#affordable disney shirt

[estrellami-1]

Steddie Microfic

June prompt: stuff

Word count: 483

No warnings apply

Rated G

@steddiemicrofic

“Baby,” Eddie whispers. “Baby, wake up.”

Steve hums, too content—and too tired—to do anything other than lay exactly where he is, halfway on top of Eddie. “No.”

“But what if I told you I have something for you?” Eddie tries, shifting to kiss Steve’s shoulder.

“Wha’ya got?” He shifts slightly, getting even more comfortable. Good luck, Eddie.

“Well… what would you do if I said we were going to Disney?”

“Di’ney,” Steve mumbles, drifting off again.

Eddie chuckles. “Guess it’s my fault for trying to get you up before you’re ready on your one day off, huh?”

A couple of hours later, Steve wakes up again. He sighs, presses a kiss to Eddie’s chest. “Baby.”

“Yeah?” He put his hand in Steve’s hair.

Steve groans. “Keep doing that, I’ll fall back asleep.” He pauses for a second. “Did you say earlier that we have tickets for Disney?”

“That I did.”

“When are we leaving?”

“Tomorrow.”

“How long are we staying?”

“Five days. You need a vacation, baby.”

A smile begins to pull at Steve’s lips. “You’re too good to me.”

“No such thing,” Eddie says immediately, rolling them over so he can scoot down and catch Steve’s lips with his own. “Baby? You wanna go to Disney?”

Steve chuckles. “Yeah, Eds. I’d love to go to Disney. With you, especially.”

Eddie grins and captures Steve’s lips in another kiss, this one immediately more heated, and it’s late afternoon by the time they’re showered.

“We need to start packing,” Steve says. “Five days, so five outfits, and toiletries, and-” he mumbled to himself as he walked into his closet, getting down his and Eddie’s suitcases from the overhead shelving.

He started on his immediately, while Eddie was preoccupied with memorizing the entire Disney song list.

He picks up a broom handle—Steve stops trying to figure out where he finds things—and practices sword fighting moves, singing, “One jump ahead of the breadline, one swing ahead of the sword. I steal only what I can’t afford.”

He finds one of Steve’s shirts in his suitcase—folded exactly where he wanted it—and picked it up, holding it against his chest as he sings, “And so I read a book, or maybe two or three. I’ll add a few new paintings to my gallery. I’ll play guitar and knit and basically, just wonder when will my life begin?”

He sways behind Steve as he’s bent over in their bathroom, looking for the travel toothbrush toppers. Steve swears the same elves that steal socks also steal travel toothbrush toppers. “Look at this stuff,” Eddie begins, smacking Steve’s ass as he passes. Steve straightens up with a yelp and a glare in the mirror. “Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete? Wouldn’t you think I’m a boy, the boy who has everything?”

“One more song before you’re packed,” Steve warns, but he can’t keep the grin off his face.

[three--rings]

Most people don't have any understanding of what has been lost in Lahaina Town. Not just lives and property, but an entire town.

Most people hear "a city/town in Hawaii" and they picture probably resorts. And there are plenty of resorts nearby. But those are all fine.

Lahaina was an old whaling town dating back to the original colonization by white settlers. Before white people arrived, it was the capital of the island, where the high chief ruled, including Kamehameha the Great. The buildings are old, wooden, and crowded together. Obviously that was a problem in the face of the insanely fast wildfire.

But these weren't mansions, Mc or otherwise. It was a tourist town, a destination for cute, spendy shopping and dining, full of art galleries. (OMG THE GALLERIES. There was so much ART lost. There was original Dr. Seuss art in one gallery when I was there in January. That's gone now. Etc.)

But the people who lived and worked in Lahaina were mostly working class, working retail and restaurant jobs, living in old apartments and small houses. Lots of elderly, lots of non-white in a wide range of ethnicities, old hippies who have been there since the 60s and 70s. Yeah they were probably a little better off than people who drive in from other places to work in West Maui, at least because their property was high value, if they owned. But they lived without A/C, hung their laundry on lines, biked to work, called in sick to go surfing when the waves were up. There was a Chinese cultural center and a Buddhist temple, two different structures, if that tells you anything. Multiple museums housing historic items and cultural centers.

And the town will be rebuilt, in some form, I imagine. Or re-developed, more likely. People who are now homeless, who can't afford to rebuild or pay for two residences while the recovery happens will be bought out by deep pocketed developers. If they rebuild Lahaina Town I'm afraid it will be Lahaina Town tm by Disney.

Another fake paradise for tourists with lava rock from the Big Island. Another bit of Hawaii swallowed by capitalism and climate change.

I'm not painting everything about Lahaina as it was as perfect. Front Street was an often gaudy display of brand names and hucksters out to shovel in the tourist dollars. And of course the politics of Hawaii are incredibly complex and fraught in so many ways. I'm just a mainlander haole. I will never live on the islands, despite my family there constantly asking me to move. But I've spent more time there than anywhere I haven't lived, almost all of that time in West Maui.

My mom works in a building that is not there anymore. She just described that job to me as "the last job she'll ever have" as she's 79 and very happy with working two days a week selling t-shirts to cruise ship people. My brother has worked in a gallery on front street for the last ten years.

I don't know. A city of almost 15,000 permanent residents is just gone. 50 or so are confirmed dead, in some horrific circumstances from what I hear.

My mom says people are just walking around with thousand-yard-stares, aimless, clutching cell phones trying to get signal (there isn't any, but you can get lucky and get a call through. Some texts are going in but not out.)

So I don't know folks. Keep those people in your thoughts. If you can donate, I think this may be a good place because it's going to lots of local orgs on the ground: https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong

I keep thinking of new sad things.

Anyway I'm going to leave you with a picture I took while strolling down Front Street one evening.

[tiredofthehumanlife]

So we’re all trans?

Barbie dolls: t4t!Jegulus x genderfluid!reader

Word: 3.3k ish

Summary: James and Regulus are nervy to tell you they’re trans while you are nervy to tell them you’re genderfluid and hilarity ensues

Warnings: Lightning McQueen, Shrek, Spiderman, and Peter Pettigrew mentioned, James is a kale freak, I talked like a lot most of which was not necessary, mentions: shots (testosterone), getting vaccinations, cheating, domestic homicide, medieval torture, your experience with genderfluidity(it’s going to be a word for today) might not align with mine but i kept it as vague as possible, a bit of a Disney channel moment but just like ignore the cringe baby it's fine it adds character, you place your hands on your hips but it's not like “you place your tiny baby girl hands on your voluptuous hips in girly frustration” yk so it works for whatever gender you're feeling🩷, insecure feelings in gender identity, everybody is worried the other is going to break up with them bc they’re trans so it's like hypothetical transphobia, you wear pants, jamie used once, yeah i think thats it please read the author’s note i want to cover all my bases to make sure this doesn’t have unintended messages right okay cool

A/n: I'm going to use the small text bc I'm going to be yapping a lot so I apologize to all the bad vision freaks(I can't see two inches in front of my face) right so I just wanted to say that both James and Regulus had medically assisted transitions (that feels like a right phrasing) reg had top surgery, James takes puberty blockers, and they both take T I just wanted to say that you do not have to take anything or do anything to be valid in your trans identity some people can’t afford surgeries and some people don't want them and everybody is valid (except for those people who are like “me when the trans guy with triple d’s gets mad I mess up their pronouns” they can suck my 12-foot long dick) I just wanted to say this because I didn’t want someone to read this and feel like they don’t count because they didn’t follow these two rich boys’ paths okay awesome

request: right here dickhead

James and Regulus have been dating for years. Strangely enough, they had been taking care of each other since day one. It was truly simple, once they moved in together their acts of service quadrupled. Suddenly James was sitting with Regulus on the edge of the bathtub, gently removing his chest tape. Regulus decided chest tape wasn’t enough, and James was reaching the shelves over Regulus’ elbow height for him. James became a supreme master at making soup while Regulus was in recovery from his top surgery. Eventually, Regulus was healed and extremely joyous. He was wandering around the house with his shirt off just for the hell of it. Regulus was prancing down the porch stairs to get the mail in only his James’ plaid pajama pants and cat slippers.

James was lucky enough to have loving accepting parents. He started puberty blockers early on and eventually, he swapped them out for testosterone so he neglected the want and or perceived need for a top surgery. James, after having years of practice, lost his uneasiness towards the injections. Regulus, however, was extremely terrified of needles. As a kid, he was practically breaking Sirius’ hand from his grip when he needed to get his vaccinations. Before he met James, Sirius would do them for him. Now, Regulus would stand in the kitchen covering his eyes with his forearm and turning away as far as he could. James would inject the shot as fast as possible, rewarding Regulus’ bravery with 80 kisses on his cheek and ice cream.

They were out to their friends, but it wasn’t exactly something mentioned frequently. It didn’t really matter all that much. Barty would call you a dickhead no matter what was in your pants. Marlene was similar but her go-to insult was ‘ bitchey-bitch-bitch-stupid-face’, friends only of course. You can’t have that insane unfiltered language out with strangers. Lily loved everyone, closing off every single phone call with ‘I love you’ even if it was customer service.

Peter was similar although instead he thanked people by saying ‘I appreciate you’. He once mentioned how he was working at a restaurant having a horrible day. He was yelled at more than thrice in a row, and he was certain if someone called him one more bad name he’d burst into tears. Then this woman came in, who appeared to have met the first dinosaur, and she was so kind to him. When she left she said ‘Thanks, baby. I appreciate you.’ And he sobbed in the freezer. Peter immediately engraved it into his dictionary. All their friends knew, but it was like knowing their favorite letter; it’s nice to know but that information doesn’t really come into play very frequently.

Then they met you. Regulus had dragged James to the bookstore. James loved going to the bookstore with Regulus. Regulus liked wandering for hours. He liked scanning the backs and summaries inside the front cover. James liked the bookstore mainly because Regulus liked it. He also liked looking through the cookbooks and workout guides. Sometimes when the story was empty he’d head towards the kid section, squeeze himself into one of the tiny plastic chairs, and do the puzzles. Eventually when Regulus would finish looking, a hefty stack in his arms, he’d find James. Usually, James would brag about how ‘those dumbasses’ had nothing on him. He finished eight puzzles in under a minute. Regulus would remind him the puzzles had six pieces each.

That time was different though. James had looked through all the cookbooks, finding one he liked. James looked at a few of the workout books, getting bored when they said something he didn’t agree with. He finished all the puzzles made for toddlers, and yet his boyfriend still wasn’t done. It was odd. So James went on a search for Regulus. He checked the poetry section first, no Regulus. He went to the fantasy next, no dice. James stalked up and down every aisle. His ears perched up at the sound of Regulus’ voice. It was a bit strange, Regulus didn’t usually volunteer to socially interact with anyone. James assumed he got trapped into small talk, rushing to his boyfriend’s rescue.

James found Regulus actually grinning with a stranger. James didn’t even know he could do that. Regulus was holding a book open, letting you lean to look over his shoulder. You both looked more than excited to finally meet somebody you could talk to about your favorite book. The more James looked at you, the more he understood why Regulus was so happy to talk to you. Delectable was a nasty word to use to describe a person so James opted instead for extremely stunning. Eventually with Regulus’ book opinions and James’ cheesy flirting, their couple grew into a throuple.

Your relationship is a little fresh now. In the way that you had no idea what either of their pajamas looked like but you knew exactly where their spoons were. James and Regulus weren’t entirely sure if you would accept them with open arms if they shared every part of them, including their favorite letter. They stayed silent for the most part, letting you stay ignorant just this once.

You were harboring your own skeleton in the closet. You haven’t told them you are genderfluid, and you haven’t told them how many frustrations that caused. You love who you are but for fucks sake could it be just a smidge easier? Your secret was weighing on you. It was all you could think about while you were out with your two amazing boyfriends. If you told them they could disprove and break up with you on the spot. They could also accept you but an overthinking mind never seems to be optimistic.

Your boyfriends seemed to notice your mood change, worried now you might’ve put together a couple of context clues and realized maybe they aren’t cis. What if now you were disgusted by them? James squashed that idea when Regulus voiced it, though it still lingered with him. Regulus knew James was just trying to relieve him of his worries but Regulus still appreciated his attempt.

Finally, the camel’s back broke and you were heading straight to their shared home. It was edging towards their bedtime the sun had set a couple of hours ago, fully relying on their warm lamps. They both had changed into their matching pajamas; plaid pants and Spiderman t-shirts. Regulus had slippers with tiny cat ears on the top and little cat faces on them. James however had Lighting McQueen slippers that lit up when he took a step. They were cute when he first got them but the novelty wore off rather quickly and now Regulus complains that James’ shoes give him a headache. Regulus settled into the barstool behind the kitchen counter with his reward ice cream. James leaned against the counter across from him, slurping very loudly on his smoothie. James jutted it out to Regulus.

“Want some?” Regulus looked up at James with a raised eyebrow.

“James, if I ever say I want some of your kale and banana smoothie, I give you full permission to assassinate me. Preferably quickly.” James pouted, pointing the lip of his glass back towards himself. Regulus rolled his eyes and took another bite of his ice cream.

“You could’ve just said no, also what did we say about suicide jokes?” James said, pointing over his shoulder at the small whiteboard on the fridge that said ‘6 days without a suicide joke’ in James’ handwriting. Regulus dropped his spoon back into his bowl, feeling particularly peeved at the unjust accusation.

“No, no. That’s not suicide, that's homicide. Two entirely different things. You can’t dock my streak just because you didn’t find the joke funny.” Regulus stuck his finger at James. James pushed Regulus’ finger away, leaning forward to steal a kiss from him. James pulled away, taking another sip of his smoothie as Regulus took another spoonful.

“No offense, babe, but I’m not sure if I know anyone who would find domestic homicide funny,” James added, with his straw still in his mouth. Regulus scoffed.

“That’s because you have lame friends,” James’ jaw dropped in offense at Regulus’ words. “Barty would find it hilarious, and Dorcas would find it mildly amusing.” Regulus retorted, grinning like he won their game. James pressed his lips together in disapproval. As he was opening his mouth to continue the verbal play fight, a knock on their door interrupted him. They both shared a look of confusion. James shrugged, leaving his smoothie on the counter to get to the door.

“See but Barty finds The Pear of Anguish funny,” James argued, his slippers lighting up on his way to the door.

“Barty’s a masochist, I’m not sure what you were expecting when you took him to that museum,” Regulus muttered into his bowl as James peered out the peephole. James hummed in a confused tone, opening the door to find you. You were not in pajamas and you looked rather stressed.

“Hey sweetheart, you okay?” James asked, worry lacing his words. He moved back letting you step into their foyer. Regulus looked up at James’ words. He doesn’t usually greet the door-to-door salesman like that. Regulus quietly joined you two at the door, he understood James’ greeting now but didn’t understand why you were visiting them looking so frazzled. You looked them both up and down, slightly pausing at James’ shoes. You shrugged your coat off, placing it on their coat rack. James found it at a thrift store and Regulus repainted it.

“You two look dashing.” You muttered as you straightened your shirt. Regulus glanced down at his pajamas, suddenly feeling slightly judged. He crossed his arms over the very large print of Spiderman.

“James picked it out,” Regulus whispered, trying to ignore the stinging on his cheeks. James’ chest puffed out, taking a wider stance and pulling at the end of his shirt so you can see the picture better.

“Aren’t we cute?” James said, confidence making him smile brighter. You nodded.

“Yeah, gotta love Spiderman.” You squished your lips together. Even with your words seeming relaxed your nerves were spreading to Regulus. James seemed to taste the uneasiness in the air.

“Are you alright? If this was planned I would’ve gotten you a shirt.” James reached over, rubbing Regulus’ shoulder to give him silent support. You nodded, staring at the ground to take in a deep breath.

“Right yeah. Sorry to drop in on you guys, but I think we need to talk.” You said, giving yourself a breath to steady yourself. Regulus felt his stomach jump into his throat. It felt tighter now, his heartbeat reaching his ears. Regulus glanced over to James, finding he was already looking. James gave him a tiny smile that Regulus could tell was forced.

“Yeah absolutely.” James brightly said, gesturing towards the living room. You lead the way. Regulus moved his hands to the back of his neck, trying to soothe himself. James noticed, grabbing both of Regulus’ shoulders to rub them, waddling behind Regulus. James kissed Regulus on his temple. Regulus reminded himself that even if what he thought was happening was happening, he’d still have James in the end.

