#gee guys i haven't seen you since

[mintmechs]

was reminded that chameleons can see in two different directions

[ugotcooneycrossed]

Request idea: Overhearing Alessia gushing about you to someone

a/n: being so fr you sent this forever ago and i forgot about it im sorry😭

you walk around base camp trying to find alessia.

you haven't seen her all day- well since she left two hours ago to go on a walk with tooney and mary, but still, that was forever ago.

you walk into the rest room at camp and you see a mop of blonde hair poking out over the back of the couch- you jump in excitement and run over- only for your face fall in disappointment at hempo sitting on the couch building her legos

"oh its just you- don't do that hempo."

you walk off and hempo looks after you.

"what?"

-

you're sulking now, walking through the halls alone- you tried to hang out with gee and keira but they both kicked you out after the fifth time you checked your phone and sighed, when you saw no messages from alessia.

"i just- love her so much you know."

you perk up at alessia voice and hover at the open door- listening to her talk.

"she's my everything guys- i've never, never loved anyone as much as i love her. i love waking up next to her every morning, i love the way she balances me out. i love the way she wakes me up every morning with kisses. i love the way she complains i hog the blankets- yet always makes sure im warm enough at night. i'd even let her drive my car."

"wow."

"awee lessi's in looovveeee."

"guys- im not kidding, she makes me feel special, and-"

"i love you too lessibaby."

you take the moment to poke your head inside, and open your arms for a hug.

alessia- now flushed slightly red comes to you, and buries her face in your neck.

"you heard me?"

you nod- pressing a kiss to her cheek

"i did."

you pull away from the hug- cupping her face in your hands. you stroke her cheeks and pull her in for a soft kiss.

"i love you so, so much too."

mary and tooney start gagging- and push each other to leave the room first

"god get a room."

"hurry- before they do something."

[pablitogavii]

Can you do one of gavi is jealous because the girls/guys and fam keep stealing you at gatherings w friends and family and then the rest is up to u

"Amooor!" Pablo called while you were standing by the pool talking to Aurora about her recent trip to Italy and she giggled saying how 'whiny her little brother is' which was true but you adored it anyways.

"What is it Pablito?" you walk towards him and he immediately snaked his arms around your waist and pulled you into a tight embrace not caring that you were in the middle of the backyard and that his entire family was right there.

"When are we gonna go home??" he whispered and you moved a little to look into his eyes wondering why he wanted to leave so suddenly since you just finished having lunch.

"Are you tired, mi campeon?" you asked knowing that this morning he had another long training but he didn't seem exhausted when you were getting ready to head to his family house?

"No..I just want to spend time with you" he said and you blush lightly chuckling a little remind him that you are spending time together all day at his family's house.

"But..but..they always steal you away from me..and I just wanna be with you!" he was definitely not exaggerating since his family really loves you and the moment you arrived, they all practically pulled you from one side of the house to another.

"Pablito, we haven't seen them in awhile..it would be rude to leave so soon after having lunch" you say and he nods knowing that you are right (you were always right) and knowing that he didn't want to disrespect his family.

"Give me un besito amor.." he sighed and just as you placed your lips on his, Belen called your name making Pablo groan while you chuckled leaving to see what the lady wanted.

For the rest of the night, Pablo clung to you not caring that you were talking to someone else, or watching pictures on his sister's phone. He was determined to spend time with you and wasn't going to leave your side!

"Gee let the girl breathe hermanito!" Aurora said and you quickly intervened knowing that would make Pablo self conscious and wondering weather he is really suffocating you which wasn't true at all.

"It's okay..I like it" you say with a blush and Pablo smiled smirking at his sister who rolled her eyes at his childish nature.

"You two are so adorable it's sickening!" she said when he kissed your shoulder and you giggled before going to find her own boyfriend.

"Finally she left..more besitos before someone else steals you!" Pablo made it a game to kiss whenever you could find some moments alone until someone would of course call your name and interrupt.

"Y/n! Let me show you the garden" Pablo's dad was next knowing your passion for gardening which he shared and Pablo smiled pecking your lips one more time before grabbing your hand and going with you.

"Three this time..not bad!" Pablo whispered referring to the number of stolen kisses in your moment of peace making you blush and giggle while joining his dad in the garden.

"Since when do you like gardening hijo? I couldn't get him in here for years..unless that one time he played fútbol and kicked the ball into my roses!" his father said and Pablo blushed a little while you giggled messing up his hair.

"So garden destroyer, you gonna destroy our garden one day too??" you said to him after leaving his dad and Pablo smirked moving closer to your ear before whispering "nope but our son will princesa" and that made your cheeks turn from slightly pink to bright red while he chuckled kissing your lips.

"Hey Y/n! Can I get your advice on this girl I met on Bumble?" one of Pablo's oldest friends asked making him groan and roll his eyes at him. What was this: try and snatch Pablo's girl away day!?

"She's not a dating coach, cabrón!" Pablo snickered but you hit his shoulder.

"But she is a girl and she knows what girls mean when they say weird things.." and that was true so you went to help him politely. Sometimes Pablo wished you weren't so polite!

"She doesn't like you, Marco..I'm sorry" you said after reading the messages while sitting on Pablo's lap cause he wouldn't have it any other way.

"Even I knew that.." Pablo added and you hit his shoulder again earning an eye-roll and a kiss on the side of your neck.

"How do you know??" Marco asked and you explained in a few simple sentences while he nodded opening his eyes wide.

"Yeah, this one kept me awake until five in the morning for a whole week..Xavi hated it..but I wouldn't fall asleep if my life depended on it!" Pablo said and you blushed remembering the silly game of 'who's going to hang up first' that you would play on face time resulting in both of you falling asleep talking to each other.

"I would lose most of the times.." you admit and Pablo nodded proudly.

"You would lose all of the time amor..that's how i fell in love with your snores!" he chuckled and you blushed shaking your head saying that he is lying.

"Am I really snoring??" you said afterwards when you were alone again and he kissed your lips shaking his head.

"Of course not but it was cute seeing your face flustered" he said and you smacked his shoulder calling him a 'cabrón' while he nodded kissing your lips and adding 'only your cabrón nena' and you smiled proudly at him.

"Y/n!!" someone called and Pablo groaned saying 'Here we go again!' while you chuckled and held his hand to walk towards the person calling you.

Once you were finally at home, cuddled up on the bed he pulled you close kissing the top of your head lovingly while you melted into his touch. It was truly your favorite time of the day when you could snuggle up to him and peacefully fall asleep.

"I love you so much nena..and I finally have you all to myself" he said and you smiled nodding your head and moving even closer until you could feel his hot breath on your neck and his nose buried taking a chance to enjoy your scent.

[yuzurins]

# to tell you the truth

04 — strangers with memories

smau masterlist ∗ previous chapter ∗ next chapter

was it foolish for you to assume that you wouldn’t encounter anyone you knew while working at a bookstore less than a kilometre away from your university? 

probably.

be it anyone else, you most definitely wouldn’t have reacted this dramatically. but of course it had to be itoshi rin, coincidentally the one guy you wanted to avoid at all costs. you haven't seen the guy in person since high school graduation, and this was definitely not how you expected it to go.

when you first realized it was him back at the bookstore, you quickly bowed and turned around to pack up your belongings, hoping he got the message. it irked you to even spare a single glance at his face, as his features dug up memories that you worked too hard to bury. knowing rin, you expected him to leave immediately after to avoid interacting with you, but to your surprise, the athlete walked over expressionless and casually placed 2 books down.

“these two," he pauses and inhales, "please.”

you held back a very strong urge to gasp; never in a million years would you have ever believed that the itoshi rin would ever say that 6 letter word to you. what was this guy up to? was he trying to deploy reverse psychology or something?

“okay.” you pursed your lips, and scanned his books. “are you signed up for our membership program?”

he merely nods.

you raise an eyebrow. so it isn’t his first time here?

as he punches in his phone number, you take the moment to examine his figure out of curiosity, though not much as changed about him since high school. you do notice that his eyes seem half-lidded, and you hate it so much how the first thought that comes to mind is the fact that it’s past his regular bedtime. 

"what are you even doing here..." you mumble subconsciously a little too loudly, widening your eyes immediately after as if you had asked yourself that question. (though it wasn't really a question and more of a complaint)

rin scoffs, breaking his stupid act. "buying books? obviously?"

"did you have to come to this store?" the receipt starts coming out and you place it in a bag with the books, handing it over to him reluctantly after. "and this late too?"

he snatches the bag from you with more force than needed. "why does it matter to you? shouldn't you be grateful i'm even giving you business?"

"gee. wow. thanks."

"you better be."

you roll your eyes at him. "thought you still slept at 8 like an old person.”

"thought you were smarter than to assume nothing's changed." rin furrows his brows, narrowing his eyes at you.

shrugging, you rest your head on the back of your palm and stare at him. "i just thought you still had no life. and i'm not wrong about that, am i?"

he grits his teeth and you find yourself smirking at his exasperation, until he says, "at least what i do with my life gets me results, miss second place."

he did not just say that.

you retract your arm from the desk to cross them, a scowl adorning your face. "watch your words, itoshi. you better savour that moment as much as you can because it's not happening again."

rin smiles sarcastically before turning around and leaving. you scoff, but it isn’t until you hear the bell of the door ring that you feel safe enough to exhale. there was no way that that just happened right now. you were so focused on not trying not embarrass yourself in front of rin that it slipped your mind what books he bought, but it didn’t matter anyway. why did you even care if you embarrassed yourself in front of him? every memory about what happened then has been locked away, and you swear that you wouldn't hold a childish grudge anymore. the only reason why you still act bitter to him is because he suddenly keeps scoring higher than you, and your pride refuses to back down to him.

rin’s just an annoying guy who just keeps getting lucky in school, that’s all. 

a notification from reo brings you back to reality, reminding you that you’re technically working overtime now and you need to close up as soon as possible. 

as you walk out of the door, you fish out your phone and respond to incoming texts from the groupchat, humming to yourself as music played in your ears. the route home is more than familiar enough to you, but you still take a glance at the area around the bookstore just in case. there’s a park, a ramen store, an aesthetic cafe, and a convenience store that someone dressed in all black is exiting. that’s unusual, you think, because it’s late, and this neighbourhood is fairly secluded.

then you remember who was just at your store and would be in the proximity of the area. 

hurriedly, you turn around and speedwalk in the direction of your apartment. he shouldn’t have seen you, right?

there’s a slight rustling of leaves and you warily steal a quick glance behind you without thinking.

why on earth is itoshi rin walking behind you now?

notes: hi sorry it’s late i fg LOL n e ways i don't like this !!! but writer block is killing me and i need to write something so bear with this t-t you get the idea anyways (barely proof but its ok)

pairing ∗ itoshi rin x f!reader

synopsis — all you wanted was a peaceful and productive uni life, but despite your pleas, your plans start crumbling when the star of the football team, itoshi rin, begins to beat you in every aspect possible. as you confront the inevitable, what happens when you uncover secrets behind an unforgettable event from the past?

taglist ∗ send an ask / comment to be added or removed

@kitorin @starthz @jleijl @rintosei @strawberrypockybox @beanxiv @ode2rin @h4nman @hanmastattoos @kaitfae @idk-bro-gay @piichuu @wishiknewwhatiwasdoingwithmylife @invictax @chaosinanutshell @exatse @kirameki-kumo @heartsoji @mellozhi @certaindreampost @limerence-lu @nutsinspector @kawaii-angelanne @rroxii @saesins @anngelllla @anurst @y-sabell-a @hellothere9597 @evilenchantresss @msameikanevaeh (if your name is in bold it means i can't tag you)

[effy-writes]

Addict (Blitz x Reader)

7: CHERUB: Wack The Hell Out Of ‘Em

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

The group was flipping through the channels, trying to figure out what to watch.

You didn't look so good, occasional tremors, couldn't stop scratching yourself, and very noticeable eye bags were seen. You haven't been doing drugs since that one incident during spring break, but you're slowly falling back into the hole. You can't get ahold of anything because Blitz is always keeping an eye on you.

The years of doing drugs still left a number on your body/face. You were still thin because the stimulants fucked up your stomach so you get full easily. Your face had scratch scars on them from meth binges, and your teeth well…some were missing and chipped. You hated yourself for doing this, you hate your parents, and you hate the circus. If it wasn’t for greed then you wouldn’t be going through withdrawals at work. If it wasn’t for greed then Blitz wouldn’t have to be up your ass all the time (literally too).

Your head rested on the cold table. It cooled your skin, helping with the low grade fever you had. Even though you were still shaking, the temperature of the table soothed you. The table rumbled, making you raise your head up in a very annoyed way.

"Guys... do you feel that?" Loona questioned as her ears perked up.

"Oh, shit! Is that a hellshake?" Blitz jumped up.

You rolled your eyes, "Those don't exist."

"That's possible?" Moxxie added.

"No, Moxxie. Blitz is just an asshole." You spat.

"Hey!" Blitz pointed his finger at you before losing his balance due to the shake.

"Don't panic, Moxxie!" Millie put her hands on her husband's shoulders.

"I'm not panicking because hellquakes don't happen."

"STOP GETTING HYSTERICAL, FATTY!" Loona shook him.

Everyone flinched whenever the wall was tore down. You dusted yourself off and looked at the new hole.

