#was this done quickly? u betcha

[partyhardyontitanic]

kish n louie plot u say????? 👀👀👀

oh you betcha babey

its so fuckign much (3332 words lol) so itll be under the cut!!!

i couldnt figure out a way to write this that would be non-pikmin knower friendly sorry @askthelovenest you will probably not get this that much or have to google a lot but i highly appreciate your itnerest <333

Most of this is written in broader strokes but scenes that I imagine in detail will be written in full detail okay you just have to accept the varying text density here

Allright so this cute little story would begin at some point in between the many many castaways that the pikmin 4 protagonist rescues (I’m just gonna use the name Pom for them since that’s the fanon name I think). They also rescue Kish from a cave at some point.

Back at the S.S. Shepard, Kish expresses fascination with Oatchi’s great skills and training and tells Pom that if they ever wanted to discuss space dogs and their training, she’s the man! But of course there’s already someone to talk to about space dogs for Pom, that being Captain Shepard herself.

Like most of the castaways with side quests that Pom rescues, Kish is stuck just kind of hanging around the S.S. Shepard. He gets frustrated with this fairly quickly but can understand why they’re stuck here right now. There’s still people to rescue and going out there on her own would be downright suicide. The boredom still gnaws away at him but it just be like that she guesses.

Enter the bastard, Louie. Pikmin 4’s story wraps up, Louie is apprehended after the Ancient Sirehound Battle, and now he, much like the other people rescued by (one member of) the rescue corps is just standing around the S.S. Shepard, handing out side quests to Pom. Kish has been watching with increasing disdain as Pom gets to do all the jobs and activities and exciting stuff. He’s growing more and more irate about it by the day.

Simultaneously, Kish has noticed a LOT of malice towards Louie from the rescue corps, ever since he’s shown up. They have precious little kind things to say about him and their faces always contort in mild to severe contempt when they talk to or about him. Louie himself doesn’t seem like he notices. Or if he does, he’s just not pointing it out. Or showing it. At all. Kish has always been a big observer, but she can’t quite get a read on Louie just by watching him. His aloof nature is kind of fascinating to her. Surely, there’s a lot more going on inside that head of his than he’s showing… how intriguing.

One morning, very shortly after Louie came to the S.S. Shepard, Kish watches with a frankly inappropriate death glare, as Pom walks around the landing space and collects side quests, including the Fit For A Feast side-quest from Louie. Though, Kish notices a lack of interest from Pom towards this quest, complete with an eye-roll when Louie can’t remember the name of the cave he’d seen Dwarf Bulborbs in.

As the S.S. Beagle flies off towards the day’s expedition goal and just about everyone cheers it on and wishes it well, Kish is standing on the sidelines close to Louie with crossed arms and a scowl.

“This is literally fucking ridiculous,” she blurts out, “We’re really all just standing around with our thumbs up our asses while one rescue corps member goes out and does everything out there. Like…. Even you guys?” he turns towards Louie and gestures towards Olimar who is standing further away. “Aren’t you two like, experienced in this stuff? With the data logs and stuff you’ve done here already and all that? What are you asking Pom for food for when you can just go out and get it yourself? At least it’s something to do!”

Louie is silent for a second, a trait Kish will grow used to very soon, before he replies: “I’m not allowed to leave the Shepard.”

“What?” Kish says, “Why not?”

Louie shrugs silently. “Too much of a troublemaker, they said.”

“Well… I GUESS that makes sense but like… I just fucking hate standing around out here all day!” “Me too.” “If there was at least something to do at the Shep-what’d you say?”

Kish turns towards Louie again, who tilts his head.

“I hate standing around this ship all day. It’s literally fucking ridiculous for one kid to do everything on this planet.” Louie says.

Kish isn't sure why exactly he’s surprised to hear Louie express distaste for doing nothing all day (and in her own words too). He just seemed like he’d be perfectly content with it, she supposes. But this is an opportunity. A connection. A chance… Because with Louie’s skills, going out into the wilderness is already way less scary. But he’s still not allowed to leave. What to do, what to do…

Kish notices a tiny path in between some bushes that one could squeeze through without making any sounds. Everyone who had gathered around the S.S. Beagle is slowly dispersing, meaning the bustling crowd could be their cover to get there. It’s the perfect chance.

“Hey, come here.” Kish silently commands, not really giving Louie much of a choice in the matter as she grabs his sleeve and drags him through the crowd expertly. Even though Louie’s being dragged along, he is bobbing and weaving past bodies with grace almost befitting of a dance.

This red gal, whoever he is, must be really skilled at moving through crowds completely undetected. Much like Louie himself, he muses. As the two go from dodging people to dodging leaves, he wonders if this guy has also experienced the pain of being isolated from a group and repeatedly mocked. If she’s also decided to stick to quietly blending in as much as possible, as a social survival strategy of sorts. To put it another way, he’s impressed. But he’s also still confused.

“Where are we going?” Louie asks eventually.

“Uh, I’m not sure…” Kish admits, “but surely, there’s got to be something for you to eat around here. I guess we’re, uh, scouting out the area? Scavenging, maybe?”

“Scavenging… Sounds right.” Louie says. He’s pretty pleased to have something to do, and he guesses if he had to bring someone along, an apparent quick thinker like this is one of the better choices. Better than all the people back there hating him anyways.

Kish lets go of Louie’s arm and the two of them walk silently towards the other end of the bush.

“What’s your name?” Louie asks suddenly.

“Hm? Oh right, we never formally introduced ourselves to each other. I’m Kish, a space dog trainer from Karut.” Kish says. Normally, he’d go for the handshake and everything, but she has a feeling Louie wouldn’t much care for it. “And you’re, well, Louie yeah I heard that much. But is there anything else you wanna introduce yourself with?”

Louie thinks to himself for a few seconds before he replies, “I’m from Hocotate. Working for Hocotate Freight. Our boss sucks. The company is probably going to go bankrupt soon.”

“That all you can think of to describe yourself?” Kish asks.

“It’s all you said about yourself.” Louie responds.

At that, Kish actually has to laugh a little.

“Yeah, you’re right. Okay fair enough. No need to dive that deep on a stranger yet.” Kish says. A part of him is hoping, quite strongly even, that in time, Louie won’t be a stranger anymore.

Kish and Louie end up having a pretty successful day together. They find an onion not too long into their journey and Kish gets to closely inspect the red pikmin within it, as they help the two collect some fruits. They also find some Skitter Leaves and Sheargrubs which Louie assured Kish are easy to take down and totally delicious when prepared correctly.

Kish quickly notices Louie’s passion and creativity with cooking, which she frankly finds heart-warming. That’s just an adorable hobby, not to mention incredibly impressive to someone who can barely even follow instructions for microwave dishes properly.

Meanwhile, Louie is impressed by Kish’s sharp eye. She can spot fruits easily, even if they’re almost completely hidden in bushes, and he can tell that something is a Skitter Leaf instead of a regular leaf before Louie’s even registered that there are leaves on the ground.

Their teamwork isn’t perfect per se. Their communicative abilties leave a lot to be desired. But for a duo that’s formed less than a day ago, they’re working together shockingly well.

Just a few hours before nightfall, the two walk back to the S.S. Shepard, where they are immediately met by a furious rescue corps team (and a concerned Olimar). Accusations start flying right away; that Louie was trying to run away and start causing problems again, that he had kidnapped Kish for some reason, that he was going to undo everything the rescue corps had worked so hard to accomplish on this mission. Louie is long since used to people assuming the worst about him so he just silently lets them all ramble on. But just as he is about to zone out, angry yelling erupts from right beside him.

Kish is nothing short of furious at the accusations that are being flung towards Louie with barely any justification. She yells at all the rescue corps members about how hard they’re blowing things out of proportion and how cruel they are towards someone who could have done much, MUCH worse to them all. His lengthy tirade shuts the team down again, as they have no choice but to agree that Louie’s just collected food in the nearby area and hasn’t done anything explicitly wrong or harmful today. Olimar even joins in and defends Louie by pointing out that he’s kept Kish safe throughout the day. Louie is silent throughout this but he seems somewhat shocked by the defence.

Later that night, everyone is served dinner in the S.S. Shepard while Louie cooks his own meal in the Dolphin’s tiny little kitchen. He’s deep in thought about the day he’s had and the friend he seems to have made, when there’s a knock at the ship’s door. Olimar had informed Kish that Louie isn’t allowed inside the Shepard and she’s immediately made his way to the small old ship. When Louie points out that Kish doesn’t have any food now he replies that he’s not eating the rations of some “petty assholes” (in reality she had forgotten her plate in the Shepard when he stormed out of the cafeteria). Louie has easily cooked enough for more than just one person, and he likes Kish enough, so he offers him a plate of his self-made meal of the day. Kish is honestly surprised but thankful nonetheless, so the two share a delicious meal together and talk a bit more. Well… Kish talks. A lot. Louie mostly listens, but he likes doing that. He likes Kish.

Louie and Kish’s ritual of going out to collect food continues on after Olimar puts in a good word for Louie (and pulls him aside once to tell him “You have one more chance here. Don’t blow it.”)

The two of them grow closer and closer as they keep going out. Befriending people is a lot easier when they are your age, Louie finds. At least if those people are also not judgemental over every mistake you make. Louie and Kish bond over how both of them have poor impulse control and do some nasty things sometimes. They agree that they won’t cruelly judge each other while simultaneously holding each other back where they can. Louie can hardly wrap his head around how wonderful it feels to have found someone like Kish. He might be catching some feelings other than friendly appreciateon. Uh oh…

Eventually, Kish spills the beans on why he even came to PNF-404. It was all because of Moss, the space dog Olimar had spoken of in his S.O.S. message. She had been hoping there would be more strange and rare breeds of space dogs on this planet. And while the Bulborbs were strikingly similar to bulb-dogs from Hocotate, he was still disappointed that she couldn’t find anything friendly. Louie quickly realizes he knows exactly how to undo that disappointment, and the next time him and Kish go out, he leads her to the Ancient Sirehound (do not ask me how he knows where to find it, he just does OK). Kish is delighted to see such a big and amicable dog, and even moreso when she sees it run up to Louie and slobber all over his entire suit and helmet. The beast loves that guy, and it’s just the sweetest thing.

Gosh… Louie’s an intriguing guy, he’s great at cooking AND he’s good with animals… Oh… Oh dear…that’s a crush blooming isn’t it… Oh boy.

One night, Kish talks about his past a bit. He had a passion for art that had been tested brutally by an art school that valued market and corporate appeal far over actual artistry. Getting that bachelor was gruelling and finding work in art that wasn’t completely demoralizing was close to impossible. So Kish put his skills with space dogs to use instead and started dog-sitting and offering training sessions for money. It pays the bills just fine and it’s fun enough, but it’s hard not to feel disappointed after the way chasing her dreams turned out.

Louie can empathise with that and tells Kish about how he’s always wanted to become a great chef with his own cooking show, but when he briefly joined a culinary school on Hocotate, it was an exclusively vegetarian school, and he was ostracised even worse than in his old schools (“And those were places where I’d regularly get asked in earnest if I was going to eat the other kids.” “What the hell that’s so fucked up???”).

This newfound connection makes Kish like Louie even more. She’s starting to really understand the guy. That impression of a mysterious quiet wallflower is giving way to a young man who’s kind in his own ways but struggles with empathy, and who’s trying to figure out his place in a world that he doesn’t quite seem to fit into. It’s relatable. It’s compelling. He’s compelling. …That crush is only going to get worse, huh.

Some hiccups come up here and there when they are working together. Most notably an ever growing curiosity for the animals of PNF-404 from Kish that’s almost lead him to have his leg gnawed off by a bulborb a few times. Luckily Louie has quick reflexes when it comes to protecting people, and manages to drag Kish away from the beasts just in time.

It also turns out that Kish is god-awful at aiming and throwing pikmin, and when the two tried to work together to slay a Dwarf Bulborb, Kish missed just about all her throws. When told about this issue, Olimar suggests giving him winged pikmin instead, which could correct for missed throws while in the air. That turns out to be the fix they needed because after that, the two turn into a scarily efficient team, coming back each night with greater catches than the last. (The rescue corps briefly got scared that they'd hunt something on this planet to extinction)

Their blooming romance comes to a head one day in the tiniest most subtle way. The rescue corps are finally done with PNF-404. There’s no one left to save (everybody double and triple and quadruple checked) and so the Shepard takes off with the Dolphin loaded into its large and comfy storage space, where Louie also resides, since he knows the crew and other castaways will only give him angry glares.

They never warmed up to him, and he doesn’t care much to convince them he’s a better guy. Even if Kish is still fighting tooth and nail against any accusations thrown at him. His one defender, who is currently curled up next to him in the Dolphin’s sleeping space.

Come to think of it, they’ve gotten incredibly cuddly with each other. They just kind of started doing that. Kish explained early on that she’s awfully touch-inclined and that Louie can tell her off whenever he wants. But he never wanted to. He’s always wanted to be touched even more. They’ve been holding hands way past the point of guiding each other, and hugging each other for way too long and way too tightly. Not to mention when they’ve actually tried dancing together on PNF-404 to some impromptu tunes the pikmin would hum to themselves. They’re always together. They’ve grown so close. They have no trouble whatsoever confiding in each other. They’re like… a romantic couple, he realises.

Without thinking too much about it, Louie just asks his half asleep companion: “Did we become a couple at some point?”

“Hm?”

“Did we become a couple at some point?” he repeats.

Kish opens her eyes a bit. Those red eyes that radiate a passionate warmth Louie could get lost in forever. “Hm… well, I guess. If you don’t mind…” he replies.

Louie can’t help but to smile at that.

“I don’t. I love you.” he softly speaks.

“I love you too.” Kish replies gently. He readjusts himself and wraps her arms around Louie, who wraps his own arms around Kish’s shoulder and gives her a kiss on the forehead. This is their little moment. Just them and the cargo of the ship. It reminds Louie of when he and Kish first started properly interacting with each other in the midst of that bushy walkway. It’s exactly the kind of confession he had hoped for.

Despite the calm and gentle beginning of their relationship, Louie is still getting terribly nervous. He hasn’t the faintest clue how to date someone. But handily he’s (debatably) great friends with someone who’s managed to pull a loving wife and kids.

Olimar has to bear several days being bombarded with questions about how to be romantic, but he doesn't mind. He finds this amusingly cute. He tells Louie how he was asked out by his now-wife and how his primary “strategy” was just to be kind, listen to her, and make her feel valued in every interaction.

Olimar also tells Louie about a few of his dates with his wife, which Louie tries to replicate exactly. This fails spectacularly every time, but his determination is nothing short of amazing, and Kish is not shy about telling him how sweet he’s being. She also reminds him that he doesn’t need to try acting like his senior did. It’s perfectly fine with him if Louie just acts like himself, awkward nature and all. Louie really can’t believe he’s managed to find someone in his life who wholeheartedly accepts and loves him for his “flaws”.

Louie visits Kish on Karut a lot and sleeps at his place regularly. Kish’s big space dogs Wilmi and Teddee had to spend a while getting used to the new visitor but they eventually warmed up to him. Still won’t leave him any room on the sofa or bed though. But to be fair they don’t do that for Kish either.

The two have discussed moving together a few times. While Louie would absolutely love to leave his stupid delivery boy job and that stupid vegetarian planet and go to a culinary school where just liking meat isn’t some kind of crime against nature, what it keeps coming back down to is the fact that his grandmother still needs him. And he can’t just leave her on Hocotate. She doesn’t have anyone else.

Kish understands this fully and makes sure to visit him on Hocotate often too. She likes Louie’s grandma, that woman is so strange and her being Like That explains a lot about why Louie is Like That. The old woman has also talked about marriage and getting great-grandchildren already and watching Louie freeze up and go fully red at that is just plain funny.

All in all, they compliment and complete each other in a way neither of them had ever expected. They found themselves and simultaneously something different and compelling in each other. They love each other for their compatible flavours of autism <3

And that’s the story of how the cold King Of Bugs and the fiery Beast Tamer became a couple okay cool thank you for reading <333333333

[cantalazarus]

it's time... 