Regulus and James settled on the couch, holding onto each other for emotional support. You started pacing in front of them, walking from one end of James’ favorite rug to the other. James intertwined his fingers with Regulus’, letting Regulus fiddle with them in his lap. It was better than biting his nails. ‘I should get a whiteboard for nail biting’ James thought to himself before zoning back in on your rapid pacing. Regulus’ eyes were following you with panic behind his head movements. Your anxiety was dripping out through your hands, slapping them together over and over again. James was starting to worry that Regulus would get hypnotized moving his eyes back and forth like that.

“You know, darling. I learned the hard way that anxious thoughts are like burps; better out than in.” James offered, hoping it would soothe you a little. You paused your pacing behind the coffee table, turning to face James.

“Did you just quote Shrek?” James clenched his jaw, feeling caught. James saw Regulus turning his head slowly to look at him out of the corner of his eye. James let out a nervous and breathy chuckle.

“It’s good advice,” James muttered, slipping further down the couch. You sighed and faced them both. You held your hands behind your back. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath.

“Right okay so I need to come clean to you two, I’ve been hiding something for a while now. It’s been stressing me out a lot and I think I would rather risk our relationship than have to go through this alone.” Regulus squeezed James’ hands tighter. James had flashbacks to Regulus getting a shot at the doctor's office.

“Is there another person?” Regulus abruptly said, cutting into your steady breathing time. You looked up at him shocked, quickly shaking your head.

“Oh, no, no, no. No. I would never do that. I would never cheat on you guys.” You quickly rushed out, like Regulus might implode if you didn’t get it out fast enough. James moved to make a fast joke, pushing a small bit of the thick tension out the door with a broom.

“I haven’t been cheating. Have you, Reg?” James asked with a pained grin. Regulus knew his tactics, joining in to shove some of his anxiety behind a potted plant.

“Not that I’m aware of.” Regulus felt himself let out a strained laugh that came out more like a cat hacking up a hairball. You looked at them both with a worried look. Regulus wanted to settle your nerves, giving you his shining smile. Which was just him showing his teeth with dead eyes. You took a step back, holding both your hands up.

“Okay well don’t do that.” You whispered. Regulus relaxed his face. You shivered, shaking out your worries through your hands.

“I’m just going to say it. It’s a lot of words so maybe just sit quietly and let me spill.” You looked up at them both for their agreement. James sat up straighter, giving you all of his attention. Regulus kept his wide, slightly unsettling, eyes on you. You gave them both an awkward smile.

“I’m genderfluid. Which if you don’t know means my gender kind of flows through like all of them. I’m kind of worried about telling you this because I’m not entirely sure if you’ll still think of me the same.” Your voice cracked. You let out a breathy chuckle wagging your finger towards the ground.

“Oh you cheeky mother fucker, pull it together.” You whispered to yourself. You pushed your shoulders back, speaking again. “And it’s just a little frustrating and confusing because the whole time I’m just second-guessing myself. I just feel like no matter what I do I’m never a hundred percent confident in myself. It’s like I’m sitting there wondering-“

“wondering if you’re valid or if you made it all up?” Regulus asked, somehow making his eyes wider. You looked away from your fiddling hands to stare at him quizzically. You whispered the tiniest agreeance, James was shocked he still heard it. James decided to speak up and comfort your frustrations.

“It’s alright that you feel that way, darling. You’re entirely valid. We’ll love you no matter what, unless it’s murder-“

“Well-“

”No matter what. I want you to be your happiest, whether that be doing naked cartwheels in the backyard or making a fort under the kitchen table. Man, woman, something else, a nice mixture of both, I’m here for you. Confusion and frustration happen all the time it's alright. I think it’s important to just make sure you do whatever makes you happiest for that moment or day.” James explained. As he talked Regulus watched your shoulders sink with relaxation. Your anxious eyebrows slowly retreated back to their resting place, the worry lines on your forehead dissapeared again. James let out his own sigh, glad he got to relax his partner again.

“And on a different note, I’m trans myself so I support you on extreme levels,” James added, giving you a bright smile. Regulus scoffed next to him.

“Oh, you’re trans? Not we’re trans?” James clutched his pearls, reeling back to look at Regulus.

“Well, I’m not going to come out for you. I don’t know if you’re comfortable doing that. It’s not my story to tell.” James said, shaking his head at Regulus. Regulus muttered a few choice words at James under his breath as he turned back to you. You looked to have a million math problems in your head.

“So if we could just wrap back around, you’re both trans?” Regulus and James nodded at your question in sync. You sighed, looking around the living room. You placed your hands on your hips in exasperation.

“Just to clear everything up for those at home, I’ve walking around for weeks anxious up the wazoo for absolutely no reason?” Regulus and James glanced at each other.

“yeah.”

“it appears that way, yes.” Regulus watched you groan and drop your head in your hands.

“To throw my two cents in, it’s totally valid to feel a little discombobulated. Gender is hard and often it’s difficult to figure out what you’re truly feeling, it took me years to realize I wasn't nonbinary. It’s entirely okay that you feel like this.” Regulus said, releasing James’ hand from his grip. James’ shook his hand out, finally getting feeling back in his fingers. You gave Regulus a small smile.

“Regulus, love of my life, can I please eat your face?” Regulus smiled at you, nodding his head. You quickly made your way around the coffee table to lightly peck Regulus’ lips. You moved past Regulus to kiss James as well. You squeezed yourself between the two of them. Regulus rested his head on your shoulder, moving your hand to play with in his lap. James pressed himself against you, smushing his cheek against yours.

“I'm the love of your life too, right?” James asked, his words rolling onto your cheek. You hummed.

“Yes, Jamie.” Regulus interrupted your sweet moment.

“James, do me a favor and go get my ice cream.” James let out a loud gasp, jumping out of his seat and jogging towards the kitchen.

“My smoothie!” You wrapped your arms around Regulus, kissing his temple.

“I wasn’t insulting your shirt before, by the way.” You whispered into his hair. Regulus nodded against your arm.

“Is his smoothie worthy of stealing?” You muttered as quietly as you could so James didn’t hear you. Regulus let out a snort.

“Oh fuck no.” Regulus said before adding “I’ll give you a few bites of my ice cream.” You gasped, smacking a kiss to the apple of his cheek.

“You’re so kind.” Regulus groaned at your words.

“Not really being kind. It’s my reward for being brave, as James said. And I know that was probably scary for you so technically speaking you do deserve some of it. It has nothing to do with me it's just like the rules.” Regulus said, trying to cover up that he might actually have a heart.

“Right, the rules.” Regulus hummed. James soon returned with his smoothie and shockingly two bowls of ice cream. He handed one to you and one to Regulus. You three sat on the couch as you finished your sweet treats and smoothie. Even though technically speaking your reward was already given to you, Regulus’ spoon would randomly stick out toward you. You thanked Regulus with a peck on his cheek after each spoonful. Eventually, when his bowl was empty your spoon would jut out towards him, he was quite brave coming out to you today. James seemed to notice the food sharing, offering up a sip of his smoothie. You and Regulus both grimaced at him in sync before turning back to your bowl.

[jungle-angel]

One cold, cold night (Bob Floyd x Reader)

Summary: You and Bob share a beautiful moment when you're finally able to settle in Montana

Warnings: Light smut (18+ ONLY)

You were shivering uncontrollably when you got out of the bath, emerging into yours and Bob's shared bedroom. Your teeth were like machine gun fire, even as Bob pulled your warm flannel pjs off the heater and handed them to you.

"You get in those sweet pea," Bob told you. "I'll get the woodstove going downstairs."

"You sure?"

"Positive," Bob answered assuringly. "I'll load it up so that it'll burn all night and we can reload it in the morning."

You trembled horribly as you dropped your towel and tossed it in the laundry hamper, slipping quickly, first into a fresh set of underwear and then the pale pink and black flannel pjs. It felt like heaven, the warm material heating up your skin which caused goosebumps to rise. It felt good to turn down the thick duvet and the flannel sheets, crawling into the one spot in your house that truly felt like home.

You heard a familiar meow in the hallways as Thunder, the Siamese cat, poked his head in and jumped up onto the bed with you, purring happily as you scratched his pointed ears. Bob returned a few minutes later to crawl in beside you, turning on the tv that was mounted on the wall near the bed.

"Wanna do a Disney movie?" he asked, pulling you close to him.

"Whatcha thinkin?"

"Well," he said. "Since it's snowing and it's already November, I'm thinking, Nightmare Before Christmas?"

"Deal!"

You both settled in to watch the movie with Thunder in between you both. The dogs had been crated for the night, kept warm in their kennels as they went to sleep, leaving plenty of time for you and Bob to relax.

"You happy here in Montana (y/n)?" Bob mumbled.

"Of course I am," you answered. "Why?"

"I was just trying not to think about California on the way home from town today," Bob explained. "I know it was a big part of our lives but...."

"But what?"

"Well," Bob sighed. "I keep thinking about the rest of the guys. I worry that they're not gonna make it up here."

You shifted up and kissed your husband sweetly on the lips. "They will," you said, your voice full of promise. "You know they will."

Bob kept hoping so. He knew deep down that moving to Montana was what was best for both you and him. The rest of the squad was beginning to see it too. Hell, he had gotten a FaceTime call from Rooster the other day saying that he and Rusty wouldn't be able to afford the Navy housing and neither would Maverick and Penny who had Amelia and two more little mouths to feed in the house. No one knew what would happen to The Hard Deck either. It broke Penny's heart to even think about it, her livelihood having to be sold to Jimmy in order to make the move. Phoenix and her fiancé Cole didn't have it any easier either, the stress of his frequent missions creeping its way in, even when they weren't that long to begin with.

You moved to straddle Bob's waist so that you were laying on top of him, kissing him deeply along his jaw and down his neck. Your hands roamed up and down each other's bodies with yours slipping under the hem of his pajama shirt and undoing the buttons so that you could kiss his chest.

"Oh baby," he moaned. "You're so good to me."

You smiled into your kiss as you pulled the covers up over the both of you. "We're good to each other Bob," you cooed, kissing him again. "That's all that matters."

And he knew full well that it did and always would.

[edgepunk]

Disney/Marvel is seriously missing out on marketing their shit to adults. Not to be a shill, but while ago I made those Spider-Man hoodies and I can't stop thinking about how much they'd cash in if they made superhero-themed athletic/sports gear - sweatpants, shorts, leggings, tank tops, t-shirts, sports bras, like the possibilities are endless.

And you don't have to slap the superhero's faces on there, just make the coloring & patterns reminiscent of their superhero suits and add a logo or something. I'm sure a lot of adults would buy it, I know I would buy it if it was affordable. Hell, a lot of those gymbros are comic fans and I'm sure they'd be into it, too. Yes yes consumerism bad but also it baffles me that these corporations don't realize that they're missing out on cashing in on huge demographics

[rjalker]

[ID: A video clip of Adam Conover speaking to his phone, walking down the sidewalk wearing a black shirt and holding a protest sign, saying:

"So this morning, the CEO of Disney went on TV and said that what writers and actors are asking for is not realistic because they just don't have enough money to pay us." The subtitles for this sentence are followed by an exaggerated sad emoji with large shining eyes.

At the top of the video are screenshots of an article reading: "Disney CEO Bib Iger Says Writers and Actors Are Not Being 'Realistic' With Strikes: 'It's Very Disturbing to Me'", with the article written by Ellise Shafer.

The next screenshot is from "Variety" and reads, "Iger said that while he respects the right of the unions to 'get as much as they possibly can in compensation for their people', they must 'be realistic about the buisness environment, and what this buisness can deliver'. Iger continued, 'It will have a very, very". The screenshot cuts off mid sentence.

Adam continues:

"But he said this at a billionaire retreat, where he was hanging out with Mark Zuckerberg and David Zaslav, that they all flew to on their private jets. And you know what? I don't think that's fucking realistic.

"Here's a dose of reality for you, Bob: Writers cannot afford to pay their mortgages. Actors are not able to make a living in Los Angeles anymore. That is reality to us, not flying around on private jets.

"And until you accept that reality, we are gonna be out here on the picket lines, withholding our labor, depriving you of your product, and you will not make another dollar off of us until you come back to the table and face reality and negotiate with us as you have refused to do. And until you do that, there will be no acting, and no writing."

The subtitles for "no acting" and "no writing" are in large red text for emphasis.

End ID.]

[harveyguilleniconodelamoda]

Effortless Spring Style: Calm Blues

Harvey attended the Disney Upfronts in mid-May looking cute and breezy in this aqua green crochet camp shirt from Target worn with black slacks and a pair of turquoise Dr. Martens loafers.

The loafers are sadly discontinued, though you can sometimes find them secondhand on sites like eBay or Depop. There is also a version of this style available in a much less vibrant blue available via Zappos.

The shirt is still available and comes in sizes up to U.S. men's XXL.

Harvey accessorized with an elegant pearl pendant necklace, possibly the same one he wore to the Garfield movie premiere. Though it's hard to be sure in these photos, it looks very similar to this 18 karat white gold pearl pendant from Tiffany & Co.

Mixing Simplicity & Luxury

Sarah of @taylorswiftstyle (one of the major inspirations for me starting this blog in the first place) often talks about the ways in which Taylor mixes "high" and "low" fashion, pairing expensive designer items with things that are more within an average middle-class person's budget. This is one of the many ways she forges a stronger connection with her fanbase, balancing the aspirational with the accessible.

I believe Harvey does something similar, though perhaps with a slightly different motivation. He has spoken in the past about the lack of size inclusivity in fashion, and how difficult it can be to find nice clothing if you're over a certain size. Luxury and designer fashion are often even less inclusive, and these factors led to Harvey styling himself for red carpets and media events until just a couple of years ago.

He's also talked about his approach to finding pieces he likes by looking in random places, leaning on accessories such as shoes and hats, and not getting attached to only one style or store. He has said he invests in pieces he really likes when he finds them, and wears the things he loves until they fall apart.

These are familiar strategies for those of us who love fashion but don't fit the mainstream fashion world's physical ideal. I've always loved shoes, scarves, hats, and jewelry because it's much easier to go into any store that sells those things and have a reasonable expectation that something will fit me. And when I love an item, I really love it, and wear it until I can't anymore. Truth be told, most of the sewing skills I've learned have just been a desperate attempt to prolong the life of a favorite dress or pair of pants after they begin to show wear and tear.

Though Harvey now has access to stylists and at least one talented designer who's more than happy to dress him for big events (and I'm tapping my watch at the rest of them, why aren't you absolutely begging to get your clothes on this beautiful man?), it's clear he still holds to those tenets that served him well when nobody was styling or dressing him. He will still pair an affordable shirt with a luxury accessory, and look amazing doing so. Because who cares where the items came from if they look good and make you feel good wearing them?

So while I do believe Harvey aims to be a style inspiration to other plus sized people--he has said as much after all--I also believe this grew initially out of his own struggles with having a lack of such style inspirations and icons for himself. This has shaped his relationship to fashion and how he presents himself in that space. There is a dimension of representation and advocacy to his style that grew out of his own frustration with the fashion world's lack of inclusivity.

Affordable Options

While the Target shirt already falls into the realm of affordable, the rest of the outfit might be another story. So I've come up with some options for anyone interested in recreating this look on a budget!

You can find beautiful and affordable pearl pendant necklaces on Etsy. Here are just a few examples!

Genuine Akoya White Pearl Pendant from TADragon, $89.95

Sterling Silver Minimalist Pearl Necklace from MrsQCreation, $19.56 (currently on sale)

Natural Pearl Simple Necklace from BeadHouseCo, $23

These black athletic dress pants from Old Navy are currently on sale for $25. If you're more comfortable with fitting women's pants, these high-waisted OGC chinos also from Old Navy are a great option and on sale for $24.

The turquoise loafers were a bit harder, but these $60 Minnetonka slip-ons from Shoe Station are a decent option if you can't find the Dr. Martens on eBay for a reasonable price.

[braveclementine]

The Beach

Warnings: 18+readersonly, slight master kink, oral, threesome, m x m smut, sub!Steve Rogers, pet names

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own my OCs, which consist of Penny Fury, Elizabeth Nelson, Elijah Chan, Katya Venice, Violetta Moscow, Lan Le, Josh, Trang Tien, Ahni Jallow, Mai Ito, and Ghaida Kashual as well as other OCs that will come up throughout the story.

The colours are pretty much perfect, although I would've liked just a little bit more blue. And the kind've reddish colour should be more purply but altogether, the green is the exact shade I thought it would be. Wish the jaw line was more curved though since it's Iron Woman, but it was more of an Iron Man design. 

