#Plus imagine them just bonding over being dramatic

[crippling-pages]

Tam and Keefe =

✨~dRaMa qUeEnS~✨

[xisanamii]

pokemon AU brainrot is real (i can't draw pokemon) i have some thoughts underneath the cut, so you can read them for fun if you'd like. what i will say over it though is that once again rabbit's gigantic sexy galaxy brain gave the pokemon ideas for murasaku, moriliu, and mayukuro. mwah thanks as always you should give your brain more credit (i will force you to)

when SV came out i remember bulldozing for a charcadet cuz i saw ceruledge and was like damn that's cool, and named him "tatsuya" (first name for fun) - then i found out he had a counterpart (armarouge) and i was like wow this is literally kagami and himuro (please see their dex entries for more info). i haven't done much in the way of writing, but just know in my head there's an entire story with the dramatic breakup where they both started off with charcadet, and then stuff happened. emulating canon, basically. alex trained them with her skeledirge.

next, takao's emolga and erika's pancham torment himuro, because why not. hot man suffering or something. himuro's popularity certainly translates over to pokemon (emolga likes midorima better, but they like to tease himuro because takao does).

last of the himuro series, i do have an entire team thought up for himueri - i love ceruledge, but froslass would be THE pokemon for himuro (like, designated partner pokemon... reasons are self-explanatory). and cinccino is THE pokemon for erika (scarf...) - they're just tormenting each other. my favorite thought about this is that froslass very often thinks about making himuro a frozen statue because of how hot he is (she doesn't, because she's trained well, but she has Thoughts). she doesn't really care about erika but grows to tolerate her, and would turn her into a statue if it makes himuro happy (i mean, it wouldn't, but froslass is vibing). on the other hand, cinccino admires himuro's skin and wonders about his skincare routine.

murasakibara and sakurai own their own bakery shop, where they cater to pokemon and humans alike. don't mind the poisonous looking poffins. amoonguss (sakurai's) just chills around the shop a lot and tries to leech off the extra goodies if there are any. alcremie (murasakibara's) helps out with the baking, and is fascinated by how well the two can manage to switch between different types of pastries and bento boxes. savory AND sweet foods offered! i call it a bakery but it's a glorified bakery because they can do a lot of different foods.

moriyama and liu wei definitely start out like how i've written them in my yosen canon lol they bond over wanting to flirt and seduce women, but it creates a whole other can of sexual tension. moriyama's delcatty is often the semi-unwilling captain of moriyama's journey to become popular with women. she does love him but barely manages to tolerate his shenanigans (unfortunately, it sometimes works - girls will come up to pet his delcatty. she enjoys being pampered and the attention, at least). escavalier for liu wei, and to quote rabbit, a knight in shining armor represents his ideals best given his antiquated demeanor. plus, it's pretty swoonworthy to be popular with the ladies. they're all gay though.

mimikyu for mayuzumi and pikachu for kuroko should be self-explanatory. kuroko's pikachu has blue eyes... because why not. i imagine that mayuzumi reads out in the park often to calm mimikyu's sadness. pikachu desperately wants mimikyu to like him. mimikyu ain't having it though. however, much to mayuzumi's disgruntlement, mimikyu does like kuroko more than pikachu. no one is deterred by the other's bitterness - in fact, it's much ammo for teasing.

[typingatlightspeed]

texas toast at a steakhouse? call that place texas toasthouse

"flesh and blood", even with the bit of sads, is just so cute i could squeal. i love how you write pyro. and engineer. and texas toast.

how you portray engineer's cyborg journey is just like being transgender. at least to me it reads like that. transhuman and transgender both have "trans" in it

Thank you! I really love writing Engie and Pyro! Engie's just fun in general, with the way he talks plus being a mix of a sweetie and scary as fuck, and while I love writing Pyro as the sassy little shit he is, but also there's a that sadness under the surface in the MI version of him, since he's gotta deal with the whole being ancient and forming bonds with mortals thing, plus the whole "people freak out when they see a man made of fire" thing. Makes me wanna just hug the poor guy. Though if I'm honest I need to show him doing his job and loving what he does more. He's not just a softie, that's just one side of him, after all. <3

I adore them as a couple, too. They're a lot less dramatic than the other couples on base, and their problems are a lot chiller but slower and more complicated to work through. Unfortunately that tends to make for less exciting stories, and requires time and discussion to really surmount, hence the series being dotted with little stories that update their lives amid all the crazy shit happening, lol. I like those stories a lot, though. They give me opportunities to really dig into the characters involved (and have helped me flesh out BLU Soldier in fun and unexpected ways too!) and write some very fun dialogue. If you couldn't tell, I love me some dialogue lol

As for Engie's cyborg journey, yeah that tracks. There's a lot of overlap in the vibes of transhumanism and transgenderism, both of them being things that tend to reject the whole "sanctity of the body" thing, and can involve modification of the body to suit the needs of the person inhabiting it. While I'm not expressly trying to evoke a particularly strong transgender vibe with it, the vibes exist and cross over readily, so even without express intent even I see that they're there. I like to imagine the stress it puts on his relationship with Pyro doesn't hurt that, since it's an all-too-common unfortunate thing trans people have to deal with as we change how we present and want to be addressed and sometimes change our bodies, too. Luckily Pyro for all of his reservations is supportive, and is working to understand.

Thanks for the ask, anon! Hope I didn't ramble on too long lol

[starlightshore]

1stswagmastere said: Do u have any different lore or backstory for Vlad in your AU?

I'm going to have fun here and cover his FULL backstory lmao. As for canon -we only know what happened from the Accident in college and that's it. Nothin about his family life.

[has alt id]

Vladimir Masters moved to America with his family when he was 9. They moved because his parents divorced and his father had visited the country often for work. He felt it'd be good to get a fresh start.

Vlad himself knew English but hadn't needed it for daily use, and thus struggled in practice. Plus, I'd imagine the cultural differences were a lot to get used to -suddenly living in the middle of nowhere in Arkansas must of been a shock. Even if he's visited the states before, this was a life altering experience.

Vlad always felt like a misfit, even before the move. His older brother was too old to hang out with his Cringe Fail lil bro and his father couldn't relate to him. Something about the kid was just... different, as his father put it. The two never saw eye to eye, having few things in common. None of this was malicious, his father still supported him and did his best to keep food on the table and the family happy.

I like the idea while the family wasn't perfect -the father had a drinking problem but was never abusive. Nothing super dramatic happened in Vlad's home life -notably so he doesn't have any tragic backstory or "justification" for how much of a manipulative bastard he is modern day. (not that there's anything wrong with tragic backstories. go ham if that's your jam!)

Growing up, Alicia and Maddie were Vlad's best friends. Back then, Maddie was more of a "wild child" and did whatever she wanted on impulse. Alicia was a Baby Butch, a tom boy who wasn't aware of her sexuality but knew she was not like other girls. Being in a small church town in the US South, the trio were the regular misfits. (Notably Alicia is a tad older and acted as the groups babysitter just as often as an instigator to adventure)

Jack lived in the small town but wasn't friends with them until high-school. Jack was a Cool Kid Jock, well liked for his jokey personality and his mid-to-bad football playing. Which, while not great, wasn't terrible and that's an improvement to the small town's crappy team.

However, one day Jack came into the school raving about seeing a ghost. It was funny for a few days -but Jack became obsessed and upset over the whole thing. No one believed him and mocked him, Jack took it very personal.

Maddie approached Jack and gave his story a shot. There's a ghost at the lake, he says. While neither Vlad nor Maddie believe him, they give it a shot cause Maddie thought it'd be fun.

Yeah. Ghosts are real. The trio are terrified but become enthralled. That summer they spend it trying to investigate the ghost -try to find her murderer and appease her vengeful spirit. The three cry and piss themselves scared but it's a major life-long bonding experience.

Turns out the ghost isn't a murder victim -she's just a woman who drowned when drunk while fishing. Her unfinished business was to escape the waters, scaring any locals who neared the water under moonlight. Sadly, without a strong tether to the ghost zone, her ghostly form fizzled out. The teens never really learn these truths.

The whole town is sick of their ghost hunting and are happy to see them leave for college lmao. The three have become Besties For Life, set out to become scientists and find an explanation to the supernatural. Vlad focused on mythology/technology, Maddie quantum physics, Jack with biology/medicine.

The accident happens but it's a direct result of BOTH Fentons. I feel it's thematically important if it's both of their faults, to mirror Danny's accident. Vlad's portal is kept on the whole time, after his death he sneaks into the lab and steals it for himself to keep. It speaks to him. Whispering to him of the Hell he's opened up. This is his portal, yet unnamed and characterized cause i spent all my creative energy on Danny's Portal, Liminal Gates. I don't wanna derail the post to those OCs, but essentially think of them as sentient portal ghosts. they're... not exactly that, but that's the gist.

// OK BELOW i get into depth over both Danny and Vlad's cause of deaths, not like, SUPER gorey detail but its implied of some very awful stuff. skip 4 paragraphs if you don't wanna read that

Tangent: Danny's accident is a result of exposed wire within the portal. In my AU, he doesn't touch an "on" button but rather grabs an exposed switch, yanking on a wire that burnt through his rubber glove and shocked him from hand to foot (which then bounced up to the brain). I got the sense from the theme song that the parent's just... forgot they had that switch in the blueprints, so it makes sense to me that it'd be unfinished and left unattended like that.

anyway now for Vlad's accident. I've mentioned before that in my AU that ectoplasm is in itself the opposite of life, and when in high concentration it'll become acidic and burn through organic matter.

That uh, happened directly to Vlad's face. After the initial blast, the ectoplasm congealed with his blood creating a thick barrier between his face and the air. So even after removing the blast's plasm, it was stuck.

Vlad was rushed to the hospital and bled out, the plasm seeping through into his lungs. It wasn't a fast death like Danny's. Miraculously, he "survived" and had his face bandaged and had to have surgeries to fix the damage. Sadly, even with what little skin was left, because the ectoplasm rooted itself into the skin layer it continued to blister with ecto-acny like in the show. It left him in the hospital for years.

Anyway while Vlad is also a Halfa-Paradox like Danny, he needs to consume Actual Literal Blood. (Not necessarily human blood, nor a living host's blood. usually he drinks animal blood in secret. He's a monster, but he's not THAT much of a monster!)

His body is more unstable and requires more blood to repatch itself. Danny's death was instantaneous and a 1 hour time range surrounding it to connect his timelines. For Vlad, it took 1-2 hours to die, so his timelines and time frame are more scrambled and full of various states of decay and gore. He needs to steel that life essence as well replenish his blood loss. Someone who is a Halfa-Paradox is the living embodiment of of those hour (or for Vlad, hours) they died and didn't die. They're a center point of those timeline selves, fused into one person while shifting between different bodies those timeline selves inhabit. Vlad's is incredibly unstable.

Anyway that aside, Vlad's power is blood based. He really is a vampire ghost. I know my AU mainly has been comedy but I do enjoy the darker side of the fandom (not to... the point some of ya'll go lmao) and Vlad focuses a lot more of this side of things. I've been uncertain on how to take his blood power -do I do blood bending? bleed on you until you're uncomfortable power?

Nah i think I'm going to go with a simple "those he's drunk blood from temporarily are mind controlled" or something. Vampires are a drain on society, a metaphor for their hoarding of wealth and feasting on the life force of the common man. Now as an adult, I see how some people can fall into a warped mindset that loves Capitalism even when it's the root of all evil in society. Uh. That's the best I got chief, Vlad's power is propaganda essentially.

He already uses his over-shadow power for a similar effect in canon, it's a very Vlad thing to do. It's just more.. gross and evil this time around.

Back to the Backstory: after the transition, Vlad fell onto desperate times as the hospital bills were enormous. After trying to handle it morally, he ended up resorting to petty theft using his new powers. Same as canon, this escalated to bigger robbery and then political power. Vlad is more subtle about than in canon, never showing his ghost form and learns to explain his wealth through business rather than staged luck.

Once he had some power and influence, he went back to his old friends hoping to prove to them that they did not ruin him but rather gifted him a wonderful life of wealth and success. He wanted to make them jealous and regret ghosting him and hurting him.

Except, they moved on and were forced to take on jobs outside of their ghost hunting interests. Vlad realized he hadn't actually won out here, he missed out on human connection and turned himself into a monster in the process. Now he's motivated in envying their humanity and family, rather than just a sick obsession to get with Maddie.

Vlad is a master 4D chess player, using his power to influence under his thumb. The Fentons actually were just stuck using their degrees for (gasp) more mundane use like medical research and engineering. Vlad masked his anger and played up the hero, becoming Uncle Vladdie and their boss. He funds their paranormal research, they see him as their good ol' college chum who's got everything.

But the Fentons and him don't connect well on a personal connection. Vlad is too distant and far-too-gone in his own world and self-obsession, Maddie and Jack are pleasant but never have free-time so end up blabbing about research or their kids. Not a great fit for reconnection. It's important to note these old friends have the potential to become buddies again, but Vlad feels compelled to plot and play a more distant role to get what he thinks will worm his way into their lives. Instead of, you know, being normal and just Talking Things Through.

So basically: Vlad is a lonely misunderstood kid who is befriended by some country girls and then later become a group of 3 ghost obsessed weirdos in town. Jack and Maddie are his only friends he's ever had since his hospitalization (isolated again) and later becoming obscenely rich that you stop seeing people normally. He's got rich fuckboi disease essentailly.

iirc Alicia doesn't like Jack because she blames him for getting her sister into ghost hunting (OR MAYBE that's fanon idr) but I also like to think she hates Vlad for becoming so slimey and doubling down on enabling their ghost interests. Like in my timeline of events, the Fentons were able to become normal respected scientists. (albeit, obscure) it's HIS fault they're able to do whatever they want now. she fucking HATES him

[desultory-novice]

Who do YOU think Adeleine's special someone is??

Surprise! A post not about the new game! XD

-

Anon...Are you asking me to spill who Adeleine's crush is...?

If you are, well... lucky you! Cause I'm going to do it!

...Adeleine's special someone is clearly Ado!

All this time, arguments have been raging over whether they're the same person or they're sisters or one's from the mirror dimension when the answer was staring us in the face all this time...

Ado is quite simply Adeleine's crush. Ado is tall, pretty, shares Adeleine's interest in art, and is just a little bit older (going by game release.) Heck, I'd have a crush on her if I were in Adeleine's big, bread shaped shoes!

NON-JOKE ANSWER BELOW SERIOUS TALK ABOUT TEENAGE CRUSHES

[Note:] one of the people I'm going to talk about is one a lot of people HC as being in a familial relationship with Adeleine. I am NOT speaking under the guise of this popular HC in this context, but if you don't even want to SEE them mentioned here (nor read speculative thoughts about a visibly young girl/teenaged-looking character having un-requited crushes on other older-looking characters) stop reading here! Thanks!

