#THEY GAVE PIZZA A COSTUME BUT NOT THE FUCKING NEW YEARS COOKIE???

[vamp-a-day]

day 41

todays drawing brought to you by god fucking damn it DEVSIS PLEASE

i'm turning this blog into a "drawing sparkling every day until he gets a buff" blog (not really)

[xpacestuff]

Su/gf crossover things part 2

(sorry if these aren't that good!)

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Dipper: So... that glowing pink thing?

Steven: Yeah?

Dipper: Why does that happen exactly?

Steven: Oh, I'm not sure... I guess when I don't feel well? It's like a burst of energy when it happens...when i feel like i need to run away or just...-

Dipper: Oh! Like a flight or fight response!

Steven: What is-

Dipper, taking out the journal: Interesting...

Steven: What's a-

Dipper: mumbles to himself

Steven: ...Nevermind.

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Steven: Hey Mabel! what are you-

Steven: Mabel.

Mabel, putting fake gems on waddles face: Whaaat... he likes it...

Steven: Why didn't you ask me to help you?

Mabel: :D

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Mabel: OH! YOU CAN DO SHAPESHIFTING, RIGHT?

Steven: Oh, yeah, but-

Mabel: Can you turn into anything!? Like a unicorn! Or a hamster! You can do this hamster ball thing, so!

Steven: uuhh haha... I don't really... like shapeshifting... sorry..

Mabel: Aw, why?

Steven: It's just... some things happened when I did...

Mabel: Like what?

Dipper: Mabel, don't bother him! If he doesn't like it then leave him alone.

Mabel: Yeahh... you're right. Sorry Steven!

Steven: Nono, it's okay, don't worry!

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this is something different than the "steven has the same powers as bill so dipper is sus" writing post i made lol (basically this one is just silly)

Dipper, walking around in circles: It's just... what does that star symbolize?

Mabel: What do you mean?

Dipper: The star on his shirt, Mabel! Does it have to do with this gem stuff? Is it related to his powers?

Mabel: Uh...Dipper, why are you questioning something like that?

Dipper: Well, he showed me a picture of himself when he was younger, and he always had this star on his shirt! Why?

Mabel: Maybe he just likes stars? Come on, bro. It's just some shirt design.

Dipper: I don't know...

later

Dipper: Steven... okay, so, this will sound weird but what does that star on your shirt mean?

Steven: Huh?

Dipper, pointing at it: You always have that star on your shirt. Does it have to do with your powers or something? Is it some magical shirt?

Steven: Oooh hahaha! No no, it's just my dads merchandise. Just like that pine tree on your hat, I'm guessing?

Dipper: ...Oh. Well then. rips a page from a notebook

Steven: ...Seriously?

Dipper: Yes, seriously.

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So what if something dangerous happens and steven completely turns pink also starts turns into his buff chad form (haha edgy)

Steven, in that form: Oh, oh no no no... oh no.. shit..

Dipper: Wha-

Mabel: What!?

Steven: Oh god, Mabel and Dipper, d-don't look at me!

Dipper: ...Does that new form... hurt you?

Steven: What? uh.. no.

Steven: I- I didn't want you guys to see me like this!

Dipper: No, no, it's uh, okay!

Mabel: Yeah, we're here! Don't worry!

Steven, slowly getting smaller do his normal form: It's just..

Steven, as his pink glow fades: This just hasn't happened in a while...

later

Mabel: Well, I made you some chocolate milk!

Steven: Thanks, Mabel.

Dipper: So... you better now? You're smaller than when you were well... all pink and glowy

Steven: Yeah, yeah i'm better now. I guess I need to tell this to my therapist though.

Mabel: You better! I don't want to see you hurt :(

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Steven: Hey do guys wanna fly

Dipper: Wh-

Mabel: YES!

Dipper: Um... what do you mean with "fly"?

Steven: I have floating powers. I can just carry you two and well.. fly around

Mabel: Oh my god!!! really!?

Steven: Yeah!

Dipper: How come you're just randomly suggesting this?

Steven: Well, strange things have been happening here in Gravity Falls, so I just wanted to lighten the mood up a little bit.

Dipper: Alright, then

Mabel: YEAHH!!! LETS FLOAT!

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Mabel, Dipper and Steven are basically floating now

Mabel: THIS IS AMAZING!!! You can float and summon a hamster ball! That's like, the best thing EVER!

Steven: hahah, yeah! ...Dipper you alright?

Dipper, absolutely worried that he's going to fall: y.. yes.

Steven: I can drop you off-

Dipper: AH- NO!

Steven: I mean like... slowly help you land on your feet again, yknow?

Dipper: Oh, uh, yes... please..

Steven: Alright!

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Mabel: Tickle attack!

Dipper: Mabel no- hahaha! Stop!

Steven, entering the room: Hey guys

Mabel, staring at him: >:)

Steven: o h n o

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Dipper: Is this your real form? You can shapeshift, after all.

Steven: Yes?

Dipper: HMM

Steven: How could I prove it to you anyways?

Dipper: I don't know-

Steven: Here, a picture of when I was younger. I can assure you that's me, and my 'real' form haha

Dipper: ...Wow you were small

Steven: You're one to talk

Dipper: Hey!

Steven: Haha!

Steven: Oh, by the way, you know that I don't like shapeshifting, right?

Dipper: Yeah... I guess you don't.

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Mabel: Uuughh I'm so bored

Dipper: Yeah, me too.

Steven: Do you guys wanna uh, bake something? maybe?

Mabel: Hmmm... like what

Steven: Oh! Have you heard of cookie cats?

Dipper: Cookie cats?

Steven: Here, let me show you a picture of them shows a picture of it from his phone

Mabel: It looks so cute!

Steven: We can bake this if you guys wanna?

Dipper: Well, we don't have anything else to do.

Mabel and Steven: Yeah!

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steven and dipper are just walking around the woods cause why not

Dipper: Ouch!

Steven: What happened? Are you okay?

Dipper: Yeah, it's just...I just scratched myself on this branch, i didn't even see it.

Steven: Oh, that's no problem! licks his finger

Dipper: uh-

Steven: puts his finger on Dippers wound there!

Dipper, healed: WH- HOW?

Steven: I have healing powers :)

Dipper: You surprise me everyday...

Dipper, whispering: Maybe I should tell Ford... hmm..

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again before they knew steven is half gem

Mabel: I love gems!

Steven: Me too! Even though some tried to kill me, most of them didn't really know what they were doing. Mostly when they were corrupted.

Mabel: H..huh?

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Mabel: Your girlfriend sure is cool Steven!

Steven: Yeah, I love her a lot.

Mabel:

Mabel: :")

Steven:

Steven: Uh-

Mabel: No, no. It's just cute. Don't mind me. I hope when I'm a teenager I can find love like this. Haha...

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Steven: You guys' grunkle is really nice!

Dipper: Yeah, at first he can be a bit mean, but in reality he's a great guy if he wants to be. Trust me, I've been there.

Steven: Aw... I said that cause he gave me something for free. That's a start, I guess?

Dipper: Sure is.

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Stan, going through a box of old stuff: Ahaha, yeah. Brings back some good old memories.

Steven: Oh, can I look? If you don't mind?

Stan: Sure kid.

Steven: ...

Steven: A... Space Train to the Cosmos CD?

Stan: Yeah, haha. He has the same last name as you. I remember listening to him years ago.

Steven: Mr. Pines... this is my dad. Greg Universe.

Stan: ... What.

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this is before D & M met Ford, I guess? (if this takes place when D & M arrive to GF for the first time)

Steven: So... what's that?

Dipper: Ah! It's uh- it's nothing. haha...

Steven: Dipper, are you okay? What are you holding there?

Dipper: sighs It's just...

Mabel: IT'S A JOURNAL!

Dipper: Mabel!

Steven: Oh, like a diary? That's cool.

Dipper: It's... more than that, actually.

Mabel: Come on! Let's just tell him!

Dippers: Well, uh, it's basically a journal that has a lot of information written down from all these weird monsters and creatures in Gravity Falls. I still have no idea who the author is.

Steven: Wow... Have you told Mr. Pines?

Dipper: He didn't take it seriously.

Steven: Hmm...

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Steven: I don't understand your purpose... nor do I understand why you look like that

Steven: But I support you

Soos: Dude it's just square pizza

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Connie visits again

Steven: Connie! Hey!

Connie: Steven!

they go for a hug, then fuse

Stevonnie: ...Uh-oh.

Mabel: :D WOOOO!!! HOW???

Dipper: >:0

Dipper: WHAT THE FUCK??

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Ford: This is so interesting... a half-gem, half-human.

Ford: Tell me, what can you do?

Steven: Well, I can summon a shield. I have healing powers. I can bring plants to life. I can bubble things up. I can also have destruct- oh, I uh, I actually don't like talking about that.

Ford: ...Can you show me your shield?

Steven: sure summons his shield

Ford: Wh- how do you do that?

Steven: Well, it's my gem that just summons it when I want to.

Ford: So how powerful is it?

Steven: Oh, pretty powerful, I guess? I was able to protect myself from the diamonds- oh uh, yeah, the uh diamonds are the most strongest gem, by the way. Yellow tried to step on me and tried to uh, hurt me haha but it's okay now.

Ford: Wow! So, how tall and strong are these diamonds? And uh, that's crazy she did that. But do tell me more.

Steven: They're really tall. I don't exactly know how much but as tall as a skyscraper... maybe taller? I'm not sure. The tallest one is White.

Ford: Interesting... I'm guessing you're a diamond too? You were able to protect yourself, after all.

Steven: starts glowing pink a little

Ford: Huh!?

Steven: Ah- sorry, sorry! That just happens sometimes!

Ford: Glowing pink... hm...

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Imagine they all (Stan, Soos, Steven, Dipper and Mabel) fall into that one bottomless pit. Steven completely panics because the others are falling and he's worried to the point where he just forgets about his floating powers. But after the others start telling some of their stories, he calms down. They turn around to him and ask him if he could tell a story aswell. He tells them about how cool it was to learn combat with his (now girl-)friend Connie. How at that point he learned something very important. The others listen very well to him, and as he finishes the story they, surprisingly, fall out of the bottomless pit. After this Mabel and Dipper ask Steven about the things he has learned and if he could teach them.