🍄🐚 𝕊𝕋ᵒŕ𝐲 🍙🤾‍♀️

Tony took everyone to the beach about one and a half months after Chamber was born. He had a private island with a huge mansion built on it with plenty to do there. And so, they went. And that's where they were now.

Penny was on her stomach, laying down next to Violetta who was also sunbathing, looking at her phone. She was wearing a maroon coloured two- piece bathing suit and looked lovely in it. Penny was wearing sky blue.

Elijah was sitting up, far away from the waves, asleep with his arms behind his head.

Elizabeth was walking along the edge of the beach with Clint and Rhodey. She wasn't wearing a bathing suit, but a white dress instead, looking like a Disney princess or something.

Wanda, Natasha, and most of the other male Avengers were out in the ocean, laughing and playing with each other except Stephen. The Sorcerer was sitting up on the sand, under an umbrella with Katya in his arms.

Katya always had to be in either Stephen or Loki's arms nearly twenty-four seven because of the child in her stomach as he grew bigger. They were calculating what the soonest possible time could be to getting him out safely for both the child and the mother. But Katya continued to insist that she could do it.

Katya was wearing a white shirt over her two piece black bathing suit. Trang and Ghaida were sitting near them, Trang wearing a vibrant red colour. Meanwhile, Ghaida wore some sort of traditional outfit so that her skin didn't show.

Laughter spread out across the beach as Elizabeth sprinted away from Clint and Tony splashed Natasha in the face with ocean water.

"You want to join them?" Violetta asked sleepily.

"Nah." Penny mumbled, looking over at her Italian love. "I'd rather lay here with you. It's calmer. Quieter too."

Vi laughed, "Ah I see. Because my throat hurts to much to talk."

"Oh?" Penny giggled, "Why does your throat hurt hmm?"

Vi blushed, "No reason. At all. Has nothing to do with Bruce or last nights flight from Florida to here."

"Plane sex." Penny muttered. "I should put that on my bucket list."

Violetta laughed louder at that. "I'll help you out with that task."

"I'll take you up on that." Penny said, turning over and closing her eyes against the sun.

"So can you tan?" Violetta teased.

"Nope. I always burn." Penny sighed, pointing at the pink umbrella that was only a few feet away. "I'll need to get under that very soon unless I want to be in pain the rest of the vacation."

"This is nice." Violetta hummed after a moment. "This vacation. I don't remember the last time I did something like this."

"Really?" Penny asked softly.

Violetta rolled over on her side, propping herself up on her elbow, "I don't know. Katya sometimes took me on family vacations when I was younger. They were rich enough to afford it and it wasn't like I had family to go with or stay with instead. And once we grew up they weren't really like this. And honestly, any vacations we tried going on usually ended up in some sort of fight."

"Oh." Penny said, unsure what else to say.

"Yep." Vi sighed, closing her eyes again. "It doesn't matter that much though. We have this now, so why bitch about not having it before? Besides, I prefer it like this. Vacation is supposed to be with people you love and I'm glad we're all. . . " Vi cut off and quickly fixed her words, "I'm glad we're together."

Penny got up, moving the umbrella in further so that she would be in the shade now, before laying back down next to Violetta. She watched a shadow walk closer and heard Rhodey ask, "Can I join you ladies?"

"Of course." Penny smiled up at him, heart flipping in her chest. It was so ridiculous, this crush on him. It made no sense whatsoever.

"You're warm." Rhodey commented, a hand placed gently on her hip. "Did you put sunscreen on?"

"Shhh." Violetta said playfully and said in a fake whisper, "Don't let Elizabeth overhear you talking about poison lotion going into your skin."

Rhodey rolled his eyes, but Penny was storing these nuggets away for later. Remembering how Ghaida had avoided Steve's question had put her on high alert towards anything pharmaceutically made. Not to mention. . . it wasn't like Big Pharma was exactly trusted by the African American population. Not after the Tuskegee experiment.

"Oh knock it off." Rhodey muttered, closing his eyes as well as he laid behind Penny. "There's nothing wrong with sunscreen."

Penny smiled. "Oh but you never know. . . have you ever read the ingredients in a bottle of sunscreen?"

Violetta groaned, "No! Not you too! Penny don't go over to the dark side!"

Penny giggled at that and Rhodey chuckled.

Violetta slowly fell asleep and Penny got up so she could angle the umbrella and its' shade over Vi as well. Then, as she laid back down, she faced Rhodey.

"Hey sweet mama." Rhodey said, smiling slightly at her. "You know if you get to hot, we can go back inside?"

Penny smiled and nodded a little. "Yeah, I know. It's just. . . such a beautiful day isn't it?"

Rhodey smiled, wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her into his chest. She wondered why her heart was beating so fast. She just smiled into his shoulder then, closing her eyes.

"Hey, do you want to try something different?" Rhodey asked awkwardly. She opened her eyes to see he looked a little hesitant.

"What kind of different?" Penny asked, heart definitely speeding up in her chest now, doing unpleasant flips.

He thought about it and then asked, "Well like Stephen, Tony, and Loki are trying to move. . . I guess like further with Trang? Like planning dates and taking their relationship further than just, you know, sex. I was just wondering if that was something that you might be interested in doing with me?"

Penny's whole face burned and she ducked her head in happiness, "I would love that James."

She could feel Rhodey's body relax besides hers and even heard his sigh of relief. She smiled gently at him, "Worried?"

"Well," Rhodey said, tucking her hair behind her ear, "I know around the tower and stuff it's mostly sex or cuddling or affection. . . but nothing. . . well I suppose what I consider as 'serious'. And I've kind've missed that. And I mean, I wasn't sure how much you like me, but um, I like you. . . like a lot. So I figured I might as well take the risk."

Penny leaned up to gently kiss him on the lips, drawing back and saying, "Well, it'll be my first date, so high expectations." She winked.

"First?" He asked in shocked. "You never had a date before you met us? None of those idiots ever took you on a date?" He pointed behind her at where most of her soulmates were dancing in water, a boombox was on at the moment.

"Well, before I met my soulmates, my dad wasn't really the kind of father to really let me go out with anyone. Any experience I had before you guys was usually just. . . sex. Because if he was gone, I was at a safe house with, well, usually er- Rumlow." She winced.

Rhodey nodded as as Penny hesitated, thinking about how much she hated herself for being with Rumlow, he cupped her face, "Hey. It's not like you knew. You thought he was just like any other guy."

"I know." Penny whispered. "But, um, yeah and well we're not really supposed to be leaving the tower. Steve said he wanted to take me on a date, but he also wanted to take me on a real one, outside. So I mean, you know. . . it's not that they don't want to. It's just. . ."

"Life isn't working out right now." Rhodey smiled.

"Exactly." Penny said and smiled at him. "I would love to go on a date with you. And just because it's my first date doesn't mean you have to go all out James. I'll love anything you plan, even if you just want to go on a walk in the park. The location, the activities, it doesn't matter. As long as I'm with you."

Rhodey was silent as he pulled her closer to him and the two of them laid there, before Penny fell asleep in his arms.

🪨🛸 Ƥ𝓸𝕧 ᑕнᗩ𝐍Ğ𝔢 🍚🌾

Tony listened and watched as Trang, Ghaida, and Elizabeth sat on the living room floor of the beach house. Elizabeth was arranging all of her shells in colour order, and was listening to Trang as she talked.

"Mollusks produce calcium carbonate, laying down layers over the years. And this forms seashells." Trang explained. "The difference in color comes from the water it lives in, and what the animal eats. Since we're in the Caribbean, the seashell colours are much brighter than you might find in say Connecticut or Maine."

"I like this one." Elizabeth said, holding up a brown and turquoise coloured seashell.

"What kind is it?" Trang asked Ghaida.

"Tulip shell." Elizabeth answered instead. "I think I want to find more of this colour tomorrow."

All of the girls had changed out of their bathing suits and into summer dresses. Both Ghaida and Trang were wearing bright yellow and Tony thought they both looked amazing in the bright colour. Ghaida had also cut her long black hair so that it was more curly and shoulder length.

Elizabeth was wearing a white dress, with a lei around her neck. She had also pulled her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on them, her arms wrapped around them. She looked tired as well.

Penny came in at that moment, looking drop dead gorgeous in a peach coloured dress. She smiled when she saw Tony, coming over to sit down next to him and he put an arm around her shoulder.

"So what's going on?" Penny asked.

"We're looking at all of the shells Elizabeth found." Trang said, relaxing back on the floor. She'd taken her glasses off and Tony admired how she looked without them. "She's found some really pretty ones."

"Don't you look pretty." Violetta's voice said, winking at Penny as she walked in with Katya and Stephen. Stephen sat down on Tony's other side, letting Katya rest in his arms. Tony was a bit surprised to find that Katya looked like some ethereal sort of goddess in her beautiful white dress.

Violetta wasn't wearing a dress, having settled for a white crop top and black shorts, sitting down next to Penny.

"Where is everyone else?" Trang asked as they helped put Elizabeth's shells in her bucket.

"They're grabbing fishing rods to catch dinner." Katya said, shifting slightly uncomfortably in Stephen's arms.

Elizabeth looked up at that, "They're going to eat the fishies?" She asked in a small voice.

Trang looked at her for a second, then turned to Katya. "Uh, where are they?"

"Heading up the southend of the island." Violetta answered, rolling her eyes. "And you don't have to stop them form eating fish just because of her. We always used to eat fish. And Elizabeth, you'll literally eat Lobster tails if we give you enough butter so."

Elizabeth nodded, accepting that whatever Violetta said was true, lowering her head back to her knees.

Tony looked sideways at Penny. "You want to do something fun?"

"Oh so hanging out with us isn't fun Stark?" Trang teased.

"Not at all Tien." Tony shot back. "After all, intellectual crowd is so b-b-boring." He pretended to yawn. Trang and Penny both laughed.

Elizabeth picked up her bucket of seashells and made her way out of the room.

"Is she okay?" Penny asked.

"The heat is probably just getting to her." Violetta said. "The sun will suck her powers out since ice is part of it. If she gets to dehydrated she can get sick."

Tony could feel Stephen next to him as he turned to look at Violetta, "And does she know this about herself?"

"Oh. Right." Violetta sighed. "Forgot about that bit."

"I'll go to her." Penny said, standing up.

💐🚁 ⓟσⓥ ¢𝐡ⒶŇ𝔤ᗴ ❕🧻

Elijah roared with laughter as he watched Pietro slip on one of the rocks and tumble off the cliff ending to splash into the water below all of them. Wanda chuckled, standing there in a nice orange sundress, using her powers to lift him back onto the rocks.

"I thought you were sure footed." Clint said, clapping him on the shoulder. "Shouldn't you have seen that coming?"

"Ha ha." Pietro said, getting to his feet, shaking himself like he was a dog. "Funny. You're all comedians."

Then Clint was suddenly flying into the water as Pietro pushed him in. As Clint's head broke over the water waves, Pietro called down, "What? Didn't see that coming?"

Clint gave Pietro the finger.

Natasha chuckled, having gotten it all on video.

"You'll send that to me later, right?" Elijah asked the Russian spy with a grin.

Nat raised her eyebrows at him. "Maybe. . . if you подари мне мою летящую птицу." [Submit to me my flying bird]

"Oh?" Elijah asked teasingly. "Is this blackmail I'm hearing my Huálì de húlí?" [Gorgeous fox]

"Flattery gets you nowhere in this life." Natasha continued the banter.

"On the contrary," Elijah said, sliding up to her, to wrap an arm around her waist and she smirked at him. He ghosted her lips with his, "It gets me everything." and he plucked the phone from her hand, twirling around and airdropping the video to his own phone.

Natasha tackled him into the sand, "You are more of a fox than me you little trickster."

Elijah chuckled, rolling over to pin her down lightly, slipping her phone back into the pocket of her sundress. "Just teasing." He kissed her on the lips and then sat up.

"We have fish." Clint celebrated, holding up a huge Mahi Mahi in his hands. Bruce held a second one.

"Well, clearly, we're set." Sam laughed, waving his hand at the size of them.

"Eh, maybe six more just for these three." Wanda poked Thor and Steve in the arms.

"Yes!" Thor exclaimed, already fishing for more, "I could eat a whole one and still have room for more!"

"Yes, yes, you glutton." Loki grumbled, lounging in the shade, looking like the heat was affecting him.

Heat was affecting him. . .

"Shit." Elijah cursed aloud, grabbing his phone, getting back to his feet.

"What?" Half of them asked.

"Penny?" Elijah asked in confusion as the girl answered his wifes' phone, "Where's Elizabeth?"

"Oh." Penny's voice sounded worried, "I don't know. She seems a little sick Elijah. She says she has a really bad headache. I don't know. Violetta said it was the heat-"

"Okay. Thanks." Elijah sighed, closing his eyes, hating himself. He should have remembered this. He was such a fucking idiot. And he couldn't do anything about it because he was literally made of heat.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked, the others looking at him.

Elijah gestured to Loki, "Seeing you being affected by the heat. I remembered how Elizabeth gets affected by the heat. And I forgot to tell her about the heat and-" He gritted his teeth, pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes, "Fuck I'm an idiot!"

"Elijah." Wanda put a hand on his arm. "Is she okay?"

"I forgot. This is my fault." He replied dully. "Since her body is made up of ice, the heat will drain it. And it'll make her sick. And I can't do anything about it because I'll just make it worse." He looked at Bucky and Loki apologetically. "I'm sorry. If one of you two-"

"I'll do it." Bucky and Loki said at the same time, Bucky putting down the fishing rod. Bucky put a hand on Elijah's shoulder. "We're family. We'll help her. And don't' blame yourself. We all forget things every once in a while and fun. . . well it always takes the serious thoughts away."

"Just, make sure to bring her food too." Elijah said quickly, trying to remember everything now. "Ice cream or milkshakes, watermelon, something cold and has liquid in it-"

"Calm down." Loki said. "We've got it."

And he watched the two of them hurry back to the house. Elijah turned and walked away from the group. Wanda quickly caught up with him. "Elijah, why are you blaming yourself?" She grabbed his elbow and he looked down at the red-headed girl. "It's not your fault, you know?"

He sighed, "Because it is. Because she doesn't remember, doesn't know. So it's on me to remind her, to tell her. But I forgot and now she's sick and in pain and its my fault."

Wanda sighed, "It's not and you know that. Elijah, how are you supposed to remember every single thing in the world? Even for your soulmate? God, sometimes even I forget she lost her memory, because she acts so normally with us. We all do. And we're having fun, Elijah. Bucky is right. You're living in the moment so don't. . . don't ruin your fun, okay? Come back, be with us."

"But what if it's worse this time?" Elijah worried.

"And what if it's nothing at all?" Wanda countered. "What if it's just a headache? Besides, like you said, you can't do anything now. Bucky and Loki will take her food and they'll keep her cold again. You know you can trust them with her. They'll take good care of her."

Wanda held out her hand and Elijah smiled. He slipped his hand into hers. "You're right. Let's go. I'll teach you this handy trick we learned in Hong Kong to fish."

"I'd love that." Wanda said.

🤌🤾‍♂️ ţн丨𝐑Ｄ ς𝕙𝓪ℕg𝓲ⓝ𝑔 Ƥσⓥ 🌷🍘

Elizabeth's head was splitting open. Her head was pounding so badly, it felt like it was taking up not only the front of her head, but it was aching in the back. It felt like it was behind both eyes and in her nose and behind her right ear. She clutched her hands to her head, her eyes closed, trying to get it to go away.

Penny explained that Violetta had said it was the heat. Which, Elizabeth supposed, made sense. But it wasn't like it helped her get her headache away. And her stomach was aching, turning, weird feeling.

There was a knock at the door and she wanted to whimper at the loudness of it. Penny didn't answer verbally, opening the door.

She felt the bed dip and very gently, someone's cold hands pulled her into them. She saw it was James and she closed her eyes again.

"Doll?" James barely asked in a whisper. "How are you feeling? What hurts?"

She didn't want to speak, because she felt even talking increased the pain. "Head. Stomach."

Loki sat down on the either side of her, holding a tub of ice-cream. "Pet. Sit up for me and eat this."

She didn't move, closing her eyes again. Sleepily, she grabbed James' metal hand, putting it against her forehead and sighed in pleasure.

"It's your favorite flavor." Loki sang. "I mixed cookies n' cream with cookie dough."