...I can imagine a few more people Adeleine might have a crush on.

One is King Dedede (This is the relationship I talked about above, btw. Obviously, in this situation, they wouldn't have a strong, pre-existing familial bond, but would be two people who talked and/or got to know each other for the first time in Crystal Shards; and probably, Adeleine is not Ado in this timeline either) because they adventured together, and also he's a big, tough, and powerful dude, plus he saved her life at a dramatic moment.

I think, if she ever told him, King Dedede would laugh and boast that of COURSE everyone should love him, that's only natural, he's the king! But I do not think he would ever entertain the idea of seriously requiting her feelings. He would do the responsible thing by letting her down, only he would do so in classic Dedede manner by something to the tune of him being a great king and that he must treat everyone in Dream Land equally!

Another possible crush is Daroach because he's mature, suave, handsome (by Kirby :cough: my :cough: standards) and canonically a lady's man. He oozes confidence but hasn't lost his playfulness, plus they spent enough time together in Star Allies for Adeleine to invite him to a drawing party.

Daroach would probably let her down similarly to Dedede, revealing that, alas, he's simply too good to belong to just one person; that and he's a career man first and foremost. But he is flattered by Adeleine's feelings and wishes her luck in finding her TRUE special person one day. 

(I think Dedede, on the inside, would be flustered enough by Adeleine's confession to want to avoid her for a bit as he wouldn't know what to do if her crush doesn't fade. Daroach, I think, would be more likely to sit her down and help talk Adeleine OUT of the crush and, once her heart has recovered, offer to be someone she can talk to about these things in the future/play a supportive role in helping her find someone better suited for her.)

Another potential crush for Adeleine is Queen Ripple because she's not only the the damsel in distress of Crystal Shards, she's pretty, gentle, feminine, and magical (if you knew someone who was a literal magic-dust-and-glitter-wings fairy, would you not be ALL OVER THEM all the time?!) Plus, Adeleine was seen drawing a picture of her in Star Allies.

I think Ripple would blush and be both flattered and flustered (and probably trip over herself and do other ditzy things like pour salt in her tea) to learn she was someone's crush. She too, probably has responsibilities. I imagine she's not in a position to actually LEAVE Ripple Star to be with another person. I have no idea what Ripple's age is like. If she's a thousand years old or only as young as she looks. But this one is the one most likely to end with some variant on the line "How about we just start as friends?"

Again, these are all listed here as potential crushes a teenage Adeleine could potentially have. In RL, more crushes than not go absolutely nowhere. But those were some characters I could see her taking an interest in.

I do think that in general, Adeleine would lean toward characters whose alignment is overall good (without needing a Kirby-sized reformation arc first) thus, she might admire Susie or the Mage Sisters for being pretty and/or powerful, but I don't see her developing a crush on any of them.

Being human, I can't help but think she'd see the other, odder shaped characters (Waddle Dees, Eflilin, etc) as adorable, walking talking TOYS rather than people she could imagine herself in a relationship with.

The one corollary (aka, "I don't know, because -I- wouldn't feel this way if I were in her shoes, but I'd be remiss not to talk about it") to this is Meta Knight. I only say this because, like, everyone loves Meta Knight. He's everyone's favorite character and everyone acknowledges him as the coolest and most handsome (?!) character in Kirby.

If Adeleine had a crush on Meta Knight, it would explain why she chose to open up to Kirby first, them being so similar, visually. It's still really weird to me, because they consistently avoided each other's games like ships in the night till Star Allies came around, but the Kirby Time books, while their own thing, seem to exist in a post-Star Allies-esque continuum, so I imagine she would still like the same things about him all his RL fans do.

This crush ALSO would not go anywhere, the only difference this one and the above being that Meta Knight would be the only one to explain it to her quickly, plainly, and without any fluff or friendly humor why it could never work out and that he cannot reciprocate her feelings.

[mr-independent]

EP 4, aka the one with the real Tom Selleck vibes

-- Ted work pj's to prom and then went to jail?? The backstory keeps unravelling and it's always fascinating

-- Rebecca either already keeps her gala clothes at the club or she specially shipped them over there just bc she's indecisive and takes the whole day to decide her outfit. Either way, respect

-- the Keeley/Jamie puppy play is just. Weird. Good on him for being an asshole who still goes down on his girl, gotta love it

-- Isaacs suit is fucking stunning and Sam learning the names of all the journos 🥰

-- Ted parent trapping Jamie and Roy is fucking hilarious, especially since that's a 10-top. The other five people at that table are forced to watch this dramatic mess and i for one would pay so much money to be one of them

-- is Beard an actual name, or is it a nickname? Does he have a name? Did Ted rescue him from some weird genius clone experiment? The questions never end

-- idk how anyone didn't think Rupert's appearance was skeevy af. He loses the club to his ex bc he blatantly cheated on her with a uni student, then crashes her first big appearance just to one-up her in an all white suit??? Supervillain behaviour

-- Colin still has a concussion from the club scene the episode before, so this all happened within a week, closer to three days probably. So Keeley gets heart eyes over Roy standing up for the kit man, and immediately starts comparing him to Jamie and finds Jamie lacking. She has a habit of falling fast and hard huh?

-- that was Bex betting on Jamie, right? What a fucking nightmare. The old owner of the club takes over the auction from under his ex wife and gets his new beau to bet on a date with the star player of said club, to the behest of his girlfriend? Also what was Rupert's plan there? Seduce Jamie away from Richmond? He didn't even have a club at that point

-- Rebecca finally trusts Ted ❤️ also him following her out of the auction to check up on her is mirrored later with the karaoke panic attack which is just. Cinematic poetry

-- is it just me or do Jamie's tattoos kinda...appear and disappear at will?

-- they added an intermission to an auction? I know it works plot wise to have Jamie and Roy talk between Keeley bidding on them both, but still.

-- ah right it's not Bex it's Jamie's...plus two? At a different table?? Which Rebecca knew about??? Who is...still Bex????? Which makes it even messier tbh. Your sugar daddy is taking your bid over your plus one to the sugar daddy's ex's auction? Where you're betting against the man's current girlfriend? This is giving me a fucking headache

-- colins wearing a hot pink tie, how fucking gay (affectionate)

-- im sorry i still can't imagine Beard with a ponytail. Literally a single year before the series started. Like, headbanging heavy metal hair? Sure. A ponytail tho???

-- also i Love the scene where Ted chases after Beard after the party bc it really shows the difference in...not quite their personalities but their influences in life. Beard, we know from the Trivia thing and context clues, is somehow indebted to Ted, presumably bc of excessive drug use but that's debatable. He runs from the party a little crazed, a little off kilter, and Ted follows stick straight with an almost cartoony James Bond type of swagger. It's just a very visual way of showing the core of their characters

[ben-the-hyena]

Template here : https://www.deviantart.com/neoduelgx/art/My-Character-Inspiration-Meme-831348312

Funny, unlike for Meryamun I didn't need a lot of characters to inspire me for creating Yumi. But that doesn't mean I didn't have any ! And at least I PROMISE this time it does fit the meme, no nees for extras in the post

The White Wolf : I didn't draw her yet in her werewolf form, but it would be highly inspired from him (or her if it's Aniu). Similar head shape/face and eyes, almost entirely white, just as fluffy, looks cold and strict

Jordan Sands : young girl turned werewolf which multiplied ×1000 her strength, hunger to the point of drooling and pilosity, nerdy, wears glasses, learned to love and feel much freer with this curse turned gift

Thomas : this comic series my mom would read to me as a kid is probably thanks to which I imagine werewomves shaped like that. So same body typr aside, young person turned werewolf adter surviving a werewolf ambush, learned to control, embrace and love this new side hot in-universe for furries/monster fuckers

Madame Pandora : regal, overall immortal MILF vibes, loving and can look sweet yet can also look cold, co-lead of the house with her husband whom she loves a lot no matter the centuries, good mother who values her kids' intelligence and skills and is motherly to their friends and kids in general, still she can be terrifying and is ready to kill those who hurt who she loves and she is not innocent from attacking humans out of blood lust. Can also be vain and likes to take care of herself. Also used to be poor human in a dramatic situation and almost was killed by a lust-driven man, but was saved just in time and turned into what she is now instead

Morticia Addams : regal, classy and elegant, MILF too sorry to say it that way, calm and stoic (when not angry or hungry), billionaire, absolutely horny and in love with her husband, good mother who deeply loves her son and daughter and wants them happy

Hulk : ever since she learned to turn into a werewolf outside of the full moon it may backfire into her turning into one out of rage if provoked too much, she is way much stronger and destructive in these moments. Note she is also completely uncontrollable and "brainwashed" with no memory of what she did when there is a Blood Moon too

Genka Kunahito : she is who I had in mind when I designed Yumi, a strict and cold-looking albeit pretty middle aged woman with glasses, lipstick, dark hair combed in a low bun, and the same stock pose. Also Japanese and actually warmer than she looks (if she knows and likes you)

Kaeloo : due to never having had friends before she can be drastically just as childish and playful with hers, also she often acts as the mom of whatevet group she is, even when she was an alpha to younger werewolves. But also VERY hot tempered and actually anxious, transformating her into a big muscular violent angry creature which she learned to control and love even if sometimes it can happen without her control (sudden rage or blood moon). She also was sort of a tsundere easily flustered and angered at Meryamun when they were still rivals but the deeper they bonded and he became less of a jerkass the more lovestruck and hornier she got. She actually had a long prudish phase (she became free from sex work and intended to no longer hear about sex again) closetting her horny thoughts notably for the guy she crushed on but her pervy side finally took her over as she accepted she was in love

Marge : loving and supportive wife and husband with a similar grunt when annoyed or upset. Plus even if she does help with Meryamun's businesses and money and is a writer she mostly is a house wife

Homer Simpson : due to being a werewolf she is VERY easily hungry and can basically eat anything without getting sick (or fat in her case) anytime, wolfing (lol) down anything not gracefully at all which freaks out and disgusts a lot of people. Absolutely adores her spouse's cooking more than anyone else's and greatly appreciates his treats and literally drools. In fact as smart as she is food is the only topic she loses braincels for and is willing to get food poisonned just for satisfying her appetite

[plus-size-reader]

Should Be

Damon Salvatore x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 2897 words

Warnings: none

Summary: Damon’s human partner gets jealous of Katherine when she gets out of the tomb.

—————————————————————————————————

Katherine coming back from the tombs wasn’t ideal for anyone.

There was a reason she’d been locked away for as long as she had and really, you didn’t get why they were letting her out in the first place.

The world was going to keep turning whether or not they let her be a part of it. At least, that was what Damon had assured you when the news broke that she had resurfaced.

You didn’t want to care.

In reality, her coming back to Mystic Falls wasn’t any of your business. You hadn’t ever had anything to do with her, and you wouldn’t, even if she came back.

Still, it would be a lie to say that you weren’t really comfortable with it.

The two of them, Katherine and Damon, they had quite a bit of history and you just couldn’t fit the feeling in the pit of your stomach that it was going to be bad news for you. It just didn’t seem right.

Maybe you were jealous, or insecure, or something like that but it didn’t really matter. All you knew was that you weren’t itching for her to come back into any of your lives.

Damon was different, for the better, than when the two of you met but Katherine had quite the hold on him for a really long time and you were worried how her poking around in your lives would affect him.

It couldn’t be good, even if she was magically on her best behavior, somehow.

You just didn’t see that happening.

You weren’t jealous, of course, you had to keep reminding yourself of that. You and Damon had been together for several years, and you knew that he loved you. It was the sort of connection that you’d never had with another person, having been enthralled with him ever since he saved your life.

As it would turn out, that was quite the bonding exercise.

However, no experience you and Damon had ever shared could compare to all the time he and Katherine had been together.

They had been in love, and whether it was real for her or not, Damon had never really even gotten over her betrayal. He cared about her deeply, and you couldn’t imagine how seeing her again would make him feel.

Until recently, you thought that you trusted Damon more than anything.

You trusted him with your life for God's sake and you were sure that nothing would ever change that, but evidently, Katherine had decided to challenge that notion.

Ever since she’d come back into all your lives, she had made a choice to just inject herself into every situation you were in. Even now, from where you were in the bathroom brushing your teeth, you could hear her talking to him in the adjacent bedroom.

It was nothing more than pathetic small talk about their past together but it was more than enough to make your blood boil.

You knew more than enough about the bond they had shared and the time they spent together, you didn’t need to hear it from her on top of everything else that was on your plate.

She might not have been too much of a real threat to you, because you knew that no matter what she did, there was no undoing what she’d done to him but that didn’t make you like her any better.

Frankly, even knowing that, you’d had enough of Lady Katherine.

Her presence here, where you lived, was like a slap in the face.

Decades had passed since they were even in the same room and even then, she had done nothing more than treat him like dirt.

It seemed like common sense that she was just going to do it again, but he was letting her. Damon was barely even putting up a fight and really, you were finding it hard to believe.

After everything that she had put him through, why would he even entertain her presence in this place.

He didn’t owe her anything, not anymore.

You thought that what you and Damon had was more important to him than anything else, but if her coming back into his life was enough to make him question that, it said a lot.

So, even though you wanted to go tell her to get out, you kept it to yourself.

Not well, but you kept it to yourself.

You may have been brushing your teeth more aggressively than you ever had in your entire life, but you hadn’t said anything yet.

For you, that was a win.

Deep down, you weren’t really worried about losing him to her. If Katherine had actually bothered to get to know him all those years ago, she would know that Damon was one of the most devoted and loving men in the world.

He was now, and you were sure that he had been before all this.

You just had to break down those walls of his first.

It took some time but it was well worth it once you earned his trust. You knew that he would do anything for you, and anyone else he loved, she just didn’t actually care.

Not that it mattered to her what kind of bond you two had.

As far as she was concerned, you were just some temporary fling that Damon would get bored of and feed off of at some point, like he did most of the others. He had never actually kept a girlfriend around for very long.

He wasn’t the kind, and in any case, she was sure that you couldn’t hold a candle to her.

She had a hold on him that had lasted, at least somewhat, for all the time that she’d been locked away and in a matter of days, she was sure she could have the raven-haired male eating out of the palm of her hand.

It was that easy.

All she had to do was prove it, and at this rate, it wasn’t going to take long at all.

Here she was, sitting new to him on your fancy little bedspread with him, practically hanging on her every word while you were tucked away. Before long, she wouldn’t have to put up with you anymore at all.

He was bound to come to his senses at some point, and she had nothing but time.

She could wait it out.

Tonight though, she couldn’t have gotten away from you that easily.

