#and for my mom i got a pair of small hello kitty earrings ^_^ and i got my dad a coffee stencil art thing for chanukah | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

seostudios · 4 years

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mark’s dad.

pairing: johnny x fem!readr

genre: fluff + smut (like little angst) info: dilf!johnny, son!mark, best-friend!mark, aged-up!johnny warnings: age gap, unprotected sex, masturbation (fem) wc: 2.1k

note: hi i wrote this on my phone at like 1-3 in the morning... sorry if it’s bad but i wanted to put out something! i hope you guys enjoy it though cause dilf!johnny is so sexy

i think my son ditched you for haechan today, dear.” mr.suh informed you as you stood respectively in front of him, wearing an oversized sweater and basketball shorts. “aw man, i drove all this way for a movie with mark, and he ditched me for his other best friend...” you quietly sneer, the obvious jealously making an appearance. johnny chuckled, hands resting on his hips. he felt bad you came all this way for a simple movie night. “how about this?” your eyes look up, to the terrifyingly good looking man. “i will treat you to a movie and popcorn!” he suggested, knowing very damn well he’s going out of his way to possibly spend time with his son’s best friend, who he has known since they were sewed to the hip in sophomore year, now in university. “i-i don’t think that’s be appropriate,” “why? because i’d like to spend time and get to know the friend and possible love interest of my son? i don’t see any harm in that. i’ll get my coat.” he quickly responded, saving himself.

you knew he said you’d watch a movie together but you didn’t expect to get yourself two tickets to go watch a movie at an actual theatre. “that was amazing mr.suh-“ johnny looks down at your tiny figure holding the popcorn, “-i mean johnny!” if you’re being honest now, it was really nice getting to know johnny, besides the age difference and the possible complications with your amazing friendship with his son, you liked him. making your way over to his car, you listen on as he rambles about how he hasn’t this much of an outing since mark was in high school. “now he’s clinging onto me like we’re dudes, like i’m his dad not his bro.” he laughed, starting the car. “that’s so sweet though!! my mom never gave an effort to trying to be my friend even when i tried,” although you kind of party pooped the mood, you can literally reverse uno it right there. “but whatever!! she still brings me shopping which is good enough,”

nearing midnight and you know god damn well your mom would’ve killed you if she knew you took a taxi home alone in the middle of the night. johnny picked up on this, and even if he saw you in a new light today, a light which could possibly ruin his relationship with his son and a possible one with you, he couldn’t have let you home alone. “you know what? marks sleeping over at haechan’s anyway. i’ll call your mom and tell her you should stay over.” nodding, you let yourself in and up into his (messy) bedroom.

“hope you enjoy peanut butter and jelly for dinner, i kind of forgot to buy groceries...” johnny said handing you a plate of mini sandwiches. you mutter a quick thanks before digging in. tonight you saw johnny not as mr.suh but as johnny, the hot ass mother fucking dilf of the neighbourhood. you thought you were just a regular teenager to him, but you thought wrong. feeling his gaze on your exposed neck, lips. how his breathing would quicken whenever you leaned in to grab another sandwich. “wanna watch america’s got talent?” you asked pointing towards the couch. he shrugs agreeing, “why not?”

you had insisted on cleaning the dishes, i mean it was the least you could do. “so what’s the point of this whole show? to humiliate people or actually scout out people?!” johnny questioned staring at the screen, not noticing how you went from being on opposite ends of the couch to being almost inches away. should you initiate something? no, that would be overstepping into something erasable.

“this is so wrong,” you tell yourself before abruptly standing up. johnny turns his attention to you, trying to foreshadow your next moves. however, he didn’t expect for you to turn back around and straddle on his lap, “whoa..” he said, gripping onto your hips. “i want you.” his mind goes blur momentarily, “i-i cant, your my son’s best friend...” god, you looked so hot with your shorts bunched up as far as they could as you slowly grinder down onto his (huge) clothed cock. “fu..fuck,” he moans aloud, pushing all thoughts aside except for the one that kept telling him to ruin you tonight. the night was going better than planned, since you were in straddled on a topless johnny with only your bra and shorts on... probably a good twenty five minutes into kiss play, but mark chose the best time to unintentionally cockblock you and his dad. “y/n!!”mark shouted through the phone loud enough for johnny to hear (and the speaker wasn’t even on!) “yes markie?” you cooed, using one hand to speak on the phone and the other to signal johnny to keep it quiet. your hands trailed overtop your breasts, cupping them through your bra and pinching your hardened nipples, soon bringing your cold fingers down to the waistband of your shorts. “it’s fine. we can always watch a movie next weekend, i literally see you everyday! go hang out with hyuck,” you encouraged. past the waistband and under the hello kitty panties your hand comes in contact with your sensitive (dripping) folds. “a-ah, m..mark i gotta go...” “are you getting laid or something? i’m out.” he quickly ends the phone and you made sure to turn on ‘do not disturb’ incase he calls again.

“go on, i’ll watch.” johnny said seductively observing you as you toyed with your sensitive clot. “i’m close johnny!” you quietly moan into his ear, rubbing faster. “cum on your fingers, now.” he ordered, feeling you twitch underneath him, grinding as you had an orgasm. “dirty girl...” he groans watching you pull your fingers up to suck dry. now, you were a filthy girl, tasting yourself without being told to, cumming in your panties which you knew damn might have to force you to go commando tonight in marks bed. it was like a slap in the face when johnny lifted you up to stand, “it’s late. i- we should head to bed... i can give you some new shorts... since you know,” he quickly stammered before swiping his shirt off the floor, heading upstairs.

it was almost nine in the morning when you woke up, you knew johnny woke up around seven to eight so the sizzling smell of bacon wasn’t just some evil mind games. after last night, you felt, intense shame and guilt. did you seriously just betray your best friend for a lousy orgasm you could’ve done alone in the bathroom. “your up! i made breakfast, go ahead and dig in, i’m just gonna be cleaning up my bedroom.” he sounded as if you didn’t cum all over his lap not even 12 hours ago, but i guess he shouldn’t dwell in the past especially this time.

“mr.suh! my mom’s here! thank you... goodbye!” you shout from the front door. “anytime! bye!” he replies before you jolt out the door.

it’s been a couple days and johnny hasn’t left your mind. you always think about what stopped him, was it the age? your friendship with mark? that fucking phone call? johnny and you that night was like no other, you saw him for johnny, not mr.suh and it made your panties soak at every thought. how his ink black hair is always combed and in the most attractive middle part, how his broad should could feel when you hold yourself while being railed by his enormous cock. it was big, would it even fit? you’ve been with men before but the bulge you felt poking you in then thigh was something else compared to the other men.

you roamed his mind freely too. spending his day drinking hours, pondering over you, will you just slap him in the face and let him know you want him and you don’t care? he hopes. but it’s wrong. “dad! y/n’s coming over to study today,” mark shouted running down the stairs to his father. “so don’t snatch her up and take her away for a movie date, we got an exam this monday.” he said nonchalantly, the mention of their little outing slipping oh too casually. “w-what?” he asked surprised. “yeah yeah, i know about your little date and hook up” “- we didn’t hook up.” johnny interrupted, “well whatever you were doing for her to end my phone call like that,” he goes to the fridge to grab some milk, “so...” johnny said, eager on his son’s say on this. “so..? do you want me to be mad, dad?” i was lying if i said johnny was chill now... “no!!!!” he shouted, which earns a couple laughs from mark. “hey, dad,” mark sits down infront of his father. “it’s okay, y/n probably likes you back so you can do whatever you want with her, except hurt her cause i’ll kill you.” he deadpans before letting him off with a laugh. “so she can be your new mom for all you care?” he asked, playfully of course, waiting for the “hell no” and “what the fuck dad?!” to come but... “i mean she bags and tells me what to do, she helps me with school, laundry and chicks so... i don’t see why not,”

ding ding ding ding ding ding now what? hopping off the bean bag you were binge watching the office on, you head over to the door, not caring what you look like, just shut up to whoever had the audacity to spam a doorbell. “hello?!” you look up, “hey y/n,” johnny said with a small daisy in his hand.

“let me be your boyfriend,”

“what about mark?” you asked, staring at your feet wiggle in anticipation. hoping he’d tell you he doesn’t care and we could do whatever we wanted to. “funny you asked, he said for all he cares you could be his step mom.” you threw your head back laughing “he what?! no he didn’t....” the laughter dies down soon enough to get back to seriously listening in on what he has to say but did mark really not care? “your girlfriend huh?” you asked, raising a brow. he nodded. johnny proceeds to take the daisy and place it behind your ear, “you look like shit, but that is sexy as fuck.” he said, caressing your cheek before leaning in to place a peck on your lips.

“i don’t get why you drove half an hour here to say that, when i was already coming over to study.” you tell your boyfriend, johnny, as your backs his mattress. it was seriously an eventful day, wasn’t it? “i thought i should be romantic,” he shrugged turning to his side to wrap his large arms around your waist pulling you in closer. “i like this...” he mumbled into your hair, slowly drifting off to sleep.

“are you falling asleep?! we need to leave in ten minutes!!” you shouted, attempting to free yourself from his hold but he was knocked out and not letting go any time soon. “i hate you.” “i think it’s the quiet opposite y/n dear,” he replied, burying himself in the blanket, bringing you with him. “now let’s take a quick nap, mark can wait,” you sigh in defeat, “okay fine... twenty minutes!”

five months later, and you couldn’t believe having a relationship with your best friends dad was oddly working out perfectly. “johnny! fuck! baby your so good!” you whine as he penetrates into you against the wall. your legs wrapped around his waist as his cock rubs around your g-spot stimulating you into your third orgasm of that night. mark had recently gone travelling with jeno for fun so that meant you and johnny could’ve have your own fun in the empty house. “you can cum for me one more time can’t you?” he begged, placing you on the kitchen counter, kissing down your stomach. “answer me...” he sucks harhly on your clit. “yes! i can!!” you whined, squirming feeling johnny licking up your juicie; which sure as hell was mixed with his own cum, lapping his tongue around until you were shaking under his mouth and curling your toes to his mouth’s magic. “i’m- i’m cumming!!” you scream, releasing your juices onto the man’s face. “my favourite meal of the day.” he playfully joked before pinching your nipple. “tired?” he asked, as if he hadn’t been using you as a cum dump for hours. “mhm,” you reply opening your arms for him to carry you up, because “no way in hell am i walking up the stairs today after being railed by a monster cock.” you said snorting with a laugh. nonetheless, johnny swoops you up and gracefully carried you up and into his bed, “we can clean up tomorrow, let’s sleep now.” he said, feeling you wrap around him like a koala. “mmm goodnight... i love you,” you said in the crock of his neck, right below his ear before drifting off, “love you too,”

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snowdice · 3 years

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Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 66]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post 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 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29

It’s editing time for me because I have not edited in way too long. I am so behind on the Study Fic and this one. Oof. Also I should do some blog organization maybe.

Chapter 30

After lunch, Patton and Logan took Virgil out to the garden to walk around. They let Virgil lead them around wherever he wanted to go in the garden. A bunch more flowers had died since the last time they’d been out here, and Patton felt sad despite having never felt very sad about that sort of thing before. But, Virgil seemed to really like the flower he’d found last time, so Patton thought he was probably sad on the boy’s behalf.

Of course, Patton thought, perking up, eventually it would be spring, and Virgil could get to not only see some flowers but all of the flowers as they grew. Patton couldn’t wait to see him amongst the garden then.

Virgil took them wandering through the orchard for a while, but most of the trees had been stripped of their fruits and the leaves were beginning to fall off some. They ended up in the vegetable garden after a bit, and Virgil finally seemed to decide on a direction instead of just ambling about.

A few seconds after Patton noticed Virgil seemingly decide on a destination, Patton noticed Mr. Deknis kneeling on the ground a few feet away. Had… had Virgil been looking for him? Patton wondered. That was adorable.

Mr. Deknis looked up as they approached and smiled at them.

“Hello, Mr. Deknis,” Patton said as they came closer.

“Hello you three,” Mr. Deknis said. “Getting into trouble?”

“No,” Virgil said, shaking his head.

Mr. Deknis gave him a flash of a smile. “I know, I’m joking,” he said. “Especially since there isn’t much left in my gardens for certain princes to destroy with experiments.”

“Oh, okay,” Virgil said. He tilted his head. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting the last of the acorn squash out,” Mr. Deknis replied. “It’s the last crop to get finished. Good thing too, it’s supposed to start snowing soon.”

Virgil looked down curiously at the dark green squash.

“Would you like to help me pick a couple?” Mr. Deknis asked.

“Sure,” Virgil said, sounding interested. Mr. Deknis patted the ground beside him, and Virgil knelt down to watch him.

“They’re not too difficult to harvest,” he said. “You just cut the fruit off the stem. You want to leave about a hand’s width of the stem left over which will help preserve moisture. The earlier harvests I left in the field to cure in the sun for a couple weeks, but the frost’ll ruin these, so we’ll take them inside the green house and let them sit in the sun for a bit there. We also want to keep the leaves. You’ll probably be eating those for dinner tonight since they have to be cooked up within about 24 hours after they’re picked. Patton’s mom makes a good side dish with them and she’ll be making some curry tomorrow, probably. Maybe some stew if there are some left over. Put the squash in this wheelbarrow and the leaves into this pile, okay?” Virgil nodded and Mr. Deknis handed him the extra pair of gloves and shears he carried with him in case one set broke. “These might be a bit big on you, but they should work for now.”

Mr. Deknis looked up at Patton and Logan. “Would the two of you like to help?” he asked. “I can get some more equipment.”

“I can help out if you want, but you don’t need to stop and get more equipment just for me,” Patton said.

“The same for me,” Logan said.

“Well, if you’d like to help still, you can sort the leave. Give your mother a head start.”

“Sure,” Patton said. He and Logan went to do that while Mr. Deknis and Virgil worked on cutting the squashes from the vine.

“What do you do during the winter?” Virgil asked curiously. “If this is your last crop?”

“Well, at the beginning, I mostly will be working on making sure things are stored correctly along with some of the kitchen staff. There’s some drying to do and some canning. After that’s done, I’ll spend some time organizing and planning. Then, before the spring comes, I’ll start preparing seedlings in the green house.”

“Seedlings?” he asked.

“I let seeds start to grow in the greenhouse that I replant once it gets warm enough.”

“Why don’t you just plant them where they’re going?”

“I do for some,” he said, “but giving some a head start is good for them.”

Patton watched as Virgil continued to ask questions about gardening while working on harvesting the squash. Mr. Deknis continued to answer them in a calm, soft tone that Patton didn’t think he’d ever heard from the often gruff man before.

Patton wasn’t surprised when, after finishing getting most of the squash off of the vine, Mr. Deknis asked if Virgil wanted to help him with canning some pears in a couple of days. Virgil immediately looked over at Logan and Patton as though asking permission.

“Say yes if you would like to Virgil,” Logan said.

“Yes,” Virgil said as soon as he was given permission. Mr. Deknis smiled at him softly and started loading the last of the squash into the wheelbarrow. Patton offered to run the squash leaves to the kitchen while Logan and Virgil helped Mr. Deknis take the actual squash to the green house.

He dropped the leaves off to a kitchen worker since Mama was busy and headed back out to the garden. By the time he returned, Logan was already back from the green house and sitting by one of the more decorative trees near the castle.

“He’s exploring,” Logan said, nodding at a large patch of bushes.

Patton chuckled. “I see.” He sat next to Logan. Every so often he’d hear the bushes rustle, but he couldn’t tell if it was actually Virgil or an animal.

“He’s adorable,” Patton commented, keeping an ear out.

Logan hummed.

“I’m glad we kept him.”

“He isn’t a pet, Patton.”

Patton rolled his eyes. “I know, but I’m still glad. I’m glad he’s making friends with Mr. Deknis. Once he knows how to read better, we should get him a book about gardening. He seems interested.”

Logan nodded. “Having a hobby would be good for him. Clearly he has a fascination with the garden.” He nodded to the blur of dark hair that could be seen through the bushes. It seemed Virgil had stopped his exploration and was now laying down in the bushes a few feet away.

“I’m going to go see what he’s doing,” Patton said. “I’ll be right back.”

Logan nodded and Patton got to his feet. The bushes were part of a small maze that was filled with flowers during the spring and summer months but were mostly just green and brown bushes for now. Despite the fact that Patton had been able to see him only a few feet away, it took him a while to wind through the path to where he was. When he finally turned the last corner and he came into view, Patton gasped softly.

“Ghost kitty!” he said, making sure to make his voice as quiet as possible.

Despite how soft he made his voice, two pairs of eyes shot over to him. The completely black kitten was perched on Virgil’s lap like she belonged there. Ghost Kitty hissed slightly, but Virgil reached forward to pet her head gently.

“This is Ghost Kitty?” Virgil asked. “I thought you said she was hard to pet.”

“She is,” Patton said. He lowered himself onto the ground from a few feet away from them. “How did you get her to come to you?”

Virgil glanced down at the cat and shrugged, scratching one of her ears. “She just came over to me and let me pet her.”

“Wow,” Patton said softly. He looked at the cat. “Could I pet you sweetie?” he asked, holding out a hand in her direction. She hissed again.

Virgil frowned down at her. “It’s Patton,” he said as though he expected her to understand his words and the exasperation in his tone.

He pet the cat’s head to soothe her and then reached over to grab Patton’s hand. He pulled and Patton carefully leaned a bit closer until his hand was within sniffing distance. Ghost Kitty sniffed his fingers contemplatively and then bumped her head against it. He barely restrained a squeal, knowing that probably wouldn’t be taken well.

He carefully turned his hand over so he could stroke the top of her head. He gently scratched her ear, not daring to go for under her chin yet since she didn’t know him well. “Hi,” he said softly. After a moment, she started to purr softly. Virgil reached over and scratched under her chin and she purred louder. “Oh, you’re a good girl,” Patton breathed, letting a hand trail gently down her back once and then again. Patton settled himself carefully into a seating position continuing to pet her. After a few more moments of soft petting, she hesitantly stepped her front paws onto Patton’s thigh, so she was sitting in both of their laps. Patton laughed softly. “Hi sweetie.” He glanced over at Virgil who had a wide smile on his face as he pet the cat. This. This was adorable. They continued to pet the cat for a very long time.

Chapter 31

Logan waited for a while after Patton left to check on Virgil, but the two never resurfaced. It was odd, Patton would usually remember to come back and get Logan or at least tell them where they were. With a sigh, Logan climbed to his feet to go find them. It took him a while to weave his way through the maze of bushes to them especially because they were suspiciously quiet (Well, suspicious for Patton. Virgil was often unnervingly quiet when alone.) Luckily, he knew the bushes enough after all of these years not to get lost and managed to find the two after a few minutes.

“Ah,” he said, immediately identifying the reason for Patton disappearing.

“Logan!” Patton said, his voice excited, but also quieter than normal. “We found a kitty!”

“I can see that,” Logan responded, taking a step closer. The cat hissed at him in response. The hissing was so intense and wild that he’d suspect the thing was feral if it wasn’t happily on Virgil’s lap having had it’s head in Patton’s lap before Logan had approached.

