#so the interviews are going to come in in a bit

[kombuchaclock]

My dad and stepmom sent me some!

$1540/$2000 In other news, my sister got the job she interviewed for! Also, I feel a bit weird saying this, but I learned my sister has a bit more money left than I thought, so we should be okay for July. I apologize for making it seem more dire than it actually was, but in my defense, I really thought it was that dire when I made my update in late May/early June. I'm going to leave the $2000 goal for now because it also feels weird removing it before 7/5, if that makes sense. However, it is not currently as critical that people share/donate/commission. Still, my sister and I are not fully out of the woods, because my sister's job doesn't pay quite enough to cover rent/power/internet on her own, which means that August might be a problem. Come 7/5 I will probably update this again with a new goal, unless I also get a job by then. In any case, thank you very for reading, especially to everyone who's shared or donated so far!

I may need some help!

This isn't urgent; it may not be until November. However, come that month, I may be in trouble. I have done a little financial planning today and I don't think I'll have enough for my rent and bills that month. I moved recently out of my mom's house and into an apartment with my sister, this isn't our first time paying rent but it is our first time paying as much for rent as we are now, it's a pretty penny. My job doesn't pay very much, either. I do receive food benefits and student aid but that only covers so much. If you would like to donate, you can the following ways:

Venmo - @Erika-Warne-Coles

Cashapp -$ErikaWarneColes

If you would prefer to receive something in exchange for money, I'm also available for commission! I'm an illustrator, so you could have me draw most anything. And if you can't afford to do either, sharing this post still helps. Thank you!

[infamous-if]

ngl, preferred the old cover, felt more early 2000s-ish, which is what the IF feels like, old MTV reality shows, the glow effect of the new cover makes it harder to look at (this is just my personal opinion). Also, can you explain the new stats a bit more? Like Born Star, Approachable vs Aloof, and Castmate vs Competitor

Also sad that playful is no longer a stat, I loved playing a playful mc 😂

haaa that's fair! I personally hated the old cover and wanted it more modern so it's funny that our opinions are direct opposites of each other lolol

so to avoid any misconceptions: the old personality stats are still there, they're just insivible so you'll still get playful flavor text and playful options. nothing has changed aside from the fact that you can't see them (they're not important enough to take up space in the stat page imo because they don't change the story in a huge meaningful way aside from mc having a different personality) (edit: upon reflection this is a lie they do change it lol but not often/big enough to be a stat!!)

now for the new stats they DO change the story pretty meaningfully so I wanted them to be visible because they are pretty important. They were originally going to be invisible choices but it didn't add a lot of flexibility to what I want to do in the future.

Approachable/Aloof has to do with how approachable/accessible you are as a celebrity to fans. Whether you give them the time or day or treat them like the bottom of your shoe lol

Born Star is how well MC navigates the public + fame based on the choices they make/their personality.

(It can be as simple as leaning into a villain edit the whole show and then suddenly trying to gain sympathy in an interview. it's a bad move because it doesn't work. that's not the perception the public has of you. you lose points because you don't know what you're doing when it comes to swaying the public. on the other hand, if you lean into your villain side and go that way, it'll work and you gain points.)(this is not an actual example)(essentially being mindful of the choices you make that's all)

(That stat won't be moving a lot until the latter half of the story.)

Castmate/Competitor is about whether MC sees the cast as rivals to take down or sees them as an opportunity to make friends and branch out/make platonic relationships outside of their band. This one is important. I won't say why but it is.

[intoblonde6ftwbbplayers]

Transferring Hearts; a love story from Columbia to Storrs

TransferTeammate! x UconnPaige!

pairing; octransferteammate! x uconnpaige!

description; A South Carolina transfer comes to uconn after winning her second championship. Not a lot of people know why but all Andrea knows is that she needed to get away for her cheating ex and her lying “friend”.

random details; Andrea Pierce was ranked #1 on espn for her class and that’s how she got a big following. She’s basically 3 years younger than paige (like 2 years and 10 months) she’s entering her junior season and has won the championship twice with south carolina and got MOP in the 23-24 season. Her ex bf (yes a bi queen represented) and her close friend were hooking up behind her back for weeks. Andrea is very active on social media especially tiktok and youtube (think tara yummy style vlogs and edits being made of her). 

warnings; none really just I have no clue about basketball like other then what I learned 8th and 9th grade when I was forced to play. Probably bad spelling and grammar bc idk how to used commas. Oh also forgot to mention Andrea is going Latina bc I love my Latina baddies

lmk if y'all want longer chapters like this or shorter ones!

||

High off wining; prologue

April 6th 2024

"Hey guys what's up. It's your girls here with a quick little check in before tomorrow's game" Andrea said pulling her best friend and teammate Chloe Kitts into the camera

"Andrea Pierce basketball phenom and internet sensation everybody!" Chloe said giving her friend an introduction that wasn't needed but well deserved after her performance during this tournament.

Andrea begins blushing slightly "Okay bro not too much on me" she said with a smile

"alright y'all... i'm feeling it for tomorrow's game like seriously. Mark my words if our girl Andrea gets hot tomorrow then REALLY it's over for Iowa"

"Yeah we're speaking it into the universe guys. Gamecocks are taking the title tomorrow!" Andrea chants

"Yeahhhh! LETS GO WE GOT THIS!" Chloe yells right back into the camera before both girls look at each other laughing

"Alright, alright we need to get to bed before the big game tomorrow but we'll check in with you guys after getting the dub"

Andrea quickly stops the camera and sighs trying to shake out the nerves thinking about the game.

April 7th 2024

"And with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter both Andrea Pierce and Kamilla Cardoso have been on fire tonight really pushing gamecocks ahead." Ryann Ruocco says

"Yes and let's talk a bit about Andrea Pierce for a second because at first glance you wouldn't expect a 5'7 shooting guard to be one of the biggest names of women's collegiate basketball" Rebecca Lobo said

"And that makes her all the more special. I mean from being ranked #1 in her class from ESPN and just seconds away from winning a national title with the gamecocks" Holly Rowe said

"I mean could Andrea Pierce be the key to a new dynasty for women's basketball? She was out for most of the season her freshman year with a knee injury but South Carolina has had a perfect season so far and Andrea Pierce has been a name that keeps coming up when you ask why" Rebecca Lobo says

"Her basketball IQ and court vision are unmatched I mean just this tournament alone, the no look passes, clutch three-pointers, and even blocks that have changed the game for the gamecocks this season." Rebecca Lobo continues

"And now finally with 4 seconds left and a 7-0 run by South Carolina, all by Andrea Pierce, the score is 87-75 with the gamecocks and Andrea Pierce solidifying this win for coach Dawn Staley and South Carolina." Ryan Ruocco said

"Lets check in with Holly on the court as she interviews Andrea Pierce" Rebecca Lobo said

"Yes thank you Rebecca, Im here with the Andrea Pierce who just got named most outstanding player. How do you feel right now Andrea?" Holly asks

"Uhm... Honestly im feeling really good right now. Just like on top of the world and just so extremely grateful for everything and for this season and for the people around me and that have supported me through everything"

"Yes you certainly have been through a lot in your short collegiate experience. How did your injury last year affect the way you went into this season?"

Andrea laughs nervously and looks down a bit before answering "It's changed the way I look at the world and has given me a deeper appreciation for everything I do and everything I want to accomplish. After my injury i was just living in a state of uncertainty but lots of people reached out, including players i've looked up to for a while, and I formed new bonds and deepened old ones that helped me get here today."

"Wow thats really sweet. Final question Andrea, you've had an amazing season and have even been referred to as the future of women's basketball and even just won MOP, what do you have to say about all this?" Holly asked

"I mean it wasn't just me it was my teammates giving me good looks, good assists, setting screens, the plays being made and just our overall trust in our talent. Everyone that's ever believed in me, close friends and family, and even my fans online that let me know that they're proud..."

Andrea looks to the side for a second with tears in her eyes.

"Ugh i'm tearing up I cant believe this, but uhm yeah when fans tell me 'you're doing so good' or like 'keep it up' like even those little moments have an impact and have gotten me that much closer to this moment and i'm so thankful for everything and everyone who has led me to this and... I cant wait to be back here next year for my second ring!" Andrea finishes excitedly, wiping her tears

"Alright thank you so much Andrea and again congratulations on the win and on the award." Holly finishes.

"Yeah thank you Holly. Bye!" Andrea says waiving one last time to the camera and giving Holly Rowe a quick side hug as she leaves to cut the net down.

"Wow what humble answers Andrea gave us, I mean at this point what's not to like she's great on the court and off" Holly says to the camera

"Yes and that comment about being back here next year? I believe it, I truly think that Andrea Pierce is just going to get better and already being so mature for being just 19 years old. We often talk about her poise on the court but off the court as well." Rebecca Lobo responds

"Yes I noticed that. Whenever you ask about a good game she talks about her teammates and coaching staff who made the plays or executed them, Andrea Pierce is next level and I don't want to jinx anything but it's likely we'll be seeing her cut this net down again in a year." Holly says bringing the broadcast to an end

Andrea runs to cut her piece of the net and even ends up getting a big piece to wear like a necklace.

She gets to the sidelines where her one of her closest friends, and roommate, Maddie, had been vlogging for her.

Andrea runs up to her and hugs her tightly.

Even though Maddie barely knew anything about basketball she had been Andreas friend since freshman orientation and was the first person to tell her that it was all going to be okay when she hurt her knee.

"You did it Drea I'm so proud of you!" Maddie says hugging her tightly while still recording.

"Thank you Maddie for being such a good friend and being there for me I wouldn't have been able to do this without you." Andrea says tearing up while thinking about all the highs and lows that her and Maddie have gone through together

As they finally pull away from each other Maddie spots Andreas new necklace that she assumes will be going home with them.

Maddie tugs on the net lightly and begins laughing at her friend. "New necklace?" she asks

"Yeah" Andrea responds glancing down. "You like it? 'Cause it's coming home with us." She says grabbing the net with both hands and lifting it toward Maddie to show her and the camera that caught this entire moment.

Andrea grabs the camera and says goodbye to Maddie who said she needed to get home to study for whatever pre-med class she said she was 'failing' (got anything below a 90).

"aight vlog its just us now! But guys oh my god i'm a national championnnnn!!" Andrea says walking toward the locker room now.

"It hasn't sank it yet... I'm just so thankful for all of you guys who have gone through everything with me and just grateful for everyone around me and most of all thank you God" Andrea finishes as she gets to the locker room where everyone is celebrating.

"There's our MOP" Kamilla says stretching the last syllable out playfully

"Aww I love you so much Kamilla I wouldn't have gotten this award without you."

"Heyyy vlogggg let me just steal them for a sec." Chloe says reaching for the camera.

Andrea and Chloe have a system when it comes to after a game. Chloe knows that the first person Andrea wants to call is her grandfather.

And she also knows that Andrea wants to capture every moment on camera so she helps her out by 'stealing' the camera for her segment of the video.

Andrea quietly thanks Chloe and proceeds to FaceTime her grandpa who picks up immediately.

"Hola abuelo!" (hi grandpa) she greets excitedly

"Hola mi princesita, estoy tan orgulloso de usted." (Hi my princess, im so proud of you) he says holding the phone at a very low angle like any old person.

"Gracias abuelo! Me nombraron la jugadora mas destacada del torneo. Y mire mi nuevo collar... le gusta?" (Thank you grandpa! They named me most outstanding player in the tournament. And look at my new necklace... do you like it?) Andrea said holding her net up to the screen smiling like someone had given her the whole universe.

"Me encanta. Bueno se que esta ocupada ahorita pero ya viene el verano entonces espero verla pronto. La quiero mucho, adios" (I love it. Well i know you're busy right not but summer is coming up so I hope to see you soon. I love you so much, bye)

"Adios abuelo lo quiero mucho!" (Bye grandpa i love you so much!) Andrea says hanging up the phone and going to find Chloe again.

"So where's Ethan?" Chloe asked Andrea as they get into the car ready to head back to the hotel

they were gonna celebrate back at Columbia since they had a 5 am flight the next day

"Oh he said he needed to study for some engineering class and couldn't come to the game or celebrate"

"Drea... You know I love you right but, why do you put up with that? I mean you deserve someone who see's how great you are and how bright you shine, not Ethans ass who gets in a mood every time someone talks about your accomplishments." Chloe says as they wait at a red light

"I dont know... I love him. When we met I was in a really dark place mentally and he helped me through it and even if we're going through a rough patch right now I do love him so much." Andrea says finishing the conversation

April 8th 2024

"Aight bye Drea see you tonight!" Chloe says once they arrive back their dorms.

"Yeah see you later!"

Thats when Andrea gets her phone out to see if Ethan has texted her back yet.

Still no reply. Andrea loved texting and often had no shame about pressing the 'notify anyway' button. Because who do you think you are on dnd?

But at this point her and Ethans texts were starting to look like he wasn't her boyfriend and more like a guy trying to ghost her.

'Heading to the game now'

delivered.

'Okay I lowk ate warmups up so we got this'

delivered.

'nvm thats fucking cc out there'

'who do I think I am? they beat uconn'

'they beat fucking paige bueckers yesterday'

'how can we even compete with that?'

delivered.

'ok officially crashing out wtf'

delivered.

'babe?'

delivered.

'sorry ik ur studying'

'just respond when u can'

delivered.

'ok momentary lapse of judgment'

'im fucking Andrea Pierce'

'I GOT THIS'

'LIKE DEADASS I GOT THIS'

delivered.

'BABE I GOT FUCKING MOP'

'LETS GOOO'

'LETS FUCKING GO OMGOMGOMG'

'IM ACTUALLY HIM'

delivered.

That was all last night. Andrea hadn't bothered to text Ethan this morning. She didn't know what had been going on lately but her and Ethan had been fighting a lot recently.

She felt like he was always on edge around her and didn't know why. He was picking fight for no reason or just wont respond for days and then act like nothing happened.

Andrea was getting a bit tired of it but she loved him so much. Be cause he wasn't always like this. He used to kind and would always check up on her mental health and never said anything about basketball because he didn't care about her stats only her.

But it felt like recently he not only doesn't care about her stats he just doesn't care about her either which really hurt Andrea but she figured that it was just the honeymoon phase coming to an end and nothing more.

All Andrea wanted to do was get back to her dorm and take a nap before going out tonight but she remembered that she had let Kamilla borrow her charger on the plane and she really needed it back.

So Andrea being half asleep at this point dragged herself over to Kamilla's dorm. Once Andrea showed up to her room she saw the door wasn't fully closed so she just let herself in.

As she walked in Andrea heard it before she saw it. Ethan's muffled voice mixed with kamilla's giggles coming from her room where that door was also left ajar.

"Bro what the fuck..?" Andrea quietly mumbled to herself as she walked up to the room where she didn't want it to be true.

As she walked in she saw Ethan and Kamilla on her bed making out and looking like the happiest people on earth so wrapped in with each other they didn't hear her walk in.

"So this is why you've been weird lately, Ethan? Because you've been fucking Kamilla?" Andrea said finally breaking them from their trance making her presence known

"I-Oh-Uh-Fuck! No! It's not what it looks like babe!" Ethan says barley able to form a sentence

"Do you think im fucking slow? She's literally on top of you. Like there is no possible way you this isn't exactly what it looks like... and it looks like 2 lil bitches who I never wanna see or talk to again."

"No Andrea this is the first time please baby you have to understand. We were just high off the win! You know a little celebration?" Ethan says getting out from under Kamilla and moving toward Andrea to try and calm her down

"High off the win? That's your excuse? Ew."

"We're fucking done Ethan. Fuck both of you."

The second the words leave Andreas mouth they feel bitter. She truly had so much love for both of them and for them to be able to treat her like this and be able to betray her then literally turn around and say 'I love you' is making her question who she can trust

Andrea quickly grabs her charger that she spots on the desk in the corner and makes her way out.

Portal Promise; chapter 1

April 13th 2024

It's officially been the most chaotic and dramatic 5 days of Andreas life.

Everything had gone downhill since that moment. Apparently in the time that Andrea had taken to take a nap and try and clear her mind after finding out her close friend and boyfriend were hooking up, they decided to get ahead of the story and start making shit up about her.

Ethan started spreading weird ass rumors about how Andrea was crazy and that she was manipulative and Kamilla was backing him which made it that much more believable.

Andrea was so overwhelmed and ended up speaking with coach Staley about everything that happened. Staley told her that she would speak to Kamilla but also knew that the damage was already done and that the team and the school would probably never feel the same to Andrea anymore.

So as much as it pained Staley to see one of her best players leave and one that she genuinely had grown to love and care for so much these past 2 years. She reminded Andrea that she still had time to enter the transfer portal.

So after some thought Andrea decided that she would. She told Chloe and Maddie of course, but the rest of the team had barely spoken to her since everything had gone down. Andrea knew they were just trying to keep the peace and not pick sides but it didn't help how alone she felt when people were believing those rumors.

And even though Andrea knew that the media would be all over her about the reason why. She knew that it was the right choice to make for her future. And who knows, maybe this could be the start of something great?

May 19th 2024

'On a recent instagram post made by uconnwbb you see that 19 year old basketball phenom Andrea Pierce has officially committed to Uconn'

Andrea was nervous. She didn't know what to expect. She was going to play for Geno Auriemma who had coached uconn into the dynasty it's known for and she wanted to live up to those standards.

June 2024

Andrea was about to walk into the women's basketball training facility for the first time and officially meet everyone. Sure she had been following Azzi Fudd on instagram, they were friends.

