#I'll be probably putting that in one of my fics on ao3 at some point

[leathfaic]

"So what do ye eat then, when ye get the choice?" Soap is opening two bottles of beer handing one over to Ghost. He's clueless about what to cook for dinner, might as well ask Simon for some input.

"Chicken and rice. Or I order something." Ghost's tone is nonchalant as he studies the label of the beer he was just handed and Soap decides immediately that he's not gonna follow the plain suggestion actually. He's on leave and deserves some flavour in his food, thank you very much.

"Single malt whisky cask matured?" Ghost' sounds slightly disbelieving. "That is very Scottish.", or disapproving, who knew with the English.

So Soap just snorts, "Had to get ye some of the local stuff, eh? If ye behave ah'll make sure we get some of the beer with tea in for ye." 

At that Simon, who was sniffing his beer, looks up, pure horror in his eyes and Soap's snort evolves into a full-on cackle. 

He catches himself a moment later, inspecting the almost pouting look behind the mask and decides to drop the topic for now. Instead, he raises his bottle at Simon, "To leave, aye?".

Ghost does the same, their bottles clinking. 

"Cheers."

"Slàinte Mhath." 

Crisp and cold. Fuck he'd missed beer. Missed a lot of things during that last OP. Food that tasted like actual food was one, bringing him back to his original line of questioning. It shouldn't be surprising that Ghost is not into cooking. He's the only person Soap has ever seen eating anything from the mess with true enthusiasm. Sorts his MREs by how much he likes them too when he thinks no one is looking. Always eating the best first.

"Not much of a cook then?" he keeps his tone light and innocent while sipping his beer. Trying to observe Simon's reactions without making him feel watched.

"I can handle meat," There's a stupid smirk traded between them and Soap would roll his eyes if he didn't have to reign himself in, immediately set ablaze by the stupid joke.

"Learned at a butchers before I joined." Ghost offers up by way of explanation, sounding almost sad. Something must've happened there, something that had Simon ending up in the force. Something that led to him becoming Ghost.

"Well perfect, I'm not terrible but I do handle meat way better in the bedroom." Soap winks at him and this time, to make sure the innuendo lands painfully enough to pull Ghost out of his head. 

It does and earns him an exasperated look. Might have convinced him if those brown eyes weren't full of fondness. 

He's gonna leave Ghost with the belief that he's not learning to see behind the mask for a little longer: Wants him to feel comfortable. No need to divulge that his tone clearly betrayed that he's got no idea how to cook apart from putting some meat into a pan and put all his hope into some cook in bags. Lots of people couldn't cook, it wasn't a big deal.

Only that it is not just that. From the few things he's told Soap about himself, it makes sense, in a sad way.

Simon, who confronts being gay like being in battle, all hyper-masculine energy focused on fighting through all the hurtful stereotypes and insults his father planted in his head, probably never got to do a lot of things that weren't 'manly'. Makes him wonder where the needle skills come from but only for a split second before he decides he's gonna do something about this then.

"So what is yer favourite food then?" 

"Don't really 'ave one." the stoic bastard answers and Soap has to think about the MREs but also has no trouble believing that that is a luxury the other man doesn't allow himself to ponder. Thinks he doesn't deserve it.

Not that'll stop him. Quite the opposite, now he's motivated.

"Alright, anythin ye could be doin with right now?" 

He watches Ghost's eyes dart through the kitchen seemingly looking for a clue. Bouncing of cabinets and shelves before he takes a swig of his beer.

"No." he finally answers, sounding like he's withdrawing into himself again. For fucks sake.

Soap smiles at him hiding his exasperation away before it can reach his face, doesn't need his emotions to make this harder on both of them. 

"Well too bad, yer at ma mercy." He lets his smile dip into something devilish and revels in the note of alarm in Simon's lovely eyes. It's quickly replaced with confusion as Soap presses a knife into his hands. He stands there, looking for all accounts like a very misplaced ghoul. Very deadly but also kinda endearing.

"Ye can cut the onion, garlic, are chilis fine with ye? If so, cut two of those too and make sure ye wash yer hands after tha'. 

They work in silence for a moment, Ghost's dutifully following Soap's command without any complaints. When Soap begins to sear the meat he explains what he's doing and asks for input from Ghost. He's rewarded with warm surprise on the mostly masked features before Ghost starts talking, softer than his usual tone when he's guiding Soap through something job-related, becoming almost reverent when he sees Soap adjust to what he just said. And Soap tries to be careful with his usual ribbing jokes, not wanting to disturb the equilibrium that is Ghost relaxing in his flat.

When the other ingredients are added he takes over again. Talking the lieutenant through the process. Explaining his steps when he knows why they're important and freely admitting defeat when he doesn't. 

They drink their beers and cook, Ghost once more following every step that Soap lays out for him and Soap silently trying to impress him. Not that he was gonna admit that to either himself or anyone else.

"Who taught you all tha'?", they're just waiting for the pasta now, the sauce down and bubbling away on low heat, leaning against each other, Soaps head resting on Ghost's shoulder. Outright domestic. 

"Ma grannie," Soap smiles fondly at the memory of the tiny woman with her sincere blue eyes. "Told me being a lad was no excuse and Ah'd better know ma way around a kitchen for ma future burd." he winks at Ghost who goes surprisingly red surprisingly fast clearly visible even behind the mask. "When Ah told her Ah'm a buftie she doubled down. Ian she said, refused to call me John ye see forever angry tha' ma da went with the anglicised version, anyways, Ian she said if ye're bringing home another man one of ye will need to know how to cook or for all yer gay love ye'll focking starve." he can almost hear hear as his accent gets thicker and something between wild joy and bottomless sorrow tears through his chest at the memory.

There's a beat of silence before a weird noise breaks it. It's a rough quick sound and it takes Soap a second to realise that Simon just snorted. 

"Well thank fuck for grandma MacTavish and her foresight!" he pulls his almost empty beer bottle into the air dramatically and they toast again. 

Soap's smile is wide, imagining what his nan's reaction to Ghost would've been. 

They might have gotten on entirely too well. 

[secrets-of-ty]

Danny Phantom Fanfic Masterlist

I've been meaning to do this for a bit! Since I've been in the Phandom for 10+ years I've picked up a lot of good fanfics over the years and I think it'd be great to share them again in case people have forgotten/haven't encountered them!

I mostly used Fanfiction.net in my older days so a lot of them will be linked there. I'm also pretty picky when it comes to fics being completed, so expect the ones listed to be bingeable with an ending! And finally, I'm not huge on romance/smut so most of them probably won't involve those genres, I'll point out ones that do. (These are in no particular order).

👻 Happy Reading! 👻

👻 = Regular Fic

🟢 = Alternate Universe Fic

⚔️ = Crossover Fic

💙 = Would Recommend!

💙💙 = One of my Favorites!

💙⚔️💙 Mirrored by Lynse

"As a general rule, diving into unknown swirly vortexes in the Ghost Zone is a bad idea, but this was a time when Danny had no other real choice. Meanwhile, Jake thought he was through dealing with ghosts, but Rotwood, well, he's just getting started."

I posted about this one a few years ago and the author, @ladylynse , said it's also available on AO3. This is by far one of my f a v o r i t e fanfics that I read annually or so! If you're a sucker for American Dragon too, definitely check this one out <3 The characterization of both Jake and Danny, plus watching their friendship grow, always gets me in the feels.

💙👻 Phantom's Sketchbook by AkoyaMizuno

"Mr. Lancer finds himself in an unparalleled situation, he has access to something which can give him incredible insight into the personal workings of Amity Park's local ghost teen hero, Danny Phantom."

It's been a while since I've read this one, but I remember it having a lovely characterization of Lancer plus his mentor relationship with Danny. (I loved this one a great amount back in the day that I, uh, made fanart and turned it in for a school assignment. Which is lost to the ages now 😅)

👻 Darkness by Cordria

"Maddie and Phantom are trapped in the dark. Can they come to an agreement to work together before they both die at the full moon? Part 1 of Illuminations Saga."

I don't quite remember this one but I DO remember Cordria had some absolute bangers. You'll probably see their name a few more times on this list.

💙👻💙 Masks by Cordria

"Sometimes, people hide who they truly are behind masks. This is a short story about the day that Lancer decides enough is enough when it comes to Daniel Fenton. Sequel is 'Plunge'"

When I said Cordria had bangers, THIS is one of them! Another fic that I read annually, this one involves Lancer getting closer and closer to Danny's secret while he's stuck in detention for the weekend. I love love LOVE the characterization of Danny and Lancer in this, another at the top of the favorite list!

👻 Plunge by Cordria (sequel to Masks ^)

"Sequel to 'Masks'. Now that Lancer has learned the truth and has let Danny out of his office, Danny needs to face the next hurdle: his parents."

For some reason, I always forgot to put this on my favorite list so I often missed out on reading it with my annual read of Masks. I remember it being a decent sequel where the Fentons pick up the pieces of Danny's reveal.

👻 Pits by Cordria

"Danny has been captured and thrown into the Pits by Walker to fight for his life. Listen in as he tells his dark, twisted tale of surviving despite the odds. Warning: dark and depressing. Sequel is 'Final Exam'."

Another one I don't fully remember, but it had to be a solid read since it's on my favorites haha! I have a vague sense that it was a little angst/gore-y(?) as the description warns, so just heads up!

👻 Lab Rat by AnneriaWings

"The look on my parents' faces – eager, curious, somewhat hateful – wasn't exactly hard to give away their intentions. I knew what they were going to do to me even before Mom snapped on a pair of rubbery, white latex gloves."

*** This one is definitely a vivisection fanfic with graphic descriptions, so beware that content. Again, haven't read it in a long time but it had satisfied my angst itch back in the day.

👻 Wondering by Phantomrose96

"A continuation to Cordria's starshot #69 "Wondering". Danny's been captured and tortured by his parents, but he refuses to say a word until his psychiatrist starts connecting the dots. Can he risk keeping it a secret any longer?"

*** Another angst, lab experiment-esque fic. There are definite graphic scenes (as warned in the first chapter). I do remember this fic being huge in the 2010s (definitely a staple of the Phandom). The relationships and Danny recovering from his torture were great highlights.

👻 Connections by Lynse

"Maddie knows that the Booo-merang has keyed into Danny, for whatever reason, so what's she to think when she sees it collide with Phantom?"

Don't quite remember this one, but Lynse is amazing at writing, so it's bound to be a good read.

👻 Confessions by Lynse (Sequel to Connections ^)

"Follows Connections. Danny's secret's not as safe as he thinks, what with Maddie unable to ignore her wild suspicions any longer and piecing things together and Jack asking questions all on his own."

Same as above!

💙👻 Earthquake by Turkeyhead987

"Danny leaves with his bathroom excuse and leaves Dash curious. He follows Danny and ends up the the gym room with him. While they're in there, an earthquake occurs and leaves them trapped inside. Will any secrets be revealed? No DashxDanny! They're just the main characters!"

This one is another one that I've read multiple times over the years! From what I remember, it was a fun read involving Dash and Danny being trapped in the gym after an earthquake, and explores how Danny handles his secret around Dash while they wait for rescue.

💙👻 A Jock and a Hard Place by AnneriaWings

"Danny and Dash were silent, trying to wrap their mind around that stupid, simple fact – the door was locked. They were trapped. In a janitor's closet. Together. (Collab with Haiju)"

No romance in this one! Another story where Danny and Dash get trapped together. I've read this one several times, and remember enjoying the tension of Danny's secret being revealed. I also think they explored Danny and Dash's relationship in a fun way!

👻 An Unlikely Alliance by Represent

"Maddie wants her family back. In an attempt to understand her Danny's change in behavior, she unwittingly enlists the GIW to exorcize Phantom from her son."

Gonna be real with ya'll, I don't remember this one at all. But uhhh I'm gonna throw it on here just because I can. :)

👻 Flip Turn by dreamsweetmydear

"Danny's life the last couple of years has been chaotic and pretty scary, to say the least. However, one detention with Mr. Lancer opens a window of opportunity that promises to turn his life around in more ways than one. Revelation fic. Post-"Kindred Spirits.""

Yet again, I don't remember this fic. Sorry! But it's under 8000 words, so it's a little bit of a shorter read than some of the ones on this list!

👻 Journey of Secrets by WolfKael

"First Danny Phantom fic! DXS, TXV, but not super-heavy. Lancer's class is on a trip to the Ghost Zone, courtesy of the Fentons! (Takes a couple chapters to gain momentum, and I promise it isn't your average 'field trip' fic!) T because I'm paranoid, but it could probably be K ."

Also not a fic I remember. It's got about 50,000 words so thought I'd throw it in for anyone that likes a longer fic!

👻 Vulnerable by HaiJu

"A desperate moment leads to a difficult choice, and Danny must deal with the consequences. A collaboration between Anneriawings and Haiju."

Don't remember it, but HaiJu had/has some great fics! Seems to involve Danny and Maddie after skimming the first chapter.

👻 Little Fires by Represent

"My family's supposed to be geniuses, yet they've never figured it out. Now I know why. Because they already know I'm Phantom. They must know. The better questions are: Have they known this whole time? What's in that vial? What happened to Skulker? And what's in the locked drawer?"

You know what, if I remember it, I'll say something 😂

👻 Judge, Jury, Executioner by Cordria

"The Observants and the Ghost Council are sick of the Fentons creating half-ghost creatures that disobey the rules of the universe. It's time for them to step in before more are made. Can Danny save his parents and keep his secret intact? A three-part fic."

💙👻 A Phantom Marooned by LordPugsy

"No one but Danny was suspicious when his English class was awarded an all-expenses paid cruise trip by an anonymous benefactor. Everyone but Danny thought it was bad luck when they became ship-wrecked on an island in the middle of nowhere. No one but Danny fully understood the dangers lurking in the trees. No one but Danny knew how much danger they were all in so far from home."

This one involves Danny and his class getting out of Amity Park, so it's a little more oc-filled and explores a nontraditional setting for the trio. There might be a little SamxDanny in this one if I remember correctly, but overall I do remember having fun reading through this!

🟢 Candlelight by HappyLeif

"Sam's only friend is the ever-loyal Tucker, ever since Danny began slowly distancing himself from them after some accident freshman year. She wanted a friend, but she never thought she'd find the one she was looking for in the highly debated ghostly hero of Amity Park.

AU = Danny alone during the portal accident. Looks like there's some SamxDanny in this one! Don't remember it but heck I might have to reread it since the synopsis has me interested.

👻 Crashing and Burning by GriffinRose

"For two years, Maddie has put up with Danny's ridiculous lies and excuses. She's tried everything to get through to him, but the pattern just goes on. She's so tired of fighting him on this all the time. And so, after two years, she's done. She doesn't care what her son does anymore, because Danny doesn't seem to care that he's her son."

👻 I'll Be Here by HaiJu

"Some days you can't pick yourself up. Having family means you don't have to. Danny-centric, three oneshots. Completely shameless hurt/comfort. Bring tissues… and antiseptic."

👻 What Little Girls Are Made Of by HaiJu

"Phantom and his younger double save Amity Park from a monstrous ghost, nearly destroying themselves in the process. The Fentons have always hunted ghosts; now it's time to save one."

💙👻💙 You Should Be Dead by SaphireDragon11

"Dash and Kwan are horrified to discover they've accidentally killed their classmate, but perhaps even more so when he shows up at school the next day. With his secret on the line, Danny soon discovers Dash and Kwan are the least of his worries."

THIS story is definitely a favorite and fun read! The ending battle chapters always gets me excited to reread! ***Danny does get straight up shot by Dash at the beginning so be warned for that content. But I remember a post going around a year or so ago where someone had drabbled about Danny getting up after being shot by Dash. This story explores that concept with a longer plot!

💙👻💙 Roughing It by HaiJu

"Lost deep in the woods with an undead pack on their heels, Maddie and Phantom find themselves entangled in an awkward alliance. Can they cooperate long enough to get out of this mess?"

Another favorite! This one explores Maddie and Danny's relationship, kind of similar to how the show did in the Maternal Instincts episode. I adore how HaiJu explores Maddie's thought-process with dealing with Phantom in a situation where she kind of needs him and he won't leave her alone. Great mother-son fic!

👻 Phantom of Truth by Haiju

"Locked away in a secret government lab with Phantom as her subject, nothing stands between Maddie and the truth... except, perhaps, herself."

Haven't read this one in a loooooong time, but I remember being around for HaiJu updating this fic, posting about it on Tumblr, and the Phandom being generally hyped for it. Another staple for the Phandom! It's another torture fic, so heads up regarding that content!

💙👻 Shadow of a Doubt by Haiju (Sequel to Phantom of Truth ^)

"The truth was supposed to save Danny. Fix things. The lab, the experiments, the lies, those were all in the past. Weren't they? Sequel to Phantom of Truth."

And then BAM on top of finishing Phantom of Truth, HaiJu hit us all with a completed sequel! I was super excited whenever this fic got updated, felt like I was waiting for a new episode to air on TV every time! There's some OCs in this since it explores Danny running away from Amity, but I remember genuinely loving the OCs and loved reading about Danny mentally recovering from being experiment on.

👻 Just a Boy by Tay1019411

"Maddie and Jack finally have Phantom right where they always wanted him: in there lab, helpless, but everything is different now. Now, Maddie faces the truth about what Phantom really is."

🟢 Make It Go Away by DarkNymfa

"Not for the first time, Danny cursed himself for never telling anyone about his extra-curricular activities. And now, far more injured than he could fix himself, Danny desperately wished that he had told just one person."

No one knows AU

👻 Flicker by DarkNymfa

"It had taken just one moment, one split-second in which she had seen Phantom instead of Danny. Now she found herself on a path she didn't want to be on. One she couldn't leave, not anymore."

👻 The Scientific Method by ReconstructWriter

""After two years of failures you'd have better luck asking Phantom to be your lab-rat," Jazz said. The Fentons decide to try just that."

👻 Phantom Hitchhiker by ghostanimal

"Phic Phight Oneshot: While students get to leave early after a ghost attack, teachers have to stick around for boring meetings to discuss the attack. The ghost attack was now over, but it didn't mean all the ghosts were gone. Lancer finds himself driving a certain Phantom home while reflecting on how young the poor kid is."

👻 Returning After the Reveal by Illusn

"Phic Phight attack, using a prompt by Love-ly-ish. Danny returns to school after his secret was revealed in a ghost attack, having to deal with people suddenly treating him differently."

👻 Vantage Point by Lynse

"Phantom was young. Painfully young. Somehow, Lancer had never really noticed that before. One-shot, written for the 2019 Phic Phight."

👻 Oddities by Lynse

"Jack can't deny that their ghost hunting equipment malfunctions around Danny-consistently and exclusively around Danny-and decides to get to the bottom of it, once and for all. One-shot, written for the 2019 Phic Phight."

👻 To Be a Hero by cosette141

"Danny has always known the consequences should he be captured by the Guys In White, but now Tucker is going to learn firsthand just what the stakes are for his superhero friend and what it really means to be a hero. (not slash) hurt/comfort"

👻 Family Reunion by Dp-Marvel94

"For Phango. Prompts used- Setting: Family Reunion, Wes Weston, Aunt Alicia, Stuck in the thermos. And Identity Reveal…kinda (does it count if Wes had already worked out that Fenton was Phantom but hadn't seen him actually transform so wasn't completely sure?)"

Wes Fic!

👻 Stuck by SummersSixEcho

"[OneShot] After a prank from two of his ghostly acquaintances, Danny is stuck in ghost mode during one of the most important events of his young half-life. If only he didn't have to give a speech on top of it... [Phic Phight 2020 entry; prompt by Ghostanimal]"

👻 One-Eighty by SummersSixEcho

"[One Shot] After a grueling battle, two teenagers at a diner try to sort out a night of revelations. [DannyMay 2020, Day 28: Diner]"

👻 Threads of Time by ZombieRed

""I just want to know what's going on with you, Danny! I wish I could just, I don't know, spend the day figuring out what you've been hiding from me. Then maybe I could help you. But you being closed off from everyone is only hurting you. Can't you see that?" Or Maddie keeps on waking up to Thursday morning [No PP, pretty much ignores season 3 as a whole]"

👻 Invisible Stitches by Lynse

"Family bonding time might be less dangerous now that his parents know his secret, but that doesn't mean Danny is wild about being kept in the dark when it comes to his dad's plans for the weekend. One-shot."

