#MUSIC PRANK ON SLEEPING GRANDMA

[itsreaditandwow2]

ALEXA, SHUT THE SHIT UP!

Judy Jennings (Angry Grandma)

[lesservillain]

best friend!eddie x reader

cw: SMUT, unprotected piv, pregnancy scare, one sided feelings, sort of sad at the end? an: the prequel to baby daddy!eddie but could be read as a stand alone if you wanted wc: 3.4k

A few years ago…

Music played on the stereo in Gareth’s garage, filling the house through the cracked door that connected to the house. The host himself was passed out on his living room couch, the rest of the boys laughing at him for falling asleep. The only ones left at the party were Jeff, Grant, Eddie and you, the few other guests who came to celebrate their graduations left not long ago.

You rolled your eyes as they placed Gareth’s hand in a bowl of water, a prank that one of them heard would make someone piss themselves in their sleep. Instead of taking part in their stupid prank, you chose to help out with cleaning up. Empty beer cans and other snack bags started filling up the trashcan as you made your way around the kitchen.

“What are you in here doing, sweetheart?”

You turn to see Eddie leaning against the door frame of the kitchen, watching you as you pick up more trash.

“Trying to be helpful,” you say, shoving as much trash into the can as you possibly can. Eddie laughs, pushing off from the frame to walk over to you. He grabs the bag from the can and proceeds to tie it. You smile up at him. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” he says after a moment of looking at you. You get an overwhelming feeling of domesticity as you watch Eddie take the bag out the back door. You watch him through the window as he places the bag in the can. Lighting up a cigarette, he waves at you from the cans, and you feel your cheeks grow hot from being caught staring. 

Eddie was your best friend. Has been since he moved to Hawkins back in 4th grade. The two of you met after you spent the summer in the trailer park where his uncle and your grandma both live in. You rolled with most of the kids there, but Eddie was like a new toy to you. 

He was hard to get out of his shell at first, mostly due to traumas you weren’t aware of at the time. In retrospect, you really pushed him hard, ever persistent in your daily trips to Wayne’s trailer to get him to come out. But when he finally did agree to play with you, the two of you became immediately inseparable. 

Everyone always joked about the two of you spending so much time together, laughing at the grossed out reactions the two of you would have at the mention of the two of you getting married one day. If your grandma was still alive, she would probably be distraught knowing that you had a massive crush on anyone other than Eddie.

After replacing the trash bag, you decide to join Eddie outside. The cool air feels amazing on your skin. The boys don’t have a lot of friends outside of each other, but when all of them start drinking and playing games they seem to generate a lot of heat in such a small space.

“Want one?” Eddie asks as you approach, smoke billowing from between his lips. You nod and he pulls out his pack. 

“Did you have fun?” You ask as he lights the cigarette for you, your hands brushing as he hands it over. The feeling of your skin touching felt like electricity through your hand.

“Uh, yeah,” he says, taking a drag. “I mean, I think it could have been just the two of us and I would have been happy. I’m just glad to finally not have to go back to that hell hole.”

“I’m happy for you, too,” you smile, taking a step closer to him. “Eddie, you honestly have no idea how proud I am of you. Like, I want to shout from the roof tops that Eddie fucking Munson graduated!”

Eddie giggles at your praise, swaying a bit where he stands from the amount of alcohol he’s consumed tonight. He stretches an arm out and you oblige, accepting his tight embrace. He smells like alcohol, weed, sweat, and notes of cheap cologne that he sprayed on earlier in the evening. It was a bit intoxicating in your current state. 

Drinking either made you super friendy or super horny, and tonight you were heading towards the latter. 

You would never admit it, but you’d been watching Eddie all night. There was an air about him tonight. Call it confidence or call it something else, but it was something you’d never seen in him before. It’s like he’s gotten a new found sense of life knowing that he was finally free to do whatever he wants in life. There was nothing left to tie him down and he knew it.

And, maybe unfortunately, it was doing something for you. You’d never really thought about Eddie like that before, your long time crush on Steve clouding your mind when it came to paying attention to anyone else. But something has…changed.

And after a shot or two that you took with a few of his friends from theater class (those kids are wild), everything he did just seemed to be doing something for you. You almost fell over when he lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat from his forehead, his stomach that you’ve seen a thousand times on on display looking extra lean and just…

“Hey, are you okay?”

You instantly went from feeling good to being super aware of the way Eddie’s body was touching you. With the way he was holding you, his hand rested just above your chest, almost resting on your breast. The veins in is hand seemed more prominent, the rings on his fingers suiting his hands well.

“Y-yeah,” you stutter, letting go of the breath you didn’t know you were holding. When he doesn’t say anything, you slowly turn to look at him. Which was a mistake, because the way he was staring at you took your breath away again. His big brown eyes stared into yours, lidded in a way that made you want to squirm.

“Eddie? Are you good?”

He doesn’t respond, only blinks. His gaze shifts, flickering back and forth between your lips and your eyes and you feel your stomach flip. 

This isn’t how best friends look at each other. Friends don't caress your cheek like he does. They don’t pull you in, making your fronts flush with each other. They don’t start to block out the light from the moon as they lean in. Their lips don’t meet yours, and you aren’t supposed to accept it, kissing them back.

But, before you know it, your kiss turns into kisses. Feverish and hungry, tongues dancing in sync like lovers do. You’re not lovers, but you feel that line blurring as your body is being pulled away. 

The two of you don’t disconnect until you suddenly stop. Eddie is the first to break off the kiss, reaching behind him to open the doors of his van where he pulls you in. You don’t protest, gladly jumping in and pushing him down so that he lays under you. You can tell by the look on his face he wasn’t expecting it. His eyes watch you as you pull the van doors closed.

Once they click together, everything happens quickly. Rushed touches and clothes flying in every direction, the two of you melt into each other.

Your perched in his lap, breasts are pressed into him with arms wrapped around his neck as you almost eat him alive. His hands rub down the expanse of your back until they land on your ass, palming you underneath your panties as you grind down against him.

Eddie is painfully hard under you. For the brief moment that you looked down at him, you were shocked at the size of the tent in his boxers. It was the one thing about him that you didn’t know anything about after all these years. It sent waves to your core that only made you feel things for him you’d never felt before.

In an attempt to speed things up, you let your hand trail down his chest, his stomach, and down past the hem of his boxers. Your brows shot up when you gripped him, his true size in your hand taking you by surprise.

“Mmmm, shit,” he moans under you, and your breath hitches. You watch him carefully as his face contorts in a way that you’ve never seen; a new side of Eddie that you feel privileged to witness.

And then his his hand is on your head, guiding your mouth up and down on his huge cock. Tears threaten to fall down your cheeks with how far down your throat he tries to get you. But you do your best to take it like a champ. Especially with how he praises you.

“Fuck, you’re amazing.” The words fall from his lips like flowing water. He lost the barrier to keep his thoughts to himself as soon as you took your bra off. “Please don’t stop.”

How could you possibly deny him? You can’t. You blow him better than you ever have before, until his thighs are clenching around your head. You were fully expecting him to blow his load in your mouth at this point and you would have let him. But he pops you off of him and holds you in his hands until he can catch his breath.

“Eddie, whats wrong?” You ask confused.

“I’m sorry,” he says with heavy breaths, “Didn’t want to waste this chance by cumming too quick.”

Your heart leaped in your chest at his words, insinuating that he wanted more than just a quick bj in the back of his van. You’d never thought you’d be doing this with him, but in your current state Eddie could tell you to kill someone you would without question.

“Okay,” you say with a nod, shifting your body until you were sitting in front of him. There was an awkward pause as the two of you stared at each other. You waited for him to make the next move but it seemed like it was never going to come. You’re sure Eddie is just as wrapped up in the moment as you, so you decide to go ahead and make the next move.

You crawl towards him until you’re sitting just above his lap. His eyes never leave your face, round and in awe of you as you move closer to him. You place a hand on either shoulder and you can feel how tense he is.

“Eddie, are you sure you want to do this?”

He’s frozen for a moment. Until his head begins to nod so quickly he could have given himself brain damage from the speed.

“Yes, yeah, I am. As long as you are…”

“I do, too,” you assure him. You look around the messy interior of his van for a moment before looking back at him. “Do you, um, have a…”

Eddie’s eyes look like they’re about to bulge out of his head as his face shifts into that of a state of panic. He starts to babble, words incoherent until he’s able to form a sentence.

“I-I-I don’t, um, I don’t have any…condoms.” The last word comes out in a hushed tone, almost ashamed as he admits it.

“Well, shit,” you say, finger coming to tap against your lip as you think. You’d never done it without a condom before, and even if you trusted Eddie, the last thing you two needed was an accident to happen.

“I’m sorry, I just--I’ve never done this, so--”

“Wait, what?” You say, stopping him in his tracks. He looks up at you like he said something wrong and it kills you. “Eddie,” you try and keep your tone as neutral as possible, “Are you…still a virgin?”

Eddie swallows, eyes now looking anywhere but you. Eddie’s never brought up anything about his sex life before to you, but you’d not really been all that open with him for that very reason. But you’d always assumed it was just a mutual respect thing, not that he didn’t have anything to share to begin with.

“It’s okay if you are,” you add, “It doesn’t bother me.”

Eddie looks at you again, though now with cheeks pinker than ever. He sighs, nodding once again, but with less vigor than before.

“Yeah, I’m a…virgin.”

Something inside you flips when you hear him admit it out loud. A giddy feeling inside takes over your thoughts as you come to a realization.

“Do you want me to help you change that?”

You barely recognized your own words, and the look that Eddie gave you told you that it came out just as suggestive as you intended. 

“Are you sure?” He stutters out, “I don’t want you to do it because you feel like you have to--”

“Shhh,” you shush him, placing a finger on his lips. “I’m doing this because I want to,” you say, lowering yourself so that the tip of his cock sits right at your entrance. You feel it jump in your hand at the contact. “You just have to say the word.”

Eddie’s eyes are locked where the two of you touch, his breath hitching as your juices coat his thick head. 

“Please,” he says, still looking between you. “I want to.”

You smile, a heat taking over your body as you realize what you’re about to do. But, you try not to let the idea of taking your best friends virginity take you out of the moment. You had to be in charge here and you didn’t want to let Eddie down.

Without a second thought, you start to lower yourself down on him. He’s bigger than you’ve been with before, so you take your time to work him in since you didn’t get any prep before hand.

“Wait,” he says suddenly, stopping you just as you get the tip all the way in. 

“What, what’s wrong?” You ask, starting to pull off of him. But his hands land on your hips to keep you in place.

“I want to do this. Like, you have no idea how much I want this right now. But, what about the no condom thing?”

You blink, thinking quickly over your options. The two of you are too intoxicated to go and get a condom right now. Plus, he’s already technically inside of you, so what good would one do that pulling out wouldn’t, right?

“Just…when you’re about to cum, just tell me and I’ll get off. Okay?”

“Are you sure?”

“Do you want me to change my mind?”

Eddie mimics zipping his lips, and you roll your eyes at his playfulness.

“Can I continue now?” He nods again, giving you a thumbs up.

You try to get yourself back into the moment by slowly moving up and down, focusing on the feeling of Eddie’s cock inching deeper and deeper inside of you with each movement. Eddie’s head rolls back and you feel his hips bucking subconsciously beneath you. 

You decide not to torment him anymore and fully seat yourself in his lap. He bucks forward, face colliding with your chest as he’s taken aback by the feeling. 

“You okay?” You say with a giggle, though you’re barely holding back a moan yourself at feeling his cock fully stretching you. 

“Mhmm,” he whimpers into your skin, the grip he has on your hips almost bruising. 

“Do you want me to give you a minute?”

He shakes his head. “No, please move.”

And so you do. You take your time at first, really to give yourself ample opportunity to prepare to take him at a faster pace. But with the sounds he’s making, you feel yourself getting wet enough that you can bounce yourself on his cock with more ease. He keeps his face burried in your chest as you move up and down on his cock.

Eddie’s hands loosen on your hips and move themselves up your sides until they land on your breasts. He holds them around his face, fondling and groping as they rub against his face. He takes one of your nipples in his mouth, licking and teething at it softly, sending little shocks of pleasure through you.

All of the feelings were honestly a lot for you to take in. And the more you looked down at him the quicker your own orgasm was approaching. You let yourself forget about his pleasure for a moment as you chased your own high, fully seating yourself to let the thick patch of hair at his base rub deliciously against your clit. You rolled your hips against him and he whined into your chest.

Suddenly, your vision goes white as you feel yourself cumming on his cock. Your body starts to shake, and you’re pussy spasms around him, coating him in your cum.

“Is that you cumming? Holy fuck, I--”

There wasn’t much time to react as your pussy was suddenly being filled. Eddie’s body tenses under you as you’re only just now coming down from your own high. But when you finally realize what was happening, you jump up as fast as you can, head hitting the top of his van.

“Fuck! Damn it, Eddie!”

He snaps out of his post orgasm bliss and jumps up after you, also hitting his head on the ceiling in the process. 

“Shit! Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Eddie’s never been more panicked in his life than right now. Not even when he almost got caught by Hopper selling out in the woods. “I can fix this! I-I-I-”

“Eddie, how the hell are you going to fix this? Fuck me, this is my fault. I should have just said no when you said you didn’t have a condom.”

“No, please don’t be mad,” he says, grabbing your arms and giving you the most pathetic, sad look you’ve ever seen. 

“Do you have any money?” You ask him after a moment.

“I probably have like $3 to my name right now. Why?”

“Shit, I just paid my car payment so I only have like $10. I was going to say we could run to the pharmacy and get a Plan B.”

“What’s that?” 

“It’s like a pill that’s supposed to keep you from getting pregnant. But they’re, like, $20 or something crazy like that.”

“I’ll go to Rick. I can probably get some supply from him and sell it in a couple days.”

“I think it only works like the next day. It’s called the morning after pill for a reason I think.”

“Shit, shit, shit.” 

“What about Wayne?”

“I can’t go to Wayne.”

“Why not?”

“Why don’t you ask your mom?”

You sigh. He had a point. There was no way you could ask your mom without her asking why. And money was already tight so there wasn’t a good excuse to make up for you needing $20 out of the blue. 

“You know what, it’s fine.” You say, convincing yourself that it was. “My period should be coming soon, so I think we’re okay.”

“How soon is soon?” Eddie asks, clearly not convinced.

“Like, in a week and a half? Usually around the beginning of the month.”

Eddie breaths in, then out, head slumping. He drops to his knees before you and you can see his body start to shake.

“Eddie?” You drop down to his level and get a look at his face. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, and it sent an arrow through your heart to see him so upset.

“I’m so sorry.” His words come out watery, his head starting to shake. “I didn’t want this to be how it happened.”

His words hit you like a truck. Of course he didn’t want his first time to be like this. He probably wanted it to be with someone he loved, not with his friend, and definitely not with the possibility of getting you pregnant. 

Guilt washed over you. You should have been the better person and not given in to your sick desire to share something like this with him. 

But it’s too late.

You can only hope that this doesn’t ruin your friendship forever.

than you for reading!

[suzuran777]

Review: Ooe trial version (Adelta)

A few days ago Adelta released the long-awaited trial version of their new game Ooe, so I really wanted to write a (short) review about it! The full game was originally scheduled to be released this summer, but it looks like we will have to be patient for a bit longer as the new release date will be somewhere in fall later this year. I have been following updates about this game for about three years now, so I don’t mind waiting a little longer! You can read a bit more information about the plot and the characters in one of my earlier blog posts here. To summarize, the game takes place in the 30th year of Showa (1955) and focuses on protagonist Oosaki, a detective who travels to the remote island of Ooejima after receiving a request from a client to visit the island and attend a ceremony on his behalf.

The trial version covers the first part of the game, up until the first “incident”. Oosaki has no friends or family, and lives in a boarding house in Suga, a short walk from Hiratsuka station near Kamakura. His boss Shinkiba, who runs the detective agency, informs him about a request he received from a client. The client, a man who calls himself Shizuma Daiba, asks Oosaki to attend the memorial service of actress Ooe An on his behalf. Originally, it was Daiba’s father who received the invitation, however he fell ill shortly afterwards. At first Daiba wanted to go in his place, but his father warned him to send someone else instead. Oosaki assumes that the person who invited everyone to the island is a relative of the actress, who passed away three years ago. Even though Oosaki never met her, he remembers reading news about her death.

After a few more meetings, Oosaki makes preparations to travel to Ooejima. The island belongs to the Izu Island group and is located near Hachijojima. Originally, it was used as a military base during the Second World War, however after this it became uninhabited. Even though he has never been there, Oosaki knows about the island because his grandma who raised him was originally from this island. He always felt like he had to visit the island someday, as if it was calling for him. On his way to the island he meets Ariake, who’s also travelling to Ooejima for the memorial service. He's surprised to find out Ariake’s grandmother is also from the island, and similar to Oosaki, it’s his first time actually going there too.

After arriving, they head to the Mikazuki inn, where they meet a trembling man trying to defend himself with a knife, who later introduces himself as Funeno. He also meets Shimbashi, a writer who uses overly polite speech who’s staying at the same inn. The next day, he meets the other group of people who are staying at a different inn (Takeshiba, Shijoumae, Hinode, Aomi and Shiodome). When the ceremony is about to start, they realize that the person who invited them to the island isn’t there. A monk called Toyosu was sent on their behalf. After the ceremony they have dinner together, but when Funeno is asked to join them, he seems to be expriencing some kind of flashback, and starts shouting at them. Embarrassed by his own reaction, he immediately leaves the room.

