#also those noodles were fucking great

[lovexjoe]

Unspoken

Part 1 

Synopsis: Jack and Y/N have been best friend for years. She recently ended her 2 year relationship, due to moving to Atlanta for a better job opportunity. What’s going to happen when she stays with Jack for a week ?

Warning: fluffy, angst?, language and smut🧎🏽‍♀️

Y/N POV 

Great!!! I finally found an apartment for myself, but I have to stay at a hotel for a week due to maintenance. I sighed as I begin to search the internet for a hotel suitable to my needs. Currently I’m at Jack’s house, cause he offered to let me stay the weekend as I sorted myself out. Moving to a new state is draining. I left a lot of my things back home as my mom said it’s good to just start fresh. So I packed what I needed and hopped on the plane. I left so much behind, even my 2 year relationship. Surprisingly, I’m okay and even happier that it ended. There wasn’t a spark between us. He treated me well, but the relationship over all was boring. I guess I kept it going for so long, because it was better than being alone. 

“Alright what’s got you so stress? You been glue to the computer since you woke up” Jack says as he sits down next to me on the couch. 

“The apartment won't be ready for another week and I need to find a hotel beca-” 

“Hell no! Come on, you know you can stay here till it’s ready. I’m not taking no for an answer either. Now can you stop stressing before you explode. That vein on your forehead is serious” He starts his usual teasing. I laughed and playfully shoved him. 

Arguing with him was useless. It was his way or no way. I finally close my laptop and enjoyed whatever tv show he was currently hooked on. He stretched out his left arm and placed it on the back on the couch. I crawl into my usual spot: snuggled up with a blanket. 

“I missed you. I know you’re stressed but I’m happy to finally spend some time with you this week.” Jack says honestly. You were taken aback but also happy as well to be here with him.

“Me too”

Jack’s POV

She takes her usual spot on the opposite end of the couch, I so badly want to pull her close to me. As selfish as it sounds I hope her apartment takes an extra week so she could stay longer. And those god damn PJs she wears is gonna end me. She could wear a turtleneck and I’d probably still have the same reaction. 

I had met her through Druski as she was working with him for a while on video concepts and managing his social media. As soon as they linked up, she got his account to gain a million followers within a month. Thats why Jack put his full trust in her when it came to his social media. He’ll give her a heart attack here or there when he posts some random video of him trying to dance. Keyword is try because he looks like he’s glitching half the time. 

~~~~~

They indulge in a few episodes together before both of their stomachs start grumbling. Jack grabs his phone to open up UberEats. She gives him an insane look. 

“Jack you already ordered UberEats for breakfast, do you ever actually cook?” She arched her brows at him and he just looks at her cause lowkey she ate him up with that one. 

Oh yea forgot to mention, she got attitude that could last a lifetime and he fucking loved it. 

“You know I can’t cook!” He tried to justify but she’s already up and headed to the kitchen scanning the pantry and fridge for a simple meal. 

“Alright since you insist on me staying here for a week, you have to learn how to cook to at least survive.” She points the wooden spoon at him which causes him to laugh and throw his hands up in the air. 

“Goddamn Gordon Ramsey when did you even grab that!?” 

“Mmm don’t worry about that, give me a cutting board and knife stat! We making the world’s simplest meal. Pasta!” 

Pasta? Yeah no, he has spent his entire life over and under cooking pasta noodles. He watches her work the kitchen like a natural, pulling out ingredients he didn’t know what was what but he  tried his hardest to pay attention. She started with washing, then cutting then cooking. When it started to heat up in the kitchen, she tossed her hair up in a messy bun and in that moment Jack swore his heart could burst outta his chest.  He was trying his best not to stare inappropriately, but she was down right beautiful. 

Her ex was an idiot for letting her out of his sight, but he had to thank him because he’s not letting this chance pass up. There’s been multiple times throughout their friendship that her previous relationship and his hookups were not too fond of what they had. Which caused a few months of silence here and there. It use to kill him that he couldn’t reach out to her or hear her voice. She’s the reason why most of his hookups never lasted. Even during sex he wasn’t fully present, always distracted. 

As she finished up the tomato basil pasta, she turns around bumping into Jack not realizing he was so close to her. She felt so small around him, he looks down at her and smiles. 

“Hi” he says as he looks into her green hazel eyes that complimented her tan skin. 

“Hi…” she wish he would just kiss her, but she probably wasn’t what he even wanted. This man has the whole world at his feet. Why would he want her? They both stood there for a few extra seconds, just admiring their favorite features of the other. 

He swore she bite her lip 

She swore he was staring at her lips 

Kiss me already they both thought.

The sizzle of the pot reminded her she needed salt, so she purposely pushes up against him to grab the salt 

“Excuuuuseee me” she says innocently causing him to blush. 

“Smell yummy, thank you seriously” He says as she hands him his plate. As she makes her plate last, but Jack grabs it and heads over to the dinner table. Pulling out her seat for her, she happily sits as he grabs them some wine. 

“Oh my god, this is amazing!” He hums enjoying all the flavors that melt in his mouth. She’s really getting brownie points right now cause once his tummy is full he is a happy camper. 

This could be them, she thought. If only he wanted her. 

This could be them, he thought. If only she wanted him. 

After a few glasses of wine and enjoying the food together. Jack knew she was gonna crave something sweet because anytime he took her out dessert was always a must. He took her plate and nods his head for her to follow him.  

He grabs a bowl, vanilla ice cream, sprinkles, chocolate drizzle and whipped cream. Instantly her smile appears on her face, he still remembers her favorite toppings. How could he not though? He remembers everything about her. They both assisted each other is building the sundae. 

“Time for the finale!! Whipped cream!” She shakes it up and hands it to him to do the honors. Jack holds down the nozzle but it was stuck. He shook it one more time confused cause he literally just bought it when he told Y/N to stay at his crib. Yes he fully stocked the house and made sure it was squeaky clean before she got there. He even went to target and Ulta and stocked up on products she’d like or needed for the guest room. 

“This thing is stupid!” He holds the nozzle facing Y/N and it shoots out straight onto her neck and face. They both looked shock but Jack was trying so hard to hold his laughter in. 

“Oh you little shit!” They both busted into laughter. 

The wine definitely taking effect as laughter filled the air. Their stomach hurting so much from being full and the happiness that overcame them. Grabbing a towel, Jack pulls her close and the two still having the giggles. She wasn’t in control anymore because she couldn’t believe the words that was escaping her mouth. 

“Lick it off of me….” Jack freezes. Is he dreaming? Is she fucking with him? Wouldn’t be a nice joke but the way she was looking at him she’s lucky she doesn’t get bent over this island right now. 

“Are you sure?” He looks into her eyes wanting to confirm because if he starts god only knows if he’ll have the strength to stop. 

“Yea….make me your dessert.” She wipes some whipped cream off her neck slipping her finger in his mouth to suck it off. The need growing between them as she felt his tongue lick her finger dry. His lips meeting her neck, licking up all whipped cream on her as her moans escape her mouth. 

Fuck. He thought this was it, she’s gonna get eaten up tonight, he had to taste her. He was hungry for it. His hands caressing her face, as their lips finally meet. They both dreamt of this moment endless amount of times, but nothing….nothing could compare how this really felt. The little sounds she makes got him bricked up and aching. It’s almost as if she knew what effect she had on him cause her hand begins to palm him through his joggers. He groans into her mouth, causing a certain wetness to form in her panties. She never knew Jack had an aggressive side to him, she always teased him of being vanilla. 

He picks her up and sets her onto the island. Slipping her shorts off and spreading her legs. No panties? Fuck, her pussy glistened from her wetness under the lights. She closed her legs, starting to feel shy. 

“Nuh uh, open those legs for me. Lemme see that pretty pussy.” Oh god she loves this. He gets on his knees, kissing her lips, taking in her scent causing her hips to buck. 

“Jaack please don’t tease,” she feels his breath on her as he laughs, knowing exactly what he was doing. He takes her clit into his mouth, slowly sucking and swirling his tongue. He was so fucking handsome and with your pussy in his mouth made him even hotter. Working his tongue up and down your folds, you lift you hips slightly to ride his face. 

Fuck fuck fuck 

Jack couldn’t believe how fucking beautiful you looked under the island lights. Everything about you just amazed him. He works his movement with yours as he sees your body tensing up. 

“Fuck Jack, I’m- fuck I’m gonna cum!” In that moment he slips two of his fingers in, curving them upwards pumping them in and out. The only thing that could be heard was your cries and the wetness of your pussy. His fingers were big and long you could only imagine what he’ll stretch you out to. He pulls you close to him, placing little kisses along your cheek and neck. He lets you ride out your orgasm from his fingers. He only just begun with you, but he notices the slight sheen of sweat that covered your body. 

“You have no fucking idea how long I’ve wanted you.” He places a soft kiss on her lips. 

“Jack I need you, please.” She reaches into his jogger to pull him out. His tip already leaking with precum. Teasing him, she rubs his length between her wet folds causing him to groan. The lust that filled both of their eyes as they watch his tip play with her clit. Jack slipped in not being able to handle it anymore. 

Y/N lets out a soft cry not realizing how big he really was. Her back was cold against the marbled island, but the way Jack started pounding into her she couldn’t possibly give a fuck about anything 

“Jaackkk” she cries out throwing her head back

“I know it’s big baby, you can take it. Be good for me and take it.” His thumb starts to rub circles on her clit as he continues his ruthless thrusting. She was drunk off of his fucking. Not a single thought was running through her head besides the fact that he felt so fucking good and was deep.

“Look at you. Such a good fucking girl taking me. So beautiful baby.” He whispers his praises into her ear, till he feels her clenching him tightly. His free hand grabs the back of her hair firmly to make sure he was looking at him as she cums. 

“Mmm fuck, where do you want it?” She better answer quick cause those hazel eyes looked fucked out and he could barely hold on. 

“Inside me! P-please please” 

Jesus Christ 

He nods as he increases his speed, hitting a new spot for her causing her to come undone. She couldn’t even stop the babbling. 

“I love you I-I love you Jack.” He kisses her passionately, emptying himself deep inside her. 

“I love you too.” He says out of breath. 

He picks her up carrying them to his bedroom. She was completely out of it, her eyes closed and sleep slowly taking over her. He couldn’t imagine this moment any better. It happened so naturally. He tucks both of them in pulling her closely. She was his. He was hers. Thank god for that fucking apartment delay. 

~~~~~~~~

Y/N woke up feeling satisfied and definitely sore. Some of their friends were suppose to be flying in today to vibe for the next two days. She looks at the sleepy man next to her and smiles. They really had some nasty sex last night when just prior to that they were just best friends. She places a soft kiss on his forehead and decided to make them breakfast. She picked out some boxers and one of his t-shirts and got to work. As she was making them pancakes and eggs, the door bell rang and it was probably Druski since he had the earliest flight. She opens the door to see a girl, who looked like a super model holding a duffel bag. 

“Y/N, right?” 

“Uhh yeah…I’m sorry who are you?”

“I’m Jack’s girlfriend….”

Part 2? 😌

TAGLIST 

@dyttomori @harlowcomehome @itsyagirljaz

[tokiwarcube]

How are the boys when their s/o is away on a trip for a while? Like which ones call constantly? Which ones are calm? Any have separation anxiety?

This was fun to think about, and very well timed! +Charles as well -- Enjoy! <3

Charles Foster Offdensen

Have fun for him, won’t you? Charles will absolutely miss you while you’re gone — with the lives you share, you don’t always have too much time to spend together, not to say that he won’t miss the time you do get — but he’s happy that you’ll be having a good time. His biggest worry is about your safety, but that’s nothing a few Klokateers can’t fix.

He looks forward to your nightly phone call more than ever — after a long day of running around, his steady voice is so nice to listen to. And you know, it’s funny — he’s already less stiff around you, but over the phone, he’s a little more willing to just be a bit silly. Especially as time goes on. Maybe it’s because of the distance that comes with a call. Maybe he just misses you.

And he’d be lying if he didn’t pay just a little bit more attention to the vibration of his phone, just in case you send him a text or a photo. He might not respond immediately, but he does look forward to hearing from you.

He does find himself thinking of you often — certain colors, trinkets, your interests… he’ll text you about them every now and then, just to let you know you’re in his thoughts.

Please send him a postcard or two, if you’re able. He likes physical items like that, especially if you scrawl a little note on the back.

10/10, he’ll be sure to take you on a nice date when you get home to make up for lost time.

Nathan Explosion

Listen, Nathan isn’t the most talkative man on Earth. Or in the States. Or in Mordhaus. Or, anywhere, really. No, his way of showing love is through spending time together. He loves getting up in the afternoon morning with you, going through your morning routine, watching you pick out your outfits… loves to just you know, exist with you. He thought he was going to be fine while you were gone, but everyone in a 30mi radius could tell he was not.

Spoiler alert: He is not.

He’s awkward on phonecalls, and is abysmal on videocalls (can’t hold a phone straight to save his life), so while he will 100% try, he’s not… he’s not great. But you know, just keep him updated with your daily activities — send photos of your adventures, of your outfit choices in the morning, of the random shit you found in the shops… it makes him feel just a little less alone. And he’ll try to do the same, even if the photos are always weirdly out of focus. He does better at the random voice notes he’ll send to you — now those, those make you feel more at home. It’s usually just some random thing he’s been thinking of — maybe it’s a random verse he’s been noodling at, maybe it’s an idea for some new too-expensive project, maybe it’s just some random thought that won’t leave him alone. But they mean a lot.

Other than that, he does fairly decent at distracting himself — if there was any time for a good-old friender-bender, it’s now.

5/10, Pickles is doing his damndest to keep him away from the tequila.

Pickles the Drummer

He’s been preparing for this day from the moment you put it on the calendar. He just knows he’s going to be horrific, going to spin himself in circles, going to chew his own arm off, and—

He’s actually fine. He thought he was going to be shaking like a chihuahua in your absence, but all things considered, he’s actually pretty damn okay! I mean yeah, he looks forward to your call at night, and he gets a bit sad if you ever have to miss it, but he’s not basing his entire day around the void your absence has made. Part of that comes from the photos you send throughout the day — he knows you haven’t just fucked off and abandoned him, which honestly, was his biggest worry. The other half of his nonchalance comes with his lifestyle. I wouldn’t say he’s drinking more now that you’re gone, but also… he’s bored. He’s not drinking himself to death, mind you, it’s just… Pickles.

He for sure gets a bit sappier when he’s really under the influence — he will be showing photos of your adventures to anyone who will listen. And to anyone who won’t. He’s glad you’re having a good time, genuinely.

Might as well go on a good old friender-bender while he has the time, though.

9/10, surprisingly normal, but someone should really look into his liver — how it hasn’t shut down by now is anyone’s guess.

Skwisgaar Skwigelf

When its time for your trip, he thinks he’s gonna do great in your absence. Love you to death, but it’ll be nice to play guitar in the middle of the night again without having to worry about waking you up. And he can finally watch that horror movie you said he’d hate because for some reason you’re convinced that he hates them. Oh! And he can finally try his hand at drinking Nathan under the table again, and—

He has a whole list of stupid shit planned out, and he doesn’t even make it an hour before he’s smacked with a very crushing loneliness. He finds himself turning to murmur to you, only to have your usual space just… empty.

The weight of your absence is stunning, and he refuses to admit how much he misses you. But you can take a guess, with how much he draws out your midnight phonecalls. And really, its hard to keep up the dirty talk for that long without getting cliche— how about you just tell him about your day?

4/10, emotionally constipated Swedish man ends up in ER with repetitive strain injuries to the fingers and wrist, more news at 10:00.

Toki Wartooth

Toki considers himself to be fairly adaptable. I mean sure, he misses you half to death, but he can function without you. Plus, he always has his memory boxes and scrapbooks for when he’s particularly longing, and he always has the ability to call!

By which I mean, he’s calling you almost any chance he gets. But to be fair, that’s not too much different from when you’re at home — he just likes to talk to you. He keeps you updated on all of the shenanigans at Mordhaus, so you never really feel too far from home. But now that you’re off on your own adventure, he wants to hear all about it! Please send him photos!

Genuinely, he does great at surviving without you. That is, until it comes time to sleep — he didn’t realize how good you were at keeping the nightmares at bay. Expect a slightly longer call at night — he probably won’t tell you about the nightmares, but he does get a bit whinier about you coming home.

8/10, surprisingly adaptable, but please bring him a trinket. No, it does not matter that he could buy every item in the country thrice over — he would still like a little trinket.

William Murderface

He does not miss you, he’s just buying a casket and writing his will because it’s a fun, Tuesday activity.

Okay, he’s lying, he misses you so fucking much it’s unreal. It just feels weird to, you know, say it like that. He’d be calling you 24/7 if you weren’t out and about, living your life. So instead, he texts. There’s no obligation to respond immediately, mind you… but a few updates here and there would be deeply appreciated.

He tries his absolute best to distract himself while you’re gone — maybe Planet Piss will finally get it’s first EP down (false) — with varying success. His chief method of distraction comes to hanging out with the band… and the boys are texting you by the end of the week to please come home, because they’re having to beat him off with a stick. He’s also weirdly agitated with everyone but you, which certainly doesn’t help matters… but on the phone, he’s just as soft as could be.

3/10, he’s going to chew his own leg off at this rate. Someone save him, please.

[badnewswhatsleft]

total guitar #160 march 2007 [joe's video]

transcript below cut:

You voted Dance, Dance in at No 57 in TG’s 100 Greatest Riffs, so we managed to collar the dual guitar talents of Fall Out Boy’s Joe Trohman and Patrick Stump to ask them how they write riffs, who they think is the ultimate riff-writing machine and what they deem to be the top five greatest riffs ever written…

Words: Claire Davies, Images: Joby Sessions

When you look at Fall Out Boy or listen to any one of their albums, it’s easy to dismiss them as pop punk scamps who like to mess around on the guitar but don’t take it that seriously. In some respects you’d be right, but singer/guitarist Patrick Stump and his talented co-guitarist Joe Trohman know quite a bit about writing insanely catchy riffs and playing guitar.

Patrick, for instance, doesn’t respect players who wail unnecessarily over a song. “I like restraint in guitarists,” he says. “It’s easy to go overboard and try to be Eddie Van Halen. But here’s the thing: you’re not.” Joe, on the other hand, is completely obsessed with vintage guitars. “I was really into vintage Gibsons, but I just used to break them all the time and it turned out to be kind of expensive. Now I play Washburns ‘cos they have that same wide-neck feel and pickups as some of those 70s Les Pauls.”

One thing they’re both passionate about, however, is writing great riffs and how you - by expanding your musical horizons - can write one with as much groove as Pantera’s Walk…

So guys, why did you choose guitar and when did you start playing?

Joe Trohman: “I started playing guitar because of Metallica. I used to listen to them loads and when my grandma got me the Live Shit: Binge And Purge video I couldn’t stop watching it. I used to play viola and trombone in my school band, but watching bands like Metallica and Smashing Pumpkins made me wanna play guitar. From the moment I got a cheap $50 guitar, I played it all the time.”

Patrick Stump: “I chose drums to begin with, but my dad was a folk singer in the 70s so he always had a guitar lying around. I’d mess around and write songs on it, but I never fancied myself as much of a player. When the band started I ended up singing, even though I was supposed to be a drummer. Then one of our guitarists quit, I had to fill in and it went from there.”

When you were starting out, which guitarists influenced you?

Joe: “Kirk Hammett and Dimebag had a huge impact on me, as did Billy Corgan. I was into a lot of lead players, I guess, but as I got older I realised how important it was to play rhythm as well. People don’t realise how good a rhythm player James Hetfield is. I also love Johnny Marr, who has probably been my biggest influence so far.”

Patrick: “I’m not a huge Stones fan, but I appreciate Keith Richards’ playing ‘cos it’s all about his riffs. Outside of that, my favourite shit as a guitar player is funk; everyone from James Brown to Prince. I also love jazz player Joe Pass, who is one of the only people good enough to noodle on guitar, and Jesse Johnson who was in a band called The Time from the Prince movie Purple Rain. My favourite solo of his is just one note, but the crazy shit he does with that one note is unreal.”

Moving on to riff-writing, how would you describe a guitar riff?

Joe: “It’s a cool guitar part that catches you instantly. It’s something you can play over and over without it losing its edge.”

Patrick: “Yeah, it’s four bars that are simple and that grab you immediately, like the riff from Janet Jackson’s Black Cat. I think a good riff comes down to a good rhythm section. When you look at a guy like Dimebag, he always got right in there with the bass and drums. Pantera were built on a groove as strong and simple as any R&B groove.”

Joe: “Yeah, Walk has to be one of the simplest riffs ever but it grooves, and that’s what matters: what you do with the riff and how much it grooves.”

So how do you come up with riffs, such as the one on Dance, Dance?

Patrick: “We just fuck around until we come up with something. You’ll come up with a gazillion riffs when trying stuff out, but every so often something will jump in front of you. Once you’ve got your four bars, stuff will start happening. With Dance, Dance I was just sitting in the van and we were all talking about The Cure, and I had this idea of a Cure bass line that they never wrote, which ended up being the riff in Dance Dance.”

What’s the best riff you’ve written?

Patrick: “I really like the riff on Of All The Gin Joints. But The Take Over, The Breaks Over from our new record [Infinity On High] is easily one of our best riffs. I wrote it after reading something Bowie said: that he was sitting around one day and decided that he really wanted to write a riff like Keith Richards did. So he wrote Rebel Rebel. After reading that I thought, ‘Fuck! I wanna do that!’”

What, in your opinion, makes a kick-ass riff?

Joe: “A great riff comes from being part of the rhythm and acknowledging that you’re not gonna produce something totally original. You should listen to loads of different music and put your own spin on it. Like on our last album we wrote a riff that was like Panama by Van Halen. We’ve obviously taken influence from them on that song, but we’re not ripping them off wholesale. Instead it’s like paying homage to them.”

Patrick: “When you’re writing a riff you’re part of the rhythm section and you keep up the tempo and rhythm as if you were the drummer. You have stabs as though you were the snare drum and you’re hitting low notes as though you’re the bass drum, but you’re also controlling the melody. At the end of the day, a riff is something that you can hum and it’s a rhythm you can play on drums. If you have both those qualities in your riff then you’re onto something good.”

What do you think are the Top Five greatest riffs ever written?

Joe: “I love the start of This Charming Man by The Smiths, and Black In Black by AC/DC. Walk by Pantera is probably one of the best riffs ever, same as Battery by Metallica, but if you can’t do triplets and haven’t got tons of stamina then it’s hard to play. I also love South Of Heaven by Slayer just ‘cos it’s so evil sounding.”

Patrick: “Satisfaction by The Stones is the be-all and end-all of riffs. I’d also go for Rebel Rebel by David Bowie, Janet Jackson’s Black Cat, the second section of Bohemian Rhapsody and Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath. That one riff alone changed metal as we know it. I also wanna throw in Owner Of A Lonely Heart by Yes ‘cos it’s a great example of having really talented guitarists who still keep it simple.”

Who do you think is the ultimate riff-writing machine?

Joe: “I’d go with Randy Rhoads, just ‘cos I love that riff in Crazy Train. That guy was a genius.”

Patrick: “Angus and Malcolm Young have written so many phenomenal riffs that you can’t do any better than those guys. But I come from an R&B background so I wanna say Prince, just ‘cos Let’s Go Crazy is so awesome. And I also wanna know who wrote the riff to Michael Jackson’s Beat It [TG mentions it was session musician and Toto guitarist Steve Lukather]. Was it Lukather? Yeah, of course it was: he played the riff and Eddie Van Halen played the solo. I wonder why Lukather doesn’t get more recognition? Now you’ve mentioned Lukather, I wanna change one of my Top Five riffs to Toto’s Hold The Line, ‘cos that’s one of my favourite riffs ever!”

How did you approach the guitars on your new album, Infinity On High?

Patrick: “We’re both playing a lot more rhythm on this record, but if there is lead then it’s in much more of a BB King way where there’s a call and response.”

Joe: “My favourite thing about the guitars on our new songs is that I can ad-lib when we’re playing live. I know scales well enough and understand the fretboard well enough to do that. I could never tell you what key something is in, but in my head I know what it is. The cool thing about being in this band is that Patrick and I play guitar really well together, and I’ve learned a lot from watching Patrick and playing guitar with him.”