Loved the concept of Danny having trouble being away from Amity Park!

👻 Whenever You're Ready by SummersSixEcho

"[OneShot] Jack and Maddie try to show their son they are very supportive of Phantom once they find out his secret. They want him to tell them on his terms, but everything ends up in bigger misunderstandings and more revelations they weren't prepared for. [Belated Phic Phight entry for Star G, Arioz, Bird, Dekalkomania, and Wife]"

Written in a Journal-Entry style! Interesting format if I remember correctly.

👻 An Attempt at Camping by Seasilver17

"They should have known that even when they were in the middle of nowhere camping. Something would have to go wrong. Curse his Fenton luck"

👻 Secrets Secrets and Advice (This Teacher's Vice) by AppleScentedLazers

"After a particularly grueling day Mr. Lancer just wants to go home, kick up his feet, and read some Shakespeare. But, when he runs into two of his students looking for their missing best friend, Lancer ends up with more questions than he has answers for. Such as, who is Phantom? And just what is Daniel Fenton hiding?"

👻🟢 Going Ghost by cosette141

"My take on the moment Danny turns on the ghost portal and becomes half-ghost… as well as an alternate way for Sam and Tucker to find out. Friendship Oneshot"

👻 Lair by Lexosaurus

"When something goes wrong with a piece of Vladco tech, Valerie ends up stuck in the Ghost Zone. With Phantom."

💙👻 In Case of Emergency by Unlucky Alis

"Lancer is grading papers when he gets the call. "I'm calling from Amity West. I have an underage patient here who has named you as their emergency contact." Lancer rushes over, of course, fretting all the while about what accident Danny Fenton has gotten himself into now, because it could only be him. Except, when he arrives, it's not the Danny he expected to find."

I remember enjoying the little twist on Lancer being the emergency contact for Phantom yet having no idea. Lancer handles it pretty well all things considered. (I think you guys can tell I just like Lancer fics at this point HA)

👻 Furthest from Myself by WastefulReverie

"An accident during a ghost invasion leaves nearly a hundred citizens with inexplicable ghost powers. Little did they know, this was only the catalyst for a series of revelations."

👻 Ghost Smarts! by Dekalkomania

"When it becomes clear the ghosts are here to stay, the Amity Park school district decides they need to teach proper safety precautions. In dire need of extra credit, Danny takes Mr. Lancer's offer to be the assistant in an assembly titled, "Ghost Smarts!"

Very unprepared for what he signed up for, Danny must deal with the eccentric detective J.J. Bittenbinder, all while not blowing his cover."

[taintandviolent]

morally violating ; Kai Anderson x reader

warnings: kai is the warning. okay okay, real warnings: hatefuck (surprise, surprise), female receiving, clothed sex, rough sex, spanking, aggression, choking, degrading language, unprotected sex. a/n: 2.7k words! turned out to be part 2 to my howlin' for you fic. i feel like an anon requested this, but I'll be damned if I can remember which one. if it was you -- here you go! it's late, but who cares. you guys don't care, it's Kai. was originally part of my lazy (and embarrasingly late at this point) kinktober. week two AND three; spanking, clothed sex and degradation. so uh... enjoy. sorry if it's clunky and bad and weird and rushed!

full fic & taglist under cut! ↓ / ao3 link here! /

​​You swept the blush brush over your cheeks and heaved a sigh. Ultimately, you were disgusted with yourself. Right? It might not have been surface-level, but somewhere, deep down, you really were. You had to be. It was sickening that you hadn’t stopped thinking about the furious fuck you two had had almost two weeks ago. You, as a proud feminist woman, found that very morally violating. Actually, you found Kai very morally violating. And yet, here you were, threading the ribbon of a Red Riding Hood costume through the faux-corset front. You knotted it tightly and gazed in the mirror.

You made a cute Red Riding Hood and your tits sat nicely in this corset. At least there was that. There was the possibility that he wasn’t even going to come, which was probably the best option. There was also the possibility that he would walk through the door with Winter. If the latter happened, you’d feel like a fool in front of your friend, and an absolute pathetic, begging whore in front of her brother.

Which is what you were. You knew Kai would make sure to tell you that.

You heard the first ding of the doorbell. Giving yourself a final once-over, you turned and bolted down the stairs. Your eyes swept over your living room, making sure it was presentable. You’d decorated modestly. Streamers of orange, black and purple hung from the ceiling, those little table top decorations were clustered on your coffee table. Carved pumpkins greeted guests at the door.

With a bright smile on your face, you swung open the door. A cluster of friends from college stood on your doorstep; hugs were exchanged before you ushered them inside. It was non-stop after that. Your guests flooded into your home, and before you knew it, you had to hold your drink above your head to navigate. Within a few hours, you had yourself, by all definitions, a successful party. You were two Red Solo cups deep, and you still hadn’t spotted either of the Anderson siblings.

Your eyes unfocused, watching the throngs of people as they undulated to music and clustered in corners of the room. Reminiscent activities of a college party, some playfully slapped each other, some made out, while others danced, feeling the beat of the song playing. Others had taken to sitting on the staircase, lounging against the wall and the bannister as they chatted.

“Hey there, little Red Riding Hood…” a voice said. Your eyes refocused onto a particular head of blue hair, wavy locks hanging on either side of his face. His dark, brown eyes penetrated — no, violated yours.

“You sure are looking good.” Song quote. Cute. Not.

Everything he said sounded so threatening, even when it was complimentary. Especially when it was complimentary. He was scanning your body like a drill sergeant examining a soldier, scrutinising every minute detail. Intentionally, you puffed your chest out, lifting your cleavage and squaring your shoulders.

“Did you let yourself into my house?” You snapped, incredulously. “Where’s Winter?”

He stiffened, obviously put off by your immediate attitude. “She’ll be here. Later. Had something I needed her to do.”

“The fuck?”

A beat.

“…did you let yourself into my fucking house, Kai?”

“Did you intentionally dress up like Little Red Riding Hood after I dressed up as a wolf?”

Your open mouth closed wordlessly, lips rolling inwards. The question was rhetorical, and answering would only humiliate you further.

“Why don’t we go discuss your choices upstairs?”

You stared at him, a vicious fire burning behind your eyes. Hoping he’d… what? Retract his statement? Run back out the door, finally realising that you weren’t one to be fucked with? Doubtful. He never backed down in front of a woman. Besides, if he did, you’d likely stop him, catching his arm at his bicep and yanking him back towards yourself — because you didn’t want him to leave. And you knew it.

With a huff and a sharp turn, you headed up the stairs, navigating around the people that sat on the steps. Every feminist cell in your body screamed perilously at you as he followed you up your carpeted steps, the heavy stomp of his boots following closely behind you.

You were in no mood to self-rationalise, you were too busy trying to calm the drooling monster between your legs. You squeezed your eyes shut, silencing the thoughts as you opened the door. The guests would entertain themselves — this wouldn’t take long. It didn’t last time.

He began surveying your room, walking it with his hands behind his back as if grading you. When he came to your bathroom, he toed open the door with his boot, and peeked his head inside. He seemed satisfied with whatever he saw — maybe his own reflection. All of this made you acutely uncomfortable. You shifted your weight, flipping the frill of one of your petticoats.

“Come here.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said… come…. Here.” He repeated, more sternly than before.

For whatever stupid reason, you obeyed him. You marched your sorry little ass over to where he was standing, staring up at him like a lost puppy. The bathroom door was still ajar, and you could see inside, courtesy of the little butterfly night light that was plugged in above the sink.

Kai reached in, flattening his hand against the wall and flipped the light switch.  

“Put your hands on the counter.”

You hesitated. This didn’t sound good. But as soon as Kai jerked his head in the direction of the countertop, you hurriedly flattened your hands on the counter, keeping your eyes locked on his reflection.

“Good. Good. Now we’re getting somewhere. You’ve thought about our little encounter at Winter’s party often, haven’t you?”

You shook your head.

THWACK!

Your jaw dropped, stunned, as a burning red welt swelled on your right ass cheek, the flesh tingling with pinpricks of pain as the blood rushed to the surface. There had been no warning for the first, and there wasn’t a warning for the second, or the third.

“Let’s try that — wait. Oh. You like this.” He spat. “Don’t you?”

You shook your head again, indignantly, and Kai reared his hand back. You flinched and tightened your muscles, waiting for the impending impact. You knew it would piss him off — maybe that’s why you did it. Filling your mind with horrible things that would hopefully keep the arousal at bay wasn't working. You were failing… miserably. Spanking wasn’t something you’d explored in the past, never would have thought to. But the way that he was leaving large, burning handprints on your ass cheeks had you leaking out into your underwear. You could feel it, you knew it. Fuck, so wet… fuckfuckfuck.

As if he could hear your thoughts — a terrifying thought — Kai hooked one finger around the crotch of your panties and harshly yanked them to the side, exposing your slick folds. The tip of his middle finger explored curiously, unsurprisingly finding the beginnings of a juice-fest. Slippery, clear liquid oozed from your opening, and you heard Kai chuckle through his nose.

“Oh, no? What’s this?” He asked, knowingly. You had yet again lied to him. You personally didn’t see it as a lie but as a vicious betrayal from your own body. A wet, vicious betrayal.

“Nothing,” you rasped, ashamed, and knowing full well what was coming.

“What was that?”

“I said… nothing.” Might as well accept your fate now. You gripped the edge of the counter, bracing for impact.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! Your knees buckled in pain, a desperate whimper falling from your lips. Welts rose until your entire backside was a crimson, burning masterpiece of his hands.

“Clearly, you haven’t caught on. Allow me to explain this to you. Every time you lie to me, you’re going to be punished. And I know what you’re thinking. ‘Oh, but Kai, I like it when you spank me like the disobedient bitch I am.’ Maybe so.”

You didn’t appreciate the mockery of your voice.

Kai flattened his palm on the searing mound of flesh, caressing it tenderly as if deep in thought. Somehow though, the gentle touch made it sting more than before. You writhed away from his hand, only getting an inch or two away before he crudely yanked you back into place. Tossing you around like some sort of rag doll. “But, eventually, pleasure turns to pain. It’s up to you if you reach that point.”

Condemn yourself or liberate yourself? The answer was obvious. You sought pleasure not pain, and if Kai was willing… You met his eyes in the mirror, boring deep into them. You bent your arms at the elbows, stretching them across the counter and arching your back, pressing the curve of your juicy ass against his groin.

“Just fuck me,” You begged. Pathetically, desperately, whiningly. “That’s all we both want. It’s why we’re — why we’re here. There’s your truth, Kai.”

For a moment, Kai didn’t speak, he just stared. Just… watched you in the mirror. You drew your bottom lip in and bit down hard, hoping to entice him further. Slowly, his large hands slid up your back, going as far as the fabric would allow before dragging them back down again, his nails raking against your bare skin. Abruptly, he took hold of your ass, squeezing the soft flesh too hard, twisting your expression into one of pain. With the still warm pain of the spanks, you couldn’t help but wince at the sensation.

“Is that really wha—

“Don’t ask me if it’s what I want,” you groaned. “Don’t fucking ask me that.”

That launched him into action; his hands leaving your body. He unbuttoned his jeans, reaching in to pull his throbbing cock free. His gaze drifted from you to himself, looking down at it. Decently hard, but could be harder. The chase hadn’t been as long as last time, giving him less time to get worked up. He gave it a few angry pumps before lining it up with your slit. 

This was the second time you were going to fuck Kai Anderson — and in a similar way; pissed off and completely clothed. Behind you, Kai used the tip of his cock as a toy, slapping it messily against your swollen, blushing cunt, threads of precum stringing from your clit to his head.

You shuddered. Kai dragged his cock down, pressing the bulbous tip into your pink, weeping slit. Gushy and searing hot, the spongy walls clenched, forcing it back out. Kai grit his teeth and pushed the head in harder, breaching it. Slithery warmth washed over him, gripping it tight. His cock twitched inside of you, seeking out depth. “Ohhhhh…. Fuck. Fu-”

With the head of his now rock-hard cock planted inside you, he no longer needed his hands and let go, moving them up to sweep his hair out of his face. He was embedded inside of you now, slick walls gripping his shaft, carnally begging for more. Using only the strength of his core, Kai backed out and plunged his cock back in repeatedly, popping the head in and out of your wet pussy. With one determinate thrust and a deep groan, he pushed himself all the way in, his lower abdomen bumping against the fullness of your ass cheeks. 

His hands dropped heavily to your ass, taking fistfuls and pulling the cheeks apart to watch as it slid in and out, coated in your arousal. You whimpered, eyes rolling back, lids fluttering speedily. You hated him so much, but it felt so good. To turn dick down this good… would just be a waste. Not only was it long enough to hit your cervix, his cock was thick and veiny and massaged your insides in all the right spots.

“Look at yourself,” he growled, reaching one hand around to pinch your cheeks between his thumb and forefinger. Your lips puckered out like a fish. “Look at what a little whore you are.”

Slowly, you lifted your eyes to the mirror. You couldn’t deny your reflection; your red and white petticoats fluffed up around your waist, your previously perfect curls knotted in his fist, and your face distorted in a whorish display. The cherry on top was every time Kai’s cock bottomed out inside you, you winced and let out the most pathetic, whimpering moan. It was like a bad porn moan, and it was coming from you. Kai’s hand retreated from your face, slithering down to your neck, where he gave a firm, warning squeeze before returning to its place on your hip.

“I bet…” He paused, thrusting hard into your cunt a few times. His words were breathy and laboured. “I bet you’ve been thinking about this since that night. You like this.”

You had — that part was true. The other part about ‘liking’ it? Up for debate. Your pussy certainly did with the way that she clenched her slick walls around his thick cock, hungrily gripping it every time he tried to slide out.

“You fuckin’,” You clenched around him, letting out a shrill moan through gritted teeth. Your voice cracked. “You fuckin’ wish, Kai.”

THWACK!

That one really hurt. Hot tears welled up before streaming down your cheeks, leaving lines in the rouge. Kai slowly leaned over you, pressing his toned stomach against your back and even through clothes, you felt the muscles tensing.  He angled his lips right next to your ear, and hissed: “I don’t have to wish for anything. I get everything I want.”

His hot whisper made you shiver violently. And he didn’t — he was right. You were giving him everything he wanted, everything he asked for. Just like one of his little pathetic, whinging groupies. He started pulling you onto his cock, hard, and your entire body seized up, your walls shuddering, pulsing, quivering with the sensation. You pressed your head into the countertop, moaning loud into the sink. The wet, slapping sounds drifted into a singular dull thudding noise; your ears were ringing, your chest heaving. His pace quickened, his thrusts merciless. The taut coil in your tummy wound tighter, creating a deep pressure above your bladder. Your thighs quivered, knees feeling like jello as you tried to hold yourself up against the counter.

“Fuck, Kai - fuck-fuck-I’m gonna’ fucking—

With a winded groan, Kai tensed up, and plunged himself as deep as he could go, pulling your hips hard onto his cock. Hot, white euphoria erupted inside of you, filling you up and oozing out the sides of your cunt with each unsparing thrust he gave. Unable to hold it any longer, you arched, screaming towards the mirror. Kai leaned back and pulled out slightly, just enough to watch as your pathetic little cunt clenched through your own orgasm, fluttering desperately around the tip of his dick. He gathered your underwear again and pulled them up, before snapping them down on your ass. The strings of cum that dripped from you seeped into the fabric, sticky and warm.

Kai reached around again, lifting you up by your neck. This time, his cheek pressed against yours, rubbing it like a dog nuzzling its owner. “You’re going to spend the rest of your little gathering feeling that, understood?”

You said nothing and he gripped harder; slight pressure on your windpipe.

“Understood?” Again, nothing and Kai pressed his palm against your throat until you gasped, thrashing your head up and down in a panic. “SAY IT.”

A weird whine came from your throat as you desperately gasped for air. Your pupils dilated. Finally, you croaked: “I-I’m going to feel your c-cum between my… my-legs all night long.”   

The pressure released, and Kai had turned away from you, busy stuffing his heavy, flaccid cock back into his dark jeans. Shakily, you straightened up, pulling your skirts back down where they were intended to sit. Thankfully, he hadn’t fucked up your makeup like he did last time - you could pass as just a tipsy girl who had just smeared her mascara a little.

Once you two were downstairs, you paused at the bottom of the stairs. The party thrived; nobody had noticed you were gone. You heaved a sigh of relief, knowing that now, nobody could pin it against you. No questions, no accusations. Me? Fucking Kai Anderson? Absolutely not, I’d rather die. Gag.

“We’ll have to discuss your constant lying at a later date.” And with that, he was gone. Gone to spread the good word of his weird little fucked up cult, and get more people to campaign for him, or whatever it is he did. You watched him, eyes narrowed, as he manoeuvred through the groups of people. He’d done it again. Motherfucker. You shifted your weight, feeling the sticky mess between your legs as dried into the fabric of your panties.

Coming down off the orgasm was one of the worst feelings; reality set in, and you were painfully reminded that you’d just fucked your sworn enemy. A poster boy of toxic masculinity had just filled you up with his seed. Sickening. A voice from behind jolted you out of your fuming stupor — Winter.

“You should really stop lying to him.”

You barked out a flabbergasted laugh. “That’s what I should stop, Winter? Lying to him?”

“Yeah,” she muttered lowly. “He hates liars.”

t a g l i s t : @kaismanwich / @garykingz/ @elsamars / @silverzoomies / @tatesdisasterofalover / @thewolveswithin / @80strashbag / @twinkiemaximoff / @spill-the-t / @stucktothetwo / @enchanting-evan / @yesdevineruler / @anonymous0316 / @eventually27 / @violetharmonscupcake / @my-own-walker / @kai-slut / @demxnicprxncess / @fuckedbykai / @iluwmycats / @dewberryobssesed / @the-goblin1 / @dirtyfairy97 / @jellyluvr / @strangerthings420 / @kai-anderson-whore / @piecesofcain / @lilthbunny / @quickandsilvers / @tatelangdonsweater / @ifeeltoofuckingmuch / @howtobesasha / @randominstake / @throwinginmythai / @hyperharlz / @poltoreveur

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for bitching about fics I dislike on my blog?

as a foreword, this is kind of a non-issue and no one's ever told me to stop, but I'm curious what other people think of fandom etiquette.

the fandom: a fairly small one. 2.4k fics on ao3 small. I recognize most people posting in its tumblr tag small. if I tell you the name of the source you'd almost definitely be able to find me small.

the source: pornographic, which means everyone involved is or should be an adult. it's BL with a switch MC, but the fandom overwhelmingly prefers bottom MC/top LIs (love interests), to the point where I've had people be astonishingly rude to me because my favorite character is a bottom LI and some of my friends have been outright harassed for the same. I used to not care about sex positions in the slightest, but now when I see bottom MC fanworks I can't help but remember how poorly I was treated.

the fics: wildly and inexplicably popular, even though they are, frankly, poorly written. it's eternal bottom MC turned up to 11, complete with copious amounts of OOCness in order to turn every ship into the worst ye olde yaoi gender roles dynamic you can imagine. it's things like MC, canonically a 23yo plank of a dudeguy, being written as a big titted milf in his 40s (which is made more confusing by the fact that one of the LIs is already a big titted milf). it's also things like the MC being written as disliking sex and having to be coerced into it when one of the most charming things about him is that he's a hilarious sex pest, or writing the LIs sexually harassing the MC when they really would never do that. I've likened it to replacing the characters with OCs that share the same name and my friends have agreed with me. I'm honestly convinced that the author and his readers don't actually like any of the characters if they feel the need to change everyone so thoroughly.

why I might be an asshole: it's assholish to hate on free fanworks, and I've bitched about these fics on my public tumblr blog. the fandom is small enough that there's a non-zero chance of it getting back to the author and a reasonable chance that fans of the fics have seen my bitching. I'm probably projecting the hostility I've received onto someone who's done absolutely nothing to me, and I am absolutely just straight up jealous that their fics get better stats than mine. I may also be being an asshole to myself, because being critical of other people's fics has made my hypercritical of my own.

why I don't think I'm an asshole: I think everyone has the right to be bad at things, but I also think everyone has the right to be a little hater. I don't put the fandom tag on these posts; they stay on my blog and my blog alone, and if later on I feel like I was unfairly vitriolic I'll delete the posts. I only post on tumblr because I'm certain the author in question only uses twitter, which dramatically lowers the odds of him stumbling across my posts. the fics are so popular that it's definitely possible that their fans would see my posts, but I think it's unlikely that they'd bother looking at my blog because 99% of my posts are about one of the bottom LIs. I have never and would never leave comments on the fics themselves, and I generally try to keep the bitchy posts to a minimum; it's far from a constant thing.

tl;dr - I publicly bitch about fics that (in my opinion) are poorly written and extremely OOC, under the assumption that it's unlikely the author would ever see it. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[sockatoothewafflebird]

THE AMAZING DIGITAL FALLOUT

i've kind of left this au dry. sorry about that 😓

i haven't drawn or written for it in weeks and i've kind of lost motivation for it, but i wanna post the stuff i finished anyway and i know some of you only follow me for tadc stuff 💀 so here ya go! once again my deepest apologies for abandoning this. i may come back to it in the future though, who knows!

this post is a work-in-progress, btw. i'll add things every day until i've put everything i need to here.

