#2) the little wave to the ice cream truck

[acrux-jr]

Carousel Meeting

Summary: The 3 times Mike schidmt almost met you but didn't, plus the 1 time he did

Word Count: 1.9k

Can be read byself or as a prequel to my carousel series.

Tags: fluff, accidental meeting, soft spot for Abby

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(Before FNAF movie)

The first Mike saw you, your back was turned. You had you l/m/s hair down. You were wearing blue washed jeans that flared slightly, a cream colored knitted pullover and a brown leather jacket.

He had heard your obnoxious laugh from the back of the line in the fair. He saw you lightly push your friend, and she laughed as well.

Abby's head popped to the opposite side, and saw your face.

'Pretty.'

Mike had turned away, not wanting to be seen as a creep for trying to stare at your face.

Right as you were next the ride broke. Your friend groaned as you shrugged. Mike was being dragged as Abby whined to go to a different ride. As he turned down to tell her to wait, your shoulders bumped.

Unbalanced you fell on you friends, laughing harder. Mike yelled a quick 'Sorry,' as he was dragged off.

He a faint 'Sorry,' back. When he turned to face you, your friend blocked your image, the two of you not being able to see each other's face.

The next time you two missed meeting each other was the very next day again. Mike had promised Abby to take her everyday for the weekend to the fair.

You and your friend returned to the fair, after working for 2 weeks straight because a coworker quit, you finally got the weekend off to recharge and see your friends. This time your friend brought her boyfriend to go on the scary rides with you since she felt bad for always chickening out.

The three of you stopped by the darts and balloons, pushing them both out of the way. First try got the second biggest prize of a fox plush. On your next try you heard a little girl gasp.

Abby was looking with amazement at the plush purple bunny on top hanging.

"Want to try?" The carnival person asked.

Abby shook her head no, "I don't have enough."

Your heart broke a little. Getting the next 3 in a row, you won. Jumping up and down your friend clapped and hollered while her boyfriend rolled his eyes at the two of you.

"Whatcha want?"

The little girl was still there just watching now. "That one." When you got the plush and turned to her, she eyed you warily.

"Here, I already have the fox." She took it hesitantly.

You gave a warm smile as your friends tugged you to the duck ring game. You waved bye and she waved bye back and dashed to a man wearing a hoodie. You saw the curly hair from behind, and turned away.

Abby rushed to Mike, excited to show Mike the plush.

Mike gripped her firm and held her tight. For a split second he felt like he was a kid again seeing his brother get taken.

"Abby! You know you're not allowed to run off like that! Why would you do that?"

"I only went right there." She pointed to the booth across from where Mike was sitting.

He turned to answer and phone call from his security guard co worker and Abby was gone for a minute with him frantically searching. When he tried to call out, nothing came out. He started to have a panic attack. And there she was.

When she re-appeared he almost threw up. He crouched down and noticed the blue plush.

"Who gave that to you?"

"Some girl won two in a row and she let me have it because she had a fox one!" Mike's eyebrows furrowed but nodded.

"That was nice of her…"

Abby nodded her head. "Don't run off again Abby. You could've been taken. " 'Too.' It was unspoken but Abby understood.

"Sorry Mike."

"Come they have shaved ice with your favorite flavor."

She beamed again and hopped while pulling Mike.

The third time the paths almost met but did not was in the house of mirrors. Mike was against it but Abby coaxed him with the 'pretty please' 'cherry on top' and puppy dog eyes. He rolled his and followed behind Abby.

He watched as she hit her head, trucked by the mirrors, she glared and huffed as Mike laughed at her. He dropped the plush as he was laughing. The duo didn't notice til after outside.

As luck had had it, you noticed the plush when you made it to the half-way mark. It reminded you of the little girl and wondered if she hit her head and dropped it. You chuckled at the thought of that and took it with you.

Abby was crying as Mike promised to get her another on.

"Abby come on I'll buy or win or whatever it is again."

The tears fell and she shook her head no, "No she won it for me! She was nice and gave it to me because she knew I wanted it and I lost it." She sobbed and her hand made it to her eyes.

Mike groaned, "Okay Abby I will go back, " he scanned the crowd and saw a group of police officers walking by.

"Hey! Excuse me!"

They two men and women turned around, the red headed men raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"I'm sorry to ask but do you mind watching her real quick? I dropped her plush in the maze and she doesn't want to go in with me again to look but still wants me to. It'll be like less than 5 minutes, I just don't want her by herself." What he assumed was his sister with the matching hair and last name, nodded.

"Yeah that's fine, we are waiting for our co-worker to be down in the restrooms right there."

Mike thanked them and dashed in after giving the young teenage girl 3 more tickets.

A minute had passed as Mike went in, and then you popped out finishing it, with your friends trailing behind you. You scanned the area and saw the little girl crying with police around her. 'Is she lost?' You said 'be right back,' and headed that way.

"Excuse me?" The police, trying to calm her down, turned to look at you. Abby looked up with teary eyes and saw you. She ran and hugged your leg.

"I lost Mr. Bunny. I'm sorry!" She wailed and cried.

"Hey hey it's okay no need to cry. Look I found him, he's waiting to hug you again." She gasped and dove into a hug with the plush.

The cops looked at you questioningly. You noticed their gaze and explained. "I won it earlier and she really wanted it so I gave it to her, I already won the fox, I just like playing the games." They nodded, a little more at ease with you. As you turned around you crashed into a blonde girl, with a police uniform. She dropped her corn dog on the floor.

"Oh my god I am so so sorry. Here let me get you a new one."

"It's fine. My fault for not paying attention and whatnot."

"No really let me get you a new one." She hummed as she wiped the little crust of the corn dog off her. Before going off with her you turned back around. "Okay I gotta go but be careful okay. Are you waiting for your mom or dad with the police officers?"

She nodded and pointed to the mirror maze. "My brother is in there trying to find Mr. Bunny."

"Okay okay good. I'll see you around, be sure to keep Mr. Bunny safe and close at all times, okay?"

She gave a watery smile and nodded. You gave her a pat on the head and waved goodbye to the group. Mike dashed out if the maze as he saw a blonde and h/c go by.

Abby was finally smiling and laughing and holding the plush again.

Mike was confused, "Abby, how did you get that?"

"Oh the girl who won it was in the maze too! She came right out when you went in and gave him back to me."

Mike stared at her and then the police who nodded along. The woman spoke, "She was a nice young thing who made sure the little was okay, even offered to buy our co-worker her food after they bumped and it spilled."

'What the fuck?' Mike nodded at the story. "Okay Abby, say thank you to the officers who were watching you and let's go."

The siblings thanked the officers and went their own way, as your friends whisked you off after apologizing to the young police officer again.

The time the paths crossed:

Your friend rolled her eyes as you sat on the bench.

"I'm tired. I just wanna sit down."

"You can sit on the carousel!"

"No, aye you go take her already. Shoo."

Your friend rolled her eyes as her boyfriend shrugged.

"Pick her up."

The two of you stared at her, then shared a look.

'Is she for real?'

'I think so.'

"Y/n I'm dead serious."

"Please let me rest! You've dragged me around the whole day, my social battery is at zero, let me recharge." You begged, if needed at this point you'd get on your hands and knees.

Your friend sighed and nodded. "Fine, rest and draw or whatnot."

Mike and Abby argued for a bit about Mike going on but with the whole tired from work thing Abby went by herself. A nice couple helped her on the horse, Mike motioned to the bench you were at, letting Abby know he was there watching. Abby waved and hugged Mr. Bunny.

Mike noticed the girl sitting there, she was slightly hunched over and what looked like drawing.

Mike cleared his throat and the girl slightly jumped. She looked wide eyed at Mike, who couldn't help but think 'Pretty.'

"Yeah…?"

"Sorry um do you mind if I sit? My sister is over there and I want to watch her." He waved toward the carousel moving.

"Yeah that's fine, go ahead." Mike sat, and tried to focus on the carousel bit his eyes would slide over the girl next to him.

She was pretty, with her h/c and big e/c eyes. She had long eyelashes and pink pouty lips.

Mike's eyes dragged down her figure and noticed thick thighs. His eyes quickly shot up.

'Focus on Abby not the hot stranger next to you.'

To you though Mike looked bored and to be in his own world.

'Just say something!'

"So how old is your sister?"

Mike turned his attention towards you, "She's 8."

"Hmm. That's such a great age to take them places, since they'll actually remember it."

"Yeah, I guess so."

'I guess hes not much of a talker.'

'Are you serious? You couldn't add more to the conversation?'

"Do you have any siblings?"

You turned to him and gave him a smile. "No vut I have a younger cousin I grew up with, he's like my little brother basically. I was going to bring him but he got in trouble for fighting."

Mike smirked, "Fighting?"

"Yeah, one of the other little brats was bullying this one quite girl with braces. And it turned physical."

He cocked a brow, "And he got punished?"

You leaned in a little closer, and Mike subconsciously did the same. "Just for 2 days, hos mother just doesn't like fighting period. But she's letting me take him for the last day of the carnival and then to go get ice cream and waste the day away, basically."

Mike nodded along, "I guess that makes sense. No parent wants to see their kid fight and possibly get hurt."

"Yeah, she also wants me to stress the importance of no physical fights. Since, he listens to me a little more."

"That's nice." You hummed in agreement.

When the carousel stopped, you got up slowly, and you ripped a piece of paper out.

"Uh here." Mike took it slowly and you walked off to greet your friends, off to the next attraction. Mike eyed you as you left, eyes trailing up and down.

"Maybe fairs aren't so bad." Mike muttered to himself. Abby came running, excited riding the carousel. And Mike was excited too, he got a girl's number.

"Was it fun?" Abby nodded yes and hugged Mr. Bunny.

"Alright let's go it's past your bedtime." Abby gave a dejected look but nodded nonetheless.

'Hey, it's the guy from the carousel.'

'Which one?'

'Just kidding! I swear!'

He huffed a laugh out loud. And Abby looked at him funny as he was disturbing drawing/cartoon time.

'Real funny.'

'I am known to be somewhat of a comedian.'

'Somewhat?'

'Can't always be making jokes.'

As the texting continued, Mike Schmidt was saved under "Carousel Boy ♥︎"

Mike would never admit it, but before getting your name and before the second date, you were under "my carousel girl."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

I feel like mile wouldnt text at first but since he thought you were hot and checking you out he'd do it as like a let me have 1 thing "selfish" attitude but then realizes that fuck hes in to deep like by the secind date. In the carousel series, Mike still doesn't know lol he just thinks you and abby clicked bc abby wanted to have a secret between the two of you.

I lied again yall 😪 couldn't help myself

Taglist: @stinkii-boii @hellothisisprincesskitty

[yooopii]

strawberry milkshake MDNI

John "Soap" Mactavish x Female!Reader

wc: 1,619

co-written with @emstpwkk!!

Your period cramps are more painful than normal. Fortunately, your boyfriend comes home early just in time to help.

Laying down on your couch after your last day for a while from your shitty job was great, especially when you get to finish that one series you've been meaning to watch. Especially when you get away from creepy coworkers, who always ask to drive you home, or to share a cig with you. You didn't even smoke!

It would be a dream night, eating ice cream out of the tub while watching TV if you weren't on your goddamn period.

You had a history of horrible, mind-breaking period cramps, which led to a heavier flow than most other women you knew. They were so bad that when you were younger, you missed school days and had to leave sleepovers early. But thankfully, you had an out to these problems. Once you got older, you fell in love with Johnny. A Scottish SAS soldier with a mohawk. He had helped you through them each time, and it was like he had memorized them to know exactly when to take off his lifesaving duties to help you.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the case, and you were curled up in the fetal position, holding your knees tight to your chest as you tried to distract yourself from the pain. You had taken pain medication before, but it seemed like it didn't work anymore.

Soap was currently on a mission somewhere in the country, which means he couldn't help you this time. He was supposed to be back a long time ago, but apparently, his mission had gone longer. It had been months since he’s left and you haven’t had him to help.

You had let go of your knees and were clutching your lower abdomen like a vice, trying to ignore the full-body shocks of pain that waved across your body as you writhed in pain, trying to distract you with the playing TV in front of you.

You groaned and let out little whines as the cramps kept hitting you like a truck nonstop, barely even letting you breathe. You try to focus on the TV, but the creak of the unoiled door breaks your trance. You know it would probably be Soap, but you still get up and check anyway. As you leave the spot where you've been curled up in agony for the past few hours, you peak the corner and notice a big, burly, and very handsome Scottish man shrugging his coat off. You sigh in relief and smile as you inch closer, as Soap notices you. He smiled right back, his dimples framing his smile.

You stay quiet as you slowly close the distance between you two, and he immediately knows what to do. He opens up his arms and engulfs you in a hug, kissing your hair as you two stay there. This wasn't normal for you, since you'd usually be waiting for him in the living room or your bedroom.

“What's all this for?” He looks down into your eyes and grabs your face to make eye contact as he asks.

“I'm in pain,” is all you mumble out as you tilt your head back down to nuzzle into his chest. A tinge of fear flows through him and he immediately adopts a concerned look on his face, as he checks your body for physical injuries.

“What's wrong bonnie— Are you hurt somewhere?” His tone was a mix of concern and confusion as he looked you up and down, even turning you around. You smile gently as you shake your head no, explaining what you meant.

“No no no Johnny, I'm not hurt. I'm bleeding profusely.” He stares at you for a few seconds, before understanding what you meant. He lets out a faint sound of acknowledgment before pulling you closer to his chest, “Sorry lass, the mission ran a little longer than expected..” he explains before a huge cocky grin appears on his face as he leaves more kisses on top of your head.

“Johnny… what are you planning?” You ask as he leaves soft kisses on your face before he speaks in an amused tone.

“Y'know lass, I saw somethin’ on the internet sayin-“ You cut him off with a giggle and place your hand on his mouth to silence him, already knowing where that was heading.

“No!” You say with giggles falling out of your mouth, covering your face with your free hand as it turns pink. He tilted his head like a pup, wondering what was soo wrong with his great idea. “I'm not having sex with you while I'm quite literally bleeding everywhere! We’ll stain the bed and the sheets!”

He grabs my hand off his mouth and brings it down to his chest. “It’ll help ye wi yer cramps! Promise, okay?” He hugs you tighter, before letting you go to take off the rest of his duty clothesline. You try to argue, claiming that you would make a big mess everywhere. He cuts you off with a click of his tongue, saying “An'll clean it up. Towels exist.”

This mindless silly arguing dragged on for a few more minutes until he finally convinced you to let him help out differently. His smirk only got bigger once you agreed, quickly grabbing you by your thighs as he hoisted you up around his waist as he walked to the bedroom. He kept himself busy, spreading kisses all over your face.

He sat you on the side of the bed and got some towels from the cabinet, laying them out on the bed before laying you on top of them. You rest your hips on them as he stripped himself of his clothes. First his shirt, then his cargo pants. His chest was littered with scars, some small, some large. One even started from the middle of his torso to his back. Your eyes were drifting down his body when you caught sight of him fishing himself out of his underwear. He was heavy in his hands as he started to fist his cock as he stepped closer to the bed, frothy precum dribbling out of his foreskin.

You quickly jumped into motion at the sight, pulling your shirt over your head and sliding the thigh-length pajama shorts off of you, along with your panties. You instinctively went to close your legs, but Johnny stopped you with a click of his tongue. His hands went to your knees, spreading them apart to either side of his hips.

He smiled as he slotted himself in between your thighs, his blue eyes looking over your curves. “All this for me, lass?”

You tightened your hold against his sides as he grabbed a condom, ripping it open with his teeth and sliding the rubber onto himself as he stared at your slick, red folds.

“Aye bonnie… I'm too lucky to have you…” His voice was rough as he pressed his swollen red, angry head into your clit. You bite down on a moan, eyes almost rolling to the back of your skull as he rubbed circles with his tip on your clit. It was a subtle gesture, but it felt so good that you couldn't help but softly moan. He dipped his cockhead into your slit as he collected your fluids, pressing right up against your hole as he carefully pushed into you with almost no resistance.

“Come on lass, tha’s it, biiiig stretch…” As he pulled out, his dick was coated with streaks of red wrapped in your mixed fluids. His hands softly found your hips as he started to bounce into you slowly at first before quickly picking up the pace, the skin-to-skin contact echoing throughout the room along with Johnny's soft praises in your ear. You couldn't feel much of anything other than your cervix being kissed by his tip, and the burn on his hips meeting yours.

Your eyelids were screwed tight from the pleasure, your head tipped back slightly as moans melted into the sounds in the room, his pace not stopping or faltering. Your eyes flew open before falling into a half-lidded state as he pinched and softly twisted at your clit, then soothing it with soft circular strokes.

He lifted your legs higher as his chest met yours, his breath fanning your ear as your nipples rubbed against his chest. You gripped onto his shoulder blades, dragging your nails down his back, in an attempt to find purchase.

He didn't slow down as he stuffed his cock into you, deeper than you ever thought possible. The fluids mixed on his dick and inside you made it comically easy to fuck, his dick was sliding in and out faster and faster as more precum dribbled into the condom.

“Fuck- s-so close-” His words got swallowed up as his breath got caught n his throat, his brows furrowing as his thrusts got more needy. He came into the rubber and felt his eyes roll back, whimpering as he pressed his forehead onto yours. You soon followed him and came, feeling small droplets dripping from his waist to yours.

You both panted, and he carefully pulled out to dispose of the condom and clean you up. Minutes later after he switched out the towels, throwing the dirty ones in a corner to be dealt with later, gave you fresh panties, and gave you snacks and water, did he join you on the bed for snuggles. You were finishing up a bag of chips as he kissed you softly on your cheek, nuzzling into your hair. You were maybe pancaking him, but he didn’t mind. He wrapped his arms around you as he slowly fell asleep, exhaustion catching up to him. You held his hands as you fell asleep, without any cramps.

thank you for reading!!

[tip-top-cloud-surfer]

What is L-O-V-E? (Part 2) - Hangman

Pairing: Hangman / Bradshaw!Fem!OC (Lena) (Ex-Wife!OC)

Word Count: 2.8k

Warnings: Diorce and Separation; Co-Parenting; Female Bradshaw OC and Named Son OC

This work, all of my other works, and my entire blog are 18+ Only.

Summary: Jake and Lena fall into old habits while taking care of Nickie together.

Part 1

Master List

Jake was on a mission the second that training wrapped up at Top Gun. And not the uranium facility mission. A different kind of mission. A much more personal mission.

After Lena told him that he could pick Nickie up from daycare, Jake was not going to miss it. He shot Lena a quick text, changed into his day uniform, and left the men’s locker room before Rooster could even get off the tarmac.

Jake wasn’t sure if Rooster was on the list for people who could pick up Nickie, so he was going to get there first either way. But Jake was pretty sure that Rooster was still wrapped up in the whole Maverick issue that had been going on forever. Jake reached his limit with that debacle the second that Rooster’s grudge against Maverick impacted Jake’s relationship with Lena.

He consoled Lena too many times about Rooster and Maverick's little pissing contest to give a shit about Rooster's feelings about that.

Arriving at Nickie’s daycare a few minutes later, Jake got out of his truck and strode into the building. He was about to head straight to the check-in desk when he spotted Mrs. Davis, the owner of the daycare, hanging something up on the corkboard. He gained her favor a long time ago when she found out that he was from Texas, which was her home state as well.

“Need some help?” he offered, his Texas twang coming out a bit more than usual.

“Now, is that Jake Seresin I hear?” Mrs. Davis chuckled, turning around to face him. “It is!”