"Oh goddamnit, I just scrubbed the hell out of that wall!"

A hybrid robotic guy stepped out, "Do not be afraid!"

"Please tell me you got that insurance thing." Blitz groaned.

Millie grabbed her axe and was ready to attack this older fellow, "Who are you, and what do you want!"

"I am Loopty Goopty! Dastardly inventor of all things loopy and loopiiiiiish!"

"Loopy Goopty?" You asked Millie, the two of you snickering.

"Coulda just used the door, dude. Doesn't need to be this whole thing." Loona acknowledge.

"Ugh! This old fuck reeks of the living world. Did you just die?" Blitz crossed his arms.

"Yes! Moments ago, in fact! Which is what brought me here!"

"Just sayin'... the front door would've gotten you here fine." Loona pulled out her phone and started typing.

"Shut up, dear furry!"

You couldn't contain your laughter, Loona growled and pointed at you. "Hey! You're going to clean this shit up so I don't know why you're laughing!"

Loopy showed Blitz the man that he wants them to kill, "Not even a shit's length of time in Hell and already plotting revenge. I can respect a man with that sort of passion! I'm Blitzo, the "O" is silent."

"What O?"

"Aww thank you, now what's the tea, sis?"

During their interaction, Moxxie was shouting for help in which nobody helped him. You looked around and sighed, walking over to Moxxie and tried picking up the debris. You obviously struggled to get it off.

"You can use your strength to fight a fish but not to pick up a wall?"

You slumped your shoulders.

"Sorry, I can tell I hit a nerve there."

You didn't say anything and finally lifted up the debris with a grunt.

"Alright Y/n, you're coming with us to kill this guy!" Blitz pulled you away.

"Blitz-"

He pulled you closer to him and whispered, "I don't want you to do drugs so I'm forcing you to go," He gritted.

~~~

The four imps put on some shitty disguises and found their way to Lyle's mansion.

"Gee! I wonder whose house this is." Moxxie said with sarcasm.

"Let's do this, gang!" Blitz demanded.

The three imps was spying on him through the window, (you on the other hand wasn’t even looking out the window, you didn’t even wanna be here).

"That machine really did a number on him." Moxxie acknowledged.

Lyle tied the tubes that were connected to him into a noose before putting it around his neck.

"Oh, fantastic! He's gonna do our job for us!" Blitz rejoiced, looking over at you, whose back was against the wall, not looking in.

"Don't want to see him kill himself?" He joked.

"Not really, no."

A blast of light blinded the main four. "What the fuck?" You uncovered your eyes.

"Who the fuck are they?" Blitz coughed.

"Oh no, they're-"

"Cherubs, Mr. Lyle!" They interrupted Moxxie.

"I hate filthy orphan children!"

"We're here to convince you not to kill yourself sir!"

Blitz angrily stood up and made his way into the house, "Oh, HEEEELL no!"

Moxxie and Millie followed Blitz. You didn't care about this whole thing, you just wanted to leave. You're not even pissed that you can't get stimulants, pissed that you have to be here trying to kill someone. Not because of your morals, you don't give a fuck about killing, but it's because you think you're not capable of doing so without stimulants.

The 3 imps and the 3 cherubs rolled Lyle's bed outside to see nature. Blitz realized that you weren't with them.

"Y/n!" He yelled.

You groaned and walked over to the others, "Here, dad."

"Hey now, we both agreed for you to call me that on the full moon."

Everyone turned their heads and stared at you two with horror on their faces.

"What? Fucking prudes." Blitz scoffed.

"Look around, Lyle. God's gift of nature is a wonder to behold, regardless of age!" One of the Cherubs beamed.

"Mm-hm. You're gonna buy that load of shit from a baby and the sheep it fucks?" Blitz laughed.

Keenie gasped, "That is so inappropriate!"

"Aaaanyway, take it from me, a fellow genius. Nature is no picnic up close." Blitz pulled out binoculars and handed it to Lyle. There was some animals gnawing at one another. The Cherubs was trying to take it away from him but he won't budge.

"I can't stop! I never wanted to die more than ever now!"

The Cherubs try to keep convincing Lyle to not kill himself by taking him to the mall and Lovers Lookout, but the imps (other than you) were trying to point out all of the bad things about these places.

Blitz caught on soon enough, Millie and Moxxie don't know what's going on between the two of you. Neither Blitz nor you has mentioned the drug addictions and what happened during Spring Break. The only thing Millie and Moxxie know was that you were in rehab.

They all ended up watching an opera. You were actually pretty relaxed about this opera, you enjoy them oddly enough.

"So... how do we make this bad?" Millie questioned.

"We can't. There's literally nothing bad about opera. That's fact."

"I actually agree with you, Mox." You spoke.

He gasped, "You like operas!"

"I do."

"Enough of the chit chatter, I have an idea on how to make it bad." Blitz said mischievously.

Blitz kept messing with the light and the opera singer, before you know it, it ended up falling and crushing the poor woman. Your's and Moxxie's jaws dropped.

The Cherubs angrily fly up to the imps. "That's it! I have had it! We're just trying to do our jobs!"

"And so are we!" Moxxie yelled.

"Enough!" He drew a golden bow and arrow, "We are saving that shitty old man's life, whether he wants it or not!"

"Well, someone wants that fucker dead, m'kay? And he paid in advance, and I spent it all on this jewelry, so he's gotta go!" Blitz yelled back.

The Cherubs started to fight the main three. You felt like you needed to help since you haven't done jack shit today. A wooden rod caught your eye, deciding to use that to possibly hit one of the Cherubs.

You stood on the rail of the catwalk and saw Cleatus in the air, getting ready to fight Blitz. You took a deep breath and jumped off, swinging the wooden rod directly to his face. The Cherub screamed as he flew across.

Oh shit I haven't thought this through. Gravity pushed you down and right before you fell onto the bloodied up stage somebody grabbed your leg.

"Way to go, Y/n!" Blitz shouted. He used his momentum to swing back onto the catwalk and hoisted you up.

Blitz lost his balanced and dropped you directly on top of him. "I know you like to be on top but can you get up?" He teased.

"Right, sorry." You stood up, reaching your hand to help him up but he didn't take it.

The two got off of the crosswalk and saw Lyle lying dead.

"Guess the Cherubs did the job for us." You laughed.

"You know...you should seriously become an assassin with us."

"I don't know Blitz...I barely did anything. Just wack 'em with a broom."

"We can teach you, I can teach you." He placed his hands on your shoulders.

"I need the strength, Blitz. I need the stamina, the energy."

Blitz knew what you were getting at. "Y/n...you don't need stimulants. I saw you jump and swung the hell out of that fucker. I believe in you." He reassured, lips curling into a soft smile.

You slowly nodded your head to agree. "Thanks, Blitz."

You partially agree with him, you may not need stimulants, but you believe that you'll be better if you do them.

~~~

"Welp, the old man wanted to live again and we didn't kill him, so we failed. Thanks to those fuckin' cherubs, he's probably up in Heaven now, so... It's a shame. All our client wanted was eternal revenge on his business partner. And now the two are forever separated, and now we gotta face the fire of fuckin' up." He sighed.

"Sir... when are you going to tell the client?" Moxxie asked.

Blitz held up his phone, "Oh, I already sent him a text, and... we're in good hands, 'cause texts don't make people angry."

Everyone heard yelling in the distance. A metal escalator crashed into a different part of the wall. The debris falling on top of Moxxie again with Lyle Lipton stepping out.

"Lyle Lipton?" Millie and Blitz yelled.

"I don't understand. We thought you went to Heaven." Millie raised her eyebrow.

"Heaven?! You don't make millions in technological advances in robotics by NOT experimenting on the poor!" Lyle laughed.

"Oh, you no-good, HEARTLESS son of a BITCH" Loopty turned to Blitz, "Thank you for reuniting me with my best friend!"

"The only question now is what do two old genius robotic inventors do now that we're in Hell?" Lyle questioned.

Wally crashes through the ceiling, and the two robotic (possibly lovers) had smiles that reached ear to ear.

"Everyone, STOP FUCKIN' UP MY WALLS! Moxxie's gonna have to fix all this shit!"

"Me? Y/n is the janitor!"

"Not anymore, Mox! This bitch got promoted!"

"I guess... you can say, you say, you have a... holey operation here, Blitzo!" Wally pointed to the open wall and laughed.

"Get out." Blitz deadpanned.

Wally and the two possibly robotic lovers exchanged looks.

"No, I'm serious. Get the FUCK OUT!"

The three left, damaging another wall.

"Y/n got promoted?" Millie cheered. "Since when?"

"Since today! Y/n, you're our new assassin!" Blitz gave you a drawn certificate that is filled with horse drawings and says, "Cumgrats."

"Sir, does Y/n know how to fight?"

"Nope! But she sure can wack the hell out of things." He ruffled your hair.

"Please stop messing with my hair."

[hear-meout19]

Darling, I don't wish you well when you ain't with me (I want you crying)

{P.1}

ᴄ.ᴡ. ɴꜱꜰᴡ, ɪɴꜰɪᴅᴇʟɪᴛʏ, ᴀɢᴇᴅ ᴜᴘ, ᴅᴇɢʀᴀᴅᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, ʜᴜᴍɪʟɪᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, ᴏᴠᴇʀ-ꜱᴛɪᴍᴜʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, ᴏʀᴀʟ ꜱᴇx, ᴅᴏɢɢʏ ꜱᴛʏʟᴇ, ᴘᴜʙʟɪᴄ ꜱᴇx, ᴄʟᴏᴛʜᴇᴅ ꜱᴇx, ʙʀᴇᴇᴅɪɴɢ ᴋɪɴᴋ

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

As she strolled down the bustling street, her phone clasped tightly to her ear, she chatted away with her mother, excitedly discussing her new house. Amidst the sea of strangers passing by, a face caught her eye. A face she knew all too well, a face that brought back memories of a time long gone.

Her heart raced as she recognized him, it was unmistakably Butters Stotch. It had been years since they had last seen each other. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do.

Should she say hello? Should she keep walking, pretending not to notice him?

But before she could make a decision, he spotted her too. Their eyes locked and the world around her faded away. She couldn't believe it was really him, standing there in front of her.

As she looks up, disbelief washes over her. 

"Butters..? Is that really you? I can't believe it's been so long!" Her gaze travels over his face, taking in the changes since high school. He's taller now, with broader shoulders, a mustache, and a more defined jawline, but those bright blue eyes are unmistakable.

As he gazes at her, a flicker of an emotion passes through his eyes that she can't decipher. However, before she can even process it, it vanishes. "I apologize, ma'am, but it seems you've confused me with someone else. The name's Vic, Vic Chaos!" He beams at her and offers his hand for a shake.

She hesitates for a moment before taking his hand, unsure. "Oh, okay.. Vic. It was good to see you." She starts to pull away, but he holds onto her hand tightly.

"Hey, wait! Don't go just yet," he says with a playful smile. “W-what have you been up to?” 

Her eyes dart down to where their hands are still joined before meeting his gaze again. "Well, I just moved back home to South Park. It's strange being back; I've been down in California since graduation."

Butters or “Vic Chaos”, nods enthusiastically, eyes trained on her, clearly very interested in her story.

“Oh wow! That’s awesome, what made you move back?” He finally drops her hand absentmindedly, like he didn’t realize he was still holding it. 

She looks away, brow furrowing slightly as she sighs. “I'm going through a.. rough patch.. in my marriage right now. He's still in California, and our counselor suggested some distance might be good for us.”

She shuts her mouth quickly, surprised at how much she's revealed. She's not sure why she's telling all of this to someone she hasn't seen in 15 years. He probably thinks she's weird for unloading all of her problems onto him.

Vic's expression softens. “Aw shucks, that's a bummer. Long-distance can be rough, but maybe it'll help you sort things out. But you know, if he can’t handle you then maybe it’s time to move on.” He says as he shrugs. 

She's taken aback by his genuine response, God she absolutely cannot get a read on this guy. She smiles at him, grateful for his kind words. "Thanks, Vic. That means a lot to me. What about you? Are you married?"

He grins and chuckles lightly. "Naw, I'm still single. Haven't found the right gal yet, I guess. Y’know, still waitin’ to get hitched!” 

She reaches out and pats his arm reassuringly. "I'm sure the right girl will come along soon.”

He glances at her hand on his arm and back up at her with a bashful smile. "Gee thanks, I hope so too! Who knows, maybe I'll find her someday," he laughs, gently patting her hand.

"How come you're here?" She gestures to his sharp suit. "Business trip?"

"Naw, I actually live here. I travel for work a whole lot though, so I'm a bit of a nomad. I'm an...investor of sorts." He flashes her a lopsided grin.

Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "Really? I had no idea you were some big shot now," she chuckles.

He laughs, throwing his head back, “Yeah, I guess you could call me that”.

Before he can speak further, her phone rings, and she groans. She takes out her phone and quickly turns it off, rolling her eyes in frustration.

“Sorry about that, that was my husband calling. I should probably go.” She shoots him an apologetic smile. “It was lovely seeing you again, Victor.”

She smiles and turns around but is spun back around by his grip on her arm.

“W-wait!” He says quickly. “Wanna get dinner with me later? We’ve got a lot to catch up on!” He gives her a charismatic grin. 