So can we expect a lot of guitar interplay from you on this album?

Joe: “Patrick also plays piano on this album, so he’s not always on guitar, but we split up a lot of the guitar playing. There’s a solo on The Take Over, The Breaks Over that we split in half when playing live, even though on the record it was done by Chad from New Found Glory and Ryan from Panic! At The Disco. We thought it was cooler to have guest guitarists than guest vocalists. So yeah, we split a lot of the guitar stuff up and switched between rhythm and lead. The weird thing is that I’m always pegged as the lead guitarist of the band, but we always switch back and forth.”

Patrick: “I think in general, I play a lot of the single-note leads and Joe plays a lot of the octave and chord leads.”

Which tracks on the new album best exemplify you guys as guitarists?

Patrick: “The end solo of Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am? Is how I love to solo. It’s real bluesy, which is what I’m about as a player. I’d also say the solo on You’re Crashing But You’re No Wave.”

Joe: “Yeah, that one had a lot of Johnny Marr filler guitar in there, and also Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am? It's filler guitar that doesn’t really jump out at you, but it’s atmospheric and it changes the vibe without you really knowing it.”

Finally, how proud are you as guitarists of your new album?

Patrick: “This is my favourite record because it’s restrained and funny. It’s basic rhythm playing, which is my favourite kind of guitar playing. I’m much happier playing a strong riff 100 times over than playing a kick-ass solo once. We do have kick-ass solos, but the way we write doesn’t always leave that much room for them.”

Joe: “I learned from playing on this album that I don’t need to play solos all the time. I’m proud of the record and proud of the cool riffs and songs that we’ve written together.”

Patrick: “I’m less impressed when someone shows off, and on this record we don’t show off a lot so obviously you should be impressed… I’m kidding!”

[petrichorca]

Hello, I am slowly figuring out how to use tumblr effectively. I thought I'd give an update on fics I've written in 2024, but keep forgetting to talk about here in a meaningful way.

As We Go Hand in Hand (explicit, gentlebeard, 7100 words) follows Ed as he processes the past few months while living on the island with Stede, massively in love but struggling with himself. I wrote it while feeling a lot of delayed grief around the (confirmed) s2 cancellation, and while it's sad at points it's also quite romantic I think. I really love this story.

Behind Closed Eyes All I See is You (explicit, gentlebeard, 5300 words) is a smutty PWP my dear friend @chaoticturtleturtle invited me to write with her. Stede lets Ed take the lead in a scene with some sensory deprivation, pwp, and aftercare.

like sugar to my heart (mature, gentlebeard, 4200 words) is a silly fic I wrote for my Animorphs OFMD AU co-writer as a birthday gift. Our blue four-legged four-eyed mouthless alien Stedeth gets foiled by a vending machine (based on the tumblr art of the giraffe centaur), and Ed consoles him.

like a bird (teen, gentlebeard, 3700 words) with @ghostalservice gives some backstory about Stedeth's life prior to the events of our 177k fic and features some very cute art of Mary and Stede's children (as Andalites, of course) by @theogem

Stede’s Cursed Red Suit as a Metaphor for Grief and Moving On (teen, stede + izzy, 1717 words) explores the squishy time of season 2, episode 5, and the dynamic between Stede and Izzy in season 2 overall. I am also obsessed with how Stede acts in the cursed suit. I find their s2 relationship really interesting so this is me looking a bit at that via a missing scene starting with Stede yelling OH FUCK OFF.

Calypso’s Dawn (explicit, gentlebeard, 1800 words) centers around how Ed made his boyfriend blush the morning after Calypso's birthday and how Ed feels about it. I love this fic. I've been trying to challenge myself to write more self-contained, shorter stories and this one turned out really well imo.

Life as a Series of Forward Rolls (teen, gentlebeard, 9900 words) features Stede running into his teenhood crush, the gold medalist in men's gymnastics from the 1996 Olympics. This fic also centers around a Barbie doll in Ed Teach's likeness, which @swashbuckling-sweethearts made an INCREDIBLE art of (embedded at the end of the story), inspired by my own 1996 Olympics Barbie. Silly and light modern AU!

Did you mean to do that? (teen, gentlebeard, 700 words) explores Stede's grief around Ed dying, even when he knows Ed is alive. I had no idea I would be so interested in writing missing scenes, but long conversations with friends have really ignited me in exploring these. (The length - I was trying to channel @brigdh, whose ability to write devastatingly brilliant drabbles inspires me, and I'm pleased with this one!)

Perfectly Ordinary Tuesday (mature, gentlebeard, 4900 words) with @ferventrabbit follows Stede and Ed deciding to get married on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday, and drag their inn guest Dave along for the ride. We split up writing the vows, and I balled my eyes out writing mine and then reading em's. This story is fluffy and fun, and it was a great way to start 2024. :)

What's next: I'm working on or noodling a lot of projects, solo and with different collaborators. Imminently, I've got a fic with @veeagainsttheday coming for AUpril on April 1st. Hoping to get something else out in April for @ofmdjanuaury's AUpril 2024 event, which I highly encourage folks to check out - it's for all sorts of creators!

@ghostalservice and I continue to think about our blue alien Stede and his human boyfriend Ed. Wanna Fly Away was such an important project to me while we were writing, and it's become even more special as folks find it. WFA now has art embedded in most of the 15 chapters, so if you haven't seen those check it out. More to come in that space.

Where was I going with this? Well, I suppose I want to say I'm still here. OFMD changed my life, and the OFMD fandom community is deeply important to me. I still hold out hope for a third season, or a follow-up that brings us more closure, but no matter what I'm still thinking about our pirates and will for a long time. If you read this far, thanks for being part of my community. <3

[brbsoulnomming]

Tell Me Sweet Little Lies Part 21

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | AO3

-----

He doesn't tell Steve.

There hasn't been a chance to tell Steve, he reasons with himself.

Steve comes back with Robin and Dustin, and has somehow also acquired Lucas and Max. Not long after, Nancy comes by with Mike and El.

He does actually try to hide with Steve in the kitchen while Steve puts together some kind of chicken noodle casserole, but apparently the check in tonight includes how talking with his uncle went, so Eddie has to be too actively involved with it to get a chance to get Steve alone.

By the time everyone's gone, Eddie's exhausted, and he needs to lean on both Robin and Steve to make his way back upstairs.

They've only just made it when the doorbell rings.

Steve groans. "What do those little shits want now?"

Robin laughs at him. "They're your children, Steve," she teases, wrapping an arm around Eddie's waist in preparation for Steve peeling off from them.

Eddie bumps her hip with his, shooting a little grin at her. "You're on shithead wrangling duty tonight," he informs Steve as he and Robin continue on to the bedroom.

"I'm always on shithead wrangling duty," Steve grumbles to himself, but he does head back downstairs.

Eddie assumes one of the party forgot something, and doesn't really think too much of it as he drops down onto the bed, watching Robin start adjusting the pillows.

Or at least, he doesn't think too much of it until he hears Steve call up the stairs.

"Hey, babe? Have you seen Munson hanging around the kids recently?"

Robin freezes, looking at him wide eyed, and Eddie's pretty sure he's holding himself just as still.

Not one of the hoard.

"Stay here," Robin whispers, like Eddie had any intention of doing otherwise.

"Did we join the neighborhood watch or something?" Robin yells back as she heads out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Eddie waits, trying not to vibrate out of his own skin.

Jesus Christ, he's so fucking tired of hiding and waiting.

Fortunately, it's only a few minutes later that Steve and Robin come back, and they look… unhappy, but not terribly panicked.

"It was Jason Carver and the only two lackeys he's got left," Robin says.

Eddie breathes out, relaxing just a little. Not ideal, but better than the police.

"One of them saw your uncle driving away from here with Dustin," Robin continues. "They asked about you, but I think they were just fishing."

"Great," Eddie mutters, flopping back dramatically on the bed. "Should've called me the freak, make it sound like you're on their side."

Steve snorts. "I don't want them to think we're on their side."

Which is sweet, but - "It doesn't matter what they think, Stevie, I'd still know you guys were on my side no matter what you said."

"Aw, Eddie," Robin says, and Eddie looks up at her just in time to see her plop down on the bed next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

He tips his head away, trying to hide his flush.

"It's not that," Steve says. "If they think we're on their side, it opens us up to having them come around more. They'll loop us into things, sure, which wouldn't have been bad for knowing their next moves, but they'll expect things from us. It's a bad idea when you're hiding here. Plus…"

He trails off, considering, and he's quiet until Robin makes a little hum of encouragement.

"I think Jason's too far gone," he says finally. "But Andy and Eric? They're not as convinced. If I treat this like it's stupid, like there's nothing here and they're wasting my time, like it's boring, they might start to reconsider sticking with Jason on this."

Oh.

"King Steve, huh?" Eddie asks quietly.

Steve shrugs one shoulder, a little too careless. "It's not like I don't still know how to navigate all of that. It just doesn't matter anymore. Everything it means, it's just… pointless."

Eddie looks over at Robin, to find her looking just as contemplative as he feels. Robin looks back at him, and yeah, he's pretty sure she's thinking the same thing he is.

They scoot apart at the exact same time.

"Come here," Robin says, as Eddie reaches out and makes grabby hands at him.

Steve looks between them, giving a little crooked smile, then he kicks off his shoes and climbs up onto the bed, settling in the middle of the two of them.

Robin pillows her head on Steve's chest, and Eddie squishes in so he can rest his own head on Steve's shoulder. Eventually, they'll have to get up and get ready for bed, reconfigure themselves into their usual sleeping arrangement, but for now?

For now, this is perfect.

—

Eddie's surprised to find he feels good when he wakes up, despite overdoing it the day before.

Knowing that his uncle is safe, that he isn't out there worrying over Eddie - or hating him - is like a massive weight off his chest, makes it a little easier to breathe.

He lets the good mood carry him through getting up and helping make breakfast, refusing to let himself get bogged down in everything he hasn't worked out yet.

Robin is completely on board, it seems, and she and Eddie make a nuisance of themselves while Steve tries to resist getting caught up with them.

A losing battle, when both Eddie and Robin are so determined to distract him. It means some of their pancakes burn while Steve throws chocolate chips at them and they have a competition over whether Robin or Eddie can catch the most of them in their mouths, but it makes Steve laugh and Robin shriek happily whenever she gets a few in a row, so it's worth it.

Eddie likes a little charcoal taste with his breakfast food, anyway, and syrup covers almost anything.

Literally.

Both he and Robin have syrup in their hair, though Robin's is way more obvious, and she bitches at him as she wolfs down her pancakes before heading upstairs to shower.

It's just him and Steve, then, sitting on the ground in front of the coffee table, half eaten pancakes still on their plates, and Eddie feels too good to want to mess this up with any kind of talking.

"She's just trying to get out of helping clean up," Steve grumbles, but he's still smiling, and the morning sun lights him up all golden and gorgeous.

"Wishing you thought of that first, huh, pretty boy?" Eddie teases, all wide smiles and the same reckless thrill he'd gotten hot wiring the camper for Steve to drive.

Steve's smile doesn't slip, his expression doesn't go pinched, but because Eddie's so close to him - because he keeps being close to him, keeps greedily memorizing everything he can about him, his soulmate - he sees the way something shutters in his eyes.

Shit.

Did he push too far, this time? Eddie pulls back, falling hard into straight teasing and away from playful flirting. "Ah, I see His Majesty does not favor being compared to a fair maiden, my mistake. Perhaps he'll forgive-"

Steve is shaking his head, though, cutting him off with, "That's not it."

Eddie raises one eyebrow, a silent invitation to continue.

"It's just - it's always an insult. Like come on, pretty boy, let's see what you've got or wow, it's a good thing you're so pretty, Steve. I know you don't mean it like that, I do, but it's not a compliment when people usually say it, you know?"

Oh.

"I wouldn't know," Eddie says, mostly to buy himself some time to figure out how to really respond to that. "Pretty's not usually something people call me, insult or otherwise."

Now Steve's expression goes pinched, brows drawn down like he's personally offended, and whoops, nope, he can't let Steve go off on that tangent.

"No pretty boy, then," Eddie says hurriedly. "You don't like it, I won't say it."

Steve blinks at him, a little thrown. "…just like that?"

"Just like that," Eddie agrees. "Steve - you don't owe me an explanation about anything, you know that, right? I'll listen if you want to give me one, and it'll probably help me understand, but if I do something that you don't like, you can just tell me, and I'll stop."

Steve considers that for a moment. "I like - this," he says, gesturing between them. "I didn't want you to think I wanted you to stop all of it."

Both of Eddie's eyebrows shoot up this time. Yeah, he kind of figured Steve liked the banter and teasing thing they have going on, or else he wouldn't have continued it, but he didn't expect Steve to flat out acknowledge it.

"All of this is just me being my obnoxious self," Eddie points out, because he can't just leave well enough alone.

Steve rolls his eyes. "Yeah," he says simply. "I like that."

Oh god, Eddie can feel his cheeks heat up, and he ducks his head and hides behind his hair so he doesn't have to look at Steve.

Forget the demobats, his stupid soulmate is going to be the death of him.

"There's plenty of other words besides pretty, anyway," he says, once he's reasonably sure he can nail playful teasing again without sounding flustered. "I'm just going to take this as a challenge to find them."

"Please don't," Steve says dryly, but Eddie can see how hard he's fighting not to smile, and he knows he has him.

"Whatever you say, beautiful," Eddie replies, batting his eyelashes at him.

Steve's ears go a little pink, and oh, that's still just as nice as the first time Eddie saw it. It only makes him latch onto his dumb plan even harder.

"Shut up." Steve shoves him.

"No," Eddie replies, so fucking delighted he can't help but grin all wide and gleaming. "My soulmate's so fucking beautiful it makes me want to weep, look at you."

The pink on Steve's ears deepens, and he gives Eddie a look that is probably supposed to be venomous, but his eyes are gleaming with affection and it only makes him more attractive.

And this is - everything that Eddie's ever wanted, everything that he thinks he could actually have if he asked. After the butterflies, he's more than pretty sure that Steve wants Eddie the same way that Eddie wants him, and more than that - he thinks Steve is brave enough to go for it, even with how messy and complicated things might be.

It's just that Eddie isn't.

He knows he has to stop this, knows he needs to pull back and stop fucking flirting, because it feels like this is it, this is the thing that's leading them both to something else, and god, he can't do something else.

But he can't seem to make himself stop.

Not when Steve keeps looking at him, and Eddie is starting to be able to read him well enough to recognize what these looks mean. He knows that with the way the glint in Steve's eyes has sharpened and the corner of his mouth half turned up, he's thinking of something that Eddie'd probably brushed past and thought he'd successfully deflected. He knows that Steve's about to open his mouth and prove that nope, he still remembers that and he isn't letting that go and -

"Do you mind being called pretty?" Steve asks.

Fuck.

"No," Eddie's saying before his brain catches up with him. "I mean, like I said, wouldn't know. But no, I don't mind it. In theory."

Steve twists a little, upper body turning so he can look at him headlong instead of from the side, planting his hand on the ground for balance - so close to Eddie that if he leaned just a little, he could brush Steve's arm. Steve's other arm is resting on his propped up knee, loose and relaxed. It's stupid, how effective that is, how it opens Steve up to him and creates a little barrier from the rest of the world with his body, like Eddie's got all of Steve's attention now and he's shutting out the rest of the world.

"You are really pretty, Eds," Steve says.

It should sound smooth and practiced. Eddie tries to remind himself that it's a fucking line, that Steve's probably said it to dozens of girls, but when Steve says it now it comes out a little breathy and quiet and so fucking earnest that Eddie's throat closes up.

"I'm sorry that everyone's been too stupid to notice it, or not brave enough to tell you." It sounds just as genuine, and fuck, the way Steve is looking at him. "I'm more sorry that I used to be one of them."

Eddie swallows. "But you're not now?"

"I'm not now," Steve agrees.

Is he closer? Eddie's pretty sure he's leaned in closer, and the hand Steve's got on his knee twitches like he's thinking about reaching in to touch Eddie - maybe Eddie's own knee, maybe he's going to cup his chin and hold him steady as he -

The doorbell rings.

"Fuck," Eddie swears.

Steve's eyes dart toward the stairs, like he's considering going to get Robin out of the shower to answer the door with him again, then he exhales sharply and shakes his head.

"Hide," Steve says.

"Where?" Eddie asks, his heart still pounding, though for an entirely different reason now.

"Anywhere. No, wait, not the kitchen, just - don't tell me where, just go, somewhere I can't see you," Steve replies.

Eddie pushes himself up, darting down the hall to the double doors that have always been closed, and ducks inside them. It's an office, the smell of old leather and dust heavy in the air. He considers leaving the door open a crack so he can hear, but he doesn't want to be too obvious, so instead he just presses himself up against the wood when it's closed so he can try to hear through it.

It's muffled, but he can just pick up the sound of Steve opening the door, an indistinct conversation, and then footsteps down the hall.

"How do you take it?" he can hear Steve asking from the kitchen.

"Just cream, thanks," one voice says, followed by a second saying, "Cream and two sugars."

There's the sound of dishes clanking around.

"Thanks for letting me know," Steve says. "Like I said, I haven't been out of the house yet this morning. Had kind of a late night with my soulmate - she's up in the shower now."

"Do you have any idea who might have done this?" the first voice asks, and Eddie recognizes it now - Chief Powell.

Shit.

"I don't want to put blame on anyone without evidence," Steve says, his voice a little reluctant like yeah, he does have an idea - giving them something to press him for.

The other voice, the one Eddie's guessing is Callahan, immediately jumps on it. "But you do have an idea?"

Steve sighs. "Jason Carver was here last night. I think he's pissed at me for talking in the town meeting, and he kept insisting that I must have been, like, hypnotized into Eddie Munson's cult or something."

"…but you haven't, right?" Callahan asks.

Steve snorts, and Eddie can just picture the bitchy look that he's making. "Come on, really? Eddie Munson leading a cult? The guy failed Zoology because he felt bad dissecting frogs."

That's not completely why, but Eddie can still feel his cheeks heating up. He hadn't known Steve remembered that.

"Look, I feel for him, but Carver wants someone to blame, and it kind of seems like he doesn't care who that is." Steve's voice dips a little lower. "I knew Patrick and Chrissy, you know? Patrick was a good guy, a great basketball player, and Chrissy was nice to everyone. They deserve better, they deserve real justice. I just think Carver should keep his nose out of it and leave the investigating up to the actual professionals."

"Hear, hear," Callahan says, sounding pleased.

It must have not been a lie, but Eddie's pretty sure Callahan and Powell aren't the professionals Steve means.

"Did the neighbors say they saw anyone?" Steve asks.

"Not last night, but they did mention you have quite a few people coming and going," Powell says. "You know who they might mean?"

Steve hums thoughtfully. "Robin Buckley, my soulmate, she's here most days. Nancy Wheeler and her brother are over a lot. Jon Byers, he's visiting from California, and he usually comes with his friend Argyle and his little brother and sister. Lucas Sinclair, he's on the basketball team? And his soulmate Max. Then there's Dustin Henderson, I still babysit him sometimes when his mom's working late. I think it makes her feel better, you know, with everything going on."

"Checks out," Callahan says. "So, are you thinking you want to press charges if we find out it was Carver?"

Steve's quiet for a moment. "No," he says finally. "I meant what I said about feeling for him. Just, maybe talk to his parents? Before he goes too far and does something stupid he can't go back from."

"Good man," Callahan says. "Thanks for the coffee, this is way better than the crap we get at the station."

"Let me make you a thermos to go," Steve offers.

There's more clanking, then the sound of footsteps walking away - though only one pair.

"You don't happen to know where Eddie Munson might be, do you?" Powell asks.

Eddie holds his breath, suddenly and ridiculously afraid that if he even breathes too loud, Powell will know.

"Honestly, I have no idea where he is right now," Steve says.

Powell hums. "If you do see him…"

"Yeah, sure, I'll tell him you're looking for him," Steve says.

"And tell him he's not our top suspect anymore," Powell adds. "We just want to ask him a few questions."

"Sure," Steve says again.

There's a long silence.

"We'll talk to the Carvers," Powell promises, and then Eddie can hear footsteps receding.

The front door closes, locks, but Eddie still waits until he hears clanging in the kitchen again before he steps out.

He finds Steve setting a pair of cups in the dishwasher, a new pot of coffee percolating in the maker.

"Hey," Eddie says.

Steve closes the dishwasher, looking up at him. "You hear any of that?"

"Some," Eddie admits. "What did Carver do?"

Steve breathes out, forearms braced against the kitchen island as he leans forward. "Keyed up my car, smashed my tail lights in. Spray painted a little message on the driveway."

Fuck.

Eddie has to get moving, way too full of nervous energy, so he makes his way over to the cabinet to take out another mug. "What did it say?"

"Does it matter?" Steve asks, sounding tired.

Eddie slams the cabinet door shut. "What did it say."

Steve's quiet, and when Eddie turns around, he finds him looking at him far too closely.

"What?" Eddie demands.

"Eddie," Steve says, pushing himself up to come stand next to him.

Despite himself, Eddie finds some of the tension bleeding out of him. "What?" he asks, softer this time.

"You're my soulmate. Okay? You're my soulmate. It could have said anything, and I wouldn't care. He could do it again, with something else, and I'll be pissed, but I won't regret having you here."

Eddie closes his eyes, rocking back to lean against the kitchen counter. "Stop knowing what I'm upset about before I do," he mutters.

Steve huffs out a little laugh. "No."

"What does it say?" Eddie asks again.

"Traitor," Steve replies.

Eddie snorts.

"Yeah," Steve says.

They're quiet for a moment, and Eddie listens to the sound of the coffee hissing.

"I'm going to turn myself in," Eddie says after a while.

"What? No."

Eddie opens his eyes. "Come on, Steve. If I don't - do you really think Carver is going to stop now? What if he decides just to break in here, huh? What if I can't hide quick enough next time?"

Steve jaw sets, and Eddie can tell he isn't happy about it, but he can't seem to think of a good counter argument. "Then I'm going with you."

Eddie grimaces, but yeah, he'd been expecting that, and he pulls out his trump card. "Only if Robin agrees."

Unfortunately, Robin agrees.

He frowns at her in utter betrayal while Steve gets El to put Hopper on the walkie and gives him a rundown of what happened.

Robin shrugs at him. "You should know by now that Steve's never going to let himself be sidelined when someone he cares about decides to throw themselves off the bench."

"You two and your sports metaphors," Eddie grumbles, but he has to admit - at least to himself - that she's right.

If they tried to stop Steve, he'd probably find a way to come anyway.

Hopper agrees to meet with Murray again today, then come over tomorrow to make a plan for the actual going to the police station part, and Eddie trudges upstairs to call his uncle at the hotel.

Uncle Wayne doesn't like it, Eddie can tell, but like Steve, he can't think of an argument good enough to beat Eddie's, so he just agrees to meet them here tomorrow, too, and makes Eddie promise not to do anything until they all agree on a plan.

Eddie really wishes that he could just get this over with, now that he's decided he's going to do it, but unfortunately, they all have a point.

So he just takes his own shower, gets the syrup out of his hair as best as he can, and tries not to be pissy about more fucking waiting.

When he gets out of the bathroom - Steve's sitting on the bed, clearly waiting for him.

"Hi," Steve says. "Can we talk?"

Shit.

Eddie swallows. "Now?"

"I don't want to keep waiting, man, especially not if we're doing this tomorrow," Steve says.

And yeah, okay, Eddie can't really protest that, so he just nods, sitting on the bed next to Steve.

"It's just - I'm really, really into you," Steve says, his voice soft and low and his eyes warm and earnest. "And it kind of seems like you're into me, too."

Fuck.

Steve huffs out a soft little laugh, running his fingers through his hair. "I mean, maybe I'm wrong, and I have no idea how to tell if a guy's interested in me like I usually can with girls - I'm kind of still new at the guys part - but I thought, you know. What if I'm right, what if I'm missing out on something great? And I figured even if I went for it and I was wrong, you'd be good about it. You wouldn't like, punch me or anything."

"Steve," Eddie breathes out, touched by the sentiment despite the fact that he can already feel his heart breaking over what he knows he's going to have to do. "That's a lot of trust in me there."

"I trust you," Steve says, like it's that easy, no hesitation. "Plus, you know, I'm your soulmate, so you're stuck with me no matter what."