Shortly afterwards Shimbashi, who always skips his meals, walks in and asks why Oosaki and Ariake are trying to prank him by playing creepy music at the inn. Confused, they follow him. Soon enough they find a record player in a small hidden room near the stairs. At first they think Funeno did this, but then they find his dead body in Oosaki’s room. They meet up with the others and Shijoumae suspects it was a suicide because sleeping pills were found near his body, but Oosaki isn’t convinced. Aomi points out that the telephone has also been destroyed with an axe. Shiodome insists that they at least finish the ritual for Ooe An, which requires burning a straw figure to send off the spirit of the deceased. Even though nobody really feels like doing this anymore after Funeno’s death, they try to collect the materials required.

While the others make their preparations, Oosaki thinks about who the culprit could be. He suspects Shimbashi, Toyosu, Shiodome and Ariake, as they came with him to Mikazuki inn. As they finish the ritual by burning the straw figure, they realize that someone swapped it with Funeno’s body. Afterwards, Shiodome reveals that all this time he actually had Funeno’s invitation letter. One thing Oosaki didn’t know is that all the letters were swapped, and that the invitation letters also included a list of crimes the other person had committed. In Funeno’s case, he killed his younger sister. They decide to return each other’s letters, however because Oosaki doesn’t have one, nobody seems to have Shimbashi's letter. Shiodome tries changing the topic, but Oosaki is determined to find out who killed Funeno, and that’s when the trial version ends.

Thoughts & Impressions After waiting for this game for a long time I was so happy to finally see all the characters interact with each other! The trial version was pretty long too, it took me over 6 hours to finish and I think I read pretty fast, so it might be even longer. I have so many theories about what could possibly happen next but it’s hard to put it all into words! The music, art and story are all amazing so far. It's interesting to see how some of the characters already know each other too, although most of them only met at Ooe An's funeral years ago.

One thing I was thinking about is that Funeno was extremely nervous whenever he was talking to Oosaki (who introduced himself as Daiba) and also knew that they had each other’s invitations, so I think he got the invitation of Daiba’s father. Oosaki mentions he never saw any invitation, so I think it was never shown to him, probably on purpose... I am curious about Ooe An too, the game mentions that she committed suicide by burning herself. However, when Oosaki asks Shimbashi what kind of person she was, he doesn’t really answer and laughs when Oosaki assumes she was an innocent girl. Takeshiba mentions that some theorize that she never actually died, but Shijoumae (a surgeon) and Ariake (who works at a funeral home) both saw her body, so they find that hard to believe.

So far I think my favorite character is Ariake because he's very cute (some of the other characters also agree lol), but honestly everyone seemed interesting. I wonder if Hinode will ever talk because his voice actor is still hidden. I'm also interested in Daiba and why him and Oosaki look identical, they do both have family members from Ooejima, so could they actually be related? In a lot of the promotional material Daiba was introduced as a side character, however it looks like the game does have an additional route (the website says 9 routes + α) so maybe we will get a Daiba route too. For now I will try to be patient until the full game's released in fall! I'm hoping they will show us some other details like the opening movie soon.

[tagsecretsanta]

From @gordonthegreatesttracy

From @gordonthegreatesttracy to Thunderfam

THE BACKFIRING CHRISTMAS PRANK

“It’s Christmas time

Alan’s on the wine

Scotty’s singing Frog on the Tyne

There’s logs on the fire

Johnny’s up the tree

Time to rejoice in the good that is me!”

“I swear his songs get worse every year” John says to the Mechanic with an eye roll, as he hangs a bauble on the top of the tree.

It is the day after Thanksgiving, and there is a twelve-foot Christmas tree in the lounge surrounded by boxes and boxes of decorations, John is up on the ladder on one side of the tree carefully placing baubles and tinsel and lights on the bright green branches, which the Mechanic is handing up to him.

“He does this every year?” The mechanic asks amused.

This is his first Christmas with the Tracys, having accepted Grandma’s invitation and come over to the Island to help decorate the villa.

“Yes he does, a few years ago it was Scotty Claus, drove Scott crazy then he gave him a music box that sung that song! I think he still has it somewhere” John replies.

“So it is a family tradition?” the Mechanic asks.

“YEP!” Gordon calls from his spot, hanging upside down from the railings above the seating area, while he wraps purple tinsel around the metal rails.

“Be careful up there” Scott calls over him. “I have tried to get rid of that box for years, I even put it in the old incinerator and it still turned up in its spot less than an hour later without a scratch, either Gordon made a million of them, or its cursed!”

John has taken on a supervisor role with Virgil and Jeff. The three of them are sitting on the sofa drinking coffee straight from the pot.

Jeff still can’t believe that he is home. And he is going to make sure that this is the greatest Christmas the boys have ever had, starting today, a whole month of celebrating. The Hood is in jail, the Chaos crew are too, the world is safe. The atmosphere is happy and relaxed as he rests his head against the back of the chair, this really is going to be the best Christmas ever!

*TB*

The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas flies by in a whirlwind of rescues, gift buying and wrapping, cake making, cookie baking fun and Alan wakes up on Christmas morning full of excitement. It is still dark outside as he pulls open his curtains and looks out at the jungle. This is going to be the best day ever! His father is home, and he has checked out the presents under the tree and there are hundreds with his name on!

Alan maybe a high school graduate with his own rocket ship, but he is still a child when it comes to Christmas! He jumps up from his favourite sleeping spot, and runs out the room, still in his pyjamas, down the hallway, stopping to bang on every door on the way, down the stairs and into the lounge, where even more gifts are now piled high!

“JACKPOT” he cries happily, wanting to dive right in, but something stops him and he is dragged away from his gifts by his eldest brother!

“Scotty!” He whines as he is pulled away.

“What are the rules?” Scott asks trying not to laugh.

“Wait for everyone to get here, eat breakfast, open gifts and have a wrapping paper ball fight with Gordon” Alan replies, poking his tongue out and trying to wriggle free so that he can get back to the gifts.

Scott doesn’t let go, picking Alan up and hoisting him over his shoulder he carries him down into the kitchen and deposits him on a chair.

“If you try and get back to the tree I am going to tie you to the chair!” Scott warns him, raising a wooden spoon in a semi-threatening manner.

“Wow, you look just like Grandma!” Alan tells him in awe, but the threat has the desired effect and Alan remains put!

Scott starts to make up pancake batter, letting Alan lick the bowl clean once he is done and then they carry the large stack of pancakes up to the lounge, where everyone is now awake and waiting for them.

The pancakes don’t last long and Alan soon has his attention turned back to the tree and those gifts, looking at Scott with large pleading eyes.

“Oh go on then!” Scott finally gives in and Alan dives for the tree.

He spots a gift with his name on, that the label says that it is from Gordon, and he should open it at his own risk!

He picks it up from the floor, and it explodes in a shower of liquid glittery gloop which goes all over him, and the tree, and the remaining presents.

Everyone apart from Alan are laughing, until the liquid gets into the lights, and there is a small explosion as the villa is plunged into darkness as the electric shorts.

“GORDON!” Alan screams, jumping to his feet and running to his brother. He is going to kill him!

“Not my fault, the warning label was on the gift” Gordon replies with a shrug.

Everyone is busy watching them argue, and they don’t notice the small smouldering fire that is starting to gain momentum at the bottom of the tree until it is too late.

Bright orange flames shoot up the tree, melting the plastic branches and consuming all the gifts in its bid to destroy Alan’s perfect Christmas, while they stand in shock. This is the worst thing Gordon has ever done!

Jeff puts the fire out with the fire extinguisher, but the damage is done. The gifts are gone, burnt and destroyed by the foam from the extinguisher and he turns to his fourth son in disgust. Gordon is an adult, but still pulling ridiculously childish pranks like this, and this time he has gone too far. Forgetting that he too laughed, he stands up to face Gordon, in the light from the torch he is carrying as it is still dark enough outside to need the lights on.

“You ruin everything Gordon, will you ever learn? All I wanted was one nice day. Just one! I didn’t ask you for a miracle, although maybe I did, as you don’t have the ability to actually behave, right now, you are making me wish that I had stayed in the Oort Cloud so I didn’t have to deal with you!” Jeff lectures.

Gordon is fighting back tears now. How could his father think that way? Does he really mean it? Do they all hate him as much as his father does?

“He is right” Scott adds. “You need to grow up Gordon.”

Gordon doesn’t need to hear any thing else as he runs from the room, upstairs to his room where he drags his suitcase out from the closet and starts to pack.

They don’t deserve Gordon, so they are not getting him!

He throws his suitcase onto the floor of Thunderbird 4 and he’s off, never to be seen again.

There are still tears in his eyes, as he docks Thunderbird 4 on the mainland and starts to walk to the house his father bought on the beach years ago so that they had a base on land for emergencies.

The world is still and peaceful this early on Christmas morning, as he watches the sun rise above the glittering ocean. His glistening tears spill out over his cheeks, and he doesn’t even see it coming a blinding pain in his back, as he falls to his knees before there is a sharp hit against his skull and he loses that last grasp of consciousness, his eyes firmly shut against the blur of the sun filled sky.

*TB*

“I can’t not believe that he ruined Christmas. Dad’s first Chritmsas back, and this happens. I should have expected it. He never changes. Where did he go anyway?” John asks.

“Upstairs” Virgil replies. “Probably sulking”

“This is the worst Christmas ever” Alan adds, sitting on the floor, leaning up against one of the seats and staring morosely at the ruined gifts.

The silence that falls among the group is awkward as they wait for Brains and the Mechanic to fix the electric.

“I-I-I am sorry, Mr T-T-Tracy. We need to rewire the main b-b-box” Brains confirms.

“We will need to go and get some stuff from the mainland; we will be a couple of hours” The Mechanic confirms.

“This is the worst Christmas ever” Alan declares again. No electric means no Christmas dinner, and no food means he is going to be hungry. Gordon is the worst brother in the world, and Alan wants nothing else to do with him.

“Come on, why don’t we go for a nice walk along the beach and watch the sun rise” Jeff suggests, heading out towards the pool. “Then we will all go over to the mainland and get everything we need for the rewiring and some lunch”.

“Nothing better to do” Alan says sulkily as they all walk out the lounge to take a walk in the early morning light.

“You know, this isn’t even the worst present Gordon has given someone!” Scott says with a face palm as they walk down the sandy stretch, Alan dipping his toes in the freezing water with a shudder.

“It isn’t?” he asks.

“Niblet?” Virgil asks, suddenly starting to laugh.

“Niblet” Scott confirms.

“Who is Niblet?” The mechanic asks, confused.

“Well…” Jeff starts.

SPECIAL PRESENT FOR MOTHER

“Hey Virgy” Gordon says running into the house from the yard where he has been playing for the last hour. The last of the autumn sunshine is fading fast into what looks like the perfect night for star-gazing. Crispy cold and clear.

Virgil is sitting on the sofa watching a documentary about Picasso with John and Scott while their mom is upstairs giving Alan a bath, with the promise that Gordon will be next!

“Yeah?” Virgil replies absent mindedly.

“You know what else I want for Christmas?” he asks.

“You mean the three sides of paper you have taped to the fridge is about to get even bigger?” John interrupts with a snort of laughter.

“You do know that the meaning of Christmas has nothing to do with what gifts you want? It is about giving, not receiving.” His father asks having joined the conversation from the kitchen where he has been checking on dinner.

“Duh!” Gordon replies, rolling his eyes. “Of course I do. Christmas is all about the birth of Santa. Bart Simpson said so!”

“Not quite!” Jeff corrects him gently. “Why don’t we go upstairs and you can have that bath you need and I will tell you all about the true meaning of Christmas.”

“Okay!” Gordon replies happily, sticking his dirty hand in his father’s and drags him towards the promised bubble bath. Gordon loves the bath almost as much as he loves getting dirty.

“Gordon! You’re filthy!” Jeff groans.

“I know, isn’t it great!” Gordon replies, running up the stairs and crashing into the bathroom where his baby brother is now in a clean sleepsuit, his head sleepily resting on his Momma’s shoulder as she leaves the room.

“He is all yours!” She confirms with a grin.

Gordon does not know, but they tossed a coin to see who gets to bath the water loving six-year-old and Jeff lost!

Gordon takes off his mud encrusted clothes and throws them on the floor, while Jeff adds the warm water to the tub and his chosen bubble bath, before Gordon dives in and splashes water everywhere.

Jeff lets him play “explore the bottom of the bathtub” for a few minutes before he remembers the conversation he promised him.

“Gordon, the real meaning of Christmas is your family, and finding them that special gift that you know they will love. Something that you have put your heart and soul into either searching for or even making. My favourite gift last year was the painting that you all did for me, can you remember?” Jeff says.

“The submarine full of fish playing the piano in space while watching top gun?” Gordon asks.

“That’s the one!” Jeff tells him.

The painting is in a frame in the living room above the fire place, and every time he walks past it, it never fails to make him smile, no matter how hard a day he is having.

“That was fun to do. Virgil let me paint the fish” Gordon tells him.

He is now sitting crossed legged in the middle of the tub hanging on his father’s every word. There are soap bubbles in his hair, but he is at least now clean!

“So what are you going to do this Christmas?” Jeff asks, hoping that his example worked.

“Get momma the most special present ever, she is going to be so happy” Gordon replies.

“Do you need help?” Jeff asks, thinking that they can go shopping together.

“Nope, I got this daddy!” Gordon confirms before he sinks back down below the surface of the water to rinse off his hair.

Jeff lets him play a while longer, before announcing that it is time for dinner and then bed.

He is anticipating a fight, and gets one as Gordon splashes him with warm soapy water and wriggles out of his grasp whenever he tries to grab him, giggling as he outsmarts his father over and over again, until Jeff plays the final card of his hand and pulls out the plug.

“DADDY!” Gordon wails in disgust.

“Come on!” Jeff tells him, helping him step out of the tub and into a clean, warm, fluffy towel and scrubbing him dry before he gets into his favourite finding nemo pyjamas and follows his father down the stairs for supper with his family.

He is still thinking about Christmas and what to get his momma an hour later as she puts him to bed.

“What do you want for Christmas Momma?” he asks sleepily as she settles him down with his cuddly squid and starts to read him a chapter from his current favourite book: The brave little fish.

“Something from the heart, whatever you will love, I will love” Lucy replies, resting her chin on top of his head as she cuddles him.

An idea is starting to form in Gordon’s mind now. Something that he loves that Momma would love. Something super special and what is more special than her very own pet?

Lucy is not even half way through the chapter when his quiet little snores reach her ears and she quietly leaves the room, switching off the main light and leaving only his fish shaped nightlight for illumination.

*TB*

Operation Momma’s special gift begins the following day at breakfast as he asks for extra strawberries on his cereal, which he hides in the pocket of his hoodie.

It is Sunday morning, and the sun is shining through the window. It is the perfect day to begin the search, and as soon as he is allowed he races for the small, wooded area behind the farm that he has been given permission to explore. He knows that he is not allowed to go past the end of the forked path, but he doesn’t need to, he is sure that the perfect gift is around here somewhere, he has seen it recently.

It takes him an hour of patience, something even he knows he is not very good at, but eventually his persistence pays off and a fluffy tailed grey squirrel comes down from its drey to give him a sniff.

He has never sat this still in his life, and the squirrel feels warm as it explores the new arrival, sticking his nose into Gordon’s pocket and helping himself to a strawberry and running away with it, burying it a short way away, then coming back for another. And another. And another. Until all of the strawberries are gone.

Once the food is gone, so is the squirrel!

Gordon jumps to his feet and starts to run back to the house for more supplies. Knowing that he needs to sneak them out without anyone getting suspicious and ruining his plan.

He gets lucky on his supply run as there is no one in the kitchen as he empties the rest of strawberries into his pocket and runs back out to the woods.

Where the squirrel is waiting for him, and Is a lot bolder now as he climbs up onto Gordon’s shoulder and allows him to hand feed him the strawberries.

Gordon stays and watches his Momma’s new pet all morning, only leaving when he starts to get hungry for his own lunch and goes back to the house.

There are ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch, which are a bit disappointing as there is nothing on the plate that the squirrel can eat. He doesn’t even know what else he can feed the squirrel and he needs to find out without anyone getting suspicious.

“Can I go back out now?” he asks after he has finished eating.

“No, we are going grocery shopping and then having dinner at Grandma’s” Lucy replies. “I need you to get changed into your good clothes!”

Gordon loves his grandma, but he has no idea why he has to get dressed up for it. His current outfit of torn jeans and a dirt-streaked hoodie is perfect for all occasions. Gordon also knows arguing with his Momma is not a good idea so does as he is told and goes up to his room to get changed.

His good shirt is hanging up on the back of the door and he pulls it on and does the buttons up. That with the plain black trousers and odd socks and he is done and goes back down stairs where his brothers are all dressed and ready to leave too.

“Daddy, can we get some bird seed?” Gordon asks, once he is strapped into his car seat in between Scott and Virgil in the back of car. Jeff is driving, with Lucy alongside and John and Alan are in the middle.

“Sure” Jeff replies, he loves feeding the birds in the garden.

“How long do they take to grow into real birds?” John asks sarcastically.

“Do they do that?” Gordon asks in awe.

“No! John stop it!” Lucy replies rolling her eyes. She has the job of stopping any fights from breaking out.

“Can we get food for other animals too? it is getting cold now and there isn’t as much food in the winter for the deers and the skunks and the gooses and the beavers and the spiders and squirrels and the snakes and all of the animals” Gordon pleads, adding lots of animals to his list.

