#and the back part seemed way longer than most bees

[fictional-worlds-are-exquisite]

feel like this video captures my life rn

[supercutszns]

Luke x reader where a girl, daughter of Aphrodite, flirts with him and insults the reader, causing her to avoid Luke, but later he manages to find her and confesses that he actually likes them... I don't know if they should already be together or not, but I believe in you!!! you write very well :ooo

Sorry if the idea is bad or you wouldn't want to write something like that, if that's the case please pretend you never read this 🤡🤡🫶

true colours; luke castellan

wc + pairing: 3.6k, luke castellan x child of iris! reader

synopsis: everyone wants luke castellan, including you. curse your mother for getting your hopes up.

warnings: friends to lovers, reader is very insecure, bullying, lee fletcher & will solace cameo!! some angst with a fluffy ending

notes: thank you for the request!! as always this is longer than i anticipated but hope you like it :) i also combined it with another request for a child of iris reader (i also identify as a child of iris sometimes so i lovee writing for them) also i’m pretty sure lee + a lot of parts of this are ooc sorry but i havent read the books in about a year so hopefully everything’s fairly accurate!🌈

You knew this summer would be different because your mother sent her wishes twice as much. On the first day of July, when children flood into Camp Half-Blood like a hive of wild bees, a rainbow always lights up the sky. 

This year, there were two. 

As a child of Iris you’re technically supposed to be in the Hermes cabin. But your love for art, for music, for fun, has made you a particular favourite of the Apollo cabin. Most of your friends are there. They tolerate you singing in your soft, often unsure voice. They love when you catch sunlight and filter it into prisms of colour on their cabin walls. 

You’d probably move in there permanently if it weren’t for Hermes. Or rather, his son.

Over the last few months, in the sticky summer heat, your mother knew you would fall in love. 

It's not any surprise you love Luke. Everyone loves Luke. A fact that's becoming more obvious every passing day. 

It used to bother you less. You’ve always been his meagre, hopeless friend, never any real competition to these girls. You’d basically taken yourself out of the running and instead decided to pine after him in the very back of your mind. A safe, deluded fantasy that would never happen. 

Until recently, where it seems less like a fantasy and more like a terrifying possibility. 

Over the past few weeks Luke has gone out of his way to be sweet to you. Or at least you think so. He’s spent extra time talking to you at lunch, laughing at your half-formed jokes almost in earnest. At bonfires he saves you a seat, grabs you a marshmallow on occasion. You even made him a friendship bracelet of sorts—admittedly a little ugly—but he’s never taken it off. Not since the day you gave it to him. 

Not to mention helping you last week before the archery competition. His hands lingering over yours as he steadied your bow, the curls of his breath on the back of your neck when he stood behind you. 

“Don’t be nervous,” he says, a tinge of mirth in his voice. “You just steady your aim and first is as good as yours.”

(You came in fifteenth.)

You don’t want to say that it’s him weakening your aim, making your pulse beat out of your neck. His nose brushes against the back of your jaw as he leans forward and you smell the pine on his skin. Is this friendly? Is he this close on purpose? Are you delusional?

It’s all you’ve been thinking about these past few days. So when Luke Castellan’s endless admirers come to the forefront of your mind, you feel like all those moments of potential buildup have been ripped away. 

“You alright there, sunshine?” 

He takes you out of your spiral with a teasing lilt you love. When you look at him, his face is a shimmering warmth, complete with boyish smile. 

“Yep,” you reply, trying to ignore the nickname making your insides flutter even though you know he’s saying it ironically.

You’ve always had a gift for identifying colour. It’s the thing you pay attention to most. Something inherited from your mother, you suppose. So you’ve memorized the way Luke’s eyes melt in the sunlight. How his scar blends with his pinking cheeks when it’s hot outside. You never told him, and you probably never will, but you’ve painted him from memory quite a few times in the Apollo cabin—always with the excuse that you were practicing. It's so blatantly obvious you're in love with him there's no point in your friends bringing it up.  

The two of you are meandering around camp before dinner, a tradition Luke started early on in the summer. You talk about high points of your day (mostly you) or share nuggets of gossip you’ve heard around camp (mostly him). It's the thing you looked forward to every morning. A time when his words are just for you. 

Idle chatter flows as you keep walking. Sometimes your arm brushes his and you have the embarrassing urge to tug yours away. You do your best not to stare at him too long or laugh too loud at his jokes. 

“Hey, Castellan!” Someone calls. 

Luke’s head turns. Your heart plummets. A beautiful girl, Aphrodite cabin, you think, is heading towards you. She’s all honey-spun hair and dazzling pink lips, and it’s obvious she knows it. You don’t know her name. But Luke does. 

They fall into conversation the second she arrives. It’s just greetings, pleasantries, but there’s a coy smile on the girl’s face that betrays any sense of disinterest. “Heard you’re not too keen on pairing up with us for the Chariot Race next week. What gives?” Her tone is pouty and playful as she taps Luke’s shoulder. She side-eyes you, lips curling imperceptibly. “I’m sure you’ll have a better chance with us.”

He lets out a strained chuckle. “Dunno, just thought it was fine to switch it up.”

Just like that, you’re out of the loop again. More of her friends flock after her, and soon Luke is tangled in a whole other world. They’re all glowing with a kind of righteousness you only get when you’re popular. You know Luke has friends, tons of them. He's the leader of the cabin with the most campers. Not to mention assertive and gorgeous. His presence is so inviting it’s a challenge not to fall in love with him. 

So you can’t blame this girl, the one that keeps touching his arm and giggling. It’s not like you’ve staked your claim on Luke—no one even knows you exist. As much as you want him to be yours, you know you’ll never stop someone from taking him first. It’s your fatal flaw, you think. Cowardice. 

You end up sidelined completely. Watching him swathed in people more charismatic than you plants an ache deep inside you. All your wishful thinking feels sour now, a pipe dream, a bedtime story to help you sleep better. Somehow it hurts more knowing that it’s nobody’s fault but yours. These people can’t be doing this on purpose. It’s just who they are. It’s who you are—always a step behind, always daydreaming. You are your mother’s daughter, after all. Just a prism reflecting everyone around you. 

Eventually, one of the boys in the group takes notice of you. He’s not nearly as captivating as Luke is—you don’t find the colours of his eyes hold as much depth. There’s also a haughtiness when he looks at you. He sneers, “What the hell do you have on your face?”

It draws the attention of others in the group. You feel like a naked sculpture in an art gallery. “Uh, what?” You stammer. 

Some of them purse their lips. The girl with Luke lets a laugh slip. You’re pretty sure you look like an idiot, waiting there with your brows wrinkled in a daze. Their gazes keep flicking over to your cheek, so your hand flies up there before you can delay any more. When you press your fingers to the side of your face, they come away tacky and pink. Mortification constricts you.

Paint. It’s leftover, half-dried paint. The colour of Luke’s cheeks in the sun. 

“Oh,” you say dumbly. It’s drowned by snickers. All you can do is find Luke, the only face you know, and ask, “Why didn’t you tell me?” without sounding too hurt. 

You know you failed when your voice comes out wrong and his ebony brows push together. “I thought it looked—”

He never gets to finish because the golden girl laughs a little louder, the pink tones in her face a little darker. “Oh my Gods, you’re that Iris kid that’s always singing, right?” She giggles sharply, cornflower eyes darting between her friends. There’s something in there you can’t quite pick up on, until it flushes the pupils of all her friends, and they all grin with a secret knowledge they want you to see. “You’re, like, really good!” The girl simpers, but her bottom lip pulls between her teeth to soften another laugh. 

“Oh, so good!” Another friend piles on. 

Their passive-aggressive chuckles start to sound like hail on a window. You shift further away from them. Dirt slides beneath your shoe, and you long to kick up more of it, displace yourself, disappear. 

You don’t look at Luke. The giggly, flaxen girl has already turned back to him, and you’re sure he’s enthralled once more. You try to stir up the image of Luke’s closeness during archery practice, the lilac bruise on his knuckles when he angled your bow, but it doesn’t take. Now, it feels like you’ve dreamed it. 

Out of the corner of your eye, you see Luke leaning down to catch a whisper from the Aphrodite girl’s ear. The boy that first commented on your cheek leans closer to you again. He’s suffocatingly smug when he grins, “Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you go … wash that off? You don’t want to look like that at dinner.” He snorts. “For an Iris kid, you really aren’t good at taking a message.” 

If you were a more confident person, maybe you’d point out how that didn’t really make sense, or how stupid it sounded coming out of his mouth. But the sentiment of it wounds you, and you’re weak enough as is. 

"Guess you're right," you mumble. You wipe your face of paint as you leave. The memory of Luke’s skin stains you until you wash your hands off in the sink. 

You haven’t talked to him since. 

It’s been a few days of you avoiding him, and it’s hard to explain to anyone why you’ve been doing it. How do you tell the truth? Luke Castellan is a work of art and you are … a weird doodle, or something. Despite your adoration, you know there’s no reason he should feel the same for you. Everyone loves him for a reason. Everyone must ignore you for one, too. 

“Why haven’t you been talking to Luke?”

The question breaks your concentrated silence in the Apollo cabin. You’ve been sitting here for a while now, humming to yourself over a mostly blank canvas. The cabin is dusted with a lilac haze, thanks to your manipulation of the light streaming through the windows. Helps you feel less like you’re at camp and more like you’re in a fairytale. 

“Helloooo, lady, I asked you a question.”

You begrudgingly look up. Lee Fletcher, head of the Apollo cabin, is at the mouth of the cabin, gazing at all your supplies strewn about the floor like they’re a bunch of unsavoury substances. “It looks like a hurricane came in here. Now why aren’t you talking to Luke?”

“How do you know I’m not talking to him?” You mutter as Lee sits beside you. 

“Uh, because you’ve been sleeping here multiple nights in a row and you never do that. And you don’t sit with him at dinner. And whenever we see him you drag me in the other direction—”

“Lee!”

“I’m just saying, you should probably talk about it. My beautiful voice can heal wounds, yes, but not of the heart.” He splays a hand across his chest in mock theatrics.

You don’t say anything. The familiar weight of the brush against your fingertips is far more comforting than trying to talk, so you busy yourself with your canvas again. “He waits for you, you know,” Lee continues, quieter. “In the morning. And before dinner. He always asks if you’re here.”

“Oh,” you say, and your wavering voice betrays your expression. But you think of everyone else at camp, their gleaming smiles and their celebrated parents, their own cabins and friends and dreams, how you don’t seem to have any of those. You think of the girl whispering in Luke’s ear. All her shades of beauty. You know it’s wrong to compare yourself, to be jealous. You’re just … sad.

The cabin darkens from a lilac to an imperceptibly gloomier shade. A blue sort of longing gets caught in your throat, blurring the colours on your canvas. But you keep your brush steady, focused on the scratch of its bristles so you don’t have to hear what you say next. 

“I think I love him, Lee.” And then, “But I don’t think he loves me.”

There’s no sound except the scraping of your brush when it’s run out of paint, and a sniffle when a tear rolls down your cheek. 

“Oh,” Lee fills the silence the way you did just moments before. Then he says your name, laced with pity, and hugs you on the floor of his lavender cabin. 

“You want to help me lead the bonfire song tonight?” He asks after a minute. “Or at least … come to the bonfire song?” 

“No to the first, yes to the second.”

You wish you said no to both. 

The spot you choose after dinner is right next to the fire so you can distract yourself with the golden flecks of flame. Fire is so fluid, so complex, from a colour perspective. But no matter how close you get, the searing warmth can’t hide Luke’s gaze peering over the embers. 

He will not. Stop. Looking at you. 

The singing from the Apollo kids usually soothes you but tonight it’s just making you anxious. All this attention so close to you. Will Solace has been sitting next to you this whole time, your unofficial assigned companion for the night thanks to Lee. One of his siblings beckons him over, and he shoots you an apologetic look, hesitating. "Just go," you wave off kindly. "It's all good." He's not entirely convinced, and you aren't either, but he squeezes your shoulder with thanks and leaves you anyway.

Now you’re acutely aware the space next to you is wide open. And so is Luke, it seems. There’s an awkward moment where your gazes slide over each other and he weaves out of his current crowd towards you. So you do the most mature, sound thing you could possibly do in this situation:

You say you have to go to the bathroom to no one in particular and get out of there. 

It’s dark, but you’ve got sharper eyes than most. Soon the noise of the campfire is behind you. You traipse through the camp towards the bathroom,but you don’t get far before you hear something that makes your stomach drop in the worst and best way. 

Luke, calling your name. 

At first you think you can get away with not hearing him. Then he calls a second, a third, a fourth time, punctuated with, “Come on, I know you can hear me, can you just turn around?”

He’s got longer legs than you so the next time he speaks it’s practically in your ear. “Hey, just look at me. Please. I want to talk to you.”

There’s something so tender in his voice that it makes you cave immediately. But you already feel so fragile, you can feel the tears behind your eyes. You know you won’t have the strength to talk to him. 

His hand curls gently around your wrist and it sends warmth all the way up your arm. He says your name again, softer, and you love the way it sounds. You can’t meet his eyes, but you already know what he looks like. Even in the dark you picture him crystal clear. 

“Look at me,” he repeats. “I just—I need to know what I did wrong.”

His dark eyes are full and apprehensive when you heed him. You notice how much you’ve missed studying his face—the slight bunch of his brows, the tensing in his jaw. And you almost delude yourself that he’s missed you just as much, the way he squeezes your wrist and rakes over your expression.

“Why are you ignoring me?” He asks. 

“I’m not—”

“You are. I know you. Just tell me why.” 

He looks so sweet, so earnest, and it kills you. You think of the way he looked when all his friends made fun of you. It all comes up before you can help it. 

“Do you always let me walk around looking like an idiot?” You ask bitingly, staring at the floor. “The thing, with the paint on my cheek—why didn’t you tell me? I looked so stupid and all your friends just laughed at me!” 

His face falls. “I tried to tell you, I thought—”

“It’s okay to say you don’t like me, or that you’re embarrassed, or whatever, but I …” You swallow, tears thick on your lower lashes. “Everyone makes fun of me. I don’t know why you don’t.”

“Because I do like you,” he states, hand moving up to your forearm. 

“Don’t say that,” you whisper. “You’re so much … better, you know you are, and I don’t want your pity, or your spare time. I just—I made something up in my head that wasn’t there and I only noticed it the other day after you talked to that girl and that guy made fun of me and I’m really, really sorry—”

“It looked cute. I was trying to say I didn’t tell you about the paint because I thought it was cute.”

There’s a lull.

“What?” You blink stupidly. 

“I know I should’ve told you about it, but I swear I was going to before dinner, I didn’t think we’d run into anyone before then.” His cheeks tinge red. “I had this whole dumb thing planned out where I’d wipe it off your cheek and tell you how cute it was once you got embarassed. I was waiting to tell you. I was thinking about it the whole time.”

His hand on your arm is a frighteningly grounding thing. You're dumbstruck by that alone. Your lips part, but all that comes out is, “Why?”

A gentle laugh tumbles out of his throat. “Why do you think?”

His other hand comes up to brush your cheekbone, where the paint had been, and you can imagine him doing it to you on that day. How you'd probably react just the way he said you would, the way you are now. A warm orange glow blooming in your chest. “But the girl—”

“She tried whispering to me how much she liked my bracelet,” he smiles fondly. “Told her you made it for me. It shut her up. I don’t know what that guy said to you but I chewed ‘em all out the second you left. They knew I wasn’t happy. I tried looking for you but you were gone. I don't like them, you know."

You don’t know what to say. It’s too difficult, too uncertain for you to jump the gun on this. So you just stare at all the shifting colours on his face as he moves closer to you. All this time going over his every detail, and there's still more to be enthralled by.

“I found the paintings,” he says, voice so close you can feel it brushing your skin. “The ones of me. I was looking for you in the Apollo cabin a week ago and you left one out. I knew it was yours because ... I mean, there’s no one in the world that can make me look that … beautiful.” 

The last word is apprehensive but it’s spoken with an unimaginable tenderness. He looks a little teary himself. You think you’re dreaming. “I knew I had to tell you after that. I’ve been trying to tell you. But you started pulling away from me so I thought I was making it all up.”

“Tell me what?” It’s a ghost of a question between you, an impossible thing, but the hand on your arm slips around to your back and he presses it there with such certainty. 

“You’re really gonna make me say it?” He cocks his head, but you nod. “I’m in love with you, I think.”

The words cascade over you in ribbons of warmth. Your brain feels fuzzy, seperate from the rest of your body. Your mouth opens multiple times but you can’t seem to control what comes out. “Luke, are you joking?”

“Not even a little.”

“But you’ve got so many other—”

“I want you.”

“I am literally the most incompetent person alive; I can’t sing, I can’t talk to people, I have a weird knee—”

"Your knee is fine!"

"I'm just saying, this makes no sense from an outsider perspective, it's—"

“Okay, clearly the telling thing isn’t working so I guess I’m just gonna have to kiss you.”

It happens so quickly you don’t have any time to think (probably for the better). You let out a surprised “oh” before his mouth silences you, stopping every other thought. He’s gentle, thumb still rubbing your cheekbone, other hand still firm at your waist. You want to panic—where should you put your hands? How do you know you’re doing this right? But he steadies you, the way he always does, and you give in. 

He starts to smile against your lips. You’re almost positive the intensity of your heartbeat could summon a storm. When he pulls away, he kisses the corners of your mouth and you think you’re going to evaporate. “I don’t think I’m very good at this,” you whisper.

“You’re perfect.” He grins a little when your hands tentatively tug at a curl on the nape of his neck. “And none of that stuff you say is true. I mean, you’re definitely a better singer than me.”

Leaning close to your ear, he warbles out a song you know but gets the words horribly wrong anyways. You can’t help but laugh. “Okay, maybe you have a point.”

He hums and chuckles with you. You swear the moon gets brighter when he wraps his arms around your waist to kiss the side of your face. “Next time you paint me, I want to be there when you do it.”

You blush harder than you ever have in your life. “Only if you try painting me,” you say quietly.

“Of course. You’re very pretty, so I’m sure my horrible artistic skills won’t even make you look bad.”

Luke lets you press your face into the crook of his neck. You soak it up for all it’s worth. 

In the morning, you wake up in the same position. Your nose tucked against his collarbone, the shade of pink you love freckled across his cheeks. You can't wait to paint him again.

When you look out the window, you say a silent, grateful prayer to your mother.

She's given you two more rainbows.

[partially-controlled-chaos]

Indulgence: Something Sweeter

Pairing: Halsin x GN!Reader Rating: E (Explicit) 18+, MDNI/NSFW Warnings: Kind of porn without plot, but most of the plot is in the previous section of this. Fingering, oral (m receiving and GN receiving), finger licking/sucking, nipple play, penetrative sex in orifice of your choosing, biting, predator play if you squint really hard. Summary: Halsin has always struggled with indulging in the more pleasurable aspects of life. However, with the shadow curse lifted and your group now on the road to Baldur's Gate, you and Halsin find time to indulge in a bit of fun and a sweet treat before retiring for the evening. Word Count: 12.8K (7.5k of which is smut about 1/3 of the way down) a/n: As usual, this took me significantly longer and ended up much wordier than I had originally anticipated, but that seems to be my thing. I tried my best to keep this as gender neutral as possible and I think I did well with it, but keep in mind that I just self insert my Tav when writing so if there are mentions of a gendered reader, I'm very sorry. Anyway, this is a follow up to another fic I posted a little while ago, but you don't have to read that in order to read this one. This one is main all about the smut, but if you'd like to know the context behind some things as well as the tension build up, you can find the first part linked below! I've written smut before and I've posted a few snippets here and there, but I've never posted an entire fic for it so I'm about to post this and dip out for the night. Thank you so much to everyone that has left love on the first part of this!

Read on AO3 here if you prefer! Part 1 of this fic can be found here. Masterlist

The area surrounding the town Rivington was uncomfortably hot and incessantly muggy, days of rain left the air humid even after the sun had long set below the horizon. Given the heat of the day and the exhaustion that had come with it, you and your party had decided to camp early for the evening, ready to get a good nights rest before arriving in Rivington and ultimately into Baldur’s Gate. The last remaining rays of sunshine had turned a vibrant orange with streaks of gold, giving you barely enough light to see what you were doing without causing injury to yourself.

Sweat lazily rolled down the back of your neck, tickling the hair at the nape as you focused on steading your hand. The sharpened blade of your knife gently sliced through the soft, malleable wax of the honeycomb you were carefully trying to harvest from the beehive hovering above you. You turned your blade slowly as you cut, gently nudging the occasional honeybee out of the way with the tip of your finger as to avoid harming them. You were precariously balanced on the stump of a dead tree that you’d pulled to the hive and wedged between the roots of the tall oak that you stood before. 

You managed to slice a decent sized chunk of honeycomb from the tree, holding it carefully between your fingers to keep from crushing it as you bent your knees into a squat. You dropped the fresh honeycomb into a glass jar that that sat nestled between your mud covered boots, your fingers clutching the bark with your nails to keep yourself steady. As you stood back up to collect more of the honeycomb, you could hear the ever growing buzz of the bees you were dangerously close to upsetting. You stuck your knife back into the wax, beginning to slice again as you heard a slow stride of footsteps approach.

“And how many stings have you collected this evening, my friend?” The deep rumble of Halsin’s voice carried through the silence of the forest. He referenced your run in with a hive of angry bees from a few nights prior, having been stung multiple times in an attempt to get a jar of honey after a strong craving for something sweet. By the end of the night, you wound up sitting cross legged in Halsin’s tent as he meticulously pulled bee stingers from numerous welts across any bit of exposed skin.

“Your humor escapes me sometimes, did you know that?” You asked as you peered over your shoulder, offering a playful smile  to Halsin as he joined you, standing by your side as you attempted to balance yourself on your tree stump. Your balance was unfortunately short lived as a bee zipped by your head, making you duck as a reflex. Given that you weren’t the most graceful person to walk amongst your group, you quickly lost your footing and starting the quick fall backwards.

Thankfully, like he had done at the pond a few nights prior, Halsin managed to catch you before you left the top of your stump. However, instead of taking him down with you, Halsin’s stance was firm and was able to support your weight. His hands quickly grabbed the back of your thighs, which were at chest level for him because of the height given to you by your makeshift stool, and held you firmly. With a light shove, he pushed you back into your stool and held you until you had regained your footing.

“Just as caution escapes you.” He said as he continued to brace his large hands against the back of your thighs, holding them firmly in his grasp. Your heart fluttered as you felt him pressing against you, clearing your throat before returning your knife to the honeycomb. You sliced another chunk from the hive, dropping the sweet treat into the open jar as Halsin offered it to you, having taken it from between your feet. Satisfied with the fullness of the jar, you cleaned your knife on the rim before sheathing it back against your hip.

“I’ll have you know that you’re the only reason I’m here.” You said as you hopped down from your tree stump, sticking your fingers in your mouth to clean them of any remaining honey.

“If my memory serves me,” he said as he wiped the rim of the jar with his finger, “I don’t believe we declared a winner for that little game of ours. Instead, you toppled into the lake and took me with you.” You chuckled at the thought, remembering night fondly. You had promised each other a jar of fresh honey for whoever could skip a stone the farthest across a lake at your previous camp, but the night had ended with you both in the lake and aching for a kiss. You had longed for more with Halsin even before that fateful night, but since then it had been a burning desire that gnawed at your heart. 

“We didn’t, but we both know I certainly win that little game. And I’m afraid we’re running out of time for another chance.” Your eyes remained on his finger, watching as it circled the rim of the jar and cleaned it of any honey that had dribbled down the side.

“I’m afraid it does.” Halsin said softly, a hint of sadness flickering in his voice, suggesting he shared your sentiment. You both stood there quietly, unsure of what to say next or where to take the remainder of the evening. 

The shine of the leftover honey on Halsin’s forefinger caught your eye, tempting you to take a taste of it for yourself. You eyed the thick droplet of honey that threatened to drip onto the forest floor below, gently biting your lip as you tried to fight back the urge that had suddenly come over you. Unlike Halsin, you always had much less self control over your actions and frequently dove into impulsive thoughts with reckless abandon. With that in mind, you took Halsin’s hand in your own, eyeing the thick, amber colored syrup on his finger for a moment before sticking the entirety of his forefinger into your watering mouth.

They honey was sweet and thick against your tongue, a delightful treat that briefly alleviated the stress of day. Given just how sticky and fresh the honey was, you were unable to quickly clean Halsin’s finger of the substance. Your tongue wrapped around the tip of his finger, swirling the digit briefly before pressing the extremity to the roof of your mouth and suckling gently. Your eyes flicked upwards to meet Halsin’s, holding his stare as you diligently licked and sucked the honey from his finger teasingly slow. 

Halsin’s heart beat rapidly against his chest, pounding against the inside of his ribcage as he watched and felt every second of your tongue dancing across his skin. Your tongue was soft and wet, caressing every bit of skin you came across with a delicate touch. However, there was a bit of roughness from time to time, the feeling of your tastebuds prickled against him as you continued to lick. With your tongue pressing his finger to the roof of your mouth, you had created a deliciously tight suction around his finger, making it throb in tune with his steadily pounding heart. The suction was strong enough that even if he wanted to, Halsin would have had difficulty removing his finger from your mouth.

Halsin felt the all too familiar of tension of arousal forming in his shoulders and neck as his skin began to grow warm. The promise that you had made to each other for a secluded night away to indulge in each other had yet to come to fruition, something always interrupting the peaceful camp nights to prevent you from sneaking away, and you both were growing restless. You and Halsin had almost made it a game of seeing how worked up you could get the other, all with the hope of the following night to finally be the night where you could drop all responsibilities for a few hours and simply lose each other in kisses and caresses. 

Halsin was much better at the spoken teasings. His words were able to quickly make your heart flutter and your cheeks flush, leaving you longing for more of his praises and composed flirtations. You, on the other hand, were much more efficient at teasingly soft physical contact; a sweeping brush of your shoulder against his bare arm as you walked your path towards Baldur’s Gate, your thigh just barely touching his own while sitting around the campfire, and even a lingering touch when you happened to brush hands with each other. This, on the other hand, was the most forward you’d been since you had both skipped stones together a few nights prior. You were growing impatient with waiting; you wanted him as much as he wanted you.

After you were certain his finger had been thoroughly cleaned of any remaining bits of honey, you slowly pulled your mouth from him, making sure that when he finally passed through the tight ring of your lips there was a resounding pop. You looked over your work, making sure you were satisfied with the cleanliness you’d offered before letting his hand drop back to his side. He cocked his head at you with a look of disbelief, surprised at your boldness only a few meters from your campmates.

“What?” You asked playfully, “It would be a shame to let it go to waste.” You offered a coy smile to Halsin before turning on your heels, promptly making your way back to camp to join your other companions for the march ahead in the morning, leaving the druid standing under the heavy cloak of the oak tree with a blush on his cheeks and a sudden tightness in his trousers, the jar of honey still in his hand. 

Halsin was sure that if he didn’t act now, a chance of having a night alone with you under the stars would never happen. Tomorrow, you and your team would arrive at Baldur’s Gate, the end of your journey together rapidly approaching each day that passed, and very soon he was certain you would part ways. You had both been waiting for the ideal moment when the camp was asleep and you could slip away together quietly, but the opportunity had yet to present itself. Between attacks from lingering cultists and interruptions from whatever creature lurked in the artifact you carried, a peaceful evening where you could indulge in the other was nearly impossible to come by. Halsin wanted a night with you, desperately, and he was sure you did as well, but if that were to happen it needed to happen now.

You felt Halsin’s hands secure themselves around your waist with a grip that wasn’t firm enough to actually hurt, but enough to maneuver you around as he wished. He pressed your back along the rough bark of the tree, far enough away from the still calm beehive that you could no longer hear the faint buzzing of the residents inside. Your foot knocked against the jar of honey he had dropped when he reached for you, leaving it to the ground for now as you came face to face with the druid. Halsin’s pupils had dilated when you looked up to him, noting that the pulse point in his neck was thumping rapidly.