You could only hide away in the bathroom for so long and once that time had run out, you entered the bathroom with a casual sigh leaving Katherine’s lips at the sight of you.

Just when she was starting to bring up all those good memories they shared, here you came to ruin it all.

“Could you please move over?” you asked, only looking at her as much as you absolutely had to, catching the tail end of an eye roll that you would have been okay with missing entirely.

All she did was scoff, clearly inconvenienced.

“Why? Am I hurting you here?” she asked, not bothering to cover up the hatefulness in her tone, not that you or Damon was surprised. Speaking of, the dark haired male was still just sitting there, waiting for someone to lunge at the other.

He wasn’t a huge fan of her being here either, but he was trying to be civil.

There was a chance they would need her and burning that bridge too early could cause problems along the way, or at least that was what Stefan told him.

He’d lived without her for a long time and he’d be fine if she fell off the face of the earth tomorrow. Though, if she kept testing you, she may not make it until tomorrow.

She may have had the upper hand over you as far as vampire strength was concerned but you all knew that if she tried to do anything to you, he would turn her head so far around that she’d be the one really out of place.

He wasn’t going to let her hurt you, not if it really came down to it.

“That’s where I sleep,” you explained, gesturing to where she was, sprawled out on your side of the bed, without a care in the world. It wasn’t the kind of thing that you even thought you had to explain but she was pushing you.

She wanted to start a fight.

To Katherine, this was all a game and she had nothing to lose.

There were no rules and she was betting on the fact that she could break you with very little effort.

However, there was one thing she was forgetting. You and Damon shared something she could never hope to have with him, something she had given up a long time ago.

Love

You respected Damon and you cared about him.

The two of you were together through the good times and the bad, not just when you needed something from him or you were bored. In that way, she couldn’t hope to touch what you shared.

Still, there was one thing that worried you.

Katherine was gorgeous.

Her body was incredible, and she had no problem showing it off which she had made very clear tonight. Where you would have wanted to hide away and never go outside again, she just strolled around in nearly nothing, without a care in the world.

Emotionally, you and Damon couldn’t have been closer but physically, you couldn’t help but feel like she would beat you had there been some kind of competition.

Even you would have chosen her over you in that regard.

When she stood from the bed, dramatically throwing her hair over her shoulder to give Damon one final wink before leaving, you got a good look at her long legs, even further making you rethink yourself.

Why was Damon with you when he could have had her all this time? Sure, he didn’t know she was down there until today but now that he knew, there was nothing keeping him from picking her.

After she’d left, you plopped down on your side of the bed, immediately turning away from Damon and cuddling into your pillow.

You knew it wasn’t his fault you were having these thoughts about yourself, but you didn’t want to be around him right now.

You didn’t want him to be reminded of what he could have had.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked, after a few seconds of sitting in the dark, staring at the back of your head without a kiss on his lips. You always kissed him before bed, but tonight, you didn’t even seem to care if he was breathing.

It was unlike you and it worried him, not that he would ever admit it.

You didn’t answer right away, letting his words simmer in the air for a few moments as you thought about what you wanted to say. There weren’t really words that would make any sense to him.

From where he was sitting, you would seem jealous and out of your mind but this wasn’t about Katherine anymore.

For you, this was about how he’d settled with the wrong woman and you couldn’t help but feel like he was lying to you about his feelings.

How could he be attracted to you when you looked like you did?

You had asked him before, on a bad day when you woke up feeling huge and ugly, but this was different. Katherine prancing around here had shown you everything that you could have looked like.

What you should have looked like.

“It’s nothing, let’s just go to bed” you tried, far too physically and mentally exhausted to have this conversation.

For now, you just wanted to get some sleep, you could deal with Katherine and all her business tomorrow.

As for your body, that was just going to have to be tomorrow's problem as well. Physical exhaustion always won out over mental anguish, no matter how much you tried to force your own hand in that regard.

All you could hope was that you felt better in the morning, and maybe then, you could explain all this weird stuff to Damon.

~

You woke up to a cold bed, which was pretty much par for the course when it came to sleeping next to a vampire but when you rolled around and found he was gone, that was when you got a little worried.

That was new.

Damon never got out of bed before you, if he even got out of bed when you did, and you couldn’t help but be concerned about what he could have been doing.

Knowing Damon, it could have literally been anything.

Though, the last thing you expected to find when you turned the corner was the man you loved, trying and failing to make what smelled like chocolate chip pancakes and scrambled eggs.

“Good morning my love, would you care to explain why I went to bed without a goodnight kiss?” he wondered, focusing more on the glass of bourbon in his hands than the breakfast that was surely burning on the stove.

He always tried his best where the more domestic stuff was concerned but it just wasn’t his strong suit. He just wasn’t as much of a wiz in the kitchen as he liked to pretend that he was in moments like this.

“After I put out the grease fire you’re about to start” you sighed, moving the pan from the fire and setting it in the sink.

Damon wasn’t going to let you get off easy after last night, but the most you could do was buy yourself some time before you made an absolute fool out of yourself.

He wasn’t about to just let this go.

He never did.

“I’m serious, you got all squirrely after Katherine left” Damon prodded, his hands falling on your hips, which he used as leverage to turn you toward him, trapped between his body and the sink.

You sighed, desperately hoping that you wouldn’t have to have this conversation but knowing that you would.

It was embarrassing.

Part of you, the mature part, knew that this wasn’t that big of a deal but the other part couldn’t help but hate her. She wasn’t just some beautiful girl, Mystic Falls was full of those, but Katherine was a threat.

This was much more about how she was clearly trying to take Damon from you than actually just trying to be a friend to any of you.

She wasn’t that kind.

“Excuse me if I’m not thrilled to have your psychotic ex girlfriend prancing around in her underwear” you scoffed, not understanding what it really was that he was missing.

You were projecting, of course, but there was no real way around it. As insecure as Katherine made you, her being here was just as much of the problem. You didn’t want her injecting herself into your life.

It wasn’t her place, and the idea that he wanted you to somehow be okay with it was really messing with you.

“Cute”

From Damon, that was little more than a casual huff but he knew you better than to just believe that. It wasn’t like you to act like you did last night, not with him, even where she was concerned.

You were better than that.

You were better than her, that was why he didn’t think anything of her immature little games.

“Now the truth” he prompted, a soft smile on his face as he waited for you to tell him what was really eating at you. This had been dragging out for way too long, and he really just wanted to get it over with.

He wanted to help  you feel better, and he would do anything he could to make that happen, you both knew that.

Damon would have gladly turned her inside out if it would make a difference, but first, you had to tell him what was bothering you. He was good, but he wasn’t that good. You had to give him something to go off of.

“She is what I should be, what you deserve” you muttered, the words barely leaving your lips as you thought about them. You didn’t want to admit it to him, almost as much as you didn’t want to admit it to yourself.

You didn't like that she got under your skin, because she knew that she could. The more you let her, the more she got what she wanted.

...and you hated that.

“I think I’d rather have you” Damon shrugged, not even hesitating in his response. Given the two of you, and the person that Katherine was, there was nothing in the world he would have rather had than you.

He definitely didn’t want her.

Katherine had turned her back on Damon a million and one times, and at the end of the day, she couldn’t have given a damn what happened to him but you weren’t like that. You had the biggest heart of anyone he’d ever known, in several lifetimes.

There was nothing he wouldn’t trade, if it meant that he got to keep you.

At the end of the day, you were his person and he knew a good thing when he had it.

[secret-kpoplibrary]

Inspiring Romance Pt. 7

Pairing: Yoongi x Plus-sized Reader

Word Count: 2.3k

Warnings: well- there's some bonding over trauma, mentions of dead parents- that's mostly it

Genre: this is actually really fluffy with a couple doses of angst

Summary: You spent years happily taking care of an old man who surprisingly leaves you a huge gift when he passes. To your surprise, this gift has brought his grandson to your doorstep. Unfortunately, his grandson is one frustratingly arrogant piece of work and now thanks to his grandfather you're stuck with him for three months. You're sure his grandfather rolling in his grave watching the two of you fight every day and as much as you'd like to get along with him for his grandad's sake- he just makes it so hard to like him that you think you'll strangle him before he leaves this place. There's simply no way this could be worse.

***

A knock on your bedroom door frame pulls your attention away from a book you've borrowed from Mr. Min's library. Yoongi leans against your door frame with his arms crossed.

"Need something?" You tilt your head at him.

"I have a kind of intrusive question for you." Yoongi says.

"Like- who would win in a fight versus a bear intrusive or delving into some sort of trauma intrusive?" You ask.

"Possibly the second one? I don't know for certain if it'll be traumatizing but- it's definitely not who would win in a fight with a bear but- who's fighting a bear?"

"I guess no one since that's not what you're asking about."

"I mean yeah but like- where did fighting a bear come from?"

"I mean sometimes you get like really random questions that pop into your head- I've had people ask me about fighting wild animals before- this is not what you came in here for though. Right?"

"Right."

"Okay so, ask your question." You place the book on your bedside table to give Yoongi your attention.

"You told me you were raised by humans that knew your actual parents so- have you like tried finding your birth parents?" Yoongi asks sitting on the edge of your bed.

"I've looked for them yeah. My bio parents are dead." You say.

"Oh- I'm so sorry." Yoongi frowns.

"I mean I never knew them. Sure it sucks that I like- can't learn about being a wolf from them or ever get to talk to them but my parents were okay at the parent thing and luckily I learned lots of the important stuff from your granddad." You shrug.

"Do you know what happened to them? If you don't mind me asking."

"I don't actually. I'm sure I could find out but- their cause of death really wouldn't make me feel any better about them being dead so I didn't dig too far." You shrug.

"That's- yeah that's fair."

"I'm not really a fan of what the internet calls trauma bonding but- your parents died when you were young too, yeah?" You muse. Yoongi chuckles a bit before answering,

"Yeah- I was like 8 when it happened." He says.

"I'm assuming you know what happened to them?"

"Nothing dramatic. It was a car accident."

"Was it hard? Like- I mean- I know I was sad when I learned of my parents' death but I didn't know them so I was mostly sad about the fact that I would never get that chance. I can't imagine how it would feel if I already knew them. Plus moving in with your granddad I mean- couldn't have been easy." You pull your legs towards you and rest your chin on your knees.

"Honestly moving in with my gramps was the easiest part. He was always part of my childhood even before my parents died so, moving in with him felt natural. The hard bit was just realizing that he was all I had left. Don't get me wrong he did the best he could raising me but- he wasn't my mom." Yoongi shrugs.

"And your aunt wasn't around you said once yeah?"

"Nah not really. Since our family doesn't belong to a larger pack I really only saw her and my cousins on mandatory family gathering holidays but- she couldn't be around me for years because I looked so much like her dead sister she said."

"Well- you do look a lot like your mom, even more so when you were a kid." You muse.

"How do you know that?" His brow furrows at your observation.

"Mr. Min has photos of you and your parents and your aunt and Lisa all over the place. His study, his room, the library. There's a few in the main hallway too, though those are mostly just of him and you and then him and your mom and aunt- have you never noticed?"

"I guess not, no. I don't often go into his study or room really." Yoongi mutters.

"Oh, he also liked to tell stories about the photo albums he kept. He had an impressive recall for the things he's got photographs of I mean- he's got holiday photos taken decades apart that he could recount as if both afternoons happened yesterday. It was remarkable honestly." You muse.

"Really? He told you stories about me?"

"You, Lisa, your mom and dad, your aunt. Especially in the last year he had so much he wanted to share. His favorite story was from a photo of you at your first soccer game."

"Oh God." Yoongi groans and you laugh as you continue the story.

"You sucked apparently, scored a goal in the opposing team's net but your grandfather used to tell that story and say he was the proudest parent on the field all afternoon because it was the first time you were genuinely interested in something after your parents died. He told that story in particular at least half a dozen times I think." You tell him.

"Wow- I had no idea he talked about me so much." He mutters.

"Not at first. You were kinda like a ghost." You chuckle.

"A ghost huh?" Yoongi laughs along with you.

"Just a tad." You put your fingers close together in front of your face, looking at him through the small gap with one eye. Yoongi throws his head back and lets out a loud laugh that brings a smile to your face. "This has been an- unusually heavy conversation for, three o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon." You muse.

"Yeah sorry about that- I was talking to a buddy of mine and he asked about you and I remembered I wanted to ask about your parents when you brought it up but the conversation went a different direction."

"A buddy of yours? Wow I didn't know you had friends. And why are they asking about me?" You frown. Yoongi rolls his eyes,

"First of all fuck you. I knew him as a kid and we lost touch for a while but we reconnected by chance on one of my travels. And he wasn't asking in a weird way just- we were catching up, he asked how I've been and I told him I was staying with my pop's caretaker so- he wanted to know what that was about."

"Oh you told him about the arrangement?"

"Not in detail, just that I was in town handling some things because my granddad died and you were staying at the house so we're just sharing the space is all."

"Handling some things- how diplomatic." You muse.

"Yeah well- we're friends but we aren't so close that I want him to know all the details of what goes on with my family." Yoongi says with a shrug.

"I guess that makes sense. Not every friend is close enough to know all your business. Sometimes you just chat and in your case travel." You nod.

"Do you travel at all?" Yoongi asks.

"Nowhere I haven't been able to just drive to." You shake your head.

"Where do you wanna go? If you could pick anywhere in the world. Where are you headed?"

"Greece. My first stop has to be Greece." You answer almost immediately.

"Athens is beautiful. I think you'd love it there."

"Maybe I'll go one day and I can let you know what I think." You shrug.

"You should go. I mean I'm sure you can afford it now- what with the money my gramps left you. Take a few days off and go."

"Oh- yeah you're right. I hadn't thought about it. I guess it's still settling that you know I have all this stuff because of him. I still don't understand where all this comes from. Your grandfather never really talked about his wealth."

"He owned a business. I know that's vague but since it's not something I ever had to worry about I don't remember really what he told me as far as what he did." Yoongi shrugs.

"Oh- you didn't take it over?" You frown.

"Nah the business went to my aunt before I was even born." Yoongi shakes his head.

"Any reason in particular why?"

"My mom wasn't nearly interested enough to run the business. And good thing too. Like- imagine pops hands off the business to my mom and both my parents die before I'm old enough to do anything with an entire company. Granddad's now stuck running the business he's already retired from."

"Guess that worked out well."

"Yep. Hey- look at us, finally becoming friends." Yoongi says laying back.

"And with just three weeks until we go our separate ways and maybe never speak again." You smirk. You're partially kidding, but you know it's very possible you and Yoongi won't stay in touch after this.

"Hey- you think I'm gonna take the money and you'll never see me again?" Yoongi quirks an eyebrow at you.

