#LITERALLY a 101 on making friends with Parker

[sleepingnova]

Hi starry! Can I please request an x reader with peter Parker?? I just want some thing really fluffy!!! Thank you

ducky, I know it's you 🤫🫣 I'm like a year late but it's ok, we're going to pretend like time is irrelevant here. Also woah me actually posting? ain't no way

Uncomfortable

Summary : Peter Parker is tasked with his final English presentation for the year. Only problem is, it's with you, and he's got a massive crush.

Pairing : Peter Parker x gn! reader

Word count : 1k

Peter Parker hates presentations: he hates how you have to stand in front of a class full of kids who aren’t even listening to what you have to say. He hates it with every ounce of his being.

As the school year comes to a close, he realizes that this is his last speaking project of the year-- and oh my god– he almost jumped for joy when he read that in Mr. Stark’s lab. He catches himself, because how embarrassing would that be in front of THE Dr. Banner and War Machine??? So he does what a normal teenager would do: he smiles at his screen, pretending like he just got a really funny text. 

His expression drops when he realizes it’s a partner project, and both Ned and MJ are being paired with someone else. His heart drops into his stomach when he realizes his partner for the project is you, the prettiest and most popular girl in school! He’s had a slight hallway crush, but he always psyches himself out of talking to you because, hello? You’re way out of his league! So, like any teenage boy, he calls his best friend, spiraling. 

“Hey, Peter, what’s up? You’re still coming over to put the new lego set together with me this weekend, right? Don’t tell me you're about to cancel–” The receiving end gets cut off, by Peter of course rambling on and on. 

“You talking to me, kid?” Tony chimes from his desk, his back turned away from Peter as he works on something completely different, a new suit mod Peter presumes.

“Dude, I- what? No, not you, Mr. S- Tony. Sorry,” He stumbles, not missing the way Tony’s finger points backwards at him, almost as if he's waiting for him to correct himself. When he did, he gave a thumbs up and kept working, keeping his ears open. “Okay, dude, we have a problem, like a big problem. Like, you don’t understand how cooked I am. How cooked WE are. I have to work with that really pretty girl in our class for the presentation.” Peter rambles, covering his face at his so-called “problem,” and Tony almost bursts out laughing, stifling his chuckles with a cough into his fist. 

“Oh yeah, her. She’s really sweet, from what MJ’s told me. Okay, here’s what you do: I'll get you her number and just text her.” Ned rings out from the other end, half paying attention, half doing something completely different. 

“What? No, dude I can't just text her; you gotta have proper text etiquette. What would I even say? ‘Hey, you probably don’t know me, but we’re partners, and I have this massive crush on you, and I’ve been lowkey nervous as hell to come and talk to you’? Like, no. That’s how to scare her away 101. MJ and Liz are really the only two girls I actually talk to.” Tony can’t help but shake his head in disbelief, a faint smile on his face as he tries his hardest not to laugh at the kid as he apparently gets hung up on.

Peter groans, burying his head in his hands, a heated blush on his face behind his hands as Tony stifles his laughs, before finally turning around, a smug look on his face. 

“So, girl trouble, kid? Don’t be embarrassed, it happens to everyone! Well, not me back in the day,” Tony snorts, his eavesdropping making Peter sigh dramatically. “You’re a catch! Great personality and everything. Whoever this girl is would be lucky to have you. Does May know?” Tony asks, to which Peter was quick to shut it down with a “No, she doesn’t. I’m not going to say anything because this is literally just a school crush. She doesn’t even know I exist!” 

“Which is exactly why when you do this project with her, she’ll get to know you. Be your nerdy self and she’ll love you. Hell, in the two years I’ve known you, you’ve grown on me. I wasn’t even a kids person before I met you. When I lost you for those five years, I realized how much you wormed your sticky hands into my heart, or what heart I have left. You’re better than all of us, kid. You have a good heart and a good head on your shoulders; you don’t see that much anymore,” Tony pauses, trying to encourage him. “Just be yourself, kid. I promise you, stay true to yourself and it’ll work out.”

Peter nods and gradually, a week passes. Tony watches as he comes into the lab, noticing the slump in his shoulders, as if the weight of the world was actually picked up off his shoulders. Before Peter could even ask what they were doing today, his question of “what happened with your partner? Did you get her number?” came rolling off his mentor’s tongue, to which Peter could only respond with a whine and a blush creeping up to his cheeks. 

“Jesus, seriously? I can’t even go for a week without you asking.” The dry and defensive response made Tony laugh before he continued with a shy smile. “I did get her number, and an A on the presentation, thanks for asking. She’s leaving for the summer, but we’re going to talk all summer and just see how it goes. She’ll be back in New York every now and then, and I’m going to be working most of the summer, but I’m sure I can make the time.” His last phrase caught Tony’s attention. He turned, furrowing a brow at the brunette boy. As a response, the boy only shrugged. Something about getting a job to help out his aunt, which meant his lab days were going to be cut a lot shorter, but in true Tony Stark fashion, he tuned it out, already cooking up a way to override that.

That day, Peter was left half surprised and half anticipating how his summer was going to go. In his eyes, he aced his final English exam and got to form a blooming relationship with the girl he’s been crushing on from day one. Yeah, he’d tell his “Parker Luck” to go screw itself, because this was a definite win in his book.

okay, did I cook? be honest. I think I cooked. should I make another part to this of how the relationship forms or something like that?

Likes, comments, and reblogs are always appreciated, and thank you to my #1 proofreader that I keep in my pocket at all times <3

[unwantedtomost]

if you don’t like me, then i guess you’ll hate me — tasm!peter parker

tasm!peter parker x fem!reader

word count: 4931

summary: your whole life people either liked you, loved you, or hated you. when you met peter parker and he was indifferent towards you, you didn’t know how to react, so you started a plan to get him to hate you.

warnings: alcohol, dirty talk, oral (male & fem receiving), unprotected sex

a/n: i am literally so freaking glad i finally finished this! also this is my longest one shot so far so, very proud. i am currently obsessed with andrew and his peter parker so expect a loooooot more tasm smut coming from me. enjoy!

You were loved by everyone. That isn’t some naive idea you had about the world, for as long as you could remember that was just the truth.

Being on a family sitcom from the time you were three weeks old to the age of fourteen, you were raised in the spotlight. Overwhelming love and praise was something that you had felt by a million strangers all of the time. Along with that, your parents and siblings also did a pretty bang-up job of not being huge pieces of shit. Everyone you had ever met loved you or at the very least, pretended to like you.

So it was a huge fucking smack in the face when you met Peter Parker and he didn’t like you.

“You don’t like me?” You asked, a muddled feeling of confusion falling over you.

Peter turned from whatever he was writing to face you with a more clear feeling of confusion. “What?”

“Gwen told me you didn’t like me.” You were aware of how middle-schooler that sentence had sounded which made you save a load of cringe for later because you also were aware that you were unable to stop it.

Peter sighed, his hand going to rub his temple like you were physically causing a headache to occur.

“Look, you’re a nice girl, but we just don’t click.”

Click? Click!? What the fuck was that even supposed to mean?

You were going to continue badgering the boy because frankly, you didn’t know what there was to not like about you, but you were stopped short by your newfound best friend, Gwen Stacy, taping your shoulder and signifying for you to sit down in your seat. You mindless followed her direction without another word, mouth slightly agape at what had just happened.

As your English 101 professor rambled on about your newest paper that you were only going to be given a week-in-a-half to write, all you could think about was Peter Parker.

You didn’t want to try to make him like you. Despite the disbelief you felt in the fact that he didn’t like you, you didn’t want to stoop down to the level that you had seen others delve in before. The concept of someone just feeling indifferent towards you made you terrified in a way you couldn’t even really mangle into tangible thoughts let alone words. When people didn’t love you or like you, you only saw hate. You never saw indifference. Within that hour you had devised a plan to make Peter Parker no longer feel indifferent towards you.

After class was over, you pulled Gwen close to you as you walked out.

“That guy I met over the weekend,” you started.

“Flash?” 

“Yeah.”

“What about him?”

“I want you to hook me up with him.”

Gwen looked at you with a facial expression that screamed a mixture of shock and confusion.

“Why would you want to hook up with Flash?”

“Because he’s hot and I need to get laid,” you partially lied. “Please help a girl out?”

Gwen thought about it for a moment. “Okay, I suppose.”

“And we’re going out this weekend,” you added on.

Gwen playfully rolled her eyes as you continued to venture towards your next class. You smiled to yourself as you were one step ahead in your quest to make Peter Parker hate you.

—

The week had gone by in a blur. A few assignments here and there, an essay you almost forgot to write, and a calculus project that you accidentally had Gwen do for you. Finally, it was Friday night and it was time for your plan to continue to unfold. 

You and Gwen got ready at your apartment. You had already had three shots before the boys even showed up. With the small buzz running through you, Gwen started to look more appealing than Flash. You started to wonder if hooking up with her would make Peter more upset than hooking up with Flash. Even though this option did seem appealing, you ultimately decided against it.

When Gwen opened the door to reveal Flash and Peter, you let out a squeal of excitement. You wrapped your arms around Flash’s neck, a devious smile coming to your lips as you felt his arms wrap around your waist in response.

“I’m happy to see you,” you whispered in his ear before planting a pleasant kiss on his cheek.

As you pulled away from him, you made sure to have your arms linger on his biceps as you kept eye contact with him. You did feel bad for playing with Flash’s emotions, but you had to make it look believable for Peter, and if there was one thing you were good at in life, it was acting.

“Hey, Parker,” you said quickly before turning on the ball of your foot and disappearing into your room.

When you emerged, all three of the people in your presence had their jaws on the floor. You looked amazing in your sparkly red dress and matching pumps. A smirk arose yet again on your lips because of Peter’s reaction. As soon as he caught your eyes his jaw locked. You saw something stirring in his brown eyes and that made butterflies explode in your stomach.

“C’mon guys, let’s get this show on the road.”

Peter decided to drive to the club and also opted to be the designated driver of the night. Gwen sat in the passenger’s seat and was the DJ, she always had the best music choices best suited for the mood. That left you and Flash in the back together.

You were never a fan of subtlety and that was very obvious in the way your hands ran up and down Flash’s body as you talked to him. You had caught Peter’s brown eyes in the rearview mirror a few more times than he would like to admit. You felt powerful every time you felt his gaze burn into you and you got just as much of a boost when Flash pulled you closer.

As you four went into the club, your plan started to unfold for you even further. It was simple, really. You would start dancing with Gwen, maybe even Peter for a minute, but after that, all focus was to be on Flash at all times. Your goal to make Peter despise you would be a job well done after the night was over.

–

Everything was going according to plan. Flash was like putty in your hands. For the last two hours, you had yourself pressed against Flash, his hands glued to your hips. You felt his excitement to be so close to you more than once. You had also felt Peter staring daggers at you periodically throughout the night and you had felt like you won. After this, you would get plowed by the attractive young blonde in front of you, and then you would carry on with your life. With this clarity in mind, you decided that you were ready to stop and go home.

“I’ll be right back,” you yelled over the music to Flash. Before you made your way to the bathroom you also informed Gwen of what you were doing,

As you made your way into the hallway where the bathrooms split off, you felt someone grab your hips harshly and push you into a broom closet. You went to yell out but whoever grabbed you put a hand over your mouth. Once you were in the closet, you were let go of and turned around to see Peter standing there.

“The hell, Parker?” You scolded, slapping his arm.

“What? I wanted to talk,” he shrugged.

“And we couldn’t have talked without you throwing me into a closet?” You sassed, crossing your arms. You tried your best to act annoyed and confused. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Are you trying to get back at me or something for that ‘not liking you’ comment?” He asked bluntly.

“No, I couldn’t care less if you liked me or not.” You stepped closer to him, arms under your chest pushing your breasts up knowingly. “Look, Parker, I know it might be weird for me to be around all the time, but you’re just going to have to get used to it. Not only do we have all the same classes, but your friends—our friends—like me.” You looked up at his big brown eyes slowly filling with frustration that that caused a smirk to grow on your lips. You were winning. “Flash in particular likes me a lot. I like him too”

“That’s such a fucking lie.”

“Yeah? And how the hell would you know that? You don’t even like me, let alone know me enough to know what I like.”

“You wanna know how I know that?”

“I do. Please, Peter, enlighten me. Tell me how I’m lying.”

His head dropped down, mouth closer to your ear, breath dancing across your neck.

“I know because someone who actually liked him would be out there dancing with him, not in here practically soaking their panties yelling at me.”

You looked up at him shocked, for multiple reasons. One being that you couldn’t believe that Peter Parker was being so blunt, and the other being that you were surprised that he figured out what you were doing so soon.

Your cold exterior started to crack as he assaulted your defenses. You tried to muster up an unbothered looked, but instead, you ended up looking pissed off. Damnit.

“F-fuck off, Parker,” you muttered with so much defense in your voice you wanted to slap yourself silly.

Finally, it was Peter’s turn to smirk at this. 

He slowly reached forward, tucking a strand of your hair behind your ear. His hand stayed pressed against your cheek, thumb lightly brushing against your cheekbone. You felt uneasy by how gentle he was, you were unsure how to react in this situation. His thumb slowly made its way down to where it was pulling your bottom lip down. He kept you like that for a moment as he started to speak.

“When he’s fucking you tonight, I want you to think about me, princess,” he said softly. “Think about just how much better it would feel to have my cock inside you.”

Before you even had time to process what he said, Peter had disappeared. The only proof you had that he was even there was the salty taste his thumb had left on your lip.

You quickly slipped out of the closet as well. You walked with conviction to the booth Flash and Gwen were occupying. You grabbed Flash by his shirt, pulling him in for a heated and sloppy kiss.

“I wanna get out of here,” you stated bluntly. You then leaned up closer to his ear, whispering to sound more seductive. “I want you to fuck me.”

You had never seen someone move so quickly after you said those words. In a flash (haha, pun very much intended), he had you in a cab and on your way back to the apartment. Gwen and Peter had decided to go get something to eat, and Gwen being your friend (and personally not wanting to hear your sex noises), wanted to give you two some privacy.

As soon as you entered your apartment before the door was even fully shut, you two were shedding your clothes all over the place. You barely made it to your room before he was grasping at your underwear. Flash attempted to go down on you, but you had pulled him back up, insisting that you couldn’t wait for him.

You were ashamed to admit that as soon as your eyes closed, it was Peter you were thinking about. You had to bite down on your lip as to not moan out his name. You hated it but he was right. You knew you wanted him. You already knew that he would be able to make you feel types of pleasure that you hadn’t before. As Flash pounded into you, all you could think about was fucking Peter Parker.

As you came, you pulled Flash closer and closed your eyes tighter, trying your best to hold onto your high and the thought of Peter being the guy inside of you.

When your high was over and Flash had slumped off next to you, you felt sick at what you had just done. You felt even sicker for the realization that came next.

Peter Parker was winning.

—

You had woken up the next morning alone. To be honest you were relieved that you had kicked Flash out (not so subtly) after you guys finished last night. He surprisingly took it like a champ and was still a gentleman as you pushed him out of your door at three in the morning. He kissed you on the cheek and thanked you for a wonderful night before he disappeared down the hallway.

You didn’t drink enough to have a hangover but you still felt off as you got out of bed. You were dressed in an oversized t-shirt you stole from Gwen and your underwear. Saying you had a bad case of bedhead would have been an understatement. As the smell of bacon and eggs wafted into your nose, you realized you were starving. You looked over at the clock and it was close to eleven.

You made your way out of bed and down the hall. As you entered the kitchen you saw Gwen dancing as she made breakfast. She started to sing Pocket Full of Sunshine and moved her hips to the beat. The only thing that snapped her out of her world was you laughing. She turned around, slightly startled before she realized your goofy demeanor.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she teased. “If your hair is any indication I’d say last night was good, yeah?”

You shrugged. “I mean I finished, so that’s something.”

Gwen pouted. “Awe, sweetie. What happened?”

“Nothing, Flash is a good guy and all, I just guess I wished he was someone else.”

“Does this someone by any chance have goofy brown hair and brown eyes?”

You rolled your eyes at the notion even though it was one hundred percent the truth.

“Peter? Please. You wouldn’t see me going out with him even if he was the last man on earth.”

“Mhm, so is that why I saw you guys staring daggers at each other last night?”

“I do not know what you’re talking about,” you lied. 

“Okay,” she said with very blatant doubt in her voice. She handed you a full plate which you gratefully accepted. “Tonight we’re going out again tonight. My friend Allison is throwing a party. Peter and Flash are coming too.”

“Lovely.”

The rest of the day went by in a haze. You worked on rewriting some notes for English and a few assignments, but for the majority of the day, you sat around and did nothing.

Tonight you went for a different look. You wore a black two-piece with matching heels. It was an obvious contrast to the white dress Gwen wore. 

Since your apartment was just off-campus, you and Gwen decided to walk to the party. You were still trying to figure out if you would be accompanied by someone on your walk home and if so, by who.

The party was going absolutely batshit. The music was so loud you could feel the bass in every step you took. Your nose was filled with weed the sent of weed as soon as you walked into the door. You tightly held onto Gwen’s hand as she fought through the crowd of rowdy twenty-somethings. You brushed against at least fifty of your peers as you made your way to the kitchen. Gwen dropped your hand when you had finally gotten to the kitchen.

You fixed yourself and Gwen a drink with the array of alcohol displayed on the counter. You had only a few goals on your mind for the night, those being: 1.) get drunk, 2.) dance your ass off, and 3.) get laid. You were getting a headstart on the first one. 

You were still discombobulated from the debacle with Peter last night. You thought that it was just the indifference that made you feel uncomfortable, but it was the fact that you liked him and he just didn’t like you back. No hate, no love, just nothing. Being confronted about that the previous night shook you in a way you didn’t want to admit, and you were going to. You were going to drink, you were going to dance, and you were going to dance, but you’d be damned if you were going to admit anything

Flash and Peter arrived in the kitchen minutes later. You quickly found yourself hanging on to Flash for comfort. Gwen had begun to talk to the host of the party and her friend, Allison, and there was no way you were talking to Peter. After Flash had finished his first drink and you had finished your third, you were dragging him into the next room overfilled with dancing peers.

“Last night was fun,” Flash yelled over the music with a smile.

“Yeah,” you agreed, your smile more forced. “I’m not really looking for anything serious right now, though. I’m sorry.”

“No biggie, I kind of assumed as much.”

“But we should definitely do it again sometime.”

“Hell yeah.”

This time the smile on your face was one of relief. At least you hadn’t fucked up your friendship with a guy who genuinely liked you as a person in your failed ploys to try and get a different guy to hate you. As you thought about it, you felt embarrassed, but you tried your best to shove it down as you began to dance.

The substance in your system helped take you away from your thoughts. The music and the environment aided as well. Flash’s hands gripped your hips much as he had down the night before as you ground against him. You had sufficiently lost yourself in the music for a solid thirty minutes until fatigue started to hit you. Your movements slowed as you turned to face Flash as you danced. You scanned the room until your eyes landed on two girls who were staring at you and you realized they had been catching glances the whole time you two had been dancing.

“I think you got some fans,” you said directing him to the girls.

Flash turned back to see the girls. Once he looked over they both giggled and instantly looked anywhere but at him. When he turned back to you he had a goofy smirk plastered on his face.

“Nah, I don’t think so.”

“Don’t act coy, Flash. They’re hot. Go get some, big boy.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“You’re sweet but seriously, go get ‘em stallion.”

You smiled when he turned to approach them. Before he walked away you smacked his ass playfully. You felt glad when the girls started blushing as he walked over to them. With a mission feeling complete, you decided to get away from all the noise.

You once again fought your way through the crowd of people until you found a staircase. You followed it upstairs to a long hallway. You walked down the hall. Most of the doors were shut but you found one that was cracked open. You slowly peered inside to make sure no one was in there before you made your way in. You closed the door behind you and sat down on the bed.

It wasn’t silent by any means but it was the most calm you had felt in an hour. You let out a sigh of relief at the loneliness. You planned to stay in the room until your social battery recharged enough to allow you to go back to the crowd of people. You were thinking about when it would be reasonable to tell Gwen that you were going to head home until you noticed the doorknob turning and your mind went blank.

You froze in fear and anticipation, sucking in a breath. Though you knew nothing terrible would come from whatever situation was about to ensure, even if it was the owner of the room themselves, the fear of the unknown made everything go a little slower. That or the alcohol.

You let out the breath you were holding and shrugged your shoulders forward as you saw Peter walk into the room. 

“Should I be concerned that you keep cornering me in confined spaces?” You asked with a cocked eyebrow.

“Maybe,” he said, leaning against the door to close it. You rolled your eyes as you heard the click of the door locking.

“For someone who doesn’t like me, you sure act like you want to spend some quality time with me.” He stalked towards you, gently caressing your cheek with one of his hands. His eyes were unreadable, you couldn’t detect anything specific on his face. The gentle touch plus the uncertainty felt eerie. “Seriously, what do you want, Peter?”

“I’m not sure,” he said, that much you could tell was honest. “I think I’m just trying to get some answers.”

You were going to question him further but as soon as your mouth opened, you felt his lips against yours. It took you a second to react, utterly confused by what was happening. But when your brain granted you enough cognition to move, you kissed him back hungrily. You not only wanted this but something inside of you felt like you needed it. You grabbed onto his jacket to pull him closer to you. You wanted more. You wanted him. Now.

Just as you prepared to lay back and brace yourself for him to topple onto you, he pulled away from you. Your lips tried to chase after his to no avail. You let out a whine as he left you feeling empty. His eyes flickered from your eyes to your lips. You copied him and did the same, some pride washing over you as you saw your lipstick smeared against his lips. After a while of him not doing anything, you decided it was your time to take action.

You dropped to your knees, swiftly undoing his belt and unzipping his jeans. You again felt your pride swell as you realized he was already hard. So some part of him did like you. The pit of pride in your stomach swelled yet again as you caught a glance of an astonished look in Peter’s brown eyes. 

You took him from his boxers before pumping his length. You kitten licked the tip, making sure to draw it out to teach him. His hands went to your hair as you finally took him into your mouth. You bopped your head slowly at first, Peter starting to guide you after a while. The beautiful noises that slipped out of his mouth gave you the motivation to continue going. You took it upon yourself to fit his whole length into your mouth, part of yourself wanting to prove that you could to him. 

“Fuck,” he grunted as he hit the back of your throat.

You would’ve smirked at that if his cock wasn’t down your throat.

You pulled away for a second to catch your breath. You wanted to make a snarky comment but you feared you would snap the amazement out of his eyes so you kept silent. You took him into your mouth again, bobbing more aggressively this time. You took the full length down your throat again, this time staying where you were. He gripped your hair as he felt your throat constrict around his length, a string of profanities falling from his lips. He basically had to pull you off of him. Peter looked down at you dumbfounded, you smirked as you wiped the salvia from your mouth with the back of your hand.

Peter picked you up from your spot on the floor, practically throwing you onto the bed. You were surprised how effortlessly he had manhandled you but it turned you on.

In an instant, he was on top of you. He kissed you once again. You moaned into his mouth as his hands started to travel down your body. He pulled away from your lips, quickly making work on your neck. He expertly found your sweet spot and stayed there for a moment. You knew that there was going to be a mark there in the morning and you knew that that was the point. You made a note to leave some marks of your own.

Peter started to travel down your body hastily, wanting to kiss every part of you. As he got down to your thighs, he pushed your skirt around your hips. He made quick work of your underwear as he pulled them off of your legs. His kisses teased you as his lips drifted closer and closer to where you wanted him the most. Your hands went to tangle themselves in his messy brown hair, but you knew better than to tug impatiently. He looked up at you asking if it was okay and you nodded aggressively.

His tongue licked a stripe up your slit and immediately you were putty. After he added his finger, it was only a matter of seconds until you came embarrassingly quick with his name falling from your lips. He helped you ride through your high but instead of letting up, he instead decided to double down. He added another finger and increased his speed. You pulled on his hair as he fucked you into another orgasm. Your leg started to shake from the pleasure but he still didn’t stop.

“Peter,” you begged. He only looked into your eyes, continuing his assault. You pulled at his hair in a desperate attempt and he lifted from your sex. “Thank you, Peter.” It was a hopeless plea.

He smiled up at you and for a moment you thought he would let up. Peter kept direct eye contact as he spits onto your heat before his lips attached to your clit yet again. You cried out from the overstimulation as you tried to close your thighs. He pushed your legs apart, making you take everything he had to give to you.

As your third high approached, your back arched off of the bed as you gripped Peter’s hair. You came with a cry, throwing your head back. Once you had climaxed, you fell limp against the bed. Peter detached himself from you, this time it was his turn to smirk as he wiped your juices from his mouth.

You tugged at the hem of his shirt, trying to pull him closer. He took a second to admire how beautiful you looked just then. Your hair was a mess, your lipstick smeared, and your skirt scrunched around your waist. 

“What do you want?” Peter asked.

“I want you to fuck me.”

His hands grabbed your calves, dragging you closer to the edge of the bed. He pumped himself a few times before looking at you. He lined himself up with your entrance but didn’t slide in quite yet.

“Who do you want?”

“I want you, Peter.”

He easily slid into you, both of you letting out explicit moans. He went slow at first, trying to get you acquainted with his size. As his speed started to increase, the grip he had on your hips did as well. As he thrust into you, it came to your attention that he might just be the best sex you’ve ever had.

Tears started to fall from your eyes as the pleasure overtook you. When you sat next to the brunette the first week of school, you never thought that he would be buried balls deep inside of you at some stranger’s party. You wrapped your legs around his waist, attempting to pull him impossibly closer.

You grabbed his wrists as he somehow increased his speed. You tapped into the part of your brain that was still actually working and made sure that your nails dug into his skin so he would have a psychical reminder of what took place in the morning. You knew there would be bruises where his fingers dug into your hips in the morning, and a part of you was very excited to see those. You were even more ecstatic at the thought of seeing crescent-sized marks into Peter’s wrists for the next few days.

You let go of the grip on his wrist and pulled off one of his hands from your hip. You entangled your fingers and squeezed.

