#'when i yelled at you over the spices earlier i actually meant thanks for making lunch' 'alright well im glad you got there eventually' 'yo

[bitegore]

everyone in my household owes my friends and my ex girlfriend so fucking much.

[wormstacheangel]

Suptober Day 1: Harvest

wc: 1.7k tags: fluff with the side of tiny case fic, established relationship, spoilers but cw they are drugged with cider,

It was a long hunt. One that they accepted as their last one, but, of course, they can never sit still enough not to take an easy local hunt. By local, he means a two-day trip away, but still, they saved a couple of old folks from a ghost, which was fun. Dean sure enjoyed getting thrown around until Cas finally burned the dentures.

Like he said, long hunt.

They stayed at a nice little Airbnb overnight. During breakfast, their waitress told them of the Harvest Festival a town over. Cas was still a little bruised up, but Dean convinced him to go, at least to try their famous apple cider.

“We’ll make a day of it! Just me and you.” With that, Cas agreed, taking Dean’s waiting hand across the table.

The festival was lively when they arrived in the afternoon, with more people than they expected considering the small town they were in but apparently when they say famous they meant it. The tents lined up with food from funnel cakes, donuts, chicken, and some pumpkin spice beer that Dean chugged down even though it tasted like shit.

They eventually ended up with bags filled with treats and souvenirs to take home to the kids--Sam and Eileen fall into the kids’ category. They each held a bag while Dean held Cas’ hand tight in his own, dragging him around from seller to seller, buying and tasting as he went.

“We should start heading home, or soon you’ll be too full to drive.” Cas teased as Dean finished off their bag of apple crisps. “You think we’re feeding an army.”

“Considering how Jack eats, we might as well be.”

“He gets that from you, you know.”

They continued their banter as they made their way out of the festival and to the parking lot.

Then they were stopped by a woman wearing a volunteer pumpkin shirt, “Aw, leaving so soon? Don’t ya wanna stay for the fireworks?”

That quickly took Dean’s attention, brightening up his whole face so much that once again, Cas couldn’t find it in himself to refuse. Instead, earning himself a small kiss on the cheek as a thank you before being was dragged to the car to drop off their items.

Once back in the festival, they walked around until another volunteer told them about the amazing view of the fireworks at the middle of the corn maze.

“It’s a small maze, but in the middle is a little hill. So it’s usually first-come, first-serve. But I haven’t heard of anyone taking it as of now.”

Once again, Dean was easily hooked in and took Cas along for the ride. Not that he was complaining. He enjoyed watching Dean get excited over small things, things he wouldn’t have permitted himself to get excited for before. Of course, it helped when Dean hooked his arm around Cas’s waist to tug him close, whispering, “Ever kissed someone in a corn maze, Cas?”

“You know I haven’t, Dean.”

That did it for Cas. A promise of a spectacular kiss that will put the fireworks to shame.

At the entrance of the maze stood a cider cart, and Cas made a beeline for it. “I at least wanna be warm if you are going to make me walk around in the cold.”

“On the house.” The saleswoman winked at them, and something uneasy passed through them, but they ignored it as she motioned them to go right on in that the fireworks should be starting soon.

They took their hot cider and walked right in, taking hold of their hands as they walked through the maze in comforting silence. Watching the sky above them change from orange and pinks to the dark night sky.

When the maze opened up to a clearing, Dean started to run—taking the small space on top. It was tall enough to see over the cornstalk and watch the lights twinkle from the festival up ahead. They could even see groups of people exiting the maze from their left, and for a second, Dean wondered why they didn’t run into anybody on their walkover. It looked like a lot of people were going through the maze, but nobody passed them.

That thought was quickly dismissed as the first firework lit up the sky, cheers from the crowd echoed the loud boom, and Dean felt secure with an arm hooking around his shoulders to bring him in closer. So they sat there watching the firework show and polishing off their now cold cider until Cas couldn’t wait another second.

Gently, he turned Dean’s face just enough so they could start the kiss slowly. The snap crackle pop of the fireworks above their heads just kept lighting up the fuse between them until Cas asked for them to find another place to spend the night.

“Should we go now?” Dean kissed down Cas’s jaw, feeling the hastily nods instead of seeing it. “Okay. Okay, let’s go.”

They both stood up and took one last look at the view before they got down. Turning left, where they were sure they saw the other folks exit from before. Every few steps, they pulled each other for another kiss-- smiling into them like giddy newlyweds--until they started to realize they’ve been walking for way too long.

The fireworks had long been over, and they soon realized it was their only source of light. It soon became so hard to see anything that they didn’t dare let go of each other’s hands. They tried to go back to the hill to see if maybe they could see the trail from there, but it was like it never existed in the first place.

“Fuck!” They turned the corner to find another dead-end. “Isn’t this shit for children!”

“You know we haven’t seen or heard anyone in a while. Not since-”

“We came in here. I know. I was thinking the same thing earlier when we were on the hill.”

“Why didn’t you say anything then?”

“Cause you stuck your tongue in my mouth and impending doom took a backseat.”

They started to run, calling out for help as they did, but it only felt like they were going in circles.

Then Dean yelled, “Hallelujah!” When a flashlight shined into their faces.

“There you two are. It’s time to go.” The old man sounded so relieved to find them. He didn’t look sinister. He didn’t even make it sound like they were gone for that long. “You two okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah. We got lost, I guess.” Dean shrugged, watching as Cas stared ahead of him.

“Many people do. But they always find their way out, though.”

They followed the man out of the maze while Dean’s knuckles brushed alongside Cas’. They were listening to the man recite a memory when suddenly Cas tugged at Dean’s arm.

“Dean.” It was a shocking gasp.

“Cas?” Dean turned around to watch; Cas’s eyes rolled to the back of his head before dropping like a ragdoll. “Cas!”

And just like that, Cas was out to the world.

Dean fell to his knees to take Cas into his arms, but it was useless. He was heavy, and Dean’s body was starting to tingle, his muscles becoming weaker with every passing second.

“Don’t you worry about your little friend.” The man flashed his light on Dean’s face. Blinding him, but Dean kept glaring up at him. “Just like you, he won’t feel a thing.”

“What did you do to him?” He tried to growl, but it came out too breathless for it to be threatening.

“Same thing we did to you. Same thing we do every year to a couple of tourists.”

Dean could feel himself slipping out of consciousness, but he kept trying to shield Cas from whatever was coming.

“Don’t fight it, boy.” The man walked over to him, raising his flashlight high above his head. “Hate it when they struggle.”

And with a single hit, Dean was knocked out. Falling over Cas. Hoping that at least he gets killed first this time around.

Dean woke up again when he felt someone kicking his legs with little to no effort. His arms were numb, and he realized it was because they were pulled back and tied around some huge boulder.

“Dean?”

Dean recognized the voice and happily groaned out a complaint. “Hate small towns. Creeps. All of them.”

Cas chuckled in relief. “Glad you’re okay.”

Dean blinked a couple of times before his eyes focused, looking across from him to find Cas in the same position as him. Cas looked dirty, a few scratches on his face from being dragged, which made Dean furious—tugging at the ropes that hold him back from checking for any more injuries.

“Fuck! Shit! You okay? They hurt you?”

“Not as much as they did you.” Dean didn’t feel much pain besides the stretch on his shoulders and a raging headache. “I guess that’s not true. You have a swell on your head.”

“Yeah, well, I went down swinging. Unlike you.” Cas didn’t look amused, but he looked concerned. Dean followed his gaze, looking for an explanation or a way out. “I guess we’re either bait or dinner.”

“I’m used to being bait.”

“And I’m used to being dinner. Well, aren’t we a match made in heaven?” This time Cas glared, and weirdly enough, it made Dean relax a little. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

The plan was simple, while Cas may not be a full-powered-up angel, he was still an angel. And he was stronger than an average human. So with a little more force, Cas had his arms free, rubbing his wrist while shrugging at Dean, “I always see humans do this.”

“Yeah, cause it hurts, so if you can just-” Dean motioned for his arms and Cas quickly reached to untie him. Then, when they were both free, they once again started to look around the empty cornfield. “I say leave now and call for backup; come back in the morning.”

“Considering we have no weapons, I think that would be for the best.”

“So much for date night.” Dean took Cas’s hand, and they quickly started to get themselves out of there. Running like maniacs as they pushed through the endless corn.

“I actually enjoyed myself today. You know, before the whole being drugged and left for dead part.”

“Really? That was my favorite part.” Dean joked, squeezing Cas’s hand as they made their way to safety. “You think all the stuff we bought was drugged?”

“Won’t stop me from having another donut.”

“Man, I love you.”

[anotheranimestan]

Asking the Boys to Deal with Mineta for You: Shinsou

Shinsou style revenge + a lil spice for ya at the end

wc: 2.4k

Read the Bakugo ver. here

After hiding in the ladies restroom for about 5 mins you finally got that icky feeling off your body from Mineta and what he did

He was even drooling this time and you had to keep yourself from gaging

You cautiously make your way down the hall to class completely dreading that you’re going to have to see him again so soon

Or ever again for that matter

On your way, you see your crush walking down the hall

Already feeling relieved you call after him

I can’t decide who I want more....Aizawa or his adopted son (that better be cannon or I’m quitting)

Just look at him 😳

“Shinsou!” You whispered loudly at him.

He stopped in his tracks and twisted around looking for the source of the noise. His heart rate increased when he realized it was you, waving him over.

“Hey y/n.” He breezed before seeing the expression on your face. “What’s wrong?”

You didn’t even know where to start. How do you tell someone you were just harassed by a hero student. To someone who was wrongly placed in general studies nonetheless. Bumped out by one of your classmates.

“Well...I need your help. If you’re not busy...”

“I was just going—“ he paused with an expression as if he realized he was talking in gibberish. “What is it?”

“It’s...Mineta again.”

He looked at you blankly. You forget that the rest of the school isn’t caught up with class 1-A’s antics all the time.

“Right right. Well he’s the one with the balls—“

“Yea I know who he is but...what’d he do?”

This was painful to squeak out. Embarrassing. Especially to the guy you’d crushed on hard for a long time now. The one you gushed about every day to Mina. So much that she was sick of you.

“Well I was walking into the locker room to change for combat training and he came out of nowhere and bumped into me and...”

He stared at you, holding onto every word. Waiting for the punchline.

“And?”

“And I definitely saw a flash!” You cringed.

“I’m pretty sure he took a picture like...under my skirt!” You said tugging the fabric down at he thought.

His eyebrows flicked up in shock. His face contorted into disgust then annoyance.

“Seriously?”

You nodded. He composed his face back into his normal sleepy, unfazed look.

“So this is what they let go on in 1-A huh?”

Normally you’d bristle at his jabs at your class. But this time he wasn’t wrong. Mineta was a dirty little smear on class 1-A’s reputation. Plus, you really wanted his help. You were so fed up.

“I was too freaked out to you know...do anything.” He nodded in understanding. “But I really wish someone would do something. Go talk to him or something. This is really getting out of hand.”

He shifted around uncomfortably. Shaking his head slightly. Like this was the most ridiculous thing he’d heard all day. The fact that people were just letting this dickhead reek havoc on someone as sweet as you? He’d have ripped his head off by now.

He mumbled something about hero students really getting on his nerves. His usual spiel.

“So...you’ll talk to him?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “I’ll talk to him. Don’t worry.”

His words were soothing but the grin across his face was definitely not keeping you from worrying.

“Wait—“

“C’mon.” He said turning on his heels and heading in the direction you came.

He always walked with his hands in his pockets and leaning back on his heels like he was never in a rush for anyone or anything. Somehow he always had that calm and collected aura about him, like absolutely nothing you threw at him could faze him. It was attractive as hell and the exact reason why you were following him. You were sort of excited to see this play out.

Mineta v. Shinsou

Finally you rounded the corner to find Mineta still camped outside the locker room facing the door.

You scoffed in disgust. Your eyes zeroed in on the camera in grubby little his hands.

Shinsou gently put his arm out against your stomach to motion for you to wait there as he neared him.

You were nervous, anxious, excited.

“Hey 1-A.” Shinsou’s voice was casual but scarily unfriendly. “How’s it going?”

Mineta turned to him. Not noticing you standing in the background.

“Oh err hi Shinsou.” He said unexpectingly.

“Someone asked me to come find you and tell you something.”

“Really?” His nasally voice sounded pathetic in comparison to Shinsou’s smooth sultry one.

“Yea. But I think they were too nice. So I’m going to embellish a little on their behalf.”

“Uhh—?”

“What the fuck are you doing?” His voice was still so casual if you didn’t see the deadly serious look on his face you’d think he was chatting it up with a friend.

Your heart started racing. He didn’t seem this upset earlier!

“I’m—I’m just uhh...”

He couldn’t possibly be able to admit what he was actually doing right now.

“I should kick your ass man. Maybe report you so you’d never make it as a hero. But instead I think I’ll—”

“Shinsou wait dude—“ he was trembling.

Shinsou hadn’t even moved an inch. And he was still easily six feet away from him, his hands relaxed in his pockets. But he was all dark intimidation. Just his glare was throwing Mineta into a panic attack.

“Okay I’m sorry!! I didn’t mean to do it!” The offender started bawling.

Shinsou chuckled with no humor.

“How does one ‘accidentally’ take a picture up someone’s skirt?”

No response.

“What? Now you forgot how to answer a simple question?”

Mineta had to wipe some snot from his nose before speaking again. “I—“

He abruptly ceased trembling and his eyes went blank.

You gasped. Shinsou was using his quirk on him!?

“Y/n close your eyes.” He instructed you softly.

The alarm was going off in your head.

“What?! What are you—” You whispered loudly.

“Please? Quickly.” His voice was sharply contrasted to the way he’d been scaring Mineta.

You slapped both hands over your eyes. Praying that you weren’t about to hear a murder.

Your heart and your breathing were so loud you almost couldn’t hear them over your own panic.

“Strip.” He instructed his victim. “All the way down.”

Oh my god oh my god oh my god was just repeating in your mind over and over.

You heard fabric rustling. Mineta however wasn’t making a sound.

“Now take your sock and put it on your...”

Shinsou started speaking much lower now but you didn’t need to hear to guess what Mineta was putting his sock over right now.

You shuttered at the thought.

After a few moments of agonizing waiting in silence, dying to know what was going on, you yelped at the touch of a hand on the small of your back.

“Shhh. Keep these closed.” Shinsou urged as his large hand slid over both yours as a reinforcement.

He whisked you away with haste, trying to stifle his laugh as you two shuffled through the hall.

“Shinsou!!! Are you crazy?!” You whisper yelled as you flew.

He laughed more in response. “Probably.”

Just then several guys shrieked loudly from the direction you came.

Immediately recognizing it as Denki and Sero. You heard them screaming a couple “what the fuck”s at whatever god awful sight Shinsou had left them.

“Kaminari!” You said, another wave of panick flushing through you.

But then Denki and Sero’s hysterical laughter filled the halls as Mineta, who must have came to life again, started shrieking and sobbing.

A second later you heard Mina and Hagakure screaming and yelling at Mineta to put his clothes back on.

What the fuck was going on right now!?

Soon they were almost out of earshot as Shinsou’s arm that was wrapped around your waist wrangled you to a hault. Your hands slapped with cold from the absence of his warmth as he took his reinforcement hand away.

“Okay. You can open your eyes now.” He said not at all breathless from fleeing the scene like you were.

You slowly opened your eyes to find Shinsou signature sleepy eyes peering down at you. His face was only a few inches away as you two were tucked inside a doorframe. He was pretty. Even prettier this close.

You felt your cheeks get hot as the corner of his mouth tilted up into a little smirk.

He found the confused wild look on your face very cute. As if you’d never done something this questionable in your life.

You were so busy staring at his smooth looking lips that you’d forgotten to speak.

“Well that was....do you think we went too far?” You asked feeling guilty for some reason.

“No.” He said in quiet confidence. “I just gave him a little taste of harassment. So he knows how good it feels.”

You giggled nervously. He really was crazy. It was so attractive...

“Also...” he went to reach for something in his pocket. The shifting cased his body to lean forward. Bringing your lips even closer to touching. “I think you’ve got some private business to take care of with this.”

He dangled the cheap silver little digital camera by its handle in the air between your faces.

You exhaled. True relief finally washing over you. In all the commotion you’d forgotten about it.

“Oh thank god.” You said on a breathe out.

He flicked his head in the camera’s direction, motioning for you to take it.

It kind of grossed you out, holding Mineta’s perv weapons. But you powered through, powering it on and checking the gallery.

Sure enough there it was. Your indecent photo immediately popped up on the screen. He hadn’t gotten a good shot anything but you were still disturbed nonetheless. You cringed in embarrassment. You looked up to see if Shinsou was trying to take a peek. But you were met with only his eyes scanning every inch of your face intently with a lustful face. He wasn’t interested in looking at anything else.

You’d been so absorbed in the photo that you

didn’t notice he’d shifted his body to shield you from the hall to have this private moment. Nobody was out there but you still felt better knowing he was concerned for your privacy.

This also meant he was leaning an arm against the wall next to you ear. Dangerously close. You could almost feel his warm breath on your cheek.

You were biting your lip. As if he wasn’t already drawn to them enough, there you went pulling more blood to them to make them even plumper and delicious looking.

The thank you that escaped your lips was so soft it barely tickled his ears. But it was enough to make his chest swell with pride and satisfaction. He started to say you’re welcome but as his lips parted to speak yours pressed into them. Molding around his bottom lip and sucking gently.

His hand settled on your cheek to pull you in a little closer. Savoring the moment a little longer. The softness of your skin and the smoothness of your lips sending him into sensory bliss. He’d been waiting to see what you felt like since he first saw you walking by his general studies class. You’d smiled at him. You were probably just being polite but he never stopped thinking about how he was going to make this moment right here happen.

Never imagining it would happen like this.

His kiss was short and sweet. He had to use every bit of his self control to pull himself off of you. He didn’t want to scare you off no matter how damn irresistible you were being right now.

He’d always thought you were pretty but right now, while the adrenaline was pumping, you were beyond that. He was reveling in the idea of being your little unconventional hero right now. Hoping he’d get another chance to do it again soon.

His body was pressed against you and you could feel the camera getting smushed. Sadly he pulled away and your body instantly depressed at the absence of his weight on you.

“Feeling better now?” He asked in his usual calm and collected voice.

“Yes. A strange way to get there though.” He smiled at your giggle.

Reminded of the only task he’d left to you, you raised the camera and pressed the delete button. Shutting it off before you could find out what other things he had on there.

“Can you get rid of it?” You said handing him the camera back. Not wanting anything to do with it. “Throw it in a lake or something I don’t know.”

He took it easily and clicked out the SIM card.

“How about something more fun.”

To your surprise he, with no struggle, bent the SIM card in half. Breaking it and then dropped the camera on the floor.

You choked at the loud crunching noise the metal made as he stomped on it.

“Oh my god.” You said laughing. He was confirmed crazy.

“What? It’s the best way in my opinion. Give it a stomp.”

“No.” You said giggling uncontrollably now as he nudged your ticklish spot.

“You really should. How often do you get to stomp on Mineta’s shit?” He insisted, amused by your reaction to his poke.

“Okay okay.” You caved as you pressed on it with your foot, breaking the glass.

“What?” He said with a disappointed eyebrow. “That was the worst stomp I’ve ever seen. I thought you were in the hero course y/n.”

You rolled your eyes and gave it a better kick, to his satisfaction. He chucked the SD card in a garbage can and picked up the mangled camera.

“Let’s go see if that 1-A phone charger is still laughing.” He said grabbing your hand and tugging you along with him. “Plus...” he wiggled the camera, “I have to give Mineta his property back.”

You snorted. “I don’t think he’ll be getting within fifty feet of you any time soon. Good luck chasing him down.”

He grew a wicked grin at the thought. “Should be fun.”

He whisked you away faster and you both flew down the hall cheesing at what had easily become one of your favorite memories together at UA.

~~

😩👆stop it.

General tags from my masterlist: @edgyb1tch @waywardcowboyllamavoid @ladybeautiful18

Like my masterlist to be added!

[coconutstars]

Walking Away Part III

Part I  part II

Pairing: Stiles + reader   Summary: After having ignored all his calls, reader finally decides to hear Stiles out. The inspiration for this fic came from Wilson1128

A/N: MERRY CHRISTMAS Y’ALL AND THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL RESPONSE! I’m literally a living crying emoji right now <3.  I’ve finally finished part 3. This part was supposed to involve smut but I’ve decided to post that separately incase there’s anybody out there that, you know, wants to end this story here. A little angsty, a little fluffy. Each to their own, am I right? So, to clarify, THE SMUTTY MAKE-UP SCENE WILL BE IN A SEPARATE NSFW PART.4. That is, if y’all are even interested in that?? Let me know.

_____________________________________________________

There was no escape. You needed your books and there was no way that was going to happen without Stiles seeing you. Partly because the hallway was practically empty but mainly because he was leaned up against your locker, head ducked down, anxiously clenching and unclenching his fists. You hadn’t properly looked at him since the night you walked away from him. You’d avoid his gaze in the hallway, advert your eyes whenever he walked into a room and looked in any direction but his during your shared classes.  But you were looking at him now. Really looking and it struck you how vulnerable he seemed. Almost defeated. A part of you wanted to reach out and comfort him. Pull him close, bury your face in the familiar curve of his neck and whisper that everything was okay.

But everything wasn’t okay. And Stiles wasn’t yours to comfort anymore.

Reluctantly you made your way over to your locker. As soon as he saw you, Stiles straightened up.

“Y/N” He sounded shocked, almost like he was surprised to see you. “What are you doing here?” you asked flatly, folding your arms over your chest. For a moment your eyes met, and a wave of emotions started seeping into your system. Hurt, longing, anger, comfort. You quickly fixed your eyes on a random mark on the wall. “I’ve tried to call you” he said in a low but clear tone. You shifted your bag from one shoulder to the other. “I know” “yeah, course...” his voice trailed off as he started drumming his fingers against his pants. That was usually a sign that he was trying to restrain himself from doing something he may end up regretting.

“Yeah, it’s just...” he began, really trying to hold it in but ultimately failing “when someone calls like… a thousand times, they probably have something important to say, you know?” There was so much frustration, despair and anxiousness in his voice you were genuinely taken aback. “Perhaps.” you said after a moment of silence. “but they might not deserve to be heard out”. Your tone was a lot harsher than you’d intended. Stiles looked wounded but nodded his head, it was a fair shot, and he knew it. “All I’m asking for is a chance Y/N.”

You thought for a moment. He’d tried to contact you so many times through texts, calls and notes you’d lost count. Ignoring him was hard. A part of you really missed him and it hurt like hell every time you had to delete a message or ignore yet another call. Perhaps if you talked to him, he would stop. All contact would end, and you could both move on. It’d be good for you. You’d eventually heal and meet someone new. Someone who could love you as much as you loved them. At least that’s what you tried to tell yourself. In reality you knew getting over Stiles would be impossible. You’d given him a piece of your heart and it would always be his, regardless if he wanted it or not.

Stiles was waiting for you to reply. You let out a sigh, already convinced you were making a huge mistake. “Fine, come over at eight”

Stiles showed up at 7.54. Although, you had a feeling he’d arrived on your street even earlier. Most likely parked somewhere out of sight, tapping the steering wheel restlessly as he waited for the digits on his watch to change.

He was wearing the dark red flannel he knew you loved, and his hands were stuffed into the pockets of his dark jeans. “Hey” he said simply as you opened the door. You nodded in response and moved over to let him in before leading him up the stairs and into your room. You were standing across from each other, you with folded arms by the window and Stiles with his hands still stuck in his pockets by the door. 

“What do you want Stiles?”  He took a step forward.  “I want to apologize”. His honey-colored eyes were looking right at you, his gaze so intense you had to shift yours. “Okay” you replied shortly with a shrug, you were trying your best to sound unaffected but, on the inside, you were dying. It had just hit you that this could be the last time the two of you spoke to each other. You needed to wrap this up quickly or you’d start bawling your eyes out in front of him and that was not an option.   “Anything else? If not, I really have some homework to do” You snapped, feeling the familiar ache in your chest.  He took another step closer.  “I know you heard about what happened with Lydia at the party and-” You heart rate skyrocketed. There was no way in hell you were about to listen to him talking about hooking up with Lydia. You’d quite frankly rather stuff your ears with gravel and superglue them shut. “Yupp, Awesome. Good for you.” You interrupted, already on your way to usher him out of your room. “I wish you a both lifetime of happiness, thanks for stopping by” you rambled in distress, grabbing ahold of the handle. He placed his hands on your arms and spun you around. “Y/N shut up!” he said loudly in your face. 

You silenced in sheer surprise. “Nothing happened between Lydia and me! Nothing!” Like a deflated balloon, you let out a breath and looked up at Stiles, the panic now turning into confusion. “She kissed me and for a moment, yeah, I kissed her back-” You opened your mouth to say something but closed it again just as quickly. You weren’t sure what was happening right now. Your state of emotion had shifted way to quickly for your thoughts and mind to adjust. “-But nothing happened” Your brows knitted in confusion. How could he say nothing happened if he clearly just admitted to kissing her back? You wondered if this was some kind of poorly thought up method to soften the blow of being dumped. “That doesn’t make sense” you said with a headshake. “Stiles, you don’t have to have explain. I get it. You want to be with Lydia.” It really killed you to admit the last part. You couldn’t believe you’d actually managed to get the words out. You’d barely been able to think it, so to actually say it? You had a feeling you’d pay for it later though. You’d probably end up under the covers ugly crying until your head hurt and your skin burned from all the salty tears spilling from your eyes. “Can you please just go now?” your voice was barely a whisper.

Stiles ignored your request and shook his head in frustration. “I don’t want her Y/N. I don’t want Lydia.” This time when you looked up at him your eyes were narrowed in skepticism. What was this? What was he trying to do? “I don’t want Lydia because I want you” he clarified. Your mind still refused to understand what was going on. “No, Stiles. You chose her, you chose Lydia” His face twisted in frustration, his hands gesturing to emphasize his words. “Uh. No. You might not remember this, but you left me. I didn’t choose because there was no choice to make!” He practically yelled the last sentence. “you literally just told me I loved Lydia and broke up with me” You broke out into a laugh that lacked even the slightest trace of humor. Your emotional range now consisted solely of annoyed and angry. “So, you’re honestly going to tell me that you didn’t want to reply to that text?” Stiles practically exploded. “No! I didn’t and if you hadn’t been ignoring me for the past 100 years you would’ve known that”  “I’ve been ignoring you” you hissed through clenched teeth. “because you CHOSE LYDIA” 

Stiles shook his head in annoyance and turned around as if to talk to an invisible audience. “Nice, awesome. I see we’re really getting somewhere in this conversation” He took a deep breath before turning back to you. “No” he said, his tone and gestures slow and clear as if he were talking to a child. “I do not want Lydia because I want you. I love you Y/N Y/L/N” This time it was your turn to look away. You were literally screaming inside. This was all you’d wanted to hear since the two of you broke up. A part of you wanted to throw yourself into his arms and kiss him until your lips hurt. But a part of you was scared. The pain you’d felt lately was something you never ever wanted to feel again. Despite if he’d meant it or not, Stiles had hurt you. He’d hidden the text from you. He kissed Lydia, and even if he insisted it’d meant nothing it still happened. And it could  happen again You thought about what he just said. I love you. You knew you loved him without a shadow of a doubt, but did he really feel the same? “Are you so sure about that?” you whispered, your anger being replaced with insecurity.

