#{{ probably not suplex but definitely lift

[danwhobrowses]

NXT: Stand & Deliver - Quickfire Thoughts

Before Mania there's Stand & Deliver. This one I've not been as close to following but since I'm watching let's see how it goes

Spoilers for the PPV

Kinda sucky that half the women in the ladder match didn't get an entrance

Zoey's Arabian Press onto Indi was pretty neat, she did a lot of the heavy lifting this match

Jayne's interference, while anticipated, really did take the wind out of the match though, especially followed by NOBODY catching Stratton's dive off the falling ladder

The finish was drawn out, Indi needed help to climb a ladder? I dunno the crowd liked it but it also bodes why Roxanne had to drop

The Italian coded guys at least had a cool entrance

Still like the Creeds, they feel like if FTR and American Alpha had a kid

Italian guys' finisher was cool too

2 for 2 in interference

I've had my qualms with Pretty Deadly, but their skit was pretty fun

Even if I want a good fight I have no idea why Wes Lee would pick JD McDonagh as part of his 5-way?

Dragon Lee's entrance was pretty cool, heavy on the slowmo

Wes Lee having a Rock Lee-esque graphic was cool

That flying arm clash between Axiom and Lee was some Matrix stuff

The superkick catching the backflip was Adam Cole vs Ricochet-value

Dragunov is just great

Trick Williams insulting PD's outfits like he isn't just wearing a lighter version of the sparkly blazer

Gargano landed worse on that suplex onto the chair stack

It did eventually end up a bit of a squash, with Candice getting involved, but the fans enjoyed it

The Way (minus Theory) reunite too

Missed opportunity for Pretty Deadly to name their 'PD exclusive' a PDA

Spooky girls are kinda hot spooky

We've actually got some good tag synergy and psychology from the Hot Spooky Girls

A Gory Bomb/Facebuster finisher is clean too

Dunno what the finish was about, probably need story context but it's still kinda weak

Bron/Melo did not need a ref bump

Can't see why Bron is okay about losing the title after Trick hit him from behind with the belt after he had the visual submission on Melo, kinda weird that, but Melo was the right person to win

Conclusion I've seen people say this was better than Supercard but I'm afraid I'm not one of them. No offence to NXT, they put on a good show, but it's still got the WWE-isms of running interference that is unneeded. Consider the fact that only 2 matches had outside involvement, the women's tag titles and the NA title 5-way and the fact that the Waller match was because they have nothing for Gargano or Candice on the main roster and it's still in the middle.

Compared to the last PPV I watched of NXT it was definitely better, some questionable decisions but I've seen improvement here and there from talent. Think I'd have enjoyed it more if I watched it first and then Supercard, you watch Vikingo defy logic then everything else high flying just kinda gets muted y'know?

Match of the Night: same as Supercard, the 5-Way Best Attire: Melo's LA Lakers attire Best Performance: Ilja Dragunov Best Spot: Interceptor Superkick onto Wes Lee

[mayhemproduces]

HART v MOXLEY - HEIST MATCH

After her last loss, Julia Hart probably wants to be able to get a win on the board, but she’s facing an uphill battle tonight. The House of Black member is against Jon Moxley, one of the toughest fighters on the planet, and with one win on the board already it’s clear that he wants a clean sweep of the whole tournament. As the bell rings, they go for a classic lockup, Julia digging her heels in a much as possible- but she’s no match for his strength and shes pushed back into the corner almost immediately. Mox goes for a forearm shot, hitting the turnbuckle as Julia manages to slip under and get out of his grasp.Julia spins around for a kick to the midsection, which hits with a surprising lack of reaction from the Cincinnatti brawler. He blocks one of her forearm shots, returning it with a chop to the mid-section that sends her to the mat. Everyone knew that this was going to be an uphill battle for Julia, but no one imagined it being quite so out-powered. As Julia stands up again, she’s barely able to take a moment before he’s taken her back down again with a violent snap suplex! 1- Kickout! He’s done that cover just to psyche out Julia, making her expend energy and worry about his dominance. Mox grabs Julia’s arm to pull her up, lifting her up for a rolling release suplex- Oh! somehow Julia manages to land on her feet, that cheer leading background definitely comes in handy for Hart here! Julia hits Mox in the side of the head with a spinning heel kick learned from the house of black’s leader, but it doesn’t take him down, instead only making him stumble backwards. Hart’s going backwards against the ropes, aiming for a clothesline it seems, but he snaps her in half with a lariat that sends her crumbling to the floor again.1… 2- Kickout! Julia’s clearly trying to show her strength here, and no one can deny her after this bout- she’s clearly a fighter, the Fallen would expect nothing less.Julia pushes herself up on shaking arms, barely on her hands and knees when Moxley bounces off the ropes and practically beheads her with another expression of pure violence- *The Curb Stomp!*instead of going for a cover, Jon Moxley pulls her back up with a fistful of hair, trapping her neck in his arm that’s nearly the same size, before sending her back down with one last shot for good measure, the death rider!! 1… 2… 3!! Jon Moxley’s picked up another win, and as Julia just lays on the mat, the crowd sees Brody King coming out to ringside to pick her up and bring her back home to the House of Black, while Moxley celebrates another Two grand in the bank with the MPW crowd.

[oraclememehacker]

I bet Kotone could lift you. Have you seen her back definition? Like DAMN!

"I have no doubt she could lift me. Probably suplex me if she wanted. Like Sabin in Final Fantasy 6"

[duskroine]

[ Embrace ] - The sender gets in closer, practically embracing the receiver as they dance.

          dusk mistakes the embrace for a moment of peaceful slumber, disguised within the looks of a dance.  but no matter if true or not, ophelia allows her arms to hang from mitama’s shoulders, aware of mitama and where her arms curl around her waist.  the partners around them, too, have adapted to the dropping pace of the orchestra’s melody and harmony; two lines of music that twist into each other until both are unrecognizable as individual pieces.

            ophelia slowly takes the crown from overtop of her head and gently sets it onto mitama’s head.  there had been a tease earlier in the night, where mentions of siegbert confusing mitama for ophelia only if the crown upon her hair meant an identity of passable standards.

            there are many differences between the two, but there is one of those that brings a similarity up: they were beyond beauty itself with the crown on.  it is a thought that brings soft laughter from ophelia’s lips, a noise that mitama moves in response to.

            “   has fatigue clung to your limbs, mitama?   ”   ophelia asks, voice quite too low to her own preference but she understands that outright screaming would be an annoyance to everyone including mitama.   “   hehe~!  you wouldn’t make your dear friend carry you through the corridors of darkness leading towards the arch of faith that lies your abode, correct?   ”   if purpose called for it, then it would most likely be claude to take mitama back to her room, or rhajat; ophelia cannot exclaim any further delight to being able to drag the gloomy sorceress into multiple photographic opportunities.

            as the two ladies step into a small spin, ophelia pulls back her arms and presses her hands against mitama’s face   —   contentment in the way she winks down at mitama.   “   do you require for the Chosen One to shake you awake?  a squeezing embrace or two will fit right well!   ”   playful as a joke but serious as a concept, for ophelia isn’t against having to lift someone and shake them until they wake up.  though it is clearly only an idea as ophelia moves to press her thumb against mitama’s nose, completely forgetting the prior question of fatigue and exasperation.

            the orchestra has yet to rise the pace of the song; ophelia lets go of mitama’s face and tilts her head, returning her arms to hang from mitama’s shoulders.   “   thank you for spending moments of the night by my side.  this was surely an experience that the stars will remember and look back on with glee.   ”

[ceo-of-sloppy-men]

Honestly that's fai- SPIDER WITH SMOL BUT STRONK S/O OH MY GOD

Spider I can do.

He's honestly amazed at you. How can something so small be so fucking strong?

He's already huge (13') so someone less than half his height is practically tiny to him. So when he finds out you can practically suplex a cabal, he has to see.

Brags to Drifter that you could win in a fight against him. He's not even sure if he's right, but he's betting on you.

Probably has camera's around the shore, so he watched you just straight up punch a Scorn Baron to death one time

He was smitten from that moment on.

You tried lifting him once, and while you couldn't get him more than a few inches off the ground, he was laughing the entire time

He's not ashamed that he likes your body. He will 100% request for you to workout in his throne room for him to watch

NSFW undercut

he's just a tad bit switchy

He'll definitely top you, and push the limits of how much weight he can put on you before it's too much

Pleased when it's enough that he doesn't have to spend the whole time sitting down

But top him? Oh boy that's a whole different topic-

Lift his legs onto your shoulders, just let him marvel at how much you can really take

Demonstrate your strength by pushing him down onto the bed and you've unlocked a whole new layer of trust

Facesitting. Just. Big Eliksni, right on top of you. He does it more often than necessary because he just likes the fact you can take it and he doesn't just crush you.

[wolfysqueeze]

Bradley Martyn has to be one of the most brutal wrestling experience I’ve ever had.

Another of the few famous guys I’ve had encounters with, except in this match Brad was PISSED. It was just before the lockdown and we both happened to be at the same gym, I was working out alone and he was with a few muscled buddies. Brad caught me staring while his mate was lifting and walked over to me, calling me out for watching them the whole time. I panicked, my heart was pounding, and I tried to diffuse the situation with a joke. Don’t quite remember what I said, was something about how his muscles just look like inflated balloons, no strength behind them and that he’s probably lighter than I am. He didn’t like the teasing. Ended up challenging me to come at him and prove his strength, at this point his buddies started to come over too, and before I knew it we had both started fighting. Now I’m nowhere near his size, definitely defined and have the endurance, but his strength beats mine by a mile even now. We traded light jabs to the torso, I managed to get a few good hits in to where his abs were bruised a bit, but with his wrestling experience he ended up trapping me in a full Nelson and lifting me off the ground. My neck felt awful, his thick biceps forcing my arms up as he pushed my neck forward, I could feel the heat radiating off his body as we began to sweat. His friends were cheering him on, telling him to crush me and such, and I could tell he was enjoying the attention and winning the fight, but I didn’t give. He ended up dropping me, and I whipped around and wrapped my arms around his thick torso. I squeezed with everything I had, and just hearing the slight grunt of him struggling felt amazing, but it didn’t last long. His arm came down around my neck, the other my midsection and he lifted me again, except this time we both fell back as he fucking suplexed me. My back hit the ground hard, his buddies were roaring at this point and he flexed over me in victory. I thought he was done too, but he grabbed the front of my shirt, lifted me to my feet and my heart dropped as he outstretched his arms and slapped them around my body, pulling me against his rock hard torso and lifting me once again. I immediately struggled in his grip, my arms trapped to my sides as he grinned at me, his arms suddenly turning to steel and squeezing what little air I had managed. His mates had surrounded us, and I groaned and wriggled in his arms, kicking my legs desperately trying to survive. I don’t remember much of it, just the fact that he basically roared in my face, leaned forward and squeezed so hard I thought my spine would snap, it felt like my ribs were overlapping as his biceps crushed dents in my sides. I didn’t stand a chance against him, in hindsight picking a fight with such a gorilla was an awful idea, but damn I wish I could be in that bearhug again! Would you guys be interested in hearing the other wrestling encounters I’ve had over the years?

[jauneda1]

RWBY

The New War AU part 2

Classes and combat training

(Jaune's mind)

"Professor Port's classes where one of the best classes to attend, you get to kill Grimm of a low level and show off new skills. The only down side is he talks entirely to fucking much."

Professor Port: Blah blah blah blah

(Jaune's mind)

"Fucking hell this is boring. When the hell our we gonna get to kill some Grimm. He didn't even ask us to take notes he's just talking and gloating about how he done this and that. Not to mention he keeps gawking at Yang. Oh and I swear to God if he winks at her again I'm gonna shove that mustache up his ass. Haa calm down Jaune... Yang... Why did you say no?

Two days ago on the Rooftop

Yang: Jaune... I love you, You know that right?

Jaune: Yes and I love you two that's why I want to make this permanent. We've been off and on for so much but really I don't think I'm complete without you.

Yang: Jaune you are absolutely fine without me. I know remembering Ricky is hard for you but I'll always be there for you.

Back In Ports Class

Jaune is just sitting there unaware that Port chose him for today's bout.

(Jaune's mind)

" Why are women so confusing, this is why we keep breaking up I don't understand her and maybe I should work more on that or..."

Professor Port: Mr.Arc first please remove your hood. Second I have chosen you for today's unarmed Grimm battle training.

Jaune Arc: Okay sir... Wait did you say unarmed?

On The Combat Floor

Jaune Arc: Why do I have to be unarmed again?

Professor Port: As a Huntsman Mr.Arc you must always be ready for any situation. Like if an Ursa major where to knock your sword away-

Jaune Arc: I would have my shield.

Professor Port: But you have nothing, besides in my days I could take on 10 Ursa with my bare hands.

Professor Port winked in Yang's direction which resorted in Yang feeling embarrassed and disgusted.

(Jaune Arc)

That bastard did it again I don't care what he sends at me I'm gonna beat it into the fucking ground.

Professor Port: Now Mr.Arc your opponent will be a Ursa Major.

Jaune Arc: 😂😂😂

Jaune rushed forward with aura infused in his legs. A few people where surprised and thrown of when they heard him laugh. But Jaune cared not as he slid past the Ursa and with his momentum spun around. Putting his hands on the ground and putting aura into his hands and grip latching onto the floor and gaining a good base. He then kicked the Ursa in the leg shattering the bone and destroying everything beneath the skin. Jaune then backflipped out of the overhead swipe the Ursa threw out of pain. Jaune saw his opening again rushing forward and tackled it but the Ursa stood strong until. Jaune with his hands still wrapped around the Ursa spinning around now behind the Ursa Jaune lifted with his back and legs aura coursing throughout his body giving off a blue highlight. All the while Jaune is building up his to release his semblance.

With a loud smash and to the amazement of the entire class with the exception of Yang and Ruby Jaune German suplexed the Ursa Rolling over with the momentum of the suplex and lifting the Ursa up. With the same strength now doubled he shifts his weight to now Jaune is lifting up and about to slam the Ursa into the ground with his one arm. This feat of strength from this tall and scraggly looking man. Shook everyone in the room even Professor Port. Jaune standing only 5 feet from the Ursa began to speak since he's been silent since the beginning of the battle.

Jaune Arc: 😂😂😂 An Ursa Major 😂😂😂 it's like throwing around a bag of potatoes. GET UP AND ACT LIKE THC KILLING MACHINE YOUR SUPPOSED TO BE! I've seen the battle scar's on you. You've been through a lot now come at me everything you've got Beasty.

The room was quite till the Ursa rushed at Jaune with a mighty roar even without one of it's legs and with one slash Jaune was sent back like 2 or 3 feet. The Ursa if it could look it would. Now Jaune's 2nd favorite hoodie was slashed through but that wasn't nothing compared to what everyone was paying attention to even Yang and Ruby where surprised by the secret semblance he had been hiding from everyone. Jaune's body was surrounded with auric blue Flame and there are blue lines spider webbing out from a bright blue light where his heart should be and Jaune's eyes are bright blue.

Jaune Arc: Okay my turn

Jaune then tore off the shredded hoodie revealing that he is a hell of lot more ripped and muscular then he may seem. With one burst of speed and Jaune was now holding the Ursa in a bear hug and with a mighty roar Jaune's eyes mouth expunging blue flames.

Jaune Arc: BAHAMET DETONATION

With that Jaune Arc let out a self detonation the explosion was controlled. To the eyes of everyone there they saw a orb of pure blue flame and the feeling of an explosive going off in front of them. All that was left was a decent size crater and Jaune Arc standing there with obvious exhaustion.

Jaune Arc: Cough... Did I past?

Lunch Room

Yang:😭😭😭 Then he yelled out this phrase like he was a super hero

Ruby:😭😭😭 He did something similar back in Signal right lol.

Jaune: Yeah yeah laugh it up. Ow my body really hurts, that's the first time I've tried releasing full power.

Weiss: Wait you've never used it before?

Jaune: Nope I still have some of it built up inside me. I'm going to probably have to go burn it off. I felt the size of the explosion it would of wiped out the entire classroom so I pulled more then half of it back into my body.

Nora: The was so cool though, I almost couldn't help but jump from excitement the way you moved so fast.

Ren: You where extremely focused in that fight it was like you where in the zone.

Nora: That is the power of a high grade. I didn't think much about power difference but you even said you got some energy stored up. Btw you need to let me see the explosion at full power and when you burn off the rest later.

Jaune: Sure

Nora: So your basically your in beatable you use a sword and shield and your semblance is basically a walking explosion with a smoking hot btw.

Jaune: Thank you

Ren: Nora.

Nora: Sorry sorry. So how does it work?

Jaune: Well... It's like a strength storing semblance. I store up kinetic energy from successful attack my targets or receiving damage. I can't do anything with it till I've hit critical mass which is when my heart starts to burn bright through my chest. Then I can use that explosion.

Yang: Bahamet Detonation😂😂😂

Jaune: Yes Yang Bahamet Detonation. I can control the output and size of the explosion. But if I wanted I'm pretty sure I can store even more. But that cause great harm to me I actually had a burn scar over my heart on my chest due to me trying to store copious amounts of energy... I guess it's really good for groups of enemies.

(Jaune's Mind)

"Fuck my body is hurting I should of condensed the size of the explosion and let it all out. But I've never done that I have a lot of aura but I don't think I would survive that it already hurt to do what I did in class."

Jaune: Hey guys I would love to stay and chat but I need to go burn off the energy left. If anyone wants to see the explosion follow me.

Nora: Oh definitely me.

Blake: Should be fun

Ruby: yay

That's a wrap for part 2

Character analysis

Jaune Arc: Age 18, Huntsman classification, High Grade, Battle classification, Vanguard, the vanguard classification is a hybrid between oppressor and tank with they're oppressing attacks keeping they're targets at bay an they're tank like strength they can keep multiple targets on edge and defeat them single handedly.

Semblance: Kinetic energy store and dispersal, Jaune stores up kinetic energy from combat and can release it with enough output to cause a devastating explosion that can reduce anything in the blast radius except Jaune to atoms.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

The Cassell Cynic Part 2

A continuation of @hectabdr @hectab‘s lovely characters.

When Nathan lay back on the bench, Hana’s face filled with furious determination.

Nathan protested loudly as she stomped his feet, seized his arm in a mighty heave and lifted him across the back of her shoulders. Her strong arm was wrapped around his leg and other her hand gripped his wrist. He tried to pull away but she held him tightly secured. “What are you doing?! Let me down!”

“I’m not going to let you make me fail this assignment!” She grunted roughly and stomped off toward the medieval looking administrators building.

Nathan used his free arm to pull his ear buds out. “Are you kidnapping me? Go die by yourself!”

“You think you’re going to die?”

“Of course I’m going to die if I go on assignment with you!” He struggled futilely against her iron-like grip. “Let go! You’re ruining my day!”

“When the dragons come back, they’ll do more than ruin your day. Or do you not know that because you don’t care to study?”

“I know that and that’s why I don’t bother! It’s obvious that someone else is going to do it, why should I care about it?”

“Because we …” She puffed, staggering with her struggling captive. “You're heavier than you look.... We all have a role to play. No one is going to slay the dragons alone! When the chips are down everyone needs to think about what they can do to make sure the dragons don’t win!”

“If I face a dragon, I’ll bow down and say ‘I welcome my new scaly overlords!’” He hollered loud enough for anyone in the courtyard to hear.

She stopped. Her face turned to him in horror. “You don’t mean that. Surely.”

His face was full of indignation. “And even if I don’t, so what? I just hope they don’t eat me and I live another day because I’m not slaying any god-damn dragon and chances are, neither are you! Now put me down!”

“Don’t put me in the same league as you, you coward…”

“I’m a coward? You’re a coward!” He turned to look at her over her shoulder. “You’re so scared of getting something less than an A+ that you’re kidnapping me! That’s what this is about. Don’t give me that Dragon War spiel. You’re more scared of your report card than a dragon. Am I right or am I right? Exactly. If this assignment was about dragonslaying, I wouldn’t be on it, being C ranked… No one’s going to put the world in my hands! Put me down!” 

She finally lowered him from her shoulders and he brushed himself off and smoothed down his hair. He turned to look up at her. “Thank you!”

She gave him a stern look, lips pursed. “You’re really serious… about not doing anything.”

“Yeah! I am serious! Thank you for finally acknowledging that!” He stepped around her to return to his bench.

“So you weren’t put up here to sabotage me?” She asked.

“I am not doing this to sabotage you. No. But someone might be. You do what you need to do if your grades are that important to you, but leave me out of it. I don’t need grades to stay here.” Nathan turned fully around and walked backwards towards the bench. “Contrary to your belief, your assignment is not the end of the world and, if it was really that important, they will find someone else to do it!”

