#and the whole hashtag situation really rubs me the wrong way

[cosmics-beings]

i feel like, in attempting to pin a single "ultimately guilty party" between starscream and megatron, people seem to miss that their story is one of the cycle of abuse. they both perpetrate violence that they were exposed to, as a result of or way to cope with their own trauma. this is a very real phenomenon. i still remember when i was about nine or ten and realized that my abuser's mother was also like that, and he was probably just repeating the way he was raised. its not an excuse for any parties involved. people can be both victims and perpetrators of abuse and neither role diminishes the other. their own abuse is still traumatizing, and the abuse they inflict on others is also still traumatizing. you cant pin one person in the cycle as "ultimately at fault" and absolve everyone else of guilt. people are more complicated than that.

also yeah i bet if nova and fem!skywarp were TC and masc!skywarp like in the og, people would be like nooo how can he treat his trine that way-- but people dont care about nova and fem!warp. they see starscream mistreating them and just shrug. fans have a problem with being unable to assign interiority to female characters unless guided there, so i suspect fans are just... not thinking about how that treatment would affect the girls. if it were a male character being mistreated they'd go "nooo he's gonna let that affect his self worth" or something but fans never really do this for female characters, they just take everything at face value. like oh she was kicked. huh. hey starscream is on screen again

I think ultimately, this is exactly what Earthspark is trying to do, I just don't really think the fandom caught that, which would be okay if there weren't a lot of harmful thoughts being perpetrated that skewed victims.

This is why, despite people being upset that Megatron has a redemption arc in Earthspark, I'm glad he does. Because he is also an abuse victim, he has to live with the trauma, and now he is breaking that cycle or can, in his own way. Because now he also has support and family. He doesn't have to fight, he doesn't have to exist in an abusive dynamic or relationship. He's free.

Likewise, Starscream is also breaking that cycle. But it only works if you acknowledge it. That's why I absolutely hated people attempting to argue away the fact that Starscream were abusive to Skywarp and Nova, because this is a cycle of abuse, that needs to be broken and you cannot sit there and try to act like it doesn't happen.

Because the wider part of the episode is that both Megatron and Starscream, who were victims of abuse and hurt each other, and other people, literally DECIDED to end it there. I think that Earthspark is trying to show us that, that abuse is far more complex, especially when you have two people who are victims of abuse and acting out because of it.

They both decided to stop, and to do better. And in order for that to work, you have to also acknowledge that it's a cycle and in a cycle, everyone is to blame when they start hurting others. This isn't excusing Megatron and it's certainly not excusing Starscream.

and :Re the misogyny regarding skywarp and nova--it just gets me really upset. Because it was a teaching moment and the fandom missed it. not only did they miss it they tried to explain away why that was okay, why him treating them the way he did (which is probably something starscream did for YEARS!) was okay. Like again, that is the cycle that is being perpetrated that you literally cannot ignore or attempt to excuse. And it was such a perfect teaching moment for the fans and they ignored it.

Most fandoms, no matter how progressive they claim to be aren't really going to care about female characters especially if they're used in a male character's narrative. Hashtag is usually just reduced to propping up Starscream, and Nova and Warp are just seen as extension of his narrative, which is literally what happens with female character.

The episode was spelled out plain as day that the way he treated them wasn't okay and he needed to be held accountable, but like you said, people just shrugged.

[shotosprincess]

what if... — shoto todoroki

“ what if we kissed then? just to prove that we don’t have feelings for each other. “

summary: ever since you and todoroki started working together as pro heroes, your friends simply wouldn’t let up on teasing you two, suspecting that there was something between you—something that extended past the bounds of business.

notes: fluff ,, todoroki being flustered ( aaaa he’s so cute bye ) the bakusquad teasing and egging ya’ll on ( their dialogue is color coded so it’s easier to read ! ) ,, denki being a little bit of a busybody <3

“ ooooh look who it is! the power coupleeee! “ the sing-song tone of denki’s teasing rung through the hall as he spotted you and todoroki entering the building from a long day of pro hero work.

grey streaks of dust and ash littered your bodies, streaks of sweat and diluted stripes of dried crimson staining multiple sides on both your faces. his hair was tattered and slightly singed from the discord of an especially-messy battle, yours was tangled in a hopeless mess. a heavy sigh leaves you. that would be a pain to brush through later.

your numbed fingers, body exhausted and worn out, run through your hair in a wordless frustration. shoto tenses up noticeably at denki’s playful comment. “ denki. we’re not a couple. “

his lips raise into a cheeky, if not mildly-irritating smirk as he leans further into the velvet couch, draping his arms round the back. “ oh yeah? take your arm off their shoulder then, shoto. “

your partner’s face lights up with a rose so brilliant, it almost even matched with the rubied strands of his hair. his lips tightly purse together, sliding his arm, which was, in fact, casually resting on your shoulder, off with a hurried swoop.

“ shut it, kaminari. “ he huffs in a low, almost even threatening tone as he walks past the energetic blonde at an increased pace. you frown. he seemed so worked up over it, and for what? it’s not as if this was the first time someone had poked at you for being a “ couple “—which you were not, but you were never the one to readily disprove their remarks, though delivered in a joking manner. it’s not as if you felt anything of the sort for him...right?

so then why was it so hard to admit that you weren’t anything more than what you were on the field? it was the truth, after all.

“ jeez, what’s with him? i was just kidding. “ sticking a lollipop into his mouth, he turns to lay down fully on the couch, stretching his back out with such leisure.

your eyes followed him as he disappeared past a corner, shaking your head in confusion. “ no clue. “

it was just one of the countless circumstances in which people had poked at the two of you for your not-so-platonic habits with one another, habits which, admittedly, hinted at something...more than friendship. more than a partnership. this was nothing new.

but of course, you pushed it all away, allowing the rumours and silly hashtags and fanmade edits and youtube compilations to completely ricochet off of you. however, the same couldn’t exactly be said for todoroki. shame.

you didn’t quite know why, but he always got so unexplainably tense about it whenever someone brought the topic up. he’d curl up his fists so aggressively it’d leave crescent marks the next day, rearrange his face into a scowl—it was clear that he hated it, joke or not. honestly, you didn’t have the guts to attempt to make them stop, for you knew that if you had, you just knew that the public would somehow find a way to turn it into “ proof “ that you were dating, all because he got so riled up and flustered. which was silly, really, since it was a perfectly normal human reaction to something like this.

though you can’t help but wonder if, perhaps, he did feel that way about you, and maybe that was the reason he—

no, no, what were you thinking? he couldn’t possibly...right? you were just partners. nothing more, nothing less.

but if he did think of you like that, would you want something more?

“ oh come on, just admit it! if not to the public, then to us at least. aren’t we friends? “

“ yeah, icy hot. i mean, seriously, have more guts— “

“ ...how many fucking times do i have to tell you, bakugou...we’re not a couple. denki, stop playing around. you’re egging him on. “ shoto’s harsh tone cuts sharply through the banter between denki and the overly-intense ashen blonde, bringing it to an abrupt end. it didn’t exactly last very long, though.

“ yeah, yeah. that’s what i said about that dumbass deku, and look where we are now. “ he rasps, a knowing smirk playing on his face as he pulls his now-blushing boyfriend close.

“ not everything is about love, bakugou. “ he smirks.

“ yeah, who knew you’d be the one to turn out to be such a romantic? “ denki laughs, earning a solid punch to his arm.

“ owww! that actually hurt. “ his lips jut out in a pout, rubbing over the blooming patch of light purple.

“ oh, shut up, idiot! “

“ you know what? fine. y/n? “

you pause, perfectly still and unmoving as the coldness of his eyes burned his unknown intent into you.

“ y-yeah? “

he strides over to you, appearing only inches away within the briefest of seconds. one of his hands quickly finds a home against your cheek, tilting it to look up at him. your heart pulsates at a nearly impossible rate.

“ kiss me. “

“ what? “

“ just this once. to prove that we don’t have feelings for each other. “ he says, rolling his eyes at denki and bakugou, who were futilely trying to cover their smirks.

heat rises to your cheeks, cauterizing them with an unfamiliar flame. “ oh! uh! i—sure.“

what other choice did you have? after all, you did want to prove to everyone that there really was nothing between you and shoto. or maybe, just maybe, you were also trying to prove it to yourself?

no, no. that couldn’t be. it couldn’t.

he wastes no time. his skin, cold and smooth, fingers like porcelain streams, grasp your chin with a fast-paced elegance which sends a prominent shudder down your back. his lips hover just above yours, and the tension buzzing between you is ridiculously electric. he’s so close, your heartbeat rings in your ears and his breath shallowly fans upon your face as he peers into your eyes with his own. you allow them to fall closed.

as if on cue, his lips meet yours with a gentle, albeit fairly aggressive peck. but as soon as they do, your chest spurns with the fibres of your heartstrings, embroidering them tightly into the knots of his own tangled past. you know what he said. you know what you said—it was all to prove that you didn’t feel anything for one another.

but then why did it feel so oddly...right?

he pulls away, and your lips suddenly feel empty, deserted. the electric thrum still prickles at your lips, wanting, no—needing, more. you hate how much your body craved him, how desperately you wanted for his arms around you again. there’s too much emotion, an overwhelming influx. it is near impossible to even articulate it, at least not in a way which could ever hope to properly encapsulate the undeniable magic of the moment. you were being so damn melancholic, and that was saying something, even for you.

when his lips leave yours, you cannot help but be frozen in your simple state of bliss, utterly dazed with hazy remnants of how annoyingly addicting it was. your eyes gloss over with a sense of want, sparkling with the same glitters his icy eyes met yours with. his hand remains on your cheek, but his touch softens against yours.

your silent stare prolongs for more than just the fleeting moment, as if you were subconsciously grabbing at it with invisible arms, reaching desperately to bring each other back. that was when it hit you; the blinding realization that you did, in fact, want this. want him. and yet, you couldn’t help but hesitate. what about him? did he want this? no, no, he couldn’t possibly. after all, this whole kiss situation was only because he wanted to prove that explosive idiot wrong, that there was nothing between you two but teamwork and good quirk compatibility.

your heart stings at the minor epiphany, the thoughts piercing at your head in an endless swirl of emotions. second-guessing yourself, wondering why you even cared whether or not he thought of you that way. or at least, how he didn’t think of you that way. the tiniest shine of a tear begins to coat your lashes when—

his lips crash against yours for a second time, his hand now trailing towards your scalp, weaving through the fibres as his lips danced upon yours. your guard, your hesitation fully melting away in his arms.

but alas, you made the mistake of allowing yourself to forget that people were watching too.

“ ha! i knew it! i fucking knew it! “ kaminari’s playful voice rings like the most annoying song ( in this moment, i mean come on, you loved the guy, but right now? not exactly helping your stance of “ we don’t see each other like that “ ) as his head peaks out from the halls.

instantly you break away, pulling from each other as your hand flies to clamp over your mouth, eyes bulging wide at what you had just done. you had just kissed shoto. in front of, well, practically everyone! since when did mina and kirishima even get here?!

“ shit. “ shoto mutters deeply, thrashing his hands into his two-toned hair in frustration.

“ shoto, i—i’m so sorry, i didn’t know they would— “

“ no, no. don’t apologize. it’s my fault. i...i shouldn’t have gone for a second ki— “

“ honestly, i think i would’ve been more mad at you if you haven’t. “

“ WHAT?! “ your little audience shrieked. your palms clasped right over your mouth after the admission, face burning with embarrassment. the words left you before you could even think them through. had you really just said that? in front of everyone? how carefree can you be?

you stare into the ground, focusing on literally anything but him.

“ hey. look at me. “

you refused.

“ y/n. “ his hand goes up to your chin, making you look up at him. the pout on your face is so plainly obvious, it makes his heart twitch in a slight pain. you could almost swear you heard mina squeal faintly at the boldness of his action, considering the predicament you two were currently stuck in.

“ what? “

“ i...i think i would’ve regretted it more if i hadn’t kissed you again. “

“ you—what? “

“ i...i didn’t want to pull away. “

“ holy shit. “

“ shut up bakugou! “

“ i wanted...i wanted it to last a little longer. “

“ jeez, and i thought i was bad at confessing my feelings. pft. this is just embarrassing to watch. “

“ same here. i mean you did ask midoriya out by yelling ‘ i love you, dumbass! ‘ from outside his dorm window. “

“ hey, idiot! we don’t talk about that! “

“ shhhh both of you! shut up! we are witnessing an important romantic moment here! “

“ i...seriously? “

“ seriously. and i—i don’t know what the hell this feeling....is. but i....i just— “

“ it’s okay. “ you shoot him a reassuring smile, the same kind you always did in the midst of battle, that comforting smile that let him know you had his back. you communicated with your eyes, though usually they were bloodshot with adrenaline and smudged with ash, there truly was no need for words. not with him.

“ y/n...i— “

“ awwwww aren’t they the cutest? now kiss again! “

“ mina. “ he shoots her a lightly cold stare.

“oh come on! let us have our fun, yeah, icy hot? “ bakugou slings his arm over kaminari’s shoulder, whose grin matches that of his blonde-haired counterpart.

“ i thought i told you not to call me— “

“ shoto. “

he immediately turns to you, slipping into serenity at the sound of your voice.

“ ah shit, here they go again. we get it, you’re a cute couple! “

“ mina, i told you. we’re not a co- “ his eyes snap to yours, lips parting in a hesitant pause.

“ not a what, icy hot? “ the smirk exuding of utter smugness upon bakugou’s face only spreads all the wider.

he allows his hands to fall, taking yours within his. there is a brief, yet definite moment of silence before he speaks again. “ i mean... “

your gaze is focused on the way his hands fully envelope yours, and the unexplainable, tingly feeling you’re getting from it all. despite that, you could still very well see mina and kaminari excitedly waving and bouncing in all sorts of directions, as if they were...cheering you on? it was almost as if they were more fired up about all this than you were.

keyword; almost.

“ shoto, i— “

and suddenly his composure and poise breaks, and all that’s left is the rare sight of shoto todoroki, stuttered in a blushing, shaky mess. “ i mean, i wouldn’t be opposed to it. not—not like i desperately want to or anything, but at the same time i—i just—fuck, why is this so har— “

you rise onto your tip toes, hands encircling his neck as you kiss him. what unknown spirit possessed you with the guts to make the first move, it was fully unbeknownst to you. but you weren’t complaining, no. not in the slightest.

“ HOLY SHIT?? “

“ my baby’s all grown up now— “

“ dumbass, they’re not your bab— “

“ they’re mine. “

“ i— “

“ that is, if you want to b— “

“ well no shit, dumbass! “ you jump into his arms, squealing as you squeeze him tight.

“ good. because...so do i. “

“ i told you! “

“ shut up idiot! “

“ hey, so now can we start a fan account for you two on instagram? i’m sure it’d totally blow up! “ mina squealed with a wink, holding up her phone, already halfway through the sign up process.

“ mina! “ everyone groaned in a laughter-filled unison.

so that was it, you supposed.

you did have feelings for each other.

[baebaejooheon]

Corpse husband x cottagecore! Reader headcanon

Just a cottagecore esque thing where it’s readers birthday and they throw a big meet up/sleepover thing.

Fem reader just bc. Mentions wearing a dress/skirt

A/N: uhhh leave me alone Ik I have a series in the works that I haven’t written for in months. Leave me alone 😎 not edited pls it’s rlly not good , as well as written at 6 am. Based on a maladaptive daydream I had for like a week straight. I could turn this into a real fic if anyone wants it but like ahaha I can barely write once a year 😌🤚🏻 I will probably reread it and fix it later but as of now you get what you get. I literally just typed this on my phone with no sleep so like 🤗🤪

Originally posted by datchidatchi

A little background, Y/N lives in a medium sized cottage esque house. She has a small garden in her back yard, as well as a free roam fluffy brown cow named dellie, and a big chicken coop. As well as a duck that roams the property and a couple of other animals. As well as a huge flower field a little off the premises. (All of this is infact important.)

It’s Your 23rd birthday, and for this big occasion you decided to invite over all your friends, even those who live outside of the country, to your small home in the middle of nowhere. This would be the meetup that would break the internet.

Many people were invited. The typical among us group:Jack, Felix, Rae, Sykunno, Toast, Poki, and even Corpse who was given the option even tho the likelihood was low given the situation.

A few SMP friends you had made through association were also invited: Karl, Alex, Nick etc.

Many people, lots of fun.

The morning of your birthday, You awoke to many messages and posts for your birthday. Lots of bomb selfies on the feed as well as #HAPPYBDAYY/N trending on Twitter. Along with this, you were greeted with a few texts from your non American friends stating that they arrived safely or that they were checking into the hotel rooms they had booked for the weekend.

When the time came for the party, most of the people had managed to show up. The party was in full swing, everyone had a drink in hand, posting pictures, celebrating being together as well as it being your birthday.

Filling the trending tab on Twitter with so many hashtags

Around 10 pm you got a call from corpse and decided to head upstairs to get some peace and quiet from the loud music in your living room.

Answering the phone the conversation wasn’t anything special, corpse wishing you the fourth happy birthday for that day, as well as asking how everything was going. It was a normal conversation, that was, until his breath hitched and his voice started to quiver as he grew quiet, barely mumbling. Asking what was wrong, corpse went on a small tangent about how he wished he was more confident with his looks, how he wished it wasn’t scary showing his closest friends what he looked like etc. and how he wished he could be there at the party with everyone.

“Corpse I’ve told you 100 times. I understand your situation and it’s ok that you couldn’t show up. I don’t hold it against you, but I didn’t want you to feel left out :))”

“What would you say if I said I just pulled up in an Uber and I’m absolutely terrified of what’s gonna happen?”

Sneaking out of the back door as quickly as possible and running to the front lawn preparing herself. Corpse steps out of the car and You just jump in his arms. like full on koala grip on this man.

Holding his face and just showering him with compliments. Lots of reassurance and sweet nothings.

Heading to the back porch in order to allow him to calm down and prepare. The two end up sitting outside in the dark talking for like 30 minutes.

Finally working up the courage to head inside. You hold his hand the whole time and you see his hands start to shake.

Stepping into the living room, Jack noticing corpse was there, smiling but not saying anything after realizing he’s nervous. Meeting eveyone for the first time really being hard on him. No one else knowing what he looks like so no one really has a reaction

“Look who I found”

“Oh Y/N!! We were wondering where you ran off too. Who’s your friend?”

Corpse just hits them with a “uhh, hi 🤗”

Everyone freaking out as soon as they realize who it is and trying to talk to him.

Phones were put away for most of the night in fear of leaking anything.

You going the extra step to check everyone’s camera rolls (with consent of course) just incase and deleting any photo with any form of corpes face.

A group selfie with just corpse’s hand doing a peace sign

Many drunk escapades

Everyone finding a place to crash for the night. Some staying awake on their phones, some heading to hotels, some alresdy passed out for the night.

