#if I'm pulling a snippet every day you can probably figure out what's going on

[eriquin]

WIP Weekend Game

In theory, I'm going to be writing all day Saturday. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, I've been tagged by a few people (@yesdangerpls, @hbyrde36, @vthx, @tinytalkingtina, @estrellami-1, @hitlikehammers, ) Rules are: you send me an emoji in my asks (or replies. I'm not picky) and I write 3-5 sentences or paragraphs from WIP! I’m open to any amount or combination.

👑 Crown of Thorns

🔮 The Oracle of Roane County

🐈‍⬛ Cat's in the Cradle

½ Zeno's Paradox

✏️ Edit Something (Both Cat's in the Cradle and Oracle need it)

Saturday is Super Sprint Saturday on Weekend Writing Marathon discord channel, so I'm probably going to write something every hour that I'm around. Send some asks and I'll get to 'em.

Progress chart from the last week:

Snippet from Crown of Thorns behind the cut.

“That’s besides the point.”

“No, the point is that I don’t know enough about my powers to trust them yet,” he snapped. “You don’t even believe me about the dream stuff, so why would you believe me about sensing something evil?” 

Dustin groaned again. “Okay, I guess I can see your point,” he said. “Well, at least nothing bad happened. But now you have to go back out there and figure out what the evil thing is!”

“What, right now?”

“If you really believe that you have dream-scrying powers, then yes. Right now.” He clapped his hands together. “Come on. Chop chop.”

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie muttered. He shook his head, but he also pulled his feet up onto the bed and seemed to get settled in.

Dustin nodded. “We need to test this to see if it’s real. If you can really spy on people in your sleep, it’d be a great power to use. At least, it would give El a break.” 

Tagging: @sevenmerrymagpies, @cxwzkeys, @apomaro-mellow, @medusapelagia, @beingmissbatty

@pentapoctopus, @salamandergoo, @just-my-latest-hyperfixation, @queenie-ofthe-void, @mission2mordor

[bedlamsbard]

500 words written today which means I actually made word count and I may, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, move on from this god damn scene. I could honestly probably do it tonight but I can feel the voices starting to go. (Also I really need to do a characterization check anyway.) Ugh, I am burned out in general and yet do not get an actual break despite this week being the last week of classes. (Conference next week, WHO scheduled Kalamazoo for the worst time of the entire school year? Why is Leeds always over the Fourth of July (because it's British, but obvs it's not great timing for Americans). Why is the SCS always the first week of January? Why are all three major conferences in my field at the worst three times of the year?)

Snippet from Of Home Near chapter 21.

“No, you’re right,” Steve said, with a little grimace of acknowledgment.  “There were other options before; those options went out the window when Secretary Ross showed up.  And I think people…people need something.  It doesn’t have to be us, but we’re here, so – I think it’s better if it’s us than anything else Ross or the President might come up with.”  He hesitated, then admitted, “I want it to be us.” Natasha glanced at him.  Steve Rogers knew more about controlling his own image than anyone ever gave him credit for, both in 1945 and in 2018.  He was better at it than she was, that was for sure.  There was something Howard or Peggy or one of the Howling Commandos – maybe even Irina – had said once back at the SSR, that the only reason there was a Captain America at all was because Steve Rogers had wanted there to be one.  Not the Captain America from the USO’s stage shows, comics, and films, but a real Captain America, one who did his best to live up to the promise of the one created by the USO and Senator Evelyn Brandt. “It has to be us,” she said.  She was less certain than Steve was that it could be anything but the Avengers, not now, not after this.

[bugwolfsstuff]

Here's a snippet of the Halloween fic wip, cause I decided to rewrite this chapter

@smileyalater @thel1ghtningthief @unubinary @bodeyeen2132

I am trying to fit a Valgrace plot

Camp Halfblood! Camp Halfblood! BE GLAD YOU'RE STILL ALIVE

Chapter 1. Leo’s Pov 

The meeting room of the Big House was in complete chaos and not of the fun kind when I walked in.  

Connor (or Travis? I can never tell them apart) Stoll from Hermes was picking at the peeling paint of the meeting table (which was really just a Ping-Pong table with foldable chairs around it). His brother was trying to put a whoopee cushion on my chair. Clarisse, my buddy Frank’s scary older sister from Ares was sharpening her spear Lamer. Clovis from Hypnos was slumped over in his seat, fast asleep. My friends Piper and Jason were in their seats looking really bored.  A girl with a blue bob was sitting in the Demeter seat looking like she was about to blow a gasket. She seemed to be Miranda’s replacement. 

The rest of the counsellors (the newbies) who I didn’t know were yelling amongst themselves. 

“What are we going to do?” I heard someone yell. “Miranda is dead!” 

Dios, I thought. Not something you want to hear when you walk in the room. Personally, I’d prefer it if every time I walked in everyone cheered and threw confetti. 

“No, she isn't you idiot! She’s in the infirmary!” Someone else yelled. 

Oh, that’s better, I thought. I squeezed my way past Clovis to my seat. Since I came back from, you know dying, my siblings made me head counsellor. So, it was up to me, Captain Valdez, supreme leader of Cabin Nine to sit at the Ping-Pong table with the big kids and help solve the latest camp crisis.... 

Whatever that crisis was. I’ve been in Bunker nine working on upgrading Festus for the past...three maybe five days? And Nyssa didn’t explain much except ‘Miranda got attacked in the fields, Leo get your butt to the Big House stat’. 

It was fine though; I figured this was going to be a quick meeting. In and out. Lots of people get attacked or mauled at camp. As much as I hate to say it, this was the normal at Camp. This was probably just going to be a quick meeting on weapon training and a slideshow presentation on the art of not dying. 

I pushed the whoopee cushion onto the floor and smiled at the Stoll brother closest to me, sliding into my seat “Hey, what’d I miss?” I asked. 

“Nothing much” Piper said across from me. 

I sighed, pulling out some pipe cleaners from my belt. “What even happened? Did the strawberries go rogue and start going on a rampage or something?” 

Before Piper could open her mouth to reply, Chiron, the camp’s unofficial camp director walked in—or more wheeled in, he was in his wheelchair. Will Solace from Apollo and what I'm assuming was the school year counsellor for Annabeth’s cabin followed him close behind, taking their seats. 

“Counsellors!” Chiron called over the noise, “Let’s come to order now,”  

The room fell into silence, and everyone looked at him and Will. 

He wheeled himself over to his spot at the end of the table “As some of you have already heard. Miranda is in the infirmary from very...” He cleared his throat, “.... gruesome injuries sustained from an attack in the Strawberry fields.” He glanced at Miranda’s blue haired replacement, “Don’t worry, she’s okay.” 

I felt like that was contradicting, but that seemed to calm her down. 

“Do we know what attacked Miranda?” Jason asked from the end of the table, looking cool in a rugged way, he was growing his hair out. He’s a son of Jupiter, so while me and Piper were living it up, starting super cool clubs and making up secret handshakes; He was on the other side of the Ping Pong table with the other big three kids, who were only there half of the time. 

Will Solace shook his head, pulling his bloody medical gloves off and putting them on the table (gross, dude), “No, no one saw it. It disappeared into the strawberry plants before anyone could see it properly.” He replied. 

“What about the bite mark? And the scratches?” Annabeth's brother asked, “That could help identify it!”. 

Will shook his head, “I already told you, that’s what’s weird about it, the bite didn’t look like any monster I’ve seen before.” He paused, frowning. “It looked… almost human.” 

Jason frowned too, “Maybe an Empusa?” 

“Doubt it,” Will said, “They usually go for men, and we would of saw it and it disappeared into the plants, very few things do that”. 

Miranda’s replacement perked up “Maybe the dryads saw something? We could ask—” 

Clarisse cut her off with a snort “Already tried, Sherman’s on a warpath. He asked the nymphs if they saw anything. They all refused to talk”. She lowered her spear, glancing around the room, “I uh...I wouldn’t be so sure on their loyalty.” 

Everyone stared at Clarisse. If we were in a movie the soundtrack would be going Dun dun dunnn, right then.  

Jason’s brow furrowed, “You think the Dryads are in on it?” 

“Not saying they are,” Clarisse replied, “But it’s suspicious they’re not talking. Normally, they’d be jumping to defend their territory.” 

“How dare you!” Miranda’s replacement looked around to see if anyone was going to back her up “You all can’t really be thinking—” 

Jason cut her off, “—So, the dryads clearly know something. That’s not good, this is more serious than we thought."  

I thought he could say that again. Even I knew how bad it was; if the nymphs were covering for a monster, then we were in Trouble with a capital T. Camp was surrounded by nature, they outnumber us. If they decided to do a plant uprising, we’d lose a lot more than the pretty ladies who serve our food at meals. 

He looked serious now, his blue eyes were deathly calm, like a storm right before the lightning strike. The small scar on his lip quivered. His elbows were up on the ping-pong table and his chin was resting on his chin, which meant he means business, and he was doing his ‘I have a plan; trust me I am the leader’ face. 

I looked down at my hands, I somehow managed to tie my pipe cleaners to both of my sleeves like hand cuffs. 

“Here’s what we’re gonna do,” Jason said slipping into his leader voice, and I decided to ignore my pipe cleaner imprisonment to listen to him, “Stolls, Clarisse, get your cabins to patrol the campgrounds, especially near the forest and the fields. Leo and Malcolm, both your cabins can collaborate on traps, right?” 

Annabeth’s brother—Malcolm, nodded. Clarisse grunted and the Stolls grinned. 

I saluted with both my hands (still handcuffed) “Aye Aye Commander Grace! I won't let you down!” I promised. 

Jason smiled at me before turning to Piper and continuing, I grinned back, “Okay, Piper, you and I are going to take a walk and try and figure out what’s up with the nymphs”. 

Piper nodded. 

Jason nodded back and then looked at the remaining counsellors, he went down the list of cabins, giving them each a job. No one argued with him. That was the thing with Jason’s leader voice, it was like charmspeak. When he spoke, you listened. 

[gottagetshiver]

I was tagged by @scoops404 to post a snippet from each WIP that includes the word "love", so here we go!

1: As A Phoenix Does, a dnf kidfic

Ultimately he does what he always does when he’s out of options to occupy himself. From deep within his camera roll, he pulls up a locked folder full of his most cherished memories. 

There’s thousands of screenshots. Texts, Discord messages, tweets, saved images, all of them moments with Dream that make his heart overflow. 

The first time Dream wrote out the words ‘I love you’ in a text to him and George felt that little flutter in his stomach. 

The first time Dream called him his best friend. 

The first time he flirted and Dream flirted back.

Every time one of their friends had said that they must be in love. 

The time they got so, so, close to sexting, only for Dream to panic and veer away at the last moment. 

Then, of course, hundreds of fanart pieces. Aside from every piece Dream had liked of the two of them, he’s saved dozens upon dozens of them kissing. Even more of them making out or otherwise implying something more intimate than simply kissing. 

There’s even a few that he managed to snag where he’s buried balls deep in Dream, with a ring of hickeys around his neck and love in his eyes.

2: The Fates of Kepler, a Stardew fic

“Inside,” she murmurs between kisses, unwinding her arms from around his neck and reaching for his hands.

He perks up, letting himself be led up the porch stairs and towards the house. “Really?”

Briar blushes, nodding as she fumbles with her keys. “Only if you want to, of course.”

The second the lock slides open Shane’s hands are on her, spinning her to face him, and his lips are back on hers. 

She laughs against his mouth as one of his hands leave her side to fumble with the doorknob, and they stagger back into the house. Shane kicks the door closed behind himself, and starts backing Briar towards the bedroom when they’re interrupted.

“Puffin!” Briar shrieks as her dog leaps up on her, wedging her way between her and Shane, wiggling all the while, “get off, for Yoba’s sake, girlie.”

Shane only laughs, crouching down to give the dog a pat and scratch her ears. “Hey pup, did you miss me?”

It affects Briar more than she expected, seeing Shane love on her dog. She can’t keep the soft grin off her face or the flutter out of her heart. “I think she really likes you, you know.”

“Aw,” Shane coos, scratching Puffin’s belly as she rolls over, “I really like her too. She’s a good dog.”

3: Unnamed Stardew fic

“Hey, Em?” he calls, pushing up from his seat.

Emily pokes her head out from the back. “Yeah?”

“Can I get, uh,” Shane stalls, trying to figure out what the farmer might want from the menu. He’s never paid much attention to what she orders. Probably something chill and easy to eat is the best option? Something with a ‘this is a day all about love and it sucks to be alone on it, doesn’t it?’ vibe. “Two burgers please? To go?”

Emily raises a brow at him, the corner of her mouth turning up slightly, but she just nods and reappears into the back. “You’ve got it,” she calls, her voice echoing from down the hall. 

Shane falls back into his seat with a huff, dragging his hands down his face. Pierre’s is open for another twenty minutes, should he go get her some flowers? Is that too much? Or would she like that, even if this isn’t a traditional Valentine's date? Maybe it would be nice for this to feel like a date, even if it isn’t.

I'm gonna tag @dwtdog, @timetravelkoolaid, and @bluishfrog to do this they want, with the word "serious" :)

[commander-rahrah]

So do I! I'm glad Astarion is patient with them although he does tease them XD I love the idea of him embroidering little designs whether it's stars, moon, or something else! It sounds adorable 😊 I would definitely adore letting him have the first pick of new clothes! He deserves it & it would help him separate from his past too 🤍 Thank you for sharing your thoughts because I love it so much :)

Here's my idea that I would love to hear your opinion! Just to let you know this is quite self-indulgent XD What if Astarion had five things about what GN!Reader does that frustrate & confuse him (but he's secretly grateful for it)

1. They always make eye contact with him unless there's something that requires their utmost attention

2. They always remember what he said to them like a book he mentioned briefly that he wants to read but can't find so they worked hard to find it for him or they asked if he doesn't mind continuing what he was talking about earlier before there was an interruption

3. They always ask for his consent even if it's something he suggested because they're familiar with forcing themselves to do something they don't like or they're used to being presented with the illusion of choice

4. They always thank him whether it's something like shooting down an enemy while they're too preoccupied or helping them carry some stuff

5. They won't touch him unless it's for his benefits like quickly removing a leaf from his hair that he keeps missing (that's how they know because they noticed his stiff expression & how tense his body is briefly when they did for the first time) or pulling him to safety

What do you think of it? I'm curious :3

Okay, tumblr definitely lost this one -- so sorry about that anon!

I think that with most of these, the biggest thing would be Astarion realizing that you actually are perceiving him. Seeing through any of his careful masks and facades he puts up. A lot of these things are ideas I've been slowly exploring in my fic series as Tav/Astarion's relationship grows, but I can definitely share some little thoughts about them before I post my bigger thoughts in my fic aha!

I would imagine that Tav/reader continuously making eye contact with him might make him nervous at first - he would try to figure out what you were trying to do, if you were trying to throw him off or something. Once he realized it was just because Tav/reader was genuinely interested in what he was saying, listening and watching… his mind might betray him a bit. Why did you focus on him so much? Did you like what you saw? What if you didn't? I think its something he would have to get use to as he let his guard down more and more, and began to trust Tav/reader

I think he would be floored the first time Tav/reader did something like this. If he made some off the cuff comment about wishing he had better reading material, and then the next night there was a little stack of books sitting in his tent. If you did it again, he would maybe ask in a teasing way, but secretly really really wants to know why you're doing this, "What's the big deal? Trying to bribe me?" and being even more confused when Tav/reader shrugs and tell him that they thought of him when they saw it or remembered him bringing it up. This would make him even more confused and probably tell them as such. "You get more puzzling every day."