He sat back on the bench, groaning in dismay as he picked up his ruined blunt where he’d dropped it.  “If I have to be on your assignment for you to pass then you might as well stay here on the bench! Because I’m not going. Period. You’ll have to deal with the smudge on your record. Though… knowing you, you’ll suplex them until they give you a make up assignment to erase the quote-unquote bad grade, so your parents don’t call you and cuss you out. If you do kidnap me, though, I’ll definitely make sure you fail, you psycho!” He rotated his shoulder. “That hurt, you know.”

Hana stayed where she was and helplessly watched him as he sat back down at the bench. “You’re really not coming. You’re not going to help me at all?”

Nathan didn’t respond. He rolled another blunt and lit it in silence. He could tell she wasn’t giving up, she was just changing strategy. She was drunk on the whole Dragonslaying mission Kool-Aid. He could feel his buzz actively dying as she approached him and sat back down. He passed it to her and she refused. But he insisted. “Take it, you need it more than I do.”

“I don’t smoke.” 

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He inhaled slowly. The skunky smell of the marijuana filled the air. “You shouldn’t care so much.”

“I do care but it's because this is what comes natural to me. I’m strong and talented and I can do the things they need me to do. My talents will be wasted elsewhere. No one’s putting pressure on me. This is who I am and what I do best. So why not excel at it?”

He coughed on a rough pull. He was genuinely shocked. “No? You don’t have some mommy and daddy at home who will be disappointed if you get a B?” He asked, scoffing at her. “You don’t care at all if you ‘fail your ancestors’ or something?”

“No.” She said firmly. “I don’t. I didn’t come from a prestigious family or a famous bloodline. I don’t even know who my father is. Unlike you.” She jabbed a finger into his chest. “I’m self motivated and good at what I do. A few of the professors were thinking of putting me on a track to become faculty. They said I have to learn how to be an earnest guide. They wanted me to take you on an assignment and walk you through it.”

“Really? ...damn.” Nathan shut his mouth for once, scratching his head. “I’d pegged you as one of those trust fund babies.”

She gave a bitter laugh. “Believe me, I’m not. Like I said, I don’t care for them. They’re just coasting on their parent’s allowance and pretending to be better than everyone else. Kinda like you. At least you’re a trust fund baby who has their head in reality.” She grinned but there was no humor in it.

Nathan couldn’t argue that. “So uh… what’s this assignment?”

“I just have to accompany some cargo to the airport. But it’s sensitive cargo. So we just need to guard it.”

“Ah ha!” He tilted his head back. “So solve one problem with another. Very clever. You know what I think? I think my lack of urgency pisses them off so bad that they would do anything to get me to care even a little bit. And if they can’t get me to do anything, then they can get me off campus so they don’t have to look at me. They don’t need me here. It’s all head games. So I’ll play their head game.”

“What do you mean?” She tilted her head.

He pointed to the blunt in his hand. “What I mean is, this weed is going to give me the munchies. So, I’ll go ahead and put in a big order from the canteen. What do you like?” He pulled his cellphone from his pocket.

“I guess. Italian… pasta. I like Greek Food?” She said.

“Pasta and Gyros… sounds good to me.” He typed to put in the order.

“Are you ordering food for me?” She peered at his phone.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Nathan turned to her. “Wow… you really don’t have any friends.”

“You don’t either!” She snarled.

“I did before I came here. And I will when I leave here. You on the other hand… good luck on your ‘Hero’s Journey’. Heh.” He chuckled.

“Why don’t you just leave if you hate it here so much.” She stretched her legs in front of her and looked at the sky.

Nathan continued his lengthy order. “I don’t hate it here. I can live here, eat good food, and do nothing. Duh. It’s like the best vacation ever. It just sucks that by the end I won’t get to remember any of it. It’s like an alternate dimension. I just want them to give me good memories. Like I did something awesome. That’s all.” He waved his book of false memory ideas.

“You’re going to let them erase your memory?” Hana lowered  her voice, partly shocked, partly amazed.

“Yep. Here I’m no better than a regular human. So I might as well live like one. Order will be ready in 45 minutes.” He put his phone in his pocket.

“Why not split the difference? Do just enough to participate and stick around. That’s what Fingel does.” She wondered.

“Oh ho... Not just Fingel. Isn’t that what everyone else does? I look at everyone around me and… you’re  the first person I’ve met here who actually believes all this is for saving the world. That’s cool. You want to be here for that. But that’s why the other people get on your nerves. You can tell they’re faking it, and you’re not about the BS.”

Hana fell into a thoughtful silence.

“Which is why they sent you to talk to me probably.” He lowered his blunt. “It’s not that I don’t care that dragons are big and scary, it’s just I know I can’t do anything, just like 90% of the people here… so…” He shrugged. “There’s going to be maybe… what … 10 or 12 people actually fighting dragons? The rest? They’re just in it for the social points. And I’m not interested in social points.”

“What are you interested in?” She asked.

“Enjoying life while I have it.” He sat back and blew out a long plume of smoke.

Hana sat with him and stared out into the empty courtyards. On the peak of a gabled roof, a mockingbird was singing its heart out and doing acrobatic leaps in the air as it did so. Hana pursed her lips and tapped her feet. “If you could… please do this one assignment for me. I won’t ask again. I’m backed into a corner here and I don’t really have a choice at the moment.”

Nathan sighed loudly. “You could always do nothing, Hana. Just say, ‘He’s not coming, figure something out.’ I don’t want to get in your way, but I’m not going to let them play the pity card either. We’re all adults here. Don’t ask me to play their game. And it is a game.” He looked at her with wide eyes, waving his blunt. “If this assignment is really important, they’ll find someone else. The assignment isn’t the real issue here. This has nothing to do with your grade. I guarantee it has everything to do with their ego. They’re just like my parents. They’re just like my brother. Trying to make me care about their shit and I don’t. And that pisses them off.”

“You’re… pretty defensive right now.” She laughed.

He laughed in disbelief. He was getting pretty riled up about all this. “I want them off my back! I don’t understand why they need the C-ranker to be on board with their war games.”

Hana smiled disarmingly. “I for one… appreciate your honesty. You’re not so bad. I can’t be the only one who feels that you’re not so bad either. I think I’m here because they want to keep you around.”

Nathan raised his eyebrows. “Tch… Yeah good luck to them.”

 Hana pushed off the bench. “Alright. I’ll ask them to pair me with someone else or… do something else about it. Nice talkin’ to you.”

“Hey, don’t forget. Food’s gonna be here in 40 minutes.” He shouted after her.

“Alrighty!”

[relv07]

SURPRISE @hallucxnatingblog I WAS YOUR SECRET SANTA ALL ALONG

Your gift is late in typical me fashion, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!! You’re such an incredible person and I feel so lucky to have gotten to know you over the last few months. I hope the holiday season has been treating you well <3

thanks so much to @noragamisecretsantas for running this event!!!

Title: once promised, twice tied

Summary:  Yato and Yukine may have missed Hiyori's birthday, but they're certainly not about to miss her half birthday. 

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28382691

Thump.

“You idiot, you’re going to wake her up!”

“It’s not my fault! You tripped me—”

Ominous thumping and furious whispers at 4 AM would be ample cause for concern for most teenage girls, particularly if the sounds were coming from the direction of her bedroom window. A year ago, Hiyori might have screamed. Now, however, she simply allowed herself a small moment to stare at her dark ceiling and remind herself that suplexing the inevitably tracksuit-clad intruder would probably wake up her parents.

She turned on her bedside lamp and squinted towards her window. Yato had frozen like a deer in the sudden light, one leg in and one out of her window, his shoulders dusted with snow. Yukine was kneeling on the ground, seemingly in the middle of picking up some brightly wrapped packages that had probably been the source of the thumping. Both gave her sheepish smiles.

“...hi, Hiyori,” said Yukine, his voice cracking. Neither he nor Yato moved, as if doing so might incur her wrath.

“Yato,” Hiyori said slowly, sitting up and addressing the likely mastermind of the scheme as if he were a small child. He flinched under her gaze. “It is four in the morning. And,” she added, eyeing the packages on the ground with a hint of wariness, “Christmas was three days ago.”

“I know that,” Yato protested, still straddling her windowsill. His muscles were tensed, like he was debating making a run for it. “We didn’t mean to wake you, it was supposed to be a surprise!”

“What was supposed to be a surprise?” Hiyori brought her legs over to the side of her bed and shivered as cold air hit her skin. “Come in and shut the window, okay? It’s cold out.”

Yato and Yukine exchanged a look before Yato let out a sigh and swung his leg over the sill, shutting the window behind him. Yukine awkwardly stood up beside him, shifting from leg to leg. She noticed that he had removed his shoes by the window to avoid tracking snow inside, and she smiled to herself. Even when they broke into her room in the middle of the night, it was hard to stay mad at them.

“Your birthday was in June, and we missed it, so we thought…” Yukine trailed off, his cheeks turning pink. He shoved his hands into his pockets and ducked his head.

Yato finished the thought with a broad smile. “Happy half birthday, Hiyori!”

Scratch that, it was impossible to stay mad at them. “You didn’t need to do anything. My birthday isn’t that big a deal—”

“We know,” Yukine interrupted her, finally managing to meet her eyes from under the brim of his winter hat. “We figured you wouldn’t want to make a big deal of it, so we were just going to drop off some stuff. We really didn’t mean to wake you.”

“We’ll just leave the gifts here, and you can go back to sleep,” Yato promised. “It’ll be like we were never here.”

So they said, but neither made a move to leave, instead looking at her with matching pairs of puppy dog eyes. Hiyori couldn’t help but smile, her heart suddenly feeling very full. As much as Yato and Yukine bickered, sometimes they were very much alike. “Well,” She pretended to think, placing a finger on her chin. “Since you’re already here, and I’m awake, do you want to watch me open your gifts?”

Both Yato and Yukine’s faces brightened immediately, and she giggled. “Okay, what should I open first?”

“Oh! Before you open anything…” Yato picked up one of the boxes, white with a pink bow on it, and then paused. “Close your eyes first.”

Hiyori obeyed, and after a moment she heard the unmistakable sound of a match being struck, followed by a muttered curse.

“Careful, you’re going to set her house on fire!” Yukine hissed, and Hiyori resisted the urge to open her eyes. Yato may be destructive, but she figured that if anyone could handle his destructive tendencies, it would be Yukine.

“Okay, you can open them now!”

She opened her eyes to find Yato kneeling in front of her, holding a cupcake. It was frosted white and had three little sugar flowers pressed into it, along with a single lit candle. Yato smiled at her, and the flicker of the flame was reflected in his eyes. “Make a wish.”

Her heart was racing, but Hiyori huffed a small laugh. “No charge for this one?”

“Nah,” Yato grinned. “This one’s on the house. Birthday special.”

She screwed her eyes shut. She wasn’t quite sure if gods could hear wishes even if they were thought instead of said, and the thought of Yato hearing what she wished for was embarrassing. But, then again, Hiyori had already told Yato her heart’s dearest wish, many times now. She figured once more couldn’t hurt.

I want to be together forever.

She blew out the candle and opened her eyes to the sound of Yukine clapping. She smiled at him, then noticed that Yato was staring at her, his mouth slightly agape and his cheeks flushed. Hiyori felt a flash of heat on her own cheeks. He had definitely heard her.

But Yukine hadn’t noticed, so he plucked the candle out of the cake. “We made it yesterday. Daikoku helped with the baking, but Yato is weirdly good at decorating cakes.”

“I used to work in a bakery,” Yato supplied. His cheeks were still pink as he offered her the cupcake. “Here, give it a try!”

Hiyori carefully took a bite. It was delicious—vanilla with a sort of whipped cream in the center. It was sweet and light, and made all the better for knowing that Yato and Yukine had made it for her. She beamed at them. “It’s really good! You should try some.”

Yato looked tempted, but Yukine knocked him in the head with his fist. “No thanks, Hiyori. We made it for you.”

“Right, right.” Yato clapped his hands together. “Presents!”

Yukine brought three small packages over, each wrapped in bright red paper— probably leftover Christmas wrappings, not that Hiyori minded. Yato picked up a rectangular package and handed it to Hiyori, who gently set her cupcake on the nightstand. “This one’s from me,” he said proudly. The sparkle in his eye made her a bit apprehensive, but she carefully unwrapped the gift. Inside was a small box that contained a light pink hand-made omamori, complete with a little crown embroidered near the top. While the gift seemed more than a little self-congratulatory—Yukine’s eyeroll showed what he thought of it—it was actually quite beautiful, silk and embroidered with gold thread. She wondered what he had written for the prayer inside.

When she lifted her face to meet his eyes, his expression was oddly muted, but there was sincerity in his gaze. “So I can protect you, even when I’m far away.”

Why did it seem like he was trying to tell her something? She clasped the omamori between her palms; laced her fingers together in prayer. “Thank you, Yato. Just don’t go too far away, okay?”

Don’t go where I can’t follow, she thought. Either of you.

Yukine coughed pointedly and picked up the biggest gift of the three. “Okay, my turn!”

Hiyori accepted it with a hint of reluctance. Yukine worked so hard, and she felt bad thinking that he had spent any money on her. “Yukine-kun, you didn’t have to get me anything.”

“It’s okay,” Yukine said brightly, taking a seat next to Yato and leaning against the nightstand. “You’ve done so much for me...for both of us. I wanted to get you something in return.”

Hiyori smiled at him fondly, thinking of the angry teenage boy she had met a bit over a year ago now. He had come such a long way. All of them had.

“It’s nothing special,” Yukine added hastily as she began to unwrap the gift. “It’s just, um, I noticed you needed a new one.”

It was an eggshell-blue planner with an embossed bird on the cover. Yukine scratched his neck, embarrassed. “I figured you could use it, yknow, to write down memories. So you don’t forg—so you have something to look back on. I hope you like it.”

“I love it,” Hiyori said, fighting the lump in her throat as she clutched the planner to her chest and gave Yukine a soft smile. “And you’re right, I did need a new one. This one is perfect. Thank you, Yukine-kun.”

Yukine smiled back, before letting out a yelp as Yato grabbed him in a headlock and ruffled his hair. “Aww, Yukine-kun, you’re so thoughtful!”

“Let go of me, you asshole! You stink!”

“I do not! I smell great! I took a bath last night—”

“What did you bathe in, your own sweat?!”

Hiyori laughed, but disguised it as a cough when Yato sent her a wounded look. “Hiyori, you don’t think I stink, do you?”

“Um,” said Hiyori. How she felt about Yato’s smell was a subject to be avoided at all costs. “Yukine-kun, what’s the last package?”

“Oh yeah!” Yukine, freed from the headlock, glanced around and frowned. “Huh. Where did it go?”

“Beats me,” Yato said nonchalantly. Yukine immediately glared at him.

“After all that, you’re not going to give it to her?!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“He spent so much time agonizing over it,” Yukine informed Hiyori. “He wanted to make you something special, and—”

Yato grabbed Yukine’s head and covered his mouth with his hand. “Don’t tell her that, you little sh— ow! He bit me!”

“Well, don’t give it to her if you don’t want to,” Yukine grumbled as Yato cradled his injured hand protectively to his chest. “Just don’t come whining about it to me later.”

“Oh!” Yato said, ignoring his hafuri. “We didn’t sing happy birthday.”

Yukine looked mortified and Yato was nearly off-key in his excitement, but Hiyori thought it was the best rendition of the birthday song she had ever heard.

A little while later found Yukine snoring softly, slumped against the nightstand. Yato removed his jacket and covered him with it as a makeshift blanket. Yukine mumbled something in his sleep, and Yato’s gaze softened. Hiyori couldn’t help but smile as she watched the two; their relationship was so special, and so meaningful for both of them. They looked for all the world like brothers, or maybe even father and son.

“This was his idea,” Yato said quietly, eyes still on Yukine. “He thought it would be nice to do something simple so you wouldn’t get overwhelmed or anything. He spent all day worrying about the cake and everything.”

“This was wonderful, Yato,” said Hiyori, kneeling on the floor beside him. “Really. It was very sweet of you both.”

Yato grinned at her, but the smile faded as he began to fiddle with something in his pocket. “Um. I do have something else to give you, but—”

“You don’t have to do anything else,” Hiyori assured him. “This was more than enough.”

“No,” Yato insisted. “I...I want to give this to you. I just, um, got embarrassed.”

With that, he removed the package from his pocket— square, and very small. He held it out to her, blue eyes bright. “Happy birthday.”

Hiyori’s breath hitched when she opened the gift. Inside the box, lying on a bed of velvet, was a simple gold ring. It was thin and delicate, with a small white stone set in the middle. Hiyori felt suddenly very dizzy. Yato had jokingly proposed marriage before, but this… “Yato…”

“It’s not an engagement ring or anything,” Yato clarified, but he was blushing again. “I just wanted you to have a reminder of me—of us. It’s...a promise. That I won’t run away anymore.”

The room was very warm all of a sudden, and something in Hiyori’s chest tightened as she stared down at the ring. Yato had made this, Yukine said. Yato had spent time forging this ring for her, as a promise for the future— a future they’d share.

Yato had begun to jiggle his leg out of anxiety as Hiyori examined the ring, and by the time she finally looked at him he looked downright terrified. “Okay,” she said simply.

“What?” Yato said, confused, but Hiyori just leaned in and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. When she drew back, his face was bright red, and she was sure hers was too. Nonetheless, she slipped the ring on her finger and smiled at him. “I’ll hold you to it.”

[dreamwatchpro-wrestling]

Dreamwatch Blood Crown Tournament Night 1 (Match 8)

Beast vs Yamato Ryukawa

This match in a way was the oddest match of the first round, while simultaneously it was also the most mundane. Ryukawa definitely trained for this tournament though, busting out some solid ground work and a very nice new leglock that he took advantage of in this match. Beast on the other hand... Was Beast. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, Beast is cool and popular and does nice moves in the ring, but he just lost his belt. To me, its clear that just being Beast isn't good enough, and he needs to improve himself in some way to keep up with everyone that's managing to evolve. That being said, Beast still looked amazing in this match. Beast has a sort of natural power to him that allows him to throw around any opponent, Ryukawa included. Belly-to-back suplexes, karelin lifts, Beast was looking to turn Ryukawa into paste with his suplexes. Ryukawa, though, was looking to win. Displaying some signature Ryukawa offense with his leg work and even his Twisting Complete Shot which was surprising to see him pull out in this kind of match. Ryukawa also displayed some new offense that seemed tailored to the tournament and gave him an awesome edge, breaking down Beast's legs but also doing some high impact damage with his suplexes. Beast had nothing that could compete with Ryukawa's gameplan, and by the end I think everyone could see it. Ryukawa wrapped this match up with a running dropkick to keep Beast down. He knew Beast couldn't guard himself from it, and Beast couldn't get up from it either. Ryukawa moves on to the next round.

Ryukawa: I feel like I have a lot to think about, right now. In all honesty, my mind hasn't been able to stop thinking about Ewan Jacobs and how he came to one of our shows and disrespected wrestling without me being able to confront him. There are some guys that have had MMA training in this tournament, and I want to beat them so I can be prepared to defeat him and look down on him like he tried to look down on us. During that match though... Beast. I'm not a smart guy, wrestling is literally all I know, but something about Beast right now feels... Off, or dissapointing, maybe. I don't really know. I can only really fix things with wrestling so I figured I would just let him throw me around and respond with my own big moves so we can hype each other up. I got pretty pumped there, but I felt like I couldn't get Beast's heart to be in it. The referee had more life than him. I don't really know what's going on with him but he's not doing all that bad in Dreamwatch. He's popular with people, that should be enough to give him some strength. Maybe not. I'm not a psychoanalyst, though, I've got more matches to win. I think I face Katagiri in round 2... I didn't expect us to meet again so soon but I'm 100% ready for him. I wasn't that far from beating him last time and I'm better now than I was then. I know he's a great competitor, so I hope our next fight will be better than our last. I feel like I'm going to say its better if I win... So I have to win *laughs*]

--

Beast: *Beast sits silently staring at a wall*

everyone, I feel like I should talk to you about two people. Let me tell you about Beast. Beast, is a strong, larger than life, memorable competitor. Beast is someone that's been on a lot of Dreamwatch shows because the fans seem to like and remember him. Beast doesn't always win or dominate every match, but when you watch him you'll get your money's worth. You probably didn't need me to say that, you're all familiar with Beast. Now let me tell you about someone very close to Beast.