(not yet, im going to take this time to shoutout all my drv3 mutuals who i havent interacted with bc i havent finished the game)

okay NOW its time

@hismalice - miraculously were still married despite me dialing the divorce lawyer FOR u no prompting needed. its not even ur art or ur writing like ur just. i love u and we vibe so good but bc this is an rp thing ill be gay some other day. im just impressed u can rework or scrap every aspect of DR in crossovers and aus and STILL have a flawless komaeda. ur so vivid and descriptive its intimidating, not to mention that u seem to pull full paragraphs from the deepest darkest recesses of ur asshole in the kink bin? i was thirsty for u day one and its only gotten worse! sometimes i think i could come up with an adult babies komahina furry au and u would still find a way to gas me up. wife someone like raz, yall.

@betraycd - FIN! the ringleader of my circle of thots. my harem. talking to u is fun good vibes and no expectations. u helped me see the third dimension of souda which was surprising? bc we didnt rp at first i mostly have my Onions from watching space dandy and screaming abt aus on discord. the nickname jime is the worst thing u have ever typed and i love it. remember when u intimidated me and i left the chat whenever u came in bc i knew id sound like a dumbass? look at us now u cant get rid of me! i think our breakthru was the original all tea all shade vent channel. love u like dandy loves a good pair of tiddies!

@pixcldream - god meme this is getting long i might have to skip u (jk) moment of honesty hinanami in any form was always rly Meh until i met and started plotting with u? now its actually on the map! i remember how shook i was when u revealed ur literally. meme. i like writing with u and i love ur ideas. first mutual i didnt know and first nanami so u have a special spot in the void where my soul should be.

@hairhorns - MAWEENA! i cant believe ur a capricorn and u dont suck? i literally had NO opinion of hinabuki before the capri sun shenanigans. i love talking to u i love plotting with u and i love our hinabuki Moments. also, u get my rpdr references which is a big bonus. like fin u were p intimidating at first but now i kno ur just a big ol nerd like the rest of us

@bestiascuro - lord of the bottoms, pronounced drac. we need to talk more and we still need a thread! i think im more camp than dramatic but i can try for u. ur gundam is so different from the pack and from everyones expectations i love it? i dont know how it works but it does! thanks for putting up with my Mess

@occultta - that brings us to tea :eyes: u come off as rly chill and i love ur sonia! one of these days our plotting will go somewhere but i need to grow a brain first ANYWAY please have lady sonia cast a hex on me, hinata, and all these capri suns

honorable mentions:

@kuemoito @eudaxmonia @ofyakuuza @bloodcost @shsl-luckster @maltrust

@bereaval @beheadingtoujou @intertwinedrosethorns

[lackablazeical]

Addams! AU Snippet 6: 'Freakshow'

FULL CREDIT TO WRITER NewFallenLeaves ON A03!!!!!! SHE MAKES KILLER ANGST AND FLUFF ALIKE, CHECK OUT ALL HER WORKS!!!! NOW!!!!! IF YOU LOVE OR CARE ABOUT ANYTHING, DO IT. NOW. BEFORE I GET U /J

As usual, art to add on! It was a 1 layer challenge I gave up on partway thru, mostly just cus I wanted to be done with it, lol! Greyscale is always so fun, tho!

Full snippet below the cut! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

---

“Hold still, you little scumsucker.” As the burly human patted Mikey down, he came up quickly with two small daggers tucked into Mikey’s belt, as well as the ones hidden in the holster at the small of his back. “Shit, kid, how many more knives have you got, huh? Cough ‘em up.”

“Well,” said Mikey, “There’s the whole family with Mr. Stabby, and Miss Gashy, and the Puncture Brothers, and Auntie Slicer, and–”

The pile of small blades was already over half-a-dozen strong, and the man still managed to find three more.

“Oh, no!” Mikey wailed as the last one hit the table. He twisted against the tight ropes that bound his wrists behind his back, “You’re going to take all of them?”

“We know who sent you, we’re not taking any chances.” Finally satisfied, the man hauled Mikey none-too-gently by the elbow and dragged him out of the covered wooden cart that served as the freak show’s ‘office.’

The small encampment was reminiscent of a traveling gypsy convoy, with colorfully painted covered wagons. Some were cages for “FEARSOME GRUESOME MUST-SEE MUTANTS” with bold-lettered signs and warnings to stay back. Others were smaller, with striped awnings and shelves of cheap merchandise or galleries of rigged carnival games, with “STEP RIGHT UP AND TAKE A CHANCE” invitations for any fool willing to throw away hard-earned coin.

The heavy-set human dragged Mikey toward one of the larger cage carts. “Gonna put you someplace where you’re too worried about stayin’ alive to think about running off or causin’ trouble.”

He stopped in front of the enclosure. It looked as sparse and uncomfortable as any of the other terrible accommodations in the traveling freakshow. Unadorned iron bars, no straw or hay strewn for the mutant held within. The guard shoved Mikey through and slammed the cell door behind him.

Mikey tumbled onto the grated metal floor, lying prone while he waited for the man’s footsteps to fade. As soon as everything was silent, he flipped upright. From the corner of the cage came a low, throaty growling, and the occupant of the cell rose to his feet.

Even hunched, the alligator mutant was massive. Four times Mikey’s size. Larger than Raph, even, and little else save teeth and muscle.

“Don’t be…alarmed.” Every word the alligator spoke was slow and deliberate. “I…won’t harm you.”

“I know!” said Mikey. “I made Donnie do research on everything before I came.”

“You…know?”

“Woulda been pretty stupid for me to run in here without knowing everything about this lame-o sideshow. Besides, getting details is easy. It was supposed to add to Mama’s Spectacle Spectacular, after all. She bought it. And it woulda been such a cool thing, too! Everybody loves her circus, she has all the nicest hotel rooms for her performers, and you get to eat at the buffet, and the bar is open all night, and–”

“You…don’t seem…concerned,” said the alligator. “Were you…not poached…like the rest of us?”

“Ha! Nobody could poach me if they tried. Know how much Donnie has to add to his tranq formula to knock me out? Betcha don’t, because it’s a lot. I have resistance.” With a quick roll of his hips and shoulders, Mikey twisted his bound hands from behind his back and hopped over them like a backward jump rope. “Boy, am I glad they put me in here, you’re my first choice, anyway.”

“For…what?”

“For helping, of course! These humans turned out to be a bunch of dirty, no-good, double-crosser, deal-breaker cheaters, and they took Mama’s money and tried to cut and run. So now Mama wants me to burn the whole thing to the ground! Isn’t that great?! Anyway, are you good with pulverizing all the stuff? Because Raph didn’t wanna come, he was busy watching the Mrs. Cuddles’ Puppets-in-Peril Halloween Specials marathon. So if you could go ahead and do all the smashing, that would be awesome.”

“…smashing?”

Instead of replying, Mikey stuck out his tongue as he reached for a spot on the back of his neck, just below the rim of his shell. He withdrew a short, narrow length of sharpened metal, and proceeded to cut through the ropes.

“You managed…to sneak in a weapon,” the alligator marveled.

“Pffft,” said Mikey. “He only took my knives. This is my shiv.”

With his hands free, Mikey took a moment to stretch like a dancer before a routine. Then he promptly flopped down into a sitting position, legs crisscrossed. He set the shiv down on the floor of the cage and began pulling random assorted items out from non-existent pockets in his clothing and lining them up. “I still got lots of good stuff, see? This is my bolo, and this is my garrote, and this is my ice pick, and this is my can opener, and this is my bookend, and this is my cherry pitter, and this is my…”

The alligator watched as Mikey continued unabated. He blinked slowly at each new addition to the stockpile, his face becoming more and more skeptical as the items became less and less…perilous. When Mikey placed a penny down, he finally spoke.

“What…exactly…do you intend to accomplish…with a coin?”

“Ooooo, goody, I’m glad you noticed, I like this one.” Mikey flipped the penny with his thumb and caught it between his fingers. When he held it up to the light, the sharpened edge all around its circumference gleamed. “We’ll use it first!”

He tugged loose a lacing from the knee of his pants and looped it around the penny. Then he stood, approached the bars of the cage, took a deep breath…and began shrieking.

“HELP HELP MISTER JAILER GUY, I’M SCARED I DON’T WANNA GET EATEN BY AN ALLIGATOR!” Mikey twisted and rammed his shell against the bars to make even more noise. The camp echoed with resounding, repeated clang-clang-clang. “LEMME OUT LEMME OUT LEMME OUT OH PLEASE OH PLEASE!”

Several of the freakshow guards were on ‘patrol,’ roaming the perimeter of the camp. One who was nearby didn’t exactly come running, but he did seem annoyed and stepped quickly in the direction of the cage. “Shut up, kid. The more you screech the faster that freaking monster’s gonna chomp on you, just to get the goddamn noise to sto–”

The guard’s yells pitched up into a howl as a razor-edged penny, launched like a slingshot, lodged in his eye.

“What’s wrong?! What’s wrong?!” a fellow guard hurried up to assist him.

Mikey grinned as he picked up another weapon from his cache, aimed it between the bars, and punched a button.

Two metal barbs pierced the second man’s chest and an electrical current lit up his entire frame with sparks. He collapsed to the ground, convulsing.

“That’s my taser,” Mikey said. He reached through the bars and fished a keyring out of the guard’s pocket and quickly released the lock. He jumped onto the cage door and rode it as it swung open, dropping the taser in the dirt beside the unfortunate human, current still running.

“Come on, mister—ah–” Mikey craned his neck to look at the advertisement emblazoned across the top of the cage, “--Lethal Leatherhead! Smashy-smash, while I torch everything!”

Tentatively, Leatherhead stepped out of his enclosure. “You wish…to burn everything? With what…?”

But Mikey had already withdrawn a liquid-filled bottle from some hidden pocket in his coat. He drew a long, silken scarf from his glove by sleight of hand, flicked it to catch the flame on the tail of his mask, and then stuffed the burning wick into the neck of the bottle. “Molotov cocktail!”

He flung the bottle through the window of the largest wagon. The resulting explosion blew out the remaining glass, and Mikey dashed forward to intercept as guards raced to escape the inferno.

“What the hell is going o–”

“Machete!”

The man who had unluckily blundered closest to him gurgled, the handle blooming from his throat.

“Clothespins!”

Another guard screeched and flailed as two small wooden clips were driven into his eyes.

“Lanyard!”

Strangled gagging.

“Teacup!”

Wailing.

Leatherhead watched from the open door of his enclosure as Mikey continued his spree, shrieking the name of every item he produced and laughing maniacally as he dashed from one victim to the next.

A rhinoceros mutant in the cage next to his leaned towards the bars. “Friend of yours?”

“If it will convince him…to not jam a small kitchen tool down my throat…” Leatherhead ripped apart the hinges on the rhino mutant’s cage, “...then I will readily be his friend.”

The screech of “Rice paddle!” and a subsequent choking sound echoed across the grounds. Both mutants cringed.

“...rice paddle. Sure.” The rhino tagged along after Leatherhead as he moved to next cage. As that door bashed open, a warthog mutant jumped free and clasped hands with the rhino. They jostled briefly before turning to flee into the night. “Good luck with your crazy friend.”

“Bottlecap!” Mikey cackled from somewhere across the camp. “Stapler!”

Wet, squelching thumps and more screams.

A gangly mutant with mantis-like arms lounged near the door of his enclosure, watching Leatherhead expectantly. “That kiddo yous got over there has the right idea, I say,” he drawled.

Leatherhead nodded. “Fist,” he said. And punched the cage.

[chilly-me-softly]

Are u going to do a part 3 to the chilly fic its so good <3

Part 1 - Part 2

"I did something stupid" you announce as soon as Mason opens the door to his house, walking in and heading for the living room as if you were at your house.

"You? When have you ever done that in your life" the boy rolls his eyes sarcastically as you glare at him. "This is no time for jokes Mason"

"Okay come here" he claps a hand on the couch after sitting down, inviting you to sit next to him so you don't go back and forth, "What happened"

"Do you promise not to judge?"

"Hmm no but I'm listening" he retorts immediately and a groan escapes your lips as you lower your head and start to doubt at that very moment that that is the right thing to do. But if you don't tell someone, if you don't open up to him, you're gonna go crazy. So you take a deep breath and do your best not to look at him.

"Do you remember how Ben helped me that day? Well I wanted to thank him so I brought him a cake"

"Okay" Mason states looking suddenly curious as to where this is going.

"I just- I used a big plate hoping he might bring it back. But he didn't! Ugh why am I so stupid" it takes him a few seconds to realize the meaning of your words, his body straightening up at the revelation while yours almost wants to get swallowed up by the couch in embarrassment.

"You like Ben? Since when?" but still, his tone isn't judgmental, if anything curious and shocked.

"Mase"

"What? You guys are always fighti- oh"

"What oh" you look at your friend lost as he seems to be lost somewhere in his memory before returning to look at you turning slightly towards you.

"Of course! How the fuck did I miss that" he murmurs, "you acted the same way with Tim Reese when we were sixteen"

"Okay first how do you still remember Tim and second what are you talking about?!" you ask somewhat shocked as he smiles mischievously ready to strike. Oh you knew it wasn't a good idea.

"You were always nervous when it came to him and then when he got close to you you became this impassable fortress of coldness and sarcasm. The poor guy had to sweat to even get a kiss"

"That's not true" you try to defend yourself in vain.

"I might be a little offended you know, you didn't even have a little crush on me"

"Please, you're like my brother ew" you wince as he laughs shaking his head.

"So that's how it is today, it all ends over a plate?"

"It was an excuse Mase" you roll your eyes, "if he wanted to see me again he'd know how to hook me up" in short you had even sent each other a few messages, just to test the waters not knowing how far you could go at the time. But your relationship had never been just about the two of you and there was always that fear of ruining that little step forward lurking.

"Maybe who knows, he needs some kind of push too. Ben isn't the cocky guy he wants to appear after all"

"You know something I don't Mase" you look at him inspectively, him raising an eyebrow. "I won't say anything about him if I can't do otherwise"

"No mh-mh forget it" you shake your head firmly, Mason could talk to you about Ben all he wanted no one would know and you still knew how to handle a rejection by acting like nothing happened. But Ben knowing about your feelings and not returning them... no thanks, you didn't need any more embarrassment in your life to deal with.

"Well then you'll never know what he thinks of you"

"What's he even supposed to think, that I'm a crazy person who always has a say in everything and out of pity helped when I was sick" you shrug as he smiles knowingly, he's never going to tell you how worried his friend seemed in the days following your illness or how he was trying to find out something under the radar. Not if he can't tell him that he might find the door open if he wants to join your world. But as sure as hell he would have done something.

-

You correct yourself. That's the moment you know it wasn't a good idea to tell Mase.

He had asked you a couple of times if you were going to watch the game that saturday, he always did that when there were tough games because he said you were his good luck charm even though it wasn't true and most of the time they won or lost regardless of your presence. However, you had already cleared your whole schedule for that day and so he had extended the invitation to a drink after the game.

Nobody had lost, nobody had won. There was regret for a few wasted chances, but nothing that couldn't spur them on to do better the next game. You'd driven to the stadium in your car, not wanting to wait for Mason after the last time he'd made you wait over an hour outside, having him tell you where he wanted to go after the game and waiting for him there.

The place isn't that crowded and you can occupy a table further away, ordering something while you wait and taking the book out of your bag while resuming your reading.

"Hi" a voice makes you shift your gaze from those pages and you're bewildered to see Ben take a seat in front of you.

"Hi Ben"

"Mase said he'd meet us in a bit, he had something to do" the boy shrugs, "but I'm certainly not going to wait for him to order"

"Go ahead, I've already helped myself" you place the bookmark on the page you are on then put it in your bag and before you can let your eyes rest on Ben again, your phone alerts you to the arrival of a new message.

As soon as you see that it's Mason you get a bad feeling, and as soon as you open your conversation you see that he has sent you a picture of a diner where he is with some of the other guys. And it's definitely not the one you and his teammate are in.

"Son of a bitch"

"What?" Ben's voice makes you raise your head in alarm, suddenly you feel nervous and you want to strangle your friend and you want to bury yourself because what are you gonna do now. All while he looks at you expectantly.

"Um eh I- that wasn't meant for you" you murmur pathetically sighing and handing him your phone, "Mason's not coming"

"I don't understand" Ben looks at that picture with furrowed brows, but you can't read his expression.

"Look I'm sorry he set you up for this really. Um we can go and pretend like nothing happened" you stammer trying to pick up your bag and jacket deliberately trying not to look him in the eye and you try to get up but he stops you.

"Woah hey wait, wait. I'm not letting you go anywhere so upset" he is quick to grab the chair and move closer to you, if he wanted to calm you down he certainly isn't succeeding like this.