Stiles closed the distance between you, his gaze practically boring into you. Letting out a breath through your nose, you reluctantly lifted your eyes to meet his. His gaze flickered down to your lips before turning back to your eyes. “yeah, I’d say so” His voice was soft and raspy, like honey spiced scotch. You loved his voice. Always had. But there was something special about this particular tone. It was so smooth it automatically sent a warm tingle down your spine. His brow lifted slightly, his face only inches from yours.

“So, are we done fighting?”  

Grabbing a handful of his shirt you pulled him to you, your lips grazing his.

“You tell me Stilinski”

His arms wrapped around your waist, a grin curling his lips before hungrily crashing against yours. 

“Hell yeah” 

Taglist: @maggiecc @lola-bunny-00 @classyunknownlover

[pop-up-writter]

two of them likes you part 1/3

RM & JHOPE

"Hey, Y/N! What are you doing here?" Jimin popped out of nowhere. "Are you here to see-"

"No," you cut off, "of course not. I'm here to see... you!" You pat his back which made him chuckle.

He place his arm over your shoulder, "I'm not stupid, but let's go. The guys are rehearsing, but it's almost lunch time."

Both you and Jimin walked in, they stopped dancing and greeted you with a smile and a wave. After doing the last set of steps, they were free to go to lunch.

"Y/N!" Tae and Kook shouted in unison. "Why are here? You said you're busy with work/school?" Tae asked before finishing a bottle of water.

"She's here to see me... apparently." Jimin answered with his arms still on your shoulder.

Hobi looked up from where he's sitting and RM cleared his throat. "Let's have lunch." RM pulled Jimin and wrap his arms around his shoulders. "You should pick where, Jiminie"

Jimin looked at you with a smirked, "We should ask Y/N."

All eyes laid on you, it was awkward so you muttered the first food that pops in your head. "Tteokbokki?"

Suga groaned, "Aish, we had that yesterday-"

"That's sounds good, let's go." Jhope hopped up and started hyping everyone up. "Yesterday's tteokbokki wasn't that good. Maybe we should find a place that serves a good one."

"I know one and Yoon-gi can order other food." Suga gave you a thumbs up, "I'll drive."

You unlocked your car and the maknaes and Jin quickly hop in the backseat while RM and Jhope are both staring at each other. "I'll seat infront." RM declared opening the door.

Jhope quickly stopped him, "I called shot-gun."

"Hiya! Can you both hurry up? We're hungry!" Jin yelled. "Just leave without them Y/N!"

You didn't listen because your terrified of the way they look at each other, none of them are backing down. "Jin, do something." You motioned for him to go out.

"Seriously, what's up with you guys? We only have an hour for lunch. It's just a front seat." Jin said frustratedly. "Let's go Hobi, sit with us. We're cool kids back there."

Annoyed Jhope let go of the front door, "Fine."

---

You reached the place, thankfully without any awkward tension, thanks to the maknaes. "I'll go wash up, just order without me. Jiminie, you know what I want." You smiled and winked at him.

Namjoon lifted an eyebrow, "Why? what does she want?"

"She wants medium spice tteokbokki and sprite. Everyone knows that." Jhope answered and Jimin just nodded.

RM pressed his lips together and rolled his eyes, "Know-it-all" He mumbled before following inside.

You found them comfortably sitting down and talking to each other. "Y/N! Sit with me!" Hobi waved his hands. You gladly sat down, "We have the same order, so I ordered large to share with you, is that alright?"

"Of course, but I suck at sharing." You beamed a smiled. Jimin was looking at you with a squint in his eyes and a malicious smile, you answered with a glare.

"That's fine. Here, I poured your drink." You thank Hobi for the kind gesture and took a sip. Your eyes landed on Namjoon and his glare made you choke on your drink.

His eyes were cold and jaw clenched together, somehow it made you feel uncomfortable since he was looking at you. "Are you okay?" Tae asked with a giggle.

"I'm good, I'm good." You wiped your lips and took a quick glance at Namjoon, he's still glaring at you.

You brushed RM's glare and just enjoy the meal with Hobi and the rest of the guys. "That was good! I am so full!" Jhope stretch his arms, "Let's go back, can I drive?"

"Sure, that would be great." You handed him the keys, since you're full aswell and not in the mood to drive.

"Shot gun!" Jungkook shouted running outside the store. You heard Hobi curse under his breath.

You ended up sitting betweet Jimin and RM, you yawn and place your head on Jimin's. "You're heavy!" you quickly glared at him, "I'm kidding, but just use Hyung instead."

"Remember this day, Park Jimin." You rolled your eyes and place your head on RM's shoulder. "Is this okay?" You asked and closing your eyes.

"Of course." He muttered. You felt Namjoon lowered his shoulder for you to rest comfortably.

They have another two hours of rehearsal, so you decided to watch. You couldn't take your eyes off him, you look down on your shoes every time your eyes meet each other. Hour passed by, maknaes and Jin walked towards you. "Finally, we're done!" Jungkook cheered.

You handed them their water, Jimin smiled at you, "Both of you are so obvious, you know?" He teased before drinking water.

"What? Who? Why? How?" You asked in panic.

Jimin chuckled and sat beside you. "Why don't you just tell him?"

"And then what? Make a fool out of myself? He treats me like a sister." You glance once more before facing Jimin.

"Or maybe she's treating you like he likes you?" you rolled your eyes at him, "He told me he likes you and he's being a wimp to tell you."

You eyes shined, "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Jimin, if your kidding right now I'm gonna smack you hard." You surveyed his facial expression if he's lying to you.

He shook his head, "You two won't end up with each other if you won't admit your feelings. Jesus Christ, if I could just meddle I would've. already." Jimin left you dumbfounded.

-

"Y/N? Hello, Y/N?" You shot up, "Are you okay? I've been calling you."

"Y-yeah, I'm good. Are you guys done?" Jhope nodded. "Good. I'm going home as well, do you need a ride?"

He shook his head, "but I do need to talk to you. Spare me a minute?"

You bit your lip and nodded. Jhope walked you to your car, "I don't know how to say this and I guess I am seizing the moment here."

He stopped his tracks, "I like you. I like you, Y/N." Your eyes widen from what he said. "I hope it won't make things awkward between us, but I do like you and you don't have to like me back. I just want you to know." He smiled sweetly.

It left you speechless, you couldn't say a word because of disbelief. "Drive safe, Y/N. Text me when you get home." He turn his back and scratched his head.

You're heart won't stop pounding, "He likes me. Hobi likes me." You muttered to yourself.

You got into you car, you were about to leave the parking when you saw Namjoon with his car having trouble, you honk once and it made him look. "What happened?" you asked hopping out.

"My battery died." He made a noise out of frustration. "I called my mechanic, but they won't be here for another 2 hours."

You inhaled to relax yourself, "I can give you a ride."

"No, it's alright. We have different ways anyway." He shut his hood, "You should go."

You insisted on him and he finally gave in, but in one condition, he'll drive on his way home. "Sure, that'll give me time to rest."

Even with music on you could feel the awkward tension between the two of you. So, you closed your eyes and pretended to sleep. At least he won't be awkward knowing you're asleep.

"Y/N?" He called, "C'mon, don't sleep on me."

Damn it. "Why? It's not like were talking."

Namjoon chuckled, "Fine, let's talk. How's school/work?"

It was your turn to chuckle, "You don't have to pretend to be interested in my school/work."

"I am interested, but we can talk about something else."

"Sure... I have a question." You glance at him and he said to ask away. "When was the last time you dated?"

You felt the car wiggle a little, he was caught off guard by your question. "Well... with the nature of my job, dating isn't easy. It's almost forbidden, almost." He looked at you when he said almost.

"You have a point. Then other question, what would you do if someone told you they like you?" You asked hoping he'll have answer that might help your situation.

Namjoon let out a nervous laugh, "You're questions are on fire, Y/N. To answer that, I don't know to be honest. Actually, I am on the otherside of that question. I like someone and I don't know how to tell her."

"I thought dating is almost forbidden." You rolled your eyes.

"Almost." He emphasizes the word and somehow you knew what he meant. "Why'd you ask? Did someone told you they like you?"

You pursed your lips before answering, "Well..."

"Do you like him back?" You were about to answer when your phone rang. "Answer it."

You press the green button and made a mental note to thank Jimin later, "What's up?"

"Are you home? Did you confess? I saw you guys at the parking earlier." The playfulness in his voice pissed you off. You told him it's not a good time and drop the call.

"It's Jimin, just checking if I got home." You out your phone away, "It's probably because-"

"Y/N, I like you." He blurrted

Both of your lungs and heart forgot to function and your brain is giving up processing what he just said. "What?"

"I like you for so long. I just couldn't hold it in longer and I wanted you to know."

You just stared at him, "...I'm sorry, what?"

He chuckled, "I know it's out of the blue."

"I... I... Namjoon, what?"

Which one? Part 2? What? Okay?

[noblest-roman-of-all]

dig your own grave

day twelve! this is kind of a loose continuation of my other fic ‘mundane’, with some added prinxiety spice!

pairings: virgil/roman, brotherly logan/virgil/janus

tw: none that i know of

One would expect that, with the level of dramatics his brothers always displayed, Logan would be used to it by a certain point. One would also expect that, after the last time one of his brothers had used their spare key to come into Logan’s house without asking and proceed to throw his life into disarray, he would change his locks. Unfortunately, one would be wrong on both accounts, as proven by the fact that Logan’s youngest brother disturbed his peaceful evening by storming into his apartment and then his bedroom, threw himself down on Logan’s bed, and then screamed for… Logan checked his watch. Twenty seconds. Logan didn’t know whether he should be concerned or impressed. When Virgil’s screaming died down to muttering, Logan cleared his throat.

“Is there something you would like to talk about, or did you run out of pillows to yell into?” Logan asked. Virgil flipped over and laid, star-fished out, staring blankly at the ceiling. 

“Please remind me to never, ever listen to Janus again. He let me dig my own grave, and for that I will never forgive him,” Virgil muttered. Logan let out an honest laugh at that. 

“I don’t know about ever again, but I will admit he can give some… questionable advice,” Logan said. Virgil lifted his head up and quirked an unimpressed eyebrow at him. He’d learned that this apparently meant something along the lines of ‘I am well aware of that by now’. 

“That doesn’t answer my question, however. Do you want to talk about it?” Logan asked. Virgil had very particular boundaries, and was rarely willing to divulge information without some serious prompting and several reassurances that it was fine for him to talk. It seemed this evening, however, was one of the rare exceptions. 

“It’s- there’s a- there’s a lot to it,” Virgil stuttered out. “There’s a boy.” Oh, now this was interesting. Logan wasn’t overly involved in his brothers’ love lives, but whenever they did come to him, it was always at a tipping point of something serious. Logan leaned forward slightly, and silently prayed his face was appropriately sympathetic and not overtly curious. It didn’t seem to matter, as Virgil continued his rant looking directly at the stars painted across the ceiling. 

“He’s in my Intro to Psychology class, and he’s so…” Virgil trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words. Logan nodded in a way he hoped was encouraging, his mind filling in all sorts of ridiculous synonyms for ‘attractive’ Virgil might be searching for. A moment passed and Virgil still hadn’t spoken up, so Logan cleared his throat again. 

“So what?” Dammit, he couldn’t keep the slightly teasing edge out of his voice. Virgil didn’t seem to pick up on it though, pulling at his hair in aggravation. 

“So… fucking annoying!” 

Well. That’s not where he saw this going at all. 

“He’s so full of himself!” Virgil continued his tirade. “He thinks he’s so cool because he’s in the theater program, and he’s in this club and that program and blah blah blah.” He threw his hands up in exasperation. “He sings, Logan! Constantly! Any time I see him on campus, he’s singing show tunes and Disney songs and- ugh!” His hands fell back to his side. Logan couldn’t hold in his chuckle after a moment. Virgil shot him a glare. 

“What’s so funny?” he grumbled. Logan collected himself, though he couldn’t hide his smile even if he tried. 

“Virgil, do you realize that you’re being somewhat… hypocritical?” Virgil actually gasped at the accusation. 

“I don’t know what the hell you mean,” he said. Logan laughed again. 

“You complained about him singing on campus, specifically Disney songs, but how often have I caught you walking around singing songs from ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’?” Virgil spluttered out a defense, but Logan wasn’t done yet. “Besides, just because someone is more willing to share information about their life and activities than you are doesn’t mean they are full of themselves.” Virgil glared again, and then slumped back down. 

“That’s what Janus said,” he groaned. Logan suddenly remembered what Virgil first said when he burst in. 

“What else did Janus say?” Logan asked. Apparently it wasn’t the question Virgil wanted, as he groaned again and hid behind his hoodie sleeves. 

“He said that the guy wanted to be friends, and the next time I saw him I should talk about some common interests or some bullshit. So when he came up to me in class I tried to come up with something, but I panicked and started blabbing about the class and psychology stuff and he didn’t say anything for a while and when I finally managed to shut up he just kinda smiled and left, so now he totally thinks I’m crazy and Janus was wrong and also I’m an idiot,” Virgil finished with a huff, the last sentence coming out all on the same breath. Logan was pretty sure Virgil wasn’t near a panic attack, but he certainly seemed to be spiralling, so he walked slowly towards the bed and sat down. 

“Virgil, listen to me, okay?” Virgil gave a small nod. “You’re not an idiot, and you don’t know that he thinks you’re ‘crazy’,” Logan said, with finger quotes emphasizing the word ‘crazy’. Virgil huffed a laugh at the gesture. 

“Janus could have been right. I’m not going to guarantee that he was, but it’s possible. A person sharing their interests with you is usually an indication they want you to know about their life, and they often want to know about your life in turn. It’s an easy way to start a conversation for some people,” Logan said. He heard Virgil mutter under his breath, “yeah, some people”, and couldn’t not laugh. 

“Even if it is true that he wasn’t trying to befriend you, or that he was and you somehow scared him off, why should it hold such importance in your mind? You said earlier you found him annoying more than anything else,” Logan said. Virgil stared at him for a long moment, then back up at the ceiling. 

“I don’t know. He’s just… he’s just kinda become a part of the routine of life, you know? And even as aggravating as he can be, it’s still nice to see him, and sometimes he actually does make funny jokes, and he’s the only one in class I can really snipe at, and he snipes right back at me, and even though him singing all the time gets really tiring he has a pretty nice voice, and-” Virgil shot up suddenly. 

“Oh no. Oh shit shit fucking shit I like him,” Virgil cursed. “I fucking like him and I’ve been such a dick to him and god dammit I really did dig my own fucking grave on this, how the fuck am I going to get him to even look at me now.” Virgil spent the rest of the evening at Logan’s apartment, eventually going home after tearing through some Thai food they had delivered. Logan expected he would hear more about it either from Virgil within a month, or Janus within a week. 

The next day, Logan stopped by the bookshop that was along his route from his new apprenticeship at the nearest tech lab to his apartment. No one was inside except the clerk who was there most often, a very loud, flamboyant man named Roman whom Logan had somehow become friends with through his many times coming to this store. Roman walked with him through the store as they traded stories about what was going on in their lives, how Logan’s new job was going (perfectly fine, thank you Roman), how the auditions went for the play at the local college Roman was attending (it went wonderfully, of course), and as they headed back to the register, Logan asked about the boy Roman had been mentioning off and on the past few weeks. 

“I’m afraid to inform you that it may be approaching a disastrous ending,” Roman sighed, scanning the books without even looking. “He finally spoke to me, but it was all about school. I may just have to accept that he isn’t interested.” The forlorn look was a bit ridiculous, but the dejection in Roman’s voice threw him off balance. 

“I wouldn’t give up too soon, Roman. It’s possible he simply isn’t great at picking up on social cues. My brother is much like that-” Logan fully intended on finishing his statement, but the realization hit him like a bus. 

Of course two of the most dramatic, absurd people in his life would find each other and immediately become infatuated. Logan had half a mind to tell Roman right then, but… a voice all too similar to Janus’s told him that it would be so much more interesting if he simply sat back and observed. 

Maybe he was digging his own grave here as well, but he could probably dig his way out of it if need be. 

[the-awkward-outlaw]

Imagine if fem!reader put smth sexy on for Arthur before he gets home from work as a surprise, she's fidgeting on the bed trying to find a good pose when the door opens and it's John saying like "hey Arthur here's the thing I borrow-" and they kinda just stare at each other in shock before John leaves with a "you know what I'll just come back some other time". Does he run into Arthur on his way out? Maybe. Do reader and Arthur still get it on? Hell yeah

Okay, I have something to admit to y’all. Growing up Mormon (full on not Mormon anymore, thank God!), I did not have any experience for most of my life when it comes to sex stuff, so my kinkiness level is like a 1 out of 100 (yes, feel free to judge). Anyways, this one turned out more funny than anything else, so have a good laugh, even if it’s at my expense! 

Read my works on AO3

Thank God for two-day delivery. You ordered this thing two days ago and have been antsy to try it on for Arthur ever since. Your bedroom life isn’t stale and you two fuck at least three times a week, but sometimes you just need something to spice it up. 

You open the package, which contains another box, a periwinkle blue with the curvy logo of the company. You open that box and there’s a paper promising customer satisfaction, full refunds for a month, blah blah blah. You push it aside and lift up the tissue paper to reveal the sensual garment you’d ordered. 

Pulling it up, you feel worried. It looks like it might be too small for you. After ripping open the clear package, you hold the piece up. Then you look at the clock. Arthur will be getting off of work and he’ll be home in about half an hour. That gives you just the right time to try this thing on and discard it if it doesn’t look good. 

You strip out of your clothes and then inspect the piece again. Biting your lip, you slip it on over your legs and begin pulling it up over your body. The piece, which looks like a corset, stretches surprisingly well and slides over your skin. You pull it up to the proper length, to where it just barely covers your nipples, and then look down to see where it stops at your legs. There is no crotch to it, so you’re a little worried it might look like you’re wearing a kid’s dress. Luckily, it stops right at the line of your buttcheeks. 

You step in front of the mirror, afraid it might look completely ridiculous. It looked hot as hell online, but of course that was on a model. You’re just an average person, not exactly model material and this thing can’t be photoshopped on your body. You look at your reflection and are pleased to see that it actually extenuates your figure while still enunciating your curves. 

You look at the clock. Ten minutes to go. Have you really spent that much time fidgeting with this thing? Whatever, doesn’t matter. Now you have to find a sexy pose, you want it to be a surprise for Arthur. You sit on the bed, wondering if you should do a pinup pose. You try one, but you feel completely ridiculous. You try a different one with the same affect. 

You go through a multitude of poses, each feeling more silly or more uncomfortable than the last. Honestly, the amount of back arching you’ve done is starting to hurt. Just now, you hear the door downstairs open. Arthur’s home. Shit, you still haven’t found a pose. As soon as he takes off his shoes, he’ll be coming up here to change out of his work clothes. You suddenly wonder if you’re underdressed in this thing. You should have put on fishnet stockings or put on makeup or styled your hair or something. God, you are such an idiot! 

You’re still fighting around with poses when you hear him coming up the stairs. Why did he leave his shoes on? Maybe he’s planning on mowing the lawn or something. You quickly pick a random pose on the edge of the bed, even though it kind of hurts your back. You throw your shoulders back, supporting your upper half on your arms as you lean slightly back, throw out your chest and spread your legs a little so that he can get just a hint of the fact that nothing’s covering you down below.

The doorknob begins to turn. You shift your shoulders slightly, they’re starting to hurt. And then you hear a voice you did not expect. 

“I’m just gonna grab it quick.” Fuck! It’s Arthur’s brother (he’s adopted but still family), John Marston. What the hell is he doing here? 

You start coming out of your pose but are not fast enough. John starts walking in the room, his head turned back to call to Arthur, and then he turns his head and your eyes meet. 

John’s face immediately goes white and you watch his eyes quickly go over your body before he claps his hand over his eyes. Your face is burning up so bad you might as well be a miniature sun and you try to grab the comforter off the bed to cover yourself. You’re sitting on it though and it refuses to stretch up enough to do the job. 

“Sorry!” John hisses. He quickly shuts the door and starts heading down the hall, his eyes burning. He wishes he could scrub them with soap. He doesn’t think you’re unattractive, but you’re Arthur’s girlfriend! He would never want to look at you that way! 

He rubs his eyes and immediately crashes into a big, fleshy barrier. 

“Didn’t ya find it?” Arthur asks, addressing John’s clearly empty hands. 

“You know, Arthur, I think I’ll grab it a different time. Y/N’s in there and she… I think she wants to talk to you.” 

“You a’right? Ya look like ya seen a ghost, boah.” 

John just puts his hands up, shakes his head and walks around Arthur. “Like I said, I don’t need it right now, I’ll grab it some other time. Just go talk with Y/N, think she’s got a bone to pick with you.” 

John leaves the house, leaving Arthur quite confused. Are you pissed? He heard you yell out but couldn’t make out any words. Honestly you sounded more scared than mad. But maybe you’re ticked off about something. Arthur sighs and begins heading down to the bedroom. He starts wondering what he did to make you mad, but he honestly can’t think of anything. 

“Did I leave the bedroom light on again before I left?” he thinks aloud. “Did I forget to turn on the dishwasher? Leave up the toilet seat? What, woman, what did I do this time?” 

He opens the door, resolved for an inevitable scolding, and sees you sitting on the edge of the bed, your face in your hands. He immediately notices the tiny piece slipped over your body. 

“What? What’s goin’ on?” he asks. 

You look up, your face still burning. “Oh my God, Arthur! I am so sorry!” You start giggling. “I think I just gave John the scare of his life!” 

Things click into place and Arthur raises his eyebrow. “Oh dear,” he says, then he begins laughing too. You both laugh yourselves out before Arthur says he’ll text John and explain you’d no idea he was going to be here. 

“Good. I meant for this to be a surprise!” you say, gesturing to your covering. 

Arthur smiles and puts his hand on his hip. “Well, I am surprised to see it. What’s this for?” 

“Well, what do you think, Arthur?” 

“Let me see it,” he says. 

You smile and relax your body, flipping what little of the comforter you used to cover yourself. You take on a pose, thrusting out your chest and spreading your legs. You shaved your undercarriage earlier, so he can get a full view of everything. 

“Damn, girl,” he says. You look up at him and see where he’s staring. It makes you blush. “Seriously though, why’d you even put this thing on? You could have sat like this butt-naked and I’d be happy.” 

“Aren’t you glad I didn’t? Otherwise John would have seen everything.” You enunciate the word. “Besides, this is supposed to be for teasing you, making you excited. Like a present.” 

“Well it’s certainly doin’ that. And I’m glad that if John had to see you like this, he didn’t get a full view.” 

You giggle and gesture him forward with a finger. He smiles and walks over, stripping out of his clothes as he does so. He’s already half hard by the time he gets to you. 

“You know, I think I actually like this thing,” he says, sliding his hands over your hips as you lay down for him. “You look sexy as hell in this.” 

He bends down and kisses you, then his hands go to the top of the piece and he pulls down, popping your nipples out so he can play with them. Then his hand glides down and starts playing between your folds, making you groan into his mouth. 

“I’m definitely sold on this,” he says. He starts kissing down your body, his lips gliding over the black material and then he kneels down by the bed, staring up into your slit. He kisses your inner thigh and grabs your knees, spreading them even more. 

 “A’right, darlin’. You say this is to make you like a present. I’m ready to see what’s inside.” 

You tremble under him as he goes to work, using his tongue to bring you to your edge. As you moan and writhe under him, his mouth working wonders, you definitely feel this piece was worth every penny.

[skelebonecentral]

Hothouse Rose chapter 4

your first day at your new home comes to a close and your new life begins!

(words under cut)

Charm just nodded as his brother explained what had happened when he’d visited with the human, and what he’d heard Spice do. “Well, I did tell you that humans are much more reserved than we’d assumed, brother.”

“but that much? I mean, I knew they wouldn’t be thrilled with my work but that kind of shock and disgust? I know you like them but they seem way too judgmental to me,” Sugar was worried. It was one thing for his cousins who lived here to be confused by his work, they’d still let him stay and they liked him already. But this human was an unknown factor and even if Papyrus loved them, they were still possibly bad for the rest of them…well, except Sans. Sans was clearly mooning after them already.

“Sugar, dear brother,” Charm smiled, “they already love Papyrus. And Papyrus has made it very clear that while we’re confusing to him, he cares for us. Sans cares for us. And the human, while very reserved, is reasonable and can be eased into acceptance of how we do things. We just need to take it slow, as hard as that can be for you.” He was almost laughing. His brother was just so impatient sometimes.

Huffing, Sugar sprawled out on Charm’s bed, “but it’s going to be so awkward. It was bad enough that first little while with our cousins and now we have to do it again? with a human with all kinds of hang ups? You know what they told boa?”

“I do. They’re entirely correct, too, but they also said they don’t understand the mindsets of those people who would hate us for what we are. Their whole energy is in flux right now, after all, because of that trauma of losing their home. Give them time, Sugar. They’ll learn to love us, I just know it.” Charm let himself lay over the bed, ending up with his head on his brother’s chest. “and remember, even if no one else loves you, I do.”

“I know, bro,” Sugar took a deep breath, then sighed, “yeah. okay. we’ll try to do this slow and steady, like you like it.”

“Right.”

--

Boa stood outside his brother’s door, “Please? The party isn’t until eight, so you have two whole hours where it’s just us and the human. You can even just meet them then take your dinner back, but they’re very fun.”

There’s silence behind the door, then it cracks open a bit, “and they’re my age?”

“Yes,” Boa smiles, “Almost exactly! They’re two years younger than Papyrus, he told me so. Also, they really like some of those 80’s movies you do. The one with the…the fellow in tights with the big blond wig? They bought a shirt of that!”

“Labyrinth?” the door opens more, a skull peering out with soft orange lights in the sockets, “That’s…promising. Um….and you’ll be there, right?”

That made Boa’s smile fall, “No, I have to work on a commission. But Whip and Papyrus will be there, and Sans. Maybe Spice, too, if he’s not too upset about botching his introduction.”

