#already written a good drabble about Piper

[speedytherandom]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @satans-poptarts

1. how many works do you have on Ao3? 24

2. what's your total Ao3 word count? 41,008

3. what fandoms do you write for? Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, The Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, and The Trials of Apollo-- mostly. I have also written singular fanfics for a couple of other unrelated fandoms.

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Keeping Up A Shrine (Sadie Kane character study, basically)

Just Some Saturday in September (Valgrace domestic fluff)

A Harry Potter fic I’d rather just forget about.

The Unfortunate Issue With Having Cooler, Older, and Hotter Siblings (Owl House-- Amity thinks Luz likes one of the twin)

The Flour Fiasco (Ruegard fluff fic)

5. do you respond to comments? Almost always!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Bone by Bone (PJO, everybody dies) because that’s just straight up the angstiest fic I’ve ever written in general.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Honestly? I have no idea. Most of my fics have relatively happy endings. I’m gonna say... Lasting Moment (Pipabeth, alternate universe) because it’s the one that is the most happy at the end compared to the beginning.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I haven't yet and I’m really happy about that!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I haven’t yet but idk, maybe someday when I feel more confident with my abilities.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don’t write crossovers. I don’t have any good reason, I simply haven’t.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not but if I’m ever bored enough and have the inspiration I could translate perhaps a drabble or two into German or Portuguese.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not really. Like, I started one with my friend but it is not finished. Lemme just say, very difficult to co-write fanfic.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Based on ones I’ve written I’d say Pipabeth as I enjoy writing them but honestly? Despite writing a majority ship-based stories and really enjoying them, I’m not a huge shipper in general. I’m rather neutral on ships for the most part.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have no published WIPs, mostly because I need to have the fic at least 75% of the way done to even consider publishing it, but I’ve had stuff in my drafts forever. I’ve got the one where the PJO kids are doing Spamalot, the Piper Friendship Fic, the Valgrace College AU, the one where Piper is just jealous of Percy, the Fierrochase beach fic. And more. So, so many more, so if you’re interested...

16. What are your writing strengths?

No clue. Does being really happy with most first drafts count?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Commitment. I usually have larger ideas than I know how to portray and I tend to rush the ideas that I have which is why most of my fics are pretty short.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

With the languages I speak I haven't done this in a fic yet, but if the opportunity ever arose I’d be very excited. Plus, I have done lines of dialogue in Portuguese for an original short story (unpublished).

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh. Ew. Harry Potter :( It doesn’t exist anymore nor do I know what it was about but I can guarantee you it was the first.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I’m not really sure. I don’t really remember how much I like things I’ve written. I’m just gonna suggest some I really like and haven’t mentioned instead of one favorite: Wedding Dances (Sadie/Lacy future fic), Red Means Power (Heathers fanfic), and The Worst Possible Time And Place (Rachabeth as superheroes).

I’m not sure who writes fic that hasn’t been tagged already. If you do... this is fun!

[yanderart]

   Took me longer since the “drabble” that was supposed to accompany this turned into a kind of extensive one-shot, but here’s the next installment in the Yandere POV series. Inspired by a juicy request from some thoughtful anons!

   Below the cut is, as customary, a fic I wrote exploring the underlying themes of the portrait (creepy best friend tamaki x reader, nsfw, dark themes, 8k).

TWs: usual yandere content (delusion, obsession, deceit, etc), explicit noncon, violence, Tamaki making the frienzone his bitch. Generous implementations of the pet name “bunny”.

 .                  

 If you had known the chain of events that would spiral from telling Tamaki about your new relationship… well, perhaps you would’ve stayed quiet. It wasn’t like it was that serious yet either, but you had an inkling (“I really like this one, Tamaki”) that made it worthwhile enough to mention in your book. Remarkable enough to share with your very best friend.  

  Besides, in your defence, you really had no way of knowing just what hid behind his agitated reaction. Nerves stretched thin, voice terse as he congratulated you with a smile that appeared a little too bright, a little too strained. With someone like Tamaki, it was easy to go chalk it all up to his anxiety, stress or an unfortunate mix of both.

  So easy to underestimate him, wasn’t it?

  Nevertheless, there were no uses for any what ifs in your future, speculations and paranoia not even close to creeping up on you yet. So almost a week after your reveal, when you got a call from Tamaki himself, you didn’t even hesitate as you picked it up in the last few dredges of your work shift.

  “Need something?” you answered distractedly as your fingers continued typing on your keyboard, sorting out the last few remnants of some menial task.  

  The prolonged silence however, only brokered by a subtle sound you identified as actual sniffling, was your only response. Your hands stopped mid movements then, brows furrowed with worry.  

  “What’s happening, dear?”

  This time your voice was as calming as you could compel it to be, your tone trying to imbed reassurance into every syllable, “Tamaki?”

  You heard what sounded like a whine, a strangled sound that conjured up an image of tears trailing down his cheeks, bottom lip quivering in a sorrowful grimace.  

  Calling him dear despite having a boyfriend now, it was like you were taunting him.  

  “Bunny,” Tamaki’s voice was shaking as he called you by your old nickname, sobs making it hard to understand anything but how panicked his intonation was. “I-I need you.”

  Thinking your pro-hero friend was having another budding panic attack, or perhaps on the brink of a new stress induced mental breakdown, you were on your feet before he even stopped speaking. The protective side of your brain had overridden any apprehension to leave your post, your hands already reaching to turn off your work computer before you wordlessly left your desk.

  You were working overtime, anyways, and any consequences that came out of going to your friend’s aid were well worth facing in your book. And by that point too, you knew enough of all of their schedules to know yours would be the easiest to clear. Mirio and Nejire had their own heroics to worry about, while you only had an unremarkable office job to account for.  

   Not like he’d want Mirio or Nejire there, though. Not like he would ever call for them when he had you.  

   “I’ll be right there, Tamaki. Please stay put,” was the last thing you told him before hanging up and rushing to get your coat.  

   The urgency in his timbre, the utter need, was all you could think of as you left your building in quickened strides.  

  And by the way you were rushing, it was clear that you actually cared for him, your very best friend. All you needed was a gentle reminder of just how much.

.

  You got to Tamaki’s apartment in a matter of minutes, letting your cab driver keep the change as you stumbled up the stairs in urgent skips. It wasn’t the first time he asked you to be there for him (asked you without actually saying it, because he would never dare utter the words), yet you knew enough of the turmoil he went through on a daily basis. A pro-hero he might be, but his anxiety was his eternally undefeated foe.

  Although was it really that bad if it kept bringing you two together?

  Opening the door into a room enveloped by shadows, you dropped your things without a care before attempting to make your way into the living room.

   Barely a heartbeat later, an audible hitch in someone’s breathing alerted you quickly of your friend’s location.

   “Y/N?” his voice sounded hoarse and choked up as he called for you. And it felt like a fist was squeezing your heart, the same that had been consistently gripping your chest ever since you first picked up the phone in your office.

  “I’m here, dear.“ You comforted him while redirecting your steps to the sound of his trembling voice.  

   Despite the darkness, your eyes were acclimatized enough to distinguish the silhouette of his body hunched over the only sofa in the room. Even without getting a glimpse at his face, you could sense defeat and pessimism oozing off of him in waves. As you got closer, however, he made no movements of retreat, nor flinched away when you sat beside him.  

   Instead, it was like his body started to release all of his pent-up tension as a response to your proximity.

  You were there and it was like he could finally breathe. You were there for him, right where you were meant to be.

  One of your palms was reaching out and drawing quick circles across his back, the thin fabric of his t-shirt bunching up while your voice hummed what you hoped was a tranquilizing melody. With the other one, you clasped one of Tamaki’s own vacant hands and gave it a gentle squeeze, almost as if you were willing the worries to leave his body, a piper’s songs coaxing them out in the form of your enticing presence.  

  By that point, you knew enough about his episodes to know physical contact and reassurance were the fastest ways to get him to come back up from his lowest of lows. So it was no wonder, then, when your reward came quickly in the form of a content sigh leaving his lips, anguish still visible in his posture but his body clearly leaning into the solace you offered.

  The balm you provided had always been intoxicating for him.  

  “I… I wasn’t sure you’d come,” he stuttered through distressed hiccups. He looked so fragile like that, so much like a kicked puppy, that you instinctually wrapped your arm around his waist and hugged him closer to your side.  

  “Oh, Tamaki…,” you shushed with a note of guilt, preoccupied with the fact that he would ever think you’d leave him hanging, “why would you even say that?”

  You could feel his shoulders stiffen in your embrace, his hand tightening around yours for a moment before going limp in your grip. His lack of an answer stung even more.  

  It was ridiculous truly, to feel so protective over a man who was a pro-hero and clearly several times your strength. Even hugging him like you were, his lanky silhouette overshadowed yours in an almost comical portrayal of your height difference.  

  But he was your dearest friend —taking care of him came as second nature.  

  He adored you for it.  

   “You know I could never ignore you when you need me,” you whispered as your thumb drew patterns on the hand you were holding, soft insignificant drawings that to him felt like ancient secrets being exchanged. “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.”

   It was always like this with you two. Tamaki stayed quiet while you rambled on in his ear, trying to scatter any doubts or anxious thoughts still clouding his mind. At first you had thought it’d be annoying for him, overbearing in the worst of senses, but he had quickly insisted that you always knew just what to do to calm him down. You were his best friend, the one person besides Mirio and Nejire who just got him, who truly understood…

   So it only made you feel guiltier, to think that you wouldn’t be able to help him this one time. He was a hero who saved countless lives, someone whose time was worth more than you could ever hope to achieve as a meager civilian. And yet you couldn’t even comfort him as a friend?

  But it wasn’t your fault. You just needed to unlearn your behaviour. And if he truly was your best friend, didn’t you want him to feel loved too?  

   Which was precisely when an idea came to you, an epiphany from above in the form of a vivid memory of the last time you two met up, of the news that had seemingly left Tamaki acting oddly sour.  

   “You didn’t think I’d just forget about you because I have a boyfriend now, did you?,” you joked good-naturedly.  

   Only instead of having the comforting effect you’d hoped, your comment resulted in your friend stiffening even more, his face finally snapping to look at you with hurt written all across his features. The strength was back in the manner in which he was now seizing your hand, clasping it until you started to feel the blood circulation being slowly cut off.  

   “Isn’t that how it works, though?” His question was fretful on his tongue, barely above a whisper and with the slightest hint of resentment. His eyes were impossibly wide, impossibly alert as he studied your reaction, “Isn’t your boyfriend supposed to be your priority? The person you care for the most?”

  But even with the switch in his behaviour and the worrisome path his words were taking, you were still too preoccupied by him to heed any of it. It was just Tamaki over analyzing things, as always, and his anxiety popping in to get the better of him.  

  “Human relationships don’t work like that, dear.” And there the fucking nickname was again, that jest of a loving pet name on your lips. “It’s not a hierarchical structure. I care about both of you in different ways.”

   It felt silly to explain it out loud, to say such an obvious thing, but you couldn’t help wanting to appease some of the conflict eating away at your friend. Did he really think you’d ever drop him for anyone else? You had known Tamaki for years now, cared for him for what felt like a lifetime. The thought alone seemed completely ludicrous to you…

   Even as his touch started hurting, as you felt a stern pressure that would surely become a bruise on your wrist, all you could think of was that this was just Tamaki being Tamaki, right? And you just needed to calm him down, like you always did.  

  He saw the misery on your gorgeous face, the blossoming pain colouring your expression despite your attempts at hiding it. For once, he wasn’t the only one hurting anymore, and he oddly enjoyed that.

“You’re saying that, but why… why can’t I believe you?” It sounded like he was conflicted, tone frantic as he attempted to wrestle down whatever doubts were increasingly plaguing his mind. He tugged at your wrist with a clenched fist, stealing a whimper out of you while his face got closer and closer, “Uh, I bet he doesn’t give you as much trouble either. Bet he takes care of you.”

  I bet you love him was left unsaid. I bet you love him like I wish you loved me.  

  You attempted to push him off with your free hand at that point, discomfort quickly growing into annoyance despite your best intentions of being understanding. You were still under the impression that this was just a moment of clouded thoughts on his part, something bound to pass as he regained a grip of his senses. But the nerves flaring from the strength of his hold were impossible to ignore.

  “Tamaki, let me go first,” you commanded in a carefully composed manner, still attempting not to sound as harsh as you would’ve if this was anyone but your anxiety ridden best friend, “and then we can talk about why you’re feeling like that.”  

  Yet his reaction was abrasive once more, twisting your arm by the wrist harshly until your entire body was collapsing into his.

   “Don’t be like that. Don’t lie to me and tell me everything will be okay,” he was agitated, jittery and unstable in the way his eyes kept darting around. “All of this time I’ve been waiting… waiting to gather the courage…” He was making little sense now, just mumbling while he kept cradled your pained hand between his, a darkened gaze fluttering from your own eyes, to your lips and lastly some obscure point in the wall behind you. “And then you couldn’t wait for me anymore. And now you don’t need me.”

  It was hard to think through the mist of your budding worry and the agony still emanating from your wrist. Somehow, your other arm had stopped fruitlessly hitting him and was instead just trying to keep him at a distance, your neck cramping from how far back you were trying to get yourself.  

   He was impossibly close, intense and expectant as his stare once again found its way to yours. You could still see the doubts twisting there, but it was rapidly becoming eclipsed by a new creeping resolution. Even while you continued silently fighting to escape his grip, as terror encased you and you tried to understand why your best friend was acting like that all of a sudden.  

  After that night, would you perhaps think a villain’s quirk was to blame? Or maybe you’d think one of his enemies had decided to impersonate him in a twisted bid for revenge? Surely you couldn’t accept what the reality was, the fact that his love for you was just that blinding.  

   Don’t worry, though, he’d make you understand.

  Tamaki’s voice was feverish once he broke through the silence again, a new type of determination steadying his usual stutter in a way you’d never heard before.  

  “But I’ll fix that,” and then he was cupping your face with his free hand, your numb one still clutched tightly in his lap while his attention was diverted to your worried expression. “And then you will need me just as much as I need you. Then…“

  And there was a pregnant pause before he continued, a space of time where his stare bore into yours full of hidden meaning, “We can go back to being best friends again.”

Somehow though, on his tongue the term best friends sounded suspiciously like something else entirely.

 “Tamaki, listen…,” you tried again, refusing to quit still, before being interrupted by a terrifying sequence of actions unravelling.

  Because he was tugging your wrist down again after that, but this time twisting and twisting until your entire field of vision filled with the aftermath of an unbearable pain. A snapping sound echoed in your ears, a scream clawing its way out of your throat before you had a notion of what was even happening —Tearing through the rest of your composure, probably hurting his ears just as much as it left your vocal cords feeling raw. By that point, the hand that was previously pushing at his chest with firmness had turned frenzied, clamped fists now carrying the weight of urgency.  

  Tamaki looked halfway surprised at his own actions, halfway scared. Halfway excited, too.  

  Following a pattern of behaviour which did little to deter the horror rapidly embracing you, your so-called friend inhaled thickly before, suddenly and without warning, capturing your lips in a kiss. Your eyes were opened wide as you felt the pressure of his mouth claiming yours, taking advantage of your numb state to persuade you into opening up and allowing an even more intimate intrusion.  

  It has to be a nightmare, you thought in shock as his hands fluttered against your cheeks, sliding down to your neck and massaging your shoulders. It was like he couldn’t decide whether to stay still, where to touch or caress as his lips openly devoured you.  

  He waited so long for this, an eternity of yearning for someone right at his side.

   “T-Tamaki,”i, you willed yourself into speaking up once he broke away from you, gasping for air and with his hair looking as wild as his gaze, “I don’t know what happened but… you’re not being yourself.”

  Were you seriously still trying to deny his feelings? Trying to pretend like it hadn’t taken everything in him to finally gather his courage and just act. What a fucking friend you were.

  If he didn’t love you so much, he’d hate you for that.

  “You need help. Something happened”, you were rambling, too intimidated by the intent with which your friend was now listening to your words. “Once you’re feeling better, we can talk. I… I’ll promise to be understanding.”

  And despite the throbbing sensation in your injured hand, despite the disgust at his actions and unadulterated horror, the worst part was that you really meant it…

  But who were you really trying to convince at that point?

   His hands were still on your shoulders, but the way they squeezed around your flesh reminded you of the talons you had seen him grow with his quirk, sharp nails sinking without a warning and driving more half-hearted cries out of your throat. You looked like a mess now, lips still plump from the force of his kiss, mixed spit clinging to your face from it, fat tears freely cascading down your cheeks.

   “But… Y/N,” his voice was oddly soft when he addressed you again. There was a timid smile back on his face, one that reminded you of the friend you refused to believe no longer existed, and you briefly wondered if you had finally gotten through to him despite the unflinching strength of his grip, “I’ve never felt better.”

   He genuinely sounded so relieved too, so content with the dark implications behind his words, that you felt the blood become icy currents in your veins, liquid fear being pumped instead in its place. Before you even realized your course of actions, you were leaning your head to the side and biting down on one of his arms with everything you had.

   Tamaki was the one groaning then, retreating his hands instinctively and giving you the spare second you needed before you were jumping from the sofa and diving for the door.

  It’s unlocked, was all you could think about as you leapt to the exit. You could get away if you just managed to cross it, run until your legs gave up on you. You could go to your boyfriend’s place and wait there until you had enough courage to reach out to the police, to a hero —to anyone who could help you. Things could still be fixed.  

  And maybe, just maybe, the silliest part of you added, whatever was clouding your best friend’s senses would magically be gone once you had gotten away from his grasp.

  You never knew how to quit, truly. But it was okay, he liked that about you too.  