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Mabel and Dipper: wearing their peanut butter and jelly costumes

Steven: Hahaha! That looks nice, why are you dressed like that?

Mabel: Summerween!

Steven: Oh, I've never heard of that! :D

Dipper: Yeah cause they honestly just made all of this up.

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Steven hanging out with the other teens!!! Very important!!! He needs to learn how to "act his age", y'know what I mean? explore around. take some risks (that are not traumatising, thank you). just be a teenager in general.

(i could make a whole other post for this tbh)

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Stan: You have literally no legal documents, kid.

Steven: Yeahh...

Stan: I love it!

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Robbie: And who are you?

Steven: Oh I just, uh, work here.

Robbie: Yeah? With Wendy, huh?

Steven: Oh! Yeah, she's my workmate, I guess?

Robbie: Hm... right.

Robbie: walks past him while elbowing him in an aggressive way

Steven, whispering: Yikes... scary.

Dipper, from the back: I know right!?

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Mabel, goofing around, doing some weird stuff: hehehe

Steven: Wow... thinking about it, she'd get along with Amethyst.

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Mabel: gasp Oh my gosh! Steven, look at Waddles and Lion!

Lion and Waddles: literally just staring at eachother

Mabel and Steven, with star eyes: Awww....

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Wendy: Dude, your girlfriend seems really cool.

Steven: Oh, yeah! She's great. She's really smart and pretty, she can sing and play the violin... she can sword fight-

Wendy: Wait wait wait... sword fight?

Steven: Yeah!

Wendy: Your girlfriend rides a pink lion and can sword fight? That's so cool!

Steven, full of love: Ah, yeah... she's amazing...

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Hope y'all enjoyed this one. This is the second part! Even though none of these are in any order, so it doesn't matter. But here's the first one. Also, I just wanted to say something about the shapeshifting thing: I do enjoy posts where Steven shapeshifts to make his arm or whatever longer to help. It's really cute, but in my opinion (again, my opinion) I feel like after steven turning into a cat and kaiju monster, he'd be way too uncomfortable to shapeshift. It'd also remind him of when he became taller, buff and was glowing pink. That's just what I think. :-)

[writteriguess]

Escape You | Part One

Chapter One:

Suzie, Do You Copy?

summary: it’s a normal day at StarCourt Mall until you discover one of Hawkins dark secrets.

warnings: cursing

notes: omfg I had to rewrite this :( anyway this chapter isn’t even that good, but welcome to this series! also if you want to be taken off the tag list just tell me cause I’m just gonna keep tagging all of you for each part lol.

——————

1985

Ah, the StarCourt Mall. The newest establishment of Hawkins Indiana. You had started working there earlier that summer. You only started working there to earn enough money to visit your best friend in New York. So far, the pay was decent. You worked in a woman’s clothing store across from the famous ice cream parlor, Scoops Ahoy.

That’s the only thing you hated about working at the mall. It was the fact that you had to see Steve Harrington’s face everyday. It wasn’t like you wanted to either. Every time, you looked up there he was, wearing that stupid sailors uniform with that stupid hat.

You honestly didn’t even hate Steve for any particular reason. Well, he was an asshole, and that’s why most people hated him. You just hated the idea of him. You hated the idea of running your hands through his perfect hair. Or kissing his flushed soft lips. Or walking around with him, your hands closed together, as he tried to smitten you with his pickup lines. God, you hated him.

“(y/n)!” The shouts of your name brought you out of your Steve loathed daydream. It was the all to familiar shouts of your coworker, Sarah. Sarah was younger than you by a year. She was a senior in high school. She only worked here because of her mother, who was the owner of the store. She hated her job, and you hated that you had to work with her. You hated Sarah too. But in her cause, there were a million things to hate her for. She was just simply a bitch.

Your eyes widened when they came familiar to the darkened room. “We’re closing already?” You asked. Sarah scoffed at you, “No, the power went out.” You can hear the annoyance lacing from her voice. “God (y/n), I was calling your name for the past five minutes. Are you deaf or something!” You rolled your eyes. “This daydreaming crap is getting out of hand. What if there was a costumer waiting and you blew the sale!” You could hear her favorite black boots pacing along the white tiled floor.

Suddenly, there was a slight bang, then a groan, Sarah’s angerd voice coming next, “God dammit! When is the power gonna come back on!?”

You leaned against the counter, your elbows laying against the surface. You rubbed your temples stressfully. God you hated working with her. “Can you relax? I’m sure the power will come back on soon”

As if right on cue, the once dark room gleamed with light. You looked over to Sarah to tell her ‘I told you so’ but you stifled a laugh at the image you saw infront of you. Sarah was on the tiled floor. Two of the white mannequins were sprawled along the floor, one of them actually on top of Sarah. Your mouth covered your amused smile. “Shut up” Sarah groaned to you, attempting to get off of the floor, which just made you laugh harder.

——————

You watched as Steve Harrington flirted with some girls at the counter. You tried to hold back a scoff. You heard the back doors of the shop open and watched as Sarah strutted out, your store uniform on. It was a maroon T-shirt with the stores name with dark pants. This meant your shift was over.

You gave a breath of relief, beginning to quickly pack your things to go on your lunch break. You had to at least get your mind off of Steve for an hour. Sarah took your spot at the counter. “Geez, why are you in such a hurry? I thought you liked the counter job. You get a great view of Harrington.”

What she said made you almost drop your bag. You turned to her muttering out an, “W, What?” Were you that obvious? Was the staring becoming to much? Sarah scoffed, “Oh come on, I see you staring at Harrington all the time” a clever smirk coverd her featured. “I can go talk to him for you, if you want?”

You shook your head rapidly, “No, no no. I don’t like him.” Sarah stared at you with her head to the side, like she was debating weather or not she should believe you. She shrugs, “Whatever you say (y/n).” She looks forward, towards the ice cream parlor again. “But I will say, I don’t blame you for looking.”

You look to the ice cream shop. Steve Harrington stood at the counter, but this time with the white sailors hat off. His beautiful brown locks out for the world to see. The voluminous hair seemed to curl and bounce against his forehead. Your lips were caught between your teeth and you could feel your face heating up. God did you want to run your hands through that hair.

Sarah stared at you at the counter. She watched as your eyes lit up when you saw him and she watched as you bit your lip and your face reddened. She cleared your throat, which earned your attention. She smirked widely, “You were saying?”

You quickly bolted out of the shop, wanting to die from embarrassment.

——————

On your car ride home, you sulked in the drivers seat, feeling tired from today. Thank god when you returned back to the store, Sarah’s shift was over. God, you felt so stupid. She caught you gawking over him. Literally, gawking! You wanted to bang your head onto the steering wheel for being so stupid.

You pulled up to a stoplight. You huffed, leaning back in your seat, waiting for the light to flash green. All you wanted to do was go home and sleep. A car pulls up next to you, blasting some loud rock music. You look over but immediately look away. It’s Steve fucking Harrington. His hands slam against the steering wheel, beating along with the music. His head bops along to the beat, a curl skimming his forehead every so often. A smile rested on his face as he sang along to the song. He looked good, really good.

You occasionally looked his way, but stopped when you realized what you were doing. Maybe Sarah was right. The staring was getting a little out of hand. You sighed, and decided to just try and stare out your side of the window until the damn light turned green.

Couldn’t he just go away! You weren’t even at work and here he was. You couldn’t escape him.

The light flashed green and you watched as Steve drove away down the street. You heard a honk from behind you and quickly stepped on the gas, muttering out multiple “sorry’s.”

Before you knew it you were home. You shut off your car and walked into your house, you threw your keys on the kitchen counter. You stopped when you saw a note written on the kitchen table. You leaned over, reading the letter.

Hey hon! Sorry I couldn’t be home to say goodbye to you in person, but my flight was at 2. Anyway, there is a bunch of leftover’s in the fridge, and I left you twenty dollars on the fridge to order pizza one night. Remember to take out the trash. I love you! See you in a week. - Mom.

You sighed. You forgot your mom was going on a business trip for a week. You had the whole house to yourself. To bad you didn’t have friends, otherwise you would’ve thrown a party or something. You did as you were told, walking over to the trash can.

You took the black bag out with a huff before walking to the back door. Your street was mostly dark, the only light coming from one of your neighbors porches. Ms. Driscoll’s house. You loved the woman. She made the best cookies and fresh squeezed lemonade.

With a huff, you managed to put the garbage into the pail without a problem. After wiping your hands together, you started to make your way back inside.

However, you stopped when you heard a screeching noise. It was faint but can still be heard. Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before you followed the noise. You prayed that if wasn’t a broken tire or a broken pipe. You followed the noise which led you to the back of your house. The sight that you saw made you frown.

A rat laid on the green grass. It was a small gray one. It’s body flailed rapidly, the screeching became more painful with every thrash. You moved closer, before kneeling before it. “What’s wrong little guy?” You mumbled out softly.

Suddenly, it gave one final loud scream before exploding before you. It’s guts, red and pink, scattered out along the grass.

Your eyes widened and your mouth fell agape. You let out a scream before bolting to your house, opening the back door, and slamming it closed. You leaned against it, a hand to your chest, trying to catch your breath. What the hell was that?!

TAGS | Bold couldn’t tag

@tequilachick @stobinthings @queen1054 @soniasalvatore1 @autumn-blessings @username3549 @iluvmesomemarvelndc @curiousershipper @from-a-forgotten-kingdom @lxstdreams @k-n-teeg @nightmare-mermaid4793 @laneygthememequeen @dracaryswonder @thatlittlered

[toumakibangs]

°*TouMaki - Advent Calendar 2018*° DAY 18 - “BAKING” (”Character A can’t go home for Christmas, so they invite over their grumpy loner neighbour Character B”)   by @evvazi 

Mod’s Note: There’s a fine line between “Sharing the cheer” and “Shoving Christmas down people’s throat”. Toudou and Makishima hold different opinions on where that line falls. At least at first. Nothing a batch of cookies can’t fix… Thanks for making the sweetness literal, @evvazi!

