#I think it's more likely that they notice after it's passed and have some Feelings | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pinkcherryblossom18 · 2 days

Text

Moonlight Touches

Part 1: Yellow Tulips—Hopeless Love

Benedict Bridgerton/Reader

Summary: It's in the moonlight that you and Benedict find solace but peace always comes to an end some way or another.

Word Count: 4k

TW: Angst, fluff, idiots in love, arranged marriage, not period accurate (but neither is the show, so I don't really care), my obsession with cheese is shown in this (I love cheese), implied sexual situations, and implied premarital sex.

It is under the shadows of the trees that you find Benedict Bridgerton, laying upon the grass with his legs stretched out beyond him like a king upon his throne.

It is almost an endearing sort of familiarity when your eyes catch each others, a smile appearing on both of your faces with shines and glimmers of hope and a small, tentative love. It disappears a bit when your fiance tugs on your arm, regaining your attention from Benedict’s sorrowful green-gray eyes to Nathaniel’s bright blue ones that don’t seem to hold much depth in them when compared. “Are you alright?”

The question seems to shake you a bit and with one more glance at the second Bridgerton, you look back at your fiance and nod. “Yes,” you breathe out roughly in a mockery of a laugh. “I seem to have lost my mind a bit but I suppose it is warranted. It is a beautiful day is it not?” You wince at the blankness in your voice but your companion doesn’t seem to notice.

It is a beautiful day. There are no clouds in sight and the small breezes passing by temper the beaming, bright sun. But the wind isn’t fierce enough to do anything but bristle the edges of the tree’s leaves by a hare’s breath. A perfect day for artists to lay about and capture what is in front of them with spectacular strokes of blue, yellow, green, and black for the men’s hats that stretch for a mile long. The ladies themselves are dressed in an abundance of colors and you close your eyes while passing an artist, breathing in the scent of their oils. The image of a long legged man painting comes to the forefront of your mind. His long strokes are made with his wooden brush and there is a narrowed furrow of his brow as he concentrates with a heavy burden of the many painters before himself.

“I have no love for it,” Nathaniel says dismissively. His own attentions are focused on the men with expensive pocketwatches who have money to spend uncandidly and whose wives won’t mind as long as it doesn’t reflect badly upon them. “Good weather is for good payment and your company is well enough to stand without it in moderation.”

You suppose, had you not have experienced much better words of affection, that his own words would make you flush in some ways. He is demure with his affections but you are unused to such. When your eyes close once more, you feel thumbs on your cheeks rubbing away tears and a bright smile making you feel better about an unwanted engagement that you relay to a man who you love greatly.

In the shadows behind your estate is a grove which is home to redwoods and greenery that is a blessing to walk among during any time of the day. Currently, it homes both you and Benedict as you both walk over tree roots which seem to be illuminated in the moon's light. The whole grove is but the small laughs that come from you both fill the bark of the trees and the moss that lay under it so much that they seem to become agitated and are keen to trip you both with each and every step you take. It is Benedict who falls first and you who falls not long after laughing at his moonlight fate.

“Comfortable there?”

You only scoff and roll over onto your back while Benedict seems to find a nice soothing spot on his side. Though you are not sure how, as the grove’s floor is also filled with stray rocks and stones that are more useful for skipping on the pond nearby or tripping over. Despite thinking so, you don’t deter him from his position but only look at him instead with careful and calculating eyes. His brown hair has grown quite long now and his mama will pressure him into cutting it soon enough but it falls perfectly over his eyes and it frames his cheekbones in ways that only perfectly painted pictures or marble sculpted by careful, attentive hands of soothed skin can create. It’s then, on that moss covered ground, that you find yourself falling for the young Bridgerton boy.

His eyes do not look away from yours and in their depths is something you want to reach in and explore. “I actually am, if you should very well know. Not that you would know of comfort considering you are laying on a rock!” You giggle when he sits up fastly, wincing at the sore spot and stares down at the offending rock he just now noticed.

“It is not funny, I could have died,” he laments dramatically. You only roll your eyes at him and he glares at you in response. “I was comfortable actually until you mentioned it. Ruining things, as normal.”

A gasp tears through your throat and in small defiance, you look up into the trees which block the stars with their long limbs and stretching fingers. “You would have complained all of tomorrow if you had continued to lay there. I should get a thank you instead of complaints.”

A small rustle makes you peak over at him, watching as he rubs his side. “I still might actually.”

You laugh at him and soon enough, he joins mockingly.

Your long legged friend seems to have the tendency to pop up everywhere whenever you don’t need him to. It is whenever you are with your fiance that you don’t need him to appear or when you are alone. It is always worse when you are alone and he is there.

A need seems to crawl in you whenever you see him—something banging in the aortas of your heart and crawling like spiders over your lungs, suffocating you but it is a loving pressure of need and desperate want.

He never ignores you when you are with your fiance. You wish that he did. He doesn't ignore you when you find yourselves alone together. That is when you are grasping for another person to separate the two of you before your feet carry you towards him and your mouth works before your brain.

But neither of you are alone together at the moment but, despite not wanting to, you wish that you were. Instead of him being pressed up against the wall, he could be standing in front of you with his hands on your hips, guiding you to the music in small steps of such intimacy that it would feel as if you would burst. Benedict was a good dancer but you always found yourself lacking in that department but he never seemed to mind. He could handle as your toes found his own, your elbows at the wrong angle, and your knees wobbly as he whispers jests that make you laugh too loud for the ton and breathes promises to you that make you melt as his fingers come too close for proprietary.

Nathaniel is tight in his touches but he guides you the way Benedict never had. Chaos has always been both of your ways and you did so with smirks and wide grins that drove both of your mama’s to lunacy.

“Up a bit.” He nudges your elbow with a clean stroke of his finger before going back into position and with a deep breath you continue.

“Straighten your back, you don’t want to look like a slob.” It’s harsh but you follow along anyways.

Your strides are shaky and uneven but he fixes it with a small kick to your heel. “Loosen up, I will not let you fall if that is your worry.” You don’t say anything and a pale blond eyebrow ticks up. “That is your issue? I will not drop you, I can promise you that.”

There is a small drop from the ground to your window but it is a close view to the Victors who are more than known for spying on their neighbors. If they were to look out their windows now they would see Benedict Bridgerton lifting you out of your window, his hands on your hips and a smile on yours as you keep in your laugh. Sneaking out of each other's respective households is an old process but one that doesn’t lose its charm. The prospect of being caught is an alluring yet dangerous drug like substance that neither of you can get enough of.

You both sneak out to the gardens like thieves in the darkness of the sky and small kisses are exchanged on your way to the pond behind your house. The kisses are filled with small quips from you both along with giggles and remarks of your wickedness in sneaking out in the black of night. Still, neither of you leave for more modest options and leave these less pure deceptions of your respective families for when your season starts soon.

It’s the mischief in his eyes that gets you walking faster to the pond. The promise of something that will be unforgettable in the dark waters of your family's pond that is normally filled with ducks or geese who have claimed it as their own. In your luck, neither have decided to take nightly refuge there and so you and Benedict lay out a blanket and lay down to look at the sky.

Talks of the future are covered with conversations about hobbies and aspirations. Your own are of a home in the middle of nowhere with cats, books, and a nice fireplace with the solace of only yourself should everything go south with your current prospect. Benedict's own are of oils and canvases and dreams of being more than a second son. Still, even when you speak them into the sky and to yourselves, they seem hopeless.

Because you are still a woman and he is still a second born Bridgerton son.

The upcoming season holds many promises from the new ladies who will be introduced into society and thrusted upon men by their mamas for marriage. One of the new little ladies to be introduced into the marriage market is Daphne Bridgerton which comes as a small shock to you when you see her walking in small, confident strides toward Queen Charlotte. You had watched the girl grow up and now watching her brings small tears to her eyes and you wave shortly when she makes eye contact with you.

Across from you stands Benedict whose eyes are pinned to his sister's form as she is introduced to the queen for judgment. It is a tense affair which ends with a small kiss to her head and an announcement that the Diamond of the Season had been found. You clap fiercely after she stands and Natheniel joins from beside you with small effort but he seems to try and replicate the wide smile on your face onto his own.

Daphne turns around to leave and once more you make eye contact with her and smile. “Congratualtions,” you whisper to her as she passes and if anything, her smile seems to widen.

Perhaps it is because it is from a former Diamond of the Season or it is from the woman who her brother was courting that makes her smile. Still, the great pride swelling in you dims down when you face Benedict once more, his own slipping a bit but ignoring shared feelings seems to be a sport that you both excel at.

The end of the introductions are soon over and you meet with Penelope afterwards to give her your regards for her and her sisters shameful introductions. “You must walk with severe confidence later today at the ball. Men will come flocking at you then if you do so. They appreciate a nice challenge but not too much then they avoid you like the plague.” You move her bright red hair off of her shoulders a bit and sigh. “You must get your mama to change you from yellow. It doesn’t do your complexion well I’m afraid. Perhaps a nice purple or blue?”

The implications of such colors bring a flush to her cheeks and Penelope hisses out your name between embarrassed lips. “You cannot say that! What if someone were to hear and they would think that you imply that a—” she stops and looks around before breathing in small, quick strokes of air. “Mama is quite firm on our color scheme. It would be difficult to change it now.”

“Oh hush. I’m sure I can get your mama to change her mind,” you say, waving your hand dismissively while looking around for Lady Featherington.

Penelope hisses your name again and you look at her with firm intentions but her own stubbornness is clear. “It is alright,” she says. “Yellow is not the worst of colors to be dressed in.”

A sigh breaks past your lips and the sights of Nathaniel staring at you, beckoning for you to hurry along doesn’t help with your opinions in regarding the outfits that Lady Featherington insists on throwing upon her daughters. “If you insist then.” You give her a small hug before walking away. “I will see you tonight.”

The corset that your mama had insisted upon putting you in tied so tightly that you are sure that one more long breath of air will break your ribs. You say nothing to her though for she has been incredibly fussy as of late and is growing even more intolerable as your season comes closer and closer. Of course, you fare no better. Anxiety tears at from all sides as the hours tick by and the days pass both slowly and quickly. Your late night talks with Benedict when you both sneak out at night help you fall asleep when everything nips and bites at your brain from all sides. His words are calming and so are his soothing touches from his fingertips that ghost over the edges of your skin as he speaks to you gently. Your plans that you both have made for the season help as well—Benedicts plans are normally well thought out when it truly matters and in this instance it does.

You walk confidently towards the queen and with the prowess of a woman who is already married—which you will be soon enough if your plans go smoothly enough. She stares at you calculatingly and when you curtsey towards her, you hear her stand and soon enough her fingers are under your jaw and you are staring into her brown eyes that are filled with mirth.

A small kiss is placed on top of your head and you are almost sure it is the faintness that you feel when she declares you a Diamond of the Season. It isn’t until afterwards when your mother brings you into a tight hug and Benedict gives you a wide grin that it truly sets in.

The ball is a grand affair with lively music and plenty of food for you to ignore the ton with. Though Nathaniel is contrary to your plans for the evening which include being at the food table and ignoring everyone and drags you to speak with others around you. He makes you introduce yourself to many Lords, Ladies, and even a few Dukes and Duchesses that are much like himself. Many of them are fine company, well read and good speakers that can relay information to you with eloquence and honor despite their words differ from such. Nathaniel mostly stays quiet while they speak and you try to follow his example but every other lady pulls you deep into conversation. The big topic seems to be your wedding. Something that you have been putting off and Nathaniel hasn’t stopped you from doing so, his papers and numbers taking much of his time and space of mind anyways.

“You two have been engaged for nearly two years,” Lady Marjorie Hawksworth says, seeming to be scandalized by such a thing. “There must be some reason why you two haven’t married yet. Sickness has been rampant lately, so I can see that to be a good enough reason to not have a wedding. Your Duke is quite busy but even then he could set aside time for a short wedding and a quick honeymoon.” She laughs and sends a particularly nasty look at her husband. “Though, my own wedding was that way and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. So what is the reason?”

A firm hand on your hip makes your eyes dart up towards Nathaniel whose lips are tense and puckered with annoyance. His blond hair is swept back from its normally messy state which you have only seen on days that his work takes a certain great hold on him. “As you have stated my lady, I am busy many days out of the year but my fiancee,” he brings you closer then, almost shoving you behind him, “is a free spirit of sorts. We have done some great traveling and wish to do more before children tie both of us to our home.” Lady Marjorie flushes and opens her mouth before closing it again. “Ah, Lord Bridgerton! How would you feel about having a dance with my lady in place for me at the moment?”

Benedict stops in his tracks and looks at you for a long moment. You stare at him with shock that Nathaniel is giving you permission to dance with your former lover and hope that Benedict will say yes. It’s a few beats more before he extends his hand towards you. “I would be honored.”

Your dance card fills up rather quickly as the night goes on. Every line is filled with various names of potential suitors who you won’t consider for a second. Though the last line is being saved for a particular person who has made it his mission to hide away from you like the fox he is.

For a moment, you consider looking out for him but it’s a small quest that you don’t want to take and sooner than later he will get bored with his little game and find you himself. So you perch yourself near the food table and raid it for all it’s worth secretly. The only person who seems to notice your little racoon adventure is Lady Danbury who only smirks at you with a secretive smile and you give her a small, sheepish smile behind your hand as your mouth is currently stuffed with the small little cheese blocks.

“Are you planning to save any for everyone else?” Benedict asks from behind you. “Or are you on the path to eating all by yourself?”

You turn around and give him a smile and a piece of cheese that he pops into his mouth. “I can share and I am sure that there have been plenty before me who have picked at it.” You look at the platter again which is devoid of the small square blocks. “Or I have eaten them all and I will surely pay for it later,” you whisper to yourself prompting Benedict to laugh at you.

“Well hopefully before your stomach decides to fail on you,” he holds out a hand, “I can give you a dance first.”

You cock an eyebrow and look at him with false disappointment. “It seems that my dance card is all filled up, Lord Bridgerton. I cannot dance with you tonight.” You turn around and look at him over your shoulder. “Perhaps another night will yield better results and you can dance with me then.”

You go to walk away but Benedict’s hand catches your wrist and holds it up so that he can peer at your dance card. “It seems that you have miscounted, my Lady. There is still space left for one more dance. Would you do me the honors of letting me take it?”

A sigh falls through your lips and you take his hand in your own. “If I must,” you tease.

“You must,” he replies.

Benedict guides you through the swarm of people with a delicate hand. You’re sure that, under his gloves, it would be a much rougher touch than the one that his gloves give but even then it would still be soft. Of course you would know for you have felt those hands plenty of times before. On your face, hands, neck, on the bareness of your hips, and the insides of your thighs where his fingertips have grazed so lovingly.

You hope that no words will be passed between the two of you but with Benedict, it is a false hope. “How has your night been so far?” He asks. It’s clumsy and awkward and so unlike Benedict but you can’t help but feel something in you ignite anyways.

“It’s been fine,” you say curtly. Benedict winces at your words and you feel guilt inside of you but it is for the best. You know that. He does as well. But it doesn’t make anything easier—nothing about being near him ever is.

He nods. Soon enough the dance ends and you can’t get away from him quick enough as you drop his hands and tear away from the dance floor.

You ignore his hurt whisper of your name. You ignore your mama, your father, the ladies you pass and even Nathaniel who comes to your side quickly for whatever aid you might need. You only brush him off and storm outside, toward the gardens. Quickly you find solace in the shrubbery and sit down on the bench. Tears flood your eyes quickly and your head drops into our hands. It’s a hopeless thing, that is what you know for certain. Love still swirls hard within your heart but it is nothing but false hope.

The sound of a cane makes you jerk your head up and you are met with the eyes of Lady Danbury who only looks at you with pity. “You poor dear,” she whispers.

The park is a bustling paradise of bodies moving so frequently and with such busy talkers and opportunists, you and Benedict can slip away unnoticed. He is the one to mention such a thing after you and his mama were done talking. And courting couples are quite known for disappearing anyway.

The ton are easy to navigate through, only having to stop every now and then to converse before being on your way again. Only a few question why you both are without chaperones but they are easy to deter. “Well, with enough people around our families thought it safe enough to walk around without one of them,” you both feed to the inquiring Lords and Ladies.

The trees are enough cover when you both dart into them with muffled laughs and quick glances around you. You go in first, dropping your fan into the bushes that crowd one of the trees and go to grab it. Which, while painting Benedict as a poor gentleman, does help to cover you not coming back right away. Soon enough, he joins you within the cover of the trees and you both bound into its depths.

Soon enough, you are both nestled deeply in the woods and you turn to kiss him. It is unlike your normal pecks of affection when he presses deeper against your lips and you do so back. Benedict twines his hands in your hair and pushes you back a few paces so that you are rested against the bark of a tree. His teeth nibble at your lip and a small moan tumbles out which gives Benedict enough time to slide his tongue inside your mouth. Then you feel one of his hands drop and grab the edge of your dress. “Can I?” He whispers against your mouth. You pause and look into his eyes, they’re darker than normal with clouds of something that you can’t place.

Then, you nod.

Saltlake Manor is a towering thing that rests on the edge of a great expanse of wood. Nathaniel had told you repeatedly that he wouldn’t touch it out of respect for his grandmother you had started a small garden within and his mother who had continued it.

“You could as well,” he tells you with a small smile over dinner one night. “It has become a small tradition, my sister even worked on it with my mother and I hear you have a love for the grove behind your own estate. I can show you around after, should you like.”

