#and just laughing maniacally throughout the story

[savage-rhi]

📣📣✨️BUTTERSCOTCH PIE TIME!!✨️📣📣

[fushic0re]

𝐀 𝐇𝐔𝐒𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃❜𝐒 𝐆𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐓𝐎

𝐍𝐎���𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐔𝐄𝐍𝐀

⊹ ࣪ ˖ 𝗦𝗔𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗨 𝗚𝗢𝗝𝗢, 𝗦𝗨𝗚𝗨𝗥𝗨 𝗚𝗘𝗧𝗢, 𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗢 𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗜, & 𝗧𝗢𝗝𝗜 𝗙𝗨𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗨𝗥𝗢 𝘅 𝗙𝗜𝗟𝗜𝗣𝗜𝗡𝗔!𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗𝗘𝗥

(𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧. 𝗠𝗘𝗚𝗨𝗠𝗜 𝗙𝗨𝗦𝗛𝗜𝗚𝗨𝗥𝗢, 𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗞𝗢 & 𝗠𝗜𝗠𝗜𝗞𝗢, & 𝗬𝗨𝗨𝗝𝗜)

𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟓 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝑹𝒊𝒌𝒂𝒏𝒆 𝑾𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑨𝒅𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓 ⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒 ─ so, it’s officially the night of december 24, also known as the most important day for filipinos, also known as…..the noche buena incident. time to bring your man home and see if he can survive in a houseful of nosey, all too-happy go-lucky filipinos. 

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 ─ 18+ ONLY; MINORS DNI. typical filipino family gathering things. drunk titos. lots of karaoke. slight angst. 

꒰ ͜͡➸ 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐄𝐍𝐉𝐎𝐘𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘, 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐓 𝐀 𝐑𝐄𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆! 𝐑𝐄𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒❜ 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 & 𝐁𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑! ♡

𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐔 𝐆𝐎𝐉𝐎

Gets excited for Noche Buena every year because it means he gets to be a menace. 

Christmas celebrations with the Gojo Clan are so stiff and formal. He finds them incredibly stuffy and cold, void of the warmth the holidays are associated with. 

Therefore, he clings to you and your family. It makes you feel horrible for him. 

……but like I said, he uses this as an excuse to be an absolute menace too so your sympathy only exists up until a certain extent. 

If you had it your way, you’d keep him out of the house throughout the entirety of prep day because with him around, things don’t get done as fast. 

He doesn’t just distract you, but he distracts your family and they love him so much that they’ll drop everything just to goof around with him.

That being said, Satoru absolutely survives Noche Buena. If anything, he thrives in it. 

For sure brings the majority of the desserts being served. 

He’s nailed down your family’s Buko Pandan recipe, even knowing which Gulaman to buy. He’s single handedly put someone’s mom out of a job by becoming the sole bringer of Buko Pandan to family gatherings 

Along with that, he brings a shit ton of other desserts like leche flan, puto, chocolate cake, and Kikufuku. 

Literally can blend in with EVERYONE.

He gossips with the titas then checks the SHIT out of them before he leaves to go have a beer with the titos, then makes his way to all the cousins your age, and eventually, you kinda lose him until you hear his maniac laugh from upstairs and the little cousins squealing and running. 

Lowkey spends most of the night fucking around with the kids.

You find him in someone’s room in a massive pillow fort and all the little cousins are huddled in there. 

Highkey the life of the party. 

Definitely joins the drunk titos for karaoke and eggs on their drunk antics.

By the end of the night, he’s just sleepily resting his head on your chest looking up at you with those big stupid eyes of his.

All he can do is hold onto you tightly and thank you for giving him everything…especially a real family and a chance to just be a person. 

𝐒𝐔𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐔 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐎

Of course he survives noche buena. 

Not a single person can find a flaw in him. He’s so dignified and refined that not even the fact that he took in twin girls at the age of 18 is questionable to anyone

If anything, it just makes your family, especially the elders, be like “Diyos ko. Ang selfless naman!” and boom their love for him is officially cemented into the fucking earth. Filipinos love a good charity story. 

Nanako and Mimiko are doted on literally the entire time. They’re so pretty and well-behaved, which makes everyone love Suguru even more because his kids are proof that he’s a good dad.

 That being said, everyone will be asking you when you both are gonna have a baby the entire night. 

Suguru shuts down all that talk in a nanosecond. As much as he loves your family, it’s not their business. You are his priority and he won’t stand idly and watch your bodily autonomy be pondered with as if it’s up for discussion. 

The titas never ask that question ever again. 

For sure brings some sort of meat that he spent an entire night marinating and the next day cooking like Yakiniku, lobster and steak, or prime rib. He wants to give your family the impression that he takes feeding them seriously and with high regard. 

Everyone wants a piece of his dish because his holy hands touched it. Even if he were a bad cook, no one would say anything. They would simply eat everything and praise him for contributing. 

He sticks by your side throughout the night, joining in on the conversation or simply observing you as you discuss with stupid lovesick eyes.

He’ll leave once in a while to check on Nanako and Mimiko or have some quick chit chat with the elders and the titos, but he always finds himself back at your side. 

Tries his best to not laugh whenever someone off-tune in your family is busting their ass during karaoke, but eventually, he has his head on your lap with his face red from cackling so hard.

Long story short, your family looks forward to seeing Sugurg more than you. He’s the golden child. 

𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐍𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐈

Your family finds him intimidating and standoffish in a way that borders rude, but they’re too awed by his handsomeness to even give a shit.

But he’s only a little stiff because he’s incredibly nervous. He knows how much your family means to you and wants nothing but to get along with them for your sake. 

Once he warms up, everyone gets to see the charming, sweet, and gentlemanly Kento you know and love. 

He is the PERFECT man for you according to your family…and for your other titas and cousins should things between you two not work out. 

He brings a very big and elaborate charcuterie board paired with a few bottles of wine. 

The main attraction? His homemade ube and cheese pandesal and slices of French baguette. 

Everyone gets a nosebleed watching him roll his sleeves up and slice the bread. Even your titos.

The titos love him because he can out drink him and they think he’s the epitome of a man.

If Nanamin has decided to go Papamin and bring Yuuji, he only earns more respect from your family. 

Everyone loves Yuuji because he’s a ray of sunshine who eats everything the titas and lolas put on his plate with enthusiasm. 

All you hear throughout the night is, “Ay, Yuuji! Try this one, anak. Ma sarap.” “You’re such a good boy, Yuuji.”

Similar to Suguru with Nanako and Mimiko, seeing how well-rounded Yuuji is and knowing it’s because of Kento’s influence will only earn him more respect. 

Also similar to Suguru, he sticks to your side the entire night. He’s there for you after all. 

Makes your plate for you with all of your favorite foods and the perfect amounts of everything. Even your dessert plate. 

He compliments everyone’s food politely and the next thing you know their eyes are morphing into the shape of hearts. 

If you don’t marry him, they will.

Good thing he’s already planned that step. 

𝐓𝐎𝐉𝐈 𝐅𝐔𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐆𝐔𝐑𝐎

….Can’t even lie to you, everyone thinks he’s a felon at first. 

How the hell did he get that scar? He’s a single dad? Anak, that’s not good! He comes with baggage! 

Toji is immediately suspicious to everyone. 

But they quickly learn not to judge a book by its cover.

Their lesson? Megumi. 

Your family witnesses firsthand how mature and intelligent Megumi is and they’re like…no..he couldn’t possibly–

YEA. THAT BOY WAS RAISED BY THAT SCARY MAN. 

They start opening their minds up to Toji and suddenly all the signs appear. 

The way he looks at you? The way his touch is always soft? The way he hovers over you protectively like he’s about to catch a bullet for you at at moment? The way he tells your family that he named Megumi his name because Megumi is his blessing? 

Toji is just a family man who has had a rough life. He loves you.

And that’s all your family can ask for; a family man who loves you. 

At some point your mom can’t handle the whispers anymore and while you three are off making your rounds to everyone, your mom gives them some context–his wife died, and he raised Megumi by himself. 

Boom. Sympathy points secured. 

Although no one will admit that they’ve misjudged him or directly apologize for doing so because of pride, they all go home with heavy hearts that night. 

Toji though? He doesn’t give a shit. He knows what it’s like to cut off “family”. He’s already detached himself from all of those who judged. It’s you he proves himself to, not them. 

He takes it in stride, not ruffling any feathers. He knows all it takes is one look from him for everyone to shit their pants anyway.

In true dilf fashion, he brings Filipino-style barbeque chicken and a beer. 

Suddenly the titos are besties with him and he’s one of the guys. 

He eventually congregates with them when a boxing match comes on. Megumi sticks by your side like the best boy and gets cooed at while he eats. 

Toji periodically comes back to embarrass Megumi.

This man literally picks him up and holds him in the air while cooing to him like he isn’t a whole teenager. 

That wins over everyone officially. 

He’s just a dad a man trying to be a good husband now that he has a second chance. 

© all rights reserved to fushic0re ─ do not repost, translate, copy, or plagiarize my work in any form.

[bl4cktourmaline]

Okey!!:3 so blade x male reader who Invited him to a haunted house for fun and reader actually got scared and like uhh blade becomes his bodyguard:3 very cliche but I don't care:33

🎋 . 鳥居 — blade

✿ — ♬ ⌨️ᶻᶻᶻ : yue is typing... ✉!

✿ — ↻ SYNOPSIS : when your plan to get a reaction out of the quiet man end up backfiring you...

✿ — ♯ GENRE : fluff, male reader

✿ — ↠ NOTE : pyon-yahoo~!! This is my first attempt at blade's character so not 100% confident about this one for a while ahhh but I still hope you like it anopyon so thank you for the request and enjoy~!!

✿ — ♪ REMINDER : reblogs & likes are appreciated, in doing so will motivate us to continue delivering stories to you, thank you for all of your supports ~ !

✿ — ► ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : going to a haunted house with blade...

✿ You, a young man first met Blade during your travels in the Luofu and when you found out that he was a wanted man, you honestly didn't care because...you were just fascinated by his mere existence as a whole.

✿ He is a man of few words but he doesn't really ignore or push you away which is why a man like you can't really stay away because you were slowly getting attached to him, the more time you always seek to be in his presence to the point that the other members of the stellaron hunters end up knowing your name.

✿ When you invited Blade to investigate an old house that was rumoured to be haunted, you honestly expecting him to say no but surprisingly, he agreed to it.

✿ You only took the job because you think it's would be interesting and fun to go with someone like Blade just to get a reaction out of him, not like ghosts exist anyways right?

Oh, how wrong you were.

RUMBLE...RUMBLE...RUMBLE...!

"It's raining..." Blade mumbled, sounding husky and quiet before turning his eyes on the young man next to him, looking very pale in the face "...You alright?"

"H-Huh?" You flinched, holding onto his sleeve while putting on a brave face "Y-Yeah! I'm fine, no worries here haha-"

CREAK...!

"HEHEHEHE!! "

A single eye appeared in the dark, wild, unhinged laughter breaking the silence unexpectedly as it filled the room with its unsettling sound.

"AHHHH!!!!" Screaming, you wrapped yourself around the taller male's arm with tears gathered up at the corner of your eyes.

As you were freaking out, Blade just watched a small figure falling onto the ground, slowly rolling over before stopping at his feet.

"It's just a broken doll" He stated with a blank expression.

"A broken doll don't laugh like a maniac normally!?!" You shouted, practically shaking uncontrollably. "L-Let's just move on...uhhh I-I don't want to stay here any longer!"

"Alright..." Blade let the shorter man dragged him through the empty hallway.

PATTER! PATTER! PATTER!

You could hear the sound of your footsteps echoing throughout the dark hallways and whenever you got close to a room, high-pitched piercing cries could be heard from the other side of the door which never failed to spook you more.

"Why did I even agree to this?!" Hands on your head, scratching and pulling out of frustration.

a blue flame appears above the chandelier, giggling mischievously as its watches you freaking out down below...

SNAP!

"Huh, what was that sound-WOAH!!"

A loud crash occurs, breaking the wooden floor, leaving behind a big hole.

You turn pale at the sight, that thing could have easily killed you!

"I...uhh thank you for saving me-" You cut yourself off when your eyes meet his.

Before you could even register what happened earlier, somehow his arms were around your waist as you were being pressed against his own, warm breathes hitting your ear and if you listen carefully...you might hear your own heartbeat. He was so close .

"You should be more careful on where you're going next time" Blade said in a stern tone but his eyes have a soft look to them...

"I-I will..." Pink hues spread across the young man's cheeks, hands clenched on his clothes tightly.

... maybe going to a haunted house wasn't so bad after all.

[mirage-aera]

HI! I’m new to requesting so I’m sorry if this sounds weird

Could you do sodo with an s/o who’s all cutesy and soft? Like they look like complete opposites yet they’re inseparable and everyone around them is so confused on how this even happened lmfao

Pure fluff though!

Thanks!<3

Anon I realise I am so so late with your request I’m sorry about that, I truly am. If you’re still waiting for it then sorry for the wait but here it is, happy (early) new year folks!

•°. *࿐ Opposites attract

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ : Cheri Cheri Lady - Modern Talking

Sodo x fem!ghoulette!Reader

Synopsis: The fellow ghouls and ghoulettes have come to realise why you and Sodo fit so well together even though you’re opposites.

Word count: 992

Masterlist

Whenever fellow ghouls and ghoulettes see the two of you together, a certain question pops up in their minds. How the actual fuck are you two a couple? Sodo… is well Sodo. Grumpy, sometimes a bit mean, doesn’t give a flying fuck, and on top of that has a short temper. And then you have you, a gentle soul, always smiling, and willing to set aside your own needs to tend to others’ needs. There have been multiple occasions where they have approached you to ask how you even ended up with Sodo and tolerated his fiery personality. You would always wave them off and laugh, telling them it’s a story for another time.

Currently Swiss is pissing off Sodo. He’s already curing a headache and Swiss’ teasing is not helping. “Come on man! Tell us already! It’s been at least a year since you’ve hooked up-” Sodo glares at him and interrupts him, “not hooking up. We are dating, there’s a difference.” Swiss laughs, “fine. It’s been at least a year since you started dating and we still don’t know how that happened. Can’t you tell us by now?” Sodo can feel his patience, which is already quite small, slipping. He closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Swiss I swear on Satan, drop it. I’m not in the mood for your questions.” Rain chuckles, “he does have a point Sodo. It has been a year and you still haven’t told us.” Sodo sighs, done with this conversation. “If you’re so curious why don’t you ask (Y/n)? I’m sure she would love to tell you.” He says curtly. This time Phantom cuts in, “we have tried! She won’t tell us either! Saying it’ll be a story for a later time.” Sodo groans, wishing they’d just drop it. “Guys really. Shut up. I’ll tell you next time.” Mountain raises an eyebrow, “and when is next time?” Sodo feels every fiber in his being snap. He stands up abruptly and waves his arms around angrily, “JUST SHUT UP!” He laughs a bit maniacally, “I’m going to kill the next fucking person I see. I swear to Satan!” The room turns silent after his outburst. They stare at him with wide eyes. They didn’t think he’d snap like this at them, yet again it’s Sodo. He has a lot of anger in him. He opens his mouth to insult them some more when suddenly an all-familiar voice rings throughout the room.

“Hi!! Hello Sodo! I’m so happy to see you! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” His whole body freezes at your voice. You do sound very happy to see him. The whole room bursts into laughter as you look on with confusion and Sodo looking very sheepish. He whips around and gives you an awkward smile. “Hey! Hey, oh my Satan! Oh my Satan… what’s going on? Did you need something?” You grin at him, “yeah! I knitted you a sweater. I wanted you to try it on! See if it fits and if you like it!” He sighs but continues smiling, finding your antics cute. “Okay, come here then.” You skip happily over to him and hand it to him. You hand it over enthusiastically and he pulls it over his head. You give him a good one over, slightly checking him out in the meantime. You smile happily, “it’s perfect! Don’t you think so?” He chuckles, “yes it’s perfect, my ember.” Suddenly an impulsive thought runs through your mind.

“Wow!! I’m so happy to see you, Sodo!” Before he can retort and say something endearing in return he sees you reaching your hands out to his face and squishing his cheeks. “Wababababa babaab- ahhh~” You let out silly sounds with a smile reaching your eyes. The whole room has their jaw dropped to the floor. If any of them tried to do that to Sodo they would be met with a solid punch to the gut. But here they are, watching Sodo smile happily back at you while you’re squishing his cheeks, both of your tails swishing around happily. Eventually, you stop your activity and return your hands to your side. You notice the other ghouls staring at you two with a dumbfounded look. Swiss is the first to speak up, “okay. Now we really need to know. How the fuck did this,” he motions to you both, “happen.” You laugh, “I did this,” you say while making squishing gestures with your hands, “when he was upset. Then we found out we’re mates, now we’re inseparable. Where he goes I follow and vice versa.” Their jaws drop again. Sodo smirks and shakes his head. You have the fireball wrapped around your finger. “I don’t mind it.” He says, mainly directed to you.

Phantom walks up to Sodo with a smirk, hands outreached. He notices and glares at him, “try it and I’ll punt you back to hell.” Phantom freezes as his tail drops. He puts his hands up, “fine fine! Clearly, you only don't mind when she’s the one doing it.” Sodo rolls his eyes, “obviously.” You burst out in laughter at his defensiveness. He turns to look at you and can’t help but break out in a smile. Yeah, he really is wrapped around your finger. He can’t help but smile when you are happy. The happy signals you bring over the bond will forever keep him happy. It lets him know that you’re okay and it brings him relief. Once your laughter dies down you look at them all, “now you know how this happened between us. So please stop bugging Sodo about it, for your own good.” You chuckle. He groans at your words but knows it’s true. Every time they brought it up it annoyed him to no end. Just because you're polar opposites, it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. If there’s a spark, the bond will find its way eventually.