"Easy now, just try to explain what's going on please"

"Ben really it's not- it's just Mason okay? I just need to beat him up and then I'll be better" a soft laugh escapes his lips and you find yourself huffing but giggling at the same time.

"Nothing wrong with that. Just answer one of my questions first?" you nod losing focus for a moment as one of his thumbs starts stroking the back of your hand.

"He tried to set us up"

"Is that a question?" you ask struggling to swallow, your voice coming out weak and shaky. What's going on?

He shakes his head slightly, "Do you like me? That's my question" and if before it was difficult to find air now it seems like everything has closed for good. There you go, is that how you're going to die? In front of Ben of all people, and still before you can get revenge on Mason for that low blow?

"Cause Mason probably knows I fancy you-"

"You what?" you croak.

"-but he wouldn't have done that if he didn't know something else" his cheeks are slightly red, so he's feeling all that sudden heat too then!

"Ben I..."

"It's okay, it's okay. Look we're in the same boat here, if anything I'm a lot more exposed than you are at the moment because I've revealed to you how I feel and you haven't really let me know that I haven't really fucked up"

"No!" instinctively you lean forward and you don't know why you actually did it, but the sound of your foreheads colliding together resonates loudly. "Ouch I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Oh my god are you okay?" geez you feel so stupid, embarrassed like a teenager struggling with her first crush and as clumsy as you've ever been... or don't like to remember.

"I've taken worse balls" he tries to lighten the situation but your now worried look doesn't seem to want to give way to anything else as you gently test his forehead.

"What do you say we get out of here? Maybe somewhere less crowded?"

"Yes please" you find yourself nodding and after paying quickly exit the building, Ben firmly takes your hand guiding you to the opposite side of your cars.

Neither of you speak on the way, you're lost in your head trying to calm yourself down to get your thoughts in order and not embarrass yourself further. He glances at you from time to time, what he is thinking you cannot know.

You arrive at the park and after a few more minutes of walking you sit down in a fairly secluded area except for a few people walking quietly on the stone path not far from you.

"You were pretty worked up in there" Ben breaks the silence.

"Being taken by surprise throws me off. Probably if I had known you were coming I would have been prepared, and imagined all the possible situations I might find myself in"

"Do you do this often? I mean do you never live in the moment?"

"Obviously I can't predict everything that's going to happen to me in a day, but the important things I like to know in advance so I can leave the anxiety at home and not risk headbutting people" a laugh breaks free in the air and when you look at him you feel lighter, nothing like the you of moments before.

"And to answer your question, yes I like you Ben. That day you helped me I think it helped me realise that"

"Funny, I realized it that day too"

"Sorry I must have looked like a weirdo" the awkwardness comes back overpowering again as he shakes his head moving closer to you some more.

"You were cute. Different from how you show yourself to others" you smile slightly dipping your teeth in your lower lip. "Now, do you still want to beat up Mase?"

"You betcha" you reply promptly causing him to laugh, "but not right now"

[quirklessidiot]

Title: coward :: choco pies Pairing: Y/N x Miya Atsumu  Genre: major angst train ahead, romance, and very slow burn [ex to lovers au] Synopsis: its been eight years since you first met Miya Atsumu, six years since you broke it off.  Warnings: Cursing, alchohol, mentions of unprotected sex, unplanned pregnancy, and mentions of abortion. Notes: I am super happy by the positive response sIKE thank u so much, i hope yall stay safe in this pandemic!

previous    next   series masterlist  

“...L/N-san, why aren’t you going to the banquet tonight?”

“I’m busy.” you simply replied to your co-worker, not even looking up from the sheets of finance papers in your hands, your brows furrowing in deep thought as you encircled some mistakes on the paper.

“It's the weekend tomorrow!” Aiko exclaims, shaking you lightly, “You can take your work home and finish it there! This is only held once a year and it's your first year in the company! You can’t miss it!”

You finally turned to your over-enthusiastic office mate and narrowed your eyes, “I can’t miss the grocery sale tonight.” You deadpan. Aiko blinks once then twice and suddenly she bursts out into a boisterous laugh, “Y-You got me there, Y/N.” she says, clutching her stomach.

Your expression remains the same though and it slowly dawned upon your raven-haired office mate that you weren’t joking at all, “Oh, you were serious.” Aiko stops laughing, realizing how stupid she must’ve looked. You return to your work but she continues to stare at you, ever since you entered the company six months ago, you refused to attend any work-related parties or do a lot of overtimes (this wasn’t a surprise, you always managed to finish your work before deadline)

No one really knew you at the office, you had a mysterious air around you and a rather intimidating aura that scared about half of the people in the finance department, oddly enough, Aiko was one of the few who approached you and made conversation. It was more one-sided in Aiko’s part though since your replies were usually curt and to the point.

The only thing scary about you was how blank your expression was ninety percent of the time.

“Can’t you go to the grocery tomorrow?”

“Can’t.” Your voice seemed a bit assertive now, “Those limited choco pie editions are coming out and they sold out pretty quick.”

“Choco pie?” Aiko blinked, “Aren’t you diabetic?”

“It’s for my kids.”

Kids.

Kids.

Kids?

“What the fuck, Y/N?” she cursed, her eyes as wide as an owl, “My kids? You have kids?”

You hummed a reply, continuing your work, clearly not surprised by her reaction since you were used to these types of things, “Twins actually, they’re in the first grade.” you corrected, remaining indifferent.

“You.” she paused, “You, the Y/N L/N, have kids. Like blood-related kids? With a husband and all that?”

“Yes, although the dad moved on.” You stopped encircling the file, a brief memory of the blonde slowly crossed your mind, “He’s in a better place now.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie, per say, your ex was technically in a better place now. He’s a famous pro-volleyball player who represented Japan two years ago in the Olympics and was currently part of the top national teams in the country. 

You just didn’t bother correcting them when they thought he’s dead.

“Oh, oh, I’m so sorry.” 

“Hm.” You simply hummed a response, “I don’t like leaving them alone a lot.”

“I-I understand,” Aiko sighs, comforting you but it's deaf on your ears as usual, “Have you never considered dating again?”

“Waste of time.”

“Like ever?”

“I’ve got two growing boys, they’re enough for me already.”

Aiko shuts her mouth when she notices that your tone is sharp as if you’re telling her to drop the topic because it’s not in your best interest as of the moment, “May I see what they look like, L/N-san?” she asks in pure curiosity, changing the subject instead.

You simply open your phone next to you and there sits the lockscreen of two wide-grinning and identical-looking boys with raven-colored hair, “They don’t look like you.” she loudly observes but you’re not at all hurt by it.

“They got the best parts from their otosan, I guess.” 

The only thing the boys got from you was your eye color, it seemed like they were their father through and through in terms of looks, over-enthusiastic attitude, and love for the sport. In fact, only recently, the youngest twin had expressed his excitement to learn volleyball, the oldest, being the competitive one too, decided to join in and expressed that he had started to truly like it after a class.

Thankfully, your officemate doesn’t pry more about your life. You ended up resuming your work without much disturbance. You try to finish quickly, you have a sale to catch after all.

People often found it odd when you pointed out that you were the mother of Youta and Yuuto, for one, they looked and acted nothing like you. If you had to describe them, it would be balls of sunshine while you were just the gloomy rain clouds looming over them. It was definitely an amusing sight for many when they got to know your dynamic and many wondered how you made it work.

You watched the pair rush down the grocery lane in a hurry as you push the cart filled with essentials needed for this month, Youta was annoying his twin once again as they paced down the snack lane and tried to find the choco pie they’ve been raving about these past two weeks, “Slow down, you’ll fall.” You scolded lightly.

“Hai!” They called out in unison as they went behind one of the shelves, you stopped to take a biscuit off the shelf and read the nutritional facts, keeping an eye out on your boys from time to time. You suddenly felt a presence on your side, were they done taking the choco pie already? Sighing under your breath, you’re getting ready to be fake scared because they loved sneaking up on you but when you feel no tug on your leg, you’re immediately surprised for real by the familiar face in front of you.

“Miya-san?” 

You regain your composure almost immediately, not wanting him to notice how tense and scared you were, amongst everyone you had to run into, it had to be the twin brother of your ex, “ Well this is a surprise.” he greets, you could feel the distant tone on his voice and you weren’t phased by it the slightest, after what you did to his other half, you’re surprised he even approached you, “Me and ‘tsumu wondered where the hell you ended up after disappearing on him randomly and breaking up over the phone after a week.”

It wasn’t exactly the best plan but it was the fastest way out.

“I apologize.” You bowed down, you were sincerely sorry about what happened but if you could’ve done it again, you’d do it for the sake of your kids and his career, “Whenever I look back, I knew I could’ve done something better than treat him like that.”

Osamu’s brow quirks up, you were still as calm, cool, and collected as you were six years ago. It was scary how Atsumu fell for you when you were this unphased and cold. What the hell was he on when he fell in love with you?

“Well, thanks to you, he worked himself to the bone.” He shrugs, “He’s got a better life now.”

“I know.”

It may not look like it but from time to time, you’d check up and see how he was doing. Even more so during these days since your boys were getting into volleyball. Youta’s favorite was Hinata since he was one of the small guys in the league and he played very, very well. Ironically, Yuuto’s favorite setter was not his own father but a guy named Kageyama Tobio from the adlers who could set the ball at any place and had the greatest timing ever.

“He’s got a girl too.”

“That’s goo-”

“ ‘Kaasan!” A loud yell bursts out, cutting out the younger Miya twin. Osamu looks around, wondering who the boy was calling but when he realizes it was you, he’s in shock and he doesn’t even hide it. The cold facade he was waving in front of you immediately diminished when two identical looking boys ran to you at a fast speed, one clung onto your leg while the other was tattle-taling.

“Oh, is that Miya Atsumu, ‘kaasan? You didn’t tell me you knew him!” Yuuto points out, staring at the large man in complete awe. Youta who seems to finally notice who the guy was, immediately lets go of your leg and joins in with his twin, completely forgetting about the little spat they have.

“I’m his twin.” he corrects, Osamu wasn’t very good with talking to kids yet they didn’t seem to mind at all, they were still as excited when they realized that he used to play too and was the one who spiked his brothers sets back then.

“Woah,” Yuuto exclaims, “How are you not in volleyball? I betcha as good as him! Mom would comment how good he plays when we watch him on TV and mom hates sports!”

Osamu doesn’t know what to say next, he’s just surprised that you even watched and kept track of his twin brother after all those harsh words you said on the phone, what’s even more surprising was that you were a mom (and someone's wife probably)  and you seem to have a good life judging by these kids energetic upkeep. 

“...wish we could watch it live though! I heard the adlers and the jackal’s have another game soon!” Yuuto frowns, crossing his arms, “ ‘kaasan’s always busy.”

“How about yer otosan?” Osamu wanted to let that out for a while, he’s very curious to see who you settled down with, according to one of the many stories about you from his twin,  you weren’t a big fan of marriage and settling down permanently. 

“Oh,” Youta blinks, “Kaasan says otosan’s in a better place now. Do you know what that means, Mister?”

Osamu feels his throat constrict at how casual and nonchalant the boy is, he probably got that characteristic from you. These set of twins dealt with the idea of death way too casually towards a stranger.

“Baby, I think you should give him a rest now. Why don’t you both grab the wafers over there.” You try to calmly take them away in front of the grey-haired man, you didn’t want Osamu to keep interacting with them. There would be breadcrumbs left if the boys kept divulging about their lives towards him, Osamu had always been quick-witted despite his quiet nature.

The boys seemed downcasted right after but they listened quickly and wobbled towards the wafer shelf at the front.

“I thought ya didn’t want to get married.” 

“We didn’t,” you blinked, “He was gone before the boys were born, I wasn’t able to tell him.”

Osamu’s eyes narrowed, “You love him or something?” 

“I do,” you replied coolly, “Very much so until today.”

“I see,” the grey-haired man was still looking at you, trying to gouge any reaction but you remained the same, “I wish you did the same to my brother.”

“He seems happy and successful now.” was all you could reply to his bitter phrase, “As sorry as I am, I can’t take back what I did. I can only atone and keep moving forward.”

Miya Osamu wants to yell at you because you didn’t see the state his brother was in after you left but he couldn’t bring himself to, after all, it seemed like you were unappalled by him and that his words would mean absolutely nothing.

“Then I hope I don’t see you again, L/N-san.” he spat, putting as much hatred in his words as possible.

“Have a good night, Miya-san.” You simply replied, bowing down. 

“I wish you did the same to my brother.”

“Kaasan says otosan is in a better place now.”

“Kaasan, do you think otosan would be proud if I became the super best volleyball player?”

“Stupid, it should be the both of us who’re the best!”

“Yeah! If we became the super best volleyball players, maybe he’d come back from that better place when he sees us on tv!”

You suddenly dropped the plate you were holding, a loud sound resonated in the small kitchen. Shakily, as you picked up the broken shards of the plate, you felt something trickling down your cheeks, “Ah…” you breathed out, wiping out the stray tear.

When was the last time you cried?

“Kaasan?” a small voice called out, you hurriedly wipe out the tears and pick up the broken shards of the plates before turning to the two boys in transformer pajamas.

“Hey.” you tried to reply steadily but the little lump on your throat prevented you from doing so, “Have you brushed your teeth?”

The boys gave each other a quick glance and the only thing they replied with was opening their arms to you, you blink for a moment,surprised by their quietness and their open arms, “When we have a bad day, you’d always do this to us.” Youta mutters, seemingly shy by this, they were never one for big hugs and kisses, saying they were big boys now.

“Did that miya atsumu-fake make you cry, kaasan? Should we get’im?” Yuuto grumbles, their attitude seems to contrast their exciting ones a while ago.

You bend down to their level and just encompassed them in a hug, “Kaasan’s just tired,” you hummed as you buried yourself between them, seeping in the warmth of their hugs and comfort, “I’m all better now, I’ve got you two anyways.”

You placed the small encounter you had with Miya Osamu at the back of your head, not wanting it to be a distraction or a hindrance. You couldn’t cry in front of your kids anymore than that night, you shouldn’t. You were a single parent, the only rock and permanent companion your kids would have for the rest of their lives, you couldn’t let them down.

“L/N-san have you heard?” 

Thankfully it was your day-off today and you could pick up the boys earlier than usual. The mom next to you looked more excited and elated, you were betting that this had something to do with gossip around their circles.

“I’m sure she hasn’t, she’s a rather busy mom, akiko-san.” another gushed.

“Ah yes!” she giggled, “Sorry I can’t contain my excitement but Sugawara-sensei is very good friends with a member of the black jackals, apparently he was his kohai back in high school.”

You feel your shoulders tense, it couldn’t be right? The amount of coincidences seemed to hit you like a truck, first osamu, now your kids teacher?

“Ninja Shoyou was it? Yes, well, they’ve decided to host a mini training camp this weekend! All the members would be there! Ah, I hope my boy gets noticed!” Riya grins, “Your boys would be very pumped, right? I personally heard Sensei telling them how natural they seemed to be. They even had their own jerseys made for the class!”

You could only nervously nod along and excuse yourself, you wanted to hurry home and deny your boys to go to this training camp. As much as you supported their love for the sport, you weren’t ready for them to meet him. They loved to blab and if Atsumu were to get wind of them, what would he say?

You didn’t want him to deny them right at their faces.

At the same time, somewhere at an upstate part of the city. Miya Atsumu lays on his bed with a naked woman sprawled next to him. His head’s fuzzy from the alcohol he drank last night and how early he and his partner had finished.

“What the fuck, put some clothes on, ya freak.” He hears his brother curse as soon as he goes out of his bedroom. Osamu would randomly make an appearance in Tokyo to fix up his plans for the franchising of his store.

“Thought you had your own place to crash?” Atsumu ignores his brother’s statement as he grabs a short that had been thrown to the side last night.

“I’m going back later, thought I’d swing by before I went home.”

“How nice of you.” the blonde deadpanned, “You should leave though, Riku’s still here.”

“You don’t say...you lot like to go at it like animals in heat.” he mutters, a look of disgust crossed his features, “I’m just here to drop by some food, I can’t leave you dying.”

“Could’ve left it in the ref and dashed off when you saw the panty on the couch.”

“Again,” Osamu crinkles his nose, “Disgusting. Kita-san would throw some disinfectant at you.”

The blonde rolled his eyes in reply as he grabbed some water by the refrigerator, Osamu watched his brother for a bit, wondering if he should tell him. They’ve never talked about Y/N after that phone call six years ago, he had to walk on eggshells around his brother for a year because of that, taking in a quick breather, he confessed, “I saw Y/N.” 