CHARACTERS (WIP)

STORY

Fifty years ago, a decade-long war turned nuclear, and now the world is in shambles. Just before everything went to shit, though... two brothers, wealthy businessmen with a passion for science, came up with an idea. They would build huge bunkers to preserve humanity, while figuring out ways to fight off any damage done by the war.

Then, when the bombs and chemicals started dropping, they opened the gates to their vaults too late. Their plan to preserve humanity only technically worked. The radiation and chemical damage had already been done, and now people were being born with unusually and fascinatingly cartoonish features.

Those in the vaults didn't become too crazy. But those left outside became increasingly mutated, to the point where rabbit-people and people made of what seemed to be wood (just two examples of many) were being born left and right.

The two beothers gree further apart, their goals and beliefs vastly different and the cracks in society forming along with the cracks in their brotherhood. Eventually, one of them left in pursuit of his own dreams. He started an organization he calls "The Circus," much to his brother's dismay.

Present day, Pomni is working under Able as a head scientist when Vault #004 is raided and ambushed by The Circus and a mob of abstracted folk. And her whole world is turned on its head.

--

LINKS

the fic on AO3 (i probably won't add anything to it other than maybe an overview of the plot)

DANGER sign (and zooble)

--

if you have any questions about anything specific lemme know and i'll try my best to answer. i'll add links to any of that important stuff here when it comes up so no one's left out.

[egeos]

a brief look at the history of hulknussen on ao3

as I was writing up my hulknussen fanfic recommendations masterpost I realized that someone coming into the ship just now is probably missing a decently sized amount of lore on their "meta" history - that is to say, how fandom has treated hulknussen and how it has changed over the years. I'm making a post on it that so I can reference it in the aforementioned masterpost, but you can also just read this if you want to know more about hulknussen's position in f1 rpf fic on ao3. they're no lestappen, but they've had their moments

I'll try my best to boil down the key factors that influenced them, dynamics, characterizations, etc for the three - and soon four - "eras" I have determined for their ship.

the oldest fic currently in their tag dates back to 2015, which was about a year after kevin joined F1. there were a few people writing for this ship back then, and it didn't really gain traction until 2017 with the infamous "suck my balls mate/honey" incident. there was a small but steady stream of fics uploaded to ao3 over the following years. around late 2020/early 2021 was when they started getting put into the background of fics, as well as into compilation works a lot more, slowly but surely earning them the status of a pairing with bruce banner syndrome.

around this, I have determined three eras you can divide hulknussen fics into. this is based on when they were written and posted, not when the fic itself takes place. I can write something today that takes place in 2014 but it (read: characterizations, dynamics, plot devices, etc) would still be influenced by things that have happened since.

anything from before hungary 2017 kmag joins the grid in 2014, when nico is in his fourth season. they didn't really interact much, but had some interesting parallels in their career for these years. there really aren't a lot of fics from this era, which is a shame in my opinion. I know I technically can't write something for this era, but I really want to try to play around with the dynamics common for them at this time. both of them are younger (kevin 20-23, nico 25-28) with everything to prove. nico still has more of a heartthrob status, kevin is the young and impulsive new rookie. nico also doesn't hold the "beloved by no one, cheered on by everyone" status he has nowadays. he's just kinda there, doing nothing with a friendly smile and never bothering anyone (as opposed to the rest of the grid borderline trying to murder each other in their rivalries).

the last thing I think you can point out is that it was a lot of au's - and I dont mean canon divergence or what if's, but "hulknussen except one is an angel and the other is a demon" "firefighter", "showjumper", that sort of level of au. it is how fandom used to be. nowadays it's more focused on tropes and "canon" (in quotations because rpf) plays a bigger role than it used to.

suck my balls, honey, and all that it brought this part is pretty straightforward. they had their moment in hungary and it spawned a few hate fucking/sexual tension/enemies to lovers fics. there was for sure an uptick around 2017 and even into 2018, but what this moment did way more importantly was cement them as a pair with both history and a "canon" dynamic at all. think of it; hungary is the first time anyone really saw them interact. for a lot of people that was the number 1 thing connecting these two and was basically expected if they were tagged in a fic.

their portrayals boiled down to two, really: the horny one, and the less-horny one. the first is pretty self explanatory, we got two guys who really don't seem to like each other and we make them bang because it's hot. the latter might involve repressed feelings, "secretly together but putting on an act for others", soulmates and making up because of it - kind of, the typical enemies to lovers trope.

(fun fact I want to include; kevin said in 2019 that he never felt much of a grudge towards nico after hungary and held a lot of respect for him. he also said that nico was refusing to even just look at him, and simply determined that nico must have taken hungary very personally while he himself didnt care a lot. it's one of my favourite hulknussen tidbits that I think can really be played around with when writing fic set in this era/using this dynamic.)

it's also worth mentioning that this was when a/b/o as a whole was going mainstream in fandom spaces (and honestly even outside of them, but I wont dive into the implications of that here) which of course also reached F1/hulknussen. some fics fell into the trap of "uwu bottom" and "strong top" stereotypes as a result, usually with kevin as the omega and nico as the alpha. I'm mentioning it because I think that, like hungary 2017, it left its mark in their dynamic and how people cho(o)se to portray them even outside of a/b/o contexts. I will also be honest and say that it's not my personal preferred interpretation, but I acknowledge that it exists, and I won't even deny that maybe it's influenced my own portrayals in ways I haven't noticed.

up until 2019 most of the fics tagged as hulknussen still centered on them. then around 2020-2021 they started getting tagged as a background, side, etc pairing more and more, slowly taking over their tag. I think it was mainly because they had a (at first glance, anyway) simplistic and familiar dynamic with the archetype of enemies/rivals to lovers. it was easy to slot into the background of a fic, easy to use as a catalyst for the main pairing, that sort of thing.

that doesn't mean there were no hulknussen fics being written. I'm mentioning it because it's a development that has stuck around, and they are still often delegated to the sidelines in favour of younger and more popular ships. the fics that were written about them didn't all stick to the enemies to lovers archetype, however! fluff, making up and fics that simply ignored hungary and kept going like before were still being written.

making up (and making out?), haasbands, "my favourite dane", kevin's defence masterclasses, and probably so much more *you are here they make up sometime in 2022. both of them are older, they have matured. both of them are now married and both of them are fathers. they have survived a pandemic (together, kinda) as well as survived being out of the sport and returning. then they're announced as teammates for 2023. it is, of course, a decently huge deal in the wider F1 community. not everyone knows they made up, and media does what they do best, which is stir shit. they didn't manage to convince everyone that they wouldn't implode and take haas with them, but they proved themselves a decent duo in 2023.

it's 2024 when things really kick off. günther is fired from the team and replaced as team principal by ayao. gene decides to invest more capital into F1 over NASCAR, and somehow haas is the only team on the entire grid that didn't have super misleading wind tunnel analysis results (that's not entirely true; theirs were misleading, but theirs were telling them their car is worse than it actually is, whereas everyone else went into 2024 expecting to be better than they ended up being at the beginning of the season). so, overall, haas is in a good spot and on an upwards trajectory.

cue jeddah 2024. kevin racks up penalties like crazy because the fia is trying to be stricter and punish more harshly by giving out 10s instead of 5s penalties. which, credit where credit is due, it did what they wanted, which is ruin kevin's race, and ruining someone's race is a solid way of making sure they don't become a repeated offender (you would think so, anyway). kmag uses the opportunity to hold back the entire back of the field so the gap between him and nico is big enough to buy nico an entire pitstop. that is a crazy feat on so many levels. that takes slowing down without being overtaken. like, forcing the other race cars to slow down when they could easily go faster, in a race where the entire point is to go fast. he needed to speed off into the sunsent during the straights and slow down crazily fast in the corners, all while managing tyres. and the madlad did it and then gives interviews with a big fat smile, saying he "had to do [his] thing to protect nico". okay, we get it, youre married, get a room

the "enemies to lovers arc" and "haasbands" jokes go mainstream. nico calls kevin his favourite dane and describes their relationship as "[their] little romance". they watch the euros together and post pics of it with them smiling at each other like they are actually married. nico wants kevin to go to audi with him, kevin keeps playing the team game for nico even off-track, spending way too much time defending him and his actions. the haasbands as we know them have been birthed.

(before I go on a tangent any longer about this era, let's actually get to what fics from "then" are like. it's the current state of things, so I can't give conclusive statements, but I can make some deductions already.)

before the hard launch of the haasbands, around 2022 and 2023, their fics went into the direction of slow burns, making up, and (mutual) pining. 2024 shook things up again.

with the 2024 season still going, this is pretty much as close up to date as possible as we can get. the current dynamic that has been crystalizing is what I like calling feral dog kevin and lovestruck nico. it's very descriptive, so, you know, Im sure you can imagine what I mean. kevin's attempts at securing nico points also hasnt gone unnoticed by the mainstream community, and jokes about nico getting his first podium because kevin chose to play pinball with all the 18 other drivers are getting more frequent. there is also the upcoming "divorce", courtesy to both of them leaving haas at the end of the season and haas being the sole reason haasbands exists in the first place (both the moniker and the new dynamic).

I predict we'll be entering a fourth era soon, which is the post F1 era. while I don't like to think about it, it seems less and less likely that kevin will get the audi seat, and it is also the only seat left on the grid currently. nico will stay for some longer I do believe, but even his end is approaching. the number of fics being written will start dying off. I can't really say if a new dynamic will come up; I would think not, unless kevin decides to be unhinged and starts coming to races acting in borderline wag capacity to nico, or both of them move to indy or wec or something.

now, just for self indulgence's sake, the fourth era could also be kevin goes to audi, they turn into… audibands? stakebands? and Audi actually develops a great car and they get off the ground running and kevin can break that record of "most career starts without having lead a lap" while nico gets his first podium and breaks his undesirable record. we get an uptick in fics, the feral dog kevin and lovestruck nico dynamic evoles a bit further to be just a little bit deranged with an edge of codependence to it and then they retire and take their ship with them, if maybe a bit less abruptly than in the first "fourth era" I described.

or, who knows; maybe we don't get a fourth era. maybe their tag has reached the end of it's evolution. we'll just have to see.

[acapelladitty]

something lost, something gained

Summary: After being snatched by human traffickers while exploring an abandoned schoolhouse, Lucy fights to survive as she waits for Cooper to find her. (3.9k words)

(warnings for: attempted sexual assault, biting, blood, face slapping, groping, violence, murder, aftercare, hurt/comfort, cooper trying his best in a bad situation)

Fic Masterlist

Link to AO3

Awaking with a languid groan, Lucy's eyes flittered open for only a moment before slamming shut again as a dull pain to her temple made her wince and gasp. Raising her right hand to press at the skin, she was surprised to find her left hand moving in tandem and her eyes snapped open as she realised that her hands were bound together.

Gazing down at the coarse rope which encircled her wrists, panic arose in Lucy's chest as she glanced around the small, cell-shaped room and immediately understood that she was not anywhere recognisable. It didn't even look like the same building she last remembered walking into.

"Cooper?" Calling out with a dry, uncomfortable voice, a sense of irritation laced the anxiety which rolled through her. "What the fudge? Why am I in here?"

The door to the cell creaked open and Lucy glanced up from her slumped position to see a man she did not recognise fill the doorway. He was very tall, head almost brushing the top of the door frame, with a mop of raggedy blonde hair hanging limply across his shoulders and something in the way he looked at her made her skin crawl with unspoken danger. An instinctive disgust which made her mouth tighten.

"Finally awake." The man spoke, his voice sharp, light and slightly pitched. "We were worried we'd done some real damage to your head there."

At his words, Lucy finished her earlier assessment as her fingers once again grazed the hard lump which had formed on her temple - the skin feeling raw and wounded under her fingertips. Dragging her fingertips away, she found them flecked with her own blood.

"Who are you?" She asked, wide eyes darting across the limited space. "Did Cooper put you up to this? Or my father?"

"Don't know who any of those people are but we saw you going into that old schoolhouse with a ghoul so we snuck in, waited for you to split, and gently smuggled you out."

Gently smuggled.

The wound on her head suggested otherwise.

"Why?" A reflex question, one Lucy didn't think she wanted the answer to as the blonde man took a small step in her direction to stare down at her with a lecherous smirk.

"Cause you're in our territory and you're ours now. Me and my buddies have a little side business going on and you're our latest catch." His gaze roving across her white tank top and blue pants, one of his hands settled on the visible bulge of his groin as he winked at her. "We take them, break them, and pass them on to be sold. 50/50 share. And, baby, let me tell you, you're gonna fetch us a pretty price."

The panic in her chest now clawing at her heart as she scrambled her back against the cool stone of the wall, Lucy felt sweat break out across her body as she took in his candid admission with open-mouthed horror.

"No. You can't-"

"Yeah. I can smell the vault on you so I know you probably aren't rolling with the same diseases as all the other cunts we pick up."

Flinching at the term, Lucy fell back into what she knew best as old defense mechanisms kicked in to protect her as best they could.

"Let me go and I'll get you whatever you need. Caps, meds, weapons. I know people who could hel-"

"You?" Laughing openly at her offer, the man steadied himself against the doorframe. "Maybe that bulky ghoul we saw you with could have worked some muscle for us but you haven't got shit we need. Well, aside from-"

His hand still groping sleazily against his bulge, the man stepped fully within the cell and kicked the door shut before him. An action which made Lucy jump as her body shuddered and tensed to the point of discomfort, sensing the danger and violence to come.

"You see, cunt. I'm much nicer than my two friends out there and I'm willing to cut you some slack. Wrap your lips around my cock and suck it like your life depended on it, and I'll tell the boys that you're willing to be a good girl for us. They'll even leave their nasty 'breaking in' toys at the door if they think you're gonna be a good girl."

As he spoke, his body inched closer towards Lucy and her fingers shook terribly as she struggled against the rope holding her wrists, vision quick to blur as genuine fear rocked through her body.

He's going to rape me. Repeated in her head like a cruel, merciless mantra. The elders had told them what rape was, explained that they needed consent to ensure that everyone in the vault was happy and able to share their bodies without problem. They knew, in the vault, they all knew what was okay and what wasn't.

"Cooper!" She hollered out, voice breaking on the second syllable as she attempted to back up against the wall enough to scramble to her feet. "Please, fudge, someone help!"

A memory rose, unbidden in her mind as Lucy rolled her back against the wall. Not long after her body had started to change, one of the elders, a slender old guy named Ernest, had caught her in the gardens. He had asked her questions about her changing body, questions that made her heart feel heavy in her chest as a sense of how wrong he made her feel forced her to back away from him.

He had moved to grab her, his hand wrenching her arm away from her chest when her father had appeared from nowhere. He had been causal in his greeting but even as a child, she had noticed how tight her dad's smile was and how quickly he ushered her back to her room so he could have a quick chat with him.

Ernest died soon after. One of the first to be lost to the latest famine as the crops failed due to an unknown blight. She hadn't questioned it then, too many good people had been lost, but now, in this moment where that same childish fear weighed heavily at her limbs, she wondered if her father had killed him for what he had tried to do.

Kicking out with her feet as the man dropped to his knees before her, his fingers were quick to lock around her ankles - pulling her free of the wall and stealing the breath from her lungs as her head collided with the floor.

"Please, no. Don't do this! No!"

"First times always the worst."

Flashing rotted teeth at her as he straddled her waist, his hands pinned her own roped palms to her stomach as he burrowed down into her space. His breath was awful, smelling foul and rancid, and it sparked a retch in Lucy's throat as she twisted her head to the side. His tongue trailed across her cheek, tasting the grime on her skin as he growled in her ear.

"Just gotta remember to be a good girl and-ARGH!" Breaking off into a pained scream, the man reared back as blood poured from his mouth to drip down on her tank top.

Spitting out the large portion of tongue she had ripped free with her teeth, Lucy used her attackers moment of stunned pain to knock him free of her body. Crawling on her knees, she almost made it to the door when a rough hand wrapped around her hair.

"Stupid cunt!" The words lisping due to his injury, the man's hand was like fire in her hair as he snatched at her scalp viciously. "Gonna break your fucking nose for that."

Yelling as her hands locked around a small shard of metal that lay by the closed door, the man's foot having accidentally knocked it within the cell as he entered, Lucy gripped it tight as she spun on her knees, digging the shard deep into the closest foot she could reach before pulling it free with a vicious twist.

A fresh cry of pain broke free of her attacker as he crashed to the ground, his hands tight around his foot while he snarled obscenities at her.

Fuelled by adrenaline, fear and rage, Lucy pounced on him like a cat, knocking his back flat to the floor as she stabbed the metal as roughly into his throat as she could. Memories of her fraudulent husband flashed before her eyes and she hollered a vicious snarl as she dragged the metal through his skin until the blood flowed and the gurgling of his throat ceased.

Breathing heavily, she stayed in that position until his glassy-eyed stare repulsed her, the scent of fresh blood making her heave anew. Body shaking and mind rattling, it was only when a new voice broke the silence that she jumped as though an electric bolt had fired across her spine.

"Fuck, Petey. She's killed Owen."

Rolling off the corpse, Lucy was quick to take her earlier position - her stained fingers clutching the metal shard as her back pressed against the wall once more.

"Owen was always a dipshit. We'll be better off without him." The taller of the two newcomers added.

Looking just as filthy as the first guy, Lucy's eyes were wild as she pointed the metal at each of them in turn.

"L-let me go. I'll do the same to you." She stuttered, a sinking feeling of despair making her skin feel cold and clammy. "I've killed people before and you'll be next."

Glancing between themselves, both men burst out into a cruel laughter and their movements were quick as they descended on her. Fingers already trembling, it was easy for them to wrestle the metal from her hands and pin her to the floor; their much larger bodies easily holding her knees apart as they pressed them to the floor with their own legs.

Rough hands fished inside her tank top and Lucy found herself unable to do much but bare her teeth and fight off a sob as her chest was pulled free of her bra; breasts spilling over the fabric as matching grunts of approval escaped her attackers.

"They'll do nicely. Fuck, might not even sell this one, what do you think?" The one named Petey asked, his free hand gripping at her chin painfully as he tilted her head to the side in a crude inspection.

Cupping her left breast as though weighing it in his hand, the other man flashed a yellow smile at her.

"Could play with her for a few weeks without going to the others. Would you like that? A few weeks with us and then a ten minute walk up north to meet the rest of the boys?"

Refusing to answer as a fat tear rolled free of her eye, Lucy chose to remain quiet and not give them anything as she struggled in vain.

"You owe us for you did to Owen." The second man continued, his face an open leer as he released her jaw. "So I'm gonna fuck you and then Petey is gonna fuck you and then we're both gonna fuck you. Then you're gonna open those pretty lips wide for-"

"No."

A sharp hand collided with the side of Lucy's face, the blow catching her across the mouth and bursting her lip open in an instant as the taste of copper flooded her mouth.

"Not asking, cunt."

Their hands were all over her, one set fondling her breasts while the other pulled at the hem of her tank top to expose her stomach. They were everywhere and the feeling of them, hot and heavy atop her body, made her feel sick - her throat constricting and panicking as her breaths came short and fast.

The vague sound of the door slamming open touched at her senses but it felt so far off that she didn't think much of it until all hell broke loose.

A fresh splatter of blood sprayed across her face, the sensation matching by a booming gunshot which made her ears ring in the small space as the taller of the two, Petey, collapsed dead atop her - a hole leaking blood and brains from the front of his forehead to her exposed chest.