“I don’t see why not” Lucy replies. Looking up different food for the various creatures that live in their yard.

Gordon piles in the food for all of the animals the minute they get to the supermarket barely leaving room for anything else!

The food shopping for a family of seven takes over an hour and a half while Jeff finds himself vetoing items and refereeing fights, and starts to wonder why he didn’t drop the kids off at his mother’s house before he went shopping!

Gordon gets everything he wants, and he can’t wait to get home from school tomorrow afternoon so he can really get started on project squirrel. His father was right, the best thing about Christmas is getting other people presents, and he doesn’t even want anything for himself.

*TB*

It is too late when they get back from Grandma’s to go and feed the squirrel, so Gordon takes the bag of walnuts from the cupboard when no body is watching and hides it under his bed before he goes to sleep for the night.

School on Monday morning drags, and he finds his mind wandering from the lessons about reading and writing and all the other stuff his parents insist he will need one day, but he finds unbearably boring.

They are working on the spelling small words today, stuff that he already knows as he has John for an older brother! He doesn’t need to sit here all day to learn how to spell cat. Everyone knows that it is K-A-T!  

Mrs Jones is even older than his Grandma and has a moustache, but he knows better than to mention it, as he tries not to get into trouble for the same thing twice!

She is droning on about the correct way to spell words, and he is just drifting off for a well-earned nap when she raps her wooden ruler on the table so hard the building shakes.

“Tracy, how do you spell dog?” She demands.

“D-O-G-E” Gordon replies, deliberately getting it wrong.

“Wrong! That is not how I spell it” Mrs Jones tells him.

“Yeah well, you asked me how I spell it! My way is a lot more interesting.” Gordon replies.

“It is not supposed to be interesting”, Mrs Jones has no idea how this reprobate is related to John. John was a pleasure to teach.

“You’re telling me. This is even more boring than it was last week” Gordon replies.

There is a suspenseful silence in the room as his classmates wait for Mrs Jones to explode and sent him to the principal again, and they are not disappointed!

Gordon is sentenced to no afternoon recess and a meeting with his Momma before he is allowed to go home.

“Oh Gordon, not again!” She says in exasperation. He has been in the first grade for three weeks now, and this is the fourth time she has been asked for a meeting with the principal and she has no idea what to do with him!

“It isn’t my fault Momma” he insists.

“It never is. You are grounded this evening. No going out when we get home, and no television. You are going to help me cook dinner and you are going to have an early night” Lucy tells him as they make the short walk home. John and Virgil taking Alan and letting her have Gordon all to herself.

Gordon needs to go out, he has a squirrel to feed!

“I am really sorry Momma, I won’t get into trouble ever again if I can go out when we get home.” Gordon gives her the biggest puppy-dog eyes he can managed as he looks up at her, full of repentance that even he isn’t buying!

“You promise?” she asks, trying not to laugh.

“I promise” Gordon insists.

“Okay then” Lucy relents, knowing that she is going to regret it as her fourth son doesn’t know how to behave.

Gordon hugs her around the legs then runs to catch up with his brothers, ignoring John’s comment about him being the family screw up, skipping alongside them, promise already forgotten as all he is thinking about is feeding his squirrel.

He needs to think up a name, he can’t just keep calling him the squirrel.

The squirrel is waiting for him when he gets to the woods, and Gordon obliges with the walnuts, watching with a smile on his face as the squirrel nibbles on the shell.

Which is how Gordon gives him his name. Niblet is the perfect name for his squirrel.

*TB*

As the weeks wear on, the weather gets steadily colder. There is frost on the ground in the mornings and an ever-increasing threat of snow, but Gordon bundles up every afternoon in a warm coat with scarf and gloves and goes to visit Niblet.

Niblet has started to follow him to the edge of the wood now, getting braver and more confident, just as Gordon wanted.

The mix of nuts and fresh fruits and vegetables have given his coat a healthy shine, as it thickens for the winter. Niblet is the most perfect gift ever and his Momma is going to love him as much as he does.

The beginning of December sees the first proper snow fall of the winter, and Gordon finds it hard to battle through the snow, his snow boots sinking into the snow with every step, but it is worth it as Niblet comes to meet him at the edge of the woods, running up his legs and onto his shoulder, sticking his nose into his ear in greeting which causes Gordon to giggle.

“Oh Niblet, you are so cute!” Gordon tells him, stroking him along the spine with his gloved hand.

Today is the day Niblet decides that he is going to see where the bringer of treats lives, and he stealthily follows Gordon home, stopping when he sees the house, as he is unsure what the big building is, and does not want to risk getting trapped, and goes back to his tree for the evening as it is starting to get dark and even more chilly, and he shudders with the cold as he wraps his tail around his nose and settles down for the night in his warm and cosy drey.

The month passes excruciatingly slowly for Gordon, as he wakes up every morning and it is still not Christmas Day yet. Every morning he wakes up, eats breakfast, struggles through another boring day with the delightful Mrs Jones. The only bright spots in his day are rehearsals for the class play, in which he is the star, and going to feed Niblet once he is home, even though the dark is falling ever earlier and he has less time before Momma makes him come inside.

Until the magical day his Momma announces that it is the final day before the holidays and he is free for three weeks!

The first day of the holiday he is up before the sun, and out the house before anyone else is even awake, as he needs to start moving Niblet into the house, and getting him ready for the big day.

Niblet now trusts him completely, and allows Gordon to carry him back to the house and into his bedroom which he explores in interest. This is definitely warmer than his tree, and he curls up on Gordon’s pillow for a nap.

Keeping Niblet a secret is easy, as every time someone knocks on Gurdon’s bedroom door, he scarpers for the safety of the closet, only coming back out when Gordon gives him the signal that it is all clear.

Niblet spends the nights asleep at the bottom of Gordon’s bed, and his days exploring the room, rapping his claws on the window when he needs to go out, and he is never out for long. Preferring his new drey to the tree in the woods!

Niblet is the perfect present, and Gordon can’t wait until the morning to give him to his Momma. Daddy was right, getting people gifts is even more fun than getting them himself.

It is Christmas Eve and Gordon finds Virgil sitting on the floor of his bedroom wrapping gifts.

“Hey Virg!” he says, letting himself into the room and plopping down on the rug.

“Yes” Virgil replies smiling. “How can I help you?”

“Can I borrow some of your art stuff?” he asks, not bothering with small talk.

“What for?” Virgil asks.

“Christmas decorations” Gordon replies.

“Yeah sure. Take whatever you need” Virgil tells him. “There is a box full in the bottom of the closet”.

“Thanks Virg” Gordon replies, jumping to his feet, diving into the closet and running from the room in one fluid motion, almost so quickly Virgil doesn’t even realise that he is gone!

Gordon returns to his own room where there is a plain cardboard box he found in the barn that he is going to decorate with pictures of squirrels, leaves, trees, nuts and strawberries. All of Niblet’s favourite things. He lines the box with Niblet’s favourite blanket so that he will not be too scared in the box in the morning and he is ready. His momma is going to get the most special present ever!

*TB*

There is more snowfall overnight and they wake to the white Christmas of Gordon’s dreams, and he can’t wait to get out there after breakfast to go sledding on the new sled that he asked Santa for! He leaps out of bed, startling Niblet who gives him a filthy look and goes back to sleep, and goes over to the window, where he throws open the curtains to find out the world turned white overnight.

“Look Niblet, isn’t it pretty!” He says to the still sleepy squirrel. “It is time to go in the box now and meet the rest of your family. They are going to love you as much as I do, trust me”.

Gordon places Niblet in the box and carefully places the lid on top before carrying him into his momma and daddy’s bedroom.

“MERRY CHRISTMAS MOMMA AND DADDY!” Gordon cries, jumping onto the bed.

Jeff grumbles something about Lucy’s children under his breath, but doesn’t wake up.

“Daddy! Come on, it’s Christmas and I got Momma a present, just like you said. Here” he says to Lucy shoving the box into her arms.

Half asleep still Lucy is smiling when she takes the lid off the box and a startled Niblet leaps straight out and up the curtains where he sits on top of the curtain rail glaring at the new people.

“What on Earth?” GORDON!” Jeff yells. 

“You scared him” Gordon accuses his parents, looking up at Niblet with concern.

“What is that thing?” Jeff asks, giving his fourth son a facepalm in exasperation.

A hurt look flashes across Gordon’s face. That thing?

“Momma’s present.” Gordon replies. “His name is Niblet and he lives in my room”.

“It’s a squirrel, Jeff” Replies Lucy at the same time.

“Take it back where you got it from. You can not keep a squirrel, Gordon.” Jeff tells him.

“He isn’t for me, he’s for Momma” Gordon replies defiantly, refusing to give in easily.

“This is not up for discussion, you are not keeping the squirrel and that is final, now get it out of here before I get really angry” Jeff demands, his voice starting to show that impatience Gordon has come to associate with him getting sent to bed early!

Gordon flees the room, running down the stairs and out the door into the quickly forming blizzard. He stomps his way over to the barn and climbs up onto the roof, and sits down, drawing his knees up around his knees and starts to cry. The barn has a hayloft with a hatch in the roof, put in for John years ago so that he can climb up there in the summer and star-gaze.

He only wanted to do something nice for his Momma, just like he promised his Daddy he would, and he has ruined everything. Again. He is a screw up, just like John said so. He can’t do anything right.

*TB*

“A squirrel? What did you tell him?” Lucy asks, trying hard, and failing, not to laugh.

“Gifts come from the heart and that he should get people gifts that he has put a lot of thought and effort into.” Jeff replies. Now that the shock of having a wild animal dumped on him in what feels like the middle of the night is wearing off, Jeff can’t help it. He starts to laugh too.

“What did he say he named it?” Jeff asks.

“Niblet” Lucy replies.

Niblet is still sitting on the curtain rail glaring at them.

Jeff gets up and opens the window. “Go get him Niblet” he says to the squirrel as the animal jumps down from the rail and out the window, over to the barn and up onto the roof where he climbs up onto Gordon’s shoulder, while Lucy gets out of bed and starts to get dressed so that she can face the blizzard and bring home her son.

Gordon’s tears are frozen to his eyelashes, and he is freezing. His whole body is shivering, as he is out there in a blizzard in his pyjamas, with no shoes on.

“Come on inside. Both of you” Lucy says a few minutes later, having used the hatch in the roof to join him, and wrapping him up in her dressing gown. “You’re freezing” she tells him, as the three of them make their way back into the warmth of the barn.

“I Th-th-th-ought y-y-you would l-l-love him” he wails, his head buried into her shoulder as he sobs his heart out.

Niblet is sitting on her shoulder now, and she can’t deny that he is cute. She knows that he can’t stay though, as he is a wild animal, and would hate living in the house, especially in the summer, but that is not a conversation for right now.

“I do love him” she confirms, and she realises that it is true. “He came from you, so you know that I will love him.”

Gordon finally gets what his father was saying. The best gifts come from the heart, and they leave the sanctuary of the barn and back to the main house so that Gordon can introduce his squirrel to his brothers.

In the living room, Scott has started a fire, in the fireplace and Jeff is handing out a large bag of marshmallows for toasting as a breakfast treat. Virgil is sitting on the floor, with a drawing pad open in front of him and he is sketching out a design for a new project.

“What are you doing Virg?” Lucy asks, leaning over Jeff and grabbing a marshmallow, which Niblet tries to steal.

“No, Niblet.” Gordon tells him, handing over a strawberry instead.

“Designing a home for the squirrel. Dad said that we can build him his own tree house in the large oak tree in the yard that he can use in the summer, and a winter home too. Grandma said that we can get a cat flap put into the door so that he can come and go as he pleases. Look” Virgil replies, showing his initial design plans, which shows a large wooden box with a hole cut into it to use as a door.

The inside has a sketch of Gordon and Niblet for decoration, a large four poster bed, a bookcase, a climbing frame, a television, lights and a separate kitchen area with storage containers full of nuts and fruit.

“I don’t think he needs a television Virg!” Lucy tells him. it is an impressive design, and she knows that the boys will have great fun making it with Jeff over the next few weeks, and that Niblet has gotten himself the best ever family.

THE MECHANIC SPENDS CHRISTMAS WITH INTERNATIONAL RESCUE.

“Is that a true story?” the mechanic asks chuckling.

“Every word. Niblet lived with us for seven years until he died from old age. Gordon wasn’t the only one who was devastated, we all were.” Scott replies.

They are heading back to the house, having been for a walk along the beach as the sun rises, promising another Perfect day in paradise, with cloudless sunshine with a light breeze. Perfect for a beach barbecue. Who even needs electricity?

“Alan, go and get Gordon. We are off to the mainland as a family to get replacement presents, and the stuff Brains needs to fix the electric” Jeff demands, suddenly feeing a need to be with all of his children.

Alan is still angry, but does as he is told and jogs back to the house, where he finds Gordon’s room has been stripped bare, and that his brother has gone. Even Squid, Gordon’s battered old plushie toy has gone.

Alan runs back down the stairs and into straight into Virgil.

“S-S-Sorry Virg. Dad Gordon’s gone” Alan says, panting.

“What do you mean he’s gone?” Jeff asks.

“Gone. Everything is gone.” Alan replies.

“Thunderbird 4 has gone too” Scott confirms. “John?”

John nods, opening up his comms unit and connecting to Thunderbird Five. “Eos? I need you to track Gordon and Thunderbird Four for me” he asks his sentient AI.

“Sure thing John. Give me a minute. Okay got them. Thunderbird Four is at the house on the main land” Eos confirms.

“Thanks Eos. Come on, let’s go and get your wayward sibling” Jeff replies resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

“You can fly Virgil” Scott says once they are settled in Thunderbird two.

“Gee, my own ship, thanks Scotty” Virgil replies, rehashing an old joke as they take the short hop from the island over to the house by the beach.

There is a small landing area at the rear of the house which is where the party of seven land.

Brains and the Mechanic leave the ship, and start to head in the direction of the hardware store, Jeff having arranged for the manager to let them in to collect everything that they need in exchange for a large tip for opening up on Christmas Day.

Jeff lets them into the house, which despite Eos’ claims that it is the location of his fourth son, the house is empty.

“Gordon where are you?” Jeff asks out loud with a frown. Eos has never been wrong before.

He gets a scream as a response and runs for the sound of his terrified youngest son.

“ALAN, WHAT IS IT?” Jeff yells, running through the front door, and up the path leading to the gate, where he finds Alan, Virgil, Scott and John bent over Gordon’s seemingly lifeless form. The small relief he found when he realised that Gordon is still breathing is extinguished faster than the fire on the island when he sees the blood. A slowly flowing river of sticky red liquid from his temple.

“What happened?” Jeff asks.

“I don’t know.” Alan replies desperately, as Virgil is running a medscan. Scott and John are returning from Thunderbird Two with a stretcher.

Virgil gasps in shock when the results ping through onto his phone.

There is a bullet in Gordon’s back.

His little brother has been shot.

Someone shot his brother.

Why?

“What is it?” Jeff asks.

Virgil can’t speak, he just shoves his phone at his father and points to the small metal ball lodged in Gordon’s back, near his spine.

“He was attacked?” Jeff asks, scarcely able to believe what he is saying.

“We have to get him home” Virgil says, lifting him up into his arms, and placing him on the waiting stretcher. “I will need to operate”.

“You can’t. We have no electricity, remember?” John replies, his eyes have not left Gordon’s chest, as he watches it slowly rise and fall, silently praying to anyone who will listen that Gordon keeps breathing.

This stops Virgil in his tracks, but inly briefly. “Hospital then” he says to John, as he starts to push the stretcher to the med bay in thunderbird two.

Scott doesn’t bother making the joke, letting Virgil take the controls while he sits with Gordon, John, Alan and Jeff in the med bay, keeping a silent vigil. Lost in his own thoughts, and vowing to catch whoever did this, and make sure that their suffering is a hundred times worse than his.

The hospital is busy, but any visit by international rescue always parts the sea of people, leaving a clear path for Virgil to take Gordon, and now there is nothing left to do other than sit.

And wait.

The wait seems to be indefinite. Every minute feels like ten and Virgil can’t sit still. The initial shock is starting to wear off, and now he is angry. There are a million questions fighting for space in his brain.

Why did Gordon leave?

Who did this to him?

Why did they do it to him?

Was he targeted, or was this a random attack?

He is pacing up and down the small private waiting room that the hospital provided. It is a plain room, with pale green walls, hard plastic chairs and a small table which is littered with cold half-drunk cups of coffee, and no one is talking.

This was supposed to be their best Christmas ever. They had their father back. The Hood was finally in a cage where he couldn’t hurt anyone ever again. The mechanic was free from his control. Everything was perfect.

Until it wasn’t.

Virgil is still pacing silently, when the door opens, and Lady Penelope walks in.

To the outside world she looks as perfectly put together as always, but Virigl knows his brother’s girlfriend better than most. Her cool and calm persona is showing small signs of cracking. There is a hair out of place, and a small smudge of pink lip gloss by her upper lip, and her eyes are watery from where her mascara has run.

Brains and the mechanic are behind her, both carrying large bags of electrical equipment.

“How is he Jeff?” Penelope asks, not bothering with any small talk. This is her fault. If she hadn’t listened to Gordon, and cancelled her plans to spend Christmas with him, instead of that silly party her family organised, then he wouldn’t have left the island without her. They would have been safe.

