#(I might actually buy the second one at some point; maybe; but yeah; I ADORE those cutscenes)

[heloflor]

Minor spoilers for a cutscene in Mario + Rabbids DLC The Last Spark Hunter :

Obsessed with the way Peach is looking at Bowser here. IT’S SO SOFT ! SHE KNOWS UNDERNEATH ALL THE RAGE AND STUBBORNNESS IS A SOFTIE WHO JUST WANTS TO BE LOVED !

No but seriously, this is probably one of the softest gazes Peach has ever given to anyone, and the fact that it’s for Bowser of all people makes it both adorable and hilarious. Either Peach is literally the kindest most forgiving soul out there, or Bowser really isn’t as bad with her as he pretends to be despite his despicable actions. Or both.

(Footage link)

[senditcolton]

call my bluff... call me babe (3)

CHAPTER THREE

summary - Madeleine moves into her new apartment and makes a friend... or maybe two, or three, or five. 

word count - 5k

warnings - marijuana use

a/n - hello friends! this is a longer chapter because we are introducing some new characters, some of which will become very important in later plot points. and yes, we are now getting into the story! so excited to continue to bring you on Maddie and Tyson’s journey. (also keep your eye out for a bonus chapter coming out later today!) 

previous part ~ playlist ~ series masterlist ~ join the taglist ~ bonus! ~ next part 

The thud of the last carboard box hitting the wooden floors echoes around the empty apartment. Madeleine lets out a sigh, wiping the sweat off of her brow as she looks around her new place.

The walls were still barren and the only items taking up space as of right now were the multitude of boxes that Madeline transported for miles, across state and even country lines, shoved in the back of her powder blue ’69 Bronco. The moving truck was coming later that day but even now, in the somewhat empty apartment, Madeleine can’t help but feel a spark of hopefulness in her chest.

It was a new city, a new job, a new start. And the golden September sunlight filtering in through the blinds made her spirits lift even more.

The sound of the Toploader’s “Dancing in the Moonlight” emanates from Madeleines phone, alerting her to a call from Tyson. She wanders over to the kitchen counter where she left it and answers.

“Hey Tyson.”

“Madeleine, what’s the number of your apartment? I just pulled into the parking lot.”

“Apartment 517. You have to buzz me to get into the building but after that, you should be able to take the elevator right up.”

“Awesome. See you soon.”

“Sounds good,” Madeleine replies, hearing the short succession of beeps which signaled that the call had been disconnected. She hasn’t even set her phone completely down when the buzzer to her apartment sounded. Quickly, she makes her way across the apartment to the pad by the front door, hitting the unlock button before she turns her attention back to the mess of boxes behind her.

Madeleine manages to sort the boxes into little collectives corresponding with their respective rooms – bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen/living – when she hears a knock on her door. Not containing her excitement, she practically bounds over to her front door before swinging it open to see Tyson standing on the threshold with a bouquet of flowers cradled in his arms.

There it was again, the fluttering in her heart as she watches Tyson’s smile brighten impossibly more at the sight of her in front of him. It is barely a second before they launch into each other’s arms, embracing and smiling. Madeleine can feel the tickle of the delicate flower petals that Tyson still had clutched in his hands against her arm.

Finally, they release each other and Madeleine steps back.

“Welcome! To ‘Chez Madeleine’,” she says with a dramatic flourish of her arm, welcoming Tyson to take a few steps into the new place she called home.

“Pretty snazzy Maddie,” Tyson says, walking over the threshold and taking in the apartment. “You got a balcony?”

“Yeah, I lucked out on that one,” Madeleine says, following Tyson. “I don’t have any outdoor furniture though so it might just be storage or something for right now.”

“You could buy a hammock.”

“And what would I do with a hammock?”

“I don’t know. Relax, listen to music, read. Just a few ideas.”

“Play ukulele?” she asks, her voice light, the teasing evident and Madeleine can’t help but laugh at the blush that lights up Tyson’s cheeks.

“I wish I never told you about that,” he mutters.

“Come on, Tyson. I think it’s pretty adorable.”

“Oh, so you think I’m adorable?” he asks, now his turn to tease her.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Madeleine says. “Besides, you’re not here for me to inflate your ego.”

“Actually, that’s exactly why I’m here: say hi, have you call me adorable. Now I’m leaving.”

“Ha, ha, very funny.”

“What do you need help with?” Tyson asks, placing the bouquet of flowers down on the kitchen counter, along with the small backpack that was slung over his shoulder.

“Honestly, not much right now,” Madeleine replies, staring at the assortment of boxes. “The moving truck with my furniture should be coming soon and that’s really what I need help with. But since it’s not here yet, I’m not sure what to do.”

“Well, what do you have done right now?”

“These are all the boxes that I could fit in my car. And I’ve organized them to where they go.”

“Well, how about we move the boxes into the correct rooms, free up some space, and then go room by room and unpack as much as we can?”

“That sounds perfect.”

They both get to work, Madeleine directing Tyson to each room in the apartment, inadvertently giving him a tour of her new place in the process. Tyson performs his duty diligently, making no complaint as he lifts box after box and carries it to the corresponding room. While doing this, they talk, telling each other about the trip to Colorado – Madeleine from her old apartment in Calgary, Tyson from his house in Edmonton.

“You by far had it worse when it comes to travel,” Tyson says, reappearing from the bedroom after dropping off the last box. “Border crossing in your car with boxes piled in the back? Did you have any trouble?”

“No,” Madeleine replies, opening the kitchen cabinets, scoping out the space. “I mean, the agents wanted to know exactly what I was doing, where I was going. You know, a girl travelling alone with a decent amount of boxes in the back of her car. But I explained. I also was thinking ‘if you all want to search my car, you better put everything back where you found it’.”

“And your furniture?”

“The moving truck should be here soon. But it’s just one of those portable storage cube things, so we’re going to have to unpack it by ourselves.”

“By us, you mean me?”

“Hey, I’ll help!” Madeleine says, spinning to face a jovial Tyson, grinning at her in that boyish way. “But, I mean, you are the big strong hockey player so you might have to do some heavy lifting,” Madeleine continues, her teasing tone matching Tyson’s expression.

“What if I invite more hockey players?”

Madeleine’s eyebrows furrow at Tyson’s reply.

“You mean… your teammates?”

“Yeah, who else?” Tyson chirps, forcing Madeleine to sigh and shoot him at look that screamed ‘you know what I mean’. He gives her a small laugh before continuing. “Nah, a few them are already here in Colorado and I mean, I figured that you’d be meeting them eventually.”

“What do you mean ‘I would meet them eventually?’”

“C’mon Madeleine. You’d have to know I’d be bringing you to team events as my plus-one.”

“Oh, you don’t have any other girl to bring with you?” Madeleine teases.

“No one as special as you,” Tyson explains, turning away from her and digging into one of the boxes labelled kitchen. His casualness concerning their… friendship causes Madeleine to pause.

Was he really that lonely here? Did he really have no one else?

Did he really miss her that much?

Madeleine watches him as he begins to unpack one box and moves about her kitchen, only half-listening to him question which cabinet she wanted the plates in. Tyson notices her lack of response and spins to face her, the stack of pale peach plates held in his grasp. His head tilts, a response to Madeleine’s pensive stare.

“What is it?” he asks.

There is no good response to that question. The truth was unthinkable; their friendship, while rekindled, was still fragile. They were still finding their way back to each other. She didn’t want to place weight on a statement that might have none. But Madeleine couldn’t outright lie to him either.

So instead, she placed her questions about their relationship onto a different one.

“Do you think they’ll like me?”

She can see it takes a minute for Tyson to register that she is referring to his teammates. But when he does, Tyson’s puzzled expression softens. He puts the dishes down onto the counter before moving over to Madeleine, placing his warm hands on her shoulders.

“Hey, they’re gonna love you. I think it’s impossible for anyone not to,” he replies, the sincerity in his voice warming Madeleine to the core, more than the gold afternoon sunlight.

“Okay Tyson. Invite your friends over,” Madeleine says, giving him approval for his earlier request and Tyson smiles at her before he peels away, grabbing his phone and sending a text to what Madeleine could only assume was a team group-chat.

“I have no idea who will show up. I hope at least you get to meet JT,” Tyson says, placing his phone in his back pocket as he wanders back into the kitchen area. Picking up the dishes once more, he turns towards her again before repeating: “Now, which cabinet do you want your dishes?”

Madeleine sighs, walking past Tyson and swinging open a random cabinet drawer and points into the shelves inside with a playfully exasperated point, one which Tyson takes in stride. He only shoots Madeleine another smirk as they both turn to the rest of the boxes resting on the countertops.

The two of them continue to work, the boxes slowly unpacked and the items that could be put away placed in their proper spots. About halfway through, Madeleine gets a call from the moving company, letting her know that her items were out front. Both she and Tyson venture down to figure out a gameplan, Madeleine’s new apartment keys firmly in her grasp. After looking at the work that needed to be done, Tyson suggests that they carry up as many items as they can by themselves and figure out the rest when the boys get there.

Madeleine and Tyson manage to carry up chairs, her television, coffee table, a few floor lamps, the boxes of her clothes, and set to work on bringing up the small dining table.

“You got it?”

“Will this even fit in the elevator?”

“It’s not that big Madeleine,” Tyson laughs, holding one edge of the table while she settles on the opposite end.

“Well, listen, I don’t know these things!”

“You just don’t want to have to carry it up five flights of stairs.”

“Do you?” Madeleine asks, her eyebrows raising in challenge. There is a pause before Tyson sighs.

“You got me there. Now, lift!”

The two of them manage to shuffle the table into the building and just barely manage to make it fit in the elevator – but only one of them ride up with it.

“Can you drag it to your apartment yourself?” Tyson asks, leaning over the wood to peek his head into the elevator in order to talk to Madeleine who was shoved into the far corner.

“I should be able to,” she replies. “Drag might be the operative word but yeah, I’ll manage.”

“Give me your keys. That way I can bring up a few more things and meet you up there.”

Madeleine wordlessly hands off her keychain to Tyson, before he removes himself from the elevator and the metal doors close. As the elevator starts to rise, Maddie can’t help but smile at the day so far. It was nice, especially having Tyson by her side. It made moving to a brand-new city a little more bearable; knowing there was someone there for her.

Her thoughts are interrupted by the chime of the elevator stopping at her floor and that’s when she realizes that she is in a terrible position to even attempt to move the table out of the elevator. She’s about to leap onto the table in order to exit the elevator so she can pull it into the hallway when the doors swing open and she sees another woman standing at the elevator’s threshold.

“I’m so sorry, I did not think this through,” she explains to the brunette standing in the doorway, the confused look on her features.

“Do you need help?” the woman asks, her puzzled expression fading into one that was nothing if not amused which Maddie figured was better than angry.

“I can manage,” Madeleine says, once again readying herself to jump on the table before the brunette holds out her hand.

“It’s no trouble, really,” she says and before Maddie can say anything in rebuttal, the woman has grabbed the side of the table closest to her and starts to pull it out of the elevator. It takes a moment for Maddie to react, before she squeezes her way on the opposite side and lifts the table, allowing it to be maneuvered more easily.

Once it has fully cleared the doorway of the elevator, Madeleine sets the table down with a sigh before turning to the woman.

“Thank you.”

“Not done yet,” she replies, her hands not moving from the edge. “Where are we taking this?” Another pause happens as Maddie processes the question and once she does, she starts to stutter out a reply.

“Oh, no, you don’t have to. I’ve – I’ve already been enough of a nuisance to you.”

“Really, it’s okay. I’m happy to help. It’d probably be faster with the two of us than just you pushing it down the hallway.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

“Alright, it’s 517.”

Together, they effortlessly lift the table and bring it down the winding hallways until they reach Madeleine’s front door.

“Thank you again.”

“Anytime,” the woman says before holding out her hand. “I’m Ashley.”

“Madeleine,” she replies, shaking Ashley’s hand.

“So, are you going to school at DU?”

“No, I’m actually working there,” Madeleine explains.

“Oh, no way. I work there too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I teach a few poetry courses.”

“You’re a professor?” Madeleine asks, not bothering to hide the shock that paints her voice as she looks Ashley up and down. She couldn’t be more than a few years older than Maddie and yet as Madeleine takes in more of her outfit, she notices the polished professional look and large laptop bag thrown over Ashley’s shoulder.

“Well, professor is a nice word. In reality, I’m more of an interim until they find someone to actually fill the role,” Ashley explains with a dry laugh. “But hey, we all got to start somewhere right? Speaking of which, I have to jet. Have a few things to get finished before the semester starts on Monday. I’ll see you around campus, Madeleine.”

Ashley turns and starts to make her way back down the hall. She’s almost out of sight before Madeleine snaps out of the haze that the random turn of events caused.

“I work at the library,” she shouts down the hall to Ashley, causing her to glance back at her.

“503,” Ashley calls back in reply and it takes a minute for Madeleine to register that that was Ashley’s apartment number; a simple invitation before she disappears from sight. Madeleine takes a moment, another smile creeping onto her face.

Did she just make a friend?

Madeleine resets with a quick shake of her head. Maybe Ashley would be a friend but right now, she was just a kind stranger that helped Maddie carry a table that she still had to get the rest of the way into her apartment. After swinging open the unlocked door, Maddie slides the table across the wooden floors into the living area.

She only just collapsed into one of the chairs her and Tyson brought up earlier when Tyson comes walking in, two picture frames held under his arms.

“Who was that woman that I just met stepping out of the elevator? She knew your name and somehow knew I was helping you move in.”

“Oh, that was probably Ashley,” Madeleine explains and when the bewildered expression doesn’t disappear from Tyson’s face, she laughs. “I only just met her. She helped me carry the table.”

“Well look at you – making friends already,” Tyson coos.

“Shush,” she chuckles in reply. “How are we looking down there?”

“Pretty good. It’s really just the big items left like the parts of your bedframe, sofa, and mattress.”

“Ugh, the mattress is going to be a pain,” Madeleine sighs, collapsing forward on the table, her face buried in her arms.

“We’ll worry about it later. There’s still a few small things but I can bring those up myself if you want to take a break.”

“Could you? I want to go through the place and make a list of things I’m going to have to go out and buy.”

“Sure thing,” Tyson says, patting his pocket to make sure he still has the keys before he disappears again. Madeleine sighs before lifting herself up from the chair and starts to wander around the apartment, the notes app in her phone open and two separate lists being created: one for groceries and one for every day apartment items. And as she wandered, the lists grew and the anxiety started.

If she was being honest with herself, this reaction was a long time coming; big stressful moments like these always got to Madeleine. They had since she was a kid. But now, realizing how much work she had already put into this move and how much work there was still left to do, it was slowly starting to become overwhelming.

So overwhelming that she doesn’t hear Tyson come in, doesn’t even register his presence until his hands touch her biceps, a touch which startles her, makes her spin to face him as Tyson quickly pulls his hands back.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asks, brown eyes scanning over her face, taking in her shallow heaves of breath and, most heartbreakingly of all, the slight glimmer of tears in the corner of her eyes.

“It’s – it’s just a lot,” Madeleine tries to explain, the waves of stress bringing on a fresh bought of homesickness. For what home, she wasn’t sure. Calgary? Kelowna? Canada? “I just… I just want this to be great.”

“Hey, it’s going to be awesome,” Tyson replies, his hands returning to their spot in her biceps. “I mean, look: you’ve got an amazing job, a fantastic apartment, and you already made a friend!”

His bright voice and attempt to inject some joy causes Maddie to laugh, the sound a little choked but made Tyson smile nonetheless.

“I don’t know if you’d call Ashley a friend. I barely know her.”

“Still, you’re going to be fine. And hey, I’m always here for you if you need it, okay?”

Madeleine glances up, her eyes connecting to Tyson’s and she knows that what he said is true. Sometimes it still feels odd to say that, since they had previously gone years without talking, but now…

There was something now that felt different than before.

After a small sniffle, her hand coming to wipe away the few teardrops that had fallen, before Madeleine nods her head, a smile appearing on her face.

“Okay,” she whispers, the grin that she always loved breaking out on Tyson’s face.

“Do you know what this calls for?” Tyson asks. Madeleine gives a negatory shake of her head. “A dance break,” he says, his voice so authoritative, a strong contrast to his words.

“What?” Madeleine laughs but doesn’t get much of a response as Tyson pulls away from her, rummaging in the small backpack he brought before he removes a small speaker from its interior. It takes another few minutes for his phone to connect and him to scroll before Madeleine hears the voice of Taylor Swift pour from the device.

I promise that you’ll never find another like me.

Madeleine laughs again as Tyson turns back towards her, his shoulders bouncing to the drum line rhythm.

“Really?”

“Don’t lie to me Maddie. I know you’ve been listening to her new album obsessively since it came out.”

Madeleine can’t retort because he was right. The album had only been out for maybe three weeks and she already knew all of the words to every song. Tyson is still bouncing along to the music, attempting to hit the falsetto notes in the chorus causing Madeleine to laugh harder before she finally joins in, singing along and moving to melody.

They continue to laugh and sing and dance in the kitchen, the half put together apartment around them disappearing. The song hits the bridge and her and Tyson fall into the call and response of the lyrics.

“Girl, there ain’t no I in ‘team’,” Tyson sings.

“But you know there is a ‘me’,” Madeleine responds.

“And you can’t spell ‘awesome’ without ‘me’,” they both yell at the top of their lungs. “I promise that you’ll never find another like me!”

As the final chorus hits, Tyson surges forward, picking Madeleine up and spinning her around, causing shrieks of laughter to fall from her lips. Tyson continues to twirl around, the room around them blurring forcing Madeleine to close her eyes, her laughter never ceasing. That is, until an unfamiliar voice breaks through the noise.

“Are we interrupting?”

Madeleine is almost thrown by the speed at which Tyson puts her back on the solid floor before gripping her hips to turn her about-face. It takes a few seconds for her to shake off the dizziness before she registers the sight of five strangers standing in front of her.

“We can just go and come back later if you two are in the middle of something.” It was the redhead that had spoke, a smirk on his face as his eyes bounce between Tyson and Madeleine.

“Shut up JT,” Tyson says and Madeleine doesn’t have to see him to know that a light dusting of pink was making an appearance on his cheeks.

“JT?” Madeleine asks, finally finding her voice. “You’re Tyson’s friend. It’s nice to finally meet you,” she continues, composing herself and extending her hand to the redhead.

“Nice to meet you too,” JT replies. “Sorry about just barging in. We tried knocking but there was no response.”

“Oh, yeah… sorry about that,” she says, a blush of her own flooding her cheeks.

“No worries. Tyson, aren’t you going to introduce us?” JT asks, gaze jumping back to Tyson.

“Yeah. Right,” Tyson speaks, walking up to linger by Madeleine’s side before continuing. “Guys, this is Madeleine. Madeleine, these are the guys. Nate, Cale, Gravy, Burky, and of course JT,” he says, gesturing to the two blondes first before moving to the tallest of the bunch, and then to the curly haired boy.

“Gravy? And Burky?” Madeleine questions, her eyebrows raising at what she assumed were the hockey nicknames that were attached to them.

“Ryan,” the tallest says, holding out his own hand towards Madeleine, which she accepts, trying not to falter at how his hand basically engulfs hers.

“Andre,” the other mimics, giving a small wave.

“Andre is actually new on the team this year,” Tyson explains to Madeleine causing her to smile in his direction.

“Well, I guess this will be a bonding experience for the both of us then.”

Andre laughs at her words which lets Madeleine relax a little bit more, happy to make a good first impression.

“So, what’s the gameplan?”

It is Nate that speaks this time and out of habit, Madeleine turns to Tyson only to see his eyes fixed on her. It takes that for her to realize that she was technically the one in charge here since it was her apartment and her stuff.

“Oh, um, well it’s only a few big items left so… how about we bring the rest of the stuff up and then start assembly.”

“That works,” Tyson says. “I still have your keys so the guys and I will start to bring everything upstairs.”

“Perfect! Could you start with the bedframe? I’d like to not sleep on the floor tonight,” Madeleine jokes, a few more chuckles drawn from the boys around her.

“Will do. Let’s go boys.”

Madeleine watches as they all exit in a group out of her apartment, the beginnings of a conversation echoing down the hallways before fading and she was left with just Taylors voice singing about paper rings. She quickly turns towards Tyson’s phone turning down the volume before reorienting herself to the tasks ahead.