He sounds confident, and if Eddie didn't know him so well, he's not sure he could hear the little hitch in his voice, or see the hint of fear in his eyes.

"You're my soulmate," he agrees, rushing to get that out before anything else. "I'm not going anywhere, no matter what."

Steve shoots a tiny relieved smile at him, leaning in so their shoulders press together. They sit like that for a few moments, silence resting between them - it's warm and cozy despite the tension, like melted marshmallow being stretched longer and longer.

"But?" Steve asks after a bit.

Eddie swallows, running a hand over his face to try to buy him some time while he figures out how to say this without either lying or hurting them both even more.

"You're not wrong," he says finally. "I am into you. Steve, I - I love having you as my soulmate. I wouldn't want it to be anyone else. I'm happy with you, okay? I am."

Steve nods, though his expression has shut down a little, and Eddie can't quite read what's in his eyes anymore.

"But…" Steve prompts again.

Eddie closes his eyes, taking the coward's way out so he doesn't have to look at Steve while he says it. "But I don't think I could handle sharing if we were romantic soulmates."

There's silence again, and Eddie can hear Steve pull in a ragged breath and let it out.

"Okay," Steve says after a while.

Eddie opens his eyes. "Okay?"

Steve frowns at him. "What am I supposed to say?"

"I don't know," Eddie admits. "You could be a little bit of a dick about it? Tell me I don't know what I'm missing, that I could be having the full Steve Harrington experience here? Yell at me for breaking your heart?"

Steve snorts. "There's no full Steve Harrington experience."

Eddie gasps, mock affronted. "There is, didn't you listen to the gossip? I would be most aggrieved if I didn't get it."

Steve rolls his eyes, shoving him. Then, "My heart'll live. You are, shockingly, not the first person who's had to shoot me down like this."

Eddie thinks of Nancy Wheeler, feels his stomach clench a little at being on the same level as that whole mess. "Sorry," he says quietly.

"I mean, I'm not going to pretend like it doesn't suck, but I'm happy with you, too, okay? I want you as my soulmate, no matter what."

Eddie groans. "What did I tell you about saying stuff like that to me?"

Steve gives him a little smile. "I'm still not going to stop."

It's quiet again, not quite like the comfortable silences Eddie'd gotten used to with Steve, but something close.

"So. Boys, huh?" he asks after a while. "Who'd have thought that'd be something Steve Harrington was into."

Steve fixes him with a look. "Boys, huh?" he mimics. "Who'd have thought that'd be something Eddie Munson was into?"

Eddie shrugs one shoulder, conceding. Eddie'd worked very hard to be the freak, to be the type of metal-loving, Satan-worshiping, drug-dealing scary guy that people were afraid would steal their daughter or girlfriend or sister away. Granted, most of it hadn't actually been work, but it still wasn't really who he was.

"Mostly boys," he says, if only to actually say it outloud, to let himself be purposefully vulnerable with Steve even though they both already know. "There's been a few girls-" He tries hard not to think about Chrissy Cunningham's sweet smile and bright laugh. "-but mostly boys."

"Opposite for me," Steve says quietly. "Mostly girls, but - yeah, a few boys."

Eddie's eyebrows shoot up. "A few boys? Steve, are you telling me I'm not the first boy you've had eyes for?"

"Shut up," Steve says, shoving Eddie away when he makes grabby hands at him. "You're the first boy I ever wanted to be my soulmate, but yeah, all right, not my first crush."

Eddie lets himself feel all soft and gooey for a moment before he goes back to hassling Steve to tell him who.

"Ugh, fine," Steve groans. "But you can't tell anyone."

"Cross my heart," he promises.

"Jonathan," Steve mutters.

Eddie's forehead crinkles. "Byers?" He takes the silence as agreement, and grins at him. "What, get a little too into being up close and personal with him when you guys had that fight?"

Steve groans. "No. Believe it or not, I've experienced too much getting knocked around to get off on it, thanks. No, it was after, when we were fighting the demogorgon. Jonathan grabbed my hand to pull me away, and I just kind of instinctively grabbed it back, and then we were holding hands and I just - it was nice. I thought about it later, and realized I really liked holding his hand."

And that, well. Realizing that you like boys because it was really nice when a boy held your hand in the middle of fighting a monster is so Steve that it makes his heart ache, that it kind of makes him want to say fuck it and kiss him.

"Yeah?" Eddie asks instead, wiggling his eyebrows. "Whose hand holding is better, then, me or Byers?"

Steve's expression doesn't change, but his eyes shutter - Eddie can see it now even more than he could when he called him pretty boy, can see the flicker of pain there before he just shuts himself down.

"Oh," Eddie says quietly. "Should I not?"

There's a moment where Steve considers that.

"No," he says after a while. "That was okay. But I think we might have to put a pause on too heavy innuendo, or too many jokes about me wanting you. Just for a little bit."

"Yeah," Eddie mutters, feeling his heart crack a little more. "I can do that." He pulls his legs up, arms wrapped around them. "Sorry."

"It's not your fault, man," Steve says.

Eddie rests his chin on his knees, ignoring the slight sting from the tug of his stitched together skin. "Kind of feels like it is, a little," he admits. "I mean, Robin's okay with sharing."

Or at least, he assumes she is. He knows there's no way Steve would confess romantic feelings for him if Robin didn't know about it or wasn't on board.

"That's different," Steve says.

And - yeah, true. Robin's got another soulmate waiting for her, too, and maybe that makes it easier to share a romantic soulmate.

Steve looks a little troubled, though, and he leans just a little to bump their shoulders together. "I don't - I don't expect you to be Robin, you know that, right? Platonic or romantic, it's different."

Eddie snorts. "Well, yeah, I'd hope things would be a little different if we were - you know." It's half teasing and half serious, and he considers for a moment before adding, "I know you don't expect that."

Steve nods, and Eddie can hear him breathing out, feel a slow release of tension. There's quiet for a little longer, then Steve says, almost haltingly, "I don't… think romantic relationships mean more than platonic. I used to, but, uh. Almost everyone who's ever really meant anything to me has been platonic. Once I got out of high school, and with the Upside Down stuff, I just… I don't know. But Robin and you and the kids - you're the most important people in my life. You always will be."

He doesn't know what to say to that. It touches too closely on what's been pulling him into the party and pushing him away from it this whole time - he doesn't really know how to let people see the real him, not after so long of keeping up his walls to protect himself.

Or he guesses - he doesn't know what to do now that there are people who've seen the real him, and who still want to keep him. Eddie's only ever had Uncle Wayne like that, and he doesn't know how to be important to people, how to be more than just a band member or a dungeon master.

He's terrified of messing it up.

"I'll keep that in mind," he says finally, which seems to be enough for Steve, who bumps his shoulder and then pushes himself up, heading out to go join Robin.

It wasn't a lie, obviously, so Eddie believes that Steve doesn't think romantic soulmates mean more than platonic ones. The thing is - does Eddie believe that romantic soulmates mean more?

And it's.

Yeah.

He does.

Which means he guesses there's more he has to think about.

Eddie: well at least Steve and I are totally on the same page now, now all I have to do is turn myself into the police and reevaluate my opinions on platonic and romantic soulmates, sounds good

-----

Part 22

Steve: wow I am 2 for 2 on confessing to my soulmates and getting gently shot down, platonic for life it is

Tag list (always happy to add more!): @vampireinthesun @koibug @estrellami-1 @mentalcyborg @allbimyself26 @questionablequeeries @the-s-is-silent @whimsicalwitchm @a-gae-af-racoon @tinyplanet95 @n0-1-important @velocitytimes2 @swimmingbirdrunningrock @newtstabber @jcmadgirl @roblingoblin285 @lexyvey @paperbackribs @goodolefashionedloverboi @evix-syne666 @raisedbylibrarians @stxrcrossed186 @nightmareglitter @greekgeek24 @starman-jpg @crazyhatlady86 @imfinereallyy @manda-panda-monium @deleataecount @prideandsensibility @chaoticvictorianspirit @maydillydally @disrespectedgoatman @scarlet-malfoy @i-less-than-three-you @hbyrde36 @hallucinatedjosten @dragonsandgayships @arepaconchocolate @g4ys0n @novelnovella @bisexualdisastersworld @ghostofyourvampiregf @scarletyeager @pettrichore @nerd-and-nervous @hiimlevi @queenie-ofthe-void @cinnamon-mushroomabomination

[storiesofsvu]

Rita Calhoun 50 OTP Q's Pt. 2

Rita Calhoun x fem!reader no major warnings. pt 2 a pretty quick follow up of pt 1 as it's just some hc's and not a full fic lol. Send your req's in here for more fun!

26. Who likes to eat healthy/ Who loves junk food?                 You both have a good balance of both. Rita really enjoys her sweet treats, but she doesn’t go overboard on them. She prefers to order groceries from whole foods while you don’t care where they come from as long as its edible. She does rely on take out a lot, but it’s from healthier places, salads, sandwiches, rice or noodle bowls, acai bowls, salmon or chicken and rice with veggies. You’ve even found her some nights with delivery from restaurants that don’t even offer it and all she’s said is “I know a guy…”. You’re the one more likely to indulge in the greasy pizza, overloaded Chinese food or mcdonalds.

27. Who takes a long shower/ Who sings in the shower?                 Rita’s everything shower is over an hour long every single time. You cannot tell me that woman doesn’t have a like 20 fucking step routine between skincare, haircare, dry brushing, etc. It’s also one of the times during the day that she uses to relax, some candles, a nice soft playlist to help her wind down. You’re the one that sings in the shower, though you only try to do it in the mornings she’s already gone for the day in the hopes to not be overheard.

28. Who is the book worm?                 Rita, absolutely hands down. She’s *obsessed* with books and on weekend shopping days will ALWAYS be dragging you into bookstores, especially antique or second hand ones. She’s usually got multiple on the go at once, a couple of fiction with different genres, and a couple of non fiction.

29. Who is the better cook?                 We all know it’s going to be you. It doesn’t matter if you’re not that great. Rita can’t even defrost an Uncrustable properly.

30. Who likes long walks on the beach?                 Gonna go with both of you. You don’t care what kind of beach it is, you enjoy the company, feeling the sand in your toes, the water on your feet, best way to end the day. Rita prefers the walking paths/sidewalks down by the beach so she doesn’t have to deal with the sand.

31. Who is more affectionate?                 Overall, and physically, you. You’re always telling her how much you love her, and are eager to have a hand or arm linked with hers while walking around outside. You’re more likely to be the one stealing a kiss or showing off PDA. It’s in the privacy of your home that Rita goes overboard with her affection. She shows it by physical touch and gifts mainly. Her hands tracing patterns on your legs while they’re strewn over her lap on the couch, she often catches herself watching you with a dreamy smile on her face because of how much she loves you and how much she can’t believe how well you take care of her.

32. Who likes to have really long (deep) conversation?                 This one’s definitely going to Rita. She can talk for hours on end about those deep philosophical conversations that go on far too late into the night. She always enjoys expanding her mind and self educating herself on various topics and loves spending time looking things up and debating back and fourth with friends.

33. Who would wear “not guilty” t-shirt/ Who would wear “sin” t-shirt?                 Hear me out, this was Rita and Rafael in their Harvard days. I’ll let you decide who’s wearing which one lol.

34. Who would wear “if lost return to…” t-shirt/ Who would wear “I am…” t-shirt?                 You’re definitely wearing the lost one, Rita’s the much more sober and collected one, gently guiding you to the car at the end of the night.

35. Who goes overboard on the holidays?                 Rita. She never means to, you’ve likely set limits for prices of presents and she almost always accidentally exceeds it. She never cared much for holidays, thinking they were overrated and never bothered to decorate her home or office when she was single and working all the time. But there’s something about seeing the way your eyes sparkle in the Christmas lights that she has a team fully decking out the entire apartment every single year because she knows you love it. (she does always make sure they leave the tree bare as that’s been made into a tradition the two of you do together.)

36. Who is the social media addict?                 You. Rita is not chronically online. The apps on her phone are much more likely to be various news ones. She likely has twitter and uses it more as a work reference and again, to keep up on current events and news. I DO like to believe that she has a (likely private) Instagram (and we’re gonna ignore the timeline of when insta became a thing/her age for this hc lol). And she’s been posting on it since college, fancy parties, yacht trips out in the hamptons, semi spicy bikini or dress pics, it’s incredibly aesthetic and she thrives to keep the vibe going. She’s got a fuck ton of followers and is like, lowkey Instagram famous, but most of the posts don’t actually include her face, especially as she got older and more concerned with her professional image.

37. Height difference or age difference?                 Didn’t we already do height? Lol. Age wise, Rita’s usually older. She focused on school and work and didn’t want to waste time dating when she was younger. Now that she’s established most people closer to her age are already married with kids. She doesn’t have any issues dating younger, as long as her partner has their shit together and has some ambition and goals when it comes to life. She cant deal with someone who has no motivation and just lounges around all day.

38. Who likes to star gaze?                 This is more leaning towards you. You like to take a moment during each day to appreciate the little things, like this, and say a silent thank you to the world for making such beautiful things. She doesn’t really think about it until you’re out of the skyscrapers of the city, sometimes out in the hampton’s, sometimes it’s a more tropical vacation that she can really see the night sky and there’s no place she’d rather be than on a cozy blanket showing you constellations.

39. Who buys cereal for the prize inside?                 Absolutely you! Which Rita will lovingly tease you about, especially if there is a collection of toys and you continue to buy boxes until you have the entire set. (and naturally you never actually eat the cereal..)

40. Who is the fun parent/ Who is the responsible parent?                 If it came to actual parenting, I think Rita would be a mix of both, but much heavier leaning toward the responsible one. But she’s not having kids, so she’s always going to be the super fun rich af Aunt. She doesn’t do well with the younger kids, but once they’re about 16/17 she can have actual conversations with them, and she’ll be the one sneaking them booze and inviting them out to the hampton’s and letting them (semi responsibly) party on the yacht. She’s obviously the one you’d want to call when you’re in trouble considering her job and she’s also the one that’s never going to whisper a word to either of your parents. She’ll take those secrets to the grave. And she’s also very capable of intimidating the fuck out of bullies or ex boyfriends. She will threaten them with jail time.

41. Who cries during sad movies?                 Both of you. Rita’s a fucking sap so she cries at the romantic movies, you’re more likely the one to cry over the animals.

42. Who is the neat freak?                 I don’t particularly think Rita’s a neat *freak* but she has everything in its spot and knows where her things are 99.9% of the time. She’s organized, collected, tidy, her kitchen’s always clean cause she never cooks lol. And she likely has a cleaning service come to her apartment weekly to help with that kinda stuff.

43. Who wins the stuffed animals at the carnival for the other one?                 You’re shocked Rita even agreed to go to the carnival with you and you’ve promised to win her one as a thank you. While she does have fun, indulges in plenty of food she never would have touched otherwise, and obviously pays for you to play all the stupid, nearly impossible to win games, it’s the giant smile on your face as you turn to her with a lime neon green giant monkey that makes her the happiest. If it had been some random gift from a first date it would have gone in the trash right away, but because it's from you and you worked so hard to win it he gets a name by the time you’re home and either lives on a stool in the walk in closet or has taken up residency in the guest room. (it’s his room now)

44. Who is active/ Who is lazy?                 You like to get a daily workout in, something as small as a walk around the block on slower days up to a class at the gym or some heavy lifting on days you’re more ambitious. Rita always makes sure to not be too sedentary, especially with an office job. She enjoys the more streamlined workouts, Pilates or yoga, things that she can do in the privacy of her living room and not have to leave the house for on colder days. She doesn’t particularly enjoy running, but will do it when she starts to feel a little too stiff and immobile. On the other hand, she truly enjoys your post dinner walks through the park, hand in hand as you share little stories.

45. Who is more likely to get drunk?                 Absolutely you. Rita will indulge in a drink or two with dinner, a cocktail or two out at the bar, but she doesn’t go much passed that. She doesn’t like to be out of control of herself, especially out in public. She has been known to finish a bottle of wine or two while at the apartment, and definitely gets a little silly, laughing harder and longer than she normally does.

46. Who has the longer food order?                 This is weird. Lol. I’m gonna go with Rita because she likely hasn’t eaten since breakfast and thus is more hungry, opting for an app or two and a full course meal while you’re fine with just a burger.

47. Who has the more complex coffee order?                 Rita. While it’s pretty simple at home, if she’s out and there’s a fancier option, she’s indulging. She probably has some sort of self made up special combination of different drinks. You’d think the barista’s would hate her for it but they all know her by name and have nicknamed the drink ‘The Calhoun’ so it has its own priced button in the computer and sticker label with all the steps for newer staff. (not to mention she tips incredibly on the daily)

48. Who loses stuff?                 You.

49. Who is the driver/ Who is the passenger?                 You’re always the driver if you’re not in a cab/car service. While Rita does know how to drive, she simply doesn’t. I could definitely see her having gotten her licence back in the day and never using it, thus letting it expire. She’s a passenger princess through and through.

50. Who is the hopeless romantic?                 Rita. That bitch is a cold hearted shark who scares or at least intimidates 90 % of the people she comes across in her workday/life but she has this completely other side to her with the people she trusts and loves. She’s the softest, most gentle, caring, tender person who will always put her love first and take every opportunity to show it.

________________________

@hbkpop @mickey-gomez @red1culous @imlike-so-gaydude @altsvu @svulife-rl rl @svushots @wannabe-fic-reader @bumblebear30 @alexbllake @australiancarisi @cerberus-spectre @emskisworld @ex-uallyactive @dead-of-niight @multifandomlesbianic @dxtery @momlifebehard @poisonedcrowns @when-wolves-howl @godard-muse @itisdoctortoyousir @httpjupiterbby @somethingimaginative17 @alexxavicry @daddy-heather-dunbar @evilregal2002 @dextur @disneyfan624 @svushots @happenstnces @onmykneesformarvel @kmc1989 @irishavengersassemble @valentinesfrog @noahrex @wittygutsy @chimnlex @i-lovefandom @ralla-ralla @chestnutninny @gamma-rae-bursts

[bubblegum-glitch]

The Catalyst: Life working in retail and the moment I finally said "fuck it, I'm doing porn."

I've been working in Customer Service off and on since early 2005, only ever being unemployed for short periods of time between job searches. I've worked in various retail establishments, with shipping companies, call centres, door-to-door sales, and even in kitchens & cafes. The only industry I have ever refused to work in has been fast food, and I'm sure those of you who have worked a drive through or two in your lives can understand my reasoning. I began in my first year of high school working at a Dollar Store that was next to an extremely seedy strip club (it eventually burned down and it was discovered that the owner had done it to try and cash in on the insurance). From customers verbally and physically abusing me, to an elderly man jerking his cock in front of me, my first romp in retail was merely a taste of what was to come for the next 20 years.

Some jobs were certainly better than others. I worked at a bookstore and a Halloween shop, both of which would have been fine if not for the politics of the company bleeding into the staff and making us all miserable. Bad management teams, abusive coworkers, bullying and drama akin to that which we experience in High School - it becomes exhausting after awhile. For minimum wage, which doesn't even come close to a living wage, it's just not worth the headaches. I rarely lasted longer than two years with any of my employers. When you're handed a penny raise after working your ass off for an entire year you tend to lose faith in the company that you've been breaking your back (and sanity) for. I promise, there was no lack of trying on my part to escape the clutches of the customer service industry. I have my BA in English, I have a certificate in photography, and I have some training in IT Web design (which proved to be far too much for my little brain to handle) and Audio Engineering. Unfortunately the job market for all of these industries in my part of the world is pretty much non existent. I'm pretty sure a BA in English is worth less than toilet paper even after the great pandemic shortage of 2020. Unfortunately, to make money in this world you gotta do what you gotta do. So to pay off my crippling debt and be able to afford an occasional package of ramen noodles so I don't starve to death, I have to continue working these soul crushing, mindless jobs.

It was in 2016 when I started working in donation rooms at thrift stores and, I will be completely honest with you - I fucking love it. Granted, it has it's downsides. I've sorted through more than a couple bags with mould, human feces, needles, and used sex toys, but the satisfaction of the treasure hunt it's absolutely worth the nasty shit that you sometimes encounter. But once again, the politics of the industry got in the way of finding my work enjoyable and rewarding. Nasty upper management was the downfall of all three thrift locations I've worked at. The first store the CEO shut us down without warning (I also later learned he was a sexual predator and was being sued by some of his employees for harassment, so that was gross). The second location had a violent customer base (we were robbed repeatedly), a bully assistant manager who would scream in your face when HE made a mistake, and a regional manager who loved to throw her staff under the bus.

So that leads us to my third romp in thrift, my absolute favourite job I've ever had, and the devastation brought upon me when everything came crumbling down.

My husband and I came into a little bit of money in 2021 and I decided to take a break from the world of customer service bullshit and return to school (This was my IT and Audio Engineering training). That summer I got a student job at a thrift store where 100% of the proceeds go into helping rescue animals. It was entirely volunteer based other than the management team and the summer students (who were there on a government grant). I had such an enjoyable experience working there as the volunteer coordinator than I returned the following summer, and they were so impressed with me they ended up hiring me on permanently part time to help with their rapidly growing business. At this point, due to some mental health struggles, I am not currently able to work full time hours, and they were more than happy to work around my disability...

Until the new regional manager was hired.

The store closed for renovations and I was brought in to help rebuild and re-brand the store.

Sure. No problem. It's more hours than I'm available for, but I don't mind just for a couple of weeks. It's also more physical work than my body is really equipped for but, just this once, I'll suffer through with a smile on my face.

Then I'm handed a key and I'm told "You're a staff supervisor now". Oh... okay? No one talked to me or asked me if I wanted the promotion, it's more hours than I can handle, and I don't really want the responsibilities that come with a supervisor position because of my disability, but since my old position has been dissolved I guess I'll have to suck it up. At least it comes with a raise, right?

Nope. Still minimum wage. Which is currently sitting about $15 under a livable wage. Also, we won't be training you and just expect you to know how to do the assistant manager's job.

Okay... Gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

You also have to work more shifts than you're available for.

Oh... yeah, okay. That could start to prove difficult as I'm dealing with a depressive episode right now but... sure?

Then suddenly I'm responsible for everything that goes wrong. A volunteer makes a mistake? Blame Billie - even on days she isn't working. The cash or pricing machines break? Billie. Shoes, purses, dresses, and coats priced to low? Blame Billie and make sure she's the only person who prices these things from now on. Need 30 things done at once right this second, tell Billie and don't let her delegate the tasks to anyone else. If she does, yell at her! Have Billie open and close the store for the next two weekends, but don't train her how to do it and expect her not to make any mistakes. Customer has an issue? That's right, it's also somehow Billie's fault! Even when she's at home sleeping!

Blame, blame, blame, blame, blame, blame, blame.

Yeah. This was the breaking point for me.

In July of 2023 I had started up an OnlyFans account to bring in a couple extra dollars. I'll discuss why this was a challenging decision for me in a future post, but originally I was just planning to post some tasteful nudes to earn myself a little spending money. By May of 2024, as all this bullshit had begun happening at work, that mindset had officially gone from a couple tasteful nudes to "Fuck it, I'm quitting retail and making porn." By August I had amassed enough of a following to put in my notice.

I am finished with retail as of October 15th, 2024 and turning to creating adult content full time.

Honestly, this is a terrifying leap of faith as I know content creation can be a fickle beast. Some months will be more lucrative than others, while an inability to keep people invested could have everything all come crashing down on top of me.

But I'm done with working for people who take advantage of me and pay me pennies. I know my value and I'm worth more than what I'm being given. I'm not a number who is easily replaceable, I am a strong capable woman who is in charge of her own destiny.

So fuck you workforce,

I quit!

Now. If you'll excuse me, I'm off to live life how it's meant to be lived,

Enjoyed!

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 民国奇探/My Roommate is a Detective.

My Roommate is a Detective is a 2020 drama about the Jazz Age shenanigans of a terrible OT3: a useless noodle boy, a spoiled journalist girl, and a handsome thug-turned-cop, who together solve Agatha Christie mysteries in 1920s Shanghai.

I mean, seriously, have you ever wondered what Hercule Poirot would be like if he were a 6'2" Chinese rubber man? If he had a long-suffering sugar daddy from the wrong side of the tracks and a spunky sugar mommy who owned their shared apartment? The answer is, it would be a laugh-out-loud-funny series about a ridiculous and charming assortment of weirdos solving only slightly believable murder mysteries in charming period clothing.

