#I got so used to just dumping any amount of info from my brain into tumblr posts that I redownloaded the app about less than 12 hours later

[citnamora]

Hello! I'm back. Literally couldn't stay away for more than a day <3

[zarvasace]

Hi I love you disability au a lot!!! It lives rent free in my brain and I always get so happy when I see stuff about it!!! Also I just info-dumped about your au to my friend for like half an hour, which is very high praise from my autistic brain 💞

Aww that is high praise, thank you! I'm glad you enjoy it. :) 💜

Anyway, take another fic, because I can't seem to stop myself recently, especially when y'all say it's cool, aha.

Time for a bad day

About 2k in length, gen, a bit of h/c but mostly just fluff. This can be read as a sequel to Relapse but also can just be read alone. AO3 link here.

When Time reaches for the door handle, he misses. His fingers brush the cool metal, but his hand doesn't get enough of a grip to turn it. He sighs, then tries again, managing it this time. There's a deep ache in the caverns of his head, filling it with dense wool like someone shoved an entire sweater into his skull. He can barely smell the coffee and bacon as he takes his time on the stairs. At least his feet are protected from the morning chill of the house by nice socks. 

Time isn't sure if this house in Tarrey Town is actually a temporary rental like Wild said, or if it belongs to him. The people of this little town are kind and welcoming, and showed them which house to go to without any debate or uncertainty, a few days ago. It amuses Time a little that Wild, the one most likely to be at home eternally camping, except for maybe Hyrule, has two entire permanent residences in his Hyrule. Maybe more, but Time isn't sure what the state of the castle or Castletown is like. 

Wherever the house came from, he's grateful they get to use it. There's a fair amount of space here, and they have privacy, which they wouldn't have in an inn anywhere else. They also haven't had to deal with a portal this last week, which isn't entirely unexpected, but still, Time's grateful. He's been a bit spooked by Legend's condition. 

Due to the lack of bedrooms and beds in the house, most of the boys slept in the living room. Time's quiet as he gets downstairs. It's a bit of a surprise to see Sky awake in the attached kitchen, sitting on the dining table bench next to Hyrule. They're working on Hyrule's signing again, while Twilight manages the bacon Time smells at the stove.

Hyrule notices him first, turning his direction and signing his name. 'Time!' 

Sky turns around at the sign, his hand patting Hyrule's knee to tell him he did it right, and smiles back at Time. His face is pale, and dark circles line his eyes, but he's upright. 

Time stands in a spot where he can speak quietly to Hyrule and Sky can see his words. "Good morning. How did you two sleep?"

"All right," Hyrule shrugs, keeping his voice just as low. 

Sky's own shrug is a bit strained. He sets a hand on his side, where Time knows a thick layer of bandages covers a rather nasty healing wound, and manages to smile anyway. Time hopes he got some sleep. 

"Here," Twilight says, putting a mug of coffee in Time's reach. He does the same for Sky, and gives a markedly smaller one to Hyrule, who clearly knows he's been jipped, but doesn't raise a fuss beyond flicking Twilight's leg. 

"Thank you." Time lets the warmth of the coffee trickle into his fingers. "Is anyone else up, yet?" 

Twilight answers, leaning up against the dining table while bacon sizzles in the pan. "Wars, he went outside for a bit. I think a couple people are awake, but it seems like most of us got hit pretty hard. How are you?"

"I just have a headache," Time answers, though it's a bit more than that. He takes a chair and drinks some of the coffee, hoping it'll help stave off some of the pain. It usually does, at least a little. 

Twilight goes back to the bacon, and Warriors comes back into the house through the back door, letting in a short burst of chilled air. He shuts the door quickly and goes about taking off his gloves and coat and boots, though of course he leaves the scarf on. He waves to those at the table, starts a kettle of water next to the bacon, and joins them. 

They all sit in silence for a little while, until Hyrule turns around to hold his hands out towards Warriors and ask for a quiz. Warriors puts down his own coffee with a tired smile and complies. He signs slow sentences into Hyrule's hands, letter by letter, while Hyrule tries to puzzle out the words. He's right more often than not, and Sky shares a victorious smile with Time. 

Once Time's coffee is gone, he does feel a bit better. He takes his cup to the sink, helps Twilight move plates of bacon to the table—no eggs, no anything except bacon—and only snags one piece for himself. 

"I'm going to check on Legend," he mutters to Twilight, who nods and waves him off. 

Time passes the table and weaves through the empty bedrolls scattered on the ground to get to the ground floor bedroom. There are two beds in here, one taken by Legend for the last few days and the other currently shared by Four and Wind, who still look asleep. The curtains are drawn, making it very dim in here, and the bowl of hot lavender water on the dresser has long since gone cold. 

When Legend had woken up at the beginning of the week and whined that it was going to be an awful few days, Time worried, but didn't think too much of it. Legend's prone to dramatics, and often complains of pain anyway. It had been humbling, and more than a little concerning, to watch Legend's sarcasm and definitive spark become buried under obvious pain. He insisted it wouldn't last very long, but Time still worries. 

At the moment, Legend doesn't look awake. Time hovers for a minute, watching the uneven breaths and unconscious twitching. He hesitates, then lays a gentle hand on Legend's head. 

Legend's eyes blink open at the touch, a bit glassy but aware. That's a definite improvement over the last time Time had seen them, three days ago. 

"Good morning," Time says softly, trying to not wake up Four and Wind. "You missed quite the party yesterday."

"I heard," Legend mutters. He winces, then shifts his position. Time draws his hand back. "This 's almost over… I feel a li'l better."

"That's good. Warriors thinks a portal might be on its way in the next few days."

Legend grunts his displeasure. "I want a break."

"Unfortunately, this kind of is our break."

"I hate my body."

Time shakes his head. "Is there anything I can get for you?" 

"...somethin' hot? I smell coffee."

"I don't think anyone is going to give you coffee, Legend." Time would roll his eye, but that would make his head hurt even more, so he sighs instead. "But I can find you something hot."

Legend grunts again. "Whatev'r. Hey, is everyone okay? After yesterday."

"Mostly." Time folds his arms. "Sky took a hit, but he'll be fine. Hyrule exhausted himself again." Legend scoffs at that. "We fought a few of Wild's guardians, so his scars are giving him trouble again. Wind forgot to put something in his shoe to straighten out his hips and walked too far. Four used crutches for the fight and got blasted against a tree. Wars shouted a lot. Twilight and I took enough potions to be all right."

"Wow." Legend looks up at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes. "We're a mess." 

Time sighs and nods his agreement. "We're taking today easy."

Behind him, he hears the rustle of blankets as Four and Wind wake up. He turns to see Four sit up, rub at his face, then toss blankets off of him and go to stand up. 

"Four!" Time lunges, reacting before his brain can catch up—or Four's brain, apparently. He manages to grab Four's arm and stop him from hitting the ground. He makes sure they're both okay, then sets Four down on the ground. 

"What the hell kind of joke—" Four starts, outraged, then he pauses, seeing his legs. "Oh… I won't say this isn't concerning, but it's less concerning."

Wind looks over the edge of the bed, his expression caught between laughter and concern. "Do you often forget that you can't walk?" 

"No. Never mind." Four leans his back against the bed and glances up at Time, scowling. "Thanks, I guess."

"Of course," Time answers with a slight frown. Four's eyes are very, very blue, which is, as Four said, only somewhat concerning. He offers a hand down. "Want help?" 

Four sighs, put-upon, but nods. He grabs Time's hand with both of his, and together they work until Four's in his chair again. He straightens out his clothes and starts to finger-comb his hair. Wind hands him his headband from the side table. 

"Thanks," Four tells them, almost grumbling, and his eyes are still blue. 

"Twilight made bacon and coffee out in the kitchen," Time tells him. 

"Just bacon and coffee?" Four snorts, but pushes himself out the door anyway. Time is, once again, glad that Four is small, so most doorways fit both him and his chair. 

"What about you?" Time asks Wind.

Wind groans and flops back down on the bed, blankets tangled around his legs. His wooden one sits near the bed, a bit more scratched up after yesterday. "I don't wanna go anywhere. My hips hurt." He lifts his head to scowl over at Time. "And before you say it, I know it's kind of my fault, but that doesn't stop it from aching."

"I wasn't going to say anything." 

Legend speaks up again. "Out of curiosity, did you notice if Four's eyes were a color?" 

"Blue," Time responds. "I noticed because it was a little odd."

"Mm… yeah, that makes sense."

Wind sits back up, unable to laze about for long. "How does that make sense? Do you know why his eyes change color?"

"I have theories. I'll tell you later when I can think better." Legend pulls the blankets over his head and goes still except for breathing. 

Time sighs again, then offers his hand to Wind next. "Let's at least get you out to the couch so we don't bother Legend too much."

"Fine." Wind pushes the blankets around and reaches over the side of the bed to retrieve his blue tunic. "Hey, since we're all stuck inside feeling awful today, do you think we could make cookies?" He grabs his leg, then Time's hand, and stands up. 

"You'll have to ask Wild, but I don't think it's too far out of the question." 

With Time's minimal help, Wind hops out to the couch facing the kitchen and sinks down next to Wild with a dramatic sigh. Time heads into the kitchen to pour some of Warriors's tea into another mug for Legend. 

"You too, huh?" Wild asks Wind, smiling with only half of his face. He has tins of both his ice-chu lotion and his fire-chu lotion out, and it seems that more than just him has partaken of them. 

"Me, too," Wind agrees. He dips his hand into the fire-chu tin and slathers some on the end of his left leg, on the stump below the knee. "Hey, Wild, do you want to make cookies today?" 

Wild perks up a little. "Actually, yeah. That sounds like fun, and we're stuck here anyway, so…"

Sky leans over the back of the couch to offer them both a plate. "Bacon?" 

Wind smiles up at Sky and takes the entire plate. Wild steals a few strips for himself. Warriors stops Time from taking the mug of tea to Legend, only to swap that mug out for another, one that had more of a fruity scent than a floral one. He'd apparently anticipated this already and made one of Legend's favorite kinds of tea. Time sends Warriors a smile, gets a shrug back, and heads past Wild and Wind and Hyrule brainstorming increasingly insane ideas for cookie structures (they're stuck on a castle, right now) to get back to Legend. 

If Legend takes one sip of the tea and his eyes fill with tears, due to the pain bypassing his emotional control, then Time won't tell.

[merklins]

Hi merky! Just know I'm going to bed now but I have ideas for the drawing prompts!!! Im considering drawing both, but ive actually never watched ToH.. im taking your ask however as the final sign that i should so i shall share my thoughts with you >:] I'm also gonna try and snap some minecraft pictures tomorrow, but I didn't cuz my brain was sooo fucking tired and I forgored [and also have to figure out how to take screenshots on my computer ;^^]

I built a huge house though!!! It's three stories but kinda narrow? It's got a kitchen, an attic (which will be my room) and a really tiny bathroom that's just for afk ^^; im also planning to make a living room! I've also got a really nice exterior going which I adore!!! #o(>♡<)o# so many plants and shrubs... there's also a really big and nice basement, but I didn't build that! I just mostly worked on the house, which started as a temporary dirt hut and kinda evolved into something more elaborate over time!

Anyway, I hope your day was well! I care for you and im here if you need anything!! ^◇^-Ollie

WAIT YOU HADN'T ALREADY?? I sent you Raine as the alternative because I was trying to pick out something from another fandom you were in and VAGUELY remembered seeing an Owl House reblog from you. OH WELL! It's a neat show and I'm sure you've heard more than enough about it already so I'll spare you from any more haha. I got a couple prompts of my own sitting in the inbox right now, so if any of those were yours, then good news! THE IDEA IS IN MOTION! ( After spending. an embarrassing amount of time deciding which card and what flowers I was using)

Also your Minecraft house sounds lovely and I can't wait to see pictures of it!! I can't promise it'll work on every kind of computer ever, but usually pressing fn and f2 at the same time will take a screenshot for you. You'll have to go fishing around in the game files to find your screenshot folder, but it gets the job done! If you have a printscreen button that'll send a screenshot right to your clipboard, but if you don't play in fullscreen it'll capture your taskbar too so be careful of that.

NOW INFO DUMP UNDER THE READ MORE FOR MY NEATO MINECRAFT WORLD <3

OK so I don't actually have much built on this one yet because I've been busy surviving BUT I have big ideas!! IMPORTANT CONTEXT BEFORE I GO OFF HERE my world has a mod on it that realigns all the Minecraft code so being underwater is GOOD that's how I'm supposed to play! It's fun and safe and I can do all the stuff I need to down there! BUT ON THE OTHER HAND being in air does the little bubble popping and eventually kills me. Context over!

First big question right off the bat. WHAT HORSES... Horses don't do water Minecraft! WELL WELL WELL One day I had Minecraft open in the background during a thunderstorm and a skeleton trap spawned right over my cave. I triggered the trap by accident while collecting kelp aaand after defeating all of the riders I now have a bunch of skeleton ponies (: Skeleton horses are cool because in Minecraft Skeletons CAN'T drown. So these guys cruise around the caverns like it's nothing! I can ride them too, which. isn't any more effective than swimming because I swim VERY WELL with this mod. But it's the thought that counts! Companionship is hard to come by down there so I LOVE these freaky little guys. They scream horrid sounds from the abyss while I work and I just <3 those are them!! I haven't given most of them names, but one is called Fibia (Fibula + Tibia. I was tired and forgot those weren't one word)

I've been working on re-shaping the caverns before I start building, because while the caves and cliffs update is EPIC there are just sooo many nooks and crannies to get lost in. THANKFULLY the caverns have so many openings to the surface that I can usually swim back around to my base of operations (first cave in the cavern that I dumped all my junk in while I build). I'm going to grab some screenshots once I'm done with all that terraforming and sketch out some ideas, but right now I'm thinking that I should hijack some kind of sunken research facility. I'm talking fallen vessels, abandoned equipment, THE FULL SHEBANG! It's going to look so cool and be the perfect use for all of this copper I keep digging up.

So if you happen to find any cool submerged architecture and technology in your travels I would LOVE to be tagged for that kind of stuff! And also. I left you hanging on the bird thing. I WILL GET YOU THAT BIRD PHOTO!! I don't have any of them yet because I haven't been taking my camera out with me, but the next chance I get I'll see if I can snap those guys!

[freeuselandonorris]

https://www.tumblr.com/freeuselandonorris/748039869693050880/httpswwwtumblrcomfreeuselandonorris748005292

omg ok. my brain is a vault of stardew info ive been playing since release basically.. u get copper ore from the mines, found frequently on floors 1-40. once you find your first ore, the blacksmith will bring you blueprints to make a furnace to smelt it into bars so you can use them for crafting, building, upgrading tools etc. the mines are located near robin’s house and linus’s tent, if you just follow the path to the left of their homes!

haley sucks at first (tbh half do imo) but if u gift her things she likes and keep talking to her, she warms up pretty fast! all of them have liked, disliked, loved, hated, and neutral gifts and will give shitty reactions to disliked and hated gifts ):

i played the fuck out of cyberpunk !! i loved the story behind it, smth ab having a flashdrive stuck into my brain and then some hologram dude talking to me just does it for me. i love johnny sm. what boss are u coming up on?

omg anon ur an ANGEL. honestly my one criticism of stardew valley is that it just kinda…dumps you in it and doesn’t really give you any kind of tutorial lmao?? i’ve figured out a fair amount of stuff through trial and error and followed the journal quests but holy shit it would have taken me forever to figure out that u have to go to the mines to do mining. which like. now it’s written down OBVIOUSLY that’s where you go to do mining but sadly my brain doesn’t work like that lmao.

side note: i went and tried fishing after ur earlier post and oh my GOD it’s annoying. 0/10. took me about four goes just to time the fuckin hit right to get the mini game loaded. horrendous.

CYBERPUNK MY BELOVED!! i have had such an insane trajectory w this game lmao. i was SO excited when it first got trailed because it’s so obviously inspired by neuromancer (i mean frankly the plot is very nearly ripped off neuromancer entirely at times) and blade runner and cyberpunk as a genre is a longstanding intense obsession of mine. and then i got the 1.0 PS4 release when they were practically giving it away for free bc it was such a mess and i barely got halfway through Act 1 bc it was buggy as hell.

THEN like…years? later i got made redundant from work (if you’re non-UK, i think the USeng equivalent is laid off?), impulse bought a PS5 (thanks, adhd impulse spending!) and downloaded 2.0 and promptly got fucking obsessed.

cut for mild spoilers

like. i have never been emotionally invested in a game like this. i’ve never wanted to live inside a game like this! night city feels so so real, and i fuckin love playing as V (i’m playing boy V which is a v good gender experience). there’s some elements of the gameplay i find frustrating and the levels/perks system drives me slightly insane but the storyline, voice acting and the whole design of night city is mind blowing to me.

i have also never ever wanted to fuck a fictional character as much as i do johnny silverhand lmao. GOD. my screenshots folder is full of pictures of him with that cyborg arm on show 🥵 i’m kinda desperate to finish it so i can check out the fic bc i need johnny/V porn but i don’t wanna spoiler any of the endings for myself lmao.

ANYWAY so the boss fight i have coming up is at the end of play it safe, after the parade…i’m just about to start taking out the 3 snipers but i’ve seen on reddit etc that the boss fight at the end of this is hideous, esp if you’re not really highly levelled on body attributes which like…i think i’m on about 11 for body so not super low but i’ve been focused on tech ability (after tbf taking a pretty scattergun approach at first and regretting it). if the boss fight at the end of i walk the line is anything to go by i’m fucked — i gave up on sasquatch in the end and just ran into the cinema lmao, i literally tried about 20 times to get her 😭 my hand eye coordination is NOT good enough for this!!

i have phantom liberty waiting for me after i’m done w the main pack i can’t waittttt

[sharkiethrts]

Karma with a s/o who is. Very odd. They r very quiet, scientific and smart but also a bubbly smartass who also has special interests that a lot find gross, morbid and questionable- like if you see them kneeling and digging in the dirt they’d just look up, get excited and say “im looking for f u n g u s🧌” and how they get wide eyed, giggly and gremlin like from finding a cool, possibly deadly organism! Then picking it up and showing it to everybody while literally full-body convulsing from excitement as everyone freaks out! Just. Zero consideration for his safety if it’s for the sake of discovery. Kind of like an intelligent bimbo boy </33 He’s just a devious little creature getting up to mischief, following the beat of their own drum! Sort of like the punk-ish parasite, fungi, protist, coral and decomposer/detritivore studying entrapta. Who’s also a library robber. I steal books from my school. I’m kind of a. Small person. Short and fem bodied but prefers masculine, neutral, neos or just any and no pronouns! Also i have diagnosed adhd and probably more than that, really like learning at school but i SUCK at math and PE, i also look dead and i wear really crazy intense makeup and chop all of my hair off for fun sometimes when I’m not in a depressive state, also i am really confrontational and stubborn as shit ! If you actually know personality type stuff like cognitive functions and enneagram, I’m an INTP 5w6 and my tritype is 584! Holy fuck. I write so much. Now you see what my teachers have to deal with. Also what any tumblr writers who write for karma have to deal with. I am so sorry jesus fuck i am a lot to take in

writing style, casual

KARMA AKABANE: headcanons: s/o that is known to be much more intelligent than him

[11:40PM, 23rd March 2022]

(by the way, no promises that I'll get all info in. i only got the once my dyslexic brain actually processed. too much words, my guy. too much words.)