[geodraws04]

PKMN ScarVio DLC AU ~ Possessed!Kieran

Just finished the page for my contribution to the good ol’ Toxic Chain theory :OOO

I recently finished the Teal Mask and finishing up the Indigo Disk DLC and while i really did like the fact that Kieran’s actions were all his own and makes him a much more realistic/relatable character, I am feeling a little robbed we didn't get a possessed!kieran + i really did not like the direction they took w/ Mochi Mayhem. I felt like it was WAAAY too silly/comedic for my tastes (if you liked it more power to you tho!), and wish we had more lore/backstory and involvement of Pecharunt and the Loyal 3 respectivally.

so i wanted to try killing two birds with one stone and try to mash ID and MM together somewhat! So heres some sketches and concept stuff ft. My PKMN!Violet sona. And also make this AU ANGSTY AS FUCK-

im not a comedy/crack/silly person when it comes to stories involving manipulation/mind control type of stuff because i just get second hand embarressment for those under doing wierd stuff while not aware so if your looking for a “silly haha!” AU with this type of concept ive got bad news for ya… this AU aint gonna be for you-

Starting off… my design for when Kieran is fully possessed by Pecharunt!

I still really liked the fact that Kieran was like. FULLY aware and in his own mind/body during ID; so i want to keep that in this AU too - for the most part.

id like to think that once making a deal with Pecharunt and offering himself to it in order to become stronger, the little peach would slowly feed him mochi that would “numb the pain and guilt if he ever feels doubtful.” At the time of Pecharunt’s debut to the start of ID, pecharunt is extremely weak and thus, its influence isnt as effective or strong. However, when we meet Kieran again, he’s definately beginning to change. throughout the story, we see Kieran’s spiraling descent into madness as he becomes more intimidating and cynical.

i dont have a specific spot where hed have this outfit change, but ill figure it out lol.

However, i def think it would be a bit after his panic attack/mental break down when we defeat him. Since at this point he couldnt uphold his end of the deal with Pecharunt, it has no choice: he offered his body and mind to it to get stronger, but he couldnt keep it up. So now, he has to pay the price.

(This would be right after the Ex-Champ bit - fuck you Draydon)

however, instead of telling himself to get stronger like in canon… he mumbles something indescernable and unintelligable… and then he starts… laughing?

“K-Kieran…?”

“Uh… yo, earth to ex-champion… you doin’ alright-?”

Suddenly… he glares at us… no. He glares at you, tears streaming down his face but an animalistic and crazily wide smile is plastered on his face as he stumbles back up, hugging himself while letting out what one would think is the most maniacal, despairing, crazy cackling laughter one could hear.

That's when you see it - his eyes, formally a light yellow, now a bright yet darkly sinister shade of violet-magenta. The scrunchie he was wearing began growing two strings of toxic chains that waved around like tentacles, and lifted him up in the air like stilts, purple smoke filling the area.

what was happening… whats happened to Kieran.

no, whatever that was…

Thats not Kieran.

The bottom sketch is a small scenario i had in mind!

i want pecharunt to have a larger role so here they are! After returning the teal mask to me and carmine and running off, he stumbles upon an injured and weak Pecharunt, and secretly nurses it back to health. Behind everyone’s backs the two spark a friendship/partnership!

i like to think pecharunt has good intentions and did genuinely want to help kieran get stronger, but i like to think that the toxins it gave to Kieran not only began to mess with Kieran’s mind, but with Pecharunt’s too.

how exactly? No idea just yet lol- ill figure that out later on down the line lol. Along with the loyal 3’s roles in the story as well.

Heres a few for fun and more funny sketches i made to fill up the empty space lol-

also feat. Moi, yuma and shinigami jykghhfjhfdjhygjuy-

QUICK DISCLAIMER! IM NOT SHIPPING MYSELF W/ KIERAN SINCE HES IMPLIED TO BE A TEEN AND IM A LEGAL ADULT!! the DLC came out when i was 17; almost 18 (released a few days before my bday actually!)

i like to think that when this story and AU respectively take place, Kieran is 14 while im 16 turning 17 that fall in Teal Mask (Carmine being 18 or 19?), then in Indigo Disc Kieran is 16, im 18, and Carmine is 19/20. So me and kieran are 2 years apart, while me and Carmine are 1-2 years apart.

Its mostly because id like to think me and kieran’s dynamic is similar to a close friend i have irl and wanted to write it as such while retaining the canon story too. If that makes sense lol.

And one more sady drawing when kieran is freed from Pecharunt’s control!

i think i speak for everyone that we needed a scene where we hugged kieran after all the shit he’s been through-

justice for my baby boy kieran. :,,,))

AAAAAAANNNNNNDDDDD THATS ALL I GOT FOR NOW!!

what do yall think :000

any suggestions/ideas, critiques, whatever is on your mind about this AU is appreciated!! Im gonna get back to my remnant designs lol-

[scorchieart]

Understaffed

Genre: Comedy

Wordcount: 1326

Prompt: In A Flash CCC hosted by @flash-exchange - October 2023: Magic Apprenticeship

A/N: My first entry for the In A Flash CCC! This one was inspired by the folks over on Discord, you guys rock for helping me finish a fic after so long! I will try my best to write some more as the challenge continues. For this fic, it's been split up as 2 separate parts, the first part being mainly from Jin's perspective and the second continuing from Yves and Nokto's. Many thanks to @lorei-writes for the feedback and suggestions. Enjoy!

Jin Grandet was not a warlock. At least, not officially.

It wasn’t because he had a late start. Most children couldn’t even read spells from the rudimentary tomes at age six, let alone pronounce them. And it wasn’t as if he was without talent. It was common knowledge throughout the kingdoms that the sorcerer’s gene manifested strongest within royal bloodlines. No, the true reason Jin failed his Warlock Mastery Examination was far less magical than he’d like to admit. 

But that’s a story for another time. And even if the minimum age to apply was fifteen, it didn’t mean he was barred from trying again another year. Heck, most applicants didn’t even make an attempt until they were double that! But of course, Chevalier came of age the next year, and while the exam was merely a formality for the prodigy, barely anyone bothered to register for that round. Fueled by fiery rivalry, Clavis was hot on Chevalier’s heels the year after that, and Jin was too preoccupied with helping him train to even consider enrolling himself. And just a few weeks prior, Leon passed his exam with flying colors. A feat Jin attributes to his apt sideline encouragement and diligent inspections of Leon’s daily meat intake. 

So what if he didn’t pass? Jin could still perform magic as well as any warlock. He just didn’t have a staff to show for it. Instead, he could boast that the never-before-seen-three-year-streak of fifteen-year old graduates were his students.

“For the last time, we are not your students,” Yves declared.

“And why wouldn’t you want to be?” Jin asked. He waved a hand and the curtain of low-hanging branches before him parted, revealing a narrow dirt path ahead. “I have a one-hundred percent success rate. And you’re my next conquest, Yves.”

“Yeah, Evie. Why don’t you take him up on his offer?” Nokto said, following Licht as they climbed down after Jin. “Then you can tell us if he’s legit or not.”

“Oh, he’s the real deal,” Leon said. He took a steady stance beside a cherry oak and swung his newly acquired staff overhead, making all the barren trees in the vicinity shake and shoot their branches upward like spikes. Nokto watched in awe as Leon calmed the trees down and flashed him a toothy grin. “Can’t recommend the big guy enough.”

“No, no, no, my brothers. You mustn’t let the opinions of others sway your decision making!” Clavis said, pushing past Leon. “Ask yourselves this: do I want to be taught by a syrupy dropout, or by the youngest, most renowned warlock of our age?” He struck the ground with his own staff and the dirt rumbled. Moments later, roots and tubers erupted from the earth like the undead, making Yves screech and trip on an upright rose stem. Clavis laughed maniacally as the plants continued to grow, until Leon whacked him on the head and the vegetary scene immediately reverted underground as if it never happened. 

“I’m younger than you, remember?” Leon countered.

“And I was younger than you both when I passed,” Chevalier added, his pace leisurely as he joined them.

“Yes, yes, you don’t have to remind us again how your test happened three days after your birthday,” Clavis said, rubbing his bruised forehead. “It is insufferably pedantic of you.

“Shall I remind everyone instead of how you only passed because the examiner happened to sneeze when you flubbed the fire retardancy enchantment on your trousers?”

“Like I said, little ones. Follow what Jin says, and you’ll do just fine,” Clavis said.

“If you’re done sharing my many virtues, hurry on over!” Jin called. The group exchanged speculative glances before filing through the unanimated greenery towards his excited voice.

Flummoxed by their seniors’ effortless display of magical prowess, Yves and Nokto insisted they take the lead, bewitching wayward wood knots and saplings from the path. Once or twice they glanced back, hopeful to receive praise for their successful spells, only to find the trio engrossed in their own conversation. 

“Maybe he wants to take us all on at once? Six against one?” Leon suggested.

“Please,” Clavis yawned, stretching his arms above his head and waving his staff teasingly. “He could squash the kiddos, no problem. But he won’t get much farther than that unarmed.”

“He brought his sword. Or is your staff so far up your rear that you did not notice?” Chevalier said, swatting Clavis’s staff away from his face. 

Yves and Nokto whirled their heads towards the track ahead, struggling to keep their attention back on moving the plants. Is that what this was all about? Despite Jin’s domineering stature, they had never once seen their brother in a fight. But Jin also was the most knowledgeable about the contents of the exam, even if he did fail his. Was this the type of error-correcting that guaranteed Chevalier, Clavis, and Leon’s successes?

The path eventually fed into a wide clearing as large as one of the training arenas at the palace. Even in peak autumn, thick shrubs still flanked all sides like a fence except for one; a cavernous cliff plummeted behind where Jin stood, his arms folded and mouth stretched in an expectant grin.

“Are we really gonna fight?” Nokto said nervously, reaching for his sword.

“Alright! Loser gets thrown off the cliff!” Clavis whooped. “Chevalier, fight me!”

“Slow down, we’re learning defensive tactics today,” Jin said. “Magic has limitless potential to attack, right? So it stands to reason that the same should be true in defense. Far too often does a warlock fall into the assumption that one trumps the other in combat.”

“Spoken nearly verbatim from Elemental Charms and Combat,” Chevalier said unamused.

“That means he knows his stuff,” said Leon. “But then why’d ya bring us here too, Jin?”

“No, Chevalier’s right. There’s only so much you can learn from theory alone. We need experience to connect the dots. And I sure as sugar wouldn’t hurt a hair on the little guys’ heads, so that’s where you lot come in.” Jin crouched beside Yves and Nokto and patted their shoulders. “Yves, you’ll spar with Chevalier. And Nokto, you get Clavis.”

Yves froze on the spot.  

“Oh, goodie…” Nokto mumbled. 

“Just remember the basics, and you’ll be fine,” Jin said, then he turned to the warlocks. “And don’t you go blasting infernos at them. We’re out here to prevent unnecessary bystander injuries. But remember, this is still a highly flammable area.” He glared at Clavis, who seemed to get a chill and wrapped his cloak firmly around himself.

“Wait. Where’s my partner?” Leon asked. A quick lookover of the clearing proved Licht was nowhere to be seen. 

“Maybe Leon’s branches pulled him up to the sky?” Nokto suggested.

“Or Clavis’s roots dragged him down below!” Yves gasped.

“Both,” Chevalier said, pointing over the cliff. Halfway down, Licht hung suspended and looking below, his shirt caught on a thorny branch tangled with crisscrossing roots. 

“Licht!” Yves and Nokto cried.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Clavis called down to him.

“Something tells me the branch will snap if he so much as breathes wrong,” Leon said. Licht answered with a shaky thumbs up.

“Everyone, change of plans!” Jin bellowed. “Today we’re doing rescue training. And not a word of this gets to Sariel, got it? Okay, let’s go!” He drew his sword and leaped over the edge, jamming it into the cliffside as he descended.

Shocked, and slightly relieved, Yves and Nokto followed Jin’s lead, the scraping sounds of their blades cutting rock disappearing with them.

“Moron,” Chevalier huffed. The air around him began to crackle as he inhaled deeply and swung his staff in a circular motion. “He didn’t even evaluate the situation for a full minute. And they still wonder why he didn’t pass—”

“You heard the boss!” Clavis and Leon yelled. Together they seized each of Chevalier’s arms and hurled themselves over the cliff, leaving their staves behind.

Listen, it is liberating to write Chevalier, Clavis, and Leon as comic relief side characters. Trust me.

Tagging: @queengiuliettafirstlady @violettduchess @venulus @thewitchofbooks @leonscape @rhodolitesrose @venti-tangents @dear-sciaphilia @ikesenwritings @myonlyjknight @ladyofcrowsx @otomefoxystar @my-day6

If you would like to be added or removed from my tag list, please send me an ask or a message.

[ayunakatsukiwolfhashira]

Kamaboko Squad x Reader Horror Movie Night Headcanons

Genya

When you suggested the idea to him, he didn’t see anything wrong with it

His logic was that scary movies are fake so he should have nothing to be afraid of

He got snacks, ordered pizza and you both cuddled and started watching the movie

At the start he was a bit nervous but he knew he couldn’t back out

He flinched a bit at the first jumpscare but didn’t think it was too harmless

At some parts he grew really anxious but he disregarded it

At one part, you hugged Genya tighter because you were scared at one point but little did you know, he was even more terrified than you were

He enjoyed spending time with you although he kinda wished you picked a different movie but he didn’t says so

Next time he may have to hide the horror movies just so you pick a different one

He was just happy that he could now tell his brother that he watched a horror movie

Tanjiro

He didn’t mind you wanting to watch a horror movie, he admitted that he was a little nervous but he would do it for you

He made sure Nezuko was with Mitsuri that way she wouldn’t see something that she didn’t want to see and have nightmares

He also made it clear that you could tell him to stop the movie whenever you wanted

As you both watched the movie, he always felt the need to hold his breath whenever the suspense started to build up

He flinched at some parts of the movie but still watched

If a part ever scared you, he would pause the TV and confirm that you want to continue or stop

If you wished to continue watching, he would start it and let you know that you could stop again

No matter how many times you wanted to pause, he would never get annoyed because he wanted you to be comfortable

When it was over and if you were scared to sleep, he would sing you lullabies to help you sleep

If you had nightmares, he would ensure you that they weren’t real and would even buy a night light for you

Zenitsu

He would be 100% opposed to the idea

He kept going on and on about how scary and real they looked

He would try everything and anything to change your mind but since you were so persistent about it, he reluctantly gave up

The whole time, he tightly clinged onto you and screamed loud whenever there was a jumpscare

He kept throwing accusations about who the killer might be and buried his face into your neck whenever he didn’t want to see a part because he felt like a jumpscare would come soon

When it finally ended he kept complaining on how it was the scariest thing he’d ever witnessed and would beg you to never make him watch another horror movie ever again

If the end credits said, “Based on a true story“, his heart would literally drop right then and there

He would shriek at the slightest movement or sound for the next couple of days

Every night before bed, he would check to closet, under the bed, and make sure the doors and windows were locked and secured

If he ever had a nightmare, he would wake up screaming which obviously caused you to wake up and you would have to comfort him and explain that it was fake

Inosuke

He would immediately agree because he claimed he wasn’t scared of anything especially a movie that was fake

Throughout the movie, he kept forgetting that the character in the movie couldn’t hear him so he kept trying to tell the character what to do, “DON’T GO IN THERE!” “LOOK BEHIND YOU IDIOT OR YOU’RE GOING TO DIE!” 

Whenever a character died, he would laugh like a maniac and go on about how stupid they were for not listening to him

He would make fun of the killer and go on about how he would obviously overpower the killer

At the most suspenseful parts, he would grab your shirt and shake you like crazy while watching the movie and be like, “OOOOO WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN? WILL THEY DIE, ARE THEY THE REAL KILLER?!”

When the movie ends, he will insist that you watch another one to see if the characters in that movie will be smarter and listen to him

He will never understand the fact that the people in the movie can’t hear him let alone listen to him

[mint-yooxgi]

{4} - To Tempt Fate - Yandere!Trickster Deities!Ateez X Reader

Yandere AU & Trickster AU

Genre: Mature, Horror, Angst, Suspense

Pairing: Ateez X Reader (Slight focus on Wooyoung & San)

Words: 2,376

Warnings: Minor violence and broken bones mentioned. This is a Yandere story, it will contain themes such as stalking, violence, obsession, possessive natures, and just general overall creepiness and swearing. You have been warned.

A/n: Here it is!! The next chapter!! This one sort of demonstrates a bit of the dynamics between the guys and gives hints about their plans for the OC in later chapter eheheh. I’m so excited for you all to see what I have planned. The story is really going to kick off next chapter, just you wait and see! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated! Enjoy~

Also, gentle reminder that I do not do tag lists.

Mini Masterlist - Part One - Part Two - Part Three

The sound of a harsh slap echoes throughout the room.

“Oh, please,” the male on his knees grins wildly, head twisted to the side as red begins to bloom on his cheek, “hit me more.”

“We all had a deal, Wooyoung,” sharp eyes narrow down at the trickster held in place by two of his brothers. “A deal which you broke.”

Wooyoung takes the time to spit some blood out of his mouth before turning his head back to stare up at a furious Hongjoong before him.

