#BECAUSE GOD. the fact that he was treated as a thing. anyway uh gifted child my beloveds. i am very normal

[theogony]

also i kin. a crocodile now

[xxrainstormxx]

Birthday Gift. Spencer Reid x Reader (Smut)

(A/N: So I've found out Spencer content gets the most attention and hes my favorite so there is no problem here. And no one is making requests. So I'm doing my best. Maybe I should stick to Spencer XD. Anyway. 10 year age gap. Hope you don't mind. Anyway it’s Spencer’s 30th birthday. in this story. Send in some requests!) Word count: 3,000

Spencer was watching (Y/N), they were drinking with Emily and laughing at stupid things. He had been in love with (Y/N) for years. They were a writer who was now working at the BAU as an agent now. He had always found it endearing how they managed to keep writing books while also doing their work as an agent. 'How is someone so stunning, smart, and funny at the same time?' He thought to himself. (Y/N) giggled and walked over sitting in front of him "Earth to Spencer Reid~" They teased as they waved their hand in front of his face. He blushed realizing he'd been staring, and the loud music rushed back into his ears as he was sucked from his thoughts back to reality. The bar, it was a club but he was now 30 and didn't want to admit that, was loud and the music was the absolute worst thing he'd heard. "You good wonder boy?" they asked smiling slightly worried. "Oh yeah!" he called loudly, the music nearly drowning out his gruff voice. They just giggled and nodded "Not my setting" he finished his statement with a chuckle. "Would never have guess" They grinned tauntingly. The playful leer was enough to make his heart melt. Romance was never Spencer's strong point, but for (Y/N), he made a special exception. There were just ways they made him feel human, he didn't like to admit how the others treated him like some alien. "You seem like the introverted type" They smiled "Skipping, what... basically ten years of school does that." they hummed. "did you know that school is actually designed for extroverts along with basically being outdated in the sense of its teaching you how to work for a factory?" he hummed happily "Spence, wonderboy, baaaaaaaby!" they called with a giggle "I love ya facts normally, but I am just a little to drunk to really process what you are saying!" The 24 year old giggled. "Its your birthday, and I respect ya! I do, but everyone is drinking way too much" They giggled. 

"Right. That's the reason you don't wanna listen" He laughed softly. He didn't mind usually being told to stop spewing facts as long as it was (Y/N) telling him. It was a specially thing they had where it wasn't disrespectful or out of annoyance. It was because they genuinely appreciated what he said and just wanted to understand it better. So he had no reason to not listen to them, their relationship was really a wonderful thing and he cherished it. "You know i love you and your facts!" they squealed leaning on him. "Oh I know" he laughed gently kissing their forehead softly, the mostly platonic kiss was always a thing between them. The team always thought of it like a quote "father, child" thing but that just hurt his feelings. The thought that he really never had a chance because he was "too old" for the only person that really understood him. Age gaps were always controversial especially since they saw the grossest of age gaps between an adult and literal children. It made zero sense in his mind as to why they didn't like it, there were much worse things it could be an he certainly wasn't old enough to be her dad. Maybe it was his own fucked up justification for the way he felt but (Y/N) certainly didn't look like a child nor act like one. They had a mature figure, one that if they bent over at just the right angle over a desk, or pouring over a file, or even interrogating he felt he would just about die. They dressed in a very professional way despite their young age just as he had at the same age. They took themselves seriously but also knew when to call it quits or make fun of themselves. They were a perfect blend of human. He stared at their lips, wondering how soft they really were, and questioning why they used a chapstick that gave off such a strong scent that reminded him of sugar, and he wondered if it had a taste, like cherry, or plum. He wondered if he could make their voice crack as he drew circles on their body with his fingers only to touch what really mattered. He wondered if he could make their perfect mouth cry out his name in pure ecstasy how sweet they would feel clenched around his- "-SPENCER!" they squealed laughing "you've been staring into space for at least 7 fuckin minutes" they snorted tapping his nose softly making him blush. "You okay Dr." they asked affectionately. "y-Yeah course I am" he whispered, it wasn't exactly good for their location but they seemed to understand, but he wasn't okay. He was hard, and uncomfortable. He was thankful that the bar could hide it well enough, because the jeans he wore for the sake of his party weren't doing any favors to hide his friend. "You sure? You seem a little uncomfortable" they commented leaning towards him. 

He could practically feel their shaky drunk breath on his neck and god that didn't help. Their body was stunning in the outfit they had chosen, a simple black top with waist high black skinny jeans and dark green and blue painted combat boots. their body retained its beautiful shape clothes taking the shape of them. They way they stared at him brought back all the thought, making him wonder what their hair would look like as he splayed them out on his bed making them bounce and beg for more and more of him. The doctor was seen as no innocent the idea of him having these thoughts was only a fake concept to them. "Just fine. Bar seats aren't the best to sit on" he laughed softly "Then lets dance!" (Y/N) grinned grabbing his hand pulling him out of seat. The music had changed thanks to Emily practically begging to slow dance with the date she had brought. The idea of being so close thrilled Spencer normally but his current situation made it actually impossible to comprehend and made the anxiety of the situation overwhelming. They giggled "I-I'm really not in the mood to dance." he squeaked out "it'll be fun- come o- OH!" they squeaked after pushing close to him to dance they realized just why he was so flustered and uncomfortable. What caught him by surprise, was they didn't pull away. "S-sorry- I tried to be subtle, b-but y-you.... you uh..." he sighed "I just.... need the uh... space to get rid of it.... and if you want to we c-can dance after" He muttered flustered, but (Y/N) didn't move. "(Y/N), are you okay? Y-you haven't moved." he squeaked again as they pushed as closed "Act natural. You don't want the rest of the team knowing do you. If you walk away suddenly they'll know" they said softly swaying with him to the music. He shivered wiggling "you c-can't... shift like that." he gasped quietly "it's..." he mewled quietly turning red. They could have left they didn't have to be so close, they didn't have to touch him, wait, they were touching him, like, hand in the pants, touching! "Bathroom" they whispered in his ear before leaving him literally wanting. He followed after a few moments of shock. This was all very new, he'd only ever masturbated but now he was going to straight to sex in public. Holy shit. He walked in confused hearing the door behind him and lock. He turned only to be pushed against the outside of the stall. "I checked, no one is in here" (Y/N) said quietly getting onto their knees. "w-wh-why?" he yelped quietly "What do you mean?" they asked working his belt glancing up to him. "Why a-are you do-doing this for me?" he stuttered "I want to? duh." they giggled and kissed the top of his pelvis. "N-no, why...?" he panted nearly throwing his head back in anticipation. "Do I need to spell out the fact that I like you?" they purred tugging down his pants "I... I like you too." he whispered pulling them to their feet. "What are you-" they squeaked before Spencer pulled them close into a kiss. Both of them had wanted this for way too long, and so the sweet innocent kiss quickly escalated into a tangled mess of limbs, grabbing, and panting. "Lets go to my apartment, I don't want to do this here." he whispered "I've pictured you too many times to not do this right." he growled kissing down their neck as they mewled "Got it. Thi-think the others will noticed?" (Y/N) questioned before gasping as they were grabbed and slowly rubbed "Do you want to really think about them now?" he whispered nipping their ear softly "god no. I'll meet you there" they whispered pulling back and left to quickly go. Spencer swiftly heeded telling all his friends he was tired. Thankfully they hadn't connected his need to leave to (Y/N)'s and he was gone. 

(Y/N)'s P.o.V

I somehow arrived after Spencer, probably because he didn't have alcohol in his system. I wasn't exactly drunk, just buzzed, but I needed to be careful still. Getting pulled over was no ideal. I made my way up to his floor quickly, Spencer liked me, he liked me and that was enough for me. He had even kissed me, age gap... no age gap, agent, not an agent, I loved him. And I had been since we properly became friends. I personally didn't believe in love at first sight but god I know about attraction and want. I knew what I wanted, and that was Spencer Reid, I'd take him however I could. I came up behind the man himself kissing his shoulder as he struggled with his key. I reached around grabbing him and stroking him slowly. "Hurry up wonder boy." I blew against his ear causing him to grunt "You aren't helping" he groaned bucking up into my hand. "Are you a top or a bottom?" I teased as he struggled more, "I can imagine you on the bed, panting and moaning as I ride your cock." I ran my finger up his shaft slowly causing him to moan "You begging for more. Crying out my name. I bet you couldn't be a top if you wanted" I snapped teasingly. The door flew open and he pulled me in, pinning me against the wall causing a breathy moan to slip through my slightly dry lips. He slammed the door lifting my leg grinding against me. "Are you always such a brat when you're horny?" He moaned softly sucking softly on a spot on my jaw. "And what if I am?" I mewled, before crying out as he slammed against the wall bucking against me teasingly. The clothes being in the way pissed me off slightly. A small string of curses left his mouth "It's fucking hot." He muttered. It was a little shocking to hear to Spencer curse but it was enough to make me shut the fuck up for a second. "God fuck me" I gasped rolling my hips against his needily "you know. You were the only person who didn't get me a birthday present" he hummed softly "M-maybe b-because I planned on something like this" I muttered. It was the truth, I planned on confessing and had a backup present in my car. I knew full well that I wanted to do this tonight, I even put a condom in my pocket. "Wow. Such a naughty whore." I mewled at the sentence, something about Spencer saying that was enough to nearly kill me there. I groaned in pleasure pushing down on his dick. "I want you. I want you so bad!" I dragged my nails down his chest panting already. He groaned picking me up, I used the opportunity to kick my shoes off and he walked us to his room as I worked on throwing off my shirt. He attacked my chest with love bites and kisses as he pinned me to the bed giving me a chance to work at his shirt and belt. "shit" he whispered biting his lip "you look just as good as I imagined you would." he moaned rolling his hips against me once again. The clothes were really on my nerves "off" I hissed, tugging at my own pants "now! please god!" I moaned, I rolled my hips up gasping. "Why should I?" he whispered chuckling. He was so fucking hot like this. His gruff voice just kept making me shiver and I whined "Because I need you too." I moaned legs finally free of my stupid tight pants. Beauty is pain, he sighed "Such a brat" he growled and pulled himself out of his pants making me drool at the sight "I shouldn't-" he began making me whine "-but you're too much to resist" He muttered kissing me. 

I kissed back after a moment of not expecting it, his tongue making its way into my own. Spencer was an absolute god when it came to kissing, as his tongue made it's rounds around my mouth I mewled when it brushed the roof of it. I was so distracted by the kiss I hadn't noticed that he aligned with my entrance until he suddenly shoved into me. I didn't even know he put on the condom but I felt it, mostly him though. I gasped rolling my hips up nearly biting his tongue. He moaned panting "Fuck you're hot" He groaned "tight" he panted softly slowly beginning to thrust into me. I moaned loudly the suddenness of it making my head spin with pleasure "S-Spence!" I moaned as he pushed in and out of me at a slow and steady pace. I melted under him grabbing at his back, his shirt hadn't even come off yet. I wanted it off though. "Off. Sp-Spencer! Please take the shirt off." He moaned, absolute music to my ears, rocking against me taking off his shirt quickly "Such. A. Fucking. Brat" he hissed slamming into me with every word. I cried out eyes rolling back. The sounds of our moans and the slapping of skin filled the otherwise empty room. "Oh fuck!" I cried out running my hands down his chest admiring him lovingly. He may have been skinny but that didn't mean he wasn't built well. His hair fell and framed his face he looked like an actual god. "You're so fucking hot" he groaned and I arched my back with a high cry. "I-I'm- oh god- I'm cumming!" I covered my mouth. "Not. Yet." he groaned pulling out of me as I whined. "N-not fair!" I moaned "Sometimes brats need to be taught a lesson" He growled pulling me off the bed onto the floor. "Open your mouth" he said grabbing my face. I panted and opened my mouth wide. I gasped loudly as he pushed his cock into my mouth. I moaned loudly knowing what he wanted before I was even told. I bobbed my head quickly moaning at every movement and sound he made. "Baby~" he mewled as I ran my tongue up his shaft pulling off for a second to breathe before licking the tip. I pushed forward and started sucking on him again. He groaned in pleasure grabbing my hair. "Good girl. Learning not be a damn brat." He moaned teasingly, I wanted this for so long and the fact it was happening made my head spin, and my eyes roll back. After a long while he pushed me up and grabbed me shoving into me not even bothering to put me on the bed. I nearly collapsed my legs nearly giving out. So he picked me up shoving me against the wall. "Shit baby~ You're so good for me now." He gasped out "You can cum for me baby" he whispered in my ear kissing me again. I cried out loudly wiggling, against him. I bounced quickly against him, cumming and basically spilling out onto him moaning loudly. I pulled back throwing my head back as he continued to thrust into me way too hard. It drove me absolutely crazy. I moaned his name a few more times "I... I can't.. Oh god" I gasped feeling him fill me entirely with his cum. He collapsed back onto the bed with me still in his arms resting on his chest. "Damn..." he whispered against my neck. I only yawned in response, not able to speak. "I... I love you. Not just like." he whispered. "I know it's not the time, but I don't want this to be a one night stand. Or a friends with benefits thing. I want you. I want to be yours. We don't have to talk about this right now. We can talk tomorrow" He whispered earning a tired yawn from me. I gasped softly as he pulled out leaving me feeling empty. And to sleep we went. 

3rd person P.o.V

The next morning (Y/N) had woke up sore and alone. It was strange to them but they smiled as Spencer walked into the room. "Hi." he whispered handing them some pain medicine. "Did you sleep well?" He asked them petting their head and brushing the hair out of their eyes. "hi... I slept great" they mumbled taking it with a hum. "Good. Do you uh, need a shower?" he asked gently "and your clothes are in the dryer." he mumbled shyly. It was a funny thing, how dominate and rough he was, but now soft and shy as usual. It made them smile "I... I really care for you." he whispered "And I want you to be comfortable." He whispered. "I love you too Spencer." I giggled quietly "A shower would be lovely." they laughed a little. Spencer grinned happily "Best birthday present ever"

[pls-let-me-out]

Invisible String

23rd of December

“Will?” Niccolò mumbled, as the other climbed in the bed. His words were slurred by tiredness and sleepiness. “Did you talk with your family?”