The room turned silent, Osamu waits for a reaction, a curse or anything similar to that yet he’s surprised by the lazy smirk adorning his brother's features, “Hn, it looks like you’re the one who she called and broke up with on the phone.” he laughs.

Osamu is wary but he doesn’t push it, “I was just surprised that’s all, you weren’t exactly in a good place after she left.”

“That was ages ago, ‘samu!” he exclaims, shaking it off, “I betcha she still doesn’t give two shits about me and what happened because that’s how she is but i don’t care because i’m living the life now! I’ve even got a nicer and prettier girl now! Who, mind you, is better than her in many emotional levels. Y/N’s history.”

Osamu didn’t want to tell him about the kids or the ‘man’ you met after Atsumu who you claim to love very dearly so he kept his mouth shut and just went with the flow of the conversation. Not pointing out how his twin just changed the topic right after as if he didn’t want to dwell on it and open anymore wounds.

tag list (closed)

@fortheloveofiwaizumi @svtbitch @ryaaaax @kiyoomile @lovedanii @juno-multifandom​ @gyubit17​

[fakeloveaskblog]

aw, sweet loceit in the evening sun. logan is actually super good at explaining healthy relationships and boundaries and stuff actually, i betcha he could recognize abuse no problem

…aye remy! REMY!! HAve you thought about going to that gay bar more often? who knows, maybe you'll encounter someone nice, make friends with like-minded people, hear some disco, the full nine yards. janus might be there, remus might be there. (just look around for the guy with the blue tie, he's a great guy, if he's not wearing it he'll look like he has that blue tie kinda energy! you could totally just get drunk and unload your grievances on him and i bet he won't even mind!)

(Mentions of U!Virgil but I say beforehand when that happens so those who don’t like U!Virgil can enjoy the rest of the fic up until then)

(Words: 4100)

Remy wiped away a tear while looking at your message. The cold light from their phone was the only thing brightening up the room. Virgil was sleeping beside them, his arm was laid around their waist.

"You just like tots gave me the greatest idea! I'm gonna invite Rem out to the bar! It's gonna the funnest thing like ever! Thanks girl!!"

--

2 days later Remus was dangerously close to eating the moss straight from the gay bar's wall. He had been left without supervision for over 15 minutes while he sat outside waiting for his friend to show up, what else was he supposed to do?!

"SSSSUUUP BABE!!!"

Remy came towards him as fast as they could. They had on a short leather skirt, a neon mesh crop top and a leather jacket over it.

They did a little turn "I just like felt a bit glamorous today!" 

Remus choked on his own spit "The world must be a dark place when you aren't feeling glamorous"

"Awwww babbbe"

He sent them a big grin. He'd just put on his usual oversized dysphoria hoodie and matching oversized (:O) sweatpants.

Remus' smile disappeared in an instant as he noticed dark bruises all around Remy's neck. Shades of purple and green collided against each other.

"Ehm did a vampire come and attack you last night? Seriously are you alri-"

"JUst a reminder that it will be loud in there" Remy interrupted.

"Oh. Right!"

He fumbled around in his bag after his headphones. After putting it and a chew necklace on he did a thumbs up. Remy took off their sunglasses and leaned down so they were face to face.

Their face was so close he could feel their breathe against his lips. They put the sunglasses onto him and sent him a soft smile.

“There’s like lots of bright lights too” They explained.

Remus��� heart fluttered. He didn’t understand why “T-thanks”

They moved their arm around his shoulders as they went into the bar. It was past 12 am so some of the daytime furniture had been moved to make place for a dancefloor. There was indeed lots of neon lights flickering all around the bar and fast pop music was blasting through the speakers.

It was hard to see any details of anyone around him so Remus quickly forgot about the bruise. In this lighting it just looked like a weird choker anyway.

A guy with a see through shirt bumped into Remus. He had top surgery scars. For a moment they looked at each other in the most knowing way. The stranger looked away and continued talking with whoever he was with.

Remus whole body seemed to vibrate. There were so many butterflies in his stomach it felt like he was going to puke, in a good way.

Remy sat him down on one of the tall barstools and slumped down right next to him “So whatcha gonna drink?”

“The squashed down organs of my enemies!!!” He shrugged “Soda?”

They burst out into laughter “What? You catholic or something? Not allowed to drink alcohol?”

He slumped in on himself and started fiddling with his necklace “I-I dunno-”

“No. No babe I was just like joking. Like a stupid bitch. It’s okay” They waved at the waiter “Your most alcoholic fruit mix and your finest coca cola please!”

Remus leaned in to whisper “With salt”

“With salt? Please!”

He kept vibrating like an overexcited weasel. After getting their drinks he kept tapping the glass to stim some of the happiness out.

“Honestly I’ve never been to a gay bar before. I’m digging it. Just like how I’m digging graves”

They playfully hit his shoulder “Then I’m tots gonna try my best to make this the  ultimate first gay bar experience! I can’t think of any other lil fucked up gremlin buddy I would wanna have by my side!”

"Muhahah!! I am officially assigned ultimate gremlin buddy-”

“Greetings” A voice suddenly came from behind them.

Both of them flinched away. Remy let out a short yell and Remus was close to throwing his drink in the person’s face when he saw it was just Logan.

He had on jeans and a black button up with the top button unbottoned. He had with him iced coffee from starbucks because he had to drive home later.

“LOGIE!!!” Remy threw their arms around his neck to pull him closer “Babe this is the Log-legend. Once he was like sooo drunk so when he like tried to kiss me puked on my shoes instead!”

Logan grimaced “I am still very sorry about that”

“Oh I already know him through Janus” Remus replied. 

“Oh my gawd babe” Remy looked between them all “So like we all know Janny?! Wig! Sad he isn’t here then”

Remus held up his cola “Cheers to J-anus!” The other two held up their glasses in agreement.

“Cheers”

“Cheerio!”

“He is very pretty and charming and cute” Logan dreamily sighed. He stopped himself from continuing to say compliments.

“Yeah” The other two sighed back in unison.

Logan sat down on a chair next to them. Remy looked around the bar before squinting at him “No Patty?”

He instantly started looking like a Very sad seal “Sadly my wife is away on a convention with her magical girl anime fanclub this whole week. I estimated that going to the bar would make me feel less lonely”

“You have a WIFe??? Like a real one???” Remus exclaimed, his eyeballs were close to popping out from surprise.

“Yes. This may be a controversial opinion but when I marry someone I prefer them to be physically real” He replied druly.

He got a smug grin on his lips “Does she peg you?”

“She does far more than just peg me”

“Nice!” His eyes went even wider “IS That a stim toy??!”

He pointed at the tangle Logan kept between his fingers “Correct. If I do not have something to relieve my focus onto I can easily go into senso- OH a chewie?”

Remus nodded while showing of his chew necklace. The two of them started rambling about their favorite stim toy. Until they went off into special interests (star trek/astronomy and art/animal biology respectively).

Soon enough Remus was showing pictures of the animal bones he’d found. Logan ooeh and ahhed at all of them before asking the most nerdy of questions (where he’d found them, their bone density, if any damage had been done to them) which only made Rem infodump which made Lo infodump which made them both happy stim.

Meanwhile Remy sat beside them completely zoned out. They got time to drink 2 more of those fruit mixes and a few shots. The room was starting to spin.

The loud music wasn’t keeping out the yelling. They dunked their forehead against the bar table and covered their ears to try and get it out. The music was supposed to keep it out! Why was nothing working! The bruise ached. Their throat closed in on itself until they couldn’t breathe. 

“Remus” They gasped out. They looked over to their friend with a desperate look in their eyes. They just needed a distraction.

“So my theory for why you keep finding bones in specifically that part of the woods is because of the kind of dirt making it take longer for them to deco-” Logan was explaining while Remus nodded along.

“Rem! L-let’s like go up and dance or something. Please” 

This time it caught Remus’ attention. He looked over to them “Sure- are you feeling alright? Did you drink too much? You’re looking like a mummy”

“Yes. No. I just like- Like- They’re playing Charli xcx of course we gotta like dance!!”

“I will protect your belongings then” Logan added.

Remy stumbled up on shaky legs. Remus sent them a warm smile that made them want to cry before taking their hand. He let them lead him out to the dancefloor. Honestly he was pretty nervous about it, but being with them always made some of the anxiety melt away.

They stumbled on their own feet and fell forward. Their friend took ahold of their wrists and pulled them close to his chest. Their faces were so close to each other. So so close.

He didn’t let go. They couldn't remember him ever letting them hold him this close. Their chests pressed against each other. Their arms around his shoulders. His hands on their back. 

"You’re right. It is a good song. Good to crash a car too" Remus said absentmindedly.

Remy let up into shaky giggles from how sudden he’d said it “Yeah. Yeah I guess” 

They kept giggling. He chuckled back. He started spinning around on the dancefloor. They moved with him. His arms wrapped closer around their waist. Their cheek leaned against the slope of his neck (even though they had to lean down to get on his height level).

Remy quietly sang along to the music which made Remus start yelling along to it. The enby threw their head back from laughter. They took his hand and intertwined their fingers.

Remus moved his hand out and spun them around before pulling them close again. Their cheeks were flushed red, his was as well. He playfully dipped them down when the song ended.

It continued on into a song neither of them knew but they kept dancing anyway. They didn’t stay as pressed close to each other but they always had some contact. Holding hands. An arm around a waist. A head leaning against a chest.

When they finally got back to the bar table they were both panting. Remy was completely leaning on Remus since their body had started to hurt, but even through the pain they were both bubbling over with so much happiness they kept breaking out into bouts of giggling.

To their surprise Logan wasn’t sitting alone. A tall person with long dark hair sat on the chair beside him. Xir hand was on his thigh. The nerd had a soft smile on his face as they leant close to talk.

“Uh Lo?” Remus had to wave his arms around to get his attention.

His head shot around to look at them “Hello” He glanced to the person “These are the ones I was protecting belongings for” He stood up and held out his hand “Shall we?” Xir took it. Logan waved at his friends before going off to the dancefloor with the stranger.

“Huh. Good for him” 

“I guess”

Remy ordered another high alcohol fruit mix. Remus happily chewed on his necklace while humming along to the music. Between their chairs their hands hang with their fingers intertwined. Holding their hand had started to make Remus feel all funny in the head for some reason.

The enby watched on as Logan and the stranger danced for a bit before moving to a corner to make out. When the stranger started to lead him towards the bar’s bathrooms Remy turned to their friend.

“Yeah okay he’s not coming back for like a while. Smoke break?”

“Of course!”

They finished their drink before leaving the bar. The pair stopped right outside. Remus sat down on the side of the pavement. Remy tried to sit down but they stumbled over themself and fell flat on the ground.

Remus got up to help “Are you okay? Are you sure you haven’t drank too much?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine” They laughed out.

He sat them down on the pavement while dusting off their clothes. He patted them on the head while pouting “You should get some water”

“Naaaah babe. I’m good”

In the moonlight the bruise was visible again. That horrible dark purple bruise around their neck. It looked like it hurt.

Remus put his hand on their shoulder “Beanie are you alright? I do know it wasn’t some halloween monster that got you that bruise”

For a moment their whole body tensed, they forced a smile “It’s fine. me and my boyf just tried like some new kinky shit in the bedroom y’know. Nothing more” They lied.

They took out a cigarette pack and a lighter from their bag. They traced their thumb over Remus’ lower lip and opened his mouth just slightly. Remy leaned closer while putting a cigerette between his lips. They lit it.

Remus took a deep breathe. It’d been a while since he’d last smoked. He leaned so close the cigarette nearly touched Remy’s skin. They parced their lips as he breathed out the smoke right into their mouth.

A smile spread on their lips. He held the cigarette over to them but they shook their head. They looked around in their bag again and took out a small poppers bottle.

“Should you really take that. Won’t your brain melt out of your ears?” Remus asked “I really don’t wanna have to slorp up your brain juice...yet”

“Relax babe. It’s like not dangerous as long as I don’t like take too much and I only take when partying” It took a moment before they quietly added “And I only party when I need to get out of the apartement”

“What?”

They forced on a bigger smile “What?”

Remy moved the popper up to their nose and inhaled as much of it as they could. It took a few seconds before they let up into a giggle. It was in a higher tone than their usual bubbly laugh, it almost sounded like cackling. They could see stars.

(U!Virgil mentions from here on out)

“Y’know my boyfriend gave me like a flashback or whatever last night” They giggled while swaying from side to side.

Remus gently grabbed their shoulders and moved them to lean against him so they wouldn’t fall over “Uhu. Did you stab him?”

“No silly. He just. He’d been soooo sweet all weeek and I just I just ruined it ‘cause i like overeacted to some joke he made while like we were washing the dishes” They were barely even aware they were speaking “And like it just kept going until we were like screaming at each other”

Remy was still smiling and giggling between every word but tears started to form in their eyes. Their fingers felt numb. Bile was rising in their throat.

“And he just like threw the plate he was holding down on the ground. And it like didn’t hit me. He wasn’t even aiming at me. He was just throwing it at the ground. But it shattered and it was so stupid and overemotional and stupid and pathetic but I just I just curled up on the floor and like had a panic attack like a stupid baby”

They smeared their hand across their face to try and get the tears away. They felt sick. Remus quickly put out his cigarette, it didn’t feel like the right time to smoke.

“And I just like- Is that normal? Is that fine? Like throwing stutff like that? I-I- he’s never done it before. Or I mean like not plates” They looked up at Remus “Is it fine?”

He gulped while fiddling with his hoodie sleeve “Well uh did he apologize?”

“Mhmm. He like- like for some minutes he like kept yelling ‘cause he thought I was just like faking a panic attack to like I dunno manipulate him but then he like comforted me and like calmed me down and like held me and cuddled all night until I fell asleep and- and he said sorry a bunch of times and like he said it would never happen again. He uh usually doesn’t lie”

“Well ehm then it should be fine right? Right?” They both shrugged at each other “I mean everyone can make mistakes! And it was during an argument! Everyone does drastic things during an arguments! So it’s fine. I think”

A shaking breathe of relief left Remy’s lips. They stretched themself over his lap and he moved his arms around them. “Thanks babe. I was like tots worried for a bit but y’know i was thinking like that too. So it’s fine”

“Yeah” He combed his fingers through their hair “You do know you can vent to me whenever right? I promise I won’t gross you out with details about how to pull out rabbit teeth ever again so if I can hold that back then I can also listen to stuff! I can super listen!!”

They closed their eyes. They felt so tired. So tired and sick and horrible. “Mhm. I know babe. I know”

Remy sent him a soft smile before suddenly puking. Some of it came on his pants but mostly on the ground. Remus stood up and carefully moved them down to a sitting position.

He rubbed up and down their back with one hand and held their hair back with his other. Their shoulders were shaking and they were taking in shallow breathes between every sudden throw up.

“It’s okay beanie-boo. Breathe. Breathe. You got all the time in the world. Until the sun blows up at least”

“I-I took- too much- too much” They slurred out before lurching forward again. It seemed to stop for now.

“I’m aware” He carefully wiped away some of the puke left around their mouth with his hoodie sleeve.

They leaned back against his chest. They closed their eyes and focused on breathing. He held them so so gently. As if they would break like glass otherwise. He pressed a kiss to the top of their head.

“There you are!” Logan said as came through the bar entrance “What a relief. I assumed you had left without me because you thought my actions were unacceptable” He noticed how pale and shaky Remy looked and got a worried look on his face “Is everything alright?”

“They feel like someone has slammed a fish into their stomach. Not good” Remus replied.

“I see. I suppose it woud be best to get them home”

Logan picked Remy up with ease to carry them to his car. He was quite sure he’d carried dogs that weighted more than them. Remus anxiously followed along.

He sat them in the passenger seat. He shook their shoulders until they opened their eyes. They let out a quiet whine.

He held up 4 fingers “Remy how many fingers am I holding up?”

“Fuck yourself”

“Noted”

They moved to the side and seemed to pass out again. Logan closed the door before turning to Remus.

“Did they take anything?” He whispered.

“Only a popper”

“Good. Do you need a ri-”

“Bus”

“Okay” Logan was about to go but stopped midstep and lowered his voice even more “Oh and Rem...Could you please not ask Janus to hang out next weekend? I am planning a surprise...I hope it will make him happy”

“Good luck comrade....Please text me once Remy is home safe. Please?”