"Well- you weren't exactly dying to be around here when you had family in this house- certainly your granddad's old caretaker isn't enough to tie you to this place." You muse with a teasing smile.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say tie me to the place. I mean with all my traveling I barely see lots of my friends- but it's easy to keep in touch if I want to."

"Sounds like you actually like me." You poke his side.

"It seems like my pops wasn't so crazy to think we'd get on well. Turns out you're pretty cool." Yoongi shrugs.

"Oh please as if I was the one who had to prove I was cool." You scoff.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He laughs.

"If I remember correctly one of us had a really nasty attitude when we first met and it wasn't me."

"Yeah alright that's uh, that's pretty fair. But hey I'm not all angsty attitudes and angry dispositions."

"I've noticed. There's more than asshole to you. Who woulda thought."

"Hey! Do I give off one dimensional energy?"

"Well when for a month straight all you do is pick fights-" you trail off with laughter when Yoongi narrows his eyes at you and his mouth sets into a pout.

"Fuck off!" He grumbles though there's no real anger behind it.

"I've seen you actually angry you know, you can't fool me." You poke his cheek.

"Maybe declaring this as a friendship was a mistake." He says.

"Aw- now I know we're friends." You laugh boisterously.

"No- I change my mind. You're annoying."

"I could go back to not talking to you?" You suggest.

"Well you can't do that- It'll be maddening in silence."

"So quit complaining, loser."

"You this bossy with all your friends?"

"Only when I have to be which when it comes to you seems to be a lot of the time."

"Sounds like you just called me incompetent."

"Hear whatever you want darling." You shrug with a smile. Yoongi quirks an eyebrow at you but doesn't say anything. After a moment of pointedly staring at you, he makes himself comfortable on your bed by laying back and closing his eyes.

"Do you just plan to spend the rest of your afternoon laying in my bed?" You ask, tilting your head at him.

"If it's all the same to you, I think I will."

"You don't have anything better to do?" You ask curiously. You grab your book off of the night table and flip to the page you bookmarked upon Yoongi's entry.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you don't want me here. Got something to hide from me lemon drop?"

"Lemon drop?" You blink at him over the top of your book. He opens one eye to look at you with a smug smile.

"Yes- lemon drop. You're not wearing earplugs now are you?"

"Of course not idiot I just- that's kinda random."

"Lemons are sour."

"Gee I had no idea."

"Let me finish you brat. You're sour too but like- the kind of sour that's not unbearable and it gets better over time. Like a sour patch kid. But lemon drop is a cuter nickname."

"Didn't realize we're at nickname status."

"I think we are. Do you disagree?"

"Give me a few days to come up with one for you and I'll get back to you on that." You tell him.

"Take your time." He tells you.

"This friendship is developing quite interestingly."

"You changed the subject on me lemon drop." Yoongi sits up to look at you.

"What are you talking about?" You frown putting your book down on your lap.

"I asked if you had something to hide from me."

"Nothing I don't hide from most people." You shrug.

"Hey we live together-"

"Oh come on we get along now but it's not like we're in this situation because we were best friends and thought it'd be fun. Why should I tell you all my secrets? Have you told me all of yours?" You muse.

"Fine. Have your secrets if you must."

"Not that I needed your permission but I will thank you very much." You say lifting your book back up to actually get back to reading now. Mr. Min had several books about werewolves from history, to medicine, to folklore, to biology and whatnot. Without him, you've been making greater use of the books to learn all you can, though you're surprised books like this exist.

"Do you really think we're not gonna speak again after I leave?" Yoongi asks after a long breath of silence.

"Do you really think we are?" You ask back.

"I mean- I think we can if we want to. Staying in touch isn't hard." Yoongi's noncommital answer makes you quirk an eyebrow at him.

"I think the question you really wanna ask me is if I want to speak after you leave then, yes?"

"It doesn't matter that much to me I'm just- curious, you know about how you think the friendship will go." He shrugs.

"I think the friendship will suffer greatly if you don't drop the cool guy act and get real." You scoff with a smile. "In all seriousness when you first got here I wanted you to drop dead at the doorstep but- I guess you've grown on me. I'm not too shy to admit that the quiet will certainly be weird to get used to. Although this house is so big sometimes I have no idea where you are anyhow."

"Yeah- I've gotten pretty used to having you around too." He says.

"Well in that case- maybe we will continue to speak after you've gone." You tell him.

"I'd like that."

"Hm, I think I would too." You decide with a nod. Yoongi allows that answer to end your conversation for now but he does spend the rest of the afternoon in your room, doing his own thing and enjoying being in your space. It's an interesting development really, you've never just spent time together silently but you realize maybe it wouldn't be so weird if this were normal.

***

Part 7/???

Tagged Users: @schokoshaker @tarahardcore @scuzmunkie @yoongiigolden @atomickoala @shesaysweirdthings

[the-insomniac-emporium]

I love your writing.

if it's not too much trouble may i make a request? I'm thinking the Dimitrescu women meeting and/or courting a fellow immortal.

the circumstances of the immortal's powers and possession of immorality are entirely up to you. I just like the idea of them meeting someone they could literally spend forever with...because they deserve it ❤

I wasn't sure if you wanted a story or headcanons? I went with HCs, here, but if you wanted more of a drabble or whatever just lemme know and I'll write something like that.

Also, I got excited and carried away so this has the whole Dimitrescu family, plus shorter ones for both Mother Miranda and Donna. Admittedly Alcina's is also a little on the shorter side? I tried to write everything that came to mind, but I am kinda tired right now, sorry. Might reblog this and add some more later.

(Under read-more for length)

Cassandra:

Tries (and fails) to hide her excitement. Mortality is one of the bigger things that has made her keep her distance to others, at least in the past. Every Maiden she’s ever been the slightest bit smitten with, up until this point, has been incredibly fragile. Seeing as she’s not exactly the softest person, one can easily imagine why that would be a turn off for her. But now that’s no longer a problem!

On the other had… having an immortal partner gives Cassandra pause. Why? Because what if they breakup? Normally, she can just, ahem, “dispose” of any exes (regardless of how much it hurts) so she doesn’t have to see them/deal with them anymore. If that’s not an option, she’ll definitely take longer than usual to do anything about her feelings. She wants to be sure, 100%, before she gets in over her head. Chances are she won’t hold back for as long as she wants though.

Likely to have a loud, messy confession. She’ll have been avoiding you for a few days, always ducking out of whatever rooms you enter, leaving you both hurt and confused. After enlisting the help of her sisters, you’ll be able to corner her outside. She’ll tell you, under no uncertain circumstances, to leave her alone. But you’ll refuse, demanding an explanation.

“I thought we had something. I thought you cared,” you’ll snap, eyes watering. “If that’s changed… if I was wrong, just tell me. I’ll leave and I’ll never come back.” Cue thunder and raining (because tropes) and Cassandra dramatically pulling you into a kiss, holding you so tightly you think you might bruise. Then she’s demanding that you stay, refusing to apologize but making it clear just how much she does care.

Being immortal, you’re not as defenseless as some of Cassandra’s past interests. Naturally, she doesn’t get quite as protective as she normally would. She’ll still have your back no matter what, ready to fight by your side against any foe, and will probably consider doing so a “fun bonding activity”. Oh, some lycans are encroaching on Dimitrescu territory? Time to go destroy them, as a power couple!

Despite having all the time in the world, Cassandra won’t change much of her actual courting behavior, nor the rate at which things advance. She’s still gonna get handsy fairly early on, still gonna “rah!” at you in the hallways, and still going to struggle with her jealousy.

Immortality Compatibility: I can see Cassandra going for another vampire (or vampire adjacent) creature, or someone demonic. She likes her lovers a bit rough, with some nice bite to their personalities. If you’ve got sharp teeth, or claws, or glowing eyes? Oh boy, she’s gonna be making heart eyes at you all the time.

Bela:

If your immortality isn’t immediately obvious, Bela is over the moon with joy when she finds out. Her eyes will go wide for a moment, before she tries to seem calm (so as to not freak you out), but her heart is pounding. This is what she’s been hoping for. As much as Mother Miranda has done for her family, there’s no guarantee that she’d be willing to give more. Even if Miranda granted Bela’s lover her “gift”, there was no telling what the results would be, or if the lover would survive. Now that there’s no need for such a transformation, it’s far easier for Bela to imagine herself in love (and eventually be in love).

Slow-burn romance over a decade or longer, oops. Doesn’t even necessarily mean to take things so slowly, just doesn’t feel a need to rush things, preferring that they develop organically. With both of you having unlimited time, you’re both used to working on a very large timescale. Maidens watching the two of you probably place bets on how long it’ll take you to hold hands for the first time. Everyone knows it’s coming, but no matter how much Cassandra and Daniela complain, Bela refuses to jump into things. By the time the two of you are officially together, you’re probably madly in love with each other.

More protective than Cassandra, if only because she knows just how rare you are. Immortal or not, you likely still have a weakness, and Bela will do everything in her power to make sure no one else knows what it is. If applicable, she will also ensure she has a countermeasure readily available. For example: If you were weak to fire, she’d make sure that the castle keeps extinguishers handy, just in case. Though they should probably already do that. Not that the Dimitrescu family cares much for OSHA compliance.

Somehow grows more in love with you with every passing year, and makes sure that you know this. Whether you’ve been together for one year or one century (because in this house we ignore canon), she’s always performing little acts of love, giving constant reminders of how strongly she feels. Gifts, special dates, book recommendations, etc.

Immortality Compatibility: Bela seems like the type to go for someone with a calming presence, and perhaps somewhat of a contrast to herself. I can picture her with someone somewhat angelic, or druidic, someone very in tune with nature. She’d love to feed deer with you and relax in the forest! Or lay against a tree by your side, listening to you talk about various microorganisms for hours at a time.

Daniela:

Practically tackles you when she finds out/connects the dots. This is just like one of her romance novels, where a lonely (attractive as fuck) immortal spends years in isolation before finally meeting the love of their life, who they get to spend the rest of eternity with. Absolutely ecstatic about the whole situation. Won’t stop kissing you and pulling you close, rambling about how great it’s gonna be to spend your lives together. Honestly? Kind of overwhelming. You might have to remind her a few times that you don’t have to rush into things, considering you have all the time in the world.

Introduces you to people as her “super cool/rad immortal life partner”. Genuinely cannot bring herself to not brag about you. If her sisters haven’t found someone like you yet, you can bet that Daniela will tease them about it all the time (much to their annoyance). If Momma Alcina doesn’t, though? Dani will keep her thoughts to herself, thank you very much (being grounded at her age does not impress the s/o).

Tries not to show it, but she’s actually very nervous. You’re immortal! You’ve probably seen a lot of shit (she certainly has)! Worries about keeping you interested in her, though she would never admit it. This tends to lead to her performing ridiculous acts to showcase her affection, regardless of the cost or, like, whether or not you’d even enjoy whatever she has planned. In order to counter her anxiety, you’ll want to reassure her whenever you can, and give her plenty of “I love you”s.

Strikes a decent balance between Cassandra’s nonchalant attitude and Bela’s protectiveness. Will defend you if you need it, playing up the romantic aspect, but also entirely willing to hide behind you in a scary situation.

Immortality Compatibility: Having probably read Twilight… Dani would date a werewolf, as long as they weren’t the smelly kind. Also interested in a sort of “magical”/elemental type, especially if their powers are influenced by emotions. In other words, if someone flirts with her in front of you, and your response is to subconsciously light your hands/the other person on fire? She thinks that’s hot, pun intended.

Alcina:

“Oh? Interesting,” she’d say, smiling softly (and trying to ignore the heat rushing to her face). Similarly to Cassandra, she’d try to play it off, not wanting to seem too excited. And, well, she’s not as excited as any of her daughters are. After all, she’s had more time than them to “get used” to the idea of outliving any potential romantic interests. So, she’s not exactly desperate for a relationship, even with someone she could spend an eternity with.

That being said, if she is romantically interested in them, she’s very relieved. Outliving a loved one can be incredibly traumatizing (fuck you c*pcom, you know what you did), and knowing that you’re safe (or at least safer than most) brings her no small amount of comfort.

Also, just glad to have another person close to her age around. Her daughters are somewhat stuck as young adults, and I imagine Alcina would want someone who gained immortality a little later in life, such as herself, as opposed to, ya know, reminding her of her children. That probably goes without saying. Hopefully.

More so than her daughters, Alcina would change her level of protectiveness depending on her s/o’s power level. If you’re a shapeshifter who can also turn into a big ass dragon? Then she’s not going to coddle you. If you’re immortal but still vulnerable, then she’s going to do her best to keep you safe, even going so far as to enlist the assistance of her daughters. “If you see a single Maiden growing mistletoe, or bringing some in from the village, let me know immediately,” or something like that, depending on your weakness.

Immortality Compatibility: Definitely would want someone in a situation similar to herself, having once been truly human, only to be “elevated” by something. Bonus points if you’re another disciple of Miranda, double bonus points if Miranda specifically “made” you to be Alcina’s boo/honey/darling/dear.

Bonus! Mother Miranda:

Oh god finally someone who won’t leave her (can’t leave her). No one can take you away from her, and that’s a relief that she’s been craving for over a century. Even if romance isn’t high on her priority list, she welcomes it with open arms, glad to have someone by her side through all of life’s chaos.

Admittedly slow to trust at first, probably just using you as a tool at first. But prove yourself enough, show that your devotion is more than just misdirected self-interest, and she’ll start to warm up to you. Forming a real relationship would likely take a couple decades, similar to with Bela. Once you are together, however, the two of you are inseparable in all matters.

You’d be her #1 follower, most trusted adviser, and the only person allowed to understand 100% of her thoughts and motives. While Miranda wouldn’t allow you to be seen as the same level as her (sorry), you’d still be a legend among the villagers. To them, you’re Mother Miranda’s champion, the epitome of a devoted follower that they all aspire to emulate. Not that they know the two of you are a couple, though.

Immortality Compatibility: No gimmicks, no cheap tricks, she wants (and respects) a fellow scientist, someone who clawed their way through adversity and forged themselves into something indestructible. Double the interest if you did so for a similar cause to her own, as she would appreciate your ability to relate to her suffering.

Bonus! Donna:

Someone to play with! FOREVER! No more losing people she cares about, no more accidentally breaking people, no more people scrambling to leave. Now that she has you, she can finally spend some quality time with another (living?) person. Honestly her dolls (or at least Angie) are just as excited as she is. Regardless of her relations with the other three Lords, Donna much prefers the company of a lover.

For real though she’s shy as hell and you might not even realize who’s pulling the strings until you’ve been in her house for over a year. She’d probably use her powers to trap you inside, at least at first, though they’d be nice hallucinations. You’d have to treat the dolls nicely, especially Angie, before she’d let you interact with her.