The always asking for consent thing is actually a scene I already have written for my series Talking to the Moon - but a bit of a snippet of how it will go is essentially him getting exasperated as Tav once again asks "May I?" and he goes "Do you insist on asking that every time?". "Yes, Astarion. Every time." And even if it was his idea, I think Tav/reader would still ask. He might roll his eyes, "Darling, it was my idea." But you would explain that he can always change his mind, that consent given or promises made before can change, that in the moment it could change. That you never want him to feel like that with you, not ever, not again. So yes, you will ask every. single. time.

Gratitude is not something he is used too. His master made demands, not requests. There were no thank yous expressed to him, not ever. I think he would probably mask this one better then any of the others, flipping his hair and replying in his sassy voice that "you owe me" or "yes, I am quite something, aren't I?" But every thank you you gave him, probably healed something inside him

I think that post-confession, Tav/Reader would only ever touch Astarion without permission if it was a matter of safety, like pushing him out of the way of an arrow or for a spell, etc. And before he could say anything, they would start profusely apologizing, not trying to explain it away but then Astarion would shush them, reassuring them that he was alright, "It's okay, I'm fine. We're okay, I promise."

[eyesofshinigami]

WIP Weekend!

I was tagged by the always wonderful @shares-a-vest, so here we go!

The Rules:

In a reblog (or a new post w/ rules attached) post up to five (5) file names of your wips. Not titles, file names.

Post a snippet from one of them. Snippet must be words you wrote in the last 7 days. We’re posting progress here. If you haven’t made any, go make some and come back to post!

After you’ve posted, people can send you an ask with one of your file names. You must then write 3 sentences in that file. If the filename is one you can’t share from (for example, an event fic), write 3 sentences on it anyway, and then 3 more on another to share.

That’s it! You can invite others to join in, or just post. If you tag me in your post, I will send you an ask request!

The WIPs:

Teenage Dirtbag: where Eddie is a lot a bit of a creep when it comes to Stevie Harrington, but wouldn't you know it, but she's kind of into it too?

A/B/O Rarity: Where the Alpha and Omega genes are incredibly rare, but with Steve's luck, he's one of the few people who's got it. He hides it for years, until he can't/doesn't want to anymore, especially after he meets Eddie, who is the only other person he's ever met who also has the gene.

Adventures in Babysitting: another A/B/O idea where Eddie is an older Alpha and needs a babysitter/nanny for his young son, and cue them meeting Steve, the incredibly hot, young Omega babysitter who immediately pings every box he's ever had.

As for a snippet, here's one from Teenage Dirtbag that's a wee little spicy.

Things changed again, after that. Stevie abandoned all her old friends, stuck by Nancy and Jonathon Byers of all people, the three of them looking haunted and weary in a way that stuck in Eddie’s mind like a splinter in his finger. Gone was the ice princess who roamed the halls of Hawkins High like royalty, and instead was a girl who looked like she had Seen Some Shit. Eddie knew that look. He saw it enough in the mirror when it was a bad night. 

And still, it didn’t wane. It got worse again, where Eddie pictured himself as some kind of black knight that would ride in and make everything better. He thought about getting her flowers. Or asking her if she wanted to go to one of his concerts and watch him play. Wondered if she would like having a picnic by the quarry, where he could get his hand up her skirt and kiss her and tell her that she was a supernova that had completely consumed him. 

But he didn’t. Maybe there was too much Munson in him, too much of a coward to try and reach out and touch the untouchable. Stevie Harrington was always going to be the pipe dream, even more than Corroded Coffin getting discovered and him hitting the big time. Especially because she was graduating, and Eddie was still stuck spinning his wheels in this lame-ass school because he couldn’t figure out how to get his head out of all of his imaginary fantasies.

She was probably going off to some rich-kid school on a coast somewhere. She’d probably find some blonde-haired blue-eyed guy named Chad or Kevin or something and get married, pop out kids and live in the suburbs. 

Until she didn’t leave. Until Eddie was fucking assaulted with the sight of Stevie Harrington in a tiny sailor’s uniform, slinging ice cream at the mall. That skirt was criminal, even more than the stupid tennis skirts she wore to school all the time. 

His thoughts took a turn for the worst, sitting outside Scoops Ahoy like an absolute asshole and just drooling over the thought of bending her over the counter. Thinking about pulling her into the freezer and fucking her until neither of them could move, her clawing at his back and pulling at his hair and telling him what a fucking freak he was. 

No pressure tags: @ghostinthelibrarywrites, @just-my-latest-hyperfixation, @marvel-ous-m, @devondespresso

I'm sure people have already been tagged, if you have, please poke me and I'll go take a look!

[areweevercameraready]

snippet two :>

A/N: me: oh no, AO3 is getting DDoS'ed :( and i just finished a chapter of beliefs so I can post another chapter! damn me: me: wait i can post another human chapter

anyways, please stay off AO3 for the time being and here's a post with more information, but they're facing extreme server overloading and opening AO3 pages makes it harder apparently. i don't know, i'm a communicator, not a programmer, so i'm just passing along what i know.

anywho! here's another snippet of the human au i'd been writing. if you would like to read the first part, here is the first snippet, which also has some more background on the au. check here for descriptions of the human au.

this is likely to be the last of this big story i'll be posting. i might post some of the oneshots i have in this au, as i have a few that are sorta unrelated to the plot that i'm comfortable with posting, but...well. we'll see. i finished chapter 13 of more than beliefs so i've 1) begun writing chapter 14 finally and 2) might post chapter 11 soon :D not having anything to do with my life right now is good for catching up on sleep debt and writing fanfiction! yipee!

i hope you enjoy!

Words: 7,265

WARNINGS: having a panic attack and being sad, not much more i don't think but if there is, let me know and i'll make note of it!

(in lieu of a diving image, please take this human au meme LOL)

“So. Bartender. Your name’s Eric, right? That’s what Marl’ said.”

“Mhm,” Eric hummed. 

“Thanks for driving them home. Marlowe would’ve flipped tomorrow if he woke up and realized he’d left the car somewhere else. He’s gonna flip either way, though, since the idiot teaches tomorrow morning,” David snickered a little, leaning against the car door in a casual manner. 

At the very least, the flippance was making it more evident that David wasn’t, like. Mad at him. Or something. Eric nodded again before remembering that David was now driving. “Uh. Yeah. Would have been a kinda problem.”

“Mm,” David hummed. After a few beats of silence, he added. “You got anything to do tomorrow?”

Tomorrow? Why was he asking? “I, uh, have work at four. At the bar. Other than that, no,” because truthfully, he was only scheduled five days a week at the restaurant.

He tried to get his shifts at the restaurant and his shifts at the bar to not line up, but five days a week at both jobs meant there wasn’t ever a chance of that happening. When he did need a full day off, though, for parent-teacher conferences especially now that Gavin was going to school, he managed to get the exact days precisely. Which was probably because he was so punctual and dependable. Which was what he tried to be. But sometimes, he worried that wouldn’t be enough, so he always clocked the days he’d need two months in advance. 

Tomorrow was just a lucky day though, to just have one job and not both. Often they stacked. Sometimes they didn’t. 

“Wanna meet up for lunch?” David’s proposition cut through Eric’s tangential thoughts. 

He turned to David again now, a slight frown on his lips, before asking, “For lunch?” as if he hadn’t heard properly. 

David nodded. “Yep. My treat, for bringing my boys home safe,” he shot Eric another grin. “Also you like, haven’t at all told me where the fuck to go. I’m assuming it’s closer to downtown but unless you just wanna keep driving in circles….”

Fuck. Eric looked out the window for real now, trying to figure out where they were. It was the highway going into town. “You’re going to want to take the Concord exit,” he said. 

“Okay,” David said. “But, yeah. Lunch.”

“Lunch,” Eric repeated, quickly averting his eyes back to the dashboard. “You and me and lunch?”

He didn’t really want to look directly at David, but just in case David like. Grabbed him. Or something. Eric wanted to see him in his peripheral. He saw David shrug. 

“I mean, yeah. You ever been to Lucy’s on Main? Such a great diner, I used to go with an old girlfriend every night almost,” David pulled off the exit. 

“Right. And then left at the, uh….fourth light.”

“Gotcha. Lunch. At Lucy’s on Main?” 

Lucy’s on Main wasn’t the fanciest place, but Eric had only been once, and that was for Gavin’s fourth birthday. He liked their theming, even though it wasn’t an actual children’s diner or anything, and Eric was never one to deny his brother when he asked for something achievable. 

If he could, he’d get Gavin the world. Snatch it right out of God’s hand

Going there with a stranger, though….if David wasn’t dating like, at least two other people, Eric would be worried this was a flirt attempt. And he wasn’t really in the mood to be romantic. He kinda wanted therapy first? And he hadn’t thought about romance in a while, not since his boyfriend in high school. Now he was an adult with responsibilities, he couldn’t just ditch school and smoke weed by the train station with Schmidt. 

This was just some guy being thankful, though, right? And he wasn’t doing anything tomorrow….and the idea of food, especially free food, was pretty enticing. A guaranteed meal would be nice. And at this point, he didn’t think this was going to be a trap. He knew Lucy’s on Main. He wasn’t...this was awkward, but it wasn’t like he was going to get mugged or anything.

The silence dragged, just a bit, and David sighed. “If you wanna say no, you can. I just know this’ probably way outta your ways, and you seem like you’re not gonna kill me and steal my car, so it’d be nice to hang out once and say thanks.” David sounded tired, too. 

Though that explanation was pretty straight forward. Eric nodded slowly in something like understanding. If David was worried Eric was going to be mugging him, and Eric was worried that David was going to be mugging him….well, he could just be saying this to get his guard down. Eric knew he consistently looked like his guard was up, more often willing to fight than he wasn’t, but maybe that was off-putting here. Maybe he was the scary one, here. 

Ah, the mom friend override. 

“No, I, uh. That’d be cool,” Eric said, then cleared his throat and continued. “Thanks for the offer. Would noon work?” 

“Yeah, sure,” David smiled as he took the turn onto Concord Avenue. “Meet you there?”

“Sure,” Eric said. “You can pull over anywhere on this block.”

He gestured out the window. His building was maybe two blocks down, but, well. He didn’t want to take this dude all the way to his apartment. 

Did he?

No, no he didn’t. Also, his days of one night stands were like, two years long gone. Eric wasn’t about to bring a whole adult (WITH TWO BOYFRIENDS, MIND YOU, AT LEAST TWO) to his tiny apartment at almost four in the morning with his kid brother sleeping in the same bedroom. Like, sure as fuck that wasn’t happening. Regardless of how pretty David looked in the moonlight. 

Yeah, he was tired as fuck if he was just going to start mentally waxing poetic about how pretty these boys were. Eric looked around at the car, out the window, then back at David. Who was watching him with a smile ever so slight, almost knowing, almost cocky. 

“What, you want a goodnight’s kiss too?” he joked. 

Eric snorted, shaking his head. “Nah, I’m just….” Confused. 

This was all so much, in one night. 

He had a hundred fuckin’ dollars in his pocket? 

And David’s boyfriend’s phone number? This dude just drove him home, too, for nothing, and was going to take him out to lunch tomorrow? 

“This’ a lot more social interaction in one day than I get most months,” Eric joked, almost confessed really, and shrugged. “It’s also four in the morning.”

“Huh, would you look at that,” David looked at the clock and pulled a face, as if he’d just noticed the time. 

Wouldn’t that be a riot? What the fuck was he doing awake, even? Eric snorted, hiding his eyes behind a hand as he laughed. “Stop no, it’s too-it’s too early for this,” he said between laughs as David began to chuckle a little himself. 

“Damn right. You head home, get to bed, and make sure you’re up at at LEAST noon!” David waved at Eric as he got out of the car, into the night air. 

It nipped at his nose, much colder than he thought it’d be. Granted, he thought he’d still be warm from the bar, too. Eric turned around, waving at David as he whipped a completely not-legal U-turn in the middle of the road, then headed back where he came. It looked like David was going to wait until Eric got into a building, which was kind of nice of him, but once Eric stood still and waved, he hit the reverse. Which was also fair. And also part of Eric’s plan. 

He didn’t exactly….Now okay, tomorrow morning this was all going to register as flirting. Eric was going to take off his shirts and lay down in his bed and watch Gavin sleep for maybe fifteen minutes before passing out himself out of just exhaustion while wearing his bartending slacks and without actually being beneath his pillows. He was going to not think about the implications behind the three men’s actions until tomorrow morning, while making breakfast, and he was going to be quiet enough in thought for Gavin to ask if he’d done something wrong while they were on their drive to school. 

“No, Gav, you’re fine. Peachy, actually, sweet pea,” Eric said, while he and Gavin waited at a stop light. 

Gavin was supposed to hold the motorcycle’s safety restraints while they drove, but more often than not he ended up holding Eric. He had his own safety jacket and belt buckles, which Eric installed as soon as he found out they were a thing. He’d gotten the bike before he’d gotten Gavin, and he wasn’t giving the bike away. 

“What’re you sad about?” the kid asked. 

The light was still red, so Eric leaned one arm back and gave Gavin one of their bike hugs. Positioning was always awful, but Gavin knew the drill, so he snuggled his helmeted head beneath Eric’s arm for a moment and hugged him tighter. 

Now, though, how to like. Explain this to the four year old.

“A friend asked to go to lunch together today,” was what Eric landed on.

Gavin gasped, excitement filling his voice in a way that almost made Eric feel bad. “A friend?! Yay!”

“Yeah, a friend. I’ve got those,” Eric joked. 

“Daddy’s got one friend,” Gavin said with his own snicker, and Eric laughed, too. 

“Daddy’s got more than one friend,” he said, and for a moment, thinking about the phone number written on the bill at home, he meant it. 

Gavin seemed happy with that explanation and with those jokes, and Eric was as happy as he’d let himself be. He dropped Gavin off and promised to pick him up later, told him to have a good day, that he loved him. 

Kid’s school got out at 1:38, which would be a fair reason to leave lunch, if it got like. Unbearably awkward. Which was a real possibility, if you asked Eric. Wasn’t last night awkward enough? This dude really saw Eric at his normal messiest states at four in the morning and decided that the best decision was to spend even more time with him. Granted, he was in his pajamas last night, and he seemed pretty out of it, too. It might be nice to have a real conversation outside of being ground into dust levels of tired.

Also, it wasn’t Eric’s worst, and he thought he’d held it together pretty well considering the outlandish circumstances. In nearly any other case, he would have gone running for the hills at the mention of having lunch alone together with a stranger, or even being handed a bill with a fucking phone number on it. He’d been hit on at the bar before; everyone likes the stoic type bartender, until he starts rejecting advances. Then he gets the drink thrown on him and slurs thrown his way, which like, really? The owner’s queer and they think it’s going to be okay to say slurs? Idiots. Eric knew it was a situation better than that kind of shit, but he didn’t know what made him say yes to these advances. Something about the genuine-ness of it all, maybe. 

And these like. Were definitely advances. There were no ifs, ands, or buts. He didn’t process it fully last night, but now that the lunch date was starring him in the face, he could see it for what it was: a date. 

Three people, though. That was three extra people to disappoint. And, if he really thought about it, Eric didn’t know if he could, like….handle that. On an emotional level but also on an anxiety level. 

Still, to not show up to lunch and flake would be rude, and he may be a coward but he was anything but rude. 

Eric took some time between dropping off Gavin and heading to the date to prepare. He had tried while putting his hair up, a looser ponytail rather than the pinned bun he had for either of his jobs. Usually, he’d’ve preferred to keep it down, but. Well. It got everywhere. It was kinda scraggly, probably 90% split ends. Good to have it out of the way.

He threw on a quick t-shirt, a pair of black jeans, and his regular leather jacket. If this was really just lunch, then it was a one and done kind of situation. Not much else for him to do, other than lay down and try to nap for an hour before heading out.