This is another one of those shows where I'm kind of shocked at how not well-known it is, except I'm not, because I can see exactly the problems that keep fandom from descending on it like horny little vultures. Nonetheless, I think it's a good time that more people would enjoy if they gave it the chance. Here's five reasons why you should:

1. Equal parts smart as heck and dumb as butts

On the one hand, especially given its tone and tenor, this show has many surprisingly clever turns and thoughtful moments, carried along by some talented actors. On the other hand, [.gif of a guinea pig in a rollerskate being pushed merrily down a hallway]

This show is not a complicated intellectual exercise. It's an action comedy about a goofy sleuth, a rich-girl reporter, and the cop who should be the straight man in this trio, except he's as much of a goober as the other two are. If the promotional tableaus are giving you real "cover of a Clue box" vibes, you've understood the kind of pastiche it's pulling off.

The mysteries are preposterous. They're all the kind of thing that exemplify the Doyle line about how, when you've eliminated the impossible, whatever's left has got to be the answer, no matter how ding-dang improbable it may be. You know the type: tons of overly elaborate setups, unbelievably perfect timing, coincidental long-lost relatives, people hallucinating right and left. They're also very short -- most full cases take only 2-3 episodes to introduce, investigate, and resolve, even when interspersed with the larger goings-on in these weirdos' lives. The DramaWiki page for the show lists 23 separate arcs over 36 episodes, so you do the math.

And yet, it's way more thoughtful and clever than its doofy little setup would indicate. Its attention to detail surprised me on more than one occasion. Add to that a bunch of solid performances from an ensemble of real characters, and what you get is definitely more substantive than a junk-food waste of time. You can't turn your brain off while watching it, but you sure can turn it down, and that's great.

It also doesn't hurt that everyone is super attractive and wearing great outfits. The whole show's worth it for the wardrobes.

2. THE GIRL

Fuck the haters, fuck everyone, I am going to climb right up on my little soapbox and tell you all why Bai Youning is awesome.

She is insane. She's a troll. She's a clever little monster. Every other character's response to her is, oh my god, you are literally the worst. And she is! She has been spoiled beyond belief by her incredibly rich Crime Dad, and she has learned to leverage her uwu just a widdle girl status to get her whatever the hell she wants. She simply cannot hear it when someone says the word "no." She will look her future sister-in-law in the eye and point a loaded gun at her own head without blinking. Every ball she has is made of brass.

She's hardly perfect. During the course of the show, there are some times where her entitlement runs face-first into the brick wall of reality. She's not nearly as good at her chosen career path as she's been told (mostly by the people who get paid to tell her she's good). She's rarely prepared to deal with the consequences of her actions, especially when she can't just throw money at the problem.

So she learns, and grows, and changes. She's always going to be a stubborn bitch, but she can become a stubborn bitch with a more accurate conception of her relationship to the world around her.

She's actually a really good romantic foil for Lu Yao, who is equally stubborn and spoiled and obnoxious as hell. It is a pure brat4brat relationship, where each one thrives on comically enraging the other. What this means, though, is that when they actually start showing one another some vulnerability, it's really sweet.

Now: I'm pretty sure that you could not have made a female character in her position that everyone did not hate, no matter how cool you made her, because that is the fate of all girls who theoretically keep the two boys from kissing. (More on that next point.) If she were less outgoing and friendly, she would've been hated for being too cold. If she were less headstrong, she would've been hated for being a pushover. If she weren't as into the boy, she would've been hated for being frigid. I know the "god forbid a woman do anything" meme is a joke, but ... man, god forbid this girl do anything. She gets a level of hate entirely disproportionate to what she's actually like. As I said with Eom Dada, it's not always sexism, but sometimes, yeah, it's sexism.

(Real talk: Her character is also fighting both how she's definitely not written as well as the boys are and how the plot sometimes needs her to be artificially stupid and jealous for Straightness Drama Reasons, so that's a legit problem on a structural level. Also, she's dubbed by someone else and the boys aren't, which gives her voice an annoying not-quite-there quality that's hard to ignore. The deck is stacked against her real hard even before she steps onscreen.)

So here's my advice: Go into this show wanting to like her. Embrace her terribleness as a positive, intentional quality. Don't be mad at her for straightening up an endgame that was never going to be gay, even without her. Welcome her contributions to the chaos. Realize that she is exactly as entertainingly irritating as her boys are.

Truly, this is a story of three terrible people in love. They're all just awful, and you wouldn't want to be in a room with any of them for longer than you had to. Left to right up there, Bai Youning is spoiled and self-absorbed, Lu Yao is arrogant and lazy, and Qiao Chusheng is suuuuuch a fucking cop. If you're into the kind of dynamic that can only be described OT3: You All Deserve One Another, then this one's perfect for you.

3. Do you really miss '00s queerbaiting?

Like, really? Are you just super-nostalgic for being able to see the showrunners go, ha ha, girls, we know you're watching and we know you want these cute boys to kiss, which they never will -- but what if we pretended for just this one scene??? Do you just carnally ache for that with every fiber of your being?

Yep.

Now, why am I calling the occasional really gay moments between these two gentlemen "queerbaiting" and not "bromance"? Because these moments are a) obviously intentional, b) completely sporadic, and c) never spoken of again.

For example: There's a scene (which you can see a gifset of here) where the two of them are at a restaurant frequented by the cop, who brings a lot of ladies there on dates. When the waiter points this out, useless noodle boy says, I'm his date. The waiter looks mildly surprised by this, the cop says not to listen to his bullshit, and that's the end of it. The scene moves on. There is no further discussion of this comment. It does not affect their relationship.

That's the essence of queerbaiting: that little on-purpose nod to the homoerotic tension between the two, in a way that isn't a joke but also isn't not a joke, and either way is never going to happen. (In fact, the show is going to go out of its way to make sure that ship gets sunk, so, uh, get your fanfiction lifeboats ready for that.)

A true queerbaiting move is something that should make a difference in a relationship, but doesn't. It should make a difference that our cop is so comfortable in the noodle boy's personal space that he invades it at will. It doesn't. It should make a difference that noodle boy keeps getting real weird every time the cop has a date with a girl. It doesn't. Those are some real romantic moves the two of them keep pulling, and then nothing comes of them.

I had this show sold to me as being incredibly shippy, to the point of being even more so than its censored-BL contemporaries. And ... well, it is and it isn't. It has textually gayer individual moments, but it is much less pervasively gay. It's clear from the start that it's going to throw all its actual relationship points into its canon het romance. When it comes to these boys, the show is toying with you. It knows you want to see those boys smooch, just as much as it knows (and it knows you know) they're never gonna.

How you feel about this is entirely up to you -- and indeed, it may be a dealbreaker on the whole drama for you. If you are inclined to pitch a fit when your ship does not become canon, you'll be happier somewhere else. If, however, you see this as a delightful opportunity to do whatever the hell you want with the situation as it is presented, all the while enjoying little moments of startlingly blatant homoeroticism between two handsome dudes, well, here you are!

(I mean, if you want my take on it, what needs to happen is that the cop and the girl need to fuck while the useless noodle boy watches with asexual bisexual interest, and then they all need to snuggle with the noodle boy in the middle so they can both annoy him appropriately, but your mileage may vary.)

4. The multicultural extravaganza!

1920s Shanghai had a lot going on in terms of cultures and languages, and this show actually does a fair job of representing that.

By now, I've seen a number of shows set during this era, and they all at least acknowledge the international nature of the city -- usually by mentioning the French Concession and having a handful of evil Japanese characters. However, this is the first time I've seen a show go to such lengths to actually show so many non-Chinese characters onscreen, even to the point of making one a recurring character supporting the main squad.

Salim is the best. Whatever he is being paid, it's not enough. He's Qiao Chusheng's right-hand man, which means he is also the dude who most often has to put up the main trio's bullshit. (The actor himself is also a dude with a pretty cool backstory, which is another great layer.) He's sharp, he's loyal, he's patient, and he looks great with his shirt off. He's got it all!

Other non-Chinese characters include a white Jewish art collector (I'd issue a warning for period-typical antisemitism, except … honestly, it's mostly just confused), a sadistic priest who maybe is supposed to be Italian, a completely different priest who [last episode spoiler], and three whole sinister white dudes behind it all.

It's not just the world coming to China, though! A large number of the Chinese characters are said to have spent significant time outside of China, whether for business or for schooling. Near the end, when some characters are discussing moving away from Shanghai, they consider a number of foreign cities as potential destinations.

Here's a delightful detail: When Lu Yao and his sister speak English, they're dubbed by actors with posh British accents who sound like native (or near-native) English-speakers. This makes perfect sense, because both of the siblings did a lot of their schooling in the UK. When Bai Youning speaks English, she's dubbed by someone who speaks English very well but also has a noticeable Chinese accent, which makes perfect sense for her character's background. And Qiao Chusheng never speaks English at all, because he's a street tough who has no reason to know more than three words.

...This is also kind of weird to say about something literally made in China, but go with me on it: Everything's kind of got that Art Deco Orientalist vibe to it. It looks like China's idea of what Britain's idea of China during that period would have looked like. The result comes across less like what 1920s Shanghai would actually have looked like, and more what an ad for 1920s Shanghai would have looked like. It's a fascinating aesthetic, and more so for how it's mostly pretty subtle. The show isn't some visual extravaganza, but it's always very nice to look at, and I appreciate that in a show.

5. A wonderful horrible protagonist

A lot of mystery-themed prestige television involves an asshole genius detective who gets away with being a dick to everyone because he's sooooo smart, while all his long-suffering friends and colleagues spend a lot of time doing damage control for him because, sigh, he's an asshole but we need him, genius excuses all dickhead behavior, we'll always make exceptions for him because he's just ever so special. (Watch histrionic sage hbomberguy's video on Sherlock if you're unfamiliar with the trope.)

Lu Yao is an asshole genius detective, but one who winds up spending most of his time being an asshole to a) people who deserve it, or b) his horrible friends who will be assholes right back at him. When he is awful to the people who don't deserve it, the show smacks him pretty hard on the nose for it and makes him apologize.

This is a show where you'll figure out pretty quckly if you'll love it or hate it, because if you love Lu Yao, you'll love it, and vice versa. He carries most of the show himself, with his goofy charm and his incredibly bendy slenderman body and his ability to make the one competent person he knows both protect him and give him money.

Like so.

For my own part, I find him intensely charming, and I think a lot of this has to do with Hu Yitian's ability to play him as an affectionately bullyable weenie who needs to get shoved in a locker for his own good. He's the worst, and it's comically endearing instead of offputting because at the end of the day, he really does have a good heart. He's just also lazy as heck and disinclined to do anything that he does not want to be doing, and really, aren't we all?

As I alluded to in point 3, he comes across as real asexual. He's just not that interested in sex, and he is in fact pretty uncomfortable in situations where he finds himself the subject of someone else's sexual desires. He's perfectly capable of romantic feelings! I mean, not only does he get Bai Youning as a love interest, we actually meet one of his ex-girlfriends. He's just not partciularly horny about them -- which is even more noticeable as a sharp contrast to how extremely horny Qiao Chusheng is for just about everyone, but this exasperating little dork in particular.

(Like seriously, 90% of the time, Chusheng is about to explode with sexual frustration at Lu Yao's skinny oblivious ass.)

This isn't to say you couldn't get Lu Yao into bed, because you absolutely could, and he'd probably have a good time. You'd just have to remove all distractions from the room, lest his ADHD ass wind up running off to solve a crime mid-coitus.

Twiggy little nightmare man. Garbage-animal boy. Love him.

sidebar: A word about the ending

I'm going to be vague and talk about general vibes instead of specific events, but you should still skip this section if you want to remain completely unspoiled. Jump to the picture of Chusheng holding the sledgehammer.

Okay, so, a lot of people do not like the ending, and I'm including myself in that number. I honestly don't know if they got rushed and had to wrap everything pretty last-minute, or if they thought they might get a second season out of it and were leaving things open-ended accordingly. Either way, it's incredibly unsatisfying.

I think there's a clue that the show didn't actually want to end this way, and it's not actually in the text of the show itself. Every episode, between the last scene and the start of the credits, you get to see a couple still frames from the episode (usually some of the queerbaity ones). After the very final shot of the series, you get two images: the boys hugging goodbye, and Chusheng's upset face. That's not a resolution! That is at best a "to be continued..." ending!

But no, that's it. That's all, folks.

It's not quite an ending so bad it ruins the rest of the show, mostly because it doesn't feel finished, so it's less like you're watching a car being deliberately driven into a wall because someone thought that was the best route to take, and more like you're watching someone leave a car on the railroad tracks because they figured they'd have time to move it later.

As far as I know, there has been no noise made about a second season. These 36 episodes are the entirety of the narrative. It had the distinct misfortune to start airing in March 2020, which wasn't exactly prime time for planning sequels, and that seems to have been that. (There is a 2022 show called Checkmate that stars the two main guys in extremely similar roles, also adapting Agatha Christie stories, but it's apparently pretty meh? Somebody else who's actually seen it, go ahead and weigh in here.)

I'll say that if you turn off the episode right after Lu Yao gets out the handcuffs, you'll save yourself the worst of it the awkward and unsatisfying moments (though I'm impressed at your willpower to stop watching something five minutes from the end). That's not all of it, though. Structurally, there are several situations rushed to a resolution and loose threads left flapping untied in the breeze. I guess stopping before the last five minutes simply saves you the hope that it'll pull a good ending out of the fire, because it won't.

And let's be real: The more you hate Bai Youning and her romance with Lu Yao, the more you'll hate the ending. (Not that liking those elements will necessarily make you like the ending, of course, because I'm a fan of hers and I still think the ending is butts.) The ending is already like a pair of uncomfortable shoes; if the het romance especially makes you grind your teeth, the ending becomes a pair of uncomfortable shoes that also have a rock in them. A lot of the comments online indicate plenty of people dropped the show when they learned the het romance would be endgame. It's a pretty common dealbreaker.

Oh well. Bring on the fanfic, I say! Those of us who are used to taking a sledgehammer to canon are unafraid.

Smash it, baby.

Still want to see some of these mysteries?

Both iQiyi and Viki have the answer to your sleuthing!

It's not a perfect show -- as evidenced by my digression about the ending -- but it's a lot of fun. If you can handle the occasional foible and some eyebrow-raising moments, you're in for a good time with some attractive people that occasionally tastes very gay.

Every roommate crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man

[akwolfgrl]

I'm a great fuck but better lover 11

Zoro was just lifting weights after Sanji left after morning stretches and smoke break. The sun was just peeking out from behind the clouds, Luffy and Usopp were playing some weird game he didn't understand the rules to, and Nami was in her room working on maps. Mr. Noodles (would the name ever not be funny?) waltzed up to him, half a bird sticking out of mouth. He sat down and chipred at him. Zoro put his weight down and couched next to the little black cat.

“Whatcha got there, buddy?” Zoro asked, stroking the soft fur atop of the cat's head. Mr. Noodles purred and rubbed against his hand before dropping the dead bird at his feet. The bird in question was legit bigger than the cat himself. “Your first kill way to go, heh maybe you join us during battle. Those claws of yours would hurt,” Mr. Noodles stretched out and batted at the bird when all of a sudden, it moved. It flew right at his face. “Shit! Fucking dam it!” Zoro swore in alarm, backing away from the flying animal coming at his face.

Mr. Noodles jumped in the air and caught the bird once again. Once he landed, he gave him a dirty look and flounced off. They all kept the doors and port hole cracked open for the cat to come and go as he pleased. They had accidently locked the poor thing in the bathroom and another time in the boys' room. Zoro went back to lifting weights. Who knows where that crazy cat went to. It was only a few minutes later he heard the screaming voice of Nami. Zoro dropped his weight and ran. Luffy flag himself towrds Nami's room, Usopp hot on his heals, the kitchen door banged open as Sanji also ran out.

When they got thire, Nami was hiding under her deck while the bird from eailer flew around the room in a painc, dripping blood from its wonds. All the while, Mr. Noddle leapt at it, trying to catch it once again.

“Sanji! Your carzy cat brught me a fucking live bird!” Nami screamed at Sanji. "Get him outa here!"

“Of course! I'm so sorry about that, Nami,” Sanji ran to scope up Mr. Noodles just as he lept for brid once again.

“Sanji! Duck!” Usopp called out from next to him his sling shot in hand, his boyfriend ducked clothing his cat in his arms and Usopp fired, taking the ingred bird with one shot. Sanji hurried over to their side as Usopp went grab his kill.

“Wow!” Luffy exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air, nearly hitting him in the process.

“Sorry cat looks like you didn't get your frist kill after all,” Zoro spoke to the small black cat in Sanji's arms.

“He's alredy had his first kill moss, he brings me a mouse in the mornings,”

“Eww,” Nami spoke, crawling out from under the table. “Mr. Noddles, you are not allowed to bring me any animals, got it!” Nami wagged her finger sterntly at the cat.

“Mreow,” Mr. Noddles mowed pathicly in Sanjis arms.

“He's sorry, Nami-swan, I'll make you something to make up for it,”

“Tanghulu, and a cocktail,” Nami ordered his boyfriend. Normally, Zoro would argue about this. He felt kinda bad thugh, her room was now a mess with feathers and spaters of blood everywhere.

“Sannnjjji!” Luffy cried holding up the dead bird, he could only want one thing. “Can I eat it?!”

“Sure, I'll cook it up for you later after I get Nami her treat,”

“Yahoo!” Luffy cried out still holding the bird.

“All right! Everybody get the fuck out of my room!” Nami yelled, pointing up the stairs to the door. “Thank you for checking on me but I need to clean up this mess,” With that they all made their way back onto the deck, Nami closing the door behind them.

“You're gonna be a little menace aren't you buddy?” Sanji asked, looking down at the cat in his arms.

“He'll fit right in on the crew then,” Zoro pointed out. “I mean just look at our captain,”

[firefly--bright]

ur probably kinda sick of writing for th b99 au but can I request some fluff hcs pleeeeaaaseee I need something to balance out the angst

IM NOT SICK OF IT detective kirstein brainrot

- it's become like a tradition for the two of you to spend your dinner time together. it could be a really simple meal, sometimes some boring takeout but it would do, considering that almost the whole day was spent apart. soft music would be playing in the background while jean washed and cut the veggies, you'd boil some stock and get started on the noodles, you saying "she ramen on my soup till I noodle-" "she ramen on my noodle till I soup." "right, sorry, my bad." "yeah. get it right." and sometimes Connie crashes and then soon enough sasha and marco are also there and you're watching those terrible horror movies with cheap jumpscares. jean is a fucking crybaby about it you cannot convince me otherwise

- he's sitting beside you on the couch and Connies making fun of the ghost, sasha remarks on how bad she must smell which starts a whole debate between her and marco about if the outfit that people had on when they died was the same outfit that they'd have to spend their death days with, and jean is fully immersed in the movie, clutching a pillow and you try not to laugh at how he shifts closer to you. "it's fucking freezing in here." he says. "are u sure you're not just scared and want my protection?" "I'm. a grown man I don't know what you're talking about- FUCK." the last bit of his sentence was interrupted because the main character saw two glowing eyes in the corner or smth. grown man my ass. he holds you extra snuggly while falling asleep that night

- which is crazy considering his profession but it's so personal to me actually

- anyway, going back to the last post - he gets so pouty and clingy when he gets an unserious injury. like imagine he gets a cut on his thigh because he scraped it against a railing while chasing someone and he's exaggerating the story SO MUCH. "yeah and so I did a BACKFLIP-" "oh you can do those?" his chest puffs up, "yeah. duh. i can do a lot of things. and then I chased him down this alleyway and there was this grandma in one of the windows that saw me handcuff him and cheered for me." "I'm the grandma." you said, to which he replies, "yeah I like older women anyway." "WOW."

- he's arguing with eren on the job ALL THE TIME. back to when you two met, eren was looking around your appartment Just In Case and jean was SUPPOSED to be asking you relevant questions like "where were you yesterday morning?" to which you answered "I was in my room, getting ready for the day." "oh? I'm sure you looked great-" "oh." "i mean, like, I'm sure - like, you look great right now too. i mean, you. yeah. you're 👍" "thank you, detective." and eren has to butt in, "sorry, my partner usually just mouths off without thinking- "I do NOT." "thats why we call him hors-" "KILL YOURSELF YOU FUCKING BIRD."

great introduction, jean. he's kind of surprised that you even acknowledged him, IN PUBLIC CAUGHT IN 4K because he was so sure he blew it (he kinda did but it was really amusing and you kinda just wanted to talk to him because seeing him flustered was really funny and cute)

also!! bonus texts ;)

:D

(final hc - he listens to the most cuntiest songs while solving stuff. like he's filing paperwork while listening to 360 by Charli xcx)

[ryuseibutgayer]

Yamagishi hurt/comfort maybe 👀,treating his wounds and comforting him after he got bullied or something.

ALSO CAN I BE 🦈 ANON

Hiii! YES YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY BE THE 🦈 ANON! <3 Thank you for stopping by with an asssssk ah! I'm sorry for the late reply 😭 I hardly check this site too much anymore but I'm glad you requested :D I'm so happy to write this for you! I hope this scratches the Yamagishi itch. moment of silence for lacking Mizo Middle content 😔

I'm a little out of practice, so my apologies in advance if this isn't what you'd hoped for

TW: RIP Yamagishi's Left Eye and Cheekbone, Mentions of Bullying, Swearing, and not much else it's just comforting fluffy fluff fluff fluff (also I felt the need to mention a warning for studying for any students who've got shit coming up 🫡 we've all got our own associations with school lmao)

Summary: G/N reader finds Yamagishi after school beat up after a great session of being bullied by the usual delinquents, helps him patch up, and tries to coax him to try and focus more on his goals than status.(Reader, I'm forcing you to walk home from school. You have Yamagishi to accompany you, though :>)

Word Count: ......fuck off

ꜰᴜᴄᴋ ᴅᴀᴅᴅʏ'ꜱ ᴍᴏɴᴇʏ

As per usual, your feet were as tired as your brain. You'd made it to the final minute of your last period, thankfully. And again, as usual, the hallway chaos was to ensure, but you were ready for it because you could walk with your boyfriend to his place for your normal Friday hang-out. Being with your boyfriend Yamagishi after the last hard day of the week was refreshing in its own way, because you were able to soak up the energy you gained from just being around him. He was really a funny kind of partner, but he radiated joy with you nonetheless.

You survived the rush of the halls again this afternoon, so be prepared to see them again next week.

No more schedule, just plain plans. You didn't need to plan much necessarily, either- just deciding whether or not you wanna go out is simple when you live near your boyfriend and friends. After this week, your ears canceled out the sounds of all the screaming kids around you flooding your space and just focused on the low tmp tmp tmps of your shoes. The noise was the only thing you could focus on, and your footsteps followed through with the lead. Tmp tmp tmp tmp tmp until the pavement turned to white, from the school grounds to the sidewalk...to the shoes of your boyfriend.

He shuffled his feet nervously as your eyes traveled up his form to see an anxiously whistling Yamagishi with a bruised face, black eye, and sheepish hands held behind his back. You sighed as he leaned towards your approaching figure, his glasses slid down his nose a bit like the normally do."Heh heh heyy, babe," he greeted and pushed his glasses back up his nose- which you grumpily clamped your hand onto the next second.

"OW!"

Your disappointment was as low as Yamagishi's knees as they leveled with the ledge of the toilet seat in his bathroom, home. "Really, Yamagishi?" You couldn't help but mutter as you bent to reach into the sink cupboards, obtaining his special health kit.

"Come on, don't tell me you're mad," Yamagishi pitched after hearing your mumbles. He DID recognize how bad you feel everything he gets roughed up for being around the wrong delinquents, and he felt a sort if shame he shouldn't. "I'm not mad at you Yama, I'm mad at those fuckin jerks." The thought of those assholes tumbled around your noodle while you wrung out a hot wet rag to clean up his face. "Didn't I tell you to try and keep away from them?"

"I did! I really did try my best y/n, but they're everywhere now," he felt the need to defend himself in the sense of a kid trying to make excuses to their parent. He continued his grumbling- "Those jackets aren't easy to spot 24/7, I've got glasses, cut me some slack..."

"What'd they beat you up for this time?"