Eventually you’d be allowed to leave, and you’d be given a key to return whenever you wanted to. Assuming that you do, in fact, come back, the two of you would have a very, very slow romance, if only because of Donna’s anxiety. Hand holding makes both of your faces turn beet red, seriously.

Immortality Compatibility: *chanting* GHOST GIRLFRIEND GHOST GIRLFRIEND POLTERGEIST PARTNER POLTERGEIST PARTNER WOOHOO! Something with a flexible, only-sometimes-tangible form, who absolutely could have left at any time but didn’t because they wanted to stay.

[chloe-skywalker]

Like Or Bond - Bruce Banner ft. Natasha Romanoff

(Part 1/4)

Bruce x daughter reader

Natasha x fem!reader

Peter x fem!Reader

Warnings: none

Word count: 836

Requested: Hi I was wondering if I could request a Bruce Banner daughter reader fic where she is a teenager and he didn’t know about her and when they meet eachother him and Nat like her but she ends up bonding with Nat and they become like a family? Sorry if thats long or too complicated. Thank you! - @Anon

Authors Note: Thank you for requesting this! It wasn’t to long or complicated. It was nice to know how you wanted it to go. I know I wrote it in a way when you’re going to read this might not be expecting but I liked that it came out unlike what you’d probably see many imagines with the same for this request. I enjoyed writing it. I made it into 4 parts cause I kept adding and adding so it just kept going lol.

Masterlist

Avengers Masterlist

Like Or Bond Masterlist

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

“Hey! You gonna help me with the new recruits?” Tony asked the team as he waited in with a bunch of holopads.

“What new recruits?” Bruce asked as they all picked up one of the pads.

“Some new internship program.” Nat spoke out loud as she looked over the files.

“Its my new internship program.” Tony added confirming what Natasha was right.

“So how long does it last?” Wanda asked noticing that there seemed to be a time stamp on the application copies.

“Well, only two will stay at the end of the 3 month trial. Those two will have the full internship for the rest of the school year.” Stark explained as he sat down on the couch, placing his feet on the coffee table.

“Your making them compete?” Steve asked with a furrowed brow. ‘Why did Stark always make everything a competition?’ he thought.

“Yes. I want to see who wants it more, but stays professional.” Tony confirmed, plus it would be amusing to watch as well.

“Who are these kids your just letting into the Avengers tower?” Steve asked looking through the files.

“First of all actually my tower. An second of all I did background checks and DNA test on every single one. I do have one coming in that doesn’t have to fight for it.” Tony corrected with his usual sass holding one hand up for effect.

“Why not?” Romanoff asked with a slightly tilted head. She’s known Tony the longest and its not something Tony would do.

“She’s Peter’s friend. She’ll work with him and me personally. It’s a different internship for her.” he elbratoted with a sigh for dramatic effect. But that’s Tony. The fact that she’s a friend of Peter’s explained it all to Nat.

“Just like Peter’s?” Bruce asked looking up from her file that Tony had pulled up on all of their holopads.

“Correct.” Tony nodded

“An you just gave her it?” Clint questioned not fully buying that Tony Stark was just giving someone something.

“Well, she is Peter’s friend. I personally think their dating but hiding it till they see if she gets the internship. I have a personal bet going on. Any joiners?” Tony waved his hand around waiting for counter bets.

Steve shook his head. “So she gets it just cause she’s Peters friend, maybe girlfriend?”

Tony nodded “Well, that and she has the qualifications. Besides she’s Banner’s daughter.”

With those last few words Tony had managed to shock the entire room into silence.

“Wait-” Nat said but stopped still not being able to find words.

“What?” Steve was next to speak.

“I don’t have a daughter?” Bruce looked towards Tony completely and utterly confused.

“Well, you do now.” Tony answered

Bruce along with all the others were very confused and wanted- no needed more information. “Tony, what are you talking about?” Bruce pushed further, his voice was full of many emotions.

“She may not need to compete for the internship but I still ran the same tests. Her DNA is a match to Banners. Your names even on the birth certificate.” Tony gave more details.

Everyone was silent taking in all of Tony’s words. Bruce was sitting on the couch not far from Nat and Steve, Steve noticed Bruce’s body language. “You really didn’t know, did you?”

“No. I had no clue.” Bruce answered Steve with shaking his head before the words came out.

“Well, you’ll get to meet her soon enough. I have her file if you want to know some stuff about her.” Tony offered.

“Yeah.” Bruce nodded taking in all this new information.

^     ^     ^

Tony had given Bruce the file not long after dinner. Bruce had asked Natasha to come back to their room and look it over together. Nat of course agreed. Wanting to know just as much as Bruce did.

“She seems like an extremely bright kid.” Nat spoke first breaking the silence.

Bruce let out a breath rubbing his hands over his face. “Yeah. She does.”

“Are you ok Bruce?” Nat asked placing a hand on his shoulder.

Bruce sighed “I understand why she didn’t tell me. I would’ve done the same thing. But-”

“You still feel bad for not knowing and not being there.” Nat finished for him. Completely understanding what he was feeling. Its what she would expect him to be feeling.

“Yeah.” he breathed out.

“Well, you can’t change it now.” Nat sighed, she then reached up to cup his face and turn his head to look at her. “But you can be there for her.”

Bruce nodded looking her in the eye. She was right on both counts. But now he had another thing to wonder about. “How do you feel about it?”

Natasha smiled at him. “Bruce, I love you. Even if you have a daughter now. It does not change my feeling for you in the slightest.”

Now meeting and telling her were left. An how Bruce was gonna do that he had no idea. Maybe just come out with it.

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

hi hello, pushing the chifuyu x senju agenda here.

THEY HAVE THE SAME HOODIE??? THE ONE WOTH THE THREE BUTTONS??? And can we talk about how senju means “thousand curses” and chifuyu means “thousand winters” and they both start with the same character ??? I need this pairing for good health

All I can imagine is Chifuyu freaking out that he's been wearing a "girls hoodie" all this time. Being overly dramatic with "how will I ever live this down!?" While Inui, Takemichi and Hakkai side eyes him because he was seriously happy to wear that uniform but freaks out over this??? Meanwhile Senju is just confused because she actually got that hoodie from the boys section. But hey at least it gives them something to bond over. Plus if they ever do date then Senju is 100% stealing all of Chifuyu's hoodies.

[no-gorms]

What if… Tony’s brood of children don’t warm to Steve right away? Maybe Steve’s just a little too tense because he wants it to go well so bad and the kids pick up the desperate vibe. Maybe tho Tony never badmouthed Steve, it was national news and kids talk among themselves and jump to their own conclusions lol. Nothing to dramatic or mean, but Steve facing down these kids that are just blanking him because THEY aren’t sure what’s supposed to happen either is so funny to me. Maybe this meeting was premature and Tony was hanging with his mini crew when he gets called away only he can solve and Steve offers to step in.

Basically Steve having to win over Tony’s ducklings after he thought he was in the clear having made up with Tony. These include Peter+friends, Morgan and Harley and the bots/AIs plus any kids Tony SHOULD have taken under his wing. Nebula also comes by at some point, maybe Vision also pops in. We so often get the “Tony’s kids dare super protective of Tony against Steve” angle or the “everyone gets along perfect immediately!” But imagining this awkward, uhhhhhh now what? Is so funny to me.

(Also, I’m so sad MCU Tony didn’t get to mentor Riri and Kamala and Miles like he did in the comics 🥺 And he considered an uncle to Cassie Lang)

-----

Oh yeah awkwardness would be funny, as compared to outright hostility. Like Harley can be vicious but Peter is more a Polite Boy, and although Morgan would pick up Tony's complicated attitudes towards Steve (and Tony's occasional swears on the topic) she would perhaps be more curious about Steve, i.e. the person who gets such strong reactions out of her father. The bots, though, they'd definitely come to Tony's defense without him having to ask!

Steve would have to tailor-make his approach to each of them, but if they're all together, how does that work? Morgan keeps asking direct and borderline inappropriate questions, Harley keeps muttering under his breath, and Peter keeps apologizing on behalf of Harley but maybe sneaks in a comment about how if he were on a team with Mr. Stark he would never [thing] but he means that in the most respectful way Captain America, sir.

Maybe the best way to get them to bond would be for Steve to ask them to talk about Tony and what Steve has missed while he was away. Harley makes a joke about "away" being euphemism, but once the ball's rolling, it'd be hard for them to shut up, and they can see Steve's acute affection and regret all over his face.

[1dmonthlyficroundup]

1D Monthly Fic Roundup

Hi, and welcome to the 1D Monthly Fic Roundup for August 2021! Below you’ll find 23 One Direction fics that were all published this month in the order they were submitted to the blog. We hope you’ll check out these new fics! If you would like to submit your own fic, please check this post on how to submit or visit our blog @1dmonthlyficroundup​.

Happy reading!

He Carries The Key by @lululawrence

[Niall/Louis, OT5, 8k, Not Rated, tumblr post]

Niall was mostly home, ready for a shower and a chat with Louis, when suddenly Niall was flooded with emotions from the pack bond.Shock. Surprise. Confusion.But mostly fear.Something was wrong with Louis.

Plus One by mynameispiaivy / @missrefridgefreetorator

[Louis/Luke Malak, 3k, Mature, tumblr post]

Louis is invited to an event and he has to bring a "plus one".

Better Mistakes by lovelarry10 / @chloehl10

[Harry/Louis, 117k, Explicit, tumblr post]

“Look, this doesn’t have to be the end of the world-”

“Oh but it fucking is,” Louis said, shaking his head. “How the fuck am I going to tell Matt I’m pregnant with a baby when we’ve not had sex in months? He might be a bit thick sometimes, but he is gonna know there’s no chance this baby is his.”

“You don’t have to, uh, tell him it’s mine, right?”

Louis scoffed. “Why, are you scared he’s gonna come and kick the shit out of you?”

“He wishes,” Harry laughed, looking back down at the test. “Shit, I … I can’t believe this. Louis, I didn’t mean for this. Honestly. It was just sex for me. We have great sex, and I didn’t see why I should have to turn that down, not when you clearly wanted it as much as I did. I didn’t want this to end in a baby.”

Louis knows he shouldn’t be sleeping with his boyfriend’s enemy. He knows that. But there’s something that draws him back to Harry over and over again. Falling in love wasn’t part of the plan...

Thou, Sun, Art Half As Happy by @lululawrence

[Louis/Harry/Nick Grimshaw, 7k, Not Rated, tumblr post]

Hello, I’m sorry if this isn’t a post that is allowed on this channel, but I was hoping for the best since it is regarding a photography project I’m working on at the moment. I’m working on a set of sunrise kiss photos and therefore am needing a willing kissing partner. I’d hoped to be able to provide one for myself, but it hasn’t panned out, so here I am! I was hoping to find someone here, since I know most of you (at least peripherally) and can generally vouch for you not being creeps. Plus this way I know you will understand needing to continue to tweak the camera settings and reshoots etc that others might not.

Anyway, I’m looking for someone who identifies as male or male-ish (sorry, ladies) who is between the ages of 18 and 40. I’m a 29 year old male-ish myself, for those who would like to know before replying.

If you’re interested and are free the early morning of August 7th and would like to kiss in the sunrise with me for the sake of some (hopefully) interesting and fun photos, let me know via DM and I’ll give you the location.

OR the one where Louis needs a kissing partner, two show up, and it all might turn out for the best that way.

call my name and save me from the dark by @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed / we_are_the_same

[Louis/Harry, 4k, Teen & Up, tumblr post]

“I don’t know if it was a nightmare,” he confesses to the ceiling, the darkness making it easier to speak up even when he still has to close his eyes to stop himself from tearing up. “It feels more like a memory. But it can’t be.”

Harry shifts, and Louis can feel his chin perched on his chest, doesn’t need to look at him to know that Harry’s studying him. “Why?” He prompts, when Louis doesn’t immediately continue, and Louis swallows, tries to shrug off the apprehension, the fear that Harry will think that he’s gone mad.

“Because I heard them pronounce me dead.”

Feels like home by @neondiamond

[Louis/Harry, 2k, Explicit, tumblr post]

Louis comes home from work with an exciting surprise. Daydreaming and celebrations ensue.

this is my jam by @disgruntledkittenface

[Harry/Louis, 4k, Mature, tumblr post]

The guy’s eyes are so blue that Harry can’t tear his gaze away, even as he moves to the beat. The searing light shade is magnetic; he finds himself leaning in and yelling, “This is my jam!” only to earn a laugh from thin pink lips that Harry’s definitely going to be dreaming about tonight.

“Your jam?”

When the guy yells back over the music, his blue eyes sparkling and his lips twisted in a smirk, Harry’s chest literally puffs out with pride at earning his attention. His obvious approval. Tongue-tied, Harry nods and closes his eyes as he lets go, the music reverberating around them. All of the usual inhibitions that keep him in the corner at parties fall away and he bounces around the center of the dance floor, waving his arms above his head. Somehow his towel stays on, even as he starts to think he wouldn’t mind if it fell off. Fuck it. He finally made it here, he’s damn well going to enjoy it.

Harry goes to a gay bathhouse for the first time. 90s AU.

I Know My Arithmedick (2 + 2 = 4sum) by yeah_alright / @uhoh-but-yeah-alright

[Harry/Louis + Louis/multiple partners, 3k, Explicit, tumblr post]

Harry wants to watch Louis fuck someone else. Louis loves giving Harry what he wants. It’s simple math, really.

doG…and his friend by @uhoh-but-yeah-alright / yeah_alright

[Louis/Harry, 3k, Teen & Up, tumblr post]

When Joan has to move out of her small, nice home and in with a random roommate, she obviously brings her dog/boyfriend, Doug, with her.

Doug makes a friend. And maybe more.

I Heard You Talking by @lululawrence

[Louis/Harry, 10k, Not Rated, tumblr post]

It had been an hour of their noise that Louis had been dealing with, and for some reason the fact that these grown men were being this rowdy in the quiet carriage over a game of Uno was the breaking point for him. He stood up and turned around, making his way down to where the group of five were somehow gathered around a table.

Louis stopped at the table and cleared his throat, mouth open and ready to politely request they keep it down when the man who was sitting with his back to Louis turned.

He was stunningly gorgeous.

Blinking a ridiculous number of times in an attempt to pull himself together, Louis coughed and spit out, “This is the quiet carriage.”

God, he was nearly forty and that was the best he could do in front of a set of pretty, green eyes?

Or the one where Harry is famous and Louis doesn't have a clue. Good thing his son is able to help him out.