Lucy’s on Main was fairly crowded for lunch on a weekday, in Eric’s opinion. People were waiting outside when he got there. And he didn’t see David waiting amongst them, so he put his own name down for a table and went to go stand outside. There was a couple sitting on the bus stop bench, though. Smoking. It’d been a few years since he managed to kick his nicotine addiction, but he wasn’t exactly fond of the scent of smoke anymore, so after a moment of taking in the wind and hyping himself up to talk to a stranger, a whole ass stranger, he went back in. 

And that was when he heard a “YO! ERIC!”

Eric jumped, turning around towards the inside of the diner. Most of the tables were filled, and one had a guy with his arms up, waving him down. Literally. Waving him down.

“HEY!” David called out. 

Eric saw him crack a smile as he recognized him, as Eric waved back just a little. They were turning heads a bit. Just a bit. 

He told the host that he was with “that guy” and made his way over, sliding into the seat opposite David. And he tried to kind of avoid looking at him, because being yelled at across a public space was never something Eric was too fond of. As soon as he sat down, though, David waved in his face. 

“‘Sup, Harley,” David said. “Nice bike.”

“Thanks.” Eric looked up, briefly, then froze. And looked up again.

David’s hair was down, though it’d been brushed and was pinned back with a bobby pin or two. He was wearing a puffy varsity jacket and a t-shirt underneath, the varsity jacket covered in patches that seemed to be hand-sewn on. There was a pin, too, on the jacket’s collar, with the inclusive rainbow. Cute. His glasses were cute, too, framing his face in a way that made his smile look a bit wider as he also looked over eric.

He….Well. In last night’s dark, he hadn’t really caught what David actually looked like. He was smaller than Eric but they had similar styles almost. There was something comforting casual about David’s posture, though, and in the way he leaned back against the booth’s seat. 

Surrounded by hot men. Eric turned away as the waitress came over, hoping he wasn’t blushing as much as he thought he was, and ordered himself a plate of fries. Before she left, David interrupted.

“Nah, you can order more, dude. I’m paying,” he reached over and motioned towards the waitress. “Get a milkshake at least, Lucy’s shakes’re the fucking best.”

Now, Eric didn’t really want to be wasting someone else’s money, and the plate of fries was definitely more than he’d been planning on having today. But David was watching him. And Eric couldn’t really say no. Not when he was being watched like this. A burger did sound good, too, but….

God, he didn’t want to make David spend money on him. Eric stuffed his hands into his pockets slowly, playing with the edge of his phone’s case. “Can I, uh. Can I get a chocolate shake, too?” he asked. 

“M’kay,” the waitress said with a knowing smile. 

“And make his fries the bigger size! I’ll steal some,” David grinned at the waitress, who chuckled at his antics but wrote down the change. 

And then she left. 

Eric leaned back in the seat, and he didn’t really know what to feel. In a weird way, it was good that David just started to converse, then and there.

“Like I said, cool bike. What kind is it?” he said, as if he knew of it. 

“Uh,” oh, jeez, the bike. “It’s a 2005 Night Train.”

“Sheesh, a Night Train! And she’s still running? Do you do your own maintenance?” 

“I, uh. Yeah. Yeah, I do. Maintenance and modifications.”

And that got him talking. Which, like. Was hard. On standard, getting him to converse was hard. But then David mentioned his old bike, how he used to have a 2002 Softail Deuce, how he always found it hard to maintain. Well, ‘course it’s hard to maintain if you don’t keep checking on it, especially after not riding it for a bit. Eric installed the second seat and had to buy her new brakes, just in case and to help with smoother rides. 

He talked about how he kept his parts and mechanical tools in a case in his apartment. Usually he’d keep it stuffed under the coffee table, better than leaving it out in the garage. 

David said it was cool, that he knew enough to maintain the bike himself. Yeah, Eric just liked keeping up with it and making sure he knew enough about it. He didn’t know any mechanics in the area well enough to trust them to actually take care of it as well as he could. Plus, if anything went wrong, he’d know what the situation was. He liked knowing that. 

It was nice, to talk to someone about these things. Eric didn’t notice his tension easing up with David. It was almost natural.

David mentioned having a bike. What did he do with it? He had to get rid of it, he didn’t take good enough care of it. Sold it to someone before he moved out here. He’s originally from Michigan but relocated for work, since it’s better to be near a lot of galleries. Selling the bike helped pay for life after college. 

What did he work in? Art. He worked most in oils, something like a modern impressionist kind of painting. The big one was sculpting. He liked to chisel, but marble was kind of hard to come by. He’d gotten into wood carving, though, since the house was nearby a forest. He’d take down a tree somewhere on their property, replant a few saplings, then bring it in pieces into his workshop to carve. It was in the basement, but they’d set up a ventilation system well enough. He did like painting realism sometimes, as a hobby, though.

Eric didn’t know anything about art. He would love to see his works, one day. 

Well you could swing by. I don’t think anyone’d be home to mind. If you wanna hang out some more.

“Who’s home?” Eric asked then, almost confused. 

David blinked at him a few times, trying to process what was confusing, before realization entered his face and he snapped his fingers. “Shit, yeah. I’m supposed to….yeah. So, uh. Me and the boys wanted to get to know you more. ‘S why Princey and Marl’ were at your bar.”

“Oh.” What? Who the fuck are the boys? “Who’re the boys?”

“You’re gay, right? Just want to clear that up, ‘cause this is about to be so fuckin’ awkward if you’re straight.” David sipped his milkshake expectantly while Eric made a face, and before Eric even answered, David snickered. “Sorry, dumb question, you don’t need to be gay to like, get this. I dunno if anyone told you directly, but Phillip and Marlowe and I, and Cadence, and another dude you haven’t met named Draco, we’re all in a relationship. Poly, gay, all that. We’re all in a relationship.

“And like, we aren’t gonna reel you into a relationship with all of us. Cadence just said you were nice, so’d Marlowe and Phillip,” David put his hands up—Eric’s face must have been some kind of slack jawed, but he was more trying to decipher what David was saying than paying attention to himself. “We thought it’d be cool to meet you. Well. I thought it’d be cool. Like, as friends and stuff. And like, we move like a pack. I don’t wanna speak for the others on what they’re thinking, but I just wanted to make sure you knew like, this isn’t a date, not for me. But like, I dunno. You’ve got everyone’s interest now.

“So if you’re like, wondering why a bunch of randos’re meeting up with you out of nowhere, it’s because you seem cool and we all share one braincell that befriends people at the same time. We all wanna meet you. I dunno what everyone’s specific desires are past that, I just kinda wanna get to know you, but I think we could be friends. That’d be cool.” David leaned back, indicating the end of his explanation, and picked up his almost empty milkshake to sip from as Eric digested all of that new information.

“Oh. Okay,” Eric’s voice sounded hollow, even to himself. 

Was that like getting stalked? Was he just getting stalked now, but a frat house of gay dudes? Was that what was happening? He didn’t know. His ears were kind of ringing a little as he tried to process that. 

So he’d run into a gaggle of dudes who wanted to be his friend. All of them? They’d talked about him—of course they’d talked about him.

One of them was fucking famous? Eric didn’t know what being friends with a famous person was like, but he didn’t want cameras in his face all the time if that’s what it meant. 

Was he even good enough for that? Eric wouldn’t have considered himself friendship material for any regular person, not to mention multiple people at once, one of whom was famous.

He had a lot of concerns, off the bat. 

“It’s kinda a lot to explain. Mostly, we’re just gonna be annoying, since you seem cool and we wanna be friends. If that’s okay,” David said. “That okay?”

What would they want out of him? He didn’t have money. He barely had a personality, if you asked him. There wasn’t anything really to gain from being his friend. 

Why the fuck were these people interested in him? 

Eric barely heard him. He just. Starred. For a moment.

That was when Eric became acutely aware of where they were. Of who he was talking to. That this was...well, it was a casual conversation, but a proposition to come home. He had to—he checked his phone, it was 1:10, holy fuck. He had to pick up Gavin soon. Like, now even. He had to go. 

He had to go.

He just had to. 

“Okay. I,” what was he doing here, what did they want out of him? There was no way— “I need to go.”

David raised his eyebrows but said nothing of it. His smile faded. “Okay. Go ahead, I’m handling the bill,” his voice was a lot more gentle now, as if the fervor he’d spoken with earlier had been sapped out of his bones. 

Eric almost missed it. 

He’d been lulled into a false sense of security, out of talking about fucking motorcycles and art. He stood, one fast motion that is more abrupt than he should be, and turned down the hall. He could apologize. David seemed nice. So did Phillip. Marlowe. Cadence maybe even. It might be nice, to talk to some more people, to get to know them. 

Gavin had said earlier that he had a friend. He could stick his neck out there. Reach out to people. He had a phone number. He could turn around and talk to David right now. 

David had looked real sad when Eric left.

Instead, he walked down the hall and out the door. He tried his best to breathe evenly, because panic driving the bike was never smart, and in doing so he just. Swallowed. His feelings. 

Eric took a big gulp of air, actually, and grabbed his bike’s helmet. Already, he was just zoning out. He was going to go pick up Gavin! Then, he was gonna make sure the kid was doing his homework. And then he had a shift at the bar. 

What would they even say about Gavin? 

He revved the bike’s engine and pulled out of the parking lot without looking back. 

His brain was static empty by the time he pulled into the parking lot at Gavin’s school, a whole ten minutes early. He didn’t have to leave that fast. But he couldn’t just stay there. What would he do? Go back and talk to David? Face that kind of unknown? He...he couldn’t. He’d stormed out like something was wrong, and wouldn’t David be mad for that? He didn’t know him much anyways. He didn’t owe him anything, either. 

If only he could convince the guilt weighing in his stomach the same thing. 

When the school bell rang, Eric perked up, taking Gavin’s helmet out from where it gets hooked and clipped onto the back seat. He drummed his fingers against the top. 

His kid came bursting out from around the portables, running around to where Eric usually parked. Gavin threw his arms up in the air when he saw Eric, so Eric threw his arms up as well. He climbed off the bike and squatted down, holding his arms open enough for Gavin to launch himself into a hug. 

They did this just about every day and Eric didn’t see himself ever getting tired of it. Gavin snuggled his face against Eric’s shoulder and shouted “HI THIEF!”

“Hey, kiddo,” Eric said with a sigh. The nickname was a dour one, but it was hard to train Gavin out of it. He’d gotten upset about enough things, today, and he was waiting until they got home to do something about the rising panic he was literally just barely tamping down. 

He helped Gavin onto the motorcycle’s seat, strapping him in while he asked how school had gone. It was a Thursday. Gavin had math tests on Thursday, which he loved. They were doing fifty in a minute with addition, which the teacher said Gavin was really good at. Better than reading time, since he was bad at focusing. The teacher suggested he get Gavin checked for reading disorders or attention disorders. But Eric didn’t have the money for something like that. 

Still, it was nice hearing Gavin talk about how happy he was to finish the fifty. He was the first one done. “You’re such a smarty pants,” Eric joked, patting his hand on Gavin’s helmet once he got it strapped on. 

“Mm,” Gavin frowned at that one, then shrugged. “Not really. I just like the numbers.”

“You’re good at the numbers, too,” Eric reminded him as he sat himself back down, too. “What homework do you have tonight?”

“Wait wait, but I wanted to know,” Gavin grabbed Eric’s sides, balling his hands up around him. “How did lunch go?”

Lunch. 

Gavin was asking about. About how lunch went. Eric was really glad he wasn’t looking at him, because there’s no way he could have hidden how much his face fucking fell at the question. 

“It, uh. Went alright.” Eric put his own helmet on, not turning around to see Gavin. “I’ve got work tonight, so I’m going to cook dinner when we get home, and you’ve gotta do your homework. Okay?” 

He didn’t want to talk to his four year old brother, of all people, about that travesty of a date. It wasn’t even a date. It fucking felt like a date. 

He didn’t want to hang out with anyone. He didn’t even want to have to talk to any of them, not if they were going to all pile up on him and what if anyone ever started taking offense to him? He didn’t want to join their group. And he probably wasn’t even good enough for it. 

He didn’t want to think about how he’d walked out on David.

Shut the fuck up about it, Eric. You’ve gotta go for a bit of a drive. Then you get to panic about this.

“Okay,” Gavin’s voice was quiet, a little sad. Probably because Eric wasn’t answering his question. Usually Eric gave him an explanation before a nonanswer. But he didn’t need to. And Gavin wouldn’t understand. Eric could think of a thousand reasons why not to talk to Gavin about that. 

“It’s fine,” Eric said, as if he could comfort Gavin with that harsh statement. And he revved his engine before he could hear Gavin’s response, if any.

The drive was quick. Some kinda force must have been on Eric’s side because every light was coming up green. He parked the bike in his unit’s garage and Gavin hopped off fast, beating Eric to the door, and disappeared inside. 

Usually that was a surefire sign the kid was upset, but at the moment, Eric couldn’t really find it in himself to care. Nor fault him, really. Eric was on edge, was being pretty unreasonable. 

On the flip side, he had to make dinner. It was 2 p.m. and he had to be at work at 4, so he had to leave at 3:30, and he had to make sure Gavin was doing homework. A conversation like this could take hours. He didn’t have that kind of time. And he’d have to understand himself why this was all happening. Why he was doing this. What was so terrifying. 

Eric didn’t have the time nor the energy to confront that. So he wasn’t going to. 

Quietly, he trudged into the kitchen, jumping when the door to the bedroom slams closed. Gavin, most likely. He usually did his homework in the kitchen, but, well…

Eric slung his jacket over one of the kitchen chairs and went to work cooking. It was always a tossup, leaving Gavin home alone. He was a smart kid. Eric told him not to touch the stove or the oven or touch any of the knives on their stand, and Gavin had never done anything like that. Eric also would punch in his phone number on the landline phone and colored in the “call” button with green sharpie. If anything happened, Gavin knew to just hit the green button. That’d call Eric, and he could always get home within ten minutes. If anything super bad happened, Gavin knew to hide in the closet. All of the neighbors on their floor had been asked, please, to call him if something happened to the building or his unit. 

That was the best he could do, really. He didn’t have the money nor knew anyone well enough to let them watch Gavin. Once, he tried to leave Gavin with the neighbors, but he’d somehow escaped their apartment and gone back to Eric’s. The kid was attached, the neighbor had explained. And Eric didn’t really want anyone watching him in their apartment, when he wouldn’t be there. 

Sometimes, the kid will do the dishes for him. Once, Eric was pretty sure Gavin cut his hand while trying to wash a knife, but Gavin said a bully got his arm caught on a door hinge in a fight. That was a specific enough lie that worried Eric that maybe both had happened. Poor kid had to deal with living with him, bullies on top of that?

He made pasta with some marinara sauce. It was a solid batch, and if Gavin didn’t finish it, then Eric would have some. He’d already eaten more than enough at lunch, though. And he was used to being hungry by now. 

He stared at the cooking pasta with a blank expression. 

Once dinner was ready, Eric checked the clock. Twenty minutes before he had to leave. Which was pretty standard for him, save for how he now had to go into the room where Gavin was hiding so he could change. He wasn’t about to go out in what he’d consider his nice clothes, to a bar where he could get thrown up on.

He stopped in front of the door. And took a breath. 

“Dinner’s ready whenever you want it, Gav,” Eric said, voice soft as he also knocked on the door. “Can I come in? I’ve gotta get changed to go to work.”

“Sure,” came the soft reply.

Eric braced himself internally, pursing his lips a bit as he pushed open the door and peeked in. Gavin was curled up in his bed, backpack and shoes kicked off on the ground besides it. The blanket was pulled over his head, probably curled up into a ball under the sheets. 

He could just throw off his clothes and change real fast. But Eric only got his shirt off before Gavin’s head popped out. 