“How are you, ma’am?” Jake greeted her with a kind smile.

“I’m good! I’m good!” she returned, giving his arm a squeeze in greeting. “You’re back in town?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“How long?”

“A couple days. Not too long,” Jake replied, deciding to leave it there.

“Well, then let’s get your son to you as soon as possible,” Mrs. Davis stated with a wide smile.

She motioned for Jake to follow her back into the daycare. The kids were sorted into their different age groups and they were all running around and causing a mess. Jake quickly spotted Nickie in the corner, playing with some other kids and a set of blocks. One of the attendants called out to Nickie, who immediately raced over once he saw his dad standing at the door.

“Daddy!”

“Hey, Nick,” Jake called out to his son, happily scooping him up and into his arms. Giving Nickie a good squeeze and a kiss to the top of his head in greeting, Jake set Nickie on his hip. “Did you have fun today?”

“Yeah,” Nickie agreed, nodding erratically. “I colored a lot.”

“Here’s his backpack,” the daycare attendant offered to Jake with a bashful smile.

“Thank you, I appreciate it,” Jake replied, quickly taking the bag from her hand. “Have a good day.” Jake turned to Mrs. Davis and waved to her as well. “And I’ll see you around, Mrs. Davis.”

“Come by anytime, Jake!” Mrs. Davis called back.

And without too much more fuss, the Seresin boys made their way out to Jake’s truck. Nickie happily babbled to his dad about everything that happened at daycare that day and Jake listened and added commentary as necessary.

“Where’s Mommy?” Nickie asked as Jake strapped him into his car seat.

“She’s still at work, but she’ll be home for dinner,” Jake explained, trying to not let his parental insecurities flood his mind. “But we still have some time before that to do something fun. Any ideas, Nick?”

“Ice cream!”

“After dinner,” Jake stated, causing Nickie to pout. Sighing, Jake gave in just a little bit, “You can have two scoops.”

“Can we play outside?” Nickie questioned after a moment, perking up a bit.

“Yeah, we can play outside. Football?”

“Yeah!”

“That’s my boy,” Jake commented, ruffling Nickie’s hair, and earning a giggle in return from his son.

~~~~~

After spending the better part of an hour running around outside, Jake pulled Nickie back into the house so that he could start on dinner. Jake knew that Lena didn’t expect him to cook. Mostly for safety reasons. But Jake wanted to surprise her. And maybe impress her a little bit too. And with his little sous chef, they got dinner in the oven before Lena’s car pulled into the driveway.

“I’m home!” Lena called, walking down the hall.

“Mommy!” Nickie yelled back, trotting over to her.

“Hey, baby,” Lena cooed, squatting down to accept Nickie’s hug. She pressed a set of kisses all over his face, causing Nickie to giggle and pull away from her. “How was your day?”

“Good! Daddy said that I can have two scoops of ice cream!” Nickie announced, holding up two fingers.

“After you eat your dinner,” Jake corrected Nickie, shaking his head with an amused smile. “And we need to work on your secret-keeping skills.”

“Speaking of dinner, did you want take out or anything specific?” Lena asked, straightening up.

“I already made dinner,” Jake stated, earning a surprised look from Lena.

“Oh,” was all she replied, a bit shocked.

She couldn't tell anyone the last time that Jake cooked her a meal. If he ever cooked her an actual meal.

“I helped!” Nickie exclaimed, causing his parents to turn to him.

“You did? You never help me cook dinner,” Lena joked, lightly bumping Nickie with her hip.

“It still has a few minutes left in the oven,” Jake replied, trying and probably failing at sounding casual.

“Okay,” Lena agreed, nodding along. “I’m just going to go change.”

Lena walked off to her bedroom and returned shortly thereafter to find Jake taking dinner out of the oven. They set the table together while it cooled and got Nickie situated in his spot. Lena offered to serve it since Jake made dinner, but Jake insisted on finishing up on his own. Sitting around the dinner table together, the Seresin-Bradshaw family finally dug in.

“This is really good, Jake,” Lena complimented him, sending Jake a small, encouraging smile that instantly melted Jake’s heart. “Who taught you how to make it?”

“I mostly learned from Javy’s mom. But there was also a lot of trial and error,” Jake answered honestly. Scooping some more food onto his fork, Jake glanced over at Lena. “You really like it?”

“I like most meals that I don’t have to cook myself,” Lena joked before meeting Jake’s still anxious gaze. Sobering a bit, Lena offered him a soothing smile. “But, yeah, I really like it, Jake. Maybe you can give me the recipe later.”

“Yeah, sure,” Jake agreed, nodding slowly.

Just as the anxious expression was starting to melt off of Jake’s face, the soft moment was put on pause when there was a knock on the door. Jake instantly frowned and glanced over at the door as Lena slowly got up from her seat. Nickie leaned over in his seat trying to see who was at the door.

“Are you expecting anyone?” Jake asked, getting up as well.

“No,” Lena answered honestly, sharing a look with him. “It’s probably just Bradley.”

Lena turned down the hall to answer the door, but Jake was right on her heels, just in case. Lena glanced out the window to see who was at the door and quickly moved to open it once she spotted the Kawasaki sitting in her driveway.

“Hey, Mav,” she greeted him, immediately pulling her godfather into a tight hug. “So nice of you to finally stop by.”

“Jake told you that he saw me, then?” Maverick guessed as Lena released him from the hug.

“He told me that you got tossed out of the Hard Deck,” Lena replied, shooting Mav a disapproving look. “Aren’t you a little old to be getting kicked out of bars?”

“Probably,” Maverick chuckled, offering Lena a sheepish smile.

Lena held the door open for Maverick to let him inside to Jake’s minor and subdued ire. It was like every time that Jake tried to meaningfully connect with Lena and Nickie, some kind of alarm went off for Maverick and Rooster to come over and interrupt the moment.

“Jake,” Maverick greeted him.

“Pete,” Jake returned with a sarcastic nod.

“Mav!” Nickie shouted out, scrambling off of his seat to greet the closest person that he had to a grandparent in his life.

“Holy cow, you’re getting too big,” Maverick joked, making a show of ‘struggling’ to pick up Nickie. “You’re going to break my back one of these days, Nickie.”

“Do you have your bike?” Nickie asked excitedly, grabbing at Maverick’s jacket.

“Of course, I brought it. How else do you think that I’d get here?” Maverick teased Nickie, poking him in the stomach.

“Can I ride it?” Nickie quickly followed up excitedly.

“No,” Jake and Lena decided at the exact same time in the exact same tone.

“Maybe when you’re a little older,” Maverick offered, causing Nickie to nod sadly. Maverick set Nickie back on the ground and squatted down to his height. “But I brought you something.”

“What?” Nickie asked excitedly.

Maverick reached into his jacket and pulled out a toy airplane for Nickie, which was still in the plastic box that it came in.

After Nickie was born and named after Goose, Maverick thought that it would only be fitting if he carried on the tradition that Goose had with Bradley when Bradley was about Nickie’s age—bringing a toy airplane every time that he got to see Nickie.

There was already a large number of toy airplanes sitting in Nickie’s room, but Maverick had no intention of stopping until Lena told him point blank to cut it out.

Nickie let out a squeal and quickly grabbed the toy out of Maverick’s hand. After giving Maverick a quick hug and ‘thank you’ under his mom’s warning gaze, Nickie raced over to his dad to show him the new toy. Jake opened the box for Nickie and handed the toy over.

“You’re on this mission too then?” Lena asked Maverick, gesturing for him to sit down with them.

“Teaching it,” Maverick agreed, taking his seat.

“They let you teach again?” Lena questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Ice made a call,” Maverick explained, causing Lena to let out a noise of realization.

“Well, that explains it then.” Lena took a sip of her water before turning back to Maverick. “So, how did Brad react to this whole thing?”

“Uh . . .” Maverick trailed off, glancing over in Jake’s direction.

“What happened?” Lena asked, looking between them.

Jake waited for Lena to turn away from him before quickly shooting Maverick a look and shaking his head as subtly as possible.

Jake knew Lena. And he knew that if they mentioned the fact that Maverick and Rooster went plummeting towards the ground and nearly crashed, she would not react well. And as much as Jake would have enjoyed watching Maverick get lectured, he had better things to do with his limited time with Lena and Nickie.

“Nothing much,” Maverick lied, earning a look from Lena. “We just broke the hard deck.”

“We?”

“Me and Bradley.”

“By how much?”

“A bit.”

“What does . . . you know what? I don’t even want to know,” Lena decided, shaking her head. Rubbing her face, Lena turned back to Maverick. “Did you want dinner? Jake cooked.”

“No, no, I just stopped by to say ‘hi’,” Maverick assured Lena, causing Jake to perk up a bit. “I have to go and pay Penny back for last night.”

“Just make sure to pay in cash and nothing else,” Lena warned her godfather.

“I always do,” Maverick lied, earning an eyeroll from Lena. Before she could respond, however, Nickie ran back to her side.

“Can we put this up on my shelf?” Nickie asked, holding up the toy.

“Yeah, we can,” Lena agreed, grabbing Nickie’s hand. “I don’t want you getting any food on it.”

Lena led Nickie by hand back to his bedroom to put away his new toy, leaving Jake and Maverick to themselves in the dining room. Jake did not move to start a conversation and instead simply reached for his drink. Maverick, however, was never one to leave well enough alone.

“What did you tell her about the mission?” Maverick asked, causing Jake to look up at him.

“Just that we would be shipping out within the month,” Jake replied, tapping his fingers on the table. “She hasn’t asked, so I haven’t told her anything.” He glanced down the hall to see if Lena was returning with Nickie yet before turning back to Maverick. “I don’t want to freak her out.”

“Understandably,” Maverick agreed, nodding along. “She’s got enough on her plate.”

Jake did not respond, a bit too caught up in debating what Maverick meant. But then Nickie and Lena reentered the room and all of those thoughts momentarily went out the window.

~~~~~

“Time for bed,” Lena called, causing Nickie to pout.

“But Mommy,” he whined, earning a deep chuckle from Jake.

“Actually, I should probably go to bed soon too,” Jake stated, making a show of stretching and yawning dramatically. Lena couldn’t help the smile that tugged at her lips when Nickie instantly changed his tune when Jake was suddenly ready to go to bed. “Early morning tomorrow. Lot of flying to do."

“I’m tired too,” Nickie voiced, as if he had been saying that all along.

“Then let’s go to bed,” Lena agreed, gesturing down the hall.

“Can I sleep with Daddy tonight?” Nickie asked, latching onto Jake.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Lena replied, sharing a look with Jake. “Why don’t you go brush your teeth, Nickie?”

Nickie slid off of the couch and trotted down the hall to the bathroom, leaving Lena and Jake alone in the living room together. Wrapping her arms around herself, Lena turned back to Jake once she was sure that Nickie was out of earshot. Jake slowly stood up from the couch with his eyes intensely burning into Lena’s soul.

“Thank you for doing that,” Lena stated, causing Jake to shake his head.

“Don’t thank me for doing my job. He’s my son too,” Jake responded softly, earning a nod in return.

“Well,” Lena began, glancing down the hall, “are you all set up in the guest bedroom?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Jake replied, trying to not let the wind completely out of his sails.

“I’m done!” Nickie called, running out of the bathroom. “I’ll race you!”

“We’re coming!” Jake yelled back.

Lena and Jake made their way to the guest bedroom, expecting to see Nickie sitting up on the bed already. But he wasn’t anywhere to be found. Sharing a look, Jake and Lena checked the closet and under the bed for their son.

“Nick? Where are you?” Lena asked, looking around the curtains.

“I’m in bed!” Nickie shouted from down the hall.

A quick check of Nickie’s room yielded no new results, but further down the hall, Lena and Jake found him sitting up on Lena’s bed, already under the blankets, and ready for bed. Jake and Lena both opened their mouths to break the news to Nickie, but he looked too goddamn cute and comfortable in his spot for either of them to tell him to move.

“If you’re not comfortable with it,” Jake started to say, but Lena cut him off gently.

“It’s fine, Jake. It’s a big bed,” Lena replied, holding his gaze for a moment. “I’m just going to change and brush my teeth.”

Jake made his way to the bed, leaving the left side open for Lena. Like how he did when they were married. Sliding under the blankets, Jake pulled Nickie closer and tickled his side, causing Nickie to let out a squeal. Lena emerged from her bathroom, now dressed in a loose tee shirt and a pair of shorts. Jake’s eyes lingered a bit on the familiar shirt before they flicked up to Lena’s face again.

Lena slid onto her side of the bed, which she still slept on even though she usually slept alone, and the family of three settled in for the night. Jake pulled out a book from the night stand and read a few pages for Nickie until he started to doze off against Jake’s chest. Brushing Nickie’s hair back, Lena pressed a kiss to his forehead before glancing up at Jake.

“Goodnight, Jake,” she whispered to him softly.

“Goodnight, Lena,” he returned just as softly.

They locked eyes for a moment before Lena rolled over and turned off the light.

Part 1

[slytherinshua]

could I please request #11 & #19 from fluff, & #10 from action for niki?? thank you!!

What Love Feels Like

𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. . .

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ genre and tags: fluff. ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ warnings: kisses. ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ pairing: niki x fem!reader. ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ wc: 801. ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ a/n: tysm for requesting and omggg this was so fun to write!! the idea is adorable <3

“I’m nervous.” You admitted to Riki, walking hand in hand towards the beach. He looked back at you, blocking the bright sun with his hand.

“It’s okay… even if we mess up, it’ll still be fun cause we’re together.” He smiled boyishly, making you giggle and squeeze his hand a little tighter.

It was your first proper date together after he asked you out 2 weeks ago. The first one where you actually went somewhere special. You had spent hours upon hours together at each other’s houses talking, but something about going to the beach felt more official. Like you were putting in a proper effort to be a good couple.

“Want to get some ice cream?” You suggested, seeing the ice cream truck that was selling it on the side of the road by the beach. Riki agreed, and you got 2 cones - 1 chocolate for Riki, and 1 mint chocolate for you. 

“How can you eat that?” Your boyfriend questioned, eyeing your cone of mint chocolate ice cream like it would jump out and attack him.

“It’s refreshing.” You shrugged, licking the ice cream with a smile. 

“Strange…” 

“You’re strange.” You giggled.

Once you were both sitting down on a blanket in the sand, you looked like the most perfect couple. Your clothes were even matching, with you wearing a white sundress, and Riki wearing a white mesh shirt over a white tank top. Your hair was down, gently blowing with the wind, and the sight made Riki blush.

With the sun shining down, and the waves lapping at the shore softly, it was a relaxing afternoon. There weren’t that many people on the beach since it wasn’t a well-known spot. 

“Take my hand.” Riki said excitedly, holding out his hand for you to stand up. Once you took it, he started running towards the water, and you both ended up knee deep in the ocean, you yelling in protest, and Riki letting out the most adorable, contagious laughter that you couldn’t help but join him in.

“Riki! I’m all wet now…” You looked down at the hem of your sundress that was now dripping with water.

“So? You look pretty.” Was the only thing he responded with before splashing you with more water.

Your jaw dropped at his audacity, your entire body now soaking wet. So you returned the favour, using your hands to push water onto him, making even his hair start to drip from the ocean water.

“I deserved that.” He laughed, walking over to you to wrap his arms around your dripping figure.

You tilted your head so you could look up at his face in the hug, his long brown hair letting water droplets roll down onto his face. You pushed some of his hair to the side, admiring his smile full of adoration for you.

“You know that thing… that couples do?” You hesitantly started, blush creeping up to your cheeks at your thoughts.

“What? Like hugs? But I’m hugging you right now.” Riki hugged you a bit tighter, just to show you that he was in fact doing it, but you shook your head.

“Not hugs…” 

“Then what?” He asked softly. His question seemed to linger in the air, and all was quiet except for the calming sounds of the waves on the shore. 

You took a breath, making eye contact with Riki, and standing up on your tiptoes. Your eyelids fluttered shut, as you softly made contact with his lips, catching him by surprise.

His breath was taken away, as his cheeks flared a bright red. He closed his eyes, kissing you back as the butterflies went wild in his stomach. You pulled out, letting out a laugh and looking back to his face.

“Was that your first kiss?” You asked teasingly, giggling as his cheeks turned a brighter shade of pink.

“What?! N-no, of course not…” He looked away, feeling embarrassed.

“Hey.” Your voice was soft as he looked back at you, “You’re a good kisser.” You said shyly.

“Really?” You nodded, smiling, before attempting to step back a bit.

“Wait- Don’t pull away… not yet.” Riki stopped you, wrapping his arms around you again to stop you from leaving.

You glanced back at his face, your eyes sending him silent playful questions like, ‘why don’t you want me to leave?’, or ‘is this what love feels like?’, and even ‘can I kiss you again?’.

The last one he took action on, as he leaned down again, lips meeting yours for a second time. You were both laughing by the time you pulled apart again. The sight was almost too cliche to be real - the kind of thing you would picture when you think of young love. 

That’s what it was, Riki decided. 

Love. 

He was in love with you.

˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥ enha taglist: @kangtaehyunzzz,, @yeonjuns-bluehair,, @syrxiee2,, @ddenoudepression

[goalieprotectionsquad]

✧･ﾟ: * July 2022 Harringrove Starter Pack *:･ﾟ✧

Thank you to Harringrove fans for coming together and creating this amazing fic starter pack and to our endlessly talented creators for giving us so much to choose from! Forty-one votes were cast and across the 119 nominations, the number of votes received by the fics overall amounted to 397 (!!!!). The chosen fics had a combined total of 126 votes. The doc with the list of nominees will stay active in case you want to check out the rest. 

Here are the 14 fics chosen by Harringrove fans as the best place to start for those looking to dabble in the community (you can also see these fics in the ao3 collection) - in alphabetical order:

◢ Billy Hargrove Needs a Nap - lilpeas [74,312; E]

It’s one thing to be a light sleeper in this shitty town that won’t shut up at night, but it’s another thing entirely to fall asleep on Steve Harrington’s shoulder during last period English.

◢ break (like waves) - @witchsickness​ [93,187; E]

‘We’re good together,’ Harrington says to the darkness above. Not a question. Matter of fact. He turns to Billy, a smile sweet enough to make Billy want to do something reckless. Something stupid. ‘I’m telling you, heartbreaker. We’re gonna be unstoppable.’

Billy wants to ask. If he means tomorrow. If he means just for the game.

Wants to ask if he means forever.

He’s never wanted anyone to mean forever before.

or; falling (in love), the hard way

◢ break up with your girlfriend (’cause i’m bored) - @the-copperkid [15,604; E]

@umissedconnections: Bambi eyes. m4m. i was rippin cigs in the sae p-lot. u made urself puke 2 make room 4 more beer. incredible? ur my hero PLS say ur into guys

* Steve finds he has a secret admirer who's continuously hitting on him via his university's Missed Connections Twitter account. // Tommy and Billy are the worst roommates ever.

◢ Cherry - @lazybakerart [58,061; E]

They’ve got ten minutes before Steve’s break is up and he has to go back to wishing for death with a smile.

◢ cherry pie - @brawlite and @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger [133,828; E]

Billy Hargrove lives for summer. Endless sunshine, heavily chlorinated pools, roaming ice cream trucks, and unencumbered freedom? There’s nothing better.

Even being stuck in Hawkins can’t ruin the summer for him. He eats it up, devouring every day whole.

◢ dried up, half full - @lymricks​ [60,016; E]

Steve’s been coming out here searching for a monster in the woods. He’s finally found one.

“What do you want, Hargrove?”