“You have been teasing me with that touch of yours for days now.” Halsin’s voice was low against your ear, a slight waver to his voice as hot breath that came out in quick pants tickled the hair on your neck. He loomed over you, his forearms braced against the tree as his mouth hung teasingly close to yours. You could see his chest heave with each breath, pressing against the fabric of his camp clothes with each carefully controlled inhale. Despite his usually calm demeanor, you could see the self control beginning to crack and the long suppressed warmth of excitement begin to peek through. 

“And yet,” you whispered, “you’ve done nothing about it.” Halsin cocked his head slightly to one side, a playful smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Although you weren’t completely incorrect with your statement, he took no offense. You were both aware of the lack of opportune moments that the road to Baldur’s Gate offered since your night together in the woods, so if anything, he took your words as an invitation to finally act on long suppressed impulses.

“Then I believe it’s high time I change that, hmm?” Halsin asked softly, your own heart beginning to increase in speed as the reality of the moment set in. Halsin’s eyes closed as he readied himself to steal the kiss from you that he’d been fantasizing about for weeks now, but you hadn’t quite finished in your teasing of the druid just yet. Before his lips could brush yours, you ducked under his arm, rolling against your shoulder until you pushed off the tree and out from under his frame before flitting around to the opposite side.

Halsin’s head lifted, a quizzical look crossing his face as his gaze followed the path you had taken around the tree, craning his neck to catch a glimpse of you. He kept this hand along the bark of the tree, dragging it along as he walked around, surprised to see that you had seemingly disappeared. Although you were not as sneaky as some of your other campmates, you were light on your feet compared to Halsin, giving you an advantage in the game you had started. 

With his attention still focused on finding you at some point along the tree, you had managed to quietly slip around the whole of the oak, quietly stepping behind the druid. You ran the tips of your fingers lightly against the top of his hand, noting how the hair on his arm prickled at your touch. Halsin swung his body in the direction you had come from, his heart rate picking up when he realized you were teasing him even more. He was met with another empty space, finding that you had vanished yet again. Taking a few steps forward, Halsin creeped along the tree the best he could, hoping to find out on the other side.

A tingle ran up his spine when he felt your nails lightly scratch over his lower back through his tunic, a low growl coming from his lips as he quickly reached one of his large arms behind him in an attempt to grab your arm before you could scurry away again. However, you had evaded him once more, leaving him to begin his hunt around the tree yet again. Halsin’s ears perked and his gaze flicked to a nearby tree at the sound of a soft whistle, smirking to himself when his gaze finally landed on you. You had managed to dart to a tree further in the woods, lazily leaning against the trunk as you waited for him to follow. 

Halsin’s fingers lingered on the tree as he stepped away, slowly approaching you in your new spot. Your eyes fell to his hips, entranced with the way they swung with his distinctive gait. His manner of walking was always something that grabbed your attention, having learned early on that there were a few traits from the bear that bled into Halsin’s day-to-day life and his walking pace was certainly one of them. As he stepped closer to you, your eyes traveled up from his waist and met his eyes, which were filled with an equal mixture of lust and excitement. When he finally made his way, Halsin reached for you with a hand that trembled ever so lightly with excitement.

Before his hand could make contact with you, you had taken a step back and disappeared behind a tree once again, clearly set on continuing your little game. You both quickly fell into a rhythm of teasing touches and quick darts to the next tree. As much as you enjoyed simply teasing the usually calm man reaching out for you, you had other reasons. You wanted to get far enough away from camp so you could indulge in a bit of privacy if things processed the way you expected, not wanting to be disturbed by a feathered companion or someone coming to investigate any peculiar noises emanating from a bit of shrubbery.  

You twirled and weaved your way deeper into the forest, the sounds clanking pots and laughter filled conversations from camp were slowly dying down, gradually replaced with the soft, lulling sounds of a warm night. The approaching silence made it much harder for you to scamper away undetected, allowing for a few close calls of being caught in the large hands of the druid steadily pursuing you. Admittedly, this only added to the excitement of the evening. Something about narrowly escaping from a man who spent a large portion of his time as a predator stirred something in your abdomen, leaving you with a light tingle at the thought.

Your game continued for quite some time with you leading Halsin further and further into the forest. By the time you had reached a large willow tree seated by the edge of another pond, you were satisfied with your distance from camp. You pressed your back along the trunk of the tree, allowing yourself a quick moment of rest while you listened for the footsteps that had been following you. However, you were only met with silence. You heard or saw nothing from Halsin, realizing now that you were no longer in control of your little game.

With your back to the water you peered around the trunk of the willow, curiously looking for any signs for the elf that had previously been hot on your trail. You found no signs of Halsin, beginning to think you had potentially left him behind a few trees back. The forest was peacefully quiet, save for the choir of crickets chirping in the distant grass and the occasional croak of frogs somewhere closer to the water. You stepped slowly and quietly around the edge of the tree, your breath leaving your mouth with silent exhales so you could keep yourself hidden in the darkness that now surrounded the area, the sun having set quite some time ago. The forest was seemingly empty as you circled the tree in its entirety, still stepping lightly as you began to leave the willow so you could circle back along the path you’d come from.

A firm set of hand suddenly gripped you firmly by your waist, much rougher than before, pulling you back suddenly and pressing you against the willow with enough force to cause a soft grunt to escape your lips. Halsin’s body was now pressed against yours, holding you securely to the tree. He quickly pressed his knee between your legs, rubbing against your inner thighs and effectively keeping you in place. You gasped lightly at the contact, the feeling of his body against yours after so many nights of teasing and yearning had set your limbs ablaze. And, given the feeling of something warm and quite firm pressing into your leg, you could only assume he felt the same. 

“You should change up your pattern next time, my friend,” he said softly, “it’s easy to learn.” His hand came to rest at the base of your throat, his thumb gently caressing the top of your collar bone as the rest of his fingers grazed the back of your neck.

“Clever bear.” You said with a slight chuckle, your voice tapering to just barely a whisper. Your own hands came to rest lightly against his biceps. 

When Halsin’s lips finally met yours, he let out a soft moan as his eyes closed, losing himself in your embrace. Your lips were soft against his, gentle and caring and everything he had dreamed about. Halsin had longed for your touch and ached to feel your lips against his, often thinking about their taste and feel while alone in his tent. He could feel a raging heat rise along his neck and into his face, even reaching to his ears after a moment. His hand left the softness of your neck, instead replacing it with the roughness of the bark behind you. His nails dug into the tree, trying to find something to distract him from the call of the beast that was beckoning him close to the edge of losing composure.

“You’ve been eating honey, haven’t you?” You asked between kisses, picking up on the faintest taste of honey as your tongue darted across his lips, “I can still taste it on your lips.” 

“I have, but I've made sure to save some for another night. I want to know what it tastes like on your tongue and on your skin.” Halsin rasped, “But tonight, I want to taste something sweeter.” You shuttered at his response, tightening your grip on his arms firmly as you felt his tongue swirl against yours, taking your breath from you with each passing second.

With his hands placed securely along your hips once more, the druid pulled you away from the tree he’d pressed you against, lips still heavy on yours as he led you to a pretty patch of grass by the waterside. You followed him blindly, trusting in him completely as your fingers began tugging at the ties on the front of his camp clothes. Halsin smiled against your lips, thoroughly pleased by your enthusiasm as he followed suit and slid his hands underneath your own shirt. His hands caressing and stroking your bare skin under your shirt caused you to shiver and a tingle to settle in your cheeks. Halsin’s touch was slow and gentle, allowing him to truly take the time to appreciate the feel of your supple skin against his hands.

Halsin pulled your tunic over your head, tossing it to the side before returning his hands to your body, focusing his attention on working pulling open the ties to your trousers. Despite the looming size of his hands, his fingers were fast and nimble as they loosened your laces just enough to allow your trousers to easily slide down your legs along with the remnants of your small clothes. Your boots were kicked off somewhere between Halsin pulling your trouser ties open and the same trousers colliding with the ground, although in the heat of the moment you couldn’t recall exactly when. 

You, however, were not as skilled in freeing the druid from the confines of his camp clothes, unsure of what tie opened which flap and just where the seam of his trousers started. Halsin chuckled softly, finding the confidence you had carried all evening quickly leaving as you struggled with his clothing. Being merciful, and a bit impatient, Halsin stripped himself of his garments, tossing them along with yours off to the side, his sandals having long been flung in different directions. 

Halsin took a step back from you, both hands still holding yours as he simply observed your naked form standing before him. You were breathtaking and beautiful, more than he could have possibly imagined in those long, lonely nights in his tent, and imagine he did. A warmth spread to you chest as he drank in your body, suddenly feeling shy by being bared in full to him. You took the time to observe him as well, more than impressed with the man that stood before you. Simply given the size of his arms, you knew he was muscular and well built, but it was different when actually seeing him in person.

With a gentle tug you were pulled towards him, your chest pressing against his as Halsin kissed you again. He groaned softly into your mouth, his eyes sliding closed as his hands roamed along your back and sides, lightly squeezing as he felt you beneath his fingertips. Your own hands traveled along his chest and arms, feeling the definition of muscles from years of fighting and roaming, but you could help but noticed just how warm his skin was. He always ran on the warmer side from what you could tell, but now he was almost hot to the touch.

He pushed away from you suddenly, arching forwards as an all too familiar heat rose in his chest. You took a step back, unsure of what was going through his mind as you watched Halsin grit his teeth, a light snarl and plea to Silvanus for guidance. It didn’t take long for you to figure out what was happening as you watched him fall to all fours, erupting in a familiar flash of golden light. The hulking frame of the elf was soon replaced with one of a cave bear, panting with heated breath and emitting rumbling growls. You knelt to the ground, knees touching the tender grass as your eyes remained fixed on the bear before you, your hand reaching out slowly to try to make contact. Your hand brushed against his wet nose, which was still blowing out warm breath with each pant. 

“It’s all right,” you said softly, “you’re all right.” Your hand slowly moved to the snout of the bear, your fingers running through the coarse fur in an attempt to calm him down. It took some time, but soon enough the frantic breathing of the cave bear finally calmed and settled into a steady rhythm. Before long, the bear erupted into another flash of light, leaving Halsin before you once again.

“I-I’m sorry,” Halsin stammered, “the beast is difficult to control at times, especially if blood runs hot. I lose myself and it takes over. Forgive me, please, the urges are just too strong at times” Halsin remained low to the ground, leaning on one knee with his back still hunched. His palms were facing you and his hands had the slightest of trembles. His mind raced as he knelt before you, emotions swirling and settling in his chest, cursing himself for allowing all control to be lost in such an important moment. 

“Halsin,” you said softly as you reached out again and placed a hand over his chest, “don’t ever apologize for that. It’s not a beast and neither are you.” His chest was unbelievably warm, but had cooled slightly, and his heart beat frantically against his chest. It was more than just arousal that caused the reaction in his body; it was fear. You glanced to his face and saw nothing but a mixture of panic and regret. Your heart ached at the sight, having never seen the strong man reduced to genuine fear in front of you.

“It’s in your nature. You of all people should know that.” You moved your hand from his chest and rested along his cheek, cupping it softly in your hand, “Don’t ever feel ashamed and don’t hold yourself back on my account.” His hands once again made purchase on your hips and pulled you closer to him, much lighter than before, as if he was afraid that touching you would change your mind.

“And, if I’m being honest,” you continued, “I quite like the bear.” You saw his eyebrows knit together slightly, head cocking to the side before he spoke again.

“The bear?” He said with a bit of hesitation, “You…like it?” You smiled with a slight chuckle. The back of your fingers softly caressed his cheek, feeling the roughness of his skin against yours as you tried to soothe any worry that lingered in his mind.

“I do,” you said softly, “but I’ll indulge the bear another night. Tonight, let me indulge in you.”

Halsin’s lips were on you before you could barely get your words out, hungry and firm against your own. His hands cupped your face, pulling you as close as possible to him as he took your breath away. With his lips to yours and your words still echoing in his ears, Halsin relaxed, feeling safe to be himself around you. You accepted him the way he was, even with a seeming lack of control at times, and it was almost euphoric. The weight of shame and guilt having been lifted with your words and soft touch. It wasn’t long before one of his hands cradled the back of your head and the accompanying arm ran down the length of you back. He used this position to gently lower you onto the grass below, quickly topping you with his own frame.

The grass was soft against your bare skin, the blades tickling your back as you felt Halsin settle above you. The druid’s hips settled between your parted legs as the length of his body rested just above your own, lightly grazing when either of you moved. Your hands ran along the expanse of his bare chest and shoulders as his lips met yours, his large arms resting by your head. You felt Halsin’s fingers weave their way through your hair, softly scratching at your scalp as he took his time exploring your lips. It wasn’t long before he deepened the kiss, moaning against your lips as his tongue asked for them to part. You happily obliged, letting his tongue easily slip into your mouth and explore to his hearts content. One of his hands left the tangle of your hair, settling along your cheek and jaw. Halsin’s thumb tugged at your lower lip, keeping your lips parted ever so slightly for better access. 

After some time, Halsin’s lips left your own and slowly moved towards your jaw, giving you the chance to catch your breath as he focused his tongue on other areas of your body. There was no rush or sense of urgency in his movements as Halsin kissed his way down the column of your throat, simply enjoying and relishing the moment he’d been waiting to share with you for so long now. Your skin was warm from the night air and the blush that had started to grace your skin, radiating against Halsin’s cheeks as he pressed soft kisses against you. He suckled gently against the tender skin of your pulse point, feeling the steady pounding of your heart beneath his lips until a light bruise had formed before moving to your collar bones.

You heard a gentle growl come from Halsin as he kissed your sternum and felt the soft placement of tongue tickling your skin before his lips followed suit. His movements were slow and gentle as he made his way lower, fully content with savoring every moment of you underneath him. He loved the subtle reactions your body gave when he kissed and licked a new spot, taking note of what you favored. The way your heartbeat quickened as his hands traveled lower along your body, how your fingernails would brush against his shoulders and lightly scratch as his own teeth would graze your skin, and the quiet sighs that would escape your parted lips when he found a particularly sensitive bit of skin; all of it a symphony to the druid that was slowly losing himself in you.  

A shaky moan broke the quiet serenity of the forest when you felt Halsin latch on to your nipple, taking the hardened bud between his teeth and giving the lightest of bites before soothing it with another kiss. Your back arched off the softened patch of grass and lightly into the air as your head rolled to the side, more gasps and sighs spilling from your lips the more Halsin serviced your nipple. You felt his hand slowly slide from your ribcage to the arch of your back, pressing you closer to his own frame all while caressing your sweat slicked skin. It wasn’t long before he switched sides, your body tingling at the ministrations of his teeth and tongue against your sensitive skin. Your eyes closed as your hands explored what you could reach of his upper body, eventually coming to rest along the top of his head.

Your fingers brushed along the tips of his ears as you explored his body, which earned you a sharp bite to your now swollen nipple and a tightening grip along your waist. Your eyes reopened and looked down the expanse of your body, admiring the glistening of kiss marks in the moonlight against your skin. Halsin’s eyes were focused on your features, meeting your eyes with a lustfully clouded gaze. You bit your lip with a devious smile, realizing just how much the faintest touch against his ears had excited him. With a slightly firmer touch, you ran your fingers along his ears once again, letting your nails graze ever so slightly. Halsin responded to the touch with a low moan and giving an involuntary thrust against the ground.

The druid continued his descent downwards at a slightly faster pace, having been spurred on by the teasing to the tips of his ears. He continued to hold your gaze as he kissed down your body, feeling the rise and fall of your stomach as you inhaled deeply and released with each shaky breath. His hands grasped your hips, softly squeezing and caressing the soft flesh there as his mouth finally reached that lovely spot that rested at the apex of your thighs. Halsin planted gentle, loving kisses to the sensitive skin surrounding your entrance, teasing you ever so slightly as he took his time in exploring your most secret of places. 

Your thighs instinctively wanted to close and press themselves against Halsin’s head as he teased and tasted you, wanting to keep him there as long as possible. Your hips rolled under his touch and your back arched further, desperate for his contact on your most sensitive spot. You felt him chuckle against your skin, causing a deliciously sensational warmth to begin to pool in your lower abdomen. His hands traveled from your hips to your outer thighs, caressing and grazing with his fingertips as his lips found the velvety soft skin of your inner thighs. After a few more kisses and even a light bite to the soft skin, Halsin’s hands gently pried your lightly trembling thighs from the sides of his skull, pulling them wide until they were kissed by the grass beneath your body. He kept them open by resting his heavy arms on your thighs, giving his hands the opportunity to focus on more important matters. Halsin teased your entrance with a finger and tongue, lingering for just a moment before finally granting you the satisfaction of slipping inside.

“Halsin…” His name slipped from your lips as nothing more than a whisper as you felt him taste you, the bulk of your breath having been taken away when he first teased your entrance. Your hands desperately searched for any part of your lover to cling to, but given just how high the arch had gotten in your back, you were struggling to make purchase. You settled for winding your fingers in the grass beside you, pulling and tugging at the tender blades until they ripped and you needed to find more. 

Halsin glanced up to you, his mouth and tongue still working their magic on your body as he added a second finger, curling at just the right spot to make your body quiver in bliss. He smiled as best he could at your expression, considering that his lips were occupied. Although pride was not something the druid typically felt, it coursed through him as he watched your mouth open and close with soft gasps and the way your eyes knitted together tightly in time with each exhale. Watching you, the normally well put together leader of the group of misfits he’d so eagerly joined, melt into a puddle of whimpers and moans by his touch was enough to make his already painfully hardened cock throb and weep at your image.

Your back rose and fell with each roll of your hips against his teasing, surging with pleasure with each swipe of his tongue as you flitted closer and closer to the blissful edge of release. You felt teeth, tongue, lips, and fingers; anything and everything Halsin could use at his disposal to bring you to your first release of the evening. He held his hand along your abdomen, slowly sliding up towards your chest so he could feel as much you beneath him as possible. Halsin wanted to feel you writhe and squirm under his touch and wanted nothing more than to feel the shakes and convulsions your body would offer when you finally reached your orgasm. You quickly released your grip on the grass you’d ripped out by the root, replacing the handful of foliage with Halsin’s own hand. Fingers were soon intertwined and you held to him tightly, your knuckles turning white as the contact grounded you and allowed you to focus on the tightening coil deep in your belly. Each exhale turned into a breathy moan that only increased in volume as Halsin intensified his efforts, determined to swiftly bring you the release you desperately wanted with a flick of his tongue. 

Your legs began to tremble under Halsin’s arms as he brought you closer to the edge, heat surging in your abdomen as your muscles along your thighs began to tighten. A sudden rush of warmth and indescribable satisfaction washed over your quaking body, jolts of pleasure fired through your muscles as you finally broke the barrier. The sensation made your mind cloud as you rode our your orgasm, still feeling Halsin’s tongue and lips tending to your sex. Your eyes closed as the final waves washed over your body, your breath coming in deep inhales as the feeling subsided much too quickly for your liking. The feeling was euphoric, but you wanted more.

Halsin kissed up along your body quickly, leaving your tingling lower half to bring his face to meet yours once again. Your mind still reeled from your orgasm as you felt his lips against your heaving body. Halsin kissed you gently on your cheek, brushing stray strands of hair from your face as you continued to come down from your peak. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, pulling him closer to you as you tried to regulate your breathing once again. His skin was warm under your touch, the lightest layer of sweat forming along his back from the heat of the night air. Halsin kissed along your jaw until he pressed his lips against yours once again, tender and soft when compared to frantic movements just moments ago. 

“More?” He asked after breaking from your lips, taking the time to wipe a bead of sweat from your brow as your eyes finally opened for him.

“More.” You said with a nod between pants, your body still trying to regain some sense of composure from the feeling you just experienced. Halsin’s mouth returned to your skin at your words, licking and sucking along your neck as he waited for you to settle once more. Your skin was pleasantly warm, a combination of the heat of the night and your exertion having caused the change in your body temperature. He adored the blush that had settled on the apples of your cheeks and poured onto your neck and along your chest, the sense of pride returning to him as he admired the state of your body all due to his touch. Halsin could still taste you on his lips as it mingled with the sweat from your neck, finding the taste to be almost intoxicating.

Halsin was still lazily planting wet kisses along your body, tasting as much of you as he could as he moved to your chest. When you felt strong enough to move again, your hands and fingers ran along his neck and shoulders, feeling the definition of the muscles that lay just beneath your fingers. Years of roaming nature had toughened his skin thanks to the touch of the sun, but in your exploration you had found a few spots still supple. You traced behind his ears and along the back of his neck, feeling his skin prickle and twitch under your touch and you found yourself wanting to feel more. Given that he was distracted, you took the opportunity to have the upper hand. You playfully shoved Halsin’s shoulder from you until you had the druid pressed onto his back in the grass with a surprised grunt, throwing your leg over his hips until you had him straddled. 

“I believe you’re stronger than you let on, my friend.” Halsin said with a sly grin, impressed at the swiftness of your movements given your previous orgasm.

“I am when I need to be.” You said softly, adjusting your position in his lap as Halsin sat up just slightly, leaning back to place his weight along his forearms. He simply enjoyed watching you above him, seated ever so nicely in his lap as you took your time exploring with your fingers. Your chest was still heaving slightly from your orgasm just moments prior and the druid had his eyes glued to your form, drinking you in and memorizing every dip, curve, and blemish that adorned your body. With the soft light of the moon behind you, illuminating you in a glowing halo, he watched as a bead of sweat rolled from the side of your neck, lazily rolling over your collar ones and onto your chest before getting lost somewhere in the skin above your navel.

“The Oak Father truly broke the mold with you,” Halsin said softly as his eyes continued to wander across your naked body, “I’ve yet to see anything in nature that compares to your beauty.” If you weren’t already blushing, you were now. You leaned forward, kissing his lips as an appreciation for the compliment. 

“Don’t sell yourself short.” You murmured against his lips, taking the time to kiss them once more before moving your way down his neck. Both of your hands rested on his shoulders, beginning to move along his chest as you kissed and nipped lightly down his throat, searching for more tender expanses of skin. You felt him shudder with each light graze of your teeth against his neck, a satisfied hum coming from you with each nibble. With a light touch, you ran your fingertips across the expanse of his chest, feeling every bit that you could reach while still slightly leaned over his frame.

You returned to your previous position, pressing yourself up from his chest while allowing yourself to marvel at the hulking elf beneath you as your fingers continued to roam, feeling and caressing with a gentle touch. You traced along the thick veins in his arms, feeling the firmness of the surrounding muscles of the biceps that could easily have their way with you. His heart beat steadily in his chest when your fingers grazed over his pectorals, enjoying the feeling of the thick hair that coated his chest. While your fingers enjoyed their exploration of his chest, making sure to graze over and toy with his hardened nipples as your eyes traveled further down his body. He hissed at the contact, but loved every moment of your teasing fingertips along his skin.

Your gaze followed the line of coarse hair that trailed between the defined muscles of his chest and abdomen and came to an end at the base of his cock, which was seated nicely between your thighs. You smiled to yourself as you watched his member twitch and bob under your touch when you ran over a particularly sensitive spot, resisting the urge to tickle those areas when you came across them. Your forefinger ran along a nonsensical path around his abs, simply keeping the hand occupied as the opposite finally reached his throbbing cock, which was steadily dripping his arousal in a long stream along his stomach. With a quick flick of your gaze to Halsin, you dipped the tip of your forefinger in the pool of his spend, rubbing small circles to coat the digit before you finally brought your coated appendage to your lips.

“Something sweeter, you said?” You asked with a feigned innocence as you held his gaze, finding the anticipation in his face quite amusing. You could feel his muscles tighten beneath you as he anticipated your next move, his eyes flicking between your half lidded eyes and your coated finger hovering mere centimeters from your lips.

You ran your tongue along your coated finger, engulfing the entire digit in your mouth once you had reached the tip and the first taste of Halsin’s arousal had touched your tongue. You took your finger to the knuckle, cleaning the appendage quickly. Halsin’s hips bucked upwards as he watched your finger slowly slip from your mouth, thrusting you forwards until your hand collided with his chest to keep you from falling flat against him. 

Halsin’s shifted his weight to rest on one of his forearms, using his now free hand to grasp your jaw, pulling you into a heated kiss with a quiet growl. His tongue was in your mouth in an instant, tangling with yours in an attempt to feel as much of the mouth that had teased him all day. With your tongues dancing with one another, you slid your hand down his chest and stomach before ghosting your fingertips over the weeping head of his cock. Halsin released his mouth from yours to as his breath caught in his throat, his grip leaving your jaw as he fell back onto both arms.

You returned your lips to his body, planting sloppy, open mouthed kisses along his chest, steadily working your way lower as you followed the trail your fingers had previously taken. You could taste the sweat that had formed on his body as your lips traveled lower before you finally pulled away, admiring the trails you’d left along his skin. Your fingers had gone from simply teasing the sensitive head to stroking along the length of his cock in long, fluid movements. He pulsed in your grasp as you continued your stroking, squeezing in varying strength along his cock, stopping occasionally to rub small circles along his oversensitive cock head. 

“That touch of yours will be the end of me one day.” Halsin whispered as his head tilted back against his shoulders, his eyes closing slowly as he allowed himself to enjoy your movements. You watched as his chest heaved with each stroke of your hand, his breath coming in and out through his nose as he tried to keep himself collected and under control. Halsin felt his muscles tense and his heart pound under your touch, his body finally indulging in your long sought after touch, and he wanted the feeling to last as long as possible.

“Is that a promise of more nights like this, then?” You asked with a curious look, wiggling your way off his hips, choosing to settle between Halsin’s thighs to give yourself a better position for what was to come.

“Many more, if that is what you wish as well.” Halsin managed to choke out between sighs and soft groans as you stroked your hand along the length of his throbbing cock at a steady pace. Each flick of your wrist became easier over time, the slick that had fallen from the weeping tip giving you plenty of lubrication to work with. With lust filled eyes you looked up towards the druid as you began to lower your head to meet your hand.

“Oak Father, preserve me.” Halsin’s low voice wavered as he spoke, a shudder wracking his body as the flat of your tongue ran along the underside of his cock. His eyes reopened and he lifted his head long enough to watch as you wrapped your lips around his swollen tip. Halsin finally dropped to his back, his arms giving way underneath him as your tongue swirled the cock throbbing in your mouth. Like you had done with his finger earlier in the day, you pressed the tip to the roof of your mouth, creating a firm pressure to the overly sensitive head. 

Your tongue was softer than velvet against Halsin’s cock, swirling and suckling around the tip with enough pressure to make him squirm in pleasure. He moaned softly with each swipe of your tongue, his hips thrusting upwards ever so slightly to create more friction against your warm, wet mouth. With his tip still securely pressed to the top of your mouth, your tongue worked wonders on the underside of his member, focusing on the sensitive space on the underside of the tip. You suckled away on his cock while your hand continued to stroke lazily along his base. As he did with you, you took your time in exploring his cock with your mouth, listening to the delightful moans and sighs that came from above you.

Halsin let out an exasperated sigh when you finally released the suction from his cock, which allowed you to begin your teasingly slow descent. Your lips were pressed tightly around his cock, still creating a light suction as you worked your way down, although your pace wasn’t entirely due to just wanting to tease the man writhing at your touch. Given just how large of a man that Halsin was, you were under no illusions that his member would be anything less than large, but you truly weren’t prepared for just how impressive his size actually was. You took your time in an attempt to service his length in a way that was pleasurable to both you and Halsin. 

You took him further into your mouth, his tip beginning to slip into the tightness of your throat as you focused on not choking along his length all while keeping a steady breath. Halsin’s fingers found their way into your hair, settling on the crown of your head as he felt you lower yourself to your limit, a light gag coming from your throat before you pulled back up. His simply rested his hand along your head as you began to bob along his cock, gradually picking up speed as you became more comfortable with your limits. He didn’t pressure you further than you wanted or tried to change your pacing, but simply needed something to grasp onto as he worked his way through waves of pleasure. He wanted you to enjoy yourself as much as he was, and the last thing he wanted to do was to make you feel pressured to go beyond your limits. For this, you were thankful.