In shock, both Lucy and the remaining man stared at the corpse for a second before Lucy felt half the weight on her body disappear as the final attacker was pulled free. Her eyes unfocused and blurred with tears, she saw the flash of familiar, tattered leather which hurled her would-be attacker against the wall.

Sounds of exertion were quickly followed by a fresh death gurgle as Cooper's knife flashed in his hand for only a second before being drawn across her attackers throat; the arterial spray swiftly coating Cooper's clothed chest as he let go of his prey and allowed the fresh body to drop to the floor.

Not trusting her eyes, Lucy tilted her head back and cast her gaze to the dingy ceiling as her thoughs spiralled into a messy haze.

After a moment, Cooper's face swam in her vision and the close sight of him sparked a myriad of emotions within her; shock giving way to genuine relief before settling on fear as she took in the genuine fury which blazed in his stark white eyes as they darted across her battered face and disjointed clothing.

He wasn't angry with her, she knew that, but the sheer rage which rolled from his coiled frame made her want to curl into a ball and hide away from it. He smelled of leather and blood, the scent of fresh violence making her nose twitch as the corpses of her attackers lay motionless, crowding the floor of her cell.

"S'alright, I got you, sweetie." Cooper's hands were firm but gentle as he wrapped them around her shoulders, hoisting her enough that she were able to lean against the wall in a sitting position.

Despite everything, his voice was like a balm and she relaxed into his touch as her trembling fingers were gripped within his own - his knife glinting once more as he quickly severed her bindings and let the rope fall to the floor. In an instant, her knees snapped to her chest as her arms looped around them, her body curling in on itself as a wave of nausea made her throat feel tight.

Still on his haunches before her, Cooper studied her for a solid moment before matching her position as he leaned against the opposite wall, his legs outstretched and his back straight against the cool stone.

"Fix yourself, darlin'. I'd offer but I don't think you want another monsters hands on you before the day's out."

Keeping her knees tight, Lucy brought trembling fingers to her chest - her relief at being saved having made her forget about her state of undress - and she tucked her breasts away back into the off-white bra with a lifeless motion, the skin feeling sensitive and sore due to their abuse. Made decent, her arms were quick to loop around her knees once more, her chin sitting atop her knees as a gloomy, far-off expression graced her features.

"Did they-" A half question which Cooper quickly thought better of as he abandoned ship and adjusted it on the fly. "You okay?" It was a quiet ask, the words so low that Lucy knew she could ignore them if she wanted to.

"No," she stuttered, feeling weary despite the adrenaline which still pulsed in her veins, "but I have to be because what else is there. So I have to be."

Making a small noise of agreement in his chest, Cooper's gaze rose to the ceiling as he plucked his hat from his head and dropped it to the floor by his open lap.

"That you do, darlin'. Nothing else for it."

They sat in silence for a bit, the only slightly pained sounds coming from Lucy's throat as she adjusted to the various aches which afflicted her body. Her face was the worst as her temple throbbed like a bitch and her burst lip felt huge and ugly against her mouth. The bodies forever doomed to lay in messy piles, Lucy's eyes ghosted over them and settled on the growing patches of blood which each steadily leaked to the cell floor.

"You killed them all?" She said, already knowing the answer and unsure why she even asked.

"Not all of them. One of them was already dead when I got here and I'd recognise the teeth marks in that hunk of ripped tongue anywhere." Despite the guarded nature of his tone, there was a spark of warmth as he flashed his, well, her, finger at her, and Lucy swore she heard the slightest hint of pride leaking through. "You did good, sweetheart. You fought like a hellcat and you didn't let them win."

"Didn't win." Lucy mumbled miserly. "You did."

"Oh, I have no doubt you would have gotten them both in the end. They might have taken a few strips from you, but that fire in your belly would have scorched them dry."

Mouth upturning at the praise as she fought off the urge to cry, Lucy swiped at her eyes with the back of her hands as her breathing quickly grew erratic.

"All these bullshit lessons you've put me through and it still wasnt enough." She blurted out with a desperate gasp. "They're evil. I hate it here. I hate their cruelty. I hate their hurting. I hate-"

Finally unable to hold back the swell of emotion which threatened her, Lucy broke off on the final word as a heaving sob replaced any chance she had of cohesive speech. It was something raw and unfiltered, mourning the loss of some part of herself that would never be returned as she was forced to mold herself into a creature of violence and hate just to survive in their world.

Cooper, to his credit, let her cry without any false sympathies or interference. His face lacked any judgement, the hole in his face flexing slightly as he inhaled and exhaled steadily, eyes never shifting from Lucy's sobbing frame. Something difficult to pin down flashed through his gaze as though a multitude of possible outcomes were pushing at his thoughts.

After some internal debate, a grunt slipped free of Cooper's lips as he leaned across the short space and pulled at Lucy's shoulder.

So lost in her own misery, Lucy didn't fight the pressure of his strong hand as he pulled her to the side, dropping her to the floor in such a way that her head pressed against the upper part of his legs as she faced away from him. It did nothing to stop her tears, but it did give her something to lean on as he immediately retracted his hand to fold his arms fully across his chest.

Cooper's thighs were like unyielding steel beneath her head, giving Lucy something solid to pin her senses on as she fought to quell the quiver of her lip and the shudders which continued to wrack her body. Their journey had been hard and the hunt for her father was a disaster of interference and dead trails of information.

This was just the latest set-back in a long list of utter shit.

Offering her no other physical support, unsure if it would cause her to act out or break down further, Cooper waited until her breathing was a little more even before speaking again.

"Be sad." He paused, allowing the rare piece of advice to sit heavily in the air between them. "Be angry. Feel that fire in your gut burn so hot that you get the fear it's gonna burst free and raze everything around you to the ground. Hell, curse the day your momma brought you into the world if that's how you feel. But don't break."

Stopping once again, Cooper felt a rare moment of genuine pity for the woman as he glanced down at her. Lucy Maclean, who foolishly tried to choose peace in a peaceless world, still had a lot of learning to do when it came to the way that same world worked.

He could only show her so much, some lessons had to be learned the hard way, and if she could take them, then he would do his part to keep her whole.

"Whatever they do to you, survive it. Skulk off, lick your wounds, come back stronger. Get that revenge your blood sings for." Speaking as much to himself as her, Cooper allowed her a peek into his own thoughts, an insight he knew she wouldn't fully understand quite yet. "Never let them break you. Better off dead than broken in this world."

Gathering herself enough to shakily speak, Lucy gripped Cooper's knee with clawing fingers as she clung to him like a lifeline.

"There's more of them. Ten minutes up north. That's who they were- who they were going to sell me to."

"More side-tracking bullshit." Cooper sighed but his voice grew more contemplative as his gravelled tones mused on her words. "That said, been a while since I hunted down some proper vermin. No bounty. No rules. Might be fun to let loose for once."

He let the idea hang in the air, curious if she was hinting at what he suspected she was.

"You coming with me?"

"Yeah."

Unseen by the shaking Lucy, a pleased smile split Cooper's lips as he glanced down at her steady answer.

It wasn't often he took on a companion, far less one that he'd actually indulge, but the odd woman intrigued him with the hypocrisy of her very existence. A vaultie with a edge, naive blood screaming out for wrongs to be righted just like his own as she fought alongside him like a harpy.

It did help that they both wanted her dear old daddy strung up like the traitor he were.

But revenge would see her right.

She was owed a debt by those who had tried to take her, a debt of honor, and he would see that she avenged it in a glorious explosion of violence that would help keep her nightmares at bay as they would leave no doubt that the beasts responsible were well put down and unable to haunt her.

By gun or by knife, she would get at least that.

He had seen the broken ones. The ones used and abused by so many across the wastelands that they gave up everything and became husks even more devoid of humanity than the ghouls who lost the battle and went feral. It was a fate worse than the many deaths he'd experienced in his time.

No one deserved that.

Especially not Lucy Maclean.

His hand ghosting over her head, fingers only an inch away from her fine head of mousy hair, Cooper tilted his head to the side as he took her exhausted frame in.

"Sleep for now, vaultie. Time for this little killer to save her strength. So take it for what it is and when you wake, we'll see about righting some of the wrongs that happened here."

Feeling more safe with the violent ghoul who had shown her the new reality of her world than any other of the awful creatures she had met since leaving her vault, Lucy's eyes fluttered close as his voice washed over her and exhaustion claimed her before she could do anything to muse on that odd feeling of safety.

Links to the rest of the series:

Part 1

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

[thesummerestsolstice]

I would love to see more about the orc librarian of Rivendell. How did he come to choose that life? How and why did Elrond let him in? Perhaps you could put it on AO3.

Thanks for the ask!

I do want to write a proper fic with Garthaglir eventually but I've got a few WIPs going already so it'll probably be a while. For now, I'll try to answer some of your questions here:

(Content warning: this post discusses the creation of orcs, and their indoctrination and subjugation under Sauron, as well as non-graphic violence)

My headcanon is that while the first orcs were elves kidnapped by Morgoth, the later generations of orcs basically became their own species (subspecies? arguably they're still kind of elves). They're born in Angband/Mordor, undergo pretty brutal training and indoctrination from an early age, and generally don't interact with the outside world unless they're on a raid.

The only interaction orcs have with men, elves, etc are violent. They only ever see peope when they're at war, so they aren't really exposed to life outside of the constant struggle of war. They have a very warped view of the world. And because there's a language barrier, there's no way for them to speak with anyone else. Even the language they use is designed to isolate them; Black Speech was created by Sauron, not the orcs, and doesn't really allow for free expression– it's not built for that. There are a few stories and some carried over words from the original elvish orcs, but it's more myth than reality for most of them.

It's a long story, but Garthaglir ended up getting separated from his party sometime in the early Third Age, and hiding out in some elvish ruins to avoid sunlight (and the human warriors they were running from). He ended up spending weeks there, every night he'd go exploring; finding old paintings, books, toys. The remnants of a people who weren't forced into a life of war. Eventually, he realized that there was more to Middle-Earth than fighting, and that he didn't want to go back to fighting for Sauron. He ended up wandering, unsure of what else he could do with his life. And, well, doorways to Rivendell have a habit of showing up when they're needed.

As for Elrond– that's a long story. He was taught Black Speech as a survival tactic at a young age, but has also used it to communicate with orcs. There was also a kidnapping incident with some surprisingly nice orcs. You know. Normal means of cultural exchange given Elrond's life. So he was much more open to letting orcs who wanted to to escape Sauron and live a better life into Rivendell. Since Garthaglir wasn't the first orc to live there, many of the other residents were also pretty used to the idea by that point.

Bonus: Garthaglir found Mittens when she was a small kitten. She showed up outside the library one day when it was pouring rain, trying to get out of the storm. Garthaglir let her in and dried her off. They've been inseparable ever since.

[scottxlogan]

Helllloooozzz I got really into scogan recently and because people never tag it it’s been hard to find domestic family fics for them and family fics are my favourite thing like, ever, and there’s only so many times a kitty like me can attempt to sift thru the mpreg tag to find something readable before it’s noggin goes a bit loose, so have ya got any recs ?? ^w^ I’ve looked up so many rec lists but no one lists family fics specifically :’3

Welcome to the fandom! You'll find a lot of really nice people here who will be able to point you in the direction of what you're looking for as there are some who probably know better than I do. If you're looking to chat with other fans there's a Scogan Events discord at https://discord.gg/FmJ24gFJ6X that takes part in a Scogan related bingo for writing, art, etc and other small events all year long. Plus, there's some great people to chat about Scogan with too if you're looking to interact with others who love the ship.

As for recs, I'm going to throw this out here for some of my followers to see if they have some favorites that might help you find what you're looking for. Off hand I know that Tweedle has written a few family fics with Scogan. They're up at her AO3 page at https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiAnLake/. In terms of my own stories, I know I've done a few and I'll list them below. I'm sure I'm missing some, but if anyone else has some recs/suggestions, please help me out here and add them for @beepmeowz if you can.

My fics (off hand that I can think of them. Not all are domestic fluff, but I'm sure some of my followers here can help out with the list of family stories)

Working It Out (One Shot/Rated T) Logan's stressed after finding Laura with a new companion who wants to be more than friends. Scott does his best to calm his husband down after Logan tries to follow Scott's approach to parenting.

Gone Forever (Multi-Chapter/Rated E) After the events of The Wolverine, Logan goes on a journey of his own to discover truths about the life he put behind him. An accident, a run in from a face from his past and a misunderstanding lead him closer to the truth he'd been seeking out, but will it be the key to his ending or his happily ever after? (This story features Scott as a single parent to a young Nathan as Logan finds himself finding love and embracing the family that was always just out of his reach)

Saturday Morning (One Shot/Rated G) Logan takes a moment to reflect on the blessings he's been given in his life.

We're All Different Now (One Shot/Rated M) When a mysterious woman from the future enlists Logan's help to change the past by saving Charles Xavier's life, Logan finds himself back in time at a pivotal place in time. With his mission to save Charles in mind Logan finds himself distracted by his feelings for Scott Summers, a man he loved and lost years before Logan was given a second chance to make things right. Armed with the mission to change only the fate of Charles and nothing else, Logan is torn between doing what was asked of him and following his heart to find a way to make things right with the one man he'd been forced to face a lifetime without the first time around. Will the second time around prove to be a means of repairing the damage that was done or will Scott and Logan's ill-fated romance repeat the same pattern with disastrous consequences?

And finally this one is a WIP series with a one shot and a multichapter, but it doesn't have a lot of family stuff yet as I have it still working out but it is a series that takes place after the movie Logan where Logan is still alive and finds his way back to Scott and Laura if you will.

It's up at

Scott makes a bold decision to resurrect his fallen lover, but in bringing Logan back to life, will it prove to be the key to saving the future or the key to destruction for humanity and mutants alike? How will Logan adjust to his return to a world that moved on in his absence?:

[thetickleeraven]

What's That Under My Armor?

Delicious in Dungeon

Summary: Laios gets a mysteriously ticklish feeling on his abdomen after putting on his armor. [THIS IS A TICKLE FIC]

REMINDER THAT THIS BLOG WILL BE DELETED WITHIN THIS YEAR (probably) AND ALL MY FICS WILL BE ON AO3 FOREVER.

>>>BOOKMARK MY AO3 HERE<<<

---

Laios took another slurp of his soup, happily soothing his rumbling tummy. Yesterday had been another long day in the dungeon and a long time to meal prep, but, as always, the meal at the end was worth it, and lucky them, they had plenty of leftovers for today's breakfast.

They had set up camp near a stone building that was falling apart at the seams. There were no beds inside nor roof overhead, so camping just outside the building, closer to the fountain nearby, was an overall better decision.

Senshi was telling a story near the campfire while everyone ate and listened. Good company, good food, good banter; mealtime was easily Laios' favorite time of the day.

In the middle of Senshi's story, the group was startled by a loud thud from the building they were camped next to. One of the tapestries had fallen. At the noise, Laios jolted and turned towards the sound, sending some of his soup spilling over his shirt and the chestplate of his armor he had sitting next to him.

"Oh, crap." Laios groaned at the mess and, worst of all, waste of food.

"Clumsy as ever." Chilchuck huffed and rolled his eyes.

Laios looked around for any type of napkin to clean himself off, but found none. He picked himself off the floor and jogged over to the torn up tapestry. He ripped some of the cloth and hurried back to his armor.

"You're using a tapestry to clean up your soup?"

"Hey, we don't have anything else and it's already torn up! What's the harm, right?" Laios explained as he began wiping down the inside of breastplate where the soup had fallen. He then took off his shirt, now with a giant stain, and wiped the leftover mess on his chest.

"Agh, this cloth is terrible. It's shedding all over me."

"Shedding?" Marcille asked.

"It's coming apart, I'm covered in little bits of cloth." Laios wiped some of the bits off of him, but most of them stuck to him like glue.

"So you've got some lint on ya, big deal."

"Chilchuck's right. Just put your shirt back on and have another bowl of soup. A little string and and a stain on your shirt isn't gonna ruin your day." Senshi said, pouring him a new bowl of soup.

Laios sighed and nodded before taking a seat closer to the campfire and reaching for the new bowl. The leftover cloth bits were a little itchy, but he's dealt with far worse in the dungeon than a little itch on his abdomen.

The group continued their conversation like nothing happened, aside from Laios' occasional scratching at his midriff. God that fabric was awful.

"Alright, I think it's about time we get going." Senshi said as he began putting away the dishes.

"Sounds good. I'll start putting on my armor." Laios always took the longest to get ready, mostly because heavy armor took like ten minutes to put on. By the time he'd get his armor on, camp would have already been cleaned up. Better start soon.

He turned and began absent-mindedly putting things on. It was a daily routine at this point. As soon as he had his armor in hand, he turned back to keep his eyes on his friends, tuning into their conversation while he went through the motions.

Last of his armor was his chest plate. He had slid it on and was adjusting it to be where it needed to be when he felt something off. He furrowed his brow at the squirming feeling but remembered the stupid tapestry. He rolled his eyes. That was going to be an annoying feeling all day. Maybe he needed to jump in a body of water.

Laios began twitching. Okay, that feeling was definitely different from before, like something was crawling over his shirt.

"You alright, Laios?" Marcille asked, noticing her friends' jerking and twitching. The group now had all eyes on the resident knight who looked very concerned and confused.

Laios' face twisted into alarm as he felt the crawling creep up the shirt, off the fabric, and into his underarms.

"W-Wait!" Laios stuttered out.

"What?!" His three party members asked in unison.

The blonde's face reluctantly contorted into a big goofy grin. "C-Crahap!" He let out a choked giggle. Laios began frantically trying to remove his armor but could barely muster the strength to lift his arms with the sensation marching across his skin.

"Uh, are you gonna tell us what's going on or do we have to guess?" Chilchuck asked, raising an eyebrow.

Laios was starting to panic. Whatever was causing this was HORRENDOUSLY ticklish and, worse, was crawling towards the most ticklish part of his body.

He was biting his cheeks and tensing every muscle in his body, trying desperately not to collapse laughing. Every time he reached up to try and take his armor off that terrible sensation kept his arms glued to his sides. It was a matter of time now before he broke.

Think. What the Hell was going on?

At first he thought it was the tapestry. Something about the cloth? What cloth would do this? Maybe there was a monster involved?

"Are you sick? Did you get food poisoning?" Marcille hurried to Laios' side, at a complete loss for how much concern or alarm she should be showing as she had no idea what was going on.

"Why would he be smiling, though?" Chilchuck pointed out.

It would make sense if it was linked to the cloth, considering bits of it are stuck to the armor and his body.

The cloth can't be alive. Maybe something that eats the cloth?

Wait.

That's it!

"Spit it out, boy!" Senshi shouted right as the crawling started across Laios' belly.

"DUHUHUNGEON CLEHEHEHEANERS!" Laios exploded in laughter and fell to his side, clutching his middle and helplessly lost to the torturous sensations.

The three other members exchanged confused glances.

"I think you'll have to be more specific." Senshi said with a furrowed brow.

"Yeah what do dungeon cleaners have to do with you laughing your ass off? What, dungeon biology is suddenly a comedy gold mine?" Chilchuck stared at him, completely bewildered.

"Ihihihin my ahahaharmor!" Laios laughed, kicking his legs on the ground in hysterics.

"Oh!" Marcille clapped her hands as everything clicked for her. "The tapestry is seen as damaged dungeon. Some of it was still in your armor. If you put it on without looking, that means you could've missed a bunch of dungeon cleaners doing their job, and now they're all over you."

"And now they're... tickling him?" Chilchuck questioned.

"I don't think they're doing it intentionally. I think their crawling just happens to be ticklish to him." Marcille calmly explained as if there wasn't 200 pounds of armored tall-man cackling like a damn hyena on the floor.

It wasn't just the crawling, Laios realized. They were cleaning the leftover tapestry on his person too, eating the cloth scrap off his bare belly and chest and in the name of all that is holy was it ticklish-

"How long do we have to deal with him like this? Chilchuck sighed.

Marcille winced. "Dungeon cleaners can take a long time to clean. Plus, I don't even know if they can get out of his armor on their own."

"Well, we'll have to pull the armor off Laios and help get the little buggers off him." Senshi huffed, putting down the dishes he was packing away.