“Give me a break,” the younger male rolls his eyes. “I know any one of you would have done the exact same as me if given the chance. You’re probably cursing yourself for not doing it sooner.”

Another smack reverberates throughout the space, Wooyoung’s head now turned to the opposite side.

A maniacal laugh escapes the male on his knees, “You of all people should know not to trust in my words.”

“When it concerns us and her, we should be able to have faith you’ll at least restrain yourself for one fucking day.” Seonghwa spits, his arms crossed over his chest as he steps in beside Hongjoong.

Wooyoung huffs dryly, “Like you didn’t almost lunge at Leader when she hung up on him the first time, just to be the one to call her back.”

Seonghwa’s nostrils flare. “At least I can control myself.”

“When you get as close to her as I did today,” the corner of Wooyoung’s lips quirk upwards in a smug grin, “you won’t.”

The sound of bones shattering fills the room, a cry of pain leaving the younger male as he falls to the floor. The glare he sends a particular male that had been holding him in place by his one arm is deadly, pearlescent eyes flashing at deep purple.

“Yeosang, what the fuck?” Wooyoung shouts at the older male, cradling his now crushed hand to his chest.

“Someone had to punish you for touching her.” The male blinks, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “I was getting tired of waiting.”

“Yet, you fault me for being impatient.” Wooyoung clicks his tongue, a sharp look held within his gaze. Grimacing, the younger male begins to reset his bones as they begin to heal. “At least I’ve done something with her, which is more than any of you can say.”

“We’ll all get our chance.” Jongho states calmly, leaning against the side wall. “Everything is in place. Our plan won’t fail.”

“We spent enough time planning and making sure things run smoothly,” San huffs, backing away from his brother still sitting on the floor. “It better not fail.”

“It won’t.” Hongjoong hums, turning back around to face the wall of screens they have set up to monitor your whereabouts at all times. “This time around, there is no escape. There is no possible way for her to win these so called games. She has one option, and one option only. She’ll be in our arms soon enough.”

Jongho snorts out a laugh. “And you guys say I’m the sadistic one.”

“None of us need to spill blood in order to kill someone, Jongho.” Seonghwa replies, somewhat bluntly.

“Speak for yourself,” San’s jaw twitches in irritation before turning to the two other males who remain awfully quiet at the opposite side of the room. “What’s up with you two? Nervous about tomorrow?”

The one male simply quirks a brow in response, his shoulders relaxed even as he keeps his arms crossed in front of his chest. The other, who stand directly beside him, lets out a low sigh.

“Are you sure this is going to work? She’s a lot more perceptive than we anticipated.” Though his eyebrow ticks slightly upwards, he hides his minor worry well.

“Are you doubting your own abilities?” Hongjoong spares a brief glance back over his shoulder in the one male’s direction.

“No,” the male sighs. “Only her ability to believe. To trust us.”

“She will,” the other male, slightly taller than his pink haired brother, and sporting red streaks through his own black hair hums. “She doesn’t know all of our names yet, but she will.”

“A fact which we will use to any and every advantage that we can,” Hongjoong turns back to face them all. “I know we all long for the day we hear our names fall from her lips,” a pointed look is sent to Wooyoung as the male finally stands back to his feet, “but, only when she recognizes and acknowledges who we are while looking into our eyes will we be able to bond ourselves to her. If any of you dare try to upset the order we have agreed upon again, I will not be as forgiving.”

This time, there is no hiding the malice in Hongjoong’s gaze as his yellow eyes flash at Wooyoung.

“Yeah, yeah,” Wooyoung waves him off. “We all know you claimed first rights to do so over all of us a long time ago.”

“We didn’t nearly kill each other to establish order for nothing,” San reminds him, arms crossed firmly over his chest.

“You’re last for a reason, Wooyoung,” Jongho reminds him. “You have no one but yourself to blame for that.”

“Mingi cheated!” Wooyoung attempts to defend himself.

“We’re tricksters. It’s in our blood.” Said male rolls his eyes. “If you thought I would play fair just because you’re my brother, you’re delusional. Nothing is off limits when it comes to her.”

A sharp look is sent to him by Hongjoong, Yeosang, and Jongho.

“You know I don’t mean that,” Mingi rolls his eyes.

“We may all be fucked, but at least we can say we’ve never committed such vile acts as to force ourselves upon an unwilling participant.” Seonghwa nods, leaning back against the edge of the console table behind him.

“Exactly,” Mingi agrees. “I meant when it comes to us ensuring we get what we want. Even if it means fooling our idiot brothers in our own competitions.”

“Hey!” Both San and Wooyoung whine at the same time.

“I think that was a more of a general remark than anything,” Yunho chuckles, “but if you thought it was pointed, then by all means, take the blunt of the insult for us all.”

“We’ve already established that we should be able to trust one another when it comes to decisions and deals we make surrounding our beloved.” Yeosang states, rather pointedly. “In terms of how we go about creating and deciding orders of things, especially when there is competition involved concerning who gets to experience specific instances with her first, well… that’s free reign.”

“When we can’t come to a rational decision through discussion, that’s when our own competitions occur.” Hongjoong says, turning back to face the screens and resting his palms on the edge of the console table. He leans forward, golden eyes beginning to shine as they zero in on you walking through the maze again. The corner of his lips twitches upwards as he watches your image intently, fully displayed on the closest screen. “Certain things are unavoidable, like who gets to ‘compete’ with her starting tomorrow once her prep time is up. Other things, like name order, we fought for individually, and it was decided based upon who came out on top.”

“There’s always a chance that despite our established order, she goes against it.” The way Jongho’s eyes flick briefly to the screen you appear on when he says this does not go unnoticed by any.

“She won’t." Hongjoong hums, a crazed grin tugging at the corner of his lips. “I’ll make damn well sure of that.”

A brief silence settles over all of them as their eyes are drawn to you having come full circle through the maze. They can only watch as you finish connecting the final paths on your little map sketch, eyes twinkling with a sort of fondness that is more apparent in others than in some. However, what they do not expect, is for you to continue through the maze, looping through the proper path once more as if to familiarize yourself with it as much as possible.

You certainly are more thorough and perceptive than any of them could have ever anticipated. A fact which only makes them that much more excited for the games to truly begin.

Yes. They’re correct. You’ll make the perfect addition to their lives. The best part? They’ll be able to perfect your own at the same time.

“Prepare yourselves for tomorrow,” Hongjoong doesn’t even bother to spare them a glance from over his shoulder this time as his gaze remains transfixed on you. "We have work to do.”

The seven males around the room nod, some disappearing right away while others move to exit the room normally. One lingers, waiting for a specific brother to catch up with him as he leaves the room.

As soon as the door slams shut behind them, San is leaning into Wooyoung slightly. The way he eyes his brother is not subtle in the slightest, curiosity lingering in the way his black orbs flash beneath the artificial lights of the hallway.

“So,” he begins, noticing how Wooyoung simply quirks a brow in response. “What was it like?”

Wooyoung smirks. “What was what like, Sannie boy? Seeing her up close and personal for the first time? Hearing her speak to me? Having her finally look me in the eyes? Feeling the warmth of her breath on my lips? You have to be a little more specific than that.”

San smacks the male upside the head rather harshly.

“Ow! The fuck was that for?” Wooyoung rubs the tender spot, ire shining on his face.

“For rubbing it in.” San replies, somewhat grumpily. Then, after a moment of silence in which the elder purses his lips, he mumbles something under his breath.

“What was that?” Wooyoung quirks a brow in amusement, head turned slightly to see San now avoiding his gaze as a slight blush dusts the elder male’s cheeks.

“What did it feel like,” San spares a brief glance out of the corner of his eyes at his brother, blush deepening and becoming all the more apparent as it reaches the tips of his ears, “to finally feel her beneath your touch?”

Wooyoung pauses at the end of the hallway, stunned by his brother’s question. That is, until a subtle, tender smile is pulling at his lips as he raises his now fully healed hand before him. Almost longingly, the male stares down at his palm. Tingles erupt beneath the surface as he recalls the euphoria of having you within his grasp, even if only for a brief, fleeting moment.

“Indescribable.” Wooyoung admits, the word breathless and airy.

San, unsatisfied by Wooyoung’s answer, quirks a brow while huffing. “Try me.”

“You know, we’ve always prided ourselves on our control.” Wooyoung begins, still staring, transfixed, at his hand. “No matter how many of our sacrifices attempted to sway us, whether it be by seduction, bribery, violence, or through empty promises of fame and fortune, we’ve never given in. But her? Her?”

Wooyoung inhales sharply, his eyes fluttering shut for a brief moment. San just knows that the male is recalling the recent memory of having you so near to him right now.

“Just seeing her so close, even through the bushes, made me want to reveal myself every chance I could get. Holding her in my arms for that briefest of moments in time, I felt my whole body come alive.” Wooyoung finally lifts his gaze to meet his brother’s eyes, and what San sees shining there makes his breath hitch.

Never before have Wooyoung’s eyes been such a pure white. Always, there has been some murkiness to the pearlescent shade shining within his brother’s gaze. Yet, not this time. Almost as if it has been you that has brought out a completely different side to the man standing before him. A side that will always and forever be reserved only for you.

“Whatever you want to describe it as: electricity, fire, euphoric tingles…” Wooyoung goes on to describe, “I felt it all. Our souls were made for hers. Made to always be with her. All that’s left to do is allow them to resonate.”

“We all feel that pull,” San nods his agreement, a soft tugging of his lips upwards in understanding. “After learning about how interested she was in us, we were all drawn to her.”

“Believe me, after you touch her,” Wooyoung exhales a low breath, “it all gets so much worse.”

“'Worse’ how?” San quirks a brow.

“If you thought fighting the urge to run to her and be near her every waking second before was bad,” Wooyoung voices, somewhat knowingly. “Once you’ve established that physical connection, no matter how minor, that longing just grows into a want. A need to be near her all of the time. Right now, I can hardly prevent myself from shaking. From transporting myself back to her and holding her in my arms until I’ve gotten my fix, and even then, I don’t think it would ever be enough.”

“The mere thought of her is all consuming,” Wooyoung’s eyes glaze over, and San just knows the younger male is thinking of you right now. “So, you can only imagine what being in her presence, feeling her skin beneath your own, is like.”

San takes a moment to consider his brother’s words, nodding softly.

“Do you-“ he swallows, “do you think we’ll ever consume her thoughts again just as she consumes ours?”

Wooyoung sends a wistful look off in the direction he can only assume you’re in right now while still traversing the maze. Faintly, he smiles. “I sure hope so.”

San nods along with his brother, the two meeting gazes once more.

“So, prepare yourself for when you meet her,” Wooyoung claps his brother on the shoulder, a teasing grin tugging at the younger male’s lips. “Last thing we need is you slipping up. She certainly is a perceptive one, alright.”

Something within San’s pitch black eyes flash. “I will not fail.”

“No.” Wooyoung’s own eyes flash white. “We won’t.”

[saikokirakira]

Part 2 of 2: Pagtingin (Feelings) [Steve Harrington x Reader]

a/n: hello. it me. i definitely did not forget to post part two. if you would believe it, i was actually getting sick every week the past month because of the insane hours and workload of my new job. so, umm, probably not lasting long there... i wanna be pretty again and lose all the stress hives all over my body.

summary: based on this blurb on a hanahaki au/flayed!reader

word count: 12k words (big boi over here; i definitely bullied our girl throughout this entire chapter)

warning: barely proofread, only edited twice; no use of y/n; steve is an oblivious himbo (but i'll excuse it because he was the ultimate bbg in s3); ANGST TRAIN, hurt no comfort; moms of hawkins summer '85 (i have 911 on standby); billy "walking red flag" hargrove; unrequited feelings / pining; minor violence; body horror (it's hanahaki, what'd you expect?); writer's torture of a self-insert character; stranger things season 3 canon, but Alexei lives fyuck canon actually; metal goodboi cameo

You despised summer. You didn’t used to hate summer, but working in the summer heat when your recently recurring childhood asthma gets triggered by intense heat wasn’t the best option for you. While you couldn’t pass off as a lifeguard at the Hawkins Community Pool, your neighbour and acquaintance, Heather Holloway, pulled some strings to have you manning the snack bar.

It wasn’t ideal, but it certainly opened up the opportunity to listen in to a lot of gossip all around town. Not your favourite pastime, yet Heather enjoyed the very juicy ones, something you noticed she most likely inherited from her father, the chief editor for the town’s paper. Every time her shift ended, so did yours and either you share interesting stories of the day while you drive home or to the newly opened Starcourt Mall.

“Ew, those women are either married or divorced,” your nose wrinkled in disgust at Heather’s favourite gossip topic, Hawkins group of moms. Specifically, their scheduled visits to the pool whenever Billy Hargrove would be on duty as lifeguard.

“He likes the attention, I guess,” Heather shrugged, “and the moms get to ogle eye candy.”

“Still a minor, Heather.”

“Uh-uh, he turned 18 a few months back,” Heather argued, though the distaste was apparent on her face. “The term is barely legal.” Then she suddenly giggled. “I’m still calling the police when they make a direct move,” she half-joked. “I know they call me a bitch behind my back.”

“You’re a menace.”

“And you’re a sissy,” Heather shot back. “When are you going to ask Steve Harrington ou— JESUS!” She clung at the grab handle when your foot landed too much on the gas pedal. “No need to take me with you to hell just because you can’t get a date.” Then with a cheeky grin, she added, “I heard Steve can’t get a date either, and he talks up anyone at that ice cream place.”

You slammed the brakes. “That’s it!” you exclaimed. “You’re walking the rest of the way to Starcourt!” The only reply you had was Heather’s maniacal giggles at getting you so riled up.

You and Heather parted ways when you arrived at Starcourt after telling you that she’d be getting a ride home with her date. You waved her off and headed to Scoop’s Ahoy. A group of girls were giggling as they were leaving when you got there. You also noticed the whiteboard that Robin, Steve’s co-worker, held up, adding another tally on the “You suck” scoreboard.

“See what I have to deal with?” Steve immediately ranted, jerking a finger at Robin’s direction. “If you worked with me, I don’t have to be subjected with workplace abuse.”

You and Robin snorted in sync. “You poor baby,” you cooed teasingly while pinching Steve’s cheek. “How can I ever live without the longer shifts, ridiculous uniform, and being your wingman?” You earned another laugh from Robin while Steve scoffed before shooting you a pout.

“Well, you certainly miss me since you constantly visit as soon as your shift ends,” Steve shot back.

“Sure, I’m definitely not here as Heather’s chauffer to her movie date,” you said, “or just hanging out at the comic book store.”

“You want me to come wi—?”

“Bye, Robin!” you ignored his offer yet still blowing Steve a raspberry to which he rolled his eyes at. Exiting the ice cream shop, you made you way to the pharmacy first before the comic book store. It was mostly empty when you got there, so it was a breeze in getting your prescription inhaler.

It’s been forever since you had asthma, the last one during your elementary days. Your wheezing fits had only come back since that occurrence in those tunnels that you still see in your nightmares. However, after the countless tests and screening from military scientists, they cleared it to just “your body shifting from all the trauma.”

You’d think after opening gates to other dimensions with monsters, they’d be able to create a cure for asthma.

The thought was highly amusing to you that you almost missed the fiery redhead that just entered the pharmacy. Your eyes watched Max Mayfield carefully as she walked through the aisles with her head low, trying to be inconspicuous. Grabbing your bag of prescription, you slowly followed where Max wandered off, which happened to be a shelf of bandages.

You almost let it go, knowing that her skateboard hobby always led her to a number of scrapes and bruises. But when she reached for the bandage wrap on the high shelf, her shirt sleeve revealed a hand-shaped mark wrapped around her pale wrist. Trying to be nonchalant as possible, you approached her and grabbed the bandage for her, ignoring how Max quickly put her arm down and tugged at her sleeve.

“Skateboarding mishap again, red?”

Max’s signature cocky smirk covered the surprise on her face. “It’s one of my better falls,” she said. Then her eyes wandered to the prescription bag in my hand. “Still have those? They said you’d be better in a couple of weeks since the incident.”

“Well, I didn’t, so here I am,” you shrugged. “Hey, listen, I’m heading out to the comic book store if you want to tag along. My treat.”

Once you were at the community pool. Though you resorted to buying your carefully as she skimmed through the new arrival stack. You didn’t really have anything worth buying since most of the comics you read are from Dustin’s collection that he recommends and lends to you every other week. Sometimes you get the appeal, sometimes you didn’t. Still, it was a great way to pass the time when things are slow from working the snack bar at the comic book store if you want to tag along. My treat.”

Maybe you should’ve offered to buy Max a cone from Scoops Ahoy instead.

“You got any good recommendations?” you randomly asked the guy who just walked in. You seem to have caught him off-guard, the look of surprise that you were talking to him. “Munson, right?”

“Yeah, Eddie,” he said after a brief pause. “Didn’t think you’d be the type to read comics.”

You thought so too. But you also didn’t think that monsters that live in an alternate dimension exist.

You shrugged. “I read almost anything to pass the time,” you said. “Henderson lends me a lot of X-men.”

Eddie was about to reply when Max approached you with two Wonder Woman comics. “I can pay for the other one,” she offered.

You scoffed lightly and ruffled the top of her head. “Don’t be ridiculous,” you said. “Didn’t I say it was my treat?” Before she could argue, you snatched both copies from her hand and headed to the counter with her trailing behind you. “See you around, Munson.”

You and Max wandered aimlessly around the mall. You offered to go watch whatever movie was in the cinema, but Max turned you down, saying that she had plans with the party later that week once their campaign planning was through. After you ran out of things to do, you offered to drive her home, which she sheepishly accepted.