You soon found yourself in a rhythm, guiding your head up and down along the length of his hardened cock with ease, occasionally ending with an audible gag if you pushed yourself too far. For now, he was too large for you to comfortably handle, so you made use of your still slicked hand to stroke and toy with the portion of his shaft not covered by your mouth. From time to time you’d pull away, allowing yourself a few sucking breaths of air before your lips returned to him in some way either through licking any neglected areas or sliding it back into the heat of your mouth. His spend was salty against your tongue, yet something you swallowed eagerly. 

Halsin’s breath hitched and the urge to buck wildly into your warm mouth was becoming too much to handle as he felt a tingling warmth begin to settle in his groin. His fingers grasped at your hair lightly, desperate to anchor to something more substantial as he fought the urge to spill into his own orgasm. However, he resisted, wanting to save that wonderful wave of pleasure for something more intimate than your teasing mouth. Your eyes met Halsin’s once again as you continued your ministrations to his weeping cock, your gaze tender yet blissfully hazy.

You felt his fingers untangle themselves from your hair, dragging along your cheek with a loving touch. You nuzzled your cheek into his palm as best you could, your mouth still fully occupied with pleasuring the cock that was dangerously close to spilling over. Halsin gripped your chin gently, pulling you up and off his pulsing member with a shaky breath. His eyes were drawn to the line of spittle that still connected your reddened lips to the tip of his length, gently wiping your lip with his thumb as your breath came out in pants. You struggled to catch your breath as he held you in his grasp.

“If you keep going like that,” Halsin said after he’d regained some of his composure, “this night will be over much sooner than either of us would wish.”

“We have all night, do we not?” You asked as your tongue flicked across your lips, collecting any remaining spittle that lingered.

“We do, but let us hope that the sun is slow to rise.” Halsin murmured quietly before closing the gap between your bodies. He took your lips with his once more, tender and sweet as he came forward, urging you onto your back for the second time before parting from you. Your body settled into a fresh patch of grass that was slick with the beginning touches of dew forming on the blades. You sighed happily into the night air, your body succumbing to the gentle touches of the druid. Halsin’s hands softly grabbed the underside of your thighs, giving them a light squeeze as he parted your legs for him. 

Your heart fluttered as he crawled up the expanse of your body, his arms and hands surrounding you as he knees knocked your legs open a bit further. His kisses and touches had become light and feather soft, caressing your lips and body with a touch so gentle you almost couldn’t feel it. He was holding back as if touching you any more firmly would thoroughly break you. You had to admit that you understood his concern, given that the bulk of his frame was currently looming over you and he was a bit larger than you had anticipated.

“You don’t have to restrain yourself with me,” you said between kisses, “I’m sturdier than I look.” You brushed stray hair from his face, tucking it behind his ear and out of the way. You knew Halsin wanted something a bit more rugged. He was more than content with slow, languid kisses and soft touches, but you also knew that he had been pent up for quite some time between suppressing his own emotions for years and your own teasings as of late. You wanted him to enjoy himself just as much as you were. 

Holding back his feelings was something Halsin wasn’t accustomed to doing on a day-to-day basis; he wore his heart on his sleeve and made his emotions clear. You, however, were the one exception. He had been attracted to you for quite some time before either of you had made it to your current situation, yet he was hesitant to come forward with those feelings. Decades of denying himself something more meaningful and vulnerable simply couldn’t take a priority over his duties, so now that he was presented with the opportunity, Halsin had hesitated. But now, you both were here in each others arms, fully exposed and having tasted the other in some fashion; now was not the time to restrain feelings.

“I have no doubt about that, believe me, but either way I promise to be gentle.” Halsin said with a slight chuckle, “At least for now.” Halsin wanted nothing more than to hold you down and have his way with you until you were a puddled mess, but he also knew when the time was right. Although you were more than ready to try and take him, the last thing he wanted was to hurt you in his overeagerness. Instead, he opted to take things the more gentle route until he was sure you were up for something more vigorous. 

He pressed his lips to yours once again in a lingering kiss, moaning softly against your mouth as he lined the tip of his cock up with your well slicked entrance. Your body shuddered at the feeling of his warm, throbbing tip pressing against your eagerly awaiting entrance, the feeling of him being so close made your muscles melt beneath him. As slowly and carefully as possible, Halsin eased his way into you, earning a sudden gasp from your kiss swollen lips. He moved his own lips to your ear, cradling the opposite side of your face as he guided himself deeper into you.

His lips were soft and tender on your temple, kissing lightly when you hissed or made a gasp that sounded more uncomfortable than pleasurable. Halsin took his time, guiding his movements in accordance to your body’s reactions than his own lusts. From time to time you’d press your palm against his hip or stomach, quietly asking him to wait until you could adjust. When you did so, Halsin listened, waiting until you were ready to continue as he peppered your cheek with more kisses and whispered praise or encouragement in your ear. You moved your hand from his hip when you were ready to continue, whimpering softly as he continued the slow movement into your heat.

When Halsin had fully seated himself inside you, he released groan from deep within his chest, savoring the feeling of you around his hardened cock. You were warm and tight, which was everything he had expected from you, but the actual feeling of you wrapped around him was euphoric. With everything you had done for him so far, you had once again exceeded his expectations. With this, he wanted to begin moving against you and feel you expand and contract around him, but he paused. Halsin remained still inside you, waiting for your approval before continuing. He knew you needed time to adjust and he would allow you to take as much time as you needed. In the meantime, he simply enjoyed the feeling of being buried deep inside you.

Your eyes closed as you inhaled deeply, adjusting to the size of the length buried inside you. He was large, but not uncomfortable. Halsin was exceedingly gentle with you, not wanting to hurt you with his size, but you were ready for more. You met his haze once more before giving a gentle nod, urging him to continue.

“You have been more than worth the wait.” Halsin murmured in your ear as his hips began to move against you, taking your lips once more with his before you could respond. Your moaned against him, the feeling of his cock slowly slipping out of you before nuzzling back in made a light warmth settle on your cheeks and made your heart flutter with anticipation. You stayed like this for some time, your arms wrapped around each other while connected by your lower halves, taking everything slow and steady until your body had grown accustomed to the size of the cock nestled deep inside you.

However, it wasn’t long before you felt comfortable with his size. Your hips rolled against his, asking him to begin picking up the pace as any discomfort quickly subsided and was replaced with pleasure and ecstasy. Halsin eagerly complied, pulling his arms from you slightly so he could rest along his palms, his hips rolling against yours as he kept his thrusts light, but just slightly faster. Your hands ran down his chest like they had done earlier, feeling his muscles flex under your fingertips with his movements. Halsin was correct, he and this moment were more than worth every moment of teasing and waiting that you’d experienced. He was worth it.

Halsin sat back, resting his weight on splayed knees so he could watch you from above. His hands explored and grasped at the expanse of your thighs as he watched your body writhe and roll under his touch, desperate to meet his cock with a roll each time he sheathed himself fully into you. His eyes searched your body, unsure of which part of you to settle on for more than a few seconds. He wanted to take in every bit of you as he thrust his hips into your warmth. Your face and chest were covered in a deep blush and glistened with sweat against the glow of the moonlight, parts of you bounced each time his hips snapped to yours and became almost hypnotic if he started too long, but in the end he decided that the most delicious part of you to watch was simply just how well you took his throbbing cock. His eyes traveled to where you both were joined, mesmerized by how your entranced stretched with each thrust to accommodate his size, but so early accepted him back in each time he fully entered you. The view combined with the feeling of your heat squeezing around him was almost enough to send him into a frenzy.

Halsin gripped the underside of one of your thighs, lifting it from the ground until the back of your leg rested against his broad chest, opening you up more for him, but also allowing him a better view of his cock disappearing into your heat. His lips and tongue found the skin of your leg and left sloppy, wet kisses along the sweat soaked skin as his fingers pressed firmly into the soft flesh of your thigh. His other hand traveled to your lower half, feeling your muscles tighten in your abdomen as your released neared. He used his fingers to brush across your most sensitive spots, a playful smile gracing his lips as you responded deliciously to his touch.

Your body was on fire, aching and throbbing with heat as Halsin snapped his hips to yours with each thrust. The sound of wet skin smacking against skin and mingled with grunts and moans filled the quiet evening air, making any animal in the area scamper off quickly at the noise. Your cheeks burned with exertion and desire, a feeling that was equally matched in the fire that was ignited in your lower belly. You could feel the string of pleasure begin to coil, knowing it wouldn’t be long before it snapped once more. Your hands grasped and squeezed at your chest, fingers flicking across and occasionally pinching your hard and sensitive nipples, eliciting sharp moans into the air that sent shivers down the back of the druid.

“More,” you gasped out as you felt the coil deepen, “please.” Your voice was almost a whine, needy with desire and lust as Halsin continued his movements.

Halsin moved instantly at your words, pressing forward until his chest met yours, your leg still pressed against his chest as your knee now rested close to your face. He moved your other leg to rest on his other shoulder, his hands shaking at the feeling of you practically halved beneath him. His arms kept your legs from slipping off his sweaty shoulders as his hands came to rest by your head, one of them tangling in your hair with a firm grasp. His lips found your neck and offered a light bite to the soft flesh, making your mouth fall open at the contact. Halsin thrust into you more firmly, knees and toes digging into the grass beneath him as his pace increased. 

Your own hands found purchase on his body, one resting on the side of his warmed cheek and the other tangling with the knot he kept tied at the back of his head. Your body trembled beneath his as your second orgasm starting coming to a peak, knowing it wouldn’t be long until it crashed over your body. Halsin’s eyes remained locked to yours, entranced by the look of pleasure that covered your lovely face. You panted against each other, breath mixing together and only adding to the heat of the moment.

“You’re almost there, my heart.” Halsin panted against you as his forehead rested along yours, “Let go. Let me feel you.” The new use of a pet name and his coaxing send sparks flying through your body, awakening some sort of arousal you’d have to explore more at a later time. For now, however, his words and movements were enough to send you over the edge, your body shaking with a delicious heat and pleasure as your legs trembled against his shoulders. Your orgasm rushed through your body, sending bolts of electricity along your spine as you rode it out. You tightened your hold against Halsin’s cock, which was still thrusting into your sensitive entrance. The sudden grip on him almost caused his to experience his own release, but the druid held firm and made the feeling subside. As much as he wanted to feel his own pleasure course through him, he wanted to take you one final time before indulging in his own pleasure. You moaned and whined, your body twitched and shook under the last remaining licks of your orgasm, your mind hazed with pleasure and exhaustion.

With a swift movement, Halsin removed your trembling legs from his shoulders, pulling them to the side as he flipped you to your stomach. While still in your daze, you felt his hands press against your chest and around one of your legs, easily lifting your still trembling body from the ground and a better position so you could lay comfortably on the ground before pressing you firmly into the grass beneath you. You were taken by surprise, your mind swimming with enough pleasure and haze that you hadn’t fully processed his movements until your cheek was met with a patch of grass, leaving your arms pinned between your own chest and the ground. Halsin’s hands gripped at your hips, swiftly tugging them upwards and towards him with an almost desperate pace. 

You let out a moan at the sudden change of position, letting Halsin rearrange your limbs with ease as you still were reeling from your orgasm. Halsin parted your legs once again, settling nicely between them as he realigned himself with your still trembling entrance. He entered you more quickly than before, still taking note of not being too rough with you, making sure you were comfortable with how he was seated within you before he began his thrusting once again. You whimpered as he picked up the pace, your swollen sex still sensitive from your climax as it tingled and clenched around the druid’s impressive length.

Halsin's hand traveled the length of your back as he steadily and firmly snapped his hips to yours, knocking you forward just slightly with each thrust. Halsin admired the beauty of your body, even from a less than flattering angle. The way your hips curved into your waist, the small dips in your lower back that lead to a steep curve in your spine caused by his movements, and the taught muscles in your shoulders that were defined from battle all enticed him even more. Halsin had admittedly fallen for you based off your merit and kindness, but he couldn’t deny that you were beautiful inside and out, especially when splayed out underneath him.

Your skin was hot beneath his touch, both from exertion and the heat of the night, and your body glistened under the moonlight. He had longed to feel your skin in his grasp for some time now, the thought alone keeping him up many nights as he struggled to subdue his own feelings for the sake of duty. The thoughts that would plague his mind of the caress of your hands had only intensified with your recent teasings, making the feel of your skin slapping against his all the more pleasurable. As his hand caressed the skin of your hips and back, Halsin had enough sense to flick the pieces of grass and dirt that had stuck to your skin from your previous position, lovingly brushing you clean as his hips were mercilessly slamming into yours. You felt his hand grip your shoulder, desperate to hold you in place as he chased his release. 

Your breath hitched as you felt Halsin’s hand firmly grab your shoulder, giving him better leverage to thrust into you from behind. The sudden change of pace from soft and loving to frantic and rough wasn’t quite what you were expecting over the course of the night, but it was a most welcome change. Up until now, Halsin was focused on your pleasure and release over his. He was attentive and loving, making sure your had expended yourself to your limits, even denying his own release when he felt the luscious feeling of your lips wrapped around him.

But this was different. It was still caring, given that Halsin wasn’t ramming into you with his full strength, but this was for him. He was finally allowing himself to indulge in the pleasures of the flesh that he had denied himself for so long. He was desperate to make it last, to have this night make up for years of denial and longing, but you could tell he was nearing his end. Your ears were greeted with a symphony of grunts and growls rumbling deep in his chest the harder he slammed into you. Although you were met with no discomfort, just a delicious feeling of being pressed into the ground by your lover.

Halsin’s grip on your shoulder was strong, simply given the size of the druid, but not quite enough to keep you from shifting underneath him. He released your shoulder, which was now slightly red from his hold, and slid his hand to your back once again, resting between your shoulder blades with his fingers splayed wide against your dampened skin. You let out a moan and a wheeze as you felt the air leave your lungs, leaving you with a deliciously pleasant sting as Halsin pressed into your back firmly, lifting himself slightly to apply as much pressure as he could without causing you harm. You were now securely pinned to the ground, allowing the druid to slam into you without the inconvenience of you slipping out beneath him.

You both let out a pleasurable moan at the new position, the angle allowing Halsin to slip fully into you and pound away at the wonderfully sensitive spot deep inside you that made your vision blur each time he made contact with the tip of his cock. Halsin was practically hovering over you, taking in every bit of your body as he barreled towards his own release. He watched the way his cock slipped in and out of you effortlessly, given his size, and the way your body graciously accepted him. Halsin could feel his legs begin to shake and the pacing of his hips begin to falter, stuttering every few thrusts as he came closer to his orgasm.

“Look at me, my heart.” His voice was gruff and shaky, but it was more of a plea than a command, one you happily complied with. Your haze was a bit foggy, but you looked over you shoulder as you remained pinned to the ground, your mouth hanging open in an attempt to breath as best you could with the pressure on your back. Your lips tugged into a slight smile as you peered up at the druid, the sight of him coming undone because of you brought you more joy than you could have previously thought. You met his gaze with half-lidded eyes, but there was more than just lust behind them and Halsin could see this as well. There was no doubt that your pupils were dilated with lust and pleasure from both your orgasms, but there was something more meaningful. There was trust, admiration, acceptance, and if Halsin’s own lust fogged mind could be trusted, perhaps even the faintest hint of love behind the beautifully bright eyes staring back at him.

Your gaze and the feeling of your warmth clenching around his cock was the final act that sent Halsin over the edge. An uncharacteristically loud curse left his lips as he hunched forward, digging his heels into the dirt as he thrust into you a final time. His hand lifted from your back and collided with the ground beside your head to keep from crushing you beneath his weight and it allowed you a sucking breath as Halsin spilled himself deep inside you. His opposing hand was still firmly gripped to your hips, holding them in place as his body shuddered with each contraction of his muscles. Each warm rope that spilled from his cock sent waves of pleasure down Halsin’s back, making his muscles twitch and tense with each burst. He released a low grunt every time he spilled, each one landing deep inside you, filling you with a gentle warmth.

Halsin fell to his forearms as he slowly fell from his peak, his head coming to rest softly against your shoulder as he panted against your skin. The druid finally released your hip from his grasp, the desperation and intensity behind his grip had finally softened as his body began to relax against yours, softly rubbing your sweat soaked skin to soothe the marks he’d left on your posterior. He littered your shoulder blades with a string of slow, loving kisses, placing a few to the back of your neck. You both lay there for a few precious moments, simply enjoying the feeling of being so close to the other while still connected, your minds slowly falling down from the blissful peaks you had climbed towards.

After giving a final kiss to the area between your shoulders, Halsin pulled himself from you gently, knowing you both were now a bit sore and rather sensitive. You whimpered softly as you felt him slip out of you, already missing the fullness he offered. With the bulk of his weight now off your frame, you finally managed to pull one of your arms out from underneath you, bracing it on the ground before hoisting yourself onto your hands and knees. Halsin went down to his side, pulling you with him with a quick roll as he settled for the evening. Your head rested along the expanse of his bicep, rolling to rest your cheek to his skin as you lay along your back, one knee coming up to bend and help you adjust. 

“Are you all right?” Halsin asked as he brushed more bits of grass from your cheek with his free hand, plucking blades from your temples and your hairline.

“Very much so.” You hummed softly, your eyes becoming heavy as you melted against his touch.

Your skin had finally cooled after the activity from the night, leaving you with tacky skin, but free from beads of sweat. Despite the heat coming from Halsin’s body, you were pleasantly warm and thoroughly satisfied for the evening. You lay together, wrapped in each others embrace on the forest floor, listening to the lulling sounds of the night as you simply enjoyed the silence. Halsin’s free hand traveled along your body, gently caressing and mending any wounds that may have appeared during your rougher moments. 

“Can I offer you a wash?” He asked after a moment, having run along your body several times. You looked to him, offering a gentle smile with tired eyes. 

“That sounds lovely,” you murmured, leaning up to leave a slow kiss to his lips, “but let’s stay here for a spell. I’m not quite ready to return to camp just yet.”

Halsin tugged you closer to him, your bodies fully pressed to the other as the arm you were resting on had wrapped around your shoulders. You tossed your leg over his, tangling your legs together as one of your arms wrapped around his midsection. With the sun still below the horizon, you had a few hours of darkness left before returning to camp was a necessity, giving you a few precious moments together to simply be. You and Halsin spoke softly, whispering sweet words and blush worthy compliments to each other, caressing and touching and learning the details of the other. Eventually, the low rumbles of Halsin’s voice filled you with a sense of peace, causing your eye lids to droop and fall heavy. You fought the feeling, simply wanting to stay awake to enjoy the moment.

“Rest, my heart,” he whispered against your hair, “we’ll find more moments for each other.” He placed a single, gentle kiss to your forehead, pulling away when your eyelids finally closed for the evening and your mind began drifting off to a moment of restful sleep.

Tag List: @thoughts-of-bear ,@beardedladyqueen, @pixie-in-a-moonlantern, @ur-friendly-nbhd-cardassian, @ouranyaoi @galeofyourwaterdeep @mskinkyafro @jenn-majima @blobs-away @halsinsnaturepocket

[ninchen1909]

Side by Side

Pairing: Ivar the Boneless x Reader

Warnings: Death, angst, fluff, best friends to lovers

Word count: ~2.800

 "Ivar, please think straight now. You cannot sail with Ragnar, you will die, he is no longer the great king everyone took him for. He has left you and your brothers alone for many moons, and you have always been loyal to him, always believing in his soon return. But he is no longer a warrior, he has lost his trust in the gods and they have lost faith in him. How can you still follow him like an orphaned dog?"

The steady sound of his crutches dies away as he drops into one of the wooden chairs. For the first time since he revealed to me that he wants to sail to England with his father, his eyes find mine. Ice blue gazes bore into my iris, making me forget to breathe for a few moments.

"(y/n), he is still my father...."

"Yes your father, the one who abandoned you and who now has to pay warriors to sail with him. Quite some time ago, it was everyone's greatest honor to go on plunder with your father, but those days are long gone. Your father's time is over Ivar, you are sailing to your certain death if you follow him."

Ivar's grip on his crutch tightens and I realize he is struggling with his anger. I am also aware that he would have killed, or at least maimed, anyone else who would speak of his father in such a way. But beeing best friends for many years, seems t to allow me certain privileges.

"(y/n)..."

"No Ivar, why are you so intent on sailing to England with him. You can make a name for yourself here and achieve great things. You can stay with me, we will find a way to bring you glory. Isn't it enough for you to be with me? A plunder in England, moreover without a proper army, is far too dangerous for a man like you..."

As soon as the last of these words leaves my lips, I realize that I have made a big mistake. Horrified, I clasp my hands in front of my mouth, my eyes widen in shock, and I watch tensely as Ivar stands up with the help of his crutch and stumbles a few steps toward me. The look in his eyes squeezes the air out of my lungs and I feel like I'm becoming a blood eagle myself.

"Ivar, please..."

"A man like me? What are you trying to say with that?"

"Ivar..."

"Shut up..."

Abruptly, I close my mouth and bury my teeth in my lower lip, the vile taste of iron spreading across my tongue.

"I really thought that at least you wouldn't see me as a cripple, that at least you...my best friend, the person I trust the most and who occupies the most space in my heart, would see me as more than a failed man."

Everything in me cries out to apologize, to tell Ivar that I didn't mean it, but the look in his eyes alone tells me all I need to know.

"And coming back to your question, no, being here with you is not enough. YOU are not enough."

I can literally feel the color draining from my face and I'm sure in that moment that a blood eagle wouldn't have hurt as much as his words. My lower lip begins to tremble suspiciously and my eyes fill with tears.

"Ivar...please...you don't mean that."

"I mean every word I said exactly as I said it..."

The coldness in his voice makes me shiver and the first tears fall from my eyes, tracing a fine trail down my cheek to my collarbone.

"....and now go, I don't want to see you anymore. And even if I die in England, it's better than living an insignificant life here with you."

After these words, he turns his back to me and I watch in despair as he disappears into the back rooms of the great hall. Loud sobs escape my throat and I feel my legs give way as I fall to the cold stone floor. My desperate sounds echo off the stone walls and I bury my head in my hands to avoid seeing anything. A few weeks later, the news of Ragnar's next great raid spreads through the streets of Kattegat. Again and again I try to talk to Ivar, to convince him to stay with me, or at least to be able to apologize so that we don't part in a quarrel. But each time I am met anew by one of his brothers, each of them desperately trying to explain to me that Ivar must do this to prove himself a true Viking. I know they are right, I know that Ivar desires nothing more than to prove himself worthy in the eyes of his father. However, this does not prevent me from caring for him. To be scared for him.

So it happens that a few weeks later I am standing on the dock and watching with eyes clouded over with sadness as Ivar ponderously makes his way to the ship. His gaze wanders again and again, searching, almost longingly over the crowd of people that has gathered on the pier. It gives the impression that he is searching for someone, as if he is on the lookout for someone. For a brief moment I hope that it is me he seems to be looking for, however, his words keep coming to my mind, deeply burned into my heart. Which is why I quickly banish the thought of him looking for me from my mind and push further into the background of the crowd.

My heart sinks as I watch the ships begin to move and Ivar moves further and further away from Kattegat and therefore away from me, unsure of whether we will ever see each other again or if the news of Ivar the Boneless's death will soon haunt Kattegat.

Many moons pass, the pain in my heart seems to consume me, every day I wake up hoping that things would get better, easier. But rather the opposite is the case, every day I send pleading and begging to Odin, promising him a great sacrifice, all so that Ivar, my Ivar returns safe and sound. Even if he will not speak a single word to me in his entire life, I still want him to return in one piece.

Winter is approaching Kattegat in great strides, the few things that grow here have already been harvested and everyone is diligently preparing for the impending cold that will soon come over Kattegat.

Light sweat forms on my forehead as I throw the last ingredients for my stew into the large cast-iron pot in the center of my hut. The warmth spreads comfortably as the open fire casts mysterious shadows through the cabin.

I wince abruptly as a loud, muffled knock shakes my front door, puzzled as to who would be disturbing me at this late hour, I don't move from the spot.

"(y/n) it's me....please open the door."

A soft gasp escapes my lips as I move with quick steps to the door, a loud noise ringing out as I let it crash backwards against the wall. But all this could not be more irrelevant to me at this moment. Eyes widening, I look at the hunched person in front of me, half his weight propped up on my door frame, while his other hand holds a tight grip onthe crutch next to him.

"Ivar..."

My emerging joy however is quickly shattered by the sight of him, swollen, heavily reddened eyes staring back at me, making the blue of his eyes shine even more strongly. His whole form seems to have fallen apart, deep worry lines run through his beautiful features. At this moment, he looks like a broken man.

"May I come in?"

His broken voice startles me out of my dull thoughts and I take a step to the side, nodding to give him enough room.

With a loud sigh, he lowers himself onto the wooden bench next to the fire, for a moment closing his eyes in pleasure as the heat of the flames caresses his skin. Silently I watch him for a moment, soaking up the sight of him, trying to make my heart understand that he is really sitting here in front of me.

"Would you like something to eat? I put on some fresh stew."

His silent nod is answer enough and just a few minutes later, I fill two wooden bowls full of stew before holding one of them up to Ivar. He accepts it with a grateful smile and sinks the first spoonful into his gullet.

An awkward silence spreads between us, the quarrel before his departure still hanging over our friendship like a test of endurance, unspoken questions on my tongue but not daring to leave my lips. The sound of wood on wood startles me from my thoughts, and I watch as Ivar sets his bowl down on the floor in front of him before rubbing his hands together in a warming motion.

"Thank you."

Noisily, I swallow my bite before replying.

"You're welcome."

Briefly, an uncomfortable silence threatens to fall over us again, but Ivar breaks it faster than it could have spread.

"My father is dead."

With a loud noise, the bowl slips through my frozen fingers, the stew spreading at my feet, seeping into the spaces between the wooden boards on the floor.

"Ivar..."

"My father is dead."

A glazed expression enters his eyes and only a few seconds later the hut is filled with Ivar's sobs, his whole body is shaken with sobs and he buries his head in his hands.

 It takes a moment for me to really process his words, for their meaning to really settle into my inner being. With careful steps, I move toward the man in front of me and carefully place my hands on his shoulders. A silent cry escapes me as he pulls me onto his lap without warning and buries his face between my breasts. Without thinking about it for long, I begin tenderly stroking through his full, brown hair. The individual strands glide gently through my fingers, leaving a pleasant feeling on my skin. Again and again I whisper words of encouragement in his ear, but even when his body has calmed down and his breathing seems even again, he doesn't even think about loosening his grip on my body or putting distance between us.

Only when the fire is extinguished, and the cold has returned to the hut as the darkness is broken only by the few candles that I have lit, I lean back a little, causing his face to slip from my chest with a discontented sound.

A mixture of sadness and weariness lie in his eyes, any radiance gone from them as he presses into the motions of my hand almost longingly.

"When's the last time you really slept?"

A worried expression comes to my face as a guilty glint flits across his features.

"It's been a while."

With a careful movement, I rise from his lap, careful not to break his vulnerable bones.

"Let's make sure you get some sleep this night then."

 A short time later, we are now lying pressed tightly together in my narrow bed. What gave me a sense of security and friendship back when I was a child now comes with a fast-beating heart and an unfamiliar blush to my cheek. But Ivar doesn't seem to feel any different.

"It's been some time since we've been in the same bed together," he says.

"Yes, the last time was when we were children."

A hotter laugh escapes his throat.

"Yeah, everything was easier then..."

His words just a whispered sentence, soon lost in the darkness of the room. Silence overtakes us and for a few moments I think that Ivar has already fallen asleep. But the sudden emergence of his voice proves me wrong.

"I want to apologize...for everything I said to you back then. You were, are and will always be the most important person in my life. I'm sorry for making you feel like you weren't."

His words send a warm shiver through my body, a pleasant warmth spreads in the pit of my stomach, and a wide smile creeps onto my lips.

"An apology from Ivar the Boneless. Thank you gods for letting me live to hear this."