Will nodded, hugging the blankets around himself. It was warm enough to fall asleep in a second. He didn’t want to, not yet, not when they had so little left, so he kept his eyes open, just for a little while. He could only make out Niccolò’s shape in the darkness of the room.

“Yeah. They’re doing fine.” Will’s throat was still dry, his breath uneven.

Niccolò’s voice was little and soft when he said, “Will, have you been crying?”

Will nodded. For a moment, the air around them turned stiff and awkward, then Niccolò turned on his side, and held out an arm. It was scary, how Will didn’t think twice about it, before diving right in. His body fit perfectly against Niccolò’s. It hurt Will’s heart in a way he had never experienced before.

Slow, soft, gentle. Everything Niccolò’s fingers were, when they sneaked to Will’s curls and massaged his scalp.

“Do you miss them?” His words tasted of the minty toothpaste they used.

Will nodded. “Yeah. I just–I think that–can I tell you something else?”

“Of course you can, principino.”

Will took a deep breath. “I don’t talk to my parents anymore. My father is a thoughtless bastard, as you’ve gathered. My mother just–I don’t think she really sees me. I’m just the result of her relationship with my father, and they didn’t really have the best thing going on. They fought a lot, fucked up a lot. But they were soulmates, so they had to stay together, you know? They had to make it work, because it’s your soulmate or nothing. If your soulmate can’t love you, then no one can.” Will sniffled. He snuggled closer to Niccolò, the hand around his hip tightened. “And people look at them, and keep saying that it’s true love, how they finally renounced the pieces of each other they loved, because they were ruining the rest. And maybe it is, maybe that’s what true love is about. But it still hurt me, you know?” His throat was dry when he swallowed. “I’m sorry I hated you before even knowing who you were.”

“You hated me?” There was no hurt in his voice, but Niccolò was good at hiding his emotions.

“I did. I thought you would treat me like my dad treated my mother, or how my mother treated my dad. That we would ruin the people around us. I thought we’d make something horrendous.” The realization hit him suddenly. Or maybe not suddenly at all, as it was a thought that had been building up in his head for days. “I don’t think we did, though.”

“And that’s good, right?”

Will closed his fist around Niccolò’s shirt. His warmth passed through the soft fabric, Will wanted to bury himself in it, let it warm him from inside out. “It is. What did you think about soulmates?”

For a moment, Niccolò’s fingers stilled. “I liked the idea, someone to love you no matter what.” His voice had never been so vulnerable before. “My father and Persephone are soulmates, much to her mother’s displeasure. But he had three children out of wedlock. Bianca was the eldest of us, before Persephone came in the picture. Mom got pregnant with me little before she and my dad broke it off. They did before he and Persephone found each other, but he got scared or some shit, and met Hazel’s mother.”

Will caressed Niccolò’s collarbones. He realized he was doing it only when Niccolò’s breath hitched. He blushed, but didn’t stop. Niccolò didn’t ask him to either.

“I thought Hazel was Persephone’s child,” Will revealed.

Niccolò skin was covered in goosebumps. He hummed. “She is barren. That’s why I’m heir to the throne. She sees a child in Hazel, sometimes.”

“But you lived in Venice not in Elysium when you were little, didn’t you?”

Niccolò took a deep breath. “With my mom and sister. Sometimes Bianca traveled to Elysium. I never did. Persephone could like Bianca. Everyone could, really. She was kind and gentle, but fierce. She couldn’t stand injustice. She wanted to be a lawyer, study the law.”

Will smiled in the darkness. “What did you want to be?”

“Prince. And when I couldn’t be, I wanted to be a pirate.”

Will chuckled around a yawn. “You are prince now.”

“Because there was no other choice. I wanted–when you said you’d be a doctor to make your grandparents proud, I was a hypocrite. When I was younger, I only wanted to be prince so that my father would be proud of me. So he could look at me, and think I wasn’t a total waste of space. And the people of Elysium wouldn’t only see their king’s bastard child in me.” As he talked, Niccolò’s fingertips tapped on Will’s hip. “I lived in exile, and after they took my sister from me, they took me, too. My mother’s body was long since cold when I moved to Elysium. They just made me pack my bags, and now we don’t talk about the fact that I used to have a whole other life.”

“Do you miss it?”

“I don’t remember enough to do that. I spent so much time not thinking about it, that when I try to now, I just can’t recall more than bits and pieces.” His breath shook. “I remember running down Canal Grande in Venice. The sun on my back, and my own laugh. Bianca’s smile when she turned and looked back at me. Our mother shouting. I don’t even know if that memory is real, or if I was so lonely, I created it.” He stayed silent for a long moment, and Will thought he had fallen asleep. “If that was real, then I miss it. If it wasn’t, I miss it anyway.”

Will rubbed his cheeks away against the mattress, hoping Niccolò hadn’t noticed.

“There’s something I haven’t told you,” Will said. “About my parents. About who I am.”

“I know.”

Will’s whole body went stiff. “You know?”

“I know you haven’t told me something. You don’t have to tell me, though.” Niccolò passed his fingers through Will’s hair. “I’ll trust you, if you’ll let me.”

Less than an hour earlier, Will had talked to Drew about Sherman, about dating someone else, but the thought stayed far from his head as he snuggled even closer to Niccolò.

“Thank you,” was all he said. And then he felt something tug in his chest.

Longing. More. He wanted more. He was hugging Niccolò in his bed, and they were alone, and Will hadn’t wanted to find his soulmate, but his soulmate was Niccolò and he had never stood a chance against something so big. His walls had crumbled down, and he had been too blind to notice.

“We shouldn’t do this,” Will said, his words whispered against Niccolò’s skin. “We shouldn’t do this when there’s not a chance for us.”

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll wake up and we won’t do this anymore.”

“It’s already tomorrow.” Will sniffled. “I used to play a game with my brothers, when our–my parents fought loudly. One had to choose a letter, and the others named a city and an animal with that letter.”

Niccolò hummed. “P.”

Will bit the inside of his cheeks. “You need to?”

Niccolò took a moment to understand, and when he did, he broke out laughing. “Stop being an asshole.”

“Alright. I’d like to live in Philadelphia, with a, uh. What animals are there with the letter p? Uh.” Will furrowed his eyebrows, pouting in the dark. “You ruined the game.”

“You just suck.” He groaned, as though he were lifting something heavy. “Paguro.”

“What?”

“It’s an animal with a p. It means, uh, hermit crab.”

“Such a cultured man.”

And Niccolò laughed. They kept on talking for a bit, and Niccolò said he’d like to live in the outskirts of Austin, Texas, and be a farmer. He wanted to have an alpaca.

“What are you laughing at?” Niccolò asked when the silence was broken by Will’s raucous laughter.

“You just make me laugh.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. A lot.”

“But like, are you laughing with me or at me?”

And Will laughed again.

 “Persephone called me. There’s a flight booked for you on the twenty-sixth of December. Four in the morning.”

“Oh.”

“There’s still three days before that, though.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“We should do the gift exchange. Between the two of us. We’ll be here on Christmas, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then do your worst. The one who picks the worst gift wins.”

 Mornings had never felt as long as the one they spent apart. From the moment they stepped out of the house, Will’s mark began burning slightly.

“I think the bond has settled,” Nico said when they met up in the restaurant for lunch. “For me, at least.”

Will spoke in a breath. “Me too.” He smiled, but it turned bitter quickly. “It’ll hurt when we separate.”

“What if we don’t?” Nico asked. His heart thrummed in his chest, as he leaned forward a little, his elbows on the table. “There will always be a place for you in Elysium, you know?”

“My life isn’t there,” Will said. “I–I don’t want to be a doctor, but I also don’t want to–I have my life in New York.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Nico smiled, but it didn’t meet his eyes. “It was just a stupid idea, anyway. I mean, it will hurt, but it’ll pass eventually. We won’t even remember it’s there.”

“I will,” Will said softly. “I won’t just forget about it.”

Nico didn’t have anything to say to that. They ate in silence.

 24th of December

“You can say it when you want something,” Reyna said. “It doesn’t make you selfish. And even if it does, it’s okay to be sometimes, for the things that are worth it.”

Nico clutched the phone tighter. “He doesn’t want to come to Elysium.”

“Convince him somehow. Or you could go to New York, frequent university there. It’s an option.”

“But then what? University doesn’t last forever.”

“What you have with Will, could that be forever?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes–sometimes I think it might be. As a friendship.”

“Are you saying that because friendship is all you both want, or because it’s what people expect of you?” Her soft smile was heard even through the phone, and was reflected in her tone. “It’s your life, live it as you deem, not as people tell you.”

“I know. I just–I don’t even know if he could ever like me like that.”

Reyna huffed. “Self-deprecation isn’t a good look on anyone, Nico. Does he know you like him like that?”

“Oh my God, I don’t like him!”

She groaned, but almost sounded like a laugh. “Nico.”

“Alright, he doesn’t of course. We talked about it once, and we both said we weren’t ready for a relationship. Maybe he even has someone back home.”

“Have you seen articles recently? Because I sure as hell hope he hasn’t, or that if he has you two have talked about it. Someone said you have a girlfriend, probably to cover up the possibility of you and Will choosing to have a romantic bond.”

“He wouldn’t like that. His parents were soulmates, and they fought a lot and–he just wants to be friends.”

“It seems to me, like you’re hiding behind well-crafted excuses.”

“It’s true.”

“I’m not saying it isn’t, I’m just saying that you’re using it as an excuse. You like him, and what if he likes you?”

“Even if he did, we could never be together. He lives in New York, Reyna. He doesn’t want to leave New York, and I can’t leave Elysium. With the bond settled, things just get harder. It will hurt every time we talk and every second we don’t.”

“What is your biggest fear right now, Nico?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you sure?”

Nico took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. “Losing him, I guess. I’m afraid of losing him, and missing him for the rest of my life.”

“It will be hard, but I think you two can do it. I think you can work out a way to be together. You are not the first soulmates to have completely different lives.”

“So I should talk to him.”

“Of course you should.”

“Yeah. Right. Talking. I can do that.”

As it turned out, talking wasn’t so easy.

 In the afternoon they took a walk through the city. Everything made Will smile, to the point his cheeks must have hurt. If they did, he didn’t say. Nico realized he was following Will around like a lost puppy, but he didn’t know what else to do. In the morning they had been given a Christmas tree, and now Will wanted to decorate it. Nico huffed and sighed, calling him an overgrown baby, all the while hiding a smile.

“It could become a tradition,” Will said. He had his hands in his pockets, and refused to look up from the stand of handmade Christmas balls they were in front of.

“You ordering me around?” Nico asked, cocking an eyebrow. He clasped his hands behind his back, leaning forward to take a peak to the stand. It was covered in red balls. Even through all the layers he could feel the heat radiating off Will’s body. Even more so when the other leaned back, resting against Nico’s shoulder.

Nico’s breath hitched.

“No, spending Christmas together. No wait, you probably have galas or something. Sorry.” He scoffed.

Nico couldn’t see Will’s face. He immediately missed the his warmth when he stepped forward. With his heart thumping in his chest, Nico did the same, hooking his chin on Will’s shoulder, with the pretense of taking another look.

“I will miss them for you,” Nico said, speaking so quietly it was a mystery how Will heard him.

He did, and tensed up. When he spoke, his voice was as soft as cotton balls. “Would you?”

“I don’t like them much to begin with.” Nico cleared his throat, the tension unbearable. Will’s fingers were shaking. Nico stepped back, taking his wallet from his pocket. “So, which ones would you like?”

 They didn’t speak much. They found themselves in a café a while later, with steaming cups of hot chocolate and coffee on the table. As soon as Nico was recognized, they were gifted cookies.

“Something I never understood,” Nico said, trying to break the tension. “Is why they always gift rich people with food.”

Will choked on his hot chocolate, falling forward on the table. He laughed so hard other costumers turned to look at them. Glare at them, more specifically.

“You’re such an old man,” Will finally said, shaking his head. He sighed heavily. “God, my grandmother will love you.”

“Oh, you plan on introducing us?” Nico asked, learning forward, a small smile on his face. “Let me tell you, every mother and grandmother hates me before knowing I’m rich. They think I’m a gangster.”

Will snorted, in a way he would later realize didn’t make him more attractive at all. “Oh, shut up. You’re a marshmallow.”

Nico clasped his lips. “Wow. That I’ve never been called.”

“I find that hard to believe. Don’t you have pet-names with your girlfriends?”

Nico furrowed his eyebrows. “Girl…friends? Like, girls who are my friends?” Reyna’s words came back to him in full force, as he watched Will tilt his head to the side. “You mean like a…a…?”

“A romantic partner who is a girl?” Will tried. His eyes roamed around the room, before setting back on Nico. He tapped his fingers on the table, at the same rhythm as the music passing on the radio. “Don’t you have one now?”

Nico turned red in less than a second. “I don’t. But, like, I also won’t. Never. I won’t ever have a girlfriend.”

“Oh my God, do you still do arranged marriages?”

Will seemed outraged, and for a moment Nico wondered if he was being serious. Was he always so dense? It took him a moment to remember that yes, he was. With no doubt at all.

“Will, I’m gay.”

Will’s eyebrows shot up so fast they should have fallen from his forehead. “Oh.”

He furrowed his eyebrows even more. God. God, had Nico fucked up? Why did he have to listen to Reyna of all people? What did she know? God. Fantastic. Perfect. He would never, ever–

“Is that how you know French?”

Nico looked at him for a long moment. Will, and the smile he was trying to suppress, his lips half-upturned but not completely, and his eyes, they shone so bright, and–

“Oh my God, are you being serious right now?”

And Will laughed.

 Will threw himself over Niccolò on the couch. He could start thinking about the future the next day, or the day after. They had turned on the lights on the Christmas tree, and they were now flickering with red, green and yellow.