“Of course”

He did a little nod before leaving. Logan got into the car. He couldn’t stop looking at the bruise around their neck. Remy continued to sleep for most of the ride until they they were 5 minutes or so away from their apartment. They suddenly flinched awake.

“Stop the car!” They gasped out. 

“Are you still feeling the same?”

“Logan stop the fucking car!” There was fear in their eyes. 

Logan stopped by the side of the road. The road was barren and dark. It had to be past 3 am at least. Remy crawled back into the backseats while their whole body shook.

“Don’t. Look. At. Me”

“Sure” He stared down into the steering wheel to not accidentally see their reflection in the glass.

“I just. I just have to change clothes. I just. I don’t want Virigl to call me a whore again. I mean. He won’t. But what if. What if he gets mad. I just. I just have to change” They slurred out.

They stumbled out of the car after changing into a pair of long pants and closing their leather jacket. A cold chill went up Logan’s spine. He quickly stepped out of the car as well.

“Okay bye bye Logie!!”

They tried to move but Logan grabbed onto their shoulders. He forced back a choking feeling in his throat “What do you mean by your boyfriend getting mad?”

“Pff! It’s nothing! I’m drunk!! Byyyeeeeee”

They started to stumble away but Logan easily followed along “It did not sound like he called you a whor-...you know what...with your consent. I am simply going to remind you that calling a partner things like that is not okay. Not in any circumstance”

Remy’s expression turned cold. They walked faster “I don’t like what you’re implying”

“I’m not implying anything”

“Yes you Fucking are!”

“Exscuse me for being worried about your wellbeing. What you just said sounded like a very bad sign”

“Yeah exactly it only SOUnded bad! My boyfriend isn’t bad!” Remy snarled out.

“I am not saying he is. He doesn’t have to be bad to say awful things, as long as he changes”

They shoved their hands into their pockets. Their hands moved into fists “You don’t know a fucking thing about me. You tried to kiss me once when you were drunk and that’s all. We don’t know each other”

Logan took a deep breathe “I don’t need to know you to see red flags. Remy-” He searched for words “Remy you’re bruised. How- you can’t expect me to not get worried”

Remy suddenly stopped and turned around to meet his eyes. “MY BOYFRIEND ISN’T ABUSIVE! I-”

“I’m not necessarily saying he is. I just wan’t to talk-” His voice started to sound desperate.

They looked like a cornered animal. Tears were brimming at the edges of their eyes “YOU DON’T KNOW A THING!”

“Remy-”

“I DID THIS TO MYSELF!” Their hand went up to the bruise “I DESERVED IT! VIRGIL DIDN’T DO A FUCKING THING! I DID! I TOOK A BELT AND HURT MYSELF! OKAY?! VIRGIL CARES ABOUT ME!”

He tried to sound soothing “Remy please take a deep breathe-”

“NO! NO! YOU KNOW WHAT LOGAN?! THERE IS STILL CUM ON YOUR FUCKING LIPS FROM YOU SUCKING OFF SOME STRANGER IN A DIRTY BATHROOM! SO NO! I AM NOT TAKING LOVE ADVICE FROM SOMEONE WHO IS CHEATING ON HIS GODDAMN WIFE!”

They stormed away. For a moment Logan was frozen in place before he forced himself to run after them to try and make sure they would be okay.

“I am not-”

Remy looked at him for one last time. The look in their eyes made him feel cold. It was pure hatred.

“Logan get the fuck away from me! I am drunk and high and alone on a street with no one but you who is sure as hell fucking stronger than me and all you’re doing is spouting bullshit! So please get why I want you to leave. And why I don’t ever want you to talk to me again!”

He stopped dead in his tracks “...Right....Yes....I am so sorry”

Remy didn’t even respond. They simply turned and walked away. Logan stayed and watched to make sure they got home to the apartment safe before going back to his car.

He slumped down in the seat. His heart was racing and his thoughts were for once an illogical flurry. He sat motionless for several minutes before finally getting some semblence of an idea.

He took out his phone and dialed one of his usual numbers. It took several signals before Emile Picani picked up.

“Mhm? Logie bear? I can’t today I have clients in the morning” He yawned out.

“This is about one of your patients. I am fearing that they are in danger”

In an instant all of the sleepyness in Emile’s voice disappeared “In danger? Physical? Is it urgent? Do I need to call someone? Which patient are you even referring to?”

Logan hesitated. If Remy had reacted that strongly to him just attempting to ask about his boyfriend it was very likely that they would stop going to therapy if Emile brought it up. His throat tightened, he didn’t want to put them in any more danger.

“I....Nevermind Emile....This was just a far too gone joke...Someone dared me to call you. I am sorry. Have a good night”

He ended the call. He leaned his forehead against the steering wheel and let out a long sigh. His hands held onto the wheel so hard his knuckles whitened.

Logan had no idea what to do. No idea at all. All he knew was fear. Fear for Remy’s safety. Fear for their well being. Fear that anything he did would only make their situation worse.

[izukult]

beej gets a phone

summary: just some headcanons about been having a phone and how he texts u because it makes me soft

beej x reader!

GN i’m p sure

-so you got betelgeuse a phone when he started getting ridiculously annoying everytime you had to leave the house.

-clearly he couldn’t necessarily come with you everywhere (surprise: your boss didn’t like it when you brought a dead guy to your christmas party) and clearly he’s clingy as all hell. he never wanted you to go anywhere and when you got back he’d hold on to you for what felt like years even if you had stuff you had to do (you typically didn’t complain)

-so a phone seemed like a good idea, right? no harm, right? ehhhh

-he spams the fuck out of you all the time and he CANNOT (or will not) spell anything correct

-“babes”

-“babes were are you”

-you just hit him back with that “where*” and he’s like >:( >:( <3

-when he found out you turned your phone to silent because his spam he did some spooky wooky ghost shit or SMTH and made it to where your silent mode didn’t work

-“pls txt back i’m dying here”

-“get it babes?”

-“get it coz i’m dead lol”

-“i miss you come home soon”

-once he figures out what gifs are you’re done for. you’re DONE FOR. he sends them every other text.

-you do try to text back as often as you can, but when you’re away at work or with people or driving, texting back isn’t super easy.

-which of course leads to him calling you.

-one time your friend picked up the phone for you as a joke and when they heard his voice you had to say his was your ‘sick grandfather’

-he takes photos of you all the fucking time now

-“it’s good material for me on me time, babes”

-yeah, of course he made a joke about wanking but the real reason he takes photos is because he just stares at you with giant fucking heart eyes

-speaking of, he loves emojis. but ironic ones. or “edgy ones”. he sends the water gun emoji everytime you tell him you’re with a friend he’s intimidated by.

-“oh i’m just with —”

-“hmm.”

-which is immediately followed by a “🚨🚑🚔🔫🔫🔫”

-“babes, u can watch porn on here ?!??!!?!?”

-he definitely set his own contact name which is “LUVUR GOST” or some shit and he won’t let you fix it, spelling errors and all. but, he did make sure to spell your contact name right and it’s a cute nickname for you with his favorite photo of you that he took.

-i feel like beej can spell he just chooses not to, to be completely fuckin honest.

-sometimes he texts you even when you’re sitting right next to each other.

-“hey, wyd??”

-you just look at him and squint “bitch what the fuck, i’m right here???”

-and then he doesn’t even respond to you verbally he’ll text you again and be like “pls don’t ignore me ik u have ur phone”

-okay so flat out though: beej loves you and he likes to remind you that whether it’s in telling you or in his own special ways- like bringing you dead insects or some shit. he’s kind of like a cat? a really verbal, really energetic, really keyboard smash kind of cat.

-he types shit like >:(, :), :D, >:) etc. he fucking LIVES on that. it’s his religion

-one time he took a picture of his junk and literally kissed his fingers and said “chefs kiss” before deleting the picture forever because he quickly realized photos of dicks? not so hot

-oh yeah no beej learning memes and trends is fucking terrifying. one day you come home and he’s got his hair in pigtails with really poorly drawn hearts under his eyes because he found out was tik tok was. that was a BAD day

-after he got a phone he says “ok boomer” to old dead people ngl.

-“ur so hot. ur MY breather. and if any of those other breathers breathe on u i’m gonna make sure they never breathe again”

-“how many times can beej say breathe in one sentence challenge”

-he sends you a bunch of lovey dovey texts all the time and you’re both happy about that. you send lovey dovey texts back and he screenshots them and adds them to a folder he has of you.

-you? you’re his home screen, you’re his lock screen, you’re his everything

-he uses social media to advertise for people to say his name three times. is he extra? yes. does he care? no. has he been scaring some people? you betcha.

-he always, always, always misses you when you leave the house but having a phone makes it to where you can talk when you’re gone and he loves that so much because you’re just his favorite thing in the whole world and he’s not too bad himself, so you don’t really mind the spam

[rigels-nigels]

Can't believe I'm saying this, but 48 with Intrulogical. But, with the tie pulling tho. And don't be mean to Remus, u heccer.

;)

One person has to bend down in order to kiss their partner, who is standing on their tip-toes to reach their partner’s.

-----

Remus grins up at Logan, tugging the tie a little bit more, pulling him closer. This was honestly one of his favourite things to do, among others ;)

He just adored the way it made Logans face turn a bright red, how he stuttered and stumbled over his words, tried to pretend he wasn’t affected but he could tell, and he loved to just make it worse. It was what he’s best at, after all!

If only he wasn’t so damn tall, even pulling him down like this he had to stand on the tips of his toes to reach him. Well, one does what one must, and he absolutely must steal a kiss, and if he leaves him too flustered and maybe a bit marked up for everyone else to see later on, well, he was hardly complaining.

“Heya Logie.” He whispered lowly, their lips just barely centimeters apart.

“Uh, he-hello Remus. What uh, what are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m sure you could guess.” He licks his lips, watching Logan’s eyes dart down and up again. Oh he was gonna have some fun with him later.

“I,, I suppose I could, yes. You know, I’m certain there’s a far comfier way to do this, then you wouldn’t have to uh,,”

“Yeeeeees?”

“So you wouldn’t have t-to uh, pull my tie. It’s really quite unnecessary.”

“Oh is it now. Well so are clothes! And heads! We could could get rid of those too! Here, let me start.” A free hand goes to his belt, just about to pull it off when Logan grabs his wrist.

“No, Remus. Keep your clothes on. And your head as well.”

He pouted, slouching a bit and pulling Logan down with him. “Aw but Lo-”

“No. Especially not here.”

He shrugged, standing up straight again and grinned, winking. “Never stopped me before.”

Logan could only give a tired sigh at that, he was more than aware. Still grinning, Remus went back on his tippy toes and, tugging him down again because he was still outrageously tall, he gave him a quick little peck on the lips. “Betcha I can shove a whole bottle of ketchup down my throat.”

Logan blinked at him, face that wonderful shade of red, taking a moment for his thoughts to come back to him. And they did, rather quickly too, but not quick enough. By the time he’d come out of his minor shock, Remus had already opened the fridge and grabbed the ketchup, leaving him to rush over and try to stop him. This would be the 9th time this week he’s done that, and at this point Logan was really wondering why he didn’t just let him.

[yourhero404]

Katsuki’s Birthday (4/20/19)

A/N: TECHNICALLY I’M ONLY LIKE, TWO HOURS LATE TO THE PARTY (it’s uh almost 1am as I post this) BUT EVERY DAY IS A GOOD DAY TO LOVE AND APPRECIATE BAKUGO KATSUKI

Idk why I made this shit sad and I also dunno why I can’t hold onto a plot line but I’ve been exhausted and I just couldn’t let myself NOT do anything for his birthday so here, have this anyway

Villain!Reader and ProHero!Bakugo? You betcha. Hell yes. It’s honestly one of my favourite ideas and I really hope I can write more some time ;u;

Why was today so fucking busy?

Bakugo was never one to fuss about a birthday, especially his own, but the amount of work he’s got on his plate today was massive compared to the usual and he was beyond ready to just go home. A villain here, a theft there—aren't there other heroes working? Ridiculous. What made it worse was the fact that no one seemed to remember that his birthday had been today; He was happy because it meant there was no large, over the top party waiting for him, but some part of him actually felt... lonely.

He stood amongst the wreckage of a, luckily, abandoned warehouse, sweeping the building one last time to make sure he and the police arrested everyone involved in the bust. Very faintly, a creak came from broken boards of the exposed second floor above his head, causing his attention to snap to the silhouette leaning against the wall.

“Oh, Explode-a-boy,” the voice drawled from the clearer image of (Y/n), “Lookin’ a little worn out there.”

“Fuck off,” He spat, “Either come down here and get the ass kicking that’s coming to you or get lost. I’m not in the mood to deal with you.”

“Woah,” they took liberty of their sarcastic cat’s meow and hopped down to the space in front of him, “Those pants got your panties in a bunch today?”

“Didn’t I tell you to fuck off?”

His lips turned up to a snarl, a few medium explosions coming from his palm to serve as a warning for the villain in front of him to back off. They gave him a smile and threw their hands up as a sign of surrender before gesturing for him to relax.  

The curve of their lips was unsettling—something about it pissed him off; It wasn’t smug or dark, but... genuine. That’s what pissed him off—how genuine this villain always was amongst their attitude, it was... human. They fought every time they came together, but it never seemed to end in a win or a loss, just a smile from them as they left—it felt like the damn training sessions he’d gone through in school. This villain was an odd one, and they left and even more odd feeling in his chest with each interaction.

“Okay okay, I can see you’re having a rough kinda day,” they offered their apology with a bow that held a large flourish, lightly making their way backwards towards their exit, “I just wanted to tell you about a little surprise I have for you-”

“What surprise?” He cut them off, his entire form dripping with irritation, “If you’re looking for a fight-”

“God, shut up for five seconds, big head.” They curled their lip to a snarl that rivaled his own, “Since you’re beyond rude, I won’t tell you now.”

“Tell me.”

“Not happening!” They turned quickly and made their way far out of his reach, throwing one last smile over their shoulder, “You’ll just have to wait for it!”

“Great,” he murmured to himself, “Just what I needed. More fucking work to do today.”  

The rest of his day was just as hectic, the stress he held in his shoulders over the idea that some large-scale attack by (Y/n) could happen at any moment did nothing to help his mood, either. Not one ‘happy birthday’ text, not one second glance his way—everything was bland and mundane. Is this truly what it was like to be an adult? It was a shitty sort of life to lead, especially since he’d been dreaming of this heroic sort of world since he could remember. The only thing he looked forward to now was the shower that was calling his name, but he couldn’t have that either, it seemed.

All it took was a small crack of his front door to allow the smell of food to hit his face. Food? There shouldn’t be any smell of food; Now on high alert, he threw the door open quickly and held his hand ready for any sort of attack—only to be met with an empty room.  

On the counter in his small kitchen sat a plate—a warm plate, actually, there was an abundance of steam coming off of the spicy curry that sat on it. Someone had to of just left it there moments ago, but who? The small, handwritten note beside it gave him his answer—and for some reason, it didn’t cause him any worry like it should have.

‘Nice place, Explodokill. You really should clean your fridge up, though—you really do live like a single dude. I told you I had a surprise for you, didn’t I? Figured you were too tired to do it yourself, so I made you something.’

He eyed the food sitting on the counter before a small arrow on the bottom of the note caught his eye, and he turned it over to find the continuing message.

‘NO, I didn’t poison the food. Killing you like that would be too easy, I want you to go out in some big, extravagant fight. Basically, it’s safe. Check the fridge when you’re done.’

Too tired to really argue with that logic, Bakugo cautiously took a bite, not really knowing why, but mostly trusting the food. It smelt divine—extra spicy and had some sort of twist to it, one he couldn’t put his finger on but knew he hadn’t had homecooked dinner that good in a while. Ignoring any sort of logic to be wary of their intentions, he checked the fridge as they had suggested and found a small, home-baked cake waiting for him as well. It was lopsided, frosted hastily, and held a coloured message with an equally lopsided smiley face-- ‘Congrats, you’re old’. He couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh—it shook his entire body until tears formed in his eyes; Just who was this person? What sort of evil villain breaks into a hero's home to cook them dinner and bake them a cake? What villain would go out of their way to do something so nice to their enemy? Bakugo always knew they were never a typical villain—maybe that’s why he somehow ended up fond of them, not that he’d admit it to anyone.  