It’s Andre and Nate that return first and they bring part of her bedframe into the bedroom, followed quickly by the rest of the pieces brought up by the others and before Madeleine really knew it, all of her furniture was moved into the apartment.

The rest of the day devolves into laughter and stories all while attempting to get work done. It manages to go decently well, a few of them breaking off into small teams to get more things done; Nate in charge of hanging all her pictures because he is ‘pretty meticulous’ –

“Don’t you mean anal?”

“Shut up Josty.”

– Ryan getting to work on unpacking and organizing her books onto the bookshelf, Cale putting her sheets on her bed, both pieces of furniture assembled by Tyson and JT. Madeleine almost found herself put into a more administrative role, answering questions and providing guidance. But soon, she hated feeling like she wasn’t doing anything so she manages to take some time to hang and organize her closet and bathroom. After closing the last dresser drawer, she wanders into the living room where all the guys were now sitting, trying to put together her couch.

“Out of all the things that we needed to build, I didn’t think the sofa would be the most difficult,” Tyson grumbles, his head practically buried in the instructions.

“Eh, if it doesn’t get done, I can figure it out tomorrow,” Madeleine says, sitting down on the plush rug next to Andre.

“Yeah, besides, pizza’s almost here,” Ryan says.

“Pizza?”

“Yeah, while you were in the bedroom, we ordered a few pizzas for dinner,” Cale explained to Maddie.

“Ugh, that’s such a smart idea. I don’t think I’ve eaten anything since early this afternoon,” Madeleine sighs, leaning back onto the couch cushion behind her.

“Tyson said you liked pineapple on pizza?” Andre asked.

“It’s a Canadian thing.”

“It is not,” Tyson says, exasperated because he and Maddie have had this argument since they were kids. “Madeleine, you’re talking to a room full of Canadians, with the exception of Burky and JT and you are the sole pineapple on pizza lover.”

“Well then, you guys aren’t Canadian enough, I don’t know what to tell you,” she playfully retorts, a chorus of oohs going up around her.

Eventually, the pizza arrives and Madeleine and boys don’t bother to move from the rug, arranging themselves haphazardly around living room before eating. Madeleine manages to convince Andre to try a slice of pizza and he likes it which makes Maddie let out a triumphant shriek, declaring that Burky is more Canadian than the rest of them. The pizza is consumed and as Madeleine takes a look around the apartment, she is slightly shocked to see that it has almost entirely come together.

“Hey, thanks you guys, for doing this,” she says, turning to look at the hockey players still lounging on the floor. “You really didn’t have to.”

“It was no problem,” Cale says, shooting her a soft smile.

“Yeah, it was nice to be focusing on something other than hockey and the seasons start,” Ryan adds.

“Want to lose focus more?” JT asks and everyone’s head turns to him. The smirk that Madeleine had come to recognize as commonplace was once again plastered on his face as he pulls a small circular object out of his pocket followed closely by a thin package. It took Madeleine a split second to recognize the grinder and rolling papers dangling from JT’s fingers.

“Really JT?” Nate asks.

“What? I thought a stressful move was the perfect time for a little smoke,” JT replies oh so casually. “But it’s entirely up to you Madeleine. It’s your place.”

Maddie takes a pause, thinking it over. She only smoked a few times in college, mostly with Logan huddled up in dorm rooms with the smoke detector covered by a toque and a towel shoved against the door. But she wouldn’t deny that she did like it.

“I could go for a joint or two,” she says. JT just hits her with that mischievous grin before he is lifting himself up to move to the coffee table that was placed off to the side. Madeleine watches as Tyson follows suit, wandering over to help JT, causing Maddie to furrow her brow.

“Tyson, you smoke?”

“Yeah,” he mindlessly replies, his focused trained on the rolling paper between his fingers.

“What would Mama Jost think?” Madeleine hums, her voice still light.

“Hey, there are a few things that we don’t tell her,” Tyson says, his own tone teasing as he shoots a warning glare in her direction.

Madeleine sighs and continues to watch JT and Tyson work. It isn’t long before Tyson hands her a perfectly rolled joint, pressing a small lighter into her palm, allowing Madeleine to take the first hit. She lights up, inhaling the smoke before holding it out wordlessly, only for Ryan to reach out, his elegant fingers plucking the joint from her.

JT finishes off his joint and lights it before passing it to Cale and Tyson rolls a second, taking a hit himself and hands it off. The seven of them relax back, the three joints being passed between all of them, the smoke dancing around the room. During the prep time, Nate thankfully had the forethought to crack open the balcony door, the fresh air breezing in.

The smoke calms Madeleine even more and she willingly lets the high carry her. Time passes and it isn’t long until Madeleine finds herself stretched across the rug, her legs thrown over Cale’s lap and her head perched on one of Nathan’s muscular thighs. It’s hard to stop the tingles from running down her spine as Nate runs a hand through her hair as he passes her the joint, which she gladly takes.

She inhales more of the smoke, the wispy tendrils falling from her lips as she wordlessly hands the joint over towards Burky who is sitting to the side. Madeleine’s eyes fall close as a sigh escapes her, getting lost in the moment.

This was happiness. Smoking with people she just met but who she knew would easily become friends, lounging in her new apartment. This was peace.

This was home.

taglist: @starjoyyy @fallinallincurls @kenna-thomson​ 

[kawia-renka]

Toriel, Asriel, Frisk, Chara, Sans and Papyrus with a reader who can bake delicious desserts

❝ Right! ...so uh, I changed a couple of things about this request: 1- My character limit is 6, I removed Asgore. 2- I don't write romantic headcanons for any of these characters, I made then platonic instead.

I hope you're alright with these changes ^v^ ❞

Requested by: @authorrikey15

• Oh, well isn't that wonderful!

• Toriel, as we all know, bakes amazing cinnamon-butterscotch pies. She'll share the recipe with you, of course!

• She's happy to have another person who enjoys baking, it's always nice to have a helping hand in the kitchen.

• Oh yeah, she's most definitely inviting you to do some baking together. Watch out for Chara though, they'll inhale any dessert in mere seconds.

• Amidst the 'chaos' of Frisk and Chara, Asriel is the one kid that actually stays calm and doesn't jump at you with wanting to help you bake.

• He just stays on the side and waits. Once Frisk and Chara leave, or are busy with something, he walks up to you and asks if you need help.

• He's good or, at least, alright with most things relates to cooking. His mom taught him most of it!

• So, in conclusion, Asriel will just help you in the kitchen or anything else you'd need him to.

• whoa, another another one of Frisk' friends, who can make delicious food? How many bakers are there?!

• At this point, Frisk is already well acquainted with the process of baking a cake pie.

• They would still like to help however! There's so much to learn, so many new recipes to try out and desserts to discover.

• Frisk does not only help you with baking, they also take care of buying ingredients.

• Now, you may be wondering how a small human child can afford to buy many baking/cooking ingredients, and so often! The answer is, they've got connections.

like, master chef Papyrus and his cooking teacher Undyne, the king and queen of the underground, a baking spider, a

• Umm, yes??

• You're so cool, and awesome.. Can Chara have another one of your desserts now?

• Just kidding, well sorta. Chara obviously adores your baking skills, they're also your taste tester now.

• They can help with baking. But, being honest, they're much more of a fan of the eating section, rather than creating it.

• .... Can, skeletons eat food?? Like, human food?

• ... eh

• So, Sans. I really don't think he'll care all that much about flavor and stuff. Man drinks ketchup. But, he can still appreciate the effort you put into baking.

• Since it's an interest of yours and all that, and a nice one at that.

• Oh, maybe you could join Undyne and Papyrus on their extra-private, one-on-one training?

• Don't worry, it's fun :)

• WOWIE

• Papyrus is a master chef himself, isn't it great that his friend is one as well? Oh, actually! What if you joined him and Undyne on their cooking lessons? I'm sure she'll be happy to have another person joining :D

• If you do decide to join him on it, buckle up. Because it might end in the same way as the cooking lesson with Frisk.. -

• He's just happy to have another person he can share his hobby with.

[taiblogcomics]

This Old Treehouse

Hey there, wet bag of mayonnaise. Well, our backlog pile is dwindling! I know I said we'll have MLP comics to last into the new year, but this is the last of the main series that I've got for now! Everything else is gonna be one-shots and spinoffs! I hope that's okay! If it's not, too bad, that's just how it is! Deal with it!

Here's the cover!

Hey, it's more Izzy! You guys like Izzy, right? She's the best thing out of G5. That's why we're giving her two issues in a row! In fact, both are about her crafting tendancies as well. Once again, that's really all there is to say about it! I like MLP and all, but a lot of the time, the covers don't give me a lot to work with. Basically it boils down to "Is your favourite character on the cover? Maybe buy this issue!" And I mean, I guess that works for consumers, but us critics need more material than that~

We open in Bridlewood, which is a rare sight in one of these comics. Just like FiM starting in Ponyville, you kind of expect G5 comics to start in Maretime Bay. So I guess Izzy is keeping a second home in Bridlewood, even though she also lives at the Brighthouse. Like, I expect Zipp and Pipp to be second-home-owning bougies, but Izzy literally lives in a tree. Maybe the Brighthouse is her second home, but either way the point stands. Speaking of second houses, though, the string decoration she's trying to hang snaps, and goes flying into an abandoned treehouse nearby.

Man, that string must've had some serious tension, because it launches, like, a hundred feet or more. Maybe her magic increased the elasticity or something. Either way, she mad, and she goes to try and retrieve it. She gets a big spook inside the abandoned treehouse by a huge shadowy figure, but of course it turns out to be a bunch of animals. The animals flee once revealed, but them smashing through the boarded-up window gives her the opportunity to examine her surroundings. Clearly Izzy is not satisfied with how much property she owns, and promptly decides to fix this place up for her friends as well.

And I do mean "for", not "with". She intends the whole treehouse to be a surprise, scavenging some items from the alleys of Maretime Bay, narrowly avoiding Zipp in the process. She spends all day on it, until she even falls asleep in the treehouse. The animals watch her all night, like adorable voyeurs. She wakes up marveling at how nice the place looks, and invites her friends to come over and see. And in spite of the rainy weather, they drop whatever they were doing and come all the way out to Bridlewood to see her surprise.

It turns into a surprise for her as well, as when she opens the door to the treehouse again, all the cushions and decorations have been ripped up and smashed. Just general devastation. Perhaps these adorable animals running around the place are to blame? Izzy's in tears, big disappointed that forest critters would be so hateful to her art. Well, Hitch is here now, so why doesn't he just… ask them? You know, use that special power that apparently only he has for whatever reason? Yeah, let's do that! That should advance the plot!

So, as you might expect, this place isn't abandoned, at least on a technical level. Nope, these animals live here. Figures a property-acquiring pony like Izzy would disregard their squatter's rights. She sadly turns to leave, having been driven off by small animals, when Hitch tells her to wait. A few more lines from the squirrel and they agree the treehouse does need some work. So why not get some free labour out of these home invaders~? And then we'll totally "share" the space when it's done! Yeah, that's the ticket!

So then we get a big montage of all the ponies fixing up the treehouse. Like, the animals don't even pitch in, they just sit on the ponies and supervise. What do you think this is, a Disney film~? Zipp fixes some shelves, Pipp figures a windowsill would make a good mini-karaoke stage, and so on. Hitch, meanwhile, actually turns some shelves into animal beds. Clearly the only one putting some thought into who actually is going to be living here. And so the comic ends with the ponies and animals sharing the same space in peace--for now…

All the coloniser and landlord stuff is mostly jokes for my amusement, but still. I don't think this is a great issue. Oh, sure, it's a cute story about ponies, but they do barge their way into someone else's living space and proceed to make it their own. Like, even when purportedly working together, the ponies do all the work and continue to cater it to their tastes. Like, that "mini karaoke stage" Pipp builds? It's mini to her scale, she's the one using it in the end. Animals don't care about karaoke, Pipp! Only Hitch had the right spirit here. Like, you only need a slight rewrite to tweak this one. If they fixed up the place in the animals' favour and decided it wasn't their place to butt in, I think that would've been a much better story.

[theprettyarachnid]

could you write some arcane char hcs when their S/O is wearing lingerie for them waiting in the bedroom? Maybe some NSFW bonus points?

a/n: my room was pitch black and i got blinded when i opened my computer screen also im really tired so excuse any grammar mistakes thank you <3 <3

warnings: suggestive/nsfwish

Jinx

🕷 "woah...! what's this?"

🕷 She teases you to distract you from how flustered she is

🕷 Jinx makes you do a little twirl in it before asking where you got it

🕷 For her of course, definitely not for you

🕷 She likes to trace any lace (if any) while kissing you

Vi

🕷 She stares for a good minute before actually registering anything you're saying

🕷 "what? oh, oh yeah... so how long have you been hiding this?"

🕷 Vi isn't embarrassed, she's just awestruck from the way you look

🕷 definitely staring at them tiddies

🕷 After taking the whole image in, she doesn't waste much time

🕷 Will either just jump on you or yank you to the bottom of the bed

Caitlyn

🕷 please i love her

🕷 She tries to act really smooth at first but the closer she gets to you, really seeing the detail of the lingerie and how it fits you, the more she kind of falls apart

🕷 "i told you [insert color] looks amazing on you"

🕷 Likes to run her hands down your body

🕷 Caitlyn likes to take her time, especially when it involves you

🕷 It's honestly painstakingly slow how long she takes to take off the lingerie and she teases you while doing it

Ekko

🕷 i imagine him making the fuckboy face when he sees you

🕷 Endless compliments about how you look

🕷 He's such a gentleman when taking it off because he knows it might've been expensive <3

🕷 Ekko probably likes vibrant colors because it's a nice contrast against your skin

🕷 Kneads your thighs

🕷 The second he's about to actually do anything he realizes he forgot to lock the door and is scrambling just to get back to you as fast as possible

Viktor

🕷 He usually sleeps at the lab so its a rare occasion that you get him to yourself with zero interruptions

🕷 "Seems like someone's missed me."

🕷 Viktor has an amused but adoring look on his face while walking over to you

🕷 Gently pulls you off the bed and kisses your hand

🕷 Likes to wrap his arms around your waist kissing you while he touches the somewhat transparent fabric

🕷 Viktor praises and compliments you as he takes the lingerie off

🕷 If it's one of those lingerie that has a choker, he has to stop himself from moving to quickly

🕷 It's an appreciated surprise for sure

🕷 wear it under your outfit and see what happens

Jayce

🕷 His cheeks get so red looking at you

🕷 He starts stuttering and pausing while trying to look away but failing each time

🕷 "you.. look a-amazing"

🕷 you cant convince me that jayce doesn't get easily flustered

🕷 Eventually he cools off but it takes him a second

🕷 Jayce might pretend to be embarrassed for a bit longer just so you walk over to him

🕷 The second you do though, he picks you up and wraps your legs around him

🕷 He squeezes your waist if you're ticklish there just so he can hear you laugh

🕷 Jayce leaves a lot of hickeys but only in places where he's allowed to see

Silco

🕷 He probably bought the damn thing for you

🕷 He definitely takes everything into consideration when he buys you clothes like how it'll fit you, what color would look best, if you'd be comfortable in it even though it wouldn't matter much by the end

🕷 Silco is actually very pleased when he sees you in it and asks whether or not you like it

🕷 Depending on your answer is how he takes it off

🕷 If you say you like it, that shit gets ripped off just so he has an excuse to get you another one

🕷 Unlike Jayce, he isn't really considerate with the placement of his hickeys

🕷 There isn't enough concealer in the world baby, im sorry

Vander

🕷 No thoughts just big, tough hands touching soft skin

🕷 His jaw drops

🕷 Vander gives you a compliment about how you look while chuckling before pulling you into a kiss

🕷 He likes the lingerie that is similar to a dress because it's more ✨ accessible ✨

[sukirichi]

not shy

megumi was not shy around his crush — and that’s a fucking lie.

request: shy megumi who is really flustered around his crush + his friends and gojo-sensei helping him confess

note: this is fluff and a semi crack fic too LOL i hope you guys enjoy this, i had a lot of fun with this one! unedited too, as usual!

word count: 4.5k

masterlist !

playlist made by the lovely @savantsoulfinder​ thank you so much! 

“Yo, Megumi-kun, can you take—” Satoru halted in his steps, following the trail of sight that his dark-haired student seemed to be so enamoured in to not even notice his teacher walk his way. “What are you staring at?” when his gaze landed on you, head thrown back in laughter and slapping Panda’s arm over Yuuji’s joke, Satoru’s eyes beamed even under the blindfold. “Oh? You like Y/N?”

Upon hearing your name, Megumi immediately snapped back to life. He scoffed and turned away from you, scowling to himself with his arms crossed against his chest. “No, I don’t. I don’t like anyone.” So defensive.

“Is that so?” Satoru teased while biting back his laughter, “Guess you won’t mind if I call her then. Hey, Y/N!”

“Gojo-sensei, what’re you doing?!” Megumi grabbed his teacher’s sleeve, whisper-hissing and cursing under his breath when Satoru caught your attention. You waved at them both, skipping until you were getting impossibly closer and closer and closer.

“Well, I don’t want you to carry these all alone. You’re gonna need some help.”

“I’m perfectly fine – h-hi.”

Shit, you were now here. You smiled up at him, hands folded below your bottom before tipping your head to the side, looking under Megumi’s ducked head to see his face. “Hey there, Megumi! Looking cute today,” you winked, causing the poor boy to blush madly. You never noticed, though, your attention now taken by your teacher turning red as he stopped his laughter. “Gojo-sensei! You called me?”

“Oh yeah, you’re just right on time. I was going to ask Megumi here to bring these books all back to my office but it’s probably too heavy for him so I asked—”

“It’s not heavy,” Megumi took the books that Satoru placed in your welcoming arms, the slightest touch sending jolts of electricity down his spine. He pulled away and clutched the books closer to himself at the sudden buzz, narrowing his eyes at his teacher who obviously couldn’t mind his own business. “I can carry it by myself.”

“I still wanna help, and I really don’t mind. Plus, I haven’t talked to you in a long time. I actually kind of feel like you’re avoiding me,” you pouted, and that simple gesture had Megumi feeling like he was sinking deeper into the ground.

He was ready for the whole world to swallow him up.

Satoru took pleasure in Megumi’s reddish ears and clenched jaw, cupping his own jaw with his hands as if to mock. “Aw, Megumi, why would you avoid precious Y/N? Did she do something wrong to you?”

“No, she didn’t.”

“Well, if there’s nothing wrong, you two better scoot before you get late to your other class!”

“Alright, see you around, Gojo-sensei!” Shit, why were you such a good girl? Now he was stuck with you, and Megumi huffed while hesitantly sharing the books with him. You walked close enough to him that he caught a slight whiff of your shampoo, the scent clouding over his usually sharp mind. Now, though, Megumi could barely recognize the hallways he walked on, relying only on you to lead the way. “So...how’ve you been?”

“Fine.”

“How about your studies? We have an exam next week – maybe you want to study together? Inumaki-senpai and I were supposed to have a study group with the others but everyone just wants to study by themselves,” you turned to him with a small smile, “I do better when I’m with someone though.”

Megumi managed to give you a split second glance before he darted his eyes back in front of him again, swallowing audibly because he couldn’t understand why you had to look so pretty smiling like that.

His palms grew sweaty with each passing second, and he grimaced at the uncomfortably feeling of his collar getting sticky. “Uh, wh-where would we study? We don’t have a library or anything.”

“The training grounds is refreshing, but I’d like it to do it better in my room.”

“Do what?” Megumi halted in his steps, his eyes blown wide at your words.

“Study, of course. What else?”

He wasn’t sure whether to laugh or be worried that you frowned in confusion, almost as if you didn’t understand the weight of your words. But then again, you’d always been so damn oblivious that it made sense. Megumi shook his head, continuing on to the teacher’s office before remembering he still lost his sense of direction, so he bit his lip, obediently following you around like a puppy.

“You shouldn’t just invite anyone to your room, you know.”

Once you both made it to the empty room, you carefully placed the books down on Satoru’s desk. He raised a brow at the extra detail you put into, tongue peeking out from the edges of your lips as you made sure all of them were placed together neatly.

Satisfied with your work, you clapped your hands and turned to him.