“I don’t know?” Jeff replies, speaking for the first time since entering the room.

“Is there anything I can do?” she asks.

Jeff shakes his head sadly. There is nothing anyone can do other than wait. Waiting is the one thing none of them have ever been very good at.

“W-We could go b-b-back to the island” Brains suggests. “G-G-Get the electricity f-f-fixed for when you get h-h-home”.

Jeff nods, knowing the need to keep busy, almost wishing that he could go along and help, anything is better than this waiting.

“Parker will take you” Lady Penelope replies, offering up the services of her ever-loyal chauffeur.

With a nod of their heads the two men leave, and that small distraction which stopped Jeff having to think leaves with them and he starts to brood once more. He should never have said that he wished he had stayed in the Oort cloud. He pulls a photo wallet from his pocket where he keeps his family photos. All through his eight years in outer space this little piece of home is what kept him going.

The first photo is Lucy. As Jeff remembers her best. Smiling and happy, laughing at some joke one of the boys has just told her. Scott is next. His face serious as he poses for his first official rescue scouts uniform. His mini-me. Then Virgil, covered in paint sitting on top of the piano a paint bush behind one ear. The next page is John, lying on the top of the roof late at night watching the stars, which has always been his happy place. Then Gordon, his fish, about to cannon ball off the high diving board into the pool the first summer they spent on the island. Finally Alan. Fast asleep on the sofa with his gaming tablet on his chest. Looking at their childish innocence, Jeff determines to get justice for Gordon, no matter what the cost is.

*TB*

“What happened?” Jeff asks.

It is nearly morning, Jeff’s perfect Christmas is almost over, and it has been nothing like what he had planned, but he is just grateful that Gordon is going to make a full recovery.

“I don’t know” Gordon replies, trying hard not to cry. “I’m sorry. You were right, I ruin everything”.

“No, I am sorry. You know I never meant any of that. Almost everything we lost can be replaced, apart from you. You are my unique, talented, crazy, funny Squid, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.” Jeff replies, he has his hand clasped around Gordon’s and he ever wants to let it go.

“When can I go home?” Gordon asks.

“Tomorrow, but the doctors have ordered that you stay in bed and rest for at least ten days, and that you remain off duty for a month. Which will be enforced by both Virgil, myself, Penny and Grandma so there is no way you can even think about sneaking out. But just think, it gives you enough time to organise replacement presents for everyone!” Jeff replies with a grin. “No wild animals!”

“Really? It is about time the villa got a pet!” Gordon replies with a grin of his own.

One that makes Jeff’s heart soar. That one smile that means that everything is going to be okay. “NO!” Get some rest. I will be here to take you home in the morning.” Jeff tells him, leaving him to get some sleep.

Gordon stretches and yawns, the morphine drip in his arm doing its job as he drifts off into a deep and dreamless sleep.

*TB*

Back on the island it is chaos. Brains and the Mechanic have gotten the electricity back up and running and are busy putting together a new inflammable tree! With Alan’s “help”.

Alan is covered in lights and tinsel. He is wearing baubles for earrings and he has been climbing up and down the ladder all day under the watch full eyes of the Mechanic and Brains.

“Are you sure this one won’t catch fire?” Alan asks.

“P-Positive. Almost” Brains replies.

“Almost?” Alan squeaks.

“Ninety-nine percent” Brains reassures him.

Alan nearly falls off the ladder he’s laughing so hard. He never knew that the mechanic had such a brilliant sense of humour, as they started out trying to stop him from destroying their entire family. He never thought the day he first came across him, that day with the earth-breaking machine, that one day he would be helping him decorate a Christmas tree.

Alan’s lights are battery operated, and he lights them up, while he is sitting on the top of the ladder. “Maybe I should stay here and be the other tree!” He suggests.

“That’s not a bad idea” Scott replies, having come up from the hangars carrying a bag full of freshly wrapped presents for the new tree.

“Ooh presents!” Alan declares, leaping from the top of the ladder onto the floor, and landing lightly on his feet. “gimme gimme gimme!” he says reaching out for the bag as Scott lightly slaps his hands away.

“No, these are not to be opened until everyone is home” Scott replies. “I have counted them, and if any are missing when I check later then I will let Gordon prank you again as long as he promises not to set the house on fire again you will be fair game!”

Alan knows that this is not an empty threat and he laughs before climbing back up the ladder.

“Yeah that’s better, stay up there!” Scott tells him before he retreats back down to the hangars.

*TB*

By the following morning, when Jeff returns with Gordon the house has been transformed. The mechanic has rigged up a contraption for indoor snow, and it is snowing lightly in the lounge. Covering the over decorated tree in a smattering of white flakes.

“Do I have to stay in bed?” Gordon asks.

“What did the doctor say?” Jeff asks amused.

“Yes” Gordon replies.

“So what do you think?” Virgil asks, also amused.

“No!” Gordon replies. “I am not tired, and it only hurts when I talk, move or breathe. I’m fine!” he insists.

“Okay, you can stay up for a bit” Jeff tells him, helping him into one of the chairs, watching him carefully as he grasps the arm of the chair trying to hide the sharp pains in his back, he wants to help but its time Gordon learned his own lessons from his own mistakes. Besides if he does bust his stitches Virgil can sew him back up again!

“When are we doing presents?” Alan asks. He has been trying hard to resist the ever-growing pile under the tree, which is now even bigger than the original pile as Lady Penelope has been adding her own in.

“After lunch, which Grandma has been cooking for the last forty-eight hours, so should be suitably cremated by now” Jeff replies with an evil grin, one that is usually found on Gordon’s face.

Alan is starting to doubt that he will ever get Christmas presents this year as it is now the day before New Years, any minute now his father will announce that he has to wait until his birthday for them! That is if Grandma hasn’t poisoned them all by then.

“Dinner is ready” Grandma announces, coming up from the kitchen an hour and a half later.

Gordon is asleep, using Virgil as a pillow. Alan is still sitting by the presents, which Scott sits next to him so that he doesn’t try and run away with them. John is sitting by Jeff’s desk with Jeff as they read through a report from the GDF regarding the rebuilding of the Hex prison to keep the Hood in, as far away from society they can get without banishing him to the Oort Cloud.

“Come on Squid, you need to eat to regain your strength” Virgil says, gently nudging him awake, and helping him down to the kitchen.

The main table has been set for eleven, with a small card on each plate with names on so that they know where to sit.

There is a silk table cloth which has been hand painted with little Christmas decorations. Lady Penelope has bought Christmas crackers over from England, and in no time at all everyone is wearing a paper hat and telling terrible jokes.

Alan’s favourite is:

What athlete is warmest during winter?

A long jumper.

Gordon’s is:

Who delivers presents to sharks at Christmas?

Santa Jaws.

Jeff’s is something that he wishes was a thing in real life!

What's a parent's favourite Christmas carol?

Silent Night!

Virgil’s is:

Who is Santa’s favourite singer?

Elf-is Presley

John tries not to find any of the jokes funny and sits in stoic silence, but even he starts to laugh at how bad the jokes are.

Which Christmas carol is about an animal with three legs?

Little Wonkey

Even though that’s not how you spell wonky, it still makes him laugh.

Scott’s is:

What do you get if you eat Christmas decorations?

Tinselitis.

Well he has spent most of his life trying to stop Alan from doing just that!

Once everyone has stopped telling jokes, Grandma brings out a large silver covered dish, and everyone takes a deep breath to prepare themselves for what is about to be unveiled. Grandma Tracy is a notoriously bad cook, so why she keeps doing it, nobody knows!

Jeff tentatively takes the lid off to reveal the charred remnants of the old tree.

“Well, it was already cooked so I thought I would save a lot of time and effort and just reheat it. Plastic is good for you” Grandma insists.

“Mom?” Jeff says, raising one eyebrow, and looking over at his mother. Surely she can’t be serious.

“Mrs Tracy?” the mechanic adds. He is laughing. This has been the most unconventional Christmas he has ever been a part off. Nothing that they spent months carefully planning worked out how they were expecting. So why try for a traditional Christmas dinner?

“Okay fine! Come with me, all of you?” Grandma replies starting up the stairs to the lounge and out the main doors by the pool.

Where a second equally beautifully laid table is waiting for them, this one has eleven plates of perfectly cooked food. All of their favourites. The table is straining with the weight of the nut roast, potatoes, carrots, peas, parsnips, broccoli, and boats of steaming gravy. There are several bottles of wine in ice buckets around the table, and in the middle is the centre piece the boys made years ago their last Christmas they had their mom for. Before that they made a new one every year, but once they lost her, it never felt right to keep on making a new one, knowing that she would never be able to see them.  

“When did you do this?” Gordon asks in awe.

“I didn’t” Grandma replies.

“I did” The mechanic replies. “I wanted to give something back to you all. You saved my life and helped me find a purpose. A real purpose. Because of you I am finally free”

“It looks to good to eat” Lady Penelope says with a smile.

“Speak for yourself, I’m starving!” Alan replies, picking up a potato with his fingers and shoving it whole into his mouth. “Argh! Hot! Hot! Hot!” he gags, trying to swallow the potato while he downs a small glass of wine.

“I am sorry, he is a work in progress!” Scott replies, kicking him under the table. Alan’s only reply is to poke his tongue out at Scott, but he does pick up his knife and fork and start to eat properly.

Eleven people make short work of the food and there is very little left over. Jeff can feel the buckle of his belt straining against his stomach, as he pats it appreciatively.

“This has been the weirdest ever Christmas, but I liked it” Virgil says, leaning back in his chair and letting the early afternoon sun warm his face.

They know soon that their vacation will be over, and that they will have back-to-back rescues once more and moments like this will feel like a distant memory.

“Is it really?” John replies. “Gordon caused chaos, and got hurt. Seems like a normal day in the life of international rescue to me!”

“Hey! I don’t always cause chaos!” Gordon replies indignantly.

“That’s true. Sometimes he’s asleep” Scott confirms.

Gordon throws a left-over roast potato at Scott, which misses and hits his father.

“Oh you are such a dead squid!” Jeff tells him with a malicious grin on his face, as he picks up his spoon and piles on left-over peas and launches them at Gordon.

“FOOD FIGHT!” Alan yells in delight.

In less than a minute, everyone is covered in food, and everyone is laughing. Lady Penelope and Gordon have teamed up with Virgil, Scott, the mechanic and Parker and are launching an attack on Alan, John and Jeff, Grandma and Brains.

Once all the remaining food has been consumed Virgil picks Alan up and dumps him in the pool. “Time for a bath Allie” He says with a grin.

“Ugh Virgil!” Alan splutters coming up for air.

Gordon, despite the pool ban by his doctor dives straight in after Alan, ignoring the pain and gently swimming a few laps.

“Come on in, the water’s lovely and warm” he insists.

So they do. All fully dressed. They jump in and join Alan and Gordon and the food fight becomes a water fight, until the sun starts to go down and the water gets chilly, then they retreat to the house for some clean, dry clothes.

Virgil and Grandma march Gordon to the infirmary to make sure that he has not caused any further damage to his back, and replace the soggy dressing with a new one and they gather once again in the living room.

“This has been the best Christmas ever, and I didn’t even open a single present” Alan announces.

The mechanic smiles. It has been his best ever Christmas too, and he hopes that they invite him next year too.

“Oh that’s good because the presents around the tree are empty boxes” Scott tells him.

“They are not, I checked” Alan replies.

“Did you now?” Jeff laughs.

“Erm. No” Alan replies, sheepishly.

Jeff puts him out of his misery and finally lets him open his gifts!

*TB*

There is only one left now, a small gift box, addressed to the whole family from the mechanic.

Alan opens the box and removes a piece of blank paper and looks at it with confusion.

“Other side Alan!” Gordon tells him.

“Oh that’s better!” Alan reads the carefully composed words in silence before he reads them aloud.

“During the years I spent in the Hood’s captivity, I never imagined that life could ever be this enjoyable. I finally feel like I have found a real family, and I love being a part of international rescue. I wanted to give something back, so I give you the gift that I have not given to anyone else. Hardly anyone knows this secret, but I bequeath it too you. I am going to tell you all my real name”.

“You mean it isn’t Mechanic?” Gordon interrupts.

“No it isn’t! Let me finish” Alan replies.

“Okay!” Gordon says.

“My real name is…”

“Hugh Jass” Gordon guesses.

“GORDON!” Jeff warns.

“Sorry, carry on Alan” Gordon replies.

“My real name is…”

“Chris P Bacon”

“GORDON!” Jeff warns again.

“Then tell him to stop pausing, he keeps lining it up, you can’t blame me for guessing. I thought we were playing a game” Gordon replies, utterly unrepentant.

“Are you sure this is the one you’re in love with?” Grandma asks Lady Penelope.

Lady Penelope nods indulgently. This is the one she is in love with!

“My real name is Paul” Alan finally says. “I like it” he says to the Mechanic.

“Yeah, me too” Scott confirms.

Virgil nods and takes the Mechanic’s Christmas stocking down and takes a post it note from his father’s desk, writing Paul on the note, and covering up “mechanic”.

“Welcome to the family Paul” Jeff says, as they all stand up for a group hug.

This really has been the best Christmas ever.

And next year will be even bigger and even better, thinks Lady Penelope, holding onto her very own secret, gently patting her belly with a small smile.

[starkcanvas]

Ok some more Ghost Sunny stuff because I'm on a roll!

Because Mari never got her knee injury, she still plays Softball and Aubrey likes to play it with her too.

Whenever the gang has some sort of event everyone tries to be there, but Sunny always shows up, he's reliable like that.

Mari is still a bit of a perfectionist, but not to the same degree in Canon or your AU's due to her parents not putting all that pressure on her.

The reason she got into Piano in this AU is because when Sunny was alive, any sort of piano music would always calm him down. It still does, but it was one of the few things that would actually work back then.

Sunny technically can swim, he doesn't do it normally for obvious reasons, but he does sort of float half way in water.

Mari and their parents know Sunny is very ticklish, but Basil found out accidentally and ended up being more embarrassed than sunny.

Sunny is able to interact with the world around himself normally but he has to actively think about floating or going through walls to do it. This does lead to some confusion when people see Kel throwing a ball and it floating before being tossed back but people really don't care enough to mention it.

When the Gang met Aubrey it was actually Mewo who found her shoe. She did get lots of cuddles because she's a good kitty.

When Basil was introduced to the group Sunny's Mom was baking bagels, this is a coincidence I swear.

Hero got his nickname because his Mom bought a bunch of hero sandwiches when he was younger and it was the only thing he'd eat all week.

Whenever they have sleepovers Sunny always wakes up with someone cuddling him. even when he's not even near them when he falls asleep.

Because of his size, everyone can pick him up

While he doesn't have a favourite food this time around he loves apple juice and it's the easiest way to bribe him.

Every april fools the gang has a big prank off and Sunny + his parents act as the judges.

Despite being incorporeal Sunny and his clothes still get dirty, no-one knows how exactly this happens, but it does mean he doesn't lose out on the joys of a bubble bath.

Mr Plantegg was originally Sunny's, but he gave it to Aubrey after they met because she mentioned that her parents don't get her stuff like that.

When she turns 13, her dad leaves, and when she's 14 the Suzuki's finalise their adoption of Aubrey.

While they don't adopt Basil, they do become good friends with both his grandma and Polly, who does adopt him after his grandma's death.

Despite being a ghost, Sunny can't see other ghosts. I guess he's a special type of ghost~.

He also has a lower 'body' temperature due to being dead, but he is still warm. His family uses this as an excuse to rug him up in warm clothes constantly, it's just a coincidence that the outfits are absolutely adorable.

Sunny found out Mari and Hero had a crush on each other because Mari said she thinks hero was pretty cool during a family dinner in a dreamy voice before turning beet red.

He also later found out heroes side of it because he asked him one day what kind of flowers and chocolates Mari likes.

Can't think of any more because I'm hungry, but I can totally send you more cute stuff when I get up tomorrow!

Wholesome babies ;-; all of them

Although I think I wanna take a break from reading long paragraphs for a bit… Wi-Fi’s being stupid with my phone so I couldn’t listen to music while I slept so I only ended up getting like, 2 hours of sleep and because I was left alone with my negative thoughts all night long, my anxiety kept me up for the rest of the night so… sorry if I don’t seem to be in a good mood today…

[seijorhi]

nostos.

well it’s not exactly monster fucking but um... here there be monsters.

Kuroo Tetsurou x female reader

TW implied non-con, nsfw-ish, blood, gore, minor character death, animal death, um somebody gets munched... 

Every good writer needs peace and quiet. Fresh air and a change of scenery.

You’re not running away, it’s more of a… tactical retreat. Two weeks disconnected from well meaning friends, pushy family members and your eternally irritating editor, with nothing but the beautiful, sprawling forests to keep you company.

The mountains are familiar, if isolating, you think, leaning against the porch railing with a warm mug in hand as the breeze picks up and the tall maple and birch trees rustle in response. The leaves are turning vibrant reds and gold with the falling temperatures and even in the eerie quiet of the cold morning, you can’t deny that it’s breathtaking. 

It reminds you of your childhood, the countless vacations you’d spent here with your family, always in autumn, always in time to watch the leaves change before the first snows of winter set in. Fond memories of running through the trees chasing after cute little bunnies, giggling even when you tripped up and scraped your knees. There was something mystical about the forest back then, something special. But it’s been years since you’ve been here last, and the first time you’ve ever come alone.

And yet it feels different somehow, colder despite the nostalgia. You’re no longer a child, looking at the world through innocent, wondrous eyes. The forest is just a forest. 

