#I'll post one more video after this and maybe later tomorrow I'll make some better quality gifs

[jaarijani]

Joker Out in Melkweg Amsterdam 06/12/23

[muffinrecord]

Current Plans + Musings

I don't plan on playing Exedra to the degree I did for Magia Record, or playing it at all. Because of that, I won't be taking an active role in the community and archiving anything for it. Of course, if Exedra has like amazing gameplay and stories then this is all subject to change, but for now I think I'm done with phone games.

The two youtube channels will stay up and I'll check em periodically to make sure there aren't copyright strikes against the content. I've saved all my raw files, especially for the battle animations, so I can remake them in the future if the music ever becomes a problem for some reason.

Google Drive will stay up until Google rots away. I haven't recorded footage in a long time (as in stories, I do for the character doppels and such), but I'll upload things if they're sent to me.

Magia Union Translations still plans on translating things and making videos, especially leading up to the end, but also for after the game is over for whatever wasn't made in time. I'm not sure what form this will take in the future-- if it'll be manual captions added to the videos or not, but I know it WILL happen.

As for this blog, I'm not going to delete it or anything. However I'm going to be taking a step back. I'd like to say that I'll do liveblogs but I mean... *gestures at blog* I've been saying that for years and the only one I really did successfully was the Oriko one lmao. Ahhh oh well.

I'll have more words later, but it was really fun to be part of a fandom experience like this. I'm excited to work on my own original story projects though and quiet down a bit.

...

When I started this blog, I never expected it to have people actually read it. Or look at it. I just wanted a place to gush about how much fun I was having. I didn't even want to tag the posts with "Magia Record" at first because I was terrified people would be mean at me, haha.

But I'm glad I did. I made so many good friends through this game. I'm glad it existed. And it made me happy to have a place where people cared about what I had to say. Some folks actually got their news from here, can you imagine that? They had notifications turned on for this blog. My god.

Anyways, I'm going to be here for the next two months, and tomorrow I'll start reblogging fan projects and initiatives, plus general news. Maybe this blog will turn into a dumping site for art and fanfic reblogs, who knows. I might watch the remaining stuff and add various thoughts here and there.

Otherwise, you can find me on my main blog @malignmuffin, which only reblogs stuff (I don't talk much if at all there). I have another tumblr blog for my comic, but I think I'll reshare the name once I actually have content you can look at on it. It's pretty bare bones for the moment.

Actually it'll be funny if the end of this game is what makes me finally work on it again. I was in the process of working on it when NA came out, and it totally derailed me. Stopped writing, drawing, just focused on this silly little phone game. Now it's like those five years have gone by and I'm going back to where I started, except I think my lil comic is going to be a bit better than it was before. If I actually make it, that is.

If I ever do actually make my comic and start posting it, I'll be sure to update y'all here. hah

Anyways, thanks for being on this wild ride with me. The memories have been great, and I'm glad I had this experience, even if it had to end.

[hamiltonaf]

Seeking His Attention | Lando Norris

Pairing: Lando Norris x Female Reader

Word Count: 1.9K

Warnings: None

A/N: This was written quite a while back on Wattpad so I thought of posting it on here. Due to it being written ages ago, there will be no sequel unfortunately. However, there’s more one shots to follow. Hope you guys enjoy .xoxo

When the doorbell rang, I assumed it would be no one else but the girls. I opened the door and was greeted by just who I thought it would be, "Hey girls" I smiled. "Hi (Y/N/N)" they greeted back as they gave me a hug. Lando stood behind them with a smile on his face. "They won't be staying the night" he said as he crossed his arms over his chest. Ciska rolled her eyes whilst Flo made her way into the house.

"Why not ?" I asked as I raised a brow. "They have some thing at school tomorrow morning" he said. "Ohh okay then that's fine" I gave him a small smile. "Yeah I guess I'll see you later then, have fun" he said as he ran his fingers through his hair. He was all dressed to go out and he didn't even mention a word about where his going...wow some best friend he is. "Thanks. You too" I waved him off as I went inside and shut the door behind me. Ciska and Flo stared at me as my back was against the door. "Tomorrow's Saturday" I said confused.

"That it is" Flo said. "Do you'll really have to go to school tomorrow morning ?" I asked in confusion. "Nope" Ciska answered. "Then what was his deal ?" I asked as I raised my hands. "You'll find out later tonight" Flo said as Ciska laughed. "Oh god well I hope you'll are right" I said as I shook my head and started walking to my room.

They trailed behind me which my bestie was quick to stand up and greet them since she was familiar with them. We decided to play a few board games such as Ludo and Monopoly which I won or dominated by the way. Oldies are goldies.

After playing a few games we decided on watching a movie, it was hard for all four of us to come to a decision but finally we decided to watch High School Musical for like the tenth time.

Just before the introduction I decided to scroll through my Instagram for a quick minute so that I didn't miss anything important.

Lando's Instagram story was the first to pop up on my list and I was lowkey eager to see what he was up to. He had posted a video of his friend trying to imitate him and surrounded by him were not only his guy friends but a few girl friends as well. My heart actually dropped at the thought of him being romantically involved with one of them and me not knowing all this time, especially thinking that I had a chance for the past 2 years.

Directly after he had reposted another girls Instagram story, it was her attempt of Carlos and Lando's 'beat drop challenge' which just made me cringe since the song didn't even get to the beat, and instead her and the friend in the video were just trying to look pretty...pathetic.

Me being curious, I decided to do some snooping through this girls account. I've noticed both Oliver and Lando follow her. Lovely. She appears to be a model, even better. Looking at a few of her posts I see that Lando already liked a few of them. One post she's seen to be naked and has a 'wet' look as if she just came out of the shower, mans had the audacity to comment a bathtub emoji on her post. Smh.

"(Y/N/N) the movie is about to start" Flo said as she nudged me. "Are y'all seeing this shit ?" I said as I continued to scroll through her posts. "Who's that ?" Ciska asked as she looked over my shoulder. "Oh I don't know, maybe your future sister-in-law" I said sarcastically. Both of them stifling a laugh, even my best friend. "Oh my god no" Ciska said. "She's pretty though" my best friend piped. "Not what I need to hear right now, thanks" I faked a smile.

"This chick didn't even do the challenge correctly and your brother gives her some fame on his story plus making her feel important by commenting, and liking her photos" I scoffed. "Awww is (Y/N) feeling jealous ?" (Y/F/N) teased. "Oh my god no" I faked a laugh. "We know you well enough by now to know when you're lying" Flo smiled. "I ain't jealous guys. If he likes this chick then I'm happy for him" I faked a smile. "Okay, whatever you say (Y/N/N)" Ciska said with a playful smile.

I looked between the 3 of them then locked my phone to place it to the side so they could continue playing the movie. As much as I tried to forget about Lando, the thought of him and that girl hanging out tonight kept crossing my mind. Ughhh.

It was getting late, almost midnight and no sign of Lando or even Oliver that they're going to pick up the girls. After the movie was over we decided to make some pancakes since we didn't know what else to eat at this hour. I decided to make the batter and the girls were going to toast them so it would be faster.

Half way through making the batter I get a phone call and it's from none other than Lando. "Oh would you look at that" I said as I glanced at my phone screen. "Oooooh" the girls cooed. I rolled my eyes and shook my head at them. "Could one of you answer instead because I'm busy" I said. Flo answered the call with a grin, "Hellooo" she said.

She then looked at me, "She's busy at the moment" she smiled. He's asking about me I assume. "You wanna talk to her ?" she asked playfully. Oh gosh. "Okay hold on" she smiled as she then handed the phone to me. "He wants to talk to you" she whispered. I stiffened as I stopped whisking and took the phone from her hand.

The 3 of them watching intently. "Hello ?" I answered. "Hey, you busy ?" He asked. "Well I was in the middle of making pancakes but you clearly have something important to say" I said sarcastically which made the girls laugh. "Uhm yeah, I know it's late but I'm on my way to pick up the girls. I'm just leaving from here so I'll be there in a few" he said. "Are you sure it's safe ? They can stay over, I don't mind" I suggested. "Nope it's fine. Give me 10 minutes" he said. "Drive safely please, speeding your way here is not worth it" I said. "I will. See you in a bit" he said lastly. "Okay byeee" I said before ending the call.

"Y'all sound like a couple already" Ciska said. "You guys need to stop" I said as I couldn't help but crack a smile and finished off making the batter. It luckily didn't take us that long after to toast the pancakes and cover them with Nutella, and some fruit as well. As we were eating we heard the rev of his car outside. "Looks like he's here" I said blandly. "That's our call" Flo said as she and Ciska got up. They both hugged me and (Y/F/N) before waving us off. "Thank you for an amazing time" Flo smiled. "Anytime" I smiled back. "Why don't you come out ?" Ciska suggested playfully. "Nah I'm fine here thanks" I giggled, I know what they're up to. "Byeee !" They yelled on their way out.

Lando's P.O.V

I was a bit upset to only see the girls come out and no sign of (Y/N). "Where's (Y/N) ?" I asked as I rolled the window down. "Inside" Ciska said. "Is she not coming out ?" I questioned. "She's upset with you so she rather stay inside" Flo said. "What did I do ?" I asked shocked. "Why did you have to post that girl on your story because now she thinks you're not interested in her you fool" Ciska shook her head as she got inside the car. "You've got to be joking" I said stunned. "You should've seen her face, poor thing thought that friend of yours is our future sister-in-law" Flo said as she pouted. "Oh my god. Shit" I said as I held my head in my hands.

"So much for trying to make things work with her this weekend" Ciska said as she rolled her eyes. "Hooter and she'll come outside" Flo suggested. I did as she told me but doing it once didn't help so I hooted 2 more times. A hot and angry looking (Y/N) stepped outside, storming towards my car as she leaned against the door. "Have you lost it ? It's past 12am and you're hooting for the whole damn neighbourhood to hear you" she said. "It's an excuse to get you to come outside" I smiled. "I'm here now, what could be so important this time ?" She asked. "Uhm...do you maybe want to go out tomorrow, like an all day date" I said.