Author’s Notes: “I love baking christmas cookies so toumaki get to do that too! Our family recipe, no less! And I used the side prompt ‘character A can’t go home for christmas so they invite over their grumpy loner neighbour character B’ because it sounded like a toumaki kind of prompt. I hope everyone has a very toumaki advent!”

While most people enjoyed a break during the holidays toward the end of the year, it was an incredibly busy time for a fashion designer like Makishima. Christmas brought with it an array of possible sales from sexy Santa costumes to ugly Christmas sweaters. His brother insisted he had a talent for making the latter, which Makishima didn’t agree with, but he was fine with them if it meant he didn’t have to design the former.

Needless to say, he’d barely slept the past weeks, but now, on the 24th of December, everything had to be done, and whatever wasn’t wouldn’t get done anymore. But he still didn’t have much time to rest. New Years was coming up, and he still needed to finalize some designs for that, especially something “fancy and inspired by traditional wear” that he could show off at the New Years gala he was invited to attend. His brother had accepted the invitation for him, saying it was a great chance to make their Japanese branch more widely known, while totally ignoring that ‘traditional’ was exactly everything Makishima’s designs were not.

He wasn’t making any progress on that though, so he’d taken on the equally unpleasant task of answering to e-mails that were asking about statements for some of his previous designs or just his whole work of the past year, all aiming to include them in some kind of article that reviewed the year as it came to an end. Words weren’t his forte, so Makishima had procrastinated answering, meaning they were now piling up in his inbox.

Just as he’d copy-pasted his usual polite greeting and intro text that he only slightly modified by adding names and other relevant info into the spaces left for them, his doorbell rang. Makishima’s first instinct was to ignore it. He wasn’t expecting any online deliveries, and he hadn’t ordered takeout yet either. Maybe he should soon, it was already pitch-black outside now that he paid attention. But then, it was only 5:30pm, so no need to rush.

The doorbell rang again. Damn, seemed like he actually had to answer the door if he wanted to continue working in peace.

He realized the mistake in his logic as soon as he opened the door. How could he work in peace if the man standing at his door was the definition of annoying? While Makishima didn’t know his name, he still recognized his next-door-neighbour. He was the kind of guy who looked annoyingly cheery when going for his morning jog at 6am, which Makishima only ever witnessed when he’d pulled an all-nighter and was making himself coffee or a snack in the kitchen. He also had the annoying habit of vacuum cleaning his apartment every Sunday between 8am and 9am, a time at which Makishima would really love to be asleep. Knowing they were just too different to ever get along, Makishima had blown off every one of the other’s attempts at conversation and generally tried to avoid running into him.

“Merry Christmas!” His neighbour beamed at him, but Makishima only stared back with a grumpy expression.

“It’s only the 24th.”

“And it’s evening, isn’t it? So it’s Christmas Eve!”

Makishima sighed. He didn’t want to have such a pointless argument. “Fine. Christmas. Can I help you with something?” Maybe he just wanted to borrow something and Makishima could get this over with really quick if he handed it over or didn’t have it either.

“Yes! Or well, actually, it’s more like I’ll be helping you!” Makishima stared blankly at his neighbour. He… really didn’t need any help…? But the guy smiled at him with utmost confidence. “You see, I work from home a lot, so I couldn’t help but notice that you don’t leave your house a lot, and nobody ever comes to visit you either. And, worst of all, you order takeout almost every day! That’s terrible for your health! So, since nobody should be alone on Christmas, and you could definitely use some fresh, healthy food, I’ve decided to invite you over! What do you say?”

“Actually, I’m still working, and there’s a lot that I still have to do…” That wasn’t a lie, and it seemed like a great way to turn his neighbour down without being too rude. He had half a mind to call him out on knowing way too much about Makishima’s habits, like some kind of stalker, but it was a fact that their kitchen windows both faced in the direction of the walkway to their apartment complex. If he spent time in his kitchen regularly, he was bound to see the deliveries Makishima got. And notice the lack of people coming over. Even Makishima couldn’t help but notice that Toudou had lots of people coming to visit him. Mostly pretty girls. He’d seen some of them multiple times as well, and silently wondered if one of them was his neighbour’s girlfriend. Especially since they sometimes stayed the night. Not that he cared, of course, but it was fun to imagine there was some kind of drama going on there, like a love triangle or his neighbour secretly having multiple girlfriends at once.

“Nonsense!” His neighbour’s shrill voice startled him out of his thoughts. “It’s Christmas! Nobody should be working unless it’s absolutely necessary. And you need to take regular breaks anyway. I can sweeten the deal for you too, how about we bake Christmas cookies together, and when we’re done, you can take some home with you.”

“You’re not letting me get out of this, are you?”

“Nope!”

“I don’t even know your name.”

“Toudou Jinpachi. And you could’ve known, I introduced myself to you before, right after you moved in!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t care enough to remember it.”

That made Toudou pout, but it didn’t make him leave or retract his offer. With his last resort plan of being rude having failed as well, Makishima resigned himself to his fate. He wasn’t one to turn down an excuse to procrastinate or an offer of free food anyway, and this was both in one. So even if Toudou gave him a headache in the process, it might still be worth it in the end.

“Fine. Just let me save my stuff, I’ll be over in five minutes.”

Toudou left with a beaming smile on his face. Sighing, Makishima went to turn off his pc, and then to brush his hair and put on some decent clothes. This was probably going to be awkward regardless of what he did, but he didn’t need to add to that by looking like he just fell out of bed. Toudou always looked flawless, the difference would just be too great.

Only when he rang Toudou’s doorbell a little bit over five minutes later did it dawn on him that he could’ve just not gone over. Well, too late now.

Toudou opened the door within seconds, eagerly inviting him inside and directing him towards the kitchen, as if his apartment didn’t have the exact same layout as Makishima’s own. All the appliances you might need for baking were already spread out on the kitchen table, so Toudou had probably planned to do it from the start. Everything else was meticulously cleaned and stowed away properly. Somehow, Makishima didn’t doubt Toudou’s kitchen always looked like this, completely opposite to his own.

“Maybe now is a good time to mention that I’ve never baked anything before.” Makishima could cook some easy meals, but all he’d ever used his oven for was baking finished stuff like pizza or lasagne. He wasn’t a big enough fan of sweets to make them for himself, and for most of his life, he could just get all the baked goods he ever wanted from Tadokoro’s bakery. Nothing he could ever make himself would live up to that, anyway.

“No problem! Anyone can bake with a recipe, and the cookies we’re making aren’t all that difficult. Besides, I’m a fantastic baker, so you can just ask me if there’s anything you don’t understand or need help with. Back home, we made these with the neighbourhood children, and they always turned out great, so I know it’s foolproof.”

Great, so if he fucked up, he was officially worse than a bunch of children.

“Alright, so what do we do first?”

“Gotta measure and mix all the ingredients for the dough. You can start with the flour.” Toudou handed him a jar filled with flour – who the hell kept their flour in a jar instead of just using the bag it came with? – and weirdly shaped transparent cup with all kinds of writing on it. On closer inspection, those turned out to be measurements. It had litre, which was to be expected, but also various common baking ingredients like sugar and flour, measured in gram. Makishima had no idea something like this existed. Fascinated, he began shovelling flour into the cup. Because of course there was a designated spoon to do just that in the jar.

Once he had 250g, like Toudou had told him, he looked around. “Do you have a bowl for this?”

“No, just pour it on the table. That’s what all the space is for. Just make a nice little mountain and then make a small crater on the top, like a volcano.”

“That doesn’t sound right.” He snatched the recipe book from Toudou’s hands and looked at the instructions himself. To his surprise, the recipe did essentially say what Toudou had said, even if it didn’t use the word volcano. The recipe had also been altered with a pen and there were annotations all over. Maybe Toudou really knew what he was doing? Makishima had sort of assumed he was just bragging when he said he was a fantastic baker. Then again, the recipe book looked like it might be older than Toudou himself, so maybe this had been passed down to him like this.

Ignoring Toudou’s smug grin, Makishima made the flour volcano. Then they proceeded to add all the other ingredients. Sugar, vanilla sugar, rum, cinnamon, clove and whip cream that hadn’t been whipped yet. The dry ingredients were put on the sides of the volcano, while the fluid ones were poured into the crater. Makishima had to admit that it was a smart way to keep them in one place without a bowl.

Lastly, Makishima was delegated to cutting butter into slices and putting them onto the sides, while Toudou carefully cracked an egg and dripped the white part into the volcano crater. The yellow part went into another cup and was put aside. Glancing at the recipe, he could see that they’d use it later. He also noticed Toudou had left the eggs on the counter the entire time, unlike all the other ingredients, and hadn’t asked him whether he wanted to do the butter or the egg. So he probably wasn’t trusted to cleanly separate the egg. Toudou really was treating this like baking with the neighbourhood kids. Sure, he’d said he couldn’t bake, but it was kind of annoying that Toudou seemed to think of this as some kind of community service. Just because his friends lived either in Chiba or in England and therefore didn’t often come to visit him didn’t mean that he didn’t have any. He wasn’t lonely. Definitely not lonely enough to need his neighbour to take pity on him and spend time with him just because of some holiday.

Makishima pushed those thoughts down. He was starting to actually have fun, more thanks to the baking than to Toudou, so it was better to just focus on that. If he cut up the butter with more fervour than strictly necessary after Toudou had mixed the liquid ingredients with flour, that was just him having fun and being thorough.

At least, Toudou was pleased that he was so motivated. Kneading the dough was next. Makishima wasn’t sure he was doing it right, the flour was all over the place and pieces of butter kept sticking to his fingers and the whole thing just didn’t look like dough, but Toudou told him to keep going while he started on dinner prep, and to tell him if his arms got tired or he thought he was done.

