#yeah it was dumb to check without saving my draft

[sunshinechay]

15 Day BL Challenge! Part 3!

Day 45: Favourite BL that isn’t from the big four (Japan/Thailand/Taiwan/South Korea). For extra points - there are no points - tell us what country the BL is from.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

So I will freely admit that much of the BL I’ve been watching lately has been from either Thailand or Taiwan, however there was one show that came to mind immediately after I read today’s question.

My Lascivious Boss

It’s a BL web series from Vietnam that is absolutely amazing and very terrible at the same time. It is very obvious that it is very low budget but you can also tell the passion that was behind it. Everyone does a very good job with what they have, especially the actor who plays the main character, Minh Huang.

You can’t help but root for Ming Huang as he navigates the circumstances he finds himself in after having a one night stand with a guy who turns out to be his new boss. Especially after he realizes that because he was in drag when it happened, and his new Boss, Long was very drunk at the time, Long thinks the person he had sex with was actually a woman. Thus Minh Huang feels forced to pretend to be own sister (who doesn’t actually exist) in an effort to get Long to stop trying to pursue someone who doesn’t actually exist. Add in that his abusive ex shows back up and you have a receipe for a very entertaining ride.

This show is kind of terrible but definitely goes into the so bad it’s good territory. I loved every second of this show and do go back and rewatch it from time to time.

Plus Long has one of the quickest and funniest bisexual panics I’ve ever seen on screen, so there is that haha.

[sturniphone]

𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 . . . introducing:

; ⌗ dealer!chris && bambi!reader﹒🍥 ⸝⸝

Chris is the guy everyone wants: hoodie up, eyes sharp, always smelling like weed and cash. Bambi is the girl everyone stares at—tiny dresses, glitter lip gloss, and a pink bunny plush peeking from her purse. They shouldn’t work; he’s cold and careless, and she’s all feelings and tears, but they orbit each other like gravity. He sells, she sulks, they argue in his car and make up in the backseat. No matter how much they fight, he always comes back with her favourite snacks and mumbles, ❝Don’t cry, baby. You know you’re mine.❞

Bambi cries a lot. Because he was mean. Because he didn’t answer. Because her bunny plush dropped on the floor. Chris used to lose it, but now? He sighs, rolls his eyes, and wipes her tears with his sleeve. ❝You done?❞ He’ll mutter but pulls her into his lap anyway. She’s dramatic, pouty, and painfully cute, always climbing into his lap like she belongs there (she does). Her world feels too loud without him, and when she sniffles, ❝I just want to be near you,❞ he holds her tighter and whispers, ❝Then stay forever, yeah?❞

She doesn’t know how to lie or pretend to be cool. She needs love in excess, melts under praise, and her voice cracks when she says, ❝You’re not going to leave me, right?❞ She’s impossible not to spoil. Chris never even tries to stop himself.

At parties, she’s the quietest one in the loudest outfit. Pink fishnets, a leopard mini skirt, hair ribbons, and lip gloss too sparkly to be real. Everyone watches her, but she never flirts back; she just blinks her big Bambi eyes and hides behind Chris like, ❝Why’s he looking at me?❞ He eats it up. Puts a possessive hand on her thigh, tells people, ❝She’s off-limits. Look again and I’ll break your jaw.❞ She giggles, kisses his cheek, and whispers something filthy only he gets to hear.

They fight way too often—she’s clingy, he’s cold, and both of them have tempers. But the love is insane. Chris could be mid-deal, yelling at someone, and if she texts ❝I’m sad,❞ he’s ghosting the guy and driving to her with a blunt and a cupcake. She’ll scream at him for forgetting to text and then, two minutes later, be crying in his arms while he kisses her forehead. It’s not perfect—but they don’t want anyone else. ❝You drive me fuckin’ crazy,❞ he mutters. ❝Yeah? Well, you love me.❞ He does. More than anything.

Chris acts like he doesn’t care about pictures, but his lock screen is a blurry photo of Bambi asleep with her bunny, drooling on his hoodie. He tells everyone it’s just ’cause she looks dumb. The truth is, he checks it a hundred times a day just to see her face.

They’re obsessed with each other. Like gross, horny, can’t-keep-their-hands-off-each-other obsessed. Quickies in his car, her moaning his name into her bunny plush, his chain hitting her chest while he tells her, ❝You love when I ruin you, don’t you, Bambi?❞ But it’s not just sex. It’s post-party bath time with her in his shirt. It’s him doing her lip liner while she sits in his lap. It’s her tracing his face and whispering, ❝You’re safe with me.❞ Freaks, yes. But freaks who are endgame. Forever, no matter how loud or messy or filthy it gets.

what to expect?

So yeah, basically everything for them. I’m obsessed. I’d love little texts or blurbs for them, especially since they fight a lot and she’s always texting him like, “I’m sad, come over and cuddle me.” Definitely need smut too because, let’s be honest… they’re total freaks. But also fluff and angst, of course—they’re messy but madly in love. I actually have a moodboard for her saved in my drafts if you guys are into it?? please asks and questions about them !!

@chrepsi @ph3ebssturniolo @sturnsxbbyeilish @j21l91 @pip4444chris @mattslutt @sophand4n4 @mattscoquette @mi-co-uk @tezzzzzzzz @emely9274 @oopsiedaisydeer

[the-beard-writes]

Hi! Can you tell me a little bit about the setting in your story and the magic and lore? From what I've heard so far it sounds a bit like urban fantasy but I want to know more!

AAAAA HELLO THERE

VERY EXCITED

okay so. Timing wise it’s in the present

**here is where i saved this as a draft and decided to come back to it on my computer for ease of typing then forgot for a day**

disclaimer, this exists solely in my mind (and also very vague character notes in a word doc) so forgive me if this makes no sense

sobbing violently because a few months ago i went to that doc once after not having checked it in a while and it just said "notes in notebook" so i had to update it ⤵︎

ig technically i did write part of one scene and threw it on ao3

ANYWAY

it's set at this place called West Love School for the Mythical and Magical

i had a dumb idea that it's called west love because something something gods were arguing over who would be the patron and zephyrus and aphrodite and hecate all ended up joint patrons (it's a dumb idea if for no other reason than would the gods really share)

but yeah so kids come from all around the world to go to this school (not sure yet where the school is. at first i was thinking wales but idk why)

not including the ghost children there are about 8 main characters which is part of why this wouldnt make sense

in this world, magic is sort of a willpower thing but not exactly. also "witch" is a gender neutral term as it was intended to be

so if at least one of your parents was a witch then you definitely are one, but you can be a witch without a parent being one too. this is where im a little interested to understand how it works. I think that what it is is that everyone has the capacity to be a witch, but most people arent.

maybe the non-witches do have some small magical abilities. meaning that they could have something so small and unnoticeable that they don't realize it's magic and it could change from person to person. like a person who always manages to wake up feeling well rested no matter how little sleep they get! they assume it's just normal or they're just lucky but turns out its magic! not that they'd ever realize it though

and some people without witch parents are born with such a high capacity for magic that they are a witch

children of the gods are also witches, as are mythical creatures

everyone is allowed to go to this school except for shapeshifters

they have different class levels based on placement, though. so if you weren't born to witches or you weren't raised by them then you're placed in classes to help you learn the basics that other kids who were raised by witches or taught to practice their magic as a kid would go to the school knowing

i still need to work out the logistics of how it would work so that there isnt always just an unbridgeable gap between those raised by witches and those who weren't im thinking there would be extra aid available for those who weren't raised by witches and also those who mightve been but still had a hard time learning so that they could have instructors who know how to teach this stuff in such a way that they'll be able to quickly and easily catch up to their peers i don't think their peers would be too far advanced, though because, although children are allowed to practice magic before they get to school, it's not as though they would all be experts. **here is where i saved this as a draft again and left my house for a few hours** i imagine it's like with children irl. they're taught some basics at home but the rest is left for actual school to teach them and some kids might be super far advanced but not that many (and at that point those few kids wouldn't have their own separate courses but rather be placed with the highest level of the other kids)(because there's so few of them and also what if they learned improper technique idk) **here is where i did the thing again and went to go make dinner then forgot about it**

okay actually i think this might be enough for one post

OH vampires have an open invitation to West Love when they are younger (eh. yknow what i mean. like, kids in the vampire sense) vampires can reproduce bc why wouldnt they be able to there is a vampire royal family but they're relatively chill

OH AND THIS ENTIRE THING IS EXTREMELY QUEER

also final thing, just so i can explain the tag, is they call themselves the Nobodies. (the witches) im not sure just yet if its just these main characters or all witches but this is because they have no chosen one, no prophecy, no beef with "dark" creatures (except that whole thing with shapeshifters which could be a focus point) they're just. Nobody. so they call themselves the Nobodies

[bokutosworld]

i won’t say (i’m in love) | kageyama t. 

pairing: kageyama tobio x gn!reader

wc: 1,935 words. fluff, high school crushes. hinata being a wingman lol. 

summary: an encounter at kageyama’s favorite spot in school leads him to meet someone that makes him feel all sorts of confusing feelings. 

a/n: so if it’s not yet obvious by the title, this was inspired by the song from hercules, i won’t say i’m in love :D this idea has been on my drafts for quite some time and i finally had the chance to work on it yaaay 

The first time Kageyama saw you, you were in front of the vending machine he frequented.

It was lunch break, and with ten minutes left before the next period, he figured he could get his favorite banana milk. He was walking towards the area that hid the machine away from prying and hungry eyes. Kageyama was confident that no one was familiar with its spot, especially since the machine always seemed to never go out of stock of his go-to drinks. But boy was he wrong.

The instant that he rounded the corner, he heard the recognizable thud of the drink box falling and someone getting it from its confines. He took a peek and saw a glimpse of a student cheerfully sticking the straw to the pack, humming as they take a sip of the milk. With a contented smile, the student walks off and passes him, giving a side glance and showing off a smirk to Kageyama.

How odd, the setter thought. Though he didn't dwell on it for any much longer, opting to get his own share of the milk. However, when he stood in front of the machine, his heart lurched upon seeing the red light that indicated not available. Kageyama's eyes shoot wide open and he whipped his head towards the direction you went, sending a glare to your retreating back as he realized you took the last milk. Oh, he was furious and poor Hinata was on the receiving end of that sour mood for the rest of the day.

Since that unfateful encounter, Kageyama has been noticing your presence everywhere. And it was an understatement to say that he didn't find you annoying. He remembers how you went under his nose to grab that last box of milk and it still infuriates him.

Whenever you walk by in the hallways, he can't help but follow you with a pointed look on his face. To any outsider, Kageyama looked as if he was sending curses towards your way, at least that was what Hinata thought. But actually, the setter was trying to figure out who you were and why he hadn't seen you in the campus before that day. One day, his curiosity finally got the best of him and he asked Hinata about his concern.

"Huh? What do you mean you don't know Y/N," the orange-haired boy replied. Hinata gave his friend a puzzled look, and as if the cogs in his mind stopped turning, a teasing grin made it way to his face. "Ah, so that's why you've been looking at them like a madman recently. You're so dumb, Kageyama! How could you not recognize them, they're literally our class president."

Hinata was right. That time, Kageyama was dumbfounded when they returned to the classroom and saw you chatting with your friends in the corner. He was entranced by you and the way you were laughing at one of the jokes that he hit his hip in the sharp edge of the desk. He shrieked, causing you to turn your head towards him with worry cast over your face.

It didn't hurt that bad. He was massaging that spot on his hip when you silently stalked towards him. You stood by his side, placing a hand on his back and asking if he was okay. It took all of Kageyama's willpower not to lose his composure in front of you, but Hinata caught on his actions. In that moment, an idea popped up in Shoyo's mind.

"Hey, Pres," he put an arm around Kageyama's shoulders, wiggling his eyebrows at him. "Can I ask you a favor? Can you bring my friend here to the clinic and get his injury checked out? I'm sure it's only minor but we can't be too sure." Kageyama angrily nudged Hinata, a string of stupid, you idiot falling on his lips.

"Yeah, no problem. Come on, Kageyama, let's get you to the nurse."

He was immediately flustered. Kageyama swears his face has never felt that hot when you took his shoulders and wrapped them on your own, acting as his crutch as the two of you walked to the clinic.

Kageyama cleared his throat, his eyes looking at anywhere but you. "H-hey, I'm not completely paralyzed. I can walk on my own."

You laughed, "It's fine. You can rely on me sometimes, you know. Besides, I don't want our star player sitting out of the games." A moment of silence clouds over the two of you on the rest of the way, but just before entering the clinic, you say, "I know you love volleyball. You should enjoy it without any injury."

Kageyama thinks that maybe you were much more than a milk thief after all.

Hinata doesn't know what happened after he sent you and Kageyama to the clinic. But he has a slight idea about what changed when he sees that his teammate has been talking more to you at every chance that he gets, walking by your desk and starting up conversations when he can.

In mornings, he notices that Kageyama always has two packs of milk in hand. And when you enter the room, he sees how he lights up, a shy smile forming on his face as you wave a hand and walk to his desk. He couldn't believe his own eyes when he watches Kageyama give you the other milk and he comes to a conclusion that he bought it just for you.

In gym class, Hinata observes the way Kageyama is extra pumped up to be against you in the 100m dash activity. He sees the playful taunts he sends your way and how you gladly react to them and indulge Kageyama in his competitiveness. He honestly thinks Kageyama won't let you off the hook but he's shocked, when just a few centimeters away from the finish line, he fakes a trip and falls down on the ground. You pass him in high spirits, jumping up and down as you exclaim that you won against the King of the Court. And Hinata knows that the normal Kageyama would be pouting and pissed off at his loss.

But this wasn't a normal Kageyama. He figures that this was a Kageyama in love. 

The pair was assigned to set up the net and prepare the gym before practice started. They were in the storage room getting the equipment when Hinata started teasing Kageyama about his little crush.

"I don't know what you are talking about." The taller boy strongly denied all the accusations that Hinata was throwing at him. "Just shut up and help me here."

Hinata chuckled like an evil villain and continued to spew obvious facts. "You give them milk every morning. You unconsciously make them laugh with your not so funny jokes. You look out for them during gym class more than their friends does. You make time before practice to say goodbye before they go home."

"So, what is your point?"

His friend smirked, "Kageyama Tobio, you have a crush."

Kageyama stood frozen, his hands went limp by his sides at the sudden realization. He was aware that in his recent interactions with you, he'd sometimes feel sick, like he'd get nervous around you, his breathing becomes unstable and his palms get sweaty.  He has noticed it himself how the surroundings would turn brighter whenever you walked in the hallways or how his own heart would beat twice as fast whenever you were approaching him in his desk.

He didn't know what that feeling was called. He didn't want to give it a name. But Hinata just had to point it out. Frustrated that his friend called him out on his adoration for you, Kageyama stayed silent and started playfully punching Hinata. The poor boy was only saved when they heard footsteps come in, and Kageyama was quick to push Hinata away and avoid your gaze when you walked in.

Hinata was grumbling as he walked out of the scene, leaving you two some time to figure out your mutual feelings.

Kageyama immediately crouched down and hid his face on his hands, making you laugh at his awkwardness. He inquired in a muffled voice, "How much of that did you hear?"

You answered him truthfully, narrating the moment when you stopped to hide behind the doors was when you heard Hinata starting to tease him about his little crush. "I'm honestly flattered, Kageyama. Though I am also surprised that Hinata was watching us closely. Or should I be creeped out?"

He glanced up at you, standing from his position and going off on a tangent about how he also thought that Hinata was looking into things too much. He complained that instead of thinking about his love life, Hinata could've used that time to practice his spikes and jumps.

At this point, Kageyama was rambling and though you thought it was endearing, you needed him to pause and breathe. "Can you stop talking for literally ten seconds?" This seemed to work as he shut up and straightened his back, his eyes gazing straight into yours.

Kageyama realized, "Why are you here anyway?"

You smiled and brought out something from your pocket. "I wanted to give this to you." It was the banana milk that he loves. "I saw that it was the last one in the vending machine. I figured you'd want to have it. Have a drink before or after practice."

You thought it wasn't humanly possible to see eyes literally sparkling, but Kageyama was giving you proof of that as he excitedly took the drink from your hands. The corners of his mouth turned upward in a soft smile, and you thought that was the prettiest that he has ever been. He remembers the moment he first saw you and laughs, "You didn't have any problems before taking the last available milk for yourself."

It was your turn to get shocked, hiding a blush behind your palms. You also recall that incident, "Stop, I didn't do that on purpose. Was it my fault that they haven't restocked on that day?”

Kageyama scoffed, "Yeah, right." You pouted, crossing your ams on your chest as you looked away from him. "Thank you."

He has put the straw in the opening of the pack, taking a sip of the milk when you asked him for the second time. "So, you like me, huh?" Kageyama almost choked on his drink, and you laughed before patting his back to help him calm down. Some liquid were spilling from his lips and you were quick to wipe it with your hand. The action was enough to render Kageyama speechless, so he put some distance between the two of you.

You were taking some tissue from your bag to give to Kageyama when you also shared a confession of your own. "If it makes you feel any better, I like you too."

"I'm free this weekend. If you want to take me out a date, you know my number." He looked at you expectantly, the words yes, I'd love to go out with you resting on the tips of his tongue but he wasn't able to let it out. Because in a few seconds, you boldly took a step closer and pressed your lips to his cheek. His face felt warm and his heart was beating like crazy.

"I'll be expecting your call, Tobio."

In that moment, the feelings that he kept on a tightly closed lid were overflowing and it was the affirmation that he needed to know that he was already in too deep for you.

[stressedoutcanary]

Hold On - Jason Todd x Batgirl!Reader [PART 3]

What this includes: Violence, a combo of angst and fluff, and just to be on the safe side I’d say language.

Word count: 3.1k

A/N😋: I am so glad it’s finally finished, now it won’t be sitting in my drafts staring at me all day. Also forgive me for any mistakes, half of it is written at 3 AM

Part 1 , Part 2

•°•°•°•°

“This is it”, you breathed out, stopping your bike near a bush making sure that place was obscure enough. You placed the helmet on the handle and hopped off the bike. After taking a few steps forward and scouting the area, you clicked your comms back on.

“O care to give me the layout of what I am getting myself into, ‘cause we all know the last time didn’t go so well”

“Nightwing said you might call me for backup and now I owe him 20 uggh! Anyways onto the problem at hand, I’m picking up a few heat signatures from the basement area and the schematics of the building indicate a vent on the other side which might help you get in.”

“Is there anything else I should know?”

There was no reply on the other end and you assumed she was looking into it. To your bad luck, it was far from it. You heard an all too familiar grunt and mentally cursed yourself for forgetting that it was an open line.

“(Y/N), I thought I made myself clear”, Bruce’s modulated voice came through which low-key made you want to strangle him with your bare hands.

“Oh come on B! Didn’t Alfred teach you that listening in on other people’s conversations is bad manners”

“We are 10 minutes out you will not be going in till we get there”

‘Like Hell I won’t’

“Hello? B? Your voice is breaking up. I can’t hear you! there is some interference in the signal. Batman?”

“Don’t- ” you clicked the comms off before he could finish his sentence and breathed a sigh of relief. ”Note to self after what you just did, avoid showing your face to anyone in the fam for at least a week.”

Snooping around, you came across the vent Babs told you about and you smirked to yourself, “Bless those idiots who decided to make an excess amount of vents throughout Gotham, plus no dumbass to shoot open the lock on any door, huh I’d say it’s going pretty good for me.”

After going through a very, very dusty vent, you silently dropped down to floor behind a goon and cleared your throat to draw his attention. As soon as he turned around, his jaw was met with your right hook, making him plummet to the ground. Grabbing him by the collar you inched closer to his face, which was yet again fully covered by a white mask.

“Alright no-face, tell me where Pyg is right now”, you made use of your deep modulated voice, making the man dart his eyes towards the far right corner of the room. You knew what that meant and without wasting any more time, you knocked him out and scurried over, finding a heavy door at the end. Somehow managing to push open the door, you were faced with a circular stairwell leading down.

“Well Oracle did say she got heat signatures down in the basement.”, you sighed and started taking calculated steps, making sure to check for any traps. ‘Why keep only one person to guard your supersecret creep-house? Either Lazlo is way too overconfident or way too crazy... Probably both.’, you thought, wheels turning in your head, hoping to make sense of the situation. As you went down, you could catch a faint sound of music. ‘Is that Opera?! Well at least it fits his M.O.’

The end of the stairwell opened into a large room. You hid behind one of wooden crates as your mind swiftly accessed the grim ambience; Pyg was sharpening his knife swaying along with opera music playing in the background but Jason was nowhere to be found. Your breath hitched and your blood ran cold, it felt as if the world around you was spinning.

‘What if... what if it’s too late’  Crouching down on the ground with your back to the crate your took in several deep breaths to calm your racing heart. You couldn’t think like that, not when you’re so close. You wiped the stray tear which escaped the tightness of your cowl and had trailed down your cheek. You tried to focus instead of jumping to conclusions.

You frowned upon noticing something odd on the wall in front of you, placing your palms on it, you gave it a slight push. To your surprise it paved way for an attached corridor which clearly didn’t come up in the schematics Oracle told you about. You slipped into the corridor, making sure that nobody saw you. Your feet froze for a slight second on the sight you were met with; cages like prison cells lined up in a row with people inside of them.

“The people who went missing”, you whispered to yourself, still reeling in the shock of it all. Upon hearing a familiar groan you sprinted across the pathway to the source, eyes scanning every inch of the person you found, the person you were here to rescue. You fumbled with the lock for a while, muttering curses under your breath until it clicked open. You dashed to his side and took a batarang out to cut the binds he was in.

“Jay if you die on me again, I swear I will kill you.”

“Been there, done that princess and honestly not a fan of it”, Jason croaked out, his reply came out weaker and voice barely above a whisper. It made your heart clench in a way it hasn’t in a long, long time. You lifted your head up, you gave him a soft smile, gently brushing off the matted hair on his forehead, 

“Jason I..”

‘Just tell him you love him you coward, It’s really not that hard’

“Jason I’m glad you’re okay”, you blurted out in way which was far from normal but he seemed way too tired to noticed. 

‘COWARD’

“How did you get free?”, he inquired, thankfully interrupting your internal yelling.

“I didn’t? I literally just walked in here to get you out.”

“But I thought-”, Jason looked utterly confused as he rubbed his wrists to ease the pain caused by the rope.

“Well long story short. You got captured. I was saved by Harley and Ivy, had a nice chat with them, and then I might have been responsible for Batman’s high blood pressure, and then I emotionally blackmailed Nightwing into giving me your location and then here I am”

“Wha...Yeah I will just pretend I totally understand whatever the hell you just said.”, Jason sighed, he tried to stand up but his feet wobbled and if it wasn’t for you catching him on time h would’ve staggered to the ground.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Mmhmm”, he hummed lightly leaning his weight on you. “Just a little dizzy, probably from the dehydration, It could also be because of the blood loss from the stab wound I got”

“The WHAT?!”, you looked at him like he was crazy.  

“Oh yeah I think I kinda forgot to tell you that the creepy dude tried to cut me open but my armor got in the way so he stabbed me instead and went away saying he had to sharpen his knife or something like that”, he started to slur and you knew you had to get him back to the cave as quickly as possible. You helped him get up on his feet, slinging one of his arms over your shoulders and wrapping one of your arms around his waist.

“Oh my God! Jay, you don’t just bring this sort of thing up in casual conversation!”, you shook your head and started taking small steps with him towards the way you came from. Suddenly a loud crash was heard followed by a couple of screams making the both of you share a nervous glance.

“What was that?”

“Only one way to find out”, you said as you walked through the door back into the large room. 

It was pure chaos, more like a free-for-all. Nightwing jogged up to you. 

“We did say we were 10 minutes out didn’t we?”, he gave you a bright smile and swung Jason’s free arm over his shoulder to help you support him better.

“Good, now since you are here, hold him”, you shifted Jason’s weight towards Dick.

“Hey-”

“Don’t even”, he glared daggers at his elder brother, “What are you even doing? I feel like a baby being passed around”

You ignored Jason’s whining in the background and fixed your gaze on the one person in the room who would soon face your wrath. The rest had already cleared up the goons and Pyg was the only one left. You narrowed your eyes and cracked your knuckles, making your way over to him.

By the time you reached Pyg he was already backing away from Batman and one murderous looking Robin, turning around he tried to make a run for it but was ultimately met with your fist, a sickening crack was heard and no one was quite sure whether it was from his mask, his jaw or both. Pyg was out cold and you shrugged at the duo in front of you while Dick and Jason made their way over.

“Remind me never to get on her bad side ever again.”, Jason whispered as both the boys looked completely terrified of you. You walked over to Bruce and held out your hand. He didn’t seem to catch the drift, for being the world’s greatest detective, he was quite dumb sometimes.

“The keys to the batmobile, unless you want Mr. surprise-I-got-stabbed over here to bleed out.”

After placing Jason into the passenger seat you hopped into the driving one. 

“Also there are people in the back, you know, the missing ones, so good luck with the clean up I guess.”, you called out before before closing the hood of the batmobile. 

You were on the road heading straight for the cave when you realized Jason wasn’t answering your questions anymore.

“Jason?”, you stole a glance at him and he was as pale as a ghost, “Shit!”, you yelled as you jammed your foot on the accelerator. 

•°•°

Jason woke up to the dull beeping of multiple monitors and by the looks of the place, he concluded he was in fact in the batcave. As he regained some control over his senses, he saw you sitting on a chair beside his bed. You were sound asleep but he could see worry etched on your face even in your slumber. Looking at you, Jason wished he had the courage to say what his heart felt instead he just went ahead taking your hand in his, giving it a little squeeze. You stirred awake at that.

“Hey! You’re up!”, you stood up abruptly and hugged him tightly. To him it felt as if you were actually afraid of what might happen if you let go of him.

“I told you I don’t do dying anymore. It sucks.”

You finally pulled away from him, a smile tugging at your lips. Jason glanced at your hand, taking it in his once again, he ran his thumb over your bruised knuckles.

“I knew you had a mean right hook, guess I just forgot how mean”, Jason said smirking at you. You didn’t pull away from him as he had expected in his head instead you just scoffed at the statement. 

“The next time you forget that, allow me to give you a reminder by demonstration Bird-Brain”, you called him by the name you often used back then. At first it was to annoy your very annoying best friend but then it stuck around but hadn’t used that nickname ever since he came back. You both realized that. A silence fell over the once playful conversation, his eyes found the celling and yours found your lap. After a while you cleared you throat to get his attention and he looked at you, his expressions were borderline unreadable.

“Jason I-I should go now, but don't worry I’ll get Alfred back here”, You got up and moved towards the door of the med-bay, scrunching your eyes shut you released a shaky breath.

‘It’s now or never (Y/N)’ 

“Jason when you get better, there is this place I have been meaning to take you to, with me of course.”

“Sure I’ll go”

“So tomorrow sounds good?”

“Tomorrow sounds good”, he repeated after you breaking into a grin. Your cheeks flushed and you had to take a sharp turn to hide the blush on your face. You mentally smacked yourself for behaving like a teen asking her crush out on a date for the first time. 

•°•°

The next night Jason met you on the roof of the Wayne tower.

“Please tell me this isn’t the place you wanted to see with me”, he chuckled behind you and you turned around to give him a quick hug.

“It’s not that bad of a place, plus I can throw you off here too if you get on my nerves”, you laughed at his faux scandalised face.

“You wound me”

“In case you forgot you are already wounded, drama queen, plus its your lucky day, this is not where we will be spending our evening. Just follow me and don’t get lost on the way”, you winked and jumped off the edge, him following the suit.

When you both reached the place you had in mind, the place Jason cherished when he was Robin, the expression on his face was priceless. It was like a mixture of awe and surprise with a hint of sadness.

“How did you find out about this?”, Jason inquired after a while of reminiscing. 

“Gee how indeed, ‘cause it cannot be the fact that I am detective who’s life is influenced by at least a dozen detectives and it’s most definitely not the fact that for me, you aren’t that difficult to figure out”

“Touché”

Jason chuckled at your usual playful sarcasm, his eyes were twinkling with something which felt more than just momental adoration and you couldn’t help but crack a small smile of your own. You made your way over to him, looking at the visible skyline for a brief moment, Jason watched as you sat down on the ledge with your legs dangling off, patting the space beside you gestured him to join you. 

“I have a feeling we’re gonna be here for a while, so might as well sit down and get comfortable”, you shrugged as he nodded and sat down beside you, placing his elbow on his bent knee. You both enjoyed the few minutes of comfortable silence, watching cars pass by below and the moon lit starry sky above.

“I am starting to see why you liked it here”

“Yeah...”

“Alfred told me”

“Huh?”, Jason looked at you dumbfounded, trying to process your words.

“After you...were gone, Alfred told me, he told me that this was your happy place, though I still can’t believe you had a favorite gargoyle”, stifling a laugh you somehow managed to continue, “Anyway so as I saying, ever since I found out about it, I used to come here every night when I got free from patrol, come to think of it I still do, sometimes”

You could feel his heavy gaze boring into you making you immediately regret bringing up this conversation. 