Very slowly, still holding James' hand to her forehead, she sat up. She looked at James, then let go of his hand. He kept his hand there for her and she took the bowl. She pouted at Loki, "Bribery."

"Well, you need to eat." Loki said, placing his hands on her stomach and leg. She'd striped down to nothing to hopefully cool herself off and now she relished the coldness of their hands. She took the ice cream and was glad that was cold too. And she loved the way the ice-cream went down her throat.

"Just so you know," James said softly. "Elijah wanted to be here, but he doesn't want to make it worse for you. When you're feeling better, even if that's later tomorrow, give him a call. He's worried."

Elizabeth nodded. "Can. . . just text. . . I'm okay?"

"Of course doll." James said, reaching over to grab her phone. "Password?"

"108158." She mumbled, before shoving more ice-cream into her mouth. "Good. Thanks, Loki."

"You're welcome princess." Loki whispered softly.

After a moment, she set the ice-cream aside, and then snuggled into Loki's body, grabbing James' hand to put it back on her forehead.

She fell asleep easily and Bucky sighed, "She actually is hot."

"I've always thought that." Loki said slyly and Bucky shook his head in amusement.

It was quiet and peaceful for about twenty minutes or so, when Elizabeth whimpered suddenly.

"Well she wasn't sleeping long." Loki muttered as she stirred.

Elizabeth struggled out of their arms, rushing to the bathroom.

"Doll." Bucky yelped, hurrying behind her and gathering her hair up as she started to throw up into the toilet.

They waited patiently as she continued to throw up everything in her stomach, before retching several times as her stomach was empty, her entire body shuddering in his arms. Finally, she just collapsed in Bucky's arms.

"Don't feel good." She muttered.

"Yeah, I can see that doll." Bucky whispered softly, gently picking her up in his arms. He hesitated, knowing that she couldn't have medicine because it didn't react well with her body. He set her back down on the bed and looked at Loki, "Do we have crackers?"

"I'll go look." Loki slipped off the bed and said, "Get her water," Before walking out the door.

"Drink this doll." He said, propping her up and giving her the water. She drank a little, continuing to try and put the glass down, but he wouldn't let her until she drained the entire thing. "Good girl."

She only hummed, her eyes closed and she turned into him a little.

Loki came back with some crackers, which she ate, before falling asleep again. He put a pan down by the bedside table. "Let's just keep an eye on her fluids for now. The sugar in the ice-cream probably didn't help her stomach. I don't really know what Midgardians do for sickness other than soup, which being hot, won't help her."

Bucky nodded. "She probably just got some sort of small flu. Plus, it's the first time she's ever been somewhere extremely hot. She's just getting used to it."

"Exactly." Loki said softly, laying down. Bucky smiled as Loki snuggled into both of them and he wrapped his flesh arm around Loki, keeping his metal arm on Elizabeth's forehead and watched both of them drift off to sleep.

❓🪷 𝕡๏𝓥 Ｃ𝓗𝓪𝓃ǤẸ 🍥❔

"That was amazing." Clint moaned, pushing back on his chair as everyone finished off the fish that Elijah and Trang had cooked together.

"Indeed!" Thor said, kicked back with a beer.

"We saved some for Bucky and Loki right?" Penny asked in concern.

"Of course." Steve nodded.

"Nah." Violetta said, smirking. "You snooze you lose and that was amazing fish."

Steve rolled his eyes and pointed to the pan that still contained plenty of fish for Bucky and Loki.

The only other people missing from the dinner table besides Loki, Bucky, and Elizabeth were Stephen and Katya.

"Do we have dessert?" Clint asked excitedly.

Natasha and Trang laughed at him while Ghaida nodded, getting up from her seat. "I made something a little different tonight, um, from my home country. It's called Rasgulla. It's basically a ball of Indian cottage cheese and cooked in sugar syrup. I also made Thekua, which is a kind of cookie. And of course, for the cowardly people, I made chocolate chip cookies."

"Yep, well I'm a coward then." Rhodey chuckled, picking up one of the chocolate chip cookies without any shame.

Ghaida giggled, "More for me then."

Penny took one of the Thekua cookies and also a chocolate chip one. She liked the taste of the Thekua cookie. It seemed like it might have coconut in it and some sort of small seed for flavor. Chocolate chip of course, would also remain her favorite however.

"You're going to have to make me more of these." Bruce told Ghaida as he ate the Rasgulla. He blushed then and said, "O-or just teach me how to make my own, of course."

Tony snickered, clapping Bruce on the back, "Let her make them for you. Then you won't burn the kitchen down."

Ghaida laughed, "Of course Bruce, I would love to teach you how to make them. Besides, they're simple so it's not that hard to make them every day if you wanted. Besides, what else would I do?"

"I- um thanks." Bruce blushed again.

"Okay, um, can I talk to you guys about something serious?" Clint asked, suddenly sounding worried.

"Sure." Tony frowned.

Clint bit his bottom lip and then said, "I'm worried about Katya. I mean, the kid inside of her doesn't really know animals, right? And right now, it's been birds and chipmunks and squirrels. That's scary enough but what if. . . I mean is it possible for the kid to transform into an elephant or something? I mean-" Clint looked at Steve apologetically. "I would never want her to have an abortion under normal circumstances but we're talking about Katya's life here. . ."

Steve hesitated and then nodded, "I understand. And it's. . . with Sharon she was my kid. And yes, of course I would view Katya's kid as my own as well, but it is just a little different." Steve glanced at Ghaida, "Is there danger?"

"No." Ghaida shook her head, not looking worried. "The baby inside of her has a unique connection. He can actually feel the space around him and know that one, he is in something living and to become to big would hurt whatever he is in, and two, can tell that he is in someone he already loves. At the same time, he can't stop changing, it's part of him. But he can limit it. Katya will be in no danger at any time of her pregnancy. The only thing is this slight pain she is having from him transforming so much, but being with Stephen and Loki so much has definitely helped her immensely."

Clint relaxed in the chair, covering his face with his hands, "Thank God. I've been so worried. I didn't want to ask because I didn't want to know the answer. I was so scared."

Natasha wrapped her arms around him.

"Hey man, it's okay." Sam said softly.

Clint let out a shuddering breath and sat back up a little. "Sorry."

"You're all good man." Rhodey said.

Clint laughed then in relief as well and nodded, "Good food Ghaida."

She laughed then and the entire atmosphere relaxed.

"Bleh." Elijah suddenly wrinkled his nose, looking disgusted by something.

"You better not be making that face because of my food Elijah." Ghaida warned him, picking up a wooden spoon.

Elijah shook his head, glancing up at the ceiling. "No, she just um, threw up." Elijah shrugged, though he looked worried.

Loki came down only a few seconds later. "We have crackers, right?"

"Yeah." Pietro handed him a box of crackers he went and got from the pantry. "Is Princessa okay?"

"It's just a killer headache and some stomach pains." Loki said. "Nothing major." He made a faux sad face, "She prefers Bucky over me though. That damn metal hand."

Tony and Steve both laughed at that.

"You'll win her over darling." Tony winked.

"Get your own metal hand." Sam chortled.

"Hmm." Loki said thoughtfully. "Perhaps. Ooh, Thekua, don't mind if I do." He scooped up the rest of the cookies and ran with them.

"Oi!" Clint shouted after him but he was gone.

Tony chuckled again. "Well, what do you guys say we head off to the movie theater?"

"You have a movie theater here?" Violetta laughed. "Why am I not surprised."

Tony feigned being hurt, "What's wrong with a movie theater?"

"Oh you know." Vi continued to smirk, "Just a gorgeous island to explore and you put a movie theater in the house."

"Rainy days." Tony argued.

Violetta paused and then said, "Well, fair point."

"What do you guys want to watch?" Rhodey asked, standing up from the table while Steve and Bruce started to stack the plates together and Wanda filled up the sink with soapy water.

"Blazing saddles!" Sam shouted immediately. "I want to watch Blazing saddles."

Tony stared at him, "Umm. . . you do?"

Penny looked at Tony, "What's wrong with Blazing saddles?"

"What is Blazing saddles?" Steve asked, looking confused.

Tony pointed his finger between Sam and Penny, apparently unable to say anything. Rhodey crossed his arms, starting to grin, "Yeah Tony. What's wrong with Blazing saddles?"

"I- um- Blazing saddles it is!" Tony yelped, getting out of his chair, his arm around Trang's waist.

Penny giggled, grabbing Sam and Rhodey's arms. "You guys like Blazing saddles?"

"Favorite movie." Sam said and then shouted upwards so Tony would hear him, "Some people need to stop being so sensitive. Especially when they ain't black!"

Penny giggled and Rhodey chuckled at that. Tony flipped Sam the bird, but didn't turn around.

Penny curled up with Bruce and Wanda as she watched the movie. She loved as almost every minute into the movie, Steve continued to show a horrified expression on his face. Sam was consistently teasing Steve as well, whispering stuff in his ear that made Steve blush deeper.

"Best movie!" Sam crowed after it was over.

"How is that movie legal?" Violetta muttered.

"You know I only hear white people complaining." Rhodey chuckled, "The black people in the room love it."

"You're weird." Tony shook his head, kissing Rhodey on the cheek. "But that's okay."

"I just love it because you all get awkward." Sam snickered.

"You know I think Elizabeth actually likes the movie too, now that I think about it." Trang said, getting up and stretching.

"That's why she's my favorite." Sam and Rhodey said together before laughing and high-fiving each other.

"And my best friend." Penny giggled.

Natasha and Violetta both pouted at Penny while Wanda giggled as well.

"So it's decided, I'm going to bed with those two." Sam chuckled, pointing at Penny and Rhodey.

"Mmm." Steve said, before picking Sam up at the knees, putting him over his shoulder, carrying him off, "Penny you can follow!" Steve called over his shoulder.

Penny giggled, kissing Wanda and Bruce, then Nat, Vi, and Rhodey, blowing kisses to the others, running to catch up.

"Steve." Sam whined, playfully beating his fists lightly on Steve's back. "This is abuse!"

Steve chuckled, tossing open the door that led to his bedroom, plopping Sam down on the bed. He beckoned to Penny, who quickly joined them on the bed.

"Strip." Steve ordered.

"Yes. . . Master." Sam teased, slowly lifting his shirt over his head while Steve flushed terribly, freezing a little.

"I- wait-" Steve stuttered. "I didn't-"

"Aww." Penny pouted. "Sammy you broke him."

Sam pressed kisses to Steve's neck. "Stevie, come back to me."

"Sorry." Steve blushed, "I. . . isn't. . . you can't call me master Sam."

Sam pouted. Penny gently cupped Steve's face. "Sorry Steve. We were just playing around. We didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Steve kissed her palm and said, "It's okay cookie. I thought. . . I thought we can't make jokes like that."

"You can't make jokes like that with sensitive people." Sam corrected, cupping Steve's other cheek. "But Stevie, we don't care. We make jokes about ourselves. You want to play around, we're game. You don't, we won't make you uncomfortable. We'll just keep that attitude with Rhodey. Promise."

Steve nodded. "Okay. Thanks."

Penny kissed his forehead. "You still in a fuckable mood?"

Steve's eyes darkened, "Oh Cookie. . . "

"Let us take care of you." Sam whispered in his ear and Penny went ahead, caressing Steves' thick thighs so that she could pull his boxers down, getting his erection in hand so she could start to tease his tip.

"But-"

"Let us take care of you tonight." Sam whispered softly, pushing Steve all the way back onto the bed. He started to kiss down Steve's chest, scraping his teeth against his skin while Penny deepthroated his cock.

Steve moaned, panting as the two of them worked him up. Penny dipped her hand down, rubbing her own clit as she worked him so that she would be ready to plop herself down on him as he got ready to blow.

Sam pulled Steve's nipples between his teeth and Steve was panting now, almost writhing underneath them.

"Oh- ngh- Pen- going-" Steve stuttered out. Penny pulled off of him with her mouth and felt a little bad as he whimpered in loss. She quickly straddled him, sinking down on his cock easily and loved his ecstatic moan.

Penny leaned over as she rocked on Steve's cock, taking Sams' into her mouth. Sam breathed in deeply, his breath stuttering in his throat.

"Oh fuck." Steve whimpered, "Fuck Penny, please, I'm so close."

"Cum Sugar." Sam murmured, nibbling at Steve's earlobe, gently bucking his hips so that his dick touched the back of Penny's throat. She quickly took more of him down her throat, mewling in pleasure as Steve's hands held her down completely on him, him spurting up into her. His eyes looked so dazed, but his fingers still came down to tease her clit until she came with him, Sam spilling into her mouth.

Penny went to the bathroom this time, grabbing the washcloth for the first time to clean Steve up.

"My job cookie." Steve murmured, pushing himself up to rest his back against the headboard, gently taking the washcloth from her.

"Not tonight." Sam took the washcloth from Steve, gently cleaning the three of them up before tossing the cloth back into the bathroom. "We love you Steve."

"Yep." Penny agreed as the two of them snuggled next to him on either side of him.

Steve smiled a little, wrapping his arms around each of them, closing his eyes, "What did I do to deserve you guys?"

Sam chuckled. "We're the lucky ones."

"I agree." Penny said softly, stroking Steve's cheek. "I love you dreamboat."

"I love you too cookie." Steve said, blinking back tears and the three of them fell asleep. 

[moeitsu]

This shit-post is dedicated to my weird ass friends and the most out of pocket things they've said that I've written in the quote book I've kept in my notes since 2019. Enjoy:

The mayonnaise did wonders for my hair. -P

The Holy Spirit does not want to suck your balls. -E

That's the scariest thing about Halloween...young women. -N

You can put long pasta in there! -E You mean spaghetti? -M

I don't know what blood type I am, is there an app for that? -G

You already said you wouldn't eat my ass -E

What's your major? -K Oh, I'm American. -G

I'm gonna shit in that trash can. -G

Are we about to exchange insurance cards? -J

I'm pretty sure I don't wanna warm my pussy by the fire. -M

Ugh, I don't wanna be a femboy! -M

If you're so worried about the angles then just stick your fingers in the hole. -M

I wish I could be off the grid. -M Like homeless people? -E

Who needs bleach when you have discharge. -J

Why are there panties in your hat? -G

I think I'm mentally disabled. -M No, you're just mentally ill. -E

It could be a deer with down syndrome. -D

I remember when the only app they had was angry birds. -J

Now that's the kind of guy who should be reproducing. -J

Cute rhymes with stupid. -N

No arms, no legs, not even living. But watches porn. -R

Sweaty balls doesn't sound very appetizing. -T

You're starting to look like a real girl again. -N

I always poop in other people's houses. It's how I establish dominance. -T

No sir, I am from Boston. All I know is drink coffee and cuss. -M

The gas station bathroom was treacherous. Pretty sure I saw blood on the walls. -C

If it doesn't cure you, it'll kill you! -Z

Bone dry dunes? That's where you go when you run out of cum. -E

I live by the thee S's: serve, slay, survive. -G

I will not participate in the ass licking. -E

You white people always have cool ancestors. My ancestors were slaves. -S My ancestors were responsible for that. -G

That gives me a free pass to call you a bitch. I'll take it. -N

Would anyone wanna buy my wick-less candles? Shameless plug I know. -K

C'mere, come into my womb. -G

I like your dads meat. -E

Our family funds the entire therapy on the north shore. -B

You can't be this smart w/o massive mental health problems. -B

She doesn't like gay people? -M Nope, she's up in the air about black people too. -P

We're back to our regularly scheduled racism. -R

That's abortion money, not pedicure money. -K

I'm gonna give you a disability if you don't stop. -M

I can always fuck up chicken. Especially the breast. -N

Nice parking job Alabama. Was your sister giving you head while you were driving? -N

I don't think calories are real. I've never seen one. -M

Do you even know what man boobs are? -E It's literally in the name. -M

Can't men flick their nipples off? -E

Well, 5 out of 6 of us were born with a full spine. -E

What's the point of having a gf if you can't objectify her? -N

Mother fucker we don't own straws. We broke as shit. -N

You're like a lollipop triple dipped in psycho flavor. -P

What are you just not gonna feed your kid so you can afford to go to Disney? -A

Do you think she's trans? Like she was a dude and now she's a guy? -N You mean she was a dude and now she's a girl? -M

The boogeyman wants to suck you're toes. -M He would never, he's asexual. -P

We need a new toilet. -P This is American made! This is a quality toilet! -A

There's no one as Irish as Barack Obama. -N

She called me autistic! -P Well, it couldn't hurt to get tested. -A

The shirt says 'wicked strong' -M It should say 'wicked annoying' -N

What bitch is blowing up your phone? -M Literally your Dad. -N

I'm a white girl, of course I love cheese. -S

Why do bad things keep happening to me? Don't they know who I am! -N

It's because I feel safe here. -M Well, maybe you shouldn't. -N

The real magic happens when you embrace the delusion. -K

Oh look, the Trump tower! What if it just blows up? -R

I'm gonna be honest, I didn't finish the Bible. It's on my DNF shelf. Adam and Eve? I need enemies to lovers. -B

A woman bit me, I'm gonna become a prostitute. No! -S

Technically, I'm bisexual. -M You're too old for labels. -G

[valentinesfrog]

Little Tiger (pt. 2)

“There are my best girls.”