- he was lowkey kind of scared of u at first

- but dude he cherishes u the moment yall got together

- have u seen him in the anime? he was hyping up everyone for what they are unique for

- he appreciates how odd you are

- weirdo, i know. like tf is wrong with u karma

- at least he has good taste in ppl ig

- dude

- judging by ur intense typing and spamming??? my guess is that u would spam the shit outta him at ungodly hours

- he would still reply to u tho

- ikr?? simp behaviour LMFAO

- dude he is so good at maths and PE

- teachers u maths

- free tutoring?? fuck ya. fuck the patriarchy ig

- idk how the patriarchy got involved LMFaO

- ok anyway

- intp and istp?? ayo cutie?? lesgo

- 5w6?? dude dude mine is 5w4

- not related but u sound cool enough for me to info dump u

- get egoboosted ig

- library robber??? dude karma prolly got a few books and half-unintentionally did not give it back

- bc lmfao he couldnt bother going back

- has a huge amount of emails telling him to give the books back

- but he just kind of ignores them ykyk

- f u n g us?? did u say dfungus??

- bitch he is gonna take that chance to put teresaka in danger

- "watch my s/o for me<3"

- and teresaka gets some shit up in his head and now has trauma

- my guy u are dangerous fr no cap

- small person?? bestie idk bout u but u getting bullied hardDDDDDDDDDddddah

- the -dah didnt have to be there LMFAO

HAHHAHAHAAH

- ok anyway

- im so sorry for the info i missed

- but dude u cool man?? wanna dump karma and go on a date sometime??/hj/j/hj/j

ok bye

[rosetinted-selfshipping]

I had the idea to start a Selfshipping side blog for awhile since 1 my main Account is kinda hideous and I just wanted a new slate especially now that I understand tumblr more 2 cause I really like the self shipping community! And I used to write fanfic

My pronouns are She/her

That being said I stopped writing fanfic for a reason, it made me KINDA anxious the pressure of doing requests got to me but I think I could do an imagine every once in awhile if nothing else and if you want you can request an imagine or prompt from me I’d just ask you maybe don’t expect much but it would still be appreciated of course!

As for me personally I’m a minor so no, No, NO NSFW. I had a pretty YIKES experience on Instagram once upon a time and I do not want a repeat of that. But you can call me Rosie or Rin (my self insert’s name) also do let me know if you want me to talk about my Ocs! I have quite a lot. Idk if I wanna add another section to this blog (since I’m just starting out) but let me know if you’d be interested!

For my rules/DNI just don’t be Racist or a Pedophile or homophobic or transphobic or request or say anything of that nature on this blog. And I think that’s all I should really have to say on that matter

Also feel free to have an Anon name if you want!

Little note before I list these things. I have the attention span of a goldfish, a goldfish easily distracted by any pretty anime character that has a good amount of fanfics and by the color pink. So simply know I’ll try to name things I’m if nothing else fairly sure I could hold a conversation about not necessarily things I’ve finished.

Anime

Yugioh (all gens)

Beyblade (the metal saga)

Uta no prince sama (I’m sad Shining live is dead)

Diabolik Lovers (I know it’s horrible but it is ✨My Trash✨)

Demon slayer (My sister put it on in front of me and I’ve been a mess for Gyutaro ever since)

Idol time PriPara (I love PriPara so much even though I’ve only seen idol time SOMEONE LET ME INFO DUMP ABOUT MY PRIPARA OCS PLEASE-)

Aikatsu (mostly Stars)

Mermaid Melody/ Pichi Pichi Pitch (I adore this show! I just need to stop procrastinating and watch it before they take it off of YouTube lol)

My hero (I still need to catch up but even then I’m not that attached to anything but the fanfic I wrote in my head)

Shugo Chara (it’s Cardcaptor Sakura but it’s not as bad. For legal reasons this is a joke)

The my melody anime (I haven’t seen the sequel series at all tho)

Revolutionary Girl Utena (I ADORE THIS SHOW’S AESTHETICS AND MUSIC. I will stop procrastinating and finish it one day)

Sailor moon (I know how shocking from a girl who clearly loves magical girl anime)

Save me Lolipop!/ Mamotte! Lolipop (this was my first anime I watched by myself please tell me you know it!)

Kamisama Kiss (I hate Tomoe Stan Nanami to death though)

Kamikaze Kaito Jeane (I’ve only read the Manga WHERE IS THE ANIME?!)

Fairy tail (i Haven’t seen the last season I will cry)

Fruits basket (I didn’t watch the new one it looked to idk shiny for me personally)

Tokyo Mew Mew (Kisshu my problematic Fave 🥺)

Earth defense club love (please someone tell me they simped for the twins in season 2)

Miraculous ladybug (sure it’s arguably not anime but if you look at all the other magical girl anime here you should not be surprised)

Precure/ Glitter force (yeah I grew up with glitter force I’m sorry I’m loving delicious party tho!)

Games

Idolish7 (I know it’s an anime too but I mostly play this game for the music)

Hypnosismic (Ramuda’s Drops lives Rent free in my brain and I DID NOT give consent)

Ensemble stars (idk what they’re saying but wow All of Knights sure is pretty wow also so happy about eng release! ✨)

Ayakashi Romance Reborn (Fun fact: This game’s English server is dead so I surgically attached it in my brain to demon slayer)

Twisted wonderland (I hate this game immensely ✨)

Genshin Impact (i hate this game more ♡)

Cookie run Kingdom (I’m sorry red velvet cookie is hot okay-)

Play Uta no Prince Sama Shining live (never mind it’s dead now)

Pokémon Masters (I have 2 Ns so far!)

Sonic (*looks at my old Sonic Ocs* *looks away quickly*)

The Atelier Series (Quick review of all the Atelier games I played: Ryza Decent, Lulua Bane of my existence, Sophie is the prettiest girl ever 🥺 oh no I haven’t played her game yet why do you ask?)

Fate/GO (It’s really fun when the Gacha isn’t being mean and I’m enjoying the charming servants even though unfortunately find myself liking the boys more because of reasons you can guess)

Yugioh Master Duel (I’ll put my friend code later)

Yugioh Duel Links (proud Yuzu Main)

Pokémon (main series)

Code vain/ god eater (I will play anything with a character creator part 1)

Play Uta no Prince Sama shining live (I will miss you forever)

Pretty Princess party (I will play anything with a character creator part 2)

Story of seasons (I’m a gamer girl what do you want from me? 👁👄👁💅)

Disney Magical World 1/2 (i will play anything with a Character creator part 3)

Kingdom hearts (i haven't finished 2 or 3 and i cannot be talked too about Tarzan's world but i loved the mobile game and dream drop distance)

Style Saavy, any of them (Best games ever made, other than Uta no Prince Sama shining live-)

Uta No Prince Sama shining live available now on IOS and Android (The world just didn’t understand it while we did have it 🥺)

Manga/Comics

Anything by Arina Tanemura (I’m BARELY exaggerating)

Beasts of Abigale (ya like Goth Furries?)

Kiss of the Rose princess (ya like Goth Yugioh Players?)

Ultra Maniac (Aka my first experience going: “oh my god read the manga the manga is better then the anime”)

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

I also really love Fashion and Designing! I’m not learning it or anything (I’d probably be a failure Irl lol) but if you wanna talk or show me designs feel free too

I do have a Tag tho! #Magical Fashion Fairytale feel to scroll through designs I’ve posted

Imagines masterlist f/o list

Also I made all the headers and my icon on PicsArt

Did my Imagines masterlist!

Last Edited January 2nd 2023

[effei-s]

What shatter-me Warner would do.

The fastest character assassination I’ve ever seen.

Here’s the thing: Warner from original trilogy had character arch. More important: he was a character.

He was mean, villainous, cold, cruel murderer, with daddy who basically bought him regency (like come on, if it wasn’t for Anderson no one would even think about giving him that position; n for nepotism), but he also was deeply traumatized and abused his whole life and had little to none normal human interactions. I loved that fact that the only good thing he did (killing Fletcher because he was abusing his family) resolved into a complete catastrophe (Anderson killing children and wife) because Warner didn’t think it through. He tried to do the right thing and failed miserably, because he was more concerned with making a spectacle for Juliette. And after that he still had the audacity to paint himself as a hero who saved poor family from terrible tyrant in Ignite me.

I didn’t expect him to act and think like a human being. He didn’t need to act like a normal human. Warner gas lighting Juliette in the first third of ignite me is Warner’s thing to do. Him yelling and throwing tantrums and making scenes in Unravel me is Warner’s thing to do. Him forcing Juliette to do things she doesn’t want and traumatizing her in the process in Shatter me is Warner’s thing to do. Him wanting to torture Adam to death is Warner’s thing to want.

There’s a few reasons for this:

a) he doesn’t know how to communicate with people other than giving them orders or making threats;

b) he truly believes that he’s in the right here (he doesn’t see himself as a bad guy in Juliette story, more like a knight on a white horse);

c) he’s physically unable to be honest with himself and always has someone to blame for his own mistakes and failures;

d) he’s ‘results justify the means’ kind of guy.

Changes for good, with trauma that deep, when you basically don’t have a moral compass, don’t happen over night.

Was his ignite-me arch made sloppy? Yes. Everything was too info-dumpy and too convenient (Juliette forgetting that Warner was going to torture Adam to death; Juliette feeling that she’s the one who needs to apologize; Leila’s entire character used only for a sob story; Adam turned into a douchebag so Warner would look a more suitable love interest, etc). But it still was an arch. And the finale of ignite me was so open I really could imagine that, little by little, in the future, he will start to trust people more and really gonna help Juliette and co to make the world a better place. And his redemption arch wasn’t finished in the slightest, and I would even say that it was only the beginning of it, but it was implied that things will get better from there (the most important part of that being him genuinely wanting to make things right with Adam and James; he’s the one who makes the first step and initiate the bond).

So what went wrong in new three books? Ehm… everything, to be honest. Instead of developing a character that was already there, she decided to give him a new personality. Actually it can be said about every single one of characters, but Warner just happened to be the biggest victim of them all.

Let’s look at Restore me.

Okay, we have his pov, and I never thought I would say it but… Warner is kinda dumb. He’s supposed to be this military strategy genius, someone who knows how RE works from within and… it turns out that he just as clueless as Juliette. More than this, we never actually see him do ANYTHING except fucking Juliette. And for some reasons he never helps Juliette with her work??? There’s so much paperwork and instead of helping her to sort though it he’s… just not there???

Those stupid long monologues about how she’s capable to do anything mean nothing if he doesn’t actually help (as we can see at the end of restore me, when Juliette gets captured).

That fact that he doesn’t immediately check if Castle’s words are true? And instead of helping Juliette with Haider (telling everything he knows about him and his family, preparing her for the dinner) he fucks her??? This is a dumb bitch shit. And maybe you didn’t noticed but Shatter-me Warner wasn’t a dumb bitch.

After all, there’s a simple reason I never wanted the job of supreme commander myself—

I never wanted the responsibility.

It’s a tremendous amount of work with far less freedom than one might expect; worse, it’s a position that requires a great deal of people skills. The kind of people skills that include both killing and charming a person at a moment’s notice. Two things I detest.

Remember shatter-me Warner who wanted power because power meant that he could have control over his life? Remember shatter-me Warner who wanted to work with Juliette as a team to change the world? Yeah that’s him now.

No personal ambitions allowed when you’re a walking dildo, I guess.

Off the topic, but Mafi really enjoys making Juliette stupid as fuck:

“Oh, yes, of course,” she says, remembering. “I’ve gotten a bunch of letters about that. I didn’t realize it was such a big deal.”

Let's continue.

Hurting Haider would be enough to start a world war.

Warner says and then Juliette threatens Haider, a foreign official on a diplomatic mission, and instead of being even a little bit worried and think about possible consequences, Warner thinks this:

But I can only smile at her. I want to scoop her up and carry her away. Take her somewhere quiet and lose myself in her.

Okay, I guess it’s official, there’s sperm inside of his head instead of brain cells. I can’t find any other explanation for this clownery.

Shatter-me Warner would… Shatter-me Warner won’t be in this situation in the first place.

Someone tries to kill Juliette and Warner does… nothing about it. He never goes to check the body of the assassin himself. He thinks that Nazeera hides something and he still allows her to go around and doesn’t even interrogate her when Juliette says that Nazeera was there at the moment of the attack. He doesn’t find it even a little bit suspicious? That guy who had tremendous trust issues in the original trilogy? Remember him? Yeah, that guy. Shatter-me Warner would lock Nazeera and Haider up and demanded answers. Shatter-me Warner would be angry as fuck, and would try to kill Kenji with his bare hands, because Kenji was stupid enough to leave Juliette alone. Shatter-me Warner wouldn’t stop until he had answers (and the head of a person who wanted to kill Juliette on a plate).

New Warner is too busy feeling sorry for himself to actually do anything about it. And after one chapter it’s completely forgotten, like that fact that someone tried to kill her is not important at all.

And then Castle enters the picture with his stupid and sloppy info-dumping (I guess Mafi never heard of ‘show don’t tell’ rule). And says this:

“She can’t lead this resistance,” he says, squinting at something in the distance. “She’s too young. Too inexperienced. Too angry. You know that, don’t you?”

and if that wasn’t enough he also says this:

“It should’ve been you,” Castle says. “I always secretly hoped—from the day you showed up at Omega Point—that it would’ve been you. That you would join us. And lead us.” He shakes his head. “You were born for this. You would’ve managed it all beautifully.”

AND HE’S STILL ALIVE AFTER?

This is a fucking treason right there. And Warner A-OKAY with this.

Shatter-me Warner would strangle him right there. Or better yet, he would go along with this until he has 100% evidences of Castle’s betrayal and then he would kill him. Or he would kill him simply because Castle was withholding important information and earlier in books he put Juliette in a great danger by sending her to Anderson without telling her the truth (unravel me).

But not this Warner. New Warner is far more concerned with fucking Juliette then helping her or looking for a way out of this situation (because now he has dick instead of a brain).

After my father’s revelation, my thirst for information became suddenly insatiable. I needed to know more—who these people were, where they’d come from, how much we’d known—

WHERE AND WHEN DID WARNER IN PREVIOUS BOOKS DISPLAY THIS?

When I say that Mafi simply forgot her own characters this is what I mean. Warner from original trilogy didn’t give a flying fuck about them. He thought that they were weak and stupid.

I will lose her.

And it will kill me.

He said this shit and after he nearly had a panic attack because he imagined her dating someone else? Oh, come on, how more pathetic can he get?

There are words for this kind of behavior: toxic codependency.

Oh wait wait! I know! This is not Warner! This is Edward Cullen disguised as Warner! The mystery is solved!

Oh, he fucks her again. Apparently it’s the only thing he’s good at. What a character! The layers! The complexity!

And then Lena came into the picture.

Until that moment I was more or less okay with Warner. Yes, I was very confused, but I was ready to give Mafi benefit of the doubt. He lost his father and was dealing with grieve. We all can act out of character in the face of a tragedy or drastic changes.

“Why do you keep pressing this? Who cares if I’ve been with other women? They meant nothing to me—”

And there I felt in my guts, I’m not gonna like what next to come.

Haider was exhibiting suicidal tendencies. Self-harming. And I got really scared. I called Warner because I knew Haider would listen to him.” She shakes her head. “Warner didn’t say a word. He just got on a plane. And he stayed with us for a couple of weeks. I don’t know what he said to Haider,” she says. “I don’t know what he did or how he got him through it, but”—she looks off into the distance, shrugs—“it’s hard to forget something like that.

Oh, so Warner's words about how he never had any real interactions with anyone before Juliette were bullshit. About how he doesn’t understand people were also bullshit. About how Juliette was the first person who was not afraid to speak with him freely were also bullshit. Because all of the sudden he can help someone heavily depressed. Someone with suicide tendencies? Someone who harms himself? And now he has an ex-girlfriend who’s ready to beat the fuck out of him and calls him mean words (she clearly doesn’t fear him)?

Now his entire character in the first trilogy doesn’t make any sense. And his excuses don’t make any sense.

Bravo, Mafi! Bravo! This was the fastest character assassination I’ve ever seen.

She says that Lena was in love with him—really in love with him—but that Warner broke her heart, that he never treated her with any real affection and she’s hated him for it.

Oh, so he’s not only stupid and absolutely useless, he’s a fuckboy. And if there’s one thing I HATE, it’s fuckboys.

There’s a big-big-big difference between someone who has one-night-stands and THIS SHIT:

“You’re upset, I understand. But it’s not my fault you feel this way. I don’t love you. I never have. And I never led you to believe I did.”

“She and I,” he says, “it was—we were nothing. It was a relationship of convenience and basic companionship. It meant nothing to me. Truly,” he says, “you have to know—if I never said anything about her it was only because I never thought about her long enough to even consider mentioning it.”

“It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t two years of anything serious. It wasn’t even two years of continuous communication.” He sighs. “She lives in Europe, love. We saw each other briefly and infrequently. It was purely physical. It wasn’t a real relationship—”

So he despised her but used her for sex? WOW. Cool. He can go and trip over a fucking knife or fall out of the window for all I care.

“Everything in my life was different before I met you,” he says. “I was lost and all alone. I never cared for anyone. I never wanted to get close to anyone. I’ve never—you were the first person to ever—”

And how exactly he was able to help Haider with his self-harm then??? If he didn’t CaRe for anyone before Juliette?

This was the moment when Warner from original trilogy died in agony.

Okay, let’s see real quick what we have in Defy Me:

He thinks about escape but never really does anything to escape;

(anderson is the one who opens his cell;

he stands in front of a guy who murdered his mother and doesn’t even think about her, yeah I can see how important she was for him;

/again, shatter-me Warner would probably demanded answers, but not walking dildo, walking dildo cares only about Juliette. his excuse in ignite me 'i did it all for my mom' doesn't make any sense now, because he actually doesn't give a flying fuck about her/

he gets captures one minute after he “kills” Anderson;

nazeera is the one who gets him out of there;

super soldier taught his whole life how to survive, everyone. useless as fuck)

He doesn’t know anything about jewelry.

(super ooc, i know what Mafi was trying to do here: she tried ‘sherlock holmes doesn’t know that earth revolves around the sun’ thing Arthur Conan Doyle did, but the problem is WARNER IS A FASHIONISTA, or he was).

He wants to get married because…???

He sees a woman who tried to kill Juliette and he’s a-okay with staying at her place, because she said that it was actually a message (???).