◢ falling for you in hawkins, indi-fucking-ana (series) - @lazybakerart​ [294,822+; E]

Billy gets his shit together. Steve figures some stuff out. They fall in love.

◢ in waves - @lymricks​ [45,095; M]

It’s March and it’s too cold for Billy to be shirtless and wearing shorts, but he hadn’t noticed until Harrington appeared and made him hold still. Harrington can’t seem to stop looking at the bruises. “What’s it to you if I miss a little school, Harrington?” Billy asks. He feels goosebumps rising on his skin.

“I don’t know,” Harrington snaps back, looking uncomfortable. He shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Plant your feet, Billy wants to scream at him. I’m going to bowl you over.

◢ Incident at Castle Byers - @flippyspoon [3,639; G]

Will learns something about Billy Hargrove and feels a little less alone.

◢ Under the Covers - @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger​ [87,788; M]

Steve is (maybe) a little bit still in love with Nancy Wheeler and (maybe) trying to figure himself out-- between the night terrors and the babysitting and the general weirdness that is Hawkins, Indiana-- before he graduates.

Billy Hargrove fits in there somewhere (probably).

◢ when the bones are good - @un-buttoned​ [28,411; E]

‘So,’ Tommy says around a mouthful of fries, ‘what the fuck is the deal with you and Hargrove?’

And that’s really the goddamn question, isn’t it?

He wants to know Billy. Wants to know why he is the way he is. Wants to be able to figure out what the fuck he’s thinking when he looks at Steve like that, when he touches him like it doesn’t mean shit and like it means everything all at once. Wants to know why he talks so much shit, why he needs to fight, where all that fire comes from. Why he’s so volatile, why he’s such an asshole, how he can be so fucking mean and so fucking sweet in the span of seconds, at the same time, even.

◢ you’ll lose the blues in chicago (series) - @lymricks​ [101,188; E]

Steve takes a second to feel relieved it's not Dustin getting all sorts of arrested in places he shouldn’t be, then he goes back to staring.

It's Billy, who looks as good now as he did the last time Steve saw him: three years ago. He looks just as complicated, too. He’s got bruises on his face, a split lip.

The officer clears her throat, slowly, awkwardly, and Steve realizes they’ve been staring at each other for a while, now. He imagines, for a moment, saying that he doesn’t know this person, this stranger, pretending that Billy Hargrove was someone he used to know and kind of remembers, but--no, he’s not willing to sign for him, or whatever. To vouch for him. “Mr. Harrington?” the officer prompts.

Steve runs a hand through his hair. “Steve,” he corrects, a little absently. “Yeah, I’ll--yeah. Do you have a form, or something?”

Three years later, Steve Harrington signs Billy Hargrove out of a police station. This, it turns out, is only the beginning.

◢ you’re cold (and i burn) - @keroujack​ [55,919; E]

Move on. Let it heal.

Maybe that’s why Steve said yes when Max asked him to help move boxes out of Billy’s room after the dust settled. He could hear her voice. Too many. Too heavy.

Just like his wounds. His grief. Too many. Too heavy.

(Or, Steve steals the glass ashtray from Billy's bedside table and things start to go bump in the night.)

◢ Yourself or Someone Like You (series) - halfempty [792,802; E]

Maxine looked happy as they parted from Steve and walked down Main Street away from the theater. She slid into the passenger seat of Billy’s car. 'That was really fun,' she said. She looked at him like a gremlin and then smiled real cutesy. 'Did you and Steve hold hands in the popcorn?'

'I hope you had a real good time, I’m going to kill you in your sleep tonight,' Billy told her.

[eddies-house]

The Under-Ground (18+ ONLY)

Chapter Three - Sunday Night

Ch. 1 | Ch. 2 | Ch. 3 | Ch. 4 | Ch. 5 | Ch. 6 | Ch. 7 |

Modern!Barista!Eddie AU - Your best friend would never go behind your back...right?

Enemies to Lovers, Modern!Barista!Eddie AU, Eddie x Fem Reader

6K Words

Warnings - Eddie is an asshole, eventual smut, mentions of drugs and drinking, allusions to mental illness, I don't think there's anything else but please let me know if I missed anything

Author's Note: So it has almost been a month since I posted the previous chapter but we finally did it guys. Also shout out to @uglypastels for talking through one of my ideas for this chapter with me, I felt like I was going absolutely insane so she really helped me out.

Masterlist

Prev | Next

Hawkins High - Sophomore Year

It was mid August, school was just about to start but first there was an ice cream social the week before.  Usually you’d only see these for the elementary school but they’d started hosting them for the middle school as well the freshman and sophomores at the high school to give them a little head start in making friends and getting to know their teachers.  It was held in the parking lot where two ice cream trucks were parked and handing out cones left and right, only offering three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry all for free.  

Your parents had played a big part in the Hawkins community, always helping to set up events and always making an appearance.  They had set out to create the perfect nuclear family with a picket fence and happy faces.  Your mom was on the PTA which meant you were forced to go to a number of school events.  This was one of them, you had no desire to attend an ice cream social especially as an established sophomore, you’d already attended last year’s as a freshman and you didn’t need to relive that.  And yet here you were, sitting on the curb in front of the school in the sweltering August heat while other teenagers created a ruckus throughout the parking lot, a few boys tossing melted ice cream at each other thinking they were the funniest people ever.  

None of your friends attended, obviously.  They weren’t forced to show up so that left you bored and sticky with a sheen of sweat gracing your skin and no one to talk to.  Steve Harrington was in attendance, more than likely also forced to show up because of his mom, however he was more of an acquaintance and someone that happened to always be at the same events that your parents dragged you to.  You watched as he performed little tasks as requested by his mother, the current one being to fetch a new box of Hawkins High t-shirts from the car.  Passing by you, he gestures to the box and rolls his eyes, an understanding between the two of you that this was ridiculous and neither of you had any desire to be here sweating profusely for the sake of your PTA moms and being their little assistants when needed.  You offer him a smile and a shrug, shaking your head as he sets the box on a fold up table, his mother shooing him away as he does.  You always wondered why his mom was so mean and dismissive but quickly took a step back to realize you were in the same boat, he just had more money that his parents would throw at him to get him to go away when necessary for them.  Yours just simply told you to find an activity when they had no interest in entertaining you.  

In any instance, you could appreciate that you and Steve were both lonely teenagers who always saw each other at these events and would sometimes convene and other times give each other mocking looks at how serious the adults were.  It was an ongoing game of who could roll their eyes the hardest and he always ended up winning.  After his mom waved him away, he plopped down right next to you, bowing his head in exhaustion and letting out a heavy sigh.

“Couldn’t get out of this one either?”  He asks with an empathetic smile.  

You shake your head, staring across the lot at all the families and groups of friends.  “Nope.”  You answer.

“Did you at least get ice cream?”  He questions, scraping his shoe against the pavement.  

“Nope.”  You reply, him muttering the same thing as you both laugh.  

“It’s gross anyway, it’s too hot even for ice cream.”  You elaborate while fanning yourself with an orientation brochure.  He agrees with a nod, running a hand through his damp hair, sweaty from lugging boxes around and doing just about anything his mom instructs him to do.  At least all you had to do was hand out the brochures.  

You and Steve continue to sulk on the sidewalk, miserable in the heat even at five in the evening while teachers introduce themselves to the incoming freshman.  Out of nowhere, a guy speeds past the two of you on the curb on a skateboard, abruptly coming to a stop in front of the table of PTA moms.  This was gonna be good, based on his looks, they were going to get a kick out of him.  You shared a look with Steve, an acknowledgement that you were thinking the same thing as you watched the scene play out.  The kid had to be your age at least, he didn’t seem like a freshman, had too much confidence and he appeared a bit older, maybe a junior?  He had a head of brown curls that were shaggy and messy, it looked like he was growing it out and he wore a black shirt with some kind of a demon on it along with some black jeans that were beyond distressed, denim threads hanging off of holes at his knees while he gripped his skateboard in one hand.  The board was pretty worn and looked as if it could snap in half if he stood on it wrong.  Your ears perked up as the moms took a look at him.

“Oh!  Wh-what can we do for you?”  One asks hesitantly, the others staring at him with wide eyes.  He only avoids their eyes, opting to fidget with the grip tape on his board, a piece that was beginning to peel off, that typical teenage boy grumpiness evident in his demeanor.

“Community service.  Name’s Eddie.  What d’ya need me to do?”  The kid grumbles.

Your mom takes a look at a clipboard and nods reluctantly.  “You’re late.”  She says with a scowl.  He shrugs, staring up at the sky as if he’d much rather be anywhere else and you couldn’t blame him.

“Well then.”  Your mother fiends offense.  “You can start by…”  She trails off, searching around for a task, her gaze focusing on anything that remains to be done, no doubt seeking something more difficult in order to punish the boy for being so late.  “Untangling these lanyards.”  She demands, shoving a small box into his arms.  He bites his lip, holding back from saying something before just accepting his fate and nodding.  As he turns, he catches your eye, doing a double take as he looks expectantly, you were staring first after all.  How could you not?  He was cute.  

You mouth a “sorry” while vaguely gesturing to your mother though he wouldn’t know it was your mom.  You proceed to do a dramatic eye roll like you would do to Steve and this elicits the smallest smile from him, a gorgeous smile framed by deep dimples.  The boy proceeded to set his skateboard against the curb by himself before slumping down, beginning his daunting task of untangling several knotted up lanyards.

Steve stares at you with furrowed brows before speaking.  “You know him?”  He asks.

“No, never seen him before.” 

Admiring his face as he sticks his tongue out to concentrate, you start to flush when he glances back up at you with a shy smile this time, peeking up at you from beneath his lashes, your stomach fluttering.  Eddie.

—

Present Day

The mall wasn’t somewhere you found yourself frequenting as of lately due to your financial situation however you couldn’t turn down Will’s plea when he visited The Under-Ground on Saturday, the evening following when Jason Carver visited the shop and mysteriously left without purchasing a coffee.  That fact lingered in your mind since it happened.  Will was in desperate need of some new shoes and also wanted to catch a movie that no one else would watch with him, he mentioned that Joyce gave him extra money to cover both of your tickets.  You should feel humiliation at the fact that Joyce insisted on paying for you but you know there is no judgment there from her and Will more than likely told her you were the only one that would be willing to go.  He knew you would say yes to a cheesy rom com that everyone else would gag at and in a way, you were like a sister he never had that could appreciate his feminine side.  Joyce appreciated this so she would ensure Will got his big sister time in.  

So here you were, Sunday afternoon strolling along Hawkins’ streets with Will on your way to Starcourt.  He didn’t have his license yet and you’d never even bothered to get yours which worked out really seeing as you would never be able to save up enough for a car, not even a used one.  Walking did you good anyway, that's what you told yourself as the days got colder.  

“No, I’m serious!  El refuses to watch rom coms.”  Will laughs as he kicks a pebble along the sidewalk, the same pebble he’d been kicking around since ten minutes ago when you’d left his driveway.  

Brow raising in curiosity, you offer him a scoff in response.

“What!?”  He smiles wide, happy, actually happy.  

Will had been through some rough patches with being bullied at school for everything under the sun.  His sexuality, playing DND, being quiet and shy, the list goes on.  A dumb list at that.  The other boys also had trouble however Will seemed to crumble the most under it all.  Though he had an amazing support system, the mind can really infect itself with its own nasty diseases of self hatred which led to endless nights in solitude, declining to hang out with anyone for weeks and instead collecting dust in his room.  

Jonathan confronted you, worried at one of Steve’s movie nights confiding in you that his brother wasn’t doing so well and that no matter what he did, Will continued to sleep for a majority of his time at home and even skipped school a lot.  Both you and Jonathan stepped into your older sibling roles and decided that night to head back to the Byers while Jonathan explained on the way there that not even El could get through to him which meant things were really bad.  So, when you and Jonathan barged into his room that night with various snack options and a plan to watch his favorite movie all together in his bed, Will was overwhelmed but in the best way possible.  Sure it didn’t fix everything, that’s not how it worked but it was the first little push toward being himself again.  As long as he had the people he loved around and loved him for who he was authentically, he could walk the horrifying Hawkins High halls in confidence that this place was temporary.  It also helped that you reminded him that he’s never alone at school either, Lucas, Dustin, Will, Mike, Max, and El were all going through the same hell he was and that you were sure they wouldn’t mind if he talked with them about it.  But even if he didn’t feel comfortable, you’d be there to listen along with Jonathan, attempting to help him carry the weight on his shoulders.  

“I’m sorry, little miss ‘soap operas’ refuses to watch a rom com?”  You smile in disbelief.

“I didn’t say it made sense!”  Will giggles, throwing his hands up in defense.

Starcourt Mall emerged in the distance from over the horizon as you completed your fifteen minute walk from the Byers, the weekend crowd was prominent as it was almost the only place within a hundred mile radius to do anything fun.  Kids squealed as they chased each other all the way up to the entrance, their parents scolding them through gritted teeth while uttering the threat of not getting ice cream later if they didn’t behave.  It was far too cold for ice cream but to each their own.

“Well we don’t need her anyway.  She hogs up all my Will time.”  You joke, nudging an elbow into Will’s ribs.  

“There’s no need to fight over me, there’s plenty of Will to go around.”  His eyes glimmered with life, something you hadn’t seen a lot of until more recently.  He had sparked this new found confidence that had you beaming at him with pride.  Little Byers, the group’s timid little brother, the youngest out of all of the kids, was growing into himself as he worked through adolescence and it was refreshing. 

“Oh, really?  As I recall, you have a waitlist and the only reason I got ahead of everyone was because El booted herself out this one time.”  You cock a brow at him, the two of you pushing through the heavy glass doors entering the building.  “How’d you get all popular on me, huh?”  You tousled his hair and although he was now taller than you, he was still Little Byers.

“I did NOT get ‘all popular on you’.”  He uses air quotes, that huge grin still plastered to his face while you walked absentmindedly through the mall, the smell of cinnamon invading your senses, instantly filling you with a craving for a soft pretzel covered in cinnamon sugar and icing. 

“No, you’re for sure Mr. Popular now.”  You playfully assure him.  

“Trust me.”  He sing songs, rolling his eyes.  “If I were, Eddie would’ve kicked me to the curb.  And he hasn’t…so hah.”  Will points a finger in your face.  Your face winces at the name though you keep to yourself as to not rain on his parade.  “He did, however, almost disown me last night when I won against him in Mario Kart.”

Mario Kart?  Only you and Will played Mario Kart.  Or so you thought up until this point.  It’s a stupid thing to be upset over, really but you couldn’t shake the bitterness that rattled in your bones.  It was a game, a video game that basically every person on planet earth had heard of and played.  And yet the only reason it felt like such a personal attack was none other than a common occurrence in your life recently, Eddie Munson.  So maybe when you mumbled your next words, you attempted to hide the sour tone but ultimately only outed yourself.

“Mario Kart?  You play–with him?”  Pathetic, you’re pathetic.  The fact that you spoke such a stupid sentence into existence is beyond you.  There was a jealousy coursing through you, spilling out of your lips and no matter how hard you tried to shove it back into the duffle bag of your body, there was no coming back.  Over a game called fucking Mario Kart of all things.  

Will nervously wavered in his response, side eyeing you as you both continued to make your way through the mall and to the discount shoe store.  “Yeah?”  It came out as a question, god you could just punt yourself down a football field right now for being a literal adult fuming in envy over another adult playing a video game with your basically adopted little brother.  “He came over last night after work.  It was me Jonathan, and him…”  You were practically making the poor kid defend himself over something completely okay.  “He’s been coming over a lot actually?  We play DND, Mario Kart, he brings over pizza.  Like once a week since summer.”  Will acts as if you had this information.

Summer.  When Will fell into his biggest episode to date, when everyone had plans of their own including Dustin with summer camp, Mike regrettably embarking on a trip to Washington DC with his dad, Lucas traveling around for his summer basketball program, El and Max bonding over their boyfriends being away and having girls night after girls night, and of course the adults with their jobs.  He had felt so outcast and alone.  You're suddenly beginning to realize that you weren’t the only one to tend to Will’s emotional wounds besides Jonathan.  There was a bigger picture here and though you hate to step back and look at it, you’re forced to realize that Eddie was also acting as a protector of Will’s sanity, assuming just as big of a role as you and Jonathan.

You shouldn’t ask, you shouldn’t dare trek into this territory but the words tumble out before you can even think, your shoulders relaxing and eyes softening at the boy before you.  “Were you too scared to tell me?”

Will shakes his head as he hesitantly starts to enlighten you.  “No–I just–I–”  He sighs, frowning.  “I thought you already knew.  A-and I never talk about him around you–or I try not to as best as I can because–because I know how much you hate him.  Like anytime you see him you look like you just wanna rip his head off.”  Will has moved into full rambling mode.  “And now–now you work together so I’m trying to be extra careful, so–so I’m sorry.  For mentioning him.”  

You have reached a point so low that you were now unintentionally making Will apologize for things that were never his fault or ever revolved around him.  Anxiety flashes in his eyes and you were giving yourself the goldstar for being the shittiest person alive.  “Will…”  You croak out.  “Will, no.  You don’t owe anyone an apology, I owe YOU an apology.  I didn’t mean for this to affect you like that.”  You explain, pausing in front of the store.  “Will, I’m sorry.  Please never worry about mentioning him in front of me, okay?  Not for my sake, I’m a big girl and you’re right, I don’t like him but I will have to learn to deal with it whenever he comes up.  Okay?”

There’s a pause as he absorbs your words, his eyes shyly looking to the ground and then back to you.  “Okay.”  He whispers, still uncertain.  You would need to visit this again at another time, you were not about to cause more turmoil for him just because of your personal vendetta and you can’t believe you didn’t see how it affected him before.  Will had enough with his dad causing issues in his life, he didn’t need two more bickering adults further proving that no one was ever happy.  You would keep your waging war with Eddie out of his sight.  The sudden shift in the air was enough to leave you numb, quickly clinging onto any remaining normalcy from your earlier conversation.

—

The scent of freshly popped popcorn, warm and buttery goodness filled the theater as you walked drowsily into the hallway decorated with multicolored carpet and little designs of stars with abstract shapes.  Nothing ever prepares you for the feeling of seemingly being transported to another realm the second you step out of a two hour movie and back into the real world.  Every other soul that had sat through the romantic comedy appeared to feel the same, zombies waddling out of the theater and into the main lobby heading back into reality.  It had to have been around 8:30 PM by now, the day long gone as there was no longer any trace of sunlight streaming in through the windows.  Will had been talking your ear off about the movie, the parts that were super unnecessary, scenes that had him on the brink of tears, and how the twist at the end was a sloppy way to conclude the story.  You hummed in response to his complaints, nearly asleep and yearning for your bed no matter how stiff it made your back.  

“You know, now I can kinda see why El hates these movies sometimes.”  He admits much to your surprise however you knew he’d never say those words directly to her.  

“Don’t let her catch you saying that.”  You warn playfully, the two of you pushing through the heavy metal doors leading to the mall parking lot.  

“Not a chance-”

Will is abruptly silenced when a familiar voice chimes in, happily wrapping his arms around both you and Will from behind.

“You guys went to the movies!?  Why wasn’t I invited?”  Dustin’s overly excited tone made you want to groan but you held back.  It wasn’t his fault you were on your way to becoming a grumpy adult who needed to be in bed by at least 9:00 PM.  

Will shoves Dustin’s arm off of his shoulder, turning to walk backwards as you continue your trek through the parking lot.  The grin on his face is genuine rather than masking some kind of true emotions like he’d previously done throughout summer.  “Cause we saw a rom com.”  It’s all he needs to say as Dustin fakes a gag.  “That’s why.”  Will gestures to him with a roll of his eyes.  