You check in on corpse before you head to bed, knowing today was a lot for him.

“Surprisingly? One of the best nights I’ve had in awhile :))”

Heading off to bed.

6 am rolls around and ms Y/N is up at the crack of dawn to do morning chores for the small farm.

Cute hobbit esque dress. Brown skirt, off the shoulder white flowy shirt tucked in, white frilly apron, brown corset belt Etc. you know the fit

Walking down the stairs, you see corpse on his phone in the dark sitting at her dining room table. Everyone was still asleep and it seemed like corpse hadn’t even slept a wink. You know, his insomnia and all.

“What are you doing awake? It’s only 6 am and you partied pretty hard last night?”

“Farm life doesn’t stop for a hangover, but I could ask you the same thing mister :) come on you can help me out”

Corpse is 100% not dressed to do anything outside, especially not any farm work.

Tells him to wait on the back porch while she gathers some stuff from the house. coming out with a messenger bag as well as a basket and a blanket.

Sets everything down and continues to feed the animals with corpse, asking him to grab the big bucket of feed. showing him the ropes, filling up everyone’s water dishes. Collecting eggs etc.

Corpse just watching you with a smile on his face. Your just talking to all your animals, yelling at fiesty hens for pecking at your legs and/or talking to Gerald the duck for getting in the way.

Corpse lowkey obsessed with dellie the cow. Pets her and coos for like 5 minutes straight.

When they finish the sun is barely rising everything still looks like a silhouette from far enough away. putting what needs to go inside away, and then grabbing the messenger bag off the porch.

Dragging corpse to the flower field just down the hill at the edge of the property.

Laying out the blanket and sitting just talking for hours.

You plays music from your phone through a small speaker, dancing around and twirling, lost in your own world.

Corpse’s Instagram story is just full of videos and pictures of you in the sunrise, small captions like happy birthweek to the most amazing person Ik. Or damn who knew farm girl had moves.

Literally 30+ story posts at 7 am.

Corpse takes a picture of you making a flower crown. Shadows cast across your skin, the small bit of sunrise light casting a soft golden glow. The field of flowers all around. Literally goddess worthy.

Fans going crazy reposting the pictures, spamming Twitter etc.

His camera roll is FULL of pictures of her.

Giving corpse A flower crown full of an array of wild flowers

Dancing together. Just twirling and laughing.

City boy corpse loving the farm life

Secretly of course

Relaxing and just sitting with eachother as it slowly reaches 10 am.

“Uh, thanks for this morning, I had a lot of fun.” A small sleepy smile on his face. The flower crown crooked on his messy curls as he just stares into your eyes.

You both end up leaning in for a kiss bumping noses as you gently pull away

Definitely the best birthday gift you could have asked for

Heading back inside to see how everyone’s doing.

Rae being one of the few awake asking where the two of you had been seeing it was already around noon

“Those of us awake took it upon ourselves to raid your kitchen sorry not sorry”

Corpse getting sleepy wanting to take a nap seeing as it was noon and he was running on little to no sleep.

You let him rest in your bed as you occupy everyone downstairs

Everyone leaving around 3 pm, corpse is still asleep so you go outside to check on all the animals once again.

Letting Gerald in the house bc he’s being a pain in the ass.

When you come into the house you see corpse coming down the stairs rubbing his eyes and streatching. His shirt twisted and raising slightly, the jewelry and chains he was wearing now gone.

Giving him a good “morning” kiss.

The day is filled with you cooking for him. Making fun of his foil troubles, watching movies, laughing and overall joking.

Spending the rest of the night cuddling together and making the most of the time you had together.

Making things between you official

✨Extra✨

When you post about eachother to tell the fans that the two of you have been dating for like 6 months the captions are wild.

Corpse is like “ugh look at my gorgeous girlfriend, so pretty, so nice and kind, the most amazing person ever” just full on simp. The pictures he uses are from the morning after your birthday.

Your picture is just you guys holding hands. His usual chains and jewelry. Caption just “eww a city boy 🤮, gotta take all the love I can get tho”

[ladylynse]

Chapter 5 of Forewarning [FF | AO3]

All Dipper knew was that there was something buried in some special thermos behind the shack; all Danny knew was that he had no idea how he’d gotten here.

Inspired by this artwork by @hashtag-art

(beginning | previous)

-|-

“Look, kid,” Stan said after taking a quick peek at his watch, “I need to get going, and you shouldn’t be working on any of this by yourself.” He nodded at the portal. Truth was, he didn’t want Danny touching it at all when he wasn’t around. “Safer for both of us if you keep your expertise on these things for when I’m around to hear what you’re saying. That sound good?”

Fortunately for Stan, the kid nodded. His next repetition of that proposal might’ve been a lot less careful and a lot more, well, direct. Not his usual method, not punching, not now that he knew at least part of this kid was human and still very much a kid and that the part that wasn’t could go right through his punches, but he’d learned enough from the kid to know the sort of thing that would work. Quite aside from the fact that Stan knew exactly how dangerous some of this stuff could be, he wasn’t going to risk thirty years of work being for nothing if something got changed when he wasn’t around to see it happen.

Of course, that was why he had to say this next part. And he couldn’t even be very subtle at it, since he was pretty sure subtle would go over the kid’s head. “I wanna protect my family,” he said. “That includes everyone you’ve met up there, and that includes protecting them from all of this.”

Dammit, the kid was pulling a face. “I’m not sure if you can.” His words were slow. Deliberate. “From what I can tell, when you finally get to the point where you turn this on…. It’s going to be obvious.”

Stan snorted. “Not more obvious than any of the other things that go on around here.” He might not like where things had been headed, but he could make this particular turn of the conversation work to his advantage if he picked the right words, and he was very good at doing that. Experience could be an effective teacher. “It’s not a coincidence you got the reaction you did. This place is called the Mystery Shack for a reason.”

“This place is tourist trap.”

“Not all of it. And every single person up there knows it.” Stan jabbed his thumb towards the ceiling. “You do, too.” Judging both by what he’d said and the way he was acting. Stan was not foolish enough to think that Danny was comfortable right now. “That book you mentioned earlier? Yeah, it might need updating, but you already know not all the info in it is wrong.” He saw Danny frown and kept going, adding on what he’d wanted to say in the first place. “Tell you what. You want to make sure the book the kids are looking at is accurate when it comes to you not planning on destroying all of us where we stand? Grab it and stash it down here. We can update it tonight.”

The kid rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t know if stealing it is the best way to go.”

It was the best way for Stan, but all he really needed out of it were the missing pages of blueprints. The rest of the info in there might be useful, but it wasn’t immediately important. There was more than one way for him to get a look at those pages. “Then ask for it.” All he needed was for Dipper to pull that book out in his sight so he could ask to see it, even if he pretended it wasn’t important, or at least not nearly as important as it was….

“I don’t…. You were listening when I said they threatened to exorcise me, right? They probably already would’ve if they hadn’t been too busy asking me questions. They’re never going to hand that over to me when they don’t trust me.”

Oh, oh, that was getting dangerously close to so why don’t you just ask for it? territory, and Stan didn’t want to go there. “You give them much reason to trust you?”

Silence.

That’s what he’d thought.

“I’m keeping this a secret to protect all of them,” Stan said with a nod towards the portal. “You know how dangerous this is if they accidentally mess something up, and I’m not about to present them with Pandora’s Box.” There was enough truth in that to be believable; he could see the rueful agreement on Danny’s face. “You’re trying to protect yourself with your secrets, but that’s just putting you in danger. Wasn’t that why you came clean with me?”

It wasn’t the whole reason. Stan knew that. But it was part of the reason. It was reason enough.

Danny sighed. “Yeah, okay. You’re right. I’ll try to explain. I wouldn’t mind the backup, though. They act first and ask questions later.”

“Survival instinct. You don’t have to live here long to get it.”

“Gathering that,” the kid muttered, his eyes flicking over the hidden lab once more. Then, louder, “Fine. I’ll talk to them. But you’ll at least save me before they do anything drastic if it goes sideways, right?”

And back to the tricky part. He suspected that one of the reasons Dipper had never told him about the journal was that he made a big show about not believing in any of this. An effective show. “Just be yourself. No more tricks. Don’t know who you’re used to fooling, but we’re made of more skeptical stock out here.”

It wasn’t a promise, and narrowed eyes told him that had been noticed. After a heartbeat, though, the kid’s shoulders relaxed, and his suspicion drained away. “That’s one of the ways you’re trying to protect them, isn’t it? By not admitting how much you know.”

He hadn’t expected Danny to hit that particular nail on the head, at least not so quickly, but Stan grunted in affirmation anyway. The kid hadn’t argued, which meant he’d seen the point of it, even if he hadn’t realized the breadth of Stan’s motives behind that choice.

“I get that,” he whispered. “I’m doing something similar. Sometimes the…. Sometimes the truth hurts, y’know? And it’s just easier to live the lie. Safer. For everyone.”

Practice was the only thing that kept the surprise off his face. For all of Danny’s rambling earlier, he’d neatly avoided alluding to that before.

“It isn’t always.” Stan was painfully aware of that. Sixer had realized it, too, before…before…. “Your situation isn’t the same as mine. Just because you think secrecy is the right choice for everyone else and not just you, doesn’t mean it is, and you shouldn’t assume as much simply because it’s more convenient for you.” Rich words, maybe, coming from him, but the kid had no idea of how much of his life was a lie.

He had no idea it went far beyond a secret lab, a reverse engineered portal, and a determination to fix his mistakes.

“Maybe.” It was clear that Danny didn’t want to talk about it. That suited Stan just fine. He didn’t want to keep talking about this, either. “I need to get home before I get to worry about that, though.”

Stan wouldn’t mind having words with the being that had put Danny in this situation, and not just because he suspected it might give him some insight about his brother if said being happened to be in a talkative mood. The ghost—if the thing really was a ghost like Danny claimed and the kid wasn’t wrong about that—sounded like he could use a knuckle sandwich to go with said words, and Stan wouldn’t have a problem serving that up.

“Then I’ll see you back here tonight.”

“No. I…. I’ll see you before that. Because you’re right. I need to explain myself. You might not be the only one I’m supposed to help.”

Stan wasn’t entirely convinced the kid was really supposed to help anyone. Manipulative beings came in all sorts, and they were usually smart enough to have agendas that either aligned with what you seemed to need to do anyway or were just plain impossible to realize until it was too late to turn back. Saying that wouldn’t help the kid, though, so Stan just nodded. “You head up first. I’ll catch up.”

-|-

Dipper had decided to chop some wood, thinking—among other things—that Wendy might see what he’d accomplished and tell him he’d done a good job of it.

The problem was, even he knew he wasn’t doing a good job, and there was very little chance of him turning it into a good job by the time she saw it.

So far, he’d accumulated a small pile of interesting wedges on the ground and what felt like the beginning of three blisters, two on his right hand and one on the left. He was sore and hot and sweaty, despite ditching his vest and using it to cover up the journal. He was getting better, though. Marginally. Maybe.

Dipper took a deep breath, judged the angle, and then swung. The axe hit true, biting into the dead centre of the block of wood he was trying to split with a satisfying thunk. And then it stuck there.

What should have been a great feat had come to failure in time to be witnessed by his sister.

“Just hit the ground like you’re playing whack-a-mole,” Mabel suggested as she dumped a handful of sticks into the box of kindling that would eventually make its way over to the fire pit. “That’s gotta be easier than yanking it out.”

“Safer, too, probably,” Dipper agreed, but Mabel was standing there and watching him now, and it wasn’t working fast enough. At least, two more solid whacks hadn’t split it. He tried to swing harder and managed to catch the edge of the wood block on the ground, tilting it but not loosening it entirely—nor, notably, splitting the wood in half.

“I could try,” offered Mabel, but Dipper shook his head.

“I can do this.”

“We might not need it, anyway. Soos split some earlier.”

“It’s always good to have extra.”

“Suit yourself, bro-bro.”

Dipper assumed Mabel would head back out to gather more deadwood, but she just stood there and picked stray bits of bark out of her sweater. He gave up trying to split the wood block—or straighten it out on the axe; he wasn’t picky at the moment—and instead let his aching arms rest. “What’s bothering you? The phantom, or whatever he really is?” It was safe enough for them to talk; Grunkle Stan and Wendy had gone into town, and Soos was touching up the window frames with a fresh coat of paint. Not that Dipper wouldn’t have had this conversation right now if Soos were in earshot, since he trusted Soos, but if Phantom did decide to pull some tricks, it wasn’t smart to give him leverage.

In Dipper’s limited experience of ghosts, they were happy to use things and people you cared about against you.

Not finding more bits of bark in her sweater, Mabel began tracing circles on the ground with her the toe of her shoe. “I know you’re worried about this,” she said slowly, “and what it said in the journal—”

“I don’t even know everything the journal says. That’s what worries me.”

“But I don’t think Phantom is that bad. I mean, he hasn’t attacked us, even when we split up.” They hadn’t split up far, true—she’d stuck close, well within screaming distance and maybe even his sprinting distance, after their summer so far—but Dipper had thought that might coax Phantom out into the open again. It hadn’t, but Phantom not falling for it didn’t mean Mabel was right.

“He’s not like Mermando. It’s not just a stroke of bad luck that he’s here. He was trapped in that thermos. It can’t have been because he’s nice.”

Mabel stuck out her tongue at him. “Then why’d you open it?”

“Because I didn’t think ‘something stuck in some special thermos’ meant ‘secret containment of something that can kill you more easily than everything else in this journal and is freakily good at pretending to be human.’ I thought it was going to be a note!”

“You mean you thought it was going to tell you who the author was.”

Dipper sighed and sat down, shifting as a wood chip dug into his leg. “I thought it might be a clue to his identity,” he admitted, “or hints about the other journals. We don’t know anything about them.”

Mabel dropped down beside him and started pulling out blades of grass. “What if Phantom is right and we—you—need to forget about the author? Before we get in over our heads?”

“You know I can’t just forget about this. It’s…. There’s so much here. I can’t just walk away and pretend I didn’t see any of it. I just…. I can’t.”

Mabel nodded as if she hadn’t expected him to say anything else. “I think Danny—Phantom—whoever—came back earlier.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me?” He scrambled to his feet and glanced at the shack, which looked exactly as it had the last time he’d looked at it. The runes must be holding up. “How long ago?”

“When Wendy sent us outside. And I didn’t tell you because we’d already drawn all that warding stuff. And because I don’t think he’s as bad as you think he is.”

“You can’t risk everything just because you think he’s cute!”

“I’m not! If he wanted to hurt us, he could have. You know that. I think he’s looking for something. If we help him, he’ll be able to go home and everything will be fine.” She tossed bits of shredded grass aside. “Sit down. Please?” Dipper sighed and sat down, so she continued, “You know not everything in the book is dangerous. And you don’t know that he’s dangerous; you’re just assuming that because you don’t know what the book really says.”

“His section is in a special code. What am I supposed to think?”

“The section about him. Not the section telling you how to find him.”

Dipper stared at her for a few heartbeats. “You really don’t think the author wrote that part, do you?”

“Is the handwriting the same?”

“It’s similar enough. The code is more symbols than letters, anyway.”

“Maybe it’s a message for Phantom then, not whoever finds him.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“He knows time travel is real, and he knows someone around here has done it. That’s not something people randomly guess.”

It didn’t mean he was innocent, either, but Mabel had already made up her mind. It was like she’d forgotten the last time someone supposedly completely innocent and pretending to be human had turned up in their lives, which had already happened more times than Dipper would have thought possible before this summer. Sure, there was a chance she was right, but if Phantom didn’t have some nefarious plan, why masquerade as a human? Had he honestly thought they wouldn’t see through it?

“Okay,” Dipper said slowly. “Let’s assume our warding in working. If he still came back and hasn’t shown himself to us, then he’s looking for something, and he thinks it’s hidden inside.”

“And he doesn’t think we have it or he would’ve been more subtle.” Mabel wrinkled her nose. “He was knocking on walls and the floor and stuff, like he thought something would be hollowed out.”

“He thinks Grunkle Stan is storing something under the floorboards?” No, that couldn’t be right. Grunkle Stan wouldn’t have stashed anything useful for a ghost. “He thinks the author did? Maybe he does know about the journals and just didn’t want to tell us. Maybe he thinks the first one is hidden inside!”

“Or maybe I was wrong and he does think we have it and he’s trying to scare us into moving it.”

“You don’t think he’d try torturing us or something like a normal phantom of pain?”

Mabel shrugged. “He really doesn’t act like the other ghosts.”

No, he didn’t, which didn’t sit well with Dipper. Did he claim to be a phantom to throw them off the scent? It couldn’t be to try to intimidate them—from what Dipper had seen, he could’ve impersonated a category ten if that were the case—so maybe it was meant to mislead them, to keep them too preoccupied to realize the truth.

It was working.

Dipper huffed. “I know you want to trust him. Fine. I can’t, not until I get some answers.”

“Then let’s get some answers.”

“Summoning him again won’t exactly make him want to tell us anything,” Dipper said with a grimace.

“Talking to him might,” Mabel said, her gaze fixing on something over his shoulder.

Dipper swallowed and turned. It was Phantom all right, back as Danny Fenton. He was coming from the right direction, walking in from the path that led towards town, but Mabel wouldn’t have been wrong about earlier, which meant he was deliberately trying to be sneaky. Great. At least he wasn’t that good at it, judging by his attempts to play off Fenton as just a friend earlier.

“You see if you can get the axe free,” Dipper muttered, picking up a stick that was meant to be kindling for later. “I’m going to see how far I can get on a protective circle before he gets here.”

-|-

Soos stepped back and eyed his handiwork. It wasn’t his best. It wasn’t as good as he’d like. The salt had made the paint clumpier than he was used to, but Wendy had been right about it being a good starting point. If they weren’t sure exactly what they were dealing with but it seemed ghost-like, salting the thresholds without being too obvious about it was a good start.

He’d spent the last twenty minutes going over the door and window frames. He should probably find an excuse to go on the roof and do something around the chimney, though not with the paint colour he had. That would be too obvious on the shingles, and not drawing attention to what he was doing was preferable.

He still thought the kids should know right now, but Wendy had a point. Dipper wouldn’t be able to resist getting involved, and he’d think it was his job to save them all. If they could get a few preventative measures in place before the kids knew all the details—and, preferably, if he and Wendy could get a better idea of what those details were first—then maybe there wouldn’t be any more saving left to do.

Just because Wendy didn’t trust this not-quite-a-ghost, didn’t meant it was actually out to get them. Soos liked being an optimist. You needed to be, sometimes, to get through what life tossed at you. It could hurt—he wouldn’t deny that—but he figured it was better to hope than to just give in to doom and gloom and despair.