Castle is still alive.

Nazeera who knew all this time about Anderson and was working for him is also alive and well.

Oh and he doesn’t care about Anderson being alive and being a real threat to Juliette (fucking her is more important for him, as usual).

His complete disregard for Juliette’s safety only makes me hate him more with every new book.

Imagine me.

First and foremost: don’t call imagine-me Warner shatter-me Warner. Don’t insult shatter-me Warner like that. With shatter-me Warner Anderson would have to try very hard to get to Juliette. It would be ‘Warner made 100 back-up plans, but Anderson knew him too well and created 101 plan and that’s how he managed to win’ kind of situations.

But walking dildo is too busy feeling sorry for himself (as usual), he just sits by her bed FOR TWO FUCKING DAYS, doing absolutely NOTHING to make sure she’ll be safe.

Nooira says that Juliette should be killed and she’s still alive for some reason.

He’s entire persona is that he’s rude to people (but not bbc’s sherlock holmes kind of rude, when he’s unbearable dick but he’s actually smart and really gets shit done, so we can tolerate him). He’s just rude.

He doesn't care about Adam or James's wellbeing (remember Ignite me Warner who really wanted a family? Yeah that's him now).

But he has gruppies now, because he’s hot and everyone in the sanctuary wants to fuck him.

Oh and he proposed to Juliette. HE PROPOSED. THEY ENGAGED! DO YOU HEAR ME??? THEY GONNA BE MARRIED! HE PROPOSED TO HER! AND SHE SAID YES! THEY GONNA MERRY!

Because god fucking forbid we forget about it.

(mafi really thinks that her readers have the mental capacity of a golden fish, huh?)

I lost count how many times walking dildo implies that he's gonna kill himself if Juliette is not with him (disgusting).

Then our walking dildo cures Juliette by the power of petting (it’s not power of love, lads and gents; you want to see love go watch defenders on netflix; mafi already copypasted elektra’s arch from that show into imagine-me Juliette, you can do yourself a favor and see how this trope can be executed without borderline on sexual assault petting scene).

18-old girl marries a fucking sociopath believing he’s actually a good person.

(we all know how shit like this ends, people like that don't change; and this 'he's different with me cuz i'm very special and i'm gonna teach him the right way' it's really harmful message considering that the audience of those books are mostly teenage girls).

Trust me, there's nothing revolutionary in this trope, it's tale as old as time.

Here's the thing, good written character always defined by connection to other people: friend, lovers, enemies, family, foes, acquaintances, even some random strangers. It's the easiest way to establish what kind of person they are.

Walking dildo doesn't have any of that because all of his "character" revolves around Juliette. He's not a person anymore. By the end of Imagine me he doesn't have friends (his relationships with Kenji or Haider non-existent), no family connections (no talks with Adam or James), even enemies or foes or even people that don't like him (because everyone wants to fuck him, because being hot is his only character trait).

His only family and friend is Juliette. And you know what? It's fucking boring, overdone and lazy as fuck. And insulting to the character he once was.

No redemption arch, no character arch at all.

Happy end.

[smolcinnamonchipmunk]

An info dump on “A Most Abnormal Titan” that nobody asked for.

I’m also gonna say that “A Most Abnormal Titan” is in a wildly different AU than the canonical AoT. Spoilers ahead for the canon series, so if you don’t want any, shoo. If you don’t care, I’ll get into the differences under the read more. It is a bit wordy, so be prepared for that. I should be studying, but I’m nauseous and feeling gross, so here I go with this instead.

Personally, I’ve always HATED time travel shit. Like, I don’t care if it wraps everything up in a neat little bow or tries to give people that shock and awe that comes from a character being behind everything or whatever, I just hate it. Time travel, while simultaneously so seemingly fragile is also used to give characters a sort of roundabout way to give an upper hand. Sure, it was *memory* time travel and this is a fictional world, but my mind’s just far more willing to be open to photosynthesizing humans taller than buildings more than going through fucking time and space to talk to the past or future. So, no time travel in this.

“Where does that leave this in the story?” you might ask, justifiably so.

Well, let’s just say that I’m also not overly fond of the episode “The Basement” and everything after, including the end of the manga. It’s just... well, if I could put it in a way that doesn’t have me making a three part essay on why I hate that as well: If I wanted to watch a political drama with war and oppression, I’d watch the news, dredge through history texts again, or watch war documentaries.

So, as it stands, I’m kind of retconning all that??? Honestly, AMAT was supposed to just be a oneshot where I just kind of cranked something out, but of course my brain goes a million miles a minute, so while I was writing Jae’s perspective a part of my brain was fucking worldbuilding, haha.

First off, let’s start with geography. In canon, AoT takes place primarily on an island off the coast of a larger continent. But, because I’m retconning that stuff, I’m getting free reign of landmass. 

Now, unless ‘Titan-itus’ is airborne or spreads through physical contact with Titan blood or something, having only one continent affected allows other civilizations to advance to the point of the manga, which I’ve already said I wasn’t fond of. I like medieval fantasy, not early Industrial Revolution. And, in the canon material, turning into a Titan *isn’t* contagious. So, we either have this event affect the entire world like the Nanite Event in Generator Rex, OR we have everything on a Pangea-esque continent.

To simplify any needing to worry about how each continent would handle a Titan infestation, potentially calculating populations for separate landmasses, etc, etc, I’m going to say it’s a mostly Pangea world with occasional islands on the outskirts. So, our geography is taken care of.

What about civilization? Surely there can’t just be one now that I’ve basically destroyed other cities with my retconning? And, you’d be correct. You see, I’ve dug myself so deep into this rabbit hole of a thought process that I fucking made a map using a picture of Pangea that I put on its side to try and give the humans as much chance of surviving as possible. You’ll probably need to click for better quality

As you can see, I made nine civilizations in total scattered around the globe, including a placement of the original in Madagascar that I used for size reference and to potentially tie in with canon characters. I’m still on the fence about having canon characters in this.

Each civilization I’m having around the same amount of people inside, following MatPat’s Film Theory about AoT from 2016, so each one starts off with around 1.5 million. He says 1.25, but I’m rounding up to half because I’m lazy. Assuming this is a post apocalyptic world, let’s say 5 billion ‘people’ survive whatever event leads to the Titans. Why is people in quotations? Because the rest of the 4,986,500,000 calculated got turned into Titans! But, that seems like an unfairly large number, so let’s cut that down by half the amount of ‘people’ at the start. That still leaves 2,486,500,000 Titans roaming around this massive land mass against 13,500,000 people.

Obviously, the Titans stay relatively close to each civilization because they *know* there are concentrations of humans in them, but they haven’t been able to get inside for hundreds of years. And yes, I said hundreds. Because of lack of time travel, I’m also getting rid of the stupid mind-erase stuff as well. But, after hundreds of years, memories fade and documents get lost or become damaged, still leading to complacency, forgetting how the civilizations and kingdoms/walls were formed, etc, etc.

The civilizations also are similar, but vastly different. They each started with the same government and class structure, the same military structure, and the same sort of work structure that have all changed in different ways depending on the civilization.

Anyways, I’m going to leave this for now, I’ve already rambled on long enough, haha

[strangerivy]

Caught

Summary:  Born in the underground, you were doomed to die there. With your will to survive you tried to steal from Levi Ackerman, caught in the act he sees something in you, taking you in under his wing. It's been five years since then and you are loyal as ever to him and would follow him anywhere, even to the corps. Warnings: Swearing | Mild Violent Depictions Pairings: Levi Ackerman x Reader (y/n) Genre: 18+ | Tiny Amounts of Fluff  Word Count: 2.3k Author’s Note: My first Levi fic! I apologize if there is some inaccuracies I tried to find out as much info as I could on the AOT universe and the character backstories. For the sake of the stories Levi is 26 in this particular moment in time, which i believe is within rough estimate of what he would of been around this time and the reader is 24. As always I would love to hear what you guys think and if there is any scenarios you would like to see for a Levi fic just send me a message!

|| Masterlist | AOT Masterlist ||

Year 844 - Summer

The Underground. God, what a dump. But I guess you couldn’t complain too much, at least you had a roof over your head, and you ate alright compared to most in the underground. Of course, none of this would have been possible on your own. Levi was mostly the brains of everything. It was him who saw something in you when you tried to steal from him, offering a bed and food how could you say no? What he saw though? You still don’t know to this day and every time you ask; he just smirks and walks off without a word.

That was five years ago now and you were as loyal as ever to him. Of course, you did NOT appreciate how he made you scrub your body raw when he first brought you back to Furlan and his place throwing out your old, ripped clothes and exchanged them for new clean ones.

You launched your hooks of your ODM gear into a nearby building launching yourself forward, you eyed Levi through your hair seeing him shoot a glance at you before turning his attention back ahead. You looked over to your left at Isabel who gave you a beaming bright smile.

You were glad when she showed up on your guy's doorsteps only a few years ago now. It was nice having another girl around even though she was younger than you and had a more innocent look on the world despite living in the underground.

“Y/N,” Levi pulls you out of your thoughts and you look over at him with curious eyes, he doesn’t say anything but gestures with his head behind him. You look over your shoulder seeing what looks to be MP’s. Only this time, there seems to be more than the usual, and while the three in front were in their usual attire the four in the back had on emerald green cloaks with hoods that hid their faces. It seems that the honorary guest has finally arrived.

“Heh, military police again, it seems they never learn,” Isabel looked back looking rather bored at seeing the MP’s, but quickly looked up at Levi with a big smile, “Hey bro was that line cool or what?” She beamed, making you let out a small chuckle at how proud she was.

“Are you dense?” Levi answered plainly causing her to frown.

“Don’t worry Isabell, I thought it was pretty cool,” You smiled over at her and she grinned back at you. Levi took the lead, maneuvering his way around the tight corners of the buildings with ease, the rest of you easily following with your own individual flairs. Levi always said it looked like you were dancing when it came to how you moved in your ODM gear.

When Levi first introduced you to the ODM gear, you were skeptical, not sure if you would like to risk your life in the gear but after seeing Levi use the gear so easily you took him up on the training. Much to Levi’s surprise, you took to the gear with graceful ease.

Your group's quick maneuvering threw off the MP’s that we’re following you losing control of their ODM gear unable to make the sharp turn but the four with the cloaks made it with ease. You shot your hooks out pulling forward through another road ending up next to Furlan this time, Levi now right in front of the three of you after pulling a trick move on our four pursuers.

“That movement, those aren’t MP’s,” Furlan pointed out looking back at the group as they moved easily back onto your tail.

“No,” You agreed, Levi, looked back at you with a blank expression as if to check on you before turning forward again.

“It’s them,” Levi answered, Furlan, letting out a small gasp turning in his gear a little to get a better look at them, “It’s the wings of freedom crest otherwise known as the Survey Corps.”

You grimaced knowing now it was time for your plan to take action, you looked back at the cloaked group before turning back to Levi, you speed up a little on your gas to move beside him and he gave a nod.

“Seems these battle-ready soldiers are a cut above the rest, aye Levi?” Furlan asked with such confidence it made you smirk. Levi glanced over at you.

“You ready?” He asked and you gave a quick nod and then he looked back.

“You two, you know what to do?” Levi asked Furlan and Isabel.

“Of course,” Isabel confirmed, and I could hear the smirk in her voice. I watched as their cables released from the walls pulling back and heard their gear take off in opposite directions of each other shortly after I heard two of the corps people take off after them.

“Let’s see what they’ve got,” You said looking over at Levi with a smirk.

“Y/N,” You looked over at Levi to see he was already looking over at you, “Be careful,”

You shot him a smirk getting into position, “Always,”

You both released your hooks grappling into a nearby alley pulling yourselves faster letting the gear gracefully pull you through the air. Levi and you easily twisting through the air to avoid the clothing lines. Levi shot his hooks into an open window of a run-down building, disappearing with precise speed. You opted above, grappling to the top of the roof launching yourself quick into the air, quickly twirling into the direction you wanted before grappling to a building in the next street over.

You spotted Levi just below you but just before you were going to move down towards him you watched as one of the core members cut him off slamming into him making him lose his foot for a moment. You let out a growl pulling yourself forward to get to him but was suddenly knockdown by a body slamming into you. You let out a scream as you lost control of the gear hitting a canopy from a shop stall then falling on to the ground with a loud smack the air from your lungs pushed out of you with force.

You let out a couple of coughs from the impact getting air back into your lungs. You let out a groan as you sat up looking down the alley seeing Levi holding back one of the corps members. You went to move to get up before you were quickly grabbed, your arms held back behind you.

“Levi!” You yelled in a panic trying to fight off your captor, “Get your hands off me!” You screamed tugging at your wrist that was held with a firm tight grip. The sound of clanking metal coming from behind you. A moment later you felt the cool metal on your wrist and the click of the lock.

“Hey let me go! Asshole!” You looked up to see Isabel and Furlan brought into the alley from the two other corps members. Isabel kicking and screaming in chaotic Isabel fashion. Furlan standing there looking collected as ever.

Levi looked back at those two and then back towards you, his face relaxing but with a harsh glare towards the man and then his knife dropping to the ground as he surrendered. Your captor pushed you to move forward. The Scotts lined you up forcing you to your knees as who you assumed was their leader stood in front of you. A tall blonde hair blue-eyed man with an intense gaze but not as intimating as Levi’s. The man was a giant though compared to your 5”2’ stature and there was something about the way that he carried himself that made him look so determined like nothing could stop him from reaching whatever goal he set for himself.

He held up one of your ODM gears to the four of you. “I want to ask you a few questions, where did you get these?” he asked looking at the four of you but then landing on Levi where his gaze stayed. The four of you remained quiet, “Each one of you is pretty skilled, who was your instructor?” More silence from the four of you. The man remained calm taking a few steps forward stopping in front of Levi. You looked over at him with a sharp glare and he eyed you with a curious look before turning to look back at Levi.

“You must be their leader have you ever undertaken squad training before?” He asked directly to Levi now. Levi remained quiet his gaze never moving from the ground. After a minute of silence, a hand shot out into your view grabbing Levi tightly by the hair pulling him backward, and then slamming his face into the ground into a puddle soaking the ends of the collar of his shirt brown with the muddy water.

You let out a growl and fought your bindings to get to Levi, one of the other Corp members coming to hold your still by grabbing a hold of your arms.

“Get your hand off him,” You screamed with a protective rage.

“Asshole!” Isabel shouted angrily at the corps member. Levi struggled to turn his head out of the muddle shaking with anger as he glared up at the blonde.

“I’ll ask again, where did you learn to use the 3D maneuver gear?” Levi remained silent once again keeping his eyes trained on the man and vice versa. Never breaking their gaze from each other, almost as if they were challenging one another.

“Is it really that crazy?” Furlan shouted up at the blonde, “We’re self-taught!”

“Self-taught? That’s absurd,” The man said not believing what was the actual truth.

“We wanted to escape this place, something a man like you could never understand! You lived your whole life above ground while we suffered down here!” Furlan yelled at the man.

“Yeah, now take your filthy hands off of my bro!” Isabel yelled up at the man “Stop pretending to be all tough just because you’re soldiers,” The man hummed curiously looking up at the man who was holding Levi’s head down speaking to him silently. The one holding Levi down grabbed him by his hair lifting back him up.

The blonde kneeled to Levi looking at him curiously, “My name is Erwin Smith, what is your name?”

“Levi,” Levi spoke for the first time.

“Levi, I’m going to make you a deal,” the blonde, now known as Erwin, offered, Levi raised an eyebrow at him.

“A deal?” He questioned.

“We will let you and your group off the hook this time, I only ask for your strength.” Erwin paused his growing more serious as he stared down at Levi, “Join the Survey Corps, or else.” You all let out a gasp at the offer looking at Levi to see what his response was. But you already knew what it would be. The plan going well so far. You just need to keep playing the part.

Levi narrowed his eyes at Erwin, “Or else what?”

“You’ll be handed over to the military police and considering the length of your Rap Sheet. The military police will make sure you guys suffer far worse than anything down here.” Erwin walked back a few steps looking out into the underground before turning around with a knowing smirk, “You make the call Levi,”

Levi stayed silent staring up at Erwin, water dripping from the ends of his hair from the puddle he was shoved into. “Very well,” He agreed but a cold glare on his face towards Erwin showed his distrust to the man, “I’ll join the Survey Corps, you bastard.”

Your body tensed as the realization hit that the plan has worked so far but that also meant you were going to have to be a part of the military for a time. Levi was the first to have the cuffs removed and then you, Levi moved over to you kneeling, gently taking your hands turning them over to inspect your wrist.

“You alright?” He asked softly seeing the red marks on your skin left by the cuffs from you pulling on them, his thumb rubbing over them gently as to not irritate the skin more. You felt butterflies in your stomach as he broke his cold stare for a moment replaced with a warm caring gaze before helping you stand returning to back his usually unamused look before anyone else could see.

Except for Furlan that is, he was looking over at you with a knowing smirk as Levi went to check on Isabel. That kid didn’t miss a damn thing. You remember back to a night not too long after you agreed to join their group after living with them for a few months where he mentioned that Levi seemed to have a soft spot for you, you called him an idiot and he laughed waving you off. But since that night you couldn’t help but notice the small things he did differently with you.

You rubbed your wrist as he went to check on Isabel and Furlan. The Scouts lead you out of the underground and you paused as you were about to step out on the surface. You had to admit you were a bit nervous. You had never stepped outside and you honestly never thought you would. The underground was all you knew. It may have been full of struggle and holds some of your darkest memories, but it was familiar at least. You knew what to expect from your day-to-day life.

Isabel stopped next to you feeling your uneasiness, you looked over at her with a small frown upset with yourself for not being able to do something as easy as taking a step. She offered out her hand and you stared at it.

“Together?” She offered quietly with a toothy grin, you let out an uneasy breath with a slight nod grabbing hold of her hand as you both crossed the threshold to the surface together with a smile and chuckle. You looked up with bright eyes at Levi and Furlan who were standing there waiting for the two of you. Furlan with a bright smile and Levi with the hint of one his lip twitching up.

“Tch, idiots,”

|| Masterlist | AOT Masterlist ||

[vampyrsutton]

Flightless Raven

Hey all. This is a commission from @wombatking for an Injured!Raven X Starfire. There will be angst, but also fluff and quite a bit of info-dumping due to me doing a lot of research not wanting to mess up writing a disability. Links for that will be at the end for those interested! Enjoy!

“I got it!", Raven called as the beachball flew her way.

It was one of the Titans’ rare days off and Beast and Starfire had insisted they all go to the beach. Raven had pretended to protest when they tried to get her to leave the shade of her umbrella to come and play in the water, but she knew that the second her girlfriend turned her big green puppy eyes on her, she was getting in the water.

She jumped to hit the ball back to her team, but when she went to push off the seafloor, her foot found a patch of algae slick rocks and she went under. She immediately tried fighting to resurface, but a riptide caught her and fought against her to keep her under.

