking to his fingers. It had to be. There was no other reason as to why the hell this was taking so long.

Tony looked down in confusion, observing his index and thumb as they battled to wrangle the slick white button out of its buttonhole. It wasn't going very well from the looks of it, which was strange, because he could've sworn he started to work at them almost as soon as he'd stepped through the door. That meant he'd been at it for at least 20 seconds now. This was not something that Tony could say he usually struggled with.

He watched his own fingers as they fiddled desperately at the contraption for a few more moments before, finally giving up and falling dejectedly onto the countertop. He could give that another go later, he figured. For now...

Well. Fuck. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

Blinking slowly, Tony attempted to orientate himself. He knew he was in the kitchen at the tower. He knew it was... well, Tony didn't quite know what time it was because the meeting with the Secretary of Defence had run over, but it was dark now. 11, maybe? He knew that there was probably something else he needed to get done before he could call it a night. His to-do list had only been growing since he started it at the beginning of the week, and they weren't the kinds of things you could put off until the next day. They were the kinds of things that, if left too long, could get people killed.

Right. Okay. He needed a refuel. A bagel, maybe. And a coffee. And then he would... yeah. The kit for Natasha. Top priority. She was heading out to Alaska tomorrow and her old suit had been torn to shreds in the debacle last Tuesday. So bagel, coffee, workshop. Bagel, coffee, workshop. Bagel-

"Could I suggest, sir, that you substitute your coffee and workshop plans for bed instead? It has been two days since you last achieved REM sleep."

Tony was quiet for a moment. He stared at the wall, and then glanced up to the ceiling slowly, a frown folding into his forehead.

"Did you just read my mind?" He asked JARVIS.

"No sir. I listened."

"Oh. I was speaking?"

"Indeed sir."

"Ah."

See, this was the slight problem that came with spending a week hopping straight from one obligation into another. He started to lose track of himself a little. The overuse of caffeine probably didn't help either. But it was that or fall behind, and he quite simply didn't have time to fall behind. At this point, he'd never catch back up again. He had to do more. Keep going.

So he chose to ignore JARVIS's advice, and instead reached a hand into the pack of bagels on the side. His mind whirred disjointedly as it tried to work through the current set of problems plaguing Stark Industries. The biggest issue was tied into the aforementioned meeting he'd just had with the Defence Secretary. As a general rule, Tony Stark and military personnel did not get on too well. They'd never gotten out of the sulk they fell into with him after his whole 'no more weapons' epiphany, which was just fine by Tony. They talked a lot of shit about him behind closed doors and, occasionally, in public meetings, but they were normally content to leave it at that.

Except now they'd gone ahead and appointed this new guy into one of the top brass roles, and his sole mission seemed to be wrangling Stark Industries back into the weapons business. By any means necessary.

Tony would come out victorious in this stupid little power play, obviously. This wasn't the first time a government official had used thinly-veiled threats and blackmail against him. It was, however, the first time the pressure had come right from the top of the chain. And it implied there was a wider cultural change in the ranks of the US Military, which meant Tony, The Avengers and Stark Industries were all going to have to tread more delicately if they wanted to weather the storm.

He sighed, gaze losing its focus for a few moments. In front of him, the toaster ticked away. The smell began to permeate the air. Tony realised he wasn't even sure he was hungry. He had been, a few hours ago, but the sensation had since faded when it realised it wasn't being listened to. Now he just felt hollow. Like someone had scooped out his brains with a melon baller. He realised he was swaying back and forth on his feet - a slow, repeated motion that was starting to make him feel dizzy. He told himself to be still.

The bagel popped out of the toaster, and it was only then that Tony remembered there were extra steps to this process. Butter. And a knife. He needed both. Hopefully his hands would be able to handle this one.

Turning on his heel, he headed over to the fridge, because he was 90% sure that was where they kept the butter these days - but as his hips swivelled to the left, he felt himself bump against something that had not previously been in the kitchen. It was firm, but soft. Warm. It smelled familiar.

Tony was staring in mild surprise at the chest in front of him, and it took a moment before he realised that that wasn't where you were supposed to look when you bumped into people. And Steve was a stickler when it came to being polite, so he promptly lifted his gaze.

"Hi," he told Steve. This, he thought, was an appropriate thing to say - not too much, not nothing at all, just right. "I'm making a bagel."