Of course, you weren’t an idiot; disappearing off the grid was one thing. Disappearing off the grid without anybody knowing where you were going was another entirely. They’d been surprisingly supportive of the plan – until you told them where it was you were planning on running off to.

‘Why go back to the mountain, honey?’ your mother had asked, her smile wavering and an odd tightness in her eyes. ‘Why not go to the coast instead? Or spend some time in the city?’

But this isn’t a fun little vacation. You don’t want to be distracted by beaches and crowds, you need space to finish your book and time to work through your mess of an emotional state without any interruptions. You want to be untraceable, at least for a week or two.

God knows the last thing you need right now is your ex tracking you down to try and apologise again.

Part of you had thought – somewhat naively, perhaps – that by coming back you’d spark… something. Your memories of the mountains are full of warmth and happiness, but as you stare out into the wilderness, all you feel is a cool chill that runs down your spine and the goosebumps that prickle at your skin. 

Setting your now empty mug down, you pull tighter at the thick knit cardigan draped over your shoulders. Enough reminiscing, your manuscript awaits.

—

The mountain’s too quiet. You don’t notice it so much during the day, the sound of music softly pouring from your laptop and the gentle clacking of keys as you type enough to distract you  from the eerie stillness outside the cabin. Even at night, you’re preoccupied with dinner, and then curled up on the couch with a warm throw rug watching reruns of your favourite shows on Netflix.

It’s only when you lie down, burrowed into the blankets to try and sleep that you notice just how silent the forest at your doorstep truly is. At first you think it’s simply being away from the hustle and bustle of home. There’s no cars driving past, or the sound of neighbours floating through your open windows, there’s not even the distant hooting of owls or dogs barking.

But it’s more than just quiet. There’s nothing. Even the trees seem to still once the sun falls beneath the horizon. And it shouldn't bother you, shouldn’t unsettle you, and yet…

The first few nights, you don’t sleep well. Tossing and turning in bed. When you do sleep, your dreams are plagued with unpleasant things. Not nightmares as such, but an uneasiness that bleeds into otherwise pleasant thoughts. On the fourth night you wake, gasping for air. Whatever dream you’d been in the grips of fades like smoke, and as you draw in another shuddering breath your throat itches and burns.

Water. You need water. 

You don’t switch on the lights as you fumble your way down to the kitchen, trying to preserve what little remnants of sleep are still in your system. Even with the moon almost full and the night sky clear, the canopy shrouds it. 

And it’s in that darkness, as your eyes flicker up from the faucet, that you see it for the first time.

A shape, huge and looming, silk shadow against black. 

For a moment, as your heart hammers against your ribs, a chill creeping down your spine, you don’t dare trust your eyes. Maybe you’re asleep still, dreaming, or your mind’s playing tricks on you, because there’s nothing that should be lurking in the woods outside of your window that size.

Two golden, cat-like eyes peer back at you.

They’re still there when you race to flick on the lights, unblinking, curious as you skitter backwards, hand over your racing heart.

You’re tired, emotionally drained and this–

This is nothing more than a figment of an overactive imagination, a child creating monsters from the shadows in their bedroom. Yet even as you run back to the safety of the bedroom, yank the curtains shut and huddle under the meagre warmth your blankets afford you, squeezing your eyes shut, you feel it out there still, watching.

And in the stillness of the mountains outside, you swear you hear footsteps.

—

You wake to fresh snow, too early in the year, even at these altitudes. It dusts the ground, covering the mossy paths in glittering white, clings to the branches of the trees – the red leaves looking like droplets of blood scattered across a grey sky. The snow will undoubtedly melt as the sun rises, turn to slush and mix with the dirt, but for now it’s a thing of beauty.

For a moment, you allow yourself to forget how tired you are, how unsettled, venturing out from the cabin with wide, excitable eyes. It never used to snow when you were here as a kid, and while you get the occasional snowfall back home, it’s nothing like–

You stop dead in your tracks. 

There’s two human footprints imprinted on the snow – only two – right outside your bedroom window, crisp and clean, as if they’d been left just moments before.

—

Your mother sounds worried when you call her. Of course, you don’t tell her about the lone footprints at your window, or the creepy pair of eyes you’d seen through the dark, you know how that sounds. You’re not crazy, and even if some part of you truly believed what you’d seen, your mom is the last person you’d admit it to.

Once upon a time, when you were little, she’d indulged in stories of fairies and spirits, but that was a long time ago. Now she turns up her nose and sneers at the myths and legends that your grandma still spouts, dismissing them with a scoff.

It’s not the kind of thing well-adjusted adults talk about in polite conversation.

She’s a good woman, but you can’t tell her this. 

And you’re not even sure you’re entirely sold on it either. The eyes could have been from a wild animal – big cats might be rare in Japan, but they do exist here. You were half asleep (half terrified) when you had seen them, you don’t want to make a fuss over nothing. The footprints are less easy to explain away. If there’d been tracks leading away, you could convince yourself that it was a lost hiker and nothing more.

But there weren’t any tracks leading away; just the two footprints. And what kind of hiker doesn’t wear shoes in weather like this? It’s possible that this is some kind of prank, a mean spirited trick designed to unsettle you – a job well done, by the way – but you can’t quite bring yourself to believe that either. 

In any case, you’re hardly going to admit over the phone that you’re freaking out over some footprints in the snow. God knows she’s already worried enough about your mental state, has been ever since the breakup, and you’re not going to give her any more ammunition. 

But perhaps there is something to that maternal instinct, because despite your best efforts to reassure her that you’re doing just fine, that your novel’s going great and you’re so glad you came out here, she still sounds entirely unconvinced.

“Honey, you know you can tell me if something’s wrong,” she tells you, her voice strangely hesitant. “You don’t sound yourself, are you sure everything’s okay?”

You don’t know why you called her at all. You always have been a shitty liar, and she’s always been able to see right through you. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Honestly the fresh air’s doing me good,” you tell her. “It’s weirdly quiet here though, I’m not used to it,” you laugh, and even to your ears it sounds hollow and fake.

There’s a heavy pause on the other end of the line, and if you close your eyes you can almost picture it, your mom leaning against the kitchen counter, teeth worrying into her bottom lip–

“I just don’t like you out there all by yourself.”

Relax, what’s the worst that could happen?

The words almost, almost slip out, an instinctive reaction to a mother’s well meaning but overbearing concern. But it feels like tempting fate, and whether or not you’re fully convinced that there is something strange happening, you’re not that bold. Instead you begin to tell her (again) that everything’s fine when she suddenly speaks again.

“Bad things happen in those mountains. Just… just promise me you’ll be safe.”

Abruptly, the line goes dead. 

Pulling the phone from your ear, you glance down at the illuminated screen, only to frown when you see the little ‘SOS Only’ flashing in the top corner. Huh, you’d had a few bars when you’d started the call, but… 

The weather’s gotta be messing with your signal. Stranger things have happened, right?

Shaking your head you resolve to give her a call tomorrow. And yet, even as you try to put her parting words from your mind and throw yourself back into your writing, you can’t help but feel that familiar sense of cloying unease seeping through your skin once more. 

What the hell had she meant, ‘bad things happen in those mountains’?

—

A good night’s sleep can do you wonders. 

Well, theoretically speaking. You can’t remember the last actual decent sleep you’d had, but regardless, the point stands. All you need is an uninterrupted eight or nine hours, and this… paranoia will go away. Things’ll be clearer in the morning, so long as you sleep.

The mantra doesn’t help you any, of course. 

You don’t need to peer through the window to feel those watchful eyes staring. And maybe it would be easier to ignore the prickling sensation at the nape of your neck if it weren’t for the noises.

Music isn’t loud enough to drown out the sound of the mournful wails, like a wounded animal crying out in pain. It’s incessant, inescapable, reverberating inside of your eardrums until it’s all you can focus on.

It’s instinctual, you think, the urge to creep from your bed and try to find the creature making that sound and help it. But even as your feet touch the cool floorboards, your gut clenches, hackles rising. Something deep inside of you warns you from leaving the safety of the cabin.

Whatever creature is making those noises, it’s not calling for help.

You don’t feel like you’ve slept at all, but you must have because at a certain point in the morning you blink your eyes awake, exhaustion clinging to you like a second skin.

And this time it’s not snow that greets you, but the mangled remains of a doe ripped apart on your porch. Deep, jagged gouge marks run along its flank, organs spilling from the cuts and there’s little left of its neck, the whole thing torn out with teeth. Yet for the gruesome injuries, the only blood you find is congealed, pooled beneath the poor creature.

Whatever happened to it, it didn’t happen here. The knowledge doesn’t soothe you like it should – the park ranger you spoke to on the phone mentioned that while it’s rare, sometimes bears venture a little too close to buildings, though he sounds doubtful even as he says it.

He sounds even less interested when you tell him this doesn’t look like a bear attack, but promises they’ll send someone down in the next few days to check everything out. In the meantime, he suggests, it’s best to stay indoors. 

Yeah, not gonna be an issue.

And so with no feasible way of moving it, you’re left with the butchered corpse of a doe just outside your front door. And the thing that bothers you isn’t so much the body, though you still can’t look at it without wanting to throw up, but the fact that it was just… left there.

Not eaten. No, aside from the missing throat, the deer’s all there. Ripped apart with its guts spilling out, but otherwise untouched. Growing up you had a cat, the sweetest little thing, but every once in a while she would get out of a night, find some poor little creature to torment and without fail, she’d bring it back home, leaving it half dead on the doorstep like a gift.

‘See what a good hunter I am?’ she seemed to say, smugly sauntering back inside. 

It wasn’t about food. It wasn’t hunger that drove her, but instinct. As you stare out the window at the doe, at the milky white emptiness of dead eyes, you wonder whether that’s the same here. There’s no tracks in the dirt, no blood smeared across the ground – it wasn’t dragged here. No animal could’ve done this. 

A gift? 

Or perhaps something less benevolent. A threat. You’ve crossed into territory you don’t belong and the deer, cruelly ripped apart and left to bleed out on your doorstep is a line in the sand.

Either way, as tears fill your eyes, a sob tugging free from your chest, you realise that it was a mistake to come here. You don’t know whether you trust your eyes and your ears anymore, but there is something deep inside of you that tolls like a warning bell and as much as you’d like to bury your head in the sand and pretend there’s nothing wrong here, you can’t.

Bad things happen in those mountains.

You need to leave.

The next ferry to the mainland doesn’t leave until tomorrow morning, but it’ll have to do. Once you stop shaking and calm down enough to carry a conversation, you call the local cab company to arrange a pick-up first thing.

You can survive one more night, you just need to throw yourself back into your writing… if you can only just ignore that sense of foreboding prickling at the back of your neck.

—

There’s a boy running through the trees, giggling as he glances back at you. His hand’s outstretched, wrapped ‘round yours tugging you along as he laughs at you to hurry up.

It’s late, the sun dipping below the horizon, but you don’t wanna go back just yet.

You’re having fun, playing in the forest. And the light is golden, filtering in through the pretty red leaves, your sides burn a little from all the chasing and laughter but it’s a good kind of ache. You don’t want today to end.

His name is Kohsuke, you remember, and he lives down in the village by the valley. He’s only one year older than you, and you’d follow him anywhere. 

You think you might be a little in love with him.

‘C’mon, hurry up! It’s only a little further!’ he calls, and you nod, scrambling over the fallen trunk of an oak tree. There’s old spirits who live in this forest, he’d told you, and today you’re finally gonna see one.

It’s dark now. Cold too. You’re tired and hungry and you kinda want to go home, but Kohsuke won’t let you. ‘Just a little longer! Don’t you wanna see them?’

You do. Of course you do. It’s just that you’re starting to get a funny feeling in your stomach… Can he hear the footsteps too? Is somebody following you?

There’s a voice in your ear, a soft, silky purr that makes a shiver roll down your spine, but you can’t make sense of the words, they’re not in any language you understand. You don’t tell Kohsuke – he can’t hear it, otherwise he would have said something. You just clutch his hand tighter, skipping closer.

‘W-we should go back, Koh,’ you murmur, wincing when it comes out in a childish whine. ‘We’re gonna get in trouble.’

You aren’t supposed to stay out playing after dark, he knows it as well as you do. ‘You trust me, don’t you? Stop being such a chicken!’ he snickers as your cheeks heat.

The voice at your ear growls, low and threatening. You need to go back, now.

You blink, and the scene changes.

You’re curled up on the forest floor, hands covering your eyes. Somebody’s screaming – Kohsuke – crying out your name through ragged sobs, pleading–

There’s a crunch, a ripping sound, a wetness sprayed across your cheek. 

Kohsuke’s not screaming anymore.

Something warm and heavy touches your head, drags through the locks of your hair and you just huddle tighter, eyes squeezed shut, shaking like a leaf as more tears spill. You don’t wanna die here. 

The crunching sounds continue, and you keep your eyes tightly shut. It can’t hurt you if you don’t look. 

It can’t hurt you if you don’t look. 

It can’t hurt you if you don’t look. 

It can’t–

A loud knocking jerks you back to consciousness, your body jolting upright, almost swiping your laptop off the table as you try and gather your bearings. Right, you’d been working on your novel, sitting up at the kitchen table, you must have dozed off… A quick glance out the window tells you that you must have been out of it for a while – the late afternoon shadows are starting to creep in, the sky a golden orange. 

What the hell was that dream?!

“Hello? Uh, anybody home?” a masculine voice calls, another loud knock sounding. “We got a call about a wild animal attacking deer…”

Oh, you think, trying to shake yourself out of your stupor, the wildlife people, yeah. You feel a little nauseous, feverish and trembling, though maybe that’s just the result of your erratic heartbeat. 

Swallowing down the bile in your throat, you turn your attention to the door. Truly you hadn’t actually expected that they’d send anybody out to investigate, much less that they’d arrive before you left, but you can hardly turn him away now.

Especially not when there’s a freshly butchered deer corpse lying only a few feet away from your front door. Quickly, you run a hand over your hair, taking a moment to try and collect yourself before you answer.

It doesn’t work – there’s a knot in your throat and for every step you take towards the door it feels like your legs are gonna give out from under you. You move in a daze to unlock the door, only just remembering to school your features into an expression slightly less alarming as it swings open. 

A ranger, tall with a shock of black, messy hair that reminds you oddly of a rooster greets you with an easy grin. “Oh good, I was starting to think nobody was home. You the one that called?”

Distantly, you nod, fingers clutching at the edge of the doorframe. The ranger glances over at the remains of the deer, still lying in a pool of half dried blood, studying it for a moment, hazel eyes sweeping over the deep gashes in its side. You can’t bear to follow his gaze, you’re not sure you can look at that thing again without throwing up. 

He whistles lowly, shaking his head, “Well you don’t see that every day,” he laughs.

Your eyes snap to his, narrowing slightly. It’s not his fault, you know that, but you can’t help the flicker of irritation that sparks at the cavalier attitude. This is just his job, you get it, but you don’t exactly feel like laughing right now. 

“You still think a bear did this?” you retort, the words coming out a little sharper than intended. 

But the ranger takes it in stride, shrugging as his smirk widens. “A bear, huh?” Amusement glitters in his eyes, sharp and mocking. “Why don’t I come inside and you can tell me all about it?” he offers, stepping closer towards you. 

And there’s no reason for your heart to skitter, your blood running cold as he looms over you in the doorway, still wearing that stupid, irritating smirk. There’s no reason for your insides to clench either, or for the tiny, jerky step backwards you take, your body moving of its own accord.

The ranger pauses, head tilting to the side as he stares at you.

Really stares, like he’s waiting for something. And as discomfited as you are (and as much of an asshole as this guy is), a weary apology is halfway to your tongue when he shifts slightly, propping an arm up against the door – the last, dying rays of light catching his face. 

It’s just for a second.

A heartbeat.

But long enough for you to watch those hazel eyes shift to gold, pupils elongating into slits. 

You stumble backwards, breath coming in a short, ragged gasp as your eyes widen into saucers. “What are you?”

The ranger before you chuckles and you catch a glimpse of his teeth; pearly white and glinting, sharper than they had been only moments ago. “Why don’t you let me in and find out for yourself, kitten?”

You shake your head, retreating further into the cabin, heart pounding. 

“No? You don’t like this body, is that it?” he asks, a cruel edge to his smirk as he takes a half step backwards and slowly spreads his arms. “Something more familiar, then.”

And you don’t think there’s any room left in your heart for more fear, your stomach already twisting in sickening knots, but you blink and standing right there in front of you is Kohsuke.

It’s a punch in the guts, a knife slipped between your ribs, yanked ruthlessly through your still beating heart. He’s beaming up at you, those same adorable dimples, the same ridiculous bowl cut, bleeding youthful innocence. “How about now?” he asks, holding out his hand and wriggling his fingers like he expects you to take it. “You’ll let me inside now, right?”

A strangled noise escapes you as you fall to your knees. Tears fill your eyes, blurring your vision – you blink them away but more take their place. 

“You trust me, don’t you?” he asks, and you wail in response.

It’s too much. You shake your head, hugging yourself tightly, as if your arms are the only thing keeping you from falling apart entirely. 

He calls your name – not in Kohsuke’s childish lilt, but that deep, ancient purr that makes the tiny hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. “Let me in.”

“Go away,” you gasp through tears. “Please– please go away.”

The creature shifts again, the dark haired ranger back in Kohsuke’s place. He eyes you, those unnatural gold irises watching with utter enthralment as you sob pathetically on the floor, still pleading – though you know it’ll do you no good – for him to leave. 