“I’m not. You’re not just anyone to me, Megumi,” Suddenly, you leaned over him, his mind screaming at him when your lips lowered down to his neck. Megumi’s spine stiffened so quick he might as well be a flat board, his chin pressed to his neck when he felt your teeth graze his exposed skin for a moment. “There’s a loose thread,” you showed him a small thread with a small smile, which fell as fast when you saw Megumi standing uncomfortably straight. “Oh, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to invade your personal space like that!” “I’m a little weird, aren’t I? That would explain why you’ve been avoiding me. Do I make you feel uncomfortable?”

“No, it’s not that...it’s just...”

“Just what?”

His mind blanked. Ask him anything about curses or their history and pretty much anything – he’d be able to answer – but not this. They didn’t teach this in the books and out of frantic nervousness, Megumi ended up spewing the first thing he could think of, his brows drawn together that only added to his intimidating look.

“I’m just annoyed that you scored higher than me on the previous exam.”

“Oh,” you fell for it, snapping your fingers together as you laughed. Somehow, the sound of your melodious laughter had his shoulders easing from the tension, the smallest of smiles hinting at the edge of his lips. Gosh, he was so whipped for you. “Was that really it? I thought you were avoiding me for something serious! Well, how about this, let’s study together and let’s see who’s the smarter one. The loser will get tickled to death!”

“I haven’t even agreed to that condition yet.”

“Okay, what do you want if you win?”

Megumi blushed as he blurted out, “You.”

Before he could regret what he just said, you scrunched your nose and pointed to yourself. “Me what? You want me to do something? You want me to buy you ice cream or—”

“Never mind,” he mumbled behind his palm that was now covering his mouth, refusing to show you that he actually wanted to laugh at how naive you could be. Not that he was complaining; it saved him great pain that you could never know his feelings for you. “I’ll ask for it when I’m sure I’ll win.”

“Ah, not a man of uncalculated risks, I see,” you ruffled his hair, the poor boy stiffening up again under your touch. “This is why I like you so much. You’re so thoughtful.”

“Please don’t touch my hair.”

Megumi was complaining, his shoulders raised beside his ears while he scowled at you, but the way a small, almost inaudible purr left his lips said otherwise. He didn’t want you touching his hair – only because he was shy and it would be the death of him if you saw how easily flustered he was around you.

Thankfully, you showered mercy upon him, raising your hands in surrender. “Alright, alright, we should go back to class now.”

Megumi sighed in relief, content for now to walk you all the way back to class as you talked about your day. He wasn’t actually listening, but a stupid smile was there on his face, anyway. He likened the sound of your voice to those of birds chirping and sunshine waking – and he felt like he was the fresh earth you always kissed.

“You’re going to burn a hole in her if you keep staring at her like that.”

���Shut up,” Megumi averted his eyes away from you, stabbing his yogurt with his plastic fork. A part of him felt annoyed that you just had to look so pretty today, your bright voice filling in the cafeteria that put his constant sour mood to shame. The stark difference between you two made Megumi sigh in his seat, abandoning his fork as he leaned back. There was no way you’d like him back. “I wasn’t looking at anyone.”

“Ugh, why are boys so creepy? Staring at Y/N like that, ew.”

Yuuji ignored Nobara’s comment, and for once, Megumi let it slide when Nobara stealed his untouched yogurt. “Why don’t you just tell her you like her? She’s literally the sweetest person ever – the chances of her turning you down are low!”

Nobara snorted, “Yeah, but if the sweetest girl in school rejects you, that’s really humiliating. That would mean she likes everyone but you.”

Satoru popped out of nowhere – that stupid blindfolded bastard who started all this – his arms looped around Yuuji’s neck whose entire face illuminated at having his favourite teacher around. “I think the scary-looking Megumi-chan is actually just too shy to be confess,” he wiggled his eyebrows, pointing a finger fun to Megumi’s deadly narrowed gaze. “Can you believe it? My dark, brooding student is hopelessly in love with the cute, sunshine girl next door that he’s so scared around her? Isn’t that so adorable—”

“Everyone shut up!” he hissed through gritted teeth, “I’m not scared of anyone or anything.”

“Then tell her you like her.”

“Fine, I will.”

“I bet you ten dollars he won’t do it,” Satoru whispered, the two students who shared one brain cell beside him nodding eagerly.

“I said I will!”

“Good morning, Megumi! Come in, come in,” you ushered him in once he stood frozen at your door, his hands now awkwardly clutching his own notes. “You can take a seat on the bed.”

Megumi wasn’t nervous of the fact this was his first time visiting a girl’s room, but rather because it was yours, and each part of your room resembled you greatly. From the organized and clean space, but the noticeable adorable little trinkets and polaroids of you with everyone sticking on the wall, he could feel your entire soul living in that room. When his eyes landed on an old photo of you holding up the peace sign and noticed for the first time he was standing in the background, unaware he was captured in the frame, Megumi inhaled sharply.

Had you pretended to take a selfie just to see him there?

No, he shook his head, there was just no way. He really couldn’t ponder about it long enough because you’d dragged him by the sleeve until he was sitting right next to you, the fresh scent of your body wash making him feel stunningly warm inside his clothes even when the windows were open.

The whole time, Megumi couldn’t absorb a single thing you were saying.

He was just too distracted by everything about you – the way your lips moved when you spoke, how you’d tuck back a stray hair behind your ear, even to the way your mouth would form an ‘o’ shape as you learned something new. No, he couldn’t focus at all.

Megumi has lost count of the times he’d wiped his shaky, sweaty palms on the pads of his sweatpants, hitching his breath every time you leaned close to him to glance at his notes.

At this rate, he’d be the loser in your little competition. It was just impossible for him to focus on anything else.

“Megumi?” you waved your hands in front of him. When it wasn’t enough to get his attention, you resorted to flicking his forehead and he yelped, rubbing at the sore spot. He faced you, a complaint ready to be spoken when his eyes widened at the sudden lack of proximity, your nose booping against his. “Hello, Megumi? I’ve asked you the same question twice now and you haven’t answered yet.”

As nicely as he could, he pushed your face away, his heart thumping loudly when you laughed as you went back to your own space. “Sorry, could you repeat that? I wasn’t really listening.”

“Yeah, I can tell, you were just staring at me the whole time,” you held your phone up in front of your face, checking your reflection on the screen on different angles. He watched, enchanted by how gorgeous you looked no matter what side. “Is there something on my face...? I’ve been checking non-stop and I don’t see anything weird.”

Megumi swallowed nervously, “There’s nothing wrong with your face. I just can’t focus. You’re too close and I-I can smell you.”

“Do I smell bad?!”

“No, you don’t! You smell really sweet!”

“Aw, thanks! You smell sexy too,” you winked at him, wiggling your shoulders as if to share your scent with him. Megumi’s eyes widened when your shoulder rubbed against his, and he recoiled, arm placed over his nose to hide his emotions that were a train wreck right now.

“Sexy?” he spluttered, “Why would you say – me – sexy? You’re so weird, Y/N. You shouldn’t say stuff like that.”

You patted his thigh in a manner that should be comforting, but the teasing smile on your face only had him wanting to jump out the window even more. Then, you stood up and stretched the material of your shirt riding up until he caught sight of your navel. Megumi turned away and closed his eyes, cheeks trapped between his teeth. “We should take a break. Treat’s on me – where do you want to go?”

“Err,” he scratched the back of his head.

“Oh, don’t look too worried, it’s a weekend. Plus, Gojo-Sensei isn’t around to bother us or something.”

“You...you want to go out...” he drawled out slowly, tentatively, surely – just to make sure that he was hearing it right. “...with me?”

“Yeah, I did just ask where you want to go.”

“Oh,” Megumi nodded with a blank face. Then, your words sank in, and he folded his knees to his chest to hide his face and his sickly sweet smile, the butterflies in his stomach progressing into a fucking zoo. “Oh.”

“Are you sick? You’re so red,” your palm connected with his heated forehead, “Megumi, you’re burning! Should I take you to Ieri-san?”

“No, no, I’m fine,” he pushed your hand away, still repudiating to look you in the eye. He just couldn’t, not when you were too inquisitive and he could easily give a dead clue before he got the chance to properly confess. “I mean, I don’t really have a certain place in mind. I’ll go wherever you want to go.”

He should’ve noticed it then – the mischievous glint in your eye that told him you weren’t up to no good. But because his knees always weakened around you, Megumi agreed way too eagerly than he’d like. “Just make sure you don’t regret it, okay? There’s something I’ve always been wanting to try but I never got the chance to and no one wanted to go with me, so you’ll be my willing victim!” And so, half an hour later, Megumi’s jaw dropped as the chill of the arena nipped at his skin. You didn’t even tell him to bring a jacket. “Ta-da!”

“Ice skating?”

You nodded happily, dragging him all the way to the shoe fittings. “It’s going to be fun, come on!”

“But I don’t know how to.”

“Neither do I!” Megumi wasn’t lying when he said he didn’t know how to. No matter how much he tried so hard to learn, he just couldn’t balance himself. The sound of your laughter that let him know you enjoyed this way too much reached his ears as he glared at the ice, his ears red either from the cold or the humiliation of being an utter failure in front of you, of all people! “Need some help there, buddy?”

“I’m fine, thanks for asking. And no, I can do this by myself.”

You masked your chuckle with a snicker, squatting to watch as he struggled to heave himself up back to his feet. “Really? You’ve fallen like, a hundred times now.”

“Shut up. Humans aren’t naturally supposed to do this anyway. We don’t have a human instinct to be upright – whoa!” Megumi slipped again from the ice, this time knocking you down with him. Instead of it being romantic where you two ended up gazing at each other with love in your eyes, your eyes widened into saucers as his elbow landed into your belly, crushing the wind out of your body.

“Ow!”

“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to – ugh, this is why I said it was a bad idea!”

All the way back home, Megumi was still entirely convinced it was a bad idea. You were limping beside him, having to use his bicep as a crutch with your head resting on his shoulder. You and your stupid ideas, really, now you were injured and sprained your ankle from the fall. Instead of worrying about your own safety, you only slapped your knee in laughter as the medics fixed you up, still in disbelief that Megumi had fallen a lot of times yet came out unscathed.

“Megumi~ are you still mad at me? Why won’t you talk to me?” you pouted, squeezing his bicep to get his attention.

“It’s because I told you it was dangerous. Look at you – your knees are all scraped and your legs are all wobbly. We’ve still got a long way back home.”

“Maybe you should carry me then.”

“C-carry you?”

“Yeah, so I don’t fall,” you snorted, pointing to your shoeless ankle covered in bandages. “I mean, it was your fault I’m injured. If you hadn’t fallen for me, then this wouldn’t have happened.”

Fallen for you? Did you know that he – ? Megumi’s head snapped to yours so hard he nearly had whiplash, but the only thing he could focus on was the pounding of drums within his chest. “F-fall? How did you know?”

“Megumi, you literally fell on top of me. Don’t think I’ve forgotten already.”

That had him blinking back, his face flattening into a blank expression. Then, he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he stopped in his tracks. “Sometimes I forget you’re terribly naive.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Now get on,” With burning cheeks and a heart that fluttered way too much than what was considered healthy, Megumi squatted down to the ground, patting his back with a groan. You less than jumped into his arms, a little too excited to get a piggyback ride and Megumi expressed his faux distress with a groan. You only pinched his ear and told him to pay you back for your injuries, which made him complain again.

In the end, he was just happy you couldn’t see how much he struggled to hide his smile then, for if you saw it, you’d surely believe he was crazy.

Or so he thought. By the time you’d gotten back to the dorms, you were long passed out on his back. There was a small patch of drool on the back of his shirt and he shuddered, then wiped it away by whispering to himself, it’s okay – as long as it’s you.

Padding back to the dorms wasn’t as difficult as he thought it would be, considering everyone was almost asleep or out to the city as well.

Megumi gently laid you down on the bed, wrapping the blanket around you and making sure your head was comfortable on the pillow. He stayed there for a solid minute, just staring and memorizing your pretty features until he felt confident he could draw it upon memory. Not wanting to be creepy though, he cleared his throat, about to leave the room when your fingers tugged at his wrist.

“Megumi,” you moaned sleepily, “Don’t go. It’s too cold.”

“I’ll get you another blanket.”

“No, stay,” you whined, patting the space next to you. “Please?”

“To sleep here with you?” he asked, baffled and at the same time elated. The last thing he wanted to be was a pervert and he’d never outright admit that his thoughts of you hadn’t always been giggles and rainbows, but he pushed those down, reminding himself that this is you – he respected you above all else. His self restraint slowly thinned though, whatnot with you pouting up at him like that.

Megumi groaned and took off his shoes anyway, planting himself beside you. “This is insane. I think I’m losing my mind,” he muttered to himself. “Move over and make space for me,” you obediently followed his command, using his bicep as a pillow while your cheek squished against his chest. He wondered how you weren’t bothered by his heart’s beating, or maybe it soothed you to sleep because you were falling deeper and deeper asleep, burying yourself in his arms. “God, this is so uncomfortable. I feel like I’m crushing you—”

“So warm,” you cut him off, his mind turning completely mental as he felt your lips pad over his chin. “Goodnight, Megumi.”

How did you expect him to sleep now?

But as soon as you’d settled and only your stabled breathing could be heard from the room, Megumi’s eyes began to droop as well, and it didn’t take long before his arms relaxed around you, lazily pulling the covers up to cover the both of you.

He’ll tell you another time.

“MEGUMI!” you pushed through everyone and showed him your paper, the bold red mark of 100 glaring back at him. Before he could respond, you stole his test paper from him, laughing at the sad 98 that showed. “Ah, I won!” In the blink of an eye, you’d tackled him to the ground, your knees keeping his legs locked underneath you, test papers flying around the field. Your hands were relentless and brutal as it ran and poked up his sides, eliciting squeaky little gasps from him.

“Stop, stop!” Megumi doubled over in laughter, keeping his feet flat on the ground to prevent himself from accidentally kneeing you. He’d hurt you enough during the ice skating dilemma – he didn’t want to cause you anymore injuries. “No, stop!”

“I won, Megumi, I won! Face the tickle monster!”

“I said stop or else!” he warned, completely aware that he wasn’t as threatening or serious as he wanted to be when tears leaked from his eyes, his laughter embarrassingly giggly and high pitched.

“Or what, loser?”

“I’ll kiss you until you shut up!”

“That’s adorable, but let’s see you try!” you kept tickling his sides, the both of you completely oblivious that the rest of your classmates – your teacher who was more than supportive of this pairing included – were hiding behind a bush, their phones whipped out to capture each second of this moment. “Loser!”

As you mocked him one more time that you wouldn’t stop tickling “losers,” Megumi had to draw the line. Using all his strength, he flipped you over until you were underneath him, the sheer force of the impact keeping you nestled between his arms.

Both of you were panting, but this time his breath was taken away from how beautiful you looked under him like that. Such innocent eyes staring back up at him, but don’t think for a moment he didn’t notice how your eyes trailed over his lips. He knew – because he was doing the same, his grip subconsciously gripping harder at your wrists. If he leaned down...

“This is taking too long!” someone whined from behind the bushes, tips of white hair peaking from the plant. “Just kiss her already!”

Both of you turned at the source of the voice, simultaneously shouting, “Gojo-sensei?!”

“Don’t be shy, Megumi-kun! Just tell her already or I’ll tell her myself.”

“Tell me what?”

Now that your face was peering up at him, he knew he was trapped. Cornered. Megumi closed his eyes, hands trembling and losing their grip around you as he was confronted by the situation. “I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner,” he fumbled over his words, “But I...I actually—”

“Boring! What kind of confession is this? Say it louder and clearer or she won’t be impressed! Is that how a man does it, Megumi-kun? You can do better—”

“All of you, shut the fuck up!” he roared to his peers who only cackled around the bushes, Yuuji and Gojo-sensei doubling over in laughter while Toge bit his collar to stop the gleeful sounds leaving his mouth. Irritation and humiliation bubbling up in his chest, Megumi finally found the courage to confess. “I like you, okay? I’ve always had a crush—”

You sat up to wrap your arms around his neck, silencing him with a sloppy kiss. At first, your lips kissed the edges of his mouth before Megumi groaned, his large hand clasping the back of your neck to guide you to where he wanted you to be. Smiling through the kiss, you pulled away, rubbing your nose on him affectionately. “Me too, Megumi,” you giggled, “I like you too. Actually, no, I fell in love the moment you almost broke your nose on the ice—” he cut you off by kissing you again, his grip on your waist threatening, “Hey, no fair, I was still confessing!”

“I wasn’t kidding when I said I’ll kiss you to make you shut up,” his confidence had now risen up, all traces of the shy Megumi now gone. “Now tell me that again. Tell me you like me.”

“Okay, but can I get another kiss?”

“You’ll be spoiled rotten.”

“I think I deserve it, don’t you think? I’m pretty cute – you’re lucky you get to kiss—” Megumi tugged you by your collar to slam your lips on his, his teeth nibbling at your lower lip. You tugged at his hair playfully and laughed, slapping his shoulder gently to tap out. “Fine, fine. I like you too!”

“Say it again. Please.”

“Not so shy now, eh, Megumi?” Satoru teased for the final time, and Megumi was so close to bursting a vein in his neck when his teacher showed up from the bushes, sexily posing on the grass as he winked at the both of you.

“SHUT UP!”

[staticscreenwriting]

Under a Paper Moon // Y. B.

Summary: Yelena wants a dog and the girl at the shelter wants Yelena. Both of them are trying to figure stuff out. Life’s kinda hard. Sometimes it’s sweet. 

Pairing: Yelena Belova x Female Reader 

A/N: I haven’t seen Black Widow but I love Florence Pugh so I had to write something for Yelena. If I get stuff wrong, I’m sorry. 

Taglist: Find the link to join my taglist in my bio. Will reblog this post with the taglist attached seperately. Likes, reblogs, comments are all much appreciated. I am German. Sometimes I get the tense wrong or make mistakes. I am useless when it comes to punctuation. Go easy on me, please.

“Me and you, living under a paper moon This real life just isn't right Let's get away Let's fabricate I'm building a place Something amazing just for the sake of saving us And whatever's left of that little box that beats in your chest “

The first time the blonde girl walks into the shelter, (Y/N) can’t help but notice how much her mannerisms resemble some of the dogs they’re caring for. Her eyes scan the room as if she’s waiting for any kind of threat to jump out at her, to kick her and hurt her and cause her harm. She looks guarded and unsure but ready to fight at any given moment. Like all her trust has been broken and shattered and left her with a reality that is so hard to put back together into something resembling peace and contentment.

(Y/N) knows it’s unprofessional and downright rude to compare actual human beings to her shelter pups. But that’s what working with these animals does to you. It makes you see things in other living creatures that you maybe wouldn’t have noticed before. You learn to read the pain in someone's eyes. And there’s a lot of pain in those gorgeous green eyes of hers.

They’re really pretty eyes. So expressive and full of emotion and with a little sparkle that one could stare at forever and ever and —

“ I want to buy a dog. “

Those are the first words she ever speaks to (Y/N). She speaks with an accent, something Eastern European. Her voice is raspy and deeper than (Y/N) has expected. It suits her, gives her an edge to contradict her gorgeous eyes and that cute little button nose and those round cheeks.

“ Hello? Do you hear me? I said I want to buy a dog! ”

She crosses her arms in front of her body, looks at (Y/N) with an annoyance radiating from her. Her jaw is tight and her lips are pulled into a scowl that is both intimidating and adorable at the same time.

“ Oh — yeah sorry. Of course. A dog, huh? Not sure we can help you with that. “ (Y/N) jokes and faces the blonde with a goofy smile.

“ Was that supposed to be a joke? “ the blonde asks and mockingly raises one eyebrow in question.

“ Did it make you laugh? “ (Y/N) retorts, raising an eyebrow in return.

The blonde regards her for a second, eyes stoic and burning as if she looks straight into (Y/N)’s soul and tries to figure out every little detail there could possibly be to figure out. Judging and unforgiving.

… and then she smiles. It’s small, just the twitch of the corner really but (Y/N) can just about make it out. It’s not an earth-shattering smile. It doesn’t push away clouds to bring out the sun or stop nations from fighting. But it’s a good smile. One that (Y/N) is sure that no matter how insignificant it might seem, she will remember it for a while. Because she put it there.

“ Maybe a little. “

“Well, then it was a joke. I’m (Y/N) by the way. “ she says as she pulls a clipboard from a drawer by the information desk.