Steve, however, didn't seem to care much about the bagel. He didn't even look at it when Tony gestured over to it, which was unusual, because Steve was a very food-oriented man. Instead, Steve was staring down at Tony, a strange kind of intensity in his eyes. They'd been arguing earlier this morning. God, he hoped Steve wasn't coming back to pick up where they'd left off.

Then Steve did something strange. He lifted his hands. Curled them gently around the place where Tony's shoulders met his biceps: soft at first, but then adding just a touch of pressure, enough that Tony's brain noticed it and perked up, flared back into life just a little. The sensation of it kicked off a chain reaction. He realised his thumb hurt, and he needed to pee, and that he'd somehow forgotten to turn on the light as he'd been walking through the kitchen because it was dark as shit and he could actually barely see the other man an inch away from him.

"Tony," Steve's voice was calm, firm, and left absolutely no room for argument. "You can stop now."

Tony didn't respond, too busy trying to process that in his head. It didn't sound right - he knew there was a list, he did, and it was his job to do it and he'd been working at it for the last five days and there wasn't time to stop, there just wasn't. That was what he'd been telling himself, over and over and over. But then, if that was true, it would mean that Steve was wrong. Steve was rarely wrong.

"You can stop," Steve said again. "It's okay to stop."

Was it really?

"Natasha needs--"

"She will be fine. You've created dozens of variants of that uniform for her. Her wardrobe is literally full of protective gear." Steve gave him another gentle squeeze, and it felt good, it felt really good for Steve to touch him. It'd been days since they'd touched. Tony had just been so busy, and then when they had seen eachother they'd been fighting about the fucking portal debacle from Tuesday and now, wow, it felt so good to be touched. The care, the love, it seemed to seep out from Steve's fingers. He'd not even realised he'd been in fight or flight mode all day until he was reminded, right now, of how it felt to be safe.

"I shouldn't," Tony's voice was quiet. He shook his head.

Steve just nodded his. "Yes you should. Come on sweetheart. You know you need to rest. You're doing no-one any favours by running around half-delirious."

"I'm not half delirious."

"JARVIS told me you couldn't even undress yourself. And you're bleeding all over our floor, by the way." Steve's head nodded downward, and Tony looked to see that yeah, Steve was actually right. There was a smattering of small, delicate crimson drops staining their cream tiles.

Tony frowned, recalling the vague memory of his thumb hurting. He glanced down, and spotted the nail that he'd accidentally removed about 20% of. It was a bad habit. Howard had absolutely fucking hated his nail biting - he used to rip Tony's hand straight out of his mouth if ever he got caught in the act, often taking the rest of the nail he'd had his teeth clamped around with it.

"Oh," was all Tony could say.

Without changing a shade, Steve moved again, hand slipping around Tony's and lifting it. He efficiently slotted Tony's thumb into his mouth, sucking off the blood, and then leaned sideways, delving into the drawer where they kept (amongst a plethora of other random assorted crap) the band-aids. He wound it around Tony's thumb, taking extra care to ensure that the raw skin of his cuticle was padded by the gauze and didn't touch the adhesive. When that was done, he shifted his attention to Tony's dress shirt, popping open the first few with frustrating ease. They'd definitely not been playing ball when it'd been Tony trying to make them open.

"It's time to call it a night," Steve told him. Now his hand was on Tony's jaw. His thumb was rubbing a little circle just in front of Tony's ear, like a massage, and God it felt so good that in that moment Tony lost sight of everything else. The work, the sting of pain, the frantic cacophony of 'do more, do more, do more' that had been looping uncontrollably in his head. The one thing that stood between Tony Stark and oblivion was Steve Rogers' right thumb, and man, it was fucking holding up.

Then, slowly, Steve pulled him into his arms. With one hand still pressing into the side of Tony's, the other circled around the his shoulders. They drew him into the impossible feeling of safety that came with being immersed in Steve's hug, and that was it. That was just it.

Tony sagged. He felt Steve's mouth press a gentle kiss against the top of his head. He was so, so, so fucking tired.

"Wanna go to bed?" Steve asked softly.

Tony nodded.

[spidereggs888]

Miguel bangs Dr Doom and the poor bastard asks for seconds

/j

Miguel & You

ACT 3 | INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

Miguel O’Hara & y/n, any gender or non gender. Very casual writing style. TW Dark humor, dangerous situations, 18+ language. Y/n are sorta attracted to Miguel (why else would you be here?) but he doesn’t know you lol

(Seriously, if you haven't read ACT 1 or ACT 2, NONE of this will make sense)

≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋≋

“Okay? I mean you still got your job, yeah?” your friend says.