You've never heard of his man, but his name is Steve Warner. You could call him the man behind the Beast. Beast will live forever, Steve Warner will not. Steve Warner is someone that looks at what he's put so much of his time and health into and has realized that he's really mostly gotten disappointment out of it. He doesn't want to admit that he isn't good enough, he doesn't want to admit that he's been wasting his time, but he doesn't have to say it out loud for him to firmly believe this fact. With disappointment after disappointment, a Beast can continue to fight and press forward, a man... A real person, breaks down. Is it worth it to even continue? Should Steve stop and give up on his dream? I don't have an answer for that, I just figured you'd want to know about... About Steve. That's all I think. Yeah, that's all.

Beast does not answer questions and he instead walks off.

[chimeowrical]

So I do crossfit and I was wondering what the squad (including Rhu) would be like with a muscular girlfriend? I feel like the boys wouldn't be driven away by it like a lot of guys I meet are

Oooh OOOH Tau would all definitely enjoy a muscular gf!!

Abbot: Y’all probably MET doing crossfit, he’s the most encouraging workout partner + boyfriend. Loves working out as a couple activity, and he’s a very positive energy in the gym.

Rhu: She isn’t much of the workout type herself, more of desk potato BUT the idea of getting carried around by buff gf? Chef’s kiss. Though she’d complain about it, she would secretly enjoy occasionally working out with you.

Salvo: Physical activity is very much a mind and body thing - it lets him relax. So he’d enjoy having a gf who encourages him to try different things and to push himself! (Also kind of into the fact that u could probably suplex him)

Eights: A good workout buddy, but COMPETITIVE. Sparring matches, who can lift more, who can run the fastest. Anything that can be turned into a bit of a rivalry, will be. Eights would definitely get a bit seggsually frustrated getting beat LOL

Rooster: “What do I need to do to convince you to break my neck with those thighs”

[dom-i-nic]

I mean I think we both know what I shall ask... head canons for Arla???

ooooooooh arlaaaaa. There is some angst in here and a lot of fluff.

She’s a lesbian (this is @forcesensitivebantha​‘s headcanon but I have adopted it).

She’s an absolute mess around people who she likes. The type of person who’s scarily competent on the battle field but she turns so red when she tries to talk to her crush. A true disaster lesbian. Jango knows this and teases her for it. 

She has suplexed Jango for embarrassing her really really bad in front of a pretty girl.

She and Jango both get anxiety attacks sometimes (because of the trauma)

Arla eats ice when she gets an anxiety attack (this does work irl for anxiety attacks btw)

She and Jango are really really close (again, because of all the trauma)

Arla and Jango have basically adopted Myles (even though he has his own fully alive family).

Jango has blocked out most of his memories of his parents as a way to cope because he was pretty young when they died. Arla was older and remembers them, but Jango doesn’t like hearing about them. Sometimes she tells Myles about them. Myles is a really good listener.

When Jaster died, Arla had to step up and take his position and she sort of felt like she had to live up to his achievements because he was a legend. It stresses her out a lot of the time because even though she knows that she’s competent, taking care of Jaster’s legacy and keeping the True Mandalorians together is hard sometimes.

Like really stresses her out. A lot.

It worries Jango and Myles and her friends.

Arla has a beskad. Also Westars. She carried around a disintegrator rifle for a little bit but disintegrator rifles are illegal so she kept getting into trouble. Eventually she decided that it wasn’t worth it. (Disintegrator rifles being illegal is also a headcanon of mine because i think disintegrating someone would probably be considered a war crime. Din gets to disintegrate people because during the Imperial era, all of the restrictions on war crimes got lifted or just ignored).

Arla has natural blonde hair. It’s curly (2c or 3a) and gets tangled a lot so she usually braids it and wears a headband.

Her hair is also really thick so she carries around a lot of hairties. Like 30 of them. All of the younger Mandalorians with long hair know that she is the one to go to for a hairband. 

Arla sleeps like 6 hours every day. She would sleep less but then Myles yells at her. Jango doesn’t yell at her because Jango sleeps even less (not because he’s stressed, because he’s stupid and doesn’t think he needs sleep).

She has a huge sweet tooth.

Arla can be really really petty when she gets annoyed. 

She keeps blackmail on everybody. Actual folders on her datapad full of blackmail. 

She has an ongoing prank war with Jango and Myles (said prank war has lasted 10 years). They keep finding new ways to make each other suffer.

Arla takes stupid risks.

She gets really mad when someone else takes a stupid risk but she can’t really talk.

Out of Myles, Jango and Arla, Arla’s the best at hand-to-hand combat.

She has so many knives. So many. Nobody knows where she keeps all of them.

When Arla was younger, she liked climbing a lot and used to give Jaster heart-attacks by finding the tallest tree and climbing all the way to the very top.

She still does that when she’s really stressed and needs a breather. She never gets stuck either.

She speaks some Concordian along with Mando’a

Arla keeps trying to adopt things because she’s a mandalorian and that’s the law. She adopts all of the animals she finds and once accidentally stole someones tooka cat.

She’s very good with animals. Less so with babies because they cry a lot and she doesn’t really know what to do.

Jango definitely has a picture of her awkwardly holding a baby because someone asked her if she wanted to hold them and she had to say yes. He keeps it for blackmail purposes.

[millennial-star-gazer]

Tantric Flames: Chapter: 9

Tantric Flames

Nalu lovefest 2019 Prompts: Magic, Worship, Reckless , Forbidden and Cravings (All Implied)

Genres: Romance, Humor, New Adult Fanfiction

Pairing:Nalu (Natsu x Lucy)

Rating: M for language, steamy and mature adult sexual content (all consensual) in these and future chapters. Reader Direction is advised.(You've been warned!)

Summary: One look, one smouldering hooded gaze, one word, one fiery kiss, one magnetizing touch was all he needed for her to completely unravel at his mercy alone, succumbing to the sinful temptation of her inhibitions, his love, his feral passion, his raw, insatiable desires, his "Tantric Flames". Originally an Submission for Nalulovefest 2017 (on previous accounts) in which Natsu gives his mate a tantric massage-after much persuasion- she won't soon forget when it turns into so much more. Also previously featured in Nalu lovefest 2018 (on current accounts) , as well as Nalu Week 2017, Nalu Fluff Week and Nalu lovefest 2017 (as stated) with first three chapters on my previous celestialgeekmage accounts . Chapter 7 was also an entry for nalu week 2019 and Chapter 8 for Nalu Lovefest 2019. ( Nalu-centric) (Slight Au).

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Chapter 9: Tempted by A Tantric Touch

A/N: Hey guys, it's your girl Millennial StarGazer! This time I'm returning with another long-awaited installment of Tantric Flames. Once again, a major thanks to and koodos to @bmarvels, @mannyegb, @animezing-fandoms/princess-starry-night, and @allie-and-her-fandoms for helping me edit and further develop this chapter! Now without further ado, here's the story-enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairytail which belongs to the one and only Hiro-sensei instead!

(Note: Scroll down pas the keep reading button/ cut for the designated links, legend and actual chapter.  The tagging feature and keep reading button might not show up or fully work on the desktop site but should function just fine on the app and mobile version.

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Read More of Tantric Flames and the rest of my writing on here and other plaftorms.

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1. Tantric Flames

A. Tumblr Version

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Chapter: 9          (Next Chapter ) (Coming Soon)

B. Fanfiction (Click Here:) ( or here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13114990/1/Tantric-Flames-reupload-from-cosmicdragonwizardaccounts)

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Legend:

Italic: Song Lyrics/Quotes (or flashback dialogue)

Bold: First Person Thoughts

Bolded Italics: Empathized Word(s)

Bolded Italics (Within and Outside Bracket) including for author's side notes also known as (A/N:) within brackets (though none for side-notes in this chapter ).

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"You run your fingers over every part of my body and tease me with your touch".

(Source Unknown)

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Oh God, those love bites. So many love bites that decorated the blonde's creamy skin like jewels; far too numerous to count that always sent a red-hot line fire rippling through her nerves with with every nip, every suck; each every and stroke of Natsu's velvet tongue. Plus, he's usually doing other things at the same time. Racy images of the couple's steamy moments together from the last soak flooded Lucy's mind.

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Flashback

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The celestial mage's back arching of its own accord into Natsu's touch from robust hands cupping her breast; Blazing digits kneading the twin peaks in time with lips sucking along Lucy's pulse with so much skill that she couldn't help the heady moan that escaped her throat.

"Ya feel that, Luce?" Nastu growled in his princess's ear, the dark undercurrent of his territorial voice pulling a tingly shiver from her. "My marks all over that perfect body of yours— and not just the permanent one when you swore your heart to me . All of those are symbols of my essence, my claim, my love. That you belong to me and me alone. My mate and queen, forever and always. And those sounds you're makin'? Hot as hell."

Pretty sure, dude leaves marks on me as his way of announcing to the world I'm off limits as his mate. Explains why he's always quick to leave a fresh one in its place even after I cover them— not that I'm complaining. Plus, it's not only for his benefit but mine. It's great that he knows how much I love receiving hickeys and gets off from it.

Seriously, what more could I ask for?

Not to mention how lovely it always was to unwind with Natsu after each bath. The wizard was often keen in his offer to dry the blonde's damp hair with a towel or fire-magic-powered steam; from her perch on his lap or between his legs. 

Much more relaxing than using a hair dryer if you ask me.

 The dragonslayer would sometimes even hum or sing a familiar tune from days past in that appealing, gravelly baritone of his; would usually lull the already-zen mage into the world of dreams when combined with the sooth dual sensation of fingers combing through her hair, .

"I tell you, I tell you, the dragonborn comes ..."

Anyother guild member who might be eavesdropping, however, would often be quick to lightheartedly goad the blonde mage ( much to her chargin). Natsu no doubt would find this hilarious of course; which would serve for Lucy's cheeks to flush an even deeper shade of crimson than she already was.

"Say Luce, is that a blush I see?" he once crooned, a teasing edge to his words; though the affectionate mirth sparkling in his eyes warmed her heart just a little. "Aw, is my girl a little embarrassed? That's okay though— makes ya all the more adorable and endearing than you already are. You want me to make it all better? Cuz I can! Got plenty of kisses! Come on, you know you want some which I'm more than happy to give. God I love ya' so much, you know that?"

It's amazing really... Lucy ruminated in fond awe. How Natsu can switch between the different roles and sides to him with relative ease. From Romantic and tender to dominant, playful and affectionate; then back again on top of everything else all seemingly at the drop of a hat. All an innate part of his overall nature I guess— essentially what makes up who he is. Some people may find this a bit confusing to keep up with— but I don't. Just makes him all the more complex.

Though those people would also be right when they say that the dude still has a devious streak, she couldn't help but add with wry smirk. Even with me, though never with malicious intent. German suplex, non-stop tickling, dumping me in a tub of freezing cold water during one of our baths— too many pranks to count really. At least he's always quick to follow up with plenty of affection ever since we became an item— can't complain about that."

"You ready to get started Lucy?" Natsu's keen voice broke through Lucy's reverie.

"You know it!" The celestial mage chirped, unable to mask the pure enthusiasm in her voice; earning an amused chuckle from the dragon wizard . "Can't wait. I take it you'll be hoarding me for the rest of the afternoon?"

"Mhmm" Came his content hum in response." That really a bad thing, though?"

"No, definitely not."

"I figured. Why don't we get you up on that massage bed?"

"Sure thing!"

A buzz of anticipation was practically thrumming in Lucy's blood from such tantalizing implications of his words; the stunt Natsu pulled next , though— that was what really shot a thrilling jolt up her spine.

"Let's finish what we started later, yeah?"

The dragonslayer's proposal was punctuated by a light tap on the summoner's ass for good measure,; which resulted in a delighted squeal.

"O-okay!" was said female's response in the form of a breathy giggle.

"Let me get you that towel while I'm at it."

"Sure— thanks."

"My pleasure."

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A Few Minutes Later

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"Ugh...do me a huge favor and burn this towel. Will ya?"

Lucy couldn't help but let out an audible groan along with the heat rising in her cheeks. Good god was the particularly moist spot on the white towel a truly mortifying sight to behold. Basically tell-tale remnants of liquid arousal that had been wiped clean from her legs just moments before.

Mavis only knows what would happen if Levy or Cana noticed during laundry duty.

" Okay... why though?" Natsu questioned, brows drawing together in mild confusion. "As in why do you want me to?"

"Guild Laundry day" came Lucy's automatic reply."That's why."

"Not following ya.' Natsu blinked owlishly in uncomprehension.

"Levy…..and Cana….." Lucy supplied, a finger twirling an errant strand of blonde hair in :a self-conscious display." "I... uh.."

"Still don't know what you mean here, Luce."

"It's their turn to do laundry duty." She attempted to break down what was apparently such an abstract concept into simpler terms; not able to help the aggravation rising in the back of her mind.

"Yeah? So?"

"They'll probably see the moist stain on the towel." Lucy clarified, forcing her voice to remain level.

"I see— don't see the problem though."

"Think about who'll most likely be with them ."

"Gajeel and Laxus but…...ahh—"

Realization dawned on Natsu's face. "I get it now. What you're saying is that they'll probably catch a whiff of your arousal? "

"Well, the lingering remnants of the scent anyway. Seriously though?" he tacked on, lifting a questioning brow."That's what you're worried about?"

"Yeah... I am," Lucy admitted, nerves leaking into her voice. "Aren't you?"

"Not really, no." Natsu gave a shrug of his shoulders—seemingly unfazed.

"Why's that?" Lucy couldn't help but shoot him a puzzled glance. 

"Cuz it'll show everyone how much I rocked your world." Natsu replied, flashing his mate a cheeky grin. " And what's not to love about that?"

"Pervert — of course you'd say that!" Lucy screeched, skin flushing a deep shade of crimson.

"That's me!"

"Ugh, still don't know what to do about the moist spot— those four are never gonna let me live it down."

"You know if you're that worried, I could always use my tongue to clean ya up instead." Natsu drawled with a lazy smirk that set her heart all pit-patter .

"And of course, you'd suggest that," Lucy quipped with a slight roll of her eyes. "Did I mention how much of a horn dragon you are? "

"Yeah, but only for a certain gorgeous blonde of mine and she loves it."

"Oh, she does, huh?" Lucy raised a challenging brow.

"Yep. Don't bother trying to deny it, Luce".

"Ugh fine... you're right. I do. Seriously, you and your colossal ego though."

"Why, thank you! If you're impressed by that, you'd really should see my co—"

The rest of Natsu's words were cut off by Lucy's hand swatting him with a pillow which was met with a snicker.

"Pervert" Lucy deadpanned with another eye roll. "By way, you would've found yourself in the proverbial dog house if you actually meant the other kind of 'fighting earlier."

Only for Natsu's face to instantly fall in response to her statement.

"What?" Natsu objected, gaping at her with wide eyes. " And deprive me of the chance to wake up to your beautiful face each morning for that long?!"

"Yep." Lucy gave a nod by way of reply.

"But why? You know that's not the type of fightin' I met!"

"Well yeah, I know that now. But not earlier when you originally brought up. Just be glad that you didn't bail on our date earlier."

"I didn't though! And never would— honest Luce!" Natsu's voice lifted into a petulant whine.

"Hmm.. Okay, good to know. " Lucy responded, raising her hands to placate him. "Though you'll have to be without me for a few days anyway.

"Wait, seriously?" Natsu faltered , bewildered panic flashing in his eyes. . "Come on! What is it this time?"

"Camping retreat in the woods next week that Cana, Mira, Lisanna, and Erza are organizing— ladies only."

"W-ha?" Natsu continued to sputter, his poor brain no doubt short circuiting by now." But Elfman said that it was open to anyone who's free to go!"

"Really? Lucy mused in thoughtful interest. "That's not what I heard... huh."

"What am I supposed to do without you?"

"How about something fun with the guys? Should be nice, right?"

"Yeah, but so is spending time with you Lucy! It's always more fun when we're together like you said."

"And I don't disagree. Doesn't change anything though. The trip's still happening."

"Didn't say it wasn't but it'd still suck here without you! Natsu moaned, that desperate sense of longing bleeding into his voice. " I'd miss ya' too much! So would our little buddy! Can't we tag along? Maybe Even share an air mattress in a decent-sized tent? I'd gladly help set up and keep you cozy in my arms at night."

"What about Happy?" Lucy questioned, intrigued by his suggestion. His offer does sound really tempting.

"Obviously he'd share the tent with us but would have his own sleeping bag and could hang with Wendy and Carla whenever we wanted alone time. Plus there are all these cool spots I could take you to on nature hikes!."

"Sounds great."

"Course it is! So whaddya say? You onboard?" Natsu wheedled, flashing her what could only be described as the most flawless puppy eyes she'd ever seen.

"Aw that's really tempting and" Lucy gushed, heart contracting at the adorable pout he was throwing in too. Normally I'd say yes"— but it'll have to wait. Thank you though! I'd love to take you up on that offer another day."

"Oh come on— please I wanna go!" Natsu huffed,stamping his foot as if he were a child pitching a fit over being denied a coveted toy- quite an amusing display to say the least.

"Not this time I'm afraid. Sorry, them's the brakes."

"Lucyyyyyyyyy!" Natsu whined again, dragging the syllables of her name with such melodrama that she finally decided to let him off the hook

" Jeez.. enough with the dramatics already. " Lucy yielded with an exasperated groan, You can still come— the trip is for everyone. I was only kidding after all."

Said confession was met with a noise of stunned dimsay from from the pyro.

"Wait... so ya' mean to tell me that this was a joke?! he muttered, voice coming out with a small pinch of disbelief. "You were pulling my leg the entire time?"

"Yep— consider it payback for me making think you were gonna ditch earlier."

"That's why? That's not nice, Luce— not very nice at all." Natsu grumbled, though not with any real heat.

"Oh yeah, what are you gonna do about it?" Lucy baited, a daring lilt to her words.

" Oh —- wouldn't you like to know?" Natsu rumbled, eyes sparking in a such a calculating way that it sent a electrifying chill down Lucy's spine.

"I would— ngh! Nastuuuu!"

The rest of what Lucy was attempting to say Lucy's words were cut off by the lighting- fast sweep of Natsu's velvet tongue up her thighs . Not to mention that electric high-voltage jolt of ecstasy flooding her veins.

"There! that should show ya!" Natsu let out a cackle of glee. " Not to ever play dirty tricks on a dragon I mean. Guess you're not gonna need that towel after all, huh Lucy?"

"My God..."

"Yeah, I know . Just that amazing with my tongue, I guess. Natsu purred, voice laced with am indecorous promise "Plus, hearing ya' scream my name like that just gave me another hard-on that I'd love for you to see .. "

"Jeez … of course it'd would . and no real shocker that you would say something like that."

"Yep- you know me so well, Luce. and it's not like you're complain' anyway. Want me to prove it?"

" Maybe.. But God- you're such a pompous ass, you know that?"

"Yeah but all part of my charm, sweetheart."

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

A/N: And that's Chapter 9 folks! My apologies for the delay by the way! I originally wanted to post this much sooner but got hit with writer's block after getting a somewhat stumped on a particular segment of this chapter. I've also been with my other ongoing fanfics, WIPs and responsibilities among other things in my life . That all aside, at least this chapter was finally posted! Now please feel free to do me a solid and let me know what you think by leaving a comment/ review! Stay tuned for Chapter 10 too! Oh and please feel free to check out the rest of my writing which can be found above, on my profiles and in master post if reading this on tumblr. All right, that's pretty much all I have to say for now! Thanks to all my mutuals/friends, readers and followers for their continuous support over the years! (Corresponding links for the master of my writing and profiles can be found above, in the navigation bar of the desktop and bio if reading this on tumblr.) Until next time-take care!