  A suffocated cry was all the sound you could make as you were fiercely shoved to the floor, your face smashing against the carpet and your nose making a horrifying sound before your entire head felt like it was on fire. The white-hot pain was all you could think of, the dam lifting entirely from your eyes as tears trickled down your cheeks in copious amounts.

  “D-don’t make me hurt y-you,” Tamaki didn’t sound at all winded, but anxious, pained himself from the wounds he had to inflict on you, “I want to make you feel good, not like… like this.”

  Which only made it more fucked up when, once you started fighting again, you felt the unmistakable pressure of a growing erection pushing against your lower back. As pained as you were, you willed yourself to keep struggling after that, trying fruitlessly to get away or somehow kick him, bite him, do anything in your power.  

  In all honesty, it only made him get more excited. He really was a sick, sick man. But only for you.

  “Stop, Y/N,” Tamaki pleaded in hushed whispers, his hands shaking as he tried to comb your hair out of the way. There was blood pooling around your face, flowing freely from the place your nose had smashed into the floor. You could barely breathe through it, your mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water as you attempted to otherwise fill your lungs through panicked gasps, "If you… if you stop, I’ll stop too.”  

  It was easy to recognize the lie as soon as it was uttered, a poor excuse for deceit as his hips stuttered into yours almost of their own volition. You heard him curse then, right as you both noticed that all your wrestling did was just press yourself harder against his arousal.

   However, before you could voice your growing terror, one of his hands was suddenly on your back, drawing circles in a mocking imitation of how you had tried comforting him earlier. The sickness in the pit of your stomach at that gesture, that feeble attempt at consolation, was all you could think about as the tears of impotence continued furiously trickling down your cheek.  

   You were disgusted, not only at the monster humping you as he continued mumbling poor excuses and null reassurances, but also sick at yourself for willingly going there to attempt to help him in the first place. You couldn’t believe part of you still stuttered to call him your friend moments ago, yet, even through your disgust, you’d also be lying if you didn’t admit how hard it was reconciling your aggressor with the soft spoken boy you had grown to foolishly treasure.

   “I’ve wanted you for so long,” his voice tickled one of your ears as he allowed himself to continue resting more and more of his weight on you, almost suffocating you under the pressure. He wasn’t even pretending like his hands weren’t wandering now, palms still mockingly gentle in their nervousness, but stopping his poor attempts at consolation long enough to grip your shirt and lift it up. “I don’t even remember what it felt like not to want you.”

   You wished you could scream again, but breathing was already such a laborious task between your fractured nose and Tamaki’s hold. When you refused to turn on your back after he gently nudged you, his hands just closed tighter around your top and tore it apart from your body, leaving you shivering —not due to the cold but due to a fear and impotence that trumped any temperature.  

   Then, because he couldn’t even leave you to suffer in peace, you felt the torn fabric of your shirt being pressed against the side of your face, prodding you with a meekness that felt completely out of place as the cloth started to soak in the blood gathering around you.

   “Press it against your nose, so it stops the bleeding.” He continued softly tapping it against your cheek until your unharmed hand went to roughly retrieve it out of his and do as he preached.

  You could’ve told him nosebleeds didn’t exactly work like that when you had a busted nose, that just pressing a piece of cloth wasn’t going to help your case much (or that his kindness was void, when he was the reason you why were bleeding in the first place), but all of that implied talking, and right now all you wanted to do was shut up, pass out, dissociate. Whatever it took to ignore his fingers now drifting to the hem of your pants.

  Yet he just wanted to take care of you. So why wouldn’t you let him? You were making it so difficult, when all Tamaki only ever wanted was to make you feel loved. Loved by him.  

  “You… hmm, you aren’t going to trust me right now,” it appeared like he was fidgeting with the waistband of your work pants as he drew out the admission, the thrumming in his voice sheepish and uncertain. It reminded you of how he would sound like when he attempted to talk to strangers, forcing himself into being pro-hero levels of courageous just so he could exchange a few words, “But that’s okay, Y/N, because you’ll understand.” One of his hands ghosted the plush curve of your ass, so lightly that you could’ve thought you imagined it in any other situation, “And when you do, you… you can break up with your boyfriend then. Things can go back to how they were. To just us.”

  The image of your partner crowded your thoughts then, his kind smile being conjured up in your mind as you heard your pants being torn apart next. It was enough to have you openly sobbing, biting down on the fabric of your ruined shirt as you tried to quiet down the sound of your own grief.

  But you’d thank him soon, once you understood. You already loved him before…so how hard could it be to love him again, but properly this time? To show him how much he knew you cared.  

  Once the remnants of your pants were thrown aside as well, you didn’t even get the luxury to cross your legs and put any kind of further struggle. Tamaki sat up on top of you, relenting the pressure in your chest and waist but comfortably setting himself on your hips, his legs encasing your thighs in an inescapable prison.  

  You could almost sense his eyes scanning your exposed flesh, hear his delirious muttering as his fingers got greedier and greedier in the paths they weaved across your body, the quick circles from before being exchanged by longer, drawn out movements. It felt like he was memorizing a map, with every little scar and indent in your complexion being the marks leading down to a hidden treasure, wonders to marvel at and inspect.  

 “I’m sorry, but I’ve dreamed of this for so long…” His tone was barely above a reverent whisper as you felt him finally reach your bra, unclasping it with a shaking that could only be attributed to unrestrained excitement, “dreamt of you even while awake.” He parted the fabric and left it precariously hanging off your sides on the carpeted floor, hands ceremoniously splaying across your shoulder blades next, “But you feel so different from anything I could’ve come up with. So much softer.”

  His lips were on your back in an instant, almost as if he just couldn’t help himself, and he was sucking and licking while trying to cover up the sounds of his own elation. The slow grinding against your backside had stopped, though, and the weight of his heated groin lifted from your back for the first time since you had been crushed to the floor. It was such a relief, to be able to move again (even if you weren’t foolish enough to try and get away by that point), that you didn’t even realize the alleviated sigh managing to escape your mouth until it was too late.  

  You felt Tamaki’s lips curling against your spine, the satisfaction in his gesture crystal clear.  

  “Does this feel good, bunny?,” he asked you in a pleased little rumble, mistaking your sounds of relief for something else altogether. “Does it feel good when I kiss you like this?” He pointed his question by leaving another sloppy flutter of his lips against the nape of your neck.  

   But then his presence disappeared from your back altogether, a moment so brief that hopefulness could not even begin to be reborn before it was crushed at your feet. Because before you could savour the retreat,Tamaki was now grasping and lifting your hips with his arms, deft hands sliding the lone piece of underwear still hiding your modesty from his prying eyes.  

 You briefly wondered why he hadn’t just ripped it apart like he’d done with the rest of the items that got in the way, but the distinct sound of someone sniffing gave you all the answers you needed. Deep, earnest inhales followed by a purr of satisfaction. Goosebumps blossomed across your body from disgust.  

  But to him, that was just another sign of you being into it. You were just too stubborn to admit it, weren’t you, bunny?

  “I’ll make sure to kiss you all over.” Your eyes were closed with such force, your intact hand losing colour from the strength you were using to grip the torn piece of fabric against your mouth. “If… if I’m honest”, and he was back to sounding sheepish, contradictorily embarrassed as if he wasn’t the one carrying out the assault, “Bunny, I’ve been wondering how your moans sound for the longest time, too.”

  If you weren’t as determined not to let a single sound slip out, you would’ve gagged. But all thoughts of Tamaki’s words were soon replaced by his actions, cold calloused hands snaking between your legs as the pro-hero’s arms kept a secured grip that made sure you could not wiggle out of his grasp. He was hunching over you again, dark purple hair tickling your thighs, and your exposed entrance twitched as a gust of air was blown directly into it.  

  You wanted so badly to cry out, to protest again, but you were afraid of ever loosening your grip on the fabric that covered your mouth. So instead you tried to steer your body, not to get away but to move your damaged hand until it was being crushed by your own chest, new waves of pain radiating off of it in order to distract you.

 Were you that afraid of liking it, that you’d take your own pain over the pleasure he’d deliver?

  “Bunny,” he groaned that nickname again, laying a bed of kisses across your inner thighs, slobbering and disorganized while his hands kneaded your flesh with acute urgency. “Y/N…”, your name was chanted like prayer, the holiest of incantations being whispered into the flourishing goosebumps of your inner legs.

  It was hard not to squirm when you physically felt his voice reverberating through your body, when the hands holding you up were so excruciatingly close to your now quivering hole. Even while fear coursed through your veins, what you dreaded the most was the way heat was starting to pool in your stomach.  

  You tried pressing harder against the limp hand below you, but Tamaki’s arms steadied you from their place around your legs before you had the chance to properly act.  

  “Stop trying to hurt yourself, please,” and to his credit, he actually sounded anguished himself, although you doubted it was due to the same reasons you were currently suffering. “I want to make you feel good, bunny. Please… please let me.”

  He was kissing the skin of your thighs again before you had the opportunity to argue (not that you’d consider willingly opening your mouth again by that point). Your assailant trailed a path of shivers until he was hovering over your mound, tickling you with his quickened breathing as a wanton groan reached your ears.  

  “So beautiful,“ and his nose was pressing against you, face nuzzling your cunt with such an affection that only helped to make you feel infinitely dirtier, his voice dripping with reverence. “My bunny’s beautiful little pussy.”

  You were wriggling again before you could attempt to calm yourself down, the alarms that had never stopped blaring now drowning any other thoughts circling your mind. But you had nowhere to go, nowhere to escape, and before another moment passed your entire body was tensing up again when you felt a wet appendage slowly licking up your folds.

  He explored you through the movements of his tongue, guttural sounds of appraisal being smothered as he tasted your plush folds for the very first time. Even without the aid of his arms, still holding you up as they were, it was becoming increasingly obvious that he did not need them in order to thoroughly savour you.

  So long he had been deprived of all sustenance, teased by your hugs and touches and left to starve while you went to seek affection elsewhere. Maybe he was undeserving, but could anyone blame him for finally snapping after so long? For finally, for once, daring to be selfish enough to demand.

  “Delicious,” his trembling compliment was proclaimed between licks, lips slowly journeying their way to your clit before he was audibly sucking it in, his own whines echoing through your entire body once more and making you bite down harder on the bloodstained cloth. “And… you’re getting wet for me too,“ which was only accentuated by the lascivious sounds he made as he started lapping at your rapidly gathering juices. “Am I making you feel good, bunny?”

  Shut up, you wanted to scream, shut up and just be done with it. But it was getting so hard to concentrate, your fingers cramping from the force you were using to keep the piece of your torn up shirt tightly in place. He kept gingerly savouring your unwilling excitement, relentless in the way his tongue continued teasing and prodding, even dipping into your heat as his gluttony for you became an unbearable constant.  

  When you felt one of his hands descend from your thighs, the sound of a belt being unbuckled, your eyes opened up again in fear. You almost stopped biting down on your shirt in order to voice one last protest, but then his mouth was wrapping itself harder still around your bundle of nerves —shoots of a pleasure you tried to ignore warming their way further up your stomach as the unwanted thrills in your gut built up to a crescendo.

  “Fu… fuck, Bunny,” he sounded so needy between the squelching sounds filling the darkened room. “Are you gonna cum for me?”

  You shook your head as the pressure kept building up, muscles cramping and your one free leg attempting to kick him out fruitlessly. Your head was filled with the cries you could not voice, heavy with an agony that far exceeded any physical turmoil. You wished the pain was enough to pass out, to mute the heat coiling up further and further, but such was your plight that not even the faintest mercy was granted.  

  Although even your silent rejection only served as encouragement in Tamaki’s mind. It was the first time you were acknowledging him, the first time you were responding to any of his comments after he had tackled you to the floor. Even with your mouth covered, the tears now dried against your mascara stricken cheeks, it felt to him like the sign he had been waiting for.  

  It only drove him madder.

  You heard clothing being tugged down while he kept the eager rhythm of his tongue on you, pants and boxers being discarded in one go to free a surely painfully aching erection. Not long after that, his breathing became even more ragged against your core, one of his shoulders moving against your thighs rhythmically while his previously free hand stroked himself for some much needed relief.

  The sounds he started to make, accompanied by the slow pace he was setting as he tugged at his own cock against your dangling legs, were ones of desperation and debauchery—whines that filled you up right alongside his intruding tongue. It made you curl your toes, close your eyes again as you tried and failed to will the sensations away.  

  You thought your teeth would snap at any moment too, just from how furiously you were biting down. Yet your cunt kept pulsating against his flushed face, answering to his relentless teasing by coating his mouth in more your juices, strings of saliva mingling with them as you felt the wetness gathering around his chin too.  

  “You… you don’t need to fight it,“ he was whispering right into you, humming the sounds until they were forcing themselves inside right alongside his tongue. “You can cum, Y/N,” and with the hand he wasn’t touching himself with, he finally freed your other thigh as well, opting instead to trail a path with his extended palm until he was reaching out for your face.

  You were so tired, so preoccupied with the unwanted pleasure clouding your vision, that the thought of attempting to escape again didn’t even cross your mind. Both of your legs were now limp, supported only by his shoulders positioned below them, and the sounds filling the air were wet, squelching and downright sinful.  

  Which was why, when his palm started caressing your cheek, you were too far gone to run from the new coercive intimacy of his touch. His tongue was pulsating in and out of you, and yet your insides felt impossibly warm, impossibly empty.  

  “Bunny,“ that damned pet name again. It was something you remembered him calling you first after a particularly bad panic attack, sheepishly whispered as you held him and rocked the both of you in a calming motion. Only now it sounded absolutely depraved, filled with a lust that terrified you, and the word sullied as it was now half-moaned while Tamaki jerked himself off to your torment.  

  Or was it pleasure at that point? You kept wriggling, but he didnt think you wanted to get away anymore.  

  Some part of you noticed his rough fingers drawing circles again into the covered side of your face, another cruel joke that mimicked the way in which you had always thought appropriate to soothe him.  

  “Please,” he begged you and kept repeating it, mixing in the pleads with the insistent licks of his tongue, the shaking in his own face warning you of the furious pace his other hand was now setting for himself.

  Please, please, please. Bunny, please.

  Your orgasm hit you with a force that left you breathless, gasping for air and with a new current of despair trailing down from your dazed eyes, mimicking the arousal surely dripping down his lips.  

  You had never felt something like what you were experiencing, an orgasm so potent that it transformed your body into such a limp and pliant thing, enticing your mind into a forceful lull as Tamaki dedicated himself to drinking every last drop you unwillingly offered.

  To your subsequent shame, the hand tenderly holding you pried the crumpled shirt away from your mouth. He was finally freeing the sounds you so selfishly kept from him, and by that point you were too far gone to think of stopping him, your cries and wails filling up the shadows of the room until they were bursting at the seams.  

  It felt like forever as you kept cumming and cumming, feeling like you were forcefully plunged from one climax straight into the next. Tamaki refused to separate from your heat, instead opting for continuing to mouth his appreciation right into your tender flesh.  

  “So gorgeous for me. So good. My sweet little bunny,” he wasn’t even trying to be coherent at that point, rapidly reaching his own peak now that he had you breaking down underneath him, now that he could finally witness your undoing at his hands.

  While your orgasm reached its shaking end, however, your cunt clenching against nothing as Tamaki’s face finally left it alone and pulled back, you were again too preoccupied with the aftermath of your own pleasure to sense anything amiss. You failed to acknowledge the pause in his own movements, how his hand had stopped his own ministrations in order to reach out for your glistening folds instead, nervous digits twitching as they gathered your juices between them.  

  It almost hurt when he trailed your sex, your flesh sensitive still from the force of the after shakes still coursing through your body. A new unfiltered whine left your throat, jaw starting to ache from all the strength you had previously used in your bid to keep those very same sounds securely muted.  

  “Tamaki, please…” You sobbed, intending on pleading with him to stop, to grant you the mercy of wallowing in your shame all by yourself.  

  But all he could hear was the intoxicating sound of his name on your lips, your tone heavy from exhaustion and being utterly spent. It was the greatest melody you could’ve provided him with.

  “F-fuck,” his exclamation was equal parts devotion and raw need.  

  After his fingers were retreating, it wasn’t long before you felt him lowering your hips gently. The warm pressure of his cock prodded at your entrance, already coated with your fluids and only getting messier as Tamaki trailed it up and down your slit.

  “No, wait. Tamaki, wait,“ your voice was distraught and still feeble, what little struggle that still managed to cling to you coming back with a reckoning as a new kind of panic started setting in.  

  Of course he wasn’t wearing a condom, and of course your pleas did little to stop him now. A heartfelt sound of protest shook your vocal cords as he slowly breached your cunt, his cock sliding in inch by inch while drawing long, wet sounds out of you.

  In reality, all he could hear was the sound of his name on your lips. You could’ve been insulting him with all of your might, Tamaki didn’t think he’d be able to stop himself even if he wanted to.

  “Fuck, Bunny,” his hands fluttered between your thighs in hiccuped movements, fingers stretching your nether lips in order to give himself a better view of the place where your bodies joined, the sacrilegious union he had oh so desired for years now. “So,, he kept breaking into you inch by inch, “fucking,“ the length of him feeling eternal as he sheathed himself, “perfect.”

  You had barely any time to adjust to being stuffed before apologies were scattering out of his mouth, actions contradicting as his hips rut into you, hands making sure to keep you on display for his gluttonous eyes. It was your new brand of torment— how snug he fitted inside, how full you felt and the way his shaft curved just enough to quickly turn any discomfort you were first experiencing on its head. You wanted to feel pain, but even that was out of your reach too.

  You were chasing after a distraction, but why did you need to be running in the first place? You needed only to keep still, lay back and let your best friend take care of you for once.