“It’s different now! I can’t- my job’s not enough- all my savings are GONE! All those data sticks were full of nontaxable credit and now it’s probably being hocked off for rapture! What the shock am I gonna do?!”

“Wait, wait! Hang on, lemme text Bryce! He gonna know something!”

“I REALLY can’t believe that O’Hara! We talked about this! I made my case pretty simple and he agreed to a follow up meeting- and now he’s just gonna CANCEL on me?!”

“Hey it’s not his fault! He doesn’t know what you’re going through.”

You are so mad you almost tell her the truth. But his secret identity could be a bargaining chip! Yeah sure that will be stooping low but he KNOWS you are one lost payment away from house hunting, which is a horrible experience in Nueva York, especially if you’re broke.

After some sounds of computer work on her end, Speshall re-emerges.

“Hold on… okay. Bryce says Mister O’Hara is back in the Alchemax Business Bureau building.”

“Good God, tell Bryce I said thanks!”

“You better hurry, cuz people who lost their shot yesterday are trying to catch him today. I don’t know how word got out that he didn’t choose anyone as a secretary, but yeah, they are scrambling to get a hold of him. You better hurry!”

You pull out your only spare jacket (the clear plastic one that only keeps off the rain), and throw on a new scarf. You are back at square one, where you gotta compete with all the other interviewees, including Suck-up Syd who’s gonna be even more desperate this time, and Beta-Brody, who just might actually appeal to O’Hara now that he’s about to have an uninterrupted audience with the guy!

Your chances are slim, but if you stand to lose everything, why the hell dwell here?!

░▒▓スパイダーマン▓▒░

When you exit the apartment complex, you run through all of the holograms offering a better life, past all the salesmen trying to convert you to the great house of Thor, and slam your palm down on the terminal button to call the apartment valet.

"Welcome back, tenant 27," the AI apartment valet greets, “Do you want-”

“YES! Give it to me!”

Your car roars out of its hiding place as if it knows today isn’t the day to worry you with her many problems. She is bright red with flaking paint, but she is here in your time of need.

“We refueled your vehicle. Do you accept the charges-”

“BILL ME TOMORROW!”

You rush and slide across the hood, executing the perfect slide and land on your feet on the other side. The door unlatches automatically and you climb in (that almost never happens), and you slam your foot down on the gas pedal.

“I’m comin’ for you, O’Hara!”

░▒▓человек-паук▓▒░

After dodging and slipping through traffic, you arrive at the Alchemax Business Bureau parking lot. The automated parking center kiosk accepts your money this time since your mom knows how to clean her gambling money (you have yet to learn this difficult process), and you get to enter the building in a more conventional way. 

The lobby is already in chaos. People are fighting over the coffee machine for some reason, slapping and hitting each other. You turn your back on it and face the old man behind the receptionist desk. He grimaces at you.

“You don’t have anything to do with the crazy shit happening over there, right?” He asks. This was the first time he’s spoken to you in a while.

“Don’t think so. Uh, has O’Hara come through?”

“Heh. What do you think?”

You cringe at the sound of a coffee pot crashing to the floor. The receptionist opens a holoscreen and looks at you through it.

“He’s up in the temp office again.”

He discreetly brings a cup of black coffee up from behind the desk and sets it near you.

“Just pushing forward a favor.”

His eyes focus on the video call that pops up between you, and he continues, “We need custodial support in the lobby. We got some broken glass and hot coffee all over the damn place.”

≋≋≋（スパイダーマン）≋≋≋

You are on the elevator, coffee in hand with a pocket full of sugars. You decide not to drink it, you plan to give it to O’Hara (everyone else must have had this same plan, hence fighting over the pitcher of coffee.) The elevator lets someone else on. The doors open and you see the smoky eyes of Suck-Up Syd.

“Ah, you got past everyone else, I see.”

You reluctantly move over as she strides in. You notice she’s wearing a backless dress before she pulls her faux fur jacket back over her shoulders. She knows you saw, she chuckles and sighs.

“Don’t ya love this day and age?” she asks innocently.

“It could be better,” you say pleasantly.