Before you could even pull out the parking area, Max said, “I know you saw the bruise. You didn’t have to do all that to make me feel better.”

A surprised smile tugged at your lips, impressed on how quickly she caught up on your intentions. “I don’t really have any sisters to dote on,” you said, “so it isn’t entirely on pity. I know you can stand up for yourself, red.” You continued, “But promise me one thing?”

Max nodded.

“You tell me when anything gets too much, okay?” You held her hand to show your support. “I’m always going to be here for you.” Trying to lighten up the mood, you added, “Billy is a prick anyway.” Then you pulled the car into drive.

“He has it worse than me.”

You tried to hold in your composure, but you couldn’t help your eyebrows rising up at the unexpected information. You always suspected something going on with Billy. No one suddenly becomes an asshole overnight. That you knew from being friends for a long time with Steve. Aside from the horrible friends he used to have, Steve grew up with his parents barely around, and even if they were, his father was always either hard on him or emotionally absent.

“Well, it doesn’t give him the right to take it out on you.”

“I know.”

Later that week, you were at your usual spot at the snack booth. The heat was especially brutal that day at it almost felt that your lungs were constricting every time you tried to breathe out. Not even ice water seemed to help, and when the thin clouds cleared, the blaring sunlight only made it worse, even though you were under the shade of the booth.

“Hey, watch the stand for me?” you said to your co-worker who mostly just tried to look busy by restacking cans of soda and rearranging the chips as a way to avoid kids yelling out their orders. He sighed but nodded, getting up to man the counter. On your way out of the booth, you pulled out your inhaler out of your backpack and staggered into the searing sunlight to make your way to Heather.

As you took a blip of your inhaler, you didn’t notice the person near you and collided into them, sending your inhaler flying. “Shit,” you muttered, picking up the plastic case. “Sorry about that.” You looked up and paled upon the realisation that you bumped into Billy Hargrove.

Billy didn’t seem to mind and just grunted before brushing past you. If anything, he looked as disoriented as you, dishevelled and profusely sweating. He had an obvious stumble to his step on his way to the locker room to what you assumed was to get ready for his shift.

You had half a mind to approach him when you heard “Hey! No dunking, Curtis!” from the pool area. You were suddenly reminded of your current task and shrugged off the Billy’s concerning state. For all you know, he was still probably drunk from whatever party he was at last night. It was summer break after all.

You carefully avoided being splashed near the poolside as you circled over to where Heather was stationed at the lifeguard post. Unfortunately, you almost tripped from another dizzy spell again and collided with another person. Just your luck.

“Oh, dear,” a woman this time voiced her concern. “Are you okay, hon? Maybe you should stay out of the heat.”

You steadied yourself and stared into the eyes of Karen Wheeler. “I’m okay, Mrs. Wheeler,” you wheezed. “Sorry ‘bout that.”

“Drink some water!” Mrs. Wheeler called out before walking off.

Finally, you were able to tell Heather that you were cutting your shift short and that you couldn’t drive her to her dad’s office as you agreed on earlier that day. She waved you off and told you to drive carefully, assuring you that she could always call her mom to pick her up later.

On your way out, you noticed Mrs. Wheeler coming out of the locker room looking distressed and teary-eyed. She didn’t seem to notice you staring at her as she made her way back to the pool area. A few moments later, Billy came out of the same room, still looking as physically uncomfortable as before.

For the past weeks of working at the pool, it was no secret that one of Billy’s favourite moms was Mrs. Wheeler. But was there really some illicit affair between them? You probably wouldn’t put it past Billy, but the woman had three kids, for goodness’ sakes. You made a mental note to ask Heather what she knew about it tomorrow.

After a gruelling half hour drive while cranking your A/C up to full blast, you finally got home. You barely got a mouthful of ice water when your door rang. You wondered who it could be when the neighbours knew that you and your parents were usually at work during the entire day.

“Hey, can you drive us to Starcourt?”

You stared into the wild grins of El and Max, standing excitedly on your doorstep. Fifteen minutes later, you were back in your car, playing chauffeur for the two girls giggling from the backseat of your car.

“I’m telling you, El, boyfriends lie,” Max insisted. She poked you. “Tell her.”

You chuckled dismissively at their tween antics. “I wouldn’t know.”

Both El and Max paused and focused their attention on you.

“You haven’t dated anyone?”

“I’ve been on dates,” you clarified, “but I never really dated anyone.”

“Why?” El asked. It was more inquisitive than mocking or accusatory. She was very curious, that one.

“Because she has the biggest crush on Steve.”

“Oh, my God!” you exclaimed. “Does everyone just know about that?”

“Well, anyone with eyes, yeah,” Max said, rolling her eyes for good measure. “The only reason why he hasn’t caught up is because boys are dumb.”

That made you laugh out loud despite the discomfort in your ribs.

When you arrived at the mall, you expected to have them run off to who knows where while you hung out at the waiting area, taking advantage of the air conditioning, but those two dragged you to every clothing outlet at the mall. You tried to not exert yourself, but it was hard not to match their energy when they were clearly having so much fun. It was even so endearing to see El emerging from her shell, trying out outfits that she genuinely liked and not those lumberjack fits that Chief Hopper had her on all the time.

By the third store, you insisted to sit that one out and merely watch them try on a bunch of different hats. You giggled at them posing at the mirror as if they were at a fashion show. However, you only had a moment of peace before Max approached you with a sundress that looked way too close to your size.

“No,” you stood your ground.

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes, then we’re going to Scoops Ahoy to get cones after this.”

“Ask Steve out on a date,” El urged, smiling encouragingly.

“What happened to ‘boys are dumb?’” you said, raising your brow.

“He’s not going to ask you out first, so you will do it for him!” Max said. She and El both grabbed each of your arm and pulled you to your feet and into the dressing room then tossing in the dress and pulling the curtain shut.

You stared at yourself in the mirror and the dress you held in front of you. You hated to admit it, but it was a pretty dress. Even if you couldn’t score a date with Steve, at least you had a great addition to your wardrobe. With that positive thought in mind, you pulled your shirt over your head and hung it on one of the clothing hooks.

You carefully pulled down the zipper on the dress when you noticed something odd on your reflection. Peering closer on the mirror, you stared at your ribs, noticing the almost black veins that almost seemed to be moving underneath the skin. What the…

“Are you done?!” Max called out from behind the curtain.

You snapped out of it and quickly pulled on the dress. All your initial worries faded once you saw yourself in the mirror. For good measure, you pulled your hair out of your scrunchie and let your tresses fall out in waves over your shoulder.

“Wow,” El and Max chorused.

You didn’t even notice them pulling the curtain open.

When you made your way to Scoops Ahoy, Max and El apparently had already made plans that you don’t come in with them. “Let it be a surprise,” Max had said. It was almost ridiculous that you were letting 14-year-olds dictate you on how to get a date from your crush.

“Okay, here you go, you got a strawberry and then a vanilla with sprinkles, extra whipped cream.” Steve paused and looked at the two girls suspiciously, especially at El. “Wait a second,” he thought out loud, “are you even supposed to be here?”

The two girls giggled, and El said, “A pretty girl drove us here.”

The words ‘pretty’ and ‘girl’ caught Steve’s attention. Predictable. “Yeah?” he grinned, leaning forward as if asking for more details. “She still with you?”

“You know her, silly,” Max giggled before running off with El. On their way out, they both flashed you a thumbs up and mouthed, “good luck.”

You stepped inside Scoops Ahoy with a newfound confidence. It was definitely the dress, and you hope it paid off. When Steve caught sight of you, his eyes brightened up and flashed you his charming smile.

“Hey, stranger,” Steve greeted. “I see the girls made you their babysitter and chauffer.”

You tried not to let your smile falter when you didn’t get the reaction you hoped. You laughed, trying not to give off the fact that your confidence was quickly crumbling. “Yeah,” you said, “my shift ended early at the pool.”

“That’s great!” Steve cheered. “Listen, Dustin just caught Russians on his new radio thing, and we’re trying to translate it. Spy shit and all.”

You blinked. “Dustin’s back?”

“Yeah,” Steve nodded animatedly, “he’s at back with Robin translating the tape. Well, mostly Robin. Didn’t even know she’s amazing at languages.” He continued, keeping his excited energy, “She already knocked down a couple phrases. Isn’t that cool?”

Then it clicked.

Steve liked Robin.

Too late again.

“Listen, we can use your help because there’s this music at the end that I couldn’t remember where it came from,” Steve said. “Robin and Dustin say it’s stupid, but you can back me—”

“Um,” you breathed out. You cleared your throat, wondering why you started to get out of breath again. “I still have to drive the girls home before dark,” you said, gently turning him down.

“Oh.”

“Um, call me if you find something cool?” You didn’t wait for him to reply and turned your back on him. As soon as you left Scoops Ahoy, you pulled your inhaler out your pocket and took a blip, but it seemed to only make your lungs angrier and cramp even more.

As agreed upon earlier, you found the girls at the main doors of the mall, but they were in a heated conversation with Mike and the rest of his party. You sighed and quickly approached them before it turned into a full argument.

“I dump your ass!” El declared, making you stop in your steps. Lucas and Max were flabbergasted at the outburst, except Max looked somewhat proud. Mike just looked lost and was clearly at a loss for words. Will just looked uncomfortable enough to be witnessing the entire thing.

“Okay, that’s enough,” you interfered. “We’re leaving, come on.” You looked at Will who seemed to be the most aware among the boys at the moment. “You guys need a ride?”

He shook his head.

“You take care, okay?”

Will nodded.

The walk to your car between you and the girls was quiet. Though Max decided to break the silence when you pulled out of the mall compound. “What happened?” she asked.

You simply shrugged, ignoring the burning in your ribs from the simple motion. “Boys are dumb.” Then the car ride was silent again.

Later that evening, you laid in your bathtub in cold water, finally relaxing when you can breathe easily again. The summer heat fatigue really got you today, you thought. Suddenly remembering what you saw in the fitting room, you looked at your ribs again and was relieved when all you saw was nothing but your usual skin.

You were pulled back to your thoughts and remembered the beautiful sundress that was now laid discarded on the bathroom floor. You groaned at the memory of what just occurred this afternoon. You sighed and slid down to submerge the rest of yourself in the almost freezing water, leaving all your worries for the few seconds you had underwater.

Don’t be afraid. It’ll be over soon. Just stay… very… still.

You were scared. You couldn’t open your eyes, and the water suddenly felt too thick. The searing pain that was becoming too familiar in your lungs felt like it was begin to crawl out of your chest and into your throat.

But it was all gone in a split second.

Panicked and scared out of your wits, you immediately crawled your way out of the bathtub, not caring if you were curled up naked on the bathroom floor. You reached for the first thing you could grab to cover yourself, until you realised that it was still the same damn sundress. Suddenly, all the air just left your body, and you were starting to wonder if it was still an asthma attack.

You hoisted yourself up on the sink, both coughing and wheezing, trying to do everything you can to get yourself some oxygen.

“Sweetie? What’s going on?” the familiar voice of your mom came muffled from the other side of the door. When you replied with nothing but aggressive and painful coughs, the knocking became incessant, and her calls turned to worried cries. “Open the door!”

The same sensation of something crawling out of your throat came back. This time, you were more aware than your paralyzed state a few minutes ago. You stuck your fingers in your throat, feeling for any obstruction.

And you did.

With one forced cough, you were able to pinch out something smooth but foreign. You yanked it out, clenched it in your fist, and spat whatever fluid it brought out. You were initially worried that it was blood, but as you looked at the white ceramic of the bathroom sink, it was black.

When the bathroom door burst open, you quickly opened the faucet, flushing down whatever it was. Your mom rushed over to you and covered your hunched figure with a bath towel before pulling open the medicine cabinet behind the mirror to fish out your emergency inhaler.

“Come on, sweetie,” she carefully urged the inhaler in my mouth, pressing down to dispense a dose, but you could barely bury it down. “Let’s go to your room. You’re freezing.” She led me step by step to my bed and laid me under the covers, but the warm blankets only made me feel worse. “Your dad is coming with the nebulizer. Don’t worry. Just careful breaths.”

You didn’t remember how long it took for you to fall asleep that night, but you woke up the next day to your mom entering your room, already dressed in her office attire. She must’ve seen the panic on your face when you realised that it was way past your alarm.

“I called you in sick at the community pool,” your mom said. “Your dad will be picking you up after work to bring you to the hospital. In the meantime, just rest, okay?” She pressed a kiss on your forehead before she left the room, and you were alone again.

Then you felt the soft thing that you had in your fist the entire night. You raised your hand and held the foreign object over your head.

A black petal.

Panic bubbled up at the base of your spine, and you wasted no time in getting out of bed and getting dressed. You needed to tell Chief Hopper or Mrs. Byers. Or even just any one in Mike’s party.

And Steve.

Suddenly, it hit you. Dustin would still be around Steve decoding whatever Russian code they were on. The kid can easily call a code red for your situation. You grabbed your keys with the intent of going to Starcourt.

Just as you locked the front door, Max and El came rushing in their bikes, looking as alarmed as you are. They rushed to you, especially El who gave you a pleading look.

“It’s Billy.”

~

“As much as I appreciate you calling a grown up to investigate, this seems highly unnecessary.”

You were clearly uncomfortable as you turned the corner to Cherry Lane. You already gave them an earful when they admitted that they were spying on random people during their sleepover last night. Personally, you didn’t think that Heather would suddenly go for Billy when she just went on a date with someone else the other week, but maybe Billy was just that convincing.

“But the screams,” El reasoned.

“When Billy is alone with a girl, they make, like, really crazy noises,” Max argued, making you laugh at her words. Case in point.

“That’s surprising,” you noted. “I assumed that because he’s such an asshole he doesn’t…” you trailed off when you caught El’s clueless look from your rear-view mirror. “Never mind.”

“They scream?” El voiced out her confusion.

“Yeah, but, like… happy screams.” Then Max turned to you. “Oh, just that house right there.”

Your laughter came out in breathless snorts at this point. You pulled the car in park around the curb. “Okay, that’s enough,” you interrupted. “You don’t need to know about that yet, El.” You watched the house and hummed in thought. “His car’s not there. This’ll be easy.”

The three of you went inside the house and headed to his room. You knew that their family was very far from a loving one, but you tried to wrack your head for a reason as to why Billy’s bedroom door had a hinge lock from the outside. You barely had any thoughts about that little detail before Max pushed the door open.

“Why do I get the feeling we’re gonna find all sorts of wrong here?” Max said.

“Well, his tastes in music aren’t half bad,” you commented, flicking through his stack of cassette tapes by his stereo. You pulled open his bedside drawer and laughed at its contents. “Jackpot.”

Max rushed over to peek, only to see his collection of ‘printed ladies.’ “Ugh!” she exclaimed. “Gag me with a spoon.”

Then we heard El calling us from the bathroom.

We followed her to see empty ice packets around his tub. The unsettling feeling crept in again as you remember that you were also trying to keep yourself cold last night. But you weren’t the only one who was unsettled.

El, who was breathing heavily, stared off into the corner, and when Max and you followed her line of sight, there it was. Blood. You carefully opened the trash bin and pulled out a utility bag from Hawkins’ Community Pool.

“Let’s go.” You didn’t waste any time leaving the house and getting into the car.

Despite the darkening skies and thunder rumbling, you got there in record time. You ran to see a co-worker of your closing the pool area. Protocol. But he definitely wasn’t pleased to see you.

“Didn’t you call in sick?” he said, sounding annoyed. “You’re the second person to bail today.”

“Heather didn’t come in?” Max asked.

“Obviously. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing thi— Hey!”

The three of us ran back to the car to figure out what to do next.

“We can go back to my place,” you suggested. “Wait out until Heather comes home next door.” Then you remembered. “Shit,” you cursed, turning on your car before the girls agreed. “My dad is supposed to pick me up for a doctor’s appointment.”

Luckily, your dad wasn’t home yet when you got back. Probably due to the storm. However, the girls already had their own plans in mind when they walked over next door to the Holloway’s.

“Shit, shit, shit,” you hissed, jogging over to them. “Don’t go running off without me.” You looked at the now open front door. “Did you just unlock the door? This is trespassing!”

“She’s inside,” El whispered. She and Max entered the house, and you had no choice but to follow.

The three of you carefully treaded towards the voices in the dining room. There you found Billy with Mr. and Mrs. Holloway chatting away. The sight of your three by the hallway halted their conversation.

“Um, hey, Janet, Tom,” you greeted. “We tried to knock, but you probably didn’t hear us over the storm.”

“What on earth are you doing here?” Billy cut in, his eyes trained on Max and El.

“Where is she, Billy?” you asked firmly, staring straight into his eyes.

“Where is who?” Billy smiled innocently, but it didn’t give you any ease.

“Well, they’re a little burnt! I’m sorry.” Heather walked in from the kitchen, carrying a tray of cookies. “Oh, hey, girl! Is your shift over?”

“Heather!” Billy called. “This is my sister, Maxine.” He gestured to Max before his eyes landed on El. “I’m sorry. I did not quite catch your name.”

“El.” Eleven responded with her eyes pointedly trained on Billy.

“El,” Billy echoed, his polite smile turning into something menacing.

It definitely unnerved the three of us. Your hands held onto their shoulders and pulled them behind your back, leaving you to face Billy. “You guys weren’t at work, so we got worried,” you said, trying to keep your voice steady.

“Heather wasn't feeling so hot today, so we thought we'd take the day off to nurse her back to health.” Billy turned to Heather. “But you’re feeling just fine right now. Aren’t you, Heather?”