  The pace he set was slow, excruciatingly so as he savoured the way in which your cunt clenched around him, the way your walls spasmed with the memory of the orgasms he gifted you with earlier. He kept hitting that spot every few shallow thrusts too, the patch of skin on your insides that made you grind your teeth while whines still somehow managed to leak out. It was with maddening guilt, then, that your mind realized the extent with which your body truly welcomed him.  

  You felt dirty, violated by a man you had trusted for years, someone you had considered family beyond reproach. And while he kept drilling into you in that leisure way of his, you couldn’t help but wonder what exactly you had done to get him to obsess over you like that. What exactly you could’ve changed to stop your life from being utterly ruined.  

  But with all honesty, the answer to that was nothing. Because even without the pressure of your new boyfriend to pull him into motion, Tamaki doubted he would’ve been able to keep himself from you for much longer.

 He had loved you for so long and for so many different reasons; Your laughter which was the greatest symphony to his ears, the kindness you had always embraced him with, free of judgement and ulterior motives. Your caring soul, too, and the way in which he just knew you understood.

  “Please, please,“ and you didn’t know why you kept begging, your mouth running off on its own accord as your body tried to squirm against your intruder’s, unclear whether it wanted to escape or get even closer. “T-Tamaki.”

  But most of all, he thought he loved the way you cried out while he fucked you now, a wrecked mess for his eyes alone.  

  “Do you think you can come again for me?” he asked you between frayed exhales, still oddly meek as the shallow thrusts into your hole made sweat drip down his skin and bathe you in its shine. “I know you must be tired but… I wanna… wanna hear it properly.” And there was an underlying greed just below his apologetic tone, a craving you wondered just how long had been there waiting to be let out, “Wanna feel it, too.”

  It appeared like his own words excited him to a notorious degree, because he was rutting into you with quicker motions now, the sound of skin slapping against skin driving the despair even further into your heart. Your afflicted hand didn’t even throb anymore, your nose barely a faint nuisance either, for all you could think about was the way you contracted around him, the way the coil in your gut was once more beginning to tighten to a feverish degree.  

  And the palm against your clit too, which had stopped pressing against it in order to extend its fingers and circle them around, prodding and pushing until you were being overwhelmed by him, devoured on the carpeted floor with a face caked in blood and a body sore and resentful yet so damned inviting.  

  Your cunt was holding him so tight, it felt like you didn’t want to let go, like you needed him there… it made Tamaki, someone who had spent his entire life feeling different degrees of inadequate, think he had finally found a place to belong to.

  “Shit, Y/N, you’re… really gonna cum again? For me?” You didn’t want to hear him, didn’t want to feel him, but when he pulled out almost entirely you found your hips shamefully pushing back until his length was being swallowed whole again. “Fuck,” you heard him curse as his hands left your sopping folds in order to grip the meat of your backside, barely contained strength nailing you to the spot as he set a new frantic rhythm, “so… needy for me. So tight and beautiful, does my bunny want it harder now?”

  He was hitting your spot in relentless movements, his own hips stuttering as he strived to hold back his own impending end, and the groans coming out of you felt like they belonged to a different person. The tears in your eyes were still free falling, the taste of dried blood still covering your tongue as you continued audibly panting, and the tension in your muscles resembled a taut bowstring about to snap from the pressure.  

 Of course you didn’t answer, but you didn’t have to when your body spoke for you.

  His pace was bruising, his hands kneading your flesh as he angled you just enough to get even deeper inside you. Yet not deep enough.  

  “I love you so goddamn much,“ one of his palms left your rear so he could grab one of your shoulders, forcing you to arch back just as he demanded. “Let me show you just how much, baby.”

  By that point you were so tired, so drained from holding back, that you allowed him to manhandle you until your back was pressed flush against his stomach.  His palm snaked their way from your shoulders to your chest, quickly pushing what little of your unhooked bra still clung to your frame so he could fully expose your breasts to his zealous treatment.  

  Your nipples were hard already, you really were loving this, weren’t you?

  In this new position, it somehow felt like he was pushing against places you had never felt anyone reach before. Like, in a way, he was bruising your cervix with every one of his overeager thrusts, testing himself in order to go as far as your body would allow him. So fucking greedy for you.

  Tamaki kept massaging your breasts while he fucked you, sensitive nipples being lightly toyed with while he buried his face in your neck from behind for an instant. Because unable to stay still as he was, soon enough his lips had started to kiss a slobbering path of adoration upwards into the shell of one of your ears.  

  “I know you… fuck, know you don’t love me like that yet,” he sounded feverish while he continued to thrust into you, voice faltering to the weight of his own lust, “but it’s okay. Right now…” He pulled out almost entirely again, only to dive in with all the more resolve before you had the chance to buck into him a second time, “I can love you enough for the both of us.”

  And just like that, with the man you had previously considered your best friend whispering delirious nonsense behind you, his breath tickling your nape with each aggravating declaration, was when the overwhelming wave of your new orgasm hit you, shaking your entire body.

  So fucking tight and needy for him. With your body clamoring for him like it did, who could blame him for foolishly thinking you felt the same way? Even if you tried refuting it afterwards, the way your walls clenched around him so delectably was all the honesty he needed.

  Your body went limp in his hands a second time, for him to hold up and embrace as he saw fit, and you sensed the cadence of his motions grow even frenzier before finally slowing down into a sporadic rythm, his sex twitching inside you in a most telling way.  

  He was calling out your name in a litany of prayers, biting down on the skin he had gently been nursing before, teeth piercing you and joining the rest of the sensations overwhelming your spoiled body. And that was really all the warning you got before his release was spilled deep inside you, painting your walls in thick ropes of white while the remnants of your powerful orgasm proceeded to milk his cock for all it’s worth.

  Through the mess of pleasure and shame clouding your vision, your sobbing became even louder.

  “See, Y/N,” Tamaki whispered a few instants later, back to his nervous ways despite grinning timidly while his arms circled around you, “even if you tell me you care about someone else now, I’ll know you’ll never share with them what you shared with me.”

  And it was such a ridiculous thing to say, preposterous words to proclaim as he refused to pull out and let any drop of his cum leak out of your bruised hole, as the heated hands on your skin replicated the same old patterns you had taught him inadvertently, the same motions supposed to bring comfort and which in reality only made you feel fouler.

  “If you’d like, we can be an even more special type of best friends now,” he added after barely a beat, almost self-conscious when confronted with your somber silence, yet still bashfully content about the whole ordeal.

  Best friends, you repeated inwardly while his hands kept stroking you without pause, perhaps truly trying to console you, or perhaps just wanting an excuse not to leave you alone. But you were so tired, so devastated, that it wasn’t like you had the strength to refute him verbally.  

 In Tamaki’s delusional mind, however, that was as good as agreeing. You two were really meant to be. Even if you refused to be the special kind of best friends he had in mind, he could always become your boyfriend instead.  

  Not like you were ever going to see your previous one, anyways.

  …

   Probably the longest piece of writing I’ve posted so far… and the filthiest. If people like it, I might start extending the lenght of my fics! Otherwise I’ll try to keep it on the shorter side for my next portrait/fic convo (a yan!aizawa one hehe).

   And special thanks to my dearest pals @reinawritesbnha, @drxwsyni, @snappysnapo, @thermaflute​ and @coyambition​. They helped me proof read, gave me precious feedback on both my writings and my art and were just overall sweethearts hyping me up!! love y’all fr fr 🖤

🥀 Requests/Suggestions OPEN btw 🥀

[starrysupercell]

So... Now that your writing bug is back... Could we get a drabble of Belle and Byron with the sibilings theory? Go ham :)

Lmao. This was at the top of the list ahaha what do you mean

Anyway, I'm still getting a feel for Belle, but for now I'm going for a mix of Kissing Kate Barlow's montage (not the backstory- the tone. Important.) and a very, VERY light dose of Azula... mostly for the siblings thing!

......and yet again I make it a set-up to a story rather than a drabble or one shot. Like some of the other stuff I've written, I wonder if there should be oneshot followups? x.x we'll see..

•🐍• Risk & Reward •🦝•

"Byron." Piper said sternly.

"That's odd. I don't remember hearing a knock.." Byron said lightly. He sat in his chair, faced away from the door, from her, from the world. "Or saying come in."

"There's been reports of the Goldarm Gang being seen around here." Piper went on. "We need to take action. Either hire more security, or outfit the building with further measures."

She heard the rustle of a newspaper page being turned. "There's no need for concern." Came his nonchalant response.

The woman placed her fists on her hips. She would not be casually dismissed like this. "You're looking at the news yourself. You know this isn't just another band of petty criminals."

Byron closed up the papers, folding it up neatly before swiveling around and turning to face Piper. "You're right. I do know that."

He was smiling, in that particular way where he knows something she doesn't. How infuriating... but begrudgingly comforting.

She sighed silently, then smiled passively. "I know there's no use trying to find out what's going on with you. I also came to let you know I'm putting in a request for a week off."

He leaned his head in his hand, frowning. "You have no faith in me, Piper."

"I have some faith in you." She smirked, "I do have matters to attend to, actually. This isn't a luxury getaway. A couple of old friends are looking to start bounty hunting. I wish to lend my support."

"I see." He muttered, looking to the side. "Very well. We'll find a way to manage without you around here. Thank you for letting me know."

"It's no problem." She said, recognizing that tone and demeanor. "If things go well, I can be back sooner?" She offered.

Byron shook his head. "That won't be necessary... You take care of your business, Piper," He looked pointedly down at the grainy quality of the main headline's picture. "And I'll take care of mine."

[ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ]

The rumors were only just starting, so he figured that there would be some window of a time frame to prepare some things. Currently, he was recording inventory, and had plans over the money and several safes he had. (Even without this Golden Arm threat, he was a very careful man.)

He wouldn't be surprised if she had already started to scope the area around here. That no-good, sneaky turncoat, gold-lifting thief of a sister..!

Byron frowned, his jaw clenching and his temper easily flaring at the thought of her.

He sighed, smoothing out a part of his hair with his fingers. There was no use for paranoia or anger here. It'd only hinder him.

He focused about which modifications to his place. Piper was right, but he knew brute force wouldn't work. His sister was crafty, but still lazy no doubt. When you take the easy way out, you're bound to always be a weaselly, good for nothing...

He blinked. Focus.

[ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ]

That week's work of preparation went for both sides. Belle sat with her drink as she checked out the lobby of the place. She had a more casual set of clothes to avoid detection. Jacket, gloves, no trademark glasses. She would stay low.

This place was popular for sure. Reports from other members confirmed as such.

She wasn't so surprised, considering who owned the place, but she was surprised at the ambiance. Cheery piano music, tame audience and a prim and peppy bartender. If this wasn't just a cover for anything on the sidelines, he turned out to be such a sellout!

Belle's grin was shrouded by the held to her lips. Too bad her little brother never grew a backbone and left those control freaks. For him that is. This was just a pit filled with gold just begging to be tapped. And she intended to answer those calls. The sooner, the better.

She downed her drink, and stood. She left enough to cover it and then plenty. As she passed by the performing bot, she left a generous tip for him as well. He gave a grateful bow, and continued his musical jig.

The heist pulled here would more than cover these 'losses,' but anything that goes towards bots was well worth it. Belle idly tugged at her jacket sleeve as she walked out.

They would strike soon.

[ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ]

The first day of the following week, Piper returned. She hummed a tune as she walked into the bar, and headed to the back.

Things went swimmingly. Poco and Primo's friend, Amber, got her start thanks to Piper's investment. Her first job went well enough.. in the end. It was a productive week overall. The group even went out for a celebration afterwards, where, Piper recalled with a fond smile, that mysterious woman left quite an impression on her. She looked forward to seeing her again.

Her recollection of that magical night came to a screeching halt when the ruins of the place came to her attention.

"What in the..?" She muttered, looking around at the broken tables and more.

"Watch your step!" Barely advised, working on cleaning up a section of the room.

"Oh, Byron didn't heed my warning, did he?" She lifted her dress slightly to walk around the mess. "It'll do him well, if he has to learn this way." she complained as ladylike as always, "Maybe now he won't dismiss me, though I still won't think it likely. I still expect to be paid to work too."

"So that's what you really think." Byron said, leaning against a wall. He was amused, and straightened up. "Follow me. Both of you."

The robot and lady glanced at each other, but followed the owner of the place.

"We may have been hit, but I assure you that not a thing of value has been taken." He monologued as he led them down the hall. "The destruction of the place was only superficial, caused by the anger and frustration of an uncouth band of petty bandits."

Piper listened and noted they entered his office. So what kind of trick did he pull?

"Praytell, Sir. You're saying the only thing we have to worry about is the funds and time to clean up the mess?" Barley asked.

"That's right." Byron responded, a tint of pride to his voice. "I've replaced every precious gem and all the gold we've had stashed with lookalikes and Fool's. They've got nothing!"

He walked over to a section of a wall behind his desk and let a laugh escape him as he removed a frame from it. The wall behind was removable to show an empty space. "To add insult to injury, I left the most valuable item we owe in here." He reached in, pulled out the fake back cover and revealed a medium-sized box. "So it was right under their noses, and they left completely empty handed!"

"The most valuable?... Byron..." Piper frowned. "I trust you know well, but don't you think that was a risk? That precious statuette is sought after by everyone. It shouldn't be used as a trophy."

"Quite." Barley agreed. "With all my respect, Sir, you did this without even informing me." He sounded upset.

"...It's still here," Byron said weakly to his defense after a pause. He sighed. Maybe he had let more of his emotions guide his defense of their business. "I suppose.. I was letting things get personal. I'll admit it." He turned the box toward himself, and went to press the combination of numbers that would open the safebox. "Perhaps, I haven't been completely honest either. The leader of the Gold Arm Ga--" As he pressed the last button of the lock, the box lid flipped open and a light electric shock ran through his body, freezing him in place.

Piper gasped. Barley's arm reached out, roughly smacking the metal box out of Byron's hands and into the ground.

The box landed, and the only thing that fell out was a single slip of paper.

"It's missing!" Piper exclaimed.

Barley was near Byron in an instant. "Are you alright?" He asked the man leaning heavily against the wall.

The salesman didn't answer. His eyes were hyper-fixated on the single spilled content of the box. He pulled away from the wall and the service bot and leaned down to pick up the torn scrap.

'Dumbass!' was the only thing scrawled on it. Byron scrunched it up in his fist.

[ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ] [ ($) ]

"Shelly!" Belle cheered, "Pass me our winnings!"

A young woman with dark hair and an eye patch grabbed the shining figure of a cactus, adorned with priceless jewels.

She tossed over with a grin, and Belle caught it.

The leader of the Gold Arms stepped on a chair, then the table. "Look here, folks!" She called for attention. Her bandits instantly quieted their idle buzz. "We all did great last night. That slippery eel may have thrown us for a loop, but as usual, we united prevail!! Together, we've hit the jackpot!" She held the statuette up for her crew to see and cheer on. "When they cover this, the Golden Arm Gang will be unforgettable! And if we stick together, we'll always be untouchable!"

Cheers, and their celebratory times went on. Drinking, chatting, cheerful.

Belle grinned and hopped off the table at the crowd's energy. She pocketed the figurine. Life was finally good.

She sat and eyed the bag of loot they took along despite its worthlessness.

Maybe it wasn't so bad? The false gems could be used in a scam, she supposed, Some folks didn't know how to separate reals from placeholders.

She looked through it, and noted a box that had been unopened. Oh. That might have been when they were trashing the place when they discovered a lot of the valuables were actually cheap fakes.

She clicked the simple lock mechanism of the box open, just to sate her curiosity. There was a small, square sheet that was neatly tucked into the recently-opened box that held the mystery fog.

'Dunce.' It said, written in a very neat cursive.

"Ah, shit," Belle said, feeling lightheaded. She realized far too late. "That little...." she slumped forward, out cold. Her golden arm dropped the container.

A poison fog traveled from the box throughout the room, slowly knocking out the rest of the thieves in the hideout. They were fine, but all would wake up in an hour or so with pounding headaches and heavy nausea for days to come.

Just a little gift exchange amongst siblings, nothing more.

[isolaween]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

At 7 PM, all guests are waiting anxiously. Some are excited, others are nervous, but everyone wonders what will happen now. It's only been a few minutes since the lights went off, but it feels like an eternity.

And then... Golden butterflies, just like those idly flying around, begin to amass at the top of the staircase leading to the second floor. They form a true cloud, which dissolves to reveal none other than the silhouettes of tonight's noble hosts. They wear costumes inspired by 1980's fashion, just fitting for their own temporal origin. And as expected, they start the festivities with the most iconic sentence:

<"HAAAAAPPYYYYYY HALLOWEEEEEEN!!!! AAAAAAAND TRIIIIICK OOOOR TREEEEEEEEAT!!!!">

The lights turn on once again in a burst, as several magical figures, servants of the Ushiromiya family, pop into existence either on the staircase or floating above it, as they bright forth a wave of applause. The spotlights highlight the Golden Witch and the Endless Sorcerer the most, as the latter grabs a microphone to start their presentation.

"Good evening, Spirale City! I hope you folks are ready for a truly spooooky night, where the world of humans and the world of witches comes into contact with each other!"

Then, Beato took the microphone. "There is no need to be afraid, however. This is an once-a-year moment, where the grotesque, the weird, the supernatural, can exist freely, without being afraid of the limitations humans bring to them. This is a night of joy, after all."

"And speaking of limitations, that includes the temporal restrictions fashion imposes to us on a daily basis. This year's theme for our guests' costumes is a Chrono Celebration! No matter whether you came from ancient times or the most distant future, show off your time period's culture and style with pride! I hope to see many people joining this fun. Ihihi!"

"Of course, we wouldn't be so cruel to expel you if you choose to go for another path in your fun. But if you have even the tiiiiniest change of heart about it, check the rooms to the hall's right, where a costume room can be found. Alternatively, you could ask the makeup crew's assistance to make you look like a monstrous being straight from Hell! *Cackle**cackle**cackle*!!"