"They just wanted some money 'cause they used up their allowances." His head hung a bit low as he recalled why he'd been attacked earlier, which prompted you to raise your hand below his chin.

"Fuck their daddy's money." Who wouldn't spout that on instinct? They fucked up your boy. >:[Your boyfriend couldn't help but snort at the sudden comment and then whince at the solution you'd begun to press against his torn skin. "I mean, it's better than my money."

"Of course," you began to dab the surface of his bruises and scabs on his cheek with ointment before you'd bandage them and snatch a nearby ice-pack to put on the worse side of his face- the one with the black eye. "But I'm extra pissy that they had the audacity to give you that nasty jump the day you had your placement test."

"Riiiight, that test," And all of a sudden, your boyfriend went silent with his bottom lip tucked.

"...........Yama."

"Yyyyyyeeees?"

"....Don't tell me you didn't-"

And then, he caved. "AW CMON! I got beat up and can't even worm my way out of a test? Those guys were real pricks to me, it knocked me down a few notches babe."You could really only sigh and bite your lip as you patched the final scratch. You looked him in his cognac eyes, chewed your cheek and gently patted the last bandage that had been placed on his face.

"I know, and if anyone blames you- even if you blame you for this happening, I'll kick their ass," You felt the need to be aggressively reassuring. "Hey, the next time this happens, I'm gonna bring some friends of mine to deal with them, I'm gonna kiss all of your bruises, just like THIS-" You said with each peck you laid on Yamagishi's cool, bruised cranium, earning a giggle from your boyfriend with each tickle of your lips. "-Take you by the hand to a café at the library, buy us some coffee, and we'll charge right inside to go study. You need to make sure you call me the exact moment when of those shitheads lays their eyes on you, otherwise I can't help you. I wanna be with you in one piece, yknow?"

With your warm smile and bold statements, Yamagishi felt pink flutter to coat over his dark purple and red face, because you weren't someone who called him weak or unmotivated- you supported and showed your love for him, and don't forget even for second how much he takes this to heart.

"....Yeah, I gotcha. I'll try and keep more mind on avoiding them next time, hon." And just like that, your grinning boyfriend was as cheeky as normal- just the way he should be.

"Sorry if you got worried for a little bit there- how about we go cuddle?"

"Mmm, how about study with blankets?" Yamagishi sighed, but he couldn't help smiling. "Sure," he stood up from the seat and took your hand. "Let's go, I'll grab the snacks."

"Yeah alright- and nice try Mr., but you're definitely going to be making up for that text next week."

"Yeah yeah..."

[that1-storyteller]

Every Little Experience <3

BLLK Boys (mainly Karasu) x ???? reader (Fem!)

Warnings: Foul language, uhm I’m not sure yet I’ll just figure it out along the way. Gory descriptions, heavily traumatized reader, biases against guys, sarcasm lol.

Blue lock. Two words. Two little words, and behind them was an opportunity of a life time. Uncle Ego Was hired by a woman he called Anri-Chan, to make the world’ s best striker. You may not know much about the sport, but you knew this was huge.

Ego always included you any anything he did, in some way or another. Though this was by far the furthest he’d ever gone to involve you.

You were going to work in blue lock with him. As his assistant. As great as it was to build up experience as a sixteen year old getting into tech and psychology, Ego was…less than ideal to work with. He was demanding to an absurd degree, great, right? In the end, he is your uncle and provides great experience and opportunities. It, in the long run, was worth it.

But you pissed him off, so your first day in the eerie ass building, you were stuck doing maintenance checks and cleaning. Fuck. All you did was rig his noodles…wasn’t that serious, damn… and karma was pretty instant with that prank, you tripped on the rug and face planted immediately after the trap was set. Your poor eye. Bruised on your first day of work.

Now, like the soon-to-be candidates of Blue Lock, you were stuck living there. You were allowed to have your phone, you had your own room, bathroom, etc. It was fairly nice compared to what you observed what the candidates were being treated with. You also, depending on how many tasks you did and how well the job was done, got to pick your meals. Courtesy of your uncle. You got to come in a few days prior to decorate your space as you wished, go over the rules, learn the layout, etc. It was an uncomfortably large building, to say the least.

The biggest rule, or at least the one Uncle Ego and Anri-Chan emphasized the most was,

Limit your contact with the players.

Easy enough. You had no interest in a bunch of (most likely) stuck up, narcissistic jocks who only care about soccer. To be fair, here they were literally fighting for their futures that revolved around soccer, it would be understandable to be desperate and focused, no? Like rats in a cage, attached to a man’s face with one side lit ablaze. Desperate, scared, and tearing into each other just to survive. A raw instinctual thing, really. Always enjoyable to observe…

Well, anywho, not people you’d want to interact with.

So here you were, setting each and every room to be perfect, all because Ego was petty over a prank.

Last quarters, team Z’s. Each sleeping bag was perfectly laid out, the bathrooms organized, towels folded. What a shame it would be, hard work waisted on slobbish boys… sigh. They’d be here tomorrow, and the experiment would begin. Hurray!

…

Your alarm blared in your ears, the sun rising, though you couldn’t see it. No windows, how unfortunate. You sluggishly dressed, very casual clothing for today, you decided. You threw on leggings and a large hoodie, putting on a smidge bit of make-up as well. It fit the occasion. Today you’d be greeting the candidates and handing them their…uniforms? Outfits? You weren’t sure exactly what to call those uncomfortably skin tight data collectors. The word would come to you later, you were sure.

This was the only time you were allowed to purposely converse with the subjects- er hmm, “diamonds in the rough”, as Uncle Ego called them. In your eyes, they were kind of like lab rats. Soccer gods in the making, was a nice way to put it. Poor boys didn’t know what was coming, you felt….only slightly guilty to be apart of their torment. Only slightly.

…

Through the doors they charged, a large herd of brawny, muscle-headed, boys.

“Anri-Chan, I don’t particularly wan’t to be the one to take their phones. It’s like taking crack from an addicted drug dealer, bad news. I fear they’ll bite me, males my age are a bit peculiar, no?”

Anri laughed, finding your bias against guys hilarious. As well as the way you spoke, so odd for a sixteen year old. So amusing to her.

“Y/N! They won’t bite! God, what, do you think they’re wild animals?”

“They may as well be,”

She snorted.

Guy after guy retrieved his suit and info. Many grumbling about the rules, some refusing to giving up their addiction device. After some fierce battles and trickery, they gave it up. Willingly or not. Then navigated their way to their rooms. A sweet looking boy walked up, eyes wide with …maybe it was anxiety, or just uncertainty? You couldn’t tell, maybe a mixture of both.

“Hello Miss, I’m sorry but I don’t know where I’m going, I’m not great with direction. Could you help me? Oh god, am I being a bother? I shouldn’t have asked, I’m so sorry!” He was so quick to panic…

“Hey, hey, don’t fret, you aren’t a bother dear. It’s my job to help, let me guide you,” You baby talked him a bit, it oddly felt necessary with his anxious, meek demeanor.

You waved to Anri, letting her know you’d be gone, and walked with the anxious boy. He was muscular, obviously so. You found humor in how anxious he was for someone who could’ve easily beat the ever-loving crap out of anyone. He had short brown hair and eye-catching forest green iris’s. You found them lovely. They were large and noticeable, very cute. If only he’d stand straight, with correct posture he’d be tall, definitely would help him in the long run. More attractive, even…

“What team are you assigned to, dear?”

“Team A, I-I’m Tokimitsu, by the way…” He stumbled over his words, his nerves messing with him oh so obviously. He fidgeted around with his fingers. Poor guy probably needed therapy and meds.

“I’m Y/N, nice to make your acquaintance, Tokimitsu-sama. What led you to be here? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

He ranted a bit, he seemed to loosen up after you gave a conversation starter. He kept spewing soccer facts like it was his job, very cute. His love of soccer was impressive, but so would be everyone else’s. It would have to be, to end up in Blue Lock. You listened to him ramble as you showed him to his team’s room, adding your thoughts here and there.

…

Every so often people would catch your eye, their hairstyles, accents, outfits, posture, etc. Many unique and out there, those of which you loved to observe. Though, the comments from the tall, tan, blonde guy with pink ends were definitely not necessary…soccer perv.

Someone who really caught your eye, was a purple haired boy. He had a cute mole by his eye, hmm. You couldn’t find a perfect word to match it with. Made you feel weird, in a pleasant way. He was tall, as were many of the participants here, an air of confidence clung to him. Though, you had a feeling… mmm… maybe you were overthinking him. Over analyzing. When he spoke, oh when he spoke…sharp, intellectual, pleasant, hell it soothed a part of your brain you didn’t know needed soothed. Oddly everything about him tugged at your heart. What the fuck. He wasn’t even really polite, his gaze seemed judging. The same gaze you laid upon other people. The people you often deemed boring and a waist of time. Now on you. The look, about to title someone mediocre. You knew it, so similar to your own… He was so….interesting. Made your brain buzz with thought mere moments after laying eyes on him. If you were to struggle to not converse with any candidates, it would be him. Your brain wandered to the wonderful conversations you could have and analyze. Oh, and his eye’s fought yours as well. You thought Tokimitsu’s were nice, but this boy’s took lovely to a whole new level. Breath taking. Enchanting, if you dared. His hair reminded you of something, you just couldn’t think of it at the moment…a certain animal. Hmmm.

“Hey Miss, why should I hand over my phone to you, you don’t look particularly responsible. What if you lose it, or damage my property? Hm?”

You blinked and snapped out of it.

“I’m only following orders. If harm were to come to your addiction device of devil, then you’d be fully repaid. You’d receive a new device as well as money.” You gave a slightly irritated smile. Though he was charming, he’d be a pain in the ass. Much like how you imagined how doing his hair in the morning was. “Please hand it over, sir-“

“Tabito Karasu,” He interrupted.

“Mr. Karasu, then.”

He handed it over and you gently placed it in the bag, so he was reassured it was fine. Though, you suspected he didn’t actually care all that much.

“You certain you’re qualified to work here?” You’re sure he’s referring to your casual outfit, sure it wasn’t fancy like Anri’s but why would you get dressed up to greet a bunch of lab rats? Hm?

“Very.”

Oh, what an interesting experience this was going to be.

Pt.1 |Pt.2 Coming soon!|

[the-masked-ram]

A Perfect Place for a Pet- Kuroko x Akashi x Reader Commission

CW: NSFW, fem reader, poly relationship, pet/master, DDlg, impact play, knife play, some mild mentions of blood, mild breath play, collar/leash play, bondage, dubious consent, yandere, college AU, double penetration, anal sex, vaginal sex, oral sex, voyeurism, unsafe sex, breeding kink, abduction A/N: One of my favorite poly comms to write for the wonderful @crowned-peony. Such a great commissioner as per usual, and seriously it was so fun to write for these two KNB jocks <3 I don't get to write KNB nearly often enough Also I don't normally do this for my pieces but since this thing is a monster I will put the word count WC: 17+k

---

Lunch on campus was never something extravagant. Sometimes it was sandwiches, sometimes it was soup, and sometimes it was something fancy that everyone looked forward to like pasta. But that fancy pasta wasn’t even truly fancy like what you made at home. Still today was one of those days, it was chicken alfredo, and you were thoroughly enjoying the creamy sauce with just the right amount of garlic.

A chocolate chip cookie sat off to the side of your tray, taunting you to hurry with your noodles so you could indulge in its sugary sweetness. Your friends sat on either side of you. People you’d found in the years during your college stay. People who supported you, one was eating a sandwich, one of those ones they made every morning and wrapped up for the day. The other was eating the same plate as you but had a bowl of fruit with it as well.

“So have you seen the new additions to the basketball team?” your friend to the right said.

“The ones who transferred over halfway through last year?” you asked.

She nodded, “They are so fucking gorgeous.”

She squirmed in her seat, and you didn’t blame her. They were beautiful, two men you’d watched from afar with barely disguised lust. Kuroko and Akashi, you’d heard their names in passing, you would never have the bravery to approach them on your own. Though Kuroko seemed friendly enough, he never left Akashi’s side, and that red head radiated cool confidence, so much of it that it cowed you from across the room. But oh, did you wish you could talk to them. You wished you had the pride and the confidence to walk up to them, tilt your head, bat your eyes, and draw them in with an innocent question. Still, you knew that would never be. That wasn’t who you were.

You were soft, shy, introverted though you craved attention. Perhaps you leaned toward being an ambivert. So, often you found yourself desperate for company to combat the loneliness you created within yourself. But that was hard when you so easily got overexerted and needed to recharge at home under a fluffy blanket with a book in hand and some TV show you’d seen hundreds of times playing in the background.

You didn’t realize that you’d garnered the interest of a pair of calculating red eyes.

---

Kuroko had noticed though; it was hard not to when his friend and partner had been distracted. Akashi was never someone who let his attention stray too much from the subject at hand, even if that subject was just listening to Kuroko yammer on at lunch.

Once Tetsuya fell silent though he found his boyfriend’s attention wandering to the side, over his shoulder. Kuroko turned his head, though not even Seijuro seemed to notice him doing it. The taller college student didn’t even seem to be aware that his own attention had drifted. But it didn’t take long for Tetsuya to find the source of his distraction.

“Hmmm, she’s cute,” Kuroko said, his voice was the usual bland tone, but he never said something he didn’t mean.

Akashi blinked and turned his gaze back to his boyfriend before it drifted once more towards you, “Yeah, she is. But that’s not all it is. I just… haven’t figured her out yet.”

“I’ve missed you,” Kuroko said softly, reaching out to trail his fingers across the back of Akashi’s hand. “Maybe we need someone new. To keep us stable, we need to stop breaking up and then coming back together. Maybe… she….”

Tetsuya broke off when the three of you stood behind him and threw away the trash from your lunches. Your trajectory brought all of you right past the two boys’ table. The two girls that flanked you stared unabashedly at him and Akashi. But ever the quiet one in the center, you who had drawn the attention of his partner, kept your gaze ahead, only diverting it from the path you walked long enough to check your planner.

“She’s interesting,” Kuroko agreed and his blue, usually gentle eyes narrowed, showing a flicker of something darker.

“Would you like a pet? Tetsuya?” Seijuro asked.

Tetsuya laughed but there was desire in his expression as he watched you walk away. Your hips swayed and your thighs looked so soft, perfect for sinking his teeth into. It was as if all of you was meant to be bruised by the two of them. It was only too easy for his attention to be snagged once Akashi’s was. There was no reason for him to answer Akashi out loud, because when he looked back into his lover’s red eyes, he saw his own growing desires reflected tenfold.

--- “Who is she?” Kuroko asks from beside him.

Akashi looks at you as you sit across the room at your desk. A smile graces your features, both he and Tetsuya had found their attention wandering to you more and more. Their conversations often turn to you as the topic. Eventually, becoming part of their relationship wasn’t just an undiscussed desire. Now it had been picked apart to the minutia. There was very little wrong with the idea in their eyes. The only problem would be if you said no.

Seijuro, however, knew there were many ways to make you see their view. Yet, he wanted to do the one with the least likely failure rate.

“Do you actually know her?” Kuroko prodded again, pushing past Akashi’s thoughts.

Seijuro scoffed, “Of course I do. I wouldn’t want her otherwise. She’s from my shogi club.”

Tetsuya turned his blue eyes onto you again, curiosity sparking deep within them. The innocence shining on your face surprised him. Why would you be into a cutthroat and manipulative game like shogi? How could someone as bright and happy as you be good enough at it to capture his boyfriend’s attention?

Usually, the only people Akashi played shogi with were either himself or people extremely competitive. Could you be like that? Or was there something about your softness, your gentle energy that had ensnared the redhead?

“Pay attention! This is coming up on the test in a week,” the teacher said strictly, pointing to the chalkboard.

Akashi rolled his eyes toward the information, looked over at Kuroko who was idly writing it down, and then glanced down at you. Your notes were a mess from what scribbles he could see, and you were just adding to the clutter. Your panicked writing made no sense, but perhaps it did to you. He sure hoped it did since the test counted for a third of everyone’s grade. It was the closest thing to a final you’d all get in the class.

“Hmm,” Akashi hummed thoughtfully, and Tetsuya leaned over, trying to see what had caught his attention this time.

He narrowed his red eyes at his boyfriend, trying to move his shoulder out of Kuroko’s space so he could have some breathing room.

“What did you see?” the shorter man asked.

“I think I know of a way to approach her,” Seijuro murmured, resting his cheek on his knuckles as a cruel smirk curled his lips.

---

You were scrambling desperately to gather all your notes together. Now, after everything towered in stacks of paper that threatened to fall at any moment, you needed to find the books. There were so many books, so many you didn’t even recognize the name of. How could you be this unprepared? You’d been in that class from day one, taking notes, scribbling things down that were both important and unimportant.

You sighed as you pulled down another book, your eyes scanned the first page and title when you realized that it wasn’t the one you needed. Just two more books, right? Just two more, you looked down at the paper seeing the other three were checked off.

How had you missed the warning for the test two weeks ago? These kinds of tests were usually given with at least three weeks’ notice. You felt like perhaps that was a day you were sick. Maybe that was a day when the anxiety was crushing you with so much brain fog you felt like you were drowning.

You weren’t sure, you couldn’t remember, and you felt like crying, like tearing your hair out and throwing a tantrum. But you couldn’t, once again, you couldn’t because it was painful to be seen with your lip wobbling like it was now and how your tears were filling your waterline. Your breath tried to hiccup in your chest, but you pushed it down instead, you swallowed it deep into your gut.

“You look like you’re struggling there, Little Rabbit,” a deep voice said from beside you.

You blinked and a single tear tracked its way down your cheek as you turned. A redhead stood next to you, leaning nonchalantly against the shelves. He tilted his head, and you recognized him as the one you and your friends were drooling over earlier.

The sound of footsteps scuffing the carpet beside the two of you caused you to turn again. This time you’d moved into half a circle as you stared at the boy with blue hair that so often seemed attached to this red head’s side.

“Don’t tease the Bunny, Akashi,” the newcomer said and reached out to wipe away the tear drying on your face.

You flinched, nerves flaring up in your mind again. It was like they were wolves in sheep’s clothing. You could see the soothing, innocent façade they put up but something inside you, some instinct twisted, screamed at you to run. You didn’t though, this happened often, this fear of the normal.

Normal… was it normal to wipe away a stranger’s tear? To subtly tease someone for having an anxiety attack about an upcoming test? But… was that what was really happening? There didn’t seem to be any malice behind their red and blue eyes. If there was… it had to be your imagination, right?

That tiny seed of doubt was easily smothered by a fistful of positivity. The desire you always carried with you, to believe the best in people. You smiled awkwardly, fragilely, as if something inside you was waiting to crack and you scrubbed your palm in frustration against the tear track that had already been cleared from your cheek.

“Sorry you had to see me like that,” you said, your eyes wandering back over your shoulder at the tall shelves of books. “I just… feel so overwhelmed this time around.”

“With Stearl’s class?” Kuroko asked, his attention following where your gaze fell.

“Yeah,” you sighed. “I’m just barely holding onto my B in that class.”

You shook your head and disappointment showed in your face. Something dark gripped your heart. Self-hatred, anger, frustration, all pointed at yourself. How could you have let college get away from you so easily?

“We’re in that class too,” Akashi said nonchalantly, examining his cuticles before looking at you from underneath his lashes.

Kuroko looked over your shoulder and you watched his eye flick over the list in your hand before his long fingers pulled out a single book.

“This one has footnotes. It’s easier to understand,” he handed it to you with a bright smile curving his lips, though it never quite reached his eyes.

You looked down at the item in your hands, and then up at the two of them. Suddenly you weren’t scared of them, instead you just felt relief. This made your job just a bit easier.

“I know,” Akashi said slowly, as if he were testing the words on his tongue. “Why don’t you join our study group?”

Gratitude, sheer gratitude, flooded your system and tears threatened to break through your resolve once again. Kuroko grinned wider and this time a spark lit within his dimmed pupils.

“I think that’s the perfect solution Seijuro,” there was a lilt of mischief in his voice that you didn’t pick up.

You were too stuck on trying not to cry as that feeling of overwhelming relief broke away your stress. Your hands shook a bit but all you could do was bow your head.

“Thank you, I don’t know how to repay you,” you murmured.

“Bring some cookies,” Kuroko chirped.

“Play me in shogi again,” Akashi said.

You laughed, it was watery and weak, but it was real. Tension melted away from your body and you nodded in agreement to their terms.

---

It had gone so smoothly, and Akashi leaned back in the chair at the fast-food restaurant with a confident, near arrogant, smirk dancing across his lips. He knew it would happen, but he didn’t realize how effortlessly you would mold to their whims. He watched with affectionately narrowed eyes as you and Tetsuya ordered a second set of drinks at the counter.

You shook your head at something and threw your head back to laugh. It showed off the line of your beautifully curved throat and Akashi’s mouth watered. He wanted to bite your flesh, mark it, bruise it, draw just a bead of blood, and let the world know you were owned.

He turned his attention back to the books and papers spread out on the small table in front of him. He couldn’t let himself lose control in public. He shifted in his seat, hoping the half chub growing in his pants would go down as his eyes began to scan over the study plans, he’d made for you. He and Kuroko were both fine, knew the material down pat, but it was easy enough to act like they needed to study.

The sound of feet squeaking over tile had his attention snapping up to find the two of you walking back. Kuroko held two drinks and you were sucking on a straw that was in a milkshake topped high with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. Your eyes were glowing as you smiled at Seijuro around the plastic between your lips. He met your positivity as best as he could.

There was something about the innocence you held so easily in your expression when you looked at him. He felt things he shouldn’t creep along the back of his neck, whispered words he should never think brushed through his mind. But Akashi didn’t push them away. He didn’t ignore them like a sane person would. Instead, he embraced them. He embraced the fact that every fiber in his being wanted to keep you caged, safe, and where he and Tetsuya could have you at their fingertips whenever they wanted.

“We got you something,” Kuroko said, pressing a coke into Akashi’s palm with a meaningful look.

That quiet stare said Seijuro’s intentions were shining through, and he needed to get a handle on himself. He shot his partner a secretive smile and took a sip from his drink to try and get his wandering mind under control.

“Alright, are we ready to start again?” Tetsuya asked with excitement threading through his bland tone as he sat down.

You nodded, finally taking one last sip of your milkshake and setting it aside. The rest of the session went well, just like the other two had before that. Slowly the three of you had moved away from meeting up at the school to meeting up at a public place outside of it. And even more slowly, Akashi was setting up the board to box you in, steal your territory until you had no hope but to bend to his and Tesuya’s will.

As you packed up, a smile of relief curved your lips, and a sigh left you so strongly that your entire body seemed to melt with it.

“I don’t know what I would have done if it weren’t for you two, you know?” you said jovially, as you swung your shoulder bag over your neck and fixed the protective pad into place.

“It’s no trouble for us, really,” Kuroko said, brushing off the gratitude without a thought. “We’d be studying anyway.”

Akashi knew it was a down and out lie, but he hid his smile by taking the straw from his Coke into his mouth and picking up his bag. Kuroko shifted until his backpack sat correctly and the three of you walked out of the restaurant together.

“We just have time for one more meet up before the test,” you said.

“Do you feel prepared?” Seijuro asked.

You shook your head, “I’m not sure I ever will feel confident, but I think I’m as close to it as possible. This last session will just be making sure I have everything locked tight away in there.”

You knocked your knuckles against your skull. Tetsuya shared a look with Akashi, one the red head had seen often but wasn’t quite sure where his boyfriend was going with it this time.

“Let’s do the last session at our place,” Kuroko motioned between him and Seijuro.

Akashi smiled easily. Sometimes Kuroko’s calculating side even surprised him. But he knew ultimately how dark the corners of Tetsuya’s mind could get. Especially when he wanted something, and he could see it in those blue eyes, Kuroko wanted you.

Akashi wasn’t sure if it was as bad as he did, but it didn’t matter, they were both on the same page, which meant they would work in perfect tandem. Just like they could on the court. They were a team that could put everyone else to shame. Akashi would always take advantage of that; he loved having the upper hand.

“You sure?” you asked, blinking up at the two of them as you finished slurping down your milkshake.

Akashi nodded in agreement, “Of course, it’ll make it so we can study longer.”

You fell silent for a moment, your brow furrowed in that way he recognized during shogi matches when there was several moves you could make, and you had to think things over. Finally, though you met both of their eyes and nodded confidently.