"I would love to but I'm sure you already have someone who can replace me like that girl on your story" she faked a smile and turned around to walk back into the house. "Go after her !" the girls yelled. I jumped out of the car and caught up with her just before she can go inside by grabbing a hold of her hand. "I know what you're thinking and it's nothing like that I swear. It has and always will be you. I really like you okay ? I have for a very long time, I just couldn't find the urge to tell you since I was worried you didn't feel the same" I said as I rubbed soothing circles on her hands.

"Hard to believe that when you comment and like all that girls posts, plus you just got back from a night out with not only your guy friends but girl friends as well and you didn't tell me" she said as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you my girlfriend that I need to tell you everything I do and everywhere I go ?" I asked to piss her off. "You know what just go away" she said as she walked away. I wrapped my arms around her as I held her from behind. "I know you feel the same since you're clearly jealous, you don't have to say it, I just like messing with you. I'll pick you up tomorrow at 11am, don't leave me hanging" I said before kissing her cheek and running off to the car. I noticed the smile on her face when I got into the car. I hooted and winked at her one last time before driving off.

[watercolor-hearts]

hey v, just wanted to ask if you were ok/better after yesterday bc today i have seen some of the george hate and i have lost braincells 💀

🥺❤ Hi dear, thank you for asking. ❤

I try to be okay because I have a lot of uni homework to do (it's insane that we get like 3-4 drawings to make for next week's lesson or for the one two weeks later... I have almost zero free time and it makes me sad because I want to write and there are prompts and own ideas waiting for me...) and they kinda help me not to think about what happened but yeah, I saw some not so nice comments, even though I try really hard not to open any comment sections or anything.

Sadly Facebookon keeps recommending me F1 groups (I wish I knew how to stop it) and there was a post in one of them about George's post race interview and the poster wrote that it looks like George cried or was about to cry and someone commented that what makes a difference between men and boys is that men don't cry. And it made me fucking angry because 1.) it's a fucking stupid thing to say, 2.) one of the things I really like about George is that how emotional he is. (And then I wanted to cry but it's not new, for some reason I always find a reason to feel like I want to cry... Maybe stress relief or I don't know. 🤦🏻‍♀️ (And maybe the Carlos hate added a bit to it but I don't even want to mention it because I could write a fucking essay on it...))

And also, the usual comments that for George his result is more important than the team result, he's selfish, he's shit etc. etc.

I'm a bit tired because this is/was hell of an emotional rollercoaster. In one minute I'm happy and I'm smiling while watching videos of Carlos (and Lando) and then fucking Facebook or Tumblr recommends me a George (or Carlos) hate post and there goes my mood. It's so difficult to be happy for Carlos (I am!) and sad for George at the same time. They're the two people I can't decide between if there's a question of which one of them I like more, so right now I don't really know what to do with my emotions.

To be honest I just wanna read some good comfort fics, especially with George. 🥺❤ (And I've found one, and it was truly amazing. And there are some Carlando and Charlos ones waiting on my marked for later list as well but I don't know when I'll read them because I should work on my homework for tomorrow...)

Anyway, thank you so much again for checking on me, it means a lot. ❤ It's not easy to be a George fan, especially when something like this happens. But this is racing, this is life, and I should now shut up (because I talk a lot and I don't want to repeat the same things over and over again (I tend to) just because I'm hurt and it's unusual for me to have people care about me enough to ask how I am and make me want to tell everything because what if it's my only chance... 🤦🏻‍♀️ Oh god, this sounds so stupid...).

Have a nice day/night, Nyx. ❤

[writingsfromhome]

Hi love! Don’t know if you’re taking requests but If you want to write some fluff stuff, could you write something about Harry and Reader doing stuff like in this video? It could be so cuteeee🥺🥺 https://twitter.com/theharrylibrary/status/1521163649712275456?s=21&t=SvkQW4wsxu8c5MSiPKxPOg

Hi hi hello!! I started this months ago when you first sent it and only remembered I didn’t post it when I saw the release of this movie is tomorrow! How time flies!

All the press around the movie, not really sure if it’s strategic PR or it really is a shitshow. If anyone watches the movie, please judge it for me because I don’t think I will lol. I just want to make it clear this fic is inspired by the gifs, but in no way are we hyper-fixating on the movie/intimate scenes because Harry’s in them. Flo’s an incredibly talented and hard-working actress as she’s mentioned and is much more than that.

All love and respect. Hope this is what you had in mind. Lmk what u think. Thanks for requesting 🫰🏼🤍

———————————————

I look at him across the dinner table, buzzing with anticipation: "Well? Do you like it?"

"Mhm," he hums his response whilst chewing the dinner I'd made. "Yeah!"

"Okay," I lower my shoulders. "Okay…I was nervous you wouldn't like it. This is good! You like it! First dinner of the house!"

He just watches me as my grin grows. "I'll make a copy of the recipe to save it since you like it!"

"Okay," he reaches across the table, palm turned up. "I love you, you know that?"

I blush despite myself, I can't help it. "You better. You're stuck with me now!"

I lay my hand in his, the rock on my finger glinting in the light as if to emphasize my words.

"I don't know about stuck," he threads his fingers through mine and tugs.

"I do," I get up and walk the foot around the table. He tugs me down onto his lap.

"Well if I get bored there's always the D word."

"Death?" I smirk, death do us part.

He exhales. "I was thinking about Divo-“

I stop him with a hand over his mouth. "The ink hasn't even dried on our certificate!"

"Superstitious are we?" He asks, amused.

"No," I roll my eyes. "I just don't like that D word."

"I have a better one," he chuckles. I put my hand over his mouth again but I'm laughing with him. He removes my hand and pulls me closer, "I was going to say Darling."

"Of course you were," I laugh which is cut short as he presses a kiss against my neck. It doesn’t take long before our kissing becomes too passionate for the dinner table.

"Mmm," I part. "Are you done with dinner? Maybe we should take this elsewhere…”

"Yeah," he gets up gently and I land on my feet. I wrap my arms around him from behind as he picks his plate up, walking against him like a shadow as he drops his plate on the countertop. He turns in my embrace with a lazy smile that makes my heart stutter. This man was mine.

We walk backwards like that, and when my back hits our bedroom door, he captures my waist in his strong arms.

"C'mere woman."

"I'm here," I mumble against his lips.

"You're here," he says against my ear as he guides my hand to his chest. His heart beats strongly underneath.

"If I knew what a softie you were when we first met..."

"You would've married me sooner?" He mumbles into my neck. I giggle-actually giggle. He somehow turned me into a schoolgirl.

My first impression of Harry, was at a baseball game of all places. My friends and I had sat in the row behind him and his friends. They were a rowdy bunch, pumped on adrenaline, but he made sure to catch my eye a few times too many throughout the game. I'd rolled my eyes at his attempt at flirting.

He cornered me after the game but he was too loud, too brash, too much testosterone.

It was only bumping into him at the grocer's a few weeks later, seeing him debate between brown and white sugar that shone a different light. I agreed to lunch, not quite sure if I wanted to go on a date with a man like Harry. But once he got comfortable, he dropped the macho act. I saw a sweet caring man I wanted to write my future with.

I watch him now from the bed. He twirls a record before playing it. "Setting the mood," he says sheepishly as he walks back to me.

"Need an aid to get into the mood do we Mr. Styles?" I ask. He wraps his arms around my waist and I stretch my arms over his sculpted shoulders.

"I thought you might like it," he touches his forehead to mine. "I know you like Bridges."

"Mmm," I close my eyes and lean into the moment. Sometimes I had to keep from pinching myself to believe this moment was real.

"You're my whole world Y/N," Harry says with a soft kiss.

I look up into his eyes, I don't need to say anything because he knows it's mutual.

We sway to the music for a while, I don’t know what’s on his mind but I’m just grounding myself in this. In us.

As the record changes to something with more energy, Harry changes with it.

He picks me up, bride-style, and dumps me onto the bed. I squeal, laughing because the kisses he peppers along my neck tickles me.

"Ticklish?" He raises an eyebrow before attacking my sides.

"I'm not-I-stop!" I can barely get a word in as I squirm underneath.

"What's that?" He asks me as I try to push him off.

“I-I’m gonna-argh!” I manage to hook my leg around Harry and push him off. I’m a fool to think he’d give me a moment to catch my breath.

My legs are yanked and my body flies towards the edge of the bed, to Harry.

“You’ve got some strong legs,” his hands wrap over my thighs.

“Better to squeeze you with,” I do just that with him standing between them.

“I-“ Harry stands up straight. “D’you smell that?”

I think he’s joking until I sniff the air-shit. “Dessert!”

In the blink of an eye I’ve pushed Harry away and dashed into the smoking kitchen. By the time I pull the pie out, it resembles the aftermath of a dumpster fire.

“Oh no,” I groan. “The fucking dessert!”

“That smells really awful,” Harry comments, opening up the nearest window. I fan the air around us but it’s useless against the overwhelming smell. I lean against the island instead, head in my hands. “Oh love, Y/N, don’t cry over this.”

“I’m not I just,” I swipe at my cheeks. “I just wanted our first dinner in the house to be perfect.”

“Perfect’s just a word…it’s probably better this way anyway.” He takes the pan with the blackened pie and tosses the whole thing in the trash. I rub away the remaining tears, deciding not to turn this night into a sad affair.

“At least it’s memorable,” I try to spin it like Harry always does. “It can make a good story-wait. Did you say it’s probably better this way?”

“Uh…yeah,” Harry flexes his arms, straightening them by his sides before finally crossing them over his chest. That’s how I know he’s hiding something. “Like better because everything happens for a reason.”