“No,” Virgil told the animal as though it could understand words. “That’s Logan. Be nice.”

The cat still glared at him and swished it’s tail back and forth threateningly. Virgil pet the top of it’s head and it broke eye contact with Logan to purr.

Patton seemed delighted by the purring, reaching to stroke under the thing’s chin carefully. “We should give her a name!” Patton said.

Virgil frowned. “I thought her name was Ghost Kitty.”

“That is ‘Ghost Kitty’?” Logan asked skeptically. From what Patton had said about that cat, it was terrified of people and no one could ever get near it, even him. Now it was in Virgil’s lap?

“But that was a temporary name,” Patton said, “for before we officially met her. Now we have to give her a real name.”

“Do not give it a name,” Logan said. “You will get attached.”

“How do you name a cat?” Virgil asked.

“Do not name it,” Logan said.

“You give them names based on their personalities, how they look, or even just because it’s a cute name,” Patton explained. “Like, remember Mittens? I named her Mittens because she has white fur and black paws!”

Virgil looked at the cat. “She’s completely black,” he said.

Patton hummed. “So, we could give her a name based on that like Midnight or Shadow.”

“Those are fine,” Virgil said.

“No, no,” Patton said. “I’m just giving you examples. You get to name her yourself.”

“This is a bad idea,” Logan said.

“Just throw out some names,” Patton said. “Anything you can think of.”

“Uh,” Virgil said. “Knife.”

“…Just Knife?” Patton asked.

“Nightmare.” Virgil seemed to think about it. “No, that’s mean.”

“How about things you like?” Patton suggested.

“Alfredo?”

Oh no, Logan thought, he was worse than Patton at cat naming.

“Good start,” Patton said. “Logan, do you have any suggestions.”

“Cat,” Logan said.

“Real suggestions,” Patton scolded.

Logan sighed and thought for a moment. “Aphrodite.”

“Catphrodite!”

Logan glared at him. “Helena.”

“Helenpaw.”

“Claudia.”

“Clawdia.”

“Persephone.”

Patton smiled at him, cheerfully.

“…Damnit!”

Patton turned to Virgil again. “Like that! They don’t even have to be serious. Like, uh, you could name her Madam Fluffywuffykins the Great!”

“Do not name her that,” Logan said, scrunching up his nose.

Logan sat on the ground, the cat eyeing him, but no longer hissing. Logan gently guided them towards more sensible names despite Patton trying his hardest to drag them into stupidity.

Virgil still didn’t quite get it. He mostly tried to name it after foodstuff, and often not even appropriate foodstuff such as “Corn” and “Acorn Squash” and “Sandwich” and occasionally would drop in semi violent ones such as “Razor,” “Nightshade” and “Void.” Patton suggested names like “Fluffers,” “Bobette” and “Darling” as well as some that were puns. Logan tried to direct them towards more sensible ones like “Salem” and even went so low as to suggest the contrary “Snowball.”

It quickly seemed to become less about actually naming the cat and more of a game. Patton had taught Virgil about playing with cats and had even gotten out a ball of yarn he cared around for his crafts. Both Virgil and the cat seemed to find endless entertainment with that. Logan hoped Patton had another ball of yarn that color because, he was never going to get that ball back.

The barrage of names fizzled out into naming things around them like “Leaf” and “Bush” until they stopped suggesting names altogether. Patton and Logan sat back and watched Virgil play with the cat.

Logan watched as they stopped playing suddenly and Virgil and the cat squinted at each other. “Marisol,” Virgil said, pulling the name out of nowhere. “That’s her name.” He said it with a certainty that was surprising considering how he’d treated the naming process with confusion and caution earlier. If Logan did not know better, his tone of voice would indicate that the cat, or Marisol he guessed, had gotten bored of them coming up with stupid names and decided to tell him her actual name herself.

The cat made a sound and batted at Virgil’s face without claws to grab back his attention.

He turned back to it and bopped its face with a finger in kind. It attacked his finger, but in a clearly playful matter as it still did not extend it’s claws and its teeth did not draw blood.

“That’s a great name, Virgil,” Patton said.

“Much more pleasant than any that Patton suggested all afternoon,” Logan said. He received an elbow to the side for his quip.

“A pretty name for a pretty kitty,” Patton said, scooting over to where Virgil was sat and attempting to pet Marisol’s head. Marisol, however, was too keyed up and batted at the hand.

“I love you too!” Patton said.

Logan rolled his eyes, but he had long since resigned himself to watching the two of them play with and coo over the cat for the rest of the day.

Eventually, though, it started to get darker. Even after Logan pointed this out, it still took over an hour for them to relent and leave the bush maze to go to the door. The problem was of course, that the cat had managed to grow very attached to Virgil in the last few hours and she followed them all the way to the door with manipulatively heart breaking mews.

“You’ve got to stay out here,” Virgil said, when they got to the castle door. He pet her ear softly and she shoved her head into his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t have anywhere to put you.” He sounded horribly sad about that fact and Logan felt himself shift uncomfortably. “I basically live in a closet and Logan doesn’t like cats in his room anyway.”

Logan immediately felt unreasonably guilty, probably more so because Logan did not think Virgil was trying to make him feel guilty. “…Bring the dammed thing inside.”

Virgil blinked up at him. “What?”

“It will get cold soon anyway,” Logan said.

He frowned at Logan from where he was crouched. “But you don’t like fur in your room…”

“I will have to find a potion that works,” he said with a sigh, “and we’ll have to say it’s mine to the guards and Father since it will be staying in my room, but it is yours in every other way. That means you are going to feed it, clean it, and clean up after it.”

Virgil nodded immediately and swooped Marisol up in his arms. The cat went without complaint. “Thank you!” he said. “I love her.”

“I know you do,” Logan said, already regretting it already. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to even consider recanting the offer considering how happy Virgil seemed to be. They had a cat now, he guessed.

Chapter 32

“What are you doing?” Helen asked a few minutes after her son walked into the kitchen and started looking around as though he were trying to find something. It was a few hours into the afternoon, and she and a few workers were already prepping for dinner.

“Uh,” Patton said. “Have you seen Virgil?”

“No,” Helen said. “Why.”

“Er… Logan and I sorta, lost him,” Patton said. He was wringing his hands anxiously. Helen put down the knife in her hand.

“What do you mean you lost him?” she asked.

“Well, see, we were trying to teach him how to play hide and seek, um, but then we didn’t think to tell him that he eventually had to come out if we didn’t find him, and now we haven’t seen him since breakfast.”

“He didn’t know what tag is?” she asked. That was just one more thing to add to the list of why Helen worried about Virgil and where he came from. Every morsel of information she’d managed to wring from Patton despite his evasions made her lists of concerns grow larger, even little things like him not knowing about simple childhood games. Actually, thinking of concerning things having to do with Virgil. “Wait, so he hasn’t eaten lunch.”

“Um, we don’t know that,” Patton’s mouth said while his eyes said ‘no.’

“He needs to be on a consistent diet, especially when he’s still taking the malnutrition potion,” she scolded.

“I know, Mama, I know,” Patton said. “I’m trying to find him. I’d kinda hoped he’d gotten hungry and snuck down here. He probably wouldn’t want to risk being caught stealing food though.”

Helen grimaced. Yet another concerning thing.

“Wait! I have an idea, I’ll be right back.” Patton turned and ran out of the room. Helen frowned at the space he’d been and finished chopping the carrot on the cutting board in front of her. If it had been any other person in the castle missing, Helen wouldn’t have worried, but she had literally never seen Virgil without Patton and/or Logan by his side. Even when he’d gone to help Jeff can some fruit, Logan had reportedly hung around to read a book.

Considering that Logan had never exactly been clingy even with Patton, she imagined that either Virgil asked, or Logan thought he should stay with him for his comfort. So, she was surprised that he was apparently hidden away somewhere in the castle where neither of the other kids could find him.

Still thinking about this, she walked over to the entrance to the cellar below the kitchen where they stored most of the vegetables, planning to grab some more carrots. She was confused for a moment when she heard movement from deeper in the pantry. She reached over and touched the panel near the door that controlled the magic lights.

The newly illuminated figure startled as the lights came on, whipping around to stare at her with wide eyes.

“Virgil?” she asked.

“Sorry,” he said immediately, taking a step back.

“It’s fine,” she said immediately, “but what are you doing here?”

He considered her for a long moment, but apparently, she passed some sort of mental test, because he relaxed, at least as much as he’d ever relaxed in her presence. “Where are we?” he asked.

Her brow knit together. “The cellar under the kitchen,” she said, “You don’t know that?”

He shook his head.

“The only entrance is from the kitchen.” Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen him go through the kitchen at any point.

“No, it’s not,” Virgil said. “There’s a tunnel.”

“A-a tunnel?” she asked. Actually, taking a closer look at him, he seemed a bit grimy. He had dust all over his front and dirt on his nose. She thought he might even have a couple of cobwebs in his hair.

“Yep,” he said.

“Where’s the tunnel?” she asked.

“It’s right over here,” he said. He took a couple of steps and pointed to the ground. There was an open square hole there that clearly had been made a long time ago but which she had never noticed in all of her time working here.

“How did you find this?” she asked.

“We were playing hide and seek,” Virgil explained. “Logan said I could hide anywhere inside the castle. I hid on top of a dresser upstairs in some unused sitting room. There was a hole in the wall above it, so I climbed into it. Then, I crawled a little bit and it let out into a hidden passage in the walls. I wandered around in it until I found another hole in one of the walls. I thought it was a way out, so I squeezed into it, but it took me to a different hallway where I found an old room. There was a different hole in that room that had probably been covered by something because it was in the floor but whatever it was had rotted away. I crawled though it into a tunnel and came out here.”

She couldn’t help but laugh a bit at his explanation. “Well, it sounds like you went on an adventure,” she said, “but Patton and Logan have been trying to find you. You missed lunch.”

He tilted his head at her. “I know. I was supposed to hide.”

“Yes,” she explained, “but you are supposed to come out at some point if they can’t find you for things like food.”

“Oh,” he said.

“They probably should have explained,” she said. “For now, why don’t we get you something to eat? You must be hungry.”

Virgil frowned. “But I missed lunch.”

“You can still eat even though it’s not in normal hours,” she said. “You could even if you had made it to lunch.”

“Really?” he asked, he looked tragically confused by this offer.

“Of course, sweetie,” she said. “In fact, I insist you get something good to eat right now. How about I made you a grilled ham and cheese sandwich? Maybe some cookies too!”

Virgil titled his head. “You are Patton’s mother,” he stated.

Helen laughed softly. “He gets its all from me,” she said. “We should probably go find him and tell him you’re okay. He was worried.”

“I didn’t mean to worry him,” Virgil said with a frown.

“I know,” Helen said. “It’s okay. He’ll probably laugh when he figures out where you’ve been, and Logan will interrogate you all about the secret passageways.” He seemed happy about the prospect of seeing his friends. “Come on, let’s go upstairs for a bit,” she said.

Chapter 33

Patton’s mom had already made Virgil sit down at the small table in the corner of the kitchen and had handed him a sandwich by the time Patton barreled into the kitchen, Logan coming after him at a more sedate pace.

“Virgil!” he said, sounding surprised and relieved.

“Patton,” Patton’s mom scolded. “No cats in the kitchen.” Patton had brought Marisol in with him and had let her go as soon as he’d seen Virgil. She immediately plodded over to him and hoped onto the table to sniff at his face in greeting.

“But she’s the princess!” Patton argued.

“No,” Logan said.

“Yes, she is!” Patton said.

“The stupid cat is not a princess.”

“Don’t be mean to your little sister, Logan.”

“I regret every life decision that has led me to this point.”

While Logan and Patton were distracted squabbling and Patton’s mom was distracted watching them squabble, Virgil tore off a bit of the ham in his sandwich and offered it to Marisol. Marisol gracefully took it from his grip and ate it.

“So, this is Logan’s new cat I’ve been hearing about?” Patton’s mom asked.

“Indeed,” Logan said, his lips thinned. He and Marisol were mostly amicable when alone with just them and Virgil, but Patton had a habit of cooing over the kitten and needling Logan into being irritated.

“Mmm, yeah,” Patton’s mom said. She glanced over at Virgil right as Marisol basically slammed her face into his chin in a bid to get pets. “Your cat.” She shook her head. “But Princess Kitten or not, I do not want fur in dinner,” she said.

“Sorry,” Patton said, honestly not sounding sorry at all. Virgil was always a bit surprised when the insolent shrug garnered nothing more that a scowl that did not reach Patton’s mom’s eyes. “I thought she could help me find Virgil, but you already found him.” He turned to Virgil. “Where have you been all day?”

“Found a tunnel,” Virgil said. He had to use one hand to hold Marisol back from his sandwich as he took another bite, but then gave her a bite of cheese.

“You found what?” Logan asked.

“There’s a tunnel under the cellar,” Virgil said. “It goes to an old closed up room and also to a set of secret passageways.” It was a bit of a security risk honestly, though clearly no one had used it in years by how dirty it was. He did plan to go back into it and make sure the sprawling tunnels didn’t go to anywhere more dangerous like the royal wing.

“A closed-up room?” Logan said. He could see a bit of curiosity already building in his eyes.

“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Where the door used to be seemed like it had been bricked over.”

“Really? Can you show me.”

“Sure,” Virgil answered.

“Ah, perhaps we should be a bit more cautious about climbing through random tunnels we don’t know the stability of,” Patton’s mom said.

Logan’s frown edged on a pout.

“Talk to your father,” she said. “I’m sure he can get someone who understands these things so you can safely investigate.”

“It was safe enough for Virgil,” Logan pointed out.

“No, Logan.”

He sighed but seemed to concede. That was another strange thing about living here. By all rights Logan didn’t have to obey anyone except the king, but he often listened to those around him, not just the adults but Patton as well. It was interesting though it sometimes made the hierarchy hard to figure out. Virgil did sometimes stress out about the hypothetical situation where he got conflicting orders from two people, and he wouldn’t know which one to obey. So far it hadn’t been a problem luckily. They always seemed to work it out amongst themselves in some give and take social interaction that was a bit too complex for him to understand.

Patton walked over to where Virgil was sitting. “I’m glad your safe,” he said. “We should probably put a time limit on hide and seek in the future, so you know when to come out.”

“Did I win?” Virgil asked. He’d honestly forgotten they’d been playing a game until Patton’s mom had asked how he’d found his way into the cellar.

Patton laughed. “I’d say so, yeah,” he replied. He leaned over to kiss Virgil’s forehead, but drew back immediately with a pinched expression. “You are… very dirty,” he said, rubbing his mouth.

Virgil nodded. “Your mom made me sit on a tablecloth,” he said gesturing to the fabric she’d laid over the chair.

Patton snorted out a laugh. “We’ll get you into the bath when you’re done eating and you can tell us all about your little adventure.”

“I would also like to hear about your discoveries,” Logan said. “Though you are not allowed to sit on the bed until you do not have spider webs in your hair.”

Patton’s eyes widened and he jumped away from Virgil, startling both Virgil and Marisol. The latter hopped from the table onto Virgil’s lap. “Spiders?!”

Virgil tilted his head at him in confusion.

“He isn’t a fan of spiders,” Logan informed him, his voice amused at Patton’s reaction.

Apparently deciding that she was no longer startled, but more confused by the noises Patton had just made, Marisol jumped out of Virgil’s lap to investigate, wrapping her way around Patton’s legs. He bent down to pat her back, though he still looked a bit startled.

“Your cat, huh?” Patton’s mom asked Logan once again. Virgil studied her. She had apparently missed Logan mentioning that he allowed Virgil on the bed. Or perhaps Logan was correct in his insistence that it wasn’t actually that big of a deal here. Virgil would rather not test that assumption, however, so was glad that it had been distracted from by Patton’s outburst.

“Creepy, crawly death dealers,” Patton mumbled into Marisol’s fur, having picked her back up. Virgil made a note to not inform Patton of all of the different types of spiders he’d seen skittering around in the castle walls today. Maybe he’d talk about them with Logan once Patton left. He’d probably be interested. Virgil had seen some he’d never seen before! Logan probably could even help him figure out what their names were. “You’ll protect me, won’t you kitty?” Patton asked Marisol.

She made a little ‘burrrr’ sound in response, which Patton seemed to take a confirmation.

“Aw thank you, baby! Such a good baby.”

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Virgil popped the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. Patton’s mom turned away and grabbed a plate stacked with cookies. She handed it to Logan. “Take these, and please get the health hazards out of my kitchen,” she requested.

Logan took them without complaint. “Come on, Virgil,” he said. “Let’s go get you clean.”

“We’re going to need so much soap,” Patton said.

Virgil looked down at himself. “I can go outside and get most of it off if you get me a bucket of water,” he offered.

“Virgil, it’s below freezing,” Logan said as though that had a baring on what he’d just said. Logan sighed. “No. Bathtub.” Virgil shrugged. “Honestly,” Logan said. He turned with the plate of cookies in his hand, clearly expecting to be followed. “You’re not going to catch your death pouring a bucket of water over yourself in the cold when there are literally over a hundred perfectly good bathtubs in this castle. For goodness sakes.” And well, Virgil wasn’t going to complain.

Chapter 34

Patton, to be completely honest, was not all that interested in the room that Virgil had found. Beyond just the fact that it would definitely have creepy crawly death dealers in it, he really did not understand the intrigue. If it had just been him, he probably would have just let a castle worker deal with it, but it was not just him. Logan was ecstatic with the prospect of investigating a secret in the castle. People who didn’t know him well may not believe it considering he spent most of his time with his nose in a book, but he was an adventurer at heart.

Thomas had been easily swayed into finding someone to help tear down part of the wall into the secret tunnel near the room (so no one would have to crawl through the kitchen cellar like Virgil). It had taken a few days, however, and Logan was practically bouncing off the walls waiting. Virgil, despite having already seen the room before, also seemed excited, though if that was because of his own curiosity or because he was just excited that Logan seemed so exited remained to be seen.

“They are silly, aren’t they,” Patton asked Princess Marisol. He was laying on his stomach on Logan’s bed and Princess Marisol had just put her little paw on his nose.

“Yes, I agree,” he said. “Don’t they know that we’re literally going to be 2 feet away from the normal hallway?”

“It is not silly,” Logan defended himself. “Any number of things could go wrong.” He sounded far too excited about the prospect of something going terribly wrong. “The tunnels could cave in and block off the exit or there could be some unknown pathogen in the air.”

Patton did not ruin his fun by mentioning that Logan’s dad had definitely basically baby proofed the tunnels for them ahead of time. Instead, he just said, “Don’t let Virgil hear you say that sort of thing. It will just stress him out.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he said, waving off Patton’s concerns as he mulled over two different weird green planty things (potion ingredients, Patton assumed) before setting one aside and sticking the other in his bag.

“So silly,” Patton cooed at the cat. Logan let out a huff but did not choose to say anything about it this time.