Silence fell over the room. Just as Makishima was starting to feel weird about it and wondered whether he should initiate conversation somehow, Toudou started talking on his own. About how he’d made these cookies with his mother as a kid, and then later with the neighbourhood kids, who were much more excited than Makishima but much less helpful, and about his high school friends who’d been over yesterday and had eaten all the cookies, even the ones he’d stashed away to bring home to his family – “leave it to Shinkai to find any and all food in the house and devour it without asking and then still complain there’s not enough.”

Makishima just let it wash over him, grateful that he didn’t have to do any talking himself. Half his concentration was focused on the dough, which still didn’t look like dough. Had he even made progress at all? It kept falling apart, and too much of it still just looked like pure flour that just wouldn’t stick to the rest of it. Maybe he was doing something wrong? His arms were starting to hurt, too.

When Toudou asked him how it was going, all he could do was shrug. “I don’t think I did anything, to be honest…”

Toudou poked the dough. “No, you definitely made some progress! But it’s taking longer than I thought…” Then, out of the blue, Toudou grabbed his hand. It felt slightly weird with the flour and butter of the dough still sticking to Makishima’s hand, but Toudou’s hand was warm and soft, and Makishima could feel a blush creeping onto his cheeks.

Before he could do anything except panic internally, Toudou frowned. “Your hands are way too cold, no wonder this is going so slow. Let me take over for a bit, and if you wanna do the finishing touches, wash your hands with warm water right before so they’re nice and warm.”

Makishima nodded, and yanked his hand back from Toudou with just a little too much force. After washing his hands to get rid of everything that stuck to it, he settled against the kitchen counter. Toudou picked up the conversation again, elaborating on his earlier story about his friends. But this time, Makishima didn’t have anything to do, so he just watched Toudou work.

He was kneading the dough expertly, like Makishima had seen in passing in Tadokoro’s bakery. The dough was still crumbling beneath his fingers though.

Makishima let his gaze wander higher, up Toudou’s surprisingly toned arms to where the tips of his silky black hair brushed against his shoulders. Makishima might have admitted that the headband on top was a practical choice for baking, but he knew Toudou always wore one, so he probably just liked the silly things and just got lucky it served a purpose for once. But then, Makishima wasn’t in any position to say something against outlandish fashion choices, so finally, he settled his gaze on Toudou’s face. His lips were constantly moving, forming themselves around an endless array of words that Makishima was paying less and less attention to. Toudou’s purple eyes were alive with emotion, excitement and affection and annoyance, and Makishima couldn’t help but wonder how they’d look fixated on him, even more intense emotions swirling in them, emotions you wouldn’t show towards your friends…

“Alright!”

Makishima was startled out of his thoughts and immediately chastised himself for ogling Toudou so openly. This was still the annoying guy who woke up early and probably had multiple girlfriends! Makishima had already known he was also annoyingly handsome, no need to act so desperate.

“Now it’s almost done, so you can do the rest, Maki-chan!”

He turned away, using the excuse to wash his hands with warm water like Toudou had suggested before to hide his embarrassment. Then he realized what Toudou had said. “Maki-chan, really? What’s that supposed to be?”

“Your nickname, obviously! You’re already in my kitchen and baking with me, so no need to be formal, right? You can give me one too!”

“…Headband, then.”

“Hey!” Toudou pouted, making Makishima laugh.

“What? You’re wearing one every time I see you.”

“Well, yeah! It’s one of my distinguishing features, to bring out my natural beauty! But you still can’t call me that because… because Arakita already does! Yeah! It’s his nickname for me! Too bad, but it’s already taken!”

That didn’t sound convincing, but Makishima just shrugged. “Your name will have to do then, Toudou.”

Makishima focused back on the dough, ignoring Toudou’s sputtering. It was finally looking like dough, only a few pieces of butter where still not properly mixed with the rest. Maybe he should have paid attention to see how that change was possible instead of staring at Toudou’s face.

Five minutes later, they deemed the dough to be finished, and Toudou wrapped it in plastic foil and placed it in the fridge. “Now we have to wait about half an hour, but there’s still plenty to do! You can start by taking the trays out of the oven and setting it to 175° so it starts heating up. And then you can smear some butter on the trays. I’ll clean up what we don’t need anymore and finish dinner prep so we just have to heat everything up once we’re done.”

Makishima followed the instructions, but unsurprisingly, he was done way before Toudou. So he stood around awkwardly, knowing he couldn’t really be a help with what Toudou was doing. He didn’t know where anything in Toudou’s kitchen was supposed to be, and a quick glance over to the counter with dinner confirmed he had no idea what was going on there either. He couldn’t even name half the vegetables that were spread out, much less guess what to do with them.

Thankfully, Toudou started talking again. “So, while I’m working, why don’t you tell me something about yourself? I’ve only been talking about myself the entire time!”

He honestly sounded like he had just now noticed that. And here Makishima had thought he was trying to be helpful after he’d realized Makishima didn’t really know what to say. Instead, he was just dense. Or he liked talking about himself too much. Possibly both.

“Uhhhhhhh… like what?”

“Anything! Like what you do for a living. Or something about your family. Where are you from? Do you have siblings?”

“Um, yeah. I work as a fashion designer for the Japanese branch of my older brother’s brand.”

Toudou turned to look at him, giving him a once-over. “A fashion-designer?”

Ah. There it was. The disbelieving, disapproving tone of voice he always got. It wasn’t like he’d expected anything else from standard-beauty Toudou. Barely anyone understood his work. “What? Got a problem with that?” he shot back, more annoyed than he’d thought he’d be.

“No!” Toudou brought his arms up defensively. “I just wasn’t expecting it, even though it totally makes sense with how you dress! Like, I’ve never seen anyone wear anything like your wardrobe! It’s creative, and it makes you stand out!”

Uncomfortable silence fell over the room. Makishima couldn’t help but notice that Toudou hadn’t said anything necessarily positive about his style, and he knew Toudou probably still thought it was ugly, but at least he’d been sort of polite and honest about it. That was more than what Makishima usually got. He’d take it.

“So, what about you?”

Toudou looked at him, confused.

“What do you do for a living? Are you a chef or something? Can’t say I know anything about cooking but that-“ he gestured vaguely towards all the ingredients and tools spread on the counter “-looks kind of professional.”

“You think so?” Toudou beamed. “I’m a nutritionist, though. But my family owns a ryokan – Toudou-an, the best ryokan in all of Hakone, with perfect service and relaxing hot springs, you should come visit some time, I’ll give you a discount! What was I about to say? Oh yeah, I learned how to cook from my mom and the professional chefs there from a young age, so my skills are top-notch!”

Makishima decided to ignore the obvious bragging and exaggerated advertisement. “So you’re a nutritionist, but you’re still making sweets? Aren’t they unhealthy? I distinctly remember that we added twice the amount of sugar than what the recipe originally said, too.”

“Yes? There’s nothing wrong with eating sweets. And if you’re gonna put in so much effort anyway, they might as well actually be sweet and not just bland like in the original recipe. Two tablespoons of sugar is no problem, especially not spread across multiple people on multiple days. People always act like sugar is totally evil, but in truth, it’s healthy as long as you eat it in the right doses, mixed with plenty of other stuff.”

It dawned on Makishima that he’d made a mistake. It had only been ten minutes since the dough was put in the fridge. Twenty more to go. They were filled completely with Toudou ranting about all the misconceptions people had about proper nutrition. Makishima didn’t care at all, he honestly knew that his diet was unhealthy but he just didn’t want to make any effort to better it. But Toudou talked over any attempt of him to change the subject, to Makishima resigned himself to his fate.

Finally, twenty minutes later, the dough saved him. Toudou cut it in half and rolled it out on the table, telling Makishima to pay attention so he could do it with the other half of the dough once they were done with the first part.

Then, Toudou emptied a bag of cookie cutters on the table. “I don’t want to have to wash all of these, so I thought we’d just use the Christmas-y ones, but if you like one or two of the others, we can use those too.”

Toudou started sorting out which ones were Christmas themed – a star, a Christmas tree, a shooting star, an angel, a reindeer – while Makishima looked over the others. In the end, he chose a hippo, because why not, and a bat, because it’d be great to have a Christmas cookie in the shape of Halloween’s symbol. Toudou added a flower as his own personal not-Christmas choice, then put all the other ones away.

Cutting out the cookies turned out to be quite fun, especially once he copied Toudou’s technique to press down the cutter with his flat palm and then wiggle it around a bit to properly separate the cookie from the rest of the dough without damaging it. Besides, Toudou had stopped talking and made an adorably concentrated face as he tried to figure out how to best get all the different shapes to fit together so the least amount of dough would be left over.

Makishima got to mash those leftovers back together and mix them with the second half of the dough while Toudou put their cookies on the oven tray. They had to be decorated before they could be baked though, so that half had to wait. Instead, Makishima finally got to use the yellow part of the egg that had been left over earlier. He painted the cookies with it, using a brush specifically meant for baking, something else he’d never even heard of and definitely didn’t possess. Toudou spread sugar crystals on the cookies, which took much longer than painting the cookies, especially since he had to pick any crystal that fell off a cookie back up so it wouldn’t get baked to the tray. Makishima helped him once he was done, carefully grabbing the crystals out of the bowl Toudou had placed between them.

It was honestly kind of tedious, and Makishima had a hard time not being hyper-aware of the fact that his fingers brushed against Toudou’s every so often.

Once they were done, the cookies were placed in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Toudou pulled up the second tray, and it was rinse and repeat with the second half of the dough. The only difference was the leftover part, which Toudou rolled into a sausage shape and then cut into circles.

They didn’t quite finish the second tray before the first one was done baking, but Makishima just kept going with the sugar while Toudou pulled the hot cookies out of the oven.

Once the second tray was in, Toudou quickly pulled up pots and pans to start cooking their dinner. Again, Makishima could do nothing but watch. Toudou eventually noticed he was just standing around awkwardly and showed him where to find bowls and chopsticks so he could fill them with rice once the rice cooker was done and carry them over to the coffee table in the living room. Toudou didn’t seem too happy to be eating there instead of in the kitchen – less space, less comfortable and a floor that was harder to clean – but the kitchen table was still dirty and full of baking utensils.