“I just love how a woman can be herself and flaunt what she’s got…” 

She waits for a word of validation but you say nothing to her. She continues.

“I got this dress from Michael, our last boss. Remember him?”

“Ah, yeah. The guy who gave me a second chance…”

“Yeah after the whole embezzling thing! Tsk, I’m so glad you didn’t get fired, you know that? Like really, you are the nicest person in this whole wide place! It would have been so unfair of him to let you go. But he’s very generous.”

You wanna say something mean to her but you are at a crucial point in your life to have stupid Suck-Up Syd karma in the mix.

The elevator door opens and you see a guy laying face down on the floor. He’s groaning in pain. It’s the nice Indian man from yesterday.

“Oh my, what happened here?” Syd asks.

“Ah just some stuff that needed settling,” says the familiar douchey voice of Brody, who walks up from the corner while rubbing his knuckles.

“Did you beat up that guy?!” You scold.

“Well, he got in my face,” he says with a matter-of-fact tone.

“I somehow doubt that!” You scoff.

 Brody smirks and takes your coffee.

“Dude, that’s mine!” you complain.

He sips it while keeping eye-contact with you. He then immediately scrunches his face.

“Ew, you don’t add anything to your coffee?!”

“That’s very rude and gross, Broly,” Syd says with sarcasm, walking away towards the glass elevator. He hands the coffee back to you and swiftly follows her, and you reluctantly follow.

“I was just playing, Sydney, lighten up! Nice dress, by the way!”

“Thank you.”

“I mean... you flaunted it for Micheal, I bet you could do the same exact routine for O’Hara and get the job instantly! That's your in-an-out plan, right?”

“Hey, if he thinks hiring me will get him there then that’s on him, not me.”

“What are you pushing 38, going on 39 any time now? You can’t use your looks forever, tick-tock tick-tock.”

“Oh wow, says the guy who believes in that Alpha Male BS. You are aware that the same guy who coined that whole thing turned around and disproved it years later, you know that, right?”

“So it’s not true for wolves, but it’s definitely true for Man.”

“You are not even close to being a Beta…” you grumble. 

He looks back at you with a fake smile. Syd laughs.

“Oh well check this out-”

He slaps the coffee down out of your hands and it gushes all over your pants and shoes. You jump back and kick your legs.

“Dude! That BURNS! What the FUCK?!”

“You got it on my dress, you fucking animal!” Syd complains, stepping back away from the dark puddle.

“Oh you were gonna take it off to show what’s left of your body anyway! Get with the now and lighten up!”

“You are SUCH an asshole!” You yell. You start kicking him in the legs. Syd joins in, thrashing him with her stiletto. The both of you back him into the corner as he tries to guard his face. The glass doors open and the three of you stop your squabbling as y’all realize there has been an audience for the last few seconds.  

The pair of security guards from yesterday are standing near the elevator, both looking somewhat amused about the elevator fight, and two men are sitting on either side of the tiny desk, one of them being O’Hara and the other is your ex boss.

“Oh… uh, hi!” Syd stammers, taken aback by the present company. Brody pushes her aside and strides across the room with his hand extended.

“Hey, Mister O’Hara! The name’s Brody Tice! Nice to meet-”

“The hell are you guys doing here?” O’Hara asks.

“Hey, yeah, I didn’t get to meet you yesterday-  had some stuff come up, but I heard you were here today, so I thought-”

“Then SIT,” O’Hara demanded.

“Actually, I do better standing!” 

“Sit the hell down, Brody,” Micheal snaps, “Now’s not the time!”

[Brody mumbles something about being fine where he is.]

“Is everything okay, Micheal?” Syd asks, defaulting to an innocent tone.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Micheal says with glossed, lazy eyes. He always had this look whenever he was forced to care, “Someone formerly in our department just complained about some old history and we are trying to smooth it out.”

"Oh, this is beyond smoothing out," O'Hara said with an unsafe tone while smiling, "Yeah, this little game you have going on comes to an end today."

"What game?!" Micheal scoffs, leaning back in his chair.

“I’ve had my AI assistant cross-reference your employment history and your payment history and I did not like what she told me," O'Hara says, putting his giant paws together, "You’ve been withholding payment from your employees by not immediately updating their salary in the system after they were given a raise. And you’d neglect doing anything until they actually confront you about it, and even then, you never paid them the missing difference. And you did this, let's say, roughly eighty times in the past four years?”