Speaking of silly, Virgil came back from Logan’s bathroom then, and Patton tried not to giggle. “Is this right?” Virgil asked, sounding and looking confused. Logan, in his overexcitement about adventure had commissioned Virgil an outfit that actually fit. Said outfit, however, very much made it look more like Virgil was going on a safari instead of a two-foot detour from the normal castle hallway.

“Almost,” Logan said, “Here, let me.” Logan started straightening everything out and flattening the collar, reminding Patton of an overbearing parent on picture day. Virgil accepted the fussing without protest. It was adorable. Well, the outfit was ridiculous, but still, adorable. “There,” Logan said. “I think we’re ready to go now.”

It was about time. Patton was sure people were already waiting for them downstairs. Patton got up and patted Princess Marisol on the head. She looked up at them with interest.

“You can stay here, sweetie,” Patton told here. She seemed to consider it and then hopped down from the bed to go rub up against Virgil.

Patton guessed she was coming. It didn’t matter too much since Logan had given her a magical collar that allowed her to open most doors in the castle and everyone knew she was the royal cat now, so if she decided she wanted to come back to the room and nap, she could. (She was very aware of the power she held.)

She pranced happily by Virgil’s side all the way down the steps to the first floor of the castle. She was such a good kitty.

Well, she did hiss angrily at everyone who came too close to them, but still, a very good kitty.

Patton did lean down and pick her up so they could actually talk to the man waiting for them at the large hole in the wall. Logan went to talk to the castle worker while Virgil half hid behind Patton. He was clearly listening very intently to the conversation however, at least more intently than Patton was. Patton was busy shaking his head fondly.

“Yes, yes, Princess,” he said to the cat. “I know we do not trust the strangers, but I promise this stranger is perfectly safe.”

“How do you know?” Virgil asked.

“His name is Chester and I’ve known him since I was 9.”

This seemed to slightly alleviate Virgil’s suspicion, but Princess Marisol still seemed antsy. Patton really needed to start slowly introducing the both of them to more people.

Logan finished talking with Chester after a few moments and it was time to climb through the hole in the wall. He wished he saw in the tunnel whatever Logan with his excited eyes and bounce to his step obviously saw. Or even that was more comfortable in the dark closed in space as Virgil obviously was. As it was, Patton’s nose scrunched up at the thought off all of the spiders that could be living everywhere in the secret tunnel, but he pushed through.

The entrance to the tunnel had been made only a little bit from the room Virgil had mentioned and Chester had led them through it after only a couple of seconds. As Patton had suspected, the room was already lit up and probably cleaned a little bit by the people who had cut into the wall, not that he was complaining.

Virgil was still clinging a bit to Patton’s shirt, though it seemed to be less out of anxiety at this point and more out of a desire to stick close. He was peering around curiously at the lit-up space. He probably hadn’t seen much of it in the dark when he’d been here before.

Yet, his curiosity was nothing compared to how excited Logan seemed to be. Now Patton may have not been interested in the room itself, but he was entertained by how interested Logan was and was happy to encourage that.

“What do you think this place is?” he asked Logan.

Logan hummed contemplatively, eyes looking around. “Well,” he said. “It’s a bedroom clearly, and old. Considering the location it is in in the castle, the size, the decorations, and it’s likely age, I’d imagine it was a bedroom of a royal family member. This used to be the royal wing three royal lines ago.”

“Bearing that in mind, there are a couple of likely possibilities for the origin of the room as well as the reason it was sealed up, but we will need to investigate more in order to come to an actual conclusion.” He had already placed the bag he’d brought on the ground and was going through it, pulling out things that Patton did not recognize. He also got a piece of paper and sat on the floor to start to sketch.

“What are you doing?” Virgil asked.

“I’m sketching the floorplan of the room,” Logan said. “I will then put a grid on it so we can investigate while being sure that we aren’t missing anything.”

Virgil seemed uninterested in this part of the adventure, instead electing to go poking around by himself. Princess Marisol squirmed out of Patton’s arms to go follow him. Patton swore that he only looked away from those two for 5 seconds, but the next thing he knew he heard metal clicking against metal.

“Oh,” Patton said, eyes wide when he saw what Virgil was fiddling with. “Honey, you probably shouldn’t touch…”

The old but fancy looking chest that had been at the end of the remains of the bed creaked open. Virgil sneezed as a cloud of dust puffed out of it. “Huh,” he said studying the contents. “There’s a skull in here.”

“Oh, I don’t like this adventure anymore,” Patton commented.

Logan was on his feet within moments. “Let me see,” he said eagerly.

“What if it’s cursed?” Patton pointed out.

“Then I’ll just break the curse,” Logan waved him off. “Oh, it’s just a horse skull,” Logan said, sounding disappointed. “And also what seemed to be potion ingredients. Though they seem very fresh considering the state of the room.”

“Maybe we should get someone else to…”

Logan already had both arms inside the chest and was pulling things out of it. “This chest must have some sort of stasis effect to it.”

He started pulling things out to look at them before setting them on the floor with no caution. “Well,” he said, “that answers the question of what this room is.”

“It does?” Patton asked.

“Ah, yes, between the horse skull and the potion ingredients, this is obviously the bedroom of Princess Marianne Elicia. She was the third child of King Simon IV and was quite the fan of horses.”

“…So she kept a horse skull in a stasis chest in her bedroom?” Patton asked.

“Of course,” Logan said. “Back when her family was in power, magic was outlawed and had quite the stigma against it, but she ended up learning magic and become quite proficient.”

“It’s debated what exactly happened when her father found out about her activities. Some sources say that she was executed silently by her father, but others say she managed to escape with the head of the stables but not before putting a curse on the country of Prijaznia. That is until she or one of her bloodline sits on the throne, every royal line will end in madness and blood by the 5th seated monarch before an heir is born.”

“Isn’t that something you should be worried about?” Virgil asked.

Logan shrugged. “It’s just a myth,” he said. “Besides I’m 6th in the line, so there really isn’t any concern.”

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“There are a lot of interesting things in here,” Logan said, still focused on the chest. “Not to mention the books. We’ll have to be careful with those though since they don’t appear to be in stasis.”

Logan pulled the horse skull out and set it on the floor making Patton wince.

“Marisol no!” he said as Princess Marisol immediately went to go sniff at it. He swooped her up in his arms. “How long are we staying in this creepy room?” Patton asked.

“Patton, we just got here,” Logan said.

“We just got here and already found a skull!”

“Yes! Exactly!”

Patton groaned into Princess Marisol’s fur even as she tried wiggle away to go back and investigate the skull. This was going to be a long day.

Chapter 35

Logan was surprised when he woke up alone in bed. He’d grown to anticipate waking to a smaller body unrelentingly clinging to his in the past couple of weeks. Confused he sat up and peered around his bedroom. He wouldn’t have seen Virgil with the way he melted into the darkness if it he hadn’t heard the sound of purring coming from near the window. He could just barely make out a dark blob shifting up and down at the cat kneaded at a different blob sitting mostly hidden behind the thick curtain.

“Virgil?” Logan questioned. “What are you doing?”

“It’s snowing,” was the answer.

“That is not an answer,” Logan grumbled at the ceiling. With a sigh, he pulled himself out of bed. It was a bit chilly in here, he thought. The temperature must have dipped suddenly and intensely enough that the runes keeping the castle at a warm enough temperature hadn’t caught up yet. He pulled one of the blankets off of the top of his bed to wrap around his shoulders as he approached the window. There wasn’t much light outside, the stars and moon covered by clouds, but there were some lanterns lit for the night guard who patrolled the outside. “Oh,” he said in surprise. “It’s really snowing.”

It had been colder but not quite cold enough for snow to stick the day before, so it came as a surprise when he saw snow was piling up quite high to the point where familiar paths outside his window had disappeared.

“I don’t like it,” Virgil informed him.

“Why not?” Logan asked.

“It’s cold,” Virgil answered. It was clear in his tone that in Virgil’s opinion ‘cold’ was a horrible insult to the concept of snow. Logan quirked a half smile and his attention was drawn to the fact that it was quite cold right here close to the window.

Frowning, he pulled at the blanket around his shoulder so he could wrap it and his arm around the lump that was Virgil. He brushed the boy’s hand when he did so and found it was like ice.

“You’re freezing!” Logan said. “How long have you been by the window?”

“I dunno,” he replied.

Logan was already tugging at him. “You need to get back in bed,” he said.

Virgil obeyed the pulling at his arms even as he frowned. “I’ve been colder than this before,” he said.

“That actually doesn’t make me feel better,” Logan replied dryly as he shooed him towards the bed.

He took the thicker blanket that usually stayed folded at the end of the bed and pulled it up over Virgil before climbing into bed beside him.

“There,” Logan said, rubbing Virgil’s arms through the fabric of the sweater he wore to bed. He was glad he wasn’t wearing a t-shirt at least. “The runes for heating the castle should catch up within a few hours, but until then this should do. Assuming we don’t sit by the freezing window for an undetermined amount of time.”

“I don’t like the cold,” Virgil told him.

Logan sighed. “Then why did you sit by the window?”

Virgil shrugged and ducked his head a bit. Logan reached out to grab his hands to help him warm more but was surprised when one of the hands was much warmer than the other. He found his fingers were clutching a crescent shaped stone: the protection charm they’d made. Logan knew that he kept it in his pocket most of the time, but he didn’t normally see him holding it like this. It was warm to the touch, of course, indicating the safety of the room around them.

Logan looked over his face. “Are you…” he said. “Scared of the snow?”

“I don’t like the cold,” he said once again.

“You’re scared of the winter,” Logan concluded. He looked at Virgil who was far too small for his age and seemed surprised at every casual act of kindness. It was clear that his basic needs were far from being met before he came here. Logan had to wonder what winter usually meant for him. His experiences were doubtlessly very different from Logan’s own. “That makes sense,” he acknowledged, “but you don’t need to be scared of it here. The castle is always perfectly warm and safe in the winter and Mr. Deknis and Ms. Heart work hard during the other seasons to make sure we have plenty of food. There is nothing to fear here.”

He did not seem convinced.

“You don’t even have to go outside if you don’t want to,” Logan promised. “The castle is plenty big if you’d like to stay inside all winter long. It was made for the winter even without the magic devices that keep it warm. We have fireplaces and well insulated rooms even if those that ends up failing.” Logan pulled open the hand that had the protection charm just to transfer it to his other hand to warm it. “Though, while no one would force you to go outside, the snow isn’t always bad.”

“Yes it is,” Virgil said, his voice sure.

“Not all the time,” Logan insisted. “Some people love the snow.”

“They’re stupid.”

Logan laughed. “It can be fun for a while with the right equipment if you have someplace to get warm again afterwards. Royal duties slow down during the winter and Patton tends to come up with all sorts of games for both the inside and the outside to pass the time. He’s particularly proficient at snowball fights, at least against me.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Play fighting,” Logan answered. “Like pillow fights, but snow.”

“I’ll stick with the pillows,” he replied.

“And then there’s a hill to sled down on the western side of the castle, and people like to build snowmen along the path.”

“What are snowmen?” Virgil asked.

They’re temporary statues made out of packed snow,” Logan explained. “Typically, they’re made of three different sized balls of snow: the largest being the base and the smallest the ‘head’ though there are some variations. After building them one typically decorates them with different articles of clothing and objects found lying around. It’s usually sticks and rocks for the face and then things like extra hats and scarfs for decoration.” He smiled softly. “When my Pa was alive, we used to steal my Dad’s crown and fanciest robes. Sometimes Pa would steal it right off of Dad’s head and we’d run away. We’d find a secluded area of the castle yards and build the biggest snowman we could as quickly as we could before we got caught. He’d usually end up letting us keep the robes, but we’d have to give the crown back since some of the metals in it would rust when wet.”

“That sounds…” Virgil’s nose twitched. “fun if you take away the touching snow part.”

Logan laughed. “It is fun,” he said. “Even with the touching snow part. Though, I admit that some of the ability for it to be entertaining does come from the fact that we could warm up afterwards with ease. You’ll enjoy Patton’s mother’s constant offering of hot chocolate during the season even if you never go outside, I’m sure.”

“Hot chocolate?” Virgil asked intrigued. His dark eyes shone brightly in the little light coming through the window. It was clear he could guess something about the drink just by the name and enjoyed the implications.

Logan smiled fondly. “It is a hot drink,” he explained. “It’s a warm drink made out of milk and chocolate. I can get you some to try in the morning.”

Virgil nodded, eyes still wide with interest.

“For now, we should sleep though,” Logan said. “Are you warm enough? I can get more blankets.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Good,” Logan said, reaching up and adjusting the blanket over them once more, tucking it around Virgil a little bit for good measure. “Goodnight Virgil,” he said.

“Goodnight,” he replied softly. Logan reached under the blankets to grab the hand that was still slightly chilly from the window between his own. Virgil’s eyes slipped closed after a moment as he nuzzle his face into the pillow. At some point they both drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 36

Thomas had already been well aware that winter was on the way, but he and the rest of the castle occupants had been surprised at how intensely and suddenly it had come on. Most things were ready for the winter, but not all of them had been initiated. The fireplaces that took some pressure off the castle heating runes were cleaned out and ready, but they hadn’t been started yet. The stables for different animals on the grounds had been checked over and staff assignments had been made, but most were still in far out fields. Staff that went home for the winter months had been dismissed, but there were a few stragglers that would have to be helped home before things got worse.

He’d gone out to the main stable to talk to the three workers that were the heads of different areas of animal husbandry to make sure a plan to get everything to where it needed to be soon was in place. It took a while to figure out considering that they’d expected a little more time before the first major snowfall. Thomas also asked them to make sure all of the workers’ homes were in good enough condition for the weather. Ranch hands typically had homes on castle grounds but not in the castle themselves since they needed to be close to the animals. Thomas knew at least half a dozen of those who spent most of their times out in the fields were the type to forgot to maintain their homes because they preferred camping amongst the animals in the summer months and then would be in for a bad time when snow began to fall.

There should be enough extra rooms in the castle if they needed a place to stay until repairs could be done.

Those conversations took a good couple of hours, before Thomas was satisfied. Before trudging back to the castle through the still falling snow, he made a point to stop at one specific horse stall in the main stable. The horse turned his head to see Thomas when he stopped in front of his stall and puffed out a rather disaffected snort before sticking his head over the gate so Thomas could pat his nose. “Hello, Mr. Apples,” Thomas said.

The horse seemed to conclude he’d tolerated Thomas’s petting enough and ducked his head to nudge at his torso. Thomas rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes,” he said. “I brought you an apple. Some things never change.” He reached into his pocket to grab the red apple he’d brought the white Arabian. “At least you don’t bite me anymore.” He paused, apple slice in hand and eyed the horse’s nose suspiciously. “Do not bite me,” he said even though he hadn’t felt the animal’s teeth in a decade. It would be just like Mr. Apples to wait until his guard was down.

After a bit of scrutiny, he offered an apple slice. It was snatched out of his hand and there was a loud crunch as it was bit into.

“It’s snowing out,” he told the horse. The horse seemed to roll his eyes at the statement of the obvious. “I’ll remind again that if you run out in a snowstorm, I’m not running after you, so you’d be out of luck.”

Mr. Apples snorted.

“You’re old now. You’d probably not survive long enough for people to find you. Besides, you blend in with that white fur of yours. They’d probably walk right past you a few times.”

He went back to nosing for treats as soon as he finished his first and Thomas sighed, pulling out another apple slice. “What are they not feeding you enough?” The gusto with which the horse snatched the apple slice was a very clear answer. “Well, we both know that’s not true.” Thomas fed the horse a third slice of apple when he was done with his second. “I have to get back to the castle now. Don’t be a devil horse.”

Mr. Apples threw his head a bit, splattering apple smelling foamy spittle all over Thomas’s front.

“Understood. Have a nice afternoon.”

He left Mr. Apples in his stall then, knowing he’d be well cared for no matter how ill-tempered he could be at times. He’d been a king’s horse once, after all, no matter that said king had been dead for more than a decade now.

Winters were hard.

Winters were the times when things always slowed down at the castle, where royal duties were often thin. There were a lot of memories in winter.

The trip back to the castle was not particularly long, but it was also not particularly pleasant. The snow had not been cleared away considering it was still snowing which meant his feet and legs were wet and cold by the time he made it to the nearest castle door.

He wasn’t sure if, when he entered, the castle heating runes had started to work in earnest or if he’d just been so cold that any measure of warmth was appreciated, but he was relieved to be out of the snow either way.

He decided to check up on the progress of the castle staff lighting the fireplaces. With any luck, they’d be lit already, and he could warm up even more. That in mind, he headed towards the main foyer where the largest fireplace in the castle sat to take off the chill brought in by the large front doors.

The main foyer was bustling with activity when he snuck in along the sides, giving the guards stationed around nods as he passed. The main fire in the room was burning brightly, though only one of the two smaller ones near the side exits from the room was lit. The other one was still being set up with safety mechanisms. It was good progress and assuming other areas of the castle were being set up as efficiently, he assumed they’d all be set up by nightfall.

He’d need to go check around to be sure, but for now, he walked up to the main fireplace to warm his hands.

He’d gotten into the habit when he was younger to every so often glance upwards. There had been a certain stable boy who had a propensity for climbing trees. These days, he usually found nothing when he did so, often not even consciously noticing that he’d turned his gaze momentarily skywards. Yet, today, he was startled out of his own idleness by dark brown eyes looking back at him from a small ledge in the shadows high above him.

He froze as he met the young boy’s gaze. Virgil seemed as surprised to be caught as Thomas was to have caught him.

#proofread stories #not writing

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noirewrites · 4 years

Text

Mending the Rip (Of My Shirt and Your Heart)

Kitty Section are practising when Luka's favorite Jagged Stone shirt rips. Luckily his latest costume designer is on hand to fix it, but who knew Marinette could get so tongue tied? And doesn't she only do that over boys she likes?

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warnings: No Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M

Pairing: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste/Kagami Tsurugi, Kagami Tsurugi & Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Chapter 1: Listening to Your Jagged Heart Song

The designer said in a tone of faux cheerfulness, “Her lies aren’t hurting anyone, right?” A sudden shrill screech of guitar turned her attention to Luka who was frowning at the instrument.

You know I love unicorns

And that they make me feel better!

I see their faces everywhere I go

Dreaming about them at the nights!

“I am glad Mr. Agreste allowed Adrien to be a part of the concert,” Marinette said as she moved her attention from her sketches to Kagami who sat beside her.

The Japanese girl nodded in reply. “I know Mr. Agreste’s hard to convince, but after Adrien meticulously pointed out that his participation in the band could help promote Agreste Fashion, it wasn’t a tough job.”

The designer hummed in approval as she bent over her sketchbook, adding colors to the designs.

“But tell me one thing.” The disdain in Kagami’s voice caused Marinette to look up.

“Who called that brunette here?” The Tsurugi girl pointed at someone, and Marinette followed her direction to catch sight of Lila Rossi reclining on a chair, sipping orange juice as Mylene sat beside her on a stool, enjoying the band’s performance.

“I mean, it’s not my business but… as far as I am aware, she isn’t dating anyone in the band. And it doesn’t seem like she’s here to offer a hand.”