“Ra~n!” She could vaguely hear her teammates trying to reach her, and caught a flash of pink hair when she momentarily resurfaced only to be dragged down again.

She dared to open her eyes when under and spotted a green shark speeding towards her that she really should have recognized as Beast Boy, but in her panic, she didn’t and instead used her powers to propel herself away from the shark and, unfortunately, into a large rock.

Hard.

Raven blacked out. She would later recall the feeling of arms wrapping around her and hoisting her limp body from the water, then vague memories of beeping and her friends’ and girlfriend’s voices, but otherwise, nothing.

It wouldn’t be until several days later that she finally wakes up to a blinding light shining down on her. She immediately tries to shield her eyes from the harsh fluorescents, only to realize that she can’t. Raven begins to panic as she tried to feel if maybe she was strapped down, but all this did was make her realize she couldn’t feel her body from the neck down...no that wasn’t quite right. It felt like her whole body from the neck down fell asleep, but she can’t move anything to wake it back up.

She didn’t even hear Starfire’s excited rambling as she kept trying to move. The next thing she knows, she’s surrounded by her friends. She thinks Starfire is holding her hand, but she can’t feel it! Just a shift in the pins and needles feeling.

“Raven! You’re awake!” Robin smiles.

“RAVEN!” Cyborg was crying and snotting everywhere, but given the circumstances, no one really cares.

“I thought I didn’t get to you in time!” Beast Boy was in a similar state.

“Indeed, we were most worried!” Starfire sniffs, holding Raven’s hand to her chest protectively. The fact Raven could now see the hand was the only reason Raven could even tell.

Raven was still internally freaking out, but her friends’ combined chaos and talking over each other was oddly comforting, and grounded her enough for her to try speaking.

“Wha-?” She grimaces at how dry her throat is but tried again. “What happened?”

The fact that her voice sounded like a drunk asthmatic who just n a mile only worried her more as she slurred and wheezed through even those two words.

“You slipped on a rock we think, and the ripping tide kept you under,” Starfire answers, the only one close enough to hear her over the boys’ blubbering.

“I tried to get to you, but I think you were panicking ‘cause you blasted yourself away and knocked yourself out on a rock.” Beastboy jumps in, giving the underwater play-by-play through his worried blubbering. “I turned into a dolphin and sped us to shore.”

Their words lined up with what she could remember, but she still frowns. “I-... Why can’t I -- feel my body?-- It feels like--everything is asleep or-- I’m made of funny bones?”

Everyone looked away or down sadly making her panic return.

Robin was the one to sigh and speak up. “You hit the back of your neck on the rock. A few healing powers and experts have come through to try and heal the injury, but it’s such a precise spot that they couldn’t do anything.” Their leader slumps in defeat that mirrors Raven’s own. “I’m sorry to say, but you’re paralyzed from the neck down. C4 injury one of them said. The best we’ve been able to figure out is Gizmo and Cyborg collaborating to make you a wheelchair to try and give you some form of independence. Hopefully, your powers can fill in some gaps, but we don’t know if those have been affected too?”

Raven stares at him in horror before her eyes glow white and her hand black. They all watched as it seemed to move away from Starfire slightly before smacking limply back against her purple crop. A box of tissues flies across the room too. More things are thrown around the room within the next few minutes as Raven futilely tests the rest of her limbs, and just grows more and more frustrated when nothing moves more than a few inches before misfiring on something else. She is crying silent, defeated tears when a pair of scissors went flying and they finally beg her to stop. Starfire wraps her in a hug while being careful of her tubes, but that only makes her feel worse because She. Can’t. Hug. Back!

“What am I-- supposed to do…?” She wheezes into her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“You will be okay.” Starfire tries to assure. “We will figure this out.”

“How?!-- I can’t--move and my powers-- don’t work correctly!-- How am I-- supposed to do anything?-- What about missions?!”

“You will have to be off the field for a while like with any injury it will just be a bit longer than the average injury. I’m sure you’ll find a way to continue helping eventually.” Robin tries, not very good with these kinds of emotions, but wanting to be encouraging. Raven glares at him over Starfire’s shoulder in response though he so he just heads out the door. “I’ll go get Eir to check you over while I get the chair!” He announces before he can anger her more.

“He is just trying to help.” Starfire puts, knowing her girlfriend and friends well enough to know Raven did something to scare their leader away.

Raven uses the small amount of neck movement she has to try and turn her glare to the pinkette but just ends up pouting back instead before ultimately sighing. “I know. I think I’m-- allowed to be upset-- right now,-- but I shouldn’t-- take it out on him…”

“Exactly!” Starfire smiles before kissing the red gem on her forehead. “I am sure we will figure this out. I will be here to help as little or as much as you want me to the whole way too. ...Scratch at that as little or as much as you need me to. You are really very stubborn.” The alien girl glares playfully.

Raven can’t help but smile a little at the other calling her out. “I know when-- to ask for help, Star.”

“I am aware, but I also know you will not if it would injure your pride.” Starfire reminds.

Raven can’t help but chuckle at the call out even if she was still full of dread. “You know me too well.-- I trust you to-- keep my stubbornness-- in check then.”

“I will!” She smiles excitedly, happy she could make Raven smile even a little before pouting worriedly. “You will just make yourself more upset if we do not.”

Raven sighs, unable to deny it as a woman in a Norse-inspired costume that screamed healer walks in, shooing the boys out the door before turning to the couple.

“Good to see you’re awake, little bird.” The woman smiles at Raven before looking to Starfire for a moment before nodding. “I will allow you to stay if she prefers.”

Raven manages a weak imitation of a nod as she examines the newcomer who she assumes is Eir. Pretty blond curls, fierce green eyes, incredibly toned- could definitely kill a man with her thighs, bronze armor-inspired leather, shiny bronze sword on her hip. “She stays.” Raven croaks, wishing she could cuddle closer as the pinkette climbs into the bed next to her to hug her.

“Very well.” Eir smiles, a chart materializing in her hand. “So, I’ve been informed that you know the current situation. We were able to heal you enough to actually wake up, but given the delicate location of the injury, we were unable to do much else. I was told your powers are also misfiring? I have no way of knowing if that will stabilize or if you’re going to have to start over to get them back to where they were. We did witness your powers trying to heal you themselves and hypothesize that they might have healed something wrong in your teammates’ attempts to make sure you didn’t drown. You may be able to eventually gain enough movement for a simpler electric chair rather than the tube one the boys have made. Whether that be getting your fingers to move on a keypad or using your powers on a joystick, only time will tell. They also made a second one based on technology that is still being tested but has shown to be promising. They wanted your input first though before just giving you a tongue piercing to act as the joystick for the chair.”

Eir explains all of this while looking at Raven’s vitals and having Starfire help her to sit up to check he reactions and make sure there was no brain or general head injuries. Once she was satisfied with Raven’s state, all things considered, she nodded and cleared her to return to her room when ready.

“Any questions?” She asked as the chart vanished once more.

Raven was still in a state of shock as she flopped against her girlfriend who was already firing off questions.

“Are there any ways in which we can help? Are there any physical exercises I can help her do to help with the regaining of movements? What should we not do? Are there other difficulties we should look out for? What about the changing of clothes? Oh my glorb! Will she be able to swallow food? What about-”

“Whoa, whoa whoa!” Eir tried to calm the pinkette, holding up her hands in a placating manner. “One question at a time, sweethea-...” She noticed Raven’s glowing glare aimed at her. “-Starfire. What first?”

Starfire blinked her big green eyes in confusion when the healer seemed to stutter on her words, but shrugged it off. “Begin with the questions of how to help.”

The blonde nods. “While the physical and mental therapies are not my expertise, I know some people who can stop in and visit. The physical therapist can teach you all the exercises as well if that’s what Raven and your team want, but I highly suggest the psychologist be an ongoing thing especially with how closely linked her powers are to her emotions. It’s a big adjustment, and it’s only natural she has some feelings about it as well.” She realizes she’s talking as though Raven isn’t there, but taking one look at her shows the blunette has checked out so she continues. “Don’t let her be too stubborn and potentially hurt herself more, but if she wants alone time, let her have it and just give her a way of calling for someone. She gives off loner energy? Am I correct?”

Starfire nods in response, looking at Raven fondly as she pets through dark blue hair. “It took a long time for her to open up to us, yes. Especially me, but Beast Boy called that a ‘Gay Panic?’. She would usually be meditating, and it was very exciting when she would let me join her.”

“That’s perfect. This will be a very overwhelming time so allow her the alone time to breathe and center herself. Don’t be overbearing either. She seems like a very independent person so while there is a lot she won’t be able to do by herself, don’t go treating her like a baby. Either be casual about helping, or let her ask. Oh! And help her practice with her powers again. It could be good bonding time too for not only you two but the team as well.” Eir sighs now. “As for added difficulties...she will need help moving position every now and then to not develop sores. She will need the ventilator to breathe or she can get an Avery Diaphragm Pacing System as a less cumbersome option. She should be able to swallow, but should still be monitored just to be safe. She will need help with clothing. It is up to her who does it and the physical therapists will show you how in case there are certain ways...I would probably suggest investing in looser clothing than a skin-tight leotard.”

Starfire frowns worriedly, looking down at Raven and finally noticing she’s checked out. She nudges her lightly and repeats everything. “What are your thoughts?” She asks softly.

Raven just blinks tiredly before sighing. “The Aviary Stage-- Pacer Test-- or whatever-- sounds good...and the tongue piercing.-- I want to be-- as independent as possible.-- Might as well --while I’m here, right?” She says with a dry laugh.

Starfire hugs her close at the defeated sound before looking back up at Eir. “I suppose she will be staying a bit longer then?”

Eir smiles sadly, nodding. “Yes. Luckily none of the medics and healers have left yet so she should have basically no recovery time on the Avery. Cyborg and Gizmo went a little crazy on the tongue controls so any color or charm you may want?”

Raven tries to shrug before scowling when she remembers that she can’t. “I guess just match-- them to the rest of the-- jewels on my outfits.” She mutters.

“They figured you’d say that. I’ll leave all of you with care instructions then, and the boys went wild with making you tech in general so we don’t even have to wait for the part to come in. I’ll go get the needed material, and we’ll get started right away.” Eir nods to Raven before looking to Starfire. “I’ll let you stay here until I come back with the team and we wheel her out.” She hums before walking out.

Starfire notices Raven’s muscles spasming and as she looks at the paler girl’s face, she knows she would have deflated if she could and assumes that’s what the spasming is. “Oh, Raven.” She sighs, hugging her close. Her arm muscles spasm again and a frustrated groan sends objects crashing around the room.

Starfire shushes her softly as she wraps Raven’s arms around her since the bluenette can’t on her own. Raven lets out a sigh, mumbling her thanks. “That’s going to-- be what irritates me-- the most.”

“I know. You have a rather grumpy outside, but you start most of the acts of physical affection. I will do my best to make up for it.” Starfire smiles, pulling away just enough so Raven can see her face. “I think I have become rather good at reading your face.”

Raven can’t help but smile at her girlfriend’s words. “Huh,-- I must be going-- soft then if I’m-- that easy to read.”

Starfire bumps their noses together, trying for teasing when she giggles. “Not at all. You are still very much an intimidating force of darkness.”

Raven chuckles. “You are-- a terrible liar.”

Starfire fake gasps. “I am doing no such thing. I am sure you will look even more so with your new piercing, too.” Her eyes light up as she beams. “Like a dark queen on her iron throne!”

Raven winces, but still can’t help the exasperated exhale that might have been a shocked chuckle. “You-- and your optimism.” She utilizes her little neck movement to touch their foreheads together. “Thank you.-- I’ll be-- needing that.”

Starfire giggles at Raven’s little act of affection and smiles at her fondly. “I will do my best in keeping it up then for my Dark Queen. Good thing I began joining you in meditation after the Puppet Master incident. I can assist you in your exercises if you get stuck in your head.”

Raven smiles at her girlfriend as Eir walks back in with a few other people. “Please don’t make that-- a new pet name.” She sighs in fake exasperation as she’s laid back on the bed. “Thank-- you, though.”

“I will be here when you return.” The pinkette smiles lovingly before putting on a fake stern face. “Do not attempt to intimidate the doctors.”

“No promises,” Raven smirks as she’s wheeled out of the room, and can’t help her fond sigh as she hears her girlfriend’s scolding huff from down the hall.

~~~

“Ra-n...Raven...Raven! Can you hear us?”

Raven grumbles at someone calling for her to wake up and attempts to pull the blanket over her head. When she can’t, she has a repeat of her first reaction when she woke up the first time before memories come rushing back and she groans, coughing at the sound.

“It wasn’t a dream was it?” She still sounds scratchy and horse but less out of breath and instead just sounding a little slurred.

“No. Unfortunately, it was not.” Starfire sighs. “I am sorry.”

A rush of emotions comes cascading over Raven, and she groans again. “Don’t freak out, I just don’t have any other ideas of how to deal with this. Can you guys step outside?”

Everyone looks at her in concern, but Starfire just nods, having been watching her closely. “Yes, of course. Be careful to not injure yourself.” She smiles in what she hopes is a comforting way before turning to the healers and tech gurus in the room. “Out.” She’s still smiling sweetly even as her hands glow green making everyone run out.

Starfire leans down to kiss Raven on the forehead. “Call us when you are ready,” before following the others out the door and shutting it behind her.

For the next few minutes, they all hear choked off, rasped out screaming, and things crashing. Luckily nothing sounds too heavy, but the healers are still looking at Starfire and Cyborg in concern. Eventually, it goes quiet and it’s only thanks to someone’s enhanced hearing that they hear Raven tell them to come back in.

Starfire floats to her girlfriend’s side, once again careful of her machines as she settles next to her for comfort while everyone else files back into the room in states of confusion and shock. The room was a disaster zone of papers and lightweight items, and it was obvious to everyone that she had let loose with her powers and screaming, the loss of control probably being the only thing keeping the heavy machines safe.

“Do you feel better, Raven?” Starfire asks, brushing the other’s sweat-coated hair out of her face.

“It helped.” Raven sighs even raspier before moving her eyes to the healers. “So did it work?”

The healers were either blinking in shock or trying to make sense of the paperwork until finally, Eir stepped forward. “Um, yes. Everything seems to be working well, and I guess we can count,” she gestures to the chaos around her, “that as a success for the Pacer. Between your own enhanced healing and the healers on hand, recovery time isn’t really an issue. We should test the chair controls though if you’re up for it. I’m sure the boys did great, but this is still not exactly widespread tech, and you need to get used to the controls. So what do you say?”

Raven’s eyes move to the chair in the corner that was saved from her wrath only by its weight. “Might as well.”

“Excellent, let’s get you transferred over then.” Eir nods, stepping aside to introduce the physical therapist before going to retrieve the rest of the team so they could learn as well.

Once the team is gathered, they’re shown how to go about transferring Raven from bed to chair and back. She agrees to let them practice a few times for the sake of everyone involved but asks if she can wait until tomorrow to start learning the chair. Her human interaction meter is officially tapped.

“I really just want to go back to my room.” Raven sighs.

“We were honestly surprised you gave them time to practice. Go on and get some rest, hun. I’ll be back in the morning.” The physical therapist, Thadius, grins, getting her settled in the chair once more. “At least your girlfriend has super-strength so you don’t have to play wrecking ball again. “

Raven manages to smile fondly if not tiredly. “Yeah, I’m a little tired of the sling...See you tomorrow I guess.”

Starfire takes this as her cue to help wheel her out while saying good night to the others. “Do not let the bed bugs bite.” She smiles on the way.

Raven gives a tired hum before letting her head flop back the second they’re out the door. “Too many people.” She groans.

“You did wonderously, though! To be truthful, I thought you would have snapped sooner, but you stayed nice the whole time.” Starfire smiles down at her.

“I got most of it out when screaming earlier.” The darker of the two admits.

“I thought that would be of help.” The pinkette nods, opening Raven’s door. “Would you like me to stay or would you like to be alone?”

“Affection,” Raven mumbles, trying to call her pajamas to her out of habit, but instead smacking Starfire in the face with them. “Uggggh! ...Sorry.”

“You are alright. I saw them begin to glow.” Star just smiles, unfolding the PJs before pausing with a frown. “We forgot to ask about the changing of clothes.”

Raven just groans. “See if BlueTube has anything.”

“Oh! That is a good idea!” The other perks back up as she brings out her communicator and starts tapping away. “...I have found a woman assisting her husband.” Sound starts coming from the phone’s speaker. “It seems to be like the sling.”

“Do whatever you have to. I just want to sleep.”

“Alright.” Starfire nods in determination, switching the hoodie for an equally soft button-up pajama top before carefully pulling Raven forward to rest against her. She hesitates before undoing the hospital gown but mentally shakes herself. ‘You are just helping.’ She lets the top of the gown drop to Raven’s lap before she pulls the shirt around and gets her arms in, letting her rest once more to button the front. Pants are a slightly more awkward ordeal that requires a different video, but soon enough Raven is in her PJs and being placed in bed with necessary machines to the side.

“That was not too bad.” Starfire grins excitedly, proud of herself as she turns off the lights before floating over to snuggle against her girlfriend.

“Yeah...thought it would be more difficult.” Raven yawns. “Do I need anything else?”

“Uhhhh…” Starfire lets go and there is a light and more tapping. “Allow me to grab more pillows.” She says before floating around the room and disappearing to hers for a moment before coming back. “Some more padding is needed in bonier areas.”

“So all of me?” Raven chuckles.

“Only at your joints. How did Beastboy say it?” Starfire hums as she floats around placing pillows where needed. “Buff big tiddie goth girlfriend.”

If the lights were on, Starfire would be able to see Raven’s face flame red. “Please never repeat anything he says ever again. I wish I could smack him.”

“He is only joking.” Starfire giggles, settling next to her once more and cuddling her close. “Would you like me to throw a pillow at him in the morning?”

“Have I mentioned I love you?” Raven sighs happily.

“Love you, too.” Starfire giggles, kissing her cheek before they settle down and are asleep soon after.

~Six Months Later~

“Four goons around the next left corner, Robin.” Raven hums through her mouthpiece as she scans her various screens. Fingers typing at a keyboard as she uses her piercing to switch through screens.

As soon as she had the hang of her new tongue controls, she immediately started plotting with Cyborg on how she could still help. She learned they could adjust her headgear to more of a braces setup and program each tooth to a different command. Once they had this established, Cyborg went wild on making her little camera companions of ravens and spiders and really any creature that fit her aesthetic. With these, she could now stay at the tower and act as surveillance through the eyes of her robotic pets, and sometimes lend a hand in terms of her giant black wolfhound going feral or her raven swooping down to peck and claw. She had to say, having a half-robot with robotics knowledge as a close friend definitely had its perks.

With physical therapy, she had at least regained movement in her hands and forearms and could sometimes get her leg to jerk out when one of the boys was being annoying or the dog AI Cyborg installed in her hound wanted to play. She also had more range of motion to her neck to be able to see all her screens so got to see the sharp jab Robin delivered to a goon’s gut as his boomerang took out another.

“Thanks, Raven.” He buzzes through the earpiece.

“Yeah...duck.” She warns.

She switches to Starfire’s screen after assuring that Robin had his end covered. “Hey.”

“Raven!” The pinkette whisper-cheers. “How are things?”

“Everyone has their wings covered. Everything is good on my end. I just wanted to check on my pretty girlfriend.” Raven smiles calmly.

She hears a small squeak from the other end and can see Star’s eyes glow a little brighter. “I am still un-used to you being so openly affectionate.” Starfire giggles.

“I have a form of control of my powers again and pillows always within reach of them. No one is going to dare say anything, and you were there for the existential crisis of almost losing each other. You’ve helped me through all of this including bathing and other things. I appreciate it, I have to make sure you know that.” She chuckles. “Plus you’re cute when you blush.”

There’s another embarrassing squeal as Starfire floats more to the ceiling, and they can hear exasperated groans.

“You know you’re on the public line, right?” Beastboy groans.

“And?” Raven quirks a brow on her end.

“Leave it, dude. She’ll send her spiders in your room again.” Cyborg warns.

“...Nothing.” Beastboy sighs. “Am I clear up ahead? He reeks in here and it’s messing with my nose.”

Raven looks to his screen, tapping her left incisor to zoom in. “I don’t see anything…” She swipes the same tooth and the heat sensor turns on. “No heat signatures. You’re good.”

“Thanks, man.” His buzzing cutting out.

“You’re good, too, Cyborg, though stay closer to the walls. There’s a leaky pipe and I think you’re waiting on sealant?”

“Thanks, Raven! You rock!” He whisper-grins before his buzzing leaves too.

“What did we say about threatening the boys with mechanical bugs?” An almost smug smile can be heard through Starfire’s connection.

“...Only for major offenses.” Raven huffs.

“Teasing us for being sappy is not one.” Starfire giggles.

Raven just huffs before an explosion happens on Robin’s line and they all jump into action with Raven’s raven flying over head all the while.