“Why?”, he finally inquired. You didn’t know whether to feel relived or be tense, but it was now or never, releasing a shallow breath you glanced at him, words flowing out on their own accord. 

“Even back then I knew everyone dies at some point and all we can do is try and find some meaning in it, in the memories they leave behind and I guess me wanting to be here, it was a part of me trying to do that and it made me feel somewhat connected to you so I kept doing it; Coming here, spending any time I could spare and leaving before the crack of dawn and before I knew it, it had become a habit.”

“So you did miss me”, he gave you a sad smile and wrapped his hand around your shoulder, giving you a light squeeze. 

“Of course I did you dumbass, I was best friend.”, you gave him a nudge and leaned your cheek on his chest, sighing deeply.

“The reason I avoided you after you came back was because I was scared”, you whispered, hoping it would sound less real that way. Jason pulled back a bit to take in your features and you could hear the strain in his voice, a hint of sadness in it.

“Scared of me?”

“Jason I wasn’t scared of you, I can never be, I was scared for you. I was afraid of losing you again. Every time you come back I lose you all over again and I am honestly tired of it and I thought that maybe if I kept my distance I--”

“Won’t get hurt again?”

“Yeah, something like that”

A moment passed where no one spoke anything, both of you running the scenarios of what might happen next in your brains. An idea clicked in your head and you abruptly got to your feet startling Jason in the process. Offering him your hand and a sheepish smile, you got him to his feet.

“I am tired of being scared Jason. I want this. I want us and for that I am willing to take a chance, are you?”, he stepped closer to you, his scent invading your senses.  

“For you (Y/N), anything. You should know that by now, plus I feel the same way, I have for a while now”, Jason breathed out as he pulled you in for a deep kiss leaving you dizzy for a while after you pulled away for air. Placing your foreheads together, you found yourselves grinning like idiots yet again in the two successive nights. Jason’s stomach growled, sending you into a fit of laughter.

“Hungry?”

“You really gotta ask?”, raising an eyebrow, he tried to look offended but ultimately melted against you as you pressed your lips on his for a brief moment.

“I know a place”, you murmured, lips brushing against his and before he could register what was happening you already had a grapnel gun in your hands, smirking as you jumped off the ledge.

“Last one there is a rotten egg hoodie!!”

“Hey! But I don’t even know where it is!”

“Not my fault Bird-Brain!”

Jason jumped on after you, smiling to himself. Both of you were thinking the same thing ‘maybe this was finally the start of a new chapter; something new, something scary and something beautiful altogether’

°•°•°•°•

Tags: @ladyperceval

[jjmaybud]

two of the same | kiara carrera

summary: it’s your and kiara’s wedding day and there’s a surprise waiting at the end of the aisle.

pairing(s): kiara carrera x fem!reader

word count: 1.6k

warning(s): fluff, swearing, alcohol use.

author’s note: every two hundred days I post an imagine. this sucks but its been a work in progress in my drafts for like seven months and I just wanted it out there.

For as long as you could remember, Kiara and you have been on the same wavelength. You had met when you both were fourteen and trying to save turtles from the seagulls loitering on the beach. You were a pogue, but you kept to yourself most of the time until the day you both were out on the beach swinging thick sticks at any bird that tried to take your sea turtles. After that, you became inseparable. Sometimes you would finish each other’s sentences—the pogues gagged every time. You could look at Kiara, and she would know what you were thinking like the time you didn’t have enough money for some Mike and Ike’s at the gas station. Once Kiara caught your eye, she distracted the store owner so you could sneak out with a box or two. There were times when you didn’t even have to look at her. She knew what was going in your head, and you knew what was going on in hers. Anytime your mood changed, anytime you didn’t feel like you were enough, she knew how to approach each scenario with what you needed.

And when you started developing feelings for her, you didn’t even have to tell her. You did, though. It was the only time you felt like you needed to express in words rather than the connection you shared. Kiara deserved words.

You took her out on HMS Pogue to a nice place that wasn’t traveled very often and sipped on cheap beer the two of you snatched from the boys. She could tell you were anxious about something but knew to give you time. You would spit it out eventually. But once the sun started to go down, she was worried for the first time that you wouldn’t say it at all. She knew how you felt about her. She was sure you knew how she felt about you. But now you were sitting there, nervously swinging your legs over the edge of the Pogue, and she wasn’t sure if she was right this time.

Deciding against words, Kiara placed her hand on your lower thigh and rubbed her thumb into your soft skin. Your legs stopped swinging immediately, and the both of you felt the tension disappear.

“I’m in love with you,” you blurted. “I know we never say what we’re feeling to each other, we just know, but I wanted to make sure you knew just how much I’m in love with you. Kie, I would travel the world three times around in just this little boat to measure how much I truly love you."

You rambled on listing times when you knew you loved her and metaphors of just how much she meant to you. You told her that you didn’t know if she could even tell how you felt because the feeling was so new and exciting and terrifying. You never felt this way about anyone, even the list of celebrity crushes that had come and gone couldn’t compare to the way you felt about her. The way her cheeks crinkled her eyes when she smiled, the way she couldn’t go anywhere without her bracelets, the way she cared about everyone else way more than she cared about herself. She wasn’t perfect, but she was perfect for you.

She cried, and then you cried because she was crying. The hand on your thigh moved to the side of your face with her finger tips weaving in the little hair at the bottom of your neck and her thumb catching the tears that came down your face. She guided your face to hers and pressed her lips against yours in a sweet kiss. It was unfamiliar territory seeing as how your previous relationships have never felt this intimate. Have never felt this freeing.

∴∵∴∵∴∵∴

That was years ago. Now, both of you had just graduated college and freshly twenty-three. Today was your wedding day. You were going to marry the girl you’ve been in love with since you were sixteen. The two of you had your ups and your downs. Your fights could break any couple a part but not you and Kiara. Because even though you fought hard, you loved harder.

You stared at your reflection in the antique, gold-trimmed mirror. Her parents insisted the two of you got married where they hosted Midsummer’s every year. Your parents had passed away a couple of years before, so the both of you granted the Carrera’s that much since they were paying for it. After all of the mischief the pogues and you caused at that golf course, you and Kie were surprised they agreed to let you have your wedding there. Neither of you cared where you got married. You’d have a courtroom wedding if it meant you two could finally prove your love on paper. Kiara didn’t really care about being “legally bound to someone like you’re their property,” but she thought since it was two women it felt like a big fuck you to the misogynistic system of it all.

You smoothed out your flowing summer dress that went down to your knees with spaghettis straps that showed off an appropriate amount of cleavage and shoulders. The only thing on your feet were the bracelets the pogues each made each other when you were all young and dumb on one ankle and the one that only had one matching twin on the other that was worn by the woman waiting down at the other end of the aisle. The flower crown on your head wasn’t as bulky as the one on Kiara’s head from the Midsummer held during the treasure hunting summer, but it was definitely a homage to the most awesome and awful summer ever.

“Y/N,” John B said from the doorway. He smiled as you looked at him through the mirror. “Ready?”

You laughed. “Since I saw her.”

You turned around and walked over to take his outreached elbow.

“You look beautiful.”

The other two boys were waiting in the hall. Smiles broke out on the everyone’s faces as you each took each other in. Each of the boys knew this would happen eventually. You knew they would be there for you no matter who it was. Pope held the turtle-shaped ring box since JJ called for the job as flower girl. JJ took his job proudly and seriously as he held the basket full of flower petals. Kie and you decided not to hear them bitch and moan about wearing anything resembling formal attire so you let them wear whatever they wanted. Luckily, John B was able to talk Pope and JJ out of wearing the tacky tuxedo t-shirts, and they all settled for similar looking beach attire like they used to wear when they were teenagers.

“Let’s get these two hitched! Come on!” JJ yelled and took off down the hall, careful not spill the flower petals. You were impressed.

Pope kissed you on the cheek and asked, “Nervous?”

“Never.”

The three of you walked to the end of the hall. John B and you stopped before you could pass by the wall of windows, so you didn’t see Kiara before it was time. Pope went on just in time to see JJ dancing down the aisle to Crazy in Love by Beyoncé and see his finale.

“Dude! How am I supposed to compete with that?” You heard Pope yell over the music. The crowd starts to laugh before their laughs turn into cheers as Pope does his thing down the aisle.

You shake your head. “I can’t wait to see the wedding video.”

“Oh, yeah, you won’t be disappointed.” John B laughed.

The music switched to the instrumental of If I Could Fly by One Direction that you chose. You almost dragged John B the moment you heard the beginning chords, but you held yourself back and waited for John B to lead you. You forced yourself to wait again until you got to the doorway to look at Kiara. You could already feel the tears build up behind your eyes at the anticipation at how gorgeous she would look like waiting down at the end of the aisle. As people set their sights on you, you could hear gasps and whispers but you thought it was just because of how good you looked. But when you looked up to catch sight of your future wife, you knew that wasn’t what caught their eyes.

In sync, you and Kiara threw your head back and laughed heartily from the pit of your gut. Even with the setting sun behind her, you could clearly see the dress she wore that matched the one you spent hours deciding on before you chose it to wear on your wedding day. From head to toe, you matched. You decided to wear matching flower crowns because there was no way that your dressed would match. The two of you thought it was too insane that you didn’t even have someone check to make sure.

Through an enormous amount of giggles, John B finally got you down the aisle where he handed you off to Kiara before taking his spot next to Sarah on Kiara’s side. Kiara lead you to your spot next to JJ and Pope. Both of your hands went to each other’s face to wipe the tears of laughter away.

“How? How does this happen to us?” You asked.

She laughed some more and said, “Because we’re two of the same. And I love you just the way you are.”

Oh, how you wanted to skip to the kissing part.

[whisperednarratives]

pairing:

bakugo katsuki x reader

cw:

angst

a/n:

im doing to start working on EVOLVE this week! i already have some drafts ready and im so excited to share the final work with you guys!!

fun fact: this scenario was originally written for EVOLVE but i decided not to put it in the story! :)

[NONE OF THE FOLLOWING WORKS HAVE BEEN EDITED OR PROOFREAD YET]

-

“Why are you here?”

Y/N’s fists stayed clenched besides her to stop her hands from shaking.

It was cold today, much like the gaze Bakugo Katsuki had set upon her as soon as she had approached him.

He hadn’t looked at her like that for a while now.

“What are you doing, Katsuki?” Y/N’s voice found its way out of her mouth, her eyes never leaving his.

“What do you think dumbass? I’m leaving.”

The silence that followed hung around the two for a few seconds, the streetlight lamp above their heads flickering occasionally.

“What do you mean?” Furrowing her eyebrows, Y/N tried her best to remain patient.

“What the fuck do you think? I’m leaving U.A. My job here is done,” he rolled his eyes. “Frankly, I’ve over welcomed my stay.”

He turned back around, beginning to walk towards the gates that led to the city that lay outside of the U.A grounds.

They were already outside after curfew and getting caught was not an option. The last time they’d snuck out together, Aizawa had given them detention for a week.

Y/N rushed towards him.

“Katsuki, what are you talking about? What do you mean you’ve over welcomed your stay?”

Bakugo remained silent, his footsteps still thundering towards the metal gates.

Confused and slightly agitated, Y/N reached out to grab his shoulder. As soon as her hand touched his body, he turned around to slap it away.

Recoiling her arm, Y/N’s eyes immediately flooded with hurt.

“Katsuki, what’s the-”

“STOP CALLING ME THAT!”

Bakugo’s eyes were as hard as stone, his voice echoing through the emptiness of the evening that had settled around them. His figure loomed over Y/N’s and for the first time in months, a sliver of fear slid through her body.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? Why are you even following me?”

“Kat-Bakugo, I just saw you leaving the dorms and wanted to make sure you’re okay. I’m your friend...” Y/N managed to say, shrinking underneath his harsh gaze.

Friends. Friends. Friends.

Friends who kiss. Friends who hold hands. Friends who-

Bakugo let out a laugh and for once, Y/N found the sound to be unpleasant.

“Friends? What, you think you can feed me some bullshit and I’ll forget what I really came here for?” Bakugo folded his arms across his chest, crimson eyes blazing with disgust. “You, your words and your ‘friendship’ means nothing to me.”

Y/N’s body stilled, the flash of a memory she usually smiled at causing her eyes to screw themselves shut.

Y/N listened to Bakugo rant, his hands moving as rapidly as Iida’s. Normally the two would be at each other’s throats but today had ended up being different.

During training, Bakugo had been paired with Denki. The two had sparred like they usually would but Bakugo finished the fight with a blow so strong, Denki over exerted himself to the point where he became too dumb to respond. As Mineta and Mina rushed to pick him up, Mineta had decided to give his unwanted opinion.

“Damn Bakugo, sometimes I wonder if you would be better off as a villain.”

Usually, Bakugo would fly Mineta across the room for even speaking to him. But today he had turned around, eyes blank and exited the gym.

Y/N had caught sight of him leaving and decided to follow him. Before she knew it, they found themselves seated on the grass right outside the dorms with Bakugo talking at the speed of light.

“That piece of shit needs to keep his mouth shut before I rip all of the balls off his head. We were sparring, it’s what heroes do to train. It’s not my fault Dunce Face spasmed out of fear and rendered himself stupid. I mean yeah I could’ve gone easy on him but we’re training to fight the best of the best! Does he really think the bad guys will look at him and think, ‘Oh let’s just not attack this one!’ But that pint sized freak had to go and call me a villain!” Bakugo continued to scream, Y/N facing his side as his hand gestures began to get more violent.

Bakugo didn’t understand why he was so mad. Was it because Mina and Dunce Face had been around to hear it? Or because Y/N was nearby and she had witnessed the entire thing?

After all, what Mineta had said was tru-

Interrupting his ranting, Y/N reached out and placed a hand on Bakugo’s shoulder. Her touch was hesitant and so were her next words.

“Look Bakugo, you have raging anger issues and you tend to scream too much. You’re intolerably arrogant and you like to boss people around,” Y/N began, her gaze fixated on the blatant glare Bakugo was shooting her.

“Princess, if you’re going to insult me, at least-”

“But you are one of the strongest people I know,” Y/N continued. “You are brave and smart and so passionate about being a hero that we all overlook the fact that we want to run you over sometimes.”

Bakugo rolled his eyes.

Y/N realised later that the next thing she said is what really helped Bakugo open up to her. And for him to open up to Eijirou and Denki and the rest of the Bakusquad.

It had made him realise that she looked up to him despite his obvious flaws and had decided that he was worthy of her time.

Of her friendship.

And for some odd reason, Bakugo’s heart had filled with unfamiliar warmth at the sight of her smile.

He knew it was wrong. It was so wrong to let his guard down like this but just sitting next to her made him feel so at peace that for a moment he forgot that her smile towards him would eventually become rare sight.

“You are not a villain Bakugo Katsuki.”

“Bakugo, if you’re talking about-”

“Just fuck off. I don’t need you to hold my hand and tell me everything will be okay,” Bakugo snapped. “You will never understand the pressure I am under.”

“Bakugo please, I am your friend. You can talk to me,” Y/N pleaded. “I don’t understand what’s going on but I’m sure we can figure it out together.”

Bakugo barked out another laugh, just as unfriendly as the last one. He uncrossed his arms only to lean down to Y/N’s height.

“You will never understand. Let me make it clear to you L/N, you and I were never friends. You were just some naive little bitch I used as a distraction to get my job done,” Bakugo sneered as Y/N’s eyes started to water.

Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.

“You are weak and vulnerable and stupid. And you always will be. Do not come looking for me. I don’t want to be found or saved if that’s what you’re going for. Don’t try to come after me either or I won’t hesitate to blow you up.”

With that, Bakugo turned on his heels, continuing his journey towards the gates.

Y/N kept her head down, the tears in her eyes threatening to fall any minute now. She willed herself to stay strong, not for herself, but for Bakugo.

She knew he was just trying to say all those things because he wanted her to stay still. He wanted to make her feel pained enough to not chase him. To not come after him.

But he was still Katsuki.

Katsuki, who woke up early to make her breakfast every morning before class. Katsuki, who pushed her to train with him so she could get stronger. Katsuki, who stocked his mini fridge full of her favourite ice cream because she always crashed in his room. Katsuki, who held her hand the entire night when she fell sick a couple of weeks ago. Katsuki, who had hugged her close before whispering the words ‘You’re still a dumbass.’ and pulled her into a kiss. Katsuki, who had promised he’d never leave her.

Fuck. Move Y/N.

Just as Y/N managed to gather all of her strength to lift her foot one step closer, Bakugo paused.

Without bothering to even look at her, he landed his final blow.

“You know I’m glad the League tortured you the way they did when they captured you. After all, it was my idea.”

Y/N didn’t know what happened next.

All she remembered was her knees crumbling under the weight of her emotions only for her tears to flood her face faster than she had managed to fall in love with Bakugo Katsuki.

-

Kirishima awoke to a soft knock on his door. He rubbed his eyes, shifting to check the alarm clock he’d place on his bedside table.

3:45AM.

Who the hell could it be at this hour?

Irritated and still a bit drowsy, he slipped out of his warm bed to approach his door. The knocking continued, albeit a bit harder this time and Kirishima threw the door open.

“Calm down a damn min-”

He paused, eyes meeting Y/N’s.

With her face red and puffy, Y/N pushed past him to seat herself onto his bed. Confused, Kirishima closed the door behind him and switched on the lights in his room. That’s when he realised how shattered Y/N truly looked.

Dried tears streaked her face, her body shivering. Her knees were bruised and her hands would not stop shaking.

He had never seen her like this.

“Y/N, is everything okay? Do you want me to call Baku-“

Before he could finish, Y/N interrupted him.

“He’s gone,” she said, lifting her head just enough for Kirishima to see how lifeless her eyes were. “He... he was helping the v-villains.”

Suddenly, it felt like somebody had punched Kirishima in the gut.

“Bakugo’s the U.A traitor.”

[kikis-writing-world]

Where The Sky Touches The Sea [prologue]

A/N: This has been sitting in my drafts for over a month and I’ve been debating on posting it or not. Here goes nothing. Another series before I finish Whiskey Straight? Yep. I’m a bad person lol

Our lovey mermaid doesn’t make an appearance yet, but it sets the stage. It’s a prologue after all.

Pairing: Frankie “Catfish” Morales x Mermaid!OC (eventually)

Word Count: 1.3k

Rating/Warnings: PG - Light mentions of PTSD/dealing with the aftermath of war, talk of superstitions. 

Summary: Frankie needs a change of scenery, a change of pace - it leads him to a lovely house on a (haunted?) lake

When Frankie had seen the listing for the house, he was cautiously in love. Even from the listing he could see flaws, but that made it all the more appealing to him. He set up a viewing, anxiously awaiting the chance to see the house for himself. When the day finally came, he tried to lower his expectations. Had he worked himself up for disappointment, thinking of what seemed to be the perfect house for the past week? The entire drive out of the city, watching the buildings make way for more trees and greenery, he tried to talk himself down. It wouldn’t be as great as he thought it was.

But then it was.

The house was a small, rustic thing just under an hour’s drive from the city. Most would call it a cabin, but it was fully equipped to be a year-round home. There were other houses on the lake, but they were pretty far off from the property. The lake’s surrounding rockiness and cliffsides had left little area to build without a major demolition project. With the beauty of the area, he was lucky some millionaire hadn’t taken on that task.

It had an entire unfinished section, an addition of an extra bedroom and en-suite that had been abandoned partway through by the previous owner when a family emergency took them out of state. There were other little upgrades he could do throughout as well. So far, three big check marks were on Frankie’s dream home list:

It was quiet. He was out of the city. No more fireworks - or worse, gunshots - waking him in the middle of the night, making him think he was back in combat. No loud neighbours or block parties disrupting the peace on days where he just wanted to be alone.

Secondly, he could work on the addition. Something that would put his hands to work and keep his mind busy on days he needed to just shut down. Even better, the lack of neighbors meant he could work on the house in the middle of the night when he couldn’t sleep. Once the addition was finished, it would tick off his third item: room for his daughter during the times he got to see her.

He didn’t mind the drive to and from the city, and the hangar he flew out of for work was on the outskirts of the city anyway. It wouldn’t be a long commute.

Frankie had always liked the outdoors, camping and fishing often in his youth. The lake a short walk from the backyard - by all technicalities of where the property line was, but really the lake and surrounding forest was his backyard - would provide him the chance to reconnect with those hobbies. The expansive land would give him space to get a dog, something he’d been considering for months but couldn’t justify living in the city.

The last and maybe the most important check mark on the list - he could afford it. He’d already gone to the bank to tally up his finances and find out what kind of loans he was eligible for. His military pension, his meager savings, plus his current piloting for the charter company, he had himself a decent little nest egg. He wasn’t rich by any means, but he knew he could afford to change his lifestyle in a way that his own mental health desperately needed.

He wanted the house within the first five minutes of the viewing but he stayed quiet as the agent showed him around. She pointed out the features, talking up the selling points, glossing over the issues as a “weekend project” or “quick fix.”

He thanked the real estate agent for her time, and put in his offer. Now he had to wait.

Frankie considered himself a patient man, his years of service had instilled that in him, but he still couldn’t help but to check his old flip phone several times a day. No missed calls. There was no way for him to miss a call anyway, he rarely took the phone from his pocket and he had the ringer to full volume.

“Alright, give it up, Fish. Who is she?” Santi demanded. They were out for dinner and drinks and he had caught the pilot checking his phone for the third time in 20 minutes.

“Who is who?” Frankie answered with his own question.

“Don’t play dumb,” Santi laughed. “Who’s the girl that has you checking your phone like some teenager?”

“Oh, uh, actually… she’s a real estate agent.” Frankie admitted.

“Where’d you meet her?”

“No, it’s not- I put an offer on a house.” Frankie corrected his friend’s assumptions.

“You did? That’s big news, hermano! Why didn’t you tell me?” Santi seemed happy for him, despite it being kept from him. He knew Frankie was interested in moving - the house he was in right now was too big, too loud and too quiet at the same time. The noisy suburbs, big enough for his little family to grow. Now though, it was just a reminder of that broken family.

“I don’t know if I’ll get it.” Frankie brushed it off, “I don’t wanna get ahead of myself.”

“Where’s it at?”

“It’s out on Goldfinch Lake.”

Santi sputtered, nearly choking on his beer. “Goldfinch Lake? Isn’t that place supposed to be haunted or something?”

“You can’t tell me you believe that shit.” Frankie scoffed. “That’s campfire story bullshit.”

“I dunno man. Mi abuela always followed those superstitions-”

“It’s a house on a lake, man.” Frankie argued. “It’s nothing.”

“Yeah well, put some pennies under the carpet or something before you move in.” Santi visibly shivered.

“We’ve literally been to war together. You’re scared of a haunted lake and think pennies are gonna fix it?” He shook his head in disbelief.

“You’re right. I’m gonna call Tia Maria Carmen later and get some advice for you. She knows this kind of stuff.”

Thankfully their food arrived, stalling the conversation in favor of eating. He knew Santiago meant well, but he had to take it one step at a time. First, get the house.

---

Frankie climbed out of the moving van, looking over the- his property. He took a deep breath of the fresh air, hearing the rustle of the wind in the trees and the crunching of the gravel driveway under his feet and the tires of his friends parking beside him. It was his house, soon it would be his home.

“Nice digs, Fish.” Benny praised as he climbed out of his truck, taking in the property.

“Not bad.” Will agreed with a nod.

“Nobody go in yet!” Santi yelled as he scurried out of his car. The other three men stopped to look at him, watching as he dug through his backseat.

“Dios,” Frankie mumbled under his breath, rubbing his forehead. He fixed his hat as he called over to the man “what are you going to do to my house?!”

Santiago popped up out of the car, a coconut in one hand and a small bundle of sage in the other. Will and Benny looked to each other in confusion, turning to Frankie for a hint to what was going on.

“You’re kidding.” Frankie deadpanned.

“Tia Maria Carmen said this is the best way to bless the house,” Santi explained, ignoring the stares he was getting from his friends. “If any of those rumors of this lake being haunted are true, you’re going to need it.”

“He’s not making cocktails, is he?” Benny asked, still confused.

“I doubt it.” Will supplied.

“Unlock the door for me. You guys can start unloading the truck while I kick around the coconut.” Santi instructed. “Don’t take anything inside until I’m done, though.”

“Is he serious?” Will questioned. Frankie just sighed and unlocked the front door.

The men watched as Santi lit the sage and began kicking the coconut into the house. Benny laughed, taking out his phone to take pictures.

“I can’t believe we’ve been to war with that man.” Will muttered, pinching his nose. He sighed and turned to Frankie, who was resigned to it all. “Welcome home?”

[another-sonic-blog]

The Fanfictioner

Synopsis: Amy Rose secretly writes fanfiction out of the not so famous 'Sonic Boom' show in which she and her friends are the main actors. Everything was fine, filming the show and then writing. However, everything changed when the famous actor, Shadow the Hedgehog, showed up to participate in the show. Just like Amy, Shadow hides a secret. He loves to read fanfiction but will never admit that out loud. Shadow one day stumbles upon Amy's fanfiction and without knowing, they develop a friendly bound over comments, likes and messages of support. On work, Shadow and Amy have a normal co-worker relationship that will never develop more than that. However, one night, they hang out together due to special circumstances.A few days later, Shadow starts to read the new fanfiction that his favorite author published. As he keeps reading, he is starting to realize this person was writing about something personal that happened between him and Amy. How did this author know with so much detail what happened between them?

I want to thank @jhojuju  for drawing content that inspired me to write this story! If you haven't done so already, you should check out the artist's art!

ShadAmy 6K500 (DRAFT)

The Fanfictioner

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The moon was above them and although it was a cold night, they didn't care. Sonic got closer to Amy, emeralds eyes shone brightly with love and desire. He caressed her as he softly placed his hands around her face, pulling her closer to him. Amy licked her lips as they begged to be touched by the blue blur. They have fought to be together for a long time and now nothing was stopping them. Finally, they could express and show their love to the world with no restrictions, with complete freedom. Sonic got closer to his lover, their lips just a few centimeters away and then-

"Amy, what are you writing?"

The pink hedgehog slammed shut her laptop as she mentally cursed herself for not being more delicate. Today was filming day but she promises her followers that she was going to update a new chapter of 'Falling Petals' by tonight. Of course, like the good fanfic writer that she was, she always kept her promises.

Amy shifted her body from the chair to look at the standing blue hedgehog behind her. She tried to hide the panic on her face but it seemed like this picked Sonic's interest even more.

"Um... my shopping list?" That came out more like a question than a statement. Once again, she cursed under her breath because although Sonic wasn't the smartest hedgehog out there, he wasn't dumb either.

"Then why are you acting so ... strange?"

Sonic had the sincerest of interest. He cared for the pink one and her recent actions had just baffled him. Recently Amy was acting quite strangely. Before Sonic was free to use her laptop whenever he wanted and now, she kept it to herself and hid it as her life depended on it. The blue bur knew that Amy likes to write from time to time but now? Sonic found her writing whenever he visited her at her house. She would be checking her phone constantly and even smiled as she typed on it. The thought had crossed his mind that maybe Amy was 'seeing' someone and the thought alone just made him pay more attention to her.

"Are you sure-"

"Everyone get on ready on set!"

Amy was saved by the show's director once again. She smiled awkwardly at her blue friend as she placed her laptop on her chair. She heard Sonic sigh in defeat and Amy felt a little bit bad that she made her friend and love interest worried. However, she just couldn't go to him and say 'Hey, I know I have been acting strange but it's because I am writing fanfiction of Sonic Boom and I don't want you to think I am weird.'

Amy greeted everyone as she stepped on set. The camera, lighting crew and just every who crossed her path. Of course, her friends were there as well looking as fresh as they could be. They were outdoors and currently they were filming Sonic Boom's most recent and most wanted episode 52 of season 1.

"Hey, guys! Amy greeted her friends, Sticks, Knuckles, and Tails as they waved their hands from right to left, Sonic followed from behind.

Amy's attention was focused on the red echidna who had sleepy eyes. This was very strange because Amy knew that Knuckles was one who appreciated his sleep especially because he always woke up early morning to go workout.

"Hey Knuckles, you alright?" Amy asked. "You look very sleepy.

Knuckles let out a yawn as he stretched his body. "I didn't sleep much I was binge reading this book I found online and-

"WHERE IN CHAOS IS SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG?" The director of the show screamed in desperation as everyone was ready to go but the star of today's episode.

" I still can't believe they hired Shadow the Hedgehog to do this roll." Tails said with a bit of amusement in his voice. "I mean he is the same guy who appeared in Chao in Space 2."

"And in Anti-Vengers the Final Game," Sticks added.

"And in Fast and the Glorious 8," said Knuckles.

"It makes me wonder if Sonic Boom produces that much money for them to pay someone like him," Amy looked from side to side, in hopes that the black hedgehog would appear. She hasn't met him yet and if she was completely honest, she looking forward to his approval.

"He is not that big of a deal," Sonic rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I mean, I was in Chao in Space 2 as well."