"If you tell anyone, I'm afraid I'll have to kill you."

The joking undertone of his voice elicits a bright laugh from me and I search for his with my hand, carefully sliding my fingers between his and then interlocking them together. Tentatively, Ivar begins to draw delicate patterns on the back of my hand with his thumb.

"You know what was odd?"

"What?"

Asking, I turn my head toward the sound of his voice.

"During all that time, even when we were in captivity and my father's fate had been sealed. I could only think of you. At the time when it was not clear whether I could ever again perceive the bustle and smell of Kattegat, I could only think of you. Your face, your laugh, the way you squinted your eyes when I tried to explain something to you, your stubbornness, your gentle fingers running through my hair...it was all I could think about. I hated myself for not saying goodbye to you, that the last words I said to you were not the loving, tender words you deserved, but  the words of a scared little boy..."

"Ivar...."

With a jerky movement I sit up and look down at him . The light from the candle on the nightstand casts a, warm orange glow on his face, making his skin glow and his eyes sparkle.

"Please let me finish. I don't know if I'll ever be able to muster the courage again, if not now...."

A silent nod from me is all he needs in response, as all at once he lifts our still joined hands to his lips, leaving a tender kiss on each of my fingertips before continuing.

"...With each night that I have not been able to be close to you, I have come to understand the real reason why you can upset me so, why only your opinion matters to me, and why your doubts about me and my manhood, my ability to plunder have hurt me so deeply..."

"Why?"

My voice is just a hotter whisper as I wait in anticipation and excitement for his next words.

"Because I love you. Because the stupid crush I had on you as a child has turned into a real, true love."

Tears of emotion rise in my eyes and run down my cheek in hot, salty trails.

"Ivar..."

"I love you (y/n), so much."

My incredulous laughter fills the darkness and I can't help but bridge the distance between us, pressing my lips to his, lit by the candlelight. A surprised sound escapes him before he joins in my steady movements and returns my caresses.  Our lips mould together and moving in perfect harmony. A hot gasp escapes his lips, swollen from kissing, as I finally break away from them. He lovingly strokes individual strands from my face before letting his cool hand rest on the overheated skin of my cheek. Amazement and joy are clearly readable from his eyes.

"Does that mean....?"

"I love you too Ivar..more than you can imagine." With a loud, hearty laugh, he wraps his arms around my body and pulls me onto his torso. I can feel his pronounced abdominal muscles clearly through my thin sleeping robe as he does so, his body heat surrounds me and again and again I noticed how he presses tender kisses on the crown of my head.

My head, meanwhile, rests on his chest, the steady sound of  his heartbeat calming my senses and allowing an inner peace to settle over my body.

"I will go back to England to join my brothers in revenge for our father's death."

I can clearly feel his body tense beneath me after those words, much like he's afraid of my answer. Which I can't blame him for after our last argument.

"I know. And this time, I'll go with you. Side by side"

[ijwrite]

Female Orc x Female Reader Part 3

It only took a day for you to be healthy again, which was not just a relief to Hakla, but to yourself and your bees. You would probably never tell her, but the rivalry she had with the bees was one of the most entertaining things you had seen in a long time. And little Qarak was growing so fast too. He was constantly trying to walk, and getting frustrated when his little feet couldn't balance his body. He was still a little menace though, you couldn't take your eyes off him for a second before he was gone. He was currently sitting beside you in the garden, snacking on a carrot as you removed weeds. Hakla was slightly off in the distance, throwing weeds in the compost pile. You smiled to yourself. Life had been good lately. Your animals were healthy, your garden were flourishing and most importantly, Hakla and Qarak seemed happy. You felt a little hand smack your side, and looked down at Qarak. He folded his hand repeatedly in the way you thought him.

"You want some water little man? Okay let's go" You lifted him up and brushed the dirt from his pants. You had the idea to teach him some basic signs to communicate before he learned to speak.

"I'm just getting him some water, be right back" you said to Hakla, who hummed in acknowledgement. She had started to trust you more, and seemed much more at ease. She no longer slept with the axe near her, especially after you had made a bed for her. You had felt bad about the way she slept in a cot on the floor, and despite her protests about a proper bed, she slept much more soundly now.

After Qarak had gotten his water, he started fussing. You knew it was time for his midday nap, so you put him in the little crib. He fell asleep surprisingly quickly and you left the hut to continue your work.

Hakla was still outside, looking intently at one of your berry bushes. She reached out for it, but quickly retracted her hand once she heard you approach.

"There should be some of them that are mature" You plucked a bright red berry and held it out to her.

"They taste really good. Especially in pies"

She took it slowly. You plucked another and ate it. She ate hers too.

"You can eat when you want something, you know? That's why it's here" You went back to weeding. In the corner of your eye, you saw her pluck some more berries.

"You sure? Won't we need them for the winter?"

"Nah, I planted the berries purely as treats. You just eat till you can't"

You smiled again. She sighed heavily.

"It is not often I have had sweet things. They mostly gave us bread and meat"

She put the whole handful of berries in her mouth. You straightened up.

"They?" You asked. She tensed. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I won't pressure you" it would be a lie to say you weren't curious, but Haklas comfort meant more than that.

"They were the ones I got away from. They were to sell Qarak" She grumbled. You nodded silently. "They made us fight each other. For fun. I got free" She looked down at you.

"I am glad you did. I am happy that you are here" You tried. "My life has been significantly better since you and Qarak entered it" This time, she slightly smiled back.

She truly had a beautiful smile, even when unsure, it seemed to lighten your soul just a bit.

More months went by, and soon it was little Qaraks first birthday. He was getting better at both communicating and balance. He could not talk or walk yet, but he was already much bigger than when you first saw him. As his birthday gift, you decided to make him a swing in one of the large trees at the outskirt of the farm. You actually didn't know the exact day that he was born, since Hakla only had a rough estimate of the time. But that didn't matter, a birthday he would get. So you woke up Hakla and Qarak with the smell of fresh baked fruit pie (which you guessed they both enjoyed, seeing as they both got their entire faces covered with sweet filling).

After you had cleaned the mush of Qaraks (and Haklas) face, you told them to follow you out behind the cottage. A little aways, you had hung your homemade swing yourself during the night (you thought the hardest part would be to crawl up the tree in darkness with the rope, but the real challenge was getting out the house without Hakla waking up. She would be awake at the slightest noise, and you didn't want to ruin the surprise) and happily told Hakla;

"I tied it to a strong branch, so you can swing with him!" proudly gesturing to your work. Hakla just looked at it for a minute and you wondered briefly if you had overstepped.

"You made this for... him and me?" She asked with the thinnest voice you had ever heard from her.

"Well, yes. I hope it okay. I think I made some squirrels angry when I hung it up, and I-" you were interrupted as she hugged your close to her with the arm she didn't use to carry Qarak.

"Thank you" she whispered.

"Of course" you answered.

[mimisempai]

All these little things

Summary

Sharing a coffee with their friends, while Aziraphale is away for a few minutes, Crowley is faced with a question from the curious Muriel: what does he love most about the angel.

Notes

Muriel, you nosy little bee…

On Ao3

Rating G -  649 words

They were all having coffee and cake at the bookshop.

Crowley, Aziraphale, Muriel, Maggie and Nina.

The unlikely group of friends formed by a twist of fate.

Aziraphale stood up and called out to the group, "I'm going to get coffee, who wants some?"

The response was unanimous, although Aziraphale smiled at Muriel and said gently, "Yes, I know, for you it'll be hot chocolate."

Then he walked to the back of the bookshop, Crowley's gaze following him.

"Awwwww..." 

"Disgusting..."

"Too cute..."

Crowley turned sharply back to his friends and raised a questioning eyebrow as he asked, "Who? What?"

Nina scoffed and didn't answer.

"What are you laughing at?"

Nina mockingly replied, "At you, of course.

Maggie winked and said in a tone of wonder, "It's beautiful, a demon in love..."

As for Muriel, they giggled behind their cup.

Crowley huffed, then shrugged. But even though he resented being the focus of their friendly teasing, he didn't try to deny the obvious. He wasn't ashamed of his feelings for Aziraphale, and today was not the day to start, especially in front of those who now knew almost everything about them.

Muriel said gently, "It's obvious to everyone that you care for him, but I'm curious, what do you love most about Aziraphale? "

No longer surprised by Muriel's eternally inquisitive questions, Crowley complacently answered.

"What do I love most? When you've known someone as long as we have, it's an accumulation of many little things rather than one big one. There's the fact that he's always found a way to baffle me, right from the start, you know, like the story we told about his flaming sword, or the trust he's had in me almost from the start, despite our supposed status as hereditary enemies, or the fact that he's always looked at me the same way, whether I'm an angel or a demon, the fact that he's a bookseller but won't part with any of his books, his incredible appetite for all human pleasures. It's probably a little bit of all of that."

Maggie leaned over and insisted, "Isn't there one little thing in particular?"

Crowley seemed to think for a moment, then looked as if he had had some kind of revelation and nodded before answering, "There's one thing that used to bother me a lot, and still does sometimes, or that I still find hard to accept, and that's this constant telling me that I'm a good, kind person. I mean, have you seen me? Mr. Grumpy through and through? But he's always seen the good in me, despite my demon statute and the fact that I've done everything I can to disabuse him of that. So yeah, that's probably what I love most about him."

He added, mumbling, "Even if it still annoys me." 

When his speech was over, he was surprised to find nothing but silence. Then, looking at his friends, he felt a little embarrassed by the affectionate looks they were giving him, and decided to chuckle in a reaction of deflection.

Then, with a mischievous twinkle, he added, "And last but not least, he kisses divinely, which is normal when you're an angel and I..."

A hand came to rest over his mouth, forcing him to be silent.

Their friends laughed as Aziraphale set the tray of coffee on the table, "And you, you say a lot more than you should, my dear."

Crowley grabbed Aziraphale's hand that was still over his mouth and kissed it before saying in an innocent tone, "I was just telling the truth, Angel."

Aziraphale, his cheeks slightly flushed, nodded before sitting down, and Crowley didn't let go of his hand. As each of them took their cup of coffee, Crowley and Aziraphale shared a knowing glance, unaware of the loving expressions on the faces of their three friends, happy to witness such a beautiful and real love.

_________

Still not beta'd

Still not my native language

Still hoping you'll enjoy this story  🥰

Still thanking you for bearing with me 😝

Ineffable Growing Love - Series post S2

Part 1 Story 1-99

Part 2 Story 100-?

Ineffable Husbands masterlist : here (Before season 2)

[eezeybreezy]

ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴜɴᴋ ᴀɴᴅ ʜɪꜱ ᴄᴀᴛ pt.4 ➜ʜᴏʙɪᴇ ʙʀᴏᴡɴ x ɢɴ!ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ

This is the result of Hobie brain rot. Was a lot longer than intended so now it's broken into multiple chapters.  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

warnings: filthy SMUT , not-so-accurate accent, recreational drug/alcohol use, DEGRADATION, implied black reader, afab!reader anatomy, unprotected

You grind against the mound his multiple belts have created, earning a wince from the man below. “I don’t know Bee, how do you usually treat the women you bring home?”

Hobie chuckles a little and flushes slightly when this question is posed, rubbing the back of his neck and giving you a smirk as you grind against him. 

“Well considerin' you came through the window tonight, I think our night's been pretty different.” Both of his hands have found their way to your thighs, kneading the flesh as a way to ground himself, though you doubt that's an effective strategy. “But I usually try to make the girl feel special, you know? Try to cater to their needs and make them feel wanted and desired.” He seems to put quite a bit of emotion into the next part. “So what can I do for you darlin?”

“Anything you want, I’mall yours.” And although you’re slurring now, there’s no doubt you’re serious, still echoing the sentiment from earlier. You take a swing of my drink, finishing it off as he passes the joint back.

Hobie blinks once, and then again as he processes what you said. He watches as you grab the now smoldering joint and take a quick hit of it, thinking about your words for a second. Is she being serious? There’s no way, right?

“Are you being serious darlin’? I want you to be honest.”

“I seriously need you, Hobie-” You grab at his hands that've moved onto your hips, and he squeezes in response. “I’ve been so needy all night, and now you have me. So what are you going to do about it..” You trail off, finishing the joint. Holding the smoke in your mouth, you lean in to kiss the spider. He parts his lips ever so slightly, and accepts the shotgun effortlessly.

Hobie’s grip tightens as your lips meet. He leans in and pulls you closer, letting one arm slide around your waist as you kiss. He closes his eyes and takes in the taste of your lips and warmth, feeling a rush in his body, getting heated up, starting to get lost in his own emotions. He pulls away slightly and looks at you, taking in your beauty. He can’t help but smile when he looks at you, before leaning in and kissing you again, this time deeper, with hunger.

You break apart breathlessly between kisses. " 'Obie I love your lifestyle, but you have way too much shit on” you groan, trying to pull layers of fabric off at a time.

“You want me to take these off?” He laughs, standing and reaching for the buckle of a belt that adorns his pants. He starts to undo it, then undoes a few more of the decorative ones until he has most of the accessories off. He pauses, looking up at you for guidance.

“Should I keep going?”

“If you don’t I’ll have to rip this shit off myself.” You whisper, standing on tiptoes to meet his lips where you’ve stood.

You extend a claw to show him (and add dramatic effect), and as you trail a single long nail up his stomach, you stop to snag the collar of this spider suit. Hobie feels himself tensing up and his heartbeat quickens when you make your way up his torso. His muscles tighten even more as you snag the collar of his suit. He's trying to keep himself calm and still, but he can’t help it now.

“You gonna tear it?” He says in a whisper, his voice shaky, holding something back. Hobie sighs ever so slightly and starts to slowly take his suit off, pulling the material of his vest away and revealing his skin one piece at a time. It takes a few moments for him to get the whole thing off, but once he does he’s standing there shirtless. “There, happy?”

He grins and takes another hit of the joint, the smoke filling his lungs before he breathes it back out.

“Very much so…” You say, dragging your eyes up and down his figure. He’s lean but built, and you can tell the years of being Spider Punk have both a blessing and a curse. He has some scarring here and there, but there’s a particularly nasty one from his sternum to his happy trail. Feeling bold, you drop to your knees, and drag your tongue along the discolored skin. Hobie lets out a loud groan at that, as you take your tongue to his scar, and closes his eyes to take in the feeling. He feels that tingle run down his spine again, and a feeling of pure ecstasy wash over him. It felt like his whole body was electrified, filled with so much want as you continued to run your tongue along his scar, letting out an occasional moan to express the satisfaction he was feeling.

“That’s… ah, that’s mad… love… what’re you doin’ to me…” Hobie sighs in pleasure as you continue to brush against his skin. “You have no idea how good that feels, doll.”

You reach the top of his boxers, and tease him with a tug of teeth on the waistband. Abandoning his body, you move to untie his boots.

Hobie lets out a loud groan and gives a nod as he reaches over and helps you untie the first boot before starting to untie the other. “You’re driving me crazy darling,” he says with a smirk before grabbing a second beer and taking a long drink from it.

“That’s the point my love.”

Nails still out, you drag them back up his torso before burying them into his wicks, finding his scalp and scratching lightly as you settle back into his lap, pants flung and abandoned nearby. Hobie can feel his body being electrified by the feeling and lets out a deep moan as his muscles start to tense. As you pull your nails up his torso, he begins to run his hands up your sides, down your hips, and then down your thighs a little as he anticipates the next step.

He lets you scratch away and his smile only grows with each nail drag. He looks down and makes eye contact with you before whispering, not wanting anyone in the building to hear. “I’m all yours love, but are you ready for what’s next?”

You continue to kiss and suck at this neck, nails trailing his back and torso mindlessly. “Just waiting for you to take the lead, Brown.”

“Alright. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With a smirk he reaches out and grabs the back of your shirt, slowly beginning to peel it off from over your head. He gets an even bigger smile on his face when he sees you down to your underwear, burying his face in your neck to hide his goofy smile. “How can I say no to someone like you?”

“Prove how much you want me ‘Obie, I don’t want to forget tonight any time soon.” And despite your fuzzy vision and the copious amount of substances coursing through your system, you’d never been so sure of a decision, not even sober. 

Hobie smirks at you and pulls his lips away. You’re right, he needs to show you how much he wants this. He was going to ruin you for anyone else, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to care. 

“You really gotta be careful what you wish for, love.” He pushes you back down onto the couch, pinning you underneath him. With a smirk he begins to drag calloused hands up your thighs, leaving small marks as rings drag along your hips and he kisses down your stomach. His hands are so big, grabbing and scratching at anything he could reach, the cold metal of his jewelry sending a shiver up your spine.

Hobie grins as he feels you shiver at his touch, a confirmation with every new sensation he’s putting you through. He keeps dragging his nails up your thighs and kisses your legs, his lips slowly moving up to your inner thigh. They twitch open instinctively, and a gasp you hadn’t meant to let out escapes your lips. Noticing the bottle still on the table, you take a swig of Henney as he kisses his way to the lining of your panties.

“I’ve been wantin’ you all day, I promise I won’t be too rough doll.” Hobie reaches the crease of your inner thigh and stops for a second, looking up and smirking. He has an almost mischievous look in his eyes as he holds you there, waiting for the go ahead to continue. “You want this to continue darlin’?”

You roll your eyes and groan, exasperated and tired of his teasing, but a smile still present on your swollen lips. “Do you want me to beg for it?”

Hobie chuckles and gives you a playful nudge on the knee as he pulls his head back, giving one last grin.

“You heard it here first, she wants me to keep going and to make her beg for it.”

“HOBERT!” You yell frustrated, but before you can get up and retaliate, he’s twipped web fluid to pin your wrists together. He’s towering over you now, and completely at his mercy.

“So you like demands? Is that what I’m hearing?” He grins down at you and brings a hand up to your cheek, brushing your hair back and away since you can’t. He looks down into your eyes as he leans in and whispers. “You want me to be rough with you, don't you?” Hobie grins at the web grabbing your wrists, holding you still. He looks down at his handiwork, in awe and proud of his own creation, and leans closer to you as his hands slide down your torso, stopping just above your hips.

He leans in and whispers into the other ear, his breath is hot against your neck, he smells like smoke.

“Say please for me.”

His tone, you’d never heard him this demanding, his cockney accent drowned out by the baritone of his voice, husky and serious. He chuckles darkly at your silence and pulls you closer to him, the spider web still binding your wrists together. “Hobie,” your voice is so breathy, as you plead with him. You don’t even know what you want, but it’s something more than this, you’re sure. He just hums, innocently - and you believe him. You fumble over your words as you try to say something coherent “Please.”

His hand is up and grabbing your face, thumb tracing your jawline and his fingertips touching the side of your face gently, a contrast to the hold he has on you. The softness in his eyes holds a stark contrast to his tone, "Now, are you ready to beg?"

His words make your hips rut up against him with a whine. “Yes, yes yes please, god I’ve been wanting you so long, Hobie, please just fuck me.”

He was feeling for your limits, trying to see how far he could go before the tears, the begging for relief. It was one of his favorite things- pushing until you’re broke. Usually it was with pleasure, overstimulation, worshiping until you were spent- and he finally had permission to have his favorite kind of fun.

“Aw you’re too sweet, love.” Hobie says as he smirks. “Well then, how about we head to the bedroom then. Lay on the edge of the bed for me, yeah?,” he hums. 

You do as you're told, skipping into his space without protest and plopping down on the mattress, legs hanging off the side. He enters immediately behind and you watch him sink, kneeling between your legs. He nudges them apart with his shoulders, looking at you intently as he slowly moves toward you. His arms come under your thighs, immediately grabbing at the supple flesh of your legs and giving a generous squeeze. 

His fingers pulled your panties to the side, and then he was on you. You felt his warm digit brush against your wetness, and you shuddered at his touch, trying your best to relax while he encircled your bundle of nerves. You couldn't remember the last time you'd been touched like this with hands that weren't your own, and his were so much bigger than yours. Bare hands trailed along your soft outer thighs, his focused eyes lingering on every detail of your warm skin. Your whine above the punk star alerted him to your status, earning you a huff of laughter from the spider. You squirm, only waiting for him as he stares at your sex, his jaw slacking ever so slightly. Christ, he knew you were wet but this was a surprise even to him. He uses a finger to touch it, laughing as you jerk at his finger dragging from your opening to the hood. 

“Needy,” he whispers and you writhe. Your hips jerk up to get some contact, and he decides not to wait any longer, one stroke of his tongue is all it takes. Hobie may be nonchalant, but his own desires fuel him enough to give you everything you could ever ask for - his tongue strokes your clit at a speed that’s so consistent it aches – how ironic. His mouth is hot and wet, and his tongue is skillful as your thighs tremble, knees weakened, and voice crying out for him in a way you didn’t know was possible. You lie there, trying to catch your breath and muddle through your thoughts, find something to say even though he already knows the gratitude that you want to convey. He doesn’t wait and you gasp - choking and tugging and falling apart as he curls two fingers into you. 

"You really do want to be used, huh? Showin’ off this leng body of yours at the club, givin’ everyone an eyeful of this ass if you bend over? You're so fucking wet..." He mutters against the skin of your inner thigh. Using both hands, he drags your hips closer, bringing your core right up against his lips, continuing to roll your sensitive nub under his thumb like before, “Keep those pretty eyes on me.” He says quickly, burying his hot tongue deep into you.

The sensation grew to be too much too fast, bringing your head back against the mattress while squeezing your eyes shut. Despite the raging heat, you felt an orgasm quickly following suit. Hobie however grabbed a handful of your ass, kneading harshly as a way of getting your attention. It worked when you felt the tight pressure in your stomach cease, meeting his narrowed gaze burn straight into yours.

“Eyes.” He growled. “Or this stops.”

You obeyed, you had to. You’d be driven mad if he stopped again.

He watches you intently, eyes burning with lust as you feel his fingers dig into the soft flesh of your thigh, those familiar black nails leaving indents on your skin. Your grip on his wicks tighten as the sensation begins to shift into something a little overwhelming, every muscle in your body seizing as pleasure washes over you in waves, an ecstatic sob catching in your throat as you mindlessly call out his name. 

His breath is hot against your pussy when he laughs at the sight of you squeezing your eyes shut again and throwing your head back like that, seemingly amused by how well of a job he’s done, licking languidly as he allows you to gradually come down from such a brilliant high. “Wanted to do that for so long," he muttered, half to you, half to himself.

Your glossy eyes flutter open at the loss of stimulation even though the lingering sensation is more than enough, barely capable of catching your breath as you eagerly meet his gaze again. His hair is tousled and unkempt, mouth still wet from your arousal as he presses a kiss on your inner thigh. “Are you satisfied love?” Hobie asks when you look coherent enough to respond. A sigh is all you can manage in response. 

“That’s a pity,” Hobie replies as he begins to crawl back up the length of your body. Painstakingly, he peppers kisses along the outline of your neck and jaw until his mouth arrives just below your ear with a hushed whisper, “Because there’s so much more I want to do to you.” 

Your stomach tightens almost instantly, turning your head to see the devastatingly sinister grin that’s found itself on his face, and before you can respond you feel his lips against yours. His enthusiasm is overwhelming, almost to the point where you forget the lingering taste of yourself that sits sweetly on his tongue. 

"I knew there was a little brat somewhere in there, a dirty girl that wanted nothing more than to be used." You were suddenly on your stomach again, then your knees as he yanked your hips roughly off his comforter. You heard the metallic clink of his last belt as he unhooked it with one hand, the other shoving your head into his push pillows, granting him a full view of your backside. You bit your lip, anticipating, breathing in the scent of him that filled the room around you. 

Instead of being deliciously filled, you feel the leather of his belt loop around your neck and pull you up harshly, your hands scrabbling for purchase on the man behind you, finding none as he swats them away.

“I want to hear that filthy mouth of yours beg some more, darling,” he whispered directly into your ear. “You wanted a challenge? Beg for me, and I’ll reward you.”

Whatever Hobie Brown wants, he gets. 

Your mind ran, heartbeat racing, and your breaths growing shorter. Tears welled up in your eyes, feeling frustrated and oh so hot. Your throat and pride burned, ‘Please, please, please,’ are the only words you seem to remember and he adores the sound. His fingers grip your thighs, bruising as you finally, finally feel him pressed against your entrance.

“To be honest,” his voice is low and gravelly when he speaks to you, and it lights a fucking fire in you again, “I’ve been thinking about fucking you recklessly for the last two months, I can barely handle myself around you right now,” and it kills you because he sounds so serious, desperate. Your thighs try to press together naturally, and you whisper out a final plea and it’s the nail in the coffin.  

He yanks the belt again, forcing you to look back at him in the eyes. “And now you’re all mine.”

He leans forward a little, using his hand to line up his length against your slit, holding his breath as you feel your heart hammer in your chest in anticipation. Once it’s done there’s no going back to how things were before, even though you have already come this far. 

Immediately, he snaps his hips with a force that knocks you breathless. In any other position, you would’ve been completely limp, yet his hands are wrapped securely around your hips, digging into the plush skin. There’s a little resistance at first as your body adjusts to such an unfamiliar stretch, a shiver running through you as you feel yourself stretch around him even before he’s made it all the way in, his earlier foreplay making the experience much easier despite his immense size. “Tell me to stop if it’s too much.” His voice strains as he speaks.

Hobie is aggressive with it – a far cry from his usual exchanges with you – and yet you take him so well. He’s jackhammering you, nailing you to the bed each and every time with a ferocity even he didn’t know he was capable of. He shifts his position to bury himself in you at a sharper angle, the expression on his face dark and feverish as his strong hands mimic the belt secured on your neck, fucking you into the mattress roughly. His dick rearranges your inside with such brutality you feel like you'll come away with bruises flowering your tanned skin after this. It burns and aches and feels so good as he rocks against your g-spot over and over and over. 

“Fuck -” He hisses at the tightness when you clench around him, the muscles in his legs contracting as he can feel himself approaching his own end at the sight of you so wonderfully undone. There’s no reason to hold back anymore, but he can’t help and close his eyes to try and last a little longer. He’s throbbing at how wonderful you feel as your back arches impossibly farther, a series of desperate groans escaping your throat as he pounds into you and gives himself over. 

“You’re just a toy for me to use however I want huh?” He grabbed a fistful of your hair, craning your neck at a deliciously painful angle as he rammed into you doggy style.

“But you like that, don’t you? That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

It was insanely hot, HE was insanely hot – and your walls clenched tightly around him as the words process, an involuntary announcement to him that you were really, really enjoying this.

Head pushed back down on the bed, you could do nothing but moan for the man to fuck you harder as he kept guiding you towards another orgasm. And you could be nothing but grateful as another wave of pleasure washed over your body, making your already weak form shudder.

“I’m gonna fuckin’ break you,” he spat, angling even deeper, suddenly assaulting your G-spot with the head of his dick. “That’s all you deserve, my little bitch.”

SMACK!

His hand came down on your ass, the feeling making you jump. Your face burned for a moment, eyes filled with tears, and stars clouded your vision. Looking over your shoulder (the best you could manage), you watch ‘your’ man stare back with hungry eyes, thrusting erratically now, starting to feel a familiar burn in his blood. You were feeling the same kind of pressure, your legs tensing as you tried to prepare your body, sore from the extent of his demonstrations. He leans down, pressing his chest against your back covered in a sheen of sweat, biting at your neck.

“You’re mine, fuck a label.”

The phrase threw you unexpectedly over the edge, pussy clamping down and pulling him over with you. He slammed into you so hard you felt like he was fucking up into your stomach. Hobie doesn’t have the capacity to pull out as he comes, gratification and lust dulling all thought or reason he has as he finishes inside, all the tension in his body unraveling as he stutters and comes to a stop, his chest heaving as his breath begins to catch up on him.  His breath comes in heaves, yours in whimpers. A thin string of fluids connects his tip to your entrance for a moment when he pulls out, and like a lewd spiderweb, breaks against the sheets.

You collapsed onto your stomach, feeling every bit of the phrase ‘fucked silly’, bottom half convulsing and pulsing. He quickly gets up to grab a towel from one of the drawers so that he can clean up the mess ya’ll just made, his cum spilling out of you just as he returns. 