[sshoujo-ais]

Tell me some things you love abt yang!!!! 💗

ARE YOU ASKING ME TO GUSH

WELL THEN

first of all her fashion sense is on point? like i love all of her outfits. even the atlas one from the newest season i started out not being a huge fan of but it’s grown on me. but just. real talk everything this woman wears looks amazing on her. the biggest shame is that the Hunter outfit (the one she had in v2 for like 2 episodes) probably isn’t gonna be animated in the new style, because that’s my favorite one.

also, jesus, can we talk about that confidence? that poise? this woman walks back into a nightclub where last time she beat the shit out of everyone and trashed the place, and she just. walks back in with that grin and says “GUESS WHO’S BAAACK” absolute queen and legend.

oh and. you KNOW i love me a strong woman, and what’s yang if not strong? like, THE powerhouse character of her team. and the worf character but let’s not go there lmao. she can easily lift a speaker 4 times her size. SHE CAN WRECK A TOP GRADE MILITARY MECH WITH ONE PUNCH. if i were to list yang’s feats of physical strength we’d be here all day but just. wow. bench me pls

but like also she has a lot of emotional strength too? like here’s a strong female character who can suplex you AND work through her problems as a multifaceted well written character. like i’ve already gone on at length about how i think yang is THE best character in rwby and her character arc is my absolute favorite, and i won’t budge on it. she went through trauma and came back swinging. i love when they do that. i loved when simon the digger did it (multiple times), i loved when matoi ryuko did it (multiple times), and i loved when yang did it THAT ONE TIME. if they make yang go through that shit again i’ll RIOT. NO MORE HURT FOR MY BABY. ONLY LOVE.

i’m making plans with @/dokiquents rn to marathon rwby together and i guaran fucking TEE that i will be YELLING when that scene in the vault happens. you know the one. i don’t wanna spoil anything in case chii reads this bc it’s kind of a huge one but like. that’s one of my favorite yang moments. she just. UNGH. SHE REALLY DID THAT. i think that might’ve been the moment where i definitively decided, “yeah, she’s the best character”

and i can’t WAIT for the next episode to drop this saturday because yall know i’ll be in the front row with eyes peeled for my sunny little dragon cause i wanna see her KICK SOME ASS!! YEAH!!!! I LOVE WATCHING HER KICK SOME ASS!!! AND SHE DOES THAT A LOT SO I’M WELL NOURISHED WITH THIS GOOD FUCKING FOOD

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW G1 CLIMAX 29 Day 13 & Day 14 Review (Aug 3rd and 4th 2019, Osaka, EDION Arena)

Day 13 (A Block)

KENTA vs. Bad Luck Fale  **

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Lance Archer  ***1/4

Will Ospreay vs. EVIL  ****1/2

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kota Ibushi  ****3/4

Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA  *****

Day 14 (B Block)

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Toru Yano  ***3/4

Juice Robinson vs. Taichi  *3/4

Hirooki Goto vs. Jeff Cobb  ***1/4

Jon Moxley vs. Jay White  ***1/2

Tetsuya Naito vs. Shingo Takagi  ****3/4

Photos.

The G1 rolled into Osaka for the annual, and prerequisite, classic matches in the tournament. The A Block night on the 3rd was the stronger of the two, and very probably the best night of Block action so far this year, with three fantastic matches back to back. To kick things off, Bad Luck Fale defeated KENTA after a lot of Bullet Club shenanigans. KENTA worked hard here, laying into the big man with some stiff kicks, then turned a Grenade into Game Over in the middle of the ring. This caused Chase Owens to distract the referee as Jado came in with the kendo stick. The old timer misses with the cane and KENTA sends him packing, however the distraction allowed Fale to sneak up from behind and score the win with a school boy at 7:20 of a very frustrating bout. This was nonsense and the loss essentially eliminates KENTA from this years tournament. Oh well. Speaking of which, the next contest was between two guys who are also mathematically eliminated and members of Suzuki-gun, as ZSJ got the sneaky win over the considerably larger Lance Archer. This was really good, with Zack playing the annoying ant to Archer’s giant. After Zack would keep countering Lance’s power moves into submissions, the American Psycho finally hit a big chokeslam, which appeared to win the match for him, but he inexplicably lifted Sabre at 2. Archer then tried Blackout, but Zack rolled through into a cradle to win at the 10:43 mark.

The next three bouts were all tremendous in their own very different ways. Ospreay vs. EVIL was an excellent battle indeed, and featured a white hot crowd. These guys worked incredibly well together, with their different styles meshing seamlessly and producing one of the hottest closing stretches of the tournament. After Ospreay scored a near fall with the corner to corner dropkick, and EVIL rebounded with a huge Lariat, they went into a crazy strike exchange and counter sequence, before EVIL scores a near fall with Darkness Falls. The King Of Darkness tries Everything is Evil, but Will flips out and hits a massive Liger Bomb for a near fall of his own. EVIL ducks Hidden Blade and charges for another Lariat, but runs straight into the Spanish Fly and hits Oscutter for a super believable near fall. He tries the Super Oscutter, but EVIL catches him in a big half and half German, another big Lariat, and scores the win at 17:08 with the STO. Following that were Tanahashi and Ibushi in a rematch of last years final, one of the greatest finals in the history of the G1. This wasn’t as good as that all time classic, but it was a different match really. This was worked at a breakneck pace (it surprisingly only went 15:53), and featured some absolutely fantastic exchanges. After Tanahashi worked over Ibushi’s ankle, and Ibushi worked on Tanahashi’s knee, Tana attempted an HFF to the floor, but Ibushi countered into a springboard top rope Frankensteiner, and from here the match never stopped. Tana escaped that terrifying Lawn Dart into the turnbuckle spot, then tried Sling Blade, but ate a perfectly timed double stomp, and took the Lawn Dart anyway, which never looks fun. Whilst Tana rolled onto the apron, Ibushi hit his other terrifying move; the Deadlift German off the ropes into the ring for a near fall. After Tana escapes a Last Ride attempt, the two engage in an unbelievable strike exchange, which resulted in Kota getting a bloody mouth, and a Tanahashi hand print across the right side of his face, as the crowd goes crazy. Ibushi sold like he was KO’d, but spins round into his massive Lariat for the double down. Ibushi hits the high kick, but Tana counters Kamigoye into three Twist and Shout’s, hits a perfect Sling Blade, but misses the High Fly Flow. Kota battles back with the Boma Ye for a near fall, then Tanahashi counters another Kamigoye attempt into a small package for a believable near fall. Ibushi is up and hits the Ace with a big high kick, but Tana shakes it off and screams, only to eat another, then the match-ending Kamigoye for Ibushi to take the 2 points and eliminate Tanahashi from contention. There was a ‘passing of the torch’ type moment in the post match as the two showed respect for each other, with Ibushi being emotional at finally vanquishing his God (he’s only ever pinned him one other time previous to this, in the 2017 G1) and Tana rolled out of the ring so Ibushi could get his pop.

The main event had a lot to follow, but somehow ended up surpassing them in a highly dramatic match. This was great, and the best match I’ve ever seen these two have together (and probably the best of SANADA’s career). Whereas the previous bouts were super heated sprints, this was a slow burn classic which took its time to weave its tale, and teasing going the distance. Obviously the story here is that SANADA is 6-0 against Okada, having never beaten him once, and Okada is undefeated in this G1 thus far, looking invincible in the process, so SANADA had a hell of an uphill battle. The Osaka faithful were super into this from the outside, and everyone appeared to be behind the underdog SANADA, chanting his name throughout this. In reality, this was every Okada/SANADA match we’ve ever seen, until the closing stretch, which was insanely intense. SANADA tried the springboard dropkick, but Okada catches him in the Air Raid Crash neckbreaker, then tries Rainmaker, but SANADA counters into Skull End, which Okada flips out of after climbing the ropes, and hits a Tombstone. He tries another Rainmaker, but SANADA again blocks it, this time catching him in Keiji Muto’s Dragon Neck Screw off the ropes. They engage in a great forearm and European uppercut exchange, before Okada wipes Cold Skull out with his patented drop kick. Another Rainmaker is turned into Skull End again, but Okada escapes, only for SANADA to hit a Tiger Suplex for a near fall. SANADA lands on his feet after Okada moved from a Moonsault attempt, but manages to lock in Skull End. This time, Okada counters into two Rainmakers, then tries a third, but SANADA hits one of his own which blew the roof off the EDION Arena. After 25 minutes of action, SANADA locks in Skull End once more, this time for a long time, and Okada starts to fade. Red Shoes Unno was fantastic here, selling that Okada might be out and the he was going to stop it, but Okada begins fighting back as the final two minutes are called. SANADA releases Skull End, then tries the Moonsault, but the IWGP Champion gets the knees up. At this point you got the feeling like this was definitely ending in a time limit draw. Final minute, and Okada hits another dropkick, then tries another Rainmaker, but SANADA counters into a pop-up Ace Crusher. With 30 seconds left SANADA hits a Moonsault to the back, and another to the front to score his first win ever over Okada at the 29:47 mark. This was superb stuff with off the charts tension and drama. SANADA cut a promo in the post match saying he loved Osaka to send everyone home happy.

The B Block show on the 14th couldn’t possibly hope to follow that show, but it was still a really good night of G1 action. Firstly, Block action began with Tomohiro Ishii pinning fellow CHAOS stablemate Toru Yano with the Brainbuster in a great 9:36 match-up. This was Yano’s best match of the tournament, even if it probably was Ishii’s weakest, and was just super entertaining throughout. Yano kept trying to steal wins with cradles and roll-up’s and Ishii would constantly prevent Yano from hitting his low blows and shenanigans, destroying him with chops and forearms in the process. The Stone Pitbull finally hit the Sliding Lariat and the Vertical Drop for the win and the 2 points, meaning he’s ver much still alive in this thing. Taichi defeated Juice in a deathly boring 12 minute outing next. I didn’t like this at all, and reached a crescendo of ref bumps and interference, before spat whiskey in Juice’s eyes and scored the pin with Black Mephisto. Whatever. 

Hirooki Goto and Jeff Cobb clashed next. This match too was just there, much like their uber disappointing NEVER Title match at the Cow Palace last year. On paper, these guys should have great matches togerther, however, they never click at all. The work was ultimately good, but it was just missing something, I feel. Goto scored the win at the 11:20 mark after hitting the Ushigoroshi into the Final Cut, then the GTR to get the 2 points. The Jay White/Jon Moxley match that followed, whilst very good, was another disappointment. Once again, there was just too much bullshit and shenanigans for my liking. There was a lot of stalling, a lot of interference, and the token ref bumps, all of which helped to dilute what should have been a very heated match, even if the closing stretch did save it somewhat. Moxley worked over Jay’s knee, locking on the Cloverleaf and an STF, before Jay came back with the suplex into the corner, a Saito suplex and the Deadlift German (which Moxley barely got over on), for a near fall. The Urinage gets a near fall for White, before Mox fires back with his release vertical suplex, which looked great. He then hit the Regal Knee Trembler, and a double arm DDT for a near fall, before White bumped the ref (yawn), and Gedo ran in and nailed Moxley with the brass knuckles. White then hit two sleeper suplexes, a cross arm Bloody Sunday, and the match-winning Blade Runner to end this at the 15:15 mark. I’m a big Jay White fan, I think he’s great and has a superstar aura, and I know they’re protected Moxley something fierce, but really, this sort of stuff does nobody any favours.

Thank God then for the main event, which was tremendous. L.I.J. exploded as Tetsuya Naito took on Shingo Takagi in a fantastic battle. Naito took an incredible beating here, and even though he won, he put Shingo over huge. This couldn’t really have gone any better, and came across like a classic G1 outing. They started with a nice chain wresting and feeling out process, but then Naito spat in Takagi’s face, which lit a fire under the Dragon. Shingo proceeded to destroy his stablemate with some of the hardest Lariats you’ll ever see. He countered a Tornado DDT into a Death Valley Bomb, then tried to cave in Naito’s chest with the Tenryu elbow off the top. Naito escaped a sliding lariat attempt, and hits an enzugiri. He tries the second rope reverse rana, but Shingo escapes and hits Noshigami. Naito counters a Pumping Bomber with a Koppo Kick, then hits Gloria for a near fall. Shingo hits a nasty looking Wheelbarrow German into the corner, then tries the super Death Valley Bomb off the second, which Naito turns into a Frankensteiner. Naito hits the reverse rana, but in trying a Destino, he runs straight into an ungodly Lariat, which looked like it killed him. A Made In Japan attempt is turned into a Dragon Suplex by Naito, but Shingo finally hits M.I.J. for a great near fall, followed by a Pumping Bomber, which decimates Naito, for another near fall. Last Of The Dragon is turned into Destino. They have a strike exchange, which Takagi obviously wins, crumpling Naito with a headbutt, but Naito hits a brainbuster out of nowhere for the double down. Naito hits a Canadian Destroyer, then Destino, but Shingo kicks out at 2.9! Another Destino follows, and Naito finally puts Shingo away at the 27:15 mark. This was fanatastic, and had a great backstory with both guys training at Animal Hamaguchi’s gym as teenagers, and being rivals. The ending was never really in any doubt, and even though I’d have preferred Shingo to have won this, he lost nothing in defeat, in fact he gained everything in that it was very similar to the Nakamura vs. Ibushi G1 23 match at this very building, which was a star making turn for Ibushi.

After this, the standings are that only Okada, Ibushi and EVIL are alive in the A Block (though KENTA holds a tie breaker over Ibushi and EVIL), so only one of those could realistically win, whereas the B BLock has Moxley in the lead, and a whole log jam of guys tied at 8 points. Those being Naito, Jay White, Ishii and Goto.

NDT

[the-sanders-sides]

Stereotypical High School Movie AU

a/n: Hey! So, I’ve been writing this fic on and off for almost two years now and I never really posted it on tumblr and mostly kept it on ao3, so I thought I’d do one big compilation post of the fic so far, so here it is! ps. the writing is kinda bad in the beginning but i promise it gets better later on

word count:  17275 chapters: 20 out of 30-ish ao3 link

Tags/Warnings: Endgame Prinxiety | Patton | Virgil | Logan | Roman | Deceit | Bullying | Angst | Panic Attack | Slow Burn | Friends to Enemies to Friends to Lovers | Fist Fights | Teacher Patton | LGBT Themes | Coming Out | Being Outed | Neophobia

Chapter 1

Virgil threw his alarm clock across the room, because the snooze button was just not working. He buried himself back underneath his dark blankets. But the damn thing would not shut up. What the hell did Logan do to it now? He tried to ignore the noise, but it kept gettING LOUDER. With an annoyed groan, Virgil got out of bed, picked up the red clock, and was about to chuck it out the window, until he saw Logan walk up to the door of his house.  

Virgil sighed as put on some random clothes, and headed down to open the door for Logan. “What the hell did you do my freaking alarm clock?!” Virgil was seething.

“Well, we have about twenty minutes until school starts, and it’s a five minute walk. And see I want to learn, but there is no way I’m going there without someone else who is also able to think and not be a complete dolt. So I reprogrammed your alarm to wake you up at the time where you can get the most sleep and still be ready,” Logan stated flatly, “Now go brush your teeth and put on some deodorant, you smell atrocious.”

“I feel atrocious. You know I was planning to just skip today, since my dad is out of town on business and I’m home alone, but I guess not.” Virgil replied.

“Anx c’mon, it’ll only be worse if you don’t show up. You’ll have a ton of work to catch up on, and people are going to be more callous when you do finally show up.” Logan pleaded.

“Ugh fine, you win.” And with that Virgil trudged away and finished getting ready, and left to walk to school with his only, and relatively new, friend.  On their daily walk to hell that started a few months ago, it was well established how much Virgil hated school and how much Logan hated the people at their school. Both of which, would be proved as soon as they walked in.

“Hey you fucking nerd!” someone yelled as Logan was slammed into the lockers. Logan sighed and kept walking on. “Hey, you fucking pansy, not gonna do anything, too afraid to fight?” And to this Logan squared his shoulders and looked in the eye of the other and flatly said, “You know, you really shouldn’t mess with ‘nerds’.  I hacked into the school wifi, found your IP address, and let’s just say your computer will not be functioning the way you want it to anymore. I don’t take shit from anyone, and I don’t fight in ways I know I can’t win, because unlike you I’m smart.”

The bully started cracking his knuckles, “Oh you are so gonna get it.” Virgil pushed Logan out of the way and rolled up his sleeves. “He might not be able to fight, but I can. This is my ‘fuck you, asshole’ for everything.”

The bully scoffed, “That’s funny, you actually think you can beat me pipsqueak.” Virgil, unable to reach the taller one’s face, punched him hard in the gut, and immediately threw his hands back up into defense. He had his stance wide and was bouncing on his toes to keep the movement flowing. He was so glad Logan showed him all those taekwondo videos so he could finally get some payback. Anxiety used his left hand to block a punch from the other and retaliated with a rising kick. Anxiety decked the bully in the face with Anxiety’s foot. Anxiety spoke, “You’re insults used to be good. Now they’re nothing more than lines taken from the stereotypical anti-bullying videos they show us in assemblies.” Anxiety made to walk away and high-five Logan, when he was picked up and slammed into the floor like a rag doll. All Anxiety thought during that moment was that he really needed to eat more.  Virgil started to feel dizzy. He was seeing double and his hearing was foggy. Well shit, I’m definitely passing out and now this guy is going to beat Logan to a pulp. I need to be… I need to be… Virgil's eyes shut and he was unconscious.

In the blur of what just happened, Logan was on the floor next to Virgil checking for a pulse. He saw someone in red and white clothing pull a teacher out of a classroom. He was searching for the pulse, he was placing his hand on Virgil's wrist, on his neck, but his hands were shaking too much. Logan felt himself get pulled aside by a teacher in a blue shirt. He heard a stern, “Go to the principal’s office NOW,” as the blue clad teacher pointed in a direction, probably to a person. Logan noticed how hard he was breathing, how he couldn’t seem to keep up with everything going on around himself. He knew during the fight, some people had circled around them, but now everyone was in chaos. He looked to floor for Anxiety’s body and couldn’t find him. Where is he? Where is he? Logan was looking everywhere through the hall. I never should have encouraged him to learn how to fight. This is on me now…. There he is! The teacher in blue was carrying Virgil somewhere. Logan followed. He walked only a short distance through the halls, but it seemed to last a millennia. The teacher stopped at the nurse’s office. Logan walked inside, and was… being guided to one of the sick beds? Wait, what are they doing? He whispered, “I’m fine… Ta..ke care of Anx…He needs it..” Logan’s breathing was worse. Someone was in front of him and said something, but he wasn’t sure what. He asked where Virgil was and whoever this blue teacher was entered his vision and pointed to a bed next to Logan. Oh thank goodness, Virgil's safe. Finally knowing that his friend was in good hands, Logan collapsed and fell asleep, as his body was too exhausted after the panic attack to keep him awake.

Chapter 2

Virgil opened his eyes and the world was a blur. His head throbbed and his body ached. He rubbed his eyes and the world got clearer. He noticed the blue beds of the nurse’s office. I wonder who…took me here… I hope… Log- Virgil immediately sat up and said, “Where’s Logan? Is he alright?” Someone who Virgil assumed was the nurse rushed into the room. “Oh good, you’re awake. Your friend is okay, we sent him home for the day.”

This alarmed Virgil. “What happened to Logan!? What did those punks do to him??”

“Sweetie, relax. He’s fine now. He had a panic attack earlier. How are you feeling? You will need to go to a doctor to check if you are concussed. I’ll call your parent or guardian to pick you up and take you there.”

“My dad is out of town. I’ll get a taxi or have a friend drive me there.” Like hell I’m going to the hospital. Dad’s never gonna find out about this, if he does, then boy am I in trouble, and there’s no way we can afford the hospital bills either. I’ll just… get Logan to check it out. He’ll know what to do.

The nurse looked nervous about this, but agreed nonetheless, “Okay, well before you go, you might want to clean up in the bathroom.”

Virgil followed her instruction, only because of the close watch she was keeping on him, and walked into the bathroom. He looked at his face and saw he had a split lip. As he moved forward to look closer at himself in the mirror, his body hurt with every slight motion to complete the movement. Virgil lifted up his jacket and his shirt and saw his skin in various shades of gruesome. Black and blue splotches were pounded into his torso, and he assumed the rest of his body was that way too. Damn, that suplex was powerful. These bruises are going to be so annoying. Virgil leant over the sink to examine his face more carefully. Seeing as nothing else was wrong he fixed his hair and splashed water on his face. “You can do this,” Virgil pointed at himself in the mirror and kept speaking, “Endure the pain and go to Logan’s house. Then, never go to school again.” As Virgil exited the bathroom of the nurse’s office he said, under his breath, “Ugh, who the hell am I kidding, I’m probably gonna be way too anxious about trying to skip anyway. Dad would murder me if the school called, even if I forged his voice in a call to school. I’m glad Logan got me out of that situation this morning.” As he left the nurse’s office, Virgil saw that the halls were mostly deserted except for those who had free periods.

Roman had a free period, so he walked to where his ‘friends’ and he eat lunch. Goodness, he hated those ‘friends’. But he couldn’t get away from them. Roman was the star of the school, as many adults liked to say in their I-am-talking-to-a-teenager-so-it-is-time-to-be-condescending voice.  Roman seemed to have a shining self-confidence, as it looked as though he accepted his flaws. He had good grades. He would star in the school play every year, and after a friend pushing him in ninth grade even though he detested sports back then, he joined the track and field team and he shattered records.  He found he really liked running too. So people began to flock to him near the end of ninth grade, as he became more known throughout the school. But people didn’t care to like him for him. The people just wanted a false confidence built from the idea of popularity that would somehow come from being Roman’s friend. As much as he tried to get away from those people, he couldn’t. This led to him losing some good friends, for his new ‘friends’ would push the old ones away no matter what Roman would say, because all of the ‘friends’ were total dicks and bullies.