Your blood boils. This man has been a parasite this whole time while you scraped by. Micheal looks back and forth at Syd and Brody, unable to keep eye contact with O'Hara.

"Wha- WHICH of you- Syd! I thought I could TRUST you!" Micheal stammers.

"What? Micheal! No! I didn't say anything about you!"

Micheal's gaze darts to Brody, but then he swivels his head to you instead.

"Was it you?!"

"Wow, you're really just gonna look for someone to blame, huh?" Brody scoffs.

"Whoever did this doesn't know who they're messing with!" Micheal says, his face red as he shakes, "I have too much as stake to be taken down by some rat!"

“It was ME!” you yell, not willing to take anything else laying down anymore, “I confirmed what happened!”

Micheal looks genuinely surprised at you yelling. Syd just blinks awkwardly and Brody grins. O’Hara is still sitting with his elbows resting on his desk, watching from behind clasped fingers.

“What on earth did you-”

“The ultimatum you gave me! You pulled me aside into the maintenance closet and made me choose between getting fired or demoted, REMEMBER?!”

“We took you into the maintenance closet because the situation was private-”

“You just didn’t want anyone with a brain noticing you were doing something illegal!”

“He was on vacation!” Syd said defensively, “You should have just waited-”

“Oh that’s SUCH bullshit! He wanted to see how long he could go without actually paying me what I was owed!” 

“It was just a fluke in the system-”

“It was no fluke, it was CALCULATED!” You snap, stepping towards her with your finger in her face, “And you should know, Syd! You fucking stood there watching like the stupid little henchman you are! You KNEW Micheal was doing something illegal and you did NOTHING to report it! And we know why! Because you KNEW if I went down, you would instantly get my position as vice head PR accountant! You were a snake from the start and always HAVE been!”

“Oh shush! You were sniveling and crying like a BABY, begging to keep the job! I may be what I am but at least I have some dignity-”

“Sydney! Let’s not push it!” Micheal warned.

“That’s fucking laughable coming from you, y’know that?” Brody says to Syd, “You are the LAST person with any dignity around here! You dropped your panties for Ashton when I told you he was head of our department! You didn’t even try to research him or anything! You just did it because you’re a whore.”

“And you!” you yell, pointing at Brody.

“Ah, let’s hear it!” He retorts.

“You are the biggest lying asshole in this whole fucking industry! How the fuck has no one laid you out yet?! All that alpha dog bullshit has gone so far up your ass, I don’t know where your sexist bullshit ends and where your goddamn shit-eating grin begins! You gotta tear people down because you aren’t strong enough to hack it with the big dogs, are ya?! ARE YA, BRODY?! Oh, look at me! I’m Brody Tice! I’m too mean and stupid to make meaningful relationships work, so I bully others to assert a false sense of dominance! And if that don’t work, I resort to telling people I was diddled in the doo doo hole by my best friend Ashton because that’s the kind of LOSER I am!”

Brody’s pride is on the line, and he was not taking too kindly to you airing out his dirty laundry in front of O’Hara. He steps up to you, his fake smile now grinding into a dangerous sneer.

“Oh, NOBODY has laid me out yet because they CAN’T!”

“You are so full of shit!”

“Go ahead and make your move, then!”

“Everyone just stop!” Syd pleads anxiously.

“You can't always get away with everything you’ve DONE!” You say coldly. Blood is rushing in your ears and you can feel your neck getting hot. Brody jabs you in the shoulder with his knuckles.

“Make your move, bitch-” 

Having seen enough, O’Hara stands up and swiftly grabs Brody by the front of his shirt. He leads the smaller man around on his toes as they come face to face. Brody’s eyes bulge.

“Wow, man! Your hands are massive-”

 O’Hara picks the whole man up and one-arm slams Brody through the tiny desk. Just *bam* throws him down TLC style. Travel-sized bottles fly everywhere.

Brody stares up at the ceiling, making a long minuscule whining sound. The desk is finished and everyone is frozen in place. 

“Quitar este loser,” he commanded, pointing down at Brody and flicking his finger at the door. The two guards grabbed Brody and lifted him out of the rubble. 

“As for you two,” he said, turning to Syd and Michael, “clean out your desks!”

“W-why?!” Syd whined

“You can't do this!” Michael begged, his grey eyes bulging, "I have been with this department for thirty years! I was here when your father ran this place!"