“Beato, please, we have children here.” He whispers to her ear, before coughing and returning his attention to the audience. “A-Anyway, that is not our only attraction! To your left, you’ll find the parlor, where a karaoke system is set up on the TV. Just ask Hieda no Akyuu (@ninthmiare), who is overseeing it, to help set you up and go have fun singing your lungs out with friends!”

A spotlight shone upon Akyuu over this mention of her, as it would do for any other person mentioned during their speech. “Of course, if you feel like that is too cheerful for a Halloween Party, you can just wait a bit later. Once we hit 11 PM, Akyuu will move to the dinner room, where a ghost story sharing session will start! Bring on your scariest tales, or read some of the material provided to us by a partner of ours-” Beatrice summons business cards for Owl’s Books to everyone’s hands, much like the cards present at the gift baskets, with info about all the partner businesses that collaborated with the party. “-for maximum fright!”

“Those who’d rather partake in a more physical activity can go up the second floor, where Emma (@gracefieldorphan) and Jon K. are responsible for carrying out a hide-and-seek game! It’s open for all ages, so don’t be afraid to join!”

“And for people who’d rather enjoy tonight in a more intellectual manner, we’ll ask you to go all the way up to the third floor. A escape room game shall await those who dare take the challenge. I hope none of you will bore our dear Piper Elenmin (@shadowedstep) with boring reasonings!”

“Lastly, we shall have an ample selection of musical attractions throughout the whole party! Starting at 19:20, we have Ultimate Pianist Kaede Akamatsu (@pureryudo) and famous idol Rise Kujiwawa (@wavesang)! Next, at 20:10, we have the idol duo of Sayo Hikawa (@heroicadvents) and Aya Maruyama (@ayasashi)!!”

“Check in at 21:00 for the spetacular presentation of fellow cute blondes, Rin Kagamine (@rightreflection) and Klavier Gavin (@rockstarprosecutor)! By 21:50, it’ll be time for yet another idol to join us, the versatile GUMI (@mozeik)!!”

“If you’d rather listen to other sorts of music besides singing, just wait until 22:40. First, we’ll have Ecaterina Ciobanu (@unulales) bringing some creepy tunes with her violin! Next, it’ll be the time for Midvalley (@midvalley-the-hornfreak) to captivate us with a saxophone show at 23:30!”

“Music shall accompany us until the end of this magical night. After the stroke of midnight, Dorothea Arnault (@chanteuser) will bring us to a night in the opera, exactly at 00:20! And to end the service, we shall have I-no (@sinfoniette) going feral with her guitar! Huh huh, I can’t wait to have all of you relieving my boredom with your sweet tunes!!”

“Ihihihihi! I think we all will, dear!” Battler says amused, before pulling a more serious face. “....Before we end it for tonight, though, I need to give you folks a general warning. This is meant to be a funny evening, with nothing but positive vibes here. Light hearted pranks are fine, but violence of any sort will not be tolerated. See these?” He points to a golden butterfly flying around. “They’re directly linked to Beato and I’s minds. If any of you try pulling anything ‘funny’ that would disrupt the party, we will know.”

“And the consequences for such violations of our hospitality will be dire.” Beato adds. “We have a strong security team. We trust them to be able of handling most rumbuctious folks. If you insist on offering resistance, however, goat butlers will appear around you and immobilize you. If that doesn’t suffice, we have our higher ranked furniture, such as the Seven Stakes of Purgatory or the Chiester Sisters, to deal with such elements.”

“And if even after all that, you insist on spoiling people’s fun...” Battler raises his hand, where a small glass-like Fragment appears. “You will be sent to this Time-Out Fragment until the end of the party. It’s pretty much a pocket dimension, so don’t think you can escape if it gets to this.”

As soon as he finished that, Battler broke into a happy smile and clapped his hands. “So, I hope everyone enjoys the party! Thank you to everyone who came, and to everyone that helped and is helping us right now! Oh, and a last thing. If any of you gets hurt or feels ill, check the medical room, where you’ll receive due treatment. That is it for now!”

With that, Battler and Beatrice teleported away from the staircase, freeing the way up. They must be somewhere in the crowd now, as they wish to enjoy the party as everyone else...

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

(Hello, everybody! This is Battler-mun talking. Welcome to the first edition of Isolaween! Following the tradition of C*ttaween, this party will last ICly from October 4h, 7 PM, to October 5th, 2 AM. These are very special dates for the Umineko fandom, which is why the party happens this early.

OOCly, the party will last from this post’s bublishing time, which should be midnight of October 4th (Isola time) to midnight of October 11th (Isola time), unless the mods request us to end it earlier. You can obviously continue threads related to the party until then, but make sure to publish your starters and opens before end time! And remember: use the tag #isolaween2k19 so we and everyone else can see your interactions at the party!

Below are maps of the mansion, so you folks have an spacial reference on where each room is in relation to the others:

As mentioned in the text, there will be musical presentations during this period, which will consist of drabbles written by the collaborative muns. The OOC dates for each presentation is below, so keep a look at these blogs at the corresponding day:

- Kaede and Rise: 10/4

- Sayo and Aya: 10/5

- Rin and Klavier: 10/6

- GUMI: 10/7

- Ecaterina: 10/8

- Midvalley: 10/9

- Dorothea: 10/10 (Around midday)

- I-no: 10/10 (Evening)

The rules of the festivities have already been well laid ICly, so I won’t repeat myself here. Just let’s try keeping things positive during the party, ok? Any doubt just ask either me (@ingoldentent) or Beato-mun (@goldenless) And above all, let’s have fun! Now excuse me while I go download Ciconia…)

[millennial-medusa]

Help Me Piece It All Together, Darling

This was just supposed to be a little Jasiper drabble for my Baseball AU, but I love these two so much and it got away from me and, well...here’s 11k words of them being idiots and honestly barely any baseball. It is absolutely as cheesy as it sounds.

This is set their sophomore year, so earlier than the other fics I’ve written for this au.

Jason x Piper, rated T, read on ao3

Jason Grace might just be the death of her.

She’d thought he was attractive as soon as she’d started going to baseball games last year and spotted him from the stands. She’d thought he was gorgeous when she’d approached him at that bar a few months ago, the couple drinks in her system giving her the courage to toss her hair and tease him a little, the resulting blush across his cheeks and the electric blue of his eyes weakening her knees.

But now, sitting in the library watching him help Leo through a research paper with all the patience and kindness and—yes, she’d admit it, grace, no pun intended—of a seasoned kindergarten teacher, she was positive he was the most beautiful person she’d ever met.

And this was a problem.

It was a problem because Piper, despite being a decent flirt when she wanted to be, had absolutely zero skills in terms of getting a guy to date her. She’d had her fair share of one night stands and casual hookups, but those were easy; the kind of guys that were willing to do one night stands were willing to do them with anyone decently attractive and emotionally detached. Piper checked those boxes pretty well, minimal work required.

But Jason wasn’t one of those guys. The more time she spent with him, the more obvious it was that he was the kind of guy to hold open doors and only kiss on the third date and ask for a lady’s favor before going to fight a dragon for her hand because he was literally a knight in shining armor, and it sucked because Piper was pretty sure she was the scullery maid in that scenario. Or the evil step-sister. Or the dragon.

(Okay, she reasoned, she wasn’t that bad. She wasn’t evil. Just hopeless and delusional. One of the nameless court ladies who swooned at a glance from the knight, but was overlooked in favor of the lovely and virtuous princess he would live happily ever after with.)

So a crush on Jason was a terrible, awful, absolutely horrendous idea, but for some reason her heart didn’t get the message her brain was so desperately signaling to it with red flags and emergency flares, because it kept picking up speed with every blindingly white smile he sent her from across the table.

(What had she just been saying about swooning?)

“But I say right there what it’s about,” Leo was complaining, gesturing to his laptop screen.

“No, that’s your topic sentence for that paragraph,” Jason explained. He ran a hand through his already mussed hair.

Piper wanted to run her own hands through it, tugging on the blonde locks while her tongue explored his mouth.

“Isn’t that what a topic sentence is supposed to do?”

“Yes, but you don’t have a thesis. Or an introduction.”

“Why would I need one of those when you made me write that abstract thing that explained the whole paper anyway? I still maintain that invalidates even needing to write a paper, by the way.”

“Leo, have you ever written an essay in your life?”

Leo’s eyes darted to Piper’s, and twin smiles stretched slowly across their faces.

“Oh yeah,” Leo answered, turning back to Jason. “I’ve written tons, and they were fantastic. Totally winners.”

Piper bit back a laugh. “Honestly, Leo’s written some of the finest essays of our generation. I’m incredibly proud of my—ah, of his work,” she added.

Jason’s brow furrowed—in a non-totally adorable and distracting way, of course—as he glanced back and forth between the two of them.

“Leo,” he repeated slowly, fixing him with a stern gaze, “have you ever written an essay in your life?”

“Define ‘written.’”

“Are you serious?” Jason’s eyebrows hit his hairline, and Piper didn’t bother to hold back her laughter. “How did you get through high school? How did you get through all of last year?”

Leo grinned over at him. “Wilderness school didn’t assign too many essays, and when they did, they didn’t read them closely enough to realize the similarities in Piper’s and my writing styles.”

Jason’s eyes widened before landing on Piper. “You—you wrote his essays for him? For all of high school?”

Piper shrugged. “Like he said, there weren’t that many to write. Besides, I can knock out a three page paper in less than an hour, and Leo did lots of my math assignments to pay me back.”

“Yes, she drove a hard bargain, but every equation was worth it to not have to analyze Jane Eyre," Leo sighed.

“What can I say? The rates are high, but I provide excellent customer service.”

“Absolutely. I’d give you four stars on yelp.”

“Only four? That rhetorical analysis of Mark Antony’s speech got you a 98!”

“Sure, the quality is great, but your options are limited. You’re not writing this essay, for example.”

“You’re right, the uses of obscure elements is a little out of my scope of provided services. That’s what you get for taking chemistry.”

“What good are you comm majors if you can’t even write my essays for me?”

“You committed plagiarism for four years and got away with it?” Jason interrupted with a harsh whisper.

“Relax, Sparky, the teachers didn’t care what we did as long as we sat quietly,” Piper laughed.

“Which, naturally, we always did,” Leo added. “We’re both known for our ability to sit in silence and behave just like we should.”

Jason shook his head. “I have no idea how I ended up with the two of you for friends.”

“Aww c’mon, you know you love us,” Leo crooned.

Jason chuckled and adjusted his glasses. “You’re lucky I do. I would not risk having ‘aiding and abetting criminals’ on my record for anybody else.”

With that, the air shifted. Piper felt her stomach drop, and her eyes met Leo’s again, but this time the knowledge that passed between them was not of an inside joke. The laughter had disappeared from their expressions, and Jason noticed.

“Guys?” he asked tentatively, glancing between the two of them nervously before landing on Piper. “Is everything okay? Did I say someth—”

“So I don’t have a thesis,” Leo interrupted, “what is that, exactly?”

Jason was still studying Piper, who was avoiding his gaze. She could feel his eyes, all too perceptive, roaming over her drawn face and tensed shoulders, but she focused resolutely on the textbook in front of her.

“Your thesis statement sums up your argument and the key points you’re using to prove it,” she spoke up, her gaze trained on Leo now. “It’s like, a shortened version of the back of a book. Or a highlights reel. Or a movie trailer.”

Leo looked back at her blankly. “So…another thing that sums up the whole paper. Why do I have to write the whole paper if I can prove it in one sentence?”

Piper rolled her eyes, but, to his credit, Jason managed a small smile. “It doesn’t prove your claim, it just gives a little preview of how you’re going to prove it. It gives the reader an idea of what to expect,” he explained, far more patiently than Piper ever could have. She was good with words, but even Leo exceeded her patience at times like these.

Jason was just so good. Piper couldn’t think of anybody deserving of him, especially not herself.

Her heart ached.

Over the past three months, Jason had fit seamlessly into Leo and Piper’s lives, clicking instantly. She and Jason were easy friends in their own right, getting pizza together or hanging out in the apartment when Leo was out. Of course, she’d befriended Percy, Annabeth, and many of the other team members and their assorted friends in the same amount of time, but her connection to Jason was just…different, somehow. And not just because she was perilously close to falling in love with him already.

Leo would always be Piper’s best friend—they’d been through so much together that losing him wasn’t even a possibility to Piper, they were stuck with each other for life—but Jason, even after only three months, was already a close second. After their initial meeting of tipsy flirting, they’d bonded quickly over their shared love of baseball and Disney movies.

So now Piper knew just how kind and genuine of a person he really was. She also knew how much of a disaster she was, and how much he didn’t deserve to have to put up with that.

So she suffered in silence, hoping her little crush would go away painlessly and soon. The way her stomach flipped when Jason glanced over at her again, his eyes still slightly apprehensive, seemed to insist she would not be getting an easy out.

When she tuned back into the boys’ conversation, Jason was asking Leo when the paper was due.

“Tomorrow?” he yelped at Leo’s answer. “And you waited until now to ask for my help? Leo, you have six more pages to write, we’re gonna be here all night!”

“Nice rhyme, Dr. Seuss,” Leo teased, but at the look Jason gave him, he ducked his head guiltily. “I know, honestly I didn’t think writing a dumb essay would take that long,” he mumbled. “You guys can go home if you want, it’s pretty late and finals are in a few days and I’m sure I can figure this out—”

Piper just snorted. “Not going anywhere, Valdez. We’re a team.”

“She’s right,” Jason chimed in, patting Leo lightly on the shoulder. “I meant it when I said I’d help. If we have to stay until the paper is due, then that’s what we’re gonna do.”

Leo smiled at both of them, and they went back to work.

—

Three hours later, Piper felt her eyelids drooping. It was only 10 PM, but she'd had gotten up early and worked all day, so she could already tell staying up with Leo was gonna be rough. The boys, she noted, were looking a little frazzled too, so she stood and told them she was going on a coffee run.

Jason frowned. “It’s late, Pipes, are you sure you should be walking across campus alone?”

Warmth spread through her at his concern, but she shrugged it off and her jacket on. “I’m a tough girl, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Jason opened his mouth to protest, but Leo cut him off. “Just go with her, Jason, I need some time alone anyway.”

Piper nodded at Jason’s questioning glance, but she glared daggers at Leo when Jason turned to grab his coat. Leo just gave her a shit eating grin; he’d picked up on Piper’s crush early on and frequently found excuses to leave them alone together.

A few moments later, Piper and Jason were walking out into a wall of freezing December air that had Piper tugging her coat around her and wishing she could cuddle up to Jason. Strictly to conserve heat, naturally.

They chatted easily as they walked to a small coffee shop about five minutes away, the only one on campus open 24 hours.

“Are your finals bad?” Jason asked, his words a puff of steam in the frigid air.

Piper shook her head and buried her hands deeper in her pockets. “Nah. My media law final is the only one I’m really worried about, but I think I’ll do okay. What about yours? Is that political theory stuff still giving you trouble?”

“I’ve been studying for it, so I think I’ll be okay,” he shrugged.

“I wish I had the self discipline to already be studying for finals,” Piper grumbled. “I can’t get myself to study before the last minute.”

Jason laughed at her sullen expression. “You just need the right motivation, like a reward or a study buddy.”

“You offering?” She caught his eye and smirked; Jason blushed a pretty shade of pink that spread down his neck and disappeared beneath the collar of his peacoat. Piper found herself wishing she could see just how far down that blush travelled.

“Yeah—I mean, if you wanted,” Jason stammered, looking hurriedly away from her.

Piper cringed inwardly; she hadn’t meant to embarrass or pressure him. But she had to admit, having someone to make her study would be helpful—Leo was no help at all and Annabeth had her hands full with Percy—and she couldn’t bring herself to say no to spending time with Jason, even if she should for her own sake.

“I’d like that,” she found herself saying, and his resulting smile was so bright she forgot all about the awkwardness of the previous moment. His teeth were so perfect and straight, he could’ve done toothpaste commercials, she noted. And his lips—well, Piper had spent plenty of time thinking about them already; they were a little thin and a little chapped, but they were so frequently pulled into a smile and looked so inviting she knew she wouldn’t mind the roughness if they were working with her own. She wanted to bite the scar on his upper lip—where had it come from? She’d have to ask him sometime.

Her eyes traveled upward then, following the gentle slope of his nose to his bright blue eyes. Piper usually preferred brown, like her own, but Jason’s were so genuinely captivating, fringed with long, blonde lashes, that she longed to drown herself in them.

That thought snapped her out of her haze: she wasn’t this much of a fucking sap, and she couldn’t afford to be thinking things that sounded like they were written by a lovesick thirteen year old. She couldn’t take her eyes off his, though, and she noted the way they dropped to her mouth as her tongue darted out to wet her lips.

He was looking at her mouth. And his eyes were different somehow—darker? Or maybe that was just the shadowy lighting, but either way he was definitely staring at her mouth and either he was going to stop and kiss her or she had something stuck in her teeth. She really hoped it was the former, because they’d gotten so close their arms were touching as they walked and his eyes were flitting up to her own and back down again, and Piper prayed, oh she prayed that she was right because she was leaning forward now so there was no going back and—

Unfortunately, staring prolongedly at a boy who probably wasn’t even into her meant that Piper didn’t notice the patch of ice she was walking towards.

She shrieked as her feet slid out from under her, the dark pavement suddenly racing towards her. She braced for impact, but instead of freezing concrete to the nose, she felt a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist and hauling her back to her feet.

Before she could fully process what was happening she found herself pressed entirely up against Jason’s front, his arms securely around her waist and his wide eyes blinking down at her from behind his glasses. Her hands settled on his chest as they stared at each other, and then slid down to grip his forearms. Neither his hands nor his gaze shifted.