“I’m close, Peter,” you warned.

“Me too, sweetheart.”

He squeezed your hand as an indication that he was almost there and then suddenly your climax crashed into you. You let out a yell of his name and death-gripped his hand as you came for the last time that night. He followed quickly after, his grip on your hand following in suit of what you had done previously. After he came, he fell forward, falling onto the bed next to you.

Your hands were still connected as you lay on the bed, trying to catch your breaths. You turned your head to admire Peter and all his weird beauty, pleasantly surprised to see him already looking at you. You smiled and he did the same.

“You know, I think I might like you after all,” Peter said.

“After the head I just gave you, you fucking better.”

[sail-not-drift]

Stucky Fic Recs

I’m waiting for my hair dye to develop and have also lost my mind to these two, so here, have some recs. All are amazing. The ones that make me FERAL are bolded, the ones that made my soul ascend have stars.

Dedicated to @neversleepingever and @mygutsforgarters, you heathens.

Dishonor On Your Cow - Shrunkyclunks (but not really, sort of) where Steve and Bucky have a hate at first sight meeting during the Battle of Manhattan and Bucky eventually joins the Avengers for feelings and hilarity.

****He's All That - College AU where frat boy Bucky takes a bet to turn disaster Steve Rogers into the class president but catches feelings instead. 

dance with a ghost - Shrunkyclunks where Bucky moves into an apartment and finds himself haunted by the ghost of Captain America.

Introduction to Fake Dating Your Best Friend 101 - Professors AU, Steve and Bucky are a pair of professors who have to fake date for academic purposes and are real dumb along the way.

Five times Steve kissed Bucky - Pre-serum “fight me” Steve Rogers to post TWS.

To Believe in Tomorrow - Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky's mornings at the community garden get a little more interesting when the new guy shows up.

Blush Pink - Dirty talking, dom!Bucky PWP.

if all my mistakes (led me to you) - No powers AU, Steve has to scramble to find a plus one for Peggy’s big day after being spontaneously dumped. Bucky is his slutty neighbor.

**Unusual Weather - Tony gives Bucky Asgardian drugs to chill him out while Tony fixes his arm. Steve is there to hold Bucky down. Then Bucky starts dirty talking.

a long way from the playground - Fake dating, no powers AU, Bucky needs to pretend he has a date to Becca’s wedding and blurts out his best friend’s name.

Something Borrowed - In-universe Sam POV AU where Sam, Steve, and Bucky go to Sam’s sister’s wedding.

Bucky Barnes: Sunscreen Assassin - In-universe AU; Steve refuses to wear sunscreen, Bucky takes that as a challenge.

winter wheat, sunflower peat - Powered AU where instead of re-meeting in TWS, Steve meets Bucky as a hitchhiker. ANGST AND FEELS.

**The Daily Rogers - College AU, exchange student Bucky meets Steve “fight me” Rogers, who classmates run a nasty blog about.

No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Pine - Secret Agent adversaries-to-lovers AU where the Winter Soldier keeps tying Captain America to walls and sticking around to chat.

Drive It Like You Stole It: A Bodyswap - Steve and Bucky get bodyswapped then go on a magical road trip with Peter Parker; extreme antics and harmless emotional torture for Peter ensue.

Your Lack Of An Answer Is Kind Of An Answer: Four Questions Natasha Asked Steve Rogers, And One Time Bucky Barnes Answered - Beautiful and painful Natasha POV, so many Steve feelings, SO MANY.

Achilles Come Down - You jump, I jump, pre-serum and after.

eros and psyche - Post-TWS, Steve and the Winter Soldier start an affair where the Soldier never lets Steve see his face.

Sparked Up Like a Book of Matches - Beautiful Steve-centric, post-TWS. Sometimes Tony gives him super alcohol in a sippy cup. Sometimes he sees Bucky out of the corner of his eye and wonders if it's real or if he's starting to lose his mind.

Itinerant - Nomad Steve goes wandering the world without the rest of the team to try and find himself while Bucky recovers in Wakanda.

Sweet Relieving - Pre-serum PWP, Steve cross-dresses, Bucky talks DIRTY.

4 Minute Window - Post-TWS, Bucky “kidnaps” Steve and they build a life together.

time on my hands (could be time spent with you) - Nomad Steve runs missions while Bucky recovers in Wakanda and everyone thinks they’re married.

My Working Week and My Sunday Rest - Steve's life after he throws down the shield and hides with Bucky in Wakanda.

Cat Nap - AU where Winter Soldier Bucky and Steve didn’t know each other; Bucky deprograms himself and Steve accidentally steals his cat.

The Size of Perfection - WWII, Steve is shy about how big the serum made his dick. But then there is extreme bittersweet beauty.

Ain't No Grave - Post-TWS (with a pre-TWS prologue) where Bucky accidentally adopts two homeless kids and tries to recover before finding Steve again.

So, You've Adopted a Fruit - Retired Steve and Bucky; Bucky rescues a stray kitten.

Bucky Barnes: on top of the Polls - Steve gets extremely unbalanced during American elections and Bucky both hates and lusts for it.

Together Forever and Ever - PWP, Bucky’s birthday.

Meet-Cute AU's - A gazillion different AUs, heaven on earth.

Lessons in Normality - Shrunkyclunks AU where Steve doesn’t know his normal boyfriend Bucky is a secret agent gathering information on him, Shield, and Hydra.

Pedantic Affectations - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve is a vigilante badly undercover as a teacher, Bucky is the detective trying to bring him in. Steve in his brilliance decides to throw Bucky off his scent by dating him.

*That Ass (Property of James Barnes) - Bucky is loudly obsessed with Steve’s ass.

Strange Visitor (From Another Time) - Lois and Clark-esque Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky is a reporter pissed at the new kid in the newsroom who ends up being Captain America.

Snapshots - Post TWS: Steve is trying to find Bucky. Instead, he finds the sexy Navy "propaganda" Bucky somehow never mentioned he modeled for before the war. Painful and profound.

The Roommate - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve decides not to live in Avengers Tower and instead gets an apartment and finds a one-armed veteran for a roommate.

Side bitch out of your league - Shrunkyclunks AU, Steve misdials Bucky while on a mission. Then misdials him again. Then dials him on purpose.

(760): I literally cut myself out of my pants. Waste. Of. Money. - No powers AU, Bucky texts a random number on Sam’s phone for outfit advice.

Slide To Answer - No powers wrong number AU; Steve misdials Bucky for dating advice, then keeps doing it.

a line that goes all the way. - Recovery in Wakanda pining.

**********they're gonna send us to prison for jerks - Post-TWS, Steve and Sam are undercover and move in next door to a math teacher who looks just like Bucky, but Steve can’t be sure... MY EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FIC.

***Siege - Post-TWS AU where Bucky sticks around after pulling Steve from the Potomac and there are some painful and beautiful plot twists and some goddamn PROSE.

a blade with no handle - AU, the Winter Soldier joins the Avengers; identity porn.

Let's Fall in Love - Tony sends Steve and Bucky to a ridiculous fake speakeasy bar, feelings happen.

***Circling Back - Steve looks for Bucky, Bucky finds Steve, Steve tries desperately to put Bucky back together. Bucky tries desperately to let him. ULTIMATE POST-TWS RECOVERY FIC. Avenger family feels.

#TweetMeDaddy - Shrunkyclunks AU; Bucky works for Shield and tweets something that gets flagged as a death threat. It isn’t.

Good Boy - PWP, dom!Steve petplay; Bucky is still adjusting to life with the Avengers, and Steve is willing to do whatever it takes to make him feel comfortable.

[simonsrosebud]

what if kevin & dalton had been set up instead of meeting on their own?

(pls accept this as apology for not posting any kalton for MONTHS)

kevin doesn’t have a date to the banquet.

normally, it’s fine.  he’s taken allison or renee to the last few, as friends.  but this year, renee has something going on with gwen, their freshman dealer who is somehow only a year younger than himself.  and allison got scooped up by ricky, the other freshman dealer. 

“what happened to us being dates?  i thought it was unspoken?”

allison shrugs and pushes her hair behind her shoulder.  she has her arms crossed as she leans against the doorframe to kevin’s bedroom.  “sure, but ricky has a crush on me and it’s fun playing around with it.”

kevin sends her a look.  “ew, don’t look at me like that.  as if, he’s like a baby to me.”  kevin opens his mouth, but gets cut off.  “you could get a date easily, it’s fine, we’ll help.”

and she’s right.  later that afternoon she shoots a text to the team groupchat.

allison:  kevin needs a date, any and all genders welcome.  must be hot, good at socializing, and able to withstand his complete lack of care for them esp once he starts talking exy. 

allison:  i expect a nominee from each of you.  good luck soldiers.

and kevin’s going to kill that girl.

the freshmen don’t answer, of course.  all of their friends are freshmen, and they’re also just too scared to respond to the foxes sometimes.

aaron responds first, suggesting he just take one of the vixens.  neil chimes in by saying that marissa girl is fucking social alright.

kevin doesn’t get why allison can’t just set him up with one of her friends.  she has a strict rule against any of the foxes dating her non-exy friends, but it’s just an banquet. 

matt comes in last, but instead of the groupchat it’s just to kevin.

matt:  i have a friend named dalton.  he’s in his masters to become a professor but he’s chill. he’s nice and fun too, the best guy i know

kevin knows he shouldn’t be shallow, but...

kevin:  picture?

matt responds almost instantly.  a picture of his friend sitting across from him at starbucks on his laptop.  he looks caught off guard, like matt took the picture without warning.

is he with him right now?

kevin:  maybe.

he drops his head back and rubs his eyes.

an hour later, the door opens.  neil comes in first.  matt is on his heels, and someone else trails in behind him.  kevin sits up.

neil looks at him.  in french, he says, “i wasn’t a part of this.”

kevin stands, and responds back in french.  “you let him in.”  neil shrugs at that, and continues down to the bedroom.

matt nods at him with a smug smile.  “do you still have your psych 101 workbook?  i have to take it next semester and i don’t wanna buy it.”

kevin frowns.  is he not going to introduce his friend?  “uh, yeah.”  he turns to his desk and rummages through the drawers to pull it out.

“oh, this is dalton, by the way.  he’s a friend from sophomore year.”

there it is.  kevin turns back, book in hand, and nods at dalton.

dalton smiles, calm and charming, and tilts his head a bit.  “he’s lying.  i was his TA.”

kevin gives a smile.  it’s small and faint, and mostly fake.  he can’t help it.  he doesn’t care for small talk like this.  how old does that make dalton?

also, how did matt befriend his TA?  kevin’s never spoken a word to the majority of his own.

“can’t imagine having to deal with him in class,” he says, jokingly.

matt doesn’t defend it, just shrugs and moves on.  “hey, did you find a date to the banquet yet?”  he wiggles his eyebrows.  

kevin’s gonna kill him.  he stuffs his hands into his hoodie pocket so he can ball his fists.  “not yet, no.”

he nods, nudges dalton.  “kevin’s on the exy team, too.  he’s the only one without a date to the winter banquet this year,” he says.  “allison, remember allison?  she’s on a manhunt to find someone she approves of for him.”

dalton considers it.  “that sounds like allison.”

kevin refrains from frowning.  “have you met her?”

dalton has, just one time when he and matt went to a football game this fall and made a pit stop to matt’s room.  it’s also when he met neil, albeit very briefly.  neil had too much going on to give him the time of day.

“once, a month or so ago.”

when matt and dalton get into the car, dalton turns halfway in his seat to fully face matt.�� “he doesn’t have a date?”  matt shakes his head.  “is he into guys at all?”

matt glances at him.  “yeah, he’s bisexual.”

dalton raises his eyebrows.  “um, hello?!  why didn’t you set him up with me?!”

matt frowns and shoots his friend a look.  “why do you think we just went over?!  i took psychology freshman year!”

dalton’s gonna kill him.  “but you didn’t say anything about me to him.”  matt rolls his eyes and waves him off, and dalton sits back in his seat.

“i know kevin, i know what i’m doing.”

he crosses his arms.  “you’re the worst wingman i’ve ever met.”

but low and behold, kevin texts matt a few hours after his visit.

kevin:  how do u know dalton would want to be my date to the banquet?

matt:  bc he literally told me so

kevin:  fine, ask him if he wants to go and i’ll take him.

when dalton climbs on the bus behind matt, it takes him only a moment to spot kevin and make his way over.

the banquet is five hours away, so the foxes and their dates are changing into their formalwear once they arrive.

dalton has joggers on, and a long sleeve henley that’s a size too big.  his collarbone hangs out as the collar hangs low.  he wears a soft smile, and pushes a hand back through his hair. 

he looks hot.

dalton looks even more hot dressed up in his suit.  he keeps at kevin’s side at first, and talks to both matt and dan from time to time.  allison even pops up once to inquire about him, since he wasn’t one of her picks.

dalton and matt seem to joke around like they’re best friends.  but he doesn’t ever remember matt mentioning him.

then again, if kevin had friends outside of exy, he may not introduce them to the foxes, either.

he finds his way back to kevin’s side at their table, where he’s talking to a trojan player.  after a while, kevin turns to him.  “you don’t have to stick by my side, if you don’t want.”  he almost feels bad.

dalton shrugs and smiles.  “what if i want to stick by your side?”  the way that kevin reacts shows that he wasn’t expecting that, and dalton’s smile turns shy.  “um, i don’t mind, really.  i’d feel bad leaving you alone.  i’m your date.”  he takes a sip of his drink.

“okay.”  it barely leaves kevin’s lips, but it’s enough to make dalton happy.

“you can even talk exy to me, if you want.  i can pretend i know how it works.”

kevin’s heart seizes.  “you don’t know exy?”

dalton grins.  “i’ve never even seen a game.”  he leans closer.  “teach me?”

so he does.  for the next half hour, they sit and kevin blabbers on, and dalton listens and asks questions.  and then they sidetrack somehow to talking about marvel movies and what they suspect will happen in the next spiderman movie.

dalton swears to die on the grave that peter parker is a bisexual icon.

“you can take that title, instead, though.”  his grin is cheeky.  kevin lightly kicks his ankle and rolls his eyes, but he’s heavily amused.

“what about you?  what are you?”

“gay,” he shrugs.  “not much to it.”

“did you… when you told people, how did they react?”

dalton’s head tilts just a bit, and his smile starts to fade.  “some people don’t like it, but it was fine for the most part.”  and after a moment.  “why, are you okay?”

kevin nods.  

dalton doesn’t believe it.  and he supposes he doesn’t know kevin enough to say that, but there’s something about the way kevin doesn’t verbally respond to it that sits weird in his head.

he props his chin in his hand.  “i told my roommates i was gay the first week of freshman year.  my roommate knew, but we had two suitemates, and one of them kinda stopped talking to me after that if he could help it.”  he flicks his eyes up to meet kevin’s.  “my uncle asks me at every family function if i’ve got a girl yet.  he’s known for seven years, now,” he says.  “and thanksgiving is now hosted at my house because my grandmother told my mother that i was unwelcome in hers.”

harsh.  

“i’m sorry.”

he doesn’t know what else he’s supposed to say, really.  he barely has family as it is, but he can’t imagine losing them now because of something so small.

but dalton just shrugs a shoulder.  “it’s okay.  think about it this way, if i was still in the closet i wouldn’t be your date right now.”  he cracks a smile.  always smiling.

that’s when kevin notices just how close their faces are.  and how he keeps glancing at dalton’s mouth.  he sits back.  not here.

dalton goes to the bathroom, and matt takes his seat.  “how’s it going with dalton?”

kevin frowns.  “fine, why?  did he say something?”

matt’s face is indescribable.  “no, but i see you guys getting all close and stuff.  just flirt with him, dude!  he obviously likes you.”

yeah right.  “i-i don’t think so.  he’s just here because i didn’t have a date.”

matt drops his head for a second.  “kevin, after you first met him he scolded me for not setting you two up.  he doesn’t watch exy, and he’s not here for the famous kevin day, just give him a chance.”  kevin looks to the side, where dalton’s on his way back talking with dan at his side.  they’re getting closer, so he talks fast and quiet.  he stands.  “don’t fuck this up, he’s hot and nice,” he whispers, and grins when dan slides into his side.

“we wanna dance.  boys?”  she looks expectantly at both kevin and matt.  matt doesn’t have a choice, but he’d never say no anyway.

dan pulls kevin up and shoves him lightly into dalton, who catches a hand on his waist.  kevin wants to squirm out of it, but not because he doesn’t like dalton, or dalton’s touch.  just because the idea of liking dalton scares him a bit.

but dalton lets go when he finds his balance.

“i don’t- i can’t dance.”

“yeah right, i’ve seen you at eden’s before.”

when he was belligerently drunk.

“you don’t have to.” dalton’s voice is soft behind him.

matt slides his gaze to kevin.  don’t fuck this up.

he turns.  how has his life come to this?  “no.  i will, if you want to.”

dalton grins, lopsided and happy.  “yeah?”

he hopes he doesn’t regret it.  “yeah.” 

so dalton takes him by the hand and leads him after matt and dan.  the majority of the foxes are in the midst of the crowd as well, but they don’t pay them any mind.  there’s enough people that kevin can pretend he’s at eden’s.

kevin is a terrible dancer.  dalton notices it right away and laughs.  when kevin gives him a look he says, “follow my lead.  just sway a little.  nod your head to the music,” kevin looks up at him while he dances, but catches dalton’s eyes instead.

he looks away and falls out of rhythm.  “sorry,” he mumbles.

“it’s okay.”  dalton gently takes kevin’s hands and puts them on his waist.  it feels illegal.  his hands feel like dead weights, he doesn’t know what to do.

is he blacking out right now?

but then dalton’s moving his hips and dancing, and laughing.  he’s having fun and kevin wants to have fun too.

he moves his hands from dalton’s waist to around his neck, and dalton hesitates with his hands near kevin’s hips until kevin nods.

dalton’s fingers dip into his hips.  his one finger taps along the beat of whatever song is playing, while he lightly sings along and bounces back and forth.

it’s dark on this side of the court with the exception of some colored lights darting around.  the designated dancing spot.

kenna is kissing jack in the crowd.

kevin looks back to dalton, singing with a smile plastered on his face.

no one would notice.

kevin’s fingers twitch against dalton’s neck.  but someone could.

he’s already out, but that doesn’t mean he’s kissed a boy in public yet.

he drops his arms.  “i need some air.”

dalton let’s go, “are you okay?”  but he just nods and takes off, off of the court and down the hall to the locker rooms.  the foxes have their things in the away men’s locker room.

kevin sinks down on the bench.  he plays with the bracelet around his wrist, courtesy of betsy in case he needs something to fidget with.  opposed to panicking, that is.

that woman is never wrong.

kevin likes dalton, that’s not in question nor is it really the problem.  the problem is that he doesn’t know what his problem is.  if it’s what people will say when they see that he truly is into men.

being told something versus seeing proof that it’s real are two different things.  he’s learned that, dealt with it more than once.  the last time it was the proof of the raven’s bullying and abuse.  being told that kevin and riko’s relationship isn’t what the fans fantasize it is versus then seeing proof that it isn’t anything that they thought, for example.

kevin had to deal with backlash like that for months after the raven’s investigation post championship game.  him being bi isn’t the same, of course, but he doesn’t know how to predict the behaviors of his fans.  he doesn’t know what they’ll support or not.

but he likes dalton.

“hey.”

one of the freshmen, eva, stands in the doorway.  “stop running 

you don’t have to be scared of people seeing you dance, you know.”

kevin frowns.  “i don’t care about dancing.”

“yeah, but you care about dancing with your date.”  they cross their arms and lean against the doorframe.  “no one cares.  half this team is a little gay, anyway.”

once they’ve changed for the night in the hotel room, dalton hesitates from where he stands by the bed.  “are you okay?  you seemed a little jittery all night, i just... i wanna make sure everything’s fine, i guess.”

kevin looks up, but doesn’t answer. 

stop being so afraid of everything.

he opens his mouth to say something, but he doesn’t know what he can say.

he sighs.

dalton’s standing there, arms crossed, concerned.  kevin swallows his fears as he makes his way across the room until he’s standing right in front of dalton, and slides a hand behind his neck to kiss him.

dalton hums, surprised.  after a moment he brings a hand to kevin’s chest, and there’s a second where kevin thinks hes going to be pushed away.  instead his fingers dig into his hoodie and he pulls kevin closer.

dalton’s smiling as kevin pulls away.  “about time,” he mumbles, and kisses him again.

the back of dalton’s knees hit the bed by accident, but he drops down to sit and gently pulls kevin by the strings of his hoodie.

kevin isn’t new to sex, so to speak.  he’s not the most experienced, but he’s had his fun.  it’s the only reason he’s confident enough to scoot dalton further back and kiss him into the mattress.

dalton wraps an ankle around the back of kevin’s knee.  he curls his fingers into his hair and leans his head back when kevin kisses down his neck.

they wake up to kevin’s phone blaring.  matt’s calling.

kevin only acknowledges the fact that he has his arm around dalton for a second before he checks the time.

they’re late.

wymack’s gonna kill him.

kevin sits up and shakes dalton as he answers his phone.  “hey you guys are awake right?  coach is pulling the bus around then we’re loading up.”

kevin’s out of the bed and throwing his shirt on, tossing dalton’s hoodie to him.  “yeah, we’re coming.”  dalton’s eyes go wide and that kicks him into gear as he realizes the situation.

they look a mess as they run around.  they’ve really only got one pair of clothes and their suits to frantically shove into their bags.  kevin pulls his sneakers on without socks and dalton’s got his on with the laces all undone as they jog down the hall.

at least they brushed their teeth.

dalton drops down to tie his shoes in the elevator, and when he stands kevin takes the liberty of carding his fingers through his hair.

he shrugs.  “bed head.”

dalton can’t help but smile.  “might wanna pull this up a little,” he mumbles, and that’s when kevin realizes that he’d accidentally put on dalton’s long sleeve henley.  the shirt he’d been wearing last night before it got dropped to the floor.

dalton pushes the shirt up so it’s not hanging lower on kevin’s collarbone.  he’s got a nice hickey that needs hiding.

“they’re never going to let this go,” kevin says.

dalton leans back against the elevator wall.  “i’ve got some juice on matt if you ever need.”

kevin smiles, just a little.  despite him worrying all during the banquet, last night was so good.  he doesn’t want it to end as soon as they step off of the bus.  he doesn’t want dalton to be a one night stand, he doesn’t think.

he takes a step forward and kisses dalton against the wall once more.  he pulls away when the elevator dings.

matt smiles to himself as he watches them come around the corner.  he tries to tame it, at least.

kevin and dalton are the last on the bus.  kevin’s spot in the back is open, so they go back there.  dalton toes off his shoes as soon as he sits down.

kevin is on the aisle side.  his chest skips when dalton’s hand lands gently on his thigh.  he doesn’t hate it.

it’s dinner time when they get back to a rainy palmetto.  dalton had fallen asleep on kevin’s shoulder a half hour ago, and jolts awake when matt whoops and shouts to get out of his way so he can run off the bus for the bathroom.

“sorry,” dalton says quietly, scratching his head and yawning into the back of his hand.

“i didn’t mind.” kevin stretches his legs and pulls his shoes on.

dalton’s car is in the gated stadium parking lot.  kevin walks him to it, head ducked because all he’s got on is dalton’s henley.  no one anticipated rain.

dalton turns after unlocking his car, and sticks a ripped off folded note into kevin’s palm.  kevin puts it right into his pocket for safe keeping.  “so are you gonna call me after this?”  dalton’s hair is falling wet over his  forehead.

he nods, mouths the word yeah but nothing comes out.  and dalton can’t help himself, so he takes a step forward and kisses kevin one last time, gentle as he hesitates with his fingers hovering over his cheek.

kevin’s  got nothing to lose at this point, so he curls his hand alone dalton’s neck and steps closer.

he only pulls away because the team is most likely watching, and someone whistles.  “i’ll call you,” he nods.  he shoves his hands into his pockets and ignores the rain as he watches dalton drive out of the parking lot.

he turns towards the maserati and sees andrew shakes his head.  kevin looks down at himself.  he’s halfway to soaked.  not ideal for such an expensive car. which leaves one option.

kevin slides into the front seat of his father’s car.

wymack can’t wipe the smug look from his face.  “so-“

“no.”

[themculibrary]

College AU Masterlist 2

part one

A Weekend Under the Influence (ao3) - Dont_touch_the_phlebotinum loki/tony E, 11k

Summary: Waking up naked and hungover in Tony Stark's bed probably isn't the best way to kick off the day, as half the students on campus would most likely attest, though for Loki, it might just turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

Bulletproof (ao3) - foxxcub steve/tony E, 20k

Summary: At age fifteen, Steve Rogers had been in love with Tony Stark.

By age twenty, he’d (mostly) gotten over it. And then he promptly became Tony Stark's fuck buddy.

But I Still Feel You (ao3) - pensversusswords steve/tony T, 16k

Summary: Tony knows a lot of things about Steve. He knows that Steve is a stubborn pain in the ass, he knows that he's got a heart of gold, and he knows Steve would rather punch his way out of a tricky situation than talk himself out of it.

But the one thing Tony knows the most: he's hopelessly, tragically in love with Steve.

In which Tony is impulsive, Steve is confused, and they work it out in the end. Eventually.

But My Smile Still Stays On (ao3) - Meddalarksen, victoriousscarf loki/tony T, 42k

Summary: It's pretty well assumed by people that you shouldn't chase after the people that try to shove you off a table when you kiss them. Except, Tony Stark has never been most people, and he's hardly used to being rejected, even by someone as quiet or gorgeous as fashion design student Loki Laufeyson.

how to break a hundred dollar bill (ao3) - peculiarblue mj/peter T, 23k

Summary: or, how to be the world's worst kisser and kiss the world's most perfect girl, a 12-step guide, by peter parker

(college AU)

i guess maybe it’s possible i might be playing it wrong (ao3) - TheJGatsby steve/tony T, 11k

Summary: Steve would've considered himself lucky just to get someone he could tolerate as an assigned roommate his freshman year of college, so he figures it's a miracle that he and Tony became best friends almost from the first. When he and Tony get stuck together for seven minutes in heaven at a party, Steve realizes that he wants more from Tony than just friendship, and it only goes downhill from there.