“Last chance, kitten. Let me in, or I’ll make you come out.”

He – it – doesn’t sound nearly as put out by the prospect as it should be. 

And you don’t know why giving permission matters, all you know, all you care about, is that it’s keeping that thing at bay for now. It can’t come inside and so long as you don’t leave the safety of the cabin, it can’t hurt you. The words are nothing but an empty threat.

Right?

You shake your head, defiant even as your voice hitches and trembles, “No.”

“Stubborn little thing,” the creature croons, the smirk on its face widening until the visage no longer resembles anything human – mouth splitting its face in two, rows of long, sharp teeth revealed. “So be it.”

A low growl resonates in its chest, and you can only watch, petrified, as thin, vein-like black marks begin to appear over pale skin, growing thicker, cracking as shadow curls from underneath. The creature itself starts to grow too, limbs elongating as muscles ripple and swell, claws bursting forth in place of fingernails, shoulders broadening – until it’s towering over you, wreathed in thick shadow, grinning with that terrifying mouth. 

This is the thing you’d glimpsed that first night. A creature ripped from nightmares and primal fears, strong enough to tear you apart with a single hand. That’s what it’d done to Kohsuke, to the doe, what it’d do to you if you gave it half a chance.

“You wanna play, kitten?” it asks, head tilting to the side. 

Slowly, it backs away from the door, keeping its gaze fixed firmly on you. For a moment, you think that it’s going to disappear back into the forest, or plant itself by your window to watch for another night, waiting you out till dawn, but instead it stops by the old oak that overhangs the porch and stills entirely, simply… waiting.

“Let’s play.”

Abruptly, the oak beside it bursts into flames. It takes only a heartbeat for the entire thing to be engulfed, red and orange flames licking along the trunk, the gnarled, spindly branches, even the leaves are alight, burning away into ash and floating off in the breeze. The heat from one tree alone is searing, the crackle of burning wood and your own horrified, shuddering breath the only sounds in the night.

It snowed only a few nights before, but the fire spreads with unnatural ease, flames racing across the canopy, embers lighting up the undergrowth, and in the space of a few seconds there’s an inferno raging through the forest before you. And through the smoke and the red, burning haze, the creature watches, smirking.

The heat from the wildfire sears painfully at your skin, the air around you suddenly thick with smoke, stinging your eyes, choking your lungs, and yet you can’t seem to tear yourself away. It’s like a dream, a nightmare, some kind of… hellscape.

And for a moment you forget that there was a purpose to this, too lost staring in mute horror as the forest you’d played in as a child burns–

At least until a single leaf from the oak tree, edges curling as it’s consumed by flames, falls, carried by the breeze and lands on the wooden railing of the porch. With a soft whoosh, the old wooden beam catches fire, and with your chest heaving, panicked breaths falling from parted lips, you rise to your feet as flames spread, the fire eating everything in its path until the entire porch is alight, burning.

Run. 

You don’t know if the voice in your head is yours or not, you don’t have time to care. You scramble for the back door, throwing it open, and you run.

Run until your lungs burn, til’ your bare feet are scratched and bleeding, run, pushed forward by the sweltering heat at your back, the chilling crackle of laughter that follows. You run through tears, through pain and air so thick with smoke that it hurts to breathe.

And you know the creature’s giving chase, you know that you won’t – can’t – outrun it, nor the inferno that blazes around you. You know that it’s futile, that you’re probably running to your death, but that’s human, isn’t it?

To run when you’re scared?

The sky’s awash with a hazy red glow when it catches you, throwing you to the ground, and still you try to crawl. Desperate, choking on broken pleas and sobs, nails raking through the dirt as you try to pull yourself forward. 

And when your pants are ripped from your legs, a puff of warm air ghosting over the nape of your neck as you’re shoved back down, those long, black arms settling either side of you, caging you in – you know that you’ve lost.

“Mine,” the creature growls, and you barely have time to scream before its cock shoves into you with one brutal, merciless thrust. “Mine.”

[artzychic27]

If the Art Club was basically the Addams Family

They’re morbid, have a dark sense of humor, are never seen without black, and spiders hide in their hair

Nathaniel: Gomez Addams

Always has this sinister smirk that screams, ‘I will murder you in your sleep.’

Gets excited when his boyfriend speaks Spanish

Marc: Normal people. Tan extraño.

Nathaniel: Monochrome, you know how I get when you speak Spanish! *Kisses his arm*

Never seen without his black blazer

Sharpens the ends of his paintbrushes so they can be used as knives... No reason, just does it

Blood Red and Death Row Black are his favorite colors

A true romantic

Makes passionate love with Marc at least four times a day

Nathaniel: My monochromic nightmare. Stab my heart a thousand times and I will be yours until death do we part!

Marc: I’ll got get my dagger.

Nathaniel: Will it be painful?

Marc: So much.

Marc: Morticia Addams

Wears tight black outfits

Cuts the buds off of flowers

Marc: Ugh. *Cutting up roses* Who in their right mind would plant these?

Weirded out by normal people

Marc: Nathan. That child is smiling at me. Almost as if he were... Happy.

Nathaniel: Monochrome, look away. *Shields Marc’s eyes*

Writes morbid poetry and eulogies

When Mendelive asked him to a say a prayer for their dead class hamster, this is what he said-

Marc: Come, sorrow; we welcome thee. Let us join in grief, rejoice in despair, and honor the fortunate dead.

Cut to the students and teacher backed into a corner far away from him

Encourages his friends torturing people they despise

Marc: Alix, what are you doing with that bow and arrow?

Alix: I’m gonna shoot Kim when he’s not looking.

Marc: Well that one is much too old and worn out. *Hands Alix a crossbow* There you go.

Marinette: Wednesday Addams

Marinette: I'm just like any modern girl trying to have it all. It's just, I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade.

Says many “disturbing” things about how to kill people

Marinette: When burrying someone alive, it’s best to staple the casket shut. They still might have the strength to try and escape

Mme. Bustier won’t call on her during class anymore

Marinette: We should be learning more important things, like how many people were decapitated during the French Revolution.

Adrien developed a small crush on her after she held a crossbow to his face

After learning that from Alya, she started leaving spiders and dead roses in his backpack

Nino: Dude! She put spiders and dead flowers in your bag!

Adrien: *Sighs* Yeah, isn’t she sweet?

Chloé or Lila: Why are you dressed like someone died?

Marinette: No one I know died today, but I’m sure I can make arrangements for your two

Still sews. Her outfits are just more gothic

Adrien: *Staring at Marinette as she walks into class wearing a black dress with red bats and skulls embroidered on the hem* She’s an absolute angel.

Enjoys torturing people she doesn’t like.

Marinette: Lila, I’m not stuck in here with you. You’re stuck in here with me.

Alix: Pugsley Addams

When she first started school: So these are the gates of hell.

Has a habit of pranking her classmates

Often, her pranks need correcting to make sure she gets a much better effect

Marinette: Alix, if you wanna make someone fall down the stairs, you gotta oil the stairs first so there’s no chance of them regaining their composure.

Alix: *Facepalms* Damn it! Of course!

Has broken the law more than ten times. Now she’s no longer welcome in Germany.

Steals street signs to hang in her room and records the sound of cars crashing on her phone

Watches emergency room mishaps at max volume so everyone can hear the cries of anguish

Myléne: What are you watching?

Alix: A doctor cut out the wrong organ! Haha!

Juleka: Grandma Addams

Training to be a witch

Trying to mix magic with music

Juleka: *Writing in her spell/song book* What rhymes with disaster?

Doesn’t show up on film at all. She’s not a vampire, because she was seen eating garlic pizza

Like Marc, she’s also disgusted by normal people

Juleka: Why must there be a fair today? All of these happy people filled with excitement and *shudders* cotton candy.

Once tried to curse Chloé. The next day, she came to school with horrible acne.

Drinks a nice tall glass of snake venom every day with her brother.

Luka is currently dueling with Adrien for Marinette’s future hand in marriage... Her actual hand.

Always trying to buy people’s souls

Rose: Fester Addams

Behind that smile, she’s wondering how and when you’ll die

Has a purse full of explosives

Hides land mines all around the school and often forgets where she hides them

Luckily manages to avoid them

Rose: *Hears an explosion* Oh. I forgot I put one there.

Prefers Grimm’s Fairytales over Disney for many reasons

Marc: *As Rose plants a land mine in the courtyard* Rose, what’s wrong? You usually plant your mines with more vigor.

Nathaniel: Oh, Monochrome, it was dreadful. Mme. Bustier made us watch Sleeping Beauty. And that awful prince slayed the dragon.

Marc: What?! How could that woman force underage children to watch such violence?!

She and Juleka aren’t as affectionate as Marc and Nathaniel, but they’re always showing their love by carving romantic messages into skulls

Alya: Where’d you even find those?

Rose: Graveyard. No one was using them

[lxstfulbeans]

Do you write for OPM? Cause if so can you make hcs for Garou and Zombieman with a black fem reader please?

Of course!! To be honest, Garou prolly rocks with us black queens from the get go 😚💅🏾 and I assume their s/o’s yeah?

Headcanon: how relationships are w/ black fem.

- - 3. 2. 1. ACTION! - -

Garou:

Okay, you can’t look at him and his behavior without coming to the conclusion that he rocks with black girls.

He adds hella chaotic, evil crackhead energy in the relationship and he plays all day.

Y’all’s Snapchat/Instagram stories consist of y’all acting a complete fool.

I feel like there’d be a lot of prank wars between you two because of his playfulness.

His pranks always end with you yelling, “GAROU, YO DUMB, STUPID, GOOFY ASS PLAY TOO DAMN MUCH!!” and he’s rolling on the floor laughing through his apologies.

My guy would do anything for your cooking, the moment you enter the kitchen and he hears music, he’s sitting at the table quick as hell because he KNOWS you can throw down.

He be having a goofy little bib with a knife and fork in each hand, cheesing and drooling.

When he met your family, he got along with them surprisingly well, especially with your folks.

“Girl, where’d you find this boy?? He Mista Funny Man right here, chile!”

After that, he’s always invited to the cookouts. Your mom and grandma’s cooking made him cry, he never knew food could taste so scrumptious. Whenever the word “cookout” comes out of your mouth, he already got his clothes and shoes on.

“We leaving now or later?” 😃

Yes, you do know about his little hero hunting thing. It doesn’t bother you much but it worries you that he might be hurt real bad and get locked up because of his actions.

Whenever he leaves after giving you a kiss on the cheek, you’re stuck asking, “Are you gonna come back?”

It takes a hot minute for him to reassure you that he’ll be okay.

He doesn’t play around with that racist shit. The fool got less than two seconds to say some stupid shit before he gets knocked out like a light.

He knows how it feels to be judged and looked at weird because of the way he looked, but not like how you do.

He’s always helping you with wash days, he thinks it’s a fun task to wash your hair for you.

You’d be sitting in the shower with him between those strong thighs as he massages and scratches your scalp, lathering it with the wonderful suds of your shampoo.

Even though these hands caused destruction, they were so gentle and caring with your hair.

He’ll join you too, he’d love to wash his hair with you and make stupid faces with the face masks.

He always make sure your bonnet’s on, and make sure it stays on. I believe he hardly sleeps, so whenever you shift in your sleep, he’ll make sure your hair is fully protected.

He definitely likes to show you love any chance he can get. He adores smothering you in kisses and making you laugh whenever he can.

Whenever he wants to cuddle, he’ll just lay down and lift up a blanket, signaling for you to join him.

Be his little backpack too, we know he likes to be little spoon too. Give his muscles little kisses, he’ll melt.

Zombie Man:

In the start of the relationship, he was honestly pretty shy with everything because he’s never been in a relationship before. Half of the time, hero work prevents that.

He’s also afraid that something might happen to you because he’s a hero, there’s always a target on his back.

He’ll always call or text you to check in, make sure you’re okay and to tell him if someone’s messing with you because he don’t play that shit either.

He can be pretty protective, he’s always got your back.

He’s a sucker for kisses and cuddles. He loves coming home to you smothering him with love, it makes him smile.

Whenever you take pictures together, he always got his mean face on. You gotta tickle the fool to make him smile properly.

He has hella pictures of you to look at while he’s working. He loves looking at you during golden hour, how your skin embraces the sun’s gaze one more time before it sets.

He loves it when you make lunches for him, he’s always swatting Pig God because he always tryna cop HIS meal. Like bitch back the fuck up.

He likes wash day too, he’s always doing research on the best products for your hair so you’d look even more beautiful and proud.

He likes spending money on you anyway, whether you like it or not.

When he met your family, they were lowkey kinda scared because of his resting face but they grew to love him.

He loves being little spoon as well, you’re his little backpack too, boo!

Whenever he’s stressed out, he just likes to lay in your lap or chest and let you run your fingers in his hair and give him soft kisses.

[itsreaditandwow2]

Don't drop that "duck-a-duh". What the fuck's a "duck-a-duh"?

Judy Jennings (Angry Grandma)

[spacetimewraithwrites-archive]

Fluffy Facts Tag Game

thank you @ashen-crest for the tag! I’m so happy to do this especially since I’ve been dealing with some VERY unfun things in Meridian lmao 😭

Rules: List 5 or more cute or wholesome facts about your WIP, either events that happen or worldbuilding details or the like! Then tag some people you’d like to see do the tag game, too!

All about the Thriving series gang:

1. I’ve mentioned it before, but Thrive quietly loves small animals of all kinds—he has a special affinity for crabs for some reason—and would keep a manageable menagerie of little critters if he could.

2. Guetry was a senior in high school when he met Alec (she was a freshman). They formed Skywaste before he graduated, and because he was so busy playing music and having fun with her, he kept himself out of jail for three full years—his longest streak since thirteen years old.

3. Warren loved to play pranks on his grandparents, and they often had prank wars with each other. His favorite one ever was when he got his grandma to help him move all of the furniture in the cabin a little bit in one direction once a week to see how long it would take for his grandpa to notice. (It took him six months lol)

4. Guetry’s written four songs about/inspired by Thrive and/or Warren—“Less Than,” “Infatuate,” “Sunlight to Me,” and “The Worthwhile Fruit Of The Tragedies I’ve Never Tried To Recover From,” two of which are on the album made after the events of Rebirth.

5. In relation to #4, Warren and Thrive’s special song is “Carbon Dated Monsters” for reasons chronicled in Rebirth 👀

6. Also in relation to #4 and #5, Warren has choreographed several dances to Skywaste songs and regularly teaches them to his students.

7. Warren’s first official date with Thrive—planned, anyway—was a stargazing picnic on the cliffs overlooking the ocean on Tournaltis. Warren fell asleep in the middle of their conversation and Thrive watched him sleep for a while before carrying him to bed.

8. Sussa and Mydhassa have known each other for several years, with Mydhassa almost being a second father to Sussa. He’s her mentor, and since she was very young has been fueling her passion in studying to be a member of the Strong (the governing body of the silhou) since he himself is next in line to become one.

9. Thrive loves space almost as much as Warren does, which is one of the many reasons he fell for him in the first place.

10. While Holeph, the ocean planet, is a place of hellish nightmares for Warren—who is very much afraid of large bodies of water—he has a soft spot for the lenaya, and goes out of his way to keep in touch with the likes of Osillo and Ommy (and Attaila by extension) in his free time.

I’m gonna tag @drabbleitout, @zmlorenz, @pertinax--loculos, @drippingmoon, anyone else who may want to do this (open tag), and your own personal Jesus

[lonely-harts]

okay, here's a few!!

Please do 5, 13, 16, 17, 22, and 24 for both of them!! :D

Beau

What is your favourite thing to do in your free time?

I love going fishing, my grandad showed me when I was about six and he used to take me when I didn't want to go to school. I sometimes shut up the shop when I'm not in the mood and go fishing now.

You’re given an unlimited budget to build anything you want!  What do you build and where do you build it?

It's not grand or anything, but I would probably sort out my grandma's place so it's safer for her now she's finding it harder to walk. She would never want to move though so just some repairs and modifications is all I'd do.

Describe your perfect day.

I go to the record shop, I get twenty-five customers who buy two things each before one, I shut the shop for the day, go fishing. Check-in on grandma and make sure she's eating good and watch some TV with her while I sort out her massive tangles of yarn. Go home, have a beer or two and listen to some music, then sleep throughout the night rather than wake up at 3am.

What makes you laugh?

Ah, real stupid shit. You know, people falling off boats, kids jumping in puddles that were deeper than they thought, dogs and cats making dumb noises.

What’s the easiest way to flirt with you?

Well, you can try any way you like, I've not had any flirting work on me yet. I think I'm probably aroace but who knows? It's hard checking no one is attractive to you when there's a whole world of people.

What would you consider your main love language?

Now as I previously said, not really done much with the romantic and sexual kinds of love but platonically and family-wise I'm a gift giver and time-spender kind of person.

Eugene

What is your favourite thing to do in your free time?

Don't let too many people know but, I really enjoy playing Guitar Hero still. Probably what actually got me into playing music more than the straight music itself.

You’re given an unlimited budget to build anything you want!  What do you build and where do you build it?

Oh man, that's a tricky one. But I'd probably build a real nice house, don't you fucking laugh now, in the side of a hill, like one of those hobbit houses. They look cosy, you know? But shifting all that dirt probably cost a bomb. I'd build it... I don't know, somewhere that it'll look right.

Describe your perfect day.