O'Hara clenches his jaw and fists. His eyes flash dangerously.

"--Though you do a spectacular job as CEO, WAY better than... It-It really was an honest fluke, I get very overwhelmed with all my responsibilities- please! You can’t fire me!”

He stares down Micheal, considering him a little longer. He drops his scowl and lets his hands free.

“Relax, I’m not firing you or Miss Sarcoth here,” O’Hara says with a falsely kind tone, “I mean, you really should be fired, but a guy your age doesn’t stand a chance in the private sector, so I’m moving you both to the custodial department! They’ll love you there!”

“Oh... well alright,“ Michael mutters, eyes bugged out at the giant financial nuke that missed him by inches.

“Wait, why am I being dragged down too?!” Syd whined, “there’s no proof I was even THERE!”

“There's lots of surveillance of your complacency and possible cooperation, Miss Sarcoth. Don’t even bother trying to argue your way out of this one. Now both of you, off to your new jobs! C’mon! You only get one chance!”

O'Hara gives them both a clenched smile. Syd and Micheal exchange confused stares.

“Go on before I get pissed off,” he said in a colder tone.

They scramble to gather their coats and rush out of the room. Those two jackasses who screwed with your livelihood just to make themselves laugh are now fucking off to whatever hell hole O’Hara has decided to stuff them into.

O’Hara sighs and paces away. He grumbles about idiots fucking around with their goddamn money. You clear your throat. He straightens his anti glare lenses then looks at you.

“Have a seat, since you’re here.”

You sit down where Michael was seated before. You stare this guy down because this is it! You are ready for hellfire. You are ready for searing words and possible loss of a limb or head in the conversation to come. You squint at those red eyes behind the comically large lenses. How has nobody accused him of being a vampire? Either way, you are ready to gamble it all, to hell with being cautious!

You are gonna take this vampire down.

“You are wondering why I canceled our meeting, yeah?” He asks with raised brows.

You are relieved he brought it up first.

“Yeah. Why?”

“I decided I don’t need a secretary,” he said, “turns out it’s too damn stressful and stupid. I’ve been doing just fine with my AI assistant.”

“What about all the people who wanted to work for you?”

“They have their own jobs already, it’s not like they have nothing to go back to.”

“Well I don’t,” you say, gripping the edge of your chair. He makes a curious face.

“You have a job, what do you mean-“

“I’ve been cheated, blackmailed, rejected, declined, and robbed, all because of idiots like Michael and Syd… and that idiot Brody! I’m not about to let a dismissive playboy who fires people left and right, AND moonlights as Spider-Man kick me down without a fight-“

O’Hara comes back over and sits down in his chair quickly, making you flinch, but he’s smiling.

“So you WERE awake when I saved you!”

“Yeah,” you say quietly. You are now shaking but not breaking your stare from his amused expression.

“Now you know who I am and what I do… at least only the tip of that gargantuan iceberg… so what do you want? Money? You gonna blackmail me?”

“What fucking choice do I have?” You say heatedly, “I lost everything down there in that hell hole! My data sticks, my phone, all of that was my LIFE in order, and now I either go further into debt or I get a better job that will take care of me for the rest of my life!”

O’Hara leans back into his chair, his brow furrowed as he rubs his chin.

“Don’t think for a second I’m not grateful for you saving my life! I don’t know how you knew I needed saving but you did!”

“My AI assistant Lyla informed me your location was moving down to a notorious criminal breeding ground. I thought you were one of those Black Market Demons trying to infiltrate Alchemax for drugs.”

“What?”

“I mean the descriptors fit. I guessed you were financially unstable and turning to gambling because you had a Rapture habit. But… you didn’t seem physically unwell like a Rapture user. The only other possibility was that you were being kidnapped. Since I already met you and saw it about to happen, I just couldn’t ignore it.”

You look to the floor, feeling bad about readying yourself to fight this guy.

“I knew you needed help. I'm sorry about your data sticks and all your money. I didn’t know- you do have a bank account, right? I mean, you have a job-”

“My job salary goes there, yeah, but that goes straight into automated payments since I’m on the Alchemax home-employment plan… I have the data sticks because my bank won’t accept anything considered gambling money. And I don’t have enough earnings for an offshore account… so I kept it all on the data sticks…”

He is hanging on every word now. You look up at those sad bespectacled eyes.