Piper swallowed hard before noting just how nice his arms felt, even through his coat. All those workouts and baseball practices had really paid off.

Jason’s cheeks were stained crimson again—he blushed a lot, and Piper adored it—but he started laughing.

“Yeah, uh, I guess they have,” he said. Suddenly his eyes went wide. “Not—not that you’re heavy, or anything. Because you aren’t. I mean, you’re like, average weight I assume? For a girl your height? I don’t really know, I haven’t caught very many people—”

Piper was mortified her comment had been spoken aloud, but thankfully Jason’s own stammering had shifted the focus off of her.

“What?” she asked, cutting him off with a raised eyebrow. “You mean to tell me you don’t regularly swoop in and catch people? And here I thought you were some kind of blonde Superman. It’s kind of a let down that you don’t save the day all the time.”

Jason grinned, a little sheepishly, but without most of the previous nervousness. “Haven’t noticed too many people falling.”

Piper’s heart hammered in her chest, and surely he could feel it with the way they were still pressed together. Then you must be blind, she wanted to say.

Instead, she stepped back, letting his arms fall away from her. She instantly felt the chill seep into her as though she weren’t even wearing a coat.

“Guess it’s just me, then,” she quipped, tossing him a smile as they headed toward the coffee shop again. They were nearly there. “Figures, I’m pretty clumsy.”

A small smile appeared on Jason’s face at that. Piper saw him attempt to subtlety lengthen his strides—attempt being the key word, because it wasn’t subtle at all—and reached the door first, just in time to open it for her, ever the perfect gentleman. “Hey, every princess needs a little saving now and then,” he said.

This time, Piper was the one blushing.

—

Piper McLean was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.

Jason had never been great with girls. He knew there had been girls who’d liked him in the past, definitely more than a few who’d flirted with him, but he never had much interest. The only relationship he’d ever had was with Reyna in high school, and that had been short lived; Jason cared about her deeply but not romantically, and Reyna…well. Reyna had ended up dating his older sister.

Where was he going with that? Oh, he was bad with girls. Right.

So when he’d seen Piper across that bar in September, he’d nearly panicked. She was gorgeous, looking him up and down with eyes that were shifting color, and she seemed to approve of what she saw, but Jason couldn’t flirt to save his life when he was sober, let alone several drinks in. Luckily she’d been about as drunk as he had, so she hadn’t minded his inability to keep up with her.

Since that night, Jason couldn’t get her out of his head. She was beautiful and brilliant and funny, and they just matched. The more time he spent with her, the harder he fell, and he knew it would end badly because she was clearly out of his league—but that didn’t stop him.

Being around her and knowing she would never be interested in him was torture, but if it meant he could make her laugh and watch her re-braid her hair and listen to the little songs she made up under her breath when she thought he couldn’t hear, then he’d gladly suffer every day of his life.

They’d gotten the coffee and headed back to the library after the rather embarrassing incident outside the shop (he wanted to die a little remembering how he’d basically called her heavy, and that he’d stood there and not let her go like some kind of clingy creeper. It was worth it to get to hold her like that—it just felt right—but still. And had he really called her a princess in need of saving? As if Piper needed him to save her. Piper was more like a badass queen who slew her own dragons, so Jason really had no idea what had possessed him to make that comment).

In any case, they’d made it through the rest of the night without any more awkward moments, and now, at nearly 4 AM, Leo was finishing up his paper. Jason’s eyelids had been drooping for the past hour even with the enormous amount of coffee he drank, and Piper had slumped forward and fell asleep on her arms some time ago. Leo, however, somehow managed to maintain his ridiculously high energy levels, which struck Jason as a little concerning. Did he ever sleep?

“Okay,” he was saying now, his fingers flitting frantically over the keyboard, “what if I shifted this quote down here, and I could add something up here about the chemical bonding process?”

Jason shook his head to wake himself up. It didn’t work. “Uh, yeah, if you’ve got more to say about…about uh, chemical bonding, I say go for it, man.”

He looked over at Piper. One of her arms was extended across the table in front of her, and the other was bent next to it. Her head rested on them at an angle that didn’t look comfortable to Jason, but either didn’t bother Piper or the discomfort was outweighed by her exhaustion. Her hair was a mess, thrown across her shoulders and sticking to her face. Jason’s fingers twitched on the table, wanting to brush it back.

Even when she was messy and undone and practically drooling onto her oversized flannel, Piper still made Jason’s heart skip a beat. It wasn’t that she was traditionally beautiful at all times (because that was just unrealistic), but she was her own kind of beautiful, and it was the most breathtaking kind Jason had ever seen.

He must have been staring, because Leo nudged his shoulder and shot him a knowing grin that heated Jason’s cheeks. “I’ve got this covered here, if you wanna take Piper to bed.”

Jason’s face went full red at that. “What? I-I wouldn’t—she’s, I mean that’s not really—”

And then Leo was laughing, laughing way too loudly for four in the morning. “Relax, Grace, I just meant take her back to our place. This is basically all written, but I’ll probably stay a couple more hours to finish editing and then print it and turn it in while I’m up, so I’m not gonna be able to take her back. And I don’t…I don’t like her walking alone at night, even if she says she can,” he added quietly, suddenly more serious. Jason nodded in agreement. The idea of Piper going out alone at night on a college campus made his stomach turn. He knew how a lot of guys their age could be and wouldn’t put it past them to try something, as horrible as that was.

And the thought of one of them trying something with Piper made him want to punch someone’s teeth out.

“You sure you’re okay here?” he asked. “I can stay if you need more help.”

Leo shook his head. “I’m good now. But listen…thanks. I know this isn’t your ideal Saturday night, so, um, thank you.” He kept his gaze down, fiddling with his fingers like he always did, but this time it seemed more…agitated?

Nervous, Jason realized.

He gripped Leo’s shoulder tightly until the other boy met his gaze. “Remember what Piper said about us being a team? That includes me now, and I’ve always got your back, Leo.”

A grin lit up Leo’s face, and he shoved the hand off his shoulder playfully. “Welcome to Team Valdez and the Crew, then!”

“That name needs a little work.”

“What are you talking about? It’s perfect!”

“I somehow doubt Piper signed off on it, and I may be late to the game but I know I hold some kind of veto power.”

“Fine, we can workshop it. Later. Right now you need to get the beauty queen home, because if she stays like that any longer I’m pretty sure her arm is gonna lose blood flow.”

Jason chuckled and moved to Piper, trying to gently wake her. It took a few tries—wow, she was a deep sleeper—but eventually she stirred.

“Hmm? Jason?” Her eyes blinked in the fluorescent lights of the library, and closed again.

“Yeah, Pipes, it’s me,” he reassured quietly. “Come on, let’s get your coat on.”

“Coat?”

“Yep, I’m gonna get you home.”

“Oh. ‘S cold outside.” Jason had to keep himself from laughing at her slurred words. Half awake was as good as he was going to get, he supposed, but damn, it was too adorable for him to mind.

“Yep, that’s what the coat’s for.”

“Where’s—” she yawned dramatically— “where’s m’purse?”

“On your shoulder.”

“…oh. Hmm.”

Piper’s eyes were barely open, and he honestly didn’t trust her to not walk into a wall or something, so Jason hesitantly wrapped his arm behind her waist, gripping her hip to keep her pressed to his side. She immediately nuzzled into the crook of his shoulder and sighed, and Jason’s brain sort of broke for a moment. He stared down at the top of her head, his heart pounding.

That doesn’t mean anything, he told himself. Pull it together, man. She’s basically asleep. She doesn’t know what she’s doing.

So he shook his head in an attempt to clear it and started to steer her to the exit.

“Grace!”

Jason turned back a little to half face Leo. “Yeah?”

“Be careful with her. She’s more fragile than she looks.” The normal teasing lilt to his voice was there, but his eyes were serious, piercing into his own with purpose.

Jason nodded solemnly. He knew Leo meant more than just to be careful tonight, though he wasn’t sure exactly what he intended beyond that. What Jason did know is that he would never hurt Piper.

Besides, his own heart seemed much more at risk than hers.

—

Jason was living in a dorm this year and didn’t have a car, but luckily Piper and Leo’s apartment was only a short walk from campus. Plus, the longer they walked, the longer Piper was wrapped up in his arm, pressed against his side and nuzzling into him like a kitten.

By the time they reached her apartment building, the chill and the walk had woken Piper up some, and she was a bit more conscious of what was going on, but Jason noted giddily that she made no attempt to move away from him. In fact, she may have even pushed closer, but that could have been his imagination. Besides, it was probably just because it was below freezing and she wasn’t completely awake.

(He really didn’t mind.)

Finally he had to release her so she could kick off her shoes and shrug her coat off and fall into bed. He felt colder without her, and almost…hollow, like something was missing where she had been? But that was just silly. They were just friends, and he was fine with that. He had to be.

“Okay, well if you’re good I’m gonna—” he gestured towards her door, starting to leave, but her soft voice calling his name stopped him in his tracks.

“Just crash here,” she said sleepily, her eyes barely open. “It’s late.”

“Only if you don’t mind,” he said, but he was praying she would insist because it was freezing, and his dorm was on the other side of campus, and he was almost as exhausted as she was.

“‘Course not.” She yawned again, and her eyes drifted shut. “C’mere.”

Jason blinked, confused. “Um, I’ll just sleep on the couch, Pipes,” he tried to explain, but even in her mostly-asleep state she was pushy.

“Couch is lumpy and I want you to stay here,” she insisted, though her slurred words made her a little less intimidating than usual.

Still, Jason hesitated. She was so tired she was practically drunk, she could not be thinking straight. She’d probably wake up tomorrow and wonder what was wrong with him that he didn’t ignore her.

“C’mon, Sparky, I’m cold,” she pleaded, and when he glanced back at her, her eyes were open and clear. “Please?”

As Jason toed off his sneakers, draped his coat over her desk chair, set his glasses carefully aside, and crawled into bed beside her, he was cursing himself for being so weak for this woman. He knew he’d regret it tomorrow, but, well…he just couldn’t say no to her.

—

Piper woke suddenly. She sat up and glanced around blearily, trying to find what had woken her up. Her eyes landed on her clock. It was 7:28 on a Sunday morning, why the hell—

A noise came from beside her, a kind of strangled yelp, and she jumped. Jason was lying in her bed—Jason was lying in her bed, oh, God—Jason was lying in her bed—and he was shaking, a thin sheen of sweat glistening on his frowning forehead. His chest was heaving, and Piper realized with a clench of her heart that he was having a nightmare.

She placed a hand on his chest, feeling his erratic heartbeat beneath her fingers. Then she shook him gently, trying to wake him up.

“Jason,” she whispered, repeating it louder when he didn’t stir.

Suddenly he jolted awake, gasping, his eyes glancing about the room frantically before landing on her face and softening.

“Piper?” he croaked.

“Yeah, Jason, it’s me,” she answered softly, unthinkingly combing his hair back from his forehead. He leaned into her touch and her heart nearly stopped. What was she doing? It had been stupid of her to ask him to stay; he would’ve been fine on the couch.

He seemed to notice something was off, and he coughed awkwardly as he sat up. “I should go,” he muttered, not meeting her eyes. “I-I shouldn’t have stayed, I’m sorry, you were basically asleep, you—”

“I asked you to stay, and I meant it,” she insisted. It was the truth, even if she was kicking herself now for practically forcing herself on him. He paused and wiped the sweat from his brow. Together, they waited in silence for something Piper couldn’t name.

“What was it about?” she asked hesitantly. Her voice was small and cautious. “The dream.”

Jason’s head lifted and their eyes met, sparks lighting up Piper’s spine. Her nickname for him was more accurate than he realized.

But he hesitated, and Piper rushed to add, “If you don’t wanna talk about it that’s fine, I shouldn’t have pried, I just thought maybe—”

“My mom,” he answered quietly. “My real mom. She—well, she was an alcoholic, so Thalia and I got taken away from her when I was really little. I barely remember her, just bits of memories here and there. I was only two, so...I found out later my dad is some politician, barely even knew we existed, and his wife hated us so she made sure they didn’t have to take us. We were put into foster care, different families. Took us years to find each other again.”

His gaze hadn’t wavered from hers, and Piper could see the pain in his eyes. She hadn’t meant to make him relive something that hurt so much, she hadn’t realized.

“Jason,” she breathed, her hand finding his. He gripped it hard.

“She died,” he said, his eyes finally dropping from hers to settle on their hands. “Went sort of crazy and drank herself to death a couple years after we were taken away. I only found out years later, when Thalia told me. I never…I didn’t get to see her again.”

His hand was shaking in hers, so Piper squeezed harder. Minutes ticked by in silence, and she wasn’t sure how else to comfort him. There was nothing she could think to say to make him feel better, and it didn’t feel right to try to brush past what he’d just admitted to her. He’d opened up a huge part of himself to her.

Maybe that called for her to do the same.

“I never knew my mom,” she said finally. Jason glanced up at her earnestly, questioningly. She took a shaky breath and continued, “My dad’s a movie star and all so I guess it could be pretty much anyone, but he never talks about her and shuts down when I ask, so I gave up on trying a long time ago. He was never really around either though, with his film schedule and press stuff. He tried, for a while anyway, when I was little. He used to come home more often and take me to the beach, but I was always a difficult kid and pretty soon it was visits for a day every couple weeks when he could make the time to fly out and see me. Pretty sure he didn’t even want a kid, but he was stuck with me.”

Jason was watching her, studying her face openly, but she couldn’t meet his gaze. Instead she focused on their entwined hands, as he had done. Her fingers played with his as she talked, and she took comfort in the fact that he let her.

“Anyway, Leo and I met in middle school and he got me through it. His mom was really sweet to me, way nicer than the nanny my dad hired to watch me most of the time. That’s around the time I…I started acting out? You know, doing stupid stuff to get my dad to pay attention to me, even if it was just to scold me or whatever. Leo was happy to help, and after his mom died and he got stuck with his awful relatives it just got worse, and we probably spent most of our time in detention. It wasn’t enough for me, though, and it kept escalating, and I—I was in a really bad place, but my sophomore year I got caught shoplifting some clothes.”

She paused to look up at him, expecting to see judgement written across his face, but she found only the same earnest expression as before.

“It was dumb, and my dad’s lawyers got me off without anything on my record somehow, but I finally got my dad’s full attention. He flew all the way home just to chew me out.” She laughed a little at the absurdity. “It was really bad, and the next week I was at wilderness school, which was like this boarding school for troubled kids out in the middle of some bumblefuck Nevada desert.”

“Shit, Piper,” Jason said, “I’m sorry.”

Piper waved him off. “Please, even the racial slurs those kids threw at me is nothing compared to what you just told me, and Leo acted up enough to end up out there with me, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I just thought I should be honest.”

Jason frowned. “You don’t owe me anything. I told you that stuff because I wanted to, Pipes. I trust you.”

“I know. I trust you too,” she answered, squeezing his hand. “So now that we’ve agreed that parents are shitty, wanna go back to sleep for a few hours?” She forced a smile and hoped he would miss the tension behind it.

He studied her a moment longer, but finally relented with a nod. Together they lay back down in Piper’s bed and drifted back into sleep.

Piper smiled to herself at the realization that they were still holding hands.

—

The second time Jason woke that morning was not to Piper’s voice calling him out of a nightmare, but to her hair in his mouth and Leo’s loud laughter, which was somewhat less pleasant.

Apparently they had shifted over the last few hours so they were no longer holding hands; rather, Piper was stretched out face down on top of him, one leg slung over his hips and her head nestled on his chest, hence the aforementioned hair in his mouth. Jason had instinctually wrapped his arms around her, and he thanked every deity he could think of that there was no morning…issue to deal with. The situation was embarrassing enough without it.

He stared down at her as she came to, blinking confusedly in the morning light before meeting his eyes. She seemed to realize where she was then and shot up, Jason’s arms jerking back immediately.

Leo laughed again from the doorway, wiping tears from his eyes. “Jason, man, I told you I didn’t mean it literally when I said take her to bed!” he was giggling, and Jason felt his face flush brightly.

He was gonna kill him.

“Leo, get out of my room before I murder you,” Piper snapped from behind her hands covering her face.

Never mind, Piper had it handled.

Leo did as she asked, but not before blowing them each a kiss and winking at Jason.

The pause that followed was tense, unsurprisingly.

“Piper,” he started, but she interrupted him.

“I’m sorry, I was asleep so obviously I didn’t really know what I was doing,” she rushed, sliding out of bed and hurrying around her room, searching the clutter until she found a hair tie to braid her hair back with as she talked. “I wouldn’t have—I mean, I shouldn’t have made you stay. Sorry.”

Jason grit his teeth. There was the rejection he’d been anticipating since last night. It hurt more than he'd expected, but it was his own fault. He'd known the risks. He should’ve just slept on the couch. He should’ve kept quiet about his mom. He should’ve stopped her, told her he wasn’t trying to pressure her into talking, into anything.

He should’ve known better.

“No, I’m sorry,” he muttered, trying to mask the hurt on his face and bending to put his shoes on. “I appreciate you letting me stay. I’m gonna head out.”

She may have nodded, or maybe she didn’t answer, or maybe she watched him go. He wasn’t sure, he walked out and didn’t look back.

—

Piper didn’t hear from him for the next several days, and kicked herself every time she checked her phone hoping to see a message from him. Of course he isn’t gonna text you, she chided, you basically told him you regretted letting him stay over right after he poured his heart out to you, and you were cuddling with him when he woke up. You’ll be lucky if he talks to you again.

So Piper went to Annabeth, the only person she’d actually told about her feelings for Jason, unsure of what exactly she was hoping for.

What she got was a frown over the carton of ice cream they were sharing.