You had liked it. It was a beautiful little thing and there was enough space to expand it and along with that there was a small burrow nearby. The rabbits that inhabited it were out and Nathaniel had even managed to pick one up, letting you hold it for a while before giving the little thing back to the mother. He had offered to even buy you one as a present but you had stopped him from doing so as your mother would have a cow if you showed back to the drawing room with a bunny in your hands.

Contentness was a great offer with marrying Nathaniel. He was an older man, in his mid-thirties but he had taken no wife before you and perhaps wouldn’t have if your father had never presented you for him. Already he showed you a great promise of a good life and a few children were inevitable but you were sure that it wouldn’t be all too bad. Most older men doted greatly upon their young wives and even when courting, he already did. It wouldn’t be horrible to be married to Nathaniel Silverthorn—and that was what you were here to finally propose.

You had told your mama of your plans and she had almost thrown you into the carriage with her extreme excitement. Though, now standing in front of the door of his office, doubt started to creep upon you but you shoved it down as the door opened to reveal the man himself.

Nathaniel looks at you with a wide smile. “Oh hello, I wasn’t expecting you today,” he remarks fondly.

“Yes I know. I should have sent a message beforehand, I’m deeply sorry for not doing so but I need to talk to you about something important.”

His eyebrows furrow, concern riddling his features as he opens the door further and lets you into his office but he leaves the door open for propriety's sake. “Are you alright?” He asks, grabbing your hands gently.

“Yes, I am.” You squeeze his hands and look into his bright blue eyes that differ so much from Benedict’s own. “I am ready.”

Those blue eyes light up like lanterns and a smile climbs upon his face like a sprawling river. “You are?”

No. “Yes. I am ready to be married, Nathaniel.”

“Nothing happened mama. I swear, we were only walking, that was it.”

Your mama shakes her head, her cheeks are flushed with anger and you can tell that she is resisting the urge to yell. “That is not what Lord Berbrooke said. He said that he saw Lord Bridgerton and you…in an intimate manner,” she chokes out in disgust and great shame.

You scoff. “You do not question what Lord Berbrooke was doing in those woods himself?”

“It does not matter!” She slumps down on the chair beside you. “Already there is talk of your actions with Lord Bridgerton and your ruined purity. You will have to marry him!”

“My purity is not ruined, I can promise you that mama. Me and Benedict are courting anyways, marriage was already in the cards.” You stand up and kneel in front of her, grabbing her hands. “Let me talk to father, he will understand then.”

She shakes your head. “Your courtship with Lord Bridgerton has been annulled this morning by your father and the Viscount. Other plans are to be made for you.”

As if on cue, your father walks in with a stern expression. “I have traveled to Saltlake Manor to speak with Duke Silverthorn. He has agreed, that despite the rumors, he will marry you to save my ruined reputation.”

You stare at him, confused. “What?” You breathe out, a fuzz in your ears which block out all sounds but your own heartbeat and the baritone of your fathers voice.

“You will thank me one day,” he spits out your name with vitriol and turns back around. “You will marry the Duke when the season is over, should you not be showing by then.”

It is there, on the floor, that you feel the waves of nauseousness. The feel of heartbreak against your soul. And your mama grasps your hands tighter when you go to stand, a rope keeping you tied away from running towards Benedict. She pulls you towards her, letting you cry into her shoulder.

#benedict bridgerton x reader #benedict bridgerton

83 notes · View notes

five-rivers · 20 hours

Text

KoF pollfic continued from here.

Edit: I must be tired because I left the poll off again. It is properly attached now. Forgive me.

“What’s that?” asked Danny. “I don’t mind doing stuff other than translation.” He loved his parents, but they didn’t always get it. And, yeah, it wasn’t always ghost stuff they didn’t get (even a normal teenager would rebel if their parents tried to keep them inside twenty-four seven), but it was mostly ghost stuff. Like why he liked Three Twilights so much, or how comfortable he was around Clockwork. Or exactly what Obsessions were and how they acted.

… Even Danny didn’t always understand why he reacted the way he did to certain things when it came to his Obsession. After all, he’d thought he was managing just fine helping his parents with their research and running the occasional errand for Clockwork until this near meltdown. Maybe it was a variety thing? Or the way his parents were so resistant to him helping, lately?

Yeah. Yeah, that could be it. It could be a matter of him subconsciously not feeling like he was being helpful, because they kept telling him to not help.

Ugh. Why did these things have to be so complicated? Obsessions were supposed to be simple! Straightforward!

Stupid complicated social Obsession…

(Not that he’d ever get rid of it, or even want to get rid of it. Helping people was so important.)

“Here,” said the attendant, standing from her desk and beckoning him towards an inconspicuous door set in the wall. “I’ll show you.”

Danny took one last look around the copyists’ room, then followed. Behind the door was a twisted hallway– No, not a hallway. The room only looked like that because papers and books were stacked so high on the… desks? Or were there bookshelves under there? Either way, it was maze-like.

The only people they passed had golden loops and curls under their skin, and many of them gave Danny confused or suspicious looks before the attendant greeted them. This was, Danny quickly realized, the staff area of the library, where only members usually went. Most of these people probably weren’t even just members, but permanent and semi-permanent residents, if the Lost Library was set up anything like the Library of Tongues.

“You can probably tell that there’s a lot to do back here,” said the attendant. “Sorting and all that.”

“Is that what you need me for?” asked Danny.

“Something like that,” said the attendant. She scratched the corner of her jaw. “It’s, well, finding things is much more fun than sorting things out so that they’re easier to find later. So, we get a backlog, and with the recent influx from the Mausoleum…” She trailed off, seeming to notice Danny’s glances of trepidation at the stacks of paper. “Of course, we aren’t going to make you do all this! This is years worth of files and plans, and… I think some of it is just sheets of doodles, actually. Some of it is structural, anyway, or otherwise indestructible.”

“Indestructible?”

“Well, anytime the last copy of something is destroyed, it winds up here, somewhere. It doesn’t matter if it’s bad or good, or if it was just someone’s meeting notes… if it’s the last copy, it’s here. Somewhere. And if the last copy is already here…”

“Oh,” said Danny, understanding. “I get it. But I’m still not sure what I’m doing…?”

“Oh! Right,” said the attendant. “Well, whenever we get new material, it shows up in one of our intake books. But those operate strictly on a chronological basis, and they only give the title and author in the original language. Our card catalog needs the title and author in Middle Chinese, Latin, Esperanto, or English, plus the original, as well as the date of destruction, in order to work properly, so you see the issue.”

“So you need me to make the cards for the card catalog from the intake book?”

“Yes! That’s it exactly!” said the attendant, making the ‘so cute’ face again. “You pick up things fast.”

“Uh huh,” said Danny.

“Now, we’re just around the corner– Here!”

There was a relatively clear space, with a long counter on one side and a massive wall of tiny drawers on the other. On the counter rested a set of huge books, each one chained to the counter by a stout golden chain. Some of them were bigger than Danny. Well, bigger than Danny in his current form.

“Why gold?” asked Maddie. “That can’t be secure.”

“It’s probably cursed,” said Danny.

“Oh, yes, we have excellent security,” said the attendant, happily. “Or, well, the books do, anyway.” She went to the thinnest of the books and opened it up to the last few pages. “Here, this is where you want to start. You can make the cards in any of the languages I mentioned, and the catalog will take care of the rest. What else… Here’s a reference of what the cards look like.” She handed him a rectangular piece of card with a large dark stain on one corner. “Don’t mind the stain.”

“Right,” said Danny, looking over the format. “Where can I find blank ones?”

“Drawers under the counter,” said the attendant. “Oh, and stay here, alright? Some people don’t like it when guests are back here. And it’s also, well, a maze. I don’t want you to get lost.”

“So, um. Are you staying here?” asked Danny.

“Oh, no, I really can’t,” said the attendant. “I’ll check in on you in an hour or so, and then maybe I can show you the children’s section! If you don’t want to keep working, that is.”

“Uh huh,” said Danny, dubiously.

“And thank you so much. We really need this done.”

Danny sat down in one of the chairs at the counter, glowered at the edge of the counter, which was about even with his nose, then got some books to stack up in the seat so he could see over it properly. Then, he started to work.

“Why doesn’t their card catalog work with other languages?” asked Mom. “That seems like an oversight.”

“Four is already a good number for things like that,” said Danny. He glanced over his shoulder at the wall of drawers. “If you make something like that too smart, it’ll develop sentience and start to

“Er, Danno,” said Dad, “why are you doing this? Don’t get me wrong, it’s interesting! But not what I thought we were doing.”

Danny sighed, and began the long process of explaining his problems to his parents.

About half an hour in, Danny noticed the quality of light had changed. He looked up. First at the ceiling, then around the clear area. Glowing veins of light traced through the air in one of the gaps between piles of paper. Veins of light that Danny hadn’t caused. The ones he’d made on his way in had all but faded. He frowned. He’d definitely gotten the impression that there shouldn’t be any other guests here.

Maybe someone had gotten lost.

Or maybe it was another guest getting a tour or helping with something back here. Danny doubted all of the guests were translators, after all, and they had to earn their way in somehow.

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay 2024 #dannymay 2024 day 16: glowing veins #kingdom of fish #choose your own adventure #pollfic #poll fic

36 notes · View notes

vickyvicarious · 1 day

Text

If I be sane, then surely it is maddening to think that of all the foul things that lurk in this hateful place the Count is the least dreadful to me; that to him alone I can look for safety, even though this be only whilst I can serve his purpose. [...] I drew a great couch out of its place near the corner, so that as I lay, I could look at the lovely view to east and south, and unthinking of and uncaring for the dust, composed myself for sleep. [...] They came close to me, and looked at me for some time, and then whispered together. [...] I lay quiet, looking out under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation. [...] I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under the lashes. [...] "How dare you touch him, any of you? How dare you cast eyes on him when I had forbidden it? Back, I tell you all! This man belongs to me! Beware how you meddle with him, or you'll have to deal with me." [...] Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper:— "Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past. Is it not so?" [...] The women closed round, whilst I was aghast with horror; but as I looked they disappeared, and with them the dreadful bag. There was no door near them, and they could not have passed me without my noticing. They simply seemed to fade into the rays of the moonlight and pass out through the window, for I could see outside the dim, shadowy forms for a moment before they entirely faded away. [...] As I look round this room, although it has been to me so full of fear, it is now a sort of sanctuary, for nothing can be more dreadful than those awful women, who were—who are—waiting to suck my blood.

There's so much looking today!

I initially just noticed the connection between Dracula's angry words, and the vampire ladies taking a long moment to stand together and just deliberately look Jonathan over. If indeed he has specifically warned them never to lay eyes on Jonathan, then it's another moment of them deliberately flaunting his rule, a really fun little act of defiance.

But when I did a search for the word to pull that exact quote, I saw all these others. And it made me think... Jonathan bookends this entry with looking at Dracula. (Not literally, he's merely thinking about it in the beginning and he's looking at his room at the end, but the idea is there.) Specifically, looking to him for protection, even though he hates the idea.

Everything that happens tonight is a result of him staying in the room. To defy Dracula, yes, and because he's sleeping... but also because he wants to look at the view. And then he is shown so much more than he ever expected to see. Throughout the encounter he repeatedly looks out under his eyelashes. Peeking, looking without appearing to look. This, after he spent yesterday looking in all the places he could for a way out, looking where he wasn't supposed to be and now seeing what he doesn't want to see.

And there are still things he very much doesn't see, many of which are very important. He doesn't see the child. He doesn't see any footprints in the dust but his own, he doesn't see any of the vampires enter or leave. He doesn't see Dracula return him to his bed.

It's just... a lot more present than I was expecting, and feels like you could make something out of it, though I'm not sure exactly what.

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #count dracula #vampire ladies

28 notes · View notes

hiorintruther · 2 days

Text

An Updated ‘Reasons Why I Ship Hiorin’ — Because It’s Been Ages Since I Made The First One And I’ve Had More Thoughts (and we got more moments!)

Aka: can you tell this ship makes me mentally unwell?

Hi again! It’s been a while. I did make one of these long posts a while back outlining why I choose to ship hiorin even though they’ve barely interacted and on the surface don’t look like they’d make sense at all. Since then, hiorin has gained quite a few shippers in the fandom and I keep thinking about my boys, especially with the Bastard Munchen vs PXG game FINALLY giving us some new moments. Unsurprisingly, ever since making the first post I’ve also had a lot more ideas about the dynamic, it’s potential, some more connections between them that I never touched on before, etc… and rather than editing the other post I thought it would be easier to just make a new one.

Some stuff I go over here might be familiar from the first post. I want this to be a kind of hub for any and all of my hiorin interpretations, analysis, trivia, headcanons, ‘theories’ (which I don’t think will be canon but the narrative potential for them is through the roof) and anything else I think is relevant to the ship. Feel free to jump around and read whatever is most interesting for you. Hiorin is a ship that, for me, is built on mountains of untapped potential. I just want to bring that potential to light all in one place.

Note: for this post I’ll only use information that has been written by Kaneshiro, drawn by Nomura or Sanomiya, or has otherwise been green-lit by Kaneshiro as canon. Merch collabs, voice actor QnAs, the PWC game etc… for me do not count as canon and I won’t use them. Also, the 10-image limit is biting my ass so my formatting for certain bits might be a bit all over the place. Apologies.

So without further ado. Let’s start! Enjoy the yap sesh!

Part 1 — The Manga Canon

Hiorin get their (very sparse and brief) interactions mostly from the Third Selection Arc (chapters 87-108) and the U20 arc (chapters 109-151). We recently got some new moments in the BM vs PXG match (chapters 250-present).

First off, the tryouts. It’s implied here that Hiori and Rin have never met, as Hiori notices Isagi’s response to Rin and asks if Isagi knows who Rin is. Rin also doesn’t acknowledge Hiori in any way here, so we can presume they’re strangers (although some shippers like to headcanon that they met during the first selection).

That being said during the match, after Isagi has been thoroughly shut down by Karasu, Rin turns his attention to Hiori as a teammate to help him get the ball up the field. Rin has never seen Hiori play before (as far as we know). They’ve never even talked. They’re barely getting familiar with each other’s play styles. And yet, they immediately link up to form a clean, deadly back and forth that optimises Rin’s play style. In fact, this duo helped Rin score 1 goal, and it would have helped Rin score 2 had Shidou not rudely interrupted the second.

It was so deadly that Otoya had to intervene specifically to break them up, so that they could no longer continue their one-two passes up the field and threaten to go for another goal. (Also notice in this page below how as soon as the kickoff happened, Hiori was already running into position in the background. He understands what Rin wants to do).

Not only did Hiori and Rin naturally form a link-up, but Hiori was also fully capable of keeping up with Rin, something Nanase admitted he struggled with during this match and even Isagi was struggling with as well, since later on we see Isagi fail to intercept one of Hiori’s passes due to not being able to reach it in time (which presumably Rin would have been able to were he in Isagi’s position). So, from what we see of Hiori and Rin in this match, they’re on a similar wavelength in terms of skills, field vision and gameplay, and are naturally able to link up even as strangers. I’ll note here that neither of them were playing at full power — Hiori was playing on 0 motivation, and Rin was still utilising his Puppeteer play style instead of his Destroyer. More on this later in the ‘Headcanons’ section.

After the Tryouts, we next see them interact in the U20 match. We start with a brief callback to their tryouts link up in chapter 132, where Rin passes to Hiori. Hiori is acting as a relay between Isagi and Rin, which in my opinion would be a good way to utilise him in the current manga after the NEL. Whether or not that’s how Kaneshiro chooses to use him in the future is anyone’s guess though.

The next big moment comes in chapter 140, after Shidou has kicked Rin in the face and the game has briefly paused. I think this is by far the most ‘iconic’ hiorin moment. While Isagi is analysing the previous gameplay and Karasu is arguing with the ref, it’s Hiori who is the only one to actually go and check on Rin. Even Bachira and Reo were right next to Rin and neither of them were the ones going up to him. Hiori was further down the field but he was the one who moved to help Rin first. Not only is he gentle with and worried for Rin, but by some miracle Rin actually accepts his help! It feels almost out of character given how angry Rin is for the rest of the match, but for this very brief moment he lets Hiori help him up and reassures him that he’s ‘totally fine’ (yeah sure buddy…).

For many this is the main ‘ooooooh’ moment with hiorin. But what if I told you it actually happens a second time this match? After Aiku goes rogue in chapter 142 and tries to score a goal, Rin ends up slide-tackling him to prevent it. And once again, if you look in the background of the panels following the interception in chapter 143, who is it helping Rin stand? It’s Hiori. And this time they actually hold hands!

The final hiorin moment in the U20 match come soon after this in chapter 144, when Rin is about to enter his Destroyer mode. When Rin enters Destroyer mode, Hiori is in possession of the ball and so Rin steals it from him in a completely unpredictable move that had everyone stunned.

The U20 match moments, for many of us hiorin shippers, felt like the last time we’d ever see them properly interact. I at least had zero hopes for PXG. But oh boy was I wrong! Kaneshiro might not realise the dynamic he’s setting up with this duo but I’m gonna milk every interaction for what it’s worth! And so with that, I’ll bring you to the BM vs PXG match (note: currently still ongoing, so I might have to update this section soon). Since the U20 match, we’ve had some changes. The biggest one is Hiori’s personality. After going through his arc in Ubers, Hiori has become more outspoken and confident, playing into his ‘Ultra-Sadist’ style and being more than happy to speak his mind. He’s more argumentative and can whip up a good piece of trash talk (my gamer boy fr!). We see this on full display in chapter 251 when he completely shuts down Rin’s goal opportunity because Rin was too focussed on Isagi to see the bigger picture of the match. He turns around, points at Rin, and tells him “if ya want a goal… come at me with an unpredictable script!”