As they dropped you off at the bus stop, Akashi watched you leave with narrowed eyes and Koroko waved you away with his signature emotionless face.

“I like her,” Tetsuya said, finally turning to his boyfriend.

“I can tell,” Akashi scoffed.

“Don’t act like you don’t feel the same,” Kuroko sighed as they began to walk in the opposite direction than where your bus had gone.

“I never said I don’t feel the same. But it’s not just that I like her,” Akashi said slowly, carefully. “It’s that I want her. I’m tired of waiting. We should show her how perfect it can be, with the three of us together.”

Tetsuya glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, but slowly a small smile perked the corners of his lips.

“I think you’re right,” he finally agreed, his fingers worming their way between Seijuro’s despite the red head’s dislike for public displays of affection.

Still Akashi didn’t drop his hand, instead he silently squeezed the smaller man’s palm. This would make everything better; you were the cornerstone they needed.

“So, you’re ready then?” Akashi asked.

“You’re being unusually worried about my feelings on this matter,” Tetsuya said.

Seijuro rolled his eyes, “This is something that will change the whole dynamic.”

“Only for the better,” Kuroko whispered, his words carrying the weight of a promise. “I swear nothing, but good things will happen from this.”

Akashi felt a flare of nerves, something foreign to him. He’d seen all the possible outcomes to this. Still, this was so different, they’d never crossed the threshold of bringing another into their relationship. It had always been just them when they were together. Yet, he knew you’d be perfect. You were perfect. Just like Tetsuya was, with the two of you together he would have everything he needed. The both of them would have everything to complete their bond.

Akashi trusted Kuroko’s blind faith in what would happen. Tetsuya had never steered him wrong before.

---

Akashi’s flat was large and beautiful. It didn’t surprise you, though, considering both him and Tetsuya were in America on a scholarship. However, you had learned from Akashi himself the more you spent time with them, that his family was well off even back in his home country.

Tetsuya stayed with him on occasion but there was no inclination they actually lived together full time. The common space was large and open, not even the kitchen was walled off by anything more than the island that served as a table. There were a few aesthetics from Japan but not much. Most of it was art, a shogi board, and a couple sitting pillows around a lowered table where the game sat.

You stood still in the entry way, uncertain if you were supposed to take off your shoes. But when your eyes fell on the shoe rack and then noticed Akashi toeing his sneakers off you got your answer. You were too focused on unlacing your ankle boots to notice both boys give you an approving look.

When you stood up straight, Akashi was already moving into the house and Tetsuya was holding out his hand to you. His face was emotionless even though he had his head cocked curiously to the side. You smiled, comforted by his familiar actions and slipped your hand lightly into his. He gripped you gently and led you over the threshold.

What you noticed strangely was that he didn’t let go of you once the two of you were inside. Neither he nor Akashi addressed it either. They acted instead like it was completely normal.

Your stomach fluttered with embarrassment and your eyes skipped away from them. You felt like Kuroko holding your hand meant something more than just leading you inside, offering your comfort, or even simple flirting. You felt an excited tension in the air you couldn’t name, though you were certain you were just imagining it. At least that was what you convinced yourself.

You pushed your anxieties away, instead forcing yourself to enjoy your time with the two of them even though you were all there to study. All of you took a stool around the island with glasses filled with water as you prepared to tackle the books once again.

It was an easy study session. You knew most of the material already, like you said last time, it really was just about making sure you had it all memorized. Once making sure it was easily at the tips of your fingers, Akashi and you found yourselves around the shogi table playing a game while Kuroko made lunch. It was strange having someone else wait on you, bring you something to drink, make you food, and make sure you were entertained, when that was what you were used to doing.  It was strange but you didn’t dislike it. In fact, you wanted to relish in it.

As the quiet click of shogi tiles hitting the board filled the living room, the sound of something else slowly began to take over. Something from the outside that reminded you of an awful lot of shogi games. Your eyes dragged over to the window just a few feet down the wall. Water rolled outside the glass, it was small drops at first, but within just a minute of you watching it the trails turned fat and the rain became violent. You’d be soaked as soon as you stepped outside.

Your face fell, you could feel the sensation start in your expression and swoop all the way to your chest and then through to your toes. You hadn’t brought an umbrella. Everything in you knew you would be shivering and sopping wet by the time you got home. You didn’t even have anything more than a thin sweatshirt to keep you warm.

Your wide eyes turned to Akashi who was looking calmly at the window. The time you were supposed to leave was ticking closer. You only had an hour.

“Stay here until it stops, maybe it’s a quick passing storm,” Tetsuya said as he placed some late lunch down at the table and Akashi moved the shogi board carefully to the side.

Not a single piece slid out of place, and it reminded you that Seijuro was careful with everything he did in life. He planned everything out. So, this sudden change in weather and you uprooting the rest of his day must have been upsetting him despite him not showing it.

“I’ll leave soon,” you said quickly, starting to make a grab for your bag. “I should leave before it gets worse.”

Akashi turned to look at you, his eyes narrowed, his voice stern when he spoke, “You should stay. At least eat lunch, we will how things look after.”

Your spine stiffened under his intimidating stare, but everything inside you screamed to agree. You wanted nothing more than to please him, to soften his gaze.

“Okay,” you murmured.

A small smile broke out on his face, “Good, Bunny.”

The two words were barely a whisper, but you weren’t far away from him. With no more sound than the muffled torrent outside, there was no way you wouldn’t have been able to hear it. You blinked at him blankly, even though your stomach shivered with an excitement you couldn’t place. A mild embarrassment tried to take over you, but you refused to let it. There was no reason for you to be affected so much, right?

Instead, you forced yourself to turn your attention to Kuroko, whose face was unusually soft, slightly excited, and a smile tweaked his lips, an expression you realized he only showed to those he trusted. An expression you’d seen before. His gaze was on both you and his boyfriend and though part of you was unnerved by both their attentions focused on you, it was wiped away by the fluttering happiness you felt at being under their stares. You shouldn’t crave their affections so much, but with both their expressions so warm, you couldn’t help it.

Slowly, without feeling so much shame and guilt, the three of you worked your way through your lunch. It was a warm soup, something that filled your stomach on the cold day. It caused your lids to lower and a comfortable drowsiness to take over. Your mind slowly fogged and eventually Tetsuya seemed to notice.

“You look like you need a nap,” he murmured as he leaned near you to scoop up the empty bowl.

You blinked up at them and shook your head, “No, I-I’m okay.”

Even to your biased ears though, your words sounded unconvincing stuttered by a large yawn.

Akashi scoffed, “Don’t lie to us, Rabbit.”

Once again, the use of the Bunny and rabbit to describe you. You turned your attention to the redhead, but you didn’t hate the nicknames. In fact, there was a part of you, not as hidden or pushed away into the dark corners of your mind as it should be, that squirmed with pleasure as he said those names and looked at you like a wolf that would devour you whole. You wanted to be that scared little Bunny for him, you wanted to be a fluffy little creature on Kuroko’s lap as he spoiled you and brushed your hair. But you were nothing but a study buddy for them.

You nervously ducked your head until finally you heard Akashi clear his throat and Kuroko chuckle from behind you. Butterflies fluttered around your stomach, erupted through your chest, and you felt like you couldn’t swallow for a moment. You were too distracted from the way heat was scorching through your body and you were desperately trying to keep your gaze focused on your lap.

It didn’t matter though, you wanted to please them, it was such a natural instinct. You couldn’t fight it, and as you felt the heavy weight of both their stares continue expectantly, you finally lifted your eyes.

“Do you need to sleep?” Akashi asked, pressing the issue Tetsuya had brought up.

His red eyes narrowed, and lips thinned, you knew there was no way out of this. You didn’t understand the situation, but you knew they were laying down something. They were both in on a plan that you had no idea what even the basic outline was. The bricks of it were surrounding you and you felt nerves trickle through your veins, making the hairs on the back of your neck stand.

It felt like you were surrounded by hungry and slobbering wolves just waiting for you to break into a run so they could chase you down and devour you. And why did that imagery cause your thighs to squeeze together?

“Yeah,” you croaked, before clearing your throat with a firm nod. “Yeah, I do. Or I at least need to lay down for a bit if you two don’t mind.”

Your gaze cut to the side.

“We have just the spot for you,” Kuroko said, a tiny lilt lifting his usually deadpan voice.

You blinked up at them in surprise, but Seijuro was already standing, holding out his hand to you with a look of passive impatience on his face. Right… right, this was Akashi, you needed to acquiesce to his needs, his desires, or else that switch you’d seen on the courts might flip.

“I don’t just let anyone touch me you know,” he murmured, and you wondered if you supposed to hear it.

He’d spoken so quietly and not once glanced at you after as he led you down the hall, hand-in-hand, that you assumed he was just saying it to himself. Though the thought you’d been gifted something special like physical contact by Akashi was enough to cause your breath to catch. You didn’t realize that wasn’t a common thing for him.

Neither of them talked as they led you to a door. It was across from an open room which looked like the main bedroom of the apartment. You glanced over your shoulder through the doorway at the room that was obviously shared between the two of them.

Soon enough though your attention was drawn back to the closed door in front of you as you heard the click of the doorknob turn. Akashi was stepping through the entry way, and from what you could tell it was just another bedroom. It seemed unused for the most part and with gentle coaxing from Tetsuya’s hands at your back you stepped through the doorway.

The room was not as normal as you first thought. In the corner was a tall cage, dropping from the ceiling and going all the way to the floor. There was gauzy pink fabric laced through the top parts of the bar woven with fairy lights that were colored by the gauze. Inside the cage was a floor futon inside something that reminded you of a bright pink dog kennel, piled high with squishy looking pillows and stuffed animals, almost able to hide the chains and collar.

Your footsteps stopped and your heartbeat sped up. Were you supposed to ignore it? Was this something the two of them were into? You swallowed hard. How did you react to this?

The sound of the door snapping closed behind you caused your head to swipe towards the movement. Kuroko was locking it tightly in place. Panic gripped you and your eyes skipped to the knob, noticing that you would need a key to unlock it. Fear, but… you shouldn’t be afraid of them, right? Yet… they had no reason to lock that door. There was no way to talk yourself out of this. There was no way to defend them.

“Actually, I don’t think… I think I’m just going to go,” you said, taking a step back, towards that firmly locked door. You looked in front of you, with the desperate need to know where Akashi was and realized the red head wasn’t there.

“Now, now, we went through all this trouble to set this up for you, Little Rabbit,” he said, his words being spoken just inches away from your neck.

You could feel his breath roll across your skin and you shivered. Before you could turn, he gave you a hard shove toward the open door of the massive cage and you toppled onto the bed. You huffed out a groan as you felt a warm heavy weight press into your back, coupled by the sharp pressure of something cool and thin against your fragile throat.

You swallowed and felt the prick of a blade. That was the distinct coldness against your throat. You shouldn’t be turned on, you shouldn’t feel your stomach warm, and your thighs press needily together. Warm wetness dripped from your cunt, and you hated that you felt this way. Yet, you couldn’t deny that the dangerous weapon controlling you while the heat of the body against your back was a wonderful contrast.

“Hm?” Akashi’s sinful voice sounds from behind the two of you. “That’s interesting, she’s squirming, but almost like… do you enjoy feeling so helpless, Little Rabbit?”

Tetsuya chuckled lowly, a sound you never thought you’d ever hear from him. It was vicious, so dangerous, teetering on the edge of insanity. You felt the point of the knife spin against your flesh, taunting you. That light prick, the soft pressure warned you what a precarious position you were in. These two men wanted something from you, and your mind could easily fill in the blanks now that your desire to defend them had been brushed away.

It was easy to tell their plans for you were anything but innocent. You just didn’t know quite how dark things would get. And you hated yourself because despite all the unknowns making your stomach knot there was another sensation growing stronger by the minute. The fear mixed terribly with your growing arousal, making heat flush through you and your head grew light, floating away from all rationality.

You swallowed carefully, feeling the knife dig in just a bit more as your throat bobbed. Your fingers dug into the plush blanket beneath you as you felt him drag the flat of the cold steel down your neck to your clavicle. Kuroko’s nose pressed against the base of your neck, and he inhaled.

There was the sound of heavy, calculated footsteps and the jingling of metal from somewhere nearby. You felt a cool touch on your ankles. Cold skin touching the flushed heat of your body, you couldn’t decide if you wanted to welcome it as a grounding sensation or jerk your ankle away. The knife shifted onto its edge just between your breasts and you whimpered.

You felt a light weight and thick material encompass your ankle. That gentle tinkling happened again and then whatever that material was, tightened. Fuck they were cuffing you. You moaned softly before biting it back.

“Such a lovely voice,” Kuroko crooned, his normally placid tone turning sharp just like the blade in his hand.   “Move Tetsuya,” Seijuro said from beside you this time.

You wanted to turn your head. You wanted to see why he was beside you, but you couldn’t. Both your feet now felt heavy and trapped. Yet, there was still the tinkle of metal from where Akashi was. You felt Kuroko shift to the other side of you, but that knife only moved to press lightly and directly under your jaw.

You wanted to swallow, wanted to push back against the chilling feeling of the blade just barely digging into your fragile skin. Instead, you stayed frozen.

Suddenly you were being lifted to your knees and your wide eyes could see Akashi kneeling in front of you. He held a beautiful leather collar, baby pink and butter soft. The buckle had a lock on it, which he held the delicate key to in his hand as he moved around Kuroko’s wrist and carefully slid the fur-lined collar around your neck.

“Perfect,” he smiled, but it was a mixture of affectionate and cruelty as he closed the buckle and locked it close. “The perfect pet.”

His eyes finally met yours and you knew from the way he looked at you, he wouldn’t hurt you, as long as you did what he wanted. As long as you listened to both of them.

Kuroko’s finger traced the line of the leather around the back of your neck, and you shivered, forcing down a whine. Feeling both their attention so heavy and hot on you was enough to override the terror and now all you felt was a squirming desire to be taken. Your mouth watered and your eyes turned glossy, Akashi’s smile sharpened.

“She’s ready,” he said.

That feral lust inside you leapt at the thought that maybe they’d both would give you what you needed, at the same time. Yet, your hopes were immediately dashed as Akashi stepped away. You twisted for a moment, struggling against the chains holding you captive.

A small sting smarted at the spot where the knife was and Kuroko’s voice purred in your ear, “Ah, ah, only when we say so.”

You knew he’d nicked you. It should have made you terrified again, it should have cooled the lust licking at your veins, but it didn’t. Instead, it just fed the flames. They burned harder, ate away at your sanity and begged for more. The tiny amount of pain from that small cut did nothing but make you aware how much you wanted these men. You weren’t sure when it happened. When it grew beyond admiring from afar to this dark sin you didn’t acknowledge until you were quite literally caged in their room. But it was now something you couldn’t escape. You were just as twisted as them.

When they both left you with nothing more than a couple of pets and a chaste kiss on your forehead from Tetsuya, you felt they were stomping on your heart. That they were pouring cold water over your head. They were leaving you. Immediately you stood to follow them, but the chains rattled noisily just within a few steps. You swallowed and the lust disappeared, the realization you were truly captive dawned on you.

“Stay here, be good,” Seijuro said from the other side of the bars as he locked the cage closed. “You won’t want for anything while you’re here with us.”

You didn’t deny that everything he said wasn’t a lie, that he meant every single word. You wouldn’t need anything, they would fulfill your desires, your needs, and possibly give you things you’d never known you wanted. From the way both their eyes dragged over your form before they left, you knew they wouldn’t leave you alone for long.

You turned on the spot, your eyes roving the space they’d created for you once again. The futon looked so soft despite the fact it was stuffed into an even smaller cage, you hadn’t been able to truly appreciate it before and when you crawled into it you luxuriated in the way it cradled you. How the blankets in it were both fluffy and silky, and how you had more plump pillows and stuffed animals than you could ever want or need. The pillows and plushies actually spilled out the small door onto the floor.

You pulled out a lamb that fit perfectly in your arms and before you knew it the weights around your neck and ankles no longer felt strange and uncomfortable. Instead, they easily became soothing and welcoming, they made you feel something you never knew you needed, you felt owned.

---

“She’s perfect, you were right,” Tetsuya sighed, nearly melting into the chair of the living room.

“I’m always right,” Akashi responded with an arrogant smile.

“What should we make her for dinner?” Kuroko asked, his placid façade back.

“You want to celebrate, don’t you?” Seijuro frowned.

“Don’t act like you don’t want to Sei,” the smaller of the two said, a spark of mischief glowing dimly in his blue eyes.

It was so hard for most people to see emotions in Kuroko unless he let them. But Akashi had known him long enough, soon you would too. Akashi was certain there would come a time where you would be like this with the two of them. Where all three of you could be in the same room, you could stay unchained if you wanted, though maybe he’d keep that collar on you, you looked good in pink.

Days passed, just a few but Akashi was certain it felt like weeks to you from the way you kept asking about school, about when you’d be let out. You promised you wouldn’t run away, he scoffed when you said that. You had no reason to, you were fed, clean, didn’t have to worry about paying rent or doing homework or studying for tests, you didn’t have to worry about socializing beyond with them. You lived without stress and instead were pampered.

Kuroko made sure you were well fed, and he made your favorites regularly, Akashi bathed you and brushed your hair, and just as you’d stopped asking to leave the cage, just as you’d started to adjust was when things changed. Akashi had planned it that way though. He wanted to keep you on your toes, just like with shogi.

The two of them walked into your room and Kuroko produced the key with a flourish. They didn’t hold anything beyond a bottle of water, and you looked up from your coloring book with a curious head tilt.

“Hi!” you squeaked. “Why… what’s going on?”

Kuroko snorted out a quiet laugh from beside Seijuro. Akashi however, rolled his eyes, you were still a little shy. However, after today’s experiment, perhaps you would open up more. If not then, it would only take a little more time, they would make sure of that.

“Don’t be so shy, Bunny, we aren’t going to eat you,” Tetsuya teased, his darker side coming out to play. “Well, not if you don’t want us to. I’m sure you taste delicious, though.”

His gaze raked over you and even Akashi knew how invasive it felt to be under that lustful stare. Though Kuroko tended to submit to Seijuro, that didn’t mean he didn’t crave his boyfriend. And when Tetsuya desired someone, he made it known.

The room was heavy, thick, the air so humid with sin it was hard to breathe. From the way your breasts jumped with your heaving breaths, Tetsuya could tell you felt it too. Neither of them had to say anything, just the way they stared, the way they moved into the larger cage and circled around you, made you instinctually aware of how vulnerable you were to their wants and needs.

Yet, from the way you didn’t move more than to your knees, the way you tilted your chin up to expose your delicate throat despite the knife Kuroko had held to it just a few days ago, and the way your eyes softened, Tetsuya knew you wanted this just as much as they did. His fingers twitched at his side, hungry to touch you, to explore your soft curves.

Something was exchanged between the two of them. Akashi caught Tetsuya’s eye and he watched the movement of his boyfriend’s hand as he motioned silently to you and nodded once. You stared, unwilling to ask the question that likely lingered upon your tongue.

“You sure?” Kuroko asked.

“You’re always gentler than I am,” Seijuro smiled, though there was a tinge of bitterness in his red eyes.

Your attention bounced between them. There was a slight frenetic energy in the way your fingers twisted around each other, but that was the only sign you were truly nervous. Seijuro wasn’t sure if you were just ignorant or brave. Did you trust them? You shouldn’t, though they would never intentionally hurt you, their motives were far from pure.

Tetsuya turned to you and crouched onto your level. You looked so small, so soft, and he wanted to grip your thick thighs and plush breasts. He wanted to bury himself in your cunt, in your scent, and surround himself in your flesh.

“Will you watch?” he asked without looking over his shoulder.

“Of course,” Akashi responded, and your eyes darted over Kuroko’s back to watch the other man sit down. “Focus on Tetsuya.”

His words guided you to look back at the blue haired man in front of you and forced you to wait. At first, he just stared at you, taking your breath away with the intensity of the emotions he so often held back. His hands lifted then, touched your jaw, gently thumbed the small scab that was the result of his blade, and he smiled apologetically.

“I’m sorry things went so far. I got a bit excited last time,” he murmured, his breath ghosting over your lips. “I promise to take things slower this time.”

You nodded, unsure of what you were agreeing to, but you knew you wanted to put him at ease, “Of course. I trust you.”

Did you? Did you really trust him? Tetsuya searched your features for a moment, looking for a lie laying beyond. He found none, so he praised you with a kiss. It was chaste at first, testing the waters. Yet when you didn’t pull away, when you didn’t fight, he pressed his tongue forward to trace the seam of your lips. You opened your mouth on a moan and he eagerly took advantage to taste you.

Strawberries, you’d been eating some sort of candy that tasted specifically like artificial, too sweet strawberries. It fit you. You were sugary, luscious, a fruit waiting to be picked. Waiting to be sampled by him. His tongue swept forward in long hungry licks. You felt like he was claiming you even more than the chains and collar had. You felt like he was taking over every part of you.

Not just your tongue, not just your mouth, but your teeth, your breath, he stole every word you could possibly speak or any sound you could make. He took your thoughts like they were nothing but wisps of air for him to inhale. You were nothing right now, but an object created for him. You were his pet, and he would split you open and show you just who you belonged to.

The sound of Akashi relaxing against the chair behind him pushed Kuroko to tilt your head when he placed his palm firmly around your skull. He encouraged you to open wider for him, to give him more. Every shiver that escaped you he claimed with a curve of his lips. He pressed closer until you were leaning back, until eventually you were laying down and he was balanced on his forearms above you.

He finally broke away from you and the way you looked at him, the way your chest heaved with shallow breaths and your breasts brushed against his shirt, had his hips grinding against your thigh. His knee found purchase between your legs so he could roll the length of his leg along your cunt, watching your eyes roll and your hands grasp for an anchor. He became that safety in the storm that was growing inside you. You held onto him for dear life, and he watched as your lids fluttered in a desperate attempt to stay open.

“Give in,” he breathed, his voice a raspy growl because, goddamn, you were beautiful.

You shook your head, “I want…”

You swallowed heavily; he could see the bob of your throat as it worked around words you couldn’t bring yourself to say. Your eyes met his defiantly, though your lids were half closed and heavy, you refused to do as he said. He smirked and tilted his head, intrigued by your sudden desire to fight him on this.

“What do you want?” Kuroko pushed.

You gulped again and he watched as your strung-out mind searched for the answer he was looking for. He watched you struggle for a bit. There was a part of him that enjoyed watching you want to please him, he bet Akashi liked it even more. The sadist.

“I want more,” you finally answered. “I need you.”

Did you even know what you really wanted? Tetsuya felt like he knew what you needed more than you did. He could see it in your fluttering gaze and parted lips. You wanted to feel more, you wanted to know who you belonged to. You wanted to be owned even more than you already were.

“You need this,” he corrected and sank his teeth into the thick muscle on the side of your neck.

At first you stiffened under him, whimpered, before going lax and moaning. It all happened within a handful of seconds, and it was enough to make his mouth water. When Kuroko was certain there was a strong set of teeth imprints on your flesh, he moved lower, lapping over the stinging skin before dropping to the lingerie you now wore all the time.

You’d been gifted a lacey pink and white baby doll for the first bath. It was Tetsuya’s preference. The one you wore now, with black and red trim was Akashi’s. You never wore anything different unless you got cold, then often you had a set of knee-high socks and a robe of some sort. But always a set of lingerie underneath. Therefore, their collection had grown exponentially.

You looked beautiful underneath him, wrapped up in sinful colors with a lustful sheen to your eyes. He dropped to the swells of your breasts and sucked a dark mark into each of them, something that would turn into a bruise, something that would blossom into another sign of ownership. Those too were surrounded by his teeth prints, like macabre rose petals painted on your skin.

Seijuro shifted behind Kuroko and though he didn’t say anything, Tetsuya could sense his impatience. There was a reason, Akashi had told him to go first. Though he could exercise patience, especially when he wanted to and when he won something out of it, with you in front of him, his foreplay would be far less gentle than Kuroko’s.

Tetsuya scraped his teeth down your sternum as he opened the lacings in the front of this particular baby doll. It made for easy removal. The fragile cloth fell away, opening up and sliding down to bare you to him, catching around your shoulders.