Niccolò huffed, letting his hand fall between Will’s shoulders blade. “God, are you always so hot?”

Will put his chin on Niccolò’s chest, batting his eyelashes coyly. “Are you always such a flirt?”

“I–” He turned red, his Adam apple going up and down. “I meant warm. Not, like, hot as in sexy. I mean. I mean, you–it’s not like-”

Will laughed. “Sometimes I forget you’re shy.”

Niccolò’s whole face transformed into a frown. “That’s because I’m not. Fuck you, Will.”

Will laughed some more. Niccolò was avoiding his eyes, so he propped himself on his elbows, getting in Niccolò face with a blinding smile.

It was almost anticlimactic the way it happened.

Will was laughing, until he wasn’t. Niccolò was sputtering, until he wasn’t. They had been on their own, until someone had thrown them together, closing them in a house in Livigno. They had been strangers, until they weren’t.

Will had despised the idea of soulmates, until he hadn’t. Because with Nico, with Nico he could envision it. Waking up together, planning a life together. Having a dog, and then another, maybe even a cat. Walking down the streets together, holding each other’s hand. Traveling Europe train by train, without having a route.

For once in his life, he could imagine it all.

Nico had a light stubble from the day, and Will wanted to touch it, run his fingertips over the curves of Nico’s face. Touch his skin where it wasn’t so perfect, where Prince Niccolò met Nico. Remind himself that, after all, Niccolò was just Nico, who liked black coffee and sputtered when he was nervous.

And then they were on the ground. Will’s arm had given in under the weight of his body, and he fell to the ground. Nico’s limbs were tangled with his, so they fell together. Nico’s head touched the carpet with a loud thud.

“Oh my God!” Will shrieked. He tried to stand, but only entangled himself further in the blanket that had been covering Nico. “How’s your head? Oh my God, can you even hear me?”

Nico groaned, making no move to stand. He covered his face with his hands. “With the frequencies you’re speaking at, I’m also probably losing my hearing.”

“Fuck, I’m getting you some ice.” He bolted to the kitchen, and a new sound of despair echoed through the house. “Do we even have ice?”

 Nico took his phone out of his pocket, and sent a message to Reyna.

I almost kissed him and fucked up.

She responded after a few moments.

I bet you didn’t talk about it.

Nico huffed.

You don’t say.

With some dizziness, he stood and reached the kitchen. He sat on the counter, watching Will roam through the freezer, and only come back with a bag of iced peas.

He must have not heard Nico, for when he saw him sitting there he completely paled, almost dropping the peas.

“Careful, those are sacred around here,” Nico said.

Will nodded, with a little smile on his lips, that didn’t seem natural at all.

Nico chewed on his lower lip. How did he bring it up? Sorry I tried to kiss you, I was just vibe checking? Was that something normal kids these days said?

“You know about the soulmate ceremony?” Nico blurted out, reaching forward to take the bag of peas from Will’s hands.

“Yeah?” Will prompted, sitting on the other stool and swinging his feet.

“Well. We’ll have to choose a color palette. One day. When we actually have it.” Nico nodded. “Well, that was it. All I had to say. Yep.”

Will snorted through his nose. “Is that really all you have to say?”

Will leaned forward, taking the wrist of the hand in which Nico was uselessly holding the bag, and brought it to Nico’s temple. Nico adjusted his grip on it. Will’s hand seemed to linger forever, and if Nico were honest, he would have admitted he wished it would.

“No.” Nico’s heart stopped beating. It literally stopped beating, then did so hard it broke his chest. “It’s not all I have to say.”

“What else is there, then?”

Oh. Oh, Will’s eyes. They had resumed their puppy resemblance, or maybe puppy eyes should have just been called Will’s eyes, because Nico was pretty sure he had invented them. There was no other explanation of why he would ever look so good with them.

“Before the ritual, we have to decide what we should be. Platonic or romantic.”

“You’re gay, I’m bi.”

Nico’s breath resembled a sob. “Yeah.”

“But you’re a prince.”

“Yeah.”

Will’s eyes were still so sweet, even with the hurt so clear in them. “We don’t really have a choice then, do we?”

“I can’t offer you a relationship.” Nico shook his head; he couldn’t bear Will’s knowing gaze anymore. He looked away. “If I keep seeing you, then I’ll fall in love. But even then, we’d have to sneak around, keep being in secret.”

“Just–I just have a question. Why can’t you be gay? Are your parents homophobes?””

“Not my parents. They know. But it would cause problems if I were to create a scandal. My sisters, my mother, my father’s past… everything would be thrown right back on journals. I have to keep quiet, so I can live peacefully. And I can’t ask that of you. You deserve to be loved in the open.”

Will’s smile turned bitter. “So do you.” Slowly, oh so slowly, his hand covered Nico’s. His skin was soft and warm, much like he was. “You deserve to be happy.”

“Our happiness doesn’t overlap, does it? I’ll be a prince for the rest of my life, famous forever.”

“I know.” Will gripped his hand tighter, and Nico let the peas bag fall to the counter. He tried to smile again. It looked more like a grimace. “Star crossed lovers, aren’t we, my darlin’?” He tilted his head to the side, causing the blonde curls on his head to move, and the perfume of his shampoo to expand through the air. “If you could be selfish just for this one moment, this one night, what would you do?”

Nico didn’t hesitate. He stood, and cupped Will’s jaw. Was Will’s mark pulsing as his own was? Could he feel the sparks where they touched? Nico leaned forward, and kissed him. The first kiss was little more than a lingering peck, but it was followed by another, and another again. They separated, keeping their foreheads resting against one another’s. One of Will’s hand was on Nico’s shoulder, the other on the small of his back.

Their breaths mingled. Nico was sure that, if he looked away, he’d never have the force to meet Will’s eyes again. So he didn’t. He didn’t have to either, because Will kissed him again, and it was heated and perfect, and their marks were really pulsing this time.

 Spending Christmas Eve with a stranger hadn’t been on Will’s to-do list. As he lays in bed later the same night, he wonders whether Nico has ever been one at all.

 25th of December

Will has never spent a Christmas quite like this. He sits in front of the TV, with Nico’s chest against his back, Nico’s own back against the sofa.

“What time is the flight, again?” Will asks. His voice is low, a bit raspy.

“Five in the afternoon. They’ll come pick us up around three, I think.”

Will rests his head on Nico’s shoulder, dropping a little to the ground, and looking up at him.

“We have to open the gifts,” Nico says. He makes to move, but Will is quicker, and puts his hand on Nico’s knee, stopping him mid-movement. But Will doesn’t know how to start when his heart is beating like this, and Nico looking at him like this. “Will?”

“Remember when I said my name wasn’t William?” he asks.

“Yes. What has that to do with now?”

YouTube is open on the TV, and Taylor Swift’s Christmas Tree Farm playing quietly. In the music video are some photos of her childhood, and Will finds the force of turning to look at Nico by seeing little Taylor fall in a pile of snow.

“If I tell you the truth, will you forgive me for not telling you sooner?”

Once again, Nico doesn’t hesitate in cupping Will’s cheek with his hand. His touch is so tender it shouldn’t be legal. Eve and Adam must have felt like this, when they ate the forbidden fruit. “Everything that happened between us, happened with me knowing you were keeping something from me.”

Will nods. “But I–it might change what you think of me.”

“Unless you tell me you’re an assassin sent to kill me, then I don’t think we’re in that kind of trouble.”

“My name.” Will wraps his fingers around Nico’s wrist, keeping it there. He wets his lips, almost laughs at the way Nico blushes. “You know Apollo’s real name?”

Nico furrows his eyebrows, tilting his head to the side. He still seems so confused. “No? Don’t they say it’s one of Hollywood’s best kept secrets?”

The warmth of Nico’s skin against his and the softness of the carpet underneath them are the only things keeping Will’s head above the waters his mind has turned into.

“Lester Papadopolous. That’s his name.”

Nico still doesn’t understand. “Were you a groupie or something?”

“God, no, I–listen.” Will sits straighter, without even thinking of letting Nico go, with the fear of his touch never coming back. “People don’t know where his children ended up, right? But he had a lot.”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t really keep up with Hollywood gossip or whatever, but I don’t get where you’re going with–”

“My name,” Will interrupts him. “My name now is Fitzwilliam Andrew Solace. But it used to be Fitzwilliam Andrew Papadopolous.”

Nico is silent for a long moment. His hand slips from Will’s cheek, passing through his fingers, wrapped too loosely, and to the ground. It makes the same thud his head has the night prior. His face is unreadable.

“You are his son,” he finally says.

God. Why is his voice so carefully blank? Will doesn’t want them to be careful around each other, not after they’ve got so far.

Will nods. “His and Naomi. They–I didn’t really want to stay after what happened with Lee and Michael. I had a big fight with my father.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense.”

What? What makes sense? Will wants to scream, tear his own hair out, but he can’t. He’s not a child anymore.

Will sniffles. “Well, we can open the gifts now that that is in the open, anyway.” He claps his hands, willing the knot in his chest away. When he can’t, he starts ignoring it. “Just felt like you should know and everything.”

He uncrosses his legs to stand, but Nico’s fingers wrap around his wrist. This time it’s him trying to keep Will close.

Nico takes a deep breath, and talks so fast he could be an undercover rapper. “You know I don’t think any different of you for that, right? And I hope I didn’t do anything to make you feel pressured to tell me, although I am glad you did, and I think it might help to know in the future.”

Will stares dumbfounded at him. “Future.”

“Yeah. I still want to know a lot about you.” He turns as red as the jumper Will has found in the back of the wardrobe, and forced on him. In Will’s defense, Nico hasn’t put up that much of a fight, and red really suits him. “Even when we go back to platonic. You’re wonderful as Fitzwilliam Andrew Solace, I’m sure you were wonderful as Fitzwilliam Andrew Papopolous.”

Platonic. They were good when they were, so the thought shouldn’t hurt Will so much.

“Papadopolous.”

“Yeah, that.”

Will laughs. And then he cries.

 It’s dark outside when a car pulls up in the driveway. They have already brought their luggage downstairs. Nico’s phone pings with a new message, and after he checks it, he stands in front of the window to wave at the driver. In silence, they put on their coats. Will has left his gloves in the pockets. Nico takes one of the scarves from the coat hanger, and then puts the other on Will. They stand there for a long moment, looking at each other, no one wanting to go out, meet the outside world again.

“I’ll miss you,” Will says, so quietly he isn’t sure Nico will hear.

“So will I,” Nico responds. And then it’s silent again.

Will wraps his arms around Nico, and the other reciprocates. Will swallows, shutting his eyes and willing the tears away. Why does it feel so much like a goodbye?

 26th of December

Will’s siblings and Drew are waiting for him at the airport. He smiles, laughing at Drew and Kayla’s intertwined hands, wishing he and Nico were allowed to do the same. He looks down at his finger, the way the artificial light catches on the ring Nico has gifted him. As they pass the Brooklyn Bridge, he looks East, and in the way the sun shines on the surface of the river, he almost thinks he will forget Nico.

[chatonyant]

im just so sad about this funky crow ninja

Listen

Listen

Itachi is just

Such a tragic character and it makes me so sad

Like he's a pacifist at heart but he was forced to be the literal opposite at such a young age and I'm just so sAD ABOUT IT

(Under cut cause it’s long and it’s about the uchiha massacre if yall would rather not read bout that But it also has some soft ideas down at the way bottom if yall wanna just speed scroll to the bottom)

How he came to the choice he made regarding the Uchiha massacre totally makes sense to me. It wasn't a good decision, it wasn't a decision best suited for the situation, but it made sense. And it gets worse once you realize that he was 13. Thirteen. No wonder he couldn't find/use a third option. He's still a child, even in this world of child soldiers. He bloodied his hands and wore a mask so that the home he loved and the brother he adored could be safe.

I wish his story could've been written... better, for a lack of proper words. Maybe that is the right word. But I want to see him do more for Konoha. He became a missing nin for Konoha to spy on Akatsuki/Madara but we don't see the results of that. What information does Konoha get from him? Because we know that he's still loyal to Konoha after all this time. Did he do anything to slow Akatsuki down? Did he do things to benefit Konoha or stop something from badly impacting it? What did he do?

And then he dIES AND HE JUST DOESNT GET A BREAK AND IM HHHHH :((((((

And he was sick and going blind too!!!! I swear he was the universe's punching bag (though one of many cause the naruto universe just Be Like That)

Fuck ok I came on here to ramble about Itachi in my au but then got sad sO AU TIME NOW

For one I want to make him.... more sympathetic? A redemption works best when its shown from the start that there is more than meets the eye. Like Zuko, for example. He was a jerk, but there are moments where it's clear that he's not as much of a jerk as he could have been. And I wanted to do something similar with Itachi (and a couple other villains tbh but it's also a matter of "Should you survive" coughObitocough I love you but idk if you survive in this au or not but I have ideas nonetheless but that is for a later time)

Anyways, morally grey but more clearly Itachi

Honestly I've got more ideas for his ending than the beginning. Which is... very annoying. This is unfortunately the case for many... many of my ideas....

An idea I've been juggling with is Itachi not killing everyone. He definitely kills everyone who's activated their sharingan and anyone who is/was a shinobi. So everyone who's not a civilian. So,,, the survivors are very very little and are civilian mothers and civilian children too young to even attend the academy and like the occasional shop owners. The massacre was to stop the coup and prevent it from ever happening, so those who have the power to set forward this coup are any shinobi. And unfortunately, the Uchiha clan is an old shinobi clan.

Itachi is not a blank mask and does cry when he kills his parents and they leave their parting words. He's 13, forced to commit a crime that goes against his every wish, moral, and beliefs. Plus I believe the Uchiha are naturally every emotional- or at least feels it more intensely than others. Their whole defining ability has to do with emotions. They feel Very Strongly.

And thus by "cry" I mean he cries a lot. He almost has a breakdown right then and there when little baby Sasuke crashes in and see his crying older brother holding a bloody blade over his two very dead parents. 