All That You Need by @haztobegood

[Louis/Harry, 2k, Explicit, tumblr post]

Pre-heat was always one of Harry’s favorite times to spend with Louis. It was a time to rest up and indulge in extra cuddles, like basking in a ray of sunshine before having to dive off the deep end. Louis lavishes him with tender touches and soft kisses. Harry wants to savor this time as long as possible. The unquenchable need will come later, but for now, his desires are simple. He just needed to be closer to his alpha. As close as possible.

sickly sweet fonding by amomentoflove / @daggerandrose

[Louis/Harry, 1k, General, tumblr post]

A few members of their crew start piling up the dirty dishes and taking them over to the sink. Harry walks around the cameras, and smiles brightly at Louis.

“What do you think, Lou? Do I have it in the bag?”

Louis eyes a bowl of bright pink lumpy batter being cleaned from Harry’s side. “Of course you do.” He wraps an arm around Harry’s waist and steers him away, all while ignoring the dramatic gagging Niall is doing. He doesn’t think it’s just the batter making Niall gag.

or the one where Louis fonds over Harry's horrible baking skills

Fractured Moonlight by amomentoflove / @daggerandrose

[Louis/Harry, 1k, Mature, tumblr post]

Louis huffs because he doesn’t want to deal with this. “Listen, I appreciate your concern.” He doesn’t. “But it’s not your duty to look after the sad man at the bar. Okay?”

'Ere comes the milk by stretchmybones / @onlyfor-thegays

[Harry/Louis, 1k, Explicit]

Louis is obsessed with Harry's mommy milkers.

everything comes back to you by stretchmybones / @onlyfor-thegays

[Louis/Harry, 8k, Explicit]

Harry and Louis are childhood best friends. What happens when Harry has to move towns just as they are starting their secondary gender presentations? What happens when fate brings them back together years later in the most unexpected of ways?

He Still Takes My Breath Away by @parmahamlarrie

[Harry/Louis, 32k, Teen & Up, tumblr post]

Camp Infinity is the perfect place for a lot of things; hiking, swimming, sports, eating, and falling in love. Harry Styles is a bit too familiar with the last one from his years of being a camper. This year things will be different. He’s 21, a grown man now, and ready to see Camp Infinity from a different point of view; working as a lifeguard. However, his whole summer turns upside down when a familiar British lad makes his return into Harry's life.Or the one where Harry is a lifeguard and Louis is the head of recreation. And, sometimes, you just need a little push to realize what was right in front of you the whole time.

Also known as – The Summer Camp Fic

tread lightly on my ground by fairytalelights / @lookslikefairytale

[Louis/Harry, 20k, Explicit, tumblr post]

No, that's the tragic part of this, the part that makes Harry feel like the universe is playing a cruel joke on him. The father of his baby is exactly right, exactly who he always imagined himself having kids with. He just imagined them married, bonded. Happy. He didn't imagine them barely talking, tip-toeing around each other because neither of them is brave enough to talk about what happened between them. He didn't imagine the father of his child not loving him back.

or, the one where Harry is having Louis' baby, but Louis doesn't know it's his.

Getting a Head for Heights by @ladyaj-13 / LadyAJ_13

[Louis/Greg James, 3k, Teen & Up, tumblr post]

The problem is, Louis thinks Greg would be quite good to date, so it would really help if everyone would stop reminding him of that fact so he could unthink it. He’d be a gentleman, at least until Louis talked him out of it, and he’s funny and nice and hot and they’re both into music and football and drama. He’s also a freakish giant of a human, and the problem with dating is that sooner or later you have to stand next to each other.

We Go Together (series) by @beelou / cherrylarry

[Louis/Harry, 3k, General, tumblr post]

A grease au

Hot Boy Summer (series) by @louisandtheaquarian / zita17

[Harry/Louis, 35k, Teen & Up, tumblr post]

Louis is an overworked bartender hoping to save up enough extra tips to buy a new air conditioner before he literally melts during a scorching NYC heat wave. Harry is the new neighbor that wakes him up by moving in his sole day off at 6am. An NYC enemies to neighbors to lovers AU featuring a rickety fire escape, the 2021 Euros, Lirry bickering like a divorced couple, and enough OT5 clichés to rot your teeth. (If Harry's pastries don't get them first.)

across the river is where my heart is by 4ureyesonly28 / @evilovesyou

[Louis/Harry, 8k, General, tumblr post]

The first time they see each other is when they are toddlers, playing out in the yard. Louis remembers sitting on the perfectly trimmed lawn and getting yelled at for picking at the soft blades of grass; she remembers looking over, across the narrow but deep and wild river, and watching another little girl, out in a different garden, picking flowers for her mother.

She remembers carefully raising her hand and waving—her little heart beating hard in her chest, as if she had done something dangerous, something forbidden, even though back then she could not understand the true divide the River made amongst them.

bright eyes, blue denim by 4ureyesonly28 / @evilovesyou

[Louis/Harry, 2k, General, tumblr post]

Louis' favourite jeans have suddenly disappeared from where he always got them. Harry is a store manager with an affinity for customer care, particularly when the customer has bright blue eyes and happens to be very flirty.

whatever you feel like doing in this moment by 4ureyesonly28 / @evilovesyou

[Harry/Louis, 2k, General, tumblr post]

Louis gets all that he's ever wanted during his favourite game at their group's weekly improv show.

[the-scandalorian]

Tempered Glass: Chapter 5

Pairing: Din Djarin x Female Reader Rating: M (will become explicit) Word Count: 6.4k Warnings: canon rewrite, slow burn, canon-typical violence, sexual harassment/unwanted sexual advances, cursing, sexy thoughts, pining Summary: When you’re caught in a firefight with a bounty hunter and the Crest is damaged, you and Mando stop on Tatooine to find a job. A shadow of your past catches up with you. Notes: Sorry not sorry for making Toro even worse than he already is. Taglist: @bbdoyouloveme @beskarhearts @dincrypt @dunderr @honey-hi​ @just-me-and-my-obsessions00 @mbpokemonrulez @red-leaders @speakerforthedead0 @theflightytemptressadventure @zoemariefit

Previous Chapter | Masterlist | Next Chapter

Image from The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian

After leaving Sorgan, you and Mando chose a second “backwater skughole” several systems away as your next destination. Mando set the nav, and the automated voice of the computer informed you that the trip would take almost five days. The thought of spending five days confined to the Crest was not appealing, but you knew it was important to keep your stops as remote as possible.

Time was a functionally meaningless concept in space anyways, hours and days bleeding together. Without the usual environmental cues to govern your circadian rhythm, you had to rely on a schedule to maintain some semblance of normalcy, keeping alarms on your chrono to remind you when to sleep. Mando, on the other hand, seemed so completely accustomed to this slippery sense of time that he needed no reminders; this was natural for him.

If you hadn’t already seen some of his skin, you might actually think he was a droid. Aside from his hard metal exterior, the most compelling piece of evidence to support this theory was the fact that he didn’t seem to need much sleep. He disappeared into his bunk for maybe four or five hours a day, plus twenty minutes here or there to eat. You suspected he settled into a half-asleep, half-awake hibernation mode when he sat in the pilot’s seat for hours at a time without moving. Once, he jolted so violently when the child sneezed that he had to catch him by his collar before he slid off his knee.

His relationship with the kid, though, was achingly, heartwarmingly, vulnerably human.

You lived for the glimpses of their bond—the way Mando would remove a single pauldron so he could rest the child’s head on his shoulder to lull him to sleep, whispering to him as he swayed gently. When the kid was restless and energetic from being cooped up, Mando would roll the little silver sphere from a control in the cockpit along the floor of the hull for him to chase. For a generally impatient man, his patience for the child seemed almost inexhaustible; he would hold him and pat his back endlessly while he wailed his way through particularly bad tantrums.

You collected these precious moments and held them close to your heart, unwittingly creating a catalog of comfort that you’d return to later. They weren’t necessarily your moments to claim, as a visitor in their world, but you treasured them nonetheless.

***

You were out of colored contacts. You could only wear each pair continuously for a month, and your current pair was due to be switched out any day. The morning you threw them away, Mando stopped you as you passed him in the hull with a light hand on your shoulder. The kid was tucked in his other arm.

He stepped in front of you, just inches away from your chest, tilting his helmet down to look at you. You looked up to meet his gaze, puzzled. He cocked his head, a silent question.

Not for the first time, you wondered about the color of his eyes.

You held your breath, unsure of what he was going to do.

He said nothing but brought his gloved hand up to your face, running this thumb along the crest of your cheek—so lightly, the leather was barely touching you. The tender gesture brought goose bumps to your arms, and your heart stuttered in your chest.

The kid reached up a tiny hand toward your other cheek, mirroring Mando’s movement. He babbled quietly, breaking the tense silence. You flicked your eyes down to watch him but remained still, not wanting to disrupt the spell of the moment. The baby wiggled his fingers and whined when he realized he couldn’t reach you. You smiled.

You looked back up into Mando’s visor. You wanted so badly to reach out and touch him back, to pull him closer, but you let fear keep you rooted to the spot.

To your astonishment, he dipped his helmet, as if he was going to lean his forehead against yours. He was inches from your face—you could see your surprise reflected in his visor and hear his steady breathing through the modulator. But Mando seemed to change his mind mid-gesture, and the moment was over before you knew it. He straightened, dropped his hand, nodded stiffly, and stepped past you. The child let out a frustrated cry in protest.

Without the kid’s lingering whines, you might have thought you imagined the whole thing.

Little by little, you were revealing your real self to the Mandalorian, placing your safety in his hands. This would have been harder to stomach if you weren’t getting pieces of him in return. Spending this much time in such close quarters with someone—even someone as closed off as Mando—was enough to get to know them fairly well.

For instance, you weren’t quite fluent, but you were getting really good at reading his body language. He relied on his armor to mask his intentions with strangers, and he wasn’t accustomed to people spending extended amounts of time with him—time to learn his patterns and tells. Over time, it became apparent just how many minute things there were to unpack: subtle tensions in his back and shoulders, clenching of his fists, tapping of his fingers, the lean in his hips, audible inhales or exhales, the tilt of his helmet. Plus, there were nuanced flavors of each movement: a sassy head tilt, an angry head tilt, a confused head tilt. Soon enough, you’d be able to create a dictionary of the Mandalorian’s body language. 

It was strange to think that you’d only been with him for a few weeks, and you might be the only person in the galaxy who could read him so well.

Something else you’d come to learn about Mando was that he was very particular about where his things were kept. This made sense—he’d clearly been living alone for years, if not decades. Of course someone with such a nomadic, unsettled lifestyle would want to carefully control what little in his environment that he could, but his compulsive organization was next level.

You came to this conclusion after you scooted his toothbrush and toothpaste over just slightly in the med cabinet to make a space for yours. The next morning, you opened the cabinet to find his things exactly where they had been before you’d moved them. You looked down to see that yours were sitting precariously on the edge of the sink, waiting to fall to the floor at the first sign of turbulence. Seriously?

That inspired you to devise a fun game—well, it was fun for you. You were pretty sure Mando hated it, though to his credit, he didn’t say anything about it for several days. Every day, you’d move one of his items just slightly to see if he’d notice and move it back. So far, he’d caught every tiny adjustment. He even reoriented his bar of soap when you moved it so it sat slightly off-kilter in its dish in the shower. He hadn’t even showered yet that day.

After three days, he finally cracked.

He was digging through a storage compartment, huffing dramatically though his modulator as he searched for something.

“I can’t imagine you’ve lost something,” you said, from where you were sitting on a crate sharing a ration pack with the kid, who was perched on your lap. “Not with how terrifyingly organized you are.”

“Yeah, well, that was only true before you started moving my stuff around.” 

You grinned. “I was wondering when you were going to say something.”

“I was wondering when you were going to stop,” he huffed, but you detected the lightest trace of amusement in his tone.

“I haven’t actually moved anything,” you laughed. “Just... adjusted.”

He harrumphed, still digging around in the box.

The kid chittered and reached toward your hand for more food. You gave him another piece.

“If you let me leave my toothbrush and toothpaste in the med cabinet, I’ll stop.”

He looked up. “That’s it?”

“I’m a reasonable woman.”

“Deal.”

When you went to brush your teeth that night, one of the three shelves in the med cabinet had been completely cleared for you.

As you slowly began to insinuate yourself into Mando and the kid’s life, the guilt of not telling him about the bounty on your head started to weigh heavier on your mind. He deserved to know, but you couldn’t imagine him letting you stay if he found out. Why would he assume any extra risk? I’ll tell him soon. We probably won’t be together much longer anyways.

***

“I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold.”

The unfamiliar voice of the bounty hunter echoed over the com in the cockpit. A ship was hot on your tail, landing several shots that rattled the Crest violently. The child, who was strapped into the seat beside you, seemed to enjoy the excitement of the chase, arms raised and giggling. Mando maneuvered the Crest quickly and deftly, so the pursuer was suddenly directly in front of the viewport.

“That’s my line,” he said dramatically, as he pulled the trigger and obliterated the ship in his sights.

Despite the fact that your heart was pounding in your chest, you couldn’t help but let out an exasperated laugh at that. 

The chase had been short-lived, but the hunter had managed to inflict some serious damage. Alarms beeped and warning lights flashed along the console.

“Losing fuel,” said Mando. He was working hastily, his hands flying from one control to the next. He was trying to address several warning alarms at once.

“You work on that. I got this,” you said, unbuckling.

You stood next to him, attending to the controls in front of you.

“What are—Don’t do that,” he said, “Stop. I need to—”

He didn’t finish his sentence when he realized you were doing exactly what needed to be done to stabilize the ship.

“I thought you said you worked in programming.”

“I did. Mostly avionics.”

The second thruster sputtered and died. The cockpit went dark. All of the usual mechanical sounds that the ship made whirred to a halt. Mando turned in surprise, looking around. He clicked a few buttons. Nothing happened.

The child giggled from his seat.

“I’ll get it.” You walked to the back of the cockpit and wrenched open a panel to do a manual reset of the controls. Some of the lights came back on. Mando flicked several switches, and the displays came alive.

Together, you got the ship in good enough shape to limp to a nearby planet. Luckily, you were already close to Tatooine. The Razor Crest rattled alarmingly as it cleared the atmosphere, and Mando landed the ship with an unceremonious clunk in a bay in Mos Eisley.

Mando left the now sleeping baby in his bunk, despite your objections. That never works. He walked down the ramp to haggle with the mechanic.

Peli was a gruff woman, sassy and straightforward. You liked her right away. Mando deserved the sass Peli dished out, considering he had begun their interaction by shooting at her pit droids when they tried to approach the Crest.

He really hates droids.

You and Mando headed to the cantina to inquire about work. As soon as the ship went dead, you’d both known you’d need to pull a job to pay to fix the damage because there was no way the Crest was making it to your destination in its current state.