“ I know. It says on your nametag. With the kitty cat. “ the blonde woman points out and motions towards the pastel blue name tag with the orange tabby cat drawing clipped to (Y/N)’s shirt.

“ Right yeah, uh — they didn’t have any with dogs left. But I like cats too, so — “

“ It’s cute. “

Those words send a little shiver through (Y/N)’s body. Like tiny shooting stars crossing the sky inside of her veins. Like pop rocks exploding on her tongue. Like confetti cannons shooting from her fingertips.

It’s ridiculous, really. This is just a woman and all she did was compliment her nametag. Strangers aren’t supposed to make you feel like this. (Y/N) has always had this problem. And maybe it was due to watching 500 days of summer one too many times or listening to too much melodic indie rock but there’s a spark of magic inside her. One that bubbles up in her heart and flares through her body. One that believes that love, at first sight, is a thing. That believes in soulmates and happily ever after. One that likes to think that strangers can make you feel like that. Like shooting stars in your veins. Like confetti cannons. Like the world isn’t such a horrible place after all.

But those are just dreams. Silly little fantasies that she has to pull herself from because that’s not what life is like. Reality has very little to do with any of this.

“ Okay then, do you have any idea what kind of dog you are looking for? Have you maybe looked at some of our pups online yet uh —  ? “

“ Yelena “

“ Yelena” she likes the way her name falls from her lips. Like it’s meant to be there always. Focus, (Y/N)!

“ Not really. I know I want a big dog. I know the small and fluffy ones get adopted first so I want to give a home to one that maybe people don’t choose first. “

“ That’s a very nice thing to do. You’re very kind, Yelena”

The woman lets out a mixture between a chuckle and a scoff as she averts her gaze to study the speckled linoleum floor “ That’s not something people tend to call me. Usually, they call me irritating. “

There’s something in the way she says it that tells (Y/N) that this isn’t a joke, no matter how much Yelena want’s to make it seem like one. There’s more to this. Pain and hurt and sadness. And she wants to take it away like she tries to do with the pups. But it’s a lot of work and this isn’t a shelter dog. It’s a human being. And none of her business anyway. If only there wasn’t the nagging spark in her heart that wants her to care. So much more than she probably should.

Focus, (Y/N)!

“ So, do you wanna go take a look at the dogs? “

Yelena raises her head again, combs a hand through her blond hair that’s pulled into a messy ponytail, and nods her head in agreement.

“ Yes please. “

The sound of dogs barking excitedly fills the air as (Y/N) and Yelena walk down the long hallway flanked left and right by windows looking into small rooms where the shelter dogs are kept.

There are all kinds of dogs. Small and big ones, fluffy ones, and ones with smooth short fur. There are Pitbulls and chihuahuas and dalmatians and a lot that (Y/N) isn’t quite sure what mix they are but an interesting one for sure.

Yelena’s eyes wander over every pup, staying on them all for a second or two. She gives them all a once over and something tells (Y/N) that if she could, she’d take all of them home to give them a happy and loving new home.

“ What about this one?” Yelena speaks up and only then does (Y/N) notice she stopped walking and is now leaned against the window looking at a brown labrador pit mix curled up into a ball on a blanket in the corner furthest away.

“ Oh, that’s Monkey. “

“ Monkey? “ the blonde questions with a teasing smirk on her lips that make (Y/N)’s cheeks grow warm.

“ I didn’t name her. “

“ She looks so sad. “

(Y/N) steps up next to Yelena and lets her gaze wander towards the dog as well. She’s big and healthy but Yelena isn’t wrong, she looks infinitely sad. Not unlike the woman herself.

“ She was used in dog fights. Some rescuers got a bunch of dogs out of there. Most of them have been adopted out but Monkey is — well she’s special. She doesn’t trust people, understandably, so it takes a lot of work to get her to warm up to you and most aren’t willing to put the time and effort in. Which honestly sucks because once she does warm up she’s the sweetest angel ever. “

For a moment they are left in silence. Well, silence and barks. Lost in their own thoughts, tangled up in the icky feeling of realizing the cruel things people are capable of inflicting on the innocent. Humans and animals.

“ I think I want to try. “

“ With Monkey? “

“ Yeah. I am willing to put in the work. “

“ You sure? “

When she looks up again, she grants (Y/N) another smile. But this one is different, this one pushes away the bitterness in her eyes for just a flicker of a moment. This one is as real as smiles come. And it’s earth-shattering, it brings out the sun and (Y/N) is sure, it could stop a war between nations.

“ I am 100% sure. “

And she keeps her word.

Yelena shows up every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. She brings time and patience and a seemingly endless supply of treats stuffed into the pockets of her vests. She seems to have them in all shapes and colors. The white one is (Y/N)’s favorite.

She doesn’t do much, just sits in a room with Monkey offering her treats and companionship. None of which the dog has yet accepted. But Yelena doesn’t give up. She just extends more patience and kindness towards the dog.

At first (Y/N) just watches them from afar, wishing she could hear what the blonde keeps telling the dog. Because she talks. She tells Monkey stories, none of which (Y/N) can make out from her place by the information desk but stories she so desperately wants to know. Yelena Belova is a mystery, a beautiful dream that leaves you confused the second you wake up. And with every new visit (Y/N) lets herself drift further and further into a fantasy of what-ifs. One that is surely gonna leave her heartbroken. They always do.

Sometimes Yelena stops to talk to her. Mostly about Monkey and (Y/N) can see how hard she tries to gain the dog's trust and how hard it weighs on her that Monkey hasn’t really warmed up yet. And still, she keeps trying.

“ Do you want to come sit with us? “

When those words fall from Yelena’s lips (Y/N) thinks she imagined them. Doesn’t realize they are actually spoken, not just some silly daydream.

“ Huh? “

  “ Do you want to come sit with us? If you aren’t too busy right now? I think she likes you, maybe it calms her down to have you there. “

(Y/N)'s heart speeds up a little as if this isn’t just a casual invitation for the dog's sake. Life isn’t a fairytale, (Y/N). This isn’t about you.

“ Oh, yeah okay. “

“ Only if you want to. “

“ I want to! “

It comes out faster than intended and warms up her cheeks in embarrassment but Yelena at least has the decency not to comment on it.

“ Cool. Let’s go “

They sit side by side, backs against the glass window as Monkey mostly ignores their company, only lifting her head up when they enter the room.

“ You think it’s gonna work out? “ Yelena asks as Monkey faces away from them once again.

“ Yes. “

“ That was quick.”

“ Well, I can see the work and effort you put in. You are so patient with her and I know you won’t give up. It’s gonna work out. It’s just a matter of time. “

Yelena chuckles before looking back at the dog. “ I don’t think anyone who knows me would agree with you calling me patient. Think especially my sister will — would’ve disagreed. “

Past tense.

“ I’m sorry. “ Because really, what else can you say? Sorry isn’t enough but it’s the only thing that comes even close to being enough.

“ Mmh,” Yelena replies, lips pulled into her signature scowl/pout mixture before pulling another treat from her vest.

“ How many of those do you carry around? “

“ As many as I can fit into my pockets. “

“ That’s a lot of pockets. “

“ Yeah, “ she says, pride dripping from her words “ and a lot of treats. “

Monkey doesn’t pay them any attention all day and nothing really changes, only something does. Something shifts. From that day on Yelena asks (Y/N) to sit with them every time. And they talk. More. About things other than Monkey. About — about themselves and life and the world. And nothing has changed, only everything did.

“ Where are you from? “ (Y/N) asks her as they once again sit side by side against the glass, shoulders almost touching.

“ Ohio “

“ Ohio, hmmm. Never been, what’s in Ohio.”

“ Corn. Lots of corn. And family. “

“ So what brings you to New York? “

Yelena shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly “ Work? Grief? Not sure, honestly. New York seems very big and no one knows me so I can be whoever I want to be. “

“ It is very big. The window in my apartment has a great view of the city and it’s — it’s massive. “

“ Do you sometimes sit there and look at it and wonder where you fit in ? Like where your place is in all of this? “ Yelena asks, fumbling with the clasps of her vest.

“ Only all the time. I sit there with my dog and wonder what the hell I am doing. “

Yelena turns to her, eyes gleaming with surprise and excitement. “ You have a dog? “

“ Yup. A Beagle. Her name is Junebug and she has only 3 legs but her ego and appetite make up for it. “

The smile falls from Yelena’s face and (Y/N) swears she can just about make out a red tint dusting her cheeks “ So where is she when you’re here? Does your boyfriend look after her? “

To say butterflies are swarming her stomach is an understatement. There’s a flock of birds. A murder of crows tearing up her insides in the best way possible. It’s brutal but damn if she doesn’t wish to feel more of it.

“ No boyfriend. No girlfriend either. She stays with my elderly neighbors, they love her and they let her run around in their garden all day. “

The way Yelena looks at her then, it feels like the world might just stop for a second. Like time slows down to allow her to get lost in Yelena’s eyes. Find all the answers she’s ever been looking for right there. Find where she belongs.

And then, almost as if she realizes what a special moment this is, Monkey slowly inches towards them and plops down next to Yelena, resting her head on the woman’s thigh enjoying the first pets and cuddles in a long time.

“ You know when you asked me if I knew where my place was? “ (Y/N) asks, which earns her a nod from Yelena, whose eyes are visibly clouded over with tears. “ I think Monkey just found hers. “

The day Monkey leaves the shelter is both a sad and a happy one.

Happy because she finally fell in love with  Yelena and now gets to go to a loving home where she will be spoiled and loved and cared for. Forever.

Sad because she’s not the only one who fell in love with Yelena. With Monkey gone, there’s no reason for the blonde to come back to see (Y/N). This is a goodbye to more than just a dog and a client.

“ We are ready to go,”  Yelena exclaims as the dog stands by her side, happily wagging her tail and looking up at the woman with admiration and gratitude in her eyes.

With one last cuddle or the dog, (Y/N) faces Yelena and tries her best to muster up a convincing smile. “Well you guys, I wish you all the best. I’m sure you’ll do great together. And I uh —  I hope you find your place. “

Yelena smiles back and nods, her blond hair swaying with the movement  “ I hope you find yours. “

And when they leave (Y/N) can’t help but shed a few tears for all the what-ifs that will stay what-ifs forever. Because life isn’t a fairytale. Life fucking sucks sometimes.

A few days later the bell above the door chimes up signaling a new client.

“ Hi there, how can I help — Yelena? “

She stands before (Y/N), nervously fidgeting with her hands, eyes moving to the floor then back to (Y/N). Something is — off.

“ Is everything alright? “

“ Yes. Everything’s good. I just — I was wondering if we could hang out with our dogs. I think Monkey would like a friend and you said you had a dog so, “ she trails off. Of course, this is about the dogs. You’re a fool (Y/N). It’s all nice dreams. It’s not reality.

“ Yes, sure. Of course. Do you want to come over to my place? June is pretty mellow I’m sure they will get along just fine. “

Yelena nods enthusiastically and a few small smiles are shared between the girls as (Y/N) writes down her address and they agree on a time.

It’s only when she is about to step out into the sun, that Yelena turns back around and this time her eyes only focus on (Y/N) and (Y/N) alone.

And then she speaks.

“ I miss you. I’m sure Monkey is excited to see you too but this isn’t only about her. I miss you and I would love to hang out. “

“ I miss you too. “

“ Okay, so it’s a date? “

It feels like the movies, the romance novels, the love songs. It feels real for the first time in her life.

“ It’s a date!”

“ I guess it’s safe to say those two get along like a house on fire “ (Y/N) says as she sits down next to Yelena on the bench by her window overlooking the sparkling NYC skyline.

Monkey and Junebug are cuddled up together on the couch, sleeping contently after playing with each other all day, chasing one another and playing fetch, and just being the happy dogs they deserve to are.

“ That’s a weird saying.“ Yelena notes but there’s a fondness shining through her as she too looks at the dogs before taking a sip from the bottle of beer clasped in her hand.

“ It is, now that you mention it.”

“ I’m glad Monkey is happy. She deserves all the love “

“ She does,” (Y/N) agrees before turning fully towards Yelena “ you do too, you know? “

The blonde turns around, faces the wide city before her all sparkling with lights and buzzing with life.

“ This is the first time in my life where I don’t have anyone telling me what to do or where to go. I get to choose my own path and it’s liberating but it’s terrifying. I don’t even know where to start. I still don’t know where my place in all this really is.”

“ Did you have a good time today? Did you like our date? “ (Y/N) asks as her shoulders graze (Y/N)’s.

“ I had the best time! “ Yelena exclaims “ even though your jokes are horrible. “

“ They’re not!”

“ Oh, they are bad.”

The girls lose themself in a flurry of laughter that turns to giggles that turn to quick breaths taken in sync.

“ You know, I can’t tell you where your place is or what to do next. But there’s a pretty big patted bench in my apartment, in front of my window and you’re very welcome to sit there with me while you figure it out. “

Softly (Y/N) traces her fingers over Yelena’s hand that rests between the two of them. Almost like approaching a timid dog, gentle and delicate as if to not scare her away. Her heart is beating so loudly she bets Yelena can hear it. Hell, all of New York City probably can. But sometimes the scary things, no matter how small, are the most important ones.

She slides her fingers in between Yelena’s and for a moment she wonders if she overstepped her boundaries. Then she feels a slight pressure as Yelena’s fingers intertwine with hers and squeeze her hand in affection.

It’s just hand-holding and to a lot of people this might seem silly but to the two of them it means everything. Yeah, maybe life isn’t a fairytale but there are moments like this one that make it all worth it. It’s better. It’s real. It’s worth fighting for. Maybe, (Y/N) thinks, maybe they don’t need to have it all figured out. Maybe all they need is to hold each other’s hand as they try to navigate it.

And maybe along the way, it’ll turn out that their place is right here. Together.

“ You know. That sounds like a really good plan. You and I and Monkey and Junebug. “

As those words leave her lips, Yelena softly leans her head against (Y/N)’s shoulder and places a soft kiss against her skin, barely a whisper of a touch. But it’s there and it says “I’m here” and it says “this is where I belong.”

And sometimes that’s all a kiss needs to be.

A promise to stay.

[brushstrokesapocalyptic]

it’s time for the “overanalyzing one-off lines” show!

so the very first thing magnus says when he sees pit in chapter 2 of kid icarus: uprising is as follows:

“Well, I didn’t expect to see an angel here. Hope this doesn’t mean I’ve kicked the bucket.”

now, i’m not sure if you’re aware, but that’s a really weird thing for someone to say, and it’s even more weird that no one comments on it. pit and palutena go on talking about unrelated things, as if that’s a totally normal and expected thing for magnus to say.

now, if you’re like me, you probably also didn’t really react to this line the first few times you saw it. it’s the second chapter, kiu has a lot of slightly-odd lines which turn out to be foreshadowing. me, personally? my first thought was “oh, i guess angels are probably associated with escorting the dead to the afterlife,“ and then i moved on.

they’re not, though. that’s what reapers do. and there’s no way humans have these two races mixed up. just fucking look at them.

do they look anything alike to you??? no. they don’t. which raises the question of why, exactly, magnus said that.

now, we don’t know a lot about angels as a whole. pit (and by extension dark pit) is emphatically not the gold standard of angeldom. we can assume he looks fairly ordinary for an angel, seeing as no one has trouble identifying him as such. beyond that, though, a lot of what we know about angels comes from what pit isn’t. for starters, he can’t fly. and there’s something else, too, but i’ll get to that later.

before that, though, i’m gonna go through the various unsubstantiated comments made by people with a dubious level of authority on the subject. (incidentally, i sourced these screenshots from the wiki— much more convenient than trying to dig through youtube for every single random conversation.)

without any further ado! let’s get into it!

Angels as Messengers

Gaol: Aw, Palutena’s little messenger boy. And Magnus, it’s always a pleasure. (src)

in the specific context of overanalyzing magnus’s first line, this is an important sentence to pick out. magnus and gaol are both humans, both with presumably a fairly similar history as mercenaries up until gaol got stuffed in a suit of armor. but while magnus makes a weird comment about death, gaol calls pit a messenger.

and pit agrees with her!

Viridi: I wish I had an angel to do my bidding. It’s like having an intern.

Pit: I’m not an intern. I’m a messenger of the gods!

Viridi: Poor Pit. Don't you know that the definition of angel is "errand spirit"? (src)

this particular conversation is the most insight we get into angels as a whole, i think. viridi thinks of angels as like divine interns, there to do little tasks for gods, and palutena doesn’t exactly disagree with her. pit says they’re specifically messengers, which lines up with biblical mythology. i could see the traditional role of angels in the world of KI being exactly that, showing up to tell the humans what the gods have to say because the gods themselves are too busy being petty jerks to do it themselves.

The Angel’s Code of Conduct

Magnus: You go in fully dressed? Don't you at least want to change into a...swimming tunic or something?

Pit: Oh, no no no! The angel's code of conduct says that we must always be ready for duty.

Magnus: I guess you wouldn't be an angel if you didn't do things by the book. (src)

Pit: Hey! You know the angel's code of conduct! I need to be prepared at all times! (src)

another random little thing is the angel’s code of conduct. without a larger sample size, we can’t know if it’s a real thing or just an excuse to save on laundry, but apparently it’s against the rules to not be on call at all times. in pit’s case, the duty he has to be ready for is doing palutena’s dirty work, but it can easily mean just about anything— including, of course, being a messenger.

No Warrior

Chariot Master: But you are no warrior, angel. Tell me, why do you fight?

Pit: I fight for Lady Palutena. And I fight for the people under her protection!

Chariot Master: That's not reason enough for an angel. (src)

remember how i said there was something else weird about pit? the chariot master seems to think angels aren’t very prone to battle— or perhaps even that they’re actively opposed to it. this lines up well with the idea that they’re supposed to be messengers, peaceful go-betweens for gods and mortals. this does not line up well with pit, the adorable weapon of mass destruction.

and it also does absolutely nothing to explain the question driving the whole existence of this post.

you know what does kinda lean towards an explanation?

No Other Angels

Pit: Do all gods have their own angels, like you have me?

Palutena: No, I don't think that's necessarily the case. (src)

i said before that the Intern Pit conversation had the most illuminating information on angels. this is what i was actually referring to. on its own, it’s pretty innocuous, but it’s just as weird as the magnus line. shouldn’t pit know about other angels, seeing as he is one himself? but he doesn’t know if there are other angels.

the only angels we ever see are him and his clone. no one ever directly references the existence of other angels, they only make general statements about what angels as a whole are like— statements which clearly don’t apply to pit, meaning they’re not just extrapolating based on the one angel that definitely does exist.

the one time someone does comment on the hypothetical existence of other angels, palutena gives a vague answer to the tune of “no,” the topic is changed, and no one brings it up again.

let’s go over everything i’ve established about angels up to this point. they can fly, they’re peaceful messengers of the gods, and pit is the only one that seems to exist as of the start of KIU.

it should be pretty obvious at this point what answer i’m dancing around, if it wasn’t obvious from the start. pit is the only angel around because all the other ones are dead. the reason why magnus said what he did is that his thought process went something like this:

See an angel.

Think “Aren’t angels extinct? Is that a ghost? Am I a ghost? I sure hope not.“

Make a quip about that.

Move on with his life, because he isn’t dead and evidently neither is this guy.

i’m not gonna pretend i went into this post with the intent of any other conclusion to that mystery. anyone who’s bothered glancing over a plot summary for the original kid icarus can draw that conclusion. it’s certainly what i did, reinforced by fics by people who had the same thought!

the truth, however, is that this was all a trick to get you to read my analysis of the theoretical nature of angels as a race. now that you’re invested, i’m going to dramatically throw aside my cape and reveal my TRUE FORM: telling people that fandom consensus is wrong, and my ideas are cooler and better than everyone else’s and you should all throw roses at my feet and bow before your king.

(or just, y’know, take it as the subjective analysis that it is. whatever floats your boat.)

Hot Takes

the original kid icarus does not actually tell you about angels going extinct. here’s the wiki article with the full text of the backstory, just for convenience, so you know what i’m on about for the rest of this post.

so, the part of the story that i think gets misinterpreted is this part about palutena’s army.