Makishima filled the bowls once the rice cooker beeped to announce it was done, then carried them over to the living room. He took the time to look around a bit instead of going straight back. As expected, Toudou’s apartment was clean even outside the kitchen, but there were plenty of personal items strewn around the room. The walls were decorated with copies of famous Japanese paintings, along with some calligraphy. There was also a giant photo of a traditional house, which the sign over the door identified as Toudou-an. He had to admit, it did look nice.

Below it, plenty of photos of Toudou were put on display on a dresser. Makishima saw him in two different school uniforms, and with what had to be his family at a shrine, and even with the girls Makishima sometimes saw when they came to visit. His theory of the secret multiple girlfriends fell through with this, as they all seemed to know each other. Still, Makishima couldn’t help but notice that Toudou was always surrounded by people, and always vary obviously actively trying to be in the middle of the photo and striking a pose. He really couldn’t fathom why a guy like that had developed enough of an interest in him of all people to invite him over. And on what he declared to be Christmas, too.

He was still mulling it over when Toudou arrived with the rest of their food, but forgot about it for a moment, busy appreciating the luxurious dinner spread before him. Alongside the rice, there was miso soup, two different vegetable dishes – one hot, one cold, and he really should try and learn what these were – and fried fish. When was the last time he’d had rice with more than two side dishes? It must’ve been when he was still living at home, and even then, he often had western food.

It all tasted great, too. When Toudou excitedly asked how it was, all he answered with was “Fine.” He didn’t want to inflate his obviously already large ego any more, but Toudou ignored his effort, taking it as a compliment and proceeding to detail just how great he was for making it.

In turn, Makishima ignored him, instead focusing on the food. Only when most of it was gone did he remember what he’d been thinking about before. He just didn’t understand what Toudou was trying to do.

“Why did you invite me over?” Maybe he could figure it out even if Toudou didn’t answer with the entire truth.

“I already told you, didn’t I? You shouldn’t be alone on Christmas. I just wanted to be nice, and I think it worked out great.”

Well, it had gone much better than Makishima expected, but he still didn’t see why Toudou wouldn’t rather spend time with his friends or family.

“Ah. You just didn’t want to be alone on Christmas yourself. For some reason, you’re not home in Hakone, and your friends were already here yesterday, probably because they’re going home for Christmas. The only one left is the neighbour who never leaves his apartment or has anyone over. I see how it is now.”

“T-that’s not how it is at all!” But Toudou didn’t provide any other explanation, so it probably was exactly like that. Somehow, Makishima liked it way better than Toudou pitying him.

“So, why aren’t you home?”

“Because I’m scheduled to work on the 26th already, and it’s not worth it to go back home for two days in the middle of holiday season while everyone is incredibly busy and I get more time off during New Years anyway, so I’ll be home then. But I’m still not lonely!”

“Sure.”

“Sheesh, is it really that hard to believe I thought you looked like an interesting guy and it’d be a waste if you stayed holed up all by yourself, when you could also be at least my friend?”

Makishima could feel a blush creeping back onto his cheeks. Interesting? At least his friend? “That’s. That’s not what you said so far.”

At least Toudou looked just as embarrassed about it as Makishima felt. But he didn’t respond, and that wasn’t good for Makishima’s thoughts who wanted to spread out in every direction this could possibly lead to. It was just weirdly phrased. He needed to say something. Change the topic. Crush any hope in his dumb gay heart before it got away again.

“Uh, you know, I wanted to ask this for a while now, but which one of these girls that always come to visit you is your girlfriend?” There. That should do it. A smooth change of topic that could simultaneously clear everything up. Makishima was a little proud of himself for finding the right thing to say for once.

“What? None of them. They’re my friends from college. Almost exclusively girls only because nutrition is the kind of subject way more girls than guys major in. We’re still pretty close even after graduating, but it’s purely platonic. I’m pretty good at making friends only with girls who don’t want to date me even when most girls do. So I never have to turn down anyone I actually care about and make things awkward because I’m just not interested.”

Just not interested? Just not interested? In what? A relationship? Romance in general? Sex? Girls?

He’d been wrong. This was not helping. This was making things worse. He should stop saying things forever. Just go home. They were done eating and baking anyway maybe he could excuse himself to get back to work.

Before he could decide, Toudou got up without a word and started taking their dishes back to the kitchen. Just when Makishima wondered if he should get up and help or not and which one Toudou would consider rude, Toudou came back with a plate of the cookies they’d made.

He placed them in front of Makishima with a grin. “Some sweets for the sweet guy?”

“Was. Was that a pickup line?” Makishima burst out laughing. Toudou had said something so stupid with such confidence, there was no way he could not laugh.

“Hey, stop laughing, Maki-chan! It was perfectly smooth and relevant to the situation!”

“It was terrible. No wonder you’re single.” Makishima still had trouble breathing, wheezing between sentences and breaking out into giggles again when he was done talking. Until his brain caught up to what was happening. “Wait, so it was a pickup line? An actual, genuine one?”

“What else would it be?” There was a definite blush on Toudou’s cheeks as well now. He sounded like a petulant child, but maybe that was just how he got when he was embarrassed.

Makishima shrugged. “How would I know? Maybe you’re just a weird guy who says weird things.” He took one of the cookies, biting off the angel’s head. It really was sweet, and the soft cookie with the crunchy sugar on top was a good combination.

“These are good though, I should definitely take some home with me. Absolutely worth it talking to some weird guy for these. Maybe I’ll even talk to him again if he makes me dinner again. Or actually, maybe just letting me sit in this room will be enough, because I do need to work on something traditional and this is a much more fitting environment than my own home.”

Toudou just gawked at him, and even Makishima couldn’t really believe what he just said. Since when was he confident enough to invite himself over into the apartment of a handsome guy who was making advances on him?

“Uh… yeah, sure. You can come here tomorrow and work on your stuff. Or anytime when I’m not working. I can make dinner too?”

Yeah, Makishima definitely liked flustered Toudou. This was shaping up to be really fun. Sadly, with how the conversation was going, he’d probably have to leave soon, but he’d be back tomorrow.

When he had a nice box of cookies packed and Toudou brought him to the door to see him off, Makishima suddenly leaned forward and said “See you tomorrow then, Jinpachi” right into Toudou’s ear. The poor guy couldn’t even answer before Makishima left.

Toudou may have initiated whatever game it was they were playing, but round one definitely went to Makishima.

[theenchantedwonderrland]

REP ROOM EXPERIENCE

ok I cant believe I’m typing this out right now AHHH!! ok so I went to the tour alone because no one ever wants to go smh! And I went to the 1989 tour alone also so I was determined to make some new friends and have fun! So I went to my seat and I meet this guy with an incredible costume he made a snake out of cardboard and had “REP” in lights on his shirt and I was like oh my god I love your costume and I noticed he had 2 snake rings and I was like hey I have mine too and we took a picture of them and we became like bestfriends instantly! So when it was almost time for Taylor to come on I noticed that people were standing around b stage and I didn’t know if we could stand there so I went and I met Salli aka SWIFTIEGINGER13 on ig @swiftieginger and she is the sweetest most amazing person ! Ok so her and I were at b stage the entire time talking and bonding and now we are bestfriends too lol ! and so when Taylor came out on to the b-stage we DIED! She started crying and I started crying it was a mess! And when Taylor was walking to the other b stage I told her to go to the other side with me but we lost each other, so after I went to the second b-stage I went back to my seat! So I found my other friend with the big snake and he was jamming out having a good time and when I saw him just going crazy having the time of his life I joined him! So THIS IS WERE MY NIGHT CHANGED!!!! Taylor was singing Don’t Blame Me and omg that is my fucking song so I was going crazy (lol)! and towards the end I turn to look at my friend and I see andrea !!!!!! WHEN I TELL YOU I RAN !!! I freaking ran! she gave me the biggest hug and my friend was still dancing! So she looks at him and goes are you guys together ? And I was like yes ofcourse ! And she’s like that is sooo cool! and she started walking towards him and was like so are you guys together! I was like no lol I came alone and so did he so we just kind met here and she’s like so you guys barely met and are dancing like this together? You guys are practically bestfriends and I was like heck yes! and she goes “have you guys ever met Taylor before” WHEN I TELL YOU I FREAKED IM NOT LYING GO LOOK AT MY PICTURE ! My friend and I looked at each other and we were like no and she’s like “you promise me?” And I was like I swear! and she looked at the lady next to her and she’s like “you are going to the rep room!” WE STARTED BAWLING AND SCREAMING SO LOUD AND JUMPING ! the rush I felt during that moment oh my gosh ! My dream was literally coming true and I just screamed!!!