For someone willing(ish) to murder a(lmost) a whole clan for the sake of his little brother, Itachi sure does directly hurt Sasuke a lot. Like genjutsu torture? Placing responsibility of avenging a whole clan on his tiny, angry shoulders? Oof, Itachi, bad ideas. 

So Itachi wants Sasuke to be safe. To be happy to the best of his ability. So instead, he uses a milder form of Tsukuyomi to place a suggestion in his baby mind that Itachi was in fact a cold hearted murderer. But the human mind is a strange thing that is difficult to understand, so for years Sasuke has nightmares of that night with his perception of Itachi varying wildly between a stone cold face and a tear-stained one. 

Itachi doesn’t do the whole “hate me and kill me for vengeance” because, again, he wants Sasuke to be safe and happy. Considering that he lives in a shinobi village and just had a highly traumatic experience, both are hard to come by, but the least Itachi can do is not have Sasuke’s whole life be overcome by hatred. Curse of Hatred is a very real thing, Itachi. I know you want Sasuke to have a goal to drive him forward and not waste away but bad idea Itachi. Maybe he says something else. Maybe he tells Sasuke to get stronger (but not in a “so you can get revenge” kind of way). I don’t know. But he doesn’t quite plant the idea of vengeance in his mind, so Sasuke’s motivation and drive ends up differently. Butterfly effects oho Also since Sasuke unlocked his sharingan during the massacre... is it possible to activate mangekyo as well? Cause he loves Itachi most, yes, but he also loved his parents, his mom especially. Would that be enough? Wiki says “death of someone close to the user”, so it’s possible, I think.

So many ideas about the massacre holy shit

Like Shisui. I’d totally love to make him live but frankly, I’ve got no idea how. :”D sorry Shisui, you’ll have to stay dead until I can find a solid reasoning as to how you survived and why

As for Madara/Tobi, well in anime he went after the Police headquarters while Itachi went after everyone else so there’s that, not much to change there

Then there’s a whole bunch of aftermath hijinks

Itachi is said to have aided Konoha within Akatsuki, but it’s not very clearly shown. Considering how we aren’t shown what exactly he passed on, that will be uh.... perhaps expanded on later. 

Sasuke and Itachi interactions before Shippuden would be different due to Sasuke’s own differences, but those differences haven’t be set yet so that will be explained later.

Ok, now the whole Itachi dying and being reincarnated shebang. Fourth War sure is wild as fuck. “Let’s mass reincarnate people!” what.

I don’t want Itachi to die. I want to let him rest. But not in death. 

So the general idea I have for the “end” of the story is:

He becomes legally blind. Not completely blind, but very close. His chakra coils are fucked and his sharingan are stuck in a way that he can kinda see chakra but very vaguely. 

His illness isn’t completely healed, but it’s much better than before; Sakura and Tsunade are legendary at what they do

He returns home to Konoha. Not sure how he will be accepted into the village but I was thinking the village makes a half-lie half-truth story pinning the blame on Danzo (Cause when in doubt, blame Danzo. Or Zetsu. But Zetsu isn’t blamable here)

He may not be imprisoned, but he isn’t free to roam. He’s monitored and has a (temporary?) seal placed on him limiting his use of chakra.

Itachi is surprisingly ok with all of this. He gets to retire from a shinobi life and he’s unraveled the story to Sasuke and was gifted a form of forgiveness. Life’s chill.

He works at the Yamanaka flower shop. It’s calming, peaceful, and it’s run by Yamanaka, powerful shinobi and also knowledgeable on psychology.

His crows are now seeing eye crows. They sit on either his shoulders or head and squawk whenever Itachi is too close to bumping into something. Sasuke very much enjoys when the crows are on Itachi’s head because when he tosses little treats at the birds, sometimes they land in Itachi’s hair.

It’s very hard for the shinobi to fear this honestly tiny man (because Itachi is small, fight me) who’s humming while watering plants with a bird on top of his head while the various heroes of Konoha take turns tossing treats at the bird like it’s a dog. 

“Nii-san. Nii-san stop squishing my cheeks.” “But Sasuke I want to see your face.” “Nii-san-”

oh my god so much brain power used on the massacre just so i could make itachi have a very domestic ending

[mydemimonde]

‘muse’ ch. 5 | matt (bbtl)

CHAPTER 5

“Tell him I’ll be there in a sec” her mother nodded and closed the door. Mia fixed her hair and looked at Nell, who was smirking.

“Don’t” Mia gave her a death glare and her sister gasped.

“I didn’t say anything!”

Mia headed downstairs and saw Matt leaning on the door frame. “Hey Matt” Mia’s heart jumped when he saw him smile widely at her. “What are you doing here?”

“I was worried. You left the party early last night, what happened?” he put his hands in his jeans’ pockets.

Hmm let’s see, Lyla is a complete asshole who treated my best friend like shit, your girlfriend behaved like an idiot with my sister, and then I walked into both of you making out almost naked that it broke my heart into million pieces…

“I was a little tired, that’s all” what a good liar. “My feet were hurting”

“Awww, poor baby” he seemed genuinely concerned. “Anyway, I hope you can walk with me to certain place…” he had a mischievous smile.

“Uhm, where?”

“Come with me, let’s go” he grabbed her hand and dragged her out.

“Wait, wait, where are we going?” Mia was confused.

“Patience, you’ll see” he then stopped in front of her, bending his knees just a little. “Hop on!”

“Are you going to piggyback me all the way to wherever you wanna take me? I don’t think you’ll make it…”

“C’mon, like the old times!” she gave in and hopped on his back. He placed his hands on the back of her knees, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. The smell of cologne and shampoo invaded her nostrils, she was enjoying the proximity.

He started walking, gripping her knees tight to prevent her from falling on her back. “Did you like the party?”

She nodded. “Hmm, yes. I thought it was gonna be a small party…”

“Oh, it was”, she chuckled “Emma planned to invite every lad from here, but I told her no. My house’s not enormous”

“Matt, there were like 80 o 100 people”

He chuckled. “What, you counted?”

“I did actually, I stopped counting at 83 because I got tired” she joked and he laughed. Her stomach fluttered at the sound of him laughing.

After some minutes of walking, they arrived at destiny. She looked up at the big bright sign in front of her.

“What are we doing here?”

“Let’s go inside, c’mon!” she jumped and got on her feet, he took her hand and both entered the place. It was a jewelry store, one of the most expensive in Luton. She looked around in awe, rings, necklaces and bracelets filled the showcases.

Matt took her hand again and pointed at the necklaces. “Which one is prettier?” He’s… buying me a necklace? Her cheeks tinted a shade of pink at the thought.

“Uhm… what? I…” she examined the display cabinet. All of them were beautiful, the light made them sparkle. She pointed at the gold chain with a moon charm. “This one’s pretty”

He inspected it, narrowing his eyes. He smirked. “Yeah, this one’s nice” he turned to her. “Thank you for helping me, Emma’s birthday is in two days and I needed someone to help me pick the perfect gift for her”

WHAT?! The smile on her face vanished. “Oh… it’s for Emma…” it sounded like a whisper.

He nodded, then looked around for the cashier. A short haired woman saw them and approached. “Welcome, how can I help you?”

Mia felt a strong punch on her stomach. The cashier and Matt were having a conversation, one Mia couldn’t hear well because she was too focused on controlling her emotions. She wanted to punch something. Or someone. Matt specifically.

“Thank you very much” Matt payed for the necklace and thanked the cashier. On the way home, Mia heard Matt’s stories in Ibiza. How he met Emma, their first date, everything. She just smiled, pretending to be happy, and muttered a few “oh wow” or “that’s nice”.

“Matt, sorry but I have to go home now. Bye” she couldn’t listen to any more stories about the lovebirds. She ran to her house and left Matt with a dumfounded look.

Once inside her room, she grabbed her pillow, buried her face in it, and screamed with fury.

- - - - - - -

Mia’s eyes were fixed on her bowl of cereals, her dad was telling some anecdote of him and his colleagues at work, but she wasn’t paying attention. She was thinking about the necklace and how stupid she was for believing Matt would actually care enough for her to buy her a gift. An expensive one. Maybe it was time to forget about him, focus on school and getting enough high marks to get into a good college. She wouldn’t let a boy ruin her plans.

After breakfast Mia decided to go for a walk, alone. It would be good to clear her mind and relax. She always took long walks when she was feeling sad, angry or overwhelmed.

As soon as she stepped outside, she saw Matt approaching. Fuck, no. She started to walk a little faster.

“Mia, wait!” she stopped in her tracks and turned around. “Are you okay?”

“Uh, yes, why?” she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, tapping one foot, hoping for this conversation to end soon.

“Are you sure? Yesterday after the mall, you left just like that” he sounded worried. “Are you angry at me?” there was sadness in his eyes. When they were children and had fights (stupid and childish fights over trivial things, by the way), he was the most hurt. He couldn’t bear the fact that his best friend was angry at him.

“No, everything’s good. I was just tired. And I had things to do” she smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her ears. Anyway, Matt’s face relaxed and the corners of his mouth slid upwards.

“Oh, that’s relieving. I thought you were mad at me. Where are you heading?”

“I was about to go for a walk. I need to clear my mind”

“Guys!” they turned to see Javed coming towards them. “Are you hanging out without me?”

“No, I was about to go for a walk when Matt interrupted me” Matt laughed at her joke, but she wasn’t actually joking.

Matt got a stupendous idea. “Let’s go to the park and get some ice-creams!” Mia mentally cursed but agreed to Matt’s plan.

The park was surprisingly empty, considering it was the last days of summer holidays. Mia ran to the purple swing she adored as a little girl. Javed laughed. “You’re not 8 anymore”

“I have an inner child, Javed Khan” she joked.

Matt sat on the bench. “J, did you come to the party? I think I saw you with Mia and Nell, but I really don’t remember…” his eyebrows furrowed and he looked up the sky, as if trying to recall the events of two nights ago.

“Maybe you don’t remember because you were drunk” Matt gasped at Mia’s comment.

“Hey, I wasn’t that drunk!”

“In fact, you were a little tipsy. I was there mate, Nellie as well. You hugged her and then Emma came too”

“Oh, now I remember! Have you met Lyla already? Emma’s cousin”

Javed nodded and smiled timidly “Sorry mate, but she’s not my type”

“What?!” Matt’s eyes widened, not believing his friend.

“She’s pretty, but… what did you say?” he turned to Mia.

“She’s a bimbo” she got off the swing and sat on the grass. “She saw Javed and she treated him like a servant”

Matt was surprised at the fact, and annoyed at Lyla’s behaviour towards his friend “Oh God, I’m so sorry J”

“It’s okay mate, it’s not your fault”

“And to think that I almost dated her…” revealed a very confused Matt, breaking the short silence.

“You what?”

“While in Ibiza with my mates, they set me up on a blind date with Lyla. Emma helped. But I met her before the date and we hit it off immediately” they started walking towards their neighbourhood.

“Wait, did I tell you how we met?” he didn’t allow their friends to respond because he already started telling the story. It was getting on Mia’s nerves.

The whole way home Matt talked about Emma. Just like the day before. Emma did this, Emma did that. Emma’s amazing, Emma’s funny. Emma, Emma, Emma. “Have I told you that she makes amazing shots? Her brother’s a bartender and he taught her how…”

“Yes, we get it, Emma’s fantastic” Mia’s tone of voice was cold and direct. She was tired of hearing Matt endless talks about her. Both boys turned to her, taken aback by her tone.

“Hey” Matt’s voice softened, “what’s going on?”

“You just keep talking about Emma, all the time. Emma this, Emma that, blah blah blah”

“But…” he was baffled. Javed was uncomfortable at the whole situation.

“I know you’re in love with her” saying those words made her feel like throwing up. “But, mate, seriously stop”

“What the hell!? She did nothing to you!”

“I know she didn’t, but hearing you talk about her 24/7 every time we’re together, it’s not fair, we should be hanging out like the old times, just the three of us, talking about all of our adventures” she took a deep breath. “But if you’re gonna act like a henpecked boyfriend… bye”

She turned around and went inside her house, leaving her friends with their mouths wide open, staring at the door.

- - - - - - -

tag list: @blueeyedheizer​

[my-arlington-academia]

A little fanfiction for Axel's birthday! (Yes I'm always late to everything 😔)

After I missed his birthday, for some reason inspiration hit me and I wrote this to apologize to myself for forgetting. I decided to make Scholar a boy in this one since I feel like there's not enough male Scholar content! (This is also the very first fanfic I have ever shared with other people so don't be surprised if some parts are really clumsy. Beware of possible typos and grammatical errors...) Enjoy!

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The day was slowly drawing nearer.

Scholar was checking out multiple social networking sites and Axel's Wikimedia page for a few hours now. The fangirls and fanboys were excited all over the Internet as if it was their own birthday. Comments such as "Axel and I share the same birthday!!" And "I've been following you since the very beginning, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Axel 💖 you really helped me when I was going through tough times." Or "HAPPY B-DAY AXEL❤❤ I LOVE YOU BBY"

Made Scholar wonder how it must feel like to receive happy birthday messages from millions of strangers. Well, he was guessing that it must be really pleasant: why wouldn't it be? Even if Axel doesn't know them it doesn't change the good intentions they have. Anyway! This wasn't the point of Scholar's "research."

He was browsing through a bajillion of interviews, fanblogs and comments to find what Axel liked. Which was, he thought to himself, maybe a little dumb. They may have known eachother only for about 3 months but at least he knew Axel on a personal level, not through a screen. Hell, when they met Scholar had no idea of who that handsome rocker boy was supposed to be. And now here he was trying to find an answer to something he should probably know the answer to better than Axel's fans. Not to throw shade at them or anything.

"Aaaaaghhhh!!" Subconsciously, Scholar let out a loud whine not realizing that his voice was louder than he intended it to be. "Shut up!! We can hear you from here!" It was Karolina in the room nextdoor. "I'm sorry!! ...ugh." Thankfully she didn't hear the "ugh" part not that it would change her opinion about him.