“Also… I just wanted some personal spending money for myself. I just wanna wear nice stuff and eat something else besides mineral bars…”

He politely watches you try not to feel sorry for yourself. You are both quiet for a little spell. You can hear the wind outside, and an automated cleaning system starts spraying the shit out of the glass elevator. It sounds like a car wash.  All that coffee on the floor is being washed away.

He sighs and looks out the windows.

“Well, I can’t say I wasn’t impressed at the decade and a half you put into PR work for Alchemax,” he finally says. You wipe away a single tear and look up at him as he pulls up your files on his neat watch. He picks out your best work with his calloused but beautiful hands, “You started running hot meals for the Alchemax elderly program at fifteen years old… went into mail room tech for a while there, occasionally doing lobby work and handling public events… not bad at all.”

"Thanks," you say modestly.

“Most of all, I really admire that you came here. I don’t know how you knew I’d be here, but you must have some great resources to pull that off. I'm impressed.” 

You smile at him weakly. He smiles back.

“What do you think about taking Micheal's old job?” 

“Wha- REALLY?!”

“Ah I’m sure you’ll do fine! Besides, I didn’t know who I was gonna pick as head of PR account and finances, anyway! So, what do you say?”

You stand up and so does he. You extend your hand and he takes it.

“Thank you for this opportunity, sir! I won’t let you down!”

“You actually don’t have a choice.”

You smile but then feel yesterday’s emotions catch up with you. The darkness with the dead bodies and freaky black market demons. Running until your legs were on fire and your lungs hurt. Being surrounded by those demons in the darkness. You dive in for a hug.

“Thank you for saving my life…” you murmur into his shirt.

“C’mon, I’m Spider-Man, it’s what I do.”

You hold your head against those mighty pecs of his. His dress shirt is so silky and soft and smells like the kind of detergent that goes hard like crack. You go ahead and wrap the other arm around him as you behold the heartbeat of a hero, something so rare in any day and age. You will never forget this sensation as he carefully pats your back.

“Ah, okay, just take it all in… I’m only allowing this once… hey, also promise me you'll keep my secret, okay?"

"Mmm-hmm."

"I'm not kidding. If you go telling people I'm Spider-Man, I'll make you clean toilets. SPECIFICALLY toilets. And only toilets."

You start to giggle. He does too.

"Just toilets, all day and all night! I'm serious. I know we are laughing but I'm dead serious. No estoy bromeando! Comprendes?"

"Si comprendes," you manage to muffle out.

"Good, good... Okay get off me. Please.”

You smile and let him go. He gives you an awkward smile and rubs the side of his massive neck. 

"So... seeing as I'm removing Micheal and pretty much any and all staff members who conspired with him, you’ll need to hire your own assisting staff. You have anyone in mind?”

≋≋≋（蜘蛛侠）≋≋≋

“I’m going to lunch!” You call out as you leave your glass paneled office. 

“You want me to go ahead and send out this mass email, dear?” Your mother says from behind her grand desk.

“You let Speshall look at it, right?”

“It’s wordy but I’m sure it’s fine,” Speshall says from her office area. She returns to her phone, “Oh they eloped?! To where?!”

Your new staff has it's own habits but they are much better than the unjust monsters running things before. You walk onto the elevator (the only one since the other two are STILL broken), and the nice Indian man from weeks ago joins you.

"How's life, Arjuna?" You ask.

"Ah, in-laws are staying over for a month."

"Oh? Is that bad?"

"Not really. Let's say I just might jump out a window," he says, slyly.

"Well I know a few custodians perfect for the job!" you blurt out. The both of you crack up laughing. You fortunately don't have to ever see Micheal, Syd, and Brody on a daily basis since O'Hara sent them off to clean in the Alchemax Museum of Tech, but that hasn't stopped you or your friends from making them the butt of all your jokes.

You walk out into the lobby of the Alchemax Business Bureau, where you see your red Maglev Nova outside waiting in the rain. 

“All fueled up, boss!” Says the old receptionist behind the counter. He’s drinking his coffee in peace.

“Thanks, Stan!” You say.

You walk outside to your car. The paint job was redone and all her internal issues gone as she hums cleanly, awaiting your arrival. You open the door to get in.

"HEY!"

You look over the Nova. You see O'Hara across the street.

“Miguel! Hey!” 

“Hey! We doin’ this?”