She hesitates, unsure of how to respond. She hadn't seen him in years, and now he's asking her out to dinner? What would her husband think? But the way he's looking at her, with that irresistible grin and those piercing blue eyes, makes it hard to say no.

"I don't know, Victor," she says softly, biting her lip. "I don't think it's a good idea."

His expression falls slightly, but he doesn't let go of her arm. "Come on, it'll be just like old times. We'll catch up on everything and have some great food." He leans in a little closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "I promise it'll be worth it."

She feels a thrill run through her at his words, but she quickly shakes it off. This is crazy, she can't go out to dinner with him. Not when she's still trying to work things out with her husband.

He chuckles as she takes a moment to process his offer. "Come on, it'll be fun. We can catch up and reminisce about old times," he adds with a playful wink.

She chews on her lower lip for a moment, mulling over the invitation before finally nodding. "Yeah, that sounds great. It'll be good to catch up with you." A twinge of guilt tugs at her conscience as she thinks about her marriage, but she dismisses the feeling with a shake of her head.

He grins widely, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement. "Great! How about that Italian place downtown? Eight o'clock?"

She nods again, smiling. "Sounds perfect."

As they part ways, she can't help but feel a flutter of excitement in her chest. Maybe this dinner with Victor would be just the distraction she needs.

[chickensoupleg]

I'm putting a little guy in a pocket! Pokemon style!

--

It was a particularly cold day in Hawkins. The ground was covered in a grand heap of snow with even more joining it from above, and Steve was freezing. He was stuck with shoveling duties on the fact that it was still only him in his house, his parents off to some sunny warm region and not dealing with some snowstorm.

He still needed to get to work and it wasn't as if he had a Pokemon to miraculously fly him to work.

Steve looks to the side, his Chansey hard at work with her own shovel. At least he had help.

The rumbling of a car approaches, Steve looking out to the streets. He knows that blue camaro anywhere.

Billy parks half on the street half on the small amount of driveway that was free before coming out, a bird sticking out from his knit hat.

"Heya sailor, isn't it cold to be standing out here all by your lonesome? You should be inside all toasty warm in your cabana," Billy says.

Steve jabs his shovel into the snow, leaning on the handle. "Well, if you must know, I have work and need my car." He points to his car, which was buried in snow. "And if you haven't guessed, it's a little trapped."

Billy hums, hands tucked in his pockets. He didn't look the slightest bit dressed for the weather, shoved in his denim jacket and a sweater Steve knows was from his wardrobe that he didn't remember Billy stealing. The only thing that even looked appropriate was the hat, Billy's Fletchling still hanging out from its brim. The tiny robin Pokemon chirps at Steve, squirming out from her little cosy spot to fly over to Steve, landing on his shoulder. Steve could moan from how naturally warm she was, but he supposed her being a fire type would do it.

Probably why Billy had her shoved up in his hat.

"So, what brings you here to my domain?" Steve pulls out his shovel, going back to work on at least getting the driveway free enough. The snow should stop falling soon, or so he hoped it will.

Billy saunters up. "What, can I not visit my favourite Harrington?" He slings an arm around Steve's shoulder, displacing his Fletching who pecks at his finger irritably. Billy waves her away, Fletchling choosing to instead settle on Steve's Chansey. Chansey was still shoveling away without a care in the world, cosy in the scarf Steve had wrapped her with.

"I'm the only Harrington you know." Steve grumbles. Billy laughs, patting his shoulder.

"True. But that just makes you number one, no competition to be seen." Billy's hand presses against his cheek. It's warm still. "You're freezing, Steves!" He exclaims.

"Gee whiz, man, I didn't realise." Steve rolls his eyes.

Billy says nothing, and Steve wonders what he's up to.

He feels Billy shove two fingers down the front side pocket of his jacket. Steve jolts, swatting at his hand. "Hey! Hey hands off!"

Billy pulls away, smiling that smug little grin. Steve has no idea what he's up to. The other boy winks at him.

Steve throws snow in his direction, Billy laughing and dancing away.

"Ah, come off it Steve! Here, you're gonna freeze otherwise." Billy walks back to his car, opening the door and shoving his front half in, the back half still standing there. Steve turns away and continues to shovel away snow from the driveway. He's not sure what Billy's looking for, and frankly he's too cold and miserable to care.

A moment later, something else is shoved down his pocket. Before Steve could react it chirps. A saving grace of a chirp since Steve was close to clapping his hand over it. He looks down, blue-ish eyes staring back up at him.

"Billy."

"Yeeees?"

"When did you get a Torchic?"

"Ah, Torchic belongs to Heather. You know, Heather Holloway? Lives like a couple blocks that way?"

"Okay..." The Torchic snuggles deeper into his pocket, now just a bulge in his jacket. "Why do you have her Pokemon?"

"He's warm." Billy gestures to the snow. "It's cold."

"Well if you dressed more appropriately then maybe you won't need to be stealing people's fire-types. Besides, you have a fire bird already." Steve jabs his thumb towards Fletchling.

Billy hums. "Well you don't. And you seemed awful cold."

"Does Heather even know you have her Torchic?"

Billy slowly shuffles back.

"Billy."

Billy shuffles to the front door of his car.

"Billy."

Billy opens the door. Whistles for his Fletchling, who comes obediently flying over and into the car.

"William."

Billy clicks his tongue twice, salutes him, then drops into his car and drives away as if the road wasn't at risk of ice.

"HARGROVE."

Torchic pokes his head out from his pocket, peeping and looking up at Steve. Steve looks down at the mon. He supposed he did feel warmer now.

He sighs. "Let's hope Heather doesn't disintegrate me for holding you hostage. It is freezing out here."

[14muffinz]