Scholar was just so lost: "what the hell can I gift to a rich handsome talented guy and not look like an idiot?!" Is what was going through his mind the whole day and it was already 11pm. Tomorrow was Axel's birthday and he still didn't find shit. He had never been good at finding gifts, the only person he gave them to was his dad and then again, it was only sometimes. The both of them weren't the type of people to worry about formalities such as Christmas or birthday presents. And when it came to "friends" it was about the same story.

Scholar put the phone down. It was stupid to worry over something like that. Being surrounded with rich, talented and sometimes famous people all day long Scholar swore to himself one thing. Don't be fake. Be sincere with those people. To be treated like anyone else is what they deserve.

And so Scholar searched for a gift idea again, but this time in his mind. He searched for an answer in his memories, through the small amount of time they had spent together. What does Axel like? It's not that hard. He already knew.

Scholar's mind was set: music, dogs and piercings. A hobby, an animal and accessories. Simple, but let's just go from the basics. "It's not like I can buy something expensive anyway..." His muttering was blocked out by his pillow, no matter what he would find, Scholar was just hoping that it would at least make Axel genuinely happy. Even just a little.

The next day went as expected: everyone was wishing Axel a happy birthday. He was getting occasional gifts from people he was close with and from people with whom he had never even talked to, or at least Scholar was pretty sure that he didn't. Even Tadashi went a bit soft on Axel.

"Not giving me detention for my late arrival today, Mister Student Body President?" Axel was over 15 minutes late which meant that he was deserving of a detention slip by usual à la Tadashi rules. "Go away before I change my mind you ugly ear-pierced clown." Axel was nodding and smirking all knowingly. "Uh-huh. Of course Sir, could I consider this lack of strictness towards me as my birthday present?"

Tadashi reached out for the detention form inside of his bag and took a pen in his hand ready to write Axel's name down and the reason why he got a detention slip. Axel backed away immediately. "Alright, alright! I'm sorry! Geez. Could you at least not threaten me with this shit on my birthday??" Tadashi put the pen back into his pencil case and smiled. "There you go. I knew you had some self-awareness behind your 3 kilograms of makeup and your millions of engagement rings you wear."

Axel frowned like a child. "I don't wear *that* many rings! Also, my makeup is super light!"

The rest of the day went on pretty smoothly, though Axel was probably wondering why Scholar didn't wish him a happy birthday. Whenever other people approached him to do so Axel would always peek at Scholar from the corner of his eye,  as if to say: "See?! It's my birthday today..."

Scholar felt secretly super giddy because of that. Axel was totally waiting for it. After the last school hour of the day he even came towards Scholar ""to say hi."" "Hey, Scholar!" "Hey there."

Silence.

"Um. So. Don't you have anything to tell me?" "Nu-huh." "You sure?" "Yup." Silence again. Axel looked down in such an adorable manner that Scholar felt almost like he was murdering a puppy. "Hm. Okay... See you tomorrow?" Scholar smiled as sweetly as he could to hint to the fact that they would see eachother again today. "Of course. Bye!"

After trying to sound as chill as he could, Scholar hurried himself into town. Blindly looking for a gift might be a bad idea but it's often this way that we find the best ones. Scholar was relying on his luck and intuition, he was storming through every single shop until he came accross something a bit silly that could do the job. It was in a small shop named "lying tiger" with a lot of useless gadgets. It was simple, cheap and adorable. Hopefully Scholar's intuition was right.

Upon seeing the gates of the school getting closer and closer as he was walking towards it, he decided to pull off the fastest sprint of his life. If Murdoc had seen him he'd be impressed.

After a couple of minutes Scholar was standing in front of Axel's room. "Okay.... No wait."

It was 7pm and the sun was already gone from a long time ago since it *is* November. Scholar was sweating as if he just ran a marathon, which... He kinda did. He muttered again. "Ugh. Good job, Scholar. Why did you have the bright idea to make yourself smell like a horse before-"

Voices from the hallway were heard, a couple of girls coming his way. Damn it. Alright. Scholar decided to at least make himself look good before coming back, he changed his clothes into something more casual but also charming. A bit of deodorant here and there, some perfume and done!

This time around he was ready, if it wasn't for his stress kicking in that is. He suddenly didn't feel as confident in his gift as a couple of minutes ago. Well, it was too late to change it anyway. Scholar took a deep breath and knocked. He waited there without moving nor breathing. As if until Axel would get out of his room, time had stopped.

Suddenly, the door flew open. The moment their eyes met Axel mockingly smiled. "Oh? You finally decided to come and wish me a happy birthday? Haha." Scholar had kept his hands behind his back but when Axel said that, he instinctively moved them to his front, revealing the package he was holding. Axel stopped smiling and his eyes widened in surprise. "Oh." Scholar was already happy with that reaction alone, even if he was unsure on whether or not Axel would like the gift. For a second, this felt like it was enough. "Yeah. I couldn't wish you a happy birthday without giving you a present, could I? Happy birthday, birthday boy!"

Axel carefully took the box into his hands, really gently, as if he could break it just by pressing his palms on it. "Thank you! But geez, you didn't have to. I was worried the whole day, you know? I thought that maybe you were mad at me for something."

He said that while pouting, it was so cute and worth the trouble. Scholar didn't regret his sprint and the whole day lost searching for the gift. "Haha! Of course not. Oh but don't shake the box, you might kill it. Also hurry up and open it, the lil guy needs light." Axel blinked a few times before following Scholar's advice, he tried to open the package as quickly as possible without damaging the wrapping. Needless to say that he wasn't being really successful.

"What do you mean?! Don't tell me it's a hamster or something! You know that we can't keep pets in the dorms, right? Tadashi is *so* gonna kill me if-" It wasn't an animal. Not a real one at least. "A... A toy?" It was a little puppy playing an electric guitar.

"Yup. It has buttons on his back, when you push them the doggo plays sick riffs for you. It has also light effects on the guitar." Axel looked at the toy with admiration. As if that dog made of plastic was a real puppy.

"Oh. My god. A puppy. Playing the guitar for me?!? This is the cutest and most precious gift I have gotten today!" "You like it?" "Are you kidding?! I love it! I'm gonna practice the guitar with him from now on! He's gonna be my little guitar buddy!"

Scholar felt so proud. So damn proud. It was a good call. It made him think about the fact that children often receive useful gifts from the adults rather than fun ones. There was always a craving for a new toy in a kid's heart rather than the need to get a new backpack or clothes. Scholar believed that every teenager in the world still had a child inside of them who would always secretly pass in front of a toy store while ogling at it but being too embarrassed to enter and take a look.

"I'm glad, to be honest I was a bit worried about it. I mean, you probably received a lot of pricey and more useful things today." By the time Scholar had said that, Axel already took the plastic puppy out of the box. "Excuse me? You think that there is something greater in the world than a doggo playing a guitar? Pathetic. And like I told you I'm gonna practice with this guy!"

"Uh. Don't you practice in the auditorium? What will you do when other people will see you hanging out with a toy?" Axel let out the loudest gasp of his life. "How *dare* you call my friend a toy?? Have you even heard him play?"

Axel pushed the button and some light effects emerged from the toy along with a guitar riff, so skillfully played that he felt almost ashamed when comparing himself to the dog. "Holy shit. This dog is better at playing the guitar than me..." Scholar laughed cheerfully, his laugh was followed by Axel's adorable giggle. "Well, I'm happy you like it. This way whenever you play the guitar, hopefully you'll think about me for a bit."

Axel tried to pull off the most flirty expression he could, the kind of stare that couldn't be mistaken for anything else. "Bold of you to assume that I don't think about you everyday, sweetheart." He would've been so persuasive... if it wasn't for the doggo made of plastic he was holding. Scholar couldn't keep it in any longer and laughed again. Needless to say that he was surprised when he noticed that Axel looked a bit hurt. "... Axel?" "That's so mean. I'm really trying so hard but it never gets through to you, you know?" Scholar's heart dropped into his stomach. "What?"

He heard that right, didn't he? What Axel said just now. As for Axel, in a matter of milliseconds he was already back to his usual smiling self, regretting what he had said. "Oh, haha! Whoops, that came out really wrong. Don't worry, I'm not upset for real. Um..." The hallway went silent and Scholar was really anxious. He felt as if he effed up big time. He was about to apologize and get it out in the open. The fact that he was actually really mortified at the thought of Axel disliking the gift. The fact that he had a crush on him for a little while now. The fact that he was a dumbass when it came to taking hints because he thought that Axel was like this with everyone. But before he could, Axel spoke again. "Don't make that face, you didn't do anything wrong. Look, let's hang out together soon. Just the two of us. Deal?"

Scholar wasn't so sure about the "you didn't do anything wrong" part, since he just noticed that Axel was in fact trying to flirt with him for a while now and he was constantly brushing it off while thinking that it was just his imagination wanting his feelings to be reciprocated. Scholar gulped, unable to say anything else other than: "Of course! Whenever you want, I'll be there."

Axel slowly closed the door... and immediately felt like the hugest moron of human history.

Because he knew. He knew that Scholar would never play dumb with something like that, he just genuinely did not think that he, Axel, could ever like him in that way. But now he knew. Axel just spelled it out for him loud and clear. Next time they see eachother there won't be any doubts in the way. Axel fondly looked at the puppy in his hands. "If only your previous owner knew how to take hints... Well, there's no going back now."

Axel pushed the button again and listened to the puppy's incredible guitar riffs for a while. Even hours and hours later, before falling asleep, he still couldn't get the image of Scholar's astonished face out of his mind when he finally realized what Axel felt towards him. Axel grinned. This kind of expression had no subtlety to it at all. Axel swore to himself.

The next time they see eachother he'll tell him clearly what he thinks, no hints, no silly pick-up lines. And then they'll kiss for sure.

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Here it is! Sorry, the last part was so cheesy 😂. I apologize 🙏🙏 Most of this was written at 3am when I couldn't sleep, because obviously everybody knows that the best moment to write something is when you're supposed to be asleep /s

This has so many plot holes, like for example how is it possible that Karolina didn't beat Scholar's ass the next day for yelling in the middle of the night?? Or how come Tadashi was nice towards Axel for once? That's so OOC, absolutely impossible.

Anyway, Wikimedia is obviously Wikipedia and the "lying tiger" shop is actually "flying tiger" (Not sure if this shop exists in the US.)

Well, thank you for reading!

[statusquoergo]

Part I

I actually like the next bit, but then, I’m a mean person.

Donna tries to go toe-to-toe with Faye, asserting that she and Harvey actually serve the firm’s best interests by being a couple, because they balance each other. Faye says that’s irrelevant, and Donna retorts that this is personal for Faye because she and Harvey remind her of herself and her ex-husband. This may or may not be the case, but either way, Faye shuts that shit right down: “This is a conflict of interest, and I will not be cajoled, threatened, or coerced into thinking it’s not.” My hero.

Up next is Harvey’s one-on-one with Donna’s father. They’re laughing along to some story about Donna being a competitive skier before she got into theater until Harvey gets back to business with the acknowledgment that James has some concerns about him that Harvey’s “taken some steps to alleviate.” James appreciates Harvey meeting him “man to man,” but things take a turn for the worse when Harvey explains that he pulled some strings to get the money James needs for the deal he’s in town to settle, and James accuses him of digging into his business and trying to buy his approval.

Hold the fucking phone.

James’s last and only other appearance in this series thus far was in “Live to Fight” (s05e12), in which it’s revealed that when Donna was a child, he lost all their family’s money on a real estate gamble, and after Donna started working for Harvey, he asked her to get Harvey to give him a loan for $250,000, which Harvey refused. Donna proposed to give her father access to her 401(k) until Harvey threatened to tie up his legal proceedings for the next 20 years, after which point James declared his intentions to commit bank fraud by illegally inflating his assets and disappeared into the night. And now he’s getting on Harvey’s case for trying to help him with a business deal that’s apparently going very badly? Sounds to me like Harvey is very much looking out for Donna’s best interests by trying to keep this asshole in the black so he won’t be tempted to commit another federal crime! “Treat my daughter better than you treat me,” get out of here with that shit, you shyster.

Also Katrina refuses to modify the code of conduct for Louis because it’s precisely that sort of thing that got them “saddled with Faye in the first place,” so, good call there.

More fill-in-the-blanks for Alex and the Masterson case; eight years ago, Bratton heavily implied that he would have Alex’s family hurt or killed if he exposed the conspiracy, which I guess is a decent enough reason to not do that, but now in the present day, Rosalie wants her revenge. She goes to Samantha for help and Samantha agrees to help her “find something on this guy”; I’m not sure if they’re talking about Bratton or Craig, but it doesn’t really matter.

Donna found out about Harvey’s meeting with her father and is none too pleased about it, accusing him of “making it clear to him that [Harvey thinks] he’s a bad businessman,” which, yes, hi, bank fraud. She then projects the fuck out of her anger at Faye by expressing her fear that Harvey thinks he’s better than her, which of course Harvey vehemently denies, and Donna finally tells him about Faye’s sine qua non for them to both keep their jobs. (Funny that she says “one of [them] has to give up their vote, and that one of [them] is [her],” when Faye was pretty clear that it could be either of them making the sacrifice.) She then lets slip an interesting detail: She didn’t tell him about it right away because she didn’t want to hear him say that his vote is more important than hers. I’ve already established that I think that’s true, but I wonder if this is a case of Donna agreeing with me—she knows it but doesn’t want to hear it out loud—or she thinks it’s not true but she doesn’t trust Harvey. But yeah, no, the firm is stronger because they’re a couple, for sure.