“You’re taking all the cookie dough chunks,” Annabeth complained.

“No I’m not. Focus on the real issue here!”

“The issue of you not telling Jason how you feel? Because that’s the real issue.”

Piper rolled her eyes; they’d had this exact conversation about a million times already. “There’s no reason to ruin the friendship we’ve got because my stupid feelings got in the way.”

“You seem to think you’ve already ruined it,” Annabeth pointed out, nudging Piper’s spoon away from another chunk of cookie dough.

“It’s been three days, what am I supposed to think?”

“Maybe he got busy?” Annabeth suggested. “Maybe his phone got broken or lost, maybe he thought you didn’t want to hear from him. Have you tried texting him?”

Piper bit her lip and focused very hard on getting a decent spoonful of ice cream.

“You haven’t even tried texting him. Of course not. Piper, I thought you were good with guys!”

“I am!” she insisted. “Guys that I wanna sleep with and then never see again, or that I want to flirt with and not have to worry about their feelings. But Jason is all perfect and handsome and sweet and suddenly my brain feels like it’s been zapped by lightning.”

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. “Well he probably thinks you don’t want to hear from him and is agonizing over why you haven’t texted him.”

Piper perked up a little at that. “You think so?”

“I don’t know, Percy said he was really off Monday but seems mostly fine now, just distracted. Sounds like it could have something to do with why he hasn’t said anything.”

Piper chewed on her lower lip, mulling the possibilities over. Either he was distracted by what had happened Sunday—though she hoped that wasn’t the case—or something else had happened and that was keeping him preoccupied. She just had to figure out what was bothering him, and then maybe things could go back to normal.

“So you think I should text him?”

Annabeth sighed. “Honestly? I think you should both wake up and realize you’re obviously head over heels for each other. But since neither of you is going to admit it apparently, yes, I think you should text him before it gets weird.”

Piper grinned and snagged a hunk of dough before pulling out her phone.

hey, she typed. Very eloquent. Definitely summed up the “please talk to me I’m really sorry and I miss you also I might be falling in love with you” sentiment she was going for.

But, having nothing else she could think to say, Piper pressed send and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long. Less than a minute later, her phone buzzed with an answering, Hey!! from him. Piper grinned, just as another message followed: What’s up?

“He answer?” Annabeth asked around the spoon in her mouth.

Piper nodded as her fingers flew across the keyboard. just haven’t heard from you in a few days, everything ok?

Yeah everything is fine, I’ve just been busy. he answered. Piper smiled at his perfect grammar. She’d tried to explain to him once that he didn’t need to worry about that with her, but he’d furrowed his brow and asked why she wouldn’t want the same consideration he gave to everyone else. She’d laughed at his seriousness and let the issue drop. She glanced down when her phone buzzed again. Are you still in need of a study buddy?

Only if it’s you, she shot back. It was a little risky, but she figured it was just a casual friendly remark. No hidden truths to be found anywhere.

Her anxiety mounted a little when the three dots showed up at the bottom of the screen and then disappeared. Was that the wrong thing to say? Had that sent her crashing through the thin ice she’d been standing on with him and right into hot water?

But no, his answer was simply, Tomorrow, 7 PM at the library? and she breathed a sigh of relief.

make it the coffee shop and you’ve got a deal

Sounds good. See you then.

Piper grinned giddily down at the screen. Everything was okay, and their friendship was intact.

She looked up to see Annabeth smirking at her from the other side of the couch.

“Shut up,” Piper muttered. Annabeth only shrugged and returned to the ice cream.

—

The “study date”, as Percy and Leo insisted on calling it, went smoothly, much to Jason’s relief. He’d panicked after not hearing from Piper for so long, thinking that either his storming out or the waking up cuddling incident had upset her, so getting a text from her was a huge weight off his shoulders. He focused on everything, including baseball, a little better when he was on good terms with her. It was dangerous, he knew; he couldn’t afford to let every disagreement with a girl he’d only known a few months throw him off his game, but he couldn’t exactly help it. He’d just have to settle for keeping her happy. (Luckily for him, keeping Piper happy was becoming a top priority at an alarming rate. Or…perhaps that was unluckily.)

Things had just about returned to normal between the two of them, and they hung like nothing had changed. Which, Jason reminded himself, was true. Nothing had changed. He just knew for certain that she wasn’t interested in him the way he wanted her to be. But he’d known that before. So.

Jason was just reflecting on this when Leo caught up to him, leaving the locker room after the last practice of the semester.

“You missed an easy shot at the end there, you sure you don’t need a little more practice?”

Jason raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s your average again?”

“Point taken. When are you headed home?”

“I’ve got one more final tomorrow and then I’m out. What about you?”

Leo looked down, his fingers tapping out an agitated rhythm on the shoulder strap of his bag. “I’m staying here, actually. Lotta money to fly to Houston, and I’ve got lots of stuff to work on here, so.” He shrugged.

“You’re from Houston?” Jason frowned. “I thought you and Piper went to school together.”

“We did. Piper lived at her dad’s little ranch house thing even while he was filming, supposedly so she didn’t ‘get sucked into the Hollywood stuff.’ Really it was because he didn’t want to deal with her.” Suddenly Leo glanced at him, eyes wide. “Shit, don’t tell her I said anything, yeah? I probably shouldn’t have told you that.”

Jason waved him off. “I won’t, but it’s fine, she already told me about her dad.”

This seemed to interest Leo. “She did?” A small smile appeared on his face at Jason’s nod, which seemed…odd, for such a serious subject. “Anyway yeah, we knew each other in Texas before we both got banished to the desert.”

“So she’s going home to Texas?”

“Nah, her dad sold the property as soon as she went to college. He didn’t use it, so no point in keeping it if you don’t need somewhere to stash a kid, I guess.” Leo’s tone was bitter, and Jason got the impression Leo felt about the same way toward Tristan McLean as his daughter did. “Besides, Piper’s only going to L.A. for Christmas because she has to, and then she’ll be back. We spend every New Year’s together. It’s tradition.”

“You’re lucky,” Jason commented drily, “my foster mom is great and all, but she’s a little…I don’t know, militant? Makes holidays kind of stressful.”

Leo grabbed his shoulders and pulled him so they were facing each other in the middle of the sidewalk. “Come back for New Year’s.”

“What?”

“I’m serious, you can stay in the apartment until the spring semester starts. You’ll still have Christmas with your mom, but you can have a little fun with us for the new year!”

Jason frowned, thinking it over. “I don’t know, Leo…”

“Piper will be there, too.” Leo wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Jason blushed.

“Are you sure she wouldn’t mind me staying for a couple weeks?”

Leo snorted and released his shoulders so they could walk again. “Please, Piper would love having you there.”

Jason started to ask what that meant, but before he could, Leo slapped him on the back.

“Great! Glad that’s settled. You’re gonna see Piper before you leave, right?”

“Um, I was planning on it, but Leo—”

“Smart man. Have a good break! See you at the end of the month!”

And then Leo was gone, leaving Jason with plans for the holidays and several questions.

—

“He what?”

Jason winced. He knew he shouldn’t have agreed without asking Piper first, but then again, Leo hadn’t left much room for debate.

“Yeah,” he answered once he’d swallowed the bite of pizza he’d been working on. “He kind of insisted, so now I guess I’m spending New Year's and the following couple weeks with you guys? I mean, if that’s okay with you. I can always tell him no,” he added, watching her chew her lip and resisting the urge to reach over and soothe it with his thumb.

“No!” she yelped, and immediately blushed. Probably remembering what had happened the last time he’d stayed with her, he figured. This plan was seeming worse with every passing minute. “It’s fine,” she amended more quietly, “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“I’ll be sleeping on the couch, obviously,” he said with a dry smile. He’d hoped to reassure her, but her face seemed to fall, almost like…disappointment? But that didn’t seem right, unless she really didn’t want him there.

Her expression shifted almost immediately to one of excitement, though, and he didn’t have time to overthink anymore. “Right. It’ll be fun!” she was saying. “You can join in all our New Year’s Eve traditions, like drinking.”

Jason waited a moment for her to continue. She didn’t. “Oh, I thought you were listing things.”

Piper nodded, taking a sip of her soda. “I was.”

“So…?”

“That was the whole list.”

Jason laughed. “Of course. Well, it’s more traditions than I’ve got, so I’d be happy to join in.”

Piper’s answering smile lit up her whole face, and Jason had to swallow hard to keep his heart from jumping into his mouth. She was so beautiful it was just unfair.

—

As soon as Piper walked into their apartment on December 29th, she felt at ease again. Her Christmas had been stressful—which is completely unfair, by the way, it’s Christmas—because yeah, he was her dad, and he was trying and she got that, really she did, but she always felt a little on edge around him because, frankly, they didn’t know each other very well. It was easy for constant filming to get in the way of visiting your kid when you didn’t really want it in the first place.

So coming back to Leo, who always wanted her around and never made her feel awkward in the slightest, was an enormous relief.

“Hey, Beauty Queen, how’s it hanging?” he called from the kitchen.

“I’m sorry,” she laughed, “but I don’t think anyone has used the phrase ‘how’s it hanging’ since, like, the seventies.”

Leo only shrugged, abandoning his bowl of cereal to grab her suitcase and carry it to her room. “I’m bringing it back. The seventies had some great trends.”

“Such as?”

“Well, for starters, I could rock a pair of bell bottomed pants and one of those shiny disco shirts.”

Piper laughed and wrapped him in a tight hug, which he returned enthusiastically. “I missed you, Valdez.”

“Don’t be such a sap. You were gone for like a week and a half.”

“I know, don’t remind me.”

“That bad, huh?” He pulled back to examine her face. “You guys fight?”

Piper shook her head and started unpacking. “I’m just always on edge when I’m there. I hate L.A.”

Leo nodded in solidarity. “Wanna order pizza?”

“Obviously.”

Leo grinned and pulled out his phone.

—

As soon as Jason walked through the door on December 31st, he was treated to the sight of Piper wearing a blue bra, a beanie, jeans, and a single sock. It was in interesting look, but Leo was enough to distract him in socks, boxer shorts, a glove, and a top hat.

Jason was more than a little confused, but had the presence of mind to be grateful that Leo’s outfit was weird enough to take his attention from Piper in just a bra. That thought had the unfortunate effect, however, of directing his attention right back to her though, because Piper was in just a bra and Jason’s brain was sort of short circuiting because holy shit Piper was in just a bra.

(And the pants or whatever, but who could be bothered to look that low when Piper. Was. In. Just. A. Bra.)

Focus on something else, he told himself. Don’t be a creep. That’s super weird and predator-y and you’re not even dating. Yes, Leo’s top hat. Stare at that. Just focus on the top hat. He mentally patted himself on the back for pulling that off.

“Hey,” Leo and Piper called in unison, not even glancing up from the cards in their hands.

“Um, hey,” he answered, pausing to allow one of them to jump in and explain just what exactly was happening. Neither did. “What’s, uh…what’s going on?”

“Strip or sip poker,” Leo answered, laying a card down with incredible focus.

“Sorry?”

“It’s like strip poker, but you have the option of taking a drink instead of losing an article of clothing,” Piper explained, finally looking up at him. “It’s, um…”

Jason could swear her cheeks got redder when their eyes met; he knew his certainly did. Her loss of words made him feel a little better about his own at her state of undress as well.

“It’s our New Year’s Eve tradition,” she finished finally, looking back down at her cards. “Shit, Leo!”

Leo laughed triumphantly at whatever had just happened in the game.

“I thought your tradition was just drinking,” Jason commented, removing his coat and wheeling his suitcase farther into the living room.

“Didn’t you hear the drinking part of the rules?” Leo asked, grinning up at him from his seat on the floor. “Come on, I’ll deal you in as soon as this round’s over, which should be soon with the way Piper’s playing.”

Piper flashed her middle finger at him.

“You guys don’t think it’s weird that you play strip poker together every year?” Jason asked, running a hand through his hair.

“Why would it be weird?” Leo asked.

“You’re playing a game favored by couples and horny groups of teenagers because the purpose is to get naked.’’

“The purpose is to have fun and get drunk,” Piper countered. “Besides, we only strip until we reach our underwear. Then you have to forfeit or chug your drink.”

“I don’t know if I can keep up with these rules,” Jason laughed.

“Well you’re gonna have to learn quick,” she said, smirking. “Hurry up, Grace, it’s only two hours ’til midnight and I’m not even tipsy!"

“Alright, alright, but someone’s gonna have to explain how poker works because I haven’t played it in years.”

Leo and Piper groaned in unison, and Jason grinned as he took a seat where they’d left room for him beside the table. It was good to be back, even if he knew he was about to end up either drunk or naked very quickly.

—

As it turned out, it was a combination of the two.

By the time 11:59 rolled around, Piper had lost her beanie and her other sock, Leo was down to his boxers and top hat, and Jason was left with just his underwear (purple briefs, one of his nicer pairs which he was now thanking himself from this morning for picking out) because, as he’d expected, he lost horribly. He wasn’t nearly as drunk as the other two, however, as he’d had more items of clothing to lose and had to drink less to keep up.

He was exceedingly thankful for that as well, because he had no idea what drunk Jason would say to a half naked Piper and he certainly didn’t want to find out.

There were 60 seconds until midnight, and Leo was trying to get the other two to come out on the fire escape with him, insisting it was the best spot to watch the fireworks. Piper was laughing, definitely drunk but lucid enough to know it was way too cold for that. Jason was insisting Leo get back inside, that it was below freezing and Leo was going to catch a cold out there in just his underwear.

(Leo countered this by explaining he was also wearing a hat.)

There were 45 seconds until midnight, and Leo was attempting to translate Auld Lang Syne into Spanish. Piper was singing the English lyrics, since she didn’t know much Spanish to begin with and translating that was just too difficult. Jason was listening to Piper sing, because she had the most beautiful voice he’d ever heard, which was unfair because everything else about her was beautiful too, and it was keeping him rooted in place, just staring at her.

(Piper caught his eye more than once and her skin took on a pretty deep pink tinge, but Jason figured it was probably just the alcohol.)

There were 15 seconds until midnight, and Leo was beginning to count down, watching his phone to keep track of the seconds as they disappeared into the ether. Piper was warning him to be careful, that he was too drunk to be waving his phone around out there, that he was going to drop it. Jason was watching her inch closer to him, each second vanishing along with an inch of space between them until she was pressed fully to his side and his heart rate was skyrocketing.

(Jason was pressing closer to her too, he realized.)

Three, Leo was shouting over the railing.

Two, Piper was looking up at him expectantly through her eyelashes.

One, Jason panicked.

“Happy New Year!” the three of them yelled together, and Jason bent down, and Piper’s eyes fluttered shut, and he pressed his lips to her cheek, softly, so softly.

He pulled back to see Piper frown, looking almost disappointed. Maybe he wasn’t misreading signals then, maybe Piper really did want him to kiss her, and he’d majorly screwed up. But he wouldn’t let their first (and maybe last, if he really was just tipsy and she wasn’t into him at all) kiss be a drunken fumbling one for the sake of the holiday with Leo jumping around in his underwear. His brain was cloudy and he wanted so badly to press Piper up against a wall and hear her sigh his name, but he knew that she deserved better than anything that would happen tonight.

So together, shivering, they pulled Leo back inside and, after a bit of celebrating and watching whatever fireworks they could see, pushed him in the direction of his room. They all needed to get some sleep.

Jason found himself standing with Piper outside her bedroom door, which was across from Leo’s. She was studying his face, and had the same look in her eyes she’d had at midnight. It had Jason’s breath quickening, and his hands ached to brush her hair behind her ear or find her waist and pull her against him.

“What’s your resolution?” Piper asked, catching him off guard. Her words were only the slightest bit slurred, and her eyes were bright, the color seeming to change in the dim light.

“Haven’t really thought about it,” he answered truthfully.

Piper nodded solemnly, eyes still locked on his. Her voice was gentle, and soothed him even as the heat passing between them riled him up. “Wanna know mine?”

Jason nodded.

“It’s to go after the things I want,” she said, just a whisper, nearly drowned out by the sounds of partying and fireworks from outside.

“I like it,” Jason said. “Does it apply to anything in particular?”

Piper smiled coyly, and Jason couldn’t quite catch his breath. “Mm hm. But I think what I want can wait for another night, when I’m a little more sober.”

Unable to formulate a response to that, Jason nodded mutely again.

She turned and opened her bedroom door. “Goodnight, Sparky.”

“Happy New Year, Pipes.”

Her eyes sparkled at him, and then the door shut and he was left alone in the hallway.

—

Piper spent the first half of the next day hungover and hoping she wasn’t as obvious last night as she thought she’d been, and the second half regretting ever having made that ridiculous resolution because Jason fit so well with her and Leo and she really wasn’t looking forward to the awkwardness that would surely follow his rejection of her, but there was always a chance the heat in his eyes and the tenderness of his kiss last night hadn’t been a drunken hallucination, and besides, Piper had committed to going after what she wanted. What she wanted was him, and every time she thought about backing out she reminded herself that mama didn’t raise no bitch.

(You know, metaphorically, because she had no idea who her mother was and her father certainly didn’t raise her and the nanny didn’t put in much effort, so really it was more like…Piper didn’t raise herself to be no bitch. But that was too complicated, so she stuck with the original phrase.)

Actually telling Jason how she felt was a little more challenging with Leo hanging about—yeah, he lived there, but that was hardly an excuse—so before she knew it they were going to bed and she was lying awake, and then sneaking past a sleeping Jason to sit out on the fire escape, bundled in a hoodie and a blanket.

It was freezing, but the cold air helped her think, so she didn’t mind it too much. It was still pretty early for her, only a quarter past midnight, but the stars blinking down at her made it feel later than it was. A car honked in the distance. Someone in another building was blasting music.