Analyzing movements of the eye lights, then he spoke, “okay. I’ll meet them as long as Papyrus is there.”

“Oh thank you, Sweet-pea!” Boa clapped happily, “They’re so nice, they yelled at someone who yelled at me! And he was a big scary man, too!”

A small laugh, “oh? well…that does boost them up in the list of people I’d be okay talking to.”

“Good.” Boa’s expression softens, “Because I really want you to find a friend. You deserve to have someone to count on besides me.”

--

“HELLO, DEAR DATEMATE!”

You look up and jump to your feet, flinging your arms open to hug Papyrus as he strides into your room. “Papyrus! Welcome back!”

Feet off the ground, you are swung lightly back and forth as he hugs back, then set right and beamed at, “AND I SEE YOU TOOK THE INITIATIVE TO FIND MY TEXTBOOKS TO STUDY! I’M VERY PROUD OF YOU FOR THAT! DID YOU MEET ALL THE OTHERS YET?”

“No,” you sigh, “and I don’t think my meeting with Sugar or Spice went well. I messed up with Sugar and I got too flustered and upset Spice so…”

“OH.” Papyrus frowns, but pats your head, “IT’S ALRIGHT. SPICE IS ALWAYS ON EGGSHELLS AROUND NEW PEOPLE, SO HE PROBABLY OVERREACTED. I KNOW IT IS A BIT WORRYSOME IF YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOUR CRYING WHEN FLUSTERED, SO IT MIGHT HAVE SPOOKED HIM!”

“Yeah…sorry.”

“DON’T BE! NOW WE MUST GO DOWNSTAIRS FOR DINNER AND YOU CAN MEET THE OTHER TWO. MAYBE. SWEET-PEA TENDS TO EAT IN HIS ROOM A LOT SO I DON’T KNOW.”

Taking his arm, you let him lead you down the stairs and smiled as you saw Sans waiting for you by a door to the right of the stairs. “oh, heya. we got the other two you haven’t met yet here. and spice. But uh…he’s in a mood so he probably won’t talk.”

“That’s my fault. I got flustered and…well…”

“oh. gotcha. He’s not used to humans leaking,” Sans grinned as Papyrus glared at him.  He could feel that this would lead to many plumbing based puns later.

The door was opened, and you went in with Papyrus, being directed to the seat between him and Sans. It was a pretty long table, long enough for nine people easily, probably ten if you stretched it, and made of some dark stained wood with curling curved feet on the table itself and the chairs that matched it.

Although, the table was only so interesting when there was someone dressed like a dominatrix with a white scarf sitting at it.

He was tall, as tall as Papyrus if not taller, and sitting next to Spice near one end of the table. On seeing you, he stood up and stalked over. “I SEE. SO YOU ARE THE ONE PAPYRUS GUSHES OVER AND WHO’S GOT SANS ALL FLUTTERY.”

Sans chokes and coughs, turning blue as you give him a raised eyebrow. You’d talk about this later, but for now you just nod.

“WELL, I AM WHIP, THE INDOMINABLE AND TERRIFYING, AND I DO HOPE YOU LIVE UP TO THE HYPE. I TELL YOU,” he leaned over, the black leather of his outfit hugging his bright red ectobody closely and showing every taught movement of false muscle, “IF YOU TRY ANYTHING-“

“nope.” Sans got up and stood next to your seat, “whip, I did that already. threatening people isn’t allowed in this house. Nobody is doing anything wrong, and there’s no need for that. I get you’re used to being in charge, but this isn’t your house. It’s mine.”

His hand on your shoulder was warm and steady, and you were surprised when Whip backed off instantly. Wow, how many cut outs were in the side of that weird one-piece suit? It had no arms, and ended in shorts, but his boots and gloves matched.

“UGH. FINE. BESIDES, I DON’T NEED YOU AND ALL THE BLEEDING SOULS AROUND HERE ON MY CASE IF I UPSET THEM.” He sat back down, “BUT I STAND BY MY OBJECTION TO THEIR PRESENCE!”

Ah. So he was the one who didn’t want you here.

But that meant..

You look at Spice, and decide to do something, “I’m sorry if I worried you earlier, Spice. I just cry when I get really flustered; I wasn’t actually mad or anything.”

Spice sat up ramrod straight where he’d been leaned over the table grumbling to himself. “O-oh? so ya were just all flustered?”

“Yeah,” you nod and smile to make sure you reassure him, “so are we good now? I wanted to make sure you knew you didn’t do anything wrong.”

He seems very relieved, his grimace turning into a real smile, “oh yeah. yeah, baby doll, we’re good. thanks for clearin’ the air.”

Whip is glaring at you, but he elbows Spice, who winces and glares back at him.

The only other person at the table is across from you, and he’s been quiet. He’s wearing what looks like a hoodie with the hood up, but it’s cut off just before the end of his ribcage. Papyrus has started serving the dinner (it’s some kind of spicy chicken pasta, and you’re quite excited about it) and answers the question you weren’t prepared to ask yet, “SWEET-PEA, DO YOU WANT ME TO PUT A WRAP OVER YOUR PLATE SO YOU CAN GO UPSTAIRS?”

“n-nah, pap. Thanks,” his voice was soft, nervous, but had a small laugh in it. A tenor, this one, like Papyrus, Boa, Charm, and Whip. “I uh…kind of promised my bro I’d try to talk with the human, since we’re the same age.”

“Oh?” you perked up, and it also made Spice and Whip take notice. “It’s nice to meet you, Sweet-pea. Your brother really helped me out today.”

He looked up, and you saw a shy smile in the slight light of his blushing orange magic, “ehehe, the way he put it, it sounded like you helped him more. thank you, for keeping my big brother safe.”

Nodding, you set into your dinner. Papyrus and Sans were bantering as usual, and after a moment or two you got in on it as well. Spice and Whip would talk occasionally, but only amongst themselves, and Sweet-pea just observed.

After a while, you were done eating, but you didn’t want to just get up and leave. “Hey, Sweet-pea?”

He jumped, but looked your way, “yeah?”

“What do you like to do? Since we’re in the same house, I want to know how to have fun with all my housemates.”

Spice snickered, but got elbowed by his brother again, and Sweet-pea seemed relieved, “mostly I draw. I um…I design clothes, th-the ones my bro wears and me, too. uh…bro asked you for your measurements, right?”

“Oh, yeah he did. That was so you could work with them?”

He nodded, “never had to design for a human before. Neat challenge…nyehehe…”

Oh stars, he was so cute. That quiet laugh, the reluctance to talk, creative and shy, oh it was beyond endearing.

“Well, knowing that, I’ll be happy to let him or you measure me tomorrow. I’ll probably spend the majority of the day trying to just get used to the house but whenever you two are ready, I’ll cooperate.” Boa had already won your trust, and knowing this reclusive darling was his brother made you drop all your guards.

Papyrus seemed curious, and asked, “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL MAKE FOR THEM, SWEET-PEA? THEY ARE A MORE CONSERVATIVE PERSON THAN YOUR USUAL DESIGNS GO FOR.”

He waved a hand, “o-oh I get that. uh….i kind of wanted to see if I could do that? make a more…more human friendly design. Maybe something dignified? Or a, um, a fancy gown? Suit? I’m not sure yet.”

He was done with his food, too, and as he got more nervous, he stood, “and that’s all the spoons I’ve got. See ya.” And he vanished like Sans did.

“Oh! He can shortcut, too!” You realize you sound stupid, but it just surprised you.

“so can me’n sugar,” Spice said, smirking a bit. “Can’t wait ta see what ya think when I just show up.”

“Probably that you’re showing off,” you answer honestly, “but that’s okay. I’m probably going to try and show off, too, since we’re just getting to know each other.”

He got thrown off, you could tell the way his smile faultered, but it came back softer, “fine by me, baby doll.”

“SPICE, I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOUR NICKNAME FOR THEM,” Papyrus was struggling, and you let him finish his question. “WHAT ABOUT THEM IS LIKE EITHER A BABY OR A DOLL? THEY ARE AN ADULT REAL HUMAN?”

“oh, easy. They’re cute, an’ young, an’ pretty. term of endearment, paps,” Spice handled it smoothly, giving a much nicer smile than he had all night, “sorry for confusin’ ya.”

“OH, NO, YOU ARE QUITE ACCURATE ON ALL THOSE COUNTS!” Papyrus beamed at you, and you shot a grateful look to Spice before squeezing Papy’s hand. “ALSO, FOR ME AND YOUR BROTHER, THEY ARE VERY SMALL AND THUS EVEN MORE ADORABLE!”

“not that small,” Sans says, playing at a pout before snickering. “but it’s true, compared to you, everybody is doll sized.”

Whip got up and walked to the doorway, “YOU’RE ALL INFURIATING! BROTHER, COME TALK TO ME WHEN YOU’VE WISED UP TO THIS INVADER!” He then stalked away, letting you see the spikes on the backs of his boots and gloves.

Spice groaned and got up, “sorry ‘bout him. he’s…well, gettin’ used ta other folks is gonna take him some time. barely got comfy with just us bone heads before you got here, baby doll. It’s okay.”

“Alright, if you say so,” you murmur, still worried. You hadn’t wanted to upset anybody.

Spice took a shortcut and left, and that meant it was just you and the two brothers you knew best.

“welp, I’m gonna- hck!”

Sans had tried to leave but gotten caught by his shirt collar by Papyrus. “OH NO, YOU’RE STAYING AND TALKING ABOUT THAT.”

“talking about what?” he asked meekly, and you leveled him with your stare.

“About Whip saying you were all fluttery about me.”

Sans’ skull turned blue as he was set back in his seat, “I’m working with Dr. Kevin about it, I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to start crushing…” He was curled in on himself, blue magic beading on his skull.

“SANS, WHY ARE YOU SORRY?” Papyrus blinked at him, “Y/N IS AMAZING, IT’S NOT SURPRISING YOU’D FIND THEM AS WORTHY OF YOUR LOVE AND ADORATION. YOU COULD HAVE JUST TOLD US AND WE’D TALK ABOUT IT.”

You look at Papyrus, very surprised. Most men you’d known in the past would be outraged if their brother admitted to having a crush on their date. But Papyrus’ next words dig you in even deeper in confusion. “AFTER ALL, IT’S NOT LIKE WE CAN’T COME TO SOME SORT OF AGREEMENT ON SCHEDULING IF THEY LIKE YOU BACK.”

“uh…that might be how it would work underground, pap,” Sans is looking pretty dejected and lost, “but I did the research, polyamory isn’t exactly encouraged up here. humans like monogamy.”

Oh. OH. This was a culture thing and Sans was trying to push his own feelings away because of it. Hell no.

“Sans, I…well, I’ve never tried a polyamory situation before, but I’m not opposed to it? I’m not sure I can address this fully right now, with everything going on, but we can certainly talk about it more when…when I’m not freshly moved in?” You smile, even though you know you probably look kind of dazed. You are dazed, a bit, so that’s okay.

Both the boys look at you, surprised, then they both smile. Papyrus is all brightness as always, and Sans looks so relieved, “that’s fine. that’s more than fine, it’s better than I ever expected. Thank you.”

“SEE? I TOLD YOU, THEY’RE THE BEST!” Papyrus hugs you, but whispers in your ear, “thank you for being open to this. I know it’s not the human norm.”

You just nod and hug back, and Sans gets up. “okay. I used like….all my energy for the night. I’m going to bed.” He waves, then shortcuts away.

“Do you want me to stay and help you clean up?” you ask, and Papyrus lets you go and shakes his head.

“NOPE! GO TO YOUR ROOM AND I’LL COME BY AT EIGHT TO HAVE SOME FUN BEFORE YOU GO TO SLEEP.”

You nod and get up, kissing his head, “And you do know I love you and that won’t change? Ever?”

“YES! AND THE SAME GOES FOR ME, BUT ABOUT YOU!”

Reassured, you go upstairs and settle in your room. Good grief, what a night. What a day, in fact, but at least it can’t get any bigger.

--

You are entirely wrong about it not getting bigger.

Papyrus suggests you come with him to the living room at eight for movies, and you agree, but end up finding a lot of your family and several of your monster friends there. Streamers are all over, there’s balloon inflated with gravity magic so they float, and a banner that says “WELCOME HOME!” on it.

Sans, looking very tired, waves at you from one of the sofas after everyone yells ‘surprise!’ at you when you come in. “I really am tired, but this was already planned so…”

You sit by him and kind of look around. Frisk runs up and signs at you, “It’s about time you moved in with them! How are you supposed to be lovey-dovey with Papyrus if you’re in different houses?!”

“Frisk,” you groan, hiding in Sans’ shoulder since Papyrus is busy chatting with Charm (he and Boa seem to have been in on it) “Please. You’re being too cute again.”

They grin, then sign to Sans, “And you, you should hug them more. I promise humans are really soft to hug!”

He chuckles and gives you a small squeeze, making you smile, “fine. don’t need to tell me twice.” Bother Frisk and their matchmaking prowess!

Satisfied, they skip off, and Undyne comes over. Her red ponytail is tied lower than normal and she’s actually just in a normal white t-shirt and jeans tonight. You’re surprised the denim goes so well with her blue skin. “Yo! So you burned your house down, too! Haha, I knew you’d get enough passion in there eventually.”

“It wasn’t passion, Undyne. Papy and I weren’t even home when it happened,” you say, and she scoffs.

“You guys are so lame! Alphys and I-“

“tmi, undyne,” Sans says, letting you go. “and don’t let my cousins hear you or they’ll give you lessons. I’m serious.”

“Fufufufufu, your cousins. Those guys are a riot. I love them,” Undyne grins, “But anyway, I’m glad you and Papyrus are safe, punk. And now Alphys and I can bet over when you’re getting married instead of just moving in!”

“Noooo,” you blush and cover your face. “You’re a terrible friend! Horrible! Bad! Why do I like you?”

“Cause I’m awesome, duh.”

Thankfully, Undyne’s wife comes over and tugs on her sleeve, “L-leave them alone, Undyne. It’s supposed to be a party for them to feel b-better, not worse.” She was a sweet little yellow lizard monster, reminding you of a dinosaur sometimes, with glasses and wearing a black dress with white polka dots. Her name was Alphys. “Sorry, Y/n, a-also, um, Papyrus gave me your computer for restoration. Don’t worry. I’ve had a lot of practice getting smoke residue out of electronic. Haha…mostly my own.”

“Thank you so much, Alphys,” you smile at her, so grateful for ANY reassurance your life might go back to normal sooner rather than later. “I know you’ll do a great job. Anybody who deals with MTT on a regular basis has to have a lot of patience for electronic nonsense.”

She giggles and nods, “Well, h-he is my bestie, but you’re right.”

Papyrus finally comes back and plops next to you on the couch, handing you a cup of punch and one of your favorite cookies, hand made by your mom. “YOUR PARENTS ARE THRILLED THAT WE ARE BOTH SAFE AND HAPPY. THEY’RE STAYING AT A HOTEL, BUT THEN THEY’RE HELPING YOU REPLACE MORE STUFF TOMORROW.”

“And they didn’t tell me this themselves because?”

“THEY WANT YOU TO NOT GET TOO EMOTIONAL SINCE YOU’RE RECOVERING FROM A TRAUMA AND FEEL LIKE THEM CODDLING YOU WOULD DO THAT.”

“Well, when you’re right, you’re right. I’d be crying as soon as I saw them.”

Sans is snoring, leaning against you, and you just feel good about that. When you first met, you’re pretty sure he would have been as awake and alert as possible around you, but now he’s loosely got hold of your arm and is snoozing away on your shoulder. And he apparently had feelings for you, too. Huh. Well, you can’t say he isn’t cute, because he is.

“YOU KNOW,” Papyrus looks around and you spot your parents trying to keep their distance, “EVERYONE HERE WAS VERY CONCERNED ABOUT YOU. SANS TOLD OUR UNDERGROUND FRIENDS AND I TOLD YOUR FAMILY SINCE YOU WERE TOO UPSET TO. THIS ROOM IS FULL OF PEOPLE WHO LOVE YOU.”

You nod, taking his hand. He leans over and nuzzles into your hair. “AND ISN’T THAT WONDERFUL?”

It’s overwhelmingly wonderful.

--

It wasn’t a long party, since it was late, but everyone except your parents and housemates had left to go home by eleven. Still, you’d ended up with gifts that made you embarrassed. New copies of your favorite books, used copies of games you liked that had been melted in the living room, a few pairs of shoes (you’d forgotten to buy those at the store so you liked these), and a box from your parents that contained a package of your favorite candies, a new weighted blanket, and your favorite childhood plush.

You’d thanked them, getting big hugs before they left, and sighed. The boys were cleaning up (except Sans, he was still sleeping on the sofa) and Charm came over as you held up your old friend.

“Well, that is an adorable plushie.” He smiled at you and looked them over, “And well loved, obviously. I’m guessing that’s from your family?”

“Yep. This little fella was my best friend as a child. I still love them very much,” you cuddled the toy close and took a deep breath. Having it did help you feel more grounded and secure, as did the weighted blanket. You’d be sleeping with that on tonight.

“Good, then you have a tangible signal that you are loved and supported.” He gestured, “Shall I walk you to your room, dear housemate?”

You pick up your package, even if Papyrus notices and takes the heavy blanket for you, and let Charm lead you up. Boa brings up the rear, carrying the rest of your presents either in his arms or with his magic.

Opening your door makes the exhaustion hit you, and you quickly go to the wardrobe after dropping your fluffy buddy off on the bed. Your various gifts are placed around the room, and Papyrus shoos everyone else out after they’re done. You do get a goodnight from each of them, though, and you like the injection of happiness that gives you.

“AND YOU KNOW WHERE THE BATHROOM IS?” Papyrus asks as you before he leaves.

“I found it earlier, thanks for asking, though,” you blow him a kiss and he giggles.

“ALRIGHT THEN. SLEEP WELL, LOVE, AND I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU IN THE MORNING.”

The door shuts softly, and you change into your pj’s. The house is quiet, and you manage to do your routine in the bathroom before coming back and going to sleep. It’s not easy, of course, but you manage it after a while of lying in bed and letting your thoughts run in circles.

--

Living in the skeleton’s house was…interesting to say the least.

During the weekdays, of course, you were out most of the time. Classes, work, various appointments, all of it took up time. But the evenings and weekends were quite hectic.

As soon as you got home at six, everybody was sitting down for dinner, if they were home. You could never really pin down any of the cousins’ schedules, but Spice was always home, as was Sweet-pea.

You and Spice had gotten to the point of ‘uneasy truce’ in your interactions because you were both awkward and nervous, trying not to step on each other’s toes, and not sure how to interact. That was okay, it was much better than when you ran into Whip and he made angry huffing sounds and rushed off in the opposite direction.

Sweet-pea was in his room almost all the time, except meals. You saw very little of him but made sure to say hello and be happy to see him when he did come out. That seemed to do well, as you’d noticed he came out for more meals than just dinner now.

Boa was also usually home but would go out to pick up more fabric or do grocery runs with Papyrus and Charm. Sans was out about the same as you, as was Charm, and Papyrus was out less frequently simply because, as he put it, “WHY DO I WANT TO STAY OUT IF YOU’RE AT HOME?”

You can’t say that doesn’t flatter you. You also can’t say the little hand touches and shy smiles you were getting from Sans didn’t make you blush and beam for several minutes afterward. It was one thing for your darling Papyrus to do it, that gave you a rush of excitement and affection, but for quiet, self-contained Sans to be making that effort to remind you that he cared…well, you enjoyed it immensely.

Papyrus and you had been asked to come in and discuss this relationship business by Sans’ therapist, and you…honestly had been a bit floored.

“Are you absolutely certain this is your choice?” Dr. Kevin had asked you, a forty something year old man with greying red hair. His brown eyes were concerned, “He’s told me about you. You’re a kind, selfless sort of person. I just don’t want you to overwhelm yourself, taking on a significant other with depression on top of one with autism.”

“Wait, Papyrus is autistic?” you hadn’t known that. “If that’s what your concern is, I don’t think we’ll have a problem. I kind of already assumed Sans would still be living with us forever anyway? I can’t imagine separating them.”

“Oh, so he hadn’t told you that. Sans told me and I thought it was common knowledge.”

“No, Papyrus never mentioned it, but looking back I can see some signs. But he’s just…Papyrus. I like him, whatever that includes, and it’s much the same for Sans. That first hurdle was a doozy, but he’s more than shown he’s not only improving himself, but that he cares about me. He’s helped me more times than I care to count on homework, on safety tips, on all kinds of little things, and then this fire event? Paying for the hotel the first night and letting me into his home…he didn’t even want to tell me yet, his cousin outted him and…” You look up and the doctor is trying to cover up a smile.

“Okay, I get it. He was right about you being very powerful in your opinions, too. I just want what’s best for everyone in this, and it seems like you feel the same as Sans does. That trying this out is the way forward. I just had to make sure for his sake and yours,” Dr. Kevin (you can’t pronounce his last name and he told you not to bother with it) gets up and gestures to the door, “Now I’ll talk with Papyrus and that’ll be that. Thank you so much for coming in, and for being there to support Sans. He’s a very fun person to talk to, even in my position.”

You nod, feeling good, and leave the room.

When it was all said and done, the three of you were called in together and Dr. Kevin seemed very pleased, “Well, considering everything, I’m really proud of what’s going on here. Mutual love and respect, open mindedness, and a healthy dose of communication. Even if it was forced,” He raises an eyebrow at Sans, who blushes. “Nah, I wouldn’t have recommended the timing either, but it worked out well and that’s because you three care about each other deeply and genuinely. Yes, the relationships are morphing a bit, but the foundations are solid, so I say go build on it.”

A glowing review, you think, and Sans asked as the three of you drove home in Papyrus’ new car, “so uh…d-does that mean we’re officially a polycule?”

Papyrus breathes hard through his nose, “SINCE THAT’S SOMEWHAT OFFCIAL TERMINOLOGY, I’LL LET THE PUN PASS, BUT YES, I THINK IT DOES.”

You nod and look around at where Sans is in the back seat, holding your hand out for him. “Wow, how come Dr. Kevin lets me have two boyfriends?”

Sans laughs and Papyrus groans in amused exasperation, but you’re happy and you know he and Sans are, too. Especially as Sans grips your hand with his pink mittens and squeezes with a lovestruck haze to his eye lights.

--

“Color me surprised, okay.” Sugar held up his hands, grinning happily.

“why? You lose your hue?” Sans chuckled as he was cleaning the soot off part of the machine.

“no, it’s just that I never expected you to express your feelings plainly enough to get anywhere with y/n. they’re not the most open person in the world when it comes to romance.”

Tilting his head, Sans put down his work, “what’s that mean?”

“I’m saying they’ve been with your brother for over a year and I haven’t heard a peep about anything other than dating. Not even adult dating, like, little kid crush dating,” Sugar lifted a brow bone, “sans, you realize they aren’t even banging, right?”

“I do, but it’s not like I wanna think about that,” the blush on his cheekbones was tempered by the irritated quirk of his smile, “why does that matter? More to life than sex, y’know.”

Sugar sighed, “look, I just don’t want you or papyrus to get heartbroken if they end up not sticking around. as far as I’ve known, getting intimate is a bonding thing. if they aren’t willing to bond with you, they aren’t gonna stay. This might be some kind of self-discovery fling for them or something.”

Sans is quiet for a minute, looking Sugar over before going back to his cleaning, “sugar, if it was a fling, they wouldn’t be so careful with us. They wouldn’t have gone to that meeting with my therapist and if they did, he wouldn’t have liked what he heard. I trust dr. kevin with everything; he knows about this machine, and us, and everything I’ve been through. Gaster included. He wouldn’t see someone pretending to love me and give his blessing.”

“but he’s human, and they are, too, it could be-“

“sugar,” Sans sighed, “look, I get where you’re coming from. I was there, for a long long time,” he looked up and smiled a little more genuinely, “but trying to avoid every possible bad scenario leads to you standing in one place, never moving, forever.”

Sugar held his own arms and looked conflicted.

“and, y’know, for all we know, y/n might be ace. Did ya consider that?”

“no,” Sugar let his skull droop, “but I sure hope not. Boa’s getting really attached to them, and my brother isn’t far off. They’d be pretty crushed if the only way they know to really show everything they feel is off the table.”

“oh…” that didn’t sound like a pleased response.

“you do know friends with benefits is a big thing in our universes, right? how else would my brother know half the things he needed to for the guard?” Sugar laughed humorlessly. “seriously, though, sans, that’s something we need to know sooner rather than later. the only ones who could ask are you and pap. Think about it.”

He walked out, and Sans groaned before thunking his skull onto the workbench. Welp, there went all those fluttery ‘new relationship’ feelings.

--

Telling Charm you didn’t have an exercise routine had been a mistake, especially with Papyrus and Boa in the room.

“You…don’t want to take care of your body?” he asked.

“What? Of course I do, I just….” You sigh, “Sweating is so disgusting, and my back hurts pretty bad if I try because of how stressed it makes me.”

“WORKING OUT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN, NOT STRESSFUL,” Papyrus put down the dishes he was drying, “THAT’S WHY IT’S BEEN SO HARD FOR ME TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO FOR THEM. I’VE BEEN WRACKING MY SKULL ABOUT IT SINCE WE MET PRACTICALLY.”

“Are there any activites you like, pumpkin?” Boa asked. He’d been calling you pumpkin since the welcome party, when your mom had been showing the boys your baby pictures, like when you dressed as a pumpkin for your first Halloween.

“I…like swimming? You don’t get hot, you don’t sweat, and it doesn’t stress me about how much…” you blushed. You hated feeling your fat move when you exercised. The jiggle and bounce just made you nauseous to think about. Even exercising alone didn’t decrease the revulsion.

Papyrus hugged you and made a small grunt. He knew you hated parts of yourself and did his best to stop those thoughts as soon as possible.

“Well, have you tried Yoga? Like, seriously tried it, not just taken a look,” Charm’s browbones were lowered and he was looking intently at you with his skull in his hands.

“No. I can’t exactly afford classes, especially with my freaking house dying in a fire.”

Boa snorted and Charm grinned, “Well, who said you’d have to pay me? I only take money for things while at work. Yoga is what I do for fun. Well, that and gymnastics, but you need equipment for that.”

He hopped up and clapped his hands, “Im going to get my mats and I want all four of us in the backyard in sportswear in ten minutes!” With that, he rushed away up the stairs.

“THIS IS EXCITING!” Papyrus squeezed you a bit, “I’M GOING TO GET DRESSED! OR RE-DRESSED!”

Boa just flung his shirt over his head, revealing a halter top underneath and mussing his carefully arranged purple scarf, “I’m already dressed!”

Well, he was wearing tights today, so you supposed you were the only one not running in glee from the dining room. You trudged upward, getting out the tight-fitting crop top and leggings you had bought for such a purpose. You’d expected to maybe wear these in secret as you tried, and failed, once again to get in better shape.