"Yeah, as a side character. Shadow was actually the protagonist." Tails was saying this because it was the truth and not to annoy his blue friend. However, it was quite funny to see Sonic jealous over at Shadow the Hedgehog's accomplishments. Tails were lowkey a fanboy of the black hedgehog, although he would never admit that out loud.

"What is all of this fuzz about? I am right here,"

Finally, the hedgehog that everyone was waiting for arrived. He had an energy drink on his right hand and in one gulp he drank all of it. He then turned around to give it to his assistant who quickly took the can away from him. He stepped on the set where the rest of 'Team Sonic' waited to start.

"Mr. Hedgehog, nice to meet you!" Tails said as he extended out his hand, shaking a little due to the excitement. "I am Tails Miles Prower and I-"

"Yeah, I know who you are," Shadow said with a monotone voice.

The yellow fox leaned into Amy's ear and he whispered, 'Did you hear that Amy? He knows me.’

"You are the only one who has ... descent acting skills," Shadow let out mocking laughter as he looked down on the rest of the 'actors.'

Everyone looked at him, offended at his comment. It seems like the rumors that the black hedgehog had a prepotent personality was true.

"Says the one who can only portray edgy characters."

Everyone turned to look at Amy in disbelief. Actually, she had thought of that in her head but in one way or another, it came out of her mouth. The set was filled with silence until Sonic let out a big laugh and wrapped his right arm around Amy's shoulder.

"That was a good one Ames!" Sonic said.

Shadow wasn't expecting that from the pink hedgehog in front of him. Who did she think she was? She was no one compared to the great acting career he has had. Of course, he wasn't going down without a fight.

"My apologies, I don't accept criticism from people who can't even act," Shadow replied.

"Well maybe if you did, you would get a different type of role from time to time," Amy replied.

By now Team Sonic was static. There was so much tension between the two and they had only met two seconds ago. Vermillion eyes met emerald ones and neither one of them wanted to quit the internal battle.

Shadow the Hedgehog had to admit, this was interesting.

"Shadow!" Sonic Boom's director interrupted the moment as he had finally eyed the black hedgehog. "You are late! What were you doing?"

Mia, a brown girl hedgehog, and Shadow's assistant was watching the scene unfold from afar. She watched the director seated on his high chair and to prevent Shadow from getting scolded, she answered on his behalf.

"He didn't get enough sleep yesterday sir-" Mia said loud enough but the director, who was an old and strict monkey, raised his hand and interrupted her.

"I want him to tell him,"

In all honesty, if it wasn't because he was the director, Shadow would have said something offensive. However, the black hedgehog always had a sense of responsibility and respect towards his job and especially to the director.

Shadow sighed and looked up to the director, "I was up all night on my phone ... reading."

"Hey, me too!" Knuckles said in surprise. "I was reading this really good story about our show and-"

"I am sure that whatever you were reading doesn't compare to what I was reading," Shadow interrupted him and rolled his eyes

The director faced palmed himself and loudly he said, "I don't care! Just make sure this doesn't happen again, Mr. Hedgehog."

Shadow couldn't say anything more. It was his first day on set and he almost wanted to leave ... almost.

"Yes, sir."

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The day ended worse than Amy expected. Shadow wasn't only prepotent, he was mean, rude and jerk. He took in every opportunity he had to bully and tease the hell at out of Amy. The black hedgehog mocked her acting, made fun of her lines and bumped into her multiple times.

And today has only been the first day of filming for this month's episode. Good thing that filming only took around two weeks to complete due that the episodes were short. They started every first day of the month. Today was September 1, they will finish on September 14 and they will have the rest of the month free. Thirteen more days to go, thirteen more days that she had to endure Shadow's presence on set.

She was quite disappointed when she found out who the real Shadow was. Just like her friend, Tails, Amy was secretly a fan of the acting he has done in the past. Although his roles were kind of repetitive, his acting was always exceptional. Even today, his acting techniques were really good, she even liked the character he was portraying.

Amy stretched her back as had finally reached the insides of her home. During today's break, she was able to finish the last chapter of 'Falling Petals' and to make it extra special, she wrote a 20 thousand final chapter. This chapter was filled with a lot of drama, romance, and fights which will lead to the second book. She couldn't wait to just upload it to her page so her readers will enjoy and maybe cry a little with her writing.

After showering and changing to her pajamas, Amy comfortably laid on her bed with her computer on her legs. She logged into fanfiction.com where she had already hundredth of comments in her work, reading for her to read. She always made sure to reply to them whenever she had the chance. The pink hedgehog even had created a bond with a couple of people who always commented on her fanfics. She scrolled down the comment section as she replied to them and a familiar username came into her screen.

"I've following your work since I stumbled upon 'Blue Rose' and in all honesty, you are the best fanfiction writer out there. Every story you publish is great and you develop the characters amazingly well. Yesterday, I was re-reading all 30 previous chapters of 'Falling Petals' and I got late to work but it was worth it. I can't wait to read the final chapter tonight."

By: The Fanfictioner

Amy smiled to herself, she was always happy to read comments and it was one of the few things that kept her going through the day. She took a few moments to think about what to write and finally she began to type.

"This means a lot to me. 'Blue Rose' was the first story I published and I am really happy you still enjoy it. I appreciate you a lot, I see that you always like and comment on my work. I'll keep working hard for you and my other readers. I hope you like the last chapter of 'Falling Petals' ... Thank you!"

By: A Rose Without Thorns

After she finished typing and hitting 'Enter', our adorable pink hedgie was now ready to publish the last chapter of her latest work. She uploads her writing file from her laptop, publishes it and waits for her reader's reaction. Amy closes her laptop and places it next to her, closing her eyes, the pink hedgehog drifted into sleep.

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"CAN YOU GUYS BELIEVE SONIC LEFT AMY TO GO SAVE THE WORLD?!" Knuckles, who has his bubbly self again was walking right and left on the set. "AFTER EVERYTHING THEY WENT THROUGH, HE LEAVES!"

"Knuckles, I am right here," Sonic said as he read a magazine. It was early morning and 'Team Sonic' was waiting for everyone to arrive. "Also, I am not going anywhere. I have to save enough folks on the Island as it is."

"I am not talking about you! I am talking about the Sonic on the story I am reading!" Knuckles replied again. "The writer said that they will punish a second book, so I have hope that they will end up together."

Amy, who was sitting on the actor's small circle, was interested in what Knuckles were reading. Especially since it seemed like he read the last chapter of her most recent work.

"Out of curiosity," Amy said. "What are you doing?"

"I read 'Falling Petals' by A Rose Without Thorns in fanfiction.com," Knuckles replied. "I just love their works is so good!"

Amy hid her evident blush by taking a sip of her coffee.

"What if Knuckles is TheFanfictioner? He did say that he stayed up all night reading and his comment right now sounds a bit similar to the one of last night."

"Wait, fanfiction.com?" Tails who was quietly drinking tea finally spoke up. "You read fanfiction?"

"I do," Knuckles said, still not seating down on his chair. "We need to support fans that create free content for others and besides ... Some of these writers are way better than the ones we have here."

"That, I do believe," Sticks puts down 'Theories Magazine', the issue of this month was government space theories. She was reading a very interesting story about a project that was created on a space colony and it was shut down due that scientists created a powerful ultimate life form.

"Still, it's lame," Sonic said, still not looking at his friends directly. "I understand your curiosity Knuckles, but I still think it's a bit weird. Especially the writer ... It's so cringy."

"It's not! Look!" Knuckles pull out his phone and shoved into Sonic's face, making drop the magazine that he was reading. "Read the first chapter! It's really good!"

The blue bur leaned his head a little, as he tried to catch a glimpse of Knuckle's phone. He read the first lines of the story and a smirk crossed his face. He grabbed Knuckle's phone and stood up from his seat.

"Although I was always pushed away by him, Sonic the Hedgehog was the only hedgehog that I ever wanted." Sonic made his voice sound in a higher pitch, pretending to be the female hedgehog. "His green eyes, his strong form, and heroic personality were some of the things that made me fall in love with him."

Tails and Sticks began to laugh. Even Knuckles who wasn't laughing at the story itself, but at Sonic's overly bad acting, let out a giggle or two.

"See? This is so bad!" Sonic said as he pointed to Knuckles' phone.

The blue one noticed that Amy was awfully quiet, just there, seating on her chair. As to look for her approval, Sonic asked, "Don't you think this is lame Amy? I mean just that fact that you love is ridiculous enough!"

"Yeah, haha," Amy looked down to the floor, as she tried to hide her evident embarrassment. "It is pathetic."

She had never felt such embarrassment before. When she stared this was because she enjoyed writing and loved to write about the Sonic Boom characters. However, looking at her peer's reaction made her wonder. They were the ones who interpreted the characters and they thought it was lame. Maybe, she wasn't as good of a writer as she thinks she was. Doubt filled her mind and before she could say to do anything else, Knuckles was jumped to say something.

"You all are just uncultured," Knuckled said as he took his phone away from Sonic's grasp "You guys will never know how deep and life-changing 'Falling Petals' is until you read it-"

"Will everyone just shut up?"

The prince of dark and gloom appeared and to say that he looked bad was an understatement. Shadow the Hedgehog had dark circles under his red eyes. He arched his back and his stance was way too weak. He looked sick even. Shadow walked towards his chair and sat down with a cup of black coffee on his hand.

"Well, did someone forget to read today's script?" Sonic said mockingly.

"I had a very emotionally draining experience last night, I don't need your jokes at this moment," the black hedgehog replied. He was wearing a black leather jacket and out of one of the pockets, he pulled out some shades and puts them on.

"It wasn't a joke," said Sonic. "There was a change in plans yesterday and we are supposed to record another scene today, did you read your script?"

At that moment, Shadow thanked Chaos that he was wearing shades because otherwise, everyone would have seen his confused face.

Just like he sat down on his chair, he stood up.

"I need to talk to my manager."

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It was already 11 in the morning and they still haven't started filming. At this rate, they were just going to lose the day. It was September and the sunlight was running out short. Sonic Team was already eager to start but there was no sign of the director. Even less Shadow.

"Everyone takes one-hour break, come back at 12 P.M." the show director appeared. He had a tired face one that showed that he was done with his job.

The director came into the circle of actors and approached Amy directly.

"Ms. Rose, I need to speak to you ... Privately," he said as he made a motion to follow him.

"Of course, Mr. Johnson," the pink hedgehog stood from her chair and followed the old monkey. Once again, they were supposed to be filming outdoors. They had closed a small part of Hedgehog Village so they could film. Her friends were on the other side while Amy and Mr. Johnson had already placed themselves behind the camera crew to get some privacy.

"Ms. Rose, I need a favor," Mr. Johnson said. Amy nodded, not expecting that from the director. "I need you to stay here and help Mr. Shadow the Hedgehog finish memorize his script. I know you are the best at that."

Great, this is what she needed. To spend her break time with Shadow, the rudest hedgehog she has ever known. She knew that this wasn't really a favor but part of her job and she normally wouldn't have a mind. Amy was glad to help her friends memorize their scripts but Shadow? He was far from being her friend.

"I'll do it but, can I ask something?" Amy asked.

"Go ahead."

"Why is he here? Don't get me wrong but Sonic Boom doesn't seem like the type of show that an actor of his caliber would want to do."

The old monkey sighed and placed a hand on his forehead. "To be honest I don't even know either ... He just came in saying that he wanted to play a role in the show. He is charging us half the price he normally charges and this will definitely increase the rating of the show ... I know he doesn't have the best personality but for everyone's sake ... Just be nice to him."

Amy nodded. She knew that Shadow was hard to deal with, but just like the director said, having the black hedgehog on the show will help everyone. More ranting equals more money. Also, there was a small part of Shadow that intrigued Amy. Why would he want to be in this show if he could literally be in anything he wanted? Maybe if she could make him open up a little can find out.

The pink hedgehog looked back at her friends who were laughing again at her fanfiction as she saw that Sonic was once again holding up Knuckle's phone. Spending time with Shadow didn't seem so bad now.

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It took all the strength in the world to come to terms with herself. Our pink hedgehog was backing out of the previously made decision as she waited outside Shadow's dressing room. She knocked once and she wished for Chaos that whatever Shadow was doing will stop him from opening the door. Amy looked around nervously, it wasn't like she was afraid of the black hedgehog, well maybe just a tiny bit. She was more scared of having to go through an awkward situation or saying something that might cost her head. In the coming steps of the were heard by the pink one and in a blink of an eye, Shadow was in front of her holding the door open for her to step in. She looked at him with an awkward smile on her face as she made her way in, in a sense, it was her way of greeting him. Yesterday, they didn't have the best of days but maybe Amy could make up for that by helping him. As she made her way in, she realized that his dressing room was way fancier than hers. All black, a bed, a small kitchen, and even a small dining room. For all, she knew this could a small house.

"So," Amy pushed her thoughts away as she sat down on the small dining table. "Today's scene we are going to be introducing your character ... do you know any of the script yet?"

"Not really, I wasn't notified about today's change and I didn't have time yesterday, " Shadow sat down on the chair facing Amy.

"No worries, change in plans happen a lot around here so it's best if you get used to it now," the pink hedgehog kept her eyes glued to the script. "Alright, your dialogue start on page seven so let's go from there. If we can't finish memorizing the script then we can improvise-"

"Why are you helping me?"

The question took Amy by surprise, finally, she looked at the black hedgehog in front of her who had a monotone look on his face. His right hand served as support for his face as it delicately rested on his right cheek. The sunlight coming from the window highlighted Shadow's feature and especially his eyes. Vermillion eyes studied her deeply and Amy could see why he was so popular with the ladies.

"To be honest, because they asked me to and ..." Amy sighed as she shook away the thought. "Because a part of me wants to start again with you"

"We didn't have a good start, didn't we?" Shadow looked outside the window as if he in deep thought. Three seconds pass in which Amy thought it had been minutes, a very unpleasant feeling ran down her spine. She wanted to end with the awkwardness but Shadow beat her to it.

"There's no way I am going to memorize all 50 pages in one hour," Shadow said as he looked back to look at the pink hedgehog.

"Then improvise!" Amy replied. "This is your character, create your own dialogue."

"I don't know who this character is! And I am sure not even the writers know," Shadow stood up from the chair and walked towards the small bed that was across the dining table.

Amy looked over at the black hedgehog who was resting comfortably on his bed.

"Then even better! Make it your own!" Amy raised her voice a little. "Look, for what I know your character, 'Shadow' is mysterious and he may come off as rude but he actually cares for others. He just doesn't know how to properly show it."

Shadow looked over to Amy and with a plain expression he asked, "Meaning?"

Amy stood up from her chair and placed herself in front of the black and red striped hedgehog. She looked at him as she placed her hands on her waist. "Meaning that maybe he had a tragic past, something that explains his personality. It makes him an interesting character ... You can work something from that."

"I don't know, doesn't it sound too-"

Shadow would have never expected what happened next. At one moment, he was lying peacefully on his bed. The next moment, he was still lying peacefully on his bed but the difference was that Amy was on top of him. Her hands were placed on the sides of his head. Her legs were slightly touching his as she had positioned them to the side of his.

"You need to stop!" Amy said, her face close very close to Shadow's. "You have beaten up my friends! What are you after us?"

Shadow blinked multiples times. First, nothing made sense but his brain connected the dots. This was similar to the scene he read on the script. Where the Sonic pinned him down to the ground after a fight. He was pressured and he only had a few seconds, what should he respond?

"I am not after you nor your friends! I am trying to complete my mission and you are just on the way!"

A few seconds passed in which Amy and Shadow only stared at each other's eyes. Amy was looking at him, surprised that he actually followed along with her plan. And Shadow? Where he was starting to get lost. Lost in the pink one's emerald eyes and for a small fraction of a second, he had forgotten where he was.

"That was good!" Amy said as she made Shadow wake up from his trance. "It's a bit vague but that leaves up to interpretation and further build-up for the story."

The pink hedgehog moved away and took a sit on the edge of Shadow's bed. She didn't think too much about it. However, Shadow couldn't let go of that thought that easily.

"You are a strange one," Shadow said as he sat down on the edge of the bed, next to the pink one. "Last time someone confronted me like that was Rouge and it was a different circumstance."

"Rouge as ..." Amy gulped. " Rouge the Bat? The famous actress?"

"Yeah, do you know her?"

"Of course, I do! she is the best actress of our times! She is great!" Amy said excitedly. Shadow noticed that Amy's tail was wiggling from side to side, it was something that he would normally make fun of but he had to admit that it is cute on her.

At that moment, Amy remembered a couple of days ago she was reading a celebrities’ magazine. There was a rumor saying that Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat were in a secret relationship. She wanted to ask him about it but decided not to since that would be crossing the boundaries. Maybe she would ask ... Later on, if they ever get to be that open with each other.  

"Anyways," Amy turned around to look at Shadow, who was once again looking at her with his vermillion eyes. "Should we keep practicing some more?"

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 Filming the scene did not only go great but Shadow got praised all from everyone after the shooting. Even Sonic had to admit that he had done a good job and Mr. Johnson went personally to Shadow and thanked him for his commitment to his character. Every time this happened, Shadow looked back at Amy and gave her a small smile to acknowledge her help. He didn't exactly thank her, but Amy knew this was the best thing she could get from him.

More days like this came. In two weeks, Team Sonic had slowly made up their minds that Shadow was going to be sticking around for some time. There was still some conflict from time to time but it wasn't anything that they couldn't handle. The black hedgehog would even 'compliment' the other members once in a while. 'Not half bad', 'Could be better but it wasn't horrible', 'If you are going to say that, at least keep your head up. It will make you look more credible.'

Shadow had slowly made his way into the Sonic Boom family and nobody was complaining. He still had his prepotency and pride, which he would show more often than his soft side. But at least he was trying. Amy Rose didn't care now. He wasn't interfering with her job nor she was interfering with his. They didn't have much communication since she helped him improvise. Maybe just the casual, 'Is there any coffee?' and a 'Yes, it's over there.'

It was the last day of filming and as usual, Amy said goodbye to everyone on set. She won't be seeing them until the next month so she made sure she got to say her goodbyes to every last one of them. Finally, her friends were last. She didn't care too much about saying goodbye to them because she knew she will seem them in the next couple of days. Probably when Eggman is attacking or something like that. Strange enough, Eggman never attacked them on filming days, it was as if he knew and didn't want to ruin their day on purpose.

"I say we should go to the beach soon," Knuckles said.

"I am down," Tails said and Sticks nodded in agreement.

"Same," Sonic was then quick to turn around and face Amy who seemed to look at something or rather someone else. In hopes that she will give him some attention, Sonic raised his voice a little. "What about you Ames? Do you want to go to the beach?"

"What about Shadow?"

Amy's response wasn't the answer Sonic was looking for and instead, he proceeded to walk towards the pink hedgehog and placed his arm around her shoulder in hopes to comfort her. "I don't think he is the type to go to the beach."

"Should we at least invite him?" Amy said, still looking away. She was a bit embarrassed that Sonic was doing this more and more often. "I mean just out of courtesy ...It doesn't matter if he says no."

"I guess if you want to you can do that but ..." the blue one faced the direction that Amy was looking at. His green eyes met the black figure and a small hint of jealousy treated overtake the blue blur seeing that Amy was giving too much attention to Shadow. "You are still coming with us, right?"

The pink hedgehog had finally faced her blue hero and saw a small smile placed on his lips. She returned it and kindly she said, 'Of course!'

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Shadow the Hedgehog was glad that the filming was done. A part of him was enjoying filming for this low-quality show but he still felt relieved that this was over ... for now. He walked outside the set where his beautiful black motorcycle waited for him. Today was going to be a relaxing night. Just him, a glass of wine and re-reading some of his favorite stories.

"Hey, Shadow!"

The black hedgehog recognized that voice, he turned around and met a running pink hedgie running towards him. Almost out of breath as if she had been looking for him everywhere. When she finally reached him, she took a few seconds to get air back into her lungs. Shadow watched every single moment of her and waited until she was ready to speak again.

"This month's episode is coming out next week. To celebrate the launching, my friends and I are going to the beach," Amy looked around, a bit nervous to look at him in the eyes. "I was wondering, I mean, we were wondering if you wanted to join us?"

Alright, this was something he had never experienced before. He was usually invited by other acting peers to go to parties and formal get-togethers where a large group of people was present. However, he had never been invited to such an 'intimate' activity before. Going to the beach? As for playing volleyball together? As building sandcastles? Doing a cookout and eating together after playing in the water?

Was Amy Rose that crazy?

"My apologies," Shadow said. "I am not interested in such things."

Amy mentally sighed in relieve, her job here was done. "It's alright! I won't see you for a while so if you need a friend, hit me up. I am one phone call away."

The rose hedgehog was already making her way out, she walked a few steps away until she felt something small hit her head.

She turned around again to face Shadow who was proudly playing with pebbles on his hand. "You said to hit you up if I need a friend."

Amy didn't know how to react to that. It was clever and even sweet of him. However, Amy didn't know until what extent he meant his words or he was just saying it to tease her.

But she was about to find out.

"Well," Amy walked towards the black hedgehog, a small smirk decorated her face. She wasn't completely doing this, but she still decided to give it a try. She mounted Shadow's bike and placed her hands on the accelerator and the break. "I can be your friend right now."

It was very interesting, the strange dynamic that the two had. Shadow wasn't even complaining which even surprised him. He didn't let just anyone ride his bike, but if it was the pink hedgehog then maybe he could make an exception.

Her character and persona were just very intriguing to him. She was a simple hedgehog, very plain looking but still, there was something about her that attracted him to her.

"Very well then," Shadow said as he took a sit on his motorcycle. He placed his hands delicately on the pink hedgehog’s hip, trying to touch as little as he could. They were close but Amy didn't seem to mind the contact at all. "Where to next?"

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That night Amy and Shadow didn't speak a word. Nothing else was said as they only enjoyed each other's company in silence. Amy took Shadow across the island to see things he had never seen before. The moon provided enough light for them to fully appreciate the beauty of the forests, beaches, and even small villages. Amy let out a small smile whenever Shadow got excited about the smallest things. Did he see a pretty flower? His ears would move excitedly. Did he see a pretty view? Again, his ears. Did he try a fruit that he liked? Ears. He was very expressive with them and Amy was found of such a cute act.

When their time as running out, Amy drove to her house. She thanked Shadow for the night and a sense of her told her that Shadow didn't want to say goodbye just yet.

She climbed out of the motorcycle and watched Shadow take her previous seat. The pink hedgehog was ready to enter her house but before, she had to properly say goodbye to those vermillion eyes.

"I'll see you next month Shadow," Amy said as she kept eye contact with the black one. "I hope you enjoy this month's chapter."

"Chapter?"

Holy shit.

"Episode! I meant to say, I hope you enjoy this month's episode!"

Amy cursed mentally at the fanfiction writer inside of her who was so used to saying 'I hope you enjoy this chapter.'

"I will ... I believe," Shadow replied.

"Well, you are a great actor," Amy said quickly. "Whatever you are on it, I am sure it will be great."

Her words weren't meant to come out of her mouth so easily. She said them so naturally that it caught her and Shadow in surprise. The pink hedgehog looked around nervously as she tried to hide the evident blush on her face. Amy wanted to disappear, to get inside her house and just start writing the new fanfiction she had in mind.

A few seconds in which no one said a word until Shadow decided to break the silence.

"It will be great ..." Shadow said as he turned on his bike again, ready to leave. "Because you helped me along the way."

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This month's episode of Sonic Boom wasn't great ... it was fantastic. People were just loving the introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog into the story. After a few hours of being aired, people were already talking about it their social media and other types of platforms. Amy even had to admit that if it wasn't because she was already in love with the blue bur, she might have been a Shadow fangirl. He acted amazingly well and he made his character his which was very hard to compel.

Right now, the pink hedgehog was comfortably sitting on her sofa, as the TV was on and she was scrolling to her fanfiction web page. Tomorrow she was going to the beach with her friends and maybe she could take her laptop with her to finish some writing.

An idea crossed her mind and to celebrate the brand-new episode of Sonic's Boom, she decided to open up prompt requests.

She began to type on her laptop.

"Sonic Boom's new episode was really good, wasn't it? To celebrate today's episode, I'll be opening up prompt requests! Send it right away and I'll answer as soon as I can!"

By: A Rose Without Thorns

The pink hedgehog clicked 'Enter' and soon after she began to receive multiple notifications. She opened one from a username she clearly recognized. This person was a long and loyal follower of her and it was now her personal goal to give them the best story they could even ask for.

However, her heart skipped a bit when she read the prompt request.

"As I watched this recent Sonic Boom episode, I realized that Shadow and Amy's characters have great potential to develop a relationship. Can I request a story where Shadow and Amy fall in love? Thank you."

By: The Fanfictioner

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A/N:  Can you all believe this is the first Sonic Boom AU I’ve written since my first story ‘First Impressions’? That was probably the longest synopsis I have ever written as well lol and still it’s not even half what this story will be about. I am honestly very excited to write this. I was thinking that this story could have around 10 chapters with 10K words in each chapter (I may look for beta readers, because this a lot of work) This one is barely 6K500 because this is a draft.

Still, I wanted to lay out some ideas with this and in the actual story, some things could change.

I may work on this again after I finish writing the prompt request I have left. I don't know you guys tell me if you would like some more. If I do, this story will probably only be available of Ao3 (Because I am planning to change there really soon) Anyways, thank you again for reading! Until next time!

[minyoongijjangjjangmanboongboong]

You’ve Got Mail: Jungkook One Shot

Request: Hi! I really love your writings! If your requests are still open, can you pls write a Jungkook story? Ex-lovers in high school where he broke up with her because he got bored or something like that. Then they met again in university and wants her back again. (Angst but happy ending pls). Thank you!

Description: After a messy breakup with high school heartthrob Jeon Jungkook, you swore off dating once you got into college. Even though it left you lonely, it was easier than being hurt. But one fateful blind date changes everything for you, and you realize that maybe isolation isn’t the answer either.

Word Count: 12.9k

Pairing: Jungkook x (gender neutral) Reader

Tags: Barista!Reader, Graphic Design Student!Jungkook, Non-Idol!Au, Ex-Lovers to Enemies to Lovers (? I guess? Haha)

Genre: Whole lotta angst, fluffy ending

Warnings: None!

A/N: It’s been two weeks since I’ve posted wtf!! But I’m back and less than a week away from the Rose Bowl concert, holy cow. This ask has been in my inbox for MONTHS, so I need to say thank you to the anon who sent it for waiting so long! I really enjoyed this request, so I hope you guys like it too!

Also, if you want to follow me on Twitter please do so! My handle is @/plzpunchmebts. I would post a link, but rumor has it Tumblr killed links and I’m not taking any chances. I’ll be posting concert videos and pics there, so please give it a follow if you’d like to see that!

- Mercury

You were never too keen on blind dates. Everything about them felt…artificial. It wasn’t that you were a romantic, not especially, but you had to admit that being forced on a date by meddlesome friends took some of the magic out of dating. When Sua had mentioned a cute new boy in her class who was too busy studying to date, you had to admit the red flags began waving in your mind. Of course, you could relate. College was taxing and it was difficult to find time to even eat three meals, let alone date. Perhaps if things had cropped up organically, you’d have been more excited. But the forced union was a little cumbersome.

The nerves and the insecurity and the fear, none of it was especially fun. But Sua had been adamant that the two of you would hit it off, and with her eyes round and expectant, her brows raised, and her lips pouted, you really didn’t have any room to deny her. You figured one night of discomfort was better than months of guilt, and even though you figured things wouldn’t work out with this mystery man, you’d humor your friend. After all, making friends in college wasn’t easy.

Making friends in general wasn’t easy.

You sighed as you waited with your chilly hands clasped around your phone, standing at the entrance to the subway station where Sua had instructed. The mouth of the entrance was muggy with exiting passengers as the wave of people clambered up the steep stairs and onto the street, lined on all sides by buildings that reached the sky. Every now and again, someone would graze their shoulder against yours without apology, or perhaps step on the toe of your sneaker. You took a few inching steps backward, glancing over your shoulder to be sure you wouldn’t hit anyone. Not that they’d care. You backed up until you were out of the streamline and instead took up a quieter spot beside a fish cake vendor.

You checked your phone once again, furrowing your brow. Sue said eleven, didn’t she? You pulled up your messages and scrolled through carefully, head tilted to the side as you read her most recent text.

Sua: He said he’s running a little late, but he told me to tell you to wait.

You: I am waiting…

Sua: He says he’s sorry and that the subway is close to the terminal now.

You: That’s good.

Sua: He says sorry again.

Sua: You know, this is kinda dumb. Let me just give you his number so you can text him.

Sua: 51-XXX-XX24

You pursed your lips and crossed your arms over your chest. Sua was right, anyway. Making her your proxy wouldn’t really do you much good, considering she wasn’t here to help you in person. But wouldn’t it be a bit forward to just…text this guy? You didn’t know him yet. And besides, what could you say that Sua hadn’t? Hey, I’m doing this out of obligation, sorry to disappoint! or you can just go back home now and we can tell Sua things didn’t work out. You shook your head and rubbed your fingertip along the screen of your phone, working your lower lip between your teeth. You were just looking for an out. And really, you didn’t want to bail after Sua had gone through the trouble of setting things up. Still, just texting a stranger was a little…

But then again, he’d agreed to the blind date too, hadn’t he? It wasn’t like you were someone he was forced to talk to. He’d come on his own accord. Rubbing your bare forearm in the spring breeze with one hand, you used the other to tap the phone number and save it and, with only your index finger, drafted a slow message.