“Jeez, Pipes, it’s freezing out here.”

And then Jason was sitting next to her, and it didn’t feel quite as cold as it had before.

She unwrapped one side of the blanket and held it open for him, letting him scoot closer and wrap the blanket around himself.

“It’s a good system,” she said, looking back up at the stars. “We can share a blanket and body heat.”

She hoped he couldn’t feel her heart pounding.

They sat in silence for what felt like hours, just drinking in each other’s presence and watching their breath turn to steam in the air, curling and entwining before vanishing into the night. Finally, it was Jason who broke the spell.

“Piper?”

Just her name, but it was enough to knock the wind out of her. “Yeah?”

“How drunk were you last night?”

She kept her eyes on the sky above them. “Not drunk enough to say anything I didn’t mean.”

He was silent then, but she could feel his eyes on the side of her face, watching her. She wondered what he saw.

“Piper?” he asked again.

“Yeah?”

“I came up with a resolution.”

She turned to look at him, and suddenly his lips were pressed to hers and the blanket was sliding down because his hands were on her waist, hot even through her hoodie, pulling her closer and closer and closer and somehow it still wasn’t enough, so Piper pressed back, one hand bunched in his shirt and the other finding his cheek. She needed air so desperately but she couldn’t pull back, not when his tongue was sliding against hers and she finally felt like she could breathe, and her hand slid up to wrap his hair around her fingers like she’d always wanted to.

She was practically in his lap now, nipping at the little scar on his lip, and she still didn’t know where he’d gotten it but she didn’t really care at the moment. His hands slid up, one around her back to hold her against his front and the other to her hair where it tugged on her braid, making her moan into his mouth. He must’ve liked that because he kissed her harder and his tongue dipped deeper and Piper had just about lost all presence of mind when she suddenly put her hands on his chest and shoved herself back.

She stared at him, panting, and he stared at her right back with his cheeks flushed gorgeously and his eyes wide. He opened his mouth and she knew he was about to apologize, he was going to think she stopped him because she didn’t want him to kiss her, and of course that couldn’t be farther from the truth, so—

“Jason Grace, how dare you have the audacity to kiss me,” she took a brief pause to catch her breath, not long enough for him to start to apologize but enough to scare him a little (she couldn’t resist messing with him just a tiny bit when he looked so adorably shocked), “when you knew it was my resolution to go after what I want, which is obviously you!”

Jason’s mouth opened and closed several times, but no sound came out. He blinked and frowned, and, “Um…what?”

“I was going to make the first move,” she sniffed. “I’d made a resolution and worked up the balls and even had a speech prepared. And backup speeches for different scenarios! I can’t believe you just ruined all those plans.”

Jason blinked several times, but a shadow of a smile had appeared on his face. “I’m sorry, I had no idea.”

“I basically told you last night.”

“I didn’t realize you were preparing speeches, though. I figured I’d save you the trouble with a resolution of my own.”

“You stole my resolution, too. Who’s committing plagiarism now?”

“Not true. Your resolution was to go after what you want. Mine was much simpler.”

“Oh yeah?” she challenged, picking up the fallen blanket to ward off the chill seeping back through her clothes. “What was it?”

“‘Kiss Piper.’”

She brushed back a piece of hair that had come loose from her braid—probably when Jason’s hand had tangled in it and pulled, she realized, the memory causing heat to pool low in her belly—to cover her smile. “Well that’s just…boring. Where’s the pizzazz?”

When she turned to look at him again, his face was much closer than it had been, his warm breath ghosting over her lips in a way that made them tingle deliciously. “I thought there was plenty of pizzazz. You need a refresher?” he teased.

Piper sucked in a breath. She had been far less prepared for confident, sexy, teasing, ready-to-kiss-her-stupid Jason than she’d thought, and it might just kill her. Trying to regain some control of the situation, she raised an eyebrow and said, “It still doesn’t make up for all the work I put in. Now I’ll never get to fulfill my New Year’s Resolution. I’m a failure.”

“Would it make you feel better to give me one of the speeches you prepared?”

“No, I don’t have one for this scenario.”

“You prepared for multiple scenarios but none of them included me kissing you?”

“I thought it would be at least another month before you made a move on me, Sparky, so no.”

“That stings.”

Piper laughed and nuzzled her nose against his, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment. “Can you blame me?”

“No,” he sighed, “I’m still pretty amazed I got it together long enough to kiss you. I’m sorry you didn’t get to give your speeches, though. You sure you can’t tell me one anyway?”

“I’m afraid that’s impossible, you’ll never know what I was going to say.”

Jason laughed. “You are a cruel woman, Piper McLean.”

She just shrugged, a smirk spreading across her face. “That’s what you get for stealing my moment.”

“How about I make it up to you?” His eyes were dark now, his nose brushing along hers and his voice deep. Piper shivered, and it wasn’t from the January air.

“I think we can work something out,” she whispered, and their mouths met in the middle as they reached for each other.

—

The first game of the season, Jason was third up to bat, and he was nervous as hell.

It was normal, especially for him. His nerves would decrease as the game went on, but that didn’t stop the shaking of his hands as he stepped up to the plate and took a couple warm up swings.

The first pitch veered to the left, just out of the strike zone.

The second was a fastball, and he was half a second too late.

He adjusted the straps on his gloves and tried to steady his breathing. This is normal, he told himself. You just need to pull it together and get your head in the game.

Great. Now I’m quoting High School Musical.

This, naturally, got I Don’t Dance stuck in his head, which wouldn’t even be an issue if Piper hadn’t made him watch the movies last week and sung that song at him constantly. (Not that he really minded; Piper’s singing voice was one of his favorite things in the world to listen to, even when accompanied by cheesy choreography.)

He glanced at the stands to his left, where he knew she was sitting with Annabeth, Grover, Hazel, and Percy’s family. He found her quickly, and she waved. His heart rate slowed, and the haze in his brain seemed to clear as he stepped back to the plate.

It probably wasn’t great to rely on her to keep him relaxed at bat. If they broke up, or fought, or even if she just missed seeing him play, he couldn’t afford to be off his game. He’d never had an issue working through his nerves before; he was sure he could do it without her, but it was so much easier to take one look at her and feel himself relax.

When he hit the ball way out to left field and made it to first with plenty of time to spare, he figured he didn’t mind relying on Piper so much. Watching her jump up and down, cheering in the stands, he got the feeling she wasn’t going anywhere.

[nogitsunelichen]

39 for the 150 promptsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Well here ya go nonnie! This is the cutest shit I have ever written and now I wanna continue the Piper universe! Damn you! 

Here is prompt #39: “I forgot I was a single parent.” 

One would think after being a father for five years Stiles Stilinski would finally be a morning person; however, that is obviously not going to happen. He is sprawled in his bed, head half buried by pillows, one sock clad foot sticking out of the blanket. There is sunlight coming from his windows but he is doing the best he can to ignore it.

He is almost asleep again when he hears his door creak open.

It’s taken him eight months of those five years to get used to this kind of wakeup call.

There is a muffled high pitched giggle and it’s immediately shushed by a much deeper voice.

“Daddy wake up!”

Stiles gets no warning when forty pounds is being dropped on him, and he nearly gets the wind knocked out of him as little limbs crawl all over him before they settle at his side. He lifts and turns his head only to be greeted by a mass of dark curly hair.

“I don’t know kiddo, sleeping sounds pretty good right now,” Stiles yawns, resting his head on his arm while still looking in his daughter’s direction.

Piper sputters, legs flailing, “but Derek said we can only have pancakes if you get up.”

“Oh did he now?” Stiles asks, looking up to see Derek smirking with a slight flush across his cheeks.

“I may have suggested that,” Derek says, holding out a mug which Stiles knows is his coffee with lots of cream and lots of sugar.

“Please Daddy! I really want pancakes,” Piper begs as she moves to sit on her knees.

Stiles can’t help but smile at how adorable she looks in her sleep rumpled Moana pajamas. He makes adorable babies, the five year old in front of him is proof. He relents and sits up, taking his coffee with one hand while the other opens a space for Piper to curl up in. The child happily snuggles up to him, hiding her face in his shirt.

The coffee ends up being perfect, and Derek rolls his eyes when Stiles praises him about it insisting it is no big deal before going to the kitchen. It leaves a few minutes for Stiles to have alone with Piper, both of them more invested in a good morning snuggle than actual conversation. Eventually he manages to get out of bed, following his energetic daughter out of the room.

The thick scent of bacon wafts from the oven and the tart smell of cut up fruit also permeates the air. With the apartment not being super huge it doesn’t take much for it to start getting smoky inside. Stiles moves to the nearby window to open it like he usually does when cooking, but notices it’s already opened.

Derek is apparently one step ahead of him.

“You wanna help Derek mix the batter?” Stiles asks.

“Yes!” Piper says, balancing on her tiptoes to see, her body pressed up against Derek’s leg.

Stiles laughs and sets his coffee down before lifting Piper up so she’s sitting on the counter.

“Can you get the frozen blueberries?” Derek asks.

“Yeah.”

Stiles ducks down and grabs the frozen berries from the freezer, handing them over before setting to work on eggs. He likes them scrambled with heaps of cheese in it, Piper and Derek both prefer fried eggs; however, Derek hates runny yolks.

It amazes him how after years of only keeping in touch via occasional text he and Derek can just come back to this level of familiarity so easily. Of course boundaries aren’t really a thing when one has children, especially one who inherited the lack of a brain-to-mouth-filter and reiterates the smallest of details at the most inappropriate time.

“Can I have more berries in my pancakes?” Piper asks, fingers stained purplish blue from the berries.

Derek snorts, “I don’t know Pipes—”

“I promise I’ll brush my teeth extra good after!”

“Pinky promise?”

Piper nods and loops her stained pinky with Derek’s, vowing to keep that promise.

“Jeez, melt my heart much you two?” Stiles asks, his cheeks feeling hot all of a sudden.

The timer goes off after a moment, and Stiles pauses his work on the eggs to grab the bacon out of the oven so it can cool. He grabs paper towels, setting the strips of pork on top to get the excess grease off.

“Oh, hey Derek,” Stiles says, his brain finally back online, “on the 26th I have a double shift I can’t get out of because Kimberly is on maternity leave…anyways, do you think you could do the parent teacher night thing for Piper? I think she only has two teachers because you know, it’s just kindergarten, but still I don’t want her to miss it.”

The kitchen is silent, void of food sizzling.

Stiles cranes his head to the left to see Derek looking at him, thick eyebrows drawn up in confusion.

“I’m—that is parent teacher night. Parent,” Derek says, “I’m not her dad.”

Oh.

Embarrassment floods Stiles. The wakeup calls. The coffee. The window. The egg preferences. All the other countless little things that have added up throughout most of the year.

“I forgot I was a single parent….” Stiles mutters more to himself than Derek.

The werewolf picks up on it of course.

“You know what we should do? We should invite some of your dolls and plushies to breakfast. Do you want to go pick a few from your room?” Derek asks in a soft tone to the child resting on the counter.

The girl lights up with the idea almost sliding off the counter in excitement, but thankfully Derek catches her and puts her on her feet. Piper bolts down the hall and into her room ranting about who deserves to have breakfast. Stiles knows she’ll have a hard time picking between Mr. Bear and Ducky.

With Piper out of the room it leaves the adults to deal with the tension. The remaining stove burners are turned off, and Stiles doesn’t have the nerve to turn and face Derek. What kind of parent is he? He’s grown so dependent on Derek that thinking about the man moving out scares him.

It scares him a lot.

“I can hear you thinking,” Derek starts.

Stiles stops biting on his lip, “you have supersonic hearing.”

“Supersonic is a bit of an over exaggeration.”

“Shut up. You know what I mean,” Stiles says, biting the bullet as he spins around.

Derek is standing in the middle of the kitchen looking stupidly….attractive in his basketball shorts and an old hoodie with some cheesy New York tourist bullshit on it. His hair is still tousled from sleep and his facial hair is more beard than scruff. Stiles is so taken that he’s allowed to see Derek Hale like this.

“I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad,” Derek starts again, “I just am not Piper’s dad. I don’t want to impede because you’re her actual dad and this is parent teacher night.”

Stiles wants to hit himself over the head with a frying pan. Repeatedly.

“Then what the hell do you call all of this?” Stiles demands, keeping his voice low but serious.

“All of what?”

“You! Taking care of Piper when I have work or when I’m too tired to get up early enough although we both know my dad is perfectly capable of doing that. Making diners that you say you haven’t made since before the fire, saying it’s nice to share them with a family again. Bringing Piper and lunch into the station for me and sitting with me at my desk to share it like—”

Stiles’ voice breaks off and his eyes fall to the floor.

“Like what Stiles?” Derek asks, suddenly in his space, his fingers tilting Stiles’ chin back up.

“—like my mom and I used to do for my dad,” he finishes, brining his gaze back up to Derek’s.

Lips are on his and it is glorious. Scratchy facial hair makes the skin around his mouth tingle, large warm hands that hold his hips grounds him in this moment, and when it finally hits him that Derek Hale is kissing him, Stiles doesn’t hesitate to reciprocate. His fingers wind themselves into Derek’s ink colored hair and he presses his body closer into the contact that is so so good.

Teeth and tongue are just being introduced to the party when reality hits them, and reality is named Piper. A gasp sounds to their left followed by the sound of toys crashing to the ground. He and Derek rip themselves apart, and nothing is able to mask how disheveled they are.

“I knew it!” Piper finally says, jumping up and down excitedly.

“Um, what?” Stiles asks in a high voice.

“You and Derek,” Piper says with a ‘duh’ kind of tone, “it’s like Uncle Scott and Auntie Kira! You guys are all mushy and stuff.”

Derek breaks out into this hysterical laughter and Stiles feels so incredibly dumbfounded. His five year old kid knew about them before they even knew about them. There is a them now. Stiles smiles as that thought crosses his mind; obviously, there is still a lot of logistics to talk about but everything is changing for the better.

Stiles moves and picks up Piper, settling her on his hip, giving her cheek a wet smacking kiss  The girl squeals and shies away from the obnoxious contact.

“Does this mean Derek can do the teacher thingy?” She asks.

“This absolutely means I can do it,” Derek nods, bunny teeth sticking out of his brilliant smile.

“But first, pancakes,” Stiles amends.

ASK ME A PROMPT FOR THE DRABBLE CHALLENGE!

[dameronalone]

top ten fic recs

so i was tagged by @rapidashpatronus and this turned out a lot harder than i thought lol

(more info below the cut)

floating, sinking - Rogue One wip almost complete ~171k words by @shu-of-the-wind (i feel like most people in the rogue one fandom loooove this fic lol)

Luctor et Emergo - Rogue One/Harry Potter ao3 wip ~30k words by @rxbxlcaptain

cast some light ‘verse - Rogue One ao3 ~11k words together

Chasing Memories - Captain America ff.net wip ~267k words

Rose of Ravenclaw Tower - Harry Potter ff.net and ao3 wip ~161k words

A Month of Sundays - Harry Potter ff.net complete ~87k words

Air and Angels - Star Wars ff.net complete ~22k

You, with the Galaxies in Your Eyes - Star Wars ff.net complete ~2.5k words by @chalantness

Check Yes, Juliet - Percy Jackson ff.net complete 10k words

and oh, poor atlas - Harry Potter ff.net complete ~1k words

oh, where do i start... floating, sinking is amazing and wonderful and honestly i’m kinda sad there’s only one chapter to go, i mean the characterization is amazing and the dynamics between everyone is just akdlkoienvklsdfjhgoai i love it all so much

Luctor et Emergo is the ultimate rogue one harry potter crossover alright? it’s fantastically written with my girl jyn and my boy bodhi both gryffindors and hufflepuff cassian and the plot is awesome and it fulfills all my nerdy needs its amazing

the cast some light ‘verse is E rated and honestly some of the best smut i’ve ever read it’s the ultimate porn with feelings so if you angsty flirty rebelcaptain smut reeeaaaddd it you will not regret it

chasing memories is a bucky/oc focused fic with a badass rogers girl named Ella who gets injected with super soldier serum and there’s 81 chapters so far and a companion piece of one shot aus that just as amazing you should read it

rose of ravenclaw tower is about rose weasley who was sorted into ravenclaw with a bunch of cousins and friends and almost immediately becomes at odds with fellow ravenclaw scorpius malfoy and its just amazing and i love it i love her relationship with all her cousins and her family and it actually feels like its from the perspective of a young teenager its awesome and i love it

a month of sundays is your mandatory jily fic its many chapters long and its got teenage drama and james potters characterization is fabulous and its got the mess with lily and snape and everyone and i love it go read it

air and angels is part of a verse referred to as wires verse so control f irnan’s page to find them all its about if order 66 still happened but anakin didn’t turn to the darkside and instead took leia with him to form the rebellion and padme kept luke with her to be a spy for the rebellion go read it it is amazing and wonderful

you with the galaxies in your eyes is a damerey drabble by the fabulous chalantness that apparently started with plot but dissolved into a bunch of fluff that makes you want to puke but its amazing and i love it and even if you’re not big on damerey it’s still good rey and poe characterization so O--O

check yes juliet is my mandatory piper and percy being bffs and annabeth and jason being bffs and setting each other up with them its modern au just teenagers and awesomeness so read it

and oh poor atlas is told from aunt petunia’s perspective about her going to godric’s hollow to check up on harry and is greeted by ginny wearing “a man’s shirt an oven glove and absolutely nothing else as far as petunia could see.” its kind of sad kind of bittersweet but i love it all the same so you should read it

maybe y’all have done this already but i’m tagging @percieux @datenshikate @rxbxlcaptain @rinsantago  and @captain--kitten

[ktrosesworld]

50 Questions for Fic Readers

I just felt like answering some questions (source post @braveten)

1. What fandom(s) do you read?

Doctor Who and TenInch Fic

2. If you could request more of a certain type of fic, which would it be?

I would love for more people to take up the challenge of writing TenInch Fic ... so many DT characters that need some loving

3. What is your favorite all-time fic?

It’s not possible to pick just one!?!?!?!? It would be a toss up between stories written by @whoinwhoville @kelkat9 @jellyneau-xo @studio-forty-two @natural--blues @licieoic @pipertennant ... okay i’m stopping there because this list will get really long

4. Do you ever re-read fics? How about triple-read?

I quadruple read, quintuplet read, sextuplet read, septuplet read ... some I read every six months or so because I need to live in those worlds

5. Do you prefer angst or fluff?

Yes

6. Do you prefer long fics or short fics?

Yes

7. Name some incomplete fics that you wish were completed.

Blimey ... umm ... okay ... here’s a short list

Bad Wolf by @licieoic Shades of Blue Series by @bluedawn0123 [Edit: oops I had the wrong author] Out of the Ashes by @mercwithamouth Meetings Series by @wildwinterwitch Every story ever abandoned by throughanamberfocus especially The Zeppelin Verse

8. Talk about the ships that you read.

Doctor x Rose is the beginning, the middle and the end but really I’m all about the story ... if it’s good and captures my imagination I’ll read all sorts of little and giant ships

9. Do you read smut?

Of course!!! And you do too ;p

10. What’s the most hard-core smut or kinky fic you’ve ever read (be honest)!

I’ve read some really weird stuff in the wee hours of the morning ... but as for the ones I really enjoyed

Claimed by @licieoic Metacrisis: Jack by @fogsblue  Four Dimensional by Annissa

11. Do you read AUs?

I LOVE AUs!!!!!!