Her and Azzi had met a couple of times during their AAU days and were even on the same USA basketball team one year. But after Andrea got hurt last year Azzi reached out knowing what it's like to tear your acl at a young age and gave her some much needed advice.

CD had already let Andrea know that she had gone through all her vlogs and actually commended how well spoken and how poised she made sure she always presented as.

And said she could continue vlogging as long as it stayed within their guidelines for what they can do or say in media.

Andrea hadn't spoken to the media about her decision to leave South Carolina yet or posted anything on socials which was out of character for her, but what was she supposed to say?

My boyfriend and teammate fucked behind my back then spread rumors about me so I wanted to leave? Ew.

But Andrea quickly shook those negative thoughts out her head as she approached the gym locker room and heard a couple voices.

"Dude i'm so excited"

"Yeah have you seen her highlights?"

"Forget her highlights, lets talk about the face card and the game day hair"

"She's so cool like"

Andrea hears a couple of phrases but since they're all talking over each other she doesn't catch everything. Suddenly she doesn't feel as nervous when she hears the quiet whispers and the giggles coming from her new teammates.

Because at the end of the day they're all just girls who all share a love for the same sport.

"Wait shut up I hear someone coming!" Andrea hears someone whisper horribly which makes her laugh slightly

"Uh... Hey everyone" Andrea says looking around the locker room at everyone thats just getting settled in.

"Oh my god!"

"Hiii"

"Hey"

"Andrea Pierce!"

Everyone echos out at the same time. Which makes both Andrea and Azzi laugh, being the most familiar with you she decides to take the lead.

"I always said you'd look better in blue Drea" She finished quietly before the hurricane of fangirl questions and comments came in.

Azzi tried to recruit Andrea her senior year of high school but she had already fallen in love with South Carolina by then. She did let Azzi know that her efforts were appreciated and that Uconn was almost chosen.

"Yes guys this is THE Andrea Pierce so fangirl all you want know because you know coach is gonna get mad if you're all distracted during practice" She says walking up and putting her arm around your shoulder in a reassuring way to let Andrea know it was all going to be okay.

(random switch to first person idk why)

It was a lot from Kk and some from Caroline and even a couple from the incoming freshman Morgan and Sarah. Most of it having to do with basketball but every couple seconds Kk would throw in a comment about your 'face card never declines' or how your 'fits are always fire' which you thanked her for and even complimented some of her stuff you'd seen as well.

Then you finally got to Paige. And even after all of them fangirling over you and wanting to know everything about how you can score at all three levels while still looking good. It was not your turn to be starstruck.

Because Paige Bueckers was someone you had looked up to since she was in High School and now you're going to be on the same team. And she was looking right into your soul with the most pleasing smile in the world.

Luckily that smile and stare only made you forget your name for 2 seconds before you remembered where you were and just went with a simple 'hi' and a smile before turning back to the group making sure you were now officially following all of them on instagram and TikTok.

(back to third)

But what Andrea didn't know is that Paige had been a little starstruck too and the only person that knew just how closely she had followed your career was Azzi.

So the second Andrea looked away already fitting in with everyone so well, Azzi turned back to Paige and quietly asked if 'she had remembered her name yet or if she was just gonna keep staring'

Paige just shook her head and said a little too loudly "Bro i'm not staring" which made some of the group look at her confused for a second before going back to their conversation

"Im simply observing the newest member of our team" Paige finished quite this time

But the look Azzi gave her best friend wasn't one of belief it was one of knowing.

Because Azzi Fudd knew that this portal transfer could promise their team the chance to get back to the final four and win it all this time.

||

all any suggestions y'all want me to include in this story, my request r always open!!

thx for reading, goodnight!

[starlinggirll]

TIME FOR A HAIRCUT — D. ART

AUTHORS NOTE - mueheheheheheh i need him. also can we talk that WE as a community wrote fics for these pictures not even a day after they came out?? we're truly the best community i fear... also! this is also a reqs someone sent for husband!art for the pic in the middle! (i lost the req sorry but yk who you are!)

WARNINGS - dirty talk, oral (fem receiving), cussing, humping kinda (its the bed)

"good morning," he whispered against your temple after walking through the door.

he thought retirement would be better; more time for you and the twins, more time for himself. less time in the public eye.

he was so wrong.

he did spent most of his time with you and the twins.

he does have time for himself. which helped him change alot of things about him.

his diet, his time management, his hair.

but when he wasn't he was out for photoshoots, promo photos, advertisements. it was less grueling than hours of daily practice, tasteless, dry meals. but it was still alot.

but that's what came with being a prodigy at tennis, with being a household name.

"mornin'" you groaned, stretching your arms as he walked to your vanity to check himself out. "how was the event?" you asked tiredly, resting your cheek against your arms as you watched him look at himself in the mirror.

"boring, like usual." you hummed at his response, curling up further into the sheets. "you know..." he turned to you, a slight frown on his face. "do you think i should cut my hair? an interviewer asked about it." he murmured, walking up to you, kicking his shoes off, unbuttoning his shirt before laying down beside you. "but like in a condescending way, i guess."

you took his position as an invitation, scooting closer to him, resting your forehead against his. "i think," you whisper, brushing one of the front pieces of his hair off his face. "you should think about what i think about your hair more than what an interviewer said."

he grins, closing his eyes, relishing on the warmth your body is radiating. "and what do you think then?"

"that you look so fucking hot."

he groans, getting ontop of you and catching your lips in a sloppy, wet kiss. his hands dropped down to your breasts, giving them a slight squeeze before his lips descended onto your neck. "yeah? you like my hair that much?" he growled, parting your thighs so he could easily fit inbetween them.

you nodded, breathlessly moaning as he bit your neck. his kisses continued going lower and lower until finally reaching your stomach.

"art.." you whined, arching you back.

your fingers go tangled up in his hair. and you tugged.

he would be lying if he said he's keeping the length just for that. you pulling at it when you feel needy, when you want him to stop because he's overstimulating you. but also when its just you and him in bed, and your fingers go through his hair as he rests his head on your chest.

he moans without him realizing, his cock throbbing already.

but he cant.

he needs to please you first.

"lift up your hips for me baby." and you do, ofcourse you do.

he tosses your panties away, his eyes locked in your wet cunt. you tug him down, pressing his face into your core. he groans, taking in your smell he became so, so familiar with before going absolutely crazy inbetween your legs.

he's slurping, sucking, licking and spitting. the sounds both you and him are making are straight out of a porn video. "f-fuck!" you yelp, tugging harshly at his hair, bucking up your hips against his face.

"are you coming baby?" he says against your pussy, the vibrations making your body tremble. you nod, your free hand gripping the sheets. "do it all over my face. come on."

meanwhile, he's full on humping the bed, his cock is throbbing painfully. aching to be inside the person he adores and loves more than anything else. you.

you groan loudly, your eyes watering as you come. "fuck fuck fuck.." you moan out, body going limp from the feeling of the orgasm. he slurps every drop of your orgasm, softly rubbing your hips before giving your cunt tiny kisses. "there there."

you tug at his hair, again. wanting him to hold you. and he does, taking off his already loose buttoned down shirt before kissing your cheeks. and you bury your face into his chest, nuzzling your cheek against his chest hairs while your hand is still in his hair, but instead of pulling, you're now caressing his scalp.

"so i guess this means i shouldn't cut my hair then?" he whispers, tucking his chin ontop of your head while chuckling. "you think?" you giggle,running your finger up and down his abdomen.

"do you... to go again?" he whispers, already unbuckling his belt. and you nod. your hands already inside of pants. "before the twins wake up."

[mitchelimarns]

wait i saw ur trevorjamie? post and i am INTRIGUED what is that?? who are they? what is the backstory? please enlighten me??

hi op!! thank you for asking this question that i am Completely Normal about it. sending this ask is like asking the Cocaine Guy for some cocaine. of course i have some! now come take my hand and engage in ethically gray fandom practises with me. warning: this is going to be overly long (it is actually so long, i'm SO sorry). you might feel like i am actually a Cocaine Guy at some points because of the euphoria you will achieve (or because of how insane you might think i am). another warning: 99% of this based in fact and the other 1% is based in that beautiful gay area between fact and fiction.

trevorjamie is the hockey rpf ship between former (!!) anaheim ducks and now current (!!) philadelphia flyers forward trevor zegras, (drafted 9th overall in 2019) and former anaheim ducks and current philadelphia flyers defenseman jamie drysdale (drafted 7th overall in 2020)

an aside on trevor zegras

before we go into the backstory, i think the key to understanding the appeal of trevorjamie is to understand the appeal of trevor zegras. when i say appeal, three reasons come to mind:

his career can, as of right now, be divided into two parts: Trevor Zegras, Wonder Kid and Trevor Zegras, Wasted Potential. trevor the wonderkid spans his his first two (and a half if you count 20-21) seasons: back-to-back 60+ points (that's Really Good for a rookie/young player). finishes second in the rookie of the year voting. also appears on the 2023 NHL EA video game cover, which is A Big Deal, especially for such a young player. even makes a guest appearance at the 2022 NHL All-Star Game where he scores a goal blindfolded in the ugliest red and yellow get-up i've ever seen while NHL team mascots pelt him with dodgeballs (no, i am not making this up.) here's the video. throughout his first two years, he makes insane plays, including multiple michigans (a lacrosse style move that's really hard to land in hockey, much less NHL-level hockey). here's a webweave about trevor and Hockey that i think about Every Day. here's a video of his frankly mind-boggling highlights from his first two years. here's another. here's a webweave with quotes on how talented he is. from 2021 till 2023, trevor zegras is, for all intents and purposes, the young, sexy and talented face of the nhl. Trevor Zegras, Wasted Potential starts after he injures his ankle in 2024 and his goals/assists production falls off majorly for the next two years (we shall go more into why & how of Trevor Zegras, Wasted Potential later.) but either way, his hockey is always in the spotlight for being creative and unique.

the second reason is his personality. nhl players are notoriously criticized for being boring "robots" with no emotion and so when trevor zegras, the Lover Boy who wears his heart on his sleeve comes along, people are captivated by how open and genuine he is. he’s like that frat boy who was always admired and never loved. here's a post about a coach talking about how much trevor talks. here's a youtube compilation of his interviews (very old but it's all i could find). fun facts: he once tried to pick a fight with sidney crosby, probably the Most Respected hockey player on earth. he dated dixie d'amelio for a bit. he went to the 2022 & 2023 montreal grand prix (and repped mclaren with his nhl friends!) his instagram username is 'Z' and he posts like an influencer. in conclusion: he's just a twink tiktoker and tattooed greek man from the suburbs of new york who is occasionally Haunted By The Demons. and we love him for that!

the third and final reason that i personally love him is because he is a part of the 2019 U.S. National Team Development Program draft class (the 2001s.) the USNTDP was started as a junior program for elite highschool hockey players across the US, meant to foster team-bonding between american players from a young age and also give them a taste of the pro-life before the NHL that isn't college hockey or a foreign minor league. it is famous in the hockey rpf fandom for spawning some of the most codependent homoerotic friendships, from dylan larkin & zach werenski to will smith, ryan leonard & gabe perrault and of course, trevor zegras and his friends: jack hughes, cole caufield, alex turcotte, etc. the reason that this particular group/USNTDP class is so famous is because they are soo co-dependent that jack hughes (and his brothers who are also elite NHL players, luke & quinn hughes (quinn has the funniest beef with trevor)) bought a lakehouse in michigan (where the program is located) so that the boys can summer there every off-season. the lakehouse has now expanded to include a revolving door of The Hughes Friends, including umich (luke & quinn hughes' alma mater) & other college hockey players. this has, of course, spanned many fics across many ships and is an integral part of The Lore. the lore behind cole, jack and trevor's friendship is also insane (please peruse @/whirlpool-blog’s jhtz tag), but that's a problem for another day (if it intrigues you, have a scroll through the usntdp tag generally too). but yes, the dynamic between trevor & his friends is another fan favourite, with countless interviews and instagram #moments, if only because all rpfers yearn for one direction. (jack is zayn, trevor is harry and cole is niall. no i don't take constructive criticism).

tldr: trevor zegras is a loud, controversial, talented and loved player. now, in my opinion jamie drysdale - in contrast - is quiet, sweet and soft-spoken, aggressively canadian, a guitar player who also likes to cook and hates mornings. however, there are other takes out there like this one that beg to differ and make for an even more interesting dynamic. either way, together, they compliment each other. one is Insane and the other is So Nonchalant. we must fundamentally understand that to understand the appeal of trevorjamie.

now onto the actual question: the trevorjamie backstory.

now before we begin, i have taken a lot of help from the wonderful primers of @/somewhatinvested, linked here. i highly recommend a scroll through their blog, (esp their tzjd lore tag) as well as @/whirlpool-blogs, @/teex, @/bliksemflitsenblog, @/f1vegas, @/sergeifyodorov and @/zeegras because i am but an amateur and they are phd experts conducting their second thesis.

but here's my take, which includes Recent Happenings A.K.A. trevor is traded to philly A.K.A. the greatest moment of my life A.K.A. yaoi always wins.

the beginning: 2020-2021 season

even though they were drafted in 2019 and 2020 respectively, trevor and jamie first actually met when they played against each other in the 2021 world junior championships (which is A Big Deal for young hockey prospects) where trevor (who played for the US) was spotlighted for two reasons:

winning MVP of the tournament, after leading the tournament in scoring (and actually tying the all-time US world junior record)

making the most cocky comments, including saying this about the canadian team: "i don't think they've been tested by a real time yet.” right before the highly anticipated US-canada final.

jamie plays for the canadian team. the usa won the final. trevor had 2 goals and 1 assist in the final. jamie was, understandably, Pissed. now this was A Problem because they are going to be teammates and are also flying to anaheim together on the same plane (along with other californian prospects but that's irrelevant.) jamie allegedly did not want to talk to trevor at all on the flight. trevor forced them to make amends over chick-fil-a after. hence began the most epic enemies-to-roommates-to-lovers arc in 2021 as they roomed together in a hotel in irvine. they spend this time mostly playing for the minor league affiliate of the ducks, the gulls (if you do not know what a minor league is, think gulls is the f2 team of the ducks, an f1 team).

throughout the (shortened) 2020-21 season, they bounce back & forth between the ducks and the gulls. the whole time, they stay together in a hotel in irvine (along with two other prospects) even though they only overlap for 13 NHL games over the course of the 2020-21 season (they are called up at different times to the ducks). one of their other roommates, perrault, says that the two of them were the closest between the four roommates. when trevor is first called up to the NHL, he wears the suit that jamie wore to their US-canada final game (insane). despite playing only 13 NHL games together, they score their first NHL goals in the same game (jamie's first NHL game), only minutes apart (breaking the record for the closest NHL debut goals). jamie has a secondary assist on trevor's first goal. jamie is interviewed after the game and says that "it was a good night for our household." the photo of them celebrating trevor’s first goal is re-created by a fan. the painting is later hung in their shared apartment by trevor. they wear matching rose pins on the anniversary of their first goals a year later. #gay

jamie Panics: 2021-2022 season

when the new season starts in 21-22, trevorjamie have established themselves. they are ready to move on from the land of Hotel Nomads and Buy A House. trevor said that he assumed jamie and him were going to live together. however, jamie is asked by an older teammate to live with him and says yes. i wonder Why.

trevor ends up first living with two other teammates for a week and then later moves in with cole york, the older brother of one of USNTDP cult bros, cam york (remember the name because it will come up later). during this time, trevor adopts a lizard. no, i am not joking. i can only imagine the Yearning reached catastrophic levels. HOWEVER! the Hockey Gods intervene and jamie's roommate is traded halfway through the season. it is confirmed that trevor moved in with jamie at the end the season. #lovewins

the 2022 offseason is incredibly famous because of the troy terry (one of their teammate)'s wedding, where we had some prime trevorjamie moments. see @/somewhatinvested's primer. take particular notice of this photo, allegedly taken after the wedding when they are both hungover in a ski-lift in aspen:

boyfriends: 2022-2023 season

2022-2023 is notable because yes, trevor & jamie live together in an apartment (yes, that apartment where trevor hangs the fan painting of their celebration). but also because jamie gets injured after playing only eight games and instead of going home back to canada, like a normal player would, he stays with trevor in anaheim. for the rest of the season (a solid five months). truly insane. this gives us some amazing Domestic content, such as jamie cooking for them both, jamie playing the guitar for trevor, watching sunsets together on the rooftop connected to their apartment (including jamie allegedly taking the most romantic sunset trevor photos), cuddling on valentine's day together and of course, the infamous shared rooftop playlist (preluded by the apple music JamieTrevor playlist), which trevor and jamie both confirmed they listen to while watching the sunset together. some of the music in this playlist is truly insane. (side note: i highly recommend checking out jamie's spotify (it's actually his mom's spotify) playlist "California" because it is. insane. listening to those 11 songs with the implications of trevorjamie is a Crazy experience. also jamie has only added like 13-15 songs to the “Rooftop”playlist and the summer trevor got a girlfriend he removed “Lover” by Taylor Swift and added it to his “California” playlist. god they make me unhinged)

in the 2023 offseason, trevor, jamie and USNTDP buddy cam york (there he is again!) go to stagecoach together. trevor and jamie are, predictably, weird about each other. trevor sets up him and jamie up with two models. stuff gets messy. here's a primer. here's more lore about trevorjamie being weird about their girlfriends. here, i put my rpf goggles to speculate that perhaps trevor Panicked this time.