Well, at least Papyrus would be there. And Boa and Charm always called you lovely and beautiful, so you were pretty confident they wouldn’t laugh at your rolls. Even if your mind was hissing at you otherwise.

But you made your way out with a deep sigh. Spice was in the hall, but he blushed and hid back in his room quickly. Yep, still dancing around each other. Okay.

Heading down the stairs and through the kitchen, you open the door leading to the back yard to a comfy fall afternoon, the currently empty pool covered by a grey tarp foremost in your vision while the boys have taken places on the deck portion of the backyard, having various colorful mats on the ground in a formation with Charm at the front, and Boa and Papyrus on either side of an empty mat.

Charm is very excited, wearing a black top that connected around his neck and hand no other straps, as well as bright blue leggings. “Okay! We’re all here, so I’m going to start at the beginning. We’ll spend the first five minutes on breathing. It’s important to get your breath even and steady, even for us skeletons, because the regular rhythm is calming and helps your muscles relax. Or your magic, in our case.”

He sat down, and you followed along with Papyrus and Boa. “Sitting like this is one of the most simple poses, look at how my feet are under my knees? Do that.” You rearranged yourself, feeling a little unbalanced. “Now pull your back up straight and tall, as much as you can comfortably.” Ooh, you felt some popping in your spine. “And we will breathe with a count of four in, hold seven, out eight.”

He started the count, going through it about three times before starting to just talk to you all like an instructor, “Now, close your eyes and focus on nothing but my voice and your own breathing. How it gathers low inside you, then pushes out the tension you’re holding. Your muscles will respond as this tension eases, slowly relaxing into their natural resting state. Isn’t that nice? It feels so much better to relax.”

Sure, he was right, it did feel good, but you also had a lot on your mind. You didn’t know if your underwear was visible through your leggings, you didn’t know if there were bugs around, and your brain kept up a negative dialogue about how stupid you looked and how you weren’t going to stick with this even with the help of the boys.

“Reader?” Charm’s voice drew you out of your spiral, “You had a strange expression just now. Are you alright?”

“Y-yeah, just…I feel silly and it’s not helping my inner monologue,” you feel embarrassed but better that someone noticed than you suffering in silence, you suppose.

“OH. WELL, YOU DON’T LOOK SILLY TO ME,” Papyrus says, “IN FACT, YOU LOOK QUITE FETCHING IN YOUR EXERCISE GEAR. THEY’RE VERY COLORFUL.” You’d specifically picked the most appealing and bright colors and patterns when you chose this outfit. You wanted to at least like what you were wearing if you were going to hate what you were doing wearing it.

Boa looked over and nodded, “It could be better fitted, but your personality is really on display and that’s a wonderful thing! You look ready to have fun and care for yourself at the same time.”

Charm agreed heartily, “As your friend and instructor, I have to say you look wonderful in your outfit, and you look perfectly normal as someone who is starting out. And as for your inner voice,” he makes a cartoonishly annoyed face, “it needs to stop badmouthing my friend or I’ll give it my two g about manners!”

You laughed, loving the enthusiasm, and that seemed to please all three. “Okay. I look normal then. Let’s keep going.”

“Right,” Charm shook himself a bit then closed his sockets, “Now we are going to try and do the breathing, but this time, we’ll focus on the balance in our backs.”

You spent the next half hour on the deck, listening to Charm lead all three of you through some simple poses. Honestly, it was the calmest you’ve ever felt when trying to exercise, simply because you had your sweetheart nearby and your two housemates who were quickly climbing the ranks in friendship with you. The yoga itself was not strenuous on your body like walking, or aerobics, or any other exercise regime you’d tried, and that combined with the calmer atmosphere of being with the people who genuinely liked and cared about you made it so much easier to not hate doing it.

It wasn’t your first choice in activity, no, and you weren’t exactly having ‘fun’ but you were neutral to it, and that was a huge improvement.

[tinypeckers]

The Enchanted Ornament

Ship(s): Jack Pattillo/Geoff Ramsey (Jackoff? ehehe)

Word count: 7,790

Summary: It’s Christmas Eve and everything couldn’t be more wrong. The baby won’t stop crying, everyone is in a bad mood and Gavin has lost his Christmas spirit. Can something as simple as a wish save it all?

A/N: This story is two years in the making. I have been working on it every festive period since 2018 and it is finally done. I almost didn’t release it because, well, you know but... I did. Because I love this story. I am proud of it but I’ll warn you here, there is a new OC introduced. His name is Brian, er, I think we all know why (Here’s a link to my thoughts on it as well, if you care)

AO3 link

Jack sat, head between his hands, perched upon the edge of the bed. His right foot twitched erratically as the pressure increased against his temples. He screwed his eyes shut. He tried to hum. A broken and tuneless carol barely vibrated his lips. No matter how hard he squeezed, how tight he closed his eyes, how loud he hummed - he could not drown out the near-constant whine from beside him. He cracked open his right eye and it narrowed when he glanced at the basinet inches from his knee. The baby inside it, who had seemed so angelic and sweet just a few months ago, kicked at his confines. With fists barely bigger than a ping pong ball, he pummelled the air.

“Please,” Jack whispered at the baby. “Please Jeremy, just give in and sleep.”

As if Santa Claus himself had listened and granted Jack’s wish, the infant stilled. The whines gave way to small, miserable hiccups. Jeremy’s legs fell and his fingers opened up. His eyes, which had not left Jack for hours, started to flutter closed. Jack held his breath. Hic. Jeremy fought to keep his eyes open. Hic. His foot hit the mattress impatiently. He brought a fist to his mouth. Hic. His eyes closed. Hic. They stayed closed. Hic. Jack let his own eyes fall shut, his breath slowed in sync with the child laying in the basinet. Finally, Jack thought.

 He didn’t hear the sound of small, socked feet that tip-toed into the room. He didn’t acknowledge the arm that brushed his knee. Jack wouldn’t have known that someone had joined them at all, he’d have blissfully have sat there for hours if it had not have been for the small, yet caring, hand that brushed its knuckles against the baby’s cheek.

“Night, night Jeremy.”

Like a sensitive car alarm startled by a falling leaf, the baby screeched once more. Jack shot to his feet and glared at the boy who had only wanted to check on his younger brother.

“Gavin, get out!”

He loomed over the seven-year-old, face as red as his beard and eyes bloodshot and wild. Gavin fell backward and scrambled away from his father. Jack’s breaths came in heavy, short bursts. Gavin stood, as quickly as he could scurry to his feet, and dashed from the room.

 Gavin pulled the door shut behind him. He winced when the slam seemed to escalate his younger brother’s screams. Not sure what to think or who to turn to, he shook as he tried to reason with himself why his father would yell at him like that. Gavin ran to the room right next door to his parent’s. The door was closed, as it had been for months, but Gavin went ahead and opened it anyway. He’d not got one foot through the doorway before he was yelled at once more.

“Gavin,” his older brother, Brian, barked from his bed. “Can’t you read? You’re not allowed in here.”

Gavin raised his shoulders, clenched his fists and tried desperately to keep his lower lip still as it quivered. He could read, Brian knew that – it’s just that, like his teachers and his parents often said, Gavin was often oblivious to things around him. Gavin didn’t know what oblivious meant, exactly, he just knew that it meant sometimes people got annoyed at him for, as far as he was concerned, no reason. Gavin didn’t tell Brian any of this, of course, he merely stood and tried not to pout.

“Papa yelled at me,” he finally said.

 Brian laughed, or rather made a sound that was close to a laugh. He didn’t smile or offer to give Gavin a hug like the younger boy had wanted – like Brian would have, last year. Instead he rolled his eyes at his brother and shifted the laptop perched upon his knees.

“By the sounds coming from next door, you deserved it. Papa and Dad didn’t get any sleep last night thanks to that dick,” Brian gestured to the wall with his thumb. “Neither did I; the brat.”

“You can’t call him… that. His name’s Jeremy.”

Brian rolled his eyes: “They should have called him Satan, I thought they’d come to their senses after they took you three home but no, you had to lose your cuteness and then they wanted another one. Fools.”

Gavin swallowed. He played with the hem of his shirt and bit at his lower lip. When no words came, he simply stared at his older brother. Brian had let his hair grow out since his thirteenth birthday and now he had to blow air out occasionally to stop it from flopping over his eye. He had practically lived in his bedroom since then too and stopped playing games with Gavin and all of his other brothers. Gavin had begged him all month to help him build the family Christmas puzzle – Geoff and Jack had been too busy with the baby, Ray would rather play on the Xbox and Michael just grew bored and broke it all apart again – but Brian simply refused. On one occasion, he had said he was too old for it now. When Gavin asked why their fathers still did it then, because they were ancient, Ryan had told him to go away in less than pleasant terms and had been grounded all weekend.

“Why are you still here? Go, and shut the door on the way out. Anything to drown Satan out,” Brian waved Gavin toward the hallway.

 With a heavy sigh, Gavin did as he was told. He gently closed the door this time, aware that the screams from next door were becoming less and less frequent. He paused by the door, pressed his ear against it to listen. He could hear his papa hum to the baby, the occasional creak of a floorboard letting Gavin know that he’d given in and picked the infant up. Gavin swallowed. He knew he was seven, and technically a big boy now, but he wanted nothing more than to open the door and join them. He wanted Jack to pick him up, bounce him on his hip and hum a Christmas carol to him. Jack had been too busy to teach him a new one, like he’d promised, so Gavin had had to google the lyrics to Silent Night, but listening to the YouTube video wasn’t the same as Jack’s singing. He dragged himself away from the door, used the back of his hand to wipe underneath his eye and headed down the stairs. He didn’t need Brian, or Papa – he had other brothers and he had a whole other dad to keep him company.

 Gavin went straight to the kitchen. Geoff hunched over the counter, his face hidden behind his hands. Gavin could see his shoulders rise and fall, slowly, as Geoff tried to breathe. He was struggling to, mostly because Michael had sucked all the air out of the room with his screaming.

“Wha’ happened?” Gavin asked.

Geoff stood properly then, seemingly startled back into action by Gavin’s voice. He turned his back to the inquisitive boy, preoccupying himself with the large, uncooked bird that he had procured for tomorrow. Gavin chewed upon his lower lip. He edged around the breakfast table and peeked at his brother.

Michael lay flat on his back, face red as he tried to rival the baby’s yells from upstairs. His feet kicked and kicked at the linoleum floor. Strewn around him were the boys’ advent calendars, the final door ripped open and the chocolate missing. Gavin allowed himself a short, sharp breath. He had been looking forward to opening that tomorrow. It had been so fun this past month to race and find the door. Ray was always first but Gavin was always second. He was good with numbers, see, much better than he was at reading. Michael wasn’t patient enough to find the number and always resigned himself to a huff. Gavin liked to help him – it was always nice to see his brother smile once he’d found it. Gavin didn’t mind that he liked to declare that he’d done it himself.

 Gavin sat down beside his brother and folded his feet underneath his knees. Michael’s yells never stopped, though he cranked one eye open to see who had bothered to pay him attention. He only screamed louder when he saw that it was Gavin and not Geoff who had noticed him.

“Why are you crying? I’m not mad you eated my chocolate, Michael.” Gavin reached out to brush a stray curl from his brother’s forehead.

“Leave him alone, Gavin.”

Gavin looked up. Geoff hadn’t turned away from his turkey but his voice was gruff and clipped. His tone left no room for arguments and, though Gavin would much rather give his brother a hug, he got up and did as he was told. Gavin toddled over to Geoff. He stood upon his tiptoes to see what his father was doing. Michael let a yell fall into a huff.

 “I thought that turkey was for tomorrow’s dinner,” Gavin said.

“It is, bud, but Papa and I are going to be so busy tomorrow so I’m starting it tonight to make sure we actually get dinner tomor-“

Geoff trailed off as he moved away from the bird to grab something from his spice rack. His hip brushed a mug on the counter. As the cup tipped towards the ground, a small dollop of brown liquid careened to the floor. Geoff saved the mug, absent-mindedly pushing it back as he walked away. Gavin frowned. He knew that his dad had made the hot chocolate a few hours earlier, when he’d let his sons steal a sip once it had cooled down enough. Yet Geoff had never left a hot chocolate so that it had become cold, Gavin knew that his dad liked to finish it before he and his brothers came back for seconds. He glanced up at his father. The bags under Geoff’s eyes, though ever prominent, had surely gotten deeper these past few days.

 Without a word, Gavin slunk out of the kitchen. It didn’t feel like Christmas at all. At least, it wasn’t like last year. Last year, they were all watching Christmas movies together by now. Last year, he and Michael had helped Papa build a gingerbread house. Last year Brian had helped Gavin wrap a present all by himself for their dad. Gavin chewed at his fingernails as he entered the living room. Maybe Brian was right, maybe everything had changed because Jeremy was here now? Gavin’s brow furrowed. He shook the thought away. No, it wasn’t Jeremy’s fault. He wasn’t crying on purpose. He was just a baby. He needed more help than Gavin, that’s all. Gavin nodded to himself. Christmas wasn’t over either – he could still have fun!

 Gavin looked up. The living room was his favourite room in the house by far. Geoff had gone all out with the decorations; paper snowflakes hung from the ceiling, all handmade by Gavin and his brothers; a wreath hung above the fireplace, a berry garland hid the nails that held in the stockings and the covers on the pillows on the couch had been swapped out for more festive colours. Best of all was the tree – Gavin had helped out there too – upon which sat the prettiest, most magical fairy Gavin had ever seen. The boy spared her a small smile as he hopped over to the couch where the last of his brothers sat hunched over Geoff’s old laptop. Gavin sidled up beside Ray. He squinted at the screen as Ray shot a ball at pegs.

“Want to build my puzzle with me, Ray?”

Ray didn’t even look up, he only grunted as he shot the last ball. Gavin clapped when the fireworks appeared on screen but Ray sighed. He exited the game. His name appeared again and again on the high score list, taking almost every spot bar one. With a score much higher than second place, it was the only Brian left on the list. Ray hit play again and restarted it entirely.

“Why’d you do that?”

 Gavin waited for an answer. All he got was the click of the mouse as Ray fired his first ball. Gavin swallowed. He used the back of his hand to rub at his eyes. An old movie was on the TV, one that Gavin had never seen before. Ray had turned the sound almost all the way down. Gavin took it upon himself to turn it back up. He forced a smile as the small child on screen uttered an optimistic phrase about “having Christmas cheer”. He slipped off of the couch and headed toward the base of the tree. When Gavin had left it, his puzzle had been almost finished. Now it lay in pieces once more. He rubbed at his cheek, willing away the salty water that had raced across it. He brushed the pieces aside, found a corner and placed it onto the carpet. Gavin hunted for the other corners and spaced them out evenly. He interlocked other pieces where he could.

 Gavin sniffled as some of the pieces started to get damp, curling at the corners as he pushed them into place. Behind him, on the TV, the child cried below his own tree too. Gavin looked back at it. The screen was suddenly engulfed in a white light and the fairy that once sat at the top of the tree now stood below it, almost as tall as the plant itself. The child looked up as she smiled. Gavin watched, mouth agape, as she offered the child some Christmas wishes. He watched as the scene changed and the child stood with his family around him, grinning from ear to ear, as it begun to snow just in time for Christmas. Gavin looked up at his own fairy then. She looked like the one from the TV – white dress, big crown and silver, glittery wand. Gavin opened his mouth, words on the tip of his tongue, when Geoff called from the kitchen.

“Dinner’s ready – everyone get in here!”

 Having spent all the afternoon and most of the early evening preparing his beautiful bird, Geoff had opted out of making dinner for Christmas Eve too. Gavin poked at his meal, which had spent all of a few minutes in a microwave, and tried to be grateful for it. He knew that his dad was tired, that he was lucky that they were all around the table together (except for Jeremy, who he hoped was now sleeping peacefully) but he couldn’t help feel disappointed that Geoff had forgotten that Gavin didn’t like mac and cheese because he hated the way that it squelched. Still, he forced down a mouthful and tried to ignore that it had already started to go cold.

 Michael sat beside Gavin, arms crossed, glaring at the meal before him. When they had first sat down, Jack had tried to force him to try a mouthful but Michael was nothing but stubborn. Jack had given up almost immediately, resigning himself to eating his own meal. Brian had his phone out at the table, eyes trained on the screen as he used one hand to eat and one hand to scroll. Gavin waited for one of his dads to tell his brother to put it away. It was against the rules normally, but it seemed that they were making an exception for Christmas. Ray sat as close as he could to Brian, his eyes following every flick of his brother’s finger. He ate slowly, seeming to suck upon his fork before going back for another mouthful. At the head of the table, Geoff paired every mouthful with a sip of water. Gavin let his fork fall onto his plate and clapped his hands together.

“Is everyone excited for Christmas?”

 Ray sat up straighter then, dropping his own fork and holding up his hand as he listed everything he wanted under the tree.

“Santa’s gonna bring me a new laptop, a phone just like Brian’s, a new controller, a nerf gun…”

“No, Ray, he’s bringing me a nerf gun,” Michael interjected. “You can’t ask Santa for a nerf gun because I asked for it first and he’s going to give it to me, isn’t he dad?”

Geoff lowered his glass, which at this point had little more than a drop of water swirling at the bottom, and cleared his throat.

“Well, Santa-“

“Santa’s not bringing you anything because he’s not-“

“Brian!”

Jack pushed his chair back as he yelled, hands firmly planted on the table as he loomed over it to glare at Brian. The older boy seemed unfazed by his father’s outburst, he even seemed to smirk at the reaction. Gavin, on the other hand, had curled up in his seat.

 A faint wail sounded from upstairs. Jack slumped in his seat, fingers making indents in his forehead as he willed away the headache that had been there for hours. Geoff reached out and squeezed his husband’s shoulder, glancing at his children.

“All right, everyone, finish up your meal. I think we all just need an early night.”

Brian did not need to have to be asked twice, though he rolled his eyes at his father’s request. He stood up and left the room. Only seconds after, Ray did exactly the same thing, eye roll included, but his exit was much swifter so that he did not have to hear the inevitable lecture from his fathers. Michael also got to his feet. Instead of leaving, however, he grabbed the chair he had been sitting on moments before and tried to throw it. Thankfully for everyone else in the room, he was far too small and it was much too heavy and he only succeeded in pushing it a few inches. Frustrated at the lack of destruction, Michael kicked it back under the table.

“Michael,” Geoff began. Michael kicked and kicked and kicked at the chair. “Michael. Stop that, you’re being very naughty.”

Yet Michael did not stop and Gavin winced as one of the rods that formed the back of the chair finally gave way to the heel of Michael’s foot. As though he did not notice, Michael continued to deliver swift kicks to the chair. Geoff stood then and grabbed his son by the arm.

“MICHAEL! That is enough, you have been horrible today and if you don’t go upstairs and get ready for bed right now, I will tell Santa that you don’t deserve any gifts this year.”

Gavin gasped. Michael stopped kicking. They both looked at their father in horror. No gifts? That wasn’t fair. Gavin knew that Michael had indeed been quite terrible today, and maybe in the past month he’d had his naughty moments, but he knew that his brother was good. It was Michael who would hold Gavin’s hand when he was scared, after all, and Michael that got the boys at school to stop bullying Ray and Gavin was sure that the last time he’d seen Brian smile was after a joke that his brother had told. Michael certainly deserved presents, Santa couldn’t judge him on just one day!

 Geoff let go of his son’s arm but his face never lost its thunder. Michael hiccupped, he rubbed at his cheeks vigorously and sucked in a breath. He lifted his arm and for a second Gavin thought that he was going to reach out, Michael’s fingers outstretched as though asking Geoff to hold him, but he let his arm drop. His chin met his chest as he shuffled out of the room. Gavin looked at his father then, teeth worrying his bottom lip as he waited for Geoff to follow his brother and give him the hug he so clearly needed. Geoff didn’t go anywhere. He seemed years older to Gavin, almost twice the age of Father Christmas himself, and so vulnerable.

“Daddy, Michael will still get presents, won’t he?”

“Go to bed, Gavin.”

A lump seemed to form in Gavin’s throat. His chest hurt, like he’d been running for hours and forgotten to breathe. He did that sometimes, had to stop and hold onto his knees as he gulped in air. This time Gavin didn’t know what to do. He looked at his dad, and then to his papa, before he nodded and slipped from the room.

 Upstairs, Gavin found Ray already in bed. He’d pulled his duvet over his head and the faint glow underneath made it obvious he was not sleeping and did not plan to soon. The door to the boys’ bathroom was open so that Gavin could see Michael inside brushing his teeth. The mirror reflected his red, puffy eyes and miserable expression. Gavin came and stood beside him. He went to grab his brother’s hand but Michael snatched his arm away. He spat the toothpaste out into the sink, rinsed his mouth and left Gavin alone in the bathroom. Gavin watched him get into his bed through the mirror. He looked at himself then and felt sorry for himself. It was Christmas, he thought, it was the season of joy. He wished and wished that today could have been like last Christmas, that they could have all spent it together and it was magical. Gavin could only think of one way to fix this. With a nod to his own reflection, Gavin grabbed his toothbrush and formed a plan in his head.

 Hours later, when Gavin was sure that everyone else had fallen asleep, he tiptoed downstairs. The living room was dark and it felt more horrifying than magical as Gavin made his way to the tree. He didn’t know the time but was thankful to see that Santa had not been yet, hoping that he still had time to save Christmas. He knelt beside the puzzle he had still yet to finish, picking up a piece absent-mindedly as he sighed. Gavin squeezed the piece in his hand and looked up. Even in the dark, the angel’s dress seemed to glow. Gavin could not make out her face but he tried to imagine where her eyes were, remembering that his papa had told him it was important to make eye contact with someone you wanted to talk to. Gavin took a deep breath.

 Across the hall, in the kitchen, Geoff, Jack and Brian cocked their heads towards the door. They had paid no attention to the slight creak of the stairs minutes earlier, the house was old and it just did that, but now they could hear a faint muttering coming from the living room.

“One of the boys must be up, probably trying to catch Santa again,” Jack said.

Brian rolled his eyes from where he leaned against the kitchen counter, bag of chips in one hand while the other cradled the small cup of whiskey Jack had allowed him to try when they had caught him sneaking down for a midnight snack.

“When are you going to tell them? Surely at seven they’re old enough,” he asked.

“If I had my way, never,” Geoff headed towards the door. He’d have to send the kid to bed, he thought, lest they caught Jack and himself doing Santa’s bidding. “But I’m sure they’ll figure it out soon – hopefully with no one spoiling it for them.”

Geoff playfully pinched his son’s nose as he passed him. Jack followed, if only to deal with the possible tantrum that could come once the boy’s plans had been foiled. With nothing better to do, Brian decided he should come as well to help convince his brother that Santa would not come at all if he stayed up and waited. The living room door had been left open a crack and as Geoff reached out to push it open and spoil the would-be Santa catcher’s fun he paused for a second to listen to what the kid was saying.

 “Please, please, please miss angel if you could help Jeremy go to sleep so that dad and papa could take a nap and feel better it would be so nice because they should have a good Christmas too and, and if you could just maybe make Brian happy tomorrow as well, maybe he can help Ray play that game and then Ray would be happy too and they would have a very good Christmas,” Gavin clasped his hands together and sighed. “And I know Michael weren’t very good today but he has been good a lot of the time and he really, really, really wants a nerf gun so please tell Santa that he is a good boy and he should get one to play with tomorrow. If Santa says no then tell him that Michael should get my presents then ‘cause I don’t want ‘em.” Gavin squeezed a puzzle piece between his hands and closed his eyes. “Alls I want for Christmas is for everyone to have fun and to be together tomorrow. No one’s been happy for a long, long time and so please if you could help – I know I’m asking for so much but my family needs you. Oh, but, maybe, if you can, and if it would make dad happy, could you maybe ask if he could help me finish my puzzle and, and, if papa feels better after his nap if you could maybe also ask him if he’d sing with me tomorrow. But don’t worry if they can’t, it’s okay – just please if you really are magic just make sure that you help them to have a good Christmas.”

 Geoff’s hand slapped against his mouth. He took a step away from the door and fell against his husband’s chest. Jack felt equally as shaken but, as he heard the wishful boy tiptoe back toward the door, he was quick to pull both his son and his husband back into the safety of their kitchen. He nudged the door closed and held his breath as Gavin stepped out into the hallway. The boy paused, curious about the slither of light that spilled from the kitchen that he had not noticed on his way down. He shrugged it off and hurried back upstairs to make sure he was asleep long before Santa came and visited.

 Back inside the kitchen, Geoff looked as though he had been visited by a Christmas ghost. He clung to his husband because he did not know what else to do. How could they have let this happen? Their own son had resorted to asking an inanimate object for help. He looked to his husband for the answer to the thousands of other questions that whizzed through his mind.

“Right, I know that that was unexpected and upsetting to hear,” Jack said. He looked from Geoff to Brian. Though he seemed calm, his voice wavered as he spoke. “But we can fix this. Tonight. There is still time to make sure that Gavin, and all of us, have a good Christmas tomorrow but we have to work fast.”

As Jack launched into his plan, setting out tasks for each of them and trying to keep the mood light, Brian nodded along. He looked into his glass, which had a drizzle of whiskey left in it, and chucked his head back to finish his drink.

 When Gavin awoke the next morning, he didn’t feel incredibly magical. He didn’t know what he’d expected, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t the empty feeling that he had. With a sigh, he sat up in bed and glanced across the room at his brothers. Ray had yet to wake but Michael sat sleepily in his own bed. He blinked rapidly at Gavin and supressed a yawn, throwing back his covers and toddling over to his brother. Gavin lifted his own duvet to welcome him into the bed, finding comfort in the way Michael’s fingers quickly tangled with his own. Michael bumped their heads together.

“Merry Christmas Grabbin,” he said.

“Merry Christmas, Michael. Do you think Santa came?”

Michael squeezed Gavin’s hand. He chewed upon his lip and glanced quickly at his brother.

“I hope he did and I hope dad didn’t tell him I’d been naughty.”

“Don’t worry Michael, dad wouldn’t do that – I bet Santa’s left you lots of presents,” Gavin said but he wasn’t so sure. Still, his brother smiled back at him so he hoped that he was right.

 The two brothers waited as long as they could before they jumped into Ray’s bed. He grunted as they sat on him and tried to bury himself further under the duvet. Once they had reminded him it was Christmas, however, Ray could not leave his bed faster. As they scurried to pull on their slippers and dash out the door, Ray insisted that they wake Brian up as well. They ran to his room and found the door slightly ajar. The boys paused in the hallway, hesitant to let themselves in given the sign. It was Michael who gave the door a little push and all three waited as it slowly creaked open. Brian’s bed was empty and unmade. The three boys looked to one another. Perhaps he had gone to wake dad and papa already?