He ate his cake- it tasted good despite its appearance- in a deafening silence, only now truly realizing how lonely he had felt today. Dragging it along, he made the cake made for one last as long as possible to keep him busy, once it was gone, he’d fall further into the realization he was alone. With heavy sighs out of the way, he silently promised himself he’d wash the used dishes later and pushed past his bedroom door to find a small box sitting on his open window sill.  

Knowing who it was from immediately, he unwrapped it- not too rough just in case they had some sort of joke to pull, but not too soft either- to find something shiny inside. On a metal chain sat a thin silver grenade-shaped pendant that resembled the gauntlets he wore with his costume, the iconic ‘X’ from his shirt engraved across it. He couldn’t stop the smallest smile from gracing his lips, only for it to drop in shock as he felt some sort of engraving on the back of it.  

‘#1 Hero- King Explosion Murder’

Bakugo swallowed hard, irritated at how easily something like this had brought tears to his eyes. He was getting emotional over a necklace he received as a gift from a villain—a villain! Yet, they had listened to him each and every time they had spoken during their fights, paid attention to each little detail of their interactions, and took the time to get him something so heartfelt. It was stupid, he knew, to develop feelings for a villain, especially one considered to be your nemesis, but how could he stop himself from falling now that they had done all of this, when no one else had even bothered to remember? Maybe they weren’t a villain by choice but by necessity—they certainly were kind at heart, and it made his own feel as though it were going to jump out of his chest at the thought of them. He had a lot to think about, all of which held (Y/n) as the main topic.

Light footsteps hopped down from his window sill, very cautiously making their way in front of him. They stopped at a careful distance, ensuring an easy getaway should he decide to attack, but he hadn’t even looked up at them. He sat at the edge of his bed, allowing them to walk just a few steps forward to make up the distance, sitting in silence for a few more moments as he clutched his newest prized possession.  

They made a move to say something, but were caught off guard at the grip he held on their wrist—before they could react, he pulled them close and wrapped his arms around their waist tightly, hiding his face against their abdomen. A few moments of realization were all it took before they gave him a gentle reaction, lightly combing his tangled hair with their fingers and laying their other hand on the back of his neck in reassurance. Normally, they would take the opportunity to tug on his nerves, piss him off, make him break—but they only smiled sadly to themselves as they barely caught the sniffling and hiccups that came from the blonde wrapped around them. Falling for a hero was the stupidest thing they could have ever done, but seeing just how soft the explosive man could be in times like this made every interaction they’ve had worth it.

(Y/n) consoled him as well as grieved for their own feelings, knowing just how vastly different their worlds were, and silently accepting they’d be destined for a road of destruction, but for the moment, just this one moment, maybe the two of them could be happy. They felt his arms pull them closer as they spoke softly, making the moment between them as personal as it could be—no hero, no villain, just human.

“Happy Birthday, Katsuki.”

[9g99]

Quiet Intimacy - C.H.

summary - Friends can sleep in each other’s beds, but friends don’t treat each other like you and Calum do.

word count - 3.9k+

author’s note - slow burn best friends to lovers AU again?? u betcha babey. you know that one cocktail chat where calum’s like ‘oh wassup baby’?? yeah i got inspiration from that. enjoy :-)

warnings - swearing, depressive episode/anxiety attack (it’s mainly just breakdown from stress u kno??), mentions of alcohol and drinking, mentions of water and (feeling like one is) drowning, fluff + angst

Calum thinks it’s pathetic - the situation he’s in. He’s not one for cliches and yet he’s living one each moment he continues to breathe. I mean truthfully, there’s nothing wrong with it, but he knows how this will complicate things more. Or maybe it won’t but he doubts that because friends shouldn’t think of friends like they are heaven, like they embody light and joy. Friends shouldn’t long to hold the other’s hand and imagine kissing their lips when their smile is so bright that its elegance transcends to you so you’re smiling back at them. Most importantly, friends shouldn’t like each other as more than friends and more as lovers.

“You were in my dream last night,” you admit to Calum. You take a sip from your water.

Calum chokes on his spoonful of cereal. He didn’t expect those words to come from your mouth. The beating in his chest quickens. He just assumed what he had was unrequited, but with those words, Calum thinks maybe it’s not. Maybe the feelings are mutual. Maybe your heart heard the song his played for you, the sweet melody of a tender affection for the beautiful angel who makes his heart race but also calms it with its kind nature. Once he recovers from his coughing fit, he replies, “Oh yeah, what about?”

You can’t help but admire how natural it is having Calum here. Your heart flutters at the domesticity. This is what people aspire for. They want something simple, something compassionate, something warm, and something enduring. You swallow another mouthful. “It’s not like anything weird, so chill.”

“Last time you told me about your dream that you said wasn’t weird was early 1900s themed and you had a pet dragon,” he retorts.

You glare at him and explain, “Well it’s not like that, so shut up and let me talk.” Calum rolls his eyes. “Um, well it was us at Ikea, that furniture store, you know the one --”

“I know what Ikea is (Y/N),” Calum intrudes. You throw a crumpled napkin at him. Calum quickly dodges it and watches the annoyance slowly build in your eyes. You scold, “Hey, I said don’t talk, but anyways we went to Ikea and you know that movie 500 Days of Summer?” Calum nods. “Yeah it was like that. We were exploring Ikea like Summer and Tom did. I thought it was nice and fun and- hey why are you looking at me like that?”

A smirk graces Calum’s lips, but Calum wouldn’t say it’s one. It’s not a smirk, but rather a bashful grin where only one corner of his mouth tilted up, while his eyes gleamed at you with hope and curiosity. The look on his face was a consequence of your earlier confession about him - you had a dream about him, a dream with him where you two went on a date. His innocent questions left you to incomprehensible sentences. “Does someone have a crush on me? Does (Y/N) specifically have a crush me, Calum Hood?”

“What? No. Me liking you? Please, that’s like, um, that’s like-,” you stutter.

“Yeah, okay, sure you don’t,” he chides. “A dream is a wish your heart makes, just saying.”

And his heart wants you. His heart dreams for you.

Calum wonders if you’ve ever considered him as something more than a friend. You probably don’t because this quiet intimacy you two have can be just as platonic as it can be romantic.

It was grocery day, meaning you and him would go to the supermarket to buy whatever foods you thought you were low on stock in your apartment. It was a joke at first for Calum to tag along when you went to the store, but now it feels unnatural if he’s not there. You accustomed to Calum’s commentary on which apple looked better than another, why it’s better to cut your own melons than buy the pre-cut fruit, his hesitance, but he quickly got over that uncomfortable feeling, of waiting in line at the register when you forgot one item and scurried back to the aisles to find it, and most of all, his insistence to always buy at least one box of his favorite cereal. You never do, of course, but he notices that you somehow always have it stocked in your pantry despite all his pleads.

This time around, it felt different. You didn’t want Calum to be there with you. You wanted to grocery shop alone for once. Maybe it was because you had a crap day at work and wanted to indulge in your stash of ice cream, but then you remembered you ate all of it last time Calum came over, so you felt even worse on your way back home. Maybe it was because the elevator broke down and you had to walk up four flights of stairs just to get to your apartment that you felt even snappier and annoyed that day. Maybe it was because you didn’t get a call or email back about your application for another job to quit your current one. Maybe it was a culmination of things that made your body feel like it was slowly walking down the shore of a beach. With each step, the tide pulled you further. The pull of the water was driving you into deep depths to the sea. The further you walked, the harder it was to move your body back to its origin. Your movements stalled as you noticed as a wave begins to form. Your breath quickened in and out of your lungs, because you’ve never been this far out before by yourself; with other people, yes, but alone, no. The wave gained more momentum as it swam to you. Just as it struck down on you, you heard a voice call out your name. Once it hit, the water ran and so did your tears.

You thought you were drowning, that you were done for, that this was the end. You couldn’t breathe and you couldn’t move, but you smelled a hint of musk in the water. Wait, that doesn’t make sense.

It was then you realized you weren’t in the ocean trapped in a current. You opened your eyes to find your body trapped in strong arms. The unknown arms keeper whispered soft reassurances to you in a long hug. Your senses slowly regained when you turned your head up and saw a familiar face.

The dark colored hair, the slight stubble on their chin, the soft cotton shirt, the trace of smoke hidden in the aroma of their cologne, and the beautiful plump pink lips.

Calum whispered again to your hair, “you’re okay. It’s okay. You’re okay. I got you.”

You sighed into his neck. His arms pulled away as he led you back to your front door. He set you down on the sofa as he prepared you a glass of water. He handed you the cup and wouldn’t take it back until you finished all of its contents.

You hated this part, the part where Calum pressed on and on about what’s wrong and what happened to you. You prepared for his splurge of questions, but it never came. Instead he cleared his throat and breathed, “I, um, I saw the list.”

Your eyebrows furrowed. Calum grabbed for something in his pocket. “The grocery list. I got your stuff already. Thought I forgot somethin’ here Tuesday and was gonna ask you to look but remembered you gave the spare, so I kinda just came over and saw it,” he admitted. “I know we usually go together, but I had to get some stuff too, so thought mind as well do yours too. Sorry if that’s like a no-no. I won’t do it again.”

A gentle smile drew on your face at Calum’s shy rambles. You stood from the couch and pulled him up. Your arms wrapped around his torso as you mumbled, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Calum knew he shouldn’t leave you in such a fragile state, but he really needed to get back home and tend to Duke. He mustered the confidence. “I know you just got home, but do you wanna head over to my place? We could just do take out and you can take the guest room if you’re still tired.”

During the drive to his, you couldn’t keep your hands still. The crying session was over, yes, but the stress was still there and you had no release of that. At a red light, Calum reached for one hand and interlaced his fingers with yours, a reassurance that he was there for you and you aren’t alone. He pressed his lips to the back of your hand and rested your entwined hands on your thigh once the traffic light switched to green. As the tires ran to their next destination, Calum’s thumb ran soft and slow laps on your skin.

When you finally reached his house, you didn’t want to let go. If you left the vehicle, then the intimacy that transpired in Calum’s car would also disappear. Those twenty minutes of peace, quiet, and simply being together, like what you had was something more, something more than what you and Calum simply were - friends - would soon fade into a distant memory of a romance that set ablaze for fleeting moments but quickly put out.

Calum turned to you, still holding your hand. He spoke, “Hey, I think we should at least get in before the sun sets, no?”

You exhale loudly. You mumbled, “Okay, yeah. Let’s go.”

You pulled the tab to open the car door, but Calum was already there outside your door. He was breathless. He chuckled before squatting in front of you, still gasping for air. “Can’t let my best girl walk again after those four flights of stairs. Come on, hop on.”

Everything after the piggy back became hazy if someone asked you to describe what happened that day. There was one thing you didn’t expect to find a picture of you asleep on Calum’s chest with his arm around you on his sofa on your phone. You most certainly didn’t expect for Ashton’s text in the group chat to say, “and you two say you aren’t together.”

Calum understands how having feelings for his best friend can either make or break the two of you. That’s why he’s concealed it from you for so long. He only told the boys and he fears they might be the ones that will tell you in a drunken stupor or out of pure accident, but he knows they wouldn’t. They’re his boys and their friendship was always greater than putting one of their love interests at stake over friendship.

Take right now for instance. You’re with the boys, but you’re leaning against Calum as you watch Ashton instruct them how to make some concoction of an alcoholic drink. Michael quickly pours in the alcohol, while Luke steadily pours in some type of chaser - fruit punch, you think it is but you’re not too sure - to mask the putrid taste of vodka.

You whisper into Calum’s ear, “Do they want to die tonight or?”

Calum laughs at your remark. He isn’t even sure why they’re throwing a party. Maybe it’s to celebrate how well received the released singles for their upcoming album have been, but still they usually don’t go all out like this. Calum is about to respond, but before he could speak, Luke shouts, “Grab your cups, lads and non-initiated lad, (Y/N)! Time to drink! Cocktail chats, let’s do this!”

Calum sees Ashton add a paper umbrella and slice of pineapple to two vibrant colored drinks that you’re holding. He sighs before taking the glass from you. “You know you don’t have to drink? Like we, I mean the boys and I, are just doing this for the fans yknow? I’m sure there’s water somewhere.”

You smile at his concern. “It’s okay. I’m not going to drink much after seeing all that vodka Michael poured in and then Ashton snuck in, so I’m good.”

He chuckles at your distaste. You never really were a big drinker like them. They say the gasoline taste goes away, but it’s not true. Well it’s partial true; however, it takes a whole lot of time, and whole lot of other alcohol and maybe something non-alcoholic before the gross liquid becomes semi-palatable. 

You don’t know what song on the album they’re at after your fifth drink, so much for not drinking huh. You just know makeshift cocktail in your hand tastes good. You were weary at the start, but once you tasted it, you didn’t seem to mind. Michael even admit that it was actually two parts fruit punch and one part vodka, because they knew they shouldn’t get too hammered while filming. Still, the amount you’ve consumed is far less compared to the boys drank so far.

Noticing a bright glow on your face, Calum approaches you with languid, yet flimsy steps. He nudges your shoulder and you quickly hide your phone in your butt pocket. “You okay?”

“Yeah, just a little tired, yknow?” you reveal. Your eyes search around the room and you quickly ask, “Do you know where the bathroom is?”

Calum pauses, “I think it’s down that hall and first door on your left. It’s one of the two doors over there if I’m wrong.”

As you venture to the hallway, you hear Calum scold himself. Fuckin’ idiot why didn’t you walk her there?

One of the consequences of alcohol: you have to pee so fucking much. It’s worse than water, because you have to pee like every twenty minutes. You get bloated when you drink too much and god, you hate drinking. You swear you’re done drinking after you wash your hands, but are soon mistaken when Ashton forces two drinks in your hands once you exit. Luke spews nonsense into your ear when you reach the back wall as Calum gets ready to film his part for the song. Luke starts, “You know this was supposed to be band mates exclusive only.” You raise your eyebrows with slight interest at Luke as he rambles. “But we have a soft spot for you.” You give Luke a soft smile to show you’re listening and place the two drinks Ashton gave to you on the side table. You’re an earshot away when Luke mutters “especially Calum,” but you only hear a mumble about Calum and nothing else until Luke’s little spur is interrupted by Ashton yelling at him to grab another drink before he films the next shot. Luke mutters a quick apology before throwing his and another phone into your hands. It’s Calum’s because you see the rocket sticker you put on his case after you bought a batch of 100 stickers off the internet for cheap. His phone goes off from a text and you see that his background is the picture Ashton sent two months ago, the one where you and Calum are snuggled together on his sofa. Your heart flutters at the sight. He’s so loving, so gentle, so kind.

Calum’s voice echoes in the living room and you look up from your spot. He’s trying to explain something, but he’s so giggly that he can’t finish his story properly. It comes in short takes. You slowly sip on your drink as you watch him talk to joyfully about the new music he’s about to release.

“Let me tell you how it went down,” he starts, “they come into our room and we’re like --” He notices you watching and absentmindedly voices his thoughts, “Oh wassup baby?” He shakes his head with a smile. “Don’t put that in,” he laughs. “They come into our room and --���

Everything Calum said after came as white noise. You saw him directly look at you when he said that line. ‘Oh wassup baby?’ And the picture on his lockscreen? You feel as time has slowed and your main focus on Calum transforms into the ikea date again. You’re imagining what it’s like to hold his hand, what it’s like to kiss his cheeks without it being a problem, without Calum’s teasing, what it’s like to fall asleep in his arms and not worry whether you did something disgraceful. Your heart soars at the thought of being in a relationship with him. It’d be wonderful, such a beautiful, wonderful thing.

It’s been an hour and a half since the filming stopped and you’re just lazing on the patio chair admiring the view from Ashton’s house. You hear the screen door open, but don’t bother to check who it is. You assume it’s Calum. “Hey (Y/N), we’re all heading out, but I don’t trust myself with driving so is it cool if we crash here?” You nod at his words, not really listening to what he’s saying. “There’s only two spare rooms and Luke and Michael took the one with two beds so, um, do you wanna share? Or do you want to sleep by yourself? Or-” You continue nodding but not really paying attention. “(Y/N). Hey (Y/N).” His fingers snaps. “Do you want to share a room and sleep?” You stopped nodding when your brain registered ‘room’ and ‘sleep.’

You respond weakly, “Okay, yeah. Let’s go.”

You blink and you’re being lifted in the air. You squeal in Calum’s arms. He chuckles loudly at your antics. “Can’t have my best girl walking in a place she’s never been to. Come on, let me carry you.”