“Oh,” Marinette rolled her eyes slightly before turning back to task in hand, “that’s Lila. I believed you knew her? For a few days ago, she claimed to have been Mrs. Tsurugi’s favorite student before arthritis caused her to take a break from fencing.”

“Mom’s favorite student? Baka.”

“Baka?”

“It’s a curse.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow as her lips twitched in a smirk. “Didn’t know you cursed.”

“Only when I am frustrated. But seriously, I hadn’t had a shade of idea about her existence before she appeared in that photograph with Adri-kun. He told me she’s a pathological liar, but to this extent… Wow, I must really go knock some sense into her.”

Kagami moved forward, only to be stopped by an iron grip on her wrist.

“Don’t,” Marinette said in a low tone as she pulled the other girl back. “I have tried uncovering her lies, but…”

“But what?”

“She just plays with the words until they turn against you. I have tried unmasking her on many occasions, but no one listens and…”

Marinette’s voice trailed off, before she slightly shook her head and said in a tone of faux cheerfulness, “Her lies aren’t hurting anyone, right?”

Kagami stared in shock as the designer wiped her eyes before smiling at her.

A sudden shrill screech of guitar caused the girls to turn their attention to the deck where the band had been rehearsing.

“Sorry, I kind of missed a beat,” Luka said apologetically, looking down as he frowned at his guitar.

“I guess it’s alright,” Adrien patted the tall boy before adding, “We have been practising for one hour non-stop. How about a break, guys?”

The idea was highly appreciated, for the other band members immediately left their musical instruments to relax themselves after the hard work. Rose and Juleka moved over to the railings to talk while Ivan walked to where Mylene and Lila were sitting, sitting down and looping an arm around his tiny girlfriend.

Adrien turned his attention to the girls and grinned at them, waving eagerly. Marinette smiled in acknowledgement and Kagami waved back, an adorable blush now dusting her cheeks.

He came over to them, hugging Kagami before giving her a peck on the lips.

“Hey there, Gami-chan,” he whispered, causing Kagami to giggle.

“Hello, Koibito,” she whispered, booping his nose a little.

Watching the two from a close distance, Marinette couldn’t help but smile. Contrary to the earlier times, she didn’t feel jealous of Kagami anymore. ‘Adrigami’, as she had dubbed the couple, was really very cute and sweet, and Marinette was happy to be best friends with them.

Between the responsibilities of Guardianship, school work, bakery stuff, hangouts with friends, designing commissions and babysitting, Marinette wasn’t sure if she could additionally juggle her love life. So, she opted to let it rest for a while, at least till she got the hang of her recent busy schedule.

That is what she had told herself. The reality… it was different.

Adrien had harbored a special place in her heart, and letting him go hadn’t been easy for her. But with time, Marinette came to realise that her unrequited feelings were doing her more harm than good. In times when her friends were abandoning her, Adrien and Kagami were two of the three people who had at least offered a listening ear to her distraught civilian self. And the girl could not afford losing any of her true friends for any reason.

So, she made herself happy in their happiness. When the two held hands, Marinette’s heart did a little dance of joy for her friends’ happiness. When they got lost in each others’ eyes, she stayed on the sidelines, watching them with a small smile. And when they kissed….

...It had been hard at first. No, scratch hard. For the first few times, Marinette had felt as if someone had detached her heart from her chest and stomped on it ruthlessly, right in front of her eyes. Her pillow and Tikki had been the witness of those silent tears she shed as she came face-to-face with the feelings of the first heartbreak. Many times, she just wanted to pull the two apart, to scream her feelings out to Adrien and at least let him know.

Had it not been for Tikki, she would have been nearly akumatized, too.

But her determination and will power made her witness the couple’s sweet moments, again and again. Until she didn’t feel the bitter twinge on seeing them kiss. Until she managed to remain aloof even when they gave each other the gooey eyes. Until she felt no butterflies on seeing Adrien’s radiant smile.

Until her heart finally let go of Adrien.

“Musing about something, Ma-ma-marinette?”

The designer let out a squawk as she jumped nearly a foot in the air, turning around and coming face to face with Luka Couffaine.

“Oh,” she chuckled nervously, straightening her dress, “it’s you.”

Luka laughed good-naturedly, causing Marinette to blush.

Luka Couffaine had been her third true friend, and her closest confidant ever since the Battle of the Miraculous had taken place. He had been there for her, letting her cry her heart out. He didn’t prod her about what the reason for her breakdown was, just provided her the much needed shoulder. He had shielded her from the akuma cloud, sacrificing himself to save her.

His music had helped calm her inner storm. But the most important thing? She still couldn’t forget his confession when he had been akumatized as Silencer.

You’re the most extraordinary girl, Marinette.

Clear as a musical note and as sincere as a melody.

You’re the music that’s been playing inside my head since the day we first met.

I won’t let anything happen to you.

It still shook her to the core in a very pleasant way on thinking about that confession.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Marinette smiled at the boy.

“So, did you make anything new this time?” he asked inquisitively.

“Oh yes! Wanna see?”

“Always eager to.”

They moved over to her designing stand where her sketchbook lay open. Thumbing through a few pages, Marinette reached her newest creation.

“So, I made this new addition to your mask! It’s just like the previous one, except the main color scheme has more of a bluish-white hue ‘cause I figured that blue’s kinda your colour. But this isn’t all! In the T-shirts, I added a calligraphed ‘Kitty Section’ design too, so as to promote the band! And maybe we can add some stitching designs here in the side for additional decor, though I haven’t given it much thought yet.” Marinette gushed, pointing out the various elements in her designs as Luka listened with rapt attention.

“I love the change in colour scheme, Marinette,” he finally said, “And the design of the shirt looks awesome too. But…”

Luka’s voice trailed off, causing the designer to look at him inquisitively.

“But what?”

He stayed silent for a moment, before asking in a low, gentle tone, “Are you alright?”

Her mouth went dry at the sudden question. Marinette had tried her best to keep her despair hidden from Kagami, when she had quoted his lines to her, but somehow, Luka still managed to know that she wasn’t alright.

And that must have been the reason for his slip-up earlier during practise, she further deduced.

“I—it’s no big deal, really!” she said, plastering a big smile on her face. “How about I tell you the colour scheme for the text on the shirt?” She said, attempting to change the subject.

The look on Luka’s face screamed that he didn’t believe her, but he smiled ruefully and gestured for her to continue.

Shooting him a grateful smile, Marinette placed the sketchbook back on the desk and picked up a coloured pencil from her assortment of paints and colours. But before she could colour the piece, a hand shot out of nowhere, knocking the red paint over her sketchbook.

Pulling her sketchbook back in reflex, Marinette jerked back and let out a moan of despair on noticing that she had been a second too late, for the red paint had managed to fall over the T-shirt design and ruin it completely.

“Oops, I am sorry! I didn’t notice the paint.” The voice did no good to Marinette, rather it turned her despair to anger.

Eyes sparking, she looked up at Lila, who had craftily masked her smug smirk under an expression that appeared apologetic. Balling her fists, she was about to lunge at the Italian lying doll before a hand on her shoulder stopped her. She looked up at Luka, who shook his head in the slightest way, assuring her with a look that he would take care of this situation.

“You should have looked where you were going, Lila. You ruined the design now,” Luka pointed out, his brows slightly furrowed.

“Oh, I am sorry again,” Lila sniffled, before adding, “But shouldn’t Marinette have closed the paint after use? I mean, after that, even though I or someone else would have knocked it over by mistake, no harm would have been done, right?”

Marinette was appalled at the disguised accusation, but didn’t say anything. She was used to Lila’s faux innocence and disguised blaming.

However, feeling Luka’s grip tighten on her shoulder, she could tell that he definitely wasn’t happy. And it made her feel glad.

“Really though Lila, that excuse is utt—”

“Leave her out of it, Luka,” Rose spoke up from behind. “She obviously wouldn’t have meant it, right Lila?”

The brunette nodded fervently. “Thank you so much for understanding me, Rose. You are the best!”

“No problem. Plus, Marinette’s so talented she can remake the design again! Right Marinette?” the blonde gushed happily.

Sighing, Marinette pulled up a weak smile as she gave Rose a thumbs-up. She didn’t speak anything, though. Words simply failed her at the moment.

Everyone went back to their chit-chat, except for Adrien and Kagami who now came up to her.

“I am sorry for what happened, Marinette,” Kagami said, her voice containing barely restrained anger as she glanced at Lila, “If only you had let me…”

“It’s o-okay as I told you, ‘Gami,” the designer waved off the topic again as she ignored the slight choke in her throat and mild sting in her eyes. She turned to look at Adrien, shooting him a rueful look, “She really didn’t harm anyone, right?”

Adrien’s breath hitched and he suddenly became a lot interested in his shoes. As for Kagami, she finally understood why Marinette had chosen to repeat her previous statement again.

“Anyways, I guess I should go back to make a new design, right? I can definitely do it!”

“But Marin—” Luka spoke up, but Marinette had turned back to her workstation, ignoring everyone.

Kagami shot Adrien a look that spelled trouble, causing the blond to gulp. She pulled him away from the scene, leaving Luka there alone.

He looked at the girl working on the design, the concern evident in his eyes. But if she didn’t want him to intervene, well, he was going to respect that.

Sighing, the musician slung his guitar over his shoulder and moved to give Marinette some space. However, he had forgotten to notice one thing.

RIIPPP!

The sound caught everyone’s attention, including Luka’s. Eyes bulging in shock, he looked down to find that his Jagged-Stone shirt had gotten stuck in some stray nail on the table and his movement had caused the fabric to tear a bit at the hem.

Before he even got the idea to unhook his now damaged shirt from the nail, Lila jumped forward, announcing with a cheery tone, “I have been Gabriel Agreste’s muse for some weeks and things like this happen in the fashion industry! Don’t worry, I got this!”

The brunette leaned down to unhook the shirt, but Luka caught the malicious glint in her eye before she applied a bit too much force, causing the tear to widen even more.

“Oh goodness!” the girl wailed out in what Luka knew was a faux apologetic tone, “The fabric’s so old that it just got ripped even more! I am sorry Luka.”

Of course she didn’t mean the apology.

Before Luka could say anything, Marinette spoke up, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, Lila. Maybe you should not have intervened in the first place.”

Lila turned around to glower at her, before masking the foul look with an innocent pout, “You mean to say it’s my fault?”

It was Mylene who spoke up now. “Marinette’s kind of right, Lila. Plus, she’s the most experienced with fabrics out of all of us. So, it’s better we let her deal with the situation, right?”

Lila pouted, but then nodded slightly in agreement as she got up. Luka was relieved to get distanced from the brunette. Plus, he always welcomed Marinette’s presence.

Marinette smiled at him as she walked towards him. Her smile caused a soft melody to resonate in his heart. However, the subtle notes of a cacophony attracted his attention, too.

Just in time, Luka saw Lila subtly edging her foot out. As Marinette tripped, the brunette smirked a bit before continuing down her path.

As she fell, Luka lurched forward, his arms spread out. She collided with his chest as he wrapped his arms around her waist, securing her fall. Her arms came to rest upon his shoulders for support.

“You okay?”

“Ye-yeah!” Marinette stuttered, her cheeks blooming pink. “Fine being here! I MEAN, I am fine, how are you?”

Luka chuckled, “I am fine too, thanks for asking.”

The girl blushed again, before looking down, “So.. your shirt—”

“Oh yes,” he helped her stand up straight, then proceeded to unhook the shirt from the table. Marinette bent down to inspect the tear.

“Wait,” Luka said softly, causing her to look up. “Let me remove my jacket, it would be easier.”

The designer opened her mouth to assure him that it was fine like that, but he had removed the jacket by then. As he handed the jacket over to Juleka, Marinette couldn’t help but gawk at Luka’s physique. She had known he was well built from his time as Viperion, but this lean…

Coughing from lack of air, Marinette came back to reality, blushing hard. Luka looked at her inquisitively, causing her to duck her head and inspect the tear.

Oh goodness, what a wrong choice she had made.

Looking at his physique from far was something else, but seeing the bare skin beneath the tear caused her jaw to nearly drop to the ground. Being a designer, she knew she should be used to such situations, but somehow, in this particular situation, her mind just short circuited.

Why was she looking at the shirt again? What was she supposed to do here?

“So Marinette, do you think the tear can be mended?” Luka asked, causing her to nearly fall on her butt in shock.

Oh. Mending. Right. Task at hand first, bare skin gawking later.

What the hell am I even thinking right now?

Her hands deftly lifted the fabric, as she focused her mind on the rip and not the slight tangy, citrus smell mixed with sweat. It was hard, but she finally managed to get the job done.

“It’s a manageable tear,” Marinette said as she got up and straightened her dress a little. “Not much, so a stitch in time can still save nine!”

“Awesome,” Luka said, delighted. “This is my favorite shirt, and I don’t want it to get damaged.”

The girl reached into her purse and pulled out a needle and a white thread, “Well, let’s sew it together then!”

Luka smiled in return, before noticing that everyone around them were silently giving him and Marinette the lovey-dovey eyes. That didn’t trouble him much, but the icy glare that Lila was pointing at Marinette…

“How about we go to my cabin?” Luka offered, causing Marinette to look at him in confusion. “You know, because the wind can make the shirt flutter, and then again…”

He subtly gestured at something, and out of the corner of her eye, Marinette noticed Lila glaring daggers at her. Gulping a little and then laughing nervously, she said, “Oh sure! Downstairs it is then!”

The guitarist smiled slightly, holding his hand out to her. Marinette put her hand in his and let him guide her.

All the way, she kept marvelling at how despite the difference in sizes, their hands had perfectly fit with each other.

#miraculous fanfic #lukanette #adrigami #platonic marigami #lila being lila #mildly flustered marinette #luka being protective of marinette #kagami being protective of marinette #lila salt?#kitty section #fluff #mild angst #miracuclass oblivious of lila as usual

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skyphile · 4 years

Text

grahams big holiday gift post aka “ITS BEEN YEARS SINCE IVE DONE THIS pwease go easy on me”

so while graham and the beautiful wife spent most of the holiday season living in luxury and getting pampered at grahams dad’s, graham had plenty of time to amass a collection of gifts and baked goods to give his friends upon their return home!

heres the list of them

@morbidkind kes - a lot of fluffy scarves and knitted things to keep them warm at work, pretty glass and clockwork trinkets and jewelry shaped like bugs and eyes, horribly misshapen bug decorated sugar cookies

@velcrounit colin - a whole family of crochet mushrooms AND a needlefelt figure of stan from spiritfarer bc im sure the household played it and sobbed over it. graham would also love to try his hand at a bunch of greek desserts and use colin as his guinea pig dfkhdsf. horrible plant decorated sugar cookies

dad - a hat, oven mitt and scarf set, a few short music compositions that are heartfelt and sweet. aardvark decorated sugar cookies that do NOT look like them at all

mom - also a music composition, along with a ton of cosy planters, knitted stuff to hold her art supplies, and a warm scarf to share between her and her gf. sugar cookies that completely bastardize a landscape

neighbours - cookies for everyone!

baradisers - aside from a sexy holiday bonus, they are probably going to hold a feast next saturday that anyone can attend around a HUGE table

cat - a whole collection of small indie games. horrible looking sugar cookies in a sad attempt of drawing ornstein and smough

@nemorialex alex - tiny needle felt figurines of snow and ash, a whole bunch of knitted things with needlefelt details on them, and also a TON of knitted stuff for the baby… sugar cookies with abominable decorations that vaguely resemble dragons

@stakehammer johnlal - needlefelt figurines of moths, a stupidly large tentacle, and sugar cookies with poorly done cute black kitties on them

@agreste-image adrien - a short musical composition that evokes feelings of motivation, support and hope, a bunch of silly knitted things with black cat motifs, a needle felt plagg for plagg, a platter of nice stinky cheese for plagg, a whole tray of assorted passion fruit pastries, sugar cookies with disastrous black kitties

@gho2ty ghosty - a whole music composition done in 8bit that evokes tenderness, softness and determination, a bunch of needlefelt alternian bees, a set of entrelac knitted sweaters, scarf and gloves, sugar cookies with a shameful attempt of a minecraft bee drawn on them

@vulcaniq jim - a cover collection of striking star trek tracks, graham would also legit get a tamagochu pair to split with her (as an excuse to hang out more and bc theyre so silly and cute), and make a few floral/fruit crocheted hats. jims sugar cookies were supposed to look like spock but the ears did NOT turn out well and so did nothing else

@thatsillyjohnkid jay - he gathered as much appropriate wool as he could and needlefelt the biggest alolan exeggutor he could manage... his sugar cookies were similar and TERRIBLE

@liliumsunshine hinata - graham goofed around and tried to emulate a heavy metal style in his silly piano set up and covered somebody that i used to know for her in an attempt to mock the band u know. he used up a bunch of his purple and light lilac yarn to make her pretty winter set of warm accessories, and needlefelt soft creatures. he tried to make sugar cookies with horns but they all cracked and fell off

@trainstoppin furry john - he got the fluffiest yarn he could find and turned it into a hat with earflaps, a thick scarf and chunky mittens. he made him a needlefelted creeper. his sugar cookies were supposed to look like the moon but. the icing sort of meshed and oozed everywhere….

@daviscatessen davis - he needlefelted a bunch of flowery figurines for him, and turned the mamma mia soundtrack into an 8bit cover collection. his knitted hat has a flower crown needlefelted into it. his sugar cookies were made with flower cookie cutters but they got too Thick

@gardencracks aria - a whole series of plant, leaf, flower and fruits crocheted into a long garland. a big tray of parisian pastries. her sugar cookies are covered in ivy that looks like Big Blobs

@turntechgarchomp pokemon dave - a needlefelt pokemon team with blaziken, pikachu, togepi, riolu, gibble, dragapult. pikachu shaped sugar cookies, but the red icing from the cheeks bled EVERYWHERE...

@immarcescible feferi (I KNEW ID FORGOTTEN SOMEONE OFF MY OG LIST) - needlefelt octopi! a crochet sushi set! sugar cookies shaped like fish (the colours are A MESS)

@endoosteologist coco - a small collection of sanrio needlefelt figurines. a BIG cake but the decorations could be…. better. hello kitty sugar cookies from hell….

@emberoops ember - a small set of cute needlefelt firebirds. sugar cookies with melted off fire coloured icing

@thedoomtrout max - I WISH IT WAS REAL but imagine this loser giving u a bunch of needle felt furries, including ur fursona, and bowser shaped sugar cookies that got all messed up…

graham is a HORRIBLE dessert decorator but all food items would be fricking delicious and decadent… he wouldve also written cute little notes with everyone, appreciation for friendship, general good wishes and a dad joke

#ooc #holiday gifts #ooc save #long post #here we GO

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coffeeew · 4 years

Text

rainy days | yoon jeonghan

❀ → genre: |fluff |

❀ → synopsis: you loved when the rainy season came, going to the park near your house's pavilion and just sitting there while the rain poured over the city was one of your favorite activities, and it became more entertaining when you saw him doing the same thing.