 They ran down the hallway, hand in hand, before they came to a stop in front of their parents’ door. This was one was fully shut, most likely to muffle the cries of their younger brother, but Michael did not hesitate to pull on the handle and shove the door open. Like Brian’s, however, the room was empty. The three boys stepped inside to peer into the basinet only to find that it too was void of Jeremy. They looked at one another.

“You don’t think they started Christmas already, do you?” Ray asked his brothers.

“No,” Gavin whispered. A lump formed in his throat. “They wouldn’t do that.”

“Come, I bet they’re downstairs waiting.” Michael tugged on his brothers’ hands.

Standing at the top of the stairs, the boys could hear Christmas music coming from the living room. Hand in hand they walked down the stairs and with every step it grew louder and louder. The door was shut. Once again, it was Michael who reached out and opened it for them.

 It was as though they had opened the door to Santa’s grotto. While the house had already been beautiful and festive, Geoff’s pride and joy of the season, it was as though an angel had come and spread her own magic across the room. Brian sat on the couch in last year’s Christmas sweater, the sleeves of which were halfway up his arms, and his hands held a mug of hot chocolate in lieu of his ever-present phone. Beside him, Jack cradled Jeremy in his arms. The baby donned an elf outfit, complete with little pointy slippers, while Jack himself had a Santa hat balanced precariously upon his head. All three boys gasped at once. They rushed to the couch. Ray scrambled to sit right next to Brian and was quickly welcomed as his brother lifted his arm for him to cuddle under. Michael hovered in front of Jack, having been told too many times to give Jeremy some space to rush onto his father’s lap, no matter how badly he wanted to. Jack shifted the baby in his arms, making space for his other son, and patted his knee.

 Gavin wasn’t sure what to do as he watched his papa snuggle with Michael in what felt like the first time in months. He was overwhelmed with the gratitude that washed over him as Brian listened to some story Ray was telling him. He was sure that he was about to break into happy tears when someone gently bumped into his back. Gavin looked up but was only graced with the bottom of a tray. The man holding it stepped back and then Gavin was greeted by Geoff’s smile.

“Oh, you three are up? I wanted to come and give you hot cocoa in bed!”

Geoff almost dropped the tray in his hands at the chorus of cheers that erupted. Michael refused to move from his coveted spot on Jack’s lap but he reached eagerly for the tray. Geoff sidestepped Gavin and lowered it for him. He smiled at his son as Michael took a mug. Ryan grabbed Ray’s for him and gingerly held it in front of the boy so that he could sip from it. Geoff turned to Gavin then.

 The warmth from the mug in Gavin’s hands seemed to spread all the way through his body. It filled him from the tips of his toes to the top of his head and felt like a big, loving hug. Geoff placed the tray onto the coffee table. He slipped his hands underneath Gavin’s armpits and slowly carried him over to the armchair, making ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ sounds every time Gavin’s hot chocolate dared to kiss the rim of his mug. Geoff turned and took a seat, placing his son onto his lap. Almost immediately Michael cried out.

“I want to sit on your lap! Why does Gavin gets to sit on your lap?”

“You can come sit on my lap too, Michael, I’ve got two knees!”

Jack held Michael’s mug for him as he scrambled off the couch. He handed it to the boy and Michael shuffled his way to Geoff. Once he’d been safely seated and his hot chocolate was back in his hands, Michael curled into Geoff’s arms. Geoff kissed the top of Michael’s curls, and then Gavin’s head too, as he squeezed his two boys against his chest. He stifled a chuckle as Gavin cried out, his pyjama top now sporting a brand new brown spot on its chest.

 Once the mugs were dry, with help from Geoff of course, the children looked expectantly from their dads to the tree. The family puzzle wasn’t the only thing hiding under its branches now, with presents of all shapes, sizes and colours taking up valuable floor space.

“Oh,” Jack said after minutes of being stared at. “Do you want to open your presents?”

He blinked rapidly at the onslaught of happy cries. He looked to Geoff and the two shared a look that only parents could understand.

“All right then, but I suppose you better open your presents from Santa first. He left them at the very front.”

 Ray elbowed his way out of Brian’s arms, although he was sure to hold his hand out to help Brian to his feet. Gavin wriggled free of Geoff as well, the first to stand in front of the tree. He hopped from foot to foot as he waited for all of his brothers to gather. Only Michael didn’t move. He chewed upon his fingernail and looked up at Geoff.

“Dad, did Santa leave a present for me?”

Geoff and Jack shared another look then, though unlike before the expressions on their faces made it obvious to anyone that looked at them what it meant. Geoff cleared his throat and pressed another lingering kiss into Michael’s curls.

“Of course, silly. Now go and help your brothers find them, I think Gavin is getting impatient.”

 It was obvious which ones had been left by Santa, the brown wrapping paper didn’t match anything else under the tree. The boxes were tied together with twine and four out of the five were all the same shape and size, while the fifth was much smaller and crinkled when held. Brian read the name on the smallest parcel’s tag, smiled and then handed it to Jack. The baby in his arms slapped the package that was placed upon his lap. Jack made a tear for him and Jeremy slowly pulled at the paper. He didn’t care for the sweet, crinkly plush octopus inside but laughed as he ripped another strip of paper. Meanwhile Ray, Gavin and Michael waited impatiently in front of their own parcels. Brian stood by his. He teased his brothers as he pinched the corner.

“Okay,” Brian’s fingers tugged at the paper. “Go, go, go!”

 Geoff cringed as paper flew across his freshly vacuumed living room. He fought the urge to pick up every piece right that second, knowing it would only be met with a stern look from his husband. It didn’t matter, anyway, as the boys revealed their gifts from Santa. He had been so kind to give them each a nerf gun, conscious to give them the same one so that they did not fight. Geoff knew, not from experience because of course it had been Santa to get these gifts for the boys, that these guns had been so hard to get so Santa must have tried very hard to find them.

“Look, look – Papa look what Santa got us!”

Jack smiled at his children as they rushed him. Jeremy startled as they drew close, dropping the strip of paper he’d been holding. Jack held his breath as he waited for the boy to cry but he let it out when Jeremy only laughed instead.

 It did not take long for the guns to be loaded, fired and thrown aside in lieu of the other more brightly wrapped gifts under the tree. Though Ray did not get the laptop he had written about, or the phone for that matter, he was not disappointed by the gifts he did receive. His favourite, that had briefly had a tag that read ‘from Brian’ before it had been ripped off, was a controller. It was identical to Brian’s own: light green with a darker green crosshair painted on. The only difference was the name in the corner, Ray. Ray held it in his hands and looked up at his older brother. Brian smiled back at him. He waved his freshly unwrapped R-rated game.

“Maybe later we can play this together, yeah?”

Ray nodded and squeezed the handles between his fingers. He laughed as Michael knocked his shoulder and shoved his own controller, also from Brian, under Ray’s nose.

“Me too! I want to play!”

 Gavin stood off to the side, his own identical controller in his hands. The corners of his mouth almost touched his ears. He did not want to blink, for if he did he might miss Brian’s smile or Jeremy’s happy little kicks. He did blink, however, when Geoff gently nudged him with the black trash bag he’d whipped out not too long after the Santa presents had been unwrapped. Gavin bent down and picked up his discarded wrapping paper, and Michael’s and Ray’s and Brian’s too, and dropped it into the open bag. Geoff nodded back at him in appreciation. Gavin leaned into his father’s hand as it ruffled his hair, letting his eyes fall closed for just a second before he snapped them open again to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming. Geoff’s hand left his head to snatch some wrapping paper that flew into the air. Ray had already started on another gift, one that was from papa and dad this time. Michael passed another present to Gavin. It was rather crudely wrapped, with too much paper having been used and tape slapped this way and that across the folds.

“I helped papa wrap it,” Michael beamed.

 Gavin dropped his controller to the floor. He did not wait to open it to give Michael a cuddle, wrapping his arms around his brother’s neck and squeezing. Ray rubbed at his head where Gavin had bonked him with the box. Gavin mouthed his apology. Michael made exaggerated gagging sounds as though Gavin were choking him but he wrapped his arm around his brother’s back all the same. He pushed his brother away to watch him open the gift. Gavin picked at the paper. His fingers struggled to find purchase on the edges. Eventually Geoff came over to help him, using some scissors to slit through some of the tape and create a hole. Gavin ripped the rest off himself. Geoff’s hands shot out to catch every shred of paper before it could fall onto his freshly vacuumed floor. Gavin grinned down at the gift in his hand. It was a puzzle, a new one with more pieces than the puzzle he had worked on all month.

“This one isn’t just for Christmas,” Geoff said. “We can work on it all year.”

He gasped as Gavin threw himself into his father’s legs and hugged him too. Michael, not one to be left out, wrapped himself around the both of them in an extremely tight bear hug.

 There was not much left under the tree now, just a couple of presents for the adults from their friends and from each other. Brian spied one more for his youngest brother, nestled between a tall gift bag and a suspiciously squishy parcel addressed to his papa. He pulled the present out and stood up. He took a moment to stetch, fingers brushing some of the tallest branches of the Christmas tree. Beside him, Ray copied his movements. Brian smiled down at him before he marched toward his papa. Jack was still sat on the couch, Jeremy on his lap. The baby smashed together two strands of wrapping paper he had kept from being thrown in the trash bag. Jack’s eyes, which had been almost completely closed, glanced upwards at his eldest son. He saw the present in Brian’s hand and made to take it but the boy shook his head. He gave the present to Ray instead, who frowned when he read the tag and saw it was not for him. Brian made grabby hands at Jeremy. Jack raised an eyebrow at the boy. Ryan mimicked a lobster as he opened and closed his fingers.

“Come on,” he insisted. “You can’t sit there all morning, you and dad have presents to open too. I’ve got him.”

 Jack bit his lip. Brian had not so much as glanced at the baby since he had been brought home and he was certainly the first to complain when Jeremy cried. He was about to turn his son down, tell him that he and Geoff could wait until Jeremy had gone for a nap when Brian cocked his head at him. Jack felt chastised for his thoughts. In that moment he saw that although his son had grown several inches and developed an attitude seemingly overnight, he was still Brian. Brian who was the first to calm down a crying brother, Brian who was the apple of Ray’s eye, Brian who played shop after school and patiently counted out the fake money. Brian who now, in a jumper that barely fit him anymore, reached down and took his youngest brother from Jack’s arms. He settled the baby on his hip, as he had done years before for Ray and for Michael and for Gavin. Jeremy’s eyes grew as wide as saucers as he looked at his brother. Jack held his breath. Jeremy’s brow knitted together. His little cheeks flushed red. And then Brian pulled a face as the baby farted upon his hip, loud and wet. Jeremy laughed. Jack hid his own chuckle behind his hand. Brian shook his head at his younger brother.

“Merry Christmas to you too, Jeremy.”

 Jack changed the baby before he let Brian sit down with him. He smiled at his eldest as Brian held both Jeremy and Ray on his lap. He watched as Ray gave Jeremy his present. He could see Ray’s fingers itching to help him unwrap it but a simple shake of the head from Brian and he sat, as patiently as he could, and watched his younger brother fight to free the toy from its wrapping paper. Jack was distracted by a small kiss upon his neck. He leaned back against his husband. Geoff wrapped his arms around him, black trash bag coming to rest upon Jack’s stomach. It was nearly full.

 Later, when all the presents had been unwrapped and the turkey had been eaten, they all returned to the living room. Brian sat beside Ray on the couch and pointed at the screen of Geoff’s laptop as he offered tips to Ray on how to get the best score. Jeremy was curled up on his lap, thumb on the edge of his lips as he snored softly. Michael sipped at his second hot cocoa of the day, which had been Geoff’s at first but had been given up rather quickly. He sat beside Brian on the couch with one of his new toys, a teddy bear with a rather mean face, and watched the Christmas movie that Geoff had put on for them. Jack snored from the armchair where he had, up until recently, been teaching Gavin the words to Silent Night. He had unintentionally sung himself to sleep. Gavin pressed a kiss to his forehead and scrambled down from his papa’s lap. He looked up as Geoff returned with his replacement mug of hot cocoa. Geoff smiled at him and nodded to the tree. There was nothing left under it but the puzzle. Its pieces had been scattered but were still mostly left under the tree.

“Shall we?”

 Gavin rushed to the tree and fell to the floor with a plop. Geoff was much slower, and more careful, as he lowered himself to the ground. He placed his mug between them and laughed when he saw Gavin’s eyes dart toward it.

“Go on then,” he said.

Gavin yanked the cup up off the floor. The drink sloshed inside, and then over, before it hit the carpet. Gavin’s eyes grew wide as he brought the mug to his lip. Geoff sighed at the stain but managed to keep himself from rushing to clean it. If it lingered later on, he would simply tell his husband that they should refit new carpets as a Christmas present to themselves. He reached for a puzzle piece instead, rubbing his thumb over the worn image. It wasn’t a corner, so he put it to one side and looked for another. Gavin placed the mug down much more gently than he had picked it up. Hot cocoa clung to his upper lip in a mockery of a moustache that would not sprout there for years to come. He found a corner piece, showed it to his dad, and placed it confidently where he knew it should go. Geoff was sure it was for the other side of the puzzle, but he kept it to himself and hunted for something to connect to it. As Geoff searched, Gavin glanced up at the top of the tree. He smiled at his fairy and mouthed a silent ‘thank you’.

[starswallowingsea]

Secret Santa Time

I have been waiting to post this forever!! I don’t normally write shippy stuff but I think this turned out pretty cute. 

This is a gift for @lestis, for the event hosted by @opsecretsanta2019, who I think is pretty great and a really sweet person that y’all should follow! That said, here’s my gift! 

Waking Up 

Fandom: One Piece 

Word Count: 1623 

Ship: SanUso 

Notes: CW for nightmares, see the end of the work for more notes

He was running again, the buildings around him familiar but strange. That didn’t matter now though. He saw his friends sailing away, towards their next adventure without him. 

He shouted at them, apologizing for acting the way he did, but they couldn’t hear him he thought. So he yelled louder, his words becoming more jumbled and mixed with sobs that he could barely understand himself anymore. But they kept sailing. 

And suddenly he was falling. Falling? Or drowning? He couldn’t breathe all the same.

---

Usopp awoke with a start, drenched in sweat and breathing heavy, he knew he had another nightmare. They had become so normal to him that when he actually got a good night's sleep it meant he didn’t dream at all. 

It was the same every night, reliving Water 7 and begging to be taken back by his friends and being left behind anyway. He tried every trick in the book to get them to stop but nothing worked.

But at this moment he knew he couldn’t go back to sleep, not yet anyway. His heart was beating too fast and breathing ragged, it would be endless tossing and turning in his hammock which would probably do more harm than help right now. 

So he swung his legs over the side of the hammock and jumped down quietly to avoid waking the others. He tiptoed out of the room and carefully opened and closed the door, cringing at the slightest sound he made and hoping it wouldn’t wake anyone else up. 

Instantly the cool night air began to calm his nerves. He stood still, just outside the door for a minute. 

Breathe in. 

Breathe out. 

Breathe in. 

Breathe out. 

Breathe… 

He pulled his hands to his face and stood like that, taking deep, calming breaths. It helped a little, but not much. 

He turned to walk onto the grassy deck, lay down and look at the stars. Maybe he could get better sleep out here. It couldn’t hurt to try anyway. 

---

Once on deck, it appeared he was alone and he let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. Usopp walked over to the railing and stared out at the sea, just thinking, trying to calm himself down. It was so quiet, the only sound coming from water hitting the side of the ship and the gentle breeze that rocked it back and forth. 

He heard footsteps approach from behind and jumped a little as someone stepped up beside him.

“Relax, it’s just me.” 

Usopp looked over and saw it was Sanji, who was putting a cigarette to his lips and pulling out a lighter. Usopp wondered how Sanji could smoke like he did but not fall into a coughing mess all the time, but he shoved the thought aside, saying he would ask about it later. 

“What are you doing out here so late?” Usopp asked. 

“I could ask you the same thing.” 

“Couldn’t sleep?” 

“Something like that,” Sanji said, moving to put his shaky hand on the railing, using the other one to take a drag of the cigarette. 

“Me too, if I’m being honest.” 

They stood in silence for a moment, just letting the wind brush past them, leaving smoke trails from Sanji’s cigarette. 

“Hey, uh, can I ask you something?” Usopp said, breaking the silence. 

“Sure,” Sanji responded, taking another drag. 

“Do you get nightmares? Like of your past or anything?” 

Sanji put his hand with the cigarette on the railing, shocked at the question Usopp had asked him, unsure of how to answer. 

“It’s okay if you don’t want to answer, I was just wondering is all. Y’know how it is ri—” 

“Yeah.” 

Usopp paused for a second at the answer. He had expected it in all truthfulness, but hearing the confirmation come from Sanji shocked him. He always seemed so put together, like nothing could make him lose his balance in life. 

“... How do you deal with them?” 

Sanji took another drag of the cigarette, knowing that his habit had developed as a response to both trauma and working with food. The nicotine helped calm the brain down when he was stressed over something and kept him from feeling hungry in the kitchen. 

“Cooking, I suppose.” That was the easier answer. 

“Could you maybe show me how to cook? I… 

“I... had a nightmare.” 

--- 

Sanji paused at Usopp’s confession. He had also suspected that Usopp hadn’t been sleeping well. He was more irritable in the morning than normal and seemed spaced out more often than not. But he wasn’t a doctor so he didn’t want to ask him directly, although he had told Chopper that he thought Usopp might not be getting enough sleep. Turns out he was right. 

Sanji pulled out a mini ashtray, stubbed out the rest of the cigarette in it, and put it away before answering. 

“Can’t hurt to try. Come on.” He said, turning and waving for Usopp to follow him. He, too, had been having nightmares recently and maybe cooking with someone else would help distract him enough to get a few more hours of sleep tonight. Just enough so he wouldn’t fall asleep standing at the stove again. 

--- 

They agreed on making a carrot cake, since that was Usopp’s favorite dessert and there was really no better way to help calm down than eating a little comfort food. 

He tried to recall the recipe his mom used when she had made the cake for him as a child, but he quickly realized that he could only remember small parts of it; helping shred the carrots and mix in the nuts and spices. 

Sanji took the information Usopp gave him and used his own knowledge of carrot cakes to make the batter. Sanji would mix the dry ingredients together and Usopp the wet ingredients. They both shredded carrots and portioned out the various nuts and mixed them all together with the rest of the batter and poured it into a cake pan. 

Once the cake was in the oven, Sanji began to work on a cream cheese frosting while Usopp worked on cleaning the dishes. He would rather do them now than after they had already decorated and eaten the cake he said. 

Sanji pulled the cake out of the oven and gently took it out of the pan and onto a wire cooling rack. Usopp took a deep breath, enjoying the smell of the carrot cake fresh from the oven. He felt like a kid again in Syrup village running around the kitchen while his mom made dinner. It was a nice feeling. 

Sanji and Usopp both sat down, wanting to take a little bit of rest while the cake was cooling enough to frost it. Usopp closed his eyes and leaned his head back, feeling a little more relaxed than he had earlier, and let his mind wander to his mom, the Usopp Pirates he left behind, his home. 

And they stayed like that, in peaceful silence, for a minute. 

Sanji took a drag of another cigarette now that the cake was baked and cooling, letting the nicotine calm his senses again. He really needed that, joking with Usopp in the dead of night while they made a cake together, allowing him to forget why he woke up in the first place. It felt nice, he thought. 

“Feeling better Usopp?” he said. 

“Yeah, a bit. Thanks.” 

--- 

Sanji put out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table and stood up again. 

“We should frost the cake and see if we can catch a few more hours of sleep.” He said, already moving towards the bowl of cream cheese frosting he had made. 

“Oh, yeah.” Usopp responded, feeling a little disappointed that the moment was over so soon. He could stay like that, just him and Sanji in the soft glow of the kitchen for hours. Maybe they should do that more often. 

He also stood up, moving to the fridge to see if there was anything he could maybe use to decorate the cake with. 

Meat, milk, meat, cheese, more meat, some fresh fruits and vegetables, carrots maybe? No, that’s just too much carrot. Hmm… 

He scanned through the shelves when something bright purple caught his eye and he pulled it out. They looked like flowers, but why were they in the fridge? 

“Hey Sanji, what are these?” He said, holding the bag of purple and white flowers up for him to see. 

“Hmm? Oh, those. Just some edible flowers I picked up at the last island. Thought they might bring a bit of color for desserts. Did you want to try them with the cake?” 

Usopp’s eyes lit up at that. He had tried a few flowers while he was at Greenstone, including some that looked similar to the ones in the bag. Orchids, he thought they were. 

“Yeah!” 

He placed the flowers in a circle on top of the cake, carefully trying to space them evenly so everyone would get to try one. He pulled out one more after all the ones he wanted were placed on the cake and plucked a petal off it. 

“Do you want to try it together?” Usopp asked, holding out the rest of the flower to Sanji. 

Sanji nodded and took the flower from Usopp’s hand and plucked out another petal. 

“I had a lot of fun tonight and it really helped calm me down. Thanks, for real,” Usopp said, holding his petal up. “Cheers?” 

Sanji chuckled a bit at the gesture but raised his own petal nonetheless. “Cheers.” 

---

“Not as much flavor as I was hoping for,” Usopp said, swallowing the petal. 

“Most flowers don’t have much of a taste, they are garnishes after all.”

Bonus gift: A playlist I decided to make last week on impulse after hearing one whole song that I thought fit Sanji and Usopp 

[anpannkko]

Here's my entrance exam for @taiyuu-high-oct

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kiru bounced her leg, growing antsy. The pit in her stomach that had formed when she arrived has been filled with the prickly thorns of impatience. She’d been in the waiting room for what felt like actual years. The rest of the students had slipped into a sedentary state, idly checking their watches or cleaning their nails, or even just staring at the wall. Every so often, someone would jerk their head, fighting off the tendrils of sleep seeping into their bodies.

"STUDENTS!" the over-enthusiastic voice crackled over the intercom, jolting the examinees out of their stupor. "Prepare yourselves for the most dangerous exam of your lives! This exam is fraught with peril, fear, and…" The voice, who Kiru supposed was a woman, trailed off. "Buckskin, what's another word for danger?" 

"Er, maybe it'd be best to get to the exam part, Miss Laccadaisie." A soft voice (Buckskin, apparently) replied.

"Ah." There was a pause, then a scraping sound, like the microphone was being pushed across the table. "Your turn, then." 

Buckskin sighed. "Anywho. Students, pay attention to this bit. Your entrance exam will be given in the form of an obstacle race." Low whispers snaked across the room. Some students, like Tokachi and Hiraku, brightened. Their quirks were well suited for a race. The others looked deflated, Kiru among them. How was she supposed to show off her quirk in an obstacle race?

"Some of you may be feeling downcast," Buckskin said as if reading her thoughts, "but don't fret. We've taken care to ensure that all quirks will be usable." The room let out a collective sigh of relief. 

"You will be scored in three categories. The first: heroics, which is measured by how many enemies you defeat and bystanders you save. The second: speed, measured by how fast you defeat each obstacle. The third: co-operation." Kiru raised an eyebrow.

"You will be taking the exam with an assigned partner."

...

Oh boy.

Cries of indignation filled the room.

"What?! This a group project?!"

"I hardly know anyone here!"

"Oh...what if I'm no help?"

Laccadaisie cleared her throat pointedly. Everyone quieted down immediately. Buckskin muttered a quiet thanks, then continued. "Your pairs will be displayed on the screen to the right, and then you may leave through the door on the left. Remember, your points are cumulative, so don't try to sabotage your partner." He coughed. "Er, we wish you all the best of luck.

"And don't forget to have fun!" Laccadaisie chimed in. And with a click, the intercom shut off.

Silence.

Kutou was the first to pipe up. "Whoever gets assigned with me, you better not expect me to carry you." 

"Vhy vould anyone trrrrust you enough to carrrry zem?" A girl with purple hair and grey skin muttered. 

The screen on the right flashed. 

TAKAKUTOU SHAKOU & TOKACHI AMEKO

Kutou stood up and trudged her way over to the door. "Come one, bunny girl. Let's get this done." Tokachi stood up begrudgingly, glaring with all the powers of Hell at Kutou's retreating back. Kiru whistled lowly.

 She never wanted to be on the receiving end of that glare.

The two of them slipped out of the room, and after that people started trickling out into the most important moment of their careers. The screen flashed brightly, sealing each pair's dates. 

SEISHIN TAMASHI & INOUE HIRAKU

YUKINO ZOË & HOTARU FUJI

SUZUKI POPI & ARAKAN KOATSU

 With each person that left, the tension grew heavier and heavier until Kiru could practically taste it. Her potential partner options grew slimmer and slimmer. She had a sneaking suspicion who hers was gonna be, but she kept praying it wouldn't be so. Soon everyone had left except for…

Him. 

She hadn't even bothered to learn his name. Why waste time and energy getting to know someone you'd never plan on talking to by your own free will?

The look on his face told her that her line of thinking was paralleled. 

She sighed. "Well, howdy doody, partner? What's your name? I didn't catch it over the sound of your stupidity whilst you were preening earlier."

He scoffed and pointed to the screen.

KANZOU KANEDA & KOTTOBA KIRU

       

           "Personally, I'd rather avoid speaking to you more than is necessary," he drawled. "Don't want to give the impression that I tolerate you." 

             Kiru rolled her eyes. "Your loss, McSalty, you're missing out on a stellar personality." She strode over to the door and opened it, giving him a comically over-the-top bow. "Ladies first." 

             "What an elementary insult."

             "Honey, if you thought that was an offence, you've never looked in a mirror." She shut the door behind her. Kanzou opened his mouth, probably to give some poorly thought out retort, but was cut off by a rather distracting explosion. 

               Kiru ducked instinctively and turned her attention to the scene before her. Several surprisingly human-sized robots were darting around; breaking windows, throwing around bricks, and harassing passerby. There were screams of citizens (which she hoped were simulated) echoing around. Above them all, a significantly larger robot floated above the chaos, clearly meant to be the final boss.

                She whistled. "They really went all out, didn't they?" Silence. "Alright then. Can you handle a couple of robots while I do some rescues?" 

                "Let's just get this over with." He rushed off and started hurling...sugar? At the robots? How was that supposed to help? 

She shrugged and ran off towards the nearest citizen, who was being attacked by a villain. The citizen was a different type of robot, more round and friendly-looking. The enemies were sharper-looking and had screens on their faces, which was currently displaying “>:)”. Kottoba rushed over and tugged the attacker off, throwing it across the street. It was surprisingly light. She turned back to the citizen and helped it to its feet. 