Get up at 11 with no hangover, can actually write some fucking music, rather than being diddled out of it, it sounds good, everyone thinks it's fucking aces. I work on that with the band for most of the day, then we go somewhere for wings and you can actually fucking smoke at without getting your balls freezed off and we have a great night and no one starts saying they're fucking tired 'til about 1.

What makes you laugh?

Beau is fucking hilarious, he's like an old man sometimes. And when he swears it sounds like it's coming out of a 12-year-old. Other than that I think pranks are fun, especially when you're drunk.

What’s the easiest way to flirt with you?

You know that moment when you're looking for a light and then they get real close like they're gonna tell you a secret and they light it for you... I'm all over that, man.

What would you consider your main love language?

Intimacy and physical touch, even with my friends I gotta give them all hugs, you know?

Thank you so much for the ask!!!

[grayfilmsandstuff]

hi i was wonderin if i could get a madness combat matchup

im a 5'0 gay demiboy, i have black hair with orange dyed bangs, and my style is sorta like traditional mall goth, my main love languages are words of affirmation and physical touch, i usually am the more chaotic friend, but when im around people i dont know/not comfortable with, im usually much more quiet and reserved, my sleep schedule is shit and i often have nightmares if i stay up to late, along with sometimes getting urges to do violent things, but i often express these things thru artwork, im very interested in psychology and how different ppl behave and i also reallyyy like music, i can play the guitar and im learning to play the keyboard

yup of course you can!! here you go friend

i match you wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiith...

Deimos!

- you met him when your urge to do violent things caused you to start fighting back at the A.A.H.W., and luckily for you Deimos was in the next room so he backed you up when he came in and decided to take you back with him

- Deimos shares your love languages so you're told that he loves you every single day at least 3 times, and you make sure to tell him you love him even more than that

- every time he tells you, whether it be during a really soft moment or just him yelling it at your from across the bunker, it makes you reeeeally happy

- physical affection is also a must between the two of you! he loves holding your hand, giving you hugs, tussling your hair, cuddling, the list goes on and on

- you have a really fun and playful relationship, so one of your favorite things he does is when he gives you a piggyback ride and he gets tired of carrying you

- because then he goes to a bed or the couch and just flops backwards, causing him to fall on top of you, and then you proceed to play fight for another 10 minutes

- he loooves your style and sometimes will mimic it by wearing all black or stealing some of your shirts. you'll always notice, though

- "hey dei? have you seen my- deiiiii, why are you wearing my shiiiirt?"

- "no reason.... .. . "

- he matches your chaotic energy really well. pranks are being pulled constantly and you and him are always annoying everyone by making deez nuts jokes

- if you ever have an awful time sleeping, you'll walk to Deimos' room and tell him you can't sleep

- if he's still awake too, he'll run his fingers through your hair and remind you that it's going to be right and that he loves you, but if he's already asleep you'll just lay on the bed and he'll feel you there, wordlessly wrapping his arms around you and giving you cuddles

- your artwork astonishes him. one time you drew him and he took it like a child getting candy from their grandma, hanging it up in his room

- he doesn't understand psychology that well but when you do little experiments he LOVES to help

- he's musical too! he loves listening to you play and getting out his guitar or getting on the drums and playing with you. his voice is amazing and you wish to learn pieces to play with him or even write him a song

i love writing for deimos idk if you can tell

sorry this took so long!! you sound wonderful i was just really busy agdgahdhd

[glitchkilldelphinixdj]

Genpei Toumaden Characters and Babysitting

Alright, I just thought of which of the characters would be best at babysitting and this is some thoughts of how good and capable would the characters be at babysitting.

Andaba: She is the wholesome grandma of the babysitting, will take care of kids lickety-split. Mildly spoils them, but only disciplines them if needed. Is a bit cautious at times of some needs, but overall, has a very well-established plan for the kid or kids.

Kagekiyo: The very protective and cautious babysitter in general. He literally babyproofs the whole ass house. A sleepwalking kid? He awkwardly moves them back to their bed. Kid heading to something potentially dangerous? He immediately runs and moves the object out of the way of the path of the young paws. Though being pretty strict, he is also otherwise caring and compassionate, very dedicated to protecting lives. A living watchdog, but does occasionally entertain the kid through watching cartoons on television.

Yoshitsune: Literally is the entertaining babysitter. He is capable of easily distracting the kid away from danger by simply just making the kid laugh. He tunes the television to an AFV (America's Funniest Home Videos) episode, literally giving the kid a bit of a giggle time. Also entertains the kid through playing board games if it's an older kid. The babysitting job is a bit like a day care for the kids. He'd make them a fort or a dollhouse out of boxes for them to play too.

Benkei: He is most likely the babysitter who would entertain the kid in the backyard though. Likes to give the kid a tour of what nature is like, especially animals. Might bore out some kids, but helps other kids study what nature is like. Most likely to help an older kid do homework if so asked. For younger ones, he tunes to BBC or Discovery Channel for animal documentaries on the television for the kid(s) to be amazed.

Yoshinaka: He is pretty wary when it comes to babysitting, a bit like Kagekiyo, but however, usually is the one who usually has supplies in check if illness comes in, plus emergency numbers at hand, just in case. He actually has a bit of a sixth sense and he can also check the aural signature of the kid's condition. Can hum to lull a child to sleep within a couple minutes if needed.

Yoritomo: Oh lord, we have both the prankster babysitter and the kid(s) pranking the parents once they get home, always a harmless, hilarious prank. If it's a baby he is sitting, he just does the care for the bapy to make sure they're okay, but when it's a older kid or older kids, don't do it, that would be a prank disaster. But at other times with older kids, he'd teach them to play simple music instruments, such as tambourines or maracas. He literally can distract loud kiddos for real.

[bungou-stray-dingus]

hey there, so like this is my first time requesting but your writing is sooo good i can't help myself. if you could, could you make a scenario for dazai and chuuya where his s/o is a non-ability who is very bubbly and innocent but they find out she has a deadly skill that could almost pass as an ability. im sorry if you're busy, you dont have to write this if you dont want to. I LOVE YOUR WRITING SO MUCH💕💕

OH IM GONNA WRITE IT BECAUSE I THOUGHT OF THE FUNNIEST BUT ALSO CUTEST THING OH YEAH ITS GETTING WROTE

THANKS BOOBOO ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Dazai

You were like an angel, too pure for this world. Your heart was filled with nothing but good. You donated to charity, helped out in elementary schools during the week and volunteered at children’s hospitals, homeless shelters, and animal shelters during the weekend.

He looked at you as if you were a saint. Whenever you would come home from volunteering he’d bow down at your feet. “My goddess has returned! I’m not worthy!” You’d laugh at his dramatics, grabbing his hand and helping him off the floor.

“Shush.” You’d say before pecking a kiss on his lips.

When you weren’t out helping in the community, you were at home doing what you could to help out without being there. You took up knitting, and Dazai joked about it often. He even went as far as to buy a rocking chair with extra cushion for you to sit in while you would work. “You’re the cutest grandma, you know that?” He’d say, and you’d throw your ball of yarn at him.

“Shut up, and bring me my yarn back.” He’d re-wind the yarn that came undone when you threw it as he walked the ball back to where you sat.

He poked fun at it, but he would often sit on the floor next to your rocking chair, becoming entrances as he watched your hands carefully wrap the yarn around the needle and thread it through the loops. He didn’t understand how you did it, but everything you made came out perfectly, especially the tiny hats for newborn babies with matching booties, and sweaters for dogs and cats in the shelters for when it got cold. You had even made blankets for the people at the homeless shelters, making sure to use the softest yarn that would also be warm.

Sometimes he would come with you to the hospitals or the homeless shelters when he wasn’t working. He never went to the animal shelter though, he didn’t want to be anywhere where dogs were.

When he would go to the hospitals with you he would spend hours making over the babies and how cute they were in the new hats and booties you had made for them.

“Y/N, is it illegal to take a baby from the hospital?” He would ask you on the way back home and you’d just stare at him.

“You’re a cop, I hope you’re joking.”

“Yeah, obviously I’m joking but... so it’s illegal?”

You were used to people not liking your boyfriend. He had helped bring a lot of people to justice in his line of work. You weren’t expecting people to hate you though. Dazai had worked hard to make sure that anyone from opposing agencies or enemies didn’t know that you and him were dating. In the beginning he was always worried and on edge that something bad may happen to you just for being associated with him, but it’s been a year and a half now and nobody had tried to hurt you or kill you.

That’s why you were less than serious when the door got kicked open and three men stormed in, all of them wielding knives. It had to be some kind of weird prank by Dazai, or maybe even some strange act that would set the stage for a new fantasy kink.

“I’m kind of busy right now, can you come back in an hour?” You said calmly, holding up the knitting needles to show them that you were occupied.

“We don’t give a damn. You’re coming with us.” One of the men said, you didn’t know what he looked like, all of them had black masks on.

“Eh, I don’t think I am.” You shrugged, not even looking up from the new sweater you were making.

They were getting angry, the three men stomped over to where you were sitting in the rocking chair. One of them held his knife to your throat, and you finally realized that they weren’t joking, and Dazai wasn’t in on it. “I think you are. That bumbling boyfriend of yours needs to know. Mess with us and we mess with him. Now let’s go.” He pressed the knife deeper and your fight or flight instinct kicked in. You wouldn’t be able to outrun the three of them, so you had to fight.

You gripped the needles tighter, bringing your arm up to jab it into the mans neck. He staggered back and fell to the floor against the wall, trying to pull the needle out.

“What the fuck!?” One of the other men shouted, as the third one started sprinting towards you. You quickly grabbed the knife that the first man had dropped, preparing yourself to stab the man before he could get to you. As soon as he got close enough you forcefully pushed the knife into the mans stomach. He screamed as you twisted it, making him drop to his knees, blood dripping out of his mouth from the damage you had caused.

The final man stood there, assessing the scene, his hands in the air. He had already dropped his knife.

“Get the fuck out of my house.” Your voice was low, you were out of breath. You watched him run out your door, then took the time to finally realize what you had done. “Oh my god. Oh... oh my god....” You swallowed back the bile that was rising up your throat. You had killed two people, you had single handedly taken out two grown men. You were a murderer.

With sweaty hands and shaking fingers you dialed Dazai’s number, praying that he’d actually answer.

“Hey swee-“

“You need to come home, I need your help. Please hurry and come home.” Your voice was as shaky as your hands were.

“I’m coming.” His voice wasn’t as cheery as when he first picked up. Obviously his first thought was that you were being attacked or someone was trying to break in. He wasn’t expecting the grisly scene he walked into.

He examined both guys, confirming they were dead, and you couldn’t really understand why he was smiling the entire time he was making his mental report. You couldn’t see anything good about having two dead men in your apartment.

“You did this? Yourself?” He finally looked up to you while poking the knitting needle protruding from the mans neck.

“I was scared! I didn’t know what else to do! I didn’t mean it.” He watched you try to explain yourself. He tried to imagine what was going through the men’s brains when his adorable girlfriend, wearing a skirt with knee high socks and buckle shoes started fighting back, especially with knitting needles. He couldn’t help but laugh. “Why are you laughing!?”

“You’re just so... sexy. You got a little blood on your shirt too.” He got up off the floor and surprised you by sweeping you off your feet as you tried to find the blood stain he was talking about. “Don’t worry, I’ll get that shirt off you soon.”

Chuuya

If he could describe you as a color, it would be yellow. You were bright, fun, happy, you always found a way to put a smile on his face, even when he had the worst day. It was as if a ray of sun took form and for some reason decided that he was the one who deserved it.

Your spontaneous adventures, even if it was just to the park always kept things exciting. He would stand back and watch as you ran over to anyone with a dog, sitting on the ground in front of the furry animal as you looked up and conversed with the owner about the breed and how cute the dog was. He would hear about it for the rest of the day, your hands moving freely through the air as you described the dog, even though he was right there and seen it as well, he would smile and nod. You always found something to be excited about, even on days when it would rain and you both were stuck in the house you would find some way to make him forget about the dreariness of the outside world. Building pillow forts and watching movies as you both attempted to toss popcorn into each others mouths. You had a stash of board games for days like that, and you would let him pick which one he wanted to play. It was the simple things that he enjoyed.

Waking up to the sound of music drifting into the bedroom from the kitchen, your spot on the bed empty. He would groggily walk into the kitchen to find you in front of the stove, the smell of eggs and bacon and pancakes filled the room, but that wasn’t the best part. You would be wearing one of his button up shirts, and only that. Your hips would sway to the rhythm of the song and he’d just stand and watch, unable to fight the smile that would form on his lips and the feeling of pride as he watched you, knowing that you were his.

Other days he’d come home from work while you were straightening up, singing into the broomstick handle as if no one was watching and the living room was your stage. He’d shrug out of his coat, kick his shoes off and slide across the floor while playing the air guitar. You always put a smile on his face, everything you did was his favorite thing. He could never pick one particular thing that you did that made him happy, because honestly you in general made him happy.

Even when you weren’t being goofy, which was rare, but it did happen, he would take the time to sit back and appreciate your beauty. When you would curl up on the couch and drift off to sleep and he’d come home and find you there, he would just marvel at how perfect you were in that innocent state.

That’s why he did everything he could to keep you safe, make sure you were protected everywhere you went. Sure, it was kind of ridiculous to have the black lizards guarding every store you went into, but it was a precaution that needed to be taken. As long as his little drop of sun was safe he could relax.

The two of you were on your way to the restaurant, it was date night. You looked flawless, as usual, and Chuuya couldn’t wait to show you off. His phone started ringing and you picked it up for him so that he could keep one hand on the wheel and the other on your thigh as he drove.

“Hi Mori!” You greeted him excitedly, and although he didn’t understand how Chuuya ended up with you, he couldn’t help but smile at the sound of your voice. You seemed to have that effect on anyone you came into contact with. “Will do! Thanks Mori! Buh-bye.” You shut the phone and put it back into the center console. Chuuya looked over to you, his eyes asking the question. “There’s some problem in an alley around the corner. He said it should be quick and you can handle it and get back to our date.”

He groaned but took the sharp turn that would lead to the alley in question. He saw the cloaked figure, like they were waiting for him. “Alright, this’ll be quick. Stay in the car.” He said, kissing your cheek before hopping out of the car.

You stared out the window, watching him stride into the alley. It sent a shot of electric up your legs, seeing him so dominant in situations like this. That was your man, and you couldn’t be prouder. You smiled as you watched him deliver kicks and punches to the figure in the alley, silently rooting for him.

Then you saw more figures coming from nowhere it seemed. There were at least six of them, and you started worrying. He would get hurt if he tried to fight all of them by himself, and you couldn’t have that. It would take too long to call someone and have them come out and help. Your mind raced as you tried to think of something to do, then you remembered the pistol that he had in the glove box. You pulled it out, checking to see if it had ammo, and then hopped out of the car.

“Hey, assholes!” You called, and everyone stopped to look at you. You cocked the gun and aimed it at them. Your hands didn’t shake, and you eyed up your target and pulled the trigger. Headshot.

The figures split up, some advancing towards you while the rest went after Chuuya. You fired the gun quickly, they all dropped like flies. Each one being hit exactly where you aimed. Headshots, chest shots, you even managed to get one in the throat which even you were shocked about. You moved further into the alley, pressing the barrel of the pistol against the head of the one who was about to attack Chuuya while he was fighting the first figure. “Not today, pal.” You said menacingly, pulling the trigger. Blood and bits of flesh and brain tissue splattered onto your face and you dropped the gun to the ground.

Chuuya finished with the final figure and ran over to where you stood. You were frozen, the warmth of the blood against your face made you want to vomit. “Are you okay?” He asked, grabbing your arms and examining them, then moving to the rest of your body to make sure there was no damage done. The amount of blood on you worried him, but once he realized that you were okay, he sighed with relief.

“I need a shower and and and and.... oh my god this is gross.” You couldn’t keep your hands from shaking as you tried to wipe the blood off your face.

“I mean, it’s pretty gross, but god damn, my bad ass little princess. Who would have thought?” His sense of pride sky rocketed.

After you both returned to the penthouse, the date was completely forgotten about at this point, and you both showered together. He rubbed your shoulders as the water fell over both of your bodies. The water was stained with red as you washed the blood from your face and when the shower was over you wrapped the towel around yourself and laid in the bed.

“You took the gun and you were like ‘bang bang bang’ and I was like ‘oh my god!’ And you shot all of them! How did you learn to do that?!” He was pacing the room in his boxers as he described the whole situation again, his feet padded against the floor leaving water footprints on the hard wood.

“I don’t know, I just didn’t want you to get hurt, so I shot them.” You said it nonchalantly, rolling to your side and propping yourself up on your elbow. “Seems like you enjoyed it.” You joked and he whipped around to look at you. The look in his eyes, you knew the look well.

“Oh I enjoyed. I don’t think you know how much I enjoyed it.” His voice was low and husky.

“You can tell me.”

He got into the bed and situated himself over top of you, holding himself up with one arm while the other pulled open the towel that you had wrapped around yourself. “I think I’d rather show you.”