Notice here how he isn’t simply putting Rin down for not being able to score. Hiori may be taunting Rin, but he does still technically give Rin helpful advice. In a previous panel he explains how he was able to read Rin because Rin was too focussed on Isagi, and in combination with Hiori’s ‘unpredictable script’ line it forms some rather blunt and rude but nevertheless useful advice. Hiori is telling Rin exactly how to get past him and what Rin needs to do to improve. Notice the focus on unpredictability. This is veering into headcanon territory, but I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to think that perhaps Hiori is thinking about Rin’s unpredictable Destroyer mode. He experienced it first hand when Rin stole the ball from him in the U20 match. He knows what Rin is truly capable of. To Hiori, that version of Rin is a reasonable expectation (and I’ll get to their relationship with ‘expectations’ later) that would be the perfect key to getting through BM’s defence. But Rin isn’t showing that off because his obsession with defeating Isagi over scoring goals is hurting his performance. Hiori’s advice is reasonable and maybe Rin should listen to it.

As of right now, the final moment we have of them together is from chapter 259, where Hiori is aided by Raichi to block Rin in a 2-person press, causing Rin to lose the ball. From a purely indulgent shipping perspective, notice how Hiori and Rin’s legs are touching, their hands are on each other’s chests and they’re looking at each other. Raichi is just there lol.

This may be it for their canon interactions, however it’s far from all the canon information we have about them that’s interesting for the dynamic. A big part of the hiorin ship is about looking at their individual information and drawing together similarities and/or parallels. While on the surface they seem very different, almost opposites, digging a little deeper reveals a lot of small coincidences about them that build up to make you realise that they’re a lot more similar than you might initially think.

Part 2 — Where Hiori and Rin Align

Analytical players. Both of them have a deeply analytical play style that utilises field vision and high levels of technical skills. They don’t rely on brute strength or pure intimidation to get through the opponents’ defence, rather they analyse, play with and overcome their opponents with strategy and out-play their opponents with sheer levels of skill. This similarity is likely what led to them to be able to so easily link up when they first met.

Sadism. Both are known sadists. Rin’s Destroyer mode is particularly sadistic but in general he revels in being at the top with others under him. He’s open with his insults and destroys chaotically, looking for breaks in his opponents’ defence and completely tearing them down until there’s no hope of his opponents winning. Hiori is a self-proclaimed “ultra-sadist” (personally I think he’s more a sado-masochist but we’re sticking to canon only here). After his arc, he enjoys watching his opponents scramble to try and keep up with him only to be destroyed by his top-tier plays, especially in a ‘best play’ scenario with his chosen striker of the moment. He’s also not loyal to any one striker and will leave them behind if they’re not playing up to his standards or goal vision. Hiori’s sadism also manifests as him teasing his friends, as we see in chapter 241 when he jokingly teases Isagi for getting shipped with Kaiser by BLTV fans.

Sae connections. Rin is Sae’s younger brother and was abandoned by Sae after Sae returned home from Spain. He says he hates his brother after the U20 match, when Sae noticed Isagi over Rin, and now Rin is playing for the sake of crushing Sae (more on this later). Hiori also has connections to Sae though. He’s been compared to Sae twice in-universe, once by Sendou in chapter 129 who said his passes had the same level of skill as Sae’s, and once by Yukimiya in chapter 241 who thinks Hiori’s ultra-sadist mindset is similar to Sae’s.

They’re both gamers. Obviously we know Hiori is one. That’s been a big part of his character ever since we first met him. However, Rin also plays video games, specifically horror games. We get this info from both the Egoist Bible and his prequel light novel, where it explains that he plays horror games to de-stress at night: (chapter 2) “… even games, should be chilling and scary. Playing horror games alone at night is quite thrilling”.

Horror, gore and zombies. As well as playing horror games to de-stress, it’s explained in the Egoist Bible and Rin’s light novel that he watches horror movies for the same reason: (chapter 2) “When he’s done, he watches a horror movie and then goes to bed. This is his daily routine. For some reason, since Sae has been gone, he only watches horror movies. Movies, videos …”. The light novel slightly expands on this to specify he enjoys splatter films, as well as showing an illustration of him watching rather a gory zombie movie: (chapter 4) “Lately, he's been into splatter films. The one where a killer comes out with an electric saw and a big-ass ax, then blood splatters all over the place. The one where a killer chases you no matter how hard you try to escape, and if you get caught, you end up being dismembered. His heart is pounding, but he’s not the type to show on his face, so Rin watching the slaughter scene without any expression on his face is much more horrifying”. Likewise, Hiori is shown in chapter 206 playing a zombie shooter in which he imagines the zombies being his parents and he violently kills them. We see his inner monologue of this in his prequel light novel, showing the depths of how much he wants them to suffer: (chapter 6) “Before he knew it, in his imagination, his parents became zombies. His father and mother are coming towards him, laughing. He shoots without hesitation. Bang! Headshot. The bullet that entered the father's jaw blew off the back of his head. Bang! Bang! His mother's eyeballs pop out and there's a hole in her chest. He aims for vital spots with rapid fire, but they don't fall easily because they're zombies”.

Solitude. They’re both introverts according to their MBTIs. Rin is ranked as the most anti-social member of Blue Lock in the Egoist Bible. He says he “doesn’t have time for lukewarm conversations” (although I do think on some level he longs for approval and love from someone, given how much he craves his brother’s attention). He is also one of the only characters who genuinely has no friends in Blue Lock. He tolerated Bachira for a time and trained Nanase begrudgingly, but no one is very close with him at all. Now, at a glance Hiori might seem far more social. He has a lot of friends and seems to enjoy hanging out with them. However, in a Twitter qna (which tend to have questions compiled for the Egoist Bible but alas Hiori doesn’t have a page) it was revealed that his ideal type in a romantic partner is “someone who can leave me alone”. The wording he used — 放置し合えるん — seems to imply a reciprocal nature of this ‘leaving alone’, ie ‘you leave me alone, I’ll leave you alone’. Now tell me that arrangement wouldn’t work perfectly for Rin. Hiori is also shown in chapter 172 (pre-character arc) spending time alone in the BM dorms while others are out training. While Hiori can enjoy socialising, he also needs plenty of time to himself to the point where it becomes a deal-breaker in a relationship for him.

Ochazuke (tea on rice). Rin’s favourite food according to the Egoist Bible is ochazuke, specifically taichazuke. In the new Episode Rin extra chapter we also see him going to enjoy some taichazuke at a traditional restaurant because he was hungry for ochazuke. When Hiori was asked in another Twitter qna what his favourite accompaniment for rice is, he replied that it was the ochazuke brand Nagatanien.

Stripes. Rin’s casual outfits for both the Shibuya collab (designed by Nomura) and Episode Rin feature a striped/ribbed pattern. Likewise, Hiori’s casual pyjamas, childhood design and one of Nomura’s coaster designs all feature him wearing striped clothing.

Eyelashes. Both of them have long under lashes. That’s kinda it for this one lol.

Name kanji (yes, I’m in this deep). In Rin’s surname, the kanji 糸 means ‘thread/yarn’. In Hiori’s surname, the kanji 織 means ‘weaver’. Both of them have kanji relating to weaving, likely in relation to both Rin’s Puppeteer play style (and Sae’s insane control of the midfield), and Hiori’s way of ‘weaving’ together a best play through his skills (and his parents ‘weaving’ his life for him rather than letting him control it himself). To get poetic about it, you could say Hiori is the weaver who knows how best to utilise Rin’s threads and can guarantee their shared goal vision will be woven into place. To get even more conspiracy theorist-y, when Charles meets Hiori he calls Hiori “水色お兄さん” — literally ‘water-coloured big brother’, likely in relation to his hair colour because 水色 can also mean ‘cyan’. To keep it on the topic of water though, whose aura is made of water? That’s right. Rin’s! (yes I know this is really grasping at straws but I did say this post was for EVERYTHING hiorin soooo).

Part 3 — Family Relationships: Love, Expectations and Abandonment

Rin and Hiori both have relationships with particular members of their family that are similar and also unique among the rest of the cast. For Rin, it’s his relationship with Sae. For Hiori, it’s his relationship with his parents.

To begin with Hiori, his parents only wanted a child who could fulfil their dream of being number 1. They held this expectation of him throughout his whole life, pretending to genuinely care about and love him when in reality all they wanted was for him to be the best. If he tried to step out of line, they’d become monstrous, as seen in Hiori’s light novel: (chapter 2) “Can I take a day off from soccer tomorrow and go play with my friends?” As soon as he said this, the smiles disappeared from his parents’ faces. His mother looked very surprised, and then she made the scariest face he's ever seen. “......!” He doesn’t remember what she said. He just remembers that he was scolded terribly. After that, he was hugged tightly. “Hiori, you are born to be the best at soccer.” “You can play with other kids anytime you want.” “But if you don’t do soccer properly from now on, you will never be the best.” His mother was desperate. His father was behind her, looking sadly at Hiori. “Please, Hiori, trust us and play soccer.” Hiori felt that he had done something very wrong. … What should I do? I said something bad. I'm sorry. The air was stifling, as if he had been locked in a room full of needles. He felt like he would get hurt if he moved, so all Hiori could do was nod.” We also see the extent of this in chapter 206, when Hiori overhears his parents threatening to get a divorce if he isn’t the best. This makes him realise that if he doesn’t fulfil their expectations, he’ll be abandoned by them.

With Rin, it’s a bit more complicated. His relationship with his older brother Sae is still pretty up in the air as to what really happened from Sae’s perspective. We need to distinguish between what actually happened (which is difficult to determine as of right now) and what Rin interpreted as happening. From his perspective, Sae pretended to love him while they were growing up, only using him as a stepping stone to get to the world stage. After that had been achieved, Rin was abandoned (as seen in his inner monologue in chapter 125). While it’s difficult to discern, on a broad scale we could argue that instead of this, Sae has a particular expectation of Rin that currently Rin is failing to meet, and as a result Sae sees this abandonment as somehow ‘necessary’ to get Rin to evolve… or he really has abandoned Rin and is just an asshole, but I hope towards the former. This is where I cry on deaf ears for a Sae light novel or spin-off chapter, anything to get his side of the story. My current interpretation of canon is that Sae still loves Rin, however he knows that Rin’s desire to be the world’s best as a duo is impossible, and his way of trying to ween Rin off such a dream was to sever their relationship. No matter what really happened though, I’m more interested in what Rin interpreted and took away from being abandoned, which is an interesting mix of hatred and confusion but also still a desire for recognition.

This to me reads as very similar to what Hiori’s relationship with his parents used to be. He hated them. He wished death upon them. And yet he kept fighting for what they wanted, fulfilling their expectations because he was so afraid that if he didn’t, all the blame would be placed on him for their family falling apart and his parents abandoning him. Rin’s situation is sort of a dark mirror to Hiori’s where instead of just fearing that abandonment, Rin was abandoned, with all the blame being placed on him by Sae. And yet, deep down, he’s still fighting for Sae’s approval and love again, trying to find any way he can to fulfil Sae’s expectations. We see this in the way Rin has chosen Isagi to be his rival, not because of anything in particular that Isagi has done, but because Sae acknowledged Isagi over him. We see his desire for love in the way he travelled to Tokyo in the Episode Rin extra chapter to possibly watch Sae’s match, even though they’d already fallen out by that point. Rin and Hiori both strove for love from their families, it’s just that Hiori has now managed to break free from this mindset and fight only for himself, meanwhile Rin is still clinging to the memory of Sae no matter how much he wants to crush Sae for abandoning him.

This complicated relationship the two of them have with love, expectations and abandonment in relation to family members is what draws me to a lot of hiorin headcanon material. Rin is cold, antisocial and ruthless, and yet Hiori potentially has the capacity to understand his pain more than anyone else. This is especially true now that Hiori has broken free of his parents’ expectations. It gives him the freedom to look at these situations more objectively while retaining an understanding of their emotional core. He knows how difficult it is to both hate your family but strive for their approval, perhaps fruitlessly. And likewise, Rin might be able to actually learn something from how Hiori overcame his situation by going all-in with the egoist mindset, playing only for himself, completely discarding his family members’ expectations.

Part 4 — Headcanons Part 1: The Hiorin Potential For A Joint Arc (which yes I know won’t happen. Let me dream)

Anything from this point on is pure headcanon, taking into account all the canon information listed in the previous sections. This is NOT ‘speculation’. I genuinely don’t think any of this will be canon or else Kaneshiro would have started calling attention to it by now in the main manga. However by the end of this I’m sure some of you will join me in wishing it could be canon, because even if Kaneshiro hasn’t consciously laid the groundwork for Rin and Hiori to have a joint arc together, he has done so by accident and all the pieces are in place.

The bulk of this section revolves around Rin’s Destroyer mode and Hiori’s ultra-sadism, as well as the ‘best-play’ scenario theorised by Isagi and Hiori in the recent PXG chapters. Basically, I think that a ‘best-play’ chemical reaction between ultra-sadist Hiori and Destroyer Rin would be both broken as fuck and would be a great way to showcase Rin’s character development as he learns to break away from wanting to crush Isagi and Sae.

In Rin’s light novel, we learn that as a child playing alongside Sae as a duo, Rin didn’t have the Puppeteer play style he’s known for in the main series. Instead, he was fully zoned in on himself and the game, moving on instinct, looking for the perfect spot to break through the enemy’s defence, trusting fully that he’d receive Sae’s pass (chapter 1): ‘“Rin, what are you thinking about when you play soccer?” Rin scored two goals in today’s match. Meanwhile, Sae scored three points with a hat trick. His Nii-chan is great after all. “Hm? Nothing. I guess it's just about goals. I just run to the bad area and then Nii-chan passes to me.” “What do you mean by bad area?” Sae asks, while playing with the stick in his mouth. “Hm. The area where the enemy panics and falls through.” The area the enemy falls through. Sae let his younger brother's words quietly seep into his mind. “You rely too much on your intuition, you know.” “But Nii-chan always passes to me, so why not? Nobody else is good enough for me.” That’s why it’s okay to move on impulse without thinking. “......What will you do when I’m not around?” “I don’t know but, I guess I’ll look for a replacement.” Rin says nonchalantly.’

This method of running ‘to the area where the enemy panics and falls through’ seems to be alluding to Rin’s Destroyer mode — the version of Rin we see in the final moments of the U20 match after he loses control and goes on a destructive rampage. Indeed, in chapter 152 we also see Rin wondering what this side of him is truly capable of and how he wants to try harnessing it more, but he still only wants to use it to destroy Isagi and Sae rather than playing for himself. His Puppeteer is not his original play style, instead it’s one he developed after Sae left in order to appease his teammates and be a able to carry his team to victory by himself (chapter 3); ‘Even in a high-level club team, no one could handle Rin’s moves’, (chapter 4): ‘Without Sae's passes, he can't play the way he wants to play’, (chapter 5): ‘Rin erases his best image and then captures the whole picture. In his head, he sees the movements of all the players, as if filmed from a drone’, (chapter 5): ‘No one understands Rin's frustration. But they can win, so that's fine. It's as if there are marionette strings attached to his teammates, controlling and moving the team…… That is Rin's new weapon. It is a play that can only be made with Rin's combination of technical, physical, and tactical skills. It has also led him to bring out the best in his teammates’. It was only in the U20 match that the Destroyer was able to come out again after it had been sealed away for so long. It was a completely different way of playing that was more primal and natural for Rin but less controlled and more clumsy due to his lack of practice using it. Still, its pure destructive power was insane enough to almost score.

In the current chapters of the manga, we know that Rin has gotten a certain better grasp of the Destroyer since the start of the NEL. In chapter 239 (immediately after Hiori says he’ll happily drop Isagi for someone else should they come along, mind you) we see Rin utilising a seemingly toned down version of the Destroyer against Nagi in the PXG vs MC match. Clearly he has been trying to improve it since first letting it loose again during the U20 match. However, so far in PXG vs BM we haven’t seen it at all. Given Hiori’s comment about focussing on Isagi and predictability, as well as Isagi and Hiori’s theory of ‘ego types’ and a ‘best play’ scenario, it appears as though Rin’s biggest problem is that he’s using a world-type ego to show off his skills to Isagi (and therefore, by extension, to Sae as well). This is the ego type suited for the Puppeteer, one that utilises teammates and was created for the sake of appeasing others. The Destroyer on the other hand seems far better suited to a ‘self-type’ ego because Rin accesses it when in a state of mind that ignores Isagi, ignores Sae and hyper-zones in on himself and his own ability to score a goal. This would mean that Rin’s ‘true’ ego is a ‘self-type’ but he is hindering himself by using a ‘world-type’ to try and prove something to Isagi and Sae.

Now, undoubtably we’ll see the Destroyer at some point in this match, and I really hope when it comes out we see it decimate Hiori. Since Hiori flat out told Rin to come at him with ‘an unpredictable script’, the Destroyer can be the ‘unpredictable script’ that blows Hiori away. And I think that would catch Hiori’s attention. Remember, his resolve in chapter 239 is to create the greatest striker, and his ultra-sadism means he’s more than happy to drop Isagi for someone he thinks is better. So, no matter what the outcome of the match is, I think Rin’s Destroyer should pique Hiori’s interest as a potential best striker candidate. This is especially so when you remember that Hiori has technically already experienced Rin’s Destroyer first hand in the U20 match, when Rin stole the ball from Hiori (interesting side note here: Hiori’s immediate thoughts before the ball was stolen from him were him struggling to figure out who he should pass to, Barou or Nagi. He thought ‘which one of you?’ but didn’t pass, in my eyes because he couldn’t envision the play working with either of them, and then immediately Rin stole the ball. Rin unknowingly answered the question Hiori was asking in those crucial seconds).