“Did your lunch make you sad?” he asked. 

The question made Eric freeze. Part of him wanted to turn around, growl at the child to shut the fuck up and stop asking. It would be easier, to be cruel. But he could never...he didn’t want to be his parents, and when the kid was worried about him? That kind of idiot’d do that. 

“A little,” Eric responded, trying to swallow the guilt that arose when he was reminded of how sad David had looked, how his smile had disappeared in the instant Eric stood up. 

“Does Thief not have any more friends?” 

Eric put on a black t-shirt and started taking off his jeans. “My name isn’t Thief, baby,” he tried to keep his tone level.

Gavin wilted a little. He hated it when Eric reminded him, but Eric hated that name, and it was going to be better to train Gavin out of it now rather than later. “Sorry, Daddy. But did your friend make you sad?”

He sighed. Persistent fucking kid. 

Too good for Eric, always worried about him. Sometimes, Eric wondered if Gavin got that from him, too. Always just a little too worried for it to be healthy.

He heard Gavin flinch back into the sheets, so he turned back around. Gently, Eric scooped Gavin up, blankets and sheets and all, and kissed his forehead. “A little,” he answered. “He was a new friend. I don’t think he meant to make me sad.”

“Okay.” Gavin snuggled a little more into Eric’s arms, and he felt Gavin hold onto his shirt. “Did you make him sad?”

Heh. “A little. We were both a little sad,” Eric gave him a squeeze, rocking slowly. “It’s okay, though. Sometimes you make yourself sad. Sometimes other people get sad. Being sad is okay. It’s—”

“It’s about what you do after you’re sad,” Gavin finished. Probably excited he remembered it. Kid’s always been bad at focusing, anyway. 

It’s something Eric’s told him before, quite a few times. He wished he could hide his panic and depression and honest despair from Gavin, but in a two room apartment? He didn’t want to leave the kid alone in the apartment, too. As little as he could. Gavin had seen him panic and Eric had pulled himself together to stop Gavin from worrying too much. The three year old kid had too big of a heart in him for Eric to keep making him sad, too. And now he was four. 

“Yep, you’ve got it. Smart baby.” Eric lifted him as Gavin reached his arms up, giving him a tight hug around his neck and shoulders. 

Gavin’s arm went around his head at that weird angle, where it was the only place where his arms could feasibly wrap around. “Are you gonna make it better?”

“I’m gonna try.” 

That seemed to be good enough for Gavin, because he gave Eric a kiss on the forehead, too, and then made a motion to go down. So Eric set him back down on the bed, ruffled his hair, and went back to changing his pants. 

“I set up dinner on the table, it’s noodles.” He always tried to get the ones that looked like sea shells, because Gavin thought they were fun. “After dinner, you can leave your plate on the kitchen counter and do homework at the table. I’ll be back before bed time, okay?”

Shift was supposed to be shorter today; he’d be off at 9, and it wasn’t like it was that long of a walk.

“Okay!” Gavin waved his hands. “Have fun! I love you!”

Eric, clothes changed and keys in hand, waved back. “I love you too!” 

He closed the door to the apartment, locked it from the outside, and hurried down the stairs. “I’m gonna try,” he mumbled again, quiet to himself.

The phone number. 

Eric still had the bill in his other pants’ pocket. He never took it out. 

It’d been a while since he, like. Had friends. And had to socialize. 

David likely told all of them that Eric had just walked out on him. He didn’t know what they thought of him. 

But he had to try. Right? 

At the very least, Phillip had seemed nice. Phillip had seemed like he knew what Eric’s anxiety looked like. And maybe that’d be….

Eric could try. There wasn’t a harm in that. 

Work went smoothly, both works. No one went too crazy at the bar and Eric left when the next shift lead came, just in time to catch Gavin brushing his teeth before bed. He’d managed to tuck the kid in, clean the kitchen, and even managed to fall asleep at a reasonable time. When he woke up, he took Gavin to school, then immediately went to his second job. Things were going well and, when he dropped off Gavin, the kid had wished him good luck in calling his friend.

Eric held onto that until his lunch break at his other job. During lunch break, he went across the street to a coffee shop, ordered a dirty chai, and took his phone out. He’d taken a photo of the bill’s phone number, wasn’t about to wave a hundred dollar bill around in public, but the picture was good enough. 

Here goes...well. Nothing, really. Everything. And nothing. 

Just call the damn number.

His finger hit the call button before he could think any more about it, and he waited. 

It took two rings for Phillip to pick up. 

“Hello?” he asked. 

“Hi.” 

That was when Eric realized he had no fucking idea what he was going to say. What, was he calling to say sorry? This was Phillip’s number, not David’s. Did he want to hang out with Phillip? What do adults do when they quote hang out unquote. He didn’t want to do anything that’d involve money too much, he wasn’t able to pay for a dinner or something. Did he even want to meet up with him, in person? And he had so many questions about the arrangement, of the what, five men in a relationship thing. Did all of them want to talk to him? Why? 

“Oh, Eric. Hello! I ha-I hadn’t expected you to call,” Phillip laughed a little, a sound that eased the tension off his shoulders. “Are you...What did you want to ta-to talk about?”

His voice sounded light. That was good. He didn’t sound mad. 

“I, uh. I just wanted to….” 

There was a pause. So Eric just took another sip of his coffee and said, quickly, “Did you want to go to a museum? Or hang out or something?” 

A museum. 

Eric hadn’t been to a single museum in the whole fucking city. 

What the fuck was he thinking. 

Phillip must have either pitied him or was picking up what he was trying to suggest, because that was when he responded, “Oh! If you want to-to walk around and ta-talk, we could go to the-the university’s botanical gardens.” 

Botanical gardens? And walking around might be nice. Eric’s never been to the gardens. To be honest, he didn’t know they existed, and also didn’t go to the city’s university. It was a little farther away from the downtown and it wasn’t like he got an education past high school level anyway. 

He’d always wanted to go into mechanics, what with working on the bike and all. It just never worked out. 

Flowers seemed nice. 

“Sure! That, uh, I’ve never been but that sounds nice,” he said.

“They are qui-quite pleasant,” Phillip hummed quietly, then added. “If you don’t mind, would it be alright if I exte-ex-ex-if I invited Cadence as well?”

Cadence. Cadence, the famous one?

“Is he, uh….is he allowed to like….” Eric, frankly, had no idea what protocol was around famous people. “Sure?”

Phillip chuckled quietly, just quiet enough for the phone to pick it up, and said, “He’s definitely allowed to be in publi-public, if that’s your worry. Being famous doesn’t make it illegal to be in places. He’d wanted to see you again, but, well. Bars are cro-cro-crowded. If you want, I won’t.”

“No, no, it’s okay. Sure. I’d, uh. That’s cool.” 

Why did he sound like an awkward teen? Why did this sound like asking someone out to prom? Eric was going to lose his mind. 

Thankfully and graciously, Phillip seemed to understand his plight. David must have spread the word of him being an anxious mess because, to some extent, Phillip was planning this date for him.

Not a date. Just hanging out. Still weird for him, but markedly less weird.

“When’s the next weekday you’re free?” Phillip asked. 

It wasn’t that hard of a question. “Monday,” Eric responded.

He didn’t have either job. Well, that was a lie, but he was picking up another late shift at the bar. He didn’t have to be there until eleven. 

“Great. Monday at ten?” 

“Works for me,” Eric said. 

Phillip hummed in approval. 

Eric almost wanted to ask about David. If Phillip heard. Things had been going well, for the most part, until David explained the polycule situation. And something about that had just made Eric’s chest seize. 

That was so many people to disappoint. They’d discussed him. Eric never liked being the point of discussion, for any people. So the idea that this group of people who were all dating had talked about him to the point that the others wanted to meet him was surreal. 

Plus, he couldn’t help but be wary of the insinuation that they just wanted to be friends with him. Phillip was very regal, pretty and polished. Cadence was so fucking handsome it was unfair. David had been handsome as well, beautiful in a casual way. Eric was too fucking gay for this. He hadn’t seen Marlowe in much other than lowlight, and while the dude was drunk, but even then Eric could tell the dude was adorable. It was un-fucking-fair.

There was a….worry, deeper down. That while they might not want him in a romantic way, he’s just going to be a nervous gay wreck the whole time. 

“See you then, then, Eric,” Phillip’s voice held something of a smirk, and then he hung up. 

Eric lowered the phone, starred at the call screen for a moment or two before things began to click on his head. He was going to hang out with Phillip. And Cadence. 

They didn’t hate him. 

That was a good start.

[wcvensouls]

this was the first time the majority of these people were meeting jinhae, yet they were all acting as if they had been friends for ages — even going as far as planning to share embarrassing childhood pictures and little snippets of their personal lives. although it was unexpected, seunghyun had to admit that he was rather impressed with how easily the other had made himself comfortable & fit right in. he really was quite... charming, was he not? the lifeguard caught himself thinking about these things as kyungtae talked about their past and soobin chatted away about figure skating, but he was quick to shake them off his head, wondering what the hell was wrong with him to be having such thoughts at that moment.

his attention returned to the conversation when he spoke about his dad, seunghyun's eyes settling on jinhae and observing him for a moment. " that sucks, i'm sorry. " he knew a long time had probably passed since that happened, but that didn't mean it was any less frustrating. " i suppose i can understand the urge to stick it to the man in that case. " he shrugged lightly, seemingly changing his mind about the whole setting things on fire talk now that he knew a bit about the reason behind it — or rather, could make an educated guess based on what he heard so far. " and yeah, it's not so bad around here, i guess. even though i have to deal with these assholes almost every day. " seunghyun added playfully, sticking his tongue out at his friends, who immediately started calling him out on his bullshit, with soobin being the one to voice out their comments in one sentence — please, your life would be so fucking boring without us in it, you little bitch!

was he a little too comfortable now with the arm around his shoulders? maybe so, but as seunghyun continued to sip on his beer, he felt less and less inclined to pull away, as if he had almost forgotten the position he was in at that moment. even the nudge to his cheek was accepted without complaint now, which was truly incredible development considering how he had acted around the other before. " he says that about everyone because he's just projecting. " seunghyun retorted, not missing a chance to poke fun at his friends, knowing very well that joohyuk would very much embrace such a label. looking up to the other, he raised his brows in surprise. " like tonight? "

/ @urstriker

            reaching over the table to give kyungtae a handshake at his proposition, jinhae triumphantly grins at it all. " yes, i would like that. i can all show you my videos from when i used to compete in figure skating t- " and before he's even able to finish his sentence, jinhae is met with soobin's joyous reaction upon hearing the fact that he used to be one. shaking his head with a smile, the soccer player had always felt a little shy to share this part about his life, but happy that there was someone there who could relate, " yes, i used to compete too. but, my dear ol' dad made me stop. "

clearing his throat, as regrets start to flood in at the thought of his dad making him give up on something he loved just because it did not seem ' manly ' enough for him. seunghyun's words also pique his interest, but once again, this wasn't the type of place one could engage in deep conversations in. " i see. i'm sure you don't regret coming home though ? seeing as you have a great set of people around you. " he could also see the change in kyungtae's face upon hearing his dad, playing it off with a chuckle, he looks at seunghyun, " let's just say, the reason why i set things on fire at parties is because of him. he pisses me off, so, any chance i could get to mess with him. i take. " he explains, brows wriggling and all.

jinhae keeps his arm over his shoulder, his comment making him smile even more, as he uses his knuckles to nudge seunghyun's cheek lightly, " oh, don't worry. you're all those other things too. " he frankly states, now brows raising at his comment about the robots as he couldn't believe that seunghyun was going along with it, " sure, of course, the robots. " cue his boisterous laugh at joohyuk's comment, " looks like i'm doing something right then. " he says proudly, " but hey, if you're all not doing anything, you're all free to come visit my house and hang out there. " house, of course, was putting it lightly. jinhae loved having people over too as he was always alone in there. | @wcvensouls

[heniareth]

Find the Word game

Thank you @yukichouji for the tag! I really enjoyed these games. They make me revisit sections I've written a long time ago (I keep them all in one document and it's probably 300-odd pages long) XD XD XD XD

Echoing

"Ogre's getting closer, golem," Oghren shouted.

"It has less dead weight to carry, dwarf," Shale answered, but strained against the wagon to speed up.

An arrow hit against Wynne's blue shield, then another, and another. Behind the ogre were genlock archers. Dread sank into Astala's bones as hurlocks started breaking through the genlock ranks and running after the ogre, their sinister laughter echoing through the stone halls. Her hands uselessly tightened around the wooden planks of the wagon.

Claws (clawed. Close enough.)

"Warden," Zevran said, cutting her off, "Are we friends?"

Astala nodded.

"Then please, let me help. Like you allow Leliana to help."

Another sob clawed its way out of her throat, and this one wouldn't stay down. Astala allowed Zevran to pull her in and pressed her face against his shoulder, willing the world away. Zevran was warm. He didn't back away when the tears started to fall and stain his shirt. He didn't say anything, only rubbed small circles into her back and let her cry. At some point Astala wrapped her arms around him too. He smelled nice. None of this would help her terrible terrible crush and once this was all a memory, she’d probably look back at it with shame. Maker, she’d promised herself not to string him along, but she couldn’t- wouldn’t let go.

Space

Warmth surrounded him, but when Zevran pressed his arms against his chest they were still cold. He wrapped the blankets tighter around himself and stared at the sleeping figure of the Warden. How could she endure temperatures like these? How could anyone in Ferelden for that matter? And with only one blanket! Truth be told, hers was a blanket made for a lord or lady of high standing; size and quality reflected it. As Zevran's eyelids started to grow heavy again, his mind wandered off to memories of his childhood; to kids crammed into one shared sleeping space, never an empty spot to his right or to his left; to little bodies huddled closely together around a hearth when the brief winters descended upon Antiva; to the whispered story of a princess who lent her bed to a pauper to save him from the cold. He'd have his own tale to tell now: how an assassin came to offer his bed to a Grey Warden, and she accepted only to share her blanket with him. And an assassin who had tried to kill her, no less! What a riveting story--although, truth be told, every Antivan he told it to would bemoan the tameness of it. He meanwhile wondered how it would end.

Shock (cw: drunkenness)

The dwarf was slumped over the table, staring up at them with bleary eyes too unfocused to properly see them.

"You're not bringin' me ale."

"Well spotted," Astala said and sat down in front of him. "Though I'll happily get you some if you make this worth my while."

The dwarf let out a dirty laugh. The shock of red hair on his head, thinning out by onsetting balding, wobbled about as drunkenly as he did. "Make it worth your while, eh? You wanna-"

"I want to know about the Deep Roads," Astala said and leaned forward, right into the alcohol-laden breath of the dwarf. "And I want to know everything you can tell me about paragon Branka."

Hey, I got them all! And 2 out of 4 snippets with Zevran! I don't think I'll get a special prize for it, but it's satisfying XD XD XD XD

Thank you again for tagging me! I'm gonna tag @wild-houseplant @icy-warden @bumblewarden @oxygenforthewicked @themarkedkyusei and anybody else who sees this and thinks it's fun to find the words home, laugh, bind and sky (for when and if you want to do this ^^). I hope you have a splendid day and an even more splendid day tomorrow!!

[thebreakfastgenie]

Anything you wanna share about upcoming fics?

Ugh yes absolutely!! I can't write at the moment, like my brain just can't do it because I'm still dealing with ???? fatigue, which is extremely frustrating, but I am thinking about them a lot so I can write once whatever this is passes. I've actually been dying to just post some WIPs here but I'm too obsessive to do that. I have a dormant West Wing WIP I might be willing to do that with if any of my TWW pals are interested.