“Fair.”

The neon lights from the theater created a glow throughout the lot, bright reds, greens, blues, and yellows reflecting off of the cars.  The mall was still buzzing with people regardless of the stores closing, groups of teenagers and young adults scattered throughout the benches at the front creating a hum of clustered talking and every now and then, the annoying screech of some teenage girl overdramatically yelling to her friends about something was heard.  Dustin and Will continued catching up and you’d think that with them seeing each other every single day at school, they’d grow sick of one another but it was quite the opposite and once you got them going there was no shutting them up, no matter the setting.

The boy’s voices slowly phased out of your mind as you approached the back of the lot catching sight of something familiar but it wasn’t yet dawning on you where you knew it from.  A van, an older van.  Brown and white.  Barely ever seen out and about these days.  And before you could even register who it belonged to, a disheveled Steve suddenly hopped out the back doors, rushing to zip up his jeans as his chest heaved and he ran a hand through his voluminous hair.  A flash of realization crossed your features, eyes widening and jaw dropping.  

Eddie Munson’s van.  

Steve Harrington was stumbling out of Eddie Munson’s van after presumably committing unspeakable acts based on his flustered demeanor and attempts at cleaning himself up.  There was no mistaking it when the back of his hand wiped his mouth and to further confirm your suspicions, the man himself stepped out seconds later.  Eddie stood there, fly still undone while he stretched both his arms over his head, shirt riding up to show off a glimpse of his pale torso.  His curls were even more wild than usual and a smirk displayed on his face as he made some kind of comment to Steve.  

In your shocked state, you’d completely drowned out Dustin and Will’s banter, attempting to understand the scene playing out before you in the corner of the parking lot.  This wasn’t possible, Steve hated Eddie just as much as you did and although it was for different reasons than your own, it was hatred nonetheless.  If that was the case then why was this happening?  How could this be happening?  The questions remained unanswered as you realized you’d stopped dead in your tracks, falling behind the boys as they turned back to stare at you with puzzled expressions.  Your next question was thrown out the window due to Dustin doing a double take at the two men.  Do I draw attention to this or do I let it go like I never saw?  

It was now too late for the second option as a gasp escaped Dustin, he just had to look right when Eddie teasingly tugged Steve in by the belt loop and planted one last sloppy kiss to his lips before retreating to the driver’s side of his van, not even bothering to zip up his pants while Steve returned to his own car.  Things were about to become massively more complicated.  For Steve.  For you.  For your friendship.  Even for Dustin and Will who were utterly flabbergasted by what had just played out in front of them.  Because everyone knows Steve hates Eddie, right?  That’s just how the world goes.  Steve hates Eddie, Eddie hates Steve.  They’re polar opposites.  Nothing was adding up and poor Dustin and Will were about to experience something you wished so badly you could hold back.  There was no controlling it, you found yourself marching up to Steve’s car before he was even able to open the door, wedging yourself between him and the car.

“Steve.”  His name is spat right at him like venom, your face showing the distaste you had for him in this moment but he couldn’t quite gather if it's because you’d caught him or if this was you and you dramatics once again over something as simple as taking a rain check on driving Max and El to the arcade since they didn’t have their licenses yet.  

“Socks?”  He has the audacity to seem lost and it only fuels the fire growing inside of you.  

“Don’t.”  You warn through clenched teeth.  

Suddenly it feels as if it's only you and Steve in the parking lot, your eyes shooting daggers at him and he can only imagine that he fucked up.  And this time it was bad by the way your face flushed with anger, steam practically coming out of your ears.  Dustin and Will kept their distance near a dumpster, close enough to listen in but still somewhat hidden.  You didn’t want them to witness what you were about to unleash but it came out of nowhere, like a dam breaking and releasing all of its contents.

“How.  Dare.  You.”  Each word is enunciated with a harsh poke to his chest, his brown eyes becoming sadder with each one.

“I don’t-”

“If you’re about to tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about then I don’t even recognize you anymore, Steve.”  

He visibly deflates, shoulders shrinking as if he was a puppy that was caught doing something it wasn’t supposed to.  Except he was a grown man and he knew exactly what he was doing, he knew if you found out it would possibly cost your friendship. 

“It wasn’t supposed to–I–wasn’t–you gotta understand–”

“Understand what?  I think I understand perfectly!  You and Munson are messing around and you’re doing it behind my back!  What, is this some kind of prank?  Are–are you helping him get at me for something?  Did I push your buttons a little too hard one day and you decided to hit me where–where it hurts most?”  You were genuinely trying to name reasons for why he’d do such a thing knowing how much it would affect you but there was no making sense of it in your brain.  You were desperate to know why one of the closest people in your life would betray you in such a way.  

“No!  No I–”  

“Enlighten me then, Steve.  Cause I don’t get it!  Out of every single person you could choose, you fuck Eddie!?”  Tears were brimming at your eyes, your hand tightening on the door handle as you tried to regain some composure.

“If I may interrupt…”  Another voice chimed in a few feet away, the last voice you’d ever want to hear, especially at this moment.  “There was no fucking.”  Eddie leaned against the side of his van a few parking spots over, arms crossed and a cocky look on his face.  You swore you wanted to kill him, pure rage was coursing through your veins.  You wanted to kill both of them if you were honest.

Steve mumbled your name in sorrow, searching for answers just as much as you were.  “I didn’t mean for anything like this to happen.  I wasn’t trying to hurt you, I swear.  It–it just happened.”  A sigh of defeat escapes him while his hand rubs the back of his neck anxiously.  

The tears began to build up, breaking the barrier of your waterline and falling down your cheeks as you attempted to quickly wipe them away.  “If you didn’t mean to hurt me then why did you hide it?  Does Robin know?”  The question held such power over him, it was a deciding factor in what your next move was.  

Seconds pass although it feels like several minutes due to the tension.  He avoids your eyes, opting to further inspect the asphalt below.  Feeling yourself becoming more agitated and wounded, you roughly shove his shoulder with the palm of your hand causing him to stumble back a few steps.

“Steve.”  Still no answer.

This time you step forward to shove him again but with both hands, unable to comprehend how he can’t even admit his truth to you, only to be stopped when a taller figure steps in between the two of you, grabbing your wrists in his hands.  It takes you by surprise and at first you have no idea who would’ve stopped you but as you look up, you’re met with deep brown irises that you’d come to dislike even more in the last few minutes.  

“Take a breather.”  There’s something in his eyes you don’t recognize but you’re too far gone to analyze it.

“Let.  Go.”  

“Take.  A.  Breather.”  His grip on your wrists is firm but not unkind.  

“Eddie, I think you should just let us–”  Steve attempts to butt in but Eddie glances behind him with a warning written on his face.

“Harrington, I’d shut up if I were you right now.”  

“You have no business stepping into this, Munson.  Let.  Go.”  Wriggling around in an attempt to get out of his hold but failing, you huff out a breath, still glaring at Steve over Eddie’s shoulder.

“It is my business.”  

“Let go.”  Your voice regrettably comes out cracking, more tears involuntarily falling.  

And he does.  Eddie lets go, showing you his hands in surrender to which you try to shove past him only to be held in place by your shoulders.  It felt like it was you against the world and you kept losing.  

“Look, I know you’re not my biggest fan and now you’re not Harrington’s either but you need to take a minute.”  Again, you meet his eyes briefly only to find some kind of emotion lurking in them but you can’t pinpoint exactly what it is.  This isn’t something you’re used to, why was Eddie being the middleman, why was he talking you down out of everyone?  Why was there a drop of sympathy pouring from his gaze?  And then you decided, it had to have been sympathy for Steve, not you.  And that stung for some reason.  

Poor Dustin and Will still lingered near the dumpster, deciding to keep themselves out of it, rightfully so.  Even as you glanced toward them, taking in their concerned faces, you continued.  It was like something was set off deep within you and Steve’s actions released it.  Grabbing a fistful of Eddie’s shirt in your hand, you scowled at him and then Steve.  

“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

“I do when you’re about to do something you’ll regret.  In front of Dustin and Will.”  That’s where he got you.  Releasing his shirt, you sigh.

You weren’t sure what you were about to do but you knew it was something along the lines of verbally ripping Steve apart and possibly trashing any chance of ever redeeming your friendship.  You slowly realized that you were again, creating reason for Will to see you as a loose canon.  Another adult in his life that flew off the rails and failed him because you proved that you could not handle simply existing in the same world as Eddie Munson.  And yet, Eddie Munson was standing right in front of you trying to talk you out of creating such a horrible reality.  Suddenly you felt so small, so insignificant as each one of them stared at you, awaiting your next actions almost fearfully.  Steve was apologetically gazing at you from behind Eddie, seeming to have words lodged in his throat but not succeeding in finding a way to speak them.  Will watched you with worry, Dustin next to him with an expectant expression.  You couldn’t bear to exist anymore since showing Will that side of yourself after assuring him earlier that you’d be fine and to not refrain from mentioning Eddie just because of your own personal issues.  

So you crumbled.  Right there in the parking lot at around 8:57 PM according to a peek at Eddie’s watch, his hand still resting atop your shoulder.  Hot, fat tears began rolling down your cheeks rather than the smaller, more controlled ones from earlier.  Steve urgently moved forward but Eddie removed one hand from you and held it in front of him to stop, Steve staring at him confused but still obeying.  You began to stumble backward, the urge to hide yourself prominent but Eddie held you in place for reasons unknown.  His attention wasn’t required in this situation, he should theoretically just hop into his van and drive off but he doesn’t. 

Out of the corner of your blurry vision Will approached and yet again Eddie held a hand out as a signal to stop.  It was all too overwhelming, why was Eddie helping?  Or was he sabotaging in some fucked up way?  Using your moment of weakness against you.  How could you let yourself lash out like that in front of Will?  Even in front of Dustin?  The right thing to do would’ve been to wait to talk it out with Steve in private but no, you had to self sabotage.  And now you looked like a villain despite Steve being the one who did the damage.  Sure Eddie could be to blame too however something like this was to be expected from him, never from your best friend.  

Body shaking, you began to feel paralyzed, nerves tingling and breath shallow as you succumbed to your anxiety.  Everyone’s eyes on you didn’t aid in calming your tantrum.  It wasn’t fair, you weren’t the one betraying your friend and yet it felt as if you were taking the blow.  Will frantically looked from you to Eddie, having trouble deciding if you were crying because of Eddie or because of Steve or both.  This was out of his scope and he couldn’t distinguish a path to follow in order to bring you peace.  But he didn’t need to.

“Byers, Henderson.  Ride home with Harrington.  I’ll take her home.”  Eddie instructs, no longer touching you but still keeping his eyes glued to you, wide but attentive.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”  Will asks cautiously.

“You think it’s a good idea to put her in a car with Harrington right now?”  Eddie references your outburst with a raise of his brow, Will nodding immediately in understanding.

If you had to be in a car with one of them, Eddie seemed to be the better option at the moment.  No matter how much you hated him, he wasn’t your target right now and judging by the way you didn’t run from Eddie as he tried to coax you toward the van, everyone seemed to agree this was the only option.  God only knows what would happen if you were placed in the passenger seat of Steve’s car in this state.  You weren’t thinking clearly.

You vaguely recall Dustin offering to walk you to the passenger side and Eddie responding that he was taking care of it and that he was trying to keep the environment the least bit stimulating due to your current anxiety.  Adding another person might’ve made things worse and Dustin agreed as he made his way to Steve’s car.  You caught pieces of the exchange but overall you found yourself in that frightening place between reality and your brain that wasn’t allowing you to fully understand the events happening around you and you couldn’t determine what exactly had set it off but one moment you were standing in the parking lot screaming at Steve, the next Eddie was urging you to take a breath, and then you were in the passenger seat of his van.

~end~

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tags - @mmunson86 @haylaansmi @batkin028 @obscureenigmatic @micheledawn1975 @dreamerjj @hideoutside

[frost-queen]

Game over // part 6 (Sister!Reader x Billy Hargrove)

Requested part by: @glxwingrxse Forever tag: @missmelodramatic, @theletterhart, @alex--awesome--22, @elllie-does-the-posts, @floatlosers, @merlieve, @queen-of-books, @glimmering-darling-dolly, @denkisclown, @wildieflower, @meyocoko, @bubblybrianna, @justanothercoco, @idkwhatmyusernam,  @subjecta13-thefangirl  Tag post: @rosemarycupcake42, @batty-bets (can’t find your tag), @tamayakii, @eddiemunson17, @minaxcarter (can’t find your tag), @enchantedinfinity, @roxanne-ragnvindr, @hornedcat2768, @simp4natasha (can’t find your tag), @squishypachi  @seajae, @kiriki45 (can’t find your tag), @gengen64, @chloe-skywalker, @randomstory56, @mrs-hargrove, @lookatmyproblems​

Summary: On the road it might be a good time to bond as brother and sister. Certainly now your dad is nowhere to be around <for now ;)>

Read part 1 & part 2 & part 3 & part 4 & part 5

You sat on the hood of the car. The sun warming up your face as you leaned back. Around you, you heard little kids laugh and shout loudly, running around. The loud honking of a car made you sit up straight. An uneasy feeling crept up as you dared to slowly turn your head to the sound. Whispering please don’t be him. Please don’t be him. With one eye closed you exposed yourself to the car behind you. A deep sigh of relieve left your mouth as your muscles untensed. It was not his car. He wasn’t here. He hadn’t found you. 

A little kid ran up to the car waving goodbye to his friends. He got in the car as a moment later they drove off. You shook your hands wanting the stress to leave your body. You focused your attention back to the front, seeing your brother stand in line to the ice cream truck. He had his arms crossed tapping his foot impatiently. You could tell from a distance that he was agitated by the little kids in front of him who could not choose. Funny how Billy managed to keep his cool. Perhaps he had changed fully. The old Billy would’ve given them a piece of his mind. Probably ending up slapping their ice out of their hands.

Finally it was his turn as he exhaled long. Billy ordered four ice creams. You furrowed your brows when he came back to the car. – “That hungry?” – you asked with a soft laugh. Billy turned his head ashamed away. – “I…I realized I didn’t know your favorite flavor, so I ordered one of each.” – he confessed clearly bothered with himself. You accepted two cones with a smile. – “I actually don’t know which is my favorite so…” – you said seeing his face brighten up. He actually didn’t mess it up. You licked at one ice cream letting the sweet flavor stick on your tongue. 

Billy came sitting on the hood with you, biting in his ice cream. It made you raise your eyebrow at how quickly he ate his ice cream by biting. He picked up that something about his actions kept your attention. – “What?” – he asked with a mouth full of vanilla ice. You laughed loud. Billy gritted his teeth as he felt his grip tighten around the cone. – “You are so funny.” – you responded making him widen his eyes a bit. He swallowed nervously, looking down. No one ever found him funny. They always feared him or ran away. No one told him he was funny. It was kind of nice. He untensed his grip on the cone before it would break, chuckling. You were licking on two ice creams one at a time. Mixing flavors in your mouth.

Billy stared dumbfound at you when you stuck your tongue out to him. Stripes of pink and brown mixed together. It took him a moment to understand what you wanted. He sighed moving his left hand over the other. You brought your mouth closer to his ice, taking a bite from it. Billy stared down at his ice cream, seeing your teeth marks in it. You laughed loud, ice almost dripping down your throat. Billy loosened up, chuckling as he saw bite marks on his other ice as well. You had copied his way of eating ice cream just to be funny. 

You continued to lick both your cones as Billy had bitten all the way down to the cone. He didn’t start on the cone as that was the dullest part of ice cream. When your ice creams were done offered, he you the remaining ice cream. With your hands full, bit you down it. – “Y/n!” – Billy called out. – “Use your Goddamn hands!” – he added shoving the cone closer to you. You presented him with the cones in your hands, swallowing the ice. He sighed taking the cones from you so that you could take his. Billy hopped off the hood, heading over to a bin. By the bin, took he a keen eye on the parking lot. He let his eyes go over every parked car, looking for that one car. It wasn’t among them to his relief. If your dad would find you here, it would sure be hell.

He'd drag you by your ears back and hit Billy so hard he’d end up hospitalized or dead. Running away from home was easy but staying out of the clear was another challenge. Someone could alert him and send him racing over. Billy returned to the car as you were eating the cone. – “Get in!” – he ordered, nudging your knee. You hopped off the hood, opening the door. You got in the car with your brother. He drove off leaving the parking lot for what it was. Back on the road drove he without any clear destination in mind. 

Just riding around Hawkins to stay out of your dad’s hands. You lowered the window, needing some fresh air. Sitting in the car surely stirred up your stomach. Specially after eating three ice creams. You moved your hands over your stomach feeling it ache. Billy took a turn as your body leaned against the middle, feeling your stomach tumble. – “Billy…” – you said concerned, holding your stomach tighter. Billy adverted his gaze from the road to you. His eyes widened at the sudden color drained from your face. – “What’s up with you?” – he asked loudly, switching between the road and you. 

You groaned in pain, feeling dizzy. – “My stomach hurts…” – you whined out as your face flinched at the pain. – “Are you kidding me?” – he answered rudely. He shook his head with a scoff, rubbing his thumb against his lip. – “You just had to eat the third one, didn’t you?” – he called out, passing around a slow car. He swung the car back in lane as your stomach twisted and turned. You felt awful as if any minute you could throw up. – “You are the one that bought four ice creams!” – you screamed back wanting him to stop being such a dick. Billy’s nostrils widened as he inhaled sharply.

You sunk back in your seat, letting your head lean against the frame. He glared rudely at you as suddenly his gaze softened. He touched your forehead feeling that you had warmed up a bit. He exhaled long using the blinkers to go left. – “I’ll stop by the pharmacy.” – he said slowing down his speed. You nodded trying your very best to keep everything inside. He drove on the parking, parking close to the building. He got out of the car as you followed with much effort. Feeling absolutely miserable dragged you behind him. The doors swished open as Billy walked in. 

He went straight to the counter pushing a lady aside who was about to approach it. – “I need medicine!” – Billy ordered, laying his hand on the counter. You shuffled closer to him, your hand resting on your stomach. The clerk behind the counter gaped at him. – “You’ll have to be more specific than that.” – he answered as it made Billy clench his hand into a fist on the counter. – “Something for her stomach!” – he said pointing at you. The clerk looked over the counter to you. – “Do you need something for diarrhea, indigestion, motion sickness or a painkiller?” – he listed as Billy was visibly confused. – “I don’t know! You are the expert!” – he shouted ready to grab the clerk by his shirt. – “I ate too much ice cream…” – you said with weak knees. The clerk lifted his finger up, turning around. You shuffled closer to Billy moving your hand in his.

“Billy.” – you cried when he flinched at your hand in his. Out of instinct wanted he to pull it away, but after a second thought tightened, he his grip around your hand. – “Hurry up!” – Billy called out, thinking he was taking his time. The clerk returned with a medicine. – “This should do it.” – he said as Billy took the medicine from him. He threw some money on the counter, heading back outside with you. He stormed back to the car, opening the door. He insisted you sat down as he checked the medicine box. – “Billy.” – you begged, holding your hand out. – “Just a second Y/n.” – he answered wanting to be sure it was right for you. 