“Hmm,” I tap my chin, knowing how to make him squirm. “Hmmmmm.”

“What?” He says defensively. But he stays put—my second clue he was hiding something. Usually he would be walking towards me, comforting me.

My eyes catch the remains of dinner. Oh my god. That was it. “Hold up. Did you not like my dinner?”

“What?! Why would you say that?”

“You’re not answering the question! Did you lie?”

“It was good, I ate it!” He puts his hand up as I stalk towards him.

“But did you like it?” I’m in his face now and he can’t hide from me. His hands drop, shoulders sagging. He folds.

“It was a good effort love, but quite salty. And very dry.”

I can’t help it. I burst out laughing. The whole first-night-in-the-house dinner was all shit! The fact that I, a terrible cook, thought I could pull this off.

I replay Harry trying to lie his way out and double over laughing.

“Wha-“ Harry looks at me in confusion. “Are you…? You’re not mad?”

“It’s all tits up!” I sink to the floor laughing and Harry chuckles. “I’m not even a good cook what was I bloody thinking!?”

Harry joins in, and soon we’re both on the floor wiping away tears of laughter.

“I thought you were going to D-word me,” Harry says when we finally settle down.

“My dinner might’ve done that for me,” I joke. It gets another laugh out of him.

“I loved it—I did, even thought it didn’t taste very good.” Harry wraps his arm around me. “I love that you want to create these memories in our new home. That you thought you could cook a 5 star meal when I’ve watched you burn toast multiple times.”

“That toaster was broken.”

“Of course it was,” he kisses the side of my head “How about I get dinner duty tomorrow?”

“That’s two Ds,” I look up at him. “And I’ll make it a third—Deal.”

He shakes his head at me, pressing his lips to my forehead before untangling himself.

“C’mon,” he holds his hand out to help me up. “Tonight we’ll break this house in, make some memories. We’ll leave the mess for tomorrow.”

“And I didn’t even have to ask nicely,” I joke as I take his hand.

“Don’t worry Darling,” Harry pulls me up into his arms. “You never have to ask for this.”

He sweeps me off my feet and carries me into our only furnished bedroom. A girl could get used to this, I think. And the night was just beginning.

[jesslockwood]

Photo Opportunities

Word Count: 2.7k

Pairing(s): Tom Holland x Actress!Reader

Warnings: FLUFF with a slightly (barely) suggestive sentence towards the end 

A/n: damn I can't write anything except actress reader? smh but this is for @londonspidey ‘s sit-com Writing challenge (ik I'm early lol) but I was so excited I wrote the whole thing in one go lmao the prompt is bolded!

Calling yourself a fan was an understatement. You were obsessed with anything and everything marvel. And oddly enough, you could after today say you were in the club. It wasn’t a public fact yet, until later that day actually, at the Marvel panel at comic con that you were being announced as the actress for the character, Felica Hardy and no one else knew except for the people who cast you and your best friend who signed an NDA. You were technically still a known actress for your roles on television mainly as Thalia on the PJO Disney + series and a couple of still decently sized films. 

You were currently wrapping up signing autographs for fans of yours for today. Your team had planned it out so it wasn’t suspicious that you were at the con with a few of your castmates scattered doing other junkets and press so people wouldn’t guess who they were acting as the cast for new marvel projects. 

You had been planning to go meet your best friend, who wasn’t in the industry before getting a text that she bought you both a photo-op with someone and she wouldn’t tell you who. You couldn’t only assume it was a marvel actor that you would indeed, freak out. 

Y/b/n: btw I brought you a mask. I get the wig lol.

You: please tell me it doesn’t cover my full face. Also, how are we posing?

Y/b/n: I bought as many photo ops as I could so a lot of different ones, And if I tell you the poses it’ll spoil it.

You: is this with the money I pay you to be my assistant with? Lol fine I’m omw with security

Y/b/n: maybe… 

Y/b/n: and they’ll need more backup security for who we’re getting a photo op with than you do for your hellfire.

You roll your eyes before taking your stuff and exiting the booth, before heading out the backways with staff security and your detailed security for the day. You only had security because you wanted to explore the con when you weren’t needed.

Your best friend had also been your assistant for the con weekend, but you didn’t want her to be confined to you the whole three days so when she could, you would let her explore it, at least she could experience it as a fan, right?

When you made it to that part of the building, you wanted to wait in line with her, which your security didn’t agree to so she texted you when there were about five people ahead of her. She was one of the last in line, with you asking her to be kind, so others would get their chance to be first with whomever it was. 

When she texted you and your detailed exit, getting a few stares and others taking their phones out to either take photos or tweet, you wave at them before joining your best friend in line.

“Here,” she says before handing you none other than a black cat mask before she puts on a red wig. 

You glare at her slightly trying to not make a scene, before putting it on. 

“I’m assuming you're Mary Jane?” you laugh figuring out that it had to be someone from Spider-Man.

“How’d you- never mind.” She laughs with you.

She then explains how she’s going to pose for your five photo ops, joking in between how she should “get a raise for this”.

You catch sight of him before sucking in your breath. This was either going to go down amazingly or terribly, there was no in-between with you. 

“Excuse Me, are you Y/n Y/l/n?”

You turn around and are met by some fans who were standing in line behind you.

“I am! How’s your con going?” you ask politely to the two of them.

“It's going amazing! We love you as Thalia! Could we maybe get a picture? Only if it’s okay?”

“Of course! Thank you for supporting me!” your best friend grabs their phone to take the photo, before you take off the mask, and stand between the two fans, and your best friend snaps a few photos. 

“Thank you so much! And Are you fans of Tom?”

You start slowly walking back to catch up to the line. 

“Yeah, I love him as Spiderman, but I also enjoy his other roles. He's very talented, I'd love to work with him one day!” 

“Have you seen him in Uncharted?  We love Him as Nathan drake!”

“I have, he was amazing per usual! How are you two posing with him?”

They show you their innovative pose. You laugh and tell them it's great before you have to wish them goodbye before heading up for your turn for the photo op. 

“How do we want to pose- hang on, I recognize you!”

You freeze slightly before your friend mouths for you to flirt. You look down at the mask in your hand before getting into character and saying “Of course you do Spidey, I'm always causing you trouble.” you put on the mask and wink. 

He seems slightly stunned, laughing, feeling like he’s seen you somewhere, not only because he found you extremely gorgeous, while in his peripheral vision he sees his brother/ assistant, Harry waving like a madman on the side. 

Your friend directs you both through the poses, first, one both him putting “webs” onto you as she looks over his shoulder, the second one, both of you kissing his cheeks, the third, all jumping in the air in your best superhero poses, the fourth one she gets a photo op alone and the last one she gives to you,

“Seriously, who are you?”

“Your Wildest dreams, baby,” you say, taking off the mask. 

Your best friend yells “freestyle” from the sidelines before Tom dips you, gently, with you shocked, holding the mask out with your free arm and the photo captures that moment. 

 He gently helps you stand back up fully, not before you drop the mask.

“Nice moves Spider-Man.”

“Not so bad yourself, Black Cat.”

You laugh before, taking off with your best friend, well more her dragging you to the printing station leaving the mask behind. Tom picks it up before shoving it in his back pocket to hopefully give back if he could find you. 

-

`You were sitting in the green room, trending on Twitter before you were actually supposed to be trending on Twitter, and god knows where else.  

Someone had snuck a video of you and Tom, up till him dipping you, and a video of you interacting with the fans in the line.

Your Y/b/n was currently reading off some tweets out loud

“‘A kind queen we stan.’  I agree, I also agree with ‘Date her if you can't date me tom!!!’.

‘THALIA AND PETER PARKER??? My two fandoms have collided.’ same, same. Oo this one says, ‘if she ain’t playing black cat I will sue marvel.’ I'm dying at the reply ‘She needs to post the photos or I'll sue her!’. This one’s funny, ‘she could squash him like a bug in heels but he liked his queen like that.’.”

She pauses watching you texting.

“Y/n? Y/n?”

“What? Sorry I was only half listening. I was texting my publicist. She said to stay on the DL until tonight. 

“Well we should get food, you haven't eaten since this morning.”

“By the way, your show has shot to number one on Disney +. Also, you have like three times the followers you had before, probably cause you're trending on every platform, even Tumblr!”

“Wow you should just become my social media manager now.” you joke trying to ease the joy yet weirded out feeling in your stomach.

“Does that come with a raise? Because after today I've spent way too much of what I'm paid.” she jokes back.

-

After finishing his photo ops Tom asked Harry who she was and to find out. By the time he finished autographs for the day, Tom and Harry walked to the panel room in the back for announcements, one that included him for the new Avengers movie, while Harry gave him the rundown.

“So she’s an actress, she plays Thalia on Disney plus’ Percy Jackson series, and that's her most known project. The other girl with her is her assistant best friend, and now she's trending everywhere. People dug up some old photos of her being a marvel/Spider-Man fan, so there's that. And she's here at the con for the rest of the weekend. She's doing photo ops tomorrow at one, and yes she's single from what I gather since you were looking at her like this.” he makes a weird face before tom smacks him.

“And plus you have time in your schedule to get a photo op with her, that is if you eat lunch quickly.”

That gave Tom an idea. 

“Harry I’m going to need you to book me one, oh and help me find a Spider-Man costume!” He says, before leaving harry to do ‘assistant’ work. entering the green room for the announcements, watching them announce a new movie.

“We are so excited to announce to the Marvel Universe, and spider-verse-” that perked tom’s ears, “-directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and today we are announcing our amazing Miss Felicia Hardy, please give a warm welcome to the stage, Your Black Cat!”

You suddenly emerged in an aisle way, dressed in all black with a leather jacket, black ankle boots, and of course black sunglasses indoors.

The music is marvel music until it suddenly changes after a recorded laugh from you into “I can’t be tamed by Miley Cyrus”.