the horrible, very bad, no good trade: 2023-2024 season

in 2023-24, they are not living together. maybe stagecoach has something to do with it, maybe it doesn't. either way, 2023 continues to give us content, such as trevor posting a photo of jamie with a winky face emoji after Contentious Contract Negotiations and dedicating his michigan goal to jamie.

but then on january 8th, the news breaks that jamie drysdale has been traded to the philadelphia flyers.

now, this is shocking because both trevor and jamie are good players: they're high draft picks who are faces of the franchise, touted as part of the ducks' rebuilding core and they just signed contract extensions. but it is even more shocking to trevor zegras, who is going to be separated from His Guy.

now hockey trades are famous for Being Chaotic but this was next-level: the ducks were on a week-long roadtrip, preparing for a game against nashville. trevor and jamie were allegedly together in a dive bar in nashville when jamie got the call. jamie's mind "was in a daze." he flew out of nashville at 5:45 a.m. trevor allegedly reached out to his USNTDP bro on the flyers, cam york (there he is again again!) to connect with jamie. jamie moves in with cam york (!) and another teammate. he picks #9 to play with the flyers, the same number trevor wore on the US world juniors team. which could mean nothing.

the day after the trade, trevor is supposed to be interviewed before the nashville game but allegedly refuses. a rinkside reporter stated that "trevor is the person who will miss jamie the most..was visibly glum... was his very best friend... I don't think he has fully processed it this morning...he said it doesn't feel real yet...they're going through it, they're going to remain close friends for the rest of their lives." trevor is uncharacteristically silent throughout the whole ordeal: no goodbye post, not even a story. later on, he states that him and jamie "peed together, got injured together, slept together," which goes viral. trevor likes a post of the quote.

in his first shift in his first game after jamie leaves (which is also trevor's 200th NHL game), trevor immediately breaks his ankle and is helped off the ice. he misses the rest of the season. he later says that the injury hurts less than the trade.

jamie's first game is flyers' pride night. afterwards, trevor likes the flyers post of the game and reposts it, with the same winky face emoji that he used when jamie got resigned to the ducks. here's screenshots of the two stories (the second one is the flyers story. yes that’s jamie wearing a dog mask. no, don’t ask.)

danny briere, fujoshi extraordinaire: 2024-2025 season

now before we move on to recent events, we must go back to trevor. specifically, Trevor Zegras, Wasted Potential. so i mentioned that after the ankle injury in 2024 (the one he got immediately after jamie was traded), trevor’s goals and offensive production drops massively. his name comes up in trade rumours throughout 2024 and 2025, including a trade to the flyers. critics point to his defensive game as a back-end liability. people say he takes shifts off and takes games off, which basically mean he plays with no heart. they say he’s rude and disrespectful in his chirps. he hardly celebrates after goals anymore. people say he's lazy and overconfident, all flash and no substance, too scrawny to play in the league and annoyingly talkative to top it off.

all of this stems from many reasons, including his head coach, greg cronin, having an old-school style of hockey that encourages "grit" and none of the showboating and puck handling trevor is good at and loves. during this time, the ducks general manager pat verbeek (trevorjamie fandom’s Resident Evil Man) moves trevor from his natural, life long position of centre to right wing, which is another factor in his dropping production. gone are the days of trevor zegras, all-star rookie. people call him washed up and a draft bust. rpfers say he is broken-hearted.

this is worsened when he, just starting to find his groove and show flashes of defensive capability in 24-25, suffers a torn meniscus and has to undergo surgery for six weeks, missing majority of this season. when he comes back, he violates player safety rules despite and is suspended for six games. in first game after the suspension, he immediately tries to fight someone (which he never does) and loses very badly.

in contrast, jamie is thriving. he is maturing and growing defensively, he buys his own house in downtown philly, he hard launches his long distance gf (the one who trevor introduced him to at stagecoach) and spends his time with his philly best friend, cam york (the one who trevor introduced him to). during this time, jamie hardly mentions trevor, except for a flyers social media video where he says the most famous person on his phone is trevor zegras (full government name).

him and trevor also allegedly have dinner together after a ducks-flyers game in philly in 2025. trevor did not play in the game due to his injuries but still waited outside the flyers locker room “quietly and patiently” and later said the dinner was like “jamie never left.” fun fact (said with the air of a Crazy Person): due to trevor’s injuries and the distance between the two teams (they are in separate conferences), trevor has actually never played an NHL game against jamie.

in the beginning of the offseason, trevor also did this sponcon. which. No Comment. but what was shocking was he reposted the cover photo and then immediately reposted a reel of… jamie playing golf. here’s the two stories side by side to establish how crazy that was:

trevor was also allegedly updated The Rooftop Playlist for the first time a few days before Recent Events. some people speculate it was during trade talks and he was Thinking about jamie. which is also Crazy.

this all brings us to today, when trevorjamie fans across the world collectively lost their minds when it was announced that the flyers had acquired trevor zegras.

trevor's only public acknowledgement about the trade (besides liking a bunch of posts) is this photo of him & jamie posted to his instagram, no caption and no acknowledgment to his other buddies on the team such as cam york (there he is again again again again!). nope, trevor needs everyone to know that this trade is about His Guy and His Guy Only.

you may notice some similarities to a certain pic on a ski lift in aspen. but whilst they were Just Bros in that one, they are definitely Not Bros in this one. just the semantics of taking a pic from two years ago, when we know trevor has pics of him, jamie and cam york at stagecoach... oh trevor zegras, you are the biggest idgaf war loser.

besides this photo, trevor also did a virtual press conference (video here) and went on a local philly podcast. jamie has only liked the post saying goodbye to the teammate that they traded for trevor and no posts related to trevor at all. he has also not posted anything on instagram.

but that doesn't matter because trevor zegras is So Back, baby. he will be playing under #46, the number he used to play on the gulls (he used #11 on the ducks). he is free of his Demons (the #11, pat verbeek and playing right wing). he is going to the land of brotherly love, matvei michkov (known for doing michigans, trevor's MoveTM) and travis konecny (known for being a yapper like trevor).

so where does this leave us now? well, both jamie and trevor will be playing the next season together (!!!!!!!). hopefully, we shall see trevor have a breakout year, a la dylan storme. both of them will be on the last year of the 3-year contracts they originally signed with the ducks. we don't know if either will resign with philly. but one thing can be sure: they will definitely, definitely Be Weird About It.

TLDR: trevor and jamie are insane about each other. i am insane about them. come join us!

if you've made it to the end, congratulations! i hope this enlightened you! if you have more questions (either about trevorjamie or anything else mentioned here), my ask box is always open! have a great day!!

[zaynessbeloved]

Oh pls not this shit again. It’s literally stated on their CN official page — “heterosexual plus respect the characters, their sexuality, design etc”. And no, mc will always be a woman it’s been proven and said numerous times in the game and especially by the developers themselves in their interviews. Listen to what Raf said in CN, it’s about her appearance as a whole, not about genders overall not even close to that. So stop twisting canon material just to fit your delusional fujoshit narrative.

And yes, my point still stands. Instead of writing about existing canon queer characters where an actual woman fancies another woman you’d rather write about a man in a twisted way. This is one of the reasons you don’t get some good fem queer rep bc it’s unnecessary when men and your delulu exist. Pathetic ash 🫩

First of all, drop the anonymous bitch, because this is the last time I will respond to your stupid ass anyway, coming on my page throwing around hate for literally no reason whatsoever. Get a life or a job cause you're clearly missing both.

What is canon to the game is canon to the game and I never implied what I wrote on that fic is canon? Are you lacking comprehension skills? Point to me where I ever said or even implied MC is not a woman. Oh wait, you can't💗 because I never said as such. And Rafayel's character clearly states he will love her in ANY form, whether is gender, sexuality, appearance etc. You're just not smart enough or just a bit too homophobic to take it as it is clearly stated in the game.

Whether is the EN or the CN or the other languages, Infold is the one controlling whatever makes it in the game. So if they didn't want to imply that, they would have outwardly make Rafayel—or the other Lis—express their conditional love toward MC.

Being any kind of artist gives you freedom of speech, experimentation and all the likes, and guess what, you should focus your energy on consuming the content you actually like instead of yapping in my inbox while anonymous, mind you. Who is the pathetic one again? Yeah, thought so💋

As if your little yap session is going to stop me from writing whatever the fuck I want to write on my OWN page. You're fucking delusional if you think so. I don't have to justify myself in front of a random anonymous, so leave my page and block me. It's like the third time I'm telling you, do you not comprehend?

Anyway, I will keep enjoying my art and my life because I have one. Can't say the same about you. ;)

Kisses💋

[kurizz]

Pink Poly Club (miromabby) Part 3

click for part 2

Summary: They successfully dashed out of the studio. But it started raining heavily outside, making it unsafe to drive. Mira, not wanting to let them know where she lives, ended up at their place instead. She needed to relax after being stressed out by that interview.

Word count: 1127

a/n: gotta clarify that it's an alternate universe where the saja boys are regular humans.

-----

Maybe she should’ve just checked into a hotel. But after that stunt they pulled earlier, that would've been a terrible idea. Without Bobby or the rest of the company staff around, people would gather and ask questions. Too many questions.

Mira sank into their couch with a weary sigh, tossing her feet up on the small table. “Don’t get any funny ideas,” she muttered. “I just needed to relax, so I took the offer.”

“Hot cocoa? Something to drink?” Romance lazily called from the kitchen, clinking around in the cabinets. “Abs, turn up the heater. It's freezing in here.”

“On it,” Abby replied, already moving.

He was right—it was getting cold.

Mira stared out through the tall windows, the curtains were pushed to the side. It displayed how the rain lashed the glass in harsh, steady bursts. Bobby was probably still pacing, worried sick about where she’d gone after ducking out of the studio earlier than scheduled. She had told him the truth. Not that it helped. It only added to his worries. 

The girls would surely want in on everything. She’d tell them when they meet. For now, her phone was shut. She needed to relax.

“Once the rain stops, I’m heading home.”

Romance hummed. She hadn’t even answered his question.

“Feet down, please,” he called out, holding two mugs of hot cocoa.

She dropped her feet on the floor quickly.

He set one mug in front of her. “Here. Have a drink.”

“I didn’t say I wanted one.”

He slowly raised a brow, “I’ll drink it then. You sure you don’t want it?”

“I…I’ll have it,” she grumbled, grabbing the mug from the table.

The couch creaked as Abby plopped down beside her, leaning in towards the mug in her hands. “Careful, it’s hot. Let me help.”

He wrapped his hands over hers and guided the cup closer to his mouth, trying to blow away the steam.

Mira recoiled, eyes wide. “Stop! You’re getting your saliva all over it!”

Abby paused, stunned. Romance slapped a hand over his mouth, his shoulders shaking with laughter. Mira was fuming, she wanted to pull the mug away from Abby but she was careful not to spill it.

Abby let go and slumped back, turning his head away like a kicked puppy. Was he sulking now?

Romance drew in a deep breath, trying to keep it together. That earned him a glare from Abby, “You’re really enjoying this.”

Romance grinned. “Don’t be mad just because I’m her favorite.”

Abby turned his glare on Mira.

She returned it right back. “I don’t like either of you. I could’ve blown on it myself.”

“I was trying to be nice.”

“By spitting on my drink?”

Abby’s ears turned red, his glare was more of a pout than a threat. Why did that make him kind of…cute?

“Forget it.”

“I can't drink this anymore,” Mira grumbled, setting the mug down. She leaned her back onto the couch and rubbed her cold hands together. Abby got up and walked away. What, is he more upset now?

“Have mine instead. I haven't taken a sip yet.” Romance offered, sitting beside her.

“…thanks, if you don't mind.”

She took one sip and welcomed the warmth that entered her system. The cocoa tasted so good. But she wouldn't say that out loud. It helped rid her of the cold a bit. She needed the warmth from the drink that badly.

Romance and Mira drank hot cocoa in complete silence. The sound of harsh rain was filling up the room for them. She glanced at him sideways, wondering how long he’d stay quiet. Oddly, it felt comforting.

Then, there were loud footsteps. She paid it no mind and focused on her drink, knowing it was just Abby coming back to the living room. His steps grew closer. A warm blanket was draped over her shoulders, the fresh lavender scent engulfed her senses. She was pleasantly surprised. So, that’s what he was up to.

Abby also tossed one blanket to Romance. He was wrapped in one himself, a small frown still evident on his lips. He said nothing and only sat on her other side—the one unoccupied by Romance—in silence.

Mira sighed, giving in. “Thanks,” she whispered softly.

Abby pretended not to look pleased, “No problem.”

He wrapped the blanket around himself tighter. Romance was still sipping on his cup.

There it was again. That stretch of silence surrounding them. If it weren't for the rain, she would've assumed that her hearing was gone.

Normally, they were chatty. Teasing her left and right, trying to get a reaction out of her. She wasn't sure if she preferred this side over their playful side. This definitely was new. She hummed in thought, setting down her mug once she finished drinking.

“I didn't get to say thank you earlier.” she paused, waiting for them to respond. Once they didn't, she kept going. “You must've known I was uncomfortable so you took me out of there.”

“Not sure what you mean.” Romance pretended to be fascinated by his mug, he wouldn't even look at her.

“Don't start thinking we did it for you.” Abby murmured, “…because we did.”

This time, it was her turn not to respond. They did it first, anyway.

Out of nowhere, Abby rested his forehead on her shoulder. “Just a few minutes…I won't do anything else.”

His voice was low and soft. It had a mild pleading tone to it that sent a delicious shiver down her spine. He was way too close, the heat from his body threatened to consume her. She couldn't help but fix her posture—it only made Abby scoot closer.

Romance sighed, grabbing her attention. He nuzzled his head on the other side of her shoulder, “I can't help it anymore. Give me a few minutes too, Mira.”

“What are you guys…”

She didn't know what to do. That awful fuzziness she felt in her chest was clearly trouble. She doesn't need it, go away. Why is she giving in…clearly it must be the weather. It's messing up with her way of thinking.

She plopped her head back, her gaze softening as it met the ceiling. She wouldn't admit it, but this felt nice. Being wrapped in a blanket and almost cuddled up amidst the heavy rain outside made her slightly woozy, her eyelids getting heavy.

She closed her eyes, but reminded herself not to sleep. She's just going to rest for a bit. Just for a bit. It’s fine.

Minutes went by.

Abby noticed the rain had subsided, so he pointed it out.

Weirdly enough, Mira hadn't had the urge to get up and leave anymore, but she had to go. She had to go before they let the moment carry them away.

-----

a/n: still getting a hang of this thing. btw, my fingers were itching not to italicize almost everything. also, golden is just so good of a song but so hard to sing—my voice cracked like rumi in their practice. probably the only thing we have in common.

author's note? no. author's ramble.

@suzieq1948374 @unmooredandfulloftrepidation

[lucydixon]

Brake it 'till you Make it

Summary: You convince Eddie to apply for a job at the local garage and talk your way into a job there too. Reader and Eddie are in an established relationship and have known eachother since they were kids. Just a cute little oneshot

You stood across the street from Ralph's Garage, gnawing your bottom lip bloody, propped up against the side of Eddie’s van.

You could feel the hot metal through the sleeve of Eddie’s jacket, not quite warm enough to burn but insistent enough to sting. You couldn’t find it in you to care, too worried about him to think of anything else. 

You were pretty sure that you were more nervous than he was about his interview. 

You’d been so adamant that he’d get it, outwardly as positive and bubbly as always, but deep down, you were stressing the hell out. 

Not because you didn’t think he could do it. Of course not. 

You’d seen firsthand just how good Eddie was with cars. He’d gotten his van running from what was essentially a heap of scrap metal after having it towed back to the Munson trailer. 

Wayne had lost his shit on the two of you when he found you huddled up in the back, tacking posters and patches to the headliner before so much as opening the hood. 

You'd both had to sit through a lecture on the value of a hard-earned dollar despite knowing that he'd bought the damn thing with money he'd earned selling dime bags behind the highschool.

You were more concerned about the general assholery in Hawkins when it came to Eddie. 

After a lifetime of being called a freak and being seen as less than, he was so convinced that he’d never manage to get a job anywhere but the plant with his uncle and had been worried about it for as long as you’d known him. 

It had been you who set up the interview at the garage. 

He’d briefly mentioned that maybe he could do something with cars, and you’d called Ralph up and begged him to let Eddie come by and show him what he could do, then told Eddie they were taking applications.

It took a week of sweet-talking to convince him that he could do it, and even then, he was unsure.  

It was a bit of a scheme, and while it had felt like a good idea at the time, he’d been so uncharacteristically quiet and in his head about it the whole drive over that you realised just how crushed he’d be if he didn’t get it. 

He wouldn’t let it show.

Eddie would laugh it off and make some kind of self-deprecating joke, but you’d know. 

He’d resign to a life of backbreaking work at the plant just to avoid another rejection, and you knew that you couldn't let that happen.

Eddie emerged from the garage an hour after going in, arms streaked with oil, and stiff as a board. 

He looked rattled, and you immediately frowned, thinking the worst. 

“How’d it go?” you asked, despite being afraid to hear the answer, as soon as he was within earshot. 

“I start next week.” He breathed, looking like he was in some kind of shock. 

“You got it?” You shrieked excitedly, throwing yourself into his arms. 

Eddie stumbled back a few steps and let out a startled laugh, resting his arms over your back while you hugged him tightly. 