“I’m feeling so much better,” Heather smiled, but there was something about it that didn’t seem right to you.

Max and El tugged at your hand. You looked at them to see them silently pleading at you with their eyes. You gave a brief shake of your head before turning back to Billy. “I’m sorry to disturb you,” you said carefully. “I’ll take the girls home.”

“Thank you for looking out for my sister and her… friend.”

You made sure that the girls walked ahead of you, and right before you passed the front door, Billy pulled you to him. You barely could get a noise out as he pressed his hand over your ribs.

“You’re one of us,” Billy whispered before he shoved you out and shut the door.

It all happened in a split second that the girls didn’t even notice the exchange. The fear stabbed you deep in the gut that you basically dragged them back to your house, forcing them not to look back. Only when you got inside your house that the tension released from your body but only just.

“I’m taking you guys home, and tomorrow, we’re meeting up with the party, okay?”

“You’re not going anywhere, young lady.”

You winced and found your dad staring you down with his arms crossed.

Damn it.

~

“As soon as we’re done here, you’re grounded for a week.”

You groaned and held back the urge to roll your eyes. You were in the hospital waiting area for your family physician, but because there were a handful of minor accidents because of the storm, the wait was a bit long, especially when you were not priority. It was fine during the first ten minutes, but after half an hour, you were starting to get cranky.

“I’m going to the restroom.”

Your dad made a move to get up, but you stopped him. “There’s literally a storm out there, and you drove me here,” you pointed out. “Where else can I go?”

Your dad just scoffed but leaned back in his seat, waving you off. “Bring me back a coffee then,” he said.

You walked down the hallway but turned to the payphones instead of the restrooms. You dialled in the number you were so familiar with and hoped that he’d be home by this time.

“Hello?” Steve’s voice rang through the speaker, sending relief through your body.

“Pick me up at the hospital,” you said.

“Wait, what?”

“Oh, and do it in half an hour.”

“There’s literally a storm outsi—”

“I’m also staying at your place tonight.”

“Hey! What is going—”

“Thanks, Harrington.”

Steve arrived at the hospital in twenty, still dressed in his sailor uniform. With your dad still busy with his coffee and a random medical pamphlet, you cocked your head to the side and sent Steve a signal where to wait while you made your escape. For the second time, you got up to your feet.

“I think I want a coffee actually,” you said. “Be right back, daddy.”

Your dad hummed, not even lifting his eyes from the pamphlet.

For a split second, your heart seized at the sight of your clueless father. You wanted to tell him and mom about the monsters and how they were this close to taking you, but they were better off not knowing. It wasn’t worth risking their lives when it could be just you.

With a heavy heart, you kissed the top of his head and walked down the hallway, heading for the exit and into Steve Harrington’s getaway car.

“Okay, but what the hell is going on?” Steve asked, pulling the car in drive.

You didn’t answer and just hugged your knees to your chest while crying silently. You’re one of us. You squeezed your eyes shut and tried to level your breathing, which now felt like such a laborious task. Now that you knew the truth, it was almost like you could feel it all inside you. Taking every piece of you.

You were quickly pulled out of your thoughts by a warm hand clasping yours. You raised your head and looked at Steve, who kept his eyes on the road, but continued to squeeze your hand. You managed to stop crying and thread your fingers through his and bask in his warmth.

You knew it was just temporary. You knew who he really liked. And as if the universe was aware of your feelings, they decided to cut the moment short by sending your chest squeezing and blocking your airways again. You dropped Steve’s hand and clutched at your chest as you exploded into another coughing fit.

Steve panicked and quickly glanced between you and the road. “What’s happening?” he asked frantically. “Should I take you back to the hospital?”

You violently shook your head. “N-no,” you managed to wheeze out. “Dr-drive.”

“Where’s your inhaler?” Steve asked to which you left unanswered.

Finally, you managed to cough out a chunk of something, freeing your airways. You quickly shoved it in your pockets without checking before Steve noticed it. You exhaled in relief and leaned back in his seat.

“It didn’t use to be that bad,” Steve pointed out.

“Yeah.”

“Was that why you were at the hospital?”

“Mm.”

“We should go back.”

“Doesn’t matter. We’re near your place anyway.”

By the time you got to Steve’s house, he rushed to his parents’ room to find you something to wear from his mom’s closet. “Go take a shower and warm up!” he called out from the second floor.

You dragged your feet into the downstairs bathroom and rinsed your mouth. As you spat out the water, swirls of blood and black goo circled around before disappearing down the drain. You pulled out the clump that you hid in your pocket and teared up at the sight of a fully formed flower.

It was cruel that something as hauntingly beautiful as this was killing you from the inside.

When you flipped the flower over, you noticed thin tendrils from where the stem should be. You were horrified that the tendrils were actually moving like tiny tentacles. It reminded you of that day when you were in the tunnels under the pumpkin farm.

Without any more thought, you dropped the flower in the sink. Remembering that they were susceptible to heat, you immediately turned on the faucet to its hottest setting. As the water hit the flower, your lungs were suddenly set on fire.

Out of instinct, you turned the faucet off, relieved that the flower immediately dried out and broke off into ashy flakes. The burning stopped as well but still lingered under your skin. Almost tripping over your own feet, you staggered over to the shower, stripping yourself of your drenched clothes and turning on the water to its coldest setting, and only then did you find relief.

You’re one of us.

It took over almost half an hour to compose yourself and figure out what to do from here on out. You put one of the fluffy robes in the bathroom and headed out to the living room where Steve was already lounging on one of the sofas, shirtless but with a towel hanging over his neck. He only seemed to notice your presence when the sofa dipped beside him under your weight.

“You okay?” Steve asked when you rested your head on his shoulder, not minding that his hair was still dripping wet. “Jesus, you’re freezing.” He moved to grab the throw blanket and pulled it over both of you then rubbed his hands on your arms to warm you up.

Meanwhile, you wrapped your hands around his waist and just closed your eyes at the sound of his heartbeat. You were mad that his was steady when you couldn’t even control the fast drumming of your own heart whenever you were near him. Still, you held Steve as if you were afraid to let go, as if he was your only reminder that you were still you. But why did it hurt, even physically, so much to hold on?

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Steve whispered, stroking the back of your head. “I don’t think we held each other like this since middle school,” he chuckled to himself at the memory. “When Vicki Carmichael took stole your partner for the Snow Ball and kissed him in front of everyone? You slept over and cried in my bed, telling me you hated her for it and me for going with Tammy Thompson.”

You wracked your head trying to remember what Steve was talking about. Maybe because it was a long day, but you couldn’t remember him holding you like this in middle school. Still, it must have been a beautiful memory if even Steve remembered it.

Sometimes it felt like you were the only one holding on so tightly in this relationship with him.

“Don’t you remember?”

You just hummed and snuggled closer to Steve.

“Okay, how about when Lewenski and I got into a fight because his girlfriend tripped you up and you skinned your knee pretty bad?”

This one, you remembered. “Your dad grounded you for a month, and you got benched for two games,” you chuckled softly.

“And you still cheered for me in the sidelines,” Steve said, sounding relieved that you were finally talking. After while a long pause, he said, “What happened? You used to tell me everything.” He continued, “I know I joke about it a lot, but I was really worried when you didn’t sign up with me at the mall. And you being sick all the time now?”

“Steve, just drop it,” you said, almost in a plea. “We’re okay. You never have to worry about me.”

Steve scoffed playfully. “That’s never going to happen,” he argued. “I’m always gonna worry about you. You don’t even notice how much trouble you get yourself into without realising.”

You tried not to think about it, but for the rest of that night in Steve’s arms, you almost felt like the vines were moving inside you, growing and taking up what was left of you that you haven’t already given to Steve.

~

“So, basically you’re a fugitive now?”

You chuckled and tiredly patted Dustin’s back. “Man, I missed you, kid,” you said. “And to answer your question, technically yes. I’m facing a lifetime of being grounded if I’m caught.”

“Let me get this straight,” Dustin began, his eyes trained on your plain black shirt that obviously belonged to Steve, “Steve snuck you out of the hospital, and you stayed in his house the entire night?” He leaned close to you. “And nothing happened?”

“Jesus, Dustin,” you wrinkled your nose at him. “People serve food here.” You gestured at the small cup of ice cream you were eating as breakfast slash brunch. Though you were wallowing your sorrows in cold, cold sweets, it did make you feel like a kid again.

“Steve is so stupid sometimes it amazes me,” Dustin thought out loud.

“I’m surprised you caught on. Seems like everyone in the world knows except him.”

“That’s because I’m me,” Dustin grinned proudly. “I bet the rest of the party doesn’t even know.”

“Who doesn’t know?” Steve entered the backroom with Robin in tow.

“Probably that you’re a dingus,” Robin snickered. Then her eyes trailed over to you. “So, we have another addition to the team,” she pointed out. “Who’s bringing her up to speed?”

“Dustin,” Steve said the same time that Dustin also said, “Me.”

Of course, it was Dustin.

While Dustin explained to you that the Russian military was most likely running a secret base right in the Starcourt Mall, you worried about El and Max, especially with not-Billy on the loose. Though they probably were already with the rest of the party right now and alerted Chief Hopper and Mrs. Byers. There was absolutely nothing to worry about.

Right?

“Got it?” Dustin finally said before narrowing his eyes at me. “Were you just zoning out the entire time?”

You snorted. “What do you take me for?”

“Fine, what did I just say?”

“Okay, I probably zoned out halfway through,” you admitted. “But your problem is pretty simple.”

Steve, Dustin, and Robin waited for you to continue.

“You just need the blueprints for the mall.”

“Why haven’t you called her the moment we were cracking the code?” Robin said, rushing outside and grabbing the tip jar. Ignoring Steve’s calls for her, she was off leaving us three at Scoops Ahoy.

~

“Touch my butt! I don’t care!”

“Can we keep it PG in here?” you frowned at the ridiculous show Steve and Dustin were putting by trying to get into the air ducts. “Just pull the boy down before someone gets hurt.”

“He can’t get hurt. He’s missing bones like Gumbo.”

“Like what?” you tilted your head.

“He means Gumby,” Dustin corrected, grabbing hold of Steve’s shoulders as he got hoisted out of the vent, “and that’s not how cleidocranial dysplasia works, Steve. I’m missing collarbones, not nerves.”

“Whatever,” Steve said. “We just need some else who could fit in there.”

Just as Steve said those words, Robin burst in the backroom, looking like she had an epiphany for the second time today. You were beginning to think she was the reason how Steve and Dustin had gotten this far. Behind her stood Lucas’ younger sister, Erica. Ah, the epiphany.

It only took the rest of the day of convincing her. The kid knew how to play hard ball. You’d give her that. She wouldn’t take anything less than ice cream for life. Frankly, you’d do the same.

You waited until the mall closed, though Robin and Steve cleared up Scoops Ahoy a few minutes early. So far, your parents were a no show, though you assumed that they didn’t think you would be hiding in the backroom of a very crowded mall. Frankly, they probably wouldn’t even believe you that you were infected with a monster from an alternate dimension and would rather help your friends with a Russian invasion than go to the hospital.

“Free ice cream for life,” Erica smirked smugly as soon as the thick sliding doors – actually odd for a simple storage room – slid open for us.

It didn’t take much snooping to find vats of glowing neon green vats of unknown substances hidden in regular delivery boxes. Without much thought, you grabbed one and made your way to the door. “Let’s just go before someone catches us.”

Again, the universe… just hated us.

“Uhh, which one do I press, Erica?” Dustin asked, insistently pressing the “OPEN” button.

Panic began to rise among all of us as mechanical whirring buzzed between the walls. Between that and the fact that we were trapped, we definitely knew we were screwed. While all of them fussed over the buttons that were no longer working, you stepped back, feeling something prickle under your skin.

“Just open the door!” Robin cried out, echoing into someone… something different.

Open the door.

Open the door!

Open the goddamn door!

Suddenly, you were on fire. You barely noticed your screams rising over everyone else’s. You fell to the floor, convulsing in agony as flashes of different people appeared in your head as if you were them. An old lady in a hospital bed, Heather, her parents, so many people who barely even knew in Hawkins… then Billy.

It was quiet with him. You saw flashes of a beautiful blonde woman calling out to him, her face concealed in a sunhat, then the beach with sand in between your toes. There was a moment of peace and tranquillity, and like someone playing a sick joke, you were in a dark place, standing in Billy’s place in front of people who were lifelessly standing still right in front of something. Something that you didn’t recognize but was so familiar to you, inside you.

He made me do it. It’s like a shadow, like a giant shadow. Please believe me, Max.

“Billy, it’s gonna be okay,” Max’s voice echoed in his head as if it were yours.

“It’s gonna be okay,” a different voice filtered through from all the noise.

“She’s unconscious. How is her inhaler going to help?” “I’m pretty sure that’s a seizure, nerd.” “Check for a pulse, Steve.”

Your consciousness fell right back on you like a pile of bricks. Your eyes fluttered open to see Steve hovering over you with your inhaler tucked between your lips. Once your eyes locked with his caramel ones, a huge wave of relief washed over his face as he pulled you into his arms.

“Oh, my God,” Steve gasped, clutching on to you for dear life. “Don’t scare me like that.”

“Get… out.”

Steve tensed and pulled away to look at you. “What?”

You weakly pulled up your – actually Steve’s shirt up to your ribs, revealing angry black veins that were now crawling over your torso. You cried out and clutched at you. “Get it out!”

“Holy sh– what the hell is that?!”

You rolled to the side and fell into a coughing fit, your back hunched over. Your nails clawed at your throat, feeling something trying to crawl itself out. Whatever happened somewhere in Hawkins pissed off the plants inside you, and you can feel them twisting and curling throughout your torso.

With much straining and the remaining oxygen in your lungs, you managed to pull out the parasite from your oesophagus. The action made Dustin and Robin gag in the corner, while Steve and Erica warily looked at the slithering vine with a fully bloomed flower you dropped on the floor, leaving a trail of blood and black goo.

“You guys, by any chance, have a lighter?” you panted, pressing your cheek against the cold metal floor for any cool relief you can take.

Silence told you no. You hoisted yourself up with much difficulty and leaned back into the crate then immediately had an idea. Albeit, a bad one. With shaky knees, you got on your feet and lifted the vat of green goo that rolled away when you dropped unconscious. You looked for the right twist to open the container when Dustin stopped you.

“What are you doing?”

“We have to kill it,” you said nonchalantly. “I mean, I could just drink this to get it over with, but I don’t want to die that quick.”

“Are you…?” Then Dustin’s eyes widened. “That day. You were… because you saved me.”

“Wait, wait, are any of you nerds explaining what’s going on?” Erica interrupted.

You sighed. “Monster,” you pointed at the vine. “Infected,” you pointed at yourself. “Must kill monster with something. Preferably fire.”

“You killed one of those before?” Robin asked.

“It was smaller last night,” you shrugged, finding the latch to open up the vat. “Hot water took care of that sucker easily.” Twisting the lid a certain way, it clicked and released. “Aha!” you exclaimed. “This is gonna hurt.” You eyed the goo apprehensively.

Then Steve snatched the lid and sealed back the vat. “There has got to be a way to do this without you in pain,” he said.

“We don’t have time, and we’re stuck here in a metal box with a monster crawling towards Erica’s sneaker!”

“Why are you yelling?!”

“I’m not yelling!” you shouted. Then you turned to Dustin with a much softer voice. “How did Will get rid of his the last time?”

“Space heaters, a lot of them,” Dustin answered. “Anything from the Upside Down hates the heat, including D’Art.”

“Well, we’re not waiting until you cough all the flowers out, so I say we dump you into a hot tub and crank the heat to full,” Steve suggested, keeping the vat out of reach. “Once we get out of here, of course.”

“Boiling her alive,” Dustin scoffed. “That’s genius, Steve.”

“Or,” Robin interrupted, “we just use the same space heaters. It worked before, so it might work again now.”

“Thank you,” you said, pointedly looking at Steve. “At least someone is trying not to kill m—” Suddenly, your lungs were set aflame as you dropped into a heap on the cold floor, convulsing in agony with your mouth open in an open scream. You briefly heard Erica speaking before ultimately passing out.

“What? You only kept one of that green acid away from us. At least the monster’s dead.”

After passing out for the second time that night, you seemed to be sleeping much longer, but when you woke up, it wasn’t much of a surprise to hear Dustin and Steve still bickering. You opened your eyes to see Steve’s legs hanging from the ceiling. Again, not a surprise.

Probably nothing else would surprise you at this point.

“Shh! Jesus Christ!” Steve hissed before disappearing entirely to the top of the elevator.

Now that spiked your curiosity.

Robin was preoccupied with Erica, and both of them didn’t even notice that you were awake. You sat up and climbed on the stacked boxes leading up to the opening on the elevator ceiling. The burning in your ribs and your shortness of your breath was easier to ignore now that you were too lightheaded to actually feel the discomfort. Still, you managed to poke your head out the opening, accidentally ending up eavesdropping.

“I heard you guys talking all night,” Dustin whispered to Steve before his eyes landed on you. He winced and shot you an apologetic look.

Steve turned and saw you by his feet, making him jump in surprise. “What are you doing up?!” he scolded. “You scared all of us last night. I thought Erica killed you.”

“Gee, your welcome!” Erica called out from inside.

“’Last night’? It’s morning?”

Dustin smiled emptily. “Yeah,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’ve been trying to reach anyone on the radio since the mall is open. I think we’re too far down though.”

“Okay, take Dustin down with you please,” Steve said, facing the wall. “I’m gonna take a leak.”