improv with ease

inspired by @blackfire-fanfiction 's soul switching au

words: 1287

notes: I haven't written for this au (or TMNT at all really) in a long time haha

~~~

Raph is glaring at his brother’s shell. The effect is lost on the fact that Leo hasn’t turned around since he slinked up next to the alternate version of Donnie, but if none of his brothers are going to do it, someone certainly has to.

It figures that their two dimensions would have to intercept again some time. After all, with the Leonardo’s situation, at some point they would have tried to at the very least get in proper contact, because for some reason the Leonardos are insistent that they don’t just shut the whole switching thing down outright.

But it’s different this time, because this isn’t their universe, and the guy in Leo’s body isn’t their Leo. He’s the impostor, the turtle local to this dimension, and Raph is choosing to ignore the way he’s shuffling nervously beside him, because seriously, he could tell the truth to the alternate versions of them at any point. They’re doing this entirely to themselves.

Leo taps something on Other Donnie’s phone, and the purple-clad turtle swipes his phone away abruptly, glaring. Leo raises both brow muscles and quirks the corners of his lips up. Other Mikey turns around and rolls his eyes as though this is an every day sort of thing, and Raph tries and fails to relate this to the dynamic between Donnie and Leo.

“Raph,” Leo actually whines, completely throwing Raph off. It’s so childish and unlike the way Leo tends to present himself. Other Raph spins around, face crafted into something neutral as he walks backward. Other Mikey is not subtly leaning against him to keep him from tripping. “Donnie’s being territorial with his phone again.”

Other Raph sighs, spinning back around, and creating distance between he and Other Mikey with the use of his absurdly large tail. Like, seriously, he might be a bit smaller than Leatherhead, but he still has the guy’s proportions, and it's weird. Other Raph scolds, “Leo, stop trying to steal things from your twin.”

Leo huffs, and Other Donnie shoots a victorious smile over at Leo before going back to tapping at his phone. Leo waits a few beats for him to offer the phone back out, and then sighs and retreats to the back of the group, where Raph and his brothers are sticking together.

“So,” he says, and the shit has the gaul to smile right now. “It’s been a few months since we’ve seen you guys, hasn’t it? Has anything interesting happened since the last time we spoke?”

“Is this seriously necessary?” Donnie asks, sounding similarly confused and peeved with Leo’s current behaviour.

Leo elbows him. “C’mon, Other Dee, throw me a bone here. Dontron is obsessed with all this parallel universe crap, I need something to hang over his head for a little.”

“Mondo got the rest of his stuff out of his parents apartment,” Leon pipes up, not seeming even a little phased by Leo’s intentional rudeness. Then again, Leo seems to be pretending to be Leon, so that sort of checks out. “Other than that, it’s been a pretty calm week.”

“Gee, thank god someone was picking up what I was putting down,” Leo sighs, and while it starts off with that same cocky attitude, it trails off quickly into what seems to be genuine anger. “So, anyways, I didn’t finish clearing out April’s spare room for the week, so I could set you guys up in there. But after that I’m gonna turn in early, I haven’t gotten a good full sleep in a while.”

“You are terrible at subtlety,” Leon hisses angrily.

The attitude drops, and Raph is thrown off by how unreadable the tone is when Leo says, “I’ve been the top player in charades for years, haven’t I?”

“Maybe it’s time to stop playing,” Donnie says seriously.

Raph’s brain isn’t going fast enough for all of these metaphors, but unfortunately he’s not quite rude enough to call the Leonardos out on it. Their decisions, at the end of the day, are their stupid decisions.

“We’ll think about it,” Leo says. “But, y’know. Maybe I’ll wait ‘till it stops pissing my twin off so much when I stop. I’ve asked him if we could stop before, but he got all angry and uptight about it, because he wasn’t ready for things to change.”

And then he winks right at Raph.

Raph purposefully increases the energy behind his glare, but Leo only sighs before dashing forward towards their counterparts from what seems like a random burst of energy.

“Whoever wakes up first tomorrow,” Leon says quietly, with a similar unreadable tone to the one that Leo had just used. “We’ll deal with it, okay? And just like last time, it’ll probably be for a few days, so there’s plenty of chances for things to get a bit more normal.”

“Stop speaking in riddles,” Mikey requests. “This is making my brain hurt.”

“Okay,” Leon says, and then he loudly asks, “What time is it here, by the way?”

“Past dinner,” comes the near synchronous reply. Other Mikey spins around, skipping backwards while holding eye contact with Leon. He asks, “Have you guys eaten yet? I can probably whip up something if you haven’t already.”

“No, we’re fine,” Leon responds, suddenly all politeness, posture and cadence nearly a perfect match to Leo’s.

Raph can’t help but be even more bothered.

⠀

⠀

When they’re lead into the spare room they’ll be sharing for the next few days, Leon almost immediately flops onto the singular mattress in the room as though he belongs there, even though Raph tries and fails to make that a fact in his head.

It’s not Leo, yeah. But it’s still his body, and sometimes that distinction escapes him. Part of why the whole thing irritates him so much.

“Laying it on a little thick there, weren’t you?” Leon asks, and there’s the usual impostor in Leo’s body. The snark machine with little to no filter.

Leo shrugs, and with just the dropping of his smirk, suddenly he looks so much more tired. It doesn’t suit the body quite right, and Raph wishes that he could say the same about his brother in general. “Yeah, well, I needed to make a point, didn’t I? And Raph, I know you’re mad at me, you can stop glaring now.”

Raph does not stop.

Leo sighs, and sits down on one of the actual seats in the repurposed subway car. He doesn’t meet any of their eyes, instead picking at the wrappings on his leg, which Raph doesn’t think he’s seen his brother do ever while in his own body. “Can we try not to have any close calls this time around? I don’t want these guys to be mad at us, too.”

“We’re not mad at you,” Mikey says.

Raph opens his mouth to agree, then hesitates. He’s not mad, but he’s not sure what he actually feels about the whole thing, either. It’s hard to find the right word for it, even though it’s on the tip of his tongue.

“We should all head to bed,” Leon suggests. “I can help you go get the spare mattresses to speed things up. The longer we’re both asleep, the longer we’ll have for a switch to happen.”

“Oh, like that’s so easy,” Leo says, sarcasm dripping back into his tone, though it’s not followed by the usual smile of Leon’s. “But I’ll try.”

“Heck does that mean?” Raph asks.

He doesn’t get a response from either Leo. They both sit up, and take off out the door and into the same direction.

“I feel like they were trying to talk without us there, dudes,” Mikey states.

Raph crosses his arms. “I don’t care.”

[sprinklenoodles]

Both because I got tired today and because I remembered something, I decided to re-read Everything Stays (But it Still Changes) and also read some of your older oneshots out of curiosity. Or, tried while being tired. Specifically, I will highlight A Togami Doesn't Lose. Also, after thinking about A Legacy Will Be Crowned, I felt it would be interesting. Also read Also, again, I am very tired. I really need to stop staying up till 12am. I'm not a struggling highschooler anymore T-T Side note: Hopefully I will not blabber too much into delirious tiredness (spoiler allert from futer i didddd) but that could be the case. So, lowkey warning maybe? Perhpahs? I spelt that wrong but it looks funny to me right now so I'm keeping it.

Everything Stays- This fic was interesting because it gave some more insight into Kijo. It felt really fascinating seeing his more sympathetic thoughts, after all, he still cares about his heir to at least some degree. Like, how Kijo looks at the portrait of him and Byakuya when the heir won and reflecting on how he never seen Byakuya look quite like that ever again. Obviously, it's clear he's not going to change. Kijo will still be cold, calculating. Also, side tangent, I realized in my tiredness that, one, this is part of a series kinda and also, two... That Really Wasn't Supposed To Happen. One, I actually read a bit of it when it was ongoing and not finished back before I had a tumblr, so last year. And two... my gosh is it long. I will of course read it but also golly gee 62. Big numb (numb short for number heehee) So spooooooky! But I am so reading this in full which, gosh. I think I just need to plan it or chip away cus I can't pull an all nighter like I did with the others hehe. But also not a chapter at a time thing either cus I'll forget stuff. Also, the more I think about it, this might be the 2nd longest fic I will ever read... so far. Winner goes to a freaking DBZ fic I read in middle school that was around like... 72 chapters. So, if I could do that as a more anxiety riddled twerp, I can read this!! It's got my favorite booooooi! BBQ!!!

A Togami Doesn't Lose- Was very short but fascinating to read cus it feels like a precursor to what would become The Heir of Despair. Not fully since so many twists and turns for that fic haven't been revealed. It was interesting though. Can also see the improvement in how you write too just from a year. Like, the deaths in this fic are short and sweet which fits the oneshot format. At the same time though, I can tell that, if written in the future, there'd be even more insight into Byakuya's thoughts, more detail in the deaths, stuff like that! So, it was really cool seeing how far you've come! So yeaaaaah. I wrote wordss :=] I hope the BBkuya was... insert verb here I dunno what else to say now. Or well, TYPE cus words on text do not speak unless they are Microsoft Sam, Bonzi Buddy, or some other text to speech guy who is less cool than those guys and sound like they'd do top 10 vids on the downlow. Legit almost 1am from the time i type this and my golly gee wilikers, batman

so um, same batchanell, not say bat time cus my gosh do i not wanna stay up this late again but also i said that in reverse cus it's actually same bat time, same bat channel and i dunno if that refernece is referencing right now since the 60s Batman show isn't exactly relevant in the minds of the many and um... i put too much effort in this tangent so it's staying SO YEH! >:DD

Those two fics are defenitely a bit on the older side. Like, I'm pretty sure that EVBISC was my first time writing Kijo for more than a few sentences.

And looking back now, how I write him has changed a lot, and for the better. Technically it still depends on the universe, but I like how I write him now much more.

And A Togami Doesn't Lose was a silly little thing I wrote for Byakuya's birthday. And in a way it's like The Heir Of Despair. It's one of the older one-shots I still fairly like.

But TRWSTH is a long fic for sure. I mean, there are much longer fics out there but it's my longest fic. I also have to warn you that it was my first ever long fic.

So, especially in the beginning, the writing might be... something. Same goes for my old one-shots. You're entering dangerous territory there... You don't want to scroll down to see my 2 non danganronpa fics...

But thank you that you are putting so much thought into this!!

[ohheyjudesummers]

Pride Aside (part 2) - Gojo Satoru Fanfic

The previous chapter is here 😉 check it out please.

Title inspired by song/lyrics: All pride aside by Dram Feat. Summer walker.

If I give you what you want Here's what I need from you To be the kind of man who makes Lovin' you so easy to do Keep the same amount of energy you're givin' now And I'll make sure to be the only queen you give a crown And boy, I hope you're bein' up front 'Cause how you say you in love When you treat me like a drug?

-Present day-

"Y/N!? Look who decided to step out from her hermit cave and join the party!"

You were aware that it was meant to be a joke. But given your circumstances as of late, you couldn't help but feel a deep pang of annoyance soaring through you. The feeling is heightened when Gojo follows his words with a laugh. 

 Play it cool, you tell yourself. you're older than him girl, so you have to be more mature. 

Craning your head upward, to look into his blue eyes, you respond flatly. "Hi, Gojo. Where's Drew?"

Gojo's smile widens "I just got here a couple of short minutes ago so I haven’t seen Drew yet but I’m sure he’s around. And don't be so stand offish, honey. You know I'm just poking fun. Between our traveling hockey games and practice, I feel like I haven't seen you in forever when we're home. Glad to see that dork isn't keeping you hostage." 

seriously?

You couldn't stop yourself from screwing your face into a scowl. 

Over the years, for whatever reason, Gojo had taken a habit of occasionally calling you that—Honey. You don't know why he gave you the nickname, and when you asked, he simply laughed as if it were some inside joke. You'd given up on getting a serious answer out of him and settled. It wasn't like he called you it when you guys were around people you knew—it always seemed to be during the times when you two were alone. So that wasn't the reason for your expression. No, that was due to something else that came out of his mouth. 

"Jason. His name is Jason, not 'Dork'. And he wasn't holding me hostage. " You correct him. "Also, he broke up with me." 

Gojo's smile widens, "I know he did, Honey."

Note to self: Don't vent to Drew about anything anymore.

Should you have really been surprised that your brother ran and told Gojo about your breakup? The two's relationship hadn't wavered over the years. If anything, they became like brothers since being recruited into the hockey league.

"How much did he tell you exactly?" You probe him with narrowed eyes. "I hope to God you didn't go around making jokes about it with your friends ." 

"Get real, honey, do I look like I would do something like that? I get that I poke fun at you every now and then, but I wouldn't go talking about something like that. I swear." He motions for a cross over his broad chest. "I mean it, though.  You hardly come around anymore so I'm happy you're here.”

Gee, I wonder why is it that I don’t feel inclined to be around in the first place.

You thought darkly.

Much has changed over the years between you  and Gojo. Besides the fact that you were now no longer taller than him and he was visibly more muscular, all of which was thanks to him and drew becoming professional athletes. His attitude towards you got a little harder to deal with. Sure, you still cared about him but Gojo had become a handful- whether that was due to his success that fueld his occasional condescending cockiness or not, you weren’t sure. There were still moments where he showed that he was still that hard headed but caring boy who appreciated your presence and patience with him—even if he didn't verbally express it. And then there were other moments when it seemed as if he reveled in the attention that being a star hockey player brought him. The attention, and the women.  

Can’t say It's hard to believe, honestly.

You didn't always like to blatantly stare, out of fear that Gojo would catch you and his head would grow bigger. However, when the media first became aware of the initial rookie in the league, Gojo had amassed quite a fan base based solely on his appearance. You no longer had to look down at him, but rather up at him. His features had been honed, and he appeared more masculine. As for his physique? He’d grown more muscular, albeit subtly so.

Gojo, in short, had the confidence, money, looks, and skill that made him appealing from all angles—and he knew this, you were sure. 

Now if only he actually took things seriously and wasn't a jackass a good chunk of the time, he would be near perfect for-

Woah. absolutely not. 

You had to stop yourself from thinking about that before you went any further. Yes, since you guys had become adults, you'd admittedly, and silently, begun to admire Gojo as his own man. You knew it wasn't really bad to find him attractive; anyone with eyes could admit that he was physically so. You just didn't care for the way your mind tended to drift, especially during those moments when he was more tolerable to be around. You tended to find yourself thinking about how things could be if certain bits of your life were different. 

But then he'd bring you back to reality by simply opening his mouth.

"I'll find Drew myself." You mumble, sidestepping his frame and walking further into the backyard. 