“Oh, that’s so great, Eds!” You beamed, pulling back to look up at his pink cheeks and press a wet, sloppy kiss on his cheek “What the fuck did I tell you? Of course you got it!” 

“He’s gonna start me out doing oil changes and shit” He cracked a bashfull smile, always overwhelmed by the faith you had in him. 

“They’ll see how good you are and you’ll move up in no time” You waved him off “I bet you’ll be fixing radiators and shit in no time!” 

“Radiators and shit?” He looked down at you with a raised brow, clearly amused. 

“I know stuff about cars.” You rolled your eyes theatrically. 

“Yeah?” Eddie poked you in the ribs, drawing a shrill laugh. God, it was his favourite sound in the world. “Where’s the radiator at?” 

“Under the hood.” You squinted at him playfully “Duh.” 

“You’re lucky you’re cute, sweetheart.” He chuckled, pulling you into his chest to press his lips to the crown of your head. 

Without asking Ralph if it was okay, you started hanging around the garage just about every day Eddie worked.

You’d sit on the oil-stained ground next to him while he did his thing, keeping yourself busy with a book or soft chatter.

Ralph didn’t mind so long as Eddie was getting his work done and you weren’t causing any trouble beyond distracting the poor boy every so often. 

He was a kind man who saw something in Eddie from the start. He’d been in school with the boy’s father and knew exactly how he’d turned out. The kid was clearly trying to get on the straight and narrow to avoid living up to the Munson name, and Ralph was all too happy to do what he could to encourage him. 

The phone had started ringing one afternoon, and everyone in the shop had their hands full, so Ralph shouted across the room.

“Munson!” He hollered “If your girlfriend’s gonna hang around all day lookin’ pretty, least she can do is answer the damn phone!” 

You gave Eddie a playfull shove when you saw that the comment had bugged him and hopped up, snatching the phone off the receiver with a cheeky grin. 

“Ralph’s.” You did your best ‘customer service voice’ “What can I help you with?” 

Eddie snickered under the car and you tossed a loose bolt at him, rolling your eyes. 

“One sec,” You smiled as if the customer was right in front of you and not on the other end of the line. “Let me check.” 

“Y’all do breaks and shit, right?” You called out loudly, clamping a hand over the bottom of the phone to muffle the sound. 

Eddie cackled.

“Of course we fuckin’ do!” One of the other mechanic’s barked, hunched over the engine bay of an old truck like it was the funniest damn thing he’d ever heard. 

“Is there a calendar or something? When should I tell them to come?” You ignored him and looked to Ralph, who looked just as amused. 

“Tell ‘em to come by tomorrow afternoon.” He told you. 

“You’ve got it, boss.” You gave him a mock salute and relayed the message to the man on the other end of the phone before hanging up with an accomplished look on your face. 

The phone rang again twenty minutes later, and everyone looked to you. 

You let out an exaggerated sigh and went to pick it up. 

“Ralph’s.” 

Eddie watched your brows pinch together, beyond entertained as you tried to understand what the person on the other end was saying. 

“Well if it’s making a weird noise, there’s probably something weird going on in there.” You nodded like you knew what you were talking about “What kind of sound is it? Is it more of a sledgehammer on a tin roof kind of thing or like nails on a chalkboard?” 

“Screeching cat?” You muttered thoughtfully, “Well, that certainly doesn’t sound good.” 

“Why don’t you bring it over in the morning, and I‘ll have one of the boys take a look?” 

“That’s right, ma’am, alright. You have a great day.”

 

As soon as the phone was back on the hook, you started rummaging around the front counter. 

“You really don’t keep a calendar anywhere in here?” You asked, clearly bewildered, “Not even for appointments?” 

“Nah.” Raph shook his head, wiping his hands off with a rag as he made his way over to you. 

“Not even for your books?” You frowned “How do you do your invoicing? Where do you keep your files?” 

He just pointed to a cardboard box in the corner, overflowing with loose sheets of paper. 

Your jaw dropped in disbelief. 

“Good lord.” You shook your head in disapproval “That is not gonna work for me.” 

“It’s me that winds up stuck with all the bookkeeping, what’s it matter?” 

“Not anymore.” You waved him off, already on the ground digging through all the pages “I’ll do it. Two bucks an hour while Eddie works.” 

“That ain’t even minimum wage.” He scoffed.

“I’m here anyways.” You told Ralph without looking up “this shit’s a mess,  it’s gonna take me a few days just to figure out what the hell I’m looking at.” 

“I want a calendar, though. A big one, and some notebooks.” You contemplated, nodding pensively, “Yep. I can work with this.” 

Eddie watched you start straightening things out instead of waiting for an answer with a little smile on his face. He was entirely unsurprised that you’d appointed yourself a job and just shrugged when Ralph looked to him for help.

You just had a way with people. Nobody would ever think so just by looking at you, seeing as you rarely went out of your way to speak to anyone outside of your circle of friends, but there was something about you that could convince anyone to drive off a bridge if you asked nicely. 

Bright and early the next morning, you and Eddie rolled up to the garage, hand in hand. 

You’d checked on the way that he didn’t mind you butting into his job, and he’d just laughed and told you that you might as well make yourself useful instead of distracting him all day. 

You swatted his arm and shot him a playful glare as he pulled out of the trailer park.

Sure enough, you found a calendar and a stack of notebooks on the front counter waiting for you and beamed. 

You spent the entire day sifting through invoices and organizing everything to your liking. 

You didn’t explain your filing system, and Ralph didn’t ask, perfectly happy not to have to worry about the paperwork side of things anymore. 

He insisted on paying you at least minimum wage, but after going over everything, you told him with a straight face that he couldn’t afford to pay you that much, but you’d let him when he could.

He didn’t have much of a choice but to agree. 

Within a week, you had a whole system down for scheduling appointments and prioritizing tickets. 

You’d dragged everyone to the front counter to explain it to them when you were finished.

“If I’m not here. You just have to fill out a ticket.” You showed them a stack of handwritten cards. “Customer name, phone number, and problem. Check the calendar and make sure we’ve got time, then write that on here too. Leave them on the register and I’ll sort them out when I’m back.” 

“Got it?” You crossed your arms over your chest, looking from the bleary-eyed, filthy mechanics to your pink and blue colour-coded calendar, expectantly. 

They exchanged a few looks before nodding and joking that you’d taken over the whole damn shop. 

Eddie just shot you a proud, but goofy smile and wondered if he could possibly love you any more.  

Dividers by @saradika-graphics GIF by @obii-wan

Masterlist

[maiyami]

Post Time-skip Headcanons For Bakugou Katsuki with F!Hero/Wife

25+

Minors Do Not Interact

A lot of these are from the perspective that Bakugou watched you died before he died in the war.

Some NSFW at the end

Warnings: Angst, mentions of death/dying, mentions of blood and broken bones, anxiety, scars, panic attacks, overprotecting, and more.

NSFW Warnings: Slight scar kink (Bakugou likes your scars even though you hate them), creampies, dominance, and more.

Waking up in the hospital after the war, you were the first thing on his mind besides Izuku. Now even years later, anytime he wakes up and you aren’t next to him, he panics a bit.

Bakugou had watched you take (what he thought was) your last breath right in front of his eyes. Lying in the dirt with blood coming from your nose and ear. The light fading from your bright eyes as you muttered his first name before your breath was gone.

He didn’t know if you truly had left him until after the war was done. Izuku was a top thought on his mind but you were Bakugou’s priority. Basically collapsing next to your bed side when he found you alive. Even with how injured he was, he did not leave your bedside for days. It would give him an insane amount of anxiety anytime the nurses would have to take you away from him. At the end of it, the nurses just allowed Bakugou to go wherever you went.

Now even years later, he still doesn’t like leaving your side. Yes, with both your jobs as pro heroes he has to leave you but he always knows exactly where you are. You do work at his agency with him, he knows your patrols and routes just incase anything were to happen to you. But if you get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom or get a drink of water and he wakes up to an empty bed? He believes that he’s only dreamed that you lived through the war. Panicking that you aren’t there or something happened to you.

You try your hardest to comfort him but the ptsd is trills through both you. Anytime he wakes up without you in bed, it ends with a short crying session and an hour of cuddles until he falls back asleep. Therapy is working wonders on him to work past the restless nights.

2. Since he wears a pace marking now for his heart, you wear a tracker to make sure his heart rate doesn’t go out of sorts. In return, he wears a tracker for your brainwaves to make sure nothing happens to you.

When you were thought to be dead, you had an extensive brain bleed. The doctors did amazing at repairing the damage, however you have lingering side effects. Blurry vision, dizziness, and sometimes even memory gaps for things that had just happened. You can get there but sometimes it takes a few tries to remember. Bakugou had become so worried of a possible aneurysm or another brain bleed that you both wear special bracelets. His bracelet allows him to track your breathing, brainwaves, and blood pressure. While your bracelet allows you to track his heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure.

It’s made both of your anxiety lessen knowing that all you both have to do is look at the fancy bracelet on your wrists to check in on how the other is doing. It was actually Kirishima’s idea for the bracelets one day when Bakugou was pacing around his office nervous when you had come back late from patrol. Now neither of you leave the house without them on.

3. He’s much more protective of you.

When you are on a mission together, he makes sure to keep an eye on you at all times. It’s not that he doesn’t trust in your skills but he just doesn’t want to relive the worst day of his life even more. He knows you’re a confident woman, can handle your own. However, your silent tells of anxiety building or stress coming to the forefront of your mind are now much easier for him to notice. He will step in on interviews when he sees your fist clench out of stress. He will shield you from the flash of cameras since it heightens your anxiety now.

If you’re out in public off duty, he doesn’t let your hand go. Making sure to always have you within reach just incase. There are check ins, soft whispers against your ear to make sure you’re doing okay. And once you have had enough for one day, it’s a wrap. He’s carting you away to bring you to a quiet space to unwind. Your health physically and mentally being top priority, even over his own. That will cause some arguments since that’s all you want to do for him as well. But he insists you are taken care of first.

4. He rubs scar treatment oil on your scars, even though he thinks you’re beautiful with them.

It’s no secret that both Bakugou and yourself gained a lot of scars from the war. Scars that will possibly never fade even with time. That doesn’t stop you from trying every treatment under the sun to get rid of them on yourself. You hate your own scars, they make you feel less beautiful. Someone not worthy of Bakugou.

However that doesn’t matter at all to him, he loves you with or without your scars. You accepted him for his new scars, why would he do anything less for you? Even though he has told you countless times that you’re beautiful, it still nags at you. So the nightly routine is that Bakugou will take your scar treatment oil and delicately massage it into your scars one by one. He knows it likely won’t do much but if it eases your thoughts about it? He’ll do it again and again until he dies again.

5. He doesn’t rush anything you do.

Bakugou by trait is an impatient man. He despises when things take to long, like if he needs to be somewhere but is stuck in traffic. His friends are taking to long to meet at a restaurant, you know all and all minor things.

But, he does not rush you for anything. Since you have lingering side effects from your surgery after the war, he takes everything slow for you. He doesn’t want to risk overworking you or raising your stress levels. He has actually found it very easy to let go of his impatient side with you. He would rather you take it slow and make the pair of you late instead of rushing around and missing the small things in life. He takes the time to admire anything you do while he waits.

Bonus: NSFW Headcanons

He found out he has a scar kink, but only for you.

After the war, your body was littered in scars. Some that were easily seen while others…not so much. Hidden away under layers of clothing that only yourself or him could see. He obviously hates the fact that you were hurt like this to case marks on your beautiful body. However, something feral in his brain loves the idea of how strong you are while looking at them. Like you challenged the world to do its worst and you still came out of it. It turns him on at the thought of how powerful you are.

He’ll trace your scars with his tongue every time you two have sex. His favorite one being the scar that’s just above your left hip bone, running up onto your stomach. Anytime his tongue flicks over that one, you make a sinful noise that makes him go crazy. Wanting to pull more pretty sounds from your chest and he grazes his teeth against the scar on your left thigh as well. He knows that they are long gone from being sensitive but you still react in a way that gets his cock harder than it’s ever been.

2. He likes giving more than receiving.

He enjoys you laid out on the bed while he does everything he wants to your body. He rather you sit there and look pretty while he eats you up. He takes his time with you, eating your pussy like a man starved. Even when you’re begging to let you have a turn making him feel good, he shakes his head no. “Let me take care of you first, Princess. Then we’ll see if I need anything more.” Is what he says every time you’re squirming under him as he laps his way to your climax.

He also isn’t a big talker through worshiping your body, he will whisper sweet words every once in a while but he is to focused on how good you are feeling. Having you cum at least two to three times on his tongue before finally sinking his large cock into your body. Still not letting up on making you feel good before him. It makes him more dominant in the bedroom with you, making sure that he’s in charge of your pleasure and that you are receiving it well enough for him to get it back.

3. Cockwarming is a must after sex.

When you a revived from death, your body usually feels colder after. That has never left Bakugou since the war (His body temperature is the same from before the war but he just feels like it isn’t). While having sex with you is the second to closest thing that keeps his body feeling like it’s back to its old self. (Cuddling is the first closest to how his temperature used to feel.)

So every time after he fills you to the brim with his warm cum, he repositions the both of you to have his cock sheathed back inside of you while cuddling. His creampie staying deep inside of you while he basks in the warm your body is giving him. It also makes him feel even closer to you than he did before. He loves the way your velvety walls tighten around him with every small shift of your body. The warmth of your back pressed to his chest, the way your thigh hangs over his. He can never get enough of it.

4. He whispers dirty things he wants to do with you out in public.

Your hearing suffered a little bit after the war, you’ve become much more sensitive to louder noises. So when you’re out somewhere that is just a hair too loud for you, Bakugou knows exactly how to counteract it. Especially since it’ll make you want to go home quicker.

He’ll lean in and whisper all the dirty things he wants to do to you with his low gravely voice. Knowing the low hum of his rasp does something to your now over sensitive hearing. Talks about making you sit on his face when you get home, riding his cock in the back of a taxi on the drive back. Sometimes even saying hello take you in the bathroom right then and there. It makes your eyelashes flutter and your knees weak. Bakugou knows it’ll get you to say your goodbyes and head straight home with him.

Thank you for reading~

[noazhere]

This is not a one time thing, it has happened multiple times and not only since he's been an adult, but since he's been a teenager too.

Media has good opinion about him. Everyone knows he's kind; when they search him for any interview or opinion about anything that is trending or that it involves his family, he doesn't act self-important or better than them as most people would think for the ward son of Bruce Wayne, Gotham's prince. He's charismatic, charming, polite and always gets some laughs indistinctly of who's he with.

But they had long since discovered that he doesn't like some specific kind of questions. At first it was noticeable that the teenager wasn't expecting them, or was even a bit uncomfortable by them, but he would end up playing along while laughing them off. As time went on and years passed though, his reactions started to change to unbothered and straightforward answers. "Is that news? I'm handsome, we know it, anything else?" And so more similar.

This make that any time a reporter or an interviewer that tells him about what other people think about him, or what they said about him, he makes it obvious that he couldn't care less. Thus, news but overall social media, tend to criticize him every time he responds like that, they call him "arrogant", "presumptuous", "conceited" and more. Which, honestly? The first time it made him roll his eyes because just last week he was being called friendly and warm; how Gotham missed him and how he should come 'home' more often. Bunch of hypocrites, but what could he expect from Gotham, he guesses.

I like to think that as more time passes, he's less friendly and loses his patience towards those kind of questions. Doing things as just ignoring them and walk them off as if they had never even talked to him, because that's better than taking out his frustration on someone. Because he's done a lot of things for these cities, and in general, even ignoring that he's Nightwing, he's done a shit tone in his life. He hears interviewers talking to his brothers and they get such an interesting questions, would it be about WE, asks and shows of interest about their lives (not only love-lives), opinions on whatever is going on in the world at the moment and just normal talks that involve their rational thinking instead of gossips, what other people said about you, your body or your face.

And he knows it's stupid to get upset about it, even more considering how these days those questions aren't as common as they used to be, but he is sometimes still upset. And he knows he's not "guilty" or something, but sometimes, just sometimes, he finds himself thinking that maybe if he didn't went along with it when he was a kid, maybe people would have left it there. Maybe people wouldn't comment so often about his smile, his muscles, his dimples or his ass. Maybe. Maybe that's why he gets worked up when he hears interviewers talking to his brothers about their physique. Maybe that's why he takes control over their talk and centrates it on himself, even if he would prefer burying himself alive rather than continuing with the conversation he's having with a big faux smile. Maybe.

do u think dick knows he's like pretty but he stopped caring because mostly civilians and some heroes that don't know nightwing just focus on the fact he's attractive specially in his teens like that one audio "you're beautiful. thank you and what else? what else? it is beauty all that matters to you?"

I can see Dick getting desensitized to being called pretty or attractive.

Maybe he's being interviewed and someone asks him about how so many people have called him attractive or put him on a list of some sort of the hottest celebrities, etc. and Dick just stares at them and asks, "Is that news? Typical Tuesday for me. Anything else?" But he doesn't let them even ask another question before he turns and walks away to the next reporter.

[nqrancia]

no thoughts, head empty, i think it’d be hilarious to call some of the jjba character your “current” boyfriend just to fuck with them. so could i get Rohan, Mista and Diego react to reader calling them that? thank youuu ❤️

“𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐡, 𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝.”