Let Me Be Your Good Night (ao3) - malfoys_cousin steve/tony T, 44k

Summary: Inspired by the prompt: "I was studying at 3am and accidentally locked myself out of my dorm room and you have a job with weird hours so you walked by to see me sitting by my door crying in my pajamas. Help me I'm a wreck."

Alternatively: Tony does not function without caffeine. He just doesn't.

New Tattoo (ao3) - sororexitium bucky/tony E, 7k

Summary: When Tony comes home with a new tattoo, Bucky's a little unsure why he's supposed to make a fuss about it. But it becomes more than apparent that he is, indeed, supposed to do just that when Tony gets morose on him.

After he finds out the meaning behind it, he's more than eager to give it all the pomp and circumstance it deserves.

our meeting place (ao3) - tvfanatic97 mj/peter E, 22k

Summary: Or: Peter and MJ make a plan to meet up at a halfway point between Stanford and MIT once a semester to cope with being in a long-distance relationship when they go to college.

Physics 101 (ao3) - shinkonokokoro steve/tony M, 19k

Summary: Tony teaches Physics 101. But only because he has to. Steve needs it for a gen ed.

Rocket Science (ao3) - marsmaywander, orbingarrow bucky/tony T, 12k

Summary: Sleep-deprived and under-caffeinated, grad student Tony falls asleep in a conveniently empty classroom and wakes up in the middle of Bruce’s Physics 101 course. After seeing a groggy Tony fumble a simple question, actual-student Bucky offers to tutor him. In a moment of “oh no; he’s cute” panic, Tony takes him up on it. Now, in addition to his already complicated life, Tony has to figure out the answer to the incredibly messy question: “How do you look like you’re failing the class, when you literally wrote the book?”

Run (ao3) - itsallAvengers steve/tony T, 6k

Summary: Steve took a long breath, shutting his eyes and putting two fingers up the bridge of his nose.

“So you’re telling me… you decided it would be a good idea… to start a fight when you were outnumbered… twenty to one?” He asked shortly.

Tony grinned then, and nodded his head.

Slow Mover (ao3) - ForASecondThereWedWon mj/peter E, 12k

Summary: When Ned backed out on rooming with Peter during their first year of college, MJ felt like it was no big deal to take his place. Now that she's about to lose it, she's confronting the fact that she may have grown attached... and not to the apartment.

Spin Sorrow Into Silk (ao3) - Machiavelien mj/peter E, 67k

Summary: Back in NYC from college for the summer, MJ tries to figure out where things stand with Peter, her roommate and sometimes boyfriend. Things get complicated when she makes a new friend and Spider-Man contends with a new masked cat burglar in town.

Targeting (ao3) - queenmab_scherzo steve/bucky E, 149k

Summary: Steve and Bucky end up playing for rival college football teams.

The Daily Rogers (ao3) - Nonymos steve/bucky E, 32k

Summary: College AU. May contain exchange students, a Starbucks addiction, daddy issues, anger issues, closets and how to get out of them, the ever-ominous influence of social networks, various levels of betrayal, awfully poor life choices, but also, ultimately, real chunks of love.

Too busy being yours (ao3) - everythingisconnected harley/peter M, 13k

Summary: Harley and Peter end up being roommates at MIT.

Neither of them know they both know Tony, until they find out and end up starting to catch feelings.

In which Tony Stark is a little shit who ships it, and is a bad influence on Morgan who helps him out a little, unintentionally.

Wrapped Up In Clover (ao3) - FestiveFerret steve/tony, bucky/clint T, 54k

Summary: It's been seven years since Steve and Tony split up, and Steve's sure he'll never see Tony again. He's finally managed to put their failed relationship behind him and move on, focusing on his friends and building his business. But then his best friends, Bucky and Clint, decide to get married, and their wedding week at a cabin resort in Vermont turns into a minefield of heartbreak for Steve.

[auroracalisto]

ｍａｓｔｅｒｌｉｓｔ

started: 24 june 2020 last updated: 29 october 2020 see what I will write for here want to submit a request?  do it here (:

THIS MASTERLIST WILL NOT BE UPDATED AS OF 18 NOVEMBER 2020.  FIND MY NEW MASTERLIST HERE!

☼ BIRDS OF PREY ☼

roman sionis

Roman’s Girl┆first chapter of multiple┆Roman Sionis gets what he wants. And when he sets his eyes on you, a girl ten or more years his junior, he’ll get you. Lucky for him, despite your shy and flustered nature, you want him just as much as he wants you.

married life┆short┆the two were always at it—now, the reader was in the middle of it. harley doesn’t care for roman, but she wouldn’t dare hurt you. hell, she would kidnap you—and that’s how you ended up here.

hormones and clubs┆one-shot┆the reader is pregnant and begs roman for a chance to go to his club before she goes into labor.  it doesn’t exactly go how she’d like it to go.  

☼ CRIMINAL MINDS ☼

emily prentiss

i love you┆short┆based on the quote “do you still love me?”

my everything┆requested┆by @millipop18​: Hi! I love what you write! Could I request a emily prentiss x reader where she comforts the reader who’s struggling with depression? Have a nice day, much love xxx

spencer reid

not alone, never alone┆requested┆ by @amy-de-l-abc​.  The request was quite long, but the jist of it was having a suicidal reader, but one who isn’t quite able to do anything.  She and Reid start out as friends but the ending will have them getting together.  Fluff on Reid’s part, as he comforts her when she is feeling down.  Reader also feels like she can’t depend on her therapist or her family, and unfortunately, not even a suicide hotline will help (in a very negative way, which is purely for this story’s purpose).  

empty hearts┆short┆in which the reader tries to get spencer to talk to them, but he’s just not listening. 

useless goodbye┆short┆the reader dies right in front of spencer. 

moon and back┆requested┆by @petrichor-ds.  “i loved you to the moon and back, you know.” for spencer when he’s comforting his SO who has been ~going through it~ w depression ??

jack-o’-lantern┆short┆where you carve pumpkins with spencer and he tells you how carving pumpkins became a thing.

derek morgan

something extra┆one-shot┆where you’ve been married to morgan and now you’re expecting your second child (with a little extra surprise).  the team decides to throw you a baby shower.

baby kicks┆requested┆by anon.  hiii, don’t know if ur taking requests rn. but if you are, i would love if you could do an imagine with derek morgan, where the reader is in her 7 or 8th month of pregnancy. and the team is out on the field and the baby kicks and everyone gets so excited, but especially morgan because that’s literally his baby? 

☼ GOTHAM ☼

victor zsasz

forever until the end┆first chapter of multiple┆the reader is falcone’s long lost daughter whose mother fled to washington after an argument got out of hand. she was raised in an abused home where if she even mentioned her unknown father, she would be hurt. a couple of months after turning twenty-one, she’s beaten to the point she packs her things in the middle of the night and leaves. she does everything she can to get to gotham, even going as far as stealing a car. in gotham, she, fortunately, meets her father, along with a man named victor zsasz who was given the assignment of keeping the reader safe while she gets used to the city. zsasz has never dreaded a job more, but he ends up surprising even himself when he begins to like the reader.

imagines:

you being done with victor’s shit.

☼ HAIKYUU!! ☼

sugawara koshi

grey┆one-shot┆you had always wondered why the stripe of color on your wrist was grey. moving to a new school in the miyagi prefecture, you find out exactly why.

rest of my life┆short┆what sugawara would say if you ever asked him if you could spend the rest of your life with him.

tsukishima kei

it’s you┆one-shot┆after watching Avengers: Endgame, you meet your soulmate for the first time.

ukai keishin

Unanticipated┆one-shot┆the reader is an English teacher at Karasuno, who lived in the United States for much of her life. Never did she think she would meet her soulmate; at the age of twenty-four, she had yet to find them. Yet, one day, after a day of teaching, her friend Takeda asked her if she would come to the boy’s volleyball club meeting. She did. To her surprise, she remembered how much she loved volleyball and actually found her soulmate in that very gym.

aone takanobu

jackets┆short┆where aone points out that you have something on your shirt and he gives you his jacket.  

preferences 

how you meet includes hinata, kuroo, oikawa, tsukishima, sugawara, and ukai

☼ HARRY POTTER ☼

draco malfoy

sick┆one-shot┆where draco comes to join you in the common room, coughing his head off. 

☼ HETALIA ☼

russia

birthday surprise┆one-shot┆no one seemed to like Ivan.  except for you and the children where you worked.  with his birthday going unnoticed by your coworkers, you decided to call Natalia up and make it possible for them to celebrate, only asking for friendship in return. 

2p! nyo! america

pissy proposal┆one-shot┆Emily’s worried that you’re going to leave her.  You make sure she knows that she’s the only one for you.  

2p! russia

scared┆short┆our dear reader is pregnant.  and she’s really nervous about telling viktor.

america

cute neighbor┆short┆alfred ran out in just his underwear after the fire alarm went off.  you luckily had a blanket to spare.  

☼ LUCIFER ☼

lucifer morningstar

willpower┆one-shot┆lucifer really doesn’t understand your motives.  he tries to figure it out.  platonic lucifer x reader. 

necessary goodbye┆one-shot┆where the reader loves lucifer, but he’s in love with detective decker.

necessary realization┆requested┆pt. two of necessary goodbye, where the reader is engaged and she brings lucifer her wedding invitation.  after she leaves to return to her hotel room for that weekend, he comes after her. 

imagines:

lucifer preparing to show you his true face.

marcus pierce/cain

poisoned words┆one-shot┆where the reader is in love with pierce and they go undercover together.  reader is poisoned and she goes to the hospital.  after coming back, she tries to talk to pierce about how she feels.  he shoots her down.  i promise, there is a somewhat fluffy end to this.

uncanny resemblance┆requested┆you like the lieutenant.  you cannot figure him out.  it leads to a home invasion and your uncanny resemblance to a string of victims for anything to happen between the two of you.

amenadiel

lost and found┆one-shot┆the reader’s child, leo, gets lost and goes to the police department.  amenadiel and lucifer are there and leo goes straight to amenadiel.  

ella lopez

nerd basket┆requested┆being ella’s significant other is always filled with geeky questions and gifts.  for your anniversary, she has more questions than you anticipated for your early anniversary gift.  

☼ SUPERNATURAL ☼

crowley

fading┆one-shot┆The reader doesn’t know what to do with their self after Crowley dies, right in front of them.  There’s nothing that they can do except grieve.  

sam winchester

imagines

you hate when Sam says, “All Hallow’s Eve.”

☼ THE AVENGERS ☼

steve rogers

101┆first chapter of three┆steve finally meets his soulmate at the ripe age of 101.  his soulmate is 24 and good friends with peter parker. 

tony stark

shut up, stark.┆short┆tony stark is arguably the reader’s best friend, despite the constant jokes.  he would give anything to help the reader with their constant anxiety. 

stephen strange

birthday plans┆short┆It’s Stephen’s birthday.  Tony called and said he was having a cookout.  But you need to make sure Stephen and your little girl, Rosa, are ready for the event itself.

peter parker

liability┆one-shot┆somehow, the reader is in a predicament that only Spider-man can save them from.  But just a couple seconds of Peter not paying attention literally cost them their life.  

stalker┆short┆where the reader is being followed and peter comes to the rescue.  

imagines

peter loves halloween and among us, a little too much.

natasha romanov

cute┆short┆about natasha calling you cute.

loki laufeyson

a little crush┆short┆in where loki is suuuper vulnerable.  fluffy. 

imagines

loki doesn’t like midgard holidays. 

bucky barnes

cynophobia┆short┆where you’re afraid of dogs and it takes bucky to save you from one trapped in your apartment.  

☼ THE LORD OF THE RINGS ☼

samwise gamgee

conceal, don’t feel┆short┆in which samwise doesn’t return your feelings.

☼ THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY ☼

diego hargreeves

replaceable┆one-shot┆in which diego loves lila, you love diego, and you witness the death of your best friend, elliot.  

klaus hargreeves

back to the future┆short┆in which you are in love with klaus.  he returns the feelings, but unfortunately for you, he does not want you coming to 2019 with him and his siblings.  

allison hargreeves

imagines

cuddling with allison.

☼ THE VAMPIRE DIARIES ☼

series:

for the love of you┆the reader is summoned by bonnie, on accident, to the world of the mikaelsons.  as confused as she is, she comes to realize that not only has she found her soulmate, she’s found four soulmates.  PART ONE PART TWO┆more coming soon

elijah mikaelson

The Soulmate Principle┆one-shot┆Dear Prince Elijah should have just left you alone. But with the Soulmate Principle, he just couldn’t help himself. And it just so happened to cost you your life.

hugs and kisses┆requested┆Hello! Can I request an Elijah x reader one shot; just fluff with lots of kisses and cuddles? Btw, love your blog ^^ — Anon

could you be?┆one-shot┆It’s been on Elijah’s mind for some time.  Would you feel the same way?  Would you want him for the rest of your life?  

ocean’s beauty┆one-shot┆Klaus, of course, the traveller he is, decides to take everyone along with him.  You’re a human and you’re married to Elijah.  Oh, and your ship’s hit an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic—and it’s sinking quickly. 

kiss of life┆one-shot┆polyamorous reader in a relationship with elijah, klaus, and kol has died.  however, she comes back in a revenge plot by a witch who lost her wife due to klaus.  

injury┆short┆where you are injured and elijah takes care of you.  

glitter┆short┆based off of the song glitter, by patrick droney.  the reader is dead, but not entirely gone.  elijah doesn’t know this.

choose me┆one-shot┆elijah has been a bad boyfriend, in the sense that he’s always gone and never takes into consideration how that makes you feel.   

surprise parties┆requested┆Hii! If the bingo requests are still open can you do a one shot of elijah x reader with the birthday prompt it can be like rebekah throwing a birthday party for the reader or just like elijah fluff, up to you <33 — anon

she will be loved┆requested┆Hi! Can I please request an (platonic) Elijah x 3-4 year old fem!child oneshot where when Elijah went to Mystic Falls (when he needed Elena) and when he’s walking, he hears crying and finds her alone on the streets. I’m sure his heart would absolutely break at the sight and he would do anything he can to help calm her down. He obviously wouldn’t leave her on the streets, deciding right then and there that he wants to adopt her, so he brings her home with him. Omggg he would be such a soft (and veryyy protective) dad and all of the Mikaelsons (once they were undaggered) would love her so much 🤧  (Also Elijah would absolutely lose it if the Mystic Falls gang ever brought Y/n into any of the drama) — @kpopgirlbtssvt

a welcome arrangement┆requested┆Hi! If requests are open, could I request an Elijah x Reader where the reader is a vampire and long time friend to the Mikaelson's, and Rebekah and the others try to set her up with Elijah because they know they both like each other? I love your writing!! 💕 — anon

imagines

you adopt a child with Elijah.

klaus mikaelson 

you’re safe now┆one-shot┆the reader leaves the mystic grill with the intent of going home. instead, something distracts her and she’s attacked. her soulmate is the one who saves her life. crazily enough, it’s the same guy who she was staring at just moments earlier.

pretend boyfriend┆short┆ reader is being watched by some creepy guy at the mystic grill. she asks dear klaus to pretend to be her boyfriend.

which disney princess are you?┆short┆Klaus walks in on you taking a Which Disney Princess Are You? quiz on Buzzfeed.  Color him intrigued.  

heather┆short┆in where the reader is in love with klaus, but he loves heather.

endearment┆short┆klaus is in love with you.  but he doesn’t know if you return the feelings. 

kiss of life┆one-shot┆polyamorous reader in a relationship with klaus, elijah, and kol has died.  however, she comes back in a revenge plot by a witch who lost her wife due to klaus.  

forgotten lifetimes┆one-shot┆reader has dementia and has forgotten her children on multiple occasions.  now, she’s forgetting klaus.  

writer’s block┆short┆where the reader is suffering from writer’s block and klaus comforts the reader so they don’t get upset because of it.

silent treatment┆requested┆hi, can you please write an imagine with klaus mikaelson? his gf calls him by one of her close friend’s name (that he don’t like bc he’s possessive like that) and he gives her the silent treatment — anon

one night stands, and then some┆requested┆hi! i just wanted to say that i love your blog! i have a request, for a klaus mikaelson drabble/imagine. where the reade had a one night stand with him (instead of hayley) and now she’s pregnant. whatever else you want to do with that! thank you! ❤️  — @mikaelson-emma

a bolt from the blue┆one-shot┆the reader has recently moved from colorado and finds one of her first cases on the job to be a dead doctor, invited to a ball held by the mikaelsons.  she goes, expecting to find the killer, but instead, she finds that two of the mikaelsons have fallen for her—klaus and rebekah.  

kol mikaelson

take a hint┆requested┆can you do a kol mikaelson one where Caroline is distracting Klaus and she brought the reader with her so she could distract kol? maybe it can be based on the song take a hint from victorious? i’ve listened to it and thought it would be funny and cute! thank you! — @mikaelson-emma

family game night┆one-shot┆where you play Monopoly with the Mikaelson’s and the youngest finds out he’s developed a little crush.

kiss of life┆one-shot┆polyamorous reader in a relationship with kol, klaus, and elijah has died.  however, she comes back in a revenge plot by a witch who lost her wife due to klaus.  

tell me a lie┆short┆loosely based off the quote, “my favorite lie was, ‘i love you.’”  definitely not happy.  reader was cheated on. 

forsaken hearts┆short┆kol doesn’t love you.  what’s his reason?

talks of mortality┆one-shot┆about you trying to talk kol into taking the cure, but he doesn’t want to listen to what you have to say.  

truth or dare┆one-shot┆after a game of truth or dare, you reveal to your friends and siblings that you’re dating kol mikaelson.  

times of change┆short┆an argument between kol and the reader.

imagines

kol pisses you off

rebekah mikaelson

pesky┆short┆using the sentence prompt, “can someone kill him again?”

a bolt from the blue┆one-shot┆the reader has recently moved from colorado and finds one of her first cases on the job to be a dead doctor, invited to a ball held by the mikaelsons.  she goes, expecting to find the killer, but instead, she finds that two of the mikaelsons have fallen for her—rebekah and klaus.  

imagines

rebekah reveals how she truly feels.

damon salvatore

Closure┆one-shot┆a year has passed since Damon and the reader broke up. Damon was with Angie, the reader was a depressed shell of herself. A drunken three AM phone call is exactly what it takes for the reader to get some closure.

by your side┆requested┆Can I get a fluff fic of either Elijah Mikaelson or Damon Salvatore where the reader is going through a rough time (depressive episode) and they comfort reader through it? 😔  — anon

stefan salvatore

only time will tell┆requested┆a stefan soulmate au — @123cvcz 

lovelorn hearts┆requested┆heyyy, can i request a angst fic where reader is damon’s best friend and stefan has a huge crush on her, she overhears damon teasing him about it which leads to his confession, but she’s unsure if she feels the same way and he gets his heart broken all over again? (after elena) thanks, your writing is lovely. — @xoxosinister

miscellaneous 

imagines:

hope hearing stories about you.

☼ X-MEN ☼

charles xavier

happiest year┆one-shot┆although the reader loves charles—although she makes sure he knows that she would do anything for him, he throws it all away. the reader leaves and moves on with her life.

erik lehnsherr

embarrassing moments┆requested┆BROOOOOOO i didn’t know you wrote for the x men … could i please request smth w erik?? smth with mutual pining ~~~ maybe reader is an awkward mutant who’s insecure and can’t talk to erik ……. bro the erik thirst has been REAL recently — @petrichor-ds

sparks fly┆requested┆reader is a cheerful mutant w some sort of electricity ability, and she’s bright until erik comes around.  then she’s removed, quiet, and reserved.  charles has had enough and pairs them up to do training demos tgt (electricity overlaps w magnetism a bit) and then ~romantic tension~ and then reader finally confesses to him after he’s like “why r u so nervous????” — @petrichor-ds

☼ THE 100 ☼

bellamy blake

imagines:

you’re left behind at mount weather, instead of gina.  

[halowastaken]

Why I Left (Chapter 10.)

read on ao3

Summary:

“What about his card? You gave him a card when you gave him the internship right?” Pepper asked typing something in her laptop “He converted all of it to cash in the atm in the museum downstairs and then threw it in the recycling bin right next to said atm. At this point this the spider is just making fun of me” Tony said frustrated “It is tuesday. I can go check if he attended to school” Happy said on his phone “Nope. I already did. Been doing it for the whole two weeks we’ve been looking” Pepper said and Tony was honestly shocked that it has been so long. He looks around and there are coffee mugs everywhere, random papers and tablets where they are not supposed to be, every screen in the room had to do with Peter’s search ---

“Kid, how are you doing?” Tony said while working in the suit update

“Good actually. The new webb formula is looking great!” Peter says with a smile while mixing some stuff that Tony didn’t get. He didn’t need to though

“That’s cool Peter. When you are done with that, I need you to fix the code in the Ironman suit that connects it to the arc reactor” Tony is expecting an answer from Peter, but when he doesn’t he turns around to find a really hesitant Peter “What is it?”

“I don’t really know how to code” Peter says stuttering

“You hacked your suit” Tony said confused

“No. I asked my friend to hack it for me. I have cero clue how coding works” Peter says and Tony sighs

“Ok then. You are in for a treat today, because I am gonna teach you how to code. Call it coding 101 with Tony Stark” Peter’s eyes widened and he starts smiling

“That’s awesome Mr. Stark! Thank you so much! I promise I will pay attention to do whatever you teach me perfectly!” Peter said really excited

“I know you will. First thing you need to know about coding is the ‘three u`s’ rule. Undetectable, Unbreakable and Unexpected. Ever since I started coding, these three rules are my secret to always get to what I want” Tony says. Peter raises an eyebrow giving away that he has no idea what Tony is talking about “Ok so, when your friend hacked my suit, I had ho idea that the suit was hacked at first. That’s the first U. Undetectable. Also I am not gonna lie to you, when you gave the suit back I did try to put the training wheels protocol back on, but I couldn’t. Unbreakable. And lastly, you are the last person I think of that would hack a million dollar suit. Unexpected” Peter wanted to argue back about the last point, but he decided not to. “Now, go grab your laptop, cause we are coding today” Tony said and Peter with a smile ran to the other side of the lab to grab his laptop

------

“I’m so sorry it took me so long. The elevator was malfunctioning but I am-” Pepper was looking to her phone while talking, and when she looked up she was...concerned “You are sticked to the floor”

“I am fully aware of that. In Peter’s desk there should be a bottle with the level ‘unsticky spray’. Can you reach it please?” Pepper was confused. She still did what she was told, but that didn’t answer questions. Tony did seem off. Last time she saw him off was right before Germany, but that didn’t last long because Peter started to be part of their lives around that time. But Peter wasn’t there. It was weird considering that she told Tony to not let him out.

“Where is Peter?” She asked. She shouldn’t have asked that. Tony looked like his world was vanishing

“He ran away Pepper” Pepper was confused now but she let Tony talk “Something is going on with that kid Pepper. He’s in trouble. I can just feel it. I need to track him and make sure he is ok” Tony says, really worried. Pepper wanted to argue but instead she just nodded

“What do you need me to do?” Pepper asks and then Tony stands up

“Call Rhodey. Tell him that I need him here and right now. I am finding my kid.

And then he starts. He pulls up the coding in the hologram screen. The kid did really well because at first sight it looked like he did nothing but little did Tony know that was just the beginning of one of the biggest hacks he’s ever seen.

Undetectable

“Tony” It’s been seven hours since Peter left. Tony hasn’t gone out of the lab since Peter left. He refuses to leave until he finds his kid “Tony, Rhodey is gonna be here tomorrow morning”

“Pepper I love you but if you are here to ask me to take a break I hate to break it to you” Tony says without stopping working

“Actually, I am here to tell you that I am going to look for him” Tony raises an eyebrow and turns around to look at her “If he left without being noticed, he would at least use the Spiderman suit. He must be out in the streets somewhere. If not I’ll go to his department to look for him there, I’ll also call his friends to see if they know where he could be, and all of that stuff” Tony was surprised, in fact. His wife never encouraged him to stay all night in the lab “Don’t look at me like that. He is my kid too. You are not the only one that is gonna stay up all night today” Then Pepper left the lab.

Well that was new. Tony was a hundred percent sure Pepper would just tell him to go get some sleep. Tony then just kept trying to break the code. What he didn’t know is that it was gonna take him a while. He tried literally everything that he could think of and none of it worked. He was Tony Stark for god’s sake. Tony fucking Stark was being outsmarted by the same sixteen year old that he spent time with. But he needed to keep trying. For Peter. For his kid.

“You look like you visited hell” Tony then looked over his shoulder and scoffed

“I’ve looked worse” Tony says and Rhodey shakes his head

“So, Pepper mentioned about the spider kid and his aunt but we didn’t really get into the details so I would like to know why am I here?” Rhodey says looking at Tony’s screen

“Peter is in a lot of trouble and I don’t even know where he is. All connections were cut and I’ve been trying to find any kind of connection with him since yesterday but I am losing my mind” Tony says without taking his eyes out of the screen

“Have you tried locating the ip address of his phone or the suit?” Rhodey asks 

“Yup. Also, do you think you can try to find something on Ben Parker? For some reason I have the feeling that he has something to do with all of this. Called him a few days ago and the man was not in a good mood” Tony explains which makes Rhodey doubt about this

“You think that the kid’s uncle killed his aunt or something?” Rhodey asks

“Nah. The police report says that the guy that killed May hasn’t been found, which by the way I also have to look into that guy” Tony says thinking out loud

“So the kid hacked FRI? Is it bad?” Rhodey asks looking at Tony’s screen 

“He knew what he was doing. This is advanced level shit. Almost unbreakable” Tony says remembering the first time he teached Peter how to code. The kid learned every single bit that Tony teached him. 