Roman sighed as reminisced, goodness he hated the people around him. And as much as Roman tried to be a good person, he was afraid of standing up for himself and others to his ‘friends’. And he was damn ashamed of that. As his thoughts ended, he reached his ‘friends’ at the first hallway after the entrance to the school and put on a façade of security and nonchalance.

It took Virgil a while to reach the front of the school. He was currently nearing the first hallway after the entrance to the school when he heard a conversation that made him stop and listen. He heard some voices he thought he recognized as the bullies (also known to Virgil and Logan as roaches) and peered around the corner to see them talking in the hallway. Virgil turned back around and was going to exit the school another way as to avoid those roaches when he heard the worst roach, Roman, talk.

“Oh, I only told Mr. Patton there was a fight happening so only the ones actually fighting would get in trouble, and we wouldn’t for being bystanders or whatever. Damage control.”

VIrgil was seething with rage. He hated Roman. He despised Roman. He could never forgive Roman. Virgil wanted to step on and crush that roach the most.

Chapter 3

To avoid the roaches and not get beat up some more, Virgil promptly turned on his heel and walked all the way across the school to the back exit. Once he left the school, he walked to Logan’s house. Virgil didn’t even bother knocking on the front door, he just walked around to the side of the house where a window to Logan’s room was located and climbed into the room through the window. Logan had been sitting at a desk and was typing code, occasionally pausing to write things down when he couldn’t figure out what to type next. Virgil stood behind where Logan was seated with his eyes downcast for a couple minutes. After realizing Logan was too immersed in what he was doing to have noticed Virgil's presence, Virgil walked up to Logan, put a hand on his shoulder, and spoke.

“Hey, whatcha typing?”

“Holy shit!” Logan jumped up from his seat, clearly startled, “Warn me next time! Oh my god…” Virgil grinned.

“Would ya look at that? You’re picking up some words from me.” Logan rolled his eyes and Virgil, feigning shock, declared: “The prim Logan, swearing? I am appalled young man.”

“Anyway, what are you typing?”

“Remember this morning how I said I hacked into that roach’s laptop earlier today? I never actually did that, so after I was kicked out of the nurse’s office because apparently, I was ‘crowding you’ and that ‘wouldn’t help you’, which makes no sense, I hacked into the school’s wifi to get the roach’s IP address, and now I’m just double checking my code for sending a porn virus to his laptop.” Virgil high-fived Logan.

“Firstly, you’re amazing and now you’re my hero for going through with that. Secondly, how are you? Are you alright? I heard you had a panic attack.”

“I’m fine now. I should be the one asking you if you’re okay.”

“I’m… I dunno if I'm alright. I might be concussed,” Virgil said nonchalantly.

“Anxiety! You’ve got to go to a doctor or go to the hospital!”

“Well, you’re basically a doctor with all the medical stuff you know, so give me a diagnosis.” Logan glared at Virgil, but decided that Virgil getting help from Logan was better than Virgil not getting any help at all, so Logan went along with it. Logan asked Virgil some questions and Virgil mentioned his headache. Logan eventually decided that Virgil was okay, but told Virgil to not try and fight for a week or two. That was also Logan’s way of protecting Virgil, for Logan felt immensely guilty after Virgil got hurt because it was originally Logan’s idea for Virgil to learn to fight. Logan sent his hack to the roach’s computer, and Virgil flopped on Logan’s bed.

“Roman’s an ass,” Virgil said in a defeated tone.

“I know.”

“I don’t want to see a roach ever again,” Virgil suddenly sat up, “Logan, how can I stomp out the roaches?”

“Well, you would need a giant shoe filled with weights to fall on them.” Virgil rolled his eyes.

“Hey, that’s actually a good idea! We should totally do it!”

“That would kill them.”

“You need to learn what sarcasm means. And what figures of speech are. Stop taking me literally all the time. You know what I meant.” Now it was Logan’s turn to roll his eyes, but he nevertheless gave Virgil the answer that he was looking for.

“Well, if we want to ‘stomp on the roaches’ we have to make them lose the power they have over us and others. People don’t want to get hurt by the roaches so they uncomfortably watch as anyone who dares to get in their way gets pummeled and humiliated. We need to dismantle that fear. We also need to give them some payback. Preferably, anonymous payback, so we don’t get suspended or expelled.”

“You know I’m down for this, but what’s your reason for doing the payback? It doesn’t exactly have a… point in the plan, and if I know you, you don’t do things without a reason.” Logan smirked.

“Oh… it’s just for fun.”

Chapter 4

“So, there are 4 roaches. The big, buff one that suplexed you got suspended so we don’t have to worry about him,” Logan said as he grabbed a notebook and pen, and titled the page ‘Roaches’. “So I don’t know too much about them, except for Roman. All I know about the other roaches is what they look like and that they’re garbage. Considering you were in middle school with these dunderheads, you have got to have some knowledge about things they do that are reputation ruining, right?”

Virgil responded with a grin, “Hell yeah I do.  So Charlotte, ya know the girl with the long black hair and dark skin, I’m pretty sure her record is 4 boyfriends and 2 girlfriends a single month. She keeps her relationship on the down low, because her parent would kill her if they found out. ‘specially since she’s too busy making out with them and skipping class to work. So she end up threatening people for their homework and notes before class. I walked in on her kissing Rashmi, and she broke up with her right then and there. Rashmi was sobbing. It was awful. And then Charlotte tried to kiss me so I wouldn’t say anything about it.”

“What did you do?” Logan asked quietly, as he rushed to write what Virgil said.

“Oh, I grabbed Rashmi and ran away with her. She hugged me as she cried and ended up telling me about the romantic escapades of Charlotte. Charlotte’s a real bitch. Apparently right before I walked in, Rashmi was confronting Charlotte of whether or not the relationship meant anything to Charlotte since Rashmi had just found out about all the quick heartbreaks Charlotte caused. This happened last April so I don’t know if Charlotte still does this, but it’s something we could use against her.”

“And the last one is Wynne. They’re the manipulative little piece of shit that has the worst self-esteem I’ve ever seen,” Virgil saw Logan raise his eyebrows, “Yeah, even worse than mine. So you know what they do? They’re kinda like Regina George. They whisper snide comments about people, just in their range of hearing.” Virgil started to get more and more heated up about Wynne. His hatred for this person was making him breathe heavier, talk faster, and well tears. “They give people ‘cute’ nicknames and false compliments and laugh about it later in their face. Wynne is the asshat that drove my only friend away from me and-”

A tear slid down Virgil’s cheek. His hands were balled in fists and his knuckles were turning white. Logan dropped the notebook and brought Virgil into a very awkward hug.

“I know I’m not the best at the whole comforting thing, but is this good?”

Virgil weakly chuckled. “Yeah it’s great,” Virgil moved away from Logan and looked him in the eye, “All that stuff with Wynne and Roman, it’s in the past. I… have you now, right?

“Yes, you do. And there is no way I’m ever going to be turned into a roach like him.”

Chapter 5

The next day Logan and Virgil walked confidently to school, as both knew the first part of the plan was going to be starting. However, when they walked through the double doors of the school, Virgil’s confidence dissipated quickly, and Logan’s faltered. All eyes had turned to them. Many looked shocked, and some looked sympathetic. The two were confused until they heard yelling coming from down the hallway.

“How the hell was I supposed to know that fucking nerd Logan was stupid enough to try and send a porn virus to your computer? How was I even supposed to stop him? Beat him up some more with Mr. Patton right there in front of me? You’re such an idiot, Nurul!”

The yelling paused. Virgil and Logan looked at each other in recognition of what was happening. The voice, which sounded like Wynne’s, was talking to Nurul, who apparently was the big, beefy guy who beat up Virgil, on the phone. Logan spoke in disbelief, “The porn virus… worked!” Virgil nodded enthusiastically.

“Listen, Nurul. It’s not my fault you have some insane urge to pick a fight with those bastards every time you see them! You know what just stay the hell away from me, from us actually, if you’re going to be like this and blame your mistakes on me!”

There was another pause before Wynne started yelling again. “Yeah, thank your parents for me for taking your phone away. I don’t think I could take another second of you. I can’t wait to see you next week. You’ll have an incredibly warm welcome. Goodbye.”

Wynne tapped end call and roughly shoved their phone into their pocket. Once they saw everyone looking at them, they gruffly yelled, “What the hell are all of you staring at? Do you want me to destroy you? HUH? DO YOU?”

Just then, Mr. Patton walked by and overheard the outburst. “Wynne Ellis. How could you speak to your peers in such a manner? Detention. After school.” Wynne gave a grunt of acknowledgement, and frustratedly stormed off.

Virgil burst into laughter. He doubled over and was clutching his stomach. Logan laughed a little bit too and said, “Virgil, I wasn’t even sure if the porn virus and the suspension would be enough to deal with Nurul! Oh my goodness, this worked out so much better than I thought!”

Virgil responded, barely able to breathe from his laughter, “Lo- Logan, you’re g- genius! We do- don’t hav’ta pput him in the pplan! Holy crap. I- I don’t thi- think I’ve laughed tthis hard in ages!”

The two stayed laughing like that in the hallway until the first bell rang. They didn’t care if anyone looked at them weirdly or sent a snide remark to them. They didn’t care about the repercussions of their actions. Right now, they were happy.

Chapter 6

School actually went smoothly for once that day. Wynne was seething all day, and was too busy trying to get out of detention to instigate any problems. The rest of the school seemed to discretely bow down to Logan and Virgil that day for what they pulled off. When school finished, the pair went to Logan’s home to continue Operation: Roach Stomp! Next up… Charlotte!!!

Virgil sat on Logan’s swivel chair that Logan kept next to his desk and spun around. Logan sat at the edge of his bed.

“So, Charlotte now right?” Virgil asked.

“Exactly, and I have an idea of what exactly to do. It’ll just take a bit of time and maybe a bribe,” Logan said smirking, confidence and doubt both echoed in his voice.

“Time and bribery,” Virgil repeated.

“Yup, time and bribery.”

“Okaaaay… What’s your idea?” Virgil said skeptically.

“So, we find out who Charlotte’s new partner is, we tell that partner about the constant heartbreaks and use Rashmi as a source if the new partner doesn’t believe us, and then we get the new partner to go to Charlotte’s parents and tell them about the relationships and the homework stealing and be all like ‘Oh, I’m so concerned about Charlotte because I care about her so much, I just wanted to talk to you guys to make it better…” And then Charlotte’s parents will be pissed and boom. She’s grounded.”

“Where the hell does the bribery come in?”

“If the partner or Rashmi doesn’t agree.”

“Alright,” Virgil said, “Let’s do this.”

At school the next day, Logan and Virgil took turns tailing and watching Charlotte, until they found her partner. It was unsuccessful, in that they didn’t find Charlotte’s new partner. Thankfully, though, Virgil had more than one trick up his sleeve. It happened during Charlotte’s and Virgil’s free period. Her false, falsetto, sweet as saccharine voice called out to Virgil when the two were alone. He was on his phone, pretending like he was just scrolling though social media, and she was facing away from him across the hall.

“Hey, honey~ I’ve noticed you seem interested in me today. Hm… do you remember,” she turned around, an almost sadistic grin plastered on her face, “when I kissed you all that time ago?” She started to approach him, “Are you back for more?” Virgil looked her in the eye. He smirked.

“So it is true that you don’t have a current partner,” he checked her out, “Lucky me.” She lightly pinned Virgil to the wall, and gave him a chaste kiss that lasted barely a moment.

“The rumors were false, then. You aren’t gay. Mmm, I’m going to enjoy this.” As she leant in towards Virgil, he felt the world go in slow motion. He froze. He thought he had denied the rumors enough for everyone to believe that he was straight. What made them spread again? He was ten miles deep into the closet and only one other should know. He feigned a smirk.

“Haha, yeah, I do not know where these new tales are coming from,” he said, desperately trying to cover up his moment of character breaking.

“Don’t worry, babe, we’ll put an end to what lil ol' Roman spread right now.” The pair’s lips collided. Virgil kissed back through his anger at Roman, and it seemed that Charlotte rather enjoyed that. Charlotte broke the kiss and scanned over the hall they were in for a storage closet. She took Virgil’s hand and pulled him into one a little bit away, and locked the door.

Their mouths collided again, and it wasn’t anything special. Just another person to add to Charlotte’s belt, and just a fake kiss for Virgil. It wasn’t fireworks, well it never is, but Virgil did think it was better when it was with someone he loved. Anger started bubbling up in Virgil once more at the thought of the betrayal he went through with his only other partner, and that anger made the kiss more heated. Charlotte took that as an entrance to slip her tongue into his mouth. He didn’t like it, but what was he supposed to do? If Charlotte didn’t have a partner, well, this was the only way to make the plan work.

They were both equally taking advantage of each other.

The first bell rang, signaling the end of the period. Virgil and Charlotte pulled away. Virgil wiped the wetness form his mouth with his jacket sleeve.

“Damn, Anxiety, if I’d known how great of a kisser you were, I wouldn’t have let you go that day.”

“I- Uh- Only one person is allowed to use that nickname anymore, and that isn’t you. Call me babe or some other couple’s pet name instead.”

“Well, babe, join me at lunch tomorrow, why don’t ya?”

“Sure thing, Charlotte.”

Charlotte fixed her hair and clothing, and left the closet, telling Virgil to leave later as to not arise suspicion from a teacher.

Well, one thing was for sure, Virgil was not coming out of the closet.

Chapter 7

“Verge, you did what!?”

“Chill out, Logan, it’s all part of the plan,” Virgil tapped his finger to his head, “Remember?”

“I know it is part of the plan, but this is really risky! The backlash of this could be horrific!” Virgil sighed, and looked around Logan’s bedroom, thinking of what to say.

“Well, I can’t exactly stop now. That’ll be worse. I’ll just keep pretending to like kissing her,” Virgil said, laughing at that last part. Logan relented.

“Ugh, fine. Do it. But you better be a damn good actor. And control your anger at lunch tomorrow. You can’t blow up at Wynne or Roman just yet.” Virgil grinned.

“Oh, but I sure can blow up at Charlotte. She likes it when I get angry. When we were making out yesterday I’d get pissed off thinking about the damned roaches, and she’d just like that more. She’s… she’s really something.” Logan threw a pillow at Virgil.  Virgil cocked an eyebrow.

“Jealous much, Logan?” Logan glared at Virgil.

“Falsehood. I could never be jealous of Charlotte and her cheating ways.”

“In more ways than one. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if she already dumped me and moved on,” Virgil chuckled, “I wonder how the fucking drama queen is gonna handle finding out I’m Charlotte’s latest boy toy.”

+

Logan glanced at Virgil at the end of their last class before lunch, and Virgil gave him a discreet thumbs up. Charlotte sauntered up to Virgil’s desk and sat on it when the bell rang.

“So babe, go get your lunch with your nerdy dweeb friend and I’ll call you over to my table after,” she planted a kiss on his cheek and whispered in his ear, “Hmm… I cannot wait for our free period…”

“Me neither, Char, me neither. See you later,” Virgil said in a rather seductive manner and winked. Once he and Logan were out of the classroom, Virgil breathed a sigh of relief. “Man, my acting has really gotten better since middle school. Sorry she called you a nerdy dweeb, dude. I mean, she’s not wrong, but only I can say it.” Logan lightly elbowed Virgil.

The two bought their lunches, and soon after Charlotte took Virgil to the lunch table where the roaches generally sit. Virgil eyed Logan wearily as he walked to the other table, and Logan gave him a smile of assurance.  

Charlotte sauntered up to the roach table, and sat down at the table with Virgil next to her, holding her hand. On the other side of the table was Wynne and Roman. He was in the roaches’ domain now. Well, the roaches-minus-the-suspended-Nurul’s domain.

Upon seeing Virgil, Wynne burst out laughter. Gasping for breath, from whatever was so funny, he spoke: “Ch-Charlotte, haha, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Him? You can do, hahaha, so much better.”

“Yeah, and aren’t you gay, Anxiety?” Roman added, looking at Virgil for the first time since he sat down with the roaches. Virgil looked at Roman with a downright murderous glare.

“What the fuck. No. I’m not gay. I don’t know what got in your head and twisted your memory, Princey, but I am not gay. And don’t call me Anxiety,” Virgil said curtly. Charlotte looked at Virgil and smirked.

“Yeah, and he loves making out with me, don’t ya babe?”  She asked. Virgil smirked, and made eye contact with Charlotte.

“Mm, I just cannot wait ‘till our free period…”

“You’ve sure changed,” Roman said, raising his eyebrows. Virgil felt his blood boil. He knew for the sake of the plan, that he had to stay calm, but he couldn’t—not when dealing with Roman, at least.

“Go to hell,” Virgil all but spat at Roman.

“Woah, fellas, calm down. I mean all of us here know, including you Anxiety from that incident with poor ol’ Rashmi, that your “relationship” will last a week, max. Then, Charlotte will get over your pathetic ass, and everything will go back to normal. Until then, let’s be civil,” Wynne said, pretending to try and keep the peace.

“Civil, my ass. Never with you two fuckers,” Virgil yelled across the table. He gathered his stuff, told Charlotte to meet him outside of janitor’s closet, and stormed off.

Chapter 8

Virgil stormed outside the cafeteria and exited to the back of the school. He zipped up his black hoodie as the first of the coming winter’s winds crashed upon him. Virgil leant against a wall and felt the emotional turmoil of being around Roman and Wynne rise up. He pulled out his cell phone and sent a text to Logan.

               Sorry Logan, I blew up at them.

               I didn’t mean to, it just happened.

               I can’t stand them.

Logan replied a few minutes later.

               it’s ok verge

               it’s possible we cud use this 2 our advantage

               but more importantly

               r u ok?

Virgil sent only one more text; he put his phone away afterwards.

               I’m not. They’re assholes. I’m behind the school. I think I just want to be alone right now, though.

Virgil stayed in his spot, leaning behind the school for the rest of the lunch period, trying to calm down and reflecting on everything that occurred. He realized that maybe Roman was trying to be civil? But that didn’t mean he was excused for everything that happened between them. It was too much. Roman was too much. Why did Roman ruin everything?

The bell signaling the end of lunch rang. Virgil sighed. Well, time for a fun free period of making out with a person he doesn’t like. Virgil chuckled to himself at that thought.

Later that day, on their walk home from school, Virgil fully explained what happened. Logan responded only with a sigh and a pat on the back for comfort.

“It’s okay Virgil. This isn’t a complete disaster. We’ll just continue on with the plan as usual, and take Charlotte down. At least now we know for sure we weren’t just being complete dicks and all this is justified,” Logan said in a partial monotone. Virgil darkly chuckled.

“Your morals are very loose, because there is no way in hell fucking with people is ever justified no matter what they did. At least we’re owning how shitty we are, unlike those fucks who pretend to be nice and are actually just passive aggressive demons.” Logan stopped walking and turned to face Virgil. Virgil followed suit.

“Anxiety, what have I told you about putting yourself down, hm? We aren’t like them. Yes, what we’re doing is pretty crappy, but it’s for the greater good, ya know? No one likes the roaches and no one will bring them down because of the fear they strike in people. No one wants to end up like us. So we’re just doing justice…” Logan trailed off, losing his train of thought.  Virgil crossed his arms.

“C’mon you nerd, I know you’ve read books. Doing bad things for the so called ‘greater good’ is never good,” Virgil said, starting up his walking again, as Logan followed him.

“No way. Without Dumbeldore working for the ‘greater good,’ Harry Potter would never have been able to defeat Voldemort in the first book, since he wouldn’t have had the love protection due to the blood relation with Petunia.”

“Petunia was an abusive aunt! He was knowingly placed in an abusive family for ten years after his parents were killed! How was that worth it!?”

“Better only one person gets hurt than many more killed by Voldemort.” Virgil threw his hands up.

“What the fuck! It’s better no one gets hurt! You know what, I know I was all for it at the beginning, but honestly lunch made me realize how I have no one to blame but myself. I was the one who provoked Roman. I was the one who decided to take advantage of Charlotte. I was the one who wanted to stomp out the roaches in the first place! I’m the asshole! Greater good my ass…”

“You know what, Virgil? You’re right. You did provoke Roman; you did take advantage of Charlotte; and you were the one who proposed stomping out the roaches. But do you want to know something else? Roman was the first to provoke you two years ago. Charlotte is taking advantage of you right now. You’re just another notch on her belt. And you’re not the only one who’s wanted to stomp out the roaches. Don’t you see it? People have noticed what we’re doing, well they noticed what we did to Nurul, and they’re glad. Everyone is getting what they deserved.”