Some would acknowledge your actions as a sign of dismissal. Gojo, on the other hand, felt inclined to follow by your side—and tiringly so. He didn't provide much direction or hint as to where Drew was—he was too busy passing pleasantries with anyone who greeted him as you guys walked by. Some, particularly women, felt so familiar with him that they went up and hugged him (which he didn't seem to be bothered with from the way he hugged back). Each time

you tried to drift further from Gojo and the entourage he seemed to gain, it felt as if he would walk faster to keep up with you. Escaping him, felt nearly impossible. 

"You know you don't have to tag along with me? I'm sure we'll both find Drew eventually, at our own pace. This backyard isn't that big." You say once the two of you are alone. 

But Gojo gives you an incredulous look. "You can't possibly think I'm gonna let you slip away that easily. I think I let you avoid me enough—which was kind of mean of you."

"What are you even talking about?" You stop in your tracks and turn to him at the accusation. "Have you really become so self-absorbed that you can't notice when your actions affect people around you? If anyone's been mean, it's been you, Gojo."

At this moment, Gojo is at a loss for words. His expression slowly deflates from its lax smugness and turns into one of perplexity. In all the years he'd known you, even as a child, you'd never once spoken to him so harshly.

"I'm happy for you, and Drew, for becoming professional hockey players. But ever since you became official, you've been more of a jerk than I usual, and I've put up with it. Especially when I used to come to Drew's get togethers back then more often. And the last time I came by with Jason, it was actually worse than the other times. So, trust me, I'm even shocked that I still felt the urge to come by when I probably should of avoided coming here as a form of self-care.” You rant. 

Even though the music and bustle of the people around you guys drowned out your conversation, you had an inkling not to make a scene. At the same time, you couldn't help but lash out at Gojo. 

You'd had enough of men who were self-centered and refused to be as emotionally attentive to you as you were to them. 

You rub your throbbing temple as you exhale a shaky sigh and try your hardest to get a good grip on your thoughts.

Space. I need space. Being around him is just triggering me more.

"You know what? Can you please just leave me alone-"

"Hey! My two favorite people are here!"

Drew's jovial voice is suddenly in close proximity to both you and Gojo. Before you get a chance to follow the direction of the voice, you feel a heavy arm drape itself over your shoulders. 

You look to your left, where the firmness of Drew's side is at yours. Your brother looks down at you with a beaming smile. 

"You made it; I was getting worried for a sec, Y/N." He pauses to look over at Gojo. "And you finally rolled out of bed. I swear, when we're on break like this, you have the most unstable sleeping schedule. I can't tell when you're up or sleeping in. Hey, are you alright?" 

Drew, for the first time since inserting himself in the conversation, notices the troubled expression on Gojo's face. 

"Yeah," he says after a moment, blinking rapidly. a faint smile forms on his lips. "I just need a drink, that's all. Please tell me you've got something good here this time. At the last party it felt like I was drinking Kool-Aid."

 Gojo's diverging of the topic does the trick quite well—in the case of Drew—because in that moment, your brother responds proudly, "See, this time, the drinks are gonna have us all on our asses tonight. Remember those friends we made? The ones who worked at that bar we visited that one time? Well, they made the drinks in the dispenser at the table, so be warned. From what I saw, they were a bit heavy handed with the Everclear." 

"Sounds good; I think I'll go make me a drink."

"AHT, Aht! Before you do that, there are actually some girls want to meet the two of us.”

And

Ok, that's gross, and that's my cue to head over to the drinking table and mingle. 

Obviously, you all weren't kids anymore and were venturing through adulthood while gathering life experiences. Well, life experiences and intimate ones. You might not have known much about hockey, but you weren't oblivious to the lifestyle of a successful athlete. People gravitate toward them and try to win their favor in various ways. 

It wasn't your business what Drew did as an adult, though you still viewed him as your baby brother you needed to look out for. To some extent, you extended this sentiment to Gojo. But, once again, only to a point.

  For the moments you used to be around Gojo more often, with other mutual associates included, you found yourself uncomfortable when they tended to bring up sex. You weren't a prude; you enjoyed sex. However, if they even mentioned the topic, or in this case, the possibility of engaging in it with others, you felt compelled to leave.

 You could see the table with the cups and large drink dispensers from where you were standing. Apart from a few familiar faces, the bright colors of the liquid visible through the clear dispensers looked inviting. 

"I'm going to go mingle with some people and grab a drink. You guys have fun." You announce to Drew.

You don't even bother looking at Gojo, despite the fact that you can feel his eyes probing you. You turn and walk casually towards the table. 

"Alright! try not to drink too much!" Drew calls.

You simply wave, merely to give your brother confirmation that you heard him—not that you would comply with his words.

The drink and its effects would wear off Which was fine—you didn't want to depend on it in life. But for the night, you wanted to overindulge as much as your body could handle. You needed to escape from being so doting and caring for others before yourself. You wanted to run from remembering your difficult breakup and thinking about the men in your life who didn't appreciate you despite your care for them. 

You wanted to feel free. 

And you would. 

After tonight's events, it would all very well make you unconstrained—hence, fourth—in more ways than one.

❣

©JUDESUMMERS. Please do not copy, Translate, Plagiarize, or repost (sharing via link is excluded). This story is only uploaded on Tumblr, Wattpad and AO3. Anywhere else under any other name besides JUDESUMMERS is prohibited

[lulupen2023]

My very first BellDom Fic 21/23

Hope you're still having fun with this super crazy fic :)

Summary:

Do you want to meet a Matthew who sees conspiracy everywhere (oh wait, this is not big news!) and is so fond of his trolley that he treats it like a sort of puppy? Do you want to meet a Dominic in love with… himself (and with Matt, too, of course!)? And do you want to meet a Chris who wants to prove to the world he's the most masculine guy ever… but is unavoidably attracted by every… female hobby? This is what you'll find in this story, among lots of BellDom and… craziness!

Summary of the chapter: The charade begins, but how long will it last? Chapter XX: Just Like The Most Predictable Ending

Without being seen, Matthew tries to pinch himself hard, as Dominic closes and squeezes his eyes, blinking, more than once, but both of those methods are just utterly useless, since the two girls are still standing in front of them and they don't seem to intend to disappear with the touch of a magic wand.

So the two guys just have to make the best of a bad thing.

"Gaia, dear! What a nice surprise!" Matt smiles, as he hugs her, but she's faster than him and steals a kiss that he's forced to answer to.

"Well, honey, you kept saying 'I wish you were here, I wish you were here', so now your wish came true!" she smiles at him as she plays with his hair-gelled locks.

<' Nightmare' would be the proper word! > Matt ponders, but he disguises everything with a nod, of course.

"Instead, since I haven't heard from you for more than three days... well, I just had to check out that you didn't forget me due to another girl, my dear philanderer!" Jessica exclaims, punching Dom's shoulder playfully and patting him on the cheek, right before she follows her best friend's example and claims what it's hers... or at least she still thinks so.

"Honey, that's impossible." Dominic murmurs, at the end of their kiss.

< It's because of *a boy* that I forgot you! > he adds, but only in his mind, of course.

Chris stares at the two couples so matched and has the strong feeling that if he doesn't intervene with something, anything, to say, soon there will be a tension without precedent.

"Hey, girls, Kelly says hi!" he informs them, as he wonders dreadfully with what courage he will inform his beloved wife that what he had made her believe it was true when it was fake actually became true for real.

"What? Oh, right, I tend to forget she's not here." Gaia replies absently.

"What do you mean? Kelly loves me and it's not just due to the fact that she likes having babies with me! So, end of the bloody speech!" Chris snaps, remembering what the fans told him.

"Gee, Chris, calm down!" Gaia snaps. "Honey, what did I say wrong?" she goes on, calmer, looking at Matthew.

"Don't mind him. Sometimes this guy is a total mystery for us all..." Matt states.

"Hey, speaking of mystery, why the hell Dom's room is empty and all his things are stuffed in Matt's room?" Jessica wonders.

"Hell yeah, this is a very damn good question!" Gaia agrees as both of the girls stares inquisitively at their boyfriends with puzzled expressions.

Dom and Matt look at each other, looking for a believable explanation that doesn't seem to pop out from their minds. As they got panic-stricken and are about to surrender, declaring that the games are over, someone else comes promptly to the rescue.

"Actually, it's my fault. I asked Dom to do that!" Chris admits.

"You did... what?" Gaia wonders in astonishment.

"For what wicked reason did you ask them to share the same room?" Jessica frowns.

"Please, don't get me wrong. There's a damn good reason why I did. Since Dom's room is next to mine and I didn't want him to wake me up when he would be back... I suggested Dom to move to Matt's room that it's far away from mine. Well, this was pretty useless, since I'm still awake and it's almost dawn!" Chris makes them notice, with a yawn.

"Okay, but... why did Dom take all his stuff there?" Gaia asks them in disbelief.

"That's simple, my dear. I can be very doubtful about what to wear the day after, it's never something I plan before; quite the contrary, it's something that comes out after hours and hours of changing clothes." Dom rushes to explain.

"Yeah, I can say for sure that Dom's trials takes much longer than the band's ones!" Matt agrees.

"I can confirm that, too. Whenever we date, although I'm always late, well, he's always later than me!" Jessica assures, pretending to glare at Dominic, as Gaia stares at Matthew with renewed trust.

Matthew is annoyed by hearing about the dates between Jessica and *his* Dominic, but he tries his best not to show that.

"Sorry, but I'd like to point out the fact that it's almost dawn and it's almost a miracle that half hotel hasn't gone downstairs to kick us out! In a word... does it really disappoint you the eventuality of going to bed?" Chris makes them notice.

"You have some points, after all. The flight has been kinda stressful, maybe it's the jet-lag that kept us awake so far!" Jessica admits as Gaia confines herself to nod.

"That's right. Let's do things this way: you stay here as Dom, Chris and I go to fix the rooms!" Matthew announces, walking towards the elevator, followed by Chris and Dominic.

"Thank you so much, Chris, you've been phenomenal, buddy, you really saved our asses!" Dominic exclaims as he hugs his friend, as soon as the closed sliding doors of the elevator give them the proper privacy.

"Yeah, I just wonder... how did such a genial explanation pop out from your mind?" Matt gets curious, before hugging him as well.

"I don't know, guys, probably when I'm falling asleep on my feet I have skills that astonish even myself! Anyway, now you two owe me a favour!" Chris states as the elevator keeps going on, floor after floor, until they reach their floor.

"Sure, mate, even more than one!" Matt and Dom assure, almost in unison.

"Fine. Then, the first one is... try not to be too noisy, goodnight!" Chris greets them, getting in his room like a sleepwalker.

The other two walk towards Matthew's room, the only place that at that time of day (or night) seems to allow them to have a sort of dialogue, but in a low voice.

"'If I keep writing to her 'I wish you were here, I wish you were here' she will be calm'... well, congratulations, Matt, we saw how calm she is!" Dominic snaps as he gathers his stuff at random.

"Well, well, words from Mr. 'If -she- doesn't –hear- from- me -she'll –understand', we saw the brilliant results of that!" Matt strikes back as he helps him.

"Ok, we are even, we're both dick-heads! Anyway, now we'll have to play the perfect boyfriends part with the girls..." the brunette points out.

"So, dick-heads and bloody, shameful liars, too!" Dominic comments, kinda upset.

"Dommy, I already explained that to you, it's not an evil lie, it's just a truth we have to delay but for a good reason, until we have the necessary calm to face everything pwoperly..." Matt clarifies, comforting him.

"Right!" Dominic recognizes with a sigh, as he carries his bags beyond the threshold.

"Except for sharing the same room and kissing, there shouldn't be anything else compromising for us, right?" Matt makes sure of it.

"Nope, whatever else could there be? Maybe a video of what we've done on the beach tonight, but it's not possible, we haven't shot any video... which is a pity. Damn, it could be such a good idea!" the blond regrets.

"Well, let's keep it in mind for our next month anniversary! Anyway, Dom... I don't know... I have the strange feeling that we did something tonight, but I really can't recall what it is." Matt confesses, as he scratches his chin with a finger.

"This is one of main consequences of getting dead drunk as we did! You know what? I have this strange feeling, too, but I'm sure it's nothing, just a joke of our imagination." Dominic shrugs.

"Coming back to the important stuff, what about a little kiss before we start the charade?" he adds, leaning to his listener who backs off and gently places a finger on his already parted lips.

"No, Dom, we'd better not. If I kissed you... I'm afraid I couldn't stop anymore!" Matthew sighs as he leaves the room with him, before each one goes to take the respective girlfriend.

Twenty minutes later, everything is settled up, every couple is in the respective bed of the respective room, ready to throw themselves in the arms of Morpheus.

When all the lights are turned off, Gaia rolls towards Matthew, getting on the top of him and placing her lips on his for a chaste goodnight kiss.

Too bad that Matt is already half sleepy.

"Dom..." he murmurs contently, but he immediately recognizes the taste of Gaia's lips, her long, waved hair almost whipping his chest in a fit of anger and mostly her body becoming tense in annoyance.

He immediately battens down the hatches.

"What's wrong, dear? I said 'home'. You make me feel at home!" he moans languidly as he caresses both her face and hair.

"Aaawwwww, Matthew!!!" the girl squeals softened, hugging him tight and then she goes back to her side of the bed, cursing herself for jumping to the wrong conclusions.

Matthew congratulates himself for his clever and prompt answer.

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

It's not due to the sunshine typical of 11:00 in the morning.

Dominic wakes up due to a daring and impudent hand that is making its own way through his boxers, crossing the fabric and getting in touch with what there's inside.

Although he's awake, his eyes are still closed, but the worst thing is that his mind is still blurry, so he ends up associating that gesture to the wrong person.

"Mm... Matt... " he groans happily, almost purring, and then he pops his eyes open, coming face-to-face with Jessica's shocked, puzzled and pissed-off expression. "..ers. I said that you are all that really matters!" he's in a tight spot, realizing in record time what situation he is into and smiling at her, sweetly.

Dominic realizes he's avoided the crisis and went even further, because Jessica grins at him, before kissing him hard, making him clearly understand that she won't stop just there.

< C'mon, my dear, pretend that it's Matt. Oh, yeah, sure. Long, silky hair, prosperous boobies, that certain thing between her legs, yeah... definitely it's Matt! > Dominic thinks disheartened, already knowing that he can't make any resistance.

************************ (In the meantime)

They aren't the only couple who is getting down. Remembering what he told her before sleeping, once she woke up, Gaia has decided she has to thank Matthew, her way. It's almost comic: there are hundreds time when Matt craved that but Gaia found thousands of excuses not to give herself to him; and just when he doesn't want it anymore, Matthew is forced to satisfy a very horny Gaia.