“Have you tried looking in the news for spiderman? Even the smallest thing could help. Even if it is just some girl posting in her stories a picture of him or something like that” Rhodey said grabbing a tablet

“I already did it but do that again just to see if there is anything new. Just know that if I have to reunite the Avengers to find him, I'll even get Thor to visit midgard” Tony said confidently. He was sure that he was gonna find his kid. Or even better, he was sure that his kid was in danger. That terrified Tony. and fear is the greatest motivator. After a couple hours they called in Happy to go question his friends (“Keep it legal Happy! Can’t handle looking for a kid and a lawsuit at the same time!”). Pepper came back with no luck. But that wouldn't make them give up. They will find out what happened.

---

“What about his card? You gave him a card when you gave him the internship right?” Pepper asked typing something in her laptop

“He converted all of it to cash in the atm in the museum downstairs and then threw it in the recycling bin right next to said atm. At this point this the spider is just making fun of me” Tony said frustrated

“It is tuesday. I can go check if he attended to school” Happy said on his phone

“Nope. I already did. Been doing it for the whole two weeks we’ve been looking” Pepper said and Tony was honestly shocked that it has been so long. He looks around and there are coffee mugs everywhere, random papers and tablets where they are not supposed to be, every screen in the room had to do with Peter’s search

“Well, this can’t be right” Rhodey said out loud, catching everyone’s attention. “The first thing I did was look into mister uncle dearest and got nothing. I left it alone but now I decided to double check and there is an ip address. Ben’s phone” Tony then took a look into Rhodey’s tablet and he was right. He was surprised actually. He could tell that Peter was so precise and careful with all of his personal info, and everyone else that could have a connection with him. He forgot his uncle. 

“This is-” Tony made a pause to think of something to say that properly describes the situation

“Unexpected” FRIDAY said and Tony raised his eyebrow

“Yeah” Tony said and then he started looking into Ben’s phone. He was connected to the same wifi connection as Peter’s laptop and phone. That’s where they had to be. He finally looked into the address. Peter’s department

“That can’t be. Last time I was there, it was empty. No lights or sound” Pepper said and Tony got up his chair

“I am gonna go check this time. Something tells me we got him. Rhodey, you drive. Pepper, stay here in case something happens, and Happy, go get his favorite stuff for when we get back here” Tony said determined. 

He is on his way.

[ambivalent-anarchy]

Star Wars 101 (Ch. 2) Episode IV - A New Hope

Masterlist

Gender: Female

Pairing: Peter Parker x reader

Wow, I didn't realize how much I'd written until I hit the tumblr limit. Hope you like it! Comment your thoughts!

Chapter Summary: Steve just wants to do his job, the avengers are the best wingmen, Scott doesn't like porn, and [y/n] thinks all nerds are freaky

~~~

sci-fi boi: okay which cartoon rivalry was better?? Popeye the sailor man and Bluto or Tom and Jerry?

crackhead [y/n]: dude.

crackhead [y/n]: how is that even a question??? Obviously Tom and Jerry lol

sci-fi boi: explanation pls

crackhead [y/n]: popeye and bluto were always fighting over that girl olive and some other stupid crap but with my two furry buddies it was no talk pete no discussions just murder attempts ON SIGHT. Tell me they don't go harder than any other rivalry

sci-fi boi: haha truuuu

~~~

"Are we boring you, Queens?"

Peter's head snapped up quickly, discreetly turning his phone off underneath the meeting table. "Um-huh? No no no, Mr. Rogers I'm listening. Sorry."

Steve shook his head and continued to speak as he pointed to the pictures on the screen at the end of the room. All of the Avengers of Earth were there, some half asleep, while the others either joked or listened intently.

In two short days, they were going to be taking back powerful tech that Martin Li(aka: Mr. Negative)'s "demons" had stolen from Stark Industries. A simple "get in and get out".

They'd known this plan for some days now, yet Steve insisted on calling meetings to go over it again and again.

Feeling a quick vibration go off in his hand, Peter instinctively looked back down at his phone to see a snapchat text notification from you.

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway because bees don't care what humans think is impossible🐝...

~~~

Peter shook his head slightly as he chuckled, a smile shamelessly creeping onto his face.

~~~

sci-fi boi: did you really just quote the bee movie at me???😂😂

~~~

"Hey spidey-boy, would you mind sharing to the class what's so hilarious?" Rhodey's voice rang out loud and clear from across the table.

Quick as lightning, Peter turned his phone off and buried it in between his thighs, realizing that he hadn't been as quiet as he'd thought. To his luck, everyone’s eyes were trained on him now.

“It's n-nothing!” Peter squeaked, his voice breaking embarassingly. He shoved his phone into his pocket in fear of someone snatching it from him.

Natasha rolled her eyes and smirked. "So what're you looking at down there?"

"I-i, uh, I was just um, w-watching a funny- very funny video actually-"

"C'mon guys!," Sam laughed, clapping his hands together. "Don't tease the kid. We all know what he was smiling at down there!"

At that, Peter practically choked. "WHAT?!"

Tony snickered. "Personally, I don't think two inches is something to be proud of, but alright."

Peter's eyes widen, nearly falling out of his skull by the looks of it. "I-it's not two inches a-and I wasn't looking at-!"

"Jesus christ, guys..." Bruce sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "He was obviously just doing something on his phone. Leave the poor guy alone."

Peter coughed as he saw Steve glare at him with that infamous 'Im Captain America and Im judging you' glare. Phones weren't allowed in the meeting room. Well, they weren't supposed to be. No one ever really followed that rule except Peter. But he'd already been so deep in his conversation with you that he just couldn't put his phone down. "No no, um, I wasn't.. I was just zoning out, y'know, and I just happened to be looking-"

"-at your phone?," Steve cut in to ask.

"-at your dick," Rhodey stated at the same time.

"-at porn," Tony said with an all-knowing smile, causing everyone at the table to turn towards either him or Peter, whose face was beet red with embarrassment.

"Peter please tell us you weren't watching porn," Scott begged, his jaw completely dropped. "I mean, no judgment but-"

"Full judgement, actually," Clint corrected, an extremely disturbed look on his face. "Seriously, what were you doing, kid? You gotta tell us now with all these assumptions being thrown around."

"Curious," Thor stated, leaning back in his chair. "What is porn?"

"Something that I definitely WAS NOT watching!," Peter responded as he practically slammed his face into the table and slapped his hands over his eyes. "Does it even matter what I was doing anyway?," he mumbled into the table.

Natasha raised an eyebrow, blowing the smoke off of her coffee. "People usually aren't this defensive when they're telling the truth, Peter."

Peter shrunk into his seat with a loud groan. Can I die. Can I please just die. Like why am I seriously even alive right now??? Some bad guy please just burst through the door and maim me please.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y. pull up Parker's phone," Tony commanded once the commotion in the room died down.

Peter quickly lifted his head. "Wait, what?!"

"Accessing Peter Parker's mobile device, sir," F.R.I.D.A.Y. responded. "Would you like for me to transfer the screen to the meeting board?"

Tony looked back with a laugh to see a frozen, slack-jawed Peter. He turned back around. "Yeah sure, F.R.I.D.A.Y., what the heck let's have fun."

"No wait- are you seriously hacking into my phone right now?!"

"Well why're you so tense, Parker?," Sam asked teasingly. "Thought you had nothing to hide?"

"I-i don't!," he stammered. "I-it's just..." he trailed off, looking for the right words to say. "..that's my private property," he said lamely while staring at the wall.

Tony stared back at him. "Well that's the dumbest excuse I've ever heard." He pointed towards the board. "Alright it's coming up."

Scott closed his eyes. "Oh God, please don't be porn.."

Peter rolled his eyes. Everyone else looked to the large board, fully expecting to see either porn or just some stupid game the boy had been playing.

But none of them expected him to be texting a girl.

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: hey u still there?

~~~

"Who's crackhead [Y/N]?," Natasha asked.

Scott turned to Rhodes who was sitting on the side of him. "Is that some trashy porn star?," he whispered.

"Why're you asking me like I know?"

"It's this girl from school.." Peter answered, blushing profusely.

"And you like her," Natasha noted, watching his body language intently.

The boy's eyes widened. "N-no I don't!"

"Why crackhead though?," Rhodey asked, crinkling his nose.

Peter shrugged. "That's what she wanted her name to be," here responded. "Thought it was funny."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Just like you thought 'sci-fi boi' was funny?" Shaking his head, he changed focused. "Guys, are we gonna get back to work or not?"

"Not," Tony answered as he scrolled up all the way to the beginning of the messages from early that morning. "So, you've been texting this girl today off and on since..." He checked the time. "Five in the morning?"

Clint chuckled. "Oh yeah, huge crush."

“No!” Peter protested, his voice an octave too high. Realizing that it isn’t working, he decided to try a different technique. Clearing his throat, he tried to sound and act as nonchalant as possible. “She’s just a friend from school.”

"She's first on your best friends list, even over that computer kid you practically live with. And you and her practically snap each other nonstop."

Peter scratched his nose. "W-well that's only cuz Ned doesn't like to text much."

Bruce took his glasses off and sighed, realizing there was no way this meeting was getting back on topic. "Look Pete," he said. "Friends don't do that. I've seen it all before. If you and this girl are talking on a daily basis all throughout the day starting at five in the morning?" He titled his head in a suggestive way, though Peter stared back at him blankly.

"What?," Peter asked.

"Oh my God, kid," Bruce sighed.

Tony held his head back and laughed. "It means either she likes you and your just too dense, you like her but won't admit it and she's just concerningly nice, or you both like each other and just won't make your moves!"

Sam, who hadn't lifted his eyes from the board the entire time, spoke up. "And judging by these texts, you already got her, it's just not official yet."

Tony kept scrolling. "You two went to winter formal together?"

"Yeah... but as friends," Peter said with a shrug.

Steve cleared his throat loudly, gaining the attention of everyone in the room at once. He looked at Peter who was doing everything here could not to look him in the eye. "Look, as much as I would love to talk about Peter's sad love life, we have a mission-"

"-that will still be there tomorrow, Cap," Bucky finished for him. "C'mon we've been going over this stuff for hours. Let us have this distraction."

Everyone looked to him, Tony feigning a puppy dog expression. Crossing his arms, he left the room. "Fine, but when someone gets hurt because they didn't know where they were supposed to go, don't blame me."

"...literally no one's ever blaming you, man," Sam said.

Suddenly, the screen lit up and F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke. "Sir, Peter Parker has a new message."

Everyone looked to the board. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Scroll down, Mr. Stark. Scroll down!," Peter yelled frantically. "What's she saying?"

Natasha smirked. "And you're sure you don't like her, Peter?"

His face flushed. "Okay fine...I might have a tiny crush-"

"I'm sorry I can't hear you," Tony cut in. "Can you say that agai-"

"-I SAID YEAH I REALLY LIKE THIS GIRL!," Peter finally yelled with his eyes squeezed shut. He kept them closed for about twenty seconds afterwards, afraid of the judging faces he would see if he opened them.

He carefully opened his eyes to see all of the avengers (minus Cap) staring back at him with stupid smiles and smirks on their faces.

"Well, that's all I needed to hear," Tony said. He clapped his hands together. "Okay everybody, first order of business, checking the text. Sam, you're our reader."

"Got it."

"What?," Peter yelled, reaching for his phone. Tony dodged him and gave it to Sam. "Mr. Stark, I can text a girl on my own. I don't need help."

"Nat, you're our timer. Make sure none of the responses take longer than a minute. We don't want the girl to get bored and go on to something else."

"Check."

"Mr. Stark, c'mon-"

"Sam, you explain stuff to lightning head over here if he doesn't understand it. This could be learning moment for ole Shakespeare. Thor, you listen to Sam."

"Right."

"On it."

"Everyone else, you're with me. We gotta find the perfect thing to say to this girl. I've got a feeling this is probably the only chance he's gonna have to get a girl in a long time."

Rhodes, Scott, Clint, Bruce, and Wanda looked to each other and nodded.

"And Pete?"

Peter raised his head. "Yes sir?"

"You know this girl more than anybody here does, so you tell us if what we say is appropriate for her or not."

Peter rolled his eyes and nodded. After all, what's the worst that can happen?

Tony pointed to Sam. "Okay, read it."

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: u going to flash's party on saturday??

~~~

"She wants to know if the kid's going to some party Saturday."

Tony turned to the boy. "You're going," her demanded.

Flash was the most popular douchebag in school. Totally rich and totally rude and totally determined to use his every breath to spite Peter. "I wasn't even invited," Peter mumbled, shooting a glare towards Sam when he heard him laughing.

"Well get invited," Tony ordered. "A party is the perfect place to make a move. Send yes."

~~~

sci-fi boi: yes

~~~

"Mr. Stark, how am I supposed to get into this party? Flash hates me! And if I crash it and Flash sees me, he's gonna make sure everyone thinks I'm a loser!"

Tony rolled his eyes and sighed. "Peter we're trying to help you here. Figure that part out on your own."

Peter sighed, leaning forward in his chair. The last thing he wanted was another assignment, even if it wasn't actually an assignment. On the plus side, he'd get to see you, and maybe have some fun if he actually tried to enjoy himself.

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: cool so i guess ill go too

~~~

Rhodey chuckled while shaking his head. "Kid, if you don't ask this chick out the second you see her again, I'm gonna bodyslam you."

Peter frowned. "What do you mean?"

Bruce smiled. "Whether or not she went to the party was depending on if you were going," he pointed out.

"This girl used to be like that with me back in college," Scott said with a shrug. "Thought she liked me. Turned out she just had social anxiety..."

"Yeah you're really not helping this, bugman," Tony said.

"Wait, you guys think [Y/N] actually likes me back?," Peter asked, getting groans and laughs in return.

"Where have you been the last few minutes?," Natasha said.

"We've literally been saying that this entire time," Sam deadpanned.

Peter stared at his feet below the table. If the team was right, and you did actually like him back, then the movie marathon he was planning was the perfect excuse to hang out with you. "I-i think I might have a plan!," he rushed out, his head flying up. He pointed to Sam. "Ask her if she's free tonight!"

"Yes!," Thor yelled, his fists pumped into the air. "The spider child has grown his man balls!"

"Now that's what I'm talking about." Sam nodded approvingly as he texted.

~~~

sci-fi: r u free tonight??😉

~~~

"Wait hold on," Peter said, suddenly rushing towards the phone in a frantic manner. "Why is there a winking emoji?! I didn't say anything about a winking emoji!"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were flirti-"

Peter groaned. "Delete it, man. Delete it before her bitmoji pops up!"

"Okay okay, dang kid," Sam chuckled, quickly deleting the text and replacing it with one without a winking emoji. "There. And ya girl didn't even see it."

"Hey guys," Scott said. "I know we're all freaking out and stuff. But honestly, I'm just glad he wasn't watching porn." He shrugged. "So no matter what happens with this girl, today's still an absolute win."

It went on like this for a solid thirty minutes.

~~~

crackhead [y/n]: yeah wassup

sci-fi boi: wanna come over and watch movies?

crackhead [y/n]: sure what're we watching

sci-fi boi: we can decide that when u get here. how about 4??

crackhead [y/n]: alright sure

~~~

"Okay, last thing," Tony said. "We need a sly compliment. Something not that special about her, but enough to show her that you're tuned in. Gets them every time, trust me."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Wow, lady-killer."

Tony pointed towards her and shrugged. "She said it, not me."

Thor looked to Peter. "So, young spider. What have you observed about your darling love?"

Peter blushed, almost wanting to comment on the Thor's word choice but ultimately deciding not to. "Well, um, her eyes light up a lot when she gets excited and it's really dorky in a cute kind of way I guess," he mumbled, scratching his head.

"Alright I got it," Sam said, typing the words in. He lifted his shoulders into a shrug. "Who knows, kid? There be some hope for you."

~~~

sci-fi boi: btw how do you get ur eyes to sparkle so bright when u get happy about stuff? Just thinking about it lol its cute

~~~

-

Peter blew out a shaky breath as he looked back over the set-up he'd made in the living room.

He'd cleared out space to build a super huge homemade blanket fort and inside it at the end was his tv. Towards the middle were all of pillows he could find inside the house and at the other end were snacks. All around the inside were fairy lights because he knew you liked them, though personally he found them cliche.

He spent about an hour on the whole set and an additional thirty minutes stressing over and making sure everything was safe (with all three fairy lights and tv cords). The last thing he needed was for the both of you to catch on fire while watching the movie.

The two of you were going to be watching Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (or as normal 'not-nerds' like to call it, "the first one"). Of course, he hadn't told the team that. If they'd known what movie he'd planned on showing her, high chances are they wouldn't have even let him out of Avengers tower. But if Peter was gonna be forced to hang out with someone (not that he was really complaining), he would at least pick the film.

Finally checking all the boxes in his head for the night, Peter went to go check the DVD before he heard your knock at the door.

"Coming!," he yelled, quickly chucking the disc into the DVD player. He ran to the door and opened it with an awkward smile. "Uh, hey [Y/N]."

"Hey," you said back, already sort of blushing. "How's it going?"

Peter stared. Are your eyebrows done or are they just naturally that nice? He found his voice after abruptly noticing that he was staring. "Uh-well. It's been going great! How's it going for y-you also as well?" He frowned. "I-i mean, what's been going on with your life lately? No, that's dumb. I meant-"

"Peter, Peter! Calm down, dude," you giggled. "I've been fine."

"Oh," he chuckled. "That's good... d-do you wanna come in?"

"Question. What're we watching, Peter?," you asked, a smile playing on your face. Considering what you remembered from the last time you were at his house, and the fort you could get a peek of from the doorframe, you figured it was special for the nerdy boy. Plus his shirt had Yoda on it.

Freakin' Star Wars.

Immediately, a wide grin spread across his face. "Remember what you promised me we'd watch?"

You rolled your eyes, stepping past him into his living room. "Yeah yeah, whatever. Time to get nerdy I guess."

"Come on, you'll love it,"Peter said, quickly closing the door behind them and then briskly running towards the fort to hold up the side blankets for you. "So, snacks and drinks are beside us. We'll chill on these blankets here. And...um, yeah. That's about it." After stepping outside for a bit to go turn off the lights(for the full "movie theater" experience), Peter laid down on his belly, reaching for the DVD player to press play.

You watched as he fumbled with the wires, making sure the DVD player was plugged in before turning it on. Has your jawline always been that sharp?

You couldn't quite place it, but his texts from before seemed.. weird. But not a bad weird at all. A good, intriguing weird.

And that compliment was pretty nice, but odd for Peter. Sure, he complimented you often, but it just felt different this time. Usually it'd be something like, "new dress?" or "nice shoes". But never "you're eyes sparkle when you get excited." Heck, you didn't even know that about you. Was he paying attention? Did that mean he-

You remember how he acted about Liz Allen and Michelle Jones. Always staring. Never able to even say a full sentence in front of them without stuttering up a storm.

But he was so comfortable about you for the most part. You were just a friend.

"Okay got it," Peter said, laughing excitedly as the screen in front of him lit up. He scooted back to where you were sat. "Prepare to have your mind blown."

The Fort quickly became dark as the Lucasfilm logo shined on the screen.

"I seriously dou-"

"Shhh!," he cut you off. "Wait for it..."

You gave him a look but joined him in his silence to see what he was waiting for.

BUMMMMM buh buh bummmm

Practically jumping on top of him, you flinched at the loud and sudden music. "Crap dude! Turn it down!"

Peter shook his head, reaching for a soda. "You have to get the full effect, [Y/N]!," he laughed. "Just embrace it." He began to sing with the music and mime crazy gestures as if he were directing an orchestra.

Duh duh duh DUH DUHHHHHHHH

Halfway through he stopped and recited the opening crawl, his eyes glued to the screen with a sort of focus that made you sure that not only was this not foreign to him, he probably did this every other week.

"It is a period of civil war," he mumbled, throwing some popcorn into his mouth. "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic- [Y/N] you have to watch the words, I swear it'll make the whole experience better." It went on for a little while longer until he paused the movie and looked over at you, cowering a bit. "D-do I have something on my face?"

"Huh? Nah you're good," you said, realizing he'd noticed you staring. "It's just-" you remembered his text from earlier. "-you got really excited... It-um..it was cute."

Because of the darkness(the only lighting being from the tv), you couldn't see if Peter blushed or not, but you could clearly see the stupid grin plastered on his face that he was trying to hide from you with his hand. Repeatedly licking his lips as a desperate attempt to stop smiling as he pressed play on the remote control. "A-ah, um, thanks [Y/N]."

The opening crawl was over and soon the movie actually began, showing a huge spaceship.

"That's the imperial star destroyer," Peter whispered, never taking his eyes off the screen. "They belong to the empire." He saw your blank expression, wide eyes as he realized that meant nothing to you. "Uh, the bad guys."

You squinted your eyes at the screen, silently judging the graphics of the energy blasts- space bullets?- or whatever they were supposed to be. "Pete, when was this movie made?"

"1977."

"Oh okay," you said, deciding to give it some leeway for the trash designs.

You scooted a little closer to your friend, figuring you'd get a little bit more comfortable.

Oh how he wished you hadn't done that.

Nothing like actual, physical contact with a girl that you like and you think she might like you back to actually manage to distract you from one of your favorite movies ever.

He froze, not wanting to pull away and offend you, but definitely not wanting to stay because just being this close to you was making his mind run wild.

Does she actually like me back? What if Mr. Stark and the team only said that to get me to make a fool of myself? She's too comfortable with me. She just sees me as a friend. Or maybe she likes me and she's just really chill about it? Ooh my gosh and she's leaning on me right now. What am I 'sposed to do?? I don't know I don't know I don't know!!!!!!!!!

Deciding for a quick compromise, he got up completely to reach for another soda, though his sprite was still half finished. When he sat back down, he wasn't as close. Hopefully, you'd just see it as natural human behaviour and not him wanting to be away from you.

Course you would see it that way, wouldn't you?

"Oh my gosh I recognize someone! That's R2D2, right?!" You pointed wildly, glad to not be completely clueless for once with this nerd crap.

"Yeah that's R2," Peter responded, letting out a secret sigh of relief, thankful for the distraction.

"A-and that's that gold dude!"

"Yeah, C-3PO."

"And oh crap that's Princess Leia!," you shouted. "Fucking feminist icon!"

Peter tilted his head. "Wait, how would you know that if you've never watched this?"

You laughed. "I still have access to the internet, doofus! Scroll down the nerdy feminist side of tumblr and Leia is literally everywhere."

Peter chuckled as he finally finished his sprite. "Okay. Valid."

Since that, you stopped talking for a bit. Part of you actually did figure that since you're here, you might as well actually try to enjoy the movie and maybe find out what the fans actually see in it that makes them like it so much. The other part just really didn't want to annoy Peter while he was watching his favorite movie series.

But sometimes you just have to say something.

"Hold up, wait. Isn't that his sister? Oh my God, Pete I swear somebody told me before that Leia was Luke's twin!"

Peter shrugged while nodding. "Well, that's a bit of a spoiler, but yeah. What about it?"

"Oh my gosh, Pete- what about it?! Dude, he's literally making 'fuck me' eyes at his own sister! He's all like, 'ooh you're so sexy I'm gonna bone you all over the galaxy'. That's freaky!"

You grabbed the remote and began to rewind it.

"C'mon now [Y/N]," he explained. "He didn't call her sexy. He said she was beautiful. Sexy is wayyy different from beautiful. You can think your family members are beautiful can't you?"

You paused it once you got to where you wanted.

"Okay Parker, look at that. Look at that and tell me Lukes's not totally undressing her with his eyes!" You pointed at Peter's face with a goofy smile on yours. "Oh wow, I've finally figured you people out now."

Peter's head cocked to the side. "Figured out what?"

"Star Wars nerds are a bunch of horny kids that like that step-sibling porn stuff but can't watch that in front of their parents so they have to use an alternative!"

Peter fell on his back with laughter, practically rolling around like a pig. "[Y/N], what?!"

You gave him an incredulous look. "Who else likes to see two siblings bang each other, Peter?!"

At that he pointed back at you while picking up his other soda. "To be fair, they never do that with each other. They only kiss, like twice and that's it. And one of them is only to make Han Solo mad."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about the Han Solo guy. Where is he anyway?"

Peter smiled. "Well, we're only twenty mintues in. He'll come soon."

To tell the truth, Peter really didn't even know what part you were at. His eyes were watching the screen but nothing was being comprehended. The only thing he could manage to think about was all the tiny things that were going on over on your side of the fort. Did you notice him staring? Was Tony right and you were just concerningly nice?

"I love how everybody at this bar is so chill south everything that's happening. It's like oh wow this guy just shot this green dude at table 8 and nope we totally don't care," you joked, pulling Peter out of his trance. He reminded himself that he should probably try to pay more attention. He didn't want to ruin the movie for you in case you had any questions.

But eventually, like all things do, the movie came to an end.

"So, how'd you like it?," Peter said while neither one of you made a move to leave the dark fort. You were laid out in practically a starfish-type position while he was sitting Indian-style.

You smirked. "I'll admit, it was pretty nice for a movie made in 1977. Still a bit lame though," you teased, pinching your fingers together with a giggle. Suddenly, you gasped. "Ooh, Vader was pretty lit though! Just straight force-choking people who disagree with you is such a power move."

Peter rolled his eyes and scoffed lightly. "Typical..."

"Excuse me?"

He bit back a quick smile. "Look, I'm not saying that Darth Vader isn't awesome. Because he is! Totally and completely but [Y/N], you do realize that in literally every movie we watch you like the villains?," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Because the villains are awesome!," you defended.

"Just saying. I'm sensing a bit of a pattern...," he teased.

You scoffed. "This coming from the guy who actually feels bad about some the people crashing into things when we're watching Ridiculousness," you said, reminding in how Peter was forever the relentless sap. "Well, while you're so busy judging me, whose your favorite character?"

At that, he gave a small sincere smile. "Ben. He's really cool."

"Ben Kenobi? The old guy that literally let himself die? But why?"

He shrugged, the small grin still present on his face. "Eh, sentimental reasons..."