He knelt down, giving you the box. You took out a pill, taking it. Now you just had to wait for it to work. You exhaled relieved, leaning back in the seat. Billy felt your temperature with his bare hand. He waited till you were a bit out of the clear. He drove back slowly not wanting to stir your stomach too much. You had bundled up against the door, your eyes closed. Driving out of the busy town noticed he that you had fallen asleep. Billy looked over his shoulder to the backseat. Moving his hand back, he tried to reach for his jeans jacket. He got it after a few attempts, moving it to the front. He laid his jacket over you, pulling at every edge till it had you covered well enough. He lowered the volume of the radio wanting to give you a peaceful sleep.

You awoke hours later slowly getting up. The sun had started to set. Billy’s jacket slid off you when you rose. You looked around confused as the car was empty. You smiled relieved when you saw Billy smoke not far from the car. He sat down at a picnic bench in the middle of nowhere. You opened the car door, already feeling better. You walked over to your brother coming to sit beside him. Billy threw his cigarette on the ground, twisting it under his shoe. – “How are you feeling?” – he asked folding his hands together. 

“Better.” – you answered leaning up to his shoulder. Billy straightened his back, sliding his arm around you. – “Good…” – he mumbled. – “Are we going to spend the night here?” – you questioned. Billy sighed deep. – “I don’t know…maybe…” – he replied, letting his fingers brush through your hair. You took a piece of his shirt between your fingers, feeling the fabric. – “Do you think he’s searching for us?” – Billy knew immediately who you meant. – “You don’t have to worry about him anymore Y/n. I’ll make sure he’ll never finds you.” – he said with a soft exhale. 

You moved your arms around him, hugging him from the side. – “I love you, Billy.” – you confessed. It has been a long time since you’ve said it. You used to say it frequently when you were younger, and your mom was still around. You stopped saying it as it didn’t seem to have any meaning. Certainly not towards your brother as he hadn’t been showing you any love then.

Billy took a deep breath as you felt his chest rise. He blinked rapidly feeling tears form. It felt liberating hearing those words. Almost like the chains around his heart had been broken. Billy moved his arms around you, pulling you closer to him. He leaned down, kissing the top of your head. Letting his lips rest there for a moment to allow himself affection. 

Finally he understood what was worth fighting for. You, his little sister. Billy drove the car to a drive-in since you had a little hunger. He ordered you a burger and fries with your favorite soda. You happily ate, not caring if you lived like this. Billy drove to an unknown place where he was certain no one would come looking. You had moved to the backseat, laying down to sleep. Billy had his arms crossed, looking at the darkened sky. 

Looking over his shoulder, smiled he faintly at the sight of you. – “I promise you Y/n.” – he said low not wanting to wake you. – “I promise I’ll take care of you. I won’t stop until we have a place of our own where you’ll never, ever have to feel scared again.” – he watched you sleep peacefully. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened his eyes, felt he the need to speak. I love you Y/n.

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

Read more of my fics on my Masterlists!

[mmvalentine]

Lover Like Me pt 3 | Feysand

Part 1 Part 2 ** Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14

It's Sunday, it's update day x

A few weeks later, Rhys and the gang organise a beach day.

It’s been surprisingly easy to settle in here, but that might be because Rhys pops round every other day and makes sure I’m alright. I would have thought I’d hate that, after the way Tamlin used to hover. But it’s not like that. Tamlin would comment on the way I dressed, or what I ate, or whether I was keeping the place clean. Rhys just wants to feed me tea and biscuits.

He has a ridiculous sweet tooth, and always has different biscuits. Loves biscuits. Chocolate, cream filled, iced, you name it. He’s like a middle-aged lady stuffed into the body of a young Greek god, and so even though he’s covered in tattoos, he’s quickly established as the least threatening person I know. I don't know how he brews it differently to the way anyone else does, but I find that his cups of tea warm my insides so well that they stay warm long after the mugs are empty and for a while after he leaves.

I think he feels a little protective of me because of his history with Tamlin. I haven’t probed, but every time his name comes up, the corners of Rhys’s mouth turn down. Mor tells me they’ve had it out for each other since childhood, and I’m not sure I want to open that decades-deep can of worms. And besides, I know Tamlin. It’s not a stretch of the imagination to guess at why someone might not like him.

We pile into Cassian’s pick up truck, Azriel in the front seat and me wedged in the back between Rhys and Mor. I hadn’t wanted to come at first, the group in full force can still be a little overwhelming, but Mor said it was exhausting being one of the boys and that if I came she’d get to be a girl. I didn’t quite follow that logic, but Rhys said he’d buy me fish and chips and honestly, I’ve always been motivated by free food.

After an hour’s drive, of Cassian singing along loudly and badly to the radio, we get out of the car and everyone starts immediately pulling their clothes off. I’m not quite prepared for this, and not for the first time I’m slightly scandalised by the raw confidence that steams off these people. In fairness to them, maybe I’d be like that if I looked like them. Mor is in a one-piece swimsuit, which sounds innocent except that nothing is ever innocent on Mor. It’s red, and if it wasn’t already low-cut it’s got a zipper down the front which is currently pulled only half way up. She looks like she’s about to step onto Bay Watch.

Azriel and Cassian are in wetsuits, but the shirt halves are peeled down to the waist and hanging low about their hips. Rhys is in shorts and has just discarded his t-shirt. I decide to keep my loose shirt-dress on until we hit the sand.

It’s early in the Summer and the sun is out but the water is freezing. Azriel and Cassian disappear beyond the waves with surfboards pretty quickly, Mor has struck up a conversation with a nearby volley-ball team, and Rhys is sitting on a towel next to me applying sunscreen. I watch Mor start to toss the ball, and am jealous of how easily she makes friends.

“The sun is the worst thing for tattoos,” he tells me. I notice that he’s paying much more attention to his ink than his face or anything, and wonder if his dark skin means he doesn’t burn easily. I wriggle out of my dress and start applying the lotion everywhere, since I do not have the luxury of differentiating between tattoo-sensitive skin and white-girl-sensitive skin.

“Hey, would you do my back?”

I look up and Rhys is already turning his broad shoulders to me. He’s got dark, curving tattoos down his scapulae, like wings.

“Sure.” I force my casualness into my voice, but I suddenly realise that although he’s around my place all the time, he rarely initiates physical contact. The last time he touched me was when he was applying salve to my arm, but since then he’s kept his distance.

I squirt a good-sized amount of lotion into my palm and then start rubbing him down. It is impossible not to notice the bulk of his muscle under my hands, and I blush a little before remembering he can’t see me. I try to stay professional, giving good SPF coverage, going back for a second squirt after underestimating the size of him, and wonder if Rhys knows his tattoo well enough to know if my fingers slip beyond the borders of the ink. I tell myself I can’t help it, I’m an artist and I like beautiful things. I tear my hands away. “All done,” I say, perhaps a little too brightly.

“Thanks.” Rhys turns. “Now you.”

I hand the tube back to him and spin obediently. He lifts the length of my hair over my shoulder, before I hear the squelch of lotion, and then he touches me.

Rhys’s hands are enormous. I can feel him all the way across the span of my shoulders, and when he squeezes a little it’s everywhere. His touch is slightly rough where his hands are calloused, and warmer than the sun. Incongrouously, an involuntary shiver runs through me and I hope Rhys doesn't notice.

It’s over and soon as it’s started.

“Thank you,” I tell him. Rhys just winks at me, and then walks down to the water. “You know if you don’t wait a while you’re just washing it all off,” I call after him. He doesn’t stop though.

I lie back on my towel and fish my book out of my bag. For the next little while, time loses meaning.

At a guess it’s about an hour and a half later that the group returns. I’ve stayed with everyone’s bags and towels, and I don’t know how they coordinated to come back together but my attention is snagged when when a shadow falls over my page and I look up and there they all are. Mor is slightly sweaty from her game, but somehow instead of gross she’s just flushed and glowing. She’s pulled her blonde hair back into a pony tail and is talking to Azriel. Cassian and Rhys have come up on the other side. Rhys is dripping on me a little. His hair is slicked back, apart from a rogue curl at the front, and I catch one glimpse of the way his wet shorts are clinging to him before I pointedly return to my book. Cassian sits down next to me.

“Have you been in the water yet, Feyre?” he asks me. “Come for a surf. You can take Az’s board, he’s going to look for some food.”

“I don’t know how,” I tell him, closing my book before it gets soaked.

“Well that’s no problem, I can teach you.”

“Isn’t it freezing?”

“It’s not too bad if you’re in a wetsuit. You can wear Rhys’s, it’s in the car.”

“It’ll be huge on me,” I argue.

“It’ll do fine for now.”

“I’m extraordinarily uncoordinated.”

“You can swim, can’t you?”

“Yeah I can swim…”

“Well then let’s go!”

I run out of arguments. Saying no to Cassian is like saying no to a golden retriever, and I can’t quite manage it.

“Okay?” I give him a weird grimace and I guess the pleased look on his face is worth it.

“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Rhys says.

“I… no I want to try.”

“Yeah Rhys she wants to try,” Cassian says. He puts his arm around my shoulders and frowns at Rhys as he leads me away.

“Look after her,” Rhys just says mildly.

“Of course I’m gonna look after her.” Cassian's annoyance grows. His eyebrows go up when he turns back to me. “I’m gonna look after you,” he reassures me.

So I let him put me into Rhys’s oversized suit, talk me through the motions on the sand and then tow me out into the ocean.

I’m not convinced my efforts are worth recounting, seeing as it involved a lot of me getting dumped and struggling to remember which way is up. I scramble onto the board, get knocked off by a wave with a right hook, drown for a minute, and then emerge above the fray to the sounds of Cassian’s whooped encouragements. I repeat this process so many times my throat is raw and burning with salt, and my eyes are stinging and puffy. I’m bruised from bumping the board wrong, attached as it is to my ankle. I croak my defeat to Cassian after what feels like an hour, and he helps guide me back to shore, where I struggle back to the group like a wet cat and land in a heap on my towel.

“So surfing, probably not for me,” I rasp.

“What are you talking about, you did great!” Cassian says. I squint up at his face and am not sure whether to be surprised that he is being completely genuine. “First day, baby,” he says. “It can only get better from here.”

“Yeah Cassian was shit his first day, don’t worry about it,” Mor says.

“Still is shit,” Azriel adds. He gives me his towel to wrap around my shoulders, since I am sitting on mine. Mor hands me a bottle of water, and it tastes strangely sweet on my sea-savaged lips.

And despite myself I laugh and agree to try again, because although I am exhausted and bedraggled and sore, I do feel like I accomplished something, and I feel a little more at ease with these guys than I did before.

Rhys arrives then, with the promised fish and chips and I realise I’m starving. The steaming hot, battered fish is everything I need, and I am content with filling my stomach while Cassian regales Rhys with the tales of my valiant attempt. He acts all impressed and gives me the rest of his chips.

“Oh I ran into Cress and Tarquin,” Rhys says, while helping me out of his wetsuit. The words don’t mean anything to me, but the others all react positively. “They said they’ll be around our area next week so might try to organise something.”

“Sounds good, I haven’t seen those guys in forever,” Cassian says.

“Beach people,” Mor shrugs, looking toward me. “Pretty but boring.”

“Helion’s coming down too,” Rhys tells her. She immediately lights up.

“Oh then I’ll be there!”

“She and Helion used to have a thing,” Azriel fills me in. Mor sighs fondly.

“The last dude I ever banged,” she sighs. “He’s almost as good in bed as a woman.”

“Hey,” Cassian pouts. Mor ignores him and closes one eye at Rhys.

“Didn’t you go out with Helion at some stage?” she asks him.

“No, he dated Cress,” Azriel says. Rhys just clears his throat and starts packing things up.

“Okay time to go everyone,” he says, dodging the question. Mor rolls her eyes and loops her arm through mine, telling me how they had met the group when they had come up stay at the beach after high school graduation. From what I gather, unsupervised teenage shenanigans ensued.

Later, we are back in the car and this time Rhys is driving. Azriel went off to visit a girl in town and did not return home with us, Cassian and Mor are snoozing in the back seat, and I am sitting in the passenger side in my swimsuit, with my towel folded under me and Rhys’s sweater over the top. I feel like maybe I should be embarrassed that my bikini top is making two wet patches in the front of his shirt, but I’m too tired to worry about it. I just lean back in my seat, with my legs folded under me and my dark glasses cutting the glare of the setting sun, and peek at Rhys in profile.

He’s driving with one hand on the wheel and the other resting on his open window. His hair is drying in the wind, the salt curling the ends, and his violet eyes are warm in the orange light. He glances at me, and winks when he catches me staring, before turning back to the road.

I drag my gaze away too, and watch the trees blur beside me. I wonder how I ended up here, how I came so far from where I was a month ago, and how I got so lucky as to find these people.

And I make myself a promise that I’m not going to screw up these friendships. Not with Mor and not with Cassian, not with Azriel and I’m not sure if Azriel’s my friend yet but I decide that he will be. And especially not with Rhys, because I’m pretty sure he’s saved me in more ways than he knows.

***

I feel the need to put out a warning that this is a thing i plan to start fluffy and turn dark and i dont want to be misleading (but also i'm fairly sure y'all are a bunch of kinky shits soooo should be fine right) Also idk what the fuck is happening with this taglist but some of them dont work and the editor is making it extremely difficult for some reason so I'm very sorry for that. Also also if you don't want to be on the taglist just let me know, it's been about a year since some of you have been on here and I haven't checked in!

MASTERLIST

TAGLIST: @ghostlyrose2 @highladysith @stardelia @feysand-loml @tillyrubes10 @ratabrasileira @live-the-fangirl-life @maybekindasortaace @annejulianneh111 @thebonecarver @rowaelinismyotp @loosingdreams @pitrsattabhaadmeinjao @achernarlight @swankii-art-teacher @sjmships @courtofjurdan @teddytdr @positivewitch @thalia-2-rose @darling-archeron @rapunzel1523 @fairchildjace @hopefulacademia @story-scribbler @fandomstalker27 @realbookloverproblems @dealfea @s-tormwitch @cretaceous-therapod @whenyadoesntcutit @scatterbrainedgirl @whoever-you-choose-to-love @endlessdaydream @themoonthestarsthesuriel @rarephloxes @timesconvert

[disastardly]

characters out of context game

Rules:

Include one character quote — of your choosing ⁠— from each chapter of your WIP (or as many chapters as you'd like)

Give absolutely no context, save for what's between two parts of an interrupted sentence, should that occur. You may mention who said it.

Have fun, no pressure!

@eriquin​ tagged me, thank you!!

Gonna do Emergence just because that’s the only WIP I’ve got right now with more than one chapter remotely written, haha. Buckle up, it’s a long’n, so it’s going under the break.

Chapter 1:

The apprentice added, voice squeaking, “What does this mean?”

Chapter 2:

“It’s all the magic,” he stated matter-of-factly. “Totally interrupts typical radio waves.”

Chapter 3:

“Good luck with your war.”

Chapter 4:

“Can you hear them too? The trees?”

Chapter 5: 

“So what are you gonna do now, knowing what’s out there?”

Chapter 6:

“So I guess you see us in that future, huh?”

Chapter 7:

“Nick, jesus, did you forget how keys work?”

Chapter 8:

“No comments on my skanking, got enough of that in middle school.”

Chapter 9:

"Listen, I'm not saying plants aren't great. Love the stuff. Can't get enough. But isn't botany kind of, you know… slow?"

Chapter 10:

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. It all just happened so fast and I was worried what people would think.”

Chapter 11:

“No, but Xander and I had a great talk. Really aired out how I’m not wanted here.”

Chapter 12:

“They’re dating, ya ding-dong.”

Chapter 13:

“Do you even know how to drive one of these things?”

Chapter 14:

“Still can’t believe you, Madison Rocca, conned me. No one cons me. Was all that before, was that a ploy? Lull me into a false sense of security?”

Chapter 15:

“Gotopromwithme.”

Chapter 16:

“How many ‘maybe a dingo ate your baby’ jokes did you get?”

Chapter 17:

“Oh cool, it’s dirt, just like all the other dirt.”

Chapter 18:

“And yet, against all odds, you have survived, when the Darkness kills most it touches. It is a truly remarkable feat for anyone, let alone a new practitioner.”

Chapter 19:

“Toby thinks we’re getting ice cream from that fancy truck round the corner.”

Chapter 20:

"Is it still leering if we're all naked?"

Chapter 21:

“Okay, so, dark magic.”

Chapter 22:

"Hey, I think if you hit them in that big Z on their chest, they explode!"

Chapter 23:

“Hey Xan? Good catch on this one. Having a heads-up isn’t a luxury we’re gonna get often.”

Chapter 24:

“I’m gonna find that monster and I’m gonna tear it to pieces with my own hands,”

Chapter 25:

“You flaunt your power and yet it slips through your fingers so easily,”

Chapter 26:

"Very little goes on in Root Core that I do not know about. And," she added, leveling a wily smirk at them, "I too was young once. You would not believe some of the tomfoolery we engaged in at your age."

Chapter 27:

“Filled with life, joy, and power, we now declare our wills for the next year. Jump the coals, pass through the smoke, and send your will into the greater universe.”

Chapter 28:

(this chapter is all internal monologue!)

Chapter 29:

“If we’re not duly impressed, guaranteed he’ll sulk all day, so prepare yourselves.”

Chapter 30:

“You’ll have to go through me if you want them, you sick fuck.”

Chapter 31:

“My magic doesn’t work, your magic doesn’t work, there’s no way out. Good job, Dad, we’re going to die here.”

Chapter 32:

“Least this narrows down where we need to look. ‘Torture dimension’ is a lot more specific than ‘anywhere, ever.’”

Chapter 33:

"Haggling with a dying man. How noble. What would your White Witch think?"

Chapter 34:

"If it is not, it is something wearing his face,"

Chapter 35:

“Yeah, anyone else want to come out as my parent today?”

...and that’s as much as I have written right now! Currently 50 chapters on the docket, so I’m inching closer to completion (and therefore, actually posting this behemoth.)

[declanfs]

May 21, 2023

So you’ve gotten a lot more independent and we’re doing so many fun things now that the weather is nice, so I’ve been neglecting updates. Since my last post in March:

- you like to play and lay and dig in sawdust that dada dumps over the fence

- we started giving you melatonin at bedtime and it has been a game changer. Instead of taking 90 min to fall asleep, it takes 20-30, which is a totally normal amount of time. I think that your body just has a hard time winding down and then you get overtired and its just a disaster. But melatonin is the little nudge you need to relax.

- you dug in the ashes of the fire pit and burned 6/8 of your finger tips

-you completed your second wave of survival swim and can now begrudgingly survive and swim to the edge of the pool if you somehow fall in unsupervised - highly unlikely, but better to be prepared.

- we’ve learned you like to wear noise canceling headphones for chronic loud noises (lawn mowers, power washer, etc), so that’s really cool to be aware of when you are so little. (I ordered them for a monster truck show that we ended up not going to)

- you got your second haircut

- Easter! You did so great at the egg hunt and loved your stuffed honey bee the Easter bunny left. Along with egg shaped chalk and garden tools and way too many other things because the Easter bunny spoils you even more than we do. We dyed eggs. You were a cute outfit with a bow tie.

- you’ve learned how to identify specific bugs and birds. Roly poly, ladybug, worms, snakes, beetles, slugs, snails, robin, cardinal, owl, woodpecker, goldfinch. I’m amazed by you and your vocabulary.

- riding with you in the car is actually a delight most of the time. You look out the window and make all kinds of observations. Pink house! Water tower! Excavator! BIG truck! Cement Mixer! Horses! Cows! Trees! Jeep! Van!

- You still really love to see the mail truck or delivery drivers, they are local celeb status in your world.

- we went to a tulip picking farm! You weren’t super impressed by the tulips after the first 10 minutes, but you really liked the bouncy houses and the little houses and playgrounds. We’ll definitely go back and plan better in regard to your nap.