12. List a few of your favorite AUs.

Gallifrey Records by @allrightfine and @gallifreyburning  Perfect Match by @lastbluetardis  TARDIS Bookstore by @ofstormsandwolves A Ghost Story by @kelkat9 Evolution of a Scandal by @rishidiams Elsewhere by @fadewithfury Heartsmith by @licieoic Arkytior: A Snow White Tale by @natural--blues 

13. What type of AUs are your favorites? Give a general description.

See the list above :D

14. What makes you give up on reading a fic?

Mainly if I don’t like the way the characters are written or if the story is not put together well ... having said that I’ve persevered with some really crappy writing for a story idea that captured by imagination

15. What makes you pick up a fic, what makes it sound interesting?

It’s different every day because my reading tastes change with my moods

16. Name a fic that made you cry (or that made you come close).

The Time Loop series by @weezly14 ... every single damn time my poor heart hurts just thinking about it

17. Name a fic that made you laugh a lot.

Psychedelic Pollen and Dalek Squirrels by @kelkat9 ... tell me you’re not laughing already just at that title :D

18. Do you have a fic recommendation page or master list?

Do @timepetalsprompts and @teninchfic count as rec pages???

19. How many fics do you think you’ve read before?

Easily tens upon tens of thousands probably even into the hundreds of thousands now

20. What’s the weirdest fic you’ve ever read? Describe it.

I read one where the Doctor’s penis had it’s own personality and I think it was detachable and possibly changed personality when the Doctor regenerated ... it was one of those that you kept thinking the author was on some fairly serious drugs when they wrote it but you just can't stop reading it

21. Do you read crack!fic?

I think we should just take it for granted that I read all types of fic

22. Name a few of your favorite crack!fics.

Once again favourite ... okay the first one I thought of was ...

Lordstorm and his LiveJournal Adventures by @kelkat9 

23. Has fluff ever made you cry? What about angst?

Oh I’ve definitely cried at both

24. What’s the longest fic you’ve ever read?

The Life and Times of Daniel Ulysses Barrow by ceeare ... it was over 500k but unfortunately the author took it down to “break it up in to readable pieces” and has never finished publishing it again ... it was one of those ones that will rip your heart out

25. What’s your opinion on reading dubious consent or no consent?

Once again it all depends on the story ... there are some where its sex pollen induced which I’m completely okay with ... but then there are some stories that describe rape as if it’s just a normal sex scene which I am very much against ... I’ll stop reading those stories immediately and never look back

26. Name a type of fic you’ll never ever read.

I try not to say never ever because there are ships that I thought I’d never read but then got desperate for new stories and discovered some amazing authors who made me fall in love with ships I had in the notp bucket ... I’m looking at you @basmathgirl in particular

27. Name a type of fic that you wish there was more of.

teninch fic and doctor piper fic ... I just love authors challenging themselves to write new characters

28. Who are your favorite fanfiction author(s)?

This gets me into trouble ... okay authors I’ve not mentioned yet that I love to read ... @caedmonfaith @thedistortedmirror @emkaywho @faithosaurus-fics @justbygrace @lixabiz @lostinfic @nannyogg123 @nopondintheforest @perfectlyrose @doctor-who-hears-a-horton @rudennotgingr @tenscupcake @veritascara @whatwecanfic ... there are soooooooo many more but this is quick list from my following page

29. When you find an author you like, do you follow them?

Absolutely!!!!! If I fall in love with one of their stories I want to read everything they’ve written

30. How often do you read fanfiction?

EVERY DAY ... for many many hours ... before I go to sleep ... when I wake up ... whenever I can

31. Do people know that you read fanfiction?

Well everyone on here knows ... in RL ... well I’ve made vague mentions about reading Doctor Who and Broadchurch stories online but don’t get into specifics ... although I did get my Mum addicted to A Million Holes Poked in the Soul by @nannyogg123 

32. Do you leave reviews after reading fics? If so, what do they sound like?

I used to write comments after every fic I read but it was slowing down my reading now I only leave comments on things I really enjoyed and felt compelled to comment on ... so they tend to be gushy :D

33. When you read a good fic, do you go to the author’s page?

Definitely, I always want to read more stories by a talented author

34. Name a common type of fic that you cannot stand.

You’ll probably hate me for this but ... I’m not a fan of the drabble ... there I said it let the backlash begin

35. Name all the Work in Progress fics that you are currently reading.

hahahahahahahahaha ... umm sorry ... currently I have 40 update notifications of individual stories in my email ... and that’s just the ones I haven’t caught up with yet ... oh and some of them I’m a few chapters behind so I’ve opened the new emails to keep the count down so I don’t feel so bad ... the reality is that I’m probably reading about 60-70 WIPs ... this post is long enough without me adding this list to it

36. Has a fic ever left you unable to fall asleep or think about anything else?

Heeled by @jellyneau-xo ... I don’t think I’ll ever be able to own a pet again ... actually all of Jelly’s stories have me thinking about them long after they’ve finished

37. Are you good about keeping up when reading Work in Progresses?

Despite what I’ve said above I’m not that bad ... although I tend to delay reading fics I love so I get a nice big chunk of reading in one go

38. Name some of your favorite fic recommendations pages.

See all the rec pages by @allegoricalrose ... definitely some quality reading there :D

39. Name a fanfiction author that you’re scared to talk to because they’re so amazing.

I remember being terribly scared about talking to @kelkat9 and @whoinwhoville because I am so in awe of their writing but they are both absolutely beautiful people and you should definitely reach out to them to talk about writing and all things DW and DT :)

40. Have you ever written fanfiction or considered it?

I once was strictly a reader only and then I wrote a little thing and then another and then @pipertennant and @studio-forty-two kept encouraging me to write more and more and well I guess I have to call myself a fanfic writer now

41. Name a fic that has a perfect ending.

Don’t make me choose ... as long as they have a happy ever after I’m good

42. Name a fic that you wish was longer.

ALL OF THEM.  ALL! OF! THEM!!!!!!!

43. Do you read OT3 fics commonly? Have you ever?

I love ‘em especially ... Loved ‘verse and Lostverse by fid_gin and unfolded73

44. Do you mainly read TV shows, movies, or books?

umm yes?? DW and TenInch fic cover all of that don’t they??

45. Do you read fanfiction about Anime?

No, I’m claiming generational age gap ... I’ve never really got into Anime

46. If you could imagine the perfect fic, what would it be like?

The one yet to be written ... don’t know who the author is yet

47. If you had to introduce someone to fanfiction with a few fics, which would you suggest?

For TenInch Fic ... Providential Contingency by @studio-forty-two and tennantmeister ... they created the genre with this story ... I know I talked them into it ;)

For DW ... blimey there are just so many ... take a pick of any of the ones I’ve recc’d above

48. Have you ever read a fic containing character death?

Yep, and written one ... and writing another ... shhhhh it’s taking a while to write it and this time I’m not going to publish it until I’ve finished it

49. Do you have an AO3/Fanfiction.net/LiveJournal page? Link it.

This is me on AO3

50. What sites do you typically use to read on?

I started reading on Teaspoon but now I read almost exclusively on AO3 ... I like being able to leave kudos and get notifications of responses to comments :)

[zoetekohana]

Asking this because of that top notch Michi rec post you made: Top 5 Michi Fics.

Oh, thank you so much! I’m really pleased to hear youliked my Michi rec post. ♡ (*Here* it is for those who want to check it out.)

To be honest, it’s really not easy to make a top fiveof Michi fics for two reasons: 1. I love way more than five Michi fics and it’dbe difficult to rank them. 2. I’ve been reading Michi fics ever since 2004.Granted I haven’t read every single one of them. And there are so many stories that I really, really loved but have been deleted in that twelve year time span. (I’m going to include those anyways, though.)

Let’s give it a try…

I’d first like to discuss a few Michi stories I reallylike that just didn’t make the cut to my top five, but still deserve a special mention:

⚘Thin Lines byHemsee Apparently this got deleted? I only found out about this yesterday, because I started checking the links on my Michi masterpost, but evidently it’s been deleted instead. Which is unfortunate because I was really eager to know how the relationship between Taichi and Mimi would further develop. Plus, Hemsee really has a clean, beautiful writing style that is so wonderful to read. I hope she creates a new multi-chaptered Michi story, though. 

⚘ All Good Things by Hemsee Luckily, her Michi oneshot is still there. It tells the story of how Mimi and Taichi’s relationship developed throughout the years since their childhood and how they gradually fell in love and got together. 

⚘ anchor me back down by dianaagronSimilarly to “All Good Things”, this story follows their relationship from the very beginning, since kindergarten, in a wonderful will they/won’t they-kind of way, to their mid-twenties. While I do love both stories (what can I say, I’m a major sucker for slow-burns), I do prefer ambd over agt. Plus how can anyone dislike a story inspired by that beautiful song by Mindy Gledhill?

⚘ Snow by hello heartbreak I recently re-read this story and loved it just as much as I did ten years ago. Ngl it hurts seeing my beloved Chosen in such pain, but this story is so touching. I also believe this is the fic that generated my headcanon that Mimi would have trouble transferring back to Japan and have trouble speaking/studying the language. Lo and behold, ten years later that headcanon actually came true in tri! 

⚘ Buttons by BenignUser This story is just so adorable! It makes me melt every time I read it. (I believe I’ve read this oneshot five times. What is my life, haha?) But really, it’s so fun, so cute and definitely worth your while. 

⚘ keep it classy by hellyeahayumichan This is a collection of four (slightly nsfw) drabbles for Michi, Sorato, Takari and Kenyako. It’s just such a great read! I really admire the subtle descriptions. Hellyeahayumichan has such a way with words. (And even though it’s not fic, I highly, highly recommend checking out her Michi art! Each and every one of her drawings are amazing. I envy her colouring skills in particular.)

⚘ Parallels by Scripturiens There are no words to describe how amazing this artwork is. And I stress the word art, because it’s really an interesting exercise in writing by putting the different pieces out of order so that all the nuances of the thoughts and the actions of the characters come together with such care. Amazing structure aside, it’s a nice piece that so wonderfully conveys emotion, especially heartbreak. I love it so much, and now I want to go re-read it….

⚘ Whispers at night by ribbonedcuriosa To this day I’m still so happy I requested a Digimon story set in the Star Wars universe from ribbonedcuriosa, because she took it and fabricated this lovely ficlet. She merged both franchises so fluently, it’s inspiring. The Michi is subtle here, but I love subtle implied pairings when it comes to the adventure genre. I honestly crave more of this story. Forever crossing my fingers for a continuation.

After contemplating long and hard over it, I now present you my TOP FIVE MICHI STORIES:

05 ⚘What Women Want by StarlillyWe start of with one of the most popular Michi fics on FF.net. And that’s understandable, because this story is so much fun! I believe I started reading it not long, just a couple of months, after it was completed. I’m even planning on re-reading after finals, so my little review here is based on my memory of when I read it late 2005. 

First there is something I have to confess (again, I’m sure I’ve stated this before, but just to be clear I’ll state it once more) that I don’t really like it when authors use the dubbed names in fics. I prefer reading Taichi Yagami over Tai Kamiya, very much so. I didn’t like it back when I started reading Michi fics in 2004/2005 and I still don’t now. That said, I won’t turn a fic down because the author chose to use the dubbed names. I do like to give it at least a try. (I sound so picky now…) And in this case: I loved the “What Women Want” film back then (still do, I rewatched it this year), so there was no way I wouldn’t read a Michi fic based on that film. And honestly, Starlilly took the premise and really made it her own while developing the relationship between Taichi and Mimi so well. 

04 ⚘ Falling’s not the problem by ribbonedcuriosaAhhhh, this story is so good! I was eagerly awaiting the next part to beta each time because it’s just so good. I absolutely love how curiosa jumped back and forth from past to present to showcase how Mimi and Taichi got to the point where they were in the beginning and how their lives further developed since then. And she did it so fluidly. Also her characterizations of both Taichi and Mimi are so well-done. 

03 ⚘Come to Me by Pied Piper + Only Alive by Pied PiperI’m sure you all knew beforehand that at least one Pied Piper story would make my top five, and here’s the first one… Sorry, first two. Okay, I know I’m cheating here by putting both these stories on the number three slot and therefore haven’t whittled my list down to five fics but six. But for the life of me, I can not chose between these two! 

I’ll talk about Come to Me first. I really love this story so much because it’s so real, so relatable. There were so many moments where I just nodded understandingly, because it was so realistic. And I talked before how I love slow-burns, well, this fic is one of the ultimate slow-burns I’ve ever read. I really enjoyed reading about their journey from how they became friends first to actually falling for each other, but being apprehensive first considering they were still dealing with their heartbreak from a previous relationship, to finally arriving at their destination together which felt so earned. It was so beautiful beyond comprehension. (PS: I still have a half-finished fanart of it lying around.)

Moving onto Only Alive now… I’m confident my good friend Sunny is going to love the fact that I included this fic into my top three. Back in the beginning of 2009 when we discovered our mutual passion for digimon as well for Michi through a meme on my livejournal (we befriended over Avatar first), she told me that this was her most favourite Michi story. Somehow I hadn’t read it then yet. (Seriously, what was wrong with me?) So, at her recommendation, I read the first chapter and I immediately wrote back to her that I was in love with this story already. There was a certain passage in the first chapter that stood out to me, because it was the perfect Michi interaction:

So he asked her to dinner, sending a written apology note down to her small cubicle several stories below his feet.

She replied almost instantly: Jackass. 

He responded: Pick you up at eight? 

She agreed: Buy me flowers, too. 

Ah, Mimi, Mimi. How he missed someone who could talk back without fear. Welcome home, he grinned to himself.

To me, Michi is so compatible, because their personalities just go well together. They’re both headstrong but they’re both also very passionate and kind. I love seeing them portrayed with the whole “love to tease you” dynamic. And that passage in OA is an excellent example of that. Honestly, Pied Piper has such an exquisite grasp on these characters. I knew then that this fic was going to be splendid, and boy, did it deliver! I read it in the course of three evenings.

I will forever love both these stories. Then again I will forever love all the stories Pied Piper wrote. Just thinking about them makes me want to re-read every single one of them (except that I sadly lost a couple over the years…) 

02 ⚘ Creative License by R.vdPI’m kind of cheating again, haha, because technically this wasn’t really Michi. Daikeru, a ship I love so much next to Michi (thanks to this fic actually), was the main pairing of this story, but Michi was definitely heavily featured. But I just loved this story so much! Unfortunately it was deleted several years ago. (Around 2007, iirc.) 

That being said, I still feel lucky to have read this story. I can’t begin to explain how amazing it was! It was so cleverly constructed. Each chapter focused on a certain aspect of the story, and with each chapter we learned more and more what happened to these characters in the past and how they’re ultimately connected to other characters. It was all intricately interwoven. The writing style was also so crisp, so poetic, so inspiring. Plus, while the Michi was very angsty, it was very hot. I still haven’t read a nsfw Michi that came close to their scenes in this story. 

01 ⚘ My Captain’s Lady by Pied PiperIs there any surprise that MCL is my ultimate favourite? 

The truth is: This isn’t just my favourite Michi fic. This isn’t even just my favourite Digimon fic. This is my ultimate favourite fic ever.

It was the very first fic that got me so hooked. I started reading MCL after chapter fifteen or so (don’t remember the exact chapter anymore, since y’know, it was eleven years ago) and kept checking for the next update. It was really bad with the final chapter, because it was New Year’s Eve and I continuously pressed refresh so eagerly awaiting the update and then when it was finally there I read it between the different courses of dinner. 

I loved it so much that I was raving about it non-stop to my best friend that she, who hadn’t watched a single episode of digimon, even wanted to read it. So I lend her my binder of MCL and I like that she texted me her thoughts a few times. I kept those texts, even after ten years, until I had to buy a new phone last summer. 

Sentimental experiences aside, the story itself is just so epic. It had everything: an intriguing plot, an amazing build-up, lots of suspense and action, and of course a compelling romance between Taichi and Mimi. Once again, the journey of the characters and their relationship was so moving and so captivating. And I loved every step of the way.