He watched you return his sweet smile and it was then and there when Peter really felt content with the night. Though, you hadn't even known the weight his words carried, he did. Ned was the only other person who knew about it. But Peter knew right then and there that if you had asked, he'd tell you. And he knew you'd understand. Maybe you were just nice. Or maybe you did like him back. But in that moment, Peter didn't care. He just wanted to be here with you. Lost in the warm smell of popcorn and your vanilla perfume, watching a Star Wars movie with Uncle Ben surely smiling down from Heaven. And it gave Peter hope that maybe, just maybe, this was a step in the right direction.

2 hours (and five minutes) down. 22 hours (and forty seven mintues) to go...

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

Taglist: @underoosjae @spn-assemble-seven @of-your-eyes-begonia-skies @parkerpeter24 , @audreylovespidey706

[darkestwolfx]

Volcano - Re-Review #40

So, I’ve said it before but I’m afraid this actually is the really short review I didn’t want to have to deliver.

My internet is really dying on me now, and I don’t have the time today to faff around with waiting for it to respond, so I apologise. On the positive side, there will be another fic tomorrow (it’s another irrelief prompt, and I’ve got my earmuffs at the ready this time - someone out there among you will know what that means), so can I be forgiven?

Anyhow, episode review;

Seems like a busy day for the Tracy’s... a Tuesday by any chance? (Anyone want to pick out what episode that reference is from?)

“Sending situation details.”

“Cross it off the list.”

“Wrapping things up with the shipping collision.”

“Scott, be a dear.”

Definitely a Tuesday.

And a nice case of cry wolf it seems. Even so, it’s nice to meet a man of science who isn’t like Fischler, for once. I can do without seeing him again for a while.

“Hello Doctor Questa, has it been a year already?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Every year I pick up your distress call, and every year the same thing happens. Nothing.”

“I refuse to let you brush me off again. Let me speak to your supervisior. I’m going over your head this time, young man.”

“You asked for it.”

Ha, yeah, he did. Grandma. I feel like she’d make a really fair supervisor.

“Doctor Questa, did you ever hear the story of the boy who cried wolf?”

“Fourth law? I thought Newton only had three?”

Yeah, I’m with you there too, Scott. I was only taught the three.

“It looks like you’re gonna’ have to walk there.”

“I can drop Brains off on my way.”

The clue about the lack of landing should have been there in the use of “drop”, literally.

There’s Scott’s excellent balance on display again. Someone’s going to fall and break a leg (or worse) one of these days...

The RAD! I don’t really know how it fitted inside Thunderbird One, but hey, let’s save that for when I have more time to make a valid case. Iceland looks quite nice this time of year.

“The things I do for science.”

Yes, tell me about it! I’m up to my ears in environmental science right now. This is my break! It’s quite an entertaining one actually. At least it’s not Fischler, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

“Every time you’ve been wrong.”

“Since when was science just about being right?”

Uh... since Fischler entered the industry?

“Let me call a ride and get us out of here.”

I thought Grandma said you’d have to walk, Brains, remember?

“What matters now is saving lives.”

“You mean we’re going to stop the volcano from exploding?”

Yes, Brains, yes you are.

“It’s finally happening, after all these years!”

Um... maybe don’t sound quite so happy about a volcano exploding?

So, is Brains’ uniform more orange or brown in people’s opinions? I’ve always thought it looked orange in TAG, but in TOS ‘Thunderbird Six’ his sash colour was brown.

And look at these lovely robots! They deserve to have each other for friends. MAX playing music as well was just completely classic and MAX following whilst Brains was like “let’s go home”. It would have been lovely to see more of these two, they made a good duo.

“Fritzy seems very nice... but she’s much too old a model for you.”

It’s like parenting, isn’t it? Or gene selection.

I love how we got a robot love story though which just about pushed the boundaries.

“Locals? What locals?”

“Those locals!”

Treating them a little like outsiders there, ey?

So, now we move onto one of my favourite parts of this episode. The guy with the catch phrase, “And I’m Jeff Tracy.” I thought it was meant to be “and I’m the Queen of England”, but maybe that wouldn’t have been as fitting. So here is a lovely little hot spring resort. How nice.

And here is why you should Brains! Volcano! Run for your lives (again)!

Virgil absolutely made this episode for me! Thanks to @flyboytracy​ for these awesome gifs, they make my day every time.

I’ll fill in the blanks here;

“Hi. I’m from International Rescue.”

No, you’re not, but he is one of Jeff Tracy’s sons. I wish that had been added somehow.

“Oh my!”

Yeah, because Virgil doesn’t even need words to say how awesome he is, he just has to point out of a window and be all like, ‘You were saying?’

I just love how he does that.

So, I probably don’t really have time, but I’m adding the trivia anyway, because I know it interests some of you (and if it interests no one just tell me to stop including it).

So, inspiration or possible sources for this episode could come from three pieces of traditional work. The first is this image, released in the comics as a special news report written by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. The full story was never expanded upon within the comics or as an episode, but the news reported detailed bystanders views of Thunderbird One undertaking some kind of rescue before fleeing the scene, the rescue being (by rumour) to rescue the scientists who had been studying the volcano. 

The second was this one;

A special short story release which focussed on a rescue mission surrounding volcanos on the Ring of Fire. This is also possible source material for where the very first episode of TAG took it’s title from. Similar content to the book can be seen in that episode too, but only so much for the setting. As for the volcanos (which were absent in ‘Ring of Fire’), it seems they were instead moved to this episode. Many also thought that this book was written as the expansion that never come to the news report above. That was never confirmed, and the authors were different, but elements were remarkably similar. So it’s far to say that if this book wasn’t an expansion of that report, it was definitely inspired by it. Goodness I feel like I’m tagging works over on AO3 with all this talk of expansion and inspiration.

The third was this video - yes, video. I still have my video player set up and working thank you very much. Not everything got transferred to DVD in the fading days of VCR and this is one of them, along with many Carlton works actually. You may know them better for releasing many videos that featured under the content umbrella of ‘BBC Videos’, however with the rise of DVD’s, the BBC took over selling their own content under ‘BBC DVD’s’, just like they now have ‘BBC Books’. Carlton were known for releasing many old BBC (and ITV) classics, such as Thunderbirds, Star Hill Ponies, Toy Box... many of these were picked up by ITV and BBC and transferred to DVD, but sadly this one was missed.

CD-Rom is another thing which is dying out now - I still have my CD player, just saying, and it has an IPod nano connector (something which I’m aware is also dying out, but my technology lives really well, I don’t know what I do because I’m not a technological expert, but I did have m,y last mobile for 8 years, once again just saying - and moving away from garbled, rushed trivia about me).

The issue which stops CD-Rom surviving is that it doesn’t play on many general CD players, because it needs hard drive space. Old computer monitors used to have CD-Rom drives in built, so you could listen to music, play games and copy data onto disks. They have mostly died out and so the only form this game survives in, is little chunks people have filmed and uploaded to youtube. The quality isn’t great on many of the recordings, but at least they’re there in some form. Give it another 20 years... Preserve what you have is my message from all of this.

But yes, so this was about Thunderbird Two going to a rescue at a volcano! Low and behold, what have we just watched?

And, to finish off, because my break is definitely over, a little more behind the scenes specials! The making of this episode was actually really intriguing to look at.

P.S. I was typing quickly so any errors are my own and I apologise (again).

P.P.S. I am just going to leave this absolutely awesome here for you to all ogle. Look at that little bell! Do you think there’s room in the tool belt to have nicked it (because yes, Parker Class #101 would have taught those skills), because Gordon ends up with a very similar looking one... just putting it out there. And now I have, anyone want to write me a fic featuring the life of said bell?

[bloodyfeverdreams]

📏 ✔️ and 🎨

📏 Pick between platonic caretaking and romantic caretaking

Ooooooooooooh that such a hard choice!  I mean, on one hand, platonic can cover practically everything from best friends to familial (I know it’s a bit of a stretch but I’m counting it as if not one then it must belong to the other) so it’s got some pretty good range and the caretaker can be begrudging to soft and loving or unexperienced to a seasoned caretaker.  On the other hand, a romantic scenario can strengthen a relationship, especially if the caretaker hasn’t seen much of the sickie’s vulnerable side.  It can give the best types of cuddles, the “No, I don’t want to get you sick” “Hush love it’s too late I’ll be fine”, and the great conclusion that the cuddles did get the romantic partner sick.  Or even on one of favorite tropes, when enemies show up on the other’s doorstep and collapse and the enemy (who share sexual tension so thick you could cut it with a knife) has to choose between helping or hurting.  (They always choose to help.)  UUuuuuuuuugh this is such a hard choice.  I hate to cop out and say it depends on the fandom but I will say it does depend on the character.  Like, Peter Parker is only gets platonic caretakers (preferably IronDad Tony) but Barry Allen only gets his husband/boyfriend/nemesis Leonard Snart for a caretaker.

All right- my favorite is romantic.  That’s my answer.  I’m a bad combination of always single and hopeless romantic so my heart will always belong to love and it’s many forms, especially with sick cuddles and kisses.

✔️ Favorite symptom to read

That’s a much easier question.  Fevers.  Especially high fevers.  Small tidbit about me, I was raised in a house where if you didn’t have a fever over 101 F you weren’t sick and you went to school. So I have a unusually high tolerance for fevers.  That means when a fever is so bad, they can’t find a comfortable spot because everything is hot and cold and they’re miserable, or they’ve been pushing through it to save the world/get work done/help others through an illness that they can’t stand it anymore and they collapse, or they’re so out of it they call out for people who aren’t there (dead relatives or the normal caretaker but gasp someone else has to help now).  MMmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMM it’s what the sophisticated and elite call “The Good Shit™ ”.  I’m also very partial to fainting spells but in my mind, it’s fevers that are my personal favorite.

🎨  Favorite fandom to read

Ooooh another hard question.  Man, you really went for the kill here, darling.  First off, to make my life easier let me list my top five right now, in no particular order, that I love to read without sickfics being in the equation necessarily.

Lucifer

Star Trek (AOS Kirk/McCoy/Spock etc.)

THE ONLY ANIME I LIKE My Hero Academia

Marvel (with focuses on IronDad and Spiderson, Stony, Stucky, Stuckony, Avengers as a team)

Star Wars (The Prequels)

SO!  Which is my favorite?

 Well, I think, with the sickfic themed ask, that my favorite sickfics are in the Star Wars fandom.  I love all five of these, especially their sickfics, but I think my heart belongs to Anakin Skywalker coming back from a mission (to Padme or Obi-Wan your choice) sick as a dog, barely coherent, two seconds away from passing out.  I’m pretty sure I’ve read literally every sick Anakin fic out there.

There ya go, @whumpingmydarlings!  I hope that answered all the burning questions you have of me.  Thank you soooooooo much for asking these questions I loved every agonizing minute of it.  It was just so hard to choose!

[doctorsuperlockat221b]

Stars in Your Eyes

Inspiration taken from this gif. It’s not mine.

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Word Count: 1,682

Summary: You invite Peter on a camping trip with your family where you learn a lot about one another and grow closer. When it’s nighttime, you and Peter stargaze, which inspires you both to share your feelings for one another. 

Warnings: N/A

A/N: I’ve been obsessing over Peter, so its time to share my obsession with you all. Let me know what you think! Please feel free to reblog and message me any requests. 

~~~~

Peter was your lab partner in BIO 101. You were utterly lost, but he agreed to study with you outside of class. As the semester went by, he became one of your first close friends on campus. He was immensely helpful and was likely the reason you passed the class. As your first semester came to a close, you wanted to do something to thank Peter for his help. Your family had been planning a camping trip in West Virginia, and you checked with your family to make sure there was an extra spot on the trip. 

“Hey, Y/N!” Peter said as he sat down across from you in your favorite coffee shop. You smiled at him over the rim of your coffee mug, which you took a large sip of. 

“So...” You said, leaning forward, arms supporting your weight on the table. “How did you do?”

“I got an A,” he replied, sheepishly playing with the sleeve of his sweatshirt. 

You laughed. “Congrats, Peter. You deserve it.” You took a deep breath. “I hope you understand that I really appreciate how much you have helped me. If it weren’t for you, I’m sure I wouldn’t have passed.”

“You passed?” He asked, not sounding surprised but rather excited. “Oh my gosh, Y/N! That is fantastic. You really deserved it after all the work you put into it.”

“Well, like I said, if it weren’t for your help, I’m not sure it would’ve happened.”

“Oh, well, I’m sure the school tutors could’ve helped...” He trailed off, still pulling on the edges of his sleeves. 

You gave him a ‘as if’ look. “Peter, come on. You know how much you helped me.” You paused, watching the way he paid complete attention to you, the bustle of the busy coffee shop not breaking his focus. You smiled. “Listen, Peter, my family is going on this camping trip and, well, I wanted to know if you’d like to join. As, you know, a thank you for your help and for being my friend.”

Peter’s lips pulled upward, a small smile gracing his face. “Wow. I’ll have to check in with Aunt May, but I’d love to. I’ll text you tonight to let you know what she says.”

“Great.” You smiled.

-

Later that night, as you lay in bed, a message came in from Peter Parker. 

Hey, Y/N! Aunt May said I could go with you. When and where should I meet you?

You gave him the details, letting an excited smile take over your face. Your heart raced as you thought about a whole week with Peter in the wilderness. 

-

In the long car ride, your parents got to know Peter. You two sat in the back seat, with the middle in between you. 

“So, Peter, Y/N tells us that you’re pretty good in biology,” your dad said from where he was driving the car. His eyes stayed on the road as he asked his question, although he did glance back in the rearview mirror. 

Peter blushed slightly. “Yeah, I suppose I am. I’ve just always enjoyed science. I guess I got that from my parents.”

“What do your parents do?” Your mother asked. You frowned, realizing you forgot to tell your parents not to ask about his parents. 

“Oh, um, they died when I was young. I live with my aunt,” Peter explained. He didn’t seem terribly bothered by it, but you felt bad that you forgot to mention that to your parents. 

“I’m so sorry, Peter,” your mother said. 

“It’s okay,” he replied. “Aunt May is a great guardian.”

The car ride was quiet for several minutes after that.

-

You sat next to Peter, a large bonfire in front of you. Your parents sat on the other side. Night was beginning to fall, and the tents had been set up. Your parents would share one, while you and Peter each had your own. 

The fire warmed you up from the chilly air, but you still found yourself gravitating closer to Peter. He didn’t seem to mind, leaning towards you a bit himself. You looked up at him, smiling. He smiled down at you. 

“Thank you for inviting me,” he said softly. “I have a feeling this will be a trip to remember.”

-

Late that night, you were tossing and turning, Peter’s words running through your mind. Although you didn’t want to admit it, you had feelings growing for Peter since you met him. His soft, kind demeanor was immediately attractive. His handsome face didn’t help, either. And it was that face that kept appearing behind your eyelids when you closed them. 

Eventually, you decided a breath of fresh air would do you good. You climbed out of your sleeping bag, grabbed your battery powered lamp, and began to unzip your tent as quietly as you could. Seeing that you were the only one awake, you walked over to where the bonfire had been. You sat on the log that you and Peter had been sitting on earlier, and you set the lantern by your feet so the light wouldn’t ruin your view. Then, you looked up at the night sky. 

The sky was beautiful. You could see thousands of stars, all twinkling brightly. You could even make out the arm of the galaxy. You stared up in wonder. Space had always been fascinating to you but being in such an intimate place with the stars so clear above you, you didn’t quite know how to handle the soaring emotions inside of you. 

You broke out of your trance at the sound of a tent zipper opening. You looked over to see Peter climbing out of his tent. 

“Peter? What are you doing up?” You said as he approached you, his face surprisingly very much awake. 

“I could ask you the same thing,” he replied playfully as he sat down next to you, this time much closer than earlier. You were glad because the cold night air was beginning to make you shiver. 

“I couldn’t sleep,” I answered his question. 

“Me too.” He looked at me. “Are you cold?”

“Just a bit,” you said, clenching your teeth. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders, letting you absorb his body heat. 

“What are you doing out here anyways?” He asked.

You pointed up to the sky. Looking up, you said, “I’ve always been in love with the stars. I thought I would take a look at them, let my mind settle down.”

Peter hummed, looking up as well. You both were silent for a moment as you both gazed at the infinity of space. 

“They are so astoundingly gorgeous,” you said, referring to the stars. 

Peter was silent for a second, turning his head to look at you. “Y/N, can I tell you something?”

“Of course,” you replied, turning to look at him, suddenly aware of how close your face was to his. 

“Well, I’ve been struggling with how to tell you this, but...” He sighed, apparently nervous. You wondered what could be bothering him so. “Well, this trip seemed like the perfect moment to tell you and under the stars like this... Y/N, I like you. Like like you. I have since the second time we studied together and you spilled the coffee all over yourself.” You gulped, your heart racing. You remembered that night vividly. You had been mortified. You knew there was a blush rising on your face, but you didn’t say anything. “The next time we saw one another, you kept apologizing for it with that adorable blush on your face, and I couldn’t help but feel something for you.”

You blinked, blown away by his confession. You were overwhelmed by his words and the arm around your shoulder that before you knew what you were doing, you were rambling. 

“Yes, Peter Parker, I like you. God, I’ve liked you from day one. You are literally the cutest human being and I have been holding this in the entire time. I invited you on this trip to be nice, but on some level I suppose I hoped this would happen. I have dreamed of being with you for a while--” You cut yourself off by slapping one of your hands to your mouth, your face red with embarrassment. 

Peter laughed, gently pulling your hand away from your face. 

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. That was word vomit...”

“But all true, right?” Peter said, a smug grin on his face. 

You blushed, hiding your face against his shoulder. “Yes,” you replied, your voice muffled against his shirt. 

You stayed like that for several minutes as Peter gazed up at the sky. Eventually, you pulled your face from his shoulder and looked up at him. His eyes were still facing the sky and you marveled at how you could see the stars reflected in his eyes. 

When they turned to you, you smiled softly. “So, what does this mean?” You asked. “As experienced as I act, I’ve never really been in a relationship.”

Peter laughed nervously. “Well, if you want to, I’d like you to be my girlfriend. And not just a friend who’s a girl.”

You laughed at his joke, an uncontrollable grin on your face. “Yes, Peter. I’ve only been waiting for you to ask for three months.”

He laughed, hugging you closer. “As much as I’d love to stay up with you,” he said after a while of silence. “We are going on a hike tomorrow, so you should get some rest. I promise we can talk more tomorrow.”

You nodded, just as you yawned. “Good idea,” you replied sleepily. You both got up, walking over to the tents together. You both stopped in front of yours. 

“Goodnight, Y/N,” Peter said. 

“Goodnight, Peter,” you replied, leaning in a giving him a peck on the lips. He blushed and smiled, tucking a piece of your hair behind your ear. 

“See you in the morning,” he said, giving you a peck on the lips of his own. 

You slept like a baby for the rest of the night. 

~~~~

Tags: Please reblog or message me to let me know if you want to be tagged in future Peter Parker related pieces. If you reblog, be sure to specify you want to be tagged. 

[justmeandmyinnermostthoughts]

Suddenly I have 101 Followers!

100 Follower Celebration!!

Hi everyone! First, I want to say thank you so much! I never thought this blog would get 50 followers let alone 101 since I originally made it to post my original writings like Wolf Captain. But after making some new friends and stumbling on new inspiration I decided to open this blog up to where I post anything I write. (I may also go digging through my other blogs and posting any story related artwork I made.) 

Second, I wanted to do something to celebrate reaching 100 followers so I have decided to open up requests! I’m not sure how long they will be open, it will depend on how many I get. 

SO, to get us started I’ve put together a list of characters I feel confident enough to write for. I have also made a list of songs that I enjoy for you all to choose from (if you want, you don’t have too), and a short list of prompts as well. You all can send me a character with a song or a prompt or if you have your own ideas that works too! It’s all below the cut, otherwise this would be super long. 

 Here we go! 

Please Note:  I do withhold the right to say no to a request if I am not comfortable with the theme/subject of the request as there are certain subjects I am not comfortable with writing. Such as rape and child abuse and similar things, especially if the requests asks that the main character commit/participate in those things.

People: 

Keanu Reeves

Characters: 

John Wick

John Wick (these will not be cannon in my story)  

Celestial Wick (for anyone who wants to read about random teenage goofiness and glimpse her future best friends) (May or may not be cannon) 

Men in Black (not including the newest movie, have not seen it) (also will not be cannon in the current story) 

Merlin (The show) 

Merlin 

Arthur 

The Knights: Gwaine, Leon, Percival, etc. 

Any other characters 

Doctor Who 

I prefer the 10th Doctor but am willing to attempt any except the newest as I haven’t seen any of her episodes yet 

Captain Jack Harkness 

Companions up to Clara, I haven’t seen any of the episodes after she left yet. 

Avengers/Marvel/Superheros 

Loki 

Spiderman/Peter Parker (and friends) 

Tony Stark/Iron Man 

Bruce Banner/Hulk 

Natasha/Black Widow 

Clint Burton/Hawkeye 

Am willing to attempt the other MCU characters too 

Eddie Brock/Venom 

Supernatural (I have not seen the last two/three seasons) 

Songs: I have links to the Spotify lists for you all to check out if you want. 

Barns Courtney’s Attractions of Youth album

Fire 

Kicks 

Glitter and Gold 

Hands 

Hellfire 

Hobo Rocket 

Champion 

Rather Die 

Never Let You Down 

Neon Trees

Everybody Talks 

Moving in the Dark 

Teenage Sounds 

Mad Love 

Close to You 

Don’t You Want Me 

Weekend 

I Am The D.J. 

Trust 

Hooray for Hollywood 

Animal 

In The Next Room 

Your Surrender 

Sins Of My Youth 

Girls and Boys in School 

Sleeping With A Friend 

Text Me in The Morning 

Teenager in Love 

Love in the 21st Century 

First Things First 

Songs I Can’t Listen To 

Feel Good 

Bad Guy by Billie Eilish

Jessie’s Girl 

Tainted Love 

Jonas Brothers (because I started listening to their music again) 

There are so many more that I should just stop here. If you have a song you’d like me to write for that works to! Just make sure to send me the artist name and song name so I can find it. (Let me know if any of the links don’t work) 

Prompts: 

“I have a solution.” “Thank goodness.” “It involves fire.” “Absolutely not.” 

“You’re an assassin!?” “We’ve been friends for literally two days. Why are you so shocked?” “I just thought I’d get a normal friend for once.” “What do you mean ‘for once?’“ 

“Please don’t tell me you’re bringing her.” “She’s harmless!” “She shot you. Twice.” “It was an honest mistake.” 

“Right now, I don’t know if I want to kiss you or shove you off a bridge.” “Can I pick?” 

“Murder wasn’t on today’s agenda.” “It’s not on anyone’s.” “No, it’s on mine, just not until next Thursday.” 

“Hold on, you died.” “Yeah, well it didn’t stick.” 

“There’s an unspoken rule where if this many people are trying to kill you, then you should be dead already.” “Yes, well, they all suck at killing.” 

“She’s kinda a badass.” “She’s kinda super evil too.” 

“I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you!” “And I’m trying to subtly avoid it!” 

“This is my life now. I have climbed this hill and now I will die upon it.” “Shut up. We’ve only been hiking for twenty minutes.” 

“So... Vandalism?” “This person or thing ripped a hole through the fabric of our dimension and the best you can come up with is vandalism?” 

“Is that blood?” “No?” “That’s not a question you’re supposed to answer with another question.” 

“Hey, I didn’t kill anyone today!” “What do you want? A gold star?” 

“How do we keep getting in these situations?” “Eleven years of friendship and I still don’t know.” 

“You’re not as evil as people think you are.” “No. I’m much worse.” 

“What’s our exit strategy?” “Our what?” “Oh my god, we’re all going to die.” 

“Damn it, why aren’t you obeying the laws of physics?” 

“Are you sure I can’t punch him in the face?” “Yes.” “What if I just break his nose a little?” 

“You don’t strike me as a professional criminal.” “That’s what makes me so good at it.” 

“How’d you do that?” “Maybe if you did a little less talking and a little more watching, you’d figure it out.” 

“Why are you covered in mud?” 

“You’ll be the death of me.” 

“You know, it’s okay to cry.” 

“I can’t believe you dragged me into this.” 

“Bite me.” “Eat me.” “Kiss my ass.” 

“You have to tell me why we are committing a felony before we do it. Not that’s going to stop us, but at least I’ll have all the facts.” 

“I vote today be a pajama day.” 

“It’s a real shame nobody asked for your opinion.” 

“It isn’t up for debate.” 

“I don’t know what’s wrong, okay? I’m just... really tired.” 

“I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s wrong, and don’t try lying to me.” 

“Pirates said fuck the rich and also disabled rights and I think that is very sexy of them.” “They said gay rights too.” “They absolutely did.” 

“Someone needs to give them a taste of their own medicine.” “I’ll do it.” 

“You couldn’t steal someone’s girl/boyfriend even if you tried.” “Watch me.”

Makeup can cover up a lot, but it can’t cover everything. 

I wasn’t born to be soft and quiet. I was born to make the world shatter and shake at my fingertips. 

I took most of these off pintrest, so none of them are mine. If you have a different prompt, feel free to ask! 

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 1, Episode 10, The Juror #6 Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Chris: I’m Chris Downey, Executive Producer.

John: I'm John Rodgers, Executive Producer.

Rebecca: I’m Becky Kirsch, Writer.

Jonathan: Jonathan Frakes, Director.

John: And welcome to The Juror Number 6 Job of Leverage which was filmed late in the season, is meant to be broadcast late in the season, and is really one of our favorite episodes for the entire series. It’s interesting--

Jonathan: Watch the homage to Rear Window!

Rebecca: [Laughs]

John: Is it a Rear Window homage?

Johnathan: Watch this!

John: I’ve noticed--you know what? We’ve done two--this is our second commentary and I’ve noticed how often you use the word ‘homage.’

John and Chris: [laugh]

Jonathan: I was--I started by saying watch the ste- watch the rip off.

John: [laughs]

Jonathan: Here’s the steam. Right?

John: Yeah. Nice.