"Ugh, fine. Let's rescue Laios from the dungeon cleaners." Chilchuck picked himself up off the floor and the three approached the tall-man who was quite literally rolling on the floor with laughter.

"Ihihihit tihihickles sohohoho BAHAHAD!" Laios squealed the last bit as a few travelled over a particularly sensitive spot.

"Yeah, yeah, big guy. We're here to help."

"I'll grab him and try to hold him steady while you two get the chest plate off of him." Senshi directed. He cracked his knuckles and reached down, grabbing Laios by the waist and holding him up in a steady sitting position.

The other two grabbed his chest plate and tried to lift it up but we're stopped by Laios' arms.

"Laios you have to lift your arms up."

"Ihihihi cahahahan't." Laios was nearly in tears from the tickling. "Ihihihi'm tryihihihing Ihihihi swehehehehear!" He lifted his arms a few inches above his waist but couldn't muster much more than that.

Senshi wordlessly let go of his waist and grabbed his wrists, hoisting them far above his head so the other two could begin working off his armor.

Laios' laughter grew more frantic as he could swear the dungeon cleaners were travelling back up to his now pulled-taut underarms.

"Pull it together, man." Chilchuck sighed as they were just starting to get the damn plate above his elbows.

"Ihihihihit's sohohoho hahahahard!" Laios wheezed in between bouts of cackling, a tear now falling from his right eye. "Ihihihit tihihickles sohoho bahahahad!"

"There!" Marcille shouted as the two got the armor to Laios' wrists. Senshi released Laios' arms so the pair could quickly pull off the plate and throw it aside. There were a few dungeon cleaners still on the plate, but it seemed most of them had ventured down Laios' shirt.

"Now let's see how bad this infestation really is." Senshi let go of Laios' wrist so he could yank up the tall-man's shirt. Sure enough, there were dozens of tiny little dungeon cleaners going to town on his belly and chest.

Marcille shivered. "Ew, that's so creepy."

Laios was finally starting to feel hope this would end soon. He was just starting to let relief flow through him when he felt something that made him stiffen. One started crawling-

"NOHOHO!"

-right into his bellybutton.

Instantly Laios began thrashing like his life depended on it, practically screaming in desperate laughter as the little cleaner had apparently found something to clean in his navel of all places.

His party members stepped back as he became a whirlwind of flailing limbs. Just as he was getting help, he had become a danger to everyone around him.

"STAHAHAHAHAP! PLEHEHEHEHEASE GEHEHET THEHEHEM OHOHOHOFF!" Laios cried, tears streaming down his burning face.

"Well stop thrashing and maybe we will!" Chilchuck shouted.

"He can't help being ticklish, boy. He's acting how his body's telling him to act." Senshi lectured Chilchuck as he stretched his arms. "Unfortunately we still gotta help him even with him whipping his arms every which way. I'll grab him and keep him steady, you two get all those little buggers off of him."

The pair nodded and waited for their cue. After a few moments of waiting for an opening, Senshi grabbed both of Laios' arms and pinned them to the ground.

"Just approach from the side so he doesn't kick you." The dwarf advised.

The two did as told and each took a seat next to the tall-man who was still cackling and and wheezing.

Marcille eyed the crawling critters on Laios' belly and cringed. "Do we really have to?"

"We got to get going through the dungeon again and, I don't know about you, I don't want to tug a laughing Laios the whole way through." Senshi said.

Chilchuck got to work plucking each cleaner off the thrashing man while Marcille watched with an uncomfortable expression. He'd scratch at a spot with his fingernail to loosen the thing's grip off Laios' skin, then pluck it off with his finger and thumb to toss it to the side. The process, admittedly, was still ticklish to poor Laios.

"PLEHEHEHEASE! THEHE- THEHEHEHE NAHAHAVEL! GEHEHEHET IHIHIT OHOHOUT PLEHEHEHEHAHAHAHA!" Laios pleaded, begged, cried for relief from that one specific cleaner. The rest he could maybe bear but that one in his bellybutton was driving him to insanity.

Chilchuck groaned reluctantly but acquiesced and stuck his finger in Laios' navel to claw out the cleaner there. As Chilchuck's finger made contact Laios' whole body jolted enough to have Senshi struggling to keep hold. Laios' laughter was growing, causing his core to absolutely ache from strain.

"Sit still, idiot. I'm trying here."

Laios' only response was some hysterical babbling and more tears streaming down his face.

"Got it!" Chilchuck pulled back with the problematic little cleaner sitting on the tip of his finger.

Immediately Laios calmed down. He was still giggling uncontrollably from the rest of the cleaners, mind you, but he was worlds away from where he had been mere seconds earlier.

"Th-Thahahahahank yohohou." Laios laid his head back as his fighting and thrashing finally calmed down. The rest of the cleaner removal went smoother, though still full of laughter.

Finally, the last one was pulled off and thrown aside. Senshi released Laios' arms and the tall-man instantly curled into a tight ball, giggling exhaustedly.

"Well that took forever." Chilchuck said.

"Let's learn to pay more attention to things, huh, Laios?" Senshi patted his back and stood up, heading back to the pile of dishes.

"You okay?" Marcille asked softly, crouched next to his head.

Laios was an absolute wreck. He was panting like he hadn't taken a breath in days. His face was burning red. He had messy tear track stains across his face. His hair was a wild mess. His core ached as if he had planked for a thousand hours. And his abdomen was buzzing, just barely on this side of ticklish.

"I'm," Laios hiccuped. "okay." He sighed with a wobbly tired smile.

"I had no idea you were that ticklish." Marcille sat beside him.

"Oh yeah, really bad."

"You don't say."

They both chuckled. Laios sat up beside Marcille.

"Falin and I used to get in constant tickle fights when we lived together. I had strength on my side, but it doesn't take much to bring me down so Falin usually won." Laios rubbed his neck.

"It's good information to know." Marcille gave him a mischievous smile.

"Please no more tickling." Laios put up hands to guard himself. "I was just tortured."

Marcille put her hands up in a placating gesture. "Oh, I'm not going to."

Laios let out a sigh of relief.

Marcille stood. "Today at least."

[smokingtomas]

An Indecent Encounter

A/N: Please tell me you’re also thirstrapped by Kenshi’s new design for MK1. This fic is written so I can get it out of my system hoping I can think about him a normal amount lol. Thank you @cryinginthebackseat for the moral support/beta. Love you 4everrr!

Pairing: Kenshi Takahashi x female reader

Warning: light smut

AO3

Read part 2 here!

You casually leaned onto the wooden bar, ignoring the apple martini a stranger bought for you earlier. That sleaze bag should’ve known better–  a scotch with a side of courage to actually talk could go a long way. This right here, was a hard, hard pass.

But what caught your eye next was too hard to miss. This man had intensity drawn across his perfectly sculpted jawline. His brown eyes hunted around the room, seemingly searching for someone and ending up at the bar before standing next to you.

Up close, you noticed how his hand was covered with intricate tattoos down to a part of his fingers. You assumed the rest of it was hidden under his gray suit, which you wouldn’t mind taking off to see what’s like underneath. To have those drawn hands hovering all over your body, oh you would kill. The mere thought of it got you biting down your lower lip.

“Do you need something?”

Fuck– you’d been staring way too long. The gentleman’s voice awakened you on your spiritual journey to Dirtyville.

Thankfully, you were an expert when it comes to getting under a man’s pants. So you fetched the most charming, friendliest smile you could now and slowly leaned towards his ear while secretly hoping it didn't come out awkwardly.

“Just placing a bet with myself which one of those lovely ladies on the corner would be the first to get under you.” You were thankful that those were honest truth– geez, those girls could not be more obvious. “I’m guessing you didn’t notice.”

“Not that I care much about it.” He shrugged before he fully averted his gaze to you, “On the other hand, you… I wouldn't mind.”

Of course you'd boast about his interest in you to yourself, but you scoffed at the remark to seem nonchalant, “Excuse me, I don’t sleep with strangers like you.”

“Strangers like me?”

“Well, a stranger in LA who actually hates the city but you’re in town for some inescapable family business?” You guessed wildly, “And you probably ended up in this bar because you’re alone and in need of validation that you’re intimidating when you’re actually a vulnerable being who’s a bad kisser.”

The man smiled for the first time– you swore that smile could make those girls sitting in the corner quiver so hard they could come.

"For a stranger, those wild accusations only covered a speck of the truth." He replied, "I'm Kenshi."

"Telling me your name doesn't make you less of a stranger."

"I'd buy you a drink, but I can see that you already have one."

"Are you underestimating my ability to drink?"

"Fine, I'll take it as a yes." Kenshi gested, "I wouldn't take you as one who drinks apple martini, anyway."

Boom. Jackpot .

"What do I drink, then?" Your tone was challenging.

He thought for a second, brown eyes scanning you from the top to the bottom before gesturing to the bartender, "Two scotch neat. With a twist."

Double. Fucking. Jackpot.

He did everything right– It was time to change gears.

"Cheers," you said, clinking your glass to his once the bartender fetched your drinks, "to strangers."

"I believe it's to uh, not-so-strangers."

"You just want to speed things up, don't you?"

"Can you blame me if I tried?"

You smirked at him before taking a sip of your drink, and kept eye contact even after you put down the empty glass.

And so one scotch turned to three, digested alongside some more heavily flirtatious banter and oh-so-innocent grazes– at this point, you were sober enough to know you wanted to fuck him, but tipsy enough to not give a fuck about the consequences of getting it on with a complete stranger.

"I bet I was right before," This time, you dangled your hand on his broad shoulder, "When I said that you’re in town for business."

He snickered, "I might as well tell you that I'm here to take back a family heirloom."

"Like a ring?"

"A sword… An ancient katana ."

Hearing him saying a Japanese word made you want to tear off everything he wore, but something about an ancient sword really tickled your brain, "Ah, a big sword for a big shot."

"As I was saying, it's a family heirloom."

You were tipsy, but it finally clicked, "I know a guy who collected one of those."

You expected a surprised response– hell, it should've been something that jumped him off and followed by more inquisitiveness.

It might have been the alcohol, but his actual reaction had him grinning, pulling himself closer to you. His fit physique towered over you and you could care less about your expectation when God had something better off his sleeve.

"Oh, you do know a guy, don't you?"

"Oh, I do," You welcomed his gesture with both hands caressing his stubble, "But right now, I guess you only want one thing, do ya?"

It didn't take you by surprise when Kenshi's lips touched yours. Instead, you welcomed him with both of your arms around his neck to taste the whisky off his mouth.

His soft lips tasted like malt you found yourself melting within each brush. The last thing you wanted this time was for him to stop kissing you, but of course he had to.

"Remember when you said earlier," He murmured against your ear, his breath gently teasing the tip of it, "that I probably am a bad kisser?"

You did. Only to provoke him. Even before those godly lips were on yours, you were certain if those lips ended up anywhere near you, you would turn into a mess of a puddle.

“You want me to say it?” You purred, your fingers gently teased his abs, riding up to his chest, “But I’m more of a… shower.”

In this position where you were nicely trapped between him and the bar, once again, both of your lips meld into pure bliss. Yes, it was a quiet night at the place and people could easily spot your little action, but you didn't care and neither did he seem to with how eager his mouth was to explore yours. You darted out a tongue before you felt his mouth formed a satisfied smirk.

What started off as soft and sensual soon turned into something carnal. Kiss was getting deeper, both your tongue were satiated with lust. He teased your skin so deliciously but he never touched you where you wanted him the most, and the fabric covering you had started to bother you.

You wanted him, and it was obvious that he wanted you too. So out of curiosity, a hand of yours reached down his pants before finding him hot and hard against your palm.

"Oh, you naughty little… what would I do to you." He growled, but with that wolfish grin on his stupidly gorgeous face, you knew he liked it.

Biting your lip in response, you looked up to your surroundings– initially for some air, but instead you found a few pairs of eyes in your direction. You couldn't exactly blame them for looking– you just heavily made out and groped a man in a public place. Being the center of attention had never been your problem and you could certainly continue this little quarrel where you were, but Kenshi was looking like a piece of meat and you had other plans in mind.

"Meet me in the bathroom in five minutes." You hushed with an implied promise a man would know too well.

"Oh, I thought you don't sleep with strangers like me." His tone tinged with cockiness.

You grin devilishly, "Who says anything about sleeping?"

Leaving one last, teaseful peck on his cheek before fleeing to the bathroom and making sure you smelled minty fresh.

Kenshi arrived three minutes later when you were spraying some perfume on yourself.

“Someone’s early. You’re not supposed to be here until–”

The last thing you saw was Kenshi locking the door hastily before slamming you against the nearest wall. With a fistful of your hair in his grip, his hungry lips were on yours once again and he had seemed to ditch the teasing game plan he had outside. This time, you found his hands rode up your skirt and cupped your curves, teeth had traveled to the junction of your neck and sent you writhing in pleasure.

There wasn’t much room to maneuver, but Kenshi got hold of both of your thighs so effortlessly that you let out a gasp when you found yourself on the countertop. Didn’t take long for him to break off the kiss to loosen up the buttons of your shirt. Soon enough, his suit touched the floor as well.

With Kenshi worshiping your newly exposed skin ever so religiously, every wet trail he left had set you ablaze, and the fire burned even more when his teeth found your lace-covered nipple.

"Oh, f-fuck me, Jesus." You moaned.

"That's… not my name, but I'll take his place."

His cheeky remark made you giggle– he totally deserved that little shove on his shoulder.

But when he kissed you again, overwhelming you with a mouthfeel of alcohol, the flame was still there burning. It pooled into your stomach and as he tugged down your underwear, you saw him licked his lips. Maybe he'd found you… too eager.

He put your lacy garment in his pocket before zipping down his pants just enough to free himself. It was really bound to happen, and all the haziness almost made you forget something.

"Wait, wait!," You hurriedly roam through your purse, "Here."

You handed him a rubber and without hesitation, he ripped open the foil before rolling it onto himself. Yes, you wanted Kenshi to relentlessly screw you, but you just met this guy– who knows who or what kind of shit he'd done with that dick.

But when Kenshi sunk himself into you in one effortless move, my, my– it felt sensational you had to bite back a groan. Though the attempt seemed useless the minute he immediately started thrusting his hips back and forth in a pace that felt monstrous for your senses.

You couldn't speak, let alone think. Only letting out a whimper each time his pelvic bones hit yours. You were dying to kiss him. To dig your fingers in his broad back, especially when his tattooed hands held down your thighs and effectively changed his angle.

But you couldn't really complain when that lustful face of his was yours to look at in the moment– eyes tense yet drowsy, bottom lips popped open. Still, you wanted more. So you mustered a strength strong enough to pull him onto you, but gentle enough so you could sit up and continue kissing him intensely.

"I want you to fuck me senseless against the wall." You demanded.

"I thought you'd never ask."

Complying with your request, he crashed your back onto the wall once again, this time supporting both of your thighs and proceeding to penetrate you deeply, repeatedly. Hands entangled behind his neck, red swollen lips dueling, throaty moans echoed in the heat of the moment. It was like the satan himself came up to bless this indecent encounter.

You didn't want him to stop. You were so, so close that you tightened your circling legs around his torso. You wanted him to keep going even when a knock on the door was heard along with an attempted turn of the doorknob.

Really, what rang through your ears were the squelching sound of your arousal, and the tempo picked up as Kenshi's pounding got a little too hard for you to keep it hushed– you knew he was close too with the way he cursed repeatedly.

That was the final stroke for your body to explode as your vision finally faded to black. You cried out his name, and Kenshi's raspy groan followed soon. It took a few seconds for both of you to finally catch a breath, sealing off an out-of-this-world sex with a sloppy kiss before finding yourself melting onto the floor in his cradle.

/

"You know it's illegal to smoke in California, right?" You stated as Kenshi flickered his lighter for the cigarette pressed to your lips.

"Laws don't scare me," He inhaled his own stick as if it was the source of oxygen, "Besides, you were the one citizen dragging me out here to have one."

It was true– you thought cigarettes were necessary to sober up. So here you were with Kenshi at the quiet parking lot at the back of the bar.

"I think laws only exist if you choose them to be. Isn't that why you're in LA as well? To steal someone's belongings?"

"That sword is rightfully mine."

His voice turned deep and possessive, but you sneered at his remark, "Man, you really are a Takahashi. You sound just as I imagine them to be."

"Well, I–" You really had seemed to stun him to a state of shock. Took him a few seconds before he gathered himself together. "So you were serious before. You do know someone."

"To be fair, there's really not a lot of Japanese running around LA looking for an ancestral sword either." You shrugged as you took another hit of nicotine, "All I did was connect the dots."

"Tell me what you know." His tone was on the edge of threatening, but you couldn't give two shits about what was going on inside his head.

"Sento, isn't it? Supposedly belonged to one of your ancestors, now it's mounted nicely at Johnny Cage's penthouse who got it through some petty auction for a few million dollars."

"What else?"

You paused for a second, contemplating if you should share the following, "I've seen it glow. Once. But Johnny didn't seem to know."

"It can't be…" He expressed disbelief, "How could you know so much about it?"

"I guess the glow intrigued me as I am a martial artist trained with swords. So I did more digging about your lineage. Honestly, I thought Takahashi had gone extinct."

Those revealed information got Kenshi thinking for a moment longer than expected, but you realized it wasn't your problem to force him to talk. This was his affair, anyway.

Then, he put out his cigarette, stood up and commanded, "Take me to Johnny Cage."

"What? I can't. We don't have any sort of relationship anymore."

"But you do know where he lives. It should be enough."

The nerve on this guy . "He lives in a pretentious household in Beverly Hills. Top-of-its-class security system. You can't possibly gain entry just by walking through."

"Are you underestimating my ability to hack a security system?"

"Say you got in, are you prepared to fight him? Because he wouldn't just hand out Sento like a piece of cookie."

Kenshi smiled pompously at your attempt to convince him to back down, "I am skilled. I can take him down."

This could be interesting– you breathe, live, drink danger like it was your oasis. The possibility of ruining a jerk of an ex's life would be a cherry on top too.

But of course, you wouldn't easily accept Kenshi's offer without some negotiations– this whole thing could get sketchy pretty quick.

"So what's in it for me?"

Kenshi fished something out of his pocket and smirked as he displayed a black lace you had known so well, "I think you'll need this back."

Oh, he was going to be insufferable after this.

"You know, I wanted you to keep it, but I see that you can't get enough of me."

"I didn't hear you complain about my performance earlier either."

Well, so much for a dine-and-dash situation you've always had a sense of familiarity with. A little more adventure wouldn't hurt, you supposed.

"Fine. You twisted my arm." You threw your hands in the air, "We gotta use my car, though. The guards would let me in."

"Seems fair." He agreed.

"It would be, once you've done something I have in mind in the backseat of my car."

"Care to elaborate?"

You thought Kenshi knew the meaning behind your secretive smile his way. You could swear you saw a mischievous grin as you turned away to unlock your car.

"A Thai bull never tells."

A/N: I’M BACKKK! Yes, I haven’t written anything for the past 3.5 years (and my last few fics were for Shokugeki no Soma) but Kenshi’s looking yummy these days. Anw, apologize if I seem rusty. Constructive criticisms are sooo welcomed!

[sansxfuckyou]

nowhere to hide out in the open

summary: the one good thing about these 'Genre Peace' meetings, it would be that Delta Dawn has an excuse to be next to Queen Essence

warnings: its just fluff

authors note: EVERYONE SAY THANK YOU TO @ohposhers FOR DRAGGING ME OUT OF RETIREMENT BY MAKING DELTESSENCE REAL INSTEAD OF LETTING IT ROT IN OUR DM'S FROM MARCH, LITERALLY DRAGGED THIS FIC OUT FROM THE BACK AND FINISHED IT UP IN 2 HOURS NOT EVEN. anyways hope ya'll enjoy and if ya do consider dropping a reblog or checkin' the Ao3 port

To be frank, Delta Dawn didn't necessarily enjoy the fact that the genre leaders had to meet up in Funk's spaceship of sorts; they called it Vibe City. The deck may have been solid beneath her hooves and the air perfectly metered in temperature, but it still felt wrong. Just something made her feel off about living up here, especially when they used to inhabit the deserts and oasis's below.