- you ran a race at the Stafford hospital with Ryan on a weekend you spent with Granny! You ran for a part of the way at least, but you were only 1 and new to races so you did really well all things considered.

- We got a new car - a Hyundai palisade. We all love it very much.

- You love to eat coconut milk ice cream sandwiches and have started asking for them for breakfast.

- You love to go on the trails and to the parks. Our neighborhood park and the court land park. It’s tough for you to understand that we cannot go to Courtland elementary during the weekday.

- Your vocabulary has really exploded in every way, and I feel so grateful. You are so chatty and communicative about what you want and what you need. We can say “show me” and you’ll take us to what you need if you don’t know the words for it yet. You’ve said things like “a cardinal on bird feeder”

- we’ve had play dates with so many friends: Lily and Chase; Archer; Jace and Cami; Rey and Remi; Stella and Laney;

- You learned how to rock your body back and forth to get a car you’re riding in to roll down a hill

- we got you some of those bank box blocks and you love to make a big house and watch Tumble Leaf inside

- We had a whole tumble leaf themed birthday party that only one other family truly appreciated because Tumble leaf is wildly under appreciated

- we got a new trampoline with netting so that you and your friends will be safe

- we learned you share a birthday with Sir David Attenborough, which is honestly so perfect for your current demeanor and interests

- you and dada had a 3-day party together while mama went to Philadelphia to see Taylor Swift on her Eras Tour

- you’ve been to 2 more birthday parties (Remi/Rey and Jack)

- you pushed a shopping cart around Publix and it was the cutest thing ever

- You’ve helped me workout in the gym twice and it actually wasn’t as difficult for me as I expected

- you went camping and slept in a tent for the first time!

I will probably do posts about more of these things in detail, but wanted to document just in case time gets away from me again and I just do a big photo dump.

[hermitreunited]

I’m so glad you’re on the cute Luther train rn. Did Luther fuck up *a lot* in the series? Absolutely. But one of the things I noticed on a rewatch is that when Luther’s not performing as Number One—when no ones watching (like they “I Think We’re Alone Now”, or when it’s not a situation where he feels pressured to Lead (like when he followed Five into the hostage exchange and let Five take over bc he was so out of his depth), (1/)

or when he feels free to just be himself (like when he’s with Allison (I’m not personally a fan of the romance but I AM a fan of Allison being the sibling he can be himself with))—all those times there’s this side of Luther that just shines out where he’s kind of a goofy, sweet puppy. He reminds me of a golden retriever. The biggest times he fucks up are when he’s trying to be what Reg spent his whole life pressuring him into being—like with Vanya, where he tries to Be the Leader & Like Dad (2/)

I think Tom Hopper did an amazing job showing us the sweet doof Luther would’ve been if he hadn’t been pressured into this role that his temperament and skill set really weren’t suited for, for the most part, all his life. Not to woobify or excuse how often Luther is a legitimate asshole, but like… It’s just Peak Tragedy. (3/)

I wish more fic would explore this idea of the specific emotional, psychological abuse that BROKE Luther, when they show the sibling interactions/fics where they’re all trying to be better. I could write a dissertation on the way UA shows how different KINDS of abuse affected each kid differently and that would include Luther. I kind f just did in your inbox. Sorry! Anyway much love for your nuanced perspectives on this good kids (4/4)

Sorry?!? You are sorry!?!?! THIS IS EXCELLENT THANK YOU OH MY GOSH I am so glad you are conducting the cute Luther train through my askbox rn.

I think so much of this is right on the money, and I’ve been thinking a lot the past day or two about why it is that fandom is so mean to Luther (you were mentioning this the other day I think, @ourhitofsucrose, and it got my gears going so I hope you don’t mind me just tagging you here) and honestly - I don’t think it has a lot to do with the character, who yes, is a lovable doof in his truer moments.

(okay and this might be, like, hot takes or something idk I have not been involved in fandom wars over characters, but.) My take on it is that negative reaction to Luther has more to do with first impressions, namely, first impressions to the Luther/Allison thing, and then just about favorite characters in general.

I never got into reading high fantasy, because I would find a character that I liked, and then might have to wait hundreds of pages about other people before I got back to my fave, and that made me resentful of everyone else. With such a huge ensemble and all the plot going on in this show, I think the same thing happens to viewers here - I know on my first watch I was having a good time, but always chomping at the bit to see what was going on with Klaus. I feel that it is  v e r y  likely that this is a thing for others, with quick favorites like Klaus or Five or taking over the interest of a viewer. If you aren’t the most invested in Luther, you might start to wish his scenes are done quicker because you want to see your fave.

That, coupled with the very strong reactions people have to Luther/Allison, and the fact that a pretty good amount of Luther scenes are ones with Allison, could be an equation that pushes Luther to the bottom of people’s list from the start. It’s not through any fault of his own, necessarily, but then also as the series goes on and he takes actions that harm fan favorites, it’s easy to get entrenched in having him be the butt of fandom jokes.

But he doesn’t deserve it!! Tom Hopper really is so good in the role, you are so right. My top Luther moments have a lot to do with the humor and sweetness he brings to the part. Now, on my.. ..god, maybe-upwards-of-ten-at-this-point?-th rewatch, and after putting in some thought for fic-writing, the love is hitting me full force, and the full tragedy of Luther’s trauma is showing through. But for somebody who hasn’t seen it a stupid number of times, and who hasn’t been thinking specifically about his pov - 

Well, there still shouldn’t be hatred. That’s just a complete lack of understanding. idk, I think my point is that I can maybe reverse engineer why prevailing fandom narrative is that he’s the worst, since initial impressions are what fed the fandom as it is today, but I hope that people will come around the more time that we spend with these characters. All the Hargreeves Kids Deserve Love 2k19!!

I have this meta I’ve been backburner-ing for a while that I cooked up when I was writing excerpts of Vanya’s book for my Klaus and Dave fic. I was thinking specifically about what her worldview seemed to be and how that would effect her read on Klaus, since we pretty much get nothing of them in the show. It expanded into this whole thing though, like at one point I was trying to make graphs or something to chart the defining worldviews of all the characters based on how Reggie raised them to relate to the ideas of success and failure, and I think that really unlocked a ton of sympathy in me for Luther. It’s all headcanon, of course, but it just seems like he’s is so so deeply insecure, and then the body stuff getting added on top of it - the boy is Tragic! Angsty fandom, get over here and deal with all of this sadness!!

Whew, that was a lot of words. Thank you for coming in here with all of your words so we could words together! I want to shout about this show forever, so this was the best gift you can give me 💜💜

[cakepopss]

frozen treat | pt. 2 of teen michael x reader

i’m glad you all enjoyed the first one! here’s part two!

gym was honestly a little fun. you never liked it, but with michael by your side it made it slightly enjoyable. you’re hopes were high for the ice cream he had promised you and bribed you with.

gym went by relatively fast, considering you skipped it with michael and his friends, so you were jumping for joy.

once you heard the bell go you hurried your boyfriend out of the door. you both waved to his friends and ran as fast as you could to a ice cream truck. there was one near his brother and sisters school, which was just down the street from your school, so it wasn’t that far.

you managed to convince him to take off his mask, putting it in your book bag. you had to carry some of your books to fit it in there, but it was worth it! you get to see his handsome face!

once you two got down to the ice cream truck, you saw his siblings already there! you rushed over to them, letting go of michaels hand. they were both waiting in line, hand in hand. they were at the back of the line so you were able to get next to them without skipping anyone.

“hey kiddos!” you greeted, bending down to their height. the two turned around, elizabeth’s ginger hair whipping around.

“mx. y/n!” they both cheered, evan quieter than his sister. they hugged you tight, smiles on their faces.

all the while michael was watching you interact with his siblings, he was imagining what it would be like if you and him had kids. he then smirked at the thought of popping your cherry, chuckling pervertedly. michael walked over to you three, hand in the air.

elizabeth rose her head from your belly and waved to her brother, evan doing the opposite. elizabeth ran over to michael, high-fiving him.

“what’s wrong, evan? it’s only mikey.” you said, patting the little boys head. you felt your shirt grow wet from the place evan had his face buried in your belly. you frowned at this.

you bent down again, only this time you were on your knees, eye to eye with the crying boy. “hey, it’s alright. he’s not going to scare you.” you paused for a moment, thinking. “think of him as a bunny!”

evan looked over at his brother. michael was sat at one of the tables set up with elizabeth, talking about god knows what. evan let out a laugh, letting you know he wasn’t scared.

“not so scary now, huh? let’s go get you some ice cream!” you stood back up, grabbing evans hand. he nodded, smiling up at you.

as you were approaching the front of the line, your boyfriend and elizabeth butted in front of you. you scoffed.

“uh.. hey michael! we were next!” you spoke up. evan held onto your arm. “what was that? i cant hear you from down there.” mike teased, a smirk tugging at his lips. you rolled your eyes, looking away. michael took this opportunity to kiss you.

it was quick, leaving you wanting more. blood rushed to your face. his lips tasted like cigarettes, bubble gum and… was that your lip balm?

you were snapped from your thoughts when a parent from behind you tapped on your shoulder. “could you go?” they asked. you bowed before apologizing. michael and elizabeth had already got their ice cream and are once again seated.

you asked evan what he wanted. he answered to you in a low voice. you smile.

“a vanilla with chocolate sauce and…” you thought for a moment, once again, scratching your chin. “a strawberry. please.”

the ice cream guy nodded, getting just that. before you could pay, the ice cream man spoke up. “no need to pay. the boy before you already did.”

you blushed once again. “he did?” you asked, smiling brightly. the man nodded, “nice fella’. is he your boyfriend?” he asked. you smiled, the blush not leaving your face. “yeah.. we’ve been together for… almost a year now. thinking of it our one year anniversary is in a few days!” you thought aloud.

the man chuckled, passing evan his ice cream. “well, you might wanna do something special for him.” he said, placing your ice cream in front of you. you nodded, thanking him as you took your ice cream. evan was eating his as you guided him to where his siblings were seated. once you both were seated you began to eat your ice cream.

what heaven! you thought as the ice cream danced along your taste buds. you nearly moaned with delight. your mind began to calm itself, what ever troubles you had were gone. you decided to pull yourself away from your ice cream, not wanting to eat it all in one go. “thank you for paying, mike. that was really sweet of you. but why did you do so?” you inquire, fiddling with your spoon.

michael looked up from his ice cream, “well, i did say i’d take you out for it, didn’t i? that implies paying for it. i wanted it to be a date but my siblings kinda ruined that huh.” he whispered the last part in your ear, his breath ticking your neck.

you smile, brushing some hair out of his face and tucking it behind his ear. you leaned in and kissed his forehead. “thank you.”

michael was surprised at this(even though he literally kissed you two minutes ago), usually he was the one to make moves, not you. he smirked, pulling you back in. since evan was super concentrated on his ice cream, he didn’t worry about him. he did, however, shield elizabeth’s eyes. “you don’t need to see this.”

michael closed the ever so small gap, his lips smashing onto your own. now that you got a better and longer taste, you could confirm that it was your lip balm. when did he even get his hands on it? you deepened the kiss by cupping his cheek with your hand, making him lean on it. your other hand found it’s way to his hair, which was freshly cut into a mullet.

you felt the coldness of his lip piercing tease your plumb lips. he got that done about a month after you two started dating. you could also taste the cookie doe ice cream he had eaten.

before you could continue, you remembered you were in public—with his siblings—so you stopped. elizabeth was making puking sounds, realizing what you two had done. “eww!! now mx. y/n has cooties!!!” she yelled, pointing at the two of you. michael laughed, patting her head. you looked back over at evan, only to see him whispering to elizabeth. she looked back at him and nodded, “i’ll ask!”

as you were about to ignore their banter and turn back to your ice cream, elizabeth spoke up again.

“are you two ever gonna get married?! me and evan can arrange a wedding for you! it’ll be behind our school! there will be flowers and cake, oh! and i can be the flower girl!”

and back you were to blushing, only this time, michael had joined you. “i don’t think we should..” you started. “hell yeah! let’s get married! tomorrow at lunch hour, deal?” michael interrupted, flinging an arm over your shoulder.

the two kids cheered as you shook your head. “excuse us for a moment.” you said, hauling mike out of their view.

“you really are a pain. you know that?” you stated. michael smirked, “come on, babe. it’ll be fun! and after we get married we can have our honeymoon, and you know what newlyweds do on their honeymoon~” he said, wiggling his eye brows. you blush, crossing your arms over your chest. “you’re such a pervert!”

“you aren’t saying no~”

and with that, you punched him on the arm, roughly.

woo!! thank you all for all the love on the first part! there was like 200 something likes on it! that’s insane!

i’m also hopping to write something for valentine’s day so stay tuned!!

<3

[libraryofloveletters]

A June Wedding

Evan Buckley x Reader 

Warnings: alcohol and the consumption of 

Category: Fluff 

Word Count: 2.8k

Author’s Note: idk what this is, I opened the doc and just started typing, so yeah // the flashbacks are set two years ago, when y/n meets Buck. The end is back to the present

---- 

From B: I was thinking about you.

From B: I miss you. 

The phone sat in your hand, you stared down at the message on the screen. It had been months, maybe longer since you met him-  2 years to be precise. 

The two of you had a weird friendship to say the least. One of those “will they, won’t they?” kind of things. Everyone seemed to notice how the two of you were in love except the two of you. 

Your story starts in a hole in the wall coffee shop two years ago, when Buck comes in after his first shift at the station. 

*Two Years Before* 

Tired and hungry was a typical look you saw among the folks who came to your shop. It was downtown LA and there were a lot of businesses around including station 118. 

Among your typical morning crowd, there were people in suits and ties, the few hippies/skater crowd and your favourite, the fire-fighters. 

They were your favourite not because they always had larger orders but they usually left big tips and were super sweet. 

It was around 9 in the evening when the bell on the door chimed as it was pushed open. You were closing up for the day but the ‘come in, we’re open’ sign still hung on the window that was ideally supposed to be taken down an hour ago. 

Pulling a tray of cookies from the oven, you were startled by the door considering that you thought you locked the door. Peering from the doorway of the kitchen, there was a man by the counter, staring up at the menu board. 

“Hi,” you smile, hesitantly stepping towards the counter from the kitchen. He glances down at you and smiles, mumbling a hello. 

“Uh, we’re actually closed right now.” you inform him. 

His brows furrow, glancing over his shoulder at the window. “But the sign-” “I forget to take it down.” 

“Oh. I’m sorry, I’ll- okay, I'm gonna go.” he looked.. disappointed. He pulls a phone out his pocket and sighs. You take that moment to study him. A grey sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, there’s a hat sitting backwards on his head and a duffle bag tossed over his shoulder. As he turns to leave, you notice the 4 letters written on his hat in bright red - LAFD. 

“Hey!” you call out, “You’re a firefighter ?” 

The blonde smiles and nods, “yeah, I started today actually. The guys at the station were talking about the coffee shop down the street. I didn’t get a chance to come during the day so I thought I'd come now- but I can come back another time, you’re closed”

Waving off his statement, you pick up a cup from the counter. “Nonsense, I'd never turn away one of the city’s finest.” you smile, he chuckles. “The city’s finest is more of a cop thing.” he tells you. 

“Is that so ?” asking, you begin looking through the fridge to see if there was any milk, he hums. 

“I think you’re pretty fine yourself” you mumble, standing straight when you realize what you’ve said. Your back was to him, a blush burning up your face. 

What you didn’t know was that Buck was blushing too, a pretty person like you calling him fine was surely going to make him blush and that it did. 

Clearing your throat, you turn to face him again. He was looking anywhere but at you for the moment. 

“What can I get you ?” 

“What do you have right now ?” 

“Just about everything, except for baked goods. I usually put those in the oven in the morning but I do have a tray of cookies if you’re interested.” 

“That sounds good,” he smiles at you. “I’ll take a cookie and uh-” glancing up at the menu, “whatever is your favourite drink” 

Humming, you turn and head to the kitchen to get two cookies for him and then begin mixing some coffee and creamer in a cup, along with ice and some caramel sauce. You ended up making two, one for him and one for you. 

The man was sitting at one of the stools by the window. He was watching the cars drive past. “Here,” you slide the plate over to him and set the cup beside it. 

He smiles, “thank you. How much do I owe you ?” he asks, reaching for what you assumed was his wallet. “Oh, don't worry about it. The register is locked and it’s your first time here, I wouldn’t have charged you anyways” 

“You don’t charge first time customers ?” 

“Only the firefighters, y’all hold a special place in my heart” you laugh, he smiles once more. 

“Are you in a hurry to leave? I can take it with me if you are.” 

“No, you're alright. The cookies are warm, I just took them out when you got here.” you sit beside him, taking a sip of your drink. He also takes a sip of his, you watch as his face twists and he smacks his tongue to try and figure out what it is. 

“I call it the y/n special” filling him in, his brows furrow. “It’s basically just caramel ice coffee” a small laugh passes your lips as you take another sip.

“I’m y/n by the way.” “I’m Buck” he smiles.

--

From that day, Buck was a regular in your shop. You made him a regular coffee before his shifts, 2 cream and 3 sugars - you've come to realize he had a bit of a sweet tooth.  After work, he’d stop by for an iced coffee and a cookie. You’d always keep some in the back for him. 

This became a routine, you asked him for his number so he could let you know when he was on his way to work that way you’d have his coffee ready if he was running late. 

Most mornings you’d just get an ‘coming’ or a little fire truck emoji letting you know he’s on his way to work. 

Over the next year and a half, the two of you became close. All the guys that came in from the station always teased you about your “boyfriend Buck” although he wasn’t your boyfriend. 

The two of you were close, you hung out all the time - when Buck had days off, he’d still stop by the shop for coffee or just to see you even though he lived in the opposite direction. He would also pick you up after work when you could walk home because you lived down the street. 

You often stopped by the station when you knew they were on a 24 hour shift. Buck would text you hourly with whatever he was thinking about, especially during the nights when most of his team was asleep and he couldn’t. During those 24 hour shifts, the last few hours kicked their asses, everyone was tired and too lazy to move to do anything about it- those were the days that you headed into the shop early to get some stuff together to take over for them. 

Over time, the affection between the two of you became clear to everyone but the two of you. 

You only really noticed you liked him after his unfortunate run in with the fire truck and his promotion which you decide to celebrate with him. 

There you were, a bottle of champagne in one hand and a bag of Thai takeout in the other - the perfect thing to celebrate his new- temporary as he kept reminding you- position. 

He had invited you over to watch a movie but life was short as was recently reiterated after Buck’s “getting stuck under municipal equipment” phase as the two of you joke. 

“Hey!” he smiles at you when he opens the door, immediately noticing the bottle of champagne in your hand. 

“The nice stuff,” he hummed, stepping aside so you could come in. You set the bag on the counter with the bottle before venturing further into the kitchen to find glasses. 

“What are we celebrating ?” he watches as you tumble through the cupboards. 

“Y/n?” “What ?” 

“What are we celebrating ?” he asks once more. 

“Do you not own any champagne glasses ? All I can find are solo cups and those ugly ass mugs you have.” sighing, you grab the solo cups knowing his answer already. 

“Y/n/n, I'm a 20-something year old guy living by himself-” “What makes you think I have such things?” finishing off the sentence for him which makes him laugh. 

Setting the cups down on the counter, you push the bottle over to him. “Would you be so kind as to do the honours?” you hop onto the counter. Buck peels the casing from around the top and then shakes the bottle. 