Rebecca: “Homage’ sounds [much] better.

Jonathan: And then there’s the steaming tea--heat. He goes down.

Rebecca: Oh oh oh oh!

Jonathan: Something bad’s happened to him from taking the drug we just saw him take.

John: Yep.

Jonathan: Scream.

John: Scream. Horror. Remember the--

Jonathan: And Hitchcock cuts to what? [imitating the sound of a tea kettle steaming] Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Chris: There it is.

John: There you go.

Rebecca: Oh beautiful.

Jonathan: Total rip off.

John: Beautiful.

Chris: Beautiful special effects there.

[Rebecca laughs]

John: It’s lovely. And then the hot in. Which we don’t often see the team coming back from something.

Jonathan: No. I was under strict orders and I used it well, I think.

John: For what?

Jonathan: “Keep them moving.” John Rogers.

John: Keep them moving. Keep them up. Keep them moving--

Jonathan: I said it - then I called the office and said, you know, any of the problem with them talking and walking during all these scenes. As much as you can keep them out of the chairs, be my guest.

John: Absolutely. You know the Walk and Talk, as it’s known in television, is your friend. It really, you know, you need to keep them moving around in this set. Cause the problem is when actors sit, they emotionally sit.

Jonathan: Boy, so true-

Chris: Well also-

Jonathan: [Unintelligible]

Chris: We spent a lot of time in this conference room. And I think, by this time in the season, we were literally, creatively, getting antsy.

John: Yes!

Chris: And that’s why we gave that ‘Keep moving! Just move the camera around--’

Jonathan: Plus the actors like it ,too.

Chris and John: Yeah..

Jonathan: And it gives you a chance at a oner which is always a plus - it helps to make your day, the energy is better.

John: Yeah, it’s always better. Alright, uh, Kirsch!

Rebecca: Sir!

John: Filthy assistant--

Rebecca: [Chuckles]

John: --How did this episode come about?

Jonathan: [Also laughing]

John: That’s her nickname!

Rebecca: You ready for this one? It is! And I, And I ta- I wear it with pride. This episode came about in the room with our seven fabulous writers and we-- I think that, Chris, was this your original idea--?

Chris: Yes, it was.

Rebecca: --In order to have a jury? In which--

John: This was one of the ones that started with an ending and rolled backwards.

Chris: This is, yeah-

Rebecca: I think you are right! It did!

Chris: We didn’t do this very often but I--yeah, I had an ending for this and we worked backwards.

John: And so how did you develop--how did you do the research?

Jonathan: There’s your name, did you see your name on the screen?

Rebecca: I did, I did, it was very exciting.

John: There we go, written by Rebecca Kirsch!

Rebecca: Actually, Chris was a really great help, because I unfortunately don’t know a great deal about the legal system. So I purchased a book called Law 101 and I did some homework over the weekend, which was a really basic way to start things. And then Chris was really good to answer a lot of my questions about the technicalities of the order--

Jonathan: Brent Spiner!

Rebecca: [Laughing]

John: Yeah, Brent Spiner, ladies and gentlemen.

Jonathan: Star Trek.

John: This is the beginning of the Star Trek reunion.

Rebecca: Exactly.

John: And might we add, by the way, that the reason he knows about this. Chris actually used to defend the bad guys on Leverage.

Chris: Yes, yes. In my previous career I was a white-collar criminal defense attorney. So this is kind of bringing it all home for me.

Jonathan: Is that true?

Chris and John: Yes, yes.

Chris: It’s actually true.

John: That’s why I hate him.

Rebecca: Did you not know that?

John: That’s why my deep and abiding hatred of him-

Jonathan: Does he still have the suits?

John: [Laughing]

Rebecca: [Laughing]

Chris: Oh I got the suits.

John: Oh jeez, he got the brown shoes, he got the-

Jonathan: Are you kidding me?

Rebecca: [Laughing]

Chris: I’ve got suspenders, my friend, I’ll wear ‘em, I’m gonna wear it on the set this year.

Jonathan: That is really good information,

Jonathan: Kitty Swink, Deep Space Nine.

Chris: Kitty Swink.

John: Uh, and so, I remember we wound up actually sitting around the table and breaking down the phases of the trial so we could arc the episode -

Rebecca: I think we did, yep.

John: through the phases of the trial actually, and that’s why Aldis at one point says “All I’ve got is my cross-examination,” because at that point in the story we had locked into that.

Rebecca: Absolutely. Who goes first, and what happens first, as well as which role Parker is playing specifically.

Jonathan: The beautiful and talented Lauren Holly. Dumb and Dumber.

Chris: And also Lauren Holly, if you folks remember, acted with Timothy Hutton in Beautiful Girls. And uh-

John: Yes, that’s right.

Jonathan: Yeah, six degrees of separation. She looks great.

Rebecca: And NCIS of course.

John: And our only female bad guy, this season, I believe.

Jonathan: Picket Fences. She’s a great shark. She was great. And this poor guy!

Rebecca: Jeremy. Little Jeremy.

Jonathan: We finally put him in a show.

Rebecca: Jeremy auditioned--

Jonathan: He was in at least two shows that I worked on-

Rebecca: At least two.

Jonathan: --and finally got a role.

Rebecca: And he did a good job. [Laughing]

Chris: He was fantastic.

Jonathan: Beth can handle a close-up, can’t she?

John: [laughing] Yes. And this is one of the times again that we establish that the guys, at least, have formed this kind of proto-brother/father/brother relationship.

Jonathan: And more eating!

Rebecca: [Laughing]

John: More eating-

Chris: They do eat a lot, don’t they?

Jonathan: They do eat a lot.

John: Well, it’s one of the ways that you establish this is their home. I mean it helps bring the emotional resonance of what we do to it at the end of the season - kind of lands.

Rebecca: And how comfortable they are with each other by now,.

John: This by the way, is a nice piece of technical wizardry, because we originally had another type of footage behind Beth Riesgraf in the shot.

Jonathan: No, we were given the NFL footage, but we were not given the feed.

John: Yep.

Jonathan: And then someone wisely staged the actress in front so the actress could have an obstacle - it’s always good to have an obstacle. It’s like, if you can’t have an independant activity, give them an obstacle.

John: [Laughing] Yep.

Rebecca: [Laughing]

Jonathan: And now they have both.

John: So-

Jonathan: They can eat and try to get out of the way.

John: So, there you go, when you come into the scene and you’re like, ‘how will I force the guys to have to deal with her?’ So you put her between them and the object of their desire.

Jonathan: Exactly. And it becomes something else that helps the scene move along. Get the exposition, and the comedy.

Rebecca: And a little bit of football.

John: And snarky British comments from Gina.

Rebecca: Love it.

Jonathan: I love this line actually, about the rugby. I think it’s great. Who wrote that?

Rebecca: She did a good job.

Chris: I think it was…

John: I think that was me, yeah. I went to school in McGill in Montreal and I remember getting my ass handed to me my first rugby game

Jonathan and Rebecca: [Laughing]

John: I wanted to play rugby until I met somebody who wanted to play rugby more.

Jonathan: More, yes. That’s a good line.

John: And this is- this is great. This is one of the- Gina kinda settling into her role on this one, which is really, again, reinforcing the idea that Nate’s not a nice guy.

Chris: No.

John: He’s really very selfish, very perfectionist, very obsessive. Our lead of our show has to be reminded by the thieves he associates with to be a better man on a regular occasion.

Jonathan: Yeah. And setting up the father/son stuff here. This is where Aldis reveals a little more of his hand.

Chris: And it’s a nice dynamic we have where- I guess you kinda get a sense of what Nate’s character would be like as a father because he’s always putting Hardison in the most outrageous position he could be in. Most incredible challenge. You get the sense that he’s the guy that would throw his kid into the deep end of the water.

Rebecca: Cause it’ll teach him character.

Chris: Yeah.

Rebecca: Gotcha.

Jonathan: Do you think that’s conscious or subconscious?

Chris: Definitely subconscious, yeah, yes.

Jonathan: That’s what I think as well.

John: Absolutely. He can’t help but adopt him into that role. Yeah, and this is sort of the payoff to the fact that they’re now feeling obligated to each other. And here’s the thing, earlier in the season, Eliot wouldn’t have gone. You know, he would’ve refused to do this. And with even as much bitching and moaning, he’s still gonna do it because he understands that she’s in trouble. And she’s helped him out- she helped him out on the Two-Horse Job.

Jonathan: He’s gonna take his beer.

Chris: And more drinking.

John: And more drinking.

Rebecca: Absolutely.

John: Nate’s a drunk.

[Laughter]

Rebecca: This was actually the first shot we filmed of the episode, if I remember correctly.

Jonathan: You are so right.

Rebecca: Oh. It was a beautiful day.

Chris: And can we just say that Brent Spiner’s character was originally conceived as nefarious hippie?

Rebecca: Yes he was. Birkenstock wearing nefarious hippie. Granola.

Chris: Nefarious hippie. And uh-

Jonathan: It was supposed to be Jimmy Buffett meets Bill Gates.

[Laughter]

Chris: Yes, exactly.

John: An unholy matrimony if there ever was one.

Rebecca: Exactly.

John: Yeah, the light tables.

Chris: That’s a great- these are great shots here, establishing all the space

Jonathan: This was- we had the crane outside so we just snuck it inside and stole some stuff with it.

Rebecca: Looked good.

John: And the-

Jonathan: This was the well-produced Leverage episode that followed the orphanage, so we overlapped-

John: This is the orphanage!

Rebecca: It’s actually next to the orphanage.

John: It’s next to the orphanage. But this is the same- this orphanage- this evil warehouse. The Den of Evil, we called it.

Rebecca: Den of Evil.

Jonathan: Evil Den of Evil.

John: Evil Den of Evil is actually just over from the tragic orphanage in Belgrade.

Rebecca: Exactly, which we visited during out lunch break and were suitably depressed by the children in their filthy squalor.

John: Yeah, and then you went back and had fun high tech stuff with Frakes and everything like that.

Rebecca: Exactly.

John: And this is a beautiful little bit of set design and production design by Lauren Crasco to establish the Evil Den of Evil. I also love the fact- this kind of influenced the season finale. Seeing the stuff up on the bulletin boards here? It really- we wound up going low tech in the season finale, and there’s something about- video screens are nice, you know, but the clutter...

Jonathan: They look- exactly. Video screens keep- that’s always been the problem now that TV shows and movies use video screens. There’s no sound. There’s no tact- [sounding it out] tactility?

Chris: Yes. And it’s cold. Yeah.

John: It’s very cold.

Jonathan: This also has an homage to the set design from Runaway Jury.

John: Sure.

Chris: Yes.

Rebecca: That’s true.

[All laugh]

John: No, no. I think that’s outright theft, right there.

Jonathan: That’s what I meant.

Chris: Let’s get that out on the table.

John: Let’s slap that out.

Chris: That’s the elephant in the room, here, folks.

Jonathan: If we don’t say it someone else will!

[Laughter]

John: And we’ll talk about chess bit in a minute, but Kirsch, why did we set this in a courtroom?

Rebecca: Why specifically in a courtroom?

John: Yes. Do you remember?

Jonathan: Trick question.

Rebecca: I’m not actually sure.

John: Because we had a courtroom set. This actually-

Rebecca: We did! You’re right we had this from Boston Legal, I believe.

John: Yes, exactly.

Chris: [laughing] That’s right we did.

Rebecca: We had a big, wonderful set.

John: This is the splendor of your big Hollywood life

Jonathan: Is this how those decisions are made?

Rebecca: No, you’re absolutely right I forgot about that. We had the- I think it was a New Orleans courtroom from Boston Legal?

John: Yup.

Rebecca: I think we used the walls and…?

John: We redressed it.

Rebecca: We kinda scrapped it.

John: We wallpapered it really. No we ended up keeping most of it, she just wallpapered the walls.

Rebecca: That’s Lauren Crasco.

Chris: Jonathan, what’s your strategy here? Just keeping the camera moving?

Jonathan: Yeah. This is sort of the half version of the 360s that’s used a lot in Leverage. And if you shoot it enough times you end up with your coverage.

John: Yeah. But there’s a tiny amount of room between you and those screens, how did you…?

Jonathan: Oh man, Dave Connell. He gets his props yet again.

Rebecca: And Gary Camp.

Jonathan: And Gary Camp.

John: Here’s where we establish- this is really where we’ve fallen into the pattern in this show, where we’d figured out how much information the audience needs; how to establish the bad guys very clearly, very cleanly; and to make sure the audience knows at least what agenda A is moving forward in the show.

Jonathan: And we know what they look like, and what they’ve done.

John: Yes. There are definitely times earlier in the season where we are a little too clever by half, and really we were-

Jonathan: And this is the right time in the story to tell it. Right here at the end of act one is-

Rebecca: And this one is actually rather complicated as far as who your bad guy is. The fact that you have two, but one is worse than the other, who’s your man in. I think that it- I think visually it helps show the audience, okay this is who we’re going to first, but we’re really trying to go for Lauren Holly.

Jonathan: It also had an interesting in that she, Beth’s character, was reporting to jury duty in order to continue to fool other people with her alias that was- one of her aliases that was actually given jury duty.

Chris: Yes.

Jonathan: while she went to serve jury duty reluctantly, she found out that the jury that she happened to be on, was in fact corrupt, and that there was a bigger story there that Leverage could help out.

John: Very Rockford Files.

[All laugh]

John: Rockford Files- I love- Rockford Files, season 4 or 5-

Jonathan: Steal from the best, isn’t that what they always say?

Rebecca: The very best.

John: Honestly you cannot overstate the influence Rockford Files had on this show and Chris and I as writers. By season 4- there’s an episode in season 4-

Jonathan: [laughs] by season 4 they’ll be living in a trailer by the beach.

John: In season 4 of Rockford Files, there’s an episode where Rocky- his dad is literally getting mob money in the mail by accident.

[All laugh]

John: Like, WOW, man. And so we really felt like the crossover here is not bad. This is interesting because- if you look at Homecoming Job, which was shot sixth, and wound up being shown second. It’s part-

Jonathan: These are the bad guys! [Laughs]

John: That’s sort of the technique when we really started diagramming and illustrating better, but yeah. This is where we- one of the times we use the technique of we’re not going to tell you what we’re going to do and then do it. We’re going to tell you, show it, tell you, show it, tell you, show it.

Jonathan: I like that.

Rebecca: That’s great.

John: We intercut each sequence and establish-

Jonathan: This girl we loved. Remember?

Rebecca: Lisa Schurga and Norma...

John: Lisa, we celebrated her birthday on our set.

Rebecca: We did. I remember that.

Chris: Norma Michaels who I’ve used many times on King of Queens.

Rebecca: Norma Michaels - that’s what it was.

John: And this is also the first time we realized that really, splitting the screens into threes. Instead of using a bunch of stuff on the different six screens. Set each lengthwise set of screens up as your goal and you can move him left to right through objectives and you can formulate the story through temporally left to right. It helps track it.

Chris: There are these guys. I mean, c’mon, the two of them going through garbage? What’s better than that?

John: There’s nothing better than that.

Jonathan: This is one of the classic two-handers of these two.

John: They’re really great together. And at this point, it really is just roll the camera and get out of their way. At this point in the season.

Jonathan: Make sure you’re shooting in the right direction and let them go.

John: Yeah. It’s- [laughs] bang! It’s such a great bit. ‘Heads up!’

[Laughter]

Jonathan: And you know what? Never been done before.

John: Yeah, that actually is original! The- I do want to give a shout out to-

Jonathan: You know what else is great? The length of that scene.

John: [Laughs] Yes.

Chris: Yes.

John: It’s just precisely long enough to do a bit, yup. I wanna give a shout out to my dad, the speech he gave at the beginning of this scene - how- what chess is? Is word for word my dad teaching me to play chess. And really when we were trying to find a spine for this it was, well, it’s really a chess game, it’s really moves. Apollo had been talking a lot about how each con had very distinct stages. And that came up, that’s my dad-

Chris: It came in late into the episode, too.

Rebecca: It did and it really affected the pace in a great way, I think.

Jonathan: Arguably Gina’s best roleplaying con.

Rebecca: I think she did a great job.

John: Interestingly enough the one she was most worried about. Because she’s British and Indian culture is very big in England right now, and she was very, very worried about doing this wrong and was- she researches all her stuff, but she was-

Chris: I love this scene, too.

John: I love this scene, I love the text.

Chris: The darkness here, I mean the way you use light in it, I mean really gave it such a great- I mean what- Jonathan was that-

Jonathan: I mean it’s simple- it’s a very simple scene again and to Lauren’s credit, we moved everything into the middle of the room so we could actually shoot it.

John: Yup. And this is the hardest working business- office in show business. This is every bad guy’s office in the show.

Rebecca: Yes it is. Absolutely.

John: Move out the lamps, move in the lamps.

Rebecca: Change the decor.

John: And the zen garden- it’s interesting the zen garden - the tiny zen garden on his desk, is one of the LA bugaboos that drives us insane, and so wound up in the episode and allowed us to do the writing in the sand. And she does a great bit of sort of throwing it away.

Jonathan: Yeah.

John: And it’s interesting- it’s cool too. It’s interesting watching a lot of shows- a lot of old shows we cite as references, that are bound by America’s cultural understandings at the time. Where because of globalization and everything that’s in the news, we’re able to expand the scope of our cons. To where an Indian in Mumbai- everyone knows oh outsourcing to India that’s in the news, we get that.

Rebecca: Absolutely.

John: It gives you another tool in the toolbox. And also- there’s Dean right there on the left.

Rebecca: Dean Devlin.

John: But it also allows-

Jonathan: We tried to talk him into playing a part in this episode.

John: Yeah, he lied to me. He tricked me into doing mine in Homecoming and then refused to do his.

Rebecca: Maybe season two.

John: Yeah, maybe season two.

Jonathan: What is he, a producer?

John: Yeah.

Rebecca: He’s a very busy man.

John: He is very busy. Very busy getting people to drink the Kool Aid that you can make an independently produced TV show out of an old dog hospital.

[Laughter]

John: And stunningly occasionally pulling it off. Yeah, and this is my favorite scene in the episode.

Rebecca: It was so much fun.

Chris: It’s great, too.

John: It really is.

Jonathan: Now who’s idea was this? This is a wonderful three hander, it’s a very interesting-

Rebecca: I love the board.

John: This came out of the room, we always wanted Sophie teaching Parker. I think the-

Jonathan: Sophie teaching Parker behavioral things.

John: I think the orange bit-

Jonathan: But the add of Chris- of Christian is a great color to this. Because he can’t bear her.

John: Yeah it’s a trio you don’t usually see. He really just wants to punch her in the-

Chris: He plays irritation so well.

John: This is his attempt to be- [laughs] he is not a good dad. Eliot? Not a good dad in any way shape or form.

Chris: Not patient at all.

John: But this is- if you actually track the Parker acting ark through the series, this is the third beat. The first one is she can’t do it, the second is she can do it as long as she’s in a certain type of character, the third one is Sophie has finally taught her how to do it. She actually moves through a learning experience through the entire season.

Chris: One of the appeals of this episode was putting Parker through jury duty where being around regular people would scare her, and test her social abilities.

Jonathan: So does Parker have Asperger's syndrome?

John: It’s Asperger-y like. I mean really what we’re saying is, that the trauma of her childhood sort of froze a lot of her emotional development. As will happen. Froze a lot of her emotional development at that time. But it’s much more- she’s never lived anything approaching a normal life. And that- so she’s utterly unable to- hey I know high functioning geeks who work in the software industry who are worse off than her, as far as interacting with normal humans. So, I think as long as you’re in a specialized lifestyle, it sort of cripples your ability to act in sort of general groups. You know, hell, one of the reasons I did stand up was to find other crazy people like myself. Lovely bit here with the mustard squeeze. I remember we were trying to gimmick that like mad and were like ‘no, no just have her spray him.’

Jonathan: No just have her spray him.

Rebecca: Just have her squeeze it, yeah.

John: And this is one of those Apollo ones where we were gonna show all of the lifts, but by this point in the season, you know what she’s going.

Chris: Yeah, I mean if you’re going to do the choreography of the lift, you want to make a big show of it. And here it’s just-

John: We know what she does.

Rebecca: And she is so good at it. Beth is so good at this.

John: Yeah. She is very great. Victimizing old women. That’s our heroine. It’s a very mixed bag of moral high ground on our team here. But, actually, talking about what Chris was saying - putting Parker in this situation, one of the things, on every episode, that we try to do, and we don’t always manage to put it off but, the episode really has to have a moment- some anchor to one of the characters. That it’s not just a con that for whatever reason, either the parameters or the con, have some sort of challenge that either challenges one of the relationships on the team or a team member.

Chris: I love that shot too, I love the shot of them all raising their glasses and her framed in it.

Rebecca: They’ve accepted her.

Jonathan: Well it’s her- her character arc, for lack of a better term, is- or her character is developed by virtue of being put into the position where she has to behave in a certain way and has to deliver.

Rebecca: And she rises to the occasion.

John: And that’s the kind of-

Jonathan: That’s John Storey -

John: No it’s - that’s John Storey? Or David? Shaw?

Rebecca: No David Shatraw is in one of the-

Jonathan: No, that’s John Storey. He’s in the Dean Devlin Renaissance - rep company.

Rebecca and John: [Laughing]

John: And that’s also one of those horribly complicated bits of writing where it’s like,’OK, how do we get rid of the other lawyer? You know what? Just call him and offer him a bunch of money!’

Chris: Yep.

John: We don’t really have time for anything else.

Jonathan: Yeah, we gotta get him out of the picture.

Rebecca: We had a scene where Eliot intimidated him out of it. Remember that?

John: Yes.

Chris: Yeah.

John: It was actually taken from a different-

Jonathan: This is great, where she teases the character she’s about to go into.

John: You actually see her start to get into character a bit for a moment there which is not something we usually show. And this is- this is the hats.

Chris: Yeah here we are- this is our- on our soundstage.

John: Yup. and what’s ironic is ,of course you look at this old courtroom set that we have, cause you try to do a show that saves you a little money with an established set, and it’s like ‘oh god we have to really dress it up to sell it’-

Rebecca: Ah, there it is.

Jonathan: Great entrance.

John: -ironically- fantastic entrance. And nice coming up from the shoes, by the way.

Jonathan: Yeah, it was in the script.

[Laughter]

John: yeah, it was in the script. Jesus. Well, thanks for listening to us.

Chris: Most directors don’t! [Laughs]

John: Yeah, well I appreciate it. But, you know, it’s interesting that a bunch of us were on jury duty right after this got called.

Rebecca: That’s true, absolutely

John: We all went to LA municipal courts, and they were all far worse looking than this thing that we were worried about looking too cheesy.

Jonathan: Yeah.

John: They are basements. I also love the quick glad-hand here of just, you know ‘do you trust your government?’ Most people do, ‘all right then you buy me.’ What’s his alias in this one?

Rebecca: Oh- it was from… [Pelican Brief]

Chris: No it’s from Philadelphia-

John: No Philadelphia, Joseph Miller.

Rebecca: Yes, Philadelphia, thank you.

John: Joseph Miller, in continuing the tradition that Aldis- Hardison has an unconscious, or possibly conscious, habit of faking his ID’s to amuse himself, to give himself famous movie names. And there’s almost always, in most of the IDs, they’re linked somehow to famous people. Except that- I don’t think- they make text of it, but he tends to give Nate the names of actors that have played Doctor Who. Which amuses me to no end.

Rebecca: And the fans as well. I’ve seen a lot of people being very excited about that.

John: Yeah. Now this is interesting because I don’t know much about the law, I know a little about statute of limitations on art theft because I had to research it, but that’s it. I’m constantly amazed. And so going to Chris, and there’s so much stuff in this episode that seems insane, but you can actually do it in a court of law.

Chris: Well I- look-

Jonathan: Don’t you violate the sense of truth a little bit here?

Chris: A little bit. But, I have to say, I did speak to an old friend of mine - a colleague - who’s a litigator and who’s been doing it for 12 years, and I ran a lot of the stuff by him and he was- he was on board.

John: Yeah.

Rebecca: Absolutely, we had a great conversation with him.

John: So this is the one- this is one of the ones that’s great, actually, cause you called that buddy who’s in the US Attorney's office and you gave that five second pause and went, ‘holy shit that would work’.

[All laugh]

Jonathan: You could get away with it.

Rebecca: Yeah, exactly.

John: ‘Don’t- don’t tell anyone about this!’ It’s always gratifying when you hear from somebody- like when we faked the MRI. Who was like ‘Oh yeah, that’s actually a good tumor. Nicely done.’

Rebecca: ‘You could absolutely do that.’ Yeah. [Laughs]

John: And this is the little- this little friend beat with Peggy.

Jonathan: This is the vegan meat scene. This is a very nice scene.

Rebecca: This is the tofu scene.

John: Yes. And she’s wonderful- and this is why it’s so crucial to get those daily players that are great, because-

Rebecca: She did a wonderful job.

Jonathan: Oh, we loved her.

John: -you want them to be friends.

Jonathan: Yeah you love them as friends, you buy them as friends.

John: Yeah, Peggy’s coming back.

Rebecca: Oh god, I hope so.

John: Yeah her sidekick- yeah we’re absolutely- well not just for your character payment but also.

Rebecca: Oh do I get one of those? That’s fun.

John: We’re actually thinking about- when I did Jackie Chan adventures the animated show, we eventually wound up using a bunch of the side characters in their own episodes.

Chris: Yeah.

John: And I’m thinking at some point we get all the- like Hurley, Peggy, all the side characters and do like two next year where it’s just them forming a second Leverage team.

Rebecca: Lisa earned she did a great job.

John: She did a great job.

Chris: Now Johnathan, a lot of this episode is us watching people watch other people, how did you-

Jonathan: Yeah, that was part of the prepping, to make sure I understood who-

Chris: How did you keep that all straight?

Jonathan: Who watches the watchers?

Chris: Right.

Rebecca: Exactly.