Then Louis comes in to argue, again, that they need to get rid of Faye, this time because “she’s turned Katrina against [him],” and Harvey argues right back that they have to use their limited amount of leverage wisely (what leverage) and the “bigger fish” at the moment is getting Donna her vote back. Louis yells that it’s unfair the battle they’re choosing is Harvey’s, especially since it’s Harvey’s fault Faye is there in the first place since this goes all the way back to Harvey hiring Mike; there’s a lot of shouting, and Donna tries to play the voice of reason by insisting that it’s not worth it to be at each other’s throats over Faye because she won’t be there forever. Louis goes to the bullpen to pout (or, uh, reminisce) and Harvey goes to forgive him for blaming him, acknowledging that he was disrespecting Louis, which he knows because Donna accused him of doing the same to her father, and I’m only this saying this one more time, James Paulsen lost his family’s finances on a bad business deal and committed bank fraud to save himself after Harvey stopped him from pilfering his daughter’s 401(k).

ANYWAY.

Final flashback (finally)! Eight years ago, Alex repeatedly tried to give Craig a consolation gift after Bratton gave Alex the Masterson account (for blackmail reasons) but since Alex wouldn’t tell him why he wouldn’t share Masterson, Craig started holding a grudge, so that’s what that’s about. In the present, Alex asks Samantha what Rosalie’s plan is and further asks her to let him fix everything instead, so that’s sweet, I guess, that they’re trying to protect each other, but you know what might work better is if they talked to each other and worked together. Then Harvey shows up with some incredibly clumsy dialogue to fill them in on recent events (“Harvey, what’s going on?” “A lot of things, some of which you know, some of which you don’t. But I’m gonna tell you what they are, and then tomorrow morning we’re gonna put a stop to them.”) and…that’s that? Oh, Louis apologizes to Katrina but asks her to put something else in the code of conduct and “ram it down [Faye’s] throat” rather than try to slip it past her, so that's…colorful.

Alright, I know this next scene is supposed to be very badass, what with the rock music and the power walking and the slow motion effect, but my god it looks so stupid. I mean come on, they’re in slow motion. There’s rock music. Seriously, all that’s missing is a massive explosion in the background. Harvey, Louis, Alex, and Samantha storm Faye’s office and declare that they’re a united front, they trust each other, they’re not hanging Donna out to dry, blah blah whatever. It seems that the addition Louis asked Katrina to make to the code of conduct is a blanket waiver of conflict? Boy, that is…optimistic, but they are boxing themselves into a tiny, tiny corner there. Then they all threaten to resign if she doesn’t start treating them with respect, and points for aiming high, but she’s threatened to fire them and close the firm before; the first thing she said to Louis, right after she arrived, was that if he didn’t hand over control of the firm, she’d have them all suspended from the bar for six months, and in “Special Master” (s09e02), they asked what would happen if they didn’t follow her rules and she said, quote, “You mean if you continue to cross lines? Then you’ll be fired.” Why do they think this is going to be an effective tactic? If I was in her position, I think I’d just be like, “Yeah, okay, good luck in the jobs market with this dumpster fire on your résumé.”

The first example of really open communication so far this episode does unfortunately come with a little bit of a damper on it, and not just the fact that there are only about eight minutes left: Faye asks Gretchen if she told Donna about her divorce, because it was “very painful to have that thrown in [her] face” (she does have a heart!), but as a result of that bullshit the Power Rangers just pulled with their conflict waiver, she’s decided to return Donna’s vote because “maybe [they] all have things [they] can learn from each other.” Oh, Faye. You were doing so well.

Deus ex machina alert: Samantha has…something on Craig that persuades him to finish the Panasonic deal sans blackmail to avoid “mutually assured destruction” (based on what), so that’s convenient. Then Harvey meets with James again, at Harvey’s place this time, to apologize for disrespecting him, James says Harvey and Donna sound like him and Donna’s mother, Harvey says James has an amazing marriage, and this is so much cheap talk without any supporting demonstration that I can’t take any of it seriously at all.

Back in “Stalking Horse” (s08e15), Donna asks her mother if she regrets giving James the money for that business deal that didn’t work out; her mother says no, because how could she have known it would fail, and Donna says, with no clarification, that he’d let her down before (quite a shift from her early assertion in “Live to Fight” that “[her] father has never done anything wrong in his life”). Her mother says he never let her down in ways that matter, but between her claim that James is the “kindest, gentlest, most loving man [she’s] ever met” and his literal attempt to save himself from financial ruin by taking custody of his daughter’s retirement account, I’m starting to wonder if self-delusion isn’t something of a habit in the Paulsen household. And what about that much older daughter who emotionally manipulates all of her romantic partners?

In any event, James admits that he might’ve overreacted (you think?) and also that he’s still having trouble with his business deal and if Harvey could help him out that would be great, and seriously, I have less than no respect for this man.

Rosalie approaches Samantha to thank her for taking care of things with Craig, Samantha thanks her for welcoming her into their home, Alex invites her over to play “a late-night game of Settlers of Catan,” they call her family, it’s all very cute, and then.

And then.

Donna is leaving Rachel a message (more Mike Ross priming, I guess) when Harvey comes in and delightedly brags that her dad loves him, but holy shit character development, he goes on to say that while he knows he needs to share when he disagrees with her, “if [they’re] gonna make this work, [she needs] to come to [him] when something is wrong in [her] life.” Brace yourself, every fic writer who’s ever spent hours agonizing over how to do a proposal scene just right, because I am here to tell you that your efforts are not only good enough, they’re probably too good for mainstream television, because here’s your competition:

“Wait a second. What do you mean ‘if’ this is gonna work?” “Donna, you know we’re gonna be together forever, right?” “Well, not if that’s how you’re gonna ask me.” “Doesn’t matter how I ask you.” “Why not?” “Because we both know however I ask it won’t be exactly the way you would have instructed me to ask, so might as well ask you any way I want.” “Well— That— I—” “Go ahead.” “Okay—” “Keep stumbling. That’s only the second time I’ve ever seen you at a loss for words.” “So, we’re engaged, then?” “Well, I— No, it’s—” “Look who’s stumbling now.”

What. The fuck.

What…the fuck.

Harvey actually says “Sweet baby Jesus” when he sees his mom is calling (that’s a real thing he says, with words from his mouth), she asks how things went with Donna’s dad, he says it went great, he “introduces” her to Donna (over the phone, no video chat), and Donna grabs the phone to tell her “what [her] son just tried to pull off.” Lily is “all ears,” and…fade to black.

So like.

Uh.

The, um. The next episode is the Mike episode.

[astrologista]

Important facts about Varian: he doesn't see himself as a child.

"But I-I'm not a... child..."

At 14 some would argue, especially in Varian's time, that he's right. He's not a child. By modern standards, he’s coming of age. Not a kid, but definitely not a full adult.

But Varian tends to act in immature and impulsive ways and, as we've seen (almost got himself killed how many times now?), still needs his father's protection very much so. (Even now. Uh oh. I just made myself sad.) He may be much more intelligent, creative and insightful than the average 14-year-old, but an important distinction to make is that smarts does NOT equal maturity. (Seriously, even in real life, for me as a "gifted kid", that particular false correlation gave me such a weird complex, I can't even tell you.) Just because a 14-year-old skips three grades and is now a senior in high school, or goes to college, does NOT magically make that person a mature adult capable of consistent and rational decision-making. (’tis developmental biology, friends.) Sure, parents should always let their kids "try on" independence and let them make some of their own little decisions, but all the time knowing that, being young, the child will end up making some mistakes and learning from them. And the parent will be there to pick up the pieces. But eventually, they’ll learn how the world works.

This is a problem for Varian because, at least when it comes to authority, he doesn't learn. He hears, but he doesn't listen. He thinks he always knows better, and that based on sheer accumulation of knowledge, he should be able to conquer any challenge. We've never seen Varian with a friend his age. You could conclude that he may not have any, based on the rumors that have always said he's dangerous. So what's a kid to do instead? He reads. He accumulates enough knowledge in his solitude so that one day he can prove how great he really is to his dad and to the world. (But no pressure, right?)

But the weird thing is how Quirin thinks of Varian. I guess all parents think of their children as children forever and into perpetuity. (Heck, look at King Fred.) "Children have no place in court." As if to say, "You're a child, and you really should know that by now." Old Corona, being a more rural region than Corona proper, is likely a place where social roles are more heavily enforced. No one is to go "outside the mold", so to speak. A kid like Varian sticks out like a sore thumb. He's effusive, he emotes a lot, he can be shy, but once you get him talking about a subject he's passionate about, you just can't shut him up. That's part of the reason why Quirin seems so exasperated. Varian just won't act the way Quirin thinks a child should act, but despite everything, I think he loves Varian too much to crush his spirit. If he were crueler, he'd use all his power to keep Varian from doing alchemy. But I think Quirin knows Varian's going to do alchemy anyway no matter what happens. That, and he just really wants for Varian’s happiness (and god willing, his safety).

The most interesting piece of this is that despite everything, Varian really does know his place... but only when he's threatened. When Quirin growls "That is enough, Varian." and glares at him in a threatening way, Varian immediately looks like someone slapped him, because that's the last look he wants to see on his dad's face AND he actually looks like he might be genuinely scared of his father right then. (Corporal punishment was a big thing in these times.) Even though Varian was correct and justified in demanding a reason for all the lies, the way in which he petitions his father isn't the most tactful approach he could have taken. Only when Quirin treats him like a child, does Varian remember that, hey, he is kind of a child. And he remembers who he's talking to, his father in a direct position of authority over him, and musters up the conditioned response of "Yes, sir." (Later, Varian has mustered up enough courage to not only interrupt his dad when he's really at the end of his rope with him, but also to physically push him aside, again using a disrespectful tone. It makes clear that Varian seem to think of himself as Quirin's equal. At least when it comes to black rocks.) I don't think Quirin wanted to treat Varian in that manner. It seemed to be something he only did as a last resort. And it's kind of sad, in a way. Once kids reach the age of reason, they should be able to be reasoned with concerning their behavior, moving away from the toddler method of punishment vs. reward, or using fear of punishment to control behavior. I mean, you would probably whip out "That is enough, Varian." maybe if he were 3 and pitching a fit down at the alchemy supply store because you won't buy him the deluxe Bunsen burner or something. But Quirin seems to have other things to worry about other than his son's pride or what he has to say, so he uses it anyway. And Varian seems really hurt and sad after Quirin just walks away. He actually pushes Rapunzel's hand away. It's like that moment of weakness is what he's really trying to avoid, to keep private. That he's not really what he says he is, and even though it might be painfully obvious at times, still no one can know.

It's not even a coincedence that Varian talks to Rapunzel, the King, and the Queen in the way that he does in SotSD. Varian just shows zero respect for authority in that episode. Any good kid should, and in his earlier episodes, he SEEMED to have the utmost respect for the crown and all it symbolized, bowing and calling Rapunzel "your Highness", and insisting that every word from Rapunzel was important. So why the 180? Or was it just Varian's true nature coming out? In SotSD, Varian was just very sharp, cruel actually, with his language. Any other kid in Corona would never dare speak to an adult, much less the KING, QUEEN AND CROWN PRINCESS of the entire fudging kingdom in the manner that Varian did. Literally, the three most important people in the whole kingdom. And he didn't just get sassy or fresh or make fun of the way they dress or anything. He went right for the jugular. "For the first time in your life, YOU are in no position to demand ANYTHING." and "Oh, so NOW you care about what I WANT? And all it took was threatening the things you love the most..." and casually talking about "shattering" Rapunzel in front of her parents and, who could forget, "She's right, DAD." Not to mention how he treated Queen Arianna when he kidnapped her. 

Worse and worse yet, probably one of the most shocking faux-pas that I think Varian committed was yelling "Quiet!" at Arianna during Ready as I'll Ever Be. This gets back to my earlier point. Varian does not see himself as a child (unless Quirin is "reminding" him of it). He now sees himself as not just the Queen's equal, but actually "higher" in status than even her because he has the power now. He's holding the cards. He has the queen in checkmate. (What do you want to do in a chess game? That's right. Capture the Queen.) But like, let's forget that she's the freaking QUEEN OF THE ENTIRE KINGDOM for a moment. Let's put that little nugget of info aside. This is an adult woman in maybe her early 40s and a 14-year-old boy we're talking about. In my house, if I ever told my mom "Quiet!" in the manner than Varian did, I would not be able to finish my singing number because my ass would be grass before I could continue. Telling someone "Quiet!" in that way would actually assume that THEY are in the lesser, child role. Disrespectful doesn't even begin to cover it, man. When you consider the social context, yeah, it’s really pretty bad. Varian just has a very distorted view of his "place" in Corona. Maybe he even feels that there’s no place for him. While there's nothing wrong with challenging and bending the rules of who society says you should be, and no one says you have to conform to every cultural norm of your identity, Varian seems to have this very warped view of his identity re: Corona, especially where he's leveraging social power that he simply doesn't have. He's not old enough or mature enough to wield the type of judgement skills or tact that would allow him to be perceived the way he wants to be perceived, and he’s demonstrated that. Perhaps in Varian's mind, he sees himself as an older, more proficient alchemist and he hopes that if he performs that role, everyone will indeed see him that way. But when the facade fails, he sulks and starts acting more childish and restrained again. It's actually hard to tell which personality is the real Varian. But I think the writers may have been trying to get at an important truth about growing up - when you're 14, you've got your childish self and your adult self warring for domination over your soul. Varian's good, pure but childish self is still intact in there. He can’t stay that person forever, he has to grow and change. But instead of growing into an honorable and stable adult, his adult self is being twisted into this dark persona, partly because of events outside of his control. His immediate response to this is to project as much of the blame outward, externally, as much as he can, and this is more of a coping mechanism than anything. Basically, he's trying to subconsciously protect his developing mind against the overwhelming guilt and shame from what happened to Quirin. That's too much emotional pain and baggage for someone that young to deal with alone. I'm pretty sure seeing Quirin frozen in the amber literally scarred him for life, not just because of the state that Quirin’s in, but because Varian knows deep inside that he played a huge role in putting him there. But that doesn't mean Varian can't redeem himself. It just means we're going to see probably more erratic and unpredictable behavior before he can organically reach that point, and forgive himself.