Ghost stories after marshmallows, Wendy had said. Marshmallows wouldn’t be the only thing she was getting in town, but Soos wasn’t sure how they were supposed to fight an unknown entity. If they didn’t know what it was, there were only so many general things they could try before they ran out of ways to stop it. They had enough things around here already if something needed to be set on fire, but if it required something weirdly specific, like holy oil? That wasn’t something you could just pick up from the grocery store.

All right, so maybe that’s another reason Soos wanted to tell the kids sooner rather than later. Even if Stan didn’t believe in all this, they did, and Dipper’s book clearly had some information in it. They’d be more than willing to sell this whole thing as a gimmick to their grunkle, too. Well. They might try to convince him it was all real first. Then they’d settle for selling it as a gimmick.

Another coat of lumpy salt paint wasn’t going to improve matters right now, so Soos scraped the remaining paint into a can he could seal and store for later and set about washing out the bucket and brush. He could grab his hammer and nail down a few loose shingles on the roof. That would give him a good reason to be up there. Maybe he could mix some salt with glue and then hammer down some shingles on top of that. It might last a little longer. It might last long enough, which was all that really mattered right now.

Soos was swapping supplies in the toolshed when he heard the crunch of gravel underfoot. No roar of an engine or whine of the golf cart, but the kids had been out in the other direction when he’d left them. He stuck his head outside, waving at a teen who had stopped awkwardly in the driveway at his appearance. With Stan out, he was filling in for Mr. Mystery, so he put the tools back down on the bench and stepped out to give the kid a proper greeting.

Customer from town, probably, though it was odd that he’d come this late, so close to closing.

And alone.

“Welcome to the Mystery Shack!” Soos started, but the boy stepped back and held up both hands.

“Sorry,” he said quickly, “but I’m, uh, not here for the tour. I had it earlier this afternoon.”

Funny. Soos had been working outside most of the afternoon because it had been slow. He didn’t remember seeing this kid. He didn’t remember any customers since that one car had come in this morning, to be honest, and that couple had only had a disgruntled daughter with them.

“Um. I was actually hoping to talk to Dipper and Mabel? If they’re around?”

Dipper and Mabel hadn’t mentioned anything, but it’s not like Soos had quizzed them as they’d skipped by to start gathering wood.

Still.

This boy was a tourist. Coming from town. Without parents. Soos didn’t know too many teens who would make that walk; even most of the locals preferred to drive it, since people tended to consider it just this side of too long to be comfortable, and none of them would have to worry about getting lost.

“They might be about,” Soos said carefully, but the boy was already looking around, and it wouldn’t be long before— Yes. He’d spotted them. Raised his hand in a wave. No welcoming shouts back, so not someone the twins considered a good friend, not yet, but no clear signs of confusion, either, at least not as far as Soos could tell. The boy mumbled some excuse to Soos and jogged around him, and Soos let him go.

The hair on the back of his neck was still standing, though.

Keeping one ear pointed towards the kids, just in case, Soos kept his head down and started to walk the driveway. They’d gotten a load of gravel in recently, and he’d spent an evening raking it down just the other day. It hadn’t had much traffic on it yet, just the occasional car—including Stan’s—and the golf cart. No rain since it had been dumped, either. Far more of it was loose than ground into the road, which made it an easy enough thing to follow the boy’s footprints.

Right up to the point where the trail stopped.

In the middle of the loose gravel.

No skidding to indicate that the boy had jumped from the side of the road, and no path worn enough in the road yet to hide his tracks. It was as if he’d just dropped down out of the sky and started walking in. Soos turned to look back towards the Mystery Shack, frowning. The sight lines would’ve been fine when there were fewer leaves on the trees, but as it was, the road jogged just enough for the foliage to obscure this part, and Soos didn’t need to look in the other direction to know how the road curved.

As far as Soos knew, a ghost wouldn’t have left any tracks like this, but Wendy had said this whatever-it-was wasn’t a ghost.

Wendy had also wanted to keep the kids out of it, but from what Soos had just seen, the kids were already up to their necks in it. The boy had known their names, and they must have known him, even if they hadn’t yet realized what he was.

So much for a boring summer holiday. Those two didn’t joke about being the Mystery Twins for nothing. Despite Wendy’s best efforts, they were getting sucked into every black hole of a mystery that existed in Gravity Falls.

Well, if that’s the way it was, then the least Soos could do was see if they needed anything.

(see more fics | next)

[kay-diggle]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to come up here and make a quick statement since I’ve seen it being talked about on this app as well.

My platform on this app isn’t that big, but I’ve still been reblogging some of the things I’ve seen to help raise awareness to the group of you who do follow me. I know you all followed me for my writing, but as a black person in this fandom, I can no longer be silent on the topic, so I’ll try to sum up all of my thoughts on what’s been going on for the past week or so, and then you can do with it what you wish.

Let’s first start with the Jim Jones situation. Everything about it rubbed me the wrong way. For those who might not know, Jim Jones is a mass murderer and I believe he had over 900 victims. He was also racists and did target black people as well. I mostly use Twitter to stay updated on the fandom and bts stuff, so that’s where I saw everything at. I fell like the timing was just wrong. Black stans are literally in the middle of a movement where we’re trying to fight for our lives just to find out about yoongi’s track, let alone the fact that people have known about it for two years and decided to bring it up despite everything that was already going on. I think it also didn’t help that black stans were rightfully expressing their anger and others were invalidating our feelings towards the situation when it was really hurtful to find out about the song especially because of all the stuff going on with blm. It’s important to know that the boys are not exempt from being criticized for their actions, especially when they’re perceived as being harmful to others. It’s also important to know the difference between critizing someone, and sending them hate. None of the black army’s who were offended sent them hate, we just expressed our disappointment.

And then it’s the fact that those who were offended were being called “fake armys” because we didn’t automatically “trust yoongi.” How were we to trust him without knowing the official story? A lot of armys tried to save face with a story about how he used the JJ speech to criticize it and blah blah, but Bighit’s official statement revealed it was the exact opposite, as they basically said he didn’t know about it. Bighit’s statement in itself bothered me as well. I don’t believe that Yoongi would’ve let another producer add something to his songs without thoroughly looking over it, and if he did, then he made a very distasteful mistake. Unlike some others who were hurt and offended, I forgive him but that’s my own personal decision and no one else should be attacked for doing otherwise.

Moving on to the next big thing that is apparently “dividing” our fandom: the topic of whether or not bts should speak about what’s going on. I’m going to start off by saying I believe they absolutely should say something. All Kpop/ khh artists should say something. But the boys in particular currently have one of the biggest platforms in the world and one post from them could absolutely do a lot. Plus, and a lot of you may be mad at me for this one, but let’s not pretend that they don’t benefit from black culture, that they didn’t start off as a hardcore rap group who was and still is influenced by a lot of black artists. Let’s not forget that in the beginning of their career, they did American Hustle life, where they spent some time learning about hip hop culture and the black struggle. They KNOW! You can’t use the excuse that they might not know what’s going on over here because they know! The media is covering it all over the world. And since they do know, I really think they should raise awareness. Armys take pride in the fact that they’re “woke” and care about social issues, but suddenly since it’s about the blm movement they should be silent? That’s not sitting right with me. They are UN Ambassadors with an entire campaign on ending violence and you’re really telling me you think they shouldn’t say anything? That’s not sitting right with me at all.

That being said, anti’s are not the ones dividing the fandom, racism is. I’ve honestly seen some very disgusting and vile things said by nonblack Bts stans and it really hurts my heart that now of all times where we kind of needed them the most, they turned on us. Obviously, it’s not everyone and I know that, but it’s a big majority. I’ve seen people receive death threats and being called disgusting racial slurs and it’s not even just in the bts fandom but kpop stans as a whole. Even the situation with Weverse where all we wanted was our voices to be heard and let the boys see what we’re going through, people were still being mean and attacking us and reporting our posts. The boys literally told us to “speak ourselves” yet they wanted to silence us for whatever reason. This whole situation has been hurtful. And I see that the K-armys have recently trended a hashtag saying that they love black armys and it’s appreciated, but after everything I really don’t know how to feel.

That being said, as far as labeling myself as an “army” and being apart of this fandom, at this point in time I’m done. I really don’t see how things could ever be the same after this, and truthfully I’m trying to focus more on the fight that my people are going through rather than things Kpop related, but since the boys keep being dragged into this conversation, I just wanted to add my opinion. I love the boys dearly and will to continue to support them, including through my writing. I do intend to write more but this whole situation has been extremely overwhelming for me so it’ll most likely be very slow updates.

And honestly if you don’t like the things I said here, I don’t really care. I said wtf I said!

X

[esriteiatha]

Cyber-Bullying Protocol

The idea belongs to @doctorstark ! I just played with it! 

Justin Hammer gapped at the wall in front of him. His fingers grew white around the ancient landline phone that had been provided by the prison for his daily calls.

"Are you okay, Justin?" Connor's voice sounded confused in his ear.

Hammer let out a high-pitched whine. "Come again?"

Connor sighed, but as always, did what he asked for. "Stark and Rogers are officially together. There's been a press conference about it yesterday. The big announcement and all."

Justin let out another high-pitched sound.  A red cloud settled over his mind. How dare he! That uppish asshole! And with Captain America of all the people! That son of a bitch!

"Justin?" Connor tentatively asked.

"Get me a phone! A smartphone! With Internet!" he roared. He didn't care what the guards heard. The ones around him were all corrupt. He had made sure of that almost immediately.  "NOW!" he added just so Connor would understand the urgency of it all.

(ง’̀-‘́)ง

Tony Stark assessed the situation in front of him just like any other problem he has to deal with in his lab. So, indicators that something was wrong: Steve sitting on the living room's couch, posture horrible, shoulders slumped, head held low. The not really captain-ish looking Captain's hand held the phone that Tony had given him a few weeks ago. The potential source of the problem: that phone. Most likely, Steve had found the dark side of the Internet again... Maybe he should put a parental control onto the damn thing. Okay... So a solution...

"Hey, Honey! " he slipped next to the man on the couch. He rubbed his cheek against the soldier's shoulder. Steve loved that. Sure enough, the Captain chuckled softly and reached up a hand to ruffle Tony's hair.

"Why the long face?" Tony asked curiously, making sure that he had turned on his puppy dog eyes on full force. Steve loved those too.

Steve looked pinker than usual as he sat up straighter. Tony slipped off his shoulder and ended up on his lap. A quick turn on his part and he was looking upward.

"So?" he sing-songed.

"It's stupid." Steve shrugged and gave the phone a tell-tale glance.

"Elaborate!" Tony demanded.

"You know that site where we put our pictures up?" Steve started.

"Upload." Tony corrected automatically. "Instagram."

"That one." Steve nodded.

"So?" he asked when the Cap failed to continue.

"It's stupid!" Steve mumbled.

"It makes you sad. Out. With. It!"

"Someone is commenting all sort of awful things."

Tony shot upright and turned towards the other man with a hand held out in front of him.

"Gimme!"

Steve, the mature, responsible super-soldier tucked the phone behind his own back.

"It really is stupid!" he protested.

Tony rolled his eyes, pulled his own phone out and in no time he was surfing through the comments. And he found the offending ones.

"OMG! Look at these two old pigs"

"Gross!"

"Disgusting!"

"Attention whores!"

"Pathetic!"

"Stark's hair is awful! Why don't you shave it off???"

Every IG story they had posted in the last couple of weeks had an ugly, hurtful comment attached to it. And he won’t mention the attached hashtags. Those did take him to the darkest side of the Internet.  

Tony raised an unimpressed eyebrow. These were not new to him, he had lived the celebrity life since he had been born, but Steve was a big softy underneath all those muscles. Some of those probably hit too close to home for him.

He glanced at the username which belonged to the comments.

HammerTime.

"Seriously?" he gapped.

"Right? They are really mean." Steve mumbled.

Then to the soldier's surprise, Tony burst out laughing. He waved off Cap's concerned and also confused gestures towards him and addressed his AI.

"FRIDAY! Activate Cyber-Bullying Protocol!" he ordered.

"On it, Boss!"

"What are you doing?" Steve asked as he cocked his head to the side.

"I will answer injustice with justice!" He proclaimed loudly.

Steve groaned and rubbed his face.

"You watch way too much Game Of Thrones!"

"Huh! You understood the reference! I won!"

(ง’̀-‘́)ง

The next day the whole Internet was flooded with hundreds of really embarrassing videos, images, sound recordings of Justin Hammer.

In a cell, far away from the happy couple, a smartphone slammed against the wall and shattered into million pieces. The whole happening was accompanied by an outraged, high-pitched scream.  

@doctorstark

@ironfamjam

@sarcasticallyxsaltly

@metalbutter

[seeyacowboy]

Blood of a todoroki

Fem! Reader x dabi ou.

Tiny angst in this chapter. Little bit of loving.

Chapter 4-

Dabi’s pov

It took a lot of convincing to make y/n put out the blue flames and to not go on a rampage. I stayed with her the whole night waking up to her small frame snuggled into my chest and my arms wrapped around her. The burns moved to the nape of her neck all the way to her elbows. ‘I wish I never gave her my blood that day. I wish she wasn’t here right now getting involved with all this low life shit. God she deserves so much more than this life.’ Thinking to myself. Her voice interrupted my thoughts with a “can you stop staring at me,please? I mean I know I’m fine but damn.” Her eyes were still closed so I was caught off guard. I felt the need to immediately press her with questions just to tick her off.

“You can’t inactivate a quirk you already have? The fuck is that, kid?”

“Hey, we all have our flaws, ya know.”

“No really you could have fucking burnt the place down. It’s bad enough you and I look like bacon but you want to attract attention to the hide out too?”

She though hard for a response, I could see the wheels spinning.

Before she rolled over to her side looking away from me she sleepily mumbled out. “You’re right. It’s hard enough for you and everyone else around here to get a date why should I make it more difficult?”

“You’re real fucking funny ya know that?”

I said as I got off the bed and put my shirt back on making sure I look unamused as possible. Throughing a sweatshirt that was laying on the floor at her face telling y/n “get up we got shit to do”

“Five more minutes ,mom. Im having a really good dream.”

“Fuck five minutes. The names dabi. Did you suffer from memory loss too?”

“I don’t know what anything is, you’re just a voice in my head. Can you turn on the lights please it’s to dark in here.”

“Open your eyes then you asshat.” I huffed out a little chuckle because this chick is being RIDICULOUS. With that her eyes shot open but turned into my same unamused form just adding a little smile

“Much better” is all she said before doing a big stretch. I went to turn around to walk out the door, but she said something.

“Hey..”

“What?”

“Before you go could you possibly...rub some cream on these new burns? I really don’t want them to blister.”

I stayed quiet for a moment before I went into the bathroom to find some burn relief which she kept a lot of. When I came back out she was sitting out on the bed with her back facing me shirtless. I pretended like it didn’t effect me even though my eyes went over ever inch of her bare skin. Not because it was burned but because it still looked so soft and gorgeous. She is still gorgeous. I got down on my knees before the bed so we are the same height.

“I’m warning you this isn’t going to be fun.”

“I know.” Y/n whispered. I could sense that she was scared and putting herself into a vulnerable spot. Slowing putting the cream on her shoulder one after the other trying to concentrate through her wincing and slight twitching. I made long strokes down her arms making sure to cover ever inch.

It made me remember a time I had completely forgotten about.

‘ “touya, will you help me practice that tornado fire swirl thing you do? I really wanna get better at it.” She looked up at me with her big (y/e/c) eyes that her bangs just lightly reached. Humming to myself for a moment before I agreed, but when she turned around i saw the purple burn on her neck that was very similar to the one I had on my back. I grabbed her by the shoulder causing her to stop.

“What’s wrong, touya-kun?” A worried face looking into mine.

“My quirk is hurting you.”

“What are you talking about silly! No it’s not I just practiced to hard yesterday that’s all”

“Stop it, y/n. I don’t like when you lie.”

Her lip quivered before answering.

“Okay so maybe it does give me a little burn here and there. What does it matter it’s my best quirk.”

“Find a new one. I’m not practicing with you until you find a new and better one that doesn’t hurt you like this.”

“But touya I... love this quirk.. it’s my best one and I’m getting so good at it.”

I got in her face a little to close for her comfort.

“I do not care. It’s making you ugly.”

Her eyes immediately started to well up.

I turned around swiftly and headed toward my room. I was angry I made her cry and I was angry I couldn’t take my harsh words back. Before my hand reached my door I heard her soft voice say “ you know, touya, I’d love you no matter what scares.”

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t respond. I just ignored her and a week later that’s when I ran away.’

Losing myself in rubbing the ointment into her small arms I pressed myself against her back and wrapped my arms around her waist. Taking a deep breathe after feeling her tense up. “Do you still love me with my scars?” I whisper to let her know I was in my own head. She reply’s in seconds.

“I love you with all your scars. I never stopped loving you.”

I press a kiss to the side of her neck feeling her back fall into my chest relaxingly. Hearing a sigh fall from her lips I move my way down across her shoulder letting my hands wondering up her stomach. I lazily drag my finger tips under neath her breasts before her hands get on top of my and grab them roughly. Palming them at a good pace I bite the spot on between her shoulder and neck letting her moans be music to my ears all before there’s a bang on the door. A breathy “Yes” comes from y/n mouth.

“Come on love birds we have work to do.”

I rested my head against her shoulder and exhaled deeply. She turned around and hand my face between her hands kissing me. “Until next time” she promised.

We get ourselves all situated and head out toward the bar walking side by side.

Everyone is staring at us like we each have a third head.

“What are you all looking at.”

Everyone went about their business, besides Shigaraki. He struts his way over to y/n and looks at her in the eyes intensely.

“This better not compromise anything. Because if if you go down he’s going with you. If you die his dead too and vice versa. “I will prove to you that you have something to worry about. I’m a safe bet.” Her eyes never lingered and she stood her ground.

“Oh I know you’ll prove it to me” The shaggy gray haired man started pacing around her. Unknowingly my eyes were following his every moment to make sure he did not get to close.

“I’m giving you a undercover mission tonight and you’ll have to do it by yourself. All you’ll have is an ear piece.” He finished.

“Give me a time ,place and back-ground story. I’ll be there.”

“Hm. You’re awfully brave. I hope you stand this tall when you’re attending the hero and police ball tonight at the town hall.”

‘I knew I couldn’t give her back up even if I wanted to. She will be surrounded by 100 plus hero’s and they’d know my face clear as day. Especially if thoughts au brats are there. I can only watch from afar and help her escape if need be.’

“Well, you’d be right to pick me for this since I am connected to both sides of hero’s and villains. I’d be the last person they’d suspect.”

“Let’s hope that’s true.” Shigaraki smirked with evilness.

Authors notes: thank you to whoever reads this story/chapters. I do have the other chapters on my main blog @theliqourstoreclerk . I’ll be making sure to hashtag all the chapters under #bloodofatodoroki next chapter is going to be pretty interesting to say the least.