You start owning the music while saying hi and touching fans’ hands. You decide to take off your sunglasses and throwing them to a fan, for them to keep, before getting on stage.

“What a Performance from the one the only Y/n Y/l/n!”

You laugh, being met with the loudest applause you had heard all con before being handed a Mic. 

“Thank you but I'm a terrible dancer.” You Joke.

Tom was staring at the screen stunned. You had been the black cat all along. You were in the marvel universe and spidey one,  so he'd definitely be seeing more of you. The hard part is that you seemed so genuine when you talked, interacted with fans and was no doubt, stunning. 

“Better close your mouth or the flies will get in.” Tom turns around to find the voice of none other than his friend slash bully, Sebastian Stan, along with Anthony Mackie.

“Looks like the kid has a crush!” Anthony laughs, pointing to the screen you were on.

“I-I don’t! I don’t even know her!” Tom tries to come to his own defense, hopelessly.

“She’s got you whipped already don’t even deny it.” Harry comes in, joining the teasing of one, Tom Holland.

“Maybe we can invite her out for drinks tonight, then fanboy over here can meet her, and then probably scare her off!” Anthony mentions.

“You haven’t looked on the internet? They’ve already met.” Seb says, before showing Anthony twitter. 

Anthony stands there slightly shocked before bursting into laughter.

“Well, she’s damn well a keeper for Tom since she obviously likes him.”

A staff member peaks their head in the green room to tell Tom he’s up next.

“Well, that’s my cue to leave you two!”

On the other hand, you were on an adrenaline high from being on stage, and seeing all the fans. You knew tomorrow was going to be crazy, as you expected people to book your photo op left and right since the announcement. 

You had decided to decline an offer from your fellow marvel universe castmates, Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie, which they so graciously told you that whenever you’re free, the offer still stood. 

You had gotten to your hotel room seeing your phone blowing up on the social media apps for the second time that day. 

You responded to the important stuff, before heading to bed, knowing it was going to be hectic.

-

You had been right, it was absolutely insane, the number of people who showed up. You had fully booked all your time slots for photo ops. You had seen so many people dressed up in marvel cosplay, ranging from Loki to Ironman, even some people dressed up as your character, which was wildly insane to see.

You had been nearing the end of the line and had enjoyed every moment with the fans, and you couldn’t wait for your autographing session later that day, to truly get a chance to talk to the fans and connect with them and how they felt about you being their beloved Black Cat. 

After a few more photos, posing how they wanted, you see a fully dressed, head to toe, mask and all, Spider-Man. You had seen some spider-mans but most took off their masks to snap a picture. The person was the last in line. 

“Hey Black Cat.” The southern American accented voice tells you, seeming very familiar. 

“Hey, Spider, what poses do you have up your sleeve?” you ask kindly.

“I bought a few, Cat.” they laugh.

“Okay, You can do whatever a spider can right?” you pull out a line out of the comics jokingly.

“I can do flips if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Is that some kind of nerd pick-up line? Because it’s only kind of working.” you laugh. 

“I really can, but this is one.”

He gets down on one knee, holding a black cat mask instead of a ring. The photographer captures the shocked expression on your face.

“I- Don’t- What- Spider I-” 

“Ow My feelings…” Suddenly their voice changes into a British accent before they pull off the mask to reveal-

“Tom?”

“I guess you don’t have a spidey sense darling?” The photographer captures the moment without warning eating the moment up. 

You laugh at that. 

“I guess you found out my true identity Spider. And it’s nice to officially meet you, Tom.”

He laughs, just as nervous as you, he notices he has gotten closer to you and a strand of hair loosely is blowing in your face, so naturally, he pushes it behind your ear. Another snap of the camera can be heard. 

“NOW KISS!” a voice belonging to your best friend yells from the side, mid-eating a churro.

You both laugh really hard at that.

The both of you calm down, slowly leaning lost in the moment. The camera snaps again. You both look at the photographer weirded out, and they just shrug.

“Wait can you actually do a flip?” you ask, pulling away, not wanting prying eyes aka the photographer, to pry in your business. 

“I can, though I’d show you later, maybe in the greenroom?”

“That sounds naughty, but, sure.” you joke around. 

He laughs before, you both take off from the area going to grab the photos.

-

After spending most of the day together when you could, you get Tom’s number, before heading back to your hotel room. He texts you as soon as you get back. 

Spider: I had fun today, minus finding our assistants making out.

You: we should ‘snog’ too, it’ll gross them out ;)

You: I had fun too btw. Are you leaving tomorrow?

Spider: lol we should. And yeah an early flight, 6 am to be exact. Hbu?

You: Yeah me too... another day another dollar lol

Spider: ill miss you, Cat.

You: stop talking like we’ll never see each other again lol. As a matter of fact, come to my room, we’re watching a movie!

Spider: alright, I’ll order snacks. 

  You sigh smiling at your phone. You haven’t felt this giddy in a long time.

Your phone pings with a few Instagram notifications.

Tomholland2013 has started following you.

Tomholland2013 has tagged you in a photo.

You open Instagram to find the photo of him “proposing” to you posted.

“Ow, my leg, my- feelings...Welcome to the Universe, Cat.” the photo is captioned. You decide to post, the photo of him dipping you.

“So what do you say, Spider? Wanna help me pull off the Heist of the Heist of the Century?” you caption it, Before getting comfortable to watch a movie. 

What an opportunity ;)

Tags:

@lolooo22 @webmeupspiderdaddy @harryhollandsgirlfriend @spideyspeaches @greenorangevioletgrass @queenofthepouges @sheranatic111 @keithseabrook27

[stevenbasic]

“Hi Dr J, I’m glad we finally get to chat…”

Holy shit.

——

Earlier that day, I’d been told at the front desk that there was a lady from Evolution Pharmaceuticals on the line, and that she’d like to speak with me. Aubrey had always been good about screening out the sales pitches, the irate patients, the people with whom I really never needed to actually talk. So that she was pulling me aside for this call told me that this one might be something I should probably take...

But - ugh. No. I didn’t want to. This had been a long day, a long week so far - and it was only Tuesday! God, the past few months had been more and more exhausting, humiliating and emasculating with each passing hour. And the more I learned, the more it seemed that this company was at the heart of my troubles. Yes, it offered the opportunities of great financial rewards for the practice with this clinical study trial in which we were going to be participating. Since Jeanette, my previous Office Manager, had left, the mismanagement of the business had us in dire straits. Without the money from Evolution’s study and the “Lean In” grant from the women’s advancement group, I’m not sure we’d still be afloat. So, yeah, maybe I should have taken the call.

“I’ll call them later,” I told Aubrey, and grabbed the films I needed for my next patient.

That had been three hours ago, before my little hallway meeting with Melissa. Since then Gianna - some woman who’d wanted to speak to me about the trial - had called two more times. Left messages. Really wanted just fifteen minutes of my afternoon. Needed to speak with me. I refused each call.

Finally done with patients, sitting in my office at the end of the day as darkness crept in from outside, I sighed as Brittni from the desk buzzed me. She said that Gianna was on the line again. “Can I transfer her?”

“No,” I replied on the intercom, noticing that a little green light had blinked to life on the camera I had clipped to my monitor. I hadn’t seen it before, this light. In fact...when did I get a camera on this computer?

“Tell her I'll call tomorrow...” I finished.

I had set back to finishing some patient notes on my desktop when, suddenly, my screen flashed to black. For a quick moment I thought - oh no, a crash - but then a new, unfamiliar window appeared, and my mouse pointer began moving on its own accord. What the…? The window went full screen and next thing I knew I was in a video chat with-

“If I didn’t know any better I’d think you were avoiding my calls…” the woman onscreen spoke, laughing casually as she tossed her hair...

“oh, uh…” I was immediately agape. This was who’d been trying to call me all day??

“Anyway...Hi Dr J, I’m glad we finally get to chat…”

Holy shit. This girl was gorgeous. Look at those tits.

As I stared, still shell-shocked and speechless from having my computer hijacked out from under me by a bosomy corporate careerist, she went on to introduce herself as Gianna Albertini, from the clinical trials department at Evolution Pharmaceuticals. She explained how excited she and her team was to get the study off the ground at the practice. Things had been fast tracked at the FDA, they were just waiting for some rubber stamps, and everything looked very promising for their product. She apologized for not being able to meet in person, at least for a while. “I’m on some new retroviral treatment, and they have me quarantined at home,” she explained with surprising nonchalance, “yadda yadda yadda…”

Finally, after a good several minutes of watching her talk - and she held my attention easily, her rack possibly rivaling Melissa’s - she let me get a word in edgewise. I was still confused by how in one moment I was working on my patient charts, and then in the next I was in a video chat. “H-how did you…?”

“Sorry,” Gianna laughed, casually waving away any privacy concerns I was currently about to voice, “I had to remote in, take over your desktop. I really needed to speak with you.” Beyond the blatant intrusions tactics she was obviously willing to employ, there was something in this woman’s eyes, her demeanor, that was making me more and more concerned as the conversation - such as it was - continued. She may have been acting relaxed and friendly, decidedly informal, but there was a seriousness just below the surface that even I could see, even through the screen, and even in the face of those enormous tits. “Plus, maybe it’s actually better we do it this way, rather than on the phone,” she said, as she sat up nice and straight, “So we can see one another’s...smiling faces.”

Gahh...

As she got down to brass tacks, this young woman went on to describe to me some of the details of the new wings in our building into which the office would be expanding, how much more space we and Evolution be acquiring to fulfill the needs of the trial, and when it would all be ready. “Construction is ultra-fast tracked,” she said, “should be done within a few weeks.”

Weeks?? I marveled, silently incredulous. I’d seen the plans; it was a huge project. I’d figured months, if it ever really got done at all. But, the teams did seem motivated, and there were a lot of them, working day-in and day-out, all through the night. Maybe, perhaps? Could they pull it off in weeks?