~~~

“We have returned!” Starfire cheers as the team enters the common room, everyone covered in soot and grime.

“Hey.” Raven smiles as she turns her chair to faces the others, a fluffy black cat robot in her lap for the aesthetic of it.

The boys give various greetings and words of thanks before excusing themselves to clean up.

Starfire stays behind to float over to her girlfriend for a kiss. “You did amazing, Raven!” She smiles fondly at the other.

Raven’s cheeks flush slightly but she returns the smile nonetheless. “Thanks. You guys did, too.”

“And it is thanks to you.”

“Nah, I just fill in the gaps. You guys do most of the work.”

Starfire pouts as she boops her girlfriend’s nose. “Beastboy would have been stab if your raven did not swoop in to rescue him.”

“Hmm, really? I didn’t notice. Just felt like clawing that guy’s face.” She smirks, knowing it’s riling the other up.

“One of these days you will admit you like his company.” Starfire sighs, picking the other up to go to Raven’s room, but has really become more their shared room.

“I would say when pigs fly, but I think he could make that happen.” Raven sighs in mock defeat, letting the limbs she has movement in flop dramatically.

“If not him then most likely Cyborg.” The pinkette agrees as Raven uses her powers to open the door ahead of them.

“They would work together on it,” Raven adds as she and her machines are placed on the bed.

“I have no doubts.” Starfire giggles as she gets some of her clothes to go use the shower. “Would you like me to help you take one as well?”

Raven chuckles at the mental image of Cyborg trying to strap a jet pack to a green pig before the nods. “I’d like that, yeah.”

The pinkette grabs one of the long cloaks Raven has switched to and taking them to the bathroom before collecting her girlfriend once more. “You can practice on the bathing products some more.” She smiles.

“As long as you don’t try to switch my pomegranate shampoo out for your strawberry again.” Raven smirks, knowing full well she didn’t mean to the first time.