[assholemurphy]

The Poets Are Just Kids Who Didn’t Make It

Also on AO3

Stranger Things

Steve/Jonathan

Summary: Steve Harrington is an out of work actor who's just starting out and has agreed to let one of Nancy's friends photograph him for extra cash. Jonathan Byers is a broody, asocial photographer that just wants to finish he project. Steve isn't used to photo shoots and Jonathan isn't really used to people like Steve. But, Steve is hard to dislike, and Jonathan opens up to him about his reasons for his art and why he has to make it mean something. Steve thinks he's a little pretentious, but he's cute and honest, and really? Steve's a sucker for anyone that calls him beautiful.

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 7045

Warnings: Referenced Child Abuse, Reference Drug Use

Steve sat in the cab toying with his phone, double checking the address to make sure he had the right place. He did. He was over thirty minutes late and he didn’t think Jonathan would be pleased, but he wasn’t sure he was even going in. He knew nothing about the man waiting for him inside except his name and that he was a photographer and Steve was being paid a hundred bucks to let him photograph him for some project. He needed the money, sure, being an out of work actor wasn’t going to pay his bills. Rent was due in two days and the money from his last job was running thin, so he needed this, but staring up at the decaying building where Jonathan’s studio was made him feel a little bit nervous. What if he was some creep who was just trying to get him naked and then take advantage of him?

Granted, he had gotten a reference from his ex, who had apparently gotten her start modeling for this guy, so he doubted he was too much of a creep. ‘A bit asocial and shy, but otherwise nice’ had been the way Nancy had described him. So, he probably wasn’t some predator, and Steve had dealt with worse people who hadn’t come so highly recommended.

“You getting out? I’ve got other places to be, kid,” The cabbie spoke, gruff and tired, shaking Steve from his anxious thoughts. He was going in. He had to.

“Yeah, sorry.” Steve handed over a few bills and exited the cab, stretching as he looked up at the high rise. It looked like it had been built a couple centuries ago, but this district wasn’t that old, so it wasn’t ancient, just decrepit and crumbling. Not at all what he’d expected when Nancy had told him about the photographer that had launched her career. Apparently, he had connections and was somebody important here in LA, but if that was the case, why couldn’t he afford a better part of the city?

He took a deep breath and walked up to the front doors looked over the list of names above the speaker. There, fifth on the list, scrawled in fading felt pen, the label peeling ever so slightly from age, read ‘Jonathan Byers.’ That was the guy. He pressed the button and waited.

“Yeah?” A tired voice came from the speaker, crackling with static and slightly distorted.

“Uh, I’m Steve Harrington? I have an appointment with Jonathan Byers?” Steve answered.

There was no reply, but the door unlocked, so Steve assumed that meant he was supposed to go in. He took hold of the door’s handle and pulled, half afraid it would break off in his hand. It didn’t, and he entered the building. It was just as old and worn down on the inside as it was on the outside. The décor was dated at best and tacky at worst. The mailboxes looked antique and could have been considered pretty, in some odd way, but the metal was tarnished and two of the doors hung open on broken hinges. This was not the type of place Steve was used to going. Hell, he hadn’t even known places like this existed in LA. Even his apartment wasn’t this crappy, and it was the cheapest place he could find. Not that he was judging, okay, yeah, he was judging, but could he be blamed? This place was a wreck.

He shook his head as he passed the elevator, not really trusting it to carry him up four flights of stairs. He’d rather walk, even if it meant being a few minutes later than he already was. Aside from a newspaper and a few crumpled flyers, the stairs looked to be solid. It only took him a few minutes to climb them, and another two to find the right door. He let out a sigh and knocked, promising himself that if it looked shady, he’d make up an excuse to leave, even if it meant not getting paid.

“You’re late,” Jonathan greeted him as the door swung open. He stepped out of the way and ushered Steve through the doorway and into a room that didn’t quite fit the rest of the building. The walls were clean and white and covered with photographs and magazine articles that Steve assumed were about exhibits Jonathan had done. The room smelled of smoke and lavender incense, which was a nice change from the musty hallway. Camera equipment was scattered on top of a wooden table next to a half empty mug of coffee with a happy looking rainbow on it and a pack of cigarettes, lighter balanced on top. In one corner of the room there was a back drop, grey, plain, with a darker grey chair in front of it and a few lights positioned around it with a camera on a tripod in the middle. The room wasn’t very organized, but Steve figured it was more of an organized chaos than general messiness. Two over-stuffed, faded blue chairs were next to the table, but that was the only color in the room besides the mug. It wasn’t homey, but it was better than he had expected.

“Yeah, sorry. Traffic was a bitch.” Steve winced at how cliché that sounded. It wasn’t even a good lie. The truth was that he’d needed the full half hour to work himself up into even hailing a cab in the first place.

Jonathan only hummed in response and Steve doubted he cared enough to call him on the obvious lie.

Steve took a moment to take in the man before him. He was shorter than Steve, and his hair was fairly long and messy, but it framed his angular face quite nicely. Steve watched as he took a drag from his cigarette and blew the smoke out. He was attractive, Steve guessed, not what he’d expected, either. He wore a long sleeved black sweater, which Steve found odd, considering LA’s heat, but it fit his frame well. Dark wash jeans hung loosely around his waist, not purposefully loose, but more like they just didn’t quite fit right anymore. Steve frowned, wondering exactly how he could get away with dressing like that when the second Steve so much as forgot to wash his hair, somebody had a comment for him. It took him a second to realize he wasn’t the only one staring, but unlike his gaze, Jonathan’s was much more intense, looking at him like he wasn’t quite a person, but more a painting and he was deciding whether he’d look better above the mantel or in the hallway. It was a little unnerving, Steve was used to being looked at like he was an object, it came with the territory, but it didn’t feel like Jonathan meant to be rude, more like he just didn’t know how else to view him.

“Uh, so-”

“You can undress here or in the bathroom, whichever you’d prefer,” Jonathan told him, taking another drag.

Steve nodded and the nervousness was back. He wasn’t used to undressing in front of strangers. But, he’d agreed, and now he had to make good on that. “I’ll just- Uh, here’s fine, I guess.”

Jonathan looked him over once more before putting out his cigarette in an ash tray and starting towards his camera. He paid no attention to Steve as he began to fiddle with it. Steve figured that was his way of trying to give Steve some semblance of privacy.

Steve bit his lip, deciding once and for all that he was going to do this, and pulled his shirt over his head. He wasn’t sure where to put it, so he threw it over the arm of one of the chairs and kicked off his shoes, tucking his socks inside and unbuttoning his pants. He pulled them off and laid them with his shirt. He hesitated a second before ridding himself of his boxers, deciding that, well, Jonathan probably saw a lot of naked people, so he most likely wasn’t going to be a creep about it, nor was he likely to judge him too harshly, not as harshly as some of his lovers in high school had, anyway, so there was no point in being shy about it.

He was thankful that the room wasn’t cold like the last one was when he’d filmed his last unclothed scene. That had been quite uncomfortable and he’d been sure the whole time that he was going to catch a cold.

“Where do you, uh, where should I stand?” Steve asked, absentmindedly rubbing his arm. Shy, no, but still nervous. It wasn’t everyday he stood completely naked in front of an attractive man, especially one who was so focused on anything but him.

Jonathan looked up from the camera and suddenly Steve found himself on the receiving end of one of the most intense looks he’d ever gotten. Jonathan wasn’t appraising him this time, no, this time he was flat out staring. Well, Steve could work with that. Just a deep breath and turn on the charm, that always worked.

Steve smirked, “I know, I look good, right?”

“Don’t. Nancy said you’d do that. Don’t,” Jonathan stopped him in his tracks.

“Do what?” Had he done something wrong? He didn’t think so, but maybe Byers had a different opinion.

“That thing where you get nervous and act cocky because of it. You don’t have to impress me. I’m not here for your personality.”

“You just like me for my body,” Steve teased, not dropping the act. It was what he did when he got nervous, it was his way of controlling the situation.

Jonathan pursed his lips and looked like he was about to say something but thought better of it and simply pointed to the gray chair. “Sit.”

Steve wondered if he’d done something to piss Jonathan off, and before he could think better of it, he asked, “You mad at me or something?”

“I just don’t like fake people,” Jonathan shrugged.

Steve scoffed, offended, “I’m anything but fake.” He made his way over to the chair and dropped down into it, drawing up in on himself. He didn’t know what Byers’s problem was, but he could get over himself and his hashtag deep nonsense.

“You’re putting on a front because you feel like you aren’t in control of the situation. It’s fake confidence and it’s annoying. I didn’t ask you here because I wanted you to force yourself to flirt with me. And if it helps, you are in control of the situation. You tell me to stop, I stop. You want it to be over, it’s over. I’m not going to do anything you aren’t okay with, alright? I don’t know what Nancy has told you about me, but that’s not how I work,” Jonathan told him, frowning. He didn’t mind nervous, everyone seemed to get nervous when they were naked, but it just bugged him that Steve was pretending to flirt with him. He didn’t need that. Yes, Steve was pretty, and not just from an artistic standpoint, but he didn’t like the idea of Steve putting on an act for him. It wasn’t necessary, and, frankly, it was annoying.

“Alright.” Steve had to admit, it did make him feel better knowing that he was more in control of the situation than he’d thought. “And I’m not pretending.”

“You’re pretending to be some cocky little-”

“Well, yeah, but I’m not pretending to flirt with you.” As soon as he said it, he regretted it. Did he really just come on to Jonathan? After all his worry that Jonathan would come on to him? Way to be a hypocrite. That being said, of course, that was before he’d met him when he was still imagining a forty-year-old blading guy in sweatpants.

Jonathan wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but he felt his cheeks get hot. Well, that wasn’t what he’d expected from this encounter. He was pleasantly surprised, but it was a distraction and he didn’t have time for that. “Whatever, just, don’t sit like that.”

“How do you want me to sit?” Steve asked, not really sure how else to sit that wouldn’t put the spotlight on the fact that he was, well, naked.

“Normally. Just relax, okay.”

Steve shifted, trying to ignore the fact that he was naked and just sit like usual. It didn’t work and he sighed in frustration before trying again, knowing that no matter how he sat, he was still on display. Or maybe he should work with that. He was naked, that wasn’t going to change, but maybe he should stop trying to pretend he wasn’t and just-

“For fuck’s sake, it’s not a porn shoot, Harrington!” Jonathan snapped, frustrated.

“Well, what do you want me to do?”

“Sit naturally, like you would at home.”

“Oh, yeah, because I sit around my house naked all the time,” Steve snarked. This was awkward enough without Jonathan’s help.

Jonathan pinched the bridge of his noise, annoyed. This was usually easier. Usually, he had people who had already done a few photoshoots who knew what the fuck to do, but no, he couldn’t go with someone with experience, he just had to do what Nancy asked and help her friend. Her really hot friend who was obviously clueless about everything. “Here, just let me- I’ll show you, okay?”

“Fine.”

Jonathan made his way over to Steve before stopping and looking a little pained, “I’m going to touch you, okay? Is that alright?”

“Go for it.” Under normal circumstances, having a cute guy touch him while he was naked would be cause for celebration, but Jonathan looked so awkward about it that Steve doubted it would be much fun for either of them.

Jonathan nodded before placing his hand on Steve’s shoulder and gently shoving him back into the chair. “Turn so your back is against the arm of the chair.”

Steve did as instructed, letting Jonathan move him into place.

“Good. Now put you leg up. No, the other one. Yeah, like that. And your hand here.” Jonathan moved Steve’s hand to his lap and let it drop, not wanting to be inappropriate. “The point is to show the human body as a work of art, you know? But nobody’s gonna want to look at it artistically if all they see is your dick.”

“Fair enough,” Steve accepted it and covered himself as instructed. “Now what?”

“Now don’t look directly at the camera,” Jonathan instructed, walking back over to his place behind the camera.

“Where do I look?”

“Just anywhere but directly at the camera,” Jonathan told him with a shrug.

“Can I look at you?”

“Am I behind the camera?”

“Yeah?”

“Then no.”

Steve rolled his eyes but scanned the room, looking for anything interesting enough to stare at. He finally settled on a few pictures on the wall across from him. He couldn’t quite make out what they were, but they looked like buildings. Well, at least he knew Jonathan took photos of more than just naked people.

The camera clicked a few times before Jonathan came back to help him adjust his position once more before taking a few other photos. It felt like it took forever to Steve, who was doing his best to keep still and the effort clearly showed on his face.

“You can move, you know. You’re not a statue and I’m not going to yell at you if you move a bit. Just don’t start flailing about and you’ll be fine. The world won’t end if you move your arm a few inches,” Jonathan chuckled.

Steve smiled. He liked Jonathan’s laugh. It was honest and quiet. It struck him that, while Nancy had seemingly told Jonathan all about him, he knew very little about Jonathan. “So, uh, why’d you get into photography?”

“Hm?” Jonathan looked up and shrugged. “There’s so many moments that should be preserved. Life moves on and forgets them seconds after they happen. Sometimes things are worth immortalizing.”

“Like naked people.”

“No, like buildings falling down or broken things that look so surreal, so imperfect for just a moment until someone fixes them and the world goes back to turning without even noticing it was ever anything less than perfect. Those things.”

“So, broken things and collapsed buildings.”

“Chaos and ruin, society’s biggest flaws laid bare for any that care to look hard enough.”

“That’s deep,” Steve snorted.

“Shut up.”

“So, you like ruin.”

“I do.”

“Is that why you chose this building? Because in all honestly, it should probably be condemned,” Steve said, letting Jonathan adjust him once more.

“Probably. And yeah, it was a good place to shoot when I don’t feel like going anywhere, there’s plenty of things to photograph here. Like the water stains on the sixth floor, or the broken mailboxes, or the broken window in the lobby that should have been fixed months ago but somehow isn’t in the budget.”

“So, flaws.”

“Yeah, flaws. I like them. People think they’re inherently bad, but they’re not. They’re what make things different, special. I find meaning in things like that. Some kind of proof that things aren’t as perfect as we want to pretend they are.”

“You could find meaning in a crack in the sidewalk.”

“I actually have several photos of various cracks in the sidewalk,” Jonathan told him. “Alright, on last one and then we’re done.”

“Of course you do,” Steve laughed. He didn’t know much about him, but that seemed very true to character. “So, I take it you like photographing people because of their flaws?”

“Yeah. Especially ones they try to hide, features they don’t like, scars they wish they had better stories for, things like that.”

“Things people don’t like. Like scars. And freckles?” Steve asked, looing up at Jonathan, slightly vulnerable. He’d gotten used to having them, they were easily hid beneath his clothing, but when he was younger he refused to even go swimming without a shirt. They’d been something different, something to be teased about, so he’d learned to hide them. Now, he didn’t really care. They were there, he didn’t like them, but they were there and he’d almost embraced them. There was no way to remove them without extensive treatment, anyway. But if Jonathan thought they were worth photographing, maybe they weren’t so bad.

“I like your freckles,” Jonathan smiled at him, raising a hand and tracing a path between a couple of them on Steve’s shoulder. “Makes you special, unique. Anything but perfect.”

Steve’s mouth went dry. He’d never felt so complemented by being called imperfect. And Jonathan’s hands were so gentle, so steady, and they had been the whole time. Every time he touched him Steve was struck by that, and every time he touched him, Steve wanted to tell him to never stop. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. They’re beautiful. You’re beautiful,” Jonathan said, his voice low. He let his hand trail across Steve’s skin to his neck. This wasn’t the first time he’d been attracted to one of his muses, but it was the first time he’d ever acted on it. Swallowing hard, Jonathan asked, “Can I?”

Steve wasn’t too sure what he was asking, but in that moment he would have let Jonathan do anything he wanted. “Yeah.”

Jonathan leaned down, cupping Steve’s face in his hand, and pressed his lips against Steve’s for a moment before pulling back and straightening up. Steve stood with him, fully aware that Jonathan would have to adjust him again, but dammit, that was not enough.

He let out a small laugh, “That’s not how you kiss someone, Byers.”

Jonathan raised an eyebrow at him, but smiled when he felt Steve’s hand on the back of his neck, pulling him in for another, much longer kiss. Steve’s lips moved against his and Jonathan found himself kissing back with just as much force, his free hand finding Steve’s waist and pulling him close. Steve bit at Jonathan’s lower lip and Jonathan obliged. Steve licked into his mouth, his hand tangling in Jonathan’s hair and pulling gently. Jonathan finally broke the kiss after a few moments, pulling back and taking a deep breath.

“That’s a kiss,” Steve informed him, smirking at him. This time the confidence wasn’t fake. He felt completely comfortable with Jonathan, despite his state of undress, and given the opportunity, he’d do his best to get Jonathan unclothed, as well.

Jonathan just smiled at him for a moment before gently shoving him back down into the chair. “Sit. One more, then we’re done.”

“And then what?”

“You could leave? Or we could, I don’t know? What do you want?” Jonathan wasn’t used to people staying, he wasn’t sure what he could offer Steve, but whatever he asked for, Jonathan was willing to provide it. Well, almost. “I’m not going to fuck you, though. I like to keep my professional life and my private life separate.”

“That’s disappointing.” But fair. “Any chance I could be part of that private life?”

Jonathan was taken aback. He hadn’t expected Steve to allow him to kiss him, let alone want anything more to do with him. He was pleased, though, as Steve was everything Nancy had said he was. He was a little concerned about dating one of her exes, especially when he, himself, was one of her exes, but somehow he doubted that would be a problem for them.

“I have no objection to it,” he shrugged, stepping back into place behind the camera. “This time you can look at me, if you want. It’d be better for the shot.”

Steve did as he was told, looking up at Jonathan and asking, “Can I still stay, though?”

“Sure?” Why would he want that? “What would we do?”

“You could show me your photos and tell me about them. They look interesting. And, if I’m going to be part of your private life, I should probably get to know you, right?”

“Right, sure.” Whatever you want. “Now, shut up so I can take your picture, alright?”

Steve snorted but did as instructed, waiting until Jonathan looked up from the camera to speak again, “So, why photography? Why do you do it, aside from because you like taking pretty pictures of broken things? What do you get out of it?”

“Why acting? What do you get out of it?” Jonathan countered, removing the SD card from the camera and pocketing it. “We’re done.”

“That was fun. And I chose acting because I like to pretend I’m someone else.” Someone better, someone more confident, cooler, smarter, just better. He’d been a very self-conscious kid, but the second he’d stepped on stage for his second grade school play, he’d felt like he could do anything. It was like coming home. Like he’d finally found a place where he could fit, and if it ever stopped fitting, he could just become someone else. Sports were nice, too, his father had pushed him into those, but theatre had been where his heart was. He’d never forget the fight he’d had with his old man when he found out he was doing theatre. Their relationship had been failing for years, but that had been what really broke it. “It just felt right. On stage, I wasn’t me. I was whatever the script said I was, I didn’t have to worry about my problems or my shitty parents or the fact that I was failing English. It was just an escape, I guess, and I got addicted to the feeling of being someone other than myself for a few minutes.”