In the brief window recently where I could actually write, I pulled out a WIP I have about Sidney visiting Maine in 1979, and it's sort of almost done. What's left is the scene that was the original point of the fic, and I know how that conversation goes, I just need to make sure the balance of everything is right because I ended up adding a lot of extra stuff before this conversation. The premise is that the DSM-3, which is the first edition to include PTSD, is about to be published (1980) so Sidney brings an advance copy to Hawkeye and they talk about it. The title comes from that. But then I wrote this whole scene in a cemetery.... anyway, once I can write again, that one will probably be posted fairly soon, because it's pretty close to done.

Here's a snippet from the aforementioned cemetery scene:

“How well do you remember her?” Sidney asks.  She liked asters, and maple syrup, and loved the first snow of the year more than Christmas. He knows her face from the picture on the end table. If he concentrates, he can almost hear her voice. “Not as well as I’d like,” he admits. 

The other one I pulled out was Trapper thinks Hawkeye is dead, runs into Charles, they have two very different conversations culminating in Trapper finding out Hawkeye is alive. It's grown to include a lot of Trapper stuff (Charles is probably going to get a companion piece). But the way I figured out my brief writing functionality left is I figured out all the beats for this one and then I looked at the document again and couldn't really process where anything was supposed to go. But all I need is a couple good writing days once my energy is back, so that one could show up soon too.

I'm also trying to work on my GFA time loop WIP because I wanted to finish it for the Fourth of July but every time I think I know where that fic is going I don't. I'm still hopeful, though.

And finally I made a note that says "write a fic where Hawkeye and Radar eat waffles and nothing bad happens." I have that all plotted out too, just a short little thing.

And yeah I'm still actively thinking about ghost AU/will be working on it once I can and I also have another WIP that was supposed to be a quick one shot like six months ago (so it goes) that I'm really excited about but not sure how to describe.

[itwoodbeprefect]

🌾🪡🪜 ^_^

🌾 A fic you really want to write but you haven’t (yet)?

oh! oh! i've been watching a lot of westerns recently, and i've been having a lot of thoughts about queer subtext in them, and also thoughts about hutch (from starsky & hutch fame) having thoughts about said queer subtext, particularly because an argument could be made that i started watching these movies for reasons related to hutch in the first place.

so. i really want to write a longer-ish fic in which (somehow, i still need to figure out in what way to make this work with the tech of the day) starsky does a kind of slightly hutch-guided first dive into cowboy movies (which mean a lot to hutch, and starsky has never really given too much thought to), and they talk about it but don't really talk about it (hutch knows his subtext but isn’t talking and starsky is trying to figure out things (and hutch, and the undertones/changing nuances in their relationship)), and there’s probably a vague background of a case fic here that kickstarts and complicates it all (maybe in a western themed bar?) and also, because it's me, louise the guinea pig is there. starsky probably smuggles her into a movie theater. maybe she hides out under a cowboy hat at one point. i have snippets of conversation written, which is maybe 2% of a fic as of yet, and this is all pretty ambitious so i'm not sure if this is ever really going to make it over the finish line or be feasible at all, but as a concept? this fic delights me. this ticks SO many of the boxes on my current interests. i'm doing a VERY good job at catering to my own whims here.

🪡 The scene you worked the hardest on in any fic?

i tend to read over every part of a fic a hundred times anyway, so that's weirdly hard to pinpoint! many of my fics are essentially a single scene by themselves, too. i do often start out with mostly dialogue (the easy part, usually) and then keep going over it to fill in all of the description around those words, which can feel like hard work when i can’t find specific and vaguely interesting/relevant physical details to anchor the characters to an actual space, and it keeps sounding like they’re just kind of ambiguously floating in a poorly defined probably-indoor location while saying words.

there are definitely fics where i can still feel the ghost of that problem hovering over my shoulder, even though i tried: Heaven help a fool who falls in love is one, Flowers for no reason but you missed me and Across the water, across the deep blue ocean (Under the open sky, oh my) two others. it’s probably not super obvious if you’re not looking for it, but i can see in those that i had to pull out some tricks and use a little force to make it a story instead of a transcript. the good thing about it is that it can feel like i got away with murder when someone says they love a fic like that!

🪜 Tell us a random fact about any fic!

for the longest time what eventually became I’d swallow the moon and the stars (To follow the beat of your heart) consisted of just the first two paragraphs with absolutely no idea what the rest of it was supposed to be. i really loved those two paragraphs, but they were essentially orphans, and then i wrote probably 80% of the other words of that fic in one sitting under a different heading without intending it to be a follow-up to those specific opening lines, and i got to have a moment of oh! hey! this really fits! this match doesn’t just kind of work, it adds something! which is just a gorgeous feeling.

[twistedmusings]

What Are You Writing?

A/N: JOKES ON YOU GUYS, I'M AN OBEY ME WRITERS BLOG NOW. Nah not really, I mean maybe I might start thinking about making one in the future but I see all these awesome writers in that fandom and I get i n t i m i d a t e d. Nevertheless, I did want to pull a harmless prank on my readers so...enjoy a labor of love and possible regret as I now have to work on other requests ó uò

How would the brothers act with a Writer MC?

-He almost jumps when you walk into the room, practically shouting his name as you go to stand next to his desk and take a peek at what he is working on.

“Can I help you? “You certainly can.”

-You place a notebook next to his stack of paperwork and take a pen out, opening it up to a blank page before staring at him and building up your courage to ask the next question.

“What would you do if I suddenly asked you to be my fake boyfriend for a day?”

-You certainly were keeping up with your role in being the one human he isn’t able to pin down, huh?

-He asks what in the world you are talking about and you squat near him so that you can explain what you were doing. RAD proved to be a lot more stressful than you thought and you didn’t need to remind him that you were playing therapist to seven demons so you needed some sort of break.

-You tell him that in the human world you had a habit of writing ideas, snippets and even random bits of dialogue when you got stressed so you had asked Satan to lend you a notebook and a pen so you could unwind but you had gotten stuck in one scene.

-The character you were writing was loosely based on Lucifer so you decided why not ask him what he would do in order to get some inspiration!

“So here I am! I don’t need an entire synopsis I just want to know because maybe that will spark something inside of me.”

-Pen to paper, you look up at Lucifer ready to write anything down and even though you were looking him straight in the eye you were not paying attention to just how hard Lucifer was staring at you.

-You really had no idea how he felt about you, did you?

-Even with the pact making, the Hellfire Newt Syrup incident, the countless of times he had tried to flirt with you to the point that anyone without eyes could tell how he felt about you, your human brain did not seem to accept the fact that the eldest of the seven demon lords had fallen for you.

-Was this just another way of torturing him? Who would have thought that you would be such a cruel master?

-If only he wasn’t bound to you by the pact. Not that he regretted it but without the pact the ‘need’ to submit to you wasn’t as strong, all he would have to do is grab your chin, turn your face towards his so that he could tell you explicitly what was going through his head every time he saw you--

“...I would walk you to class, first and foremost. We would leave the House of Lamentation together and arrive together as well. Maybe some impromptu dates. Free tutoring as well.” “That’s tempting~ Would you let me hang around in your study?” “You are already welcome to do that.” “Aw, when did you get so soft?”

-Get the hint already!

-Your hand is scribbling down every idea he says, making quips here and there as you both talk extensively about your fake dates would play out. The idea of having you all to himself without his brothers around was already so tempting yet here you were talking about it like it was just a passing thought.

-That wouldn’t do.

-He grabs the top of your pen and smiles when you look up at him in confusion.

“At end of the day, I want to make you feel like the most important person in my world. I don’t want there to be a single doubt in your mind that you belong with me. Pact or no pact, you changed me in ways I couldn’t even fathom, MC, and I am doing everything in my power so that you will see just how important you are to me.”

-Your eyes are staring up at him, wide and with surprise as he dares to cup your cheek.

-He did it. He had gotten through to you! All he had to do was lean in and--!

“Can you repeat that one more time?! Oh my god Luci that was so good! I’m showing this to Satan when I’m done! Thank you so much!”

-Lucifer’s hand drops to his lap as he watches you pick yourself up and run out of his study, his fist clenching in his hand as he thought of just how blind you could be for not seeing what he had tried to convey with those cliched words! Of all the humans--!

-He stops as he hears your giggles outside of the hallway, unclenching his fist and sighing as he tries to look at the positives.

-There had been a flush on your cheeks, of that he was sure. Which meant that in some way...his words had made an impact. He hoped it would take just a few more cheesy lines for you to fall for him.

”Mammon!!!!”

-From the top of his head to the tip of his toes, Mammon could feel himself shiver as you called out his name. Ever since he made that pact the way you would call out his name would send a pleasant shiver down his spine as he turned to greet you.

-Levi told him that you had been looking for him and he had practiced his greeting at least five times to make him look as cool as possible.

“Yo MC! I heard you were looking for the Great Mammon!”

-See? Wasn’t he cool?

-The brothers watched as you didn’t even greet Mammon, you just grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the living room telling everybody that you needed to talk to him privately.

-Privately? As in you two alone? Together?

-Well of course you wanted to talk to him alone! His awesome ways had probably finally gotten through to you and you were about to confess to him. Suck on THAT Lucifer!

-You push him into your room before closing the door and turning to look at him.

“I have something I need to ask you. Do you think you can help?”

-The words escape him before he even thinks them.

“Anything.”

“I want to go out with you. Tonight. Almost like a pretend date.”

-Fireworks go off inside his head as he feels tears prickle at the corners of his eyes. This was real, you were asking him out! You had picked him out of all his brothers despite how many messes he got you in and how much trouble tended to follow him--

-Wait, pretend?

-You proceed to show off your little book of writings, explaining to him that you had gotten stuck in trying to describe a hidden date between the protagonist and the love interest.

“They are trying to hide the fact they are dating from everybody so that they won’t get in trouble. I figured that a human and a demon going on a date is already somewhat of stigma as it is so I just want to see how it feels so I can describe it better.”

-He can’t really describe the sadness that he feels when you tell him it would all be pretend. Too much for dropping Grimm on wishing wells. He was going to go back and fish them all out tomorrow. What a letdown!

-Here he was, the GREAT Mammon letting a human toy with his heart like this!

“You won’t get in too much trouble if we do this...right?”

-The worry in your voice is what makes him look into your eyes. Your hand was on his as you looked for any signs of discomfort from the Avatar of Greed. Your eyes were entirely on him.

-Mammon’s subconscious: More of that please.

-You looked so worried for his well-being. Mammon had no idea who had told you that humans and demons were not allowed to date but they had clearly lied to you. There was no stigma whatsoever. And in retrospect he should reveal that to you now so that there would be no misinformation on how much he wanted to take you on a not pretend date.

-But all your attention was on him. Your body was facing his way, your hands on his as you licked your lips nervously. More, more, more, more he needed for you to look at him more--!

“Tch. Making such a complicated request. You could really get me in trouble for this, MC!” “You’re right, I shouldn’t push it--” “But I guess if you are asking me, I could spare a couple hours...for you.”

-You both share a smile as you hug him close, his arms wrapping around you tight as he tries to keep his smile from breaking out into full blown giggles.

-This worked out for him as well! He was going to give you the best date of your human life so you would have no choice but to fall for him! You better get ready!

-You wrote some fiction, he wrote TSL fanfiction, Levi was probably already aware of your talent once he asked to beta one of his other works and you came back not just with some beta but with some actual USEFUL feedback unlike Satan going on about his spelling mistakes. -So you are already in his room when you ask for his help, grinning as you hold up the small ideas that you had written for your proper introduction into the TSL fandom.

“I want to write an AU about Henry and the Lord of Shadows in an arranged marriage!”

-The premise was simple. You wanted to write about the Lord of Shadows and his Henry having to marry each other in order to bring peace to both of their kingdoms. The marriage proposition was sudden and each of the seven brothers was against it but you wanted to show just how much Henry was willing to sacrifice to help the people who he cared about the most.

-And you loved drama like this.

-You hold up your book as you keep ranting to Levi, the other caught up in your plot as he closed his eyes in order to better imagine it.

“And I want a moment where the Lord of Shadows tells Henry that he doesn’t have to do this. That he wants him to be happy and doesn’t want him to be stuck with a reclusive Lord for all his life.”

-Of course, of course. The Lord of Shadows had always hoped for Henry’s happiness and he had also sacrificed a great many of his previous ways in order to gain his best friend’s praise! Levi was proud, you understood these characters so well! So he pipes in with his own thoughts.

“I bet Henry turns to him and asks why he is so against the idea! It would push the Lord of Shadows to confess that he has secretly longed for Henry’s affection and attention all this time!”

-You both grin before you stand up, putting on a fake sad face as you take Levi’s hand in yours before pressing them to your chest.

“Am I not worthy to be your spouse? Do you hate the idea of marrying me that much?”

-Levi is caught up in the moment that he doesn’t even notice how close you two are, instead moving even closer as he cupped your cheek.

“You? Not worthy? It is I who is not worthy of you. After all you have done...can I be selfish enough to call you mine?”

-Oh this was practically writing itself! You really hoped that Levi remembered some of these lines. You pull away from his touch dramatically before sighing as you decide that this scene would be a good catalyst moment for a confession.

“Have you ever thought of me that way? More than what we have now? I’m embarrassed to admit it but...I have on many occasions longed for something more.”

-Levi’s expression softens in a way you haven’t seen before, keeping a hold on your hands as he follows up with you seamlessly.

“If I told you about my fantasies...about the deep need I feel to keep you away from prying eyes and hoping that yours would remain on me despite the others who so badly wish for your hand. Would you still see me in such high regard?”

-Shit he was good. The prying eyes bit was perfect! Now to end it with a bang! You feel Levi pull you by your waist so you are pressed against his chest, eyes looking down at you as if begging for your reply. So you do what you have read in many other books and take his face in your hands.

“Keep me. Forever.”

-You both stay that way for a few seconds before you pull away and let out a giddy squeal, rushing over to your book and writing down the lines that you could remember, gushing about how Levi had just given you the best ending ever.

-What you didn’t see was the poor demon standing there, arms still pretending to hold someone as the spell broke for him slowly. He needed to process just what the hell just happened.

-He had held your hands, touched you, had you close enough that he could feel you against him and you hadn’t even moved away! Levi could still see how warm your hands were on his cheeks and the words that you had said to him were now slowly coming back to him as he remembered his embarrassing replies!

-You jump and turn when you hear a clatter behind you, turning around to see that Levi had fainted and was now slumped against one of his many manga bookshelves, face all red and a dopey smile on his lips as he repeated your words over and over.

-If you had a writing buddy in Levi, then you got a plot bunny buddy with Satan.

-With the amount of books that he has read and the number of genres he is into, you are surprised that he finds your ideas mildly interesting. They were all just cliches and purely for your enjoyment so when he asked you if he could read some of what you had written you were too shocked to notice that he had already taken the book from your backpack.

“A love story...interesting.”

-You two were in the library, looking for a certain book about black magic casting as well as some examples of ritual circles that you needed to complete for your next assignment. Or rather you were looking for the books, he was just following close behind you as he read your latest entry.

“How are you stuck in this scene?” “Huh?” “How the main character meets the second love interest. It’s pretty obvious.”

-Well excuse you for having writer’s block. You know that he was trying to be helpful but his help always came with some sort of sarcastic twinge that, while endearing during some situations, was incredibly annoying when he was criticizing your writings. You turn back to look at him as you stop at the spot the book was supposed to be in.

“I haven’t necessarily fallen in love with anyone lately, you know! It’s too specific a feeling!”

-Satan’s eyes take in the way you tip-toe to try and reach the book, cursing under your breath as you struggled to get it from the highest shelf. Devildom libraries were notoriously famous for having ridiculously large bookshelves and only a ghost attendant would be able to help you. He looks down at your book and then back at the small scene before smiling as he snaps the book shut.

-Surely a bit of inspiration is all you needed, correct?