“First of all, ew. Second, good morning,” you said, hopping back down with Dustin right behind you.

“This is one looong sleepover,” Steve called out before the sound of a stream hitting the ceiling echoed inside the elevator. “Two nights of being your personal pillow!”

“Two nights?” you muttered to yourself. “Was I with Steve the other night?” you turned to ask Dustin, who gave you a weird look.

“You stayed over his place, and he drove you to the mall, remember?”

“He did?”

“Hey!” Robin called out. “We have company.”

One fight with a Russian later, which Steve won – finally – you and the rest of the group snuck into the comms room of the secret Russian base and found out why your lungs had been reacting different once you walked further down that tunnel.

“The gate.”

You, Steve, and Dustin looked at each other in horror before turning back to the machine that was trying to pry open the gate that El had shut down last year. It was your first time seeing it, but the same dark familiarity was tugging from the deepest part of your mind. There was no reason to dwell on it, so you tugged Dustin and Steve, urging them to leave and quickly warn the others as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, leaving was harder than getting in. Guards were alerted, and all of us were sent into running. It ultimately sent us to the direction of the gate itself with Dustin almost running into the laser machine that was opening the gate if it wasn’t for you tugging the back of his shirt collar.

You didn’t like being that close to the gate. Between the soldiers yelling and Steve barking which way to run, a louder voice was whispering crystal clear voices inside your head. You surrendered to the voices for one second to try and understand what they were saying, which proved to be your mistake.

In that one second, you were teleported to an incredibly vivid memory of meeting Steve for the first time.

“Sweetie, say hi to Mrs. Harrington and Steve.”

Your hand curled into a fist on the hem of your mother’s dress. It wasn’t the first time you saw Steve Harrington. Your classmate pointed who Steve was when he passed you at the hallways of Hawkins’ Elementary. She boasted that her older sister was Steve’s “girl friend” after he kissed her during recess yesterday.

You didn’t know what any of that meant, but when you glanced at Steve Harrington, you thought he was the prettiest boy you ever seen. Steve Harrington was exactly what you imagined the princes looked like that your mother read to you at bedtime.

And now, you were at their front door because your mom worked with his mom, and Mrs. Harrington thought it would be nice to have her and you over for tea.

And Steve was still the prettiest boy you ever seen.

You were catatonic while staring up into the gate opening.

While the rest of the guards were chasing after Steve and the others, the scientists urged that the guards don’t touch you, seeing that your pupils had turned entirely black. Your exposed neck revealed raised veins that they could tell were black even under the dim, unsteady lighting in the lab.

Your blank state was finally broken when the Russians took you in a secluded room, further away from the gate. Your mind was wildly fuzzy as if you were in the middle of sinking badly in your own subconscious. You inner daze didn’t last long when the door opened again, and Steve and Robin were dragged in and also cuffed like you were.

“What happened to you there?” Steve said in a low tone. “You just froze.”

The soldier didn’t like the chit-chat and struck Steve across the face. The sound was loud enough to echo in the room that you winced upon impact. “No talking!” he spat in a thick accent. “Now, who do you work for?”

“I’m confused,” Steve said, trying to sound unphased from the hit. “Do I not talk or do I tell you who I work for?”

That earned him another hit.

~

“We have many stories of monsters from where I’m from.”

“So do we,” you groaned at the man pacing the room. “You’re not that special, dude.”

Robin and Steve were taken away over half an hour ago, mostly likely for their own interrogation. So far, on your end, this soldier has done nothing but talk your ear off about stories from where he grew up while you were strapped in an examination chair.

“I suppose you know about flowers that grow on lungs?” The surprised look on your face told him everything he needed to know. “No one knows where they come from,” he said, “… until now.” He leaned in close to you. “You are very important test subject.”

“Not for long,” you said spitefully. “I’m dying anyway.”

“Well, I suppose you will be buried in Russian soil by then,” he said, sending chills in your spine. “But now, I need to see the flowers itself.”

Your breathing quickened at the thought being sliced open.

But…

They wanted you alive enough to bring you to Russia. That meant…

“Steve!” Your eyes widened at the sight of him as they dragged him inside the room and dropped him in a heap on the floor. Your heart clenched at the blood streaked all over his mouth and his eye swollen shut. “What did you do to him?”

The soldier and the rest of the guards merely looked at you struggling from where you were restrained while Steve remained unresponsive on the floor. The soldier looked displeased at the results before him and barked out another order. Soon enough, Robin was also dragged inside the room, and similar to you, she was as distraught at the sight of him beaten up.

Then… they just left the three of you in the room alone.

“What do they want?” Robin asked. “We told them everything, and you’re the only one not strapped with us.”

You gulped. “They, uh, they know what’s wrong with me.”

That gained Steve’s attention. With much difficultly, he raised his head and slurred out, “They’re not taking you, and we’re getting out of here.”

“Right,” you snorted. “Unless you have a way of getting to those scissors and cutting yourselves free, I’m on the next flight to Russia by the end of the day.”

“Those morons. They left scissors here?” Steve scoffed.

“I think that if we move at the same time, we could get over there, and then maybe I could kick the table and knock them into your lap,” Robin said, her voice rising with desperation. “So, on the count of three, we’re gonna hop.”

You smiled as hope bubbled when they succeeded the first two swivels. But on the third, the chair legs slid, knocking them both on the floor. Robin, who had her back to you, began shaking. At first, you and Steve thought she was crying, until her quiet giggles turned into full-on laughter.

“I’m sorry,” Robin laughed, trying to contain herself, “but I just can’t believe I’m gonna die in a secret Russian base with Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington, while his girlfriend gets shipped off to another secret lab in Russia.”

“We’re not gonna die,” Steve huffed, “and she’s not my girlfriend, okay?”

“Gee, we’re tied up and have no hopes of escaping, and you choose to correct that?” you snarked at him.

There was a moment of quietness, mostly just to collect our wits, but Robin was the one to speak up again. She talked about Mrs. Click, our history teacher. Turns out she had been in the same class as Steve for the longest time, remembering every detail about him.

Just like you.

“Do you even remember me from that class?” Robin said, her voice lowering into a whisper. “It didn’t matter that you were an ass.”

And her next words just crushed you.

“I was still… obsessed with you.”

There was nothing else to do but watch as Steve’s eyes — well, eye — softened. In that moment, you felt like you were in someone else’s moment, just an audience. But wasn’t that what you always have been in Steve’s life?

“You know, I wish I’d known you in Click’s class,” Steve said, a fond smile growing on his lips. “Maybe instead of being here, I’d be on my way to college right now.”

Last semester, you wrote two of his history papers just so his grades would be high enough for him to play during the basketball playoffs.

“And I would have no idea that there were evil Russians beneath our feet,” Robin chuckled, “and I would be happily slinging ice cream with some other schmuck.”

“Gotta say, though, I liked being your schmuck.”

And there it was…

The burning in your lungs intensified, sending you in a painful fit of coughs. It was hard enough not to curl over because of the restraints on your chest. There was no way to claw at your throat or to grasp at your chest from the twisting pain.

You were too engrossed in trying not to choke from blood and black goo that you didn’t notice the door open. A different scientist came in, this time more sinister-looking, and leaned over you. “I knew it,” he smiled. “He feeds the flowers inside you.”

“W-wha…?” you managed to gasp out. “P-please… can’t… br-brea-eathe… In.... inhal-er.”

In the midst of the black spots tinting your vision, you barely made out a jet injector and something bright blue before you heard Steve yell out and everything went dark.

“… up. Wake up!”

You opened your eyes to see Dustin’s face. “Am I dreaming?”

“Come on! We have to go!”

You were so groggy that you followed Erica and Dustin to a hijacked mini-truck with Steve and Robin giggling along. Both their antics only heightened when we finally ascended back up to the mall. Steve couldn’t stop booping Dustin, while Robin was saying stuff about food and death.

“Did they give you something too?” Erica asked me.

“They probably took something instead,” you rasped out, feeling your throat. “They baited one out and pulled it out while I was trying not to choke to death.”

“Where is it now?” Dustin turned to me, smacking away Steve’s finger from booping his nose again.

“How the hell should I know? I was tied up!” you scowled at him.

“We just saved your asses!” Erica and Dustin chimed back at your tone.

The bickering didn’t end until you were all forced to be quiet as you hid in a cinema that was showing ‘Back to the Future.’ Once upon a time, it seemed to be a fun movie to watch with the kids, maybe even with El, but now, you could barely keep your knees from fidgeting as your eyes constantly watched between Michael J. Fox and the cinema doors for any evil Russians.

It wasn’t long when your lungs began burning again. You didn’t feel the need to cough this time, but it didn’t stop for a metallic taste bursting in your mouth. You grabbed an empty popcorn bag nearby and spat into the paper. Even under the dark theatre, you could see that it was mostly blood now.

You were out of time.

~

“Jesus, you look far worse than El.”

You shot Max a very unfriendly look. “The girl who just pulled a monster out of her leg using your mind powers?” You glanced at El who was cuddled up with Chief Hopper while Mrs. Byers attended to the open wound on her leg.

“Well, both you are bleeding out of your noses, and you are also growing monsters inside you.”

“ERICA!” you screeched while furiously wiping your nose.

“Just the facts!”

“What?!” Everyone else in the party, including the adults, chorused.

“You’re dying,” Will said as if he could still tell. He gave you a look of empathy and a little bit of familiarity. You knew he went through a similar thing last year, and it somehow made you less scared that he was here with you.

You nodded solemnly. “I don’t have much time,” you admitted. “It grows faster the closer I am to the gate… or when I feed it.”

“’Feed it’?” Max asked.

“We don’t have to talk about that,” you waved her off. At this point, you were just desperate to stay alive. All of you were so, so close. “If we close the gate, we can cut off all connections, right?”

“Theoretically,” Lucas added.

Since there was no other option but that, we all based our plan on that ‘theory.’ A man named Murray, who also got into a tiff with Erica, came in with a map of the underground Russian base from a guy named Alexei. With the goals in place, everyone began splitting off into groups.

“You’re coming with us, right?” Steve asked.

You bit your lip as you shook your head. “I’m staying with the girls,” you said. “You go with Dustin and Robin to Cerebro.” At the sight of his worried look, you added, “I’ll be okay.”

Steve shot you a scowl. “Don’t die without me.”

“Hard promise to keep,” you smirked, smacking his hand away from ruffling your already messy hair. Your fingers tangled with Steve’s, and he ended up holding your hand completely. “Don’t die first, Steven.”

Steve chuckled and was about to pull away when you tugged his hand back.

“Hey, Steve.”

“Yeah?”

“I know you and Robin…”

When you trailed off, Steve raised his brows at you, urging you to continue.

You shook your head, waving it off. “You guys just got drugged,” you reminded him. “Drive safely.”

“You say that as if I don’t have any experience from partying.”

“That isn’t comforting at the very least.” Then... you let go.

~

Turns out that it wasn’t just the gate that was triggering the growth.

When the Spider Monster burst through the glass ceiling for Starcourt Mall, the flowers in your lungs reacted the same way when Billy had grabbed you at the Holloway’s. It was one thing to lead the monster away from El, but it was another thing to be hunched in the trunk space of the Wheeler’s hatchback with said monster chasing you down the road.

“The answer to a never-ending story…”

You laughed at the song number from the radio in between coughs. “That definitely takes the sting out of dying,” you said. You can only imagine Erica’s face during this whole ordeal.

“Don’t say that.”

You looked at Steve in deadpan. You kept eye contact as you spat blood and body matter into an empty soda cup you found discarded in the car. It was a low-blow towards him, you knew that, and he didn’t deserve it.

But you were so tired, and you were so mad at yourself for always being late, for being cowardly.

So, when Jonathan turned the car to follow the Spider Monster that turned back to the mall, you immediately hopped off and went looking for El instead of going with them to set off the fireworks. Steve, as expected, put up a fight, insisting that you all stick together.

“I won’t go near it,” you reasoned. “I’m finding El and getting her out of here, while you keep it distracted.” When he looked unconvinced, you added, “The fireworks will also distract Billy. It’s going to be okay.”

“That isn’t comforting at the very least,” Steve said, making you laugh at your early words being thrown back at you.

“Hey!”

You turned to see Nancy Wheeler toss a bundle of fireworks at you. At your raised brow, she shrugged, “Just in case.”

Following a broken gate not too far from where Steve rammed Billy’s car, you found an employee’s corridor where Max and Mike passed out nearby with angry bruises on their faces. You rushed over for Max and shook her awake. Her eyes immediately shot open.

“Billy, it was Billy,” Max said, panicked. “He took El. You have to go. I’ll take care of Mike. Go!” She staggered to her feet, gripping the pipes for stability.

“I can’t go near him or that thing.” You hesitated leaving Max, but when she yelled at you again to go for El, you turned your feet and broke off into a run. Then the fireworks began…

“Fuck!” you screamed, falling to your knees. Every corner of your body was set ablaze. You cried out as the flowers inside you constricted with every blast.

Max and Mike quickly caught up to you, pulling you to your feet. Suddenly, it was quiet, and a wave of calm washed over you. You saw a beautiful woman in a sundress and a hat by the beach. It wasn’t your memory, but it was being returned to someone after being taken away. Billy.

“She was pretty,” you could hear El cry in your head. “She was really pretty.”

Taking advantage of the situation, you sped through the corridor and into the mall. You found Billy beginning to stand up to the Spider Monster. “When I make a run for it, you grab El and get her out of here, okay?”

“What? You just said you can’t face that thing!” Mike told you.

“Just do it!” You pushed your feet as fast as you could to face the monster.

“No!” Billy roared, grabbing the monster’s tentacle mouth to stop it from reaching El.

Seeing your opportunity, you quickly pulled the taped matchstick from the bundle and ignited the fireworks. Swinging your arm back, you flung it as hard as you could into the monster’s mouth. Right as soon as the explosive left your hand, you caught incoming smaller tentacles headed for Billy’s side, slinging two of them to your side from the crook of your elbow.

“I got you,” you said out of breath, seeing Billy’s surprised face. However, your fight had the monster targeting you, sending two other tendrils to your side instead. You barely felt it, even as its sharp tongue stabbed into your abdomen.

Touching the Spider Monster was as worse as looking straight into the Gate. You cried out as flashes of memories of you and Steve, growing up through the years, bombarded you, while the flowers inside you began crawling outside your ribs instead. You barely heard the last firework go off as you felt the vines throbbing under your skin.

An arm wrapped around your waist and pulled your unmoving feet, dragging you away. Your spotted, blurred vision could only see a head of dark blonde curls with a massive dark mass in the background screeching in agony.

“It’s over. It's supposed to be over!" you heard Max’s muffled voice say. “What’s wrong with her?!” You felt hands on your shoulder, shaking you to snap out of it.

“Steve,” you breathed out. You tried to focus on Max, but with a blink, you were trapped back in your memories. Steve telling you to go home every time as he led a different girl up the stairs to his room. Steve dropping you off while thanking you for picking out a gift for Nancy. Watching him smile ever so fondly at Robin. Seeing the smile that you so desperately desired every time.

All the memories of Steve breaking your heart, you felt all at once.

You continued to unconsciously call out Steve’s name. Even when the paramedics began wheeling you out in a stretcher. You vaguely saw them cutting your shirt open, exposing the gore that was concealed by the fabric.

The black vines had reached out on the surface of your skin. The outline of your ribs was exposed, threading black and purple angry bruises over your torso. The right side of your ribcage had completely sank, one rib twisting outwards and leaking a mix of blood and black goo. The damage was extensive, but the monster you grew and fed inside you seemed to be finally lying still, only remaining dormant once the gate was sealed once again.

“… -eral broken ribs and possible internal bleeding!” a paramedic called. “One of her lungs has collapsed. She's in shock!”

Then Steve was there. You couldn’t tell if it was a memory or if it was happening at that moment. He was struggling against two firemen, trying to get to you with one hand reaching out. With the last bit of energy left, you raised your hand, reaching out towards him too.

“Steve…”

[sammyboyimagines]

A Friend From Work pt. 4

Pairing: Older!Steve x Reader

Summary: Steve is confronted by your father, and he is given two options. Will he regret his choice? 1.7k words

Warnings: mention of smut so just in case 18+ MINORS DNI, mention of sex, breakup, angst, sadness/hurt, swearing, idk what else.

//this is gonna be a 5 part fic. I am making this story into a book on wattpad too! It will be a more detailed and slightly improved plot only available on Wattpad! Requested by the lovely @its-quinns-bread

"Say hi to your dad for me." Steve helped you out of his car, his hand clutching yours. "You better hope he doesn't beat your ass tomorrow when you come into work." you laugh, grabbing his collar and pulling him into a quick kiss. The thought of your father seeing you kissing his best friend frightened you a little, but Steve was there to comfort those fears.

"Hey, no matter what happens, I'm here." he gave you a soft warm smile, glancing at the dim lights in your house from the windows. "Maybe you could come to work with me. He won't hurt me in front of his daughter," he smirks. You roll your eyes. "Fine, but only because I wanna be there to see him chew you out."

"Goodnight, Y/n," he says in a whisper, his large hands holding you against him. "Goodnight, Steve." you smile and manage to break away from his grasp as you approach your doorstep.

You went to bed with your stomach full of butterflies and your head full of memories of how soft he was around you, how his kisses felt, and how much appreciation he had for you.

You went to work with your father under the guise of "helping out". But when you practically skipped over to Steve's desk, it told him everything he needed to know. You were dating his best friend.