You just plugged in your phone by the time Calum exits the bathroom after showering. You hear his breath hitch when he enters the room. You scrunch your eyebrows. “What do I have something on my face? Oh my god, is there a spider?” Calum quickly shakes his head. “Then why’re you looking at my like that?”

“Like what?” he asks.

“I don’t know. You’re just - ugh,” you groan. “Like that!” You point to his face.

“(Y/N), I swear I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Calum quickly answers.

“Like, like all soft and puppy like. Do you wanna kiss me or somethin’?”

Calum chews on his cheek trying to muffle a laugh, but in his head, it’s going a mile a minute with all his thoughts processing. Do you know about his crush? Did someone tell you? Was it Ashton? No, was it Luke? Calum saw you with him after you used the restroom. Fuck. “Me? Want to kiss you? That’s gross. We’re friends for gods sake. Me wanting to kiss you that’s like, that’s like --”

You unleash a frustrated sigh when you heard ‘gross’ and ‘friends.’ You mutter to yourself, “Wish I could see you as the friend you see me as.”

Calum’s eyebrows furrow. He’s pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear that and he’s too nervous to say anything about it.

You get up from your spot and search for extra pillows and blankets. You announce, “I think I’m gonna sleep on the couch.”

Calum is confused. You two have done this before. Maybe not on a bed, but you’ve fallen asleep next to each other. You’ve woken in each other’s arms before and every time you do, it’s pure bliss, to wake up in the confines of someone’s warm embrace, to feel their heartbeat, to watch them gain clarity from a drowsy gaze, to see their sleepy smile. It’s a lovely thing to sleep beside someone.

Calum scurries when he sees you’ve finally found the blankets. He rushes, “Wait, don’t leave. I need to tell you something.”

Your eyebrows raise. “Really? Can’t it wait til tomorrow?”

He can tell you’re drawing a veil over yourself again. Whenever you get uncomfortable, you always pull a disappearing act. You get scared. You panic. Then you flee. That’s how it always goes, but he can’t have you vanish even the slightest when he’s this close, when he has hope that the feelings he has are being reciprocated. He knew that eventually he would answer to his feelings, but he didn’t expect it to come now. The call came too soon and it wasn’t him waiting. It was you on the line.

He rushes, “Yeah. It’s about that one person I told you about a couple months ago. I have updates.”

Calum pats the side of the bed, offering you a seat. Instead of sitting, you lean against the closed bedroom door in front of him. You’re too nervous that if you sit, you might not be able to stand after and free yourself from him. You need to put a distance. You need to put up your guard. You shrug your shoulders as a sign for him to continue with his story.

He licks his lips. His mind is working overdrive trying to say the right words. He can’t articulate things like this on the spot. He stares at the ground trying to formulate coherent sentences. “Um so yeah, they’re a good friend of mine.” You roll your eyes at him. You knew that already. “And they’re just so good to me, yknow? They always have my foods stocked up in their cupboard, which is really sweet. Um I held their hand a few weeks ago and they have really soft hands. Also, they gave me a spare to their place, so I stay over a lot. And god, they always fall asleep on me when I come over to theirs and it’s really refreshing waking up with someone just there, yknow? Like you know how we tend to fall asleep on the couch during movie nights? It’s like that. And god, it feels so great to like your best friend and know they like you back.”

That last line was a bit cheeky, but he can’t help himself when you’ve given him hope.

You, on the other hand, feel your body shut down. The happiness and joy exuded out of Calum and you couldn’t stand it. All hopes of kindling a romance with him is gone. It’s wrong of you to be jealous of Calum’s love life going well, while yours is clearly sinking. You fear that you could be getting replaced and left for nothing. You felt like you were in the ocean again, but this time you could look back. When your body pivoted in the water, you saw no one on the shore calling for you and that’s when you knew you were done for. It was a mistake, but you were already too deep. Your emotions and feelings were smothering you. The water became too chaotic for you to withstand and you’ve never been a good swimmer to begin with. Your chest is starting to hurt because you can’t breathe with all the water surging at you. You feel a tear leak from the corner of your eye but you pretend it didn’t fall in hopes that Calum didn’t see. You somehow muster enough air and fake a smile. “That’s great Calum! When do I get to meet the lucky person?”

Calum parades an awkward smile now. “That’s the funny part.” He scratches the back of his neck, still looking at the ground. “You kind of know them.” 

Now you’re confused. You don’t remember meeting any new friends of Calum’s.

Calum gets up from his spot and grabs his phone. “Hear I’ll show you a picture of me and them together.”

Calum hands you his phone and you stare at his lockscreen. 

Tears build in your eyes, but they aren’t strong enough withstand the storm in you so they begin to crumble and fall. You don’t know what to say. When you look up to Calum, he sends you a gentle smile. He wipes the loose tears, while his doe eyes shine brightly with the adoration he has for you.

“It’s you. It’s always been you.”

a/n - thank u for reading :-) feedback is always appreciated !!

[t-underneaththeradardancing]

less accomplished than usual and u know i set that bar low at fuck all 

if u dont expect too much from me / you might not be let down  gin blossoms 

the prob w playing at ur best if only for a short while - is expect ate shuns and worry quirky dont cut it - yah ego u betcha - and when the bar is magic and transcendence  - and the fucking tech hatez me  - ok whine time over t - buck up  

now wat fuk good has a buck up ever done 

im ok inna mood maybe - wanted to play yesterday - kinda glad i cautious still a bit worn but thats always - the kidz think i should maybe try acupuncture or homeopathy or wuz that hanging w the homies and 40s -  have u ever been onna mission - from god or otherwise  

wait wait wait 

did i tell u last week i have an acoustic guitar now  - i played it saturday at liams its beautiful - a baby taylor  - for daze i just cant carry weight and a couple places acoustic only  - should have snap a foto but so much going on at 1 time - last week was limits tested - wooda been ok except for last minute mission - wuz still ok just hadda limit next 2 days - tbh i make the same choice if i got a mulligan and not a haircut oh wait thats a mullet but isnt that a fish  - im getting stronger just so slowly  - vita named my electric Blondie like the Harry i think or maybe cartoon with Dagwood  

new wip called - dancing makes me sad  - actually we only have a title - i think im learning to play rhythm guitar a little - it would b nice to actually learn the chord changes to some of the songs im playing  lol but truth  - then again i am shocked sometimes at wat some chords i play would be called - i have names in my mind but the aint C or Am  - its like being  french and speaking spanish 

so had dinner 

then msging w vita about music and recording - we gonna do a recording at liams studio weds eve of reincarnation  

now slow edge toward midnight izzit like slouching toward bethlehem and who the fuck wrote that - u know the drill but quickly cuz it yeats  -man that cat cood poem more inna title than - well moi for instance - theres still dishes - maybe the moon a bit of music - feed kitty - take out garbage im exhausted by the thinking - so wat i doing writing 

i dont know 

maybe im compulsive ?

a couple  crow pairs  fed they was hungry 

[auraphantom]

The darkstache fic that somehow contains more Bing than darkstache

So i finished my first fan fic ever today! Here is the summary:

Ao3 link

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

Whovianofmidgard: If there is ice cream, there is dark! conclusion: ice cream = Dark Auraphantom: I accept!

Aka the darkstache fic that somehow ended with Bing more in the focus than darkstache.

Ps: Sorry Bing

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

Dark has called together an unexpected emergency meeting. Nothing about that sounded good. All the egos who gathered around the table waited with immense tension what the meaning of this meeting would be, the silence almost deafening, or maybe it was just the constant high pitch sound emanating from Dark's being. The only ones unfazed by the atmosphere were the Host, with his soft drone of narrations, and Wilford. Let's face it, good ol' bubblegum boy over here wouldn't pick up on a cold tense air even if it slapped him in the face... good for him though. Dark himself slowly looked about at the faces present, a mask of collected authority shown prominently on his expression only to occasionally crack away from his shell with an unmistakable simmering rage hiding behind of it all. After what felt like an excruciating few seconds he smoothed out his suit jacket in preparation to address the others and even before he said a word one of the Jims flinched at the motion, the poor soul already jumpy in anticipation of the worst. 

"Let's get straight to the point shall we? It has come to my attention that there has been some… tampering with our fundings." He said, his tone dangerously cool. "Would anyone care to explain?" The entity stood and placed his hands on the conference table, leaning on them, his figure somehow growing more imposing. "Now!" The others with a more sensitive heart cowered a bit at that last growl of order. However it didn't have the desired effect since everyone remained silent. With a scowl Dark pushed back up from the table to standing straight and willed himself to tone down his aggressive approach. Fear and intimidation as useful they can be is not always the way. He needs them on his side, to open up willingly. A calmer procedure is in order. "Google. What is the exact loss we've suffered?" He turned towards the android, starting to pace with slow, calculated steps. The red and blue colors of his aura slightly flickered at the word 'suffer'. "Calculating." Google pulled up a holographic screen in search. "The total of loss is 352 000$. ...Something doesn't add up..." "Oh poop, who even cares!" Wilford burst out, the message of him being clearly bored by all the official work jargon apparent in his attempt at balancing a pen on his finger. When it just fell on the table with a dull clang the pink ego just leaned in with his full body in the direction of Dark in an exaggerated show of giving his attention to him. "The number of the money is so boring. I betcha the answer of where that money ran off to is more exciting, don't ya think?" Dark spared a glance at Wilford which was less irritated than any look he would give to anyone else, and mulled over his old friend's words. "Agreed." With a deep sigh Dark sat back in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose, mumbling. "What even happened with that much money..." Bing raised his hand, meekly, like a middle schooler. It took several moments for Dark and to the others to notice and a few more till everyone’s gaze was on him finally. A deep silence fell on the room as everybody waited for him to start speaking. It was rare from Bing to take part in a meeting due to his low popularity and Google being able to do everything that he ever could and more. But an emergency meeting is an emergency meeting and no ego was an exception from that. Still... Due to the rarity of an event like this, once in Bing's existence he had everyone's attention. Except for Google. But Google can multitask fairly well, there is four of him after all. "I might know what happened to the funds..." That got Google's attention too and now he was glaring at him. "What. Do. You. Know?"  Yikes. Dark's shell violently cracked, painting the room in hues of red and blue for split a second. Every ego in the room except Wilford seemed to flinch at that and scooted their chairs just a bit farther away from both Bing and Dark. Nobody likes to be near the splash zone. "Someone might have wanted to buy a cool motorbike-" Bing stated shyly. "- and someone might have made a few mis-clicks and..." "B i n g." "TheEgoIncMightBeTheProudOwnerOf-200 472-NewVespas" Finished Bing as fast as he could then promptly tried to slide down his chair and hide under the table, but he did not dare to disappear fully so his head poked out. A distant whistle could be heard, surprisingly from camera Jim and a really soft "Hot dam!" From mini Bing, who was put on a nearby shelf otherwise he wouldn't have seen anything. Dark's jaw slightly dropped. Any other time such a feat would have been considered impressive by all the egos, even by Wilford who was infamous of achieving it on several occasions, but this time it distressed all of them greatly. Google's face however turned from his scowl to confusion, he turned his head away for a second, mouth moving silently as he was running some calculations. "Wait... That still doesn't add up... " He looked back to the table with a serious face of concern. "That would have cost approximately 801 888 000.2$, way more than 352 000$!” While he was talking Dark's ringing slowly started to rise in volume, but Google continued. "That cost goes way beyond all of the Ego Inc's fundings, with a bill like that it would mean we are either bankrupt or in debt! And there is a monthly limit for how much each of us can spend at once, how did you even got around that?!" "Well-" Before Bing could even finish whatever he was trying to say, that would have probably made his situation worse anyway, an audible crack echoed through the whole meeting room, making everyone flinch. Meanwhile the ringing Dark emitted got  significantly louder, almost enough to hurt someone's ears. Everybody turned towards the head of the table, where it seemed Dark had stood up without them noticing. His shell was cracking violently every second and his aura more or less swallowed his end of the room. He seemed to shake slightly while clawing the table a bit and staring at nothing. "Dark, darling." Leaning a bit more in, Willford tried to speak up and draw Dark's attention towards him. It proved to be unsuccessful. With slightly wide eyes, he turned his attention towards Bing yet again and spoke. "   B i n g.   D i d   y o u   i n d e b t e d   u s?   " "B-bingo..." Whatever come over the android to make this joke has clearly done it now. A quiet "Ah, Bully!" could be heard from Wilford before the long table broke in half under Dark's power, that now has quickly eaten more and more of the room.

Panic overcame everyone as all hell broke loose. The Jims, in their frightened state, leapt over from their side over the broken table, knocking that piece over with them as they scurried towards the only exit, but they didn't get too far before they fell over one-another. Bim in his surprise only managed to kick his office chair away from Dark, then after a few meters he tumbled to the ground near the wall. Dr. Iplier grabbed The Host's arm and tried to drag him away but they fell over and tried to crawl away instead. Silver and Ed tried to run and hide behind the knocked over half of the broken table. Even Google was on his feet quick but only got to the corner of the room where he started analysing his chances of survival. "-And Wilford was nowhere to be seen." Narrated the Host quietly beside Dr. Iplier who was also looking for a way out now. Dark slowly, oh so slowly, started taking steps towards Bing's direction, his aura completely off the handle, ringing numbing out any other sound that could ever be heard, the colors bleeding to grey and static towards the center, near impossible now to see Dark's figure if it weren't for the spazzing red and blue outlines of his, the only two colors that could be seen now. 'This is it.' Thought Bing probably as the demon was making is way to him. 'This is how i die.' He would have felt like he was looking death right in the eyes, if only he wouldn't have notice some pale yellow and cotton candy pink moving in his periferia. That is sure as hell an attention grabber in an almost completely black and grey room. Somehow Wilford - obnoxious, loud, ostentatious, some would say; annoying, overexcitable, trigger happy, overly cheery, unpredictable menace, lunatic - Warfstache, somehow managed to sneak past Dark and get behind him, and he was holding a bucket of chocolate ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other? 'What?...' And if it weren't already weird enough, it got weirder. He lunged at Dark. To describe the noise, that came out of Dark's mouth upon impact, as a scream would be really underselling the sound that cracked the windows, and almost made everybody's eardrum burst and bleed.

His form visibly bent in an attempt to hold up Wilford’s sudden weight on him, an audible, sickening crack followed that visibly made Dr. Iplier vince next to the Host. In blind anger and probably confusion Dark tried to throw off his assailant, flailing and failing in it.

Wilford held on heroically, with one arm threw over Dark’s front holding the bucket of ice cream and the other opening it and scooping a spoonful of the dark chocolate wonder. “Sorry Darkling!” he said as he with one leg, looped around Dark’s waist and with the others foot, stepped into Dark’s lower back, which seemed to cause pain for him, as he opened his mouth again to scream. He then stuffed the scooped ice cream into his mouth, shutting him up before he could scream again. The air was still for a moment. Nobody dared to move as they watched Wilford cling to Dark’s back and now slowly letting go of the spoon. They stayed like that for a few second then Dark’s shoulder visibly slacked. Dropping his arms, his aura went significantly calmer than before.

He tilted his head back forward, seamingly staring blankly into nothing, then without a word he turned on his heel and left the meeting room, spoon still hanging out of his mouth and Wilford hanging off of him like a backpack.

The others could only stare at the door for a while not knowing how to take in what they just saw when Bim spoke up in a shaken voice. “ Maybe you should bail while you can.”

Bing could only nod at that dumfoldedly before he took off running. ------------------- The obnoxious android only dared to come back to the Ego building after three days. He was hiding out at Chase Brody's place, fearing that if he had stayed, Dark would have come and murder him when he was least expecting it. He would have stayed there longer if he could, but after the day it was apparent he will need his charger, which he left back home in his hurry to escape, and that drove him back. After entering the building he tried to sneak back to his room. In his way he managed to avoid stumbling into any of the other egos. Soon he reached the living quarters and the door to his room. He felt like Fortuna had smiled upon him until he opened his door. What he saw was... Well nothing! His room was almost completely barren except for the thrash can, which started to move! Mini Bing's head popped out from the empty trash can and turned towards Bing and shouted "I CALL DIBS!" then fall back into it. Bing just stood in the doorstep, feeling his jaw slowly drop in confusion and disbelief when a hand suddenly clasped on his shoulder, startling him out of his stupor. "Bing!" Shouted a very excited Wilford Warfstache. "Oh bully! It's good to see you back!" He seemed genuinely happy to see him. "And here we thought you would never come back!" "Incorrect." Injected Google, who just turned the corner and walked towards them. "Bing left without his charger and unless he finally realised himself, and wanted to rid the world free of himself, he would have come back for it." "Oh yeah! About that, here!" Wilford dug into one of his pockets and pulled out Bing's charger, handing it to him. "I had to save it in the last moment before Dark threw it away." Bing looked down to his charger, still processing the information he was just bombarded with, he slowly reached for it, taking it from Wilford. "Attaboy!" The pink man said as he clasped his shoulder once more before walking away then poofing away to god know where from the corridor. That left only him and Google- "Hmp." Aaand with that Google left the corridor too, leaving only Bing alone to contemplate on his lifestyle choices and its costs. "At least he could have left my skateboard."