We also talked about the structure of the trial, what it would involve day-to-day, and the long-term forecast. Evolution seemed ready to set up permanent shop with a clinic in the building, by taking over much of the lease of the new space, with the study just the first step in the door.

“You’ll be listed as the lead investigator,” Gianna explained, continuing on to detail the ins-and-outs of the trial, “but don’t worry. We’ll have plenty of people in place. You really won’t have to do too much, or deal with anyone at the main office. You’ll be reporting just to me...”

“r-reporting to you?” I asked, trying to ignore the impressive bosom which filled the screen, cowed me. That had taken me back a bit...'reporting to her'? I had noticed something in this young woman’s tone, through our chat, that led me to believe that she and I possibly had different views as to the, uh, hierarchy of this whole thing. I was the doctor around this place, and had gotten used to expecting a little respect, being top of the food chain. She, on the other hand, maybe had other ideas.

“That's right,” she said, “we’ll do these chats once a week, more if I feel like we need it. I’ll expect a report from you every day, but again don’t worry. It’s basically something you just have to sign, the girls will do it all. Our other providers will be handling most of the work with the patients in the study, entering data, keeping the FDA happy, blah blah blah. Maybe we’ll ask you to go in and talk to, examine a few of the subjects, just to keep things interesting for you.”

If I hadn’t felt totally emasculated and marginalized, my authority crippled by the horde of women who’d apparently taken over my practice recently, this was the clincher. It would appear that for this study I was going to be not much more than a coddled figurehead, a token man of straw, expected to satisfy the whims of some half-rate pharm company and this woman, at her beck and call. No way!

“I’m going to have to insist on directing care for, uh, the trial subjects,” I asserted, finally getting a moment to exert my will, “they will, technically, be my patients.”

“Oh, of course!” Gianna replied, smiling and throwing her hair over her shoulder, “Allowing for some oversight from the other providers we’ll have in place, you’ll have lots of medical-decision-making to keep yourself busy!”

What did she mean, ‘oversight’?

“They’ll be different than your usual patients, the subjects that we’ll be bringing in for the study, but I think you’ll like them,” she continued, trying to reassure me, “maybe a younger crowd, and of course all female. But in general all you’ll have to do is sit back and watch the money coming in.” She sat, looked into the screen for a moment, in thought. “Though I guess we have some people there handling that for you, too, hm?”

That gave me pause, made me rethink the litany of arguments that were beginning to boil up in my throat. I’d seen some of the paperwork, quickly, as it had moved past my desk for my signatures. It involved a lot of money for the practice. Like, a lot of money. I thought of my bills, my expenses, what I still somehow owed on my student loans. If Sheryl wasn’t going to be there to provide for me, help me pay these things…

If any of it remained, there was obviously some pride I was going to need to swallow.

“S-speaking of money,” I began, “what's my compensation going to look like?“

Something about my question, something about how I was holding myself, made Gianna smile again and then sigh, a sigh that told me she knew something I didn’t, I couldn’t help but think. With that she leaned in, her eyes locked on mine through the camera, and a shiver went up my spine. “Oh don’t worry, Dr. J,” she spoke, “you’ll be well taken care of...“

===================================

Muchos Gracias to long-time friend, supporter of the story and behind-the-scenes ninja Antares for helping me assemble these clips.

Newer posts and other goodies at my Patreon

[alj4890]

Good morning! I was binge reading your fics and there so amazing! I love all things TRR! I was reading some of your ask and I was wondering if you would ever write Riley actually giving birth to their babies. It would be curious to know how it would go or how Liam would feel.

Thank you nonny💗💗💗 I doubt every single thing I post so this made my day. I think for your ask, I will use the AU @krsnlove and I have created in the While We're Young series. In that AU, we have the Royal couple with two sons and then years later, they have a daughter. This drabble will be when their first child, Emerick, is born. On a personal note, many of the crazy questions Riley thinks during the birth are the very same ones I thought with my first child along with all my weird fears. Her experience is a mixture of my two times giving birth. I'm still in disbelief I managed to successfully get through them twice, LOL. Unfortunately, my husband didn't have Liam's ability with pep talk, but he did make me laugh and roll my eyes for the most part.

Masterlist

@gkittylove99 @darley1101 @krsnlove @kingliam2019 @texaskitten30 @yourmajesty09 @mom2000aggie @ofpixelsandscribbles @twinkleallnight @lodberg

Labor of Love

A little after midnight, the Royal Palace...

"Liam?"

A soft snore answered Riley.

She leaned closer to her husband’s ear.

"Liam?"

He mumbled something in his sleep about baklava and using it as a new form of currency.

"LIAM!" She poked him hard in his ribs.

He shot up out of bed and tumbled over the side in a tangle of blankets. After clumsily getting to his feet, he rushed to his wife's side of the bed.

"Is it time?"

She nodded. "I think it might be. I've been having contractions pretty much all of today but the last couple of hours they have been happening more frequently."

Liam tripped on his way to get dressed.

Riley watched him for a few moments until her stomach tightened. She closed her eyes at the feeling of a tight band wrapped around her eased.

"Where's your bag?" Liam asked as he went through their chambers. "I thought we were keeping it by the door."

"I moved it." Riley swiped at the tears starting to trail down her cheeks. "I tripped over it yesterday and threw it into the closet."

Liam seemed to be handling this so much better than she was.

"Found it." He smiled at her. "And I went ahead and..." His joy dimmed once he got a good look at his love's face. "Love? What is it? Is the pain too severe?"

She shook her head. "I think I'll just stay here." She sniffed into her tissue. "It's probably not time and--"

She gasped as a stronger contraction struck.

"How far apart are they?" He asked.

"About twenty minutes or so. Maybe less."

"Then I believe this is the real thing." Liam gently helped her out of her nightgown and into a comfortable dress "Just think. This time tomorrow we might be holding our little prince or princess."

Riley mumbled something.

"What did you say?" Liam leaned down closer to her.

"I said I'm not ready." She folded her arms and sat back down on the bed.

"Not ready?" His eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm scared." She bit down on her lip. "I don't know what to do to get this baby out of me."

"But we've read all the books, watched birthing videos, even--"

"I know." She huffed, glaring up at him. "But that doesn't mean this," she gestured toward her belly," will go anything like what we've learned."

Squirming somewhat under his shocked gaze, she continued her confession.

"I don't know how to take care of a baby." She wiped at her tears. "What if I do something to hurt our child? How will I ever figure out what they want or need when they can't tell me? What if--"

Liam swooped down and captured her lips in a tender kiss. He cupped her face between his hands, his thumbs brushing her tears away. His bright blue eyes were shining as he met her troubled brown.

"My love, I can't think of a more perfect person than you to be the mother of my children."

"But--"

He shook his head, softly shushing her fears. "You aren't alone in this." He kissed her cheek then pressed his forehead to hers. "We are partners in this like we are in every other aspect of our life. I will be right there with you as we deal with the tears and sweet moments with our child."

"How do you always know what to say?" Riley gripped her stomach as a stronger contraction occurred. "I guess the baby isn't going to let me have a few more days reprieve before coming."

Liam helped her stand while calling for Bastien to have a car ready. With a couple of breaks along the stairs, he managed to finally get his nervous wife into the waiting town car.

******************

An hour later...

"Your majesties, we are thrilled you are here to have your baby."

Riley bit down on her lip as another contraction struck. She squirmed on the hospital bed as one of the nurses kept talking. The chipper, too complimentary, voice was getting on her nerves.

"...and to think I almost took tonight off." The nurse giggled while looking up at Liam in adoration. "I would have missed out on--"

"Is there anything you can give me for nausea?" Riley snapped. She kicked off the covers as a wave of sick inducing heat rose through her. "And pain? On top of these contractions, I've got a massive headache forming."

Liam gently smoothed her hair out of her face.

"I'll go check with the doctor." The nurse bobbed a curtsy and left.

"You're feeling worse?" Liam asked, concern flooding his handsome features.

"I'm better now that she's gone." Riley spat. "I couldn't take one more minute of her sucking up to you."

She huffed as another contraction began. "How much longer do you think this will be?"

The doctor returned with the nurse that Riley greatly disliked.

He explained that the anesthesiologist was on her way to administer the epidural then told the nurse to give Riley some phenergan for the nausea.

He checked to see how far she was dilated.

"The future monarch must be in a hurry." He grinned at the Royal couple. "You were at a four when you arrived and within the last hour, you've gone to a six. Only four more to go, your majesty."

"So exciting!" The nurse squealed.

Riley bit down on her tongue to keep from screaming at her.

"If all is well," Liam reached for his wife's hand. "May we have some time alone until the epidural is administered?"

"Of course." The doctor waved the nurse to proceed him and quietly shut the door.

"Thank God." Riley puffed through another contraction. "I was about to use language that would not please the people of Cordonia."

Liam chuckled as he tenderly kissed her forehead. "Tell me what you need and I will move heaven and earth to make it happen."

"Geez, no wonder I got pregnant so easily." She grumbled. "Do you practice these lines before a mirror or does it come naturally?"

"You've always inspired my words, my queen." Liam smiled at her, despite the eye roll he received for his sweetness.

The anesthesiologist entered with another nurse. Riley held tight to Liam with her head pressed against his chest as the epidural was administered. The sharp prick of the needle in her back made her whimper some before the blessed numbness took over.

Liam helped her lay back carefully on the bed, his expression anxious as he watched his wife's face. Her features eventually smoothed out to calmness then she became deathly pale.

"Riley!" Liam exclaimed when her head dropped. "Doctor! My wife--"

The medical team jumped into action, immediately reviving their queen.

"Her blood pressure dropped form the epidural." The doctor explained. "It happens to many women."