"Hi, sweetheart. Can you help me sort these papers? I have so much other work to do since I took that week off. The things I do for you.." he chuckles. You simply nod and take the folders and stacks of papers. "My dad is watching us like a hawk so if I were you, I wouldn't get touchy." you laugh when he pouts. "But you look so delicious, it's unfair that I can't touch what's mine…" he frowns. You roll your eyes and smack his arm with one of the folders. "You're not helping the situation!" you laugh.

After working on sorting and organizing random papers that have little to no meaning to you, you went for a bathroom break. Your father took this as his moment to approach Steve. "Steve. A word please?" he points to an empty office used for holding storage and any extra items for safekeeping. "Mr. L/n. You don't need to worry-"

"Just shut your damn mouth. Where the hell do you get off going after my daughter? You're a fucking maniac if you think I'm letting you manipulate her like this." he was so angry his face was turning red. Your father was mad because he knew how Steve was in his past. A player. But was he playing with you or was he serious?

"Look, you obviously want what's best for her. But you have to understand that I have no reason to hurt your daughter. She's beautiful, and I treat her well! I don't know why you're angry at me! We've grown up together! Would I honestly leave her high and dry like that?" Steve tried to pull himself together. He knew you'd hate it if you heard the fight.

"Yes! You would absolutely abandon her after you got bored. You're gonna dump her like the other dozens of women you've only dated for one month!" Steve's past was often what kept him back. He used to be a womanizer, a different woman on his arm each week. And he's been trying for years to prove that he's changed.

Steve's hands grew clammy as your father chewed him out, just like you both expected he would. "You know what would knock some fucking sense into your head? If I told our boss. He'd like to know how you steal money from right under his nose." Steve went pale at the thought of losing his job. It would surely get him fired.

"No, you can't tell him! I swear to god I'm gonna treat her right, man!" Steve tried to keep his composure throughout the whole ordeal. "She's 22, let her do whatever the hell she wants!" Steve kept his voice at a whisper despite the heated argument unfolding.

"But you're a player, Steve. You've never thought about settling down, marrying, or having kids. I don't want her to be just another woman for you to abandon. Because that's what you do." your father said, pointing his finger in Steve's face.

"You don't fucking know me! You don't know how I feel, have I hurt your daughter yet? I've known her for a month and I've been nothing but nice to her! I've changed." he crosses his arms.

"No. Nobody can change that much. Either you break it off and tell her this was a mistake or I'm telling our boss and you can say goodbye to your cushy job, Steve." Steve felt sick to his stomach. He knew this would wreck you, but losing his job would be detrimental to his life. His job was all he had.

"Dude, I've known you for years. I would never do this to her. You know me." Your dad laughed to himself. "I don't know you. After that stunt you pulled when I got home and saw you two, I don't know you. You're not my friend, you're a fucking creep. Break it off or I ruin you." your dad stormed out, seeing you standing by the door.

"What happened? What did you say to him?" you grabbed your father's arm, to which he yanked it away from you. Your father didn't hold any hatred for you, however, he was very disappointed. That was somehow worse. "I don't want to talk to you. But he has something to say to you, don't you, Harrington?" your father gave Steve a stern look.

Steve looked upset, his face was flushed from the heated argument that could have cost him his job. Steve took you back into the empty office. "Y/n, I need to say something. I know you're not gonna like this, but it has to be said." Steve spoke in a soft voice.

"What did he say to you?" you approached him, but he backed away from you. He knew that if he had you in his arms he wouldn't have the heart to say anything. "This is my choice, Y/n. I was stupid to think this would work." he starts, but you've already heard enough.

"No, we can just keep it a secret! You don't have to do this, I thought you liked me?" you were confused. Just yesterday, he was cuddling you in his warm bed and whispering sweet nothings into your ear until you fell asleep.

"This was a mistake, Y/n! You need to understand that this will never work! We're too different, and you know it! Everything we've done was a mistake, we never should have done this." It was breaking his own heart to say this.

"Did he threaten you? Is that why you've just switched on me? I spent a week at your goddamn house and you're saying all of it was a mistake?! You bought me clothing!" you couldn't believe it. How could he be so stupid?

"I could lose my job, Y/n. Think, for once in your life, think about the consequences of this relationship. We were a mistake, the sooner you realize that the better." you felt tears prick at your eyes as you fought the urge to slap him in the face.

"Seriously? You'd rather keep your stupid job? You think I'm stupid because I don't realize the consequences?" you were yelling at him at this point. "No! You're an asshole! I don't care about the consequences because I like you, I want to be with you! You wanted to be with me, why am I a mistake? Am I just another notch in your bedpost?" you didn't realize you were crying until you felt tears run down your face.

Steve wasn't showing any reaction. "I don't need you anymore, I have to keep my job. You can leave if you want, I don't need your help anymore. I think it's best if we don't see each other anymore." Your father was watching from the window. If he could, Steve would apologize profusely until you were gracious enough to take him back. He desperately wanted to tell you that none of it was his idea. He wanted to fight it, but he couldn't imagine losing his job over someone he met months ago. No matter how important you were to him.

You couldn't respond, trying desperately to hold onto your last shred of dignity. You shoved past him to the door and walked out, grabbing your stuff from his desk as fast as you possibly could. You ignored how your stomach sank when you remembered how sweet he was just 10 minutes ago.

Your father stopped you from leaving. "You don't have a ride, sweetheart." the nickname reminded you of Steve, and you felt tears pricking at your eyes. "I'll find one. Please just let me go home." you shifted uncomfortably in your heels, trying to hold back sobs.

Your father brought you to his car and offered to drive you home. "We need to talk, I think this is what's best for you-"

"You don't get to decide that! Threatening to get him fired? Why can't you just let me be!" you shouted at him, all of these sudden emotions just pouring out of you.

"He's a bad guy, Y/n. Do you know how many women he's hooked up with who were exactly like you? Naive, innocent, pretending to be rebellious. You don't know him like I do!" you scoffed and turned away from him, watching the trees go by in a blur as your father drove home. "Let me make that mistake for myself! What if he had good intentions? Don't you want me to be happy!?" he rolled his eyes.

"Of course, Y/n. But this is what's best. The sooner you realize that the better. " when you arrived home, you practically sprinted inside. Slamming your door like an angry teenager, you cried into your pillow.

You remembered what it was like to go on drives with Steve. His hand would be holding your thigh, inching up your mini skirt to press his fingers against your heat as he accelerated, his eyes on the road as if he wasn't turned on by the way you moaned and sucked on a cherry lollipop.

Steve was nothing like your dad's description, he was kind, sweet, and comforting. But then again, he left you for his job.

[joanasallinger]

Sebastian was reminiscing his last year in Hogwarts.

On his 17th birthday, Ominis and Joana had thought of a special present for him. It had been their last year at Hogwarts and while the last two years at school weren't always easy, they probably had the best time of their life.

His friends had planned a party for him in the dungeons of the castle. Ominis had successfully kept him occupied throughout the day before leading him down to the dungeons in the evening.

They were all there, all of his friends. They jumped towards him beaming with joy and shouted "surprise!" as he walked in.

He was blown away and happier than he had been in a long time.

They gave Sebastian a book. But not just any book: a book full of memories of good times. Full of photos of his friends, from past parties, pranks they had played on each other and photos from all classes.

Ominis had enchanted some photos. He couldn't see them, but his other senses were all the more heightened. So he had tagged some of the photos that Joana had described to him with the appropriate smells, sounds and - thanks to Garreth's help - even euphoria. Garreth had never stopped brewing new potions and had actually - probably uniquely in his experimental potions art - managed to brew a tonic that caused an exhilaration as soon as Sebastian touched the photos. They had soaked a few photos in it and to everyone's surprise the effect persisted even after all these years. A pleasant feeling flowed through Sebastian whenever he touched the right pictures.

In addition, Garreth had written down a few potion recipes, Natty had written a motivating story, Poppy had decorated pages and pages with different feathers and furs, to which she had added some explanations and the hint that the phoenix feather is a special lucky charm.

Imelda had written flying tips in the book and was so meticulous in her details that it filled several pages. Amit had filled five pages with Gobbledegook. To this day, Sebastian didn't know what it meant. However, Amit had also drawn a star map into it.

Even Leander had made an entry. He had put some quotes from “Mastering Dueling” in the book with a comment that he would always be superior to Sebastian. As Sebastian read that, he burst out laughing and, by the time completely drunk, had a duel with Leander the same evening. He could hardly remember it, but in the end he and Leander hugged each other. Neither of them had done a particularly good job that evening. So all they could do was keep drinking and insulting each other while laughing about it at the same time. Joana and Ominis tried to keep them on their feet, but they all fell to floor in the end and started laughing like maniacs.

Sebastian sighed. He missed those happy days.

—————

I really wanted to make some happy Sebastian pics. :)

(sorry if it‘s not written perfectly, english is not my mother tongue. So I‘m probably missing aesthetics when writing)

Edit: If you take my photos, please leave a credit for me as the creator. They have been shared much lately - my fault for not putting a Logo on it. :)

[mageofseven]

When Heat Cools: A MephistoMC Love Story

Chapter 6

Taglist: @astroseuss @fcxyviixen @jar-of-moondust @marvelous-maniac @ghost-mint @darkflowerav @missloserqueen

The couple stayed back at the castle to drink tea with the prince.

It was mainly MC who chatted and laughed along with Diavolo while Mephisto only spoke when appropriate.

The nobleman still cared for his old friend, but he didn't really know how to act with his after all this time. Every smile and laugh from the other man formed a knot in Mephisto's chest, only for a look towards his happy, less stressed girlfriend to take it away again.

As much as the prince and human enjoyed the tea time in the garden, all good things must come to an end.

"Well this has been great time." Dia smiled at the couple. "Despite the reason for your visit, I am very happy to have spent my break with you both."

"Same." MC smiled back before frowning. "I...I really haven't been visiting as much as I use to..."

"You have been through a lot lately, my friend. I do not blame you in the slightest." The prince told her before his eyes suddenly lit up and he turned to Mephisto. "Oh! That reminds me. I found something in my room recently that I would like to give you. Would you mind coming with me to retrieve it before you two leave?"

The nobleman blinked in surprised, but nodded.

"Of course, my lord."

And with that, the two men walked off towards the castle, leaving MC in the garden with Barbatos.

"Would you like some more tea as we wait?" He smiled at his friend.

The woman nodded.

As MC watched the butler pour her drink, she bit her lip.

Barb frowned at this.

"MC, I do not wish to see blood from your lip." He lightly scolded his friend as he finished the pour and set the teapot down. "What is on your mind?"

"I..."

Originally, she had just wanted to wait them out on her own but...maybe Barbatos knows something about the visions she has been getting during this pregnancy? This man always seems to know more than you could even guess. And if not...well, Barbatos was more than trustworthy.

"Can I ask you something?" She spoke almost shyly to the butler, causing the man to raise an eyebrow.

"Always, my friend."

MC wrapped her arms around her little belly.

"Since I've been pregnant...I've been...'seeing' things, I guess." She explained softly, gaze on her belly and away from the butler. "I'll have these episodes where my vision goes white, the world goes silent and gradually...some sort of scene forms before me; one I can never understand. Translucent beings move about and make sounds and I can just sense that they are truly talking, but I have no idea what language they speak and..."

The human sighed before looking up at her friend.

"I had one before Mephisto picked me up earlier and this...'vision', it had a group of dark and light beings dancing in a circle, singing a melody I had never heard before but somehow...somehow I still feel as if I do know it or at least did? And since I heard it earlier, it's like the sound never went away, like it's still vibrating throughout my very being...do I sound insane?"

The demon's face was composed, even more so than usual, which made the poor woman afraid that she made a mistake in bringing up the subject.

He pursed his lips.

"Not at all." He assured. "However...if the reason for this is what I suspect it is, I am unsure if you are truly blessed or cursed."

MC froze.

"W-Why? What's wrong with me?" She asked. "Is my baby okay--"

"You are both fine." He assured once more. "This is not something that should cause you or your child any health concerns."

"Then...what's wrong with me?"

"First, I must ask that you trust me." Barb kept eye contact with her as he slid off a glove. "I would like to use a special type of magick on you, but not without your permission."

"W-What kind of magick?"

The woman was taken aback by the direction this conversation had taken and was somewhat frightened by how serious the conversation felt now.

Barb's eyes softened.

"A form of ancient magick, ancient even by demon terms." His lips were in a gently frown. "It will allow me to interact with your soul, check its very state. This is...truthfully, a dangerous magick when in the wrong hands, but I assure you that I am more than skilled with it or else I would not even think to attempt such on you."

MC could only stare at her friend speechless. How did she get from laughing and drinking tea with Diavolo to Barbatos needing to use dangerous magick on her soul because of her visions? How did her day make this turn?

Still, this man has been her friend for many years. Hell, Barb literally saved her life back in her first year in the Devildom. If she could trust anyone to do something apparently so dangerous but important, it's him.

"Whatever you need to do." She answered softly.

And so the man leaned in closer, gaze still fixed on the poor woman, and laid his ungloved hand on her chest.

Suddenly, the woman's gaze went white, just like when she has her visions, and silence filled her ears as this sensation of ice came upon her. Not like ice touched her skin or she was flung into an ice bath-- it was as if she herself was the ice. MC knew no better way to describe it.

It was extremely cold and invasive, but surprisingly not the least bit painful. The human did not know this, but that was a testiment to just how truly skilled the butler was in this magick.

The woman knew nothing else in this state but the bright light and the cold.

~

The other two men were in the prince's bedroom.

Diavolo strolled over to his side table and slid open the drawer before pulling out a photo.

"Here~" Dia handed it over to the other man. "There are other copies. I thought you would enjoy this one."

Mephisto took the photo and glanced down at it.

It was a very old photo, kept looking new only by the enchantments on it. In the photo was two small children, Dia and Mephisto, both looking around the age 8 or 9. Dia had a big grin on his face with a tooth missing while Mephisto, with his long purple hair back in a bow like an old timey aristocrat child, hid behind the prince shyly.

It was a whole other life ago. Mephisto didn't even feel like that same child anymore.

Except sometimes he did.

The nobleman pursed his lips before sliding it into his jacket pocket.

"Thank you, my lord."

The prince raised an eyebrow.

"Is everything alright?"

"Of course." He lied. "I simply wish to show this to mi corazón. May we please get back to her?"

Dia laughed.

"You would use Spanish to express your love." He teased. "Let's see...that is 'my heart', is it not?"

The nobleman nodded, a light smile forming on his face.

"That is correct."

"My, how you've changed, my friend." Dia pointed out. "You are a much different man than you were three hundred years ago."

"I did not have her three hundred years ago," Mephisto frowned. "And in truth...I have yet to finish growing. Mi corazón is always helping me see things that I otherwise would not have questioned."

"One of MC's many gifts." The prince agreed. "Now, let us rejoin her so you can take her home, yes?"

And so the two men left the bedroom and headed back out to the garden

Only to be just in time to watch Barbatos take his hand off the woman's chest and MC cry out from the magick's release.

[jennathearcher]

I was tagged by the always wonderful @gellavonhamster to post four characters that make me go "my man, my man, my man!!"

(I've done an images-only version of this post previously, but I'm thrilled to elaborate on WHY I adore said characters here :P)

Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives)

(fanart credit here)

How do I begin to explain Jonathan Archivist? He's flawless :P In all seriousness, Jon is legit one of the best, most complex characters I've ever seen in media, and perhaps one of the first characters to ever make me go "THAT ONE. MINE." XD

The best part is when I first started listening to the podcast, and didn't really know WHERE it was going to go or how big the story was going to become, I had s1 Jon who is kind of an asshole and I was SO frustrated by his skepticism CONSTANTLY XD then the end of s1 rolls around, s2 illustrates a character arc that encapsulates the immediate aftermath of a severe trauma SO well, and by the end of s2, I had my ".....oh. Oh no" moment :P

Jon spends pretty much the rest of the series just GOING THROUGH IT in one way or another, and pretty consistently going "This is fine" about all of it even though he is Very Not Fine :P I want to just wrap this man in a big cozy blanket and TAKE CARE OF HIM. Because Jon goes through so much of his whole storyline.....essentially ALONE and it DRIVES ME BONKERS XD There's a point in this series where Jon has pretty much lost every friend he's ever had and it is HEARTBREAKING.

But also, his transformation throughout the series :P I don't want to go into TOO much detail here for spoiler reasons, but god. Jon has moments especially in the latter half of the series where he is SCARY. HE IS POWERFUL. AND HE IS GODDAMN SEXY :P (my bestie likes to listen to s5 episodes with me and laugh maniacally over me Losing My Shit from sheer simp-itude XD)

Also, bonus points for being a Canon Asexual 8D like me!! <3

Johnny Silverhand (Cyberpunk 2077)

Oh, Johnny, Johnny <3 I pretty much went into this game knowing he was gonna steal my heart, but even then, I was utterly unprepared for just how attached I would become :3

A lot of that is due to playing as a POV character that you essentially craft yourself from the ground up -- prime real estate for a self insert lover like myself XD And despite there being a myriad of colorful characters in the world of Cyberpunk, four of which you can romance, everyone can pretty much agree that Johnny is by far the most important character to the PC, who has the placeholder moniker of V.

The basics of the game's story are that your character, V, is a mercenary in the postapocalyptic world of 2077, and they are betrayed and nearly killed by one of their clients -- their life only being saved due to the presence of a chip they installed in their head during a job, without realizing said chip contained, essentially, the soul of Johnny Silverhand; a rock star turned terrorist who died in 2023.