“Hhhhhhhh. It still doesn’t feel right to me…”

“Anxiety, you're overthinking this," Logan nudged Virgil with his elbow, "Hey, how about we ask Mr. Patton tomorrow about the greater good? He probably knows a lot about morals considering he’s constantly talking about them in the books we read for class,” Logan suggested.

“Fine,” Virgil sighed, finally relenting to something Logan was saying, “But I’m not going to continue with the plan until we do that.”

Chapter 9

The bell rang signaling the end of Mr. Patton’s English class. Virgil stretched when he got up, and groaned as the bruises from being suplexed weren’t fully gone yet. At least it was time for lunch.

Logan got up and walked over to Virgil. “So, Anx, do you want to ask about the greater good now?” Virgil shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. The pair walked over to Mr. Patton’s desk at the front of the room and waited there as the room cleared. Once it was just the three of them in the room, Virgil cleared his throat and spoke.

“Um Mr. Patton, we, uh, wanted to ask ya ‘bout the, um, greater good?” Virgil asked, his mouth becoming dry from the nervousness of socialization with someone new. Mr. Patton grinned.

“Oh well sure thing, kiddos! Do you guys just wanna know about it in general or something specific?” Logan pushed up his glasses.

“We wanted to know if doing something for the greater good justifies the means of doing it. For example, how Dumbledore put Harry in an abusive home so he could defeat Voldemort,” Logan said. Mr. Patton sighed.

“Aw, well shucks you two, this sure is a tough moral dilemma. But hey, that’s why they call me,” Mr. Patton pointed a thumb to himself, “Mr. Patton—it’s short for Morality Patton!” Logan deadpanned and Virgil suppressed a laugh. Mr. Patton coughed into his hand. “Tough crowd… Well anyway, the greater good is a very tough thing to dissect. There's a human part of us that wants justice in all situations, but unfortunately the human part is the fallible part, so when we want something 'done right' it's subject to our skew-whiff definition of 'right', and we end up doing things, like you said Logan with your Harry Potter example, 'for the greater good' that aren't good at all. This is my favorite kind of conflict to read and teach; the morally grey stuff where nobody's innocent.” Logan looked disappointed.

“So that would make someone bad if they tried to do something for the greater good?” Virgil asked, with his eyes averting from any possible eye contact.

“Well, it’s not quite that simple. In most media, if there's a 'it's for the greater good!'/'eye-for-an-eye!!' kind of a thing, none of the characters seem aware of it at all. They justify it blindly in their own minds and it never occurs to them that what they're doing is just as bad as or worse than what's been done to them; they've been wronged, so they get a free shot back. And that's just how it is. When we analyze books with the greater good as a prevailing theme, we need to ask ourselves some questions. Do the characters really have any right to get back at whoever wronged them? By getting revenge, are they just turning into the people who wronged them? So really, it’s up to the readers to decide if a character is bad or good,” Mr. Patton said.

Man, this guy is smart. Why isn’t he a college professor, Logan thought.

“Thank you, Mr. Patton. This information is very useful. I will be able to read books much better now,” Logan said. Mr. Patton nodded and smiled. Logan and Virgil made to leave the room.

“Have a good lunch and thanks for puddin’ up with me and my long winded explanation,” Mr. Patton called out with a wave. Virgil snorted and Logan facepalmed.

“It was a good explanation, Mr. Patton,” Logan said, as the two teenagers left the classroom and closed the door.

Chapter 10

Virgil’s eyes traced the floor, his head angled downward, as he breathed smoothly. Outside of the classroom, Logan faced Virgil.

“Anx, I- Virgil look at me,” Logan said forehead creased with concern. Virgil moved his head upwards and his eyes met Logan’s. “It pains me to say this, but,” Logan shut his eyes tightly, “I WAS WRONG!” he yelled, having to force the words out. Logan let out a small chuckle looked around. Virgil had flinched from Logan’s volume, but he was stunned for Logan’s confession. “You were right.  We aren’t doing this right,” Logan said despite his struggle to speak this for how it hurt his pride. “I still don’t fully agree that the plan is morally wrong, but I- I trust Mr. Patton’s and your judgement better than my own,” Logan shrugged, “I’m just… not all that great with moral stuff. I often lose points when we have to analyze that in the books we read…” Logan trailed off. Virgil nodded with a small smile, and the two walked over to the lunchroom. Virgil was furiously biting his lip as the two friends sat down with their lunches.

“So, what n-”

“Logan, I’m gay!” Virgil exclaimed, cutting off whatever Logan was going to say. “It’s not just the moral stuff that was making me feel bad, I couldn’t handle dating Charlotte when it all feels so wrong for her hands to be on my body, for her to call me “babe,” and do all this coupley stuff with me. I can’t, I’m sorry,” Virgil finished, tears welling up in his eyes, shaking his head as he held it in his hands.

“Virgil, it’s alright-” Logan began, reaching a hand out to Virgil, but was abruptly cut off by something foul. Wynne loomed over Virgil with an eyebrow raised.

“Oh? Did I hear that right? You’re dating our Charlotte, and you don’t ever like her?” Wynne said aggressively. If they were an animal, they’d be snarling ferociously while Virgil would be a small, shaking prey. With eyes wide and a slightly creased forehead, Virgil slowly turned around and looked up to find Wynne smirking at him.

“Y-You didn’t hear t-that right,” Virgil squeaked, obviously panicked.

“Sure I didn’t,” Wynne said sarcastically, narrowing their eyes. Wynne roughly grabbed the collar of Virgil’s shirt and forced him forward. “Prove it then. Prove you’re not gay. Prove you like Charlotte,” Wynne growled. Virgil didn’t know what to do, terrified and frozen with fear. A chair screeched and fists slammed a lunch table.

“Let. Him. Go,” Logan asserted, standing up tall.

“Make me,” Wynne snarled. As Logan was about to jump on top of the table to get to Virgil and Wynne on the other side, out of nowhere a fourth person punched Wynne in the face.

“I’m done being a bystander and an accomplice to you,” Roman growled, shaking his fist, and walking away. Wynne’s eyes went wide and their nose crinkled in pure, unadulterated rage. They walked up to Roman and grabbed his hair so he’d turn around and face them.

“What,” Roman spat, more as a statement than a question.  Wynne shook their head.

“You. Are. Not. Done. With. Me,” Wynne said, punctuating each word with a new level of ferociousness.

“I don’t know what you did, but it became clear to me that you’re the reason Anx-Virgil doesn’t speak to me anymore when he had lunch with us the other day. I don’t know what the fuck you did, but I can gauge how bad it could be, for one little, petty disagreement wouldn’t have separated us. I thought that’s what you did to push everyone else away from me, but I was wrong. And now, I’m finally getting some fucking confidence of my own to tell you to BACK OFF,” Roman said, insanely livid.

“Ah!” Wynne shrieked, never being rejected like this. They balled their hands into fists and stormed out of the cafeteria.

Roman closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Both Virgil and Logan stood at the table, mouths agape in shock.

Chapter 11

"R-Roman?" Virgil asked cautiously, brow furrowed. "What was all that about?"

“Ah- I... I must take my leave! I, uh, have rehearsal!” Roman lied, making sure not to have eye contact with Virgil. Roman brushed past Logan and Virgil, and exited the cafeteria.

How did that just happen? How, no why, did he just do that?

Roman’s thoughts were a hurricane of confusion and emotion. It was all too much to decipher. So why not go to the auditorium and actually rehearse some lines? At least there he could deal with his character's problems, and not his own.

Roman entered the backstage of the auditorium and walked out onto the stage, script for an upcoming production of High School Musical in hand. He stood center stage, and began to sing one of his his solos. His deep, melodious voice echoed throughout the auditorium, and a spotlight shone on him. That’s strange. No one else should be here now. Except maybe...

“Deceit? What are you doing?” Roman called out to his classmate in the tech booth. A voice bellowed out of the loud speakers.

“I have a name, you know. It's Dennis Ceet.”

“Yeah, no. You made that up so you could have your edgy persona,” Roman said, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, you know what? The spotlight totally doesn’t bring out the tears in your eyes,” Deceit pouted, “And I thought Troy Bolton was a happy fella.”

“It’s an artists rendition,” Roman called out, waving his hand as he turned around. He needed to calm down. Deceit never let shit like this go.

“Man if I didn’t know any better, I’d say your in need of advice. Something's got you down, eh?” Deceit said, turning up the volume of the speakers he talked through. “Is there trouble in the oh so great Roman’s paradise?” Roman winced and covered his ears. “I mean, everyone would love to be you, since you have such great friends.” Speakers were definitely not meant to be this loud. “You’re just the epitome of this high school! Everyone envies you!” Deceit was practically yelling into the mic now. “WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? WHAT WOULD YOU NEED ADVICE ON? YOU’RE FEELING TRAPPED, I BET! GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS, ROMAN. NOT EVERYTHING’S ABOUT YOU!” Roman gritted his teeth from the sound, and fell to his knees. Now this was pain.

In the distance of his ringing ears, Roman heard the door to the tech room fall shut. Deceit had left the area physically, but his presence could still be felt in Roman's mind. Everything Deceit said was a paradox: true from the outside, wrong from the inside. A tear escaped Roman’s eye. There’s nothing Roman could do to make things right. It would’ve been better if he’d just stuck to the status quo.

Chapter 12

Logan and Virgil were perplexed by the... recent, unprecedented events at lunch. But there was unfortunately no time to dwell on that as partners were being assigned for a chemistry project. Ugh, why couldn’t teachers ever let students pick their own partners.

“With my luck, I’ll end up with Charlotte,” Virgil mumbled to Logan. Logan scoffed softly, and rolled his eyes.

“Roman! Virgil! Partner up,” the chemistry teacher called out. Virgil deadpanned at Logan, and sighed in frustration. He roughly got up from his desk and brought his stuff over to Roman’s table. Now this was just fucking fantastic. It was like the world was out to torture Virgil.

Roman’s eyes were still a tad puffy from his crying escapades, but at least he could play it off as a sad scene in rehearsal. Yup. That’s totally what it was. Hmph. Roman crossed his arms. Stupid freaking Dennis Ceet.

“Alright, let’s just get this over with as soon as possible so we can continue to avoid each other for all eternity,” Virgil huffed, crossing his arms, and blowing his bangs away from his face. Roman’s forehead creased and he looked at Virgil with soft eyes.

“I still don’t understand, Anx- Virgil. What did Wynne do? Why... why have we been driven apart?” Roman asked, steadying his shaking voice. Virgil shut his eyes tight and shook his head.

“I- H-How do you not know?! You- You were there!” Virgil whisper-yelled, eyes welling with tears. Romans eyes widened, and a frown grew on his face.

“A- Virgil. I honestly have no clue what you’re talking about. I thought we just drifted apart and Wynne sped up the process... but that lunch... It told me there was so much more than what I thought had happened,” Roman pleaded.  Virgil gritted his teeth, and pulled his hoodie sleeves over his hands to make sweater paws.

“Okay, so we have to find the pH of this first and...” Roman’s mind wandered away from the instructions Virgil was reading off. He ran a hand through his hair. Goodness, this must really have been bad if Anxiety isn’t even hiding that he wants a subject change. I need to mend this. I have to do this right. I can’t just be the person everyone envies and hates. It was never me. And this is how I’ll start to fix my image.

A hand snapped in front of Roman’s face. “Hey! Princey! Pay attention,” Vigil said rolling his eyes at, in the words of Logan, Roman’s incompetence.

“Fine... but we can’t just not talk about this, Virgil. I... I need to know what happened, and Wynne is never gonna tell me. Like a prince, I need to go for peace and make amends,” Roman pleaded, forehead creased. Virgil looked dangerously at Roman and pursed his lips.

“You. Were. There,” Virgil snarled. “Now. pH. Chop chop, this thing won’t react all by itself.”  Roman took a deep breath and complied. There was no way of getting this out of Virgil. He’d have to do something else.

At the end of the day, as students filed out of school, Roman did a rare act of hiding himself among the crowd and blending in for once. He slunk over to Mr. Patton’s classroom, and knocked on the door before entering. Mr. Patton looked up at Roman and smiled.

“What can I do for ya, kiddo? Problems with the homework?” Mr. Patton asked in his ever so kind and caring tone. Roman didn’t say a word as we walked over the table nearest Mr. Patton’s desk at the front of the room, and dragged over a chair to be directly in front of Mr. Patton's desk. Sitting down on the chair, Roman tilted his head ever so slightly, and spoke.

“Mr. Patton, I require some assistance. But not with the homework. I must know, based on the grounds of literature of course, how do characters get others to open up, when they don’t want to open up?” Mr. Patton pushed his glasses up and chuckled.

“What happened this time, Roman?” the elder asked, knowingly shaking his head. And as Roman explained the events that transpired since lunch, Mr. Patton’s smile grew so much softer.

“Hey, Roman. Kid. I’m proud of you. You finally stood up to them. It’s the bravery of a prince. And you can’t force whoever ‘Anxiety’ is to open up to you. You have to let them trust you enough again to tell you,” Mr. Patton said, nodding gently to Roman. The high schooler had been coming to Patton for advice under the presumption of books ever since he took a class with the elder in tenth grade. It wasn’t long until things spilled, and fake names were created for the sake of confidentiality so Roman could get some much needed advice in a quilt free fashion. All that he was going through, all the manipulation, no child should have to deal with that. And Mr. Patton was going to make sure that Roman got out of this okay. Because as a teacher, that was his job: to help his kids.

As Roman left the school that afternoon, and swung the key to his bike lock around his finger, he overheard a hushed conversation that was never meant for his ears.

“Roman’s out. For good. Charlotte, don’t look at me like that, he betrayed us! C’mon Char, he punched me,” Wynne reasoned with the taller girl, convincing her with appeals to her ever so unstable emotions.

“I just- first Nurul, then I mean it was never love for us, but then Virgil, and now Roman? All in such a short span of time? I- I’m starting to think I just shouldn’t be around boys anymore...” Charlotte chuckled weakly, the last stray tears of hers finally drying on her cheeks. Roman looked towards the conversation and that’s when it happened. A confrontation of the ages. A stare down of strength. Wynne’s and Roman’s eyes locked together as Roman continued his path towards the bikes, and Wynne's head turned to follow. The two were intertwined together, never being able to leave the other’s gaze. But when Wynne realized where Roman was heading, a wicked smile shone upon their face. They rushedly took a safety pin out of a pocket of Charlotte’s backpack, making a noncommittal remark of paying her back, and with the precision of a hawk, aimed the pin correctly for it to fly through the air, and pierce the back tire of Roman’s bike with the momentum it gained from the flight.  

Roman blinked, taken aback from this sight. He thought bike tires were stronger, but who even knows with the innovations of today. He stopped looking at Wynne, and turned to his bike instead, examining the damage. If he took the pin out, the air would deflate, but if he left it in, the bike would knock the pin out as the tires rotated. Everything felt like too much. Wynne was too much and Wynne was always there. It was always Wynne.

“WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM? WHY DO YOU RUIN ME? YOU NEVER STOP, WYNNE. WHY?” Roman cried across the mostly empty front entrance of the school. Wynne strutted over to Roman, and took the pin out of the bike.

“Oh, Roman, Roman, Roman. You know why. You were there on that day that our pal Anxiety so loathes,” Wynne put their hands on their hips and looked down at Roman, who was still crouching by his bike tires, and breathing heavily. “Now, why don’t you get out of my sight,” Wynne finished, twirling the safety pin around their fingers. Roman took a steadying breath, unlocked his bike, and walked it out of the school’s front lot. He could’ve been brave. He could’ve been a prince. But... he wasn’t there yet. And Roman didn’t know when he’d ever be chivalrous enough to ever get there.

Chapter 13

Roman >> Virgil

           Is this still your number, Virgil?

           I read over the project and created a schedule of what we can do in class, yet we must still meet up after school, so should I come to your place, or vice versa?

Virgil >> Roman

           Yeah, this is my number.

           I don’t really care, we can do whichever.

Roman >> Virgil

           We can go to mine, then. I’ll meet you by your locker once school is over and we can finish this quickly, as you wish to.

Virgil >> Roman

           Sure

Virgil >> Logan

           [Screenshot.png]

           Why is Roman being so nice?

           Logan, you gotta help me out here. I’m having a crisis!

           Hhhhh, I’m going to go to his house. Ugh, stupid chemistry project, stupid atoms…

           Wait, shit, don't go into a rant about the cool mystery of atoms, normally I’d be up for it, but right now I am in Crisis mode.

Logan >> Virgil

           anx calm down

           do sum breathing

           itll be fine just work fast and get out of there

           my judgement may b wrong but based on evrything u’ve told me and wat ive seen, roman  seems 2 be… remorseful

Virgil sighed and pocketed his phone. He put his head down and listened to the droning history lecture, only needing to look up occasionally to check the map for locations of the cities his teacher mentioned. Everything that was going on in this hate and manipulation triangle of Roman, Wynne, and himself was too stressful, and Virgil could not deal with it. All this drama was like a coil wrapped around his body, winding tighter and tighter with each and every passing thought of the roaches, choking him, restricting his movements, making him fear for how in the hell he was supposed to get out of this alive. Virgil was grateful for one thing: that he still had his wonderful, best friend Logan, but at this point, even Logan's presence didn’t make the coil loosen. Virgil knew it would unwrap once he dealt with everything, but the sheer notion of doing such a thing only made the coil tighten into an unimaginable pain. So Virgil felt it was fully justifiable to blearily rest through class as he slowly dazed off into a light sleep as to avoid his wandering thoughts of the two people who shall not be named.

The next thing Virgil knew, the bell signaling that the last class of the day was over rang. Virgil rubbed his eyes as he carelessly swung his bag over his shoulders. He trudged himself over to his locker even though his legs felt like lead from the sheer dread of this coming afternoon with Roman. Virgil's famous overthinking started, and his mind swam as the crowd pushed him through the hallways. So much could go wrong. So much could get truly and utterly fucked.

Virgil made a standard remark of a greeting to Roman, and tuned out whatever the other was blabbering on about as he collected the books he needed from his locker.

The walk to Roman’s house was relatively silent aside from squealing elementary kids chasing each other, and the chirps of soaring birds; that is, until Roman cleared his throat. Virgil glanced at him and watched the deep breaths Roman was taking as Roman fluttered his eyes closed, then open.

“Virgil, we mustn't let a such a feud stay between us. The tension is unhealthy, and it seems as though a particular event that is the cause of it has obviated me. I want to- No. I need to know what happened,” Roman said, cloaking his uncertainty and self-doubt with a calmer version of the arrogant bravado most saw emanating off of him. Virgil stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked up some gravel as he kept walking.  He kept his eyes on the ground, and weighed his options. Finally, Virgil opened his mouth.

“I’ll tell you what happened, at least what I know of what happened, but I won’t trust you so easily, because if you ever cared about me in the first place, then something like this wouldn’t slip your mind so easily. Okay?” Virgil muttered, slumping his shoulders. He scratched the back of his neck with uneasy apprehension. Roman nodded solemnly, and Virgil took that as his cue to explicate. He took a deep breath and started.

“Roman, you outed me to the entire school back in ninth grade. You were talking to Wynne, and projecting everything over the speaker system as you told them about how I kissed you. I mean, I obviously denied it, but… AH! How in the hell could you do that?! I trusted you with this knowledge of me being gay and you, you fucking tell the entire school! And then Charlotte tells you're spreading this shit again! What the hell is your deal? Fuck you, Roman. Just stay out of my goddamn way from now on.”

Roman made eye contact with Virgil one last time before the other boy turned around and walked away, and noted the tears falling down his flushed cheek.

A lone breeze ruffled Roman's hair as he stared on at the growing distance between himself and Virgil. Roman didn't know what he expected to hear, but it was definitely nothing like that, because Roman did not know when any of what Virgil said happened, which lead to only one conclusion that was spelled with a W-Y-N-N-E.