❀ → pairing: jeonghan x female reader.

❀ → warnings!: my first language it´s clearly not English, excuse any grammar mistakes.

❀ → word count: 1.5K

❀ → note: I don´t know if it´s offensive that I upload this while the whole situation involving some of the members is going on since I´m not part of the culture that´s being affected, if it is, please let me know and I will take it down and upload it when the apology is given. Treat People With Kindness Loves.

You opened your eyes as soon as you heard the constant and harsh sound of the raindrops against your bedroom window. A sigh came out of your mouth as you saw the darkroom that was bright when you fell asleep. It happened again, you fell asleep and ruined your sleeping schedule. You turned your head to your right and grabbed your phone that was lying beside you.

As soon as you turned it on the light coming from it made you close your eyes again. You opened one eye and reduced the light coming from the screen on the settings. 7:26 was the hour marked on your phone's clock. You frowned your nose in annoyance and reunited strength to sit down. You shake your head, making your messy wavy hair get into your face. You cracked your neck by tilting your head slightly to the right, making that satisfactory sound of your bones cracking. You stretched your muscles by intertwining your fingers together and stretching your arms up and to the sides.

Once you felt a little bit less tired you stood up, feeling the cold wood of the floor against your feet, making a shiver run through your spine. A yawn came out of your mouth and you walked out of your room to go to your mother's room and maybe lay with her while watching a movie, but as you came out you saw how every light on the house was off and you remembered she was not home. She had gone on a trip with her friends to Jeju last night. You groaned while walking to the living room, turning the light on to just see the unecessarily big window behind the TV soaked with raindrops and the dark grey sky welcoming you.

The rain was pretty aggressive today and you weren't sure if going to the pavilion today was a good idea, you liked watching the sky cry while smelling the scent of the wet wood and dirt but you didn't want to get sick. You thought about it by just staring at the white walls of the living room.

"fuck it."

You told yourself while walking back to your room, this time at a faster pace since your body had a little bit more energy than some minutes ago. When entering your room you decided you needed to change from your hello kitty pajamas to something more... appropriate. You opened a drawer from your dresser, taking out a pair of black jeans and a light green oversized sweater that was your mom's when she was young. You changed into the clothes and checked your hair on the full-length mirror that was leaning beside the dresser. It was wavier than usual, almost curly. You shake it a little bit and ended up not wanting to deal with it, after all, it didn't look that bad.

You graved your headphones from your night table and plugged them into your phone and then placing them into your ears. You unlocked your phone and went into Spotify, shuffle playing your playlist, making Cartoon from Zico sound into your eardrums. The music was in that volume that could make you deaf, but honestly, that's how you liked it. You walked out of your room, yet again, and walked to your home's main door. You sat on the floor and stretched yourself to grab your black vans that laid beside the door, putting them on while you hummed the melody of the song playing. Once you finished tying the laces you stood up and grabbed the black umbrella that remained leaning against the door, as well as your house keys that were hanging on that old wood keyholder your family liked so much for a strange reason.

You opened the door, stepping out of your home's warmth and opening the umbrella, placing it on top of your head. You closed the door behind you and locked it with the keys. Once you where sure the door was well locked you turned over, looking at the street filled with puddles due to the intense rain pouring on the city.

You started walking on the sidewalk taking a deep breath of the calming smell of rain, pulling one of the earphones to also listen to it slamming against the floor aggressively but yet calming. A sigh came out of your mouth as you turned on the corner of the street, making the image of the park come into your sight, the big wood pavilion looked so nostalgic right now.

The first time you went there was after a terrible day in school. You had had a terrible and stressful science test that even though you studied for it, you couldn't remember a single thing, you also discovered your friends had been talking shit on your back and when you thought it couldn't get worse, your mom called saying that she wasn't going to be able to pick you up since she had a lot of work and needed to say extra hours. You were fourteen when you ran from your school building, tired of waiting for the rain to stop, till' finding another sealing to protect yourself from the rain, that's when you found the pavilion and went in, you stayed there until the rain stopped while shaking and knowing you were going to get sick the next day.

You cut your thoughts once you are in front of the wooden stairs of the pavilion, starting to step up until you got to the hollow floor of the same material. You closed the umbrella and sat on the last stair, watching how the rain started pouring more aggressively as the seconds went by. You leaned on the stair rail, closing your eyes as you slightly sang the lyrics of M.I.A by Stray Kids.

It was just as calming as ever, you love the cold breeze that made your body shiver from time to time, you wished you could stay like that, it´s not like you had a bad life to think like that, but the feeling you had right now was just as overwhelming as crying, but the one crying was the sky. People always said that rain made them feel oblivious or sad but you felt clean, you felt like the tears the sky was pouring made all the bad thoughts and feelings wash off.

"that´s so cheesy."

You told yourself, laughing by the way too "poetic" thoughts you had.

"you said something?"

You jumped in your place due to the male voice that you weren´t waiting for. You looked at your left, just to see a boy in a black shirt and a squared unbuttoned shirt on top of it, dark brown hair and laptop on his thighs.

"I- no... Since when are you there?"

He smiled brightly making his eyes turn into half-moons and small marks appear on the corner of his lips. How is someone this attractive?

"Almost at the same time as you, I saw you getting here when I was walking in this direction."

He said while pointing on the opposite side from where you came from.

"Oh..."

You responded then pressing your lips together. How do you act when there´s a boy this pretty in front of you?

"I didn´t mean to scare you, sorry."

"No, it´s okay, I should have noticed there was someone else here."

You laughed to try making the air less tense and awkward, but it seemed like you were the only one that thought it was awkward since the boy´s shoulders where relaxed and his hands where comfortably laying on the keyboard of his laptop, that was when you also noticed the backpack beside him.

"You come here often?"

You asked genuinely curious, you were on the pavilion very often recently since the rainy weather had come, but you never saw him and since he even responded to your murmurs you could´ve noticed him before since you talk to yourself all the time.

"It´s that a pickup line?"

He asked with a goofy tone while raising one of his eyebrows. You opened your eyes on surprise and shook your head almost aggressively.

"No, no, no I-I´m, I really mean it, I´ve never seen you near here."

He slightly giggled.

"It´s easy to make you nervous. And no, It´s the first time I´m here, I wanted to go to a nearby cafe but it was closed and it started raining, so I saw this from afar and ran here, didn´t want my stuff to get too wet."

He said by lifting the laptop. You nodded, thinking the conversation was over, but he continued talking.

"What about you? You come here often?"

You nodded yet again.

"Yeah... It´s calming to come here while it rains."

"So you only come here to watch the rain and sing?"

A slight blush came to your cheeks by the stranger´s comment.

"I´m sorry you had to listen to that."

You laughed awkwardly, again.

"You do it pretty well actually, I like it."

"Oh, thanks."

"Not a problem."

You licked your dry lips and gained courage from who knows where and talked again.

"by the way, my name´s y/n "

He smiled again.

"I´m Jeonghan."

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zebrabaker · 5 years

Text

Demon’s Daughter: 02

Hey guys! I made a twitter for my stories (@ LilnomeStories) where all polls will be held from now on! Don’t forget I also have a Patreon and a ko-fi now, the links to which are in my bio. Here we go!

Part 1

The same day at lunch, Marinette had just exited the classroom after everyone else had left when she was accosted by a figure dressed in all black. She stumbled back a step, barely catching her balance. She managed to look up at the figure, only to squeal when she saw who it was, and eagerly return the hug.

“Uncle John!” She cried when he picked her up and swung her about. John was not the man’s real name, but a nom de plume he used to blend with the humans. The full name was John Therapon, and he was listed as one of her legal guardians (she had a lot).

“Little Mari!” He shouted, setting her down. He was an odd looking man, with waist length platinum hair in a warrior braid and green eyes like poison, he would always draw attention. He only drew more with his fashion sense. Her Uncle wore a long black trench coat over black skinny jeans and a black button up, with a clunky looking wallet chain. He also wore a thick chain-link necklace and heavy motorcycle boots. Over all, he looked like someone’s goth/emo/punk cousin more than an ancient immortal being who reaped souls.

“Are you the one Dad said was coming to check on me?” She asked, stepping back and adjusting her buns, which had come loose when he had glomped her.

“Indeed, I am, little chaos bringer!” He twirled her around and bowed low, pressing a kiss to her hand. “And for your birthday, I have a very special surprise!” He reached into his coat and pulled out a small business card, presenting it to her with a flourish, and she giggled as she took it.

Turn around!

It read. Marinette spun on the spot and looked up, only to scream in delight.

“DAD!” She flung herself at the tall, slim figure. Sebastian caught his daughter, wrapping her in a tight hug.

“Hello, dearest.” He smiled, flashing his eyes magenta. She flashed hers as well, making them shine a darker shade of gray.

“I thought you were in India, visiting Uncle Agni?” She asked, stepping back.

“A simple deception, dearest. Now, let’s go pick up your mother and Papa, I made reservations at Raven’s Writing Desk.” Marinette cheered. Raven’s Writing Desk was a Michelin-starred restaurant. The owner’s father had made a questionable deal with Sebastian (ten years of life and a successful business, then Sebastian got to eat his soul), so the family got reservations for the best tables and half off whatever they wanted. “We’ll even have some others joining us.” Sebastian teased, patting her head. Right as they reached the sidewalk, a crash echoed from a few miles away, and a plume of smoke filled the air. “Oh dear. It looks like we’ll all have to call and reschedule our reservation. You go handle this, dearest. I’ll go catch up with your mother and Papa.” She sighed, kissed her father on the cheek, and ducked into an alleyway, opening her purse. Plagg zoomed out with a sigh.

“Ooh! Raven’s Writing Desk! I love their cheese curds! Let’s finish this.”

“Agreed.” She grumbled. “Plagg, Claws Out!”

X0X0X

Hell-Cat raced over the rooftops, soaring through the air. The pads in the shape of a cat’s paw on the bottom of her boots silenced her steps, meaning she was a silent black and silver streak, soaring through the air. She landed in a crouch next to her partner and confidant, Coccinelle. Coccinelle nodded at her, twirling her yoyo in front of her as a shield.

Coccinelle’s costume was very different from Hell Cat’s. While Hell Cat wore a black body suit with silver highlights and a pair of pauldrons, Coccinelle wore a short red dress coated in ladybug spots and black leggings. Hell Cat’s boots reached her knees, while her partners went maybe an inch above her ankle. Whereas Coccinelle’s gloves were plain black and only went to her wrists, Hell Cat’s had wickedly sharp silver talons and reached her elbows, where they came to a point.

Even their masks were different. Coccinelle’s was round, and made her blue eyes look huge, while Hell Cat’s was slim and came to wicked looking points on each side of her eyes, making her look more feline. Another feature of Hell Cat’s mask was the magic that made her entire eye gray, the iris a few shades darker than the sclera. While Coccinelle had long, flowy ash blonde hair, Hell Cat’s, when transformed, barely reached her shoulders, and had a blue sheen. While Coccinelle was bright and colorful, Hell Cat was sharp monochrome. The only splash of color was the blue bow around her neck that tied in the front. Lots of small children tended to ask Coccinelle if she was a fairy, since she had wings (They were the tail ends of the scarf she wore) while teens and young adults tended to gravitate towards Hell Cat.

The Akuma was flinging a series of items at them, which all bounced off Coccinelle’s yoyo. The common theme seemed to be car repair. Hell Cat glanced at her partner.

“What’s the plan?” She asked.

“The Akuma is in his utility belt. I distract, you slash, I swing. From there, clear skies! Ready?” Coccinelle asked. Hell Cat nodded and crouched down, her ribbon tail flicking behind her. She waited until the Akuma reached for yet another projectile and Coccinelle began to monologue before diving at him, claws extended to their fullest. She slashed the belt as soared past the Akuma, who quickly dropped to his knees. As the dark magic bubbled from his skin, Coccinelle landed in front of him and captured the butterfly.

“No more rainy days for you, little akuma! Au revior!” She released the now-purified butterfly, and waved to the cheering people. “Kitty, can you handle the victim?” Coccinelle asked, reholstering her yoyo on her belt.

“Sure, I didn’t use my powers, so I’ve got a few minutes.” Coccinelle waved to the watching civilians and ran off, leaping to the roof of the nearest building with the help of her wings. Hell Cat sheathed her claws and knelt beside the victim; a young man dressed in a repair shop jumpsuit that was covered in grease stains.

“Hell Cat? Was I…?” The young man asked, staring at her.

“I’m afraid so, monsieur. May I ask why?” She set a hand on the man’s shoulder and guided him over to a nearby ambulance. The paramedic handed her a shock blanket and she wrapped it around his shoulders, as the other paramedic handed the victim a glass of water.

“My family repair shop isn’t doing so good.” He sighed. “My mom was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, and Dad remortgaged the shop so that he could still support the family and pay for Mom’s nurse. Now, we’re pretty successful, so we almost have it payed off.” He growled, clearly frustrated. “Except some big shot at the bank is demanding the remaining twenty-five-thousand euros in a month, or they foreclose the damn shop.” Hell Cat hissed. The bakery was the most successful in all Paris, maybe even France, and they catered a great deal of important events. Even during the busiest time of year, they would struggle to make that much, let alone have that much that didn’t need to go to other bills and buying ingredients. She had an idea.

“What bank is it, and who’s the one demanding the payment?” She asked, plotting. She did need to make another deal soon; her reserves were getting a little low.

“Um…Monsieur Gerard Lilac, at Goliath Banking. Curse his name!” No one asked why she needed the information. Everyone in Paris knew, if you had a problem, Hell Cat could solve it. No one knew how, just that she made problems (and occasionally people) disappear.

“Hell Cat!” Someone cried, and she looked up to see Alya charging towards her. This was yet another problem with Alya. She never considered the victims, just the next scoop. Hell Cat stood and blocked her view of the victim, and nodded to the paramedics. The two nodded back and hustled the man into the ambulance, quickly flipping on the lights and driving towards the nearest hospital. All Akuma victims got three one-hour therapy sessions, one right after being cleansed and then one each week for two weeks.

“Yes, mademoiselle?” She asked, crossing her arms.

“Why was the victim Akumatized? What will you be doing to help them? Do you intend to use this to track Hawkmoth? Do you have a statement for the press?” Her phone was inches from Hell Cat’s face. Hell Cat’s ears were pinned back, and she was really trying not to hiss. How she was ever friends with the girl she’d never know.

“Mademoiselle, the reason for Akumatization is never leaked to the press. We use every attack to track Hawkmoth. And the only statement I have for you is to get your phone out of my face before I break it, along with your hand. Goodbye.” She drew her staff and extended it, vaulting away.

#cambion Marinette #Sebastian is Marinette's dad #black cat Marinette #dd #ml salt #Adrien Sugar

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squishyeth · 5 years

Text

cam girl [g.d] au

SUMMARY: Y/n is the shy girl. Grayson Dolan is the most popular boy. What happens when Grayson finds out that the cam girl he’s been chatting with is the girl that he sees everyday.

WARNING: sexual content (masturbation-male, p&v penetration, fingering), graphic language

NOTES: italics are flashbacks

WORD COUNT: 3.5k

*I DO NOT OWN ANY GIFS*

“You’re so sexy, Mistress.” Sexyboi69 moaned out as he was stroking his length. I continued to dance seductively.

“Are you going to cum?” I said, biting my lips and shaking my ass a little. With that, I see the white liquid spurt out and his loud moan fills the room.

“That was my best orgasm yet.” Sexyboi69 complimented as he cleaned his hand with a towel.

“Same time as tomorrow?” I asked, sitting on the edge of my bed.

“Of course” he replied, with a thumbs up. I can’t see his face, but from the sound of his voice, he’s probably smiling; smirking even. The call ended and my phone dinged. I lifted up my cat mask to see it was from venmo.

‘Sexyboi69 paid KittyMistress $300 for a good time ;)’

CURRENT DAY

Y/N’s POV

I sat in the back of English, doodling as the teacher rambles on about her personal life that no one seems to care about. When I begin shading in the kitty’s ears, the bell rings.

“Don’t forget to read chapter 13 and be ready to discuss it tomorrow!” Mrs. Allen said as everybody was packing up their bags and leaving. I put my sketchbook away and beginning zipping up my backpack. I got up and made my way out of the class. I saw Grayson holding the door open because he was a little bit in front of me.

“Thank you” I said quietly and as I walked away, I heard a faint you’re welcome. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a crush on him. Hell, everybody does. Grayson and Ethan Dolan are the most popular boys in this shit hole of a school. They have every girl swooning over them. I just particularly like Grayson more. I’ve had a crush on Grayson since 7th grade. He has just never noticed me because we don’t come from the same “clique.”

LATER THAT DAY

I put on my cat mask I got from a Halloween store a few months back. That’s when I became a cam girl. I do it for the money because my family struggles with paying bills. They don’t know that I’m on an adult site or else they will lose it. All my parents know is that I babysit some kid who lives down the street. I post free videos on the site, but I charge for personal videos or a skype session. My most popular client is Sexyboi69. He only shows his crotch area, but I don’t mind because I never show my face. Speaking of, my skype went off and Sexyboi69 showed up on the laptop screen. I hit accept.

“Hey” I innocently said, sitting crossed leg on my bed.

“HI, Mistress.” He said, waving to the camera.

“How are you?” I asked, biting my lip.

“Eh, school stresses me out nothing new” He replied, “Just need a release” He finished, stroking his hard on. It turned me on, but I don’t touch myself on camera. I save that for my alone time.

“And that’s where I come in!” I replied, with a giggle; standing up.

“Would you consider taking off the mask just this once?” He asked. I froze in place and before I could react, I slammed the laptop shut.

‘Sexyboi69 paid KittyMistress $500 I’m sorry :(’

THE NEXT DAY

I sat in my usual spot, in the back. I don’t have many friends. That’s a lie, I have no friends.

“Quiet down!” The teacher said loudly, snapping her fingers like we’re dogs.

“Okay, I’m going to explain the final project for Taming of the Shrew and it’s a partnered project” she explained and everyone cheered, except me, I internally groaned. “Except I’m picking the partners.” She finished to which now made everybody groaned. I’m eh on this; at least I don’t have to do the picking. She started pairing the class until she got to me and the one person I did not want to work with is

“Grayson, you’ll be partnered with Y/n.” She said

‘Fuck’ I mouthed, keeping my eyes glued to my sketchbook.

“Man, I wanted the smart one.” One guy shouted, which resulted in the class to laugh. Great, just because I’m quiet, everybody thinks I’m Einstein. Everybody scatters around to their respective work partner and I stay seated; he’s going to have to come to me because I am not getting up.

“Hey” I hear a male voice say. I look up to see it’s Grayson.

“Hi” I quietly reply. He seats in the desk in front of me.

“Did you draw this?” He asked, pointing at the cat girl. I nodded.

“It’s really good, I like it!” He replied, smiling.

“Thanks” I mumbled with a small smile.

“So about the project” he stated, “We could go to my house, but my parents don’t trust me enough to bring someone over so do you have anywhere we could go to work together?” he asked.