The only plus was the fact that she was allowed a seat next to Queen Essence, Funk's co-ruler. Pale blue fur and glistening silver tinsel littered across her form and like necklaces on her neck. A spattering of glitter on her face and golden adornments in her hair, voice a gentle timbre and comfy pace-

Delta Dawn definitely enjoyed her, and the fact that she was married with children.

"Now, Queen Poppy, are you sure we really need to unite geographically as well?" Trollzart asked, and the annoying sound of his voice snapped Delta out of it. He sounded like a 'woodwind,' as the Classical's called those instruments.

"Yeah, Popseed, I quite like Volcano Rock City. The Rocker's need some heat to keep us going," Barb tacked on, voice sharp as always with a blunt edge that Delta respected. Even if the gal tried to destroy all music, she had good work ethic.

Poppy gave a nervous laugh, "Well we could at least try making a place where the cross-genre's and genrefluid Trolls could exist in peace?"

"A utopia," King Quincy supplies.

"A Trollstopia, if you will," Queen Essence adds on.

"The only problem with that is the Techno's, they can't be out of water for prolonged periods of time," Branch said. He was already splaying out blueprints, "I'll work on a fix."

"I can help manufacture it," Trollex said and his voice also had an annoying sting too it out of water, oddly synthetic but natural to their speciation.

"Dawn," Queen Essence said, and it took Delta a moment to realize she was referring to her.

The sheriff of Country nodded, "Yes, miss Essence?" Country sensibilities sneaking into her speech again, she really hopes that isn't an offence in Funk.

Instead it makes Queen Essence smile, "Do you have any objections to this Trollstopia?" There's a softness to her tone, a calm that Delta doesn't know too well. Everyone's much gruffer in Country, more to the point and strict about it. Working together is loving each other and tussling in a rodeo is a love language.

Funk Trolls are so... Different, in a refreshing way of course. It's confusing too, Delta never took herself for a romantic, but the Queen is doing something to her. And it's just how she exists too, even when they aren't interacting she's just like this. Smooth and calm and with an amount of allure that Delta is sure must be practiced in advance.

"I got no objections to it, I think it's a great idea," Delta said before standing up and pushing aside the cushion she sat upon. At the slightest hint of Poppy going to speak up, she waved it off, "I'm fine, Queen Poppy, I just need to stretch my legs, get some water."

Her hooves clicked uncomfortably against the metal-adjacent platforms below her. She rubbed her temples as she walked, taking long, deep breaths to try and compose herself. How on earth do they expect her to keep it together when they put her beside Queen Essence? She shouldn't be getting this worked up over a married Troll.

"Dawn, you're probably gonna need some help finding the vending machines," Came a gentle voice from behind her and all she could do was freeze up.

"Naw, I'll be fine, Queen Essence," Delta said, turning to give her an affirming smile. It looked kind of forced.

"Please, just call me Essence," She said before leading Delta along and the sheriff followed without questioning her own actions despite her previous defiance.

Delta gives a huffing sort of sound, it earns her a perplexed look before she remembers that the Funk Trolls don't have that in their lexicon, "Then I have ta ask that you call me Delta."

Essence gives a long hum as she pads down the halls, her paws are near silent against the flooring. A stark contrast to the clip-clop of Delta's hooves, "I'll see what I can do for you."

The slight teasing lilt coupled with a small chuckle has Delta going mad. She trots up closer to the queen of Funk and follows her obediently down the halls. The swirled design of Funk architecture matches the consistent beat thrumming below them in the main corridors. It pulses with a faint glow, so subtle it's almost unnoticable unless you really look close- and Delta needs something to stare at that isn't her guide.

When they come to a stop Essence grabs her a bottle of water, gifted in return for a small melody in a genre Delta doesn't know well. It's interesting technology really, maybe Country is outdated after all. Then she remembers that Pop still lives in the woods and hasn't rebuilt after they had their empire swept out from under their feet by the Bergens. Her genre isn't too far behind, and Funk is highly advanced anyways.

"So, Delta, what's got you down?" Essence asked, dropping down to sit with folded legs on a cushion. Delta followed suit, a low table between them, and she didn't quite sit the same way Funk Trolls did but she made it happen.

"Nothin's got me down," Delta said, twisting the cap off the bottle, "Don't know what gave you that idea."

Essence's brows furrowed, but she didn't narrow her gaze much. She just sighed, "I can't be offended that you don't want to tell me, but I can be offended that you think I can't see what's right in front of me."

That shakes Delta down to her core, she didn't expect Essence to have such keen observations as well. She nearly chokes on her water which has a tang too it, a hint of citrus flavouring perhaps? She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, "I suppose I shouldn't treat ya like an idiot cause you're different than me."

"Some signs are universal," Essence said, "And your vibes aren't exactly feeling on point."

Delta gives a low laugh, "You have a point there, Queen Essence. You're mighty smart, mighty tenacious for waiting so long for your son to show up."

Essence smiles a smile that's so warm it contradicts the soothing frosted hue of her form. She tilts her head a bit as she smiles, a small laugh arising and she brings a paw to hide it. "I'm flattered, Dawn."

"Essence, you seem like the loving type," Delta begins, "Happily married and whatnot."

"So it's a romance problem you have."

She nods, "Yeah, that. What would you say is the best action for loving someone whose already set for life?"

That gives Essence pause, and she's more than clever enough to piece it together right then and there, but she still takes a moment. "In Funk we're usually pretty open, most relations are fluid and shifting states frequently."

"They are?" Delta asked a bit too fast.

"Of course they are, Delta. Are they not in other genres?" Essence asked, a genuine curiosity lacing her voice.

Delta shakes her head, "We're rather monogamous in Country."

"Tell me, Delta," Essence begins, a type of smile on her face that makes Delta shiver. Essence leans a little bit closer, "Is it me?"

"What gave it away, your majesty?" Delta asked.

"Country Trolls are very up front, it translates to the way you act," Essence explained before pressing a kiss to Delta's cheek. It left a silvery, snowy mark in its wake and Delta was too stunned to move. It made Essence giggle a bit.

"But, but you're royalty!" Delta managed to get out, "Doesn't royalty have ta keep a closed relationship?"

Essence shrugged and the tinsel shifted and coat the technicolor glow of Vibe City. "Quincy is understanding, I doubt he'd mind if we let you in for a bit."

"Well alright then." She's not in a cohesive enough mindset to get anything else out of her mouth. She's wearing this dumb grin on her face that's quick to fall.

Essence brings a paw to Delta's face, "What's wrong, darling?"

"Nothin' that needs to be worried about now," Delta brings her hand to rest on Essence's wrist, or ankle maybe? Delta isn't too sure of the proper terminology to use.

"You got your legs stretched out enough to head back, Dawn? They can't make much progress without Country," Essence asked.

"I'm ready," Delta said before standing up, she traced a digit across the lipstick mark on her cheek, "Say, won't this be incriminating evidence?"

"Quincy won't mind," Essence assured with a hum.

"The others?"

"They're in our home, we can evict them."

[trans-librarian]

Good Mornings and Model Kits

Tags: M/M, Fluff, Domestic, Established relationship, Team Fortress 2, Medic, Engineer, EngieMedic, Science Party, German Engineering

WC: 1.5k

CW: None this is the fluffiest most self indulgent garbage I have ever written. We die like mercs choking on the sugar of this fluff. You could consider a line or two hinting at suggestive buuuuut it's nothing explicit

Translations:

Mein Leibe - My love

mein bärchen - My teddy bear

A/N: Sooooooo I always promised myself that I wouldn't start writing fanfic because like idk I told myself that it would be cringey to write fanfic and that anything I wrote would suck but to be cringe is to be free and this image was too strong in my brain not to write and gods I gotta let myself be and create what I want instead of what I think is good enough.

I was super inspired by @creedei and his engiemedic art. I was low-key inspired by these posts: (I also love popitdontdropit on AO3 they're transmasc engie fanfic will make you ascend to a higher plane)

https://www.tumblr.com/creedei/727483531127914496/sketch-dump (third image)

https://www.tumblr.com/creedei/721589317420695552/cute-aggression

https://archiveofourown.org/users/popitdontdropit/

Also its not noted in the fic or relevant but my engie is transmasc I need everyone to know because its my favorite hc. I fell in love with creedei's engie. He's mad gender euphoria for me as a transmasc guy with the same body type (also because i simp hard for medic so seeing the character I project onto with the character I like is just *chefs kiss*). And pyro who is mentioned in passing uses they/she pronouns because I like when this shit is as queer as possible and I get to choose what happens in this story.

I'll probably also cross post this on AO3 at some point and link it here. Anyway, Enjoy!!! *runs and hides*

A quiet dawn begins to trickle light into the Red barracks. All is quiet on a seldom day off for the Red Team. Medic drinks in this treasured time. With a cup of tea in hand he turned towards the infirmary where the notes from his most recent experiment await review. He definitely needs to reevaluate the actual size of a gorilla liver before putting it into Demoman again. The muffled sounds of snores creates a lulling tune that echoes in the halls until...

tink tink tink clunk

tink tink tink clunk

"Hm?" Medic's ears perked up to the quiet sound

click click

tink tink tink

"Vhat is zhat?" Medic turns to follow the sound.

A tiny symphony of clicks and clacks emanates from deep in the halls past the common area and the majority of the bedrooms. Medic follows the sound through the hall.

tink tink tink clunk

tink tink tink tink clunk

tink tink clunk

Medic finds himself at the Engineer's workshop.

"He never usually vakes up zhis early on a day off at least not vithout vaking me for some.....private time" Medic smirks to himself thinking of Engie and his previous day off exploits in Engie's room, Medic's room, the infirmary operating table, the shower... Medic gets lost for a moment in a glow of those steamy memories and shakes his head bringing him back to reality. "Vonder vhat he's doing?" Medic thinks and slowly opens the door and sneaks into Dell's workshop.

Dell's back is facing the door as he sits at his desk. The small bulbed lamp on his work desk illuminates a halo of light around the man. The soft sweater he's wearing adds a comforting warmth to the glow. An etheral god tinkering with his realm. Like a moth to a flame, the medic slowly crossed the room beelining to the one place where he slots in perfectly. Once within reach, Medic wraps his arms around Engie leaning his head on Dell's shoulder placing a gentle kiss before resting his head.

"Good morning mein leibe" Ludwig cooed "What's got you up so earl-" tink "Ow! vhat vas zhat"

"Sorry darlin' sometimes the little bits go flyin' because of the nippers," Engie turned "Where did you get hit?"

"Why?"

"So I can kiss it better." Dell smiled.

Ludwig groaned at the horrible pickup line and smirked "I got hit right here" and points to his mouth.

"I'm very sorry" Dell chuckled. He grabbed the Medic's chin with his gunslinger with the lightest touch only he is capable of and gave him a gentle kiss. "What brings you by the workshop this early, dumplin'?"

"I was getting some tea and I heard the sound of..."

tink tink

"Ow!" another small piece of plastic hits Medic in the forehead. "...Zhat. I heard zhat and started following and it brought me here, mein bärchen. Vhat is zhis anyway?"

"Sorry again. The lil bits that come off the model kit pieces can go flying in unexpected places."

"Model kit? I didn't know you even were interested in these let alone where to find them."

"Pyro turned me on to these last time we went to town. They begged me to take her to this store with all these fancy plushies that are imported so they could get a new one for their collection. Real quality y'know. She ended takin' a while but ended up choosing this nice bear fox thing that I learned is called a tanuki and then there was this other one that was an armadillo and I was thinkin' about it but I realized I would never use-"

"Sveetie. You're rambling"

"Thank you" Engie laughs, "what would I do without you?" He places a hand on medics cheek and places a kiss on the other. "So Pyro showed me these model kits they have and they said I would love these and I grabbed a couple to keep 'em around. This is the first chance I've had to put one together."

"Interesting. Vhat's it going to be?" The Medic looks at the subject of their boyfriend's focus and sees....well a lot of pieces that will make something? Small red and black pieces of plastic twinkle under the work lamp. A large pile of injection mold sheets loom next to Engie's work area. Pieces are in various states of progress some starting to take shape like limbs.

"It's gonna be a robot. A lot of these kits are different robots couldn't tell you much because I can't read the Japanese on the box, but it'll look neat when it's done based of the pictures." Dell informed his boyfriend as Medic snuggles closer to listen to the Engineer tell him about his latest project. "This piece is gonna be one of the arms and it bends like this so you can pose it and change out the hands. And this is gonna be the leg."

"Can I stay and vatch vhile you vork?"

"Of course, moon pie!"

Ludwig pulls a stool over behind Dell so he can stay in his current position arms wrapped around the engineer sinking slightly into his plush yet muscular tummy and rest his head on his lover's strong shoulder.

The symphony of click and tinks resumed as Dell settled into a new rythmn of work. The sound of Engie and Medic quietly talking, giggling, or just enjoying the intoxicating calmness together.

Ludwig watches Dell's hands deftly click the plastic pieces together. He marvels at the precise and delicate movement of the gunslinger. The same robotic hand capable of crushing bone and tearing metal also able to pick up fragile things with ease truly is one of the greatest miracles the Medic has ever seen. He can't help and feel so much love when with Dell. He could just...

"Gah! Ludwig, did you just bite me?" Engineer cried out grabbing the side of his neck.

"I couldn't help it." Medic chuckled "You looked so perfect and it's so cozy. I had to bite."

"You're lucky I love you, moon pie"

"I know. Love you too leibe"

Dell refocuses as a faint set of teeth marks bloom on his skin.

tink tink tink clunk

tink tink clunk

tink tink tink clunk

click click click

click click

clunk

"Leibschen you put the thing on upside down."

"Are you sure? this looks right, dumplin'."

"Look at the picture the angular part of the kidney shaped piece should be pointing towards that half frisbee piece on the big piece"

Dell picks up the instructions and squints closely at them. Ludwig reaches his hand over and turns the upside down instructions right side up.

"Oooooooh. I see what you mean"

clunk click claclunk

"Thank you, sweetie"

tink tink clunk

tink tink tink clunk

click click

"Finally finished" Engie and Medic look at the little robot model in all its completed glory. The small figurine shined in the now brighter lit room each piece sanded perfect and each sticker placed precisely. The angular crimson robot sported a long bazooka in one hand and a clenched fist on the other arm. The sleek robot stands posed with one fist raised triumphantly.

"Let me try" Medic gently picks up the robot model and begins to fiddle with it. He pops out the gun hand and puts in a fist. He bends one leg while straightening the other completely. The arms are folded in front of it. After, carefully balancing the model on the table. Medic reveals the robot in a Katosky Kick. Dell and Ludwig chuckle looking at the cutely posed robot. They look at each other. Such a nice moment together. Engie leans forward and kisses Medic lovingly.

"Thank you for spendin' time with me, darlin'." Dell cooed warmly, "havin' company really made my mornin'." He gently places a hand on Medic's cheek and strokes it with his thumb.

Medic places a hand over Engie's. "Of course, my bärchen. I couldn't think of a better way to spend my morning."

Dell and Ludwig bask in each in this moment. Engie looks at his lover and sees the passionate and ambitious doctor he always fell for and keeps falling for every day. Medic sees the strong and beautiful inventor that fought to be here in more ways than one.

"Now vhat?"

"I don't know. Wanna go make a real robot?"

"I've got the perfect spider monkey brain I've been saving for a rainy day!" Medic squealed "You get the supplies. I'll get the brain and bring it back here" Medic planted a hard kiss on Engie's temple before running off.

[beep-beep-sunny]

My new fic "And Then There Was Georgie" has 2 chapters on AO3

The whole thing available to read only on AO3

Chapter 1--What We Lost

It was 1988 when Bill Denbrough lost his brother in the rain. In 1989 it was confirmed he was gone forever. Georgie Denbrough was never coming back. 

--

It was 2016, and a small boy that lost his yellow raincoat long long ago held hands with another friend they thought was lost forever.

The two of them stood at the opening of the sewer where so many atrocities took place. Bill's eyes widened at the sight of his little brother and his surrogate brother figure and childhood friend. Both of them lost because of Bill's negligence. 

“Eddie.” His friend, Richie Tozier, said from behind him, his voice raw. Richie took a few steps towards the spectors. 

Beverly put out her arm. “Stop. Remember, the clown has made Bill see Georgie so many times. This is some kind of cruel echo.” 

Georgie held tightly to Eddie's hand. “What's going on?” His little voice asked. 

“It's dead. We killed it.” Richie whimpered, hands shaking. 

“This could just be what Beverly said. An echo. The powers settling before they fade away.” He tried to sound reassuring, but Bill wasn't convinced. 

“Give me the gun.” Bill said. “Just to be safe.” 

“Wait a minute,” Richie begged. “Please.” 

Mike handed Bill the bolt pistol he'd brought mostly for luck. “Thanks.” Bill said, pointing it squarely at Georgie. His hands always shook when he had to put an end to the distorted memories of his little brother over and over again. 

“What are you doing with that?” Eddie asked. “Bill, buddy, listen to me.” Eddie stepped in front of Georgie. “IT is dead.” 

“No, no.” Bill tried to keep a grip on the gun though the sweat was threatening to make it slip right through his fingers. “That's not my brother. It never is.” 

“Yeah.” Georgie squirmed in Eddie's grasp. “You're not my brother, you're old.” 

Bill narrowed his eyes. The clown usually puppeted Georgie to recognize him immediately to maximize his guilt. He still held as tightly to the gun as he could, his knuckles pale. “Is this some kind of new trick?” 

Georgie leaned slightly into Eddie's back. “That's not even a real gun, it looks funny.” 

“It's real.” Eddie said. “Just stand back, okay?” 

“Who cares? Shooting you will only slow you down.” Bill shook the gun on every word. 

Eddie held up both hands. “I know how this looks, Bill. Trust me. I was terrified when I first saw Georgie.” 

“No offense, but you're also dead.” Bill's voice shook. “How can I possibly trust you?” 

Georgie broke free of Eddie, but Eddie tried to grab him. He slipped through Eddie's fingers like a slippery snake. “You are not Billy.” He said with the confidence of a seven year old. “Billy is not old. Now put down that fake gun you're scaring my new friend.” Bill was so taken back that the gun did start to shift downwards. 

“Eds.” Richie stepped forward again, Bev holding him back. “Please, just say anything believable and I'll believe you.” 

“Right, okay. Well, I don't know how believable it sounds.” Eddie scratched his head. “I had a vision of this turtle.” Bill and Richie briefly looked at each other. “The turtle told me it's been protecting Georgie until it was safe for him to return. This turtle said he couldn't save them all, but he knew he'd need a reward for the kids that would eventually defeat IT. I know that sounds completely fucking crazy, and it probably just makes you want to shoot us more, but-” Eddie was cut off from his lengthy explanation by Richie Tozier crushing him in a hug. “Ow, asshole, I still have a hole in my chest.” 

Richie backed off. “Sorry.” Richie droned on and on, but Bill was locked in on Georgie. It couldn't be true, could it?

Bill was startled by a large hand on his back. The pressure was comforting when he looked back and saw Mike. “Let's talk to him together.” His tone was so soft. Bill nodded. 

Bill still gripped the gun in one hand while they took slow, cautious steps towards the scared, dirty child that looked just like his dead little brother did the day he lost him. Georgie grabbed Eddie's jacket edge the closer they got as if he was afraid. He looked up with big eyes at Eddie who was distracted angrily and passionately talking to Richie. “Stay away.” Georgie finally said when Eddie didn't seem to see his pleading eyes. 

Bill and Mike stopped in their tracks. “This is your brother.” Mike explained. “I know he doesn't look like your brother, but a lot’s happened when you were gone.” Mike was so soft and gentle with him. 

“I don't believe you.” Georgie yanked harder on Eddie's jacket. “Billy is a kid like me.” 

Mike waved a hand in front of Eddie's face to break Richie's spell and he pointed to the child trying to get his attention. “You knew Eddie right? And Richie?” 

“Yeah, they were my friends.” Georgie sniffled and rubbed his face, but he just smeared the dirt. 

“This is Eddie Kaspbrak.” Mike said, pointing at Eddie. “You trust him right?” 

“The weird big turtle said I should.” Georgie nodded. “But I don't trust you. I don't know you. If he's really Eddie he can tell me himself.” Georgie folded his arms in front of his chest. 

“It's true.” Eddie said, “I know I used to be a lot closer to your height.” he leaned over and ruffled Georgie's hair. Georgie smiled a little.

“You're still not far off.” Richie quipped.