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

~A spoon full of ice cream, will make the demon calm down! The demon calm down.~

[trashikino]

me??? making a garbage au??? u betcha i am here you go thanks i love u all and i love making final fantasy aus,,,,,, bet u couldn’t guess which bitch just replayed the Entirety of final fantasy ten,,,,,

When she was fourteen years old, You tried to start a pilgrimage. It ended in as fantastic a failure as one could expect from a teenager, traveling long before she had the good sense to use her mind before her heart: she got angry and left the cloth.

There was backlash, but nobody really stopped her from doing it, either.

Which is why she’s currently sitting drunk off her ass with Chika, sword not far behind even though swinging it around inebriated is a terrible idea she knows she will be having if she decides to take another round. So she decides not to.

Chika, who has a way of drinking enough to be completely hammered and yet somehow retaining sobriety, gets the message and walks out with her without a word, into the chill of the night at sea. You grabs her sword on the way and leans thoughtfully against the building, staring out at the sea. “Do you think somewhere, right now, a city is being attacked?”

“That’s a weird question,” Chika replies, without seeming too surprised. “I mean, I dunno. I hope not. Not like we can do anything.” She picks up a more smooth rock and sends it racing over the surface, so fast it skips.

“I could have.” You says, dejected. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t quit.”

Chika brushes her off, giving You a hard pat on the shoulder that honestly feels more like a mini punch, and leaving her hand firm on her shoulder. “And sometimes I wish I could fly! You’re drunk, You, and we’ve been over this before!” Her expression and voice soften in turn. “You have your reasons, and if anyone gives you shit for it you’ve done it to yourself tenfold. Let it go, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah….” You replies with a halfhearted laugh. “I know. Stop being a downer. Still. I wish….I wish I had the stomach for it. I just can’t see those things again.”

She shrugs. “Well, there’s gotta be something you can do, even if it isn’t summoning the final aeon. And if you find that something, I’ll be with you a hundred and ten percent!” Chika grins, wide and goofy-looking, and gives You a mock salute, and another overly-friendly punch to the shoulder.

You grins back. “Thanks. For now we should probably just do our job and get rid of those fiends they asked us about, right?”

——————————–

The opportunity falls into their lap. Sort of, in a manner of speaking. Not literally – it actually fell in front of them, on the ground. Also, it screamed.

It’s kind of an annoying opportunity, all things considered. Her name is Riko.

They walk through the woods with a few bags worth of crap the fiends dropped when they died, since there wasn’t much other evidence they could bring in (or sell). Someone is in an argument, outside the temple in the forest.

“What do you mean you quit?!” Comes the desperate voice. “I won’t survive without someone protecting me! I don’t know any offensive spells!”

There is a pause, and You and Chika stop too so they can hear better what the second quieter person says. “……can’t go on. I’m sick of getting poisoned and beat up for this when you won’t even make it to the third temple. You’re going to give up anyways – why shouldn’t I?”

“I will never give up,” the first voice says, with a surprising amount of steel behind it. She’s quiet, but it’s not panicked or weak. You is struck still by the phenomenon, slowly understanding what is happening. “Never.”

You is so struck, actually, that she starts barging through the foliage for the source, Chika letting out a yelp and following quickly. Bramble-filled bushes tear at her legs while she runs, branches snagging on socks and exposed skin and anything else that isn’t metal or thick leather. Her breath is coming quickly.

“The bushes-!”

“I’m out of here.”

You bursts through into the clearing in front of the temple just as the girl she’d heard, with so much conviction and inner strength, screams and grips her staff tightly, muttering a spell of some sort to cast protection on herself.

Someone else runs out into the woods and You squints angrily after them.

Chika finally catches up with a loud sigh. “Hah….hah…….You, why’d you have to go charging off so fast? I think you scared away this girl’s guardian for good!” When she catches up, she leans on her, hands slipping off her shoulder with exhaustion.

“Good!” You says angrily, planting her sword in the ground and squaring herself off so she is facing the cowering redheaded summoner. Chika lets another sigh loose and picks a twig out of You’s hair thoughtfully. “He was a coward anyways! I’m going to guard you! Lady summoner! Please! Let me be your new guardian!”

The girl looks at them, hands still wrung tight around the staff, knuckles white, and cowering, but after a moment more of fear, she stiffens and brings her face to a straight line. The transformation is fast and impressive. “Why? You’re strangers to me.”

“Well, I dunno, you need a guardian now, right?” You asks, which is kind of a rude-ass way to do it, but hey. Not like she can un-say a thing. “I want to do this. I’ve seen stopped pilgrimages and I’ve seen Sin. I need to do this.” She says, hoping her conviction will ring clear with this girl the same way hers did to You.

She seems uncertain, but eases her grip on the staff and, finally, straightens her back and lowers it. “Then I see no reason to mistrust you. I am Riko, a summoner.”

“I’m a mercenary. You.” There’s a slight pause in which she gives a sly grin. “And this is Chika, my best friend who definitely please wants to go on the journey with me?”

Chika groans, but gives her weary agreement. “To the ends of Spira,” She swears, and sticks a pinky out. You puts hers on it. Riko seems uneasy, so You gives her a friendly and possibly a little too powerful “pat” on the shoulder an encourages her to put her pinky in as well. They break. Chika sheathes her sword and looks off to the temple – where You had stopped her own journey.

“For you, anything.” She says, quietly.

You pretends not to hear while she gets as much information as she can from Riko.

——————————-

Riko has two aeons, and is determined to make the journey. You never asks her about what she sees in the chambers of the Fayth, and, thankfully, neither does Chika, which is good. You is starting to think that, possibly, they will get through without a hitch.

In Djose they pass a woman who is traveling in a group of three; they seem surprisingly noncompetitive about their journey, almost meek. The summoner of this group is a blonde woman with an accent, and she is accompanied by a shy looking young redhead and a roughish woman in all black. Mari, Ruby, and Yoshiko, they said.

Because they are so friendly, they, of course, strike up a conversation. Riko and Mari, being the summoners, have a battle with their aeons for practice while the guardians sit back, bored. Yoshiko broke a vase and while Chika is caught up in the shenanigans of fixing it before the priests can notice. While this goes on, You leans back on a statue and cracks her back, feeling the eyes of the shy mage-looking girl on her. “So, what’s your story? Mari have any particular reason to be a summoner? You a guardian?”

Ruby nods, and gives You a tired-looking smile. “This is actually my second journey. Mari’s, too. She was a guardian last time, and I was too. If things go right, this will be my second successful pilgrimage as a guardian.”

“Wait, what?!” You asks, shocked. “You’re younger than I am, that’s incredible! You’re already a legend! So you must have been traveling eight years ago with –“

“Dia Kurosawa,” Ruby whispers, into her too-big red jacket. A hand-me-down.

You suddenly remembers the celebrations of the latest calm; and a wave of guilt crashes onto her with the force of a tidal wave.

She remembers when she thought she would be the one to bring that calm and wishes she’d gone through with it, so Ruby wouldn’t have to mourn while everyone else celebrated.

—————————–

They get to Bevelle and manage to snag a fifth Aeon, but the entire temple makes You’s skin crawl. It all ran with machines; why did it all run with machines when they were so very clearly forbidden? You did not take issue with the Al Bhed, but this felt wrong. How could the people in Bevelle condemn them for using things that they themselves depended on so heavily even in their own temple?

Chika stuck it out with her this long, and while Riko was in the chamber praying, she edged over to You’s side and pressed a kiss to the cut on her jaw from a fiend they’d fought an hour or two ago, outside the temple – You had insisted Riko shouldn’t waste her magic on repairing it.

She laughed and pretended to swat her away. “Shoo! Stop that, we’re in a temple, Chika, it isn’t the place for kissing.”

Chika fixed her with a look that let her know she didn’t care. “It also isn’t the place for machinery, yet here it is. I think if they can afford to break a few rules, so can we, yeah?”

You rolled her eyes and gave Chika a short kiss, while Chika stealthily rubbed some of her too-expensive salve in the cut. “Chika!”

She stuck her tongue out. “I know you’re trying to get all scarred up to look tough, but an infection could put us out of business, you know? Wait till after the trip.”

“Yeah, yeah,” You grumbled. “It’s not like I’m that shallow. I just don’t want to waste supplies is all!”

“We’ve hoarded these this long. Hold on much longer and we’ll never use them at all. Like all our ethers!” Chika complains. “Why is Riko so stingy with them? If she’s going to be casting the white and black magic around here, she needs as much mana available as she can get!”

You laughs just as Riko pulls out of the chamber looking frazzled but excited with her new aeon. As the stone door slides shut, You catches a glimpse of the pyreflies and a statue, unnatural at every turn.

She shudders and makes haste on her way out of the temple.

—————————-

Too late. Even after traversing the moonflow and receiving all the aeons from the temples, conquering each area with ease, they end up faltering on the last leg of the journey, in the calm lands, because they are too late.

Messengers are sprinting out in every possible direction, brushing past them, faces alight with joy, and the sky is lit with a thousand shimmering souls, pyreflies drifting into daylight from a place on the sea where the sun is still rising. There are millions of them.

Sin is dead.

You finds Yoshiko, nursing bitter wounds, on the crevices of the scarred earth beside their fighting place. “Both of them,” She gasps helplessly, despite Riko’s reassurances that she could heal her. “I thought – I thought only – I thought, I,” she grimaces as her skin mends itself with Riko’s Curaga. “I can’t believe they’re both gone,” is all she says. “Both of them…..”

Riko cries and pulls Yoshiko close to her because she feels guilt, probably, of the same kind that You feels when she thinks of the way she quit her journey. She must feel so many things right now – bitterness of second place, of knowing she didn’t get to help, watching another suffer when she was willing to give her life to keep that from happening –

You resolves to talk to Riko about it later so she does, while Chika takes a long, long nap in the travel agency after Yoshiko picked herself up off the floor and trudged for Bevelle. The Inn was celebrating, but their group was quiet.

“Hey,” You greets Riko when she steps outside, the door clicking behind her. Riko is huddled around a sphere, looking at the ambient blue of the light and the way the rings circled calmly. “I’m….sorry. I don’t know what you feel right now, but I hope, sometime soon, you feel…better.”

She pivots on her feet and gives You a tight smile. It’s not quite what she expected. “I wish I had the same luxury.” She sighs.

“Sorry?” You tries, not sure what Riko is getting at.

Riko turns away from her and sighs; there’s a break in it. “I wish I didn’t know how I felt about this.”

You moves to put a hand on her back, and rubs her shoulders, feeling an obligation to the girl she protected all these months, and Riko finally sobs outright into her sleeves.

“I wish I wasn’t so relieved, You.” She cries. You pulls her into a hug and smooths her hair out over her head, staring at the open sea where Sin had been defeated earlier over her shoulder. Lingering pyreflies still flee the scene.

“Chika and I feel the same way.”

They look for Yoshiko the next day instead of joining the celebrations, and she seems grateful.

You thinks maybe next time, with the next Sin, she will finish what she started.

[the-laura-kinney]

have u and jubilee done the nasty yet

Hey, yeah, I wanna shoop, babyOoh, how you doin', baby?No, not youYou, the bow-legged one, yeahWhat's your name?Damn, that sounds sexy uhHere I go, here I go, here I go again (again?)Girls, what's my weakness? (Men!)Ok then, chillin', chillin'Mindin' my business (word)Yo, Salt, I looked around, and I couldn't believe thisI swear, I stared, my niece my witnessThe brother had it goin' on with somethin' kinda, uhWicked, wicked (ooh) had to kick itI'm not shy so I asked for the digitsA ho? No, that don't make meSee what I want slip slide to it swiftyFelt it in my hips so I dipped back to my bag of tricksThen I flipped for a tip, make me wanna do tricks for himLick him like a lollipop should be lickedCame to my senses and I chilled for a bitDon't know how you do the voodoo that you doSo well it's a spell, hell, makes me wanna shoop shoop shoopShoop shoop ba-doops shoop ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doopBa-doop shoop ba-doop shoopBa-doop shoop ba-doop, ba-doop, ba-doopUmm, you're packed and you're stacked 'specially in the backBrother, wanna thank your mother for a butt like that (thanks, Mom)Can I get some fries with that shake-shake boobie?If looks could kill you would be an uziYou're a shotgun, bang! What's up with that thang?I wanna know how does it hang?Straight up, wait up, hold up, Mr. LoverLike Prince said you're a sexy mutha well-aI like 'em real wild, b-boy style by the mileSmooth black skin with a smileBright as the sun, I wanna have some funCome and give me some of that yum-yumChocolate chip, honey dip, can I get a scoop?Baby, take a ride in my coupe, you make me wannaShoop shoop ba-doop (Baby, hey)Ba-doop, ba-doop, ba-doop, ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doop ba-doop(Don't you know I wanna shoop, baby)Shoop shoop ba-doop shoopBa-doop shoop, ba-doop, ba-doopBa-doop shoop, ba-doop, shoopBa-doop shoop, ba-doop, ba-doop, ba-doopWell let me bring you back to the subjectPep's on the setMake you get hot, make you work up a sweatWhen you skip-to-my-lou, my darlingNot falling in love but I'm falling for your (super sperm)When I get ya betcha bottom dollar you were best under pressure(Yo, Sandy, I wanna like, taste you)Getcha getcha lips wet 'cause it's time to have PepOn your mark, get set, go, let me go, let me shoopTo the next man in the three-piece suitI spend all my dough, ray me cutieShoop shoop a-doobie like Scoobie Doobie DooI love you in your big jeans, you give me nice dreamsYou make me wanna scream, ooh ooh oohI like what ya do, when you doWhat ya do, you make me wanna shoopShoop shoop ba-doopShoop ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doopBa-doop shoop ba-doop shoopBa-doop shoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doop(Oh, my goodness, girl, look at himHe's the cutest brother in hereAnd he's comin' this way! Ooh!)S and the P wanna kick with me, cool (uh-huh)But I'm wicked, G, (yeah) hit skins but never quickly (that's right)I hit the skins for the hell of it, just for the yell I getMmm mmm mmm, for the smell of it (smell it)They want my bod, here's the hot rod (hot rod)Twelve inches to a yard (damn) and have ya soundin' like a retard (yeah)Big 'Twan Love-Her, six-two, wanna hit youSo what you wanna do? What you wanna do? Mmmm, I wanna shoopShoop shoop ba-doop shoop ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doopShoop shoop ba-doop shoop ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doopShoop shoop ba-doop shoop ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doop (Oh you make me wanna)Shoop shoop ba-doop shoop ba-doop (hey yeah I wanna shoop baby)Shoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doopShoop shoop ba-doop shoop ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doop (Oh you make me wanna)Shoop shoop ba-doop shoop ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doop (hey yeah I wanna shoop baby)Shoop shoop ba-doop shoop ba-doopShoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doop (oh, you make me wanna)Shoop shoop ba-doop shoop ba-doop (hey yeah, I wanna shoop you baby)Shoop ba-doop ba-doop, ba-doop

[vagabondretired]

Played and he didn't even get a toy...... The White House allowed Russia to shape early impressions of Friday's meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin but responded quickly with its own account of the session that cast Trump as the aggressor who led off by expressing concerns about election meddling. Putin got his version of events out first, telling Russian state media outlets that he and Trump discussed “a lot of issues such as Ukraine, Syria, other problems, some bilateral issues.” “We again returned to the issues of fighting terrorism and cybersecurity,” Putin said. Omitting any mention of a conversation about political interference, Putin raised the possibility that Trump hadn't brought it up during their two-hour sit-down on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg. Borchers tells us that Sean Spicer and Rex Tillerson then held a news conference in which Tillerson insisted that the subject of election meddling was raised. Then it was the Russians' move, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Trump had accepted Putin's assurance that no Russian meddling took place. Then an "unnamed senior official" from the U.S. said Trump hadn't done that. U betcha.