Your brows furrow, “that’s going to make a mess-” before you finish your sentence, the bottle pops. 

The cork ends up somewhere in the apartment whilst the very expensive champagne is sprayed everywhere. Buck just so innocently titled the bottle your way, soaking you in the liquid. 

Laughing, you pull the bottle away from him. He's standing in front of you when you grab his chin, pulling him towards you. Your left hand is cradling his jaw and leaning his head back to pour some of the champagne in his mouth. You over poured and split it on his shirt. 

The two of you were a laughing, sticky mess and the bottle was already half way empty. He held the cups out for you, letting you pour some into each cup before handing you one. 

“Okay, now will you tell me what prompted the champagne showers ?” he smiles, leaning against the counter next to you. 

“Well, life is short. You’re a fire Marshall now so, I’m here to celebrate.” 

Buck smiles at you, he wasn’t the biggest fan of his new job to be honest. Sure he liked it, but he’d do anything to be back out in the field. 

Your arm stretched out, “So to you Mr. Evan Buckley, wait should I say Fire Marshall Buckley ? Anyways congratulations my love, you deserve the job but if the power goes to your head, I'm putting you in your place.” laughing, you bump your cup to his. 

“To a speedy recovery and hoping for your return to the field soon because you’re driving everyone mad. Cheers!” 

Both taking a sip before Buck hops up onto the counter beside you. He shifted slightly, making a gap between the two of you and pulling the bag of takeout to the spot. Dinner was had on the counter, eating straight out of the containers.

“Bobby would be so upset if he saw us right now.” Buck mumbles, his mouth full. 

“Mhm but he’s not here. He doesn’t have to know.” 

A few moments later, his phone began ringing. He pulls it out and his eyes widen. There’s a confused look on your face, waiting for him to give you some context or tell you who’s calling. Finally he shows you his phone. 

Bobby is calling. 

“You summoned him!” Buck shouted. You resisted the urge to laugh. 

“Answer the phone!” 

You watch as Buck answers the phone, holding back his laughter at the conversation moments ago. He looked happy, you loved seeing him like that. The way his eyes glimmered when he smiled that million dollar smile of his, how his curls showed when his hair was wet or if he hadn’t cut his hair in a while. 

It was the little things that made you fall in love with him. 

He was still on the phone when you decided you’d find something to change into. 

He watched as you made your way to the bathroom, coming back out shirtless with a towel in your hand, drying off. He noticed the way you took a step every two steps like he does. He could hear you humming from upstairs, the way you went up in pitch when you saw something you liked or how you’d stop in-between to start whistling. He smiles to himself as he ends the call. 

He too had fallen love with you somewhere along the line. 

----

You watched as the little bubbles popped up on the screen on and off for the next few minutes. 

Today was your wedding day. 

You hadn’t spoken to him all day, things had been hectic. You promised to see him before you got married but truthfully, you had been so consumed with planning and making sure everything was ready that you didn’t get a chance to. 

Your friend comes in, sticking their head in and smiling at you. “You ready ?” they ask, you hum before taking one more look at the phone. 

“As ready as I'll ever be.” 

It was a hot summer day in June, you and your fiancé had decided on an outdoor wedding considering you had always wanted a June wedding. 

Standing at the end of the aisle, each side of the yard was filled with people you loved and cared about but your love was smiling at you on the verge of tears at the altar. 

Resisting the urge to laugh at him, you smile as the music begins playing - your cue to make your way down the aisle. Making it to the end without tripping, you smile at him. 

“Hey,” you smile, reaching for his hand.

“You look beautiful” he smiles, he leans forward to give you a kiss when a hand against his chest stops him. 

Bobby gives him a disapproving look, “I’ll be fast but you gotta wait to the end to kiss them, Buck.” The statement earned him a laugh from the crowd. 

The heat was getting to everyone including the two of you so Bobby skipped over the unnecessary parts, letting the two of you say your vows. 

You started, your hand giving his a squeeze. “The day you walked into the shop, I thought ‘damn, I'm gonna die. Why do I always forget to lock the door?’ but little did I know, it was going to be the love of my life walking in. From the moment we sat down and started talking was the moment I knew you were the one- you made me smile, laugh, gave me butterflies but you also made me feel safe, like I could tell you anything and you’d always be there for me. I watched you walk out with the promise of coming back in the morning and I knew then, we were gonna have a June wedding.” you laughed. 

“You taught me what love was, how to be happy, to never give up no matter what life throws my way because for the last 2 years, that’s what I've watched you do and I'm so incredibly proud to be marrying you. There’s no one else for me. It’ll always be you.” you smile, blinking back the tears. 

“How am I supposed to compete with that ?” he hums, giving you a grin. 

“Everything about you is.. perfectly imperfect, in every single sense of the term. You strive for perfection, but you come up with a slightly different version every time and I love that about you- like when you run out of breath while singing you start whistling so you don’t lose the melody, it’s the little things that make me love you. You hold the stars and the moon, you’re my whole world y/n, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. You make me a better man and I could never thank you enough for that.” Both of you are about to cry, looking at each other with the most love and adoration in your eyes. 

Bobby cuts to the end, both of you now impatient and waiting for him to announce that you were officially a couple and the moment he does, Buck pulls you towards him, kissing you like it was the last time he was ever going to. 

The sound of clapping and cheering filled your ears, making you both smile as your made you way back down the aisle officially as the Buckleys. 

---- 

taglist: @advicefromnixxxx @dralexreid @keenmarvellover @beth-winchester21 @fernandaweasley2 @yikesyikesyikes95 @hotchsdarling @duhbar1975 @hailsstormthings @averyhotchner @captainxholmes @venusrosepetal @luke-alvez @looney-literature @caitsymichelle13​ @artemishunter18 @multibuckley 

[goalieprotectionsquad]

✧･ﾟ: * July 2022 Harringrove Starter Pack PART TWO! *:･ﾟ✧

I’m BACK. with starter pack part 2. don’t cream your pants. I still haven’t finished my paper and I definitely haven’t gotten any work tasks done today. 

this list features only one fic per author so we can celebrate even more creators  ♡ ♡ ♡ (thank you @hecatescrossroads for the idea!!)

◢ Billy Hargrove Needs a Nap - lilpeas [74,312; E]

It’s one thing to be a light sleeper in this shitty town that won’t shut up at night, but it’s another thing entirely to fall asleep on Steve Harrington’s shoulder during last period English.

◢ break (like waves) - @witchsickness [93,187; E]

‘We’re good together,’ Harrington says to the darkness above. Not a question. Matter of fact. He turns to Billy, a smile sweet enough to make Billy want to do something reckless. Something stupid. ‘I’m telling you, heartbreaker. We’re gonna be unstoppable.’

Billy wants to ask. If he means tomorrow. If he means just for the game.

Wants to ask if he means forever.

He’s never wanted anyone to mean forever before.

or; falling (in love), the hard way

◢ break up with your girlfriend (’cause i’m bored) - @the-copperkid [15,604; E]

@umissedconnections: Bambi eyes. m4m. i was rippin cigs in the sae p-lot. u made urself puke 2 make room 4 more beer. incredible? ur my hero PLS say ur into guys

* Steve finds he has a secret admirer who's continuously hitting on him via his university's Missed Connections Twitter account. // Tommy and Billy are the worst roommates ever.

◢ Cabbage Patch Kids - @callieb [15,026; NR]

Billy doesn't eat vegetables. He doesn't eat the limp disgusting cabbage they hand out in the school cafeteria, won't touch the merest hint of green in Susan's cooking even when his dad is glaring at him across the table. He won't eat vegetables to keep himself healthy, in spite of all the warnings they give him in health class.

He won't even eat vegetables when Steve Harrington cooks him dinner. Right?

◢ cherry pie - @brawlite and @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger [133,828; E]

Billy Hargrove lives for summer. Endless sunshine, heavily chlorinated pools, roaming ice cream trucks, and unencumbered freedom? There’s nothing better.

Even being stuck in Hawkins can’t ruin the summer for him. He eats it up, devouring every day whole.

◢ dried up, half full - @lymricks [60,016; E]

Steve’s been coming out here searching for a monster in the woods. He’s finally found one.

“What do you want, Hargrove?”

◢ falling for you in hawkins, indi-fucking-ana (series) - @lazybakerart [294,822+; E]

Billy gets his shit together. Steve figures some stuff out. They fall in love.

◢ i hear the secrets that you keep (when you’re talking in your sleep)  - @oepheliawrites​ [45,095; M]

Billy’s there the way that he’s a lot of places nowadays, sort of absent-mindedly, like he’s not sure how it happened or why and is going somewhere else in his mind anyway.

Steve watches him more than ever now, and Billy rarely watches back.

(or five times billy really needed some sleep, and one time he needed something else entirely)

◢ Incident at Castle Byers - @flippyspoon [3,639; G]

Will learns something about Billy Hargrove and feels a little less alone.

◢ if i fall asleep with my hands held tight - @elysiumwaits [28,796; M]

Billy keeps sneaking in Steve's window as the months go on: a story in ten parts.

◢ lover with a radar phone (series) - @bewires [86,717; E]

Steve is sure Billy won’t be back for more after the first time. Why would he? Steve’s pretty aware, at this point, that beyond his epic babysitting game and his hair, he has fairly little to offer in life. Billy’s gorgeous, and he’s smart, and he’s got better things to do than nail Nancy Wheeler’s dumbass ex-boyfriend.

(Spoilers: Billy absolutely does not.)

◢ Take Me Home Tonight - @heckinahandbasket​ [81,998; E]

The ghost of Billy Hargrove leaned in the open window of Steve’s car with that trademark smirk and, honestly, Steve was kind of impressed by how detailed his own hallucination could be. “Wanna fuc-What the shit? HARRINGTON?” They blinked at one another for about ten seconds before Steve’s brain finally managed to fire off a thought. “You’re real?” Steve couldn’t stop the words from spilling out of his mouth, his own stupidity a constant echo in his empty head. Billy’s face reflected his thoughts as he yanked on the door handle until Steve reached over to hit the lock with shock-numb fingers. “Real fucking freezing. Let me in, pencil dick.”

Or: The Pretty Woman AU literally nobody asked for.

◢ Under the Covers - @toast-ranger-to-a-stranger [87,788; M]

Steve is (maybe) a little bit still in love with Nancy Wheeler and (maybe) trying to figure himself out-- between the night terrors and the babysitting and the general weirdness that is Hawkins, Indiana-- before he graduates.

Billy Hargrove fits in there somewhere (probably).

◢ when the bones are good - @un-buttoned [28,411; E]

‘So,’ Tommy says around a mouthful of fries, ‘what the fuck is the deal with you and Hargrove?’

And that’s really the goddamn question, isn’t it?

He wants to know Billy. Wants to know why he is the way he is. Wants to be able to figure out what the fuck he’s thinking when he looks at Steve like that, when he touches him like it doesn’t mean shit and like it means everything all at once. Wants to know why he talks so much shit, why he needs to fight, where all that fire comes from. Why he’s so volatile, why he’s such an asshole, how he can be so fucking mean and so fucking sweet in the span of seconds, at the same time, even.

◢ you’re cold (and i burn) - @keroujack [55,919; E]

Move on. Let it heal.

Maybe that’s why Steve said yes when Max asked him to help move boxes out of Billy’s room after the dust settled. He could hear her voice. Too many. Too heavy.

Just like his wounds. His grief. Too many. Too heavy.

(Or, Steve steals the glass ashtray from Billy's bedside table and things start to go bump in the night.)

◢ Yourself or Someone Like You (series) - halfempty [792,802; E]

Maxine looked happy as they parted from Steve and walked down Main Street away from the theater. She slid into the passenger seat of Billy’s car. 'That was really fun,' she said. She looked at him like a gremlin and then smiled real cutesy. 'Did you and Steve hold hands in the popcorn?'

'I hope you had a real good time, I’m going to kill you in your sleep tonight,' Billy told her.

[folkloreguk]

🍒Cherry Ice Cream🍒

A/N: Happy July! I planned this almost a year ago and finally got around to writing it...I hope you like it! As always, I appreaciate feedback a lot! Hope everyone has a lovely day <3

pairing: optional bias (male) x reader (gn)

words: ~ 3.7 k

genre: fluff, comedy, lifeguard!bias, reader is the most awkward and chaotic person ever (are we at the public pool or the circus?? seriously I’m so second hand embarrassed for her lmao), bias is the hottest man in existence, the universe has something against the reader apparently (rip)

PART 2 (nsfw, both parts can be read independently)

You approached the front entrance of the public swimming pool. Everything was still going by plan. Ever since the weather had gotten warmer, you’d had swimming on your mind. And every single person in your life had been made aware of it. Despite the friendly asking and the occasional begging, you still hadn’t found anyone to accompany you to the public swimming pool. You had heard all the reasons: Work, already planned vacations, a sick pet, a hatred of water, a hatred of people, you name it. After all the searching you had come to the conclusion that you were tired of waiting. Nothing could possibly rob you of your excitement about swimming pools. You’d go alone and have a wonderful time. It would be a relaxing day with loads of time just for you. So you had told yourself. But let’s face it, nothing could have prepared you for the utter chaos you were about to walk into.

It began before you had even set both feet into the facility. Your steps were light, and you beamed, ready to enter after you had paid. The strap of your sports bag had caught in the turnstile in the entrance area. Stubborn as you were, you yanked on it, instead of turning around and manually freeing the fabric from the steel contraption. You had put your entire weight on the line, tugging and pulling, when the strap finally came loose from the turnstile. As expected from such antics, you tripped and struggled in your flip-flops, blundering into the compound like a baby giraffe walking for the first time. By the time you tried to compose yourself to look cool and relaxed after such a mistake, you noticed him.

He, who looked like a Greek god blessing you with a visit on earth. He was all tan skin, red life-guard swim trunks, perfectly sculped shoulders, pushed back hair, a smile that put the sun to shame and sunglasses sitting on top of his head. Instantly you thanked yourself for not seriously injuring yourself. The young godman crossed the lawn, presumably to take his seat by the pool, watching out for the visitors. Only he made it look like he was strutting on a runway at Paris fashion week. All you could do was pray that he hadn’t seen you entering his workplace headfirst like some impatient six-year-old.

As people passed you, you realized you were standing in the same spot where you had almost fallen a minute ago. Manifesting that this was just the silly beginning to a perfect day, you paraded into the shaded grassy area to find a spot to set up your things. Countless groups of friends, families, and lone visitors like yourself had already settled down, but you managed to find a fine spot. It was the superb balance between sunny and shady and not too far from the swimming pools and water slides. In seconds you had shed off your clothes to reveal your swimsuit underneath. Although you could barely keep yourself waiting, you decided it was best to stay there a short while before you threw yourself into the waves. Just until the sunscreen had absorbed into your skin. Meanwhile, you would unpack the catchy book you had recently begun to read.

Now and then you raised your head and peeked at the cute lifeguard. You seriously had no intentions of coming across like a creep, but you couldn’t stop yourself. The way he patrolled the side of the large pool had more coolness than the prettiest shot of a hot movie star in a film. You allowed yourself a few seconds, then you’d go back to your novel. The sounds of summer floated through the air – children laughing, water splashing, birds chirping above you – and the scent of the sunscreen catapulted you straight on cloud 9. It felt like your own small piece of paradise. Little did you know, the universe had so much more in store for you.

You hadn’t been buried in your book for even 10 minutes when a group of kids ran by. They were passing a water ball from one to the other and giggling uncontrollably. You saw it coming in your peripheral vision but had no time to react. As they had reached your level, one of them punched the ball especially hard. And instead of catching it, the dark blue ball bounced off one child’s hands and straight into the side of your face. It knocked your sunglasses off the bridge of your nose, but more importantly gave you the fright of your life. You dropped your book while the children’s mother scolded them from the side. After the initial surprise you couldn’t accept their apologies quickly enough. Anything if it could spare you from even more attention from random guests around you. Impulsively, your eyes searched for the cute lifeguard. But he was looking into the opposite direction. At least fate had saved you from embarrassing you in front of him. The last thing you wanted was to look like more of a clown than you had when entering the facility earlier. But against your expectations, the train of unfortunate events was only beginning.

Surely things would be more peaceful in the water, you had thought. When you finally entered the cool pool, it felt like heaven on earth. Fearing a case of recurrence, you avoided the shallower areas, where the children crowded and went straight for the deeper waters. Finally experiencing some form of relaxation, you swam and dived a few laps around the pool. Now and then you caught a glimpse of the lifeguard on the far end of the pool. Just to make sure he was still there. Just to make sure he’s still as handsome as when you first spotted him. And you weren’t disappointed. Gesturing kindly, he helped an elderly woman find directions to the restaurant on the far end of the site. From up closer, his smile and his jaw were even prettier – even though it had seemed impossible for him to become even more perfect.

After a while, your limbs became tired and you retracted into less busy waters, close to the exit and entrance area of the swimming pool. As you paddled your way through bodies, a bug startled you. It had by all appearances chosen you as its victim, as it took direct flight into your face. Even when you swat it away and turned around to change directions, it kept chasing you and only you. Like some crazy, obsessed stalker, it followed you to the edge of the pool. Eventually, you became tired of running and turned to it. If some random flying beetle wanted to fight you, so be it. To the untrained eye, you might have appeared like a lunatic, fanning the air, and squinting against the bright sunlight. But it was war, and you would square up against the most annoying of bugs. After a while, you realized that you were waving off the air – no more bug in sight. Only then you noted the little girl laughing in your direction from the poolside. You were way too mortified to turn into his direction at first, but when you found the lifeguard, he was conversing with one of his co-workers. Once again, you were safe.

Your next approach at a good time was the colorful waterslide close by. Certainly, these heights would not include micro-aggressive bugs. Instead, they included something far more unsettling. Considering there were toddlers going down the waterslide, you deemed it safe and fun. Your mind changed in the first sharp turn, when you tumbled over and hit your elbow from the sudden change of direction. Maybe you should have just stayed in the ring with the bug instead of choosing this more than violent escape. But it was too late. Once on the slide, you had to make it through to the finish line – more or less in one piece. Your grand finale composed of a semi-somersault off the edge of the waterslide into the pool. Although it wasn’t intentional, you still hoped it looked somewhat graceful to the audience at the bottom. Hint: No, it didn’t. You looked like a baby monkey that had been sent down a self-constructed-waterslide in someone’s backyard. It was a disaster.

Feeling over-heated and exhausted from the sun and your embarrassing antics, you found a drinking fountain by the showers to refresh yourself. Patiently, you waited in the short line until it was your turn. As fate wanted it, the next messy incident wasn’t long in the coming. In fact, it only took four sips of water before you accidentally inhaled some of it. You stepped back, choking, coughing, and gasping for air all at once. A helpful woman showed mercy with you and your awkward behavior and softly pat your back. “Are you okay, dear?” she asked. Unable to speak just yet, you smiled and nodded gratefully. Great. Maybe you should add “clown” onto your previous professions in your CT. By now, half the visitors probably knew who you were – a walking safety hazard to yourself.

After retreating to your bath towel set-up in the shade for a while, you had almost found new hope that the universe wasn’t against you that day. You managed to lie there, for a whole hour, without any issues. But then, slowly, another idea crept up on you. After all, what was summer without ice cream? By chance, you happened to know the little ice cream truck next to the yellow waterslide sold your favorite brand of ice lolly. So off you went, money in hands and wild determination in your head. The visual of the handsome lifeguard lingered in your mind even after you had passed the chair he was sitting on by the poolside. You acquired your ice lolly successfully and ripped the wrapper right away. It tasted like summer in food format, and you reveled in the cold treat for a while, as you strolled back in the direction of your bath towel.