Chris: I mean it’s all very clear…

Jonathan: Well it’s clear because it was- we discussed it during prep. You know, we all- you know, it was what we talked about a few minutes ago, the idea of a tone meeting. So that you’re sure, who’s on the screen in this scene, who knows what’s being said, who hears what’s being said, and who can’t.

Chris: Right, right.

Jonathan: Probably more importantly, who can’t see or who can’t hear and get this information.

Chris: And you also made good use of using the screens as transitions. So you would go from the actual scene, then you would cut to the screen, then pull back.

Jonathan: Yeah well it begs for it a little bit. And helps avoid establishing shots like that.

[All laugh]

John: What?

Chris: Oh good establishing shot is-

John: C’mon man there’s no crime in that, that’s television, it lets you know where you are. That’s actually- talking to Dean about directing, he says that’s the big mistake young directors make, they don’t let you know where you are. You know it’s an important thing, I would rather use a shot like that-

Jonathan: Some reason that Aaron Spelling had a few shows on in the 80’s and 90’s is he made them use establishing shots and start scenes that way.

John: Yeah, exactly and you knew where the hell you were. And that’s a great transition, punch into the screen.

Chris: Yeah, that’s a great transition.

Rebecca: That’s beautiful; very nice.

John: And it’s interesting, like Kirsch said- I call her Kirsch. I always call her Kirsch.

Rebecca: And if you ever stop I’ll know something’s wrong. I know I’m being fired.

John: You’re being fired at the end of the day, yeah.

Jonathan: These two have great rhythm together. These two-

John: They do.

Jonathan: Over the week we worked together developed a great rhythm. He of course knew everything Gina had done, so he had her entire credits, and…

John: No they’re- It’s interesting because she’s doing a bad guy here, which we don’t usually have. We’re doing that in the season premiere of the second season, actually it’s a little- it’s kind of a cool con we’re working on.

Chris: Yeah.

Rebecca: We wanted her to amp up the evil. We said show Sophie, you know, how ruthless she can be.

Jonathan: She looks beautiful with her hair pulled up.

Chris: Oh boy, she looked great.

John: But that was fun being able to use just enough of what Americans know about Indian outsourcing and everything and kind of, you know-

Jonathan: It’s so nice to see Brent without gold paint on his face.

John: I know.

[All laugh]

John: I don’t- you know what he was great in? He was great in the Dorothy Dandridge story. I really liked that

Jonathan: He’s a wonderful actor.

Chris: Oh, he’s terrific.

Jonathan: You know he’s playing Don Quixote now.

John: Oh yeah, there you are.

Rebecca: I did not know that.

Jonathan: The reprise he’s playing in Man of La Mancha.

John: What’s interesting here is there’s not- the temptation to do a lot of fancy camera crap when two people are talking is overwhelming, but you just parked it on them and- the scenes great, it’s chilling, it’s creepy. That comes from two good actors talking.

Jonathan: That only comes from years of directing, is to learn that you don’t have to do too much.

John: Yeah. Sometimes just let good actors talk.

Jonathan: And it’s great. And the same thing in the editing room. You don’t have to cut around yet, I’m still interested in what they’re saying.

John: Yeah. That’s a big problem you get- when you’re moving the camera, it’s always- the kinda general rule I always use is, it’s movement or performance. If somebody’s talking- if somebody’s working it just sit on it, it’s all right. The audience is [unintelligible].

Jonathan: And also our cameras are moving even when we appear to do close-ups.

John: We do these little slides and stuff, yeah. This was also- the incredibly boring slideshow, this is sort of off of your-

Chris: Yes. I think people accept that in a court case there would be an incredibly boring presentation of evidence, and you buy that.

Rebecca: Absolutely

Jonathan: Quincy! Worked on Quincy for years!

Chris: Sure! Absolutely.

John: Quincy, exactly. 168 slides, I love Kitty- I love Kitty in that shot by the way. She’s so great.

Rebecca: Yeah, she’s so good.

John: And even that was great, because we had brought in- we got Armin first, right?

Jonathan: No I called- I asked during casting I said wouldn’t Armin be great for this corrupt juror? And I said wait a minute, ‘Armin’s married to Kitty’. And we wound up- obviously we wanted up with a female judge to mix it up a little bit, let’s offer it to Kitty too. And it was like a family package.

John: That was great.

Jonathan: Then it became the Star Trek connection. This guy was funny as hell, too.

Rebecca: Excellent job.

Chris: Yeah, he was great.

John: And speaking real Hindi there, which is-

Jonathan: And Gina pretending she understood him, which is…

[All laugh]

John: Yeah she was really great. No, yeah this is one of the few times we bring a mark back to the office.

Chris: Yeah.

John: We dressed it up a little bit, but yeah.

Chris: By the end of the season we’re getting pretty-

Jonathan: This was a good setup too, I was always wondering if the audience would understand- oh no, this isn’t- yeah we we’re gonna reveal the green screen here.

Chris: Yeah, we were gonna reveal it right after this.

John: Yeah. But yeah it was interesting because I had just gone to the CAA where they had the big new teleconferencing wall, it really was- I will believe anything that’s on the other side of that camera, you know? And we do so much set replacement on this show that it would make sense that they have that technology.

Chris: Oh I love that- I love that zoom around.

Rebecca: He did such a great job.

Jonathan: Yeah, that’s that six frames business.

John: And finding that- this guy did a great job.

Jonathan: This guy was great!

Rebecca: He was wonderful, yeah

John: Doing the Scottish accent on the way out was really- it was really great.

Jonathan: That was shameless. Whose idea was that?

Rebecca: It was originally Irish. That was your idea, John, I think.

Jonathan: Just shameless.

John: Yeah. He’s very good, the walkaway. And what’s great is they’re also- Eliot’s running the computer there. It’s one of those little things where we’ve arced his ability to use the computer at Hardison’s- you know.

Chris: Yes.

John: We didn’t do a bit - which would’ve complicated it - which was where Hardison left a bunch of sticky notes on his computer which I loved. But at this point- it’s interesting because this episode started so clean and wound up being so complicated, you know?

Jonathan: We are moving, moving, moving.

Chris: It’s great- great movement. Picking them up on the run, and the camera finally stops right there.

Jonathan: I think- driven by the idea that we think a courtroom drama is gonna be staid, that we had to- all of us were very conscious of trying to make sure everything moved, literally and figuratively, and it paid off.

John: And this is one of the times that they’re too good at their jobs. Which we don’t use all that often.

Rebecca: Exactly

Chris: Oh yeah, I love this twist.

[All laugh]

John: And the smile, and just sign the goddamn papers.

Rebecca: Oh these two guys had so much fun.

Jonathan: ‘Sign on the line before anything changes!’

John: Really great.

Jonathan: This is the part we wanted Dean to play!

Rebecca: Yes it was, yeah.

John: Yes, exactly. But the idea, that if you use real world companies, that it will come back to bite you in the ass is infinitely amusing. And again something we’re going to use a bit more in season 2. You know the little details of the cons- you always wonder how much process does the audience want? And I think that that’s- a lot of it is what you sign up for. That’s why CSI was a big hit, people want to see people get fingerprinted and stuff.

Jonathan: I want to see the stuff, yeah.

John: And for us it’s how do we commit these crimes?

Jonathan: And I think the audience loves that.

Chris: More movement again, you panned across to the-

Jonathan: I lined them up in the order that they spoke. [Laughs] Always a good trick.

[All laugh]

Chris: Then you ended on-

Jonathan: Nate. He gets up.

Chris: Nate as he gets up and you follow him out.

Jonathan: Thank you.

[All laugh]

John: We should bring you back.

Rebecca: Honestly.

John: I was really not gonna bring you back but watching this episode again, I gotta say, yeah.

Chris: It’s a good scene.

Rebecca: We give some screen time to our infrequently used kitchen. Very well stocked with orange soda.

Jonathan: I’m a big fan of the kitchen.

Rebecca: We had a good time filming it.

Chris: Yeah we did.

John: We started using it a lot. It was- it really was- it’s not something that’s kind of in our writers heads, just cause we didn’t- it was a late addition to the set, but it’s a nice intimate-

Rebecca: There were some intimate moments, yeah.

Jonathan: It’s the office version of the water cooler. It’s where stuff can happen.

Chris: And here’s where we are challenging our two- Hardison and Parker, to really bring it home. We have our pep talks.

John: It’s a parallel scene, parallel structure, yeah. Parallel pep talks. And they’re two distinctly different relationships too, you know?

Chris: Yeah.

Jonathan: That’s a good point, the father/son relationship between Nate and Aldis is an entirely different one from the peer relationship that these two are trying to set up.

Chris: Yes.

Rebecca: Absolutely.

John: This is really- and this is something we held back for the season finale. Where the way she locks it in, in the original version of the script, is she confesses Sophie Deveraux is not her real name.

Rebecca: Yeah.

John: And then that’s sort of something we held back for the finale. Assuming you’ve watched all the episodes in a row and now are going back for the commentary, with a Guiness in hand, as you should.

[Laughter]

John: Yeah this is a- we don’t do this a lot.

Chris: No.

John: Sophie, Parker we don’t do a lot and they have a nice rhythm.

Rebecca: They have a really nice dynamic.

Jonathan: That’s the nice thing about these- this cast. There are so many formations or- what’s the word I’m looking for? Not combinations, but in that same- apples and oranges-

John: Permutations.

Jonathan: Permutations, yeah. Where Christian’s in a scene with the two girls - the chemistry’s different.

Chris: [Laughs] I love sending the kids to school. This is great.

Rebecca: The sack lunch.

John: The sack lunch. ‘You’re gonna knock it’; ‘No, no, you’re not gonna-’; ‘You - you’re gonna get hit by a car’.

[All laugh]

Rebecca: Good luck with that.

John: Big guy, you’re gonna get hit by a car. Sorry man, that’s your morning. Boom.

Jonathan: Okay end of scene.

Chris: Oh, beautiful transition.

John: Yeah, the door and then the door. It’s like you think these things through.

Jonathan: Dean’s electric car getting used, so we got a freebie.

Rebecca: One of the few remaining. Oh this was great.

John: Boom. And by the way, one of the great things about Christian Kane is he’ll do his own stunts.

Jonathan: Does his own stunts!

Rebecca: Everything.

John: The bad thing about Chris Kane is when you watch the dailies-

Jonathan: Does his own stunts!

John: And you go ‘oh my god!’

[All laugh]

John: Good fight in this one, by the way.

Rebecca: Yeah

John: Nice. Nice double take down.

Jonathan: Yeah, this is Charlie Brewer. He stages them quick and tight.

John: Which is really the only way to do it. You start doing big and slow-mo stuff and it just-

Rebecca: I just love when he throws him over his back. [Laughs]

John: Yeah.

Jonathan: Nobody sees me right? Nobody sees me with this guy on my shoulders?

Chris: In broad daylight?

John: In broad daylight.

Rebecca: Very early.

John: And we are done.

Jonathan: Okay, those guys are taken care of and I didn’t have to do my hair in the trailer this morning.

[All laugh]

Jonathan: I went for the stocking cap- went for the Jeff cap and I got to the set on time.

John: There you go. It’s actually interesting- the thing you said earlier is, when you develop TV shows, a lot of the times you’ll have a really good idea for the pilot, and you’ll write the pilot, then you’ll have a TV show and you’ll have no idea how to get to episode 100. I will say that it’s our own anal developmental process, Chris and I, is like alright, five characters any one of which can lead an episode, and how many combinations of each of these two or three characters work. If you don’t do that, you just spin your wheels, you’re just a plot machine. And, end of day, the audience really doesn’t give a crap about story. I mean they like a good story, but they’re here for this scene. You know, they’re here to see Aldis do To Kill a Mockingbird. They’re here to see Tim in the funny hats.

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

John: They’re really invested in the characters

Jonathan: Ed Begley Jr.!

John: He’s Ed Begley Jr. He’s doing Ed Begley Jr. here. Closing the internal combustion to digestive combustion.

Jonathan: This is when we couldn’t get the...

Rebecca: The smoke to work, yeah. We had many different methods-

Jonathan: Lunch was creeping up on us.

Rebecca: I was. It was a hot day outside.

Jonathan: I said, “We’ll sell it with sound.”

[Laughter]

Rebecca: I think it was an electric car, yeah.

Chris: Now what exactly is around his forehead? What is that?

Jonathan: It looks like the same piece of [word that sounds like druh-fellen] that she wore in the…

[All laugh]

John: That Parker had in The Wedding Job?

Chris: That’s a special effect folks. That’s a virtual-

Jonathan: I had more people- in the interviews I did the other day, they loved that visual effect.

Chris: Isn’t that great?

Jonathan: They think it’s real.

John: Well it’s one of the few times we cheat.

Jonathan: There’s Quark, from Deep Space Nine. And… who did he play in Beauty and the Beast? One of our wonderful underused character actors.

John: Yeah? Beauty and the Beast I’m trying to remember…

Johnathan: I think he was the third [unintelligible] and that’s his wife, Kitty

John: I also love- I love this moment. I love when, even accidentally - because he gives a shit about this case =- that he’s a better lawyer, you know?

Chris: Yeah.

John: And she’s again, April Webster casting. She’s a great day player; it’s a lovely moment.

Chris: We don’t spend a lot of time with her, our victim, so it was really kind of important at this point in the show to connect with her.

John: Yeah. And to show also, cause this is late in the season, that their relationships with the victims are changing.

Chris: And also we’ve seen Hardison have doubt, that ‘I can’t do this’, and here’s a moment where he kinda realized that he can do this, you know I’ve been doing it all along.

John: Or I have to do it.

Rebecca: And her faith gave him energy to move forward with something that was pretty difficult.

Johnathan: And it was a classic case of art imitating life, too, because this was a wonderful breakthrough for Aldis, who people feel does light comedy and they feel he does this physical stuff-

John: Honestly, after this episode, I’d put him in a courtroom show in a heartbeat. He sells the hell out of this. Particularly the closing speech, by the way, you wrote this. It was great. Chris wrote the closing argument that he’s always wanted to do, like, on his big case.

[Laughter]

John: Like this! This is the one! Does every lawyer really- every lawyer’s got To Kill a Mockingbird in his head, every lawyer…

Chris: Well, yeah, uh, yeah.

John: That was my dad. My dad became a lawyer in his 60’s and he busted his ass for like 5 years to he could get a jury trial, just so he could finally do this speech.

Johnathan: God, Armin’s good value.

John: Yeah. This is great.

Johnathan: The casting is so important when you cast these day players this way.

John: And he’s funny- he’s both funny and grounding.

Johnathan: AND, he’s making the choice to hold onto his story as long as he possibly can, and then try to defend it.

John: Yes. As one would. And that’s the other lawyer freaking out. It’s amazing. It’s very important that everyone stays present in this scene; a lot of times day players will just tend to wander off when they’re not on camera, and you never know when you’re grabbing coverage and that’ll make the moment.

Rebecca: And that was kind of difficult with 12 jurors. I mean, we had to make sure they were all focused as well as

Johnathan: When we were casting the jury, I remember we gave the jurors, each of them, a backstory.

John: Yes.

Rebecca: I remember that.

Johnathan: So that when we cast our extras we would…

Rebecca: I forgot about that

John: So each one of those characters actually lines up the characters that Sophie says when she- the tells that she read.

Rebecca: Absolutely

John: And Kitty, by the way, does a really nice job there being amused and impressed at the same time. That role could’ve easily been harpy-ish. And instead was this, kind of like she was fairly pleased by what he was pulling off. This was a rare hidden fourth act. When we do stuff, we usually let the audience know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. This is one of the few times we give them a little piece and then walk away. And this is your big speech.

Chris: Oh yeah. Well I mean, I think with any closing argument, the greatest ones in the movies - I mean I look at The Verdict or even Presumed Innocent - they’re not about the case, they’re very general.

Johnathan: Yeah, they’re about heart to heart.

Chris: They’re about heart to heart, yeah. They’re all about communicating with the jury.

Johnathan: He was spectacular in this.

Chris: I love this bit.

Johnathan: And he had the support of the cast, he got the support of the writers, it was one of those great days.

John: Look at that, that’s great.

Rebecca: I love that moment between them.

Chris: I love that he ends on ‘some of you are friends’ and you had him end on her, and they had that little moment.

John: It’s nice, pulling that moment out. No, he’s- I love the entire cast, but hiring him at 21? This is a guy with a 40 year career in him.

Johnathan: You won’t regret this, will not regret this.

John: Absolutely. I mean it’s amazing watching this again, because you’re watching without the sound when you do the commentary. And it’s amazing how much of this feels like a fast moving, energetic episode, and so much of it-

Johnathan: We were so concerned that it was going to be too much in court, it’s not too much in-

Chris: We were, yeah.

John: But at the same time in the scenes that were there, we sit for a long time. There’s big speeches in this episode, there’s big talking scenes, and they work, you feel invested in them. It’s interesting how so much of this went from, okay we’ve got a courtroom set-

Johnathan: Wait, let me guess, is Nate drinking?

[Laughter]

John: He’s drinking.

Johnathan: Father/son moment.

John: And as a matter of fact, yes, again, a scene that is parallel to when I did my first stand up that my dad saw me do and he bought me a drink afterwards. It was a big- it was the first time I drank with my father, was that moment. And so really, we’ve turned a horrible brutal addiction into a beautiful sharing moment.

[Laughter]

John: Which is nice.

Chris: Here we go, it’s all on Parker.

Rebecca: Daunting task ahead of her.

John: All on her, yup. It’s interesting how it turns from the- from kind of a constellation show where we have a set standing, and maybe we can limp through this to I think this might be one of my favorite episodes in the season. If you get the right people, and you really commit to it.

Johnathan: Doesn’t it happen like that though?

Chris: Yeah.

Johnathan: Doesn’t it always happen like that?

Rebecca: There was such great emotion in it, there really was.

Chris: Oh look at this!

John: Oh that’s lovely.

Chris: There’s a proud use of that transition where we use that to bridge and show us where we are.

John: She’s starting to tumble to it, it’s starting to feel- and it’s great because really the chess thing did come later. It came like the week before we shot.

Rebecca: It really did and it’s-

Johnathan: Oh really?

Chris: It did it came- I think it came the week we shot. [Laughs]

Rebecca: I think you may be right about that. It was definitely later.

John: I wrote it-

Johnathan: Well everybody wanted to use it too. She wanted to use it in this scene, you’ll see at the end of the show that Nate wanted to use it, it became more than it was intended to be, and as a result I think it bookended it.

John: Well it gave it a spine.

Rebecca: It did.

John: Gave it a nice little spine for the parallel. It’s always hard, because one of the challenges on this show is keeping all five actors alive at all times. And you know you can’t always find five hats.

Johnathan: But this- but you guys have done a good job with that, if you put people in different places, and have them check in, and believe that we can hear them wherever they are. As opposed to- that’s why the scenes in the court- the conference room were so tough. You gotta get out of there, you gotta send them on their mission so you can spread them out.

John: You don’t want to hang out there. You don’t want to hang out there. Yeah and that was the problem to a certain degree in the beginning of the season as we were learning to write the show. Because you’re learning to write- every show you’re learning how to write the first season. You’ve been on a lot of series - you know, the first couple episodes, no matter how clear the vision, getting the working parts up spinning is difficult.

Johnathan: And it’s just as important what works and what doesn’t work.

John: Yeah, yeah. And our whole thing was, ‘Okay, we gotta keep all five of them active so let’s keep them together.’ And it turned out like, no, you gotta split them up.

Rebecca: Split them up, yeah.

John: Two, three, two over there. It really keeps it up.

Chris: Oh here- this is what we call the date with the devil scene.

John: Lauren Holly being delightfully evil here.

Rebecca: Absolutely. She had a lot of fun with it.

John: And really is the crux of the-

Johnathan: This is a good call, Lauren Holly.

John: Yes, she did a really great job on it, she’s a good actor and-

Johnathan: I think this was Dean… yeah. She was good, she was sharp, she was fun to be on set with, and she chewed it up.

John: ‘Oooh that’s a lot of money’ yeah.

Chris: And he plays it so great, too.

John: And what Lauren’s doing here- when you have her, too, which is a little sexy, dangerous, plainly you’re gonna get your hand snapped off you.

Johnathan: That’s her calling card now. That’s her strong suit. It used to be that sort of sweet-

John: Sweet, girl next door, yeah. No, the three- and this is another thing is- constantly on the show we’re constantly struggling with, is okay we’re dealing with obscure financial decisions for a big chunk of the show, how do we visualize it?

Rebecca: How do you do it? How do you make it simple?

Chris: And also how do you make the audience understand, here-

Johnathan: When you can’t have a bucket of money or a big bag. What do you guys like to-?

John: Sack of money! But when we were struggling- I’ll admit-

Chris: And this is our sack of money, the file folders.

John: In Homecoming it’s the envelope switch. The envelope switch- it’s really tricky, I mean you know, and I’ll say we’re breaking second season now, we found out that we’re picked up for a second season, and it’s constantly like what’s our new- what’s our thing? What’s our thing we’re chasing?

Rebecca: Hatbox full of euros.

John: We can’t do a hatbox full of euros every week. We’d love to.

Rebecca: We’d like to, sure, yeah.

John: Yeah, that would be great. But euros are devalued now so they’re not quite as important.

[Laughter]

John: Now, Johnathan I can ask you did you use- did you reference any specific movies or anything? This is a courtroom drama, there’s an awful lot of stuff out there - have you shot this type of thing before?

Johnathan: I have shot- I actually stole from Judgement at Nuremberg, which is- I did a courtroom show on Star Trek and I found that the coverage, the set of moving, pushing, singles, two shots, three shots, that they did in that is the most- that and getting it high and wide. Always.

John: Well that’s the-

Johnathan: Judgement at Nuremberg is a really wonderful courtroom drama and worth stealing from.

[All laugh]

John: Well this is actually where, where the show began is, Chris had the idea to - we’ll steal a verdict.

Chris: Let’s steal a verdict.

John: And what it’s based on, is the wire gimmick from The Sting.

Chris: Right.

John: And that’s the idea that when you announce this stuff, I mean famous trials, particularly when you live in LA, you’re all waiting around the web, and you’re waiting for the verdict to come out, on the web, of what happened.

Chris: Yeah, it was all about our team controlling the early delivery of information, which is the wire scam in The Sting, and how we could use that in the context of the trial.

Jonathan: Oh, so this is what tee’d up the whole show?

Chris: This is the raison d’etre of the show.

Jonathan: Not her being on a jury, but-

Chris: But then we thought how great would it be if she was on the jury.

John: And then the next question immediately was, who would be on the jury? Well Parker would be on the jury, I mean, that’s obvious.

[Laughter]

Johnathan: Right.

Rebecca: Who is least able to work with humans?

John: To con them. Yeah exactly. To work with them.

Chris: [Laughs] His reactions- his reactions are great.

John: He’s so angry. He’s so filled with rage. And this is the ‘zhoom-zhoom’, there’s, like, varieties- we call these the zhoom-zhoom’s by the way, cause you zhoom in and you zhoom out-

Rebecca: Peter Hanson, did a great audition for Jonathan. The Jonathan Frakes song.

John: This day player actually sang a song about you, that’s right. You have to.

Johnathan: For the future. For anybody who’s listening.

[All laugh]

John: Don’t try that, that’s not gonna work.

Johnathan: It doesn’t hurt.

John: What? You’re saying you’d actually take that?

Johnathan: I- I hired the guy!

John Alright.

Johnathan: I asked all of you. I said do I hire this guy who sang a song about me? And you all said yes.

Rebecca: He was passionate.

John: He was passionate.

Rebecca: He had fervor.

Chris: Here we go, here’s our two chess players. Going at it-

Johnathan: Who never meet until this moment.

John: Nope.

Rebecca: And this was Tim’s idea, right here.

John: Boom.

Johnathan: Boom, and… he’s got it.

John: And, by the way, there’s a very subtle thing there. By giving her the white king he’s basically announcing his presence as the black king. It’s kind of one of the little things- the chess metaphors that goes through the season.

Johnathan: Pulled back for the burger.

John: There you go.

Rebecca: Eliot’s got his beer.

Johnathan: It pays off the vegan jokes from earlier.

John: Yeah, it’s like we know what we’re doing.

[Laughter]

John: Also, I like the bad attempt at parenting Nate does here. Aldis is- Hardison’s learned the entirely wrong lesson from this particular thing.

Rebecca: Exactly.

John: Although, I’ve never sure if he learns the wrong lesson or he’s just yanking-

Johnathan: But Hardison comes into this scene thinking that I really can do anything I want to do.

John: But by-

Johnathan: And then Nate’s like, ‘that’s not what I meant!’

[Laughter]

John: He means by stealing and by grifting. He doesn’t-

Johnathan: Yeah, he doesn’t mean by becoming a doctor or a lawyer, nothing honorable. This is a very good scene, actually.

John: Yes. It basically says that no matter how- it’s interesting because this is meant to be - it’s this, to rehab, to the season finale. This is meant to set that, for whatever the journey they’ve gone on, they are now a family. A broken, weird family, but a family. So that’s why we can do really really horrible things to them in the season finale and you feel like you’re tearing apart, at this point, a family that you’ve become invested in.

Johnathan: It’s nice that they held on- for instance, Christians character, holding onto this thing about how he feels about Beth is just great.

Chris: Yeah, it’s great.

Rebecca: Really has value.

John: Yeah. It’s- they- you know this is the part in the credits where you get to say whatever the hell you want so, Kirsch?

Chris: Anything you wanna add?

Johnathan: Congratulations!

John: It’s your first episode. Say hi to your parents?

Rebecca: Thank you. Hi mom and dad, and Paul and Paul [Laughs]. And thank you guys for giving me this opportunity because this is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.

Chris: Thank you.

Johnathan: Oh c’mon, take that one back.

[All laugh]

Rebecca: Oh, come on! I had a great time.

John: Your boyfriend just proposed to you, that’s like horrible!

Rebecca: That’s true! And the episode’s coming out tonight, so it was good timing

John: Well there you go.

[copperbadge]

Infinity War: A Review As Long As The Movie Itself

Okay, so I saw Infinity War a second time and most of my thoughts were unchanged plus I had one cool new one, and I have had a lot more sleep now than I had in the early part of the week. So I think now I’m good to talk about it. 