<C'mon, boy, it's just like a song from 'My Terrible Lost Chance': sooner or later it has to end. Probably it has the same duration...> Matt thinks listlessly, as he tries his best to welcome Gaia's movements and when they end, surprisingly, she seems to be rather pleased.

Matthew gets up from the bed, in order to have a shower. Gaia lets him do as he pleases, but then she's enlightened by the idea of following him there, to get a juicy encore. Too bad that she notices something that makes her stop in front of the shower, something that she immediately sees as soon as she gets a full view of her boyfriend's naked body, something that she hadn't a chance to get before.

"Please, tell me that it's just a joke!" she summons him, icily.

Matthew jolts both due to the surprise and what she has said, but as soon as he looks better at himself, he sees something that suddenly makes him recall everything of the previous night.

<Dom and I, dead drunk, late night, that tattoo shop still open, that insane idea of getting a tattoo on our butts, me choosing his and him choosing mine, oh, my god! So, it wasn't just a sick idea... we've done that for real! Thanking our lucky stars, we weren't so drunk to decide to have a permanent tattoo, it's just a henna tattoo. Well, permanent or not, now I'm in big, big trouble!> Matthew realizes, panic-stricken.

"That's it. It's taking you way too fucking long to answer. So, it's not a joke." the girl figures out, shocked.

"I can explain..." Matthew attempts to justifies, as he manages to get off the shower and wear a bathrobe in record time.

"There's a fucking nothing to explain! You're a pervert. You both are perverts! And to think that sometimes Jess and I joked about the fact that you were always together but... I'd never thought that... Ggrrr! For God's sake, Matt, how did you do this to me?" Gaia screams hysterically, starting to throw against him every tool she finds on the shelf near the mirror, even a very expensive after-shave that crashes on the floor, shattering in a thousand pieces, but the bottle of shampoo, the hairbrush, the jar of hair-gel and the hairdryer don't miss their target.

"Ouch! Gaia, we haven't planned that... it just happened!" Matthew barely explains, as he improves his own quickness record also in putting on his clothes and coming back to the bedroom.

"What fucking kind of justification is this? Anyway, tell me, how long has this story been going on? How long have you been fooling Jessica and me?" Gaia asks, angrier and angrier, following him.

"Oh. Well, not for long. Just for a month." he replies, realizing too late his terrible mistake: in that room there's plenty of tons of objects that can turn into dangerous weapons.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT THIS IS SUPPOSED TO CONFORT ME?" she growls, furiously, grabbing the table lamp to throw it against him, but thanks to his quickness of reflex, Matt dodges the blow.

"Gaia, I know, it wasn't fair towards you, but everything happened so quickly that..." he keeps explaining, as he uses the bed as a sort of blockhouse.

"When the hell did you plan to tell us?" she goes on, grabbing the alarm clock, turning around the bed and throwing it at him before he can escape, hitting his right leg.

"Ouch! We were waiting for the end of the tour, in order to face better the whole situation."

< And mostly to avoid destroying hotel rooms and... ouch... their owners, too ! > he thinks as he approaches to her, limping a little bit.

"Anyway, Gaia, let's be honest. Dom or not, truth is that things weren't already working well anymore between us, we just carried on the aftermath of a story that was almost over." he warns her, snatching the phone from her hands, before she throws at him even that.

"Almost. That's the magic word. And you did nothing to try and save our story!" she accuses him.

"What? I've tried to involve you in everything I did, but you always seem to do me a favour every time I take you to my shows or at award ceremonies!" he accuses her.

"Matt, do you have the slightest idea of how many concerts you perform in a year? I'm already fed-up after ten shows! They are always the same... okay, maybe sometimes you change the playlist a little bit, but it doesn't make any difference!" the girl snaps as Matthew looks at her stunned.

"You had never told me that."

"What about the award ceremonies? It's always you and your damn musicians fellows, you never take me to any other social event. Look at our neighbour, he went to Tom Cruise and Kate Holmes' wedding, we didn't!" Gaia goes on with her rant.

"Damn! Don't name that jerk of George. So, are you really saying that you wanted to be at the wedding of that arrogant, stand-offish midget?" he strikes back, annoyed.

"Words from the basketball player!" she hisses, acidly.

"Hey! That's hitting below the belt!" Matt grumbles, since he has always been very touchy about the height.

"Well, it's not my fault, shorty!" she puts the boot in, enjoying his humiliated expression.

The guy becomes more serious and stares at her, deeply in her eyes.

"See? Lately we've been doing nothing but fighting and telling each other mean things, trying to make up with sentences that once were true and sincere, but now they aren't anymore. Not only now, things haven't been working well for a long while, you understand this, don't you?" he makes her think.

Gaia doesn't say a word, lowering her gaze.

"I guess it's really over. Goodbye, Matthew, you were the most special boyfriend I have ever had." she states after some minutes, approaching to him, to give him a chaste kiss that seals their goodbye.

"I'm sure you'll find a guy who is even more special than me." he comforts her.

"Anyway, forget to have back all the gifts you bought to me, especially the ring! Plus, I want another memory of our story..." she warns him, getting off the fragile and tender phase she had fallen into, as she takes a look around, until her eyes find the perfect object.

"I decided. I'll keep the trolley!" she informs him.

"NOOOOO! NEVER!!! Hands off my Pinkie!" Matthew gets alarmed. "I mean, I need him for my travels!" he justifies as he draws his wallet out from the pocket of his jeans.

"Keep this as a memory." he goes on, giving her one of his credit cards. "It's practically new, so you can buy all the trolleys you want. And much more!"

"Okay, keep your stupid trolley, I prefer the credit card. It has more value... I mean, sentimental value!" the girl states as she puts the card in her pocket, eagerly, as her eyes shine at the thought of using it for filling her 'empty, broken heart' with tons of mad shopping.

"Fine. I'll leave the house before you return from the tour, be sure of that. I'll go back to my parents, or, no, wait, that's even better. I'll stay at Jessica's and..." she announces, but then she stops. " Oh, my God, Jessica! I wonder if she has also found the truth out..." she goes on, rushing outside, at the other side of the corridor, as Matthew follows her.

From Dominic's door, the noises and the screams they can hear give them the confirmation that also Jessica has already made that bitter discovery.

Suddenly, the door slams open and a very terrified Dominic runs away, with a showy black-eye.

"Come here, you, dirty, bloody, fucking, pervert, wicked betrayer! I'm not done with you, yet!" Jessica roars, profoundly mad.

"Matthew, please, save what still remains of myself!" the blondie implores as he uses him as a shield.

"Why does she scare me even more than Chris does?" the brunette grumbles disquietly, ready to protect his beloved anyway.

"So, Jess, you found that out, too!" Gaia distracts her friend from her blind rage.

"Yeah. After all, that tattoo on their butts with their names inside a red heart was too eloquent!" Jessica explains.

"Hey, wait a minute! Their name inside a heart? Well, my dear, you haven't much to complain about, then. Matthew has a tattoo with the written 'Property of Dominic Howard'!" Gaia confesses.

"Oh. Well, you're right. You got the worst of it. Anyway, the main point is that those two worms humiliated us!" Jessica goes on, as she glares frostily both at Dom and Matt.

Drawn by that noisy mess, Chris pops out from his room.

"What the hell is goin.. ?" he slurs, still a little numb with sleep.

Dominic and mostly Matthew see him as their sheet anchor.

"You know, truth is that... it was only his fault!" Matthew explains, pointing at the oblivious bassist.

"Yep. Everything started because of an insane idea of his!" Dominic plays his game.

"Oh, my God! Chris, is that true?" Jessica asks him, puzzled.

"True what?" Chris wonders, even more puzzled.

"Yep. He forced us to kiss, and then he did it again. And he likes watching us!" Matthew says, being heavy on that.

"Bells, what the fuck are you blathering about?" Chris snaps, glaring at him.

"I'm sorry, buddy, but if my ship sinks I'm gonna take you all with me!" Matt states.

"First, what a great friend you are! Second, damn you, you named again your bloody ships... I'm gonna kill you!" Chris loses his usual temper, ready to fling himself on Matt, but Dominic intervenes promptly, holding him by his t-shirt.

"Hey! We had come to different terms. Matty, *you* were supposed to protect *me* !" the blond complains, as he holds Chris still until he cools down.

"You are so pathetic. You aren't worthy not even a minute of our time. Come on, Gaia, let's go find two men who are worthy! Someone with a *real job*!" Jessica exclaims, turning to Dom, as he rolls his eyes in answer.

"Goodbye, Matt, I'll miss your mone... I mean, the moments we spent together!" Gaia comments, victim of a Freudian slip.

< Yeah, right, I bought to you tons of stuff with my... *moments we spent together!* > Matthew ponders, annoyed, confining himself just to nod.

"Anyway, Chris, you're the worst one! You're the sickest, the most pervert, I can't believe that you really forced them to do such a thing!" Gaia accuses him, as Jessica gathers quickly all their stuff.

"But I didn't..." Chris protests. "Hey, you two! Say something!" he exhorts his friends.

"Why should we? After all, you're defending yourself so well on your own..." Matt makes fun of him.

"Plus, we already did our part. And mostly we've been already beaten up enough... ouch!" Dom adds, massaging his still aching black-eye.

"Don't worry, Dom, after I blackened your second eye, the one you have now will seem unharmed!" Chris threatens him.

"See? You're even such a violent person, so brute! Kelly should be informed that she has chosen as husband such a turbid and depraved guy. We're gonna warn her..." Gaia announces as Jessica reaches her with their bags.

"No, wait, wait!! It's just a big, majestic misunderst..." Chris attempts to clarify, but it's too late, since the two girls disappear behind the closed sliding doors of the elevator.

"So, tell me, what should I do to you now?" Chris asks the two lovers, narrowing his eyes at them.

Matthew faces his gaze, bravely.

"Tell us, do you want to stay here wasting time with us... or do you want to save your marriage before it's too late?" he makes him notice.

His only answer, Chris leaves, as he dials the more than usual phone number.

"Kelly, honey? You know how funny Gaia and Jess can be sometimes, don't you? Well, you can't even begin to imagine what they invented this time..." he informs his wife, coming back in his room.

"Oh, my poor, Dommy!" Matt comments, as he gently places his fingertips around the beaten eye.

"I told you that Jessica was aggressive ... and yet I believe I've been even too lucky. It could get much worse, trust me!" the other explains. "So, now we've finally faced them and we are free to stay together." he goes on, as he puts his head on Matt's shoulder, noticing that he's observing the elevator, with a thoughtful expression. "What's wrong?" the blond asks him.

"I don't know... I feel like I'm inside one of those sappy movies and when she leaves him, he realizes the big mistake he has made, realizes that she's the only one he really wants and follows her, running down in the street to reach her, asking her to forgive him and give him a second chance." Matthew admits, very seriously.

"Oh, I understand. So, go, go to her, I won't stop you if you want to run down in the street and win her back, just like the most predictable ending." Dominic states, as seriously as well.

The blond gets upset as he watches Matt run towards the elevator, but just when the sliding doors open, the brunette turns and run back to Dom, his serious expression replaced by a smirk.

"Oh, god! I can't believe, you really fell for it!" he exclaims, chuckling.

"So, it was just a joke! Well, it hurt me much more than the black-eye, you know? You're mean!" Dom confesses, with his classic, tender, irresistible pout.

"My sweet, sweet Dominic, there's something I've never told you..." Matt murmurs, as he captures that pout in a short, but very intense kiss. "I've never liked predictable endings too much!"

TBC

See? No cliff-hanger this time, I'm a good girl, am not I? ;P

Of course, I seriously believe that the real lovely Gaia and Jess are nothing like 'these 'hateful ones! ;)

Uhmm , I don't know, maybe I solved things way too superficially, but, c'mon, I mean... this is the kind of story that can't request too much serious stuff!

I hope you'll have fun reading it and you'll like it, but, pleeeease, let me know whatever you think!

P.S: Hold on, this story is almost over! ;) next chapter will be the last one and then there'll be the epilogue.

[ridiculoustrainsofthought]

The Phantom of the Auditorium Musical

Okay, so hilariously, a friend of mine made a post that joked about making a kid’s version of Phantom of the Opera and while I wanted to make a Wishbone joke that it already exists, I suddenly remembered there actually was a “retelling” of sorts with the Goosebumps series. So I went to look it up and ended up discovering there’s a musical version of this with a full cast album and everything.

This was the original poster I saw at least. But anyway, I've been listening to the full album that was produced in 2021 and it's given me a lot of feels. So spoilers ahead although I will also add a disclaimer that I haven't seen the actual show yet so I'm just going off the impression from the soundtrack. But let's go over the plot:

 Now given my love of Phantom of the Opera, my mind has somewhat been racing over the comparisons. I love how fascinating of a take this is to have a ghost story about some kids who are preparing to perform the play but the specific script they're using hadn't seen the light of day in 70 years because the first and last time the show was done, the lead actor died in a staging accident before the curtain went up on opening night. Naturally there have been rumors at the school that the place has been haunted for years by the boy who was meant to play The Phantom as an effort to keep the play from ever being performed. And the production does seem to be cursed when rehearsals start and strange happenings occur. So our leads decide to investigate since it seems whoever is doing this is targeting Zeke, the boy playing The Phantom this time.

You can probably guess the twist a mile away that after our leads, Zeke and his best friend Brooke, discovered the trap door that had been built for the original production, a new boy appears at their school like in the next day or so. Gee, how strange. But he and Brooke hit it off right away and when it seems Zeke is being framed as the one behind the pranks at rehearsal, new kid Brian is happy to help! (Unrelated but the idea of these guys paralleling Erik, Christine and Raoul, just hanging out and Erik playing dumb while actually helping in the Phantom mystery is kind of hilarious.) They aren't really subtle about there being something weird with Brian either since we hear very early on that while everyone knows about the ghost, very few have ever seen him. Then in the song where he and Brooke meet, he brings up little asides like how he's not new very often and you'd think after all these years he'd learn to keep his mouth shut since he's so socially awkward. It's kinda cute and makes sense he wouldn't really know how to interact with people considering his situation.

So naturally, you'd think the big reveal is they'd find out Brian is actually the ghost and the one behind all the mishaps, right? Well, sorta. Turns out there's someone else who is actually behind all the warnings and pranks that's trying to get the show closed. Well! There's no ghost then! Mystery solved~!