-You feel a hand on your lower back, another brushing the hand reaching out for the book and grabbing it for you. Satan smiles as he holds out the book to you.

“Black magic casting...and you needed something about ritual circles, right? It seems the perfect book is right next to you.”

-He ‘accidentally’ brushes your cheek when reaching out for the book behind you, humming for a moment before he puts it back and looks down at you without moving his arm out of the way. Satan had just effectively trapped you in a rather flawlessly executed Kabedon.

“...Satan...the book…” “It wasn’t the right one. Or maybe I just wanted an excuse to get you in this position.”

-Your eyes were shining, the book was pressed right against your chest, he could even see the small blush adorning your face as the situation became quite clear to you. Now he wouldn’t tell you that he had practiced this sort of scenario by himself in his room just in case you ever asked him for help finding a book, better for you to believe that this had all been just a ‘happy’ accident.

“You are looking at me so seriously, MC.” “I know what you are doing.”

-He dares to move closer, his shadow casting over you as if to hide you from prying eyes. If you made the first move, there would be no one stopping him.

“Yeah?” “This would be perfect! A library setting! Gives me a chance to make the character like a cool librarian type!”

-Satan stays silent as you grab the books you need and snatch your notebook from his hand, stating that you were going to check these out immediately and then head home. He turns back to look at the place you were just standing at, the place where you had been completely at his mercy.

-Dammit, he should have blocked the other side too.

-Asmo was ecstatic when you asked him for his book collection.

-It annoyed him to no end when people thought that the only way he consumed his erotica was through personal experience and porn. In his opinion, after personal experience, the best way to enjoy his usual favourite activity was reading erotica. The descriptions, to get into the thoughts of the inner characters and seeing how they essentially lose their minds to the pleasure. It was thrilling.

-So when you come knocking at his door one night and ask for one of the books you usually catch him reading, he is both excited and curious.

“Which one do you want darling? I have the first volume of ‘Eternal Dom Love’, ‘Baring My Soul to a Demon’, ‘Captive Human’--” “You have anything like...with dirty talk?

-Oh now he is really excited and curious.

-He looks around his small library and pulls out the book he thinks is best for what you desired, holding it out for you to take but pulling it back quickly with a grin. Asmo wasn’t going to just let you walk away after telling him something so interesting~

“I’m a bit possessive about my books, MC~ What are you going to use it for? Recreational reasons?”

-You blush and cover your face with your hands, not really embarrassed for asking but instead embarrassed that you were about to tell him what you were going to do with it. But you steel yourself, you had heard Asmo flirt in the club before and from how quickly his dates had insisted on taking it to a more ‘private’ area, you knew he had the thing that you desperately needed.

“I…” “Yes?” “I’m-trying-to-write-the-prelude-to-a-sex-scene-in-one-of-my-stories-but-I-have-no-idea where-to-start-so-I-need-material!”

-Asmo blinks before grinning as he got in your face, pushing the book into your hands as he asked you what the story was about, who were the characters, had you based them off of anybody and just what kind of sex scene where you planning?

-He had no idea you had that kind of talent, where had you been hiding that all this time?

-You slowly explain the plot to him, getting a bit more into it as you see how much attention Asmo is paying to your every word. Out of all of the brothers you didn’t expect him to be so interested in one of your stories! The scene you have in mind is somewhat clear to you so you try to explain to him just what you think is missing.

“It is a demon and a human. They are clearly not supposed to be doing this. Yet that is--” “What makes it all the more appealing.”

-Asmo had played this out perfectly given the little time he had to work with. The more you talked, the closer he got to you. The closer he got, the more you moved away subconsciously. Your body instinctively wanted to make room for him and give him his space but you let out a small ‘meep’ when the back of your knees hit the side of his hanging chair and you find yourself sitting down as he kneels in front of you.

“They both know that if they take such a intimate step with one another they might not be able to go back to how they used to be before. Everything will change.”

-You nod as Asmo touches your leg, hand moving towards your thigh as he rests his chin on your knees.

“But what is so wrong with change? You said the demon is a charmer so they would want to charm them throughout the whole thing. It would start out slow, teasing even, probably testing out the waters as they see what their human likes and doesn’t like."

-He scoots closer and traces your fingers, the digits wrapped tightly around his book as he continues..

“They would eventually lose control, wouldn’t they? The passion would be too much for them to handle and they both would lose themselves to their lust. Although it wouldn’t be just lust…”

-Asmo looks up to meet your eyes, straightening out as he leans in closer to the point that you are shutting your eyes and leaning in as well--it’s not that you haven’t had experience with kisses but surely the demon of lust’s kiss would spark something inside your head--!

-You open your eyes when you feel the book leaving your hands.

“I changed my mind. I think this would be a much better title for what you are looking for, Sweetie.”

-He holds out your hand for you to stand up and you almost want to ask Solomon to cast some sort of spell that would make you forget everything that happened in these moments. You closed your eyes like some highschooler waiting for their first kiss--you were better than that!

-You thank him and make your way out of his room, running back to yours as fast as you can without noticing Asmo’s mischievous smile as he waved goodbye. It was always good to play the long game~

-You two had stopped at Madame’s Scream because Beel had complained about being hungry yet again. Besides you both had done rather well on an examination so--why not celebrate?

-You only had a small fizzy drink while Beel had ordered himself something called ‘The Herculean Parfait’, something about it holding 25 scoops of ice cream plus whip cream, nuts and some waffle cones at the bottom. Now the waiter had brought out two spoons but it was clear that Beel would only be needing one.

-This was rather normal for you two, Beel eating his fill while you stared at the blank page of your small notebook. You were trying to write a cute scene with a couple sharing a dessert at a coffee shop where they first met but you were struggling to think of a fluffy scenario.

-Was feeding your partner considered cheesy nowadays? You tap your page twice before looking at Beel. The second spoon remained untouched, some ice cream specks stuck to the shiny, concave surface as the Demon of Gluttony continued his ice cream carnage. You grab the spoon and take some from the side that had yet to be eaten.

“Hey Beel”

-The demon stops eating and looks at you as you hold out the spoon to him, his hunger suddenly stopping as he looks at the sugary contents stacked high on the spoon you were holding out for him.

“Say aah!”

-Beel blinks but doesn’t think twice the moment you give him the command, opening his mouth and eating the sugary confection off the spoon, his smile growing as you let out a small giggle.

“Did it taste good?" “Mmm~!" “I’m glad.”

-He abandoned his own spoon as you scooped up some more, opening his mouth as you kept on feeding him. Beel had no idea what had brought this on or why you were suddenly feeding him. It wasn’t like he was complaining, however. Yes your pace was slow and such a giant parfait would surely melt with how slow you were going but he didn’t care, instead opening his mouth wide as you kept on feeding him.

“So Beel…” “Mmm?" “Does it feel any different when I feed you?”

-Beel frowns when the spoon stops but decides to answer your question so that he could go back to eating. Why would it feel any different? Well, it somewhat did? He didn’t know how to describe it but he does feel a lot fuller than before. He is actually tasting the food as you take your time scooping up some more. He had picked out so many different flavors and he could taste almost every single one.

“I wouldn’t say different...but food certainly tastes better when you give it to me.”

-You immediately stop and put the spoon down, smiling as you start to writing down what Beel had just said. You could essentially build an entire scene around that! What a good idea coming here--

“MC?”

-Your pen stops as you look at Beel, your pen falling from your hands as you see the puppy dog look he was giving you. He looks at your hand and then at the spoon.

“Why did you stop?”

-Beel smiles happily as you go right back to what you were doing, the notebook forgotten as you continue to spoil your demon. You had a feeling that this wouldn’t be the last time you were doing this.

-Belphie yawned as he cuddled you closer, your hands moving so they would be wrapped around his neck but still holding onto your phone. He closes his eyes and tries to drift off but frowns when he hears your fingers tapping on your screen. He could probably sleep through the sound but he didn’t want to.

“Turn around.” “Huh?” “Just turn around.”

-You do as he says, now pressed against his chest as you continue to type. Belphegor was close to falling asleep, pressing his nose against your shoulder as he breathes you in---

Tap tap tap tap

“Fuck this.”

-He grabs your phone and drops it off the bed, your protests being muffled as he wraps his arms around your neck to pull you close. You tap his arms twice before wiggling out of his hold, sitting up on the bed and looking at him while he glared back at you.

-What did you think you were doing typing away on your phone? Belphegor never really asked you for much but when it was cuddle time it was cuddle time. You weren’t supposed to do anything *but* cuddle during cuddle time so you clearly needed to stop being distracted.

“What do you think you are doing?” “Taking care of your distraction.”

-You both stare at each other as he sits up as well, clearly letting you know that if you were to go and dig for your phone he wasn’t going to let you. At this point, it really was useless to argue with Belphegor. As the youngest, he was used to getting what he wanted with little setback. So you lay back down, ignoring the triumphant smile Belphegor gave you as he went right back to cuddling you.

“I was writing something.” “It can wait till later…”

-Belphegor yawns and wraps his leg around you, ignoring the little ‘hmphs’ you were giving him as well as the words you were muttering to yourself. But what good would it be if you weren’t cuddling up to him as well so he decided to give in as well.

“What were you writing about?”

-Oh this was new. You turn to face him, talking about the scene you were working on. This couple had just had an exhausting day and they were eager to lay in bed together but their work or other responsibilities were keeping them from cuddling at night. You explained how you wanted to describe the exhaustion one was feeling from not having their partner with them.

-The demon of Sloth hummed when you mentioned how tired the character was and speaking up about how he knew how they felt. You chuckle and mention that it seemed that everything made Belphegor exhausted nowadays. He shakes his head, opening his eyes so he could look at you.

“No. I mean that everything gets heavier when you’re not with me.”

-You try to cut it in and ask him what he is talking about but he beats you to it.

“I get more energy when you are around. I actually want to do things aside from sleeping. “Are you saying you like hanging out with me more than sleeping?” “Don’t push it, MC.”

-Both of you laugh, your body cuddling closer to the demon as you yawn. A part of you was still annoyed that Belphegor had shoved your phone to the floor because now would have been a prime time to write that he had just said but as your eyes grew heavier you just hoped that you would remember it by the time you woke up.

-Belphegor opens his eyes once he feels your breathing evening out, smiling as he leans in close and presses a kiss to your forehead.

“You weren’t far off...I do like you more than sleeping...sometimes…”

-He yawns and wraps an arm around your waist. What a good idea it was to lock the door so none of his brothers would bother you two. Your nights were his, after all.

[peachnewt]

Midnight Snack - Time Slips By

On September 15th, 2009, I posted the first chapter in the Getting In Deep series; Man on the Inside Part 1. This year, I completely forgot. Plague years have not been kind to my writing brain, but I wanted to do something to commemorate and thank everyone that's been sticking with me through the years. Whether you've been around since '09 or you just found the Getting In Deep series yesterday, I hope you enjoy this little snippet. ^_^

Thank you all for being here. Here's to eventually seeing these two lovable idiots get their happy ending!

This is a purely self indulgent midnight snack, no real vore happens though it is implied. And it is heavily implied that Will and Louis dabble in a bit of roleplay in the bedroom, though there is nothing further than kissing on the page. Enjoy!

Louis understood time had rules and scientific laws that others comprehended much better than him. He still cursed how time eluded him; tick-tocks vanishing like vapor when they were supposed to mark the hour, minute, second. Date. Even Reese occasionally messing with the insides of clocks and wristwatches at his desk hadn't been enough to give Louis warning that he was missing something in the cycle of the year.

But Louis figured something was wrong when Will brushed him off during a case that ate away at their free time and sleep.

"Can you get your own coffee?" snapped Will. "I need this report done yesterday."

Louis huffed and walked to the break room with his barren mug. He'd get a cup of tea for Will while he was at it, maybe then he'd cool off.

Of course the coffee maker was empty. No one else considered the caffeine needs of others. Barbarians.

He filled the coffee maker, and waited, eyeing the new signs HR had put up in the break room. He didn't know if they were supposed to be inspirational, or menacing.

Hang in there.

We are a TEAM!

Where were you five years ago? Where will you be five years from now?

Five years ago I was ending my tour, thought Louis. I would never have imagined doing this. Hell, three years ago I would never have imagined weekly shrink tests and going down my partner's throat on a regular basis.

The aroma of percolating coffee filled the break room, stimulating Louis memory.

And two years ago I was in...

And Louis remembered the event that started all the weirdness in his life. And a few of the good things too.

Two years and two days ago.

That was how long it had been since Louis and Will came to a whole new understanding with each other. And Louis plain forgot. No wonder Will had been acting as coarse as rock salt.

Anniversaries weren't something Louis did or thought about. Mostly because he hadn't been with anyone long enough to count anniversaries. But for Will...

Okay. I fucked up.

Louis grabbed a fresh cup of coffee and started the hot water for Will's tea.

New mission; unfuck up.

***

Louis didn't do romance often, but he could make it up on the fly. Will had to stay an hour late to run his report by Cetz and a few others. He could do something in the hour it took for Will to get back to his apartment.

Right?

Louis bought four packages of Peppermint patties and a leftover bouquet of tired daisies from a corner store. Flowers and chocolate, check. He let himself into Will's apartment with the spare key and laid a line of the individually wrapped mints from the door to the bedroom. He searched the far desk for the container full of the "dice geek" stuff. Bingo, a giant box full of fake tea lights. Romantic ambiance without the chance of a sudden fire. It was a good idea until he realized half the batteries in the lights were dead and he had to get more.

Could he afford to leave and get batteries? No. He called in reinforcements.

"Beni, can you come over to Will's with a package of triple As?"

"Do I want to know?"

Louis hefted the fourth untouched bag of mints in his hand. "I have candy." Translation: MOVE!

"Be there in eight minutes!"

Help on the way, good. He might need it for the next part.

Louis opened Will's second closet, the closet full of things almost as Don't Touch as Will's Star Wars shrine, picked the challenge of the night, prayed for forgiveness, and got to work.

***

Fifty minutes, and much cursing at fabric and buckles later, the door to the apartment creaked open. Louis dropped the last candle, grabbed the bouquet of flowers, and launched himself onto Will's bed, yards of cloth flapping around him.

Will cursed as he kicked something small at the doorway. "What the--?"

Follow the trail, Fanboy, Louis mentally urged while awkwardly trying to figure out how to lay seductively on the bed while drowning in so much freaking fabric. Jeeze, why is the hood so huge?

"Who-- Louis?" called Will, puzzled.

"In here," called Louis. "No lights please." I don't need to shrink the moment I kinda got this right. Okay, this laying on the bed like a gift ain't working. Should I stand? I should stand holding the flowers. Could be holding one of the light sabers but I know Will would kill me if I touched them. I- Holy crap, I can't even get up wearing this thing!

Before Louis could get to his feet, the door slowly swung open. Will entered and froze one step inside, holding the cheap chocolate peppermints he'd gathered. The soft glow of fake flickering lights bounced off the dark polished wood of the desk and bed like golden fireflies. Something soft and instrumental echoed from the stereo.

And on Will's bed lay Louis clothed head to booted feet in Will's Jedi Master robes.

"Happy late anniversary," Louis mustered.

Will stood frozen, mouth slack. "You..."

"It wasn't until today that I realized I completely forgot our anniversary two days ago. So this is me trying to make up for it."

Will gulped, eyes still wide. "I see."

He definitely looks surprised, hopefully pleased and not pissed that I touched his costumes. Okay legs over the edge and.... up we go. Oh, these boots are a bit too small. Ouch. "You gotta be at least a little impressed that I got most of this getup on by myself. There are ties and eyelets and layers and stuff." He didn't need to mention he'd needed Beni's help to get the belt on before he shooed her away with the rest of the candy.