You: Hey, I’m Sua’s friend. I think we’re supposed to have a blind date today? Haha. That sounded kind of awkward…

Within seconds, your phone dinged with an incoming text and you jumped, nervous, before glancing at your phone once more.

Blind Date: Oh! Haha, hello. It wasn’t awkward at all. Ahh, I’m really sorry I’m late. I wasn’t looking where I was going and I bumped into a cyclist and he gave me an earful so I missed the first subway.

Blind Date: But I’m one stop away! You’re outside exit 2 right?

You: Yeah! I’m next to a fish cake stall. I’m wearing a red blouse, so you can’t miss me :-)

Damn, you thought, was that smiley face too much? You picked at the skin around your nail and glanced up to see the near-constant flow of people was still in full force, the subway exit spitting pedestrians onto the cement sidewalk in droves. You squinted a little, trying to keep a good visual on the staircase leading out. With a sigh, you leaned over your bag to slip your phone inside when it buzzed again. Despite yourself, your heart raced and you eagerly unlocked it to see if he’d responded.

Blind Date: Cute! Let’s get some fish cakes then before we go to the movie.

Blind Date: Ah, subway just pulled in! I’m only a few sweaty staircases away now~

Blind Date: :P

Without meaning to, you smiled a little. Your nerves settled as you leaned on your right foot, grinning softly at your screen. He seemed like a good guy, at least. You were relieved. After the jerks you dated in high school, you’d sworn off dating for a while. Maybe trying to cleanse your palate. It was…oddly refreshing to be talking to someone who didn’t make you feel like you weren’t all that important. Like you were disposable.

Still smiling, you responded with a simple text.

You: I’m excited to meet you :-D

“Y/N?” asked a familiar voice from beside you.

A voice that sent chills up your spine, and not the good kind.

You stiffened and turned, eyes wide, toward the one person you’d been hoping fervently to avoid for life. Standing with his big, brown eyes wide and his hair slightly windswept, Jeon Jungkook stared down at you like you were a ghost. Your lips parted and, heart hammering, you opened and closed your jaw a few times. What were you supposed to say to the boy who broke your heart when you were sixteen?

Years later and he was still the heartthrob he’d been back then, only now he looked…like a man. His cheekbones were prominent, strong jaw, heavy brow and a serious, toned build like he’d lived at the gym in the years between your meetings.

You swallowed hard and slipped your phone in your bag, crossing your arms and thus closing yourself to him. You glanced up at him with a furrowed brow. “Jungkook,” you said with a sigh. “I’m actually waiting here for someone and I don’t want him to get the wrong idea, so if you could-,”

“You’re on a blind date?” asked Jungkook, lips agape.

You shrugged, glancing down the sidewalk toward the open maw of the subway exit, squinting in the hopes of catching your date’s attention. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Wait, but-,”

You sighed and shut him up with a single look his way, sharp, venomous. “I’m gonna to wait someplace else if you’re gonna keep standing beside me.”

“No, it’s not-,”

You huffed and shuffled into the crowd once more, walking purposefully away from him, but Jungkook was hot on your tail and wouldn’t let you out of his sight. Every few paces, you’d glance over your shoulder and see him following you feverishly, angling himself through the narrow spaces between bodies. But you kept going, pushing through, until you were blocks away from the subway station and Jungkook was nowhere to be seen.

You exhaled long and slow, patting your chest to calm down, and veered off toward the shops on your right, taking cover beneath an awning. Something in your bag vibrated and you jumped. Shit. Your date. The spring day sun was warm on your hands as you fumbled with your bag, grabbing your phone once again.

Blind Date: Where did you go??

You gripped your nose bridge and exhaled through your nose. Of course he’d be confused. You were lucky he was nice enough to reach out at all after seeing you weren’t where you said you’d be. You typed your reply quickly, desperate not to hurt his feelings.

You: God, I’m SO sorry. I ran into someone…from a long time ago lol. I couldn’t shake him off, so I ended up down the street a few blocks. By a Burger King.

You: I’m making a really bad impression, huh? I’m sorry. Just…he’s the LAST person I wanted to see today, you know?

You: Or…well, ever haha.

You awaited a response with bated breath, brows knit, and chewed on the inside of your cheek. This blind date was a wild card, really. Since you didn’t know him yet, you didn’t know how he’d respond. And it wouldn’t be his fault if he decided you weren’t worth all the hassle. Honestly, you might’ve been a little relieved if that was the case. Running into Jungkook…it made you remember why you avoided dating.

But despite your expectations, your phone buzzed again and you jumped to grab it.

Blind Date: This person…you really didn’t want to see him?

You: No. It’s just a painful reminder of the past.

You: !!! God, I keep saying awkward things !!! Haha, please forget I said anything. Where are you?

Blind Date: No! It’s not awkward at all. I’m just…

Blind Date: I’m sorry you had to see him then, I guess.

You: Jeez…

You: You’re a really nice guy, aren’t you?

Blind Date: Haha! I don’t know about that…

Blind Date: How about we reschedule for another time? I get the feeling you wouldn’t really be up for a movie right now anyway.

You panicked, heart kicking up. Despite everything you told yourself, you were a little bit happy he was being so understanding. And even though you were scared, you wanted to see if…well…if maybe this guy might be different.

You shook your head. Of course you shouldn’t think that way. Putting your heart out there to be toyed with and thrown aside…you didn’t want to go through it. Not really. And what relationship could be worth all that? You sucked in your breath and typed a quick response, ready to cast Jungkook and this blind date into the banks of your memory to gather dust. Even if this guy did seem sweet…

So had Jungkook, at first.

You: Yeah. That’s probably for the best. I work at that coffeeshop on campus, so I’ll shoot you a text once I get my schedule. :-)

You: I’m sorry for all the trouble today. Seriously.

You sighed and turned on your heel toward the street. If you kept on this sidewalk for a few more blocks, you’d find exit 3. And from there, it was only a 20-minute subway ride home whereupon you could finally collapse on your couch and wait for this cursed weekend to be over.

But before you could take a single step, a text came.

Blind Date: It was no trouble. :D I just feel bad that you had an unpleasant experience…

You: Hey, it’s not your fault haha.

You: Oh yeah! I never gave you my name, did I?

Blind Date: No, actually. Haha.

You: It’s Y/N.

Blind Date: It’s nice to meet you again, Y/N.

Blind Date: You can call me Nochu.

You: … Nochu … ?

Blind Date: Haha, it’s weird huh?

Blind Date: It’s a nickname I prefer.

You: Ah! I see. I’ll call you that then.

You: Nochu.

Blind Date: Y/N :-)

You stood and placed your hands on your lower back and stretched, groaning, a week later. Classes had been dragging lately and with several coworkers sick with a cold, you were one of the only employees left who wasn’t too ill to work. Your body felt like it was slowly failing you. Even your feet were sore from constantly running from place to place. And the quiet coffee shop before you made you feel like taking a long and well-needed nap. Mismatched chairs and bistro tables littered the trendy place and students congregated around the windows or the fireplace or the used bookshelf. Nobody really bothered you except to order or ask for to-go coffee sleeves. Mostly, you just stood there. For hours. Watching everything and nothing at once.

But today the energy was a little different. You’d heard from Sua that the graphic design students were approaching an important deadline, and from the looks of the crowd it seemed that deadline was heavy on everyone’s minds. Laptops and drawing tablets and plenty of coffee littered the tables as students chatted in small groups, none of them looking all too happy. You wondered what the project was, but didn’t want to bother Sua with a useless question. So instead, you just watched over customer’s shoulders as they added thick white lines to separate sections of illustrations or grabbed whole images with slender styluses and slid them to new spaces.

“Excuse me?”

You jumped and turned to the queue which up until moments ago had been completely empty. You made sure to manage your expression with a tight smile and bowed your head. “Sorry,” you said quietly, lifting your eyes to meet the customer.

And, to your shock and horror, you saw a familiar face amongst the group of thee college-aged boys. Jeon Jungkook stood in the middle, a half-pace behind the guy who had roused your attention, and if his expression was anything to go by, he was just as horrified to see you as you were to see him. You felt your back go perfectly straight, eyes wide and lips parted through which only shallow exhales escaped. Your palms grew sweaty and your heart thump-thumped to an uneven cadence.

“Um, what can I make for you?” you asked finally, managing a tight smile at the speaker of the group whose attention was affixed to the sign above your head, reading the menu with squinted eyes. “If you need more time…,” you hedged, avoiding Jungkook’s gaze which you felt burning circles into your face.

“Ah, no I’ve got it,” said the first guy with a polite smile your way. “I’ll have a green tea latte.”

You nodded and wrote it down on your notepad, just to keep things straight. Had your coworkers been stronger in their constitution, you’d have given the order to one of them to get started on. Perhaps you’d even get started yourself and leave the cashiering to them. But alas, you were alone and painfully aware of it.

“Will you be paying separately or together?” you asked, a tinge of hope in your voice. Please say together, please say together, please say together, you thought over and over, like an endless mantra.

The first boy chuckled and gave Jungkook’s shoulder a firm punch. “Like I’ll pay for these good-for-nothings,” he joked before returning his attention to you, smiling. He had a kind smile, but even that did little to ease your anxieties. You simply nodded and took his card as he stretched it out toward you.

The second guy approached, another brown-haired college kid with a polite grin and baggy spring clothes, and hummed. “I’ll do the caramel macchiato,” he said with a nod, fingers still clasping his chin as he scanned the menu and you scribbled his order. “Ah!” he said, pointing at you. You jumped, still on edge with adrenaline coursing through you, but quickly settled with a smile. “And a slice of banana bread.”

“Banana bread,” you mumbled to yourself as you wrote it. “Okay.”

The second handed you a credit card which you swiped quickly, eager to get this whole encounter over with. He took it back with a bow and a smile which you struggled to return because the moment you glanced over his shoulder you caught Jungkook’s gaze, intense, warm browns peering at you like you held answers he’d been searching for. Despite yourself, you blushed and glanced back toward your notepad.

Finally, the moment of reckoning arrived and your nerves made your hands a little shaky as they clasped the pen and paper. Your eyes wavered around the space between your own hands, measuring the empty air, desperate not to look at Jungkook again.

“Um…,” he mumbled, voice a low rumble in his chest. You almost wanted to squeeze your eyes shut altogether, even though you knew how dumb that’d make you look. “Can I get a strawberry smoothie?”

You almost laughed. It was so like him to come to a coffeeshop and order something like that. It was so like him to still have a weak palate when it came to bitter things. It was so like him to chase after you that day, to show up here on coincidence. It was so like him to be exactly who you remembered him to be. Exactly who he was back then.

Slowly, once you’d written his order down, you lifted your eyes and looked at him properly at last. He was dressed well, casual as you expected, all black as you expected, handsome as you expected. His hair was half-styled out of his eyes, and those eyes were the problem really. Dark and depthless, staring down at you with furrowed brow, jaw clenched. If anyone had doubts you two knew each other before, they’d certainly know now with the way he was watching you. The way he hadn’t taken his eyes off of you for even a second.

“That’s all?” you asked.

“Um…yeah,” he responded, blinking at you like he had more to say.

By then, his friends had begun setting up camp amongst the mismatched sofas and recliners, setting up their computers. You caught sight of a drawing tablet as its corner poked out the top of the first boy’s backpack. So they were design majors too? Maybe your blind date had met one of these guys, then. But wait. If his friends were, did that mean…

“You’re a design major?” you asked, unable to stop yourself.

But once you said it, you wished to suck the words back inside like tapioca balls through a straw because across Jungkook’s face flashed a brief glimmer of excitement, eyes wide, mouth already open and poised to respond.

“Yeah!” he said, smiling a little. “I…uh, well you remember how I liked to draw.”

You nodded, typing the total into your cash register. “Yeah, I remember.”

“Listen, Y/N, I’m really sorry about-,”

“Let’s not rehash things here,” you said, eyeing him from beneath your lashes, scanning the shop like a conspirator in search of any prying eyes, any listening ears. “It doesn’t matter anyway. We’ve both moved on so let’s just keep it at that.”

Jungkook shut his mouth and, after a long moment, sighed. “Alright,” he said, sounding defeated. You hazarded a glance up at him and found his eyes long-sighted, gazing down at the counter between you without really looking at it.

“It’ll be 3,500 won,” you said, holding out one hand towards him.

He blinked and shook his head a little, as if returning to himself, and yanked his wallet from the front pocket of his loose joggers. He pulled out a bill and handed it to you. 20,000. Was that the smallest bill he had on him? You examined it with a thinly-veiled scowl. Of course, he was probably making good money doing something impressive. That was Jungkook anyway. The type of guy who just…made things come to him. Like the universe responded to his will. You sighed and went to work on the old register, punching in the amount and sliding the bill inside. You produced his change to find him already bounding toward his friends with his broad back to you.

Panicked, you rushed to the side of the barista station and called out to him. “Hey! You forgot your change!” you shouted, cupping one hand around your mouth. A few patrons turned to look at you and Jungkook.

He barely glanced back at you when he said, “You can keep it.”

And suddenly you were blushing for a very different reason.

That jerk, you thought to yourself as you watched him plug away at some ad he was working on on his tablet. Evening had fallen slowly upon the city of Seoul, and you wanted nothing more than to stroll out into the lavender evening, forgetting this whole unpleasant day. But instead, you had to wait for your coworker, Sora, to relieve you after making you work fifteen minutes past the end of your shift. Scowling, you kept a hawk’s eye on Jungkook and, unbeknownst to him, wished silent curses upon his head. I hope you go bald, you thought. Or worse, I hope you go out for fried chicken and you get only tendons. You crossed your arms and lolled your head to the side.

You shouldn’t have expected Jungkook to change. He’d always been a ‘my pace’ kind of guy. Maybe leaving that tip was his way of flexing his money to you. That he had enough money to just throw around at random baristas he used to hook up with in high school. Or maybe he was pitying you, looking down on you for working such a menial job. Either way, it made your blood boil. You felt the money crinkle in the pocket of your jeans with every step.

You’d briefly considered spitting in his smoothie, but you didn’t want to lose your job over Jeon Jungkook.

After all, you’d already lost your youth to the kid.

You glanced outside and watched the rainclouds gathering. Of course, you’d forgotten to bring an umbrella. It wasn’t like you’d checked the weather on the way out. Grumpily, you glanced down at your phone to check the time. Twenty minutes late now. What did Sora have to do that was so important? Normally, you’d complain to a friend. But Sua was about the closest you had these days and you weren’t sure you could trouble her with it.

But…were you really friends if you didn’t reach out to her from time to time?

Sighing, you glanced around the shop, making sure nobody was watching you, and unlocked your phone. So much had already happened that a quick message didn’t seem reasonable, but you couldn’t very well bury your head in your phone so after every few clicks you’d sweep your gaze around. You settled for an anxious few words between nervous glances at the rest of the shop. Realistically, you were off the clock anyway. But you didn’t want any bad Yelp reviews on your behalf.

You: Sua, on God today is cursed.

You waited a few moments for a response before growing impatient. Everything was taking forever today: that interaction with Jungkook, Sora taking over your shift, and now Sua not responding. Of course, she had no obligation to. She was probably busy with her own preparation much like the other graphic design students. You had no right to expect that of her.

Wasn’t that your problem from the start? Expecting too much?

Your phone buzzed in response as your mind began to drift toward melancholy thoughts and as you slid it open your eyes went wide and your fingertips chilled as the blood rushed to your cheeks.

Blind Date: Hah…I’m not Sua, but I am willing to listen if you need it…?

Blind Date: Was wondering when I’d hear from you.

Mortified didn’t even begin to cover it. You cupped a hand over your lips in horror, and just as you were about to melt into a pile of melted pride on the floor, the door swung open and a breathless Sora met your eyes with a nervous smile. You swallowed hard and pocketed your phone, offering Sora your full attention. He bowed his head to you, bending at the waist, as he approached the counter.

“I am so sorry for being late!” he shouted, loud enough for every patron to glance at him and, subsequently, you.

Your flushed face went beet red as Jungkook turned to stare at you, eyes wide. Of course, another embarrassing moment in front of that guy. “U-um, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” you said, waving your hands.

He sniffled and looked up at you, eyes red with impending tears. “I really didn’t mean to, but I fell asleep after class today and-,”

“Sora, it’s cool,” you said, removing your apron and hanging it on the rack behind you. “I’m gonna go now though so I can catch my subway.”

Sora stiffened and nodded, giving you a salute before scampering behind the counter and putting on his own apron. “I really am sorry!” he called after you.

You waved a hand and rushed out onto the sidewalk, lingering beneath the awning as the rain began to drizzle from overhead. You returned your attention to your phone, pushing your hair behind your ears so you could see properly, and swallowed your nerves.

You: I…am such an idiot.

You: I’m so sorry. I was at work and I’m not supposed to be on my phone, but I just…

You: Jesus, honestly you can just delete my number. I don’t think I can look at your contact anymore without cringing.

You were poised to take a step out into the rain when your phone vibrated again and you jumped to read it with barely shaking hands.

Blind Date: No! It’s okay. Seriously.

Blind Date: I can list dumber things I’ve done today alone.

Blind Date: Besides, sounds like you need someone to talk to anyway…?

You blinked at your phone screen a few times, cocking your head to the side. Somehow, his words had calmed you down, just a little. Your flaming cheeks were cooler now when you poked one with the pad of your finger. Your heart wasn’t a hammer against your ribcage. And as you glanced over your shoulder at the window into the coffeeshop, you found Jungkook was no longer in sight. With a few texts alone, things seemed a little better.

You: I won’t bore you with all of it, haha.

You: It was more of a Sua story anyway I think.

You: I’m trying to break through that kinda hesitant first stage of friendship with her and

You: Well anyway, I’m sorry to bother you. Hope you’re doing good?

Blind Date: Haha, hey I get it. Friendships are weird. Took me a while to make any real friends this year since I was so shy.

You: You were shy?

Blind Date: Oh big time. I still don’t really know how to approach people without saying or doing something wrong.

Blind Date: Like today. I think I came across like an asshole to someone.

Blind Date: That happens a lot actually -_-

Blind Date: Being nervous makes me act weird.

You: Really? You sound really confident over text.

Blind Date: Haha really? That’s good to hear at least.

Blind Date: I’m about the least confident person I know.

Blind Date: Whew, not exactly the impression I wanted to give to a possible date! Oops.

You smiled at your phone and began typing out a response when the door by your hip swung open and out walked Jungkook and his friends. Jungkook caught your eye as your smile was slipping into a scowl and you quickly righted yourself, looking away down the busy street. You held your phone close to your chest and popped a hip out to the side, feigning disinterest.

“See you guys tomorrow,” said one boy.

“Yeah,” responded Jungkook, and you saw out the corner of your eye that the guys parted ways. Jungkook lingered beside you underneath the awning, watching you keenly. “Who were you texting?” he asked.

You stiffened and glanced up at him with a frown. “Is that any of your business?” you asked.

He flushed a little, rubbed the back of his head, and let out a few breathy laughs. “Sorry. Guess not,” he said with a sigh.

For a few moments the two of you just stood there, silent. You weren’t sure what to do next without an umbrella, and you didn’t want Jungkook to think you were just…spending time with him for fun. But still, you didn’t move or make a sound. Just watched the steadily increasing rainfall splatter against the pavement, gathering in pools beside the sidewalk.

“Listen,” he began, turning to you properly. You eyed him from below with raised brows. “I really don’t want any bad energy between us, okay? I know things were messy before, but we’re in college now. It’s been years, right?” Some of the tension between you broke, but it was quickly replaced by a new tension: your outrage.

You blinked at him, working your jaw. “Jungkook, you don’t get to tell me when I’m allowed to stop being hurt,” you said, shaking your head. “Seeing you is a little painful, even though it’s been a long time. So…maybe just ignore me.”

Jungkook sighed and gripped the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry, Y/N. You know I am.”

You shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t really want anything to do with you,” you said, meeting his eyes. Your own calm surprised you. He looked desperate, brows knit and lips parted. “I don’t know why it’s so hard for you to just leave me alone.”

He blinked a few times, eyes wide. “I…I mean, we go to the same school now and everything. I just transferred this year and it’s…I don’t really know many people. It’s not like we’re strangers, so why should we act like we are?”

You swallowed your anger. “I’m gonna go now,” you said, adjusting your bag on your shoulder and walking out into the rain. You turned to look at him. “I don’t think you get what I’m saying, so it’s not worth repeating it again in a different way. Just…leave me alone.”

But before you could take a single step toward the subway entrance three blocks away, Jungkook was beside you in the rain, fiddling with his umbrella. “Wh-what are you doing? I just said to leave me alone!” you called at him over the sound of the rain around you.

Jungkook spat rainwater out from between his lips and shook his head as the umbrella finally popped open and the rain stopped pummeling you, now ricocheting off the nylon. You stared up at Jungkook underneath the dark umbrella, confined beneath it, confined to this small, enclosed space. Your chest was nearly touching his arm and his breath was warm as it fanned across your face. Strawberries. Like his smoothie. Rain was caught in his long eyelashes and his rosy lips were still parted, cheeks a warm pink. He stared down at you and for a brief moment, you felt a hot, shooting sensation running from the top of your head to your toes.

“Let me walk you to the station at least,” he said, scanning you.

You felt a little faint, and the sweet scent of his cologne only made you more disoriented. “I’m fine. It’s only a few blocks,” you said, but even you could admit your voice sounded weak.

He sighed, eyes falling to the ground. “I know I hurt you a lot back then, but…,” he began, then shook his head. “Even if it’s small, I wanna make it up to you somehow. So…let me walk you.”

You rubbed your bare forearm and inhaled sharply, shutting your eyes for a moment. “Fine,” you forced out and the two of you began walking.

“So…,” said Jungkook after a few moments of uncomfortable silence. “How was your date the other day?”

You groaned. “What we’re not gonna do is this.”

Jungkook chuckled. “Sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “Just curious.”

You watched your hands, clasped in front of you, and sighed. “It didn’t happen,” you said. If nothing else, at least your time with Jungkook made you remarkably comfortable talking to him about your thoughts and feelings. “We cancelled.”

“Why?” he asked, brows high.

You shrugged. “After seeing you, I was kinda crabby so…”

“It was my fault?” He pointed with his free hand to his own chest, eyes wide.

“I mean, yeah but not really,” you said with an easy exhale. “It’s for the best anyway. He seems like a really nice guy. I don’t wanna end up hurting his feelings or something.”

“You’d rather be alone than risk having things end badly?” he asked.

You peered up at him. “Wonder why that is,” you mumbled before glancing away.

He sighed. “Sorry.”

“Mhm.”

The rest of the walk was silent as the two of you were forced to simply live with the words you’d exchanged, unable to do anything to alter the events that led you here. All you could do was walk forward, united under a shared umbrella for just a moment, until you ducked out from beneath it and disappeared down the subway station stairs, not even pausing for a moment to wave or say goodbye.

Blind Date: Yikes, did I really scare you off?

You raised your brows at your phone screen as the subway bumped along. It was too crowded to find a seat, so you stood cramped between a stout businessman and a high school girl, all of you holding the railing overhead for stability. You couldn’t help it, but again you smiled. After all the craziness that had come from the day, this stranger seemed to help you feel at ease.

You: Haha nope! It’d take more than that.

You: I bumped into someone I didn’t want to see, so I had to take care of that.

Blind Date: !!! Same person as before??

You: Yeah, if you can believe it lol.

Blind Date: (o_O)

Blind Date: How unlucky can a person be?

You: That’s what I’m saying. (￢_￢;)

You: That’s actually one of the things I was gonna complain to Sua about.

You: Y’know, teenage heartbreak and high school angst. Etc.

Blind Date: Hey, I said it before. I’d love to listen!

Blind Date: Aight, that was too enthusiastic. How about: I wouldn’t mind hearing you out!

You: Lol, good addendum.

You: I mean, it’s not like it’s really that serious. Just…in high school I was really shy. I didn’t have very many friends and I thought that I was fine on my own, you know?

You: But I guess I was lonelier than I thought haha. There was this really handsome guy in my class who started sitting with me on the roof at lunch. At first, neither of us really said anything. Just…sitting together.

You: But after a while, we got pretty close. Half a school year maybe. He said he came up there because the air was nice, but I had a feeling it had to do with the fact that he was a little too popular for his own good. Everyone wanted to talk to him. But he was like me.

You: Introverted, I mean.

Blind Date: Sounds like you two were good friends, then?

You: Yeah, until I caught feelings lol. Mistake.

Blind Date: You confessed??

You: Hehe…yes.

You: After a while being close, I felt really comfortable telling him anything. I told him it wasn’t like I was expecting him to date me or anything. I just wanted him to know so he could be a little more careful around me.

You: But it seemed like he reciprocated.

You: We started dating…I guess?

You: Never put a label on it, which was another mistake on my part for not asking.

You: But we did everything couples did, just…not really in front of anyone from school.

You: Never asked about that either lol.

Blind Date: Oh…

Blind Date: I mean…that doesn’t sound so good…

You: Haha, it’s probably exactly what it sounds like because once we’d been together for about a year, he ended things really suddenly. We were getting ready to apply for colleges and he was gonna go for one in a different city. He said it wouldn’t work out.

You: I fought really hard for it, but he started saying pretty mean things and I didn’t want to get hurt so I ended up conceding.

Blind Date: Mean things?

You: Things I don’t really wanna type out haha…

Blind Date: Shit! Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.

You: Hey, don’t worry! Old wounds. I should probably get over it, really.

You: No time like the present!

You: He said he never really liked me and he was only with me because he felt bad for me. Didn’t really love hearing that.

You: He said because I didn’t have friends, he pitied me. That was why he went to the roof to eat with me. Why he kissed me and all that. Took me on dates. ┐(￣ヘ￣)┌  Pretty dumb, imo, but that’s what he said and it seemed like he meant it anyway lol.

Blind Date: Y/N…

You: Hey, you asked!

Blind Date: That’s really shitty. You didn’t deserve that.

Blind Date: You carried that around with you all these years?

You: Hah, admitting it sounds kinda pathetic, huh?

You: I guess it’s not the sort of thing you just…get over. I think I really loved him too, so…

You: Anyway, seeing him now is really weird. Never thought I’d see him around here again, but suddenly he’s everywhere haha. Definitely doesn’t feel great, tbh.

You: Ew, sorry for laying all that on you. Not exactly small talk.

Blind Date: No!! Don’t apologize. I’m glad you talked to me about it. Honestly…I feel really sorry for you. It sounds like the whole thing affected you a lot. :-(

Blind Date: If it makes you feel better, I think I can understand you a little!

Blind Date: Like I said, I’m a bit shy myself. It’s not an issue of having friends, but finding good ones. It’s hard for me to socialize without saying something dumb and regretting it. So for a while, when I first started college, I isolated myself a lot. I didn’t want to make any more mistakes, you know?

Blind Date: But recently, I’ve met some people who are really kind. People who don’t judge me when I mess things up (which is often haha). They help me communicate better.

You: You communicate really well, I think :-)

Blind Date: Haha, thank you. I’m actually blushing a little, whew. Uh, I guess it’s because it’s easier to type things out. Speaking is hard because you can’t just reword things before sending them. You say it out loud and it’s forever, you know?

You: Yeah! Jeez, that actually happened to me today (—_—)

You: I’m glad someone else understands it lol

Blind Date: Yeah, me too.

By the time you received the last message, you were already back inside your apartment, soaked from the walk home. You’d used your bag to cover your phone as you walked and typed, so now the thing was slumped against your dining chair like a sopping wet creature. But still, you smiled at your phone. Even though the conversation with Jungkook had been jarring, you’d almost forgotten it after chatting with your blind date. It felt oddly vulnerable to reveal so much to him, but his reaction had been really reassuring. You set your phone aside and padded to the bathroom to dry yourself a little with a towel, catching sight of yourself in the mirror. Your cheeks were a little flushed, eyes clear, and still smiling. You shook your head, trying to shake off your grin, but when you glanced back at your reflection it was still the same.

With the towel dangling across your shoulders, you returned to the living room and saw your phone lit up with another new text. Smiling, you unlocked it and read what he had to say.

Blind Date: Off topic, but uh…

Blind Date: Did you happen to catch the most recent episode of Game of Thrones?

Blind Date: Because I need to talk about it or I might explode.

You raised your brows and, without meaning to, you laughed. Was this okay? Was it alright to become close to someone like this again? Was it alright to be excited about someone again? You were fearful, cautious, hesitant. After everything with Jungkook, you’d found it impossible to trust people’s intentions. Were they being nice to you because they liked you or because they felt bad for you? Would you get hurt if you trusted the goodwill of the people around you?