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 : rohan kishibe, guido mista, diego brando

𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 : how does your bf react to being referred to as your current boyfriend

𝐚/𝐧 : this one was fun to write, tsym for requesting diego! i’ve been brainrotting over him recently :)

𝐑𝐎𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐊

He’s not mad, he’s just disappointed.

Rohan is more than familiar with the trends of today, and is also more than aware of their stupidity. At least, that’s what he believes them to be. It’s not the initial statement that bothers him, it’s the notion that you thought he would be dumb enough to fall for the little trick you attempted to pull on him.

“I’m a bit offended you thought that would work on me.”

He won’t admit it, but he does think about that moment more than he wants to.

───

𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐎 𝐌.

Appalled, offended, incredulous. Any negative word that could be used to describe the look of betrayal on Mista’s face was the only way to properly read it. He almost immediately thinks he’s done something to wrong you, which he hasn’t, but he doesn’t know that! The man almost felt his soul leave his body. “What do you mean “current boyfriend”?!”

“Babe, did I do something wrong?”

Even his Sex Pistols are freaking out, thinking you’re leaving him. They need their snack distributor, and it has to be you. You always have exactly what they’re craving.

“Mista says he’s sorry for whatever he did wrong!”

As soon as you tell him it was just a small prank, he lets out the biggest sigh of relief he could muster. A weight was just taken off his shoulders, and he’s even more relieved that you aren’t leaving him. “Thank god! I thought this was your own messed up way of telling me you were breaking up with me!”

You have to promise that you won’t call him that again, or he thinks next time he will actually die.

“Never call me your “current boyfriend” ever again, I am your boyfriend for life!”

“I would hope at that point you’d be my husband instead, Guido.”

“Details.”

───

𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐆𝐎 𝐁.

As soon as those words left your mouth, you were doomed. Though his face was kept in a calm expression for your audience, he was internally setting everything in the vicinity on fire. “Current boyfriend”? What exactly did the phrasing of those words mean? Were you trying to insinuate that in the near future you were going to break up with him? To his knowledge, he hadn’t done anything to anger you. But your words gave him a sense of an internal panic.

After your entourage of reporters had come to interview the both of you, he immediately turned to look at you and scoffed. “Current boyfriend”? I see how it is.”

He is not taking this little prank so well. His feeling of betrayal is expressed in harsher words and blunt statements, and will act this way until you apologize properly to him. To others, his actions might seem childish, but you understood why he reacted this way. Diego wasn’t one to care what was lost as long as he didn’t need it or didn’t see a reason for its use, but you were different. He didn’t like humans, yet you were “tolerable” enough to be allowed to be his. He had found trust in you, yet his heart was still fragile.

Which was exactly why he turned to teasing to mess with you, to convince you to fold and ask for his forgiveness.

“Yes, my “current significant other” loves to watch me race. They come to every event just to watch me achieve victory. Cute, isn’t it?”

Diego won’t stop until you apologize, and you have to be as honest and concise as possible with it as well. He won’t accept a half-hearted, shell of a reason. You have to be clear with him and express your want for forgiveness. If you word your sentences correctly, you might just get him to crack a small smile.

“If there is a next time, I won’t be so nice about my teasing.”

@𝐧𝐪𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚 ݁₊˚⊹☆ - please do not translate or plagiarize my works.

[vr46ridersacademyofficial]

I would love to know your top five Pecco/Bez moments / facts / truths! ❤️ I love your posts about them so much!

oh yayyy that’s nice to hear! i feel like i’ve probably said all this before at some point but i’ll always take the opportunity to advance my agenda. #myagenda

Top moment can only be the drunken interview Bez conducted in the Ducati garage after Pecco won his second championship. Bez has a good deal of emotional intelligence imo and this rly comes through in like, the push and pull of meeting Pecco where he’s at, lifting him up and doing some trash talking. So many nice funnily intimate moments in how they interact, Pecco’s concern over hurting Bez’s shoulder, the quiet little asides and inside jokes, Bez making him laugh, intentionally or not... a classic

Moment #2: Bez Migbabol interview… he basically was like “I’m Pecco’s right hand arm. Man. I’m Pecco’s... everything. His confidant. His silly rabbit.” Mig: “is that what he calls you?” Bez: “No 😌.”

Moment #3: Bez going to Pecco’s honorary citizenship ceremony. Why was he there???? Bc he admires/likes Pecco that much. Wig.

Their side quests in general amuse me- they love doing random shit together. I follow Pecco way too closely lol but in this way I can say with confidence that he really doesn't do this with anyone else

Moment 4: Pecco in Bez's garage after his win in India. Even when something doesn't go well for one of them, they still show up for each other!! Pecco is a bit mopey and Bez is basking in the glory of his win but also shows concern for Pecco and defends him with the interviewer and it's just really sweet

And a (subjective) truth to round things out:

Friends by choice: they were never teammates, and from what i can deduce their shared history doesn’t go back as far as say, Franky and Luca or Bez and Cele. But I think that’s cool, its like they sought each other out as adults and found they really click and connect on a professional level- it’s clear they rate each other highly and think of their careers in relation to each other- and on a personal level they fuck with each other heavily. Like they are navigating this motogp journey together, from track walks to media scrums to watching the moto 3 races… I think that’s quite special and imho a profound connection that says a lot about who they are… what a rich text to explore in my opinion!

[stangalina]

Tbh I like the idea of him being fooled, but only briefly.

Like, he met superman first and they're now working together either officially or unofficially. Either way Bruce knows what superman looks like. Then he meets Clark, at a gala or for an interview, and instantly gets a nagging feeling of "I've seen you before where have I seen you before I know that voice I know that face BUT FROM WHERE" and it's driving him nuts the entire time they're talking and only after Clark leaves- maybe Bruce sees the way the suit jacket strains over his back, maybe he recognises the specific way his hair curls across the nape of his neck, or maybe his brain finally finishes cycling through every single person he's ever met with blue eyes and black hair. It finally clicks that Clark is Superman. That he just caught Superman in his civvies.

It would cause such a delicious mixed bag of emotions. Annoyance, at Clark. For lying to the entire planet. And him. Understandable, but still annoying. Annoyance at himself for being tricked by bad posture and a pair of glasses for five entire minutes. FIVE! Curiosity. Clark is about to receive one hell of a background check. And finally reluctant respect, because how steely do your balls have to be to hide one of the worlds biggest secrets that governments across the globe would shell out billions to discover with bad fashion choices as your only defense. Constantly surrounded by reporters, no less.

Bruce knowing Clark's identity and Clark not knowing Bruce's, especially if they have to co-exist in civilian form for some reason AND Bruce is ticked off enough to want to mess with him just a lil bit has SO MUCH POTENTIAL my god. Especially if both sides of themselves are only just getting to know each other? HMGH.

Now I wanna write. Fuck. I'm thinking double kidnapping, both tied up facing each other, waiting for the ransom payment to go through or for a superhero to show up. Clark thinks batman is going to burst through the door any second and this Bruce guy seems WAY too relaxed. He can't break out of his ropes or fly away because then Bruce would see, so he just has to sit tight and endure the very odd conversation his co-captor seems to insist on making.

Bruce knows no help is coming. He's been given the perfect opportunity to psychoanalyse an alien from outer space, this chair isn't even that uncomfortable, AND he doesn't have to keep schmoozing with insipid socialites. His evening just got a serious upgrade. In fact this may turn out to be the most fun he's had all year.

Any thoughts on the rarely played with but v interesting trope where Clark manages to fool Bruce with his secret identity, in the sense that Bruce somehow falls for the idea that Superman's secret identity is Only "Kal of the House Of El, Kryptonian refugee who lives in a fortress away from most civilization probably to try and handle sensory issues" and doesn't realize at first about Clark = Kal = Superman?

I think a lot of people rarely use it because there's a lot of black and white thinking about Bruce's POV, in that he's either paranoid and smart enough to dig or he's somehow stupid enough to miss it but just for this one specific person. The successful fics I think make a good case for why he'd be distracted enough not to be able to see past Kal-El's facade. The ones in a BVS setting use Bruce's anger/paranoia/hatred of all aliens to their advantage. That's a huge blind spot -- you wouldn't humanize someone who you literally can't see as human. Therefore, the idea that Kal-El might be Clark Kent in his spare time can't even occur to you.

But yeah, I personally have a hard time seeing Bruce (not the BVS version) as someone who 1) never puts any of the pieces together or 2) never pokes at Kal-El long enough to know something isn't adding up. Clark is very good at keeping his secret identity straight, but Bruce is the seasoned pro at that same game. And game recognizes game, right? There's things Bruce will do to keep his secret identity safe that are somewhat out of character for Clark. Clark slips up a lot when it comes to interpersonal relationships.

In short, it's a really fascinating trope but tricky to balance at times.

[whumpsoda]

Sooo Dean before and at the beginning of Valentine’s entrance into his life…

I think I decided before that he was like an accountant or something? Not the job for him. Always thought he would go on to be a farmer again, just like his dad, but never had the real push to go back into it. Instead he went the wrong direction for him, with no friends, no family (his little brother cut contact) and no coworkers he liked… he wasn’t a very nice guy in general, definitely a grown up bully… never really grew out of high school. Nobody really likes him, no one invites him out for drinks, and relationships (although he’s a handsome guy and can pretty much ask out anyone he wants) don’t typically work out for a second or third date.

Maybe he’s out drunk one night, coming home from the bar alone, when he sees a flyer. Farmhand needed, it says, and gives a phone number plus an address. He grabs the flyer, takes it home a bit crumpled, and gives them a call right then and there. Valentine answers, all sugary and smooth, and after talking for a bit hypnotizes Dean through the phone, enticing him even more to spill his feelings to them and come visit them soon. They leave a little message in his head to come find them the next day.

He rolls up to their farm, an hour or two away, and basically has no clue what he’s doing or why he’s doing it, but can’t bring himself to really think about it. Anytime he tries he just gets sucked even more into wanting to be there. Valentine opens the door happily, pulling him in instantly with those entrancing eyes and soft words of theirs, and he dumbly follows them inside. A little tea and some talk later, they find out pretty much everything they need to know about Dean :)

They let him leave that night, and the drive home he can’t think of anything but their words… he goes home and goes right to bed, mind blank and empty except for the couple of mantras they taught him back at their place :3

A week of work goes by and he’s gone back into his regularly scheduled depression, eating shitty food, sleeping all of his free time, and insulting his coworkers. At night he dreams about Valentine and their farm, and gains the courage to go back. He shows up that upcoming weekend, uninvited, but they answer like they knew he was coming.

He falls under almost immediately, barely any tea and words shared. He’s so eager to feel like he did the first time, and the rest of the memories from their first interview come rushing back as they guide him to kneel in front of them. They sit on the couch and play with his curls as they talk, and teach him just a few new mantras :] the same thing happens as he drives home, his mind completely blank save for their words and the bliss he feels in his belly :3

He’s a bit late to work the next few days, and he gets chastised by his boss. He gets ready to argue, to say some smart remark, before Valentine’s sweet coos enter his mind and wash them away. He takes a deep breath, accepts his boss’ words with a sleepy smile, and gets back to work. He only gets irritated a few times, says a few mean things, before he’s even apologizing by the end of that week.

He gets weird looks, but he’s not so bothered by it… he can’t stop thinking about Valentine. The memories are kinda fuzzy of their past two meetings, but he remembers enough to know thats where he wishes he was. He spends each night staying up late thinking about them, repeating the mantras he can’t stop saying when he thinks about them. The words that make him feel all light and airy and put him to asleep so fast…

And so he visits them again. He drives all the way down, and they’re waiting for him in the kitchen, tea already made. He falls under instantly with the biggest smile, stupid and suggestible. They talk to him for a looooong time, and he listens to every word, repeating half of them back to Valentine. They convince him to stay the night, and he does so eagerly, sleeping at the foot of their bed, put to sleep by slow and sleepy entrancement. He wakes up the next morning to a feast of a breakfast, and doesn’t make it home until work is already over. He may have almost gotten into an accident a few times, feeling all tired and off in his own head… spacing out… but thats okay because he didn’t :3

And he gets to work the next day, and everyone is pissed because he didn’t even call out! He apologizes slow and polite, nodding his head in sorry understanding. He slurs his words a little bit, and he’s not acting like Dean at all, but at least he’s not being a dick. Although, he shows up all undone. That’s not normal. His hair is washed but frizzy, his tie’s not done, his shirt wrinkled, his shoes sneakers. All the next three days he says hi to every coworker, asks about their kids, or their home lives, or simply how they’re doing instead of actually working… when he does work he can’t seem to focus, or makes loads of mistakes he never has before.

When his boss comes to confront him, private and worried, emphasizing his concern, Dean nods along, half asleep, with a dazed out gaze. He tries to make sense of all the words his boss is saying, some of them related to their recent projects, but they fly right over his head. Thats okay though, Valentine says he’s smart in his own way.

And as his boss’ talk flows to an end, Dean takes close to a minute to reply, before swiftly quitting then and there.

He leaves to Valentine’s with only the clothes on his back, driving the couple hours there in silence, only the hypnotic mantras to occupy his mind. Valentine is there waiting on the porch, tea in hand, awaiting his arrival. They hug and coo at him, pulling his mind out from under him so fast he’s fallen to his knees faster than he can comprehend.

After talking to him for a bit, solidifying what needs to be done, they take him out back and introduce him to the thralls. He’s quickly taken aback, horrified, before they entrance him into it swiftly and calmly, and he’s back to docility. They’ll slowly integrate the thralls into his life soon enough.

And they cook him the best dinner anyone could ever ask for, and he’s on the floor the whole time watching them work and admiring them from afar. They pet his head and ruffle his hair anytime they can, separating his thoughts and giving him a burst of pleasure :] they have him sleep in the same spot that night, introducing him to more mantras and more rules of the farm, erasing some memories and thoughts while they’re at it. Once his brain has had too much they drift him off to sleep :3

He wakes up the next night with his car and other belongings gone as if they were never there at all. He’s now in a short sleeve, plaid collared shirt and jeans, and Valentine leads him downstairs to more food and more hypnotism, that leaves him blissed out and dumb for the night (and maybe the rest of his stay). Valentine then feeds from him for the first time, bringing him to the couch and sitting him in their lap. He’s practically addicted right away, begging to be fed from ever two minutes for about the next two hours until they find it becoming annoying.

Anyways ya. I’m obsessed… I’ll probably talk more about early them another time but this is what I’ve got right now :]

[hoemainexpansion]

Chapter Eleven: The Devil: You spend a lot of time with Satoru and the lead detective on his case holds some interviews to figure out what the fuck happened.

Also on AO3

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

“Hello Mrs. Gojo, this is Detective Usami and I’m calling to let you know that there’s been a development in your husband’s case. Please contact me at your earliest convenience to schedule an appointment to speak.”

A development?

He said development, not arrest, so you wonder what’s going on. 

Did they learn who the attackers were but just haven’t found them?

Is it part of some bigger conspiracy that nobody realized?

What’s going on?

While there was a lot of coverage on the missing prosecutor, you’ve been mostly keeping him out of the spotlight since he’s returned, a lot based off of doctors and law enforcements advice. Doctors said that they didn’t want the stress of him being hounded by the media at this time and law enforcement didn’t want him returning to the public with a metric fuckton of publicity to scare the perpetrators into running so here you are.

Did a new tip come in that finally led somewhere?

This is so stressful.

You open your contacts to search for the Detective when Satoru snatches your phone out of your hand. “What the fuck? He said to call him.”

“Not right now.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s been a long day. You’ve been up since this morning and spent all day draining your social battery at your shower. It’s time for you to get some sleep and handle this later.”

“But… we need to know what’s going on. What if it’s important?

He sighs before sitting down next to you on the bed, your phone still in his hand. “I’m here, I’m fine. It’s not like you’re going to get news that they found my body. I’m right here. So, there’s no reason that you can’t return his phone call tomorrow, after you’ve had your rest.”

“But… but…”

“He said he wants to schedule an appointment, that probably means to come in. And by saying he wants to schedule, he probably doesn’t mean showing up tonight, if it was life or death, he’d probably emphasize and call more than twice before just leaving a voicemail.” He’s right.

“Okay, fine. I’ll call tomorrow. But if it turns out to be super important, I’m absolutely gonna let you have a piece of my mind.”

“I’m sure that you will. But, that’s also another thing that can wait until tomorrow. Get comfortable in bed because that’s all that I’m going to let you do for the rest of the night.”

You agree and finally get cozy but you groan the entire time and you still can’t turn your brain off. It’s driving you crazy trying to come up with reasons as to why he called, but it’s possible that it’s not as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be. 

And Satoru is right, you’re fucking exhausted. You’ve been up all damn day and it’s time for you to take a break. If it was a dire situation, not only would Usami have continued to call, he may have even showed up. 

“Roll over,” you hear Satoru say as he climbs into bed behind you. 

“Isn’t it a little early for you?” You know why you’re going to bed early, but him joining you is a surprise.

“So what? I can lay in bed and hold my wife for a bit.” You hum and adjust a little more so that you can finally relax. “Stop stressing yourself out.”

“I’m not.”

“You feel tense.”

You wait a minute before responding because how the hell can he tell so fast? “I’m just thinking about the case– your case.”

“Why does it bother you so much? I’m home. Everything worked out.”