Will stood there, shocked and awkward, like someone that walked into the wrong surprise birthday party.

"Will?" asked Louis, an inkling of what was wrong.

"Hm? Yeah?" Will's eyes shot up from looking at the folds of the long brown robe that flowed around Louis like heavy smoke. His cheeks burned. "Sorry. You laying there dressed in... My mind just rebooted and-"

Louis' hands went to his hips in indignation. "You have no idea what anniversary I'm talking about, do you?"

"No," admitted Will. "I'm sorry! If I had remembered I would have gotten you something nice!"

Louis paced started pacing, the long robe billowing behind him. "I've been racking my brain wondering why you've been so pissy lately. I thought I forgot something important."

"No! It's the case Cetz gave me. He wants me to work it on my own and I'm getting nowhere even with Watch Three input." Will pouted. "It was a bunch of little things making me mad, not you."

Louis huffed and stilled, the robes coming to a stop a few seconds after he did. "And you're not mad I'm wearing one of your costumes?"

"You're forgiven. And this is very nice," said Will, stepping closer. "The candles are beautiful, I'll be enjoying the chocolates for a long while, and you look absolutely gorgeous in those robes."

"How gorgeous?" edge Louis, back straightening under the praise. He needed the ego boost after the stress of the day.

"Majestic. Glorious." Will smiled, put the peppermint chocolates down on the dresser, and inched closer. He grasped the edge of the hood draping around Louis shoulders and lifted it up to crown Louis' head. "Mysterious. Powerful."

Will pulled the hood and Louis closer, lifting up on his toes and tilting his face to press a kiss to the mouth in shadow. Louis' lips lifted at the difference a one-inch heel made, and then tilted his face to the side to kiss a touch deeper. Will tasted of peppermint; probably eaten in the journey from door to bedroom. The fume of mint and dark chocolate filled the scant air between them.

When their lips parted, both were smiling. Will wrapped his arms around Louis' waist under the outer robe while the long sleeves dangling from Louis' arms enveloped Will's shoulders like bat wings. Whatever confusion or mistake between them had evaporated in the meeting of lips and mint.

"How do you even keep the hood in place?" asked Louis.

"Hair clips in the lining." Will leaned closer, chest to chest. His mouth quirked in a sheepish tilt. "I'm terrible with dates. I can barely remember my own twin sister's birthday. Can you remind me what we are celebrating?"

Hell, I ain't making this easy for him. "Guess."

"Uh, first time I met you?"

"Try again."

"Can't be our first date, that was in Winter."

"That true."

"First case?"

"Close."

Will's mental capacity was still in reboot mode from seeing Louis in full Jedi robes. "I give up."

"September 15th. The date of the Freewill raid. The first time I was inside you." Louis' hand drifted down from Will's shoulder to his stomach. "The first time I had to rely on you completely. And, if memory serves, that night you confessed that you liked me."

"Oh." Will's mouth curved into a smile, and his whole body curved towards Louis, warmed by the sentiment. "I would have thought getting you coffee every day and smiling at you was an indicator of liking you."

"Yeah, well I wasn't the most attentive partner until you said it verbally. That's what I'm counting."

"So Freewill is our anniversary. I can get behind that," agreed Will.

They slowly made their way to sit on the bed, Louis gathering the flowers that had fallen from the bouquet, and Will gathering the chocolates to share between them.

"So... I didn't forget our anniversary," said Louis around a mint. "But you didn't even realize we had one."

"Like I said, bad with dates." Will bashfully reached out to the hood of the long brown Jedi robe draped over Louis. "Does that mean you're not going to wear this anymore?"

Louis grinned. "The point of the costume was for you to take it off." He edged the collar aside with a thumb, flashing bare skin. "What do you want to do tonight?"

Will's eyes glimmered in the gold-light. A child with a new toy. "Anything?"

"Within reason."

"Maybe... roleplay?"

Louis hummed and nodded his head. He could do improv, especially if it lead to a happy ending.

"So... Jedi and Rouge?" mused Will. "I can get the Han Solo costume on real quick. Or the Hutt Slayer costume, but that will take some time to put on and maybe some double sided tape. I-"

Louis put a hand over Will's mouth and stilled his overly creative mind going fifteen directions at once. He didn't want to wait for a costume change; he knew how long one of those could get. "How about Jedi warrior fell to earth and needs more force energy. Luckily there is a nerdy earthling full of it."

"That's not how the force works," Will said, muffled.

Louis ignored him. "So he persuades the earthling to share. To save his life. It's a long process." Louis leaned in, bringing Will's face into the shadow of the hood, and then brushed his lips along the hinge of Will's jaw. He trailed a hand down from its place over Will's mouth, over trembling throat and chest, until it rested below Will's sternum. "It might even involve going inside the earthling, right into his core, to get what he needs."

Will gulped hard, caught in the image as deftly as Louis caught him in his arms and robes.

"So, what do you think?" asked Louis.

"Let me splash some water on my face and we can start. Same rules as before?"

Louis grinned. "Always."

***

Will woke overly warm and worn out under the wool Jedi robe. The bed lay in the golden glow of tea lights running their batteries and the dawn cracking through the window shades. He flicked the robe aside and turned from his side to his back, groaning at the lingering ache. Bits and pieces of Will's prized Jedi Master costume lay around the bedroom, part of the belt hanging from the headboard.

Last night had lasted hours, playing earthling and Jedi. One of Will's deepest fantasies come true. If only he could get Louis to join him at a convention wearing the robes.

Louis mumbled in his ear through the SkySprecht. One of the many rules they obeyed when adventurous in bed.

He'd have to take the robe to the dry-cleaner later, but after last night...

Will stretched, smiling at the small weight shifting inside his core.

Worth it.

"Happy Anniversary, Louis."

------

If you enjoyed this short, consider buying me a ko-fi!  

[msmarvelouswinchester]

Stranger

I Am Sorry

Summary - Alone in your room, you try to figure out how your past life had been.

Pairing - Dean x Reader (??), Sam x Reader (platonic)

Warning - Angst, mentions of drinking, swearing and did I mention angst

Word Count - 2066

Square Filled - Bunker ( @spndeanbingo )

A/N - So I know I have been a little MIA for a over a week now and it has been a lot time since I have updated any of my series. But I finally got my motivation to continue this part and my other series so hopefully I won't abandon this series again. Regularity and me - we don't have a good relationship.

Anyways happy reading!

Unbeta'd. All mistakes are mine.

Spn divider by the talented @talesmaniac89

Series Masterlist

There were no more tears left to cry. You had spent the whole evening crying, trying to think of any possible reason as to why Dean would do such a thing, trying to bring yourself forgive him, but you couldn't. You needed to know why Dean took such a drastic measure to erase himself from your life.

Your stomach grumbled. You sat up and rubbed your face with your hands. You didn't know what time it was, but you assumed it was sometime around midnight, considering how long you had been in the bunker. You needed food in your stomach. There was a knock on your door. You hoped it was not Dean. You couldn't face him right now.

“Y/N, it's Sam,” the voice called from the other side of the door, making you sigh in relief. You got out of your bed, and walked up to the wooden door, opening it.

“Hey,” you said.

“I got you food,” Sam smiled.

“A literal angel.” You said.

“I figured you might be hungry after everything you have been through and I also got you a drink.” He gave you a knowing smile.

“Thank you. Do you want to….come in I guess,” you told him.

“If that's okay with you.”

“Sure.” Sam followed you into the room, a plate of food in one hand, and some clothes on another.

“I hope you still like junk food.” Sam chuckled.

“Oh yeah!” You grinned, smiling for the first since the fallout.

“Here,” he handed you the clothes, “You need some fresh pair of clothes. They might be a little too big.”

“Thank you.”

“I'm sorry.” He said.

“What're you sorry for? Your brother's a dumbass,” you scoffed.

“Cas said that what he did is irreversible.” He said. “He said something about grace and how magic done by grace can't be reversible so-”

“I won't remember anything.” You said.

“I called Rowena-”

“The witch?” You asked.

“Yes. She said she will pay us a visit tomorrow. Maybe she can come up with a solution,” he hoped.

“I don't think so, Sam.” you exhaled loudly.

“Listen I am not supporting his stupid decision but Dean, at that time he thought he was doing the right thing,” He sighed. “We'll figure somethin’ out, Y/N/N.”

“He could have talked to me. We could have come up with a different solution other than me having to live without remembering half of my life,” you bitterly laughed.

“I know.” Sam walked up to you and suddenly pulled you into a tight hug.

“Sam, c-can't….breathe,” you gasped.

“Sorry,” he sheepishly smiled and let go of you, “I missed having you around. I really hated the decision Dean made. He didn't think of anyone. You were like my little sister I never thought I needed. I really missed you Y/N/N.”

“Wish I could say the same.” You gave him a sad smile.

“Eat up. You must be starving. Maybe we can reverse the spell….or whatever it is,” Sam said.

“Yeah. Thank you….for everything, Sam,” you said, as he smiled and turned to leave the room, “Sam, wait.”

“Yeah?” He looked back at you.

“I-”

“What is it?” He insisted.

“How is he?” You blurted out.

“Dean? He's, you know, holed up in his room, drinking. I'll check on him on my way out to make sure his liver survives the night.” Sam said.

“Okay.” you said and wished him goodnight as he left the room. After taking a swig from the bottle of beer, you finished off with the burger Sam had brought for you before retreating back to the bed.

Sleep didn't come easy that night. Mind plagued by various thoughts, you kept tossing and turning in your bed. Not only the thoughts about how your previous life was but also the dream you had, when the Djinn had captured you, kept you up all night. Dean said those monsters show you what your heart desires, then why did you dream about a life with Dean? He was just a guy at the bar for you. Tears welled up in your eyes as you realised a big chunk of your memory was missing and you wouldn't probably ever get it back.

You wanted to scream and punch Dean for playing with your life, playing with your relationship, but right now, lying in your bed in which was supposed to be your home, you felt helpless. You got out of the bed finally giving up on sleep and started to rummage through the drawers of your nightstand - searching for anything that would possibly bring back your memory.

Nothing significant caught your eyes until you saw an old leather-bound diary and small black box. Climbing back into your bed, you looked curiously at the two things in your hand.

You opened the box and found a bunch of pictures inside it. Your breath hitched in your throat as you looked at the pages. There were four pictures in total, all of them of you and Dean. There was this one picture, which was probably clicked by Sam of you and Dean laughing in the backseat of his car but what made your heart break was the diamond ring which was clearly visible on your left hand. An inaudible sob left your lips as you saw the next picture which completely shattered your heart. You didn't have any memory of the happiest day of your life. You stared at the picture of you standing in a white dress in front of a mirror, lips curled up into a small smile and eyes sparkling with hope and happiness. You saw the reflection of Dean in a black tux in the mirror as he stood behind you with a camera pointed at the mirror, as he clicked a picture of his bride. You got married that day, you were happy, you both were. Then why did Dean have to go and throw out every good thing he ever had?

Picking up the diary, you started to look through. It was some sort of a journal you used to keep. You flipped through the pages until a certain entry grabbed your attention.

‘This is frustrating. I should be able to maintain my cool! We were on a damn Rugaru hunt. If Sam wasn't there to save my ass, I would have died. Stupid Dean with his stupid gorgeous face. There were so many times I wanted to tell him everything but what if he doesn't feel the same? Goddamnit! I think I will take off for a few days. Clear my head so that I stop daydreaming about that green eyed son of a bitch!’

You chuckled at your bluntness. You flicked through the pages and started reading another entry.

‘I feel numb. I don't know what to think anymore. He's gone. Just like that. I don't even know if he's dead or not. Sammy went out for a drive leaving me behind in the motel room. That was three days ago. I don't know what to do anymore. Bobby's dead. Cas is gone too and Dean is, I don't know anymore. I need him to come back. Please. I can't live without him. Please, come back.’

You had so many questions about what had happened that day. From the diary entries, you could feel how much love you had for Dean. He said that he still loved you. The same question haunted you again, then why did he push you away? You flipped to the last entry in the journal.

‘I am scared for him. He won't talk to me. He would barely look at me. The mark is eating him alive on the inside. I am scared and confused. I don't know how to help him. This is not the Dean Winchester I married. I need my husband back.”

That was the last entry in your diary. You read it a few times but couldn't understand anything. What was the mark? What happened in the last few days? You needed to talk to Sam, hoping he would tell you everything.

You had spent your entire night or what was left of it reading through the journal and rummaging around your room for any other clues or snippets from your forgotten life. Three short knocks on the door made you jump out of your skin.

You hesitated a little before opening the door. After everything you had learnt overnight, you were in no state to face Dean. You had questions that you needed answers but you didn't want to talk to him.

“You okay, Y/N?” A voice asked and you sighed in relief when you realised it was Sam. You went over and opened the door.

“Y-yeah, I'm fine. Why?” You casually asked, leaning against the doorframe.

“Nothing….I was going out for my morning run and heard sounds from your room. Why are you up so early? You-uh, you never were a morning person,” Sam said.

“Can't sleep.” You replied.

“This all must be very overwhelming for you.”

“And confusing. I have so many questions,” you frowned, “I need answers, Sammy.”

Sam’s eyes sparkled as he heard you call him ‘Sammy’, and he smiled at you.

“What?” You cocked your head sideways.

“You called me Sammy.” He said.

“Is that-did I do….did I say something wrong?” You asked.

“No no no, you always used to call me that. You picked up that name from Dean and then you hardly called me Sam anymore,” he chuckled, “you want to go with me for a run? It will clear your head and I know you still don't want to….meet him.”

“Uh-huh. Give a few minutes to get ready. Maybe you can give me the answers to the millions of questions I have,” you said.

“Sure.”

“So he became a demon?” You asked, panting as you tried to keep with Sam’s long legs. You were honestly shocked to learn about how your life had been. Demons, ghosts, werewolves, vampires - that's all that you knew in that life. The Winchesters were on a run from law and some assumed they were dead, and they did die a number of times.

“Yeah. And that's when things started to go downhill,” Sam said.

“What do you mean?” You asked as you both approached the bunker door. Sam kept quiet.

“Sammy?”

“I think you should ask Dean. It's not my place to say,” he whispered.

“But-” Sam shook his head and went down the stairs and you followed him.

Dean was still nowhere to be found which was a relief but you were also a little stressed out about his condition. He was cooped up in his room since the previous night with a bottle of Jack - as told to you by Sam - which was definitely not healthy.

“I know he is probably the last person you want to see right now but you should talk to him. He is the only person who can speak for his actions.” You nodded your head at the younger brother.

“I need a little more time before I can even look at him.” You sighed.

“I know.” The low grumble from the other side of the room, caught your attention. You turned sideways, your heart dropping to your stomach when you took in the sight of the man in front. He looked like he had aged ten years overnight. His red rimmed eyes were heavy with guilt and sadness. His scruffy cheeks were sunken and pale. “I couldn't find any of you in the bunker.”

“We went for a run.” Sam replied.

“Run? I thought you-” Dean looked at you.

“People change.” You averted your eyes, making him wince at your coldness. He knew he deserved it but he still loved you.

“Well, I took a shower so I don't reek of whiskey anymore. You never liked the smell of alcohol on me.” Dean said, trying to make small talk to break the uncomfortable silence.

“Good for you.” You needed to leave the room so you turned on your heels to leave.

“Y/N-” his voice made you stop in your tracks. “I'm sorry. You-you don't have to forgive me but….please, I-I need you to know that I'm sorry.”

“I know.” And that's all you said before you went to your room.

Let me know if you want to be tagged in this!

Feedback is highly appreciated!