You: Um…

You: CAN WE TALK ABOUT ARYA???

You weren’t going to talk to him again.

Well…that was your intention anyway. But by Friday, you’d spent every night up late chatting with this Nochu guy. It wasn’t like you talked about anything all that interesting or profound. Music you liked, games you played, anime you watched. You’d spent the better portion of Thursday night talking about whether Fullmetal Alchemist or Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was superior. You weren’t sure why you were compelled to respond every time his name lit up your phone. And you really weren’t sure why you were the one reaching out to him now as you sat watching your professor detail the process of molecular movement across a cell membrane.

Perhaps you’d missed making easy conversation with someone you liked talking to…

After high school, you’d become something of a recluse. You spent more nights in than out and despite doing well in your classes, you’d found yourself…slightly lonesome. That’s why when Sua gave you her number after you’d successfully finished a project together a few months ago, you’d been quick to take it. Even though it was a little scary, some small part of you wanted to trust people again.

And maybe that’s why too. Why you were sending this stupid text in the middle of your lecture.

You: Hey dude. You free today?

Blind Date: Hm? Why?

You: Idk, Burger King or smth?

Blind Date: Hehe, are you trying to revive our dead romance?

You: O.O Our romance died already? After one failed date?

Blind Date: Hahaha I mean…you can try giving it CPR if you want…?

Blind Date: Mouth-to-mouth ;-D

You: Yuck, I take it back. Our romance is dead and buried.

You: Anyway, you free?

Blind Date: Uh yeah probs later. I’ve got class until 4.

Blind Date: Does that work for your Burger King plan?

Blind Date: I know it’s hard to get a reservation at that place on short notice >.<

You: I take it all back.

You: I have plans tonight, soz.

You: Talk to ya later, weeb.

You smiled and set your phone down beside your notebook, refocusing on your professor.  But your attention was quickly assuaged by your phone vibrating once more. You smirked down at it and, covertly, read the slew of oncoming text messages with a chuckle.

Blind Date: !!! That’s rude !!!

Blind Date: You can’t just offer a Burger King date and snatch it out from under me like that.

Blind Date: I’ll be mad if you jerk me around >:-(

Blind Date: You see that face? I mean BUSINESS.

You: Calm down lol, I was kidding.

You: Let’s meet at the Burger King next to the ramen place near campus?

Blind Date: Hehe, sounds good :-P

Blind Date: Ah, but don’t be too surprised when you meet me, okay?

Blind Date: I don’t want you fainting when you see my handsome face 8-)

You: Mhm, I’ll be sure not to faint.

Blind Date: I mean…a little fainting is fine…

You: Haha shut up. I’ll see you there. Looking forward to putting a face to the texts!

Blind Date: Hopefully my face doesn’t disappoint lol.

You: Yikes, mine either.

Blind Date: Yours won’t.

Blind Date: Haha, I’m sure you’ll look great. That’s what I meant.

Blind Date: Ew, all of that was hard to read. Forget I said anything hhhhhh.

You smiled fondly at your phone before sliding it into your bag. “You look kinda smitten,” said Sua from beside you.

You jumped and glanced at her as the rest of the class began packing up. She was grinning at you like a co-conspirator, brows low, knowing grin on her face. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been texting someone named Blind Date during every class period for a week,” she said, cocking a brow. “I take it you guys hit it off?”

You felt yourself go warm. Not like with Jungkook the other day, but like something else. Something a little deeper than a physical reaction. Nonetheless, you cleared your throat and smiled at Sua. “He’s a good guy. I think we could be good friends.”

“Friends?” she asked with a laugh, flitting her hand as the two of you stood together. “Sounds boring. Get a smooch or two out of it or it’s a bust.”

You laughed, shaking your head. “I don’t really know if he’d be interested in me that way.”

“What about you?” she asked, eyeing you. “Would you be interested?”

You stared at her for a long moment, eyes wide, and opened and shut your mouth a few times. “I…,” you began, then glanced at your feet. You followed her out into the hallway where students hurried by in a flash beside you. “I mean…”

Sua paused her walking to stare back at you, her teasing grin replaced with a genuine one. “Wait, do you actually like him-like him?” she asked, eyes alight.

You stiffened, scratching your arm, and sighed. “Jeez, I don’t know! Maybe,” you said, waving your hands. “Forget it, I’ve got another class soon.”

She laughed as you maneuvered around her through the hall, calling after you. “You’re cute when you’ve got a crush!”

You sat at a booth by yourself at Burger King, waiting for your not-date to show up. It had only been a few minutes and already your anxiety was starting to speak in your ear. He’s not showing up, it whispered, You’re an idiot. And maybe you were. Looking around the fast food joint, you saw more than a few couples, sitting side-by-side or gazing at each other over fried chicken. You didn’t envy them. Not that way. Just…maybe it was the human connection you missed more than anything. Last time you’d been in this situation, you were still deeply in love with Jeon Jungkook.

You were sixteen and you sat twiddling your thumbs on a suburban bench overlooking Seoul. Trees swayed in the summer breeze and carried with them the scent of young hopefulness, naivety in the form of dogwood blossoms. You watched the uneven cityscape before you as it resisted the pull of the wind, and far in the distance, slightly glittering in the sunlight, the Han River. Jungkook had said he’d be there at exactly two. It was ten past, and you were getting a little nervous. You’d confessed not a week prior during the last week of school, and to your shock Jungkook had been receptive. He hadn’t said anything bold like ‘I like you too’ or ‘let’s date’ but he had invited you out for some ice cream and you figured that was much the same thing for him.

Maybe he’s just being nice, you thought to yourself with a sigh. You’d spent a long time picking out the right outfit, getting your hair to lay just right. And still, you didn’t feel quite up to par with him. Girls were always confessing their love for him. Guys too. What made you any different than the dozens of other hopefuls? He probably won’t come…

“Y/N!” called a voice from the winding, hilly street.

You jumped and turned, and your heart swelled as you saw Jungkook running down the sidewalk toward you, grinning from ear to ear. And that was what did you in. That sincerity, that vigor, that enthusiasm…all for you. You stood up to meet him and chuckled as he caught his breath, patting his chest.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said, panting. “My mom started lecturing me, so I got tied up.” After a few moments regaining his composure, he finally looked at you properly and when he did, you noticed his cheeks going red hot, eyes round. “Oh, wow,” he said, glancing away with a jittery laugh. “S-Sorry, you…you look really nice.”

You felt a little faint. You’d spent months pining after this kid, pining after this purity you kept glimpsing in him, and now…

He was saying you looked nice.

It was almost enough to knock the breath out of you.

You smiled at your shoes and rubbed your neck. “Th-thank you,” you said.

He laughed, nervous once more, and gave your shoulder a shove. “Hey, don’t get all clammy on me, okay? Nothing’s weird between us. Just…two pals…on a date.”

You jumped and stared up at him with unbridled surprise. “Date?” you asked, shameless hope in your voice.

He laughed, eyes turning to crescents, and nodded. “What else would it be?” Of course. Of course, since it was Jungkook, the answer was just that simple, wasn’t it?

You swallowed hard and tried to manage your expression, but you couldn’t fight the smile teasing your lips. “Oh,” you said, letting out a breathy laugh.

He examined you for a moment, scanning you. You weren’t used to going out with friends, let alone dating. All of this was new and exhilarating to you. But you felt a sudden wave of shyness that you couldn’t fight off, and a slightly pleasant self-consciousness. You felt him looking at you, and it didn’t feel like he hated looking. You became very aware of your body, each limb, each finger. Still smiling a little, you laughed again, unsure of what else to do. These were uncharted waters, after all.

“Hm,” he said, bending down to meet your eyes. You blushed and leaned away a little, but he was blushing too and it made you feel better knowing perhaps he was just as nervous as you. “Lemme prove it.”

Your eyes went wide, but before you could say or do anything, Jungkook closed the distance between you, tipping his chin so that your lips met. His lips were warm and soft. They tasted like chapstick and banana milk. You didn’t move, not a single muscle, and perhaps this worried him because he was quick to lean away and stare down at you, fresh insecurity on display in his warm brown eyes.

“Sorry! Was that too sudden?” he asked, laughing and glancing away, down the quiet street. “Jeez, I got carried away, huh? Ha, I’m sorry.”

Before he could spiral, you took a timid step forward and pushed yourself onto your toes. Gently, you wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling yourself nearer to him. He jumped and looked at you with stunned eyes. But you didn’t give him a chance to think too much, because before long you were kissing him, head tilted to the side, eyes shut. Without much pause, his hands found your waist and stayed there, respectful, unsure.

And somehow, you’d summoned the courage to do it. To kiss him back.

Because he showed up, after all.

He didn’t leave you alone…

Fifteen minutes now and you were beginning to worry. You reasoned that at least there were worse places to be stood up. A nice steakhouse, for instance. At least here you weren’t the only solo diner. But nonetheless, the feeling of a deep gut-punch was only growing. Dread and disappointment mingled into a bitter cocktail in the pit of your stomach. Wouldn’t this just be…poetic? Getting stood up for your first date after years of fear and emotional isolation?

Wouldn’t that be exactly what would happen?

Thirty minutes. At first, you tried to tell yourself he was probably just running late from a class. After all, the walk from campus alone was around seven minutes. Maybe he’d gotten released late. Maybe he’d gotten held up with a professor or classmate. You stared at your Whopper with dead eyes now, watching the cold burger as all the heat drained from it. It was too late to save it now. And perhaps it had never been meant for you to eat anyway. Maybe it was your destiny to become a vegetarian or something.

Nonetheless, you sent a text.

Even though it felt pathetic.

You: Hey, uh…we still on for Burger King?

You: No rush, haha.

You: Just a little worried…

Was this revenge for ruining the first date? Some elaborate plot to get back at you? He seemed like a really sweet guy, but so had Jungkook after all. After several minutes without a reply, you began to accept the fact that you’d been thoroughly stood up. Your throat constricted, eyes going a little hazy, and resolved to wait a little longer. Just a little.

Forty-eight minutes. No reply and no date. By then, plenty of customers had come and gone through the front doors, none of them him. You couldn’t bring yourself to take even one bite of food, the money wasted, the time wasted too. How much time had you wasted, really? How much of your life had you spent watering dead plants?

When Jungkook told you he wanted to break up, you’d been in disbelief. The two of you were close, so close it almost hurt, and the sudden end felt like a slap in the face or a jolt to the heart. You’d fought him in his room that night, the sunset turning the ends of his hair gold, turning his eyes gold too. He had no right being so handsome at a moment like that. You asked for a reason and he said he didn’t want any strings going in to college. He wanted to be unaffiliated. But you couldn’t accept that. You couldn’t accept that the time you spent together had meant so little to him, that the relationship was a dead plant from the start.

I was only dating you because I felt bad for you! he’d shouted once he’d had enough. Ever wonder why I never told anyone about us?! You’d been stunned then, stunned silent. Your brain was failing to process his words. He’d never spoken that way to you before. How much time had you spent in love? How much time had he spent pitying you? I was your only friend, for God’s sake! What did you expect me to do?!

Perhaps you’d been right after all. Perhaps giving yourself to other people was too dangerous, too painful. Perhaps loving someone wasn’t worth it, perhaps it could never be completely reciprocal. Perhaps any relationship you had would be a waste of time. Perhaps all you were destined to do was water dead plants until finally, you decided it was enough.

One hour. You stood up from your seat, wiped beneath your eyes as the tears you’d been fighting finally crested over your bottom eyelid, and carried your tray to the garbage. You slid your trash into the bin and, sniffling, wandered out toward the exit. Customers avoided walking too close to you, likely noticing the tears that were now tracking stubbornly down your cheeks. You would have wiped them, had you had the energy to care.

But all you wanted was to go home and be alone.

Alone for a while.

You pushed your way outside, taking in the fresh spring day. No more rain, even though you would have welcomed it. It could have concealed your crying, your red nose and swelling eyes. You could have cowered beneath a bus stop and nobody would have noticed you. Nobody would have noticed.

Instead, the spring day was gorgeous, teasingly beautiful. The sun was beginning to set on the horizon, and people milled about through the street, smiling and chatting easily. Sniffling, you wiped your nose and joined them, walking down the sidewalk toward the subway entrance near campus.

You were overreacting. You didn’t even know this guy that well yet. He wasn’t a boyfriend, he wasn’t someone you’d given your whole heart to. He hadn’t betrayed you, because deep down you’d expected this. Maybe that’s what upset you so much. Being proven right.

You exited the crowd of people a block from the Burger King and walked with your head down toward the subway entrance. You were about to step on to the escalator when you heard someone call your name.

“Y/N!”

You turned slowly, eyes bleary from all the crying, and rubbed your tears away to see them clearly. Again, like he had some sort of sense for when you were most humiliated, Jungkook stepped toward you. His face was contorted in worry, thick brows knit, mouth agape as he stared down at you, scanning you.

You sniffled and nodded. “What?” you asked.

“What are you doing?” he asked softly, taking you by the crook of the arm and leading you toward a more sparsely populated alley beside the sidewalk. You didn’t fight. Didn’t have it in you. “Are you okay?” he asked, his own eyes watery as he looked down at you, forcing your head up as he held it between two big, warm hands.

You kept your gaze on the dirty ground. “Let me go,” you said, but it was weak.

“Y/N…,” he whispered, smoothing his thumb against your cheek. “Jesus.”

“What?” you asked, looking at him quick, fierce. “Are you pitying me?”

His eyes went wide and he shook his head. Looking at him now, he seemed pretty shaken himself. Why did the two of you keep bumping into each other like this? “No! No, that’s not it.”

“Then what?” you asked, shaking his hands off your face. “What is it, huh? Here to show off your money? Show me how good you’re doing while I’m working minimum wage? Huh? Do you like feeling superior?”

He swallowed hard, his expression revealing some sort of hurt you couldn’t name. “No! Please, it’s not that! Let me explain-,”

“No! You don’t have any right to ask me to listen to you!” you said, sobbing. You wiped your eyes with your forearm and shook your head. “Just leave me alone! Everyone!” you shouted.

Jungkook took your shoulders in his hands to keep you still and you tried a few times to shake yourself free, but to no avail. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

You kept crying, the ancient pain welling up from inside you like some age-old reserve finally erupting. Your body rocked with the force of your tears. “Isn’t it pathetic? The minute I start trying to reach out, I get stood up?” you asked with a manic laugh. “Doesn’t that just make you feel so good? Aren’t I pitiable?”

Jungkook’s own tears were pooling in his eyes and you could see them there, threatening to fall. “Please,” he said quietly.

You shook your head. “Isn’t this what you want? Someone to look down on? Someone to feel bad for?” you asked, face wet from the tears. “Can’t you just leave me alone?!” you shouted, loud enough to rouse the attention of a few people on the sidewalk behind Jungkook’s back.

Jungkook, without another word, sniffled sharply and pulled you flush against his chest. You struggled against his strong hold for a few moments, writhing, before finally submitting. Without even meaning to, you wrapped your arms around his torso and sobbed into his black shirt. He held you close, resting his cheek on your head. You could have sworn you felt a few tears hitting your shoulder.

But before you could get too comfortable in his embrace, you pushed yourself away and stared at him, bitter, angry, from several feet away. You looked at him like a feral thing, like an alleycat. And the way he watched you was different than it was that day by the bench. It was worried now, like a shadow had crossed over his face.

“I’m sorry-,” he began.

You shook your head and shoved past him. “Don’t talk to me. Ever,” you spat as you walked by, rejoining the stream of people on the sidewalk toward the subway entrance.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” asked Sua as the two of you left class.

Half a week had passed, and you were eager for more time to distance you from that unpleasant day. You’d received a slew of texts from your blind date, all of which had gone unanswered. They ranged from the typical I’m so sorry texts to more in-depth explanations. Apparently, he’d gotten nervous. Cold feet, he’d said. Nervous for what, you didn't know and you wouldn’t ask. You were meeting at a Burger King for God’s sake. What could he have been that nervous about?

You glanced at her and offered a tight smile. “Mhm. I’m good. Just…uh…gotta get to work later so I’m thinking about that,” you said, over-explaining. Of course, lying just wasn’t for you.

Sua sighed and hooked an arm around your elbow, leaning close to you as the two of you walked down the hallway. You edged away just slightly, and it seemed she noticed as she turned to you with wide eyes. You hated to admit it, but everything with that Nochu guy had made you wary of even Sua. They did know each other after all. Had this been one big setup from the start? Were the two conspiring to hurt you?

You shook your head and patted her hand with a smile. Of course not. Of course that was crazy. But…something about this whole thing had you feeling crazy. “Sorry,” you said quietly. “Just…met up with someone from my past the other day and it didn’t feel so good.”

She raised her brows. “What? You never mentioned anyone like that before…,” she said, her brows lowering. She looked a little hurt.

You swallowed hard. “Ah, well it’s no big deal,” you said, flitting a hand with a choppy laugh. “It’s in the past for a reason.”

She pouted. “You know you can talk to me, right?” she said, eyeing you.

And with those words, your chest constricted a little and a small pang of guilt clenched your stomach. You didn’t want to end up hurting her. She was sweet and she wanted to be close to you. But what could you do if you just weren’t ready for that? How could you tell her you may never be ready?

Instead, you turned to her and offered a smile. “I know.”

Blind Date: Y/N…

Blind Date: Please respond. Please.

Blind Date: I really really want to explain everything to you.

Blind Date: I know I really hurt you, but I want to explain.

Blind Date: Isn’t that selfish of me?

Blind Date: To hurt you and then ask you to listen to me?

Blind Date: I’m sorry.

Blind Date: I’m selfish.

You sighed as you watched your phone. The coffeeshop was quiet, fewer patrons now that the design students had finished their projects, and you felt safer looking at the onslaught of texts that just wouldn’t stop flooding your phone. You know you can talk to me, right? That’s what Sua said. She had reached out her hand to you.

And you’d pulled back.

You eyed your phone for a long few moments. Wasn’t it time to stop running away because you were scared of being hurt? Wasn’t it time to stop expecting someone to walk all the way across the tightrope to you and start walking to meet them in the middle instead?

Wasn’t it wrong to punish people for something someone else did?

You: Hey…

You: Sorry I haven’t responded. I just needed space I think.

Blind Date: Shit, I know. I’m so sorry.

Blind Date: You know I care about you though, right?

Blind Date: You know I wasn’t trying to hurt you on purpose, right?

You: I mean, we’ve only known each other a few weeks haha.

You: Honestly, I probably overreacted.

You: After everything that happened with that guy I told you about, I think I’m just a little too sensitive. And I took it out on you. And that was wrong.

Blind Date: No, no! Please don’t apologize. Jesus. It’s entirely my fault. All of it.

You: Haha it’s really not. I shouldn’t hold you and him to the same standards when you’re different people. That’s on me.

Blind Date: Can I see you?

You: Huh? So suddenly? I’m working…

Blind Date: The coffeeshop on campus?

You: Yeah…

You: Don’t come right now though!

You: I won’t be able to talk to you anyway.

Blind Date: I’ll wait. When do you get off?

You: Nine…

Blind Date: I’ll see you at nine.

You blushed, staring down at your screen. Since when was he so direct like this? And why did it make your heart race, just a little?

Sua was right. You definitely had a crush…

You watched the front doors as you began cleaning up the coffeeshop. Closing time was coming soon, and with five minutes until nine you were beginning to feel that festering fear that you’d be stood up again. But as that voice returned to your mind, you were quick to quiet it. You wanted to believe in people again. You couldn’t live your life all alone.

So you swept beneath tables and propped chairs atop them. You cleaned the windows. You hummed a pop song to yourself, trying to keep your mind busy. When you glanced outside, you noticed the spring showers had returned and the rain was falling in bullets from the dark sky. With a sigh, you settled down on one of the recliners by the window, watching cars and buses and people speed by. You wondered which one would come inside despite the sign now reading ‘closed’. You wondered who this person was.

Before you realized it, you were dozing off, struggling to keep your eyes open as you reclined against the comfortable cushions. Your breathing became more rhythmic, deeper in your chest with each inhale, and you snuggled into the back of the recliner with a heavy sigh.

And that’s when you heard it. The distinctive ting of the bell dangling over the front door. Your eyes opened wide and you saw his reflection in the mirror beside you. Tall, dressed in dark clothes, hoodie up over his head and an umbrella in his hand, trailing droplets of rainwater onto the wood floor. You wanted to greet him right away, to get a proper look at him, but with your heart racing the way it was you couldn’t find the courage. It was enough for you just to respond to his texts. And now he was here, corporeal, right behind you.

You shut your eyes tight and feigned sleep.

“Y/N?” he called, and somehow you recognized his voice.

No way.

It couldn’t be…

You kept your eyes shut and curled your knees closer to your chest. Slowly, you heard him mill around the shop before pausing beside your recliner. His footsteps got closer, rounding the side of the chair to stand right in front of you. And, quietly, he laughed. And you were certain now. You knew exactly who he was.

You felt a warm, big hand press against the side of your head, smoothing your hair down, and heard a fond sigh. “Jeez,” he mumbled. You felt him crouch down beside your feet and his arm dropped to rest on the arm of the recliner. He gently rocked the chair back and forth for a moment, humming. “Don’t hate me too much, okay?” he asked in a whisper.

And, without another moment’s hesitation, you opened your eyes and stared right down at him. “Jungkook…?” you asked, scanning his face.

His eyes were round with shock and his whole person was wet. He gazed up at you from where he crouched on the floor and, mouth agape, said nothing. Wordlessly, you reached a hand out and touched his cheek with the pad of your index finger. Soaking wet. You sighed and pushed to your feet. Jungkook stumbled a little to accommodate you as you slipped past him to the counter. You rifled through the cabinets before producing a towel. By then, he’d followed you to the counter and was waiting on the other side. Sighing, you waved a hand, signaling for him to join you behind the register. He jumped and followed your silent command, and suddenly you were staring at his broad chest up close.

You swallowed your nerves and draped the towel atop his head. “Dry off,” you said, hopping up to sit on the counter. The lights in the shop were low, and the music still bumped lowly through the stereo. It might have been romantic, if it was anyone else. “Then we can talk.”

He nodded and fluffed the towel through his hair, obscuring his face from view for a few peaceful seconds. “I…I know I have a lot to explain.”

“Yeah,” you said.

He peeked out from behind the towel with one eye, watching you. “Are you mad?”

“Fuming, actually.”

He nodded and let the towel drop to his shoulders. “I expected that,” he said with a sigh. He came to stand in front of your knees, looking right at you with enough sincerity to knock the breath from your lungs. Just like that first date. “I don’t know where to start.”

“So you know Sua?” you asked, letting your heels bounce against the counter’s cabinets.

“Ah, uh, yeah,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “We’re in the same major, so…”

“And you transferred here?”

“Yeah,” he said, meeting your eyes. “It was…no good out in Busan. I missed home too much.”

You nodded, watching your thighs on the counter. “Figures.”

He chuckled wryly. “You know me too well.”

“Thought I did.”

Carefully, he took a single step forward and you jumped, meeting his eyes like a frightened prey. “I never meant for you to carry all that with you for so long,” he said, brows knit and eyes hazy like he may cry. “I didn’t expect you to be so hurt.”

“That’s stupid,” you said. “You can’t tell someone you were only with them out of pity and expect them not to be hurt.”

“I know, I just…Jesus, I’m just stupid,” he said, raking his fingers through his hair. “Since I was moving away, I didn’t want you to waste your time waiting for me to come back, so I wanted to give you a clean break. Since I knew you wouldn’t wanna break up just because of distance.”

You stiffened. “You…what?”

“I didn’t mean it,” he said. “Any of it.”

You felt like you’d been hit right in the diaphragm, like when you play dodgeball and someone throws a ball at your chest. You sat up straighter and stared at him, watching him carefully. “You lied?”

He nodded. “Yeah,” he said, meeting your eyes seriously. It really looked like he might have cried. “I didn’t think it was fair to keep you from meeting new people and making new connections.”

“Then why didn’t you tell anyone we were dating?” you asked, brow low, scanning him for any signs of insincerity.

His eyes went wide. “I…I told you before, my high school friends…they weren’t so great,” he said, shaking his head. “I meant it when I was texting you about all that. How t’s hard for me to find good people.”

“And you didn’t show up to Burger King last time because…?”

He sniffled. “I meant what I said about that too. I was…really nervous. I was scared you’d be disappointed when you found out it was me.”

You sighed. “Why weren’t you just honest with me from the start?” you asked, all animosity draining from your voice as you saw him wiping his red, swelling eyes. “Back in high school. Why didn’t you just tell me all of it then?”

He sniffed and looked away. “I was scared you’d think less of me if you knew I was so insecure. And I didn’t want you to wait for me in college, not when you could’ve been out making new friends.”

“Well, the opposite happened actually,” you said with a dry laugh. “I got really worried that any friends I made would be doing it out of pity.”

Jungkook stiffened. “You…you did?”

You nodded. “Yeah…”

“Shit,” he breathed out, gripping his forehead with two hands. “I’m so stupid!”

Distantly, the sound of the rain picked up outside. You nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’m so sorry,” he said, looking at you once more, startling you with his sincerity. “I messed up so bad. I messed up everything.”

You blinked at him, standing nearly at eye-level, and slowly reached out to wipe beneath his eyes with your fingertips. “Well, you were right about one thing. I wouldn’t have accepted it had you not said what you said.”

He furrowed his brow and leaned into your touch. “I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you,” you said.

He swallowed hard and you watched his Adam’s apple bob. “Really?”

“Well, yeah,” you said with a shrug. “Now that I know everything, it’s hard to be mad at you for being a jerk when you were really just being an idiot.”

He stared at you, inching forward so he rested just between your knees. “I’m so sorry,” he said again.

“Yeah, I know,” you said, letting out half a chuckle as you let your hands drop to his shoulders, giving them a pat.

“Really,” he said, nodding once as he stared right into your eyes.

“Jungkook, it’s-,”

Before you could finish, he had closed the distance between you, one hand grasping your jaw as he pressed a kiss to your lips. You jumped back, eyes wide, and stared at him in shock. He too looked shocked, like he hadn’t meant to do it at all. He shook his head, eyebrows knit, stuttering out syllables that didn’t add up to anything.

“I-I-you-I mean-,” he sputtered, irises shaking. You noticed no small margin of fear in his eyes, like he was terrified he’d messed things up again.

I didn’t want to make any more mistakes, you know?

The words he’d trusted you with through the screen, his sincere thoughts. He really regretted it a lot, didn’t he? Your expression softened as he continued struggling to find words, and, without even really meaning to, you wrapped your fingers around his neck. He didn’t seem to notice, or he was too spooked to comment on it, but you slowly pulled him closer. Just like that day in high school, just like it was when you’d first entered hopefully into this fateful relationship, you leaned in and pressed your lips against his, shutting your eyes. Stunned, he was completely still for a moment before eventually his hands moved to your hips, then slid along your sides, then hooked around your lower back. You hadn’t intended it, but the kiss was getting steamier with each passing moment. You felt his hot breath on your skin as he pulled back to adjust his position before crashing into you again.

As the fever settled down, Jungkook was the first to pull away, but only by a faction so he could speak. “I love you,” he whispered.

You stared wide-eyed at him, only inches away from you, eyes heavy-lidded and forehead resting just barely against yours. “O-Okay,” you said. It was all you could manage.

He chuckled once, still embracing you as he stood between your legs. “That’s it?”

“You expect me to say it back?” you asked.

He smiled, staring down at you. “I guess not.”

“You’re gonna have to give me some time,” you said with a nod.

He nodded too, shutting his eyes as he held you close. Slowly, he moved to rest his forehead against your shoulder, resting against the crook of your neck. “I understand.”

“Like…a lot of time probably.”

“I know.”

You let out a shaky exhale and only then did you realize your hands were shaking. As silly as it seemed, this reunion was pretty jarring to your system. The foundation on which you’d rebuilt your sense of self had broken down beneath your feet, leaving you to stand among the rubble once again. Just like back then. Everything you thought you understood had been proven wrong.

But nonetheless, you smoothed your palms against his back and rubbed gently. Not to comfort him, but to comfort yourself. To let yourself know that, even though it was scary, it was okay to trust people sometimes. Self preservation shouldn’t come at the sacrifice of human connection. And even though you knew the road ahead was going to be long and that trusting Jungkook again would take a long time and a lot of work on his end, you were ready to try.

So, as the two of you left the shop under one umbrella, you drafted a text.

You: Sua, I have SO MUCH to tell you.

[bugaboowritings]

Punk!Marinette - A Short Drabble-

Marinette Helps Adrien out of a Tree

 I have been going down holes as I avoid spoilers. Even found my unfinished writing about Punk! Marinette just had to polish it up. Inspired from art under the punk Marinette tag and @musicfeedsmysoul12 who wrote some things on this au. 

Also I’m slowly posting my work at ao3 to make it easier to find, my username is bugaboo0scrambles for anyone interested. 

Marinette clicked her tongue with satisfaction. Admiring her work with her mirror. With years and years of practice, applying winged eyeliner still seems like a game of Russian roulette. Going perfectly amazing or making her say “screw it” before giving herself a smoky eye to cover it up the ‘step-sisters’ she painted on her lids. Yet, it was a part of her routine, something she kept since that summer ago spent watching strangers talk about products and brushes.