Fully aware that you would have to walk by the insanely cute lifeguard again, you tried your best to look cool, next to the large pool. In your imagination, you were glowing in the sun, hair slightly flowing in the warm breeze and steps bouncing happily. You were the personification of summer bloom and radiating everything good about the season. For a moment, you closed your eyes and actually indulged in the warmth on your face. That was when the next mishap struck.

You didn’t even understand what was happening at first. Someone accidentally bumped into you – or did you bump into them? Upon the impact, you opened your eyes. Your ice-cream had vanished from your hands. Turns out, you had dropped it and it had landed only two feet from you. Out of balance, you stumbled ahead even after the impact. And of course, only a second later your foot stepped directly onto the ice lolly. Inevitably, you skidded and struggled to stay on your feet by means of flinging and waving your arms in the air. As if you were some stranger, trying to attract the attention of an aircraft whilst stranded on a desert island. One thing was for sure, you had everyone’s observance tied to you. With an involuntary but comedic performance of theatrical extent, you fell and hit the water surface.

The cool hit you so suddenly, you had swallowed a gulp of water before your instincts had time to set in. Quickly, your limbs began paddling to get you back to the surface. At that instant, a pair of arms suddenly linked under your armpits and swooped you up from underwater. Your brain processed what was going on. Without a doubt, someone had jumped after you and was pulling you out of the water. Stubbornly, you tried to avoid the idea of the cute lifeguard helping you out. Christ, that would really be the peak of all your embarrassing moments. No, it was probably the person you had run into, or someone who had already been in the water.

When you were placed by the poolside and blinked against the blending sun, your worst concerns came to pass. There he was, so close you could have touched his face. His worried expression changed when you opened your eyes, and he smiled, relieved. “Is everything alright?” he asked. You’d think this would make you into the most shamefaced person on the planet. And yet, all you could wonder was how two people’s genes could combine so flawlessly, so beautifully, to create such a man. When he got no answer from your moonstruck figure, he furrowed his eyebrows in alarm.

“Oh my- my god,” you stammered. “Yes! I’m fine, I’m sorry!”

You weren’t sure why you were apologizing. For worrying him? For inconveniencing him? For causing another scene? Either way, he grinned, and you felt your cheeks heat up terribly. You had to get away from there before something cringy came out of your mouth. Although you weren’t sure there was any way you could have made this more awkward than it already was.

“Make sure you have no injuries, okay?” he asked, helping you up. “If you need any medical assistance, just let me or one of the other lifeguards know.”

“Um…okay,” you said. Wow. That was no way to flirt with the most attractive person you had ever met. With all this drama you had gone through on that day, the universe could have at least blessed you with a romantic, your-life-savior-realizes-he-just-met-the-love-of-his-life moment. But no. The movies really were one massive hoax.

“It’s probably best you take a little break from the surprise, before you go back into the water,” he advised you. “And don’t hesitate to ask, if you need any more help.”

If only he knew how many times you had already tried to take a break from the surprise after everything on that day. You stood on your feet safely but felt like a cat that had fallen into the bathtub. At last, you managed a smile in the lifeguard’s direction. “Thank you.”

Funny enough, the stares people gave you bothered you only slightly as you walked back to your spot under the trees. Maybe you had used up all your embarrassment for the day. Nothing could intimidate you anymore. That meant, whatever happened from now on, it couldn’t get worse. Somehow after the pinnacle of chaos, you finally felt some inner tranquility. You went back to your novel, now and then keeping an eye out for potential water balls coming your way. But everything was calm. As time went on, you lost yourself completely in the story line and forgot about everything around you. Maybe this was all meant to happen. Perhaps it was a message, that you should have waited for your family to have a free day, or for your friend to come back from vacation. Would the same things have happened? There was no way to tell. Just as you reached a specifically exciting scene in the novel, a figure suddenly appeared in front of you. You couldn’t believe your eyes.

“Hey,” the handsome lifeguard stood there, smiling kindly. Wide-eyed, you straightened up and greeted him shyly.

“I couldn’t help but notice how happy you were about that ice cream earlier,” he said. “But then you…lost your ice cream.”

“What an interesting way of saying I stomped on it and made an absolute fool of myself,” you smirked. He chuckled.

“However you want to put it, I thought maybe you could use some cheering up,” he went on. “So I got you a new one.”

He pulled two ice-lollies from behind his back. “One for you, one for me.”

You couldn’t believe your ears. “You bought me this? I don’t want to sound rude… but aren’t you supposed to be looking out for the next victim to repeat my foolery?”

“I’m on my break,” he laughed. His eyes crinkled up cutely when he smiled, and it only made your stomach flutter more. “If you want me to leave, I will. I’m not trying to be weird or obtruding. Just making sure you’re okay, because I noticed you’re here alone.”

“Oh. No! Feel free to stay here for as long as you want!” you said, and now maybe you were the one sounding obtrusive. You scooted over and let him take a spot on your bathmat. You thanked him for the ice cream and gleefully unwrapped it. “My friends and family weren’t available today. But I really, really wanted to come here today. Maybe not my brightest idea.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen way worse plunges than yours. You were lucky, really. You got away with a small shock and nothing more. It was pretty impressive, actually.”

“I’m glad I have entertaining qualities, at least.”

“I’m just messing with you,” he laughed. “I’m glad you’re fine. This place gets a little wild during the afternoon, especially on weekends.”

“You don’t say,” you chuckled.

“I recommend coming here in the mornings or late evenings, if you want a little more peace and quiet.”

“Thanks, I’ll probably consider it. Do you work here full time?” you asked.

“No, this is just a summer job,” he said. “It’s great. I get to swim for free and be outside a lot. Not to mention this is one of my favorite places in town.”

“You love swimming too?” you asked and regretted it right away. A lifeguard who hated swimming made no sense, after all. But he didn’t seem to think your words were silly.

“I do! I come here a lot to swim, when it’s not as busy and I don’t have to work,” he said. The thought of seeing him again when you came back in a few days – which you already knew you would – made you feel some sort of way. You had been embarrassed, but his sweet words had appeased you. You could definitely get used to seeing his face all summer long. The two of you talked for some time, while you both finished your ice cream. You learned his name, which was just as beautiful as its owner, and that he thought you had actually looked pretty cute (!) when you fell into the pool. You swore he wasn’t even real. Perhaps he was merely a hallucination, a product of your imagination, to cheer yourself up after your messy day. Either way, your head was up in the clouds as long as he was sitting there, next to you, with his perfect shoulders and charming voice. Soon, he had to excuse himself, though. His break was over and as he had put it, he needed to prevent any more ice cream-murders from happening.

After your conversation, the universe had apparently shifted in your favor. You spent the entire rest of your day without any more misfortunes. Like you had talked to a lucky charm who had done miracles for you, you had a fantastic time. You were even brave enough to face a few more go’s down the ever-so-threatening waterslide. As it got later, more people went home, and just as he had predicted, things calmed down. And you were convinced you would stay until the bitter end. Only when a female voice announced over the speakers that the swimming pool would close in 30 minutes, you slowly started to pack up your things.

As you approached the exit, you scanned the area for your favorite lifeguard. But he was nowhere to be found. You assumed he had already finished his shift and gone home. But as luck would have it, as you neared the bicycle stands to retrieve your bike, you saw him already there. His eyes beamed when he noticed you.

“Wow, you held out a long time,” he said. “Had fun?”

“I did,” you said. You could only be grateful your ice-cream massacre was the sole of your antics he had witnessed that afternoon. Who knew how he would look at you if he had experienced your full chaotic capacity? “Thank you again, for making sure I was fine. And for the ice cream.”

“It was no big deal,” he said. “It’s what I’m here for.”

“To buy random girls ice cream?” you teased.

“No, only the special ones get the ice cream.”

“Define special.”

“To be honest? I was genuinely concerned you would feel down. I’ve seen you almost trip over when you first came in, you got hit in the face by a ball, I’ve witnessed your little quarrel with that bug and your somersault from the waterslide looked pretty rough. After all that you choked on water and then ended up falling into the pool and losing your ice cream. I supposed you could need some serious cheering up.”

Oh my god. If only you could have opened a portal straight to hell, you would have taken the chance on the spot. All this time he had been watching you? It couldn’t get more mortifying than this.

“Sorry, I sound like some creepy stalker,” he said. “I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just you-“

“I looked like a clown in a neon suit?”

“You’re really pretty,” he said. Your cheeks warmed up and you could have yelled out loud.

“But you have to admit, at least the clown part is true.”

“Maybe,” he joked. “Don’t be embarrassed. I thought you were – are – adorable.”

“Thank you,” you managed to say. What the hell were you doing? The most handsome guy was complimenting you. You had to take your chance. “Maybe sometime I could buy you some ice cream too? If you feel like it-“

“I’d love that,” he smiled. It was only the beginning of summer, but it was a glorious one. You already knew it could only get better. Instead of cursing the universe, you had to say your thank you’s now. Without your string of bad luck, things would have never led this way. Perhaps fortune was on your side, after all.

[sparkles-and-trash]

Invisible String could be such a cute Dabihawks prompt, I think we ned some fluff after the leaks...

note: w o w, ur so right for this, anon! I hope I did it justice! summary: a short story about how Keigo and Touya's lives kept almost intercepting each other, and how two lives can be so different, yet so similar all at once. Hurt/Comfort with a happy ending.

Time, mystical time Cuttin' me open, then healin' me fine Were there clues I didn't see? And isn't it just so pretty to think All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me?

1.

Touya Todoroki is six years old when he and his mother is out shopping in the part of town his Father doesn't like them going to. His mother always tells him they have the best produce and farmers markets here though, and Touya's silence can be bought with two scoops of the ice cream of the old ice cream truck at the market, so it works out.

Touya has a habit of wandering off in supermarkets, and today is no different. He sees some big bins of hero plushes, and naturally he has to investigate. He pretends that it doesn't bother him when he sees multiple All Might plushes find new owners as he stands quietly observing, partly hidden behind a shelf of cereal, but his pride is a little hurt. Before he has too much time to think about it, however, his mother finds him and reminds him that he has ice cream to get to, and the unfairness of the plushes are quickly forgotten.

That is until Touya is helping his mom bag their groceries, and he spots something as red as his own hair out of the corner of his eye, making him whip his head around to get a better look. The red isn't hair, however, but feathers, feathers attached to small wings, whom again are attached to a small boy. Touya's chest burns with pride as he realizes the winged boy is carrying an Endeavor plush with stars in his strange, golden eyes, holding the toy as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

That same night, as Touya is fast asleep back in his house, on the right side of town, a small boy with small, red wings is whispering to his new plush friend about how strange it was that he saw a boy with the brightest red hair and electric blue eyes that matches the plush itself in town today.

2.

Keigo Takami is seven years old when he and his mother is all alone in the world. The police and Endeavor himself took his father away. Endeavor. He was real. And he had freed Keigo and his mom from his big, loud and violent dad. So why wasn't his mom happier?

Keigo tries his best to listen as his mother tells him how has to go steal them some food, but it's hard to listen well with so many people and sounds around. Keigo's eyes, ears and wings aren't used to this many sensory distractions. And wasn't stealing what got his dad put in prison, anyway?

Keigo's wings shiver strangely, alerting him that someone is watching them, and he turns his head quickly to find out who it could be. His eyes meets those of a young girl, probably around his own age, with white hair with little red specks in it and glasses neatly placed on her face. Keigo just blinks, unsure of what to do, but the girl smiles at him, and looks like she's about to say something, when her mom, who Keigo hadn't even noticed, gently pulls her along. The girl turns back to wave at him, but before Keigo can wave back, some strange men in black suits crowd him and his mother, and his attention is once again shifting, not realizing his life is being changed forever in this exact moment.

That same night, young Fuyumi Todoroki tells her older brother about the strange bird-boy she saw in town that day, and how men in black suits suddenly came to take him and his mother away, in the middle of everything. Touya wishes that someone would come and take him away, too.

3.

Touya is fourteen years old when he's blindly running trough the streets away from his home. No, not his home, not anymore. A house, yes, but no home. His bare feet slaps loudly against the uneven asphalt ground, hot, angry tears are clouding his vision, and his ears are ringing with pain and confusion, and all he knows is that he cannot look back.

Touya barley spots the small alley almost hidden behind a dumpster and a advertisement sign outside a small store, and without giving it a second thought he turns the corner and sprints into the dark alley, finding comfort in the cool shadows. He runs until he finds a spot between two big dumpsters, finally coming to a halt, gasping for his breath, sinking slowly down to the ground, shaking legs no longer able to hold him up. He places his arms on his knees and rests his head on top of them, trying to calm himself down.

A small voice coming from outside his hiding spot halts the process of calming down though, and Touya whips his head up, looking defensive around. The voice quietly tells him that he's okay, the owner of the voice isn't going to come any closer. The voice sounds like it belongs to a boy, maybe a little younger than Touya himself, and Touya shakily asks whoever it is to please leave him alone. The owner of the voice doesn't do that, but he doesn't come closer, either. The voice asks if Touya is okay, if he needs help, and Touya declines, hoping this will finally get the person to leave. It doesn't.

The two boys continues their quiet, hushed conversation on each side of the dumpster in the dark alley, as Touya finds himself whispering about his life as a failed creation, the other boy quietly listens, and when Touya is done speaking, it's so quiet he almost thinks the boy left without him realizing. But then the voice is back, quiet but determined, telling Touya that he is not a waste, that he can probably do good things, because you never know how life is going to change in just a moment. When the stranger asks for his name, Touya gives it without a second thought, but before he can get a name back, the voice tells him to be quiet, and Touya hears someone coming running.

A harsh voice tells the other boy that he can't just dissapear like that, doesn't he know how much trouble he could make for this man, and the boy quietly apologizes, saying he thought someone was in trouble. The last thing Touya hears of the boy is how he's being dragged along by the angry man, and the names he calls the kind, quiet boy that makes Touya's hands shake in anger. But he knows better than to interfere, so he quietly exists the other side of the alley and makes his way back home, where nobody even noticed that he had been away in the first place.

That night Touya decides that the quiet boy from the alley was right, that he could do good things, that he might not be a total failure. Touya decides to go back to Sekoto Peak the next day to continue his training on his own. Keigo is lying in his own bed in the bare, white room he lives in at the Commission headquarters, unable to sleep because he is thinking about Touya, the boy from the alley. He hopes he said the right things, and that maybe, somehow, they can meet again, maybe even be friends.

4.

Hawks is twenty-three years old when he wakes up in the hospital with his wings missing, a large part of his body and his throat badly burned, and with a horrible, heavy feeling in his heart.

He barley registers the nurses, doctors, Best Jeanist, any of the people trying to talk to him, their voices are all being drowned out by a single other voice, repeating the same two words over and over again. Touya Todoroki. Touya. Todoroki. Touya Todoroki. Hawks isn't sure which part of the name that threw him off the most. Touya, the quiet boy with the painful flames in his body he had talked to in the alley all those years ago, but never stopped thinking about. Todoroki. Endeavor, Shoto. Fire quirks. Dabi. It all made such terrible sense, but simultaneously didn't make any sense at all.

Hawks knows it's not all a big coincidence. He knows Endeavor had a son that died at fourteen. A son that died in a training accident involving fire. He also knew Dabi had always had something familiar about him. Something hidden behind the cold, distant veil over his electric blue eyes. Something eerily familiar, yet so foreign. An anger he had seen and heard hints of before, both from the boy in the alley and the Number 1 Hero. But also a different side, a more timid, thoughtful one, one he recognized in the shaking voice behind the dumpster, and from the quiet, but determined Shoto. Hawks has no idea where to go next.

The nights following his and Hawks big showdown, Dabi still can't find total peace with the whole situation. He had expected a big reaction from the so-called hero, but he hadn't been prepared for the way Hawks had seemed to lose all the fighting spirit he had left as the words hit him. Dabi tells himself that the only reason he is this upset about this is because it's a riddle he can't quite seem to figure out, but sometimes, in the darkest parts on the night, he feels like there is something else, something monumental, that he can't begin to get the grasp on, and it leaves him with an unease he cannot shake, no matter how hard he tries.

5.

Touya is twenty-five years old, and he is still fighting himself every single day. Every single morning he wakes up and has to fight off the thoughts that are screaming at him for being here. He closes his eyes and covers his ears, trying to push away the voices telling him that accepting help is the same as admitting defeat. That going along with the program is betraying every single principle he has held onto the last ten years. But then he takes a deep breath, and another one, and another one. And then he opens his eyes, removes his hands from his ears, slowly, shakily, and he looks at the things he keeps on his nightstand. The photos and letters. The newspapers. He takes a few more deep breaths. And then he starts his day.

The days in the facility all feels similar, almost to the point of blending into each other, and Touya still isn't sure how he feels about it. His therapist tells him it's a part of the program, to regain a sense of routine and to be re-introduced to the concept of a normal day to day life. Touya thinks it's hard to regain something he never had to begin with.

In stead of working on regaining things he never had, Touya starts focusing on introducing himself to what life suddenly has the potential to be. He still isn't capable to see too far into the future, to plan for things more than a month away, to imagine life as something unlimited and filled with potential. He is told this is natural, but it's also frustrating.

Another thing Touya is trying to get accustomed too, is having people seeking him out of their own, free will. He is surprised every time a member of his family shows up. He still cannot fully meet their eyes. Except, ironically, for Shoto's. Somehow the straight forward, strange boy that is his younger brother brings him some form of comfort. Maybe it's because they never had a relationship to begin with, so there's not much unsaid like with Fuyumi, Natsuo and his Mother. Maybe it's the fact that he knows Shoto says exactly what he thinks, no matter what, so he never has to wonder if there's any hidden agenda. No matter what it is, Touya appreciates it. He hopes he finds the words to express it some day.

Another person who keeps showing up here without Touya fully grasping why, is Hawks. No, not Hawks; Keigo. His name is Keigo. It suits him, Touya thinks, and he sees how it makes the other mans mask fall more and more, the less he is addressed to as his alias. He job title, the fake persona. That's another strangely comforting thing, the fact that they have a lot of the same work to do, the two of them. They both have parts of themselves they considered to be dead, that suddenly are staring to show themselves again, parts of themselves they have to get to know all over again.

One of the days he and Keigo are sitting outside in the gardens talking about some meaningless gossip about the staff at the facility, Touya notices that Keigo isn't half as interested as he usually is, and he finally gets the winged hero to spill what's on his mind. When Keigo looks him right in the eyes and asks if he remembers the day in the dark alley behind the dumpsters in his home town, Touya's mind goes absolutely blank. And then it clicks.

The little boy with the bright red wings and Endeavor plush. The strange bird kid Fuyumi saw getting taken away by men in suits. The quiet voice in the alley that day, almost eleven years ago. The way Keigo had reacted to his name the ay of their fight.

It cannot be possible, there is no way. But it is. Because even if Keigo had no idea that Touya actually knew of him before the other way around, the look on his face tells Touya everything he needs to know. Neither of them knows how to react, but somehow, a piece that had been missing between them for a long time snaps into place with a startling preciseness. They hug for the first time ever when Keigo leaves that day. The next times he visits, they hold hands. When Keigo finally asks if he can kiss him the day Touya is being discharged from the facility, Touya thinks that Shoto will never let him hear the end of this.

Touya Todoroki was never one for believing in shit like the universe, faith or destiny or whatever. He still isn't, mostly.

But that doesn't stop him from thinking how he and Keigo had been pulled together by some unseen force, all this time.

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