[doyelikehaggis]

ALL OF THE WIP TITLES YOU POSTED LOOK. SO. GOOD. i'm going to limit myself to three - can i ask for three at once? is that chill? okay well i'm gonna ask anyway and you can choose one/two/all three! so here we go: "High School Musical: The Reunion: Glee Edition", "Prison World Trio", and "Shorpanga Wedding." <3 <3 <3

YOU'RE ALWAYS COMING IN HERE AND MAKING ME LOVE YOU. Of course you can ask for three, I'd have done the whole list just for you ♥️ zhhxhshz okay let's do this!! I'm gonna put a read more because it is Long

"High School Musical: The Reunion: Glee Edition"

It's occuring to me now just how misleading this title is even though it makes perfect sense to me 😭. So, this fic is actually a crossover between The Flash, Supergirl, and Glee! Basically, there's a reunion happening at McKinley and invites go out to both Barry and Kara as, in this universe, they were Sebastian and Marley (with a couple of tweaks). None of their friends are aware of their secret former lives as members of semi-successful high school glee clubs (Iris and Alex are the only ones because, well, they grew up with them)!

And to make it better: Barry and Kara didn't recognize each other either! So, you can imagine their great surprise when they both find out their high schools are hosting reunions on the same day. In the same town. In the same building. Drama ensues! They have some reunions with other ex glee club members, including one Music Meister (excluding one he-who-will-not-be-named for multiple reasons but one being that he was also in Supergirl and I'm not going out of my way to find a loophole in the plot that makes sense for him). Their friends find out! Songs are probably sung!

And here is your snippet:

He can't go. Barry decides it without even opening the email. Or the three Facebook messages, or the two voicemails, or the five texts. They're all from the same person, more or less. One of the messages is from Trent, and he feels a bit worse about ignoring that one than the rest, but he can't because the second he opens a single one of them, it's over.

The date for the reunion is in a week and he's managed perfectly to ignore it so far! If he just waits until the date passes, then he can reply to Trent and to Blaine with profuse apologizes, but he was busy, and he never got around to checking any of his emails or texts, but he really is so sorry to have missed it, maybe they can meet up just the three of them sometime soon? 

A deep sigh is pulled from between his ribs. He slumps back in his chair and closes his eyes, letting himself spin slowly.

"You should go," Iris insists. Barry opens his eyes and catches a glimpse of her across the room, leaning against his desk. Possibly accidentally touching evidence. Totally fine, not a problem at all. "Seriously, it's been ten years! I know that it's not Dalton and technically McKinley wasn't your school, but everyone you went to Dalton with will be there."

"That's the problem," Barry emphasizes, his hands dragging through his hair to grab the top of the chair. "I just... the thought of facing any of them now? After everything, after ten years?"

He just shakes his head, pressing his lips together. His stomach is rocking and he's aware that the spinning probably isn't helping, but he's also afraid that if he stops he might throw up. So he pushes himself with his foot and goes around again, only catching a blur of Iris' exasperated expression. 

"Things are different now!" she tries again. "You've seen Blaine and Trent! Look how much they've changed. Who's to say that it's not the same for everyone else? I mean, you're certainly not who you were when you went there -- you're not him anymore; Sebastian."

"Prison World Trio"

This is, unsurprisingly, a TVD fic. I decided, you know the only thing that could make Bonnie and Damon being trapped in the Prison World more interesting than it already is? If Enzo was there, too. So, essentially, he waits on the other side until Damon arrives because he's actually worried about him, but by the time Alaric has been sent through to the land of the living, the spell has been broken, leaving Damon and Enzo trapped along with Bonnie. Then bam! Prison World! Now, I don't have a clear idea of where I go from there, but I know that it involves domestic shenanigans, catching feelings + old feelings resurfacing with angst and arguments and Bonnie wanting to murder both of them! They will, of course, still meet Kai and that's a whole thing because it's Kai, but I still haven't decided an ending yet.

Stop! Snippet time!:

"Take him," Bonnie says to Damon. "Please. He's your murder buddy, not mine."

"Hold on, I still have a say in this," Enzo tries to protest. "And for the record, I am no one's murder buddy anymore. I wouldn't be here if I was, now would I?"

Damon groans, "Oh my god, let it go, we're stuck with each other now, alright? So, your little grudge isn't exactly going to do anyone any good, and if you haven't noticed, you're not exactly dead anymore, so would you shut up?"

"Oh, well I'm glad to know that my death is a mere grudge to you," Enzo quips back drily, throwing a hand up. "You sure you want me to come with you at all? By the sounds of it, you wouldn't even notice if I was gone, so how about you two go ahead and I'll just be on my merry way."

Unbelievable. Trust Enzo to kick up a tantrum at the most inconvenient of times. Damon looks to Bonnie to share in his exasperation, but she raises her eyebrows and presses her lips together in a clear display of not taking sides. Though her pointed silence and looking away feels a whole lot like tiptoeing onto a side. 

"Are you -- No!" Damon waves his hands. "How is splitting up going to help us? No, either you come with me, or you go with Bonnie. Your choice, but those are your only two options."

"I'm not exactly seeing how you're going to enforce that if I decide on neither," Enzo says with a shrug, and at this point, Damon's thinking he's just doing it to piss him off. Then again, that's usually his motivation. 

"I'll just..." Bonnie gives a vague motion behind ahead of her with an awkward smile and proceeds to try and edge away, "leave you two to it," 

"Wait," Enzo calls to her, staring at Damon, "I'm coming with you."

Damon stares back at him, arms spread. But Enzo just gives him one last look before walking away. Bonnie falters uncertainly and doesn't look too thrilled about this decision either but she just shrugs at Damon like she's sorry, then she goes after Enzo. Leaving Damon standing in the middle of the road on his own. 

Fantastic. Just the way he likes it.

"Shorpanga Wedding"

Title says it all, really, I think. We're at Cory and Topanga's wedding (this is Boy Meets World if that wasn't clear), and Shawn is obviously a mess because the two people he is in love with are getting married, but they don't know he's in love with them, and now his chance to say anything is about to be gone! I'm going to need to rewatch that episode before I can get back to this one because I can't remember a lot of what was said, but I know it's going to be extremely angsty with a happy ending!

Teeny tiny snippet:

Don’t go in. Shawn repeats the words over and over in his head, pacing the hall of the fanciest hotel he’s ever stepped foot in. But he came this far, didn’t he? He can’t let how he’s feeling get in the way of this. It’s Cory’s wedding. And… Topanga’s. His best friends. How can he not go in?

He stops pacing and looks down at the rings in the palm of his hand. If he goes in there, these rings will be on Cory’s and Topanga’s fingers for the rest of their lives. 

Groaning, he clenches his hand into a fist, feeling the rings dig into his palm. He starts pacing again until singing starts up around the corner. Oh god. What does singing mean at a wedding? That it’s over? 

But it can’t be, not without the rings, right? Or did they find replacements? Did they just assume that he would let them down, that he wouldn't show up, so they just went ahead without him?

There’s only one way to find out. 

Taking a deep breath, he turns the corner and walks through the hall. His heart leaps into his throat at the sight of the wedding taking place. Cory and Topanga at the altar together. Nausea sweeps over him, but he bites the inside of his cheek and ignores how disconnected his head feels from the rest of his body as he marches up the aisle towards them. He glances at the stage and notices Mrs Matthews on it, the source of the singing. Figures. 

Every step forward feels heavier than the last, and like he’s a roadrunner heading straight for the exact spot where the anvil is hanging, waiting to drop and crush him. Except seeing Cory and Topanga standing there, ready to get married, has already done that. 

This took me so long to answer but it has been so fun!! Thank you for asking for three at once, you're amazing and wonderful!

[smallblueandloud]

HEY HI WHAT'S UP so i'm almost at the point where i can FINALLY read the tww sense8 au, i'm so excited, you have no idea. so anyway- whenever you're in the mood to write for this verse- how did early cj/andy/toby work? how did they meet, and figure out they were in the same cluster (yes including will i'm so in love with him as a part of this)? what were/are the individual relationships like within it? literally talk about anything- any relationship- within this au, i love the concept so much. ❤

(the sense8 au in question)

hmm, okay, so as i mentioned to you i actually had written a bit about their relationship in some snippets that will probably never be posted. but i don’t LIKE what i wrote, so i’m gonna change it, and we’re all just gonna pretend it was like this the whole time lmao.

andy and toby met first, as always, in boston because i am predictable. in this au you don’t know you’re in the same cluster until you make eye contact without being on blockers (which are telepathy-supressing pills, essentially), so they had no idea it was coming, but toby is running a campaign that one of andy’s college friends is working on and andy’s there because her friend was supposed to go to lunch with her an HOUR ago and toby glances up from the papers he’s holding, and-

well. that’s that. toby isn’t so militant about refusing to get close to andy, although he does still feel a bit odd about their age gap and still doesn’t agree to date her for a while. richard schiff is 6 years older than kathleen york, so i’m gonna say that andy was 24 and toby was 29. but, as andy points out: she’s just as smart as he is, and besides, something in their souls said they were equals, and there’s nothing he can do to avoid it. so they date.

they come up with some ground rules for their relationship. no blockers while they’re together in person. no blockers without a good reason, because they both like being connected. if one of them finds one of the other members of their cluster - because the cluster isn’t complete, they know, they don’t know how big it’s going to be but they know it’s not JUST the two of them - they have to call the other IMMEDIATELY. both of them are idealists like that. they know they’re going to share their lives with their other cluster mates, even if it’s not quite romantic.

and then about a year later, when toby is 30 and andy is 25, toby gets introduced to the new press representative of his latest campaign, a 26-year-old cj. and i think they actually even manage to get into an argument before they make eye contact - but it happens, and toby takes a step to the right into the office where andy has a meeting today.

“i found her,” he says. “the third one.”

andy, forgoing any other kind of conversation - that would only waste time - turns to the politician she’s meeting with. “i’m so sorry, something’s just come up,” she says. “we found another member of our cluster.”

“oh, of course,” says the politician. he smiles at her. “we’ll reschedule, naturally. and- good luck.”

andy thanks him and hightails it out of there. back at the campaign, cj and toby are still staring at each other. toby says, “you’re-” and cj says, “come here,” and grabs his arm to pull him into a broom closet, because you KNOW that was cj’s first reaction.

toby’s still kind of staring at her, because let’s be honest, young allison janney. cj says, “are there any more?”

toby says, “what?”

“in the cluster. have you found any others?”

toby blinks. “yeah, i’ve- yeah. she’s on her way. my girlf- my partner, andy. wait, wait, does that- have YOU found any others?”

cj shakes her head. “not yet. i’m cj, by the way.”

“toby ziegler.”

andy breaks SEVERAL traffic laws but gets to the campaign in a record ten minutes, which by the way are possibly the most awkward ten minutes of both cj and toby’s lives. she makes a beeline for the broom closet and makes instant eye contact with cj, because she is NOT going to lose this connection.

later, cj will think that that’s about when she fell in love.

it’s 1985, and bartlet is elected in 1998, so they still have a ways to go. they eventually fall into a collective relationship, as andy and toby realize that their relationship is never going to be able to return to a pre-cj dynamic. they met her a year after each other, but she’s just as important to the relationship as the two of them are.

cj moves to california eventually, fed up and cynical about the public sector. she takes a job with a media consultation firm, as she does in every world, they’re better at communication in this au. hard to be bad at it when you share a soul, bodies, talents. andy and toby move back to andy’s home state of maryland and andy starts to get closer to her goal of running for congress, while toby just keeps losing campaigns for honest politicians. i’ll say that cj moves to california in 1992, and toby and andy get married in 1993.

it’s a lot easier for you to stay in contact when you’re in a cluster. cj watches tv with toby and andy every night. it’s less of a breakup, in this au, and more of cj saying “i want to go work in california, and we have to be more careful”. she’ll only do romantic things in the psycellium, which is where, say, andy would perceive her if cj was visiting telepathically. no one else can see her, is the point. but she sits on their couch and watches tv with them and heckles toby when he makes dinner and goes to lunches with andy, where she sits on one side of the table and eats while andy makes herself at home in the other chair.

and it’s not great but it WORKS, and it works until jed bartlet calls them all in and cj closes herself off even MORE for the sake of andy’s career and andy and toby’s marriage falls apart. and then we get to their approximate relationships in canon.

toby and andy are divorced and spend a couple of years not speaking, but they’re still CLUSTERMATES and that MEANS something. they still hold to their rule of no blockers when in the same room and, once they start talking again (i think around mid s1), they start talking to each other for comfort and catharsis. oftentimes they’ll argue to get out their frustration with everyone else in their lives. it works.

toby and cj are as non-flirty as cj can manage, which is to say that they’re at canon levels of flirting. i would say it’s PRETTY FLIRTY. they’re keeping their cluster under wraps, and they’re even pretty good at it. senior staff knows because one time they got REALLY drunk during the campaign and had a conversation at normal volume about the boston globe. from opposite ends of a bar. but most of the press doesn’t know, except MAYBE danny, and they do their best to keep it that way. exceptions are at rosslyn and other situations like that.

neither of them generally take blockers, so toby’s attempts at briefing are SLIGHTLY less catastrophic than in canon, since cj can stand next to him and quietly advise. she doesn’t take over his body to do it, though, and they try to limit her advice, since it can get really obvious really quickly. toby takes blockers whenever they hide something from cj.

and cj and andy... are the most romantic of the three, just because cj and toby can get away with flirting and cj KNOWS that toby knows she loves him, but andy has always been better about physical affection - and they generally see each other in the psycellium, anyway. (look, i just want them to KISS.) if marriage equality existed at the time, they’d have probably gotten married and toby would’ve had a Crisis about it, but it didn’t and they don’t. they only very rarely see each other in public, generally at balls and the like, during which they both have to pretend they’re not about to burst out laughing. someone ALWAYS tries to introduce them, assuming they’ve never met before, and it’s worth it for the simultaneous “oh, no, we’ve met.” it’s explained by “cj was toby’s best friend while he was dating andy”, but you and i know the Truth.

okay, and then sam goes to california and meets a spirited young speechwriter and sends him back to the west wing, and he walks into toby’s office first.

toby looks up, meets will’s eyes, and something clicks into place. the last piece of the puzzle. the last member of their cluster. and toby goes, “oh no.”

will says, “uh- can we just. uh.”

“come in,” says toby, sighing and waving a hand. “we’ll handle that later. you have an appointment, right?”

they have their canon conversation, in which toby critiques will’s writing and refuses his help on the inauguration speech, and blah blah blah we get to the end of the episode where they’ve both revealed that they respect each other.

it’s the middle of the night, two days after they met, they’re sitting in the mess hall writing, when will goes, “and the cluster thing?”

“what?” says toby, glancing up. “oh, yeah. there’s two more of us. i’ve gotta introduce you.”

“i went home and looked it up,” says will. “there’s nothing on your cluster anywhere.”

“yeah, well, that’s on purpose,” says toby. “and it’s yours too, now. do you know cj cregg?”

he introduces will to cj the next morning, then gets andy to come into the west wing so she can pass will in the hallway and meet eyes with him. they’re very serious about keeping their cluster under wraps, and it would look REALLY suspicious if toby ziegler’s ex-wife came to the white house to meet the california speechwriter that sam seaborn recommended after two months of casual acquaintance. donna is the only one who notices it, but that’s another story.

the dynamics: toby and will are basically the same as in canon, complete with the s6-7 Rift™. toby isn’t as comfortable with will, hasn’t known him for as long, but they understand each other. they’re both writers. it’s something that andy and cj don’t know, even if they love toby more than will ever will.

as for cj and andy, they basically adopt will as their brother and move on. will and cj can’t be seen getting too cozy, but they talk through problems with each other a lot. andy and will can’t be seen in public together at ALL, but they make it a point to sit with each other in the evenings while they’re doing paperwork or reading or writing. it goes more easily with company, and they want to get to know each other.

and everything’s well and good and happy until toby commits treason. but that’s another story altogether.