The laces on her boots drew out the gap between leather and skin as if it was a long sign. Marinette tugged on her laces tighter before reaching a fixed level of security. Fitting in like a second skin. Her hand smoothed over her slick new shoes, relishing its aesthetic allure and not helping the snicker that came up her throat. The heels on this pair were a whopping 3 and a half inches. Nothing major compared to the other shoes on display in the market, but it was enough to give her the needed height to make her a pinch taller then Alya.

With that, she carefully went down the stairs. Watching her step as she got comfortable to the new height. Accepting her death only twice while she barely caught herself from tumbling down the stairs.

Stuffing the long laces into the inside of her boots before making it out of the backdoor of the house. Her hand on the doorknob, other on her hip. Calling out to her parent goodbye as the front of the bakery buzzed with customers.

Nibbled on her maroon-stained lips before checking the trash can. Emptying it to before her parents forgot about it.  

The fresh air outside was mixed with the sounds of cars and that horrible unidentifiable “alley smog” rushing to her head. Pushing the plastic bag out the doorway and into the alley. Stepping out before her dad escaped the customers to plot a kiss on her daughter’s head. His beard carried traces of flour while his apron was clean except the splash of fruit-filling by his knee. Wishing Marinette good luck at school before he rushed to get more ingredients as her mother yelled from the front to take care.

Marinette lightly swept her bangs to get rid of her father’s messy, flour kiss. All while her nose crinkled at the smell of day-old eggshells and butter wrappers. Holding her breath and feeling her wrist twist as she opened the dumpster to throw in the trash. Not helping the gag that came up as the garbage smelt of sun-baked vomit cookies. Letting go of the metal lid causing it to slam shut. If her caffeinated tea didn’t wake her up, then that harsh sound did. Even scaring off the black cat that slept peacefully before screeching off into the street.

-----

“How lame.” Chloe scoffed. Rolling her head like a rag doll as she raised her sunnies from her clear-blue eyes. Her nails, done and polished, flicked the lone blonde strand over her ear.

“Nice shoes, Mari!” She yelled. Booming her voice through the quad. “Matches the whole clown suit too!”

Marinette flipped her off without even looking in her direction. Making her way to the other end of the school to meet up Alya. The one classmate that could manage a conversation with her without being intimidated.

Alya typed swiftly on her keyboard without bothering to look at the keys. A skill that Marinette envied and Alya swore to be like second nature after months of drafting sharp observations over comics, movies and Paris local heroes on her blogs. She sported the denim jacket Marinette decorated for her with patches and pins all with a khaki pleated skirt. Topping it off with her very own white-tee. Her new merch, a commission by Marinette, for her Ladyblog.  

“Alya.”

“Marinette.”

Marinette threw her bag under her before lifting her ankles to cross her legs. Rocking back and forth, waiting for the typing to slow down. Once it did, it reached a sudden stop.

Alya sighed and saved her work before tugging her bag on her lap. Sliding her laptop out of harm’s way.

“I got a new scoop last night.” Alya grinned. Relaxing into her seat. Crossing her glossy legs.

“You will never believe what I saw, girl!” Jumping on Marinette as stars lit up in her eyes. A quick transition from her blank expression earlier. Marinette, knowing where this was going, played dumb.

“Let me guess,” Mari hummed, narrowing her eyes at nothing in the distance. Only to get spooked when Alya shook her.

“AHH! I can’t wait! Just let me tell you!!”

Smirking at the journalist. Alya, as if her tongue was on fire, spit on her amazing story.

There she, in the middle of the night, getting a drink of water. Like how she always did when she was staying up late for an article. Only to hear a loud noise outside. Assuming it’s an Akuma before considering the idea of an earthquake happening in the middle of Europe or a plane crash. Incentively fishing for her phone to see the most amazing sight ever. The greatest thing to hit theaters in its time. The most inspiring and jaw-dropping things to ever live in black and white. The scaly, creepy Godzilla! Stomping out the streets of Paris in the dead of night. Apartments lights flicked on as the beast strolled through the street. Holding in its roars as it tossed its tail. Missing a building by a hair. With a “zip” and a “wow”, the Parian hero duo leaped neighborhoods and buildings. Chat Noir tossed his baton in the air, saving Ladybug by the fraction of second from being dino-chum as she twirled up into the air. Ladybug’s yo-yo looped around the monster swiftly with her momentum, tripping the beast toward the bottom of the Eiffel tower. With Chat Noir’s cataclysm ready, Ladybug called on her lucky charm and-  

“- and Agreste at 10.” Alya murmured. Watching Adrien come through the front door with Nino by his side. Laughing at each other as they look back to Nino’s phone. Marinette turned around, groaning- knowing this morning routine too well. Trying to make herself seem smaller as she pushed back her shoulders. Hoping to go under notice. Already feeling his lime-green eyes on her back.

“I’ll be hiding in a tree or at the art studio, whatever I reach first.” Already grieving the loss of a perfectly good morning. “Text me if you need me.”

“See ya.” Alya waved. Slumping back to the bench as Marinette rushed away in the opposite direction of Adrien.

-----

“Marinette!”

“Agreste.”

“Ah. . .Come here often?”

Marinette had to stop the snort that came up her throat. Being a second late as a small chuckle left her lips. Having to shut down her face to not give Adrien the fuel to keep going. Bring back that dull expression as she watched Adrien struggle a little bit more.

“I don’t usually come here, but if I do I’m not dangling out of trees.”

“Uh,” Agreste hummed. Unsure what to say as he felt the tingling of blood rushing to his head competed with the deep blush that appeared on his cheeks. Or maybe that was just the pain of his blood rushing to head. Yeah, maybe it was the blood rushing to his head. 

On the bright side, however, it made it harder to see if he’s blushing.

“I’m practicing my tree climbing. . . ?” He smugly answered. 

“Practicing,” Marinette repeated. Letting that lame reason melt on her tongue before she even thought of accepting it. Crossing her arms as she stuck her leg out. Her heel rocked back and forth on the dirt. Creating a little hole as she thought this over.

“I’m not one to try and get into someone’s business-”

“You’re not getting in my business. I MEan, I-I don’t mind you asking about it. .!”

Marinette kissed her teeth. “Right . . . “

Biting her lips as she left out a long sigh. Pitching the bridge of her nose, the click on her rings hitting her septum piercing. She’ll regret this, she knows it already. She just had to humor him, even if it was a little longer.

“So Agreste. I would hate to bother this,” Marinette motioned. Her hands raised up and down and around. “But you seem like you need help? Do you need help to get down?”

“. . .Actually, yeah.”

----

“Why is Marinette pulling Adrien out of a tree?” Alix questioned. Pointing out the window when Alya and Mylene came over. Her finger covering the odd scene outside.

The three girls press their faces up the glass as they watched the commotion outside unfold.

“It looks like Marinette is shoving him in a tree to me...” Alya mumbled. Squinting her eyes before she removed her glasses. Rubbing them quickly against her shirt before pushing them back up her face.

Mylene bit her thumb, “Do you think we should go and help them? Maybe they-”

A muffled thump hit the ground. A puff of dirt rising in the air, covering the teens outside. Coughing as they waved the dust away. Marinette smoothed the dirt off her jacket as Adrien groaned.

“I think they’re fine.” Alya hummed. Returning to her notebook.

“Okay, so what did you get for question seven?”

[yourmandevine]

Some stuff that made me happy in 2020, in no particular order

God send you no greater loss. It’s something my grandmother said a lot — a bit of highly Irish Catholic wisdom intended to remind you, warmly but sharply, that whatever you’re currently suffering through isn’t all that bad compared to what lots of other people are dealing with. That it probably isn’t too much to complain about, in the grand scheme of things. That you should, instead, be grateful for what you’ve got, big and small and everything in between.

God sent a great many people a great many unfathomable losses this year, and as hard as it felt at times, our family wasn’t among them; we’re lucky, in the big picture. In the past, people have recommended I try writing those reasons down, to give myself a list of stuff to be thankful for, for the times it’s tough to summon up the gratitude. I figured the end of the year was as good a time as any to make that list, to highlight the stuff that helped me get through this year — the reasons big, small, and in between.

So: here goes.

Peanut butter and jelly

I haven’t counted how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I’ve eaten since March 11, which is good, because that would be an absurd thing to do, and a sure sign that I have succumbed to a very specific kind of madness. It’s also good, though, because I would undoubtedly be ashamed by the number; the figure would be titanic, like the unsinkable ship of same name, or the iceberg that sunk it.

Or, at least, I would be ashamed under normal circumstances. This fuckin’ year required whatever flotation device you could find, and you know what I found in the fridge and cupboard? A couple of slices of bread, some strawberry jam, and some goddamn Skippy.

Need a weird mid-morning “brunch” after not having breakfast because you went right from waking up to remote school with the 6-year-old? Crank up a PB&J with that third cup of coffee. Need to pack something in the diaper bag to feed everyone while you’re out at the playground for the afternoon? Stack ‘em up, son. Need a late snack after working the overnight shift filing weird bubble playoff columns? Three letters, one ampersand, one love.

I need to eat better in 2021. But I kind of needed to eat sort of like shit to get through 2020, and time and again, when your man needed it most, PB&J was there.

Sunday night Zoom sessions with college friends

I know that most of us started something like this back in March; I’m not sure how many have stuck with it. I hope the answer is “a lot,” because honestly, knowing that I’m going to end the week by seeing a few friends — some here in Brooklyn but mostly beyond our reach for safety’s sake, some who’ve moved away — has felt like a stabilizing agent on more than a few occasions. It’s important, and no small blessing, to have people in your life who really know you, weird messy ugly bits and all, and in front of whom you can let everything go.

That gallery view’s provided a place to vent, to seethe, to laugh, to cry, and to try to find some semblance of center before heading back into another week. I’m grateful for it, and for the people in those little boxes. Except for the time they reminded me that, when I was 18, I was pretty sure I was a Pacey, and they were all extremely confident I was a Dawson. They were right, but still: a bitter pill to swallow, then and now.

Olivia calling herself “Dr. Bloody”

She took out her little toy doctor kit and just turned into a cackling villain.

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Deeply disconcerting, yes, but also adorable.

All Fantasy Everything

What got me in the door was the conceit: three very funny stand-up comedians (Ian Karmel, David Gborie, Sean Jordan), often with a very funny guest but sometimes without, pick some topic or another and engage in a fantasy draft of their favorite aspects or representations of that topic. (It is, crucially, a serpentine draft. Now what is that? That’s a great question.) Some favorite examples: Mikes; Words That You Think Make You Sound Smart, vols. 1 and 2; Things You Yell After You Dunk on Someone; Fictional Athletes; Crimes We’d Like to Commit. Yeah. It’s that kind of podcast.

What kept me around was the friendship. Listen to an episode and it becomes really clear really quickly just how much the three hosts love each other, how much fun they have being around each other and making one another laugh. The warmth radiates, just pours out of the speakers; in a year where I sorely needed some good vibes, I appreciated my regular check-ins with the Good Vibes Gang to just ... unclench for an hour and a half or so. 

Drinking beer

OK, I’ll admit: This doesn’t sound great for me. It’s true, though. I really like beer. (We brewed one in our kitchen, which I realize is something of a “bearded guy in Brooklyn” cliche, but here we are. It was exciting to complete a project, and it tasted OK-ish.) At some points this year, it didn’t feel like there wasn’t much to look forward to, and sometimes drinking some High Lifes or Narragansett tall boys — with my wife in our living room, with friends on the computer, whatever — helped take the edge off a shitty day/week/month/year. I look forward to being able to do that outside with people again.

The Good Place

I am sure some very smart cultural critics and political thinkers and social revolutionaries have forwarded compelling arguments for why this show is Bad, Actually, because that seems to be more or less true about most things, whether because said thing is Actually Bad or because the economics of the attention economy on the internet functionally necessitate the composition and publication of pretty much every position on pretty much every issue, and especially ones that present a counterargument for why you shouldn’t like the thing you like, and might be kind of a piece of shit for liking it. But I liked this half-hour comedy about the way the universe might be put together, why we should try to take better care of each other, and how doing so might be a pretty great way to take better care of ourselves.

Andrew let me write about it a little bit for a big project we did before the series finale aired, which was really nice of him. I found myself thinking about this part a lot this year:

I also thought a lot about Peeps Chili, but that happens every year.

Taking pictures of my dog

Check out this flumpy goddamn champion:

“Lugar is a good boy” is the main takeaway here. They don’t all have to be complicated.

Schitt’s Creek

I know we’re not alone in this, but we inhaled this show this year. A half-hour comedy about people being laid low, learning how to deal with who they actually are, and finding some grace and community and opportunities for growth kind of hit the spot, I guess.

One of the most wholesale enjoyable ensemble comedy casts I can remember; Catherine O’Hara was already in Cooperstown, but what she made with Moira Rose only polishes her plaque. I’ll never be able to describe with any specificity the thing Chris Elliott does, but I know it has made me laugh since I was a child too young to understand the Letterman bits or see Cabin Boy in the theater, and it’s probably going to make me laugh until I am dead.

I love that people who, for years, never got to see themselves or people like them on screen got to see David Rose on screen and maybe recognize themselves a little bit. The idea that seeing the David/Patrick relationship might make them maybe feel a little more at home, a little safer and more whole, makes me happy. Sad, about the before, but happy, about the now and the what comes next.

Past that, I just love how what was ostensibly a family-and-friends production for a Canadian channel just got absolutely everything right—the tone, the look, the sound, the theme song, the cast, the jokes, my goodness, the jokes—and before long, the rest of the world just got it. Like catching a fastball square on the barrel. Something the show clearly knew a little bit about.

Finding new outdoor places it was safe to go

Necessity is the mother of invention, and the need to give the kids a place to be that wasn’t unnecessarily dangerous but also wasn’t inside our two-bedroom apartment led us to do more exploring than we had before. Shirley Chisholm State Park is great. Canarsie Pier was a fun place to spend a Sunday morning; so’s Canarsie Playground. If we got there early enough or made our peace with some rain, the beaches at Jacob Riis Park and Fort Tilden were pretty rad this summer. I lived in Staten Island from ages 8 through 18, and during breaks throughout college, and don’t think I ever hiked in High Rock Park — that’s dumb, because it was nice!

Even if all those little excursions did was kill a little time and reduce the overall stress level of the four humans stuck in our four walls, that’s not nothing. Some days this year, it was everything.

Cobra Kai

I know I’m late here; I didn’t rush to seek it out because I don’t consider myself a huge fan of The Karate Kid, or at least not a big enough fan to sign up for YouTube’s premium service. I checked it out when it came to Netflix, though, and I honestly can’t believe how much I enjoyed this show. Give me “dumb, but with heart” every day of the week.

I believe in Miguel Diaz; I believe in Johnny Lawrence; I believe I will be firing up Season 3 next month, and perhaps drinking some Coors Banquets in its honor. (I cannot, however, believe how the “get him a body bag” thing came back around, but that’s neither here nor there.)

Closing unread tabs

I’m a serial hoarder of links, and I am bad at finishing all of them. I’ve tried to get into Pocket and Instapaper, but I’ve never been able to turn that sort of workflow — open link, save to third-party service, go back to third-party service later to read, then delete from there — into something that felt instinctual, natural, or habitual. So: lots of tabs. Like, lots of tabs.

This was a dicier proposition than usual in 2020, because cutting my work week in half to be able to more effectively coparent two kids who didn’t have school or day care for most of the year meant less time to read things.

I tried to do my best to keep up with the important stuff for work, and to read at least some stuff about how other parents were dealing with their anxiety/anger/depression/frustration at having to be on 24/7 and work, and to stay abreast of (at least some of) what was happening in the world. Sometimes, though, I would wake up and realize I’d been holding onto blog posts about Really Interesting Rotation Decisions on the 11th-Seeded Team in the East or whatever for literally nine months, and I would go against my nature and just hit the eject button on a 25-deep window, and something amazing would happen: I wouldn’t get fired for being shitty at my job. I would move on with my day, and I would feel about 10 pounds lighter.

I still keep too much stuff open. (As we speak, I’ve got three different Chrome windows open on two different laptops. I choose not to count the total tabs.) But I do so knowing that, if it gets too heavy, I can experience the momentary joy of surrendering to the inevitability that I can’t catch everything. In that moment, I feel OK with my decay.

Reading writers I wasn’t familiar with before

Two in particular stand out in my mind: Nekias Duncan, now of BasketballNews.com, who does excellent film breakdowns and statistical analysis, and Katie Heindl, who writes basketball stuff of all types all over the place, and strings sentences together in a way that scratches an itch inside my brain. I’m grateful I got more chances to read them this year, I look forward to bigger and better things for both of them, and I’m hopeful that, if things calm down and our schedules go back to something approximating normalcy, I’ll have more bandwidth to hunt out more new voices in the year ahead.

The time I ambushed my wife as she was trying to break down and put away the girls’ space tent

Pretty good.

Siobhan learning to ride a bicycle (with training wheels, but still)

The moment passed pretty quickly; Not Exactly A Mechanic over here can’t get the training wheels to reliably work right without either loosening them too much or tightening them so much that she can’t pedal it. In that first moment, though, and for as long as it lasted, it was really great to see her get excited about doing something new, big kid shit, for the first time.

She was proud. I was proud of her. And then we went to a playground for a few hours. Pretty good day.

Tyler Tynes roasting me

Tyler did some incredible work this year — The Cam Chronicles is getting deserved praise as one of 2020′s best podcasts, and his reporting on the Movement for Black Lives was exemplary. It’s hard to top this, though:

You know what the messed up part is? I was excited to tell him what I was doing, just because I knew the reaction would be so violent. Like a body rejecting a transplant. So lucky to have such a dear, dear friend.

PUP

I’m late on everything, so I didn’t start listening to PUP until the spring of 2019, but I haven’t really stopped since. This year has been too sedentary too often; this band is too kinetic to allow me to stay there.

“Bloody Mary Kate and Ashley Kate” is never more than about 20 minutes away from returning to the front of my mind. I would fucking love for it to be safe enough to watch these guys live at some point, and I am absolutely going to take Steve up on his offer.

Someone sending me a shirt based on a joke I tweeted

First:

Then:

Then:

I’m not sure you should be rewarding my behavior, SnoCoPrintShop, but I appreciate it all the same.

Which reminds me:

Family dinner/family movie night

My wife works in Manhattan and commutes back on the train, and we've tried to prioritize getting the girls to bed early since they were little, so that doesn’t leave much of a window between when she gets home and they go in the tub for us all to connect; before everything shut down, we almost never really ate together. We’re still not great about it, but for a while now we’ve carved out Saturday as family dinner night, where we sit down to eat and talk about our “up” from the day — something that happened that made us feel good or happy, or something we’re looking forward to. (We used to talk about our “down,” too, but that kind of seemed like overkill. Why try to focus on more bad shit right now, you know?)

Then we settle in for a movie, with who gets to pick rotating each week. It’s mostly been Pixar, which has been great but also has its drawbacks; after she caught me crying during one of them (maybe the Bing-Bong scene in Inside Out? or Miguel singing to Grandma Coco?), Siobhan straight up told me, “You need to get yourself together, man.” We just watched My Neighbor Totoro, too, which they loved, so we’re probably going to try some more Miyazaki soon. It’s a really simple thing, but it’s one we rarely made time for before, and it’s been really nice to manufacture something positive that we can share and look forward to together.

Sometimes looking like a shiftless drifter

No shade to anyone who felt strongly about getting a lineup or whatever, but I haven’t really felt like going to the barbershop was worth the risk, and I continue to refuse to believe that my wife can actually pull off the fade she’s long wanted to give me. (It is also possible that she just means she’s intending to run my fade, and that I will before long wind up cold-cocked and slumped by my bride of nine years.) So I’ve just kind of been growing out my hair like it was when I was single, and sometimes been letting my beard get kind of out of control too, and, well, I sort of like looking a little bit like a Wildling, it turns out.

I have since trimmed things up a little. It didn’t go over well with my youngest. Oh, well. I’ll try to do better next time.

My wife and daughter singing the Pixies

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We don’t know all the words to too many lullabies, so we sing the ones we do know the words to. This will probably come back to bite us in the years ahead. For now, though: Pretty good.

Doughboys’ Tournament of Chompions: Munch Madness: Mac Attack

I can’t believe how invested I became in Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell’s quest to determine the best menu item at McDonald’s in a 64-seed tournament that spawned hours and hours of delightfully funny audio featuring all-time home-run guests like Jon Gabrus and Nicole Byer, who gleefully feed into the often warm, sometimes antagonistic, always entertaining chemistry between the two hosts. I have also never found myself wanting to go to McDonald’s more in my entire life. I have hit the drive-thru a couple of times since, and the boys are right: The McDonald’s fountain Coke does just hit different.

Sound Only

I’ve lost track of whether or not a 38-year-old is considered a millennial, but I’m quite confident that I’m not exactly plugged into “the millennial lifestyle” as my teammates Justin Charity and Micah Peters discuss it on their podcast, which relaunched this summer. Doesn’t matter, though, because I love hearing Charity and Micah talk to each other even if I don’t know what they’re talking about.

Their conversation about Dave Chappelle was great. After listening to their Travis Scott episode, I felt like I kind of understood who he is and why he occupies the space he does in pop culture now. I had no idea how they were going to get me to give a shit about set photos from The Batman, but this they not only got me there, but wended their way toward blaming 50 Cent for needing to know who Groot is to have a conversation on the internet, which is something for which Abraham Lincoln did not die. The show is good, it's getting better, it’s fun to hear them talk their shit, and Charity’s regular bellowing of “I, TOO, AM AMERICA” has made me smile for four straight months. 

Siobhan’s letters and notes

She’s in first grade now, and she’s taken to communicating her feelings through the written word. A lot.

I won’t pretend that I loved all of these in the moment. I can only get so upset, though, when she’s already writing with such a clear voice. (And trying to use proper punctuation. (And drawing little cartoons to drive the point home.)

Palm Springs

I’m having a hard time remembering too many specifics about it right now, which probably means it’d be a good thing to rewatch over the holidays. But, as I’m sure many people noted many months before we got around to watching it, a comedy about living the same day over and over again, and about trying to figure out how to make your life mean something when everything seems meaningless, scratched a pretty particular, and particularly important, itch this year. It could’ve been twice as long, and I would’ve eaten up every second of Andy Samberg and Cristin Miloti together.

I’m pretty sure I cried, although this year, that doesn’t necessarily mean much.  Also, put Conner O’Malley in more things.

Joining our union’s bargaining committee

I won’t say too much about this, but I will say that becoming an active participant in the process of a labor union negotiating its first contract with management has been an extremely educational experience. It’s pushed me to have conversations, sometimes difficult ones, about our priorities as a staff and a company. It's helped me get closer with the other past and present members of the BC, and has led me to start developing relationships with members of our staff that I otherwise might not have had much of an opportunity to get to know.

The organizing work takes time, effort, and energy, but trying to do what I can to help take better care of my colleagues has been well worth all of that. Here’s hoping that in 2021 we can reach a deal that helps make our workplace even better, stronger, and more equitable for all of us.

Publishing a story about Stevie Nicks’ Fajita Roundup

I swear this is true: After I accepted my offer to work at The Ringer, but before I started, I told a friend that one thing I was excited about was that you had the chance to work on offbeat stuff here, in both the “kind of weird” and “not about the NBA” senses. That, I thought, might maybe open the door to me getting to write a story about a Saturday Night Live sketch I saw when I was a teenager about Stevie Nicks from Fleetwod Mac running a cheap Tex-Mex restaurant in Sedona, Arizona — a sketch that I wasn’t sure anyone else remembered, but that was stuck in my head forever.

That story ran on May 26.

A lot of people seemed to like it.

Accomplishing this goal was, as dumb as this might sound, a highlight of my year, and, honestly, a highlight of my career. I’d like to do some more stuff like this next year, time permitting; we’ll see. Whether or not I do, I got to do this. I’ll always have that.

[fratboyvivimatthews]

hot chocolate - jack hughes

summary: when brady comes to visit his favorite hockey family, he learns that his honorary little brother is having some girl trouble.

warnings: swearing, who knows what else 

word count: [3,088] 

a/n: to the anon who sent this blurb, i love you, and hope you like it:)

“So what’s it been like without me here to keep you all in line?” Brady asked with a cocky smirk. Your eyes rolled at the boy you’d known since he played with Quinn. “Hey none of that Y/n, you know you missed me. Nobody can pick on you if I’m not here.” You shook your head before glancing around the basement looking at all three Hughes brothers. 

“You act like world stops because you leave Brady,” Quinn teased nudging his friends shoulder. “But don’t worry, I pick on Y/n/n enough for the both of us. Seeing as Jack and Luke refuse to.” This caused both of their cheeks to flush red, and to rub your neck not knowing what to say.

Clearing your throat you stood up from your seat next to Jack smiled down at him, “I’m gonna go grab more hot chocolate do you want any?”

Jack’s mouth opened but he was beat to it by Luke, “I would love some thanks.” Quinn and Brady joined in saying they needed more but you ignore them, eyes focused on Jack’s blue ones.

“I would love some, thanks Y/n,” Jack smiled before handing you his cup. Licking your thumb you watched as he knitted his eyebrows together as you wiped away the dried up hot chocolate on the corner of his mouth. He smiled wider before his eyes dropped, so they weren’t meeting yours as his cheeks became a darker red color.

Brady faked a cough cause you to whip around and glare at him. “What about the rest of us who wanted more hot chocolate?” He asked eyebrows raised as he looked past you to a blushing Jack.

Your shoulders shrugged as you started to the stairs. “Get it yourselves, I asked Jack not you idiots. You have legs, use them Tkachuk,” you sassed before disappearing up the stairs. Leaving the four boys in the basement by themselves.

“Luke go check to see if Y/n is really upstairs,” Quinn said already on the same page as Brady, causing Jack’s eyes to go wide. The youngest Hughes brother sighed before standing up and racing up the stairs, only to come racing back down nodding his head.

Brady smirked before moving to the edge of his seat. “So are you and Y/n finally dating J? Or what as that all about?” He asked already knowing the answer, but he had to ask to make sure he had his attention. Jack’s mouth went dry as he tried to think of what to say, but nothing came to mind as leaned further back into the couch.

All he wanted was to be swallowed whole by it so he could save himself from the embarrassment that was about to happen. “No they aren’t,” Luke spoke making sure to smile over at his older brother, “he’s too chicken to ask her out.”

“I am not!” Jack cried leaning forward glaring over at his younger brother, “It’s just I-I don’t wanna mess things up, that’s all.”

Quinn scoffed before looking over to Brady who was shaking his head in disbelief. “You wouldn’t mess anything up J, so that’s a bunch of bullshit,” he stated looking back at him with a straight face, “She obviously likes you Jack.”

Brady and Luke nodded quick to agree with Quinn. “You’re telling me, that you, Jack Hughes are having trouble locking Y/n L/n, your best friend since forever down? Now I just don’t believe it, not when she’s clearly just as into you as you are her.”

“Well believe it,” Jack mumbled glancing down to his phone praying that you didn’t walk back downstairs and hear what they were saying. The last thing he wanted was for you to find out he was basically head over heels in love with you, and ruin everything. “And she’s definitely not into me, trust me I know.”  

All three of them started laughing expect for Jack who sat there unsure of what to do. “I’ve been trying to convince him that there’s no way a girl would do his homework for him if she didn’t at least want to hook-up,” Quinn informed causing the burning sensation to begin on Jack’s cheeks again. “And don’t try to pull it off as, ‘she’s my best friend’, because everyone knows she’s whipped for you.”

Jack’s head dropped back on to the couch trying to get rid of this conversation. “He does anything for her too,” Luke added causing Brady to raise a brow, looking for confirmation from Quinn.

“Oh god yeah,” he breathed grinning like the Grinch. “He’s so whipped it’s honestly disgusting. Y/n/n could tell him to stop breathing and he would. If she asks for anything, before any of us can say we got it, Jack’s sprinting out of the room to do it for her.” Brady let out a laugh never having heard this about Jack before.

“What about the time he went over to her house in the middle of the night?” Luke asked ratting Jack out to Quinn and Brady. That was something no one was supposed to know about.

All of their heads turned to focus back on the brown haired hockey player who was pulling on his curls. “You snuck out?” Quinn quizzed, surprised the golden boy of the family would do something like that.

“Oh please do tell the story,” Brady egged him on wanting to know every last detail of what happened. Jack shook his head trying to drop the story, because if it wasn’t obvious before that he was in love with you, it was now. “Oh come on J, you never snuck out for your other girlfriends - and Y/n/n isn’t even your girlfriend. So spill or we’ll be here all night.”

Jack frowned before finally giving into to the peer pressure the three were providing. “I dunno, Y/n/n just called me in the middle of the night after she woke up from a nightmare, so I went over there to make sure she was okay, that’s all,” he muttered before standing up from his seat. “I’m gonna go check on her, do you guys want more hot chocolate?” He then asked trying to get out of this conversation.