“That was an accident!” Starfire whines before the door seal them away, leaving them alone in their own little world.

~~~

Further Info I myself am not disabled so feel I should offer the research I used

J Kim, et al “The Tongue Enables Computer and Wheelchair Control for People with Spinal Cord Injury,” (Science Translational Medicine, 2013). http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.3006296

https://www.flintrehab.com/paralyzed-from-the-neck-down/

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15345-paralysis

[spooks-and-tea]

Entangled (Spencer Reid x femReader) [Ch.11] The Final Chapter.

Summary: You don’t know how it happened. One moment you were watching Criminal Minds, and the next moment you were literally in the show. Can Spencer be the key to helping you find your way back home?

Warnings: minor character death, mentions of su*cide, bad explanations of quantum mechanics, bad words, sexual situations (some non-con), the usual criminal minds-type content

A/N: Some big bad interrogation Spencer vibes. Thanks for reading. This chapter was short, so I just decided 2 chapter posts in one day. Let me know what you thought of the story~Pleeeeease no one repost on other sites without my permission.

Word Count: 2,015

Chapter 1.  Chapter 2.  Chapter 3.  Chapter 4. Chapter 5.  Chapter 6.  Chapter 7.  Chapter 8.  Chapter 9.  Chapter 10.  Chapter 11.  

************************************************************************After Spencer had disappeared, JJ was surprised, to say the least.

She held the unsub by the cuffs as he angrily spoke about Spencer's big genius brain solving an equation in 2 minutes which had taken himself a lifetime of work to figure out. She asked him where the machine had taken Spencer and he replied with all of this talk about quantum mechanics, particle waves, split dimensions, and voids. Stuff that Spencer had been info-dumping about for months, regarding the case.

All JJ cared to know about was if Spencer was safe, and to that the unsub just shrugged.

The first thing the team did when you all returned to the BAU was throw the unsub into an interrogation room.

Spencer was quick to volunteer as the only interrogator in the room, he argued this unsub would react the strongest to him.

The rest of the team were still flustered from all of this inter-dimensional information that Spencer had gone on about on the ride back. You had backed him up wholeheartedly and you were seemingly in great health after being gone for 5 months.

"Alright Reid, you seem to be the only one of us that has a good idea of what's going on. We'll watch from here, and if he gets too aggressive, we'll send someone else in," Hotch agreed.

You watched from the double sided mirror, the unsub was looking at it as if he could see you. You clenched your fists. He was the reason you'd nearly lost Spencer. He was the reason that Spencer looked sick from overworking and you had nightmares for 5 months straight.

"Hey, will you be okay in here?" Spencer lowered his voice to ask you. You had refused to stop holding his hand since you got here. He noticed your fist clenching tighter.

"I don't want him to take you away from me again," you replied.

"He's in handcuffs, and his machine is being collected for evidence. He isn't a wizard, he needs that machine like Nikola Tesla needs an inductor. He can't hurt us anymore," Spencer tried to comfort you, using the soft tone he knew you loved.

"Just don't take too long in there, and give him hell for me, alright?" You stood on your toes and kissed him.

He gave you a small smile and nodded.

You slowly slid your hand from his as he turned to walk out.

When he entered the interrogation room, he was no longer soft-Spencer.

The unsub didn't even turn to look at him, he was fixated on the double mirror. His eyes unnerved you.

You crossed your hands over your chest and leaned against the wall, deciding to keep your eyes steadily on Spencer.

"We know who you are." Spencer spoke. You smiled, recognizing that Spencer was turning the unsub's words to you against him.

Was Spencer purposefully trying to make you happy while he was in the middle of an interrogation?

"I know who you are as well, Dr. Reid," his gritty voice made your skin crawl.

"Good, then you should know that I understand the significance of the science experiments you've been conducting, Dr. Arnold Lynch. You've been labeled as a dangerous person to the entire world; a mad scientist." Spencer sat in a chair, his arms crossed.

"Now they listen." Lynch, rolled his eyes, finally looking at Spencer. His unimpressed gaze trailed up and down, sizing him up.

"I was like you once. Young, an impressive mind; maybe if I had found her sooner she would have loved me." Lynch added. He looked back to the mirror, you tasted bile at the back of your throat.

Spencer leaned forward in his chair, putting his elbows on the table.

"You're trying to change the subject." Spencer pointed out. "Tell me how all of this started. Tell me where your partner, Dr. Deborah Tryst, is hiding and how she helped you."

Lynch's eyes widened. "We were colleagues. She helped me build the machine, and I wrote the equations that made it work. We went in together, the first time."

"She tested the machine with you?" Spencer asked.

"Yes, we experimented. We tried to study the void space for years. Then, one day, a crack formed. Through that crack I saw her." The unsub looked towards you, seemingly locking eyes with you through the one-way glass.

"Y/N?" Spencer clarified.

"Correct. She was spectacular, the girl from a parallel dimension. We didn't know why the crack revealed her at first, but then we saw the string. It was barely noticeable, like a fishing line. It led from her dimensional crack to ours. All it took was a tug on that wire to know who the other end of that line connected to."

He was watching me? What a sick creep!

"Who?"

"Don't play stupid with me Doctor, I know you feel it."

Spencer swallowed, his eyes flicking to you for a moment.

"I should have gotten rid of you when I had the chance. My colleague thought differently. Now that the cracks were open, she observed you both, she knew you both would feel-" he sighed, "-incomplete until you were in the same space. She decided to play matchmaker and ruin everything. I loved Y/N first. Y/N was mine and she was a beacon, a magnificent anomaly! I took her back so she could be my pet; so she would never be yours!" He angrily spat, slamming his fists onto the table. Spencer stood, seething. You felt similarly.

"You had no right!" Spencer's voice was deep and angry. You'd never heard him so angry, other than in the show.

"No, Tryst had no right bringing her to you in the first place!"

"Y/N wants to be here. This is her decision. If you're so convinced you love her, you would want what is best for her."

"What's best for her Dr. Reid, or what's best for you? Is she any better off fighting criminals for the BAU? A job she isn't trained for." He cruelly laughed. "Is putting her in danger just so you can fuck her every once in a while off-duty not selfish? You think I'm the selfish one, look at yourself. You're just expecting her to be the lawful Bonnie to your Clyde, how long until you drive her into a hail of bullets?" Lynch smirked.

Spencer's eyes widened and he gripped the table.

No Spence, don't let him get to you.

"That's it, I'm going in there." Morgan spoke up next to you.

Hotch held his hand up to block him; his eyes on Spencer. "Wait, let Spencer speak. He's getting the unsub to talk, and that's good."

Spencer quickly collected himself, his expression going blank.

"Where is Dr. Deborah Tryst?" Spencer asked.

"Ooh, did I strike a chord, Doctor?" Lynch chuckled, leaning back in his chair.

"Where is Dr. Deborah Tryst?" Spencer repeated, angrier.

"Probably playing matchmaker. There are an infinite amount of dimensions for her to play with." Lynch shrugged.

"She's still in the void?"

"Yup, she's the reason the crack sealed when you two went through. She trapped herself in there and made sure I could never go back. Whatever she's doing, we'll never know for sure because it is impossible to recreate the initial crack. You should know just how improbable it was to create one in the first place, Dr. Reid."

"So there is no further possibility of danger?"

"Not cosmically, but, for our impossible girl over there, who knows what kind of dangerous situations you will put her in." Lynch nodded to the double mirror.

"She is not yours and she will never be yours. We're putting you in a maximum security prison where you will never see her again. So you can sit in your cell for the rest of your life and remember that she's with me, not you." Spencer's eyes darkened. You wanted to end this fight and get him out of there. He was only getting angrier.

Hotch walked through the interrogation room door, holding it open. "Reid," was all he said.

That was it, Spencer had gotten a lengthy confession from the unsub. The details would come up during his trial.

Spencer stood up, not caring about the wobbling chair as he did so. He walked out of the room and you went to the hallway to meet him. You met him as he was stomping down the hall away from you. "Spencer!" You called, hurrying to follow him.

He made his way inside an empty meeting space and you quickly slipped in behind him; closing the door.

He loosened his tie and ran his hands through his hair. You let him cool off for a few moments.

"He's right. I am selfish." He sounded beyond angry, even guilty.

He leaned forward on the meeting table, clenching his fists against the wood.

"He was just trying to get the last word in. Don't pay his words any more attention." You spoke, softly; placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You shouldn't work here. You're not properly trained for the high-intensity, high-risk situations."

"Then I can train. Anyways, I doubt Hotch is going to let me work here now that he knows," you said, sadly. You loved working here. You loved helping people and being with your BAU family. You loved Spencer's daily teasing.

"Being with me puts you in enough danger. I couldn't protect you. What's stopping something from happening to you again?" He looked up at you, though he was still hunched over the table.

"All the other times you protected me." You gave him a small smile. "When Chris threatened me, you confronted him. When I jumped into the lake, you stopped me from drowning. When I was stuck in my dimension, you rescued me from a life of being absolutely miserable without you. When the unsub first encountered us, you stood in front of me even though you couldn't see him. You've protected me far more times than you are choosing to acknowledge. I trust you with my life, Spence."

Spencer's shoulders fell as his breath evened out.

"I love you Y/N, I just don't want you to get hurt." Spencer whispered, his grip on the table loosening. He slowly stood up straight to look at you.

"We aren't some alternate justice-duo, Bonnie and Clyde. We're perfectly capable of protecting each other, and we aren't some crazy serial-killing, bank-robbing couple. We're Spencer and Y/N, the BAU's hottest couple." You spoke with exaggeration and winked.

Spencer gave you a small smile. His hair was a mess, his clothing was wrinkled, and his tie was undone.

"It's been a long day. Take me home?" You asked, giving him your best doe-eyes as you reached up to fix his tie.

"Oh. About that- you're apartment and all your money and assets are sorta gone now. You were presumed dead."

"I'm not talking about that place." You rolled your eyes; unaffected by the news.

You were used to being dirt poor anyways and that house was nothing but an empty shell.

"Home, with you," you explained.

"Oh."

Spencer broke out into a large grin. He wrapped his arms around your waist and pulled you into a kiss. His coffee and woodsy-vanilla scent enveloped you like a warm hug. When he pulled away, he held his hand out to you.

"Come on then, I'll take you home."

Home, it was a strange concept. Your now-empty apartment in your dimension was once your home. You'd once almost drowned yourself to try to get back to that place.

Then you fell in love with Spencer, and living with him made you discover what a home truly was. It wasn't where you were from, it was the place you loved to be; the place you felt most comfortable, the most yourself.

Your home was in Spencer's dimension, Spencer's apartment, Spencer's arms, Spencer's everyday gestures, Spencer's smile, Spencer's late night chess games, Spencer's "I love you's," Spencer's raspy morning voice, Spencer's unruly hair, Spencer's hand kisses, Spencer's scrunched nose ticks, Spencer's info-dumps, Spencer's everything.

It was the most improbable circumstance and the one thing you were most thankful for. You got to spend your new life with Spencer.

In the end, Spencer Reid kept his promise; he did help you find your way home. Your way home to him.

[spaceskam]

anon prompt: I don't suppose you'd be willing to write a coda to your own little "spite" fic, would you? Something like how Maria finds out Michael spent the night with Forrest and Alex and gets mad about it, but they're like "not everything is about sex you know." If you don't want to, that's cool. Just thought I'd ask lol

follow up to this; it’s a mix of this prompt and just straight-up self-indulgence that has been on my mind since I finished the original

ao3

Michael woke up slow, his mind reminding him that he was snuggled into Alex and, thus, making him really not want to move.

He could hear Alex breathing and feel his heart beating, all the best signs that he was doing great. Michael’s hand was still pressed over his stitches and the hand print that he didn’t even have to open his eyes to know had fully formed. He could feel that too. Loving Alex was never as easy as it was in that moment when he knew without a shadow of a doubt that Alex loved him right back, even though he was still sound asleep.

However, Michael smelled coffee and eggs and, well, he hadn’t fucking eaten anything in a day. So he opened his eyes and reluctantly peeled away from Alex, looking over him to make sure he was okay. He looked more peaceful than Michael had ever seen him. Still, he peeled his hand away from his stitches and moved it to his forehead, checking for a fever. He couldn’t really tell, but he didn’t feel any hotter than he normally did so that felt like a good sign. 

A stupid part of his brain wanted to kiss him awake or just kiss him in general, but that wasn’t an option when Alex’s boyfriend was in the next room. So he didn’t, just let his hand slowly trace over his cheek and his jaw before pushing himself up.

The old mattress creaked no matter how careful he moved and Forrest’s head popped out from the kitchen. 

“Morning,” Forrest called, smiling softly before he disappeared back into the kitchen. Michael got up, his back hurting just a little bit from such a shitty mattress. That is to say, it wasn’t his shitty mattress, so his back wasn’t quite used to it yet.

“Morning,” Michael said, clearing his throat as he pulled himself into the kitchen. It was old and underused, but Forrest had still managed to put together a breakfast. “Where’d all this stuff come from?”

“Uh, I took your truck, hope you don’t mind, but there’s a farm about a mile from here and I know one of the farmhands, so I asked to borrow some stuff,” he said simply. Michael eyed him and then the carton of eggs, the coffee grounds, the perfect procured bacon, fresh milk, and presumably gas for the generator if the working stove said anything.

“You used to sleep with a farmhand who just gives you shit without question?” Michael clarified. Forrest grinned and shrugged his shoulders.

“You have your ways, I have mine.”

“Hey, I’m not arguing.”

Michael poured himself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, watching Forrest layout bacon on the pan like he’d done this a million times. And maybe he had. Michael wasn’t sure what a typical morning after with Forrest Long might’ve looked like.

“How are you feeling?” Forrest asked, looking over at him. Michael had to blink a few times before he realized he was talking to him. Right, he actually wanted an answer.

“Uh, my head’s still a little fucked and my back hurts from that mattress, but otherwise I’m more worried about Alex,” Michael admitted. Forrest nodded. He cleared his throat. “A-and you. How are you? Are you okay? Yesterday was a lot.”

“I’m okay,” Forrest sighed, “Still processing the alien thing, I guess, but I can wait for more information later. And it’s not every day your boyfriend gets kidnapped and then presumably kills four guys with his bare hands and one leg.”

“Yeah, Alex is a badass,” Michael laughed softly. Forrest nodded.

“You got that right,” he huffed, “I knew that, but I guess I never really... knew it. Like I was aware that he was pretty decently high ranking for his age and that he was apart of special intelligence ops and stuff, but he’s... Is he gonna be okay? Is this gonna fuck with him mentally?”

Michael shook his head slightly. “No. Alex only would’ve done that if they were going to do something much worse. He would’ve only subdued them unless they were doing something actually harmful. I think he’ll be okay. Might take a little reassuring, but he’ll be okay.”

Forrest flipped the bacon and nodded, thinking it over. Michael just watched him for a moment while he sipped his coffee before peeking back out to check on Alex. He was still sound asleep. It was probably the longest Alex had ever slept at one time.

“I checked his stitches,” Forrest said suddenly.

“You did?” Michael asked hesitantly. In the info dump of alien bullshit, Michael hadn’t really gone over the concept of a hand print.

“Yeah, both of you slept a lot harder than I did. Kept waking up, so I just made sure you were both breathing and that Alex wasn’t bleeding,” he explained. Michael held his breath subconsciously, not really understanding how someone just casually woke up to make sure he was still breathing. For Alex, yes. But for him? “So, uh... The hand print.”

“The hand print,” Michael repeated. Forrest started separating the eggs and bacon on three separate plates, each of them seeming to be made of wood. “Uh, we don’t really know why it leaves one when we heal people. The working hypothesis is that we’re giving so much of ourselves that it sort of... leaves a trace.”

“So it’s not gonna hurt him?”

“No, he’ll be okay.”

“And you? Does it hurt you?” he asked, turning and handing him a plate. Michael grabbed it and furrowed his eyebrows, staring at him for an extended amount of time. Forrest didn’t seem phased as he waited for an answer. “Does it hurt you?”

“Um,” Michael said, “Not... not really.” He tilted his head in concern, but Michael spoke again before he got the chance. “I’m sorry, I’m just still confused. Why do you care about me? I know you said that I take care of Alex, you take care of me, but... I’m Alex’s ex. I still love him. You should hate me.”

Forrest laughed and shook his head, putting his and Alex’s plate down and using his hand to touch Michael’s arm gently as if he was about to make a very important point that Michael should listen to. So, obviously, he did. 

“Let me explain it like this. You’ve both been through more shit than I can even imagine and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that neither of you have had a real safe space before. And, well, you love Alex and Alex loves you. You protect him and he protects you and, fuck, you both protected me. That’s what you do for people you love, isn’t it? Yesterday was scary and we only made it out because it was all three of us, that makes us family. I take care of family, so let me do what I can since I don’t have superpowers or, special training like you and Alex,” Forrest explained. It still didn’t really compute as he stared blankly at him. Forrest rolled his eyes. “I care about you, Michael, stop questioning it. Eat.”

Michael stood there, feeling frozen in place as Forrest just picked the plates back up and walked into the living room. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel or respond to that. Alex’s boyfriend liked him. Not in a I-Wanna-Sleep-With-You way, but in a You’re-Safe-Here way. Was he allowed to like that? Would Alex be mad if he did?

He blinked away tears that threatened to fall and turned to go eat breakfast with the two of them. 

Alex was sitting up against the two pillows the three of them had shared the night before, bare shoulders seeming that healthy color with the sun peering through the windows instead of how pale he’d looked when he was hurt. That helped Michael breath a bit better and he sat cross-legged on Alex’s left side, across from where Forrest sat on his right.

“Morning,” Alex said, reaching out to touch his arm as if he couldn’t help himself. Michael’s eyes drifted to Forrest who didn’t seem phased. He couldn’t understand why he wasn’t jealous. He had to remind himself that he wasn’t all that jealous either for once. 

“Morning,” Michael told him, eyes scanning over his face to make sure he was okay, “How are you feeling?”

“Good,” Alex admitted, picking up a piece of bacon and biting into it, “Better than I should be after getting stabbed.”

“Stabbed? I thought it was a GSW,” Forrest said, leaning forward and pressing his fingers around the slightly swollen area that was glowing with Michael’s hand print. Seeing him touch it, feeling him secondhand, made Michael feel like getting caught in a wave in the middle of the ocean. He was just drowning in feelings he didn’t understand. He had to take a deep breath to bring himself back.

“I think it was both?” Alex said far too casually, touching the stitches himself. Again, Michael got taken out by a wave. “Yeah, one of ‘em shot me and then his buddy stabbed me to make it something that couldn’t be fixed. Clearly they forgot I have good company.”

“Jesus, Alex,” Forrest sighed, shaking his head, “You will never fail to impress me.”

“Good,” Alex said with an easy smile. Michael watched them share a kiss, something short and not meant to hurt him and it didn’t. But it made him feel like his skin was on fire. “Sorry, Guerin, you okay? You feel weird.”

“Hmm?” Forrest hummed, looking between the two of them, “Feel? Is that what you meant by not really?”

“Not really what?” Alex asked. There was too much attention on him and Michael looked away. He didn’t really know how to explain himself. “Hey,” Alex said, his hand going to his chin and making him look at him, “What’s wrong?”

“I think I should go talk to Maria,” he said. Alex’s hand immediately dropped and hurt washed through his system.

“Oh, okay,” he said, clearing his throat. Forrest’s eyebrows knitted together, tilting his head. “Are you gonna come back?”

“Um,” Michael said, looking between the two of them before nodding, “Yeah, I’ll be back in a couple hours. Call me if you need me.”

Michael got up, plate still in hand, as he quickly slipped on his boots and headed out of the door. He needed to think things over. Mainly why the hell he didn’t hate Forrest right now.

He made it about halfway to his truck before he heard footsteps and his name being called. He couldn’t explain why, but he turned to give Forrest his attention.

“If I made you uncomfortable, I’m sorry,” Forrest said, “But Alex is on painkillers that make him emotional and you hurt his feelings.”

“Yeah, I can feel it, thanks for letting me know,” Michael said. Forrest stepped up to him and cautiously took the plate from him, hands brushing deliberately.

“It’ll be here when you get back,” he said, “I’m sorry if I crossed a line.”

“You didn’t,” Michael admitted, “You didn’t and I’m still trying to figure out why you didn’t so I’m gonna go and I’ll be back later.”

“Okay. Drive safe.”

And, for some reason, Michael put in effort to listen.

-

“We’re closed.”

“For me?”

“Especially you.”

Michael hovered in the doorway at that, not quite understanding what he did wrong. Sure, he may have accidentally stood Maria up the day before, but he had a damn good excuse. He started walking towards the bar.

“Look, about last night, I–“

“Went on a little trip to the wilderness to spend the night with Alex and his boyfriend, yeah, I know,” Maria said, looking to him with more than a little bit of annoyance. He just blinked.

“Alex was hurt,” he said simply, “He needed me.”

“He had Forrest,” she said, “His boyfriend.”

“I had to heal him,” Michael tried to explain, “He needed me.”

Maria eyed him for a minute, irritation slipping into straight hurt. He felt like he missed a few steps and suddenly he really, really wanted to crawl back into bed with Alex and Forrest even though he was confused. They didn’t make him feel bad.

“So, what, you had to sleep with him to make him feel better?” she asked. Michael blinked and his head moved back in shock. Where the hell did she get that from?

“What?” he asked, “No. We didn’t–Where did that even come from?” She just stared at him like he should know. He couldn’t help but scoff. “It wasn’t about sex, we just had been through a shitty event and didn’t wanna be alone. We just slept.”

“Sure, like I believe that.”

“You don’t have to, but you should,” he said simply, no animosity in his voice, “Alex almost died and Forrest was shaken up, I wasn’t about to leave them.”

The stress seemed to build the more she stared at him with hurt, accusatory eyes. But then he could feel Alex, trying from afar to make sure he was okay and knew that he was loved. It made things click a little more in Michael’s head as to why he didn’t hate Forrest and it just so happened to be for similar reasons that Forrest didn’t hate him. They both loved Alex and Alex loved them both to the point that they were all a little too willing to put themselves in danger for each other. That was bound to bring two people together.

But, more importantly, it was hard to hate someone who put so much effort into making you feel safe and welcome. He’d been so scared of saying or doing something wrong that he hadn’t realized that, as long as he asked before he didn’t something drastic, he wouldn’t say or do anything wrong. They wanted him there because he was him, not because of who he was pretending to be. He was wanted.

Why had he even left in the first place?

“I didn’t sleep with Alex or Forrest, Maria,” Michael said, “It wasn’t about that. They just needed me there and I needed them. That’s what you do for people you love. Simple as that.”

“So you don’t love me?” she asked. He took a heavy, grounding breath and focused on Alex.

“I do,” he said honestly, “But I don’t think it’s the way you want me to.”

Maria stared at him for a moment before nodded, turning away from him. It was clear that was the end of them. He didn’t mind.

“Right. I don’t really want to see your face right now. Tell Alex I hope he feels better.”

“Okay.”

-

Michael took a deep breath as he stared at the cabin. He’d only been gone two and a half hours, having stopped at the store to get groceries since it was clear they were going to stay here until the rest of the crew figured out what was going on with whoever took Alex.

He grabbed the grocery bags and started heading towards the cabin, unlocking it with his mind to let himself in and then immediately locking it back. Forrest and Alex were still in bed and they turned to give him their attention when he walked in.

“Hey,” Alex said, trying to sit up.

“Hey,” he said back, “Let me go put these up.”

He headed into the kitchen where the fridge had gotten cold since Forrest had plugged it back in once he started up the generator that morning. He started putting what he got in there or in cabinets when he felt a hand on his hip. Michael jumped and spun around to see Alex holding his hand up in defense while the other clutched a crutch he absolutely should’ve heard. He had a soft smile on his face and he was still shirtless, eyes tired but still beautiful. He was beautiful. Really, unfairly beautiful.

“I’m sorry I left, I didn’t mean to upset you, but I needed to clear somethings up with Maria and–“

“Hey, we haven’t gotten the chance to talk just me and you,” Alex said softly, changing the subject away from Maria, “Can we do that now?”

Michael swallowed harshly and nodded, waiting. Maybe he wasn’t as wanted as he thought. But that idea only stayed in his mind for a few seconds because, instead of talking with their mouths, Alex grabbed his hand and pressed it to the hand print.