The main plot of the game focuses on V's attempts to stabilize Johnny's presence in their brain, before the chip eventually overwrites their consciousness and kills them. A lot of that depends on the player's interactions with Johnny throughout the game, but as you can imagine, literally sharing a brain and body with someone can be quite the bonding experience :P

Especially because Johnny is a MESS. He's an alcoholic and drug addict who hides his supreme self-loathing behind a seemingly massive ego -- who talks a big game about his hatred of capitalism but in reality blew up the biggest conglomerate in the city because his girlfriend died (and it was his fault) and he doesn't know how to deal with his feelings.

The moments in the game when Johnny actually opens up to V are CAPTIVATING, certainly in part due to a masterful performance from Keanu Reeves :P This is one of those games that just grabs you with its immersion, and got me genuinely emotional several times during my first playthrough. (One day, I'll get the chance to play it again :P one day XD)

Plus there's also the aspect of building my own personal canon for my V and her relationship with Johnny, and all that adds up to holding a very special place in my heart :3

Gale Dekarios (Baldur's Gate 3)

I. LOVE. THIS. STUPID. WIZARD. SO. DAMN. MUCH.

Of course I jumped onto the BG3 train for Astarion and ended up falling head-over for the character I most commonly heard referred to as annoying :P

A dorky wizard you say? Who's highly autistic coded? Loves books and his cat? Strongly implied to be an abuse survivor at the hands of an older female partner? AND HE'S SUICIDAL??? I didn't stand a fucking chance :P

I just love listening to him talk so much XD and thank god because he never shuts up :P Nothing like a guy who thinks he's the smartest man in the room who is, IN FACT, very very dumb <3

And lest we forget if you keep him around until the third act of the game, he decides his new coping mechanism is SEEKING GODLY POWER like babe please calm down XD

I've done pretty much all of his possible endings so far outside of doing his origin run (aka playing through the whole game as him), and I just. LOVE HIM SO MUCH <3 I'm excited to romance him again, especially since I missed out on stuff the first time XD Every time I start a new playthrough I end up half-romancing him anyway because I CAN'T HELP MYSELF :P ultimately breaking my own heart when I have to commit to the character I originally set out to romance in the first place XD and he's always the first companion I get to the Exceptional approval level :3

that's my emotional support wizard :P and I WILL make him useful by juicing him up with all the good spells, thank you VERY MUCH XD

Black Leg Sanji (One Piece)

You all knew this was coming :P

Hey, you ever casually look at a fun pirate manga here and there as a teenager without ever really getting into it, but you know EXACTLY which character would be your fave and just kinda tuck that away in the back of your mind?

And then some odd years later, that manga gets adapted into an extremely successful and astonishingly well made live action Netflix series that is much more accessible to you than the source material?

And THEN that gets you engaging with more and more of the source material's fan content until you still haven't even watched the anime proper yet and somehow THIS has happened to you??

Anyway moral of the story is that your first instinct as to what character is going to be your favorite it always right no matter what :P OH MY GOD WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME

I just. Love him SO MUCH.

He cooks. He fights by KICKING PEOPLE REALLY HARD. Like SO hard. Hard enough that he can SHATTER CONCRETE WALLS??? WITH HIS HANDS IN HIS POCKETS LIKE HE'S ORANGE CASSIDY.

He smokes CONSTANTLY. He's ALWAYS associated with fire. He LIGHTS HIMSELF ON FIRE FOR COMBAT PURPOSES. And yet he has the most water elemental oriented soul I've EVER SEEN. (and CHRIST HOW IS HE SO FUCKING SHREDDED--)

He's 80% Leg. His EYEBROWS do the fucking THING. He's FRENCH. The extent of his post-timeskip transformation is PARTING HIS HAIR DIFFERENTLY. His name is a PUN. He is AN IDIOT and also SO SMART. He has to have 17 karmic punishments from the narrative before we ever get to his tragic backstory. His adoptive dad ate his own foot.

He's a Hopeless Romantic. He COMPLETELY FORGETS HOW TO ACT every time he so much as Sees A Woman at thirty paces. He gets so many comedic anime nosebleeds that it becomes A PLOT POINT. He has a CODE OF CHIVALRY that actually makes sense kind of (especially once you know his tragic backstory).

Lest we forget to mention that he's part of a FOUND FAMILY!!!! He has SO much love to give and his love language is all of them :P A different one for each person on the crew, as far as I can tell. With Zoro it's "the only person who's allowed to kill you is me, dammit" XD

ALSO!!!!! COME TO FIND OUT HE'S AN ACTUAL FUCKING PRINCE THAT'S JUST CASUALLY THROWN OUT THERE I JUST FLDKJAFLKDAFJLDSAF

I just. Husband Material. HUSBAND. I wanna lock that shit down SO BAD. I'm AS OBSESSED WITH HIM as he is with EVERYONE ELSE and by god I am making it the problem of all of my followers :P

~

tagging (with no pressure) @pink-cenobite @talesfromthecrypts @piratespencil @thebarefootking @damngoodbabysiitter @lady-phasma and anyone else who wants to do the thing!! <3

[smartycvnt]

Habits

Title: Habits Pairing: Kevin Owens x Sami Zayn Prompt: 7. "What happened to us?" "You know what you did." R WC: 701

Seth's warning had been clear as day: Jey and Sami were going to be at the party together. It was an offering for Kevin to decline Becky's invitation to their party. Seth was the only one who really knew the extent of Sami's betrayal on Kevin. The man had been pretending for so long that he didn't care that Sami had stabbed him in the back for Jey. He pretended like he hadn't been carrying the entire weight of their title loss on his own back. Kevin had been pretending so much that he had forgotten how to be honest with himself. Everybody knew that it was only a matter of time before he snapped or broke down, and yet, Kevin was insistent on pretending that absolutely nothing was wrong in the first place.

Kevin realized his mistake in not accepting Seth's out to the party when he pulled up. The event wasn't so much a party as it was a gathering. There were a couple small groups of their friends that they had made throughout their careers. Kevin understood that it was a retirement party, but not the kind that the company liked to throw for people. This was intimate, and suddenly, there was no way Kevin would be able to avoid Sami. Even with as spacious as Seth and Becky's backyard was, Kevin kept seeing Sami in the corner of his eye.

"You know, I always thought you'd call it quits first old man," Seth teased as he clapped Kevin on the back. Kevin had never really tried to cover up his grey hairs, eventually embracing the silver fox look once he was on his own.

"I could keep going forever, not all of us are so fragile," Kevin shot back. Both men paused for a moment before laughing maniacally. It was enough to draw attention, including Sami's. Jey tried to tighten his grip on Sami's hand to keep him from walking off, but it was no use. Sami nervously approached the two men. It had been a long time since he had seen Kevin, the man who had once been his best friend and partner inside and out of the ring. Kevin, the man who Sami had driven off after they lost their titles. Kevin, who had returned back to the independent wrestling scene to remind people that in the decades he spent with the WWE, he hadn't lost a step.

"H-hey guys. Kev, it's been a long time." Sami hadn't been this nervous since his WrestleMania match. Kevin had grounded him that night. Things hadn't been the same since Kevin left, and Sami found that he enjoyed wrestling significantly less whenever Kevin wasn't there. Sami hadn't felt like he had done any impressive storytelling without Kevin there. The fans loved the things that Sami had been doing with Jey and the rest of the former Bloodline members, but without Kevin, there was a big piece of the story missing in Sami's mind. "You look good man."

"Thanks Sami. I've really had to kick it up to stay in step with some of these younger guys out there." The conversation was awkward, so much so that Seth left at the first opportunity. Kevin could feel a few people watching them, including Jey. The two of them had been friendly at one time, but now Kevin couldn't stand the sight of that man. Just like he was certain that Jey hated having to watch Sami and Kevin talking to each other.

"What happened to us?" Sami blurted out. Kevin gave him an incredulous look. Sami had the audacity to look surprised as he stared up at Kevin.

"You know what you did," Kevin said through grit teeth. Sami's face fell a bit, but his eyebrows were still knit with confusion. "And if you don't, then I can't see a way we can patch things up. I can't let you keep hurting me, it'll kill me Sami."

"So that's it?" Sami asked him.

"Yeah, that's it," Kevin answered. "You have Jey, so you don't need me anymore. I'm ready to move on, I want to find someone who is good for me. I want to feel the love I deserve."

[alittledoseofchaos]

Marvelous Miracles (Please Disregard the Ghosts)

Pt. 1.

Next

× Not specials or seasons 4-5 compliant on the MLB side.

× Lots of lore littered throughout.

× Adrien and Marinette were 13 and 12 when Hawkmoth started and it has now been three years. Fu passing on guardianship happened their first year and the akumas got more violent as time wore on.

× Platonic Lovesquare

Ladybug paced the roof she stood on anxiously. She rung her hands. When she finally stopped pacing, she started to rock back and forth on the balls of her feet, a habit the came from a friend of hers. Ladybug groaned; she couldn't believe this was happening because of a rumor.

°•°•°•°•°•°•Earlier that week°•°•°•°•°•°•

It had been a dull morning in Paris. The night before had been interupted by yet another nightmare akuma. Madame Bustier's class was no exception to the exhaustion that plauged the City of Lights. Her students were running on caffeine from various sources and a mountain of spite directed towards a certain butterfly-themed supervillain. The teens barely spoke as they all filed into the dim classroom. Even Chloe Bourgeois sat silent, which was something most had thought impossible.

One girl entered the classroom without a care in the world. She looked around the room with olive-green eyes that were equal parts sly and greedy. The girl's presence demanded attention, whether it was the good or bad kind, most didn't know. Oh, and one of the most important things about her? She lies like most people breathe. This girl's name is Lila Rossi

"G-guys! I just heard that Marinette is Mayura!" Lila cried out. People all around the room wearily rose their heads to look at the girl. Silence filled the room. You could hear a pin drop. Just as Lila started to think she'd gone too far, a sharp laugh rang through the room. That laugh broke the dam and suddenly most of the class was laughing their heads off.

After some time, a short girl with pink hair cleared her throat and tried to contain the wild grin that spread across her face.

"Nice one Lila! Pfft- Marinette is Mayura," Alix said with a chuckle. A new wave of laughs filled the room at that.

"Y'know, the only times Nett has come close to looking like a supervillain was to protect her friends. Li-like-" Nino wheezed. "Like the Halloween Incident."

Most of the class didn't know what that meant, but Kim started to giggle like a maniac. Chloe paled and shook her head. Juleka mumbled something and those around her turned to look at her. With no small amount of shyness, Juleka cleared her throat and spoke up

"I think she was scarier during the Fork Fiasco."

Kim was practically on the floor with laughter at this point and Nino nodded at Juleka's assessment. Lila sat there dumbfounded as the class swapped stories about Marinette losing her temper on their behalf. It was Rose who brought up the the rumor Lila claimed to hear.

"Marinette would only help a villain if they threatened to hurt her loved ones otherwise! She's scary when she's angry, but it comes from a place of concern and love!"

The class hummed their agreements and Lila watched in confusion as nobody voiced any doubt.

"Umm...Guys? I don't think everybody is as sure of Marinette's innocence as we are," Alya said. She stared intently at her phone. Everyone stopped and turned to Alya. "There is an entire article dedicated to this rumor!"

"What!?" Someone shouted. Several of the teens vaulted over their desks to see the article. They made noises of outrage as they read. Lila stared at the group as they started to argue about whether to tell Marinette.

"Marinette should know about this, she'll want to do damage control," Max suggested as he adjusted his glasses.

"We can't tell Marinette about this! She's already so stressed!" Nathaniel argued.

"Tell me what?" Everyone turned towards the doorway. Marinette's eyebrows were furrowed and she eyed Lila with suspicion. Adrien stood beside Marinette and looked around the room hesitantly.

"Well-" Alya began before being cut off by Mylene.

"There's a rumor going around that you're Mayura, and there's an article dedicated to proving it!"

"W-what!?" Marinette rushed towards the group in horror. Adrien right behind her. Marinette grabbed the phone from her friend's hand.

The class had devolved into arguments. Lila was dragged into it at some point, but wasn't doing much. Juleka discussed the ethics of lighting the article author on fire with Marc, who had snuck in to bring Nathaniel a comic script. Rose advocated for talking to the writer instead. Adrien tried his hardest to get everyone to calm down, which didn't work all that well.

It had all gone down hill from there. Marinette had been brought home by a local officer before the rumor became worse. Her parents had to shut down the bakery for the rest of the day. The plan was to release an official statement that stated that there was no proof for the claim, but the universe has always loved messing with Marinette. She couldn't leave the bakery without being harassed by the news or people who demanded she be arrested. Her number and social media blew up with threats. Akumas and akuma victims had both come after her multiple times.

Everyone she knew suggested she leave Paris.

Jagged suggested an old friend to take her in. Seeing no other option, her parents caved.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•The Present°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

Ladybug was brought out of her head by the sound of two people joining her on the roof. She looked up to see Chat Noir and Wonder Woman. She straightened and let her Ladybug persona wash over her fully.

"Ladybug, it is unlike you to summon us so short notice," Wonder Woman started, "what is it that you need?"

"I'm being forced out of Paris." Chat Noir dropped his baton as his hands went slack. Wonder Woman was unreadable, but the unease on Chat Noir's face was as clear as day.

"B-but how will you fight akuma victims? Or purify the akumas?"

"Then it is a good thing Fu gave you the miracle box." Wonder Woman declared, which cut off Ladybug's reply. Both miraculous holders stared at her as if she'd grown a second head. She had been quite vocal about her displeasure with Fu for leaving the miracle box to a child, and her frustration with herself for letting her childhood admiration for the guardians slip into blind trust. She smiled at her young apprentices. "You can use the horse miraculous to teleport over during akumas."

The tension in Ladybug eased as she smacked her face in exasperation.

"Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" She grumbled. Chat Noir looked less panicked now, but there was still a small issue. "But what am I supposed to do if I can't get away to transform? I'm a terrible liar."

"Then don't lie, just stay you watch Paris news to know what's going on with your friends and that your worried about them." Chat Noir suggested. Ladybug weighed the excuse in her head before she nodded.

"Good thinking, little warrior!" Wonder Woman cheered. Both women chattered on and ignored how he was turning as red as Ladybug's suit. Their teasing stopped abruptly as Ladybug noticed that he had zoned out.

"Kitty?" Chat Noir's tail twitched slightly.

"Will you teleport over for patrols and training?" Ladybug grunted in offense.

"Try keeping me away!" Wonder Woman smiled at the young heroes. Nobody in the trio bothered to point out that patrol was more of an excuse to hangout.

"Have you already told your other teacher?" Wonder Woman asked. At Ladybug's nod, she let out a satisfied hum. "Are you still sure that you don't want us to train you at the same time?"

The two teens smirked. Wonder Woman had been making feeble attempts to figure out who the other hero training the duo was for months now. Wonder Woman wasn't worried, she knew the duo was careful, but she wanted to make sure their mystery mentor wasn't being too harsh and maybe she wanted to gush about her babies to someone who knew of their existence.

"Not a chance." Chat Noir said gleefully. Wonder Woman sighed in disappointment. She smiled as the two laughed. They talked on their secluded roof for a long while.

Three days later, Marinette Dupain-Cheng stepped on a plane heading to Gotham city with one last wave to the city she grew up in.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Tomura has grown on me throughout the series. He's my second favorite character in the series, Dabi will always be my favorite. They've been hurt time and time again, beaten down, seen the worst of humanity, but they've still made a family for themselves and are doing everything they can to protect it.

It's funny because in my group of friends I was the last to get into bnha and Iida was my first blorbo.

I remember that as soon as Tomura appeared on screen I new I would get obsessed with him, to the point I silently begged myself to please don't fall AGAIN for the villain. The whole episode I tried really hard to ignore him, until he scratched his neck and then I was doomed. It was the first time I saw a character with a scratching problem that came from his anxiety, something I can identify myself with.

TWO separate groups of friends that were into bnha and none of them had a clue why I liked the main villain so much. Some of my friends were even against him, but respected my choices. So I made it my mission for people to understand just how great Tomura was as a character and why he was not simply the evil type of guy, but a complex villain who could even by called a failed MC.

Then I met Dabi and holy shit, people would make the same mistake. Did no one else saw that Dabi and Tomura were victims? Did no one else noticed what Horikoshi wss doing? I started to search on here and I didn't find enough material. Why would people want to ignore to of the best characters on the whole series? That's I created this blog, lol.

Dabi and Tomura (the whole League of Villains to be precise) represent all those aspects of trauma and survivors of abuse that are seen as negative in our societies. They were strange, weird, they made people uncomfortable, they couldn't even cry like "normal" victims, but maniacally laugh. They didn't have the option to do things "the right way". They were not material for the inspirational stories that you would see in magazines or on tv in some random show, those were reserved for heroes and good children, people who were either attractive or you could easily feel compassion for.

I got soooo easily obssesed.

The League was quirky, different, hard to sanitize like people would do with other characters. They were violent and full of rage, true to themselves, scary, unattractive on classic standards, cruel to the soft protagonists. While people got distracted by all of that, the superficial, they ignored their gentleness. Tomura calmly answering to Toga and not exploding in rage. Toga taking care of Twice and his wound. Them avenging Magne. Compress being worried about Toga wellbeing. Tomura not punishing Twice for his mistakes. Dabi crying real blood for his family. Them still carrying Magne's weapon even after she was dead. All the details.

I love the League, specially Tomura (I kin him), but they are dear to me because I also fight to defend them online and the story didn't prove me wrong. That's special. For many of us.

So I'm glad to hear you enjoy them and I'm glad to hear you love so much Dabi and Tomura!!!!!!!!!