The three shared a look before all nodding, “Yeah but this isn’t over Jack. It’s far from over.” His blue eyes rolled before he collected all of their cups and walked up the stairs to find you. Only when he walked into the kitchen where you were supposed to be he found it empty. Confused he peered around the wall to look into the living room, and found you sitting on the couch with two cups of hot chocolate in your hands.

Jack’s smile worked its way back on to his face as he watched you throw your head back and laugh at something his dad had said, and the way you smiled. God he felt his heart squeeze, and he realized that his brothers and Brady were right - he was whipped for you. So sighing he walked back into the kitchen quickly making the drinks before heading back downstairs.

Everyone was in their same spots as they waited for Jack to get back. “So to get back on track,” Brady started, “Y/n called you in the middle of the night, after having a nightmare, and you still think that she doesn’t like you? Jack she called you, that has to mean something. She doesn’t talk to just anybody after she has one.”

“Yeah, I know. That doesn’t mean she’s in love with me like I am her,” he huffed, it slipping out faster than he could comprehend what he had just said. Quinn, Brady, and Luke all wore the same stupid knowing smile making Jack hide his face in his hands. “Oh fuck.”

Brady and Quinn were quick to high-five, getting what they had wanted from the middle child. “Jack you’re about to be picked first overall in the next draft, your an attractive little shit and you know it, and based on your last two girlfriends there’s no way you don’t have game,” Brady then said making Jack glare over at him. “But you still haven’t managed to lock down the only girl that should’ve ever been on your radar?”

Jack let out an angry breath, not enjoying the fact that he had just been called out. “Yeah I know okay? But I’m scared, and I, god I’m pathetic,” he laughed dropping down into his seat. “I can’t even get the nerves to ask out my best friend who I’m in love with.” Quinn and Luke shared sad smiles, while Brady grinned, his plan worked. Now all that was left was for Jack to go admit this all to you. “Why can’t I tell Y/n?” He then asked, voice desperate.

“Maybe because you’ve never felt like this before?” Luke asked not completely understanding what his brother was saying. “Like you obviously didn’t feel like this about Abby,” he added trying his hardest be be helpful.

“Little man’s gotta point J,” Quinn added with a shrug of his shoulders. "This whole time you should’ve been looking at Y/n/n, but what if you weren’t because you were scared of how you felt? Scared to admit you’re in love with your best friend.” Jack sighed everything hitting him at once, how was he supposed to admit it to you, if he just admitted it to himself?

“How am I supposed to tell her that? What if you guys are wrong, and she doesn’t feel the same? How can you be so sure, I don’t think I could handle the idea of not having Y/n in my life, and if telling her fucks it all up? I couldn’t live with with myself,” Jack gushed letting out the breath he didn’t know he was holding in.

Brady laughed causing everyone to turn and face him, thinking he had gone crazy for laughing after Jack had just poured his heart out. “What if we’re right Jack? You’re supposed to tell her just like that. It’s Christmas, miracles happen right?”

After seeing the hurt look that crossed his younger brothers face Quinn smacked Brady upside the head causing him to yelp. “You dumbass, now he’s not going to tell her. Miracles happen? Brady you’re so dumb sometimes.” His eyes rolled before Quinn turned his attention back to Jack. “Listen J, all you have to do is be honest with her. It’s just you and Y/n, nothing could ever come between that.”

Jack’s head nodded as he slowly processed what his brother had just said. Even when he had a girlfriend they could never come between you guys, nobody could. “It’s true Jack, remember when you and Abby were dating? You’d literally go run to Y/n anytime something was wrong,” Luke pointed out, “and even with Chelsea. It’s clearly always been Y/n.”

He ran his hands through his hair already knowing that both relationships ended because of him, but he just realized that it was because he was in love with you while he was in both of them. “I’m gonna tell her,” he announced standing from his spot on the couch again. “I have to tell her.”

The other three jumped up from their seats cheering. “It’s about damn time Jackie, I’ve only been waiting for my two favorite seventeen year olds to get together since two years ago,” Brady teased before pushing him towards the stars, “Now go get your girl.”

Taking a deep breath Jack hurried up the stairs, all of the boys following him. The sound of their feet hitting against the stairs caused you to turn away from the conversation you were having with Jim to look at the two cups in your hand. Your eyes went wide realizing you were supposed to going back downstairs, but had gotten pulled into the living room before you escape back to the boys.

“So this is where you ran off to,” Brady quipped a smirk growing on his face, “couldn’t handle me picking on you anymore?” Ellen rushed to your defense taking all the blame while Jack slyly made his way over to you.

While everyone was focused on Brady and Ellen you turned to smile up at the boy. “Here’s your hot chocolate, expect it might be cold now, sorry about that Jackie.”

He couldn’t help but smile down at you, taking the now cold cup from your hand. “It’s okay Y/n/n, it’s mom’s fault really she always steals you away from me,” Jack explained making you laugh at him. “But um - could we talk?” He then asked eyes looking down at his cup, and away from you e/c ones.

“Aren’t we right now J?” You asked with a teasing smile, and as soon as he opened his mouth to speak you cut him off, “I’m kidding, of course we can.” You stood up and walked towards the sliding glass door to step outside.

Jack stood by the door as you stepped out into the cold Michigan winter, “Y/n/n it’s freezing, and it’s snowing, why don’t we just talk in my room?”

“Jack Hughes are you telling me you’re scared to get a little cold?” You teased grabbing his hand and pulling him closer to you, when he didn’t answer you, you smiled even more, “If you get cold I’ll sleep with you in your bed tonight and we can cuddle.”

A cheeky smile worked its way onto his face as he allowed you to pulled him out onto the deck. “Y/n, I’m cold,” he whined a mischievous light in his eyes. Rolling your own you handed him the warm cup of hot chocolate Ellen had given you after you finished the one were supposed to bring back into the basement. “I thought if I got cold I got cuddles, this isn’t cuddles Y/n/n,” he pouted before taking a sip of the drink.

“And you will, but we still have to talk remember? But we got make it quick or else Santa won’t come and bring us presents,” you jibbed with a cheeky smile of your own.

“Haha very funny Y/n,” he stated making you smile even more, “but why would he need to bring me a present when it’s you?” Your mouth went dry, and your cheeks flushed red. Quicky you looked to the ground unable to hold his gaze anymore. “Hey why are you looking at the ground, when I’m right here silly?” He gently grabbed your chin making you look up back up at him so you could see the love that filled his eyes, something you’d noticed a long time ago, but now it felt different.

“W-what do you mean I’m the present Jack? Do you - do you like me?” You stuttered not sure if you completely understood what was happening. You looked to his lips watching as his tongue darted out to wet them. “B-because I-”

“I love you actually,” he replied coolly, and for a split second his eyes dipped to your lips. “I’ve been in love with you for awhile Y/n/n, but I was scared to admit it, and now all I can think about is how good your lips would feel against mine. How bad I wanna kiss you, how bad I needa kiss you,” he whispered out leaning in closer to you.

You were so caught up in the moment, in what Jack was saying, you didn’t even realize you hadn’t said it back to him, but it didn’t stop you from going to extra couple of centimeters to place your lips onto his. Your hands dropped onto his chest and you lightly gripped on to his ugly sweater. When you pulled away your eyes were still closed until he spoke.

“Wow,” he breathed with a lopsided smile, “that’s better than I could ever have imagined.”

Your head nodded. “Yeah, I uh, never thought it would be like that,” you confessed cheeks heating up as his blue eyes kept looking from your lips to your eyes again. Then you took a breath and smiled wider, “Oh, I love you too by the way.”

The smile that broke out on his face was contagious, and you could feel your heart swooning. Jack’s arms wrapped around your waist as he pulled you up off the ground and spun you around. “Jack!” You squealed burying your head into the crook of his neck, “Put me down!”

His laugh caused your heart to flutter, as you held onto him tighter than before. Once he set you down his hands rested on your cheeks and you could feel just how cold he was, “So Y/n L/n, does this mean you’ll be the best Christmas Eve present I’ve ever got, and be my girlfriend?”

You nodded your head, smiling so wide that your cheeks started to hurt. “Yes Jack Hughes, I’ll be your girlfriend.” And before either of you could say anything else everyone was piling out into the winter air, lead by Brady.

“And to think, none of this would’ve happened without me giving you the push Jackie,” he teased pulling your now boyfriend from your arms so he could give him a hug. “I’m proud of you, both of you actually. You’re all grown up.”

Jack looked over at you before he shrugged his shoulders his smile never leaving his face, even if Brady got to say he was the reason Jack finally admitted everything to you. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m freezing, and was promised cuddles if I got cold. So if you’d excuse us, I’m owed some much needed cuddles.”

Before you could protest Jack was dragging you away for cuddles with that same lopsided smile on his face. Shutting the door to his room he turned around to face you, “I love you Y/n/n.”

You hummed before laying back on the bed, “Say it again Jack.”

He chuckled before laying down next to you, “I love you Y/n, and I - god I can’t believe i actually get to call you mine now.” The both of you just stared at each other with large grins.

“Well it took you long enough,” you giggled pushing a curl off of his face, “but I love you too J. Even if I have to thank Brady for us getting together.”

[gamerwoo]

Baekhyun: Persona (part 19: somebody knows i’m ar3um)

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Summary: Rising Twitch streamer, Baekhyun has a massive crush on a popular Twitch streamer who goes by the name “ar3um”. You never knew Baekhyun even existed until a few odd turn of events that led you to get closer with him until you can’t help but fall for his own charm. There are only two problems: Baekhyun has his heart set on someone else, and he doesn’t know that you, his friend’s reclusive roommate, is actually the faceless girl he’s falling for.

a/n: so I took a break for a week because despite updating everyday, people were still nagging me for updates. so basically don’t ask me for updates because I’m doing things as fast as I can (and it literally says in my faq to not ask for updates). that being said, I hurt my back and honestly just sitting hurts, so I can’t write more updates and there’s only one update left that I’ve already written and saved to my drafts, so I can’t promise daily updates nor can I give a solid update schedule (and I’m leaving for New York on Friday and won’t be back until Monday). so I’m just going to be updating whenever I can until I’m feeling better. and no, that doesn’t mean you can ask me about when the next update will be

Tags: @baek-byunies @thalasoophilia @byunfirstlady @yangkeosang @littleflowercrown13 @khelmatic @mingiholic @huexauzzy @kittysbtscorner @diamondsvts @ihtscuddlesbeeetchx3 @sxojihye @ravyeolii​ @vampybaek​ @ximaginx  @cosmicralway​ @luv1ee​ @uwuteamleader @rosyyeols @cbxtual @purplelady85

Unable to tag: @seventeen-atiny-army

-

Before Chanyeol had so rudely barged into not only your apartment, but your room, you were streaming as normal. Junmyeon had said he was leaving for a late class, and you said “see you later, Junmyeon,” before he left. That was what tipped off Chanyeol to your secret. You thought he was too busy with his friends to even listen to your stream, but he was on his way home when he heard it.

“Gotcha!” he shouted with a smirk on his face, seeing your surprised expression.

He knew he was the first to figure it out. He was considered the dumb one in his friend group, and he was proud to have been the first to figure out the mystery of who ar3um was. He felt like a genius.

“What’re you doing here?”

The familiar voice made him jump instead, spinning around to see who it was. He assumed you had been home alone since he didn’t see Junmyeon anywhere -- then again, he could’ve been in his room and Chanyeol’s outburst would definitely catch his attention.

Sehun was walking out of the bathroom, giving Chanyeol a quizzical look.

“Sehun?” Chanyeol asked, looking completely confused. “What are you doing here?”

He just shrugged, “Hanging out.”

“With _____? Why--? Wait, hanging out?” Chanyeol’s mind was going a million miles a minute as he tried to make sense of everything going on. “Wait, so... You knew?”

Sehun nodded casually, hands in the pockets of his joggers as he slipped passed the older boy to sit down on your bed like you’d been friends for years. You were still in your gaming chair in front of your setup, watching the interaction silently.

Chanyeol watched him, his eyes narrowed before they widened again, “Oh my god, are you actually dating?!”

“No,” you mumbled with a disgusted look on your face at the same time Sehun burst out in laughter and said, “Fuck no!”

“Wait, so then...what happened?”

Before Chanyeol had burst in, Sehun was talking to you on Discord.

oohsehun: I’m awake if you’re still streaming

ar3um: yeah, I am

ar3um: when’s baek get home?

oohsehun: Why do you always wanna play with him?

ar3um: no reason, just think the three of you are fun to play with

oohsehun: He tells us when you talk to him yknow

oohsehun: You talk to him a lot more than you talk to us

oohsehun: Not that I’m mad about it. I don’t actually want to date you, I just do that shit to tease Baek

ar3um: whats your point?

oohsehun: You like hyung, don’t you?

ar3um: okay lets say i did like him

ar3um: so what?

oohsehun: Wouldn’t you tell him who you really are then? Nobody knows, and if you wanted to date him, he’d kinda have to know

ar3um: i know that

ar3um: but i don’t wanna tell him yet

ar3um: so please don’t bring it up around him or anything, okay? i’ll tell him when i’m ready

oohsehun: Don’t worry, I won’t

oohsehun: Besides, he’s pretty clueless despite him being book smart. He literally has no idea you’re _____

Your heart stopped, your body froze, and you couldn’t stop reading it over and over again. Sehun knew? How did he know? When did he find out? Why didn’t he say anything? You were panicking so badly that you just ended the stream completely. Your hands were shaking so badly, you knew you wouldn’t be able to play anything.

oohsehun: I didn’t mean to freak you out

oohsehun: I’ll come over

You had let him into the apartment, and then into your room since he’d already called you out. He sat on your bed while you sat at your PC and listened to him explain how he figured it out.

“I follow both your twitter and ar3um’s, and you tweeted something pretty similar. I knew it wasn’t much to go off of, but I was watching you play at the gaming cafe, too. I’ve watched your streams only a handful of times, but I’ve seen you clutch plays like that before. I wasn’t positive, but I kind of had a suspicion. That was only furthered when ar3um tweeted she had homework to do and couldn’t stream that one time, and then I just happened to have had to stop by here to get my headset back from Junmyeon. You were in the living room doing homework that night.

“Typically, I wouldn’t have cared enough to look into it. Honestly, I didn’t really give a shit who ar3um was, but then I went with Yixing to check on you. You two went to the kitchen and I had to use the bathroom, and Yixing told me not to go snooping. Well, I didn’t care enough to listen, so while you and hyung were making boring small-talk in the kitchen, I was looking around the apartment out of boredom. I didn’t go into your room because I’m not a creep, but I went into Junmyeon’s and saw the Twitch sweatshirt with ar3um’s name on it.”

So that’s where your sweatshirt went. Clearly, it was a mistake to get it baggy.

“It was pretty obvious after that, but then it just kept getting more and more obvious. I brought up the ‘you sound like ar3um’ thing to tease you and give you a hint that I knew, but you didn’t realize. You said on stream you met your ‘friend’ through a mutual friend -- you met Baekhyun through Junmyeon. Ar3um followed Baekhyun randomly. It was like, a couple weeks later out of literally nowhere. She hadn’t followed anybody else, so I knew it wasn’t just random chance. She didn’t follow him when he was mentioned during her stream, it was just out of nowhere.

“By this point, I obviously already knew it was you, so it made sense to pick me or Chanyeol for your contest over Baekhyun because picking Baekhyun would be too obvious. And I knew you did all of this because you had a crush on him. Any idiot could tell, but Baekhyun’s not just any idiot. You two spend all your time together, and from what Junmyeon says, you’re not one to spend your time with anybody outside your apartment. It was really easy to piece together, honestly -- especially in retrospect since we never really saw you around. I just didn’t bother saying anything because I don’t care and it’s not my business.”

After hearing his explanation, you realized you weren’t as sneaky as you thought you were. There were too many hints and clues. You just didn’t think Sehun would’ve known this entire time.

“If you didn’t care...why did you keep digging?” you wondered quietly, unable to look Sehun in the eye.

Through your peripherals, you saw him shrug, “There wasn’t much to dig for. Everything was right in front of our faces -- except the Twitch sweatshirt, but I could’ve figured it out even without that, and I only went snooping in hyung’s room because I was bored, not because I was looking for clues. But I was bored and keeping up with this gives me something to do. Kinda wanna see how long it takes for Baek to realize. I don’t think you know how amusing it is to see how fucking stupid he is.”

Sehun’s amused smirk made you feel slightly better about this, but you still felt anxiety coursing through your veins. You couldn’t believe you’d gotten caught. What were you supposed to do now? 

“You’re clearly still terrified,” he began as he stood, “so I’m gonna give you a minute while I use the bathroom.”

And that was when Chanyeol burst into your room.

Chanyeol’s eyes widened as he jaw dropped, dumbfounded that Sehun somehow figured it out. He kept saying it wasn’t you. Most importantly, he was supposed to be asleep!

“You were watching her stream?” Chanyeol questioned.

“No,” Sehun scoffed, “I’m just not a moron. I knew it the whole time.”

Chanyeol’s face fell, sputtering out beginnings to questions and sentences but not knowing which one to finish.

“I’m-- I didn’t figure it out first...?” he asked, his voice quiet and sad.

You and Sehun both shook his heads -- Sehun looked casual and almost uncaring while you looked upset that somebody else caught on.

“If it makes you feel any better, you figured it out before Baekhyun-hyung.”

“Speaking of which,” you finally spoke up, looking between the two boys, “you cannot tell him or any of your friends. Absolutely nobody can know.”

“I haven’t told anybody yet, have I?” Sehun pointed out.

Chanyeol just nodded, “Got it. ...Wait, what about Junmyeon?”

Sehun sighed, falling back on your bed, “Maybe Baekhyun still is smarter than you.”

[daturanerium]

i’m finally all caught up with @thepenumbrapodcast​ ‘s juno steel stories! here are my discordant thoughts on the story and the characters.

(i did this with the magnus archives season one, too! check it out here.)

SPOILERS FOR JUNO STEEL from s1e1 to s3ep2

general plot stuff:

this show. THIS SHOW. is written so well. the characterization is top-notch. the characters are fleshed out and interesting and engaging and they all grow and change and are affected by people and environments and time and events. they’re not static in the slightest.

i haven’t come across a story that deals with depression and suicidal idealization so well. i’m thoroughly impressed with how the writers both portrayed them and how well they have (so far) portrayed the healing process. wowowow.

THE LGBT REPRESENTATION IS OFF THE CHARTS. QUEERS LISTEN TO THIS SHOW. they have a nonbinary politician?? mlm romance and kiss in the first episode???? main character is nb with he/him pronouns??? SO MANY BADASS SAPPHIC SPY/MAFIA COUPLES.....IT TUGS AT MY HEART. the big strong guy is asexual??? i could go on for days but spoilers! just know that genuinely, you will not be disappointed.

this show has two main focuses/themes: trust and the future. it’s been so fantastic to see how juno and the other characters view both themes and how they changed themselves and/or others while encountering those themes in their everyday life.

ramses o’flaherty and the entire plotline that came with him was absolutely top-notch. it blew me away. ramses is a true complicated character, a grey area that makes you question everything you believe in. the storyline tackles politics, morals, and values while keeping it exciting and entertaining. it’s definitely one of my favorite storylines ever.

the writers are truly incredible. i’m really in awe. they inspire me!  i wish i had the energy right now to give them the praise essay that they deserve but i’m really tired and i want to get this posted. someday!

the worldbuilding is the perfect balance between two extremes that a lot of scifi authors really struggle with. juno explains how a (sort of) functioning mars city works in a way that feels natural and easy to understand, and the world he describes is both familiar and fascinating. although the environment is different, the audience is all too familiar with corruption and capitalism and classism. they keep the world relatable while giving it some really new and funky details (do i want a cat with six eyes and a stinger? of course! do i want to step outside for more than five hours and get radiation poisoning? that’s up for interpretation). they also chose a great route in making this story take place in the aftermath of (what seems to be) a galactic war instead of taking the traditional Save The World, End The War scifi route. it’s refreshing, and again, relatable (especially to me: i was born after 9/11 and have lived through the entirety of the war in afghanistan so the underlining feeling that hyperion city has that Something is Going To Go Wrong....i feel that).

there is so much more i want to say but this has been sitting in my drafts for weeks and i want to get it posted!

tl;dr: juno steel is really a fantastic work of art. it’s engaging and relatable and teaches valuable lessons about healing, trusting, and moving on in ways i have never seen another piece of media do so successfully. please give it a listen if you have a chance!

some character/character arc thoughts under the cut :)

juno:

god so dumb. just so fucking stupid. i love him.

i’m going to be honest. s1 and the beginning of s2 Juno was really hard for me to listen to. the way he treated others obviously was, to put it lightly, not the best (the monitor incident with rita comes to mind; i really hated that). it almost got repetitive, and since i’m already not a big fan of the depressed-asshole trope i was kind of hanging by a thread by the time ramses came around.

god am i glad i stuck around. his character growth and maturity within the second half of season two and the beginning of season three has been so satisfying! it hasn’t been perfect, but that’s part of the reason why it’s so good--it’s realistic and believable. he’s realized where his faults lie and is making a physical and mental effort to better himself. he’s even doing it verbally, explaining to people he trusts (rita) that he’s trying to be better and then actually acting on it. too often we see the depressed-asshole say the “i’m trying to be better!” line but don’t see any actions following it that signify that effort--that was my fear going into this. but that’s really, truly not the case here, and it’s such a breath of fresh air. plus, in-canon-wise, i’m so happy for juno he’s come so far!

okay nonbinary king i see you

GET THIS LADY A CAT PLEASE.

that moment during the end of s2 when he found that baby rabbit in the sewers.....god.

juno appreciate rita challenge (accepted!)

his voice......is so soothing. except when he yells but he’s better now we’ve established that

i LOVE how as soon as he figures out that he likes you he sticks to you like glue. that’s super funny and cute and also fits him perfectly

miss dahlia rose if you’re out there.....

his complicated relationship with ramses was so fascinating and important. i loved listening to that storyline.

juno: “there’s no way in hell i’m doing this, fuck off” juno, five minutes later: [is doing it]

that’s pretty much the beginning plot of every episode lol ur so valid juno we love u

he’s ability to make the dumbest decisions continues to astound me. he likes to talk about how mick is always getting himself in trouble but god juno you’re really not one to talk

the fact that, in a world that literally runs on tech, he has no idea how a coms works. that’s so fucking funny. if you ignore the backstory that comes behind it.

did juno ever tell alessandra that he made it out of the desert alive or is she just out there in hyperion city somewhere mourning him with her wife?

i already sort of wrote on juno’s backstory but it’s so good. so good.

he’s so fucking soft. he loves so much!!!! and that scares him!!!! but he’s working on it!!!!!

rita:

is she the love of my life or do i just relate heavily to her? who knows

actually no we’re gonna talk about this

rita penumbrapodcast, queen of adhd. queen of oversharing. queen of tangents. queen of love. queen of excitement. queen of caring for her friends more than herself. queen of incredible intelligence shown in an unconventional way. queen of being underappreciated.

s1 and the beginning of s2 really stung me because i’ve been in rita’s positon--used as a punching bag by someone i care deeply about because it’s better me than someone else, because i’m willing to sacrifice my own health and safety for the sake of giving them an outlet. we put it under the guise of “helping”, but we don’t realize until later that it’s really not; we’re just letting them get away with hurting themselves and hurting us. the monitor incident comes to mind again. i actually had to pause and take a step away after hearing juno yell and the glass break--although my abusive friendships thankfully never got violent, that kind of unbridled anger was all too familiar and i was begging out loud for her to leave. she handles it like a champ, and i honestly can’t say whether or not that’s a good or bad thing: good because she knows he doesn’t mean it or bad because she’s used to it? because it’s later revealed that juno’s treated her poorly from the first day they met. i was really worried that their relationship was going to end up being static, “depressed-asshole bullies quirky female sidekick and she never fights back because she loves him” trope. but, thankfully, they’re not!

towards the end of s2 and the beginning of s3 we didn’t just see growth in juno, we saw growth in rita. she confronts juno through a thetabot down in the sewers, calling him out on his self-destructive tendencies and his habit of doing important things without anyone else’s help (in this case, disappearing for weeks without telling her where he was). she points out that maybe the only way for him to appreciate her is for her to do the same thing--disappear for weeks, forcing him to realize just how much he needs her. thankfully, this is after juno’s Big Realization, and he sincerely apologizes for his treatment of her and assures her that he’s trying to be better. (and, side note, but that apology was a good one. a really good one. he verbally acknowledges his many mistakes, including the one rita specifically mentioned, acknowledges that he does not deserve her forgiveness, tells her what he’s trying to do to be better, and then apologizes and asks for her help. that’s good. take notes, people.) later that season, she takes initiative for what seems to be the first time, coming up with a solid, well-thought-out plan, enacting it on her own, and saving both an entire city and her boss. you could probably hear my cheers from wherever you are on earth, because they were there and they were loud! rita saving the day mixed with juno breaking through the mind control with his overwhelming love and appreciation for her.....god. good stuff.

rita buying juno’s office as a surprise for him.......i Will cry

literally she’s just so wonderful i love her so much

every time she talks i’m like [one billion heart emojis mixed with like forty crying emojis]

RITA SPINOFF WHEN. i come from the critical role community so yall know for a fact i’ll back it on kickstarter

once her and juno’s relationship reaches a healthy balance (and they’re already well on their way which i’m so happy about!) they’re going to be so good together. so powerful. the Ultimate cheery vs broody relationship (although juno is less broody at this point and more....gentle asshole. we love growth). they were unstoppable before, but now? god help the galaxy lol

the fact that rita can just casually hack into literally any system in the galaxy is so.......impressive? hot? yeah.

please get this woman a girlfriend and a cat

rita x franny xoxo

RITA BACKSTORY WHEN. PLEASE KEVIN AND SOPHIE PLEASE AS A RITA STAN I AM POLITELY BEGGING YOU.

rita is now in space, which is an interesting development. i just.....”rita in space” is not something i would have ever guessed at a week ago

wait oh my god.

i was sitting here thinking rita has some sort of trust fund/is secretly rich and that’s how she bought juno’s office and kept it afloat, but with the most recent episode’s developments it’s probably equally if not more likely that she either hacked into the nearest bank to give herself the creds needed or hacked the person she was buying it from to make it seem like she had made the payments. i literally adore her whoops

the little rita episodes make me so happy and i hope we get more of them!

tldr: i love her and she deserves the world and more, i’m glad her relationship with juno has changed into something a lot healthier with juno’s Realization mid-season-two, i hope she realizes the hero she already is in season three

peter:

.........oh how the turntables.

peter, season one: juno come with me so we can be together forever and travel the galaxy! i think i love you! juno: aw babe i wish i could but i’m sad and the city needs me :( peter, season three, when handed the opportunity to travel with a healing juno through the galaxy on a silver platter: actually fuck this lol i have One Job and it is to Only Think About My Current Assignment. this is smart and healthy.

this man.....this man right here officer. stole my fucking heart.

i don’t really have an essay for him because we haven’t seen enough of him to really gauge his character development beyond an obsession with debts and his aging. i’m guessing that will change this season though

the debts....what are they

can rita hack in and pay them off

god wouldn’t that be so funny. he spends his entire life trying to pay off these impossible debts and it’s stressing him out to the point where he feels he can’t focus on anything else. and one day he comes to the fam and explains everything and rita’s like “oh shit that’s easy i’ll take care of that right now!!! why didn’t you say something sooner” and hes like “what” and she’s like “yeah!” and he’s like “holy shit” and then he gets married to juno and they live happily ever after the end.

no but real talk

these debts. there’s a lot about them and the way he talks about them that really worries me. i feel like having them be simple money debt would be too easy, so maybe it’s something medical? that would explain both his obsession with his aging and his uncharacteristically excited reaction to the healing mother prime (i think that’s what it was whoops).

he also mentioned someone else before juno, someone that had some pretty strong romantic undertones. maybe they’re sick? but peter doesn’t seem like the type to throw away a relationship like that so quickly, so it doesn’t really match up that he would have someone sick and waiting for him but he’d still go after juno in season one. hmmm.

this one’s a real mystery lads. you think you have something figured out about peter nureyev but it just gives you more questions.

peter is the one mystery juno can’t solve. god, that’s good.

his voice is so good. i don’t remember who his voice actor is but they’re doing a fantastic job thank you!!!!

i actually don’t picture peter like how he’s portrayed in the official art and fanart? i wish i was an artist so i could draw him the way i see him but alas. (i still really like his official design tho!)

listen. you give me a mysterious thief that doesn’t exist and i am Forced to love him. i have a type.

thankfully peter seemed to come around during the most recent episode (s3e2 the man in glass) so i don’t think we’re going to get a repeat of season one. these debts, whatever they are, are definitely going to cause problems. i can’t wait to see what the writers do with this.