“My parent’s don’t come home until like 8 so we could work at my house?” I suggested quietly, trying not to make a lot of eye contact.

“That will work! Do you drive?” He asked, I shook my head “bus” I stated.

“Not today.” He replied with a smile.

LATER THAT DAY

We pulled up my driveway and Grayson turns the car off and we both get out and walk across the dead grass.

“Your house is, nice” he hesitated to say. If old and torn down is nice then thanks I guess. I know he’s just trying to make small talk, but no talk would be better. I unlocked the front door and walked in, locking the door once Grayson was in.

“My room is the first door on the right,” I explained “Do you want some water?” I asked

“Yes please” He replied with a smile and made his way down the hall. I went into the kitchen and grabbed the ice trays from the freezer. After I filled two cups with ice water, I made my way to my room. When I entered my room, I saw Grayson sitting on my bed, holding my cat mask with furrowed eyebrows. I panicked and dropped the cups. He jerked his head to me, still holding the mask.

“Um, can I see that mask?” I asked, ignoring the cold water I’m standing in.

“Yeah, sorry” He said, handing it to me “Do you need help cleaning this up?” He asked, pointing to the water puddle.

“Uh no it’s fine” I stuttered “I’ll get more water though.” I said while turning around leaving a clueless Grayson standing at my door.

‘I really hope he doesn’t know who KittyMistress is’ I thought to myself. He’s a teen boy with hormones. I shouldn’t have let him go in my room by himself. I don’t even want to know what people would if they find out about the person behind the mask of KittyMistress. I am so stupid.

MOMENTS LATER

After I cleaned up the mess, we got started on the project. Scratch that, I started the project. This always happens so I’m not mad. It may hurt a little more because this is my crush and he’s paying no attention to me. My phone vibrated from my lap. It’s skype.

‘I really am sorry about yesterday :(’ Sexyboi69 texted. I look up to see Grayson is busy texting.

‘It’s fine’ I texted

‘I won’t be able to video chat. School stuff.’ He texted back

‘That’s fine! :) I have a school project coming up so I probably won’t be available for the next couple of days’ I hit send before placing my phone back in my lap. I got back to writing a summary, but I felt a pair of eyes on me.

THE NEXT DAY

Mrs. Allen let us work on the project in class. Of course, Grayson was talking to his friends across the classroom. The bell rang and I have never been happier. My stuff was already packed so I put my backpack on and briskly walked out of the classroom with my English notebook clutched in my arms. As I’m walking to my next class, my phone vibrates,

‘Hey :)’ Sexyboi69 texted. What? Why now?

‘Hello?’ I sent, entering my biology class. Grayson also has this class with me, but I sit in the front and he sits in the back.

‘Why ?’ He sent back, I felt a pair of eyes burning the back of my head so I turned around, but saw no one, I turned back around.

GRAYSON’s POV

I’m overthinking it. Y/n is not KittyMistress. KittyMistress is confident and wild and y/n is quiet and clumsy. She’s a cute clumsy though. I look up to see y/n turning her head around so I put my head back down and pretend I’m texting. It’s not like I have a crush on her or anything. I have a thing for KittyMistress. Well, it’s one sided; I really want to know the face of the sexy body I see everyday. The face under the same exact mask y/n owns. Then again anybody can own that mask; I’ve seen that exact mask at a Halloween store. There it’s settled; y/n is not KittyMIstress.

LATER THAT DAY

I’m back at y/n’s house and she’s working on the project. I should really start helping. When I open my mouth, I hear the front door and a woman’s voice,

“Y/n! Are you home?” The woman yelled.

“Shit” y/n whispered. The woman opened door when y/n stood up and we made eye contact.

“Oh. Who’s this handsome young man?” She asked, smiling.

“Um, Grayson” y/n stuttered out, “We’re working on an English project together.” She finished, fidgeting with the hem of her hoodie. The woman, who I’m guessing is her mom asks me,

“Oh yay! Grayson, we would love to have to stay for dinner!” She exclaimed as if her daughter doesn’t bring home friends. She has friends, right? I looked over at y/n who was chewing at her bottom lip, nervously.

“I would love to” I replied, smiling. Her mother seems nice.

“Yay!” She exclaimed, while clapping “Your father should be home early, but dinner should be ready soon!” She said before closing the door behind her and leaving us alone.

“Your mom is nice.” I said, smiling which resulted in y/n groaning.

AN HOUR LATER

We were all seated at the tiny table. I don’t remember the last time I’ve eaten with my family, but this feels nice.

“So Grayson” y/n’s dad started off “How did you meet my daughter?” He asked, dabbing his face with a napkin.

“We’ve had the classes since middle school, sir, but we got partnered up this year on a final project.” I explained, he nodded and drank his water. I can see from the corner of my eye that y/n is blushing. She’s so cute.

“You know,” y/n’s mom says while covering her mouth to swallow “She’s always talking about how cute this Gra-” she continues, but is interrupted by y/n coughing.

“Sweetie, are you okay?” Her mother asks with concern and rubs her back. Y/n just nods and drinks some water.

“Oh what was I saying?” She says

“Honey, we probably shouldn’t overwhelm him with questions.” Her husband said with a chuckle.

“You’re right” She sighed “I just got excited because our daughter never brings guests home” She finished.

“I have to use the restroom” y/n said and ran down the hall.

MOMENTS LATER

“I’m sorry ab-” I started, but was cut off by y/n,

“It’s fine, just leave it alone” she muttered, writing a summary for the project; I nodded. I was being nosy and started to look around. I had a deja vu moment when,

“You looking for something?” y/n sassed, I was taken aback and just shook my head.

Y/N’s POV

I don’t know what has gotten into me or where this wave of confidence came, but I kind of like it. Grayson actually helped on the project for once; it might of just been gluing the pages on the poster, at least he was quiet. After about half an hour of walking, Grayson announces,

“I better go home.” Right as he said that, lightening strikes and we both get an alert on our phones that read,

‘FLASH FLOOD WARNING THIS AREA TIL 11:30PM EST. AVOID FLOOD AREAS. CHECK THE LOCAL MEDIA.’

I looked out my window and just my luck, the streets looked like a lake.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I mumbled, he agreed.

“Do you have a guest room?” He asked, turning his head toward me.

“No, but you can take my bed” I offered, “I’ll sleep on the floor.” I said, getting up to get the extra blankets out of my closet. I told my mom I would never need to use them, but I can hear her in my head saying ‘I told you so!’

“No, it’s you’re ro-” He said, but I cut him off by placing my finger on his mouth, “No, you’re the guest and I swear to god if you fight me on this, I will make you swim home I don’t care.” I ranted. Jesus Christ, who let KittyMistress out? Where did this confidence come from?

"Who is this and why doesn’t she come out at school?” He joked, but there was some seriousness in it. I rolled my eyes playfully and continued to grab the blankets. If I’m sleeping on the floor, I’m going to make it as comfortable as possible.

“I’m going to change in the bathroom” I explained, “Try not to be nosy while I’m gone.” I joked and he saluted, making me giggle as I walk out of the room. After I change into a tank top and pajama shorts, I exit the bathroom and make my way towards my room. When I open the door, I see Grayson carefully running his fingers through my lingerie hanging up. You have got to be kidding me. Out of all things I have?

“What are you doing?!” I yell.

GRAYSON’s POV

I notice something lacy in the closet. Y/n’s words replay in my head, but I feel myself being drawn towards the closet. I can’t imagine y/n in something lacy or tight fitting even. I’m sure she has a nice body under all those hoodies she wears. As I approach the open closet, I see that it’s lingerie. My eyes have definitely popped out of my head. I can’t imagine y/n in stuff like this. I hear a jingle sound and see that there’s a collar with a bell on it.

‘Where have I seen this before?’ I think to myself with furrowed brows. My thoughts were interrupted by y/n,

“What are you doing?!” She yells. I’m just standing there; it can’t be her. She just rolls her eyes and snatches the lacy material out of my hands and walks away. Before my mouth can catch up with my brain I speak out,

“Mistress.” She stops dead in her tracks. Gotcha.

“What did you just say?” She asked, facing away from me.

“I had a feeling when I first came over, but I thought the mask was just a coincidence.” I explained, walking towards her; her breathing is now ragged,

“And then the texting” I whispered by her ear. She’s shivering at this point.

“Sexyboi69?” She whispered, dropping the items on the ground. I nodded with a smirk. I’ve been waiting for this moment. My fingers trailed up her arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps. With her back still facing me, I slowly put my hand down her shorts and cup her pussy. Before I can feel her insides, the door knob starts to jiggle. I pull my hand out and she steps away from me.

“Hey, how are you guys?” Her mom says as she sticks her head in.

“Yeah, I was just making myself a bed on the floor” she explains, pointing to the makeshift bed. She nods while smiling and closes the door.

“The bed is big enough for the both of us” I said, smirking.

“Don’t you start with that” She jokingly replied with her finger pointing at me. I move towards her slowly and grip her wrist softly.

“I swear to god if you don’t stop looking at me like, I am going to cum in my pants.” I say as she blushes and replies,

“What look?” Like she doesn’t know. The innocent look that has every guy preying on her. It’s like my mouth has a mind of its own and next thing I knew, my lips were on hers. She was taken aback at first, but then relaxed under my touch. Our lips moved in sync and I find my hands wandering all over her body.

“Are you sure you want to do this with a virgin?” She asks as I leave sloppy kisses on the base of her neck.

“There is nothing sexier than a virgin.” I replied and meant it. She seems to have a burst of confidence because she tossed me on the bed and straddled me. Her confidence never fails to turn me on. I pull down her tank top so that her breasts are spilling out. I begin to knead them and suck on them as her back arches and lets out a moan.

“You are so fucking hot” I state, making my way back to her lips. My hand slides down her shorts and rubbing her clit before pumping finger in her. She moans in my ear which turns me on even more if it’s even possible at this point. Her hand is bunching up my shirt as I add another finger.

“So tight.” I compliment and rewarded with a moan. I rub her clit with my thumb and I see her eyes roll so she must be close. Just as suspected, I feel a sticky substance coating my fingers and y/n collapses beside me.

“How was that?” I asked, laying next to her.

“What about your problem?” She asked, eyeing my very painful boner.

“As much as I would love those pretty lips around my cock, I need to be inside that pretty pussy.” I said, getting on top of her. She gasps and blushes at my words. My lips meets hers and she begins to undo my belt.

“Why in a hurry?” I said, smirking and holding her hands down in the bed. She surprises me by flipping us over. Goddamn how is she so strong.

“Because I’m in charge and you will address me as Mistress.” She stated, pinning my hands down.

"What are you going to do to me, Mistress?” I asked, lifting my head up from the bed. She smirks and rubs my hard cock through my jeans. I hiss and say,

“If you do that again, I am going to have a wet spot on my jeans.” She just continues to rub my dick before unbuckling my belt and sliding off my jeans, leaving me in my boxers and shirt. She gets off of me and then walks over to her drawer and digs around and pulls out what looks like a box of condoms.

“If you’re a virgin then why do you have a box of condoms?” I genuinely asked.

“What do you think?” She sarcastically replied. Her mom. I played it off with a laugh when she opened the new box and pulled out a condom. She walks over and hands it to me. I look at her confused.

“I don’t know how to put one on.” She shyly says, which makes me smile.

“Here” I say, taking the condom from her hand and taking it out of the package. I pull down my boxers and I see y/n’s eyes go wide from the side.

“Come here” I whispered, holding out my hand; which she takes and I put her back on my lap. “Give me your hands” I continued, guiding her hands on the condom to slide it down my dick.

“Is this going to fit?” She whispers

“We’ll see” I reply, flipping us so she’s beneath me, “Let me know if it’s hurt” I say and she nods. I slowly begin to push myself and see a tear run down her cheek. Y/n grabs the back of my head and begins kissing me, which is my queue to go deeper. When I’m balls deep in her, we both let out a throaty moan.

“Please go faster” She whimpers in my neck.

“Your wish is my command” I whisper in her ear and begin thrusting at a faster pace. Her moans sounds pornographic as the sound of rain and my balls slapping fill the room. I reach my hand down to her clit and rub it in a circular motion. She starts shaking and I feel myself starting to climax. Before I knew it, I’m seeing stars and my load fills the condom. I stay in her warmth for a little longer before laying next to her and discarding the condom.

“How was that?” I asked, out of breath and facing her. She replies, still out of breath, but with a goofy smile,

“Better than porn.”

#grayson dolan #grayson dolan smut #grayson bailey dolan #grayson dolan imagine #grayson dolan blurb #dolan twins #dolan twins imagine #dolan twins blurb #dolan twins smut #blurb #imagine #smut

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heylissaaaaa · 5 years

Text

A Rainbow Afternoon

Pairing: James “Bucky” Barnes/Reader Summary: On the morning of Tony’s team barbecue, Bucky asks a favor you’re not so sure is a good idea. Word count: roughly 4k Warnings: none, take all the fluff. Maybe hints of sexy fun times, but nothing explicit or even really graphic. A/N: Hello lovelies! This is my first time writing for Marvel - well, my first time finishing something for Marvel. It’s a part of @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan‘s writing challenge. My prompt was “So I had this idea. Water balloons, but full of paint. What do you say?”. You can also read it on AO3 here.

You knew as soon as he walked into the bedroom, that he was up to something.

He’d already been gone when you woke up, not unusual for a Saturday morning. Where you refused to even be on the same floor as the gym during the weekends, he was adamant about sticking to a routine. He always left a silly love-note and a thermos of tea before he went, pressing kisses to your forehead that were only ever half-remembered.

By the time he returned, you were a little more with it, curled up in the reading chair he’d bought for your first anniversary. You were halfway through the thermos and your latest literary obsession.

You had left the door open, always did when you were in the room. It let people know you were still open to talking to them, but you preferred your own space to the common room. And, in an effort not to frighten you, he always knocked.

It wasn’t the three sharp raps that meant business, or the two soft apology taps after a fight. It wasn't the long-drawn-out pounding of “Sam and Steve are gangin’ up on me, doll, can you please come be my backup” that usually scared you anyway. When Bucky Barnes knocked on the door that morning, it was a little staccato rhythm he did that was most definitely combined with a grin and a glint in his baby blues.

The first thing he did was cross the room and press another kiss to the top of your head. Nothing out of the ordinary, though he seemed a little more good-humored than normal when he said, “Morning, sweetheart.”

You hummed and glanced up from your book. Sinfully small running shorts left bare beautiful thighs, and one of Steve’s compression shirts showed off Bucky's chest. His eyes darkened when he caught you staring, making you flush. “A very good morning. How was your workout?” you asked.

“Would have been better if you were there with me,” he said. You glared at him and snuggled further into the puffy armchair, reaching over to take a loud sip of your tea. It got a laugh out of him and he raised his hands. “I know, no gym on the weekends. It was good, though. Kicked Steve’s ass from one end of the room to the other.”

“I’ll bet he gave as good as he got,” you teased, coming to the good Captain’s rescue since he wasn’t there to do it himself.

Closing the book in your lap, you leaned up for another kiss that he met you halfway for. Bracing an arm on the back of the chair, he took your jaw in his free hand and licked at your bottom lip. You let him in on a sigh he answered with what was almost a growl. You were the one to break away first, breathing a little unsteady. He chased your lips but you put a hand on his chest to stop him.

“Hit the showers, hot shot. It’s a busy day today,” you said. Tony was throwing a barbecue later that afternoon, one of the rare days when there were no world-ending missions on the docket. It was just the team, relaxing and unwinding together. The only fights were over what you could and couldn’t put on a hot dog; the only physical exertion was a not-so-friendly cornhole tournament.

Stealing one more kiss, Bucky pushed off the chair. Grabbing a change of clothes, he disappeared into the bathroom and you heard the shower turn on. Untucking your legs, you stretched them out before re-positioning yourself in the chair and went back to your book.

You barely noticed when the water shut off, didn’t look up as he came back out of the bathroom. He moved around the room, wringing the water out of his hair and hanging up the towel. There was an impact and a muffled oof as he flopped down onto the bed, probably face-first.

Then it was quiet.

Really quiet.

Definitely too quiet.

There was the other shoe, the culmination of his mischief knock. Logically, you knew it would have been best not to engage him. But after rereading the same page twice, you came to terms with the fact that his stubbornness was stronger than yours. Finally looking away from your book, you found him on his side in a pair of sweatpants with his hair still damp. He was doing his best Titanic pose, wiggling his eyebrows at you. He started talking as soon as the two of you locked eyes. “So, I had this idea-”

“No.”

Bucky rolled onto his back, spreading out like a starfish with his legs hanging over the side of the bed. “You don’t even know what I was gonna say!” he huffed; in that same tone a child gets when they’re trying to say you never let me have any fun.

You stuck your finger on the current page and closed the book. “Barnes, most of your ‘ideas’ end up with us being chased through the compound and threats of bodily harm.”

He lifted his head to glare at you. “It was the knocking, wasn’t it?”

You tapped out a rhythm identical to the one he’d used. “If you know, then why do you do it?” you asked, laughter in the lilt of your voice. Bucky stuck out his tongue and dropped his head.

A few minutes later, long enough for you to get back into the groove of your story, he sighed. Loudly. Obnoxiously. When you didn’t react beyond the turn of a page, he did it again. The third time, he lifted up his arms and let them flop back against the bed with his exhale. Finally, more out of curiosity than any real annoyance, you shut the book completely and set it on the windowsill. Crossing the room, you climbed onto his lap and straddled his thighs. He sat up and settled his hands on your waist. “Tell me about your idea, Bucky,” you said, running your fingers through his hair to pull apart the tangles.

He leaned into your touch when you scratched your nails over his scalp. Never one to be distracted from a mission though, he went on to explain, “So remember when we were watching that movie, with um- Christ what was her name?” You stopped your ministrations so he could focus, but he grunted and pushed into your hand until you started again. “We were just talking about her. She’s- she’s got the same name as Shakespeare’s wife?”

“Anne Hathaway, sure,” you said, nodding along. When he didn’t elaborate further, you had to nudge him a little. “Gonna need you to be more specific, she’s done a lot of movies. We’ve seen a couple.”

“The one where she’s a princess.”

You scraped your nails up from behind his ears to the top of his head and he shivered. “Getting closer.”

“And she has that cat with the mean name,” he urged, losing a little bit of patience.

“Fat Louie?”

Bucky looked scandalized that you would even dare say the name. “He can’t help it! He’s just a little kitty,” he insisted, pinching your waist. You flinched and swatted at his hand, huffing out a laugh.

“I know, Buck,” you said, trying not to smile. He looked contented with your soothing, staring off into space so long you were sure he forgot what you were talking about. “So, we were watching Princess Diaries…”

“Oh, yeah. Remember in the beginning, when she and her mom were throwing darts at those balloons to make that painting?” A more wary nod that Bucky chose to ignore. “Right. Now imagine: water balloons, but full of paint. What do you say?”