Liam tried to calm his racing heart. He knew all the dangers women still faced in childbirth. He had tried to keep his fears at bay with the argument that his Riley overcame every obstacle that came her way, but seeing her pass out and now weakly reach for her cup of ice chips...he didn't know if he could take much more.

Riley rested her head back against the pillows, wishing they hadn't revived her until after the baby was born. She didn't know what to do. How would she know how to push right? She was numb from the waist down. What if she thought she was pushing but ended up doing something else? Would the baby find a way out of her despite her ignorance and lack of assistance?

Why didn't she insist on a cesarean? Did she really have to make such a fuss for a vaginal delivery? Especially since now she had begged for drugs. What difference did it make where the baby made his or her exit?

"How do you feel?" Liam asked once they were alone again.

"I've felt better." She mumbled.

Silence save for the whoosh of IV's and their baby's heartbeat fell between them.

Riley watched as the screen showed her contractions intensifying while she laid there not feeling a thing. It helped somewhat calm her fears of childbirth and gave her a few brief moments of suspended disbelief that this was actually happening to her.

Liam couldn't take his eyes off her face, ready to jump and demand someone do something if she even winced with pain. His panic was increasing with every possible scenario of something else going wrong.

What if he lost her? What if he lost both her and their child? What if--

"Liam?"

He nearly tripped in moving to her bedside.

Her eyes widened at his actions and slight tremble in his hands. "What's wrong?"

"Something's wrong?" He gripped her hand. "Are you in pain? Should I call--"

"Liam, I'm fine. I'm pretty comfortable all things considered." She raised their clasped hands to her cheek. "Do you think I'll really be able to push the baby out?"

"Of course. I've never doubted your ability to do anything."

"Liam," her eyes filled with tears once more. "I'm still so scared."

He nodded. "I am too."

"You are?"

"I don't know what I would do if something were to happen to you and the baby." He admitted.

Liam placed his other hand on her tummy, feeling the movements of his child. "I've dreamed of this moment for so long that the thought of it going wrong sends me to my knees."

Riley gently kissed his knuckles before rubbing her cheek against the back of his hand. Knowing he was just as frightened as she was helped calm her more so than all his pep talks and compliments.

Maybe they would get through this after all.

**************

The hours went on. Riley's water broke around dawn, which sped everything up. Before she even had a chance to comprehend that this was it, the doctor was down at the edge of the bed, telling her to push.

Liam stood by her side, holding her hand as he watched anxiously for the first glimpse of their child.

Riley was silently wondering if she was really pushing, despite the doctor and nurses telling her she was doing great. It felt more like all she was doing was holding her breath each time they told her bear down. Could the pressure of holding one's breath actually make the baby pop out like a cork from a bottle of champagne, she wondered?

"I see the head." Liam said in awe.

"Would you like us to move the mirror over here, so you can see too, Queen Riley?" The super happy nurse asked.

"No!" Riley exclaimed.

The last thing she wanted was to see what all was going on down there. Her panic caused by her imagination was barely being maintained. All she needed were some visuals to freak her out more.

"The head is out." The doctor encouraged her to give one big push.

Riley pulled herself up by the bedrails and held her breath, trying to imagine all this pressure moving down toward the birth canal.

"It's a boy!" The doctor held up the crying infant for her to see then allowed Liam to cut the cord.

He then placed the baby on her chest for a moment.

Riley stared in disbelief. Was it really over? Nine months of anxious excitement followed by panic and a little pain resulted in this little face scrunched up in confusion staring back at her.

Liam pressed a kiss to the side of her head as he gazed down at their very own miracle

The pair watched as their son was taken away to be examined and cleaned up. Riley kept her eyes strictly on what was happening with her son instead of the sounds and numbed feeling of the doctor removing the after birth. Once again, she didn't want to dwell too much on all that was happening with her body at the moment.

Swaddled and declared a cutie by the irritating nurse, the new crown prince was placed back in his mother's arms.

"He's absolutely perfect." Liam sat down beside her once they were alone.

"He really is." She sniffed as happy tears trickled down her cheeks. "I can't believe he's here."

"Neither can I." He positioned him carefully in his arms when she passed him over. "You did beautifully, my love." He tenderly kissed her. "Thank you for our son."

"Couldn't have done it without you." She teased, grinning at his chuckle.

Riley rested her head against his shoulder as they enjoyed their first moment as a family.

[mellometal]

Hello. This is really what Dhar Mann decided to do...again. Welp, the first video you did about LGBT people in sports was SO good, right? That you decided to make ANOTHER video about LGBT people and fuck that up too??? Real appropriate timing, Dhar Mann. Because it's the end of Pride Month and tomorrow is the start of Wrath Month.

Let's talk about it, shall we?

Before I begin, this will be talking about homophobia, being forced to come out of the closet, blackmailing, and outing of closeted LGBT people. In my response, it touches on assault, murder, execution, abuse, discrimination, fetishization of the LGBT community, harassment, and how being LGBT was once considered a mental illness. If any of that is triggering for you or makes you uncomfortable in any way, please feel free to scroll to other content that sparks joy for you.

To sum up the video, there is a gay boy (Pete) who's running for president (presumably student body) again, he's handing out flyers, and he's having a grand old time. His boyfriend (Julian) is being ever so supportive. To be honest, I've NEVER seen anyone in school handing out flyers to get elected in the student body. A student body, for anyone not familiar, is basically the group that "speaks for the students". Best way I can describe it.

Then some guy (Frank) comes up to him in the hallway to intimidate him...OVER A STUPID SCHOOL ELECTION. The terribly written, sorry excuse for a bully then takes Pete's flyers out of his hands, sees there's a rainbow on them, and calls them gay before throwing them on the ground. That's after Pete told Frank to give them back. Frank then asks if Pete and Julian are dating. Pete, being closeted, says no, and that Julian is his friend. Frank then leaves after intimidating Pete some more. Julian is offended that Pete referred to him as a friend, despite Pete explaining why he did that...y'know, because he's NOT READY TO COME OUT AS GAY and he was trying to protect himself and his boyfriend. (What the fuck did you want him to do, Julian? Come out when he obviously wasn't ready to just to make YOU happy? Pete was trying to protect you and himself, Julian! I understand that you want to be shown off by your boyfriend, but I really think that your safety is more important than being shown off.)

When Pete and Julian are at a restaurant together, Frank JUST SO HAPPENS to be at that same restaurant. Pete and Julian don't know that until later. Frank takes a picture of them just holding hands...which, why would you do that? I've actually seen posts of REAL PEOPLE taking pictures of their classmates (without their knowledge or consent), posting them online, and shipping them together. It's not a good look. It's fucking gross.

Frank tells Pete that he saw them (he and Julian) at the restaurant, shows Pete that he made flyers of the picture HE TOOK OF THEM, and uses it as blackmail. He threatens to out Pete when he already publicly outed him in the fucking hallway, which brings me back to the dumpster fire that is Glee...because Gary Stu (Finn) outed Santana as lesbian in the hallway WITHIN EARSHOT OF EVERYONE. That where you got your inspiration from, Dhar Mann? If so, it's fitting because Glee is a shitty show, and you're a shitty person. A match made in heaven.

Julian notices Pete is distressed. He says he has to drop out of the race because of Frank threatening to out him to the school if he doesn't.

How does the video end? Well, Frank gives his speech that is just D*n*ld Tr*mp type beat bullshit, Pete pretty much says he has to drop out of the race, the students go wild on Frank because he's a homophobe and called another gay student a fruit, Pete forces himself to come out as gay, the students are going wild, and he's elected as the student body president! WHOOP-DEE-FUCKIN-DOO.

This video is an absolute piece of infuriating shit. Enough said. I'll tear this video to shreds and put my response down.

I get the message they're trying to go for here, but there's a big issue with this! THERE ARE STILL MANY PLACES AROUND THE WORLD WHERE YOU CAN BE ARRESTED AND EVEN EXECUTED FOR BEING LGBT! DHAR MANN, YOU OBVIOUSLY KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT BEING LGBT AND YOU NEVER WILL BECAUSE YOU'RE A CISHET MAN! DO SOME BETTER RESEARCH IF YOU'RE GONNA DO VIDEOS LIKE THIS, OH MY FUCKING GOD! Not everywhere is like the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other countries where it's safe to be openly LGBT! You don't believe me? Look it up! (Obviously at your own risk. There's A LOT of triggering, upsetting things that happen to LGBT people in other countries.) Getting discriminated against, harassed, assaulted, and murdered for being LGBT? Yes, that all still happens around the world. Even in places where being LGBT is legal and not considered a crime. Like the United States!

Oh, wow! Taking pictures of people without their knowledge just so you can have some "dirt" on them for a stupid student body election. That'll help. /s Blackmailing an innocent person for who they are? FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. Good job! How's that working out for you?

Maybe instead of jacking your raging homophobe self off, you worry about the fact you look like and act like D*n*ld Tr*mp's long-lost son and you fix yourself, Frank. Take the log out of your own eye before you try to pull the twig out of someone else's eye. Just a thought!

Also, I could make a better flyer than a picture with a big red x. So creative. I expected more out of D*n*ld Tr*mp's long-lost son. Fucking top tier. You couldn't top this off if you tried! /s

Onto my response! It's a long one, just fair warning.

If you're in the closet because it's not safe for you to be out as LGBT where you live, you're so valid and I love you. /p Come out on your own terms. Don't fall for peer pressure. For anyone who's been outed before, I'm so sorry, I feel you, and I know what that's like. I've been there before. It sucks. It's scary. I hope you're doing better, if that's ever happened to you.

Dhar Mann, you will NEVER know what it's like to be LGBT. You will never begin to understand what the LGBT community has gone through and is STILL going through. Don't act like you do just because you probably watched one YouTube video about the LGBT community. You're a cishet man who's also a cringe ass nae-nae baby. Why don't you LISTEN to the real people you're hurting with these videos?