“Yeah! I got some coupons for double thick enchiladas! Two for the price of one!”

“Ay, you and those coupons! I told you, I’m buying! Woah-“

He steps back as a truck flies past him. It drives right through a puddle, drenching the man. He stands there all stunned; his jacket was folded on his arm and his dress shirt soaked.

He gapes at you and you realize you are staring at the wet shirt clinging to his chiseled body. 

“We- we can stop by the dry cleaners on the way," you stammer as you politely look away.

๋࣭ ⭑🕸 fin 🕸๋࣭ ⭑

Thank you for reading.

[moonlight-tmd]

team prime but what they do at night when they can't recharge; I got this idea from a silly little idea that bots go to sleep like we do instead of just powering down.

I headcanon that bee would either toss and turn until settling into his back and stare at the ceiling, get up and go for a midnight stroll, hum/sing to himself, or play videogames when he can't recharge.

OP would do everything in his power to get back to recharge until giving in and either check up on his teammates (standing outside their door for a nanoklik before moving on) , read a data pad, or sharpen his axe.

It's a rare occurrence for ratchet to not be able to recharge as he's old and needs it, but he doesn't care so he stays up late filing or organizing data pads.

Bulk would sleep soundly but if he can't then he'll do the cybertronian equivalent for counting sheep, probably be careful as he can while trying to paint, or think up of cool ideas/stuff to paint tomorrow.

Prowl would turn onto his side and stare at the tree in his room with the available light in the room from the moon. Or get up and get some oil/something to refuel himself with, or think of things he normally wouldn't/doesn't get the chance too.

That's a cool idea.

I mean, the only transformers fandoms i was ever interested in were the 2 cartoons; Rescue Bots and now TFA. I actually watched the older season or 2 of Rescue Bots- there was an episode where one of the bots (Blades) was sneaking out and woke up another bot (Boulder).

So yeh, i think their recharge mode is more like a sleep mode on a laptop or pc. The sensitivity of it- as in what will wake them up from it- varies depending on the transformer itself. For example, one could wake up to a thud or a small sound and the other could sleep thru a storm or even an alarm.

I imagine Bee is the type to not need much recharge to function, somehow this mf is energetic almost all the time. Because of that, he won't be able to go to recharge at least once a week. His battery is just not drained enough. So what he does is he'll pull a gaming night or have a romance movie night. Or if he really wants to recharge, he'll drive around town and do some crazy donuts on the outskirts, anything to get his battery low enough to recharge.

Optimus is the type that is he's not recharging he'll get flashbacks to his life's mistakes. So if he can't recharge he will stay up and catch up on his reports if he hasn't done them. He'll go over his recipes, read a book or like you said, sharpen his axe. He will get everything he needs and walk out into the parking lot so the sounds don't wake up his team, sit on the shipping container and sharpen it while looking at the few stars in the sky.

Ratchet will absolutely pull an all-nighter organizing his files and med folders, a little less work for tomorrow... Most often tho he ends up sprawled at his desk at the end on the night. He didn't need recharge at that moment but he does need it after all.

Rarely Bulkhead can't recharge at night- recharging soundly is an effect of growing up on the farm where there was sound basically all cycle long. Those times he can't fall into recharge he'll just lay and imagine what pretty things he could paint. Or count Quarills to help him recharge. (A Quarill is a made up creature, i think it'll be like a 6-legged cybertronian horse, similar to Avatar's Direhorse)

Prowl is also the minibot of the team- although unlike Bumblebee, he's not all energetic and moving all the time so he's not burning his battery as much. It's often Prowl can't recharge, instead he will go out and refuel since his meditation makes him forget to do so during the day. He'll absolutely snoop around the pantry and steal something good to eat that he usually wouldn't. Other times he will sneak out and go on a nightly stroll around the parks and nearby forest. He's the one that is put on night patrols more often, in fact he asked Optimus if he could do them(it's quieter and more peaceful at night). So if he's not on night patrol, he will do the things i listed above.

Bonus: Sari will just eat all the fucking candy he father hid from her and snoop around the other parts of the tower that are still functioning. If she's having a sleepover at the Autobot Base she will go and seek Bee. They'll play video games or watch a movie Sari eventually will get tired, she's just a 10yo, and doze off on Bee's lap. Then he will bring her back to her bed and either go recharge himself or do what he does when he can't recharge.