    “You alright, man?” The friendly robot brushed itself off and gave Kiru a thumbs up before running off. She smiled. That wasn’t that hard. She ran to the next group of citizens and herded them away from the fight. Then there was one pinned under a bit of debris. Then a child-sized one stuck in their house. Then a couple, clinging to each other, being beaten by a whole gang of robots.

    She obliterated them all. 

    Feeling more and more confident with each moment, she turned around to check on Kanzou. 

    “Oh, brilliant.” 

    The narcissistic rat was challenging the boss. There was a random assortment of small fruits and vegetables floating around him. He was hurling sugar everywhere, occasionally spicing it up with a piece of produce, which didn’t seem to have a be super effective. The boss was attacking him so fast, it was a wonder Kanzou wasn’t shredded to bits by now.

    “Oi! Raisin-brain! What are you doing?!” Kiru yelled out. 

    Kanzou glanced over and at that moment the boss was able to land a hit. He dropped to the ground.

    “Frick-” Kiru rushed to him, prepared to help and possibly perform CPR, but Kanzou kicked her as soon as she was in range. 

    “Ow! Why?” 

    “Get down, you stupid friking idiot.”  he hissed. Kiru dropped immediately. 

    “Why the heck were you fighting that thing? You were supposed to get the little ones down first.”

    Kanzou rolled his eyes. “Did you forget the entire point of this thing? It’s a race, dummy. Obviously, the big bad is the obstacle. We've gotta defeat it and then find the exit." 

    “Okay, then, what do we do?” 

            He put a hand on his chin and furrowed his brow. "Obviously, it's a tough one, considering my skills were barely able to make a dent in it. We'll have to rely on trickery." 

            Kiru gave him an incredulous look. "Your skills? You mean throwing potatoes at a robot?"

            He gave her a harsh glare, cold as ice. "Well, you haven't done anything significant this whole time." 

             She sputtered. "I'm the only reason we even have points! You're the unhelpful one! All you've done is chuck fruit and I could do that without a quirk!" Kanzou opened his mouth to argue, but at that moment The Boss hurled a handful of small building chunks at them. One piece smacked Kiru in the head, and it hurt.

             To put it delicately, Kiru lost it.

            "Oh, rust off, you bucket of bolts!" She popped up from their shoddy hiding place, anger boosting her new-found energy. "You are the sorriest excuse for a villain dummy I've ever had the displeasure of meeting! You're not even doing anything, you stupid hunk of garbage! Your mother was a roomba and your father came from a scrapyard! What are you even made of, brainless steel?!" The Boss stopped suddenly, its facial screen glitching. Sparks flew from its joints, and it jerked violently. Kiru backed away. It was going crazy. The robot stopped convulsing, its facial screen briefly displaying an ":0" face.

              And then it exploded.

             "Gah!" Kiru scrambled out of the explosion's range. Flaming pieces of robot rained down, making it 100% more dangerous. A hand tapped her shoulder and she jumped. It was Kanzou, who was pointing to a door that had opened up on the other side of the fire. 

             "That has to be the exit!" He exclaimed. Kiru nodded in agreement. 

             "How do we get there?"

              In response, he flicked his hand and drew out a white powder from one of his pockets. "You need to follow me closely, otherwise you'll get burned." He took off, laying down thick layers of powder in front of him. Kiru bolted after him. The powder seemed to put out the fire almost instantly. After they had gotten through the worst of it, he spread his arms in a grand gesture, and a flurry of powder settled over the remaining flames. He turned back, satisfied. Kiru grinned.

              "Race you to the exit." Kanzou rolled his eyes, then dashed ahead of her. "Hey! I didn't say go yet!" She yelled, but she wasn't really mad. She ran after him, but he totally got there before her. "Rude."

             "Don't be offended,I'm just better than you." Kiru snorted. She pushed open the door, giving him a comical bow.

            "It's still ladies first." 

            "Excuse you, I'm a queen." He strode in and yelped. Kiru quickly followed him. 

            "What? What is-" she gaped.

            In front of them, there was a large screen, displaying their rankings among the other examinees. 

            "Second place?!" Whatever Kiru was expecting, it wasn't that. "Heck yeah, dude!" She raised her hand for a high five. Kanzou just scowled.

             "I could've done better if you hadn't slowed us down." He meant it to sound insulting, but Kiru thought he sounded more mad at himself. 

               Or maybe her brain was filtering it to sound that way as not to ruin her mood. Whatever.

              "Well, we're in the school now. Schools are for improving, right?" She grinned. "I'll just have to work hard to turn my stupid into strategy." Kanzou didn't respond, but he didn't scoff or roll his eyes, so Kiru took that as a sign he'd taken her stellar advice to heart.

                Ah, yes. Kottoba Kiru, dropper of hot wisdom, maker of puns, master of flirtation…

                Hero hopeful.

[izzy-b-hands]

Good Boys

Written for my DL server Bingo Card prompt: Praise/Humiliation.

A bit of Freddie/Roger for this one, set in the earlier Queen days. Just a touch of NSFW, but mostly just boyfriends being silly. Also partial sick!fic, which isn’t where I saw this prompt going? But all of a sudden I was there and considering this is my third rewrite of this prompt, I was just really happy to be done regardless of where I ended up lol. 

My love to all who read/like/reblog.  

“Um. Lick my boot?” 

Freddie looked at Roger’s shoes. “You’re wearing sparkly trainers?” 

“Well!” Roger spat. “Lick those then, I guess! Oh but don’t, that won’t feel good...” 

“Are you telling me what to do or not?” Freddie asked. 

“I am trying!” Roger stressed. “I don’t think I’m very good at this.” 

“You’re thinking too much about it,” Freddie soothed. “You don’t have to be horribly mean or anything.” 

“It’s praise and humiliation,” Roger said. “I think that implies I do need to be quite rude.” 

“Well...” Freddie sighed, and got up from where he was knelt on the floor in front of Roger. “I think this was the wrong thing to try and add to spice things up.” 

“Might have been,” Roger admitted. “I don’t mind the praise part.” 

“No, that part is easy,” Freddie agreed, and sat on the bed, motioning for Roger to sit by him. “You’re very good at what you do to me.” 

Roger grinned. “Same to you, darling.” 

Freddie gave him a kiss. “See? We can do the first bit so well, why can’t we manage the other part?” 

“Maybe we test out what we’re planning to say?” Roger mused. “If we can say it like this, not ‘in the moment’, so to speak, then it’ll probably be good for later.” 

“In the moment,” Freddie added. 

Roger nodded. “Right.” 

“Okay,” Freddie turned so he was sat on the bed, facing Roger, who turned and did the same. “Do your worst.” 

Roger giggled, but bit it back. “Um. You’re...bad?” 

“You don’t sound very sure of that,” Freddie said. “Try again.” 

Roger sighed. “Right. You-” 

“Yes?” Freddie interrupted, nodding to encourage him on. 

“Should...” 

“Getting there,” Freddie said. 

Roger frowned. 

“You’re so close, I think,” Freddie whispered. “Come on.” 

“Ah...get better at sex! Because you’re not good enough at it for me, and...um...” Roger rubbed at the back of his neck. “That doesn’t work even in fantasy. You’re wonderful in bed. Let me try again.” 

“No, maybe I can think of something,” Freddie said. “What if we tie it into...I don’t know. You can’t take off your clothes until I tell you to take each bit of it off. Is that stupid? It feels stupid.” 

“No, that might be a thing,” Roger said. “So...I’m fully clothed as it is. I have to take something off, so you can tell me not to take anything else off?” 

“We aren’t doing this right,” Freddie replied, and crawled so he could flop onto the pillows on the bed. “But sure. You can take off your...shoes. But nothing else.” 

“I’m actually rather warm, would love to take my sweater off,” Roger said as he pulled off his trainers. “Thank god I can finally take these off though.” 

“Oh I know, I hate shoes on in the house,” Freddie muttered. “Disgusting.” 

“Right?” Roger said. “That’s what house shoes and slippers are for!” 

“So maybe no boot licking or shoe licking of any kind,” Freddie said. “I can happily live with that.” 

“Me too,” Roger said. “Could I take off my sweater though? I was so cold earlier, but now...” 

“No,” Freddie said. “I mean, I want to say yes, but if we’re doing this then I’m supposed to say no. So...no.” 

Roger nodded, and stood up. “Going to go put my shoes away by the door. Be right back.” 

“Rog?” Freddie asked, alarmed, as he rolled over to look at Roger. He was very pale, and seemed to be sweating. “You feeling alright?” 

Roger waved away his concern. “Been a little off today. I’m alright. Doin’ alright, you know?” 

He sang the last bit as he walked away and out of their room, as if he was set on performing the song as he went. 

However, he only made it few steps before Freddie heard the thunk of him dropping to the floor. 

He dashed out of the room, and picked Roger up from where he was knelt on the floor. “Sweater off, now.” 

“‘Kay,” Roger murmured. “If you say so.” 

“I do,” Freddie said. “And I think you’ve got that bug John was trying to kick last week...” 

“Nah,” Roger said. “I’m good. We’re doing this.” 

“We-” Freddie started, then stopped. Roger, dear as he was, like all of them could be an absolute pill to get to settle and rest while sick. 

He could use this. 

“Yes. We are,” Freddie said. “So I’m ordering you to get into our room, and get into your pajamas, and into bed.” 

Roger gave him a quizzical look. “How is that sexy?” 

“It’s very sexy,” Freddie reassured him as he helped Roger into the bedroom. “Wear the flannels.” 

“That...Freddie,” Roger puzzled. “That’s not sexy. They just aren’t, they hang on me, I only wear them when I’m si-” 

He paused, and gave Freddie a look. “I see how this is.” 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Freddie said innocently. “We’re trying out this praise/humiliation kink thing, and this is how I want to go about it! If you aren’t comfortable with it, safe word, and we’ll stop.” 

“No, I think I’m alright with it as is,” Roger said suspiciously as he changed. “What shall I do next...sir.” 

They both paused, and broke into giggles. 

“Don’t call me that,” Freddie laughed. “Oh god, that was weird.” 

“What about master?” Roger grinned weakly as he slid into their bed, snuggling under the covers. 

“No,” Freddie said with a giggle and shake of his head. 

“Master ba-” 

“Shush,” Freddie cut him off with a kiss. 

“I only meant to talk about how you bait us so well in the studio,” Roger smirked. “You know, convincing us to do more overdubs with biscuits. A master baiter, of providing bait so we stay put and work.” 

“You’re terrible,” Freddie smiled. 

“There’s the humiliation bit,” Roger said. “...Not that sexy, is it?” 

“The commands doing anything for you?” Freddie asked.

“Not even a wiggle,” Roger sighed, picking up the covers to look down at his cock to make his point. “You?” 

“Nothing,” Freddie replied. “But if it means you’ll rest until you feel well again, I’ll use it.” 

“I don’t think it’s a kink anymore if we don’t find it sexy, and don’t fuck or do something sexual as a result,” Roger frowned. “I think you’re just taking care of me at that point.” 

“I think you might be right,” Freddie sighed. “That said, I order you to stay put while I make you some tea, and get you some water, and make you soup.” 

“Oh, did you get us a new saucepan?” Roger asked excitedly. Their only one had been burned through, the bottom completely fallen apart, due to an unfortunate accident of them forgetting they had put anything on the stove for over three hours, the last time they had tried to make soup. 

Freddie winced. “Right. Ah, you stay put while I call Deaky and see if he can bring us over some soup...” 

“He just got over this, he won’t want to risk getting sick again!” Roger called as Freddie rushed out to the phone. “Call Brian and make him do it instead!” 

“Good point!” Freddie shouted back.

“Are you supposed to agree with me in this kink?” Roger laughed, then slumped back against the pillows as a dizzy spell hit him. 

“No, I don’t think so? So...erm...that would be a good point, if you...oh fuck’s sake, I can’t do it!” 

Roger laughed. “We tried, at least. Maybe once I’m better, we’ll try something else.” 

“I did buy us a pair of handcuffs,” Freddie said, ducking his head back into the room. “I’ve got to go wait for Brian and the soup, but why don’t you think on that until I get back? The command to stay put still stands though!” 

Roger whined. “What? No, you come back here and tell me more about that right now! Brian has a key, he can let himself in!” 

“He left his key here the last time he was by!” Freddie called back. “Be patient, and I’ll get to the praise part and call you a good boy!” 

“And give me kisses!” Roger shouted. 

“And give you kisses!” Freddie yelled back with a laugh. 

Roger nodded, satisfied, and let himself snuggle back into the pillows and under the blankets. Yes, it was on him that he hadn’t started their little experiment for the night by warning Freddie he was feeling under the weather (and in truth, he had thought he would be fine, it was only after the apparent fever and dizziness started that he realized his mistake.) 

But overall, even if they hadn’t done praise/humiliation right, they had tried it. Their way worked, as far as he cared. 

And what he cared about far more, at least for once he was well, was those handcuffs. 

[sambarvadai]

#8: on mala and microwaves

hi. after the last very heavy post i thought i’d make a lighter one. this one is going to be about food. i hope u like food. :>

this was inspired by a conversation i had with a friend. she’s from the sichuan province in china, where they regularly eat mala hotpot. how it traditionally works is that people sit around a big vat of bubbling mala sauce (ma (麻) refers to a specific chilli found in the sichuan province that gives the sauce its characteristic and distinctive spiciness, and la (辣) means spice. together, they refer to the mouth-numbing spiciness of the chilli) and dip raw ingredients, such as meat, vegetables, and tofu, into the sauce. as they wait for it to cook on the spot, the people gathered around the table laugh and make merry, following which they feast on the food.

my friend’s acquanintance was going to china – to my friend’s province, specifically – and wanted recommendations on mala hotpot places. my friend was puzzled. ‘he wants to go eat mala by himself? isn’t it very sad, just dip in take out dip in take out all by yourself? quite pathetic, leh,’ she said, shaking her head in bemusement. that was when i realised the communal nature of the dish. it is a dish specifically designed to encourage people to gather around, which is why you cannot eat it alone.

why? damn simple: it’s spicy. you won’t have anyone to laugh at you as you struggle with the snot coming out of your nose. who else is going to video you with numb lips and tissues around your plate? 

ok no la it’s a dish that requires long amounts sitting around, waiting for vegetables to cook. hence, this naturally encourages conversation, even if it’s just pleasant banalities to pass the time. it’s not just about the food, in this case, but about the people eating it as well. the very nature of the dish, the design of the dish, requires community and communality.

this nature is echoed across the traditional foods of multiple cultures. i’ll highlight a few here. do feel free to correct; this is purely based upon personal experience.

the south-indian thali is similarly designed as a way for people to bond. it has many different variations now, but i’ll talk about my experience with the tamil ilai sappaadu (literally, leaf food).

food is served on a gigantic banana leaf. there are 3-4 courses. the food is basically rice plus a gravy (the gravy determines the course) and at least six vegetable dishes as side-dishes. there is a specific order to consume the courses as well as an elaborate thought process behind it, but i’m not too sure of it haha. this is usually eaten at big function, like weddings and get-togethers. you usually sit down in long rows, like hogwarts tables. two rows face each other – i.e. the people of two rows face each other. this has a lot of opportunity for salacious winking and such ;))) just use ur imagination for more information, do check out the multiple youtube vlogs and blog posts about this.

for the purposes of this post, let me explain why i consider ilai sappaadu a communal thing. first, this requires actual serving. typically, the women of the house cook and serve the food while the men eat first. a bit sexist ya :, but oh well. because weddings and such grand functions are where you meet people your age (i.e. People Your Age And Therefore Possible Suitors), many many tamil movies have a scene where a girl lovingly pours gravy while staring at the boy’s eyes. it’s A Thing. sometimes, though, the younger girls will be permitted to eat with the guys (because they are all Young) – hence the salacious winking mentioned earlier. there’s a specific way to serve the food as well; you can’t just yell who wants xxx dish!!! raise your hand!!! but instead have to go down the road and ask each person individually. by doing so, you do get to form a connection with them, even if it is for a fleeting moment. you learn people’s tastes, and you gain their trust if you can sneak them an extra vadai or two. small things like that.

more importantly, it is also a meal that is very, very long. as such, you tend you talk while you eat, forming friendships with the people next to you. you rib your friend for eating so slowly, you nudge your friend to see that pretty girl standing off at the side, etc etc. all in all, it is designed to make people eat slowly and steadily – the portions are very big and the refills are virtually endless – and therefore encourages bonding and conversation. similar themes, ay?

the third dish is not from asia, but from ethiopia. i don’t know if this is the actual authentic way of eating ethiopian food, but this is what we had in multiple ethiopian restaurants so um haha

but the food has the same basic principle. a large, large plate around which several people are meant to sit. the plate is lined with a thin, roti-like bread, on top of which are several dishes. what you do is tear off the bread and eat it with the side dishes. again, this isn’t a dish you eat alone, and therefore isn’t a dish you eat silently. you literally eat from the same plate, eat the same food, and exchange ideas and jokes as you eat the hot, belly-warming food. again a food designed for communality and community.

compare this food with the food design of today. these days, you find packaged meals designed for one person to eat alone and very quickly. take instant noodles, the perfect example of this modern phenomenon – you pour in boiling water, and wait for a grand total of around 3 minutes waiting for it to cook, then you just. eat it. by yourself. at 3am. sigh.

this isn’t a bad thing, per se; it does make things very convenient. and it’s a good (?) source of sustenance. and i guess you could talk to your co-worker awkwardly while your waiting for your noodles to cook in the pantry. but all things considered, it isn’t a food that’s meant for communal consumption. in fact, it is designed for eating solitarily. same with burgers and meals you get at fast food restaurants. technically, you can eat them on the go. technically, you don’t need to sit down to have them, though it is nice to do so. technically, you can eat it alone.

contrast these kinds of foods with the ones mentioned earlier. the very design of the foods affects their purpose and function. one important point i want to make is that there is no one right type of food. both these categories serve different purposes and are required at different times. obviously, you can’t sit on the floor and have a one-hour long meal when you have to squeeze in lunch between consecutive meetings. but, undeniably, in the past, at least, food was treated as a way to bond and get together. this was reflected in the way their meals were meant to be eaten, and it is a common theme across cultures. while the food itself might be different, they were designed to make people sit down together and enjoy good food together.

because at the end of the day, everyone loves food, or at least tolerates it for the sake of survival. man took that and made it something to bond over, and that has stayed the same for so many years.

so next time you want to grab mala hotpot, grab a friend you haven’t seen in a while along, catch up over snot-filled tissue and stinging tongues. think about why you’re eating what you’re eating, think about the legions of people who’ve enjoyed it like you, and appreciate it.

thanks for reading!! anbudan, noon <33

[wolfie-posts]

Kiss and Run Ch.3

Bakugou Katsuki x Female!Reader

Read Chapter 1 here

Author: @wolfie-posts

Co-Writer: @queenmusicforthoughts

Warning: language

Chapter length: 7k words

Story Summary:

You did it! You were given the opportunity to study at U.A. alongside class 1A to become a pro-hero. Within the next three years, you were gonna learn more about yourself and your special quirk, about friendship, about fighting, winning and losing. The road to your goal is bumpy and steep with a lot of obstacles like villains and an explosive blond boy, who decided to make your life a little harder. Will you finally be able to control your quirk? Will you overcome the problems together with your classmates along the way?

A/N: Hello my dudes! Finally, the wait is over, may I present to you chapter 3! I have put my heart and soul into this and I am really happy about how it turned out. I'm really proud of my baby (my story) and I hope you can enjoy it as much as I do while writing it. A HUGE THANKS to all my beta readers, without them this story would probably not be where it is now. They not only keep my writing in check, but they also motivate me and help me plot! Okay, enough of my rant! Enjoy my dudes :)

AO3

Quotev

Wattpad

________________________________________

After the quirk assessment test, you were kind of happy that you didn't have any other classes for the rest of the day because, honestly, you were exhausted. You could feel every inch of your body, even muscles you didn't know you had from pushing yourself to the brink. Your limbs were shaking from overstraining but you liked that feeling. It simply showed that you had worked hard and given your best. No pain, no gain, right?

The changing room was filled with loud chatter. Most of the girls were crowding around the black-haired girl, who had known all along, that Aizawa had lied to bring out the best in all of you. They were discussing the different things that had happened, talking about the "explosive blonde guy" Bakugou, who nearly started a fight with the "broccoli boy" Midoriya and other things like their personal accomplishments, scores, and quirks during the testing. You didn't really follow the conversation, you just observed the other girls and picked up some of the things they said while getting undressed. All you could think about was getting out of your sweaty sports uniform and jumping straight into a steaming hot shower.

You quickly took your towel, body wash, shampoo, and conditioner out of your locker and headed to the shower stalls. You were the first one in the shower stalls due to your "antisocial" behavior. It wasn't like you didn't want to talk to the other girls. they all seemed absolutely sweet, but you didn't really know what to say. You didn't even know the names of most of them, so you just decided to keep to yourself and head into the shower while the others were busy talking.

The hot water running down your body helped to loosen up your tight muscles. You felt relaxation replace the tension you had built up throughout the day. A deep sigh left your mouth in relief as the hot water poured over your face, washing away all the stress and thoughts you had, which also muted the voices of your classmates. A feeling of ease spread through your body while you were washing out the shampoo. You turned off the water after you were finished and dried yourself off, tucking the towel around you like a dress before you walked back to your locker.

You took out your school uniform and stuffed the dirty sports clothes into your bag. You had always pictured yourself in those uniforms back in middle school, wondering how they would look on you.

In your imagination, you had seen yourself many times walking through the hallways of U.A. wearing their uniform with your chin tilted up in pride. Wearing that uniform gave you a feeling of accomplishment; it meant being one step closer to your goal of becoming a pro-hero, one step closer to controlling your quirk. It wasn't like those uniforms were ugly or anything- you actually really liked the school uniform from U.A. It consisted of a cute but formal green skirt, fitting green high-knee socks, a white shirt with a red necktie, and a long-sleeved grey jacket.

You noticed that most of the girls wore knee-high socks, except for you and Uraraka, Pink-cheeks being the only girl wearing green tights instead of socks. You just simply stretched the socks out until they were above your knees and instead of wearing those typical brown girly school shoes, you stuck to your comfortable combat boots. As you were tying up your shoelaces, you failed to notice the alien girl walking up towards you.

"Damn, I really needed that shower!" your newfound friend said, opening up the locker next to yours, causing you to jump a bit at the sudden sound of the girl's cheerful voice. You didn't even realize that you had been drifting off into your thoughts up until now. Normally, you were pretty aware of your surroundings, but even though the shower had cleared your head, your mind started to wander back to the happenings from earlier.

"Huh?" you asked even though you knew what the pink girl had said to you. She had just caught you totally off-guard. "Oh.. umm yeah!" you stammered out after catching on to the conversation; you looked up to see Ashido smiling at you while putting back on her uniform.

"Your brain sure seems fried like Kaminari's, after today's training," she laughed at you, making you clutch your chest from the invisible shot she had fired at you before you fulfilled the act with a painful gasp, which made the two of you erupt into laughter.

"Wanna walk home together?" you asked Ashido, swinging your backpack over your shoulder while leaning against your locker. The pink girl was like a fresh breeze of ocean air, her carefree and forward behavior making you immediately feel close to her like you had already known each other for ages. A small smile spread across your lips at the thought of spending the next three years with that sweet weirdo by your side.

"Hell yeah!" she said, quickly gathering her stuff so you wouldn't have to wait on her. After the two of you had picked up the syllabus, you walked home together, chatting about your expectations for the following days at U.A.

It was a cheerful walk home, Ashido was jumping around showing not even the slightest bit of tiredness. She was way too excited for tomorrow to be exhausted, she couldn't wait for class to actually start, for her first real hero lesson.

You sure would get a sore face from all that smiling and laughing, you thought to yourself while eyeing the bright blue sky. Before you parted ways with Ashido, you exchanged phone numbers and arranged to meet up before school from now on, at the same streetcorner, to walk there together. With a quick goodbye hug and a "see ya tomorrow," you separated, strolling the remaining way home alone.

At home, your parents eagerly awaited your arrival; before you could even shut the door they had already surprised you with a loving and excited hug, shooting questions at you about how your first day went.

You loved how involved your parents were in your life, you have always felt at home with them and you never came short on warmth, affection, and love. Getting into U.A. had been your biggest dream, which your parents fully supported even though they never wanted to be heroes themselves.

After changing into some more comfy clothes, you walked back down to meet your parents in the kitchen, seeing your mother hovered over some pans at the stove. The moment you stepped into the kitchen, your nose caught the pleasing smell of spices, an all to familiar smell belonging to your favorite dish.

"It smells amazing mom!" you said, feeling your mouth begin to water.

"I thought you would like to eat your favorite food after such an exciting day," your mom said, smiling at you from over her shoulder. Your dad was already sitting at the laid table and signaled you to have a seat next to him. For the third time today you reviewed the events of the quirk assessment test and told your parents about your different classmates, especially about Ashido, Kirishima, Bakugou, Kaminari, and Midoriya.

“Remember that ungrateful kid I told you about? The one from the entrance exam, who yelled at me for saving his life?” you asked your parents, rolling your eyes at the memory of the incident, getting a nod in response from both of them, which signaled you to go on with your story.

“Turns out he’s one of my classmates now, but that isn’t even the worst part! He is so arrogant I can’t even deal with him, and this morning he almost blew my head off when I walked into class!”

“You want me to beat him up for you sweetie?” your dad asked you in a serious manner. It was such an unnatural statement coming from him, that it made you raise your eyebrows in return.

“We both know that you would break your wrist in the process. If I ever needed one of you to beat someone up, I would definitely call mom for help.” you chuckled, gaining the laughs of both your parents.

“I mean I could easily get into a fight with him, you know? He already gave me plenty of good reasons to do so. For example, he just randomly pushed me to the ground today while I was waiting for my turn at the exercises. He even threatened to kill me! He’s such a jerk!”

“I’m sorry honey, boys at that age can be annoying sometimes, but they'll grow out of it and mature eventually, but if he doesn’t stop just promise me that you’ll beat his ass up in your next training, okay hon? ”

“Oh heck yeah, I will! He also doesn’t even let me call him by his name.. what else am I supposed to call him? Ugh.. that Bakugou kid just makes my blood boil, such an ungrateful assho--” you cut yourself off by covering up your mouth, realizing who you were talking with.

“Woah, hold up there young lady!” your dad interrupted your rant, shaking his finger at you. “No cursing in this house!”  

“Sorry. Not all of the guys are idiots like Bakugou, though! I met this guy Kirishima and he is sooo nice like imagine a ‘Cinderella’ kind of nice, totally the opposite of Bakugou, probably can’t even hurt a fly and he has this amazing quirk which doesn’t really fit his sweet personality.”

“Oohh tell me more about this boy! I want to know all the juicy details!” your mom spoke up with a knowing look, wiggling her eyebrows, making you blush furiously.