[artificialqueens]

Girl I Met On The Internet, 6/6 (Crystal x Gigi) - Strawberry

a/n: and it’s a wrap! for now anyway bc i totally dont have a fic coming based on the good news nicky had for jaida! i just want to say thank you to every single person who read, liked and reblogged this story. it means so much to me, i’m so glad people enjoyed the strange idea that came into my brain. <3 (also! i wanted to let you guys know that i’m planning on posting this fic on ao3 as well, probably after this chapter is posted on here. my username on there is drivingmecrazy !!)

crystal: does everyone’s spring break start this weekend too?? anyone doing anything??

jan!: mine does! i’m staying home all week, jackie is leaving me :(

nicky: my spring break isn’t until late april!! wtf :(

heidi: ha loser

heidi: i’m going to play animal crossing all weekend i can’t wait

Jackie: I’m going to Canada to visit family on Sunday. Jan, if you want we can hang out on Saturday if you’re going to miss me that much. :P

nicky: i’ll hang out with you jackie

jan: i hate you nicky

jaida: i have a pageant next week!!

jan!: yaas gorg

nicky: bring home the crown!

crystal: GO JAIDA!

nicky: also jaida call me. i have good news for you :)

gigi: crystal you already know what’s going down

crystal: do i now?

gigi: GOOD LUCK JAIDA!!! NO MATTER WHAT YOU ARE OUR WINNER

Crystal had somewhat of an idea of what was going down. She had been granted permission to sleep over at Gigi’s house, and they would be going on their date the following day. Gigi would not tell Crystal anything about where they were going, and refused to give her any hints no matter how much Crystal begged. 

The next morning, on their walk to school, Crystal finally got a hint. 

“You tweeted about it. That’s all I’ll tell you.”

“That’s not helpful at all!” Crystal had almost 30 thousand tweets, her Twitter was her space to say weird things without being judged too harshly, and she had a lot of things to say! She thought about things she might’ve tweeted about wanting to do, or places she wanted to go, but came up empty handed.

“Well, you have the whole day to think about it. I’ll meet you after school, yeah?”

-

Gigi’s mom offered to pick them up after school, even though the walk from their school to Gigi’s house wasn’t far. Crystal finally met Nancy, Gigi’s beloved dog. Crystal didn’t want to do anything besides hold the dachshund to her chest all night, but Gigi wouldn’t let her, saying it wasn’t fair for Nancy to get all of the attention even though Gigi does the exact same thing with Tic Tac.

They made homemade pizza for dinner, and played monopoly with Gigi’s parents and her brother. Gigi’s brother thought Crystal was cute, and hit on Crystal; trying out a ridiculous pickup line on the green haired girl every chance he got. After they called off the game, Gigi excused her and Crystal to her room.

“So quick to leave, Georgina,” Crystal teased, sitting down next to Nancy who was using Gigi’s strawberry cow pillow pet as a headrest. 

“Wanna spend time with you. Can we cuddle?”

“Yeah, of course.”

They sat in silence for a while, enjoying each other’s company until Gigi spoke up.

“I couldn’t do it.”

“Couldn’t do what?” Crystal asked, lost.

“Come out to my friends. I thought I was ready but obviously I’m not.”

“It’s okay, Gigi. You’ll know when it’s time, don’t rush it.”

“I just want to be more open, I guess.”

“That’s good, but it’s not going to happen overnight. You have to take baby steps, G.”

“Was it hard? To come out?”

“To who?” Crystal snorted, “You know I don’t have any friends. I’m pretty sure everyone at school already knows, though.”

“Does your mom know?”

“Probably. She got a little too suspicious when I started liking Poppy.”

This turned into revealing who their first gay crush was, and how and when they figured out they liked girls like the rest of their friends liked boys. Crystal told Gigi about how she originally tried to fake like One Direction so no one would suspect anything, and Gigi told Crystal about how she refused to listen to any music sung by female artists for half a year before they decided to go to sleep.

-

Crystal had woken up first. She didn’t bother waking up Gigi, going to scroll through Twitter instead. It was still early, but the group chat was on some bullshit, Jan changed her display name to Nicky and changed her profile picture to Nicky’s to mock her. Nicky did not find this funny in the slightest, but Jaida did.

nicky: i’m nicky i’m french i love stealing my friends gfs

jaida: omg period!

THE REAL nicky: JAIDA THAT’S NOT ME!!!

jaida: proof?

THE REAL nicky: I HATE IT HERE!!

nicky: croissant

crystal: HELPDGNJKFNJ

THE REAL nicky: i cannot stand jan. this is why jackie should date me instead

Crystal couldn’t stop laughing, which ended up waking Gigi up. Gigi was grumpy at first, but that changed when she realized they needed to get ready to go on the date she had planned.

After they had gotten up and dressed, they sat next to each other in front of the giant, floor length mirror next to Gigi’s closet to do their makeup. Gigi stopped doing her makeup after putting on her foundation, deciding that watching Crystal do her eye shadow was more entertaining than finishing the look she had in mind.

“Stop looking at me, you’re making me nervous!” Crystal giggled when she noticed Gigi’s stares, not actually wanting Gigi to stop.

“I’ll think about it,” Gigi paused, pretending to think, “I will not. You look beautiful.”

Crystal squawked, “I barely have anything on my face!”

“So?”

“What are you, gay or something?” Crystal teased, making Gigi poke at her sides, “Stop being a dork and finish your makeup!”

“Fine. Only because we need to get going soon.”

-

“Wait, you know how to drive?” Crystal asked, getting in the passenger seat.

“Yeah! I don’t have my own car yet, but I got my license on my 16th birthday. I am not enforcing the stereotype at all!” Gigi grinned, opening the garage door and starting her mom’s car.

“I’ll be the judge of that. Can I play music?” 

“Yeah, sure.” Gigi handed her the aux cord and started backing out of the driveway. 

“Okay. This is the ultimate test,” Crystal stated, starting to play a song. “Which One Direction song is this?”

The song in question was good, but Gigi didn’t recognize it. She had only listened to ‘Midnight Memories’ because it was Crystal’s favorite album, and she knew for sure Crystal wasn’t playing a song from that album. “Is it from ‘Made in the A.M’?”

“Trick question! It’s one of Niall’s solo songs. It’s called ‘Dear Patience’!” Crystal laughed, thinking she had pulled off the biggest prank in the world.

“Oh, fuck. I should’ve known there was only one person singing.”

After fifteen minutes of driving, and Gigi almost running a stop sign, they finally pulled up at a cute little thrift shop on the outskirts of town, and Crystal was just about shaking with excitement. “I love thrifting! I’ve only been once, but it was so fun! I found that jumpsuit I wore that one day while thrifting!” She rambles, rushing to get out of the car and inside.

“Wait, when I did tweet about this?”

Around the time they had first started talking, Crystal had tweeted about how her dream date was going thrifting. Gigi naturally stored this information in the back of her mind, even though at the time she never thought she would need it.

On their walk from the parking lot to the store, Crystal held her hand out, which Gigi hesitantly accepted.

“We should play a game! We should split up and pick out an outfit for the other person without them knowing and then meet up and try them on!” 

Gigi’s heart swelled, Crystal was so cute. “That sounds fun, but how do I know this isn’t just a trick to dress me up in something hideous?” Gigi teased, making Crystal blush.

“I would never, don’t be ridiculous,” Crystal scoffed, “I’ll save that for the next time we go thrifting!”

Crystal let go of Gigi’s hand to open the door for her, splitting up as soon as they walked into the shop.

It didn’t take them very long to pick out their pieces. Crystal stayed true to her word, picking out a light green, halter top dress for Gigi. Gigi, on the other hand, had picked out a hideous pair of neon pink, zebra print leggings and a red flannel shirt.

“Gigi, what is that?” Crystal scrunched up her nose in disgust.

“You like patterns, why not clash them?” Gigi tried to defend herself, but could barely finish her sentence before bursting out laughing.

“No! I’m not getting that! I’m not even going to try on that outfit. It’s yucky.”

“That’s fine, give me the dress you picked out for me. I need that.” Gigi snatched it from Crystal’s hands, walking quickly to the dressing room.

The dress looked gorgeous on Gigi. Crystal was so glad she took their game seriously. 

They looked around together for a little bit before wandering from each other yet again. Gigi somehow ended up with a pile of clothes that you would only see in a very successful thrifting haul video on YouTube. Crystal had stuck to the men’s section, immediately claiming some loud button ups and with a little digging, she found a very specific, out of place t-shirt that said something about how ‘real grandmas drink Dr. Pepper’ that she found hilarious and needed to own.

“What does that say? Some grandmas play bingo, real grandmas drink Dr. Pepper?” Gigi questioned when they finally met back up, “What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know, but it’s sending me. I need it!”

“So you hated my outfit I got for you, but you’re buying that?” Gigi teased.

“You do not understand the art of highly specific shirts, like these, babe. I’ll have to teach you all about them later.”

Gigi thought Crystal was an idiot, but she couldn’t stop smiling.

-

After paying for their clothes, they got back into the car. Gigi started driving, not telling Crystal where their next stop was. The stop happened to be the Taco Bell drive thru, which Crystal was excited about. “Okay, I do remember tweeting about wanting to go to Taco Bell.” 

When they got their food, Gigi placed the bag in the back seat, making Crystal raise an eyebrow. 

“You’re a messy eater, so we aren’t eating in the car. My mom would kill me if we made a mess.”

While Crystal tried to convince Gigi she was not a messy eater and her mom’s car would be fine, Gigi pulled up to a park.

“Can you find a spot to sit down at so we can eat it there?” Gigi requested. It took Crystal about two seconds to travel from the car to the grass, settling down in a shady spot underneath some trees. Gigi joined Crystal, holding a blue blanket as well as the brown paper bag.

“It’s not a picnic blanket, I couldn’t find one but I hope it works.”

“It does! I love picnics!” Crystal hops up so Gigi can lay down the blanket, going to retrieve the drinks that they forgot in the car. 

Their lunch was filled with flirting, stupid inside jokes and Crystal loved every second of it. She knew for sure by the end of the day she would not be single anymore, but the lack of confirmation was making her antsy.

Once they were done eating, Gigi collected all of the wrappers and cups, walking across the grass to the nearest trash can to dispose of them. When Gigi came back, she had a huge grin on her face, “Well, Crystal Elizabeth. I would like to think that I successfully wooed you, if only you could do something for me in return…”

“What do you have in mind, Georgina?” Crystal giggles, hoping Gigi couldn’t tell how nervous that statement made her.

“Crystal Elizabeth, I was wondering if you would be my girlfriend?” 

“God, yes. I’ve been waiting for this for months.” Crystal exclaimed, immediately being pulled into a kiss.

They stayed at the park after that. Crystal’s inner child had jumped out after the kiss was broken and she wanted to play on the playground. 

“Wait, Crystal! Come here, the light looks good right now and we need to take our reveal selfie!”

-

Their date came to an end when Crystal’s mom texted her asking to come home. Crystal’s mom had no idea what she was interrupting, as Crystal did not tell her mom what they were actually doing.

“I hate it here, I would let this date go on all week if I could.” Crystal pouted, buckling her seatbelt.

“If there’s any other place you want to go this week, we could go on our second date.” Gigi smiled, reaching out to hold Crystal’s hand.

“Be careful, I know steering with one hand is peak lesbianism, but I don’t know if you’re a good enough driver to do that yet.” Crystal joked, even though she gladly accepted Gigi’s hand.

“Oh, shut up. Like you could go ten minutes without holding my hand.”

Crystal kissed Gigi again when they got on her street, Gigi parking a few houses down for privacy.

“This was fun. I really am happy with everything. You completely wooed me, Georgina.”

“I’m glad. Does this mean I can call you my clown girlfriend now?” Gigi jokingly asked, making Crystal let out a tiny scream.

“As dumb as that sounds, yes. You can.”

Gigi did not let Crystal get out of the car without getting another kiss.

-

Crystal entered her house, her grin slowly fading when she saw her mom waiting for her.

“You took a while to come home.” Crystal’s mom started, under the impression she was at Gigi’s house. “What took you so long?”

“Yeah, sorry. I couldn’t find my charger.” Crystal felt bad for lying to her mom, but she didn’t want to tell her what happened yet.

“Oh, your generation and your phones. I was starting to get worried.”

“Mama, I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. I’m going to my room now, is that okay?”

“Yeah, I’m about to start dinner. We’re having your favorite!”

The second Crystal got into her room, she locked her door and jumped on her bed, logging onto Twitter.

crystal: good evening l a d i e s

jan!: HEY!

jaida: crystal!

Jackie: You haven’t been active today, what were you up to?

heidi: not jackie demanding answers

nicky: ooooh

gigi: well, since you asked…

crystal: :D

gigi: my girlfriend crystal and i went on our first date today. isn’t she beautiful??

The group erupted into chaos the second they saw their selfie, congratulating the new couple for finally getting together. Crystal wouldn’t have it any other way. She would be forever grateful for being added into Elites Only, and even more for the special girl she had met there.

gigi: so, any ideas for our second date?

crystal: tons, babe. i’m gonna blow your mind.

[lovelylexipedia]

Headcanon: The Halloween Season – MAGIC + Season 7 Main Cast

Type: Headcanon

Requested: No

Summary: N/A

Warning(s): None that I'm aware of

Note(s): Happy Halloween everyone! I know some of us aren't able to celebrate because of the pandemic, but I just wanted to push this out to maybe brighten y'all's spirits, haha, puns. :)

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Meredith Grey

Meredith doesn't do Halloween

Her mom never took her trick-or-treating when she was younger so she doesn't like celebrating it now

If she's around kids, then she'll try to get into the spirit, but sometimes it just exhausts her

For the sake of it, you guys try to treat it like a usual day

Alex Karev

Alex thought you weren't gonna celebrate the holiday, so he stayed at work

You were waiting for him to come home so you could freak him out with the Ouija board you had bought

He ended up staying at the hospital until 3 AM and arrived at home at 3:33

It scared you shitless and you thought a demon was out to get you because you had practiced with the Ouija board alone, trying to find the best way to scare Alex

You didn't sleep for the rest of the night and Alex basically cuddled you the whole night

George O'Malley

You had promised George that you would take it easy this Halloween

Before you were dating, you'd scare and tease him around the hospital every Halloween

This year you guys would just have a small movie marathon and eat candy and then go to bed sick

But then plans derailed when you guys found a small black kitten had come into your apartment through an open window

The whole night, the both of you debated on whether or not you would keep it

You guys named him Freddy

Izzie Stevens

Izzie goes hard for Halloween

The two of you decided to throw party at your shared place, thinking it would just be work buddies

Nope. Izzie worked too hard for just a couple people to show up

She practically invited the whole hospital

The both of you dressed up as sexy witches, Izzie's a bit more toned down so she could hand the kids candy

The party was supposed to end at 11:30, it ended at sunrise

Never again

Cristina Yang

Cristina loves Halloween ... because of all the surgeries

She loves getting people in scared half-to-death from corn mazes and haunted houses, always flares up the heart problems

Not a fan of costumes, but if you begged hard enough or gave her enough surgeries, she'd consider a low-key one

The kids asking her for candy really annoy her though

You have to steer them away from her when they ask "trick-or-treat" cause she almost always chooses trick, and when she chooses treat, it's a granola bar

If you do end up doing something, it's probably just going for drinks at Joe's

Derek Shepherd

Derek prefers to just work the holiday away

In the morning you guys get into the mood with some spooky music around the house

But at work it's just another day

He does like seeing you mess around with your costume though

Owen Hunt

Owen is not into costumes, like at all

He thinks they're a waste of time and money

Owen likes the idea of it, not so much participating (though he secretly wants to)

He likes the traumas that roll in though, that does get him excited

Mark Sloan

During the day, he couldn't stop imagining you in your costume

You were going as Catwoman, you had bought a black latex suit and black cat ears days prior and had shown him the costume on you as a tease

You both had been invited to a party, but he wanted to skip and just get right to the good part

Instead, you scrapped the costume and you decided to bake some cookies and cupcakes to hand out the next day

He was disappointed, but after he put an orange pumpkin sugar cookie in his mouth, he shut right up

Lexie Grey

Halloween is one of Lexie's favorite holidays

She always has her costumes planned for the next year and the year after and the year after that

Wearing costumes together is her favorite part

ESPECIALLY couple costumes

She asks for the day off so she can decorate the apartment you guys share

You guys just stay in and eat candy and tell each other "spooky" stories

But then show up at the hospital after shoving y'all's faces with candy and taking a power nap

Callie Torres

Callie treats Halloween as another day

She acknowledges it, but it's not a huge thing for her

The only way you could get her excited for the holiday is if you promised not to force her to get a costume

The day of, she surprised you with a homemade sexy pirate costume

Not a lot of work got done that day

Arizona Robbins

Arizona goes all out for her patients

Every Friday she dresses up in a new costume and plays a little game with the kids, having them guess who she was

She sneaks them extra pieces of candy from time to time, and when there's extras, she takes them home

Arizona handles the decorations while you go costume hunting

Your apartment is small, so you really only decorate the outside door with an orange/black wreath and hang tinsel around the windows

You start telling her scary stories in the middle of the night and she is so unimpressed

April Kepner

April is iffy about the holiday (her grandma would say that Halloween was the devil's holiday)

She loves giving candy and seeing little kids dress in costumes though

She dresses up in cutesy outfits, not really costumes

April will pull on a flannel and jeans, put her hair in pigtails, and call herself a cowgirl

You guys typically just go around the trauma bay and sit with the little kids waiting for/with their parents and hand out candies

Jackson Avery

Jackson takes the 'trick' in "trick-or-treat" very seriously

After a few harmless ones around the house, he gets risky and pranks you at the hospital

Each gets you more and more amped up, so you decide to get him back

Does not end well at all, Webber and Bailey aren't happy

The day ends with a slap of the wrist from the Chief and a movie night