“Is now really the time for your short jokes?” Eddie snapped back. 

Georgie scrunched up his face. “They do kinda seem like Richie and Eddie.” 

“See?” Mike said. “And this is your brother.” Mike pushed Bill slightly forward, but all he could manage was an awkward wave. 

“No, he's not. He's a phony. He doesn't look nearly as brave as my brother.” 

“I wasn't sick.” Bill blurted out. “That day when I lost you. I just didn't want to play with you.“ Tears stung in his eyes even though he'd said it all before. This felt different, more real. “And I've never actually been that brave.” 

Georgie stared at him. “You lied?” The phrase made Bill flinch hard, but he nodded. “If you're a liar, how can I trust you?” 

Bill smiled a little. That's exactly something Georgie would say. “I gave you a boat. Do you remember what I told you to call them?” 

Georgie smiled a little too. “She.” 

Bill couldn't hold back his tears, they freely flowed from his eyes and he held a hand to his mouth. “Was she fast, Georgie?” 

Georgie nodded. “Too fast. I lost it.” He pouted. “Are you gonna kill me?” 

Bill furrowed his brow. “No, of course not. Why did you say that?” 

“I lost the boat. I didn't know it was gonna fall in. The ugly clown said you'd kill me.” Georgie looked genuinely scared recounting the memory. Bill fell to his knees and wrapped Georgie up in a big hug. When he hugged him, he could feel the lack of arm at his side. “If you're trying to kill me you're doing a bad job.” Georgie said. Bill laughed hard, he felt delirious. He picked Georgie up and spun him in a circle. Georgie giggled. “A really bad job.” 

Next to him, Richie picked up Eddie and spun him around too. “Put me down you big idiot. You really are gonna kill me. I need a hospital.” 

“Are you hurting anywhere?” Bill asked Georgie. He shook his head and kicked his dangly feet. 

“You're really Billy?” Bill nodded. “Where's mom and dad?” 

“I don't think seeing them is a good idea right now.” Bill explained as softly as he could. 

“Why not? I just wanna go home!” Georgie whined. 

“We can't go home. Georgie.” Bill bit his lip to keep another tear from choking out. “I'll take you back to our hotel so you can get some rest. Are you tired?” 

“No.” He pouted, but his yawn betrayed him as he rested his cheek against Bill's shoulder. 

“What do you guys think?” Bill asked. 

“Let's go back together. All of us.” Beverly shot them a hesitant smile. “What the hell, right?” Ben nudged her and pointed towards Georgie. She rolled her eyes. “Sorry, what the heck!” She took on a silly voice to say the last part. It reminded Bill of Richie. It felt nice that they could all feel like home to each other again. 

Bill felt soft steady breathing against his shirt, when he looked down, Georgie was fast asleep.

(continued on AO3)

[americas1suiteheart]

Night Out

Patrick Stump x Fem! Reader

Kinda NSFW, just a bit of a warning.

Summary; You and the guys go out after a show to ease yourselves, one too many drinks later, a few things are said, leading to an interesting moment between you and Patrick.

Notes; This is the closest thing I've ever written to smut, I'm not going any farther in this fic either. Anyway, enjoy. (Or maybe it will be on Ao3..) I also noticed that I tend to ramble in my fics, my bad, guys.

Warnings; Lots and lots of mentions of drinking and alcohol, sorta suggestive at the end, drunk confessions, implied drunk sex but not written, and foul language. (This is probably one of the fics with the most warnings in my discography)

Volume: ■■■■■□□□

A little night out after a show was just what you and the guys needed, just to take your mind off of some of the technical difficulties during the show, and most of it was partially your fault.

Before the show, all of tech and stage crew were setting up and putting everything together, you were setting up the mics on everyone's instruments. Once you had finished that, which was *very* rushed due to everyone being late because of traffic, you went to help with connect everything to the mixing boards, lighting controls, all that nice stuff. Unfortunately, you had mixed up some of the cords when you were doing that, and you guessed that you hadn't secured one of the lights.

Miking up all the instruments and messing it up was one thing, then mixing up the cords for the mixing and lighting boards and computers was another, but not securing a light correctly was the big screw up.

When the band came out and they started playing, only Joe's guitar had sound coming out, and only on one of the monitors at that. Pyrotechnics don't seem as cool when there's only a faint guitar playing without the rest of the band. The set up had to be fixed *extremely* quickly, meaning that at least 10 minutes of the show was postponed.

Then the lighting wasn't able to be controlled by the lighting techs. That was another 10 minutes of the show being postponed.

Once all of that was fixed, the band was 3 quarters through the show, nearly being finished without any more difficulties.

Then the worst happened.

That light I didn't secure correctly just happened to fall right next to Pete, thankfully nearly missing him. The thing about those lights is that they weigh around 100 pounds. It caused damage to the stage and broke the light.

Luckily no one was injured, but the costs for the damage definitely will hurt.

"Y/n? You gonna come with us or not?" Joe says, snapping you out of your trance.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry about that." You say, quickly getting out of the vehicle.

"I would say "don't sweat it" but you almost killed me." Pete said, meaning for it to be in a joking manner.

You shrunk a little and looked down at the floor as you continued to walk to the entrance of the bar with the boys.

"You're not making it any better, Pete.."

You were surprised that they even asked you to get drinks with them after that. I mean, yes, you've been friends with them since Andy joined the band, but you seriously fucked up tonight and almost killed Pete.

"You just need one drink and you'll feel better, Y/n. You just had a rough day, everyone had a rough day today even before the show, even another tech screwed up." Joe put a hand on your back and tried to comfort you.

"Yeah, you're right." You smile at him as you walk through the doors with everyone else.

Music was blaring and lights flashed. The place was crowded and smelled of alcohol and BO. Guess that's just normal for a downtown nightclub, though.

"I'll go get us a table. You guys can go get drinks, just find me." Andy said, pointing in the direction of all of the booths.

"Thanks, Andy."

The bar area was crowded with people that may have already gone way past their limits.

Once pushing your way through, you order your drinks. You were never one for hard liquors or mixed drinks, you kept it simple and just got two beers and a soda for Andy.

Once finished you all make your way to find the table Andy had saved, finally spotting him.

"Hey, Andy. I got you a soda, did you get food?" You ask, handing him his drink and sliding down into the booth next to him.

"Yeah, just some wings and fries, nothing special."

"Okay, did you get anything for yourself, though?"

Andy was your younger brother by a year, so you always worried about him. Yet despite the fact of you being older, he somehow managed to act more mature than you, like an older brother instead.

"I got another order of fries, don't worry. Thanks for getting me something to drink, N/n."

Patrick slides into the booth to sit next to you and puts his drink on the table.

At first it was weird getting to know Patrick because he was much younger than you, barely going into his 20s when you were already into your mid ones. It took some getting used to, it felt odd being friends with someone that much younger, and you felt even weirder when you found that you'd grown more than fond of him as you two got closer.

You take a chug from your drink as you listen to the boys argue about pointless things.

You got lost in your own thoughts, still thinking about the accidents and mishaps that happened because of you.

Were you really just having a bad day, or maybe you were just being lazy. Were you? God, you're so getting fired.

A hand on your back snaps you back, making you look beside at Patrick.

"Are you alright, Y/n?" Patrick says with obvious concern in his voice, his brows furrowed.

You stare at Patrick blankly and nod, looking away back at the label of the bottle like it was the most interesting thing.

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

Only about an hour of being there everyone was already a couple drinks in. The music seemed louder than before, it was getting hotter what seemed like every minute, and you had already forgotten about the events at the show.

"Okay, okay, how about when we get back to Chicago, we go and get like this and just fuck around downtown, then we could crash at my place." Pete says after taking the last sip of his drink.

Everyone at the table agrees. Even if Andy doesn't drink that doesn't mean that he's not down for something that made him feel like a teenager again.

The boys all joked with eachother, and that whole time you found yourself leaning into Patrick as you laughed along with them.

All the anxiety that you had with fear of doing too much quickly went away as soon as the amount of alcohol content in your body began to settle in, gosh this will suck the next morning.

By now you were already completely attracted to Patrick, his arm around your waist as you leaned your head against his shoulder as you talked with everyone else. Even if you couldn't think at that moment, you were still very conscious about this and trying not to heat up too much, hoping to push it off as the alcohol making your cheeks get a little pink.

"We're going to get more drinks, are you two gonna come?" Joe asks, leaning against the booth closest to where Patrick was sitting.

"No, I'm cool."

"I'm fine, too."

"Do you want us to bring you guys anything?"

You and Patrick look at eachother for a moment and you tried to decide whether or not you should get another drink.

"Yeah, sure. You think you can just grab me another beer and then some water if it ain't too much trouble?" You ask picking your head up off of Patrick's shoulder as you take some cash out of your wallet to give it to Joe.

He gladly takes it and walks off with Pete to the bar.

Andy was somewhere unknown to your knowledge. He had been gone for about 20 minutes now, he never said anything about going back to the bus or restroom, so you were starting to get a little worried.

"Do you know where Andy went? He just left without saying anything and I'm getting a little worried, now." You ask Patrick, anxiously looking to see if you could see him on the dance floor from where you were sitting.

" I think he said something about some girl he saw. He might be somewhere on the dance floor talking or trying to find her." Patrick assures you, taking a drink from his glass.

"Oh, okay. Good to know." You hum, laying your head back down onto Patrick's shoulder.

"Don't worry about him, Y/n. He's an adult, he knows not to do anything stupid."

"I know, I know. I just worry for him all the time though, you know?" You shrug.

Joe and Pete were taking longer than when they had previously gone back for more. Why did all of them disappear?

Speak of the devil; Pete and Joe showed up, drinks in hands and arms, passing them on the table to their own spots and yours and Patrick's.

"Did you guys see Andy over there?" You ask anxiously.

Pete and Joe look at eachother shrugging, then looking back to you and shaking their head 'no'.

Patrick's right, he's an adult, you shouldn't be so worried. He knows better and is responsible.

Somehow, somewhere in the conversation, it started to sound a lot like a middle school girl's sleepover party. Pete began talking about some of the girls he had a thing for when he was in high school, then so did Joe, and then they insisted it was your turn.

"Nope, never had a crush." You say,

"There's no way in hell, man. You're 34 years old and you've never had a crush? I don't believe that." Joe says.

"You sound like teenage girls.."

You ignore Joe, taking another cold fry from the basket and swirling it in the ketchup. You turn over to see Pete whispering something to Joe, then Joe giving a shocked expression as he looked back and forth between you and Patrick.

"What? What are you guys talking about?" You ask.

"Nothing." Joe and Pete say at the same time.

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

"Duuuudddeee, I'm telling you, man. Patrick totally has a thing for you." Pete slurs, grabbing your shoulders and shaking you slightly, making the nausea worse.

You feel heat quickly rise to your cheeks and tips of your ears.

"Dude, get off of me."

Regardless of what your stomach and head was currently telling you (to lay off the alcohol, and quickly for that matter), you continued to down a shot or two, or you think. Not that you really remember right now, though.

You felt lightheaded and heavy at the same time, and were currently trying your best not to suddenly fall asleep.

Everyone that had been sitting at the booth was now gone. Probably chatting with people, trying to get numbers, especially Pete and Joe, and just dancing. The only one that remained at the booth sitting next to you was Patrick.

He looked just as equally gone as you were. He was so pretty like that. The way the alcohol made his cheeks flushed, and the lighting of the club made it even better.

"I love you."

You suddenly blurt out, your brain had long lost your ability to make smart choices and not do things like this. And at this point you didn't really care, I mean, its not like you or him would remember it either way.

"What?"

"I love you, Patrick."

Patrick looks at you for a moment, an unreadable look on his face, and his face seemed to turn a crimson red faster and faster by the minute.

Very unsuspected and suddenly, a pair of lips crashes harshly onto yours and hands are on your waist.

You moan as Patrick trails his hand up your back and pulls you closer to deepen the kiss.

At this point, the both of you were being very handsy with eachother in the booth, where any of the boys could walk to it and see the both of you just going at it.

"We should go somewhere else." You say, breaking from the kiss. Your lips were swollen, you were out of breath and your whole body felt like it was on fire.

"I agree. Somewhere more private?" Patrick suggested.

You two walked to the single stall unisex restroom, which was by some miracle vacant.

It smelled of alcohol and throw up, and thankfully the smell of vomit was very subtle, but regardless, you wouldnt've cared.

Once inside and the door was locked, Patrick immediately pushed you against the wall and placed sloppy kisses on your neck.

"Fuck, Patrick.." You moan as you run your hands through his hair.

While doing something like this might be wrong, especially inside of a very unsanitary restroom, you hadn't cared one bit right now.

The ecstasy that ran through your body had you squirming at the pleasure.

This'll be a little secret between the two of you..

Volume: ■■■■■■■■

Okay, okay. So, I've literally never written something like this at all, and I got tired of having this in my drafts for literal months, so I very half-assed and quickly finished this. Tbh, I/m not happy with how it turned out at all, and it could've very well been a regular fluff fic, but I like trying new things, and I'm not really sure if I should've.

Anyway, I hope some of you dirty motherfuckers enjoyed this. This will most definitely be up on my Ao3..

[musings-of-a-rose]

I'll Always Wait For You - Chapter 16

Pairing: Frankie Morales OR Santiago Garcia???x f!reader

Word Count: 5900+

Rating: Mature - 18+ ONLY!

Warnings: Just like ao3, “creator chooses not to use warnings.” If you click Keep Reading, that means you agree that you’re the age to handle mature themes. Also by clicking Keep Reading, you understand warnings may not be complete in order to avoid spoilers for the story. 

Notes: I’m sorry this took so long to get to. In my defense, I birthed a human and then had to care for it so Frankie kindly waited for me to be at a point where I could really focus on him and his story. Plus, y’all made me rethink a lot of things so it took some time!

A huge thank you to @vanemando15 for reading and listening and bouncing ideas off of. @astoryisaloveaffair and @mermaidxatxheart, ya'll really helped me too!

**If you want to be added to the taglist, join here or let me know!

❤If you enjoy the fic, please consider giving me a warm beverage! (It is not required in any way!)

**Reader is not described

Main Masterlist

I'll Always Wait For You Masterlist

Frankie Morales Masterlist

<<Chapter 15

—----

"Frankie.. ::sigh::  if you're looking for me, you can stop. I can't be around you right now. I need time away to think clearly. You've put me through so much shit these last months and I just..can't. I can't keep wondering what you're not telling me. I can't keep being 2nd place. 

::whimper and a sob::

Do you want the drugs or me? Do you want to be with…Elizabeth.. or me? I can't keep listening to you defend her or hide your addiction. Not anymore. I can't so please… ::sob:: think about it."

Frankie played the voicemail from you over and over, tears silently flowing down his face every time he hears your words and how you break down crying. 

I did this. I fucked this up. And for what?

Nothing was going on between him and Elizabeth, not since they were married. She divorced him while he was in a coma and just made his life a living hell. Why would he want that back?

Events of that night flashed before his eyes and he runs his hands across his face. Elizabeth had nearly given him a hand job and he didn't even notice. He was too involved in his conversation to notice. And honestly, probably too high and drunk to notice. Or care.

But he did care. Frankie didn't want it. Any of it. Once you took off, he'd come back yelling at Elizabeth and telling her off. 

He went back inside Flyboyz, commanding Rick to give him the keys to his SUV. He just had to find Hermosa and everything would be ok. He’d explain what happened and she’d understand. It would all work out, right?

He takes off, driving first to his house. Seeing no one there and no evidence someone had been, he heads to Hermosa’s place in the next town over. It makes sense she wouldn’t have been at his house - he wouldn’t have gone there either. She’s most likely at home.

When knocking on her door brings no answer, Frankie finds the hide-a-key and shoves it in the lock, all but flinging open the door and yelling her name. No answer. He walks the apartment and finds no one here. It’s when he sits on the couch to think about where she might have gone that he notices it - the blanket she always kept on the back of the couch is missing. The only time it’s not there is when she travels because she takes it with her. Jumping up, he runs to her closet and notices a few things astray. When he can’t find her suitcase, he mumbles to himself “No no no no!”, rushing to the bathroom and yanking open the cabinets to see bare shelves, a few nearly empty containers left behind. The final clue that she had packed a bag and left were her missing plants, which Frankie would later find on her neighbor’s doormat. 

Where the fuck is she?

—----

Santi couldn’t believe it. She came with him. To Colombia. He’d always dreamed she would be with him, but he never thought she would actually do it.

In the beginning, he gave her space, wanted her to process what happened and know that he was there for her. She did just that, coming to him a few weeks later, softly kissing his lips while he stood in the kitchen, an empty coffee mug in his hand ready for his morning cup. 

Santi went to work with a pep in his step and a smile on his face, his men teasing him at first about him getting laid. One day, Hermosa came into work and brought him lunch, and his men’s teasing turned into praises and asking for advice on how to land someone like that. 

“It takes time. I’ve waited for her for years.”

When Santi comes home from work, she is there waiting for him, usually with some sort of meal. He tells her he doesn’t need it, that she doesn’t have to put herself out, but she just smiles and kisses him, telling him she wants to take care of him, especially since he’s taken care of her all these years. 

Santi wakes one morning, the sun streaming in through the crack in the curtains and splaying across Hermosa’s bare back in front of him. He reaches out, gently running his hand across her skin, smiling at the goosebumps that raise in his wake. She doesn’t stir until he presses his lips to her shoulder, sliding his hand around her front and pulling her close to him.

“Mmmm…” she groans, turning her head and reaching back to pull his face to hers, gently kissing him. 

Santi gently rolls her onto her back, slotting his body between her legs, neither of them having bothered to put clothes on after last night’s escapades. She wraps her legs around him, her hands cupping his face as he starts to slide himself through her. She breaks the kiss with a whine, Santi lifting his head high enough to stare into her eyes as he pushes in, loving the way she slams her eyes shut, mouth hanging open as he bottoms out. 

“You feel fucking amazing, Hermosa. So wet.”

“Just for you, Santi.” She whines out his name as he pulls out, gently pushing back in with an added roll of his hips, angling himself to rub against that spot inide of her that curls her toes.

His hands ghost across her skin as she grips his arms, feeling him sliding in and out as they make love. When she comes she calls his name, a steady chant of “oh God oh God!” behind it. He smiles, pushing into her a few more times before it’s his turn, filling her up with every sporadic thrust of his hips. He looks down at her fucked out expression and smiles, his finger tips brushing at her face.

“I love you, Hermosa.”

“I love yo-”

BANG BANG BANG!

Loud knocking interrupts the moment and Santi jolts awake, sitting bolt upright, covered in sweat and, he looks down, other stuff as the person knocking continues to demand he open the door. Santi swears, pulling on his robe as he crosses his apartment, grabbing his gun on the way over. When he looks through the peephole, he sighs, taking a breath before opening the door.

“Where is she?”

Santi raises his eyebrows. “Nice to see you too, Frankie.”

Frankie rolls his eyes. “I’m serious, Santi. Where the fuck is she? Is she here?”

Santi yawns. “Who?”

Frankie pushes past him into the apartment, eyes scanning the room for any sign of a second occupant. 

“She’s not here, Fish.”

Frankie turns to him, eyes wide and wild. “She has to be here. You guys are best friends.”

Santi gestures around. “Well, as you can see, she isn’t here.”

Frankie grunts and turns back, stomping off down the hallway. He pulls open one door to find an empty bathroom and the next one the bedroom, which is also empty. No signs of anyone else living here, aside from Santi. Frankie walks back into the living room and sits on the couch, putting his head in his hands.

“I fucked up, Santi.”

Santi chuckles. “Yeah, man. You did.”

Frankie’s eyes meet Santi’s. “I love her, Pope. I love her more than I love myself. I would never… I just need to see her. To explain…do you know where she is?”

Santi shakes his head. “She never came with me, Fish. I did ask her to but she said no. Needed time by herself.”

Frankie swallows hard, choking back tears. “H-how long ago was that?”

“Couple days.”

Frankie nods. “And you promise she’s not here?”

“Have you seen anything to suggest she has?”

Frankie glances around again as if he’d find something of hers laying around. “No.”

“Sorry you wasted a trip. You could’ve just called.”

“I had to see for myself.”

“Fair enough.”

A few moments pass before Frankie speaks. “Can I crash on your couch tonight? I can book a flight but the next one out isn’t until tomorrow.”