“Look at that,” Kuroko drew in a sharp breath, shooting you a look under his lashes. “Such a perfect picture, all splayed out for me.”

Akashi clicked his tongue.

“Ah, sorry Seijuro, us. For us,” Kuroko smiled mischievously above you.

He was doing this on purpose, dancing along the line of pressing Akashi too much and not enough. He wanted to see if his boyfriend would break, would he eventually drop his own rule and join them when he couldn’t take it anymore? Kuroko wanted to see that. Some petty part of him, dark and hidden away, wanted to see Akashi shatter because he never did. Seijuro was constantly composed.

Even now, when Tetsuya looked over his shoulder, he saw the aching erection in Akashi’s pants, something that the other man resolutely ignored. Instead, his chin balanced on the knuckles of his hand as he observed you and Kuroko intently, refusing to miss a single second.

Tetsuya turned back to you when you wriggled under him, impatience beginning to take over your sounds and slowly a slight, yet persistent whine began to crawl up your throat. He chuckled and leaned back to land a sharp smack on the top of your thigh. You squeaked and instantly fell silent.

“Remember, I know what you need,” he growled.

Akashi hummed his approval, and he watched as Kuroko nearly basked in the small sound. It was interesting because Tetsuya never let himself go like this with anyone but him. A small part of Seijuro was jealous, just for a moment, before he remembered both of you belonged to him.

His fingernails dug into the arms of the chair, into the flesh of his palm, as Kuroko leaned over you and dragged the pads of his fingers up your thighs until he could press them back. Your knees touched your chest and exposed your always uncovered pussy to the air. You shivered and your legs naturally fought back against Tetsuya’s hold, until his palm cracked against your ass.

“Stop squirming,” he hissed.

All that softness that he’d shown earlier had disappeared like smoke in the wind. Now it was harsh, madness unprotected by the fluff of affection. You shuddered under the heat of his strike and nodded, your eyes glistened with tears at the corners and yet that crazed excitement that drove Tetsuya in these times caused him to bounce back with a smile.

“Good,” he purred, rolling a wet tongue over the sting of his handprint. “I just want you to let me take care of you.”

People always assumed Akashi was the most unhinged of the two of them. Yet, when Tetsuya truly let go, Seijuro almost wondered if he was worse. Was it all the holding back? Did it just drive him to the brink every time, making him almost lose his mind once he finally acted like he wanted to?

At his words Akashi saw you relax under Tetsuya. Every desire to fight left you. It’s like you turned to a melted puddle of putty. Still moldable, still handleable, but so much more accepting and welcoming of the touch that wanted you to listen. Tetsuya sighed into the crook of your knee as he placed your ankle of his shoulder.

His movements turned to lax and lazy, and he dragged his wide hands over your curves. He relished the sensation of your plush and soft skin. His eyes focused on yours, devouring the way you couldn’t quite meet his stare but wouldn’t look away completely either. You were stuck somewhere in limbo, glancing occasionally at his eyes, his lips, and the bob of his throat.

He ducked his head, licking his lower lip as his palm dragged up, only stopping long enough to heft the weight of your breast in it and then thumb your nipple. Then it slipped along your sternum until he gently wrapped it around the soft part of your neck, just under your jaw, and used a small amount of pressure to force you to tilt your mouth up to meet his.

---

Yet, Tetsuya stopped just half an inch short of pressing your lips together. He stopped and hovered above you, letting your breath mingle, letting his eyes get lost in yours, and letting this strange intimacy build until it felt like you were drowning in the weight of it. It was strange. The passion in the breadth of a minute was headier than the kiss just moments before. Was it the waiting? Was it the yearning? You couldn’t reach out though. You wouldn’t. You knew better than to ask. You wanted to wait like this and let the desire build just as much as he did.

You swallowed and Akashi cleared his throat once more, and finally with a smirk quirking his lips again, Kuroko kissed you. You moaned, loud and unabashed into it. Your voice was so strong that it broke past the barrier of your fused mouths. Tetsuya couldn’t swallow it all and that made his movements all the more eager. His hand left your neck, his tongue slipped past your teeth, and his fingers trailed to right above your clit’s hood.

Your hips bucked slightly of their own accord. You whined desperately, fingernails finding his shoulder blades and scrabbling to find purchase and an anchor within his flesh. He hissed and pressed further into you until you were certain your joints would pop and maybe your bones would break. However, if this was how you would crack, if this was how you would die, smothered by love no matter how twisted and dark it was, you were happy for it to happen.

Finally, his touch gave you what you needed. It circled your swollen nub experimentally, searching for the pressure, the stimulation that would have you squirming and screaming and so out of your mind not even his words of reprimand could control you. Not even Akashi would be able to control you.

It wasn’t hard for him to find it either, it seemed like within seconds he was pulling breathless words from you, “Oh god, oh Tetsu. Please more, there, don’t stop.”

It all ran together and was barely coherent, he’s pulled back to watch you through his beautifully thick eyelashes. It was perfection to feel the weight of his gaze. But you wanted, no you needed more. You looked to the side, to where Seijuro sat and one of those hands that was grasping at Kuroko reached out to him. It begged for his attention.

“Akashi,” you whispered, still too scared to say his first name out loud.

His eyes had never left the two of you, you had his attention. Yet, you wanted more, you were greedy right now. You wanted his touch, his kiss, and to feel his breath.

“Please,” you murmured hoarsely.

It was barely loud enough for him to hear, but with the only sound your labored gasps and the clicking of your slick as Kuroko worked over your clit, Seijuro tilted his head curiously. You knew he’d heard you just fine. He smirked.

“Not yet, Rabbit,” he responded.

You shivered as he used that name, as his gravelly voice stroked over your heated skin. Goosebumps rippled over your flesh, and you cried out as you came. It wasn’t too hard, but you knew with the sensitivity it brought it would only be a matter of time before you were orgasming again and again, and harder and harder.

Kuroko grinned, “Isn’t he mean?”

He burrowed his lips into your neck again, only to trail down your skin to different places leaving kisses in his wake. A trail of heat and cooling saliva caused more bumps to jump to the surface only this time on your ribs where he lovingly placed nips and tiny kitten licks.

You could feel it all in hyper definition. It was too much, your nerves burned, they sparked with lightning, too much sensation bounced between your skin and muscle fibers, and you just needed it to stop for a moment. Your hips shifted away from his seeking fingers, still plucking at your clit. Yet Tetsuya didn’t relent. He wanted to hear you moan and scream more.

“Tetsu,” you breathed harshly, your fingers curled into your palm, and you pushed your closed fists against his chest.

You wedged your hands in against his broad body and insistently pressed against his hard muscles. You needed a moment; your mind and body were frying. You felt like you were catching fire, your lungs couldn’t bring in enough oxygen and there was a prickling sensation in them.

“Tetsu!” you cried insistently.

Akashi growled, “Listen to her, Tetsuya.”

Kuroko sighed and pulled back, and though he was obviously against giving you a break, concern etched between his brows as he observed your distressed features. There was a moment where a hiccupping sob tried to tumble past your trembling lips. It tried to rip another cry from you, but Tetsuya kissed your temple, lingered there and you could feel him inhaling your scent.

“Sorry,” he murmured into your hair. “I got carried away.”

You shook your head, “It’s okay. Just… too much. Want it inside instead.”

He pulled back, considered your face again, looked over at your lone observer and then looked at you again, “Yeah?”

You nodded firmly, blinking away the sting of tears. He murmured his affection, kissed down your soft stomach and then ended at your sticky cunt. He spread your lips and you once again tried to close your thighs around his head, so aware of the two pairs of eyes on you. Kuroko didn’t let you though, instead he spread you wider, lifted your hips off the ground and lapped over your twitching hole without a warning.

You sucked in a sharp breath, it was almost too cold for your lungs, you were worried you’d start coughing. Yet, his tongue was slipping inside your clenching walls soon enough, stealing any oxygen from your chest that might have caused a problem. Instead, your back arched, lifting your hips further towards his mouth and you cried out in approval as your hand immediately fisted in his blue hair.

It was so warm, so slick, his spit only adding to the mess you’d made of yourself. A frothy mixture of his fluids and yours covered your labia, covered his lips and chin, and Tetsuya only seemed too eager to lap it up. His tongue curled inside you, probing and searching for any spot he could reach that would make your eyes cross. He was too good at this. Your toes curled in pleasure, and you tugged at his hair, bringing him impossibly closer to your skin, smothering him in your scent and between your thighs. Kuroko would happily die here though.

Sparks shifted behind your closed eyelids, that tension in your body snapped and you ground down against his tongue. Gasps shuddered from your chest, pulled by his talented mouth and you finally, finally felt everything drifting away from you. All your worries, at least for that moment, right after the peak of your climax.

Soon your walls had opened again and stopped convulsing with tiny shocks of the vestiges of your orgasm. He could sense it too because right when you widened and relaxed a bit more he pulled back despite your whines and desperate manipulation of his head. He curled one arm around your thigh so he could hold you still, and then pushed his other set of fingers into you.

Two at once, filling you but then he added his slick tongue to your sensitive clit. Steady strokes, pressing intently until you were rolling your pelvis against his face, chasing that sensation more and more. Akashi chuckled and your tear coated eyes sought him out. His cock was so hard you could see the imprint through the bleary vision you currently had. It was thick and heavy, pressing insistently against his jeans. Yet he didn’t touch himself, he tilted his head, still carefully perched on his knuckles and narrowed his eyes at you in a strange mix of affection and approval. The way his attention sank into you like Tetsuya’s teeth had done just moments before, it pushed you closer to your next peak.

Then you looked down at the man between your legs, who had been watching the exchange with sparkling and observant eyes. You could feel the curl of his smirk against your pussy and knowing that both their stares were on you was all it took to have your muscles bunching too quickly, too soon. Everything grew sharp, near painful within your body, but then it snapped and pure pleasure washed over you. It was white hot and enough to suck your breath away.

Your entire body curled into the waves of your orgasm. You bucked against Tetsuya’s mouth and experienced fingers as they dragged more and more sensations from your body. Burning satisfaction filled you, and you screamed wordlessly with the feeling. Electricity shot up your spine, filled your mind, and when you closed your eyes, you could see the leftover static of it behind your lids.

He dragged more and more contractions from your walls until finally you thrashed and pulled away from his pliant hands. He let you go this time without a fight. Every look, every touch, was too much right now. You curled in upon yourself and shuddered into your aftershocks. Slow breaths filled your lungs and you looked dreamily at Kuroko as he leaned back and flicked opened his pants with practiced ease.

You watched through slitted eyes as he dragged his pants down his pale legs. Tone muscles and deep hip dips greeted but your gaze was greedily drawn to the slender yet long cock in front of you. The tip was flushed the palest pink and it was slathered with sticky precum, excitement caused it to pulse visibly under your observations. You couldn’t stop yourself from licking your lips, swallowing down the saliva pooling in your mouth.

He manhandled you into position, shifting you until your pelvis was pressed up against his and the length of his dick could slip between your slick lined labia. Your breath hiccupped in your chest, and you whimpered.

“Oh,” you squeaked, unable to do more than mouth the rest of what you were going to say when Tetsuya caught your clit.

He huffed in response. His body tensing and his head falling back on his shoulders, and he relished the feeling of your heat for just a minute. The two of you were so close to being connected and you understood exactly how frustrating and yet soothing this was. The was drawing it out just a bit longer prepared you a little more for the actual act.

His length dragged over your sensitive skin again and again until you thought you were going to go crazy and finally, he dipped down and began to push inside.

“Fuck,” he hissed, something so uncharacteristically Kuroko.

Tetsuya didn’t curse much even when holding a knife to your throat. Now though… when he was splitting you apart and your tight hole was working to accommodate his length it made you shudder. His girth wasn’t massive, but it was enough to make your muscles seize and your thighs tense.

“Let me in, Bunny,” he breathed, his arms falling forward on either side of your head so that he was pinning your legs back up to your body with his chest.

He buried his nose in the crook of your knee, as if desperate to find something to anchor himself. You wondered if the soft skin of your leg and your scent did that for him. You spasmed when he pressed forward too fast, and a whine of discomfort left you which dipped into a low moan of appreciation once your body finally relaxed. Now your walls were wide open and welcoming for him, sucking him inside, hugging him tight and refusing to let go.

You pulled in a breath, shivering as he finally sank in balls deep and groaned when you fluttered around him. Your body approved, your soul approved, and you found yourself falling for these depraved men more. Perhaps they were right. Perhaps they knew what you needed more than you did.

Kuroko pressed butterfly kisses along the back of your knee and just at the start of your thigh, “It’s like you don’t want to let me go. Feels so good.”

He was nearly slurring his words; it was so unlike his usual self. For a moment it boosted your confidence, long enough that you reached out to card your fingers through his hair, affection in every single movement. He leaned into your touch with a sigh before pulling back so he could rock his hips.

He started slow, he rolled and hitched his hips in different ways. He was looking for more of those spots that caused you to gasp and moan and clench. You could tell he was concentrating on your reactions from the way his brow pinched and the way he did everything methodically. It reminded you of the look he got on the court.

Then you felt it, that sensation of his cockhead dragging wonderfully across the spongey spot inside you. It had you nearly choking on the sound that pushed out your throat. It was a strangled cry that dipped into a low groan.

His head tilted and eyebrow arched, then he very specifically imitated the same thrust. It caused flames to lick across your skin and your nails to sink into the sheets below you.

“Oh f-fuck!” you screamed. “There!”

He grinned, “As you wish.”

You should have known from that laughter that danced in his expression that you’d asked for your downfall, but you were too far gone. All you wanted was more of that toe curling pleasure that seemed to be eager to build.

Tetsuya lifted himself away from you a bit, just enough to have you whining but then he set a brutal pace, something that could only be described as being fucked. Something that made you forget about everything but the cock pistoning in and out of your poor sloppy cunt.

“Should have done this ages ago. Should have moved here just for this perfect pussy,” he breathed. “Akashi was right. You’ve been what we were missing.”

You wanted to answer him, you wanted to do more than just gasp and moan or even scream him praises. You wanted to say you were missing them too. That this was what you needed too. He was right, they were right, they knew exactly what you wanted. It was them.

You couldn’t though, you were a slave to the burning sensations causing your cunt to froth and clench rhythmically around Kuroko’s cock. For a moment you had the sense of mind to turn your bleary eyes to Akashi once again. You could barely make him out, but you knew from what you could see, he had not moved. His chest was heaving just a bit more, his pale cheeks just slightly flushed, but that’s all that had changed.

He didn’t speak, he didn’t draw attention to himself. Yet his presence was impossible to ignore. The heavy weight of his lustful gaze dragged over the both of you and when your back arced as Tetsuya pressed in at a particularly delicious angle, Seijuro let out the softest groan.

You answered back instantly. A guttural moan ripped from your chest, leaving your throat aching and lungs trembling. Your thighs twitched in Kuroko’s grasps right as the grip of your pussy snagged him tighter than ever before. You came with a high-pitched cry. Your body snapping into a sharp bow and your breath wringing from you.

“Oh god, oh god,” you whispered hoarsely in between grunts.

You humped as much as you could against Kuroko, chasing more of that delicious sparking sensation. That feeling that had you creaming nearly endlessly on his cock. Tetsuya shouted, curved over you and through your pleasure-narrowed eyes you saw his tendons tight against his skin and his skin blushed red. He bit his lip, fucked hard into you until his movements became sloppy and then pressed himself against you tight.

That’s when you felt his length thicken impossibly more, kicking within your walls as warm cum filled you to the brim. You shuddered, another small orgasm sinking its sharp teeth into your oversensitive body. You squeaked out a whine and twisted away from him only to be held still as Kuroko thrusted forward and back, pushing the last of his seed deep inside you.

“Mmmm, bred you good, didn’t I little Bunny?” he murmured, pressing a lazy kiss to your lips.

His deep blue eyes were soft, sleepy, and completely different than how he had been looking at you before. All that existed in them now was satiated warmth, love, and the desire to rest.

“Don’t sleep yet,” Akashi said, and the sound of the chair cushion squeaking let you know that he had stood.

Your brain was too foggy to register much other than the need to have him fill you up as well, because his erection looked painful caught in his pant leg. He glared at you though when you weakly reached toward him.

“No,” he said firmly. “Once you two are a little more coherent, we’ll clean you up.”

There was no anger in his voice, just expectations to follow his demands. So, though your lip wobbled, you nodded.

Two days passed and eventually you were allowed out of the place you’d learned to call home. The cage was no longer the only space you were allowed to roam. Akashi and Kuroko permitted you out as long as they were home and oddly it felt welcoming, warm around them. It was comforting being surrounded by their presence in a domestic atmosphere.

You helped Tetsuya make dinner and Seijuro managed to convince you to play a short game of Shogi. You watched with fascination as his eyes lit up with every tile that was placed. Those moments made your new life seem more normal. Until night fell at least.

You were led to the bathroom where Akashi sat you down in front of the mirror. For someone who was so brusque and cold, he sure seemed to love to pamper you. With a brush in hand, he stood behind you and began to work the teeth between the strands of your hair.

Each stroke of his fingers over your head, every time his touch curved around the shell of your ear, had your eyelids drooping. Soon you were wobbling on the seat until eventually an exasperated sigh came from the man behind you and he gripped your jaw tightly.

“Stay awake,” he growled, forcing your gaze forward into the mirror.

His lips had dropped just beside your head causing his breath to rush over your sensitive skin. You shivered, goose bumps raised over your necks and throat. A sigh rushed from between your lips as your head rolled back, exposing your pulse to his mouth, surrendering.

He chuckled; it was so low it caused that shudder to roll over you again. It caused lust to sink into you, thick and hot like lava, but dark like molasses, trickling heavy through your veins. The feeling made you weighted, made you limp and pliable and you fell into his grasp so easily. His arms encircled you, propped you up on the chair you’d been sitting on as his lips dragged over your flesh openly. They were soft, like petals, something that surprised you.

“Akashi,” you breathed.

“Seijuro,” he corrected firmly. “It’s about time you started calling me that.”

He murmured into your skin. You felt the tip of his tongue against you as he talked. It was soft, warm, and wet. It made your entire body stiffen, your clit throb, and you whined. You couldn’t believe just a week ago or was it longer now, you had been afraid of what these two would do to you. Now you were giving yourself over willingly.

“You are so needy already. After getting fucked dumb by Tetsuya just a few days ago? Aren’t you a high maintenance one,” Akashi grinned against your neck.

You could hear the smirk in his voice just as much as you could feel it. You whimpered, hips shifting, thighs tensing, looking desperately for friction that didn’t come.

“Ah, ah,” he reprimanded, smacking the sided of your leg. “Don’t even try to get off without my permission. I mean, honestly… why would I let you play with yourself when you have both of us so willing to play with you instead?”

“I’m sorry, S-sir,” you stuttered, your eyes fluttering.

He hissed in pleasure, “That sounds good coming from your mouth. Yet… perhaps there’s another term you want to use. Something… that maybe you are holding back?”

“Daddy,” you whispered, hesitant.

“That’s it, good girl,” he purred wrapping his wide palm around your delicate throat gently.

Your body became his weight to support, you didn’t try to hold yourself up. Instead, you were too focused on the way his eyes caught yours in the mirror. The way his lips trailed over your ear now, how he watched his own reflection pull sinful sounds from you.

“Are you ready?” he rasped. “Ready to take us both?”

You sighed, squirming in his grip for a moment at the thought, “Yes.”

“Perfect. I’ve been waiting. It was so hard holding back last time, you know,” he breathed.

It didn’t seem like it was. Even as he spoke those words and told you it had been, it didn’t seem like he had suffered in any form. You, however, had laid awake at night thinking of it. Wondering what it would have been like if he had joined in.

“You didn’t have to,” you responded, honest to a fault.

“I will always make sure you are safe with us,” he said, dragging the blunt of his teeth over the shell of your ear.

You keened, shuddering in his grasp, rolling your hips and your desperation made him huff out a laugh. His fingers tightened just enough around your throat for you to gasp, for the pressure to be noticeable, and his glittering red gaze looked back at you with keen interest or was it mischief. He knew what he was doing, how he was affecting you. Not that you were being exactly subtle, you couldn’t be, you needed him so badly.

His hand left your throat, trailing down over your clavicles, tracing the dip in between them. He touched the skin stretched tight over your sternum, exposed by the lingerie you always wore inside the apartment. Your breathing sharpened, so much so it began to burn in your throat and then your lungs. You couldn’t bring in enough oxygen, even without him holding your neck.

You finally tilted your head to look up at him and he looked down at you, his eyes scanned your face just long enough for you to bring in three shallow and shaky breaths, then he claimed your lips in a near painful kiss. His teeth nipped at yours hard enough you knew they’d bruise. He pressed his tongue past your teeth, fucked it in nice and slow until you felt like you were completely his in just a couple seconds.

“Come, let’s get back to the bedroom,” he growled, scooping you up into his strong arms.

You allowed him to carry you, not struggling so as to make it easier, eagerly nuzzling into his neck but refraining from tasting his skin like you wanted. It would have been so simple just to lick a stripe up his throat, yet you knew you couldn’t. He would reprimand you. You knew he would guide you in the dance about to come and you would have to listen to his every command. Just the thought had prickles of excitement pebbling over your skin.

He huffed out a laugh, staring at you through slitted eyes as he sat you down on the futon you called your own.

“Tetsuya!” he called.

Within seconds there was the sound of pounding footsteps and Kuroko was running around the corner. He stopped, frozen for a moment as he took in the scene. You strewn out on the blankets and Akashi with a half-hard on standing above you. Instantly that feral darkness swallowed his usually dull and yet somehow bright personality.

“Oh,” he breathed, with enough tension laden in that single sound that it rolled over your body tangibly.

“Strip,” Seijuro demanded, his gaze firmly locked on his boyfriend.

Tetsuya flushed a deep red but instantly responded, his long fingers carefully pulling his clothes off his body and folding them neatly on the floor. This was a routine they’d obviously done many times. Once he was stripped his cock was already thick and hard, curving upward and pearling with precum. You craned your head, curving your throat to be more exposed so that you could see the delicious sight.

It was interesting how subservient Tetsuya had turned at just a single word from Akashi. The heavy air made your thighs press tight together.

“Come,” Akashi said and held out a hand to the other man.

“Yes, Sir,” he responded, almost seeming to flash to his boyfriend’s side.

“Keep our little Bunny busy while I get ready,” he murmured, looking down at you with eyes that said you would never be ready for what they had planned.

“Happily,” Tetsuya responded, licking his lips.

He dropped next to you where you stayed still like a good little pet. You were promised a good time, that they would take care of your every need, all you needed to do was listen. So that was what you did, sometimes without even being told.

“Such a good Little Rabbit,” Kuroko breathed, gripping the tresses of your hair hard enough for it to sting slightly.

You gasped and writhed, “Oh god, please.”

“Yeah,” he agreed with approval and claimed your mouth with his.

The kiss was softer than the ones Akashi took from you, but they were sloppier, less restrained. Spit slicked your lips and his tongue slipped as far back as it could. You melted under the onslaught, turning into a literal puddle.

He moved over you, straddling your entire body with his and rutting his aching dick against your plush, lace covered stomach. The tacky fluid rolling down his length coated your lingerie, guiding his thrusts. He didn’t stop kissing you for a second, and in fact it was so deep that your lungs were beginning to scream from the lack of oxygen. They burned, your head spun, and it was oddly addictive, knowing you could pass out at any second just because he wanted to taste your mouth so badly.

Your fingers raised up to curl into his broad shoulders, your nails cut into his pale flesh and that caused him to finally pull back with a groan. His head arced, exposing the fragile column of his throat as he soaked in the pain you created with your sharp nails, thrusting against you harder.

Akashi moved to kneel behind Kuroko, in between your legs, you could see it just over his shoulder. He pressed his fingers lightly against your slick slit, testing your readiness. One finger sunk into your pliant cunt as his thumb pressed steadily against your clit, you gasped, and your hips jerked upwards.

“Stay still, both of you,” Seijuro growled and instantly, Tetsuya stilled.

It was like Akashi had yanked on a set of strings binding Kuroko, a set of invisible strings that tightened and kept him painfully still. His muscles tensed above you and his breath stilled so much that you had to search for the rise and fall of his chest. Shallow, desperate to please, but in his eyes that gluttonous hunger never left, in fact it only seemed to grow with Seijuro’s demand.