Here are a few suggestions you can do instead!:

Talk to actual people in the LGBT community!

Attend pride events to show support.

Read up on their history.

Support LGBT creators.

Donate to the community.

Happy Wrath Month, everyone!

[sunarintoes]

Dear Whovever: [Kenma]

Synopsis: You and Kenma are both best friends and youtube gamers however you want to be more than just best friends so you decide to ‘man up’ one day and write a heart felt confession in a minecraft notebook before then putting it in Kenma’s personal chest.

WC: 3K

TW: slight swearing :)

[Episode one]

[recording in 3… 2… 1… start!] 

“Hey gamers, Kodzuken here with Tulip-but-make-it-yellow! I've done a few Minecraft videos with Tulip before, but thought I'll start a new series that will be posted every Monday.”

“It's called Minedays with Tulip and Kodzu”

“I- no, Tulip. I'm not sure what we’re gonna call it. But you guys will know- obviously since it's the title of this video.”

You whine and pout into the monitor, “Kodzu I think Minedays is a cute name.” 

Instead of replying Kenma rolls his eyes and hits you ingame. “Should we introduce the challenge and get it started?”

“Yeah that's a good idea!” 

“Well, it's about eleven am right now, we have until eleven pm to build a Minecraft house from a random topic,” he pauses and moves to the side to point to a sectioned spinwheel, “on this bad boy,” whacks the spinner, “we have eight different themes, in a sec I’ll spin it and whatever it lands on will be what we have to build.”

You let out a high pitched ‘hmm,’ “I feel bad for Kuroo and Hinata, they’re both going to have to edit twelve hours of footage down to 10 minutes!”

Kenma chuckles, “fifteen minutes actually.”

This time you roll your eyes. “Hurry up and spin it you fool! I want to get buildinggg” 

Smiling, Kenma moves back a bit and spins the wheel, after thirty seconds full of anticipation the wheel finally stops and its small arrow is pointing at- “Yes! Cottage core theme!” you yell out while Kenma groans. 

“Really? That's lame why couldn't we have ‘Lucifer’s Bedroom’?” 

You poke your tongue out to the monitor - which Kenma could see, after all, you are in a Discord call with him. “Don't be sad just because you're prancing in my turf…. Looooooser!”

Kenma playfully glares towards you, “You’re on! See you in twelve hours!”

Unfortunately, the difficulty of building a cottage core house in the woods - in survival mode, proved more difficult than planned. 

“We spawned in a desolate area huh? Barely any flowers!” you hear Kenma make a sound of agreement as you sink into your comfortable ‘gamer’ styled chair. 

“Don't tell me you've given up? Just because you can't find any flowers?” 

You scowl at his cocky tone however your mood does a one-eighty when you suddenly get a good idea. “Ok everyone! I know what I have to do! I'm going to restart in another place because this isn’t working!”

Kenma makes a sound of surprise, “you're restarting? It's been an hour already-”

“Yeah and we have, like... eleven more.” Kenma sighs in response, “better get a move on.”

For the most part, the two of you kept quiet - not wanting to let the other know how well you were doing. However one look at your phone only to see that your twitter has blown up, you decide to take a short break, after all it has been four hours of you sitting on your ass playing Minecraft. Once you open Twitter you're met with a barrage of tags and mentions - all of which screaming ‘KenYn’ and ‘Kodzutulip.’ You felt heat rise to your face, you - yes you, Ln Yn with the online alias Tulip-but-make-it-yellow, has a big, fat, humongous crush on your best friend and fellow youtuber - Kenma, aka Kodzuken aka the cutest guy in the world. To make it worse - or better, you couldn't really tell, was that many of your viewers shipped you with him - as did his viewers. 

You are of course, happy with this but you can’t help but wonder if Kenma feels the same way, does he feel weirded out by all this shipping content? Does he find it uncomfortable? Does he find it unsettling to be shipped with his in-real-life best friend?

“Hey Yn?” Kenma calls softly, “you've been looking at your phone for the past ten minutes and your face looks sad.”

You instantly look up to meet Kenma’s face and try to find the right words to say, “I… I’m just kinda tired and eventually got distracted!! Sorry Kenken!”

Kenma visibly cringes at the old nickname - the one you gave him in primary school, “if you say so… better get your head in the game though - my mansion looks epic.”

Your eyes narrow, “mansion? The theme is cottage core!” Kenma quietly chuckles in response, “a mansion can still have a fairy aesthetic, you should know that”

You huff in faux annoyance as you place your phone away and ‘get your head in the game’ just as he requested. “Be prepared to be crushed! I am the cottage core guardian!”

There are ten minutes left to your’s and Kenma’s excruciatingly long Minecraft challenge, your ass hurts from sitting on it for almost twelve straight hours - including bathroom breaks. When the buzzer rings the two of you step back from your respective buildings and make your way to the starting point - which had been marked by a stack of 20 or so dirt blocks. 

“Well that was twelve hours of eye straining torture,” you say as you stretch your arms. 

“You're tired already?”

“Kinda… I can't wait to go to sleep after this.”

“Weak, I’m playing Battlefield as soon as this is over.”

You roll your eyes and scoff, “this is why you look like a living corpse in the morning…”

Kenma looks you dead in the eyes and with a completely serious face he says, “yeah but you love it.”

You choke on your spit at his boldness, “y-yeah I guess.” 

If you were being honest, you were not the best at reading people and it was dark in Kenma’s gaming room, the only light coming from his three screen/monitor computer setup, but you think you see a light blush creep up to his cheeks. And you hate it, you hate when he says things that make your heart flutter, you hate it when he just sits there and the digital glow accentuates all of his delicate features, but what you hate most is yourself. You hate yourself because you have fallen in love with your best friend, you hate yourself because you know he doesn't like you back and you hate that you continuously give yourself a sense of false hope. 

“Yn… you want to stay up and game with me don’t you? ”

You sheepishly look to the side, ‘mayhaps.’

Kenma sighs looking at you with a soft face as he whispers “then I won’t play Battlefield and I’ll go to bed and so will you, ‘kay?”

You smile tiredly at him, “sounds like a deal.”

“We'll get back on at the same time tomorrow and we’ll do the final part of this video - the reveal. Until then.”

You smile and wave at the camera “cya soon~”

[recording over]

After your call with Kenma ended you got ready for bed but for some reason, no matter how tired you were, you just couldn't fall asleep - your mind was screaming obscene ideas that you couldn't help but contemplate. At first it was just wishful thinking but then came a thought that refused to leave, ‘confess.’ 

It was a tempting thought, but how? Surely you couldn't just say ‘hey Kenma I've liked you since high school lets date!’ yeah no, that was a horrible idea. Maybe if you confessed with some originality he would be more likely to accept but for now, you were going to do your best to go to sleep.

[Episode two]

[recording in 3… 2… 1… start!] 

In the morning you woke up feeling refreshed and excited for the day to come, Kenma had texted you and asked if you were feeling up to recording the reveal from last night and episode two today and of course you said yes. 

The video goes on without any troubles and soon you find yourself staring at the computer screen at eleven once again. 

“Remember to like, subscribe and comment below on who you think won this round.” Kenma’s voice is soothing - if you had to describe it you would say that it is silky like honey and smooth like dark chocolate; or maybe you would just say his voice is perfect. Kenma waves to the screen monitor, “hello? Earth to Yn! Are you dead or something? You look like a zombie.”

It takes a while to register, you weren’t really paying attention to the words he said as you were more interested in the way he sounded. You sit up and smile into the camera, “I'm awake… thanks for caring!”

He scoffs and swivels in his chair a bit, “I don't care about you, you're just my idiot best friend and flatmate.”

You playfully narrow your eyes, “well this idiot flatmate of yours helped you bake apple pie so you wouldn’t starve to death!”

“Hmmm, I guess. Well I'm going to head off. I'll see you later.”

You smile softly, “yeah I'll see you later, i'm just gonna stay on for a while.”

Kenma looks at you with an intrigued expression, “you're going to stay up longer? Better not be in this world, that's cheating. Want me to stay up with you?”

You roll your eyes and giggle, “it's all good I want to fix my house up in the other world. I'll see you tomorrow.”

He sighs, “if you say so.”

[recording over]

Your chair rolls back as you stretch, “maybe I should confess to him through a Minecraft journal…” you jump up. “Thats it! Thats a great way to confess! Its original and Kenma would appreciate it…. If he accepts my feelings that is…” 

You groan and slump back down into the chair, “maybe it’s best if I don't confess at all. No! I've wanted to do this for years! If he doesn't like me back it's all good! Maybe I just won't do this on a stream!”

You reach over to the bench and pull up your phone, “who to call, mmm ok let’s call Alisa I’m going to need some emotional support!”

“Hey gamers, Kodzu here in another Minecraft live stream, today we’re just in mine and Yn’s regular world and i'm going to build a house - a cottage to be specific,” he pauses and looks at the comment section; ‘no Yn isn't here right now, no Yn won't be joining this video, no I didnt know shes streaming at the moment, yes my favourite food is apple pie, yes I have a calico cat, no Yn is not my significant other, yes we are just friends.’ Kenma moves back and takes a breath, “wow you guys sure are interested in Yn huh? Maybe I should get them in more videos, might get more views that way,” he laughs a bit.

“Let's start off by heading to my base, I have the materials I’ll need there- oh uh what's this?” Kenma pauses as he stares at the foreign object, “I don't remember having a written book in my chest… maybe Yn went in here and put it in?”

Kenma stares at the book for a while before he opens it, only to be shocked. The comment section notices the blush on his face and continue to spam him with questions:

[kodzusbabe]: what's in that diary!!

[Kenmastan]: hahAAAHHA LOOK HE’S SO RED IN THE FACE

[piefacecutie]: ^^ omg you're so right @/Kenmastan hes so cute 💓

[Kenmaxyn]: I hope it's a confession!