Casey blinks open her half asleep eyes at the sound of her wife’s voice as she enters their apartment. “Hey, babe,” Casey greets, voice hoarse. She clears her throat, and Veronica grumbles as the comfy chest where she’s been resting moves. “Mama’s home,” Casey murmurs to the girl. Veronica just mumbles and burrows further. “The little one’s having a bit of a rough day,” Casey says, rubbing Vera’s back. 

Rita kicks off her heels and tuts quietly as she approaches the sofa. “Are we a little under the weather, sweetheart?” She murmurs, brushing Vera’s hair out of her face. 

“She’s warm. Not feverish yet, but definitely a bit too warm.”

Rita places the back of her hand on the girl’s forehead, or as much as she can reach that isn’t hidden in Casey’s neck. “Did she eat?”

“Barely. She picked at the pizza, I convinced her to get down some applesauce.”

“Did you eat?”

“Hm?”

“You, my… my taller tiger. Did you eat?”

Casey blinks. “Your taller tiger?”

“Casey. Food.”

Casey sighs. “Sort of. She just wanted to be held, so I gave up on dinner and we ended up… here.”

‘Here’ is snuggled on the sofa, watching Moana on low volume. 

“I’m going to get out of…” Rita gestures broadly at her clothes. “And then I’ll take the baby and you’ll eat some food. Got it?”

“You’ve been working all day…”

“All the more reason to snuggle my girl. And you’re looking a bit touched out.” Rita’s already moving for their bedroom. 

Truth be told, Casey is feeling a little touched out, and when Rita returns in a band shirt and leggings Casey does not argue when she wraps Vera in her arms and gently tugs her away. Vera whines in protest at being pulled away from her mommy, but once she realizes who is lifting her she decides that it is an acceptable swap. 

Casey stands and stretches, wandering back to the table where she grabs Vera’s abandoned plate of cut up pizza squares and half empty apple sauce cup to discard. She then returns to her plate to scarf down the rest of her now cold slice of pizza.

“What’s the show with the dogs?” Rita asks from the sofa as Moana finishes. “The tolerable ones? That aren’t public servants?” 

“Uh,” is Casey’s intelligent reply.

“The— they’re Australian.”

“Bluey?”

“Yes, that, thank you. Disney plus?”

“Should be.”

The Bluey theme song seems to wake Veronica up a little bit, who has her dazed attention on the screen. Casey finishes her food and heats some up for Rita, leaving it on the end table of the couch before dropping into a chair across from them.

“You probably like this show more than she does,” Rita says in between bites of pizza and salad.

“Bluey is a great show,” Casey insists. “Fully deserving of its Emmy.”

“It won an Emmy?”

“I don’t appreciate how judgemental you sound of Bluey. Would you rather Paw Patrol?”

“Bingo!” Vera cheers quietly along with the song from Rita’s lap. Her normal enthusiasm sounds dampened, and it worries Casey slightly again. “Bluey!” She wiggles a little along to the music.

“Want a tomato, love?” Rita asks, spearing one with her plastic fork.

Vera considers, attention torn between the animated dogs and her mother. “Coo–cumber?” She eventually requests.

“You can have a cucumber,” Rita agrees, popping the tomato into her own mouth to grab a cucumber and feed it to Vera.

“Work okay?” Casey asks, now observing Rita and Vera more than the TV.

“Mhm. Though the SVU squad still seems to think I’m their enemy.”

Casey smiles. “Give them some time, they’ll come along.” Sometime after Veronica’s adoption Rita had a bit of a crisis of conscience, because ‘Everybody’s entitled to the best defense they can afford’ didn’t hold the same weight when you realized the powerful man you got off a rape charge on a technicality would be walking the same streets as your little girl.

With Casey’s enthusiastic (and not–so–secretly very relieved) support, Rita had made the switch to immigration law with the occasional pro–bono defense.

“I’m helping their witness stay in the country, you’d think they’d relax a bit,” Rita complained, before swallowing an olive. “And I’ve defended their squad before.”

“Liv still has it out for Langan, and he defended her. Don’t take it personally.”

“I do enough favors for Barba and maybe they’ll chill out,” Rita mutters.

“Bingo,” Veronica says again, reaching for Rita’s salad. Rita feeds her another cucumber.

“Bluey,” Casey finishes the song as Vera’s mouth is full.

“Bedtime,” Rita mimics, pushing away her salad and kissing Vera on the cheek.

— — — If you'd like to continue on AO3 :) — — —

“‘Nother,” Vera sleepily demands. 

“I think that’s enough for tonight,” Casey says with an amused smile, shutting the picture book. 

“Please?” Vera asks with big, pouty eyes and Casey defaults to Rita because there’s no way she can say ‘No’ to those eyes, so may as well leave it to the expert. 

Casey is convinced that if you didn’t know Veronica was adopted, you’d think she is biologically Rita’s from her facial expressions alone. Rita and Veronica both know that they can get Casey to do practically anything by giving her doe eyes. They both have the same devious smile they get when they’re plotting something particularly nefarious (Rita: legal loophole. Vera: Sneaky cookie heist.) And (Casey’s personal favorite) they both get the same grumpy little scowl when things aren’t going their way. It’s the cutest thing in the world, but Casey can never tell Rita that, because Rita would probably bite her. 

“Mommy and I have unionized,” Rita states, taking Casey’s spot on the bed. “Our contract reads one bedtime story per night, two on birthdays.”

Vera takes a moment to process that, blinking blearily, before asking, “Lull-bye?”

“Lullaby,” Rita agrees. Casey hangs back and leans against the door, listening to Rita quietly sing in Portuguese, feeling rather doze-y herself. Rita’s voice is soft, and low, and this is the only way Casey can ever hear her sing since she refuses to in any other circumstance. 

Vera is fast asleep very quickly, and Rita leans in to kiss her forehead— and Tiger’s, of course— with a whispered, “Goodnight, my little tiger.” 

She steps back so Casey can swoop in with a “Sweet dreams, babygirl.”

Rita shuts the door quietly behind them. “If she doesn’t sleep the temperature off, I’ll work from home tomorrow and call the doctor,” she says. “You have office hours, right?”

“Mhm.” Casey wraps her arms around Rita and rests her chin on her shoulder. “Hi.”

“Hello there.”

“I missed you.”

Rita rolls her eyes fondly. “You ran into me in the middle of the day.”

“I did. And then I had to take care of the resulting tears that came when Vera realized Mama wasn’t coming with us. She made some very convincing arguments about why you should’ve come home early, I think I missed you more than she did by the end.”

“That was probably because you were dealing with a sick and overtired toddler, dear.”

“That might have had something to do with it.” Casey pulls back to kiss her sweetly. “But can’t I just miss my wife for the hell of it?”

“Flatterer.” Rita rolls her shoulders and relaxes. “Have any student gossip for me?”

“Oh, do I,” Casey groans and Rita laughs, taking her hand to pull her to the bedroom.

— — — — — —

Casey jolts awake, Rita already slipping out of the bed, to the sound of wailing. She quickly follows her wife to Vera’s bedroom. 

“Oh dear,” Rita murmurs as she reaches into the bed to pick up a crying Veronica. “Oh, I think there’s been a little accident. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Casey tugs the sheets of the bed and bundles them to throw in the wash, grabbing some fresh pajamas and following Rita into the bathroom.

Rita had gotten a still crying (but no longer wailing, thank God) Vera cleaned up and into a pull–up by the time Casey enters, and they switch spots so Casey can get Vera dressed into new pajamas and perched on the counter, stuffed tiger beside her. Rita rummages through the cabinet for children’s Tylenol.

“Alright, my little tiger,” Rita says soothingly, brushing the tears off of Veronica’s cheeks as she sniffles. “You have a temperature, but this will help you feel better, okay?”

Vera whines and shakes her head. “Mommy,” she says pleadingly, making big eyes at Casey in hopes that she’ll swoop in and rescue her from having to take her medicine. 

“Sorry, kid,” Casey says apologetically. “I’m with Mama on this one.” She leans over to take the spoon from Rita, and they switch spots, Rita slipping out the bathroom door. Casey hears the microwave start up a moment later. 

Rita may be able to convince a jury of practically anything, but nobody can convince a stubborn toddler to do something they don’t want to do like Casey can. She thinks it comes from years of being surrounded by kids— brothers, nieces, nephews, coaching, camp counseling. She has a very refined skill set.

“Okay, baby,” Casey murmurs, crouching in front of where Vera’s perched on the counter. “Can you tell me what doesn’t feel good?”

Vera’s bottom lip is quivering and she’s very close to crying again, but she’s making a clear effort to hold back the tears. “Not sick.”

“Not sick?” Casey gently prompts when Vera doesn’t continue. 

“I don’ wan’ medicine. Not sick,” Vera repeats, crossing her arms. 

Casey thinks back to the few times Rita insisted vehemently that she doesn’t get sick, pushing through to work until Rafael physically dragged her home after she collapsed or fell asleep at her desk.

She decides she needs to have a discussion with her wife about modeling self care. 

“Then why were you crying, sweetheart?” Casey asks. Vera clearly has a fever, but she really needs to coax the girl into telling her what’s wrong. She’s not throwing up— thank God— and she’s not coughing either. But that just leaves Casey scrambling for answers. 

Vera looks rather lost for an answer to that, rubbing her eyes. “Tiger feels yucky,” she finally landed on. “Tiger had a— a bad dream.”

“I see.” Casey nods sagely. “Tiger must have been really scared.”

Vera nods quickly. “I was so bwave, though,” she informs her, and Casey feels her heart explode with love and protective urges and all the maternal instinct she had been scared she might not have, until she held her little girl in her arms for the first time and realized oh, shit, that’s what it feels like to love something more than anything in the entire universe.

“I bet you were,” Casey murmurs, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Sometimes feeling yucky can make us have bad dreams,” She adds. “Can you show me where Tiger feels icky?” 

Veronica nods again, pulling Tiger to her lap. She pats his head. 

“Tiger’s head hurts?” Casey clarifies. “Does Tiger hurt anywhere else?”

Vera hiccups a little, her breath shuddering as she points at Tiger’s throat. 

No coughing, no sneezing, sore throat. This was looking like strep, in Casey’s opinion, which meant antibiotics and another fun week of convincing a toddler to take her medicine. 

“Okay. Let me consult with Tiger for a moment,” Casey says, picking up Tiger and earning a giggle through Vera’s tears. Casey nods and ‘mhm’s very seriously as the tiger ‘speaks’ in her ear. At some point she starts feeling eyes on her back. She knows Rita is standing just outside the door, watching amusedly but not entering in hopes of not breaking Casey’s little routine. 

“Thank you, Tiger,” Casey says, putting him down on the counter. “Vera, Tiger’s a bit sick, and he has to take some medicine to help make his head and throat feel better. But—  I have a secret.” Casey gestures Vera to lean in and drops her voice to a whisper. “Tiger’s a little bit afraid of taking his medicine.”

Veronica looks up at her, wide eyed, then to Tiger, then back to her mommy. 

“I think Tiger needs a little help being brave,” Casey starts, then feigns having a brilliant idea. “Since you’re my brave girl, do you think you could take the medicine with him? To show Tiger how to be brave?”

Vera hesitates. “Tiger feel better?” She eventually asks. 

“Yeah, baby, you’ll help Tiger feel much better.”

“I help Tiger feel better,” Vera says decisively, reaching to grab at the spoon. 

Casey laughs. “Woah there, Ronnie Rabbit, let Mommy measure the medicine.” She pours out the purple liquid into the measuring spoon, holding it out so Veronica can open her mouth and have it tipped in to swallow. Vera then holds out her tiger, waiting, and Casey pretends to pour a little more of the medicine into the spoon to ‘feed’ him. 

She thinks if you told her five years ago that she’d soon be feeding a stuffed tiger children’s Tylenol in the middle of the night, she would’ve called you crazy. 

“All better,” Vera says, hugging the stuffed animal close. “Tiger’s so bwave.”

“That’s right, darling. You and Tiger are both very brave.” Casey feels Rita slip in behind her, holding a sippy cup. Veronica had outgrown sippy cups fairly quickly, but the poor girl is shivering, and Casey assumes that Rita’s preemptively avoiding spillage. “This tastes better than the medicine,” Rita promises, handing her the cup. “It’s apples and honey, it will feel very good for your throat.”

Vera takes the cup by its handles and starts sipping on the straw, observing her mothers with wide eyes as Casey leans back against the wall and Rita steps up on her toes a little to whisper, “You’re a miracle worker.”

“I know,” Casey murmurs back, wrapping an arm around her waist and pressing a kiss to the top of her head, which makes Vera giggle. 

“Getting sleepy again, baby?” Casey asks Veronica, who’s back to rubbing her eyes with the hand not holding the sippy cup. 

“Cuddle?” Vera requests, and how can Casey say no to that? She gathers the girl up in her arms, Rita swooping in to grab Tiger before he could fall when Vera lets go to wrap her arms around Casey’s neck. 

“Bedtime, little one,” Casey murmurs, nudging the door open to bring her to the bedroom. 

Rita climbs into the bed behind Vera, snuggling up to wrap her arms around her. “She still warm?” She asks, already drowsy again. 

Casey presses her lips to the girl’s forehead. “Not as bad.”

“Mhm,” Rita hums. “I’ll make an appointment for the morning.”

“We’re both gonna get strep, aren’t we,” Casey mumbles. 

“I don’t get sick.”

“Sure, baby.”

Rita shoots Casey an unimpressed look from above Veronica’s head, reaching around to detach Vera’s thumb from her mouth. Vera sleepily whines in protest, but grabs at random until she’s clutching at Casey’s shirt, which seems to soothe her equally as well. 

“You alright?” Rita asks after a moment, when Casey doesn’t close her eyes to try to sleep. 

“She’s so tiny,” Casey whispers, somewhat in awe but also mildly terrified. “She’s so small, and so good— but the world is so big and can be so awful…”

“Visiting SVU again freaked you out?”

“A little.”

“She has two parents who love her to the ends of the Earth, grandparents and an honorary abuelita that would sell their soul for her, and now that she’s met Benson, she has the entirety of the NYPD at her back. I think I trust that woman with our kid more than anyone.” 

Casey sighs. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”

But all she can do is gaze at that tiny little hand, holding onto her shirt like her life depends on it, Tiger tucked between them, one of Rita’s arms protectively over Vera’s waist. 

“Casey,” Rita whispers. “She’s going to be fine. She’s going to be amazing.”

“I know.”

“Then go to sleep.”

“I love you,” Casey says instead. “I love the two of you more than anything.”

“I know,” Rita parrots back at her teasingly. But then, “I love you too.”

“Goodnight,” Casey murmurs, finally easing into the mattress. “And sweet dreams, my little tiger,” she adds to an already fast asleep Veronica.

[sleekervae]

Past Lives [1.3]

Masterlist

A/N: Woohoo! Two updates in two weeks, not bad for a burn out lol. Also, if you have not yet, please consider signing and sharing this petition to get Disney to let their animation industry unionize. This is an incredible time in entertainment history we're living in and as an animator it would mean a lot to me for you guys to help spread awareness and get protection for our artists! Don't take the artist out of the art!

Warnings: some mentions and talking about sex, but nothing major.

--

5:30 AM

The phone on the side table blared her usually set slow-morning start, but practically every time she heard it Jade wanted nothing more than to smash that phone across a wall. Nevertheless, she rolled out of bed, blinded briefly from the light rays of the greater world sneaking through her black out blinds.

She had exchanged her sleep shirt for a pair of loose cotton shorts and a thin sport bra and she was cleaning up her space before her workout. Jade's morning routine looked a little different from others', though. When she had first looked at the townhouse, she had discovered a den to which she knew she wasn't going to use for its original purpose. So she remodelled it with a wall mirror, some soft mats, and a stainless steel dance pole in the middle of the room.