His hand reached over to find yours, interlocking your sweaty hands. He looks back up and meets your gaze – a soft affectionate expression etched onto his face that makes your heart murmur. 

You’re so glad that you chose him, and as far as you can tell he feels exactly the same. 

“I’m sorry,” He chuckles as he wipes you down. “I got a little carried away.”  

[nova--spark]

Okay so I remember you saying you wanted to add Elita to the Timeskip AU. Not sure how you plan on adding her in but if I may make a suggestion.

Maybe Optimus only thought Elita was dead. Maybe she managed to survive and found a way off the planet.

Maybe she manages to crash land on earth. The Jasper Trio finds her (Sometime after they managed to re-establish contact with the Autobots) and Elita immediately endears herself to them.

I imagine the call to Cybertron went a little something like this.

Optimus: Jack, Miko, Raf why have you called the emergency line? Is everything alright?

Jack: First the most part, but I think we found one of your friends. Raf patched her up as best he could but you and Ratchet should probably get over here as soon as possible

Miko: HEY OP! WE MET YOUR WIFE AND SHE’S AMAZING!

Optimus *Probably Bluescreening*: My… What.

Meanwhile Elita is panicking trying to figure out how she’s going to explain all of this to Optimus (or for Bonus points maybe Elita also thought Optimus was dead)

First off:

Second:

Ok my ugly mess sobbing out of the way, ABSOLUTELY Y E S . Going off of how Elita-One's G1 portrayal was, and a bit of my own ideas here and there.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

WARNING, MUN'S OPLITA BUTTON WAS SMASHED WITH FEROCITY

Credit: JPL-Animation on DeviantArt

TFP!Timeskip Elita was one of Optimus' closest commanders, and was indeed romantically involved with him. She was there for many things, was one to dote on Bee behind her beloved's back, sass back Ratchet when he got too wound up, and be a source for comfort when Optimus needed just a moment of escape from the war. But not even good things last forever When securing the escape off Cybertron, she and Optimus were separated, and though both made it off world, it was not on the same vessels.

Both thought that would be the last time they would ever see each other.

Elita managed to secure a solo ride, but it came at a cost as she unfortunately became an easy target. In a ship with little to no defensive or combative measures, she put herself into a cryo stasis pod, in the hopes that her damaged ship would be found and rescued.

Entering the coordinates for Earth, which had been one of the last things Optimus had given her in case they did not make it together, Elita entered cryo stasis.

Sadly for her, the course was not a steady one, and being the only passenger but in stasis meant her voyage to Earth took longer than desired.

Arriving to Earth a few months after the end of RiD15, Elita was stirred from her cryo stasis due to the further damage sustained in her ship, and came online for the first time in many many years.

She wandered Earth solo for a while, regaining her bearings, and for a time didn'd leave her ship as she tried to contact Optimus, or find any nearby Autobot frequencies to tune into.

Luck would have it, she found that of Jasper's Hangar E.

Finding a vehicle mode after a few weeks, Elita set off but with low Energon levels, she didn't make it that far out before having to hide out in a discarded Energon mine, from 3 years ago.

Thankfully, she didn't need to go further to find help.

Having picked up the signals of an Autobot on Earth, one that did not fit any profile from any prior visitors, Raf and Jack set out with Miko in the armor, and a truck driven by Fowler, a smart move when they realized just what they had found.

After a brief scare and minor altercation, wherein the children made it known they knew Optimus, Elita seemed immensely relieved to know she'd made it, and help was here.

Loaded up onto the truck in her vehicle form, they hauled her back to the base, where Raf got to work putting into practice everything Ratchet had ever taught him. How proud his mentor would have been if he'd seen how well he repaired Elita.

It took just a day for Elita to bond to these young ones, making her proud of how Optimus had trained them, especially as they handled everything on their own, despite their size.

Jack was the one to contact Cybertron, while Elita rested and worked on her recovery, as well as got up to speed with Miko and Raf's help about the end of the war, and Cybertron being restored.

The above conversation happened, and they were all quite surprised to see how fast the space bridge booted up, and through it came Optimus, who was followed by Ratchet and Bee, all almost falling over each other.

When Elita finally saw Optimus for the first time in centuries, she couldn't help the silent tears flowing as she tried to limp over, but he did not let her get far before rushing over and holding her in his arms protectively, yet gently, as if this was yet another vision from the Primes that would be ripped from him in an instant if he closed his eyes.

Ratchet took over the medical aspects, while Optimus and Elita finally spoke, after thinking that for centuries, one another had been gone, one with the AllSpark and never to be seen again.

Well, Optimus had been, and Elita gave him an earful about it, but...that could wait, as she had a lot of catching up to do, and many a story to hear now that she was back online.

Bee and the kids all shared stories with each other while they waited for their turn with the rose colored war maiden, which would be quite a while, but...

It was good to be back.

Good to be with friends, loved ones, and some new sparklings, both of metal and flesh, to care for, with the war gone.

...

Though now they certainly had explaining to do , especially after Miko called her Optimus' wife.

[stevenbasic]

Growing into the Job, Post 336: A Saturday at Melissa's, p11 (9PM, Randi)

We were kinda sorta still watching the movie, another superhero thing that was in the theaters a couple years or so ago. Sushi had all been cleaned up, and we’d let him start to recover, dialing back on our, uh, whatever they called these things - pheromones. Missy was reclined, he was cuddled up into her and had been put back into some loose clothes after he’d complained a bit. Most of us were still in swimsuits, though I’d put a little tube top on over mine after our last spurt nearly burst me out of my bikini. Fuck, my tits were getting huge. We’d all grown. 

“Hey, has anyone heard from Marisela?” I asked, to no one in particular, stretching my jaw, “She was supposed to be here.”

I didn’t really get a response. I’d been here only a few hours but he’d came like a bunch of times today already. We were all just sort of lazily recovering, enjoying the new size and energy. Some of us handled it differently than others, and though nobody really talked about it too much some of us were beginning to change in different ways. I stretched out my jaw again, which tended to feel a little sore afterwards, and considered Marisela once more. “Should someone call her?”

“I already tried. Nothing,” Josie replied, casually rubbing J's bare foot. I thought I saw the ends of her long brown hair twitching. She’d gone back to watching Black Widow shrink Ant Man down for like the third time, Amelia was checking her nails.. 

Hm. Well, fuck it. If no one else cares I don’t either. These were odd chicks, for sure, this little friend group of ours. That I’d become the responsible one was a laugh, and I tried not to get too concerned about the weird shit that was going on. I figured I’d worry about whatever Marisela was doing later tonight. Maybe tomorrow. 

Scarlett was holding the guy in her hand and scowling down at him while he tried to joke his way out of something stupid he’d just done. I gererally thought superhero movies were fucking stupid but had to admit the effects in this one were pretty amazing. It was one of the first ones, along with the first She-Hulk movie, that really caught people’s attention, big girls and all that. 

“Haha I dunno..!” Missy laughed back, hugging his head back into her boobs, “Maybe! Would you like that, sweetie..?”

We all laughed as a few girls turned to watch him blush and stammer something we could barely hear. Missy, for her part, took it upon herself to gather him in a little closer, bundling him in the thin blanket he’d been given. I didn't even have to look. One of her hands was definitely under that blanket.

I’m sure I don’t have to spell it out for you people, but for all her quirks, we all adored Missy. Josie, Katie, Amelia and I have known her a long time, Shanette even longer. She’s a special friend to have. It’s been a trip, watching what’s happening to her in the middle of all the crazy shit that’s going down in the world and seeing how she’s drawn this hive of girls all around her. This job had been haha really good for her, to say the least, and it had given us all the opportunity to not only make bank, but to become more than what we were before. Some of us were worker bees, some were becoming more like warriors or soldiers, but everyone had their part. I like to think the boss girls were something even more special still. But Melissa, again for all her oddities, was definitely our queen bee…and she seemed blithely happy with this new little boyfriend of hers. It’s good, she deserves to be happy, especially with what her life story has been. And I have to admit he was pretty cute, so vulni and getting more so everyday. It made my mouth water, thinking of it, and my jaw flex remembering the couple times I had him in the car and in his apartment a few months back. Yummy... 

The guy was a hard-triggered mess unable to think with anything besides what was between his legs. Most of the time that didn't seem weird anymore. It certainly didn’t bother Melissa. In fact, I think she sorta loved it. She would've had trouble seeing anything odd or strange about it. Her view of men was certainly different than most people’s, with the way she was raised. That she even seemed to consider this guy as human, let alone someone to care about, was a big step for her. She’d had him tamed through his libido, which was sort of her go-to automatic thing and not a surprise seeing as how she’d treated boys before, but she honestly seemed to love him. 

Jesus Christ I sound like such an adult. The important thing was that she had him by the dick and that was that. Her new thing was that she wanted us all in on the deal. Well, okay, we could become his protectors, his guardian angels or whatever. It certainly felt good, this new kind of energy we were all getting since yesterday. I could feel it in my teeth and jaw.

Watching Black Widow zipping up her top, hiding away and trapping Ant Man in her bra and then having to fight off some robots got Melissa thinking. She and the rest of us sort of chatted about it, and it was obviously making him kinda nervous. I sensed it, and she certainly did too. She spoke up, finally, and sat him up a bit on her lap. It was weird, kinda. How her voice seemed to make the movie go quiet as all the lasers and punching noises faded into the background. We were all - all like, I dunno, dozen of us - turned to her. Attentive. 

”Jay, I want you to tell them what we talked about last night,” she said. Melissa was half-reclined on the couch, her long legs stretched out and taking up a good number of seats. Shanette sat alongside her on the other wing of the sectional.

He was turned on her lap a little awkwardly at the waist, so he could look back down at her. He nodded his head, like he knew exactly what she was talking about, what she wanted him to tell the crowd of us. “Melissa, uh…because of what’s going on with my, uh…health, thinks I need some…protecting.” 

As the words left him I watched Shanette whispering in Missy’s ear. As she pulled back, Melissa shook her head in the negative and spoke up again. “No,” she said to him, “That doesn’t sound right. Try again, sweetie.”

I saw his reaction - he was a little taken aback. But he paused, and rather than argue, he thought for a moment and reworded what he’d said. ”She believes it’d be in my best interest if you all helped her-“

Shanette was whispering in her ear again, and again Melissa stopped him. ”Uh uh uh,” She said, herself stopping to think now, “I know what’s wrong. Try saying it like this ‘I’m starting to have a hard time, and I need all your help. I need you all to become more protective of me.’” Melissa looked at him with those big, golden-green eyes of hers and I could see the gears turning between them. “Try that, honey,” she instructed, already expectant.

You could tell he felt awkward, all those female eyes on him, the center of attention. But, he was able to repeat her word for word: “I’m starting to have a hard time, and I need all your help. I need you all to become more protective of me.” 

When we all gave several half-claps and ‘good jobs’, you could see his face growing redder. He felt happy and self-conscious at the same time, surrounded by a bevy of bosomy bikini girls praising him like he was a shy schoolboy.

“Much better,” Melissa lauded, petting his shoulder and gracing him with that big dimpled smile of hers.

”Melissa, th-that was embarrassing,” he said, plainly, making us all purr in delight. The light of the TV screen silhouetted the shapely figures of Aubrey, Katie and the B-girls from behind, covering J with their shadow.

The room erupted with an “Awwwww..!” as I watched his vulni little eyes settle on his reflection in the glass pool doors. The TV gave off just enough light for him to see his shrunken little self - and I swear he was smaller now than he was this afternoon - surrounded by his big beautiful protectors on every side. He was seated in the middle, a little man on his girlfriend's lap, right where he belonged.

”Don´t think of it that way, sweetie,” Shanette giggled, “think of it as a lesson…”

“...and you just needed some help with it,” Josie chimed. 

“But I´m sure that, from now on, you will pay attention to what every woman says, right?” Melissa finished. She was sitting up straighter, now, and had pulled him slowly closer to her. I could see her eyes light up as he had moved closer to her right breast again. This whole exchange was so, like, enlightening. She obviously didn’t want him to feel as if he had no say in the matter. She wanted him to think that he had at least some power in this relationship of theirs, but she also needed him to know what’s what.

“We’re all excited to help you,” Lakshmi spoke, turning ever so slightly towards him on the couch, that big rear end of hers pivoting and causing something - springs in the sofa? - to groan.

“We want to keep you safe,” said Aubrey.

Melissa continued. ”Does that make you happy?” she asked, “Are you happy you have us, you have me to protect you?”

His voice cracked, adorably. ”s-SU-ure?” he answered, “Yes?” That caused the girls to titter and giggle excitedly, though I could tell he couldn’t make out what they were saying even as they were all - me included - drawing in closer to him. The whole place already looked like a big slumber party from some weird-ass porno.

”So tell me… why?” Melissa pressed. Their gazes were locked, intent on one another.

”Uhhh…” he began, searching for the right answer, “if someone tries to h-hurt me, you’d stop them?”

Melissa shook her head while her words came quickly. “Oh no no no,” she said, “If someone were to try to hurt you I wouldn’t just stop them. I’d absolutely murder them.”

When his smile changed we all felt the electricity. Her own excitement surged and we all began to warm slightly. He was picturing it, we could see, he was imagining what someone with the size and strength of Melissa could do to another human being, and it turned him on. Missy shivered, and needed to squirm her legs below him.

“We all would,” someone else said. I think it was Amelia, at first, but then the others joined in in chorus. 

“Yes, cutie…”

“You have us…”

“Your girl army…”

All our voices were echoing off the high ceilings, sounding louder and louder. I don’t know if the others were noticing it but I was watching him flinch.

“Your big pretty bodyguards…”

“We’d fucking kill them.”

Girls were laughing, and onscreen Black Widow was again arguing with Ant Man, who was complaining from deep inside her cleavage. The robots were crumpled and smoldering, beaten, but she still hadn’t unzipped. 

Melissa continued to smile, satisfied with the enthusiasm of her girls. ”What else?” she asked him, “What else are you happy about?” The smell of our perfumes, the chlorine in our wet hair, and the lingering tang of wasabi filled the room as we waited for him to answer.

”Uhhhh….” he began, struggling again under the attention of a dozen jigglebunnies. He knew there was a right answer, somewhere.

Josie spoke up to help. ”How about this, Dr. J…say this:” she began, “‘Now I don’t only have one girlfriend, I’ve got thirty…”

Lots of giggles.

”Th-thirty?” he stammered, looking over at Josie. 

”Haha yes!” Missy laughed, “Thirty girlfriends! You lucky little guy!”

“So lucky!”

“And soon we’re going to hire more,” Missy added.

“More girlfriends??” someone sang, “OOOOoooo YES!”

“Okay, Fifty!” Josie called.

“Sixty!” offered someone else.

“And the more of us there are..?” said Brittni.

“...the stronger we get?” finished Bobbi.

“A hundred!” called the redheaded Julia, who’d arrived an hour or so ago. She and a couple others were actually standing on the second-floor balcony above us, outside the bedrooms, watching from up there.

“A thousand!!” laughed Stephanie after her, also from the balcony. When’d she get here? I think there were three of our witchy friends up there, too.

Anyway, I felt it myself, for sure - this group of women swelling in strength, excited and energized. We were a unit, a hive, a family - and we were growing. So weird; three months ago you’d have never been able to convince me I’d be hanging out with some of these people. But now, look at all of us. Each one of us that joined the group just makes us bigger and better, makes her bigger and better. Is that what’s making Melissa so strong? I thought, The more of us there are, the more powerful she becomes? I’d seen her, in the parking lot just yesterday, casually pushing one of the construction guy’s pickup trucks out of the way. He’d parked it blocking in her beemer, and she moved the thing like it was nothing. 

“A million!”

Does she even realize it?

There was the patter of strong footsteps as several more girls came in from the kitchen, bare feet and high heels, both. Silvia, Nadia and Kori were here now, and had been swimming and looking for wine in the fridge. Bessie had also arrived, still in her BOOMfood uniform and pumps. Among everyone, the growing, giddy crowd, Missy seemed to draw all light and attention to herself. Look at her, I remember thinking, seeing her holding him so small on her lap, I fucking love her.

“A million girlfriends, Jay, how does that sound?” Missy laughed, “Could you handle all those kisses?”

The girls loved that, and we all smushed in closer. The movie still played, and with the doors out to the pool now left open you could hear the sound of the hot tub from outside the room. The floor was damp in places and there were warmly wet towels everywhere, left by the few who had not fully dried their hair. Some of us - oh yeah, me haha - had their towel around their waist.

“We need you, sweetie, to start getting used to having as much physical contact with the girls as possible,” Missy continued, as the pile of girls swarmed in closer still, some crawling onto the couch, across the ground, gathering towards him with the sofa pillows they had brought to sit on the floor, “It’ll help you bond.”

“Yes, bonding. Lots of bonding,” Shanette cooed, pressing her big breasts together in her overmatched blue bikini, causing his eyes to goggle.  

“I’m going to need my good morning hug every morning,” Josie offered, pushing a pillow up alongside him, between him and the back of the couch.

“Me too, and a good morning kiss,” said Katie, also adding a pillow to support him and leaning in to smooch him on the lips. 

“Bonding…” Shanette cooed again. 

“Everyone will need their good morning hug, and their good morning kiss when they come into the office, okay Jay?” Missy charged, watching his eyes follow Katie’s chest up and then rivet to her brilliant smile as she pushed back her thick blond hair.

“Yes lots of physical contact,” I said, moving in myself towards him seeing how hard he obviously was, with a tent pulling the thin blanket up off his hips, “Let’s try it out…” 

At that I scootched in for my own kiss, my mouth opening wide - though not nearly as wide as haha I could open it - to take his own. The girls were building pillows around him, attempting to make him even more comfortable as I could taste Katie’s cherry chapstick on his lips. I added my own lipstick to his face, my mauveness, smearing it on him. How do you like that flavor, boy? I then heard him grunt, feeling the surprise when he realized the size of my mouth. I chuckled thinking about how he’d react if he realized I could probably swallow his whole fucking head if I wanted. I grabbed his cock through the throw blanket, and we all heard him groan, everyone giggling as his body tensed into spasm.

“Who’s the best kisser, Dr. J?” I asked, giving him another quick peck, this time right between the eyes. Then I licked him up his face, chin-to-nose-to-forehead. “Me?”

“No no no you have to try us all!” Josie squealed, suddenly leaning in aside me to plant her own lips on his. His eyes had closed, so he couldn’t see how her hair, in the strange way it had started to do over the past week, began to swirl and curl, with a movement of its own. One strand reached out towards me, one towards him, caressed his face.

I sat back and Missy, for her part, just watched and smiled as the entire crowd of us moved in for kisses. His face, I could see, was quickly coated with smears of lipstick, the sheen of glosses, pink and red and shiny. Aubrey, Lakshmi, Brittni and Bobbi. Amelia and Katarina and Shanette. Even the new girls Silvia and Kori and Bessie and the rest got in there, everyone taking their turns on his lips, settling for his cheeks and neck and shoulders, back and belly when needed. He was a-glob with lipstick, all over his body, the girls sitting back to apply more to themselves, to each other, when others slid in to take their place on him and his skin. The blanket, which had been across his hips, was gone. If he’d had on shorts or anything underneath those were gone too, and now it was cock, all cock. Huge throbbing cock again, nearly ten inches of it rising from his weak-ass skeleton. As we kissed him - I’d gone in for seconds, thirds - hands were on him, now. The other girls were cooing and clucking, groaning and texting and taking selfies and group pics with him swimming in his harem, drowning in their lipstick, trying to stay afloat as our mouths sucked him into our depths. In all his glory he was now only weakly twitching and he would have long ago collapsed and flopped over were it not for us all, for the pillows around him, and for Missy’s strength holding him up from behind. She, in fact, finally eased us all away to allow him breath, while we all writhed alongside him, buzzing and squealing. She turned him, gently, pivoting him at the hips and - his chin in hand - took him in for a kiss of her own.

If you’ve never seen a man’s brain melt, it’s quite the fucking sight.

Missy drew him into the kiss, and I could see how his jaw stretched and his eyes widened as she was pushing her huge tongue into him. She moved it around his mouth, down towards his throat, claiming her territory and then, drawing breath herself, began pulling the air from within him. His eyes began to flutter closed. She wanted to take him deeper into herself to make him closer to her. Just as I’d felt the pull, the instinct to eat him, the want to suck him right into me, I could see Melissa was struggling with the same hunger. She wanted him. She wanted all of him. She wanted to suck out all his brains along with his come and all his manhood, leaving him a dribbling pathetic husk. She didn’t want to kill him, she wanted him alive to hug and cuddle and care for. But she would take his breath away. She would control his breathing, filling him with her own oxygen and keeping him alive at her whim. Haha she wanted to do more - I could see, I could fucking see how she wanted to just be able to open her mouth wider and wider and wider and just YOMP - but she wasn’t quite that big yet. What she could do is fucking suck the life out of him if she wasn’t careful, and so she released the kiss before he began to suffer any real discomfort.

“C’mon, Daddy,” she urged, “Come for us...”

The other girls, too, cooed their encouragements. I was chiming in myself, my lips the closest to his left ear. 

“Let’s go, you little shit,” I sneered into him, as my mouth all but ate up his ear, “come for us again.”

I was in his left ear, Lakshmi had moved into his right, both of us were purring and slurping and tonguing his brain. Others were between his knees, sliding lips up thighs and around his sac. Hands caressed arms, slid over chest and shoulders. Still Josie stroked him, as Melissa gazed into his failing eyes. 

“Go ahead, Jay, it’s okay,” she said, giving him permission. This was her boyfriend, her new man, the love of her life, and she haha was willing to share. We were all his, and he was all ours. “Give yourself to them, Jay, I want you to…”

“Come for us,” we hissed.

“Come for us now,” I said.

My smile grew so huge around his ear when, yes, finally, we all felt him shudder and collapse, like a dying fucking beast underneath us all, this pride of lionesses. When he finally came the girls - and me, and Melissa - all sang his name and Josie pumped and pumped and pumped. We watched him wither, we watched his jaw fall open and his head bob like a marionette on his neck. Though he’d climaxed countless times today, come still rocketed from his dick in gushes and fell onto his chest, into my hair and Lakshmi’s. And then, as she still pumped, Josie sat up straighter and drew his eyes to her tits. She pulled back her shoulders, thrust her big breasts out, straining straining straining at the top of her bikini and waiting waiting waiting for - oh god, there it was, there it fucking was - the warmth, the strength, the power that swelled and there it was she knew it, we all knew it - we were all just about to-

Josie’s top burst, her bikini snapping apart. Her tits ballooned outwards, and Missy began to laugh as he moaned an ‘oh my god’ in the weakest, most pathetically male voice you could imagine. She had  begun to grow, we had begun to grow, all around him, visibly. He was watching us and he was watching us fucking grow. Staring at Josie’s burgeoning tits and the swirls of her hair dancing about her shoulders, he was staring into his future and feeling his world close in all around him. “Get ready little man,” I whispered into his ear, “your girls are going to eat you alive…”

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thanks in huge gobs to ResistanceIsFutile for his inspiration, contributions to atmosphere and editing on this one.  I’m also using brother Beetlebomb’s render of Dr J…again.

[sawyerslvt]

Two Sides To The Devil - Johnny Slaughter (Episode 2)

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Completed series :)  Summary: Johnny Slaughter kidnaps you and you wake up in his basement. You negotiate your way out of death by offering to lure in male victims with your beauty. Johnny entertains your desperate offer. He ends up having to protect you and slowly starts to fall in love with his victim, and so do you.  Word count: 2,825 Warnings: MDNI, non-consensual touching, explicit descriptions of violence, blood

You walk into the bar. Johnny makes a bee line for the seat in the furthest stool to the right while you stay by the entrance scanning the room. The thought of one of the people spending their last moments in this bar was surreal to think about. And the guilt was starting to take over. You try brushing the thoughts away, as your own life was at stake. 

You make your way to the bar and sit on one of the stools closer to the left. Far away from Johnny, but close enough so that he could hear everything being said while being able to keep a real close eye in case you try escaping. To your surprise he already seemed busy with a woman. You look over to him and catch yourself staring, so did he. While the woman looked away for a second he winked at you, making sure you knew he caught you. 

A wave of jealousy hits you and you feel confused and quite frankly, disgusted by the insinuation that your brain had suggested. She laughs at something Johnny says and playfully hits his shoulder. You see him hunched over the bar playing with the rim of his glass while smirking and entertaining the woman's giggles. He makes sure to avoid eye contact with you but he knows youre watching him.

He places his hand lazily around her waist and listens to her while she talks. She seemed quite talkative and he wasn't really listening but he made sure to pay attention to her with physical touch, stroking her waist and sides. Eventually he went lower until his hand was resting on her thigh, he gave her that same gentle squeeze he gave you earlier.

It was clear that you were nothing special to him. This wasn't you winning at his game, it was all a part of his plan. He liked the hunt. He liked toying with you and giving you a false sensation of power. And when you feel like you have him exactly where you want him, when you feel the most powerful, he’ll reclaim and strip the power away from you, making sure you knew he was in control the whole time. Whether it be psychological or physical, he’ll best you in either.

You continue watching him for a while longer until your staring gets interrupted. “Alright lady, will you order anything?” the bartender is cleaning a glass with a cloth, you've been sitting here for a while gawking at some guy, he was not letting you use up a stool without you ordering. “Yes, she will have a… what would you like, peach?” a man in his late twenties, maybe early 30s looks over to you with a warm smile. You hadn't noticed but he was sitting right beside you the whole time. “uhh.. ill take whatever, really. But I guess maybe a tequila sunrise”. You tried directing your attention back at the man beside you, rather than Johnny's hands on that woman.

He gives a nod to the bartender, confirming your order. He already had his drink in front of him. He turned his body to face you, resting his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together. You knew what this was, you didn't even look in his direction but here he was throwing himself at you, men were too easy. “So what is a pretty girl like you doing at a bar alone?” he looks slightly up to meet your gaze. “i felt i needed some time alone, i need distractin’”. Your body is facing forward, you turn your head to meet the man looking up at you, but instead, your gaze falls straight over and past him and you're met with Johnny smirking slyly towards you, waiting to see your next move. He has a shit eating grin on his face seeing how uninterested you seemed in the man. You read his facial expression and sense he’s feeling pride. He's feeling proud over having scared you into not flirting with other men, because god forbid… if they touch you…

You start to feel sick of it. I mean sure you weren't even interested in the man to begin with but over your dead body, that Johnny would think that he's the cause of it. You decide to play along with his game again. Slowly but sensually you turn to face the man and you meet his gaze as close as you could get. “I think a man like you could distract me from my problems just fine”. You give his lips a glance and you see him choke on his nervosity, you can see the mental pep talks he's giving himself to keep his cool around you. Just as he calms down you pull away and conveniently your tequila sunrise greeted you on the bar. 

Still facing him and poking your chest out a little, you take a sip from your drink without breaking eye contact. You take a quick glance back at Johnny and it looks like smoke was about to come out of his ears and nose, he was furious and you lived for it. The woman is now practically in his lap, trying desperately to get him to touch her again. He reluctantly put his hands back on her body, but this time his focus is entirely you. 

“What's your name honey?” you stay confident. “James, and yours?” he started becoming progressively more confident, now knowing the type he’s dealing with. “Mikaela” you say somewhat dryly. “Well Mikaela, may I kiss you?” he asked cautiously, but somehow cocky at the same time. You knew Johnny would probably kill you, but at this point, you didn't care. 

You grabbed the man's collar and pulled him close to you, biting your lips, until you connected with the man's wet mouth. You kept kissing him and he happily returned the kiss. But you were lost in thought of what Johnny might do to you. You reluctantly open your eyes and see him grab the woman's face and forcibly bring it to his mouth. His tongue meeting hers and dancing along in a synchronized rhythm. Neither of you break eye contact and for the moment you are passionately kissing your respective victims while keeping intimate eye contact with each other. You see the hunger in his eyes wishing the woman holding onto his big shoulders was you. He sees the hunger in your eyes wishing the man pulling her waist close was him. 