The show goes on like normal and opening night finally arrives. Everyone is off to their corners getting ready in the mad dash before curtain rises when suddenly Zeke gets attacked by The Phantom! The show starts and everyone goes on without him because someone has deftly slipped into his place. Brooke has an idea of who when she sees The Phantom for the first time and the bright green eyes behind his mask proves it's DEFINITELY not Zeke. But she doesn't want to disrupt the play and things go off without a hitch until suddenly the ending comes and The Phantom decides to address the audience. Yes, he is the boy who died all those years ago, but it's time for him to tell the whole town the truth of what happened that fateful night. And with that, he's gone, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. End scene. Standing ovation. Everyone is happy. Brooke immediately rushes backstage to find Zeke and confirms that he's okay but that wasn't him out there. She thinks it might have been the REAL Phantom! Speaking of... Brian? Why are you dressed like that? You stole Zeke's role?? Why??? Which... Both are right. It was him that stole Zeke's role. And he's the real Phantom. See, while the prankster may have been determined to keep the play from being performed, Brian has wanted nothing more all these years than to get his spotlight. He WANTED the school to do the show so he could get the opening night that was stolen from him. His unfinished business, if you will. But all these years, the school and the town had forbidden the play to honor his memory. So now he can be at peace having finally gotten to say those lines and hear that roar that he had so looked forward to as a kid. But... Unfortunately since he's completed his business, even if he's been falling for Brooke, he feels like it's time for him to move on. They'll all see each other again some day. And this time he disappears for real, the curtain call is in a cemetery where we see Brian's name on one of the head stones.

"That's all fine and dandy, but is there a point to this story?" Actually yes. I wanted to give some background to this since it really only makes sense in context and I feel like the show / story might still be pretty obscure. But it's eaten my mind. The one thing that I like while there's the overhanging tragedy and mystery going on, the main theme of this show is about getting closure. And maybe in a way, redemption. For Brian, of course, but this is something seen with other characters too. Brooke and Zeke have their opening number saying they've always been in the ensemble and this needs to be THEIR year to get named roles. And to be the leads was just icing on the cake. Their teacher, Ms. Walker, says that her grandmother was the teacher back in Brian's day. And not only did she never get to do the show they worked so hard on, but, despite the school demanding every copy of the script be destroyed so it could never be performed again, she saved a copy and hung onto it the rest of her life. Why? Because she had always hoped to have another chance? Because unlike everyone else, she thought Brian would want it to survive? It's not coincidence that Ms. Walker decided to do THIS play when she got the chance. She's giving her grandmother some closure and maybe forgiveness for what happened. (Brian never blamed her. Rumor says that when she died, the script was discovered with a mask and rose lovingly laid beside it.) Brian of course gets his closure with starring in the show he always dreamed of, but more importantly, he's been alone all these years. Zeke and Brooke gave him a few months to do things he never got to do including making friends, falling in love, encouraging him to face his fear with the trap door that killed him, and working with Ms. Walker probably gave him some closure with what happened to his teacher / her grandmother when he knows it wasn't her fault.

And of course the whole town can heal in a way because the school is no longer haunted, and after generations knowing about this "cursed play" legend, the audience also finally got to see it in full and maybe take away some of the sting that's hung over the town all these years. Especially when the song about The Legend says how the princpal didn't want to do the show in the first place and wouldn't give them the proper funding, but the teacher was determined to do it anyway, I'm sure there was plenty of blame going around for those details to have survived all these years. Was it the poor funding that caused the staging accident? Was it proof they shouldn't have gone through with it in the first place if it was so dangerous? Was it foul play? I have a feeling the town knew he didn't "vanish" that night, finding him later in the aftermath, but that's how the legend goes. But hey! No incidents, standing ovation, and Brian's speech about what happened finally giving some closure to all the rumors. Closure. In the sweetest sense of the word.

I included links to the songs above, but if you'd like to just listen, I'm also sharing them here.

[soraavalon]

Ethan: How much do you wanna bet that Rymer's not coming back with us?

Marigold (OOC): Awww.

Ethan: I say 'coming back with us' like I'm still with ya'll, but you know.

Marigold (OOC): Don't say that.

Nathaniel (OOC): He missed his mom.

Hunt (OOC): Yeah, his missed his mom and brother.

Marigold (OOC): And I'm gonna miss my dad, but you know. Friends.

Hunt (OOC): I will say that I had a theory regarding Rymer's relationship with his fey family, I was terrified that he was pretty much born to be his brother playmate and companion.

DM: Mm-hmm.

Hunt (OOC): But I am so glad he had a great relationship with them. As a son.

DM: That was the point originally, like so you probably would, he kind of gave you all the details anyways that his mother was a mortal and she made a deal to become a warlock basically with the Owl King in exchange for her firstborn child, so he got her pregnant basically. And then took the baby which was Rymer back home because the Moth Queen was pregnant and so he's like 'So this is a plaything, a companion for our son.' and then they were like, 'Yeah but he's really cute. I really like him.'

Hunt (OOC): Yay!

DM: 'Yeah no, this is also our kid.' They just got attached to him.

Hunt (OOC): That is so good.

DM: Yeah, so he grew up there and then for a couple of years then his mom was like, 'I want my son and I will give you back these powers if you'll give me him back.' and so they kind of reversed the deal.

Hunt (OOC): Oh.

DM: And he ended up in the mortal world since then.

Hunt (OOC): Gee, don't ask the child how he feels.

DM: Nope, just don't matter.

Hunt (OOC): Just pass them off like some adopted animal in a shelter.

DM: Yeah, it was weird custody case. They need a custody court.

Eudora (OOC): How old was he when this happened?

DM: You have not asked.

Hunt (OOC): Yeah, we haven't asked. But Mary knows.

DM: It seems young because he said he didn't exactly grow up in the Feywild so he was still like a child, you can gather.

Hunt (OOC): Mm-hmm.

Marigold (OOC): This is basically the reverse.

DM: The reverse of what happened with Marigold, yeah.

Marigold (OOC): Okay, I kind of get that then.

-after asking if everyone's seen Dragon Age Absolution and the answers were mixed-

DM: But yeah and then you guys also know that his mother was also one of the Vveld, I believe.

Hunt (OOC): Yep.

DM: 'Cause he grew up in Vvelden. So he went from royalty to being a changeling in a nomadic culture and the son of a witch and you know, so things were...

[jaywrites101]

So, we got your feedback

When I Blazed the advertisement post for my book The Wingman, I got a lot of positive feedback: from the black mc, to the fresh idea of following a homeless man who stays homeless in the end... It was pretty gratifying for me to get such good notes! But there was one criticism that kept reoccurring: the cover.

Now, I'm an adult. I've been online for a while now, and I thought I understood where this was coming from. Eighty percent of this hate is people just being put off by the idea of Blaze and hoping that, if they complained enough, Tumblr would remove it. Sure.

But then we found this unnamed expert who opened our eyes to the REAL problem!

Oh, right! It's the kernelling, duh! How did we not see it? Clearly, the font and the colorations were just ALL WRONG!

And you can't have a standard font with automated spacings! You need to hand-do that stuff, or people will think you published a book by yourself!

And they're right! So I talked with my illustrator, and we worked together to come up with a solution. For the kernelling AND the quality of the artwork!

See? Much better, right? The kernelling is now 100% hand-done, and you can see for yourself that having it fixes every problem people had with the cover! And that legibility is just so much better!

But I thought we could surpass our limits!

So we did.

The kernelling comment really impressed to me that the problem was just that a hand-drawn style—no matter how gorgeously done it was in five-year-old-kid authentic CRAYONS this time!—doesn't really look good. It doesn't sell that my book is a nitty-gritty serious book for adults! Why it looks like it might be made for children—Perish the notion!

It's the same reason you can't buy hot-pink cars. Other adults might laugh at you!

We can't have that!

So we went to work on a cover that reflects our mature and serious tastes as consummate professionals:

How about that! Now with 95% less color!! This is a cover you can take to the office with you. It just screams I do tax work for fun! With this book in hand, the guys at the office will feel outright inferior to your vast intellect! Girls will be indubitably impressed by your refined tastes. And ladies, if guys see you reading this book, they'll be so intimidated at your agglomeration of literature that they'll leave you alone! And yes, this is 100% hand-done kernelling too! What a savings!!! ...

but...

Gee... I don't know... something just feels... missing.

It felt like we needed some passion! So we went ahead and borrowed from the Romance Genre of book covers to make a third design.

You're welcome.

HAWT!! Now that's how you do a book cover! It's just so original and steamy!

But, oh nose! Now we can't decide which is the best cover to use!

Now it's up to you to vote on which cover is your favorite! Leave a comment or reblog with your thoughts. If you haven't seen it (or just want a reminder), the original post can be found here or you can buy The Wingman at any of these outlets:

Barnes & Noble, ThriftBooks, Bookshop.org, BookFinder, or Amazon

Below the cut is my serious review of using Blaze to advertise The Wingman. Read it to see if Blaze is a good fit for you! This parody of Clinch Cover's Art was made in part using free Unslpash stock photo's by Justin Essah, Meg Jerrard, and Mathew Schwartz.

Okay, now that that's over—serious business time! As you may know, I bought the largest Blaze package at $150.00 USD for approximately 50,000 impressions. This was in effect from Thursday, April 21, 08:38 to Friday, April 22, 08:38.

Overall, I got 58,193 Impressions. This broke down into: 239 likes, 50 reblogs, 7 comments (a few of them were my own.) 1 Follow (which was probably due to me adding them first) and 11 shares off of Tumblr.

I had two people purchase The Wingman. One print, one e-book. Meaning I had a net loss of about $130.00USD. And the post I Blazed has had precious few notes on it since Blazing.

What does this mean to the book industry? Well, it means advertising sucks. For one thing.

We meticulously combed the meta qualities of my serious post to be widely appealing and upbeat (qualities that get lots of reblogs). I know many people think that means I was cheating, but keep in mind—despite gaming the meta content to be marketable, I lost money. This, unfortunately, tracks with similar experiments done on Facebook and Amazon. If you're trying to advertise your stuff as an indie artist/author—DON'T! Tumblr is selling about the same impressions that other sites are using at about half the cost... actually, less than that, if you take in the fact that people find Tumblr advertisements amusing. It is important to note: This was NOT a high traffic day, so doing a similar experiment on a Friday/Saturday may yield slightly better results. Tags are a roulette. I did my best to tag appropriately, but there is most certainly a better method to utilize tagging. I did not follow up with a second Blaze on the same post to see if the extra advertising would reach different people. I suspect it will, but we deemed it too risky to Blaze the same serious advertisement twice. Ideally, an advertisement builds goodwill so people will like you; ours had mixed results on that front. A second Blaze would've stretched people's patience too much. Especially since there appears to be Blaze purists who want Blaze to only be used to meme on people.

Overall, being a novelist is harder than ever. At least with image art, the artist's work gets to speak for itself. The Art of Writing has to evolve, and the Art of Storytelling is trending toward shorter one-off posts or things in which other users can participate.

TL;DR: It's better to use Blaze to advertise yourself than it is to go anywhere else. But Blazing alone will not help you market your books. Expect to lose money.

[therivergirl]

Random idea I just had.

Luz, Willow and Hunter are shopping at the mall when they bump into one of Vee's camp friends, the red-haired guy with glasses. He greets her and Luz know she has seen him somewhere, but can't place him so she is juts like "Yeah I probably had gym class or something with this guy at some point!"

He starts chatting and she is doing that thing where you talk very vaguely to someone you can't place and at some point, he is like, "Oh BTW, I'm Peter, and you guys are?" (I gave him a random name, not sure why)

And Luz panics and is like, "Oh these are Willow and Hunter, my friends from...camp! Yeah from camp! Oh, would you look at the time we gotta go, bye!" And basically drags Willow and Hunter away.

And Peter is confused because he would sure as heck remember these two. So he calls the other two friends and Is like "So I saw Luz and, firstly, she looked weird. Like, her hair is long enough to have a ponytail all of the sudden and she wore some old varsity jacket. Also, she must've had an accident because she had a bandage on her eyebrow. But the weird part is she stared at me like she doesn't know me like she gave me that I know you but not sure where from look. And she was with these two other people. This cute-looking girl with glasses and black hair and this blond guy who kind of gives the bad boy vibes and must be wearing contacts because he has magenta eyes. But the really weird part is she introduced them as her camp friends...and I don't remember these two people like at all!"

And the tarot girl is like, "Ok yeah that is weird. Especially since the guy you describe is someone I would definitely remember. I mean, blonde, bad-boy attitude and wears magenta contact lenses? Gee, I gotta crush and I haven't even seen the guy!"

And then later Luz tells what happened at the mall and Vee is like, "Um, Luz...you just told my camp friends...that Willow and Hunter are your camp friends..."

And luz is like "Oh crap..."

And then shenanigans ensue and I might even write a fic but no promises because already have so many ideas and WIPs but I just wanted to share this.

[vampirerosearin]

Sex, My Ears, Crushes, and Old People (Chapter 9)

Book Title: Widowed Willow Word Count: 3,442 Warnings: Jeremy+Vickey(Mention), Abuse(mention), Jealous Amari, DO NOT REPOST MY CONTENT! YOU MAY REBLOG BUT DON'T REPOST! Let me know if you want to be tagged. Story Master List | Previous Part | Next Part

──────────────────────────────────────────

It's been a couple of days since the founders' party, Amari sat in her room drawing with headphones on, in an attempt to clear away the thoughts that currently plagued her mind. The events of last night that plagued her mind caused her to press the pencil down harder.

The curly brunette seethed with anger, not able to comprehend that Damon had been hurting and using one of her best friends like an object. She couldn't believe Stefan allowed Damon near the blonde if he was abusive. She had seen the bite marks all over Caroline's body, the evidence was there.

The lead snapped causing her to let out a sigh as she pulled her earphones out and made her way into the kitchen and pulling herself onto the counter in a squat.

"Guys!" Elena whispered yelled causing the two to look at the brunette who gestured upstairs with her hands as she exclaimed, "are you aware of what's going on upstairs?"

Amari whined in disgust knowing she was talking about Jeremy and Vicki, "I slept in Jenna's room last night. There are things people should just not hear, and the sound of my brother's skin slapping my best friend is one of them."

Jenna had an amused smirk on her face at Amari's remark, Elena rolled her eyes at Amari's joke before turning her attention to her aunt and questioned, "And you have no complaints?"

"I mean," Jenna shrugged as she shook her head and replied, "He could be craftier about it, make an effort to sneak her in and out."

"I won't be home for dinner," Jenna smiled, turning away from the girls. Elena grinned, moving to stand in front of Amari as the two exchanged a look with smirks on their lips, "So you're actually going to do it"

"You're gonna go out with Logan" Amari stated, wiggling her eyebrows causing Jenna to roll her eyes at the girls, and correcting them, " I'm gonna show up and torture him, yes."

The two girls were chuckling at the remark, Jenna sent them a look and decided to change the subject, "Have you heard from Stefan?"