There were a few moments where all you could do was blink at him. “Buck, we watched that movie weeks ago,” you said. Coming back to find him elbows-deep in an experiment was a common occurrence; he got up to stuff when he was bored. What was strange was that he’d waited so long to act on this particular idea, or that he was asking for your help. It was almost like- Oh. “Tell me you’re not planning to test this on our unsuspecting friends at the barbecue.”

Bucky shrugged, the glint back in his eyes. “Tell me it wouldn’t feel real good to nail Wilson with a purple-paint-filled balloon.”

“You’re such a troublemaker, Barnes,” you muttered, no real heat behind your words. “Bet you already have everything for it, too, don’t you?”

“It’ll be good for us. Stress relief, you know? It’s better than cornhole, anyway.” When you didn’t answer, he began rubbing his hands over your sides. His voice softened, dropping a little deeper too. “Baby, I promise I’ll love you forever if you do this with me.”

You let out a snort and raised your left hand, wiggling the twin rings on your finger in his face. “You’re pretty much contractually obligated to love me forever.”

He beamed, grabbing your hand and placing a kiss above the rings. “You bet your cute little ass I am.” When you dropped your hand, he dropped the smile, becoming very serious. He tapped a finger on his chin. “I’ll... be your best friend?”

“Oh, I am so telling Steve you said that.”

You were fast enough off the bed not to get caught, breaking his light hold on your hips. However, you’d barely brushed the doorframe when he grabbed you around the middle. He hauled you back in the room and crowded you into the wall, bracketing his hands on either side of your head.

“Don’t be a brat, doll,” he said, breath tickling your neck as he spoke and making you shudder. He kissed a line down to the spot where your neck met your shoulder. “Please help me ambush our friends?” Placing another open-mouthed kiss to your skin, you could feel his grin as you squirmed. “It’ll be fun.”

His metal hand made its way under your shirt, and the cold shock of it was enough to break the spell. Bringing your hands up to cup his face, you raised his head. “James Buchanan Barnes! Are you really trying to seduce me to get your way? Over paint balloons?”

“Is it working?” He turned to kiss your palm and the frown you were struggling to maintain collapsed. His grin widened and he kissed your other hand, bringing his own up to lace your fingers together and drag his lips over the inside of your wrist.

“It always works, baby,” you sighed. Head dropping back against the wall, you had enough presence of mind to put a hand up to his chest. “I have one condition, though.”

Bucky pulled away from you and dropped your hands, leaving them linked together so he could rub circles into your skin with his thumb. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

“Washable paint.” He started to protest but you repeated yourself more forcefully. “Since they won’t know it’s coming, they’re gonna wear clothes they actually like, Buck. You don’t have to tell them it’s washable until after if you want to see them freak out that bad.” He frowned but nodded, conceding that it was a good point. “You got yourself a partner-in-crime, darling.”

He made a fist with his free hand and pumped it into the air, grin wide and boyish. The accompanying kiss he went in for made your brain short-circuit with sparks that traveled all the way through your fingers and toes. You let go of his hands to run yours over his bare chest, stopping to feel the steady pace of his heart. Bucky wasted no time in picking up where the two of you had left off before his shower, nipping at your lips until you opened for him.

“Sugar, I don’t have it in me to keep it up with the teasing,” he groaned, tearing himself away from your lips to take in some much-needed air.

You mouthed at the underside of his jaw. “So don’t, baby. Let’s get to the lovin’,” you murmured into his neck. Putting your hands on his chest, you walked him back until his knees hit the bed and pushed. He stared up at you with an intensity that promised to wreck you and you shivered. You grabbed the hem of your shirt as if to pull it off, but stopped. “Oh wait, not before I tell Stevie-boy about the change in your relationship.”

This time you were too quick out the door, giggles echoing down the hall as he let out a string of curses and bolted after you.

Five hours, a covert trip to a craft store to switch out the paint, and three YouTube videos later, you and Bucky stood over two seventeen-gallon tubs overflowing with water balloons. He’d gone for the opaquest ones he could find, and they did a pretty good job of hiding the fact that they were filled with paint. By the time anyone else got close enough, they’d already know what was inside anyway.

“This is definitely enough for everyone,” you said, though you didn’t sound very certain. You threaded your fingers into the skirt of your sundress, a nervous habit.

“Doll, there are like three-hundred and fifty water balloons in there,” he said, winding an arm around your waist. He kissed the side of your head, lingering there so that his breath tickled the shell of your ear. “Besides, doesn’t matter if they have enough. Just so long as I have enough.” He studied the tubs again. “We should add a couple more.”

You laughed at that, pulling him away from the buckets and shutting the door to the storage closet you’d hidden them in. “Too late, Barnes. You’ll have to make do,” you said.

Most of the team was already outside, spread out across picnic tables or standing around the grill that Sam was manning. Speakers were set up to play in the background, the music chosen by whoever complained loud enough about the previous song. The cornhole boards were already out, Wanda teaching Vision how to play against Natasha and Tony. Clint and Laura watched their kids hop around in a bouncy castle; the former being persuaded to climb in as well.

Steve was the first to notice the two of you, coming over to hand each of you a beer. You accepted yours gratefully. “So, no hard feelings about your demotion, right Steve? I’m sure if you ask real nice, he’ll still be on your cornhole team.”

“Listen, trouble, don’t start,” Bucky said, poking his elbow into your ribs. “Or I’ll make sure to forget to tell Sam you want cheese on your burger.”

“There’s no one else I’d rather give up the title to,” Steve said, cutting off your less-than-elegant squawk of indignation at your husband. He leaned in close, like he was going to tell you a secret. “Besides, he’s not that great at cornhole. Me and Sam are the real dream team.”

“Punk,” Bucky muttered.

“Jerk,” Steve countered. The two of them knocked the necks of their beers together and drank.

You pressed a kiss to Bucky’s cheek and promised to find him later, moving away to sidle up to Natasha. She wrapped her arm around your shoulder and you put one around her waist, watching Tony take his turn tossing the bean bags. “I thought you weren’t getting back until tomorrow,” you said.

Nat huffed out a breath and rolled her eyes. “Mission was a cakewalk. It was almost not even worth going.”

“Better a waste of time than a mission gone sideways,” you murmured, holding her a little closer. The two of you had been fast friends when you first joined the team, and were inseparable now. You were often paired up on missions together, but because of an injury, you’d been sidelined for a while. Watching her go off on her own, while you knew she could handle herself, had still worried you.

“I hear that,” she said. She nodded toward the game going on in front of them. “You wanna get in on this next round? Show ‘em how it’s done?”

You smiled and bumped your hip against hers. “Of course! Steve over there is already getting big in his britches. Left poor Buck in the dust, saying him and Sam are some kind of dream team.”

She leaned back in mock horror. “Now we have to play together! Your man’s honor is at stake,” she teased. You laughed and looked over to where your husband was standing with Sam and Steve, each holding a beer and listening to some story Sam was telling. Bucky caught your eye and winked, tipping the beer towards you, and you stuck your tongue out at him.

Later, after you had - true to your word - kicked everyone else’s butts at cornhole, Bucky pulled you down into his lap at one of the picnic tables. You were full of chicken and hamburgers, high on the adrenaline of chasing around Clint’s kids. Leaning your head back against his shoulder, you let out a breath and rested your hands overtop his around your waist. “How’re you doing, Buck?” you asked.

“Good,” he said, and you could hear the smile in his voice. He held you a little tighter, turning his head to lean against the side of yours. “I like being like this, like watching you like this.”

“It is nice, reminds me why we do what we do.” Bucky pressed a kiss to your bare shoulder and the two of you fell quiet for a moment, content to watch the rest of the team run around with each other on the grass. You tilted your head back to catch his eyes. “Think it’s time?”

At his nod, you climbed out of his lap and wove your fingers through his, leading him away from the party. Someone, maybe Sam or Clint, wolf-whistled.

Stepping back inside, your vision crackled yellow-black as it adjusted to the low lights. “They think we came in here to get frisky,” you said, moving towards the closet. Using the key Bucky swiped off a maintenance cart, you opened the door and started to drag the first of the two tubs out. The balloons wobbled, but thankfully stayed inside and intact.

Bucky snagged you around the middle and pulled you back against his unyielding chest. “It’s not a bad idea,” he murmured, hot against your ear. "Have I told you how much I like this dress?"

You straightened up and admonished him, “Focus, Barnes.” You gave his arm a swat for good measure as he released you.

“Yes ma’am,” he said glumly, giving you a two-finger salute as he went in for the other bucket.

“I’m kind of excited to see how this turns out,” you said, staring down at the balloons. “I’ll take one, you take the other? We should spread them apart.”

Bucky nodded, and grabbed the plastic handles on one of the tubs. “Let’s get to work.”

Everyone was otherwise occupied when you and Bucky trudged out, dragging the tubs towards opposite ends of the party area. You locked eyes with Bruce, who was watching the newest game of cornhole. His gaze wandered down to the balloons before snapping back up to meet yours, and you brought a finger up to your lips.

You hadn’t garnered any more attention on your trek, and came to the spot you’d chosen pretty much unnoticed. A glance across the field showed Bucky was in the same situation. He was currently tossing a red balloon up in the air, catching it in his flesh hand. He smirked as you picked up your own balloon.

“I just want to say,” you called, loud enough to be heard over the music and the games. Slowly, the team paused whatever they were doing to look between you and Bucky. Most of them thought they had some idea what was going on, if their smiles were anything to go by. It made you want to laugh; they had no idea what was about to happen. “No one freak out; it’s washable.”

The confusion had barely given way to concern when Bucky let the first balloon fly, sailing through the air to nail Sam in the chest. Bright yellow paint exploded, covering the front of his shirt and some of Nat’s dress.

Yours hit Clint nearer to his shoulder, sending his children running away with giggle-shrieks. He wiped at the purple paint on his face, smearing lines across his forehead and cheek. When he looked back at you, the grin on his face sent your heart up to your throat. You had enough time to scoop up an armful of balloons for yourself before he was rampaging across the field towards the bucket.

The answer, in short, to what happens when you give water balloons filled with paint to some of the best sharpshooters and assassins and heroes in the world, is utter chaos. Pepper begged off participating pretty early on, but a well-placed balloon full of orange paint - which may or may not have been thrown by Happy, no one can prove anything - and she was hurling ammo with the best of them. Laura spent more time helping the kids than doing any actual throwing herself. Clint scooped a toddling Nathaniel into his arms and the rest of the team was gracious enough to stand still while Clint helped him toss. Bucky, who had seen Lord of the Rings a few days ago, had started a competition with Tony over who could hit more people, loudly calling out his ever-increasing number. To the surprise of pretty much everyone, Steve came out with the most hits. It would have been Clint, if he were kidless. You kind of suspected he’d done that on purpose.

The lawn was a slippery, rainbow mess by the time the last balloon broke against the back of Bucky’s thigh. Everyone’s clothes were ruined, temporarily, but at least there was laughter. Hard-breathing that came from something harmless, not a single worry for anything other than getting paint in the eye or accidentally hitting Lila and Cooper with a balloon meant for a supersoldier.

“There’s gonna be paint between the plates of my arm for a week,” Bucky griped, falling onto the bench next to you. There was a rag in his hand which he used to wipe at his face. When it was clean, he took your chin in his free hand and started passing the rag over your cheeks.

You spared a glance down towards the multicolor mess of his arm, wet blue sliding down semi-dry orange. “Yeah, I was thinking about that earlier,” you said.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked, letting the rag slap lightly against the side of your head. You wrinkled your nose and laughed.

“If I had, you’d have called me a party-pooper and ignored me!” You raised an eyebrow when he went to protest, and he had the good sense to close his mouth again. Taking the rag from him, you set it down on the picnic table and cupped his face with your hands. “Besides, think of all the showers we can take together under the pretense of cleaning your arm.”

Bucky covered your hands with his and pulled them down into his lap. When he leaned forward to press his lips against yours, you were left breathless by the emotion he poured into the kiss, twisting the wedding band around your finger idly.

“I love you, Mrs. Barnes,” he breathed.

“I love you too, Mr. Barnes.”

#star’s multi fandom follower celebration #bucky barnes fic #marvel fanfic #bucky x reader #bucky x female reader #my writing #bucky barnes fluff #reader insert #marvel fluff #marvel fic

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whatarubberchicken · 6 years

Text

Marichat May 25

(What do you mean, it’s January? Fine, we’ll just call these the “lost episodes.” Enjoy some Marichat!)

Chat Noir Merch

“Princess! Princess! Look at what I found!!” Chat exclaimed, bouncing down to her room, his arms full of bags.

Marinette sighed. “Why do you keep calling me that, Chat?” she asked. “I’m not a princess; my family isn’t even rich! I’m just a baker’s daughter!”

You. Are. Not!” Chat said, sounding scandalized. “You are the best baker’s daughter, which makes you Baking Royalty here in Paris. Nay, all of France!” he declared, making grand sweeping motions.

Marinette shook her head, unable to stop smiling at his antics.

“And,” he added, putting his bags down and starting to dig through them. “You live at the top of a tower, complete with balcony. Therefore: princess.”

Well, who could argue with that logic?

“And!” he added again, holding up a finger before she could stop him, “We met when an evil villain fell in love with you and I had to save you from his evil clutches.”

Uh huh. Like she hadn’t pretty much saved herself that night…. Marinette rolled her eyes.

“And look at this! Now you can wear your gallant knight’s colors!” he said proudly, taking a shirt out of the bag.

She burst out laughing. It was a black, oversized shirt with neon-green letters that proudly proclaimed: LITTER-ALLY PURR-FECT.

And he had more. Bags of them. Some even had his picture on them, while they said things like: HISS-TERICAL CAT-TITUDE and FELINE FINE.

“Oh my God, Chat,” Marinette said, shaking with laughter. “I know you didn’t raid that little boot-legger’s stand who started selling superhero merchandise!!”

“I bought one of everything that was good!” he said, nodding eagerly while sporting some cat-themed sunglasses. “Look! Look! Now I have six ears!!” He tapped his human ears, the cat ears on his head, and then the two tiny points on the sunglasses shaped like cat ears.

Marinette giggled. Then she finally got up. She had to see what else was in those bags. Each new item had her laughing. T-shirts, plushies, action figures— Her eyes fell on the biggest bag and she reached for it.

“A body pillow? Really, Chat?” she said, raising an eyebrow at Ladybug’s face spread all over said pillow.

He quickly snatched it away from her. “It’s for cuddling!” he insisted, shoving it back in the bag and refusing to look at her. “I don’t know what your lecherous teenage mind is thinking about!”

Marinette giggled. She was so teasing him for that later! But she was already digging for more.

“Boxers!” she exclaimed, holding them away from herself with two fingers. Chat quickly snatched them, a flush spreading over his face when he realized she’d already seen the Ladybug spots all over them.

He bit his lip and tried to laugh it off. “I got some for you too!” he said hopefully, holding up another pair, this time with Chat Noir paws on it.

She couldn’t breathe anymore, she was laughing so hard. “I’m not—wearing those!” she wheezed.

“You sure? They’re really soft!” he teased, pushing the shorts closer and closer to her face.

“Get it away!” she howled, grabbing a smaller pillow from the bags and whacking him upside the head with it. Belatedly, she realized it was a Chat Noir-themed pillow, so she had essentially just—

“Did you just hit me with my own face?!”

“Maybe,” she said in a small voice, curling into a defensive position and giving him a challenging grin. He grinned back and dug around in another bag, producing his own little pillow, this time with Ladybug’s face on it.

“You may disrespect me,” he declared. “But not even you can take on… MY LADY! HYAH!!!” He sprang at her, attacking her with the pillow. She wheezed with laughter, trying to defend herself with the tiny Chat Noir pillow, and gave as good as she got.

Suddenly, both pillows exploded into a cloud of feathers. She and Chat stared dumbly at each other for a moment.

“Geez, what cheap pieces of—ACHOO!!” Chat said, raising his hand to his face in an effort not to breathe the feathers. Too late, though. His eyes were already watering. “ACHOO!! ACHOO!!” He backed away, but his sneezing was obviously only getting worse.

“Get downstairs,” Marinette ordered, taking control of the situation as usual. “Ask my mom for some antihistamines or something, and stay down there until I say it’s clear.”

“But, princess—”

“Go! I’ll clean this up!”

Chat opened his mouth to argue, but was seized by another sneezing fit. Shooting her a look of regret, he pulled up the trapdoor and fled downstairs.

She shook her head as she cleaned up the mess of feathers (ugh, these were so cheap and—eew, they stuck everywhere!! What the heck? Were they super old or something?). She was going to have to take these pillows and re-stuff them with cotton fluff or poly-fil. That stupid vendor had probably prattled on about how they were stuffed with high-quality down, and Chat hadn’t even thought twice.

Her silly cat, she thought fondly, gathering up the excessive merchandise. It hadn’t escaped her notice; he had twice as much Ladybug stuff as his own. Ah, well. Who was she to judge somebody for having a crush? She thought, glancing at her photos of Adrien. An idea struck her, and she finished cleaning up with a light heart.

Chat was nursing a cup of tea and her mom was just leaving when Marinette finally came downstairs.

“Hello, dear,” Sabine waved. “I need to go check on your father downstairs. You two don’t have too much fun now!” Marinette shook her head at her mother and turned back to Chat.

“I am so sorry!” he said immediately, before she could even open her mouth. Marinette giggled.

“It’s fine, Chat Noir,” she assured him. “But no more going to cheap tourist vendors, ok? If you wanted Chat Noir and Ladybug dolls, I could’ve made you some myself.”

“You mean, like the ones Puppeteer got a hold of?” he asked slowly.

Marinette blinked. “Yeah. Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories—”

“No!” he said quickly, eyes wide. “I would love a pair of those dolls! Umm… if it’s not too much trouble…?”

“Not at all. And I’ll remember your feather allergy and stuff them with something else,” she teased.

He laughed awkwardly. Then frowned. “Wait. How did you know I had a feather allergy?”

Marinette felt the color drain from her face. “Uhhh—the Ladyblog! That Alya! She posts everything!” she said, trying to laugh it off.

“Right….”

Chat still looked thoughtful, so she decided to distract him.

“However, I do require payment for my services!” she said. He looked at her, surprised.

“Yeah, of course—”

“You have to take a picture with me!”

“Huh?” Now the superhero looked dumbfounded.

“For my wall,” she explained. “I have pictures of all my friends on my wall, so I need a picture with you.”

“Really?!”

Was it just her, or were his eyes going misty?

“Yeah. C’mon, let’s take it on my balcony, so we can get a backdrop of Paris at night!” she said, grabbing his hand.

Marinette swore she heard him sniffle before he eagerly followed her upstairs. She had no idea what had him so upset, so she decided to try to lighten the mood by teasing him some more while they were passing through her bedroom.

“You know,” she drawled, reaching for the bag with the Ladybug body pillow, “you could take a picture with this, and it’ll be just like—”

“Knock it off!” he pouted, a smile tugging on his lips. He turned away from her in a huff, and caught sight of her walls. She felt a chill go through her when he turned back towards her. His grin was positively wicked. “Pictures of all your friends, huh?” he said slowly.

Uh oh. She could see where this was going.