The kiss gets increasingly passionate. Johnny, at one point gives you that smirk that you’ve slowly started to grow, oh, so fond of. You smile back and for a second forgot… he wasn't the man kissing you. With the upscaling intensity you felt a hand grab your ass. You flinch as you somehow didn't expect anything more than kissing. Well, you didn't even expect touching but here your stubborn self was. As this was more than you signed up for, you pulled away and tried grabbing the attention of the man kissing you, breaking Johnny's eye contact. He met your confused and disapproving gaze with a sly smirk and thirst for more and you kept pulling away to make your point crystal clear. 

He doesn't get the hint… or he does, but he disrespects your wishes to finish and pulls you back in. This time he uses more force. “don't do this to me baby, give me what you just gave me” he whispers breathlessly in your ear. “please get off me” you heart racing, you didn't want him hurting you more than he already was. “you were acting like a whore a moment ago, you need distractin’, remember?”. He quickly stood up from his chair, making it fall behind him, now grasping your upper arm hard and directing you to the bar bathroom. 

For the second time during these cursed 24 hours, you feel scared for your life, or at the very least scared for your innocence. As a last attempt for a savior you look over to the man responsible for all of it, Johnny. To your surprise he was already rushing your direction with a clenched jaw and fist. This was the most furious you had seen him all night. 

It all went so fast. One second your arm was bruising from the hold the man had you in, the next second Johnny lifted his fist and for a split second you thought it was headed your way, until you felt the hand’s tight grip of your arm weaken and suddenly, it was fully released. You had shut your eyes and held your head and ears with your arms to protect you from an incoming attack. Instead, you hesitantly open your eyes to see the man on the floor and Johnny towering over him. His fist connecting with his nose and blood was slowly covering the bar floor. The bartender, continuing the cleaning of his glasses, gives the one he’s holding a quick blow. “listen buddy, take your business elsewhere, you're scaring my customers”. 

Without hesitation he drags the man outside the bar. You follow Johnny like a dog with his tail between his legs, almost ashamed. The woman was left shocked to her core, little does she know, she dodged a bullet not pursuing Johnny. Once you exit the bar you see him continuously spraying punches to the man’s head who is most likely fully blacked out by that point. You had no other place than to stand and watch. A part of you is thankful that out of all the guys in the bar, you managed to pick the worst one and that he’ll get the honor of meeting his maker. It's a win-win situation, one less perv on this earth, and you get to go to sleep guilt free. 

You look up at the sky and think back to when you were in the car, when the sun was still setting. You were right. The stars do look beautiful on a cloud free night such as this. More beautiful than they have ever looked. You keep your head facing the sky and close your eyes. The sounds of heavy fists hitting the man's skull, Johnny's heavy breathing, cussing and gurgling of the man's last moments were suddenly muffled as you closed your eyes, tears now streaming down your face. You feel the cool breeze of the night target your wet face and a chill travels up your spine. You don't move, you take this moment and enjoy it to the fullest. You don't know how much of your life is left, what else life has to offer other than pain and suffering. You take deep breaths, feeling the fresh oxygen filling your lungs as you inhale, and all worries release as you exhale. 

You slowly open your eyes, tears still flowing uncontrollably, your head still leaned back. Defeated, you look up at the stars. You find yourself looking for this God people keep raving about. Where does he reside during cloud free days? Where is he now that you’re hurting? You look to the stars twinkle in the sky. Do they know you’re hurting? Are they watching this man get beat to death? Will the universe mercilessly watch as your last breath escapes your body? Subconsciously, you take a deeper breath with that last thought. You want your last breath to be far away from this day. 

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

Johnny hovered over the man's disfigured face and body, being satisfied with his work, people like him made killing easier. He walks over to you, you’re watching the sky. He studies you for a moment, you seem completely out of it. Watching the stars, deep in thought, and as if they provided some form of comfort for you. He decides to step away from you and drag the body of the man into the back of his truck. He already had the body bags, rope and other useful utensils back there. Other than the bar, nothing else in town was open. And even the bar was nearly empty. Dragging the body of a half dead man in the middle of town might sound risky. But around these parts, it was like trying to catch a drop of blood in the sea, undetectable. 

After putting the man in the back of his truck, Johnny comes back to you. You're still standing, watching the sky. Now he’s getting impatient with you. “Enough woman! You've caused enough trouble for the day” he grabs your wrist and pulls you back into reality. Before you know it, you are situated back into the passenger seat of his car, but this time with no restraints. The car, once again, rumbles into motion and you take off, leaving the man's dried blood and chunks of flesh to be feasted on by insects. 

Johnny is facing forward, not acknowledging your existence. He scrambles around in his pocket looking for something. He pulls out a cigarette and places it between his lips. He returns to his pocket and pulls out a lighter, lighting the cigarette, all while keeping one hand firmly on the steering wheel. He takes a deep hit of his cigarette and settles it between his index and middle finger and stretches his left arm out of the window, holding the cigarette. He holds the smoke in for a second and later releases it with a deep sigh, the cloud filling the car and making its way to poison your lungs. You were never a smoker, but there was something about him doing it that made it look more elegant than it was. 

“...thank you” you feel ashamed for even saying it. Maybe you should’ve said ‘I'm sorry’. He just beat a man halfway to hell, but you're sure he's used to it. You technically didn't see much of the act itself, you were distracted by the stars, you've always felt they had something to do with the true meaning of life. You tread carefully, afraid you might be next. “I didn't mean to be difficult…” you take a small pause “...i’m sorry” the apology came out more like the squeak of a mouse, but you felt it was appropriate to add it nonetheless. He continues looking straight ahead towards the road and you begin playing with the ends of your long hair in order to provide some self soothing and prepare yourself for what's to come. 

“You don't have to apologize” his voice was low but gentle. He seemed to be calm and you got the feeling that he tried reassuring you he wasn't mad, even though he didn't say it. This felt like a surprisingly human moment coming from him. You knew what he was capable of, and how quick he could switch from kind to rough but you wanted this side of him to stay a little longer. “Does it hurt? your hands, that is” you had noticed his knuckles were red and bleeding. He seemed almost startled by the question, of course he didn't expect it, but his facial expression also seemed to soften once he fully absorbed the question. “no darlin’... don't worry about me, im fine” 

Your body was fully facing him at this point. You watch him as he drives, his face looked like it was carved by God himself, not a single flaw other than his big scar cutting through his eye, which honestly only added to his charm and mystique. You wonder if another woman had placed that on him while she desperately flayed her arms to get away from him. You feel yourself get hypnotized by his hair swaying back and forth caused by the wind trying to catch up to the car's speed. How could someone so stunningly beautiful be capable of the acts he was committing, and yet, you hadn't even seen half of it, you bet. You continue watching him and feel your eyelids get heavy. It's been a long day and the headache is starting to catch up to you, the lack of food making your stomach rumble. Your body still facing him , you try to create a makeshift pillow with your hands and place it on your shoulders to rest your head. 

Johnny takes notice of you making yourself comfortable in his truck but he allows you. You’re exhausted but try to stay awake. Through your lazy attempts to keep your eyelids open, you see him glance over at you every now and then. And for the first time since the bar incident, you see that little smirk peering through. It was warm, and it gave you a sense of comfort, like you were safe with him. You pretend he's not the man he is for a moment and let yourself drift off. Keeping the mental image of his warm smirk to tuck yourself into your sleep. 

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[virgo-mess]

The Birds and the Bees

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Chapter List

1.Alexithymia- The Inability to Express your Feelings Parts 1 and 2

2.The Woes of Adolescence/ What the heck Happened that Summer Parts 1 and 2

3.Caught in a Summer Storm/ What the heck Happened that Christmas.

4.Summer Bluffs? Part 1

5.Disco, Strippers, and Margaritassss Part 2

6.Sleepless in a Hotel Suite Part 3

7.Shades of Pink

8.The Things I’ve Dreamed Part 1

9.Renewal Part 2

🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝

TW: Again, nothing too bad really, mentions of child abuse and DV but nothing graphic, mostly just Cash being a little simp and thirsting after the girl next door, oh and CUTENESS BEWARE

Alexithymia- The Inability to Express Your Feelings Part 2

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"You're my first love, and I never had the courage to tell you. My love for you is pure, ageless. I knew it the first time I saw you bob for apples at your ninth birthday party. I've known it all our lives, and my love for you has grown as we've grown together, apart, and back together again" - Trudy Stiles

Cash’s Pov

Cash stirred early the next day to the comforting sound of waves crashing on the sandy shores of Manomet beach. He couldn’t really hear the waves of the Hudson River from his apartment back in Jersey City and that was one of the things he had missed the most about coming back home over the years. The golden streams of summer sunshine poured in through the open window of his childhood bedroom. The soft morning breeze swirled the pair of sage green curtains hung above the window gently, while Cash peered out it with a content smile on his face. Mornings like this always reminded him of Shay but then again, almost everything reminded him of her somehow.

Shaylee Harris the girl next door, his childhood best friend, and his first crush. Though looking back on it all now even Cashton Ewing could admit it was so much more than that. Shaylee Harris had single handedly been occupying his thoughts and dreams since he was fourteen, but really even before that because what seven-year-old comes up with a nickname like that for someone they don’t love even a little bit. His heart seemed to know he loved her before his brain did, he still remembered that Valentines Day back in eighth grade when he picked her up to go to the movies and the realization dawned on him, hit him like a freight train actually.

All it took was her floating out the front door in white frills of lace adorned with little pink cherry blossoms, the dress Cash had gifted her that Christmas because she stopped to look at it every time they went to the mall. Her hair was longer back then, her cascading curls of warm blonde were tied up halfway with a little pink ribbon and her green eyes looked captivating with the mascara coating her long eyelashes. Cash swore he felt his heart stop beating for a second though, as she got closer his heart was pounding so hard he was surprised Shay couldn’t hear it. It was the first time he felt butterflies in his stomach, the first time he ever felt nervous in the presence of his best friend, Shaylee Harris. He couldn’t take his eyes off her the entire drive to the movies, all he could think about was how pretty she was, how much he wanted to hold her hand, and how foolish he’d been for never appreciating holding her hand prior or looking at someone that beautiful. Cash to this day couldn’t figure out why his brain hadn’t noticed it before, though now it seemed his brain never wanted him to forget it. The onset of adolescence hit him with all its awkward buddings of more intense feelings, first love, sexual awakenings, steamy dreams and Shaylee Harris had single handedly sparked it all. Suddenly Cash didn’t just want to hang out with her, he wanted to kiss her, be with her, and touch her in ways he never had before, and no amount of time or distance ever made that go away. In fact, as the years passed by and Shay kept Cash at arm’s length his yearning for her only intensified, all-consuming in the deepest sense.

Cash sighed, taking a moment to stretch and glance at the clock while he dried his gray hair with a towel and walked over to his suitcase to pull out a pair of dark jeans and a shirt, a navy-blue button up with white stripes and short sleeves. Shay always said she liked it when he wore blue because it brought out his eyes; Cash thought it might help her get over the fact, he was waking her up so early. Shay hadn’t been a morning person her entire life and he was honestly surprised she picked a profession that required her to dedicate countless hours of her time. Especially because there was a point in time where they talked about their dreams enough for Cash to know the world of investment banking was never a world Shay had expressed a desire to be in. Of course, Cash knew Tyler, the scumbag, was most likely to blame for Shay shelving her dream but there was a small part of him the thought maybe he was to blame too.

Cash fumbled around his room, slipping into his clothes for the day and straightening out a few of his damp gray strands of hair. Cash crept out of his bedroom pointedly being as quiet as possible, he was sure his mom wasn’t up yet and really, he preferred to keep it that way if he could. He wasn’t prepared to receive another pep talk about telling Shay how he felt about her. Jo Ewing was too nosy for her own good, she, Shay’s mom, and Daisy’s mom had been Plymouth’s local gossipy hens for as long as he could remember. Cash had been hoping with Daisy and Pete’s childhood sweetheart wedding buzz, his and Shay’s ‘Will They, Won’t They’ romance would be overshadowed enough for it to blossom on its own, but it seemed everyone in Plymouth had other meddlesome plans in store for them….

 Cash whistled softly to himself and swiftly buzzed about the kitchen. He pulled a bag of coffee grounds and a can of coco powder out of one of the cabinets and waltzed over to his mom’s new espresso machine. Still whistling, Cash grabbed a gallon of milk from the fridge and carefully slid Shay’s delicate coffee mug off the cup rack. He’d gifted her a set of two for her birthday one year, two ombre style pink cups with two artfully placed cherry blossoms on the side. Cash wasn’t sure what happened to the other one, but this one had a permanent home right here, much in the same way Shay had a permanent home in his heart. Cash hit the power button on the espresso machine and gently placed Shay’s cup underneath it while he got to work on frothing the milk, mixing the coco powder, and adding strawberry syrup while he waited for the espresso to brew.

Cash had picked up a thing or two from his high school barista days, though he and Shay hardly saw each other during those summers she was working as a line cook at one of Daisy’s parent’s restaurants down in Cape Cod. Cash still made sure to have a latte ready for her each one of his shifts, chocolate covered strawberry was always one of her favorites and over the years Cash had figured out how to make the foam pink just for her. Hopefully, him showing up at her window with her favorite latte and a plate full of pastries would soothe some of her inevitable morning grumpiness because Cash didn’t want her to completely dread spending time with him today or any of the other says they were sure to busy sorting out wedding details. They were supposed to be getting a head start on all of Daisy and Pete’s quite purposeful, last-minute wedding planning. When Shay asked him yesterday if he had anything to do with Daisy and Pete ditching them, he said no and, it hadn’t been a total lie. They didn’t tell him they were planning to ditch them before lunch was over, but Cash did, however, know all about Daisy and Pete’s cupid play because he’d been in on it since Daisy showed up at his apartment three months ago. The same day she asked Shay to be her maid of honor, Daisy Martin made a stop in Jersey City to all but hound Cash into finally doing something about his twelve years long crush on his first best friend. Daisy all but broke down his front door in fact and given all the intense stuff that was going on the last time he’d even seen her, Cash expected as much. They hadn’t really had a chance to talk that time because Cash was in the process of being put on suspension for what he’d done to Tyler in the Plaza lobby…

Cash poured the rest of the ingredients into the freshly brewed espresso and gave it a good stir before pouring his now, pink steamed milk into the mug. Cash took the time to artfully pour the pink liquid in the shape of a heart before grabbing a breakfast tray and carefully setting the fresh latte on top of it. He quickly put everything back in place before grabbing one of his mom’s little porcelain plates and piling it with an assortment of macaroons and spring pastries. Cash carefully picked up the tray and made his way out of the back patio door, stepping out into the warm morning sunshine and the sound of crashing waves, he casually made his way to the back of the Harris house to Shay’s large window.

Cash couldn’t recall a time he ever actually used the Harris’ front door aside from the occasional holiday party. Crawling through Shay’s window and spending the night was such common practice for him, Maggie Harris always had a plate ready for him at the breakfast table. A fact which Cash still found hard to believe because his crush on Shay was so obvious towards the end, he found it strange neither his mom nor her parents seemed to care they cuddled and slept in the same bed unsupervised until they were teenagers. Awkward, shy, hormonal teenagers that were too self-conscious for their own good but still hormonal teenagers none the less. Though as he was recalling bits of his mom’s pep talk yesterday it would seem she and Maggie had been rooting for him and Shay to be together for some time now. She was rather vague, but Cash got the feeling there were bets placed on which kid would be walking down the aisle and with whom…

Cash peered through Shay’s large window still whistling softly to himself and let his knuckles rap against the glass obnoxiously, though he was mindful not to tip the tray in his other hand. Sometimes it took a little persistence to get the sleeping beauty up and moving, she was sure to be grumpy but to Cash spending the day with a tired grumpy Shaylee Rose was better than not spending the day with her at all. Cash pushed up on one of the white sills of the window and then the other only to find them both locked. He wasn’t sure what he expected, seen as how Shay hadn’t been home in two years but part of him hoped she’d at least remember to leave it unlocked for him the way she used to. Sometimes it felt like he thought about her way more than she ever thought about him even though Daisy tried to assure that wasn’t the case nor was it the reason Shay had pushed him away…

“Wakey wakey Cherry Blossom, we’ve got things to do and people to see! I made you your favorite” Cash said knocking on the glass a few more times with a slight blush on his cheeks. He wasn’t lying, Daisy did send over a pointedly, absurdly long list of tasks for them to complete, half of which purposefully involved taking a trip up to Boston. He could hear the loud, annoyed groan Shay gave him in reply even through the glass as she sat up in bed and glared at him through her half-drawn window shades with tired green eyes and adorable hair rollers in her golden hair. Cash bit down on his lip as he watched her shuffle out of bed in a cropped navy-blue pajama set with little white polka dots, looking very much like a little barbie doll. He hadn’t missed how curvy she’d gotten since the last time he’d seen her, having finally regained all the weight she lost being strapped to that dirt bag two years ago. She was practically glowing when he saw her step out of her car yesterday in that little green dress that just barely covered the curve of her now very plump ass and her breasts had gone up at least three cup sizes. Not that Cash cared all that much anyway, her body had always been a sight to see for him but all the extra stuff she had for him to grab now left him feeling particularly…FERAL. To put it simply.

Shay grumpily threw her shades up a bit further before unlatching her window and throwing it up to give him the most adorable attempt at a menacing glare he’d ever seen.

“Good morning beautiful, your pretty feathers shouldn’t be this ruffled first thing in the morning I dropped you off almost twenty hours ago. Any hangover symptoms should be out of your system so why are you so worked up?” Cash asked in a playful tone watching Shay roll those pretty green eyes at him.

“Gee, I don’t know, might have something to do with the Jolly Green Giant beating down my window at the butt crack of dawn” Shay said jutting out one of her childbearing hips in the most teasing way. Cash repressed a chuckle as he skillfully, threw a long leg over the windowsill and still managed not to tip the tray even the slightest bit. Before taking a careful seat on her window bench with a teasing smile on his face.

“It’s hardly my fault you forgot to unlock your window in your cocktail daze yesterday, Cherry Blossom. You know I always come in through the window, besides I brought you something, see” Cash said in the same playful tone, holding up the breakfast tray with an almost coy smile on his face. He took a minute or two to admire her skimpy yet oddly adorable set, up close. Her stomach was still toned in that feminine sexy type of way, but her hips and thighs now looked like plush little pillows Cash wanted nothing more than to bury himself in, in every way possible.

“Do you think my parents just leave unlocked lower-level windows around their house, Cashton. What do you got there, hello, are you listening to me?” Shay said pulling him out of his inner ramblings by snapping her fingers and raising a cute eyebrow at him. Cash smiled at her almost sheepishly as he felt his cheeks grow hot and his cock twitch adamantly against his thigh…

“What, yeah, I mean no, but I expected you’d leave it open for me like you used to Shaylee Rose. How else would I be bestowed the honor of being greeted by your pretty face in the morning? To think I made you this chocolate covered strawberry latte and everything” Cash said, tearing his wandering blue eyes off her perfect body and settling them back on her just as perfect face to throw her a suggestive wink. Cash watched Shay’s sun kissed cheeks tint a cute shade of pink under his gaze and her plump lips curved into a coy smile. Cash felt his heart and cock flutter in tandem the way they only ever did for her.

“You could use the front door like a normal person. Thank you for the latte, Cashy” Shay’s voice came out at him a bit softer this time and her green eyes looked amused rather than annoyed with him for the first time in ages. Aside from the little anonymous flirtation session they had yesterday, Cash hadn’t intended on dragging it out as long as he had but having her laugh and smile at him like she used to, was something he’d missed dearly as sappy as it sounded. Something about her felt so different when she came back to Plymouth after spending that summer with her aunt in LA but even before that really. Cash remembered the way she locked herself in her room the last day of school in eighth grade and how she didn’t come out for a whole week, Shay kept insisting she just didn’t feel well, and his mom and her mom assured him that it was just something teenage girls go through. That she’d eventually come around and things would go back to normal, but they never really did, she was distant and closed off. Cash thought for sure he had done something to upset her, though she insisted he hadn’t. She was right next door, right next to him even, but she felt worlds away…

“We both know I’m not a normal person Cherry Blossom. Silly girl” Cash chuckled, rising to his feet to give her a playful bop on the nose with his finger. Shay let out a soft, breathy giggle and rolled her still very amused misty, green eyes at him in a way only she could. Part of him couldn’t help but feel special, almost loved even, when she acted this way with him because moments like these were so far and few between them these days. Cash smiled down at her adoringly before walking past her to set the tray down on the coffee table she had in front of her couch. The couch and coffee table weren’t there back in those days when he regularly used to crawl through her window. After she’d gotten back from LA Shay, for whatever reason, had decided to redo her whole room over in soft mature shades of blue, white, and gray. Sometimes Cash missed the bright shades of pink and orange that once blanketed the room in all its floral splendor.

“Why aren’t you dressed yet? Have you even picked out an outfit for today?” Cash asked, steering their conversation in the direction he needed it to go. He watched Shay take a seat on the couch and look down at the coffee and the mug it was in with glossy eyes. “Are you okay?” Cash asked with concern swirling in his blue eyes as he looked down at her.

“Yeah, I’m fine Cashy, this coffee just looks too pretty to drink… I didn’t pick out any clothes because I thought we’d be doing our planning at a reasonable hour.” Shay said, Cash could tell the smile she gave him was forced and watched the way she rapidly blinked the tears brimming her pretty green eyes away. Part of Cash wanted to push her to tell him what was bothering her but another part of him told him it wouldn’t be a good idea.

“How on earth did you make it in the world of investment banking if you can’t handle me waking you up at 8:30?” Cash said in a teasing tone, Shay cracked a genuine smile, and he was happy to see her start to nibble on one of the macaroons.

“The stock market doesn’t open until 9:30 and I’m on sabbatical, sleeping in is a right when you’re on one of those, you know. Maybe you should give it a try Officer Ewing” Shay said coyly, Cash chuckled under his breath and made his way towards her walk-in closet.

“I’ll only give it a try if you promise to be by my side when I do it, Cherry Blossom. You never did get around to showing me New York or NYU, you know. As long as you remember to leave the window unlocked for me, I promise I won’t force you out of bed until 9:30.” Cash said once more in a teasing tone before walking into her closet and skimming through the few things she had hung up from her suitcase.

“I’m holding you to that Cashton Micheal, if you’d have told me, you were in Jersey City, I would’ve given you the grand New York experience if you’d only asked.” Shay called after him. Cash heard the faint sound of her phone buzzing somewhere back out in her bedroom as he pulled a pretty, little white floral sundress with a very revealing halter neckline off her closet rack. Cash couldn’t help but bite his lip at the mere thought of her in something so innocent looking but somehow completely tantalizing all the same. It also just so happened to fit the dress code of the restaurant he was going to take her to, before they got a start on their to-do list. Although Daisy and Pete had encouraged him to talk about his feelings for Shay, Cash didn’t see any harm in also showing her how he felt about her. Cash had never really been good with words when it came to him and Shay in the later years of their friendship. She didn’t really seem to respond that well to his overt flirting and lighthearted teasing over the years so he’d resulted to small displays of affection, like making her a latte every one of his shifts or buying more boxes of her favorite candy at the movies than she could eat. Today his romantic display of choice was taking her to one of Boston’s top rated, romantic restaurants. Cash made his way back into her bedroom to find Shay skimming through her phone as she let out a long sigh.

“Everything okay?” Cash asked curiously, peering down at her to see she had finally started taking a few sips of her latte. Shay nodded her head and met his gaze with the faintest blush on her cheeks.

“Um, yeah, just sweet old Daisy adding another thing to our obnoxious to-do list. Looks like we’re heading up to Boston if that’s alright with you. Apparently, Daisy forgot she had an order to pick up at Wacoal when she and Pete were up there yesterday. You know, because they got…busy in the car…” Shay trailed in a slightly, sassy tone. Cash bit down on his lip as he recognized the name of the shop embarrassingly fast, though how could he forget that a great deal of Shay’s teasing little pajama sets had been purchased there. He should’ve figured Daisy would plan something like this to torment him into a confession, it would probably work too, just imagining Shay among enticing rows of lace and frill had his head spinning already.

“Sure, she just happened to forget to pick up her wedding night babydoll…Here put this on for me.” Cash said slightly breathless as he held up the sundress with an obvious blush on his cheeks. Shay raised her eyebrow at him again adorably, taking a longer sip of her latte and another nibble out of the pastel cookie.

“Hmmm, how did you know Wacoal sells wedding night babydolls, Cashton? That dress is a little fancy to just go shopping, are we going somewhere special?” Shay asked, her green eyes looked curious and sheepish as they met his but the hopeful tone that came out in her voice towards the end made Cash’s heart melt. It amazed him how Shay could be so fully self-aware and amazingly quick-witted but still not know Cash would die to make even the smallest thing feel special for her. Cash wasn’t sure why such a thing surprised him because their spat at lunch yesterday confirmed she didn't remember the fact that they had talked and seen each other two years ago…

“Yeah, I’m taking you out for brunch darling, so go get ready alright…” Cash said softly, trying not to let his brain get lost in such a hurtful memory. He focused on the pretty, yet sheepish smile she gave him before bouncing off to her bathroom to change. Cash let out a deep sigh and took a seat on the couch. Shay emerged from the bathroom sometime later, with her blonde hair in voluminous waves, her bangs cascading over her forehead and her makeup effortlessly applied, the floral sundress fit her new figure perfectly. Cash couldn’t explain it, but she looked like summer to him, soft, delicate, and warm in a way that evoked nothing but love and happiness within him. Cash forgot where he was for a second as he watched her walk towards her closet to fetch a pair of shoes.

“Pick the closed toed Gucci wedges, the restaurant apparently has a thing against sandals” Cash said with a small smirk on his face, Shay poked her head outside of the closet door for a moment and cutely arched an eyebrow at him from across the room. Cash chuckled under his breath, already having a general idea of what stopped her so abruptly in her cute tracks.

“Cashton Ewing knows designers now and yet, chooses to dress like a cute little mechanic.” Shay said with an amused note of disbelief in her voice before disappearing into her closet and reemerging with the shoes he had recommended. Cash couldn’t help but blush under her gaze, but it was mostly because the only reason he knew designers like that was because he’d seen her shopping on fifth avenue a few times… or trailed her there, its all the same to him really, no need to get technical…

“I’m a man of many talents Cherry Blossom. You and Daisy made Pete and I go to the mall with you almost the entirety of eighth grade, I was bound to learn a thing or two. Do you really think I look like a cute mechanic?” Cash said in a teasing tone, watching Shay’s cheeks tint a delightful shade of pink as she focused her attention on strapping on the designer shoes.

“Oh boy, I think I just saw your head grow three sizes, remind me to never use the word cute again. I know you went shopping with me and all, but you didn’t seem to like it, so I’m still allowed to be surprised Officer Ewing. I think I’m ready to go.” Shay said as she finished strapping on her shoes, Cash watched her rise to her feet and straighten out her dress before grabbing her purse off her nightstand. She looked absolutely breathtaking, and Cash found his eyes wandering all over her body again with a newfound hunger.

“You’re so beautiful, you know that….and I, um, didn’t like shopping, but I liked being with you, so it was a sacrifice I was willing to make. I’m assuming I’ll be making the same sacrifice later this afternoon. The mall with all the designer stores is like ten minutes from the restaurant, you know Cherry Blossom.” Cash said, forcing himself to focus his wandering gaze back on her face. Shay gave him a very timid smile in reply to his compliment.

“Thanks…It’s really all Daisy’s fault if you think about it, if she hadn’t forgotten her skimpy wedding night attire, we wouldn’t even be in the general vicinity Cashy.” Shay said with the same timid smile on her face. Shay wandered over to her bedroom door and gently pulled it open before shuffling out into the hallway and made her way toward the kitchen.