ok so flash forward to the end of the show my friend and I ran to the section we were supposed to but we went outside the stadium instead of inside lol so we went inside and met everyone who was going to rep room and everybody there deserved to meet her so much! They all had such beautiful stories as to why the wanted to meet her and I’m just so happy that everyone in there got to meet her ok so we filled out whatever we were supposed to and we started walking back to the rep room!!!! AHHH I SAW THE DOOR AND MY HEART DROPPED! ITS EVERYTHING YOU THINK IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL ALL THE COSTUMES AND THERE WAS PIZZA COOKIES BROWNIES SODA!! TAYLOR LOVES US SO MUCH OMG! OK AND THEN EVERYONE WAS TAKING PICTURES, WITH THE THRONE AND THE COSTUMES AND IT WAS JUST SUCH A GOOD FEELING ! AND SCOTT CAME IN AND WAS LIKE HI AND HE SAID THAT IT SHOULDNT BE LONG TILL TAYLOR CAME IN AND HE WAS SO NICE HE WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW EVERYONE ALWAYS COMES UP TO HIM SCREAMING ABOUT HOW THE WISH THEY COULD MEET TAYLOR AND THAT HE TELLS THEM HE DOESNT DO IT AND THEY NEED TO FIND ANDREA AND HE CONTINUED AND WAS LIKE IM A SMART DAD I DONT DO THAT STUFF AND EVERYONE STARTED LAUGHING THEN A GIRL ASKED IF HE HAD GUITAR PICS AND HES LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT I DO AND HE TOOK THEM OUT TO GIVE THEM TO EVERYONE AND WE ALL CROWDED HIM TO GET A GUITAR PIC AND HE YELLED “IM FEEDING CHICKENS” AND ANOTHER PERSON TOLD SCOTT “THANK YOU FOR MAKING TAYLOR” AND SCOTT SAID YOURE WELCOME IT WAS FUN AND EVERYONE DIED LAUGHING OK SO EVERYONE WAS JUST CHILLING AND TAYLOR JUMPS IN AND IS LIKE “BOO!” AND EVERYONE STARTED SCREAMING SHE SAID SHE WAS SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG BUT SHES EXCITED TO MEET US ALL AND THAT SHE WOULD SEE US INSIDE !! THEY HAD US LINE UP TO MEET HER AND WHEN IT WAS MY TURN I GOT TO ANDREA AND SHE HUGGED ME AND SHE WAS LIKE “AWW MY LITTLE PERUVIAN” and was oh no lol that’s not me that’s her and I pointed to the girl in the back and she stepped back and took a better look and was like oh my gosh no that’s right you were the one that ran to me and the one that was dancing with that guy! It’s all coming back to me” and I was like yes!! And she goes you guys could be sisters you look so much alike and I was like aw thank you lol I’m Mexican not Peruvian but hey and she’s like ahhhh mexicooo! and she went in and gave me another hug and said I’m sorry hun this 60 year old brain of mine sometimes jumbles things and I was like oh my gosh no it’s ok I forget stuff all the time and I’m only 20! she started laughing and SHE NEVER LET GO OF ME SHE WAS LIKE HALF HUGGING ME THE ENTIRE TIME!!!! so then we were talking basics like what’s your name, are you from here! What was your favorite part and I was like honestly it was when you told me I could come meet her and she’s like omg you are so cute! And she was like so are you and that guy gonna keep in touch and I’m like yes definitely! we already followed each other on instagram and Twitter we got each other on everything and she’s likes that amazing and you came alone? And I was like yeah no one in my family really supports my “obsession” And she started laughing she’s like well they are gonna kick themselves when they find out you met her and I’m like oh my gosh yes I can’t wait to go and tell them! and she was laughing again and said I love the way you say that and I’m like it’s true and I told her that I had been wanting to meet her so I can ask her about how she was doing and I wanted to find her for her and not just for Taylor! And she’s like I know I felt it ! It was so genuine that’s why I picked you! and I was like omg ! And she’s like how do you come to the shows by yourself and I was like I don’t know I kind of had to it was either I come and see Taylor for the first time love by myself or I don’t and I would rather be here with Taylor that miss out cause I didn’t want to do it alone and she’s like wow you are so brave a lot of people don’t do stuff by themselves and that shows how brave you are! and I was like reeling on a high at this point !

[tisfan]

Will You Steal My Valentine

Chapter One: All I Buy For Christmas Chapter Two: Renting in The New Year

Chapter Three

“What do you mean, you don’t know?” Tony asked, his voice filled with -- disappointment? Dismayed astonishment? Offense on Ana’s behalf -- Bucky wasn’t sure. He was only grateful that it was a phone conversation because he didn’t think he was, at this particular point in his life, prepared to face to expression Tony was probably wearing that went along with it. 

How had this happened? Bucky threw up his mental hands. He had no idea; he was dating a guy six years younger than himself and under normal circumstances, he should have been mildly amused by every twinge of emotional reaction that Tony had. And boy, did Tony bring the drama, sometimes. Bucky should have been the adult in this relationship, tolerant and patient, knowing that nothing was ever as overly important as Tony was making it out to be. 

Instead, Bucky found himself turned upside down and tossed around by Tony’s emotional weather. Worse, Bucky was enthralled by it; he was so damned happy whenever Tony was around, and when Tony was happy that he found himself putting ridiculous amounts of effort into Tony’s well-being. Sometimes, it was like having a new puppy. 

“Just what I said, kitten,” Bucky said, laying back on his bed and staring up at the ceiling. 

“She sent you a whole box,” Tony pointed out. 

“Yeah, and then she wrote ‘fragile, cookies’ on the side of the box,” Bucky said. 

“And?” 

“Have you met my sister?”

(read more line here for people on mobile... you can also read at A03)

“You mean the red-headed whirlwind that’s nearly killed me four times already? Of course I’ve met Natasha,” Tony said. 

“Then why are you asking me if I liked the cookies? I didn’t get any of them.” Bucky puffed air hard enough to ruffle his hair. People were always so weird about that -- like, didn’t they know better? You didn’t leave sugar around ballerinas. Ever. 

Tash could sometimes be counted on to leave one of thing, though, just enough so that she didn’t have to replace the box, or the 12-pack of Coke, or whatever. She was, Bucky would admit, most of the time the ideal roommate. She was gone at least seven months out of the year, she never left her dirty dishes out -- of course, Tash had grown up in the same house as he had, infested with roaches even at the best of times, and leaving food out was just not a thing you did -- and she paid all her bills on time. 

For that, Bucky was willing to put up with the fact that she ate everything that wasn’t nailed down, pried up things that were, and complain that she was still hungry. And, back when their parents were still alive, their mom had run Tash ragged on diet after diet, pinching her waist to see if Tash had “gained an inch” and constantly compared her to every other slender girl in the troupe. Tash had gone through two trips to the ER over it, once for prolonged bulimia, and another time for severe rash that had turned out to be a symptom from malnutrition. If what it took for Tash to be over that was to binge eat cookies once in a while, Bucky wasn’t going to say much to her. 

Not seriously, at any rate. He complained. Of course he did, he was her brother, it was his job to complain. But if he actually sat her down and had a conversation about her eating habits? Yeah, that could be real bad; she’d hear in between the lines, everything he wasn’t saying and didn’t mean about how fat she was and how no one would ever want her and… yeah, not happening. 

Not that he could really explain that to Tony; Tash’s eating disorder was between her, Bucky, and her troupe leader (better than the last leader, this one encouraged the ballerinas to fucking eat all ready). “Tash ate them all,” Bucky said, lame. “I’m guessing she thought they were good.” 

“Ana’s going to be disappointed,” Tony said. “She made those cookies for you.” 

“I’ll get Tash to autograph one of her publicity photos for Ana,” Bucky suggested, “and she’ll be so excited by that, she’ll completely forget that my sister is a horrible pest and eats all my food.” 

“This is a habit of hers, I’m guessing?” 

Bucky shrugged. “She burns a lot of calories, doing dance,” he said. “If I ate half as much as she does, I’d have to run a 5k daily. So, really, she probably spared me the effort of running, which I hate doing in the winter.” 

Tony hummed thoughtfully. “I’m not going to tell Ana you didn’t get any of her cookies,” he said, finally. “Look, I have a few left, why don’t you come over and I’ll make sure you get one?” 

Bucky laughed. “I’m almost tempted to suggest you and my sister are conspiring against me.” 

“What, to get you into my bedroom?” 

“Something like that,” Bucky said. Not that he didn’t want to, god… but Tash had been home for the last several weeks and Tony shared a room with another student (and one who seemed a bit homophobic, honestly) and privacy just wasn’t a thing they’d had. 

“If you’re not gonna come over for a bribe, I guess begging wouldn’t help any,” Tony said. 

Jesus Christ. Bucky almost fell out of his own bed, the way Tony’s voice affected him, that soft, knowing lilt and how was that possible? This was… god, you have it bad, soldier. 

Bucky rolled his head back; red numbers glittered at him. It was three-thirty, he had work at eight and he’d need to shower and change clothes, although he supposed he could bring a gym bag with him and use the dorm-showers over at campus. Fifteen minutes to get there, another twenty minutes to find a place to stow his bike, since he didn’t have a campus parking sticker, and he’d have to leave at seven, if he was going to get to work on time. 

“Order us some delivery,” Bucky said, “and I’ll be at your door in about an hour.” 

Bucky hung up the phone while Tony was still cackling with glee, fingercombed his hair, gave that up as a bad job and just scraped it back into a messy bun. He left Tash a twenty on the counter and a note, “Order a pizza. Gone to Tony’s. I know it was my turn to cook. LY, B” 

They always left each other notes; their parents had died in a carbon monoxide accident when Tash was still in high school. Bucky’d been in the Army, Tash was doing a limited tour over Easter vacation with the dance troupe, and neither of them had known anything about it until Tash came home a week later. 

Notes. And calls. Some of Bucky’s friends had given him shit about how careful he was to make sure his sister knew where he was at all times. Or how much he worried about it if she had gone somewhere and didn’t text him. Didn’t matter. Tash was all he had left. 

Bucky packed clothes and a toiletries bag into the pod on the back of his motorcycle. It was a little cold for a ride, but taking the bike meant he could stay longer instead of having to walk from campus to the nearest bus station. He pulled on all the leather, which would help keep him warm, although in the spring and summer he tended to play fast and loose with safety, something that would surely end with an epic scar someday. 

Helmet mashed over his already terrible hair, he climbed on and headed out to the college. 

What was it with women who stole his food? 

Bucky stared at the empty takeout box, then up at the girl in Tony’s room. She was adorable, pixie-haircut and wide, green eyes and clothes so fashionable they looked like they belonged on a runway. Exactly the sort of girl that Bucky had thought Tony should date, not some ex-military guy with the fashion sense of an armadillo. 

“Janet, this is Bucky,” Tony said, apologetically. “Jan, Bucky.” 

“Oh, my god, you’re Bucky? Of course you are, I’m just so excited to meet you, Tony talks about you all the time and I’ve heard so many good things, and I know that I ate your general tso’s chicken and I’m so sorry, but I ran into the delivery guy on his way up the stairs and I was coming over to talk to Tony about some personal stuff and you know, we have class together and I needed to look over my notes with him anyway, and there’s this thing going on in a few weeks and I just had to ask him what he thought of my costume idea, and I noticed he’d ordered enough for two, and I just really didn’t think that he was going to have company over, sometimes he orders extra just so he doesn’t have to think about it the next day, and so I was already helping myself by the time we got to the door and I’m so so sorry --” 

“Holy shit, Tony, how does this woman even breathe?” 