You took a little longer, it took several deep breaths, a whimper, before your trembling legs could widen and stop.

“Good,” Akashi cooed and that approval in his voice had your blood singing happily.

Akashi was skilled, his fingers twisted and curled until he touched any part he could reach, until he found spots not even you knew about, ones made you gasp and fight to writhe. The wet squelch of your arousal filled the air and Kuroko whimpered when he looked down at you, his cock jumping against your skin in restrained excitement.

Soon another of Akashi’s thick fingers was splitting you open, and you keened, your breath leaving you in a gasp. Yet then there was the sound of a lid popping open followed by soft dripping. Then you felt a gentle finger traced lower over your perineum, slipping between the plumpness of your cheeks and then circling your puckered hole. You hissed at the sensation, body jumping at the foreign sensation while Akashi’s other hand kept pumping in and out of you, dragging throaty groans from your chest.

“That’s it, you’re taking it so well, Little Rabbit,” he praised, as his first knuckle breached your ass.

You stiffened, only brought back down into a melted puddle once again when his thumb slick with your arousal swiped over your pulsing clit. In fact, he was so good at distracting you with the hand fucking your pussy that you barely felt his finger press fully to the bottom. You were just aware of the pressure and stretch. It wasn’t bad, it didn’t hurt, it just made you feel fuller.

It was harder to breathe somehow, even with how little you had inside you. Kuroko bent over you, tapped the side of your face and you turned your glazed eyes toward him.

“It’s alright, Bunny, soon we’ll both be inside you. Just like you wanted,” he murmured and then kissed you hard.

You moaned low, all words beyond you now. Only choked inhales and sounds of pleasure were within your grasp, and so you kissed Tetsuya back with desperation as if he could anchor you. As if the air he was feeding you could steady your mind as it spun when Akashi curled his fingers inside both your holes.

You were so fucking hot and dizzy. Your nails scrabbled at Kuroko’s hair in fear you might float away. It was addicting. Finally, you tore yourself away to cry out as Akashi added another finger to your puckered hole and rolled your clit aggressively beneath his thumb. It was too much, so good, but too much and you squirmed, unable to stay still like he wanted.

“I can’t,” you whined, trying to shift away but held down by the weight straddling you and the heavy hand on your hip.

“You can and you will,” Akashi corrected.

His words shot through your body, causing you to become pliant with your next breath. Kuroko rewarded you with a bite to the neck, a lick to the throat, and then his mouth latched to your pulse point. Akashi’s fingers became more insistent, demanding as they sought out every spot inside your holes, places you had never explored yourself. You squealed, which slowly tumbled into a throaty groan when your orgasm slammed into you, no warning only violent spasms as you fought to rut into his hands but were unable to due to the insistent pressure upon your body.

Kuroko’s teeth which still snagged at your skin, claimed pieces of you over and over again, before finally delving back to your mouth, adding an addictive mix of pain with pleasure. You couldn’t do this anymore; you couldn’t hold onto your sanity. So, you offered it up to the two of them. Silently you gave into their demands and let them take you apart piece by piece.

And Akashi did just that. He pulled more and more pulses from body, prolonged your climax until finally you were left panting, unable to reciprocate Kuroko’s wild and messy kisses.

“Tetsuya,” Akashi said sharply.

Instantly the shorter man stiffened and looked over his shoulder, his lips glistening with your saliva.

“Get the collar and the leash. It’s about time,” Seijuro’s gaze was firmly locked on your fluttering entrances as you squeezed around his fingers desperately.

Then you felt an intense tension again, the addition of a third finger in your ass. You breathed sharply, and though you still remained soft under his guidance, you looked at him through teary eyes.

“You’re going to take us so well, Little Rabbit,” he promised.

All you could do was nod, “Yes, Daddy.”

Because really, who were you to deny him? Who were you to deny either of them? They’d shown you where you belonged, what you needed, and they’d given you everything.

Kuroko was beside you again and, in your delirium, you hadn’t even realized he’d left. The stretch in your holes had taken the place of the weight he’d left on your body. Making it hard to breathe no matter what. Causing your chest to shudder with each breath.

He held in his hand your collar, beautiful, thick, pink leather with heart studs decorating the sides. The leash was matching and connected to a thick d-ring. You were never allowed to remove it yourself. Yet Akashi or Kuroko always did when taking care of you. Tonight though, you knew this was important.

A slight ache had you whimpering as Seijuro slowly withdrew his touch from your body. Suddenly you missed that fullness, instead you now felt so empty. You hated it, you wanted something more. Despite the fact that you were just complaining that you couldn’t take it anymore, you realized you wanted that sensation. You wanted to feel overwhelmed and full to the point where you couldn’t think straight. You wanted to feel like you might rip in two while these men held you together.

Kuroko scooped you up into his arms, while Akashi took the collar from his fingers. You accepted the manhandling; you couldn’t think of anything else you wanted more in that moment. Yet before you realized it you were being settled against Tetsuya’s torso as he laid down, his long cock laying in between the cheeks of your ass.

Seijuro was still completely dressed and after wiping the lube from his hands on his trousers he began to pop button by button of his dress shirt open. It was slow, tantalizing and his eyes narrowed, glittering with the knowledge that he knew exactly how needy you both were. Kuroko’s fingers gripped the soft flesh of your waist rhythmically, occasionally thrusting gently against you.

Eventually slivers of pale skin gave way to planes of it, until the cotton of Akashi’s clothing was sliding from his body like water rolling off. It was beautiful and something you would have paid to have painted if you could. Especially when he looked up at the two of you through his lashes and knew he had your undivided attention.

When his lower half was bared, it made your walls clench with anticipation. He wasn’t as long as Kuroko, but he was thicker. He’d make you sore afterward and you finally realized why he’d been so careful. If he was as rough as he said he’d be, with Tetsuya taking you at the same time, you truly wondered if you’d make it out the other side.

Your legs which had been splayed on either side of Kuroko’s began to close as if to protect you from the though, but you felt a pair of strong hands wrap around your thighs from behind and hold you open.

“Nuh uh. No hiding, pretty girl,” Kuroko breathed against your ear, groaning when he thrusted once more against you, sliding down from your ass in between the apex of your thighs and his cock pressed through your slick folds.

Akashi stepped closer, each movement he made was controlled and calm. He leaned down and your body naturally stiffened even though the heat of Kuroko and their mixed scents was nearly enough to lull you back into a false sense of security. Yet, he didn’t do much, he just gathered your neck in his hands, forced your jaw back with firm pressure and then carefully buckled the collar in place.

The heavy weight, the familiarity of it soothed your mind almost instantly and when Akashi gently tugged on the leash you gasped, and your muscles quivered in anticipation. He pulled on it until your head tilted back and the leather tightened on your neck, your eyes fluttered and you squirmed.

“She’s ready,” he muttered.

Kuroko licked a stripe along your jaw as he spread your legs wider and shifted so the soles of his feet were on the ground. You felt the prod of his blunt cock press against your softened asshole.

“Remember to breathe for me, Bunny,” he whispered and then rocked upward into you.

At first you forgot that reminder of his. Everything was just pinpointed on the pressure of him entering you, the sting that was just enough to have you whimpering and tightening up. Tetsuya hissed behind you and groaned lowly. Tears pricked your eyes but then there was a distracting something, the soft, slippery touched of something warm on your clit. You looked down to see Akashi watching, his hand still gripping the leash tight as he lapped at your bud until finally you gasped in some oxygen, and both sets of your walls fluttered open for Kuroko.

“That’s it, good girl,” Kuroko moaned as he pushed further and further inside you.

So full already, that’s all you could think of. How you were impossibly full and yet you needed to take another one. You watched as Akashi’s fingers pressed back inside your cunt, rolling through your slicking and rubbing against Tetsuya’s cock through the thin membrane of your flesh. Kuroko gasped and bucked his hips slightly, his hands shook on your waist, and you gasped, squeaking out in a delirious mix of uncomfortable pleasure with the movements.

“Just focus on the feeling,” Seijuro guided you, his deep voice wrapping you up in warmth.

His tongue kept working over your clit, short circles that had your body trembling excitedly as he worked a second finger into your tight entrance. Kuroko wasn’t moving but you could hear his breath puffing from between his lips, you could feel it against your neck. He was holding himself back, letting you adjust and a feeling of burning affection caused you to loosen more.

Finally, you felt Kuroko bottom out and he sighed, pressing a lingering kiss against the junction of your neck and shoulder.

“Move, Tetsuya. I need to see if she’ll take you well,” Akashi demanded.

He groaned and immediately complied. You heard the squelch of your own fluids mixing with the lube as his cock rocked in and out of you. At first it was just strange, not as bad as it could be since that overwhelming sensation of being stuffed was oddly something you craved. But then as your body began to grow less sensitive to the pain and Kuroko shifted, there was a pulse of pleasure, something sharp enough, deep enough to pull a guttural moan from your throat. It was mixed with enough of a growl that it caused a lingering ache and soon you were moving with Tetsuya, seeking that feeling. You wanted more.

Your nails sank into his forearms as he wrapped them around your torso. It was strange having them talk like you weren’t there, like you couldn’t answer for yourself, but maybe that was true. Words were beyond you right now. All you could think about was how much the stretch satisfied you, how the sting was fading faster and faster, and how your vision was blurring. You wanted more.

One of your hands released Tetsuya and he hissed right by your ear, his hips jumping out of rhythm for a moment as the pressure eased on his arm. You reached towards Akashi’s cock, hard and flushed, dripping precum but too far away for you to touch. You whined; your tongue too heavy to speak. You needed to say it. You needed to tell him that you were ready.

Your hand shook as Seijuro grinned, and Kuroko’s pace picked up though his thrusts remained shallow for now. Akashi rolled your clit a bit harder, and it was torturous, you didn’t want his fingers anymore.

“Nnn,” you tried to communicate, you thrashed your head from side to side and wiggled in Tetsuya’s grasp.

“I know, baby girl,” Akashi said finally.

Then he moved, closer, his leg moving over yours and Kuroko’s, so his cock was brushing your wet cunt while he withdrew his hand.

“I know,” he groaned and pushed forward.

It was too much instantly, and your body tried to pull away.

“Ah, stay still Bunny, you will get used to it,” Kuroko groaned, stilling his movements.

You could feel him shudder under you as you split apart on Akashi’s cock. You cried out, your hands flying to Tetsuya’s arm once again and sinking in with a vengeance. His hips jumped slightly at the feeling, and he growled.

“Oh fuck,” Akashi breathed.

He swore so little, but you were feeling it just the same. Those words you couldn’t say were now spilling from your lips in a string of expletives.

“Fuck, fuck, w-wait,” you squirmed. “W-wait please. Dammit.”

Akashi did, he paused but not because you asked. You knew he was pausing because he could feel you tightening down on him like a vice. You knew even in the haze of pleasure surrounding him, he was thinking about you. He bared his teeth in a snarl and hung over you like a man possessed. His red eyes stripping you bare. You felt like offering up your soul to him to feast upon.

Kuroko pressed frantic kisses and snagged your skin with his teeth. Impatience filled his every movement and you felt it through his flesh. You felt it in the way he trembled and mumbled against your sweat coated body. His tongue flicked against you, lapping the salt away with reverence, even as he waited for you to voice your acceptance of both of them.

Then you felt it, your body fluttered and with a gentle encouraging brush of Akashi’s thumb against your clit, and a deep exhale from you, it opened. Your walls relaxed and then tightened once again but not nearly as tight as before. No, this time it was greedy and gripped him just enough to have him pushing forward until he was pressing his hips against yours.

You shivered and a whine ripped itself from your throat. Oh, it was delicious, still a bit too much, still a bit overwhelming, but you couldn’t think, couldn’t worry and wasn’t that what you always wanted? Your head was too full of them, of the sensation of being pleasured as Tetsuya slowly retreated and dragged along every good spot inside you, that you couldn’t even form words anymore. Once again, the possibility of speech fled from you, and you didn’t give a damn.

They moved slowly at first, finding a rhythm between the two of them where you were always filled with at least one. Kuroko retreated and Akashi pushed forward, then they switched it around, again and again until you weren’t sure how you would ever piece your fractured psyche back together after this. How had you survived before this? Without them, without feeling this separated from your conscious and being this loved and coveted?

You struggled slightly in Kuroko’s grasp and Akashi’s palm pressed against your sternum. His beautiful lips formed a word, yet before he could say it the sound was torn from him, replaced with a moan instead as he thrusted into you. You could feel both of them brushing across each other, feel them rubbing against that fragile skin between them. It felt like all three of you were one.

Moans and curses tumbled from your lips; screams erupted when they hit a particularly wonderous spot.

“Oh,” you shuddered. “Oh. My. God.”

Kuroko chuckled behind you, though it was breathless, “Sing more for us. Fuck. So good.”

He groaned, nipping at your ear. His teeth were a bit too sharp, his tongue not soft enough to soothe the sting, but you didn’t care. You were spiraling and you weren’t sure if it was up or down.

“That’s it,” Akashi urged, his voice breathless, shaky.

Your twisted, and the words you would normally say in warning were nowhere to be found as your body convulsed so violently you felt them both hold you down harder. Your orgasm burned through your veins, hot and gluttonous. It ate your nerves up until you felt raw even as it was still be dragged endlessly from you by their relentless pace. Oversensitivity welcomed you into its embrace soon enough. Their movements never stopped though and they were so greedy, with the way their hungry words stroked over your skin and Kuroko’s panting, or Akashi’s gaze ate you alive.

You knew they wouldn’t last. Not with how thrashed Seijuro sounded and not with the way Tetsuya’s pants had turned into high pitched, and needy whines. Akashi’s hand reached out as your body calmed into satisfied twitches and gripped the pale blue hair of his other partner.

“You’re going to cum for me, aren’t you?” he growled, his body flexing and arching with strain as he fought against moving faster than you could take. “Going to cum like a good boy.”

That’s all it took for Kuroko’s thrusts to become inconsistent, losing the rhythm as he chased his high in a few quick, violent fucks. You felt his cum warm you, slickening his still sliding cock as he worked himself towards overstimulation.

“Good boy,” Akashi turned his red gaze to you. “And you are such a good fucking girl. Taking us both. I’m going to breed you now Bunny, fill you up until your so full you have no choice but to carry our brats.”

Your cunt fluttered at that thought and he laughed, the sound sharp and winded. His hand found your neck again and with the tightening of the leash looping further around his fingers, and his palm resting heavily on your collar, it was a welcome pressure. You didn’t even realize you were going to cum again, when you actually did. All you knew was it felt like too much, like your body was desperate to get away. There was too much sensation and then warmth spread over you, interspersed with sparks of electricity zapping up your spine to your brain. Unfurling like a blooming flower that had your body spasming. You couldn’t breathe at a point, and you worried about passing out, worried about missing the ecstasy that would paint Seijuro’s face. So, you fought the darkness at the edge of your vision even as your body twitched, and exhaustion dragged at your limbs.

Akashi grunted, his faced pinched and teeth grit in a look of pleasured agony. You felt his cock kick inside you, so aware that you had what seemed like an impossible amount of cum inside you now. That you were sore and fucked out and couldn’t think beyond the fact that you needed it to stop, but it was too good, and you never wanted it to end. Conflicting thoughts warred within you, none gaining the frontlines.

It was only when they’d pulled out and you felt the warmth of a washcloth over your body, you were painfully aware of what had happened. Warm cum rolled out of you, only to be chased away by two hands carefully practiced movements. They wiped your entire body clean. They pampered you. They adored you as they looked down upon your absolutely wrecked body.

“You’re perfect,” Kuroko said.

“You’ll always have a place with us,” Akashi added.

Dreamily you looked at them, watched as they washed you clean and tucked you in bed. You should be horrified, you should want to leave, all of this you knew. Yet all you could do was snuggle deeper under the covers, smiling as you thought you’d found your perfect place. A perfect place for a pet like yourself.

[shiroikabocha]

UPD8 on the HOMESTUCK WEDDING: we did it man. we made it hapen.

Details and pictures under the cut!

Everyone had a fucking BLAST! I didn't think it was possible to throw a party that would provide Fun Times for all our loved ones, from all their varied walks of life, but we DID, and it ROCKED! I rode that high for weeks. I felt like I had every positive party moodlet from the Sims active at once.

We rented out a science museum for the event, which was fucking RAD, since we got to have our ceremony in front of an actual dinosaur skeleton, which most wedding venues don't provide:

(these images are intentionally small and crappy. Both because smaller files load more quickly, and because no, I don't need to post high-res photos of all my friends faces online)

Despite being known On Here as The Homestuck Wedding, most guests who attended would probably refer to it as The Klingon Wedding. My one and only wedding wish was to marry my partner in a traditional Klingon ceremony, and my perfect, wonderful, amazing wife was willing to indulge me in this.

The role of officiant, aka Master of Screams, traditionally performed by the mother of the groom or the matron of the groom's house, went to our dear friend D who knocked it out of the park.

On the one hand, it's very silly to reenact the Klingon creation myth at the altar with your spouse, whacking each other with pool noodles (because the museum didn't let us bring in real batleths). On the other hand, I genuinely, truly love the Klingon wedding ritual. It emphasizes that marriage isn't only about love, it's about commitment and allegiance. It's about vowing to be on one anothers' team, to have each others' backs when times are hard, for as long as you both shall live. The combat's just a fun bonus.

When we said our vows and kissed, our officiant announced that we were married, and invited our friends and family to attack us with their pool noodles as the DJ started playing the song for our first dance. The battle was glorious.

And my dad gave a speech that made everyone cry, and then my wife's sister gave a speech that made everyone laugh, and my new mother-in-law hugged us both and told us she loved us, and there was dancing and great food and also a ton of cool exhibits on North Carolina wildlife and prehistory (I mean, those are always there, but they are still very cool), and it was a great wedding.

Also, my florist is a god. 12+ unique centerpieces, all based on characters she doesn't know from a comic she hasn't read, all with different flowers and shapes and containers and-- dude just look at them, okay? They're amazing. I can't believe how awesome they came out. (this isn't quite all of them, unfortunately-- I thought I got pics of them all but I could only find these nine. Can you tell which ones were based on which characters?)

It was so much fun, and then we got to go on our honeymoon in Amsterdam and THAT was so much fun, and now I get to be married to WIFE!! for the rest of our lives! and THAT is going to be so much fun!!!

My sincerest wish for everyone reading this is that you, too, get to have a party some day that is filled with all your favorite people and all your favorite activities, whether it's a wedding or not, and that it goes so well you can't believe how much fun you're having.

p.s. the flower arrangements are, in order: Kanaya, Gamzee, Sollux, Tavros, Eridan, Terezi, Equius, Vriska, Feferi.

[never-ending-fanfic]

Things my Star Wars Clueless Bestie™ said about Star Wars:

Part 1-Part 2-------------------------------------

"I just randomly remembered that jedi steal children, and I am very confused because I thought they were the good guys"

"If Anakin is Luke's father and also the evil black dude then how many years do pass between those damn movies?!" (huehuehue)

"dark wader??" (sure)

"and his ship is like orb of death? Or was it star? Star of death? Dark star? Am I even close by this point?" (adorable is what she is)

"hello there. Obiwan kenobi" *shu shu playing with 4 swords*

(about Maul) the red horny evil dude, that is, I repeat, definitely not hot, can strangle pepole with force and that is fucked up, like he can look at anybody and just be like "that's enough air for you", horrific

Upon me explaining to her that all Force users can potentially do that, she replied with "Oh so he just a bitch like that, I see" (I can't wait for her to properly meet Anakin)

I told her that in Star Wars Rebels they kept describing Thrawn as "the one with red eyes" and hardly ever mention his blue skin, so she keeps on refering to him as "the one with red eyes and no other interesting features"

she appreciates Kallus' Zero Hour hair noodle and says he has great brow game

wonders where did Thrawn's eyebrows go

(about Pryce, buckle up) haircut using a bowl, vile eye color, maybe a lesbian, nevertheless "needs to be fucked now", great brow game cause she apparently shares a cosmetologist with Kallus, would be a math teacher in another life, bra size 75 B (just... okay...)

she asked if Pryce really needs 2 pens, upon learning that Thrawn carries around 4 of them she snorted and upon learning they weren't pens she seemed to have an existential crisis

Pryce=not a prize xoxo

compared Hondo's hat (from Star Wars Rebels) to Hootie from The Owl House

(about the Grand Inquisitor) "such big forehead, such little brain"

Lightning Sword™

called Zeb a frog once

shocked that Jedi are an order and cannot officially have significant others (I seriously thought she knew at least that)

"I keep seeing a trailer of some new Star Wars show with this dude in a helmet and with Baby Yoda and I just can't help but think about Deadpool, for the singular reason that they are both wearing a full coverage suit, I mean I think it's the only similarity cause there is not way this star wars guy is a cool as Ryan Reynolds" (everything in this sentence is so random...)

[shoezuki]

Drunk Gep anon back at it again. How bout I call myself Whiskey🥃?

Fully agree. Dude didn't make it to Captain of the guard with little noodle arms and a weak stomach. I'dimagine Sampo'sbeen slung over his shoulder more than once lmfao. He's defo been shoving bite-sized anything in his gob since he could crawl.

Also love earnest Gep!!! Gepard being all soft and inquiring. Bet Sampo isn't used to havin someone so genuinely interested/knowing of him but so gentle about it, with no ulterior motive. He's got Natasha but she's more the loving yet serious sister who damn near KOs him with the first aid kit when he tries to sneak out whilst injured. Now you've got my head spinnin with ideas!!

May we also consider:

Sampo fucks up. Geppie started gettin soft, not quite drunk but enough to loosen him into sayin things that make Sampo's heart warm and hands fidget, and he just stopped keeping track of his drinks.

He's on cloud 9. Maybe? He's not exactly ecstatic but he's havin a pretty grand time. Maybe cloud 7? He doesn't remember when they left the bar but they've been wandering about for so long it's gotten dark and his mind's too foggy to recognise where they are.

He's also too loose lipped, knows he's being too honest, that his attempts to play off his words as jokes is too long winded and fake but he also can't quite remember what he's said???

Gepard is havin a grand time. He's pretty out of it but can at least walk this time. Happy to trail after Sampo, ask questions about obscure places they pass in the Underworld and about the people, before working up to talk about Sampo himself. How he's a pain in the ass but he admires his work ethic yada yada. He's unfamiliar with the area so he's hoping Sampo knows where they're going. He doesn't.

Neither of em make it home. Not even into a building. Sampo wakes up in the geomarrow equivalent of a tree, doesn't fall purely because he's damn near tied to the thing. There's more half empty bottles on the floor and Gepard has absolutely no clue where his jacket is and Sampo does not own a cane that embezzled, where did he get that?

There's an attempted 'arrest' of course. Gep may be off duty but he's nothing if not devoted to his role. They don't make it far and Bronya/Seele find them half curled up on the floor, holding their heads up against the cold brick XD.

The previous night's open-hearted discussion is blurred but not forgotten.

~ 🥃

GBFJDV GODDDDDD ANON UR SOF RCEYEKE. GOD. FICK SHIT...

Sampo stumbling into gepard at a bar nursing a drink, not tipsy but still loose enough to tell sampo to leave rather than tryna arrest him right away. Sampo obviously staying cuz this is a Great Opportunity no way hes letting this chance to break down geps walls slip thru his fingers.

And just. Sampo wanting to get gepard to open up to him and break down his barriers. Totally to get info out of him of course its not like hes infatuated with the man and wants to know him underneath his position as captain.

Sampo doesnt realize hes getting drunk too, opening up himself. Doesnt realize hes actually having fun w gepard and enjoying talking with him. Doesnt realize hes actually answering gepards questions, telling both personal things about himself and small inconsequential things that arent important but gepard acts like they are.

Gepards genuine So SO genuine and earnest. All kinds of 'youre a hard worker you do help the underworld a lot even if you pretend you dont' and 'i know some of those tips about illegal operations were from you sampo thank you' and 'i admire how focused and strong you are. If only youd put the criminal stuff behind you' and sampo isnt sure if its the liquor or gepard hes drunk off of.

And it ending with gepard having the fucking worst hangover of his life, sampo tied to a large stalagmite passed out and snoring. Gepard like 'god my head hurts. That was the best night of my life. Time to arrest him i guess' and seele being the one to find em bickering halfheartedly while gepard keeps trying to get handcuffs on sampo