“Yeah, you’re right, it really is all Daisy’s fault” Cash chuckled, following her out of her bedroom and through the empty kitchen of the still Harris house. They quietly walked out of the front door into the warm summer air and walked down the front porch steps. Cash couldn’t help the sheepish grin that spread across his face when Shay gazed up at him with an amused but knowing glint in her green eyes.

“You can drive my car if you want…” Shay said in a cute, pointed tone as she gazed up at him with a coy smile and another cutely arched eyebrow. Cash looked down at her, feeling a touch bashful under her gaze.

“Are you sure, Pete dropped my truck off last night after I tore into him for ditching us, it’s just in the garage” Cash said softly with a bashful blush spreading across his cheeks. Shay nodded her head as she stared up at him with a large amount of amusement swirling in her pretty green eyes. Cash always loved the way her green orbs sparkled in the sunlight and the way they tinted a unique shade of teal when Plymouth’s deep blue water reflected in them on those long days they used to spend at the beach.

“Yeah, parking will be easier with my car, so here you go Cashy” Shay chuckled, handing him her keys with a coy smile on her face. Cash gladly accepted the keys from her small hand, but he found himself resisting the urge to wrap her up in his arms and twirl her around like a ragdoll.

“Alright, after you princess” Cash crooned, bounding down the driveway. Cash opened the passenger door of the slick green Audi with a giddy grin on his face as he gazed over at Shay adoringly.

“Princess? “Shay chuckled softly, Cash watched her make her way down the driveway and plop down onto the car seat with a giddy looking grin of her own. Cash bit his lip and gazed down at her for a moment before making his way to the other side of the car and slid into the driver’s seat.

“You’ve always been my passenger princess Cherry Blossom, don’t act so surprised” Cash said in a soft playful tone as he slid the key into the ignition and started the car. Shay looked over at him with a soft blush on her cheeks, Cash gave her a teasing wink and began to back the car out of the driveway.

“That was because Pete and Daisy were always trying to swallow each other in the back seat, and you were the first one to get a car out of the four of us.” Shay said gazing up at him from her spot in the car. Cash flashed her a reassuring smile and switched the car into drive to begin their short trip up to Boston for the day.

“Don’t get me wrong Shay, I loved having you next to me, you know. I’ve had no one to tell me when I’m going the wrong way for seven lonely years. I’ve missed you; you know. I’ve missed you a lot Cherry Blossom” Cash admitted sincerely, his blue eyes were soft and a bit vulnerable when they met her green ones briefly, from across the car. Shay gazed back at him in silence for a long moment, her eyes felt like they were trying to see inside of him, but her lack of response made Cash think he might have said the wrong thing too soon…

“I missed you too Cashy” Shay finally replied, just above a whisper after her green eyes seemed to find whatever it was they were searching for. Cash practically beamed at her as he turned the car on to the expressway. Shay smiled back at him, and Cash took note of the way her green orbs seemed to sparkle at him the same way they usually sparkled in golden beams of sunlight. As they began their short drive Cash couldn’t help but wonder if the sun was ever really the reason, they sparkled to begin with...

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The drive up to Boston was relatively quick but Shay made more small talk with Cash on the drive up than she had in years. Cash could tell she was excited by the way she rambled on and on about her favorite places to grab food while she was in Manhattan, her excitement made his heart swell. Though, Cash couldn’t tell if she was excited about going shopping later or if she was excited to spend as much time with him as he was with her. Both were welcome reasons to him though because just talking to her still gave Cash butterflies and made his heart flutter. He had missed the way it was when things used to flow this easily between them. Something that hadn't really happened since that Valentine’s Day back in eighth grade, it marked the beginning of his crush on Shay but also the start of her no longer expressing her feelings to him openly.

Cash still remembered walking out of the theater and into the lobby to find Shay with red puffy eyes. She wouldn't tell him why she was crying but she sure looked happy when Cash asked her if she wanted to go ice skating with him instead. They ditched Pete, Daisy, and annoying Opal May and went to the local ice rink where they giggled and shared hot chocolate like they always did. He still remembered how the wind caught ahold of the dainty pink ribbon in her golden hair, sending it swirling through the evening sky and how the pair of them chased after it until they fell.

They laid out on the ice for some time, laughing so hard they were on the verge of tears and yet, all Cash could think about was how much he wanted to kiss her. Then it started to snow, and the rink lights swirled around her in a way that made her look so much like an angel to him, Cash thought maybe he died. They eventually collected themselves enough to sit back up just as the dainty pink ribbon floated down from the sky and pooled in his lap. By then it felt like Shay was staring into his soul and he got too nervous to kiss her the way he wanted to. Before he knew it, they were eating pizza in her bedroom while they watched some Harrison Ford movie on her TV, the same routine they’d had for years but something about the way they held each other that night felt different. Nothing ever quite beat the feeling of Shay falling asleep on his shoulder after that night. At least until today…

From the moment Cash stepped out of the car it felt like everything between him and Shay seamlessly fell into place, and they found themselves in a familiar, yet comfortable little spot they hadn’t quite been in since they were teenagers. Cash knew Shay must have felt it too, because she let him hold her hand all the way from Contessa’s entrance up to their intimate roof top dining room. Cash wished he had his camera to capture the adorable, awestruck look on Shay’s face when they stepped off that elevator and ventured into Contessa’s elegant upscale waiting room. The look on her face only got better when they were led through the sun-soaked dining room and were sat at an intimate half circle booth overlooking the Boston Public Garden upon his request. They laughed and they talked, then they drank, and they ate in a carefree way that reminded him of the movie nights they shared with pizza in his moms’ basement. Only instead of his mom’s basement, they just so happened to be at one of Boston’s top rated romantic restaurants overlooking the very cherry blossom trees Cash named her after. Sadly, the trees weren’t in bloom but as brunch progressed smoothly, Cash got the feeling that maybe his and Shay’s “Will they, won’t they” romance was…

As brunch went on, they managed to steer away from their small talk topics and actually start catching up with one another. Cash wasn’t sure what it was, but something about this meal and this conversation suddenly made him feel closer to Shay than he had in twelve years. And it wasn’t just because Shay had gotten comfortable enough to throw her small legs on top of his halfway through, though he was very much enjoying having her practically on top of him. Cash had somehow managed to get Shay to talk about what pushed her to take a sabbatical in the first place, much to his delighted surprise. She was rather forthcoming about the teensy tiny mental breakdown she had at work a few weeks ago when one of their clients asked her, in her opinion, the dumbest question she’d ever heard. Cash couldn’t really blame her; he’d encountered his fair share of dimwitted customers in those fleeting days he spent behind a coffee counter in his youth.

“If you think that was a stupid question you should try explaining to a disgruntled soccer mom why the iced coffee she ordered had ice in it. I spent twenty minutes explaining the fact that I couldn’t make our hot coffee cold without adding ice and, she tried to get me fired.” Cash chuckled, Shay giggled and took another bite of her French toast with a small smile on her face.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you become a fancy VP of investment banking anyway? As I recall Cherry Blossom, you always talked about wanting to be a fancy chef, you were pretty darn good at it too, I still have dreams about that Brown Butter and Sage Squash Risotto you used to make with the, umm, little round pieces of fish things...” Cash trailed, looking over at Shay with a faint blush on his cheeks, he always seemed to forget basic English whenever he was around her. It didn’t help that Shay’s pretty green eyes were practically sparkling at him again. Cash couldn’t help but admire the way the golden mid-morning sun streamed in through Contessa’s large windows all around her because it made Shay look more ethereal to him than ever.

“…The scallops…” Shay chuckled with amusement swirling in her eyes as she gazed up at him. “Yeah, the scallops, but that’s not nearly as fun to say. So, I think I’m going to keep referring to them as ‘little round pieces of fish things” Cash said playfully, Shay shook her head at him and giggled softly to herself in a way that reminded him of that night at the ice rink all those years ago.

“Yeah, you asked me to make that dish for you a lot, Cashy. My mom still complains that she can’t get the smell of thawing scallops out of her fridge, but dad won’t let her buy a new one because it still works. And you’re right, I never wanted to be a VP of investment banking, but I didn’t get accepted into that culinary program I wanted and it’s kind of hard to practice in a college dorm room kitchen. Doesn’t matter now anyway, I don’t really cook anymore…” Shay admitted, Cash nodded his head though there was a big part of him that seriously doubted she didn’t get accepted into that program. Especially if she didn’t get any of the letters, he’d sent over the past seven years…

“The place on Wall Street was just the first place to offer me a job after I graduated, so I took it and now here I am, highly doubting I’m even going to go back.” Shay sighed; her green eyes looked heartbreakingly defeated to Cash as they stared back into his blue ones. Cash gave her a reassuring smile, tightening the arm he still had snaked around the small of her waist while his free hand ran down the length of her small shoulder and arm in soothing motions. It had been so long since Cash had been presented the opportunity to comfort her in such a way. She looked much too frail for him to touch that Thanksgiving they talked in his bedroom.

“Well, what’s stopping you from applying to another program Cherry Blossom, if you’re really unhappy with the job you have now?” Cash asked softly, continuing the soothing passes he was making on her arm as he gazed at her with soft blue eyes. He saw a faint blush spread across her cheeks, but Shay made no effort to pull away, in fact, she leaned further into him. Almost like she was contemplating whether to give him a hug or to move onto his lap completely. The mere thought of her doing either of those options had familiar butterflies fluttering in Cash’s stomach. Part of him wanted to do both, to pull her onto his lap and hug her forever but given their little spat yesterday, Cash wasn’t sure if Shay would be open to it.

“I don’t know, I guess I just don’t know if it fits who I am anymore.” Shay replied softly. Cash gazed deeply into her green eyes for a long moment. He halted the soothing passes on her small arm and reached up to stroke her cheek with a tender sort of affection. Shay, once again, leaned into him and his touch the way she used to when they were just two kids seeking comfort. Cash remembered the day he vowed to always let Shay seek comfort in him, that night he crawled through her window wailing at the top of his lungs when he was only nine. It was the aftermath of his father’s worst alcoholic rage to date, the one that finally landed him behind bars though Cash was too battered to remember most of it. All he remembered was crawling through her window and the way both of them clung to each other so tightly. They screamed every time someone tried to separate them, both of them wholeheartedly refusing to let each other go. Shay ended up riding with him in the ambulance and spending the night with him in his hospital bed…

“You still seem like the same Cherry Blossom to me.” Cash crooned, dragging his thumb along the slope of her cheek gingerly because she deserved all the tenderness, he could muster for being the light in such an otherwise horrible memory. Shay’s green eyes softened a bit at him in a way that felt like she could see his soul the same way he saw hers.

“Is that a bad thing…” Shay said, her voice sounded vulnerable this time and her eyes looked unbearably fawn like as they stared back at him. Cash shook his head, still stroking her cheek with his thumb, he let a reassuring smile dance across his lips.

“Not at all, it means you were perfect to begin with Cherry Blossom. I think you should try your hand at cooking again, Shay, take this sabbatical as a sign that maybe New York just wasn’t what fit. They have a culinary school just over in Cambridge you know, you could move back home, follow your dream, and start over.” Cash said, never letting his smile waver or his thumb stop its passes over the soft skin of her rosy cheek. Shay’s plump lips curved into a soft smile and her eyes glittered with the slightest trace of amusement.

“Well, aren’t you just full of compliments and flattery today. Honestly, I wouldn’t know where to start with starting over, I haven’t been in a real kitchen in seven years.” Shay said, her voice was soft enough for her words to come out like a soft hum. It reminded Cash of the nights Shay used to sing under her breath when she thought he had fallen asleep. Cash may have feigned being asleep on more than a few occasions just to listen to her pretty voice. Of course, then he’d actually fall asleep because the lull of her voice was so soothing to him back then, Cash bet it still was.

“I’ll cook with you while you’re here, can’t promise you I’ll be any good, but I’m more than happy to help you out Cherry Blossom.” Cash said a bit over zealously, but it was enough to earn him one of Shay’s adorable giggles and one of her more tantalizing, coy smiles.

“I’m not so sure I trust you in a kitchen Officer Ewing.” Shay said teasingly, Cash chuckled softly under his breath and halted stroking her cheek for the briefest second to give her one of his playful bops on the tip of her little nose.

“That’s rude Cherry Blossom, bad girl” Cash chuckled, Shay rolled her green eyes at his playful antics, but her coy smile had spread into a full-on grin by the time her eyes locked with his once more.

“I’m kidding, mostly…. If my memory serves me correctly, I’m not the only one here that didn’t end up with their dream job, as I recall you wanted to be a photographer. So how did you end up being a cop Cashy?” Shay asked with curious looking green eyes. Cash let out a soft sigh as he started to recall the interview, he missed at The Art Institute of Boston that summer before Shay went off to NYU. Cash had been trying to find the will to ask her to stay and put off her big city dreams for just one semester so she could apply to a school in Boston, but he didn’t want to be the person to hold her back. Truthfully, he only decided to go to the academy because he thought he could move to New York after he finished to be closer to Shay a lot sooner. That he’d be the one to shelve his dream instead because being with her was worth more to him, it didn’t matter though, by the time he saw her again, that Christmas, she was already dating Tyler.

“The same as you really, somewhere along the way I lost the passion for it and I didn’t think I was good enough at it to make a decent living, so I went to the academy…” Cash said softly, it wasn’t a total lie. After Shay left and started dating Tyler, he didn’t have the drive to go back to school and do what he wanted to.

“That’s not true Cash, you were more than good enough to make a decent living if you wanted to. You won the school photography show case three years in a row, you are very gifted.” Shay said with sincere green eyes that made Cash’s stomach do happy little flips. He could tell by the look in her eyes and the lull of her sweet voice, she meant every word and that was worth everything to him.

“Look who’s full of compliments and flattery now.” Cash said teasingly, he wondered if Shay had noticed all the bashful blushes, she had coaxed out of him today. Or if she could hear the way his heart was pounding again.

“I’m serious Cashy, they don’t just hand out first place awards to anyone you know. You should pick up a camera and take some pictures while you’re here. I have no doubts you’re still extraordinary.” Shay’s tone was surprisingly overzealous when she spoke to him this time and Cash couldn’t help but feel incredibly smitten. It was like he was fourteen again, blushing and hanging on to her every word like it was gospel.

“I won with pictures of you every year Cherry Blossom, I don’t think they were awarding the man behind the camera half as much as they were the pretty girl in front of it. Can’t say I blame them; you were my muse after all.” Cash crooned, finding that he was once again overcome with an almost primal urge to kiss her the same way he wanted to at the ice rink when he was fourteen. Cash cupped the side of Shay’s face in the palm of his large hand and gazed at her for what felt like an eternity, grappling with the idea but ultimately deciding it would be too much, too soon…

“Cash, if you agree to take a few pictures while you’re here, I’ll agree to cook something with you…” Shay said softly, her green eyes looked like they were searching his blue ones for something again. They always seemed to be doing that and Cash so wished he could ask her what it was she was looking for…

“Promise?” Cash asked, though the coy smile on Shay’s face was all the answer he really needed. Shay nodded her head in reply slowly, Cash felt his heart skip a beat when one of her small hands moved to mirror his action. He felt the soft skin of her delicate palm brush against the slope of his cheek in the same tender, affectionate caress he had hers.

“Promise” Shay said just above a whisper,

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After brunch, Cash and Shay set out to complete the tasks on Daisy’s Boston list. The two managed to maintain the harmonious dynamic they had fallen into back at the restaurant. They didn’t delve much deeper than that talk they had about their dreams, but Cash certainly thought it was a good start. At least he knew Shay didn’t dread being with him all that much, in fact she had confessed on the car ride up that she had missed him. Probably a fraction of how much Cash missed her but at least, she missed him. Which gave Cash enough hope that maybe there might be something between them after all and that maybe them working together might not all be for nothing. They mostly just laughed and talked about the past, the way you only do with an old friend with whom you share so many memories with. They ventured in and out of shops, ate ice cream, crossed a few of Daisy’s busy bee tasks off the to-do list. and walked up and down scenic Boston sidewalks before heading to that fancy mall with all the designer stores. Cash quite enjoyed watching Shay flit around the stores like a chipper little fairy as she tried on outfits and bought more stuff than she needed. Cash insisted on paying for at least part of it because Shay’s birthday just happened to be a couple days before Pete and Daisy’s over the top wedding.

 Shay timidly declined Cash’s offer to pay for anything with the cute excuse that “Brunch can be my gift Cashy, don’t worry.” Cash knew what she was doing though and promptly replied with

“You’re not going to trick me out of buying you a gift Cherry Blossom, I’m a cop not a peasant. I can afford to buy you something nice, trust me.”

And Cash did just that as soon as she slipped into the next dressing room. They eventually got around to discussing plans and ideas for the bachelor parties again but ultimately didn’t come to a consensus, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Luckily Shay seemed to be on the same page, she didn’t try to push Cash into agreeing to her idea, just yet… but both of them knew from years of experience, Cash was bound to cave eventually. At least where Shay was concerned that is. They decided to make the drive back down to Plymouth just before rush hour. When the golden late afternoon sun was high in the cloudless blue sky. The atmosphere on the car ride back was a bit different this time around, Shay was quiet, but Cash didn’t get the feeling she was upset. It was more along the lines of that comfortable silence they had fallen into at lunch the day before when it felt like everything that needed to be said was said. Obviously, Cash knew that wasn’t the case, they still had so much to talk about, so much baggage to unpack, so much that was left to be said. Cash supposed he could sum it all up for her, with three simple words. And he could, because they were true, and they reflected how he felt about Shay his entire life but for some reason those three words just didn’t feel like enough…

“Alright, I’ve got the bags princess” Cash said in a teasing tone that cut through the comforting silence, just as he turned Shay’s car back into the Harris driveway. Shay let out a soft chuckle and shook her head at him with a coy smile on her face.

“I don’t think you realize what a slippery slope you’re on, Officer Ewing. Today you took me to brunch, chauffeured me around, carried my bags all day, and tried to talk me into letting you buy me gifts for my birthday. You won’t be able get rid of me if you keep pampering me this way you know” Shay said coyly, Cash chuckled and turned the key out of the ignition before turning to gaze at her adoringly.

“Oh no, the most beautiful girl in Plymouth is going to attach herself to my hip! What ever will I do. You forgot, made you a latte with a pink heart in it, that you, didn’t even compliment.” Cash said with a mock pout on his face, Shay scoffed at him though her smile never faltered.

“That’s not true, I said it looked very pretty and I really did appreciate it Cashy. I’m still holding you to your promise to not wake me up before 9:30 however.” Shay said, giving him a pointed look before she opened her car door. Cash chuckled again, opening his own door before scooping up all of Shay’s new purchases and stepping onto the driveway.

“I have every intention of keeping that promise Shaylee Rose, as long as you hold up your end of the deal” Cash said following her up the Harris porch steps with an amused smirk on his face. He could hear Shay giggling under her breath at him as she unlocked the front door and held it open with an amused smirk of her own.

“And what was my end of the deal again?” Shay said in adorable mock confusion, Cash rolled his eyes to himself and walked into the still quiet Harris house. Cash made his way towards Shay’s room on a wave of familiarity and instinct, he sat all her shopping bags by her closet door before turning to look at her one more time. Shay looked at him, seeming to fall back in her sheepish proclivities from earlier this morning and a brief awkward silence hung in the air.

“So, I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow at 9:30 then…” Cash trailed, Shay nodded her head in acknowledgement but appeared to be lost in one of her daydreams. “Alright, then see later Cherry Blossom” Cash said having the sudden feeling that he was intruding. He made his way towards her window in long strides though he was well aware he could use the front door, using her window just felt right. So, Cash pushed the familiar white sill up and started his short journey home…

“Cash, wait” Shay’s voice came out sharply and suddenly, with enough tenacity to make Cash jump in surprise before he whirled around to look at her. Shay looked over at him with a bashful blush spreading on her cheeks.

“Yes princess?” Cash chuckled to himself, feeling both bashful and smitten under her gaze the same way he’d felt under her eyes since he was fourteen. Shay appeared to bite back a sheepish smile.

“Do you, uh, want to order a pizza and watch a Harrison Ford movie with me?” Shay asked, still looking incredibly sheepish. Cash nodded his head, over zealously again because he felt those familiar butterflies fluttering in his stomach when he turned to shut her window with a big grin on his face.

“Of course I do darling.”

🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝🐦🐝

[powertaco]

Vol 9 Spoiler Rant (aka I have waited and thought on it and still dont’ like it/Ranting ahead

I hate Volume 9

I’ll start by saying that upfront so you aren’t shocked or surprised by a conclusion later down the line, and can leave if the notion of disliking it offends you.

I don’t doubt I’ll get many blocks or people who disagree with this take, which is fair since I’m putting the opinion out there and should be able to take it on the chin or stand by it. 

This will contain spoilers for V9, my thoughts on a lot of things, ships, and what not so if you want to turn back now the back button is over yonder.

If it’s disjointed I apologize but I’m not feeling my best, and the longer I think about it the more I dislike it and I’m sick of pretending and being toxically positive about it.

First off I’ll get a few things out of the way as things I approve of. 

The animation has largely grown phenomenally. There’s a few moments that are a little out of it (yo why you got a 3 foot neck Weiss?), but for the most part considering where we came from in the bass on the wall days of Volume 1. Big win here. 

The music. Good work Casey. Red Like Roses 3 is a banger, inside is great, and checkmate is…something. Overall good stuff. 

VA work. Good deal. Rob nails his ‘surprise’ villain as he always nails his roles but people seem to be putting their all into it. No hate here, and these guys clearly brought their A game. Good work!

This volume as a whole is very middling to me, bordering on bad depending on if or how V10 recontextualizes things that happened, which I will try to go into later. 

Essentially if you were a big fan of Bees this might be one of your favorites, but if you’re just kinda neutral to them like me then the volume didn’t have a lot to offer you and didn’t do much to really move the story forward.

Remember when Ambro said don’t fall in V8 like it was a big ominous thing, and remember how it ended up being almost entirely beneficial? Yeah so V9 was like that. Setting up stuff for an instant week to week payoff regardless of if it hurt the story or not cause we need that interest spiked to greenlight V10. 

For a Volume that took so long to make the entire thing is remarkably rushed. 

Why do Ruby and Weiss talk so little? Serious question. Even if you don’t ship them they’re supposed to be canon best friends, and yet they share almost as many lines together in the last few seasons as they do with Ren. In case you were wondering that’s not many. 

We had a reduced cast of characters and almost none of them can actually be bothered to interact meaningfully.

Why does Weiss and everyone keep ditching Ruby except Little? Ruby has a basically perfect assassin after her, and in the market everyone ditches her cause of nose hairs. 

But what can they do against Neo? Nothing, but they could maybe point her out, or talk and help distract her rather than leaving her to her own devices when she’s clearly not feeling well. 

Sometimes having someone there for you can help a lot, but instead we need to have Weiss backslide and the others abandon her so she can be alone to meet the smith. 

This is bad writing. I’m sorry but it is. Had this been Volume 1-3 Weiss? Sure I could buy this, but this is not that Weiss. If you need to have Ruby be alone to meet the smith, work harder. You had years for this. This would have gotten a C at best in a writing class with a see me after class/don’t keep using coincidences like this note attached to it. 

If you’re going to tell me I’m not a professional writer so I can’t critique then that’s asinine. I don’t drive trucks for a living but if I see one ramp off a cliff and into a pit I can tell you that, that guy/gal has messed up.

If Weiss wanted to help cheer on or try to get Bees together then that’s an even worse reason as the aforementioned ASSASSIN is after her partner.

“Oh but Neo wouldn’t attack in a busy market!” My guy do you know Neo “i live only to murder this woman’ AT ALL? There’s an amusing quote I can ascribe to her actions “i will kill as many people as I have to as long as you are one of them!” 

There was a reason the meme, ‘squads that would treat Ruby better’ was going around through volume 9 and even included pictures of villains. 

Blake and Ruby never talk outside of that one scene in V8, and Yang has focused way more on Blake and way less on being a sister. 

I’ve seen people defend her actions as being a target for her sister’s actions when she steps in front of Blake, but please note Yang just let her yell at Weiss and did nothing, until she starts yelling at Blake. 

Yeah, no I’m sorry she lets her have a go at Weiss and then when her girlfriend is getting her feefees hurt then she steps in. Her talking to her sister after the hound was nice (but again prob would have been a decent Weiss moment)

That’s bullshit. Had Yang stepped in or tried to when she was talking to Weiss then I could buy this, but as is it’s just another thing to hold against her. 

The bees eat a lot of screentime. If you’re a bee fan this is great. If you want story progression, this is not. 

The world bends and revolves around them very literally. We need to have a confession bridge show up so they can confess but we can’t get a ‘you have to talk about what’s bothering you’ camp you can’t leave until you talk things out for Ruby?

What are the rules of ever after? Basically w/e so the only reason Ruby can’t get that is cause well we want a breakdown. Again great writing. 

But let’s talk about it. Ruby has a breakdown. She complains there’s no time for her. It’s tragic because she’s put a lot of stuff on her own shoulders and internalized it. 

Good acting here, even from Jaune. 

Weiss puts out a hand and she flies away. 

When our heroes next see her she’s drank suicide tea. You can claim after the fact that ascension isn’t that (but i’m sorry that’s how it’s framed and the whole zooming into Yang’s eye thing is explicitly treated like it’s meant to be a big deal and get people talking)

Tragic truly, but you know what she believes in herself now, and now she’s all better. Her depression and desire to die are gone. I don’t know how it helps with Salem, as I’d be willing to bet Summer also believed in herself but it didn’t seem to help her much. If they go more into this in V10 I will retract this and accept it but I’m not in the mood to be forgiving to them atm.

Also again right after Ruby ‘kills’ herself they stop to help Jaune…just I’m sorry what?

Jaune still takes up too much time and serves a role that’s almost not needed and I don’t even hate or dislike him. His interesting development is stripped away at the end. 

By deaging Jaune now they can’t explain where they were with any real proof. A few scroll pics of a weird cat thing isn’t going to cut it. 

He has a few gray stripes and will likely go back to acting like he normally does and other than Nora ragging him about them once or twice will likely not be mentioned again. He may on occasion get to say something ‘wise’ but I’m doubting it since he went back to being the same almost right away. 

So rather than an aged, mature, and slightly damaged man going back and having to relate to his friends/people he knew he’s the same. Awesome development. 

Plus side is that now that deaging is canon DWR can still win! Anyway he takes entirely too much focus away. 

Ruby complains about how they have no time cause they have to help Jaune, and what do they do almost instantly after she ‘kills’ herself? Stop and help Jaune. It’s tonal whiplash. 

I get that JNPR are supposed to be deuteragonist but holy hell almost all the time goes to Jaune who is by far the least interesting of the bunch imo even with all the time dumped into him. 

Can we get more Ren and Nora? This could have been a good way for Nora to ‘learn’ who she is without Ren. 

If Nora had fallen(say off her hammer into the void at the start from Cinder during the scuffle with Penny in the air) and they met a wizened Nora who tried to act chipper but was clearly putting up a front it would be a great foil/combo with Ruby. 

It would also make her reuniting with Ren and being ready for a relationship in the next volume all the sweeter. 

We spend an episode on the red prince. Neat. You know what would have been better for it? Almost anything else, say perhaps after Ruby’s ‘suicide’ they spend a few frantic minutes trying to get to the tree until they see the reincarnated paper pleasers and then are like oh, ok so she’ll prob come back/be alright instead of just ‘we did what we can’. 

Girl I love you Weiss but you all did jack shit. You made one half hearted effort and stopped, and then every time Ruby might have gotten to talk they needed to help Jaune or something interrupted. 

Good work being the best partner ever by the way especially when Ruby spends a large portion of the volume helping you with all your problems and rushing to your side without a bit of hesitation and in return you muster up…about nothing. 

They did it in genlock and did it twice in this volume and arguably with Penny/Vine last volume. “Suicide is great!” Please stop doing this. 

Speaking of Penny if you like her you might want to get CRWBY to be pallbearers at your funeral so they can let you down one last time. 