[ynhater]: @/Kenmaxyn from who? Cause I didn't do it and I'd be the only one for Kenma oppAr

[kennismaken]: I hope it’s Yn! They’d be such a cute couple

[applepudding]: umm? Kodzu! Why did he get up and leave??

[ynhater]: babe come back!

[Kenmaxyn]: OMG MAYBE IT WAS YN !!!!

After your late night call with Alisa, you decided it would be best to just do it and then ignore Kenma for the day - well, not ignore him per se, just simply decline all his Discord calls and Facetime calls so you could put off being rejected a little while longer. You woke up with a throbbing headache that you could only blame yourself for, after all you are the dumbass who stayed up until God knows when just to write a heartfelt confession. Eventually the angst of waiting for a message from Kenma overwhelmed you and here you are now; streaming Overwatch to get your mind off of a certain someone.

“Ah no! Cant believe that stupid Hanzo got me! What a pain!” you frown at the screen and let out a sigh, “the round is over… bummer. Well while we wait an eternity for the next round I guess I should answer some of your questions… oh? I didn't know Kenma was streaming, no I’m not dating him… “ you feel your heart sink as you read the next comment; “what do you mean Kenma ran away after reading a book? Was he unhappy?”

The next moments felt like a blur, your heart was heavy and you felt tears well up in your eyes and somehow you missed the sound of someone breaking into your apartment and then your bedroom. Within a second you feel someone wrap their arms around you from behind, your body tenses up but immediately relaxes when you recognise the perpetrators scent; sweet yet salty, like caramel toffee.

“Kenma! W-what are you doing?”

“I like you too… I have for so long.”

Your eyes widen and it doesn't take too long for a smile to appear on your face, “I'm so glad to hear that.”

You feel him smile into your neck as his embrace tightens, “finish up your livestream so we can talk please.” 

“You don't need to tell me twice!”

It is eleven at night once again, but this time you’re not sitting alone in your gaming chair, instead you're sitting on Kenma’s lap - in his gaming chair as he slowly runs his hands through your hair and softly kisses your neck.

“So everyone’s pretty much freaking out over us huh?” you hum in response, “we’ve been officially together for what? Five hours?”

“Correct you are.”

You smile and hold up your phone while you continue to cuddle into him, “smile baby, I want the whole world to know that you're my player two.”

[Bonus - the love letter]

Dear Kenma,

This must be so strange - finding a journal in your chest. 

I have wanted to tell you this for quite a while and I guess I have never found the write words to say; or the right way to for that matter,

But I love you

I have loved you since our first year at Nekoma

It's been a while hasn’t it?

I'm sorry if this inconveniences you, makes you uncomfortable or makes you never want to see me again; 

Just let me continue for a little while longer because I need to get this off of my mind.

I love your smile - especially the rare one where you really smile, where your eyes crinkle and your cheeks begin to hurt 

I love your voice - it’s smooth and silky, like honey being spread across bread

I love your scent - it reminds me of salted caramel,  I can never get enough 

I love your mind - the way it works to make me laugh, make me calm and all else

I love your lips - not necessarily in a sexual way, but more so in the way you talk and speak, they move softly and slowly in a way only your lips could move in.

I love your body - how although you're hunched most of the time you still possess a fine elegance in the way you move. How at times it reminds me of a graceful swan floating down a lake. 

I love your hands - they are so pretty and dainty and soft, I want to hold them all day and all night

And most of all;

I love you

I love you in your entire

I could go ahead and pick the parts I love most and least but then you would no longer be you

I love you in your entire

Flaws and all

I know this may not be the most romantic, especially considering you’re reading this through Minecraft and I've never done this before but I had to let you know

Love 

Yn

Taglist: [open] @ladyrenart

note: sooo this is another style that i tried and i have mixed feelings about it :) also if you can’t tell,,, i’ve never written a love letter before :’)

[dangertoozmanykids101]

My Sassy Cat Burglar

Okay y'all, this isn't a Tom Hiddleston or Loki story. ['So what's the point in posting here, Tooz??? You're taking up prime TH space on the dashboard!' Ha ha, very funny. Bite me!] But if you bare with me, maybe y'all can help me out? When I had my husband read my story, he thought it was funny. (He better. It's about his spawn.) But he looked at me, "I'm confused. When does Tom Hiddleston come into it?" He thought I would put Hiddleston-smut in a story about our daughter! Does he think that is ALL I think about all day long? (That was a rhetorical question, by the way!)

Like a lot of parents in this day and age, I post about my kids on Facebook. I honestly haven't kept track of anything anywhere else. I didn't do baby books. I don't have the attention span for scrapbooking. And a diary or journal is way too much commitment. Facebook, though, I can handle. I especially enjoy posting stories about how ridiculous living with these 4 monsters feels some days.

When the twins were infants, I would post video after video of the 2 of them crying at the top of their lungs. I wanted to provide that sample taste, if anyone needed a baby-fix. Or I posted the photo of my daughter's tantrum when she emptied out all of her drawers onto the floor. Endless photos of them filthy, naked, and usually crying. I need to assemble a montage of how every video seems to end with me saying, "Oh, forget it!"

One of my favorite videos of the twins around 1 yr old is only 5 seconds long. Instead of helping me put cans into the bag for recycling, they had emptied the bag all over the living room. With Lincoln's eyes glued on me, defiant from birth, I sweetly ask, "Now can we put the cans INTO the bag?" He reaches in the bag, grabs a can, holds it out, and basically does a mic drop with the can, never taking his eyes off of me.

Today, I wrote this story, My Sassy Cat Burglar. WITHOUT Hiddleston smut. If you're lucky, maybe tomorrow I'll post another version WITH Hiddleston smut. But I promise nothing.

My Sassy Cat Burglar

Veronica peeked into the living room, spying me asleep on the couch. I no longer have a fever, so Rob went back to work today. I'm laying on the couch though, because my head is still aching and my throat is sore. Mind you, if a mother is dozing, that never guarantees that she doesn't hear every single sound around her. I could easily discern Veronica's footsteps as she quietly padded back into the kitchen. Her tiptoes sound completely different from Jack's patters or the twins shuffles.

She pulled a chair slowly to the fridge. The floor is filthy again, so moving any chair silently on that nasty floor would be impossible. Between the spilt sugar, ground up chips and crackers, and dripped strawberry smoothie for added stickiness, the chair pads made a loud grinding squeal for the entire 18 inches that she dragged the chair.

My little burglar paused, listening for any sign of life from me, I'm sure. Yet I wasn't going to move a muscle, unless I had to. Once she'd concluded that her stealth hadn't been compromised, she stepped up onto the chair to reach the treasures on fridge-top. The chair creaked more than the floor as she carefully shifted her weight from foot to foot, then back down into the floor.

She's actually getting very good at this. With her recent growth spurt, a whole world of goodies are suddenly within her reach. The cabinets and shelves have never been more interesting to her than they are now. But I knew exactly what she was seeking this time.

Earlier this morning, she had already asked me if she could have a brownie at 10am. Actually, her request started with, "Can I have one if Daddy's York Mint Patties?"

"No." I don't think she was surprised by my answer to that. I may not have even needed to be conscious to provide that answer. Those are Daddy's special treats he takes to work.

"Then can I have a brownie?"

"No!" I actually had to glance at the time before I answered that one. I'm desperately trying to be more of a 'yes' person. I truly am. But no one needs brownies at 10am.

"Then, what CAN I have?"

No shock to her, I'm sure, I sternly retort my standard answer, "How about REAL food?"

In turn, my sassy little thing stomps off in a melodramatic huff. "I'll just starve then!"

So a few hours later, after playing outside and making sandwiches for her and the boys, I don't mind if she finally has that brownie she wanted. I haven't heard any fighting. That is a rarity any day. Granted, I wish she would learn to put meat and cheese back into the fridge when she's finished, but I'll nag about that later. So far today, she's been a great big sister.

As soon as I hear the brownie wrapper pull open, I holler out to her, "If you're going to have a brownie,..." I pause, and she stops rustling the brownie wrapper. "Do you hear me?"

A quiet little "yes" squeaks out of the kitchen.

"Please put the brownie box back up on the fridge when you're done. If the babies get into the brownies, they'll eat them all. And Dad will be PISSED!"

No answer. "Do you hear me? Don't leave that box on the table. OK?"

“OK."

After that, this mom's dozing-radar went off high alert, and I drifted back off to sleep - until I heard more plastic rustling. Rustle. Rustle. Rustle. Dammit Veronica! I can't trust you to help at all! I knew those babies would devour all the brownies. It won't be the first time I find the box empty with brownie wrappers covering the table and floor. The twins are worse than puppies! They use scissors!

Using my firm mom-is-patient-but-serious voice, "That's enough of the brownies!"

The rustling pauses for a moment, leaving only silence. But then, to my shock, the rustling starts again. How dare they!!!! "Do you hear me? I said no more brownies!"

There's only a mere second of pause this time before the rustling starts again. Ooooh, I'm angry now. This means I have to get up. (Well, it's time for more Motrin anyways, since that headache is back. But that's not the point.) So I stand, and fly into the kitchen to catch the culprit in the act, rustling away.

No kids.

No box of brownies.

No empty wrappers.

Just Bingo on the table, biting and tugging on the plastic bags of cereal left on the table. She looks at me with the sweetest, more expectant face, giving a hopeful little "meow!" She jumps off the table and runs to her food bowls, putting a paw on the tupperware, with another pleading "meow."

Veronica pops her head in the backdoor, "Did you call me?"

@alexakeyloveloki @haute-macabre @dianamolloy @missdibley @missanonwrites @largebeeffriedrice @ohhhmyloki @redfoxwritesstuff @bambamwolf87

So I guess we could find Tom sitting on the table fussing with the cereal bags, instead of Bingo? The ties on those bags aren't necessarily easy to undo. What do you think? ;-)