Meanwhile, Austin was frustrated as his alarm went off, more because he had woken up an hour before and he couldn't get back to sleep no matter how hard he'd tried. For the last two or three days he had been waking up earlier and earlier, of course the lack of would hit him later on in the day when he couldn't afford to be falling asleep on his feet. Nevertheless, he had a full day ahead of him and he hauled himself out of bed.

Jade flipped through her usual pre-selected playlist for whatever tickled her fancy that morning. She had accumulated a full playlist for these warm up mornings, all in the name of putting her in the correct headspace.

He had set up his punching bag in his rec room, the air was thick with humidity and the AC was taking its sweet time to start up. He was flustered this morning, jumbling around for his gloves. There were plenty moments in his life where Austin had found himself flustered, though it usually didn't take much. He inhaled sharply, his neck cracking and he stared down the sand bag with a renewed intensity. He delivered a hard first blow into the leather.

Jade was twenty-five when she first discovered pole dancing. Of course, she knew it was a practice that happened in the clubs, though she wasn't so aware that it wasn't just a stripper's cliché. Pole dancing was a unique and sensual workout experience that she had fallen in love with the moment she'd tried it, not to mention watching herself perform in this way was much more exhilarating than doing rounds on a treadmill or pumping weights for hours.

Of course, she didn't tell her family right away. Her sibling was much more accepting and excited by her new hobby than her parents were. Nonetheless, she was an adult and they couldn't stop her. Her friends thought it was really cool, some even went to take lessons with Jade.

Her ex however had an all around different opinion. He was livid when she had told him, hurling insults and trying to convince her how dehumanizing pole was.

"Do you have no self respect?"

"What's the media gonna' say about you when they find out?"

"How much attention do you think you need?"

Belittling, destructive, always under valuing her and there were times where she almost -- almost -- believed him. Bear in mind he was nearly ten years older than her, it wasn't the biggest age gap but somehow, the difference in opinion was enough to drive another wedge between them.

She'd learned there's a longstanding practice in the pole industry that attempts to separate pole dance from stripping and sex work and to vilify the two. Many failed to realize—because many often aren’t taught in the places they learn—that the art of stripping is a huge part of what laid the groundwork for the art form that those who perform have today.

The ex boyfriend didn't have the strength Jade did, the nerve to pull herself off the ground, her thighs clenched tightly around cold metal and persevering through tensing muscles. Her relationship with her body was renewed every time her skin burned against the steel, a spark of adrenaline coursed through limbs as she climbed higher up the pole and admired the ethereal divinity within her own reflection.

It was so odd, the further amount of time she spent without him, the more she'd begun to realize how wrong he was for her. Suppose when you're too close however, the red flags never present themselves as such.

One blow after another, dust popping from the pores of the bag, Austin was annoyed as the room was becoming too cold and yet his body temperature was running too hot. Every move was coordinated and impulsive, every smack echoed sharp in his ears like a train's horn giving off warning. The tension in his body was supposed to be dropping with every punch but he felt as though he was simply buzzing with a wild energy.

Austin took a moment to breathe, his cheeks were flush red and his panting was heavy as he tried to regain control. He felt as though he was out of his body, watching himself as oppose to living within himself. The last time he'd felt so torn apart he'd just come off the Elvis set. Each hit after hit was another bubble of tension leaving him, so he kept going.

The song changed to an instrumental Bossa Nova jazz track, pulled from underrated, sensual classics she had discovered on her Spotify. The calm rhythm along with a languid tempo was as gentle as the waves stretching across the expanse of Muscle Beach, the psychedelic soft samba tones transported you to a whole new existence.

Jade was the water reaching across the beach, powerful and violent; seeking a new existence on the shore and despite every time she was pulled back, an impression of her was left in the sand.

Circling back to Austin, the impression she left on him was a little foggy. Her expectations of him were low, the simmer of elation was always the same. Two weeks ago proved just as much, sitting on his couch and reminiscing over a life that proved fleeting and tasteless for the both of them. Jade never liked to get sentimental over such things, though looking back now she knew there were things she would do all around differently if she'd known the outcome of this path.

Two weeks would soon enough turn into three weeks and then three months but every time she saw him, Austin always looked so incredible, dressed up, down, clean or messy he was always so perfect. If anybody had asked, she would tell them he was the coolest person she knew, and he was, his film career be damned. Everything she knew then and what she knew of him now had culminated into the fine young gentleman he'd become, a sated, secret safe place she had sought out and made her nest in.

With one final punch Austin winced and groaned, his knee had buckled and a sharp pain flew through his leg. He hobbled over to the wall, throwing his gloves off and it was then he'd spotted the red welts forming on his knuckles. He had forgotten his wraps.

Austin patted the sweat off of his face, cooler now though he still felt out of breath. Sitting against the wall, his eyes fell shut and he let his mind wander back to... well... what else? He wondered if she was up at this time, what she was doing if she was crazy enough to be up.

The first thing that crossed his mind was that satisfied smirk of hers when he'd found her on the edge of the pool, dry as a bone and seductively wicked. And then he thought about her long delicate fingers and the chipped polish on her nails, they seemed to change once every two weeks. Her hand fit so well within his, whether they were locked together on a park bench or lounging together in bed he realized that he had really liked holding her hand.

If she could push him so much just being in his mind then God help him when he'd see her next. He swallowed sharply at the realization he was semi-hard in his shorts, struggling to think properly despite the fact she wasn't even here. He was looking forward to the next time he would see her, excited to ruin her and hear her moan his name over and over whilst he gave her everything he had.

Their relationship had become private rendezvous, false names at establishments, messages filled with salacious subtext and pillow talk that could last for hours and hours. The physical aspect was giving way to something more; the familiar simmering in Jade's gut when she was younger and her naivety wasn't so innocuous.

Thighs clenched around the pole, her spine stretched taut as she hung upside down, every sensation was amplified. The breeze of the AC against her skin felt tingly, chilled, so vulnerable and yet incredibly powerful. What would Austin say if he saw her like this? Would he think her crazy? He was more or less -- no, definitely -- intrigued when she'd confided in him; she still remembered how his face lit up when she had. How her chest fluttered when she thought about him watching her perform in the way not many were privileged to see.

He made her chest flutter in and out of the bedroom, she had to be real. Sitting together in a bar, just being close to him was more than enough she could ask for. Though finding herself claimed week after week, waking up with his hickeys on her chest, the echo of fingerprints ghosting across her legs almost proved to be too much for her to believe, and yet he was coming back to her for more time and time again.

Finally, her alarm blared through the music, slicing violently through the soft guitar tempo and pulling her back down to Earth. When she touched back down upright her body ached and burned all over, nothing a hot shower couldn't fix.

After splashing water on his face, Austin watched himself in the mirror, curious. His lips were dry and chapped from his shallow breathing, his shoulders felt stiff despite how he rolled them, his knees burned from the constant back and forth shuffle, and the humidity around him felt thick. He tried to reel in his thoughts like a lasso around a wild stallion and he figured a hot shower would relieve his thoughts of her. And yet every thing he set his focus on, Jade found a way to wriggle her way back in.

Austin discarded his t-shirt and shorts to the side, smiling to himself as he'd caught a glimpse of the pink scratches down his back. Jade was a constant juxtaposition in his eyes; maiming him without intent, lost in the throes of passion and yet when it was all over she came back to this timid mindset, apologizing profusely no matter how many times he had assured her it was okay. If anything, he found it pretty hot.

Jade shuffled over to her bathroom, scowling as her phone flashed a grim 6:45 at her. A pot of tea was steeping on the counter while Jade hummed the Bossa nova to herself, it wasn't quite the same melody as she hit notes off here and there. The more she did the more original the melody became, her hips swinging in time.

It was then that it hit her; her breakfast and shower be damned as Jade fetched her guitar and her notebook. Time became an unknown concept as she sat on the couch, fiddling and picking out different chords until it began to resemble the song in her head. Every chord that matched she wrote down and when she played the full piece in tandem, a little rusty and pausing here and there, it was so cool. To be honest she felt that it was the coolest piece of music she'd ever put together. What to do with it? She still wasn't sure.

Pre production could either be the most fun or most draining process in the world, or so was in Jade's experience. The studio wanted the video for her song, Masochist, to premiere one week before the release of the Batman movie, giving the creative team either the most or least amount of time depending on how they wanted to scale their budget.

Jade had lost interest in the conversation some time ago, spinning around and around in her chair as Cam and her creative director, Elsie, were gabbing back and forth on what direction they thought would best suit the song. When they were on the same page, Cam and Elsie could conquer the management world, when they were divided, they made Jade want to walk into oncoming traffic.

"Just imagine -- we open the video with Jade walking into a burning city --"

"A burning city?"

"Well, the whole thing's not gonna be burning. But you know, it has to fit the whole Gotham theme!" Elsie explained

Cam shook his head, "Exactly, which is why it makes more sense to set the whole scene underground,"

"Be serious, Cameron,"

"I am! It's a great metaphor!" he exclaimed.

"A metaphor for what?"

"The great underbelly of evil in a metropolitan city,"

"In that case, why don't we just go to Detroit to film, then?" Elsie suggested.

"Gotham's not based on Detroit,"

Jade finally stopped doing spins in her chair, dizzied for a moment as she slapped her hands down on the table, "Hey, Mom? Dad? I'm still sitting here!" she exclaimed.

"We know! But you're not contributing," Cam huffed back.

"Because neither of you have asked my opinion since we sat down. Elsie just threw some storyboards onto the table," she replied.

Elsie straightened out her slacks and dress blouse, tossing her blonde hair behind her shoulders as she relaxed in her chair, "Okay, you're right. This is her song after all," she mentioned to Cam.

"Fine," Cam sat back as well, turning to Jade, "What's your idea, then?"

Visually speaking, Jade wasn't the most creative person when it came to this stuff, hence she usually trusted Elsie. Nonetheless, she knew what she wanted to say in her music and what she needed to get her point across, even if her team felt it didn't fit or wasn't enough.

"I think we should just do a studio shoot. Throw up some strobes and an oscillating camera,"

Cam and Elsie stared at her blankly, then they stared at each other, in disbelief or disappointment Jade wasn't sure.

"That's it?" Cam finally spoke.

"That's it," Jade shrugged back.

"But that's so plain," Elsie replied, almost teetering on a whine, "Jade, we can do better than that,"

"Why do we have to go all out to make it a hit? Besides, the focus should be on the film, not me," she said.

"But you're aiding in selling the film!" Elsie told her, "You saw the scale of production they had for the Birds of Prey soundtrack!"

"Yeah, I loved them all! But that scale isn't gonna work for this!" Jade argued back. She took one of the production folders and pulled out the set list of songs that would be featured in the movie, a main song being Nirvana's Something in the Way, "Nirvana didn't need flashy gimmicks and big productions to be successful, and they friggin' soared! I wanna' do something like that!"

Elsie released a heavy sigh, take the folder and skimming the track list of notable songs. The star of the movie would surely be Nirvana's gritty hit, further emphasizing the dark and humble characterization for this version of Bruce Wayne. The purpose of Masochist was an overall iteration of the state Gotham was in. Surely, Elsie of all people had to see where Jade was coming from.

The older woman set the folder down, "Less is more?"

Jade nodded, sporting an optimistic smile.

"Well, the song is called Masochist, can we at least set it up in a church?" she asked.

Church meets division meets anarchy? Why the hell not? "... Yes," she relented.

"Amazing," Cam huffed, "We'll get some mock ups and we can set a film date for the new year,"

"Then let's move on. When are you starting your next album?" Elsie asked Jade.

"Already have," she replied simply.

"How many songs you got?"

"Four or five. Nothing solid, yet"

"Well, is it four or five?"

"She's been working on what she can and she's taking her time," Cam informed her, "You know how she works, Elsie,"

"You'll forgive me, Cam, but I literally have not left my house in a year and half. I forgot you had that neck tattoo for a hot minute," Elsie replied, referring to Cam's very detailed rose tattoo running up the side of his neck.

Cam turned to Jade, "Does your 'four or five songs' include Thick Skull?" he asked.

"It's too early to say right now, Thick Skull was a standalone," Jade replied, "Give me a few more weeks, I'll have a better idea of what I'm doing,"

"You've had a whole year," Elsie pointed out.

"I haven't exactly been on vacation, though," Jade replied.

Cam's chair squealed as he shifted in his seat, "Do you think you could have a release date by the end of next year?" Jade raised an eyebrow at him, "It's not me asking, it's the label,"

"Seriously?"

"Sweetheart, you released your last LP in 2018,"

"And Frank Ocean hasn't released an album since 2016, what's the point?" she fired back.

Elsie shook her head, "It's the studio executives just trying to make bank on their investment,"

Jade scoffed, "You may as well call me a show pony, then,"

"Well, you've been a very lucrative show pony," Cam teased back.

"Oh, please," Jade checked the time, relieved to see two o'clock was finally approaching and she began to gather her things, "You guys can tell the studio execs that my creative process is not one to be rushed. And if they want songs written faster than they can get some fancy AI bot, but I'm not gonna' sing them,"

"Oh God," Cam groaned, "Could you imagine a computer writing songs?"

"Hold on to your hats, it's closer than you guys think," Elsie warned, "Where are you going, anyway?" she asked Jade.

Jade threw her sweater on and looped her bag around her shoulder, "I got a late lunch. We're back tomorrow, anyway,"

Cam eyed her curiously, it was a particular, third-degree interrogation stare he'd perfected the longer he worked with Jade. Jade stared back at him, not as intense though she did her best to stand her ground, "What?"

"You're not going out with Victor, are you?" he asked tentatively.

"Fuck no!" she caught herself before she could yell some more, the idea now overly repulsive, "Imagine I said that without yelling,"

"I'm trying," he simpered, "He's still coming around looking for you,"

"Ew, seriously?" Elsie gaped.

Jade rolled her eyes, "You gave the doorman his picture, right?"

"And the shift change. And I tacked it up in the office," Cam nodded solemnly.

"What does he keep coming around for, anyway?" Elsie asked.

"Because he fucked around, found out, and now he's grovelling. Trying to, anyway," Cam replied.

Elsie simply shook her head, "God, I guess covid did a lot more than just fuck up his breathing,"

"Too bad it didn't finish the job," Cam sighed.

Jade glowered at him, "Cam. Really?"

Cam swivelled around in his chair, "Listen, you are my client which means you also like my child. Which means the man -- no, boy, because he acts like boy -- got cocky with you, and I get to hold a grudge for the rest of my life," he grinned smartly.

Elsie smirked at Jade, "How lucky are you to have wound up with this idiot for a manager?"

"Still pinching myself," Jade started for the door, "Don't wait up!"

The door fell closed behind her with a sharp slam, giving Elsie permission to roll across the floor and buddy up beside Cam.

"Who's she going out with?" she asked.

"How should I know?" Cam shrugged back.

She popped a brow, "Your her manager, you just gave a half a pep talk on how she's like your kid. But you guys are -- what, fifteen years apart? That's weird,"

"You know what I meant," Cam grumbled back, "I don't know who she's out with. Even the band don't know where she keeps disappearing to,"

Elsie sat back in her chair, her manicured fingers tapping sporadically against the plastic arm as she thought it over, "Hm, well the last time she was this tight lipped about anything, she was seeing he-who-shall-not-be-named,"

"Because she knew I was gonna' kill her when I found out, and I came this close," Cam pinched his fingers together, "Like I said: fuck around and find out. She better have learned her lesson,"

"Six years isn't a lesson," Elsie replied, "It's a blue collar punishment,"

The studio was still mostly empty with covid protocols slowly being lifted and the halls were quiet; it wasn't too unusual with the sound proofing in the walls.

Jade felt she was traversing a library rather than a lively music studio. She tapped the elevator button with her elbow and her mask was pulled tightly over her face. The bell dinged over her head and the doors slid open, and Jade came face-to-face with another masked stranger. The elevator was small, it was an old building after all, and as far as Jade knew the social distancing protocols were still in place.

"It's cool, I'll get the next one," she waved to him.

His eyes crinkled and he stood aside, smiling under his mask, "No, please. Come on in,"

Jade stepped inside and they began their descent down. Chasing Cars played gently overhead, the blocky numbers flashed one after another on the screen and Jade couldn't help but sneak a glance at the stranger. Unsurprisingly, he was glancing back at her.