In the next arc (a U20 World Cup training mini-arc I’d presume), I’d have Hiori and Rin slowly start to come to an understanding. I think Hiori’s ultra-sadism would be incredibly useful in helping draw the Destroyer out of Rin because Hiori only passes to the best spot on the field. He doesn’t alter his level of play for the sake of his striker. So, if Rin is in a mindset where he’s too focussed on proving Sae wrong, crushing Sae and defeating Isagi, then his plays become affected and Hiori simply won’t pass to him, likely passing to Isagi instead. This creates a bottle-neck where Rin has to evolve his mindset, discarding the ‘world-type’ ego of the Puppeteer (which is still useful in some cases, but not here) and instead fully embrace the Destroyer. If he can get into that mindset, only focussing on himself and not Isagi, Sae or even the other players around him, zoning in on just the goal ahead, he is guaranteed to be rewarded by receiving Hiori’s perfect pass to the ideal spot where the enemy ‘breaks’. It mirrors how Sae used to pass to him in their childhood (remembering Hiori has been compared to Sae in terms of both skill and mindset), except now Rin isn’t thinking that he’s part of a permanent duo, rather he alone is the star and he can trust his midfielder to aid him and match goal-visions without the need for the Puppeteer.

The key word here is trust. Rin and Hiori would have to develop a level of trust. Hiori has to trust that Rin will embody the Destroyer, and Rin has to trust that Hiori will side with him. It’s why Hiori has currently been able to work so well with Isagi. Their goal visions aligned and they placed the utmost trust in each other to perform at their individual bests, thus leading to Isagi scoring successful goals. For me, if Rin could also reach this state, it would be a showcase of the culmination of his development as he breaks free of Sae and learns how to play fully for himself. It would simultaneously be a return to his childhood, where he was able to freely utilise the Destroyer without worrying about the rest of the team, while also showing his evolution because he no longer places that trust onto just Sae ‘because it’s Nii-chan’. When Rin trusts in Hiori, it wouldn’t be because ‘it’s Hiori’, rather it would be Rin fully focussing purely on himself and his own plays, forgetting about everything and everyone else, and simply allowing the ball to land in the ideal spot at his feet. It’s a completely sadistic, self-serving mindset, just like Hiori’s is from a midfielder’s perspective. Hiori’s ultra-sadism means he likely can’t be controlled by Rin’s Puppeteer style, since he plays for himself fully. Therefore in order to successfully earn Hiori’s passes, Rin would need to fully embrace the Destroyer, abandon Isagi and Sae clouding his judgement, and throw himself fully into goal-scoring. Hiori can’t be controlled but he’s reliable and can be trusted. I do think the road to building this trust should have its ups and downs. Let Rin get frustrated at Hiori not being controllable. Let Hiori want to see Rin improve while also not bending to Rin’s will. Let Hiori refuse to work with Rin sometimes. All of it would be part of a gradual, arc-spanning development for Rin that doesn’t take place in a single chapter.

In my personal opinion, having Hiori specifically be the midfielder who helps Rin most would be more narratively satisfying someone like Nanase (no hate to Nanase or nanarin tho. Love them 🫶). While Nanase works as a nice support for Rin especially at the moment in PXG, plus his sunshine personality might help to make Rin relax and open up more over time, his skill level isn’t quite up to scratch for Rin’s highest level plays. Nanase’s passes are useful with his ambidexterity but they aren’t clean. They aren’t as reliable. Rin still has to pay attention to Nanase in order to guarantee a successful play. He can’t block out literally everything else to hyper-focus on goal-scoring in this state. Hiori on the other hand provides that high level of play which means that Rin can afford to essentially forget Hiori even exists — the ball will still find its way to him. They wouldn’t even have to look at each other (much like the Isagi x Hiori best play we saw in Ubers that was recently recreated in PXG). There’s also the thematic element that Hiori has been compared to Sae before, setting him up as a Sae parallel which I think could be utilised in Rin’s evolution. Placing trust in Hiori would show that Rin is finally able to detach his reason to play from Sae and he can stop striving so strongly for Sae to notice him. Then there’s the shared relationship Hiori and Rin both have with expectations, love and abandonment, which could arguably help them get on each others wavelength to understand exactly what they want from a play and how best to execute a strategy they haven’t even discussed beforehand, as well as have Hiori be the one to help ‘create’ Rin since Hiori has already gone through the mental baggage of his arc and would understand Rin’s mental blocks.

Still, I do think canonically Rin and Nanase will be the duo that continues forwards into the next arc. Rin’s development will likely come from a combination of Nanase’s kindness, Isagi’s yap sessions and a lot of internal monologues. Meanwhile, Hiori will continue to improve alongside Isagi as a plot device who can be pulled out at convenient moments, while occasionally passing to other strikers for dramatic flair (I don’t really like this after Hiori’s resolve so strongly telegraphed that he’d very happily drop Isagi without a second thought, but oh well, what can you do?). I doubt Hiori will canonically play into Rin’s development at all.

Still, from the moment Rin and Hiori met in the third selection tryouts, they were able to flawlessly link up without the need for planning or communication. Hiori understood what Rin needed and moved to the perfect spot to work with him. If both of them were in Flow, creating a ‘best-play’ scenario with the Destroyer and the Ultra-Sadist, it would both be a show of incredible skill and high-level play while also showcasing Rin’s personal development and evolution, as well as utilising Hiori as a narrative support in a way that doesn’t impose him too strongly on the main plot but keeps him relevant and active in the story.

Part 5 — Headcanons Part 2: Some Fun Ideas

This section is all about some fun ideas I’ve had about hiorin, mostly trying to use canon as a strong basis so that they make sense. They aren’t things I think will ever be explored in canon but they’re fun to think about nonetheless. These can range from canon-adjacent to domestic AU material, it’s a whole mix really. I’ll probably come back to this bit every now and again to update it with new ideas I have, so keep an eye out for that.

A shared understanding. Since they’re both familiar with what they perceive to be feelings of false love from family members, it creates a situation where they can understand why they act the way they do better than anyone else. I hc that this would help them to more naturally form link-ups on the field, since they’d be in tune with each other’s mental states as well as general play styles, and off-field in being able to recognise when something has ticked off the other and resurfaced some unpleasant memories. I don’t think they’d really be ones to talk about their family traumas to each other openly, but they’d have an understanding of the things they do find out and wouldn’t think the other is overreacting, especially Hiori understanding Rin. While I think it’s good that Rin has friends like Nanase who he can be more chilled out with, I personally prefer the idea that his partner be someone who can actually understand the depths of his issues and sit with him in the eye of the storm rather than trying to just ‘fix’ him or drag him out of it.

Touch-starved and both slow to physical affection. Since they’re both introverted and Rin is emotionally constipated as fuck, they aren’t really a couple that would be very into PDA. Not even hand-holding. But it doesn’t really matter for them. They’re both not very used to that sort of physical comfort especially in the presence of others. However, while I think in general Rin might be a bit more reluctant to initiate intimacy than Hiori, I do think he’d still be more inclined to initiate hugs. Why Rin of all people? Because he grew up with a sibling. And he was a younger sibling at that. On some level he would have received attention from Sae while their relationship was still good, even if only a little bit. Hiori on the other hand grew up an only child in a household where hugs and doting were used as a tool to manipulate him. He’d likely not be used to the idea of hugs as a genuine show of affection. But Rin’s hugs are always genuine and often given out sparingly and bashfully, after a lot of hesitation. They’re both slow to physical affection but they’d find a way to navigate their wants and needs together, taking their time.

All-nighter horror dates. Be it playing co-op horror games or binging horror movies in the dark, I think they’d both prefer that as a date night over going out to a restaurant. It’s an activity they can both have fun with as a shared interest, just the two of them, alone at home with no need to even leave the house. They can let themselves get more passionate and competitive (and sadistic) while playing horror games too.

Yoga together. While we only have canonical confirmation that Rin both regularly does yoga and is good at it, I hc that Hiori would also be quite good at it due to his parents likely drilling him with intense schedules and being helicopter parents about his health. Yoga would likely fall into it somewhere as a cool-down and a good way to exercise on rainy days. While Hiori initially wouldn’t find yoga fun to do with Rin due to his negative associations with it, I feel like over time it could be a nice bonding activity for the two of them. It requires minimal talking of they’re doing their own things, and as long as Hiori isn’t messing up the moves I think Rin would tolerate the two of them existing in the same space. At the very least, Hiori wouldn’t try to one-up Rin with moves he can’t do and topple into Rin as a result (looking at you, Isagi…). They wouldn’t do couples yoga though, just their own thing in the same space.

Sharing food. In the Twitter QnAs, it states that Hiori’s favourite food is salt-grilled saury (saury shiyoyaki) “including the bitter bits”. His least favourite food is cotton candy because “it’s just sugar”. Therefore, I hc that he tends to enjoy bitter food while disliking sweet food. In contrast, we know that Rin quite likes sweet food because he used to eat ice cream with Sae on the way home from practice, plus in the Episode Rin extra chapter he goes to buy dessert at a special desserts cafe after eating ochazuke (a traditionally salty dish). Because of this difference in tastes, I like to hc Hiori giving any sweet food Blue Lock offers in their meals to Rin. Likewise, if the main meal Rin is given is ever burnt or charred too much for his liking, he gives the charred bits to Hiori since he knows Hiori will eat them so the food won’t be wasted.

Tea and coffee. As an addendum to the previous hc, I think Hiori would be a coffee drinker and Rin would be a tea drinker. This is because coffee tends to be more bitter, especially ones without sugar like espressos, so I can see Hiori preferring it to tea. There’s also the idea that ochazuke is made with tea, which is a bonus for Rin liking tea over coffee.

Cooking. Last food-related one I promise! While Hiori likely has a ton of technical knowledge about nutrition, dieting, calorie counting etc… due to his mother’s frenzied control of his diet growing up, I headcanon that he doesn’t actually have a clue how to cook. Once again, this is because of his parents being overprotective and worrying that he’d injure himself with a kitchen knife or on the stove. So he has zero clue where to start in the kitchen. On the flip-side, while Rin isn’t the best cook in the world I reckon he’d have somewhat an idea of how to cook the basics, plus he likely also has knowledge of dieting and nutrition for the sake of his own health. So while they’d both have things to learn in the kitchen, it would be Rin doing more of the actual cooking and Hiori deciding what meals to eat to optimise their health and training.

A joint-aura that’s a blizzard — in the event that they ever were to team up on the field, I think that the aura they’d give off together should be a blizzard. It makes sense to me for them to have this because Hiori has ice associations with the kanji 氷 in his surname, which means ‘ice’, and in chapter 239 when he gives his monologue about finding a reason to play, a metaphorical key appears with a snowflake on it to symbolise his newfound resolve. Rin’s connections to snow are less positive though, since it was snowing the day that Sae abandoned him. I think making their joint aura a blizzard could symbolise both Hiori’s ultra-sadist resolve to play, and Rin finally being able to move on from Sae to associate the snow with his sadistic determination. The fact that it’s a snowstorm emphasises the pair of them having a sadistic, destructive take-down of their opponents.

Hiori has a type. His canon type is already ‘someone who will leave me alone’ as I previously discussed in section 2. However, I do like to semi-jokingly say that his type is also ‘dark-haired, analytical guys with an attitude who are really good at football’. Obviously this is meant to refer mostly to Isagi and Karasu (we’ve all seen the heart-eyes you give them, Hiori!), but it is amusing to me that the description also fits Rin perfectly.

Part 6 — Transformative Works I Recommend For New Shippers

These are just some of my favourite fanfics all linked together in one place. I’ll start with a shameless plug of my own fic:

14 Days To NOT Fall In Love (but guess who did anyway)

Summary: This annoyingly mandated break of Ego's was only fourteen days long. That would never be enough time for Rin to fall for this aggravatingly sweet, understanding, level-headed, cyan-haired gamer boy... Okay, maybe he'd need to exercise SOME restraint. Aka: how Rin and Hiori become mutually pining idiots after the U-20 match through a combination of video games, late night discord calls and learning that perhaps they're not all that different after all.

(Chapters: 10 , Word Count: 67088 , Rating: T)

And now for my personal favourites I think new shippers will enjoy, in no particular order (if any of the authors see this and have tumblrs you want me to tag, lmk!):

catch us in the morning by transrightssokka (kellallyourfriends)

Summary: Hiori looks down and brings his hand up to his mouth, hiding a faint smile. “You don’t wanna go home, do you?” “No shit, I don’t,” Rin says. He’d rather sleep on the sidewalk than spend the next two weeks with Sae. Hiori is silent for a minute. His pretty eyes flick to his feet. Up to the back of the seat in front of them. Over to Rin. “So.” “So?” Rin says. Hiori lowers his voice. “So, what if we didn’t?”

(Chapters: 3 , Word Count: 27206 , Rated: M)

Even When It’s Starless by saturnshots

Summary: Everyone’s had an imaginary friend or two — it’s not often they change the course of your life, but who says being imaginary could stop them from bringing your dreams come true?

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 2838 , Rating: G)

sine wave by starstruckdove

Summary: Rin discovers Bachira’s “super secret surprise” sooner than he’d thought. There’s a new boy standing next to Ego at practice, and Rin knows he’s new because each of his unfortunate teammates have made their presence (loudly and raucously) known in his life. The boy has a nice face–wide eyes and soft mouth, all rounded corners instead of sharp edges. His hair is a shocking shade of blue and Rin finds it almost familiar. “This is your new manager,” Ego says with about as much energy as a dead battery.

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 8990 , Rated: T)

Daydreaming by em_hiorin

Summary: Hiori can’t seem to concentrate during practice, as a certain Itoshi has been plaguing his mind.

(Chapters: 1 , Word Count: 1560 , Rating: G)

My family thinks we’re dating. by akiangelsolos

Summary: “Oh, I see.” His mother hummed, placing her silver fork down on the table. “You must be upset, Hiori hasn’t come over in a while. You have to be lonely without your boyfriend around.” “I’m not lonely-” Rin shot his eyes at his mom, “What did you just say?”

(Chapters: 2 , Word Count: 5486 , Rating: G)

Part 7 — Wow, You Made It This Far? Congratulations And Thank You!

If you’ve made it this far, then I am both immensely thankful and I applaud you. Seriously, thank you for putting up with my insane, delusional brainrot over this silly rarepair that has barely any canon backing to speak of. Hopefully if anything, you now understand why people are starting to take interest in the ship (or at least why I enjoy it). And if you’re a shipper now, welcome to the club! You will now have to watch Hiori and Rin never affect each other’s development, never interact in any meaningful capacity and you’ll be eternally bitter about it 👍. For any aspiring fic writers, I hope this can be a nice hub of info for all of you if you want to consult the hiorin ‘dynamic’ (i say in quotations because let’s face it, I made up like 95% of the dynamic based on analysis and a canon dynamic doesn’t actually exist). Also, bear in mind that in the off chance we do get some more moments, I plan to update this post. So you may end up being subject to even more brainrot in the future.

Until that day comes though, I can only thank you once again. Hiorin is my otp and no matter how much Kaneshiro doesn’t make it come to fruition, he will have to try incredibly hard to make me stop shipping them. The dynamic can change. They can become more and more ‘incompatible’. I don’t care. If hiorin has no shippers, I have passed on from this world.

#blue lock #bllk #hiorin #hiori yo #itoshi rin #blue lock hiori #blue lock rin #FINALLY this post is finished!!!#I’ve been working on it for weeks #it’s mostly for myself ngl #just a nice place to compile all my screaming into one clump #might as well share it with the world yk?#I hope it makes even a modicum of sense to any unsuspecting readers who don’t ship it #rinhio #rnho

28 notes · View notes

scoobydoodean · 2 days

Note

Hey 👋 I just wanted to ask when, in your view of Dean, do you see him figuring out his sexuality? I know you don't like the idea that Sam explains it to him as an adult through some inexplicable ability to diagnose someone with bisexuality and I also dislike this idea as I feel it kinda disregards both Dean's personal experiences as well as the general climate towards queer people when he was growing up which was obviously not favourable at all. Also if you believe that he figured himself out early on, do you think rufus and bobby helped with that? Idk I just like the idea of dean having queer elders in his life and finding out about himself that way. Or maybe I just like the idea of dean having a support group 😞. Anyway sorry this ended up being me just kinda going on a rant. Thank you for all your dean posts he is my favourite and seeing you defend him makes me very happy 😊

I enjoy the idea that Dean has been hooking up with women and men the whole time and we just don't get to see that explicitly (because of the network? Because of Chuck? Because Dean keeps his activities with men under wraps out of caution? Because he made a bet over how long it'd take Sam to notice? Pick your poison).

Fun little bits that lend to this perspective for me are 1.15 The Benders, Dean's fascination with Dr. Sexy and his sexy cowboy boots, Crowley and Demon Dean's summer of love (especially the triplets), Dean's affinity for dorky little guys and Victor Henriksen.

The most interesting and convincing one to me though is the idea of Dean testing the waters with Cas a few times in season 5 with little flirtations, only to come to the conclusion that Cas isn't into men because Cas keeps missing all of his hints about hooking up (5.03a, 5.03b, 5.03&4.10&5.15, 5.18). Or they did hook up once at some point but it didn't become anything more and didn't happen again after the one time (6.19).