You trailed a few steps behind him, watching the intimidating way he stalked down the sandy street, his cape billowing behind him. He seemed less scary now that you knew he secretly had a sense of humor and an occasional flair for the dramatic. And that he once let you sleep on his shoulder. And tied your shoe for you.

When you entered the cantina, you shivered from the abrupt change in temperature. Outside the twin suns beat down; inside the dark cantina, it was cool.

Mando strode up to the bar. You followed him, taking in your surroundings.

“Hey, droid. I’m a hunter. I’m looking for some work.”

“Unfortunately, the Bounty Guild no longer operates from Tatooine,” replied the droid in a stilted voice.

“It doesn’t have to be Guild work,” you clarified.

“I am afraid that does not improve your situation, at least by my calculation,” said the droid, continuing to wipe down the surface of the bar with a rag.

“Think again, tin can,” interrupted a smug voice behind you. You and Mando turned.

A young man, his legs propped brazenly on the table in front of him, continued, “If you’re looking for work, have a seat, my friends.” He gestured to the seats across from him.

“Name’s Toro, Toro Calican. Come on, relax.” He beckoned for you to join him again.

You and Mando exchanged a look and walked over to where he was seated.

Toro swung his legs off the table and slapped a bounty puck down in front of him as you slid into the booth and Mando followed.

“Picked up this bounty punk before I left the Mid Rim,” Toro explained. The hazy image of a woman with dark hair hovered over the puck. “Fennec Shand, an Assassin. Heard she’s been on the run ever since the New Republic put all her employers in lockdown.”

Toro had thick brown hair and dark eyes, a boyish face despite the scruff of five-o’clock shadow on his jaw. He couldn’t be older than 25.

“I’ve heard the name,” said Mando.

You nodded beside him. Fennec Shand was a legend. Having been chased by enough hunters, you were familiar with the big players.

“Yeah, well, I followed this tracking fob here. Now the positional data suggests she’s headed out beyond the Dune Sea. Should be an easy job.” He shrugged.

This kid clearly has no idea what he’s doing.

“Well, good luck with that,” said Mando, standing up. You stayed where you were, relaxed against the back of the booth.

“Wait, wait, wait, hey. I thought you needed work?” Toro looked from Mando to you, confused.

“How long you been with the Guild?” asked Mando.

“Long enough,” Toro spat unconvincingly.

“Clearly not. Fennec Shand is an elite mercenary. She made her name killing for all the top crime syndicates, including the Hutts. If you go after her, you won’t make it past sunrise.”

Mando looked at you and jerked his head to signal that it was time to go. He started to walk away. You stayed seated, saying nothing.

Toro looked at you, pleading. You nodded toward Mando: “You’ll have to convince him.”

Toro scrambled after him. Mando turned to face him, and Toro had to look up to meet his visor.

“This is my first job,” he admitted in a strained voice. “You guys can keep the money, all of it. I just need this job to get into the Guild. I can’t do it alone.”

Mando looked to you. You smiled knowingly, and he let out a sigh and nodded.

The man cannot say no to someone who needs help.

Toro was visibly relieved.

“Meet us at hangar three-five in half an hour. Bring three speeder bikes and give me the tracking fob,” instructed Mando, holding out a hand.

Toro’s shoulders pulled together. Someone doesn’t want to let go of the fob.

Without any warning, he smashed the fob on the wall. It sparked.

Mando gave Toro his angry head tilt.

“Don’t worry, got it all memorized,” assured Toro, tapping a finger on his temple.

“Half an hour,” growled Mando.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me now, guys,” Toro said triumphantly, turning to look at you.

Mando pushed past Toro and walked back to the booth, leaning down toward you. “I am not that predictable,” he muttered in a low, irritated voice.

“You really are,” you smiled up at him. “I’ll meet you at the hangar in 20. I want real food.”

He nodded and left.

Toro looked very pleased with himself, grinning at you.

“You better go track down those bikes,” you reminded him, gesturing for a droid to come take your order.

Toro ignored your advice. Instead, he looked you up and down in a way that made your skin crawl and slid back into the booth across from you.

“You know what? I have an even better idea. Me and you can take Fennec ourselves. You look like a girl who can handle herself. Let’s ditch that rusty bucket right now and do this together. Fewer people to split the reward.” His eyes sparkled.

Is he fucking serious?

You already weren’t a huge fan of Toro and his cocky attitude, but the minute he called you “girl” like that, your regard for him plummeted. What little patience you had for this kid was wearing thin.

“Not interested.”

The droid came over, and you placed your order.

Toro, still looking at you expectantly, scooted around the table to sit next to you, and you moved in the opposite direction to maintain the distance between you.

“Mando is old, you know? I don’t know if you can tell, but I can. That’s an old man under that shiny armor. You look like you need someone younger to keep up with you.” He winked conspiratorially, as if the two of you were sharing a mutual joke.

You watched him through narrowed eyes, a sour feeling settling in your stomach.

He was clearly terrible at reading people because he responded to your disgusted look by reaching over to run a heavy hand along the inside of your thigh. He barely made it an inch past your knee when you ripped his hand off your leg, tightening your fingers around his wrist until your nails dug into his skin.

“Touch me again and lose a hand,” you spat at him, releasing him and pushing up from the table. You wrapped your fingers around the hilt of the blade at your hip.

“Whoa, whoa! I was just being friendly, sweetheart,” he said loudly, holding his hands up in mock surrender. He looked around at the other patrons as if seeking outside confirmation that you were the one who was being unreasonable in this situation.

“You should leave.”

“I was obviously kidding about ditching Mando,” said Toro, shaking his head. “You really need to lighten up.” He didn’t even have the decency to look abashed.

You spared him a biting response, fixing him with a glare instead.

“I’ll go find those bikes.” He stood to leave, purposefully brushing past your shoulder as he went.

***

After finishing your meal, you stalked out of the cantina and back to the terminal to find Mando.

He was sitting at the top of the ramp of the Crest fiddling with an open control panel in the wall. He looked up to nod at you when he heard you approach.

“I don’t like that kid, Mando. I don’t trust him. I don’t think we should do this.” You stopped in front of him and put your hands on your hips.

“I know. He’s inexperienced, but he’s harmless.”

“No, that’s what I’m saying—he’s not harmless.”

“What did he say to you?” Mando continued working on the open control panel, only vaguely listening to you.

“He tried to talk me into ditching you and teaming up with him, so we didn’t have to split the reward three ways... He also hit on me.” You added the last part as an afterthought and grimaced at the memory of his gross hand on your thigh.

His head snapped up to look at you. “He—what?”

You looked at him, waiting for him to verbalize a more coherent question. You weren’t sure which part of what you’d shared horrified him the most.

“I—what—uh, yeah, I know... I don’t trust him either,” he continued, “but there are two of us and only one of him. We need the credits—and we’ll get the full reward, like he agreed, whether he likes it or not. We’re not going to find many other jobs here, and I don’t think he’s smart enough to pull anything.”

“I guess,” you shrugged. Toro doesn’t seem capable of critical thinking, let alone concocting and carrying out an elaborate scheme. The bounty was too high and other jobs too scarce to resist.

“We’ll keep a close eye on him. Let’s just finish this job quickly, and then you, me, and the kid can move on.”

“Okay,” you agreed, reluctantly. The way he emphasized the fact that you and him and the kid were a team was an obvious attempt to quell your worries. And it did. Mostly. It was a little startling how well he knew you already.

“Where’s the baby?” you asked, suddenly realizing the door to his bunk was open, and it was empty.

“He left the ship, and Peli found him. She agreed to take care of him while we do this job.”

Again, here he is, trusting a complete stranger.

“I told you he never stays put,” you scowled.

“Don’t worry, Peli already gave me an earful about how much I don’t know about kids.” He sounded defeated, so you decided not to pile on.

“You’re doing a good job, you know. The kid really loves you.”

He seemed surprised by your sincerity, his shoulders pulling back slightly. “I’m not, but thanks.”

It hurt your heart a little to hear him say that. 

***

When you left the terminal fifteen minutes later, Toro was outside, leaning against one of two speeder bikes with a cocky smile on his face.

Peli, who was holding the kid and arguing with Mando about payment, stood in the doorway to see you off. You caught the curious look that Toro gave the baby in Peli’s arms.

“Hey, what do you think? Not too shabby, huh? I could only track down two. You guys will have to share,” Toro said.

You and Mando looked at each other. Mando started to inspect the bike closest to you. Before he could beat you to it, you threw a leg over the speeder bike and sat down at the front of the seat.

“What are you doing?” Mando asked you.

“Driving,” you said, shrugging and reaching into your bag. You pulled on a pair of googles and wrapped a scarf around your nose and mouth. You secured your bag on the back of the bike.

When you noticed that Mando had made no move to join you, you looked at him and tipped your head back toward the seat behind you. “Let’s go.”

You could tell by the resigned drop in his shoulders that he knew it would be more work to try to convince you to scoot back than was worth it. He climbed on the speeder behind you, crowding you forward and reaching his long arms around you to grab the controls.

“Nope. Nice try,” you said, slapping his gloved hands away and grasping the controls yourself.

He sighed and wrapped his arms around your middle. You hoped he didn’t notice the goose bumps that appeared on your neck when he touched you. It was way too warm out under the two blazing suns to explain them away.

You jerked your wrists down and leaned forward to take off across the open sand, not waiting for Toro to mount his speeder.

“What the hell??” he yelled after you.

He caught up after a few moments.

After awhile, you let yourself relax back against Mando’s chest, and you smiled to yourself when he tightened his arms around you. 

The suns slipped lower in the sky as you coasted over the shifting surface of the Dune Sea.

***

You and Toro slowed your bikes to a halt when Mando released your waist to hold up a fist.

“What’s going on?” asked Toro.

“Look. Up ahead,” The rasp of Mando’s modulator in your ear and the concurrent rumble in his chest made you shiver, so you hastily hopped off the bike.

Mando stayed seated while you and Toro each pulled out a set of binocs to scan the landscape. Neither of you had the heightened vision that Mando’s helmet afforded him.

Through your binocs, you spotted two Tusken raiders standing beside two very hairy Banthas a short distance ahead. You lowered your binocs and scanned the immediate area.

“Tusken raiders. I heard the locals talking about this filth,” spat Toro, who was still watching them through his binocs.

You stepped back toward the bike as two Tuskens crested the hill you were on. Mando reached out a hand to grab your wrist, squeezing gently. You looked at him, and he nodded reassuringly.

“Tuskens think they’re the locals,” Mando said coolly, turning back to Toro. “Everyone else is just trespassing.”

“Well, whatever they call themselves, they best keep their distance,” Toro remarked.

“Yeah? Why don’t you tell them yourself?” asked Mando.

You grinned. There’s that flair for the dramatic.

Toro turned, and the two Tuskens screeched at him. You laughed at the way Toro positively jumped. Mando stood, raising a calming hand toward Toro, and told him to relax. You followed him as he approached the Tuskens and started gesturing to them, clearly proficient in their sign-based language.

Mando’s hands moved smoothly though deft, controlled movements. You looked down and bit your lip, trying to focus on twisting the toe of your boot back and forth in the sand to prevent your mind from wandering somewhere less appropriate.

“What are you doing?” Toro asked Mando.

“Negotiating.”

The Tuskens signed back to Mando.

“What’s going on?” asked Toro.

“We need passage across their land.”

“What did you think he meant by “negotiating”?” you said, raising your eyebrows at Toro.

“Let me see your binocs,” said Mando, holding out a hand to Toro.

“Why?”

Mando said nothing but kept his hand out, waiting. The two suns, now low in the sky, reflected brightly off his helmet. Toro handed them over begrudgingly, and Mando tossed them to the Tuskens. The Tuskens looked satisfied with their payment.

“He—hey! What? Those were brand new!” stuttered Toro in surprise.

“Yeah? They were.” Mando stalked away and remounted the speeder bike. You followed him.

And there’s that sense of humor. It’s sassy.

“You couldn’t have taken hers instead?” Toro asked, nodding at you.

“Nope,” said Mando.

You smiled sweetly at Toro as Mando scooted back in the seat and let you climb on in front of him.

***

The next time you stopped more abruptly. Mando raised his fist and barked, “Get down!”

You and Mando sprang off your bike in unison and crouched down. Toro, struggling to keep up with what was happening, fumbled with his goggles before following suit.

The three of you made your way to the edge of the dune in front of you, staying low. You set yourselves up on your stomachs at the top of the rise. Not far below, a dewback trudged forward slowly with what looked like a dead rider trailing after it, a rein wrapped around the figure’s limp ankle.

“Is that her? Is that the target?” asked Toro.

“I don’t know... I’ll go.” He looked at you to say, “You two cover me.”

You nodded.

He looked at Toro to emphasize, “Stay down.”

You and Toro pulled out your blasters. Mando ran hurriedly down the dune, his own blaster drawn. He approached the dewback slowly with a reassuring, “Whoa, whoa.”

Mando flipped over the prone body.

“So, is it her? Is she dead?” yelled Toro.

Mando turned, “It’s another bounty hunter.”

Toro turned to look at you. “He’s not planning to keep all that stuff for himself, right? I at least want that blaster.”

You rolled your eyes at him. “Can you shut up for one second?”

He gave you a disbelieving look. You ignored him and focused your attention back on Mando.

Mando started to rise, turning suddenly to yell, “GET DOWN!” as blaster fire hit his pauldron, knocking him to the ground.

“Mando!” you yelled.

He scrambled back to his feet and broke into a run. He crested the hill as a second shot screamed after him. Again, it hit him in the beskar, sound reverberating off the metal. He threw himself down with a grunt, rolling towards you in a shower of sand.

“Are you okay? You didn’t get hit, right?” You reached out towards him.

“Yeah, it hit me in the beskar. And at that range, the beskar held up.” He sounded winded.

“What happened?” asked Toro, as Mando set himself back up on the crest of the hill, lying between you and Toro.

“Sniper bolt. Only an MK-modified rifle could make that shot.”

“Fennec,” you said. Mando nodded.

“Did you see where the shot came from?” he asked you.

“Yeah, from that ridge.” You pointed.

“Okay, we’re gonna wait until dark.”

“Well, what if she escapes?” asked Toro from where he was resting on his elbows on the other side of Mando.

“She’s got a good position,” you said. “She’s not moving.”

“Exactly,” agreed Mando. “She’ll wait for us to make the first move.”

Mando rolled over and stood only part of the way up, offering a hand down to you. You grasped it and got to your feet. You both hunched low to keep yourselves behind the protective swell of the dune.

“We’re gonna rest. You take the first watch. Stay low,” Mando said to Toro.

You followed Mando back to the bikes.

“Be extra careful. I don’t like you being out here with no beskar,” he said to you, more quietly.

“I will.” 