Medusa led a surprise attack on Palutena's army which could barely fend off the attack. Palutena's army suffered major losses and was heavily defeated in the final battle.

specifically, i think a lot of people interpret said army as having been made up at least partly of angels. sure, in the actual game it consists entirely of centurions, but you have to take old NES games with a grain of salt. i know i don’t buy for a second that pit was part of palutena’s guard before the original game (he was just too goddamn young), there’s nothing wrong with reinterpreting things.

recall everything i established about angels already, though. this is the hot official lore, from the game everyone knows and loves. angels are messengers, and if the chariot master is to be believed, never warriors. pit is an outlier. palutena’s army consists of centurions, not angels. if medusa wiped them out, it wasn’t because they were fighting for palutena.

(and honestly, i don’t think angels are necessarily associated with palutena exclusively. sure, she’s got the wing imagery, and she’s got the one known surviving angel working for her, at least up until pittoo is born. but angels are messengers of the gods, not messengers of palutena. again, pit is an outlier.)

which all brings us to the real question of this post.

what the FUCK happened to all the other angels? why is there only pit? why does magnus act surprised to see a messenger of the gods, and make a quip about being dead, if not because angels are otherwise extinct?! WHO KILLED THEM, AND WHY?!

thus concludes the “over analyzing one-off lines“ show. see you next, uh, maybe at some point if i feel like it!

(also another thought i had but couldn’t find room to fit it in properly: the gods don’t really act like angels are all extinct, but i feel like that can be explained through the sheer scale of a god’s lifespan. if we assume they were wiped out sometime around the original kid icarus (even if not as palutena’s army) then that’s a whole twenty-five years. that’s a long time for us humans, but for a god, that might as well be last tuesday. “yeah, i know what angels are like. sure wish i could have one. too bad palutena’s got a monopoly on the one single angel that medusa didn’t manage to wreck.”)

[arrowflier]

if you still taking prompts, I wish you could write something about... since Ian's always over-worrying about Mickey's safety, what if he gets a call saying something happened to his husband? maybe Ian's freaking out thinking Mickey could be locked again or hurt so he runs to get him? Thank you!!

Spoiler alert--nothing bad actually happens to anyone in this ficlet.

--

Ian is at Whole Foods when the call comes.

They usually go together, Mickey whining about rich privileged fucks and overpriced organic shit but coming anyway to, and he quotes, “make sure you don’t drop our whole paycheck on fuckin’ tomatoes this time.” But Mickey had begged off today, claiming he didn’t feel up to “dealing with those judgmental dicks at the checkout actin’ like cash is fuckin’ dirty”, and Ian hadn’t pushed.

Now he’s wishing he had.

“You need to come now,” Sandy is saying into his ear, voice tinny and thin through the cheap speakers of his second-hand phone.

“Where are you?” Ian asks her numbly. He kneels down on autopilot, picking up the now-bruised oranges he had been holding when she greeted him with the words, “hey, it’s Mickey.” The tile floor is as unforgiving on his knees as it was on the fruit. He turns one of the oranges over in his hand. He had been planning to make Mickey fresh orange juice with that later.

“That little corner store by your apartment, you know it?” Sandy is asking him.

Of course he knows it. That’s were they run to in the middle of the night when they run out of lube, or beer. Where Mickey bought him flowers once and tried to pass it off as an error by the cashier, until Ian found the receipt in the bottom of the bag. Where they take Franny to pick out candy every other Friday when they pick her up from school.

“Yeah,” is all he says. “I know it.”

Then he’s hanging up, and running out of the store, leaving an overturned basket and the handful of oranges on the floor in his wake.

His heart is pounding as he runs toward home. Not toward the apartment—toward Mickey.

His heart is pounding and his legs are churning and his feet are slapping the pavement with every step, chest aching to force air into his lungs. But his brain is moving faster.

He doesn’t know what happened. He should have kept Sandy on the line longer, gotten more of the story, but it only would have slowed him down. But he doesn’t know if Mickey is hurt, or in trouble, or in danger of being carted off to prison again for daring to live his life on parole.

And Ian’s mind has never exactly been his greatest ally to begin with, so it’s no surprise that the scenarios it comes up with as he runs aren’t exactly comforting.

As he rounds a corner, narrowly missing an old woman and her shopping bags, he pictures Mickey injured, collapsed on the floor of the shop, like back at the Kash and Grab when they were just kids. He won’t let anyone near him like that, no one but Ian, and he’s bleeding out onto white tile waiting for his husband to save him.

Crossing the street between cars and ignoring the honks, he pictures Mickey backed into a corner by his father’s cronies, refusing to look for an escape as Sandy frantically tries to call for help. He still doesn’t know how to back down, would never back down from men like that, would never let them take what they have and try to turn it ugly. He’d held a gun to his own father’s face, more than once, but thanks to Ian he didn’t even have one now.

Approaching the shop, finally, only to see the familiar red and blue flash of police cars, he pictures Mickey cuffed to the counter inside, glaring at the officers and spouting curses to the questions they ask. Knowing that despite living clean for over a year, they could take him in any time they wanted, with no more evidence than his last name and his rap sheet.

Ian dashes across the last street, desperate now, only to come to an abrupt halt as soon as he’s close enough to take in the scene.

Because there’s Mickey, all right. Not hurt, not cornered, not arrested.

But stuck.

Ian’s mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water, and he bends over, hands on knees, to catch his breath and his heart. Mickey is whole, and healthy, and right in front of him. Well, in front of him and up a little, pacing along the edge of the single-story shop roof.

“Hey!” Sandy calls out from the entrance of the store. Ian keeps his eyes on Mickey, who starts at the sound and looks down, gaze quickly finding Ian. He grimaces when he sees him, and starts pacing faster.

“Uh, hey Sandy,” Ian manages, finally looking to her just long enough to take in her shit-eating grin before he’s back to watching his husband. “What exactly is happening here?” The question might come out a little unhinged sounding, but sue him, he’s allowed.

Sandy comes up next to him, shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand as she joins him in observing the roof. “Apparently,” she tells him, voice raised enough that Mickey can probably hear, “Mickey here got robbed.”

Mickey can definitely hear, if the finger he throws up toward them is any indication.

“Robbed,” Ian repeats faintly. “On the roof?”

Sandy snorts. “No, you moron, in the store. Some kid swiped his bag on his way out, then went up the maintenance ladder. Mickey followed, but,” she shrugs. “Little fucker started jumping rooftops, and Mickey couldn’t keep up.”

“Uh huh,” Ian says, nodding once. “Okay. So why hasn’t he come back down?”

“Ladder broke,” Sandy offers, and Ian closes his eyes.

“The ladder,” he parrots. “Broke.”

“Yup,” she says, popping the P.

“And your first thought,” Ian continues, “was to call me, and tell me that Mickey was in trouble, giving me a heart attack in the middle of the fucking grocery store, instead of finding another one?” His voice rises until he’s nearly yelling, and when he opens his eyes, Sandy is wincing.

“Um,” she answers. “Sorry?”

Ian just sighs, deflating immediately.

“Mick,” he calls up to his husband.

The response he gets back isn’t even addressed to him.

“The fuck did you call him for?” Mickey shouts down to Sandy instead, finally stopping his incessant pacing. “It was supposed to be a fuckin’ surprise!”

“Well, I am surprised!” Ian yells back. “Thought you didn’t like heights?” That just earns him a middle finger, as expected.

“Why aren’t the cops helping?” Ian asks Sandy at a normal volume, but Mickey catches it and responds before she can.

“Cops ain’t here for me,” he grunts, rubbing at his nose and looking to the side. “Shopkeep called ‘em about the burglary, they got the kid ‘round the other side of the building.”

“What did he steal, anyway?” Ian questions, but Mickey goes silent.

Sandy tells him anyway. “He had a big order come in,” she whispers to Ian. “Told me all about it, had me come help pick it up. Something about some fancy booze and chocolate you like?”

Oh. Ian’s heart, now recovered from its scare, warms.

“Come on, Mickey, come down,” Ian cajoles. He wants to hold his husband.

“Oh, brilliant fuckin’ idea man!” Mickey rants. “Why didn’t I think of that?” He pretends to think for a second, then adds with an overdone gesture, “Oh yeah! Cause I don’t wanna break my fuckin’ neck!”

“It’s one story, Mickey,” Ian points out. “I could probably reach the gutters if I jumped.”

“Yeah, well, not all of us are giant gangly fuckers like you!” his husband shouts back.

Ian rolls his eyes.

“I meant,” he says slowly, “that if you hang down off the edge, I can reach you, dumbass.”

Mickey is silent at that, then promptly sits and scoots so his feet are hanging off the roof.

All the warning Ian gets is “don’t drop me, fuckhead,” before Mickey is sliding down right into his arms, sending them both stumbling backwards until Ian regains his footing.

They stay like that, pressed together from knees to chest, Ian’s arms around Mickey’s waist and Mickey’s looped around his neck, until Sandy coughs from behind them.

“Adorable,” she drawls, and they both flip her off this time. Ian hold Mickey tighter instead, and kisses his hair.

“So,” he whispers into Mickey’s ear, “Sandy scared the shit out of me about this.”

Mickey just hums into his neck.

“I think you might need to make it up to me,” Ian adds. “What’s this I hear about a surprise?”

Mickey pulls back just enough to scowl at him. “Surprise got pinched,” he mutters. “Evidence now or something, greedy pig bastards.”

Ian grins. “I’m sure you can think of something else,” he muses, shifting to that they’re side by side, and starting off in the direction of their apartment. He waves over his shoulder at Sandy, a clear dismissal. “You’ve never lacked for ideas before.”

Mickey sighs, but leans into him as they walk.

“You’re gonna make me buy you fruit again, aren’t you?” he asks, resigned, and Ian thinks of the oranges he had left at the store, and the tomatoes that Mickey liked to tease him about.

“Maybe,” he answers, and smiles all the way home.

[daverygalskisbff]

could we get some allura & lance friendship prompts? i LOVED your other ones btw 💖💖💖💖

HI I'm sorry this took forever I have honestly no idea why bc I adore these two and I ADORE this prompt so my brain should not have shut down the way it did. anywayz to make up for the wait i tried to make this a bit longer than my usual posts :) I hope you like it!

(also, as usual, everything here I came up with myself, and if there's any similarity to someone elses post I apologise and promise it wasn't intentional)

now without further ado,

Lance and Allura!

similar to lance and pidge, the two are decidedly Not close in the beginning 

i had an entire thing about how i imagine they became friends at first written out, but it was a tad too long and i didn't want to clog up the post with too much exposition. so instead, let's just skip forward and get into their dynamic after they become buddies :) (however, if anyone wants to see the backstory I would not be opposed) 

although he no longer has a crush on her, lance makes it a point to hype her up as much as he possibly can 

at first allura was confused, because she thought it was him trying to flirt with her still, but once she understood what was going on she was more than willing to join in 

lance when allura completely destroys the training droid: WOWZA ladies and gentlemen of the jury may I present to you the icon the legend the moment herself her royal highness princess allura of altea!!!!! if you thought that was impressive just WAIT till she gets warmed up because this is just the beginning!!! she can even do it in heels- 

shiro: lance, please focus, this is really important that we- 

allura: no no, shiro, please. let him finish. 

they both show their friendship in slightly different ways. lance's way is that he is physically incapable of not humouring the princess

allura when lance shows her his cartwheel: incredible!!!!!!! i have never been more impressed in my life!!! do you think you could do it in heels?? 

lance: uhhh. y'know princess I'm really loving the faith, but- 

allura: :)? 

lance:.... what if you don't have my size? 

lance fractured his ankle. allura has yet to stop apologising. 

allura's way is definitely safer, but it's also a lot more... cluttered. to say the least.

allura, returning from a recon mission with a tiny bag filled with what looks like tiny, glittery dinosaur figurines made of glass: lance! look at what i bought for you! 

lance, taking one look at the contents of the bag: wow, 'lurra, this is… so nice of you

allura: lance, are you. are you crying? 

lance (definitely crying): what? NO! of course not!! I'm just. allergic, to. uh. oxygen. 

allura: what. 

allura never had any siblings back on altea, but she always wanted them

this, paired with how much lance misses his own family, means that the two of them kind of gravitate towards each other in terms of siblinghood. 

as a child allura would imagine what it would be like to have siblings, but especially a twin. she would fall asleep to dreams of secret handshakes, finishing each other's sentences, and swapping places to trick people

she doesn't realise the brother she has found in lance until a long time after they've become close (how would she recognise a dynamic she has never been privy to?) 

this realisation happens on just a random day in the castleship lounge. she is talking to hunk, when suddenly lance, who she didn't even realise was listening to their conversation, butts in and finishes her sentence. 

she's annoyed at being interrupted at first, but then what happened sinks in, and suddenly she's fighting off tears. lance doesn't know why she's crying, but he hugs her anyway. 

the two of them match accessories a lot 

with allura's love of pretty things (and the abundance of stuff in her closet) paired with lance's natural dramatics, nobody else on the team is entirely sure of whether this is intentional or not. 

it started off as intentional. it is now second nature. 

one decision, however, was completely planned and thought out for exactly twenty minutes, and then deeply regretted by both parties for the next 48 hours

allura pierced lance's ears 

now before you get judgemental, you try making a smart decision at two am space-time while very giddy and slightly buzzing on some weird old alien candy that not even your resident alien is sure the ingredients of. then talk to me. 

pidge: okay so you're gonna need a needle, ice, and… yeah I'm pretty sure that's it 

lance: don't we need a potato too

pidge: … why the fuck would you need a potato 

lance: I dunno!!! my sister pierced her friend's ears one time and she mentioned a potato!!! I'm just trying to make sure everything goes well, pidge! 

allura: I love these earth customs you two are showing me!! when I got my ears pierced it was done with some kind of laser, but your way sounds much more fun :). 

allura: also, what is a "potato" and where can we find one? 

it goes about as well as you would expect 

the excited buzz on lance lasts about three ticks into the process, and then the screaming starts

pidge (the genius who came up with the idea) gives him some altean taffy to chew on to stop him from making too much noise, and allura, the angel, is babbling right along with him 

allura, with tears in her eyes: how was I supposed to know it was going to hurt mine didn't hurt well it was 10,000 years ago and I was very young altean children don't have very strong pain receptors you know, maybe that's why my parents had it done at that age, or maybe your people are just completely barbaric, who thought this would be a good idea?? pidge why did you suggest this poor lonce is in tears lonce I'm so sorry but if it's any consolation at all at least now your ears won't be nearly as hideous as before and you can borrow as many of my earrings as you want except for the sparkly green ones that dangle those are my favourite well they're actually my second favourite I'm wearing my favourite - you can't borrow those either, by the way, but you can have any of the others I promise 

lance, also crying and still chewing the altean taffy: hhb, llura yub domf hoff do bologuys, ss long'ss yub sanstsd thu niddle frst 

allura (who did not remember to sanitize the needle), now crying freely: I don't understand what you're saying 

(pidge records the entire thing)

the next day lance wakes up with ears that are very sore and slightly green, and allura faints

they spend the entire morning avoiding shiro in case they get in trouble and trying to figure out how to get the healing pods to work

lance: what do you mean you don't know allura you literally lived in one of these 

allura: I was asleep the whole time!!! don't put this on me!! 

lance: don't put- you are the one that pierced my ears, allura, of course it's on you!

coran, who has been watching this entire interaction in silence: oh, I thought i noticed something different about you, number three! 

lance and allura: [screaming] 

coran helps them set up the healing pod 

unfortunately lance has to take the earrings out, so the holes close back up, but fortunately coran just so happens to know how to pierce ears the correct way that they did on altea 

lance, after half a day in the healing pod, watching coran advance upon him with a literal handheld flamethrower that shoots lasers: is it too late to go back to the ear infection 

coran is surprisingly very adept at the skill of altean beautification (an activity that has a surprisingly long and rich backstory, which lance and allura get an in-depth lesson on for the hour that it takes to do lance's ears properly) 

they're exhausted afterwards, but lance looks great, so they're in good moods regardless 

they like to teach each other about things from their respective planets - both for fun, and because it helps them feel less homesick 

whenever allura is particularly down about the loss of altea, lance will visit her in her room, and the two of them will just lie together on her bed. 

they don't say much, most of the time, just link their pinkies together and stare at the ceiling 

when they do talk, it's quiet, and always allura who starts it - she might share something she remembers about altea, and lance listens quietly and then responds with something he misses about cuba 

it isn't always sad tho - sometimes they just talk about things they remember that pop into their heads, or explain things to each other that they wouldn't otherwise know 

at the space mall, they make a game out of pointing things out to each other and trying to guess what it is (allura can only guess when they're in the earth shop, but it's okay because she more than makes up for it in enthusiasm) 

lance, holding a my little pony collectible: okay princess. what is this.

allura, completely serious: a weapon

lance: ... close

allura, holding up a set of magnetic heart necklaces to the light: what does… "biffs" mean? 

lance: it's "bffs," princess, it means "best friends forever" 

allura: oh! you mean like me and you? 

lance: 

lance: 'lurra what did we say about making me cry in public, we've talked about this- 

(they buy the necklaces. obviously.)

they mess with each other's hair a lot

once allura learns that lance's hair is naturally curly, and that he just straightens it all of the time, she makes it her god-given mission to convince him to wear it naturally more often

this mission includes plans such as stealing his hair straightener, "donating" a bunch of curly hair products to him because she "doesn't have the space", and getting keith to say he thinks curly hair is cool one day in the rec room

she still thinks it's the funniest thing ever that that actually worked

other than week-long sabotage plots, they both think it's fun to have lance braid allura's hair

he used to braid his sister's and niece's hairs all of the time, so he has a knack for it that allura did not expect at all but is obsessed with anyway

allura, coming to lance's room a few hours before another diplomatic party: hey..... how yall doin.....

lance, already prepared with a million different brushes and bands: oh my god just get in already

lance and allura have a lot in common 

one of these things, they learn very early into their relationship, is that they are both disasters when it comes to pretty girls (and boys, but that's a lance-exclusive situation)

so they become each other's wingmen

they both tend to get… a little too into it 

the team: [at a diplomatic ball]

lance, seeing a pretty alien girl looking allura's way and "politely" speedwalking over to her: alluralluraalluraalluraalluralluraalluraalluraalluralluraalluraallura pretty girl look over there eleven o'clock LOOK she's gonna walk away looklooklook

allura: lance darling thank you so much for your help but I am in the middle of talking to the president 

and alternatively: 

allura tries to set lance and keith up all the time. at first she was worried she would be overstepping boundaries, but after one particular sleepover where lance spent an entire hour lamenting his "bad luck" she decided to take things into her own hands 

this includes, but is not limited to; sending them on supply missions alone together (often), mentioning particular things lance has done to his appearance to keith every time she can, and talking about specific paladin bonds more than she maybe should 

lance hates it

keith, walking into the lounge: h-

allura, immediately: hello keith!! help settle an argument, will you :)? 

keith: um… okay 

allura: lovely! now, tell me, do you think lance looks cuter today than he did yesterday? we can't seem to agree on whether or by he's stunning or simply handsome. what do you think? 

keith: uh-

allura: oh, and while I have you, have you noticed that his ears are pierced? 

lance, beet red: allu-

allura: what :(?? can't i be proud of my handiwork?? 

lance, to keith: I am not associated with her

after a week of this keith literally sets up a system where if allura is in a room he walks into he just does a complete 180 and walks back out

one time, at a diplomatic meeting, an alien politician mistook them for a couple and they both choked on their drinks at the same time, and then got offended that the other one agreed that the concept was insane 

allura: what happened to being the princess of your dreams, lance?? I thought I MEANT something to you. obviously! i was wrong! 

lance: oh yeah?? then why did you GIGGLE, allura. what's so funny, huh?? my good looks??? my charming charisma?? how far out of your league I am??? 

allura: 

lance: okay maybe that last one was a bit of a stretch 

another thing lance and allura do is pronounce each other's names wrong

they call each other lonce and allora 

it started as lance kind of making fun of allura's accent, but turned into just one of their Things 

allura honestly didn't know it was a bit until the habit had been long constructed

[redrosesartcabin]

So yeah, I wrote the thing based on an anon message for @itsme-star

I made it a Barley x (female) reader (based on my self insert character) fanfic ‘cause I had to be a little self indulgent lmao

I hope you enjoy it! It turned out longer than I had planned xD

——————————————————

The double-decker couch

Barley x (female) reader fanfiction

———

Around three months ago:

Y/n’s boyfriend, Barley Lightfoot, had knocked on her window… with small stones… in the middle of the night:

At first her ear just twitched and the noise had mashed with the dream she was having, but the more the noise repeated, the more her consciousness felt pulled into the physical realm again, and with a groan, she had to face the reality that the noise would not stop until she got up (she already had a suspicion as to who was causing the noise).