Chapter 14

Roman watched Virgil storm off, guilt tugging at his heart, for how could he have let something like this happen? He… he practically ruined Virgil all because he couldn’t stand up for himself against the three figures that so dauntingly loomed over him. Nurul. Charlotte. Wynne. They had Roman wrapped around their finger for years, and now they were gone. For good. And he was to be one of their next victims. Roman never realized this day would come so soon: the day where he lost his immunity from the wrath of the roaches. All he felt now as he stood was regret. Was everything he did worth it if it all came crashing down like this? Should he have stood by his real friends instead of acting like- No. instead of being a cowardly peasant? The next days at school were relatively peaceful. Yes, the tension was so thick it couldn’t even be cut with a knife, but no action was happening yet. It was the calm before the storm, the preparation for the oncoming war. The soldiers on each side readied their ground: Logan and Virgil lied low and stuck to evasive movements, for they were impossible to find; Wynne continued their backhanded compliments and scheming, as they regrouped with their troops as Nurul’s suspension wore off; and Roman dragged a chair over to Mr. Patton’s desk and poured his heart out. “Roman, kiddo, it’s going to be okay, okay?” Mr. Patton sighed wistfully, and gave Roman a comforting smile. Roman slumped his shoulders a tad, giving up his high persona for one he felt fit him better. “I know… I’ll be out of this school and this town soon enough, but,” Roman cracked a weak smile, “I can’t just leave everything like this. It’s not what a prince would do. A real prince would- He wouldn’t be me.” “There’s no use in dwelling in what could’ve been done different. We can’t change the past, but we can change how we are in the present. Forgiveness is hard to achieve, but you’ve wanted it, right?” Mr. Patton claroulisly spoke, making eye contact with Roman that the younger avoided. Roman nodded and stood up. “I- I think I know what I must do now. Thank you Mr. Patton,” he said, shuffling the chair he sat on back to its original position and left the room. Roman started his walk home through the chilly autumn air. He watched as crisp, burnt looking leaves flew away from trees, and turned around. His house was not to be his destination for now. He had something to do. He at least had to do it for Mr. Patton. If he were to disappoint him, then he really could never be a prince.

“Hey, what did you get for number nine of the calculus homework?” Virgil asked, looking across his house’s kitchen table, littered with textbooks and pencils, to Logan, who had already finished. Logan glanced over to his notebook and muttered a “the limit doesn’t exist.” Virgil groaned and scratched out his work to try again. Just then, the doorbell sounded throughout the house, causing Virgil to jump from being startled. He strode over to the door, working on the problem as he walked. When Virgil saw who was at the door, and his pencil and notebook clattered on the floor. “Roman, what the hell are you doing here?” Virgil asked dryly, eyebrow quirked ever so slightly. “I-I’d like to make amends, Virgil,” Roman whispered, eyes downcast. Virgil squinted at Roman. He crossed his arms and leant against the doorframe, looking Roman up and down. “Okay… continue,” Virgil said after about a minute of scrutinizing Roman enough for even him to fidget under Virgil’s gaze. Roman took a deep breath and met his eyes with Virgil’s. “I… I don’t know exactly what I did. I don’t know how I outed you, and I fear it must have been a plot set up by Wynne. But that’s-,” Roman looked to the sky as he scrambled for the right words, “That’s besides the point. Even if I hadn’t known what made you stop talking to me, I should’ve gone to you, and talked to you about it, instead of letting such a- such a rift f-form between us. I shouldn’t have left you, and I want to right that wrong. I shouldn’t have let those, pardon my french, fucking assholes done so much harm to you. I should’ve stopped it, like a prince would do. Nay, like any good person would do, which is why I am here,” Roman finished. Virgil’s mouth was slightly agape. A tumbling tornado of emotions swept through him, and the only thing he could do to stop them from blowing him away was cry. A tear fell out. Then another. And another, and another, until he was full on ugly crying no matter how much he willed himself to stop. Roman’s forehead creased, and he reached out to comfort Virgil but pulled his hand away. He didn’t know if Virgil would like physical contact (from him, especially). “I-I-I’m fi-ne Ro-cey. I-I mean R-Roman. I-I just can’t s-stop cry-ing,” Virgil stammered out, voice cracking like it was middle school. “O-Oh… Um. It’s, uh, totally fine if you don’t want to forgive or trust me. I’m just glad you heard me out,” Roman said, giving a soft smile in the way of Virgil. Virgil smiled back. “I-I accept y-your apology, but I-I don’t forgive you,” Virgil said, and Roman nodded with a smile, and began to tear up with himself. “Same with me!” Logan called out from the table inside, having heard the entire conversation, causing the two teary eyed teens to double over with laughter.

Chapter 15

“Nurul, Nurul, Nurul. What are we going to do with you?” Wynne asked. They folded their hands and pursed their lips as they waited for a response from the boy who had somewhat betrayed the little group of ‘friends’. Charlotte sat beside Wynne on the circular table, chewing her lip, while Nurul sat directly across from the other two. The trio was sitting in a diner, and as Nurul mulled over his options, a basket of curly fries was delivered to the table. Wynne took one and ripped it in half with their teeth. They popped the other half in their mouth, chewed, and swallowed, maintaining an unwavering and unnerving eye contact with Nurul. They gritted their teeth when they finished. “Hm. Well, since you don’t seem to have any suggestions, and you already know what happened to Roman, perhaps, we’ll let you be with us longer. Unless, say, you think Roman was right?” Nurul froze.

“No!” He cleared his throat. “I mean, no, I’m not on Roman’s side.” Wynne crinkled their nose and flashed a tight-lipped smile. Charlotte’s eyes darted between the two.

“Good choice. Because this is your last chance,” Wynne growled. They got up from the table and motioned for Charlotte to come with them. “Enjoy your fries! I know you love them curly,” They exclaimed with fake peppiness as Charlotte and them left the diner.

Unbeknownst to the trio, an edgelord, supposedly named Dennis, was sitting at the table over, listening to every word that was said.

Wynne, Charlotte, and Nurul walked into school together on the following school day. Whispers travelled through the halls fast and far enough for Roman and Virgil to catch wind of them and move away into an empty classroom to continue their atomic discussion for the upcoming chemistry project. However, Logan was dealing with his lab partner away from his friend and his… frenemy, that by the time the gossip reached him, it was too late. Even Virgil’s warning text fueled by the enormous speed of microwaves was too late. Logan caught a glimpse of Nurul in the corner of his eye, and his brain went into overdrive. Adrenaline flooded his body and he was no longer a creature of logic, but one of instinct.

Nurul clapped his hands and got all up in Logan’s space. “Well, well, well, nerd, what do we have here? Are you planning on another virus, because I can take all you got,” he sneered, cracking his knuckles. Logan immediately looked Nurul in the eye, leant against the lockers he was standing next to, and adjusted his glasses.

“There is literally no possible way your dinosaur of a computer that had already been abused enough having to be used by someone as feeble minded as you could handle every virus I could load onto it. Hm. But, perhaps you did not understand what I explicated? Do I need to dumb down my insult?” Feeling like the baddest bitch in the city, Logan was full on smirking by the end of his tirade. Nurul slammed his fist on a locker right beside Logan’s fist.

“Say that again, termagant,” Nurul widened his eyes, “Yeah, I know big words too.” Logan scoffed, and rolled his eyes. Goodness, he was picking up some habits from Anx. He would never have thought to do something like that to his eyes a year ago!

“Nurul… Remember our chat?” Wynne suggested from behind him, hands on their hips. Nurul glared at Logan, but relented, and backed off. He began to walk down a side corridor, when he heard Logan call out to him.

“Wow, I never thought Wynne would have you, as they say, hashtag whipped!” Nurul clenched his fists, but he became the bigger man for the one moment he needed to be, and he kept walking away. Logan dusted his shoulder, readjusted his tie, and right away turned back to his explanation of naturally occurring diatomic molecules and how he and his partner must represent those in their model, even if it wasn’t on the project guidelines. Wynne and Charlotte continued down the hall, not following after Nurul, and everyone who witnessed what just went down, gained a new respect for the badassery of Logan.

Based upon their discussion from the morning, Roman and Virgil decided to once again try and meet up at Roman’s place after school to work on the atomic model they never started. Hopefully, now that they were on better terms, they could actually work and not tank their grades.

At first, they only talked to communicate about their atom’s assembly, but as the two started working on parts of the project that didn’t require much thinking, Roman started to discuss feelings.

“Hey, Virgil, I know I already apologized, but that fight earlier where you got suplexed was brutal, and I just want you to know that I regret not stepping in sooner than when I got Mr. Patton to intervene,” Roman murmured. Virgil narrowed his eyes for a second.

“Wait… Logan told me that after I was suplexed and passed out, he saw someone get Mr. Patton to break up the fight. That was you?” Virgil asked. Roman nodded.

“I know, I never should’ve let Nur-”

“Oh my goodness, Roman, thank you. I- I- I honestly think if no one had intervened at that time Nurul might’ve kept going and hurt us bad,” Virgil admitted. Roman’s eyes widened, and he paused his rote work to face Virgil.

“Really? That already didn’t hurt you bad? Wouldn’t you be concussed from something like that?” Roman was dumbfounded. Virgil bit his lip and decided to steer clear of a concussion discussion seeing as he never actually went to a doctor.

“I mean, I was super bruised up. It was insane, they were everywhere. But... they weren’t bad bruises, there was just, just, a lot of them, but I’m pretty much better now. They’re all gone for the most part, and I’m back to my normal scrawny self,” Virgil finished sarcastically. Roman chuckled lightly. The two went back to chemistry talk, though they were both more at ease, even if only slightly.

When they presented their project in class the following afternoon, the two were able to get a flow and start communicating, for they were able to easily cover for when one of the two didn’t know something. They were constantly veering and intervening the scientific conversation that they were leading, but it wasn’t to throw the other off; instead, it was to make sure they both stayed on course, and the A they received proved that they had.

Chapter 16

Riiing. The jarring sound flooded through the high school letting all the students know it was time for the pandemonium of lunch. As the students left their classes, they began to chat, and Logan and Virgil were no exception.

“Anyway, I told Nurul to copulate with himself, with different words, however. Slang words. I said ‘#whipped’,” Logan recounted, as the two picked up their lunch from the cafeteria.

“Lo, every time you tell Nurul to fuck himself, I become ever fonder of you,” Virgil said, placing a hand over his heart. “And like-” Virgil cut himself off when he started to hear something interesting and poked Logan, so he’d listen too.

“Bro, it’s the sides!”

“Gurl, what?”

“You know? Logan and Virgil? The two people who are actually standing up against Nurul, Wynne, Charlotte, and Roman? Dude, where the hell have you been for the last two weeks?”

“Home sick. You know th-”

“Wait, you’re saying people are calling us ‘the sides’?” Logan asked, walking up to the pair he and Virgil were eavesdropping on. Virgil followed him but shrunk back a little. He had never talked to these people before and he wasn't sure how things would go down. The person who initiated the conversation nodded frantically.

“Bro! You didn't know? Man, everyone's started calling ya guys the sides, cuz you're on the good side, ya know, standing up to the totally not gucci tyranny of Wynne, Roman, Nurul, And Charlotte.”

“I speak seven languages and that was not one of them,” Logan mumbled under his breath. Virgil rubbed the back of his own neck.

“I- I mean, I don’t think Roman is all that bad,” Virgil said strained, scared of the repercussions of his words. “I- I think Wynne hurt him just as much as th- the two of us…” The person the sides were talking to smiled softly and sighed

“Yeah, fam, that's not too surprising. Wynne’s been unradical to everyone.”

“‘S’crazy to think that were not the only ones they've hurt,” Virgil said.

“Yeah… Well, enjoy your meal, then,” the person finished, turning back to their previous conversation.

“You too,” Logan called as the duo walked away.

Reaching their usual lunch table, Logan remarked about the solemnness of the air. Virgil agreed. The two friends, or sides, as they were now known, ate in silence for an eternity until Virgil piped up to share a concern of his.

“Hey, Logan, I think, I might be becoming friends with Roman again, and this is all happening so fast, and we only started speaking last night, but we were really good in the presentation, and and he was the one who called Mr. Patton in to save us when we got in that fight with Nurul and he seems really genuine and I wanna trust him but I dunno what to dooooo,” Virgil ranted. Logan patted Virgil’s hand.

“Anx, breathe. Deep breath. In and out,” Logan explained, breathing exaggeratedly so Virgil could match with him. “You don’t have to do anything yet. You don’t have to decide anything. You can just observe and see what comes of that.” Virgil nodded.

“Yeah, thanks Logan,” Virgil said. “I’ll do that.” The two sides continued their meal in peace. After a while, holding a lunch tray, Roman walked up to the two.

“May I sit here?” he asked tentatively. Logan looked to Virgil who nodded. “Thank you,” Roman said as he sat down. “This may be out of my place, but I think I have an idea of how to stop Wynne.”

“We’re done with that Roman,” Virgil said dryly. “If we stoop to their levels, then they’re the ones who win. We just do things out of self-defense now.” Roman closed his eyes for a moment.

“Then think of it like self-defense. My idea is to use Logan’s skills to put a screen mirroring or listening thing on Wynne’s phone, so we know what they’re going to do. That way we can take preemptive measures to keep ourselves, and, well, everyone else safe.” Virgil stabbed his juice box with the straw and took a long, drawn out slurp out of it. Logan tapped his chin.

“Yes, I can do that,” he said, adjusting his glasses.

“...Do it. But if we go too far, then just, stop,” Virgil decided at last.

Chapter 17

Roman >> Virgil

    Would it be okay if we could talk today after school about Wynne, Nurul, Charlotte, and, well, me?

Virgil >> Roman

    Yeah, surw. Feel free to walk home with me.

Virgil >> Roman

    *sure

Virgil lurked around the exit of the school, staying in the shadows and out of sight until he was able to find Roman.

“Boo,” Roman whispered, appearing in front of Virgil out of seemingly nowhere. Virgil jumped at least a foot in the air and let out an insanely high pitched shriek. All the bustling students looked towards the source of the noise. Feeling all eyes on him, Virgil covered his face with his hands and banged his head against a wall. He groaned.

“Ugh, Princey why did you have t-,” Virgil, wide-eyed, turned to face Roman, “Roman! I meant Roman! N-Not Princey! I meant to say Roman, why did you have to do that,” Virgil panicked, his stomach churning from fearing the impending doom that would be brought upon him by Roman. Roman reached at and held his shoulder, steadying Virgil.

“Virgil. It’s okay. You can call me Princely if you want. I’m- What's got you so worked up over it anyway?” Roman asked.

“Y-You threatened to hit me the last time I called you that?” Virgil squeaked. Roman was aghast.

“Oh no, I would never do that! Goodness, how did this hap-,” Roman narrowed his eyes in a deadly squint, “Wynne! Sorry Virgil, our talks gonna wait, I need to go show Wynne a piece of my mind,” Roman finished, gritting his teeth. Virgil grabbed Roman’s arm as he started to storm off.

“Princey, no. It’s not worth it. They’ll just hurt you more,” Virgil said. Roman sighed.

“Yeah, yeah, let's just head to your house before I do anything regrettable.” Virgil nodded, and began to leave the school with Roman following him. On the street, the two walked in tandem for the few blocks that they needed to travel. The air was a bit chilly and a small gust of wind caused Virgil to shiver slightly. Roman took off his white coat and handed it to Virgil, who simply shook his head and zipped up his own hoodie. Roman just held his coat awkwardly, deciding it wasn’t worth the effort to put it back on.

“So, you wanna talk about the roaches?” Virgil asked, as the two arrived at Virgil’s house, and Virgil unlocked the door. Roman cocked an eyebrow.

“Roaches?” Virgil rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh, um. It’s what me and Logan would call you guys, ya know. You and Wynne and Charlotte and Nurul…,” Virgil said awkwardly, kicking off his shoes and making his way to a table in the kitchen. Roman did the same.

“Ah. I see. It’s… quite a befitting name for, well, us. For me,” Roman muttered. He looked down on the ground pensively, like he was trying to figure out how he could ever be more than a lowly roach. “I was a terrible person, and as much as I’d like to say ‘Wynne made me do it’, it wouldn’t be right? It would just be an excuse, and I always had the power to stop them.”

“You really didn’t. They manipulated you as much as me. Look at you. You used to be brimming with confidence and now you’re just sad and angry.” A tense silence fell on the two for a couple minutes while Virgil and Roman just stared at each other in thought. “It’s not like you knew most of what they were doing anyway, at least that’s what I’m getting at.” Even with his height and his muscles, Roman never felt so small.

“It still feels wrong. Even indirectly, I hurt people, and that’s not a good thing. I-I hurt you,” Roman said, sighing at the end. Virgil scoffed.

“Yeah, like you even care about me,” Virgil said sardonically.

“Virgil, I do! I really do! And I swear I have no idea what happened to make you think that! Even if I was there, even if I did it, I don’t know what I did!” Roman exclaimed, covering his face with his hands. He took a deep breath and put his hands on the table. “I don’t- It’s like they- Can’t you just-?” Roman was cut off by someone loudly knocking on Virgil’s front door. Virgil went and opened it, and there was Logan, sweaty and panting. He didn’t even explain what was happening as he pushed past Virgil and went straight to his kitchen. He took out so bread and vegetables and made a sandwich, then out it on a plate and gave it to Virgil. Only when he sat down, did he finally catch his breath.

“We have an emergency! I did the hacking thing in Wynne’s phone and I was listening to what they were saying, and, and and they were- Virgil! They’re gonna exploit the fact that you don’t eat, like, at all!”

Chapter 18

Virgil looked at the sandwich. The sandwich looked back. He poked it. According to Newton’s third law, the sandwich poked him back. Virgil banged his against the table and groaned.

“Why do I have to this? Let him exploit the fact… I can’t with this. It’s just, food is like, kinda gross honestly. It feels so weird passing through your body and has weird tastes…,” Virgil complained. Roman got up, opened the fridge, and took out some pasta materials. He poured water in a pot and put it to a boil on the stove, sat back down, and began to eat the sandwich meant for Virgil.

“Uhh… What are you doing?” Logan asked apprehensively. Roman held up a finger as he finished chewing.

“Didn’t you know? That one’s a picky eater. He can’t take anything too extreme,” Roman exclaimed. Virgil’s cheeks flushed lightly and he averted his eyes from the other two.

“Anx?” Logan asked.

“He’s right. I don’t buy school school lunch because there’s just too many flavors and textures and ugh. I just. It’s stupid, really stupid, but I can’t stand it…,” Virgil mumbled, staring at somewhere in between Logan and Roman to avoid their eye contact.

“Virgil, it isn’t stupid. Not at all. You know how your anxious all the time? There’s something called Neophobia. I don’t know too much about it, but it sounds like that,” Logan explained, hoping to make Virgil feel better. Virgil rolled his eyes.

“Great, now I’ve got another disorder,” he snarked back at Logan.

“There’s nothing wrong with you!”

“Yes, there is!”

“Listen to me!”

“I’m a mess!”

Roman screeched his chair back and got up from the table, momentarily stopping the argument. He walked over to the pot, poured salt, oil, and dry pasta in, and stirred the pot. He grabbed his phone and played a playlist of Disney songs, whistling to the tune as he cooked. Virgil and Logan kept glaring at each other, but neither said anything to the either. After about ten minutes, when the pasta was ready, Roman put it in a bowl, grabbed a fork and set it in front of Virgil. He muttered a “you’re welcome,” and raised an eyebrow prompting Virgil to take a bite. Reluctantly, Virgil followed through. His face morphed from an expression of disgust to surprise, and he moaned.

“Oh my gosh… this is… mmm…,” Virgil mumbled. “I need a lifetime supply of this.” Roman smiled.

“I’ll text you the recipe, just promise to make this at least once a day?” he asked. Virgil nodded compliantly, digging in. Roman kept eating the sandwich Logan made, and Logan just crossed his arms.

The following morning, Virgil kept his promise, making the pasta and putting it in a thermos to take to school. He smiled as he walked to school and when Logan stopped by his house for the two of them to walk, they both apologized. Well, it was really more like: “Lo, I’m sorry I didn’t listen” and “Anx, I’m sorry you didn’t listen to me,” but Virgil got the intent. Even saying ‘I’m sorry’ in an underhanded way was tough for Logan. During lunch, Logan and Virgil sat down at their usual table, with Roman joining them halfway through the block, and Virgil thought that is he could see Roman smile so innocently, eating would be worth it. After school, while Logan went to the library and Roman to rehearsal, Virgil headed to Mr. Patton’s room.

The door was slightly ajar and Virgil knocked twice. He heard Mr. Patton cry out, “come in!” and so he took his cue and entered. Mr. Patton’s face lit up seeing his student.

“Oh, Virgil. Is there anything I can do to help you?” Patton asked, putting down his red pen and pushing the papers he was grading aside. Virgil chewed his lip for a second.

“Uhh… um… I-I have a question… about a-a book?” Patton smiled.