“Well, this Adrien Agreste must be a really good friend,” Chat teased, waggling his eyebrows at her.

“Stop it!” she said, that particular phrase reminding her of Adrien’s continued obliviousness. Of course, that was partially her fault, for not being able to talk to him….

“Ok, truce,” she said. “You don’t tease me about my crush and I won’t tease you about yours. Deal?”

Chat blinked at her in shock. “Crush?!” he repeated.

“Yes, kitty. Crush. The one you confessed to me awhile ago, remember? The giant monster ice cream man?” she said, rolling her eyes. “Well, you: Ladybug. Me: Adrien.”

His eyes were now as round as saucers.

“Oh. OH,” he said, as the concept finally seemed to penetrate his head. He stared at her in disbelief. “But you—”

“And you can’t tell anyone!” she demanded. “Swear to it. Both of us! We’ll keep this secret ‘til the end!” She stuck out her hand. Still staring at her in a daze, he shook it, sealing their bargain.

“Now, let’s go take this picture!” Marinette said, heading up to the balcony. Hopefully, if she had a few pictures of him on her walls, Chat Noir wouldn’t tease her too much about Adrien.

She didn’t notice his thoughtful gaze after her.

...WaRC

#marichat may 2018 #marichat may #marichat #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #chat noir merch #i am so late it's not even funny #but better late than never #right?

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xcrustyshiggs · 6 years

Text

Kittens and Uncle Kook(ie)

pairing: jeon jungkook (bunnyboy) x reader (lynx) x reader’s nephew & niece (lynx)

genre: shifter au, major fluff, established relationship, soft!jk bfmaterial!jk, daddymaterial!jk (not the kinky kind, pervs ;))

words: 2379

summary: Y/N’s nephew and niece are sleeping over for the weekend - hence “Uncle Kookie” is born.

Part of my Bunny Boy Series: Drunk Confession, Lovesick Bunny Boy, Kittens and Uncle Kookie

masterlist

A/N: While I wrote this today, I’ve been sitting on the parents-meeting scenario for over a week now. Q_Q

It was a Wednesday evening when you and your sister had finally time to catch up with each other over the phone. After graduating college when you moved out of your home and out of your hometown to work at another city, it had been hard for you two to meet each other, or even talk to each other.

Not only are you at work from morning until late in the evening, but also is your sister a busy career-woman, housewife and mother:

Besides dealing with a part of your family’s business with her husband Patrik, she also had to take care of her own little family.

Her and her husband, who happens to be a lynx shifter as well, had blessed your family with two little children or kittens:

An 8-year-old shy-boy called Dorian and a 3-year-old energetic girl called Vivienne.

You love them dearly – always feeling the urge to keep an eye on them to protect them from this filthy and toxic world but the moment you moved away, it was impossible to do that.

Now trying to see them in person is hard enough as you only manage to visit your family once every month at best – Work and life keeping you busy at all times.

So, when your sister told you that her and your brother-in-law haven’t had a time for themselves in a long time due to your parents currently jet setting around the world to secure a huge business deal and hence, not being able to take care of those two little ones, you immediately suggested to look after them the upcoming weekend.

“Really, Y/N? You would do that?”, your sister exclaimed. “Of course, S/N. I haven’t seen Dori and Vivi for two months already due to work… And you and Pat are in need of some important hubby and wife time.”

“Thank you, Thank you, Y/N. We both really need a quick time-out. Work has been crazy… I will tell Dori and Vivi tomorrow about it. They are going to be so excited since they have been dying to spend some time with their favourite auntie.”

Afterwards you and her talked about mundane things until she brought up Jungkook. “So, how are you guys doing?”

“Like always, busy with work. Especially Kook… After he got promoted and became the head of his department, he seems quite stressed…”

Your sister was the only one in your family who knew about Jungkook.

She had met him accidentally, when she visited you on a Friday evening after securing a business deal in your city without telling you – she thought, she had but her mommy brain played a trick on her.

In the end, not only was your boyfriend surprised, when he saw a middle-aged woman dressed in an expensive business suit at the door instead of a delivery guy but also was your sister.

She expected you, her younger sister, opening the door with messy hair in your favourite pink hello kitty pyjamas and definitely not a tall, handsome black-haired male wearing a white t-shirt and grey sweatpants.

So, after an awkward introductory session, your sister and Jungkook quickly warmed up to each other with beer and fried chicken (vegan version with tofu for your boyfriend)

That night you were glad that your sister treated him kindly – not like you expected anything different, but it still made you and in particular Jungkook happy that one family member of yours doesn’t give a damn about his race at all.

Saturday has finally arrived.

Jungkook and you are currently sitting at your dinner table, eating breakfast while talking about your previous work week, when you hear a loud familiar voice screeching through the apartment hallway.

“Babe, they are here.”, you excitedly exclaim. “A-Already… Oh god, I’m nervous. I have never looked after kids before.” His doe-eyes quivering, while doubts and worries are already polluting his mind.

“Don’t worry, Kook. Like I told you before Dori is easy to handle, but Vivi… She’s a bit wild but I know you will do amazing, Babe.”

Before you can give him any more encouraging words, your doorbell is already ringing.

“I’m coming, guys.” You quickly walk over to your door.

The moment you unlock the door and open it, you are jumped by a tiny lynx which you immediately recognize as your niece. Even though her sneak attack surprises you a little bit, you are able to catch her quickly enough and secure in your arms before you are stroking her head as well as caressing her pointed ears.

“Hello Auntie.”, your nephew Dori gives you a small wave. “Vivi was so excited to see you that she shifted.” He points at the goldish lynx kitten in your arms, who is currently giving purring sounds while also snuggling into your chest.

As you can’t seem to see or sense your sister and brother in-law you question your nephew, while helping him with your free hand in taking off his backpack and jacket “Where are your parents, Dori?”

“They should be here soon. When we went into the building Dad remembered to bring our suitcases and Mom decided to help him. You and your nephew giggle at their forgetfulness, when suddenly your now-human niece sees something or rather someone behind her.

“Who’s that auntie?” The curious girl points at your boyfriend who’s currently standing helplessly in the hallway.

“Oh, I nearly forgot.”, You sheepishly smile at your boyfriend, who in return winks at you.

“There’s someone I would like to introduce to you.”, you utter before you get interrupted by two adults who are seemingly out of breath.

“Oh god, why is your elevator broken, when we have to carry these two big suitcases up to the fourth floor.”, your sister grumbles tiredly.

“Oh god, they are just gone for two days. Honey, what did you pack?”, your brother-in-law looks at his wife confused.

“Perfect Timing, you two. I was just about to introduce them to Kook. And since you haven’t met him yet, Pat. You are happy to join our introductory session.” Your sister and brother-in-law immediately straighten up and walk over to you.

“So that’s Jungkook, my boyfriend.” You point at the flustered male in front of you five, who cracks a small smile.

“That is my family. The little fluffball in my arms is Vivienne, this short-guy with the Minecraft shirt is Dorian and that’s my brother-in-law Patrik”

While your nephew feels slightly annoyed by you calling him short, he still greets your boyfriend but Vivi.. she seems too shy to greet him yet, so she decides on just watching Jungkook’s every move – a well-known habit of feline shifters, when something or someone catches their eyes.

“…and this old hag, you’ve already met”, you say in a jokingly manner, making everyone laugh at your childish remark.

“Hey, you are lucky, you are currently holding my baby or I would have kicked your bum already.”, your sister sends you a light-hearted glare, kicking the air for demonstration purposes, earning her a round of laughter for her ridiculousness.

“Hello, nice to meet you all.” Jungkook greets your family before he slowly approaches them, waving at the kids followed by a handshake with your brother-in-law before getting hugged by your sister.

A few minutes later the married couple has already bid their goodbyes, wishing you four a fun day as well as giving their children a kiss before they vanished.

“Mhm, your parents are gone now. What do you both feel like doing?” You look at your nephew and niece who’s now standing on the floor instead of being held by you. You only get a response from your nephew, who just shrugs, while your niece has her eyes still trained on Jungkook, who seems to now realize that he has a sharp little observer.

He gives you a confused look, but you decide to respond to him by imitating the shrug off your nephew before you decide to let your boyfriend deal with her alone – mouthing the words “bonding time”.

“Dori, would you like to help me bring the suitcases and your both’s backpacks into the guestroom?... We should also unpack them. “Yes, of course, Auntie.”, the tiny-man agrees before you both leave the odd pair, your unusual quiet niece and your helpless boyfriend alone in the living room.

You know, your niece will warm up, when you aren’t around to baby her. She has always been pretty independent but will use every opportunity to get pampered. Smart and cunning – the definition of a lynx.

After half an hour of you and your nephew unpacking his and his little sister’s suitcase as well as him telling you about school and his favourite game Minecraft. You slightly wonder, what your boyfriend and your niece have been doing since you can’t hear make out any speficic noises.

Hence, why you decide to check up on them quickly, suggesting your nephew to come with you. But Dori declines as he has just discovered his Nintendo Switch in his suitcase and now is s already laying on the bed busy playing with the device.

The moment you step into the living room, you hear soft giggles coming from the kitchen. What you see there is such a heart-rendering scene:

Jungkook happily pretending the yoghurt he’s feeding the 3-year-old-girl on a spoon, is an airplane making her giggle as a result, especially whenever she closes her mouth for a second before opening up, so the young-male can feed her.

“Hey, you two. Having fun?”, you ask them softly. Jungkook’s eyes widen, when he hears your voice, slightly embarrassed by his silly actions. “Oh, hey Babe. Vivi was hungry, so I decided to feed her some yoghurt.” A small whine interrupts your two’s conversation. “Uncle, Uncle Kookie. Don’t stop. Vivi is still hungry.” The little girl points at her belly and then at her mouth. “Sorry, Vivi.”, Jungkook he gives you a quick apologetic glance before continuing his silly actions.

You decide that they are fine without you, so you go back to the guestroom where your nephew is to finish unpacking. Your sister had really packed too much stuff. There were at least four board games, two barbies, two video games and 2 stuffed animals in the two suitcases.

“Finally, done.”, you exclaim before you look at your nephew, who’s still playing with his Nintendo Switch “Dori, are you hungry?” Dori quickly puts his device away and nods. “Then let’s go into the kitchen an get you something to eat and might as well see what Vivi and Jungkook are up to.”

When you both enter the living room, you see your boyfriend hiding behind a door, telling you to not give him away the moment your eyes meet each other, whilst your little niece roams around your apartment trying to find the said-male. (Even though your niece is a lynx shifter, her senses weren’t that developed yet to smell Jungkook’s scent) Your nephew snickers at the hilarious scene before trotting to the kitchen with you following behind him.

As you and your nephew sit down on the dinner table to eat a piece of fruit, you hear a loud squeal “Got you, Uncle Kookie.” followed by a deep chuckle “You are too good at this, Vivi… Let us take a quick break and then we can ask your aunt and brother to join us.”

You can hear a loud ”Yeeees, it will be soo much with Auntie and Dori!” before quick steps are already making their way to you.

Your niece immediately jumps in your lap, asking you and her brother to join them, which you both agree but only after you ate your snack.

While your niece chats with her brother, swooning over “Uncle Kookie”. A seemingly tired Jungkook plobs himself onto the chair beside you. , leaning his head onto your shoulder. “Hey, again.”, he murmurs. “Hey Uncle Kookie”, you say teasingly. Jungkook chuckles softly, slightly embarrassed by your remark and then decides to bite you as a punishment. You let out a soft whine before he leans his head onto your shoulder.

Out of habit, you stroke his hair with your free hand, feeling some sweat on his forehead. “Tired?”, you ask. Your boyfriend only hums, slowly relaxing under your palm.

After many hours of you four playing hide and seek, tag and a few board games, it is finally dinner time, so you decide to get to a nearby restaurant for food.

While you are holding your nephew’s hand, your boyfriend carries Vivi – to her request – in his arms.

Nearly all the woman you pass by swoon at the sight of your boyfriend.

While your human side feels proud for snatching up such a fine specimen, your possessive lynx side would have loved to growl at them. Of course, you don’t let your animal side take over but you can at least have those thoughts.

Yeah, I know that my boyfriend’s appearance literally screams husband material but ladies he’s mine.

You aren’t even surprised by your oblivious boyfriend, who hasn’t realized his current effect on the other gender yet.

After you all filled your stomach with lots of delicious food, you pass by a supermarket to get some ice cream as dessert.

As you stand by the ice cream section, whilst Jungkook and the two kids are at the toy section, an older woman approaches you.

“You have a cute family”, she points at the three.

“Mhm? Oh, No, no.”, you immediately wave your hands at her comment.

“They are my sister’s children but yeah the clumsy guy over there, who just nearly knocked over a shelf, is my boyfriend.”, you chuckle.

“Oh, I’m sorry, dear but you guys seemed like a really cute family.”, she apologizes looking at you before looking back at the troupe over there.

“You should hold him close, dear. He definitely is a keeper.”, she states, giving you a wink as well.

A small blush creeping on you cheeks “Yeah, definitely”. When the old lady and you look at your boyfriend’s childish antics as he runs after the two little kids with a spongebob mask on, you both start laughing

Finally, sitting in bed with your comfy pyjamas on, you are waiting for Jungkook to join you. After the eventful day all you want to do is sleep in your boyfriend’s arms.

Once you all got got home, Jungkook and Dori decided to play a little Minecraft while Vivi and you played with her dolls.

Afterwards you made them ready for bed before reading them a good-night story – you as the narrator and Jungkook as the versatile actor. Soon after your small play, they two fell asleep.

“Wow, I’m so dead, Y/N.”, Jungkook yawns, slipping under the covers. As you turn to look at your boyfriend, he has already closed his eyes.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all, Kook. You were entertaining them, especially Vivi, nearly the whole day.”

“Mhm, she’s quite an energetic toddler.”, a tired chuckle escapes the male before he’s already fast-asleep.

“Thank you, Uncle Kookie”, you whisper, giving him a kiss on his forehead before turning off the light to sleep too – since you too, got drained by those two lovely rascals.

#bts scenarios #bts hybrid au #bts fluff #bangtan boys #jeon jungkook #bts imagines #bts au #bts shifter au

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snowdice · 3 years

Text

Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 65]

Lets do a bit of this tonight. Probably won’t work on it long, but I have something to finish up.

Chapter 30

After lunch, Patton and Logan took Virgil out into the garden to walk around. They let Virgil lead them around wherever he wanted to in the garden. A bunch more flowers had died since the last time they’d been out here, and Patton felt sad despite having never felt very sad about that sort of thing before. But, Virgil seemed to really like the flower he’d found last time, so Patton thought he was probably sad on the boy’s behalf.

Of course, Patton thought, perking up, eventually it would be spring, and Virgil could get to not only see flowers but see all of the flowers grow. Patton couldn’t wait to see him amongst the garden then.

Virgil took them wandering through the orchard for a while, but most of the trees had been stripped of their fruits. They ended up in the food garden after a bit, and Virgil finally seemed to decide on the direction instead of just ambling about.

Mr. Deknis looked up as they approached and smiled at them.

“Hello, Mr. Deknis,” Patton said as they came closer.

“Hello you three,” Mr. Deknis said. “Getting into trouble?”

“No,” Virgil said, shaking his head.

Mr. Deknis gave him a flash of a smile. “I know, I’m joking,” he said. “Especially since there isn’t much left in my gardens for certain princes to destroy with experiments.”

“Oh, okay,” Virgil said. He tilted his head. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting the last of the acorn squash out,” Mr. Deknis replied. “It’s the last crop to get finished. Good thing too, it’s supposed to start snowing soon.”

Virgil looked down curiously at the dark green squash.

“Would you like to help me pick a couple?” Mr. Deknis asked.

“Sure,” Virgil said, sounding interested. Mr. Deknis patted the ground beside him and Virgil knelt down to watch him.

“They’re not too difficult to harvest,” he said. “You just cut the fruit off the stem. You want to leave about a hand’s width of the stem left over which will help preserve moisture. The earlier harvests, I left in the field to cure in the sun for a couple weeks, but the frost’ll ruin them so we’ll take them inside the green house and let them sit in the sun for a bit there. We also want to keep the leaves. You’ll probably be eating those for dinner tonight since they have to be cooked up within about 24 hours after they’re picked. Patton’s mom makes a good side dish with them and she’ll be making some curry tomorrow, probably. Maybe some stew if there are some leftover.”

“Put the squash in this wheelbarrow and the leaves into this pile, okay?” Virgil nodded and Mr. Deknis handed him the extra pair of gloves and shears he carried with him in case one set broke. “These might be a bit big on your, but they should work for now.”

Mr. Deknis looked up at Patton and Logan. “Would the two of you like to help?” he asked. “I can get some more equipment.”

“I can help out if you want, but you don’t need to stop and get more equipment just for me,” Patton said.

“The same for me,” Logan said.

“Well, if you’d like to help still, you can sort the leave. Give your mother a head start.”

“Sure,” Patton said. He and Logan went to do that while Mr. Deknis and Virgil worked on cutting the squashes from the vine.

“What do you do during the winter?” Virgil asked curiously. “If this is your last crop.”

“Seedlings?” he asked.

“I let seeds start to grow in the greenhouse that I replant once it gets warm enough.”

“Why don’t you just plant them where they’re going?”

“I do for some,” he said, “but giving some a head start is good for them.”

“Say yes if you want to Virgil,” Logan said.

“He’s exploring,” Logan said, nodding at the large patch of bushes.

Patton chuckled. “I see.” He sat next to Logan. Every so often he’d hear the bushes rustle, but he couldn’t tell if it was actually Virgil or an animal.

“He’s adorable,” Patton commented, keeping an ear out.

Logan hummed.

“I’m glad we kept him.”

“He isn’t a pet, Patton.”

“I’m going to go see what he’s doing,” Patton said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Ghost kitty!” he said, making sure to make his voice as quiet as possible.

“This is Ghost Kitty?” Virgil asked. “I thought you said she was hard to pet.”

“She is,” Patton said. He lowered himself onto the ground from a few feet away from them. “How did you get her to come to you?”

Virgil glanced down at the cat and shrugged, scratching one of her ears. “She just came over to me and let me pet her.”

“Wow,” Patton said softly. He looked at the cat. “Could I pet you sweetie?” he asked, holding out a hand in her direction. She hissed again.

Virgil frowned down at her. “It’s Patton,” he said as though he expected to understand his words and the exasperation in the tone he said them in.

He carefully turned his hand over so he could stroke the top of her head. He gently scratched her ear, not daring to go for under her chin yet since she didn’t know him well. “Hi,” he said softly. After a moment, she started to purr softly. Virgil reached over and scratched under her chin and she purred louder. “Oh, you’re a good girl,” Patton breathed, letting a hand trail gently down her back once and then again. Patton settled himself carefully into a seating position continuing to pet her. After a few more moments of soft petting, she hesitantly stepped her front paws onto Patton’s thigh so she was sitting in both of their laps. Patton laughed softly. “Hi sweetie.” He glanced over at Virgil who had a wide smile on his face as he pet the cat. This. This was adorable. They continued to pet the cat for a very long time.