“Somebody attacked you with a blunt force object when you went grocery shopping, two somebodies actually! They kidnapped you, beat you some more, left you for dead and set the car on fire. I can’t just let that go. I wouldn’t say that everything ‘worked out’ solely because you’re here. I want to know who did it and make sure those fuckers go to prison. What if they’re closer to us than we realize and your life is in danger because they’re afraid that you can point out who they are? The amnesia isn’t public knowledge so if anyone caught random posts online and they believe that you’re alive, they may view you as a threat. What if they show up here to ‘finish the job’ and our daughter or even myself are hurt just because we were the ones home? It’s a big deal, Satoru.”

He doesn’t say anything at first, just allowing the silence to stretch for a while. You just hope that you didn’t offend him. You don’t want to act like you’re more of a victim than the actual one who was attacked, but you can’t stop worrying every single day about all of the crazy things that can happen until those lunatics are arrested. 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles.

“Don’t apologize, you didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t realize that’s how you were feeling about these things. I just assumed that since I was home, everything would be okay. It didn’t even occur to me that you could be living in fear on a daily basis, I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, please. You’re not expected to know everything right away, and I haven’t vocalized these fears so please, don’t worry about it.”

“I’m going to worry. But I’ll help you through these things. I promise that we’ll call him first thing in the morning to find out what’s going on. Okay?”

“Okay. But I’m absolutely gonna let my anxiety take hold and stress about it until I fall asleep because I don’t know how to do anything else,” you say it in a light hearted tone even though you’re not lying.

“What do you think about naming our little girl Margaret?” 

“Is she being born in the 1920’s?”

“We can call her Gretta for short.”

“I am not going through nine months of pregnancy where my body swells up to four times the size, my back is killing me, I’m hungry and nauseous all of the time, and have fatigue like a motherfucker on top of all of that to finally tear my pussy apart to push out a big head baby to then look her in the face and call her ‘Gretta.’ Respectfully.”

“You’re so cute. What about Bertha?”

“Are you fucking with me right now?”

He starts laughing and it’s then that you realize what he’s doing, he’s just trying to distract you. “We can call her Berty for short.”

“You’re a menace.”

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

You wake up to delicate kisses being placed along your jaw and your neck and start to giggle when he hits a particularly sensitive spot.

“I hope that this is my husband or this is going to be a really awkward situation.”

“What if I said that I was Suguru?” You can hear the grin in his voice, so you decide to play with him a little bit.

“I’d beg you to keep going because it’s always been my dream to tug on that hair while he’s between my legs.” He freezes and you can just feel the look that he’s giving you and it causes you to let out a laugh that’s way too loud for the morning. 

“If you think that I won’t chase after my best friend with a pair of scissors to cut his hair, then you don’t know me at all.”

You continue to laugh because you know him very well and you know that he’d probably do that for less. “I’m kidding you psycho! Yours is the only hair I wanna grab onto while I’m suffocating you between my thighs.”

“Oooohhh, speaking of that, don’t mind if I do!”

“Satoru!” You start giggling. “What if I was still asleep?”

“I would have kissed those beautiful lips of yours until you woke up. And then I would have moved up and kissed your cheeks too.” 

This fucking guy.

“Don’t we have important errands to run today? Do we even have time?”

“Of course! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” You didn’t realize that it was open mic night in your bedroom this morning but clearly it is. “Look, we haven’t called anybody yet, so we have some time to just spend together. We’re allowed to have some fun and then we can do the boring adult stuff later.” 

You hum and he takes that as a good sign to continue.

“Now, it looks like you’re not feeling too well. Please allow me to perform mouth to south resuscitation to make you feel better.”

You just stare at him blankly because even though you’re not surprised by what he just said, you also kind of are. It’s a weird thing, but these must be the jokes that Kento is always saying aren’t funny. However, if you weren’t in bed and that wasn’t a part of his seduction, you probably would have laughed.

Hell, you’ll probably laugh in like twenty minutes.

He’s ridiculous.

You love him so much.

“Oooooohhhhhh nom nom nom nom nom!” He yells out before he starts kissing your thighs and sliding your panties off and you start laughing unnecessarily hard.

You swear that a couple minutes go by of you just laughing because your stomach hurts from doing it for what feels like hours. You’ll never understand how people survived Mr. Smiley.

“Are you okay up there?” He asks you.

“Are you okay down there?!”

“Why wouldn’t I be? This is the best part of my day!”

“Well you’re acting like a dramatic cartoon character, I just wanted to make sure you were still in your right state of mind. You’re getting more hyped than Scooby and Shaggy with a sandwich.”

“And I’m about to have more fun with you than they do. Ruh-roh! Reakfast is ready!”

You just throw your head back into the pillow and exhale while staring at the ceiling and rolling your eyes.

But hey, at least he’s always enthusiastic about being with you. 

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

“Do you need any help?”

“Why would I need any help, Satoru? You think I can’t take a shower by myself just because you held my legs open for like an hour and now they’re shaky?”

“That’s literally it,” he says with a laugh.

“You can wash my hair when I get out,” you close the bathroom door to get in the shower.

You called Detective Usami the second Satoru was done sucking the energy out of you for the day because not knowing the reason that he was reaching out was driving you up the wall. He didn’t go into any detail, he said that he wanted to discuss everything in person. But he didn’t say that your husband’s life was in danger so at least there’s that. 

You discuss going to meet with him sometime during the afternoon, but it’s stressing you out too much to wait. You decide to just start getting ready so that you can go and get this over with. 

You just hope that a big lead has panned out or progress has been made because living in limbo is doing a number on your nerves. You really don’t want the people who almost murdered your husband and flipped your world upside down to get away with everything that they did. 

As much as you can’t stand the bitch, you want to know if Mei has been questioned. You just want to know how she found him, where she found him, if anything looked suspicious besides finding a man who doesn’t remember anything. You are grateful that someone took him in so that he didn’t perish wherever he was found, which you don’t even know, but you’d like to hear the rest of the story since Satoru still can’t remember the attack and everything afterwards is very vague.

After a few minutes of being lost in your thoughts, you hear the bathroom door open and look over to see Satoru walking in with towels which confuses you seeing as you already have a couple.

“I’m way too big to have sex in the shower, Satoru!” You yell over the water.

“I’m just here to help you with whatever it is that you need.”

“Let’s see how long that lasts,” you mumble to yourself. 

Surprisingly though, he keeps his word.

He doesn’t attempt to seduce you for a second time this morning, he just helps clean you. He washes your hair while you're there so that you don’t have to do it separately even though you do love the portable washing basin / chair combo that Utahime got for you when she was doing everyone’s hair so frequently. After washing your hair, he lathers up your loofah and gently cleans the rest of your body, all the way down to scrubbing your feet which has been almost impossible to do since you’ve grown so much. 

After he’s done taking care of you, he tries to get you out and wrapped up, but you decide to stay because you don’t want him to have to get out to take care of you and then get back in to start over. 

It’s been a long time since you’ve been able to take a shower with your husband and even though it may not be the steamy kind you used to take, it’s nice. 

Even though you’ve been spending basically all of your time together and have been taking full advantage of your sex life, there’s a different type of intimacy when you do things like this. You know that your husband looks at you with nothing but love in his eyes, but that still doesn’t mean that your insecurities disappear at the drop of a hat. You still don’t like being completely unclothed and struggle a bit with him seeing you in some of your least flattering moments. 

You know that your claims are unfounded because Satoru has done nothing except show you and tell you that they are, but it still feels like you have to hide those things. It kind of feels like when people talk about the beginning of a relationship and how they hold in farts and rush out of bed early to brush their teeth because they don’t want their partner to see any less desirable parts of them. 

This is the first time in awhile that he’s seen you completely nude and all the fears you learn that all the fears you had about him no longer finding you attractive or not liking the way your body has changed was proven to be just a waste of time and a waste of space in your mind. 

He always has a smile on his face when he looks at you, even if it’s a small one. He holds you so delicately, not like he thinks you’re some fragile little thing, but because he wants you to feel safe and not constricted. 

As he was cleaning you, he was so careful with how he held you and still left a trail of kisses wherever he could.

Why were you allowing yourself to overthink so much?

Yes, his memories disappeared. 

But he came back as the same person. 

And that means that he came back as the same man who loves you unconditionally, who thinks your beauty is unmatched, and spends everyday trying to make you happy. 

You’ve really got to stop letting your mind get the best of you like this.

When he turns around to rinse off his face, you take the opportunity to leave light kisses on his back.

“I thought you said that there'd be no seduction in this shower,” he says but you can hear the smile in his voice.

“No seduction here, maybe I just love you.”

He hums before turning around and grabbing your face, “maybe I just love you too.”

You can’t wait until your hormones return to normal after you’ve made it through your pregnancy because this sappy shit is for the birds. You wanna go back to being the sarcastic bitch that you were before. 

“Alright, let’s get back on track. We’ve gotta go find out who was trying to kill you.”

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

“Why don’t you tell me how you came into contact with Mr. Gojo?” Detective Usami asks the prissy, platinum blonde woman sitting across the table from him.

“I saved his life. Didn’t you hear? You should be thanking me. He’d be just another number if it wasn’t for me.”

He’s already tired of this woman. He knew that when he found out the woman that his missing person was staying with was someone with an obviously over inflated ego like her, that it was going to be difficult to question her, but a necessity. He’s tried contacting her multiple times but was unable to get her down to the station until today. He reached out to her for the first time the day he met Satoru in the hospital and was given her contact information, but she always claimed that she was too busy. But his partner has continued to monitor her on the off chance that she’s a part of this and all she does is post photos online. Even today, she was supposed to be here an hour ago, but she showed up late and was completely overdressed for the occasion. You would think she was going to some event with how tight her dress is and how high her heels are. How busy could she be?!

“Thank you for that, Miss–”

“Mei. Just Mei.”

“Mei,” he looks down at her file, seeing that there’s nothing of note in there. “But could you please explain to me how all of that came to be?”

She sighs like she’s been asked that question a thousand times and she’s tired of explaining herself. “I was on the way to a secluded resort with a few of my friends. I’d been working particularly hard at the time and decided that I deserved a break. So my assistant was searching for the perfect place for me to be able to relax along with having some privacy. The last thing that I need is random people taking photos of me to get themselves some attention.”

The detective is already struggling with everything that she’s saying. Not so much because he believes that she’s lying, but more so because he can’t believe how full of herself she is. She takes photos for social media, why is she acting like some A list celebrity? Do people really chase down people like her and beg for photos and autographs? He’s so confused. This is clearly past his age group. He already knows that he’ll potentially have to spend hours sorting through her ego before he reaches any useful information, but he continues to take notes down anyway.

“Anyway, I woke up early in the morning to start my beauty routine, not like it takes much, and then I had my assistant finish my packing while my stylist got me ready for the drive. It was a while from my house so I just wanted to make sure that I looked good while we traveled. Eventually, we made it out of the house, to the car, and got on the road to the resort for my well deserved vacation.”

He’s so tired of this he can barely pay attention. But he knows that he desperately needs this information so he keeps his mouth shut and continues to act like everything she just said wasn’t completely useless.

“We were on the road for about an hour or two when we had to start driving through a somewhat desolate area. We wanted to avoid high traffic areas so that we didn’t have to be bothered with other people, even though that route took a little longer.”

He cuts her off because she was just brushing past crucial information. “I apologize for interrupting you, but could you fill in a few blanks for me before you continue?” He asks her to confirm her address along with the address for the resort that they were traveling to. He gets the time that they left home along with the time that they arrived to narrow down the timeline of when she could have found Mr. Gojo. “Please continue.”

“Oh, no problem. Where was I? Oh yes! So, we’re on the road when we start to see a man laying off on the side of the road next to a tree. Now normally, I’d be completely against stopping for a stranger, but he looked pretty bad so we just wanted to see if he was alive or if he needed help. My driver turned around and drove back to where we saw him before one of my friends got out of the car to go check on him.”

He gets the name of the friend who first made contact with him and it really surprises him when he realizes that this tall, white haired man, who looked hurt didn’t have any calls put into police about him. Nobody even called just in case he was a threat, you’d think someone would report it even if they don’t stop themselves. But then again, she did say it was a desolate area, so maybe they were the first ones to find him. 

“Anyway, my friend said that he was breathing, but that it looked weak. She was able to wake him, but she said that it felt like he looked right through her, like he couldn’t focus on anything. She didn’t think that he’d be a threat so we took the risk and loaded him in the car and continued on our way to the resort.”

He raises a brow before stopping her, “why did you take him to the resort instead of to a hospital?”

“We were closer to the resort and we didn’t know if he needed medical attention or just a good night's rest. We decided to try and heal him up ourselves, which we did, but he did end up seeing someone later for his migraines. We also didn’t want to rush him anywhere in case he was hiding out or someone was trying to kill him and he was unable to defend himself.”

He hums and she continues.

“Anyway, we get to the resort, check in, and have him room with my driver so that someone can watch over him.”

‘This poor driver,’ the detective thinks to himself.

“One of my other friends has some family in the medical field and we ran off what it looked like was wrong with him and they gave us some advice, which worked, and he woke up, fully this time.”

“What happened then?”

“He looked around, like he was confused and didn’t know what was going on, which made sense, of course. He asked us who we were, where we were, and how he got there. We explained everything to him before asking who he was. He was able to give us his name, but not really anything else. I asked him what the last thing was that he remembered, and all he said was ‘dark.’ Since he didn’t remember anything, I just assumed that he had nothing pressing to attend to and we decided to have him stay with us at the resort. At least that way, he had a few more days of peace and rest before hell potentially broke loose.”

“Hmmm.” He continues to take down notes of everything she says and while he does kind of understand her method for continuing on to the resort, running the risk of letting him die in your room still makes less sense to him than just calling an ambulance if you don’t want to make the drive. What if he was so dehydrated that he couldn’t be helped by just drinking bottles of water? What if he needed IV fluids? What if he had brain damage? It just still seems like a bizarre choice, but whatever, he’ll just put a pin in that for later. “What did you do with him when he finally woke up?”

“Oh we spoiled him rotten! We took him along with us for everything that we were doing from massages to skincare treatments for his beautiful bruised skin…” that was interesting. “We let him eat whatever he wanted, my treat, of course, and just spent a lot of time with him.”

“Did you ever ask him about himself, his life, where he’s from, etc…?”

“We tried, but he said that he couldn’t remember much. And the things that he could ‘remember’ he didn’t trust because of how vague everything was. He said that he was mostly able to remember his childhood to his very early teenage years, but that’s where it stopped. He also said that he was having trouble remembering faces.”

“So, when you found him, he couldn’t remember anything at all?”

“That’s right. He had a tan line on his finger so one of my girlfriends assumed that he was married, but we just brushed it off.”

“Why would you brush that off?”

“Maybe he got divorced, it was just a tan line, not the actual ring. Or maybe he just didn’t love her enough anymore to wear the ring. I assumed that if it mattered to him, he would have remembered it. But since he didn’t bring it up, I didn’t let it influence the way that I felt about it.”

Usami’s jaw is on the floor.

Well, mentally it is.

This woman really is a piece of work. How can you know that this man is clearly suffering from memory loss but then say that if he loved his wife enough, he’d remember her anyway? 

Why wouldn’t she also consider that maybe he was wearing his ring but it got stolen and that’s why all that’s left is a tan line? 

Why wouldn’t you consider that he may have a family at home waiting for him but something happened to him and they’re worried?

She literally found him on the side of the fucking road, brusied, bloody, and beaten, and she still has the mentality of, ‘yeah he had memory loss but since he didn’t mention a wife or family I assumed they didn’t exist.’

He’s not mentioning anything because he can’t remember anything you nitwit!

He takes a deep breath before starting up his next line of questioning, “what did you think happened to him?”

“I wasn’t sure. I think I settled on him getting into a car accident, stumbling out of the vehicle, and then passing out on the side of the road while trying to flag down help.”

“Did you happen to see any vehicles in the vicinity of where you found him?”

“No.”

It sounds like she just made up whatever she wanted to fit her narrative.

“Exactly how long did you stay at the resort?”

“We were there for about a week.”

“A week or ‘about a week?’”

She looks taken aback but answers anyway, “a week.”

“Did you go straight home after you returned?”

“We did. I had a lot of important work to get done so I didn’t have any more time to mess around.”

“And what did you do with Mr. Gojo at that time?”

“I took ‘Toru home with me.”

“‘Toru?” He asks her.

“Yes, that’s our little nickname I gave him. I had the space to accommodate him so I decided to bring him home with me.”

“How did that work?”

“I have a giant bed and some his and hers sinks in my bathroom so I gave him some space in my bedroom and even set up some space for him in my closet.”

“Did he have a bunch of things on him when you found him?”

“Oh no. I bought him everything that he needed from clothing to toiletries. I wanted to make sure that he had everything that he needed and that’s why I set him up with me and gave him everything that he was in need of.”

As she continues to speak, he can’t help but wonder what this woman’s deal is. 

Is she a part of this or is she just an awful person?

“That’s awfully nice of you to do all of that for him.”

“I know.”

Well damn.

“Why didn’t you ever go to the police?”

“Why would I?”

“You found a man who seemed like he was barely alive on the side of the road, speculating that he could have been in an awful accident, why didn’t you try to alert the police of something even if you didn’t want to take him to the hospital?”

“He was fine after we got him to the resort.”

“But what if he was in the car with his kids and he was trying to go get help because he was unable to get them out of the car and they just perished there because you took him on vacation?” He didn’t want to have to go that hard on her but she’s really working his last nerve.

“”It’s not my job to save the world, Detective.”