“Escapism. Understandable.”

“Your turn,” Steve told him, heading towards his clothes.

“I do it because I need an outlet. I need something to make sense of things. I find flaws and I highlight them and I make them look beautiful, and I guess, in doing that, I figure that if those flaws are beautiful, maybe my own are. And I mean, it gives purpose to the pain, so, there’s that.” Jonathan wasn’t used to talking about his reasons for doing what he did. Sure, he had them, but to put them into words that didn’t sound cheesy or overly emo was a feat. He did it because he needed to. He needed to make art to make himself happy, to keep himself sane. If he didn’t, then he had no purpose, and therefore, neither did all the pain he’d gone through to get where he was today.

Jonathan went towards the kitchenette, hidden behind the back drop to retrieve some of his work. If it wasn’t on the walls, it was in an album or a box, but he figured Steve had had enough nakedness for one day, so he went with the box instead of his current project. Maybe he’d show the full finished project to Steve after he got his photos printed. If he stuck around that long, but Jonathan hoped he would. “These are just random shots that don’t have a particular project attached to them, but you’re welcome to look through them. I’m not sure what all of them are, I just printed them and tossed them in here, so my apologies if you find something horrible.”

Steve, fully dressed and sitting down in the chair, reached up for the box, happily taking it and setting it on the table in front of him. “And you took all of these?”

“Every one of them,” Jonathan nodded, taking a seat. “Some are from abandoned projects, some were just opportunistic, I think there might even be a few family photos in there from the last time I went home, too, but those are boring.”

“I don’t think so. I don’t have any family photos. I left them all at home when I left. Not that there’s any particular sentimental attachment to any of them, they’re just stiff posed photos where we pretended to like each other long enough for the photographer to snap a photo.” Steve was well past caring about his family. He’d learned a long time ago that trying to make sense of what went wrong would only end up hurting him more. It wasn’t his fault, but that didn’t make it sting any less.

“That sucks.” Jonathan wasn’t sure what else to say. He knew what it was like to have a shitty relationship with a parent, but he had his mother, at least, he couldn’t imagine what it would have been like without her.

Steve just shrugged and picked up a photo. A black and white image of a broken clock, the glass cracked and scuffed like it had fallen on the ground. “You weren’t kidding about liking broken things.”

“Broken things are interesting, especially when they still function. It’s like a testament to what we can withstand and still pull through. We might not work the way we should, but we work, and really, that’s all that can be asked of us.”

“You’re really into this deep, emo artist thing, aren’t you?” Steve asked, teasing. He found Jonathan to be a little pretentious, but not in a bad way. He didn’t seem to be saying the things he said because he thought he was somehow better for thinking them, but rather because he truly believed them. He was open, honest, even at the risk of being mocked. It was like he didn’t really care what Steve thought, didn’t care if he judged him. He was at peace with himself, knew who he was and wasn’t ashamed of it, and Steve was a little envious.

Jonathan snorted and shook his head, “If that’s what you want to call it.”

“It is what I want to call it. Oh, my god, I’m dating an emo kid,” Steve laughed at the thought. It was like high school all over again. He was getting flashbacks of self-dyed black hair and way too much eyeliner. He could just imagine Jonathan wearing all black and listening to My Chemical Romance on repeat whilst writing angsty poetry.

“Dating? You’re dating me?” Jonathan raised an eyebrow, not objecting to the thought. He hadn’t really thought about it, but he wasn’t adverse to the idea. Dating Steve might be fun. He was certainly unique, not just physically, but personality-wise. Jonathan couldn’t remember the last time he’d had such an honest and revealing conversation with a total stranger, but Steve made him feel comfortable, like he wasn’t going to judge him for anything. Steve was certainly odd, but Jonathan liked that.

“Well, I mean-” Steve blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, “If you’ll have me?”

Jonathan smiled at him, “Sure. Who wouldn’t want you?”

“You’d be surprised,” Steve told him.

Jonathan shook his head, Steve seemed to have some self-worth issues, but that was alright. Jonathan wasn’t exactly the most confident person, either. “I took that one my senior year of college. Someone threw a rock through the cafeteria window and instead of shattering, it broke in this spiral of cracks, like safety glass but sharper.”

“What? Oh,” Steve looked down at the photo in his hand. “Is everything you take in black and white?”

“I use color when the occasion calls for it, but I find most things look better in grayscale. It highlights the lines, the abstract beauty of it.”

“You really are an artist, aren’t you?” Steve didn’t meet too many artists outside of actors, but he had to admit, he liked their viewpoints.

“Art is everything to me. Without it I probably wouldn’t be here right now,” Jonathan admitted. “It sounds cliché, I know, but it’s true. Without an outlet, without a way to make sense of all the suffering, I don’t think I would have made it through college, let alone this far.”

“And the suffering has to make sense, right? It’s got to have a purpose?” Steve asked. Obviously, Jonathan had been through some shit. Steve understood that. He couldn’t say he had the easiest of times getting to where he was right now. He couldn’t imagine who he’d have become without theatre giving him a way to express himself. He probably would have ended up like his dad. Working a job he hated, married to a woman he didn’t love because she ended up pregnant with a son he didn’t want. No, Steve couldn’t live like that.

“That’s what art is. Giving purpose to the suffering. What’s the point of it if it doesn’t make us better? Better people, better artists,” Jonathan told him, feeling more open and vulnerable than he had in years. This was why he was on the other side of the camera. He didn’t like to be splayed out and picked apart like someone was trying to make sense of him.

“Maybe it doesn’t have a purpose, though. Maybe it just hurts,” Steve shrugged, picking up another photo and looking at it like he was trying to find some hidden meaning in it. Really he just wanted an excuse to pry into Jonathan a little bit more. He wanted to ask him about his past, but he figured that was best left to another time, after they’d gotten to know some of the smaller stuff first. You couldn’t just dive first into childhood trauma, you had to learn things like how they took their coffee and what radio station they liked best first.

Jonathan was quiet for a moment before responding, “If it doesn’t have a purpose, then it’s just pain. Pointless, senseless pain. Like the universe just decided one day that ‘Hey, I’m going to fuck up this person forever for no apparent reason.’ How do you heal from that?”

“And that’s supposed to help you heal? That’s what this is?” He asked, raising his eyebrows. If this was Jonathan healing, he’d hate to have seen him before. He didn’t exactly scream mentally stable or put together now. Not that that was a problem, Steve couldn’t judge. He didn’t have the healthiest of coping mechanisms, himself.

Jonathan nodded. He’d tried a lot of things to make himself feel better. Drinking, drugs, running away. None of it had worked quite like this did. It was his way of making sense of a senseless thing. It helped. It didn’t make his past go away, it didn’t change all the shitty life choices he’d made, but it made them bearable. “This is me giving purpose to the pain, giving it an outlet. This is me healing, slowly, sure, but healing.”

“That makes sense,” Steve said, looking at another photograph. He wasn’t sure what this one was supposed to be. It looked like a bunch of bruises, but it was so close up he couldn’t tell. It was one of the few that were in color, though, so it caught his attention when he’d seen it.

“That one’s from a fight I got into about three years ago with Lonnie. He showed up at my mom’s house and wanted a second chance. It didn’t take long to see he hadn’t changed, and when he started in on Will for dating a boy, I lost it. Took Hopper and two other cops to separate us. Wasn’t a good night, honestly.” It had been the last time he’d seen Lonnie. As far as he knew, he hadn’t come around much after that. Jonathan didn’t like to fight, but after years of having to defend himself against Lonnie, he’d gotten pretty good at it. He knew it would have been easy to give into the anger that burned underneath everything, but he didn’t want to turn out like his father, so he avoided violence as best he could.

“Looks painful,” was all Steve could think to say.

Jonathan just shrugged. He wasn’t trying to be a tough guy, but after fourteen years of living with Lonnie, pain had kind of lost its edge. He reached over to rifle through the photos, looking for a couple he knew were in there. “But that’s the past. I think there are a few happier ones in there. Some stuff from a shoot I did back home. It’s a small town, but it’s got this aesthetic, like it’s stuck in a time loop and it’s forever the eighties. It’s quaint.”

Steve watched as Jonathan pulled a photo from the box and handed it to him. “That’s Will, my brother, and Mike, his husband on their first anniversary last year. They’re in front of the town’s theatre. I swear, it’s never shown anything more recent than Grease.”

Steve smiled at the photo. The couple looked happy and the town charming, if not a bit strange. “So, you can take happy photos.”

“Yeah, sometimes. It might not seem like it, but this does make me happy. It’s easy to get all brooding and dark about it, and the eighth grader in me loves to do just that, but I am happy. Most of the time.” He’d spent a good chunk of his life thinking it would never get any better, that he’d be stuck in a life he hated with no way out and that no matter what he did, he’d never feel that way, but he’d been wrong. It had taken a long time to get where he was, but once he’d finally made it, he wasn’t about to give it up for anything.

“Acting does that for me. I might not get a lot of work right now, but when I do, I’ve never felt so at home in the world. My dad wanted me to be a business man, and I was going to do that, up until my second year of college when I took intro to theatre and realized that I was about to waste my life doing something I never wanted just to please someone who was never going to be proud of me, anyway. So, I changed my major and didn’t look back and-” And while he wasn’t quite as happy as Jonathan seemed, he was getting there. It would take some time to stop living in the shadow of who he was expected to be, but eventually he’d learn to stop hating himself for what he wasn’t. “But, anyway.”

“You should try talking to Benny. He got me my first exhibit here. If he thinks you’re worth it, he’ll help you get where you want to be. I’ll give his number, call him, tell him I recommended you. He’s got a new project he’s working on and he needs a few actors for it. I don’t know how talented you are, but if he likes you, then he’ll probably hire you. I know a lot of people that got their real start through Benny.” Benny had saved Jonathan’s life, quite literally, when he’d showed up to his agency drugged out and on his way to burning out, fast. He’d stuck with him, got him cleaned up, gave him a chance to actually do something with his art. If anyone could help Steve get ahead, it was Benny.

“Let me just-” Steve dug in his pocket for his phone, handing it over to Jonathan. “Here.”

Jonathan took the phone and unlocked it, it didn’t take him too long to figure it out enough to add Benny’s number to it. He paused, “Do you, uh, do you want mine, too?”

Steve smiled and nodded, “That’d be nice, yeah. I can text you terrible lines from the scripts I’m reading. Film students are comedy gold, if they’d just learn not to take themselves so damn seriously.”

“Sounds good. I could use more comedy.” Jonathan entered his number and handed his phone back to him. “You’ve got a few messages, by the way. I wasn’t snooping, but they looked pretty frantic, but it’s like, half emojis, so I can’t tell.”

Steve snorted, “That’s probably Dustin. He writes in hieroglyphics and calls it self expression.” Steve took a moment to look at the messages, noting that, yes, Dustin did seem frantic, and that the photo of their stove on fire was probably a bad thing, but it was the photo of the fire truck outside their apartment that had the most impact, it was dated ten minutes ago. “Shit. I’ve got to go. Dustin tried to burn down our apartment again. He’s a great cook, but it doesn’t take much to distract him.

“That sounds daunting.” Jonathan stood as Steve did, unsure what to do now that he was leaving. They’d spent at least four hours together, with the shoot and talking, but Jonathan didn’t regret it like he usually did after spending a long time with people. He hadn’t felt this comfortable with someone since Nancy and it was nice to open up to someone who wasn’t going to judge him. He really hoped their relationship went somewhere, because Steve felt safe, and it had been a long time since Jonathan had felt safe with anyone.

“It happens like, once a week, honestly. I’ve just got to go, my name’s on the lease, so I’ve got to be the one to explain it to the landlord. I’ll uh, see you soon?” Steve asked, hesitantly.

“Yeah. Text me. We’ll meet up, get dinner or something. Actually, there’s a theatre not too far from here that shows a bunch of classics, maybe we could go? If you’re into that, you know.” Great Byers, you don’t flinch when seeing him naked, but now you get nervous? Way to go, champ, this is why you don’t have friends.

“That sounds great, actually. Maybe like, Sunday? Get lunch and then catch a movie?”

“Yeah. I generally spend Sundays walking around town and taking photographs, but I mean, I guess I could just photograph you?” Was that the best attempt at flirting he had? It was pathetic. Honestly, it was no wonder he hadn’t had a real date in seven months. Picking up random people at his exhibits didn’t count, because they were already interested in him, but it was rare he was actually interested in someone back.

“Don’t you have enough photos of me?” Steve asked, walking towards the door.

“No, not really. Most of them are of the same shot, just from different angles, and they’re all staged.” Jonathan shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe you could be my next muse.”

“Your muse? High praise,” Steve smirked, opening the door. “Does it come with perks?”

“Not really. It just means that I’ll be taking too many pictures and writing sappy poetry about you. Nothing too fantastic.”

“You write?” Well, looks like he’d been right about the angsty poetry bit.

“A little bit. I’m not like, good at it, but I do sometimes.”

“You’ll have to show me sometime. I’d like to read it.”

“I’m serious, it sucks, but, sure.” Jonathan didn’t generally show his writing to anyone. Nancy, Benny, and Will were the only ones he ever really shared it with.

Steve just smiled and stared down at Jonathan for a moment, waiting for him to make a move. But after a few seconds it became painfully obvious that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. He seemed to be a little socially inept, but Steve thought it was cute. “This is the part where you kiss me goodbye, Byers.”

Jonathan swallowed hard, “Right. Of course. Sorry, it’s been a while.”

“I can tell,” Steve laughed, not mocking him. He placed a hand on Jonathan’s chin and tilted his face up to him, leaning down and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He felt Jonathan smile into it. The kiss only lasted a few seconds but Jonathan’s cheeks were burning by the time it was over. “You’re pretty when you blush.”

“Shut up,” Jonathan mumbled, shooing Steve out the door. He heard Steve laugh as he closed it, resting his back against it and trying to no avail to stop the blush from spreading. He wasn’t used to attractive people liking him back. He wasn’t used to anyone liking him back. Nancy had been right, he did like this one. He was going to do his best to keep him as long as possible. He’d have to buy her flowers or something as a thank you for sending Steve his way.

[dazzlinglux]

Let it Snow → Delux

Who: @dazzlinglux and @deliajubilee

When: Sometime during Winter break 

Where: The Winter Woods

What: Lux notices something up with DJ and in his quest to find out what’s wrong, they get snowed in!

Lux was feeling a little drained. The Winter Woods were nice when he wanted to fly around and dodge snowballs with Ember for a few hours, but with this snowstorm, there was no sun out, and therefor, no light. So Lux's powers were weak, and when his powers were weak, so was he. He'd been waiting for DJ to come back and join him before crossing back over to Pixie Hollow, lying on a tree branch keeping his wings warm before he saw her zip past him with ridiculous speed and force, toward the home tree. He'd never been in the Winter Woods' home tree, so following her felt like some sort of invasion of privacy, but he couldn't just sit back and wonder what had her so angry....or sad....or whatever. Lux followed, calling out for her, but she ignored him. He flew faster, trying to catch up, until they were neck-and-neck and both zoomed through the front door at the same time. Their bodies both hit the back wall of her house, shaking the branch just slightly, but enough to where a large pile of snow fell from the branch just above it, and landed in front of the door. Lux jimmied the doorknob and tried to push against it, but just as he'd feared, they were stuck. "Okay, so that's definitely your fault," he was quick to accuse, suddenly feeling a sort of anxiety about being literally trapped in the Winter Woods for however much longer. 

Delia J had been really trying her best to maintain some degree of chill when dealing with her sister during the holidays. After all, it wasn't like Dagny had SET OUT to sleep with the guy Delia J had been crushing on for practically ever. Especially since the only people DJ ever even told about the crush were her best friends. But that still didn't help the deep feeling of rage and betrayal she felt every time she so much as glanced at the other girl, and since Dj wasn't even a little skilled at not giving away exactly how she felt at any given time, she'd practically been a ticking time bomb as she and Dagny spent time with their father as he made his rounds around the winter woods. It only took one direct question from Dagny about something innocuous like pine cones for Delia J to blow up and dramatically take off flying for home. In her little self centered bubble of rage she'd barely even noticed, or even really processed that Lux had followed her at some point until they were both hitting the back wall. Kicking hard at the door, Delia J glared up at Lux through red tear filled eyes and put her hands on her hips. "How is it definitely my fault? I'm not heavy enough to knock snow down like what, it was you just as much, if not more than me. Where'd you even come from anyway? No one asked you to be here." 

Lux scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly, as if she wasn’t totally right. He hated that she usually was. “Well if you hadn’t been flying like a madwoman, I wouldn’t have followed you!” he retorted, before giving a sigh at her question. “I came over here with Ember and she went home and I knew you were over here, so I decided to wait til you crossed over to go back,” he shrugged, as if that’s what anyone would say when asked that question. He really looked at her then, catching a glimpse of her red-rimmed eyes, and furrowed his brow. “What happened? What were you flying away from?” he asked, his tone going slightly more tender than anticipated. 

Delia J rolled her eyes and scoffed right back. "Did you even think to consider that I might have been flying like a madwoman because fast flying is my literal talent?" She asked, raising an eyebrow when he said that he was waiting for her to go back to the warm side of pixie hollow. "That was completely unnecessary, I was just with my sister. Dagny doesn't care about who I'm pretending to date." She tripped slightly over her sisters name as she remembered exactly what she'd been flying from. Rubbing her eyes as if it would help at all with the redness or the tears that were still welling up in them, DJ turned back to the door and fruitlessly began kicking it again in an attempt to escape. "None of your business. I came here to be by myself, not to talk to you about it. " 

Lux mirrored her eyeroll, crossing his arms over his chest. "I know y--" He hesitated to say that he knew her well enough to know that she had to have been running from something. He could just tell. "I know you weren't just flying to fly, okay?" Lux furrowed his brow, a little taken aback that she thought his gesture was part of their 'fake dating' thing. "Okay, I know Dagny doesn't care -- I was waiting for you cause you're my friend, I guess," he shrugged. He'd be lying if he said that he hadn't grown slightly fond of DJ in this time that they'd been 'dating'. She was cool, and feisty, and he enjoyed their downtime together almost as much as he enjoyed bickering with her. He watched her rub at her eyes some more, and continue to deflect. "Well, unless someone comes over here with like five shovels, you're stuck with me. You might as well talk to me about it." 

Delia J couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in mild surprise at Lux saying that they were friends, even though she'd made a couple of pals in Lyssa and Clementine, after years of only having Alicia and Kale as her friends, she couldn't get over the suprise of anyone else calling her their friend. "Oh...Well you still didn't need to follow me" She huffed, kicking hard at the door one last time before finally walking away from it. Delia paused to think about whether or not she wanted to tell Lux about what happened, and after about half a second realized that he'd probably get what made her so upset more than anyone else she knew. Sniffling once and shoving her hands into her pockets, DJ turned to face Lux. "Well okay...remember when Sage had sex with some guy out of nowhere in the middle of homecoming? Well, my sister apparently slept with the boy I've been crushing on pretty much forever...on my birthday." 