Speaking disrespectfully to the Royals is just part of that process, but it struck me as just being really a self-empowerment exercise. Some people listen to self-help videos. Varian does this. And if he can exert his power over them, he can exert power over anyone. And not only to speak like that to them, but to literally put his hands on the Queen as he's talking to the King. There's something just really creepy about that. The point is, no matter who you are, you just... don't say these things? It's a matter of respect. It's the society and times and the context that they live in under a monarchy. Obviously, the laws that govern speech are much more loose and lax in our democracy and real life. But think about the context here. Some off-color language could easily get somebody hanged in these times. And if Quirin could see what Varian's been doing, he would actually be shocked. Horrified. How could his son say or do these things? (lol now I'm imagining what if the amber had stopped around Quirin's neck so he was still stuck but he could talk and be aware of the proceedings around him. He'd be like, "VARIAN! Please, your Majesty. My deepest apologies. He hasn't had his nap yet.")

tl;dr Varian's never going to grow up unless he starts dealing with the reality of who he is and how he can grow to be a better person, and start taking responsibility for things he's done, while acknowledging that some things are just out of his control. And to do that he needs like, a lot of love and respect and hugs :^3 I mean, a lot a lot.

[yujachachacha]

And since you that busy I will steal your waifu's from you

3 points: (1) Your grammar got on my nerves more than the actual statement itself. (2) The term “waifu” is creepy, and I personally don’t use it except as a joke. (3) You can’t “steal” away favorite characters.

As for the “busy” portion, feel free to refer to my previous asks on what I think about your accusations of my blog activity. If you really wanted to motivate me to work harder, you could’ve asked nicely instead of giving me all this material to sass you with, y’know.

I actually ended up writing an entire grammar lesson devoted to #1 plus some ramblings about my issues with the term “waifu” in general, but I assume you’re the same anon who sent the previous ask, i.e. I know you hate my long-winded answers. You can find the non-tl;dr version under the cut, if anyone’s interested in learning about a tricky English grammar rule.

…but since I find it important, let me put the essential part of the lecture up here for people to see: STOP CASUALLY USING APOSTROPHES TO DENOTE PLURALS. IT’S WRONG. waifu’s → waifus. 

All right, have your “Keep reading” thing now.

1. It’s “waifus”, not “waifu’s”.

I get that, for some godforsaken reason, people have it in their minds that adding an apostrophe + s to certain words creates the plural for those words. But it’s wrong. Let me say that again for emphasis. IT’S WRONG. You only use this form in very special cases for plurals - mainly, to avoid confusion. Here are some examples:

How many i’s are in Mississippi? I’m still triggered when I see 0’s because of that one LLS episode. There were countless “harasho’s” transmitted in the lobby of the EliRin Score Match. → Used when counting letters/numbers/words, though usually people (including me because I’m lazy) omit it. This is because “How many is are in Mississippi” looks hella confusing, while in most cases people will generally understand what you’re saying (i.e. you’re referring to the phrase “harasho” rather than some unknown word “harashos”).

I have B.A.’s in Politics and Economics. → Used for abbreviations with more than one period. Does not apply to abbreviations without periods, such as TVs. This rule is pretty much ignored too, since like I said before it’s not essential for clearing up any confusion.

You should use apostrophes for possessive cases and contractions, e.g. “I can’t handle this anon’s misuse of the apostrophe.” You could’ve said “I will steal your waifu’s love from you” and that would’ve been perfectly acceptable. TBH I’m actually more upset by your grammar mistake than the statement itself which probably says a lot about me as a person lol.

I know perfect grammar isn’t called for on the internet. Hell, I use “imma” and “gonna” all the time. But even slang follows certain structures - I’ve read papers on the subject and even went through a college lecture on this. The “you that busy” (as opposed to “you’re that busy”) works fine for slang, but the “waifu’s” thing? Nope. A lot of style guides argue over how to use apostrophes in different situations, but nowhere will you find one that allows you to use “waifu’s” as a plural.

So for the love of god, to everyone reading: STOP CASUALLY USING APOSTROPHES TO DENOTE PLURALS. Please. I die a little every time I see it, which is why I’m going through the trouble of pointing this out.

Addendum: If English isn’t your first language, I applaud your progress in the language so far, and hope that you consider this an informative lesson on the subject. If it is, please note that you’ve been upstaged by some punk who spoke Korean better than English until about age 7.

2. I don’t refer to Love Live! characters as “waifus”, so your statement is invalid.

I haven’t used the term for favorite characters since my high school days except to parody something (e.g. “rinnya aishiteru be mai waifu 4ever!!!111”). I don’t use the term “waifu” in the LL fandom - in fact, I don’t even use it at all outside of a joking context.

You might have noticed that I often refer to the LL girls in the following ways:

omg don’t hurt this precious baby

bless this child

look at my beautiful daughter

someone stop this kid

I’m Suwawa’s age, so do the math: I’m old. Though actually, referring to high school girls as wives is pretty creepy, regardless of age. Anyways, I’ve reached the point where I relate more to the parents going “omg this child is being reckless and doing stupid shit” instead of going “omg this superhero is being badass”. Seriously. I watched Spiderman: Homecoming recently and couldn’t stop pulling my hair out over Peter Parker’s stupidity. Instead of being impressed by the fight scenes, I was more worried about all the cars being destroyed in the movie (What if someone’s livelihood depends on their ability to drive to work?! Oh my god Parker, you just destroyed a car you borrowed from someone, that was an Audi do you know how much those things cost) and the poor saps who had to rebuild all the structures in New York and Maryland (You get a free suit from Iron Man, and you repay him by causing needless destruction to people’s homes and businesses?! Parker you little shit you go to a school for gifted kids so fucking stay in it!!!).

Whoops, got sidetracked. What I’m trying to say is, the LL characters are teenage girls. I’m not interested in them romantically. If anything, I see them as kids who need protection from all their haters and precious darlings who need to be shown the best of the world.

Do you want to know who I’ve used the term “waifu” for? Just two people.

The first is a living, breathing, actual person in real life who was one of my best friends in high school. I’m pretty sure you’re not referring to her. If you are, that’s hella creepy for a whole bunch of reasons, including “dude i don’t call her that now and she’s probably taken” and “that’s a detail from my private life, how the fuck did you even know about that???”. I nicknamed her “Waifu” for shits and giggles. Well, there was actually a reason behind it, but, uh…it’s a long story.

Anyways, there is exactly one anime character I’ve labeled “waifu”, and that dubious honor goes to Nagato Yuki of the Haruhi series. She was my first legitimate favorite character, since IMO characters like Pikachu and Sasuke don’t count (I just thought he was cool back when I was like 11, plus that was before he pulled all that weird shit with Orochimaru…oh god I feel old again). But yeah, instead of just going “I like her because she’s pretty/kickass” I was just like “omg she does so much to protect her friends and suffers so much, why can’t she be happy???”…which is, admittedly, a trend with my favorite characters…why am I like this…

Anyways, I’m pretty sure you weren’t referring to her, either.

3. You can’t “steal” away favorite characters, so your statement is still invalid.

Let’s assume that you were thinking of Rin and You (and maybe Shukashuu?) when you were sending in that ask. Here’s the issue - “your” waifus. Uh, news flash: you can’t steal away a favorite character. Like, my favorite color is red, and you’re allowed to have that be your favorite color too.

That’s partially why I detest the term “waifu” - it implies exclusivity and possession. They’re not “things” you can take. Also, I kinda hate people who bicker over who’s the #1 fan of a certain person or character. Bruh, if you’re a true fan you’d just cheer them on from the sidelines and want the best for them, rather than poisoning the fandom with your attacks.

And on the subject of that “(and maybe Shukashuu?)” above…referring to seiyuu as “waifus” is super-duper mega creepy. They’re real people, and they’re all pretty young, too. Please treat them with respect.

tl;dr: I don’t have “waifus”, and even if I did you can’t “steal” them away. Also, please fix your grammar.

[bronzeflower]

Field Trips And Slice Of Life

Also on ao3

Dadsona x Hugo Vega

-----

“Jessie, you’ve got to get up. You promised me that you would help me chaperone the field trip today.” Hugo insists.

You groan.

“Ughhhhhhhh. I don’t want to get uuuuuuup.” However, despite your protests, you eventually crawl out of bed and get dressed.

“Could you wake up Ernest?” Hugo asks. “I’m going to go get started on breakfast.”

“Of course, babe.” You rub the sleep out of your eyes and set to work waking up Ernest.

You start by knocking on the door. You hear groaning.

“I know you don’t want to get up. Believe me, I did not want to get my butt out of bed either, but school is important, and it will teach you skills that you need in the future.”

“No, it won’t!” Came the shout back.

“Yeah, well, you’re going on a field trip today, anyway, so you’ll learn things that are a little more useful than the things you learn in regular school. And, if not, at least you’ll probably have some fun!”

“No, I won’t! All they do at school field trips is give you a dumb packet to work on!”

“...Okay, so that may be the case, but that doesn’t negate the fact that you have to get up. Besides, if you get up, you get bacon. Bacon is delicious.”

“Are you really using bacon as a way to get me out of my room?” Ernest says, but he opens his door to glare at you.

“It worked, didn’t it?”

Ernest says nothing, but he does grumble as he walks past you. Your mission here is accomplished. It’s food time.

Food is enjoyed by everyone in relative silence, with the only talking being Hugo asking if Ernest remembered everything that he needed to bring.

As soon as that was settled with an of course along with a groan from Ernest, we were out the door and at the school.

Oh boy. Middle schoolers. Gotta love them. You hope that no one will steal, like, an artifact or something.

“I hope no one tries to steal a penguin this time.” You say to Hugo, who laughs.

“I don’t think there are any penguins at the museum we’re going to.”

“I hope no one tries to steal a bone.” You rephrase.

“I never know with this group of kids. I’m pretty sure they have a secret bar that none of the teachers know how to go to, and their preferred currency is the little rubber bands shaped like animals.”

“What if the currency is those little stickers that teachers hand out to kids who’ve been good. Do teachers still do that? I’m actually not sure.”

“Teachers still do that, but only for younger kids. Some of the teachers do something similar for the older kids though.”

You and Hugo eventually managed to get the kids inside the museum and give them each a packet to work on. And, if you happened to have some extra pencils on you to give to students that forgot their pencil, no one could prove anything. Especially not Hugo.

“I’m worried you’ve been spending too much time with Robert.” Hugo said as he noticed you sneaking a pencil to a kid who didn’t have one. Hugo, obviously, refused to give any pencils to those that needed them, but you think that was just a teacher trying to make his students more responsible and carry a pencil or two at all times.

“What makes you say that?” You ask in the most innocent tone you can muster, which was most definitely riddled with mischief because you couldn’t lie to save your life.

“...You came up with an elaborate story about how we were attacked by the Elephant Spectral at three am on a Wednesday to explain to Ernest why I had hickeys.” Hugo deadpanned. “He didn’t even ask why I had hickeys in the first place.”

“...Point taken. But, to be fair, I’ve also been hanging out with Mary a lot too.”

“Mary and Robert are friends, Jessie.”

“Okay, so I’ve been hanging out with two people who spin wild stories in order to scare people, and I happen to have picked up the skill. At least I don’t have trouble admitting that my stories are fake. I can only tell which stories of Robert’s are fake because of how much time I’ve spent with him.”

“The fact that- wait, hold on a moment. Elizabeth! You’re not allowed to touch that!” Hugo went back to you after he quickly dealt with Elizabeth trying to touch everything. He sighed. “It’s not like there aren’t signs that say you can’t touch this everywhere.”

“Could you tell me about some of the things in here?”

Hugo grinned and pointed to one of the dinosaur skeletons.

“That one belongs to a dinosaur called the Megalosaurus. It lived during the Jurassic Period and was one of the first dinosaurs ever discovered. And, over here is the Troodon, who has the largest brain to body ratio of any dinosaur.”

Hugo continued rambling on about dinosaurs and fossils. It always amazed you how much Hugo loved to learn and how much he loved to teach, regardless of how much he claimed that the students he taught were obnoxious. He was always that little bit more in a good mood when he successfully helped a student or a student ends up loving a book they read in class.

As much as he tells you about how annoying his students are, he also talks about how amazing his students are. How Damarious has actually been doing better in class since he’s joined the robotics club. How Catherine was excited to show Hugo the solution to a puzzle that she spent a long time trying to solve. How Sal was typically quiet but was the loudest one in group discussions.

It was all extremely sweet. He’s so proud of all his students. Even the ones who start gambling rings. Come on. You have to be a least a little bit impressed that a kid managed to set up a gambling ring that was kept a secret from the teachers for a good bit of time.

And now you’re trying to convince Lucas to not steal a fossil that was in an open area.

“Look, I get it. Those fossils are super cool, but these fossils are just for looking at, and you’re not allowed to take them. But, if you really want to own a fossil of your own, they sell them in the gift shop. So, if you could please put that particular fossil back where you found it, I can show you to the gift shop so that you can get a fossil of your very own.”

You were so very thankful that Lucas opted to put the fossil back and go to the gift shop, and you also glad that you didn’t need to bribe a child again. You weren’t proud of that moment in your life.

You helped Lucas find a fossil that he would like, and, after he paid for it, you guided him back to the group. Hugo caught sight of you bringing Lucas back to the group.

“Did you bribe a child again?” He asked, which, to be fair, was a perfectly reasonable question to ask based on the situations that the two have you have been through together.

“I didn’t actually have to bribe a child again. I am very thankful for that. I trust that you haven’t had a repeat of your Penguin Facts™ Lecture.”

“Goodness, no. That was awful, and I have no idea how I successfully created a distraction with that. I realized I knew almost nothing about penguins.”

“It’s a good thing the school didn’t get banned from the aquarium.”

“Thank god we can still have a field trip accompanying the learning of The Old Man and the Sea.”

“Speaking of literature you teach the kids, has anyone tried to Cask of Amontillado anyone again?”

“That was a one-time occurrence, and I hope every day that it doesn’t happen again. I also hope every day that Ernest actually reads the stories his teachers assign him so that something like that doesn’t happen again.”