“I wanna try it,” he said, “Liz said we can share memories with it. Show me something?”

“Like what?” Michael asked, that confusion hitting him again. He knew that the last few months, Alex had been a lot more open with him, but this... Well, this felt like he was asking permission to cross one of those lines with his boyfriend in the next room.

“Anything.”

So Michael pressed his other hand on his back, pulling him in close and resting their forehead’s together. Alex gave him an encouraging smile before they both closed their eyes. And then he thought of Alex.

It wasn’t hard to do that, to just flood him with the way he saw things back in high school. The first time he saw him and being confused, playing Romeo opposite his Mercutio and being confused, staring at him in every advanced math class they shared and being confused, constantly just being lost until he realized he wanted to kiss him. Which cleared up the second he did.

He skipped over the pain of the night in the shed, instead skipping to long nights making out in the back of his truck in the desert. He reminded him of that one time they got caught by Sanders who acted like he didn’t see anything or that night that was so hot they were sweating buckets but couldn’t bear to separate or that night they went skinny dipping the only pond in Roswell. He showed him how much he missed him when he was gone, how happy he was when he was home, and how much he loved him even when he left. And he showed him how confused he was right now, not quite understanding what this meant for them.

He could deal with Forrest being kind to him and caring for him, but he couldn’t comprehend how Alex could feel how much they loved each other and not want anything. Right now, they knew, and yet that still didn’t make sense for them. How fucked up could they be?

“You thought you weren’t good enough for me?” Alex asked when he pulled away. Michael stared at him, wondering how that’s what he got from everything he’d shown him. “That day in your truck, when I said that I wanted to be with you, but not if you threw your life away, you thought that meant that I thought you weren’t good enough. And you never stopped feeling that way. You feel that way right now.”

Michael stared at him, unsure of how to answer. Alex looked sad all over again and it was his fault. He tried to pull his hand away, but Alex held onto it and stepped in closer so they were chest to chest with only their hands between them.

“You’re good for me,” Alex whispered, “You’re so good for me.”

“Your boyfriend’s in the next room,” Michael told him. Alex bumped his nose against Michael’s.

“You don’t think he knows how I feel about you?”

“He’s been too nice to me, I’m not about to–“

“Listen to me,” Alex said a little more firm, staring him in his eyes, “You don’t think he knows?”

Michael felt like his skin was on fire again, that wave hitting him again as Alex’s eyes flickered down to his lips.

“No,” Michael said, “You’re just feeling an echo of what I feel for you. That’s not real. Or-or if it is, you’re not in the right headspace. Forrest is in there.”

“You don’t think he knows?” Alex repeated, slower this time. Michael exhaled slowly, his shoulders deflating and his heart going haywire. 

“Knows what? You know I don’t understand half the things you say,” he said. Alex smiled and shrugged a shoulder.

“True,” he said, laughing softly. It sent chills down his spine. Alex’s hand slowly slid up his side and then two fingers pressed against his jaw, tilting it up and his eyes locked with Michael’s. It was unspoken as it usually was between them and Alex pressed a soft kiss to his lips, not lasting more than a second and yet somehow packing more of a punch than any kiss they’d ever shared. It wasn’t even like a real kiss, there wasn’t even passion, it was just him saying ‘hey, I’m here, you’re safe’. Michael loved it. “He knows about what I want.”

“And he doesn’t care? You’re his boyfriend,” Michael pointed out, torn between wanting to kiss him again and feeling guilty for doing that to a guy that had been so nice to him. But, more importantly, he’d shared Alex once and he never wanted to do that again. Still, Alex shook his head.

“I’m not gonna kiss you for real until the hand print is gone and we have a conversation about everything, okay?” Alex said. Michael nodded.

“I don’t wanna share you, Alex, not like that,” he said. Alex nodded.

“I know,” he whispered, fingernails gliding over his stubble, “But Forrest knows everything now, so he can’t just disappear completely.”

“Everything?”

“I filled him in on it all,” Alex confirmed, “He doesn’t want to leave even if that means not having a relationship like that. We already talked about it, we already set new boundaries.”

“How?” Michael asked. Alex smiled and shrugged.

“He’s a good man. Better than we’ve ever been raised to see,” he answered simply. Michael knew that well enough to not need any further explanation. “I love him and he loves me, but not necessarily the way we love each other, does that make sense?”

“So much.”

“Good.”

They sat there for a minute, just staring and sharing what exactly this meant. And it just meant that, for now, this was their new boundaries. Michael was okay with that.

He helped him with his crutch and they made their way back to the pullout couch. As uncomfortable as it was, he couldn’t imagine a place he’d rather be. Forrest didn’t seem upset which was wild in concept, but Michael appreciated in practice. He really was great.

“Thank you,” Michael told him as Alex got settled in the middle. Forrest just flashed a smile.

“No worries,” he said. Michael huffed a laugh and kicked off his shoes before climbing into bed. “How’s your stitches?”

“Fine. Painkillers are wearing off, but I can handle it,” Alex said.

“You sure?” Forrest asked. Alex grinned his way and nodded. Michael settled into the pillow as he watched Forrest lean down to kiss him again. This time he recognized it as what it was: an act of comfort, not pleasure or romance or desire. Which would explain the weird feelings he got from the mark when they did it before and the kiss Alex had given him only a few minutes prior. That was definitely not something he was used to.

He liked it.

“You look exhausted even though you slept until noon,” Forrest noted as they all three got comfortable, “Is that like an alien thing?”

“No, it’s an ‘I just got accused of cheating and then got dumped’ thing,” he teased. Both men looked towards him with confused faces.

“She accused you of cheating? With us?” Forrest clarified, disbelief laced in his voice. Michael blew out a breath of air.

“Yep, apparently it’s weird to want to be around people if you don’t want to have sex,” Michael said. 

“I think if I tried to have sex, I would pop open my stitches and it would not be sexy to started bleeding from my abdomen in the middle of it,” Alex noted. Forrest snorted a laugh and his eyes went to his stitches again, double checking that they weren’t irritated.

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t pop your stitches open, I think Kyle would’ve killed me,” Michael added. Alex smiled easily and closed his eyes, looking so relaxed that it was nearly unreal. Especially when they all knew he could feel the pain of literally being shot and stabbed and beaten.

“I feel really loved,” Alex admitted.

“Yeah, you definitely still are feeling the painkillers still at least a little,” Forrest whispered. He smiled a bit broader and shrugged his shoulder. 

Michael mindlessly pressed into Alex’s side, wanting to just fuel that feeling he had even more. He pressed his nose against Alex’s jaw, breathing in slow as he closed his eyes. Alex’s arm made it’s way under his head and his fingers wove into his hair, his bicep making the world’s best pillow. Michael’s hand went to it’s rightful place over the hand print.

“How close am I wanted?” Forrest asked carefully to both of them.

“As close as you want,” they both answered without hesitation. 

Michael had a newfound appreciation for Forrest in a way he hadn’t really expected, but he understood things better after thinking things over. Forrest was clearly as much as touchy as Alex was, if not more. Michael had taken it as clingy before, but now he was starting to see that’s just how he gave and received comfort. That’s why he kissed Alex when their new boundaries had been set, that’s why he touched Michael when got confused, that’s why he was so fucking aware at all times. Michael wasn’t used to platonic affection; he was interested.

So Forrest pressed up on Alex’s other side, the man in the middle having to lay on his back due to his wound. Then his arm went around, laying on top of Alex’s in Michael’s hair. His other arm draped over Alex’s abdomen and paralleled Michael’s. His fingers laid gently against Michael’s side, just enough to know that they were there.

And he was welcome.

[heresathreebee]

Dirty Water

Benny 'Borracho' Magalon x Robyn Banks (Black!OC)

Summary: Robb met a couple of shady characters calling themselves cops. Well it just so happens they are, and they're worse than she first thought.

Masterlist

Word count: 2.5k words

Rating/Warning(s): +16 Mature | kidnapping, mild torture, tied up, wanna be clear: IRL I do not condone hooking up with a person who kidnapped you or was complicit in kidnapping you, it just don't work out like that in reality

AN: so basically I'm gonna write and post this in whatever order I please, then go back and figure it out later. Since my brain has jumped back on the Pascal bandwagon, it's hard to focus outside of his body of work but I'm still coming back to this story with relative ease.

Just when she'd started to warm up again, a another shower of ice cold mop water was pitched over her head. Robyn sputtered and coughed, trying not to swallow the suds in her mouth or let them see her cry to keep the dirt out of her eyes. From the shadows that danced beyond her eyelids, she could tell the alleged cop who called himself Nick was crouching in front of her. 

"Last chance, sweetheart," the dirty cop said. "Tell me how you know Tony D'Onofrio." 

Fuck. 

Seven years ago, two federal agents walked in on officer Robyn Banks being sentenced to traffic duty. She didn't mind– she was fed up with the secrets her colleagues were forcing her to keep anyways. Maybe stepping down could help her clear her head, maybe give her time to compartmentalize those events and feelings. Only now could she say that the rest of her career was already out of her hands. 

"Those agents on that file? They approached me about D'Onofrio. Said he was my moby dick. Made a big deal about 'justice' and 'law and order' and 'the sanctity of the badge." Robyn spit more mop water onto the floor and continued, "I told them I didn't know what the fuck it had to do with me and they just sorta looked at each other." 

The blond man– Nick called him Z, she thinks– crossed his arms. "Quit jerkin us around, Banks, get to the fucking point." 

Nick held up a hand. "Easy, tiger. I asked for a story and that's what I'm hearing. Keep going, Robbie." 

Robyn scowled on the inside. "They told me he was my father. More like a sperm donor than anything, he probably didn't even know I was alive." 

"Now that is interesting," Nick purred. 

He cut the zip tie binding her arm to the rolly chair and handed her a towelette to wipe her eyes. She dared not reach for the tie on her other arm, lest her captors think she's pulling a move to escape. Instead she dabbed the sweat and mop water that soaked into the skin of her neck and face to pause and think about her next words. 

"That was the basis of the deal. I join their investigation undercover, see if I can get somewhere with my connection, and help them put one of the biggest crime bosses on this side of the coast away for good. In exchange, I get to call the shots, they'd put in a good word with my CO and elevate me to detective status instead of beat cop." 

"Thought you liked being a beat cop," the one in the silk flamingo shirt said. 

"Apparently nobody believes that." 

"So," Nick steepled his fingers beneath his aquiline nose in thought, "your end of the deal wasn't even your idea? How does that work?" 

"Sounds like she got something else out of it," the bald man in the white polo accused. 

Robyn glared at him, but she didn't contradict him. If she wanted to be listened to, she needed to stay calm. Stay calm, stay alive. Go home with the minimal amount of PTSD. 

"Do you want me to tell you what happened or not?" When nobody raised any more objections, she continued. "I agreed to their terms. Next I know, I'm climbing the criminal ladder, dropping bread crumbs about my parentage, two years goes by, yada yada yada, and then bam. I have a meeting with the heir apparent to the Italian mafia. 

"At that meeting I told Tony D'Onofrio he knew my mother and that I knew they had been dating around the time I was born–" 

"Conceived–" 

"Yeah that– he stared at me for so long I forgot how to breathe and then… he… believed me." 

A pin dropped somewhere in the empty parking garage. A dog barked wildly a mile away but could still be heard in the silence that followed. Robyn still couldn't believe he'd bought it either. 

"He just… believed you," Nick said skeptically. 

Robyn could do nothing but shrug. "I never got the details, I couldn't ask my mom about it and Tony never gave me any indication that he knew about me before that meeting. He just asked me what I wanted and did it." 

Nick dragged his eyes over her form, shivering and glistening, and then-- "what did you ask him?" 

Robyn felt her eyes gloss over as she tried to remember what mysterious force compelled her to say the exact right words. "I told him all I wanted was for him to know, to see him with my own eyes and know he was real. I said I didn't need any favors or special treatment. I just needed some closure." 

That was all. And the agents had been fucking furious with her. They had accused her of using them, of being a traitor and a spy for D'Onofrio or a mastermind cat-woman type villain and all manner of other terrible things. They were ready to pull the plug on the whole operation when Tony had offered her a better job. A job where she would come face- to- face with every schmoe on Tony's payroll. 

"Tony offered me a job 'running errands.' Not quite in his inner circle but higher in his ranks than I had any business being," Robyn said. "Most of the people doing these jobs were kids, easy to get around the city undetected and reliable. Now he knew I wasn't a kid but I guess he wanted to see more from me, put his best eyes on me to see if I was legit." 

Nick nodded and stood up (his knees popping like broken branches). He walked over to Murphy in the flamingo shirt and passed a few inaudible words between them. Robyn wasn't skilled in the art of lip reading, and failed to catch anything from Murphy except the word 'pointless.' It rubbed her the wrong way, sending a spark of fear through her that quickly dulled back into the numbness of being helplessly bound to a chair. She needed to finish this soon before she completely cracked. 

Nick returned to her side, chasing some pepto bismol with a flask of what smelled like tequila in it. "That's a very sweet story, Robbie, really it is. But… what I wanna know is why you're not in this file." 

"That's not what you asked me," she griped, then backpedaled into, "I'm trying to tell you why I'm not in the file. But in order to tell you that, I have to tell you what was left out of the file first. I'm getting to the point, I just… there's a lot of shit to sift through." 

Nick nodded like a patient father (yeah, right). "Just the good parts then." 

"Yeah," she nodded quickly, "just the good parts..." 

"The good parts, uhm. Well he did learn to trust me. I barely had to do anything just… let him try to kindle a relationship between us. I started calling him dad at his request, nobody bothered me or questioned me after that and I didn't abuse it, expect on the downlow giving info to the feds. He liked that about me– he liked me. We'd talk about my mom and he'd let his guard slip, started taking me to his meetings and asking me to deliver his important paperwork." 

"I let him think I was with him and documented everything I could for six more years." In truth, she had had some doubts. About putting him away and the vacuum of power it would create, about the dichotomy of good versus evil, about her career. In that last year, she had actually warmed to the idea of becoming a detective and getting to do work with her own moral backbone and not someone else's. "We made the arrest January 19th and put him away for a dime." 

Nick leaned so far forward in his chair Rob had to lean back. "This is the part where you wrap it up, sweetcheeks." 

Robyn gulped. "Gomer and Valentine pushed me out. They'd been acting really strange at the end, wearing these shit eating grins and looking at each other, and then they iced me out. Had me fired on the grounds that I was too close to the perp, used a fucking Christmas photo for evidence. There went the Italian mob's heir and seven years of hardwork, and I wouldn't even be mentioned by name in the case file. No testimony, no credit, just a dishonorable discharge and dumped on my ass in the streets." 

"Wow." Nick rubbed a hand down his face like he was the exhausted one. "That's quite the story, princess." 

He looked at each of his mates, every face stonier than the last. Especially the silent one's, the latino guy. Then he looked back at Robyn and smiled with a lot of teeth. 

"I do have some questions though, if you'll let me." Sure like I have a choice. "Now it wasn't public knowledge you were in on the investigation, but I find it hard to believe your dad's lackeys didn't know it was you who turned him in. And what I find even harder to believe is that they'd let you live for it." 

Robyn said nothing. There was a part of her that didn't quite grasp it either. When she had arrested him, when she'd slapped the cuffs on him herself and read him his Miranda rights, after the shock of her betrayal wore off, Tony had congratulated her. 

"I'm proud of you, kid. You may be a narc but at least you got your head straight. You got guts, kid." 

As far as she understood it, his last order as the leader of the mafia was not to harm her in any way. Nobody bothered her. They still knew her face on the streets, sent glares her way but never touched her. One of his underlings had come to her place and suggested she skip town permanently just to be safe. It was not a courtesy she ever expected from anyone let alone a man with a reputation for high profile robbery and murder. 

She didn't know what to expect. "I guess he really did love me." And Nick left it at that. 

~

Robyn was unbound, blindfolded, and dumped right back onto the street those so called cops had snatched her from. Her legs shook as she walked the last block to her place, utterly miserable and in desperate need of some sleep. Maybe tomorrow she could figure out what the fuck her life had come to. She showered (and cried) and picked up the half drunk beer from her fridge and brought it out on her front steps, taking a sip of the flat beverage and wishing it was something stronger. 

People passed below her on the streets, never once looking up. The traffic never disappeared but it did lull this time of night. She didn't mean to– barely noticed she was doing it– but she found a pack of cigarettes in her overcoat and lit one up. 

"Next time," she promised herself. I'll try to quit next time. 

Just as she was beginning to ease the tension that had been weighing on her all night, a man climbed the steps to her building and pointedly slowed down to a stop a few feet away from her. She chanced a glare at him and found him no stranger which was somehow infinitely worse. 

"Fuck off," her nerves got the better of her, "I told you everything, can't I at least get some sleep first?!" 

The man lifted his hands in defense, carrying a bottle in a brown bag in one of them. He was, well, he was the handsome one. The Cuban with the neck tattoo and broad shoulders. His eyes seemed a lot softer now Despite the dark setting. 

"Swear on my life, I'm not here for Nick." He took a single step up, waiting to see how she'd react, and when she didn't run, he took another and set the covered bottle down next to her before backing off. Still skeptical, Robyn carefully unwrapped the thing, revealing an expensive looking wine label. Dark red. "It's an apology," he explained with his hands in his pockets, "Nick thinks he's this big, clever actor but he can be a real bully when he drinks." 

Robyn gave him the 'do I look like an idiot' eyebrow and he had the decency to look at his feet. "We could really use your help with this, Banks. Nick forgot to mention the part where Tony was put on parole for good behavior. He'll be out tomorrow." 

"He what." That's just the thing isn't it? The case that ended her career permanently and he just got to walk off after only serving two years of his sentence. That was the real crime here. Robyn gritted her teeth, gripped the neck of the bottle and squeezed. She started shaking it like it was her criminal father, or the weasel federal agents who took her credit, or the dirty cops who kidnapped her tonight. 

Borracho looked concerned. "Do you need a corkscrew or– " 

Robyn shrugged off her jacket and looked him dead in the eye as she wrapped it around the base of the bottle and gently banged it on the porch step until the cork exploded into the air (along with a third of the bottle's contents but whatever). Borracho raised a hand to protect his face from the spray, and turned away to hide a silly grin. 

"Nevermind," he said, shaking the excess drink off his hand. "Listen, if he calls you about anything, please let us know." 

He pointed to the bag, which had a phone number on it. "Don't let your work be in vain." 

"You try that line on everybody?" Rob was feeling a little facetious in the face of mercy, over tired from the revelations, and pissed off by these fucking pigs. "Your good cop, bad cop routine needs some balance. Did you know I was kidnapped today? Now this wine is a start but you'd better step it up, good cop." 

He started to walk away but she called out, "I got Nick, Z, and Murphy. Clocked 'Gus' by the name written on his underwear. Which one are you?" 

"Benny," he threw back, and disappeared into the nighttime traffic. 

"Benny," Rob scoffed. "Cute ass." 

Robb drank the equivalent of two glasses, then passed out from exhaustion. She slept dreamlessly and tried to forget last night had ever happened. Benny, in the meantime, returned to the office where his crew was huddled around a phone receiver. 

"Don't appreciate you throwing me under the bus, B," Nick growled from his seat. 

"Shup up and drink this," Benny pushed the glass of raw eggs closer to his boss' hand, a so called 'hangover cure'. Nick shrunk back a little.

"Told you she'd be sweet on him," Z elbowed Murphy in the ribs and ignored his protesting 'um actually I said that.' 

"Wouldn't call her sweet," Benny said, grunting as he took up residence at his own desk. "She looked like a feral cat." 

Nick laughed. "Yeah well don't go getting mixed up with that pussy, B, we've got work to do." 

It was gonna be another long night for everybody. 

[reneejuliet]

idk if I sent the ask about save me and moonchild or not but would love to hear about them ans also all night long, danger , bliss ..if you don't mind :D

Hi yes hello! I got both of them, but I’m gonna just answer them all on this one!

As far as moonchild and danger go, I answered that here. I unfortunately don’t have too much going for either, so I can’t really give much more info or samples of those.

Save Me is my crappy attempt at a hybrid fic, focusing on the maknae line. I’m entirely unfamiliar with writing hybrids, only read a few myself, but I’ve been trying to challenge myself more by branching out of my comfort zones. It’s like a main focus of Jimin x reader, but obviously also features Taehyung and Jungkook. Undecided if the other members make an appearance or not. Here’s a very little bit:

You were almost in your car, butt nestled just on the edge of the seat, when you heard it. A clang of metal, a low hiss. Something akin to a growl. Your skin bristled, sent a shiver down your spine. But you weren’t afraid. Not yet, anyway.

Still half in your car, you waited, straining your ears. All you could hear was the grumbling of your car, the angry gurgles of the river. An occasional howl of wind as it wound through the windows of empty buildings. Nothing that should be out of the ordinary.

A gasp was torn from your lips as another breeze blew by, rippling your coat and chilling your skin. You felt the tell-tale drops of rain on your cheeks. Whatever it was you thought you heard, it was obvious you couldn’t wait around to figure it out. The weather was only going to get worse, and you had to return to the restaurant before you could go home. So you shifted your weight completely into your seat, closing the door behind you. The car groaned as you shifted gears, lights flickering for a moment before you pressed forward.

But it was only a couple feet before debris suddenly fell from above, clashing on the hood of your car before you slammed to a stop. Your eyes shot up, anger surging through your veins in preparation –

Only to be met with eyes, perched two stories above you. Three sets, all staring widely at you in shock and fear. As you stared back, you noticed the slight gleam in the nearest set. The way they seemed to refract light even in the dark. Your breath hitched in your throat.

Hybrids.

All Night Long is kind of a shitpost in my WIPs, lol. It didn’t have much focus when I was just dumping out the trash from my brain, but it ended up becoming something for Jungkook. Kinda self-indulgent, and actually the first bit of smut I ever actually wrote out, without choosing wording that just hinted at what was happening. Not sure this will turn into anything, but just in case, I’ll dump this bit here:

He'd fully intended to walk away after correcting you, but once you were in his grasp, responding eagerly to his touch - his mind went blank. He found himself beginning to guide you through the entire choreography, hovering close to you at every possible moment. And when you went into the body roll followed by the hip thrust, his eyes darkened at just how well you performed them now. Without warning, his feet stumbled him toward you until you were pinned beneath him against the mirror, chests pressed together, tension thick in the air around you as your breaths mingled in what little space still existed between the two of you.

"Don't sleep with Hoseok," he whispered under his breath, voice rough and ragged with his desire for you. He was desperate by now, shaking with the inability to control himself any longer.

His words didn't register at first through the haze surrounding you, every inch of your body focused on just breathing with him this close to you. He was intoxicating, though, especially so near that you could smell his cologne and sweat. The heat radiating from his body, so close you could feel each breath he took, could have melted you where you stood. Until the words finally did register, and a sudden awareness sparked in your eyes.

"What?" you asked, voice a whisper, but sharp. Your eyes narrowed at the younger man before you, breaths quickening in his ensuing silence. "What did you just say?"

His mistake landed with a heavy clarity on his shoulders at the way you glared at him now, his heart rising to his throat and choking off anything he could have said. He swallowed with difficulty, unable to move away from you just yet.

He didn't have to, though, as you suddenly put your hands between you and shoved him off of you. You side-stepped him to put more distance between your body and his, allowing the stuffy air of the practice room to fill your lungs and clear out the smell of him. When you spun back on your heel, accusatory look on your face, you were met with his wide-eyes, gaping mouth as he tried to find something to say. The heady look was still lingering on his face, and it panged something in your stomach, but you ignored it.

"How do you even know about that?" you hissed, hands lifting to tangle in your loose hair. "That - that was a private conversation!"