Lux gave a soft laugh at the girl's way of handling this situation by kicking at the door, letting her get the last word in before she let him in on why she was flying away so emotionally. Lux sat on the floor, wrapping his arms around his knees, feeling constricted in his winter coat, but hey -- if he didn't want his wings to freeze off, this was what he had to deal with. She started off by relating what was eating her to his disastrous homecoming experience, at first confusing him even more, but then when she elaborated, his jaw dropped. "Oh." Lux said aloud, scooting over to make room for her to sit next to him if she so pleased. "I'm -- that's -- that sucks like, ten times worse than what happened to me at homecoming, I'm sorry," he shook his head, still in disbelief that Dagny would do something like that to her. "Wait -- does she know that you like him? Cause if so, that's fucked-up times twenty and she is officially #NotMyPrincess," he proclaimed, even pronouncing the 'hashtag' for emphasis. 

Delia J watched Lux scoot over to make room for her to sit, but remained standing in order to look for a way to heat the room up so that she and Lux wouldn't be stuck waiting all confined their coats. "It's fine. She didn't know. He's older than me, so I never really feel the need to talk about it with her. So she can still be your hashtag princess." Delia J shrugged half heartedly, before giving up and sitting down next to Lux. "It's just super hard to deal with her right now when I'm so upset about something that I can't ever blame her for doing. Apparently he's been sleeping on her couch and that's a way too romantic a set up to resist not hooking up." 

Lux grimaced. Still, even if DJ had no shot with the guy, she must have been feeling like shit about this. "Well, either way, that's shitty, and even shittier that it happened on your birthday -- who gets laid on their little sister's birthday?" He gagged just thinking of spending Ember's birthday boning someone. What a weird thing to be thinking about at a time like that. But, he supposed, that whole party was just wild. When she sat next to him, Lux couldn't help but laugh at her claim. "Oh, yeah, bumming on someone's couch is so hot," he said sarcastically, "Whoever he is, he sounds like the sexiest hobo around." Lux smirked, hoping his jokes at her lame crush's expense would help the situation somehow. 

Delia J laughed in spite of herself at Lux's reaction to Dagny having sex on her birthday. "I know right? But Dagny and M-the guy I like apparently do." DJ said, shrugging and focusing her attention on retying the laces of her boot. "Not the bumming on the couch part really. But being in such close contact with someone as nice and attractive as he is everyday? Hobo-ish or not, it makes a lot of sense why it happened. " 

Lux scrunched his nose. "What a way to celebrate your life. Through one of life's simplest pleasures," he joked, noticing DJ start to get a little more comfortable with herself in this situation. It must have still sucked, but at least she was laughing. He gave a shrug, continuing to hug his knees as he watched Delia J retie her shoelaces. "Proximity attraction doesn't count as real attraction," he thought aloud, offering his two cents though she didn't ask for them. "Well, my piece of advice -- since I've been through this kind of -- is that it sucks for a while, and then you find other, better things to be concerned about." He shrugged, leaning his back against the wall as he remembered how it felt getting smacked in the face by reality at homecoming. He hated that DJ had to feel the same way, but if she was anything like him (resilient and stubborn, which he knew she was), she'd channel all of these emotions into something worth caring about. For example, he delved into preserving his reputation. 

Delia J finished tying her shoes and dug her hands around in the pockets of her jacket for any kind of distraction to focus on while they were trapped there. "I'm aware. It just makes it a little worse that she tainted my birthday with something that wasn't even slightly real. " She muttered quietly, moving her hands into the pockets of her pants instead of her coat. "What other better things do you have to be concered about now?" 

Lux scrunched up his nose. "I mean, it's only tainted in retrospect! You had a nice time on the day, right?" he asked. They'd practically been glued to each other's sides at that party, so maybe she hadn't had a nice time if it had to be spent with him. But he thought she had. Lux gave a shrug. He hadn't really had anything in mind when he said that, but things had just been....better lately, when he was so sure he'd feel heartbroken forever. "I mean, prom king prep...This whole thing -- " he gestured vaguely to the two of them, " -- keeps me busy and keeps my mind off of things, so I guess there's that, too." 

Delia J sighed out loud when she found nothing interesting in any of her pockets but nail polish and either unable or just unwilling to sit still, moved to sit criss cross instead of with her legs straight out. "I guess." She admitted, fiddling with her zipper a little. "I don't really like parties and there's was that whole Kale and Ember being the worst thing. But for the most part it was pretty good." Delia J frowned and pursed her lips to consider if their little arrangement would even be helpful in keeping her mind off Marsh when he was most of the reason she agreed to do it in the first place. "This thing doesn't make you think about Sage sometimes though? After all she is the whole reason you had to resort to going for pity prom votes." 

Lux felt a soft puff of air leave his nose in a chuckle, remembering the way Kale and Ember basically pressured them to kiss at the party, knowing they weren't real so really just to mess with them. "I mean, we probably would've had to kiss eventually anyway," Lux scrunched his nose, "Maybe it's good that we got that out of the way." He couldn't relate to her not liking parties -- Parties were one of the only things that made Lux feel as important as he imagined he was. He was always the life of the party, making sure there were never any dull moments. When DJ brought up Sage, Lux couldn't ignore the slight pang in his chest at her name. "No, actually," he said honestly, "At least, I don't feel as shitty as I did before when I do think about her. I guess I'm kind of getting over it. You're a good distraction." he shrugged, giving DJ's knee a nudge with his snow boot. "So we're stuck here til someone realizes we've been missing...Are you alright now?" His words were genuine, and the soft expression on his face said so. 

Delia J nodded, Kale had said the exact same thing already, so she'd pretty much already accepted the kiss had been basicslly inevitable. "I know, but I still think I would've preferred having actual time to get my head around kissing a boy for the first time. I'm not really the spur of the moment type, y'know?" DJ shrugged and pulled her hat down over her ears. DJ was surprised and a little relieved when Lux admitted that he wasn't constantly thinking about Sage. Partially because it gave her hope that she'd stop feeling quite so terrible about Marsh banging her sister while she was supposed to be pretending to like a completely different boy. But mostly (and surprisingly) she was happy that Lux who she was slowly but surely beginning to view as a friend wasn't feeling so bad anymore and she'd had a hand in helping with that. "Oh! That's awesome! I'm totally holding you to return the favor, just so you know." She grinned slightly, nudging his boot back with her knee. "I think my dad and sister or Kale and Alicia should be looking for me by now." She said hopefully, sticking her hands into her pockets again. "Well I'm not crying anymore, so I think I am. Except now I'm just really bored sitting here like this and I don't really know what to do. " DJ pulled the little bottle of dark blue shimmering nail polish from her pocket. "Can I paint your nails? That would be a good start with you returning the distraction favor?" 

Lux tried not to let the shock that their kiss at the party had been DJ's first. He knew she'd probably hate if he made a big deal out of it, or even questioned it, so he just nodded. "....Yeah. It's a good thing I'm impulsive enough for the both of us," he smirked, still a little freaking out about having been her first kiss without even knowing. He noticed the way she seemed to be genuinely happy that he called her a distraction, and felt himself match her grin. "Hey, if anyone's down to be distracting, it's me!" he exclaimed, gesturing to himself before giving a laugh. Glad that DJ was feeling better, Lux was about to offer ways to keep busy til they got found -- among his ideas were 'play charades' and 'have a dance party' so, luckily, she thought of her own idea on the spot. He furrowed his brow at her offer, before letting out a laugh and taking his hands out of his pockets, splaying his fingers out for her. "Sure. I can't say no to glitter, I guess," he shrugged nonchalantly but unable to keep a wide smile from appearing on his face. Anyone who knew them knew that they were an odd pair, that was for sure, but he found himself feeling that they might make a better team than anyone could have ever guessed. 

[bibliosexxual]

Hey so i read one of your works on Ao3 and it was super adorable and i loved it, it was about stiles and derek sharing a broom closet of an apartment in nyc and cuddling thier way through their issues with eachother and then you wrote a hashtag epilogue, and i can't stop thinking about how much i wanted the epilogue to be another story so i figured i'd ask, my names scarletwaters on Ao3, ok bye and thank you if you decide to write it :)

little spoon

I had given absolutely ZERO thought to writing a sequel to this, and then I read your message and the ideas started flooding in. Go figure.

also on ao3

*

Being Derek’s boyfriend goes surprisingly well for a whole year. They move out of the tiny “apartment” into a slightly less tiny apartment. They continue to spoon; they become spooning masters; they are the gods of spooning. Stiles gets the best sleep of his life, and so does Derek. The non-sleeping aspect of the whole dating thing takes a bit more time to iron out, sure, but they get there. Slowly but surely, they figure out how to hold hands on the couch while watching Netflix without getting weird about it. They figure out, to their mutual relief, that endearments weird them both out, but there are other little things they both like even if they’d never admit it on pain of death, such as forehead kisses. They figure out how to do the whole shower sex thing without serious injury. Stiles also finds out Derek is awesome at cooking, when he can be assed to do it. Stiles figures out a lot of very creative ways to motivate him.  

All in all, awesome.

Then…. well, then It happens.

It’s been about a year and three months when, one day, Stiles happens to see Derek coming out of a jewelry store.

He wasn’t following Derek or anything, he wants the record to be very clear on that; it’s just, they were going to meet up at the Chinese restaurant on the corner for dinner, and Stiles got there early. Usually Stiles doesn’t arrive early anywhere ever, but this time one of his classes got canceled at the last minute and he suddenly had all this spare time, and so he went ahead and snagged them a table at the restaurant.

That’s where he is when it happens, just people-watching out the window and contemplatively sipping his oolong. That’s when the door to the jewelry store across the street opens and Derek comes out, head down, busy tucking a suspicious little black box into his inner jacket pocket, and Stiles spits out his tea all over the table because what the fuck.

Why would a dude who doesn’t wear jewelry, and who’s dating another dude who doesn’t wear jewelry, be in a jewelry store?

He’s not, like, out buying diamonds for his mistress. He’s not cheating on Stiles. Stiles doesn’t even contemplate that for a second. But he’s not buying something for his mom or his sisters, either. Stiles doesn’t think that’s likely, anyway. Derek saves all his money for rent and school and treating Stiles to the fancy pizza he likes to get on weekends. Last year he gave his mom a book—hardcover, but still—and his sisters each got a scarf. (Stiles got a cheap but competent little keurig and, later in private, a very memorable night in bed.) Besides which, it’s not even close to Christmas or any of Derek’s female relatives’ birthdays, and as far as Stiles knows, there’s no need for any apology presents; he hasn’t mortally offended any family members recently.

Was Derek… Was Derek looking at engagement rings?

No.

It doesn’t make sense.

All Stiles can think is that it must be an engagement ring. But it can’t be. Can it?

That’s about as far as Stiles gets before Derek arrives. Stiles’ heart seems to think that’s an emergency situation, because he can feel the jolt of adrenaline. He takes a huge gulp of tea, eyes watering, and decides he officially didn’t see anything. Nope. No jewelry store visits here. Just a nice dinner with his boyfriend, yep.

*

Stiles keeps thinking about it.

Sure, it turns out they’re stupidly awesome together. They just work. Their old bickering has turned into fun snark and teasing and affection, and it’s pretty great. But Stiles is only twenty years old. This is only his second relationship ever, and his first serious one, and his first one with a dude, and it still feels kind of new, and no way is he ready to put a ring on it.

He still gets these moments of Whoa, what even is my life sometimes when he thinks about the fact that he and Derek are dating now and not in their weird hate/UST feud anymore. He still pauses sometimes in the middle of telling someone Derek is his boyfriend, like, Whoa, he IS my boyfriend now, isn’t he. Wow.

He’s still adjusting, is what he’s getting at here.

They skipped a few relationship steps when they went from semi-hating each other to boning and dating and living together all at once, and it’s kind of a miracle it’s worked. Several of their friends and Derek’s big sister and Scott actually had a bet going at first about how many days it would take before they’d break up. Scott was the only one who bet they wouldn’t break up at all. There were a few close calls in the first few months, close enough that Stiles could practically hear the rustle of money preparing to change hands, but they fixed it. They figured it out. They learned.

By now they’re actually getting good at this whole boyfriends thing.

They’re enjoying it.

They’re having fun.

They’re not even remotely ready to get married.

*

“SOS, I think Derek is going to propose,” Stiles tells Scott in a whisper the next time they’re on the phone. He has to tell someone.

“Propose what?” Scott says, sounding distracted. This is what Stiles gets for calling him at his internship at the vet’s. He’s probably sticking a thermometer up a cat’s butt right now or something.

Stiles thumps his head on the refrigerator door a few times. “Propose what? What do you think? Marriage, Scott.”

On the other end of the line, Scott makes an unidentifiable noise reminiscent of a cat with a hairball. Or maybe that actually is a cat with a hairball.

“I’m serious,” Stiles persists. “I think I saw him buy a ring. I don’t know what to do.”

“Why do you think I know what to do?” Scott says, which… good point. “But, uh, congratulations, that’s awesome. Hey, now we can be brothers for real! Are you going to be Stilinski-Hales or Hale-Stilinskis? Are you gonna have a party?”

“Wh— Scott, I’m not gonna say yes.”

“Oh,” Scott says. He sounds disappointed. There’s a pause, and then he says, quiet, sounding incredulous, “Really?”

“Really.”

“Oh. Okay, then… I dunno, bro. Google it? And I can send you some cute animal pictures when I get off work.”

“Thanks,” Stiles sighs. He has a bad feeling about this.

*

Stiles feels like a spy, and not in a good way, erasing his browser search history:

how to find out if your boyfriend bought a ring

how to tell if your boyfriend is about to propose

afraid of commitment

afraid of commitment just a little bit

how to turn down proposal

how to tell your boyfriend no when he asks you to marry him

how to say no without crushing your boyfriend’s hopes and dreams

does saying no to a proposal ruin a relationship forever

am i about to tank my relationship with my boyfriend

HELP ME

Stiles gets a little… on edge. Like:

Derek appears in the bathroom doorway one night while Stiles is brushing his teeth. “So I was thinking,” he says. He has his serious eyebrows on, and Stiles immediately thinks about wedding rings and chokes on his toothpaste.

It turns out Derek wasn’t trying to propose. He was going to ask Stiles if he wanted to try flavored lube. Stiles feels like an idiot.  

Still, it feels like they’re sitting on a ticking time bomb. Any moment they’re together, Derek could pop the question, and Stiles has no idea when. Is Derek going to plan it, like, is Stiles going to come home one night to rose petals and mood music? Or is Derek going to impulse-ask when they’re in the middle of doing it in the shower? When?!

The possibility is in the back of Stiles’ mind all the time. He’s freaking out, and it’s making Derek freak out, and for the first time in forever neither of them can fall asleep while spooning, and… yeah, it’s basically a disaster.

*

“Okay, stop,” Derek says one night. Stiles is straddling him on the couch, shirtless. They’ve been making out ever since the movie ended and Derek leaned over and started nuzzling his neck. Stiles isn’t sure what’s gone wrong; he’s honestly been going on autopilot for the last few minutes, wondering where Derek hid the ring box. It’s not in his sock drawer because Stiles checked there yesterday.

Stiles pulls back a little. “What?”

Derek nudges his hips up pointedly against Stiles’, against where Stiles is not even a little bit aroused, and Stiles winces.

“Yeah, okay. I was kind of thinking about, um. Something else.”

“You’ve been thinking about something else for weeks,” Derek says, rubbing his thumb a little sadly on Stiles’ hipbone.

“Yeah, I have,” Stiles sighs. Might as well not deny it.

Derek frowns and drops his hand away.

Sometimes Stiles has the absolute worst timing in the world, and the next moment proves it, because just as Derek looks up at him, mournful, and asks, “Do you want to break up with me?” Stiles demands, “Do you want to marry me?”

There’s a moment of utter, utter silence, except for the dishwasher running in the other room. Stiles’ hands spasm on Derek’s shoulders. Derek’s eyes look like they’re about to bug out of his head. Stiles really, really wants to disappear into the floorboards.

“Stiles, I, uh,” Derek flounders after a moment. “You…”

Stiles decides that’s a good moment to stop sitting on Derek’s lap, and maybe also put his shirt on again.

When that’s done, he just stands there by the TV, hugging his arms to his chest. Derek just continues sitting there on the couch, staring at him. In the kitchen, the dishwasher finally cuts off. Now the apartment really is silent.

“On the bright side, I don’t want to break up with you,” Stiles offers.

“Yeah, I got that,” Derek says. His hands clench and unclench in his lap. He takes a deep breath. “Stiles, listen, I’m flattered—I’m honored—that you want to marry me, but I just don’t think we, um, I don’t think it’s really the right—”

“Oh my god,” Stiles says faintly, and then, louder: “Oh my god, no. I’m not proposing, oh my god—” Before he knows it, he’s laughing, doubled over, tears coming out of his eyes. He can’t stop. It’s probably the nail in the coffin of this fiasco of a conversation, but it’s just such a relief.

“Stiles?” Derek says, tentative.

With great effort, Stiles gets himself under control. “I don’t want to marry you. You’re the one who wants to marry me.”

“I’m really not.”

“No, I know, but. But you’re the one who bought a ring!”

Derek scratches his head. “But I didn’t buy a ring.”

“I saw you! At the jewelry store! The night we went out for Chinese food.”

Derek groans. “Stiles, I was buying a present for Cora. It’s her high school graduation in a month.”

“Oh,” Stiles says. Why didn’t he think of that?

“Yeah. I wanted to get her something special. I’ve been saving up for it. I’m definitely not about to propose to you. No offense.”

Stiles comes back around the coffee table and sits down on the couch again, head on Derek’s shoulder. “Thank fucking god.”

Derek smiles and reaches out, takes Stiles’ hand. “I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I think being married to you would be a little bit terrifying.”

When Stiles laughs, it’s in pure relief. “Same, man. Same.”

*

Joke’s on them, because three years later Derek does propose, and this time Stiles says yes.

(end)

[stereksummerexchange]

Before The Me and You

@hashtag-hale - I really hope you enjoy it! First time doing something like this so I hope it doesn’t show too much.

by @shaggii-murder

Not Rated - the only warning is fluff. 

Derek reminisce, Stiles is a loving, if not, sarcastic boyfriend. That’s all that needs to be said.

“Derek,” Stiles whispers causing Derek’s eyes to flutter open. His brain waking up slowly.

“Der-Bear.” Stiles softly sings from behind Derek. Placing his hands on Derek’s shoulders, gently leaning over the couch he was napping on. Stiles slides his hands down his chest to rest them there. Derek looks up to his boyfriend, regaining his senses.