Regretfully, I must also spare a nod to #sam knows (but so does Dean!).

It's just fun to me. It's fun to think about. I don't really have any specific headcanons about an exact time period when he figured out "Oh I like chicks and dudes". But I also don't think John Winchester would give a shit if Dean fucked dudes or wanted to date or even marry a guy so I don't know that the family aspect would be such a big issue (*cough cough* bi John truthing). If anything, I think John might worry himself sick about Dean getting hate crimed by somebody and open his big mouth and say some things he shouldn't have—the same way he drove Sam away because he was so fixated on the terror he felt at the idea of Sam not being safe (1.08, 1.20). Then again, John was never as paranoid about Dean's safety as he was about Sam's.

I do have a tag where I collect queer dean stuff. #swayze always gets a pass.

#sorry this took me so long to come back to! been a busy couple of weeks #swayze always gets a pass #mail

39 notes · View notes

lyricswrittenbythesecretdreamer · 6 hours

Text

Haunted Pt 2

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for the fantastic reception on Part 1, it really made me want to write some more to this little story! Here's Part 2, I hope you enjoy it as much as the last one.

Summary: Reader remembers a party she was at, and the Ghoul causes trouble in a saloon.

“Are you enjoying the party?”

I looked over to my left to see Barb Howard approaching me. She was completely impeccable – her dark skin was glowing, and she had the best-looking hair in the room. Her dress was a beautiful peach colour, and she had a string of pearls around her neck that were probably worth more than all the alcohol spilling at the party. Beside her, I felt ever so slightly dull.

“Oh, me and Jackie are having such a good time,” I nodded towards the toilets, “he’s currently taking a bathroom break.”

I felt the need to accentuate my husband’s appearance next to Barb, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Jackie appeared from the toilet and smiled widely at us.

“Barb, this is a spectacular event. You lot at Vault-Tec certainly know how to throw a party!” he laughed, and I felt a wave of jealousy come over me as she laughed alongside him. Jackie was so good at this – talking to people he barely knew, making them feel like he really cared about them even if he didn’t give a whatsits. “Me and my wife here barely get a chance to go out together at the minute, this filming is taking awfully long.”

I noticed he winced as he said this, and Barb’s face fell ever so slightly. The one thing we’d both agreed not to mention tonight was the film because we knew I was already on Barb’s bad side after she’d seen The Man from Calabasas. I’d never taken her as a jealous type, but after the premier had finished, Barb had become immediately cold towards me. Her irritation at my presence got worse with Under the Covers, and this one we were currently shooting often had visits to set from Cooper’s wife, who apparently was under the impression I was screwing her husband.

Not even my marriage had convinced her otherwise and she’d been invited to the wedding.

“Well, you and I are both feeling the loneliness from our spouses’ schedules, although Cooper’s is most definitely busier.”

I sucked in a deep breath at her veiled insult, but Jackie just put his hand on the small of my back and pointed to the corner.

“Look, darling, there’s Charlie,” he smiled politely at Barb, and she forced one back at us. “my apologies, Mrs Howard, but I think we’re being waved over.”

We walked away from her, and Jackie let out an unhappy sigh.

“God, you’d think that you’d be flirting with that woman’s husband off-camera with the way she acts towards you.”

“I barely flirt with him on camera, darling.” I chuckled, and he took me in his arms, placed his hands on my waist and kissed me deeply.

“I love you, darling.” He said softly, and I smiled back, feeling myself getting lost in his gaze.

“I love you too, Jackie,” I replied, “I love you very much.”

***

“Earth to Little Miss Ryder, are you even fuckin’ listening to me?”

I turned to the Ghoul, who was waving a gloved hand in my face. I jumped slightly and sent him an uneasy nod. We were walking past the remains of what seemed to be a forest, with trees that were coming back stronger than they’d grown before. Walking along the treeline gave us a bit of shade from the burning sun, but the Ghoul had been shifty since we’d left the hut that morning, looking in every direction at once as if something was going to appear all at once out of nowhere.

“Yeah, sorry. Just got distracted thinking about someone. I mean, something.”

“Well, you better keep fuckin’ focused 'cause I think I can see what passed that hut last night.” He gestured in front of me, and I gasped as I saw what he meant.

Up in the distance, shuffling around aimlessly, was another ghoul.

“Has it seen us?” I whispered, but he shook his head.

“Nah, I don’t think so,” he hissed back, “but we’re gonna have to pass it at some point, and it’s definitely feral.”

In front of us, the feral ghoul began to turn towards us and suddenly I was being pulled behind a tree. He pulled out his gun and gestured for me to do the same.

“Hey, uh, I should probably have asked you this before, but what’s your name? I don’t want to go ‘hey ghoulie’ and have you both turn to look at me.”

“I don’t have one.”

“What do you mean you don’t have one?”

“I. Don’t. Have. One. Okay?”

“Everyone has a name!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, just call me Sherrif!” he spat out, before leaping out behind the tree and shooting the feral in the head.

“What kind of a fuckin’ name is Sherrif?” I almost laugh at the implications – this fucking Ghoul, who dressed like a cowboy with a secret love of Westerns wanted to be called Sherrif?

“It’s my fuckin’ name, Missy.”

“No, it ain’t.”

“Yes, it is.”

The feral currently on the floor began to move again, but Sherrif shot it again, still glaring at me.

“It’s a fucking stupid name – makes you sound like a dog.”

He lunged at me – grabbed onto my neck and shoved me against the tree we’d just been hiding behind.

“Maybe I just am a dog, Missy. I certainly seem to be followin’ you around like one.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m fuckin’ paying you for, Sherrif,” He let out an irritated huff, and let me go, adjusting his belt.

“Never meet your fuckin’ heroes,” he sighed and shook his head. I only let out another laugh and shrugged.

“I was never the hero, Sherrif. I was the always the damsel in distress, gettin’ tied up by some evildoer and Coop’s character would have to rescue me.”

“You were pretty fuckin’ fiesty for a damsel in distress.”

“Only ‘cause the old perverts that liked watching Coop’s pictures liked to see a woman’s titties jiggle as she fought off the evil outlaw.”

Walking away from the scene, the bounty hunter Ghoul became talkative in a way he hadn’t been before last night.

“What was it like actin’ alongside the infamous Cooper Howard?” I raised my eyebrows at him, but he only shrugged. “I’m just interested to know if he was a fuckin’ arsehole like actors usually are.”

“What do you know about actors, Sherrif?”

“Been around a long time, I suppose.”

“I can fuckin’ believe that one,” he shot me a dirty look, but I only grinned, “anyway, Coop was actually a pretty nice guy, for the most part. Though it is his fuckin’ fault I’m out here and not sittin’ pretty in a vault with my husband.”

“The vaults aren’t all they were cracked up to be,” the Sherrif grimaced, and adjusted his hat, “you’re probably better off out here.”

“You might be right, to be fair. But if I saw him walkin’ ‘round today, I’d sock him right on the mouth.”

“Haven’t you done that before anyway?” I roll my eyes at his attempt at a joke, but I can’t help but smile.

“We were acting.”

“Were you?”

“Of course I was!” I slap him on the arm, and he grins down at me. For a second, I’m not in the wasteland – I’m back on set with Cooper and Jackie or Greg and we’re just laughing about some dumb shit on the script. Then the wasteland appears before us again and I’m no longer home.

***

The next settlement we arrived at was substantial but quiet. The people there didn’t seem scared of us as we dragged ourselves to the watering hole, but there was a look in their eyes like you’d see in a prey animal. We handed over a few caps to the bartender in exchange for a drink and some directions to somewhere to kip for the night.

“Jus’ head over to Mister J’s place. It’s on the high street, opposite the junk shop. Can’t miss it.”

“Thank you kindly, sir,” I said, turning back to face the Sherrif. He was looking around us with a hint of suspicion on his face, and I handed him his drink. “what’s up, Sherrif? Does this saloon reek of outlaw or somethin’?”

The Sherrif grunted but nodded all the same.

“Somethin’ like that, little Missy. Somethin’ ain’t right here.”

We hadn’t been sitting in the bar long before that something walked right in, a rather substantial gun in his hand and a crazed look in his red-rimmed eyes. The bar went completely silent, and the ghoul next to me immediately put a hand on his own gun.

So far, apart from the trouble with raiders and fiends and all that shit, we hadn’t faced a huge threat. But between the haunted looks of the settlement inhabitants, and the coked-up-looking man standing next to the bar, I was sure this was going to be trouble. It reminded me of a scene from Under the Covers, where I’d played a sultry young woman hiding a dark secret opposite Cooper’s detective and he’d got into a bar fight over a mafiosa’s wandering hands.

I shook my head at the Sherrif, who seemed to be moments away from pulling out his gun and firing it at the coked-up crazy man before he decided to fire at anyone else. He frowned but shifted anyway and pulled his hat further over his face. The sudden intruder whispered something in the ear of the bartender, who had become very interested in the glass he’d been polishing. He put the glass down and poured the man a beer, before quickly going back to polishing his glasses.

From where we were sat, I had a pretty good view of the dude – his red eyes, thick beard, the bloodied fist clenched around his beer glass. I looked back over at the Sherrif, whose eyes were trained on the gun in the man’s other bloodied hand.

I made eye contact with the Sherrif and then looked over to the door. He seemed to get my meaning, and we were about to get up when the crazed man began to talk.

“You got the caps for this month, Jim?” he asked, and the barman cowered, before shaking his head. “I’m sorry, Sir, I haven’t been able to make the full amount since that shootout last month, I just need-”

“So you don’t have my fucking caps, is that what you’re saying?”

“No, Sir.”

At this point, I could see that the barman was shaking, and the other man was holding up his gun, not quite pointing it, but holding it up as if he were inspecting it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the Sherrif shift in his seat, and his hand returned to the pistol.

“Well then, I guess I gotta give you a little more time then, eh? A little bit more time to make a few more caps, yeah?”

“Yes Sir, please. I only need a couple more days.” I was almost certain that the barman was close to shitting himself, and I was beginning to panic that we would be next.

I remembered men like these – men who would come into the brothel with their guns, pointing them at any whore who dared disobey.

I remembered shooting a few of them.

I watched, half in horror and half in dull apathy as the coked-up man raised his gun to the head of the barman, who had resorted to whimpering in fear. There was a click, as he pulled the trigger, but no gunshot ran out.

The barman let out a cry, but the other man just began to laugh.

“You got til’ tomorrow. If I don’t get my caps, I’ll shoot you in the fucking head for real.”

The barman whimpered a thank you and then seemed to crumple to his knees in relief, disappearing from view.

I let out a sigh of relief of my own, and I saw the Sherrif remove his hand from his holster. I relaxed my shoulders and leaned back into my chair and I saw my companion relax a little himself.

“Now, what have we got here?”

Shit. I took a quick look over to the Sherrif, who was currently in a staring contest with the apparent landlord of the saloon.

“Me and my companion here are just a couple wanderers, enjoying a quick drink,” I hastily begin, “We won’t be sticking around long.”

“You know, you don’t see many ghouls around these parts.” The Sherrif remained silent, so I attempted to step in again.

“We’ll be on our way very soon,” I said, “We’re not sticking around, like I said.” I looked over to the Sherrif as I did so, who raised his glass to the Landlord and downed the rest of his drink.

“You look very familiar, young lady,” the Landlord began, “Have we met before?”

I shook my head and forced out a smile.

“We’re nobodies, Sir. Just your average wastelanders.”

He looked us over, for a moment, before standing aside.

“Off you go then, average wastelanders.” He had a sneer painted across his scarred, hairy face that I didn’t like but at least he was letting us go.

We got to the door of the saloon and were about to walk out and find wherever Mr J’s was when the Landlord’s voice called out to us once again.

“I know where I remember you, Little Missy,” my breath caught in the back of my throat and I clenched my jaw. “You work at that brothel near Scrapheap, right? You were a slave there.”

“I earned my freedom,” I bit out, “I don’t work there anymore.”

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just knock you out and sell you back to it? I’m sure they’re missing their best worker.” He leered at me and I felt myself shiver. His eyes felt like they were piercing right through my bones. I opened my mouth to speak again, but I was interrupted before I could make a sound.

“You try anythin’ and I’ll shoot a bullet through your thick fuckin’ skull, alright?” Beside me, the Sherrif grinned and pointed his gun at the man in front of us. “I’d say that’s one good fuckin’ reason.”

The Landlord let out a loud, unhinged laugh. A few people around us began to laugh as well, and then the Ghoul standing next to me began to laugh as well.

He shot at the Landlord, and all hell broke loose.

#the ghoul #the ghoul x reader #the ghoul x you #cooper howard #cooper howard x you #the ghoul x oc #cooper howard x oc #cooper howard x reader #fallout tv series #fallout prime #fallout show #walton goggins

27 notes · View notes

sorrinslays · 2 days

Note

I would love to hear more about your Sampo headcanons!:)

Hello!!!!

So strictly speaking, I've said all my 'main' headcannons so what's left is just silly little thoughts that I feel like would or could happen in cannon and just are fun to think about. So here we go!

1. I think it would be really cute if at some point, after the seal of the underworld was lifted and Rivet Town is habitable once more, Natasha wants to return to the orphanage and, to raise money, they do a theatrical performance.

Sampo volunteers to help as a director and while he is fair, he bias he has for children is a lot more noticeable. Like, he'd be the Gordon Ramsay of theater. They did raise the funds though so all is forgiven. /j

2. You know Celine? The NPC that wants to become like another NPC so at that point she just stalks and copies her and asks for our help in a daily mission? Yeah, he accidently gave her the idea.

He would probably at some point advertise himself as a 'solver of any problem' and Celine would come to him asking for acting advice, saying she wants to be more like Tamila (the NPC she's trying to copy).

The advice he would give is learn how to pick up some of her mannerisms so she can get more 'in character', saying that's what he does a lot . And Celine does, and that's the start of her 'obsession'.

He doesn't know what's going on with Celine since after the initial 'session' he hasn't seen her and he didn't think about it much. He made money that's all that matters.

3. When Seele turned of age to drink, she immediately started challenging people to drinking contests because she has high metabolism. However, she got too cocky when she taunted Sampo, not knowing that man has spent a big portion of his life in the World's End tavern.

She lost soon after and never went drinking with Sampo again. Don't worry though, the day after Natasha scolded both. Sampo still makes fun of her anytime he sees her holding an alcoholic drink (Natasha won't admit she finds it entertaining).

4. Has started multiple betting pools with the Silvermane Guards (while pretending to be one). Gepard know of them (not that it's Sampo making them) and lets them do it since the bets (50-100 credits) aren't that big so nobody is losing much money and it keeps his soldiers entertained enough.

5. I just know this man makes snowmen in highly dangerous, far from the city, fragmentum filled areas. Like he's in the middle of nowhere, snow is all around him and fragmentum are ready to strike anything that moves and he crunches down, and makes snowmen in dumb poses, sometimes resembling people from Belobog.

Anytime that the Guards have to make an expedition for whatever reason and spot a snowman, the reaction they have is: "He's been here too????????!!!!! Why?????!!! What the fuck, how?!?!??!1/1?1/"

6. Babies, infants more specifically, immediately calm down and giggle in his arms but he himself is very awkward around them. It's probably because he's a Creation of Elation so he brings laugher easily, but he does not know how to interact with them. They are just so small! What if he accidently boops their nose too hard and it dents or something???????

Whenever Natasha has a difficult baby to deal with because they keep crying no matter what she calls Sampo. He always comes, thinking it's a favor she needs or more medicine, but no. It's a baby, here hold it.

7. Since he's not entirely human, he needs less food, water and sleep. That's great a lot, but he neglects those needs more often than not because he forgets he needs to eat, drink and sleep.

8. He probably has slept in a cardboard box before, because he forgot that he does get tired and was about to pass out so he did it in the safest place (trash).

9. I do believe he's unvaccinated, not because he's anti-vax, but because, one, he's not fully human so his immune system is different and stronger, but also two, it requires a lot more touching that he's comfortable with (that is none) which is why he avoids doctors

Plus, he was spawned, he was never a child. So he never had the opportunity to get one and he learnt about their existence a little too late.

He once mentioned it to Gepard who freaked out and made a plan with Natasha to get Sampo to get his shots. It was messy.

10. I do believe he can shapeshift and I imagine that he once had a conversation with Gepard (after they had become closer) where he mentioned that in another language Geppie's name means cheetah. And because Gepard has never seen a cheetah, Sampo shapeshifted into one. Sampo spent the entire night shapeshifting into different animals and species to show the other. Gepard quickly noted that a fox suits Sampo a lot.

#hope you liked them!!!!!!#thank you anon!!#I love talking about my favourite little conman #sampo koski #honkai star rail #hsr #hsr sampo

26 notes · View notes

hprnx · 1 day

Text

teen!simon riley x reader

cw: afab!reader, no use of y/n, abuse (canon to simon’s story), hurt/comfort, simon and reader are of age, this is simon before army, angsty at the start but it gets fluffyyyy

an: hii this is my first time writing something for the cod fandom:) lmk if i missed any tags

there’s a knock at your front door.

quiet, so quiet you wouldn’t have heard it if it wasn’t for the fact that you were passing by on your way to get some water from the kitchen.

when you slowly turn the knob and peek through the gap, you see him. simon - your boyfriend of seven months, standing there. at first, you feel happy and giddy he came to see you. then, you notice - notice how he’s facing down, how there’s a prominent swelling on his right eye, how his fists are shaking with emotion. at the moment you see all the signs - you know those too well - your heart sinks.