“Kinda like a whale, maybe. I think she’s got a blowhole in the top of her head,” Tony said. 

“God, you’re terrible and I don’t know why I put up with you, Tony Stark, really, I just do not,” Jan said, smacking Tony over the head a few times and forcing Tony to shield his face before she knocked his ridiculous yellow sunglasses right off his head. 

“Because I’m the only one who puts up with you? Stop hitting me, you little wasp,” Tony said, ducking around behind Bucky. “You need to save me, now.” 

“Who’s gonna save me?” Bucky turned around in a circle, forcing Tony to run around him to keep away from Janet. Finally, he took a step to the side and Janet walked right into him, stumbled back a step, and rubbed her nose. 

“Ow.” 

“C’mere, you,” Bucky said, dragging Tony in for a kiss. Janet squealed, bounced on her toes and clapped her hands together, which almost had Bucky pulling back until Tony licked along his bottom lip and Bucky decided he did not care that she was watching. Between Bucky’s crazy working-nights schedule and the erratic class/lab schedule that Tony kept, he’d barely seen Tony in the last week, and mostly they’d just texted or chatted on the phone and god, Bucky had missed him. Seemed silly, when Bucky sat down and thought it over; he and Tony had known each other for all of five weeks, gone on a dozen dates (was it really a date when half the time Bucky just dropped onto campus and they hung out in the Quad A to watch television?) and talked on the phone almost every day. And yet, kissing Tony was the highlight of his day. 

Tony tasted like duck sauce and oolong and he smelled like expensive cologne. His hair was soft and his skin was warm under Bucky’s hands and his mouth was clever and willing.   

“Okay, enough,” Janet said, finally, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot impatiently. “Come up for air, already. I need Tony’s notes and to not feel pathetic.” 

Bucky could feel the reluctance in Tony’s mouth and tempted him back with a nudge at his lower back, before finally releasing him. 

“If you’d just ask Hank out, you wouldn’t have this problem,” Tony muttered. He waved a hand at the two desk chairs and the currently neat-as-a-pin other bunk (Tony’s half of the room was a disaster, the less said about it the better). “Grab some real estate, while I dig up this --” he disappeared practically headfirst into his backpack, pulling out any number of books, notebooks, a tablet, a laptop, with a muttered “not it.” 

Bucky dropped into one of the chairs, not wanting to mess up Tony’s roommate’s bed (Bucky had been introduced to the guy once, but Tony had exactly zero respect for the guy, and while he used cutesy nicknames for most of his friends, this particular guy found them offensive and often stormed off in a snit.) but Janet didn’t have any such hangups. She threw herself on the bed, kicking her heels up into the air behind her and snuggling up with the pillow, talking a mile-a-minute about the class she and Tony were in together, her crush on a guy named Pym, and why it was all sorts of inappropriate for her to ask him out (something something, he was a TA and probably going to be an adjunct professor next year and, something something.) while Tony dug out his notes and then ran them through his scanner for her, copying them. 

Janet apologized again for eating Bucky’s dinner when Tony tossed him both fortune cookies. Bucky opened one of them and devoured it in two bites, peeling the little piece of paper out of his mouth. You learn a lot from your mistakes; today will be educational. Bucky huffed, feeling cheated. Terrible fortune. He crumpled it up with the wrapper and threw both in the trash. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Bucky said. “I’ve got a lunch for work, I’ll just take my break early.” 

“You work nights?” 

“He’s a bouncer in a strip club,” Tony said, grinning, as if this was a real achievement, when honestly, all it took was a lot of muscle and the ability not to hit on the dancers. (Bucky’d heard of other clubs where the bouncers and other male staff got “free-trade” from the girls, but that sort of idea just made Bucky feel sick.) 

“Really? Where do you work?” Janet actually looked interested, which was odd. Most of Bucky’s experiences with women who didn’t dance was a mix of sex-worker shame, or feminism 101 rampages about the nature of his work. 

“Red Room,” Bucky said. 

“Oh, awesome. Tony, we should totally go, I bet we could get a whole group together and --”

Bucky hid his face behind his hand and groaned. Excellent, that would be just great, his boyfriend and a whole ton of probably underage college kids showing up at the ‘Room. Victoria would kill him. And that after she yelled at him for a while, and dear sweet zombie Christ, Victoria Hand had a way with words that made a man want to stab himself in the eye rather than face her wrath.

Tony handed off the print-outs to Janet, then dropped himself into Bucky’s lap, disdaining the other chair, and Bucky had to shift around suddenly, getting one arm around Tony’s lower back. “Some warning,” Bucky chided, then nuzzled at Tony’s neck, unable to resist. Tony squirmed around in Bucky’s lap, which was a little awkward as… nnnngh, yeah, okay, so it had been a long damn time since Bucky’d gotten laid and a little teasing was torture. 

Tony and Janet went off on some unstable particle theory that their professor had been discussing in lecture, with Janet adding in quips from Pym, who had apparently a long-standing debate with the guy. The theoretical physics part of the discussion was way over Bucky’s head and paygrade, but Pym sounded like a quick wit. 

“I agree with Tony,” Bucky said, interjecting himself into the middle of one such exchange, which earned him a brief look from the resident geniuses. 

“What part?” 

“The part where Janet ought to ask Hank out,” Bucky said. 

“Ha!” Tony exclaimed, almost falling out of Bucky’s lap in his enthusiasm, and the amount of twisting and twitching and clinging he did to remain perched there got Bucky a little more wound up then he’d really meant to be. “I told you, I told you, I told my mother, I told --” 

“You told your mom? Oh, my god, Anthony Stark, why would you… why would you tell Maria that? You know she’s like best friends with my mother, and they go to coffee all the time --” 

Tony heaved an abused sigh. “Because my mom was trying to get me to ask you out,” he explained, waving a hand. 

“Oh, that’s disgusting,” Janet said, sticking her tongue out. “No. I mean, like I adore you, Tony, you know I do and you’re the sweetest thing and you actually have really good fashion sense but you and me? Dating? That would be a disaster. It would be like dating my brother. If I had a brother. He’s kinda like my brother, you know --” she directed this at Tony “-- like all the way down to have pictures of us together in diapers.” 

“Jan!” 

“You told our mothers.” 

Bucky snorted. “Yep, you two are siblings. You sound just like me an’ Tash.” 

“Oh, right, your cookie-thieving sister, I forgot about that,” Tony said, twisting around in Bucky’s lap again. “I owe you a cookie. Let me up, I’ll go --” 

Bucky winced and pulled Tony closer, shifting his hips and Tony’s eyes widened suddenly as he realized what, exactly, was poking him in the leg. “I’m good,” Bucky said. He leaned closer and breathed in Tony’s ear, the sniper’s voice from the military that didn’t carry at all. “Don’t you dare get out of my lap right now.” The last thing he wanted was for Janet to notice the puptent he was making in the front of his trousers. 

Of course it had started raining. In Boston. In January. 

“Ug,” Tony said, walking him to the edge of the building, eyeing the sky. “You sure you want to ride your motorcycle in this weather?” 

“Choiceless,” Bucky said. “I gotta get to work, okay?” 

“Well, text me when you get there, babe,” Tony said. “This weather is. Well, I just want to know you’re safe.”

“‘Course, mom,” Bucky said, tapping Tony’s chin lightly. “Don’t fret, I’ll be fine. You don’t have to walk me out, no sense both of us getting wet.” 

“Okay,” Tony said. “Text me anyway.” He put his arms around Bucky’s neck and drew him down for a kiss, soft and warm and regretfully short. Tony was already shivering by the time he let go -- he’d come outside without a coat, like being young was somehow an immunity to the weather. 

“Will do,” Bucky said. He trudged out to his bike and had a completely miserable trip out to work. At least it was only twelve miles. By the time he got there, he was soaked through; riding in the rain was always like taking a 60 mile an hour shower, but this time it was also nearly freezing and his fingers and toes were so numbed that he ended up hitting the showers (again) before his shift started. Luckily -- or at least, practically -- everyone kept at least one change of uniform at the club. Guests drank, and anyplace where guests drank often resulted in employees getting puked on. He was still cold, and a little bit cross, so he group-texted Tash and Tony. At work. Not dead. 

A few hours later, he swapped out with Drax and took his lunch break early. 

Only to find out that someone had snatched it out of the fridge and eaten all but the last two bites. Yeah, that was just how his day was going. 

Bucky but one hand to his grumbling stomach and then sent his sister a text. If there’s not food for me when I get back, I will end you. 

Tash: I got chicken wings. There’s like four left. 

Bucky: I guess I’ll survive.

Tony: What today?

Bucky rolled his eyes. Tony had gotten some sort of weird enjoyment out of Bucky’s reports about Tash’s brattiness. Maybe it was having no siblings of his own, or maybe it was because there was always a damn list. 

Bucky: Milk. There’s like half a swallow in the jug. Not even enuf for coffee. 

While waiting for Tony to respond to that, he scrolled backward, reading the myriad complaints and bitches and affectionate name-calling that he’d said about his sister over the last two weeks. There was… a lot. 

Bucky: Put her hand in the cereal box. Ate a handful. Then put her hand BACK in the box. Ick. 

Bucky: Left exactly one piece of shaved ham in the package. 

Bucky: One AA battery left in the package. What the hell uses 1 AA battery. Bucky: NEVERMIND I FIGURED IT OUT DONT SAY ANYTHING. 

Bucky: Asked to borrow $2. Gave her a 20. She left $18 in DIMES on the coffee table. 

Bucky: Seriously. There isnt room in the dishwasher for a fork and she cant be bothered to run it?? What am I supposed to eat with? 

Bucky: Uff. that was nice. My turn to cook but work was shit last night and i m tired. She made spanikopita 

The phone buzzed under his hand and Bucky scrolled through the messages again to find the new one. 

Tony: Are u working next weekend 

Bucky: Thats valentines day? 