“It’s not, I’m aware. But you chose to save him, why didn’t you just make one phone call in case? I may not know one hundred percent how your job works, but I do know that it requires you to be on your phone a lot of the time. You could have just called him in to be safe.”

“I’m aware of that, but I didn’t feel it was necessary. He also didn’t ask me to, so I assumed that it didn’t matter to him.”

There’s that word again.

“But you know that he was suffering from memory loss, right?”

“Yes, I’m not an idiot.”

“Then why would you trust him when he’s not asking for help or for certain people? He probably just doesn’t remember them, and he didn’t.”

“It’s not my job to figure those things out, it’s yours.”

What a pain in the ass.

“It is, and I am. Let me tell you something, that man went shopping for his pregnant wife when he was attacked and left for dead before being found by you.”

“Well, that sucks for him. But he never brought it up so how was I supposed to know?”

For fuck’s sake.

“Yeah, it also sucked for his pregnant wife who was crying in my office.”

“I guess it does.”

He sees no sympathy or compassion in this woman. It seems like nothing is there except for self motivation.

“Anyway, back to my questioning, you spend a lot of time on your phone, do you not?”

“Obviously.”

“Humor me. I’m an older man, I don’t know how you work these things.”

“I spend more time on my phone than I don’t.”

“That makes sense. We have the world at our fingertips so I can’t blame someone for being hooked on them, it happens to me too. But my question is, how did you never come across any news of him on the internet?”

“Who says that I didn’t?” What?

“I’m not saying that you did, I’m just asking. Did you ever come across any news of his case while you were scrolling?”

“I came across bits and pieces of things but I didn’t put together that they were related to him.”

“How so?”

She sighs like this is the dumbest question she’s been asked in years. “One of my friends mentioned that there was a missing man and gave their age, but they didn’t show a photo so I didn’t know that it was him. He also couldn’t confirm his age so it’s not like I could just guess that it was the same person.

You literally found a man on the side of the road with memory loss but okay.

It must be in the air.

“And one day when I was on twitter, a video played of a woman crying about her missing husband. But it was a short clip and I didn’t feel like reading the text, so I didn’t know that it was related to him either.”

Wow.

She really is the worst.

The first thing that came to his mind when the detectives met with you was that your husband sticks out like a sore thumb. He has snow white hair, bright blue eyes, and is over six feet tall. If anyone is going to be recognizable, it’s that guy. So the fact that she claims that she had no idea that he was missing even though her friends thought he could be makes no sense to him.

“So, nobody went up to you and said, ‘hey Mei, I think Mr. Gojo might be that missing husband.” Her eyes twitches the second that the word husband rolls off his tongue and he’s starting to see why she’s choosing ignorance.

“Some people did, but I didn’t take it seriously. I mean, honestly, what are the chances that I came across a missing man? I just ignored it. I mean, if ‘Toru told me that he needed help or felt like something was going around regarding him, I would have helped. But he never did, so why should I freak out? When he wanted to go to the hospital, I let him go. I even had my driver take him, more than once, so it’s not like I was trying to keep him hidden.”

“But you do post pretty frequently on social media and never once posted a photo with him in it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It looks like you were trying to hide him.”

“I wasn’t. But he’s back with her anyway so why does it matter?”

How did she think this was going to work? 

Did she think that she was going to pick him up on the side of the road and that they were going to live happily ever after together while you were crying and pleading for him on the fucking news?

“Where were you on the day of Friday, October 30th, 2015?”

“How the hell should I know?”

“Well, whenever I ask you about specific times and dates, you either pull out your phone or that pocketbook you have there and are able to recount in excruciating detail any information. I was just hoping that you’d be willing to check.”

She retrieves both logs to see if there’s any discrepancies and there’s not. “I was at home all day. I had received a pr box from a company that wanted to sponsor me so I was doing a photoshoot in my home studio. That’s where I was.” Usami takes down the notes without responding and that seems to irritate her. “Is that enough for you?”

He drops his pen on the table because he’s so tired of people who do this. “Look, I’m not accusing you of anything, but I have to do my job. You have to admit that it doesn’t look good that you had a missing person in your home for weeks and that you came across several posts about him but conveniently didn’t connect the dots. It doesn’t look good for you just like it wouldn’t look good for anyone. I’m just trying to get some answers for him, his wife, and their soon to be born baby. I’m trying to do you a favor by ruling you out so that we don’t have to do this several more times.”

“Are you saying that once I walk out of here I won’t have to deal with the police again?”

“It’s not guaranteed. We may have some follow up questions, but it shouldn't take as long as today.” He keeps making notes in his book as she sits there in silence. He can feel her irritation but that’s not the point of the investigation, the literal attempted murder is.

“Am I going to be charged with something?”

“Not if you’re innocent.”

“I’m innocent.”

“Then you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. How was your relationship with Mr. Gojo once his identity was discovered?”

“It was fine. I visited him in the hospital a few times and spent some time with him, but every time I went, they were there and it ruined the moment.”

“Who’s they?”

“That woman and her guard dogs. It was usually that long haired gentleman and that blonde guy who kinda looks like you.”

Usami drops his pen again and looks up at her like she’s grown a second head. His partner has been teasing him about that and he’s never seen the resemblance. But there must be something there if even someone who barely knows the both of them even feels that way. 

“Interesting. So you felt like you didn’t have any privacy?”

“Of course not. How the hell are you supposed to enjoy time alone with someone that you care about when every time that you go to see them, they’re not alone? I was a little disappointed that he never sent them away but I can’t really blame him. Everybody loves attention.”

Imagine complaining about a man’s wife being in the room.

“What happened after his stay in the hospital?”

“He came home with me, where he belonged.”

Oh boy.

“And then?”

“She pulled out some sob story about being pregnant and he felt guilty about leaving his child so he went back to her.”

He’s so fucking tired of this but he knows that he needs to pull through. 

On the bright side, he did get a more accurate timeline of when he was found and hopefully he can build something around that. 

“Do either of these men look familiar?”

He slides two screenshots of the cctv footage across the table and watches her reaction.

“They don’t look like anybody that I would associate with.” Ugh.

“That’s not what I asked. I asked if they look familiar to you.”

“How the hell am I supposed to be able to tell from a couple of low quality images?”

“I’m just doing my job. I have to ask these questions.”

“No. They don’t look familiar.”

He spends around another two hours speaking with Mei before he comes to the conclusion that he’s not going to get much more out of her today. She’s so full of herself and everything comes back to that and honestly, he needs a break from her.

He, for the life of him, can’t understand how your husband managed to tolerate her for so long. 

Not only does she act like the world revolves around her, but she acts like she deserves anything that she wants and if she doesn’t get it, she acts like everything is stacked against her.

He concludes the interview for the day, thanks her for her time, and starts walking her out.

He knows that you and your husband have arrived because his colleague notified him some time ago and he really wants to pick your brains instead and see if anything is more helpful.

As he walks Mei out of his office, through the halls and into the waiting room, she continues to blab on and on about how loved she is and how hard her job is. He may not do it for a living, so he can’t say that she’s wrong. But he also feels like living in a multi story house in a really neighborhood when all you do is product placement photoshoots is one of the better ways that you can live. It seems like she was mostly bitter about Satoru leaving but she had to have known that he was going to return to his previous life.

He doesn’t buy for one second that she didn’t know who he was.

He might believe that she wasn’t a part of what actually happened to him, but he doesn’t believe that she’s truly as ignorant as she claims.

As they continue to walk out, she suddenly goes quiet and Usami’s initial thought is that something happened. But when he looks around the room, he catches what she’s looking at.

It’s you.

It’s you and Satoru.

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

You and Satoru decided that it was best to just get this visit over with as quickly as possible.

After getting out of the shower, you rush to get ready but the case distracts you the entire time, causing you to lose track of what you’re doing and accidentally slow down.

Luckily, Satoru is always ready and excited to help you do literally anything, so today you take advantage of that and allow him to help you out. He helps you put on a pastel pink dress that’s a little fitted around your breasts, but is completely loose otherwise. It goes down to the floor so you don’t have to feel exposed, which kind of happens now when you’re not covered. It also has puffy long sleeves so it’s pretty cute. You have a pair of chucks in the same shade because one of the first things that you did when you found out you were pregnant, was get a bunch of comfy shoes in colors to match the stuff you already had or planned to get.

Think smart, not hard.

After finally making yourself look like a presentable person in society, you and Satoru make your way out the door and head to the police station. 

Once you get to the car and start the drive, you pull out your phone and start making a list of all the questions that you have based on what they might tell you. Your brain has been going a mile a minute, so you’re just ready to figure out what’s going on.

“Everything’s gonna be fine,” Satoru’s voice rips you out of your thoughts.

“Aren’t you worried?” You’re really surprised how nonchalant he seems about all of this.

“If he told me that he feels that my family is in danger, I’ll be worried then. But I just feel that if that was the case, somebody would have showed up when you didn’t return his call. It’s probably just more questioning or something.”

Honestly, he’s probably right.

When you arrive at the station, Satoru parks the car and then leans over to give you a kiss on the cheek. “Relax, everything is going to be fine. I promise.”

“You can’t promise that.”

“I can and I will. If it turns out that it’s something bad or could become that, we can pack up and move somewhere else to escape any risk. I’m not going to let anything happen to my family and I’m certainly not going to let anything happen to myself again because I’ve been thinking more and more about what you went through and I couldn’t imagine you having to experience that again. We’ll work everything out.”

You’re so happy to have his optimism to offset your crippling paranoia and negative worldview. 

Well, maybe not super negative, just realistic based off of the documentaries that you watch.

As you get lost in your thoughts again, he climbs out of the car and walks around to open your door for you. He reaches his hand out to help you get out of the car before going back in to grab your purse and he even carries it himself.

As you start to make your way across the parking lot and into the building, a gust of wind blows and decides to just blow your hair all over the place. You attempt to just toss it out of your way when you catch your husband quickly fishing his phone out of his pocket and trying to snap a photo of you.

“You okay over there?”

“Freeze, just like that.” You do as he says but you also start to laugh at how seriously he’s taking this and he takes multiple photos of you. “The way that the wind was blowing your hair, it just looked so beautiful,” he turns his phone around to show you and honestly, they did come out pretty good.

“Sap,” you joke and pull him towards the station. 

When you finally make it up the short staircase, you’re already over it and breathing for dear life. You rush over to the lady at the front desk and tell her who you are and who you’re here to see so that you can sit back down as soon as possible. 

Once you sit back down, Satoru starts rubbing your belly because he’s been absolutely obsessed with feeling the kicks. “Did you know that by this point our baby has fingerprints?” You nod your head because you haven’t read too many books because you were afraid to freak yourself out. “I thought that’d be an interesting fact considering where we are.” You don’t say anything in response, you just lean over to kiss him.

“Aaawwwwww!” You hear coming from the receptionist and it makes you realize that you’re probably being a little too affectionate in a public space. “May I ask how far along you are?”

“Thirty one weeks,” you respond and that lights up her face. “My sister is just a few weeks away from that, how exciting.” She walks around the desk to come over to speak to you and you welcome the distraction. 

You spend a few minutes chatting with her about everything from the nursery to how fast babies go through diapers and it freaks Satoru out some more. After some time, there’s a beep as a heavy door opens and Detective Usami starts walking out with none other than Mei. The receptionist wishes you congratulations before returning to her desk and you catch Mei staring at you with nothing but her irritation in her face.

You’re pregnant so you can’t physically do anything to her like you want. Also because you’re in a police station but that’s your second reason.

So, you do what you can do.

You look directly at her and flash her a bright smile. And when she seems taken aback, you throw in a wink as well just so she knows that she’s an awful person who’s manipulation didn’t work. Satoru had bent down to kiss your bump but looked up when he heard the clacking of heels in the room. As soon as he caught her gaze, he wrapped an arm around you and looked away as if he couldn’t care any less. 

At first it looks like she might say something, but then she doesn’t. She just keeps walking out of the station with Usami by her side to open the door before he turns around and comes back over to you.

“I apologize about that, I was just finishing up a meeting. Thank you for coming on such short notice,” he says as you get up to follow him to his office. 

“Oh no problem! I was pretty eager to see what this was all about anyway.”

“Yeah, and by that, she means that she’s been panicking all day,” Satoru interjects and you slap his shoulder.

“I apologize for that as well but I promise that it’s nothing bad.” When you reach his office, he opens the door for you and even pulls out your chair. You’are absolutely gonna miss all the babying you’re experiencing when you finally have an actual baby. 

Satoru takes a seat in the vacant chair next to you as Usami sits at his desk and starts doing something on his computer.

“I just wanted to ask a few questions today and show you something, but we’ll start small. First off, how’s your memory?” He asks Satoru.

“It’s getting better, but it’s not perfect. I’m remembering things in chronological order, I think. I’ve been able to start recalling things from the past several years, but not from like the past two years.” He has been making tremendous progress even though it’s not without kinks in the chain. You just hope that it isn’t weighing on him too much.

“So I’m guessing that you still don’t remember anything from the assault?”

“I’m afraid not. Things may feel familiar, but I can’t just explain everything outright either.”

Usami hums and turns his computer around to show him something. “I know that we’ve been over this before, but I just wanted to ask you if any of this feels familiar now.” 

It’s the same footage that was shown to you and Kento the day that you came down here. You continue to watch your husband to see if there’s any serious reactions, but he just watches the video like it’s anything else. You know that he’s been a beacon of support for you when it comes to this, but you just want to make sure that he’s not compartmentalizing and that the flood gates don’t open at some awful time.

“I’m sorry, I’m still drawing a blank,” he finally admits. “I know that that’s me on the camera, but it feels like I’m looking at somebody else. 

“It’s okay. We do have forensic evidence that wasn’t destroyed by the fire in your car, but having the witness actually be able to recall events is still pretty useful. I spoke with that woman today, Mei, about how she found you and how that came to be. Do you remember anything about that?”

Satoru thinks for a minute before responding. “I remember waking up in a hotel room surrounded by people that I didn’t know. They were trying to talk to me but I couldn’t really hear what they were saying, it’s like I was underwater. They gave me bottles of water and after a few more hours of everything feeling ‘off,’ I was finally able to come to my senses a little bit and speak with them.”

“What do you remember from that encounter?”

“I remember them asking me who I was, where I was from, where I was going, and how I ended up on the side of the road. They asked if I’d been in an accident, but I didn’t have an answer to any of those questions. I didn’t even know where they found me because I can’t recall anything before the hotel room. They stopped asking me questions for a while and got me something to eat as they continued to speak, but I don’t even remember a lot of what they were saying at that point.”

“What happened then?”

“Uhhhh, we spent the rest of the night in the hotel room just eating and making small talk before the girls returned to their suite and I stayed in the room with their driver.”

You feel bad for your husband as you listen to him recalling all of this, but you also feel bad for the driver that had to spend a week with these people and then share his room at the last minute.

“What happened the next day?”

“The girls wanted to get massages and mud baths, so they took me with them as they continued to ask me questions that I didn’t have answers to. Ijichi– the driver, he’d been around all day because Mei also uses him to carry everyone's bags and to take photos everywhere they go. When we sat down for lunch, he asked me if I was married due to the tan line on my finger and Mei said something like, “we’ll worry about that later” which I thought was odd. But I didn’t know if it really was or if it was just me not being in the right state of mind.”

“Did you ever attempt to call the police or seek out medical attention?”

“I don’t remember saying that specifically. I remember mentioning something about needing help or finding family but Mei asked me who I remembered. When I said that I couldn’t remember anyone, she said that it’s probably because they don’t exist. She pointed out that I remembered my name and some of my early life so whatever happened to me must have only knocked out super recent things or things that weren’t relevant.”

You kind of want to call your doctor to induce labor just so that you can fight this bitch faster.

You won’t.

But you want to.

“Did that ever bother you or make you feel suspicious?” 

“Honestly, I don’t know if I ever thought about it that much at the time. She had a point, I knew who I was, I just couldn’t remember what I was doing when this happened. It made me wonder if that was the only thing that I was missing. The tan line on my finger threw me off as well, but there was always so much going on with her that I barely had time to think let alone contemplate anything more complex. You can imagine my shock when I learned that nine years of my life were wiped,” he says with a chuckle but you know it’s just a cover.

You reach over to hold his hand because this must be hard for him. But he doesn’t speak about these things with any anger, it’s almost more disappointment or resentment.

“She said that all of you spent a week at the resort, how did the living accommodations come about?”

“She said that she had a lot of room at her home and that I should stay there with her until I got everything figured out. She does this thing where she makes it sound like things are questions, but you know that they’re really not. I agreed to go because she helped take care of me so I assumed that she had my best interest at heart, I didn’t learn otherwise until much later.”

It’s quiet for a moment as Usami takes down notes of everything that Satorus saying. 

The more that you think about the situation, the worse you feel for him knowing that this fucking maniac took advantage of a vulnerable person the way she did. 

Gross.

“This may be a weird question Mr. Gojo, but how did you feel when you were there? Did you feel like anything was off? Did you feel like you had the option to leave? Did anybody act suspicious around you?” You know where Usami is going with this and you’ve had the same questions since day one.

“Uhhhhh, not really. There were times when I walked into the room and people stopped talking or switched topics, but I just assumed it was work related or was personal and didn’t make too much of it. As far as feeling trapped, not really. I left a few times to go to the pharmacy as you already know, and then I went to the hospital for the migraines. She had her driver take me but I didn’t think it was because she wanted to watch me or anything. I figured it was because of my injury and that I shouldn’t drive. Plus, she lives a very ‘hires someone to do literally any job’ lifestyle.”