"Have we met before?" he suddenly asked, he then began to laugh, "I'm sorry, that's really forward. I just feel like I've seen you somewhere,"

"It's okay," Jade nodded, "I'm a singer, you might've seen me on your Spotify or something,"

"You famous? Like -- A-List?" he asked.

"I'm more of a B minus," she replied.

"What's your name?"

"Jade Theodore,"

He shook his head, "No offence, but you're not in my playlist,"

"I'll try not to take that too personally," she replied.

"I'll give you a listen, though," he replied. She picked off the smell of pine cologne, his flannel was distressed but clearly new from the lack of fuzzing. His hair was shaved close to his ears, not exactly slicked back at the top but he presented himself clean, compact, she pegged him to be somewhere in his early thirties, "Sorry, my name's Chris. Russel,"

"I'm going to assume Chris is your first name," she joked, "You famous, Chris Russel?"

"I wish," he shook his head, "I'm a screenwriter,"

"And what's a screenwriter doing at a recording studio?" she asked.

Chris lifted his chin, seemingly proud of himself, "I was meeting some hot shot producers in the board room. Penthouse level,"

Now she was intrigued. Not even she had been up to the penthouse boardroom. It was reserved for especially for the big wig names that came to town, "Wow, fancy. Who you working for?"

He looked around the elevator then, he was looking for a camera or a mic, "If you had to sign an NDA, I get," she said quickly.

"No, no, it's cool, we're just trying to keep everything on the down low for now," he said, 'But... word on the block is that The Weeknd is going to be starring in a new TV show,"

"Abel's got a TV show?"

"Yeah," Chris popped a brow, "You guys are on a first name basis?"

She nodded, "We worked together on some songs,"

At that, the elevator dinged again and the doors slid open to the ground floor. They stepped out together and started for the glass door, only then did Jade notice the handful of security guards laying wait. Out front was a silky black Cadillac, the windows were tinted. Chris seemed taken aback as well.

"Well, that explains all of this," Jade said.

"Swear they weren't here when I came in," Chris noted.

"Was he late?"

"Fashionably,"

"There you go,"

They exited the building under the keen, watchful eye of the security guards. Jade understood why it was needed, but she never liked having security guards flank her wherever she went, be it for a meeting or a social outing. Of course if it was necessary for a high profile function, that was a different story, but even then Jade always felt stifled.

It was then Chris peeled off his mask, revealing his sharp jawline and his boyish, all American grin, "So... what are you up to today?" he asked her.

Jade took her mask off as well, "I'm just off to meet a friend. What about you?"

"Head home, work on some drafts. But maybe next time I see you... maybe it'll be over a drink?" he replied.

Jade cocked a brow, smiling tempestuously, "Oh, I --"

"Wait, I'm sorry. I know, that's super forward and we just met," he chuckled sheepishly.

"It's okay," Jade nodded, "How about we start with coffee instead?"

His eyes lit up, "Yeah, yeah! Sure!" he replied, "I'll... shoot you a message later? You got instagram, right?"

"Begrudgingly so," she simpered and she started walking backwards, "Good luck on your drafts, Chris,"

His hands were buried in his pockets, his charming smile on full display as he wished her well, "Nice to meet you, Jade,"

Austin was waiting with arm crossed, leant against the wall in the middle of the lobby with his hoodie pulled over his head. He blended into the contemporary scenery, his mask was pulled over his nose and his knee was bouncing on the spot as he waited patiently for her. And even though she was late sometimes he kept telling himself not to fret, she was coming off of a work meeting and he knew well enough how late those could run.

He looked up when the door swung open and she wandered in, glancing around the restaurant and her eyes squinted as they readjusted to the lighting. Her hair was a little longer now, a little frizzy but he could tell she'd made an effort to keep it neat. Much to his amusement, Jade walked right past him. He was utterly inconspicuous in his get up, unintentional of course but he couldn't help but smile as she peaked left and right in the dining room.

"Jade," he waved her down. The moment she spotted him she glowered, half her face was covered but he could pick off that irritated leer at anytime.

"Jesus, you look like a bank robber. Or -- or Death," she reached up to slip his hood off and he ducked down to help her.

He simpered, "Give me a break, I've been ducking camera vultures all morning," he tutted at her, "You're late," he was smiling at her nonetheless, though her general posture much calmer than his. She had slipped her leather jacket off now and showing off a crisp white tank top, the strap of the same bra he'd slipped off her time and time again was peeking out from the sleeve. Her green eyes twinkled under the lighting and it killed him how effortlessly cute she was without her makeup, her hair pushed off of her face.

"Yeah, sorry," she huffed, shrugging uneasily, "My meeting ran late," obviously she had been privy to something in particular from her sheepish, carefree grin, "Are you pouting at me?"

"Me pout? I don't fucking think so..." he glanced up and down at her and she almost flinched.

"You've been pouting more, lately,"

"Have not," he stated, his lips curled. Jade laughed merrily, she could sense there was a little tension within him that she wanted to soothe, "So, what're we doing?"

"I'm hungry," she told him firmly.

"So can we go eat now?" he asked.

"Yes!" she grabbed his forearm in a way that made his breath hitch in his throat, her fingers squeezed him, "Let's go!"

No more than ten minutes later they were seated at a sleek table close to the bar. Austin pulled out Jade's chair before the waiter could offer.

"What a gentleman," she mused as he pushed the chair forward.

"You know me," he replied, walking slowly around to his side of the table. He sat in his chair in a sort of slump, trying not to squirm as his knees ached and his shoulders were sore. He didn't want to let on to her that he was in pain, so he settled for a brief moment and graciously tipped his head as the waiter handed them their menus and ran through the restaurant specials for the day.

Though Jade was in fact hungry, she couldn't focus on the waiter fully. She was preoccupied by Austin, watching him wriggle in his seat uncomfortable out of the corner of her eyes and she nodded along to the mention of the corn and jalapeño chowder. If his fidgeting wasn't enough, she quickly noticed the welts on his knuckles. The waiter left them to make their decisions.

"Austin, you okay?"

He looked across at her tentatively, the way her lips parted when she said his name so sweetly. As if to taunt him his morning thoughts of her had returned, he stretched again to distract himself but became annoyed with the pain in his shoulder.

"You good?" Jade asked again, her voice giving a hint of genuine concern.

"Yeah. I haven't boxed in a while, that's all," he sighed, frustrated with himself.

"You were boxing?" her eyebrows raised again when he lifted his gaze to her at last.

"Yeah, I've been going all week," he gave her an assuring grin, "Not so fun when you wrench your shoulder at six in the morning,"

"Oh God," she tittered, hesitantly turning back to her menu. She looked up at him again briefly, his wriggling and stretching a little unnerving, she wasn't so convinced he was okay but she didn't want to push him.

The waiter approached at last and took their order. By this point, Jade's stomach was rumbling and though she knew he wouldn't care really, she prayed Austin couldn't hear it. She picked a mushroom pasta and he went for a cuban sandwich.

"Any drinks?"

"We'll do a half litre of chardonnay," Austin confirmed.

"Of course, sir,"

The waiter hurried away and Austin turned back to Jade.

"You know, I don't get called 'sir' enough," he nodded, relieved by the fact he was making a joke now. He was very aware of the dull throbbing in his knuckles still, cracking them under the table.

"I am not going to start calling you 'sir', Austin," Jade replied, shaking her head despite his teasing, "Don't even think about it,"

"But why not?" he tutted, his lips curling in amusement, "Sir Austin Butler's got a nice ring, don't you think?"

"Maybe in someone's fan fic," she suggested, half joking but Austin was intrigued.

"Some what?"

"Fan fiction," she giggled, "Oh trust me, once the promos and the photos start dropping on the internet, Tumblr and all those other blogging sites are gonna' go mental for you,"

Austin wasn't naive, he'd known enough about the internet to know Jade wasn't kidding around. But it was surreal to think of people on the internet thinking of him in 'that way', he still wasn't so convinced, "Me? No, no way,"

"That's what Harry Styles thought, too," she smirked back.

He grinned wide, ear to ear and he blushed on the spot. As much as she liked to annoy and tease him in fun, Austin couldn't help but take on her infectious energy.

The waiter returned and poured each of them a small glass of the wine they'd ordered before popping off to his next table. Once he was gone, Jade tutted and filled their glasses 'properly', about half way and she made a comment about how they both needed it. Austin shifted in his seat again as she slid his glass over to him, she was still concerned by how quiet he was being since they'd sat down. She zeroed in on the welts on his knuckles.

"Man," she mumbled, reaching out to touch his hand which was balled into a loose fist. It wasn't so shocking for them to be touching anymore, but her fingers wrapping over his hand didn't particularly fix his train of thought, didn't dull how badly he wanted her, "Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore, I iced them," he assured her.

Still not convinced, Jade shifted her chair over so she sat next to him as oppose to across from him. Her thumb massaged around the welts, careful not to agitate the open skin. Austin swallowed the lump in his throat, her massage felt wonderful and her citrus perfume tickled delightfully under his nose.

"What about the..." she nudged her head backwards, her lips pressing together.

"The what?" he glanced behind him.

Jade narrowed her gaze ad she reached around and grabbed at her shoulder, "The -- the... you know..."

Oh, it clicked for him then as he glanced down at her fingernails, cleaned of polish and filed down from before. There was a hint of twisted satisfaction, but then he had always enjoyed making her blush even when it was purely self inflicted.

Austin leaned over to whisper just above her ear, "The scratches are healing just fine,"

She grimaced as she felt her face heat up and she squeezed her legs together, subtly shaking her head, "I'm sorry, again,"

"I'm not upset," he assured her, "I kind of deserved it, anyway,"

"Of course you did," she grinned, squeezing his hand now, "I'll be gentler next time,"

He popped a brow, "Well, I don't want that, either," he smirked back.

Jade rolled her eyes, "You make me upset," she mumbled sheepishly.

"Why?" he chuckled.

"Because I'd like to at least eat my lunch first before we cycle back to sex," she replied, consciously keeping her voice to barely a whisper.

"Okay, okay," he relented, "Let's talk about something else,"

Jade sat back in her chair, "Like what?"

He took a sip from his glass, mulling it over. There were so many things he was dying to know the answers to, everything ranged from as mundane as her plans for the holidays to the wildest places she would want to travel to.

"Are you big into zodiac stuff?' he asked, drumming his fingers across the table cloth.

"The horoscopes or the serial killer?" she laughed.

"The horoscopes, of course," he simpered, "If you wanna talk about the serial killer, we might be here for a while,"

"Fair," she nodded, "I don't put too much faith in it, but nine times out of ten that shit is scarily accurate,"

"Yeah, but it's worth the laugh, though. It's all subjective,"

"Okay," she fumbled for her phone in her bag, "Do you know what time you were born?"

"No. Do you?" he laughed.

"Not a clue. We'll make it up as we go along," she tittered back, tapping her screen a few times and coming to her horoscope page, "What do you wanna know?"

He glanced to the side, shrugging sheepishly, "I -- I don't know. What does it tell you?"

Jade skimmed through the article and stopped at the lifestyle column, "Leo. You love the holidays but want to make sure both you and your loved ones stay safe. When the spiritual planet Neptune, which has been retrograde since Friday, June 25, goes direct on Wednesday, December 1, you look at your professional life with a new perspective. During the months when Neptune was retrograde, you came to terms with what makes you happy at work and what needs to go. When the expansive planet goes direct, you're ready to make changes to achieve the working atmosphere of your dreams,"

Austin couldn't lie, he was a little thrown off, "Hold on... what does that mean?" he asked.

"Basically, you're recognizing what's been good in your life and cutting out what hasn't been," she replied.

"But how did it know I was gonna' travel?"

"Where are you going?"

"I'm gonna' visit my sister for Christmas,"

Jade shrugged, smirking, "The stars just know, Austin,"

"What does 'retrograde' mean?"

"No clue, but it sounds fancy," she continued to read on, "Saturday, December 4, brings a new moon and solar eclipse in Sagittarius and your 5th House of Pleasure. No clue, can't tell you," she interjected as he opened his mouth, "The standard advice regarding eclipses is to lay low to avoid stirring the pot, as these are infamous times of drama. But you, Leo, were born for drama," she nudged him gently to which he nudged her back, "And if you use this night right, the only drama you experience... will be fantastic sex or some role-playing. Wow," Jade covered her mouth in disbelief.

Austin laughed again, "I think stars have cycled back, Jade,"

"Oh shush," she rolled her eyes.

"Hey wait," he stopped her as she continued to scroll, "What's our compatibility?" he pointed to a separate article.

"Are you sure you wanna' know?" she nodded confidently, though she questioned whether the truth would hurt her.

"Why not?"

"Alright," she opened the page in her browser.

"You're a Taurus, right?" he asked, still not sure that he understood what that fully meant.

"I am," she scrolled to the section and cleared her throat, "When a Taurus and a Leo walk into the room, one thing’s for sure: The sex appeal just went up a few notches,"

"Great, let's do it," he drawled.

"Shhh..." she laughed. Austin rested his chin in his hand, readily waiting for her to continue.

"These two signs are showstoppers --"

"Really?" he chuckled deeply.

"Shush!" she glowered playfully, "And both know how to take the air out of a room–in a good way!"

"So far so good,"

"One unshakeable thing that have in common in their loyalty. When these two make a commitment, they’re in it for the long haul, which is something they’ll come to love the most about their counterpart. However --"

"Here it comes,"

"With these two zodiac signs’ unparalleled stubborn streaks, they will have to choose to cooperate when they disagree. If both dig their heels in the ground, they'll be at risk in letting each other down,"

"I would never let you down, Jade..." he mumbled, a little lost in the idea of this hypothetical relationship with Jade. She looked up from her screen at the softness of his words, though part of her already knew that they were true.

"Like you said," she scratched behind her neck, "It's all subjective,"

She was trying to be realistic, didn't want to admit that the idea of them together in everyday life was heavy on her mind and for once tried not to read too deeply into the words on her screen. She didn't want to overthink, just decided to feign some emotional strength.

"They have to learn to compromise and hold their longterm vision for their shared future above all else. They’ll also have to learn to leave jealousy and possessive behaviors in the past. These two both want an all-access pass to their lovers’ hearts–and if they ever feel threatened, their claws and horns will come out to play,"

Austin glanced down at Jade's nails again and she caught him forthwith, smacking his arm gently, "Shut up,"

"I didn't say anything!" he laughed.

"You didn't have to," she pouted back, her eyes twinkling with a somewhat familiar excitement. She reminded herself not to get too carried away, knowing how one look, one slight drop in his voice would have her head spinning, "Can I keep reading?"

"Please,"

She cleared her throat again, "Leo’s flair for the dramatics is often tempered by Taurus’ down-to-earth energy and approach to life, and Taurus can be encouraged out of their comfort zone thanks to Leo’s lust for life and desire for adventure,"

"Would you say I'm dramatic?" he asked, his commentary as endearing as the directness of his gaze.

"You're an actor, Austin" she replied simply, reading on, "Meanwhile, intimacy between a Leo and Taurus is a sensual and theatrical experience," she licked her lips, "Taurus is a sensual and physically attentive sign that will give Leo all the attention they desire and more,"

"Oh, are you?" he chuckled. Jade refrained from hitting him again.

"Leo aims to perform and please, and they won’t shy away from the sensual and slow foreplay that Taurus craves. All good performances take time, and Leo will soak up the spotlight and adoration along the way," she looked at him now, her head cocked, "You're a performer in every sense of the word,"

His smirk grew as he leaned in closer, "And have I performed well?"

She was about to counteract his teasing, convinced she could make him blush if she tried hard enough when the waiter suddenly returned, handling two piping hot plates. She was a little irritated, but also relieved.

"Bon appetite!" he wished them well before he walked off again. His sandwich was crispy, grilled to perfection and it smelled of hot cold cuts and briny pickles while her pasta was glimmering in truffle oil and fresh herbs.

Jade twirled some of the pasta onto her fork, trying to ignore Austin's smug smile as he nudged her again, "You never answered me,"

"And I told you," she smiled back, "I'm going to eat my lunch and only when I finish can we go back to talking about sex," and she ate her food, sassily popping the fork into the air afterwards.

Austin relented again and took his sandwich, "Alright. Enjoy," he was about to take a bite when he stopped, startled as he felt her foot slide up his calf. He gave her a pointed glare, though Jade remained unbothered as she sipped her wine.

[hournites]

Do you love me?