With a heavy sigh, y/n forced herself from under her comfortable blanket, before ripping the window open.

‘Of course it’s him’, she thought, looking down at Barley as he waved his hands up at her, somehow wide awake.

‘How much energy can a person have?’, she asked herself, before she motioned with her hands, that she’d come outside.

“What in the world are you doing here?”, she asked as she arrived, whisper-yelling at him.

“Well you know how it is my lady: sometimes one just drives around at night after finishing a campaign of quests of yore and sees the poster of a double-decker bus and then one might think: ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if one could have a couch after that structure?’ After having had thought about a new couch for a while and ‘wouldn’t it be cool, if one might be able to build that with their girlfriend?’”

“I can’t say I relate, though I am impressed by one having the idea”, she said, deliberately accentuating the word ‘one’, as she couldn’t now but smile at her beautiful dork, “And I have to say I love the idea, though I still have to decide whether it was worth waking me up at three a.m… but for now I’ll just say yes, because I love you too much to be mad at you for this”

“I know: I’m irresistible”, he winked, pulling her closer to him and engaging her in a sickeningly romantic kiss.

“As nice as this is, I would still like to catch up on some sleep. We’ll write later and you tell when we should start building”

“I actually thought… you know… that maybe now-”

“Don’t push it”

“Right”

Now:

It hadn’t been easy. First they had to scavenge several junkyards for old couches (because let’s be real: They were both poor college students and buying material or new couches just was too expensive), who weren’t completely busted. Then they had to figure out how to build the thing.

After studying art for a while, where y/n had to do a bunch of installation projects, she had gotten significantly better at building things with woods and such, though she still wasn’t an expert. And whilst Barley also got crafty from time to time, he also wasn’t a master.

But somehow, after sweat, and even a couple of tears after y/n once got her hand stuck under one of the couches, they had finished it: The double decker couch.

“This-”, Barley said, pointing his finger at it, “This is beautiful”.

It was a yellow and a green couch, connected through metal poles and stabilized with old wood planks with two ladders placed on top of it and just enough space between the couches, so that one could sit up straight. It sort of looked like a bunk bed, but with couches.

“It is. It really is”, y/n agreed, looking at her bandaged hand, “totally worth busting my hand”

“Totally worth going through every junkyard in the city”, Barley added.

“Totally worth being awake once for 48 hours”, she added as well.

“This should be awarded some kind of price… maybe I’d also just be happy for some money for a wellness weekend ‘cause my back could really need a nice massage”, Barley groaned, touching the small of his back.

“Hard agree”

They stayed standing there for a while, looking at it, before y/n occurred a question that should’ve occurred to her much sooner.

“So-uhm-”, she started, “what do we actually do with it now?”, she asked

“Sit on it of course. You sit below and I above so I can feed you grapes like you’re a roman emperor”, Barley explained matter of factly.

“That sounds lovely darling but that’s not what I mean”

“What seems to be the issue then?”he asked, a little frustrated. What could she possibly have to say now? After so much hard work?

“I mean… where do we put it?”, she asked with a sincere expression which immediately washed away his annoyance, “because it certainly won’t stay in my parents basement”, she stated.

“It’s certainly more worthy than this old, dusty room with your family's junk. And also because this place is crawling with bugs that I will have to remove every time because you’ll just screech and run away until it magically disappears”

“Hey!”, y/n interjected

“It's true!”

“Ok yeah fair enough, though seriously- where? I also can bet’ya we can’t put it anywhere in our homes either. It probably barely fit under the ceiling”

“Yeah no”

A moment of contemplative silence spread across them.

After a while, Barleys thoughts wandered to the night where he had gotten the idea. He thought about his beloved car-

‘OH. MY. GOD. That’s it!’, he thought to himself.

“I got it!”, he then yelled excitedly, his face contorted into one of the most adorable expressions y/n had ever seen anyone wear. No matter what it would be: She couldn’t but say yes to that smile.

Still she asked, “What’ya got?”

“You know how I got my idea from a poster with a double-decker bus?”, he asked her, still smiling like he had won the lottery

“Yes?”

“And you know how I have a van, right?”

“No”, she answered sarcastically, “I know absolutely nothing about your most prized possession of a van that you called Guenivere the second after you sacrificed your first Guenivere when on a quest-”

“Ok I got the gist”, he chuckled, “but ok hear this: Since I have this wonderful van, this wonderful BIG van-”

“Wait a minute: You really want to put the couch in-”, she interrupted as she realized what he was saying, but got immediately interrupted back as he realized she had caught on

“Yes! I absolutely am”

“Dear lord… but ok I have no better idea, let’s do it”

“YES”

“Barley I am telling you, this is NOT working”, y/n huffed as she let her side of the construction gently land on the ground once again.

“Come on, just one more time!”, Barley pleaded.

“You’ve been saying ‘just one more time’ for an hour!”, she argued, “there is no way around: this just doesn’t fit inside the van. You underestimated Guenivere”

“Hey! There is no underestimating Guenivere! It’s not her fault”, he pouted.

“Ok ok ok... Sorry Gueni”, y/n said, giving the car a sincere pat on one of the back doors. She has gotten used to treating the car similar to a pet, “but seriously: We’ve been trying this at every angle, and as cool as Guenivere is, she can’t magically shapeshift”

“Magically shapeshift”, Barely repeated her last words, suddenly deep in thought, before an “ohhhh”, sound escaped him, “wait here my lady, I’ll be back in a sec”

“O...k”, she said, a little confused.

Five minutes later, she saw Ian storm out of his house, his hands clenched around his magic staff, with Barley closely behind him. “WHAT'S THE EMERGENCY?”Ian yelled as he came to a hold, which caused his brother to almost crash into him.

“I need you to make Guenivere big enough so that our self made double-decker couch fits into her”, Barely explained, breathing as though he had just run from death.

For a moment nobody said anything to that before Ian and y/n both shouted

“WHAT?”,at the same time.

“So much for an emergency”, Ian also mumbled, a little annoyed at his brother's antics.

“I mean: If she’s too small, then we can just make her bigger, right?”

“Technically yes but I think you didn’t consider a very small, tiny detail”, Ian commented.

“And what would that be?”, Barley asked irritated, not understanding what the issue was.

“You are aware as a supposed magic expert, that I can’t only enlarge the trunk, right? I would have to make the entire car big, and that would lead-”

“-to the entire street being filled with the car”, y/n finished the thought, apologetically laying her hand on Barleys shoulder, “I’m sorry my love. It was a nice thought”

“Dang it”, Barley breathed out, “I was looking forward to make my own uber-van-couch-double-decker-business”

“Hm”, y/n simply hummed. She had known from the beginning it would probably go south, but his enthusiasm had given her hope.

“Sorry Barley”, Ian said quietly, now feeling bad for having been so harsh beforehand , before slowly heading inside again.

Y/n and Barely sat down on the edge of Guenivere’s trunk, tired and disappointed that it all hadn’t turned out like they wanted as they looked at their creation.

Y/n leaned against Barley’s shoulder, lovingly rubbing her cheek against him like a cat (she loved doing that).

After a while Barley decided he had enough of sulking, standing up to go to the front to put on some good old metal (which luckily she enjoyed too).

As he however returned to the trunk, he noticed some ropes laying around.

He had used ropes last time to tie up some of the material he had bought for their project, so they wouldn’t move around- what if though…

“Ok I’ve had enough”, Barley decided, “I WILL have my double-decker-couch-van for more people to ride with me and my buddies and if its the last thing I’m gonna do!”

“Barley, what are you-”, y/n wanted to ask, but as she saw him pick up the ropes from the trunk floor, she understood, “- Are you sure this will work out?”

“Nope”, he answered truthfully, “but I will surely try!”

She was still skeptical, but at the same time she would try anything with him, and if it meant helping him tie a double-decker-couch to the roof of his van.

“If you believe it can be done, I will too”, she smiled, giving him a quick peck on his cheek, “let’s do this!”

It was eight p.m. The sun was almost behind the horizon and the streetlamps threw dodgy looking lights in the middle of the street and kept the corners dark.

But the elven couple, who stood in front of a yellow van with a double-decker couch tied to its roof, couldn't help but see what they had accomplished: Which was accomplishing what, at least the female elf, had thought was impossible… yet again.

“I can’t believe that worked”, Y/n mumbled.

“Told ya”, Barley hushed back.

“Should we drive around? See if anyone is crazy enough to go on a drive?”, she asked.

“You bet we are. And tomorrow… and whenever we can. I’ll be the driver and you the tourist guide.. or maybe some kinda sturdess, after all you’re good lookin’”

“Oh hush”, she giggled, visibly blushing

“And-”, he continued, though not without giving her a good wink after his compliment, “then we’re gonna show the dear people of this town another perspective to life”

“That we can promise”, she laughed, “that we sure can”

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

The Long Con Part Seven

Previous Part | Masterlist | Next Part Pairing: Marcus Pike x Reader Rating: T Notes: I hope y’all had a good week! 💕 Warnings: Oh hey look, more fluff! With a pinch of self-doubt! SO Sorry about that. Summary: You'd told Marcus at the start of this to treat it like an undercover assignment, and maybe he really was going the distance— treating this like an operation, putting himself into the mindset first thing in the morning.

Jill had been up with the sun, preparing food for the barbecue that afternoon. You’d made it a point to set your alarm to get up early and offer your help. But it had taken you a little while to get out of bed.

You and Marcus had been sleeping in bed together for the past three nights. You had been a little nervous at the beginning, sure - you hadn’t shared a bed with anyone for a while. But Marcus was the perfect gentleman when he was awake. The day you'd made the favor bags, you'd awoken to Marcus’ body had been curled around yours. His hand was resting lightly atop your hip, a touch that had been easy for you to draw yourself out from under. But this morning… This morning, you’d woken up cuddled up against Marcus. You were curled up against his side, your arm stretched across his middle. When you’d glanced up, you’d found Marcus just coming up from sleep, himself. Rather than moving away, you’d found yourself frozen, like he’d suddenly spot you if you moved. Marcus had just glanced down at you, murmured a soft, "Good morning,", and smiled sleepily, asking if you’d slept well as his hand had smoothed over your arm.  You’d relaxed a little, nodded, and rested your chin on Marcus’ chest. His sleepy smile had widened, his fingers trailing aimlessly over the back of your hand as the two of you had chatted about the last couple of days. You’d already shut off your alarm, knew that you should get up, and help Jill - that was why you’d set the alarm in the first place. But you were so comfortable, and Marcus seemed more than happy to let lay there and soak up some of his warmth. You did finally manage to pull yourself out of his arms, shower and dress. You’d settled on the edge of the bed to pull on your socks and house slippers. Marcus had cuddled up to you, still sleep-ruffled as he toyed with a loose strong on your shirt and chatted with you. It was another ten minutes before you’d managed to get yourself downstairs. -- Marcus' easy touches and your murmured conversations weighed heavily on your mind all morning. You'd told Marcus at the start of this to treat it like an undercover assignment, and maybe he really was going the distance— treating this like an operation, putting himself into the mindset first thing in the morning. And if he was— well, you couldn't fault him for it. It had been your advice, after all.

When Marcus had made it into the kitchen, finally, he found you at the counter with Jill and Marnie. After you’d offered your services, you’d been given your pick of the spare aprons and put to work chopping potatoes for the potato salad. Marcus crowded up behind you, resting his hands on your hips and his forehead on your shoulder as he’d waited for the coffee to brew (between yourself and Marnie, you’d wiped out the previous pot before he could make it downstairs). “You excited for later?” He asked softly as he shifted to rest his chin where his forehead had been. “Mhm,” You hummed softly, eyes set on your work, fingers working steadily at your task, “Are you?” “Sure,” He conceded, “Be nice to see some old friends...Family…” You glanced at Marcus, holding a chopped piece of cooked potato up to his lips. He hummed, sucking it from between your fingertips. Your skin prickled with heat as his lips brushed against the pad of your finger. “Thanks,” He mumbled around the tiny morsel before he’d turned his head, nuzzling into your neck. You’d felt the looks that Jill and Marnie were giving you, heard one of them murmur, “Adorable”. Marcus’ hands squeezed lightly at your hips, like a silent, ‘They’re buying it’. You tipped your head to the side, lightly resting your head against his for a few seconds before straightening up again. They were buying it. And if you weren’t careful, you were going to start buying it, too. 

--

It was times like this that you could tell Marcus was glad that you’d made it a point to practice your story as much as you had. Maybe he was starting to treat it like the two of you were undercover, but there was still that half-second panicked squeezing of your hand before he answered a question about your ‘relationship’. The two of you had gotten pretty good at this, though, and by the time the barbecue was in full swing, you were casually draped over one another, finishing the other’s sentences, leaning into endearments like, ‘honey’ and ‘sweetheart’ and, once, from you, ‘darling’. And maybe you should’ve felt a little bad, if only for the way some of Marcus’ family was cooing over the two of you, teasing him for being so lovestruck, but with Marcus, it was just so goddamn...easy. Everything felt so easy. When he tucked you under his arm, you felt like you fit perfectly into his side; you didn’t worry about the fact that you knew so few people. You didn’t stress yourself out about remembering names because, after the wedding, you were probably never going to see them again. “You doin’ okay?” You asked lightly, rubbing Marcus’ back gently as one of the members of his old band stepped away from you to get some food. “Yeah,” He nodded, “I uh… I think I’m alright. Are you?” “You haven’t cut off the circulation in my hand yet, so, yeah,” You teased, “I’m good.” Marcus chuckled, leaning in and brushing a kiss to your temple before he turned, looking around. You felt him go tense, and you frowned. “What is it?” “Uh… Spotted someone.” “Ex-wife?” “No. The...The woman Marnie was going to set me up with.” “Ah,” You glanced around Marcus, spotting the woman coming toward you. She was just a bit shorter than you, with bright red hair curled expertly around a diamond shaped face. Her eyes were slate grey— and focused in on the two of you.  “She’s hot,” You muttered. “Not that it’s a contest, but you’re hotter.” “Really taking this lie for a ride, huh?” Marcus’ brow furrowed, frowning down at you. He opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, you heard, “Marcus! I thought you might be around here somewhere.” And her voice was so shrill. You gave Marcus a teasing look before he turned to face her. “Couldn’t miss my sister’s wedding,” He gave an awkward little laugh, the likes of which you’d never heard. It looked like the woman wanted to step in for a hug, but her eyes darted to you before she could get too close. You gave her a bright smile as awkward silence persisted between the two of them. “Oh-- Sorry,” Marcus laughed as he introduced you, “Sweetheart, this is Kimberly. She used to live right down the block, and we went to Quantico together.” “Aw, neat, so you’re in law enforcement too, huh?” You smiled, draping your arm around Marcus’ middle once you’d let go of Kimberly’s hand. Her eyes darted to your arm, then up to Marcus’ face. You glanced between the two of them before straightening up. “You know what? Why don’t I let the two of you catch up,” You looked up at Marcus, “I will go see if your mom needs any help-- You need a drink or anything?” “N-No,” Marcus shook his head a little bit, but you could see the slight panic in his eyes. “Okay!” You could see the smile on Kimberly’s smile - a presumption that she’d managed to scare you off. So you turned, cupping Marcus’ neck and drawing him down for a kiss. You could feel him smiling against your lips, and you ran your thumb along his jaw as you sucked his lower lip between yours. You grinned at the sound of a soft, awed moan that left him, feeling his hand curl in the fabric of your dress before you leaned away. Marcus looked a little dazed, his grasp on you showing no sign of loosening, even as you reached up to lightly smear away some of your lipstick that had transferred onto his lips.   “Not quite your shade, babe,” You teased, winking at him. You lowered your hand, patting his chest lightly and turning back to an infuriated Kimberly and offering her a bright smile. “You two have fun!” -- Jill didn’t need any help, so you grabbed a beer for yourself and stepped over to a quiet corner of the porch and taken your phone out. You set the beer on the wide porch rail as you opened an email to answer. “That has to be the shortest conversation I’ve ever had with her,” You heard behind you. You smiled, finishing the email you were typing before glancing back at Marcus. “So? How’d it go?” You asked, turning to face Marcus and leaning back against the porch railing. “Well,” Marcus said thoughtfully, placing his hand on either side of you as he crowded up against you, “We made about two minutes of incredibly awkward small talk, she asked if I’d known you long and then left to get some potato salad.” “Damn,” You sighed, shaking your head a little bit, “I am...Good.” “You might actually be the best,” Marcus conceded. You smiled as he smoothed a hand over your side. “And that was… Some kiss,” He added softly. You smiled, licking your lips.  “Yeah, you seemed to like it. I mean, it was vindicating, what with my being so out of practice.” “If that’s you out of practice, I can’t imagine how proficient you are when you’re in top form.” You smiled a bit, drawing your lower lip between your teeth. Your stomach fluttered as Marcus’ eyes lowered to your mouth. He raised his hand, cupping your cheek and using his thumb to pull your lip from between your teeth. Your stomach fluttered as you felt Marcus' leg slide between yours, your chests brushing together. You’d noticed that, unlike other aspects of the lie, Marcus’ smiles and touches and kisses felt different. When Marcus leaned in for a kiss, there was no squeezing of your hand, no half-second of hesitation, no panic. When Marcus kissed you, it always felt so damnably real. He slipped his lips across yours before sucking your lower lip between his, as you had to him before. You sighed softly, raising your arm and looping it around Marcus’ neck and sliding your hand over the nape. You smiled as Marcus pressed you against the porch railing, arm curling around your upper back. You kept your eyes closed as the kiss broke. Marcus didn’t stray, just brushed another kiss against your lips, then another before he rested his forehead against yours. “Any better?” You teased softly. “Better and better,” He murmured, “Every time.” You lowered your head, lightly butting your head against Marcus’ jaw as sheepishness twisted your lips into a smile. Tag list: @hufflepuffing-all-day-long ; @spideysimpossiblegirl ; @blueeyesatnight ; @elen-aranel ; @yespolkadotkitty ; @artsymaddie​ ; @phoenixhalliwell​ ; @lunaserenade​ ; @winniedaboo​  ; @empress-palpat1ne​ ; @randomness501​ ; @nutmeg-20​ ; @leonieb​ ; @the-feckless-wonder​ ; @lou-la-lou​ ; @captain-jebi​ ; @supernaturalgirl​ ; @naturenebula21​ ; @evelynseventyr​ ; @giselatropicana​ ; @heatherbel​ ; @marydjarin​ ; @annathewitch​ ; @absurdthirst​ ; @hnt-escape ; @writingletterstothefire​ ; @misswriter​ ; @bison-writes​ ; @xx-small-town-witch-xx​ ; @ajeff855​ ; @hellovanessax

[fandom-crazy-lunatic]

Swimming lessons

Summary: when Stark decides to drag the avengers (including Loki) along to a pool party, a rather embarrassing secret is revealed. Loki can’t swim.

Pairing(s): Loki x Reader

Warning(s): uhh not being able to swim (does that count?), fluff, some steamy-ish elements

Characters: Loki, y/n and the avengers

‘Tony, is this really a good idea?’ you grumbled, as he took off his shirt and pants to reveal a pair of fiery-patterned swimming trunks.

‘Is anything I do a good idea? No, but it’s fun,’ Tony replied with a smirk. ‘Now outta those clothes and into the pool, I didn’t buy it for you all to stand on the edge.’ As if to emphasise his point, he ran up to the deep end and dove in, quickly resurfacing.

You shook your head, but before long you and the others were in the water, and having a pretty good time doing it. The only one who wasn't swimming was Loki, who sat on a bench by the side, looking immensely bored. Stark insisted on him coming along, and he couldn't exactly say no, or he'd lose the relative freedom he had from being with the Avengers.

As you swam up and down, occasionally diving under to grab someone's leg or splash their face, you couldn’t help but feel as if you were being watched, but every time you looked back at Loki, he averted his gaze. Typical.

Thor was probably enjoying all of this the most. So much, in fact, that he felt the need to call out, ‘Loki! Why don’t you join us for once?’

Loki glared. ‘And why would I feel the need to do that?’

‘Because it’s fun.’

‘Fun.’ He repeated. ‘Splashing around in chlorinated water is fun, is it?’

‘Yeah, it is, come on in, stabby,’ Natasha teased.

‘Stabby?’