“Moooom! It’s not like that! He’s just nice, okay? And he has a pretty strong quirk, like literally! He can turn himself rock solid... I had to find out the hard way...” you said getting a little quieter at the end, remembering your embarrassing encounter with the red-haired boy.

“Okay, okay!” your mom said defensively, throwing her hands up in mock surrender. “It’s totally not what I think it is,” she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, but you decided to just ignore that.

“Anyways… there’s also this girl Ashido, she just decided that I was gonna be her best friend, not that I’m complaining because she’s awesome. She is gonna be a really cool hero someday, she looks like a pink alien with horns and everything. Her quirk is acid, which makes it so much better! We had to compete against each other in the first exercise and she thoroughly kicked my ass.”

Without giving your parents a second to respond, you launched into a tangent about yet another classmate.

“There was also this other boy, he has green hair that totally looks like broccoli, and he’s honestly such a stalker! I think he has a notebook or something where he keeps tabs on everyone's quirks and their stats! It was so creepy, I NEED to stay away from that kid because I don’t want him to find out how my quirk works.” you said with a nervous look in your eyes, kneading your hands in your lap.

“Oh sweetie, don’t be silly! They’ll find out sooner or later, I mean you’re going to be in the sports tournament after all.”

‘Oh fuck’ you thought to yourself. You hadn’t even considered the fact that you’d be participating in the largest televised event in Japan. Your eyes widened as the requirements of being a U.A. student began to sink in.

‘I don’t want to start kissing random people just to get stronger… Why did my quirk have to involve something so private?! I don’t want my first kiss to be so meaningless! What if they make me kiss someone in training? Oh god..-’

Your thoughts were interrupted by your mom setting a plate of food in front of you. “Stop overthinking and eat with us, you’ll be fine sweetie.”

After dinner a new wave of tiredness hit you, normally you would have stayed up a little longer to watch some tv with your parents, however, you still had to read the syllabus, so you ended up saying an early ‘goodnight’ to your parents and headed up to your room.

'What a day' you thought as you dropped onto your bed, reading through the syllabus.

U.A.'s hero course curriculum consists of normal core classes like English, history, science and so, which always take place in the mornings, followed by a long lunch break. Although U.A. is a school that trains the next generation of pro-heroes, they weren't slacking on the normal education each and every student should receive.

Your eyes lit up when you saw the afternoon schedule.

"Basic hero training" you mumbled with a proud grin spreading across your face.

_____

You walked down the sidewalks of your neighborhood, wisps of early morning sunlight making their way through the trees. Your neighborhood tended to be on the peaceful side, but in the mornings, right before people woke up to start their day, there was absolute silence.

Birds would sing, a slow breeze would flow through, and you’d revel in the calming silence. You’d usually walk to school alone, but this routine had been broken after you met Ashido. You were getting excited as you saw her already waiting for you at the street corner, waving to get your attention, which made you pick up your speed. She greeted you with an enthusiastic hug once you made it to her.

“Oh my god, I am sooooo excited for today! Are you excited? I am excited!” Ashido said eagerly, jumping around like a bouncy ball.

‘How could this girl have this much energy so early in the morning?’ you thought to yourself while admiring the over-eager pink girl.

“Don’t get too excited yet, we still have to go through the boring subjects before basic hero training starts.” the moment you said that Ashido froze into place and gave you a disappointed look.

“Did you really have to remind me about that?” Ashido groaned, going from 100 percent to zero real quick.

“Sorry,” you chuckled and shrugged your shoulders, “but there is no going around it.”

“Just keep up the pace you sloth, we’re meeting up with one more person before going to school and they are already waiting for us.” Ashido casually said, raising her hand as if saying ‘talk to the hand’ and strode off.

“Who are we meeting up with Ashido? Why are you only telling me this now?” you whined, jogging lightly to catch up to your pink-haired companion.

“Oh just shut up, I am doing you a favor!” the alien girl said in a serious tone but you could see the corners of her lips quirked up into a small smile.

“ASHIDO, who are we meeting up with?” you said, letting out a frustrated sigh. It was way too early for people to be testing your patience.

“Nope! My lips are sealed. You will know who it is when we get there.” she simply shut you up and kept on walking in unusual and torturing silence.

Time flew by as the two of you continued your trek through the city.

“The meetup point is straight ahead, ohh I think I already see him..” Ashido began to talk again next to you but your attention had been somewhere else.

‘Aww KITTY!’ a soft squeal escaped your lips as you crouched down to pet the stray, completely ignoring Ashido who kept on walking, still talking as if you were next to her.

You were too occupied with the small creature in front of you to notice the growing distance between you and your friend. Animals really were your weakness, who could simply walk past them without giving them some love?

You were so distracted that you didn’t even notice Ashido waving to somebody in the distance with a huge grin on her face.

The first one to notice the lack of the other person’s presence was Ashido because when she wanted to see your embarrassed and shocked face, it suddenly wasn’t there. She turned back around and scanned the street for you, only to find your figure crouched down near someone’s driveway petting a cat.

“You have to be kidding me...” Ashido mumbled to herself, shaking her head in disbelief.

“EH (Y/N), GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!” the pink girl yelled across the street, promptly gaining your attention.

“Wasn’t a cat the reason she came to school late yesterday? This girl… pff if it weren’t for me she’d probably be late again.” Ashido muttered to herself, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow once you caught up to her.

In your hurry, you failed to notice the red-haired boy only a few meters away, quickly making his way towards the two of you. The sudden flash of red in the corner of your eyes made you look into the direction of the approaching person, only to be greeted by a brightly smiling Kirishima.

Your face dropped at the sight of the boy and you could feel your ears begin to heat up at the embarrassing memories from yesterday, which were flooding your brain once again.

You gave Kirishima a small smile and quickly turned towards your pink friend with the same smile plastered on your face. The smile didn’t quite reach your eyes, which held a murderous glare.

“For your sake, tell me this is a coincidence,” you said in a dangerously low voice, but Ashido ignored your indirect intimidation and turned towards the red-haired boy unaffectedly with an innocent smile.

“Hey Kiri, I’m so happy we can keep on walking to school together,” Ashido said, almost bursting with laughter at the sight of your furious expression and the hint of pink which was now forming not only on your cheeks but also Kirishima's.

“I’m going to kill you!” you whispered the threat so that only Ashido could hear.

“Yeah I am happy too that we both made it into U.A.,” he said while scratching the back of his neck.

And before you even knew it this would become your favorite part of the day, with friends who soon would become more like family.  

As the school building came into view, two figures stood out from the swarm of people who were walking inside of the premises. Everybody was heading inside, while those two were the only ones frozen into place. The two boys resembled an island in a stream of students.

“Oh hey look it’s Kaminari and Sero,” Kirishima said excitedly, pointing towards the boys.

‘Oh no...’ you thought to yourself, gulping down the lump in your throat while heading straight into dangerous territory.

“Oh hey it’s you the girl who wanted to tou-”

“YES! HI IT’S ME (Y/N)!”  you quickly interrupted Kaminari before he could finish his sentence, “also hi, we haven’t been introduced yet,” you turned towards the other boy, which you didn’t know the name of yet and bowed.

“My name is Hanta Sero, nice to meet you.” the black-haired boy said to you and smiled.

“Now that the squad is complete should we head to class?” Ashido said, throwing her fists up towards the sky in excitement.

“C'mon, let’s go!” she yelled enthusiastically, pulling you and Kirishima along the way as she headed inside of the building.

Your first class of the day was English, as you took your seat behind Ashido you couldn’t shake off the feeling that someone’s eyes were on you but you didn’t dare to look for the person and kept on talking with your new friends.

It didn’t take long before Present Mic stormed into class and right away began the lesson by writing down four English sentences at the blackboard.

The man whom I respect most is my father.

That is the house in which he lived.

I well remember the day on which we both met.

Please tell that all you know.

“Now, which of these four sentences contains a mistake?” he asked into the room with a questioning look, holding up his English book.

You had to control yourself not to laugh at the priceless expressions your friends had. The looks of boredom and disappointment weren’t just plastered on your friends’ faces, everybody in class had a cloud of apathy hanging above their heads, everyone but Midoriya and the black-haired smarty-pants girl.

“Hey everybody look alive, grammar rules!” Present Mic yelled out as a result of literally getting no reaction at all to his previous question. He looked like a jumping jack, wagging his arms around hectically in a sad attempt to motivate his students.

“Yes, Yaoyorozu.” Present Mic called out to the black-haired girl with a hint of relief in his voice. She was the only one with her hand raised, but before Yaoyorozu could proudly answer your teacher's question the door swung open revealing a tired and sluggish Aizawa.

“Excuse me, Mic, but I need to borrow (y/n) here for a while,” he said in a monotonous way gaining a startled look from your English teacher.

“Ah.. yes, no problem!” Present Mic replied in a rather confused manner, class had only started like 15 minutes ago, how come one of his students was already getting called out? They didn’t even have the time to do anything stupid yet.

“Follow me!” was all Aizawa said, walking out into the hallway, waving his hand to underline his order.

“Ohhhhhhhh someone is in trouble!” Kaminari spoke up in a sing-song voice while wiggling his eyebrows, but Ashido had your back and shut him up with a smack to the back of his head before you could even say anything in your defense.

“How could she be in trouble? It’s only the second day of school?!” she growled at Kaminari, although her words weren’t showing any concern her eyes did look worried.

After making sure Kaminari wasn’t saying another word, Ashido looked back at you and nodded into your direction as if to make sure you were okay, which you returned to assure her that you would be fine. It was a small but meaningful gesture, one that you appreciated very much.

As you were putting away your stuff, you could feel the looks of your classmates glued to your every move, but one person, in particular, didn’t even bother to look your way, why would he care about some damn extra? Even the birds outside were more interesting than that shitty girl, who was in for some trouble.

Stepping into the hallway, you expected Aizawa to lash out on you or give you a scary pep talk as he did to Uraraka and the rest of the class during testing. You didn’t expect him to yawn and wave you off with the words “All Might is waiting for you in his office”.

“He is what now?” you said out loud, doubting your own ears. You couldn’t hide the genuine surprise on your face.

‘What could All Might, the symbol of peace, possibly want to talk with me about?’ you asked yourself in fear, seeing every bad thing you have ever done in your life flash before your eyes.

“He didn’t say. Just hurry up and stop wasting my time,” he said while zipping up his yellow sleeping bag, not batting an eye at you.

On your way to his office, you drifted off into your thoughts, thinking about all the possible reasons All Might could want to talk to you, leaving you even more clueless than before.

You were so deep into your thoughts, that you didn’t even realize you had been standing in front of his office for a solid 3 minutes. Gathering all your courage, you forced yourself to knock at the door, bringing your anxiety level to its peak. A loud “come in” from the other side of the door, brought you back into the here and now. You took this as your cue to enter, hands shaking slightly as you opened the door, feeling your heartbeat racing in your throat.

“Hello young (l/n), please, take a seat.” All Might said while gesturing towards the chair in front of him, giving you his iconic white-toothed smile.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting you?” was all you could manage to say after taking a seat, kneading your hands in your lab trying to calm yourself down.

“So, the others don’t know yet but I am going to be your teacher for the basic hero training course,” All Might began his speech.

Anyone else would have had their jaw on the ground at this point, anyone except for you. You were too busy overthinking the situation to even register the awesome fact that the symbol of peace himself would be your teacher. There wasn't really time for you to feel happy about it, because the only thing on your mind was, why exactly was he telling you this? Why just you and not the others?

“I've been preparing today’s training and as I was going over the different arrangements, I noticed that you seem to have a small disadvantage in comparison to your classmates. You see, before you even attended the school, U.A. had you fill out a hero costume form. Everybody had to do that, draw their dream costume just how they envisioned it with gadgets that enhance your quirks." All Might said, a faint smile dancing on his lips. For a moment, it seemed like he was drifting off into his memories as he stared into the distance.

"You probably ask yourself why I am telling you this right now, young (l/n). Well, the thing is that the hero costumes will play an important part in today’s exercise. I was going over all of them and yours stood out quite a bit. First I thought the development department had made a mistake, so I checked your hero costume form, to compare your design with your finished suit. I didn't really expect it to be almost entirely blank except for the assessments.” All Might said interrupting his own speech as he started to rummage through a stack of papers.

There was an awkward silence, the sound of papers being sorted echoed in your ears together with your heartbeat. You felt the need to break the silence, but you knew it wasn't the moment to talk right now, so you just watched intensely as All Might went through the different documents. As he was trying to find what he was looking for, you were trying to remember what you had written back then on your form.

“Ah, found it! Here...” he said scanning the paper.

“Your only request was that it needed to be a ‘flexible short jumpsuit with some high knee socks’, nothing else, not even a drawing.” All Might stated, raising an eyebrow at you, which made you squirm nervously in your seat.

You could see that he was trying to read your mind by interpreting your facial expression, wanting to understand the reasons behind not designing your own hero costume.

His blue eyes were staring at you, but he wasn’t really looking at you, you could see that his mind was wandering off to somewhere else. ‘How could you not have any wishes for your hero suit’ he thought to himself, reminiscing the time he himself had to think about his own hero costume.

He had wanted to be a hero as long as he could remember, thinking about his hero name, already designing possible costumes before he even knew if he had a quirk or not. He had spent so many hours of his life thinking about becoming a hero, even when he found out that he was quirkless, he never stopped dreaming about it. Being enlightened with the power of ‘One for All’ was the best day of his life, so why didn't you seem that interested in becoming a popular heroine? You had a pretty good chance at that too, from what All Might had read in your file. Your quirk is pretty strong as well, so why weren't you embracing it?

"I think I also mentioned that I wanted to keep my combat boots..." you mumbled to yourself, thinking back to you filling out your form. It wasn't that you didn't care about your costume, you just didn't think about becoming a hero from the start. You didn't even know about your quirk’s expanse until the age of seven. Before that, you had never really given the job much thought.

“Don’t get me wrong, I want to be a heroine, I really do! The thing is, I don’t have any clue about my quirk, I have no control whatsoever, and I really can’t think of any gadgets that would benefit it. That’s the reason why my form was pretty much blank ‘cause you’d probably have a better idea of what would suit my quirk. As long as I can keep my boots and the costume has the colors black, red and turquoise I’ll be happy, so you do you!” you grinned, having gained more confidence over the course of your speech.

You were okay with reaching your limit of knowledge, that is why you came to U.A., right? So that the best heroes and teachers can help you figure things out. Till now, you had just watched from the sidelines, being in U.A. meant looking behind the curtains, seeing the work and effort everyone has to put in on a daily basis, learning about your own strengths and weaknesses and how to deal with them.

“I thought you’d say something like that. Which is why I’ve arranged for you to go to the development department and talk to Power Loader. He’s the best person to talk to about this and I’m sure he’ll help you create your perfect hero costume. I already told him that you’d be there, so you better get going young L/N.” All Might said, standing up and gesturing for you to get up as well. You complied, confusion in your eyes as he gently nudged you towards the door and into the hallway.

“Good luck young l/n! Can’t wait to see what you come up with!” and just like that he shut the door in your face, leaving you stunned and slightly speechless.

“He could have at least told me where I can find the damn Development Department before closing the door in my face...” you mumbled, slightly annoyed, throwing your backpack over your shoulder as you began your search for the elusive Development’s Studio.

_____

“Finally” you sighed as you saw the bright and playful yellow sign of the ‘Development Studio’ down the hall. Some boxes with fabrics, metal scrap and other things like cleaning stuff stood to the left and right of the huge metal entrance doors.

It had taken you quite a while to find the studio, which was located on the first floor of U.A. High’s main building. You had wandered around for a long time, getting more and more frustrated by the second after All Might had sent you off to find the office on your own. It was your first “real” day at U.A. and you were already missing class to go deal with your hero costume. ‘Pfff priorities’ you thought to yourself looking at the metal doors.

‘Let’s just get this over with’ you thought to yourself, looking down at the grey suitcase with green numbers on it, your number.

All Might had explained that everyone in class 1-A would receive a suitcase like yours, they were all numbered from 1 to 21, suitcase number “1” belonging to the first person of the class in alphabetical order.

As you were eyeing your suitcase, your thoughts started to drift off. You were the only one who hadn’t put in the effort to fill out the hero costume form. What if the costume they had made for you was absolutely dreadful?

The longer you thought about it, the more you wanted to facepalm yourself, what if they had put you in some kind of princess dress? You would have been forced to seriously defeat villains wearing something silly like that. Those pictures in your mind were terrifying and you fiercely shook your head to get rid of them before they scar your memory forever.

You took in a deep breath and focused yourself before you knocked on the door, hoping the man who managed the place wouldn’t be too mad about your tardiness due to your lack of orientation.

Loud rumbling was heard in the workshop followed by a muffled cry and a dull thud, which made you flinch and raise one eyebrow.

“Hello? Is everything okay in there? I’m coming in.” you said hesitantly after a small pause, entering the studio carefully, your body on high alert just like your eyes. You were on the lookout for any unusual signs that fit the noises from before.

As you walked into the studio you scanned the room for the person whos cry you had heard, but what you saw had your mouth agape.

The studio was filled with different tools laying on tables or hanging neatly at their designated place on the walls. Wooden planks, metal scrap, fabrics, everything was spread out over the different tables or put away in boxes. There were mannequins, some naked, others wearing some prototypes of suits or gadgets standing to the left. Different shelves were holding boxes of material, finished products or rolled up drafts.

You were standing in the middle of some crazy genius engineer’s workshop, there was just so much to see, chains hanging from the ceiling, a glass window which displayed some mannequin with a suit getting fried by a laser and cut by a chainsaw and there was a whole wall of monitors on your right. But the most interesting view of this place was the shirtless guy with a yellow helmet in the shape of a rectangular excavator claw, which was covering his head and most of his face.

‘What a weird and overdramatic jaw-guard’ you thought to yourself as you took in every detail of the short and skinny man, who was laying in a pile of boxes and gadgets.

You came to a halt right in front of the man, eyeing him warily as you held out your hand towards him.

“Looks like you could use a hand,” you said with a small smirk but still cautious of the unknown person with the strange helmet.

“Ah, thanks! You arrived just at the right moment.” he chuckled as he gladly took your hand.

You knew you had small hands but when the stranger took ahold of your it felt like your hand was miniature sized. You also noticed weird orange “L” shaped pieces at the end of his fingers. His hands had you staring, slightly tilting your head as if that would give you any answers to those claw-like fingers.

“You must be (y/n) (l/n) then, I am Higari Maijima also known as Power Loader. All Might told me that you would pay me a visit at some point today. So, what can I do for you?” he said in a kind voice, signaling you to come sit down at the second chair in front of the monitors.

“Nice to meet ya, I don’t know if All Might told you why I am here but apparently my heroine costume is in desperate need of some updates,” you said with a hint of sarcasm as you looked down at your suitcase.

“Oh, I got you! You aren’t happy with your design and how it turned out. Well, let’s see.” he said while turning towards his keyboard, his fingers were flying over the keys which seemed to be bigger than the average size.

He opened up some files and dragged them into some kind of program, not even a minute later a virtual you popped up on the screen wearing a short black jumpsuit.

“Wow” was all you could manage to say as you ogled the virtual you.

“Hm, that is a pretty plain costume, what is it that you don’t like about it?” Power Loader asked you as he opened up some more files about your requests and body measurements.

“Well, this is actually the first time I see the suit myself. Honestly, I expected worse from what All Might told me,” you said pulling down the corners of your mouth as you shrugged your shoulders. You were genuinely impressed by the outcome of your costume, they had taken pretty much everything you had written on your form into account, which wasn’t a lot. You had requested the colors black, red and turquoise and that you wanted to keep your combat boots. The finished product was a black short jumpsuit without sleeves with a high neck. It showed some skin on the sides, leaving your ribs bare.

Most of your costume was in black but an ordinary jumpsuit like that wasn’t fit for a heroine, which is why they worked with some pretty detailing in red and turquoise. Your shoulders had some red elements just like your thighs. You were also given some high knee socks and some long gloves in black with the difference that they had turquoise detailing on the ends. All in all your hero costume looked sharp.

“Wait, if you haven’t seen it before, why do you want to change it?” Power Loader interrupted your analyzation of the outfit.

“As a matter of fact, I never designed my costume. See?” you said pointing at one of the monitors which displayed your submission form.

“I honestly never really thought about it because I don’t even know how I can use my quirk to the fullest, I don’t know what would benefit my powers in the slightest. So, I just wrote down my measurements and the colors I wanted and et voilà!” you said pointing at the virtual you in hero costume.

“You see, All Might told me that I should talk to you about my quirk and possible gadgets. He said you would be the only person who would be able to create a getup, that would suit me and my powers perfectly,” you said expectantly while glancing at the pro hero next to you out of the corner of your eye.

“Think you’re up for the challenge?” you added with a devilish smirk, knowing exactly which buttons to press to motivate the engineer next to you.

“Let’s get to work!” was all he said excitingly rubbing his hands together as he rapidly typed on his keypad.

“Okay, tell me about your quirk, fighting style and preferences and let me do the magic,” he said and even though you couldn’t really see his face, you were damn sure that he had the same stupid smile on his face as you.

“So, I have a copy quirk ergo I need an all-rounder suit, it needs to be flexible and withstand all kinds of situations.”

“Copy that, what about protectors?”

“Ohhh, give me some knees and elbows to kill!”

“Some... what?”

“Those protection thingies!”

“Those?” he asked you pointing at some pentagon-shaped knee protectors in silver.

“YES, but make them sharper!”

“Okay... what about your fighting style?”

“Hm, I am a kickboxer so maybe something for my knuckles, wrists, and feet?”

“I can strengthen the fabric of your gloves around your wrist and give you some knuckle protectors. I would sew it into the glove, so you could break bones and still look stylish?”

“Yes, let’s do that! What about my shoes though? I really want to keep my lucky boots!”

“Don’t worry, I can work with your boots, no need to change them. You would have to leave them here for a while but I can pimp them up with some iron soles and shines that can act as armor. How does that sound?”

“Sounds like a damn awesome hero outfit to me!” you said approvingly of the upgrades with a big smile. That was a hero costume you could get behind and kick some ass with!

“Okay great! I think I actually have some prototypes of those knee protectors you want, well some similar looking ones. Give me a second.” Power Loader said looking through the pile of boxes and gadgets he had been laying in minutes ago.

“Found them! Here,” he said, giving you a pair of plain silver looking knee protectors.

“From what All Might told me, you will be needing them this afternoon, just bring me your combat boots after you finished your first basic hero training. Who knows, maybe you come up with some more changes to your costume after practice.” Power Loader said giving you a gentle smile, which didn’t really suit his intimidating aura.

“Alrighty then! See you after I kicked some ass in my prototype suit! Bye!” you flashed him a quick grin and raised your hand goodbye as you skipped out of the development studio.

As you looked at the clock hanging in the hallway on your way to class your eyes widened in shock! It was already lunch break! You had literally missed all your core classes dealing with this problem. ‘How is that even possible?’ you asked yourself as you hurried to the cafeteria. It didn’t feel like you had been talking for so long and upgrading your hero costume didn’t take too long either, or did it? You apparently had lost your sense of time completely, there was no other explanation for this.

“Better hurry before I run out of time to eat lunch!” you mumbled to yourself as you searched for the cafeteria, where your pink-alien friend was already waiting for you. You couldn’t wait to get some food into your stomach before basic hero training started, ‘oh boy, will they flip if they find out who our teacher will be!’ you grinned to yourself stupidly.

<– previous Chapter | next Chapter –>

[sesskag1postchallenge]

Ch3 - Operation Grandpup Drop (A SitBoy Discord Crack Fic)

Chapter 3

 Edit - Warning borderline NSFW and violence.

imjaneees08/02/2019

Completely in a different plane of residence, Kagome felt an odd disturbing tingle in the back of her head. Kind of like that stranger danger feel you get. This was one of those times she wished she was home lying on her fluffy pink bed, away from all the crazy kidnappers lurking about, attempted murderers and what not. And she's not even getting paid for all her good deeds here.

 revang08/02/2019

Today was honestly turning out to be one of the most eventful days in all her time in the past, and that was saying a lot. All she had wanted was to relax in the hot spring. Yet here she was, pack half-empty, shoeless and wearing only a makeshift fur dress, speeding through the air in Sesshoumaru’s arms. 

She twisted a bit in his hold, trying to meet his eye. “Um, Sesshoumaru? Thanks for saving me back there, but where exactly are we going?”

Stormie Like Weather08/02/2019

Sesshomaru held the miko close, his arm tense around her middle as he thought about his next move. Rin and Ah Un needed to be fetched, while he knew his Mother would be expecting them. Leaving her waiting would only cause more problems. He scowled. "To Rin."  She was his ward, and as such, a priority over his Mother's antics.

 imjaneees08/03/2019

Kagome managed to bite her tongue before 'That's great and all but why are you taking me with you?' got the chance to slip out. She just got saved by someone who may have come to her aid a number of times, but tried to to kill her just as much as well. She was also quite aware that they were well above the ground and she really didn't want to splat because she ran her mouth off.

 Slayer08/03/2019

Unnoticed  be her she had actually muttered those words. Sesshomaru  looked down on her and raised one eye brow. He could tell she hadn't actually meant to say it out loud, but her defiance, her seemingly untameable mouth did something to him.

 Walter20508/03/2019

They arrived back at the campsite but Sesshomaru was somewhat dismayed to find it empty. No sign of Rin, Kohaku, Ah-Un, or his Mother. He already knew from the arrow earlier that his retainer wouldn't be present, for that he would give him a good stomping later. 

 Lifting his nose into the air, Sesshomaru took in the scents as Kagome took a step forward in front of him, glancing around at the cold fireplace. He growled, causing her to glance back at him in worry, as he caught the scent of his mother's debilitating poison, knowing it meant that she had knocked out the others and used Ah-Un to carry them to her sky palace. 

 A deeper inhale confirmed her and Ah-Un's scent mixed with the others heading into the sky...but what was this other scent he smelled now? It was so fresh and...pure. Was this the miko's scent his mother had mentioned earlier? 

 Sesshomaru took a step forwards and wrapped his arms around Kagome, securing her in place as he bent his head to confirm his suspicions. Yes, there it was as he inhaled around her neck, past the smelly fur pelts from the wolves and the remaining taint coatings from Naraku earlier, he smelled her spice and she was everything nice. 

 Kagome was beet red as she was pulled into Sesshomaru's embrace and held by him in a seeming hug as he sniffed her neck. For several moments she could form no words but that quickly changed as the hug continued.

 imjaneees08/03/2019

Her heart was beating so fast and hard that she thought it was going to fly out of her rib cage and run away out of sheer embarrassment. 