“Sure, man.”

“Thanks. And Santi?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not me you need to apologize to.”

—----

2 days after Frankie get’s back from Colombia, he figures it out. A conversation he’d had with you years ago, about where you’d live if money wasn’t an issue. That has to be where she went!

The next day, Frankie steps off the ferry after it docks in Friday Harbor, Washington, a small island in the San Juan Islands. This is where you wanted to live, at least for a long while, loving the scenery, the people, and the whales. You had to be here. 

Frankie had had no luck calling around to hotels. Either you used a different name or they were reluctant to give out guest information. He can’t blame them, but it still pissed him off. Frankie walks past the community center and sees a flyer in the window for a farmer’s market that day. He figured he would start there, maybe ask some of the vendors if they’d seen you.

He walks the first isle, pausing to take a look around. It’s fairly large for a small island, a few rows of vendors selling wares and produce, even fresh flowers. As he scans the area, he notices a woman in a sundress with a wide brimmed hat, standing at the opposite end of the isle from him. He knew it was Hermosa before she turns slightly, smiling at the vendor while nodding, picking up more produce. 

It was the sad look on her face that made Frankie pause mid step. He knows he’s the reason it’s there. He watches her for another minute before turning, heading back to the ferry. 

I have to get my shit together, get clean, before I talk to her. She deserves that. Aurelia deserves that. I’m such a fucking idiot. I just hope she’ll talk to me when I’m clean.

What Frankie doesn’t see is you, glancing up at the place where Frankie had been standing, telling yourself that you had imagined seeing a man in a dark blue hat with curls poking out from under it.

—----

8 months later…

You hadn’t meant to stay this long, but when you stepped off the ferry and felt the cool, misty air on your face, saw the jagged cliffs leading down into the cold waters that you loved, you just couldn’t tear yourself away. 

It was really hard at first, being here alone. Without Frankie. You cried. A lot. It felt like you’d lost him all over again. You knew you’d have to face him eventually and have a hard conversation, but for now, you would focus on you. 

You’d only meant to stay a few weeks. But then you met an older couple that ran a little b&b who needed help with their social media and you stayed, offering to do it for free in exchange for a room. They happened to have a second property, a small studio above a coffee shop just a couple blocks from the harbor where the ferry docked. It was the perfect size for you, even had a full kitchen and bathroom. You adjusted to the ferry horns and bustling people quickly, just happy to be here. 

Until you remembered why you were here. 

Even all these months later, it would catch you off guard, creep up on you whenever you weren’t thinking about it. About him. You knew you’d have to talk to him soon. But what would you say? What would he say? Did he even try to find you? Did you want him to?

You continue to stare out of the coffee shop window at the harbor, eyes glazed over in thought as you absent mindedly sip from your cup. Weather seems nice. I think I’ll go for a hike toda-

“Hey.”

Goosebumps erupt across your skin, your stomach immediately starts churning, and your heart starts to race. You’d know that voice anywhere. You blink a few times, slowly turning your head to look up into the eyes of the man who broke your heart and somehow still held it. You stare up at him, saying nothing but taking in his appearance.

Frankie shifts nervously under your gaze. “It’s uh…it’s been a while.”

He looks…good. Like he actually got sleep. He’s not rubbing at his nose, not even a sniffle. His cheeks have filled in a bit and his eyes don’t have that look to them anymore. You scan down his body and it’s then you notice he doesn’t have his cane. 

“You don’t have your cane.” All these months, so much to talk about and you settle on this? UGH.

Frankie smiles, shaking his leg. “Nope. Just got rid of it a couple of weeks ago. Doctor said I still need to take it easy and to take breaks if I need it. But I’m healed enough to not need the cane. I mean, I won’t be walking Disney World anytime soon without it but…”

“That’s…good, Frankie. Really.”

“It is.”

An awkward silence passes between you. When did it get this hard to talk to him? 

You knew when. 

“How did you find-”

“Can we talk-”

You’d both spoken at the same time. Chuckling, the first layer of tension pops and you gesture to Frankie to go first. 

“Can we go somewhere to…to talk?”

Taking a deep breath, you stare into his eyes and see hope there and it breaks you.

“Yeah. Yeah, ok.”

Frankie smiles wide, trying to hide his excitement at your positive response. “Great! Do you uh..do you have a place in mind or?”

Standing, you grab your cup and toss it in the trash bin. “Yeah. I live just upstairs.”

“Oh.”

You turn to look at him. “Is that a problem?”

“Not..not for me but…is that ok? With you?”

“I suggested it, Frankie.”

You notice some tears welling in his eyes when you say his name, but he quickly coughs, rubbing at his face to clear them. 

“Then uh, lead the way.”

Frankie follows you upstairs and into your apartment, looking around as he kicks off his boots at the door. Walking into your kitchen area, you pour both of you a glass of lemonade, walking back to hand him his. He takes a sip, smacking his lips as he does and you hide your smile behind your glass at this gesture, memories of all the times he’d done it before flooding your brain. He looks around the room and spots the loveseat under the window, sitting when you gesture to it. It dawns on you now that you have no idea how to navigate this. Were you still together? Had he found someone else? You hadn’t, but it had been 7 months. 

You sit on the couch next to him, leaving as much space as you could between you both. Setting your glass down on the side table, you shift your body towards him and wait.

Frankie clears his throat, fishing something from his pocket. “I’m 7 months clean.” He reaches out, turning his palm up, showing off his 7 months sober coin from Narcotics Anonymous. 

“Oh, Frankie! That’s amazing! I’m so pr-”

Frankie holds up a hand. “Please. Let me finish. Or I’m afraid I’ll chicken out.” He chuckles nervously and you pretend to lock your lips and stick the pretend key in your pocket.

“That night was…was rock bottom for me. I have no excuses for any of it. I fell back into old habits with the…with the coke and I knew exactly what I was doing. I guess my body did a detox when I was in the coma but my brain didn’t get the memo.”

He pauses to take a sip of lemonade, clearing his throat as he sets the glass back on the table, wiping his hands on his pants.

“Going back to Flyboyz…I knew where it might end up. Rick was my dealer. I told him I was over that part of my life but..one day he offered it to me and I-I caved. I became worried that you would find out, that anyone would find out that I was back on the drug that caused the crash that nearly killed me, and so..I would lash out. I am so sorry for yelling at you or accusing you of things I know you weren’t doing. You didn’t deserve that.”

He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, calming his nerves to continue. 

“I knew I was in too deep but I just couldn’t bring myself out of it. I told myself in the beginning it would just be to celebrate big occasions, then it was just when I had a hard week, then a rough day, then every day. I would even get high just before coming home to you-”

“Oh that’s why you seemed extra…enthusiastic some days?”

Frankie nods, still not quite meeting your eyes. “Yes. And I’m so sorry. I had told myself I wouldn’t bring it home, but then there I was, high as shit and fucking you and I hated myself. But then I’d do it all over again. I guess maybe I thought I couldn’t get caught? Or maybe I hoped I would get caught? I’m not sure that makes sense.”

He pauses again to take another drink, his hands shaking slightly as he picks up the glass and sets it back down. 

“And then Elizabeth. I heard your concerns but I thought you were the one being worried for nothing. I feel nothing for her and I couldn’t understand why you didn’t see that. Why you couldn’t see that I love you with all that I am. I ignored the fact that Elizabeth had been the one to encourage the drugs when we were married and she definitely didn’t stop them now. Her and Rick are friends,” Frankie answers your questioning look. “Yeah, I know. So many red fucking flags, right?”

He sighs, rubbing his large hand across his face. “But that night, at Flyboyz? When I told you that Rick and I were celebrating my license being reinstated? I knew there would be drugs and drinking. I didn’t expect Elizabeth to be there but Rick had invited her. When I asked her why she’d even want to be there, she said something about supporting the father of her child or some shit. I was so focused on my next high, I didn’t even question it. And then I got out my kit and Rick started talking about some new repair method for the helios and I was so involved, I just tossed my kit on the table. I had no clue what was happening. I didn’t even realize Elizabeth was sitting next to me until…”

Silence passes between you for a few moments. 

“...until you said my name. I-I really thought you had caught me getting high, that I was finally outed, but then I saw your eyes not on the table but next to me and that’s…that’s when I felt…and then you were running away, and I was shoving Elizabeth away and trying to catch up to you. Cutting my new tires was definitely a move I didn’t expect from you.”

“I didn’t want you catching up to me.” You say it so quiet but to Frankie, it’s like you yelled it.

“I-I wouldn’t have wanted me either. I went back inside and got into it with Elizabeth. Rick eventually let me borrow his keys and I went all over town looking for you. When I saw your things gone, I figured you had gone with Santi so I flew to Colombia-”

“You flew to Colombia??”

Frankie nods. “I thought, for a moment, that you had gone with Santi. Actually with Santi.”

When you say nothing, Frankie looks up at you. “It…was offered. And to be honest Frankie, I thought about it. But then I realized I was just hurt and I would be acting out of anger and hurt and that wasn’t fair to Santi or myself.”

“That’s basically what he told me. I…I wouldn’t have blamed you had you gone with him.” the last part he speaks quietly, nearing whispering it into his glass he picked up before taking another sip. You say nothing. 

“But…when I got back, I remembered a conversation we’d had about places we’d like to live and I remembered you’d said Friday Harbor.. So I hopped on a plane. I had no clue where to look outside of the island, and no hotel is going to give me guest information. So I was walking around and I saw a flyer for a farmer’s market. Figured I’d try there.”

Your heart starts beating rapidly. You were at that farmer’s market and you had sworn you’d seen him that day, but in the end thought it was just your emotions making you see things.

“I turned a corner and there you were, in that sundress I love? With a big hat? You had some carrots in your hand.”

Tears start falling from your eyes as you realize Frankie had remembered all of these small details about you, flew not just to Colombia but also here just to talk to you. But then he didn’t.

“Why..why didn’t you talk to me?”

Frankie smiles sadly. “Would you have wanted to talk to me?”

“No. I suppose not.”

“I-I also realized then that you deserved so much more. And Aurelia too. So I vowed to get my shit together. When I got home, I lined everything up for me being gone a bit and checked myself into rehab. I got out after a few months but I needed to stand on my own 2 feet before I even tried to talk to you. Fuck, I’d hurt you so bad and I just…” He sighs. “I don’t expect you to believe me about Elizabeth, so here.” He reaches in his pocket and pulls out a flashdrive, handing it to you. Hesitating for a moment, you take it, your fingers brushing against his warm hand for a brief moment, making your stomach flutter. 

“What is this?”

“Security camera footage. The main camera was disabled by Rick but he didn’t know the owners had put in new cameras because some animal had kept breaking in and making nests. I was too wrapped up in getting high to remember to turn it off too, but that worked out in my favor I guess.”

You look down at the flash drive and turn it in your hand. “What animal was it?”

Frankie smiles softly. “Racoons.”

He reaches for you but then stops, unsure if he has a right to touch you anymore. “Anyway, just watch, Hermosa. I don’t expect you to forgive me, or even want to talk to me beyond this. But you deserve an explanation, no matter how bad it makes me look. I’ll…I’ll leave you be.”

He stands, stretching a little before giving you a small smile. “I really am sorry, Hermosa. I am…I’m sorry.” He walks to the front door, closing it quietly behind him.

The room is filled with the sounds from the harbor a couple blocks away, the smell of coffee wafting up as it does every once in a while from the shop below. Taking a deep breath, you sit at the little kitchen island you’d made a small desk and pop the flash drive into your laptop. There’s only one file on it so you hover over it, hesitating before you double click to open it. 

It’s definitely camera footage. You can see the days work, Frankie helping out customers and then leaving to come back in. The setup of the party and Rick setting out the drinks and drugs, some other people coming in along with Elizabeth. Your blood boils seeing her but already you can see Frankie annoyed with her, his body language showing that he didn’t want her there or around him. The evening progresses and you swallow hard, seeing Frankie take lines off the table, sitting back and rubbing his finger along his gums. That’s why his mouth tasted weird. 

Frankie turns slightly, talking to Rick. That’s when you notice Elizabeth come and sit next to Frankie, slowly scooting closer and closer to him. Her hand starts to twirl the hair sticking out from under his cap and Frankie sort of shrugs, but doesn’t really make a move, too involved in the conversation he’s having. You watch, bile rising in your stomach as Elizabeth’s other hand starts to move up his thigh and slowly over to palm him, Frankie shifting only slightly, the only indication that he noticed anything was happening, but that was just an automatic reflex.

“Frankie?” 

You hear your own voice on the camera, Frankie’s head snapping in your direction and looking down at the table with fear in his eyes. A second later and he turns his head to the side, a look of sheer surprise and outrage on his face as he sees Elizabeth, shoving her hand away. He yells at her and jumps up, presumably following you out of the door. He comes back in a minute later, body language showing his anger, yelling at Elizabeth, telling her she had no right to touch him, to even be there, that he wanted to never see her outside of dropping Aurelia off and picking her up. That he would ask for supervised drop offs. That she’s only to contact him via a special co-parenting app unless it’s an emergency. That she ruined their relationship and then divorced him while in a coma, pawning his daughter off on his best friend. That she can fuck right off. Rick hands him his keys a short bit later and he’s gone, Elizabeth finally looking defeated.

He was right. He had been telling the truth when he said he didn’t know what Elizabeth was doing. You had thought he was telling the truth but couldn’t be sure, that seed of doubt having been planted there by Elizabeth herself, showing up to the house and staying with them, falling asleep on his couch, all of it. She was still trying to drive a wedge between you but this time it seemed because she finally realized what she had lost.

And then he flew to an entirely different country only to find out you weren’t there. He remembered a conversation you must have had when you were what, 23? About how much you’d love to live in Friday Harbor? And then he shows up, finds you, but then realizes he needs to get his shit together before he can ever hope to talk to you? And he does. He’s clean, his appearance verifies that. And then he gives you proof that he had not been doing anything with Elizabeth, that she was the bitch you always knew she was. 

You’re not sure what to do with all of this information, but you don’t want Frankie to leave. Something has to be said. You throw on your boots, grabbing your keys and throwing open the door, not entirely sure where to go. He’d mentioned just coming in off the ferry, so it’s possible he doesn’t have a car. 

Heading into all the shops in the vicinity, you still haven’t found Frankie. None of the closest hotels have seen a man fitting the description of Frankie, so you head towards the closest cafe, thinking he maybe stopped in for an early dinner. Glancing towards the docks, you see the little covered ticket office for the ferry and something tells you to check there. Crossing the street, you walk up to the office and peek inside, seeing no one. Remembering there was open seating around the back, you walk that direction and turn the corner, a pair of brown eyes snapping up to meet yours. 

“Hermosa?”

“There you are. I’ve been looking for you.”

He raises his eyebrows, his eyes growing wide. “You have?”

“Yeah- wait. Why are you waiting here? You know the last ferry left like an hour ago, right?”

Frankie shrugs, glancing down before looking back up at you. “I meant to be on it.”

“You were going to just drop all that on me and leave?”

“No no not like that! I just…I didn’t want to invade your space any longer than I needed to.”

You nod, looking at him and realizing that he only had a small backpack with him. You’d assumed he had a suitcase somewhere but he meant it when he said he didn’t intend to stay. 

“Are you seeing someone else?” You blurted out, unable to hold back that question any longer.

“I- what? No. No, I’m…I’m not. Are…are you?”

“No.”

“Oh. Ok. G-good.”

You take another few seconds to think about what you wanted to do next. 

“Come on.” You jerk your head back towards the town. “Let’s go.”

Frankie’s eyes are wide like a puppy. “Wh-what?”

“Frankie, I’m not going to let you sit in the ferry station all night.”

“Oh. No, I mean, I can go get a room-”

“This is a small town, Frankie. Most of the front desks are closed by now. Especially since it’s off season.”

“Oh. I-I can stay here. It’s ok-”

“Come on, Frankie. It gets cold at night. I’m not letting you freeze out here.”

“I don’t want to put you out.”

Sighing, you walk over to him, slowly extending your hand towards him. He looks up at you, eyes wide and round, and he slowly puts his hand in yours. The moment he touches you, your body relaxes, like the tension that had been there for the last several months just left your body. If Frankie feels it too he doesn’t let on, and you think maybe you’ve overstepped. So you drop his hand and gesture towards the direction of your place. A look passes over Frankie’s face but then it’s gone and he’s following you. Once you get inside, Frankie kicks off his boots and hangs his jacket on a hook on the wall, setting his backpack down on the floor. 

“Hungry?” You ask. 

“Yeah, actually. I meant to get something to eat but I was trying to make the ferry.”

“I’ll make us something. And don’t say you don’t want to put me out, I’m hungry too.”

Tossing together a quick charcuterie board, you hand him a glass of sweet tea, sliding the board across the breakfast bar. Frankie and you settle into polite conversation, each trying not to overstep the other. 

Why is this so hard?

After dinner, you disappear into the bathroom, putting on your pajamas and getting ready for bed. When you come out, Frankie is sitting on the loveseat, nervously tapping his foot on the ground. Crossing the room, you sit on the bed, swinging your legs over to lay on top of the sheets, your upper half leaning against the headboard. 

“Why are you way over there?” You ask.

“I uh…I’ll just sleep on the couch.”

You roll your eyes. “Frankie, I can’t even lay on that couch and I’m shorter than you. Come on, you can have this side.” You pat the bed next to you and watch as his eyes widen.

“I-no. Are…are you sure?”

“Of course. I don’t want you to hurt your hip. And plus, you can see the tv better.”

“Oh well, in that case.” Frankie chuckles, a nervous tone to it as he gets up, crossing the room to sit on the bed, pausing to start fiddling with his belt. He slides his jeans off, standing there in his boxers as he pulls off his outer flannel, revealing an undershirt. He notices you watching and asks:

“Is this ok?”

“I-y-yeah. It’s fine.”

Frankie sets his clothes down and sits on the bed, sliding his legs down and stretching out. 

“This bed is pretty comfy.”

“Yeah. I bought it. The mattress they had sucked.”

You turn on the TV, flipping through the channels and putting on some reality show that Frankie was secretly obsessed with. His arm lay next to him on the bed and you glance down at it, almost unconsciously moving your arm towards him. Your fingers are right next to his, your heart is beating through your chest and you swear he can hear it. Reaching your pinkie finger out, you gently touch it to his own, not daring to look at him, fully giving him time to move and pull away. But he doesn’t. Frankie’s pinkie finger slowly moves over yours and links with it, like you were making a silent pinkie promise. You stay like that for several minutes, your mind racing, not taking in a word of the show. 

After a few minutes, you feel Frankie start to unlink his finger from yours and your heart sinks a little, until you feel his fingers creeping across the top of your hand, lacing them with yours and squeezing your hand. His skin is warm, soft, despite the callouses he has from piloting the helicopters, but it’s familiar. It’s Frankie. 

Another several minutes passes and Frankie slowly picks up your hand, shifting his hand under yours, lacing your fingers together as he brings the back of your hand up to his lips, placing a very gentle kiss there. Goosebumps erupt across your skin, your chest heaving from holding back, when he speaks, soft and low. 

“There was never anyone else.”

When you turn to look at him, he’s already looking at you, eyes heavy with love and admiration, but also hesitation and worry, like he’s afraid he’s overstepping. 

“It’s always been you Frankie.”

He gently pulls you to him, holding your face close to his but pausing to take a look at you. His eyes roam over your face, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he gently brushes some hair from your face.

“I am so sorry, Hermosa. We’ve missed out on so much time because of me-”

You cut him off by pressing your lips to his, feeling a few tears fall down your face at finally kissing the man you’ve been in love with since you were 19. He kisses you back, softly parting your lips with his own, sliding his tongue into your mouth. He cradles the back of your head in one large hand, holding you to him as you gently make out. Soft moans and a whimper escapes Frankie and he breaks the kiss, pressing your forehead to his.

“I thought I’d lost you.”

“For a moment, I thought I’d lost you too.”

He kisses you again, deeper this time, and you continue to make out for several minutes before you pull back, kissing the top of his nose as you lay down, cuddling into him, Frankie wrapping his arms around you and pulling you in close to him. You fall asleep like that and wake up the next day still entangled in each others arms. Frankie is already awake when you stir, tracing little circles on your skin. 

“Hey Frankie?”

“Mmm?”

“Let’s go home.”

—----

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Chapter 17>>