“Robert thinks that Ernest has horrible taste in movies.” You say without thinking. Oh god, you know Hugo is going to ask about that. You can’t lie at all. You just have to rephrase it so the entire truth isn’t revealed because you refuse to admit that you snuck into a movie theater with Robert to watch a bad movie.

“What makes him say that?” Hugo asked, and you knew he was going to ask that. Okay. This is fine. All you have to do is omit certain things.

“Once we went to see a movie, and it was a pretty bad love story, so Robert yelled that love is dead at the end of it, and Ernest happened to be watching the movie, so he yelled back that the love in the movie was beautiful. They proceeded to have an argument about good cinema.” Nailed it.

“I wasn’t aware that Robert enjoyed movies.”

“He made me stay for the credits, and he individually thanked every single person who appeared in the credits for working hard to make the movie.”

“...Wow.”

“Yeah.”

The field trip was over soon, and you were glad to be back home. You plopped down on the couch as soon as you arrived.

“This is where I live now.” You declare.

“I don’t think that would be very good for your back.”

“Let the man sleep.” Ernest says, surprising you. “It’s not like his back can get any worse.”

“Wow, rude. I’ll have you know that my back is in tip top shape, and I could probably run a marathon with this back of mine.”

“Uh huh. That’s why you keep complaining about how much your back hurts all the time.”

“I’m old. I have a right to complain.”

“You can’t just say you have a right to complain when your back is clearly in ‘tip top’ shape. You’re contradicting yourself, you dope. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to listen to music in my room. Don’t bother me.” Ernest then proceeded to go to his bedroom.

“I’m so proud.” Hugo suddenly said. “He pointed out a contradiction.”

“He’s come a long way from staying still for twenty minutes while Lucien built a brick wall around him.”

“Ah, yes. That. Well, I have packets to grade. Love you.”

“Love you, too, babe.”

Hugo went off to grade the packets, and you decided to contact Amanda to see how things were doing at college.

“Hey, Amanda!” You greet. “How have you been doing? How's college treating you?”

“Hey, Dad.” Amanda responds, and you feel so happy to hear from her again, even if the last time you talked to her was literally yesterday. “I’ve been doing great, and college has been treating me with as much mercy as you would expect.”

“How much progress have you made on that collage you have to do?”

“I have about half of it done.” Amanda holds up a collage covered in various fashion accessories and clothing.

“I can’t wait to see it when it’s done! It’s progressing really nice so far!”

“Thanks. Of course, I also have to write a really long report about it, which is, to say the least, ughhhhhhh.” Amanda groans before changing the subject. “Anyway, we always talk about me during our chats, but have you been doing anything other than staying at home and watching tv, Dad?”

“Actually, I have. I chaperoned a field trip today.”

“Did someone try to steal a penguin again?”

“No, but someone did try to steal a fossil. Nothing living was stolen. At least none that I was aware of.”

“How big was the fossil? Did someone try to steal an entire dinosaur skeleton? That would be kick ass.”

“No, it was just a small shell fossil. I was able to convince them to put it back where they found it though.” You puff up with pride. You were very proud of yourself for that.

“Good job.” Amanda says, and then you hear someone calling Amanda in the background. “Sorry, Dad. Got to go. Some fun activity is calling my name.”

“Alright.” You were pretty disappointed that your conversation was cut short, but you can recognize that Amanda has a life, and she deserves to live that life. “Love you, Manda Panda.”

“Love you, too, Dad.”

After that conversation, you worked on your writing for a little while before checking on Hugo.

You hug him from behind and rest your chin on his shoulder.

“How’s your work going, babe?” You ask.

“I think Rebecca tried her best to get everything wrong. She might be trying to make a point about how grades don’t matter in the long run.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because she’s an extremely smart kid, and she definitely has the capability to have fantastic grades, but she doesn’t because she feels like she has something to prove.”

“Maybe you could convince her to join the politics club or something. It might be a good way to put that kind of drive into use.”

“I don’t know if our school has a politics club.” Hugo admits. “But, to be fair, I’m not often aware of the clubs in the schools unless the students talk about it or I’m involved in it.”

“Yeah? Well, how’s the wrestling club going?”

“It’s going great! More people are in the wrestling club than ever! Which, of course, means more students to deal with, but it also means that it’s becoming more popular.”

“That’s fantastic!” You say.

“How was your chat with Amanda?” Hugo asks.

“It was good, but it was kind of cut short. She has finished half of one of her projects. I’m so proud of her.”

“That’s good. Maybe she’s actually turning in her work.”

“I hope she is.” You say, and then you realize that you are getting hungry. “I’m going to make dinner because food is an important part of everyday life.”

“Do you need any help?”

“Maybe a little.”

You and Hugo go to the kitchen and end up making mac and cheese. Always a good fallback when you have absolutely no idea what to make.

Eventually, the two of you manage to make something without burning the house down. That was likely due to Hugo’s influence.

“Ernest! Dinner’s ready!” Hugo shouts, and Ernest soon exits from his room.

The three of you enjoy a very nice meal with Hugo both talking about the wrestling club and asking how Ernest’s day at school was. Ernest was as grumpy as ever, but at least he was a little bit more responsive to questions. You have a feeling that he’s going to put a cherry bomb in someone’s trash can to make up for it.

You find out that Ernest liked the T. Rex exhibit in the museum. You aren’t surprised that he liked it, but you are surprised that he willingly offered the information. He typically just avoids giving any specific details about his life and is usually kind of hostile. You and Hugo still love him though.

“I’m going out.” Ernest says right after he finishes his dinner.

“You’ve finished all your homework, right?” Hugo questions.

“Yes. Bye, I’m leaving now.” Ernest leaves, and Hugo yells after him.

“Make sure to call me if something happens!”

Ernest waves him off. Hugo closes the door and sighs.

“He seems to be going out a lot more recently.” Hugo admits. “But he’s also been acting better, and no one has informed me of Ernest acting up recently, so I feel like those things are connected.”

“If he’s been acting better because of it, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” You say. “Although it would be nice to know where he’s going in case something happens.”

“You’re right. I hope he does message me if something goes wrong though.”

“I’m sure he will.”

The two of you just kind of sit in silence for a bit.

“You know Ernest loves you, right?” You break the silence.

“I love him, too.”

“You should tell him that more often.” You suggest.

“You think so?”

“Definitely.”

Ernest eventually comes home to you and Hugo cuddling on the couch and watching tv.

“Hey, Ernest!” You greet. “How was your outing?”

“It was fine.” Ernest says, and he makes his way to his room.

“Hold on a minute, Ernest.” Hugo says.

“What?”

“I just…” Hugo pats Ernest on the shoulder. “I wanted to let you know that I love you.”

Ernest stays silent for a few moments before speaking in a whisper.

“Love you, too, Dad”

Ernest then immediately escaped to his room.

You approach Hugo, who is positively glowing. He looks even more excited than he does when he’s talking about wrestling, which truly is saying something.

“Babe?”

Hugo lifts you up in a bear hug and spins you around, grinning widely.

When he puts you down, he’s still shining like a million suns.

You kiss him, and he kisses you back with a large amount of passion and enthusiasm. You pull away.

“What did Ernest say to make you this happy?” You ask. After all, you didn’t exactly hear what Ernest said back to Hugo.

“He said that he loved me, Jessie.” Hugo exclaimed. “And he called me Dad!”

“That’s amazing!” You grin.

Hugo is practically vibrating with excitement. It reminds you of the time when you took him to the Power Slam.

God, you love this man.

“I love you.” You say, voicing exactly what you were thinking.

“I love you, too.” Hugo responds.

“You deserve all the love in the world, dear.” You say. “You take the time to learn about anything you can, and you’re so passionate in everything you do. From being a parent to teaching to wrestling, with everything you do, your passion shines through, and it’s so beautiful. You’re just really amazing, and I really love you, my cheddar cheese.”

Hugo laughs.

“You’re really going to use that pet name after all that?” Hugo says, but he’s smiling.

“Yes. Not all pet names are dear and babe, buttercup.”

“Those are the ones you appear to use the most often though.”

“Guilty as charged.”

Hugo smiles fondly at you, and then he kisses you softly.

What else are you going to do but kiss back?

[todokori-kun]

For

 the queen, I’ll try my best (seriously tho why are you so nice? Like ???? how ??? Queen Luna is so freaking amazing)

AND NO IT’S REALLY NOT YOUR FAULT ADS:DLFJK omg

That really does sound fun! (lowkey jealous lol) hope you have a fantastic time!

Thanks! And, well, I was thinking of a very neutral blue-grey color scheme because it’s Ilumi, but then that also feels weird because of his green outfit? (like sure he has different oufits too but that weird green needle suit is the most well-known. Like, it’s the thing cosplayers always wear, the one he’s drawn wearing in most of the fanart…)

Illumi has his eyes on you

(this is probably true)

Do you think Kikyo and Silva (Mr. and Mrs. Zoldyck) ever bothered to teach that to him? They must have encouraged it. From a clip I watched recently it seems that Silva knew about the needle Illumi put in Killua’s head and was pretty much cool with it(…)

He’d drag Armin along with him. If Armin’s genius somehow wasn’t enough to put him into the top ten, Illumi’s really not above using Dead Eyes Intimidation + Zoldyck connections to make sure he’d get there…and then the needle would make sure Armin would never, ever dream of joining the Survey Corps or the Garrison.

That’s extremely accurate XD

Also, look at this cut exchange from Cabinet Battle 2:

Jefferson: Can you do me a favor?

Hamilton: Depends. I can try.

J: Can you tell Angelica Schuyler I said hi?

H: She’s never mentioned you.

J: She’s not the type who shares. But since you’re so interested in foreign affairs…

(Ouch.)

Yes, Eliza’s awesome ;-;

Well, the word got around, they said, ‘This kid is insane, man!’

Took up a collection just to send him to the mainland

‘Get your education, don’t forget from whence you came and

The world’s gonna know your name.

What’s your name, man?’

Kuroiwa is very much dead. Wonder how Takeomi’s gonna feel about this…first Yoriko, then his dad…;-;

Awww, at least you have tumblr friends? *hugs* and tbh I don’t have any fellow manga/anime fan friends over here either (though maybe that’s just because I don’t have any friends here at all lol)

Please join me in HxH hell. Please. I- I need someone to sob with me because I’m only like seven or eight volumes in and I just met Chrollo and omg please I have literally 0 friends in the HxH fandom (jk jk, just the fact that you listen to me rant out my favs is enough for me. TYSM for being such a queen <3)

And actually, it’s nowhere near as bad as TG or AoT! Like, it has emotional moments, but there aren’t that many character deaths? Like, sure, people die, some favs die, but so far it’s still reasonable and nobody seems to be rage-quitting the manga because of pointless angst.

Chrollo always looks good but yeah, that last style does uit him really well :)

Ging is horrible, but like you said, at least he tries and acknowledges that he’s a bad parent. In his own way. I mean, the whole journey to find him was something he designed himself to help Gon grow as a hunter (though that also connects to Ging’s slightly problematic habit of treating Gon more like a hunter to train than a child to raise…)

Excuse me Queen Luna do not compare yourself to this trashcan. He doesn’t deserve it.

I haven’t even met Pouf in the manga yet and I kinda love him.

ALL THE HAM/ELIZA FEELS.

I’m sad to say I did not cry at all during Hughes’ death/funeral. I felt a lot of pain but the tears just didn’t come OTL

I’m glad you appreciated the puns ;) (Seriously though seeing the blog back is so exciting <333)

Also: I will now send you some pics of Chrollo’s troupe members (AKA his loyal fellow criminals he’s so proud of them all), and of Ging’s student (Gon’s father figure), if that’s ok?

And I might gift you a surprise fic soon…I promise that it won’t be too angsty. Really. I would never lie to the queen :D

Last thing- is it ok if I rant more about OCs sometime? Mainly about the Love Interests for that Otome Game I mentioned a while ago (the thing I was trying to write a script for)…I’d just like some opinions on the LIs *Lenny Face*

Hi i’m back and ready to die.

I hate school, have I ever mentioned that?

Anyway, lately I’ve been losing my motivation for everything basically and that includes coming onto Tumblr, and I was wondering, do you have any app that has an instant messaging system? This is nothing against you personally, but my replies will be really slow, since I don’t even turn my computer on much these days… In fact, I feel incredibly guilty that I take so long to answer, I just don’t have the motivation…

On a happier note, I finally watched Civil War! And I ship Stony.  My heart is not okay.

Um what else happened… Norway is absolutely beautiful? It’s a place where fairytales would take place, especially the fjords. And I also saw a ton of Thor statues lol

I’d scream if Illumi had his eyes on me. If I’d have the time to before dying that is.

While we’re on HxH, that picture of Hisoka you sent me is just mmmmmm nice abs  He looks less trashy with his hair down. 

well fuck kuroiwa is dead… 

oh god trust me id be a shitty parent. a very very shitty parent. there’s a reason why i don’t want kids and the pain of giving birth is only a small part of it. not to mention i don’t have the patience to deal with a small human who can only shit or cry.

gah i know there was something else i wanted to tell you but forgot hnnnngh

uh well, ive returned to tg, so much about quitting. as long as my sweet sunshine is present, I’ll come back at any time. i just sincerely hope it is actually him and not a fake. 

oh yeah, ive started rereading soul eater! it’s a good manga, you just have to get past the first 2-3 volumes for it to get good. the initial parts are pure ecchi. 

i might spam the blog w some pictures of norway later ^^;;

sorry for the short&all over the place response, I’m just so so tired, even tho it’s only been one week of school. I blame my period.

Anyway, the next one will be longer, I swear!  I hope you’re not too mad…

[edit:] I REMEMBERED WHAT I WANTED TO SAY

I SAW BOOK OF ATLANTIC. LIZZY. MY BABY. SHE FINALLY GOT HER SCENE IT WAS BEAUTIFUL ALSO UNDERTAKER. DAAAAAAAAMN

oh and i’ve gotten around to watching Death Note and it casually broke my heart. good to know, good to know.