- simon… - you softly tug at his arm to get him inside your apartment and wrap your arms around his torso, as careful as you can - c’mere, it’s ok… you’re ok now -you softly coo as you trace patterns on his back

he doesn’t respond. all he does is wrap his arms around you as he inhales the smell of your hair - so unmistakably yours. with that scent, comes clarity and understanding of where he’s at.

- shit, love… sorry i came, probably shouldn’t-

you shut him up with a soft kiss - too soft even, feather-light - all to not bring him any pain by accidentally touching his ripped lip

- you’re always welcome here, si. anytime, i swear

he sighs. he will never know what he did to deserve having you. a no-good son of an alcoholic is no match for an angel like you. yet you still are here, softly rubbing his shoulder.

- i’m gonna get the medkit, si - you try to walk away, but he doesn’t move an inch

- stay.

- but si, i need to disinfect your wounds - you look into his eyes, worry splashing in your orbs. he never had anyone but his late mother to care for him like that.

he mutters softly - i don’t care. just… hell, just c’mere - and kisses you like its his last time tasting your lips. you can’t help but respond.

a minute later, you, breathless, manage to get simon to the kitchen and get the medkit your mom always uses.

- did he… - you swallow - did he hit you anywhere but your face? - you look anywhere but at simon. you cannot even fathom the struggles he’s going through every day

he simply chuckles - no, sweets, just my ugly mug

- simon! - you frown - you’re far from ugly and you know that well

- do i? maybe my beautiful girlfriend will remind me? - his arms are around your waist again

you squeal and laugh - he thinks it’s the best sound in the world

after you clean him up he’s in your bedroom laying while you sit on the bed beside him

- do you wanna… talk about it?

- no, love. just wanna be close to ya

- ok - you bury your head in the crook of his neck - just know that you always have a home here

you fall asleep shortly after. he lays awake for a couple of minutes, adoring your sleeping figure.

- gon’ marry you one day, love

ahhhh idk how it turned out but id love to hear your thoughts!!! im kinda thinking writing more about these simon and reader, like maybe when he deploys for the first time??? idkkkkkk

#call of duty #call of duty mwii #cod x reader #ghost call of duty #ghost cod #ghost mw2 #ghost x reader #simon ghost riley #simon ghost x reader #simon ghost x you

36 notes · View notes

rocknrollbabe14 · 4 hours

Text

Rock a Bye Professor

Part four

Rating: 18+ MINORS DO NOT INTERACT.

Warnings: Direct mentions of sex, sexual acts, birth control, missed period, nausea, vomiting, pregnancy. Professor/Student trope at college level. Both consenting adults. Don't like it, don't read. Thank you!

At some point that night, the power came back on. It had to have been early morning. Joe woke up before you did, noticing the power was back on. He stretched, sitting up. You barely budged, nestled under the blankets. He debated leaving you there seeing how comfortable you looked but decided he was going to carry you to bed. He stood up, carefully slipping his hands under you and the blanket you were covered with. You tried to stir but he kissed you softly.

“Just relax baby, I’m taking you to bed.”

His voice was soft and reassuring.

“Okay. Is the power back on?”, you asked groggily.

“It is. I just wanna make you comfy. I’ll come to bed in a little while, okay?”

“Okay.”, you were almost back asleep.

Joe carefully opened the door to the bedroom, walking over to your side of the bed. He laid you down gently before kissing your head. You instantly shivered at the feel of the cool sheets before snuggling into the bed. He pulled the sheet and comforter up and over before kissing your head one more time for good measure and placing his hand on your bump.

“Daddy loves you and Mommy so much.”

“We love you.”, you yawned before snuggling back into bed.

Joe smiled as he took the opportunity to admire you. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before you all had a baby in your arms. Two would soon become three and he couldn’t wait. These two weeks needed to pass quickly so you all could find out what you’re having. Joe closed the bedroom door before going back downstairs. There was a lot to do—grade papers, and surprise you with the Christmas tree. He knew he was getting ahead of himself but he couldn’t wait to share the first Christmas as a family of three. There was going to be so much joy in his life and he couldn’t wait. This baby had already brought him so much happiness and it wasn’t even here yet.

Joe went into the kitchen, instantly beginning to brew some coffee while resetting the clocks where the power had gone out. Looking at the cabinets, he realized there would need to be a lot of baby-proofing. But it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle. Part of him felt guilty for keeping it from his parents—keeping you and this baby from his parents. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of you or his baby. Everything had just happened so fast. He never imagined you felt the same about him or that you’d end up pregnant. He didn’t think any of it was in the cards for him.

Joe went over to a drawer in his kitchen—one he knew you never used. It was a mix of random things, but it held the most special material thing. He opened the drawer, his attention instantly moving to a small black box. Taking it in his hands, he opened it with a soft snap. A smile instantly curved across his lips, imagining the possibilities. He had gone about a month ago to the local jeweler’s. He didn’t know he’d walk away with it. He looked at the seemingly endless line of engagement and wedding rings, none of them perfect enough for you.

The jeweler had asked him what he was looking for. Joe described it, ending up describing you and how much he loved you and how perfect you were. The jeweler pulled a ring, a Hail Mary. Joe eyed it in shock, everything he had envisioned for you was now a reality. It was fourteen-karat white gold adorned with diamonds. It was pear-shaped, everything you had ever said you wanted. He could just see it on your hand and knew he had to have it—if he was going to propose to you. It had the wedding band to match.

Without question, Joe told the jeweler he wanted it—it had to be yours. It didn’t matter what the price was, he had saved up a lot of money in the last couple of years, especially after buying his house. Joe picked out a wedding band for himself to compliment yours, butterflies rising up in his stomach. Now, he had the perfect rings but he needed you to say yes—yes to spending the rest of your life with him. Just the thought of asking you made Joe nervous—you could say no. This could ruin everything he had worked so hard to build with you.

He didn’t want you to think the baby had persuaded him into asking you. Sure, he wanted you to share the same last name as him and his baby. You were the woman carrying his child but he loves you more than anything. He loved the idea of marrying you before you had the baby. He wanted his daughter or son to come into the world with a complete family. Marriage was just some papers and a last name change, but he wanted that for you both.

A smirk came across his face as he thought about what you’d say when he asked. You’d be worried about how pregnant you’d be before the wedding day came, but he knew in his heart you’d be more beautiful than ever. You’d be glowing. He needed an elaborate way to show you he loved you and make you wanna say yes that much more. He had a few scenarios picked out in his head, but he needed to narrow them down. He knew he’d know what to do when the timing was exactly right.

Eyeing the rings, he knew he had to make you his wife. He closed the box softly before placing it back in the drawer and closing it. Now, what should come first? Grading papers or putting up the Christmas tree for you?

_________________________________________________________________________________

Two weeks came and went faster than you both expected. It seemed like every day you woke up, your bump was getting bigger and more noticeable. You had stayed over with Joe the night before class, hardly ever going to your dorm anymore. You were getting ready, eyeing yourself in the mirror.

“I thought the first pregnancy was supposed to take longer for you to show.”, you groaned, pulling your shirt tighter to show your belly.

You were already in maternity jeans, you and Joe going out the weekend before to buy yourself some new clothes. Hardly any of yours fit now.

“Sometimes.”, Joe smirked as he eyed you, fixing his collar under his sweater.

“Not in my case, apparently. The employee at the maternity clothing store thought I was a month ahead of what I am.”

“Stop, it’s cute and sexy.”, Joe sighed as he came up behind you, wrapping his arms around your belly and rubbing it easily.

“Is not. I look like a balloon.”

He glared at you playfully. “You’re pregnant. Twenty weeks pregnant to be exact and today we get to find out what our little peanut is.”

“Still thinking it’s a boy.”, you smirked back at him before you both shared a kiss.

“Still thinking I’m getting my little girl.”, he smirked back.

“We’ll see. I hope I have time for a nap before my appointment.”, you sighed as you rubbed your belly, feeling the baby kick.

“Your appointment’s at three?”, Joe asked as you both moved downstairs, hoping to grab a quick bite of breakfast.

“Yeah.”

“I may have to let my last class go a little early. I don’t want to miss a second of your appointment or even chance being late.”

You giggled lightly as you grabbed a pop-tart. “You’re so cute when you worry about our baby stuff.”

“It’s our first baby and we get to find out the gender—it’s a huge deal.”

“Our first baby? So you’re saying we’re gonna have more?”, you teased him, taking a bite of your blueberry pop-tart.

He smirked, coming over to you and rubbing your belly again. “Yeah—maybe one or two more—I mean you look so cute pregnant…..what do you think?”

You held your mouth. “Depends on how bad labor is with this one.”

“I think you’ll breeze through it. I mean they say the easiest way to get the baby out is the same way you got it in.”

“Joseph Anthony Francis Quinn.”, you groaned as he chuckled before kissing you.

“I read that somewhere.”

“You’ve been doing a lot of reading lately.”, you smirked at him.

“It all intrigues me.”, he smiled at you, placing a hand on your belly. “I love learning about our little baby girl.”

You rolled your eyes playfully in response. “You keep saying it’s a girl but you don’t know.”

Joe grabbed his coffee and briefcase. “We’ll see who’s right this evening.”

“If the baby cooperates.”, you countered with a smirk as he kissed your cheek and rubbed your belly one last time before grabbing his keys.

“See you and Mommy later. Daddy loves you both.”

His brown eyes were shining.

“We love you. See you in class babe.”

He kissed you again, making sure you were going to be okay getting to class. You all had decided to stagger leaving his house and arriving at college, making things a little less obvious. Last time your doctor confirmed your due date was right after graduation. It was a sigh of relief for you both—as long as the baby stayed inside. You just wanted to get through graduation so it wouldn’t be a big deal. Joe wouldn’t have to miss work and you wouldn’t have to miss school.

“See you in class, love. Finish breakfast and get lunch. Do you need money?”, he asked rustling around in his wallet.

“You don’t have to do this, Joe. Seriously.”

“I do. I worry about you and my baby.”

“Mom and Dad covered my food for a whole semester—plus a dorm room I barely stay in.”

“Just please get lunch. Save the other—in case you get hungry or something later.”, he laid a twenty-dollar bill on the counter.

“Fine.”, you crossed your arms.

“Good girl.”, he smirked as he waved bye to you, kissed you again, and finally went out the door.

Getting him to actually leave and go to work was one of the hardest parts of living together—well, practically living together. You heard him start his car and decided you’d give it ten minutes before leaving yourself. Finishing off your pop-tart, you grabbed a glass of milk and gulped it down just in the knick of time.

“Shit. Gotta pee again. Some parts of pregnancy suck.”, you groaned as you took off to the bathroom, those ten minutes flying by.

You grabbed your backpack and purse before making sure all the lights were off. Joe’s class was your first class and even though you all were dating, your heart skipped a beat knowing you’d see him soon. You swallowed hard as you entered the building, knowing it would just be minutes before you’d see Joe. Walking into class, you felt like everyone’s eyes were on you and your growing bump. It felt like everyone knew your secret—that you had fucked your professor and were pregnant by him.

It didn’t take long before Joe showed up and started class, making sure to make eye contact with you throughout class. You’d smile back at him, feeling like two teenagers flirting in high school. The class flew by, all the students filing out in a hurry but you. You took your time, packing your things up. This was the only class you had today and now, you could go home and sleep before your appointment.

“Are you gonna go get lunch?”, Joe asked easily.

“Yeah and then I’m gonna go nap. I’m really tired today.”

“What’s baby craving today?”, Joe closed the door to the classroom before coming over to you.

“Uh—chicken nuggets and a milkshake.”

“What kind of milkshake?”

“Strawberry.”, you smirked.

He chucked easily. “It’s so hard to ignore you in class.”

“You didn’t do such a great job today.”

“I didn’t?”

“No.”

Joe smirked before sharing a kiss with you, making sure to deepen it.

“Joe.”, you protested through the kiss. “Someone might see us.”

“Just let me kiss my pregnant girlfriend—can’t wait to find out the gender of our baby.”

“A few more hours.”, you smiled into the kiss, letting him share one last slow and sensual kiss with you before you both broke the kiss simultaneously.

“See you in a bit, love. I’ll call when. I’m headed to the house.”

“Sounds good. See you soon.”

You all smiled at one another before you finally left first this time, knowing if you didn’t—the next class would arrive and catch you both.

______________________________________________________________________________

After getting your chicken nuggets and milkshake, you ended up back at Joe’s house. You laid your backpack and purse down before practically falling on the couch. You grabbed your blanket from the back of the couch, fixing it over you, closing your eyes, and putting a hand on your belly, rubbing it gently.

“Mhmm a few more hours and we get to find out what you are. Your daddy is convinced you’re a little girl.”, you mumbled, the sleepiness already setting in.

Before you knew it, you had fallen asleep. Awakening you from your sleep was Joe’s ringtone from your cell phone. You blindly grabbed it from the coffee table, still half asleep.

“Hello?”

“Hey, love. I’m about ten minutes away. Have you been asleep?”

“Yeah. But I’m up now—just gotta grab my purse.”

“Okay, I’ll text when I’m outside. I love you.”

“I love you.”

You hung up, sitting up on the couch and stretching. You got up and grabbed your purse, sliding your shoes back on. That took a minute since you were twenty weeks pregnant. Joe tried to help you do a lot, but you liked being independent. You always viewed yourself as just pregnant, not helpless. You yawned, taking a quick look in the mirror near the door, making sure you didn’t have drool running down your cheeks or your hair all a mess. Closing the door to Joe’s house, the nervousness finally began to sit in.

Joe smiled at you softly while sitting in his car, getting out, and coming around to open your door. You smiled at him shyly before climbing into the passenger seat, careful to adjust yourself with your new pregnant belly.

“Did you have a good nap, love?”, he asked as he leaned over, kissing your cheek.

“I did. Just not long enough.”

“Mhm, we can take another once we get home—maybe after some celebratory sex.”

“Celebratory sex about what?”, you smirked at him.

“Finding out our baby is a little girl.”

You rolled your eyes again playfully as you all continued down the road. “Okay, I hear you.”

He chuckled before putting one hand on your belly, careful to keep his other on the steering wheel and his attention on the road. “Has the baby been active today?”

“Super active. Especially during class—during your lecture. I never thought it’d settle down.”, you smirked at him, putting a hand over his.

He smiled brightly, his brown eyes flashing over at you. “Really?”

You nodded before giggling. “Yeah. This baby already loves your voice. Knows exactly who you are.”

Joe was trying to keep from getting emotional. “That’s amazing.”

“You do talk to it a lot.” , you smirked, moving his hand gently in an attempt to find where the baby was.

“I can’t help it.”

“I know—it’s adorable.”, you reassured him.

After a few minutes of moving his hand, you found the baby mostly cradled in the right side of your belly. It finally began moving its little arms and legs, causing a huge smile to come across Joe’s face.

“I hope the baby cooperates today.”, he sighed easily.

“Me too, but I think it will.”

Before you knew it, you both were pulling into the doctor’s office parking lot. Joe shut the car off easily, turning to look at you. You smiled back at him.

“What?”

“Just admiring you. This is a huge moment. We’re about to find out what our baby is.”

“I know, I’m so excited.”, you smiled back at him before you both leaned over to share a kiss.

He practically jumped out of the car before running over to open your door. You thanked him, still not used to having this done for you. Even if Joe had done this since you all had been together. He closed your door behind you before locking the door and holding your hand as you both walked inside. The sterile smell immediately hit your nose causing it to crinkle slightly. It was stronger today, but you were sure it was because of your heightened sense of smell from pregnancy.

“Go sign in, love.”, Joe kissed your head easily.

It was odd to display your love here, but not at school. But the chance of someone from college seeing you here was a lot less likely—plus you both were about to be parents to a baby. You were officially halfway through your pregnancy if you made it to forty weeks. Some women do when it’s their first pregnancy and some don’t. You didn’t know which category you’d fall into.

“Okay.”

You walked up to the window, the receptionist sliding it back.

“Can I help you?”

“Y/F/N Y/L/N. I have an appointment.”

“Just have a seat, we’ll call you back shortly.”

She closed the window, causing you to go back and find Joe, already nose-deep in a maternity magazine. You took a seat beside him, feeling a little more relaxed but anxious to see your baby again. You always worried about the baby and wouldn’t feel at ease until you knew it could survive outside the womb. You closed your eyes briefly as you rubbed your bump.

“Did you know our baby is covered in a white substance called vernix caseosa?”, Joe eyed you.

You opened your eyes. “Not really?”

“This substance helps protect our baby’s skin from becoming irritated while submerged in amniotic fluid. It also aids the baby’s passage through the birth canal during labor.”

“That’s very interesting….”, you smiled back up at him.

“It is. But now I’ve got you thinking about labor, don’t I?”

“Kinda.”, you admitted.

“You’re gonna do great, I just know it. You’ll breeze through it.”

“First-time moms usually have a very long, agonizing labor.”

“Maybe yours won’t be. We’ll do all the right things, I promise.”, he smiled as he leaned over to feel your belly.

“Y/F/N Y/L/N.”, the nurse called, grabbing both of your all’s attention.

Joe laid the magazine down as you rose from your chair in the waiting area, it taking you longer than it used to since you had a belly now. You looked back at Joe to make sure he was following, him only a step behind you before placing a hand on the small of your back. The nurse greeted you, asking you to immediately step on the scales. Joe held your purse, giving you a soft smile as you sighed, afraid of what the scales might show. You had been eating well and most of what you wanted.