“Well sure thing, kiddo! Pull up a chair, I’ll help you out!” Virgil did so, and noted the plush bear with a rainbow bow on his teachers desk, and felt just a little safer.

“So, um. There’s this book I’m reading. And in it, there are two characters. One betrayed the other, but they realized that maybe the first wasn’t, like, at fault… A-And so, the second wants to forgive the first, but, but, the second also wants to maybe be friends with the first, but also isn’t sure if he can trust the first… a-and, um-,” Virgil paused. He wasn’t really sure what his made up question for his made up book was going to be. Yet, Mr. Patton knew what Virgil was asking even without an explicit question.

“Well, golly, that sure is a tough situation. There is a very fine distinction between forgiveness and trust. You can forgive someone for their past actions, but forgiveness is used to put yourself at peace, not necessarily the other person. You can absolutely hate or despise someone, but you can still forgive them. Trust, however, is trickier. Trust brings peace to the other person. And only after an establishment of trust, can the two people in your book begin to become friends.”

“B-But how could the second character, um, know if the first really, like, was innocent?”

“Communication. A lot of plot comes from miscommunication, and the characters react based on that in a way that tears them apart, but only once things are cleared up, will things be better.”

“Thank y-you,” Virgil said, pushing the chair he was sitting in back to its original position. After Virgil left the room, Mr. Patton leant back in his chair. This ‘book’ sounded a lot like that situation Roman told him about at lunch. Patton tilted his head. That was it. The person Roman psued’ed as ‘Anxiety’ whenever he’d tell him about his life, was Virgil.

Chapter 19

As he left the high school, Virgil sent out a quick text to Roman.

Virgil >> Roman

Hey, can we talk about what happened the day that I started to despise you that you have no idea what you did?

Roman >> Virgil

Yeah, sure. Rehearsal ends in like half an hour, so I can head over to your place afterwards?

Virgil >> Roman

Sure.

Virgil paced up and down the foyer in his house chewing on his lip. He played with a fidget cube as he walked, trying to figure out what he would say to Roman once he arrived. Maybe he should start with, “We need to talk,” or perhaps, “I don’t wanna hate you anymore,” or he could go even bolder and just say, “Wynne is a grade a dick and I’m pretty sure they caused us to stop being BFFs five-ever,” or, or , he could go with “I’m s-” Knock, knock.

Virgil approached the door, took a deep breath, opened it, and stuttered “I- uh- wh- m- ahhahha… words, you know?”  

“There’s no need for small talk, Virgil, just please tell me what happened that day?” Roman responded. Virgil nodded, took a deep breath, and walked over the kitchen table, pulling out a seat for Roman and sitting across from him. Virgil played with his fidget cube for a little as he waited to get the courage to begin to recount his tale.

Freshman year. March 15th. In fair Florida, we lay our scene. Virgil is sitting alone at lunch, waiting for his best pal Roman to come back from whatever he was working on and to sit with him. He knew things had been awkward ever since he kissed Roman and it turning out Roman wasn’t gay like the theater kid stereotypes said, but he didn’t realize it would cause Roman to avoid so much, even after so much, after their reconciliation! Like yeah, it was high school, and yeah people were awful, and Roman told him about these people named Nurul, Charlotte, and Wynne, and how they kept trying to befriend him, and Roman said he wanted to be nice and try and make friends even if they seemed a lil mean in Virgil’s opinion, but damn, if it didn’t hurt that Roman chose to spend more time with them, rather than Virgil, then Virgil would be lying. But anyway. Princey told him he worried too much, and that he really did care for Virgil, and so for today, by listening to his friend, Virge remained intact.

The PA system clicked on which was quite unusual for lunch unless there was a lockdown drill. Before any noise was sounded, everyone tensed up, preparing to duck under a table and lock the doors. But instead of a “Code red. This is a drill. Code red.” blaring over the speakers, Roman’s voice did. And this wasn’t an announcement for the school musical.

“Okay, fine, it still bothers me a tiny, little, bit that Virgil kissed me, but I’m still his best friend and he’s my best friend, and why would I care that he’s gay! Plus-” and the PA system clicked off. Virgil sat frozen. He couldn’t believe what he heard. His head was spinning. Roman just- He was- Everyone knew . He needed to get out. He was going to hurl. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. Everyone was looking at him. No one was looking at him. No, no, no, no, this couldn’t be happening. He stumbled outside the cafeteria, trying to slow his breathing, and ran to the field outside the gym, and curled into himself under a tree. He plugged his headphones into his phone and blasted Crywank at an ear damaging volume. Princey. He. No.

Princey really did hate him, didn’t he?

Roman’s eyes widened. “What the fuck. I-I never did that. I swear, Virgil I never did that! Holy shit. Is this why you stopped talking to me? I wouldn’t talk to me...,” Roman mumbled in a way too fast pace, while breathing at a way too fast pace. “N-No wonder you hate me. How do I have no recollection of this? This never happened? W-Was I brainwashed? Oh my gosh. Dear fuck…”

“Roman?” Virgil asked, tentatively reaching out to touch the other. Roman didn’t respond. He just hit his forehead with his hand.

“Fuck. Wynne. Fucking bullshit piece of crap little snakey as devil what the hell why the fuck but they’re a they’re! Oh my god, Virgil I’m so sorry. I remember what happened March 15th. God, I’m so sorry…” Virgil studied Roman. He opened his mouth but no sound came out at first.

“...What happened?”

Freshman year. March 15th. In fair Florida, we lay our scene. Roman, poor little insecure Roman, was being harassed by these people who didn’t care about him. They wanted him as a status symbol, but that didn’t even make sense! He wasn’t better than anyone else! He was worse. He was, like, the worst. Sure people liked some of the stuff he did, but that didn’t mean he was a good person. Like… like look at how he was to Virgil after that day! He brushed him off as his own confusion started. And he didn’t even have the gall to tell Anx that maybe he feels the same way. That maybe he isn’t as straight as he thought he was. Anyway, this is all that was going through his head while Wynne blabbered to him about needing better friends, and how they’ll be perfect for Roman, and they can do anything together, blah blah blah. Whatever.

“-know that emo shithead is gay,” Wynne said, rolling their eyes. This snapped Roman to paying attention. He promised Anx he wouldn’t tell anyone and Anx never told him he came out so what just happened? Wynne laughed. “Ro, look at me. I use they/them pronouns. You think I can’t sense a lil homosexuality when it’s near me?” Roman shrugged and chuckled nervously. Hopefully Wynne wouldn’t sense it on him. “Oh anyway, look we’re here. This was the place I wanted to show you!” Wynne declared, picking the lock to a teachers only part of the library and holding the door open for Roman.

“I don’t think we should be here…,” Roman mumbled. He didn’t want to be caught somewhere he shouldn’t be.

“Who shoved a stick up your ass? Live a little, man. Don’t be such a tightass,” Wynne said, entering the room and tapping their foot impatiently for Roman to follow. The words stung a little and he didn’t want anymore like that thrown at him, so Roman stepped inside. Wynne smiled, and sat down on the lone table in the small room next to what looked like the mic for the PA system. “Anyway, let’s eat!” Roman nodded and sat down on the floor, eating some soup he put in a thermos in the morning. The pair ate in silence for a couple minutes before Wynne piped up. “So, how’d you find out about the shithead’s sexuality?”

“Oh, well, it’s kinda a long story,” Roman muttered, too scared to defend Virgil’s name after last time.

“We got time. This room is only in use in the mornings anyway.”

“Well we were talking this one day, and, um…”

“And?”

“He kissed me.” Wynne burst out laughing.

“You’re telling me that waste of space kissed your straight ass, and you didn’t, like, beat him up or anything? Damn, straight guys have really changed… I mean who wouldn’t wanna punch that goth little dick, but that would give such a great excuse to do it!” Roman was silently horrified at Wynne’s comments, but he didn’t know what to do.

“I’m still friends with him… he was just a bit confused… I mean, I don’t really care that he did that…” Wynne cocked an eyebrow and subtly pressed a button on the PA microphone that meant it would start transmitting everything spoken in 45 seconds. Wynne smiled. They climbed off the desk, and walked over to Roman, their skirt fluttering as they did so. They bent down, put a finger under Roman’s chin, and pulled it up, so Roman would hold eye contact with Wynne.

“So, you’re telling me that it didn’t bother you at all that you’re best friend, or whatever else mushy ass shit, kissed you?” Click. The mic was on.

“I mean, I guess-” Roman whispered.

“Speak up,” Wynne, whispered back, interrupting Roman.

“Okay, fine, it still bothers me a tiny, little, bit that Virgil kissed me, but I’m still his best friend and he’s my best friend, and why would I care that he’s gay!” Satisfied, Wynne sauntered back over to the desk, and sat on it again, very subtly pressing the off button on the PA system next to him.

“Plus, I-I don’t know if I minded it or anything,” Roman finished.

“Oh, Roman. You left him hanging for how long? A year? And only now you reciprocate his feelings? He’s going to hate you. I bet he already does. I’m pretty sure he hangs out with you out of pity. Maybe he kissed you out of pity, because he didn’t want to be your friend anymore, and in his screwy mind, he thought that would make you hate him, but oh no, you fuCKED IT UP EVEN MORE, RO-RO! you made yourself even closer to him, so I bet, the emo shithead hates you more now. ”

Virgil looked unfazed by Roman’s recollection of March 15th. Wynne was truly fucking despicable. He walked over the Roman, and hugged the softly crying boy. Roman only cried harder.

“Look, I don’t know if anyone has ever told you this, but it’s okay to be gay. It’s okay to be yourself. And no one hates you. In any case, I’d embrace you,” Virgil said rubbing soothing circles in Roman’s back.

The two sat together for a while, neither saying a word, but listening to lofi hip hop beats to recover from their emotionally draining tales. Eventually, Virgil got up and made some green tea for the two of them. Roman shot Virgil a fond smile, and downed it. Once he finished it, Roman got up, stretched, splashed some water on his face and sighed.

“Man, that was cathartic. I feel a lot better now,” Roman declared, smiling. Virgil closed his eyes and breathed.

“Yeah, I think I do too,” he sighed.

and Chapter 20

Soon enough, Logan came over to Virgil’s place, and Roman And Virgil explained what Wynne had been done. Are they crazy? Was Logan’s first reaction and then it was Screw the greater good! They hurt you both badly! Yet Virgil countered that Wynne had hurt Logan equally as bad, and then they argued about the greater good for while. Well, until…

“You know, now that I think about it, Charlotte doesn’t know about this. She is going to be pissed if she finds out,” Roman thought out loud. Virgil and Logan stopped their friendly bickering and turned to Roman.

“So she’s not an evil queer then?” Virgil asked. Roman shook his head.

“I don’t think she ever knew about the horrific stuff Wynne has pulled to other queer people. If she ever found out, I’d fear for Wynne’s life,” Roman supplemented. Logan laughed a little.

“I bet you Wynne’s like the type of queer person who would vote for a conservative political candidate who claims to be pro-gay, and then takes away queer rights,” Logan commented. Virgil shook his head in agreement. Roman tapped his chin.

“I think I want to tell Charlotte,” Roman said. “I’m pretty sure she’s been as manipulated as me. She deserves to know. Plus, honestly, when she’s not around Wynne, she’s a really cool person. I remember her breakup with Rashmi. It was bad, because she had actually tried to be a good partner that time.” Virgil stared at the ground.

“I-I was close by when she broke up with Rashmi. S-She had tried to kiss me? It was weird… I took care of Rashmi she was heartbroken, because she didn’t think Charlotte actually valued the relationship. It was a strange day,” Virgil added. Roman shrugged.

“Even with that, we should still tell Charlotte. It’s only fair. And if she already knows, then we really know if we do need to stay away from her as much as Wynne,” Logan commented.

“But how would we talk to her?” Virgil asked.

“We don’t; Roman does. Huddle up guys, it’s scheming time,” Logan announced.

At lunch the next day, Logan made sure to draw Nurul away from the Wynne and Charlotte’s table by making sure Mr. Patton assigned Nurul and Logan together for classwork that day, and Logan sabotaging their work so they’d have to stay after class during lunch to be able to finish and get the grade they needed. Nurul was fuming, but with Mr. Patton right there, there was nothing Nurul could do. Virgil sat at the table next to the Roaches’ table as a sort of backup. He gave Roman a discreet thumbs up as the princely boy went up the Roaches’ table and sat down, uninvited, and prepared for the worst.

“The fuck are you doing here? Begging for forgiveness?” Wynne spat, cutting into his lunch food just aggressively enough for it to be intimidating. Roman rolled his eyes, and didn’t respond to Wynne in exchange for looking at his phone. He pressed the record button on a sound recorder app, and put the phone face down on the lunch table.

“No, Wynne. I just want to talk with you both,” Roman responded calmly.

“Oh so do you need your pathetic ~boyfriend~ here too to protect ittle wittle Roman?” Wynne asked. Charlotte looked nervously between the two.

“Well, what I want to talk about has to do with Virgil. You see I was thinking about that day you took me to the PA room in the library during lunch in ninth grade, and the things I said there. And I was telling Virgil about that, and he told me you recorded our conversation, and outed Virgil! How could you do that? What kind of person, let alone a fellow queer person to Virgil, does that?” Roman said, not quite-yelling, yet slightly losing his cool. Charlotte froze.

“Wynne, you- what?” Charlotte whispered, voice quavering.

“No! Char, you don’t understand! He’s lying!” Wynne quipped in defense. Overhearing how the conversation was going, Virgil rolled his eyes and grabbed some random person from his grade, and brought them to the Roaches’ table. He asked them what they remembered about Virgil’s coming out, and said that they remembered someone saying it over the PA system, and then Virgil bolting. They then called everyone at the Roaches’ table “weirdos” and went back to their friends.

“See?” Roman said.

“That doesn’t prove anything!” Wynne shouted, pushing they’re chair back and standing up.

“It proves I wasn’t ready! It proves I wasn’t expecting it! And you know very well that I wasn’t! Whatever happened to queer people sticking with each other? We’re supposed to, like, be there for each other and not pull this shit! Like it’s one thing to bully me for any other reason, and it’s another thing for you to bully me because of my sexuality! Go to hell, Wynne Ellis,” Virgil shouted back. There was no way he was letting Wynne get away with this. Looking distraught, Charlotte muttered a quick I’m gonna go and bolted out of the cafeteria. Virgil and Wynne did not stop their death stare match, each waiting for one to make the first move. Roman tapped Virgil’s shoulder.

“We should go. There’s no point in you getting caught up in another fight, even if you’ve healed from the last one. You have healed right?” Roman whispered. Virgil sighed and broke his stare down with Wynne in favor of looking at Roman.

“Yeah, you’re right, let’s go,” Virgil turned around, picked up his things, shot a text to Logan saying that he could finish with Nurul, and left the cafeteria in stride with Roman, leaving a sputtering Wynne behind, “And for the record, yes I am healed, and while Logan did ban from fighting for two weeks after the suplex, it’s been two weeks Roman, so you better watch out,” he teased. Back in the cafeteria, Wynne huffed, and began thinking up ways to bring Virgil down once more.

After school, Logan, Virgil, and Roman met up in the library to post the recording that Roman took. It was quite exposing to Wynne, was proof of Wynne’s assholishery, and was a warning to the other queer kids of Florida. They gave the voice recording captions and started to put it up on school social media: not the official school social media, but the ones run by students that basically everyone followed.

It was time for Wynne’s reputation to go down the drain.

a/n: thank you if you made it this far!! there will be more to come soon! for now, here’s the tag list

Prinxiety @221biotchplease @a-blog-just-for-sanders @ace-of-hufflepuffs @ace-v-p-d @acrobaticcatfeline @alextheodd @all-these-trees-stealing-mah-o2 @allaboutme7 @allthemetalsoftherainbow @alyssadashrub @anastasialestina @angeliclogan @angered-turtle @anony-phangirl @anxious-darkwolf @anyay666 @aph-roma @areyousirius-noheisdead @asalwayss @AskolotlQuestions @asterias-confused-writings @baileystarsketches @the-incedible-sulk @blaikleethepanagender @blazeimagines101 @bluebellie01 @candiukas @captain-loki-xavier @catsandrandomness @chillingintent @cinderlunarcyborg @cinquefoilelove @clueingforblogs @completelyclevername @confinesofpersonalknowledge @crankywhenprovoked @datonerougecookeh @deadinsidebutliving @deathbyvenusftw @deep-ocean-blues @dementeddracon @depressed-alone @devastate-my-space @didsomeonesayyoutube122 @do-rey-me @dreamerhowelll @dudlebuggs @elder-jeremiah @elvishfrenchassassin @emokittenlikesgore @emovirgil @emphoenixcat @erlenmeyertrashofsandersides @evilmuffin @faacethefacts @fabulousfanaticfander @thats-so-crash @fairly-close @faithhopefelony @fanatic564 @fandergecko @fangirlsanonymous @fireflightyt @funsizedgremlin @gamerzylo @gayrobotalien @grey-lysander @hanramz-the-fander @heythereprincey @hi-disappointed-im-daughter @hissesssss @hoodie-bros @hottopicvirge @runyou-cleverboy-andremember @imaflashcard @inkyoo @inkyroo @iris-sanders-athena @ive-given-up-on-it @jade-dragon226-fan @jaybingu @jughead-is-canonically-aroace @just-another-transblog @justmyshitandmoreshit @k9cat @katatles-the-fish @kentato-kenart @kickassking14 @kirsten-the-freak @koalaaquabear @kurna-kovite @l-i-t-vocabcards @lacandra @lacrimosathedark @lana–22 @lockolocka @logically-sided @louisthewarlock @madelynnaa @magicmapleleaf @makemeaplant @makemeaplant @maximum-fander @mercythemermaids-blog @micha-like-you-find-in-rocks @microsoft-nerd @migraine-marathon @milomeepit @minamishipsit @mollycassmith @moonlightinwater @multi-fandom-trash-x9000 @muontsy2 @musicphanpie-b @musicsavedmefromdeath @mydogsaresofuckingstupid @neko-ereri-art @nightmarejasmine @notallpotatoesarefrenchfries @nottodaylogic @notveryglittery @nuttytheorizer @nymphaedoratonks @ocotopushugs @on-lock-like-attica @osnapitzbc @pandagirl0730 @panicatthefalloutphanficfandom @pansexual-cat @pastel-patton123 @pattykrabbies @pearls-of-patton @fricksonsticks @phanic-at-the-malfoys @pieces-of-annedrew @pinkeasteregg @planetsanders @potterlover394 @poundland-twoface @prinxietypreoccupied @proudhufflepuff @prplzorua @purplesatankittycat @radioactivebread @rainbow-beaniegirl @ray-rambles @reba-andthesides @redundant-statements-for-400 @roaring--20s @robanilla @roman-is-a-gay @rose-gold-roman @royallyanxious @rptheturk @ruuworld @samidaboss3 @sanders-fam-ily @sanders-sides-things @sanders-trash-4ever @sanderssides-deathangel @saphirestrike @sarcastic-anxious @sassy-in-glasses @save-dirk-gently @sesame-icecream @shygirl4991 @silversunshine2012 @siriuswhiskers @smokeyrutilequartz @smollestsinnamonroll @space-d0ubt @spacenerrrd @the-feels-are-coming @spoonfullofcrofters @starlightlogan @starry-eyed-haiku-dreamer @stars-in-mine-eyes @stormblessedcastiel @storytellerofuntoldlegends @strangerthings-and-phan @superfandertrashbros @superintrovertfangirl @thatonenerdtm @the-optimism-of-the-ostriches @the-prince-and-the-emo @theanxietyofbeinganxious @thecrimsoncodex @thegirlwiththedragonheart @thenerdycube @thepusheenqueen @theroyalramen @thesilentbluesparrow @theworldismysupernova @theworldismysupernova @thisisshien @thomas-must-get-to-sleep @thought-u-said-dragon-queen @too-precious-to-process @too-random-for-me @toujours-fidele @trashfireiplier @trashypansexual @tree4life25 @unknownsandersfan @urtrashhq @v-blue-writer @vampyrsarah @virgilisaneternalmood @virgils-anxiety @virgils-hoodie @voices-and-stardust @vulnerablevirgil @watch-me-introvert @weird-short-person @whyamihereohwell @wowimanerdblr @yamiaainferno @yonnie-boy @yourmomsafalsehood @l-i-t-vocabcards @enderperson43 @houseplxnthoodie @ultimate-queen-of-fandoms2 @nicoandtheninegalaxies @beetlequail @katie-the-noble-fangirl @johnlockandrarry @mildly-entertaining-fiasco