“Dinner’s ready sleepy head.” He says with a mischievous grin.

“Already?” Derek says surprised, staring at his sly smile. He turns his head to look at the clock on the wall of their apartment seeing that it’s already 7:30pm.

“I was out for two hours?” He said, voice croaking a little.

“You were tired, I figured I’d let you sleep while I cooked dinner. You needed it man, you’ve been riding around in that ambulance since last night for your shift.

“Now, try and stay awake while I’ll go grab dinner. We’ll eat it here.” Stiles said leaning up off of him walking towards the kitchen.

Smiling softly, Derek looked towards his boyfriend thinking how lucky he got. Derek raised his arms above his head to stretch, arching his back, he felt joints popping, reawakening his body. Now that he’s up and awake he realises how hungry he is. Just when his stomach started to growl Stiles re-entered the room with two bowls of vegetable curry in both hands.

Instead of going around the couch he just climbed over it slowly. Being mindful of the food, he plopped down close to Derek snuggling into his side. “And here we are,” Stiles said passing one of the bowls to Derek. “Our dinner is served.” He continues. Before Stiles can dig in, he feels Derek’s fingers comb through his hair, settling at the back of his head, guiding him for a quick chaste kiss.

“Thank you.” Derek said “I really do appreciate you doing this.” “No problem-o babe. You’ve be working so hard lately, you deserve a small break once in awhile.” Stiles says casual like he didn’t make Derek’s heartbeat just a bit faster by saying that. Stiles leans over to him, kissing him on his brow, like he knows what Derek is thinking.

Derek can feel Stiles smile on his skin. He feels his blood rush to his ears, making him feel like they haven’t been doing this for years, and more like a first date. Turning to face forward, Stiles grabs the remote off the coffee table to turn on the TV putting it on a random channel that caught his eye, he starts in on his dinner finally. Derek smiles to himself, no more words needs to be said. Just having Stiles by his side has made life just that much better. Not to say he didn’t have a fantastic life before he met him. He has a huge, wonderful, and supportive family. And dear friends that, some (at this point) are part of his ever growing family. Like his best friends, Erica and her, now fiancé Boyd. They have been his close’s friends since high school. Erika, that shy girl that only spoke a few sentences at a time, always worried she’d get notice by the kids that bullied her for her epilepsy, might hurt her again. Is now a drop-dead gorgeous feminist, rally organiser that get women together. Not to tear each other down for their differences but to push each other up because of them. So confident and humble. Always there to talk when he’s feeling down or lost, offering her advice when he needed it. She is the best person he’s ever had privilege of being friends with.

And Boyd was pretty much not a speaker at all in high school, unless it was to Derek or Erika. Always so quiet but quick with a joke. Since Boyd and Erika started dating in the 11th grade, it helped them both to break out of their shells to become the people they were always meant to be.

And they were all fortunate enough to get into the same University. From there, he met Isaac. A hipster kind of guy that had impeccable fashion taste. They really got to know each other through their course. Studying together, then becoming house mates before the start of the second semester.

With Boyd and Erika, all four of them were able to rent a small three bedroom house just off campus. Perfect size for them. And for Isaac to dub the perfect party house.

Isaac, in University, was a party animal. (Not that he isn’t now but mostly back then) Almost every weekend there was always something going on. From a small study group to full fledged party.

Even though Derek was kind of a shut in when it came to parties, he’d come out from his room to mingle every once in a while, to keep Isaac from busting down his door.

And from there he’ll be forever grateful that Isaac threw a get-to-know party inviting heaps of people around campus.

Which that including Kira Yukimura who, in turn, brought Scott McCall, Allison Argent, Lydia Martin and the one and only, Stiles Stilinski. As soon as Derek saw him from where was sitting, a drink in his hand, Derek was transfix to the young man that just walked in. Talking with his hands in an almost comical way. His eyes twinkling with mirth and a smirk on his lips. Making a beautiful redhead roll her eyes. And by the way her lips were twitching up, she was amused at what he was saying.

While the group made there way in the room Derek leaned over to Isaac who was perched on the arm of the couch.

“Who’s that?” Derek said, subtly pointing to Stiles. Isaac twist to look at where he was pointing.

“Ah he’s Kira’s friend, his name is Stiles? I think? Kind of a spaz but a nice guy. Talked to him a few times.” He says as he twists back around.

“Stiles huh.” Derek repeats.

“Oh I know that look.” Isaac smirks. “Just never seen it on you before.” He lets out a small chuckle. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Derek sips his drink. His ears burning. Later that evening Derek was making his way to the kitchen to grab another drink, and maybe something to eat, he thinks to himself. But before here can, he runs into a body when rounding the corner. Making said body spill his own drink on himself.

“Whoa!”Body said. Catching the cup before it hits the ground. Derek squeaked. “I’m so sorry! Here let me grab a towel!” Moving around him, he starts to grab a tea-towel off the kitchen island. Handing it to him.

“Hey don’t worry about it man, it was bound to happen sometime tonight. If you knew how clumsy I am you wouldn’t even think it was your fault.”

Derek let out an embarrassed gasp when he finally gets a good look at the owner of the shirt he ruined. “Seriously it’s alright. I’m Stiles by the way.” Holding out his hand. Looking at him in the eyes. “Not just clumsy shirt guy that you’re probably calling me in your head.” Stiles lets out a small pathetic laugh. Looking away, thinking to himself he’s made the situation a bit awkward. Well a bit more awkward, what with having his shirt drenched, looking like damp rat. Coming back to himself Derek takes Stiles hand trying his best to look suave. Gaining his eye contact again. “Derek. Hale. Derek Hale.” Closing his eyes he takes back his hand. Completely feeling embarrassed. He goes to take a step back. “Wait!” Stiles grabs his hand again before he can get out of reach. Clearing his throat Stiles smooths over his face with his other hand to look less panicked. Moving it up to his hair, smoothing that also but making it look like he just rolled out of bed. “I’ve been wanting a reason to talk to you all night.” His voice getting softer as he went on. “Um, I mean.” Stiles continued. “Did you want to get to know each other? Like talk, for a bit? I’ve seen you around, and Isaac talked about you.” His eyes widened. “In a super positive way!” He quickly corrected himself. Dropping Derek’s hand. Stiles sighs.

“I’m blowing this aren’t I?” Sounding dejected. Derek laughs “No not at all. In fact, did you want to come up to my room? So we can talk privately?” Derek says with a blinding smiling gracing his face. No longer feeling embarrassed or unsure.

Stiles says later, that as soon as Derek gave him that smile, he half fell in love with him right then and there.

Derek thinks the more accurate moment was when they got to his room and Stiles saw a Star Wars poster on his wall declaring his undying love for him and saying he going to marry him someday.

“Hey,” Stiles poking him over his heart to gain his attention. “Penny for your thoughts?” They’re now lying down on the couch, dinner bowls on the coffee table empty, and (in Stiles case) licked clean.

Stiles is draped over him, using both his hands as a pillow on his chest.

“Hmm?” Derek hummed.

“Don’t hum me young man. You’ve been lost in thought throughout the whole movie. Is something wrong?” Stiles starts, jokingly at first but growing more concerned as he finished. Derek just yawns, rubbing a free hand up and down Stiles back. “Just thinking how lucky I am that Isaac was trying to bang Kira in Uni.” Derek says focusing on trying to remember the movie he just watched. Man, I really was lost in thoughtwasn’t I? Stiles squints are Derek’s face.

“Should I be concerned about our marriage?” Derek huffs, “Of course not. Was just thinking about the night we met, and why the whole reason we had that get-to-know party is so Isaac could try and get into Kira’s pants.” he frowns, scrunching his nose trying to get that image out of his head. “Oh, perfectly normal things then. Just the usual stuff that’s going around in your head.” Stiles says sarcastically. Rolling his eyes.

Derek stops his rubbing to give Stiles’ side a pinch, causing him to yelp and pull away.

He quickly grabs hold of him tight, using both hands around his waist making sure doesn’t get away. “Was just thinking how beautiful you looked and how we spent the night talking.” He continues.

Stiles snorts, “Sure. How gorgeous was I with drying beer down my shirt? And as I recall we did a lot more kissing than we did talking.” Derek choosing to ignore that last part, “Well maybe it was all part of my elaborate plan to get your shirt off?” Derek says, moving his eyebrows up and down.

“God you’re such a dork.” Stiles says putting a hand over his eyes so he doesn’t have to see that any more. “I thought I was your dork.” Derek pouts, giving him his best puppy dog eyes. “Please, you know you’ll never be as good as Scott using those things.” Derek growls playfully. “I can still use them. There’s no copy right claim on them by Scott.” “He may as well have one. No beating those treacherous eyes.” Stiles sighs softly. Laying his chin back on his hands.

“Should I be the one that’s worried about our marriage now?” Derek says, putting the back of his to his forehead, pretending to faint.

Stiles grabs the hand, cupping it between both of his.

“Never. I’m keeping you till the end.” Kissing his fingers softly. He closes his eyes and smiles. “You were pretty cute back then. What with your dorky ways and red blushing ears. I couldn’t resist. The muscles helped too.” Stiles winks.

Derek glowers, completely unimpressed.

A silence passes over them now. Both just taking in the other. Memorizing each other. Never wanting to forget moments like these.

“I love you.” Derek whispers with a soft smile on his lips.

“I love you too.” Stiles response back. A smile of his own.

Stiles leans forward closing his eyes. Derek meets him halfway for lingering kiss. Tasting one another, always feeling like it’s the first.

Kissing once more Stiles pulls back to snuggle into Derek’s chest again. Getting comfortable to take a nap.

Derek kisses the top of his head, also shuffling to get comfortable too. Arms never moving from around Stiles.

Derek thinks, before he follows for a nap too. Yep, so lucky to have him in his life. He couldn’t ask for more.

[wanderlustwriters-blog]

SNSD Reaction - Dating Scandal

blackpink version : here

Taeyeon:

She hadn't heard anything about it until they were all on a variety show. One of the MC’s had been talking about the recent pictures of you and Irene that were floating around the internet.

“What do you guys think?” The MC asked, “I kinda hope they are together, they’d be pretty cute.”

All the girls laughed politely, a few of them looked at Taeyeon to make sure she was okay with what they were saying.

"You guys are pretty good friends with both of them aren't you? Being label mates and all." The other MC added in, earning an unsure laugh from a few members.

"Yeah, Y/N and I are pretty close." Taeyeon agreed, "They're not dating Irene." she added politely.

The MC laughed a bit and nodded, "Alright, sorry about that tangent there, let's move to the next question."

After the show, Taeyeon walked backstage and was surprised to find that you had been watching the whole thing. When she saw you she walked over to you and wrapped her arms around your waist, resting her head against your shoulder. You hugged her and leaned your head against hers.

"I guess you and Irene are a thing now huh?" She asked looking at you.

"Yeah." You agreed, laughing lightly, "don't tell her, but I kind of have a thing for someone else." You whispered, rubbing her back gently.  

The MC who had been teasing about yours and Irene's relationship walked past, "I guess I was wrong about you and Irene huh?" she asked you with a laugh.

"Yup, Y/N's all mine." Taeyeon joked, hugging you a bit tighter.

Jessica:

"So is Y/N dating Solar?" Krystal asked her, handing Jessica her phone which was opened up to a picture of you and Solar when the two of you had been working on a photoshoot. Jessica scrolled through the pictures, not quite sure how she felt about it.

"On and off camera romance?" Jessica read aloud, showing her sister the caption under one photo that captured you and Solar talking off set.

You walked through the door, your hair still messed up from the photoshoot. You set your bag on the table and walked into the living room, flopping onto the couch next to Jessica. You leaned against her and looked at what she was looking at.

"The photo's already got out?" You asked, "How? I just did the shoot today."

"You and your girlfriend are so cute." Jessica said, showing you all the pictures. "Where's this Y/N during date nights?"

You lightly hit her leg, and shook your head, "I'll be there next time you pay me to go on a date." This time it was her turn to gently push you away from her for a moment before pulling you against her again. She handed the phone back to Krystal, and pulled out her own. You rested your head on her shoulder and watched her take a selfie of the two of you before posting it to snapchat, which earned a questioning look from you and Krystal.

"The cutest couple photos are the ones of real couples." She explained, proceeding to flop back against the couch and continue to play on her phone.

Sunny:

She had been looking on your phone, playing a game as notifications kept popping up. She finally gave in and pressed on one of them, leading her to a swarm of comments under one of your Instagram posts. She looked through the comments and saw a bunch of hashtags of ship names. She read a few of the comments, trying to figure out who the ship names of. She nodded a bit with a smile before looking at the picture of you and Victoria.

When you walked into the room, she smiled a bit and walked over to you, "You never told me you were dating someone."

You looked through the fridge and pulled out a soda, you turned back to her and raised your eyebrows. You took a sip of the drink before responding, "I didn't think I'd have to tell you that I'm dating you."

"No dummy, I thought you would've told me that you're dating my label mate." She said waving the picture in front of you.

"Ah yeah, totally slipped my mind." You said jokingly, "We've only been on a few dates, nothing too serious."

"Next time you should tell me, I could help you plan something." Sunny said, leaning against you, "I think you could use my help."

You smiled and kissed the top of her head, "Ouch. Maybe I should just stick to planning dates for my girlfriend, I think I'm pretty good at that."

"You're okay." She said lightly, pulling you into a gentle hug.

Tiffany:

"Hey did you see this, people think you're dating Chanyeol." Tiffany said, showing you an article with a picture of you and Chanyeol.

You nodded a bit and cuddled closer to her, "I thought I was too."

Tiffany laughed and hit your arm lightly, "Shut up." she said shaking her head lightly. "I'm being serious, look you two even have a ship name."

You turned a bit and looked at her, "Are you okay?" You asked her, the joking tone in your voice gone now. "If this is bugging you, you'd tell me about it right?"

"I want to be able to go on dates with you," she pouted cutely and looked through the photo's. "Look how cute these are, I want to go on dates as cute as this."

"Me too, but we don't really have an option. Not unless we go public." You said, lightly kissing her, her pouty face too cute to resist.

"Go public." Tiffany said, nodding a bit, "That doesn't sound too bad."

"Do you want to?" You asked, slightly taken back by her nonchalant attitude. She smiled a bit and nodded, giving you all the confirmation you needed. "Let's talk to your manager." you said happily. You paused for a moment and looked back at her with a grin, "Maybe I should thank Chanyeol."

Hyoyeon:

She ended up being in a similar situation as Taeyeon, the two of you had decided to go on a show together. After a few questions, the conversation had turned to relationships.

"So, as I'm sure you're aware." The interviewer began, looking directly at you as he spoke. "There have been some pictures going around of you and Taeyang that have kind of been plastered everywhere. With all these pictures, come some, well, rumors. About the two of dating. I was hoping for you to clear up everything, are you and Taeyang dating?"

You laughed a bit, "No, he's just a close friend of mine."

"Aw, are you sure? Some of these pictures kind of make me want to date you. You seem like a cute partner." He said showing the two of you a few of the pictures going around.

"Y/N is an adorable partner." Hyoyeon agreed, gently squeezing your hand. A signal that the two of you had previously agreed on, a sign that she was going to do the thing that made you two choose to do an interview in the first place. "Yeah, we're dating and they have the most adorable habits in the morning." she finished, earning a curious look from you. The rest of the interview was spent sharing embarrassing stories between the two of you.

Yuri:

She wasn’t really sure how to feel, she knew that there was no way you would do anything to hurt her, but those pictures were not something people easily overlooked. You weren't even aware that the pictures had even been taken, definitely not that they were plastered all over the internet. So your girlfriends oddly quiet demeanor when you got home felt weird. She had barely said anything to you since the moment you got home. In fact, she had barely been in the room with you, you swore that every time you walked into the room she left. Finally, you had had enough. She had hidden herself in your shared bedroom, and was refusing to come out, so instead you went to her. You had a plate of her favorite food balanced in one hand a a cup of tea in the other, you doing your best not to spoil the stupidly warm drink over your hand. You set the plate and the glass down on the table next to the bed before climbing in next to her. The two of you sat in an air of silence for a few moments before she looked over to you, and finally you spoke.

"You're mad at me."

"I don't know." Her voice was soft and she lifted her phone to show you all the pictures that had been taken. You looked through them thoughtfully and sighed before putting down the phone.

"You know that I didn't do anything right? We went out for lunch, but that's it. I'd never do anything to hurt you." You said softly.

She didn't speak, just offering a nod as an answer. "I think I could forgive you." She said, a small smile playing at her lips.

"Yeah?"

"I dunno, you may have to earn it."

You smiled, and put your arms around her waist, pulling her closer. "If I have to, I guess I could be nicer."

Sooyoung:

She wasn't upset with you, this was part of your job. You only did the video because it was your job, not because you had feelings for Eric Nam. That's what she told herself whenever she watched the video, or heard the song, or saw you and Eric talking off screen. Which, whenever that happened, she became pretty clingy. She'd come up and hug you when you were talking to him, resting her head on your shoulder when you and Eric were talking about more song ideas.

You had noticed her slightly odd behavior earlier, but it was most obvious when the two of you had gone home. The ride was nearly silent and she pretty much disappeared when you both got home. You waited outside for awhile, not sure what was bothering her. After awhile you got up and walked to the bedroom, where she was looking through her computer just like she had been for the past few hours.

"What's bothering you?" You asked, sitting next to her and nudging her gently. "You've been acting weird lately."

You waited for a few moments, not getting a response. You sighed a bit and shook your head, offering her a smile before moving her laptop and tackling her in a hug. You cuddled her tightly.

"I'm not letting go until you're not mad at me anymore."

"I'm not mad!" Sooyoung said, giggling a bit when you tickled her. "I just don't want to lose you to Eric." she admitted, her voice quieting as she spoke.

You frowned and pulled away, "You're not gonna lose me to him." you promised quietly, "I don't want to be with him. I actually kind of have someone else I'm into."you finished by kissing her head and cuddling her close to you.

Yoona:

She hadn't mentioned anything about the articles that were popping up after your on screen kiss with Lee Sung Kyung in your new drama. She didn't want to bug you about it, knowing that it was just your drama. Honestly, had it not been for the articles with your co-star talking about how you were her ideal type none of this would have been a problem, but after all of these articles coming out the kiss went viral. Everyone loved you and her, and the whole thing made her feel uncomfortable, especially when she posted couple pictures with you and there were loads of comments with yours and Sungkyung's ship name.

After one time where there were a particularly large amount of comments, you had noticed that Yoona seemed kind of down.

"What do you want for dinner?" You asked, looking through the fridge, "We have almost no food, but I think I can make something."

"I'm not really hungry." She murmured from the living room.

You turned around and walked over to her, sitting on the couch next to her, "What's going on? You seem upset."

"You're not going to leave me right?" Yoona asked after a few moments of silence, "For Sungkyung?"

You frowned and pulled her into a tight hug, rubbing her back gently, "Of course not. I love you."