You bit your lip while waiting for the verdict, the nurse stating you had gained six pounds from the start of your pregnancy.

“That’s not a bad thing, love. You lost at the beginning so your body’s making up for lost time.”

“No—it’s almost a pound a month.”, the nurse agreed.

You nodded softly before he helped you off the scale, the nurse leading you to another room before taking your vitals, everything looked good. Joe gave you another soft smile before the nurse-led you to the exam room. She left you with a gown, sheet, and blanket while giving you time to change before the doctor came in. Joe sat your purse down before peeling his peacoat off while you pulled your coat off.

Wasting no time, you went straight for your leggings, choosing to live in those mostly these days.

“Need some help, love?”

“Nope. I think I’m okay.”, you smiled at him easily.

“I don’t mind to help—really.”, he breathed.

“Fine.”, you relented as you turned around, letting him slide your leggings down your legs.

You looked at the plain, white ceiling, trying not to think bout the fact he was undressing you and your pregnancy hormones were crazy, to say the least.

“Just step out of them, love.”

You did as he asked, leaving you in nothing but your panties. He folded your leggings up and laid them with your purse before coming back to help with your maternity t-shirt. You stayed turned around, not facing him before he tugged at the hem of your shirt, pulling it up and over your head. He leaned over and kissed your neck, instantly sending shivers down your spine.

“Joe.”

“Relax, love. Just giving you a kiss.”

“Don’t make me horny here, please.”

His eyebrows raised, instantly intrigued. “You’re feeling horny?”

You rolled your eyes easily, leaning into his touch. “Kinda—my hormones are all over the place."

“Mhm,”, he began to hum, wrapping his arms around your waist as his hands moved down to your belly. “I can’t help you look so sexy and cute with this belly—growing our baby.”

You smirked, cuddling into his neck. “We can’t do this here.”

“We seem to be pros for doing things we can’t do in places we can’t do those things.”, he smirked before kissing your neck again.

“Joe—not before finding out our baby’s gender.”

He sighed softly. “I know—it was a nice thought though. Does your panties need to come off?”

“Probably.”, you sighed back into him.

“I can help with that.”, he chuckled causing a smile to spread across your face.

“Wanna go ahead and get up on the table and put your legs in whatever these are…..”, he trailed off.

You had taken the time to slip on the hospital gown quickly.

“Stirrups.”, you corrected him as you scooted back on the table, laying down and placing your feet in them while biting your lip.

There was something oddly erotic about this. It had to be the hormones, that’s what you were chalking it up to. You eyed him, continuing to bite your lip as he smirked, brown eyes having a hint of lust in them.

“Stirrups.”, he repeated as his hands lifted your gown lightly, hands on your bare thighs.

His eye contact remained intense.

Your breathing hitched and you swallowed hard before he pushed your gown up further, exposing your panties. It didn’t help that your legs were spread purposefully. His hands wandered up your thighs before finding the hem of your panties. You helped him, lifting your butt up off the exam table and allowing him to pull them down to your thighs. He smirked as you lifted one foot from the stirrups, letting him get one ankle out of your panties at a time. He chuckled as he eyed you.

You thought he was just going to be a gentleman and fold them and put them with your other clothes. But what he did next, surprised the hell out of you. He brought your panties up to his face, keeping his eyes locked on you. You opened your mouth in an attempt to protest, but you couldn’t form any words. All you could do was lay there with your mouth gaped open. He smirked at you as he brought them up to his nose, specifically the part that rested between your thighs.

“Fuck—your smell arouses me so damn bad.”

“J—Joe.”, you stammered.

“Can I please just eat you out?”, he begged, slightly out of character for him.

He brought your panties down, folding them nicely before placing them with the rest of your clothes.

“Joe.”, you hissed, sitting up. “We can’t do that here.”

You were quickly coming to your senses, even if it was just for a moment.

Joe turned back around. “Who says?”

“What if the doctor comes in? And you’re—down there—in the middle of going down on me?”, you were clearly exasperated.

Joe laughed softly. “Love, we fucked in my classroom.”

“It was summer.”, you rolled your eyes.

“But on campus, nonetheless. I had you bent over my desk and you were wearing that jean skirt and those wedges. The white blouse. Panties down to your ankles.”, he swallowed hard, his cock becoming hard just at the memory.

“Joe.”

“Besides, they say oral sex is great while you’re pregnant. I’ve read it’s good for you.”, he continued to plead his case.

You groaned softly, feeling yourself on the brink of giving in. “Joe.”

“Please—I could make you feel really good, love. Know you’re horny.”

“Fine—but make it quick. Please. So my OB doesn’t walk in on you going down on me.”

He smirked as he borrowed the doctor’s stool, placing himself between your thighs. There was something about you in front of him, legs spread and appearing to be all ready for him. It made his cock hard and his breathing hitch. He couldn’t wait to get you home. He couldn’t wait to find out what his baby was. All the thoughts were making him dizzy but in the best way. You looked down at him, a soft look in his brown eyes.

“Depends on how quickly you can cum, love.”

“Fuck, it’ll be fast.”, you groaned, laying your head back down as you situated yourself comfortably on the table. Need you so bad.”

“Yeah?”, he hummed. “Fuck this is hot, just seeing you all spread for me.”

“Technically for Dr. Steiner. Not you. You’re just seizing an opportunity.”, you smirked. “And I am pretty sure this is part of the reason I ended up pregnant in the first place.”

“Most likely….”, he hummed. “You just don’t know what it does to a man—seeing the woman he loves carrying his baby. It makes me want you even more—if that’s even possible.”

“Aw, I love you but with all due respect, please shut the fuck up and eat me out—before she comes in.”, you leaned up, practically shoving his head between your thighs.

“Demanding—that’s fucking sexy.”, he breathed before his handheld your thigh, feeling his breath in between your thighs before his tongue took the first swipe between your wet folds, causing you to sit up.

“Fuck.”, you moaned easily.

“Lay back down and relax, love. Need you to relax for me, please.”, he spoke against you, voice sending vibrations throughout your cunt.

He sounded just like your OB when she did vaginal exams. You smirked while rolling your eyes, laying back on the table, laying an arm across your forehead, and closing your eyes. It was hard to completely relax, the fear of your OB coming through the door hindering that. But as he buried his tongue inside of you, the fear began to completely melt away. You closed your eyes, letting out a soft moan as Joe licked and lapped at your wet folds.

“Joe…..”, you trailed off easily.

“Hmm?”, he hummed against you.

“Feels so good…..really good.”, you breathed, some of the pent-up sexual tension finally slipping away.

Joe gripped your thighs as his tongue slowed its motion, swirling around your clit.

“Oh fuck—oh shit, Joe…..”, you hissed as you grabbed at your gown—anything to help you get a grip.

He chuckled against you, his tongue relentless.

“I can’t believe—fuck, we’re doing this—in my OB’s office.”

No response came from Joe, his tongue continuing to flick against your clit. He was teasing you and you were loving every second of it. Your breathing was hitched, clearly enjoying the feeling. You hated to admit it—but it felt good and he was right. You needed this—your body needed this. You had read that your sex drive could be heightened and it definitely was.

“Oh God—not gonna be super long before I cum.”

“It’s okay, love. Cum for me—wanna taste you.”, he breathed against you, partially animalistic and partially loving.

His tongue left your clit causing you to whimper before he dived into your slick, causing you to jolt and your toes beginning to curl.

“You do?”, you sighed.

“Uh-huh.”, he moaned against you, tongue buried deep in your cunt.

Another romantic sigh escaped your lips as you eyed the ceiling carefully. Joe’s hand moved from your thigh, parting you open. He continued to lick your swollen vulva, making you go dizzy. The ceiling was beginning to blur, causing you to look down at Joe, only being able to see the top of his head. You swallowed hard, gripping some of your gown so hard that your knuckles were practically white.

“Fuck—Joe. I think I’m gonna—gonna cum.”, you swallowed.

“Cum for me. Let me taste you, love.”

You felt yourself sinking further into the exam table, toes curling. You knew you couldn’t be very loud, intentionally biting your lip and moaning softly. Your eyes fluttered shut again before you felt yourself hit that high and you knew you were gonna crash. Joe’s tongue continued to work its magic.

“Oh fuck—Joe….”, your mouth went dry. “I’m fucking cumming. Now.”

You felt your walls tighten around his tongue, juices spilling over it. He held his tongue while you came all over it, the sweet taste instantly hitting his tastebuds. He closed his eyes, enjoying the moment and the fact he could do this for you, sending you into a spiral. You took a deep breath, almost coming down off your high as fast as you had climbed it. He took another slow swipe and swirl of his tongue causing you to squirm in response to how sensitive you were. He lapped at your cunt a few more times, making sure he gathered all of your releases—he didn’t want to waste a single bit.

You moaned softly as his tongue left your cunt, Joe scooting backward on the stool as he licked his lips with a devilish smile on his face. The sight alone drove you crazy. Joe continued to smirk as he got up from the stool and grabbed the sheet, throwing it over your legs easily and making sure you were comfortable. You were relieved the doctor hadn’t walked in on you both before he shared a soft kiss with you, allowing you to get a hint of your own taste.

The kiss didn’t last long before he pulled away, beginning to wipe his mouth on the sleeve of his sweater as a knock came to the door. He sat down beside you, grabbing your hand easily as the door opened and revealed Dr. Steiner.

“Hey, guys. How’s everything been going?”, she smiled as she came in and sat down on the stool Joe had just previously occupied.

“It’s been good lately.”, you spoke up, clearing your throat.

“I see you gained a couple of pounds which is great—nothing to worry about. Has your morning sickness subsided?”

“Virtually nonexistent. It hits me every now and then.”

“And that’s normal. How are you feeling otherwise?”

You eyed Joe and he knew instantly what was on your mind.

“My sex drive has been super high lately.”, you swallowed hard.

Dr. Steiner looked up from her paperwork, laughing lightly. “Definitely normal as well. If you’re experiencing hormone changes, it’s normal for your body to crave sex. Some women do, some don’t. It’s good for you and nothing to be concerned about. Just be mindful as your body continues to change what kind of positions you use, some may be more comfortable than others.”, she smiled as she made notes.

Joe smirked over at you, causing you to roll your eyes playfully.

“So I see we are gonna try to find out what baby is today, yeah?”

“Yeah, we can’t wait.”, Joe smiled, holding your hand while giving it a tight squeeze. “Hope our baby cooperates.”

“We will try our best to see what baby is today. Any guesses on what you’re having?”, Dr. Steiner smiled up at you both.

“I say a girl.”

“You’ve been on that train since the beginning.”, you eyed him. “I think it’s a boy.”

Dr. Steiner laughed lightly at you both. “This is a huge day for you both, an exciting day. So if you guys are ready, we can get started. I’m gonna check you first, just make sure you’re not dilated yet, okay?”

Your heart dropped into your stomach, wondering if she would be able to tell you just came. “O—okay.”

She laid her clipboard down, using hand sanitizer before she slipped her blue gloves on. She scooted closer to you, pulling your sheet up lightly while you glanced over to Joe, a nervous look on your face. Joe squeezed your hand in reassurance. You felt so much better with him here. It felt good that he wanted to be here for you and the baby. This situation could have turned out very differently.

“Alright just relax for me, okay?”

You nodded as you laid your head back and you felt her examine you. You swallowed nervously and it felt like she was taking an eternity. The feeling was a lot more awkward than feeling Joe down there. She scooted back easily before looking back up at you, pulling your sheet back lightly.

“Everything looks good. Your cervix is continuing to prepare for the baby. No dilation. Now, that that’s over,”, she smiled as she shed her gloves, you feeling relieved she didn’t say anything about sex. “Are we ready to see what baby is?”

You and Joe both agreed in unison, your stomach beginning to do flips. You wondered if Joe felt the same but you heard him exhale softly before smiling at you. Dr. Steiner was busy preparing the ultrasound machine as you turned to Joe. She pulled up your gown easily, the sheet resting under your bump to keep your modesty.

“Promise you’ll be happy even if it’s a little boy?”

“Of course, I’ll be happy, love. I’ll be over the moon either way—you’re having my baby and I love you and our baby more than anything.”, he squeezed your hand again before bringing it up and kissing it softly. “But I know it’s my little girl.”

“We are getting ready to see that. This gel is gonna be cold, okay?”, Dr. Steiner interjected as she squirted the cool gel on your belly.

“Okay.”, you breathed, mentally preparing yourself.

“Alright…..let’s see what baby is.”, she began, moving the transducer around, the swishing and swooshing sounds filling the room.

Joe smiled over at you, looking like he was a kid in a candy store. He was excited, over the moon. Part of you actually worried if he would be happy if the baby was a boy instead of a girl. But you wouldn’t know until that moment came. The image popped up of your baby, instantly being able to distinguish its little head from its body. The baby was much more distinguished than the last appointment. Its heartbeat filled the room, nice and strong in-between the swishing and swooshing. It was becoming more real—you all were going to be parents soon.

You took a minute to look over at Joe, a huge smile plastered across his face. You thought your eyes were playing tricks on you, but you could have sworn Joe had tears in his eyes and he sniffled lightly.

“Baby looks good, we’ll measure really quick.”, she smiled, hitting some buttons on the computer. “You’re measuring about a week ahead. Everything is looking perfect here.”

Your eyes panned back over to Joe who looked at you in turn. “Are you okay, babe?”

“Perfect—just in awe that we created that, love.”, he looked back at you, thumbing over your hand.

“Me too.”, you agreed, feeling slightly emotional yourself.

“Baby’s heartbeat is strong at 140 beats per minute. Perfect.”, Dr. Steiner smiled as she clicked, taking a few images of the baby while pulling its heartbeat up on the screen.

“That’s amazing.”, Joe breathed.

“Yeah, it is.”, you agreed.

Now, it was real. You could see the tears in the corners of Joe’s eyes before he quickly blinked them away under his glasses.

“Now—let’s get to the moment of truth. Let’s see what baby is. Ready mom and dad?”, she smiled at you both.

You both nodded in unison as she moved the transducer over your belly, the baby mostly cooperating. You bit your lip softly while you and Joe looked at the screen in anticipation, waiting for her to say the words and tell you what the baby was.

“Hmmm…..looks like baby has the hiccups. Let’s give it just a second.”, Dr. Steiner smirked easily, printing a couple more images for you both to take home.

You both laughed lightly in response before Joe leaned over to kiss you. The anticipation was driving you both crazy, ready to know what your baby was. It had been four weeks longer than usual when they tried to find out the sex of the baby. The baby hadn’t cooperated last time, leaving you and Joe to wonder for another four weeks. You should have had the blood test done, but this was much more intimate—watching him sitting on the edge of his seat waiting to find out what your baby was. He was going to be an amazing dad and you were so glad he was going to be part of the baby’s life.

“Alright, baby has calmed down. Let’s see really quick.”, she moved the transducer slightly, pressing into your belly with a little more force. “Ah, there it is. Ready to know?”

“More than ready.”, Joe breathed, eyeing the screen with his full attention.

“Congratulations mom and dad—looks like you’re having a baby girl.”, Dr. Steiner smiled, quickly typing the words ‘I’m a girl!!!’ on the screen before printing another picture.

“Oh my—God!”, Joe breathed, quickly turning to look at you. “We’re having my baby girl!”

“We are!”, you laughed easily before you both shared a kiss.

You both couldn’t help but laugh from happiness, causing Dr. Steiner to smile at you both. Joe moved his hand from yours, easily wiping under his glasses. That didn’t quite seem to cut it as he pushed them up on his forehead, wiping his brown eyes. He was getting emotional and it was the cutest thing you’d seen. You rubbed your hand up and down his arm to comfort him while he tried to gather himself. He was trying not to cry but this was more than he ever dreamed of. You could feel tears in your eyes just watching him come undone. Now, you weren’t the only girl in his life but you couldn’t have been happier.

“You okay, baby?”, you asked softly, swallowing your tears back.

Joe moved his hand from his face, his poor attempt to hide the tears that were sliding down his cheeks as he sniffled. “Yeah, I’m more than okay. We’re having a little girl.”, he laughed in disbelief between tears.

Dr. Steiner took her free hand and handed him some tissues, him taking them easily as he dabbed his eyes and gathered himself.

“Told you so.”, he smirked easily through a sniffle, his tears of happiness now melting into laughter.

You rolled your eyes playfully before you both shared another kiss. “You were right.”, you agreed.

“She’s perfect.”, Dr. Steiner smiled as she took the transducer off your belly, wiping it easily and making sure she had all the ultrasound pictures printed off.

She cut the machine off and handed the pictures to you both, Joe instantly looking at them.

“I want to see you back in another four weeks just to check up on everything. You’re right on track, just measuring a week ahead. If you have any questions or concerns, call me. I’ll see you next time, just schedule another appointment on your way out. Congratulations again mom and dad.”, she smiled, getting up and turning the lights back on. You and Joe thanked her as she slipped out the door, both continuing to laugh and admire the pictures of your baby girl.

“So baby, celebratory sex when we get home?”, Joe smirked easily before kissing your cheek.

You laughed in response. “Yeah—that would be amazing.”

“We can get dinner before going home. What do you want?”, he smiled, fixing his glasses.

“Um—maybe Chinese.”, you laughed.

“Sounds good, love. Want me to help you get dressed?”

You nodded as he held out his hand, you grabbing it and him helping you sit up from the table. It was more of a struggle now that you were further along.. He helped you stand up, holding the small of your back as you stepped off the step of the exam table. He instantly untied your gown, leaving you only in your bra.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful. I love you so damn much.”, he breathed.