This is mostly a series of observations rather than a coherent review. Spoilers, very obviously, below the cut. If you are on mobile and can’t see a cut below before a massive wall of text, please scroll fast if you don’t want to be spoiled. 

1. I mentioned this before but this movie does feel like a series of video game cut scenes. Part of that is visual -- more than any other MCU movie, there are times when Infinity War is an animated film. There are a lot of moments where it’s just straight-up CGI with maybe Josh Brolin’s eyeballs. The two most noticeable ones are Thanos waking up with the soul stone and Thanos and Iron Man fighting on Titan, probably because Thanos is, uh, he’s not always very convincingly animated and the new model for Iron Man is a bit on the uncanny-valley side (the head in particular is weird). 

But also, there is so much to cram into the movie that every scene has to dump a lot of info pretty quickly. Which is not necessarily bad -- they do it very deftly -- but it means we get a series of tastes rather than a good main course. We get hints of where Steve, Sam, Wanda, and Natasha have been, but no real information, and it’s treated as if it’s basically irrelevant. We see Wanda and Vision in a secret-romance situation, but we never really see anything about why their relationship works or how they got there. The same with Peter and Gamora. There’s been bedrock laid down for these relationships in previous films, but there’s no building on that bedrock. And when you get to non-romantic relationships that gets even thinner because it’s difficult to no-homo a male friendship in the time allotted and 90% of the characters in these movies are male so there’s a shitload of relationships that fall by the wayside. 

I had some interesting conversations about how Peter Parker’s death scene was really dramatic and carried a ton of impact for Tony, and that’s good, but that is a scene I think Bucky and Steve should also have gotten and couldn’t because the no-homo in a very obviously parent-child relationship is much easier to convey. (Also because of a later point I’ll get to, see 10, where Tony and Peter in the Death Scene have to stand in for literally every other relationship.) 

2. A thirtysomething heterosexual white boy mad about his girlfriend doomed half the universe. Peter Quill’s lack of self-control indirectly caused the death of trillions when he punched Thanos, and that’s all I could think about during that scene. It’s so funny and so unfunny at the same time, because while it’s a (perhaps unintended) commentary on a lot of recent mass violence in America I am 100% sure that he will not suffer consequences for it. I mean, yes, he’s dead as a consequence, but LBR he’s not staying dead and when he’s back alive again he will suffer no ill will from anyone lasting longer than five minutes of Tony yelling, maybe. 

Also, I get that Thanos is big and strong but surely cutting his arm off would have been faster than pulling the glove off. I would imagine there are all kinds of arguments against it (he can still control it if his hand’s still in it, cutting his arm off would wake him, etc), but I’m pretty sure “narrative necessity” is the top one. 

3. I’m uncomfortable with all the Holocaust-y blown-to-ash imagery in the Death Scene following hard on the heels of, and then being followed itself by, a bunch of scenes that really seem to want to make us sympathize with the person who caused it, including one where he walks on water. (I can already hear people saying “It’s dust not ash” and that’s a conversation people can have if they want but in a moment that Gamora explicitly describes as a genocide in which trillions of people die because of a so-called lack of resources, which was, you know, a real Hitler talking point in the thirties, I’m not only reading it as ash, I’m reading it as a very specific kind of ash, and that’s not gonna change.) 

There is so much time spent on trying to make Thanos sympathetic in this movie. I get that they want him to come off as if he believes he’s the hero, because that’s basic good-villain writing 101. But less sympathy for the devil could have allowed room for the actual heroes to get some more character development. Thanos is so ludicrously over-powered by the time we meet him that I don’t really give a shit why he does what he does, and if the story IS a commentary on the brutality of genocide, then like, we don’t really want to be sympathizing with the guy committing it.

But because of all this, what I am hoping for in part two is a real hardcore demonstration of how evil he truly is to balance how sympathetic they tried to play him here. We see hints of his monstrosity under a veil of self-assumed virtue in this movie, occasionally. There’s the torture of Nebula, of course, and Eitri’s hands are also evidence. We have enough to see that he’s not just a crusader, he’s also able and eager to torment and maim. So I’m hopeful for more of that and less of his Purple Man’s Burden in part two. 

Related to this is a scene where Thanos says one thing that I think is really vital to his monstrosity, though I doubt this was intentional: he says it will be an objective genocide, “Rich and poor alike.” Really, we know that wealth causes excess consumption and hoarding of resources; you don’t have to kill half the population to balance its resources. You just have to kill the richest. However you feel about capitalism or wealth accumulation, whether you think killing the rich is justifiable, if you’re going to just slaughter a bunch of people in order to fix shit, you slaughter fewer for a much higher ROI if you slaughter the rich. That’s just....accounting. And the fact that Thanos doesn’t acknowledge this says to me that at the end of the day he wants the power of life and death, and he has no justification for it. But the problem is that I don’t believe the writers examined that line themselves or even thought of it, which makes me worried about whether we will get an expression of Thanos’s evil without a justification of his actions in part two. 

4. I’ve never seen Peter Dinklage in anything other than this, and after seeing the film for the first time I asked a friend, “IS he a terrible actor in everything? I didn’t think so, people seem to like him, but he’s dreadful in this.” The second time round, it was pointed out to me that they’re artificially slowing his voice, which makes him seem ludicrously overacted. Sorry, Peter Dinklage, I misjudged you, and this movie done wrong by you. 

5. Normally I don’t fully enjoy Rocket in the Guardians movies because there’s just a lot of him and the 2-3 jokes (what is he, he likes to murder, he’s a jerk) get old fast. I enjoyed him in this, because he got what I feel is the appropriate amount of screen time vis a vis the rest of the movie, and also Bucky picking him up was super funny. 

6. Bucky’s face when he sees the arm and asks where the fight is, weep loudly if you agree. Sebastian Stan can say more with his face than some actors can with a full on monologue. Also I am writing a fanfic about Bucky’s time on a Wakandan farm, working title: “My Dumb Goats.”

7. Literally nobody saw Sam Wilson die and I’m circulating a petition about it. Come on, at least give him a witness. Fuck. I think Sam’s death actually hit me the hardest because there wasn’t even anyone there to say goodbye to him. 

8. I gasped when Red Skull pulled his cowl down, oh my Jesus what a moment.

9. The first time I saw Captain America: Winter Soldier, when Bucky stood up without the mask, a woman behind me said, “Oh my god, it’s his BEST FRIEND,” with amazement in her voice. Watching Infinity War, when Gamora started going off about how Thanos doesn’t love anything, the guy in the seat next to me said, “Oh no, IT’S YOU.” I sometimes really enjoy going to movies surrounded by people who aren’t in fandom and don’t read subtext as quickly as fandom does. 

10. Here’s my new theory that is maybe not new and has been super obvious to everyone else forever. Preface: it’s not that I didn’t know Iron Man is in a shitload of the Marvel movies, or that I didn’t find that significant. We know that “I am Iron Man” is frequently considered the start of the MCU timeline even though Steve Rogers was the first avenger, and the first Iron Man film is iconic within the MCU (though they have never gone back to it for visual or thematic inspiration which is frustrating). 

But it seems really evident now, having seen part one of two and having seen Tony Stark in it, that not only is this “his” film in many ways, but the MCU to date is Tony Stark’s saga. Maybe I’m just slow to pick this up, but when he says Thanos has been in his head for six years, it was an indicator -- inadequate, see my Cut Scene theory, but still, it made me realize -- that the Avengers films and even many of the character films post-Avengers (Civil War and Homecoming, most obviously) are the story of Tony’s struggle with the shadow of Thanos up through his face-to-face confrontation with him. 

Like, we’ve seen that it’s something Tony grapples with, but I hadn’t realized that grappling was the entire point. In Age of Ultron, Ultron actually become a macguffin, he becomes a secondary indicator of Tony’s obsession with Thanos rather than a villain in his own right, which almost makes me want to watch that movie again even though I hated it. The vision of death and destruction Wanda gives Tony is Thanos-driven, and all his actions in every film post-Avengers are motivated by his fear of and antipathy for Thanos, even if he doesn’t yet know his name or face. And this is why Strange gives up the Time stone to save Tony, because that one win in fourteen million losses depends on Tony Stark. 

This is also why Peter Parker and Tony get a lot of time to bicker like family about nothing in particular throughout this film, leading up to the one true dramatic death scene in the Death Scene -- because for time’s sake they could really only pick one death to fully engage with, and it had to be the one affecting Tony, and we had to see them bonding to see WHY it affected Tony. He’s got to be the one to end Thanos, one way or another, and will likely be some form of uniting factor among the surviving heroes in the climax of part two. Which, I have a significant level of admiration for how deftly that process has taken place, even if I know that it will 99% likely lead to Tony’s permadeath in part two. 

It also makes me wonder about RDJ’s guiding hand in these films. I’m given to understand that even on movies where he’s not producer he often brings in his own script doctors to ensure he’s getting the best possible role he can get. I wonder if he and Kevin Feige had some kind of offer-you-can’t-refuse meeting once it became evident that the franchise was going to really come together as a single, if heavily branching, narrative. It also makes me wonder how much of the “RDJ is the Godfather of the Marvel Universe” we’ve seen in recent media is a talking point the actors were given in their press-interview briefing packets. 

11. Okay in the credits at one point it says “Character from Arrested Development courtesy of 20th Century Fox.” What....is up with that? What character? I don’t watch the show. 

12. SUPER EXCITED FOR CAROL DANVERS IN A GENERAL SENSE AND ALSO SEVERAL SPECIFIC SENSES. 

So those are my thoughts. Go ye and engage with them, I guess. :D

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[magic-marvel]

The Wrong Girl

One-Shot

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: Next time, you will use your words.

Word Count: 908

A/N: guess whos ready to get their heart broken?!!?! 

(super short update but im so tired like im literally melting in my seat rn and i swear if the discount avengers get a hold of my blog they are gonna expose me so ya girl is trying her best to keep my reputation as clean as possible {ps, its not} i love yall and please dont hate me bc my mom will literally fight me if she finds out i posted something this sad)

Request: Anon - Hello! Do you write angst? If you do is there any chance I could have a Peter Parker x reader where the reader loves him but he doesn’t see her as anything more than a friend ?I know you’ve got a few requests right now so this can wait ?

WARNING: is this considered angst?? im just gonna go ahead and say it is

Your eyes were closed. You felt nothing but the soft bristles of carpeting tickling your arms and the back of your legs. You could feel the wires of earphones wiggle past your cheek, being tugged lightly from your ear. The blasting music of your favorite song was interrupted, a mere echo of lyrics memorized now playing in your head instead of in your ear.

“I was listening to that.” You spoke up, still keeping your eyes closed.

“I wanted to tell you something.” Peter ignored your statement, choosing to poke at the curiosity in your heart, gaining your attention by the mere mention of something secretive.

“Are you finally confessing your feelings for me?” You teased, cracking a single eye open to see Peter hovering over you. You didn't move from your spot on the floor, choosing to look up from under him with both eyes now.

“You wish.” He joked back. And yet, you couldn't help but feel that cold tug at your heart, wishing that in fact that he would.

Peter pulled back, his upside down face was now gone from your view. You took this as a cue to sit up and listen what he was to say. And so you did.

“Spill it, Parker.” You commanded. Peter smiled at floor, a gentle sprinkle of pink over his ears.

This should be good.

“So, it's about Homecoming.” He started, focusing on the carpet below him. You watched as he picked at the strands, before flattening it back down to it's original form.

“Oh?” You questioned, interest peaked at the mention of the event. It would be in a week, and you hoped Peter would ask you long before that.

“Yeah, there's this girl and... well I just get so nervous around her.” He started, now his cheeks were painted scarlet. Your own heart beat in your chest, suddenly excited for what Peter had to say. It made you nervous, scared even, but you've been waiting long enough for it and you were now more than ready to hear it from him.

“Yeah?” You speak, motioning him to continue. You could barely hold in your excitement, wanting him to just come out and say it already.

Peter looked up at you for a moment, allowing you to catch exactly how red he was talking about this. He kept chewing on his lip, unsure how to continue with his confession. But you smiled at him, allowing him the courage to continue.

“And we talk you know, and I'm starting to think she's getting the idea.” Peter went back to picking at the carpet. You scooted closer, as he was speaking since his words were becoming quiet mumbles. He was embarrassed, and it was cute.

“You think so?” You ask, close enough to him to see his freckles, even the way his eyelashes bat towards the ground. He moved his gaze away, refusing to make eye contact with you as he kept going.

“I'm gonna ask her to Homecoming, but I'm super nervous about it and I don't want to make things awkward with her, you know?” Peter looked up once more, chocolate eyes staring into yours in question. His eyebrows were furrowed in worry, his own anxiety showing on his face.

You wanted to scream “Yes” and tell him that you'll go with him, but your own body had a mind of it's own, and instead moved even closer to him.

Peter opened his mouth to question you, unsure of your sudden proximity to him. But before he could get the words out, you planted your lips on his and closed your eyes.

But he didn't react.

There were a few moments between you, waiting for his own lips to move against yours or for him to hold you. But there was nothing, not even the surge of electricity you always heard about.

So you pulled away, your own face contorted in confusion.

“Peter?” You asked, wondering why he leaned away from you.

“I—I don't... I'm sorry I... don't like you like that.”

The words pierced your heart, stealing the very breath from your lungs and suffocating you into nothingness. You stared at him, feeling your heart still and your mind go blank.

“W-What?” Was all you could manage.

“I'm sorry if I-I gave you the wrong impression I-” He tried explaining, now choosing to come closer to you and reach for your hand. “I was talking about Liz, I like her.”

You pulled away before he could touch you, your muscles acting on their own. You felt the wet heat behind your eyes pool, threatening to spill on once comforting carpet. But it all seemed to itch now, scratching at exposed skin and threatening you with the dust and dirt hidden between each bristle.

So you got up.

You grabbed your things, yanking out the earphones from your phone and leaving them on Peter's floor. You could hear your name being called, desperate and apologetic. But it was all a cloud of mumbles in your head, meaningless, even.

You opened the door with a careful grip, worried that even the slightest of angry movement would shatter what remains of your heart.

You didn't turn, only speaking against the door, “I'll see you at school, Peter.”

And you closed it behind you, letting the tears fall in streaks down your cheeks.

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[foolscapper]

Exploding Head Syndrome: A MCU Post-IW Fanfic | Ch. 3

(READ IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.)

"I can promise you, it's no mistake — the Guardians and those who were behind on Titan, they will be arriving on Earth sooner than later," T'Challa later tells him, over the translucent feed glowing from the center island of his work space, and Tony's eyes flutter closed with overwhelming relief. Watching transfixed as the people he cared about reappeared in his life, sprouting like seeds after one hell of a metaphorical volcanic eruption? It was almost too much. He'd lived with the deaths of billions for far too long, and though the world is alight with celebration and confusion and everything in-between, the feeling hadn't settled between Tony's ribs until Sam Wilson walked his way into the room with a lopsided grin, or when doors parted and Wanda's furrowed brow and uncertain expression graced the halls of the headquarters. People were alive again, and all it cost Tony personally was a broken arm and leg and ribs and — okay, the healing process wasn't the best, but Wakanda sure did make it easier. Everyone had hoped the snap would be set straight the moment that purple bastard's blood bleached the ground, but not so — no, it took another month just to figure out how to reverse it, none of which would have been possible if not for Captain Marvel. She'd come and gone like an angel, and if Tony were a man toeing the line for an early grave, he'd offer a smooch of gratitude. Italian-style. He's got at least 10 or 20% in his bloodline somewhere. She'd taken the Power Stone and vanished into the stratosphere (too literally) with it. That leaves five stones that needed to be displaced securely. Thor would see to the Reality Stone. The Guardians wanted to return the Soul Stone. And of course Strange had a raging boner for the Time Stone. The Space Stone... The Mind Stone... who knows. Still working on it.

But Tony couldn't care less about those shiny bits of misery; he's given up enough of his time the last two fucking years (and then some) in a cold sweat about stones that he'd lob into the sun if he could. No, he wants to see Peter. That's the last piece, the thing that he tosses and turns over, the one good thing that came out of Germany that day — meeting this kid, but also damning him by proxy, and fuck if he didn't want to fix that. Once Peter is back home with his ridiculously attractive aunt, goofing off and building weird robots with his pal Fred, stammering about some girl that looked at him funny while he helps Tony in the lab... that's gonna be the real endgame. That's when it all actually ends and he can close his eyes and actually rest.

"I'm eager to finally meet this kid without a mask, after all proud parent talk," Steve says from the couch in the break room. He hadn't been able to stand for very long anymore after what Thanos had done to his knee a month back, but Tony's at least helped hook him up with a prototype brace he'd started way back when for Rhodey. It whirs a little when he straightens his leg out. Despite the new scars that grace them — one on the arm here, another on the forehead here, the imprint of a stab wound— Wait a goddamn minute. He glowers at Steve. "It's not 'proud parent talk'." "If it quacks like a duck," Sam says as he walks by with a cereal bowl, like he's drifting along on conveyor belt that dispenses wise cracks. "Begone, Wilson, you wretched creature," is the apt reply, as Tony wags a hand for him to leave (he already has). "And he's a — good kid, so yeah, maybe I talked up a big game for him so he starts off on the right foot. Someone has to prep you so his awkward puberty-stricken self doesn't ruin his credibility right off the bat." Steve just shakes his head, smiling at the ground. He looks so much younger than he had even just a couple months ago. But maybe that's all of them. There's a light in their eyes, a feeling of victory they hadn't felt in over two years. We've won. Vision would think so, too. Him and his stupid sweater vests, and his terrible cooking, and his scarring everyone else by ignoring doors. ... He'd be proud of them. Tony's sure of it.

  "Aaww, look at that... Proof that Tony Stark has a heart." And then, gone. Every night.

His heart is hammering in his chest when the Benatar touches down on the central landing pad, which is stupid and unprofessional; Tony Stark does not anxiously flutter around like a student worried about their test grades; he scores 101% every time. But now he's here, and his palms are sweating, and Pepper is telling him it's gonna be okay — "Mr. Stark, I don't feel so good." — and to relax before he sprouts a couple more gray hairs to add to the others — "I don't wanna go, please, sir, I don't wanna go...!" — and Rhodey grips his shoulder, tight enough to hurt. He blinks. "Hey," is all his friend says, but it grounds him. Tony nods. I'm alright. There are few people in the facility that are aware of the post, or traumatic, or stress. Pepper and Rhodey and Happy are his key confidants when he detaches from all common sense and loses himself to places like Kunar, or the emptiness of space, or — or places like Titan. It's gotten better, but only before it's gotten much worse, and the months that followed the dusting of half the universe he was hardly capable of handling standing on his own two feet, let alone moving to solve anything. "Hey, it's all good," he'd tell them at 3 a.m. in the lab, "I took a Xanax." Beside him, Rocket and Groot stand transfixed, and Tony can only imagine how much more wrecked Rocket is about all of this — it's been two years since he's seen his family alive. He honestly wasn't sure if they were going to be able to pull him away from the tree-kid when he'd been flown back in, and though the raccoon will never hearken back to that moment he'd cried into Groot's chest, it'll at least be a reminder that good things come to those who wait. And drink excessively.

The doors of the Benatar open to a field littered with curious Avengers and workers, and the first to step out is Drax and Mantis — well, more like rush out, and Groot and Rocket are running to meet them with outstretched arms, as you'd expect from sweet reunions; and yeah, Tony's glad, Tony's grinning. More good news playing out right in front of him, fruits of their overworked, overwrought labor. From where they all stand, they can crane their heads to the side and listen for Rocket's wobbly, teary berating: "You freaking morons! How dare you guys just go off and get yourselves killed — this is what happens when you're not being babysat by yours truly, you bastards, you — " Quill emerges from the shadows of the craft's interior soon after, a sad smile gracing his lips as he drops a hand on Groot's jagged scalp. Not quite a whole family. Tony can see that in the weary lines of Quill's face. And he hasn't forgotten the desperation he himself felt, knowing that the Star-Lord had been one step away from exploding on Thanos back on Titan... knowing there was no way to turn the tide in their favor, once the floodgates were smashed into chalky bits. Quill turns, locks eyes with Tony, and... something shifts in his expression. Something drops. Worse — Something is wrong. The thought occurs to Tony, the moment he realizes that nobody should've been leaping out of that ship before Peter Parker. That kid had a hell of a time on Titan, yes — that'd be an understatement. But he's Pete, the teenager who can't seem to sit still for five minutes, the plucky one with a five-mile long list of shower thoughts and embarrassing factoids, the pain in the ass who doesn't do a single thing he's told, because he's going through a super-teen rebellion phase. Tony's worked too closely with him the years before Thanos; he knows him too well; he'd be out here already like a lightning bolt, smiling like nothing's wrong and cashing in on a real hug for once (and Tony'd let him and pretend it was grudgingly, but everyone knows better)— (— nobody is listening, they just talk about their day and nobody is looking at this kid in this photograph: the kid with the curvy brown hair and pinching, smiling eyes and thin lips, he's only a kid, he's missing, does nobody see that? But Pepper just puts her hands up at the sides of her head and shrugs like he's out of his mind, and she's talking about being behind schedule —) He dreamed this, like he dreams everything. Quill steps toward Tony and away from the Guardians as they stand on the ship's ramp, one hand out, placating, brow furrowed. "Stark, man, I'm sorry; we didn't want to tell you over some shitty line, but there's something..." His voice tapers off as Strange and Peter walk out from the darkness. Peter isn't smiling, he isn't frowning, he isn't anything. He's just looking at Tony — through Tony — and the scarred hand on his shoulder is doing all the leading. What do they mean? Something's what? He's whole and healthy, isn't he? There's not a scratch on Parker's head, not like the scars the Avengers have collected the last couple of months. He's fine, he's safe— (No. No no no, look at him, why - why are you not looking at him?" Tony asks, curled fingers pecking over the shirt on his chest, right where his blue heart used to be, and he's so fucking angry that Happy said it Pepper said it Steve said it Everyone says it, the same thing, different voices: "It's a black box, Tony. It's just a black box. The picture's not developed. Something got screwed up, sorry.) "Tony, something went wrong," Strange starts, in rhythm with the pounding of Tony's heart. "He didn't come back with the rest of us." If he doesn't breathe right now, he won't stay upright for long. Peter's eyes are looking right through him, and his arms dangle at his sides, which doesn't make any sense, because that kid could never keep his arms still for five goddamn seconds— ("Could you not move while I adjust these? Lord, do you want to plummet to your doom because they jam?" "Oh, oop, sorry, Mr. Stark!") Morgan whines uncomfortably in Pepper's arms, tired of standing in the heat. "Mama, m'tired." Steve hobbles forward, and he's saying something, but Tony can't hear it anymore. Peter was the endgame. Tony's having a hard time remembering how he crossed the distance from the grassy knoll to Peter, and he can't really recollect how his hands ended up on either side of the kid's face, looking for any sign that things are actually messed up — but before he knows it, he's gripping the kid's shoulders just as tightly as Rhodey had gripped his own, his hands trembling. "Pete, kid, c'mon. Say something. If you don't say something I'm gonna seriously lose it here. Don't fucking do this." A pair of headphones rattle around Pete's neck. Tony's shaking him. Maybe he'll come to, like a half-drowned puppy you pull out of the gutter. Then just as suddenly he's not shaking him, because Quill is prying his hands back from the kid protectively, and Strange's palm is pushing Tony's shoulder to put some distance between him and the boy. Everyone knows Peter is a special case, for him. A special mission set aside to complete. He promised May. He promised Peter. He held him while he disintegrated. He washed him down a sink and apologized in multitudes. Someone seethes, "What do you mean, he didn't come back? What do you mean?" and he recognizes it belatedly as his own. "Tony, look at me," Strange orders, and usually Tony would tell someone like the good doctor to shove his orders up his own ass, but for once he listens. Quill and Strange stand like guards posted at a gate, safeguarding the unresponsive boy, and Tony's senses come back to him like eardrums popping on an airplane. Strange continues in that agonizingly calm way, "You're having a panic attack. You're no good to the kid like this." He takes a step back, eyes burning, tongue heavy in his mouth. Usually, he has a funny quip he can sling to defend himself, or some jagged-edged retort that's bitter enough to cut through just about anything. But he has nothing to offer, right now. He just stares blankly, remembers how to breathe again, and turns his head away. Focus. Focus. Okayokayokay, you're a billionaire genius with a complex full of smart-asses, you've got magical glowy rocks, you've got Wakanda on speed dial. "What happened?" Answers, he needs answers. "He is not in there," Mantis meekly replies. It's not the answer he's looking for. "Judging from what we've gathered," Strange clarifies, "His body has likely somehow resurrected — without his mind." "What does that mean, exactly?" Happy asks, voice edged with frustration, with disbelief (when did he get there? when did he end up standing beside Pete with his hand hovering so helplessly?). "How does that happen?" ("I don't feel so good.") "Get him in the medical wing. Now," Tony orders, cutting through the quiet. He is more than ready to bury the coiling, ugly panic brewing under the surface now, turning to Bruce — who stands sheepishly to the side, concern and sympathy casting shadows on his face. He's told him plenty of stories, told him how excited Peter was to ever get the chance to meet him. The kid loved Bruce Banner more than he loved the Hulk; Bruce was beyond happy to hear it, smiling down at his work. Thor's not here — he's not here yet. Pete wanted to meet Thor, too. He wanted to meet everyone, without the mask. And that 'everyone' is here now, looking at him with little else they can do (this isn't a battle, they can't fight this), and Tony grits his teeth and promises Peter one more thing: he's not gonna lose it right now, when he needs him the most. He turns and plants a firm hand on Pete's shoulder again, this time looking into his eyes and steeling himself for the way nobody looks back. He tells Bruce, "I'm gonna need your help again. If this little asshole thinks he can Casper out on us, he's got another fucking thing coming." He'll have to call a rain check on that whole concept of resting. Good to know his nightmares are as reliable as ever, though.