The brunette let out a small sigh at the mention of her sort-of boyfriend as she poured herself a bowl of cereal and informed, "Not since he left that very vague message three days ago. 'Hi, Elena. I, um, I have something I have to do. I'll, uh, explain In a few days"

Amari chuckled, looking down at her phone and reading the text she received. She glanced up at Elena, "Haven't you called him?" "Nope, not going to."

And you're okay with everything," Jenna questioned, glancing at Amari's giggle only to see her staring at her phone. Elena scoffed as she shook her head, "I'm not ok with any of it, but I'm not gonna cry about it. I was gonna write but then I thought 'What am I gonna write?'"

"I'm not gonna be one of those pathetic girls whose world stops spinning because of some guy."

"Gee thanks," Amari sighed, hopping off the counter and running back to her room and slamming it shut. Elena frowned, shoving her bowl down and chasing after, banging on the door. "Amari, I didn't mean you."

────────────

Amari walked down the corridor of Mystic Falls High, throwing away a half-eaten granola bar. She held her book in one hand, pressed against her hip, and the other hand scratched her jaw. She remained oblivious to the attention of the teenagers, everyone's eyes on her. Amari was the kind of person people wanted to date but didn't know how to ask. If they did ask, they were rejected in the nicest way possible.

"Hey, baby" Amari smiled, stopping next to Bonnie and Elena, whose eyes were on Caroline talking with cheerleaders about a car wash fundraiser. Bonnie smiled, "Hey!"

Elena scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief as she turned to her friends, "Unbelievable, it's like nothing happened."

"She's in denial," Amari stated, Bonnie nodded her head in agreement as the three glanced at Caroline.

Stefan walked towards the three as he glanced between Amari and Elena before focusing his attention on the younger brunette. He greeted her with a smile, " Hey."

Amari scoffed, rolling her eyes and turning to Bonnie with a small smile, "I'm gonna check on Caroline, see you later."

She walked away, bumping into Stefan and almost knocking him off his feet. "Um, I have to go, too. I have somewhere else I have to be" Bonnie nodded her head as she turned around, leaving the couple on their own.

Elena sighed, watching Amari walk away to talk to Caroline. She occasionally glanced at Stefan, waiting for him to speak. He stared at her and apologized, "I'm so sorry, I haven't called."

"No worries, I'll live," Elena commented forcing a smile on her face and causing Stefan to sigh as he responded, " I was dealing with Damon" the doppelgänger raised her eyebrows as she questioned, "And did you?"

Stefan nodded his head as he stared at his sort-of girlfriend and assured her, '"Yes."

Elena couldn't help but let out a scoff of disbelief, tilting her, glancing towards Amari, and asked, "For four days?"

"You have every right to be upset with me, but can I explain it all to you, please?" Stefan remarked causing Elena to stay quiet for a moment as she hesitated before finally nodding her head and responding, "Sure. When?"

The youngest Salvatore furrowed his eyebrows slightly before he spoke up, "I gotta be home after school, but the Grill around 4 o'clock?"

Elena smiled slightly deciding to give him a chance to explain as she told him, "Okay"

"Stefan, where's Damon?" Caroline called out to the youngest Salvatore brother dragging Amari with her, "He has some serious apologizing to do."

Amari huffed at the blonde knowing why she would want to see him again after everything Damon had put her through. Stefan frowned exchanging a look with Elena before he softly told the Forbes girl, "He's gone, Caroline."

Caroline's face dropped at his words before shaking her head and curiously asking, "When's he coming back?"

"He's not coming back" Stefan stated with a shake of his head, " I'm sorry" he apologized before walking away from the three. Elena let out a sigh as she looked at her best friend with a sympathetic look on her face and assured the blonde, "This is a good thing, Caroline. He won't be able to hurt you anymore"

Caroline stayed silent for a moment before a small sigh escaped her lips as she muttered, "I know that."

Amari sent her a small smile before dragging her to class as the school bell rang. ────────────

After school ended, Elena and Amari both entered the Mystic Grill as the younger girl dragged Amari with her. She didn't want to be alone, just in case, Stefan doesn't show.

Amari rolled her eyes, annoyed at her friend. She was supposed to go help Caroline with the fundraising car wash, but Elena didn't give her any choice. A small grin appeared on the oldest girl's lips as she caught sight of Matt by the pool table, "Hey Tweedledum"

She and Elena stopped beside the blonde, he smiles at the two and responded with a small 'Hi', Elena smiled and glanced around the grill, "Um, have you seen Stefan at all?"

"Nope," Matt shook his head in response, "but if you guys want to kill some time, you can rack."

Elena let out a chuckle tilting her head to the side causing Matt to send them both a look as he commented, "We haven't played in forever, I'll let you break."

Amari grinned as she took the pool stick from Matt and warned, "I won't go easy on you."

"Don't expect anything less, Mari" Matt teased with a smirk on his lips, Elena let out a laugh glancing between her best friend and her ex-boyfriend as she watched them start playing pool.

They've been playing for quite a while when Amari suddenly brought up what happened this morning between Vicki and Jeremy, "I had to sleep with Jenna, I'll never be able to erase the sounds from my mind."

Matt couldn't help but let out a chuckle at them, Elena had a look of distaste on her face, "Vicki was all nonchalant like it's no big deal they're hooking up."

"I'm not gonna lie, your brother and my sister, that's weird" Matt admitted with a shake of his head. Elena and Amari send him knowing looks making Matt let a small smile appear on his lips.

Elena let out a sigh as her phone buzzed causing Matt to glance at her with a soft look as he questioned, " How late is he?"

Amari hummed as she sighed out, "Hitting the hour mark."

"Nothing's wrong, though. Which means I'm not talking boy problems with you" Elena remarked in discomfort. It was weird talking about Stefan to her ex-boyfriend, who isn't over her yet.

Matt smiled in amusement at the brunette as he sarcastically stated, " Good. I mean, it's not like we were ever best friends or anything."

Amari raised her eyebrows sending a sister a look causing her to sigh in defeat as she muttered, " Okay, what do you think of Stefan? Is he a good guy?"

"Why? What's he done?" Matt questioned looking between Elena and Amari in concern only for Elena to shake her head as she told him.

"No, he's just secretive. Like there's something he doesn't want me to know, which makes me wanna know."

Matt snorted in amusement glancing between the girls and teasingly said, "Like he's a serial killer and he keeps a clown suit in his trunk?"

"No," Amari wheezed, playfully shoving him away, "but what do we know about him, really?"

"He's great at football, a little bit of a loner, and as much as I hate saying it, he might be a nice guy." The Donovan boy admitted causing Elena to let out a sigh as she glanced between the two and asked, "Think I'm paranoid?"

Amari frowned as told her, "I think you should talk to him about it, honey." Matt nodded in agreement when suddenly, "Talk to who?"

Stefan appeared behind them causing all three of them to snap their heads towards him, Amari even letting out a shout, "I'm so sorry, I'm late."

"What happened?" Elena curiously questioned causing Stefan to tilt his head to the side as he explained, "I got held up"

"No shit," Amari deadpanned, exchanging a look with Elena before tilting her head at Stefan, "Is everything okay?"

"There's this thing with my uncle" Stefan informed causing Elena to let out a scoff as she snapped, "You couldn't call, send a text? Tell me you're gonna be an hour late."

Matt and Amari shared uncomfortable glances, the Donovan boy clearing his throat as she spoke up, "Well, he's here now so I'm gonna go."

Amari sent a reassuring smile to Elena before waving goodbye to Matt and quickly leaving the grill not wanting to get in the middle of whatever going on between the couple. ────────────

The following day, after school, Amari and Elena stand with Caroline in the parking lot listening to the blonde cheerleader talk about the rules for the fundraiser, "No friend discounts, no freebies, no pay-you-laters. We are not running a charity here"

Amari nods her head in fake seriousness and shouts, "Ma'am, no, ma'am!" Elena and Caroline giggled when Stefan suddenly appeared, "Hi," he greeted, smiling at the three girls.

"Hey," Elena replied with a smile turning around to face her boyfriend while Amari and Caroline exchange a disbelief look. The blonde girl crossed her arms over her chest with a scoff and resorted, " Um, the event is called sexy studs, you know?"

Amari nodded her head in agreement sending the couple a pointed look before being dragged away by Caroline as she strutted over towards the other cheerleaders. Stefan let out a chuckle as he raised his eyebrows at Elena and asked, "Did we just get scolded?"

"And judged, yeah," Elena added in with a giggle shaking her head at her friends' antics, "Those two together, are unstoppable."

Stefan laughed as he turned around to glance at Amari. The tall brunette had a smile on her face, chatting with some of the cheerleaders, and holding one in her lap. The Salvatore couldn't but smile in awe when he looked at her. She was going to be the death of him.

Amari made her way over to Bonnie who was washing a car with Matt. "Amari," The shorter dark-skinned girl whined, "you look so sexy." Bonnie teased, an amused look on her face.

"Yeah, yeah, thank Caroline. She came over last night and picked out my outfit, told me no friend of hers was gonna show up looking like a hobbit." Amari chuckled causing Bonnie to laugh as the two turned their attention to Matt who was eyeing Elena and Stefan who were kissing.

Bonnie held a sympathetic look on her face as Amari let out a scoff and told him, "None of that creepy ex-stalker shit."

Matt raised his eyebrows and told the girls, "I'm just observing"

"Sure you were" Bonnie teasingly commented with a nod when a red car pulled up causing her to turn around and call out.

" Tiki, this one's yours" the cheerleader groaned looking at the car unimpressed and broadly asked, "Why do I always get the homely ones?"

Amari's eyes widened as Tiki turned her attention to the boy and told him, "Just to be clear, your car's a POS. I mean, we can wash it, but it's still a POS"

"Why you gotta be so mean," Amari scoffed as she folded her arms across her chest.

"No, mean is uglying up the road with this piece of crap," Tiki responded bending down and reaching into the bucket of soapy water not noticing the glares she was receiving from Bonnie when suddenly the bucket of water exploded and soaked Tiki from head to toe.

Amari wheezed as she watched Tiki freak out while Bonnie's eyes widened in shock glancing at her friend. Matt rushed over to help Tiki as he handed her a towel and teasingly said, "Wet and Wild, Tik."

Bonnie smiled at Amari, giggling when she kissed her cheek. She watched her friend walk towards Stefan. Amari had a mischievous smile on her face as she skipped behind Stefan who was cleaning a car.

Quietly but quickly, she picked up the hose, turned it on, and sprayed him with it laughing loudly as he held his hands out trying to get away from the Taylor-Gilbert.

"You're dead!" Stefan yelled with a smile on his face snatching the hose from her and spraying her causing her to squeal loudly as she ran around the car only for him to grab her causing her to laugh. She huffed, rubbing at her eye, "Oh my god!"

"What," Stefan frowned, his hands still wrapped around her waist. She turns out of his arms and squats to search the ground. "I lost my contact lenses."

Stefan squats with her, catching his breath while searching for the lenses. He pauses, he's never seen lenses in her eyes. "Since when do you wear conta-"

"What are you two doing?!" Caroline seethed, annoyance on her face as she narrowed her eyes at the two and snapped, "This is a fundraiser for god sake, stop messing around!"

The blonde sent a look at them before stomping away causing Stefan and Amari to glance at one another before laughing loudly.

They grin at each other, only for their smiles to slowly fade from their faces seeing how close the two of them were to one another.

After calming down, the two worked on the car together when Amari's eyes landed on the youngest Salvatore ring, she warned him, "You're getting soap in that."

"Oh, it's fine" Stefan assured brushing off her warning as she made her way towards him grabbing his hand as she took a closer look at his ring, "Damon has one too, is there a story behind it?" She asked, still picking at the ring and playing with his fingers.

Stefan nodded his head as he glanced at the ring before looking up at Amari and informed, "It's the family crest from the Italian Renaissance."

Her eyes widened slightly in surprise and resorted, "The stone called lapis lazuli, right?"

"Why am I not surprised how you know this?" Stefan jokingly asked in awe and amazement at the curly brunette, she was incredibly smart and many doubted her intelligence. She shrugged her shoulders, before turning to grab her bag, "You should really take it off, I can put it in my bag" she suggested with a small smile.

Stefan immediately shook his head in response and assured her, "No, it's fine, really, thanks though."

Amari pulled a weird face as she stared at Stefan before grabbing his hand and snatching the ring off. Keeping her fingers laced with his she smiles at the noise of shock and complaint.

"It's ok, really." Before he could question her, Elena called out her name. She turned seeing Elena gesturing for her to help her at the stand. Amari dropped his hand, ignoring the hiss from Stefan and blindly slipping the ring back on his finger. She excused herself from Stefan as she made her way over towards Elena, passing Caroline who was heading towards the school for more towels.

The tall brunette took a seat next to her friend who was speaking to an elderly man, "That'll be $20."

The man handed over the money, a frown appeared on Elena's face as he seemed familiar. She gasped with a look of recognition on her face and said, "I saw you last night. You were talking to a friend of mine, at the grill."

"Well, I thought it was somebody I knew" the man mumbled in confusion, Amari frowned as she glanced between the two as Elena spoke up, "Stefan Salvatore."

"Nah, it can't be," The man let out a scoff of disbelief shaking his head as he exclaimed, "It's just my mind playing tricks on me."

Amari turned towards the man letting out a small sigh as she questioned, "Where do you think you've seen him?"

"When I first moved here, I stayed at the Salvatore boarding house. Stefan was just passing through to visit his uncle." The man began to explain as he stared at the two girls, "I mean, none of us knew he was even there until the attack."

Elena and Amari both furrowed their brows more confused than they already were as the younger brunette questioned, "Attack?" The man hummed glancing between the two girls and explained, "His uncle got killed, mauled by an animal in the woods."

Amari let out a small scoff as Elena asked, "His uncle Zach?" The man immediately shook his head and responded, " No, Joseph."

"I'm sorry, sir, I don't think we're familiar with the story" Elena stated as she stared at the man hoping to get more information from him causing the man to chuckle in amusement as he told them, "Oh, how could you? I mean, this happened years ago."

Amari frowned, about to ask him another question when Tiki suddenly appeared out of nowhere and said, " Grandpa, you gotta go, mom wants you home, okay?"

The man nodded his head turning to leave as Tiki turned to the girls, her attention drawn to Amari "He wasn't bugging you, was he? He's a little Alzheimer.'

"No, he was sweet" Amari answered as she stood up pulling Elena with her as they rushed to catch up with the elder man, "I'm sorry, are you sure that the man that you knew, his name was Stefan Salvatore?"

The man nodded his head without hesitation causing the twins to share a nervous look, "I remember his ring and his brother" he trailed off causing Elena's eyes to widen as she added in, " Damon?"

"Yeah, Stefan and Damon Salvatore," the man informed as Amari tilted her head to the side as she curiously asked, "When was this?" The man went silent for a moment trying to think back before letting out a sigh and saying, "it was early June 1953."

──────────────────────────────────────────

Story Master List | Previous Part | Next Part

DO NOT REPOST! You may reblog, but DO NOT repost!

Let me know if you want me to add you to the taglist.