Your stomach clenched at the way Mando’s voice warmed when he was talking only to you. He spoke to Toro in a clipped tone, like he was scolding an unruly kid. He spoke to you like an equal, a partner. You couldn’t pinpoint when he’d started talking to you this way, but it had shifted recently. It was a tone you’d heard him use with the kid and with Omera. Something that felt a lot like hope sparked in your chest at this realization.

He slumped down against your speeder bike and reached up to pull you down next to him. You leaned back against the bike next to him, your body flush with his, and let your cheek fall against his shoulder.

After a few moments, you could hear a light snore rasping through his modulator. Apparently this man can fall asleep anywhere.

Eventually, you fell into a light sleep, not trusting Toro enough to sleep deeply.

***

You woke to Toro saying, “Time to ride, guys.”

“Come on, wake up!”

You opened your eyes and lifted your head. It was dark out; the last lavender traces of the sunset were disappearing along the horizon. Mando was still beside you, his chest rising and falling rhythmically.

“Look at him, asleep on the job. I told you he was an old man,” leered Toro.

You felt the cadence of Mando’s breathing shift beside you.

“You’re right. He’s ancient—basically dead already,” you quipped, patting Mando on the knee to signal that you knew he was awake.

Toro couldn’t tell if you were mocking him or joking with him, so he just looked at you, slack-jawed, trying to parse it out.

“Not quite,” Mando said, jabbing you in the ribs lightly with his elbow. Toro started at Mando’s words.

You stood, this time extending a hand down to help Mando up. It was more of a symbolic gesture than anything else—he weighed way more with that armor on than you could ever lift. Nonetheless, he took your hand as he hauled himself to his feet.

“We’re going to ride as fast as we can towards those rocks,” explained Mando, pointing to where Fennec was presumably perched.

“That’s your plan?” scoffed Toro. “She’ll snipe us right off the bikes.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t seem remember the amazing plan that you came up with?” you sniped, raising your hands in disbelief.

Mando snickered, a short rasp through the modulator, and in answer to Toro’s question, he tossed a small item his way then handed something to you.

“They’re flash charges. You two will alternate shots. It’ll blind any scope temporarily. Combine that with our speed, and we got a chance.”

You looked down at the charge in your hand, noting the button that would set it off.

“A chance?!” blurted Toro.

You bit back a scathing retort, turning back to your bike.

“Hey, you wanted this. Get ready,” replied Mando, tipping his helmet at Toro.

Mando stepped close to you, lowering his voice. “Let me sit in front this time. In case she manages to make any shots.”

You nodded in agreement, appreciating his protective nature.

You mounted the bike behind him and wrapped your arms around his middle, the charge grasped tightly in your right hand. Mando wrenched his wrists down, and your speeder bike took off, with Toro in your wake.

Mando pushed the bike as fast as it could possibly go, launching it over the swells of sand. You gripped him tighter, and the wind whipped the edges of his cape against your legs.

Apparently Fennec spotted you easily from her vantage point on the cliff because she started her assault immediately, firing at Toro’s speeder first.

Mando reached one hand down for a moment to squeeze your arm, and you understood. Holding his waist tightly with your left arm, you reached your right one up into the air to set off the charge. It went off with a screech. Even through your closed eyelids, you registered the blinding flash of light.

Fennec recovered fairly quickly. She resumed firing only moments after the light dissipated. Mando weaved the bike in a serpentine pattern to avoid the shots.

He turned to Toro and yelled, “NOW!”

Toro let off a charge. Another searing light rippled across the landscape.

After a moment, Fennec fired again, her aim becoming more precise as you drew closer to the cliff. This time, she didn’t miss. A direct shot screamed across the sand and hit the front of your speeder bike. You let go of Mando in the jolt of the impact, and you both flew over the top of the bike and landed in the sand.

Ouch.

Toro zoomed past, looking back for only a second. You didn’t like how easily he left you both behind, but logically, you knew that someone needed to get to Fennec as soon as possible.

You stayed prone on the sand, lifting just your head to see where Mando had fallen a few feet ahead of you. You were relieved when he sprang to his feet and ran back towards you. Without any warning, he lowered himself down over you to protect you from any more incoming fire. He braced himself on his elbows and knees so his body was pressed against yours, but he wasn’t crushing you with the combined weight of his body and armor.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice right behind your ear.

“Yeah.” Your face was pressed against the warm sand. “You?”

“Good. You got the charge?”

You handed it up to him. Luckily, you’d managed to hold onto it during the impact. Mando fumbled for a moment, then lifted an arm to set it off.

After the searing light faded and the dark blanket of night returned, another blaster shot landed in the sand a few feet from your head. Mando edged forward and rested his helmet on the sand above your head. You were completely shielded.

“Thanks,” you muttered up to him, slightly self-conscious that this purely protective position was affecting you so much, a slow heat coiling tight in your stomach. His whole body was flush with yours, his breath heavy and fast in your ear, and you could feel the steady rise and fall of his armored chest against your back. The places where he wasn’t covered by beskar pressed warmly against you. Think about anything else.

A shot pinged off his back. Mando tensed and grunted at the impact. You gritted your teeth and focused on burying your fingers in the sand, definitely not thinking about what other things might draw similar sounds from him.

“Alright, I think Toro got to her. Let’s go, but stay behind me,” Mando rasped in your ear, squeezing your shoulder with a gloved hand.

You nodded beneath him, stifling the shiver that was threatening to run up your spine. Think about anything else.

He rolled off you, and you both got to your feet. You breathed a sigh of relief and positioned yourself at his back, both of you drawing your blasters. In the dark, you could see red streaks of blaster fire on the cliff where Fennec had been perched.

“We gotta run,” you yelled, pushing him forward. “Toro wont be able to take her alone, Mando!”

You stayed close behind him, a hand on his lower back, so he knew you were with him.

When you reached the foot of the cliff, you could hear Toro’s groans and Fennec’s grunts, but you couldn’t see them. You and Mando scrambled up the sandy incline that was littered with boulders and crested the cliff right as Fennec wrestled Toro to the ground.

“Nice distraction,” said Mando, training his blaster on Fennec. She reluctantly released Toro from her hold and put her hands up in defeat. You waited, partially concealed behind Mando until you knew she was restrained.

Toro grunted in pain as he stood up slowly.

“Cuff yourself,” Mando ordered Fennec, tossing the cuffs in front of her.

“A Mandalorian. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen one of your kind.” She stood. “Ever been to Nevarro? I hear things didn’t go so well there, but it looks like you got off easy.”

Fuck, just how much has she heard about what went down on Nevarro?

Fennec smiled even wider when you stepped out from behind Mando. There was no avoiding her now. Sure enough, recognition flickered in her eyes.

Uh oh.

“Well, well, well... if it isn’t my favorite bounty,” she drawled, and before you could react, your name—your real name—fell from her lips. “You lead me all over the damn galaxy, sweetheart.”

***

Chapter 6

[key-to-my-heart]

S2 WISHFUL THINKING

hey hi hello! i haven’t really been active on tumblr but i wanted to get back into the swing of being active and posting often. so.

i decided i will take note of some of my predictions, hopes, wishes etc. for Season 2 of Rainbow High!

so i kinda wanna just cover the things we canonically have seen aka specific events and drama that has gotten introduced

- The New Roommates / Series 3 Girls

i feel like we will definitely see more of them within the coming episodes. rainbow high literally advertised the new teams as like… i think the second or third teaser for the new season

it’s interesting to me because. this makes me think of What The Runway Project is? what could it possibly be? i believe i made a post about this in the past but the main theory (and theory i believe the most in) would be a Stage Production of sorts. i mean… it makes sense!

the twins are both Performing Arts focus and are definitely the antags this season. so why wouldn’t they cause trouble in regard to a stage play? plus, bella is back. she’s literally a set designer! we have never seen her do any set designing (other than making a sketch) so it would be fun to see that! if river were to get more focus this season, he would definitely have an outlet to channel his Performing Arts creativity! plus… Daria is a song writer so like. imagine if we were to get music out of that? please. the possibilities are endless.

im also eager to see the series 3 girls dynamics. like are the rest of the girls (gabriella, georgia, emmy and daphne) all roomed together? do they get along? will they all be just as dramatic as stella, sheryl and daria’s dynamic?

but anyway. whatever the drama and the semester project is, the new teammates definitely seem to be playing a crucial role in this season.

- The Twins

i’m actually really eager to see more of them. i feel like not enough people are talking about them? season 2 is actually really interesting so far…. maybe more so than season 1… and i feel like we are going to have to thank the twins for that at some point lol

like. idek what they’re planning on doing but. i’m excited to see what it is! they’ll probably be involved in the semester project or at least causing problems to all of the roommates and teams. they’ll definitely have something going on with bella. and it seems that they have a good bond with karma (after the KWK we got). so maybe they’ll have input in any potential drama with Karma. which leads me to

- Karma VS. Violet

so. this drama has been teased at for like. ever. for what feels like forever.

this moment in Karma’s bio PLUS the commentary about violet from her and the twins in the recent KWK episode. but anyway. i’m actually super interested in whatever this drama could be??? like. why is karma watching.

we know violet adores karma, she really wants to have her in the vi life. so i’m sure she basically looks up to her! but like. will karma actually genuinely be nice with violet? keep a distance? make remarks like she did in her recent vlog? i don’t know. idk what to expect. of course it’ll have to do with vlogging or something.

- Bella

ok so there is a few things to note with bella. i’m still interested in if bella will accept to do an interview with Karma for her vlog? if so, i wonder how that would go. and i wonder how violet would feel about it. like the very last time bella was featured in vi’s vlog was on a bad note (even though they made up) but like. idk AAA

also i’m wondering how bella is gonna handle being back to rainbow high. because so far it seems she’s having trouble fitting in. will the key to her fitting in be Jade? will Jade help her figure everything out? or would it be someone else?

as much as i’d love Jade to be the reason Bella starts to feel more at home, i also love the other idea of Amaya being the reason bella feels comfortable again. Amaya was once the new girl (and of course in an awkward position because she was essentially a replacement for bella’s spot in the runway group) but. she didn’t fit in. she had to find her place at rainbow high… and it took her until the runway show to be able to truly feel comfortable.

and like. i’ve been rooting for bella/amaya dynamic for awhile now. i see a lot of potential in this duo. we know they somewhat have tension. i mean. bella had a really awkward confrontation with amaya and that was rly their first and last conversation. sure they’ve been around each other like in the music video, at the end of s1, and when bella walked into the girls dorm s2ep2 but like. that’s it.

SO ANYWAY. what i’m trying to get at is that these two definitely need to become friends. i mean. they have a LOT in common. i was talking about the new girl situation because i feel like they can relate in that way. they both had an awkward entrance into rainbow high and could bond over that. it took amaya awhile to feel at home at rainbow high… so maybe she could become friends with bella and help her feel at home! they’re both very determined leader types. they’re really passionate and! they have the same friend group! so why not become friends?

- Jade and Bella

of course i will wonder about these two! i have no clue what to expect with them. the fandom and myself are really really really wanting to see these two become a canon sapphic couple. i really want to see this happen! and mga knows this. mga knows we want to see jella happen. i mean, they literally snatched the ship name from us and plastered it into their vlogs. so they KNOW

anyway. these two are literally going through it rn. the way jade’s eyes lit up when she saw bella was back at rh. and now both of them are looking for each other and worried about each other. jade thinking bella is mad at her rn? please. i will sob. they are really holding off this jella reunion but i hope it’s for a good reason. i just want them to talk and have a good reunion… a hug……. happy tears, happy smiles…………..a love confession…

- Amaya

so i don’t really have much to say here but i’m just wondering about amaya this season. she’s definitely been advertised so much to the point that she essentially became like. THE main focus in season 1. this peeved some people but personally i loved amaya being like a sort of main character figure. she didn’t really take attention away from the other characters but also had that energy of being a main character anyway.

my point is, though, idk how she will play out in this season? like is she going to be as much of a main character as the main 6 are…. or will she play a bigger role? i have no clue. it seems bella is going to have a key focus this season, which makes sense, but it still just makes me wonder about amaya’s role this season

- Colin

i just hope this man does not get a development arc. i know some people want him to…. but i just. i don’t. i don’t understand. the point of him existing was to show that cheating is wrong and to display girl power. by teaching that skyler didn’t need a man to prove her worth. that she is her own person. her own strength! i really hope that colin and bella don’t have anything omfg.

- Winter Break

i’m really. REALLY excited for the winter break arc. it’s about time we get to see some backgrounds outside of rainbow high! plus the animated tidbits of ruby, sky, and violet in their wb outfits in the wb commercial was everything.

i’m so excited to see their new hairstyles, to see them with their snow gear and more. omg. of course i think the twins will be involved in this arc someone. krystal briefly mentioned the twins’ family having a ski lodge. and then of course we see sunny with her skis so like. yea!! i just wonder how these episodes would play out. or episode. but anyway like… will they just vibe? or will there be a problem of sorts? if it’s winter break then it probably won’t tie into school or like projects or anything like that

- Kia Hart

i’m actually hoping kia gets some focus this season. like. what is she going to do? is she going to pair another couple together? (if so, please be jella. okay wait seriously what if she is the key to reuniting jade and bella together… anyway) i just hope to see more of her and possibly more of her and krystal together haha. but kia just vibes so far, it would be lovely to get more of her!

- The A’s

so ainsley is finally beginning to get some attention! i really hope we continue to get more of her as well as avery, and aidan of course! we did get a bunch of content of aidan but you can never have enough honestly.

but i just wonder about how the A’s will be this season. like will they do anything significant? are bella and avery going to remain close? what is going on!!!

- The Malibu Line

so we literally know nothing about this except

but i still wonder like. if we will get to see anything about it at any point during the web series. perhaps it would be more of a summer thing. but it definitely means something if Bella is in it! (also i’m just generally excited for her new doll. omfg.)

- The Rock Line

so we also know almost nothing about this except

saw someone discuss that the music being heard during s2ep2 could be in regards to the rock battle. honestly. what if this is some sort of project? battle of bands or something? that would be cool lol. anyway i’m intrigued for this line mainly because of all the clothing leaks we have been getting omg.

- The Slumber Party Line

we have known about this for a little while (with the theory of the baby blue girl being in it) but i’m just curious as to who the characters are and if they will be in the web series at all.

- Jett Dawson

okay so. this is a big one. jett being a collector doll, i feel like she’ll definitely play a crucial role in the series. so like. who will she be to the main characters? it says she’s generally nice. why was she giving that look to the girls after their runway performance? IDK! i have no clue what to expect with her. i feel like the expectations i had for amaya (before we knew anything about her) will be put into jett because. the vibes i got from amaya ever since we just had her doll… i am also kind of getting from jett. so i’m eager!