If you liked Nuts’ and Dolts even more condolences. They’d have many chances to imply deeper feelings than friendship between them and take none of them. Her farewell song is called Friend where she talks about being friends with Ruby. 

During the fight with her clones, the Penny clone never once says she loves her. This is Neo, mouse killer and person with the largest hateboner for Ruby in the show. 

She is twisting the knife as much as she can so you can bet if she thought there was even an inkling there was more than friendly feelings between them she’d have had the clone say she loved her just to do that little bit more mental damage, but she didn’t. 

If there was ever a time to bring it up to put her off balance it was now. Neo is under no pressure and has no reason to not do so, so it basically sinks the ship. Well more than her being dead already does. 

I swear to god if they go to Vacuo and Pietro is in a coma or dead and there’s a new Penny I’m going to call Akira Toriyama and tell him RWBY is aping Dragon Ball because there’s no stakes in life or death anymore. 

Oh right, speaking of Neo she’s pretty ok until the end where she decides she’s cool with Ruby, gets to get the kill on the cat and then just bows out and leaves, and everyone is…strangely cool with that. 

Ascension or not I’m just struggling to think that any of them should just want her to essentially get away scot free. This woman tried to kill Ruby or get her to commit suicide and killed Little and we’re cool with letting her go because she killed the cat who was no longer a threat to them and did a hat doff? Um…yeah sure. I bet Yang is ok with people almost killing her sister, Weiss her best friend, etc. Then again maybe these versions of the characters are. 

I don’t care much about how ascension will change her; she's paid for nothing she’s done. “Get your revenge and you’ll get it and still get away scoTt free’. Ok last of us two. 

I can not overstate how pointless the suicide feels. 

It feels like they wanted her to do it, but have it not ‘take’ or have consequences because they’re in ever after and can say ‘hey the ascension thing fixes it’. 

Look, I'm glad the bees got together. Really I’m happy for you, but if you take out the Bee stuff, and the pining you’re left with a threadbare story that is only barely there since it’s all resolved in about five minutes. 

We all deserve better than that. The characters deserve better than that. 

I could keep going as this just scratches the surface level but it’s pissing me off to keep thinking about it. 

[jacksgreysays]

couragetcd's comment on Further Down Road One: So sweet! I adore Sasuke fan boying over Shikako. If you ever feel like dropping back into this story, could we see Shikako dealing with Sasuke's fangirls? Please?

I’ve been thinking about this question since I saw it, and I do have an answer but it’s not really in fic form… and it maybe goes more into Konoha politics than any actual relationship dynamics, as per my usual, lol. Here we go!

To address the question, there isn’t much for Shikako to deal with in regards to Sasuke’s fangirls, largely because I highly doubt he has that many fangirls in this AU. This AU being, of course, the early betrothal as this Shikako’s (successful) attempt to thwart the eventual Uchiha Massacre by removing one of the main reasons for it--ie, the extreme isolation of the Uchiha clan—via essentially tying the Uchiha to the Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka alliance which would be MUCH harder for Danzo to get rid of (mostly because there’s more of them, they’re far more blended into Konoha’s administration, and my own head-canon that the Akimichi have direct ties to the Fire Daimyo not just influence in Konoha)

All that being said, it’s pretty well known (definitely amongst the ANY and Uchiha clans, probably also amongst the other major Konoha clans, maybe even the “smaller clans” which I will get into later) that Shikako and Sasuke have been betrothed since they were about 7 years old. And obviously IRL people who are in relationships do still have fans, but there’s a difference between “fan of your music/movies/appearance/etc” vs “fan of you as a person, with the intention to eventually date” which I think the latter is what Sasuke’s fangirls are in canon (considering he, you know, isn’t a content creator). Anyways, known betrothal takes care of a majority of that.

Additionally, because Sasuke is no longer the angsty, mysterious Last Uchiha, I don’t think as many girls would be attracted to him—that’s not even including how overtly devoted to Shikako he is in this AU so early on. Like, don’t get me wrong, Sasuke still looks the same (which, presumably to preteen girls, is devastatingly handsome) but he’s also no longer the only one that looks like that. Obviously there’s Itachi who may or may not be more handsome (hard to tell with the art style) but the ENTIRE Uchiha clan is still alive. And if most of them are Konoha Military Police, I imagine even the civilian-born students are seeing, you know, members of KMP getting puked on by drunken disorderly shinobi and still having to wrangle them into the shinobi equivalent of a drunk tank. Or they’re the ones who are running after Naruto when he pulls his messier pranks and getting paint and glitter bombed by him—it just kinda loses the appeal after all that.

This next point may seem a little cyclical, but part of what makes someone attractive is that other people find them attractive also. So if the first two reasons above have reduced the number of fangirls Sasuke would have in this AU, then that lack of numbers would further reduce the number of fangirls. In canon, Sasuke was highly sought after by the queen bee Ino, her ex-best friend turned rival Sakura, and, presumably, basically everyone else except Hinata. So not only was canon!Sasuke SO desirable that the trend-setter, leader of the kunoichi pack Ino wanted him, her former best friend (who only stopped getting bullied because of Ino) Sakura decided he was worth losing her only friendship over.

However, in this AU, there’s no way Ino would do anything to 1) jeopardize her clan or 2) upset her BFF Shikako. And, while I think Sakura would still consider Sasuke cute, I think she is probably a bigger fan of romance in general (since a lot of her fangirling over Sasuke in canon was an entirely imagined version of him) and so she would be a fan of the betrothal if anything else. And also, funnily enough, because Shikako isn’t infatuated with Sasuke that makes him even less appealing to anyone else. Like, lol, even his future wife doesn’t have a crush on him, that’s pretty funny. I mean, ideally, she comes to love him eventually (and again, whether that is romantic or platonic is ?????) but there’s no heart-eyes, nervous blushing from Shikako whatsoever, lol.

If you take out the top three kunoichi of their class (top four, including Hinata, who even in canon was NOT INTO Sasuke) then who do you have left who could even be fangirls of Sasuke? It’s entirely possible that there are multiple classes per year (especially considering in this kinder AU, the living KMP are absolutely wrecking Danzo’s ROOT recruitment so there’s just more students) so probably those who aren’t in the same class don’t get the front row seat to Sasuke being devoted fiancé and thus are more likely to be his fangirls. But they also probably have their own “hotties” to fangirl over. Or if they’re already going to fangirl over someone not in their class, why not someone not in their year? Neji’s a year above, still as devastatingly tragic and beautiful as ever. What’s Sai doing? DoS fandom has decided he’s an Uchiha as well and, probably, one that isn’t as OVERTLY DEVOTED TO HIS FUTURE WIFE as Sasuke is.

Backtracking a bit (and this is where I fully went off the rails and weirdly political) the next kunoichi in their class, influence and capability-wise, is probably Ami, the girl who, in the flashback, was bullying Sakura which led to Ino befriending her in the first place. I personally head-canon Ami as a Mitarashi (based entirely on very minimal details of similar coloring, personality, and affinity for tea shops as Anko) and I further head-canon the Mitarashi family as either a “smaller clan” or a family that is trying to be recognized as a “smaller clan.” And depending on 1) how politically savvy Ami is and 2) how crucial/desperate the Mitarashi family are to become an established “smaller clan,” I think Ami would not publicly fangirl over Sasuke even if she were, for some reason, still attracted to this boy, given four of the major clans are invested in this betrothal and she wouldn’t want to risk any political blowback on her family/clan.

Now, what do I mean by that?

THE REST OF THIS HAS NO BEARING WHATSOEVER ON SASUKE OR SHIKAKO SO FEEL FREE TO STOP READING IF MY BULLSHIT POLITICAL NONSENSE IS NOT YOUR CUP OF TEA

Konoha’s social structure is extremely clan based. Or, technically, it is power based but clans have consolidated power versus and individual’s power. Take, for example, the Nara clan versus Kakashi. Except for maybe Shikako, there is no individual Nara who is more powerful than Kakashi. However, if, for some reason, an extremely OOC Kakashi were to kill a member of the Nara clan, there would be hell to pay. Like, maybe this extremely OOC murderous Kakashi would be able to kill every single Nara but all at once? Probably not. With the Akimichi and Yamanaka backing them? Even less likely. With the other clans of Konoha concerned that this extremely OOC murderous Kakashi might very well go after them if they don’t stop him now? Game over. Weird premise, but sort of necessary to set up the next bit.

The above is an established major clan vs extremely powerful (basically Hokage or Hokage candidate) individual, with the established clan winning. However, we’ve already seen in canon what happens when a not established clan—or, what I consider a “smaller clan”—goes up against said extremely powerful individual. In fact, this is canon, and is the same extremely powerful individual.

Because, as far as the Nohara family/clan is concerned, murderous Kakashi is not OOC at all. As far as they know, Kakashi totally got away with killing Rin and faced no consequences whatsoever. The Nohara family/clan—it’s sort of up in the air of how established/recognized they are by the Konoha government, depending on what I feel is needed in any given fic—are, in fanon/my head-canon, made of medics. Not out of any particular blood limit/genetic basis (maybe they tend to have better chakra control, or a higher capability for memorization, but that’s not exactly ground breaking) but a sort of familial culture of study and generational knowledge passed down. A Nohara may have a slight advantage against a civilian born person, but nothing insurmountable. So even consolidated, the Nohara family/clan do not have as much collective power as Kakashi the individual does.

So then we get into the whole Mitarashi thing, which is why I completely tangented away from the Shikako and Sasuke betrothal thing and into this talk of murderous Kakashi to begin with. Because you can parallel the murderous Kakashi getting away with killing Rin with the exploitative/probably abusive Orochimaru getting away with EVERYTHING HE DID TO ANKO.

And, look, what would the Mitarashi even do? I imagine they were, at first, honored that Anko was even chosen to be Orochimaru’s apprentice. At the time, he was not only one of the Sandaime’s students, he was possibly the most likely of said students to succeed him what with Tsunade running away from her trauma and Jiraiya roaming around being an almost literal fuckboi.

Maybe they even rationalized the mistreatment in the beginning: I can’t imagine the Mitarashi had any jounin before Anko. If anything, her being apprenticed to Orochimaru is probably the closest they had to one of their members becoming jounin. And so what would they know of high level training? He said the seal on her would make her more powerful and who are they to refute the possible one day Hokage? It’s an honor, surely?

And while there is further to be said about abuse of authority and, well, other abuse between Orochimaru and Anko, I don’t want to go there in this post even though, again, I’ve already fully departed from the fluffy AU of Shikako and Sasuke’s literal life saving engagement.

Ultimately, getting back to the family vs “smaller clan” matter. I think that while the family/clan’s own power does contribute a lot to what they can/can’t do and what inherent protection they have, there is probably some legislation in Konoha about what rights clans have (with the murderous Kakashi and abusive Orochimaru being exceptions rather than the usual) especially considering during the founding of Konoha so much legislation HAD to be about protecting clan rights in order to get these historical enemies to coexist.

SO, that means there is incentive for large/cohesive enough families to be formally/legally recognized as a clan in order to have those rights—maybe it’s land or reduced taxes or something where the murderous Kakashi and abusive Orochimaru situations don’t completely violate those rights? Or maybe it’s that the clan CAN enact THEIR OWN retribution without repercussions from Konoha but because, again, the consolidated power of the Nohara and Mitarashi vs murderous Kakashi and abusive Orochimaru are negligible, that’s how those situations can happen without them outrightly being violated… which maybe explains the issues in the bleak Primadonna Girl fic? Oh snap, did I back myself into figuring it out in this completely unrelated post? Whoops.

Regardless. Because there is an incentive to become a formally/legally recognized clan, there have to be some prerequisites in order to qualify. Which, apparently, I’ve gotten into before in this care!Kako/reverse Gardens AU ficlet: “Establishing a clan requires three active-duty shinobi who share a bloodline and sponsorship from two other clan heads”

Although, now that I’m properly looking at it, that seems too easy. I mean, for that particular fic’s sake, I needed it to be that easy for, you know, feels. But in a practical “how would Konoha actually function” I think it needs to be a little more robust than that. I do think a minimum number of active-duty shinobi who a share a bloodline is necessary. It should probably be more than three, and/or there should be rank requirements. So it’s not just, for example, three genin siblings getting launched into clan status out of nowhere. I mean, the sponsorship—or, probably what I actually meant was endorsement—from two other clan heads would probably prevent that, but, again, we can’t leave these things to chance.

So if I were to come up with more robust requirements for formal/legal clan establishment, it would be:

X number of active-duty shinobi who share a bloodline

Y% of the X number must be at least chuunin rank

endorsement from at least Z other clan heads

I don’t know what numbers/values X, Y, or Z would reasonably be, but it would, again, justify why the Mitarashi family would turn a blind eye or, at least, not look TOO closely at Anko’s apprenticeship with Orochimaru if they were trying to meet those unknown numbers/values in order to qualify for established clan status. And, to weirdly circle back to the top of this tangent, would explain why Ami wouldn’t publicly fangirl over a betrothed Sasuke because that theoretically could risk the endorsement part of the requirements (even though none of the clans involved would be that petty? but when you’re not yet established, it feels like every potential misstep gets exaggerated into something dire)

Anyway, sorry for going so horrifically off the rails on this one. I did start ideating on what a “Shikako reacts to Sasuke’s fangirls” fic would look like, but to be honest it was mostly **shrug, go back to whatever she was doing before** while SASUKE is the one who is upset at them since they might make him look bad in front of his fiancee. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[asukamood]

According to plan (BTH)

***

Previous part — next part

First part

This post is part of the Bad Things Happen series.

***

Warnings: Implied torture (Don’t mess with Randy’s kids)

Synopsis: “Are ‘they’ in there?” The terrifying version of Randy asked, his voice a low growl that seemed to echo at the end of his words. Quite the nightmare fuel. Finch, however, did not let that get to him and nodded.

Before he could say anything else, Randy turned toward Bobby. “Son, don’t give them a hard time.” His tone softened just ever so slightly, but that could just be Finch’s imagination. “You go talk to Hacker first, I’ll join you two soon, okay?”

***

Finch bowed down after entering the office, only straightening up when Dream told him to. “You wanted to see me, my Lord?” The latter nodded, this time surprisingly alone.

Although Finch had little doubt that Blue somehow had his eyes on them.

He always did.

“Yes, I’m planning to move the recent prisoners to the abandoned warehouse.” He explained, letting go of his pen after having held onto it far longer than a human hand was supposed to. “I need someone to keep an eye on them in case they have the foolishness to try and escape. Would you mind taking that role?”

Finch shook his head. “Not at all, it’s an honor for you to entrust me this task.”

Dream smiled. “Reliable as always, thank you for your service, Finch. I will send someone to switch with you this evening, you are dismissed.”

He bowed in respect before making a bee line for the door.

He opened it and came face to face (well, that was a bit of stretch, he was taller than him by a few inches) with Blue himself, almost slamming the door on his face by accident.

Of course, when he noticed that he freaked out. “My most sincere apologies, are you alright? Did I hurt you?”

Blue laughed before he stepped back out of harm’s way. “I am yes, there is no need to apologize. Although you have made your move right on time, be sure to check your texts later!” Before Finch had the time to answer, Blue skipped away inside Dream’s office.

“Angel boooy” He vaguely shouted in a sing-song voice, the last thing Finch saw before the door closed being Dream burying his face in his hands, slightly red.

He was not even going to bother questioning why or how Blue had his number, he did not need another headache.

He walked away, deciding to ignore whatever plans of mischief the man had made until he could not ignore it anymore. Besides, he had more important things to think about. Such as work.

***

“Do you always have to greet me this way?” Dream asked, his face still buried in his hands. Only this time, he had his boyfriend’s arms draped over his shoulders and locking him into a hug.

“Of course!” He giggled, gently yanking one of his hands down. “We both know you’ve grown accustomed to this nickname anyway, I would even dare say that you like it.”

Dream grumbled before he let his other hand fall onto his lap. “I do not. I am not an angel.”

“Oh, would you prefer a devil then? I mean, I guess that would not be too far off either. The way you make me feel is nothing short of devilish, I am sure even the demon of Lust is impressed.” He winked and Dream started to question why he fell for him in the first place.

He shook his head. “Do you never get tired of flirting with me? We are already together, there is no need for you to keep seducing me.” He turned to look at Blue and by the way a smirk started to spread across his lips, Dream knew that he was about to bitterly regret saying it.

“No, I do not.” he whispered, before moving and spinning Dream’s chair around so the latter would be facing him. His fingers hooked themselves on his chin and he tipped his head upward this way, forcing Dream to look at him in the eye. “You know how greedy I can be when it comes to you, I don’t think I’ll ever have quite enough.”

Dream flushed before he escaped from Blue’s piercing gaze, returning to his paperwork in the hope that it will be enough to wash away the embarrassment from his face.

Blue merely smiled, all according to plan. “Anyway, as much as it delights me to see you like this, it wasn’t what I came here for.”

Dream arched an eyebrow as he turned back to look at him. “Oh, did you need my assistance for anything?”

“No, it’s more like you needed to be reminded of an issue.” Dream looked confused for a moment, racking his brain over any conflict he might have overlooked while working on other things.

Nothing matched his definition of a problem.

“I’m not quite sure what you may be referring to.” Blue chuckled.

“Well, you have cornered the criminals, but what will you do with Hacker? Just returning him to the dungeons once he recovered might be too utopic, wouldn’t you think?” Dream opened his mouth to object, but no sound came out of him.

Suddenly, he collapsed on top of his desk. “Darn it.”

***

A few hours later, when Finch had just gotten to the warehouse, his phone beeped, signaling a new text had been sent to him. He flinched at first before frowning and taking it out to see who it might have been.

An unknown number.

“Randy and Bobby will arrive shortly, welcome them warmly!” Oh right, Blue did say that he would send him a text earlier. Though, he did wonder what that last part was supposed to mean.

That is when his ears started picking up... oddly loud stomps. He looked up from his phone slightly confused and almost dropped the device on the ground when he noticed a 6’6 beast with giant and sharp as knives claws slowly approaching, eyes filled with the blackness of hatred, sharp red slits as pupils.

If not for his blond hair and the familiar green blouse, Finch must have mistaken the man for a demon. He did now understand why he was wanted.

In front of him, a little boy no taller than 5’4 was quietly walking toward him, arms crossed and a nervous frown. Both of them finally came to a stop in front of Finch, Bobby twiddling his thumbs a bit from nervousness.

“Are ‘they’ in there?” The terrifying version of Randy asked, his voice a low growl that seemed to echo at the end of his words. Quite the nightmare fuel. Finch, however, did not let that get to him and nodded.

Before he could say anything else, Randy turned toward Bobby. “Son, don’t give them a hard time.” His tone softened just ever so slightly, but that could just be Finch’s imagination. “You go talk to Hacker first, I’ll join you two soon, okay?”

Bobby nodded and then Randy phased through the wall with a trail of dark red mist behind him under Finch’s bewildered gaze. Freaked out screams came from within the warehouse as the wound of heavy footsteps just grew louder, the impact becoming stronger until those from outside the building could feel the ground under them vibrate ever so slightly.

Just as Finch was about to attempt to stop Randy from drenching the warehouse in a bloodbath of guts and gore, Blue suddenly crept up from seemingly nowhere almost ending up with Finch’s fist in his face again.

When will this man learn not to spook people out of their skin?

“Hey Finch, long time no see!” Blue smiled, ignoring the screams of terror and agony that escaped the confines of the warehouse. Torture probably was too weak of a word to describe the kind of atrocity Randy was doing in there.

Best to make a mental note not to make the man mad.

He deadpanned as he crossed his arms around his chest. “We spoke this morning.”

“But that encounter was so short, it doesn’t count!” Blue argued before a small cough came from the third party. Their eyes fell on an awkward Bobby, who seemed to feel uneasy by staying there... or perhaps it was because of the loud clatter within the walls that was soon followed by a wail of rage from his father.

“Can we go see Hacker already?” Bobby frowned. “I don’t want to stay here.”

“What a roundabout way to say that you’re worried about him.” Blue remarked, an amused smirk on his lips. “But you do have a point, we are wasting time. Are you going to come with us, Finch?”

The latter shook his head. “I was stationed there; I can’t just walk away from my duty like this.”

Blue shrugged. “Your loss. Alright, Bobby, come with me.”

The teenager had been unusually quiet and obedient this whole time. He nodded, trailing after the man with the scarf not without turning back and eyeing the warehouse.

***

“Wow, you look like shit.” Hacker opened his eyes at the sentence, eyebrow raised. Even with his blurry vision, he would recognize that mass of messy hair stuck to a small head from anywhere. He sighed.

“And you’re as disrespectful as ever, Bobby.” The latter scoffed; his worry hidden behind a fake layer of annoyance. If Hacker were not pretty much blinded by his blurry vision, he probably would have noticed the slight glint of concern in Bobby’s eyes.

One thing for sure, Blue noticed it.

“How the fuck do you always gets yourself into those kinds of situations anyway?” Hacker attempted to roll his eyes but that only had the effect of making him even dizzier than he was seconds prior. ‘No rolling eyes’ rule has been implemented into his memory.

“What can I say? Danger finds me really hot.” He attempted to laugh but it only came out as a pathetic fit of coughing. Bobby’s façade faded as he finally allowed his facial expression to fit his current emotions.

“Are you okay?” Hacker’s smile did little to relieve him.

“I’ll live.”

***

His subordinate arrived a few minutes later, eyes wary as they eyed the warehouse’s walls where terribly breathy screams echoed within. “Uh, sir? Is... everything okay in there?”

“Yes. Keep guard and do not let anyone near this area. The only person you are allowed to let out of this place is the blond man in a green blouse that will come out shortly. Do you understand?” Finch crossed his arms as they nodded, still looking quite worried.

“Good, I’ll be taking my leave then.” Finch would have normally felt bad about leaving without much of an explanation, but he was honestly exhausted and quite eager to get away from all the noises.

Besides, he had more important things to do.

***

“You wish to know what we will be doing with Hacker after he’s discharged?” Finch nodded as Dream scratched his chin in thought, Blue already mentioned the subject before but since that time, he still did not really produce anything.

“If it would not bother you to tell me, yes. I wish to make early preparations if he were to go back to the dungeons.” He explained, keeping his tone calm. Personally, he thought that sending him back to the cells would be an awful idea but if it were what his lord wanted, then he would not oppose him.

“This situation is quite a complex one, so I have not come up with a concrete course of action yet. Though, I do know that a transfer is necessary, we cannot keep him in the dungeons forever, that would just make conflict arise.”

As he spoke these words, his earlier conversation with Blue came to head.

“So, the most practical solution would be to have him kept in another place where you could monitor. You cannot exactly release him from prison completely, yet you also cannot have him stay in the dungeons. What do you say?” Dream looked away.

“... I’ll mull it over later.”

Unknown to him, it seems like Blue has conversed about the topic with Finch too.

“Being guarded by someone he is familiar with is bound to make him feel more at ease than not. Besides, I do not think an environment like a regular prison would either, it is bound to make him relive some kind of bad memory at some point.” Finch’s narrowed his eyes to him.

“And why are you telling me this?” He could not be trusted.

He smiled. “It could come in handy.”

“...” Finch looked away. “Maybe he could stay in my house.”

It was only when Dream let out a bewildered ‘what?’ that Finch realized that he had said that aloud. He cursed inwardly.

But now that he had introduced the solution on the table, he might as well commit to it before he made a complete fool of himself.

He could not allow that, especially not in front of Dream.

“I don’t use it most of the time and I have cameras placed all over the place, it would be easy to monitor him.” He explained, taking a brief pause to sort out his thoughts. “Since no other criminal or officer would be posted there, it might lessen the chance of him being sabotaged again too. Of course, if you wish to, I could always make some arrangements so that you may also be able to watch--”

Dream held up his hand, Finch closed his mouth. “There is no need to say much more. You will not need to give me access to your personal cameras, that would be a breach of privacy, but do remember to update me.”

Finch looked surprised but nodded, nevertheless.

“Understood, my Lord.”

From the security room, Blue smiled.

All according to plan.

[painted-bees]

Question for Bee!: Are any of the cortes trio prone to jealousy?

Like, in general? Or...towards one another? God, I can't imagine it...

For Cortes, I just don't think it's in her emotional library, full stop.

Magritte will celebrate your success no matter how big or small--she doesn't covet other people's rewards or accomplishments in such a way that would lead her to feel jealousy. And when it comes to her relationships, she's always been very open--as long as folks are communicative and nothing is done behind her back, yanno? The honesty is what matters.

I think the most susceptible would be Raf, just due to the nature of his particular bag if insecurities. I'm talking relationship-related jealousy specifically (he's had his fill of accomplishments, accolades, and attention where skill, talent, and profession is concerned, more than enough, too much.). But he saved himself a lot of trouble by just...denying that the thing happening between him and Magritte was anything resembling a committed relationship. And, by the time that it could no longer be ignored, it was because the communicative trust they developed between one another had become so robust, Raf's occasional paranoid/anxiety spiral has a hard time finding purchase with Magritte as a viable source of insecurity or worry [though it can be exceptionally awful when it does]. That tumultuous part of his mind, it seems, isn't even aware of Cortes' existence in his life. Perhaps this is helped by the fact that she seems almost single-mindedly concentrated him and Magritte in her affections.

Both Raf and Magritte can't even pretend to wholly understand what Cortes is about, but they both find quiet amusement in how easy it is for Cortes to captivate literally anyone. Something about her tall, narrow physique, perhaps...that supermodel-esque build commands attention over a whole host of passing admirers...and Cortes is consistently, fantastically aloof to all of them.

[antimony-ore]

Campfire story:

So I’ve been clear cutting this area around where my mom used to keep ducks because she let it overgrow BAD after they got eaten.

It’s taken about 3 days longer than I thought it would because everyone has been throwing scrap, plastic trash, and wood there for years so I kept having to stop to pull out just POUNDS of scrap metal and about a bags worth of garbage so it wouldn’t get caught in the blades.

That and I’m trying to burn what I can because I’m clear cutting it (and I mean down to the dirt) and there was hella poison ivy which can’t be in the mix, so it’s just been a bigger undertaking than I thought it was going to be.

Someone, at some point, also shoveled out the barn and dumped it all there so a lot of what I’m hitting is buried a good two or three feet in the side of this small hill of dirt.

Anyways I’m almost done, but you know me and native plants. I saved this one huge patch of catnip because the honey bees were all over it and my mom had the nerve to ask me why lmao.

She said it grows everywhere, so I channeled my best Lorax and kindly (I’m lying I was kind of irritated) told her no it doesn’t, most of it grows right there and if I kill it all there will be none left 🙄

The last thing I have to do is this (dogwood maybe?) tree grew up through a section of fence that is also half buried in that hill, so I have to cut out the section the tree claimed and dig the rest out (😫😭) too and then I can start moving some of the native plants I’ve been growing in so the burdock, pokeweed, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and grasses don’t take that area back over.

I also found an evergreen sapling of some sort I’m excited to let grow because we don’t have any besides some decorative nonnative arbor vitae out front.

Anyways, before I started this whole undertaking I asked my neighbor/her tenant/I’m tired of doing this his name is Doc. I asked Doc which part of the yard I could start working on, because he always seems to have projects I’m in the way of, and he said there (under the old box elder that fell and kept growing /the old duck coop.)

AND NOW suddenly that it’s clear he’s like oh yeah I’m gonna cut down that dogwood and take down the rest of that box elder and he sure as fuck isn’t lmfao. That is my designated turf. We have an agreement bub.

I regret asking him (out of genuine kindness) because now I am thoroughly convinced he creates animosity between us on purpose like how he says he’s gonna kill Frenchy Fry and then him and my mom literally leave food out like he’s not gonna go for it and get mad.

Anyway my native plants (and that catnip) are going in the ground there and the trees aren’t going anywhere or he’s gonna find out how that book would have went if the Lorax wasn’t a pacifist real quick.

I’ve been working my ass off, nobody’s gonna stop me from making this garden like they did when I started making that raised bed, or that wire I spent the better part of today digging out out is gonna find itself all tangled up in his zero turn 🤣👍