Yoona nodded a bit, cuddled against you gently. "I love you too."

Seohyun:

Pictures of your previous relationship with Amber had resurfaced recently, a lot of people thinking that the two of you are still together since you and Seohyun hadn't talked about your relationship publicly yet.

"So, you've seen the pictures right?" You asked, sitting next to her. "'Cause otherwise, forget I said anything."

She lightly hit your shoulder and nodded a bit, "I've seen them."

"Okay." You paused for a moment and an awkward silence fell between the two of you for a few moments.

She looked over grinned at you before nudging you gently, "You guys are so cute!"  she gushed, taking your phone and looking through the pictures. She cuddled closer to you and found one of them, "These are cute, but we have ones that are much cuter."

You wrapped her arms around her, and kissed her head softly, "Yeah we do."

She went to your camera roll and picked out a few of the pictures, "I think we should post one of these ones, they're the cutest ones. What do you think?"

"I like the second, you look the cutest in that one."

She nodded a bit and went on Instagram, setting everything up before looking at you, "Are you sure you'll be okay with this?"

"I'm more worried about you, will your manager be okay with that?" You asked quietly.

"Already asked, its a yes." She murmured before posting the picture.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

[allyourprettywords]

“26 Things Emotionally Strong People Do,” Jeremy Radin

1. Emotionally Strong people are less discouraged by the stresses and discouragements of life than people who aren’t Emotionally Strong people.

2. Emotionally Strong people are able to unemotionally express their emotional needs.

3. Emotionally Strong people don’t focus on the hurdle itself, but on the nourishing Light near and around and on the hurdle.

4. Emotionally strong people eat correctly and exercise the right, and correct way.

5. Emotionally Strong people are able to recover quickly from the emotionally harmful nature of emotional wounds i.e. rejection, failure, or when Whole Foods is out of umeboshi paste.

6. Emotionally strong people get the amount of sleep they need, and understand how to best navigate their own specific and Loving sleep patterns. 7. Emotionally Strong people affirm themselves daily, utilizing the tool of daily affirmations.

8. Emotionally Strong people often create a secret mantra, particular to them, to help them remember to remain Emotionally Strong. A good example is, “I will remember to remain Emotionally Strong.”

9. Emotionally strong people avoid emotionally weak situations and patterns, such as re-establishing contact with an ex-partner who is doing good or consistently forgetting their bag of activated almonds.

10. Emotionally Strong people know what “Emotionally Strong” means; it is a thing that is both, at the same time, Loving, and, none other than, Mindful.

11. Emotionally Strong people do at least 40 minutes of yoga every day which is literally the daily practice of like doing amazing and things are going incredible for me.

12. Emotionally Strong people have four emotions: strong, abundance, no I am not having a panic attack I’m just tired from being so busy manifesting what I am blessed about every day, and hashtag.

13. Emotionally Strong people only listen to music that triggers feelings of, like, doing great, for instance my boy sHäRk is spinning at a gallery opening downtown tomorrow night he’s basically a genius he just spins super positive uplifting stuff you should come oh my God your energy is incredible I’m really responding to your energy right now your energy is blowing my mind.

14. The tea with the silver needles in it.

15. Emotionally Strong people know exactly what Rumi was talking about except why can’t I find his or her Ted Talk(s).

16. Emotionally Strong people only eat sunlight because the instant gratification of food-based nourishment is for people who don’t know how to control their minds with their brains.

17. Instagram pictures of the tea with the silver needles in it.

18. Emotionally Strong people remind their significant partners that to have negative emotions is to be weak, babe, I’m just saying this to help you because when you’re doing your depression I really feel like it means you’re not committed to being Emotionally Strong and I don’t know if I can be with someone who isn’t committed to being Emotionally Strong I mean sometimes I think you actually choose to not be Emotionally Strong which is for me a choice I make every day by being so full of gratitude and affirmations the moment I leap out of bed with abundance and strength and greeting the Love and Light with intentions!

19. Tyler Knott Gregson.

20. Emotionally strong people do not have to confront their failures because emotionally strong people do not engage in failures OKAY I just went on a four-year juice cleanse and did Reiki on myself for six and a half hours a day for ninety days in a row I feel AMAZING BRO! GOALS! TO DO LIST! UNIVERSE!

21. Emotionally Strong people have no idea who ate all of the Nutter Butters probably someone not Strong, Emotionally.

22. Emotionally Strong people know how to do Mindful Lovingness it’s just about being super positive you know like positive exercise positive clothes positive eating positive moisture and learning what your positive animal gratitude self is and rubbing the blood of that powerful animal on your positive heart chakra and writing a gratitude list out of its powerful blood and screaming it at your significant partner at a raw juice bar in front of someone’s frightened toddler that’s how to do Mindful Lovingness.

23. have u ever hunted……………………………………………………………………………… Man

24. Emotionally Strong people WOULD NOT eat this Butterfingers I found while cleaning out my car. Emotionally Strong people WOULD NOT eat this Butterfingers I found while cleaning out my car. Emotionally Strong people WOULD NOT eat this Butterfingers I found while cleaning out my car. Emotionally Strong people WOULD NOT eat this Butterfingers I found while cleaning out my car you disgusting fat sack of negative energy shit.

25. Emotionally StrWhat even are you even doing here, you gratitude-defiCIENT LEACH? YOU SQUANDERER OF THE SUN’S SUCCESSFUL DAILY BLESSING BEAMS? HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A WHOLE SECTION OF FAILURE’S VISION BOARD YOU THICK MOULDERING SORROW POTATO? GO THE GYM. DON’T GO TO THE GYM YOU DON’T KNOW HOW. HERE ARE FIFTY-EIGHT WAYS YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HOW TO GO TO THE GYM AND YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG. WHY ARE YOU SO TENSE MAYBE YOU SHOULD DO YOGA WAIT DO YOU EVEN HAVE A PHOTOGRAPHER FRIEND? DO YOU EVEN HAVE ONE FUCKING PHOTOGRAPHER FRIEND? DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW TO HOLD A WOUNDED PEACOCK POSE ON THE BACK OF AN ELEGANT HORSE ANIMAL WHILE YOUR ARTFULLY TATTOOED SIGNIFICANT PARTNER DRAPES THEIR HAND OVER YOUR ARTFULLY VERY GOOD BODY MUSCLES AND THE SUN RISES ARTFULLY BEHIND YOU AS THOUGH DIRECTED BY YOUR TALENTED PHOTOGRAPHER FRIEND? HAVE YOU EVER EVEN SEEN A SUNRISE. ONCE ONE GODDAMN TIME OR ARE YOU TOO BUSY AVOIDING ANYTHING THAT MIGHT ILLUMINATE THE STUNNING DISASTER YOUR REGRETFUL IMITATION OF A LIFE HAS BECOME YOU UNGRACIOUS COWARD.

26. Green juice.

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

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Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico

You might as well just pronounce us Mr. and Mrs. Puerto-Retersik, because we recently snuck off for a few days to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (!!!) in Puerto Rico. Also because Puerto-Retersik rolls right off the tongue if you try hard enough. Promise.

As we mentioned in last week’s podcast we wanted to share a few more pictures and details about our anniversary trip to San Juan because we LOVED it and we couldn’t recommend it more highly. So here’s the gist on where we stayed, what we did, and what we ate in case any of you are considering a trip to that area.

Why Puerto Rico?

After taking our actual honeymoon to Anchorage, Alaska in 2007, we wanted a destination that was decidedly beachier. Alaska was wonderful, but not necessarily relaxing (we always describe it as an “adventure honeymoon”), so for this trip we wanted to give ourselves plenty of excuses to just sit back, chill out, and enjoy not having to fetch snacks or clean-up toys for a few days. Puerto Rico was also a nice option because the flights weren’t too long from the east coast (less time traveling = maximizing our time away) and, since it’s a U.S. Territory, we didn’t have to bother with passports, currency exchanges, or going through customs at the airport. And while Spanish is the primary language on the island, nearly everyone spoke English and was extremely kind. So apart from having trouble reading a few street signs, we had zero language trouble on the trip.

Where We Stayed:

We took some advice to “get a modest room in a nice hotel” (which means you can enjoy the same elevated hotel amenities without paying the extra high room rates for those special suites) and stayed at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel. It’s in San Juan – just about 5 minutes from the historic area known as Old San Juan – and we found a deal on Expedia that included flights & hotel that was especially budget friendly because we went during their low season. It wasn’t an all-inclusive resort deal (we find we like to venture off and find local food, activities, etc), but we did like that the hotel had several pools and restaurants in the facility, so we could theoretically stay put for the whole trip if we wanted to really take it easy.

We were there for about 3.5 half days, and we did manage to spend one of those days totally relaxing. We literally spent nearly an entire day on those lounge chairs, reading books, and getting food from the restaurant directly behind it (yup, the waiters walked right into the little pool of water where our lounge chairs were with our tacos and it was as magnificent as it sounds).

Mango tacos = my wife’s happy place.

In addition to tons of deck space and a number of different pools, there was also a small beach area with hammocks and a little lagoon (plus a larger beach without rocks around 50 yards next door to this). Sidenote: the two women who were randomly in our shot below spent about 45 minutes trying to get the perfect Boomerang of their buns jiggling in the sunset, which seemed weird at the time, but later when we were looking for a good place to eat dinner and clicked into Instagram to look up local hashtags we saw that they were famous “Instagram models” with a ton of followers who apparently enjoy their videos very much. Oh 2017, you are so weird sometimes.

The hotel had its own spa, so I surprised Sherry with a couples massage one morning (we had enjoyed one on our honeymoon, so I liked the idea of a little throwback massage ten years later). We didn’t take our cameras into the room with us (because that would’ve been weird) but Sherry found a picture of the room in a book in the hotel lobby, so she took a picture of that page instead. Because that’s not weird, right?

The spa had its own private lounge area to chill in after your rub down. And like the true nerds that we are, we spent most of it admiring the outdoor furniture and giant white planters.

What We Did – Adventure Day:

As relaxing as our trip was, we spent two full days out-and-about. We ended up dubbing our first day out as our “adventure day” because it involved renting a car, driving an hour away, and doing some hiking and kayaking along the way. The plan was born from a recommendation that we got from our son’s preschool teacher to kayak one of Puerto Rico’s “bio bays.” These are areas with lots of microscopic biolumenscent organisms, so at night they glow in the water when you reach your hand in and stir up the water. Our reservation was in a town about an hour east of San Juan called Fajardo, so we rented a car for 24 hours so we could explore on our way there and back.

Our first stop was in an area called Luquillo that had a great beach along with a long strip of food “kiosks” as they were called. Picture a bunch of charming hole-in-the-wall open-air restaurants where you can grab a bunch of authentic Puerto Rican food. It was there that we experienced mofongo, which is a popular local dish primarily made up of mashed plantains. This particular one (topped with chicken and peppers) was DELICIOUS.

After lunch, our next stop was El Yunque National Forest, which is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Park System. We didn’t have a lot of time there, so the NICEST man at the visitor center recommended the La Mina Waterfall hike as the best way to experience the park. He wasn’t wrong.

The waterfall itself was pretty crowded when we got there, and we opted not to swim since the sun was setting and we had to head off to the bio bay shortly, so I’d say in some ways we enjoyed the journey of the hike more than the destination. And there I go sounding like a motivational poster.

We had a few minutes on our drive down from the waterfall to hit up one other spot in the rainforest recommended by the guide. This observation tower was closed for the day by the time we got there, but the views from the ground were still really beautiful.

We actually used the opportunity to recreate a “wedding ring hands” picture that we took on our honeymoon which still hangs in our bedroom today.

Here’s the original Alaskan one below. We joked that we can take one of these every 10 years and watch our hands age.

As the sun set, we made our way to Fajardo to meet up with our kayaking guides. There are several tour groups that do this, but we used Kayaking Puerto Rico and were really impressed with how professional, fun, and reassuring they were (we heard from a few folks on this tour with us that they had done others but they liked this tour group the best). This is the bay we’d head out into later on when it got dark, which would lead to a tree-canopied canal and into the bio bay. These are some groups going out in the earlier shift – but we picked our time slot because it started later for maximum darkness.

So as the sun set and we got excited for our pitch-dark kayak tour, we walked to a restaurant called El Pescador to grab a quick dinner. It was really cool inside: exposed beams, live edge tables, driftwood light fixtures. And we should use the term “inside” loosely here, since it was actually just a glorified covered porch (open on three sides). The is actually the most “indoor” meal we ate the entire trip! All the others were completely outside. That shows you how nice the weather and the al-fresca dining situations are there (also: pool tacos are life).

We didn’t have any way to waterproof our phones for the actual kayaking part, so the only photographic evidence we have of our bio bay trip are a few pictures taken by the kayak guides (they’re all out of focus but they adequately capture our excitement). As we described in the podcast, we had a full moon for our trip, which made the whole 2-hour excursion really, really pretty. But it did make seeing the bioluminescence a little harder, so at one point they broke out a large tarp for all of us to go under to see things better. Basically, if you swirled your hand around in the water it looks like someone dumped glitter in there.

It was definitely cool, and a few times a cloud went in front of the moon and we could see the water glitter without the tarp, but I think it was another one of those journey-not-the-destination things. The actual act of kayaking in the dark through these small tree-canopied channels with tiny lights on the end of each kayak on a moonlit night – that was the actual magic. And yes, sparkly water is cool too.

Despite not getting back to our hotel until nearly 1 am (after driving back, returning the car, etc) we still found the energy to take advantage of the 24-hour hot tub. Which, at this hour, we had allllll to ourselves. So naturally, Sherry turned up the sexy.

What We Did – Culture Day:

Our other day out of the hotel is what we ended up calling our “culture day,” which was basically full of history and sightseeing. We took a $4 Uber ride to Old San Juan to walk around the historic forts or “castillos” that flank two corners of the island. The pic below is taken from one and you can see the other one off in the distance.

We started at the Castillo San Cristóbal where, coincidentally, they were actively filming a movie called “Imprisoned,” hence the actor dressed in a prison uniform talking with those people dressed up as guards… or were they real police guarding the set? Not sure. It meant some of the fort was blocked off, but there was still no shortage of cool sights (and I got mistaken for a member of the crew at one point – which mostly thrilled me because someone looked at me and didn’t immediately think “tourist”).

The most iconic part of these forts are the sentry boxes or “garitas” that mark many of the corners (they’re what’s on Puerto Rico’s license plates, for instance). And for some reason I felt like this was my best posing option.

Speaking of “interesting” posing choices. We spotted a few iguanas just walking around the forts, so naturally we had to snap photos for the kids. This is the shot where Sherry suddenly said “wait, let me put something in for scale.”

There’s a trolley that shuttles people between the two castillos, but we chose to walk – and we ended up being SO GLAD we did. The streets of Old San Juan are AMAZING.

We took a verrrrry meandering path and stopped hundreds of times to take pictures of all of the colorful buildings, ornate balconies, and cool old doorways.

We even did our best Instagram model impressions too. Sherry calls this one “I’m reading that sign.”

This is me imitating a well known fashion blogger move that I like to call “pretending to be laughing at something.” #nailedit

I mean, c’mon. This house is like charm overload.

And how about this one that seemed to be taking some new paint colors for a spin. Bonus points for such tidy test swatches too (is it bad that I kinda like the existing color best?).

And of course, the pink ones were Sherry’s favorite.

We eventually made it to the second fort, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, which was almost more impressive than the first. And had just as many good photo ops in those cool sentry boxes. This is Sherry doing what I like to call “staring off into the distance and contemplating life’s purpose.”

The interior rooms of the fort were impressive too. As people who don’t live around a lot of Spanish-style architecture, we loved soaking up all of the white stucco walls and arched doorways (even if some were a little on the small side).

I was so tempted to photoshop more Sherrys in every doorway down the line.

This pose is for all the ladies out there.

And for context, in the photo above I’m standing in the same spot that woman is standing in the photo below. It was amazing how big this place was – even just the sheer size of the fort walls was enough to make us all feel like ants.

Despite being nice and breezy at the fort, it gets pretty hot when you’re climbing lots of stairs and walking up and down all the long winding ramps, so it’s definitely one of those “wear comfortable shoes” activities. And make sure there’s room on your phone to take tons and tons of photos.

We did ask some of our fellow tourists at various points to snap photos of us, just because one awkward thing about a couples vacation is the plethora of single-person-doing-this-or-that shots you come home with. This is the lighthouse at the top of the fort (look at those cool smaller sentry boxes on the corners up top).

Man I love this lady.

We left the forts around lunch time and continued our jaunt through Old San Juan just to see what sort of dining options we’d stumble upon. We ended up at this tapas place located next to a hotel courtyard. It was actually cooler sitting outside under the porch thanks to the fans/breeze than it was inside the restaurant itself, so we got to keep our streak of eating outside alive.

After a light lunch, we added ten dozen more photos of colorful buildings to our collection, found our way to this cute popsicle place with the best logo I’ve ever seen, and then stumbled upon this little plaza that was overrun with pigeons (in kind of a charming way, not your typical gross pigeon-y way).

While I was standing there, a guy thrust some birdseed into my hand, and within a split second I had a new bird friend.

He finished off my pile before any of his friends could join him/swarm me, which I was grateful for. But he didn’t seem to have any interest in finding a new perch, even after my food was gone. #sideeye

Squeezing In One More Adventure:

We spent our last night just taking it easy and soaking up the awesome weather and scenery. We ate a nice low-key dinner at our hotel’s outdoor restaurant and spent more time just lounging on one of the pool decks.

Well, and we did go on a hunt for this giant horse lamp Sherry had spotted in the hotel magazine. Thinking we need to add this to our lighting line… whaddya say?

And, because we’re constantly thwarting our own efforts to relax (as Sherry likes to say, “we have zero chill”), we spent our last morning grabbing a bite at the same place where we had our first meal: a food truck near our hotel (it was literally the best taco I’ve ever had – they fried the tortilla shell just a bit to make it crispy and it was heaven). And then we headed off to stand-up paddleboard for an hour before our flight left that afternoon. There was a huge lagoon behind our hotel (the picture below is the view of it from our room) and we had seen kayakers and paddleboarders in it every day. So Sherry indulged me for one last adventure before we returned to reality (and there were manatees in there – WE PADDLE BOARDED WITH MANATEES).

So long story long, we loved celebrating our tenth anniversary in Puerto Rico. It was the most relaxing trip I think we’ve ever taken and it made us even more excited to travel to new places with our children too. I think we get so hung up on the complications of planning and scheduling trips, but this one was remarkably easy since we booked the hotel and flights as a package deal. We literally didn’t plan or research a thing in advance besides booking our kayak tour a few weeks before we got there, so it makes the idea of slipping away with the whole family much less intimidating. Happy travels, amigos!

The post Celebrating Ten Years (!) Of Marriage In Puerto Rico appeared first on Young House Love.

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