Painfully aware that all she was bearing was what the daiyoukai had given her, she cleared her throat, "Ummm, I though we were going to Rin-chan?" she congratulated herself for sounding more confident than she felt.

 Walter20508/03/2019

Inukimi allowed herself the smallest of smiles as she watched the two of them through the seer's orb embedded within her ring, her labors up until this point finally providing some fruit on her quest for grandpups. 

 A shame the whelp of a stepson in front of her had spent so much time pining after the lost affections of the undead while mostly shunning the living, she would've been receptive to receiving grandsons from him as well but it seems he has squandered any romantic chances with his longtime companion over the years during their adventures together. 

 Still, he would surely be jealous of any relationship that developed between the miko and her true son, something that she would be able to twist to her advantage. For now she just needed to make him and his companions stay put for a while longer. 

 "My dearest stepson, won't you and your companions please stay and be my guests for a while? Your companion and others are coming to join me here and then I can tell you all the reason I've inv...gathered all of you here. In the meantime, please feel free to help yourselves to the banquet in the great hall and rooms are being prepared for you all as we speak," said Inukimi as she turned around, clearly dismissing them as she watched her son and hopefully his soon to be intended resuming their flight to her sky palace.

 revang08/03/2019

Just as suddenly as he had embraced her, Sesshoumaru stepped away, his face the same stoic mask he always had. “Hnnn. Yes, it would seem Mother is playing her games again. We shall have to follow to her palace.”

“Mother???” Kagome asked in shock, still trying to calm her beating heart. What the heck was that just now? “You have a mother? I mean, of course you have a mother but- nevermind.” Realizing his other words, she snapped to attention. “Wait she took Rin? Is she okay??”

“Hn. Come, Miko.” 

He gathered her up again and took to the skies. Kagome didn’t think about their positions, just worried for the little girl. She clutched her bow tightly.  Whatever they were about to encounter, she’d fight to keep her safe.

 Stormie Like WeatherLast Monday at 5:03 PM

While Miroku salivated over a heaping plate of food and the prospect of what he considered to be an impromptu tryst vacation with his wife, Sango was busy glaring daggers at him. "What are you doing? This could be poisoned for all you know." She snapped. Mere centimeters from his mouth, she slapped a chicken wing from his hand. Inuyasha eyed the youkai claiming to be Sesshomaru's Mother. She certainly seemed bastard-y enough to be the asshole's mom, but what the hell did she want with him?

 Walter205Last Monday at 10:30 PM

"Half son of the West though you may be, you are still of the line and thus need to be properly taken care of for the good of the future ruler over the Western Lands. Although your half breed nature makes you unsuitable for offspring, there are still many tasks in serving the Royal Family that one of their own blood would be the most well suited for," said Inukimi, drawing Inuyasha's hackles as well as earning side glares from his companions present.

 "Keh, so you're telling me Sesshomaru gets to have all the fun then? And why bring my companions along?" asked Inuyasha as his voice dripped with sarcasm. 

 "Some of your companions can provide ample advice and demonstrations for mating and childbirth/raising for when the rituals arise, particularly if my son chooses someone who is...less than full demon. Others provide ripe candidacy for being mated. And as for Sesshomaru, do you think my two sons are the only offspring I have?" Inukimi asked coyly. 

 As if summoned on cue, two younger female Inu dog demons appeared in the banquet hall, taking up positions on either side of where Inukimi sat. One seemed very much like Sesshomaru in appearance, but with longer hair, softer facial features, and a much more voluptuous appearance. The other appeared similar to Inuyasha but was a tad more petit and curvy in nature. 

 "Allow me to introduce my two daughters, my full daughter Inuemi (Beautiful Dog) and my half daughter Inukui (Ugly Dog), the former born soon after Sesshomaru was, the latter the result of a revenge affair after Inuyasha was conceived, which proved most disappointing on my end," stated Inukimi as she gestured to each of them in turn.

 imjaneeesLast Tuesday at 12:45 AM

Before Inuyasha could even get a single word out, there was a very loud, "RIN-CHAAAAAAAAN!" heard from way above.

They all turned up to see Kagome, dressed in what seemed to be Sesshomaru's clothes, snuggled quite comfortably in the daiyoukai's arms. One arm was over the Western Lord's shoulder while the other hand was pointing an accusing finger at Sesshomaru's mother and apparently his sisters, "You! The ones who look like Sesshomaru and Inuyasha in drag! Where's Rin-chan?!"

She wasn't normally like this, no. But she was stressed, a little hungry, a lot molested and tired. Also, she loved children, more than that, she loved Rin, the girl was adorable.

 SlayerLast Tuesday at 3:23 PM

"Rude!" Yelled the female who looked similar  to Inuyasha. 

"Yeah well I have had a day lady so dont push me!" She pushed herself out of Sesshomaru's  arms and walked up to the female. And poked her right in the boob. 

Inukimi glared at the feisty little human and growled at her older brother. "Make her stop Sesshomaru."

 Stormie Like WeatherLast Tuesday at 3:36 PM

InuKui pushed Kagome's finger away from her chest with a wave, "Don't get all uppity about Mother's antics." Frowning, she took a well loved scroll from her kimono, and began walking away, bored, "Mother, next time you summon me, be sure it's not for something so stupid." 

InuEmi tilted her head, "Can she do that?" 

Sesshomaru's jaw ticked, already sick of the situation. "Mother." 

"What" InuKimi snapped, but behind her fan she was smiling devilishly.

 revangLast Tuesday at 4:19 PM

“I tire of your games. Where is Rin?” Sesshoumaru asked, sounding unconcerned.

Ignoring him completely, Inukimi approached the feisty young miko with interest. “So you are the one whose wholesome scent was emanating from that strange cat garment.” Kagome’s face changed instantly from one of determination to a look of utter mortification. She had seen her panties?? And smelled them??? “Though now it is hard to catch beyond the disgusting scent of wolves. We shall have to take care of that, come along.”

Too stunned and embarrassed to protest, she felt herself being led away by Sesshoumaru’s mother’s light but firm grip on her arm.

“Cat garment?” Miroku asked, exchanging a mystified look with the others.

“Hey! Bitch where are you taking Kagome??” Inuyasha called, gripping Tessaiga and starting after them.” 

“Don’t bother,” Inuemi sighed, shaking her head and putting an arm out lazily to block his path. “Once she gets something in her head there’s no stopping her. Especially when it comes to making someone her dress-up doll.”

“Dress-up doll? What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” he growled.

Sesshoumaru huffed. “Clearly she means to put the miko into some proper clothes, or are your senses so weak you could not tell she was wearing a mere fur beneath the haori this one lent her?”

“Yeah, hey what the hell? What was Kagome doing with you? What did you do to her, you bastard?” Inuyasha snapped, moving around Inuemi to threaten his prick of a brother.

 Walter205Last Tuesday at 9:15 PM

Sesshomaru glared at Inuyasha, deciding whether to deign the half breed with a response, but it wouldn't be very courteous to have a fight break out in the banquet hall, so he answered, albeit in his normal short and to the point monotones. 

 "I came upon your wench while she was being attacked by an incarnation of Naraku. I repelled the attacker and brought her here to be reunited with her companions," he answered simply. 

 "Keh, why was she wearing nothing but fur pelts?" Inuyasha asked again. 

 "That little brother would be up to your discretion to find out, as you've claimed time and again to be her protector," Sesshomaru sarcastically replied before turning to walk out the door. 

 Inuemi placed a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. He turned to see a look of pity on her face as she glanced from her slightly older brother to the younger one. 

 "Don't worry, she remains untouched and I'm sure we can ask her ourselves once she is properly cleaned up and clothed. For now, perhaps we could enjoy some food over the exchanging of tales. I'm most eager to hear of your adventuring, younger brother," said Inuemi, very specifically leaving off the half- part with a warm smile on her face. 

 As the now subdued Inuyasha would come to find out, while Inukui was every bit as brash and arrogant as he was, Inuemi was the polar opposite to Sesshomaru in personality and interests. The only supreme conquest she was interested in was knowledge and was a bit of a book and scroll worm, although she was looking forward to the possibilities in starting a family.

 Stormie Like WeatherLast Tuesday at 10:11 PM

Noticing things settled down, Miroku pulled his currently not pregnant wife into a closet. "Miroku! What are you thinking!?" 

He waggled his brows, "Since we aren't needed, I was hoping to squeeze in a little alone time before having number four." His hand skated over her backside, and her face flushed. 

"Ahhh, here!?" A broom fell between them, and she huffed, "I require more than a servant's closet to get in the mood you know!"

Far back in the opposite wing of the shiro, Rin and Shippo were using their calligraphy paints to draw funny faces on the nanny Shippo had tricked asleep. "She will look so funny with a curly beard!" Rin giggled.

"Serves her right for trying to teach us calligraphy." Shippo snickered.

 Walter205Last Tuesday at 10:29 PM

Sesshomaru was walking outside when the skies began to darken ominously, a familiar scent appearing that elicited a growl from him before a cloud of miasma appeared. 

 "Lord Sesshomaru, please pass along a message to the others, if they feel so emboldened to face me then they shall suffer the same fate as this one," came the unmistakable voice of Naraku from the miasma cloud as a pair of objects fell from it. 

 The first was the head of the wolf demon known as Kouga, before his body plopped down next to it. Little holes dotted the places on his body where his five jewel shards had been located at previously. 

 Sesshomaru had just drawn his sword when the miasma cloud vanished. Sheathing the Bakusaiga, he pulled Tenseiga instead and attached Kouga's head to his shoulders before reviving him. 

 "Unnhhh, what? Naraku, where are...You?" stammered Kouga as he looked around before setting eyes on Sesshomaru. 

 "Wolf, go bathe," stated Sesshomaru before sheathing Tensiega and going about his way.

 revangLast Tuesday at 11:10 PM

Reaching what seemed to be the family wing of the palace, Inukimi pulled Kagome into a chamber partitioned off from a large indoor spring. Eyeing her up and down, she said, “While you do look good in my son’s colors, it simply won’t do for you to be going about the palace in such attire. Take off that filthy pelt. I am sure you are worn from your travels- please make use of my private baths. There are an assortment of oils and potions here you may use to your pleasure. Sasako will assist you, and when you are finished, come to me. We will get you into some proper clothes.” She indicated the quiet servant who had followed them into the room, and left with a cunning smile.

Still reeling from the whirlwind that was Inukimi’s overwhelming force of personality, Kagome stood blinking for a moment in the center of the room. She did have to admit she felt pretty disgusting. On top of just normal travel filth, she had been in the process of bathing before this all began, still halfway dirty, and then that wet grime had only gotten worse, attracting all kinds of dirt and debris as she fled sopping wet through the forest. Sleeping in a pile of furs in a cave certainly hadn’t helped, plus who knew where this pelt had been before she had it right against her bare skin as a makeshift dress all day. 

She was definitely not going to say no to a bath and some fresh clothes. She could put up with being made plaything for a noblewoman for the time being. Plus it was Sesshoumaru’s mother, who apparently existed and also did not kidnap Rin after all- not in the true sense of the word anyways- Kagome couldn’t be rude to her.

 Stormie Like WeatherLast Wednesday at 10:31 AM

"Well," Kagome couldn't repress her grin, since InuKimi wasn't the child snatching monster she'd believed her to be, "I can't decline a nice hot bath." She had reservations about being a dress up doll afterward, but any clothes that didn't stink sounded amazing at this point. Her matted hair hung as she bowed a thank you. 

Suddenly screams and giggles barreled through the door, revealing two familiar children. Though, Kagome mused, last she'd seen them, they had not been covered in splotches of ink.

InuKimi glared at the Nanny, who sported a fancy drawn on mustache and goatee. "What is the meaning of this?!"

The Nanny caught both children by the back of their kimono before they could run and hide, "You ordered me to care for two children!"

"Yes?" InuKimi's brow quirked. Usually she wouldn't tolerate this sort of behavior from a lowly staff member, however  her interest was piqued. 

"These are not children!" The Nanny cried, "These are little hellions! I refuse to take care of two bratty, malicious, beasts!"

"They are not bratty, beasts!" Kagome shoved her finger under the Nanny's nose, "You must not be competent enough to care for them. Which doesn't matter anyway, because they are mine!"

 SlayerLast Wednesday at 11:41 AM

"Really one would think a being of your station would know not to speak badly of a mothers children right in front of her." Inukimi said as she snapped open her fan. "Why dont we send the children to their father , uncle, and aunts."

 SlayerLast Wednesday at 11:50 AM

"Rin dear? Why dont you and little Shippo go to the dining hall  and eat." InuKimi smiled down on the children completely disregarding the nanny standing there with her mouth hanging open.

Once the children had run off she turned her calculating golden eyes on the stork youkai she had been assured could handle the children.

"As for you you are dismissed from the employment to this house you have 12 hrs to collect your belongings and leave." Inukimi looked back on Kagome and gave her a dazzling smile. "I am afraid she came highly recommended but she simply will not do for keeping my darling grandpups in line now will she? Let's get you cleaned up my darling daughter and into some more suitable clothing." She led Kagome down the hall and into a huge bathing house

 Stormie Like WeatherLast Wednesday at 12:05 PM

Wide eyed, Kagome let her -Sesshomaru's Mother lead her to the bath. She'd have to ask Sesshomaru what the heck she meant by 'darling daughter' and calling Shippo one of her grandpups. Things were getting weird. The day settled on her heavily, and as soon as InuKimi left her alone, she sank into the water and closer her eyes. "Back to square one."

Her eyes snapped open as soon as something warm and wet dripped on top of her head. Fingers massaged her scalp, taking her back to Tokyo and getting her hair done at the salon. Claws lightly scratched. She sighed. Too tired to complain about the servant suddenly washing her hair, she let them do their job. She deserved a little pampering after all the hell she'd been put through.

 SlayerLast Wednesday at 12:08 PM

Kagome was washed massaged oiled and had her feet done and nails buffed before she was allowed to leave the bathing area. It seemed that Sesshomaru's  mother had a day spa all her own in this odd floating castle.

 Stormie Like WeatherLast Wednesday at 12:27 PM

"Oh!" InuKimi clapped her hands together as the servant ushered Kagome into her rooms. "Look at that! Even human skin can glow like a Goddess's with proper care." 

Kagome blushed, not sure exactly what to say in this type of situation, "Um, thank you?"

His Mother twirled her finger in the air, and the servant turned Kagome in a small circle. "My, my, you do have nice hips. It's a wonder no one has pumped you full of their young already." Her lips made a thin line as her attention snapped to Kagome's face. She grabbed her chin, peering too close for comfort, "What are your flaws?"

"Well...It's not like no one has offered." Her jaw clenched, and she pushed InuKimi's hand away from her face, "I mean I'm sure I have flaws... but that's not why I'm not barefoot and pregnant."

"Ah..." It clicked very quickly in her mind, "So you prefer attention from females then, that does pose a problem, though only a minor one."

 SlayerLast Wednesday at 12:35 PM

"WHAT?! No I dont prefer the attention of females.....not that there is anything wrong with that. I just havent been interested in any of my 'suitors' either they are rude and crude too soft and sweet or they smell bad." Kagome supplied

"Definitely  not having sex with a jerk or a pansy and who wants a stinky male sweating all over them yuck." Kagome made a disgusted face.

 revangLast Wednesday at 12:42 PM

“Besides, I’m only 18, and we’re still running all over Japan battling Naraku!” she huffed. “Wait why are we even taking about this??”

 Stormie Like WeatherLast Wednesday at 1:07 PM

"18!?" InuKimi shouted, "You're practically a grandmother's age for a human!" She shook her head, completely ignoring most of what Kagome had said, "No, no, this just won't do at all. I have to find someone for you quickly, before you become decrepit and die."

Kagome's eyes were wide, "No, thank you?" Sesshomaru's mother was seriously crazy, there was something wrong with her. Obviously the years were wearing her brain thin. "I'm good, so if that's all, I'm just going to get dressed and go..."

 SlayerLast Wednesday at 1:22 PM

"Nonsense  girl. You need a mate. A mate will care for you and give you pups and protect you from all harm. We shall simply have to find the right male.....it is a male you want yes?"

 Stormie Like WeatherLast Wednesday at 1:45 PM

"Well...yes..." Kagome cringed, "But I'm not ready to settle down. I'm fighting Naraku, and have important things to do."

"Yes, I'm sure you do." InuKimi nodded while shoving a stack of silk at an uncomfortable looking servant, "Get matching obis for these, color coordinate everything. Honestly why am I having to tell you this?" She waved the servant away with her fan, and looked back at the miko in her possession, "Now those very important things include finding a suitable Mate, and giving me grandpups. Your Mother will not be around forever you know, I expect many grandpups from you." 

"You? My mom?" Kagome shied away, backing toward the door the servant had just rushed out of. 

InuKimi's smile made Kagome cringe, "Oh yes, my darling daughter. You are part of my pack now."

"P-pack?" 

The door swung inward. The servant rushed through with more piles of silk. 

Kagome bolted.

[rulesofthebeneath]

fazed (how bout a dance au)

<AN> Hey! Did you miss me?

I was basically on hiatus for a hot second because of classes and exams and adjusting to being back home. But I wrote this little bit, set a little less than two years after the end of how bout a dance. This is a little domestic fluff bit with an angsty twist when ajay has to confront some of his toxic ex (isabella)’s crap. Hope y’all enjoy!

Tagging: @pixelburied, @witchiegirl, @ajaysbhandari, @lilmissperfectlyimperfect, @itsbrindleybinch, @aidenzhous, @lorosette, @ravenclawpokegirl25, @ylevolenahs, @awkwardalbatros, @catlady0911, @hufflepvnk

</AN>

As soon as he unlocked the door to their apartment, Ajay could smell the unforgettable scent of tandoori chicken coming from the kitchen. The scent filled his brain with memories, of evenings with his grandparents in India every summer, of happy family dinners back when there was such a thing, of the last time he’d come home to the same smell. That last memory wasn’t a good one; what followed had been a night laden with guilt and manipulation, tied up with the ribbon of him finally giving in: telling Isabella that he’d talk to his producer about her newest screenplay just to get her to stop bothering him about it. And that may have been the first time it happened, but it wasn’t the last.

It was that memory that was at the forefront of his mind as he quietly closed the door behind him, hanging his briefcase and his coat from the hooks on the wall near the door. When the door clicked shut, the woman at the stove turned to him, her smile turned up to a million watts. He couldn’t help but fall in love with her all over again anytime she did that. His defenses lowered the slightest bit as she beckoned him over with a wooden spoon.

“Hey! You’re just in time, dinner’s almost ready.” Grace said, pulling him in for a quick kiss hello before turning her attention back to the stove.

Ajay took a deep breath as he sat down, trying desperately to control his thoughts. Come on, he told himself, this is Grace. You know she wouldn’t do anything to hurt you. Still, he had a hard time keeping the uneasiness off his face, and he knew it showed.

Grace handed him a plate of the chicken, neatly arranged on a bed of basmati with a lemon wedge garnish. He took it over to their breakfast bar and she joined him soon after.

“Thank you,” Ajay started, painfully aware that he sounded less than grateful. “But I thought I was the chef in this relationship?”

Grace smiled. “You’re the chef because you’re way better at this than I am. But I just wanted to do something nice for you.”

Her words echoed through Ajay’s memory, honing in on those nights years ago where he’d came home to sense the guilt-tripping, of his ex-girlfriend laying it on thick with pleas and even threats, where he’d realized too late that she didn’t love him, that she was just using him. As much as he tried to resist, he couldn’t help but draw connections between that all those years ago and this now. He knew it wasn’t fair, but he automatically closed himself off to Grace. And she definitely noticed.

Her face fell. “Did I do something wrong?”

He wanted so badly to say no, to cast this off, to stop worrying her and to enjoy the nice dinner she’d made for him. But he couldn’t. He laid down his fork as gently as he could manage, then spoke directly to her in a quiet voice.

“Grace, why did you make this for me?”

Grace blinked, clearly confused, but she answered him.

“I knew the show you’re directing has been stressing you out, and I wanted to treat you to something.”

That hit Ajay harder than anything else, and he was pulled back through his own memories.

“I just wanted to do something nice for you, Ajay. Why do you always question me?”

“Oh, so you’re going to tell me you don’t have ulterior motives for this one? What makes it different from all the other ones, Bella? What do you want from me?”

“I want to treat you to something! Stop being so fucking paranoid all the time. I know the show you’re directing is kicking your ass, and I wanted to be nice. Guess I won’t ever do that again.”

“Just… just tell me what you want,” Ajay said tiredly, “And you know I’ll give it to you. We don’t have to go through this every time.”

“...Fine,” Isabella relented, grabbing a thick manuscript from the table and handing it to him. “Give this to your producer.”

Ajay dropped the manuscript on the counter.

“What if I say no?”

“What?” Isabella demanded, immediately going hostile.

“What if I say no? Give it to her yourself, I’m tired of being your go-between. I’m tired of you using me.”

Isabella opened her mouth to yell, but thought better of it and stepped back. She softened, walking over to Ajay and putting her hand on his cheek, gently turning his head to face her.

“Baby, you know I can’t do this without you… You’re all I’ve got.”

Ajay bit his lip. He already knew he was going to give in. He always did, eventually.

“What do you want?” Ajay asked Grace, almost involuntarily. Grace looked taken aback, even a little hurt as she rushed to reassure him.

“I don’t want anything,” she promised him, but Ajay’s brain wasn’t letting him believe her. He folded up his unused napkin and tucked it under his fork, then got off the stool.

“Thank you for cooking, but I’m not hungry. I’m just tired, I think I’m going to go to bed now.”

“What?”

“I’m tired. Goodnight, Grace.”

“Ajay, what-”

She was cut off when Ajay closed the bedroom door behind him.

Perplexed and hurt, Grace soon broke out of her trance and started cleaning up. She put plastic wrap over the two untouched plates and stuck them in the refrigerator, then got to work scrubbing the cookware that she’d used to make the meal. She was concerned for her boyfriend. Ajay had never acted so weird like this, it was extremely out of character. She’d never cooked for him before, so maybe he was just caught off guard? She wished she knew what was going through his head.

After a few minutes of letting herself feel hurt and angry, Grace made herself see reason. Whenever Ajay had a tough day, he always needed time to think. That was just how he was. She was sure that he would come around after taking some time alone, and that he’d explain to her what was going on.

Grace collapsed on their couch and switched on a random Disney movie, careful to keep the volume down in case Ajay actually was asleep. But true to her expectation, just as the credits started to roll on Mulan, Ajay emerged from the bedroom and silently sat next to her. She switched off the TV and took the hand he offered her, waiting patiently for him to speak.

“I’m sorry, Grace,” he said, voice quiet with shame. He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“What was that?” she asked, equally as softly. He took a deep breath and ran his free hand over his face.

“Isabella…,” he started, “Whenever she thought I was mad at her, or wanted me to do something for her, she’d make me dinner. And she was really good at manipulating me, and she’d say all the things that I wanted to hear, like ‘I just wanted to do something nice for you’. I’m sorry I flipped out on you. I shouldn’t have.”

“No, I guess not,” Grace responded, choosing her words carefully, “but I understand. You can’t always control your mind.”

“I know,” Ajay said angrily, “but I shouldn’t treat you like that! You’ve never asked me for any favors like that and you’d never do anything to hurt me and I love you too much to be treating you like that.” His free hand curled into a fist.

“Ajay, stop,” Grace said. “This stuff happens to everybody. And you explained what happened and you apologized and you meant your apology, and I forgive you. Really.”

Ajay finally turned to look at her, his eyes a little clouded. “You do?”

“Of course I do. It was a moment of weakness, and I know you won’t do it again.”

“Thank you.”

Grace pulled him in for a soft kiss, cupping his cheek. He held on to her tightly in return. WHen they separated, he shot Grace a tentative smile that she returned full force. She stood up from the couch and held out a hand to him.

“Want to finish our dinner? I can heat it back up.”

“I’d love that.”

After quickly warming up the plates of tandoori chicken in the microwave, Grace joined Ajay again at the breakfast bar as he dug enthusiastically into his dinner.

“Wow, Grace, this is really good. How did you know how to make it? Most online recipes don’t get the spices quite right.”

Grace blushed and involuntarily let out a giggle. “I, well… I actually called your mom to ask how to make it right. I didn’t want to screw it up.”

“That explains this text I got, then,” he laughed, opening his phone to a perplexing conversation he’d had earlier with his mother. Grace studied the messages, written in Hindi, over his shoulder.

“Okay, let me figure this out. So she just texted you today and said… what’s that letter? She said ‘you know’, then something else, then i know that’s ‘your girlfriend’ so that must be about me, oh and then there’s ‘amazing,’ wow, okay, then that word there is… ‘marry?’”

“Yeah. Hey, you’re getting pretty good at that!”

“Thanks, my boyfriend’s teaching me.”

“He must be a really good teacher,” Ajay teased.

“He is. Wait, what did you say in response to that text?” Grace squinted at Ajay’s response, trying to pick out vocabulary the same way she did with his mother’s text, but Ajay flipped his phone over before she could read it.

“I actually have been meaning to talk to you about that.”

“About… learning Hindi? Are you tired of teaching me? That’s fine, I can always go take a class or get some books, or-”

“No,” he cut her off. “About getting married.”

“Oh.”

Silence spread through their apartment.

“Could we, uh…” Grace trailed off.

“Yes?”

“Could we move to the couch? My back’s starting to hurt.”

Ajay was taken aback by the unexpected response.

“Um, yes, of course.”

They moved to the couch, Grace still silent.

“I guess I should’ve started by asking if that’s something you want,” Ajay pushed, trying to break the agonizing silence.

“No, no, it’s not that. You know I just need a second with important stuff like this, because I really wanna think about it seriously and respond with the right words. Give me a second to sort through my thoughts, okay?”

Ajay, his heart pounding painfully against his ribs, nodded. He tried not to let his leg shake too much, lest it give away his nervousness. It wasn’t even a minute before Grace looked back up at him, grinning beautifully, but it felt like an eternity to him.

“Ajay, as long as it’s something you want too, I’d love to get married.” She took his hands.

“It is something I want. Wait, really?” he responded, her words only seeming to get fully through to him after the first sentence.

She giggled again, a soft pink blush covering her cheeks. “Yeah, really.”

Ajay smiled a huge, gorgeous smile and Grace was enchanted until the full meaning of the situation hit her.

“Wait, was that just… did you just propose to me?” she asked, a little discombobulated.

“Oh, no! That wasn't it! I have plans. I will, in the near future, but I still want to surprise you with it as much as I can.”

“Alright,” she grinned, biting her bottom lip. “I’ll be waiting.”

Ajay pulled her into his lap and kissed her deeply, his hands finding their way down her back to pull her against him. Grace melted into the embrace, matching his fervor as she kissed him back. She ran a hand through his thick hair, and everything was right with the world again.