“I love you too.”, you smiled back at him as he grabbed your clothes and handed you one piece at a time, starting with your panties.

You both were smiling widely, this appointment being memorable for more reasons than one. He held your shoulders, steadying you as you slid your panties up your legs and resting them under your bump. You did the same thing with your jeans, determined not to ask Joe for help even though he asked several times. They were maternity jeans so they were a little more comfortable than regular jeans. Your maternity shirt made your bump look even bigger but you finally gave in and let Joe slide your coat on.

Another kiss was shared by you all before Joe made sure the ultrasound pictures were in your purse. Those were something you didn’t want to forget.

“Ready to go?”, Joe asked, a smile still plastered on his face.

“Just one more kiss?”, you asked with your puppy dog eyes.

“Of course, love.”, he chuckled as he placed his hand on your cheek, starting out with a small kiss before deepening it.

It was euphoric, this day being everything you dreamed it would and more. Even though you were wrong in your prediction of what the baby would be, you were happy and excited to have a little girl. You knew Joe was going to be an amazing dad and he’d look out for you and your baby girl. Joe broke the kiss easily, giving you a soft smile. He was emotional and it was the cutest thing you’d seen. You loved it when he showed his emotion.

“Let’s go home, daddy.”, you emphasized the last word playfully.

He smirked easily. “Let’s go, mommy.”

He grabbed your hand and you both exited the exam room, feeling giddy and like you were on cloud nine. There was a huge smile on your face, so hard it made your cheeks hurt. The winter wind hit your face, nipping you slightly as Joe walked you to the car and opened the door for you. He helped you inside before getting in himself. He started the car, backing out easily.

“Still feel up to eating, love?”

“Definitely. I’m so hungry. I’m starving practically.”

“What do my girls want?”, he laughed easily.

“Chinese food, for sure. Pork fried rice and shrimp lo mein sounds amazing—oh and crab rangoons, please.”

He chuckled. “Alright, love. Wanna eat in or take it home?”

“Home?”, you asked easily. “I’m so exhausted and just wanna eat Chinese with my boyfriend and relax—and have some fun after.”

Joe chuckled easily. “Sounds amazing, love. I’ll call it in.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

You all pulled into the driveway, Joe shutting the car off. He got out first before coming around, opening your door, and helping you out. He was such a gentleman and it was adorable. He had the food, carrying it in for you. He unlocked the door, flipping on the lights. Soon, you both would be bringing a baby home through this very same door. You took off your coat, hanging it up before rubbing your belly lightly.

“Is everything okay, love?”, Joe asked from the dining room.

“Fine—she’s just moving around. It’s so crazy to say that—she.”, you repeated with a smile on your face.

“I’m so happy—I think it’s every dad’s dream to have a little girl. And I get mine.”, he smiled as he worked on setting the table.

You came into the dining room. “I’m gonna go change into pajamas or something.”

“Want me to help?”, he smirked.

“After dinner—maybe I should just wait until after dinner to not tease you.”, you smirked. “My maternity jeans are pretty comfortable.”

“Still look sexy in them.”, he smirked back at you, a hint of lust in his voice.

“Whatever.”, you rolled your eyes.

“I mean it—I’d fuck you right now—right this second.”

You felt that familiar aching feeling enter the pit of your stomach. “Yeah?”

“Oh yeah.”, he groaned easily, fixing himself in his slacks. “It’s part of knowing you’re carrying my baby. I mean you’re still the most beautiful and sexy girl I’ve ever seen—ever had but that adds to it—knowing you’re going to have my little girl and we’re going to have a life together.”

Your cheeks heated up. “I love you, Joe.”

“I love you, Y/N. I’m gonna go get our food. Be right back.”

He disappeared into the kitchen before showing back up a few minutes later, sitting your plate in front of you. You wasted no time in digging in as Joe laughed, sitting down your ice water before kissing your cheek. You couldn’t help the baby want what it wanted.

“I’ll be back. Gonna grab my dinner now since I got my girls taken care of.”

“Okay, babe.”, you said, trying to swallow down your bite of food.

Throughout dinner, you all talked about the baby and how excited you both were. If you were being honest, neither one of you had bought anything for her. Her. That was still hard to get used to saying. It was like a dream and you guessed Joe would be doing most of the buying since you didn’t have a job even though you offered to get one multiple times, he denied your suggestion. He insisted that school should be your primary focus other than the baby, of course. So far, your pregnancy has gone without a hitch. Everything had gone the way it should.

The evening quickly slipped into night, the sun setting and the house dark except for you all sitting in the kitchen. You had left a little of your food—maybe enough for lunch tomorrow.

“I’m stuffed.”, you sighed, leaning back in the dining room chair, rubbing your slightly more plump bump.

“Sure you’re full, love?”, Joe asked, picking up your plate to put away the leftovers.

“Can’t even think of eating another bite.”

He leaned down and kissed you.

“I’m glad you and the baby are satisfied.”

“Beyond. Thank you, babe.”

“You’re most welcome.”

“Wanna meet me in the bedroom after you put dinner away?”, you smirked up at him.

“Are you sure you feel up to sex?”, he breathed, feeling his cock twitch beneath his slacks.

“Yeah—we said celebratory sex, right?”

“We did but I want my girls to be comfortable.”

You smiled softly. “I’m gonna be. Meet me upstairs?”, you batted your eyelashes.

He chuckled. “I’ll meet you upstairs.”

You both shared another soft, slow kiss before breaking apart. You began up the stairs, keeping eye contact until you both disappeared out of the other's view. Opening the bedroom door, you flipped on the light and began undressing, leaving yourself in only your bra and panties. You throw your clothes in the laundry basket before looking in the mirror at your changing body. Every day, you noticed something a little different. Your bump was bigger than just a few days ago.

Caressing it easily, you bit your lip. Sure, the whole pregnancy thing was fun for now. Joe was really into it and he wanted to be an active father. He wanted to be a dad. But how long would it last? Would the new wear off once school started back and all you were was an exhausted brand new mom and he was surrounded by all those young, perky pretty girls? You shook your head, trying not to think about it. Today was a happy occasion and you didn’t feel like voicing your concerns to Joe would work.

Turning off the bathroom light, you turned the lamps on in the bedroom until Joe got there. You easily unclasped your bra, laying it on the chair in the corner of Joe’s bedroom. You still weren’t used to claiming part of this as yours. You slid your panties off, laying them in the same place, instantly reminding you of the doctor’s office. You smiled softly before climbing under the covers and waiting for him.

You prayed you wouldn’t get sleepy as you heard him downstairs. It wasn’t long before your heard footsteps coming up the stairs. They were his. He opened the door softly, his eyes instantly meeting yours.

“Hey babe. Sleepy yet?”

“Not really.”, you breathed, the only thing sticking out from under the covers were your arms but he could tell you were naked.

“Already naked for me?”, he asked as he closed the door softly behind him.

“Mhm maybe.”, you smiled easily.

“Fuck—that’s so sexy. Sorry I shouldn’t curse so much.”, he sighed as he slid his slacks off.

You took a moment to admire him, the only thing hiding his cock was the fabric of his briefs. You sharply inhaled, dying for his touch. You needed it—you needed him.

“It’s fine—just come to bed?”, you smiled softly.

“Let me at least get undressed first, love. Know you wanna watch, right?”, he teased.

“Uh-huh.”, you responded softly, eyes glued on him.

He smirked as he unbuttoned his button-up, brown eyes fluttering shut softly. Your desire for sex and love from him was heading into overdrive. That’s why you loved him so much. You were scared to lose him. Terrified, if you were being honest. He was the best thing that had ever happened to you and now he had given you the other best thing to ever happen to you—a baby of your own. Your all’s daughter would be the best of both of you.

Joe slid his underwear down, letting his rock-hard cock spring free with a sigh. He looked at you dauntingly before climbing straight into the bed on top of the covers.

“Joe.”, you laughed easily.

“Yes, love?”

He was on top of you, the only thing separating you from one another was the sheet and comforter. You smiled up at him, chest moving up and down. You were really starting to get all hot and bothered. Your faces were only inches from one another and he was careful not to put too much weight on your belly. You could feel his rock-hard cock poking you through the comforter and sheet.

“Just look at you.”, he hummed, touching your face while making you sigh.

“What about me?”

“How sexy and ready you are for me, love.”, he breathed as he placed soft kisses on your neck.

You laughed easily. “I am….been waiting all evening…..”

“The doctor’s office just got you going, didn’t it? Just made you want a real taste, didn’t it?”

You nodded before he chuckled and shared another soft kiss with you. He peeled the comforter and sheet down easily revealing your breasts and he broke the kiss just to admire them.

“God.”, he breathed.

“What?”, you laughed easily.

“So sexy. Shit.”

He lifted his body off yours, peeling the cover and sheet on down to reveal your entire body. You sharply inhaled as his hand caressed down your body, already causing your back to arch.

“Am not.”, you breathed.

“You are, love. Everything about you is sexy, I promise. Would I lie?”

“I don’t know.”

Joe narrowed his eyes before smirking. “The answer is no.”

You smiled, rolling your eyes playfully. “I love you.”

“I love you too. Even more.”

“Not possible.”

“Yes, it is.”, he leaned down and moved your hair out of the way before lining himself up with you.

He heard you sharply inhale just at feeling his rock-hard cock pressing against you. He chuckled seductively as if he was trying to tease you and he was winning.

“Can I hold your hand, love?”

You nodded. “Yeah.”

His hand found yours trembling on the pillow nearby and he wasted no time, instantly entangling his fingers with yours. It made you all feel closer to one another, things felt more intimate and it was a way to show each other how you all loved one another.

“Are you feeling sore, love? Anywhere?”

“No—not so much. Feeling a lot better, things are settling down.”

“Good, so I can touch your breasts?”

You nodded, preparing yourself before feeling his free hand roam your chest, squeezing each breast and causing you to moan lightly. It felt good—you weren’t going to lie. Your mind was just trying to unwind and focus on him taking care of you.

“Joe.”

“Yes, love?”

“Can you please fuck me? Please put your cock inside of me?”

Joe wore a shocked expression at the use of your candid language. “Is that what you want, love? Want my cock inside of you?”

He could get used to these hormones working on you.

“Yes—need you inside of me—please.”, you begged, swallowing hard.

“You know you don’t have to beg, love I’ll always take care of you.”

You nodded softly as he cupped your cheek. He gave you a soft kiss as he readied himself to split you open.

“Are you sure you’re ready, love?”

“Please—never been more ready.”, your eyes fluttered shut, preparing yourself for him.

“Okay, love. Wanna still hold my hand while we do it? Makes us feel closer.”, he breathed.

You nodded softly again, squeezing his hand with your trembling one. It didn’t matter how long you all had been together, you still got nervous at times. But he always reassured you.

He rubbed his thumb over your hand. “You’re so beautiful.”

A smile curved on your lips. “Promise?”

“Always.”, he smirked with a soft chuckle.

You smiled up at him, eyes becoming slightly watery. It was the damn hormones again, wasn’t it? He leaned down and shared another kiss with you before lining himself up with you and entering you, causing you to gasp lightly.

“Sorry, baby. You’re so tight—even after earlier today.”

His face was still full of concern, he hated hurting you just for a second—even if it would turn pleasurable for you.

“It’s—it’s okay, babe.”

He watched you, still holding your hand as he began to thrust deep inside of you. His rhythm started off slow in an attempt to give you time to adjust. He saw you take a deep breath as he grunted softly, rutting himself inside of you.

“Feeling good?”, he asked softly.

You nodded. “Mhm.”

“I swear I’m so happy I put my baby inside you.”, he groaned.

Your eyes flew open. “Yeah?”

“Yeah—so happy you’re having my baby girl.”

You smirked before moaning softly as he hit the right spot that made you see stars. The thought that had entered your mind left as quickly as it came.

“God, just looking at you right now drives me mad. What do you think we should—name her?”, his eyes rolled back in his head as he continued to thrust into you, the sound of his balls smacking against you filling the room.

“You’re really—wanting to come up with baby names while you’re—inside of me?”, you hiccuped easily.

“Of course—I do. So happy so happy you’re giving me a baby girl. I’m over the moon.”, he smiled as you took your free hand brushing over the stubble on his cheeks.

“Mhmmm what are you thinking?”, your back arched as he worked himself all the way in.

“Hm, promise not to make fun of me?”

“Promise.”, you squeezed his hand.

“Maybe Sophie? Or Emma? I don’t know—kinda stuck on Sophie.”, he breathed.

“Sop-hie.”, you repeated through a moan. “I love it.”

“You do?”

“Of course.....it’s a cute name….girly and posh. It’ll fit her.”, you breathed, feeling your toes curl.

“It was that easy?”, he laughed.

“Yeah—because I love it and I want you to have a say so in her name. I love it. We’ll call her—Sophie.”, you swallowed hard, him keeping his rhythm steady.

“I love you—fuck, do I love you….”, he breathed.

“Now—we need a middle name….any suggestions daddy?”, you smirked up at him.

“You really wanna hear them?”

“Duh.”, you smirked up at him as he continued to work deep inside of you.

“I don’t know—I only thought of a couple so far.”

“Tell—me.”, you moaned as you gripped your nails into his hand.

“Fuck—okay. Before we get ready and cum—what about Mae?”

“Mae?”, you repeated. “Sophie Mae Quinn?”

“You’re right—it’s a dumb middle name.”, he sighed, discouraged.

“No—no—I was just saying it out loud…..”, you took your free hand, rubbing it up his arm. “I think it’s cute—it fits her.”

“Really?”

“Really, I love it and I love you. So much.”

“I love you too, baby. So really we are gonna call her Sophie Mae Quinn?”

“Yes, babe. We are.”

He leaned down to share another kiss with you. You both were on cloud nine and nothing was changing that. You both were smiling like you’d just won the lottery. You had—you all were having a baby girl.

His thrust continued, steady and he slightly began picking up the pace as he closed his eyes, throwing his head back lightly.

��Joe….”, you hiccuped easily.

“Yes, love?”

“I think I’m gonna cum…..”

“Cum for me—cum all over my cock, baby. Can’t wait to fill you full.”

You were climbing the high of your orgasm, not able to focus on anything but that. Your brain was focused on his movements, feeling him deep inside of you. You closed your eyes, drowning out any other care in the world. You took your free arm, rubbing it up and down his arm—anything to hold onto.

“Joe…..”, you moaned out.

“Yes, love?”, he breathed.

“Gonna cum—right now.”, you moaned as you instantly felt yourself tighten around him, juices spilling over his cock.

Your eyes shot open, his eyes closed as he reveled in the feeling of you releasing. His job was done, he had done what he wanted to do.

“Fuck—cum baby, cum all over my cock. Feels so good.”, he hummed as his rhythm slowed, giving you time to work through your orgasm.

He wanted to help you ride it out, he always did. You sank your fingernails in his hand as you moaned, the final waves of your orgasm hitting. Lightheadedness took over at this point, you felt the heat of your orgasm wash over your entire body. Every sensation, every time he fucked himself into you was so much more intense now causing you to whimper. He smirked, watching you come down off your high. Your chest was heaving, visibly trying to recover a little before he came.

You felt his cock twitch and pulse, a reaction from your orgasm. He could tell you were soaked—so soaked for him. He could feel your juices all over his curls at the base of him.

“Ready for me to cum, love?”, he breathed.

“Please.”, your mouth was dry.

He mentally counted how many thrusts it took after you came. One. Two. Three. His thrusts ceased immediately as he released a loud groan. His fingertips sank into your hand this time, his hips stuttering, keeping himself buried inside of you as deep as he could. You felt his cock pumping his cum deep into your cunt, careful to keep himself there and make sure none of it was missed. You both smiled at each other, beginning to laugh lightly.

“How was that, love?”

“So amazing, Joe. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, love. Are you sure you’re okay with Sophie Mae?”

“Of course, I am. I love it and I love you. Come cuddle me.”, you flashed him the puppy dog eyes that you knew he couldn’t resist.

He smiled as he fell beside you, a little of his seed spilling out on your thigh but you didn’t care. All that mattered was him being with you. He kissed you again before pulling you close to him, covering you both up with the sheet and comforter. Without contemplation, he rubbed his hand over your bump. That’s when the guilt set in. There was something you had been keeping from Joe. And this wasn’t the perfect time to tell him but it was gnawing at you.

“Mhm she’s being active tonight, isn’t she?”

“She is.”, you put your hand over his. “Joe, can I tell you something?”

“Sure, love. Actually—me too. I told my mum and dad about you. I didn’t exactly explain everything right yet but they want to meet you. Is that okay? Maybe in a month or two?”

“Uh—yeah.”, you swallowed hard.

“They’ll love you, I just know it. Have you thought about when you are gonna tell your mum and dad?”

This was going to make your news harder.

“Uh—actually that’s what I wanna talk about.”, you turned over to face him easily.

He could tell something was off with you, causing him to sit up slightly in bed. You matched his mood.

“Okay….”

“Um—I should have told you this when we got together….”, you swallowed nervously as you noticed his facial expression change.

His eyes were glued on you, afraid of what was to follow. His mind was racing a million miles a minute trying to think of what you were going to tell him. Did you have some crazy ex-husband? A child back home? His mind instantly went to the worst. He gave you a look as if to tell you to continue.

Tag List: @usererics @munsonluvrr @ali-r3n @silky-luxe @fantastic-f0x

#joseph quinn x reader #joseph x reader #eddie munson #eddie x reader #eddie stranger things #eddie munson hc #stranger things #eddie munson imagine

22 notes · View notes