"I'm sorry," he finally muttered, the words breaking on his tongue. "I'm sorry, I - I didn't mean to overhear, I just... did, and..." His eyes turned pleading again, though they were softer this time, less desperate. "Please, though. Noona... don't sleep with Hobi."

You threw a hand out in his direction, unsure what you were even doing with it except interrupting him. "I didn't - Wh - That is none of your business, Jungkook!"

His head bowed for a moment, fully aware of how accurate your statement was. It wasn't any of his business, yet here he was anyway. "I know," he breathed, squeezing his eyes shut before turning to face you. "I know, I just-"

Bliss is, if anyone hasn’t guessed, my WIP for the second half of Ignorance is Bliss. It’s mostly outlines and research I did on brain activity, synapses, amino acids, etc., as well as main points I want to make sure I hit. Everything I’ve tried to write out yet has ended up scrapped because I haven’t liked it, but I do have this:

Bliss patches induce a certain emotion into users by releasing a chemical agent into the bloodstream that targets the synapses of the brain. The synapses then release the chemically fabricated neurotransmitters to stimulate the specific area of the hypothalamus pertaining to that emotion. Such emotions can include happiness, joy, anger, upset, or calm. Other affects, such as sleep and focus, are replicated within the brain by targeting and stimulating other areas of the hypothalamus. The affects of the pills/patches are harmless and wear off after a few hours.

Until a mutagen is introduced into the chemical makeup of Bliss patches that targets and distorts the amino acid tryptophan. The mutagen infuses into the tryptophan and corrupts its structure, causing it to deteriorate from within the body at a rapid rate. Without tryptophan, the body cannot survive. Thus a dependency upon the Bliss patches is formed, distorting the neurotransmitters within the brain and turning the user into a “junkie”.

Genetic mutation becomes further explored by developing a chemical compound that can be introduced into the bloodstream of a mother and absorbed into the nutrients passed on to her unborn child. This compound infuses with the genetic coding still forming within the child, altering the DNA to allow for sensory stimuli to be increased within the developing lobes of the brain. The mutation is experimental, thus the first few cases are both varying and unpredictable. The different lobes in the brain contract and expand at varying intervals, allowing for a concentrated amount of skill to be stimulated from within the lobes at any one time. These skills are activated by the increased focus of the neurotransmitters to the particular cells in use as the others have contracted, therefore require less communication. The mutation has been known to not remain limited to the brain, often including an accelerated rate of mending among the cells and tissues of the rest of the body, promoting a super human ability to heal. Though highly valuable among the test subjects, this mutation is very unstable and can often create an imbalance within the body.

^^Whether the science holds up or not (science is far from my forte lol), this is a more comprehensive breakdown of how Bliss works in that world, and why it’s such a slippery slope.

Hope that fed you well! 

[rasp-passion-two]

Hello, sorry if this is annoying but can you explain how Himiko is neurodivirgent, I don't mean to come off as rude or anything, I just don't know much about the topic and am curious? Sorry to cause any trouble.

It’s absolutely not any trouble!! I love talking about how Himiko shows signs of being neurodivergent. It hits close to home specifically since not only is she one of my favorite characters, but I relate to her a lot. Okay, this might be a bit long, so sorry about that lol:

So in case you don’t know exactly what it is, neurodiversity is when mentally your brain is wired differently than normal, or “neurotypical”, peoples brains. Especially with considerably easy functions like socialising, thinking, learning, developing or ageing, and many others. Many disorders can fall under the neurodiversity spectrum. ADHD, BPD, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, dyslexia, and many others.

Personally, I think Himiko would fall into the category of being autistic, which has a lot going into it, but can be summed up as a developmental disorder that involves delays in communication, thinking, social situations, and basic human understanding.

Though there is a thread on Twitter that does a good job covering certain criterias that I won’t end up covering (her lack of understanding of social cues, development delays, the reason why she’s depressed, etc.) and it’s really good!!

Below, I’ll list the traits that, in my opinion, Himiko possesses that are common in ND people. Not all of them will be listed, just the bigger ones:

Talking in a slow, almost “emotionless” way

Himiko talks a certain way throughout the whole of the game, rarely ever changing even when she’s expressing very strong emotions. From the very first line she speaks, Himiko talks about something exciting to her, but still sounds very flat and unenthused. Most ND people will always speak in the same tone of voice no matter what. Sometimes, it's very flat and monotone, like Himikos. Sometimes they'll speak slowly either to gather together what they want to say next, or that's just how they were wired to speak. (Almost exactly like Jataro from DR:AE who speaks in a similar way. Who also has a few neurodivergent traits. But that's just a theory c:)

Childish behavior

This usually ranges, but Himiko has a few traits that neurodivergent people have that others consider “too childish”. She’s extremely naive in how she perceives the world, people around her, and their intentions with interacting with her. Like when Kaito asked her to bring her a crossbow of all things and it takes little for her to be convinced to assist him. Or when Kokichi makes fun of her, and she doesn't always gets it. She's sometimes able to understand, but mostly she doesn't understand that he's just taking advantage of her innocence to treat her how he does with others. She takes things everyone says at face value and believes them easily. Her peers consider her to be a bit slow in many areas, almost in a childlike way. She almost has a child-level understanding of vocabulary (i.e. pronounces words the way children do like how the way she says magic almost sounds like “myagic”, her vocabulary is pretty limited, and she usually starts using certain words that she hears others use). When having her Master brought up with the possibility that he left her selfishly and that she was better than him, she always denies it, keeping an innocent mentality so she won’t feel too bad. After being motivated to move forward, she’s seen a lot to want to be helpful to the group and do something useful, and in return they, in my opinion, view that behavior how older people view a child wanting to be helpful to them. The thread above goes more into detail (her bathroom issues, having a unique way of remembering and referring to objects), but these are only some of the examples for Himiko's maturity.

Being a “gifted child” when she was young

This is entirely my speculation since this is never addressed in canon, but Himiko strikes me as a former “gifted child” which most NDs go through. Her “gift” was discovered at a young age and she was really skilled at it. She was known for it by huge masses of people and praised for it. She even had to save the person who saw the talent in her and taught her everything she knows about it when he made a mistake. She gets invited to all types of events because of it. Lot’s of ND kids who were thought of as “gifted'' may have gone through the same thing. It would also explain why she’s so depressed and unmotivated through most of the game, as a result of what’s called “gifted child syndrome”. Having so much praise and expectations set on her so young. Getting older and not having the same energy for it as you had before. Technically all the DR kids are former gifted children, since they're the product of a company exploiting their "gifts", which is a factor in how the world ended in the way it was. But Himiko has more, you could say "traditional" symptoms and after-effects of growing up as a gifted child (depressed, lack of motivation, lack of motivation in her subject, etc.).

Being viewed as lazy

Even though she takes what she's passionate about seriously, less than when she was younger or not, Himiko doesn't always take action with magic, and even everyday tasks. ND people usually lack any sort of drive, sometimes having an “I’ll come back to it later” mentality, excited about it or not. Himiko lacks any drive and motivation throughout the game, even at the idea of being killed, or put in the line of suspicion for someone's killer. She’ll always make excuses on why she can’t act on things, the most common being “she doesn’t have enough MP”. Which goes back to her talent as a magician, which she is especially sluggish in.

Bottling in her emotions and not wanting them to show. But when she does, it results in an on-going meltdown

We all saw it in its prime during the end of the third trial after all, right? Himiko was sort of always closed in, but it wasn't extreme since she hadn't hit her lowest yet. When she did though, (being the prime suspect of Ryoma dying, her closest friends Tenko and Angie dying, being one of the suspects of one of their murders, etc.) She still attempted to hold it all in, which ND people do for a variety of reasons (not knowing how to process extreme emotions, not wanting too much attention by expressing them, or choosing unhealthy ways to process your feelings, amongst others). But once Kokichi called her out for the second time? Not only was everything practically gushing out of her face, but she literally passed out from crying for so long. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that myself, ha. 

The same thing happened in the last trial kind of. Once the truth of the killing game and their identities is revealed, she seems to have a meltdown. It could be from the overwhelmingness of the situation. It could be the amount of "change" of the situation, which she doesn't even remember. It could also be overstimulating tones with the change in environment, the info dumping, and how everyone jumped from topic to topic etc. Meltdowns are normal for ND people, especially since they usually hold in their feelings. Himiko got better at expressing herself, but meltdowns will still happen once something overwhelming occurs (it's a great way to let out steam!!)

Stimming

Stimming is when someone, ND or not, self-stimulates themselves by repeatedly moving in some way either by speaking, moving either themselves or something else, or watching someone else do it. Most of the time, you can see Himiko fidgeting with her fingers or with her hat. Doing something with her hands, which is a form of stimming

Despite that, Himiko most noticeably stims by speaking, as she sometimes repeats stuff others say, sometimes repeats a word in order to comfort herself and her beliefs (saying “it’s magic” over and over, either in retaliation or in general), and has a go-to word that she’ll always use almost every sentence when she doesn’t know what to say, is caught off guard/by surprise, or just when she starts and ends her sentences (y’know like, “nyeh”?).

“Odd” facial features/expressions

This one presents itself a lot in the game and through her design as well. Her lip stays tucked out all the time, her eyes don’t always stay open, and her face often keeps the same expression (tired and kind of bored). Just like when she speaks, even when she's expressing intense emotions, she'll keep a mellow expression. She lifts her hat into the air and not much changes expression-wise. She'll be accusatory to someone and not much changes expression-wise. To certain people she interacts with, they think her face is "weird" since it'll pull in ways it usually doesn't for NT people. It could be because she's trying to force the look on herself so it's more easier for people to read (which is shown to be the case for most people), but it's also possible that it's just how she looks. Since she's older, she has more freedom to make more strategies to have more natural expressions, but it's still off-putting to some of her peers.

The infamous saying, “she comes off as annoying”

Many people know this one well, and Himiko is no different, especially in the earlier chapters. Almost everything stated above is a factor that plays in people's disdain for Himiko, in the game and the fandom. Characters like Shuichi, Kaede, Tenko, and even Angie are one of the only few people who try to understand and adjust to Himiko's behavior in their own method, while everyone else either ignores her, doesn’t take her seriously, or even end up bullying her because of it, not willing to adjust themselves for her specific brand of behavior. Being an obvious target, coming off as weird, being too blunt and coming off as rude (which even caused her having strained relationships with K1-B0, Miu, etc.), sometimes hyperfixating too hard on magic (her “special interest”), all seem to be a reason for people thinking she’s too high maintenance.

,,,this ask sure is a month old isn’t it? retrdfyugihhuyt I am EXTREMELY sorry I answered this so late, but I haven’t been online lately because of moving, but at least I managed to finish this in less than a day lol. It’s long, but I love Himiko, and love all the quirks that make her who she is, and am happy to explain it to others!! I hope this answered your questions either way (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

[ft-dads-au]

Turn the Tide

Gratsu Summer Solstice 2020 - Prompt: Fun in the Sun Gratsu Week 2020 - Prompt: “What’s with all the noise? I’m sleepy” Pairing: Gray x Natsu

A Collaboration by @mdelpin​ and @oryu404​

AO3 | FF.Net

Summary:  Natsu has hated his birthday for years. It served only as a a painful reminder of the day his father abandoned him and Erza. All he wants is to get through the day with the least amount of fuss possible, but Gray has other plans. 0-0

July 7th, 2021

What’s with all the damn noise? I’m still sleepy…

Natsu groaned as the annoying beeping noise that had woken him up refused to stop, and he soon realized it was coming from his phone. He glared at the device, but as expected, it did nothing, the beeps continued as text after text came in.

What the hell is going on?

He stretched his arm and grabbed his phone from his nightstand, fighting the urge to throw it across the room...

Happy Birthday, Bro! 🎈🎉✨🎁 Where the party at? 👀🧁🎂 Gotta do rounds, but I’ll call you later!

Happy Birthday, Natsu!

cat_birthday.gif

Another year older, Firefly! I’ll stop by Sorciere and buy you a drink tonight...

Happy Birthday, dude! Get Gray to blow your 🕯️!!! 😂😏

Natsu scrolled through the texts that kept coming in from his friends and family, rolling his eyes at the last one, not even having to look at the sender info to know it was Loke’s contribution.

As nice as it was to receive well wishes, rather than cheer him up, all they accomplished was to envelop him in a cloud of gloom that was very familiar. Still, he replied to all the messages and got up to start his day.

At least it was a Wednesday, which meant that Gray would soon arrive with Aki for one of their study sessions. It was the first time in a while that he was impatient for Gray to visit, not because he wanted to see him, but because of the distraction that studying for the GED would provide.

What he really wanted was to get out of the house. To escape the memories that refused to let go.

The previous year he’d been too numb from everything else that had happened in his life for it to sink in that he was back in his childhood home, sleeping in the very room his father used to call his. The last place he’d seen him before he’d disappeared from his life, leaving him and Erza behind without any warning or explanation. For so long, he’d held on to the belief that his father was coming back, but no matter how many nights he’d waited for him, he never did. And so his birthday became a day Natsu resented, a painful reminder of his abandonment.

The doorbell rang, startling Natsu out of his gloomy thoughts. Atlas raced towards the door at the noise, chanting the name Aki over and over in joyful anticipation.

Natsu ran down the stairs to head him off, knowing from experience Atlas would open the door regardless of who might be on the other side. It was much too early for Gray to arrive for their study session, and given that it was his birthday, the idea of an unexpected visitor set him on edge.

He got to the door just as Atlas opened it and was surprised to see his boyfriend was indeed standing on the other side of the door.

“Hey,” he greeted, feeling slightly puzzled but no less pleased, “Are we starting early today?”

“Nope,” Gray smirked, “You’ve been working pretty hard for the past few weeks. Today you get the day off. We’re going to the beach!”

“Beach!” Aki repeated, and now that Natsu looked at him, he noticed he was dressed in a swimsuit and holding a colorful bucket and shovel like the ones sold at the grocery store.

“Beach?” Natsu parroted in disbelief, “With three kids? Are you insane?”

“Four, you forgot to count yourself,” Gray teased, entering the house and closing the door behind him. He pulled Natsu to him for a quick kiss, “Hey.”

“I don’t know, I’d have to pack stuff for the kids and get them ready,” Natsu hedged, not feeling up to such an involved outing.

“Nice try, Sunshine,” Gray turned him around and nudged him towards the stairs. “All you have to do is get yourself ready; Erza already took care of the rest.” Gray walked over to the small closet that sat at the foot of the stairs and opened it to show that indeed there were two bags packed along with Atlas’ car seat.

“We’re going to the beach?!” Hana squealed behind them, and at that point, Natsu realized he’d already lost. Hana had always loved the beach even though her skin was so fair she had to be slathered in sunblock constantly, but she hadn’t voiced any interest in it since her mother had died. Knowing that, he didn’t want to disappoint her.

“Looks like it,” he replied with as much enthusiasm as he could muster at the idea. It might even be a good thing. If he were chasing after the kids, he wouldn't have time to think about anything else.

“That’s the spirit,” Gray remarked, his words dripping with sarcasm, “Go get ready, and I’ll start putting stuff in the car.”

Now that the decision had been made, Natsu went along with it. He’d wanted to get out of the house, after all. Changing into swim trunks and a t-shirt, he quickly tossed a change of clothes and a towel into a bag. He searched around for his sunglasses and sunblock, and when he heard Gray yelling for him, he hurried down the stairs to find everything had already been packed up, including the kids.

“Why today?” he asked, gazing at his boyfriend with suspicion.

“Because it’s going to get super hot, and you’re too cheap to install an air conditioner.” Gray retorted, “Since nothing’s getting into your little brain today, we might as well have fun. Now come on.”

He grabbed the bag from Natsu’s hand and led him to his car, making no mention of Natsu’s mood. Natsu relaxed, he’d never told Gray when his birthday was, and he hadn’t gotten a text from Lyon, so it was possible he didn’t know. The people in his life always wanted to make a big deal about his birthday, but all Natsu wanted was to forget it, let it pass quickly and quietly. And who knew? A day of fun in the sun might just do the trick.

0-0

“Beach!” Hana ran off towards the sand the moment they stepped outside the air-conditioned train station and into the summer heat.

“Hana, wait!” Natsu ran after her, terrified of losing her in the crowd of people. He glanced back to see Gray trying to handle the boys and the remaining bags, and he flashed him an apologetic smile.

Gray hadn’t been exaggerating. It was a hot day. Thankfully the beach wasn’t too packed yet, and once he’d gotten Hana to stop, he rented a large umbrella for them to sit under, knowing the heat was going to be too much for the younger kids and for Gray, who was as fair as Hana.

He was already applying sunblock on Hana when Gray finally arrived with Atlas and Aki, dumping all their bags on the sand. “A little help would have been nice,” he grumbled.

Natsu glanced up to see his boyfriend was already flushed. “Go sit,” he ordered, pointing towards the shade the umbrella provided and handing him a bottle of water from one of the bags Erza had packed. He managed to get all three kids ready and sent them off to play in the area in front of them.

Natsu grabbed a new bottle of sunblock and knelt behind his boyfriend, who had already taken off his shirt, “Are you feeling better?” he asked as he spurted some of the contents of the bottle into his hand and began to apply it on Gray’s shoulders.

“Mhmm,” Gray groaned in appreciation, “That feels nice. Thanks for getting the umbrella, that was a good idea.”

“Well then, it seems my little brain is good for something after all,” Natsu retorted.

“Your hands aren’t bad either,” Gray observed, leaning forward so that Natsu could apply sunblock on his back. “Hana really likes the beach, huh?”

“Yeah, back when we lived in Edolas, Lis used to take her to the beach all the time,” he explained, watching as Hana examined some seashells she’d found. “It’s nice to see her excited about it again.”

“What on Earth is Atlas doing?”

Natsu turned his attention to his son and had to laugh, “He’s digging a hole, obviously.” One that only seemed to get bigger by the minute now that Aki had caught on to what his friend was doing and had begun to help.

“Shouldn’t we stop them?” Gray asked worriedly.

“Why? They’re not hurting anything,” Natsu shrugged, “or are you worried they’ll end up upside down on the other side of the world?”

“Smart and funny, how lucky am I?” Gray answered drily.

“I used to like to do that too,” Natsu muttered, ignoring the barb as he remembered beach trips with his own family.

He used to dig holes deep enough that he could hide in them and startle his mom as she walked by. Sometimes Igneel would even help him, laughing just as hard as Natsu when his wife squealed in fright as Natsu grabbed her leg. He hadn’t thought about that in years. A lump lodged in his throat at the thought of his mom, and he couldn’t help but reflect on how much Erza resembled her these days.

“Here, let me put some on you,” Natsu felt Gray’s hands on his back as he rubbed the cooling lotion on his warm skin, interrupting his train of thought. He closed his eyes briefly, enjoying the glorious sensation of those fingers kneading his muscles.

It was much better to focus on what he had. There was no reclaiming what he’d already lost.

“You know,” Gray declared as he continued to cover Natsu in sunblock, “there wasn’t an amusement park the last time I came here, it’s too bad the kids are too little. That could’ve been fun.”

“Well, maybe we can come back another time,” Natsu suggested, shading his eyes with his hand as he tried to locate Hana amidst the growing crowd.

“You mean like on a date?”

“Why not? I bet Sting and Rogue would love to come too.” He found his daughter talking to another little girl, not too far from where they were sitting and relaxed.

“Maybe,” Gray wrapped his arms around Natsu’s waist and pulled him closer to his chest, “I don’t get you to myself often enough, though.”

Natsu rested his hands on Gray’s and smiled, “You, my love, get most of my spare time. You’re just greedy.”

Gray chuckled, “True enough. Want to go check out the water? The kids look like they’re getting restless.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Natsu agreed, stealing a quick kiss before grabbing Atlas under one arm and racing towards Hana at full speed as Atlas yelled her name out joyfully. She squealed at their approach, running away from them and towards the water.

He could hear Gray grumbling behind him and grinned.

“Daddy, no!” Hana shrieked as he put Atlas down so he could join the chase and continued to charge after her.

“Don’t worry, Hana, I’ll get him for you,” was all he heard before being picked up from behind and tossed over Gray’s shoulder.

“What are you gonna do now, Sunshine?” Gray snickered, holding on tighter as Natsu did his best to get loose, “What do you think, Hana? Should I throw him in?”

“Yeah!” Hana giggled, “Throw Daddy in the ocean!”

“You heard the lady; you’re going down!” Gray turned them around, and Natsu could see that Hana looked positively gleeful at his predicament. All three kids cheered as they egged Gray on.

“Traitors!” He called out in mock dismay, as he flailed around, trying to mess up Gray’s balance. His efforts proved pointless, however, as the next thing he knew, he was falling, but only for a short second until he landed face-first into the cold water. Moving quickly, he turned himself around, snaking his arms out and grabbing Gray’s legs while he was busy laughing at him.

Using Gray’s distraction to his advantage, Natsu pulled, taking Gray down with him.

“Come on in, the water’s fine!” Natsu couldn’t help but cackle at the surprised expression on his boyfriend’s face.

“That’s it, Dragneel, you asked for it,” Gray announced before splashing water at Natsu’s face.

They wrestled in the water, both laughing too hard to be able to gain any advantage over the other. Soon they were joined by the kids who were more than happy to enter the fray.

After a few minutes, they each grabbed one of the boys and placed them on their shoulders so they could wade deeper while keeping an eye on Hana, who swam beside them. Both boys were overjoyed to be up so high. They eagerly called out every wave that rushed towards them.

Natsu was having such a great time that he completely forgot to keep track of Hana’s skin, and when he noticed the telltale redness on her nose and the back of her neck, he decided it was time to get back to their umbrella. Gray wasn’t doing much better, which made Natsu smile. The guy might be thirty, but he was still young in all the best ways.

Gray treated them to lunch, and they all sat together under the umbrella munching happily on pizza and chicken nuggets.

“Are you having fun?” Gray asked while helping Aki eat a slice of cheese pizza.

“Yeah,” Natsu answered honestly, “I have to admit, you had a good idea for once.”

Gray rolled his eyes at his response but chose not to protest. They shared a fun afternoon building sandcastles with the kids, collecting shells, and helping Atlas dig ever deeper holes, which Natsu made sure to refill once his son had moved on to the next one. Much too soon, it was time to get on a train as Natsu had to return to Magnolia in time for his evening shift at Crime Sorciere.

Natsu sat on the train, feeling content as Hana leaned against him, and Atlas snored in his lap. On the opposite bench, Aki was also K.O. in Gray’s arms, while Gray gazed out the window with a serene smile. Natsu watched him for a while, mesmerized by how breathtaking Gray looked when he was at peace. It didn’t happen nearly often enough for his liking, and that always saddened him. Gray deserved the world, and Natsu was determined to get it for him. Someday.

They made it home with enough time for Natsu to take a shower before leaving for work. He noticed a notification on his phone as he was getting dressed, and seeing that it was a text from Gray, he scanned it immediately.

Happy Birthday, Natsu! 😉

Natsu realized then that he hadn’t thought about his birthday once since they’d arrived at the beach. He was touched to learn that Gray had been aware all along, choosing not to treat the day any differently because he’d remembered how Natsu felt about it.

Just like that, Gray had understood what he’d needed, something Erza and Lisanna had struggled with for years.

For the first time since Natsu was nine years old, he’d had a birthday he could look back on with a smile. And that was the best present he could have ever asked for.

A/N: We had started this one for Summer Solstice but ran out of time, luckily Gratsu Week gave us the motivation to finish it! This fic marks 200K words in our AU!