(my only fear is that it will end up fitting the “gay character has a sickness parallel to aids and it is incurable” trope. although the writers have so far done a fantastic job of writing queer characters and worlds as well as turning tropes on their heads, so even if it may seem like that’s the case in the beginning, i’ll most likely stick through it to see where they take it. i trust them).

peter i know you’ve never had a family in your life but. im gonna tell you a secret here. found family is cool and good and you’ll like it if you give it a chance.

i love him and as soon as i cut my hair short i’m gonna cosplay him. fashion king

peter nureyev makes me want to fall in love

watching (listening) to juno grow and mature was already fantastic, but to see it through the eyes of someone who respects him, cares for him, and loves him deeply? good lord.

the way peter talks about juno.....yeah.

and peter as an individual....WOW. master thief, yes wow impressive! but his growth is already focusing so much on trust and it’s been written so well. i can’t wait to see how much he continues to grow and learn to trust this season!!!

i would love to see him continue to narrate s3. i think it’s a really strong change of pace and it also puts some extra emphasis on juno’s growth while focusing on peter’s motivations and inner thoughts. i’m genuinely fine either way tho!

tl;dr: i love u emo boy i love u i love u

[boogiewrites]

Reports & Repertoire 11

Characters: Eddie Brock x Venom x Candace Miller (OFC)

Word Count:  6000

Summary:   Candy’s ego leads her to make a bad decision. This leads Venom having to reveal himself to save her. How will she react to finding out her new romance has been a threesome she had no clue about?

Warnings/Tags: Language. Violence. Fighting. Venom being the best wingman ever. Venom saving the day. Candy coming to terms with Eddie being the weirdest groupon ever. Candy is the coolest and most reasonable cucumber.

Click on my icon then go to Mobile Masterlist in my bio for my other works and chapters. (Had to do this since Tumblr killed links, sorry.)

Candy and Eddie had fallen in a nice flow of come and go with each other. They had been right, being able to reach out and simply ask for the other was working well. He'd slept over at her place, she'd slept over at his, meeting up for meals and even a late night quickie in her office once was holding up pretty well for them so far. They were busy, but they were happy.

Venom kept nagging Eddie, threatening to show himself so he would tell her about him. Venom was growing very impatient and Eddie took to spending more time in public with Candy instead of nights in to avoid this happening as long as he could. He kept Venom fed in the meantime as best he could, and that was the most helpful thing he could've done for himself. This didn't stop the insults from coming though.

"Coward." Venom would whisper into his ear as he left Candy's place.

"Shut up." Eddie would groan.

"Chicken. Weakling. Pussy. Wimp. Baby." he'd nag.

"I get it you got a fuckin' thesaurus." Eddie sighs. He knew he was right but he was so happy, and Candy was happy and he didn't want to lose it. He didn't know if he could lose it again.  But as he does, Venom pushes him to be better. He wasn't just Eddie anymore, he was Venom and together they could be so much more than they had been apart. And that fear of being alone was useless now.

"If you'd told her before you got together this wouldn't be an issue. You're acting like a jerk again. A liar. A dumb ass. It wasn't a big secret and now it is something you are keeping from her. Now you are breaking her trust. And it will be all your fault if she leaves us. Again. You're doing this to yourself, Eddie. You cannot learn your lesson can you?" Venom hisses and judges.

"I'll tell her when it's a good time to tell her. She's in the middle of a big story right now, I don't wanna throw her off her game."

"You are a cur. You should not lie to her like this."

"Oh you've got the fancy words out now." he rolls his eyes.

"Distraction. Excuses." Venom spits out.

"Are you just jealous? You want to be able to be with her too? That it?"

"No. I'm disappointed in you." he rumbles out and he knows Eddie feels it within himself too. ------

Both Eddie and Steph both were loving Candy's new place. It was better than what either of them had. Eddie was paying off back logged bills still and Steph still at her same job weren't in a position to move up so soon. Candy was happy to share with both of them, they house sat when she wasn't there and helped keep her company in the quiet neighborhood when the other wasn't around. It had even worked out by accident that Eddie and Steph had been staying over at the same time on a few occasions, which no one seemed to mind as they soon found their missing of Candy and potential for eye-rolling level jokes were strongly shared between them.

Candace had been deep in an investigation for a fighting ring. WIth her new platform she was ready to get back to her first social injustice she focused on, the homeless, and give a platform for awareness to it. She had assisstants and PA's that helped her go to and from places, recording and scouting and general snooping of suspected areas of interest. It wasn't unusual for local gangs to run drugs through the homeless areas of the Mission, this had been going on for a long time. Street corners with members rubbing elbows with tech start ups on the same street made for an interesting mix. This apparently had led to another case of exploiting the homeless. With promises of money or drugs, they would be lured into old warehouses or abandoned lots, where members would watch them fight for whatever was up for grabs. It was a dangerous job, but the cops were only interested in drug money, they didn't care about the people. Candy did. She caught wind from one of her informants at the shelter about a meetup spot that had been used more than once. So she sees an opportunity. With the sun still up she figures it's safer. Armed with a phone set to send out 911 texts and call emergency services with the tap of a button and a gun she'd recently trained and licensed in a holster under her shirt, she felt ready to take on another big bad.

She didn't want to endanger any of her employees or coworkers, she would've felt entirely guilty and responsible, so she calls up Eddie to see if he's up for some good old fashion detective work.It's a Sunday and that usually meant a travel day, prep day or meeting a deadline for Eddie. She tells him she has a lead, that she doesn't want to wait for it to get cold and is gonna check it out and asks if he's interested. He doesn't think much of her vagueness, she usually was when it came to work since they dealt with sensitive information. So as he's trying to complete an article draft to send it before midnight, he grumbles and tells her he can't, that he needs to finish up but he'll call her later. Without being offended, Candy tells him she'll just text him after she's finished, that she'd be near his neck of the woods anyway. He agrees with a soft smile and a heavy sigh, wishing he could go out and get his hands dirty with her instead of being stuck inside working with an increasingly hungry symbiote.

So Candy makes the decision to go alone. She gives Steph all her information as to where she'd be going and she is not happy about it. She lectures her and tells her she's being reckless, that if one of her people tried to do this she'd give them hell. But she doesn't listen, Candy is tenacious and when she feels those she cares about are at stake, and her inflated ego from her recent successes, she leaves anyway.

She circles the old warehouse, surrounded by desolate and decaying buildings with for lease signs on them. Broken windows and overgrown parking lots, the only thing she sees besides her were stray dogs and birds, she walks confidently, hand on her phone in her pocket and starts to close in on the specific building. She finds an old busted service door, a large piece of plywood over it that had recently been moved, the dust and debris around it was ddisturbed and the door behind it was ajar. She moves it just enough to get through. The metal door is heavy and scrapes the ground, uneven on its warped hinges as she makes her way into the tall, hollow beige painted brick building. Windows with lots of tiny panes, many broken with no particular rhyme or reason let in more light into the space. She sees rooms that used to be offices, for she's guessing was a factory of some sort. Over turned filing cabinets and paper garbage line the cement block walls with their single, wide windows to see through. The wire lined glass made it hold together for the most part, but it'd been smashed many times over. She guessed by the metal trashcan that lay on its side a few feet away. The usual graffiti, some gang-related, some teens drawing dicks and writing 'hail satin' unironically cover the inside walls. The ground is damp in spots, leaves, and puddles, papers, condoms and drug paraphernalia are littered about. She watches for syringes and plastic baggies, stips of rubber and spoons, remnants of busted glass pipes crunch under her feet. She moves to the center of the room, a large circle spray painted very roughly lays in the middle. She walks it, taking pictures with her phone, noting the blood splatters within it, the abandoned bloodied clothes and the signs of struggle among the lines of upright and strewn crates and boxes that surround the circle. There was definitely something going on here. But she didn't have enough evidence to really do anything about it. As she takes pictures, her phone buzzes. It'd been a few hours now since she'd called Eddie that afternoon, she answers quietly as she sees it's him.

"Hey." she whispers.

"Hey. Why are you whispering?" he whispers back.

"I'm at the spot I was talking about."

"That still doesn't answer my question." he snarks.

"I can't see outside so I don't want anyone to know I'm in here." she says obviously, walking back towards the door.

"You trespassing?" his voice inflects.

"Well duh." she says with a roll of her eyes

"Candy are you there by yourself?" he asks more seriously.

"Yeah, no one else could come-"

"Get out of there now." he says sternly.

"I'm leaving, I just wanted pictures. I needed some sort of evidence." she retorts.

"Candy I swear to god, you get out of there now and go home or I'm gonna come get you myself."

He doesn't hear her respond.

"Candy?" he asks more panicked.

He hears a rustling sound.

"Someone's outside." he hears her whisper much lower. She'd ran into one of the abandoned offices, barricaded herself in an old coat closet where the smell was bad enough to make her gag.

"You in trouble? I'll call someone. You okay?"

"I don't know who it is. I gotta go. They can't know I'm here." she says curtly and hangs up.

"Don't you fuckin' hang up on me!" he shouts and is met with the beep of a disconnected line. "GODDAMMIT!" he shouts, eyes shifting quickly over his apartment.

"Where is she?" Venom asks.

"I don't...I don't remember...did she say?" his voice fast and high pitched.

"No. Who would know?" he asks, trying to hide how nervous Eddie was making him.

"Stephanie. Steph would know." he says in an almost slurred risen voice as he punches her contact information.

"Steph? Where the fuck is Candy?"

"Her dumbass went to an abandoned warehouse for some fight club thing." she says with an annoyed sigh.

"AND YOU LET HER?!" he shouts.

"NO. I did not LET her. I told her not to but you try making her listen. You fuckin' journalists and your ambition." she rolls her eyes.

"Text me the address right now. Right when I hang up, you got it?" he orders.

"Why?"

"Just fuckin' do it. I'm going to go get her, she's not safe." He didn't want Steph to panic and he knew he had the tools to take care of trouble himself, he just had to get there in time.

"Okay, shit..yeah okay." she mumbles, hanging up and sending it.

Eddie's phone dings as he leaves his apartment through the window, venom carrying him with extended himbs down the fire escape to his bike. "You remember this okay? You know where this is?" he asks aloud to his partner.

"Yes. Go fast. I will make sure we do not wreck." he says sternly, just as worried about her as Eddie was.

Eddie zips through the streets, and thankfully she isn't too far away. He pulls up, seeing escalades and crotch rockets outside the building in question. He knew this was bad.

"You get me up on the roof?" he asks, and before he can receive an answer Venom envelopes his body and bounds onto the roof to find a place to get a good look.

"Eddie." he growls, looking through a hole in the ceiling, seeing Candy pushed in front of a grouping of men.

"Oh shit." Eddie squeaks. "We gotta get her."

"We have permission to eat these men?"

"Yes, yes, whatever we gotta do. They're bad guys, they're' gonna hurt her." he rushes out. Venom is about to crawl his way discreetly back down the building, but one of the men lay his hands on Candy and shouts in her face, backhanding her and pushing her to the ground. It lights a fire inside him that he only knew from fearing for Eddie. She was theirs and no one got to hurt her. His large fists raised, black obsidian boulders bashing through the weakened place in the roof. One time. Two times and it breaks through, sending debris and a grand distraction down to the floor where he lands on all fours, creating a blockade with Candy behind him.

As if she wasn't terrified enough, her gun already drawn as she's rolled onto the ground, her eyes almost bug out of her head, kicking herself back as she sat on her butt, creating space between her and the monster. A loud shrill screech, an eardrum reverberating roar comes from the inky body of the beast, as it moves faster than she can almost comprehend in her shock, knocking men into walls so hard the cement cracks. It grabs them and bites their heads off, eating some whole as they shoot at it and it goes unphased. She moves quickly, trying to find a place to hide from it and the gunshots. She stays low, not wanted to chance catching a stray bullet and hides behind a pile of crates, covering her head and trying to control her breathing.

The chaos stops. The screams cease and an eerie quiet comes across the large open space. Her eyes haven't blinked since the creature appeared, her breathing shaky and uneven as her hands shook.

"Candy?" she hears the low, bass filled voice ask.

She gulps and makes a helpless sound.

"We will not hurt you." it says.

She hears the feet padding towards her slowly. She takes a deep breath, a loud gulp and with balled fists she wills herself to turn to face the source of the reassurance. She's shaking, but she's trying not to. WIth her jaw tight she lowers her brow, trying to appear more in control, slowly standing and turning, finding herself face to face with a giant quivering mass of black, white veins pulse and squirm across the broad expanse of its humanoid form. It stands nearly seven feet tall, built like an action figure with large and bulky limbs, it's hairless head with large slanted, opalescent eyes focus and blink as it looks at her. A mouth opens to speak, revealing a mouthful of teeth she'd only ever dreamed of being in the mouth of some megalodon dinosaur shark from her childhood nightmares.

With the reveal of it's most certainly lethal jaws, she whimpers and stumbles backward into a crate, not falling but the look of terror clear on her face. Venom slumps his posture, retreating it's forward-leaning stance as Eddie is telling him he's scaring her.

"Candy." he states again.

"Wh-wha what...? You?" she squeaks out. "What are you? You know my name?" she says with more confidence, leaning forward slightly, eyes not leaving it's as she tries to wrap her head around what she's seeing. She must've gotten hit in the head and this is all a hallucination. Some strange thing that happens when you're in a coma or something of that nature. But it felt real. It sounded real.

"Yes we do." he says simply, more quietly.

"We? Are there...oh shit are there other ones...oh god." she rushes out looking to the door and the windows quickly, backing against a wall and her chest starting to rise and fall quickly again.

"Yes. But none like us. They are not here. They cannot hurt you." he says, it's fingers that point into claws, rest at its sides.

"Are you gonna hurt me?" she rasps out and the sound hurts Eddie deep in his chest.

"No. Never. Eddie would never allow it." he says with a slow shake of his head.

"EDDIE?!" she says loudly, her chin hutting back into her neck in surprise at the mention of his name. "Whatthefuck? Eddie? How the fuck do you know Eddie?" she says quickly, her mouth open and her eyes worried.

"We...are Eddie. We are Venom." he says, it's massive paws moving to its chest.

"Lemme see her, you're scaring the shit out of her, man, change back." Eddie says from inside the symbiote's protection. He slowly soaks back into Eddie's skin, shrinking back down into the familiar form she knew and loved.

She stands with her mouth agape, her face contorting through several emotions, mainly different expressions of shock and confusion. "Eddie?" she whispers, eyes darting around the room again, checking to see if this was some glitch in the matrix she was experiencing because she was having a hard time comprehending that this could be real.

"Yeah. Uh...hiya Candy." he says with a reluctant wince, holding his hands up as if he were surrendering.

She blinks fast and stutters, mouth opening and closing like a fish as she can't find words to express herself.

"I guess there's somethin' I should tell ya." he says rubbing the back of his beck and grinning nervously.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" she shouts, not angry, feet stomping and fists clenched, her eyes looking him over, head shaking back and forth.

"I can explain." he says with a frown.

"YOU FUCKING BETTER! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK EDDIE?!" she screeches, moving closer, head guiding the way as she confronts him.

Venom's head with it's vein like attachments to Eddie's body forms and slithers up near his head and she makes a nervous noise and backs away again. "We uh..." Eddie swallows and smacks his lips. "I." he says putting his hands to his chest.

"We." Venom says, looking to Eddie.

"Yeah uh...both of us. We're this thing. Together."

"Uh huh?" she says with a mixed look of confusion and uncertainty.

"I am a symbiote. An alien from another planet. I was brought here. Eddie and I have bonded. I need him to live on your planet. We help each other. We are one in the same now. Together, we are Venom." he explains slowly and calmly as Eddie is swimming over his head in guilt at how terrified he'd made her.

"Venom?" she asks flatly, addressing the alien head, trying to take in its words and make sense of them.

"Yeah, that's his name." Eddie chimes in.

"Our name."

"Our name yeah. When we're together ya know. Like you saw." he gestures to nothing in particular.

"Uh," she says before taking a deep breath, raising her hands up and lowering them to steady herself. "So..." she begins. "An alien life form... this... gooey guy here." she says looking to the head and gesturing with her hand.

"Symbiote." he clarifies.

"This..." she shakes her head in disbelief again."This symbiote." she clarifies. "You're bonded? Like... physically right. LIke symbiotic?"

"Yeah, he needs me to live. I'm his host." Eddie says with a hesitant face.

She stares at them without saying anything for a moment, blinking with her mouth open, eyes shifting between the both of them. "This." she shakes her head quickly and raises her hands. "This is a lot." she says in an offended tone. She turns and takes a few steps, mumbling to herself. "You think you find a nice guy and he's been abducted by a fucking alien." she groans, hand running through her hair as she exhales loudly.

"Not abducted. Chosen. By me. We are extremely compatible. We work as one now." Venom elaborates.

She puts her hands on her hips and looks around the room that's starting to grow dark. "Okay?" she says shrugging. What else was she supposed to say to all this?

"She said we were nice." Venom says with a happier tone. Misreading the context of her statement.

"Not exactly what she meant, man." he mumbles back. "Uh..." Eddie steps towards her and clears his throat. "It's gettin' dark we need to get goin' before more of those guys show up."  he says, hesitantly reaching out to touch Candy's shoulder. He wanted to touch her, to know she was okay, but he'd lost that privilege, for now, he sees as she jumps out of her skin at the feeling, stepping away from him and putting her hands up between them.

She takes a shaky breath, eyes fluttering as she looks at the ground, ashamed of her reaction, but she was still entirely rocked by all this. There were too many questions to even form coherent thoughts. "Yeah. We should." she says softly.

"I got my bike. We could go back to my place? Or yours...whatever you want. I don't wanna make you anymore uncomfortable than I have. I'm sorry about this...you finding out this way. Can you...can you ride with me back?"

"With him?" she asks, pointing to Venom.

"Yeah he...he's been around a while now." he admits, wincing again.

"He has?" she says, eyes growing wide again.

"Yeah, there's...a lot to tell you Candy. And I wanna answer everything. I want you to know everything, okay? Can we get you safe? Can you ride home with me?" he asks reaching out for her.

She nods and lowers her gaze. "Yeah let's...let's go back to my place. I'd feel...better there." she says awkwardly avoiding Venom's staring.

"Quit starin' man, you're making her nervous. Go away for a little bit, we gotta get her home." he says, moving forward with a polite nod to her as he opens the door. Venom dissipates into Eddie and he reaches out for her hand to help her out of the narrow door.

She hesitates and it breaks his heart. She looks at his hand for a moment, and he leaves it still, eyes wide and sad as he watches the fear of him move across her face. She looks up at him, one smooth sweep of her eyes to his before moving back to his hand and finally taking it. -------

They enter her house, she's quieter than he's ever known her to be before. He quickly texts Steph he's got her at home and she's fine so they don't get interrupted. He fills a pack with ice and brings it to her. She looks at him confused.

"For your face." he says sweetly.

"Oh. Right." she shakes her head for a moment. "That." she says, moving to put it against her cheek.

He sits next to her on the love seat, where they'd been so close so many times before. But he keeps his distance this time. She went and changed out of her dirty clothes, already whooshing away in the washer beforehand. They share an awkward silence, the shifting of the bag of ice the only noise.

"You wanna ask me questions?" he finally breaks the silence.

"Yeah I'm just...I'm still shocked. I think. I'm wondering if any of this is happening at all." she admits, not looking at him.

"I  would like to assure you that it is. Most are confused by a new concept such as this. But you are very smart. Ask us questions, we will answer. Then we can lose this awkwardness." Venom states matter of factly.

"Man, why ya gotta bring it up like that it makes it worse."

"It is clear she is uncomfortable. We do not want her to be. This is the solution."

Candy watches their bickering and it humanizes the amorphous goo for her.

"But when there's tension you don't just say there's tension. We can both feel it we know." his face was clear with agitation.

"But this solves the problem."

"It's a matter of tact, man. You gotta know how to handle people and their emotions." he says annoyed.

"You barely have control over yours Eddie. You are in no place to be telling a lifeform with 600 million years of knowledge how to problem solve." he sass's back.

They both hear a tiny huff of a laugh from Candy who is watching them with a much softer face. They turn their heads at the same time and watch her and her subtle smile appear.

"So you have your own, like, personality and stuff, huh?" she says, making eye contact with Venom. This was good, Eddie thought. This was progress.

"Yes. I am a culmination of all I have learned from all my hosts and all their interactions and knowledge they hold."

"So Eddie isn't your first."

"No. There have been many others." he keeps his voice soft.

"Why did you come to earth?"

"We were taken by a man you know as Carlton Drake. I escaped. The others that came with me...died."

"Carlton Drake?" she asks, looking at Eddie.

"Yeah. Venom here was a part of the big takedown of the Life Foundation."

"Oh?" she says surprised.

"I found Eddie when he broke in. We bonded, living with him made me see things from a different perspective. Together we saved the planet. We stopped my team leader from returning home to bring others to Earth."

She blinks and looks back over to Eddie. "Save earth? When you broke in?" she asks, tilting her head with an accusatory tone.

"Yeah... I uh..." he shrugs, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Tell her Eddie. No secrets. You said no secrets when she found out about us."

"I would appreciate no secrets. No secrets is going to be the only way I don't break up with you for this." she states rather coldly. And he suspected he deserved it.

"Remember when I said I was sick?" he begins with a weary voice.

"I fucking knew you weren't sick." she says with narrowed eyes and pursed lips.

"Yeah. I'm sorry I lied. But, it was I'm sick or I have a symbiote who needs to eat people to survive now."

"He didn't want to lose you." Venom interjects.

"Oh, c'mon man." Eddie mumbles and looks away.

Candy's resolves falters, with Venom's admission.

"A scientist came to me, tellin' me I was right about what I was accusin' Drake of... the stuff that got me blacklisted. I wasn't gonna do anything about it, but people were dyin' Candy. They were takin' homeless people and testing on them and they were dyin' and it wasn't fair. He was insane, he really was." he says and sighs. "I wanted to prove myself. To you and to everyone else. I could redeem my name, get my life back if I could get in there and get proof."

"He wanted to be better... for you." Venom once again interjects with what really should be said but what Eddie was too afraid to admit. Once again Candy's heart softens.

"I.." he slumps and meets her eyes with his ashamed ones. "I did." he nods and looks away. "I wasn't gonna get any better livin' how I was. And you deserved better... and you knew that and I didn't see any other way to be worth your time unless I was somebody again."

"When I told you I thought you should get your shit together...breaking into the Life Foundation isn't what I meant." she says with a sigh.

"I know I just. I had to. I couldn't keep livin' in the shadow of it." he shakes his head.

"This is the part where I come in." Venom gives what he thinks is a smile and she sheepishly returns it.

"Yeah, I broke in with the doctors help and then it all happened real fast... Venom bonded to me, we escaped, I tried to go to Anne to have her tell somebody about what I saw. I had pictures, proof."

"You went to Anne?" she asks with a much less enthusiastic voice.

"She was a big lawyer, she had connections no one else did. What I did to Drake got her fired too cause we were togehter and I got the information from her so she was a victim in all this too 'cause 'a me." it all comes spilling out and it's an odd pleasurable pain to feel, coming clean.

She looks to Venom to see if he's lying, as he seems to be the one telling her the full truth. "This is true. She was the only one that coule help us. Eddie hurt her, she deserved the redemption as well." he states simply.

"Her new boyfriends a surgeon, and I was acting all kinds of crazy. All that was true that I told you, about the..." he pauses, "parasite..." he whispers " but it was because of him." he nods to Venom. " I didn't know what was happening to me and I wasn't in control and we were fighting for control and Dan, that's his name, Dan, he took me and tried to get me better. But when I got back home Drake's men came after me. There was a big chase-"

She interrupts his story. "Holy shit that bike chase was you." she says with wide concerned eyes.

"Oh yeah it was fuckin' nuts Candy, I tell ya. I almost died. I broke my legs and my arms and it was crazy." he rushes out.

"Broke your legs and arms? What?" she asks with a tilt of her head.

"I healed him." Venom states and she blinked fast at him.

"Healed him?" she inquires.

"Yes. I can control Eddie's bodily functions if I wish. I can heal him when he is hurt."

"Oh. Wow." she says, impressed. "That's...that's really helpful." she says looking to Eddie.

"Yeah, it's a perk."

"So if you got hurt... like someone hurt you, he could heal it?" she asks Eddie.

"Yes. We almost died. Taking down my team leader to keep Earth safe."

They both see the sadness in her eyes and the mutual feeling of relief to see it still there and also the fact that she was feeling it made them shift anxiously.

"You almost died?" she whispers, reaching out to touch his knee and she doesn't even think about it.

"Yeah I got speared through the chest...actually." he laughs nervously.

"You fucking what?" she says with a wrinkle of her nose. "But you can't even tell you..no scars or anything." she says looking to his chest.

"I healed him. I keep him running if I am fed."

"That's another thing..." Eddie begins. "He needs this chemical, phenylethylamine to function. And it's found in things like chocolate and what not but it's best if it's in the form of...well..." he winces.

"Brains. Human brains." Venom says what's hard to Eddie to discuss.

"That why you...ate those guys back there?"

"Yes. And because they hurt you. We would not allow anyone who hurt you and get away with it." Venom elaborates and the corner of her mouth turns up into a smile.

She shifts her eyes over to Eddie. "It's true." he says with those puppy eyes she's weak to.

"So you got your job back because the truth about the Life Foundation came out, and I'm guessing those first breaking photos were ones you took, right?"

"Right."

"And you didn't take credit for it?"

"I wanted to be finished with it.  I don't want anything to do with that place again." he says with a slow shake of his head.

"But...aren't they gonna want him back?" she points to Venom.

"All of those who knew are dead."

"Oh." she says with wide eyes. "All of them?"

"Yes. We did not kill them though. For the record." he adds.

Candy lets out a little chuckle, an alien using human turns of phrase struck her as funny at the moment.  "Well, that's good. I guess. For us." she shrugs and lets out a noisy sigh.

"Us?" Eddie can't help but blurt out.

"Well yeah. I mean...So, me, you, Anne and...?"

"Dan."

"Dr. Dan know about Venom, and they aren't gonna tell anyone since they haven't yet so that ties up the loose ends."

Venom lets out a low laugh. "I like her. She is so logical." he smiles.

"Thanks." she nods. "So are you."

"Except when he's hungry. He's an asshole when he's hungry." Eddie clarifies.

"So...you've been with Eddie for months then."

"Yes."

"Which means..." she sighs and knits her brow. "You've been with him when we've..." she tilts her head.

"Yes." Venom clarifies.

"Uh huh. That's a little weird. I would've liked a heads up before you unknowingly roped me into a threesome ya know." she says with an only half joking pout.

"Yeah. I...I'm sorry about that too. But...I didn't want to tell you because this is..." he makes an unsure face.

"Fucking insane?" she clarifies with a grin.

"Exactly."

"He did not tell you because he did not want you to leave us. He won't' say it. I will for the sake of keeping him happy. We really like you Candy. I have wanted to interact with you for a long time."

"Well he's lucky I'm an idiot who has a soft spot for other idiots apparently," she says with a smirk to Eddie who accepts the criticism gladly.  "I get why you didn't tell me but...you should have." she states obviously.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't exactly know how to bring up this whole situation."

"Yeah." she sighs.

"I told him to tell you sooner." Venom interjects.

"Seems like I owe you a thank you...Venom." she says. "I don't know if I should like, shake your hand or something?" she chuckles. "You saved my life back there...do you even have hands? What's this sharing a body situation like?" she asks in a much more casual way.

"Complicated." Eddie says.

A oozy tendril emerges from the stringy body that flows behind Venom's formed head. "We can shake hands. I would like to touch you." he says a tentacle forming solid and splitting into a hand shape.

"Don't be weird, man." Eddie says, swatting the reaching limb away.

"No, it's okay. I mean..." she shrugs. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious." she admits.

"She is honest Eddie. I like her." Venom almost coos.

"Thanks." she says, holding out her hand.

Venom reaches out slowly, closing the space between them. The feel reminded her of a snake, you expect one thing out of it, cold and clammy, but it's warm and soft instead. It's solid but it had give under her fingers as she gripped it, moving her hand up and down and watching as the blackness moved around her hand. It changes from a shake, pushing between her fingers, wrapping it's formless hand around her like it was interlacing its fingers with hers, it felt affectionate and soft, encasing her fingertips and lapping around her wrist. It didn't hurt, it wasn't unpleasant but it was strange. "You are so soft, Candy." Venom says, little tentacles stroking the back of her hand lovingly.

"So are you." she says with a shifting brow of interest. "You're a lot warmer than I expected."

"You are smoother than I expected." he retorts and she smiles.

"So you just lay in wait in Eddie'ds body while we..." she quirks a brow.

"Yes. I feel what he feels, in every way. Every sensation, every thought, every feeling."

"It's annoying." Eddie says with a  frown.

"I don't know..." she shrugs, pulling her hand back and Venom heeds her wishes. "That seems sort've...nice." she shrugs, her voice inflecting upward.

"See. She gets it Eddie. I told you she would."

"Yeah but she doesn't have to live with you all the time. Just wait." he says rolling his eyes as Venom moves to nuzzle his face against Eddie's. Candy lets out the first laugh since the shock of learning about him, and it melts them both to hear it, to know there was hope for normalcy again for them. As strange as normal had become for them.

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