Hournite fluff - we deserve it 

Prompt: Do you love me? @bethchapel​​ It’s slowly approaching three AM and Courtney and Yolanda are already asleep in the pile of air mattresses and sleeping bags collected in the middle of the JSA cabin’s living room. Day one of their JSA bonding retreat was a success, mostly spent exploring the woods, swimming in the lake, and repeatedly asking themselves how on earth Pat affords such a luxurious cabin in the middle of nowhere, Nebraska. Rick bundles up his and Beth’s blankets and moves to one of the upstairs bedrooms when Courtney starts to snuffle in her sleep. 

Beth watches as Rick sits down in front of the ancient television set, pulling out dusty VHS tapes for her to veto what movie to put on. He’s on a mission, oddly alert for the middle of the night. Beth pretends she’s not disastrously exhausted as she settles on top of the bed. 

“How are you not tired from driving this morning?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugs and glances over his shoulder. “I guess I’m just excited to be here.”

Rick feeds Beauty and the Beast into the slot and it immediately plays the movie’s end credits. She giggles when he groans and clumsily thumbs the rewind button on the clunky remote. He joins Beth on the bed, yanking on a very old knitted quilt to lay over their knees. 

“I’ve never actually watched this.”

Her jaw drops. “What? Are you kidding?” 

He cracks a smile at her shock. “No.” 

“It’s a Disney classic!” Belle comes on screen with her basket all doe-eyed and wistful. Beth points at her. “You’ve never seen Belle before?” 

“Sure, I’ve seen her. I’ve just never seen her movie.” 

Beth sighs, now worried about what else Rick’s missing out on. When Belle is in the bookshop, Rick starts chuckling beside her. 

Beth quirks a brow at him, laid back on the mountain of propped-up pillows. “What?” 

“She reminds me of you.” 

Her frown deepens, but a smile starts to  spread, too. “Me?” 

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“She’s smart and caring.” Two fingers playfully crawl up the blanket over her leg. “Nose stuck in a book inhaling information like you with those goggles.”

Beth’s chest warms. 

She lets her head slip to rest on him. Her eyes start to droop mid-way through the movie, but Rick is really dead-set on watching this film  for some reason, so she forces them open. 

“Hey.” He pokes her side and she lifts her head up from his shoulder. “You falling asleep on me?” 

“No,” she lies. 

“It’s late. We can turn it off.” 

“No, I want you to watch it.” 

“You don’t have to be awake for me  to do that.” He searches for the remote again and turns on closed captioning. “It can keep playing while you sleep, Beth.”

“No,” she protests again through a long yawn, knowing she’s starting to sound ridiculous. He’s still grinning softly at her though, so she doesn’t back down. “It’s a musical, you need to hear everything. And I want to experience it with you.”

“You’re about to pass out.”

“I don’t care.”

Rick glances back and forth between the tv screen and her. 

“Pinch me if you have to,” she tells him, yawning again.  

“I’m not going to pinch you!” 

“Fine,” she huffs. “I’ll just get up and make coffee.” But she is so incredibly comfortable nestled in blankets with Rick that Beth can’t muster any energy to move. 

“Wow. Coffee in the middle of the night. You don’t even like coffee.”

“Sure, I do.”

“Beth Chapel,” Rick drawls out with a smirk, seeing right through her lies. “Do you love me?”  

“Yes,” she mumbles into his arm.

Rick falls awfully quiet, processing what he just asked and how she replied. It seemed to have slipped out, Rick not actually expecting anything from that.

“Do you, really?” he whispers, serious.

Beth blinks up at him. “Yes.” She pulls herself up to truly get a better look at him. Rick is a little dazed, blinking fast, mouth parted open like he’s stuck. She carefully puts her hand over the back of his gray t-shirt. “Has no one ever said that to you before?”

He doesn’t say anything.

“Rick?”

“Not in a long time,” he chokes out, overwhelmed. 

Rick is changing. Beth has seen the subtle differences since her parents started paying for his therapy. He’s not quite so wound up anymore. He’s developing patience. And, the most remarkable newness from him is that he’s not shutting down anymore immediately after sharing the pain he carries. Opening up is getting easier for him, even if it’s still hard, and Beth is immensely proud of him for it.

“I love you,” she says gently, mentally chasing her drowsiness away so that she can have this discussion properly. Beth wants to remember this, she needs to be fully awake. “Rick, I always love you.”

“Even when I’m a jerk?”

“Yes,” she says, “not that I like it. But because you always come back after and apologize for being one.”

His fast blinking continues until Beth starts to see he’s struggling with tears. “Really?” he says again, like he can’t believe it and her heart almost breaks.

“Yes.” 

Rick laughs like he’s embarrassed, tearing his gaze away to wipe at his face and glance back at the movie. Beth shifts closer, hand still on his back. She lets her hand slide to his shoulder, gently teasing the nape of his neck. 

“Rick?” she asks. “Do you love…me?” It’s a little silly because she already knows the answer, but her breath hitches nevertheless. 

He turns his head and their eyes meet. Rick’s are wet and soft, full of affection, but maybe they’re just mirroring her own. He nods and mere seconds later, his gaze falls to Beth’s lips. It’s only then, she realizes, that the love in this question– it isn’t the one they were talking about before. The room grows hot, prickling beneath Beth’s skin. Rick’s hand finds its way on her cheek, cradling half of her face. The touch knocks the air from her lungs. Rick’s hand tilts her chin up, those hazel eyes flicking as they try to read her, with a million things to say. 

Is this what you want? Is this what we mean? Is this okay?

He finds her answer when she closes her eyes and Rick greets her mouth with a kiss. It’s slow and tentative and burns a fire in her soul. Beth almost falls into him, leaning in to kiss back. Her other hand catches on his chest, fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, the other stills around his neck until they part. 

Beth’s more silent than she’s been in her life, Rick’s steady heartbeat thrumming beneath her touch. Rick exhales. He doesn’t say anything either, afraid to ruin the moment or wake up from a dream. They don’t have to talk. Beth takes his face in her hands and kisses him again, now applying her working knowledge of how to properly do it.  

It’s almost four in the morning when Rick gently tugs Beth by the wrists out of the bed to return to the sleepover downstairs with their friends. Courtney’s dead quiet, curly hair flung above the pillow of her sleeping bag. Yolanda’s curled up in hers like a cat. Rick settles into his own on the wooden floor. Beth crouches on the other side of the room, picking up her blankets and air mattress to drag over to him. She looks up from the task, feeling his eyes on her. Beth’s arms squeeze around her pillow, still floating on air. 

Do you love me? Beth mouths across the dark room. 

He grins and props himself up on an elbow, draping the quilt over her form once she’s in the makeshift bed. 

Do you love me? Rick mouths back. 

[nukenai]

More amazing magical little moments from our Disney trip:

-Me going to replace my entire phone case because the black part broke, but the person running the kiosk just giving me a new black part for free so I didn’t have to pay $30 for a whole new case -My sister-in-law wanting to order an Orange Bird sipper because it was different than the one she’d gotten from Epcot the other day, and then the guy at the stall just handed one to her and said “Here’s a magical moment for you” -Chilling at the Polynesian resort on the day we were leaving, at a table under an umbrella, sipping coffee, pretending to be able to afford a stay at the Polynesian -Wearing my Shapeland shirt to Animal Kingdom along with my sister and two people, one a cast member, commenting on it -The Country Bears costumed characters being out of their fucking minds -Cast members on Batuu and on the Halcyon being taken extremely by surprise that I had D-O with me and scrambling to improv their way through identifying a canon droid without just calling him D-O LOL -I really shouldn’t talk about the Starcruiser because I’ll be here all night but SAMMIE ASKING ME TO SHOW HIM HOW THE SHIP’S ENGINEERING ROOM WORKS. SAMMIE YOU WORK HERE. -Getting on the Monorail to go back to the hotel, and a bunch of ladies get on - every single one of them wearing Ducktales shirts and ears. I lost my mind. -And getting torrential downpour rained out of Epcot.

I’m sure there’s so much more but that’s just a selection.

[lchufflepuffcorn]

A Diamond in the Rough

Words: 805

Warning: Sad-ish, Angst-ish, song fic, Disney x MHA fusion. No Reader was mentioned.

Author's note: I really liked writing this, and I hope you'll like it too!

Taglist: Requested by the wonderful (and very polite) @princeasimdiya12

Masterlist

OGW Masterlist

An Aladdin!AU Izuku centric imagine.

Gotta keep

The thumping of feet on the dusty ground echoing the wild beating of heart now stuck in his throat, Izuku Midoriya turned a corner. Griping the wall tightly between his fingers to better keep his stability, he took a look behind his shoulder. 

Yup, still followed. 

One jump ahead of the breadline

Clenching the fruits closer to his chest, Izuku jumps over a cart past him. And kicked one box off and continued his ascension toward the ladder leading to the roof. The map back home was reshaped clearly in his head. 

Maybe, if he lost the guards, Izuku should stop and get some fish for tonight.  

Now up the ladder and taking a second to watch behind him once more, Izuku can clearly see the flaming-like hair of Enji Todoroki and the matching red cap of The Hawks. He kicks the wooden ladder to the ground, hopefully buying him a minute or two. 

One swing ahead of the sword

Making it from roof to roof, Izuku jumped toward the ground, holding onto a clothesline before letting go, half a meter before his feet could touch the dirt. Seconds later, the line fell limp on the ground, clean clothes now dirty again, and Izuku bent to grab some. 

'That shirt would do Eri good!'

He continued his run under the insults of the guards, as he so often did. Waving toward Toshinori, the old jeweller, who waved right back. 

"You're stealing again, Izuku?" Asked Tsuyu, handing him a sealed bottle as he ran past her. 

The boy shrugged. " I steal only what I can't afford." 

And that's everything.

There had been a time when he would have walked those streets with real money in his pockets. The laughter of his comrades followed him as he'd juggle more and more oranges before them. 

There had been a time when he'd taken Eri on walks around the town's square and watched her dance. He'd bought a flower crown for her and a drink for Uraraka. Maybe he'd played shogi with Shoto or Iida. He would've sung songs with his mother, joining a dance toward the ends of their shopping and walking. 

He did that for a while after the war, too, before people couldn't loan him a dime anymore. Singing.

Could really use a friend or two. 

The war had taken much of the people around him. Sure, he still had Tsuyu and Kirishima. Toshinori, too, could be considered a friend, he supposed, hell, even Ka-chan some days.  

Eri too, but she was still so young and so weak... she ought to eat more. Maybe he could stop at the Bakugos to see if he could scrap a thing or two of them. 

"There!" 

They're quick, but I'm much faster.

Izuku jumped at the words and accelerated his speed once more. He must have slowed at some point. Once more, the boy used his acrobatic skills and jumped over a pile of hay, taking a sharp left and utilizing the windows to escalade the walls toward the top of the houses again. 

He threw a bunch of the stuff he found on the roofs around him to make the way less manageable. Stupid, but still, it could buy him some more minutes. If that was the only thing he could do, he would. 

Izuku lost the guards again after a little while and stopped at the Tokoyamis before the Bakugos for some scrap they could provide him. In Exchange, he only had to promise to try and find a job the next day. 

Better throw my hand in.

He hadn't been much help during the war, even if Izuku had been of age to fight. He'd been too sickly to enlist, and even in the more desperate of times, the only thing he was good at was taking children to refuges outside of the city, making the path difficult to travel behind them. And then, when everything was reconstructed, and everyone only had enough for themselves, Izuku resolved to steal for the first time. His skills were not good enough for anybody anymore. 

All I gotta do is jump.

He'd arrive at the crossroad leading to either the outskirt of the city or his hiding place. Their roofs are higher, their walls harder to clamber. They were older monuments and too much work to rebuild in their ancient splendour. The perfect place for a scoundrel like him to live with Eri safely and with someplace to cool down during the hotter months. 

Resting in bed, yet again, pale as the moon, the little girl opened her eyes when he entered. Her face lit up with her innocent smile, and Izuku could only smile back, playing out his daily adventure for her amusement. 

If only he'd known that he was a diamond in the rough.

[potatoes-tomatoes]

Those questions are all so good, I can't pick!

1-30 pls? The ones you feel like doing 🫶

I have special interest in your thoughts on veganism tho

chipotle order?

carnitas bowl with pinto beans lettuce tomatoes crema guac and cheese

2. thoughts on veganism?

ain’t for me. I wasn’t born and raised to say no to meat as a hispanic texan. I feel it’s too self righteous a lifestyle, and somethin that’s very…hm… class restricted I’ll say. You gotta be able to afford sayin no to animal products. I understand in practice it’s so that one doesn’t partake in the loss of life or harm to an animal… but it’s like, why restrict that guilt to animals? Why restrict it to signals only we easily perceive? Trees and plants communicate to each other too, they also send their own signals of distress when in danger. They’re their own form of sentient. Whatever we eat, we are taking some or all the life of. (I guess except for eggs? bc that's just chicken period) That’s just something we must accept.

Also sometimes the marketing for it I find is funny. “vegan leather” you mean synthetic shit?? "yeah I'm sippin outta my vegan cup oh what brand is it you ask heh, Solo." like c'mon man. get outta here.

3. a specific color that gives you the ick?

I believe all colors have the potential to be beautiful within the right palette

4. mythical creature you think/believe is real?

answered!

5. Favorite form of potato?

Frenchly Fried

6. do you use a watch?

nah just my phone

7. what animal do you look forward to seeing when you visit an aquarium?

the seals

8. do you change into specific clothes for the house when you get home?

ya my pjs (old shirt and sweats)

9. do you have a skincare routine (and how many steps is it)?

wash my face with face cleanser, put on moisturizer. every other day or so I put on an innisfree mask.

10. on a plane, do you ask for apple or orange juice?

I ask for a coffee with two creams and no sugar.

11. anything from your childhood you’ve held on to?

Oh many things, i got a bin full of em. sketchbooks, elementary yearbooks, diaries. My prized posession is my first stuffed bear, Clover. She’s stuck with me since I was 6 years old!

12. brand of haircare/bodycare/skincare that you trust 100%?

;–; none of them they all did me dirty. and I get too overwhelmed to look into what brands are the cheapest and best for my skin/hair.

13. first thing you’re doing in the purge?

stealing money to pay off my goddamn loans. That or I'd like to know who directly could cancel my loans (like is there a. like a "cancel loan" button on a computer or what. who's in charge of that button. I'm so smart guys I know exactly how the banking system works) so I could spook them into getting it done for me. I wouldn't hurt anyone, but I'd look the part to get them to do what I want.

14. do you think you’re dehydrated?

nah i drink plenty water.

15. rank the methods of death: freezing, burning, drowning

oof that’s tough. They all seem equal to me.

16. thoughts on mint chocolate chip?

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

17. an anxious compulsion you do everyday?

I often check to see if my back is straight or if I’m not pursing my lips

18. your boba/tea order

matcha or taro, blended.

19. the veggie you dislike the most?

lima beans eughhh

20. favorite disney princess movie?

Tangled

21. a number that weirds you out?

my ex's (badum tsh)

22. do you have an emotional support water bottle?

I am in possession of only one water bottle

23. do you wear jewelry?

no. I own some though for some reason.

24. which do you find yourself using, american or british english?

American, but I prefer using the british grey instead of american gray.

25. would you say you have good taste in music?

My taste in music is the only thing abt myself I’m confident in hgjkfd yes I would say so.

26. how’s your spice tolerance?

Take a look at my hispanic card you’ll see “güerita“ in bright bold lettering. 

27. what’s your favorite or go-to outfit?

jeans and a t-shirt with my chanclas 

28. last meal on earth?

Fettuccine Alfredo

29. preferred pasta noodle?

Bowties, they funky

30. ask me anything !

well gosh how am I supposed to answer this one y’aint sent me nothin on it pinsky XD 

[brothersonahotelbed]

i'm so fucking angry with torrid i don't care about your stupid fucking disney-coded pride collection i need you to stop making t-shirts and jeans in the "boyfriend fit" and make the straight leg high rise jeans again i'm fucking begging you. all the money you're putting into collabs with disney and fucking. whatever the hell the "fangirl" collection is you should be putting toward making jeans that are affordable, durable, and like!!! fucking normal!!!! I JUST WANT A NORMAL PAIR OF JEANS I DON'T WANT NO FUCKIN BOYFRIEND FIT ANKLE EXPOSED SUPER STRETCH WHATEVER THE HELL I JUST NEED A PAIR OF JEANS THAT WILL LAST ME THE WHOLE YEAR AND DON'T COST $80