Tony: Yes. 

Bucky: Not at all surprising, busiest day of the yr. That said, I wrkd last yr, so I have off this. 

Tony: Oh, thank god. Do you get seasick? 

Bucky: Uh dunno? 

Tony: 5 mins, ill call u 

“Okay, so,” Tony said, when Bucky answered the phone a few minutes later, “I was wondering, maybe, if you’d like to go on a date. Like… an overnight date. I mean, I know we did that, when you stayed at my parents’, but like, for real, this time.” 

“An overnight date,” Bucky said, slowly, “on Valentine’s Day?” 

“Um, yeah?” Tony sounded nervous, a little breathy, like he was pacing around in his dorm room. 

“What did you have in mind?” 

“I… erm, you know Harbor Spirit?” Tony asked. Bucky did, actually; they ran advertisements on the radio all the time; kinda a bar/nightclub on a ship. Like Carnival Cruise, but smaller, and they didn’t leave the country, mostly just tooled around in the harbor area. A few times a year (New Year’s, Valentine’s, etc) they had overnight cruises. 

“Yeah,” Bucky said. “You… really?” 

“Well, yeah, if that’s something you want to do, I mean we can --” 

“I’d love to,” Bucky said. “That’s… um. Kinda serious business, though, kitten.” 

“What do you mean?” 

Bucky chewed his lip, he really would have rather done this in person, but what the hell. “I mean a date like that, it’s kinda expensive and… I guess what I want to know is where we’re going with this.”

“Oh, this is that talk,” Tony said, and Bucky heard him throw himself onto the bed. “We’re gonna DTR already?” 

Bucky snorted. Three letter acronyms… yay. Well, at least Tony didn’t actually say “lol.” He didn’t think he could date anyone who actually did that without at least a healthy dose of irony. “Define the relationship,” he said. “Might be time to do that, yes.” 

“Well, I’m not seeing anyone else,” Tony said, hastily, “not that you can’t, you know, if that’s not something you want, or, you know I don’t want to make assumptions, but --” 

Bucky smiled. “Oh, well, good, then,” he said. “I’m not seeing anyone else, either. I’d… we’ve been seeing each other about a month now, I’m interested to see if it goes anywhere. Dating, you know, with purpose.” 

“Purpose beyond just having a good time,” Tony said, all the way back to breathless again. “That’s, yeah, that’s great, Bucky, I’d… like that. Honest, I been sorta telling people you’re my boyfriend anyway.” 

Bucky hadn’t, not because he wouldn’t have, but because honestly, he didn’t have anyone to tell. Aside from his sister, and she’d already guessed that Bucky was more than halfway in love as it was. “That’s good,” Bucky said, again. “I mean, we… New Years, and… you know how I feel.” 

“But it’s nice to have it out in words, right, like official and everything,” Tony said. 

“Yeah, like that. Look, this seems wrong, over the phone. Can… can I take you out to dinner? I don’t have to be at work for another four hours, and I know a great diner --” he gave Tony the address. 

“Sure, I’ll… be there in thirty minutes, great,” Tony said. He hesitated, then -- “so, that’s a yes, on that cruise?” 

“Absolutely,” Bucky said, grinning. “See you soon, kitten.” 

“Yeah, I…” Tony said, hesitated again, then said, almost as if he was terrified, “soon.” 

“Oh, my god, Yasha, chill out,” Tash said, running her hand through Bucky’s hair and making a mess of it. “You look fantastic, it’s going to go fine.” 

“You think so?” Bucky asked, then, because he couldn’t possibly let Tash get away with that, he added, “because you know, if you think so, I’m probably in trouble.” 

“Is it a moral imperative for you to be such an asshole?” 

Bucky considered that, as if it were an honest-to-god question. “Hmm, probably,” he said. 

“Look,” Tash said, “I know that you were real hurt with that Rogers thing; hell, back in high school, you were practically writing James Rogers in your notebooks. And I remember what a fucking wreck you were when he got married.” 

Bucky flinched. What Steve and he had… Bucky had massively misinterpreted a bout of sexual identity panic. Steve had come into the Red Room for the girls, or so he had said, but he had also flirted with Bucky. And Bucky had been stupid enough to think it was real. To let Steve sweet talk him into some behind-the-scenes action. They’d had sex five times; three times at the Red Room, once in the backseat of Steve’s car, and once on the back stairs to Bucky’s apartment. They’d never even gotten to a bed, and Bucky was in love enough to think that any of it meant anything. 

And then Steve had stopped answering Bucky’s texts. 

A few weeks later, Steve had stopped by the apartment, had woken Bucky up to tell him that Steve was engaged to be married to a woman named Sharon, and he was sorry if Bucky was hurt, but… Steve still wanted to be friends, if that would be okay, he… 

Bucky had shut the door in Steve’s face and had waited until he heard the man’s footsteps on the stairs before he’d collapsed and cried himself sick. 

He had never been able to decide later if the wedding invitation had been an olive branch or Steve rubbing it in Bucky’s face. 

Either way, Bucky hadn’t gone. In his better moments, Bucky honestly wished Steve all the best. As time passed, Bucky had more better moments. The wedding date had come and gone; Bucky had in fact, saved the date. Had saved it to get good and fucked up drunk. 

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Bucky said, closing the door on that thought. 

“But you’re worried,” Tash said. “I’ve seen you… twice now, you’ve almost picked a fight with Tony because if it ends badly, at least this time it’d be your fault. I’m just saying, brother, give it a chance, okay? Tony seems like a good guy.” 

“How do you even know?” 

Tash pinked, and that was interesting. 

“What?” 

She sighed. “You texted us both, a few weeks ago, so I have his number. We… started chatting a little.” 

“You are texting my boyfriend behind my back, what are you, twelve?” Bucky was mortified. “What have you said to him?”

“Nothing about you,” she said, almost cross. “Well, a few things about you, like your favorite color and stupid shit. But we just got to chatting. I like him. He’s kind. I give you permission to like him; god knows, you’ve liked stupider people.” 

Bucky appealed to the ceiling, “Is my own sister giving me a shovel talk? Is that what’s going on here?” 

Tash looked ready to protest that, but instead, she just poked him in the ribs a few times until he grabbed her hands, laughing and squirming away from her fingers. “Stop, stop, I give up,” he squeaked, just as the door opened and Tony came up the stairs. 

“Do you need help?” 

“Yes!” Tash said, instantly, taking advantage of the distraction to poke Bucky again. 

“No!” Bucky responded instantly, thrashing his way out from under his sister, “No, absolutely, you do not need to help her.” He backed away, arms held out protectively. 

“Well, I actually meant you,” Tony said, laughing. “Hey, Nat, good to see you, I have a present for you.” 

The word present worked wonders, Tash stopped stalking Bucky, brightened up, and beamed. “You’re a wonderful person,” she said, “and I do not even in the slightest bit rescind my permission for Yasha to date you.” 

“I don’t need your permission,” Bucky muttered. 

“Well, in case you have doubts,” Tony said, and presented one of those cheesy velvet boxes that were filled with assorted chocolates, “I brought this for you.” 

“For me? Really?” Tash snatched the box away and hugged it to her chest. “Thank you, that’s very sweet.” 

Bucky rolled his eyes; at least this way he wouldn’t have to be pissed when Tash ate all the chocolates, but weirdly, it kinda stung a little. 

“And before you get all sulky, gorgeous,” Tony said, bringing a second box out from behind his back, “this one’s for you. Will you be my Valentine?” 

Bucky shook his head, grinning. “Of course,” he said, and drew Tony in for a kiss. He couldn’t resist the siren’s call of chocolate for very long, however, and he sat down on the sofa, patting the cushion next to him for Tony to join him, and tore into the box. One of the best things about his favorite -- chocolate-covered cherries -- is that they were easy to find, even in a box of mixed candies. “Thank you. Want one?” He offered the tray to Tony, who selected one at random. 

“Can I have one?” Tash asked, leaning over the back of the sofa. 

“Really, Tash? You have your own box,” Bucky exclaimed, exasperated. “Eat your own chocolates!” 

“Yeah, but your box is open already,” she said, like this was a reasonable excuse. 

“One,” Bucky said, firmly. “Just one.” He was going to have to take the damn box with him if he had a prayer of there being any of them left by the time he got home. 

Tony just laughed and stole another one while Tash was picking them over carefully, trying to decide which one she wanted the most. “Come on, gorgeous,” he said, “we can’t miss cast-off.” 

Bucky sighed, grabbed another few chocolates and rapid-fired them into his mouth like they were pez from a dispenser. Mouth full, he glared at his sister, took the box back to his room and rather pointedly shut the door. He chewed and swallowed heroically. “Stay out of my room,” he said, wagging his finger at her. 

“Have a good time,” Tash said, blowing kisses at Tony. “Thank you for the present!” 

Bucky grabbed his overnight bag and followed Tony out to his car. “That was nice of you,” he said, cautiously, “although I admit, I’m a little concerned that her box and my box are the same sized box. What am I supposed to make of that?” 

“Hey, I’m not taking her on a cruise, am I?” Tony pointed out. 

“True, that,” he said. Tony leaned over and kissed him again, more thoroughly, as they both belted in. 

The stateroom was rather like a lavishly anointed hotel room -- the sort Bucky had only seen in pictures, really -- with a soft cream and rich burgundy decorations. There was a tiny sitting room and a bedroom beyond with an absolutely enormous bed. Both bedside tables held huge vases full of roses, and laying on the pillow... 

“Holy shit, Tony!” 

Bucky stared down at the largest damn box of chocolates he’d ever seen in his life. Two-hundred and forty different chocolates, the box advertised.

“This way,” Tony said, “she gets to eat hers and yours back at your place, and you still get to have some.” 

“I’m gonna need to go to the gym for a month if I eat all that,” Bucky said, breathless. Holy shit. “Holy shit, Tony. I don’t even know what to say.” 

“That you'll be mine?” Tony suggested. 

“Oh, my god,” Bucky said, knocking Tony over onto the bed and pressing against him. “Yes, absolutely, yes.”