‘Sounds kinda cute,’ you chimed in.

Loki was about to have a full on outraged monologue, but before he could, Thor promptly pulled himself out of the water, lifted Loki up, and tossed him into the deep end.

Tony and Nat burst out laughing. You, however, didn’t, as you saw Loki flailing about under the water. You paused for a second, expecting him to surface, but it seemed pretty clear that that wasn’t about to happen, at least not by itself.

Everyone froze in shock. Loki, god of mischief, the man who nearly took over New York, couldn’t swim?

He looked completely helpless, trapped under the water. You were always the empathetic one. Nobody seemed to be moving to help him, even when you gave them all your best death stare.

You took a deep breath, and swam towards him, pure determination egging you on. You’d always been a strong swimmer, and now was your chance to prove it.

Your arms wrapped around his torso, and you desperately kicked your legs, the water bearing his weight. Spluttering, he clambered out once you had reached the surface, his hair and clothing soaked. You climbed out after him.

‘Well that was...’ Steve started.

‘Something,’ Clint finished. 

You ushered Loki into the changing rooms before he could murder everybody within a five mile radius. You were lucky that he tolerated you— in fact you were the only one that he tolerated— or he might have done something pretty drastic in his humiliation.

‘Thor.. that oaf, what the HEL did he think he was doing? I’ll kill him one of these days..’ he muttered angrily to himself as he paced up and down. You silently prayed that nobody would burst in on you two. He was annoyed enough.

‘Hey,’ you said, in the most soothing voice you could muster. ‘It’s okay.. it’s really not a big—’

‘I was just publicly thrown into a body of water, and my incompetence in that area was on display for EVERYONE to see. Don’t you even try and downplay it.’

‘I’m just saying... we all have stuff we’re bad at.’

Loki had now sat himself on the bench and was staring at one particular floor tile with enough anger to melt an iceberg.

A pause.

‘Do you have spare clothes?’ you asked, rubbing the back of your neck awkwardly.

‘No,’ he clipped.

‘I’d offer mine, but I doubt they’d fit,’ you laughed weakly.

‘Do I look amused?’

You decided it was best to shut up at that point.

***

Three days later, Thor burst into your bedroom.

‘Woah, have you heard of knocking?’

‘Sorry, Y/N. Urgent matter. Have you seen my brother?’

‘Loki? Is he lost?’

‘Apparently so.’

You leap off of your bed, pushing past Thor.

You searched for three hours, shaking and prodding every inanimate object you could find before an idea struck. A very, very, stupid idea, but still possible.

The front glass doors barely had time to open before you were through, and outside.

A mile of running, maybe two, before you were there: the swimming pool you had been to the day before. Your suspicions were confirmed once you burst in.

The sight would have been hilarious if you hadn’t been so worried. Loki, holding on desperately to the side of the pool, looking like a small, trapped animal, kicking his legs with so much force that the floor was flooded.

He was trying to teach himself to swim. It was almost adorable. You’d never thought him to be the type to do that, though. You’d pegged him as the type to run away from his problems and never actually get them fixed.

The moment he noticed you he pulled himself out, glaring, the same angrily humiliated face that he’d worn yesterday.

‘Loki! You idiot, everyone’s looking for you.’ You said, trying not to notice the fact that he was only in his underwear, his soaked dark hair hanging loosely around his angular face, the water making all the lean muscles on his torso shine. You stopped yourself from looking further down.

‘And?’

‘They’re worried.’

‘Not about me.’

‘I was.’

He glanced up at you. You couldn’t quite read his expression.

You were trying so hard to look him in the eyes. ‘Are... are you going to come back?’

‘Not until I want to.’ All his answers were short, impatient. Angry.

Then you did something completely impulsive. You threw your shirt over your head and kicked your jeans down, leaving you in your underwear. Loki looked you up and down, and you went to cover yourself with your arms.

Sliding into the water, you gave him the kindest smile you could muster, swimming towards his side and grabbing his calves. You were in an extremely awkward position, but you tried not to let it show on your face.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’

‘Swimming with you. Come in.’

‘Is this some sort of joke?’

‘Nope. I’m gonna show you how, right here. Just you and me. That’s better than everyone else watching, right? It’ll stop you from humiliating yourself again.’ You regretted saying that last sentence, and expected him to lash out at you, but instead he let you pull him in by his legs.

‘Oh, Norns,’ he muttered, reaching out to the nearest solid object. Which happened to be you.

‘It’s okay, I’m not going to let you drown.’

Your heart was pounding at about a thousand miles an hour. His fucking perfect body was nearly pressing up against you. It didn’t help one bit that neither of you were fully dressed. His breath cooled your skin as he grasped your shoulders for dear life, wide eyes staring up at you. You had to resist giving yourself a shake to stop this self-destructive chain of thought.

‘Right, now, hold on to the edge. Yeah, like that. First you need to learn how to kick your legs properly.’

***

He was a quick learner, you gave him that. Thank goodness for the water hiding most of his body from you or you would have never been able to concentrate. Before long he could propel himself from one side to the other. You gave him your biggest smile and tried to be encouraging, but he dismissed your efforts.

He clambered out, sitting himself on the edge. You went to sit next to him.

‘Well this was..’ you said, not quite sure how to finish your sentence.

‘Pleasant,’ he finished. 

‘I’m sorry? I thought–’

‘You thought wrong. Spending time with you was pleasant.’

You scoffed. ‘Yeah, right.’

‘I mean it. I’ve mentioned before that I found you tolerable, but now I’m willing to admit that I possibly may have some affection for you, mortal.’

You stared down at the water, too awkward to look him in the eyes.

You felt something cold on your hand. Loki’s. He lifted it up to his lips, giving you the softest kiss imaginable. ‘May we do this again sometime?’

‘I’d love to.’

He smiled, warm and sincere at first, morphing into a small smirk. ‘Oh and Y/N?’

You looked up at him.

‘Your clothes are completely soaked through.’

[lilosaur]

hi hi! okay so, i really like your work and i find them very fluffy and adorable— so! can i request a scenario (chifuyu, kawata twins, baji and mitsuya) where s/o comes out as non-binary and the boys are extremely supportive about it? again, i really love your work!

Aha thank youu! Yess! I hope u enjoy reading, this was fun to write. Also this was with 5 people but my limit is 4 so be sure to read rules next time (I just did one twin) :)

♡‧₊˚ Coming Out As Non-binary :*₊‧✩

⟶ ticket no. 12 ɞ

w/ Matsuno Chifuyu | Kawata Nahoya | Baji Keisuke | Mitsuya Takashi

ʚ Matsuno Chifuyu ɞ

You and Chifuyu were on a little coffee shop date, you had stayed up all night debating weather you should tell Chifuyu about you being non-binary. Once you successfully decided with yourself that your non-binary you wanted to keep it secret for a while but now it’s time to let it out. You were so nervous “what if” thoughts started to wander in your head. Would Chifuyu still view you the same? Would he start to test you differently? Maybe he’d just dump you on the spot and leave you in tears. No no you couldn’t think like that right?

So many doubts clogging your mind you only have one idea left, you had to blurt it out in one shot just break the ice and say it.

“Fuyu..I have something to tell you.”

Chifuyu's facial expression changed a bit he was now intrigued at what you had to say. His own mind starting doubting him too, we’re you going to break up with him right here and now? Did you not love him anymore? Both of you looked at each other worried about what you would both say.

“Fuyu I just wanted to let you know that I’m non-binary”

Chifuyu looked at you and his face was so much more calm now. You really scared him for a moment, honestly he didn’t realize what you said until a few seconds later after calming himself down.

“Oh, so wait does that mean your not a male or female right?”

“Yeah so..”

You continued to help educate Chifuyu on what exactly non-binary meant and which pronouns you’d prefer him to address you by. He's just an uneducated baby but he’ll understand as you explain more things to him.

When you feel insecure about it Chifuyu makes sure to step in and make you feel loved, sometimes he buys you a gift, someone’s he gives you extra cuddles or extra kisses. Once fuyu even bought you a little non-binary flag! He 110% supports you and wants to learn more about it, he doesn’t even view you any differently your still the same sweet Angel he fell in love with.

༚༅༚˳❃˳༚༅༚

ʚ Kawata Nahoya ɞ

You and Nahoya were watching movies and cuddling on a Saturday night, you’d debated ever even telling Nahoya about you being non-binary. You felt like he wouldn’t really understand or just be unsupportive of you. However you came to the conclusion that you have to tell him about it at some point.

“Uh Nahoya…can I tell you something..” You asked silently he could barely hear you.

“What’s wrong y/n?”

“Um…Nahoya I just wanted to let you know…but um I’m non-binary.” You mumbled it kind of whispering too he really just could barely hear you.

“Oh y/n wait I heard that before, what does it mean again?” He looked at you in confusion hoping you’d answer his question.

You took a little sigh of relief as you explain to him what non-binary means and how he could help support you and make you feel more comfortable. He was nodding his head along the whole time but you could tell he was definitely invested. The best part was he never once dropped his smile, which means he doesn’t view you any differently!

Nahoya still needs some practice as he may address you wrong but he’s still in his early learning stages of it all, he’ll always correct himself. Once you told him Nahoya gave you a nice cuddly hug and a kiss on the forehead, he told you he’ll love you no matter what because your still you!

༚༅༚˳❃˳༚༅༚

ʚ Baji Keisuke ɞ

You thought Baji might actually have a normal reaction, but when you called him to hangout and said you have to told him something your thoughts completely changed when you were in person about to tell him. You two were walking around town he was waiting to hear what you had to say, tbh your kinda scaring him..

You decided to just spit it out, no more holding back on him he has a right to know, right? You tried to calm yourself and mentally prepare yourself for all the outcomes of this situation but it’s barely working…

“Um so, Baji…we’ll I’m non-binary.” You almost mumbled it, your hands clung to your shirt messing around with your nails as nervousness began to break into your mind with his silence.

“Oh. Okay, what should I do to help support you y/n.”

Baji grew such a light and warm smile on his face now, giving you a look that seemed to be saying ‘don’t worry’

You explain to Baji what non-binary meant/is and he’s trying his best to understand and remember it all. Honestly he really doesn’t bring it up much he uses your preferred pronouns/name and always makes sure to tell other people your correct pronouns if they address you wrong. (With ur permission ofc.)

Baji's love for you will never change, your such a sweet person to him and you have a very special place in his heart. how cute

༚༅༚˳❃˳༚༅༚

ʚ Mitsuya Takashi ɞ

Mitsuya always showed how much he loved you, weather it was through gifts, actions, or words you always knew. So why were you in doubt of Mitsuya? Would he really just stop loving you? Ever since you made the final decision that you are indeed non-binary you’ve been terrified to tell anyone. At some point he’d need to know though, it’s scary even when you see him it feels like a big secret. You two already had plans to hang out tonight at his house, but was this good timing?

It was already too late to think about it, you found you and Mitsuya sitting on his bed just talking about your lives and what’s been going on. It hit your mind again, is this good timing? He literally just asked if anything new is going on in your life, how do you tell him though? Beat it around the bush or straight forward?

“Um y/n is something wrong.” I guess you were quiet for too long and zoned out a bit, his voice was so soft and gentle. Yes now is good timing.

“Um Mitsuya..I have something to tell you and it’s kind of big.” Mitsuya grew a worried expression once you said it was a big thing, so many possibilities filled his mind. Your both stressed out now.

“Mitsuya I’m non-binary.” As that sentence left your mouth you started to hold your breath, hoping, praying, wishing everything would still be the same without any change.

“Y/n! I’m so happy for you, that’s great!” He said with a smile on his face. You let yourself breathe now, he was okay with it? So bizarre but not really..

“Y/n I hope you know this won’t change anything though, your still the y/n I fell in love with.” His words broke through all the bad thoughts and endings you started to think of, Mitsuya really did accept you.

In fact Mitsuya has been questioning himself too, he’s been studying all kinds of pronouns, sexualities, and overall what he wants his identity to be. So he understand and you two will work with each other to help you guys find your true selves!

beep boop, aha I procrastinated this a lot bc of schoolwork so sorry for not posting for two days 😅 Anyways I hope you guys enjoyed this one! Remember you're all valid, don’t let anyone get you down your so special in this world no matter what you identify as or who you love. 🤎

[a-simple-imagine]

An Afterthought pt.2

Synopsis: Maeve shows up on your doorstep one night all sad and what not then leaves. Now it’s your turn to try and make amends. 

Pairing: Queen Maeve x fem!reader

Words: 4.1+

A/N - Did someone call for an angsty part 2 to a story i put out almost a year ago?? I got a fair few requests for this so here it is. I hope you enjoy it sorry if you don’t. request are open btw.

Warning - Swearing, violence and a very brief mention of zombies. 

Part 1 

Thoughts about Maeve are more frequent as of late. What was once just a passing thought as you spotted her face on magazine covers or painted on walls now became bothersome. What exactly had brought her to your doorstep that night? It had just been so unexpected. It left you so painfully curious for answers. There had to be more to the story. Not to mention, you also found yourself missing here once again: more so than before. A deep ache that came from an old forgotten wound that had begun to heal through time. A week had passed before you decided to do something stupid. It's amazing what you can find out online these days.

A bright sun sat high in the sky which left the air dry and you feeling warm. The hustle and bustle of city life was always your least favourite thing about living here and it was even worse today. Crowds of people stand behind a barrier that was maned by a few security guards. Did these people not having anything better to do than gawk at supes all day? You had basically scrubbed the internet to find out where she would be today which lead to a Twitter thread between someone called @MAEVESWIFE and @maelander who were talking about a vought commercial being shot outside the tower today. Queen Maeve and Homelander would both be there. But at least you personally knew here unlike these guys. It was kind of cool how many people idolised them. Working your way through the crowd, you earned some very dirty looks for trying to get to the front. Homelander and Maeve were in fact stood before a crew of people and a few cameras, smiling brightly and saying something you couldn't quite hear. Maeve seemingly spots you among the crowd so you wave a little. It was hard to figure out if she was happy or furious but she signals for a break and charged towards you. The crowd erupts with excitement as the Queen herself graces them with her presence and Homelander trails behind her. The woman offers nothing but polite smiles to the adoring fans as she takes your hand leading you along the length of the barrier and over to the threshold. It was safe to say that just about everyone who was still standing behind the security guards was very pissed off that you were getting special treatment.

"What are you doing here?" She growls through gritted teeth and a plastered on smile that disappears once you're out of view from prying eyes.

"I wanted to see you after-"

"Who's this?" You both turn to him and then back to each other.

"Oh my god, it's Homelander," You express, plastering on your brightest smile. Tall, Muscular with an award-winning smile. Bright blue eyes and silky blonde hair. The one and only Homelander walks up beside the two of you. It was almost humbling to be standing before the leader of the seven. He was so powerful- they both were and you were nothing short of ordinary.

"This is a closed set,"

Maeve didn't seem to know what to say exactly so you take it upon yourself to introduce yourself to him as her friend. Although you weren't even sure you could call yourself that at this point. It was a complicated relationship and considering you had broken up, it was the most appropriate label.

"Oh, She has never mentioned you,"

You're about to answer when Maeve takes your arm abruptly and pulls you away from the man. "Will you give us a second,"

A little confused, you give him a little wave goodbye paired with an awkward little smile. His eyes seem to trail after you but you think nothing of it.

"He's taller than expected," You muse aloud as attention falls back to your ex-girlfriend. Arms crossed over her chest and with a less than favourable expression on her face, it's pretty clear she isn't happy. Now she knows what it's like to have an ex show up unannounced.

"What do you want?" Maeve whisper yells at you. "I'm a little busy."

"I know just..." A quick glance to Homelander who had returned to his adoring fans. He had superhearing so you were pretty sure he could still hear you anyway. "after the other night I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm fine."

"If everything was fine you wouldn't show up on my doorstep." A casual shrug of your shoulders. Maeve may be able to fake a smile for the cameras but it was always pretty obvious to you when she was lying to you.

"I said I'm fine. You need to leave."

"Maeve," A soft sigh leaves your lips and you take her hand in yours; brushing your thumb over the back of her hand. "You can talk to me."

"Leave," She growls, pulling her hand away. "Please."

"We need to talk about the other night- you at least owe me that."

With a deep breath, Maeve turns on her heel and begins to walk away. "I'm busy,"

For a moment you just watched her walk away then jogged after her. "Then we can talk later- you could come by tonight? I'll even make dinner."

"Fine. Now leave."

This time you let her walk away and continue making her little advertisement. You wouldn't admit to her that you stuck around a little longer. Even got a chance to talk to Homelander a little before heading home. Chill dude, if not a little intimidating. Maybe it had been a stupid idea to invite your ex-girlfriend over for dinner but you wanted to get to the bottom of all this. You were actually a little nervous for her to arrive. Cooking had never been your specialty but you wanted everything to be perfect. A quick stop on the way home to buy groceries, you worked on dinner since getting home. pacing around as you waited for her to arrive. And waited. And waited. and waited. Lucky for the uneasy feeling that had settled in your stomach, Maeve didn't show up. It probably should have been expected. She had never been the most reliable person unless she was saving the world apparently.

A loud bang has you stirring awake before the sun. It was probably just the neighbours; a loud groan as you bury your face into the covers to go back to sleep. But the banging doesn't stop and you soon realise it's your door. Rolling over, you check your phone to see it's four in the morning. What could anyone want at this time in the morning? Dragging yourself from under the protection of the duvet, you cautiously head to the door. Peaking through the peephole to see... Queen Maeve. "Just give me a chance."

A chance? You weren't sure she deserved any more of those but you still unlock the door and pull it open. Glancing over her as she offers up a smile. Does she ever wear anything other than her armour? "Chances comes after nine am." You protest putting what little strength you had into trying to close the door. It was effortless on her end to keep it open.

"You invited me over, remember?"

"I invited you over for dinner, Maeve. No sane person has dinner at four in the morning."

"I forgot I had a team-up with Black Noir- Just let me in."

With a defeated sigh, you step aside and retire to the couch. Slumped down against the cushions, your head falls back as your eyes flutter closed. The click of your door infers she follows you inside.

"Tired?"

"Mhmm." You hum, nodding nonchalantly.

"Do you want me to make you some coffee?" Maeve suggests and again, you nod. She was familiar with the apartment so she knew where everything was but it still felt a little odd to have her wandering around with such familiarity. Who just shows up this early for a serious talk? A silence comes between the two of you. She may have attempted to keep the conversation going in between asking if you wanted coffee and delivering it to you but you didn't notice. Sitting up as a hand is gently placed against your shoulder, she hands over a large mug.

Blowing gently over the top before you take a tentative sip; warmth radiated from the liquid as it slips down your throat. Maeve joins you, perching on the edge of the couch as if she was ready to leave again. Maybe she was now regretting her decision to visit. You were kind of regretting opening the door instead of just going back to sleep instead. Since you were up anyway, might as well make the most of it.

"I can- I can make you breakfast or something if you want? Since you... missed dinner."

"Oh great, yeah," Maeve responds.

"What would you like? Cereal, toast, pancakes maybe?"

"Pancakes would be great." Of course, they would. She had to pick the option that required the most effort. You didn't mind making her something as much as you just didn't want to get up.

"Alright just... give me a moment to wake up."

"You won't wake up if you keep trying to go back to sleep," A snarky remark that earned her a small smile, your middle finger shoots up in response. The two of you just sit in silence together and every few seconds or so you'd take a sip of the coffee she made. It was all feeling a little awkward. Placing the mug down on the coffee table, you rise and get started on making breakfast. Maeve moves from the couch to the kitchen table, fiddling with the little salt and pepper shakers that always resided there. You don't know what to say and clearly, neither does she.

"So... how are things?" You question as you whisk the mixture together.

"I'm fine, I guess" She shrugs a little. You can't help but sigh a little. "What?"

"Nothing," you insist, grabbing the frying pan and place it over a medium heat; Adding a blob of butter and some oil. "If you don't want to talk Maeve then why did you bother to come over?"

Placing down the salt and pepper shaker with a clink, her attention falls to you. "because you asked."

"Yeah, I asked to talk about the other night. You were clearly messed up."

"Why is it so hard to believe I was just looking to fuck?"  It was really hard to believe but rather that you just knew it wasn't true. You were pretty sure Maeve had her choice of partners should she require one. So why come to your door?

"Because I'm not stupid" You pour the mixture into the pan with a satisfying sizzle. "I know you well enough to know that's bull."