“Well, that’s good to hear. So far, what you’ve told me matches up with a lot of information that we’ve learned so that’s good.”

“I’m sorry Detective, I don’t want to interrupt, but I have a question.” You’ve been quiet this entire time but after spending so much time with Kento, there’s a question that’s been on your brain for what feels like years. “Do you feel that she had anything to do with his kidnapping and attempted murder?”

You can’t read the expression on his face and that worries you. “I wouldn’t bet my career on my opinions of that, but, with the information that I’ve gotten over the past few months, it doesn’t lead me to believe that she was a part of the planning or the attack. I would have to get more questionable information regarding her or access to her phone records to find something but without probable cause, the likelihood of getting a warrant granted is low.” 

Lame.

You understand the situation, but it still sucks.

On the bright side, it does make you feel a little relieved to know that they don’t view her as responsible. As much as you’d like to get answers to everyone’s actions, it does make you feel a bit better to know that Mei was more than likely not involved in everything that happened to him.

Unless new information comes out, she’s just a succubus who takes advantage of vulnerable men.

What a fucking loser. 

“Alright, here’s the other reason that I called you.” You completely forgot about all of that once the questioning started. “We’ve made an arrest in your case.”

If it was possible, your jaw would be on the floor. Literally, on the floor. It feels like you’ve been waiting forever to get this update and you feel a wave of relief wash over you. You look over to Satoru and he looks just as frozen in shock as you probably did.

“I know that when a case is ongoing, you can’t reveal a ton of information. But, is it possible for you to tell us what happened?” You have to ask because these fears that these brutes imposed on you has been dragging you down on a daily basis.

“We received an anonymous tip from someone who said that they thought they recognized one of the men in the video. Unfortunately, we were only able to apprehend one of them at this time, but one is still better than none. We were given a name and we used that as a starting point until we were able to bring him in and obtain a dna sample, which happened to be a match.”

You squeal in excitement as you continue to squeeze your husband’s hand. 

“We are going to continue to look for the other perpetrator because the last thing that we want is for them to get away after doing something so horrible. The man we have in custody refuses to name his accomplice so it may still take some time, but we’ll figure it out.” 

After that, Detective Usami concludes the meeting and promises to keep you updated on any new information that should come to be. He walks you out of his office and back to reception where the lady at the front desk wishes you congratulations one more time before you step out of the building and go back to your car.

Satoru has barely spoken two words since you got the news about the arrest and it’s starting to make you nervous. He still does his usual things; holding your hand, opening your door, buckling you in, before getting in the driver seat and starting the car. But it seems more like he’s just functioning on autopilot at this time.

“Satoru,” you call his name but he doesn’t respond. But it doesn’t seem like he’s angry, more like he’s lost in thought. “Satoru!” You’re a little louder that time but you do manage to catch his attention. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“I don’t know. You just… don’t seem like yourself. You’ve shut down since we got the news about the arrest. Are you okay?”

He leans back in his seat and takes a deep breath before answering you. “I don’t know how to explain it, but it feels like everything just hit me. The reality of the situation, everything that everybody went through, it feels like it just hit, just now.” You listen quietly, allowing him to get everything that he needs off his chest. “I know what happened to me, but it feels like I’ve been experiencing everything as an bystander. I didn’t wake up in some back alley covered in blood with some attacker standing over me. I didn’t have to fight my way to survival and cling to life in some hospital bed hoping everyday that I’ll get to wake up again. I woke up in some fancy fucking resort surrounded by strangers who contrary to popular belief at the time, I believed had my best interest at heart.”

Oh.

That’s what he means.

“It just… it just feels like this thing that happened to me was some monumental experience for everybody else and like I’m the outsider even though I’m the one that it happened to. My wife cried herself to sleep everyday, my friends made missing person’s posters and everybody went on searches. You got on the news and begged the public to help, Nanami was calling the police all the time, and Suguru changed his work schedule to be with you during the day while Choso moved in so that you didn’t have to be alone at night. Everyone in our lives bent over backwards to find me and make sure that you were getting by while I was hanging out in a mansion drinking bottles of wine and watching movies to cope with the boredom.”

Oh.

“I just feel like everybody has had to suffer from this except for me and I feel terrible about that. I feel so guilty that everybody dedicated their time to help me and I can’t even contribute because I can’t remember a goddamn thing.”

You move your hand down to hold his and he squeezes it tight. 

“I want to celebrate this with you because this is a big deal, especially for you. But I do apologize for… I don’t know how to explain it. Just–”

“I get it. But Satoru, you don’t have to apologize for not suffering with us when you don't even know what’s going on. Also, your ability to truly know was literally taken away from you, so stop allowing guilt to consume you. I promise that Choso is not holding a grudge about moving in and Kento is not upset about having to call his brother for updates.” He chuckles a little bit and that makes you feel better. “How do you feel now?”

“I think I feel better now. I don’t think I realized how long of a process this was going to be to get through. I think I was under the impression that when I came home to you, everything would fall into place and I’d be happy. And don’t get me wrong, I am, I’m very happy. But I didn’t anticipate that the healing process would be so long considering I didn’t even know what I was healing from.”

“That’s the brain babe, it’s a crazy thing. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but maybe you should talk to someone.” 

“But why? I have you,” he whines and it’s pretty cute.

“Because I’m not a trained professional. I will always listen, but maybe you need someone with the credentials to help you work through this and then I’ll continue to help you at home. We could even find someone who specializes in disorders or conditions similar to yours and you never know, it could be very beneficial.”

He groans, but reluctantly agrees. “Fine! I’ll go see a stupid therapist since my wife doesn’t want to talk to me anymore!”

“That’s not what I said you asshole!” You try to shout back while laughing.

“When did you stop loving me? I just want to know! Is it because of Suguru? Is it the hair? I can grow it out!”

“Oh my god! I have no interest in Suguru.”

“‘No interest’ in him as a friend, you mean? Are you gonna move me into the guest bedroom so that he can take my side of the bed?”

You roll your eyes. “I’m gonna move you completely out of our home if you don’t stop.” 

He keeps laughing and it ends up making you laugh too even though he’s an absolute menace.

“Alright, where to?” He asks while starting the car back up. 

“We have to celebrate!”

“What do you wanna do?” He starts driving down the street, driving aimlessly until you tell him where you want to go.

“I wanna egg Mei’s house and take a baseball bat to her fucking windshield,” and you say that with as much venom as possible.

Satoru looks over at you with his mouth agape and half lidded eyes like he doesn’t know if he should be turned on or terrified.

“Really?”

“Yup!” You reply with a giant smile on your face.

“Because we can absolutely do that.”

You love that he’s down for literally committing crimes. “Baby, you can’t. You’re a lawyer. That’d look bad when we get arrested.”

“So what! I’ll do anything for you.”

“Let’s save it until after I give birth because I can’t run as fast these days. So, rain check?”

“Deal.”

“By the way, did she ever give you a key?”

“Oooohhhh, wanna commit burglary?”

“I don’t wanna steal anything. I just wanna unscrew all her lightbulbs just enough that they don’t turn on. I also wanna switch out her laces so that they’re on the wrong shoes and take all lids to tupperware containers. And I wanna melt enough of her lipsticks that it’s still only classified as a misdemeanor for not committing too much property damage. And then when everything passes, I wanna show back up and leave a note on her car that says, ‘guess what I did’ and then move on.”

Just as you’re finishing your rant, Satoru is turning down an empty street and parking the car.

“Satoru. What are you doing?”

“You’re so hot when you’re evil and talking about committing felonies,” he unbuckles his seat belt and starts getting out of the car. “Get in the backseat!” He says before slamming the door shut.

It’s the middle of the day instead of some dark street so your mind is running through all the reasons that you shouldn’t do this. But instead, your desire to make questionable choices take over and you join him in the back.

As soon as you shut the door behind you, Satoru is all over you. He’s pulling you onto his lap, kissing you, biting you, and pulling your dress down with such force that you’re surprised that it doesn’t tear. 

“Keep talking about revenge, it turns me on,” he whispers in your ear and it sends chills all over your body.

“I’ll keep talking, but you know that I can’t actually do these things right? Not with you as my husband.”

“It’s fine. I’m a prosecutor. I’ll just drop the charges.”

This fucking guy.

⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺

[jekyllnvibes]

Please, be free, yap about your VotV world! About your Kel! What was his arrival to dunkeltaler like? Is your Kel based off of your playstyle? What's his relationship with his Ena? Why so many Kerfur-omegas? When the rozitals came, did he go out and get scanned by a scout? What's his favorite encounter that he's had with aliens so far? Least favorite? Most confusing?

(Free permission to yapsalot ask. Have fun!!) (Hopefully I didn't overwhelm you with questions!)

(apologies if this is the second time the ask comes through, as I encountered an error the first time I attempted to ask)

I Would Die For You Thank You-

My universe is based on my playthrough!! I also interpret a lot of the Meta aspects of the game in a very fun way that I'll get into with Kel!

My Dr. Kel is somewhat mentally prepared for the Horrors in Dunkeltaler when he arrives, and is Confident about facing them, because he's a Little Fucking Weirdo on a Very Deep Level. As a bit of background before becoming the canary, he's always been odd. He has a heavy interest in the paranormal, especially on a cosmic level (it's part of why he became an astronomer in the first place), and has had a lot of minor encounters with the paranormal in the past (he swears to this day he had an honest to god interview with Mothman on spring break in America, but really he just wrote a bunch of questions on a piece of paper and left it in the woods near one of the nuclear bunkers Mothman has been sighted at and found them all answered the next day in very bad handwriting. It definitely was Mothman.) When he gets the letter inviting him to Dunkeltaler for a six figure salary after just a few months of work, Almost STRAIGHT OUT of university he's incredibly suspicious, and decides to do a little digging on the area and it's surroundings via some paranormal hobbyist forums, and finds out that there's a Weird amount of people who've gone missing there that ASO keeps saying just. Died in accidents because they're alone in the woods handling heavy machinery and electronics with no one around to help. But also ASO never seems to hire more than one person at a time despite this... Suspicious.... As well, there's a few accounts of trespassers and people who live within about a hundred miles of the area talking about seeing weird phenomena. Lights in the forest, strange shapes in the sky. Well, Kel is a lil bit of a fucking madman with very little self preservation and a whole lot of curiosity, so he takes the position Immediately despite not trusting ASO at all with this new information in mind, because he specifically wants to get paid just to hang out in what seems to be a paranormal hot bed doing what he wants to do as a job anyways. He's already prepared for Dunkeltaler to be weird and probably dangerous, just not sure how weird and dangerous.

Additional lore for this Kel, he isn't aware of it when he arrives, (and neither is ASO or they wouldn't have sent him) but he is Mildly Anomalous. He's sensitive to the paranormal, it's why he's able to sense things in his general vicinity without seeing them or hearing them, and he's *borderline fucking indestructible on top of that.* He's had a lot of accidents that should have killed him, does things that would usually debilitate other people without even half the negative effects, he's been hit by a bus going a good 40 mph and just got up and dusted himself off with only some scrapes and sprains, stayed up for a full six days with Zero sleep running on nothing but coffee and caffeine pills and was completely coherent the entire time. As he is In Dunkeltaler, he starts to become aware of his own Anomalous Nature, and starts Abusing The Fuck Out Of It to not just Survive but Thrive there.

His relationship with Ena is great originally, they're very close, Ena graduated a little before him and starts at ASO pretty much immediately, and he gets a job with her there soon after, just lower in the chain of command/information, but once he gets the letter and does his research into Dunkeltaler, he starts being suspicious and distant with her because he doesn't trust that she's telling him everything she knows, or that she actually cares as much as she says she does. (She does care, and she DOES know more than she's letting on, but she isn't willing to risk her job with ASO, especially because she has seen Kel's indestructibility first hand and feels like if there is anyone who could be a canary without dying, it's him.)

His first few nights are spent pretty peacefully cleaning and selling the garbage for points. The first thing he bought for himself, was a coffee maker and 7 bags of coffee, so that he wouldn't need to sleep as often and could spend more time exploring and decoding the mysteries of Dunkeltaler. The second thing he bought was Kerfur Red, who he named Rascal.

Without like, writing a whole chronological timeline, Kel finds out after a handful of events that he's not just sort of weird and hardy, he's straight up some kind of Anomalous Freak, because he has Full Memory of other timelines where he's died, can sense other anomalies pretty easily, and also... Now that he does know that, he starts experimenting with how much he can do On Purpose. Every instance of the game crashing because Kel is somewhere he can't escape (the red fern dimension, the dark maze when clipping into the map, etc.) is Kel Himself just. Resetting the timeline. Though he finds that whatever Anomalous part of himself is capable of this is only capable of doing so with the help of whatever the hell is going on in Dunkeltaler too, because he can't access anything before having arrived there. Every instance of the game crashing because he's encountered an entity or event that does so however, is because that entity did it to him, and he's always pissed about it because he was "BUSY YOU FUCK- DAMMIT I JUST SENT OFF MY REPORT FOR THE DAY!" He can't lock in hard enough to do so when he's freaked out and anxious though, which is where Meta Paranoia comes in. Eventually he figures out how to exist and communicate with himself in concurrent timelines, and learns that the mailbox outside Alpha seems to exist Outside of time and space, because "of Course it fucking does, nothing in this forest is ever fucking normal- Myself included, whatever fine, cool, we can use this-" and then decides to use it to gain access to normally limited resources. Specifically, *Omega Kerfur Parts.* He tells himself he does this for the extra robotic protection, and to have multiple Kerfurs out running jobs at the same time for Extreme Efficiency, and that's true but... He's also just lonely still. Rascal and the Arirals make good company, but the Arirals aren't usually direct in communication or hanging out with him, and Rascal is out gathering hash codes, fixing transformers, and fixing servers a lot. It would be nice to have the extra bodies around. (Sidenote, after a few months in Dunkeltaler and spending time with his Kerfur's with borderline no direct communication with anyone else except through emails and the Arirals being Weird but Funny, he just says fuck it and asks to marry all of his Kerfurs, they are canonically a very weird little polycule.)

As for his encounters with the Not So Locals, his favorite interaction he's ever had is waking up to the Arirals having fed him yogurt in his sleep while staying in the treehouse. He thought it was really fucking weird, but also very funny and he THINKS it's their way of saying they Like Him A Whole Lot despite still shoving him down and stealing his food regularly. His least favorite is the first time he actually Noticed the greys flying over his base, because they dropped a corpse in the parking lot which Fucking Exploded on impact, which was both horrifying and disgusting, and he's pretty sure was a declaration of war considering they started sending the weird bio-weapons pretty soon after.

He let the Rozital scouts scan him, but was very upset and surprised when they tried to Kill Him afterwards. He's pretty sure it's because he is an anomaly, and the scouts seem to be very defensive (or maybe something else?? Maybe they consider him a *resource* to be harvested... He tries not to dwell on that because it freaks him out and avoids direct contact with the Rozitals afterwards regardless, using Whisker to observe them instead at the hole later on,) towards anomalous entities within Dunkeltaler. He has a generally good opinion of the Rozitals despite this, as they've been pretty neutral to him otherwise, and he appreciated the giant warning hologram before whatever went on with the Yellow Wisps happened, though he's also at least 80% sure the wisps were there because of them in the first place, and he wasn't happy having to reorganize and clean everything when the impact ruined all of his hard work to clean up everything.

Some extra little bits of trivia I wanna share:

-Kel has a large indoor garden in the second floor hallway because he thought it looked like a greenhouse anyways and got tired of Buying Food all of the time.

-He likes fishing in his very large amount of free time.

-He built his Kerfur Polycule in this order: Rascal, Butter, Pico, and Whisker.

-Rascal collects reports, only responds it/it's pronouns, and is easily agitated.

-Butter fixes Transformers and responds only to She/Her pronouns. She Gets Stuck the most out of all of the Kerfurs.

-Pico fixes Servers, seems to primarily prefer He/Him pronouns but will also occasionally refuse to respond unless Kel switches to using They/Them, and gets the most excited for pats and snuggles.

-Whisker is for scouting and observation, does not seem to care what pronouns Kel refers to them with, and gets themself into the most trouble. They have been taken by the vore event twice (though Kel (me,) can't remember if those both occurred in the Same iteration of their primary timeline or not,) and has been dismantled by entities more than any of the other Kerfurs.

-Kel keeps a bin full of extra food in the basement which he only uses to attract and catch roaches, because those on top of fish, are his only reliably renewable source of protein which don't cost points

-He gets excited about The Meat Rain because it's free meat, but the first time he encountered the Mysterious Meat was when Rascal was still on wheels and became possessed just to lead him to it in the woods, and it freaked him out really hard. Nothing in Dunkeltaler scares him anymore based on just it's existence though. Has to be a full threat to him bodily to make him anxious at this point.

-Kel is aware something is in the meat locker, but keeps trying to break into it anyways, because it's very unlikely any worse than anything else he's encountered, he wants to catalogue it, and he's jealous that it has access to racks of ribs and he does not.

-Kel sleeps in the bed with all four of his robot spouses, and it is never comfortable, but it does make him feel less paranoid and he likes the affection.

-Kel thinks Furfur is kinda hot and summoned him on purpose just to ogle him for a while.

Edit: YALL HELP I DIDNT KNOW YOU COULD BUY KERFUR OMEGA PARTS AFTER BUILDING ONE ONCE