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you thought."

Flipping the pancake over, you're taken back by her comment. Did you know Maeve as well as you thought? You had never expected her to just up and leave you one day and she did? She lived an entire superhero life that you knew nothing about. Maeve had always been pretty private when it came to that side of herself. You make another couple of pancakes before serving her up a plate.

"You aren't eating?"

"Too early," you return, taking up the seat opposite her. You watch as her fork pierce the surface of the pancake, cutting off a small piece and pop it into her mouth.

"Taste okay?"

"They're good," Mouth hidden behind the palm of her hand as she mumbled through her food. It lowered a moment later.  "I came over because my job is hard. I was the in the area, I was having a tough day."

"A tough day?" Getting any sort of details out of her was like pulling teeth. Why was she so reluctant to speak to you? If she didn't want to have this conversation she should have just no turned up like she hadn't for dinner. Would have saved the effort and you could be sleeping right now.

"Yeah,"

"That's that then." Hands slap against the table as you rise from the seat. No point in sticking around if this wasn't going anywhere.  "Case closed. When you're finished just leave the plate in the sink, I'm going back to bed."

"Seriously?"

"You woke me up at four am just to tell me you had a bad day. Shit, I have plenty of bad days, I don't show up at Vought tower." You start walking back towards your bedroom although your slow, hesitant even like you were just waiting for an excuse to turn back.

"I really was having a bad day," she repeats. "Really bad. And all I could think about was seeing you." And getting drunk, guess she just conveniently forgot about that part. There were many moments although brief where you were having a hard time and you thought about going to see Maeve. She used to be such a big part of your life it was almost an instinct to return to her for comfort. You never actually did obviously. As pathetic as her explanation was, it brought you back to the dining table. "Can I ask you something?"

"Depends."

"What's the worst thing you could ever imagine?"

"Huh?" What kind of question was that?

"Just answer it,"

Your mouth opens but no answer comes to mind at all. You were more curious about the reason behind it. It's too early for philosophical debates and it had nothing to do with anything you had been talking about. "uh, I don't know... post-apocalyptic zombie invasion, maybe?"

"Can you take this seriously?"

"I am," you huff. It was a stupid question anyway. "Zombies-"

"really freak you out, I remember." Strange thing to remember. It couldn't have come up in conversation often. It was a little funny the small things people remembered about each other. "I meant something that could actually happen though. I've seen some pretty fucked up shit."

"Like what?" She turns to you like she's about to say something but quickly stops herself. Continuing the eat the breakfast you so lovingly prepared. With the way she had been playing with her food, you suspected she no longer wanted it despite having hardly eaten any.

"Being a hero isn't all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes I wish I could just live a normal life or whatever"

"Nothing glamorous about a normal life," You stifle a yawn. "I think I'd rather be adored by millions and save the day but we aren't all lucky enough to have powers."

"Lucky," A bitter laugh. "I wouldn't call myself lucky."

"You're being so weird." You comment, a quirked brow.

"I would rather be adored by one person who truly means it."

"Guess that's all anyone wants. Supe or not."

Her eyes meet yours for a few seconds before dropping. Did she mean you? There was no doubt you had feelings for the woman and very much still did. But you can't imagine it's anything compared to the weirdos who worship the ground she walks on. They obviously didn't really know her and vice versa but still. There was an element of pureness that came with being so dedicated to someone. "You never answered my question."

"I don't know Maeve it's too early..." You grumble. "Do you want me to say something like war or famine or something?"

"Not unless it's the truth."

Everyone wished for world peace. Everyone wanted to feed the hungry. House the homeless. Basic answers that any decent person would come up with. It lacked originality. It lacked feeling. Everyone would probably have a more personal reason."What's yours?"

"Something happening to you... because of me."

"Really? That's the worst thing you can think of?" Didn't she just say she had seen a lot of messed up stuff and yet her concern resided with you? What did she think would happen? And didn't a broken heart technically count as something happening because of her? Shifting in your seat, you lean down onto the table before you. Thinking of your own answer. The worst thing you could imagine?

"I answered," she shrugs but doesn't elaborate. "Now you go."

"I guess... finding out you died," Should you admit something like that? "You're the strongest person I know. I still... care for you. I'm not sure I would handle it well- Is that a better answer?"

"It's sufficient."

"Sufficient? I really don't know what you want from me Maeve? I don't know what the worst thing is, okay? I'm too tired for this shit."

She places her cutlery carefully on the plate, pushing out her seat. "I should go."

"Maeve?"

"I'll go, you can go back to bed. I don't even know why I came here."

"No. Stay. I wanna talk."

" Let's just forget this ever happened." Brushing herself off, Maeve heads back towards the door. This whole back and forth was growing awfully tiresome. Every time you thought you scratched the surface of her mask, there was a new layer underneath more impenetrable than the last. Maybe you should just let her go? It'd be easier. It was probably for the best too but when she had shown up at your door the other night, you realised just how much you still wanted this. Still wanted her. She may have left you one day without any explanation but seeing her for the first time in a long time had brushed all rational thought aside. You were in love with her even now. Tears brimmed your eyes whether it was due to tiredness or a flush of emotions, it was unclear.

"If you walk out that door I'm done," You declare as confidently as you can. Hoping your sadness was hidden amongst the dim light that filled the entire room. "Don't bother showing up on my doorstep when you have a shitty day." Maeve pauses with her hand on the doorknob but only for a second before twisting the handle and pulling open the door. "Maeve...  just tell me what's going on with you, please."

"Everything I have done to you was to protect you." Final words as she leaves. The door clicking behind her. To protect you? From what? What was she even talking about anymore. Anger bubbles deep inside you and you find yourself charging after her. Bursting out into the chilly hallway, you catch her in the corner of your eye. She was leaning against the wall just outside your apartment basking in the flicker of the corridor light.

"Protect me from what?" You wonder quietly, taking a wary step closer. "I don't understand."

"...Homelander." Voice but a whisper mumbled into the darkness. Homelander? The Homelander? Why would you need protection from him, you didn't even know him? Plus he was like a beloved superhero and the last time you checked, superheroes were the good guys.

"You're scared of... the world's greatest superhero?"

"Never meet your heroes."

"Aren't you two like friends? You even dated him. Why are you scared of him?" Another step closer, you lay your hand tenderly on her shoulder. An attempt to support her even if you didn't understand the situation. "He didn't seem so bad when I met him yesterday. I actually spoke with him after."

"You spoke after? Why?" Maeve snarled swiftly making you back away a little only for her hand to snap around your wrist. Cold fingertips apply a deep pressure to your skin as if it's taking everything in her not to press harder. You swallow hard, confused by her anger. "I told you to leave"

"It- it's not a big deal. He just wanted to know more about us," Even you can hear the panic in your voice as you struggle to get the words out. It was a little embarrassing, to say the least, but you'd never really experienced this side of Maeve before. Her anger had never really been directed towards you.

"And you told him?"

"Yeah. He took it pretty well actually, I was surprised. "

"How can you be so fucking stupid?" Her grasp begins to stiffen around your wrist. Maeve was strong, inhumanly so. If she wanted to she could break every one of your bones like it was nothing. That never used to bother you so much but in this instance, your own weakness had never been more apparent.

"Maeve," You struggle against her grip, a pleading look as you meet the brown of her eyes. "...You're scaring me,"

Those magic words seemed to break the spell that had come over her and Maeve released you in an instant. Regret washing off her face in record time. "I'm sorry, okay- I'm sorry," You take a step back; the other hand rubbing at the wrist she just let go off. "I didn't mean to- I wouldn't hurt you."

"I... let's just go back inside." It's hard to pretend that didn't just happen. That Maeve didn't almost crush your wrist for doing the wrong thing. But it wasn't her fault, right? She just isn't herself at the moment. Her emotions got the best of her when she found out you told Homelander about your relationship. Warily, you hold out your hand in offering. It's a little shakey but you just hope she doesn't notice as she takes your hand and you lead the way back into your apartment. Shutting the door behind the two of you, you return to the couch. Sat on either ends so you're as far away as possible without being on the floor, things are feeling a little awkward now. You can't help but focus on your wrist, the feeling of her hand still lingers in a ghostly embrace. "I'm sorry I told Homelander about us."

"You didn't know..."Maeve lets out a heavy sigh as she turns to face you. "Homelander is a monster. He's hurt people just for looking at me funny- "

"Oh." A little surprising to hear. You had always kind of suspected Homelander was a bit of an arsehole but not that he was inherently a bad person. He saves people after all. You've seen him save people. He was basically on the news every other day or in the newspaper or trending on Twitter. There was no evidence to supporting Maeve's theory but you also had no reason not to trust her. She had no reason to lie to you.

"He's done atrocious things. He's made me do atrocious things. I was trying to protect you from him- and from myself,"

"...Why are you telling me this now?" Couldn't she have just told you all this from the beginning? It still didn't explain why she had just shown up the other day either? Clearly, something had happened between her and Homelander at least that's what you gathered from the context.

"To keep you safe," Maeve returns. "So you'll stop hating me."

"I could never hate you," An offer of a faint smile that may or may not betray you. When she had first left you, you were so filled with hatred but it was so hard to stay angry at her. You didn't hate her anymore but you couldn't say you were simply over it now. "It's not your fault."

"It is though- I put you in this situation. I let those people die,"

"What are you talking about? What people?" Every time Maeve opened her mouth you grew slightly more confused and you didn't know how to help. Watching her with an inquisitive eye, you notice as a tear or two begins to glide down her rose-tinted cheeks. It was enough to bring your walls crashing down. Whatever she was talking about must be really affecting her for her to start crying. A hand reaches out only to pull back as you remember what happened last time. You take a deep breath, sitting up a little straighter.

"I should have stood up to him but I was scared."

"Scared of Homelander," You repeat. Still trying to process the information.

"I don't want to be a monster like him." Against your better judgement, this time you shuffle closer and entice her into a soothing hug. Holding onto her tightly like you never wanted to let go because frankly, you didn't. Maeve was warm, she was safe. You wanted to offer her that same sense of comfort even if it was impossible. You wanted to drown in her affection.

"You're not a monster, Maeve" The other woman melts into your caring touch, burying her face in the crook of your neck. You were so used to confident, super-strong Maeve that it was a little weird to have her be so vulnerable. Especially sober. But even your words weren't enough to trick your brain into quelling that twinge of fear that now resides in you. "Whatever's going on, I'm gonna help you get through it. I promise."

[avengerscompound]

Small Gods: Spring Thaw - 2

Spring Thaw:  A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Spring Thaw Masterlist | More Small Gods PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Bucky Barnes x F!Reader

Rating: E

Word Count:  2046

Warnings: nothing this chapter.

Synopsis: Bucky Barnes hates winter.  He always looks for the first signs of the ice thawing and new life growing.  When that desire for the end of winter brings to him the god of the spring thaw, he discovers a brand new reason to get through winter.

Chapter 2

Bucky arrived at the movies twenty minutes before he had arranged to meet you and then proceeded to mentally curse himself out the entire time because of how eager it made him look.  He was just considering leaving and coming back again so he could maybe come off as fashionably late when you appeared behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

He jumped and spun around, instantly going into fight mode, and when he saw your slightly bemused expression, he instantly relaxed.  You were wearing another warm winter coat that looked impossibly spring-like.  This one was sky blue with daisies printed on it as if they were polka dots.  Your hat, scarf, and gloves were in a darker shade of blue, and on the side of your beanie was a crochet daisy that matched the ones on your coat.  “Hey, you’re early,” he said.

“So are you,” you said.

Bucky smiled sheepishly and ran his hand through the back of his hair.  “Yeah.  It’s been a while and I didn’t want to be late.”  He held out a bouquet of different colored tulips for you.  “I got you these.”

“Oh my,” you said, taking them and inhaling deeply.  “These are so out of season.  They must have cost a fortune.”

Bucky shrugged.  The bouquet did cost significantly more money than when he’d last bought a girl flowers, but as that was in 1943, he didn’t think it was fair to compare.  “It wasn’t so bad.  And I knew you’d like them.”

You leaned up and kissed his cheek.  Another first for this new life he had.  It felt like a static shock and he flinched a little, and then hoped to god you didn’t notice because he wanted there to be more of that.  He wanted that kind of physical affection that had been withheld for so long.  “I love them,” you said.  “Thank you.”

Bucky turned back toward the cinema and then debated what his next move should be.  He had the tickets.  Did he offer you his arm or just start walking?  There were so many new rules about dating and he realized he didn’t know any of them.  Did you hold doors and pull out chairs anymore?  Who paid for things?

While he was thinking, you slipped your hand into his and pulled him toward the cinema.  “Come on, slowpoke,” you said.

The warmth from your skin seemed to radiate out from you so that he could feel it through both his and your gloves.

“Do we need to buy tickets?”  You asked when you entered the building.

“I’ve got them,” he said.

You took off your gloves and shoved them in your coat and looked up at him.  “Then let me buy the candy.”

“Now that hardly seems fair,” Bucky said.  “The tickets were cheap.  You’ll have to mortgage your house for candy.”

You snorted.  It was an adorable sound but you quickly covered your face in embarrassment.  “Oh my god,” you mumbled.

Bucky laughed and rubbed your arm.  “That was cute, don’t worry.”

You shook your head.  “I can’t remember the last time I laughed like that,” you said.  “So now I’m gonna buy candy so I can pretend it never happened.”

He chuckled and followed you to the counter as you bought popcorn, jolly ranchers, and a couple of sodas before the two of you headed into the theater.  It was strange how familiar it felt to be on a movie date.  Like muscle memory.  He sat down in the assigned seat and you put your coat on your lap with the popcorn sitting in his.  There was the awkward start where you aren’t sure if you should be touching or not - not that there was much choice in such a confined space.  There was an accidental hand touch when both of you went for popcorn at the same time.  Then you snuggled into him during the sappy parts and even though having you pressed against him felt alien to him.  It felt familiar and comfortable and he put his arm around your shoulders and held you in a casual way he hadn’t done to anyone since before he was sent off to war.

It was dark when you both came out of the theater with your arm tucked in the crook of his.  “Do you want to get a bite to eat?”  He asked.

“I would love it.  Just something simple though,” you said.

He nodded and the two of you began walking down the street together.  “Thank you for this, Bucky,” you said as the two of you walked along.  “I never do this.”

“I’m pretty out of practice too,” Bucky admitted.

“Why is that?”  You asked.  “You seem like a natural.  Not to mention - you’re very handsome.”

Bucky looked at you, once again not sure if you were being completely honest with him or not.  Not just about not recognizing him, but about any of it really.  Questioning his reality had become second nature.  He was used to being lied to and used.  He was used to things being taken from him.  “You really don’t know who I am?”  He asked.

You stopped walking, a little startled, and looked him up and down.  “I don’t meet too many people, I know we haven’t met.”

“No,” Bucky said, shaking his head.  “I’m the winter soldier?”

“Winter…?”  You said, furrowing your brow.  “You control winter?”

Bucky laughed.  “No.  What?”

“Oh,” you said, relaxing a little.  “I don’t know what you're talking about.”

“Captain America’s friend?”  He asked, only to be met with the same look of confusion.  “The Avengers?”

“I’m so sorry,” you said.  “I don’t keep up with current popular culture.”

“You don’t know about the people disappearing and then the fight and them showing up five years later?”  Bucky asked.

“I mean… I know they all went away and came back, but I wasn’t…” you trailed off.

“Captain America?  Iron Man?  Thor?”

Finally, a glimmer of recognition reached your eyes and you smiled.  “You know Thor?”

“I mean, a little.  He’s a nice guy,” Bucky said.

“I know,” you said.  “He’s really funny.  Likes to fight a lot though.”

“Wait…” Bucky said.  “Do you know Thor?  Like you’ve met him?”

“Yes!  I’ve met him.  It was a long, long time ago,” you said, nodding enthusiastically.  “Are the gods… are we showing ourselves again?”

Bucky blinked at you.  “What do you mean ‘we’?”

You looked around and took his hand tugging him along.  “We should go somewhere to talk.”

He walked with you until you found a diner and the two of you ducked inside and slipped into a booth by the window.  You put your coat with your flowers beside you on the seat and neither of you said anything until the orders had been placed.

“It was easier back before,” you said as you began to play with the little tubs of half-and-half on the table.

“What was?”  Bucky asked.  “I don’t know what’s going on right now?”

“I’m a god, Bucky,” you said.

Bucky laughed.  He wasn’t even sure why because he knew a god.  He knew and had experienced far stranger things than gods.  But here, sitting in a diner with you, the thought just struck him as absurd.  “What?”

“Back before, when people were primitive and didn’t understand how things worked, we just walked with the mortals,” you said, answering a question he never asked as you looked out the window.  You turned your attention back to him and lay your palms flat on the table.  “I don’t know how to start the story.”

Bucky shook his head.  “The beginning?”

“That goes back to before I even was,” you said.  “And I don’t have all the story.  From what I understand, when the universe was born, the worlds were formed from a central point where all matter was one.  And then it exploded out in a mess of matter and energy.  Some of that energy you and I would call magic.  Some words, like Asgard and Olympus, were drenched in it…”

“Woah, hold up,” Bucky said.  “Olympus is real?”

“You’ve met Thor but you doubt the existence of the Greek Gods?”  You asked with your eyebrow raised.

“Right, okay,” Bucky said.  “Go on.”

“The magic on Earth is weaker and so the gods here are also weaker.  We came to be when people pray for us, even if that’s just a muttered hope, like “oh god let me pass this test,” you explained.

“So you’re telling me that there might be a god for the red light changing?”  Bucky asked.

You nodded.  “Oh yeah, they’re doing quite well for themselves.”

“That's…”  Bucky said and shook his head as he tried to absorb it.  “Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard,” he settled on.  “So what are you?”

“The spring thaw,” you said.

“What?  Like Persephone?”  Bucky asked.

“Well, no,” you said.  “For starters, she lives on Olympus and she’s way more powerful than I am.  And she covers all over Spring.  I’m just the part where the ice melts.  I was way stronger back before industrial farming.  People prayed to see the ice receding.  Now, it still happens but not with as much need.  Oh and also, when Persephone isn’t doing her thing, she has somewhere she goes.”

“What?  What does that mean?”  Bucky asked.  “Where do you go?”

You shrug. “I’m just not.”

“Not what?”

“Not anything,” you said.  “I’m here when people start wishing for the end of winter, and I’m gone when they stop.”

Bucky furrowed his brow and nodded.  “Would you believe me if I said I know how that feels?”

“Really?”  You asked.  “How?”

The waiter came over and placed their orders in front of them.  Bucky took a drink of his black coffee and wished it was something a little harder.  Not that alcohol would actually do anything.  “I guess I better start from the beginning too.”

As the two of you ate your meals, Bucky unloaded everything.  From when he was born, to going to war, to being captured by HYDRA and experimented on, not just once but twice.  About how they brainwashed him and had him commit unspeakable acts, and when they weren’t getting him to do these heinous things, they would freeze him, so that every time he woke he had no idea who he was or where he was or even what year it was.  How he’d broken out of it and had to adjust to life on the run 60 years after the last time he had control of his body.  How that had ended up going to shit and he’d opted to go on ice again because even that was better than living with what he had in his head.  How they managed to get HYDRA out and he was just settling into life again when Thanos happened and he’d just stopped existing.

The food was gone by the time he was done with the story and he was on his third cup of coffee.  He’d worry about staying up, but the caffeine would pass out of his system soon enough and besides, he didn’t sleep that great anyway.

You had listened intently, never interrupting, but the expression on your face told him how horrified and sad the story made you.  “... and then the Avengers stopped being a thing and I tried to cancel out some of my bad with a friend and then I moved here.”

You reached over and took his hand.  “I’m so sorry all that happened to you,” you said earnestly.  “And I can see why we were drawn to each other.”

“Why is that?”  Bucky asked.

“I bet you aren’t a big fan of the cold, huh?”  You asked.

He smiled and shook his head.  “No, you could say that.”

“Were you hoping for some sign of the thaw?”  You asked.  He smiled and nodded.  “And there I was.  I probably felt it too.”

“I’m glad you did,” he said.

“I’d like to see you again,” you said.  “Would that be alright?”

“How will that work if you’re only going to be here for such a short time?”  Bucky asked.

“Well,” you said thoughtfully. “I guess we’ll have to enjoy the brief time we have?”

// NEXT